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records of millions of Americans using secret court orders and vast quantities of Web data with its PRISM program.
During an Oct. 31 status conference Leon told government lawyers: "I don't want to hear anything about vacations, weddings, days off. Forget about it. This is a case at the pinnacle of public national interest, pinnacle. All hands 24/7. No excuses."
He brushed off an apparent government bid to slow the case, saying: "the Department of Justice, the NSA and the allied government agencies that have an interest in this have had four months to think through its position. That's a lot of time."
But there are also signs Leon may not grant an injunction.
Klayman was unable to travel from California to D.C. in time for the Oct. 31 status conference and a transcript of the hearing makes clear Leon's annoyance with his solo preparation. Leon noted he had denied requests by Klayman for continuances.
The American Civil Liberties Union is also suing to stop the NSA phone-record collection.
Leon scheduled the Nov. 18 hearing after U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley scheduled Nov. 22 oral arguments for the ACLU's preliminary injunction request.
The ACLU case, which is being heard in New York, is more tailored. That lawsuit objects to the collection of Verizon phone metadata by the NSA.
Both the ACLU and Klayman argue the NSA is exceeding its authority under the law. Section 215 of the Patriot Act is used by the government to justify its collection of all Americans' phone records. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is cited to justify the PRISM program.
NSA surveillance programs are already reviewed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but all relevant case documents and rulings were secret until the Snowden leaks. Many remain classified.
A common criticism of FISC is that it produces secret legal interpretations that are not even available to lawmakers who wrote the legislation decisions are based on. Patriot Act author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., for example, says the NSA lacks authority under his 2001 law to collect the phone records of all Americans and he's sponsoring legislation to explicitly forbid it.
"I am going to be very curious to hear the arguments about the authority this court has to review or overrule a decision by another court," Leon said Oct. 31. "I don't know what Mr. Klayman's theory is going to be just yet, but we will see."
Nick Dranias, director of the Goldwater Institute's Center for Constitutional Government, says Leon likely does have the power to review FISC cases.
"I don't think the court should have any problem taking jurisdiction over this," Dranias said. "I would think you could make a pretty plausible argument that a genuine full-fledged Article III court would have primary jurisdiction over constitutional issues, particularly when you have real litigation going on, as opposed to a more administrative judicial role."
Dranias, who has argued before the Supreme Court, said "my argument would be that the FISA court would not be a full and fair litigation of the underlying constitutional issues because you don't have an adversarial process" and also that "the Constitution directly vests Article III courts with the power to decide constitutional issues."
Another bid for judicial review of the FISC's approval of phone record collection is being pursued by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering during a Friday conference meeting a request for direct intervention from EPIC that would bypass lower courts.
The preliminary injunction hearing on Monday will address both the Internet and phone-related lawsuits filed by Klayman. Although the two cases have not been joined, attorneys are filing one set of briefs in advance. Leon set a Nov. 11 deadline for the government to submit its arguments.
The preliminary injunction is sought pending final resolution of the cases, which demand a permanent end to the programs and steep financial penalties.
In addition to his pre-hearing comments, Leon's resume may also be seen by NSA opponents as a reason to be hopeful.
Several of Leon's well-known rulings have proscribed federal authority. In 2012 he ruled grisly Food and Drug Administration labels on cigarette packs would violate the First Amendment. In the first ruling of its kind Leon ordered in 2008 the release of five Algerian men held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 after finding a lack of evidence they were terrorists. He dismissed the government's reliance on a classified document attributed to an unnamed source.
Leon was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2001 by President George W. Bush, and took office in 2002. He previously served as a top Justice Department official and as an attorney advising congressional probes into the Iran Contra scandal of the 1980s and the Whitewater controversy of the 1990s.
"We are hopeful that the court will preliminarily enjoin the government from continuing to perpetrate massive violations of the Constitution," Klayman told U.S. News. The NSA programs, he said, are "not focused solely on spying on terrorists and terrorist groups, but instead all of the citizenry."
More News:BEIJING: China today claimed full credit for rescuing a cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the strategic Gulf of Aden, ignoring Indian Navy's role in the operation.While a Chinese navy statement last night omitted any reference to the Indian Navy in providing helicopter cover to the Chinese vessel whose special forces boarded the Tuvaluan ship under hijack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the operation demonstrated "effectiveness of the Chinese naval force in the field of fighting against pirates".When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's Ministry of Defence should be approached for details."According to what we have learnt from the military on April 8 at 5 PM the 25th convoy of Chinese navy which was conducting the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden in Somali waters received reports from the UKMTO (United Kingdom Marine Trade Operation) about the hijack of Tuvalaun ship OS35," she said."The fleet vessel Yulin set out for the area immediately and rescue operation started early morning on April 9. Under the cover of helicopters, special force members of the navy boarded the ship and rescued 19 (Filipino) crew members on broad. Both the ship and the crew members are safe now," she told reporters.Hua did not mention the assistance the Indian Navy provided to the Chinese navy in the operation.Her comments came a day after the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) said in a statement that it rescued the ship.When asked about the Chinese navy's statement, Indian Navy spokesperson in New Delhi referred to his tweet, "Indian Navy Chetak Helicopter on top of PLA Navy boats carrying boarding party to MV OS35 in coordinated anti-piracy ops @SpokespersonMoD".He also posted a picture with th tweet which showed an Indian helicopter flying over a Chinese navy vessel.The surprise omission of the Indian Navy's role in the operation comes as the Indian Navy in New Delhi said that the navies of the two countries worked in a well-coordinated operation to rescue the vessel.However, Hua, without detailing what cooperation she referred to, said, "We always remain positive towards international cooperation in combating pirates. We are ready for more cooperation in this regard."Asked about the Indian Navy's role, she said "I have already given what I have learnt to you. The Chinese convoy received a report from the UKMTO and conducted rescue operation. With regards to details I point you to the Chinese defence ministry."The Indian Navy yesterday said it sent its frontline warships, INS Mumbai and INS Tarkash, to coordinate with the Chinese navy. The two Indian ships were in the region as part of an overseas deployment.At the end of the operation, the Chinese navy thanked the Indian Navy for its role in the operation. "In a show of international maritime cooperation against piracy, a boarding party from the nearby Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship, while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover for the operation. It has been established that all 19 Filipino crew members are safe," Indian Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said yesterday.The reported coordination among the navies came amid a strain in ties between the two countries over a range of issues including the Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, China's opposition to India's NSG membership and Beijing blocking India's effort to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN.China and India have been operating ships in the Gulf of Aden for several years.In May 2011, China had acknowledged Indian Navy's help in saving 24 Chinese sailors aboard Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, from pirates. At that time, Chinese navy's flotilla was on an escort duty in the Gulf of Aden - 1,200 nautical miles away from the scene of the assault.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) claimed Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump originated the “birther” allegations against President Barack Obama which suggested he was not born in the United States of America.
But the “birther” claim originated in Clinton’s failed race against Obama in 2007 and 2008.
“Let us not forget that several years ago, Trump was in the middle of the birther movement trying to delegitimize the president of the United States of America,” Sanders said during the debate hosted by Univision and CNN.
Trump was one of the most visible of many voices questioning whether Obama was a natural born U.S. citizen, but it was Hillary Clinton who started the movement.
President Obama’s father was born in Kenya and his mother was from Kansas. Obama, himself, as born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Breitbart News confirmed that Clinton began the birther movement in 2007 and 2008 while she was campaigning against the then Illinois senator and candidate for president.
Among other pieces of evidence, John Nolte pointed out that the Wall Street Journal’s David Weigel took an in-depth look at the origins of the rumors that President Obama is a practicing Muslim who was not born in America. What Weigel found and re-reported included a 2007 bombshell memo from the Clinton campaign’s chief strategist, Mark Penn.
Nolte sums up the facts of the Clinton campaign’s birther rumors as follows:
More than a full year before anyone would hear of Orly Taitz, the Birther strategy was first laid out in the Penn memo. The “othering” foundation was built subliminally by the Clinton campaign itself. Democrats and Clinton campaign surrogates did the dirtiest of the dirty work: openly spread the Birther lies. Staffers in Hillary’s actual campaign used email to spread the lies among other Democrats (this was a Democrat primary after all — so that is the only well you needed to poison a month before a primary). The campaign released the turban photo. Hillary herself used 60 Minutes to further stoke the story.
Ironically, during a February CNN Democratic town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, Sanders referenced the Democrat-originated “birther” movement. He suggested there was racism inherent in the Republican base. “Nobody has asked for my birth certificate,” he said. “Maybe it’s the color of my skin.”
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.LEDs are low-voltage light sources that need either a constant DC voltage or current to operate correctly. Operating on DC power has advantages as it enables LEDs to easily work with many different power supplies/batteries, it permits longer stand-by power, and increases safety. A single high power LED like the emitters we offer on 20mm star boards require about 2-4VDC and at least 350mA of current.
If you’re using a battery, you don’t have much to worry about as batteries give off DC power. For a constant voltage LED you could simply hook the battery to the LED and for LEDs needing constant current you could just put a low voltage constant current driver in between the battery and the diodes. It is when you start setting up larger systems running from line voltage, typically between 110 and 120VAC, that you will need more components to bring down the AC voltage to DC and protect the LEDs from line-voltage fluctuation.
With smaller systems, like desk lamps and such, it will probably be easier to still stick with a low voltage driver. In this case you will need a constant voltage power supply, like one that powers a laptop, to plug into the wall and then deliver a safe low DC power to the constant current driver that will then deliver a steady current to your LED. These constant voltage power supplies will also be all you need if your LEDs are already regulating the current (LED Strip Lights) and you only need a constant voltage, usually 12VDC or 24VDC. This system works great for small and portable lighting systems.
In larger systems when you start adding more LEDs into the array, a higher voltage will be required. If you were to use the low voltage method you would need huge power supplies that then link into low voltage drivers, which could get messy with all the wiring. Thankfully there are constant current drivers that take AC power directly and then give off a constant DC current with a safe voltage range for the LEDs to operate in. These are great for general lighting purposes around the home and when you retrofit a more permanent, stationary fixture.
Today, it seems ‘LED driver’ and ‘LED power supply’ are used interchangeably. Here at LEDSupply when we say ‘power supply’ we mean an AC-DC device that takes line voltage and outputs a constant DC voltage (12V, 24V, etc.). When we say, ‘LED driver’, we mean an AC to DC driver that takes 110-305VAC and outputs a constant current to your LEDs. Other people will use names like AC LED power supply, 110V LED Driver or constant current LED power supply. It can get confusing but the names are just technicalities, what matters most is knowing what type of input your LED(s) require, and purchasing an LED power supply or driver that will provide that.
To learn more about constant current drivers and why current needs to be regulated to LEDs, see here. In the rest of this post, however, we will go over why AC LED drivers, or off-line drivers, are beneficial and how they can cut down on the size and cost of your LED system.
Line Voltage Convenience
As we have already touched on, AC drivers for LED lighting really make a difference when setting up commercial and residential systems. For battery applications and small lamps, of course it is smarter to stick with low voltage. But when you are running multiple lights off of 110V, things can get a little complicated if you only want to stick with low voltage drivers. This would require multiple switching power supplies and drivers, making the component count sky rocket, not to mention the price!
AC LED drivers eliminate the need for the added components. They switch the voltage and output a constant current to the LEDs all in one package. 110V LED drivers work much better with larger loads and carry power better over distance. Using them will also make the wiring look more professional. You will only have one to a few AC- LED drivers powering a room of lights rather than power supplies and drivers running all over the place. Cost will be lower as well as the total number of components which makes connecting under the same dimmer much more simple.
The AC Dimming Advantage
With LEDs, dimming is done in a variety of ways. Most LED drivers are compatible with 0-10V Dimming control devices that are available all over as this has become common practice for LED lighting and was even used for fluorescent dimming before LEDs were around. 0-10V dimming is a simple and very effective way of dimming multiple LED lights, but sometimes users want more.
With many users that are already in a home with smart lighting controls or a large line voltage dimming set up, it is a make or break situation on if they can make their LEDs work with this system. With low voltage LEDs and drivers this is not an option, but AC drivers continue to improve upon their use with line voltage dimmers. This includes the more popular dimming controls from the likes of Lutron and Leviton.
The new Phihong Triac Dimmable AC driver line we offer, for instance, offers quality dimming with many popular dimmers. This allows you to hook a driver right up to line voltage and then adjust the LEDs without flicker and shifting of light. Many of these dimmer systems are expensive so you can imagine how big of a deal this is for those that already have made an investment into a dimming system. Now they can switch to more efficient lighting in LEDs, while keeping the same dimmers!
Selecting the right AC (110V) LED driver
When selecting a constant current LED power supply for your system you must pay attention to a few different specs in order for the driver to work properly, and in turn, your LED system to run at its full brightness and efficiency. You need to make sure your system stays within parameters safe for both the driver and the light emitting diode itself. Below is a small list of design and technical options that you will want to go over before selecting your AC to DC driver.
1. Size
Physical size and shape are obviously a factor when choosing a 110V LED driver. Whatever fixture or light you are trying to build, you will need a driver that can fit within the application, not making it look bulky or thrown together. LED drivers come in a wide range of sizes; in small rectangle forms, longer butterstick styles, and also puck style drivers. All you need to do is pick a shape and size that works well for your setup. Whether you have room to fit the driver within your fixture, or if you plan to mount it up in the ceiling or a wall, just make sure you factor this part into your design. All measurements are on the product pages of the drivers.
2. Current Ratings
High Power LEDs will need at least 350mA of current. There is always a maximum current rating for LEDs, and if you go over that specified current, the LED will be driven too hard and degrade at a fast rate until it ultimately fails. Make sure you know the max current your LED can take and get a constant current LED driver that outputs a current at or below that current so your LEDs will run safe and much longer. A Cree XP-E2, for example, has a max rating of 1000mA, therefore you would want to choose a driver that outputs 1000mA (1 Amp) or less. Whereas if you were using the Cree XP-L, which can be driven up to 3000mA, you would not have this problem and could use any of our drivers, including this 72W Phihong Driver that outputs 3 Amps (3000mA) and would drive them at their max which is super bright!
Important note if you are using a parallel circuit! Remember that if you have LEDs in parallel off of a driver, that drivers output is divided by however many different strings you have. So say you are running two strings of two Cree XP-E2 LEDs from the example above. Since the current is divided equally among the strings, you could use a driver that has an output as high as 2000mA.
3. Output Voltage (DC) Range
Voltage range is a very important part when working with line voltage drivers. The whole advantage of using AC LED drivers is the driver takes your 110VAC and outputs DC power. The power that is output is a constant current, but there is also an output voltage range that the LEDs must operate in. This means that your LED’s forward voltage (Vf) must be within that range (not any lower, not any higher). You can find your LEDs forward voltage by checking it on the product pages or data sheets. After you know this, add up your forward voltages of all LEDs. If you have a parallel string, add up the voltage from just one of your LED strings as each line will need to be in this range, not the total. See here if you have questions about your circuit wiring. Once you know your total voltage you will need to select a driver that has an output range including that voltage.
Say I want to set up some lights around a room in my house to highlight the wall art. I have 5 paintings in this room that I want to illuminate with a small spot, for each, using the Cree XP-L 1-Up. I have decided that at 1000mA it will give me the brightness I need to show off these pieces. First, I find that at 1000mA the XP-L’s forward voltage (Vf) is about 2.95. I need 5 of these set up in the room so 5 x 2.95 = 14.75. So now the trick of finding a driver to take my 110 volts AC and output 1000mA while staying in a range that includes 14.75 volts. After looking in the AC driver section and using the output current filters, I find this Phihong 15W driver that outputs a current of1000mA and has an output voltage range of 10.5-15VDC.
One minor drawback to offline (AC) drivers is that the output voltage ranges tend to be higher. With high power LEDs running around 2-4 volts, most AC drivers do not have low enough voltage ranges to power just one or even two LEDs. This small Phihong 6 Watt driver is actually the only AC driver that we carry that is small enough to power just one LED as its minimum output is 2.5VDC. If you need more options for powering just one LED, it is probably better to check out a low voltage option.
4. Wattage
Many people forget to even keep track of wattage when dealing with AC drivers. They just make sure that they are operating within the voltage range and don’t even care to check that they are within the Wattage limit as well. All drivers are rated for a certain wattage, in fact, most AC drivers will have this right in their name (3 Watt LED driver, 15 Watt LED driver, etc). I would advise anyone reading this post to always use this as their last checkpoint. After you have made sure current and voltage line up, you have everything you need to easily check the wattage. All you need to remember is:
System Wattage = Forward Voltage (Vf) of ALL LEDs x Drive Current (in Amps)
So let me do my final check for my art display project in the above example. I have a total forward voltage of 14.75 and am driving them at 1000mA which is equal to 1 Amp. So my wattage is 14.75 which is just under the 15 Watts that this driver can handle. Looks like I selected a driver that will work!
5. Dimming
This is all up to you! LEDs can be super bright and there obviously is a need to dim them for certain applications. When selecting your driver you should know if you want dimming or not, and then if you do, what kind of dimming you are working with. Many AC drivers have integrated 0-10V dimming, this is low voltage dimming so wires come from the driver to the dimmer in order to dim the LEDs.
A big advantage with AC drivers, especially with the new Phihong line, is line voltage dimming. This is the most common way for dimming residential lighting so I’m glad we are able to offer a Triac dimmable line that can use popular household dimmers to dim the light without a bad flicker. With this dimming type you will have your line voltage dimmers and then the driver and LEDs coming off of that.
So basically, if you just have an application where no dimming is needed, simply select a driver with no dimming as they cost less. If you need dimming, know the system you are using and look for a dimmable LED power supply that works with the dimming system you have in place.
Driver Efficiency
When a transformer is required (when you are going off AC power, not battery) DC drivers and AC drivers have very similar efficiency. AC drivers are essentially an LED power supply and LED driver combined, they take in 110v and output a DC voltage while driving the LEDs at a constant current. That being said, when sticking with low voltage drivers and going through a transformer, the system is only as good as the power supply. If the power supply is cheaper then it likely doesn’t have the highest efficiency. If you wanted to gain the same efficiency as using an AC driver, it would be best to purchase a higher end power supply like the lines from Phihong.
Cost Comparison
Going back to my example above, lets say that a friend of mine suggested using low voltage drivers rather than the offline driver I had originally selected for the spot lights around the room. Considering this option, I take a look at the prices. We already know that if I went with a 110AC LED driver I would use the 15W Phihong Triac Dimmable driver that would cost me $22.49.
If I went with a low voltage driver I would first need a power supply. A 24 volt power supply will suffice as long as it can handle 15 Watts which all our 24VDC power supplies do. The smallest is this 40 Watt power supply for $21.99. Then you would need a small 2.1mm female connector that could hook from the power supply jack to the wires coming off your driver, this would be $1.49. Finally you would need a low voltage 1000mA driver that can handle 24VDC like the LuxDrive BuckBlock for $17.99. The total cost for the low voltage route is $41.47, an 84% increase in price.
You can see that in general lighting situations like these it will be cheaper to run a driver from 110-240VAC. Now cheaper is not always better, but in this situation, that is the case as it also cuts down on the number of components, making for a more professional looking light. Not only this but with the AC option I can also dim through line voltage dimmers. I don’t have to purchase a different dimmer! I highly recommend AC drivers in cases like these along with LED retrofits. If you want to dim from line voltage with popular Lutron dimmers then Phihong’s TRIAC dimmable line, like the one I chose for my example, is a great option!
There is no straight up right or wrong answer when choosing to use DC or AC drivers. It really depends on your setup and the needs of your application. Start by looking through the list I made above, this should really narrow down your choices.J. V. Stalin On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE,
MOSCOW, 1946
--8--
Radio Address July 3, 1941 Comrades! Citizens!
Brothers and sisters!
Men of our army and navy! My words are addressed to you, dear friends! The perfidious military attack by Hitler Germany on our motherland, begun on June 22, is continuing. In spite of the heroic resistance of the Red Army and although the enemy's finest divisions and finest air units have already been shattered and have met their doom on the battlefield, the enemy continues to push forward, hurling fresh forces into the fray. Hitler's troops have succeeded in capturing Lithuania, a considerable part of Latvia, the western part of Byelorussia and part of Western Ukraine. The fascist aircraft are extending the range of their operations, bombing Murmansk, Orsha, Moghilev, Smolensk, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol. Grave danger over-hangs our country. How could it have happened that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of our cities and districts to the fascist troops? Are the German fascist troops really invincible as the braggart fascist propagandists are ceaselessly trumpeting? Of course not! History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.
--9--
Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was beaten successively by the troops of Russia, England and Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm's German army in the period of the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops, and was finally routed by the Anglo-French troops. The same must be said of Hitler's German fascist army today. This army has not yet met with serious resistance on the continent of Europe. Only on our territory has it met with serious resistance. And if as a result of this the finest divisions of the German fascist army have been defeated by our Red Army, it shows that Hitler's fascist army can also be and will be defeated as were the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm. That part of our territory has nevertheless been seized by the German fascist troops is explained chiefly by the fact that the war of fascist Germany against the U.S.S.R. began under conditions that were favourable for the German troops and unfavourable for the Soviet troops. The point is that the troops of Germany, a country at war, were already fully mobilized, and the 170 divisions which Germany hurled against the U.S.S.R. and brought up to the frontiers of the U.S.S.R. were in a state of complete readiness, only awaiting the signal to move into action, whereas the Soviet troops had still to be mobilized and moved up to the frontiers. Of no little importance in this respect was also the fact that fascist Germany suddenly and treacherously violated the non-aggression pact she had concluded in 1939 with the U.S.S.R., ignoring the fact that the whole world would regard her as the aggressor. Naturally, our peace-loving country, not wishing to
--10--
take the initiative in breaking a pact, could not resort to perfidy. It may be asked: How could the Soviet Government have consented to conclude a non-aggression pact with such perfidious people, and such fiends as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was this not an error on the part of the Soviet Government? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a pact of peace between two states. It was precisely such a pact that Germany proposed to us in 1939. Could the Soviet Government decline such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state could decline a peace treaty with a neighbouring country even if that country is headed by such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. But that, of course, only on the one indispensable condition that this peace treaty did not jeopardize, either directly or indirectly, the territorial integrity, independence and honour of the peace-loving state. As is well known, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the U.S.S.R. was precisely such a pact. What did we gain by concluding the non-aggression pact with Germany? We secured our country peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces to repulse fascist Germany should she risk an attack on our country despite the pact. This was a definite advantage for us and a disadvantage for fascist Germany. What has fascist Germany gained and what has she lost by perfidiously tearing up the pact and attacking the U.S.S.R.? She has gained a certain advantageous position for her troops for a short period of time, but she has lost politically by exposing herself in the eyes of the entire world as a bloodthirsty aggressor. There can be no doubt
--11--
that this short-lived military gain for Germany is only episode, while the tremendous political gain of the U.S.S.R. is a weighty and lasting factor that is bound to form the basis for the development of decisive military success of the Red Army in the war with fascist Germany. That is why the whole of our valiant Red Army, the whole of our valiant Navy, all the falcons of our Air Force, all the peoples of our country, all the finest men and women of Europe, America and Asia, and, lastly, all the finest men and women of Germany--denounce the treacherous acts of the German fascists, sympathize with the Soviet Government, approve its conduct, and see that ours is a just cause, that the enemy will be defeated and that victory will be ours. In consequence of this war which has been forced upon us, our country has come to death grips with its bitterest and most cunning enemy--German fascism. Our troops are fighting heroically against an enemy heavily armed with tanks and aircraft. Overcoming numerous difficulties, the Red Army and Red Navy are self- sacrificingly fighting for every inch of Soviet soil. The main forces of the Red Army are coming into action armed with thousands of tanks and aeroplanes. The men of the Red Army are displaying unexampled valour. Our resistance to the enemy is growing in strength and power. Side by side with the Red Army, the entire Soviet people is rising in defence of our native land. What is required to put an end to the danger which overhangs our country, and what measures must be taken to crush the enemy? Above all it is essential that our people, the Soviet people, should appreciate the full immensity of the
--12--
danger that threatens our country and cast off complacency, carelessness and the mentality of peaceful constructive work that was so natural before the war, but which is fatal today, when war has radically changed the situation. The enemy is cruel and implacable. He is out to seize our lands which have been watered by the sweat of our brow, to seize our grain and oil which have been obtained by the labour of our hands. He is out to restore the rule of the landlords, to restore tsarism, to destroy the national culture and the national existence as states of the Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldavians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanians and the other free peoples of the Soviet Union, to Germanize them, to convert them into the slaves of German princes and barons. Thus, the issue is one of life and death for the Soviet State, of life and death for the peoples of the U.S.S.R., of whether the peoples of the Soviet Union shall be free or fall into slavery. The Soviet people must realize this and cease to be careless; they must mobilize themselves and reorganize all their work on a new, war footing, where there can be no mercy for the enemy. Further, there must be no room in our ranks for whimperers and cowards, for panic-mongers and deserters; our people must know no fear in the fight and must selflessly join our Patriotic War of liberation against the fascist enslavers. Lenin, the great founder of our state, used to say that the chief virtues of Soviet men and women must be courage, valour, fearlessness in struggle, readiness to fight together with the people against the enemies of our country. These splendid Bolshevik virtues must be acquired by the millions and millions of men of
--13--
the Red Army and of the Red Navy, by all the peoples of the Soviet Union. All our work must be immediately reorganized on a war footing, everything must be subordinated to the interests of the front and the task of organizing the rout of the enemy. The peoples of the Soviet Union now see that German fascism is untameable in its savage fury and hatred of our country, which has ensured for all its working people free labour and prosperity. The peoples of the Soviet Union must rise to defend their rights and their land against the enemy. The Red Army, the Red Navy and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of Soviet soil, must fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages, must display the daring, initiative and mental alertness that are characteristic of our people. We must organize all-round assistance to the Red Army, ensure powerful reinforcements for its ranks, ensure the supply of everything it requires, organize the rapid transport of troops and military freight and extensive aid to the wounded. We must strengthen the Red Army's rear, subordinating all our work to this end; all our factories must work with greater intensity, produce more rifles, machine guns, guns, cartridges, shells and aircraft; we must organize the guarding of factories, power stations, telephone and telegraph communications, and organize effective air-raid protection in all localities. We must wage a ruthless fight against all disorganizers of the rear, deserters, panic-mongers and rumour-mongers; we must exterminate spies, sabotage agents and enemy parachutists, rendering rapid aid in all this to our
--14--
destroyer battalions. We must bear in mind that the enemy is crafty, cunning, experienced in deception and in the dissemination of false rumours. We must reckon with all this and not allow ourselves to be deceived by provocateurs. All who by their panic-mongering and cowardice hinder the work of defence, no matter who they are, must be immediately haled before a Military Tribunal. In case of a forced retreat of Red Army units, all rolling stock must be evacuated; not a single engine, a single railway car, a single pound of grain or gallon of fuel must be left for the enemy. The collective farmers must drive off all their cattle and turn over their grain to the safekeeping of the state authorities for transportation to the rear. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel that cannot be withdrawn, must be destroyed without fail. In areas occupied by the enemy, guerilla units, mounted and foot, must be formed, sabotage groups must be organized to combat enemy units, to foment guerilla warfare everywhere, to blow up bridges and roads, damage telephone and telegraph lines and set fire to forests, stores and transports. In occupied regions conditions must be made unbearable for the enemy and all his accomplices. They must be hounded and annihilated at every step, and all their measures frustrated. The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies; it is also a great war of the entire Soviet people against a German fascist army. The aim of this people's Patriotic War against the fascist oppressors is not only to avert the danger that is hanging over our country, but also to aid all the European peoples who are groaning under the
--15--
yoke of German fascism. In this war of liberation we shall not be alone. In this great war we shall have true allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people which is enslaved by the Hitlerite misrulers. Our war for the freedom of our motherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic liberties. It will be a united front of the peoples who stand for freedom and against enslavement and threats of enslavement by Hitler's fascist armies. In this connection the historic utterances of the British Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, regarding aid to the Soviet Union, and the declaration of the United States Government signifying readiness to render aid to our country, which can only evoke a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of the people of the Soviet Union, are fully comprehensible |
is that if Barnier manages to pull off a Brexit deal that reflects EU priorities and maintains the unity of the 27, he will have a solid platform for a campaign.
“I think his ambition is recent," one former EU official said. "It’s not a childhood dream. It wasn’t a plan. His conviction in European values is absolutely authentic.”
Quentin Ariès contributed to this article.Nominate your favorite beers and breweries for the Best of Alabama Beer 2017
2017 was an amazing year for Alabama beer. We had several new breweries and brewpubs open and with the changing laws, we’re seeing a lot more small batch and brewery exclusive beer releases. Many great breweries from outside of the state have also begun (or resumed) distribution in Alabama. It’s a great time to be a craft beer fan in the Southeast!
With the explosive growth here, it’s difficult to capture everything that’s going on. This year, prior to final voting, we’re holding a nomination round. The Top 10 from each category will go on to a final voting round and winners will be announced live on Beer Guys Radio and posted here on the website.
Styles were selected for the categories to represent the most popular craft beer styles. There are a lot of great beers that don’t fall into these categories, we have a category for those. We feel this method highlights the best of the most popular beers, and keeps the survey at a manageable size.
BREWERS! We encourage you to offer up your own nominations and share this with your fans and followers.
Rules and important datesMorgan Perry was one of about 150 people who attended a job fair in Fort McMurray in the summer that came with an unlikely sales pitch: Pack up and head to Halifax.
Hosted by Irving Shipbuilding, recruiters travelled to Fort McMurray because of the large number of Maritimers in Canada's oil-sands capital. The 43-year-old Mr. Perry, however, isn't one of them. His family has deep roots in Alberta. One of his grandfathers was born in a covered wagon outside the town of Olds.
A journeyman welder and pipefitter, Mr. Perry has done well in Fort McMurray, his home for the past 15 years. "It was booming. They were crying for people with my skill set," Mr. Perry recalls over a bottle of Pepsi at Fort McMurray's downtown Tim Hortons.
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The crash in oil prices over the past year, from around $95 (U.S.) to about $47 per barrel, has hit him particularly hard. The drop occurred just as he was getting his one-man mobile rig-welding business off the ground. His income has dropped drastically and contracts remain spotty. Meanwhile, his rent is unchanged at $2,000 per month plus utilities for a two-bedroom trailer he shares with his girlfriend and her daughter.
The Maritimes have long been portrayed as an area of economic stagnation, with a stream of job-seekers headed to all points west. However, it may be time to re-evaluate that depiction. Opportunities are appearing across the Atlantic region for the first time in a generation and the latest slump in Alberta has some considering a move east.
Mr. Perry, a born-and-bred Albertan, is among those now contemplating building a new life in Atlantic Canada. The shipbuilder needs at least 250 skilled workers for its Halifax shipyard. Mr. Perry would be moving to a region that has experienced the good and bad of Alberta's economic roller coaster.
Doug MacLeod has tracked the strength of the oil patch through his order book in the small Cape Breton town of New Waterford for decades. In this downturn, the first storm clouds have already rolled in from the west. Thousands have been laid off in the energy sector and demand for his plumbing work has levelled off.
"The oil sands are what's been keeping this island alive," Mr. MacLeod said from his storefront on New Waterford's main drag. "The guys that fly home from the west are running the economy with their new trucks and the renovations to their homes."
Despite the slowdown and the number of tradesmen now between jobs, the signs of oil money are still everywhere in Cape Breton. Homes have freshly painted siding and neat yards. Large pickup trucks, nicknamed "out-west trucks" by locals, sit in many driveways. Nearly everyone in the Maritimes has a friend or family member who has taken a job in Alberta.
With Alberta's economy sliding into recession and likely to stagnate for the next two years, Mr. MacLeod and many others are worried about what comes next. Some former oil-sands workers are home now and waiting for a call to head back west, but others have seen this as the right time to chart a new course and find an alternative to the hard lifestyle of fly-in, fly-out contracts and sleeping in work camps.
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"There was an opportunity for me to come home earlier this year and I took it. I could sleep in my own bed, be home every day," said Rob Stevens, 33, from the Whitney Pier neighbourhood of Sydney. Now a car salesman in his hometown, he had been flying between Fort McMurray and Nova Scotia monthly for two years.
While no one is suggesting a sea change is afoot regarding Alberta and the Maritimes, some of the hardest-hit communities out east are showing promising signs after years of decline.
One of the brightest spots has appeared in Halifax, where a series of white buildings has risen along the harbour. The $350-million structure is North America's largest covered shipbuilding facility, the length of four football fields and 46 metres high. Using steel from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., construction of Canada's new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships began in the facility on Sept. 1. Work will continue for about 30 years as up to 2,500 people will build the next generation of Canadian warships in Halifax.
One of the newly employed shipbuilders will be Ross Higgins. After two years of working in the oil sands, the Halifax native says he's ecstatic to finally be employed at home and "live the Maritime dream." In late August, he got the word from Irving that he had been hired to work in the shipyard. The welding he learned in Alberta's oil patch will now be put to use in Nova Scotia.
"The timing is perfect. In the back of my mind, I always knew about the shipbuilding and thought that maybe I'd try it. Now I can," he said. "It's a pay cut, but I get to sleep in my bed and work seven hours a day. Sixty-five thousand dollars isn't a bad wage for a guy to live on."
While he enjoyed the hefty salary in Fort McMurray, he's happy to leave behind the uncertainty of life in the energy sector.
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"I was getting onto a plane in Halifax last January to go back to Alberta. While I was waiting for the plane, one of the guys sitting across from me was also going back to work and he got a phone call. They literally laid him off at the airport as he was headed back," said Mr. Higgins. He got a similar call weeks later. Months of uncertainty followed before he was hired by Irving.
According to Stephen McNeil, Nova Scotia's Premier, the good news for workers like Mr. Higgins was years in the making. After decades of interprovincial barriers hampering the easy movement of workers, a labour-mobility pact was signed by Alberta and Nova Scotia last August. The agreement made the apprenticeship training Mr. Higgins took transferable between the provinces.
"To be perfectly frank, we're seeing some encouraging signs. Irving is cutting steel now. We're seeing resource projects across rural Nova Scotia," said Mr. McNeil from his Halifax office. "Irving could have never had a job fair in Alberta without a reciprocal agreement. You couldn't go back and forth. With these megaprojects that are happening, that was part of the rationale, so that we could repatriate sons and daughters who wanted to come home."
There will be spinoffs from the shipbuilding that should boost the wider economy. Irving says 8,600 jobs are currently being supported by shipbuilding. The enthusiasm has spread across the region. While the economy remains sluggish in New Waterford and dozens of small towns like it, even Cape Breton is seeing positive signs.
Near Mr. MacLeod's shop, a new colliery is about to begin operations in the town of Donkin, restarting an industry that had appeared extinct when the last coal mine closed in 2001. The new mine is a largely automated operation, but even the first 120 positions that have become available are crucial to the local economy. Once production starts, the mine is expected to provide thermal coal for the next 30 years.
"Cape Bretoners by their very nature are a working culture. We don't have a management culture, we don't have an entrepreneurial culture, we have a working culture," said Cecil Clarke, mayor for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. "I can probably suggest that there is nowhere else in Canada right now where the public is calling for a coal mine to open."
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The activity comes at a time when local mines and factories have been shuttered for a generation. While traditional industries like fishing and forestry remain strong, they can't sustain a modern economy. The unemployment rate in Cape Breton's former industrial heartland stands at 14 per cent and the population has fallen by one-fifth over the past two decades. Of those that remain, a third of their children live in poverty.
The statistics are startling. But for the first time in years, Mr. Clarke and other local leaders say there is reason for hope. He's now eyeing a proposed liquefied-natural-gas facility recently approved by the National Energy Board, as well as long-term plans to open a shipping terminal.
"The glass is half empty and we're in the throes of getting it to half full," said Mr. Clarke. "If I'm not optimistic and not pushing for change, what's the alternative, the last person shuts off the light? That isn't acceptable."
With reports from Renata D'Aliesio in Fort McMurrayDavid Cameron said other areas of the UK should be able to take compensatory action if Scottish government decisions affect them
David Cameron will vow on Monday to prevent England, Wales and Northern Ireland from losing out unfairly as a result of Scottish devolution by introducing an annual report detailing the impact of Scottish government decisions on the rest of the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon: SNP could change direction of minority government Read more
The annual Treasury report would include policies such as business rates, university tuition fees, health charges and tax rates.
The prime minister will say that other parts of the country will be free to respond to the decisions of the Scottish government, such as taking compensatory action if it presses ahead with plans to cut air passenger duty.
In a move that is likely to be seen as an attempt to be the champion of English interests, Cameron will say the review will set out “what action is needed to make sure there is no detriment to the rest of the UK”.
The review sets up the possibility of highlighting conflicts of interests between Scotland, the union and its other constituent parts.
The annual review is bound to raise suspicion in Scotland that Cameron wants to reduce Scottish autonomy.
But in a speech in north-west England, he will say: “To be absolutely clear, this is not about a UK government stopping the Scottish government from using its powers as it sees fit or to do things differently. It is also not about reopening discussion about the Barnett formula – our commitment to retain it as the basis for determining Scotland’s funding from the Treasury is clear and unequivocal.
“This is about making sure we understand the impact that devolution is having and make sure that rest of the country never unwittingly loses out”. There has been concern for instance that Scottish government decision to reduce air passenger duty is going to have a harmful impact on airports in northern England.
The Conservatives, determined to highlight the risk of a hung parliament in which a minority Labour administration is dependent on the votes of the Scottish National party, also seized on remarks by Stuart Hosie, the party’s Treasury spokesman, that it might block Treasury defence estimates in a bid to prevent cash being spent on a replacement for the Trident nuclear submarine.
Hosie, speaking on Sunday Politics Scotland, said: “We would, of course, vote against cuts we did not like, and the spending would appear in the estimates and we would vote against the spending we did not want to see.”
He said that if Labour refused to reach an agreement, the SNP would be “entitled to vote against any bit of legislation” and “any bit of spending” that it didn’t agree with.
He said Labour leader Ed Miliband “certainly couldn’t take the vote of SNP MPs for granted and that’s the real reason I suspect there will be proper discussions before key votes”.
A vote against the estimates – only possible if the SNP combined with the Tories – would mean the Ministry of Defence could be starved of cash, potentially leading to the army not being paid.
Normally, votes on the estimates are a formality and Labour sources said Hosie’s remarks were “posturing which is only being taken seriously by a Conservative party who know the SNP are their best last hope of staying in power, adding:
“Only the government has the right for fiscal initiative in parliament so the SNP couldn’t propose different plans.
The sources said that, as a general principle, the main parties did not vote against estimates, so the votes of the SNP would be irrelevant unless the Tories chose to be totally irresponsible.
But Cameron said the growing signs that the SNP would seek to have a major impact on the direction of a Labour government showed how calamitous a Labour minority administration might become for the UK.
The SNP do not even want our country to succeed, that is why it is so calamitous David Cameron
In a combative and sometimes ill-tempered interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, he said: “This would be the first time in our history that a group of nationalists from one part of our country would be involved in altering the direction of our country and I think that is a frightening prospect.”
The SNP “do not even want our country to succeed, that is why it is so calamitous”, he said.
Cameron asked English voters to question if the SNP held the balance of power at Westminster whether their road bypass would be built or their local hospital would get the cash it needed. The appeal is probably most aimed at luring Ukip voters back to the Conservatives.
He said: “Frankly, this is a group of people that would not care what happened in the rest of the country. The rest of the United Kingdom – Wales, Northern Ireland and England – would not get a look-in and that is the prospect we face if we don’t get the majority Conservative government that is within our reach.”
The shadow leader of the house, Angela Eagle, implied there might be talks with the SNP, saying: “We’ll speak to any party that has got representation in the House of Commons in order to try and build a majority for a Queen’s speech.”Together, over 50 international organizations and 2.8 million people have united behind one of the largest online campaigns in history. And, make no mistake, our call to stop the secrecy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being heard loud and clear.
Between OpenMedia, our friends at Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Roots Action, Fight for the Future, and Demand Progress, and our growing list ofinternational partners, millions of people have received our “StopTheSecrecy” message in their inboxes, news websites, and TV screens. And we’re just getting started.
As you saw earlier this week, the news coming out of Tokyo reveals that the U.S. remains intent on ramming through the TPP. If passed, we know this plan would affect our democracy, jobs, health, the environment, and the Internet. Obama has now left Japan and is currently travelling through other parts of south-east Asia to twist the arms of smaller nations negotiating the TPP.
It’s clear that they have set their cross-hairs squarely on passing the TPP’s Internet censorship plan.
To push back, we need every single person possible to help ensure our hard-hitting light projection in Washington D.C. gets bigger and brighter. We need to crank up the pressure in time for Obama’s return next week – to make sure he gets a homecoming he won’t soon forget.
And, we assure you, the pressure is building.
Each day, more support is pouring in from tech companies, civil society groups, and others in the fight to stop the TPP’s secrecy. Dozens of groups have signed on since StopTheSecrecy began, with more piling on each day. Recent additions include organizations like Piwiki, the Internet Society of New York, IT for Change, the Organic Consumers Association, People Over Politics, BankACT, the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), Copyratul Roman, Doll Divine, Copyratul Roman, and Private Internet Access. And this was just in the last two days! You can see the FULL list of partners here.
Meanwhile, the response on social media has been incredible. Hundreds of thousands of new people have been welcomed into our movement to stop the TPP’s extreme secrecy. We want to thank everybody who dropped the campaign in their Facebook feed or RT’d our message of change on Twitter. Organizations like SumOfUs, Leadnow, ExposeTheTPP, Fight For the Future, Council of Canadians, Roots Action, Daily Kos, and many others have filled the Facebook and Twitter feeds of millions of concerned citizens.
And new signatures aren’t just coming from our homebase at https://StopTheSecrecy.net. Many of the groups who have signed on to StopTheSecrecy.net have taken it upon themselves to host our petition on their website, including reddit, Public Services International, Progressive Democrats of America,StopFastTrack.com, Fir edoglake, Privacy & Access Council of Canada, People Over Politics, FlushTheTPP and others we may have missed! Click here for our easy-to-use embed code to host our petition on your website.
Obama is returning to D.C. soon. Our fight isn’t over yet. Please do everything you can to help us get the attention of the President, the media, and the army of unelected bureaucrats and lobbyists pushing the TPP forward. Whether your first issue is the Internet, jobs, the environment, access to medicine, or the health of our democracy (or all of the above), we need to do everything we can to stop the TPP’s extreme secrecy and open the process up to the public.
If you haven’t already, please sign on right now at: https://stopthesecrecy. net/
If you’ve already signed, please help us get the word out to keep the pressure up. Imagine if all 2.8 million of us each took a few seconds to share this campaign with everyone they know. We’re counting on you:
Let’s crank up the pressure. Onwards!
Josh Tabish is Campaigns Coordinator with OpenMedia.orgCOMMERCE CITY, Colo. (Wednesday, November 6, 2013) – The Colorado Rapids announced on Wednesday that the club has re-signed midfielder Nathan Sturgis, who set career highs in games played and goals in 2013, to a new contract. Per league and team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We were pleased with Nathan’s effort on both the defensive and attacking sides of the ball, and he made us a better team this season,” said Rapids Head Coach Oscar Pareja. “He was solid defensively playing in front of our back four, and also made intelligent runs into the box. We’re excited that he will return as we prepare our roster for next year.”
“Nathan did well to earn his opportunity this season, and took full advantage of his time on the field,” said Rapids Technical Director Paul Bravo. “He brings a great deal of experience for his age, and we’re very happy that he has signed a new contract with our club.”
"I want to thank the Colorado Rapids and Major League Soccer for extending my contract,” said Sturgis. “I am very grateful for the opportunities the Rapids organization has given me and the support the fans have shown me this year. I look forward to working hard to help the team be successful in 2014."
Sturgis, 26, broke into the Rapids’ starting lineup at the beginning of May and started all but two of Colorado’s final 25 regular season matches, as well as the playoff game. Having scored just one goal in seven MLS seasons prior to joining Colorado, he set a career-high with four in 2013, including the game-winner against New York on July 4 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. He finished the season having played a career best 25 games (23 starts), with four goals and an assist.
The midfielder originally joined MLS in 2006 as the 12th overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft, playing for the Galaxy before a midseason 2007 trade to Real Salt Lake. He was selected by Seattle in the Expansion Draft ahead of the 2009 campaign, playing two years for Seattle, followed by a year at Toronto FC and a season with Houston. In his eight-season MLS career, Sturgis has played 105 regular season matches (89 starts), scoring five goals and adding three assists. Sturgis also played in the youth ranks of the United States National Team, including the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.I am an independent contractor and, as such, I interview 3-4 times a year for new gigs. I am in the midst of that cycle now and got turned down for an opportunity even though I felt like the interview went well. The same thing has happened to me a couple of times this year.
Now, I am not a perfect guy and I don't expect to be a good fit for every organization. That said, my batting average is lower than usual so I politely asked my last interviewer for some constructive feedback, and he delivered!
The main thing, according to the interviewer, was that I seemed to lean too much towards the use of abstractions (such as LINQ) rather than towards lower-level, organically grown algorithms.
On the surface, this makes sense--in fact, it made the other rejections make sense too because I blabbed about LINQ in those interviews as well and it didn't seem that the interviewers knew much about LINQ (even though they were.NET guys).
So now I am left with this question: If we are supposed to be "standing on the shoulders of giants" and using abstractions that are available to us (like LINQ), then why do some folks consider it so taboo? Doesn't it make sense to pull code "off the shelf" if it accomplishes the same goals without extra cost?
It would seem to me that LINQ, even if it is an abstraction, is simply an abstraction of all the same algorithms one would write to accomplish exactly the same end. Only a performance test could tell you if your custom approach was better, but if something like LINQ met the requirements, why bother writing your own classes in the first place?
I don't mean to focus on LINQ here. I am sure that the JAVA world has something comparable, I just would like to know why some folks get so uncomfortable with the idea of using an abstraction that they themselves did not write.
UPDATE
As Euphoric pointed out, there isn't anything comparable to LINQ in the Java world. So, if you are developing on the.NET stack, why not always try and make use of it? Is it possible that people just don't fully understand what it does?Image copyright AFP Image caption Shops have been broken into and looted
Two people were burned to death on Monday during xenophobic violence in Zambia's capital, Lusaka, police have said in a statement.
The riots started after rumours that Rwandans were behind recent ritual killings in the city.
The two were Zambian nationals killed "in the confusion" Home Affairs Minister Davies Mwila reportedly said.
More than 250 people have been arrested after more than 60 Rwandan-owned shops were looted in two days of violence.
The two Zambians had been burned with firewood and vehicle tyres, according to police quoted by the AFP news agency.
Six people have been murdered since March and their body parts removed.
Rumours circulated that the body parts would be used as charms to ensure success in business.
Police spokeswoman Charity Munganga urged Zambians not to believe "false rumours".
"No baby or human body parts were found in any fridge belonging to any foreign national. These statements are coming from people with criminal minds to create alarm among the members of the public and justify their criminality," she said in a statement.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The police said the rumours were being used to justify criminality
She warned that it was an offence to spread rumours that caused alarm and the police would not hesitate to arrest those doing so "regardless of the medium they are using".
"We are appealing to the members of the public not to believe any statement they see on social media which is not confirmed by the police."
Rwandans are the largest group of immigrants in Zambia, owning shops in the densely populated areas which have been affected by the riots.
Why are 6,000 Rwandans living in Zambia?
BBC Great Lakes service analysis:
In the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, two million ethnic Hutus fled as the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels captured the capital Kigali in July, ending 100 days of ethnic killings. Some 800,000 people had been slaughtered by Hutu extremists.
Many of those who left settled in camps set up across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But others continued walking - some across the vast country into Angola, before settling in neighbouring Zambia, in the Meheba refugee camp in north-west of the country where many stayed for nearly two decades.
In July 2013, the UN said it was safe for Rwandans across Africa to go back home, and revoked their refugee status, encouraging voluntary repatriation.
Despite diplomatic efforts and assurances, about 4,000 Rwandans in Zambia do not want to go back - and are trying to get Zambian citizenship.
In the last five years, they have been joined by several hundred Rwandans who say Zambia is more conducive for business, as taxes are not as high as at home.
Rwanda: 100 days of slaughter
The BBC's Meluse Kapatamoyo in Lusaka says the riots began in two poor neighbourhoods on Monday and spread to other areas on Tuesday.
Young men ransacked shops, possibly reflecting growing frustration at the high levels of unemployment and the rising cost of living, our correspondent says.
Riot police had to be deployed and many Rwandans fled to police stations to take shelter.
Image caption The unrest is said to have been fuelled by high unemployment among youth
Image copyright AFP Image caption More than 250 people have been arrested to curb the violence
Ms Munganga said police officers were still deployed to all areas. No rioting has been reported on Wednesday.
The violence shocked many Zambians, who say they cannot recall such hostility towards foreigners, our reporter says.
Ritual killings are also rare in in the southern African nation, she says.
The home affairs minister said on Tuesday, after visiting areas hit by the riots, that 11 people had been detained on suspicion of being involved in ritual killings.Greenblatt’s provocative idea — that psychiatric woes can be solved by targeting the digestive system — is increasingly reinforced by cutting-edge science. For decades, researchers have known of the connection between the brain and the gut. Anxiety often causes nausea and diarrhea, and depression can change appetite. The connection may have been established, but scientists thought communication was one way: it traveled from the brain to the gut, and not the other way around.
But now, a new understanding of the trillions of microbes living in our guts reveals that this communication process is more like a multi-lane superhighway than a one-way street. By showing that changing bacteria in the gut can change behavior, this new research might one day transform the way we understand — and treat — a variety of mental health disorders.
For decades, researchers have known of the connection between the brain and the gut
For Greenblatt, this radical treatment protocol has actually been decades in the making. Even during his psychiatric residency at George Washington University, he was perplexed by the way mental disorders were treated. It was as if, he said, the brain was totally separate from the body. More than 20 years of work treating eating disorders emphasized Greenblatt’s hunch: that the connection between body and mind was more important than conventional psychiatry assumed. “Each year, I get more and more impressed at how important the GI tract is for healthy mood and the controlling of behavior,” Greenblatt said. Among eating disorder patients, Greenblatt found that more than half of psychiatric complaints were associated with problems in the gut — and in some patients, he says he has remedied both using solely high-dose probiotics, along with normalizing eating.
Greenblatt’s solution might strike us as simple, but he’s actually targeting a vast, complex, and mysterious realm of the human body: around 90 percent of our cells are actually bacterial, and bacterial genes outnumber human genes by a factor of 99 to 1. But those bacteria, most of which perform helpful functions, weren’t always with us: a baby is essentially sterile until it enters the birth canal, at which point the bacteria start to arrive — and they don’t stop. From a mother’s vaginal microbes to hugs and kisses from relatives, the exposures of newborns and toddlers in their earliest years is critical to the development of a robust microbiome.
Greenblatt's actually targeting a vast, complex, and mysterious realm of the human body
In fact, recent research suggests that early microbiome development might play a key role in at least some aspects of one’s adult mental health. One 2011 study out of McMaster University compared the behaviors of normal eight-week-old mice and mice whose guts were stripped of microbes. Bacteria-free mice exhibited higher levels of risk-taking, and neurochemical analysis revealed higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and altered levels of the brain chemical BDNF, which has been implicated in human anxiety and depression. “This work showed us that anxiety was normal, and that the gut-brain axis was involved in that,” Jane Foster, the study’s lead author, said. “Everybody knew that stress and anxiety could lead to gastrointestinal symptoms, but we looked at it from the bottom up and showed that the gut could communicate with the brain. It was the first demonstration that the gut itself could influence brain development.”
Subsequent research out of McMaster further enforces those findings, by showing that swapping one mouse’s gut bacteria with that of another can significantly alter behavior. Researchers transplanted microbes from one group of mice, which were characterized by timidity, into the guts of mice who tended to take more risks. What they observed was a complete personality shift: timid mice became outgoing, while outgoing mice became timid. “It’s good evidence that the microbiota houses these behaviors,” Foster said.
While researchers have established a compelling link between gut bacteria and mental health, they’re still trying to figure out the extent to which the human microbiome — once it’s populated in early childhood — can be transformed. “The brain seems to be hardwired for anxiety by puberty and early adolescence,” Foster said. If the microbiome is part of that hardwiring, then it would suggest that once we pass a certain threshold, the impact of bacterial tweaks on problems like depression and anxiety might wane.
In one Japanese study, for instance, researchers were only able to change the baseline stress characteristics of germ-free mice until nine weeks of age. After that, no variety of bacterial additions to the mice’s guts could properly regulate stress and anxiety levels. The explanation for this phenomenon might lie in what’s known as “developmental programming” — the idea that various environmental factors, to which we’re exposed early on, greatly determine the structure and function of organs including the gut and the brain.
“There are changes that happen early in life that we can’t reverse,” said John Cryan, a neuroscientist at the University of Cork in Ireland and a main investigator at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre. “But there are some changes that we can reverse. It tells us that there is a window when microbes are having their main effects and, until this closes, many changes can be reversed.”President Barack Obama responded to reports of slow job growth Friday by blaming Republicans who have opposed parts of his economic agenda.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report found the economy added 242,000 new jobs in February. The latest number highlights a long-running trend of slow, yet positive, economic growth. Obama credits the growth to his agenda but its slowness to Republicans for their opposition to his plan.
“The plans that we have put in place to grow the economy have worked,” the president declared in the Oval Office. “They would work even faster if we did not have the kind of obstruction that we’ve seen in this town to prevent additional policies that would make a difference. And there is going to be a debate going on around the budget in the coming months.”
The president entered office in the midst of a severe economic downturn which has since been referred to as the Great Recession — a time period sparked by the subprime mortgage crisis and the financial crisis of 2007. The recovery took years to begin and has since been incredibly slow.
“Republicans in Congress are, sadly, trying to cut some of the investments that could spur additional growth,” the president continued. “They are blocking things like an increase in the minimum wage, or more robust investment in jobs training, infrastructure, education that can continue to lift up wages and incomes.”
Obama has proposed a number of policies that are highly debated. His opposition has noted concern that his platform may actually be hindering growth as opposed to helping it. The minimum wage for instance could help lower-income individuals receive more pay, but it could also force businesses to cutback on their workforce to overcome the added cost of labor. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found any increase of the minimum wage will likely result in at least some job loss.
Education funding is another highly debated policy topic because much of the budget doesn’t actually go to teaching children. A significant percentage of school budgets often go to huge pension funds. Teachers unions are some of the most powerful labor groups in the country, making pension reform incredibly difficult.
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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.Erhu sound.
The erhu (Chinese: 二胡; pinyin: èrhú; [ɑɻ˥˩xu˧˥]) is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a Southern Fiddle, and sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle.
It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras. It is the most popular of the huqin family of traditional bowed string instruments used by various ethnic groups of China. A very versatile instrument, the erhu is used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangements, such as in pop, rock and jazz.[1]
History [ edit ]
Performer with erhu, photographed Singapore February 1969 × July 1971.
The Erhu can be traced back to proto-Mongolic instruments introduced to China more than a thousand years ago. It is believed to have evolved from the Xiqin (奚 琴). The xiqin is believed to have originated from the Xi people of Central Asia, and have come to China in the 10th century.
The first Chinese character of the name of the instrument (二, èr, two) is believed to come from the fact that it has two strings. An alternate explanation states that it comes from the fact that it is the second highest huqin in pitch to the gaohu in the modern Chinese orchestra. The second character (胡, hú) indicates that it is a member of the Huqin family, with Hu commonly meaning barbarians. The name Huqin literally means "instrument of the Hu peoples", suggesting that the instrument may have originated from regions to the north or west of China generally inhabited by nomadic people on the extremities of past Chinese kingdoms.
Historical erhu and bowed string bows [ edit ]
Historic bowed zithers of China, including the Xiqin, Yazheng, and Yaqin, and also the Korean Ajaeng, were originally played by bowing with a rosined stick, which created friction against the strings. As soon as the horsehair bow was invented, it spread very widely.[citation needed]
Construction [ edit ]
Picture showing bow hair in between the two strings.
The Erhu consists of a long vertical stick-like neck, at the top of which are two big tuning pegs, and at the bottom is a small resonator body (sound box) which is covered with python skin on the front (playing) end. Two strings are attached from the pegs to the base, and a small loop of string (Qian Jin) placed around the neck and strings acting as a nut pulls the strings towards the skin, holding a minute wooden bridge in place.
The Erhu has some unusual features. First is that its characteristic sound is produced through the vibration of the python skin by bowing. Second, there is no fingerboard; the player stops the strings by pressing their fingertips onto the strings without the strings touching the neck. Third, the horse hair bow is never separated from the strings (which were formerly of twisted silk but which today are usually made of metal); it passes between them as opposed to over them (the latter being the case with western bowed stringed instruments). Lastly, although there are two strings, they are very close to each other and the player's left hand in effect plays as if on one string. The inside string (nearest to player) is generally tuned to D4 and the outside string to A4, a fifth higher. The maximum range of the instrument is three and a half octaves, from D4 up to A7, before a stopping finger reaches the part of the string in contact with the bow hair. The usual playing range is about two and a half octaves.
Various dense and heavy hardwoods are used in making the Erhu. According to Chinese references the woods include zi tan (紫檀 red sandalwood and other woods of the genus Pterocarpus such as padauk), Lao hong mu (老红木 aged red wood), wu mu (乌木 black wood), and hong mu (红木 red wood). Particularly fine Erhus are often made from pieces of old furniture. A typical erhu measures 81 cm from top to bottom, the length of the bow also being 81 cm.
Erhu with ba jiao qin tong (eight-sided body). with(eight-sided body).
The parts of |
In this theory, it was there that he was introduced to his cousin Pierre,[note 15] with whom, according to Le Bret, he would build a lasting friendship.[note 16]
Plan de Paris 1652 (detail). Upper Rue Saint-Jacques and the collège de Lisieux. Jacques Gomboust,1652 (detail). Upper Rue Saint-Jacques and the
He continued his secondary studies at an academy which remains unknown. It has long been maintained that he attended the Collège de Beauvais where the action of the comedy Le pédant joué takes place[note 17] and whose principal, Jean Grangier would inspire the character of Granger, the pedant of Le pédant joué, but his presence in June 1641 as a student of rhetoric at the Collège de Lisieux[note 18] (see below), has encouraged more recent historians to revise that opinion.[note 19]
In 1636, his father sold Mauvières and Bergerac to Antoine Balestrier, Lord of Arbalestre, and returned to Paris to live with his family in "a modest dwelling at the top of the great Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques close to the Crossing"[37] (parish of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Philippe), a short distance from the Collège de Lisieux. But there is no certainty that Savinien went to live with them.
A slippery slope [ edit ]
Le Bret continues his story:
That age when nature is most easily corrupted, and that great liberty he had to only do that which seemed good to him, brought him to a dangerous weakness (penchant), which I dare say I stopped…
Historians and biographers do not agree on this penchant which threatened to corrupt Cyrano's nature. As an example of the romantic imagination of some biographers, Frédéric Lachèvre wrote:
Against an embittered and discontented father, Cyrano promptly forgot the way to his father's house. Soon he was counted among the gluttons and hearty drinkers of the best inns, with them he gave himself up to jokes of questionable taste, usually following prolonged libations…He also picked up the deplorable habit of gambling. This kind of life could not continue indefinitely, especially since Abel de Cyrano had become completely deaf to his son's repeated requests for funds.[38]
Forty years later, two editors added to the realism and local colour:
Since nothing binds Cyrano to the humble lodgings of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques to which the uncertainties of fate condemned his family, he gives himself over entirely to Paris, to its streets and, according to the words of one of his close friends, "to its excrescences" (à ses verrues).[note 20] He drinks, diligently frequents the Rue Glatigny, called Val d'amour, because of the women who sell pleasure there,[note 21] gambles, roams the sleeping city to frighten the bourgeois or forge signs, provokes the watch, gets into debt and links himself with that literary Bohemia which centered around Tristan L'Hermite and Saint-Amant and cultivated the memory of Théophile and his impious lyricism.[40]
D'Assoucy around 1630
In his voluminous biography of Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy, Jean-Luc Hennig suggests[41] that the poet-musician had begun around 1636 (at thirty-one) a homosexual relationship with Cyrano, then seventeen. In support of this hypothesis, he notes that both had families from Sens, a lawyer father and religious brothers and sisters, that the elder only liked youths and in regard to the women of Montpellier who accused him in 1656 of neglecting them, he wrote that "all of that has no more foundation than their fanciful imagination, already concerned, which had taught them the long-time habits [that he] had had with C[hapelle], late D[e] B[ergerac] and late C."[note 22]
Cyrano's homosexuality was first explicitly hypothesized by Jacques Prévot in 1978.[note 23]
Life and works [ edit ]
He was the son of Abel de Cyrano, lord of Mauvières and Bergerac, and Espérance Bellanger. He received his first education from a country priest, and had for a fellow pupil his friend and future biographer Henri Lebret. He then proceeded to Paris, and the heart of the Latin Quarter, to the college de Dormans-Beauvais,[1] where he had as master Jean Grangier, whom he afterwards ridiculed in his comedy Le Pédant joué (The Pedant Tricked) of 1654. At the age of nineteen, he entered a corps of the guards, serving in the campaigns of 1639 and 1640.[44] As a minor nobleman and officer he was notorious for his dueling and boasting. His unique past allowed him to make unique contributions to French art.[45]
One author, Ishbel Addyman, varies from other biographers and claims that he was not a Gascon aristocrat, but a descendant of a Sardinian fishmonger and that the Bergerac appellation stemmed from a small estate near Paris where he was born, and not in Gascony, and that he may have suffered tertiary syphilis. She also claims that he may likely have been homosexual and around 1640 became the lover of Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy,[46] a writer and musician, until around 1653, when they became engaged in a bitter rivalry. This led to Bergerac sending d'Assoucy death threats that compelled him to leave Paris. The quarrel extended to a series of satirical texts by both men.[46] Bergerac wrote Contre Soucidas (an anagram of his enemy's name) and Contre un ingrat (Against an ingrate), while D'Assoucy counterattacked with Le Combat de Cyrano de Bergerac avec le singe de Brioché, au bout du Pont-Neuf (The battle of Cyrano de Bergerac with the monkey of Brioché, at the end of the Pont-Neuf). He also associated with Théophile de Viau, the French poet and libertine.
He is said to have left the military and returned to Paris to pursue literature, producing tragedies cast in the orthodox classical mode.[44]
The model for the Roxane character of the Rostand play was Bergerac's cousin, who lived with his sister, Catherine de Bergerac, at the Convent of the Daughter of the Cross. As in the play, Bergerac did fight at the Siege of Arras (1640) a battle of the Thirty Years' War between French and Spanish forces in France (though this was not the more famous final Battle of Arras, fought fourteen years later). One of his confrères in the battle was the Baron Christian of Neuvillette, who married Cyrano's cousin. However, the plotline of Rostand's play, Cyrano de Bergerac, involving Roxane and Christian is entirely fictional.
Cyrano was a pupil of French polymath Pierre Gassendi, a canon of the Catholic Church who tried to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity.
Cyrano de Bergerac's works L'Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune ("Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon", published posthumously, 1657) and Les États et Empires du Soleil (The States and Empires of the Sun, 1662) are classics of early modern science fiction. In the former, Cyrano travels to the moon using rockets powered by firecrackers (it may be the earliest description of a space flight by use of a vessel that has rockets attached) and meets the inhabitants. The moon-men have four legs, firearms that shoot game and cook it, and talking earrings used to educate children.
His mixture of science and romance in the last two works furnished a model for many subsequent writers, among them Jonathan Swift, Edgar Allan Poe and probably Voltaire. Corneille and Molière freely borrowed ideas from Le Pédant joué.[44]
Death [ edit ]
The play suggests that he was injured by a falling wooden beam in 1654 while entering the house of his patron, the Duc D'Arpajon. However the academic and editor of Cyrano's works, Madeleine Alcover, uncovered a contemporary text which suggests an attack on the Duke's carriage in which a member of his household was injured. It is as yet inconclusive as to whether or not his death was a result of the injury, or an unspecified disease.[47] He died over a year later on July 28, 1655, aged 36, at the house of his cousin, Pierre De Cyrano, in Sannois. He was buried in a church in Sannois. However, there is strong evidence to support the theory that his death was a result of a botched assassination attempt as well as further damage to his health caused by a period of confinement in a private asylum, orchestrated by his enemies, who succeeded in enlisting the help of his own brother Abel de Cyrano.
In fiction [ edit ]
Actor Benoît-Constant Coquelin as Cyrano de Bergerac.
Rostand [ edit ]
In 1897, the French poet Edmond Rostand published a play, Cyrano de Bergerac, on the subject of Cyrano's life. This play, which became Rostand's most successful work, revolves around Cyrano's love for the beautiful Roxane, whom he is obliged to woo on behalf of a more conventionally handsome but less articulate friend, Christian de Neuvillette.
The play has been made into operas and adapted for cinema several times and reworked in other literary forms and as a ballet.
Other authors [ edit ]
The Adventures of Cyrano De Bergerac, by Louis Gallet, was published in English by Jarrolds Publishers (London) in 1900. It bears no resemblance to Rostand's play apart from the characteristics of the de Bergerac character.[citation needed]
Cyrano appears as one of the main characters of the Riverworld series of books by Philip José Farmer.[citation needed]
In A. L. Kennedy's novel So I Am Glad, the narrator finds de Bergerac has appeared in her modern-day house share.[citation needed]
In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Glory Road, Oscar Gordon fights a character who is not named, but is obviously Cyrano.[48]
John Shirley published a story about Cyrano called "Cyrano and the Two Plumes" in a French anthology; it was reprinted at The Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. [49]
The novel by Adam Browne, Pyrotechnicon: Being a TRUE ACCOUNT of Cyrano de Bergerac's FURTHER ADVENTURES among the STATES and EMPIRES of the STARS, by HIMSELF (Dec'd), was a sequel to Cyrano's science fiction, published by Keith Stevenson, 2014.[citation needed]
The Lost Sonnets of Cyrano de Bergerac: A Poetic Fiction by James L. Carcioppolo. Published in English by Lost Sonnet Publishing (Benicia, California) in 1998. Fiction poetry with the premise that Cyrano wrote a sequence of 57 sonnets during the last year of his life. Heavily annotated.
Cyrano de Bergerac is the leading male character in Charles Lecocq's 1896 opéra comique Ninette.[50]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Original editions [ edit ]
Translations [ edit ]
Cyrano de Bergerac (1658). Satyrical Characters, and handsome Descriptions in letters, written to severall Persons of Quality, by Monsieur De Cyrano Bergerac. Translated from the French by a Person of Honour. London: Henry Herringman.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1659). ΣΕΛΗΝΑΡΧΙΑ, or, The government of the world in the moon : a comical history / written by that famous wit and caveleer of France, Monsieur Cyrano Bergerac ; and done into English by Tho. St Serf, Gent. Translated by Sir Thomas St. Serf (Sir Thomas Sydserff). London: printed by J. Cottrel, and are to be sold by Hum. Robinson.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1687). The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Sun and Moon. Written in French by Cyrano Bergerac. And newly Englished by A. Lowell, A.M. Translated by Archibald Lovell. London: Henry Rhodes.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1889). A Voyage to the Moon. Translated by Archibald Lovell, Edited by Curtis Hidden Page. New York: Doubleday and McClure Co.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1753). A voyage to the moon : with some account of the solar world. A comical romance. Done from the French of M. Cyrano de Bergerac. By Mr. Derrick. Translated by Samuel Derrick. London: Printed for P. Vaillant, R. Griffiths, and G. Woodfall.
Cyrano de Bergerac; Friendly, Jonathon (1756). The agreement. A satyrical and facetious dream. To which is annexed, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, &c. London: [s.n.] (The dream is a translation of D'un songe, first published in Lettres diverses.)
(The dream is a translation of, first published in.) Cyrano de Bergerac (1923). Voyages to the moon and the sun. Translated by Richard Aldington. London/New York: Routledge & Sons Ltd/E.P. Dutton & Co.
Critical editions [ edit ]
L'Autre monde: I. Les Estats et Empires de la Lune (texte intégral, publié pour la première fois, d'après les manuscrits de Paris et de Munich, avec les variantes de l'imprimé de 1657). — II. Les Estats et Empires du Soleil (d'après l'édition originale de 1662) The Other World: I. The States and Empires of the Moon (full text published for the first time following the Paris and Munich manuscripts including variations from the 1657 edition). — II. The States and Empires of the Sun (following the original edition of 1662)
Lachèvre, Frédéric (1921). Les Œuvres libertines de Cyrano de Bergerac, Parisien (1619–1655), précédées d'une notice biographique. Tome second [The Libertine Works of Cyrano de Bergerac, Parisian (1619–1655), preceded by a biographical notice. Volume two] (in French). Paris: Librairie ancienne Honoré Champion.
Le Pédant joué, comédie, texte du Ms. de la Bibl. nat., avec les variantes de l'imprimé de 1654. — La Mort d'Agrippine, tragédie. — Les Lettres, texte du Ms. de la Bibl. nat. avec les var. de 1654. — Les Mazarinades: Le Ministre d'Etat flambé; Le Gazettier des-interessé, etc. — Les Entretiens pointus. — Appendice: Le Sermon du curé de Colignac, etc... The Pedant tricked, comedy, text from Mss. in the National Library with variations from the edition of 1654. — The Death of Agrippina, tragedy. — The Letters, text from Mss. in the National Library with variations from 1654 edition. — The Mazarinades: The Minister of State roasted; The disinterested Gazetteer, etc. — The sharp interviews. — Appendix: The sermon of the curate of Colignac, etc...
Cyrano de Bergerac (1962). Histoire comique des État et empire de la Lune et du Soleil [Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun] (in French). Edited by Claude Mettra and Jean Suyeux. Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert et Club des Libraires de France.
Includes an afterword, a dictionary of characters, chronological tables and notes. Illustrated with engravings taken from scientific works of the time.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1977). L'Autre Monde ou les Estats et Empires de la lune [ The Other World or the States and Empires of the Moon ]. Société des textes français modernes (in French). Edited by Madeleine Alcover. Paris: Honoré Champion.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1982). La Mort d'Agrippine [ The Death of Agrippina ]. Textes Littéraires (in French). 44. Exeter: University of Exeter. ISBN 0-85989-182-8.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1998). L'Autre monde : Les États et empires de la Lune. Les États et empires du Soleil [The Other World: The States and Empires of the Moon. The States and Empires of the Sun.]. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade: Libertins du XVIIe siècle (in French). I. Edited by Jacques Prévot. Paris: Gallimard.
Includes an introduction, chronology and bibliography
Cyrano de Bergerac (1999). Lettres satiriques et amoureuses, précédées de Lettres diverses (in French). Edited and annotated by Jean-Charles Darmon et Alain Mothu. Paris: Desjonquères.
Cyrano de Bergerac (2001). Œuvres complètes : L'Autre Monde ou les États et Empires de la lune. Les États et empires du soleil. Fragment de physique [Complete Works: The Other World or the States and Empires of the Moon. The States and Empires of the Sun. Fragment of Physics] (in French). I. Edited and annotated by Madeleine Alcover. Paris: Honoré Champion. ISBN 9782745314529.
Republished as: Cyrano de Bergerac (2004). Les États et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil (avec le Fragment de physique) [The States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun (with the Fragment of Physics)]. Champion Classiques: Littératures (in French). Edited and annotated by Madeleine Alcover. Paris: Honoré Champion.
Cyrano de Bergerac (2001). Œuvres complètes : Lettres. Entretiens pointus. Mazarinades. Les États et empires de la lune. Les États et empires du soleil. Fragment de physique (in French). II. Edited and annotated by Luciano Erba ( Lettres, Entretiens pointus ) and Hubert Carrier ( Mazarinades ). Paris: Honoré Champion. ISBN 9782745304292.
Cyrano de Bergerac (2001). Œuvres complètes : Théâtre [ Complete Works: Theatre ] (in French). III. Edited and annotated by André Blanc. Paris: Honoré Champion. ISBN 9782745304193.
Cyrano de Bergerac (2003). Les États et Empires du Soleil [The States and Empires of the Sun]. GF (in French). Edited by Bérengère Parmentier. Paris: Flammarion.
Introduction, chronology, notes, documentation, bibliography and lexicon by Bérengère Parmentier.
See also [ edit ]
Asteroid 3582 Cyrano, named after de Bergerac
Notes [ edit ]
^ « Biographie » de Cyrano de Bergerac: "It was necessary to renounce a kind of writing where the author presents to the readers as 'facts' purely subjective assertions; that kind of writing, known in Consider what Madeleine Alcover has written in the: "It was necessary to renounce a kind of writing where the author presents to the readers as 'facts' purely subjective assertions; that kind of writing, known in Narratology as characteristic of the infallible and omniscient narrator, is totally misplaced in a biography. The readers must always be able to distinguish the content of a document from the interpretation that is made of it; the lack of documentation from a hypothesis (more or less well founded…)" ^ ne demande pas à Abel de la reconnaître… »[15] « En 1587, il était étudiant à Bourges. Ayant fréquenté une jeune fille, Jehanne Palleau, son père le tirera d'une fâcheuse affaire en faisant signer devant notaire une attestation par laquelle celle-ci… » ^ Saint Savinian is the name of the first archbishop of Sens. ^ [17] ^ June 1586 at the church of She was baptised on 11June 1586 at the church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais ^ The testamentary executors accounts show that, several days before his death in January 1648, Abel de Cyrano said he was "older than eighty years". Therefore he was born before 1568. ^ [8] Discovered by Jean Lemoine. ^ sic) Notre-Seigneur et Saint Jean en leur enfance, et la Vierge les tenant […] deux tableaux représentant le sacrifice d'Abraham, un autre rond sur bois, où est représenté le Jugement de Sainte Suzanne […], deux petits tableaux de broderie représentant deux Saint-Esprit en cœur, et un tableau sur bois où est représenté Saint François […], trois petites écuelles de faïence avec deux autres petits tableaux où sont représentés Notre-Seigneur et la Vierge ».[21] L'inventaire des biens d'Abel I de Cyrano dressé après son décès, en 1648, révélera une nette évolution sur le plan de la religiosité, puisqu'on trouvera, dans son logement, « un tableau peint sur bois, garni de sa bordure, où est représentée la Nativité de Notre-Seigneur, un autre tableau carré peint sur toile, où est représentée la Charité […] un tableau peint sur bois où est représenté un Baptême de Notre-Seigneur, et un autre tableau, aussi peint sur bois, où est représenté () Notre-Seigneur et Saint Jean en leur enfance, et la Vierge les tenant […] deux tableaux représentant le sacrifice d'Abraham, un autre rond sur bois, où est représenté le Jugement de Sainte Suzanne […], deux petits tableaux de broderie représentant deux Saint-Esprit en cœur, et un tableau sur bois où est représenté Saint François […], trois petites écuelles de faïence avec deux autres petits tableaux où sont représentés Notre-Seigneur et la Vierge ». ^ In two documents from January and February 1649 concerning the succession of Abel I de Cyrano, Abel II is said to be "of the age of emancipation, progressing under the authority of the said Savinien de Cyrano, his brother and guardian" (« émancipé d'âge, procédant sous l'autorité de Savinien dudit Cyrano, son frère et curateur »). ^ L'ancestralité bergeracoise de Savinien II de Cyrano de Bergerac : prouvée par la Tour Cyrano, les jurades, les chroniques bergeracoises et par Cyrano lui-même, Lembras, 1968) an erudite citizen of Bergerac, Martial Humbert Augeard, wrote that the origin of the de Bergerac family was a certain Ramond de la Rivière de la Martigne who, having been bestowed with the estate of Mauvières in recompense for his action against the English in the retaking of Bergerac by Duke Louis I d'Anjou, brother of Charles V, in 1377, gave the name Bergerac to the meadows adjacent to Mauvières to the west, up until that time known as the Pré joli ("Pretty Meadow") or Pré Sous-Foretz ("Woodland Meadow"). In the 18th century, the estate of Bergerac returned to its old name of Sous-Forets.[29] In a much disputed study (, Lembras, 1968) an erudite citizen of Bergerac, Martial Humbert Augeard, wrote that the origin of the de Bergerac family was a certain Ramond de la Rivière de la Martigne who, having been bestowed with the estate of Mauvières in recompense for his action against the English in the retaking of Bergerac by Duke Louis I d'Anjou, brother of Charles V, in 1377, gave the name Bergerac to the meadows adjacent to Mauvières to the west, up until that time known as the("Pretty Meadow") or("Woodland Meadow"). In the 18th century, the estate of Bergerac returned to its old name of ^ Première journée, fragment of a comic story by Théophile de Viau.[31] Name of a pedant character in, fragment of a comic story by Théophile de Viau. ^ Première journée, fragment d'histoire comique de Théophile de Viau.], parce que, dans la pensée que cet homme en tenait un peu [Note : Comprendre : qu'il était tant soit peu pédant.], il le croyait incapable de lui enseigner quelque chose ; de sorte qu'il faisait si peu d'état de ses leçons et de ses corrections, que son père, qui était un bon vieux gentilhomme assez indifférent pour l'éducation de ses enfants et trop crédule aux plaintes de celui-ci, l'en retira un peu trop brusquement, et, sans s'informer si son fils serait mieux autre part, il l'envoya en cette ville [Paris], où il le laissa jusqu'à dix-neuf ans sur sa bonne foi [Note : « On dit Laisser un homme sur sa foi, pour dire l'abandonner à sa conduite.[32] »]. L'éducation que nous avions eue ensemble chez un bon prêtre de la campagne qui tenait de petits pensionnaires nous avait faits amis dès notre plus tendre jeunesse, et je me souviens de l'aversion qu'il avait dès ce temps-là pour ce qui lui paraissait l'ombre d'un Sidias [Note : Nom d'un personnage de pédant dans, fragment d'histoire comique de Théophile de Viau.], parce que, dans la pensée que cet homme en tenait un peu [Note : Comprendre : qu'il était tant soit peu pédant.], il le croyait incapable de lui enseigner quelque chose ; de sorte qu'il faisait si peu d'état de ses leçons et de ses corrections, que son père, qui était un bon vieux gentilhomme assez indifférent pour l'éducation de ses enfants et trop crédule aux plaintes de celui-ci, l'en retira un peu trop brusquement, et, sans s'informer si son fils serait mieux autre part, il l'envoya en cette ville [Paris], où il le laissa jusqu'à dix-neuf ans sur sa bonne foi [Note : « On dit, pour dire»]. ^ Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano de Sannois, Turnhout, Hervé Bargy asserts, without offering any proof, that he was twelve years old.[34] In his introduction to, Hervé Bargy asserts, without offering any proof, that he was twelve years old. ^ Pierre II de Cyrano, Lord of Cassan. ^ [33] » "…Monsieur de Cyrano, his cousin, from whom he had received great signs of friendship, from whose knowledgeable conversation on present and past history, he took such immense pleasure…" ^ Menagiana: "The poor works of Cyrano de Bergerac! He had studied at the collège de Beauvais in the time of Principal Granger. It is said that he was still studying rhetoric when he wrote his Pédant joué about the principal. There are a few passable parts in that piece, but all the rest falls flat." (« Les pauvres ouvrages que ceux de Cyrano de Bergerac! Il avait étudié au collège de Beauvais du temps du principal Granger. On dit qu'il était encore en rhétorique quand il fit son Pédant joué sur ce principal. Il y a quelque peu d'endroits passables en cette pièce, mais tout le reste est bien plat. »)[35] This was seen for the first time in the second edition of: "The poor works of Cyrano de Bergerac! He had studied at thein the time of Principal Granger. It is said that he was still studying rhetoric when he wrote hisabout the principal. There are a few passable parts in that piece, but all the rest falls flat." (« Les pauvres ouvrages que ceux de Cyrano de Bergerac! Il avait étudié au collège de Beauvais du temps du principal Granger. On dit qu'il était encore en rhétorique quand il fit sonsur ce principal. Il y a quelque peu d'endroits passables en cette pièce, mais tout le reste est bien plat. ») ^ Francion. Charles Sorel, who perhaps also studied there, made vitriolic portrait of it in his ^ [36] (« Je pense que Cyrano aurait pu être étudiant à Lisieux avant même son départ à l'armée, et que la comédie qu'il a composée contre le collège de Beauvais pourrait s'expliquer par le fait que Sorel avait déjà ridiculisé le collège de Lisieux.») "I think that Cyrano could have been a student at Lisieux even before his entry into the Army, and that the comedy that his composed against the collège de Beauvais could be explained by the fact that Sorel had already made fun of the collège de Lisieux."(« Je pense que Cyrano aurait pu être étudiant à Lisieux avant même son départ à l'armée, et que la comédie qu'il a composée contre le collège de Beauvais pourrait s'expliquer par le fait que Sorel avait déjà ridiculisé le collège de Lisieux.») ^ It seems that the author here means Charles Sorel, whose biographer, Émile Roy, wrote in 1891 that he knew Paris particularly well and "described it all, even the 'excrescences'". But the expression is an invention of the 19th century and appears nowhere in the works of Sorel. ^ [39] The Rue de Glatigny was found on the site of the current forecourt of Notre-Dame. In the Middle Ages, it had been one of the streets that an ordinance of Saint Louis designated as the only ones where "women of dissolute life" had the right to "keep their brothels". But it seems, reading Henri Sauval, that in Cyrano's time it had not had, for the past two centuries, that designation or reputation. ^ « tout cela est sans autre fondement que leur chimérique imagination, déjà préoccupée, qui leur avait appris les longues habitudes [qu'il] avait eues avec C[hapelle], feu D[e] B[ergerac] et feu C. » ^ [42] Around the same time, Madeleine Alcover wrote: "To that valorisation of the penis owing to an essentially masculine ideology, is added another which I believe comes from a homosexuality if not realised, at least latent." (« À cette valorisation du pénis due à une idéologie essentiellement masculine, s'en ajoute une autre que je crois venir d'une homosexualité sinon réalisée, du moins latente. »)[43] "Cyrano homosexual? Why not? Didn't they have plenty of others among the libertines?" (« Cyrano homosexuel? Pourquoi pas? N'y en eut-il pas bien d'autres parmi les libertins? »)Around the same time, Madeleine Alcover wrote: "To that valorisation of the penis owing to an essentially masculine ideology, is added another which I believe comes from a homosexuality if not realised, at least latent." (« À cette valorisation du pénis due à une idéologie essentiellement masculine, s'en ajoute une autre que je crois venir d'une homosexualité sinon réalisée, du moins latente. »)
References [ edit ]
Biographies [ edit ]
Lefèvre, Louis-Raymond (1927). La Vie de Cyrano de Bergerac [ The Life of Cyrano de Bergerac ]. Vies des hommes illustres (in French). Paris: Gallimard.
Magy, Henriette (1927). Le Véritable Cyrano de Bergerac [ The True Cyrano de Bergerac ] (in French). Paris: Le Rouge et le Noir.
Pellier, Henri (1929). Cyrano de Bergerac. Les livres roses pour la jeunesse (in French). Paris: Larousse.
Rogers, Cameron (1929). Cyrano: Swordsman, Libertin, and Man-of-Letters. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company.
New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company. Pujos, Charles (1951). Le Double Visage de Cyrano de Bergerac [ The Two Faces of Cyrano de Bergerac ] (in French). Agen: Imprimerie moderne.
Mongrédien, Georges (1964). Cyrano de Bergerac (in French). Paris: Berger-Levrault.
de Spens, Willy (1989). Cyrano de Bergerac: l'esprit de révolte [ Cyrano de Bergerac: The Spirit of Rebellion ]. Les Infréquentables (in French). Monaco: Rocher. ISBN 2268008452.
Cardoze, Michel (1994). Cyrano de Bergerac : libertin libertaire [ Cyrano de Bergerac: Libertarian Libertine ] (in French). Paris: Lattès. ISBN 2709614103.
Germain, Anne (1996). Monsieur de Cyrano-Bergerac (in French). Paris – Lausanne-Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose – Acatos.
Mourousy, Paul (2000). Cyrano de Bergerac : illustre mais inconnu [ Cyrano de Bergerac: famous but unknown ] (in French). Monaco: Rocher. ISBN 2268037894.
Addyman, Ishbel (April 2008). Cyrano: The Life and Legend of Cyrano de Bergerac. London-New York-Sydney-Toronto: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-8619-0.
Prévot, Jacques (2011). Cyrano de Bergerac. L'Écrivain de la crise (in French). Paris: Ellipses. ISBN 9782729864590.
Studies of Cyrano or his work [ edit ]
Madeleine Alcover [ edit ]
Alcover, Madeleine (1970). La Pensée philosophique et scientifique de Cyrano de Bergerac [ The Philosophical and Scientific Thought of Cyrano de Bergerac ] (in French). Genève: Droz.
Alcover, Madeleine (Winter 1977). "Cyrano de Bergerac et le feu : les complexes prométhéens de la science et du phallus" [Cyrano de Bergerac and fire: Promethean complexes of science and of the phallus] (PDF). Rice University Studies (in French) (63): 13–24.
Alcover, Madeleine (1990). Cyrano relu et corrigé : Lettres, Estats du soleil, Fragment de physique [ Cyrano proofread and corrected: Lettres, Estats du soleil, Fragment de physique ] (in French). Genève: Droz.
Alcover, Madeleine (1994). "Cyrano in carcere ". Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature (in French). XXI (41): 393–418.
Alcover, Madeleine (1995). "Sisyphe au Parnasse : la réception des œuvres de Cyrano aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles" [Sisyphus on Parnassus: The reception of the work of Cyrano in the 17th and 18th centuries]. Œuvres & Critiques (in French). Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag: Revue internationale d'étude de la réception critique des œuvres littéraires de langue française. XX (3): 219–250.
Guilhem Armand [ edit ]
Armand, Guilhem (2005). L'Autre Monde de Cyrano de Bergerac : un voyage dans l'espace du livre [ The Other World of Cyrano de Bergerac: a journey into book space ] (in French). Paris: Lettres modernes Minard. ISBN 2256904776.
Armand, Guilhem (2008). Meitinger, S.; Bosquet, M.F.; Terramorsi, B., eds. Une figure paradoxale : le guide dans les voyages libertins de la fin du XVII e siècle. Le cas de L'Autre Monde de Cyrano de Bergerac [ A paradoxical figure: the guide in libertine journeys at the end of the 17th century. The case of Cyrano de Bergerac's Other World ]. Voyage, altérité, utopie. Aux confins de l'ailleurs et Nulle part. (in French). In homage to Professeur J.-M. Racault. Paris: Klincksieck. pp. 141–150.
Armand, Guilhem (June 2005). "Idée d'une République Philosophique : l'im |
where he scored his first.
Jones then produced a long-range effort for the highlights reel after the half-hour mark, Hamburg-bound forward Wood made it 3-0 in the 43rd minute before substitute Graham Zusi completed the rout with three minutes of regulation time remaining as Costa Rica were left searching for their first competitive win on USA soil since 1985.
Despite losing their opening game, USA remained unchanged as coach Jurgen Klinsmann kept faith in his starting XI.
Costa Rica were forced into a change, with Francisco Calvo coming in for the suspended Kendall Waston, while Christian Bolanos replaced Yeltsin Tejeda.
Billed as a “must-win clash” for USA, anxiety and tension were evident throughout the stadium prior to kick-off and the Costa Ricans made a frenetic start as they attempted to heap further misery on the host nation, who had lost their past two matches to their CONCACAF rivals.
But it all went wrong for Costa Rica from the ninth minute as Dempsey emphatically converted a penalty after Wood was pushed in the back by Cristian Gamboa.
That opened the floodgates as USA tore Costa Rica apart on the counter-attack, with Gyasi Zardes and Dempsey wreaking havoc.
Jones made it 2-0 when he curled a low shot into the corner of the net after Costa Rica surrendered possession and Dempsey weaved his way past two opponents to tee up the veteran midfielder.
The match was then put beyond doubt three minutes before half-time, with Wood producing a sublime touch, turn and strike to leave goalkeeper Patrick Pemberton helpless.
Surprisingly, Oscar Ramirez withdrew star forward Joel Campbell at the break, seemingly conceding defeat as Costa Rica went in search of a goal.
Costa Rica still managed an improved performance in the second half, carving up USA in the 55th minute but Celso Borges was unable to keep his effort under the bar after being played in by captain Bryan Ruiz.
USA should have made it 4-0 with 17 minutes remaining but Alejandro Bedoya’s ball across the six-yard box was nipped away from Zardes at the last moment, while Kyle Beckerman made a crucial clearance to deny Costa Rica a late consolation with an empty goal at their mercy.
Klinsmann and Co. did eventually score a fourth, with Zusi coming off the bench to add some gloss to the scoreline in the 87th minute, firing a low effort beyond Pemberton.Target’s shelves are better stocked than ever before. It has added thousands of new grocery items. And it has rolled out new offerings such as the jazzy in-house Cat & Jack kids clothing line.
So why haven’t shoppers visited Target Corp.’s stores in the last few months as they have in the past?
That was the troubling question on analysts’ minds after the Minneapolis-based retailer reported a surprising 2.2-percent drop in traffic during the May-to-July period — its first decline in that metric in a year and a half, and the biggest slide it’s seen since the Great Recession outside of the massive data breach a few years ago.
The company’s shares tumbled in trading Wednesday as Target also reported its first comparable U.S. sales drop in two years and lowered its forecast for the second half of the year, including during the holidays, when it now expects sales to be flat to down 2 percent.
It was a stark change from several months ago when Target executives said sales could grow as much as 2.5 percent this year.
The stock closed Wednesday at $70.63, down $4.85 or 6.4 percent.
Target CEO Brian Cornell said the company is working closer with CVS on campaigns to bring pharmacy customers back.
Target executives offered their own explanations for the falloff in traffic: They lost some trips to in-store pharmacies amid the rebranding of them to the CVS Health banner. Electronics sales were down double digits — Apple products in particular slumped more than 20 percent. And an overhaul of the grocery department to include more specialty and organic items is still not hitting the mark with consumers.
But analysts also wondered if there were deeper issues at play — in particular, Target’s ability to hold off the mounting threat from Amazon.com.
“Clearly this was a step in the wrong direction,” said Sean Naughton, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. “Some of the concern is now going to be about Amazon’s continued success and the potential for Prime Now [Amazon’s delivery service within two hours on select items] becoming more ubiquitous across the country with people being able to get things more quickly.”
Brian Yarbrough, an analyst with Edward Jones, downgraded Target’s stock on Wednesday from buy to hold amid concerns that Target’s business is stalling. Aside from Amazon, he said Target may also be losing some ground to dollar stores as well as to Wal-Mart, which has been sprucing up its stores and vowed to become more aggressive on grocery pricing.
“When you combine those three, it’s a slow bleed,” he said. “How is it going to get any easier for Target? It’s not.”
The quarterly results and lowered guidance is the first major setback for Chief Executive Brian Cornell who is two years into the job. Until now, he had been riding a wave of modest gains in comparable sales every quarter as he put a bigger emphasis in revitalizing the categories of style, home, baby and kids. At the same time, he’s made some big moves such as shuttering the company’s struggling stores in Canada, selling its unprofitable pharmacies to CVS and laying off thousands of headquarters employees.
“I think [Cornell] has done a lot of great things, but a lot of the low-hanging fruit is gone,” Yarbrough said. “So where do you go next?”
On Wednesday, Cornell assured investors the company would show more improvement over the long term. In the short term, he said his team would work to “rebalance” some of its initiatives that had strayed a bit too far on the “expect more” side of Target’s brand promise. So they will focus more on emphasizing the value proposition, or the “pay less” side of the equation, in its marketing, promotions, and store displays.
“We’re not altering our strategic focus,” he said. “It’s making sure we get our strategies in balance and we deliver against both signature categories and those important household essentials that drive traffic to our stores and put cars in the parking lot.”
Target’s grocery department is an area that is designed to help drive shopping trips since customers shop for food more often than discretionary items. But despite adding more than 1,000 natural, organic and gluten-free products, having a better in-stock record and adding new displays, Target still saw a small sales decline in groceries in the quarter.
Food deflation and heightened competition among a number of strong regional grocers were cited as additional factors. But Cornell did not seem fazed.
“We’re going to play to win in food,” he told investors. “We’re going to continue to roll up our sleeves and make sure we’re into the details finding ways to to unlock the growth potential in that critically important category.”
In addition, he said Target is going to work closely with CVS on marketing campaigns to bring pharmacy customers back in. And he’s having Target’s new chief merchant, Mark Tritton, reach out to its electronics vendors such as Apple to find ways to bring a different and new assortment to stores in time for the holidays.
Earlier this month, Target began selling Amazon Kindle and Fire tablets after pulling its competitor’s products from its shelves four years ago.
One bright spot for Target was apparel sales, which is notable since that category has been soft industrywide leading to slipping sales at many department store chains such as Macy’s, Nordstrom and Kohl’s. Last week, Macy’s announced it will shutter about 100 stores next year, about 14 percent of its namesake stores, as it looks to turn around its business.
Meanwhile, consumers have been more interested in spending money at home-improvement retailers such as Home Depot as they remodel their homes. Off-price chains such as TJX Cos., the parent of T.J. Maxx, have been doing well, too. Wal-Mart will report its quarterly results Thursday.
In the second quarter ended July 30, Target’s sales at existing stores dropped 1.1 percent, its first such decline since the first quarter of 2014 when sales slid 0.3 percent.
Revenue was $16.2 billion, down 7.2 percent from $17.4 billion from the same period a year ago when pharmacy sales were still included in Target’s results. Online sales rose 16 percent.
Target’s net profit dropped 9.7 percent to $680 million, down from $753 million in the same period a year ago. But when adjusted for one-time expenses, earnings were $1.23 a share, higher than expectations as the company offset some of its challenges with cost cutting.
Executives lowered Target’s full-year guidance for adjusted earnings to a range of $4.80 to $5.20 per share. They previously forecast a range of $5.20 to $5.40.
Cathy Smith, Target’s chief financial officer, said the uneven sales and traffic trends were one consideration in the outlook. But she added that they were also being conservative because it is easier and more profitable to ramp up inventory and employee hours if sales trends improve rather than having to pull back.An on-camera Q&A session between Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama today was less of an open discussion of the big policy debates and more about giving senators in tough re-election fights the chance to be seen questioning the president.
All but two of the eight questioners face stiff challenges this fall. And they mostly asked questions that are central to their campaigns. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York wanted to know about health care for 9/11 responders in New York. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California spoke about California’s ailing economy. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania wanted to know about trade with China. And Sen. Blanche Lincoln or Arkansas wondered whether Democrats would push back against ideologues in the party and work with Republicans.
Obama told many of them what they wanted to hear–and gave them an opportunity for high-profile coverage in their home states. “Blanche is exactly right,” Obama said. “Sometimes we get ideologically bogged down. I — I just want to find out what works. And I — I know you do too. And I know the people in Arkansas do too.”
There was little if any discussion about how to move forward with health care, energy, financial regulation, education or any of the other tough issues that are stuck in the Congress—or, in some cases, the Senate in particular.
As the event concluded, might Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, be a little worried? He is considered to be a safe bet for re-election, but he did get the chance to ask a question.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman assured Washington Wire that there are no such concerns.The new head of the Girl Guides (or ‘Girl Scouts’ as they are known in the US) has boasted of the fact that she’s rubbish at cooking and said that if she were a girl joining the organisation today the badge she’d most covet would be one that celebrates Body Confidence.
Oh dear. I think I’ve just gone and qualified for an achievement badge of my own. The Projectile Involuntary Peristalsis Badge (With Oak Leaf Cluster).
Julie Bentley, who took over the Girl Guides last year, was being interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. We learned that despite never having been a Brownie or a Girl Guide herself, and despite never having done a proper job remotely connected with the kind of outdoorsy, hearty, briskly demanding activities in which the Brownies and Guides used to specialise, Ms Bentley nevertheless has very forthright views on the organisation’s purpose.
“It is not about itchy brown uniforms and sewing and baking. It is a modern, contemporary, vibrant organisation.”
I’m sorry to hear that Ms Bentley wants to dismiss “sewing and baking” as belonging to an antediluvian past which has no place in the “modern, contemporary, vibrant” Girl Guides.
Ms Bentley doesn’t sound like the kind of person who much enjoys physical exercise, but if only she’d summoned up the will to press one of her fingers onto her TV remote in the last few years one thing she might have noticed is a very popular programme called The Great British Bake Off.
Lots of girls manage to watch this programme without being oppressed by its apparently old-fashioned, uncontemporary, non-vibrant message that baking is a desirable and fun skill to acquire. Indeed, many have been inspired to take up competitive home baking as a result – again, without any obvious jeopardy to their female self-esteem.
On Desert Island Discs, however, Bentley was keen to advertise more relevant, vibrant and contemporary Guiding activities, such as their involvement in something called Be The Change. The idea behind this scheme appears to be to put girls off developing the kind of practical skills which might come in handy when they get to be wives/mothers/employees/directors and instead to encourage them to devote their energies to whingeing, chippiness, dissatisfaction, and entitlement – which they can then vent on the rest of mankind with the support of the left-wing campaign organisation Change.Org.
Perhaps some of you feel as I do that the idea of letting this painfully right on, talent-lite, grievance-rich Essex girl anywhere near our nation’s impressionable female youth is about as fatuous and wrongheaded as, say, it would be to appoint Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi our new Chief of General Staff.Director Marialy Rivas film Young and Wild is based on the true story of a seventeen-year-old bisexual in Chile who can't express her sexuality around her evangelical family. She takes to the web to detail her sex life while maintaining the balancing act of dating a man and a woman at the same time.
Director Marialy Rivas film Young and Wild is based on the true story of a seventeen-year-old bisexual in Chile who can't express her sexuality around her evangelical family. She takes to the web to detail her sex life while maintaining the balancing act of dating a man and a woman at the same time.
The critically acclaimed festival favorite hits VOD on Nov. 30, and will also hit screens at the IFC Center in New York City at the same time.
Watch the trailer below:
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Old record: Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets, could have her feat demolished by a Tunisian woman
A teacher is pregnant with a record-breaking 12 babies, it has been claimed.
The unnamed Tunisian woman, who is in her 30s, is reportedly expecting six boys and six girls.
She is said to have turned to fertility treatment after suffering two miscarriages in two years.
But British fertility experts said that although it was possible to conceive 12 babies, such a pregnancy was fraught with risk.
There was less than a one in 100 chance of even a single baby surviving, said one.
But the woman claims to be in good health.
‘All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love,’ she told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 250 miles south of the capital Tunis.
‘This is an absolute miracle, and we all feel blessed after struggling so hard to have children.’
Her husband, named only as Marwan, who teaches at the same school in Tunisia, told the Assabah newspaper: ‘In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered.
‘Our joy was increased with the growing number. The medical team told us that my wife would give birth naturally.’
But British experts said that a natural birth would be impossible and warned that the strain of carrying 12 babies could lead to labour at 20 weeks – just halfway through pregnancy.
It is unclear what stage the pregnancy is at, but ultrasound scans can work out a baby’s sex only after about 16 weeks, so it is likely she is already nearing the critical stage.
Peter Bowen-Simpkins, a fellow of Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: ‘It is certainly possible to carry 12 babies but not for long.
‘The problem is the capacity of the uterus.
‘This woman is going to be enormous by 20 weeks. And when the uterus goes into labour there is nothing you can do about it.
'The youngest that babies have survived is at 22 to 23 weeks. They need very intensive nursing and the majority have permanent neurological damage.
‘You’d need a very good intensive paediatric unit to cope with this. We couldn’t do it in this country, we don’t have a unit with 12 intensive care cots.
‘I don’t like to dampen her enthusiasm but the chances are she will deliver at 20 weeks.
'I wouldn’t even give her a one in 100 chance of even one surviving. It’s frightening.’
In California in January of this year, a single mother of six defied doctors’ predictions when she gave birth to another eight healthy babies.
The six boys and two girls were born to Nadya Suleman, dubbed Octomom, through IVF treatment.
Others have not been so lucky. A 23-year-old Greek Cypriot who became pregnant with a then record 11 babies in 1996 had to abort nine to save the lives of two.
In the same year a British woman, Mandy Allwood, 32, became pregnant with octuplets after taking fertility drugs.
She ignored medical advice to abort some and lost all after they were born at just 22 weeks.
Fertility doctors say it is unlikely that an IVF doctor would have agreed to implant the Tunisian woman with 12 embryos.
Instead, the bumper pregnancy is likely to be the result of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries.UPDATE: CD Projekt has issued Eurogamer a statement on the reaction to its announcement of Xbox One-exclusive physical items for the Collector's Edition of fantasy role-playing game The Witcher 3.
CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński said the deal with Microsoft was about making The Witcher 3 more visible worldwide and, following that, selling more copies of the game.
The statement is reproduced below:
Looking at the heated comments, I believe that our announcement of the physical addition of two decks of Gwent cards and a cloth map, requires a further word from us. Here at CD Projekt Red, we always put gamers first. Our PC versions are released DRM-free, we bend over backwards to give you the most beefed up editions of our games (be it standard or Collector's), and we deliver the same game, regardless of platform or version you buy. Moreover, we promised not have any exclusive DLCs, neither per platform nor per retailer, and we do stand by our promise--nothing has changed, nor will change in this regard. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that these extra items might be desirable for Witcher fans playing the game on other platforms. However, as we are not offering any platform or retail exclusive DLCs or any other form of gameplay differentiation, we do have to find other ways to support our partners. We are also providing special pre-order items for certain retailers around the world, including Witcher comic books, posters, steel books or medallions. Funnily enough, we did not notice any heated comments on the pre-order specials. What is the reason? Why are we doing this? We need the support of partners to make our game visible worldwide. This should hopefully translate to better sales, which will in consequence allow us to do what we have been doing for the last 10 years, i.e. reinvest this money to make more great RPGs, while still sticking to our values. If you still consider that adding two decks of Gwent cards and a map of the in-game world to the Xbox One CE equals us betraying our values and not fulfilling our promises, well, it does make us sad, but the final call is always yours to make. Still, I do hope that what we offer is unique and we can ask you to give us the benefit of the doubt. We have more great things to announce for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the coming months and I promise you won't be disappointed (yes, yes, there are no more exclusives coming).
ORIGINAL STORY: CD Projekt Red has revealed Gwent, a competitive card game that will be included in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for players on all platforms.
Gwent is designed to be a competitive game for two players - each with their own deck of spells and battlefield units.
More than 150 cards will be included, with four different faction classes to play as.
"Invented by dwarves and perfected over centuries of tavern table play, Gwent is a game of initial simplicity and ultimate depth, something beloved by both road-weary travellers during long nights around the campfire and elegant nobles looking to liven up dragging dinner parties," the press release reads.
Owners of the Xbox One Collector's Edition will get two decks of physical Gwent cards to play with - along with a new cloth map.
Card battling games have recently seen a surge in popularity since the launch of Blizzard's Hearthstone. As well as the annual Magic: Duals of the Planewalkers series, Ubisoft has launched Assassin's Creed tie-in Memories. WWE has also just launched a 2K-developed CCG of its own, WWE Supercard.YOU might think the 2016 election has been a bit of a snooze-fest, but when you look back on it, during the 853 million days or so of the campaign, there have actually been dozens of moments that are mildly interesting.
And with the polls on a knife-edge, this election is promising to have a nail-biting finale. It’s a bit like the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy — the first nine hours were painfully boring to watch but the end made it almost worth it.
We’ve listened to the politicians, and now it’s their turn to listen to us. And so, with the least important part left to go — the actual voting — it’s time to crack open a $5 bottle of Australian sparkling wine from Aldi and hand out the Newsie Awards for the best and worst bits on the campaign.
BEST AD
Winner: GetUp
Whether you hate them or love them, hands down the best ad of the campaign was GetUp’s posters placed throughout the seat of Wentworth. If you haven’t seen them yet, they’re worth checking out.
Underneath Turnbull’s own posters, GetUp put up posters perfectly aligned to make it look like Turnbull was crossing his fingers on Climate Change promises.
The runner up for best ad goes, as always, to the Australian Sex Party. We won’t link to it here — instead, you can have extra fun Googling around for that one.
WORST AD
Winner: Fake Tradie (of course)
While some say the Fake Tradie ad was woeful, it turned out the Fake Tradie was actually a real tradie. But that was the problem. By being a real tradie, he didn’t have the acting skills to appear to be a genuine tradie.
Ironically, the ad would have worked much better if he’d been a paid actor.
BEST USE OF HIJACK MARKETING
Winner: Bob Katter
Donald Trump has proved conclusively that in politics any publicity is good publicity, and that the best way to generate publicity is to step on a landmine, and then everyone will pay attention to you when it explodes.
Bob Katter took that lesson to a whole new level during the campaign.
You may have heard about Bob Katter’s bizarre ad — in which he kills two people with a gun to prevent them from selling Australia. You may have even seen the ad. And that’s the whole point.
By releasing it two days after the Orlando shooting, in which a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 others, Katter leveraged the huge publicity surrounding guns and shootings.
Twitter went crazy. The tabloids had a field day. It was hijack marketing at its finest.
Sure it was tasteless, but it was textbook Trump.
Congratulations, Mr Katter. As Zaphod Beeblebrox might say, 10 out of 10 for hijack marketing, but minus several million for integrity.
BEST GAFFE
Winner: David Feeney
While Barnaby Joyce was always favourite for this award, this year he was pipped at the post by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann assuring the Australian public that Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was “very caring and very much in touch.”
Perhaps confusing Shorten with Turnbull, he went on to say that Bill was “every single day promoting our national economic plan for jobs and growth, which of course is exactly what Australia needs.”
However, days later Cormman himself was pipped at the post by Labor’s David Feeney who had accidentally forgotten about a $2.3 million house in Northcote that he owned and failed to declare. It’s easy to forget these things. We’ve all been there.
MOST ANNOYING CAMPAIGN TOOL
Winner: Robo-calls
If you didn’t receive a robo-call from a candidate during the election campaign, don’t take it personally, it’s simply because a computer somewhere doesn’t think you’re worth talking to.
This year robo-calls have gone from obscure tactic that desperate Northern Territorian politicians do to smear their opponents to respectable campaign tool that all political parties use to make sure you can’t finish your dinner uninterrupted.
Both parties appear to have deployed new geo-location technology that allows for personalised timing of the calls.
The Labor Party’s robo-calls have been timed to exactly coincide with the exact moment that your roast chicken is about to go cold, whereas the Liberals have gone for the more traditional time of whenever the results for that night’s episode of MasterChef is being announced.
MOST ANNOYING — SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Winner: Malcolm Turnbull
While Robo-calls were annoying, the Special Achievement Award has to go to Malcolm Turnbull for holding an election in the middle of winter, in the middle of school holidays.
While you might feel cold and bitter while you’re voting, spare a thought for the poor voters in Turnbull’s own electorate of Wentworth, who will need to charter helicopters down from their chalets at Perisher in order to vote.
BEST OVERSIZED NOVELTY PROP
Winner: Who do you reckon?
There can only ever be one winner in this category. In fact, this award was invented specifically for Nick Xenophon. The award itself is an oversized novelty cardboard cut-out of Nick Xenophon Ego. It’s very big.
BEST ELECTION ISSUE
Winner: The ABCC
It’s the issue on everyone’s lips. The issue that made a double disillusion election in the dead of winter necessary. Sorry, what does ‘ABCC’ stand for again?
BEST POLICY
Winner: Laser-guided oyster shuckers
Earlier this week, in a last-ditch attempt to woo the crucial oyster eaters vote (a core constituency for the Coalition), the Coalition’s Assistant Minister for Agriculture Anne Ruston announced $236,000 to build laser guided robots to shuck oysters.
We’re not making this up.
This was the perfect policy for the Coalition. It’s got everything that Turnbull loves. Innovation, oysters, even frickin’ lasers baby. The coalition deserves to be returned in a landslide simply for this one policy.
Apparently Malcolm Turnbull is now keen for scientists to get it to be able to open a bottle of Moet as well.
MOST AWKWARD MOMENT ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Winner: Colin Barnett
There have been several embarrassing moments in this election (most of them involving Chris Jermyn) but nothing can beat — nor will ever beat — Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett asking for $3 change from a homeless man.
Mr Barnett bought a copy of the latest Big Issue from a street vendor, and then commenced on what is almost certainly the 10 seconds of the most excruciating footage you will ever see.
Mr Barnett extends his arm. The homeless man shakes Mr Barnett’s arm, and then Mr Barnett withdraws his hand, stands there.
“OK are you going to give me my $3 change?” he asks. And then the homeless man digs around in his jeans to scrape together $3.
WA Premier Colin Barnett buys The Big Issue 0:19 WA Premier Colin Barnett asks for change from The Big Issue. Courtesy: Nine News
After seeing the footage, it suddenly all makes sense why the Barnett’s Liberal Party is facing a 10 per cent swing against it on Saturday.
GOLD NEWSIE FOR BEST LIE
Winner: Both sides
There were so many to choose from in this category.
If you believe Labor, you’d think that people will be dying on the street from the common cold if the Libs get in. If you believe the Coalition, you’d think that we’ll all be forced to marry unionised donkeys if the Labor and the Greens form government.
But the biggest lie in this election has been one that neither party has been willing to call.
On Wednesday, Scott Morrison proudly boasted that he’d found another $1.1 billion in budget savings over the next four years by finding $1.1 billion in the welfare system. He then went on to claim that this demonstrated that the Coalition were the better economic managers.
The fundamental lie here is a simple one. The idea that, in the grand scheme of things, $1.1 billion matters over four years is complete nonsense — and both sides know it, but neither is willing to say it.
Over the next four years, the government’s total expenditure will be around $1.1 trillion. That makes $1.1 billion less than a rounding error. It’s like boasting that a instead of paying $10 for lunch, you’ve only paid $9.99, and then claiming that whoever reckons lunch will cost about $10 in four years time is reckless and chaotic.
So there you have it. That’s the Newsie Awards for 2016. If you’re planning on voting this weekend, here’s a hot tip: I always find that the queues are much shorter on Sunday.
Disclaimer: You have until 6pm Saturday to vote.
Charles Firth is editor of The Chaser Quarterly and brother to former NSW Labor minister Verity Firth. The election issue is out now.Indianapolis - Effective January 1, 2011, Indiana households, public schools, and small businesses will no longer be allowed to mix unwanted electronics with municipal waste that's intended for disposal at a landfill or by burning or incineration. This ban is implemented in cooperation with state law.
Indianapolis and Marion County residents can properly dispose of, or e-cycle, unwanted electronics such as computer monitors and equipment, televisions, printers, DVD players, and fax machines through the City's ToxDrop program. The program is opened to all City residents to drop off their electronic and household hazardous waste to be recycled and/or disposed of properly.
The term used to describe the recycling of electronics is e-cycle. Everything from cell phones to computers needs to be disposed of properly instead of thrown away. Electronics may contain hazardous materials such as lead and mercury. These materials, if buried in a landfill, can contaminate groundwater and cause serious health issues for people. Instead of throwing electronics away, residents can recycle them through the City of Indianapolis ToxDrop Program.
Residents are limited to disposing of five computer systems per visit. ToxDrop locations are open year round and the service is free of charge. For more information about the ToxDrop program, visit ToxDrop or call 327-4TOX (327-4869).
Also, you can recycle your old Christmas lights along with many other items at Disposal Alternatives Organization (DAO).
The service is free and you can also drop off your old computers, appliances and other hard to recycle items. Hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Saturday 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. at 3518 E. Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46201. (Note: You may drop off items outside these opening hours too.)
DAO also accepts the following items: computers, appliances, air conditioners, cardboard, glass, lawn tools, medical equipment, plastics, Styrofoam, bicycles, TV's, office machines, oil, A/V equipment, wiring & cables, and metals. Items that are not accepted include toxic chemicals, furniture, wood, and clothing.
About DAO:
DAO is a green company with a social purpose to create jobs through recycling. It has created more than 125 jobs in the past 23 months of operation and provides free recycling services to city and county governments, neighborhood associations, civic groups, and citizens. DAO diverts over 600 tons a week of recyclable materials from populating Indiana landfills and has reduced leaching and streams of toxic chemicals from water treatment processes.
DAO will also provide free pick up of large appliances, washers, dryers, refrigerators, water heaters, furnaces, lawn mowers, and other large hard to recycle items. Residents or businesses should call DAO at (317) 375-7788 to schedule a pick up appointment.The Mummy is a lifeless, shambling start to a cinematic universe
Director: Alex Kurtzman Starring: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe, Jake Johnson Running Time: 107 minutes
The scariest moment in The Mummy comes before its titular monster even shows up onscreen. After the Universal fanfare stops and their globe has faded from view, the title card of the “Dark Universe” appears on screen, signifying The Mummy’s status as the first entry in yet another interconnected series of blockbusters. The repurposing of Universal’s classic monster movies into identikit action flicks to be packaged off to the international market looks like a particularly desperate attempt from the studio to get a slice of Marvel’s pie, and that Dark Universe logo and its confirmation that they are going all in on this may not be the kind of fright to provoke nightmares, but it certainly might lead to a few headaches before going to bed.
It’s hard to discuss the merits and failings of The Mummy as its own movie, because it’s so barely trying to be one. It’s a product tripping over itself to set up more product to come, a story that says “yeah, yeah, this is what a movie is” without much to distinguish it from any other summer blockbuster from the last few years. The genre shift from horror to action-adventure is workable, it certainly worked fine for Brendan Fraser’s Mummy movies, but after this movie’s introductory shootout in modern-day Iraq, Tom Cruise’s roguish thief is hardly ever taking part in anything that’s actually exciting. Once he and his sidekick Jake Johnson discover the mummy’s prison and Cruise is cursed (with this franchise?), there are more scenes of people explaining things to him than anything that resembles action.
Once he’s turned into a servile zombie by the unleashed mummy’s command over magic mind control deadly zombie insects – the tightness of this script is truly impressive – Johnson exists to explain to Cruise that the mummy has her eye on making him her faithful companion in world domination. Or some kind of domination. Generic evil. Russell Crowe explains several times the general backstory of the mummy, as well as the purpose of the shadowy monster tracking the government organisation that he, Dr. Jeckyll, presides over. Annabelle Wallis plays Cruise’s (obviously younger) love interest, and she gets the joy of two explaining jobs. Not only does she provide the pseudo-history jargon, she also gets to flatly and literally tell Cruise what kind of man he is and how far along they are in their sub-Solo/Leia courtship. The pair have all the chemistry of a snow crab and a vaccum cleaner, yet their relationship is what the story hinges teteringly on. The Mummy can’t even make it believable that any of these characters existed before the movie started, never mind that Cruise is some conflicted soul or Wallis’s love can bring out the good in him. They’re all just archetypes taken out of a box, dusted off, loaded with exposition and made to run away from a not-very-scary lady in bandages.
The lack of freshness may be explained in part by the long list of writers, with Rachel Getting Married’s writer Jenny Lumet flanked by summer movie ringers like David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and the film’s director Alex Kurtzmann, who has worked on the likes of the recent Star Trek reboots and several Transformers movies with usual writing partner Robert Orci. On paper, this is a story about an undead queen trying to seduce a thief with a good heart to the side of evil, but that doesn’t come across in what is actually shown. Kurtzman can’t put any sensuality on screen at all, not whe there are more designless CGI monsters to put there instead. The feeling of a story decided by committee is overwhelming. It is not impossible for a film with a lot of writers to be good, but when it’s combined with an inexperieced director, an over-eager studio and, well, Tom Cruise, it’s not hard to see the broth starting to boil over and bad ideas start to spill out: Dr.Jekyll as a Nick Fury stand-in is the kind of concept that follows after the words “there are no bad ideas in brainstorming” are uttered, the indifference with which the movie treats it own London-destroying climax feels like pages and/or reels got lost somewhere along the lengthy chain of command. The result is very dull and even the points it would get for not bein overly long like most summer movies is squandered by the second act chaining the mummy up in shady agency headquarters for more talking, stopping the movie dead just when it finallt started going somewhere.
And then there’s the Tom Cruise of it all. Cruise’s style of action movie clashes with everything else around him. He’s good more often than not at playing his type, but that’s not who this character is, he’d be miscast even if has the right age or the right level of charming. The need to centre the spotlight on its moviestar lead ends up hurting The Mummy because it isn’t about the actual mummy, it’s about some thief guy the mummy wants to hook up with for vague reasons. Sofia Boutella provides the watchable physicality and screen presence that she’s shown in other blockbusters like Star Trek Beyond and Kingsman, but she’s sidelined far too often. That Cruise spends as much time fighting Mr. Hyde as he does fighting the mummy in a movie called The Mummy shows the fundamental problem; the rush to get a franchise on the road without care for this movie in itself. The promise of more to come is exhausting.
(2 / 5)Key messages What is the key question? Does prolonged early-life exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OPs), the most commonly used pesticide in agriculture, have an adverse effect on paediatric lung |
a remedy, the Federal Monitor seeks “the removal of press releases inconsistent with the declaration and findings” written by the Federal Monitor. He also calls for the hiring of “a public communications consultant that will craft a message and implement a strategy sufficiently robust to provide information broadly to the public that describes the benefits” of what HUD says it is trying to accomplish.
The Federal Monitor’s attempt to dictate speech strikes me as Orwellian and unconstitutional. That’s also how it struck the excellent Center for Individual Rights (CIR). Thus, CIR filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief raising these concerns.
CIR argued that “the federal courts should not act as political truth squads or censors of officeholders’ political utterances.” Because Astorino’s speech is classically political, it is entitled to the highest First Amendment protection. Yet the federal monitor seeks both to compel Astorino’s speech and to subject it to prior restraint. Stanley Kurtz describes CIR’s argument in more detail here.
Earlier this month, the court refused to accept the brief. Judge Denise Cote explained that CIR has no “unique perspective” beyond the expertise of Astorino’s current legal team.
That’s ridiculous. As Kurtz points out, CIR has a long and distinguished record of intervention in cases involving the First Amendment, federalism, and the separation of powers. It has thus developed expertise in these areas no county or municipal legal team can be expected to have acquired.
There is reason to fear that Judge Cote’s ruling signals a lack of interest in hearing about the obvious free speech concerns raised by the Federal Monitor’s extraordinary request. The fact that Cote denied CIR’s motion the same day CIR filed it hardly seems encouraging. Cote is a Bill Clinton appointee who has already ruled against Westchester County in related housing litigation.
Astorino’s legal team might well brief the First Amendment and related issues raised by CIS. However, unless Judge Cote grants it extra pages in which to write, the County may have to raise them in a truncated fashion.
The issues, though, deserve careful attention. I agree with Kurtz that CIR’s brief in defense of Astorino is an extremely important document in our national battle for free speech.
Moreover, Westchester County’s experience with HUD presents an extremely important lesson about regionalism/AFFH. Neither a “Federal Monitor” nor a federal judge can prevent this egregious federal overreach from becoming an explosive political issue, just as the forced busing of school children was 45 years ago.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The Bishop of Oxford has said he wants to be able to affirm gay relationships – but is “unconvinced” by same-sex marriage.
The Church of England bishop, John Lawrence Pritchard, made the comments to the Oxford Mail.
He said: “I want to affirm covenanted, faithful, lifelong relationships, either gay or straight.
“But I am unconvinced about same-sex marriage – it seems to me that that is a category confusion.
“The Church has to avoid any whiff of homophobia and affirm good, strong, loving relationships, but not confuse the gift of a heterosexual marriage with the gift of a same-sex relationship.”
A poll recently found that 4 in 10 clergy in the Church now support same-sex marriage.
The research, conducted this summer by YouGov for the the Westminster Faith Debates, polled 1500 members of the clergy.
It found that despite the Church’s official opposition to equal marriage, support is steadily growing among the ranks – with 39 percent agreeing that same-sex marriage is right.
51 percent believe it is wrong, however, while 10 percent are still undecided on the issue.Cleaning up oil spills and metal contaminates in a low-impact, sustainable and inexpensive manner remains a challenge for companies and governments globally.
But a group of researchers at UW–Madison is examining alternative materials that can be modified to absorb oil and chemicals. If further developed, the technology may offer a cheaper and “greener” method to absorb oil and heavy metals from water and other surfaces.
Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong, a researcher at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery‘s BIONATES research group and associate professor of biomedical engineering, along with graduate student Qifeng Zheng, and Zhiyong Cai, a project leader at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, have recently created the patent-pending aerogel technology.
In the upper photo, a small sample of the aerogel is stirred into a container of water tainted with red-dyed diesel fuel. In the lower photo, next to an unused sample at left, the aerogel has absorbed the fuel.
Aerogels, which are highly porous materials and the lightest solids in existence, are already used in a variety of applications, ranging from insulation and aerospace materials to thickening agents in paints. The aerogel prepared in Gong’s lab is made of cellulose nanofibrils (sustainable wood-based materials) and an environmentally friendly polymer. Furthermore, these cellulose-based aerogels are made using an environmentally friendly freeze-drying process without the use of organic solvents.
It’s the combination of this “greener” material and its high performance that got Gong’s attention.
“For this material, one unique property is that it has superior absorbing ability for organic solvents — up to nearly 100 times its own weight,” she says. “It also has strong absorbing ability for metal ions.”
Treating the cellulose-based aerogel with specific types of silane after it is made through the freeze-drying process is a key step that gives the aerogel its water-repelling and oil-absorbing properties.
Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong (left), a researcher at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, graduate student Qifeng Zheng (center), and Zhiyong Cai (right), a project leader at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, created and patented the new aerogel technology.
“So if you had an oil spill, for example, the idea is you could throw this aerogel sheet in the water and it would start to absorb the oil very quickly and efficiently,” she says. “Once it’s fully saturated, you can take it out and squeeze out all the oil. Although its absorbing capacity reduces after each use, it can be reused for a couple of cycles.”
In addition, this cellulose-based aerogel exhibits excellent flexibility asdemonstrated by compression mechanical testing.
Though much work needs to be done before the aerogel can be mass-produced, Gong says she’s eager to share the technology’s potential benefits beyond the scientific community.
“We are living in a time where pollution is a serious problem — especially for human health and for animals in the ocean,” she says. “We are passionate to develop technology to make a positive societal impact.”
Gong and her colleagues have featured their findings in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
—Marianne English SpoonWe’ve just given our IPv6 Health Check a significant overhaul.
IPv6 is coming, and there’s a lot more to being ready for it than adding an AAAA record and enabling IPv6 on your web server. Google are often cited as an example of an IPv6-enabled website, but the truth is, in an IPv6-only world, nobody would ever find Google because none of their nameservers have IPv6 addresses:
Our IPv6 Health Check aims to reach the parts that other testers don’t reach to find out if your domain is really ready for IPv6. Do your mail servers have IPv6 addresses? Do they have reverse DNS for those addresses? Do your SPF records include IPv6 addresses?
The latest version of our health check includes an experimental IPv6 nameserver delegation and glue test that checks that all nameservers the delegation chain between the root DNS servers and your zone have IPv6 addresses, and sufficient glue to allow you to find them in an IPv6-only world. This test has already uncovered some interesting anomalies which we’ll dig into further in a future post.A new report by influential UK thinktank Chatham House says the potential threat Russia poses to the Baltic states is real, and NATO needs to up its game considerably if it is serious about providing deterrence and defense.
Titled Russia's 'New' Tools For Confronting The West, the 72-page report argues that while it has become fashionable to describe Russia's approach to as all-new, in fact most elements of so-called "Hybrid War" have deep roots within the Russian military and society.
"Russia intends to develop the capability to operate against several neighbors at once...This realization has led to sudden retrospective attention to the major exercises which Russia had been conducting for a number of years – and the implications of their scenarios for the neighbors who appear to be targeted," the report says, questioning whether NATO has the capability to mount a "swift and effective military response" in such circumstances.
"In Russian thinking, conventional military power deficiencies present a temptation and an invitation. Weakness provokes, but readiness deters. Consequently, the relative military vacuum in the Baltic states must urgently be filled by NATO, before Russia is tempted to fill it itself," the report says.
"If NATO is not willing or able to pre-position sufficient forces in the Baltic states to close off easy opportunities for Russia, then in order to fulfil its function and reason for existence it must be prepared to accept much more costly and politically challenging alternatives."
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are widely considered the most likely next potential victims of Russian intervention, but are not the only candidates, the report suggests, with Sweden in particular repeatedly threatened. However, constant reports in Western media about the likelihood of the Baltic states being attacked could actually have a deleterious effect on those countries' economies.
The Kremlin is not above personal intimidation either with servicemen in Latvia confronted with "Russian intelligence officers reeling off details of their personal lives" taken from social media posts.
Recent increases in the NATO presence in the Baltic states provide some deterrent effect but their actual military value may not be as large as they seem, argues the report:
"Despite the availability of a small amount of (primarily US) military equipment already delivered to the Baltic states, in order to reach these three countries any forces seeking to protect them would have to run the gauntlet of Russian naval and air forces in the Baltic Sea...One-third of Poland and substantial parts of the territories of other NATO members and partners are under Russian integrated air defence system (IADS) coverage."
The report concludes that the risk of conflict between Russia and the West is unlikely to disappear any time soon, with Russia's neighbors obviously at greatest risk:
"Russia’s security initiatives, even if it views or presents them as defensive measures, are likely to have severe consequences for its neighbors. Russia’s growing confidence in pursuing its objectives will make it even harder for the West to protect itself against Russian assertiveness, without the implementation of measures to resist Russian information warfare, and without the availability of significant military force to act as an immediate and present deterrent in the front-line states."
The full report is available HERE.Pressed powders and I have a checkered past. I used to try a few different pressed powders a year. They work so well for other people – surely, one of them would eventually work for me. Sometimes they’d make me look dry, others just made me look overly made up, and some of them even made any blemishes more visible. At some point I gave up on them, so for the past couple of years I’ve only used loose powders. Have you ever tried applying loose powder while you’re out and about? It’s not a clean process. By the time I’m finished touching up, I look like I’ve just sneezed into a bag of cocaine.
Those days are behind me now thanks to an impulse purchase I made a few weeks ago. I decided it was time to try pressed powder again, and since I loved Missha’s M Signature BB Cream so much, I thought I’d take a chance on their M Signature Radiance Two-way Pact ($26). It’s available in three shades- #21/Light Beige, #23/Chic Beige, and #27/Honey Beige. I chose #23 because it’s my perfect BB cream match. My skin tone is somewhere between NC20 and NC25 depending on the season. I think #21 would work for those who are NC15-NC20, and #27 would be great for olive skinned ladies who are in the NC30 range.
When it arrived, it looked as dazzling in real life as it did on the website. It comes in an elegant gold case embossed with the same flower pattern seen on the packaging for the rest of the M signature line. I wasn’t sure what a “two-way” compact was when I read the product name, but it became clear as soon as I opened it. There’s a hard, plastic, hinged lid that keeps your powder separate from the applicator, and also keeps the mirror inside from getting all mucked up with product. It’s a genius idea, and the moment I saw it I wondered why all pressed powders don’t come packaged this way.
The powder itself is very smooth and finely milled. I opted to apply it with my It Cosmetics powder brush, and was very pleasantly surprised by the type of coverage M Signature Radiance powder provided. It wasn’t at all chalky or drying. It took away some of the excess shine I have just after applying my BB cream, but left behind just enough of a glow to prevent my face from looking overly made up or losing any dimension. The finish is not 100% matte, but I think that’s what makes this powder so flattering. In terms of longevity, I found that this powder wore well throughout the day, and extended the wear of my BB cream by about an hour before needing touch-ups.
The M Signature Radiance Two-way Pact also features SPF 27. I doubt that wearing this powder on its own would really give you that much sun protection. According to this article by Dr.Leslie Baumann, with any pressed powder, you’d need to apply 14 times the amount you’d normally well to get the full SPF offered. I definitely advise wearing additional sun protection. But some SPF is certainly better than no SPF, and it’s nice to be able to touch up your sun protection every time you touch up your makeup.
This pressed powder was a really exciting find for me. I’ve been using it for about two weeks, and in that short time it’s managed to reach HG status for me. It’s definitely worth a try, especially if you, like me, have had a tough time with pressed powders in the past!
Where to Buy
You can purchase the M Signature Two-way Pact on Missha’s US website. It’s priced at $26, but Missha frequently has 30%-50% off sales, which would be a great time to pick this up. It’s also available through several eBay and Amazon Marketplace sellers, but it’s priced the same there as it is on the Missha website, and in some cases, it’s even more expensive.
Skin & Tonics Rating:
Performance: 5/5 – Beautiful semi-matte finish, looks natural, long-lasting
Quality: 5/5 – Nice, finely milled texture, high SPF, pretty packaging
Value: 4.5/5 – Pricier than a drug store powder, but less expensive than many department store brands, frequently on sale
Overall: 4.8/5
Follow me on Instagram:【 The Russian Moving Fortress 】 Tamiya is proud to release the 1/16 scale R/C assembly kit of the Russian heavy tank KV-2 which terrified German forces during WWII. The dynamic form of the KV-2's rectangular turret has been accurately reproduced, and accessories such as the tow cables and tool boxes highlight its superb exterior details. Many metal parts have also been incorporated with the chassis to ensure high durability. In addition to forward/reverse running and left/right turning, the tank also features realistic barrel and hull recoil actions when firing the main gun. The front machine gun also features muzzle flash effect and firing sounds, while both the headlight and taillight are controllable as well. The Full Operation Set (Item 56029, Japan market only) conveniently includes a 4-channel transmitter, 7.2V battery, and a battery charger. Add the separately available Battle System and you can even have mock battles with other similarly equipped Tamiya R/C tanks.Press
How to break free from Skype
on: 2013-04-02
Avoid being locked in as Microsoft turns off Windows Messenger
On April 8, Microsoft will discontinue its Windows Messenger service. All current users will be switched to Skype. The Free Software Foundation Europe advises former users of Windows Messenger to take this as an opportunity to embrace Open Standards such as Jabber (XMPP) instead of switching to Skype.
"Crucial technology should not be controlled by a single entity, but instead rely on the sort of Open Standards that have made the Internet great" says Matthias Kirschner of FSFE. "MSN users should switch to Open Standard technologies, like the XMPP protocol, and Free Software chat programs." The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, previously called Jabber) is widely deployed across the Internet. This standard is not closed or secret; it is governed by an independent foundation with many stakeholders. It can be implemented in any software, and not only gives users the choice of which client to use, but also which servers to trust.
By switching all users to Skype, Microsoft is replacing one locked down technology with another. Acquired by Microsoft in 2011, the proprietary Skype software is widely used for audio and video communication, as well as chatting. Its workings are secret and substantial efforts are made to prevent reverse engineering. Skype's services have serious drawbacks. Their closed, secured-through-obscurity protocol takes freedom away from users. Skype's technology forces people to join the walled garden in order to keep communicating with others, and locks them in. It also makes oversight and checks by communities or independent experts nearly impossible. "Microsoft and Skype have absolute control over all communications going through their network," says FSFE's Torsten Grote. "Once aggregated, the power given to Skype by each individual user endangers freedom on a global scale. Skype is already abusing this power with attacks on privacy, data retention, censorship, and eavesdropping."
The ability to communicate freely is vital, and this is just what Open Standards-driven communication methods such as XMPP provide. People that have the ability to run their own XMPP server are strongly encouraged to do so. The more distributed the XMPP network is, the more resistant it is to censorship and failures. People who prefer not to run their own server are invited to use an XMPP service provider that they trust. FSFE, for example, provides a XMPP server for all their Fellows. "The technology that we rely on should never be controlled by only one entity. Ideally we all control it together. We should be careful not to build new walled gardens." says Grote. "Most companies already agree on XMPP. Only the companies that want to lock-in their users go their own way on this. Even Facebook uses XMPP, but unfortunately they still don't allow their users to talk to people outside of Facebook."
How to move to a Free Software chat solution based on Open Standards :
Download a free client Install it and start it If you don't have an existing XMPP account, log in to one of the many public XMPP services using your preferred username. Your client will automatically create the account Add your contacts Start chatting with others on the XMPP network!There’s nothing we love more than an influencer who loves Korean beauty. Especially when that influencer is also super inspired by our editor-in-chief, Charlotte Cho! Meet Asia Jackson. She’s a model, actress, and YouTube vlogger who discovered the K-beauty routine after she read Charlotte’s The Little Book of Skin Care.
Ever since reading Charlotte’s book, Jackson’s been completely devoted to the K-beauty ten step routine. Here, we chat with her about her favorite Korean skin care products that fix hyperpigmentation and help combat her acne.
Why did you decide to explore Korean beauty?
In January of 2016 I was experiencing really bad breakouts, so I was literally on Amazon researching skin care stuff, and I came across Charlotte’s book in one of the recommended products. I did some research about the book and I immediately went to Barnes and Noble to buy it because I didn’t want to wait for shipping.
What resonated with you about Korean beauty after reading The Little Book of Skin Care?
The idea of having a skin care routine in general, because before reading that book I didn’t really have one. The double cleanse has been the biggest lightbulb moment for me. Before I found out about the Korean skin care routine, I literally just washed my face with one cleanser and didn’t really pay attention to whether it removed makeup, but I feel like after I started double cleansing, it’s done a lot to help brighten my complexion and make it so that the makeup and bacteria doesn’t just sit in my pores.
A post shared by Asia Jackson (@aasian) on Jan 31, 2017 at 10:37am PST
You’re African-American and Filipino. How has the Korean skin care routine helped with your particular skin type?
One of my biggest skin concerns is hyperpigmentation and I really like that Korean skin care focuses on brightening, because as a woman with brown skin, hyperpigmentation can get really annoying. I really like that Korean brands and products have a huge selection of products to choose from to help with brightening my overall complexion.
What was the first Korean beauty product you bought?
The first Korean product I bought was the Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin C Serum. I thought the packaging was so cute, and every time packaging is cute, I’m so tempted to buy it. But I also really like the fact that it helps to brighten hyperpigmentation. When I read about it, I was like “Girl, sign me up!,” since hyperpigmentation is one my biggest skin concerns.
What are your favorite Korean skin care products that fix hyperpigmentation?
The Cosrx AHA 7 Whitehead Power Liquid really helps. I also really love the Missha Cell Renew Snail Cream because it has snail mucin in it. I didn’t really know what snail mucin was, and I researched a little about it and I was like, “This is interesting.” Then I found out that Soko Glam sold this Missha moisturizer that has snail mucin in it and I was like, “Well I might as well try it,” and it worked really well. Now, it’s one of my favorite moisturizers of all time. It really hydrates my skin but it’s also light since it has a gel consistency. I also have oily skin and it really works well with my oily skin.
I also really love the Klavuu Pure Pearlsation Revitalizing Facial Cleansing Foam that came in The Klog Box. It brightens my complexion and it doesn’t strip my skin. Usually when I use facial cleansers it feels tight and dry, and this doesn’t do that. It feels very hydrating.
A post shared by Asia Jackson (@aasian) on Feb 28, 2017 at 11:37am PST
In your YouTube video where you demonstrate your Korean skin care routine, you use a foaming cleanser that includes benzoyl peroxide in your double clease to combat your acne-prone skin. How does the K-beauty routine help with your acne?
I use a foaming cleanser that has five percent benzoyl peroxide and that works really well to help with my acne. But since benzoyl peroxide can be a pretty drying ingredient, I always make sure to use a hydrating essence. Korean brands are the best at creating moisturizing products. Whenever I use really drying ingredients, I like to use Korean products to rehydrate my skin. I love the Missha Time Revolution First Treatment Essence and the Mizon Mela Defense White Capsule Essence.
How do you find Korean beauty products?
I love K-beauty blogs, and I read The Klog. I watch a lot of K-beauty bloggers on YouYube and I also follow the Asian Beauty subreddit. I read through that thing a lot. There’s a lot of good information there.
Do you use any Korean makeup?
I’d love to try some Korean makeup. I’ve been really interested in the cushion foundation. I think that’s such an interesting concept, but they don’t really have a wide range of shades. I hope as Korean beauty globalizes, they’ll roll out more shades.
Who do you think the Korean skin care routine is for?
The Korean beauty routine is for anyone and everyone who truly wants to invest in their skin!
Check out Asia’s full ten step Korean skin care routine:Bleep:10 is a celebration of ten years of music on Bleep. A decade of enjoying and working with some of the best artists and labels, and hopefully conveying our love of the vibrant music community we are a part of. For this fourteen track compilation we have sought out new and unreleased gems from some of our favourite artists, all of whom continue to shape the direction of the Bleep store. Together they represent different labels, scenes and genres that are important to us.
We open the compilation with an enveloping, never before released track from Wolfgang Voigt's revered Gas project. Lone provides his first new track since last year's massive 'Air Glow Fires', whilst there is further explosive dance floor material from Untold, μ-Ziq, Modeselektor and Byetone. Shackleton turns in a relentless track of rough and thrilling techno, while Autechre's contribution 'SYptixed' is a dark and precise piece of heavy electronic experimentation. Oneohtrix Point Never and Nosaj Thing provide moments of ambient respite, while Dabrye's playful beat track 'Click Clack' is the first solo production to be released by the artist since 2009. Nathan Fake closes the release in fine style with glistening epic 'Vanish North'.
Design by our long time collaborators Give Up Art
Keep up with all Bleep10 news here.Ciara Judge (16), Sophie Healy-Thow (17), and Emer Hickey (16) Google Three young girls won the Google science fair on Sept. 22 with their innovative way to feed the world: treat plants with bacteria to help farmers grow more food, faster — without genetic modification.
"By the year 2050 we actually need 50 percent more food just to feed everyone," Emer Hickey, one of the three winners, told Scientific American.
Hickey worked with her classmates Ciara Judge and Sophie Healy on their project. The three teenage girls, who live in Ireland, were simultaneously learning about plants and world hunger. Their project "Combating the global food crisis: Diazotroph Bacteria As a Cereal Crop Growth Promoter" aims to tackle issues of world hunger by exploiting a curious relationship they found between bacteria and certain plants.
Beneficial bacteria
After 11 months of hard work and dedication, the three teen microbiologists discovered that they could make crops yield more food and shorten the time it takes a plant to sprout from a seed — a process called germination. They shorten this time by infecting the crops with a bit of bacteria that's been known to be advantageous to other crop plants.
Their results have huge implications for increasing agricultural productivity and easing world hunger.
The key to their success is a type of bacteria called rhizobia, which lives inside nodules, or the little nubs you sometimes see on plant roots. While we usually think of bacteria as dangerous, these are actually helpful to the plants. By converting nitrogen from the air into helpful compounds like ammonia, the bacteria aid plant growth.
Rhizobia nodules on plant roots. Dave Whitinger at All Things Plants. Hickey and her mother had found these nodules on the pea plants in their garden. Not understanding what they were, Hickey brought one of the plants to her science teacher, who told her their benefits to plant growth.
These nodules are only found on certain plants, including peas and beans. But the girls wondered, why wouldn't these bacteria be beneficial to other species — specifically grains like barley and oats, which are integral to our food supply.
It turns out no one had studied what the bacteria might do for non-legume plants, particularly during stages of germination. So, the girls went to work.
A root-hacking plan
They attacked their work with meticulous detail. Using homemade equipment, they chose to test rhizobia's affects on barley and oat seeds. In order to do this, the girls had to grow the bacteria and then infuse them into the seeds, which took many hours of preparation.
First, the girls had to infuse their seeds with the bacteria. Ciara, Emer, Sophie After prepping the seeds, they incubated the seeds and checked them every six hours to measure how long it took germination to take place.
Next, the girls incubated the seeds. Ciara, Emer, Sophie Before conducting a large-scale growing trial, they covered their bases and completed a small-scale trial where in the plants grew for only two weeks before harvesting.
The success of the small-scale trial gave way to a larger trial. For that, the girls grew the plants in boxes in Judge's backyard garden for six weeks.
Large-scale growing trial. Ciara, Emer, Sophie Once the crops had grown for six weeks, the girls harvested the plants, dried them, and weighed them to determine overall crop yield.
Harvesting the crops and then weighing them. Ciara, Emer, Sophie They repeated these steps over 11 months, tested more than 10,000 seeds, and recorded more than 120,000 individual measurements. When they were finished, they discovered that by infusing their seeds with rhizobia bacteria, the plants germinated in half the amount of time compared to seeds without rhizobia. Moreover, they measured that the mass of the plants increased by as much as 70%.
An agricultural enterprise
In 2011, the award-winning teens first became aware of the deep impact that a lack of food can have on the world. The Horn of Africa famine in 2011 threatened livelihoods of nearly 10 million people in East African countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
"The idea for our project was inspired by this problem and our desire to make a difference," they state in an outline of their Google Science Fair project.
Google Science Fair Grand Prize Winners harvest crops for their research project. Google+ Ciara, Emer, Sophie Winning the grand prize of Google's fourth annual science fair is just another step forward for the girls. Next, they plan to better understand their results by investigating why the rhizobium bacteria they tested leads to higher crop yields and faster germination rates.
All three are currently considering careers in the biological sciences, and the scholarships they earned through Google's Science Fair will certainly come in handy when they enter college within the next few years.
Their Google science fair triumph got them each a $50,000 college scholarship, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands through National Geographic Expeditions, and a $10,000 grant for school.PENNSVILLE TWP. -- Harvest Community Bank has become the first bank in the U.S. to fail in 2017, according to federal banking officials.
The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance closed the bank on Friday night and named the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.
Bad loans are to blame, federal officials say.
Banking operations will now be handed by Raleigh, N.C.-based First-Citizens Bank and Trust Company.
For customers of Harvest, federal officials says the bank's four branches remain open for business under First-Citizens.
"It's banking as usual," FDIC spokesman Eric Raines said Saturday morning. "There will be no changes in banking operations"
Harvest Community Bank operated four branches in Salem County and first opened in Pennsville in 2000 touting itself as as first locally owned, independent commercial bank in the county for more than 30 years.
From its base on North Broadway in Pennsville, the bank eventually added three more branches -- in Pilesgrove, Elmer and Salem.
The branches were open Saturday morning. At at least one of the branches, the press release from the FDIC announcing the failure was posted on the branch's door.
Raines said Harvest became insolvent due to bad loans.
The FDIC began directly observing Harvest Community Bank in March 2015 and started requiring the bank to send reports in July 2015. Starting in October 2016, the bank had 90 days to resolve its issues.
N.J. leads nation in foreclosures (again)
During that 90-day period that Harvest had been ordered to put things in order, First-Citizens was chosen to take over its operations if Harvest was not successful.
According to Raines, business will continue for bank customers. The only difference is that the bank is being managed by First-Citizens Bank. The FDIC guarantees deposits at banks up to $250,000.
Harvest Community Bank had $126.4 million in assets and $123.8 million in deposits as of Sept. 30, according to the FDIC, which are now assumed by the Raleigh bank.
Attempts to reach Harvest board of directors members Saturday morning for comment were unsuccessful.
Harvest Community Bank is the first bank to close in the nation for 2017 and the first bank to close in New Jersey since the FDIC shut down Fort Lee Federal Savings Bank on April 20, 2012.
Customers with questions about the transition are asked to call the FDIC's toll-free number at 1-800-913-3067 or visit www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/harvestcomm.html.
Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on FacebookFrequent Fox News guest and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke took to Twitter Saturday to send a message to his 300,000+ followers regarding the media and government.
It's incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time pic.twitter.com/8G5G0daGVN — David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 15, 2016
He followed that tweet up with a picture of him and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, stating that “big media knows our day is coming.”
To all @realDonaldTrump supporters, Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled (John:14 1-3) Big media knows that our day is coming. Stay strong. pic.twitter.com/IBSX9E8llo — David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 15, 2016
Clarke has a long history of inflammatory comments and actions. A vocal critic of the Black Lives Matter movement, Clarke has called on the media to stop legitimizing the organization.
A favorite of Fox hosts, Clarke hasn’t been welcomed as warmly on other networks. During the Republican National Convention, in which he delivered a fiery speech, he had a very combative interview with CNN’s Don Lemon surrounding Black Lives Matter.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comAfter more than eight years orbiting a hellish planet, Venus Express is showing its age. The spacecraft made some risky maneuvers this summer, dipping down into the atmosphere as it nears the end of its mission. Now, the European Space Agency reports it has mostly lost contact with the probe. The reason could be lack of fuel.
The “anomaly” started Nov. 28 when the agency’s operations center lost touch with the spacecraft. Since then, ground stations at ESA and NASA have been trying to hail the probe. All they’ve received since then is a little bit of telemetry showing that the spacecraft has it solar panels pointing towards the Sun, and it’s slowly rotating.
“It is possible that the remaining fuel on board VEX was exhausted,” ESA wrote in a blog post, pointing out that in recent weeks it has been trying to raise the spacecraft’s altitude for more science observations. But with the spacecraft spinning, its high-gain antenna is likely out of contact with Earth and it’s hard to reach it.
“The operations team is currently attempting to downlink the table of critical events that is stored in protected memory on board, which may give details of the sequence of events which occurred over the past few days,” ESA added. “The root cause of the anomaly (fuel situation or otherwise) remains to be established.”
We’ll keep you posted as events arise.
Source: European Space AgencyJohn McCain's presidential campaign is threatening a lawsuit against the National Enquirer over a print edition story the tabloid ran today alleging that Gov. Sarah Palin has had an extramarital affair with her husband's business partner.
The allegation would normally be dismissed by political observers as the random musings of a supermarket tabloid -- indeed, the McCain campaign said as much in its statements on Wednesday -- except that the paper has built up a reservoir of legitimacy following its earlier reporting on the John Edwards affair.
In a statement to the Huffington Post, a spokesman for the paper, who promised a larger report next week, tapped into that pool of quasi-respect.
"The National Enquirer's coverage of a vicious war within Sarah Palin's extended family includes several newsworthy revelations, including the resulting incredible charge of an affair plus details of family strife when the Governor's daughter revealed her pregnancy. Following our John Edwards' exclusives, our political reporting has obviously proven to be more detail-oriented than the McCain campaign's vetting process. Despite the McCain camp's attempts to control press coverage they find unfavorable, The Enquirer will continue to pursue news on both sides of the political spectrum."
Clearly, this is a touchy matter. Already, rumors that Palin's youngest son was actually the son of her daughter were batted down. And the McCain campaign has strenuously insisted that the current crop of insinuations is not only false but also potentially libelous.
"The smearing of the Palin family must end. The allegations contained on the cover of the National Enquirer insinuating that Gov. Palin had an extramarital affair are categorically false. It is a vicious lie," said McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt. "The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace. The American people will reject it."
But the Edwards reporting complicates matters. Just one month ago, conservatives were bemoaning the fact that no major media outlets had the temerity to follow the politically and personally sensitive rumors about the former North Carolina senator's infidelities. Jonah Goldberg, for example, wrote on the National Review's the Corner in later July that:
"Whatever the merits of the whole Edwards love child story, are we really supposed to believe that one of America's most famous trial lawyers wouldn't sue a publication that printed defamatory and slanderous lies about him? Also, it's worth pointing out that while the Enquirer may or may not be scrupulous in |
A spokesperson with the National Guard said they also inspected the woman's car and found nothing.
Homeland Security says they can't ask the woman any questions because she herself is in critical condition at Methodist Hospital.
According to hospital support staff who didn't want to go on camera, employees put on masks when the hospital went into lockdown. Employees said some people complained of funny tastes in their mouth and tingling lips. These same workers told Eyewitness News they received emails from their managers asking them to watch for symptoms of dizziness, tingling lips and odd tastes in their mouths after they left the hospital.
Shrum said she saw employees wearing masks.
"Quite a few people were. They didn't never say anything about us wearing masks," she said.
Shrum said she was worried about what could have made its way into a hospital full of sick children and what that meant for her baby.
Earlier version
The first report came in a little after noon Thursday. Later in the afternoon, emergency vehicles rushed to the scene again, this time to the parking garage.
Dr. Jeff Sperring, Chief Executive Officer and President of Riley at IU Health, sent out this statement around 8 p.m. Thursday evening:
"Riley Hospital for Children has received clearance from external authorities to re-open the Emergency Department and is preparing to do so. We expect to resume normal operations in the ER later this evening."
Sperring had also released this statement earlier in the evening.
"Riley Hospital for Children is taking all precautionary measures in cooperation with our external officials to identify the source of exposure and ensure patient, staff and visitor safety. This includes a full inspection of the property, including parking garages. We are continuing to closely monitor the situation. Those affected were adults and have been transferred or discharged."
Initially, firefighters traced the source to a patient's bag in the ER, but they are still working to identify the substance. The ER went into lockdown shortly after noon and no one was allowed to leave.
A colonel with the Indiana National Guard tells Eyewitness News a woman came into the hospital with an unidentified issue, then others in the area began to show similar symptoms. The woman's clothing, car and other personal effects have been quarantined.
Four adults were taken to Methodist and Wishard Hospitals for treatment of conditions ranging from fair to serious. A small number of people were being evaluated inside two ambulances outside Riley Hospital.
By 2:15 pm, most ambulances and fire engines had left Riley and people were being allowed to enter and leave the building.
A family who was in the ER when the lockdown went into effect were allowed to leave at around 2:00 pm. They tell Eyewitness News that they weren't told much about what happened.
"Just saw lot of people. Just heard it was a Hazmat crisis or something," said one witness.
The incident led to some delayed appointments.
"We had an appointment at the Endocrinology Center at 3:00 pm. We came early and were stuck waiting," said another witness.
Firefighters went through the decontamination process as a precaution. Patients who were already in the ER were transferred to other hospitals.
Another witness told Eyewitness News she was there to visit her young cousin. A nurse told her that someone deliberately overturned a container, and that prompted the evacuation. It still isn't clear what the substance was.
The clothing of the people who were decontaminated will be sent to the lab for testing.
IU Health plans to release an update on the situation at 9 p.m. Thursday.
Riley Hospital for Children statement:
"External crews have yet to identify the exact source of the incident from earlier today at Riley Hospital for Children that sickened seven adults, however the area has been contained and we're seeing no evidence of any further spread. We continue to evaluate the situation and provide care to the adults who have been exposed. The Riley at IU Health Emergency Department remains closed temporarily, however all other normal hospital operations have resumed. Patients, staff and their families are being asked to use the Riley Outpatient Center and Simon Family Tower entrances. Emergency services are being diverted to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital. We will provide another update at approximately 3:30 p.m.Rudy Roma: 420 Insight
He is here to ‘change the dialogue’ on medical marijuana and we dare say, he is not treading lightly. As a father who has lost his young daughter to the battle of cancer, his passion hits very close to home. He now has committed his life to educating society about the many benefits of medical marijuana. This passionate father and entrepreneur is Rudy Roma, founder of 420 Insight. He is here to showcase the truth of medical marijuana for all the naysayers out there and he is reaching out to those suffering from diseases, that there is evidence that cannabis can help you! His sights are set far in the distance, and this is just the beginning of what he has to offer this dynamic industry.
What was the deciding factor for you to join this particular industry?
I feel the deciding factor for me was my own personal experience. As what is often true of the mind of an entrepreneur, I have always had an abundance of thoughts moving in and out of my brain. I was introduced to medical cannabis a year ago to help me with my focus and to sort through all my thoughts. I truly became in touch with my mind, body, and spirit after using marijuana. My life has completely changed. I am more engaged in conversations now and more in touch with my feelings. My wife and I have been together for 13 years, but it hasn’t really been til this past year that I really have gotten to know her.
What skills from your previous experiences helped you in what you are doing now?
My pre-experience in marketing and operations has led me to my great networking and team building skills. I also have found, in previous work, that the art of listening is crucial; this too plays a great role in what I currently do.
Right now, where are you guiding your passion and energy towards?
I lost my daughter to cancer when she was very young and this has certainly provided me with an impetus for my work. Research shows that marijuana can be of tremendous, outstanding, and salient help to cancer patients. There is a plenitude of evidence showing that marijuana targets and kills cancer and tumor cells. Even mice injected with human cancer cells and treated with marijuana have demonstrated that this is an effective way to stop the growth of these dreaded cells that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year.
There is a plenitude of evidence showing that marijuana targets and kills cancer and tumor cells.
Medical marijuana has also been successfully used to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to overcome nausea and also AIDS patients. The plant increases patients’ appetite so that they can eat nutritious foods to further nourish their body.
My passion is to educate society. I’ve built a world-class platform that showcases new and exciting content that helps others see that cannabis is not the boogeyman. I am also developing an ecommerce network that will provide quality, lab-tested cannabis products for patients. I am spending my energy collaborating with experts to standardize safety procedures as well as dosing protocols that will be adopted by all in the industry. I am devoting all my time and energy to promote cannabis education, research, and advocacy. I believe, together, we can change the dialogue.
Describe your work ethic to me in one word.
Relentless!
What do you consider your weakness as an entrepreneur? Your strength?
As an entrepreneur funding is always on the forefront of my mind. However, I feel my weakness is in telling the story so others feel compelled to action. I have been blessed with the gift of orchestrating the many facets of a project as it propels its way forward.
How are you differentiating yourself from the competition?
Have you seen 420insight.com? Currently, there is nothing like it in the industry. 420 InSight is a pioneering start-up that provides a platform for publishing the research efforts, critical facts, and life stories that will awaken America to the truth about medical marijuana. By means of our investigative journalism, we will become the “60 minutes” of the cannabis industry.
Join the ranks: Are you a CEO, entrepreneur or someone in the cannabis industry who's making an impact? Are you a CEO, entrepreneur or someone in the cannabis industry who's making an impact? We'd like to hear your story!
How do you find inspiration in this industry? What have you found that has inspired you?
I find my inspiration in the miraculous success that has been told by people using cannabis as medicine, as well as the scientific breakthroughs happening globally. I am personally inspired by the compelling desire to help others learn and share their knowledge of the healing properties of medical cannabis.
There are numerous success stories of using medical marijuana in treating cancer patients; even young children have been cured of cancer using this miracle plant. I hope to be able to encourage many more people to seek a cure for their or their loved one’s disease using this natural and incredibly beneficial plant. The results and information pouring in are just spectacular and quite honestly, undeniable. The former naysayers who used to say medical marijuana helping patients overcome their illness was some sort of luck, are those that are now advocates of the plant.
There are still many doubters out there, don’t get me wrong; but with the evidence that is accumulating every day, their doubts and obtuse mentality can be logically defeated by professional research. We are gaining ground and support and enlightening tens of thousands of people around the world every day. The ultimate aim is to also motivate researchers and scientists to better refine and standardize the use of medical marijuana.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
To love GOD and to love your neighbor as yourself.
What’s your newest knowledge about the marijuana industry?
One of the most critical therapies is called Myrcene. It is an essential oil of the cannabis plant.
One of the most critical therapies is called Myrcene. It is an essential oil of the cannabis plant.
If you could rewind time to 5 years ago, how would your business be different?
Five years ago, my business would be much slower growing. Technology is a key component to this business. Society was not as accepting of cannabis as it is now, thus the need to educate would still be essential. However, the approach would have been much different. Reaching out to a large audience would have been much more difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Improved connectivity has ensured that the business model is now based on technology. The utilization of social media and the ability to disseminate information now is much cleaner and easier. The sky is the limit for us and that is the truth and not in the least, an exaggeration.
What will we be seeing from you and 420 InSight in the coming future?
You will be seeing more educational conferences, new and exciting video content on a daily basis, and from me personally, I would love to create a mini-series of a family that uses cannabis. And it will not be like Breaking Bad; it will be wholesome family fun!Desgrieux / SoFood / Corbis
Liz Thorpe knows her cheese. When the vice president of New York's Murray's Cheese Shop and author of The Cheese Chronicles isn't helping high-end restaurants select the right fromage for their dessert menus, she's traveling around the country taste-testing products herself. Thorpe has tried every type of cheese: the creamy, the crumbly, the limp, the spongy and even something flavored with Jamaican jerk spices. TIME talked to Thorpe about unpasteurized cheese, how Swiss got those holes and how white and yellow cheddar differ.
How did you become so interested in cheese?
I'd always liked eating cheese. I moved to New York City after college and the food-shopping experience was unlike anything I had ever encountered. My neighborhood had a lot of old, southern-Italian food vendors and there was one shop that had a cheese counter. There were 30 different options of cheese, but they didn't look or taste anything alike. It was very baffling and exciting to me.
(Read about an international skirmish over roquefort cheese)
You mention in the book that although there are hundreds of different cheeses, there are only a handful of basic recipes. How do we get so many varieties?
There are about a dozen steps in the basic process of turning milk into cheese. All cheeses go through some combination of those steps, but any tiny variation in any one of them will create a different texture and flavor. The first step in cheese making is called acidification the process of converting the sugar in milk into acid. You do that by putting starter bacteria in your milk. There are hundreds of different bacteria that work at different speeds to produce different cheeses. You could have 500 or 1,000 variations on just that one step. There's something very exciting and mysterious about it that's almost like magic.
What's the difference between white cheddar and yellow cheddar?
Yellow cheddar has had a natural plant-based coloring added to it called annatto, which comes from a South American plant. It doesn't affect the flavor or texture. It's not a chemical. People's preference for white versus yellow is mostly cultural. Wisconsin is yellow cheddar territory. Vermont is white cheddar. We have some shops out in Ohio, and the idea of selling white cheddar there is crazy. But there is no intrinsic difference.
Why does Swiss cheese have holes in it?
As the cheese ripens, there is a bacteria inside it that breaks down the protein. It stretches the cheese and makes holes. The number and size of the holes has to do with how much bacteria is in the cheese, how active it is, and the temperature of the room that the cheese is aged in.
In the 1990s, people discovered goat cheese. In the early 2000s, high-end restaurants started offering cheese plates. What do you see as the next big cheese trend?
Cheese is something people are much more interested in and knowledgeable about than they were 20 years ago. But people are still pretty limited. They know Swiss, cheddar, goat cheese, blue cheese, brie and that's about it. But they keep learning. It's like what happened with wine. Fifty years ago, Americans didn't drink any wine. Then they discovered European wines. Then people started trying to make wine in California. Now people know American wine and European wine and they're starting to learn about grapes, like the difference between Merlot and pinot grigio. I think that will happen with cheese. I also think we'll see a lot more American-made cheeses from specific producers. That, to me, is the next big wave. We finally discovered wine, but cheese is about 20 years behind.
What is raw-milk cheese and why are people afraid of it?
Raw milk means unpasteurized. By law, raw-milk cheese must be aged for at least 60 days because it kills all the bad bacteria in the unpasteurized milk that might make people sick. After 60 days, it's safe. Raw-milk cheese has more vitamins and is better for you, but if you don't know about the 60-day rule you may think it's dangerous to eat. People want to be safe and they don't want to get sick. They know there's a law but they don't know what the law is. Eventually they'll learn.
Is there anything in Cheez Whiz or powdered cheese that is actually cheese?
No, none of that is cheese. It's primarily made out of vegetable oil. Real cheese is made out of three things: milk, salt and some sort of coagulant, which will be listed either as enzymes or rennet on the label. You can add flavoring such as dill or pepper or nuts. Aside from that, cheese has three ingredients and only three ingredients.
If someone came to you with only a basic knowledge of cheese and they wanted to try something new, what would you suggest?
I think I would start with a variation of a cheese they have some familiarity with. I'd suggest an aged, clothbound cheddar. This is basically cheddar that is made in a traditional English style, in a big 30- to 50-lb. wheel, not in a block. The wheel is wrapped in cheesecloth and sealed with melted lard or some sort of oil. It's aged in a room on a wood shelf for nine to 14 months. The flavor development is totally different from cheddar that you would, say, grate on an omelet. It's drier, more crumbly and the flavor is nutty. It has a lot of caramelized toffee flavors to it. It's not sharp. People love it.Following the decision by rating agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the ratings for nine euro-zone countries, pressure is likely to increase on Germany, the country long viewed as a model during the crisis, but also the one that holds much of the money that is needed to solve it.
In its decision on Friday, S&P stated that Germany's rating is in excellent condition, but experts in the country fear that Berlin's contributions to the euro bailout will have to be considerably greater than initially planned. And Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said the downgrade of the nine countries will increase pressure for all the euro-zone countries to solve their budget and debt problems.
After a meeting of CDU leaders on Saturday, Merkel said, "We are now challenged to implement the fiscal compact even quicker... and to do it resolutely, not to try to soften it." Merkel was referring to the deal agreed in December by 26 European Union member states, with the exception of Britain, to enter into a fiscal pact that would see consolidated budget legislation in all countries and sanctions for violaters. The move by S&P, she said, had not come as a surprise. "We have taken note of this decision," she said. Merkel also noted, however, that "S&P is just one of three ratings agencies."
Frank Schäffler, the finance policy spokesman for the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Merkel's junior coalition partner, said he felt his criticism of Germany's participation in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the current euro bailout fund, had been indirectly confirmed by S&P. He said the downgrading was likely to have direct consequences for Berlin. The downgraded rating for Austria alone, he told the financial daily Handelsblatt, would mean that "Germany would no longer just have to carry 40 percent, but close to 75 percent (of the burden) to ensure the euro bailout fund EFSF retained its AAA rating."
He said the current German guarantee of 211 billion would no longer be sufficient in order to achieve the volume of aid that had been originally planned. "Over time, that will also impose a burden on the German rating," the FDP politician warned, saying that the "socialization of losses" through the bailout fund could not go on forever.
But during her press conference on Saturday, Merkel sought to downplay worries about the ratings loss. "I was never of the opinion that the EFSF necessarily has to be AAA," Merkel said. "AA+ is also not a bad rating." She added that the "work of the EFSF will not be torpedoed" by the downgrade.
Opposition Calls for Germany to Halt Planned Tax Cut
The center-left, opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) is using the downgrade to call on the government to cancel tax cuts it is currently planning. "The downgrade is a warning shot for Germany that cannot go unheard," a senior SPD member of parliament, Thomas Oppermann, said on Saturday in Berlin. "It also threatens to create additional burdens for Germany in the scope of the euro bailout fund," the SPD politician stated.
In Berlin, the Finance Ministry rejected the objections, with a spokesperson stating that the austerity measures that had already been passed would stabilize the finances of the euro zone in the longer term. "Our recent experience has shown that the markets have already taken positive notice," the spokesperson said. On Thursday, Italy and Spain completed successful bond auctions at considerably lower interest rates than the kinds of yields the countries had seen in recent weeks. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi even said it indicated "tentative signs of stabilization" for the region. And Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Euro Group which represents the 17 euro-zone countries, also pointed to progress that has been made with reforms.
In the private sector, some expressed anger over S&P's decision. "In light of the wide-reaching reforms in many crisis countries within the euro zone, it is not justifiable," said Rolf Schneider, deputy chief economist for German global insurance giant Allianz. He said major progress had been made at the December EU summit where the fiscal pact had been agreed to.
S&P Expresses Disappointment over EU Leaders
On Friday, S&P issued downgrades for Italy, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus as well as France and Austria, which lost their AAA ratings. S&P officials said that European politicians hadn't done enough to contain the debt crisis. The ratings agency said it had also been disappointed by the results of December's EU summit. The S&P experts warned "that credit availablility and economic growth might decelerate" in the euro zone. It added that European politicians were still divided over the correct approach to solving the crisis.
In France, the euro-zone's second-largest economy, the opposition has taken the downgrade as an opportunity -- coming as it does three months before the French go to the polls to elect their next president -- to sharply attack President Nicolas Sarkozy. Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party's (PS) candidate for president, accused the government of failure. "Nicolas Sarkozy declared the triple-A rating to be the goal of his politics and also a condition for his government," the politician said during a press conference in Paris.
Only Four Euro-Zone Countries Still Retain AAA Ratings
In an interview given to French public TV station France 2 on Friday night, Finance Minister Francois Baroin sought to minimize the potential damage. "It is not the ratings agencies that dictate France's policies," he said. He also called on people to remain calm, stating that while losing the AAA rating is not good news, "it is not a catastrophe." France retains an excellent rating, he said.
S&P now considers the outlook to be negative for 14 countries, even if some managed to escape a downgrade this time. The rating agency stated there is a one in three chance that those countries would be downgraded this year or next. Besides Germany, Slovakia is the only other country in the euro zone with a stable outlook, according to S&P.
In early December S&P, the United States' largest ratings agency, placed ratings for the euro-zone states under greater scrutiny. After Friday's decision, the only remaining euro-zone countries that still possess the top AAA rating are Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg.U.S. House of Representatives
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to capture and store Americans' confidential text messages, according to a proposal that will be presented to a congressional panel today.
Nashville Bar Association
The law enforcement proposal would require wireless providers to record and store customers' SMS messages -- a controversial idea akin to requiring them to surreptitiously record audio of their customers' phone calls -- in case police decide to obtain them at some point in the future.
"Billions of texts are sent every day, and some surely contain key evidence about criminal activity," Richard Littlehale from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will tell Congress, according to a copy (PDF) of his prepared remarks. "In some cases, this means that critical evidence is lost. Text messaging often plays a big role in investigations related to domestic violence, stalking, menacing, drug trafficking, and weapons trafficking."
Littlehale's recommendations echo a recommendation that a constellation of law enforcement groups, including the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, the National District Attorneys' Association, and the National Sheriffs' Association, made to Congress in December, which was first reported by CNET.
They had asked that an SMS retention requirement be glued onto any new law designed to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act for the cloud computing era -- a move that would complicate debate over such a measure and erode support for it among civil libertarians and the technology firms lobbying for a rewrite.
Excerpts from court opinion in Rhode Island murder case "Sgt. Gates sent a letter to T-Mobile in advance of obtaining the warrant for the T-Mobile phone records to ask the service provider to preserve the information that he expected to request by the warrant. T-Mobile produced the requested information on October 20, 2009, and the records show that Defendant's use of the T-Mobile cell phone was almost exclusively for text messaging. The results also reveal that T-Mobile does not store, and has no capacity to produce, the content of subscriber text messages.... "Unlike T-Mobile, Verizon was able to produce records with text messaging content in them. The content of the LG cell phone matches the photographs taken on October 4, 2009 by Det. Cushman, including a text message which reads, 'Wat if I got 2 take him 2 da hospital wat do I say and dos marks on his neck omg,' which is the message that Sgt. Kite testified to having seen that morning.... "Sprint/Nextel responded on October 13, 2009. It produced two preserved text messages, both of which were unrelated to this case, and no voice mail messages."
Today's hearing before a House Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) is designed to evaluate how ECPA should be upgraded. CNET reported yesterday that the Justice Department is proposing that any ECPA changes expand government surveillance powers over e-mail messages, Twitter direct messages, and Facebook direct messages in some ways, while limiting it in others. A Google representative is also testifying.
While the SMS retention proposal could open a new front in Capitol Hill politicking over electronic surveillance, the concept of mandatory data retention is hardly new. The Justice Department under President Obama has publicly called for new laws requiring Internet service providers to record data about their customers, and a House panel approved such a requirement in 2011.
Wireless providers' current SMS retention policies vary. An internal Justice Department document (PDF) that the ACLU obtained through the Freedom of Information Act shows that, as of 2010, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint did not store the contents of text messages. Verizon did for up to five days, a change from its earlier no-logs-at-all position, and Virgin Mobile kept them for 90 days. The carriers generally kept metadata such as the phone numbers associated with the text for 90 days to 18 months; AT&T was an outlier, keeping it for as long as seven years.
An e-mail message from a detective in the Baltimore County Police Department, leaked by Antisec and reproduced in a 2011 Wired article, says that Verizon keeps "text message content on their servers for 3-5 days." And: "Sprint stores their text message content going back 12 days and Nextel content for 7 days. AT&T/Cingular do not preserve content at all. Us Cellular: 3-5 days Boost Mobile LLC: 7 days"
During a criminal prosecution of a man for suspected murder of a 6-year-old boy, police in Cranston, R.I., tried to obtain copies of a customer's text messages from T-Mobile and Verizon. Superior Court Judge Judith Savage said at the time that, although she was "not unfamiliar with cell phones and text messaging," she "was stunned" to learn that providers had such different policies.
Littlehale also proposed that any attempt to update ECPA include revised "emergency" language that would allow police to demand records from providers without search warrants in some cases.
Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU, says he's skeptical about expanding emergency access. "Emergency can't be a magic word," he says. "Emergencies have to be documented subsequently to a judge the same way we would with a wiretap."Amaiya Zafar is a boxer. But to her disappointment, she was disqualified from participating in a championship because of her hijab.
On Sunday, her fight was called off at the Sugar Bert Boxing National Championships in Kissimmee, in Florida because she wanted to wear her religious headgear under her helmet. A devout Muslim, Zafar also wears a shirt and leggings under her uniform.
mprnews
But according to the uniform guidelines set by the International Boxing Association, such apparel was not deemed fit by authorities. Zafar's loss became her opponent, Aliyah Charbonier's gain. However, Charbonier did something so extraordinary that showed the world what champions are really made of.
In an attempt to do something significant and call out the authorities for their disqualification of Zafar, Charbonier shared her win with her.
Don't Miss 1.8 K SHARES 1.4 K SHARES 950 SHARES 94.2 K SHARES 48.6 K SHARES
Sarah O'Keefe-Zafar/Washinton Post
"This girl comes up to me then and puts her belt in my lap and says, 'This is yours. They disqualified you. You're the true winner. This is unfair.' Then we started hugging each other, and the owner (of the event) came and got me to make sure I got (a belt)", said Zafar, reports the Washington Post.
Twitter
Charbonier added, "It's just not right. It's not really a distraction for me what she's wearing. She still had on gloves and headgear. I felt really bad for her. They didn't give her a chance to fight. We tried to tell them that it was all right, but for safety purposes they say they need to have a visual of your arms. And yet they still have 18-year-olds fighting 20-somethings. It wasn't right."
More power to these girls - one who won't give up her sport because she's a Muslim, and the other who won't accept rules that are unjustified.A Career Defining UFC 202
Whether you like him or not Conor McGregor has elevated himself to the pinnacle of his profession. He has done this through putting in the long hours in the gym, nourishing his skill set and perfecting his technique.
His rapid rise to the top has been helped along though by what we like to call here in Ireland, the ‘gift of the gab’. This ability to make people want to listen to him, and furthermore tune into his fights has brought a whole new audience to the Mixed Martial Arts world. But ironically it’s this brash attitude and supreme confidence that has landed him in what must be an enormous pressure pot awaiting him this Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Conor is no stranger to pressure as he has been predicting domination of every opponent he has faced, and to his credit has walked the walk on every occasion. That was until he came up against Nate Diaz at UFC 196. The proud Stockton native pounced at the opportunity presented to him on ten days notice, after Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of his lightweight title defence with McGregor due to injury.
After absorbing some decent shots from Conor, who on the night put a lot of faith in trying to land that trusted left hand, Diaz found himself facing a physically and mentally exhausted McGregor. The Irish man shot for a desperation takedown and Diaz wasted no time controlling his foe. He executed a couple of beautiful transitions that resulted in a rear naked choke that can only be described as a thing of beauty.
Since then people have accused McGregor of having little or no ground game. This is an unfair assessment as Conor is a long term Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner and holds a respectful brown belt in the art. But it’s a whole different ball game when you are facing someone like Nate Diaz. A long term black belt that has had time to mature and polish on his amazing BJJ skill set.
Now here we are with the rematch upon us and credit must go to Conor for intentionally making the fight even more difficult this second time around. Because that’s exactly what he has done by making this fight at 170lbs again. Giving a big man like Diaz full preparation in a weight division that is ideal for him to compete against a fighter that usually competes at 145lbs.
In the build up to UFC 196 Diaz questioned Conor McGregor’s training partners and suggested the Irish man would need to be sparring better people in preparation for a fight with him. Fast forward to today and that’s exactly what McGregor and his team have done. SBG head coach John Kavanagh likes to live by the motto ‘Win or Learn’, and it seems like they have learnt a lot on this occasion.
Time will only tell of course but if McGregor can prove to have adapted in his preparation, surely that adaptation will transform into the fight. For whatever reason Conor had no fluidity in his movement in the first fight. I expect that to be restored this time around and I also expect McGregor to take advantage of Diaz’ habit of leaving his lead right leg very open.
Conor will want to get chopping at that lead leg as soon as possible as key to his success will be taking away Diaz’ balance. By disturbing his attempts to use his reach and control the distance, McGregor will be in an area where he will feel at his most dangerous. I believe Conor McGregor has in his locker the ability to dominate a fighter like Diaz, and more.
But make no mistake about it, for me Diaz is the most difficult opponent Conor McGregor has faced. A man that isn’t afraid to lose is a dangerous man, and Nate Diaz fits that bill. In this rare occasion McGregor is facing an opponent were his legendary mind games are non effective. Nate has used mental warfare throughout his whole career and is more than capable in holding his own in the psychological battle.
On paper it’s looking very like a 50/50 fight, and what’s at stake for the men is equally as important. A second successive win over McGregor would be massive for Nate, making this easily the biggest fight of his career. Surely he would then be in a position to challenge for a title and one can only imagine the increase in his fan base.
Another loss for Conor and it puts him in a place where the pull of his brash confidence to a wide audience would be taking a massive hit. But in victory for the notorious one, all of a sudden his reputation is recaptured and heightened. His public assessment of where he made mistakes and the specific areas in which he needs to improve will only enhance his already adoring fan base, should he pull of his predicted round 2 finish.
Crucially, for the person that Conor McGregor is, victory will be adding even more ammo to his psychological arsenal going forward. It would go a long way in his attempts to resurrect the aura of invincibility that surrounded him. And knowing the promotion he will probably be immediately restored to his privileged position of choosing his next career move, which I’m sure will have us all as enthralled as ever.
By Neal Martin
Follow on Twitter: @NealKnows
Images courtesy of entimports.com, foxsports.com, wallsdesk.com & wsj.comIf there's one thing more universally reviled that interstitial ads—you know, those full-page ads that force you to wait for a few interminable seconds before you can get to the content—it's auto-playing Flash ads, especially if they contain audio. Good news: The next version of Chrome will automatically block Flash content that isn't "central to the webpage."
Google has been working with Adobe for years to get Flash and Chrome to play nicely together, but clearly Google has decided that Flash usage on the Web needs to be curtailed and controlled just a little bit more.
Writing on the official Google Chrome Blog, Google's Tommi Li explains that this new feature is all about battery life: Flash animations still consume a large amount of CPU time, which in turn slurps down some of your laptop's vital lithium juice. By "intelligently" pausing any Flash elements that aren't central to the surfing experience—which is essentially a euphemism for "ads"—mobile users may experience a non-negligible boost in battery life.
The "important plug-in content" change was rolled out to the beta channel of Google Chrome today, and will percolate down to the stable channel of Chrome "soon"—probably in about six weeks.
In our brief testing, the "important plug-in content" feature seemed to do a good job of blocking Flash ads, including a Flash ad at the top of the YouTube homepage. Rather than blocking Flash elements entirely, the feature pauses the ads before they begin; you can then hit a "play" button if you want to see the ad (or if Chrome accidentally pauses the wrong Flash elements). It's not clear if the new feature blocks other Flash-based content, such as cookies.
Perhaps most importantly, this feature will be turned on by default. When it hits the stable channel, hundreds of millions of Chrome users will have their Flash ads greyed out. If the advertising industry has been holding out on switching to HTML5, this will probably be the straw that finally breaks their resolve.2:12pm: The A’s are paying $650K of Cespedes’ salary but are getting back $1.8MM from the Red Sox for Lester’s salary, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
11:35am: The teams have announced the trade. Nightengale tweets the exact figure that will be heading to Oakland: $650K.
10:09am: Dave Cameron of Fangraphs reports another wrinkle in the trade: Cespedes’ contract calls for him to be non-tendered at the end of his deal (if he is not first extended) in order to assure him early free agency, and he therefore is ineligible to receive a qualifying offer following the 2015 season (Twitter links).
9:14am: The Red Sox are sending under $1MM to the A’s in the trade, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Meanwhile, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America tweets that the value of the Competitive Balance pick that Boston receives will be roughly $800K.
8:54am: Passan tweets that Oakland is also sending a competitive balance draft pick to the Red Sox in the trade, and Boston is sending cash to Oakland. The A’s landed the second pick in Comp Round B in last week’s lottery.
8:49am: The Athletics have acquired Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes from the Red Sox in exchange for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com (Twitter links). Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first reported that Lester had been traded to an unknown club, while Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com first connected the A’s and Lester earlier this week.
The addition of Lester will give Oakland an incredibly formidable rotation for the balance of the regular season, but perhaps more importantly, in the playoffs. Lester, who has posted a 2.52 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 and a 43.2 percent ground-ball rate, will join fellow trade acquisition Jeff Samardzija, free agent signing Scott Kazmir and homegrown star Sonny Gray atop Oakland’s rotation.
It’s possible that the struggles of Jason Hammel, acquired from the Cubs along with |
spreads machines that share responsibility for performing a particular task across multiple fault domains and update domains inside a computer (Hyper-V) cluster. If you deploy machines in valid availability sets, the service that the machines perform qualifies for a 99.95 percent SLA.
Single Datacenter
We need to remind ourselves a little about Azure theory before we go forward. Let’s say that you deploy a pair of virtual machines, in an availability set, into the East US Azure region. This region is made up of numerous data centres (Microsoft never states how many data centers are in each region). Your virtual machines are deployed into a single data center. That data center can give you so much high availability, but every single storage cluster and compute cluster within that building share common points of failure such as fire suppression, power, and networking. You can deploy as many availability sets, guest clusters, and service availability architectures as you want, but your service will only be as highly-available as that single building.
For almost everyone, I suspect, 99.95 percent is going to be enough for service availability. In the event of a data centre being lost, we can always fail virtual machines/services over to another region, assuming that we have replicated databases, virtual machines, and so forth.
Myth-busting: Neither Microsoft or AWS automatically replicate your stuff to another region. If you want regional fault tolerance, then you have to deploy that system and pay for it.
What if you want more? What if 99.95 percent is not enough and you want four nines (99.99 percent) in a single region? That wasn’t possible in Azure, but Microsoft is starting to roll out a new offering called availability zones.
Availability Zones
As I stated before, an Azure region is made up of several data centers. Each data center, or group of data centers, has its own resources such as power and networking. Each set of independent data centers, or group of data centers, that does not share resources with others is called an availability zone.
You will be able to deploy services into a region and select which availability zone that those services go into. This will ensure that if one availability zone goes dark, your service(s) remain online in another availability zone, qualifying you for a 99.99 percent SLA for the service.
It sounds simple but this will impact your architecture and spend. You cannot just throw out two machines and spread them across two availability zones. These machines are in different buildings, so there will be access/performance/architecture problems by assuming that one can go simple.
Instead, you’ll deploy copies of each service into a different availability zone, probably with availability sets in each availability zone, and then use Traffic Manager to aggregate the copies into a single load-balanced or failover set. It is a bit more involved than you might have thought but getting an extra 0.05 percent of availability does cost a lot of money once you go over three nines (99.9 percent), even if you try to do it on-premises.
Availability
A preview of availability zones has started in the West Europe and East US 2 Azure regions. Microsoft has promised that availability zones should appear in other US, Asia, and European regions before the end of the year, including France Central (not publicly available at the time of writing).He also noted that he has perspective on the whole situation, answering a fan who said, “Don’t let it get to you” by saying he wouldn’t, and that his Twitter thoughts were simply him “having a moment.”
Taylor is entitled to such a moment, because he’s right. Of course he is.
He’s right, too, to be frustrated – just as he would have been right to be frustrated recently when he was not included on NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt’s list of the Top 27 running backs in NFL history.
Brandt is as knowledgeable as it comes when it comes to all-time NFL players, but not having Taylor on a list of Top 27 running backs is a miss.
For that matter, not having him pretty high on that list is a miss, too.
Taylor not being in the mix for the Hall is a miss, too. It’s a miss that deserves discussion – the same as former Jaguars offensive tackle Tony Boselli not being in the Hall yet deserves discussion. Both players are deserving, and discussion keeps hopes alive.
The first thing that must happen for Taylor is this: he must be among the modern-era nominees, which he has not been in his first two years of eligibility. This clearly is an oversight. Teams do not nominate players for the Hall; if they did, the number of nominees would be absurdly high and include every retired player from every team.
The Hall of Fame website says that anyone, including fans, can nominate a player. Committee members can do it, and even a player himself. The thought here is that with this issue gaining profile, Taylor will be on the nominee list for 2018.
The modern-era nominees are released in September, with 25 semifinalists announced in November and 15 finalists announced in January. That’s the group that gets voted upon by electors along with senior and contributor finalists. Hall voting takes place the day before each Super Bowl.
The road can be a long, frustrating one. Jaguars fans have seen this in recent years while following Boselli’s process. A five-time Pro Bowl selection and 1990s All-Decade member, Boselli first made the Hall semifinal list in 2016. He made the Top 10 in the 2017 voting, and momentum seems to be in his favor.
It’s conceivable that Taylor will have a similar path.
The reason that’s conceivable is Taylor’s credentials are absolutely Hall-worthy. He is the NFL’s 17th all-time leading rusher, and his 4.6-yards-per-carry average is fourth among backs in the Top 20. Six of his seven 1,000-yard seasons were 1,200-yard seasons and stand as statistical proof of what those who watched him closely know – that his rare combination of size, strength and speed made him not only a bruising, physical runner but a breakaway threat on every carry.
How special was Taylor? Watch a highlight video. Watch him break through the line; watch him fake one way and leave defenders falling another way. Watch him accelerate after a juke and leave defenders with tackling angles in his wake.
“Look at the numbers,” former Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell said during an appearance on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football Thursday. “Look at the impact he made while he was on the field. That speaks for itself right there. I think that's a great argument. Look at the production on the field, the longevity. I think you could make a great argument.”
This won’t be easy for Taylor. I’m not one who believes Hall voters have a bias against Jacksonville, but neither will Taylor have the benefit of having played in a Super Bowl, or in a large market, or from having been a prime-time staple while playing. It’s not right that those things matter in Hall voting, but the influence is real. His road to the Hall will be rough. Rightly or wrongly.SAN DIEGO, California (Reuters) - The Mexican help wanted ads offer a quick $500 for a simple job - drive a car into California on an errand for an “important business” organization.
But the new boss may be a drug cartel and the cargo may not be vital papers, or even money, but illegal narcotics. Hidden in the car could be marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines that, if found by law enforcement, could land the driver in prison for many years.
The drug traffickers’ ruse has snared more than 40 people since the start of last year, arrested as they cross the border at the two bustling ports of entry from the industrial powerhouse of Tijuana, Mexico.
The unwitting drug mules tell investigators on both sides of the border the same story: They responded to ads in Tijuana and were simply doing their new employer’s bidding.
“They are hiring these people for supposedly legal work as couriers, in sales, vehicle delivery and currency exchange houses,” said Alfredo Arenas, of the State Preventative Police in Mexico’s northern Baja California.
“When they cross over the border, (the vehicles) are loaded with drugs,” he added.
The cartels’ new trick was first spotted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents early last year after a run of drug seizures at the ports of entry at San Ysidro and Otay Mesa. The ads seeking drivers were appearing as late as last week.
“In one case, a man we caught told us his wife insisted that he search the car before he crossed the border, but he didn’t search the gas tank and that’s where the smugglers had hidden the narcotics,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Supervisor Lester Hayes said.
“There’s often a willful blindness. People who know it doesn’t sound right but they figure the less they know the better,” he added.
The powerful Mexican cartels based in Tijuana attempt to smuggle billions of dollars worth of drugs each year through ports of entry, clandestine tunnels, and by sea, using ever changing wiles to try to confound U.S. border police.
‘SMUGGLERS TRAP’
In some cases the frightened drivers said they were promised a job would be waiting for them in California if they drove the car there from Mexico, said Millie Jones, Special Agent in Charge at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Once they arrived in the United States they were told they did not get the job and were paid to leave the car.
Offering jobs to bilingual men and women with U.S. passports or visas is just the latest way Mexican cartels use unsuspecting border crossers to ferry narcotics to U.S. markets.
Last year, federal police in El Paso, Texas, uncovered a cartel ring that made duplicate keys for the vehicles of commuters who frequently crossed north from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to work or study in the West Texas city.
Unknown to the owners, cartel operators had unlocked the car trunks, often while the owners slept, and loaded them with sacks of marijuana which they planned to remove once the car was parked stateside.
That scheme lead to the arrest of one accused trafficker.
In a bid to curb the new trend snaring drivers using the Tijuana-San Diego corridor, investigators have taken the unusual step of placing Spanish advertisements in the same Tijuana newspapers in which the smugglers advertise.
“Warning! Drug traffickers are advertising jobs for drivers to cross to the United States. Don’t be a victim of the smugglers’ trap,” reads one the advertisements, which the Immigration and Customs agency is running for 30 days at a cost of $2,000.
Besides warning potential recruits that if the job sounds too good to be true, it probably means trouble, the ads include a toll-free number and website information as federal agents try to track down the smugglers behind the recruiting efforts.
“We’ll pay for information about how they’re doing this and we’re hoping to hear from people who didn’t take the job because it didn’t sound right,” said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the U.S. immigration and customs agency.Our mujahideen heroes of Iraq's Jihadi Battalion were able to capture American military man JohnAdam after killing a number of his comrades and capturing the rest. God willing, we will behead him if our female and male prisoners are not released from U.S. prisons within the maximum period of 72 hours from the time this statement has been released.
On February 1, 2005 the media reported that a hostage had been taken in Iraq. Broadcasts showed a photo (top) of a U.S. soldier sitting on the ground with a rifle pointed at his head. The photo came from an internet bulletin board frequently used by Iraqi rebels, where it was accompanied by this statement:The Mujahideen Squadron had kidnapped a Brazilian engineer the previous month, so although the U.S. military denied any soldier was missing, the threat seemed credible. However, many bloggers questioned the photo, pointing out that the soldier was strangely expressionless for someone with a rifle pointed at his head and his arms twisted behind his back. The gun also looked fake.Within hours American toy manufacturer Dragon Models USA Inc. issued a statement noting that "John Adam" closely resembled its Cody action-figure doll (middle). A side-by-side comparison revealed the two to be one and the same.A week later on a Jihadist message board, an anonymous "20-year-old Iraqi young man... unarmed [and] independent" took responsibility for the hoax, insisting it was just "a scheme that I made up with a toy that I bought with $5." Accompanying his confession, a photo (bottom) showed the hostage scene from a different angle, the tiny rifle held between someone's fingers.Actress, legend, humanitarian and Burton-Burton Dame Elizabeth Taylor was an early and important advocate in the fight against HIV/AIDS. She lobbied a cruelly indifferent administration to take action; when it didn't, she co-founded amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research; and she stood publicly by longtime friend Rock Hudson during his battle with the disease.
Related | The Battle of amfAR: How Liz Taylor Tricked Reagan Into Talking About AIDS
But that wasn't all the Dame did. Taylor's protégée—supermodel, affordable home goods mogul and AIDS activist Kathy Ireland—recently revealed to Entertainment Tonight that Liz ran an illegal safe house for people with AIDS where they could receive experimental medication, as depicted in The Dallas Buyers Club:
“Talk about fearless in her home in Bel-Air. It was a safe house. A lot of the work that she did, it was illegal, but she was saving lives. It was in a time when it was not something to do. Business associates pleaded with her, ‘Leave this thing alone.’ She received death threats. Friends hung up on her when she asked for help, but something that I love about Elizabeth is her courage.”
Taylor even hocked some of her famous jewels to fund the operation.
As the Reagan Administration and the FDA were dragging their feet on finding a cure, these kinds of buyers clubs became essential for people with AIDS to receive unapproved prescription drugs from foreign countries like Mexico, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as information on treating HIV and opportunistic infections.
And there was Liz Taylor, yelling at Congress, making clandestine drops of cash in paper bags and redefining the role of celebrity in the fight against the deadliest epidemic in modern times. All the while dripping in fur and diamonds. Meanwhile, when is this being made into a movie? Lohan, you stay out of this.
Les Fabian Brathwaite Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky.
[h/t] JezebelRussian is a tough language to learn not because of the complex tenses and six cases, but because the style of communication is what matters most. The Russian style not only expresses the mood of the speaker or writer, a certain political situation, or the time and circumstances of the moment; the Russian style also “smells.” Or stinks.
Thus, Russian politics are all about the style of expression, and the language used to convey a political message in Russia is more than just a mere communication tool. It’s a cult and has been one since 1917.
Within the first year after the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin changed the Russian alphabet, the grammar, the syntaxes and even the time: The country finally adopted the Gregorian calendar and established time zones. But the most significant alteration occurred in the style of Soviet discourse. Stalin later converted what wasn’t even his native tongue (he grew up speaking Georgian) into a veritable arsenal for warfare, redefining way state officials spoke, wrote and, regrettably, thought. It was all done to mask his Big Lie in layer upon layer of obfuscation and hidden meaning.
Stalin’s style was difficult to ignore because there were four main foundations underlying it.
Self-questioning
Stalin’s classic essay “Marxism and the Issues of Language Studies” gives a perfect example of this style: “The question arises, what have changed in Russian language since the October Revolution? The vocabulary shifted significantly, in a sense that it got amended with a large number of words and idioms.”
The question here only “arose” because Stalin himself raised it.
Metonymy
As developed in the Stalinist style, this is when the speaker seamlessly assigns a much broader and encompassing name to refer to a specific thing or constituency. Some pure examples remain in the Soviet archives, such as this statement from 1976:
“Those forces in the West are capable of any deception method to complicate the issue of the termination of the arms race.”
“Those forces in the West” refers to the American military-industrial complex but note how much more ambiguously menacing the reformulation is. “Forces” suggests a multitude with global reach.
Proactive Commentary
This is when the speaker says something even if no one is seeking his opinion. Overreaction laden with clichés of ideology and emotive abuse is the defining feature. A classic form of such commentary was an unsolicited “reaction to anti-Soviet hysteria in country X”.
The following quote, for instance, is taken from a 1977 Soviet communique:
“In China, (we observe) a widening scale of the anti-Soviet campaign that is maintained by propagandistic institutions and officials at all levels. Chinese press and other media distributes daily obvious lies and slanders in regard to the USSR, those are not much different from imperialist propaganda that has long discredited itself with the peoples of the world.”
Now here’s one by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich, reacting to a U.S. State Department report on human rights in June 2015, which of course contained criticism of Russian human rights abuses:
“The report published on June 25 by The Department of State of the USA on the conditions of human rights in the world, as with all previous opuses, is plagued with politicized remarks and rude ideological stock phrases. The document is nothing more than a serial specimen of American mentorship and lecturing manner in the area of human rights. This manner is grounded on a false logic of US’s infallibility and perceived problems other states have on the issue.”
In neither case was Moscow’s response necessary. It was freely offered, almost with a joyous expectancy of being able to get its “retaliation in first.”
Criminal Vocabulary
The Russian Civil War birthed a new gangland vocabulary for everyday use to denigrate real and perceived opponents of the Soviet order. It transcended Stalin’s own style to amplify the underlying mood of belligerence, if not mercilessness.
In the 1930s, the Stalinist criminal vocabulary became the subject of a famous satire, Golden Calf by Ilia Ilf and Eugeny Petrov. The central character, Ostap Bender, is a talented adventurist who tries to make his fortune on the edge of NEP (the New Economic Policy, which constituted a temporary turn back to capitalism in the USSR from 1921 to 1930). In one of the episodes, Bender travels on the train with a group of Soviet journalists whose verbal resources are maximally constrained by the new rules on revolutionary reportage. Bender creates a dictionary of over 100 clichéd constructions which perfectly comply with the Party’s editorial standards for journalism, he successfully sells it to the bored journalists who can now use it as boilerplate.
***
Today, Vladimir Putin has resurrected Stalin’s four foundations of style and encouraged his diplomats and government officials to employ them with the same frequency and purpose as his Soviet forbears.
I have analyzed all official communications of the Russian Foreign Ministry from September 2011 to June 2015, indexed them, and run them through a specific linguistic software called Voyant Tools, based on Stanford Natural Language processing toolkit. The total database consists of 2.5 million words, and 21,765 documents. Here’s what I found.
Self-Questioning
Self-questioning is barely present in Foreign Ministry statements until fall 2012, with the occasional use of a formulation such as, “Some partners of Russia question that…” But starting in 2013, when Putin took a harder stance against the West, self-questioning became much more frequent. The method skyrocketed in 2014, reaching 188 total uses, most commonly deployed by the nameless “press statements” on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
Official press statements are much less speculative and rarely employ Stalin’s favorite tool: a meager 25.
Lavrov is a great fan of self-questioning. He holds 66 of 189 uses of the formulation “the question arises” and its manifold variations.
The winner of self-questioning, however, is Lukashevich, with 101 uses, but some of his briefings and statements just repeat Lavrov’s earlier sentiments.
Metonymy
Likewise, metonymy has made a comeback. Consider this comment by Lavrov in his November 2013 Address to the State Duma:
“Some countries are guided with an opportunistic interest to circumvent the global limits on the use of force in international relations… It’s obvious for us that some countries exercise the power they possess more frequently and tend to redraw the guiding principles of international relations.”
He means only one country.
Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, however, the frequency of Stalinist metonymy grows. “Western partners,” “hegemonic force,” “some country that imagines itself a policeman of the world”—all these become have become frequent stand-ins for “White House” or “United States.”
Criminal Vocabulary
Putin himself is famous for deploying Bender-like formulations. He uses “whack” like an Italian mobster when he refers to what Russia will do to terrorists. Another favorite: “If my grandmother had balls, she’d be my grandfather,” used to derisively dismiss what he considers a non-possibility, such as the capacity for the post-Yanukovych Ukrainian transitional government to perform.
Typically, professional diplomats don’t resort to gangland jargon, but in Putin’s Russia, the exceptions are subtly smuggled in.
For instance, one Foreign Ministry briefing on June 29, 2012, read, in Russian, “Americans prefer to pull down their allies rather than take their interests into account.” To the untrained reader, this sounds hostile but ho-hum. However, the usage here of the verb, opustit (“to pull down”), in the Russian criminal argot refers to homosexual rape. Opustit, in fact, refers to how tougher inmates make weaker ones their “bitches.”
Proactive Commentary
When Russia abandoned its Soviet identity in 1991, its Foreign Ministry’s language changed accordingly. Diplomats attempted a sober neutrality and a more rational mode of communicating with the outside world. Until 2007, Russian diplomacy maintained a formal, if sometimes murky, style which rarely conveyed a single, unambiguous meaning. Moscow knew that its post-Soviet leaders would need wiggle room to dodge and obfuscate; in a democracy, climb-downs from original “official positions” were inevitable in the course of engagement other countries.
But in 2007, at the Munich Security Conference, Putin put aside this new mode of Russian “diplospeak.” He presented the idea that the collapse of the USSR “was the largest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” This was hardly unambiguous and signaled a calcification in the Russian view of recent history. Further, Putin blamed the West in seeking to humiliate Russia, thus wakening the “sleeping beasts” of the Soviet style.
I was working in Russian media at the time and remember this grim return to form quite well.
First, the vocabulary zombies crept back into conservative pro-government newspapers. The language again started to resemble the stochastic cocktail of Pravda, the old Party daily, as well the Benderist GoodFellas jargon. Today, these styles are everywhere.
Take, for instance, this Foreign Ministry Press Department statement on Macedonia from last May:
The news published by the Serbian media about the detention in Macedonia of some Montenegrin, who assisted the Kosovo Albanian extremists is a convincing proof of the plans run from outside that presume loosening the political situation in the country, trying to push it into the abyss of a color revolution. This is proof that Western organizers of such catastrophic scenarios prefer to exercise their proxy using the Ukraine, and now Macedonia, as citizens of those countries which, like Montenegro, are attracted by the lure of NATO. The more than obvious danger for Europe is now provoking chaos in the Balkans, spiraling conflict in the region, which has has not yet recovered from the bloodshed of the 1990s.
The first sentence is 32 words in Russian! And note the context: Macedonians protested against corruption and the feebleness of their own government in countering it, with some calling for an end to Macedonian-Russian cooperation on a notoriously crooked gas pipe project. They also called for faster accession into NATO. Finally, the Foreign Ministry is actually reacting to Serbian press speculations about events in a neighboring country, rather than to any on-the-ground, factual information. This is the classic proactive commentary of the bad old days.
I mentioned earlier that the thug’s lexicon is particularly noisome to the Russian speaker. This is intentional because the Foreign Ministry, despite its remit, is actually communication to a domestic rather than international audience.
To some extent, this irony can even be quantified.
A data analysis I performed of Foreign Ministry communication from September 2011 to June 2015 shows that a mere 10 percent of the statements contains a direct call to action (“do something, change something”). Another 14 percent is suggestive (“it’s time to think about…” or “our partners have to think about…”). This 24 percent can thus be viewed as written for a foreign audience.
However, some official statements are “factual,” such as the reporting on a meeting between Lavrov or his deputies with foreign officials. These constitute 18 percent of the total. Then there are those statements and interviews that attempt to “explain” Russian foreign policy, from global warming to the war in Ukraine. These statements are meant exclusively for Russians and are often untranslated into any other language. They constitute 75 percent of all Foreign Ministry communications. And sometimes the Russians they’re geared toward are in fact other agents of the Putin regime.
Consider this masterpiece published by Ministry on the day after former deputy prime minister and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was murdered:
We assume that support and protection of the human rights should be a goal rather than a tool of the political fight. In the European Council on Human Rights we oppose politicization of human rights and a compulsory export of standards that are typical for an isolated group of states as if those standards are global. It’s unacceptable to exploit the human rights agenda to undermine the principles of the international laws and UN Charter, to substantiate the incursion with the internal affairs and violent scenarios of the solution of contradictions and arguments, establishment of economic sanctions. Such actions only deteriorate the situation in the “target” country and contribute to further violations of human rights.
This statement was meant to explain Lavrov’s participation in the UN Human Rights Conference in Geneva, taking place that week. The real ear for this denunciation of “politicized” human rights—i.e., human rights as they apply to Russia—is in fact the siloviki in the Kremlin. The Russian Foreign Ministry was telegraphing its loyalty to Moscow.
Haifei Huang, a researcher from University of California Riverside, published a very interesting study last year, in which he explained the signaling theory of propaganda. In the modern world, he said, information is much less censored and restricted—but the institutions that engage in political communication must send “signals” to the superiors and subordinates. Also, they have to demonstrate that they are loyal purveyors of the propaganda wherever and whenever they are charged to distribute it.
To the Western, democratic imagination, this sounds bizarre and redundant. Consider how odd it would be for the U.S. State Department to reaffirm its commitment to Barack Obama’s foreign policies, which it is duty-bound to carry out in the first place. But under authoritarian regimes, public declarations of fealty, couched in the discourse of statecraft, are everyday occurrences. Under Stalin, professions of embracing the party line were daily occurrences. Putin has revived them.
The problem, though, as Huang points out, is that signaling can reach everyone including those it’s not intended to. The Foreign Ministry’s messaging may show an unwavering line to Russians, but foreign embassies read and translate and disseminate these back to their capitals, and Western correspondents relay them in international newspapers. The impression given is that of an arrogant, thin-skinned and geopolitically psychotic nation, whose interests can only be misunderstood and inevitably transgressed.
— With additional research by Phillipp Kats.Jabrill Peppers has been put in a tough position by the Cleveland Browns, but it’s starting to turn around and he’s an easy player to root for.
I wouldn’t have picked Jabrill Peppers if I was running the Cleveland Browns draft. I was focused on pure free safety and specifically wanted players like Chidobe Awuzie, selected by the Dallas Cowboys and Marcus Williams, now a member of the New Orleans Saints. And given the struggles the Browns have had at free safety and the fact that position is still a need, it’d be easy to just chalk it up as a win and move on.
But the way Peppers has handled this season, how he’s fought through it and is finally seeing results in a position he’s never played, it’s not only easy to like and root for Peppers, but it also suggests he can be a very good player.
When the Browns selected Peppers with the 25th overall pick, Hue Jackson came out and said they viewed him as a strong safety. Gregg Williams was hoping to double dip at the position and get a free safety to go with Peppers in Obi Melifonwu in the second round. The Browns ended up taking DeShone Kizer at the 52nd pick and Melifonwu went 56th to the Oakland Raiders. Save for signing an undrafted rookie in Kai Nacua, the Browns didn’t address free safety.
It might be a chicken or the egg conversation as to how Peppers got to free safety. Derrick Kindred may have legitimately been underrated by the staff and surprised them with what he could do at strong safety, which then basically left free safety for the rookie to play. It’s also possible that the Browns viewed this in terms of a best 11 equation and simply felt this way the best way for them to get the best 11 players on the field on defense. It’s not clear how they got there.
The bottom line is that Peppers was pressed into duty at free safety, a position he hadn’t played. This after Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown asked Peppers to switch from strong safety to SAM linebacker for the sake of the Wolverines defense. In fact, Peppers was a corner in 2014, so he’s now playing his fourth different position in four years.
The Wolverines were consistently gouged on the perimeter the year before, so the newly hired Brown took his best athlete to deal with the problem, having Peppers play with a consistent outside leverage to force opponents inside to what was a stout, but not terribly athletic interior. This resulted in a massive improvement to the Michigan defense even if it maybe wasn’t the greatest thing for Peppers in terms of his development. In both cases, when Peppers was asked to switch positions, he did so for the sake of the team without a hint of complaint, which is commendable.
The first half of this season has been a huge struggle for Peppers. He’s been a mess in space, been caught out of position, taken poor angles on plays that have resulted in missed tackles and simply not been able to make plays on the ball. Peppers looked lost. And every time he was asked about it, he didn’t make an excuse. He owned it and vowed to get better while maintaining what has been a great attitude.
This was on display the second he got to Cleveland. After he had been here basically 20 minutes, ESPN Cleveland had what amounted to be a hit piece, allowing then employee Sabrina Parr claim she had seen Peppers out in Cleveland on multiple drugs. She was fired for it, but it set an unfortunate tone and was incredibly irresponsible. Welcome to Cleveland, Jabrill.
Peppers did have a diluted sample at the combine and it’s not entirely clear why. For reasons that aren’t clear, prospects aren’t allowed to wait and retest to get a better sample. Regardless, the assumption is Peppers was guilty and had an illegal substance in his system, which would be the first failed drug test he’s ever had. He handled this fiasco from ESPN Cleveland and all of the questions about the diluted test with professionalism, as he has with everything else.
That attitude has been a constant that makes it easy to like Peppers and why it would be understandable that a team could fall in love with the kid in the draft process. Peppers has a tremendous attitude and has a natural charisma that makes people gravitate to him. Teammates loved him at Michigan and if Sunday is any indication, this locker room thinks the world of him already.
Since the bye week, Peppers has been substantially better. He’s been in far better position, he’s seeing the field better and he’s making plays on the ball. In his case, that means physically separating the receiver from the football with force. The way he’s going, Peppers could develop a reputation of being a bit of an intimidator as he has come down hill like a missile a few times to make big hits on opponents.
And that gets back to Sunday. Peppers was flagged for a personal foul for hitting a defenseless receiver. The hit was clean, the exact way the NFL has told players to hit. Peppers led with his shoulder, hit the receiver in the ‘strike zone’ in his trunk, knocking the ball loose. This was all while bringing the physicality the NFL loves to showcase in promos, highlights and anywhere else they can sell the sport. It was a bad call. And despite the call, this play is going to plastered everywhere the NFL and the Browns can, so keep an eye out for it.
To his credit, Peppers resisted the urge to complain. He said he needed to do a better job. His teammates on defense to a man all said the same thing. Don’t change a thing. And Peppers shouldn’t. It’s a frustrating call on a player that made a play that should’ve given the Browns a chance to tie the game and instead went against them, setting up the touchdown that sealed the game. It’s a shame for Peppers, but certainly won’t hold him back.
Peppers is still not a longterm free safety, but his experience this year could be valuable for him in the future. Presumably the Browns will try to take a true free safety and have Peppers move over to strong safety, since he can offer more at the position than Derrick Kindred can. The Browns should find ways to put Peppers, Kindred and a true free safety on the field at the same time.
Peppers getting a better understanding for space and having to be responsible for the entire field and seeing the game in front of him could help him at strong safety. Having a much smaller area to be responsible for, he can hopefully be significantly more confident and aggressive.
The larger benefit may be enabling the Browns to have a much stronger Cover-2 look. Peppers and a free safety can divide the field in half, keep everything in front of them and come up and make plays on the ball. Peppers would have half the real estate to be responsible for as he does normally and that experience at free safety may give him substantially more confidence in understanding how and where opponents are trying to go with the ball, so he can anticipate and attack.
Being a strong safety with a good grounding in free safety rules and responsibilities can be extremely valuable. It opens up some defensive play calling options in terms of disguising defenses, blitzing the true free and having Peppers cover that spot, so on and so forth.
Additionally, the hope is that Peppers will use the upcoming offseason to get comfortable and effective in man coverage. The Browns are routinely butchered by opposing tight ends in part because they don’t jam them at the line of scrimmage as well as simply needing better coverage at specific positions.
It would be great if this is something that Peppers can add to his game. And if the Browns do want him to do this, he’ll be able to practice against players like David Njoku and Seth DeValve, who are both extremely athletic space players that can cause a number of problems. If Peppers can do it, he can really be a truly well-rounded safety that can do a bit of everything.
It remains to be seen how Jabrill Peppers will work out with the Cleveland Browns and there are no shortage of skeptics. They don’t believe he can cover, has no real position and was moved from safety at Michigan because he couldn’t play it. Of those who do believe in Peppers, the vast majority seems to stem from a belief in Peppers the person as well as the player. The Browns still need a free safety and although I wouldn’t have picked Peppers myself, I am excited to see how he’s going to grow and evolve as a player and find myself coming to like him more the more I see of him.Curling up with a good book may be in your holiday plans, but will the pages you flip be paper or digital?
When e-books were first introduced more than a decade ago it appeared that print was in danger, but that so-called death of the physical book hasn't happened.
According to the Association of American Publishers, U.S. e-book sales during the first five months of 2015 declined by 10.3 per cent.
Canadian sales flat
BookNet Canada has done consumer research around e-books sales in Canada and found that sales on this side of the border are not going up.
"What we are seeing in Canada is that over the last year or so, two years, it's been a... plateauing of the e-book numbers," said BookNet Canada CEO Noah Genner.
Genner urged caution over the low sales numbers being reported in the U.S. suggesting that they aren't all inclusive and only take into account e-book sales by the big publishers.
"There is a whole other piece of the market that isn't reported into those AAP numbers and that's self-published authors and micro-publishers and even some indie publishers. And so they may be doing very very well in digital," said Genner.
E-books priced too high
As for why consumers are buying fewer e-books, Genner suggested pricing could be part of the problem.
"E-book prices have actually risen, especially on new titles and bestseller titles, to actually be very close to the print book price. So that has definitely an effect. So people who are using price to shop are not seeing that differential," said Genner.
Jo Saul opened Type Books in Toronto a decade ago during a time when bookstores were closing and e-books weren't even on the horizon.
"We didn't even know what was in store for us. But even at that time |
, that sort of movement reflects the fact that there’s plenty of interest in the 25-year-old, but also questions about just what kind of contributions he’ll make in the near term in the majors. He owns a.213/.310/.410 batting line in his 142 MLB plate appearances, all of which came over the last two years in Tampa Bay. But the righty hitter owns a solid.243/.338/.445 slash with thirty long balls over 778 total Triple-A plate appearances.
The 26-year-old Aguilar hasn’t hit much in scattered MLB time over the past three years, and has burned through his options in the process. But he, too, has shown more in the upper minors. In his 1,647 trips to the plate at Triple-A, the right-handed-hitting Venezuelan carries a.271/.346/.472 batting line and has swatted 68 home runs.evilfeminist answered:
The following was written by feminist Michele Braa-Heidner.:
If heterosexuality was expressed in a non patriarchal, male dominated scenario, heterosexuality may have merit, but as it stands, existing within the confines of patriarchy, we must question it completely. Why do women want to be with men knowing what we know about men? Knowing that all men disrespect and hate women most of the time? Seeing the devastating results of male violence against women historically and currently? Seeing men dominate, oppress, violate and murder women? We must ask ourselves is our heterosexuality healthy or is it an adapted survival behavior in response to male violence against females? Since we don’t have any frame of reference for healthy heterosexuality where women and men are both respected free and equal human beings, we cannot say with any conviction that patriarchal heterosexuality is normal, healthy or natural. Since we don’t have any frame of reference of a type of heterosexuality that exists without the component of male violence against women, we cannot come to the conclusion that patriarchal heterosexuality is normal, healthy or natural.
When women against all logic and evidence, continue to have relationships with men, regardless of how they treat us, we must conclude that there is another mechanism in play here. When we begin to question heterosexuality, I mean really question it and dismantle it within the patriarchal confines, we expose the insanity of women “choosing” to be with men on male merit alone because the hard truth of the matter is that men don’t deserve women on merit alone. Consequently, this insane need for women to be with men begins to reveal itself as a symptom or reaction to the conditions of female enslavement and victimization. A means for surviving male violence. This becomes even more evident when you read the symptoms of oppressive/dominant relationships and how the behaviors of subservience are exactly the same behaviors as femininity. That even men display “feminine” behaviors when they are being dominated. What if women have adapted to male domination and violence by “sleeping with the enemy”? By getting close to their captors in an effort to be able to control their environment or to curtail male violence? We need to start asking ourselves these questions so that we can begin to analyze our relationships with men if we ever want to have healthy ones or further, decide not to.
If we do this, analyze our desire to be with men, we may find that there is no good reason. That our relationships are not based on reciprocal respect, but instead based on our own terror. Our individual man could be to us, a life preserver amongst a sea of potential male predators. We may find that on the surface we kid ourselves into believing that we need them or want them but underneath this surface level, we see that this is just a band-aide covering up our terror from the inherent memory, cell memory, of our violent enslavement at the hands of men. There is ample evidence that connects feminine behaviors especially in our relationships with men that mimic the behaviors of victims of Stockholm’s Syndrome.
Another factor involved here is that most male violence against women including rape is done by the men that women know or have relationships with, not by strangers. The nuclear family is the playground for male violence due to the isolation of women under the roof and control of individual men. We are constantly inundated with threats of violence from male strangers, but the truth is this compared to non stranger male violence is rare. I believe the reason for this that patriarchy has a stake in keeping women terrified of the strange man out there, outside our safe homes, because this terror keeps women in their place, within the confines of the nuclear family, the individual man and of patriarchy on a societal level. Women then cling to their “men” in an effort to stay safe from the strange violent males–out there. Women stay in abusive relationships because they have Stockholm’s syndrome, not because they are stupid or because they like it. She is merely trying to survive violence in the best way she knows how.
Women learn to see themselves as inferior and men superior because they must put themselves in their captors shoes to be able to feel safer to be able to figure out when an if he will be violent and try to curtail his violence. This is why women tend to dislike themselves and other women because they are seeing themselves through the dominant male eyes. Women then see themselves and other women as weak, stupid, petty and deserving of male punishment, yet another reason why women tend to like men over women. And this is also why women tend to compete with other women when it comes to male attention. Patriarchy teaches women this lie, that men are important and women are not; therefore, to be important, women must be with men thereby getting attention or importance through osmosis. All of these factors play into what we know as “heterosexuality” and all of these factors also play into the reasons for why we think heterosexuality is necessary. If we take these factors and or reasons out of the equation, would we be heterosexual? Would women want to be with men?Dozens of NFL players took a knee during the national anthem as others sat or raised their fists before the games of Week 4 Sunday, a day after President Trump tweeted that it that it was "very important” for players to stand.
Still, the number of kneeling players was down from last weekend, when more than 200 athletes took a knee after Trump lashed out at athletes who protest during the national anthem.
Among the players who kneeled Sunday: half of the San Francisco 49ers. The team released a video of the athletes with the caption: "Together." Their opponents, the Arizona Cardinals, stood.
The 49ers added in a statement: "For more than a year, members of our team have protested the oppression and social injustices still present in our society. While some may not have taken a knee or raised a fist, we have all shared the desire to influence positive change. Today, our team chose to publicly display our unity in a new way and, in turn, urge others do the same."
Protesting during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" began last season when Colin Kaepernick, then a 49ers quarterback, took a knee, saying it was to protest social injustice.
Before the Sunday night game, several Seattle Seahawks sat on the bench, including defensive lineman Michael Bennett. Their opponents, the Indianapolis Colts, stood and linked arms.
Earlier, three Miami Dolphins players knelt before their NFL game in London: Julius Thomas, Michael Thomas and Kenny Stills.
The Dolphins played the New Orleans Saints, who won 20-0. Saints players stood locking arms, having knelt as a team shortly before the anthem, Reuters reported.
After the game, Saints coach Sean Payton praised his team for the show of solidarity.
"It's a credit to our leadership on the team, and we just felt like they were going to meet and spend some time on it and come up with a plan and we were going to be really unified and I thought it went really well. I was proud of the leadership on the team,'' he said.
Several players on the Buffalo Bills knelt, including star running back LeSean McCoy.
The Houston Texans' Jurrell Casey, Wesley Woodyard, Brian Orakpo and DaQuan Jones raised a fist while Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews was not on the field for the anthem. He came out of the tunnel after it ended.
Nine Cleveland Browns players, including LB Christian Kirksey, raised their right arms with closed fists.
Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Robert Quinn also raised his right fist before the Rams-Cowboys game. Punter Johnny Hekker had his arm around him.
The Rams played the Dallas Cowboys, who returned to their usual pregame configuration: all standing along their sideline, but without arms linked. Last week Dallas kneeled in unison before "The Star-Spangled Banner" then stood, arms linked, for the song.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, as promised, stood on the sideline during the national anthem after watching from the tunnel last week in Chicago. With the exception of center Ryan Jensen and guard Matt Skura, the Baltimore Ravens all took a knee on the field before the national anthem and received boos from many in the crowd. The team then stood on the sideline after the music started.
Two members of the Detroit Lions—Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Steve Longa—knelt during the national anthem, the New York Times reported.
Their opponents, the Minnesota Vikings -- save for Jerick McKinnon -- locked arms and stood for the anthem, the report said. McKinnon reportedly stood behind the sideline.
The New England Patriots stood with their right hands over their hearts, and their left hands on their teammate’s shoulders, the Times reported. During the game, Carolina Panthers quarterback raised a fist after a touchdown, according to ESPN.
"I did it to show black pride, because I am an African American,'' Newton was quoted as saying by the outlet. "I wanted people to see the joy that I go out there and play with.''
New York Giants player Olivier Vernon kneeled for the anthem, and his standing teammates Landon Collins and Damon Harrison raised their fists, the New York Daily News reported.
Marshawn Lynch was the only player who didn't stand for the national anthem prior to the Denver Broncos' game against the Oakland Raiders. Last week, 32 Broncos knelt and almost all of the Raiders sat on their bench during the anthem.
The Jacksonville Jaguars took a knee before the anthem, the New York Times reported.
Ahead of the games on Saturday, Trump doubled down on his call for NFL players to stand during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a tweet.
“Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem. Respect our Flag and our Country!” Trump wrote.
During a fiery speech at a political rally in Alabama on Sept. 22, Trump called for NFL owners to fire players who engaged in such a protest. In the days that followed, the president issued a series of tweets reiterating his views and calling for a boycott of games by fans.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Story highlights The 31-year-old woman was traveling in northern India
A police official says she accepted a ride in a truck with three men
Authorities are looking for the suspects, the official says
An American woman traveling in northern India was allegedly gang-raped Tuesday after she accepted a ride with three men in a truck, police said.
Authorities said the 31-year-old woman was on her way back to Manali, one of the region's most popular tourist destinations, when she got into the truck with the men around 1 a.m. They allegedly took her to an isolated area and raped her, police said.
The director general of police in the state of Himachal Pradesh ordered an immediate investigation into the incident and directed state police to scour the area for the alleged perpetrators.
No information has been released on the woman's condition, authorities said. She has been assigned a police escort as the investigation continues.
JUST WATCHED Hotels focus on traveling women Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Hotels focus on traveling women 02:57
JUST WATCHED Using social media to end rape in India Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Using social media to end rape in India 02:29
JUST WATCHED Report: Rape every 22 minutes in India Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Report: Rape every 22 minutes in India 01:57
Violent rapes in India have made headlines recently. A 4-year-old girl died after being sexually assaulted by a 35-year-old man in Ghansaur in April, and a 5-year-old girl was allegedly raped two weeks earlier in New Delhi. Two men were arrested in that case.
Six men are facing rape and burglary charges after allegedly raping a Swiss tourist in March.
And a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi in December and later died of her injuries. Five men were charged in the case, but one has since died in prison.
That attack spurred protests across the nation, where most women have stories of sexual harassment and abuse on public transportation or on the streets, according to the Indian Council on Global Relations.“Screw You, Angular”
Jeff Whelpley Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 2, 2014
A couple weeks ago at ng-europe, the Angular team announced plans for a new 2.0 version which seems drastically different than the latest 1.3 release. There overall reaction was a wee bit on the negative side.
And so on.
While there has certainly been an uptick in vitriol since the Angular 2.0 announcement at ng-europe, this is not new territory for Angular. For much of the past 2 years, Angular has been a lightning rod for heated debate among front end developers.
If you need handholding with factories and providers and service provider factories then consider that the world doesn’t need your bullshit code and go and get a job you’re actually good at. Stop ruining it for the rest of us.
from you have ruined javascript, 4/23/2014
Origins of Love and Hate
Many developers fall in love with Angular initially when they see how they can accomplish certain tasks with little or no code. The framework can seem magical (in a good way) for newbies.
This can be extremely infuriating to some Ember or React developers who feel that the newbies are being duped by the shiny object of two-way data binding which hides the true hideous nature of Angular. The typical anti-Angular rant usually includes one or more of the following gripes:
Subpar features (ex. routing, model layer)
Missing features (ex. server rendering, async loading)
Cumbersome and/or confusing APIs (ex. injection arrays, service/factory/provider, directives)
Fundamental design decisions (ex. working off the DOM, dirty checking vs KVO vs Virtual DOM, mutable data vs immutable data).
I think this tweet summarizes the anti-Angular sentiment quite nicely.
But, wait. Something doesn’t quite make sense. You would think at this point that no one in their right mind would use Angular, but in reality it has been the most popular front end framework over the past year. Does that just mean there are a lot of stupid and/or uninformed developers out there?
Angular Personas
One mistake I see time and again in blog articles both for and against Angular is that all developers are lumped into one. Let’s instead split up developers into three levels of experience.
Novice — Just starting to learn. Doesn’t know much. Veteran — Understands enough to write real apps and has started to experience some issues. Expert — Knows pretty much everything (good and bad) about the framework including how it stacks up to other frameworks.
There is no doubt that you see developers leaving Angular at each level.
Novice — This doesn’t make sense. The documentation is terrible. Code in HTML? Ewww. I don’t get Angular at all. Veteran — Ugh, this framework is terrible. It doesn’t do X and has issues with Y. Angular is fundamentally flawed. I’m out. Expert — Angular has brilliant parts and it is possible to create awesome web apps with Angular, but it just isn’t worth the trouble. I am going to use [React|Ember] instead.
But there are many more people that stick with Angular and love it. A cynic may make the following excuses for developers that love Angular:
Novice — This confused developer is being duped by shiny objects. Veteran — This developer may experience some problems, but they must not understand how bad it really is or they don’t know enough about alternative frameworks. Expert — This developer understands all flaws in Angular and is well aware of other options. So…perhaps they are just too emotionally invested in what they have been working on.
I think there is some validity to each of these excuses, but I also think there is a much bigger reason why developers at all levels love Angular. Namely, this:
<div ng-bind=”username” ></div>
I am not talking about the specific syntax here. I am referring to how Angular leverages custom attributes and elements in raw HTML. To some people, this aspect of Angular is especially heinous, but it is also why so many developers love it.
Novice — HTML? Hey, I know that. I don’t understand what transclude means, but all the Angular HTML I see makes total sense. Veteran — Check out this wicked sweet directive I just created. I love declarative programming and being able to create my own DSL in HTML. Expert — This is the future of all web development.
The Past and Future
Before we talk about the future, let’s take a step back and talk about the history of the web.
HTML and the web was originally designed for document exchange. While Brendan Eich got JavaScript to do some amazing things, it was severely limited when compared to desktop code. Extending the web platform at that time was difficult (i.e. impossible) since all the browser vendors were not on the same page (*cough* Microsoft), so there were numerous attempts to circumnavigate the web platform altogether (i.e. Java Applets, ActiveX, Flash, etc.). Not surprisingly since these attempts were usually driven by a singular vendor, they never stuck.
Then around 2010 something changed. I am not sure exactly what went down, but at least part of it was probably a result of Safari, Chrome and Firefox gaining market share on IE. Regardless of the reasons, all the major players started collaborating more effectively and eventually standards committees started actually making progress. We have already started to reap the benefits of this (Web Sockets, HTML5, CSS3) and there is a huge wave of new, exciting changes that will land within the next couple years including ES6, ES7 Async, Shadow DOM, Object.observe() and Web Components.
Read through all of these specs and think about what is going on. The way we build web apps today is very different than the way we built web apps just 2 years ago. I would argue that 2 years from now, the differences will be even more drastic as web browsers give more and more power to apps.
The future of the web, therefore, is going to be exploiting the web platform, not circumnavigating it. Take, for example, React. It is a wonderful framework which has many brilliant ideas. But, it is not designed for the web platform. It is designed to build HTML in the Virtual DOM and then push it to the real DOM. Actually using the real DOM or something like Object.observe() are React anti-patterns. That is perfectly understandable in today’s world with today’s limitations, but will it make as much sense in the future as the real DOM becomes more and more powerful?
Angular 2.0
Angular was conceived from the very beginning to enhance the existing web platform and give us features today that would hopefully be built natively into all browsers in the future. Well before ng-europe, Misko and Igor said on numerous occasions that they wanted Angular 2.0 to be built for browsers of the future. At ng-conf last January, Misko said point blank that 2.0 would be a complete rewrite. Even though the ideas for Angular 2.0 presented at ng-europe seemed like a completely different framework to some people, it actually better represents the core essence of “Angular” than the current version. In many ways, Angular 2.0 is what Misko was trying to achieve all along.
I have stuck with Angular despite its flaws because I love many of the higher level abstractions which includes HTML custom elements. More importantly, I know that the underlying mechanism which enables those abstractions will only continue to get better and better as the Angular hacks fade away to native browser functionality. If you are working on Angular 1.x today and you like it, you should want 2.0 to exist and you should be an active participant in making it happen.
If you believe in the future of the web platform, help us make Angular 2.0 a reality.
Learn about web components. See what other frameworks like Ember or Polymer are doing. Start thinking about how the apps you are working on today will change in the future. And, remember that the 2.0 design is not finalized yet. The Angular team wants to hear your opinions and feedback.
Addendum — Migration Path
As much as I already knew about the 2.0 plans at a high level before ng-europe, the one thing that really made me cringe was the apparent implication throughout the talks that the Angular team was “abandoning” the current 1.x version branch. Some people expressed anger that they wasted their time building on a version which cannot be migrated and will not be supported for very long.
The reality, though, is that Igor was really hesitant to say anything about a migration path from 1.x to 2.0 because he was afraid to give the impression that the transition would be painless. While I am sure it will be more painful than a simple incremental release, please understand that THERE WILL BE A MIGRATION PATH to Angular 2.0. I can say that definitively after talking with several core members and developers in the community who are committed to helping everyone move to 2.0 as painlessly as possible.
That said, realize that there is no migration path right now because 2.0 does not actually exist. There is nothing to migrate towards. My impression from numerous discussions is that the team is trying to work with the community to finalize the design for 2.0 first and then we can all work together to figure out the migration path. I realize that this approach is different than standard OSS protocol, but it does not mean the current version has been abandoned or that you won’t be able to migrate to 2.0.
Addendum II — Haters
One last point I want to make is that if you are working with OSS, you have to learn to love the haters. Besides the fact that they are often really funny (see Tom Dale), I really believe that the heated and passionate debate from different view points helps the web move forward.
Recently there has been a great little triangle of battles going on among Ember, React and Angular. The reason why these debates are so great is that each of the frameworks have various pieces that are pure genius (ex. Angular DI, React Virtual DOM, Ember Router) and it is not abnormal to see developers in one framework borrow the great idea from another framework (ex. Angular UI Router from Ember Router).
I also believe that is is healthy to question your own ideas and open yourself up to criticism from others. So, have at it. Tell me why I am wrong.This post is not about whether a ‘real ark’ can be found on a mountain somewhere. The question is whether the story of Noah’s Ark can be told today in a way that continues to serve any healthy, positive, meaningful purpose. The story is so familiar from childhood that we can forget that it is about God obliterating not merely the whole human race except for Noah and his family, but also every other living thing. The fact that this is clearly not a story about something that actually happened can alleviate some of the difficulty, although not all. The same applies to other morally difficult stories in the Bible, such as the accounts of genocide in Joshua – that these are not factual historical accounts helps, but does not resolve the issue entirely. Like these, the story of Noah’s ark remains a story that depicts God as though God would do this sort of thing, and it is imperative to ask why, and whether we can make sense of it.We can certainly use the story to ask difficult questions about how we personify and anthropomorphize God, but in doing so we will have to read against the grain of the story. We will need to ask whether God is to be thought of as a celestial Andrea Yates, who even though she knows every hair on each of her children’s heads, nonetheless submerges each one in the water until they are drowned, because she knows she cannot protect them from turning away from her and living evil lives in the future. But in so doing, most would say that she herself has crossed the border into evil and/or insanity. The flood story can make us ask: do we depict God as evil or insane? But the story still sits uncomfortably in our tradition even if we try to answer “no”, and all the pairs of cute furry animals in the world will not make the story one that is appropriate for children.
The best way to make sense of the story is to show how it, like all the Biblical literature, reflects the development of human thinking about God that has led us to where we are today, rather than as static proclamations of things one ought to believe about God. The story of Noah and the flood makes the most sense (even if it remains problematic) when contextualized in this way. The author of the story in the Bible (who seems to have drawn on two earlier Israelite accounts) ultimately derives the story from his broad Mesopotamian heritage. The Israelite authors were trying to make sense of a story they could not simply discard, in the context of their monotheistic worldview. In the earlier story found in the Gilgamesh epic, the polytheistic context allows one to make sense of the story – some gods want to wipe out the noisy humans, but one that does not saves Utnapishtim. There is no need, in that context, to have a deity who at once is interested in saving human life and destroying it. In the context of ancient Israel’s ethical monotheism, the author of the Noah story does the best he can with what he had inherited, and attributes the flood to the one God (what else could he do?) and explains the action as judgment on human sinfulness (how else could he make sense of it?).
In our various canons of Scripture, we have not only the story of Noah, but that of Job, which shows (as do other stories) that one cannot simply do what the author of Genesis did, and Job’s friends did: i.e. blame disasters on humans having done things wrong and thus having deserved to have bad things happen to them. In light of what we know from geology, which the author of Genesis did not, namely that such a worldwide flood never happened, we have other options available. In light of the book of Job, and our scientific understanding of floods and tsunamis, we not only have the option of exploring other approaches, it is absolutely imperativethat we do so.
In the end, the story of Noah reminds us that we think about theology in historical contexts, with limited human reason, in partial and piecemeal ways. Its challenge to us is that any language that we today use about God will look as inadequate and perhaps even as horrific to future generations of humans, as that in the Noah story does to us.A 14-year-old girl was raped by two men who abducted her on the way to school and subjected to a horrific ordeal lasting nearly four hours.
The young girl was grabbed in a bear hug at a busy junction in an upmarket area of Oxford by two men who bundled her into a car at around 8.25am as she walked to school.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Ward said that both men raped the girl and he believed at least one of the attacks took place in the car, a silver hatchback that may have been a VW.
The girl, who goes to school in the area, escaped and was found a mile away at midday, frantically knocking on doors on residential street.
A teenage girl was abducted and raped on the way to school during a horrific ordeal lasting nearly four hours. Police were today seen combing nearby woodland
Police were today seen carrying evidence bags from the scene, which was cordoned off
She was found at midday around a mile away frantically knocking on doors in residential street Cavendish Drive (pictured today), Marston, after escaping from the vehicle
The graphic shows were the girl was snatched (top left) and found (top right), as well as the scene of a sexual assault a few days ago (top right) and an attempted abduction in March (bottom right)
Speaking today, Detective Superintendent Chris Ward (pictured) appealed for information on the silver hatchback, believed to be a VW, at a Thames Valley Police press conference today
The girl was 'traumatised' when she was found, DS Ward said today, so it has been difficult to 'tease' a better description of the attackers while she remains 'extremely distressed and upset'.
They are now appealing for information from anyone who may have seen the car near where the girl was taken from the Summerstown area.
Appealing for witnesses, DS Ward said: 'There is a possibility that she was actually hugged so it may of course look like an innocent gesture as opposed to being dragged into a vehicle.'
Specially trained officers are still questioning the girl, which is a 'long process', and currently all they know about the men is that they are white and are thought to be local, he added.
She was taken from a spot just a mile away from where a 19-year-old-girl was sexually assaulted a few days ago on a dark path in Headington in the early hours of the morning.
This is the area were it is believed the girl emerged from as she staggered into a residential road to try and get help
Police in boiler suits and gloves were seen combing woodland for clues less than 500ft from where the girl was found sitting, distraught and shocked, on a low brick wall
The car said to have been involved may have been a silver Volkswagen hatchback
DS Ward said they are not currently treating the incidents as linked but are still at an early stage of the investigation.
Police in boiler suits and gloves were seen combing woodland for clues less than 500ft from where the girl was found sitting, distraught and shocked, on a low brick wall.
They carried samples in brown evidence bags out of the bushes in the cordoned off field next to a footbridge over a stream. It is believed the victim may have passed over it as there was a second cordon on the other side.
Police said today they will continue to search for evidence (pictured)
When asked about the crime scene, an officer standing guard said: 'The picture you see says it all.' It is believed she staggered out of the wooded area and onto Cavendish Drive.
Officers have stepped up patrols in the area where she was taken and have advised children to travel in groups and stay in highly visible areas.
It's been described locally as 'a parents' worst nightmare' and police called the horrendous attack 'a concerning incident'.
An eye-witness told how he saw the abducted schoolgirl victim sitting alone on a wall for almost an hour after she had managed to flee her attackers.
The 50-year-old builder said the victim was sat on the low wall in front of homes opposite scaffolding where he was working.
The man, who asked not to be named, said that the girl was sitting alone for up to an hour using her mobile phone at around midday.
Two men, believed to be police officers in plain clothes, then joined the girl, who was wearing a school uniform.
Another man and a woman joined them and an ambulance was called shortly afterwards, said the workman.
The girl was wearing her school uniform when she was taken from near the junction of Banbury Road and with Marston Ferry Road (pictured) in Summerstown at around 8.25am Wednesday
The girl was then found frantically knocking on doors around a mile away on Cavendish Drive (pictured), Marston, nearly four hours later, police say
He added: 'I saw her sitting on the wall. I think she was using her phone, calling someone. It could have been up to an hour that she was sitting there.
'I just thought she had just bunked off school and the men were teachers who were trying to coax her back. Then the ambulance arrived and took her away.'
He said: 'The ambulance arrived within minutes and the schoolgirl was taken away quickly.'
Manual labourer Alex Wood, who was working on Cavendish Drive, said: 'We were working and we saw the girl there. She was in uniform.
'We didn't really pay much attention until the ambulance rapid response car turned up.
'We've been here about five weeks and it always seemed like a nice area - very quiet.'
Police forensics officers are currently scouring the road for clues.
Emrys Harris, who has lived there since 1962, said: 'This was always regarded as a safe area. It's terrible for that to happen around here - it's normally a very quiet area.'
A local politician said officers now need to'reassure the community' after the attack - which police are describing as a'serious sexual assault'.
Oxfordshire County councillor for St Margaret's ward, John Howson, said he had been in touch with schools in the area to offer assistance.
He said: 'There is an urgency for the police to reassure the community. Clearly it is good advice to walk in groups but that is not always possible.
'My view is that if I can help the schools in any way I will do so.'
21 CHILDREN KIDNAPPED IN REGION OVER TWO YEARS Today's news comes as figures obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request made to Thames Valley Police resurfaced. Charity Action Against Abduction said nine children were abducted by people other than their parents in the policing area in 2014 and 2015. There were a further 12 kidnaps in the region.
Superintendent Christian Bunt, local policing commander for Oxford, said: 'I appreciate that it must be very concerning for the public.
'In light of this we are stepping up patrols in the area to provide reassurance and there will be a very visible police presence whilst the investigation continues.'
He added: 'I would ask parents to consider the safety of their children and if they are walking to school make sure they try to keep in groups.
'I would also ask people to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious'.
Shocked locals described the abduction as 'every parents' worst nightmare' and said more people were driving their kids to school this morning than usual.
Val Heigink, 52, a receptionist at a hotel close to where the girl was abducted from said the area was usually very busy and safe.
The mother-of-two, who has a son, 19, and daughter, 14, said: 'It is crazy - totally crazy. It is very safe around here and at half eight in the morning is very busy.
It is believed that the girl may ave been forced to walk over a footbridge in this field as there were police cordons in place for both of them
People in boiler suits were investigating the scene all day as police said they would do 'everything they can' to catch the suspects
'It is very strange to hear this has happened. It's horrible - totally terrible. People around here will be so shocked. I'm shocked.
'It's every parents' worst nightmare. I'm speechless.'
A worker at nearby Summertown Cycles said the roads were busier yesterday.
The man, who did not want to be named, said: 'I don't know if it is due to the rain perhaps, but it is quieter on the pavements and there are more cars.
'It could be parents driving their children to school rather than letting them walk. It is usually a very safe area. It is shocking.'
Schools in the local area are warning children to take extra care.
Two officers stand guard at a school in the area (pictured, today), which is one of many within just a few minutes walk of where the girl was taken
Detective Chief Inspector Simon Steel of TVP Major Crime Unit, said: 'This happened in what would have been a very busy area at this time of the day and I appeal to anybody who was in that area...and saw an incident which matches the above report to call police immediately.
'It is possible you may have witnessed this incident and may not have realised the severity of the situation. We are currently supporting the victim with specially trained officers.'
The abduction comes three days after another teenager was sexually assaulted by two white men - just over a mile away.
It's every parents' worst nightmare Val Heigink, 52, a receptionist at a hotel close to the scene
A 19-year-old woman was walking along a footpath in nearby Headington, when she was attacked between 1.40am and 2.10am on Sunday.
The first offender was described as white, in his late teens to early twenties, about 6ft 2ins tall, with a broad, muscular build.
He was wearing a gold signet ring on his left hand.
The second man was also white and aged in his late teens or early twenties, had a broad or fat build, blonde short hair, was clean shaven and wore black jeans.
Laura Oakes, from Oxford CID, said: 'We are carrying out a full and thorough investigation into this incident, which we believe to be isolated.
The young girl was found when she knocked on doors in a quiet residential street (pictured)
'Although incidents such as this are rare in this area, I would like to advise people against walking alone at night and to try to stick to routes which are well lit.'
In March, police issued an appeal for information following an attempted child abduction in Abingdon, some eight miles from the latest attack.
A man attempted to grab a 12-year-old girl as she walked to school, police said.
I would advise people against walking alone at night Laura Oakes, Oxford CID
The youngster managed to escape the incident, at around 8.15am on March 3, by kicking the man and sprinting to safety.
Dave Waggott, 63, who lives nearby, said at the time that he was not surprised to hear about the would-be abduction.
He said: 'It's not the first time it's happened. We have had a few incidents of flashers reported by the police. I feel safe walking round here but then I'm not a little girl.'
Thames Valley Police launched an appeal for information.(CNN) -- Tensions remained high in Kyrgyzstan early Sunday after two days of ethnic clashes left dozens of people dead and more than 1,000 others injured since fighting broke out Thursday night, state media reported.
Kyrgyzstan's interim government on Saturday worked to quell the upsurge of violence, imposing states of emergency in Osh, where fighting |
Jews in a gabled attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam just a few blocks from the hideout where Anne Frank was captured, died on Monday at her home in Rye, N.Y. She was 91. The cause was cancer, said her son Jur Strobos.
The ethos of rescuing the imperiled was something Dr. Strobos absorbed from her parents — socialist atheists who took in Belgian refugees during World War I and hid German and Austrian refugees before World War II. Her actions as a young medical student were recognized as extraordinary by Holocaust organizations like Yad Vashem, which listed her with other rescuers as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
During the German occupation of the Netherlands, between 1940 and 1945, Dr. Strobos and her mother, Marie Schotte, set up a sanctuary in their three-story rooming house at 282 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, behind the Royal Palace in the heart of Amsterdam. With the help of the Dutch resistance, they had a secret compartment built to hold up to four people behind a hard-to-spot door in the attic.
“A carpenter came with a toolbox and said, ‘I’m a carpenter from the underground,’ ” Dr. Strobos recalled in a 2009 interview with The New York Times. “ ‘Show me the house and I’ll build a hiding place.’ ”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
A changing cast of Jews, Communists and other endangered individuals spent days or weeks on the upper floors, and if the Gestapo visited, an alarm bell on the second floor allowed Dr. Strobos and her mother to alert the fugitives. They also drilled them in clambering out a window to the roof to reach the relative safety of an adjoining school. Most Jews stayed in the hideout for brief periods until the Dutch resistance could find more reliable sanctuaries.
Photo
“We never hid more than four or five at a time,” Dr. Strobos said. “We didn’t have enough food.”“Are all of you listening to one spectacular young pianist after another? (Cliburn Competition in progress)
“Why should they have to be placed in the position of competing against one another, and facing the possibility of being rejected by a jury? It would be just absurd if a jury was chosen to decide who is the greatest impressionist painter-Monet, Cézanne, or Degas, to mention only three painters? These performers have profound messages to share with the world.
“What sort of a system has created a scenario akin to gladiators in ancient Rome who had to fight-to-the-death for survival and, in the process, give
the public a thrill? Are we to accept the fact that only one or two among these phenomenally gifted performers are going to receive major engagements, plus a pile of money? How will the others be rewarded for the inspiration they have afforded us? The well-adjusted among them will recover quickly from rejection and continue to relate to music as life itself. Others will return to the familiar rat race of trying to find engagements.
“I say down with the contest format! Let’s replace it with a showcase of the world’s greatest talents who symbolize the highest form of human achievement. Take the large sum of money allotted to winners and divide it among the performers as a token of their participation. Are you prepared to carry this message wherever you can by writing to the directors of contests and to music publications? I am. This will be a major project this summer.”
Seymour
LINKS:
Seymour Bernstein, pianist/teacher/author/composer
http://www.seymourbernstein.com
Do we Need Piano Competitions?
https://arioso7.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/piano-competitions-do-we-need-them/
Star Telegram, questions jury ties to competitors at Cliburn Competition
http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/06/02/4901527/cliburn-jury-ties-to-competitors.html[np_storybar title=”Transcript of Rob Ford’s statement to the media” link=”#1″]
Transcriptions by Ashley Menkes
[/np_storybar]
Mayor Rob Ford admitted Tuesday that he has smoked crack cocaine, saying it was probably “about a year” ago in a “drunken stupor,” a bombshell admission after months of denying that a video of him doing so exists.
In a surprise media scrum outside of his office, Ford asked the media to repeat a question asked to him in May.
“Do you smoke crack cocaine?” a reporter said.
“Exactly. Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine,” Ford said. “I’ve made mistakes… all I can do is apologize and move on.”
“But, no, do I? Am I an addict? No.”
“Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago.”
After five months of avoiding comment on the crack cocaine scandal, the mayor suggested he was just wasn’t asked about it.
“I wasn’t lying, you didn’t ask the correct question,” Ford told reporters, most of whom have asked dozens of questions to the mayor’s office about the crack cocaine scandal.
[np_storybar title=”Mark Towhey: Only an outside police force can get to the bottom of the Rob Ford affair” link=”http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/05/mark-towhey-only-an-outside-police-force-can-get-to-the-bottom-of-the-rob-ford-affair/”%5D
The ongoing saga of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford vs. The World took two pivotal turns on Tuesday. Of course, there was Mayor Rob Ford’s bombshell confession that has has, indeed, smoked crack cocaine, reportedly while in a “drunken stupor.” The ramifications of this admission will become clear in due time, but something else happened on Tuesday that must be addressed: The mayor’s brother, Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford, accused both police Chief Bill Blair and a member of the governing police services board of a conflict of interest. This changes the stakes. It’s time to call another police service.
Read more…
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Shortly after his statement, Ford told the Toronto Sun he felt like he had a “1,000 pounds off my back.”
“I felt I had to say it. It is what is. I feel two inches high right now but I needed to deal with it. I am not going to quit or take a leave,” Ford told the newspaper.
“I think I know what’s on the video and I know it’s not pretty. Did I smoke something? Probably. It’s ugly.”
Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly entered Ford’s office not long after the statement and came out about an hour later.
He said that the mayor would be making an announcement later today. Kelly did not respond to a reporter asking if he would be taking over the mayoral position.
Earlier this week, Ford apologized for several incidents where he got “hammered” in public while he was mayor, promising to “curb” his drinking. During the summer, he told reporters he had smoked “a lot” of marijuana, but did not go into details.
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair made the stunning announcement last week that police had a video that was consistent with media reports that said there was a recording of the mayor smoking crack cocaine and making a homophobic slur about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
“I want everyone in the city to see this tape. I’d like to see this tape, I don’t even recall there being a video…I want to see the state I was in,” Ford said Tuesday.
“No, I am not an addict. It is what it is and I can’t change the past.”
Police have said they want to speak to the mayor but Ford says his lawyer has advised him against that.
The final question of the short press conference was “Are you on crack right now?” to which Ford laughed and walked back into his office.
The mayor’s stunning admission comes as members of council draft motions aimed at curbing his power.
Councillor John Filion wants city council to strip him of his ability to appoint and dismiss committee chairs, who also sit on his powerful executive committee and who have grown increasingly critical of the mayor’s handling of the crisis.
Case in point, Councillors Denzil Minnan-Wong and Peter Milczyn, who have drafted a motion urging the mayor to take a leave and asking him to apologize for “misleading” the city about an alleged crack video.
“It’s time for him to take a break,” Minnan-Wong told reporters.
Numerous councillors have also called for Ford to step down.
“He does not have a shred of credibility,” said Councillor Jaye Robinson.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said she is concerned about the situation at city hall.
“We want municipalities to be able to function and there is a huge amount of turmoil at city hall right now and that is what is of concern,” Wynne said.
Wynne hinted that police action may be required.
“There are laws in place around when elected municipal officials must be removed from office,” she said. “That’s why I say the police service and the judicial system have to take action.”
Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay told reporters in Ottawa that Ford should “get help.”
“As a human being, I think the mayor of Toronto should get help,” he said.
Doug Ford lashes out
Earlier in the day, a furious Councillor Doug Ford called a news conference outside the mayor’s office at Toronto City hall to lash out at Blair.
He accused the chief of bias for the personal comments that the chief made last week about a videotape that apparently depicts his brother smoking crack.
“We have the most political police chief that I have ever seen,” thundered Councillor Ford. “He believes he is the judge, jury and executioner. This compromises the chief.”
Councillor Ford, who asked city staff to move a lectern to the hallway to give a spot to speak, also called on Andy Pringle, a member of the police board, to resign, saying his friendship with Chief Blair compromised his objectivity.
[np_storybar title=”Matt Gurney: Doug Ford declares war on Toronto’s ‘conspiring’ police chief” link=”http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/05/matt-gurney-doug-ford-declares-war-on-torontos-conspiring-police-chief/”%5D
Things went bonkers quick on Tuesday.
Councillor Ford’s comments aren’t a huge surprise. On Monday night, he went on The Arlene Bynon Show on SiriusXM Canada, to discuss recent events. I was struck by something he said. He stressed how much he and his brother support the “front line” police officers who work so hard out there. This was at least the second time in as many days that the Councillor and/or the Mayor spoke well of “front line” officers. Clearly, I wrote in a note to my colleagues, the Fords are drawing their battle lines very carefully here. They know Ford Nation won’t tolerate a war on the police, so they embrace the police — but they target the Chief, saying he’s different than the officers out there on the street.
Read more…
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“I do not have confidence in Andy Pringle,” he said. “He went on a fishing trip with the chief.”
One reporter asked Mr. Ford whether it was wise that he attack the chief of police while police are investigating Mayor Ford.
“Am I supposed to be intimidated by the police chief?” demanded the councillor, whose hands were trembling. “The police chief doesn’t intimidate me.”
Last week, Chief Blair announced police had recovered the infamous video of Mayor Ford, allegedly depicting him smoking crack cocaine. “As a citizen of Toronto I am disappointed,” Chief Blair said then. “This is a traumatic issue for the citizens of this city and for the reputation of this city and that concerns me.”
Councillor Ford said that those words prove the chief is biased against his brother. “The police chief should go through proper process. He shouldn’t have made his comments that he was disappointed,” the councillor said.
Directly after Doug Ford spoke, a parade of councillors trooped to the mayor’s office to express dismay at his remarks.
“Doug Ford should probably himself resign,” said Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby, a conservative councillor from the Fords’ home turf of Etobicoke.
“Andy Pringle is a good guy,” she added. “Why go after your own?”
“Whatever kind of weight he is trying to throw around is not going to carry,” she added.
Councillor Pam McConnell, herself a former chair of the Police Services Board, said Doug Ford’s comments dismayed her.
“He is doing something which is precluded by law,” she said. “He is interfering with an investigation.”
Following the launch of MADD Canada’s red ribbon campaign at police headquarters, Blair told reporters he would push forward with the probe.
“I have a responsibility to uphold the law and I can’t be deterred from that by personal attacks,” he said at police headquarters.
“We’ll do our job and we’ll do it without fear or favour.”
Asked if he regrets expressing disappointment last week, Blair said he was making a “sincere effort” not to offer an opinion. “I was asked a very specific question about how I felt and I responded, how I felt,” he said.
To the suggestion that there is a poisonous relationship between him and the Fords, Chief Blair told Torontonians “we are continuing to do our job.”
He wouldn’t say if Mayor Ford is welcome at a gala fundraiser he is hosting this week.
He refused to comment on the mayor’s refusal to be interviewed by police investigating the alleged crack video.
As for complaints from Councillor Ford that the chief went on a fishing trip with a member of his board, which he suggested is inappropriate, Bill Blair said he doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Earlier in the day, Doug Ford appeared on AM640’s and Metro Morning amid sharpening tension between the police’s senior echelons and Mayor Ford, who is refusing to speak to detectives.
This is a traumatic issue for the citizens of this city and for the reputation of this city and that concerns me
The mayor was told not to attend a gala fundraiser this week hosted by the chief, according to his chief of staff, although the police deny Mr. Ford was “uninvited.”
“I’m not too sure what political games the chief wants to play but obviously he has created a massive conflict of interest,” Councillor Ford said on John Oakley’s show on AM640 Tuesday morning.
2nd page of Filion motion, again for Dec council meeting. pic.twitter.com/dRfkV87JmM — Natalie Alcoba (@nataliealcoba) November 5, 2013
“He needs to step down until the probe is done, there is obviously a bias right now moving forward in this city with the police chief against the mayor of this city. It’s not up to the police chief to decide in the next election who is going to be mayor.”
Mark Pugash, a spokesman for Chief Blair, responded with: “We do not respond to personal attacks. Our job is to investigate without fear or favour.”
Councillor Ford suggested the chief “couldn’t wait” to tell the public he had the video. “He believes he’s the judge, the jury and the executioner. He wanted to go out and put a political bullet right between the mayor’s eyes, and thought that would be the final bullet to knock the mayor off. He thought he had a royal flush, and it shows he had a pairs of deuces.”
National Post
• Email: nalcoba@nationalpost.com | Twitter: NPHallMonitor
Rob Ford’s full statement to media Ford: I’m going to discuss the issue that’s problematic. I think you saw what a former MPP, Runciman said. I have the utmost respect for Mr. Runciman, my dad served with him. Um, when he comes out and says stuff like that, it’s problematic.Reporter: Why aren’t you talking to the police? Why aren’t you [inaudible]?Ford: I mean there’s a problem, there’s obviously a problem, right? So I’ve been advised by my lawyer, Dennis Morris, and you have the right to call Dennis. He said you do not talk to the police. I’m going on what he said.Reporter: Has the chief offered to show you the video personally?Ford: You know what? I haven’t, I can’t comment on the video that I haven’t seen. You guys have asked me a question. You asked me a question back in May. And you can repeat that question.Reporter: The question we asked you back in May?Reporter: You said the video didn’t exist. Ford: You asked me a couple questions. What were those questions?Reporter: Do you smoke crack cocaine?Ford: Exactly. Yes I have smoked crack cocaine.Reporter: When, sir?Ford: But no, do I? Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Um, probably in one of my drunken stupors. Probably approximately about a year ago. I answered your question. You ask the question properly, I’ll answer it.Reporter: How many times?Ford: Yes I’ve made mistakes. I, all I can do now is apologize and move on. Can I just look—all I can say is I’ve made mistakes and you guys kept referring to alcohol, there was a couple of isolated incidents. There’s been times when I’ve been in a drunken stupor. That’s why I want to see the tape.
An except of Doug Ford’s statement to the media Tuesday morning Doug Ford: In my opinion, with the chief’s comments the other day, we have the most political police chief I’ve ever seen. The police chief believes he’s the judge, the jury, and the executioner. In my opinion, this creates a bias towards the mayor, it creates a bias towards Sandro Lisi’s case, this compromises the chief, and as the former Solicitor General said, Bob Runciman, and now senator, about the chief’s comments, it’s unacceptable, his comments, he said that the police probe will be investigated with or without bias. With or without favor I should say. My question is to the chief you forgot the word bias in there. The chief shouldn’t have come out and made the comments while he was wearing the police chief’s uniform about his personal opinions about the mayor. I will be writing a letter to the Ontario independent police review director until we can call a probe into his comments. Another big issue I have, and I am also putting a letter to the board, the police board, and the chair, [Alok] Mukherjee. I do not have confidence in one of the board members, Andy Pringle. There’s a massive conflict of interest that he went away on a vacation with the chief, he went on a fishing vacation with the chief. I would like a probe into that. I would like to find out who paid for this trip. I’d like to know if there’s any conversations about police issues during that trip. I’d like to know if there’s any issues discussed about the mayor during that trip. And it’s a massive conflict of interest because right now, in my mind, that compromises the board member when it comes up to reviewing anything to do with the chief’s performance, anything to do about renewing the police contract, anything about renewing the police chief’s term, which will come up in August of this year. I am asking, and I will be putting this in a letter, that Andy Pringle step down immediately from the police board. We cannot have a police board member being the police chief’s fishing buddy. I’ll take any questions. Reporter: [Inaudible] Ford: You cannot, it’s a conflict of interest, for any board member to be going away on a private vacation with the person the police chief reports into the board and if they’re fishing buddies there’s a conflict of interest. That goes for any private sector or public sector people. You know something, because I got a little more information as people are calling and it’s not just Doug Ford saying there’s an issue, with what the police chief said, the former solicitor general said it, the former premier of British Columbia said it, MPs from Ottawa have said it. So it’s not just Doug Ford’s opinion. He’s definitely stepped over the line, he has shown a biased and we want a probe into his comments. Reporter: [Inaudible] Ford: Hold on, let me be very clear. Setting off a war, am I supposed to be intimidated by the police chief? Is that what you’re implying? The police chief doesn’t intimidate me. I’m the only one with political will that will stand here and hold the police chief to account. There can’t be a rule for the mayor and one for the police chief. And that is what’s happening right now folks, there’s two sets of rules here. Reporter: What should the police chief have done when there was reports that there was a video of the mayor smoking crack? Ford: He should go through proper process, he shouldn’t have made his personal comments about him being disappointed, this will affect the city. He was wearing the police chief’s uniform. I also, I also thought it was inappropriate, and I’m just gonna be quoting the former solicitor general and senator, express his reviews on an issue not directly related to the police officer’s responsibilities as a police officer. And it’s a [inaudible] issue for the reputation of the city. I think we have some issues here. And if no one else wants to hold the police chief to account, we don’t live in a police state. Let me be very, very clear, through the budget process I met with the police chief last week, we had a great meeting. Crime is going down, as I said numerous times, we will never waiver from our support of the front-line police officers in this city and we’re going to be hiring additional police officers as the mayor mentioned during his election. So we are going to make sure we keep that promise and make no mistake about it, we support the front-line police officers of this city and in passing I’ve talked with some front-line officers and they disagree with what the chief has said also. Reporter: Why won’t your brother come out and speak to the media? Why won’t your brother come out and speak to the media? Why are you talking for him again? Ford: Let me tell you something, I’m here on an issue about the police chief— Reporter: Why won’t your brother come speak to the media? Where is Mayor Ford? Where is Mayor Ford? Ford: Okay Folks, I think this city has seen the media pile on here, again due process. The media has not given the mayor due process.
Doug Ford’s interview on AM640 Tuesday Oakley: By the way you going to the chief’s ball? Ford: Um well, we were uninvited, so uh… Oakley: What do you mean by that? Uninvited spec— Ford: Well when, you know, one of the organizers I guess knew the chief, um, kinda made the phone call to the chief of staff and last time I checked this isn’t the police personal ball. Uh, this is a [inaudible] event and we believe in supporting our front line police officers and any victims out there and Rob and myself have always attended, uh, I guess, I guess they don’t want us there today. But that’s maybe just the chief. I know, I want to tell you Johnny, Rob and I love our police. We support our front line police officers. We have from day one. We are going to continue to support our police officers throughout the city. We differentiate between the police chief and all the rest of the hard working police officers that put their lives on the line every day for us. Oakley: Alright but, you know, you were disinvited, so, uh, I’ve got a quote says, “it would be best that Mr. Ford not attend.” Was that the actual phrase you heard or was written to you in an email or to the mayor? Ford: Well that’s what I’ve heard through the chief of staff, Rob’s chief of staff and, uh, it’s unfortunate but this is what we’re going to talk about this morning, how this has turned into politics, a very political item with the chief and, by the way Johnny, this is Doug Ford’s opinion, it’s not the mayor’s opinion, no one else’s. Not 640s, it’s personally my opinion and when your callers were saying that the police chief is one of the most political police chief of uh, he’s ever seen, I agree with that statement. Matter of fact, I’ve told the police chief right to his face he’s the best politician I’ve ever met and he believes as another [inaudible] he believes that, you know, he is the judge, the jury, and the executioner. He wanted to go out and put a political bullet right between the mayor’s eyes and thought that would be the final bullet to knock the mayor off and, uh, he showed his cards. He thought he had a royal flush and it showed that he has a couple pairs of deuces. Oakley: Alright, well, you know, obviously you’re not impressed with the chief but with the rank and file officers, you support them, which means, I mean, you could still conceivably go, I guess at 250 a ticket or maybe there’s a standing invitation to the chief magistrate and, uh, you’d have to pick up your own ticket or be invited at, uh, somebody’s behalf, but as it stands now you’re not going. Now this seems to be playing into the narrative, according let’s just cite Royson James writing in The Star, he says, “the mayor’s camp has launched an attack on the chief of police.” Uh, is that what’s going on here? Ford: Well, let the public decide, I didn’t see the mayor stand up there going after the chief, making a political, uh, he created a biased towards the mayor, everyone could see that. He’s jeopardized the case against Mr. Lisi. Um, I’d call it a witch-hunt, obviously he did it on Halloween night and this witch-hunt’s going to continue. Oakley: You think there’s a political conspiracy against your brother? Ford: Well just in my opinion. Oakley: And you, and you think the chief is a party to that, Doug? Ford: In my opinion, yes. The chief has never seen eye to eye with the mayor. The mayor supported the chief through his tough times and I guess, uh, you know, the chief’s contract is coming up in August that if he’s going to get it renewed or not and it’s unfortunate but I do agree with the Solicitor General, the former Solicitor General Bob Runciman, for even verbally releasing these documentations of the pictures and you know, the pictures alone are, uh, it’s disturbing that they would release certain pictures that had nothing to do with the case as— Oakley: Well, for example, the urination in public, these kinds of things, you think that was gratuitous? Ford: Absolutely. Do I agree with that? No. Have I ever met a man on this, uh, on this planet that has never urinated outside, including the police of chief. The chief of police I should say. Um, is it right? No it’s not right. But I’m sure the police has never done that and I’m sure that you’ve never done that and myself, Johnny. Oakley: All right, so where does that lead us then? I mean what kind of action can you take? I mean, lodge a complaint with the police services board, with the Solicitor General John Garisson here in the province, where do you take this? Ford: Well, I put a call in to the chair, Dr. Mukherjee for the board. I’d like to have a probe into this but I have a problem with the board, the police board, on one individual, uh, and this is explosive in itself. How can a board member sit on the police board when he went away on a vacation with the police chief. You can’t do that. That is a massive conflict of interest, that a member has gone away on a personal fishing trip with the chief. I want to know who paid for that trip, did they split the cost equally? Number one, you can’t even do that. How can you go away with a board member that oversees what you do on a daily basis? That oversees the budget, that oversees the conduct of the police chief, and you’re buddy-buddies with one of the board members? Old fishing buddies? You got to be kidding. The board member needs to step down, the police, well, not the police, the board needs to do a probe on— Oakley: Which board member are we talking about specifically? Ford: We’re talking about Andy Pringle. And he’s not very friendly to Rob Ford, to say the least. So— Oakley: So you see this all in a conspiratorial light. So listen, you want a probe— Ford: You tell me, do you think it’s right that a board member, of any board, let’s say a private company, goes away with the CEO that reports into him. It’s unacceptable, there’s a conflict of interest. Oakley: Well, I’ll, this is the first I’m hearing of it and its being brought into light now. Now, some people would say that you’re just trying to, in a defensive way, go on the offensive. It’s a football thing that the best defense is a good offense. Is that what’s happening here? You’re going on the offence? Ford: I never brought this to light, the police chief brought this to light. He’s the one who decided to make comments sitting in the police chief’s uniform. I never told them to do that. He was the one who brought this forward, he was the one who brought these pictures forward, he was the one who was just, couldn’t wait to tell the public that he has this tape. I guess he’s going to get an award from the Toronto Star at the end of the year, for the best reporter. I’m not too sure what political games the chief wants to play but obviously he has created a massive conflict of interest in this case and I think it is going to affect the case moving forward. Oakley: Well the case, and then there’s the matter of, as you say, his salary, or at least his tenure and the police budget, which is what? Close to at a billion dollars. That’s still to be negotiated. And with this mayor. Ford: police budget, robs going to keep another promise and you wonder why ford nation still stands behind him. Because he’s the only politician in recent memory that has done what he said he was going to do. Our city is booming Johnny. Oakley: Well Doug, what kind of censure do you think then the police chief should face for having, in your mind anyways, crossed a line here, and in the minds of a lot of people he crossed a line. What do you think he should face as censure? Ford: Well, that’s not my choice. I think personally, and this is just Doug Ford’s opinion, that he needs to step down until the probe is done. And there’s obviously a bias right now, moving forward in this city with a police chief against the mayor of this city. And it’s not up to the police chief to decide, in the next election whose going to be the mayor. It’s up the people and he’s lost track of that. He believes again that he is the judge, jury, and executioner and he’s not.A Geektime source who bought a OnePlus 2 through KSP, one of Israel’s largest digital stores, found malware on two of the phone’s pre-installed applications – including its browser
A few lucky customers have bought the new, extremely hyped OnePlus 2 without the official invite. Unfortunately, these consumers received something they did not expect: OnePlus 2s with pre-loaded malware.
Geektime recently discovered that a OnePlus 2 phone sold through KSP, one of Israel’s largest digital stores, had pre-installed malware, implicating that thousands of OnePlus 2 phones sold without direct invites may be infected. The source, whose information Geektime independently verified, bought the phone in early September through one of the largest electronics chains in Israel with no idea that KSP purchased these phones from a third party seller rather than OnePlus itself.
The source was motivated to employ anti-virus software after noticing that when he used Google Chrome, he was sent to a site called “global.ymtracker” or other sites with the name “tracker” in them for several seconds before reaching the address he put into the search engine.
After running AVG anti-virus software on his device, he found the malware. The AVG app discovered four potential threats: two of which were in applications he could uninstall, and the other two were on pre-installed OnePlus 2 apps “Browser” and “Fun Weather.” They were classified as potential sources of unwanted harm. He then clicked to get more information, which showed that, “In the past 7 days, both Browser and Fun Weather were linked to four cases of malware,” with different names of the viruses that they were linked to. However, the source couldn’t uninstall the apps because they were pre-installed on the device without any ability to remove them.
When Geektime reached out to the OnePlus support forum, an administrator replied that “neither of those apps come installed on a global device running OxygenOS bought directly” from OnePlus and official distributors.
Taking advice from a OnePlus owner’s Reddit thread, who had experienced similar problems after buying the phone from Gearbest in the U.S., he reinstalled his entire operating system, which ultimately got rid of the malware.
OnePlus’ and Israel’s official OnePlus distributor’s comments
Both OnePlus and Israel’s official OnePlus distributor, C-DATA, told Geektime that they do not recommend buying OnePlus products through unofficial retailers. When asked about the malware infected phone bought from a KSP store, OnePlus replied, “We do not condone users to buy our products through unofficial sources. In Israel, C-DATA is the only official distributor for OnePlus.” C-DATA in turn told Geektime, “C-DATA is the official distributor of OnePlus products in Israel. Our company is in cooperation with OnePlus to launch OnePlus 2 in the month of October in Israel.”
How our reporting saved future KSP customers from corrupted phones
In the end, KSP informed Geektime that they bought the OnePlus 2 phones not from C-DATA, but from a retailer called MOBILE BD. After our request for comment, they told MOBILE BD, whole did their own check and found the same cases of malware. KSP will stop selling the phones, get new, clean OnePlus 2s from MOBILE BD, and MOBILE BD will guide customers that bought the malware-infected phones how to install a new version: They encourage affected customers to call them at 03-919-9888.
A warning to anyone buying any smartphone, anywhere: If it’s not sold through an official distributor, the phone could have pre-installed malware
Not only did KSP, which has more than 45 branches across Israel, sell corrupted phones, online stores such as eBay and Amazon have also been caught selling Chinese smartphones pre-loaded with malware that steal users’ personal data. In 2014, Hacker News reported that the Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact, HTC One M7, HTC One X, and OnePlus One all had buyers that documented spyware.
It is unclear who in the supply chain corrupts the phone: the manufacturers themselves (though that seems unlikely), the third party retailers, or someone else who places malware somewhere in the production line.
What can customers do to make sure that they do not buy a smartphone with pre-installed malware?
Find out who the smartphone’s official distributor is in your country of purchase. Only buy a phone with stores that partner with this company. This will probably require asking the store directly if they work with with the official partner since they may publicize that they are a seller of the brand at hand without detailing who their distributor is, such as on KSP’s website.
In general, be suspicious of especially good deals from retail outlets or online sites that give you better prices on new phones than what you see elsewhere. And if you think you can get an early OnePlus 2 without an invite, you have officially been warned.Today’s idea: Our dwindling supply of phosphorus for fertilizer threatens to disrupt food security across the planet during the coming century, an article argues. “This is the gravest natural resource shortage you’ve never heard of.”
Stephen Morrison/European Pressphoto Agency
Food | You may remember the food-price unrest of a few years back, sparked in part by shortages and soaring prices of fertilizer. Yet large amounts of phosphate-based fertilizer continue to be wasted, write James Elser and Stuart White in Foreign Policy, “lost from farm fields, through soil erosion and runoff, and down swirling toilets, through our urine and feces.”
The two academics say the long-term problem isn’t insufficient production (the problem recently); it’s finite supply:
Our supply of mined phosphorus is running out. Many mines used to meet this growing demand are degrading, as they are increasingly forced to access deeper layers and extract a lower quality of phosphate-bearing rock. … Some initial analyses from scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative estimate that there will not be sufficient phosphorus supplies from mining to meet agricultural demand within 30 to 40 years. Although more research is clearly needed, this is not a comforting time scale. The geographic concentration of phosphate mines also threatens to usher in an era of intense resource competition. Nearly 90 percent of the world’s estimated phosphorus reserves are found in five countries: Morocco, China, South Africa, Jordan and the United States. In comparison, the 12 countries that make up the OPEC cartel control only 75 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
The upshot, the authors write, could be international tension, rising prices, even “a Malthusian trap of widespread famine.”
“We need to dramatically reduce the demand for phosphate rock by eliminating our wasteful practices,” they write, noting that phosphate can be recycled over and over. [Foreign Policy]
More Recommended Reading:Ok, so Sunrail is set to launch this Thursday, May 1st – a commuter train running through Central Florida from DeBary to the north to Sand Lake Road to the south, mostly from 6am-8pm hours during the weekday with free wifi, power outlets for charging laptops and phones, etc. so you can get your work on while going to work.
SunRail trains will arrive at each station every 30 minutes during peak service times when traffic on the roads is typically at its worst. During non-peak periods, trains will operate every 2 hours. Initially, there will be no service on the weekends. They hope to expand the network and hours in the future depending on demand |
trend of ex-subscription-based MMOs that lock out portions of their content to free players, Cryptic plans to avoid making any content premium-only in Neverwinter.
Content specifics such as which classes will be playable aren't being talked about at this point, though there is plenty of time to hear about them before Neverwinter launches. The switch from more traditional game to MMO has resulted in the projected Neverwinter release date being pushed back to the end of 2012. Cryptic has a habit of rushing MMOs out the door a little sooner than perhaps they ought to. Hopefully this delay has that extra polish time factored in.I sit alone, smothering the bitterness roiling at the one disrupting our lives after years of indifference and absence, and instead focus on the happiness it will bring the one I love.
I sit alone, avoiding thoughts of the deafening silence I'll hear when I wake at a reasonable hour, instead of at the crack of dawn with warm little hands nudging me and a squeal of delight, "Santa came!"
I sit alone, refusing to listen to that slithering whisper in the back of my mind. What if he likes it better there?
I sit alone, wondering if he'll come home and ask, innocent and unaware of the rending of my heart, "Mom, can I go live with him?"
I sit alone, anticipating silence.
He claps his hands, his face suffused with joy, and runs off to write a Christmas wish list. He's giddy at the idea of waking up there; he wonders what they'll have under the tree, and how they'll spend the day.Posted 11 June 2014 - 11:53 AM
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[background=transparent;]UPDATE!!! if you bought a package after 10:00 am PDT but before 4:30 pm PDT we have done a second injection. (completes at 5:30) Go test your Clan Mechs Now! [/font][background=transparent;]UPDATE!!! [/font]
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[background=transparent;] Hello MechWarriors! [/font]
The time is nearing for the Clan Invasion! With only a few days left to receive pre-order bonuses on the Clan Collections, we are happy to offer all players the chance to see the Clan 'Mechs in action a few days early! Accept the batchall and join us in the Clan Trial of Possession public test on Thursday, June 12th 2014 for this 12-hour event, starting 11AM PDT / 2PM EDT / 6PM UTC.
We are expecting to see a great deal of Clan versus Clan activity with this rare opportunity to preview the Clan Collection 'Mechs, and are hopeful to see some Inner Sphere 'Mechs in the mix as we seek your feedback on critical issues, design, and weapon tuning. All players who registered before today, June 11th, 2014 at 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT / 5PM UTC are invited to participate.
All players who pre-order any Clan Mechs or Collection before the same time tomorrow, June 12th, 2014 at 10 AM PDT, will be able to test drive their pre-ordered 'Mechs during the event. Come check out which Clan Mechs are available!
For more information about the Public Test System, please refer to our PTS Welcome and PTS FAQ. You can download and install the PTS Client here to be ready for the final patches when the test begins.
Subscribe to the Public Test Forum for more detailsRoy Bhaskar
Feyerabend and Bachelard: Two Philosophies of Science
In 1934 when Gaston Bachelard published his Nouvel Esprit Scientifique and Karl Popper’s Logik der Forschung appeared few philosophers would have dissented from the view that science develops in a linear or monistic fashion, so as to leave meaning and truth-value unchanged, on the basis provided by common experience. Meyerson had even undertaken to show that the theory of relativity could be deduced from Newtonian principles and it was widely held that, for their part, the concepts of classical physics were just a refinement of the concepts of daily life. Since then Bachelard, in France, and Popper, in England, have been more than any others responsible for the seeping into the general philosophical consciousness (which includes the consciousness of scientists in their reflection upon their work) of the fact, profoundly revolutionary for philosophy, of the phenomenon of scientific discontinuity (with respect to common sense or experience) and change. In strikingly similar terms Bachelard and Popper attempted to register this phenomenon. Yet neither of them, nor the theoretical traditions they inaugurated, have succeeded in grasping its full significance for philosophy. Dominique Lecourt’s Marxism and Epistemology and Paul Feyerabend’s Against Method constitute in a sense extended commentaries on these traditions and their attempts to theorize scientific discontinuity and change—the one, a respectful tribute ‘from outside’; the other, a ‘wicked’ polemic from within.
Scientific Revolutions and the Real World
Why do scientific discontinuity and change have such disturbing consequences for philosophy? Their recognition snaps the privileged relationship between subject and object which, in classical philosophy, uniquely ties thought to things. Thought cannot now be viewed as a mechanical function of given objects (as in empiricism); nor can the activity of creative subjects be regarded as endowing the world with things (as in idealism); nor is any combination of the two possible. In short, it becomes necessary to distinguish clearly between the unchanging real objects that exist outside the scientific process and the changing cognitive objects that are produced within science as a function of scientific practice. Let me call the former intransitive and the latter transitive objects; the theoretical space in which to talk about them will accordingly become the intransitive and transitive dimensions respectively of the philosophy of science.
I now want to put forward the following theses: Any adequate account of science depends upon the explicit recognition of the necessity for both, and the non-identity of the objects of, the intransitive and transitive dimensions. The history of philosophy is, on the other hand, characterized by persistent attempts to reduce one to the other. These attempts are necessarily unsuccessful so that they result merely in the generation of an implicit or disguised ontology (in the intransitive dimension) or sociology (in the transitive one). But the attempt to do so secures the dominance in philosophy of an empiricist ontology and an individualist sociology; and it is in this attempt and its results that the ideological value of classical philosophy lies. An adequate account of science depends, by contrast, upon the development of an explicit non-empiricist ontology and a non-individualist conception of scientific activity (or sociology, in the special sense of the word I am using here).
Now in the operation empiricist ontology = individualist sociology that structures classical philosophy typically, at least, it is knowledge and its subject, man, that plays the leading role. Thus it may be the need expressed for certain foundations for knowledge that results in the establishment of the implicit empiricist ontology—a process covered by the collapse of the concept of an intransitive dimension in the philosophy of science (that is, by the denial of the need for an ontology). Consider, for example, the empiricist variant dominant at the time Bachelard wrote The New Scientific Mind and Popper wrote The Logic of Scientific Discovery. In response to the question posed by scepticism, knowledge is restricted to what is known for certain; it is then shown, in a phenomenalistic analysis of perception, that what is known in perception is certain; only perception gives knowledge of things (principle of empiricism); hence knowledge must be of what is given in perception. Thus on the one hand only items directly given in sense-experience may be said to be known to exist; and, on the other, the world may now, from the point of view of epistemology, be regarded as constituted by facts which are as given as the real objects of perception and certain as a result of the analysis which identifies them with the latter. In this way facts, which are social products, stand in, in philosophy, for the particulars of the world and there is no need to bother with the question of whether things exist independently of them. It should be noted that ontology is denied while being presupposed. For, of course, it must be assumed that the world is such that it could be the object of such a cognitive operation of man. And, in particular, it is presupposed that it consists of discrete atomistic events or states-of-affairs, the ontological surrogates of the knowledge-constituting experiences, revealing an invariant order of coexistence in space and succession over time. As a result of this operation scientific knowledge becomes as certain as what exists and as commonplace as the activity (perception) that establishes it. The question—of scepticism—which initiates the philosophical play must be posed so that philosophy can give the answer its function demands.
The immediate ideological effects, in the transitive dimension, of this operation are clear. Scientific knowledge is certain, its development is monistic. At the same time it is safe, it does not threaten the spontaneous consciousness of ordinary life (for it is built up out of units available to it). Thus we have both an ideology for science and an ideology of science: the former constituting beliefs rationalizing the scientific status quo, in Kuhn’s terminology, the practice of ‘normal science’; the latter constituting beliefs about science, rationalizing the wider social status quo, bourgeois society as such. But this operation has ideological effects, though less obvious ones, in the intransitive dimension too.
Once we break the privileged relationship between subject and object and clearly distinguish between the transitive and intransitive dimensions of the philosophy of science, as we must once we register the discontinuities of scientific knowledge both over time and with respect to common experience, ‘scientific knowledge’ ceases to be an essential property of either person or things: it becomes something distinctive, with a site (and worth a study) of its own, bearing relations which are contingent and problematic to both. Now neither Bachelard nor Feyerabend have a concept of the intransitive dimension of the philosophy of science, they are both still committed to an essentially empiricist ontology. Moreover, in both cases their accounts of the transitive dimension are marred by individualistic deformations (in Bachelard’s case, psychologistic, in Feyerabend’s, voluntaristic). These are, I intend to show, the fundamental weaknesses of their philosophical positions. It is because of this continuing commitment to an empiricist ontology and an (at least residually individualist) sociology that, though their work marks, in different respects, a great advance on the past, neither of them is capable of providing us with the philosophy that science deserves, and that social science—inescapably—needs.
Popper: the Logic of Falsifiability
The most important influence on Feyerabend has been Karl Popper, and to understand his philosophy one must go back to the Vienna of the 1920s where he was a student. As Popper puts it, ‘there had been a revolution in Austria: the air was full of revolutionary slogans and ideas, and new and often wild theories’—Einstein’s theory of relativity, Marx’s theory of history, Freud’s psycho-analysis and Adler’s ‘individual psychology’. In this context a group of philosophers, whose leading members were Carnap, Neurath and Schlick, tried to work out a criterion for distinguishing genuinely scientific from non-scientific (or ‘metaphysical’) propositions. Much influenced by Wittgenstein, they constructed a system, logical positivism—in essence a restatement of Machian empiricism in a form made possible by the development of Russelian logic—according to which our knowledge of the world could be reconstructed from elementary propositions expressed in sense-experience. Scientific propositions were about the world, known in sense-experience; if a sentence did not refer directly or indirectly to sense-experience, that is if no possible observation was relevant to the determination of its truth-value, then it was unscientific and, according to the logical positivists, meaningless. Attempting to formulate a criterion which would show propositions actually accepted in science to be justified, and not unreasonably assuming that science could know at least some propositions to be true (i.e. that it possessed some positive knowledge), they formulated their criterion for the demarcation of scientific from non-scientific propositions in terms of the verifiability (i.e. susceptibility to positive test) of the former.
Such a solution did not satisfy Popper who was much impressed, as Bachelard was in France, by Einstein’s refutation of Newtonian mechanics (the most successful scientific theory ever invented, and for so long the philosopher’s paradigm of knowledge) that presaged the more or less rapid reorganization of the whole of physics. This showed, empirically, that no scientific proposition was certain. Moreover there were also compelling logical reasons for rejecting the positivists’ criterion. For its acceptance would in effect rule out just those propositions most distinctive of science, as it is clear that no finite number of observations can ever verify a universal statement, such as ‘all metals conduct electricity’. But a third consideration was decisive for Popper: the contrast between the apparent vulnerability of physics and the apparent invulnerability of Marxism, psychoanalysis, etc., (or their theorists) to refutation. It was easy to find confirmations: the hallmark of a critical scientific attitude was to look for refutations. This led Popper to a question, one might say, of scientific morality. What distinguished the scientist from the non-scientist was that the former was prepared to specify in advance the conditions under which he would be prepared to give up his theory. And it was just this that, according to Popper, Marxists and psychoanalysts, unlike physicists, refused to do. Thus history, logic and morality all pointed to falsifiability as the demarcating criterion of a science.
Popper soon saw that his work on the demarcation problem enabled a reconsideration of the traditional problem of induction. No number of positive instances can ever confirm a universal generalization such as ‘all swans are white’ or ‘all metals conduct electricity’; yet all, or practically all, or the most important part of our scientific knowledge consists of (or depends upon) propositions of this form. A problem, a scandal; indeed ‘the scandal of philosophy’, Broad had pronounced it in 1926. Popper, rejecting attempts by Carnap and others to give such propositions a probabilistic basis, pointed out that, though they could not be confirmed or made probable (in the sense of the calculus of probability), they could be falsified—by the discovery of a single counter-instance. Scientific propositions and theories, then, though they cannot be confirmed, can be refuted.
This, in turn, led Popper to propose a new general view of science. Induction, he agreed with Hume, cannot be justified. But this does not mean that science is irrational. For induction plays no part at all in science. Science does not proceed inductively, gradually accumulating positive instances until generalizations become probable or, in the terminology of the modern neo-Humean Goodman, entrenched; nor does science depend upon any such processes. Rather generalizations are first proposed as conjectures and then subjected to rigorous test by drawing out their implications; when a theory is refuted, it is replaced by another bolder conjecture, and so on. Science is hypotheticodeductive, not inductive. And it progresses precisely through its mistakes.
Popper’s system differed from classical empiricism in yet another respect: refuting observation statements were not regarded as theory—independent reflections of a given world. All statements are theory—impregnated (or theoretical) to a greater or lesser extent: statements are accepted as observational, as being basic or potentially refuting, as a result of methodological decision, by agreement (convention). (Conventionalism may be regarded as an alternative way to phenomenalism of securing a link between man and the world—in that instead of the world naturalistically determining our knowledge of it, men decide, by convention, what [level of their knowledge] is to count as [knowledge of] the empirical world.) Thus Popper completed a remarkable inversion and displacement of the problematic of classical empiricism. His fallibilism enabled him to avoid complete Humean scepticism, though at the price of restricting our knowledge to knowledge of error, of scientific mistakes; while his conventionalism allowed him to sustain the most rationalistic account of science since Kant and Whewell, though at the cost of leaving science with an entirely man-made empirical base. And in the process he worked out a view of science which made revolutionary change of the sort that was occurring in physics its very essence.
Paradigms and Research Programmes
Two other philosophers are important for an understanding of the recent development of Feyerabend’s work—Imre Lakatos, Popper’s successor at LSE, to whom Against Method is dedicated: and Thomas Kuhn, whose Structure of Scientific Revolutions was the subject of impassioned attack by Popperians, including both Lakatos and initially Feyerabend, who saw it as undermining the idea of the rationality of science (Lakatos) and/or as providing a rationale for scientific conservatism (Feyerabend). Lakatos’ fundamental concern in his brilliant development of Popper’s philosophy of science was to try and salvage from the historiographical material provided by Kuhn and others the idea that science was a rational enterprise, in which progress was (or could be) made—a proposition to which Kuhn, as a good sociologist, stubbornly refused to subscribe.
Both Lakatos and Kuhn agreed, however, that the Popperian system could not, at least in its original form, stand up to the material provided by history: that, in short, falsificationism was itself refuted by history. (Popper, Lakatos grumbled, ‘does not raise, let alone answer the question: “under what conditions would you give up your demarcation criterion?”’) Every theory was always immersed in ‘an ocean of anomalies’; so that, strictly speaking, every theory was always falsified. In this context actual scientists had to be much more dogmatic, or tenacious than the Popperian model allowed. Moreover, as Duhem had pointed out, every theory was formulated subject to an implicit ceteris paribus clause, so that the hypothesis of an intervening or disturbing influence could always be invoked to explain away apparent counter-instances. Conditions, therefore, could not be specified in advance as to when a theory should be given up, just because of the possibility of the implicit ceteris paribus clause breaking down; so that, as Lakatos put it, ‘exactly the most admired scientific theories simply fail to forbid any observable state of affairs’. Then again in real history falsifications never issued from a simple dyadic confrontation between a single theory and a set of facts; but between two (or more) theories and their facts; that is, in real history falsifications were replacements. And the replacement, when it came, normally consisted in a refinement and modification of the existing theory, rather than its complete rejection. The original Popperian model had left a mystery: after the refutation—what? Or to put it another way it could not account for the genesis of any new conjecture or research line. In real history scientific theories do not spring from the void—but from the development and reworking of cognitive material that pre-exists them, necessitating the creative employment of ideas from adjacent fields, Bachelard’s ‘scientific loans’.
In Lakatos’ ‘methodology of scientific research programmes’, a theory T is preferable to theory T9 if it has excess empirical content (i.e. predicts novel facts), some of which is ‘corroborated’. (In Popperian terminology a theory is said to be ‘corroborated’ if it escapes unscathed when subjected to empirical test.) Thus a counter-instance is now not even necessary for a falsification. The subject of normative appraisal ceases to be theories and becomes sequences of theories or research programmes, constructed around a hard core, unfalsifiable by methodological fiat. A research programme is progressive if it results in some corroborated excess empirical content; that is, as long as its theoretical growth anticipates its empirical growth, i.e. as long as it keeps predicting novel facts with some success; it is degenerating when it does not. In this way Lakatos claimed to be able to do justice to the continuity of scientific development, scouted by Popper and stressed by Kuhn, without sacrificing the essential Popperian idea of the rationality of scientific change. It is this claim that Feyerabend disputes in Against Method. For ‘if it is unwise to reject theories the moment they are born because they might grow and improve, then it is also unwise to reject research programmes on a downward (degenerating) trend because they might recover and attain unforeseen splendour (the butterfly emerges when the caterpillar has reached its lowest stage of degeneration)’. Copernicus followed not Ptolemy and Aristotle, but the mad Pythagorean, Philoloas. A sequence Tai... Tan may stagnate over ti... tj but progress after tj. So the methodology of scientific research programmes, because it cannot anticipate the future development of a science, is powerless to tell it what to do.
Feyerabend, unable to conceive of criteria of rationality that do not satisfy this traditional requirement of philosophy, concludes from this that scientific change must be irrational. But he had already launched an attack on the idea of the rationality of science from another set of considerations, in which not just the possibility of a rational reconstruction by philosophy but the very possibility of objective grounds for a rational choice between conflicting theories within science was called into question. Both Feyerabend and Kuhn had pointed out that the history of science is characterized by meaning-change as well as inconsistency (or ‘falsification’); and had raised the possibility that the conceptual structures of two competing theories might be so radically different that they shared no statements in common, so that they were literally ‘incommensurable’. Does it follow, as Feyerabend and Kuhn contend, that there can then be no rational grounds for choosing between them? No. For we can allow that a theory Ta is preferable to a theory Tb, even if they are incommensurable, provided that Ta can explain under its descriptions almost all the phenomena P1... Pn that Tb can explain under its descriptions plus some significant phenomena that Tb cannot explain. This depends of course upon an explicit recognition of the need for a philosophical ontology or intransitive dimension in the philosophy of science. But such an ontology is implicit in the very formulation of the problem. For to say that two theories conflict, clash or are in competition presupposes that there is something—a domain of real objects or relations existing and acting independently of their descriptions—over which they clash. (No one bothers to say that the rules of cricket and football are incommensurable.) Of course, it may be that the two theories are only in competition over a very small domain (as may be the case e.g. with Marxism and psychoanalysis), so that Lakatosian-type decision rules are of very little help in choosing between them, but this is not then the problem of incommensurability.
Feyerabend: a new Lebensphilosophie
Given any rule, however ‘fundamental’ or ‘necessary’ for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite’.
Feyerabend’s recent intellectual development may be described as, in certain respects, a journey from an ultra-Popperian Popper to an ultra-Kuhnian Kuhn. In ‘Problems of Empiricism’ he had advanced arguments, which were to be developed by Lakatos, for a theoretical pluralism as the basis of every genuine test procedure. And, like Popper and Lakatos, he still believed it was possible to give objective grounds for choosing between theories (even when they were ‘incommensurable’). In Against Method, advocating a theoretical anarchism (or ‘dadaism’ as he prefers to style his philosophy), these positions are abandoned: there are neither criteria for choosing between theories within science nor criteria for choosing between science and other forms of life.
Science, Feyerabend contends, is much more ‘sloppy and irrational than its methodological image’. Indeed, ‘there is not a single rule, however plausible and firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or another’. ‘Progress’, according to whatever criterion or standard one chooses to adopt, ‘occurred only because some thinkers either decided not to be bound by certain “obvious” methodological rules, or because they unwittingly broke them’. This is not just a fact about the history of science but was absolutely necessary for it. The reason: ‘history generally, and the history of revolutions in particular is always richer in content, more varied, more many-sided, more lively and subtle’ (Lenin) than even the best methodologists can imagine. The sciences, like nations and governments (Hegel), cannot learn from history but have to act in and out of it.Decisions must be made in science, which cannot be (derived from history or) anticipated by philosophy.
Moreover rationalistic philosophers of science forget Robespierre’s dictum that ‘virtue without terror is ineffective’; that in real science as distinct from the philosophers fantasy of it arguments must have causal efficacy as well as logical force. What rationality cannot achieve must be secured by social or psychological pressures. Creative scientists are ruthless opportunists, disdaining no view, however absurd or immoral, or method; not ‘truth-freaks’. Galileo defeated his rivals ‘because of his style and his clever techniques of persuasion, because he [wrote] in Italian rather than Latin, and [appealed] to people who were temperamentally opposed to the old ideas and the standards of learning connected with them’. No distinction between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ history can save the rationality of science. For a scientific development which appears ‘rational’ may succeed only because of compensating factors in its external history. Galileo’s ignorance of the elementary principles of telescopic vision was bliss. And political interference was a condition for the successful revival of traditional medicine in Communist China. As for the methodology of scientific research programmes, it can only be given practical force, as Lakatos intends that it should, by making it the core of conservative institutions. The differing rhetorics of Lakatos and Feyerabend thus reflect fundamentally different attitudes towards freedom of research in science.
For Feyerabend, then, science is an essentially anarchistic enterprise. No unique aim or method characterizes it; there can be no theory of science. Moreover there can be no criterion distinguishing it from ‘any other ideology’. Indeed it is much closer to myth than is generally recognized. A nominalist about science, Feyerabend is a sceptic about its achievements, both cognitive and social. Not only can it not give us any knowledge guarantees, it is not nearly as difficult or as successful as its propagandists would have us believe. Above all it is potentially subversive of a most important liberty: our freedom to choose what we believe. Hence ‘the separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science... [as] our only chance to achieve a humanity we are capable of, but have never fully realized’.
Not only is science essentially anarchistic but theoretical anarchism, Feyerabend says, is essential for the progress of science. Yet Feyerabend denies that he is proposing or pre-supposing any criterion of progress. Given this, any anarchistic move which helps progress on one criterion will impede it on some other. What, then, is the status of Against Method itself? Feyerabend, at least on the face of it, certainly seems to be making a proposal, viz., that one should not be bound by explicit rules in science. In Feyerabend’s science the policies pursued by individual scientists become ‘free’, a matter of personal choice (or democratic vote): he, or she, can maintain or change his, or her, aims equally ‘as a result of argument, or of boredom, or of a conversion experience or to impress a mistress’. In short, science is an activity in which anything goes. Now if this is good advice according to one criterion or standard S1, it will be bad advice according to some other S2. Hence there is as much reason to ignore as to accept the advice of Against Method. Feyerabend even seems to accept this. ‘To be a true dadaist, one must also be an anti-dadaist.’ (If the dadaist ‘not only has no programmes, but is against all programmes’, then he must also be against the programme of Against Method itself.)
What then is the point of Against Method? Like an undercover agent who works on both sides of the fence, Feyerabend plays the game of reason in order to undermine the authority of reason. His position is not self-refuting because it is clear that Feyerabend is in fact committed, in Against Method, to higher-order values. These may be summed up as: for freedom and against science. His dadaism is merely a front, a tactical ploy designed to confuse the enemy.
At a first level, then, Feyerabend is arguing that individuals in pursuit of their private aims/essential humanity should be unfettered by any methodological restrictions. For freedom, then; and against method. But it is not just method in general that he wants to cut down to size. His target is more specific: science. ‘Is it not possible’, he asks, echoing Kierkegaard, ‘that my activity as an objective observer of nature will weaken my strength as a human being?’ For Feyerabend ‘science has no greater authority than any other form of life. Its aims are certainly not more important than those guiding the lives in a religious community or in a tribe united by a myth. At any rate, they have no business restricting the lives, the thoughts, the education of the members of a free society where everyone should have a chance to make up his own mind and to live in accordance with the social beliefs he finds most acceptable’. For freedom, then; and against science. A familiar opposition, which received its quintessential expression in the manichean world of late nineteenth century German thought, posited on the neo-Kantian dichotomy of nature/spirit —an opposition which informed the philosophy of Lukács and of the Frankfurt school and which has now produced out of Vienna in 1919, by a necessary logic set in motion by Popper’s simple inversion of positivism, for Berkeley in 1967, a new Lebensphilosophie: the philosophy of flower power, dressed up as a dadaism.
Now in all the avatars of this opposition it is never clear if what is being opposed to freedom is:
(1) some particular conception of science, such as empiricism, or of its role in the social totality, such as scientism;
(2) the existing practices and institutions of the sciences; or
(3) scientific knowledge as such.
Lukács, for example, uncritically identifies natural science with the positivist concept of it; and much of what Feyerabend has to say is extremely well taken as a necessary critique of the historical processes of the production of knowledge in the contemporary world. It is probable that Feyerabend is attacking, in the name of freedom, all three. Let us see whether he succeeds in his attack on scientific knowledge and isolate his concept of it.
Paraphrasing Mill, Feyerabend’s hero, we could say that for Feyerabend the only freedom that deserves the name is that of doing one’s own thing in one’s own way; specifically, we are to be free to believe what we choose. But how do we choose? This depends, presumably, upon our aims and objectives (for which, of course, Feyerabend can give only a purely voluntaristic explanation, i.e. no explanation at all). Man is just subject to certain desires (appetites and aversions, in Hobbes) or feelings (pleasure and pain, in Hume, Bentham and Mill), which are in the last instance neuro-physiologically given; and he acts so as to maximize his enjoyment (pleasure) or minimize his suffering (pain). Feyerabend’s conception of action thus takes its place in a famous lineage. But how does he act? For Hume and Mill by the application of his reason, in the last instance the sole identifying characteristic of man, to a simple maximization problem (or its dual, a minimization one). For Hume ‘reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions’. But in Feyerabend the passions lack their necessary complement: an efficient slave. Knowledge may not be the most important social activity, but it is the one upon which the achievement of any human objective depends. Freedom, in the sense Feyerabend attaches to it, depends upon knowledge (praxis presupposes theory); we can only be as free as our knowledge is reliable and complete. We are not free to choose what we believe if we are to attain the kinds of objectives Feyerabend mentions. Only if belief-in-itself was the sole end of human action would Feyerabend be warranted in such an assumption.
Tactics and Ethics
In this context it may be useful to refer to Feyerabend’s use of Lenin and Galileo. He makes great play of Lenin’s tactical flexibility. But Lenin’s tactical flexibility was subordinated to a specific aim (revolution) and informed by a specific theory or heuristic (historical materialism). Lukács remarks that ‘Lenin’s so-called realpolitik was never that of an empirical pragmatist, but the practical culmination of an essentially theoretical attitude’. And he adds that ‘one of Lenin’s most characteristic and creative traits was that he never ceased to learn theoretically from reality, while remaining ever equally ready for action. This determines one of the most striking and apparently paradoxical attributes of his theoretical style: he never saw his lessons from reality as closed, but what he had learned from it was so organized and directed in him that action was possible at any given moment’.
Feyerabend is at his most convincing in his case study of Galileo’s successful defence and development of the Copernican Revolution in astronomy, which forms the main empirical ground for his conclusions in philosophy. He describes the way in which, in order to ‘defuse’ Aristotelian objections to the Copernican hypothesis, Galileo first identified the ‘natural (or spontaneous) interpretations’ of experience that the Aristotelians made use of in their objections; and then, surreptitiously, using the Platonic method of anamnesis, replaced them with others, in turn inimical to Aristotelianism. Thus Galileo drew the attention of his contemporaries away from the old paradigm of the motion of compact objects in stable surroundings (deer in a forest) towards cases of relative motion in moving systems such as boats and coaches, insinuating that they already implicitly possessed, but just incompletely applied, the Copernican conceptual system (and smoothing over difficulties arising from the substitution in an ad hoc way). But this substitution presupposed of course precisely what was to be proved, viz. the relativity of all motion. Moreover Galileo set out to change not just the natural interpretations of experience but its ‘sensory core’ as well—in particular through his use of the telescope. Ignoring both those telescopic phenomena that did not support Copernicanism and those phenomena that did not support the telescope (i.e. the theory that telescopic phenomena provide an accurate picture of the sky), Galileo nevertheless seized on the few telescopic phenomena that did indicate Copernicanism as a triumphant vindication of it. And Galileo succeeded in all this, according to Feyerabend, only because of factors, such as his ignorance of optics and the changing class structure of Italian society, on any criterion extrinsic to the internal history of his science.
Galileo’s procedures are clearly irrational by the standards of orthodox philosophy of science. But is Feyerabend correct to conclude from this that they are per se irrational? His own continuing commitment to an essentially empiricist ontology prevents him from seeing in Galileo’s procedures an alternative rationale. He quotes Galileo’s ‘astonishment’ at the way in which ‘Aristarchus and Copernicus were able to make reason so conquer sense that, in defiance of the latter, the former became mistress of their belief’ and tells us some of the ways in which Galileo set out to change sense. But why? For Galileo, human sense-experience depends upon the contingencies of our sense-organs, the aids to them and the beliefs associated with them. There is thus no necessary correspondence between reality and sense-experience. However sense-experience so impresses itself upon our consciousness that it takes an effort to appreciate the possibility of a disjuncture between it and reality. Copernicus made this leap, Galileo praises him for it, and begins the arduous task of bringing the empirical basis of science into line with what reason (theory) has shown must be so. At the same time because both science and scientists are social products Galileo, on this interpretation, has few illusions (and might have even fewer had he been able to read Against Method) about the tactics that must be employed in this project.
Invariance and Experiment
In Feyerabend the voluntaristic and sceptical elements already present in Popper’s philosophy are taken to their limit; and Against Method ends in a relativism far more complete than anything to be found in Kuhn. Feyerabend’s intentions are humanistic; his methodempiricist. Empiricism was a theory of the production of knowledge; in denying the very possibility of a theory of the production of knowledge (the prescription ‘anything goes’ is based on the idea (theory) that ‘anything has gone’ in the history of science), Feyerabend produces not a philosophy of science which is empiricist but an empiricist philosophy of science. (Or we could say that Feyerabend is an empiricist in the philosophy of the philosophy of science.) Let us see how this transformation occurs.
The starting point is the Humean problem of induction. This is the problem of:
(A) what warrant we have for supposing that the course of nature will not change.
This, as stated, is an ontological problem. If nature is non-uniform then established generalizations may break down. (A) demands some guarantee of, or for, nature that this will not be the case. But because Hume was an empirical realist (that is, identified the world with our experience of it, the domains of the real and the empirical), (A) became equivalent of the problem of:
(AB) what warrant we have for supposing the regularities |
promising it would never succeed.
The Russian president also appeared to channel Al Capone, the Chicago mobster, when he joked that "weapons and politeness" were more effective than "politeness alone".
Meeting supporters at a forum in Moscow, Mr Putin corrected another speaker who said that the United States wanted to humiliate Russia.
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The president was speaking to members of the All-Russia People's Front, a coalition of groups that back him.
His characteristically sharp-tongued delivery suggested Mr Putin was keen to dispel any idea that he had been cowed at the G20 summit in Brisbane over the weekend, which he left early after a series of Western leaders upbraided him over Russia's military intervention in the Ukraine crisis.
Before his speech on Tuesday, the Russian leader was shown a new military vehicle described as a cross between a car and an armoured personnel carrier.
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Mr Putin defended the government's decision to introduce a ban on food imports from western states that imposed sanctions on Russia over its alleged meddling in Ukraine. He said those countries had "put themselves in a spot" by introducing sanctions and provoking the Russian measures in response.A little piece of Mexico is coming to the Royal City this fall.
El Santo restaurant is slated to open late September in the Trapp + Holbrook building, and owner Alejandro Diaz couldn’t be more excited.
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“We really want to bring something fun and contemporary to New West,” he told the Record. “Most people know Mexican food as your basic tacos and tostadas, but we want to do something more, bring that modern part of Mexico.”
Diaz, a native of the country, decided he wanted to open his own place a couple years ago. After living in New West for some time, he said he had found there were few local date-night options, often prompting him to go to Vancouver and elsewhere. A lack of education people have about Mexican food and drink was another reason for the entrepreneurial endeavour, Diaz added.
He and his executive chef, Shane King, visited Mexico earlier this year to do research, scoping out the most forward-thinking and up-and-coming restaurants.
“There’s numerous regions of Mexico that have completely different ways of preparing different dishes,” King said, “So the array and the difference in food styles amongst all those regions is exciting, and I think it’s something that is lacking (here).”
He added when people in North America think of Mexican grub, they think of cheese, cream and flour.
“That’s more Tex Mex food,” King noted. “We’re going to be incorporating as much locally-sourced ingredients as possible.”
Mexican food can be very healthy, Diaz chimed in, with many gluten-free options.
The menu includes chilaquiles made of tortilla strips, seared pork belly and a tomatillo salsa. All tortillas will be made fresh in-house thanks to a special tortilla-making machine. Some of the dishes, meanwhile, will be presented in a share-plate format, giving foodies more flavour for their taste buds. There will even be a few seafood items.
The liquor menu is also impressive, with a variety of tequila options, both smooth and sweet. Like craft brew enthusiasts, El Santo-goers will be able to order flights, not of beer but of tequila.
“We want to remove the stigma of doing tequila shots at the end of the night … it’s kind of against what tequila’s all about,” said King. “Tequila’s like tasting a good scotch.”
El Santo, or The Saint, was a famous Mexican wrestler who was known for always wearing his silver mask both in and out of the ring, never exposing his face (except for once) to the public.
Naming the restaurant after him, Diaz said, made sense because it carries history, adventure and a bit of mystery.
El Santo, located at 680 Columbia St., will have seating for about 100 people. There will also be a patio for those wanting to catch the sun’s rays.Skull Ring for SS-members - replica.
The SS-Ehrenring ("SS Honour Ring"), unofficially called Totenkopfring ("Death's Head Ring"), was an award of Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel (SS). It was not a state decoration, but rather a personal gift bestowed by Himmler. The SS Honour Sword and SS Honour Dagger were similar awards.
Award [ edit ]
The ring was initially presented to senior officers of the Old Guard (of which there were fewer than 5,000). Each ring had the recipient's name, the award date, and Himmler's signature engraved on the interior. The ring came with a standard letter from Himmler and citation. It was to be worn only on the left hand, on the "ring finger". If an SS member was dismissed or retired from the service, his ring had to be returned.[1]
The name of the recipient and the conferment date was added on the letter. In the letter, according to Himmler, the ring was a "reminder at all times to be willing to risk the life of ourselves for the life of the whole".[2]
It became a highly sought-after award, one which could not be bought or sold. Some SS and police members had local jewellers make unofficial versions to wear.[1] In 1938 Himmler ordered the return of all rings of dead SS-men and officers to be stored in a chest in Wewelsburg Castle. This was to be a memorial to symbolize the ongoing membership of the deceased in the SS-order. In October 1944, Himmler ordered that further manufacture and awards of the ring were to be halted.[1] Himmler then ordered that all the remaining rings, approximately 11,500, be blast-sealed inside a hill near Wewelsburg.[3] By January 1945, 64% of the 14,500 rings made had been returned to Himmler after the deaths of the "holders".[1] In addition, 10% had been lost on the battlefield and 26% were either kept by the holder or their whereabouts were unknown.[1]
Design [ edit ]
The design of the ring reflects Himmler's interest in Germanic mysticism and includes the Totenkopf symbol and Armanen runes.
Runes seen on the ring
One Sig Rune left and right of the skull framed by a triangle represent the power of the sun and conquering energy
A Hagal rune (framed by a hexagon) which represents the faith and camaraderie that was idealised by the leaders of the organisation. The esoteric meaning of the Hagal rune was, according to Guido von List, to: "...enclose the universe in you and you control the universe."
A Hakenkreuz (standing on the vertex) framed by a square. The SS liked to portray the Swastika as another influential symbol of the power of the Aryan race.
(standing on the vertex) framed by a square. The SS liked to portray the Swastika as another influential symbol of the power of the Aryan race. The double runes on the rear of the ring framed by a circle were to be Heilszeichen (literally: signs of salvation) of the past. They were a creation of the SS designers rather than historical runes. They are a "gibor" rune plus a bind rune for "o" and "t". The bind rune was designed by Wiligut, and spells "Gott" the German word for God.[3]
The ring is wreathed with oak leaves.
Literature [ edit ]
Don Boyle SS Totenkopf H. Himmler Honour Ring 1933-1945
Patzwall, Klaus D., Der SS-Totenkopfring, Patzwall, 4th edition 2002. ISBN 3-931533-47-6
, Patzwall, 4th edition 2002. ISBN 3-931533-47-6 Gottlieb, Craig, The SS Totenkopf Ring, from Munich to Nuremberg, Schiffer, ISBN 978-0-7643-3094-0
, Schiffer, ISBN 978-0-7643-3094-0 Tom Morganti Totenkopf ISBN 978-1544817897
References [ edit ]Olympic Gold Medalist Nastia Liukin to Serve as 2015 Indianapolis 500 Grand Marshal
INDIANAPOLIS, Monday, May 4, 2015 – Nastia Liukin, the individual all-around gold medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and one of the most successful gymnasts in U.S. history, will serve as Grand Marshal of the 99th Indianapolis 500 on May 24.
As part of her duties as Grand Marshal, Liukin will appear on the red carpet, take a parade lap around the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval and be announced to the crowd prior to the start of the race. She will also serve as an Honored Guest at the 500 Festival Parade and the Snake Pit Ball.
“We’re excited to have Nastia Liukin as part of the rich pre-race pageantry of the Indianapolis 500,” said J. Douglas Boles, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president. “Over the years we have welcomed many famous athletes from outside the motorsports world on Race Day and to have such a decorated Olympian visit is an honor.”
“I have very fond memories of competing and performing in Indianapolis, and I will actually be back again in August for the P&G Gymnastics Championships,” Liukin said. “I’m really honored to be the Grand Marshal for this year’s Indianapolis 500. It will be so exciting to witness ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ – I can’t wait!”
Liukin is currently competing on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” the celebrity event won in the fall of 2007 by current Verizon IndyCar Series driver Helio Castroneves. The competition airs on Monday nights on ABC; the network will also air the Indianapolis 500.
Liukin, who currently resides in New York City after growing up in Texas, retired from competitive gymnastics in 2012 after a career in which she was a key member of the U.S. team. She won nine world championship medals (four gold, five silver), tied with Shannon Miller and Simone Biles, and five Olympic medals.
In 2008, Liukin was instrumental to the U.S. women’s team’s success at the Olympic Games, leading the team to the silver medal in team competition. Individually, she won the coveted Olympic all-around gold medal with the performance of a lifetime, silver medals on both balance beam and uneven bars, and the bronze medal on the floor exercise. At the time, she was just the third American woman to win the Olympic all-around title.
Indianapolis holds a significant place in Liukin’s career, as she won her first senior U.S. all-around title at the U.S. Championships in Indy in 2005. She will be returning to town in August as a television commentator for the P&G Gymnastics Championships, the sport’s national championships.
Beyond gymnastics, Liukin has embarked on several successful business ventures, including modeling for BCBG/Max Azria; teaming up with Fisher-Price to introduce a new interactive Dora the Explorer doll, “Fantastic Gymnastics Dora”; launched Supergirl by Nastia, a line of signature clothing at JC Penney; designed her own leotard line with GK/Elite Sportswear and a signature line of training gymnastics equipment with AAI; served on the creative team and performed in the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions; and was a reporter for the television coverage of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
Liukin is fluent in both English and Russian and began attending NYU in 2013, where she is a junior studying international sports management.The Leafs will enjoy a fun Cup-contention window for a couple seasons, but they’ll have to be careful managing their cap as the kids earn massive new contracts.
Welcome to 2020 Vision, our new feature taking a look at how the roster of each NHL team may look three seasons from now when the 2019-2020 season begins.
Over the next month we’ll profile one team, in alphabetical order, each day and project what their roster (12 forwards, six defensemen, two goalies) will look like.
There were some ground rules for this exercise. We didn’t allow any blockbuster trades or free agent signings, but we did make assumptions about teams re-signing their own UFAs and RFAs.
Therefore, this isn’t intended to be a fantasy-like look at the league in 2019-20. Instead, since this is part of the THN Future Watch family, it’s meant to be a realistic, best-case-scenario projection for each team based on players already under contract, and prospects in their system.
THN’s trio of prospects-related issues, Future Watch, Prospect Unlimited, and Draft Preview, can all be purchased here. All contract information via CapFriendly.com.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ long-term outlook has changed dramatically. The franchise was a laughing stock a few years ago but, thanks to a total regime overhaul under Brendan Shanahan and several years of drafting in the top third of the first round, Toronto has one of the league’s best, deepest youth crops. Last year, the rebuild warped ahead of schedule as Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander became the second trio of rookie teammates in NHL history to each top 60 points. The Leafs got to the playoffs far earlier than most people expected and gave the first-place Washington Capitals a scare.
It’s possible Toronto regresses after tremendous injury luck in 2016-17, but all those late-game and shootout losses from last season should also correct themselves to normal levels and offset that. The Leafs should continue growing into a true Stanley Cup contender over the next few seasons, while the Edmonton Oilers do the same out west.
We know this Leaf team isn’t perfect, of course. Team defense was well below average last season, ranking 22nd in the league. Drafting Timothy Liljegren was an exciting move this June, as he was rated as a top-two talent a year earlier before a down year, which could be blamed partially on mononucleosis, dipped his stock. But the Leafs still need major help on defense, which is why they aggressively pursued (and whiffed on) Travis Hamonic. Mobile Jake Gardiner, Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev are respectable building blocks, but this team desperately needs a shutdown monster on the blueline.
Luckily, the Leafs have such a logjam at forward that they can afford to spare some combination of existing roster players or prospects to land that elusive blueliner. It’s not just the Matthews, Marner and Nylander show. Nazem Kadri scored 32 goals last year and has blossomed into a strong two-way pivot. Connor Brown notched 20 goals as a rookie, and Zach Hyman has become a useful grinding forward. Kasperi Kapanen lit up the AHL and made an impressive late-season splash with the Leafs during the playoffs in a checking-line role. Toronto still has a promising scorer on the way in Jeremy Bracco, too, while Adam Brooks has posted some eye-opening point totals in the WHL. So forward is a huge position of strength for a Toronto team that already finished top-five in goals last season.
The question now is whether the Leafs will nudge aside their veterans to make room for more kids by 2019-20 or deal some prospects and re-up some veterans. By the time that season arrives, James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov and Dominic Moore will all see their deals expire. It’s unlikely the Leafs keep them, as their top-flight kids finish their entry-level deals and will command massive extensions in the summers to come. Nylander’s an RFA in 2018. The low end of his asking price on a long-term deal might be what Filip Forsberg signed in Nashville: six years at a $6-million cap hit. The high end, if Nylander has a big year, could flirt with Leon Draisaitl money in the $8-8.5-mllion range. Marner should command something similar as an RFA in 2019, and Matthews…oh boy. He likely won’t land in the Connor McDavid zone barring a Hart Trophy campaign in 2017-18, but $10 million per year sounds realistic.
That’s why I also don’t see Patrick Marleau finishing out his contract as a Leaf. To me, his “three-year” deal is more about using him during a crucial two-year window. By the start of the 2019-20 season, he’ll be 40. Count on him to land on long-term injured reserve by then, getting his money off the books.
Looking down the road at the Leafs’ depth chart, however, they are loaded on the right wing and strong at center, too, but no JVR, Marleau or Komarov would open a gaping hole on the left. I thus almost forecast a new JVR contract for the 2019-20 depth chart. The truth is if the Leafs lost him, they’d end up searching for another version of him. Still, it’s difficult to imagine them affording him, especially when Gardiner will need a new deal by 2019-20. van Riemsdyk will command $6 million per year on the open market, easily. If the Leafs don’t find a cheaper replacement for JVR outside the organization, it makes a ton of sense to switch Kapanen to the left side. The only way he climbs the depth chart to where he’s truly useful is if he switches wings, and he’s played plenty of left wing in his career dating back to his days in Finland.
The Leafs have their medium- and perhaps long-term starting goaltender in Frederik Andersen. Scratch his nightmare five-game debut last year and he posted a.923 save percentage over his next 61 games. His calm temperament suits him nicely for Toronto’s pressure-cooker atmosphere.
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GOT IT: Scoring won’t be a problem for years and years, even if it isn’t evenly distributed across each forward position. Matthews scored 40 goals as a teenager. We could see the Leafs regularly field three top-20 scorers in the NHL. They should contend with Edmonton and Winnipeg to lead the league in goals in seasons to come. Toronto’s blueline has pretty good offensive acumen, especially once Liljegren joins the fray. I predict he gets one more year in Sweden, then one year in the AHL, joining the Leafs for his rookie year in 2019-20.
NEED IT: Toronto isn’t hard enough to play against on the defensive side of the puck. Dominic Moore is a stopgap checking center after Brian Boyle walked in free agency, but the Leafs will need a younger, long-term investment to be that penalty-killing, faceoff-winning defensive pivot. More than anything, Toronto needs a true defensive defenseman. Think Anaheim’s Josh Manson or Arizona’s Niklas Hjalmarsson, who blend physicality with enough skill to keep pace with other team’s top lines.
CAP WATCH: The Leafs should remain tight to the cap by 2019-20. Right now, it’s because of all their veteran deals. By the time those expire, the star kids will inherit that money on their extensions. General manager Lou Lamoriello will have to keep tap dancing, just as Stan Bowman does every year in Chicago.
BOTTOM LINE: The next few years should be wild in Toronto as they chase a Cup with a two-year window before Matthews and Marner get their big money. By 2019-20, they may have to rely more on their youth than their veterans, but since it’s a talented group of young players, that’s hardly a bad thing.
Previously: Anaheim Ducks | Arizona Coyotes | Boston Bruins | Buffalo Sabres | Calgary Flames | Carolina Hurricanes | Chicago Blackhawks | Colorado Avalanche | Columbus Blue Jackets | Dallas Stars | Detroit Red Wings | Edmonton Oilers | Florida Panthers | Los Angeles Kings | Minnesota Wild | Montreal Canadiens | Nashville Predators | New Jersey Devils | New York Islanders | New York Rangers | Ottawa Senators | Philadelphia Flyers | Pittsburgh Penguins | St. Louis Blues | San Jose Sharks | Tampa Bay Lightning
Up next: Vancouver CanucksNote: For the purpose of this article, we’re assuming that the Halpschilt interpretation of Guardia di Testa is essentially correct.
In chapter 143, Marozzo gives us a set of basic attacks from Guardia di Testa that he wants us to teach to novice fencers. The following diagrams are meant to help illustrate how these cuts can be performed using mostly the wrist and elbow.
Mandritto Fendente
While you could simply raise and then lower the point for the vertical cut, this is a bit slow and very obvious. So instead we let the point fall to our right, loop around, and then strike from above.
As the sword falls, there will be a place where you’ll naturally want to turn it over such that you are leading with the false edge. As it swings around, you’ll turn the sword a second time such that the true edge is again leading. This transition is marked in blue.
Don’t step right away. Instead, begin your step roughly the same time you transition from false to true edge and start really powering the blow.
Mandritto Tondo
For the horizontal cut you’ll again be making a full circle, only this time it will be in the horizontal plane. Lead with the false edge until the point is behind you, then power the cut with the true edge.
Again, begin your step as you power the cut.
Mandritto Sgualembrato
Continuing our theme of full circle cuts from the wrist, the Sgualembrato or diagonal descending cut begins by dropping the point over the buckler. It will lead with the false edge for part of the arc (blue), then the flat (purple), and finally the true edge.
As before, we are still stepping as the blow is powered through the true edge part of the arc.
Falso Dritto
Our last primary cut from Guardia di Testa strikes with the false edge rather than the true edge (hence the term “falso”).
Begin by raising the point, then let it fall behind you. At the bottom of the arc you’ll be leading with the false edge and can power the blow.
Advertisements(Editor’s note: Publishing of this article is not an endorsement of Lyndon LaRouche or his affiliates.)
By Michele Steinberg and Hussein Askary
December 20, 2002 Anno Domini
Executive Intelligence Review
The United States government has been provided with con- crete evidence that the Israeli Mossad and other Israeli intelligence services have been involved in a 13-month effort to “recruit” an Israeli-run, phony “al-Qaeda cell” among Palestinians, so that Israel could achieve a frontline position in the U.S. war against terrorism and get a green light for a worldwide “revenge without borders” policy. The question: Does the United States have the moral fiber to investigate?
Evidence of the Israeli dirty tricks burst onto the public scene on Dec. 6, when Col. Rashid Abu Shbak, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Services in the Gaza Strip, held a press conference revealing the details of the alleged plot, as his agency had put the pieces together. The revelations undermine the “big lie” that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has used to justify new brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and other occupied areas. Sharon claimed on Dec. 4 that Israeli intelligence had “hard evidence” of al-Qaeda operations in the Gaza Strip. Now, the top Palestinian leadership has shown the United States and other nations how Israeli intelligence entities were creating that al-Qaeda link!
American leader Lyndon LaRouche, a Democratic Presidential pre-candidate in 2004, commented that these revelations, if confirmed, could be “of strategic importance” in stop- ping the American, British, and Israeli warhawks pushing for a Middle East war, beginning with an invasion of Iraq. A war would justify the Sharon government’s plan to annihilate the very idea of a Palestinian state. LaRouche warned that if institutions of the American Presidency and the international community successfully block an American pre-emptive war on Iraq, the biggest danger would be that a “mega-terror” attack, blamed on Palestinians, or an “Iraqi-linked” al-Qaeda, would be staged by Israel’s ruling Jabotinskyite fanatics, to put the war back on the agenda.
News about the Mossad-run attempt to create an al-Qaeda cell came when well-informed intelligence sources based in Washington had already told EIR that there are many doubts about the Mossad’s hasty declaration that “al-Qaeda” had been responsible for the Nov. 28 attack on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, where three Israelis were killed, and the failed rocket attack on an Israeli chartered jet that was departing from Mombasa airport. There was no identification of the bombers within the first five days of the incident, the sources pointed out, yet Sharon’s government ministers went on an immediate propaganda rampage announcing worldwide revenge (see article in this section). Authorities in Kenya also denied the al-Qaeda link. But the usefulness of blaming al- Qaeda, for the Israeli right, was palpable, when Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Kenya attacks “a golden opportunity” to prove to the United States that Bush’s war on terrorism, and Israel’s war with the Palestinians is the same thing. Netanyahu’s faction has violently rejected the Palestinian Authority’s revelations, and so far, the American and European press have followed suit, despite the dramatic nature of these charges, and the documents that the Palestinians have provided to the international press.
Chronology of the Revelations
On Dec. 7, the British news service, Reuters, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV network, all reported that the Palestinian Authority had accused the Mos- sad of creating a phony al-Qaeda cell in the Gaza Strip. Ha’aretz reported, “the head of Palestinian Preventive Security” in the Gaza Strip, Col. Rashid Abu Shbak, said on Dec. 6, “that his forces had identified a number of Palestinian collaborators who had been ordered by Israeli security agencies to ‘work in the Gaza Strip under the name of al-Qaeda.’ He said the investigation was ongoing and evidence would be presented soon.” Al-Jazeera TV added that the Palestinian authorities had arrested a group of Palestinian “collaborators with Israeli occupation” in Gaza, involved in the operation.
Reuters’ reporter Diala Saadeh, under the headline, “Palestinians: Israel Faked Gaza al-Qaeda Presence,” quoted a number of Palestinian Authority (P.A.) senior officials, including President Yasser Arafat, who told reporters at his West Bank Ramallah headquarters, that Sharon’s claims of al-Qaeda operations in Palestinian territories “is a big, big, big lie to cover [Sharon’s] attacks and his crimes against our people everywhere.” P.A. Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo detailed the case: “There are certain elements who were instructed by the Mossad to form a cell under the name of al-Qaeda in the Gaza Strip in order to justify the assault and the military campaigns of the Israeli occupation army against Gaza.”
Palestinian officials promised to provide detailed evidence, and did so on Dec. 8, in a press conference addressed by Colonel Shbak, and by Palestinian Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath. Shbak told the international representatives that,“Over the past nine months, we’ve been investigating eight cases in which Israeli intelligence posing as al-Qaeda operatives recruited Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Colonel Shbak said that 3 men were under arrest, and 11 had been released. He explained that those released had voluntarily provided information going back to May 2002, about the contacts that had been made asking them to operate as an “al-Qaeda” group. The alleged al-Qaeda recruiters were traced to Israeli intelligence, said Colonel Shbak. He detailed incidents, some of which were described in official documents, of cell phone calls and e-mails, where Palestinians were asked to “join al-Qaeda.” Shbak said, “We investigated the origin of those calls, which used [wireless phone] roaming, and messages, and found out they all came from Israel,” reported the publication, IslamOnline. He said that the potential “recruits,” had been given money and weapons, “although most of these weapons did not even work.” He also noted that the money for these targeted Palestinians “was transferred from bank accounts in Jerusalem or Israel.”
Minister Shaath announced at the press conference that the P.A. had “handed ambassadors and consuls of the Arab and foreign countries, documents revealing the involvement of the Israeli intelligence in recruiting citizens from Gaza Strip in a fake organization carrying the name of Qaeda.” He said the ploy was intended “to create a new excuse to escalate the aggression on Gaza Strip.”
The international community was jolted again on Dec. 10, when Colonel Shbak held another press conference and the Preventive Security Agency presented the Mossad’s potential recruiter himself to the international media. According to re- ports in the Arabic press in Dubai, London and Ramallah, the man appeared in disguise (for security reasons,) and was identified only as “Ibrahim,” but explained in great detail that he was one of the “key recruiters” for the potential cell. He said the story started in October 2001, when, after he sent his photo and mobile phone number to a “contact page” in a Jerusalem magazine, he was contacted by a person calling himself “Youssef,” and nicknamed “Abu Othman.” After building up a personal relationship with “Ibrahim,” and telling him how much he resembled his own son, who had been killed, Youssef sent him $2,000, and began encouraging the Gaza man—who appeared to be in his early 20s—to become a more observant and practicing Muslim.
In May 2002, five months after the initial contact, said Ibrahim, Youssef “told me frankly, ‘you are a good candidate to work for us in the company of Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda group.’ ” This Youssef also claimed to have already created an al-Qaeda cell inside Israel. Ibrahim said that he then approached the Palestinian security services and told them about the transactions with Youssef, and that the security services asked him to continue the communications, which they would monitor. He said that the specific instructions were that Ibrahim was to announce through a communique ́—directly from Gaza—that al-Qaeda claimed credit for a bombing attack, or attacks, that Youssef indicated his network was about to carry out in Israel. Ibrahim stressed that the man also said that he (the Mossad officer) “had the capability to carry out major bombing operations inside Israel, but that the al-Qaeda group in Gaza should claim responsibility for the attack and no other group.” In an interview with the London- based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, after the press conference, Ibrahim stated, that “the man told him that mega military operations will be conducted inside Israel, and that these operations would be announced through Ibrahim.” This would mean that as soon as he gets the signal after a major terrorist act against Israeli civilian targets, Ibrahim and his group would send a communique ́ to the press or a videotape, similar to the ones sent by bin Laden to Al-Jazeera, claiming responsibility for the attack.”
Ibrahim was also asked to gather specific information for Youssef about a number of persons in Gaza, some of them known to be members of Hamas. When asked why he wanted this information, Youssef said, “I want them to join al-Qaeda.” At that point, Palestinian security services cut off the “Ibrahim-Youssef” contact, because it was becoming too dangerous.
At the same press conference, Colonel Shbak said direct money payments “transferred from Israel,” had been received by five out of the eight Palestinians who have been giving information to the Preventive Security Agency about this operation. Shbak also explained that his agency traced and obtained a number of telephone numbers, registrations, and bank receipts for money transferred to some of those persons.
Now, said Shbak, the United States and a number of inter- national intelligence and security organs had been supplied with documents and evidence refuting the Israeli allegations about Palestinian connections to al-Qaeda. “These documents prove without any doubt that the ones who are behind this alleged al-Qaeda group are the various Israeli intelligence organizations,” Shbak added. He told Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah daily that the “Americans have not responded yet to the documents... as provided by the Palestinian Preventive Security agency.”
The 9/11 Cover Story
The question is whether the U.S. government and other governments will take up the evidence given to them. It is well established that several top Cabinet officials in the current Sharon caretaker government, including Sharon himself, have a long, jaded history of staging precisely these kinds of “countergang” operations, using Israeli covert operatives and Arabs tortured and brainwashed in Israeli jails and recruited as false-flag terrorists. Sharon, Mossad chief Moshe Dagan, and Gen. Effie Eitam are proponents of such dirty-war tactics. As EIR reported in several extensive articles on the Hamas organization, that terrorist capability was actually created by Ariel Sharon and the Israeli right wing, for the purpose of supplanting Yasser Arafat and the organizations of the Pales- tine Liberation Organization (see EIR, Dec. 6).
Even more to the point, the Osama bin Laden authorship of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been a cover story from the first moments the media began reporting it as fact. Inter- viewed on the morning of Sept. 11 as the attacks were unfolding, LaRouche made clear that the breadth and sophistication of these attacks showed that it was “an inside job,” involving U.S. military and intelligence operatives capable of defeating or neutralizing all existing and backup security systems. Bin Laden was named as the culprit, explains LaRouche, because his name provided entry into the policy of a Clash of Civilizations against Islam, which right-wing neo-conservatives in the Bush Administration have as their goal. LaRouche has also pointedly asked when Osama bin Laden stopped being an American agent—a reality that the “Islamic card” networks of Zbigniew Brzezinski and the Iran-Contra financiers of the Afghansi mujahideen, want to bury. It must also be asked, when did al-Qaeda stop working for British intelligence? EIR has documented that British foreign intelligence, MI6, worked closely with so-called Islamist terrorist groups safe- housed in Britain, to destabilize Arab and Muslim nations, in the geopolitical service of Her Majesty’s government, and an Anglo-American imperial faction.
As recently as November, this coverup of British/U.S. covert support for terrorism continued, with the case of David Shayler, a former MI5 agent who was sentenced to six months in jail for disclosing “government secret information.” Shayler told London Guardian reporter Martin Bright that MI6 hired one of Osama bin Laden’s closest collaborators— Anas al-Liby, who remains on the U.S. government’s Most Wanted List, with a reward of $25 million for his capture— to assassinate Libya’s Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi in 1996.
Bright, who could not publish the article in the Guardian, but did so in the Pakistani daily, The Dawn, on Oct. 30, received a gag order from the British Attorney General, threatening him with prison, if he publishes any more information from Shayler.
With this background in mind, the public revelations about the Mossad attempts to set up al-Qaeda cells, could have strategic consequences for the discredited Sharon government—and even more broadly for the Clash of Civilizations zealots covering up the truth about Sept. 11. The Palestinian revelations could become the “straw that broke the camel’ s back,” in this dirty war.Valve's attendance at Indigo 2017 in the Netherlands last weekend was primarily a business-and-developers type thing. But images of slides displayed during a presentation by Valve's Alden Kroll that were posted in the Valvetime forum reveal some interesting things about Steam, and what Valve has planned for its future.
The promise of an "overall UI refresh and update" hearkens back to images discovered in February depicting a dramatically overhauled Steam interface. The presentation (or at least the slides we can see) didn't reveal any new images, nor was there any mention of when it might be rolled out. The presentation did hint at what's coming, including an option to "quickly launch right back into recent games" from your Library, and indicators of "activity" in games you own including events, updates, and "Friend activity."
Game launch pages will be updated as well, with some sugar-sweet "rich display of content."
A separate but also very interesting part of the presentation are the numbers revealed by the "Steam is Big and Growing" slide. It claims 14 million peak concurrent users, with 33 million daily active players and 67 million monthly active players.The Burning Crusade raised World of Warcraft's level cap to 70. Then Wrath of the Lich King took it to 80. Why is it only going to 85 in the Cataclysm expansion? Tom Chilton explains.
Among all of the changes coming in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, raising the level cap to 85 instead of following the pattern set by the game's previous two expansions is one of the strangest. Blizzard lead developer Tom Chilton took a little time during BlizzCon this past weekend to explain the smaller jump.
"It's certainly different. More than anything else it's a question of what we thought |
English professor, University of Georgia // ATHENS, Ga.
Walter Donald "Donnie" Kennedy
Free-lance writer // SIMSBORO, La.
Donald Livingston
Philosophy professor, Emory University // ATLANTA, Ga.
Grady McWhiney
Retired history professor, University of Alabama // ABILENE, Texas
Clyde Wilson
History professor, University of South Carolina // COLUMBIA, S.C.
Franklin Sanders
Free-lance writer // WESTPOINT, Tenn.
Thomas DiLorenzo
Economics professor, Loyola College
BALTIMORE, Md.
The earliest apologists for the lost Cause of the South, writing in the first years of the 20th century, described Abraham Lincoln as a good and even great man, sorely misled by evil advisers who pushed a harsh Reconstruction policy. No more.
Thanks to Thomas DiLorenzo and others of his ilk, the 16th president is now viewed in neo-Confederate circles as a paragon of wickedness, a man secretly intent on destroying states' rights and building a massive federal government.
"It was not to end slavery that Lincoln initiated an invasion of the South," DiLorenzo writes in his 2002 attack on Lincoln, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War. "A war was not necessary to free the slaves, but it was necessary to destroy the most significant check on the powers of the central government: the right of secession."
DiLorenzo is not a historian. With a doctorate from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, he has been since 1992 an economics professor at Baltimore's Loyola College. And most of his work has not been about history, focusing instead on libertarian and antigovernment themes.
His 10 books include Official Lies: How Washington Misleads Us, and, with writer James T. Bennett, The Food and Drink Police: America's Nannies, Busybodies and Petty Tyrants (attacking organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and Unhealthy Charities: Hazardous to Your Health and Wealth and Cancer Scam: Diversion of Federal Cancer Funds to Politics (both of which accuse nonprofits like the American Cancer Society of using public money to fund leftist "political machines").
DiLorenzo is also a senior faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a hard-right libertarian foundation in Alabama, and teaches at the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History, a South Carolina school established by the League of the South to teach its unusual views of history (see also Little Men).
In 2003, LewRockwell.com, a Web site run by Von Mises Institute President Llewellyn Rockwell that includes a "King Lincoln" section, hosted a "Lincoln Reconsidered" conference in Richmond, Va., starring DiLorenzo. The conference has since become a bit of a road show, reappearing around the South and headlined by DiLorenzo.
Thomas Fleming
President, Rockford Institute
ROCKFORD, Ill.
Thomas Fleming came to neo-Confederate ideas early, co-founding and editing the first few issues of Southern Partisan, a hard-line "pro-South" magazine started in 1979.
Holding a Ph.D. in classics from the University of North Carolina, Fleming today is president of The Rockford Institute, a right-wing organization that says its aim is "the defense of fundamental institutions of our civilization" and "the renewal of Christendom."
In that post, Fleming edits the institute's Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, where he argued in a 1990 article that "government-imposed civil rights" had been "an unmitigated disaster for everyone." Elsewhere that same year, he defended arch-segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace as having been "clearly on the right track," even if he was "mean-spirited," in resisting the federal government.
In the 15 years since then, Fleming's magazine has repeatedly returned to neo-Confederate themes, including a 1991 cover story on secession that featured his interviews with leaders of the immigrant-bashing Northern League in Italy. In 1994, Fleming became a founding member, and later served on the board, of the League of the South (the name was inspired by the Northern League), which has been listed since 2000 by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
The Rockford Institute distributes "The Regnery Lectures," named in honor of the late right-wing publisher, Alfred Regnery, who sat for many years on the institute's board. As president, Fleming also emcees the institute's annual gatherings of the John Randolph Club, a highly conservative group that increasingly seems concerned with racial matters.
Michael Andrew Grissom
Free-lance writer
WYNNEWOOD, Okla.
Although Michael Grissom holds only a master's degree from the University of Oklahoma, his books have become key texts of the neo-Confederate movement.
His first, Southern by the Grace of God, was published in 1988 and, Grissom claims, "is credited with starting the Southern resistance movement." The book actually lauds the role of Ku Klux Klan in rolling back Reconstruction, arguing, "Without it, we might never have shaken off the curse of the carpetbag/scalawag government which bound us hand and foot after the war." In a picture caption, he adds that the terrorist group "played a vital role in ridding the post-war South of brutal carpetbag rule."
In 1994, Grissom became a founding member of the neo-secessionist League of the South, and he would later become a board member of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (which has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity").
Grissom has published books including When the South Was Southern, Can the South Survive?, The Southern Book of Quotes and The Last Rebel Yell. That last, published in 1994, argued, among other things, that "cultural and physiological difference[s]" between blacks and whites are "real."
Saying he had learned much about "negro character," the book also defended the break-up of slave families: "I suspect that such family separations did not really trouble them as much as I once supposed. The old-fashioned plantation negroes did not take much trouble to themselves about anything."
Grissom has also attacked the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that ended segregated schools, complaining it "forc[ed] the white Southerner to send his children into a school, the traditional institution that produces boyfriend-girlfriend relationships, now burdened with the added complication of the black factor."
With the help of the Council of Conservative Citizens and other groups, Grissom is now raising money for a pro-Confederate statue in his hometown of Wynnewood.
J. Michael Hill
Former history professor, Stillman College
KILLEN, Ala.
A native Alabamian, Michael Hill studied under two extremely conservative history professors at the University of Alabama, Grady McWhiney (see profile) and Forrest McDonald (see Little Men).
His mentors wrote Cracker Culture, a book that argued that the South was settled primarily by "Anglo-Celts" while in the North it was British Protestants who predominated. Hill took this idea further, authoring a total of three books on the Celts.
Hill taught British history for years at historically black Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., while also teaching part-time at his alma mater. In 1994, while still at Stillman, Hill initiated the creation of the League of the South, a group that has become increasingly racist under his leadership.
Today, LOS envisions a seceded South that would be run, basically, as a theocratic state marked by medieval legal distinctions between different types of citizens.
In 1996, Hill told columnist Diane Roberts that his black students adored him; what he didn't say was that he apparently did not share their warmth. In a 2000 posting to the AlaReb e-list, Hill mocked Stillman students and workers. "A quote," he wrote, "from a recent affirmative action hire: 'Yesta-day I could not spell "secretary." Today I is one.'"
He continued: "One of few benefits I got on a regular basis from having taught for 18 years at Stillman College was reading the class rolls on the first day of class." He went on to list several "humorous" names of his black students, ending, "Where do these people get such names?" Hill had left Stillman by then, resigning in 1999.
Although school officials never said so publicly, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported that Hill had become "an embarrassment" to the administration.
James Everett Kibler
English professor, University of Georgia
ATHENS, Ga.
A founding member of the League of the South (LOS) and the current associate director of the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History, James Kibler is a kind of literary neo-Confederate, celebrating and defending Southern literature and its traditions.
His main contribution to the neo-Confederate movement, however, has been in persuading many of its leaders to adopt British orthography, or spelling, to reflect the "Anglo-Celtic" origins of white Southerners. In practice, this is seen in the way people like LOS President Michael Hill (see p. 28) spell labor as "labour," honor as "honour," and so on.
Kibler, who earned his doctorate at the University of South Carolina, has published several books on the early 19th century Southern poet William Gilmore Simms and also edits The Simms Review, an academic journal. Simms is widely admired by neo-Confederates for his staunch endorsement of Southern upper-class rule and his defense of slavery, in particular as editor of the proslavery Southern Quarterly Review.
In addition to Kibler, the editorial board of The Simms Review is filled with LOS members, including David Aiken, a teacher at the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History who is also a College of Charleston professor, and James Meriwether, another institute scholar who recently retired from the University of South Carolina at Columbia, where he founded that school's Institute for Southern Studies.
Kibler has published three novels, several volumes of poetry, and LOS' Knowing Who We Are: Southern Literary Tradition and the Voice in the Whirlwind. Another book, in which he recounts his restoration of a South Carolina plantation home, won the nonfiction award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers in 1999.
Like many of his friends in LOS, Kibler is fond of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Civil War general who also was the first national leader of the Ku Klux Klan (see A Different Kind of Hero). In a poem, Kibler celebrates Forrest's legendary bravery and also depicts him as a kind and idealistic man.
Walter Donald "Donnie" Kennedy
Free-lance writer
SIMSBORO, La.
An anesthesia nurse, Walter Kennedy has been a member of the hard core of the neo-Confederate movement for many years. In 1994, he co-authored The South Was Right!, an angry defense of the South during the Civil War, with his twin brother, James Ronald Kennedy.
The book, now ubiquitous in neo-Confederate circles, also called for a new Southern secession to escape the "overgrown and unresponsive" federal government.
For this and other books they co-authored, including Myths of American Slavery, Why Not Freedom! and Was Jefferson Davis Right?, the twins are known in the movement as the "Good Kennedys," as opposed, naturally, to the bad ones.
In 1994, Walter Kennedy became a founding member of the League of the South, and he remains on its national board today. For years, Kennedy also was the commander of the Louisiana division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a conservative Southern heritage group, as well as a member of its national executive council.
But he quit his post on the council in 1996, after the group's moderate then-commander in chief banned all discussion of secession from the SCV's main e-mail discussion list. "If it was 'Right' in 1861," Kennedy wrote of secession in his angry resignation letter, "why is it 'Wrong' today?"
Books by the Kennedys are routinely donated to libraries by members of the SCV and other Southern heritage groups.
Donald Livingston
Philosophy professor, Emory University
ATLANTA, Ga.
After earning his doctorate in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., Donald Livingston made his reputation as a student of 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume. Livingston wrote several books on Hume and is today a member of the editorial board of Hume Studies.
Shortly after the formation of the League of the South in 1994, Livingston became the first director of the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History, which was organized to further the group's revisionist takes on American history.
For the past few years, Livingston has focused on what he calls the "philosophical meaning of secession." In practice, that has meant that he has fiercely defended the right of the antebellum South to secede and has written that Lincoln started the Civil War in order to establish a centralized state.
In his forward to A Constitutional History of Secession, Livingston said "Lincoln's war" had led to "a French Revolutionary style unitary state," which he further described as always leading to a "centralizing totalitarianism."
In 2001, he told the Intelligence Report that "the North created segregation" and that Southerners fought during the Civil War only "because they were invaded." The next year, he established the Abbeville Institute, based in Atlanta, along the lines of the LOS institute.
At a 2003 "Lincoln Reconsidered" conference (see also profile of Thomas DiLorenzo), he said that "evil is habit-forming" and no habit is as evil as believing that Lincoln acted out of good motives.
Today, Livingston is also an adjunct faculty member at the libertarian Ludwig Von Mises Institute in Auburn, Ala.
Grady McWhiney
Retired history professor, University of Alabama
ABILENE, Texas
Grady McWhiney is in many ways the intellectual grandfather of the neo-Confederate movement, although officials at the foundation he established in Texas now say that he rejects the racism inherent in much of that world (see Little Men).
McWhiney served for several years on the board of the League of the South, the leading neo-Confederate organization and largely a creation of McWhiney's one-time graduate student, Michael Hill (see profile). Now reportedly in failing health, McWhiney still nominally heads up the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation, which is hosted by McMurry University in Abilene, Texas.
McWhiney headed the Southern History Institute at the University of Alabama for many years, but later became the Lyndon Baines Johnson Professor of American History at Texas Christian University, where he is now a professor emeritus.
In 1988, McWhiney, with an introduction from ua colleague Forrest McDonald, wrote Cracker Culture, a book that described North and South as being different because of their differing immigrant stocks. (Its central thesis has now been criticized by many mainstream academics.)
Another important McWhiney book was 1982's Attack and Die, which his foundation describes as examining "Confederate strategy in the War for Southern Independence and advanc[ing] the theory that Southerners were reacting to cultural forces when they continually took the costly tactical offensive in their battles with Union forces."
Senior fellows serving at his Abilene foundation include McDonald and the renowned scholar of Southern slavery Eugene Genovese.
Clyde Wilson
History professor, University of South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C.
Outside of Eugene Genovese (see Little Men), Clyde Wilson is certainly the biggest intellectual heavyweight associated with the neo-Confederate scene.
With a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, Wilson went on to a distinguished career as the editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun, the preeminent states' rights theorist before the Civil War, and has published 18 volumes of that series so far. He has also edited two volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography that deal with American historians, and written entries for several encyclopedias.
In 1994, Wilson became a founding member of the League of the South, and he has served on its national board ever since. He also teaches at the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History, and is an adjunct faculty member at the libertarian-minded Ludwig Von Mises Institute.
Through it all, Wilson is an unreconstructed neo-Confederate. In 1998, he told Gentleman's Quarterly that Southerners "don't want women in the armed forces. We don't want the federal government telling us what to do, pushing integration down our throats, saying we can't pray in school. We don't want abortion or gay rights. We're tired of carpetbagging professionals coming to our campuses and teaching that the South is a cultural wasteland."
In another interview, with the Houston Press, Wilson said he wished for a South where "we won't have a bit of difficulty telling the difference between a citizen and an illegal alien." Writing about "The Birth of a Nation," a 1915 film that describes the Ku Klux Klan in heroic terms, Wilson said its main problem was being too sympathetic to Lincoln.
In 2000, he led an attempt to keep the Confederate battle flag flying over the South Carolina Capitol. And in his 2002 book, From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition, Wilson rages against what he calls "messianic democratic universalism."
Franklin Sanders
Free-lance writer
WESTPOINT, Tenn.
Franklin Sanders is a peculiar mix of neo-Confederate fantasist and seasoned tax protester. Boasting of the nickname of "most dangerous man in the mid-South" that he says a federal prosecutor gave him, Sanders describes his encounters with the tax authorities on his Web site.
According to the site, Sanders decided that dollars were backed by nothing at all after reading a book by current Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, leading to his establishing a business selling gold and silver in 1980.
His site goes on to detail how state tax officials in Arkansas, where he was living at the time, found him liable for $30,000 in unpaid sales taxes, causing him to flee to Tennessee. In his new home, however, he ran afoul of both federal and state tax officials, and he eventually served time on state charges.
In 1989, Sanders published Heiland, a novel whose title means "savior" in German. It was an overheated story that sounded a lot like neo-Confederate views of the South and the North, although it takes place in the year 2020.
In it, America is divided into two: the "Insiders" are the urban, pro-federal government population, while the "Freemen" are rural folks who refuse to pay taxes and live happily off the land. In the end, the Freemen realize they cannot live with the Insiders and decide to establish "the rule of Immanuel" by, in part, destroying Nashville with a laser freeze ray.
Sanders was a charter member of the League of the South and has served on its national board for about two years. He still publishes The Moneychanger, a financial newsletter, from his Westpoint farm, and, every Labor Day, he hosts the League of the South's "Bodacious Hoedown."A New Brighton City Council meeting ended with shouting, tears, and profanity when one council member brought up white privilege.
NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. – A New Brighton City Council meeting turned into a shouting match with tears and profanity after one council member brought up “white privilege.”
A video of the meeting, compiled by the Alliance for a Better New Brighton, shows the moment the debate erupted. Council Member Mary Burg brought up the topic, saying her fellow council members “all have white privilege” and “don’t know the difference.” Burg implied white privilege was preventing the Council from being able to represent the city’s varying demographics. The comment drew a quick rebuke from Council Member Gina Bauman who rejected the idea of white privilege.
“Because I’m white, you think I was privileged my whole life? Are you kidding?” Bauman said.
“I don’t think you can make such a broad brush and say that we have all been privileged or that we don’t understand because we’re white.”
Bauman described her multicultural work environment and argued the Council should focus on differences in culture and tradition rather than color of skin. Mayor Val Johnson jumped into the debate and lashed out at Bauman, calling the council member’s comments racist.
“You are the exact reason we need this commission. If you don’t understand white privilege, then you are not representing those people. You’re not wiling to listen to them, and what you have just said is one of the most racist–” Johnson said before being cut off by Bauman.
“Excuse me? Don’t you ever, ever accuse me of that,” Bauman said. “You have no basis to say something like that in public. And no basis to say something like that.”
The debate escalated, turning into a shouting match with both women yelling that the other was “out of order.” Johnson eventually appeared to break down into tears before uttering a profanity and saying “Gina, I’m passionate about this. I’m so passionate about hearing all sides of the story, and for you to disregard the fact that white privilege exists is beyond me.”
Watch the tense exchange below:PORTLAND, Maine — Looking to regain momentum in an underdog campaign, Democratic presidential underdog Bernie Sanders said a win in Sunday’s Maine caucuses would be “another step forward towards a political revolution.”
His rally at the State Theatre in downtown Portland came four days before Maine’s Democratic caucuses, which Sanders, a progressive U.S. senator from Vermont who calls himself a “democratic socialist,” sees as a potential win for his campaign.
“If we have a large turnout in Maine, we will win this state,” he said before a crowd of about 1,000, “and if we win Maine, we move another step forward towards a political revolution in this country.”
Sanders has always been a good bet to win Maine over national frontrunner Hillary Clinton and has paid more attention to Maine than perhaps any other candidate: He visited Portland for a rally in July 2015 and got dozens of endorsements from legislators and other prominent Democrats.
But even a big win in Maine won’t save him: He’s fighting a national tide that turned hard against him on Super Tuesday, when Clinton won seven of 11 voting states — including the four largest, Texas, Virginia, Georgia and Massachusetts, behind heavy support from black voters.
It left Sanders with Minnesota, Colorado, Oklahoma and his home state. Maine’s a heavily white state with liberal Democratic voters, like his home state and others where he has fared well, including New Hampshire, where he got more than 60 percent of votes.
Behind a platform aiming to ease income inequality with universal health care, free tuition at public colleges and universities, and raising the minimum wage, he has fallen short of his target number of delegates, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, putting Clinton on the path to being Democrats’ presumptive nominee unless Sanders overachieves going forward.
In Tuesday speeches, Clinton and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who also took seven states, focused on each other. She called him divisive and said America’s electoral stakes “have never been higher.” Trump said once he’s the Republican nominee, he’s “going after one person — Hillary Clinton.”
Sanders has vowed to stay in the race and take his fight to the Democratic National Convention in July, and his supporters certainly don’t want to settle for Clinton, who has squabbled with the underdog over her ties to Wall Street and big banks.
He hit Clinton on that in Portland, saying there’s “one candidate” taking contributions from banks, the fossil fuel industry and billionaires, “and that candidate is not me.”
The Vermont senator blasted the media repeatedly in his Portland speech, including pundits who have said Clinton’s the odds-on favorite to win, saying “that means we’re probably going to win in a landslide,” drawing massive applause.
Brooke Hayne, a Sanders supporter from Portland, said he has a chance to win in Maine and nationwide, calling Clinton “robotic and insincere,” while “you can’t even debate the consistency of Bernie.”
While Sanders should get significant support in Maine on Sunday, he faces some obstacles: Many of the state’s top Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of the 1st District and Attorney General Janet Mills, have backed Clinton.
Three of five Maine “superdelegates” — party officials who don’t have to back voters’ preferred nominee — also have endorsed Clinton. That makes it possible for Sanders to win Maine, but leave with the same delegate total as Clinton.
It’s a battle between Democrats’ heads and hearts: Clinton has pitched herself as “a progressive who gets things done,” while Sanders’ “political revolution” would bring out waves of new voters to rally behind populist, progressive policies.
Jake Danforth, an 18-year-old high school senior from Gray, conceded that Sanders may not be able to “get everything done.” But nobody could in a gridlocked Washington, he said, and “you have to be big and bold” to get progress.
“You can’t settle. You can’t, especially now,” Danforth said. “There are so many important issues that settling — it really seems like a crime.”Berlin (CNN) There's no secret about which of the two American presidents German Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting Thursday that she likes the most.
On a day of odd political coincidences, Merkel sat down with one President she calls a friend and with whom she shares a political wavelength -- Barack Obama, and another, with whom she has had a frosty start -- Donald Trump.
Merkel, the most powerful leader in Europe, first met Obama in Berlin discussing democracy and faith at the Brandenburg Gate, meters away from the path of the Cold War wall which once split the city, at an event hosted by the German protestant church.
Then she will be in Brussels where she will encounter Trump at the NATO summit. The current US president didn't even shake her hand in her Oval Office visit in March. So Thursday's meeting will be a chance for a do-over after their odd couple optics during her visit to Washington.
Political contrasts
Merkel's friendship with Obama and awkward early interactions with Trump are a study in political contrasts that the Berlin government and the White House will likely seek to ease given the crucial nature of the Germany-US relationship.
But it seems unlikely that the studious and cautious German leader will ever recreate the chumminess she enjoyed with Obama with the brash and unpredictable Trump.
That easy interaction was on display again on Thursday when Merkel seemed delighted to be sitting down with Obama. The former US leader told tens of thousands of people who showed up to witness their earnest conversation about democracy that Merkel was "one of my favorite partners throughout my presidency."
Merkel once shared hugs and smiles and intimate dinners with Obama as their relationship evolved over the years. In one iconic photo that exemplifies their friendship, Obama sits on a bench while Merkel stands in front of him with her arms outstretched in deep conversation -- with the German Alps in the background.
Obama gave Merkel his nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and lauded her as the epitome of freedom itself after she reached the pinnacle of political power in a united Germany after growing up under the political suppression of the communist East.
"The night the wall came down, she crossed over, like so many others, and finally experienced what she calls the 'incredible gift of freedom,'" Obama said at a State Dinner for Merkel in 2011.
Two years later, Merkel poignantly pointed out the route of the wall during an Obama visit to Berlin, and told him that, trapped in the East, she used to listen to trains on the other side and dream of being free.
Contrast such intimacy with the body language on display at the White House when Merkel flew across the Atlantic to get to know Trump.
The President later said that he didn't hear the request and meant no offense but the moment became an irresistible metaphor for the rocky start of their relationship.
JUST WATCHED Did Trump snub Merkel handshake? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Did Trump snub Merkel handshake? 01:02
In effect, Merkel will be coming face-to-face Thursday with one president that she probably wishes were still in the White House and the other, with whom she now has no choice to partner, no matter how tough it is going to be.
Merkel, demonstrating rare sentimentality but also the pragmatic streak that runs through her politics, admitted last year it was tough to see Obama go.
"Taking leave from my partner and friend, well, yes, it is hard. If you've worked together with somebody very well, leave-taking is very difficult. But we are politicians. We all know that democracy lives off change," Merkel said at a joint news conference during Obama's farewell visit to Berlin as President.
Coincidence
The fact that Merkel is sharing the spotlight with Obama and Trump on the same day is a quirk of the calendar: the former president was invited to the Berlin event organized by the German evangelical protestant church a year ago, long before his successor was even elected.
But the presence on European soil of the current and immediate past US President will inevitably draw comparisons about their leadership styles and policies, especially as Obama remains popular in Europe while Trump is not.
There is deep concern in Europe, for instance, about Trump's hostility to anti-climate change policies pursued by Obama, as well as his attempt to institute a ban on travel to the United States of residents of several Muslim nations.
And Obama largely pursued a foreign policy based on multilateralism, which is more to the taste of European leaders, than the "America First" approach that is now the organizing principle of US diplomacy.
Obama's team insisted he was not in Germany to play politics.
"When we agreed to do this, they had not yet set the Trump schedule, we did not in fact know he would be there when we made this decision," said an Obama foundation official, pointing out that the Kirchentag event -- the biennial congress of the German Protestant Church -- had been planned months ahead of time.
Obama also built his schedule to fit in around Merkel's busy diary as a current world leader, and the Thursday date was most convenient for her.
The official stipulated that "is not set up as something where Obama will be asked to respond directly to things that Trump is doing because he has made clear that he doesn't see his role as a former President responding to everything that Trump says or does."
Still, Obama is not beyond oblique references to the turbulent events of the last four months.
"So, what's been going on while I've been gone?" he quipped in the first public appearance of his post presidency in Chicago in April.
And the fact that Obama and Merkel will sit side-by-side on Thursday cannot help but be seen in a political context, especially since the German chancellor is running for a fourth term in office in September's election.
His visit comes shortly after Obama endorsed new French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the run off in the presidential election this month saying he represented "the values that we care so much about."
Obama had already delivered an endorsement of Merkel's re-election run, albeit in a light-hearted tone, during his visit to Berlin last year.
"I try to make it a rule not to meddle in other people's politics," Obama said, before reeling off a warm tribute of Merkel. "If I were here and I were German, and I had a vote, I might support her. But I don't know whether that hurts or helps."
Clearly, Merkel, who risked her career to accept hundreds of thousands of mainly Muslim refugees pouring across Germany's borders, like Macron, is the kind of leader whose values Obama shares, in a Europe that has recently been rocked by the rise of populist politics that looks much like the outsider strain of anti-establishment politics that Trump rode to victory.
JUST WATCHED Obama: Merkel on the 'right side of history' Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Obama: Merkel on the 'right side of history' 00:46
Obama said last year that Merkel's action on refugees, one that was deeply unpopular among some Germans, put her on "the right side of history."
Trump meanwhile slammed the move.
"I think she made one very catastrophic mistake, and that was taking all of these illegals," Trump said during an interview with the German newspaper Bild and the London Times in January.
Still, despite her affection for Obama, Merkel is nothing if not a realist. And she knows that the future of the Western alliance may rely on her carving out a workable relationship with Trump.
And while the White House may bristle at coverage of Obama's friendship with Merkel, the history of the ex-President and the German Chancellor may contain some good omens for Trump.
After all, it was hardly love at first sight when Merkel first beheld Obama.
In fact, she was affronted by the young rising political star's request to deliver a 2008 campaign speech at the Brandenburg Gate, the iconic spot where Ronald Reagan once beseeched Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear Down this Wall."
Merkel blocked Obama from using the venue, and he delivered a speech instead to several hundred thousand of young Germans at the Victory Column in mile or so away.
At the time, Obama's soaring rhetorical style appeared to irritate the bookish Merkel.
In an email to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, released by the State Department during disclosures from her private emails server, her friend Sidney Blumenthal passed on observations of a former US ambassador to Berlin John Kornblum.
"He says she (Merkel) dislikes the atmospherics surrounding the Obama phenomenon, that it's contrary to her whole idea of politics and how to conduct oneself in general. She would welcome a more conversational relationship with you," Blumenthal wrote.
And even as respect between Merkel and Obama gradually grew, there were bumps in the road.
Germany for example abstained in a UN Security Council vote before the US-led intervention in Libya -- a move that in retrospect looks prescient given the chaos that unfolded in the country after the toppling of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi.
Then, revelations that the NSA had been listening in on Merkel's cellphone temporarily strained the relationship with Obama -- who stopped the practice after it was revealed by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
But the intellectual approach to governing that both shared brought them back together, as well as the vital nature of the US-Germany relationship.
Now, Merkel, who is expected to win re-election, has the task of starting all over again, with a new US president with whom she has little in common.27/04/2011 President Jacob Zuma at the Union Building during the freedom day celebration. Picture : Sizwe Ndingane
Parliament - Leader of the opposition Lindiwe Mazibuko tabled a motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.
The motion was brought on the grounds “that under his leadership the justice system has been politicised and weakened; corruption has spiralled out of control; unemployment continues to increase, the economy is weakening, and, the right of access to quality education has been violated”.
The motion was “mandated” by eight opposition parties, including the African Christian Democratic Party, the Azanian People's Organisation, the Congress of the People, the Democratic Alliance, the Freedom Front Plus, the Inkatha Freedom Party, the United Christian Democratic Party, and the United Democratic Movement.
Briefing the media ahead of Tuesday's 2pm sitting, Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota - flanked by leaders and representatives from the other seven parties - said the motion was prompted by a “mounting crisis of leadership” in South Africa.
It was being brought in terms of Section 102 of the Constitution.
Lekota said the joint decision was triggered by the Marikana
tragedy; the “appalling Nkandlagate scandal”; the government's failure to deliver textbooks to school children in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape; the downgrading of South Africa's credit rating by two major rating agencies; a “mounting disrespect” for the country's Constitution and judiciary; the growing number of unemployed; and, a “rising tide” of corruption in the public service.
“All of these collectively point to the reality that ours is a country which lacks decisive leadership and vision,” he said. - SapaThe Blockchain Education Network, formerly known as the College Cryptocurrency Network, is a global network of students and young professionals leading the movement of grassroots blockchain education. BEN organizes cross-campus events, local and global hackathons, and provides educational resources for students starting a new chapter on their campus. Bitcoin Magazine caught up with Dean Masley, the executive director of BEN, to talk about the reason behind their rebranding and their plan for the upcoming year.
Bitcoin Magazine: So the College Cryptocurrency Network (CCN) recently rebranded to the Blockchain Education Network (BEN). Can you talk a bit about the reason for the change?
Dean Masley: The reason that we wanted to change to the Blockchain Education Network is to reflect the changes of the industry. We changed Cryptocurrency to Blockchain because the scope of the industry has gotten broader. Cryptocurrency implies that it only has something to do with money and transactions. We changed from College to Education because we had a problem with turnover in that people who graduated didn’t have a clear way to continue their relationship and role with the network. We started with college because it created a great community for college leaders, but now we want to better encompass kids that are in high school, students in university, kids who dropped out to work on their startup or recent graduates who are still interested in participating in the blockchain education movement. Also, it was time for a change. Our old logo and branding was from 2 years and and since then our network has matured greatly and it was time for an update.
Bitcoin Magazine: How does the network look now in terms of membership?
Dean Masley: We adjusted our signup process to make it extremely easy for high school students and undergrads to join our community. If they reach out we invite them to our private community, and once they graduate to become alumni they are able to stick around.
Graduates who wish to participate can reach out, we speak with them, and we invite those that add opportunity and value to our youth network. This process has been successful in creating an active youth community that shares disruptive education ideas for their clubs. Everyone uses their real name and students add a picture of their face and what school they go to along with other ways to contact them to |
the core and I failed often in living my maternal visions. Yes, I have yelled at my son, yes I have spanked him (to date, three times - he is 2.5 years old and each time I think about it, I do cringe with disappointment with the evidence of my weaknesses). My son, from an early age was high need and wanted full on hands on care, was constantly on the breast, slow to unwind, wanted in-your-face attention, constantly in my arms. In a nutshell I found him draining, and highly strung. I remember when he was only five months old, having this real desire just to throw him across the room and the reality of my feelings shocked me to my core. I am by nature sensitive to other people’s feelings, gentle, gracious, etc.
I took him to a sleep centre, where the staff tried to teach me to help my son to fall asleep on his own and all I kept thinking about was "seen this movie before". I thought I was going insane; my son took two hours to unwind before he would fall asleep and when he did, he would sleep only for one hour, waking up and then would demand the breast to go to sleep again. After the sleep centre experience with my son, I decided to go by my instincts; one thing I was sure about was that I would never let my son cry it out, no matter what. Part of my reasoning stemmed from 'what if he has the same problems as me? Maybe its genetics?' another real reason for me was 'he must be waking up for some reason?'...to my mind, it may be hard to fall asleep, but once asleep, a person wakes up for a reason...so I decided that if my son woke up every hour, I would just learn to live with that too and together we would get through it. I put up with it literally till my son was 25 months old and by that stage, I am sure the night nursing was more a habit rather than a real need, ie, whatever was causing the night waking as an infant/baby, no longer existed by the time he was a toddler.
He was a very active little boy, who seemed too busy to sit for any period of time. His thoughts also were busy, talking constantly without taking a breath. As a result, he always looked like he was misbehaving because he seemed to have no physical self control, although he was very gentle, loving and extremely aware of the needs of others. But then, he would all of a sudden display vocal aggression, and physical aggression, seeming to get pleasure in hurting. I could not understand this Jekyll and Hyde personality.
Most people that I turned to, either suggested more discipline, in the forms of spanking or severe punishment. Others suggested that I was giving him too many sweets. Others suggested that I train him at home, for instance sitting with him for ten minutes today, then fifteen minutes tomorrow. Others suggested that my son and I were too attached and he was playing on my weaknesses. Others implied that I was not a consistent mother regarding discipline. But I saw my son for the person he was. I had these real glimpses of his real personality. I thought about taking him to a naturopath or a homeopath. I resisted though because my real fear was that his behaviour would become an issue in our life like my sleeping disorder became an issue in my life. Again, I turned to my own common sense here and decided that I preferred to accept the package rather than fight it all the time. Then I stumbled on your book at a health shop and bought it.
I have only read probably one quarter of your book. But the next day I eliminated wheat, dairy and all preservatives/additives. Within two days, the son that I only had glimpses of suddenly emerged for a period of five consecutive days... and I suddenly found myself able to fall asleep in ten minutes. My son would still wake up, and I would still respond in the same manner, but again, I would be able to fall asleep without any problems. Day six was the day that I cried. I have spent the better part of my adult life wanting to sleep and feeling tired. I have wasted years of my youth thinking about sleep. I am at times angry and at times relieved to just get out of the woods. I just can not believe that I no longer have to describe myself as an insomniac.
My son now sleeps much better, but I have realized only today that I think he is also salicylate sensitive and probably so am I. Both of us, I realize now, demonstrate aggression for unknown reasons. I can control that side of me because I am an adult, but my son is more honest with himself and his world.
Today, my son was pushed over the edge, so tomorrow, I am getting stricter with salicylate and amine side of the challenges - but I feel good about it. I know where I am going now, I have direction and that my undisciplined boy does not need more discipline. In fact in the five days that he was his real self, I had absolutely no problems. There was such harmony between us that my heart upon just writing that, is swelling up... more importantly, it has nothing to do with my adequacies as a mother, or my son’s personality. It is all external to the problem. This makes me feel more confident than ever...
I wanted to tell you my story and to thank you from the bottom of my heart. If only someone had told me at 16 what was causing my insomnia... but then, I also know that my insomnia stopped me from resorting to ignoring my son's cries and if I was not going to find the motive of his behaviour and cries, I was just going to accept this boy as he was... for better or worse...
I have learned one thing in life and that is, that it is the worse situations that are character building and through them I can choose the path I decide to tread... I am just happy that you wrote your book 'Fed up' and I am just happy that I chose to read it... thanking you very very much... - Ingrid, Melbourne
Scientific references
Abstracts for the papers below are available through PubMed, a medical database.
1. Breakey J. The role of diet and behaviour in childhood. J Paediatr Child Health 1997;33(3):190-4.
2. Dengate S, Ruben A. Controlled trial of cumulative behavioural effects of a common bread preservative. J Paediatr Child Health 2002;38(4):373-6.
3. Fitzsimon M, Holborow P, Berry P, Latham S. Salicylate sensitivity in children reported to respond to salicylate exclusion. Med J Aust 1978;2(12):570-2.
4. Kaplan BJ, McNicol J, Conte RA, Moghadam HK. Dietary replacement in preschool-aged hyperactive boys. Pediatrics 1989;83(1):7-17.
5. Loblay RH, Swain AR. 'Food intolerance'. In Wahlqvist ML, Truswell AS, Recent Advances in Clinical Nutrition. London: John Libbey, 1986, pages 169-177. 1986.
6. McCann D et al, Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2007 Nov 3;370(9598):1560-7. (This is the study that led to a ban on artificial colours in the UK and the warning required on coloured foods in the EU: "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children")
7. Mikkelsen H et al, Hypersensitivity reactions to food colours with special reference to the natural colour annatto extract (butter colour), Arch Toxicol Suppl. 1978;(1):141-3.
8. Rowe KS, Rowe KJ. Synthetic food coloring and behavior: a dose response effect in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated-measures study. J Pediatr 1994;125(5 Pt 1):691-8.
Avoid these additives
ARTIFICIAL COLOURS
102 tartrazine, 104 quinoline yellow, 110 sunset yellow, 122 azorubine, 123 amaranth, 124 ponceau red, 127 erythrosine, 129 allura red, 132 indigotine, 133 brilliant blue, 142 green S, 143 Fast Green FCF, 151 brilliant black, 155 chocolate brown
NATURAL COLOUR
160b annatto
PRESERVATIVES
200-203 sorbates (in margarine, dips, cakes, fruit products)
210-213 benzoates (in juices, soft drinks, cordials, syrups)
220-228 sulphites (in dried fruit, fruit drinks, sausages, and others)
280-283 propionates (in bread, crumpets, bakery products)
249-252 nitrates, nitrites (in processed meats like ham)
ANTIOXIDANTS - synthetic antioxidants in vegetable oils and margarines
310-312 Gallates
319-320 TBHQ, BHA, BHT
FLAVOUR ENHANCERS
621 MSG (in tasty foods, fast foods, snack foods)
627, 631, 635 disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, ribonucleotides (can be associated with itchy skin rashes)
HVP HPP hydrolysed/formulated vegetable/soy/wheat/plant protein, yeast, yeast extract, broth
ADDED FLAVOURS - there are thousands of artificial flavours which don’t have to be identified by number because they are considered to be trade secrets. Flavours may contain unlisted artificial colours and preservatives.
Further information
Introduction to food intolerance
People have different reactions to various food chemicals so any or all of the above food chemicals can cause the problem.
I do recommend my book Fed Up for a greater understanding of the chemicals in our food, the elimination diet, support and helpful recipes.
If reducing your intake of nasty additives doesn’t help, it may be worth doing a full elimination diet to find the cause of the problem. You can email for our list of supportive dietitians: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
See also Sleep apnoea factsheet
www.fedup.com.au
The information given is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with your doctor for underlying illness. Before beginning dietary investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food intolerance. You can see our list of experienced and supportive dietitians http://fedup.com.au/information/support/dietitians
© Sue Dengate update January 2013Reality has been turned on its head in Cardiff "as if Roald Dahl is at the helm" to celebrate the author's centenary.
Organisers said the laws of physics, logic and the predictable would give way to magic and invention.
Thousands of people gathered at the city's castle after a giant peach made its way through the streets, with some ushered back due to sheer numbers.
Dahl was born in Cardiff 100 years ago this month.
People young and old came dressed up as their favourite Dahl characters as more than 35,000 people made their way to the city for the first day of the event.
Thousands of performers are expected to take to the streets for the "surprising events" across the weekend.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A giant peach rolling through Cardiff streets was just one event to mark the centenary of children's author Roald Dahl
However, some people complained on social media about it being too busy and "shambolic" in the city centre. A tightrope walk also had to be cancelled.
A spokeswoman for the event said: "It is fantastic that so many people have come out to enjoy Roald Dahl's City of the Unexpected.
"It is disappointing that due to the sheer volume of the crowd it was necessary to cancel the tightrope walk. All necessary precautions are being taken to ensure crowd safety."
Cardiff Bus said it was "experiencing severe delays across the network due to extremely heavy traffic congestion in and around the city centre".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How did they paint the giant peach?
The city of the unexpected events began in the city centre at 13:00 BST and will run until 21:00 on Saturday.
On Sunday, they will take place between 10:30 and 17:00.
Director Nigel Jamieson said: "For generations, he has been part of our bed times, our childhoods, and the development of our imaginations.
"It is thus fitting that the weekend celebrating his birth in Cardiff will involve one of the most ambitious mobilisations of a city's inhabitants ever attempted, together transforming it into a place that will unlock the child in everyone and create a city of wonder and surprise."
Image copyright City of the Unexpected
Image copyright Dan Green
Image copyright Toby Farrow/Farrows Creative
Image copyright Toby Farrow/Farrows Creative0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
On the same day that Pennsylvania super delegate Sen. Bob Casey endorsed Obama, Sen. Patrick Leahy released a statement calling for Clinton to withdraw and support Obama. However, Clinton continues to vow to fight on.
Leahy, an Obama supporter, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said today, “Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to. As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out. But as I have said before, that is a decision that only she can make.”
Clinton’s recent tactics are starting to look like she wants to sabotage an Obama nomination in 2008, to open the door for herself in 2012. For instance, let’s examine Clinton’s comments during an interview with Greta Van Sustren on Fox News. “You know, I keep beating this drum, we cannot disenfranchise two of the most important states for Democrats, Florida and Michigan. I don’t think we can win if we don’t win Michigan and Florida. So… In November. And we are essentially saying to the voters — we, the Democratic Party, is saying to the voters, your votes don’t count, we are not going to have a re-vote, you are out of luck. I don’t think that the nominee of the party will be considered legitimate if we don’t figure out how to count those votes for Michigan and Florida.”
The dirty little secret here is that the Clintons have always only cared about what the Democratic Party could do for them. Bill Clinton always put his own reelection and legacy ahead of the needs of his party. He had a terrible relationship with Congressional Democrats, and the Clintons only began to be team players when Hillary launched her first Senate campaign. It would seem that Clinton is trying to delegitimize the entire Democratic Party in 2008. Can anyone think of a more selfish strategy than this?
I think Hillary has every right to stay in the race through the final primary. If she would be able to somehow take the delegate lead away from Obama, then it would be time to discuss who the Democratic nominee should be, but she is practicing slash and burn politics here. She is willing to destroy the Democratic Party now, in the hope of being its savior later.
I don’t believe that the Clintons large egos can comprehend that Democrats might want someone other than them to lead the party. It is looking more and more like Hillary Clinton should make a classy and graceful exit out of this race, but when have the Clintons ever been associated with the terms class and grace?
Clinton interview:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342151,00.htmlHere’s some music-nerd fanfic: a seductive collab between Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen about the narcotic allure of riding in fast cars at night. “Backseat” is the lead track off Charli’s new Pop 2 mixtape, and wisely so: Why waste time giving the people what they suddenly know they always wanted?
“Backseat” makes much of the contrast between their two voices—Charli’s robotic low register and Jepsen’s sugary-high pitch—before flinging them across octaves until they’re indistinguishable. The verses are little encapsulations of Charli and Carly’s respective familiar themes—midnight parties and fleeting fame, then cutting right to every feeling of sadness and bliss at its most intense. But they share a certain alienation in common, the sort that can only be soothed alone with the radio. Producer A. G. Cook’s arrangement gets out of their way until the end, when he adds a burst of sparkly synth arpeggiation and low bass shudders, crashing percussion, and their two vocals, newly chopped-up and processed past humanity, blissfully lost in the mix. Pop 2 is a virtual who’s-who of alt-pop in 2017 but, even among such great company, Charli saved the best for first.Image caption The strike closed Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport for four hours
Israel's main trade union federation has launched a national strike intended to shut down government offices, banks, airports, ports and rail services.
Histadrut said it was in protest at the government's use of contract workers, who often earn less and receive fewer benefits than permanent employees.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the strike was unnecessary and would harm the country's economy.
The Israeli Chambers of Commerce put the cost at about $100m (£63m) a day.
The high court rejected a petition against the strike by the chambers of commerce on Tuesday, saying it did not see a reason to intervene.
Overnight talks between the finance ministry and Histadrut also failed.
Wednesday's strike closed Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport between 06:00 and 12:00 (04:00-10:00 GMT). It also affected hospitals and office workers, banks, the national electricity company, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, as well as ports and the rail service.
Histadrut wants the government to hire some 250,000 contract workers, such as cleaners and security guards, whose working conditions are considered worse than those of workers directly on the government's payrolls.
"The only weapon workers have is the weapon of a strike," said the union's chairman, Ofer Eini, after the failure of talks with Mr Steinitz.
The finance ministry said the government could not take on so many new workers, but has offered to improve contract workers' conditions by increasing their salaries by 20% and awarding them more annual leave.
On Tuesday, Histadrut reached an agreement with the Co-ordinating Bureau of Economic Organisations - which represents private companies - that would see contract workers who have worked full time for at least one year hired directly rather than through an employment agency.The Japanese version of the Netflix streaming service lists a "Netflix Original Devilman" project as of Thursday. The entry has no videos or images, but includes the following description:
A demon possesses a boy's dead body to do evil. But after falling in love with a human girl, he has a change of heart. Based on Go Nagai's hit manga.
The American web version of Netflix also has the same entry, but the entry does not appear when a user searches or browses the service's catalog.
Netflix has already been streaming the 1972 Devilman television anime series in Japan. While Netflix gives the 1972 anime a similar synopsis to the one above, Netflix's catalog lists the 1972 anime and the "Netflix Original Devilman" project separately.
Netflix is also streaming the 2015 Cyborg 009 VS. Devilman anime in 190 countries around the world. In Japan, the service offers the 2004 Japanese live-action film adaptation of the manga.
Thanks to Gwyn Campbell for the news tip
Update: The entry no longer lists a "Netflix Original Devilman" project, although an empty slot remains in certain searches on the Japanese version of the service.It just got even easier to buy Ubuntu laptops, desktops and phones from India’s biggest online retailer.
Canonical has opened a brand new “brand store” for Ubuntu products on Snapdeal, who are the exclusive stockists of the Bq Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition and E5 Ubuntu Edition smartphones in India.
The Snapdeal Ubuntu Store groups together Ubuntu powered notebooks and desktop PCs from HP and Dell, and promotes them alongside the newly launched Ubuntu Phones from Bq.
Ubuntu joins thousands of other companies, among them Samsung, Apple and Dell, in creating a custom storefront to sell their products through.
Brand stores allow companies to group their products into one easily accessible place, use custom branding, a Snapdeal sub-domain and integrate their social media accounts to drive engagement.
In launching an Ubuntu Store on Snapdeal Canonical not only makes it easier for Ubuntu enthusiasts in India to see, compare and buy Ubuntu laptops and PCs, but makes it easier for its hardware partners to their promote devices to potential customers.
This is not the first time Canonical has teamed up with an online retailer to promote Ubuntu powered devices. Last year UK retailer eBuyer launched a line of budget HP laptops running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
Prices of devices
A wide selection of devices with Ubuntu preinstalled are available on Snapdeal though it should be noted that not all products are fulfilled by Snapdeal.
Those looking for an Ubuntu laptop on a budget there’s the Dell Vostro 15 3558. This is a 15-inch laptop powered by an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB RAM and comes with a 500GB mechanical hard-drive. It has a 3 hour battery life and costs Rs 19,989 (~$300 US).
For something more powerful the store offers the HP 2311ix. This is a 20-inch all-in-one PC featuring a 4th Gen Core i3, 4GB RAM and a roomy 500GB HDD. It is the most expensive device sold through the Snapdeal Ubuntu Store and costs Rs 54,156 (~$800 US).
The cheapest Ubuntu Phone is the Bq Aquaris E4.5, a low-end 4.5-inch handset running Ubuntu Touch with 8GB of storage. It costs from Rs 11,499.
The move is a positive one for Canonical, for Ubuntu, for its OEM partners and for users.
OEMs have been shy about promoting their Ubuntu-powered devices in Europe (let’s not mention the Ubuntu billboard contest that wasn’t). This is less of a problem in India (and China), where Ubuntu laptops from Dell and HP are readily available and often aggressively promoted.
Launching a branded store front on one of India’s biggest online retailers is a smart move. It will help promote Ubuntu as a first-class OS, make it easier for buyers to find devices, and increase sales for OEMs.
Check out the store for yourself at the link below.
Visit the Ubuntu Store on SnapdealA generous Irish man has taken his taxi driver for the experience of a lifetime.
Liam Murphy from Cork, who was on a solo work trip in the United Arab Emirates, decided to take his driver along for a visit to the Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi.
During a conversation on the trip to the park from Dubai, the Indian-born driver Shakiha told Murphy he had never been inside, despite taking guests there for 14 years. It was instead his job to drive tourists to the venue and sit outside in the car for hours until the guest returned.
Not having a bar of this, Murphy decided to do the good-guy thing and drag Shakiha along for the ride, coughing up US$95 a ticket for the pair to enjoy roller coasters and Ferraris together. "Today I made his dreams come true for the laugh," Murphy wrote on Facebook. "His first ever roller coaster ride was on the fastest in the world."
Photos of the wild experience at the world's largest indoor theme park show an excited Murphy riding alongside a very ill looking Shakiha. Murphy said on Facebook the taxi driver repeated, "I do not feel well sir" as he rode the crazy ups and downs on the GT coasters, which reach speeds of up to 95km/h.
Two peas in a super-speed pod. Image: Liam Murphy / Facebook
Ferrari World's website describes the insane ride, where each coaster car is a replica of a Ferrari F430 Spider, like so:
"Two competing GT coasters launch away from the starting line on twisting parallel tracks, based on real GT racecourses from around the world. As you reach speeds of 95 km/h, watch out for the hairpin turns then tear ahead through the straights."
It's enough to make anyone feel sick and based on these pictures, Shakiha definitely struggled with the sudden hair pins turns.The day has come for me to prove that the mysterious flight deals referenced in my bio (below each blog post) are not myths. My time at Fly.com has been filled with amazing finds, like the three below that I actually purchased. These seemed like once-in-a-lifetime trips, but turned out to be more like once or twice a year.
$250 — NYC to Barcelona Nonstop (R/T incl. tax)
During the afternoon hours of Tuesday, November 30, 2010, an amazing $250 roundtrip fare to Barcelona was published in a Travelzoo Newsflash alert. As soon as the email went out, I booked the fare knowing that it was likely a mistake by the airline and it could disappear at any moment. This was more than half off the regular price for this route so, despite a lack of desire to visit Spain, I jumped on it. The cheapest fare as of today is $680 roundtrip, including taxes if you leave this week. Fares climb to over $1000 this summer!
The trip turned out to be incredible. Between the architecture and the food, I was in heaven. Tapas is now one of my favorite ways to eat, as you can try a little bit of everything. What could be better than that? For arguably the best tapas in Barcelona (and frankly one of the best meals I’ve ever had), head to Cerveceria Catalana (not to be confused with the hundreds of other restaurants that say cerveceria on the front). It’s worth the wait, which can sometimes be nearly two hours.
Before the trip, I was hesitant to visit a city where the main draw seemed to be architecture. Boy, was I wrong! Not only are there a ton of things to do, but the Guadi buildings were incredible, especially the Sagrada Familia. The cathedral both from the inside and outside was one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen. It almost looks like it’s melting, but honestly you need to see the basilica in person to appreciate it.
$150 — NYC to Sweden Nonstop (R/T incl. tax)
This fare was featured in a Travelzoo Newsflash that was sent out Feb. 15, 2011 at 1 p.m. EST. Other fares including New York City to Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Copenhagen and Rome were all available for under $400. Having already traveled to Barcelona for $250 (was so annoyed because this time it was $211), I decided to choose Sweden despite the frigid temperatures in mid-March. The fare disappeared within a couple of hours, but I booked it promptly upon receiving the Newsflash.
With only three days in the country, there was little time to waste so despite the cold weather we set out to see as much of the city as we could. One thing that struck me by surprise was the extremely expensive food we encountered at nearly every restaurant. Every time I travel now, I do some restaurant reconnaissance before departing to ensure every food experience is an enjoyable one. Despite the price, we had several great meals, including a decadent reindeer filet (it’s pretty popular there) over lingonberry sauce at an upscale restaurant and a delicious, and affordable, fish stew in Hötorgshallen market. Located under a movie theater, the enormous market was filled with everything from meats to fish to chocolate. It closes relatively early, so it’s probably best to go there for lunch.
My favorite attraction was the Vassa Museum. This huge building houses a warship that was built and sunk in the 17th century. The ship was raised from water in 1961 and has been restored. The boat is massive and restoration work that has been done is nothing short of miraculous.
$232 — NYC to Brussels (R/T incl. tax)
This trip was the longest of the three, so I had time to visit several cities along the way, including Paris, Amsterdam and Bruges. It was really simple to take trains between the cities. Had I flown to Paris or Amsterdam directly, I would have spent $700 if not more! While the cost of train tickets add up fast, the cheap flight enabled me to see places outside of Belgium.
It was my second time in Paris and Amsterdam, but it was still quite amazing to see all the major attractions like the Eiffel Tower and Louvre in Paris as well as the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Having visited some of these cities before, I was able to navigate and avoid the pitfalls of tourist restaurants. That was the only major disappointment my first time around was the horrible food I encountered, this time I did my research and was armed with a long list of recommended eateries. It definitely paid off, do not miss the Indonesian food in Amsterdam!
Deal Verification Process
Sometimes when we find these fares, even we don’t believe they are real. That’s where Travelzoo’s Test Booking Center steps in to carefully verify each deal published on Fly.com. The dedicated team tests every single deal, multiple times, both before and after it’s published to ensure our users get the most accurate information possible. If we can’t verify the deal ourselves then we will not publish it. However, this does not mean that the fares will last forever, in fact most of the above prices were only bookable for a few hours. So, when we say book ASAP, we mean it!
Stay tuned for an upcoming post where I disclose the secrets behind finding these incredible fares.Aragog would be proud.
At the 29th annual British Tarantula Society Exhibition last weekend in the United Kingdom, a rare Socotra Island Blue Baboon walked away with the best in show title, a trophy and eternal bragging rights.
See also: 10 Weirdest Things for Sale on eBay
The winning arachnid is native to Africa and came out on top not only due to how uncommon it is, but also because of its good health. This is the first year its owner, Mike Dawkins, has entered the competition, but he has kept tarantulas for years (he has about 60 of the little guys).
"It was my first entry, Dawkins told National Geographic. "I was very surprised to win best African species, let alone best in show. That really shocked me."
Image: Peter Kirk, British Tarantula Society
The tarantula's prize was based on a variety of factors, including its bright colors; lean, round physique; and a good head of hair.
A Brazilian white knee tarantula took the best in show prize last year.
More than 30,000 tarantulas and their owners were in attendance at the 2014 extravaganza. The one-day event also featured 50 exhibitors showing off their selections of tarantulas, as well as other types of spiders and insects. The exhibition is meant to be a place where spider lovers can connect, and is a way to educate the general public on the eight-legged creatures, according to its website.
Bonus: 5 Horrifying Facts About SpidersThe following table shows all 198 countries and territories in descending order of their scores on the Pew Research Center’s index of government restrictions on religion as of the end of 2012. Pew Research has not attached numerical rankings to the countries because there are numerous tie scores and the differences between the scores of countries that are close to each other on this table are not necessarily meaningful. This is particularly the case at the low end of the scale: The range of scores among the 57 countries in the Very High and High categories is greater than the range of scores among the 97 countries in the Low category. You can download the index as a PDF on the right under “Report Materials.”
Denotes an increase of one point or more from 2011 to 2012.
Denotes a decrease of one point or more from 2011 to 2012.
Very High
Scores 6.6 and Higher Egypt
China
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Indonesia
Maldives
Afghanistan
Syria
Eritrea
Somalia*
Russia
Burma (Myanmar)
Uzbekistan
Malaysia
Azerbaijan
Tajikistan
Pakistan
Brunei
Morocco
Sudan
Algeria
Iraq
Kazakhstan
Vietnam
High
Scores 4.5 to 6.5 Mauritania
Kyrgyzstan
Bahrain
Israel
Turkey
Belarus
Yemen
Western Sahara
Qatar
Oman
Armenia
United Arab Emirates
Sri Lanka
Turkmenistan
Jordan
Laos
Libya
India
Ethiopia
Bangladesh
Singapore
Bulgaria
Rwanda
Tunisia
Kuwait
Bhutan
Greece
Cuba
Central African Republic
Belgium
Chad
Moldova
Nigeria
Moderate
Scores 4.5 to 6.5 Ukraine
Kenya
France
Djibouti
Angola
Romania
Venezuela
Mexico
Austria
Germany
United States
Serbia
Palestinian territories**
Thailand
Nepal
Tanzania
Mongolia
Slovakia
Madagascar
Bahamas
Tuvalu
Comoros
Iceland
Lebanon
Costa Rica
Denmark
Republic of Macedonia
United Kingdom
Zambia
Croatia
Guinea
Spain
Georgia
Nicaragua
Latvia
Italy
Equatorial Guinea
Hong Kong
Lithuania
Uganda
Zimbabwe
Cambodia
Hungary
MontenegroPhotography via Jack Bates
The holidays are the most magical time of the year and I don’t know about you, but December is my favorite month :). But with all of the holiday parties and present buying, sometimes stress creeps up on us unexpectedly. Here are 5 ways to win the holidays and beat holiday stress:
1) Buy/Make Gifts in Bulk
Ok, so I’m not saying you should get EVERYONE the same thing, but it will save time and energy if you get a few of your friends or family members something either from the same store or make them something the same.
2) Save “Me” Time
During the holidays, you can start feeling like you’re going a thousand miles a minute and have no time to lose. Remember to save a little bit of time at the end or beginning of the day to center yourself. Get yourself out of the holiday craziness by meditating, taking a bath or reading.
3) Give Back
Give back taking your family to volunteer at a soup kitchen or help wrap presents for the underprivileged. You can also partake in smaller random acts of kindness by paying for someone’s coffee behind you or offering to babysit your friends children.
4) Go in with a Plan
We all love our family, but sometimes when everyone gets together someone can bring up a topic or say something not very nice that causes arguments. Be prepared for this moment. If you plan for something along these lines, you will be able to quickly recover by changing the subject or going to help in the kitchen without getting caught up in the negativity.
5) Shop Online
I used to do all of my shopping at the mall and this year I’ve done 75% online. Many times you can find coupon codes for the website you’re buying from if you do a quick google search and save money! It saves so much time and you don’t have to battle for a parking spot! I also love Pinterest’s new “Holiday Gifts” tab – lots of great ideas there.
Who are you spending the holidays with this year? Let me know in the comments! ♥
AdvertisementsWhat about those above-average commuters? Well, at 30,000 miles per year the Prius c is paying drivers back well before the loan is paid off, but the Prius Eco still takes a good number of years. If you need the extra space afforded by the versatile hatchback Prius, though, it might be worth the extra scratch to get one. Just don't try to justify your purchase with the fuel/money savings argument.
Model Toyota Corolla Toyota Prius c Toyota Prius Eco MSRP $18,135 $20,395 $25,535 Difference -- $2,260 $7,400 Cost per year (15,000 miles) $1,100 $650 $650 Time to Break Even (15,000 miles) -- 5 years 16 years, 5 months Cost per year (30,000 miles) $2,150 $1,350 $1,200 Time to Break Even (30,000 miles) -- 2 years, 10 months 7 years, 9 months
Toyota RAV4 vs. RAV4 Hybrid
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When Toyota brought the RAV4 Hybrid, we couldn't help but say, "About time!" Toyota, makers of the segment-defining Prius hybrid, finally anointed the incredibly popular RAV4 with a hybrid system, and it's a good one with one of the best-feeling regenerative brake pedals in the segment. When comparing similarly equipped models (XLE with AWD to the XLE Hybrid), the RAV4 Hybrid makes up the $1,225 difference well before the five-year mark—even sooner when you really start piling the miles on. If all-wheel drive is high on your list, jumping up to the hybrid is a no-brainer.
Model Toyota RAV4 RAV4 Hybrid MSRP $28,555 $29,780 Difference -- $1,225 Cost per year (15,000 miles) $1,300 $1,000 Time to Break Even (15,000 miles) -- 4 years, 2 months Cost per year (30,000 miles) $2,600 $2,050 Time to Break Even (30,000 miles) -- 2 years, 3 months
Kia Soul vs. Soul EV
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From a pure dollars and cents perspective, the Kia Soul EV never seems to make sense over the garden-variety Soul with a gas motor. It must be noted, though, that the driving experience of the Soul EV is far more refined than even the loaded regular Soul. How, you ask? The Soul EV's instant-torque electric motors and single |
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WASHINGTON — The former attorney for the “D.C. Madam” has asked the United States Supreme Court to allow him to release records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s escort service, including customer names, addresses and Social Security numbers, because they allegedly could affect the 2016 presidential election.
In an application to the high court, filed Monday, Montgomery Blair Sibley is asking to be released from a judge’s 2007 restraining order which prohibited him from sharing Palfrey’s telephone records, during the much-publicized run-up to her federal trial for racketeering, money laundering and mail fraud.
And, if the Supreme Court won’t hear his argument, Sibley says he will release the identifying information of Palfrey’s customers.
Sibley, whose license to practice law in Washington, D.C. was suspended for three years in 2008, has sued former Chief Judge Richard Roberts of D.C.’s U.S. District Court, and Clerk of the Court Angela Caesar for $1 million each, claiming his First and Fifth Amendment rights have been violated because he has been unable to argue for the release of Palfrey’s records.
Sibley’s civil case has yet to be heard in D.C. Superior Court. He claims Roberts has ordered Caesar to return his motions without filing them in court records.
Roberts suddenly retired two weeks ago, the day he was sued for sexual abuse by a Utah woman.
Without providing any specifics, Sibley has said information found within Palfrey’s records could affect the upcoming presidential election.
“Time is of the essence,” writes Sibley in his application for a stay of restraining order. “Denying Sibley a hearing deprives the People of the information they may deem material to the exercise of their electoral franchise.”
Before the issuance of the restraining order, Sibley had made public telephone numbers that appeared in Palfrey’s phone records.
In 2007, pursuant to a search warrant, Verizon Wireless provided Sibley a CD with 815 account holder customer names, addresses, Social Security numbers and home and business telephone numbers. Sibley has never disclosed the names on the CD.
A footnote in Sibley’s Supreme Court filing contains a not-so-veiled-threat: “To be clear, if Sibley is not allowed to file his Motion to Modify the Restraining Order and thereafter does not promptly receive a fair and impartial hearing on that Motion, he will justifiably consider the Restraining Order void as a result of being denied such a hearing by the District Court, Circuit Court and now this Court.”
“In that event, Sibley will simply release publicly the Verizon Wireless Subpoena Return records containing the names and addresses of eight hundred fifteen Washington, D.C. clients of the D.C. Madam’s escort service,” Sibley writes.
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© 2016 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.Dirty Wars has been selected as one of five nominees for best documentary by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The film follows investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill as he uncovers America’s covert wars on battlefields in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. Scahill, author of Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield (read an excerpt), spoke with Bill Moyers in 2009 about what he described as the “dangerous US foreign policies” President Obama adopted from the Bush administration — themes explored in the film. See the trailer for Dirty Wars as well as two clips Scahill and his team made available to billmoyers.com.
Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill in Yemen. Scahill reports on a Tomahawk cruise missile strike in the rural Bedouin village of Al-Majalah in Shabwa Province, Yemen. In all, more than 40 people were killed, including 14 women and 21 children (clip courtesy of Dirty Wars). Warning: Some images may be disturbing to some viewers.
Dirty Wars: Jeremy Scahill in Somalia. In Mogadishu, Scahill speaks to Yusuf Mohamed Siad, known as Indha Adde (“white eyes”), a general in the Somali National Army and previously the Somali Minister of Defense and a member of the Islamic Courts Union. He has worked with both al Qaeda-affiliated groups and the US government (clip courtesy of Dirty Wars).
Dirty Wars Trailer (courtesy of Dirty Wars)Sandwich chain Jimmy John’s has confirmed a data breach involving customer debit and credit card data at 216 of its stores.
A statement from Jimmy John’s reveals that a hacker obtained login credentials from credit card readers at both corporate and franchised locations between June 16 and September 5. The hack was discovered on July 30, a month and a half after the initial breach, and was contained on September 5, just over a month later.
Only cards swiped in JJ’s stores were affected, which will come as a relief to sub fans who order online. It has not been revealed how many cards were affected but a three-month-long attack at 216 stores suggests the number will be high.
Jimmy John’s has now installed card data encryption machines and is ‘reviewing its policies and procedures for its third party vendors’.
The statement from Jimmy John’s suggests the involvement of a third party but a company name isn’t referenced.
For updates on this story, please subscribe to the IT Governance data breaches updates below:
[email-subscribers namefield=”YES” desc=”” group=”Databreachupdates”]That still leaves a roughly $15 million gap in dealing with the deficit.
"Our finance team is developing a number of scenarios to deal with this $15 million," Crowley said. "However, we do not anticipate any further layoffs in 2015-16 related to budget cuts."
Blouw said there is "no direct relationship" between this week's cuts and an 18-month academic and administrative program review, and the report that came out of it approved by the board of governors in late February.
Recommendations in the report — which is not supported by most faculty and drew a large crowd of student and staff protesters to the board meeting — could affect 18 programs or courses. Also recommended was closing the Robert Langen Art Gallery and withdrawing funding for the Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Approval by the board doesn't necessarily mean the recommendations will be enacted.
Managers were asked what positions could be eliminated if cuts were needed, Blouw said. While he said the cuts weren't related to the report, some of the eliminated positions are related to program areas.
He said a number of positions at a WLU Press, which publishes scholarly books in the social sciences and humanities, were cut to try and make it sustainable. No one from the art gallery is losing their position, according to a university spokesperson.
"All of us at the university regret the position we're in," Blouw said of the campus finances.
Along with the positions cut in support staff and management, faculty positions will be reduced at Laurier, too. That will be done through a voluntary retirement program, not renewing some limited-term academic appointments and a reduction in teaching assignments for contract academic staff.
Blouw said faculty changes will depend on how many voluntarily retire, with the university expecting to know more by April or May.
Blouw said Laurier has been working to lower its operating costs, but the budget has been strained by less government funding in the past few years, tuition constraints, increased pension costs, aging infrastructure and declining enrolment.
"They've all combined to create a real problem for us," said Blouw, adding that other universities are in the same difficult position. "We're not alone."
However, he said, the priority at Laurier remains providing an exceptional student experience. "The quality of our student environment will continue to be outstanding."
The student group Laurier Student Voices disagrees. A statement provided by Connor Young said "they mourn the loss of 22 irreplaceable staff members."
"Our administration has gone too far. This is can be seen as a direct reflection of our senior administration's stance on the students here: WE DO NOT MATTER," the statement said. "We will be speaking with our Students' Union and taking action in the days ahead. The integrity of our institution depends on it."
No one from the Wilfrid Laurier University Students' Union could be reached Tuesday.
jweidner@therecord.com, Twitter: @WeidnerRecordShare. A single-player adventure all about teamwork. A single-player adventure all about teamwork.
Tangrin Entertainment has announced Kyn, a tactical action-RPG slated for a summer 2014 release on PC, Mac and Linux. To celebrate the reveal, the Netherlands-based developer is serving up an official announcement trailer to show off what you can expect later this year.
Blending tactical, real-time strategy and puzzle elements, Kyn revolves around team-based combat rather than a solitary hero. The studio intends to place the emphasis on cooperative skills between party members and the interactive environment, allowing for creative solutions against enemies that become more intelligent with better coordination as the game progresses.
With a non-linear world promoting exploration and discovery, alongside a crafting system housing over a hundred schematics to unlock and create, the two-man development team will focus solely on the single-player elements of Kyn for its targeted release. The exclusion of cooperative and competitive gameplay is a calculated decision to avoid delays and streamline development, though Tangrin has stated it will look to community feedback when considering new features, post release.
Brandin Tyrrel is a freelance writer who used to make games before jumping ship to write about them. There's absolutely no reason to follow him on Twitter.On September 27, C9 Entertainment released a statement on their official Twitter about malicious commenters.
“We have confirmed that malicious rumors, personal attacks, and sexual harassment about Bae Jin Young, who is currently promoting as part of Wanna One, has been circulating on various communities,” the statement read. “In particular, we cannot hide our shock that a teenager who is still a minor and has done nothing wrong is being made the target of sexual harassment. After conferring with our legal team, we’ve decided to take legal action and we’re gathering evidence through the materials fans have sent to us.”
The statement continued, “We plan to pursue criminal prosecution for cyber defamation in accordance with the law regarding the promotion of information and communication network use and protection of information. There will be no distinction made between the person who created a malicious rumor and the person who circulates it, and we will continue to gather materials so that our artists do not suffer any longer.”
The statement concluded with a request to send evidence of malicious comments to the agency’s email address.Within the gaming world, the debate over whether it is better to play games on a console or a PC has raged on for years and with the announcement that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are to be launched soon – beginning the new generation of gaming – the debate is hotter than ever. It seems however that the excitement over the new consoles is leaving the PC by the wayside somewhat, meaning consoles may finally be emerging as the potential victors; here is why:
Purpose
One of the main reasons why consoles win out over PCs is the very fact that they are produced for the sole purpose of gaming. Being able to play certain video games is a bonus feature on a PC, never intended to be its primary function, whereas all the design and development effort behind a console is tailored around making the gaming experience as good as possible. Even the games themselves are often designed using the consoles’ technology before being ported over to PC at a later date.
Price
While the games themselves are often cheaper on a PC, purchasing a decent system that is capable of running them at full capacity is going to set you back a lot more than a console. Also, as consoles become older and newer generations become available, they generally see a fall in price, making them more affordable. Current PCs meanwhile generally remain around the same price bracket or are discontinued after a short time, replaced by new models that are in fact more expensive than their predecessor. Purchasing the software required to run many games on a PC can also be costly.
Range
While generally speaking a PC system is standard, there are a huge range of games consoles available on the market these days, each with their own distinguishable characteristics and advantages. From the PS3 and Xbox 360 for those who love online play and beautifully advanced graphics, to the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita for those who love to play while on the move and the Wii for those who love to get involved and immerse themselves in the gameplay; there really is something for everyone.
Potential errors
One of the hailed benefits of PC gaming is the ability for experienced players to access game files and alter various settings, enhancing and changing the game in a number of ways – commonly referred to as ‘modding’. The problem with this is that systems often crash, game files can be damaged beyond repair and in trying to make a game better, they in fact render in unplayable. Such risks are not as prevalent with consoles, as their files are less susceptible to hacking and changes.
Accessibility
Many people these days do not even own desktop PCs, preferring the lightweight, portable laptop instead. The repercussion of this in terms of gaming is that most laptops simply do not have the technical capabilities to play high quality video games that could rival those available on a console. There is also the issue of static play; where a PC game must be played at the desk, while consoles have evolved to make playing games on a handheld device a breeze.
Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLANDIn the fallout of the Fukushima disaster, Japan has rapidly escalated its commitment to solar energy. That presents a problem: utility-scale photovoltaic farms require a big chunk of real estate but Japan doesn’t have an abundance of land to spare. The solution: floating solar arrays.
Rendering of the PV Plant on the Yamakura Dam Reservoir (courtesy of Kyocera)
With three floating solar farms (1.2MW, 1.7MW, and 2.3MW) already producing power in the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan now embarks on the most ambitious one of its kind: a 13.7 megawatt floating array that dwarfs its largest ancestor by nearly 600%. When completed, it will be the most powerful waterborne PV farm in the world.
Kyocera recently broke ground (so to speak) on the new plant, which is expected to open by March of 2018. Located on the Yamakura Dam reservoir about 32 km east of Tokyo, the 180,000 square meter (44 acre) solar farm will consist of nearly 51,000 Kyocera PV modules. When operational, the plant will generate and sell up to 16 GWh of electricity to Tokyo Electric Power annually.
As I mentioned in another article, floating solar arrays are more efficient, due to the water’s cooling effect on the photovoltaic cells. They also reduce evaporation and algae growth, helping to conserve water and reduce chemical treatments. Using the Engineer’s Toolbox evaporation calculator and taking into account that the most significant evaporation occurs mainly on warm days, I estimated that this PV array could save more than 120 million liters (32 million gallons) of water every year.
We’re seeing a handful of floating arrays pop up around the world, with the first one - a 477 kW system at the Far Niente Winery in California - going live in 2008. The city of Holtville California is building a one megawatt floating PV array that will provide power for the water treatment facility while it reduces evaporation loss. The same company that’s installing the Holtville array also built the first aquatic solar farm in Australia. There are hundreds of open air reservoirs in the US alone. Floating PV farms seem like a better way to reduce evaporation than plastic balls. From Japan to Australia to the US to the UK, water utilities around the world are beginning to see the light: electricity production + water conservation + reduced chemicals = triple win.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.(This is an older Hannity interview but worth a re-watch – one of the first “literally shakings” on TV)
Mayhem broke loose on the set of Hannity after two panelists got into a shouting match over feminism. While discussing Hillary Clinton’s hypocritical identity politics, Conservative Canadian author Gavin McInnes argued with Fox contributor Tamara Holder that women are happier “at home with the kids,” as opposed to working long hours – a construct of modern feminism.
“Housewives are Heroes!” McGinness proclaimed:
If you were a real feminist, you would support housewives and see them as the heroes – and women who work, wasting their time!
When McInnes got personal and suggested Tamara was “making a mistake” for choosing to be single, and that she would be “much happier at home with a husband and children,” she responded, shocked, that she was literally shaking…
(skip to 1:20 to get right into it)
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterEditor's Letter: The Antigay Backlash Is Under Way
I wasn’t the only one worried that LGBT issues would be nowhere to be found in the upcoming general election. But I’m glad to see I was wrong, and we can thank the Indiana legislature and Gov. Mike Pence for resuscitating the dialogue around equality for queer people.
Marriage equality is washing over so many states, the polls show popular support for it, and there’s likely a Supreme Court decision coming in June that would settle the issue once and for all. Consequently, many advocates and politics watchers figured that LGBT equality is a more or less settled matter, at least in the minds of many Americans. The fear that arises from that assessment is that allies, donors, and pundits would drop our issues. If legal inequality is an issue soon to be relegated to history, the presumption goes, what’s left to discuss?
I was preparing to write an essay — now essentially a moot topic — about the mid-February decision of Equality California to endorse Hillary Clinton for president, well before she was a declared candidate. I viewed this as a bad decision in keeping with the argument against Hillary not being challenged by other Democrats: If Clinton is anointed without a primary battle, she won’t be pushed from the left, which is where we typically find our champions.
There were mutterings that Jeb Bush might be cool with the gays, perhaps recognizing that so many Republicans of his generation are out of touch with younger would-be voters of all parties on marriage equality.
But no challenge from the left plus no daylight between Bush and Clinton on marriage equality would equal silence on LGBT rights.
Then Mike Pence stomped in like a knight in rusted armor. Indiana’s RFRA 1.0, which Chadwick Moore writes about in “The Backlash,” was an unprecedented self-inflicted wound for the state. It highlighted the craven religious right’s desire to injure LGBTs, but more significantly, it was a litmus test for the GOP presidential candidates. Each front-runner who voiced his opinion supported the anti-gay RFRA. Hillary tweeted a shaming, and corporations walked en masse.
Thanks to Indiana, America re-awakened to the idea that there are no federal protections for LGBTs in America in employment, health care, housing, public accommodations, or voting rights; that marriage equality is not a stand-in for LGBT rights; in many states you can be married on Saturday and fired on Monday for being gay (and even more states if you’re transgender); that religion is being used as a cudgel to beat up LGBTs in the absence of the criminalization of homosexuality itself.
I predicted in The Advocate’s endorsement of Barack Obama as president that no Democratic presidential nominee would ever again oppose same-sex marriage. The support for marriage equality was officially added to the platform at the 2012 Democratic convention, though not without a lot of wrangling. With only a few outliers, the Democrats have essentially become unified in support of LGBT rights. And whereas the right wing once used LGBT issues as a wedge to divide Democrats, the converse is now being done. It’s the GOP that is fracturing, though you might never know to look at the GOP slate of presidential options.
In a past letter I wrote that the backlash — a public, substantial, anti-LGBT response to the majority support for marriage equality — was not real, or at least not evident. But the backlash is underway. It has support among key Republican figures, and our rights are still a viable issue in national politics. The war is not won, but the pro-LGBT backlash to the backlash was there to prove me wrong in the best way.On Wednesday, Senate lawmakers reneged on their promise to include funding for children of low-income families in the short-term government funding bill, exacerbating the already dismal situation for the millions of children who rely on the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Susan Collins (R-ME) said they do not expect to appropriate long-term funding until next year. It’s been 81 days since Congress missed the original deadline to refinance the program.
Screenshot of Sen. Lamar Alexander's press release
CHIP provides low-cost health insurance to a total of about nine million children nationwide and, in 20 states, pregnant people also qualify for coverage. The program is jointly financed by state and federal government, and federal money accounts for a larger share.
“For years there has been bipartisan effort to get kids covered through CHIP and Medicaid. Now it is being eroded by Congressional inaction,” said Joan Alker, the director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families on Twitter. The center published a report Wednesday that said if Congress fails to approve long-term funding, 1.9 million children who depend on CHIP could lose coverage by the end of January.
25 states will run out of money for CHIP in January if Congress doesn’t act to #KeepKidsCovered https://t.co/jiczkupZ5S pic.twitter.com/ig3ov2B5pn — Joan Alker (@JoanAlker1) December 20, 2017
Children most at risk of losing coverage live in states where officials created a separate CHIP program, as opposed to one that is an expansion of its Medicaid program. States that fall into this category are permitted to shut down CHIP coverage if federal funding runs out. Alabama has a combination program and has said it will freeze enrollment starting on January 1, 2018.
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“The freeze is to stop the flow of incoming children,” Cathy Caldwell, the director of the Bureau of Children’s Health Insurance Programs in Alabama, recently told ThinkProgress.
The Alabama CHIP program, ALL Kids, will end in February if Congress fails to renew funding next month. About 84,000 children are at risk of losing coverage in February. Now that Congress won’t move on CHIP until January, Alabama will likely drop 7,000 children on New Year’s Day.
State officials have had to warn affected families of potential terminations. Colorado and Virginia sent letters to families telling them the program might terminate next year. About six states — Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Utah, and Virginia — have decided they’ll end the programs, which provide insurance to families that don’t qualify for Medicaid.
While some senators still say Congress can pass a CHIP funding bill by the end of the year, their priorities seemed clear. On Wednesday afternoon, Congress passed a major tax overhaul largely benefiting the wealthy, delaying action on CHIP funding and creating a nightmare scenario for state officials and families who are anxiety-ridden this holiday season.
Political bickering about how to fund CHIP and community health centers — which also missed out on new funding in September — is at the crux of all this. Similar to CHIP, community health centers facilitate primary and dental care to low-income people.
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“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has projected that the national impact of the loss of funding will close 2,800 health center locations, eliminate more than 50,000 jobs, and result in loss of access to care for more than 9 million patients,” said the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) in a statement.
Congress has 11 days to ensure people who rely on CHIP and centers continue to get served next year.Job change
Hello friends and family,
I have left ESL and have joined Beyond the Summit. In fact, my inauguration was last week. I will be working on BTS events and developing BTS content but lets be real I'm gonna just be memeing a lot.
I joined ESL a year and a half ago and I learned quite a bit in my time there. My favorite event I worked on was ESL One Manila. I will always remember Chobra's makeup on Day 1. My mom related greatly to it.
I will leave you with a Thomas Jefferson quote: "Educate and entertain the whole mass of your people, as they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of esports. Also, never teamfight near an active enemy shrine."
Amazingly insightful guy.
Cheers,
Hot_Bid
Reply · Report PostRuben A. Fischer is an Illustrator and Comic Artist, living in Hamburg Germany. His works are mostly about social issues such as poverty, opression, war and the loathsomeness and insanity of mankind in general, and Bandartwork! Ruben loves music, designing artwork, mercandise for bands and musicians and write and design comics. Here is a selection of his work.
Find more at www.raf-illustrations.com/.
Revolution in Lybia
Some drawings of the revolution.
Sleepy Sun
A poster for the psychedelic-rockband Sleepy Sun.
krank
A cover design and some concept pages for a comic.
Marteria
Some rough merchandise designs for Marterias “Zum Glück in die Zukunft 2” in collaboration with NPIRE.
Ivan Ivanovich & the Kreml Krauts
Bandartwork for a Gypsy-Punk Band
Artwork for posters, buttons, logos, an EP and an album for the German/Russian Gypsy-Punk Band Ivan Ivanovich & the Kreml Krauts
Grenade Boyz, portraits
These portraits are done with pencil and chalk and are based on photos found on the Internet. Two were basicly exactly as Ruben drew them, on one he changed the Grenade with a gun the boy was originaly holding.
Professor Swine
Some poster just for fun dealing with consumerism and the strange way most butcheries are advertising themselfes.
We will annoy you, Album Cover
The Artwork for the Album “Feed it to the Flamingos” by We Will Annoy You. A Band that describes its Style as ULTRA POSTMODERN PSYCHOTIC FREE NOIZE or No-Music Music. And as the designer believes, the description really fits their sound.
Houellebecq & Hesse
Two great European writers Ruben admires.
ACAB. All Citizens Are Brave
This is not what this acronym stands for!
A poster Ruben made commenting on police violence and the prosecution of street artists.
Comments
commentsAmerica is headed over the fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared on Thursday morning, blaming Speaker John Boehner.
“The American people are waiting for the ball to drop, but it’s not going to be a good drop. Because Americans’ taxes are approaching the wrong direction,” he said on the Senate floor. “Come the first of this year, Americans will have less income than they have today. If we go over the cliff, and it looks like that’s where we’re headed, the House of Representatives — as we speak with four days left after today before the first of the year — aren’t here. … I can’t imagine their consciences.”With just four days left in the year, the Senate majority leader’s warning comes as little surprise. But it’s a stark reminder of the reality America faces and a rare one coming from a lead negotiator. Party leaders have mostly expressed hope that a deal will be struck.
Reid lashed out at Boehner for refusing to bring the middle income tax cut bill to a vote, saying the House is “being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker.” He chided the Ohio Republican for having “walked away” from negotiations with President Obama and resorting to “Plan B,” for which Boehner also failed to garner the votes.
“The Speaker just has a few days left to change his mind, but I have to be very honest,” he said. “I don’t know time-wise how it can happen now.”
Boehner and House GOP leaders said Wednesday afternoon that the Senate should act first, to which Reid retorted that the Senate-passed bill is the only one that can become law. He accused Boehner of prioritizing his speakership over the interests of the country.
“Everyone knows we can’t bring up anything here,” Reid said Thursday. “Unless we do it by unanimous consent. Because the rules have been so worked the last few years we can’t do anything without 60 votes.” He called on Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to step up, saying “so far they are radio silent.”
Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel shot back, saying in an email: “Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not.”
The White House said Obama spoke to Democratic and Republican leaders Wednesday.
“President Obama spoke to all four Congressional leaders yesterday before departing for Washington, DC,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on Twitter.206UP turned five years old on July 5th. Can you believe it? What started as a lark — a mere glimmer in the apple of my internet eye — has grown into the most popular Seattle hip-hop blog in existence. (I’m not tooting my own horn here, do the Googling and see for yourself … Okay, maybe there’s a little bit of tooting going on.)
Some quick history: 206UP began as an alternative creative outlet a couple of years after I moved to New York City. For a time, I was keeping one of those very self-indulgent, personal blogs about my new life in NYC — very uninteresting stuff to anyone other than my mom. After I put the kibosh on that, it only took about 20 minutes to decide I wanted to try something different. 206UP was basically borne out of an instantaneous decision; there was really no planning involved, which probably explains why the very name of the site was hijacked (subconsciously, I swear) from a sub-heading on Larry Mizell’s now-defunct — and definite source of inspiration — Raindrophustla.
I still live, work, and write and manage the blog from New York City, which keeps me once or twice removed from the local scene at all times. But in some ways that separation is preferable: 206UP prides itself on maintaining a critical edge which would be tough to preserve if I were sitting down to coffee with these rappers every weekend. In the end, this site strives to provide an exhaustive, discerning look at the dedicated and well-deserving Town artists putting in work in the name of hip-hop music. We keep this site going because we care, just like the artists we feature.
To celebrate the five-year milestone, regularly scheduled programming is being preempted for the next few days in order to bring you some special features. First up is a list: 206UP’s Top 25 Seattle Hip-Hop Tracks of the last five years*. These are the songs the site kept coming back to time and again. The ones that made immediate impressions when heard for the first time and, more often than not, the ones that endured and actually got better as time passed. These tracks also tend to stand alone, as singular, well-rounded examples of the artists that created them. If you were to name the single most important factor in determining if a song made it onto this list, it’s probably that one.
As always, you might disagree. You will disagree. And 206UP’s own opinion is subject to change. In fact it probably already has. The list begins after the jump.
*7/5/09 through 7/5/14
25. “Thrift Shop” – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
The track that spurred the Macklemore Phenomenon, converting a low-key backpacker career into the capital LLC we know (and loathe?) today. Dispensing with the track’s ubiquity and cultural baggage — which is difficult to do, to be sure — “Thrift Shop” remains a triumph of instant pop gratification that transcends the pop-rap status quo like few other Billboard-toppers of recent years. The production is delightfully throwback, the rapping is capable and charming, and the message — while philosophically bankrupt in the context of what Macklemore has done with his career since its release — at least portends consumer consciousness. Plus the kiddies love it.
24. “Sweat” – THEESatisfaction
https://206up.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/07-sweat.mp3 “Sweat” – THEESatisfaction
A slinky, kitschy move through a night on the town by Sub Pop “QueenS” THEESatisfaction. Awe Naturale explored themes of feminism and blackness in equal parts solemnity and levity; “Sweat” was, by far, the most fun jam on the record.
23. “Cash Rules!” – Sol
Nearly all of Sol’s music post-The Ride has aimed for broad appeal, but “Cash Rules!,” the standout track from his first Dear Friends EP, is how 206UP prefers the rapper also known as Solzilla. This cut extracts the maximum from only three elements: a spare, tightly-wound breakbeat; tense Asian strings; and Sol’s hard-as-diamonds lyricism concerning the parallels between all forms of money making.
22. “What Up Pimpin'” – Draze (feat. Parker, Da Association & Yirim Seck)
https://206up.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/what-up-pimpin.mp3 “What Up Pimpin'” – Draze (feat. Parker, Da Association & Yirim Seck)
Draze and a few friends crafted a textbook posse cut with “What Up Pimpin,” a spin around the South End block set to Just Blaze-like horns. It’s bombastic and cocky, but stabilized by the grindstone hustle of studied veterans Draze, Parker and Yirim Seck. “What Up Pimpin” finds joy in the art of bullshittin’ and the simple pleasures of politicin’ with your brothers.
21. “Sun & Breeze” – Gabriel Teodros (feat. Amos Miller & Meklit Hadero)
This addictive, soulful cut from Gabriel Teodros’ Colored People’s Time Machine is a cure-all for ill moods and cloudy demeanors. The pristine, airy vocals of Meklit Hadero and the upbeat guitar plucks are a soundtrack for lying in the park under sun filtered through swaying tree branches. Even when social conditions got him down, GT plays the eternal optimist and guest MC Amos Miller and producer Justo are his unflappable allies.
20. “Coobreeze” – Candidt (feat. Xperience & Maya Jenkins)
Candidt pumped his 2010 21-track opus Sweatsuit & Churchshoes full of positivity, and “Coolbreeze” was the joint assigned to shake haters and harbingers of violence to the side with dramatic synth and body-moving rhythm. The Oldominion MC possesses one of the three most recognizable voices in Seattle rap, and he uses it here to freeze would-be contrarians in fly b-boy poses.
19. “The Three Rules” – Art Vandelay
Ricky Pharoe and Mack Formway dispense knowledge about the “industry” that no starry-eyed dreamer of Bugatti dreams ever wants to hear. Closed doors, unreturned emails and checks that never arrive are enough to send most upstart rappers back to flipping burgers and pulling shots. But when you enter the rap game with cynicism as part of your modus operandi, as Art Vandelay have done, you’re already forged for a lengthier battle with the industry snakes. “The Three Rules” is too jaded to fail.
18. “Midnight Special” – Brothers From Another (feat. Vitamin D)
Brothers From Another have carved a nice lane for themselves as rappers who are very much of-the-moment but with a learned hip-hop sensibility that could only have been gleaned by time spent studying hip-hop trailblazers from decades past (A Tribe Called Quest, Souls Of Mischief, Wu Tang, et al). “Midnight Special” corresponds to BFA’s ethos, making explicit their influences over a golden era, jazz-infused beat. The track concludes with a dope cameo from the big homie Vitamin D who wraps the proceedings with an official BFA co-sign. Thus, the future of Seattle hip-hop is in good hands for as long as this crew is around.
17. “Blackberry Kush” – Porter Ray
A blunted, casually slouched flow belies Porter Ray’s sixth sense for gifted (and lifted) lyricism on “Blackberry Kush,” the standout track from his vital BLK GLD debut. This is one of those tracks where your mind ends up in a different place from where it began, all because of PR’s flurry of couplets that bend, twist and ease you into a submissive state. Producer B. Roc perks up boom-bap revivalist ears with a vehicle that kicks up hip-hop dust lying around since ’92.
16. “Beg” / “Borrow” / “Steal” – RA Scion
Technically three tracks on an eponymous EP, I’m cheating a little here and treating the trilogy as the single body of work that it really is. RA Scion summarizes, in his typical arcane fashion, the post-Great Recession fallout for the working class and the conditions wrought by Big Banking that ultimately lead to the Anonymous and Occupy movements. Producers MTK, DJ Phinisey and Dawhud provide the grainy soundtrack over which Ryan Abeo goes harder than we’ve ever heard.
15. “Klingon” – Jarv Dee
A club joint so enjoyably ratchet that even Worf would shake to it. “Klingon” broadcasts the swagger and high technical ability of Jarv Dee, a comically under-appreciated artist in Seattle rap. Can party rap also function as high hip-hop, as defined by the stuffy-headed Sennheiser geeks purporting to hold all of rap music’s answers? Jarv Dee could bridge that gap.
14. “Never No” – J. Pinder (feat. Dice)
The single on which J. Pinder, still a budding national star, sounded bigger than his humble Backpack Wax roots. Kuddie Fresh sliced through his own cathedral organ and heavy percussion with triumphant horns that announced J as a statewide hip-hop presence. On Careless, he elegantly asked the question: “Is all of this really worth it?” But on “Never No” he didn’t seem in doubt. Dice oversees the proceedings with her grounded, smoky vocals.
13. “They’ll Speak” – Raz Simone
Raz Simone |
oph, but counterbalances these images with recollections of including Toph in fun activities (frisbee, for example) and cooking, laundering, and driving for Toph.
Dave talks thoroughly about how much he loves and cares for Toph. Dave says he would kill or severely hurt anyone who hurts Toph. In addition, all the times Dave leaves Toph at home with a babysitter, Dave is constantly wondering whether or not Toph is okay.
Summary [ edit ]
In Lake Forest, Illinois, Dave Eggers and his siblings, Bill, Beth and Toph (who is 13 years younger than his next-eldest sibling, Dave) endure the sudden death of their father due to lung cancer. Their mother dies a month later from stomach cancer after a long struggle.
Afterwards, Dave, Beth and Toph move to California. Bill, who does not play a large role in the plot, eventually moves to Los Angeles. The rest of the family live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dave and Toph begin living on their own in a dilapidated, untamed fashion. Dave struggles between moments of feeling that his approach to parenting is calculated and brilliantly designed to make Toph well-adjusted, to worrying that his hands-off approach and commitment to personal projects will make Toph maladjusted. Dave's own attempts to lead a normal life as a young adult often involve fairly ordinary encounters with women and alcohol, but are depicted by the author as somewhat surreal. Due to his parents' death and his duty to take care of Toph, he feels robbed of his youth, and this fuels his pursuit of sex and irresponsibility.
Dave and his friends organize an independent magazine called Might in San Francisco and become engrossed in the Generation X subculture. Much of the magazine's history is portrayed in the book. Dave also auditions for MTV's The Real World in a development on the theme of exhibitionism.
Real-life aspects [ edit ]
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is usually classified as a memoir or autobiography, and its foundation is certainly laid in true events. However, Eggers takes great creative liberties. He often writes wild, tangential fantasy scenes. He occasionally "compresses" time, making events in the book closer in time to one another than they actually were to enhance the flow of the story. Thus, this work probably falls into the category of creative non-fiction.
Eggers sometimes has characters lapse into breaking the fourth wall by acknowledging their existence within the book at several points when talking to him. In these cases, the characters often abandon their typical real-life personalities and characteristics, becoming tools with which Eggers can express and analyze his own thoughts and feelings in an "internal" dialogue, or vehicles for self-criticism.
Eggers points out to his readers what parts of the book were fictionalized or exaggerated in the course of the book and the preface, and the shifts from actual conversations to mere dramatizations of Eggers' thought processes are dramatic enough to be quickly recognizable when they occur, though other fictionalized aspects of the book are not always as easy to spot. One critic has noted that the very title of Eggers’ memoir opens up for a discussion of how the reader is to engage with the book. In this view, the title, as a so-called “allographic paratext”, is seen as an invitation for the reader not to “dismiss the emotionally tinged style as bathos” but rather accept “the premise that this book, in part, is a textualized trauma” and thus the reader is “called upon to be sympathetic to the emotional sincerity found in the book.”[2]
Preface and addenda [ edit ]
The book includes lengthy preface and acknowledgement sections, a list of tips to help better enjoy the book (including several tips not to bother reading large sections of the book), and a guide to its symbols and metaphors.
Later printings of the book also include an addendum called Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, which details some of the deliberate omissions and composite events that made the book flow more easily.
Film adaptation [ edit ]
In 2002, New Line Cinema bought the rights to adapt the book into a film. The screenplay was written by novelist Nick Hornby and screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis. In a 2007 interview, Eggers told Entertainment Weekly that a film version was unlikely to be seen, saying that the studio's option on the film had run out.[3]
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer and Rena Kendall-Craden, the city’s director of corporate communications, were among those who conducted the city’s homeless count in March | Photo: Dan Toulgoet
The number of homeless people in Vancouver has hit the highest level since the city began counting those living on the street and in shelters.
A city report released May 31 revealed 1,847 people were recorded as homeless when city staff, politicians and volunteers conducted a count over two days in March.
The total surpasses the previous high of 1,803 people counted in 2014. The city has led or participated in homeless counts in Vancouver and the region since 2005.
“They are sobering numbers,” said Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs after hearing city staff’s presentation at city hall on the 2016 homeless count.
Of the 1,847 counted, 539 were recorded as living on the street and 1,308 in some form of shelter. Last year, 488 people were on the street and 1,258 in shelters.
The increase in homelessness has come despite the provincial government opening 13 supportive housing buildings in recent years and the city securing four former hotels to house more than 400 people at risk of homelessness.
An increase in shelter spaces and additional rent supplements given to people to find housing were also added in the last year. Still, the homeless population increased and city staff’s analysis shows no encouraging evidence to reverse the trend.
The unpredictable marker in each count is the number of new homeless, with 61% (about 1,127 people) telling volunteers this year they had been homeless for less than one year. Another factor was new arrivals to Vancouver, with 13 from the region, 22 from other parts of the province, 17 from Alberta, 13 from other provinces and nine from outside Canada.
While the Vision-led administration of Mayor Gregor Robertson has repeatedly lobbied senior governments for more housing, this year the Vision team has shifted the focus to the provincial government needing to do more to address the main drivers of homelessness.
Those drivers include poverty, lack of treatment for addiction and mental health, low welfare and disability rates, young people aging out of foster care at an early age and high rents.
“You can build a lot of housing but until you turn off that tap, homelessness will exist and it’s showing up all over the province,” Vision Coun. Kerry Jang told reporters.
He pointed to Maple Ridge, Abbotsford and Victoria as cities seeing an increase in homelessness and facing the same problems as Vancouver in getting people into permanent housing.
While the findings not only show the desperate situation of people, it also dispelled a common myth that homeless people are welfare bums who don’t want to work: 23%, or 257, of the homeless in this year’s count said they had a job and 27% had some form of disability.
Other findings of the report included:
· The majority of the homeless population were men, with 61% 24 years old or younger.
· Forty per cent of the population had a mental illness, 53% had an addiction and 42% said they had a medical condition or illness.
· Thirty-eight per cent were aboriginal and 13% identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning and two-spirited.
· Eleven per cent were military veterans.
The mayor had promised to end street homelessness in 2015. As he told reporters last spring and reiterated again May 31, he said Vancouver can’t solve homelessness without the help of senior governments.
“No city has done as much as Vancouver has done in recent years to tackle homelessness,” he said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough support from the B.C. and federal government to eliminate homelessness on our streets. We’re just going to keep working at it, though. There’s no time to give up on this.”
Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project circulated a “report card” to reporters May 31, giving Vancouver an “F” for its inability to end homelessness and prioritizing social housing for homeless people.
Swanson said she calculated that less than 6% of new social housing -- excluding the 13 supportive housing buildings -- built since 2012 is guaranteed at the $375-per month shelter rate.
“We desperately need more social housing that low-income people can afford,” she said, noting the new construction of such housing has to return to 1970s levels when homelessness wasn’t at crisis levels.
NPA George Affleck said he was calling on the mayor to hold a national conference on homelessness that would involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Let’s get together as a country, let’s get the prime minister here, let’s get the premier here and let’s get them in a room and start talking about how we can solve this problem – not just in Vancouver, but as a country,” he said. “We are not solving it on our own. We can’t. We can put hundreds of millions of dollars into this, which we are, and it’s not making a dent. It’s gotten worse.”
The federal government has promised to inject cash into Vancouver and the province to build more housing. The provincial government has also promised more than $350 million for affordable housing.
The Vancouver Courier spoke to Housing Minister Rich Coleman last week and told him the homeless count details would likely lead to criticism of his government.
“It’s always a quote you can be guaranteed of on this file,” Coleman said of the expected finger-pointing. “But we’ve done more than any other jurisdiction in North America as a province with regards to this file.”
For more stories from the Vancouver Courier, visit www.vancourier.com.
Check out BIV’s podcast for the week of May 30, 2016:It’s Wednesday…
♦ The Trump-backed healthcare reform plan will pass. ♦ Judge Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed. ♦ And President Trump will be proven accurate on his surveillance claims.
Why?
Because Trump.
Don’t ask me how he sees around corners; it’s a gift. For a select few – you have known some of them in your own life. So have I.
It’s just a thing like that.
Defying the gravitational laws of politics or life. It’s just another Wednesday.
When you get done wondering with that, make him a sandwich, ketchup, then go back to what you were doing.
President Trump is having dinner with Secretary Tillerson tonight. Good times, good times. Smiles, big talk. Important men.
Grandkids.
Neither concerned about flak and chaff.
Peers. Titans.
Comfy in the cafeteria.
You really think a #NeverTrump congress-critter is going to vote against Trump? LOL. Because YOU. 1,543 delegates. Only needed 1,237.
How many column inches spent saying: “no way”?
Largest number of individual small donor contributions to a presidential campaign in the history of the Republican party.
Leverage.
Judge Gorsuch cracking jokes in confirmation hearing. Doesn’t appear to be sweating small stuff. Important man. Important job.
Ever known a guy who can build a successful business empire and lie to his people? Doesn’t happen long term. 10,000+ love their boss. Loyal crew, loyal voters.
Genuine worry about investigation of law requires deceit. No worries, tell Comey go say whatever he feels is needed.
Best President of our lifetime.
Right man, right time.
Who matters.
YOU!
All else? Less.
Important man doing important work.
Since June 14, 1946:
Hate him?
Doesn’t matter.
Flea.
Nothing changes.
Same approach.
Tomorrow is another Thursday.
.
My President!
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Boro goal machine George Camsell died 50 years ago today.
The Ayresome Park hero passed away after 40 years of service to the club as prolific centre-forward, juniors coach, scout and finally assistant.
Camsell is Boro’s top all time goal-scorer and is rightly trumpeted on Teesside but it seems strange his name is not better known nationally - especially as he has the best ever England goal scoring ratio.
We should celebrate that.
There was a lot of talk last year of England goalscoring records as Wayne Rooney finally edged past Sir Bobby Charlton and reached the 50 goal mark in 107 game.
Pah! That’s almost glacial. What about the forgotten man of international football?
What about mighty George Camsell?
The £500 bargain buy rattled in a high-speed 18 goals in nine games. Yes. 18 in nine. Camsell: 2, 4, 2, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 - that’s not some bizarre inter-war formation, that’s Boro’s all time top goal-getter’s international sprint scoring sequence.
Jeez, he got 11 in eight games in 1929 alone. No sign of any Great Depression there. Except for opposition goal-keepers.
The too often overlooked Boro goal machine needs rehabilitating.
Camsell is Boro’s greatest ever goalscorer with an incredible 345. But he is England’s top goalscorer too having set an incredible net-busting pace of two goals per game in his all too brief international career.
His ratio will almost certainly never be bettered – unless a one cap wonder hits a hat-trick then disappears into obscurity. Back to Melchester or somewhere.
Whenever talk of England records arise Camsell rarely enters the public consciousness. If he is mentioned it is almost begrudgingly. But he deserves more.
When the pundits reel off the list of England goalscoring greats – Charlton, Greaves, Lofthouse, Dean, Lineker and now Rooney (who now has 51) – he is harshly overlooked. He deserves recognition for what is a quite breathtakingly prolific international striking record.
Every so often a player will have a scoring spurt.
Rooney himself has had a run of six in six. A decade ago then Liverpool million-pound-per-foot striker Peter Crouch scored 11 in 14 and people were talking in hushed tones about his purple patch as if he was the Messiah.
Yes, it was a respectable strike rate that puts him up with the best in the modern era and made him the most prolific over a short snap since Jimmy Greaves – but it is nowhere near the dramatic impact deadly Camsell made back in the twenties and thirties.
Camsell top scored for Boro ten seasons in a row from 1926-27 onwards.
That first year he fired in a staggering 59 league goals to spearhead Boro’s second division title victory but was cruelly denied immortality when Dixie Dean topped it for Everton the following year.
Only twice in that decade did his league tally dip below 20 goals.
For England Camsell was staggeringly prolific too.
He struck a magnificent 18 goals in nine games in two spells separated by an inexplicable five year gap. He got an eye-catching 11 in his first four games in a blistering debut year.
Back then there were no 12 game European Championship or World Cup qualifying campaigns or pointless friendlies in other time zones.
Generally the action was limited to Home International and the occasional post-season challenge match with rivals within easy travelling distance.
His record was:
May 1929 (a) France W 4-2 (2 goals)
May 1929 (a) Belgium W 5-2 (4 goals)
Oct 1929 (a) N Ireland W 3-0 (2 goals)
Nov 1929 (h) Wales W 6-0 (3 goals)
Dec 1934 (h) France W 4-1 (2 goals)
Dec 1935 (h) Germany 3-0 (2 goals)
Apr 1936 (h) Scotland D 1-1 (I goal)
May 1936 (a) Austria L 1-2 (1 goal)
May 1936 (a) Belgium L 2-3 (1 goal)
Not bad eh? Of course back then there *were* easy games at international level. But none of his contemporaries came anywhere near his strike rate.
Dixie Dean played alongside and scored a fantastic 18 in 16 games but that fell short of the pace set by Camsell.
Even if you include Boro new boy David Nugent’s 100% scoring record (which I haven’t) Camsell tops the goals-per-game ratio by what looks an unsurpassable margin.
Look:
Camsell (1929-36) 18 in 9 -2.00 per game
Viv Woodward (1903-11) 29 in 23 – 1.26
Steve Bloomer (1895-07) 28 in 23 – 1.26
Tinsley Lindsey (1886-91) 15 in 13 – 1.15
Dixie Dean (1927-25) 18 in 16 – 1.12
Tommy Lawton (1939-49) 22 in 23 – 0/95
Stan Mortenson (1947-54) 23 in 25 – 0.92
Lofthouse (1951-59) 30 in 33 – 0.91
Jimmy Greaves (1959-67) 44 in 57 – 0.86
Peter Crouch (1995-) 11 in 14 – 0.83.
Wayne Rooney’s 50 in 107 works out at 0.47 and Bobby Charlton’s 49 in 106 at 0.46. Not bad. Well done. High five. Respect etc.
But let’s not forget Boro’s awesome hitman George Camsell when it comes to talk of England goal scoring records and whether or not they will ever be beaten.Russia has proposed sending four fighter jets to escort the plane carrying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when he makes a visit to the Iranian capital, regional media outlets have reported.
Al-Diyar, a Lebanese newspaper close to the regime of Assad, said on Monday that Moscow had alerted the US-led coalition not to "get close to Assad's plane in order to avoid an aerial battle".
It is expected that Assad's plane will fly to Iran through Iraqi airspace, al-Diyar reported.
Iran's official news agency, Fars, said on Friday that Assad was expected to visit Iran in late December or early January. Al-Diyar reported that the exact date would not be disclosed, citing Syrian intelligence sources.
The embattled president in October flew to Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in what was believed to be his first foreign trip since the start of an uprising against him in 2011.
Fars said on Sunday that the scheduled trip would come as the Syrian army secured victories against "terrorist groups". Tehran, an ally of Assad, adopts the Syrian regime's language and labels most opposition groups as terrorists.
Russian jets began bombing Syrian opposition targets in September.Rep. Ruben Kihuen has been accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer and a lobbyist, and more women have told BuzzFeed News about uncomfortable or troubling interactions with him. But Kihuen, two weeks after the first account was published, is still in Congress, denying all allegations against him and frustrating his party’s leadership and the women who have come forward.
Kihuen, a first-term Nevada Democrat who has been accused of unwanted touching and sexual advances, is so far ignoring all calls to resign. With the stalemate ongoing, the House Ethics Committee on Friday announced an investigation into the allegations, and Kihuen has said he intends to “fully cooperate.” Kihuen is the only Democrat with such public allegations against him to still be in office, and the longer he stays — investigations by the committee can be time consuming and often inconclusive — the more it underscores the lack of a coherent process for handling sexual harassment allegations in Washington.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, who was seen chatting with Kihuen on the House floor earlier this week, just before the second woman came forward with allegations, is one of the Democrats calling for a new method to deal with such accusations. “...[I]t is clear that we need a new process that can swiftly and transparently resolve issues like this and encourage victims to come forward and protect them while allowing the accused to make their case,” he said in a statement, calling the allegations against Kihuen “very serious and credible.”
Some Democrats wanted to take a wait-and-see approach initially in response to the allegations, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and chairman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, Rep. Ben Ray Luján, immediately asked for Kihuen to resign after the first woman came forward. House Democrats have now formed an informal task force to come up with recommendations on how to deal with such allegations.
There’s little more that leadership can do to get Kihuen, one of the first DREAMers to be elected to Congress and once a rising Democratic star boosted by former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, to step down in the meantime. They’ve already cut off financial help: The DCCC removed him from the group of members with “Frontline” status — vulnerable incumbents the committee tends to spend generously on.
But even with the ethics committee now launching an investigation, there’s one thing that no top Democrats on the committee or elsewhere has done, according to the former campaign staffer who first accused Kihuen of sexual harassment: spoken with her to hear her story. The woman, Samantha, is frustrated that senior Democrats have not gotten in touch with her to directly hear her allegations. That silence, she believes, shows divisions in how the Democratic Party is handling sexual harassment allegations. Some victims of harassment who have come forward wish to remain anonymous and may see further contact as a violation of that. But Samantha feels that since she attempted to report her harassment in the first place, she expected to hear from the DCCC.
“It took a few days before I started wondering why no one has contacted me. I knew they definitely had my contact information,” Samantha told BuzzFeed News in an email about the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Even if they didn't have any questions about the incidences, I was surprised they didn't at least contact me to apologize to me, since I clearly tried to report this a year and a half ago and nothing happened.”
Although BuzzFeed News withheld her full name at her request, based on her title during the campaign and past job applications she has sent to the House Democrats’ campaign arm, the DCCC, Samantha said she believes the committee is aware of her identity and contact information.
“We respect and believe Samantha, and that’s why we took swift and strong action in response to her coming forward,” said Meredith Kelly, communications director for the DCCC.
Following Samantha’s allegations, the DCCC implemented several key changes to how they train both staffers and candidates on issues like sexual harassment. Luján’s immediate call for Kihuen’s resignation was the fastest a member of leadership had made such a call following an allegation. The committee also now requires all staff and candidates they support to have a strong sexual harassment policy and additional training for candidates and campaign managers.
Samantha, who served as Kihuen’s former finance director for four months during his 2016 congressional campaign during the Democratic primary for the competitive House seat, said Kihuen propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections, as Samantha, who served as Kihuen’s former finance director for four months during his 2016 congressional campaign during the Democratic primary for the competitive House seat, said Kihuen propositioned her for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections, as BuzzFeed News previously reported. On two occasions, she said he touched her thighs without consent.
She told a mid-level staffer at the DCCC about Kihuen’s behavior shortly after she quit her job. While word eventually made it back to Kihuen’s then-campaign manager after she had left, senior party leadership has denied knowing anything about them until the BuzzFeed News story was published. Kihuen has shifted blame for stories about his conduct on the DCCC and Pelosi, alleging that they knew of the harassment accusation last year and spent millions on his race anyway. Pelosi and the DCCC have denied Kihuen’s claims, and the Nevada Democrat has provided no evidence to show they knew anything at the time, except citing the original BuzzFeed News story to She told a mid-level staffer at the DCCC about Kihuen’s behavior shortly after she quit her job. While word eventually made it back to Kihuen’s then-campaign manager after she had left, senior party leadership has denied knowing anything about them until the BuzzFeed News story was published. Kihuen has shifted blame for stories about his conduct on the DCCC and Pelosi, alleging that they knew of the harassment accusation last year and spent millions on his race anyway. Pelosi and the DCCC have denied Kihuen’s claims, and the Nevada Democrat has provided no evidence to show they knew anything at the time, except citing the original BuzzFeed News story to CNN. That story does not say that Pelosi or the DCCC knew about the allegations.
“I'm inclined to believe, as the Dec. 1 article indicated, the person I talked to at the DCCC only told one other person who worked there, and neither of them told anyone else at the DCCC,” Samantha said. “I still think this is problematic, because it suggests that the DCCC doesn't instruct their employees how to handle sexual harassment complaints or any other concerns from congressional campaigns.”
It is not unprecedented for members to speak with people making allegations. Before calling on John Conyers to resign, Pelosi spoke with Melanie Sloan, one of the women who charged the congressman with inappropriate sexual behavior. In a statement after they spoke, Pelosi suggested the value in hearing directly from an accuser. “I believe what Ms. Sloan has told me,” she said in the statement. “Ms. Sloan, as a respected ethics expert and attorney, also gave me valuable feedback into the substantive reforms many of us in Congress are advocating to foster a climate of respect and dignity, and to protect legislative branch employees.”
Kihuen, the first-term congressman, is also refuting a second accusation of “persistent, unwanted sexual advances,” after another woman came forward Wednesday evening. A lobbyist, whose name was withheld by the Kihuen, the first-term congressman, is also refuting a second accusation of “persistent, unwanted sexual advances,” after another woman came forward Wednesday evening. A lobbyist, whose name was withheld by the The Nevada Independent, told the publication that Kihuen touched her thighs and buttocks without her consent on three separate occasions and sent her hundreds of suggestive texts. In his response, Kihuen implied the lobbyist was one “several different women” he has dated. But according to the report, texts show that the lobbyist turned down any invitations from him to spend time together.
Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who has called on Kihuen to resign, said in a statement to BuzzFeed News Thursday that Kihuen wouldn’t even be qualified to work as a staffer in her office, based on all the allegations against him. “Ruben would not be able to work in my office where we have a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment,” she said. “As country singer Lorrie Morgan said, ‘What part of no don’t you understand?’”
Dozens who have been around Kihuen over the years also described a pattern of behavior from Kihuen that was teetering on the brink of misconduct. In interviews with at least 30 men and women who have worked in Nevada politics in Carson City and in Las Vegas, Kihuen was repeatedly described as a "playboy" whose reputation for constantly pursuing and flirting with young women was an "open secret." His behavior was excused by top Democrats in the state because they saw him as an unmarried man who liked to party and who had cultivated an image of a lady's man without doing anything explicitly wrong.
A woman who worked at the front desk in Kihuen’s condo building in Las Vegas told BuzzFeed News about repeated, inappropriate advances from the then-state senator which ultimately led to her blocking his phone number and hiding from him in the building. The woman said her interactions with Kihuen occurred in 2014 and 2015 when she was 19 and 20 years old.
It started out as friendly — and at times flirtatious — conversation, the woman, who asked not to be identified by name, told BuzzFeed News. But once they exchanged phone numbers because Kihuen suggested he might be able to help get her a better job, he began texting her at odd hours and making inappropriate comments.
"He would say, 'You deserve better than this. You shouldn't be working at the front desk,'" she said.
"It was very flirtatious things in super late night texts," she said.
The woman no longer has her texts with Kihuen, but BuzzFeed News reviewed texts between the woman and others who worked in the building about another resident in the building wrongly defending Kihuen's inappropriate behavior. Public records also show that Kihuen listed the address for the building where the woman worked as his residence at the time.
The woman said Kihuen — who was then gearing up for his congressional campaign — also often commented on her clothing and how her butt looked as he passed by the front desk, adding that it was unusual to get "creepy and nasty" comments like that from other residents in the building.
The woman said she told him "two or three times" to stop texting her, and when he continued to do so, she eventually blocked his number.
For two months, before she left her job at the building for unrelated reasons, she also tried to hide from Kihuen. "We have cameras in the building, and you can see someone coming down. I would leave the desk, go in the back room, or look like I'm really busy."
Kihuen’s office declined to comment on specifics in response to the woman’s allegations and other instances of inappropriate behavior. "In the course of reporting this story, BuzzFeed has not provided any corroborating evidence of specific, concrete instances of harassment or misconduct. Instead, this story is based on unattributed hearsay and innuendo, and the Congressman won't respond to it."
Kihuen’s aides requested transcripts or screenshots of texts between Kihuen and the woman from three years ago, which the woman told BuzzFeed News she no longer has.
The informal culture in Carson City — where state legislators, operatives, and lobbyists are away from families, more than 430 miles from Las Vegas, and often drink together and do karaoke and other activities — also made it hard to judge if Kihuen’s behavior was crossing any lines, said people who have worked in his orbit.
Leslie Mix, who worked with Kihuen in the state assembly, was one of two women BuzzFeed News spoke with who aggressively defended the congressman. Mix said “an awful lot of women wearing high heels, low cut blouses, and all giggles and a flutter” were “throwing themselves at him” and he tried his best to be “gracious rather than flirty.”
“It would be so easy to say someone in a powerful position did that or another,” Mix said. “But as a female, you learn to work with it because it’s just a part of human nature. If you felt uncomfortable with something, you learn to shut it down. Now we're all screaming sexual harassment here every 10 minutes.”
Since BuzzFeed News first reported on the allegations against Kihuen, many who know the legislator said they were disappointed, but those who had been around him enough added that after seeing his behavior and hearing whispers from women over the years, they weren't entirely shocked.
A Democratic operative, for example, recalled a work meeting she had a few years ago with Kihuen that she described as “uncomfortable” and “unprofessional.” Kihuen, who was a state senator at the time, brought a young woman, who said she met Kihuen at the gym, along to the meeting. Kihuen proceeded to repeatedly touch the woman underneath the table, the operative said.
It was not made clear exactly what their relationship was, or why she was brought along to the political meeting.
Another former Nevada State Assembly intern said in settings with alcohol, she routinely saw Kihuen making inappropriate jokes and at times giving unwanted, long hugs and touches.
"Ruben tends to be very touchy-feely and flirtatious to begin with," the intern said. "The more you just let it go, the farther along he gets."Australian election crisis
Greens sign deal backing minority Labor government
By Patrick O’Connor
1 September 2010
Greens’ leader Bob Brown this morning signed a formal agreement with caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard, guaranteeing the Greens’ support for a minority Labor government over the next three years. While Green parliamentarians will not serve in cabinet, the deal nevertheless amounts to an effective coalition arrangement, with Bob Brown and his colleagues bound to vote for the government’s budgets and oppose any no confidence motion.
Gillard now has 73 votes in the House of Representatives—still three short of the majority required to form government. But the Greens are doing their utmost to rescue Labor. “We hope by this time next week there will be a Gillard government, because we believe we can work with a Gillard government,” Brown declared. “We are the first people in this balance of power in both houses to make a decision. We think that will help lead to others making a decision.”
Brown was referring to the four independent parliamentarians. The three from rural areas—Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott—have been negotiating as a bloc with Labor and Liberal and are likely to announce which party they will support later this week. Hobart-based former intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie today described as “disappointing” an offer made by Gillard in response to his list of 20 demands (ranging from more funding for the Royal Hobart Hospital, to restrictions on poker-machine gambling, to reform of parliamentary procedures) and said he would continue negotiations with both the major parties in the next couple of days.
As well as delivering an important extra vote in the lower house—ensuring Gillard has as many seats as the opposition coalition, or one more, if West Australian National Party MP Tony Crook is counted as a cross bencher—the Greens’ deal with Labor provides the government with important political cover, especially on the issue of climate change. Under the agreement, a Climate Change Committee will be formed, comprising experts and selected parliamentarians, and tasked with discussing how to best establish a “carbon price”. Gillard has seized the opportunity to junk her much derided election campaign proposal to launch a “Citizen’s Assembly” of randomly selected ordinary people that would assess the climate science and determine what to do. Now the Labor government can shelve the ill-fated policy, continue to protect the major corporate polluters by doing nothing to reduce greenhouse gases, while at the same time acting with the imprimatur of the Greens.
The Gillard-Brown agreement, which will only take effect if Labor forms government, underscores the key role of the Greens within the Australian political establishment. After capitalising on widespread hostility to the major parties and their right-wing agendas, and winning a record vote for a minor party in the August 21 election, the Greens are now determined to demonstrate their credentials to the ruling elite as a “responsible” force for “stability”.
The Greens have no principled differences with either the Labor or Liberal parties. At his press conference today, Brown made clear that he had asked both Gillard and Abbott for the Greens to be given cabinet seats. But, he explained, “They [the major parties] can’t digest it. That’s coming down the line [but] we’re not forcing that to the point where you don’t get a resolution... our job here is to form government as expeditiously as possible and that meant we had to be a little bit modest.”
The five-page deal—signed by Gillard and Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan for the Labor Party and by Brown, deputy leader Christine Milne, and the party’s lower house member Adam Bandt for the Greens—formalises close relations between the two parties.
The prime minister is bound to meet with Brown and Bandt at least once a week when the parliament is in session, “principally to discuss and negotiate any planned legislation”, and once a fortnight at other times. The Labor government’s budgets will be “subject to an exchange of information and views between the parties”. Bandt and the Greens’ treasury spokesperson will receive ongoing briefings from the treasurer, finance minister, and treasury officials, and will also hold regular discussions with the treasurer and finance minister regarding “fiscal strategy and budget preparation”.
These provisions make clear that the Greens will be fully responsible for future Labor budgets, including the inevitable spending cuts to areas including education, health, welfare, and social infrastructure. Only yesterday the prime minister addressed the National Press Club and emphasised her commitment to “tough spending decisions” and “discipline” in order to return the budget to surplus by 2013. Any downturn affecting the Australian economy in the next three years—whether caused by a slowdown in China’s demand for Australian mineral exports or a “double-dip” global recession—will result in even sharper cutbacks, lowering the living standards of the working class and poor.
In return for their support for a Gillard-led minority government, the Greens neither sought nor were offered anything of substance.
On parliamentary and constitutional reform, the Labor government has promised to examine political donations and public party funding reform, hold referenda on “Indigenous constitutional recognition and recognition of local government in the Constitution”, alter rules governing the conduct of Question Time in the lower house, extend the ability of minor parties and independents to propose new legislation through private members’ bills, and establish a Parliamentary Budget Office and Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner. Gillard had already announced many of these measures following initial discussions with the rural independents.
The only policy issues raised in the Labor-Greens agreement, in addition to the Climate Change Committee, were dental care (“proposals for improving the nation’s investments in dental care should be considered in the context of the 2011 Budget”), rail infrastructure connecting Australia’s major cities (“an implementation study for High Speed Rail should be completed by July 2011”), and the war in Afghanistan (“there [will be] a full parliamentary debate”).
On dental care and high speed rail, the Labor government has committed itself to nothing beyond “considering” the Greens’ suggestions. Moreover, Gillard has already promised that any new public spending arising out of negotiations with the Greens and independents will be offset by equivalent spending cuts in other areas.
As for the proposed so-called “debate” on the Afghanistan war, this will be utilised by the major parties to whip up |
. Getty 7/8 Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City, December 21 2015 Two assists in a season when he registered 19 in the league, and they were both among Ozil's finest.
The first, to Theo Walcott, may even count as a double assist. First he finds the forward in space on the left corner of the area. Then, as Walcott curls the ball towards goal, Ozil ducks out of the way having left Joe Hart blind to the shot.
A more simplistic pass unleashed Giroud in behind the City backline. The Gunners had spent much of the first half on the back foot but led 2-0 at the break. It seemed like it could be decisive in the title race. David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images 8/8 Arsenal 6-0 Ludogorets, October 19 2016 A first career hat-trick for Ozil saw the German better his goal return for the 2014-15 season inside the first eight games of the campaign.
Arsene Wenger had long urged his record signing to weigh in with more goals, it appeared that the message had finally gotten through to Ozil. AFP/Getty Images 1/8 Arsenal 3-1 Stoke, September 2013 Ozil’s Emirates bow had Arsenal fans salivating about just what their £42.5 million signing from Real Madrid could achieve. The addition of the playmaker convinced fans that the club could finally challenge for the title once more and his two assists helped them on their way to doing just that, sending Arsenal top of the league.
His deliveries for Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna to head in were nigh on indefensible as Stoke were beaten at their own game. With Ozil at his best in late 2013 Arsenal looked irresistible. It wouldn’t last. (ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images) 2/8 Arsenal 4-1 Everton, March 2014 Early 2015 was a torrid time for Arsenal and their No.11. Their title-charge collapsed with humiliating defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea while Ozil earned opprobrium for a dreadful penalty in defeat to Bayern Munich.
The FA Cup offered valuable respite for Arsene Wenger’s side and they were at their very best in the quarter-final against Everton. Ozil showed composed finishing to give the Gunners an early lead, sliding in Cazorla’s pass from the left.
As Arsenal battled back from 1-1 their playmaker was vital, moving the ball swiftly and sweetly and providing a late assist for Olivier Giroud when many others would have gone for goal. 3/8 Arsenal 4-1 Liverpool, April 2015 The 2014/15 season was severely disrupted for Ozil, who missed three months early in the campaign after picking up an injury against Chelsea. With the playmaker out Alexis Sanchez stepped up quickly to establish himself as the key man in the lineup and questions emerged in Ozil’s first games back as to whether the two could work together.
They proved so in style at the Emirates, demolishing Brendan Rodgers’ side in one of the best Arsenal performances in recent years. Ozil got on the scoresheet with a beautiful 25-yard free-kick but what was most impressive was the way he dovetailed with Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey on the right. Wenger had found an ideal formula. 4/8 Crystal Palace 1 Arsenal 2, August 2015 The statistics prove what an excellent display this was for the playmaker in what was a challenging trip to Selhurst Park. A pass accuracy of 98 per cent, just one misplaced pass, five chances created and one assist – this was Ozil at his confident best.
But for all that number sing the German’s praises it was moments such as a spectacular backheel turn past Pape Souare that made this such a special performance for Ozil. He was feeling as confident as he ever had in an Arsenal shirt, and that would last until October. 5/8 Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United, October 3 2015 Throughout 25 months at Arsenal the accusation thrown at Ozil was that he was little more than a flat-track bully. He had never produced in the big games.
He did against United.
Within 20 minutes he had dictated the course of a vital game, providing a cross for Sanchez to make it 1-0 after six minutes before passing the ball beyond David de Gea to put the hosts out of sight three minutes later.
Ozil went beyond confidence in this display – showing the arrogance that marks out the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo as the best in their profession. He knew he was better than anything United could throw at him, and it showed. AFP/Getty Images 6/8 Arsenal 2-0 Bayern Munich, October 20 2015 Redemption for Ozil came in the most timely of fashion as he scored the crucial second to secure one of Arsenal's great European victories.
The German had missed a crucial penalty against Bayern when the two sides met 18 months earlier in the knockout stages.
Two defeats in their opening games had put Arsenal on the brink of an even earlier exit in the Champions League group stages and they faced a must-win clash at the Emirates. For once Arsenal, and Ozil, rose to the occasion, obdurate in defence and incisive on the break.
Olivier Giroud's header had put the Gunners on the brink and it was Ozil who added the finishing touch, slotting home after a fine break by Hector Bellerin in the fourth minute of added time. Getty 7/8 Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City, December 21 2015 Two assists in a season when he registered 19 in the league, and they were both among Ozil's finest.
The first, to Theo Walcott, may even count as a double assist. First he finds the forward in space on the left corner of the area. Then, as Walcott curls the ball towards goal, Ozil ducks out of the way having left Joe Hart blind to the shot.
A more simplistic pass unleashed Giroud in behind the City backline. The Gunners had spent much of the first half on the back foot but led 2-0 at the break. It seemed like it could be decisive in the title race. David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images 8/8 Arsenal 6-0 Ludogorets, October 19 2016 A first career hat-trick for Ozil saw the German better his goal return for the 2014-15 season inside the first eight games of the campaign.
Arsene Wenger had long urged his record signing to weigh in with more goals, it appeared that the message had finally gotten through to Ozil. AFP/Getty Images
Flamini’s presence is valued in the dressing room and Wenger would be sad to lose a trusted lieutenant like him. The same also goes for Arteta. He may have started just two first-team games this season but he is still club captain and a player whose professionalism is highly regarded. Arteta turns 34 in March, however, and has found himself a bit-part player with Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla preferred in a central midfield pairing.
As ever, the ultimate decision on all three players lies with Wenger and a prominent factor will be the club’s ability to find suitable replacements in the transfer market next summer.While traveling through Thailand, my partner and I joked about buying a coconut plantation because it seems that everything nowadays is coconut based!
coconut oil
coconut butter
coconut shreds
coconut water
coconut milk and cream
coconut flour
and even coconut soya sauce (try it, it’s actually delicious)
Coconut (C. nucifera) belongs to the Arecaceae (Palmae) family and the subfamily Cocoideae.
The flesh of the coconut is very high in healthy fatty acids. The composition of fat varies depending on the type and processing of the oil. Medium-chain saturated fatty acids make up approximately 90% of coconut oil with a slight contribution of mono-unsaturated fatty acids and poly-unsaturated fatty acids.
What’s so good about Medium Chain Fatty Acids?
Medium-chain saturated fatty acids (MCFA’s) are easily digested, absorbed, and utilized by the body, while freely crossing the blood-brain barrier in the unbound form, which means it can be used by the brain as an energy source but also for neurological health.
What’s also great is that virgin (unrefined) coconut oil is affordable, readily available, delicious and completely natural. It’s also…
Anti-carcinogenic (prevents the spread of cancer cells and enhances the immune system)
Anti-inflammatory
Anti-microbial/ Infection fighting (bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi, parasites and protozoa)
An antioxidant (protects against free-radical formation and damage)
Improves nutrient absorption (easily digestible; makes fat-based vitamins more available to the body – ie. vitamin A, D, E, K)
Nontoxic to humans and animals
Coconut Oil for Personal Hygiene and the Body
Age Spots (also known as liver spots) – applying coconut oil directly to the age spot will help it fade. After Shave – coconut oil will help heal your skin after shaving without clogging pores. Great for razor burn! Baldness – combine coconut oil with lavender, rosemary, thyme, cedarwood, Jojoba oil, Grapeseed/ castor oil and a little cayenne pepper. Apply three times a day (or before bed) to affected area of hair loss and massage in. Coconut oil and these essential oils supports cell regeneration. Body Scrub – mix coconut oil and salt together and rub all over! Rinse off and your skin will be super soft. You can add in essential oils if you would like a specific smell. Bruises – applied directly to the bruise, coconut oil enhances the healing process by reducing swelling and redness. Bug Bites – when applied directly to a bug bite, coconut oil can stop the itching and burning sensation as well as hasten the healing process. Burns – apply to burn site immediately and continue applying until healed. Will reduce the chances of permanent scarring and promotes healing. Chapstick – just rub a little into lips and it not only acts as a softening agent but it also has an SPF of about 4 so you get a little protection! Cradle Cap – having issues with dry skin on your baby’s scalp? Coconut oil will not only nourish your baby’s skin, it also helps eliminate cradle cap. Just rub a teaspoon onto scalp daily. Dandruff – coconut oil soaks into the scalp moisturizing dry skin and relieves symptoms of dandruff. It also helps to control oil secretion from the scalp, another leading cause of dandruff. Deodorant – coconut oil alone can be used as a deodorant, but even more effective in combination with cornstarch/arrowroot powder and baking soda. Diaper Salve – very comforting on a rashy bum with no harsh chemicals. Also safe for cloth diapers. Eye cream – apply under the eyes to reduce puffiness, bags and wrinkles. Use on the lids in the evening. Face Wash/ Soap – mix equal parts coconut oil with olive oil, almond oil, avocado oil and castor oil and use in place of soap when washing your face. Wet face, rub oil in and leave on for two minutes, rinse and pat dry. One teaspoon should be adequate. Hair conditioner/ Deep Treatment – use as a leave-in hair conditioner by applying a teaspoon of coconut oil to your ends and then running your fingers through your hair to distribute the rest. For a deeper treatment, rub in a tablespoon of coconut oil onto your dry scalp and gently work through to the ends. Put a shower cap on to prevent transfer onto bed linens and leave on overnight. Hair Gel/ Defrizzer – rub a little between your palms and either scrunch into hair (for curly hair) or finger comb in through from scalp to ends (for wavy/straight hair). Healing – when applied on scrapes and cuts, coconut oil forms a thin, chemical layer which protects the wound from outside dust, bacteria and virus. Coconut oil speeds up the healing process of bruises by repairing damaged tissues. Plus, it smells a heck-of-a-lot better than anything from the pharmacy. Lubricant – it is an all-natural, perfectly safe personal lubricant for masturbation and sex. Not compatible with latex! Makeup Remover – use a cotton swab and a dab of coconut oil and you would be amazed at how well it works! Massage Oil – pretty simple; grab some and rub! Moisturizer – simply scoop some out of the jar and apply all over your body, including neck and face. Often lotions are water-based and can dry out your skin even more. Nipple Cream – works great to nourish cracked, sore or dry nipples. Apply to a cotton ball and leave on your nipples between feedings. Acne Skin Fix – prone to oily skin or an oily T-zone? Use a pea sized amount underneath makeup or alone to reduce oil gland stimulation. Often acne prone skin is actually too dry, which signals your glands to produce more oil and clogs the pores. Pre-Shave – coconut oil will prep skin for the pending damage caused by shaving. Skin Conditions – coconut oil can relieves skin problems such as psoriasis, dermatitis, and eczema. Stretch Marks – coconut oil is great at nourishing damaged skin. It may not be the magic stretch mark cure but it will help. Sun Burn Relief – rub liberal amounts of coconut oil into the affected area. Sunscreen – It’s not high, but coconut oil does have an SPF of around 4. Swimmers Ear – mix garlic oil and coconut oil and put a few drops in affected ear for about 10 minutes. Do this 2-3 times a day and it usually works within one or two days. Tattoo Healing and Moisturizer – continued use of coconut oil on tattoos will help keep the pigment from fading. Used on new tattoos, coconut will hasten the healing process and decrease the chance of infection. Toothpaste – there are numerous recipes out there but I just mix coconut oil and baking soda and dab a little of the mix on my toothbrush. Wrinkle Prevention and Wrinkle Reducer – rubbing coconut oil on winkles and sagging skin helps strengthen the connective tissues to bring back that youthful look!
Coconut Oil for General Health and Wellness
Breastfeeding – for breastfeeding moms, consuming 3 ½ tablespoons of coconut oil daily will enrich the milk supply. Bones and Teeth – coconut oil aids in the absorption of calcium and magnesium leading to better development of bones and teeth. Digestion – the saturated fats in coconut oil help control parasites and fungi that cause indigestion and other digestion related problems such as irritable bowel syndrome. The fat in coconut oil also aids in the absorption of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, making you healthier all around. Fitness – coconut oil has been proven to stimulate your metabolism, improve thyroid function, and escalate energy levels, all of which help decrease your unwanted fat while increasing muscle. Insulin Support – Improves insulin secretion and utilization of blood glucose making it great for both diabetics and non-diabetic. Lung Function – increases the fluidity of cell surfaces. Nausea – rub some coconut oil on the inside for the wrist (PC 6) and forearm to calm an upset stomach. Nose bleeds – coconut oil can prevent nose bleeding that is caused by sensitivity to weather such as extreme heat and extreme cold. This condition happens when the nasal passages become dry because of cold or dry air resulting to burns and cracks in the mucus membranes so bleeding happens. To prevent this just put coconut oil in you nostrils. Doing this will strengthen and protect the capillaries in the nasal passages. Gum Health – oil pulling with coconut oil offers a two for one health benefit! Stress Relief – relieve mental fatigue by applying coconut oil to the head in a circular, massaging motion. The natural aroma of coconuts is extremely soothing thus helping to lower your stress level. Vitamin and nutrient absorption – makes fat-based nutrients more available to the body – ie. vitamin A, D, E, K Weight loss – the saturated fats contribute to weight loss and controlling cravings. Mental Cognition and Productivity – medium chain triglycerides freely pass the blood-brain barrier and allows an alternate source of energy to improve cognition.
Coconut Oil for Internal Health Problems
– when taken internally it is known for aiding, preventing, and relieving these health issues
Acid Reflux/ Indigestion – if taken after a meal Adrenal and Chronic Fatigue Allergies – seasonal hay fever Alzheimer’s/Dementia – read my research here Asthma – even in children Autism Bowel function – constipation, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), gut infections Bronchial Infections and Cystic Fibrosis
Cancer – has been shown to prevent colon and breast cancer Candida Albicans Cholesterol – improves HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) to LDL (‘bad’ cholesterol) ratio in people with high cholesterol Poor Circulation – feeling cold all the time or edema, especially in the extremities, apply coconut oil to the skin in a light circular pattern towards the heart. Similar to dry skin brushing Colds and Flues – as an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory agent Mild Depression and Cognitive Dis-ease – in conjunction with CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), fish oil and other treatment strategies Diabetes – helps keep blood sugar levels stable and helps with cravings Epilepsy – known to reduce epileptic seizures Flaky, Dry Skin – poor oil intake often results in dry skin and dandruff Gallbladder Disease – dietary oils can help increase bile flow, which can be helpful for gallbladder issues, but possibly harmful (ie. Gallstones) Gas – foul gas is often due to imbalance in the gut bacteria. Coconut oil is a mild anti-microbial to help re-establish healthy gut flora H. pylori – oral intake. Occasionally, antibiotic treatment may be necessary. Heart Disease – protects arteries from injury that causes atherosclerosis Hemorrhoids – can applied externally or internally twice a day Hot Flashes Immune System Builder Irritable Bowel Syndrome – alternating diarrhea and constipation are key signs of IBS
Jaundice Kidney Disease and Stones – aids in dissolving small stones Liver Disease Lung Disease Malnutrition Mental Clarity Menstruation Relief – regarding pain/cramps and heavy blood flow Migraines – with regular use Pancreatitis Periodontal Disease and Tooth Decay Prostate Enlargement – BPH, benign prostatic hyperplasia Stomach Ulcers – helps soothe stomach lining and limit H. pylori growth Thrush Thyroid Function – can help regulates an overactive or underactive thyroid Urinary Tract Infections and Bladder Infections
Coconut Oil and Topical Health Problems
– when applied topically it is known for aiding, relieving, or even curing these health issues
Acne – Often acne prone skin is actually too dry, which signals your glands to produce more oil and clogs the pores. Head Lice – topical application
Allergies/Hay Fever – rub a little inside the nostrils for quick relief. The pollen will cling to the oil. Athletes Foot Toenail Fungus Back Pain and Sore Muscles Boils and Cysts Cellulite Circumcision healing – although I don’t support circumcision, coconut oil may help with healing. Decongestant – rub coconut oil on the chest and under the nose when congested from a cold or allergies Ear infection – place a few drops of coconut and garlic oil inside the ear twice daily for relief from pain. Also fights the infection itself. Genital Warts – genital warts often go away on their own after 2 years of the initial infection. Addition of topical coconut oil application over 6 month may be helpful Gum Disease, Gingivitis and Canker Sores – use as a toothpaste or rub directly on gums Herpes – applied topically and taken internally Hives – reduces the itch and swelling Pink eye – applied around and in the eye
BONUS: Coconut Oil and Pets/ Animals
Check with your veterinarian but the recommended dosage for animals is 1/4 teaspoon for every 10 pounds of body weight twice daily.
Aids healing of digestive disorders – like inflammatory bowel syndrome and colitis Aids in arthritis or ligament problems Aids in elimination of hairballs and coughing Promotes the healing – when applied topically to cuts, wounds, hot spots, dry skin and hair, bites and stings Clears up skin conditions – such as eczema, flea allergies, contact dermatitis, and itchy skin Disinfects cuts – and promotes wound healing Great for dogs and cats for general wellness – Just add a teaspoon to their water bowl daily. Helps prevent or control diabetes Helps sedentary dogs feel energetic – Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) have been shown to improve brain energy metabolism and decrease the amyloid protein buildup that results in brain lesions in older dogs.
Helps reduce weight – increases energy Improves digestion and nutrient absorption Makes coats – coat becomes sleek and glossy, and deodorizes doggy odor Prevents and treats yeast and fungal infections – including candida Reduces allergic reactions and improves skin health Reduces or eliminates bad breath in dogs Regulates and balance insulin and promotes normal thyroid function
BONUS: Other Uses for Coconut Oil
Chewing Gum in Hair Remover – just rub some coconut oil over the stuck chewing gum, leave in for about 30 minutes, then roll the gum between your fingertip. Voila! It’s out! Goo Gone – just mix equal parts coconut oil and baking soda into a paste. Apply to the “sticky” area and let it set for a minute. Then scrub off with an old toothbrush or the scrubby side of a sponge. Insect repellent – mix coconut oil with peppermint oil extract and rub it all over exposed skin. Keeps insects off better than anything with DEET! Tons safer too. Moisturizing and cleaning leather products Oiling wood cutting boards and wood bowls Polishing Bronze – all you have to do is rub a little oil into a cotton towel and then wipe down the statue. It cleans and helps deepen the color of your bronze. Polish Furniture – coconut oil with a little bit of lemon juice to polish wood furniture. However, I recommend you test it first on a very small, unobtrusive part of your furniture to make sure it works the way you’d like. Seasoning animal hide drums Seasoning cookware Soap making – coconut oil can be used as one of the fats in soap.
Did we miss any? Do you use coconut oil for something not on the list?
Please share this post on your social medial wall and add your favorites with #101CoconutOil #healthyfats @DrAlisonChenND.
I am always excited to find new ways to implement coconut oil!Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed as a judge of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Oct. 31. (Photo courtesy of the University of Notre Dame Law School via CNA)
Pro-Lifers Applaud Confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett
The Notre Dame law professor was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.
CNA/EWTN NEWS
WASHINGTON — Catholic and pro-life groups are welcoming the Senate's confirmation on Tuesday of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Barrett had faced hostile questions about her Catholic faith during her confirmation hearing.
“Amy Coney Barrett will make an excellent judge, and we welcome her confirmation despite unprecedented and unconstitutional attacks on her faith,” Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association, said Oct. 31. “Catholics were alarmed by the anti-Catholic bigotry on display from Democrats during her hearings, but her confirmation is a testament to the enduring constitutional principle that there can be no religious test for office.”
President Trump's nominee was confirmed by a 55-43 vote, largely along party lines.
Barrett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, was pointedly questioned by Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee in September on how her Catholic faith would influence her decisions as a judge on cases regarding abortion and same-sex “marriage.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, ranking member of the committee, told Barrett outright that her Catholic beliefs were concerning, as they may influence her decisions as a judge on abortion rights.
“I think in your case, professor, when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you. And that’s of concern,” Feinstein stated.
Reacting to Barrett's confirmation, Americans United for Life said it is “especially encouraged” and added that her scholarship has “demonstrated her dedication to preserving the originalist legacy of her former boss, the late Justice Antonin Scalia.”
The Susan B. Anthony List also welcomed the confirmation, calling it “a victory for the pro-life movement as well as for the fundamental freedom of all Americans to live out their faith in the public square.”
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser added: “We thank President Trump for keeping his promise to nominate judges who will respect the Constitution and not impose a pro-abortion agenda from the bench. We also thank Leader McConnell and Sen. Grassley for their commitment to getting these excellent judges confirmed.”
During her confirmation hearings, Barrett repeatedly said that, as a judge, she would uphold the law of the land and would not let her religious beliefs inappropriately alter her judicial decisions.
She told Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that “it's never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they derive from faith or anywhere else, on the law.”
In 1998, Barrett co-authored an article in the Marquette Law Review with then-Notre Dame law professor John Garvey, who is now president of The Catholic University of America. The article focused on Catholic judges in death-penalty cases.
Catholic judges, if their consciences oppose the administering of the death penalty, should, in accordance with federal law, recuse themselves from capital cases where a jury recommends a death sentence, Garvey and Barrett wrote. They should also recuse themselves from cases without a jury where they have the option of granting a death sentence, they wrote.
During her confirmation hearing, Barrett said she continues to uphold “that if there is ever a conflict between a judge’s personal conviction and that judge’s duty under the rule of law, it is never, ever permissible for that judge to follow their personal convictions in the decision of a case rather than what the law requires.”
Barrett has twice been honored as “Distinguished Professor of the Year” at Notre Dame and had clerked for Supreme Court Justice Scalia.
“Amy Barrett has been a beloved teacher and outstanding scholar,” Notre Dame Law School Dean Nell Jessup Newton said following her confirmation. “I am confident she will be a wise, fair and brilliant jurist, as well.”
The Senate also confirmed, on Nov. 1, Joan Larsen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, by a 60-38 vote. Larsen is also a former clerk for Scalia, and her confirmation was also welcomed by SBA List.China's stock market is in trouble. It's down over 20% since mid-June.
But Chinese stock brokers are trying to tell scared investors: Stop selling. Help is on the way.
On Saturday, China's 21 largest brokerage firms said they would spend a whopping 120 billion yuan (about $19.3 billion) to try to stabilize the market, according to Chinese state media. The firms will actually buy stock funds themselves.
The goal is to show regular mom and pop investors that the big players still think buying stocks is a good idea. It's a similar strategy to companies buying back their stock when they think it's undervalued.
Related: Why China's stock market is getting scary
Big stock slide: The Shanghai Composite -- the world's third largest stock exchange if you add up the value of its companies -- has lost 24% since June 12, putting it officially in bear market territory. The bears are growling even louder on the smaller Shenzhen Composite, down roughly 30% in the same period.
The brokerage firms argue that after the steep drop in many Chinese stocks, the shares now "offer a precious investment opportunity."
The firms indicated they will keep buying as long as the Shanghai Composite Index is below 4,500. The index currently stands at just above 3,685.
Trouble ahead? China's stock market has been on a wild ride in recent months. It shot way up and many Chinese investors jumped in, hoping to get rich quickly. While the stock market has tumbled in recent days, the Shanghai Composite is still up 14% this year -- a better gain than America's stock market.
Still, there are warning signs that more pain may be coming. According to Oxford Economics, shares may have to fall another 35% or so to bring them into line with long-term averages.
Related: Who gets burned when China's stock market bubble bursts?
Related: Puerto Rico avoids default...for now
CNNMoney's Hong Kong editor Charles Riley contributed to this report.Say what you want about the state of our country right now, but when disaster strikes, Americans have not forgotten how to rally together.
Category 4 Hurricane Harvey battered half the state of Texas this weekend and brought plenty of destruction with it. Some of the hardest hit counties are experiencing extreme flooding and up to 50 inches of rain. Houses have been reduced to timber.
Emergency broadcast: The entire area Holiday Park Beach,Fulton, Rockport, apartment buildings have collapsed. Help needed ASAP @NWSCorpus pic.twitter.com/RQ6XAwvvjx — Jeff Piotrowski (@Jeff_Piotrowski) August 26, 2017
Before Harvey hit, I was skeptical about the reaction to come. Since November 2016, our country has been bitterly divided over things big and small. We’ve fought about tweets, statues, war and foreign powers. Though I’ll never lose hope for my country, I was beginning to grow cynical about the constant infighting.
So I braced myself for a week-long news cycle of Trump-bashing, climate change fear-mongering, and the politicization of a natural disaster.
What I’ve seen since has been entirely different.
This is what makes America so incredible. We’ll toss urine filled bottles at each other one week and wade through contaminated rain water for rescue efforts the next.
Woman and her dogs were rescued from a truck after it got stuck in a flooded street right Rockport. More: https://t.co/TRqvlv1xUL #Harvey pic.twitter.com/hFq39BJnB7 — NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) August 26, 2017
Hurricane Harvey is a brutal but profoundly important reminder that although we may fight daily about our politics and skin color, we are all still Americans first. I’ll be the first to admit it, I was worried we were forgetting this. But Harvey is proof that this country hasn’t forgotten how to take care of its own. We have not forgotten how to be Americans.
“Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there”- @9NEWS Photographer Adam Vance & Reporter Noel Brennan workn #HurricaneHarvey pic.twitter.com/grvGj2Lls6 — Mulley (@mulley0731) August 26, 2017
I’m sure the infighting and agonizing will start up again soon. Just as it is American to care for one another, it’s also American to get on Facebook and squabble during lunch. But maybe just for this week, it shouldn’t rattle us the same way. At least five people have died in this storm. This number could have been far greater had helping hands from other states not immediately pitched in. And the rescue efforts could have been far more strained had corporate America not donated millions of dollars within the first few days.
This is true Americanism.The University of California, Davis, and nonprofit California Trout provided key results from an in-depth report today detailing the status of 32 types of salmon, steelhead, and trout that are native to California. State of the Salmonids II: Fish in Hot Water offers concerning data about the declining health of these fish populations and opportunities for stabilizing and even recovering many species.
The report found that if present trends continue, 74 percent of California’s native salmon, steelhead, and trout species are likely to be extinct in 100 years, and 45 percent could be extinct in 50 years.
Key findings 45 percent of California’s salmon, steelhead and trout are likely to be extinct in the next 50 years if present trends continue. 74 percent will likely be extinct in the next 100 years if present trends continue.
Only coastal rainbow trout have a good chance for survival if present trends continue.
The number of species likely to be extinct in 50 years increased 180 percent in the last 10 years — from just 5 in 2008 to 14 today.
Of California’s remaining salmon, steelhead and trout, 81 percent are worse off today than in 2008.
California will lose more than half (52 percent) of its native anadromous (migratory) salmonids, and over a quarter (27 percent) of its inland salmonids in the next 50 years if present trends continue.
Alarm bell and road map
“This report should rightly be considered an alarm bell, but it should also be seen as a roadmap for how we can correct course to better support native aquatic species,” said lead report author Peter Moyle, distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. “Thanks to ongoing scientific research, we now know what to do — and where — to improve the plight of native fish.”
SOS II: Fish in Hot Water is the second such report released by CalTrout and the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. The first edition was published in 2008 and established a baseline level of health for each of 32 types of native salmon, steelhead and trout populations in the state, including the extinct bull trout. Since that time, the number of California’s native fish species likely to be extinct within the next five decades nearly tripled, from five to 14 species. And after five years of historic drought, 81 percent of the remaining 31 species are worse off today than they were a decade ago.
“The health of our native fish is a reflection of the health of our rivers and streams,” said Curtis Knight, executive director of CalTrout. “Declining fish populations indicate degraded waters, which threaten the health and economic well-being of all Californians.”
Key threats to survival of species
The report includes an analysis of key threats to the survival of each species, starting with the overarching threat of climate change, which is likely to reduce the availability of cold water habitat that salmon, steelhead and trout all depend on for survival. It also highlights various other human-induced threats, such as dams, agriculture, estuary alteration, urbanization and transportation.
“We have already lost one of our native fish,” Knight added. “The bull trout was last seen in the McCloud River in 1975. The fact we haven’t lost another since 1975 is remarkable. These fish are resilient, but this report underscores that we must act now to prevent further extinctions.”
The report notes that improving salmonid status throughout California requires investing in productive habitats that promote growth, survival and diversity. CalTrout notes it has developed an action plan to return the state’s salmon, steelhead and trout to resilience to help many of these species thrive.
Photo: Phil Reedy
Reversing the trend toward extinction
To reverse the trend toward extinction, the report suggests prioritizing protection and restoration efforts in three general areas:
Protecting the most productive river ecosystems remaining in California, such as the Smith and Eel rivers. These strongholds, among others, have the capacity to support diversity and abundance because they retain high-quality habitat and are not heavily influenced by hatcheries, supporting the persistence of wild fish.
Increasing focus on source waters will keep more water in streams and reduce stress on fish during drought, buffering the effects of climate change. Sierra meadow restoration, springs protection and progressive groundwater management all contribute to this effort.
will keep more water in streams and reduce stress on fish during drought, buffering the effects of climate change. Sierra meadow restoration, springs protection and progressive groundwater management all contribute to this effort. Restoring function to once productive — but now highly altered — habitats can greatly improve rearing conditions for juvenile fish, especially floodplains, coastal lagoons, estuaries and spring-fed rivers.
Additionally, the report identifies three science-based strategies to support a return to abundance for California’s native salmonids:
First, focus on opportunities to mimic natural processes within altered landscapes. For example, off-season farmland can mimic traditional floodplains and support rapid growth of juvenile salmon.
Second, prioritize improving fish passage to historical spawning and rearing grounds that have been cut off over time.
And pursue strategies that increase genetic diversity of wild fish.
“We know we are not going to turn back the clock to a time before rivers were dammed or otherwise altered for human benefit,” Knight said. “Using the best available science, we can make landscape-level changes that will allow both people and fish to thrive in California.”
California’s native salmonids facing the most immediate threat include:
Central California coast coho salmon
Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon
Southern steelhead
Kern River rainbow trout
McCloud River redband trout
A longer, more detailed report from UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences is expected this summer.After decades of worry, toil and argument, metrologists have officially begun the process of tying the definitions of four basic units to nature’s fundamental constants.
The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in Paris, France, has unanimously agreed on a proposal that would lead to reform of the mole, kilogram, kelvin and ampere, according to the international system of units (SI).
That puts us on the cusp of a historic change in the way science sizes up the world. If the next CGPM, in four years’ time, confirms the plan, it will amount to the biggest change to the SI units for a century.
Proponents of the switch are thrilled. “Not a single vote against! It was unbelievable,” says Ian Mills of the University of Reading, UK.
Advertisement
Metal shock
Nearly all measurements we make are ultimately based on the SI, with a chain of laws and rules leading back to just seven base units. The way that these units are defined doesn’t matter so much for weighing vegetables, say, but many scientific experiments require precise measurement, especially in areas like fundamental physics.
The first sign that the SI was flawed was noticed in 1949 in a check on a lump of metal kept inside a vault at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in Paris. By definition, it is the only object in existence with a mass of exactly 1 kilogram – one of the seven SI base units – so metrologists were unsettled to discover that this mass had changed.
Not liking to rush into anything, however, |
related to his elder brother Xiaobao who dispute his best efforts left a trail of swooning girls behind him, but adolescence had so far not been kind. In the last year he had added ten centimeters of height but apparently not a gram of weight. The stretched look was accompanied with the youthful clumsiness of someone who continually finds his fingers and toes several inches away from where he left them. Not that she would trade him for anyone, thought Ayika as she scraped up a handful of the smelly paint dipped sticks. It was kind of nice to have a friend who never seemed to see anything she did as a mistake.
"Um, actually..." said Xinfei, wincing as he watched her grabbing the spilled merchandise. "I kind of wouldn't try to let them scrape the stones like that. Or each other, really. I ran out of clean cloth strips a while ago." Ayika now noticed the white strips wound tightly around his palm and several of his fingers. Adding that to his fixed grin watching the little capped sticks in her hand like they might bite and the number of black scorch marks one the stones around her, and she very quickly tossed the demon twigs to her friend.
"What are you doing with these!" She hissed with the appreciation of someone who's job led her to her own fair share of finger burns. "Why are you messing around with foreign magic? Keeping fire spirits in a...paper box!"
Xinfei waved an unconcerned though quite bandaged hand. "They aren't magic and they aren't dangerous. Well not really, those guys in the Fire Nation capital really know what they are doing. It's just special types of dirt mixed together and then painted on a bit of wood. Although..." He glanced up at the sky. "...it might be and idea to get these in their box and out of direct sunlight. I've kind of experimented with them already. No point in wasting merchandise."
Ayika groaned "Xinfei, what are you doing here?"
He raised his eyebrow, not understanding the intensity of her questioning. He launched into one of his frequent descriptions of commerce forces."Well, I thought about those who would be the most fed up with the flint and steel method of firelighting, and decided that it would be those have to light a lot of little fires. Not most restaurants or houses because they would just leave one big fire burning when they need it and keep the coals buried when they are not being used. But then I remembered seeing those fancy style tea houses up here by your school where they light a little bit of oil under each pot to keep them warm on the table, and there are a lot of smoke bars and big houses with lots of lamps to light every night. And of course I'd get to see you too when you got off work!"
It was really hard to get frustrated with him no matter what he did. His mind would just race off down the street without checking to see if there was a pit in it first. And besides, that grin was so hopeful. Ayika said, "For the...that's not what I meant. What are you doing selling Island made products right across the way from a bunch of people protesting Foreigners? Did you even notice them?"
Xinfei raised his eyebrow, managing to look slightly hurt. "Of course I noticed them, and I've been keeping an eye on them. I did not get up hear until fairly recently since I don't have a fancy work-passport that lets me take the tram to the middle ring but I have heard some things. I was making my door-to-door rounds I even sold a pack to one place just because the cook was sick of that lot and wanted to spite them somehow. Not everyone thinks Fire Nation is a dirty word. Some even notice it is two words. And besides, if the mob wants to light torches tonight I can probably sell some boxes once it gets dark enough that they can't read the labels."
Ayika grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in close to her.
"Don't help people burn down my school."
She poked him in the forehead and let go.
Leaning against the wall behind her childhood friend she looked back at the peaked eaves of the school rising behind the buildings lining the square, and the steadily growing crowd. "I don't get it. Are they angry about the professor or about the girl? Yeah, she's from the Exclusion but she just got here today. And why does it look, well, organized? Those 'Student Movement' goofs from the university couldn't organize a trip to the bathroom."
Tightening the cords around his bundle of little paper boxes Xinfei spoke up. "It's got to be the funeral of the ambassador, right? People don't like the idea of a foreign god being established in any part of the city. And organized? Yeah, other people have noticed. A lot of people are saying that someone in there is spending money, you know, food and drink and stuff to make sure the crowd doesn't drift off." He caught Ayika's surprised look. "Like I said, I went door to door. Apparently people are getting sent out on supply runs or something. Tsao said it is the Society behind it, but of course it's probably the Public Safety government goons wanting to round up a whole lot of people at once. Yeah, sponsor a riot and then arrest everyone in it, that's like them. Same as the old Dai Li Cultural Authority."
"Spare your paranoia for a bit, what society?"
Xinfei waved his hand vaguely. "You know, the Mask Society or the Society of Masks or whatever. The guys who supposedly got secret lessons from some guru in the mountains or something and now can thump benders around like it was nothing, you know? Lately they're supposed to be everywhere. There's always someone supposedly out there who has the secret to normal people beating benders, didn't we used to hear about, who was it? The Yellow Sage or whatever, over in the tanner quarter?"
"Didn't they arrest a lot of those guys?"
"Yeah, exactly. Didn't hear about any secret tricks helping against benders who can smash a wall with a flick of the wrist and open up the ground beneath your feet."
Ayika shook her head, shaking free of her circular thoughts. "Look, I've got to grab some dumplings from Mama Mao's for the girls. You should really go try and sell your stuff somewhere else. I don't want those guys deciding that some boy needs a pounding for hawking Islander merch." She headed down the street, angling towards a small alley that would allow her to cut through this block of houses. Behind her, Xinfei hoisted his awkward merchandise bundle to his shoulders as he followed her on the shadowed path between the edifices.
"I'll be fine. Don't worry bout me." But he saw her concerned look and gave a toothy smile to reassure her. "Come on, those guys have already chosen what to get angry about today and if they were going to pick fights over selling stuff from Exclusion docks then half the shops here would be in line. Everything from the Fire Nation is in fashion up here, and right now I am very fashionable!"
"Oh are you, really?" came a deep voice.
Ayika groaned, recognizing those tones in their universality. Frustrated with society making them feel weak and powerless, but satisfied that their own bulk allowed them to make those around them feel quite a bit weaker. Thug voices. Cursing Xinfei's almost supernaturally bad luck she looked past him to see two large figures filling the narrow alley, and doing their level best to get that looming thing down right. As he noticed them Xinfei's face smoothly fell from optimism to resigned exasperation. Ayika quickly threw on a smile, noting the mass of bundled jugs the two men had, as well as those that were standing open where they had been leaning against the wall in the shade. A sniff confirmed that these two were had gotten pretty far into at least one of the bottles.
She slowly began to motion to Xinfei behind her, surreptitiously gesturing back the way they had come. She was thinking fast; don't reply to anything they say, they look like they have been drinking up for the protest. Just slowly walk away and make them remember that their bottle is more interesting than bothering you.
"Hey, slow down! We might just want to purchase some of your product, boy! Then you might be able to afford that cut-rate mud-girl you have there." The bigger of the two men was moving, angling to one side of Ayika in the alley which was now at once narrow and quite a bit wider than she would have preferred. She just made an indecipherable gesture with her shoulders and kept a pleasantly neutral expression on her face. She had grown up on the docks and new how to deal with surly drunks holding more muscles than sense.
"Hey! Don't talk about her like that! I'll..." Oh Xinfei, Ayika silently groaned, cursing the collective male delusion that women could not tell the difference between heroics and stupidity. His outrage trailing off into strangulation showed that Xinfei's brain agreed with her, at least once it wrested control from other parts. The men now gave the grins of shark-fish with blood in the water. By the unwritten rules of street life, the two kids in front of them were now fair game as they had shown, to wit, 'bloody stupidity'.
The men loomed, having now perfected that technique, and closed the distance. The nearest spread his hands and said "Hey, now. We are just looking for a little...product demonstration." He grinned at Ayika and put his hand on her shoulder. "And after we might even want to see what the little race traitor has in his boxes! Hah!"
Well, Grandmother had taught her that at least drunks were more vulnerable to some types of reasoning. If they think you are all mystical savages, then you might as well play into it, she had said. Ayika smoothly snaked her fingers under the neck of her dress, bringing smiles to the thugs faces, before she drew forth the talisman that normally hung hidden against her chest. "Some demonstrations have risks," she said.
The thug's smiles vanished. The small idol's wide mouth was filled with shark-fish teeth angled inward completing an image of a pointed oval that men of a certain type were quick to interpret into a cringe inducing vision. Grandmother said that there was no reason to go to the trouble of invoking spirits most people could not even perceive if you could invoke their own insecurities and fears. It was not her fault men tended to see another type of mouth.
One of the two winced reflexively as he saw it. He waved caution at his companion. "Hey, those tribals mess with a lot of spirit stiff. Not sure I would touch that girl if I..."
Unfortunately other was less educated in the stereotypes of her people. "Ah, shut up. That's all bull and you know it."
His friend was not convinced. "No, seriously. I heard that during the war them up north sacrificed a girl to the ocean and it wiped out a whole war-fleet with a giant wave. Their kind can't read or all that but they've got that big magic." However he was not succeeding in dissuading the man who was stepping closer to Ayika as she reluctantly admitted failure of that tactic and hid the necklace back under her dress.
In the corner of her eyes, she could sense Xinfei tensing to do something that would get his skull pounded against the bricks. Breathing quickly, Ayika took a half step towards the man who thought he was holding her with a hand on her should. She made a quick sharp motion, and watched his lecherous smile turn into a rictus. The thing about being short is is that it made some sensitive parts of tall men particularly accessible. Her next motion implanted another sharp elbow in a kidney, and a heavy leather heel into the back of a knee. Grandmother had taught her about more than spirits.
A push sent the thug tumbling, a distraction to his friend who for a moment was not looking at Ayika and Xinfei. Xinfei fortunately had the sense to turn to run the instant he saw her arm draw back. It was always the same, once you escaped back onto the public streets, different rules applied and you were safe. Usually. Of course escape depended on there not suddenly being a third man standing quite firmly in the exit of the alley-way.
The new obstacle was cut of a different cloth from the two behind. He was not dressed like a back-street brawler, but instead had the kind of clothes that you would actually care about if they got dirty, and the latched bag hanging at his waist was embroidered. That was not what marked him as different. He was plain faced, with a mole over one eye, and he held himself rigidly, but to Ayika there was something of a growling tension beneath the surface. Some people felt like that. They were the ones who would sit quietly in the corner taking abuse all night, right up until they slashed two men's throats with a carving knife and had to be hauled off, still snapping like a chained beast. And yet for reasons that perpetually eluded Ayika, people would always trust them, and say things like "Oh, that can't be the whole story. He was so quiet. He could never cause a bit of trouble like that." Is was as if they could not smell the rot behind their eyes.
Those dark eyes were now taking in the scene before him. Behind her, Ayika heard the thugs skidding to a halt. One unwisely called out, "All right, sir! Ya got em!".
The man with the mole's gaze never flickered from the two kids in front of him, but the snarling presences was now projected at the unfortunate speaker. "And what exactly have I got? Are you referring to the...diminished... supplies I sent you for hours ago, or to the unwanted attention these things in front of me might have brought?"
The other man's hobbled friend, not liking the direction this reinforcement was taking and judging that he could now probably talk without squeaking decided to speak up. "That little street rat there has been selling foreign stuff near the square all morning. Going on about.." Here he spat, partially from disgust but mostly to disguise the shooting pains still dominating his abdomen "...Fire Nation quality. And foreign girl tried to spook us with some savage idol. We were going to teach them a little lesson about national loyalty and honoring our city's spirits."
The eyes still had not moved. "Get out." Not needing to be told twice the thugs made a hasty exit, sliding past their leader like he was a roaring fire. Ayika made a motion to follow them, but an arm like steel blocked her way.
Keeping her face servilely lowered she turned back towards the man with the mole and Xinfei, and said. "Thank you for being so gracious, sir. My foolish friend was just leaving this district and has mentioned that he is never going to be tricked into selling a foreign product again. See, he couldn't read the labels. We don't want to trouble you any more." She thought to herself, alright, we are sufficiently terrorized, now let us go.
The arm did not move. "My associates were idiots. But not because they decided to teach a lesson about capitulation to foreigners. Because they were failing at it."
So much for demure. She straitened up to look the man in the eye as well she could. "Look, the boy is going to be heading out of this neighborhood. You don't want to make a commotion and get the guards' attention here before your crowd outside the school can get fully organized. A beaten harbor girl might not count for much, but an employee of the school that has already lodged complaints? Just let us go and everything's still fine." Her heart was pounding in her ears and she could feel her hands shaking as she gestured to the front of her uniform, she just hoped he could see the school emblem and not the tremors. Then she smelled smoke. Odd.
The man seemed to draw inwards and upwards with marshaled power. One hand twitched towards the bag that hung at his side. The smile now would look more appropriate with snarling fangs. "Oh, I think you might overestimate how much commotion there would be. And everyone does need to be informed how...dangerous, foreign artifacts can be. I think you will see how..." At that moment he noticed the smoke as well. The back of your robe being on fire can be quite attention grabbing.
The man with the mole spun, unintentional fanning the flames that raced their way up from multiple ignition points across his back. He made a move to grab at Xinfei who raced past him but then the man threw up an arm to block the smoldering sticks the boy threw at his face. This led to discoveries about rapid movements accelerated half a dozen small flames into rapidly becoming larger. The last sight Ayika had as Xinfei tugged her out of the alley was the man frantically rubbing his back against a wall while holding his satchel as far out in front of him as possible to keep it away from then fire.
They had gone around four corners before they stopped running, or in Xinfei's case switching between rapid dashing and smooth speed-walking every few meters as the boxes tied in a bundle on his back rattled alarmingly. Ayika snatched him to a halt as he speedily shuffled around the last corner, and for a moment they both stood breathing heavily. The first to catch her breath, Ayika looked at her friend in disbelief. "You set him on fire."
Still panting, Xinfei shrugged. "Well... just...his tabard...really." His speech was punctuated with gasps as he struggled for breath.
"You set him on fire." She repeated flatly.
He waved a red paper box. "I told you I would find a market for these." The smile was too much, and laughing just hurt her sides, but they both could not stop for several minutes. Finally managing to stop laughing and laughing about laughing. Ayika regained composure.
"Damn it man, that guy could be trouble but...nice one. You really should make yourself scarce though. Most of those anti-foreign types are idiots but that guy meant business."
Xinfei looked around at the clean and cobbled streets like he was weighing his very light purse against an intact skin and having difficulty deciding the balance. "Well, this district actually is the best sales territory, and I haven't really sold enough yet. I was kind of hopping to get enough for a proper meal to bring home."
"Well if you had just gone to work with your brother then you would have been fine. My mom made you guys lunches."
"Really?" He said with a grin.
"Yeah, I expect Xiaobao's eaten yours already." The face fell. Ayika punched at his arm. "I didn't know where you were, idiot. I wasn't going to go tracking across the country looking to bring you lunch." She looked back at his skinny face mournfully regarding the nearly empty coin purse. She groaned inwardly, it was impossible to watch those cracks in his perpetual act of self assurance. Ayika shrugged in defeat, knowing she was lost. "Look, just save your coins. Come by the back kitchen entrance of the school after it gets dark. The place always has extra food, and I haven't cashed in on my leftovers rights for a while. I am sure I can stuff you full of something."
"Hey, you don't need to..."
"Come on Xinfei, my mom would have my hide if I let you starve to death. And for you that looks to be a couple hours away." She laughed, hitting him lightly on the arm. The skinny boy looked incredibly embarrassed but he did not seem ready to bring up any new objections. Ayika straitened up and cracked her neck. "All right, I still need to run and grab the dumplings from Mao's. You just be careful, alright? The city's air is too tense for my taste."
"You watch out too. I mean your school is right where all those guys are targeting. You could, I mean, just take care."
She was already turning, not noticing the look of honest concern and something more on Xinfei's face. Her brow was furrowed and her lips pursed to the side as she thought. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I wonder if the school is doing anything to watch out for the foreign girl? What is she to this?" And so she walked off, leaving her friend behind staring at her retreating back, until he shifted his awkward bundle on his back and made his way down the dusty street.Dear Wall Street Journal Executive Editor Almar Latour:
I just finished reading your open letter encouraging folks to root for the Netherlands in the upcoming World Cup quarterfinal match against Costa Rica on Saturday.
I see you addressed it to the “American soccer fan.” Since most everyone who lives in the Western Hemisphere is American, I felt invited to respond from our humble, tiny country of Costa Rica in Central America.
You might have heard of us and our national football team, known as La Sele. We were expected to be quickly eliminated in the first round. After all, we were placed in the Group of Champions, and faced former World Cup winners Uruguay, Italy and England. We beat the first two and held the Brits scoreless, before sending them back home. In fact, Costa Rica hasn’t lost a 2014 World Cup match yet, and we are the only CONCACAF team left in the tournament.
We take issue with your assertion that “there is no one for whom to cheer.” In reality, U.S. fans – half of our readers – have been supporting La Sele since we beat up on Uruguay, 3-1. Many thought it was a fluke, but they cheered us on, nonetheless. Then we beat Italy, and this tiny country exploded. Even more so when we beat Greece. We are the embodiment of the underdog spirit – and U.S. sports fans love an underdog. The Ticos play with national pride, dedication, sportsmanship and honor. And we don’t have an army. La Sele is the country’s army, and the team is marching through Brazil.
You point out that your flag has the same colors as the U.S. flag. So does Costa Rica’s flag. The uniforms also are the same color, which makes sense (having the same colored uniforms as the national flag).
We also have dozens of pristine beaches, beautiful sunsets, lush rain forest, breathtaking cloud forest, endangered quetzals, jaguars, dolphins, whales and nesting sea turtles. Hundreds of thousands of them. And we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Keylor Navas. Yet another reason Tim Howard fans should root for us, not you.
And we have Sloth Kong.
Please don’t misinterpret this letter as spiteful – we love the Dutch. One of our staffers is practically married to a Dutch woman. My ancestors were Dutch. My mom still has wooden shoes and tulips in her garden.
But this is the World Cup. And it’s Costa Rica’s time to make history.
Best of luck!
David Boddiger
Editor in chief, The Tico TimesBrandy Kuentzel thinks eating healthy is serious business.
The season 10 winner of The Apprentice went vegetarian as a law student, then launched with own cupcake truck featuring free-range eggs and special treats that benefited animal welfare organizations in California.
Is a line of veggie burgers her next business adventure?
Kuentzel is currently blogging her career advice and adventures working with Donald Trump and recently posted her recipe for black bean burgers.
These sound so simple to make–patties of mashed black beans and bread crumbs seasoned with oregano, cilantro and cumin, and easily made vegan by topping with a dab of vegan mayonnaise like Vegenaise or Nasoya instead of the regular variety.
Make these for the boss once a week and you’ll be less likely to hear the words, “You’re fired!”
Grab the recipe for black bean burgers at Brandy’s blog.
Possibly Related Posts:Why is there something rather than nothing? It’s a question so basic and so vast in scope that it seems beyond the realm of quantitative inquiry. And yet surprisingly, it is a question that can be framed and at least partially answered in the study of particle physics.
The standard model (SM) is our current theory of matter and its interactions. Written in the language of relativistic quantum field theory, it has stood up to several decades of tests at high-energy colliders. We know, however, that it cannot be the complete description of the universe, in large part because in several important regards it fails to answer the something-versus-nothing question.
Material existence is connected to three fundamental mysteries. First, why can matter clump to form a rich array of structures without collapsing into black holes? The requisite weakness of gravity arises because the particles that make up everyday matter are incredibly light. In the SM, the mass of all fundamental particles must be less than the electroweak mass, whose value of a few hundred GeV/c2 follows from the physics of the Higgs boson. However, when the effects of gravity are taken into account, the SM electroweak scale receives quantum contributions on the order of the Planck mass, 1018 GeV/c2. That puzzling discrepancy of scale is called the hierarchy problem. In the SM, a particle’s lightness is recovered only thanks to an incredible cancellation among unrelated parameters. There exist more attractive solutions, including supersymmetry and the Higgs boson as a composite particle, that also predict high-energy signatures of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Second, stuff exists only because at some point in the early universe, there was one extra particle of SM matter for every one billion matter–antimatter pairs. That tiny excess is all that remains today, and it must have been created dynamically in the primordial plasma of the Big Bang. In the SM, that process—baryogenesis—is too weak by many orders of magnitude; evidently, additional particles and interactions must have been present. Theorists have suggested many possibilities, including additional Higgs bosons and modified Higgs couplings that could be detected at the LHC.
Third, strong interlocking evidence from a multitude of astrophysical and cosmological observations suggests that dark matter makes up about 80% of the matter in the universe. We have no definitive knowledge of what it is or how it connects to the SM. The most popular theories predict a tiny interaction of dark matter with ordinary matter. Such a coupling would enable direct detection by nuclear recoils in sensitive detectors and indirect detection in cosmic-ray data that show evidence of dark-matter annihilation into SM particles.
The hierarchy problem, the riddle of matter–antimatter asymmetry, and the nature of dark matter drive much of experimental and theoretical particle physics. Many experimental searches for answers to those mysteries are proceeding vigorously, but so far with null results across the board. That doesn’t mean nothing is to be discovered. On the contrary, the null results may well point us toward the true nature of the universe. There could be hidden sectors—additional particles and forces—with only tiny couplings to the SM. Far from being inconsequential, those new sectors can address all three big mysteries. Their signatures are subtle and easily missed, but luckily, their hidden nature is also the key to their discovery. Invisible long-lived particles (LLPs) can be produced at colliders and decay into energetic SM particles after traveling an appreciable distance. Can we catch those revealing flashes?
A tale of two frontiers Physicists built the LHC in part to access new physics at mass scales higher than those characteristic of the SM. However, new physics may be concealed, not by virtue of high mass, but by very small couplings to the SM. We use the term “hidden sectors” to refer to such disconnected non-SM matter and forces, which can arise robustly within the framework of quantum field theories. Like the push for higher energy, the investigation of hidden sectors with tiny couplings to visible particles has important historical precedent. Neutrinos are almost massless, and nowadays they are understood to be related to charged leptons (electrons, muons, and taus) through their shared weak interaction. Wolfgang Pauli postulated their existence in 1930 to restore conservation of momentum to beta decay, but their direct detection via scattering off nuclei wasn’t achieved until 1956, when large neutrino fluxes from nuclear reactors became available. The discovery of the ghost-like neutrino sector was only the beginning, and those elusive particles still aren’t done confusing us. For example, we know that neutrinos have masses and oscillate from one type to another, which is not accounted for in the SM. 1 interactions between the SM and a hidden sector to proceed by means of a heavy and therefore hard-to-access mediator state. The mediator is not part of the SM but interacts with both the SM and hidden sectors. New hidden sectors can be connected to the SM by small but nonzero couplings called portals. Figureillustrates the most important types. Portal couplings are small for several reasons. For example, symmetries can give rise to quantum mechanical selection rules that forcebetween the SM and a hidden sector to proceed by means of a heavy and therefore hard-to-access mediator state. The mediator is not part of the SM butwith both the SM and hidden sectors. Higgs bosons and photons. In rough analogy to an oscillating neutrino, a photon could transform into a hidden photon and interact with hidden states. 1 et al., Phys. Rev. D 80, 075018 (2009). 1. J. D. Bjorken, 075018 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.075018 Higgs boson, with a mass of 125 GeV/c2, is heavy enough to sometimes decay directly into the hidden sector. Such exotic Higgs decays are one of the most promising avenues for producing hidden-sector particles. 2 Phys. Lett. B 661, 263 (2008); et al., Phys. Rev. D 90, 075004 (2014). 2. M. J. Strassler, K. M. Zurek,, 263 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2008.02.008 D. Curtin, 075004 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.075004 It’s possible for some SM states—most importantly the photon and the Higgs boson—to function as a mediator. Although the structure of the theory makes the Higgs-portal and photon-portal couplings smaller than ordinary SM couplings, they are readily made much larger than the couplings of other types of portals. Furthermore, accelerators produce lots ofand photons. In rough analogy to an oscillatinga photon could transform into a hidden photon andwith hidden states.Thewith a mass of 125 GeV/, is heavy enough to sometimes decay directly into the hidden sector. Such exotic Higgs decays are one of the most promising avenues for producing hidden-sector particles. Hidden sectors typically contain massive states that would be stable in isolation but that decay into SM particles in the presence of portal couplings. Precisely because the portal is such a tiny keyhole, the decay can take a relatively long time. That is what makes LLPs and their spectacular decays a hallmark of hidden sectors.
Solving mysteries Searching for the flashes of LLP decays at the LHC and other colliders will be a major enterprise. It will require dedicated analyses and maybe new detectors, but it is well worth the effort. Here are just a few examples of how new sectors with hidden states address the three big mysteries. 2 electroweak) mass by introducing partners related to the top by a symmetry. In the case of supersymmetry, the top partners take part in the SM’s strong interaction, so they should be produced in large numbers at the LHC. Let’s start with the hierarchy problem. As shown in figure, known solutions cancel the top quark’s large quantum contribution to the Higgs (and thusmass by introducing partners related to the top by a symmetry. In the case of supersymmetry, the top partners take part in the SM’sso they should be produced in large numbers at the 3 Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 231802 (2006); et al., J. High Energy Phys. 2015(7), 105 (2015). 3. Z. Chacko, H.-S. Goh, R. Harnik,, 231802 (2006); https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.231802 N. Craig(7), 105 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2015)105 4 Phys. Lett. B 651, 374 (2007). 4. M. J. Strassler, K. M. Zurek,, 374 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2007.06.055 quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the SM’s strong interactions. Hidden valleys give rise to low-energy bound states; in analogy to SM protons and pions, they are called hidden hadrons. In theories of neutral naturalness, the top partner does not interact via the SM strong force, but it does interact via those hidden cousins of QCD. A striking signature of that novel interaction involves exotic decays of Higgs bosons to hidden hadrons, which can eventually decay back to SM particles through one of several portals. The result, as shown in the figure We haven’t found any sign of those partners yet, but another solution, called neutral naturalness,relies on hidden valleys,which are a family of theories that are essentially cousins ofthe theory of the SM’sHidden valleys give rise to low-energy bound states; in analogy to SM protons and pions, they are called hiddenIn theories of neutral naturalness, the top partner does notvia the SM strong force, but it doesvia those hidden cousins ofA striking signature of that novelinvolves exotic decays ofto hiddenwhich can eventually decay back to SM particles through one of several portals. The result, as shown in the, looks like a displaced decay. dark matter? Perhaps the best-known candidate is the WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle). As illustrated in figure 3 electroweak coupling and the mass of the dark matter is close to the electroweak mass, one finds roughly the dark-matter abundance measured today. That confluence is called the WIMP miracle. However, the direct coupling of dark matter with the SM also predicts signatures yet to be seen in direct and indirect detection experiments. Dark matter can be produced at colliders but it is invisible and only reveals itself as a momentum imbalance in a collision. What aboutPerhaps the best-known candidate is the WIMP (weaklymassive particle). As illustrated in figure, it freezes out in the early universe when it becomes too diluted to annihilate any further, and its relic abundance is set by its coupling to the SM. If that coupling is the SMcoupling and the mass of theis close to themass, one finds roughly the dark-matter abundance measured today. That confluence is called the WIMP miracle. However, the direct coupling ofwith the SM also predicts signatures yet to be seen in direct and indirectexperiments.can be produced atbut it is invisible and only reveals itself as a momentum imbalance in a collision. figure dark matter is set by the lifetime of a heavy LLP parent that produces dark matter in its decays. 5 et al., J. High Energy Phys. 2010(3), 80 (2010). 5. L. J. Hall(3), 80 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2010)080 interacting massive particle (FIMP). The LLP can be produced at colliders; typical lifetimes are in the millisecond ballpark. A different possibility shown in theis that the relic abundance ofis set by the lifetime of a heavy LLP parent that producesin its decays.The corresponding dark-matter particle has a much weaker coupling to the SM than a WIMP does and is called a feeblymassive particle (FIMP). The LLP can be produced attypical lifetimes are in the millisecond ballpark. 6 Phys. Rev. D 87, 116013 (2013). 6. Y. Cui, R. Sundrum,, 116013 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.116013 4 dark matter and SM matter in our universe are only different by a factor of five, a long-lived WIMP decaying into SM particles could easily generate the required matter asymmetry. The WIMP can be produced at colliders and possibly give rise to LLP signatures. We turn to baryogenesis, which can proceed according to several known mechanisms. In all cases, an out-of-equilibrium process needs to create more matter than antimatter in the plasma of the early universe. A simple way to achieve that imbalance is the out-of-equilibrium decay of a heavy particle. In particular, the scenario of WIMP baryogenesis,as shown in figure, piggybacks off the quantitative success of the WIMP miracle. Since the abundances ofand SM matter in our universe are only different by a factor of five, a long-lived WIMP decaying into SM particles could easily generate the required matter asymmetry. The WIMP can be produced atand possibly give rise to LLP signatures. The above list of theories is certainly not exhaustive; it is meant to illustrate that LLPs and hidden sectors are highly motivated for a variety of fundamental reasons.
Flashes beyond the shrapnel Long-lived particles can be reliably identified only if we know where they are produced. Unlike dark matter or cosmic rays, which occur naturally, LLPs have to be synthesized at colliders, where experimenters can hope to measure the macroscopic distance from the production point to the flash point of the decay. electroweak scale, they might be produced in high-intensity experiments with lower collision energy than at the LHC. Examples of such experiments include the BaBar search at the PEP-II electron–positron collider, 7 et al. (BaBar collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 201801 (2014). 7. J. P. Lees(BaBar collaboration),, 201801 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.201801 8 et al., Phys. Rev. Let |
them to have a more crunch. They were topped off with lots of spring onions and pickled daikon. Probably not as good as the wings in Beer in Buns, but what are?
Buffalo Chicken burger (£8.50)
There are only four burgers on the menu (one of which is a vegetarian Halloumi burger) so I plumped for the Buffalo Chicken burger, which consisted of a fried chicken fillet and red onions topped with hot sauce and a blue cheese dressing. The decent slab of chicken fillet was really soft and juicy with a nice spicy coating. It came with shredded iceberg lettuce for a little crunch and although I couldn’t really taste the hot sauce, I loved the creamy blue cheese dressing. Overall it was a pretty nice chicken burger. It was tasty, not at all dry and delivered exactly what you expected. It will never change the world but there was nothing to dislike. Yeah, would eat more.
Dirty Chicken burger (£8)
My friend had the Dirty Chicken burger which, sadly, I didn’t manage to get a picture of but it looked much like the burger above. (It’s on the top-left corner of the tray of the first pic). It contained a fried chicken fillet simply topped with mayo, lettuce and red onions. As with the Buffalo chicken burger it was tasty and juicy with a refreshing crunch from the iceberg lettuce. We agreed that we would eat it again but probably wouldn’t rave about it the next day.
I should point out that the final chicken burger on the menu, that we didn’t actually order on this occasion, was the Tower Block (£8.50). This is probably the signature burger at CHICKENliquor as it had the usual fried chicken fillet but also came with cheese, jalapenos, slaw, Russian dressing AND a hash brown. It sounds immense, however I really hate hash browns so couldn’t bring myself to do it. Sorry guys! Next time, eh?
Joining our burgers on the standard issue MEATliquor tray were also a few side orders, that went a little bit like this…
Cheese Fries (£4)
The cheese fries are essentially a bucket of your bog standard fries with some Mac n Cheese sauce poured over the top. That’s it. They were fine but certainly not the best fries I have ever had. I couldn’t help thinking that if we were in MEATliquor, these babies would’ve been served in a flatter dish and topped with at the very least, some actual melted cheese and some bacon bits to boot. Well, why not? It definitely would have helped their cause.
Tobacco onions (£3.50)
These just tasted like fried onions to me. I couldn’t really taste the tobacco smoke but they were nice little crispy onions and did the job (of onions).
Mac n Cheese (£4.50)
Now you’re talking my language! The Mac n Cheese doesn’t come in a stupid boring bowl, but rather as breaded, deep fried cubes served with a Marinara sauce. And they are almost as good as they sound. The Mac n Cheese tasted just like standard yummy Mac n Cheese, but by covering it with breadcrumbs and deep frying it you lost the unctuousness of the sauce, which is one of it’s best assets in my opinion. And I personally don’t think that serving them with a cold Marinara sauce adds anything to the flavour. However, I won’t deny that they were tasty and I could probably eat a ton of them. I’m still not sure about the tomato thing though.
Skip to the end…
Now although this review may seem a little despondent I don’t really want it to come across that way. There are obvious tweaks that CHICKENliquor could make to improve on the existing menu, such as the fries and the chicken bites, but I want to make it clear that the food was still good and I would go back the next time I was in Brixton.
I think the issue that people have with CHICKENliquor is that it’s just not as stupendously delicious as the menu on offer in MEATLiquor and so they feel let down. The fries are a little lackluster, the burgers are only fine and the atmosphere in the place doesn’t smash you in the face with grime and swagger like you get in the MEAT joints. I was also a little surprised that some of the chicken options served in MEATmission and MEATmarket aren’t on the menu here. Where are the Monkey Fingers or the Bingo Wings? It seems odd to include a restaurant as part of your gang and not share dishes that have obviously been a success in your other venues.
In CHICKENliquor’s defense, although it probably doesn’t have the satisfying, hedonistic filthiness of MEATLiquor we need to remember that we’re dealing with a different beast here. I think if a chicken burger dripped down your arm then you probably wouldn’t eat it and would call the Health Inspector instead. Therefore, it’s fine as it is. Maybe we shouldn’t judge everything with MEATLiquor’s greasy yardstick?
Still hungry? Maybe you’ll find something equally finger-licking in our London burgers section, including our review of the donut burger from Red’s True Barbecue.
Author: Toni Ratcliff Date: 2015-09-18 Title: CHICKENliquor, Brixton Rating: 3Boxscore is here.
If you're like me you've become completely sick of all the prognosticators telling us that the Clippers don't belong in the same building as the San Antonio Spurs, that they were a one man team, just Chris Paul and a bunch of spare parts, that Blake Griffn and his teammates were nothing more than athletes, dunkers, who would inevitably wither in the hot glare of the playoff spotlight... that they are too young, too inexperienced, and have too much miserable history to prevail against the greatness of the Spurs, the greatness of the Lakers, the Thunder, etc.
Somehow, the Clips brutal first round victory against the Memphis Grizzlies didn't mean anything. They should simply bow down to the wonderfulness of the Spurs, become a meaningless bump in the road before the inevitable clash between San Antonio and some better Western conference team..
With this second round series starting only a day after the emotional seventh game victory in Memphis and with nagging injuries to the Clippers two best players, the Clippers went into San Antonio and lost the first two games in somewhat predictable fashion. Everyone, it seemed, was ready to hand the series to San Antonio.
But wait a second, not so fast... so the Spurs won two games at home? So what? That's what they were supposed to do... win home games especially against a tired, wounded team. Just wait until the Clippers get back to LA, back to the friendly confines of Staples Center.
And this afternoon, the Clips came out on fire and showed the Spurs who they really are... they went on a stunning 24-4 run in early minutes and led the Spurs by 22 at the end of the first quarter. Ahh... this was gonna be easy, this was gonna shut up the Jon Barry and Michael Wilbons of the world and the Clips were gonna walk over the mighty Spurs on their home court. Blake Griffin was a frantic vision, hitting shots from all over the court, scoring eighteen and pulling down seven rebounds in the first frame.
But... then the Spurs woke up. They swatted the Clippers like sluggish flies. They cut it to ten by the half, tied it with five left in the third, and were ahead by eight at the beginning of the fourth. The Clips tried to rally, but couldn't get anything going. Chris Paul who has been the Clips late-minutes hero all season, showed little tonight. We can blame it on his hip flexor, sure, but... the Clips have thirteen more guys on their playoff roster, right? Blame those guys too.
There's no other way to look at it, San Antonio laid out the Clippers in a performance that showed both the Spurs superiority and the Clippers over-reliance on their star. Now they're down 3-0 and they're reeling like drunks. But let's not forget they lost to a great, experienced team, with a great coach.
Oh yeah, there's another game tomorrow night at 7:30. Clips will be playing for respect. There is hope, I suppose, there is always hope.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
When we think of progressive transgender rights, it’s pretty accurate to say that Catholic schools are not the first place that spring to mind.
But praise be, it appears that there is one Catholic school that is certainly ready to test that theory.
Two trans pupils have been allowed to pick their own school uniforms so that they better align with their identity in a school in Lismore, Australia, with the full support of the teaching staff.
The two students, who identify as male, have also changed their name on the school register.
Thanks to this, teachers and pupils will call the students by their preferred names.
“I saw one of them during the day and they sort of gave me a thumbs up, so things seem to be going okay,” Trinity Catholic College principal Brother John Hilet told The Northern Star.
“I spoke to the second student before the end of the day and they were very happy with how everything had gone.”
The Principal decided to take action when the two pupils confided in him that they would prefer to wear the male school uniform.
Speaking to a Bishop in his diocese and the Catholic Education Commission, there was a consensus that the pupils should be allowed to wear the uniform of their choosing “for the student’s well-being.”
The educator said that the school will be looking into gender-neutral uniforms and unisex toilets.
The timing of this progressive move might rile the anti same-sex marriage camp in the country.
The Marriage Coalition, who are responsible for the first advert from the no camp, have been slammed for perpetuating the view that equal marriage laws will affect their children’s gender education.
The complaint, which was voiced by a mother in the advertisement who said that her son was told he could wear a dress to school, was rubbished by her son’s school, who said that the remark was fabricated.Despite tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea, the two nations’ militaries train together at a very high level. Current “mil-mil” engagements are robust, with China participating in the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC 2014, which is hosted biannually by the U.S. Pacific Command. The drills allowed China to learn a great deal about U.S. tactics, techniques and procedures (in military shorthand, “TTPs”).
But even as the United States provided China with its highest-level access to military drills, the U.S. military leadership consistently ratcheted up the level of confrontation in the South China Sea. Most recently, a top U.S. Navy admiral participated in a surveillance flight in the region. The United States is at once inching closer to armed confrontation, while at the same time training Chinese forces in the American way of war.
RIMPAC is one of many occasions when U.S. forces have trained their Chinese counterparts. China has participated in U.S.-led counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean since 2008. Initially, due to language difficulties and unfamiliarity with American and allied forces tactics, techniques and procedures, China was given a separate area to patrol. But over the last seven years, cooperation has become closer, as the United States sought greater coordination of operations and closer relations with Chinese ships, by conducting combined exercises in 2013 and again in 2014. This increased interoperability allowed Chinese forces to learn counter-piracy tactics, techniques and procedures, especially those relating to how to support ships that are deployed far from land, for long periods of time. They also learned how to properly run visits and time off for their troops in foreign ports, and how to configure ships to be both efficient and comfortable for the seamen. From the U.S. Navy, the Chinese learned that allowing telephone contact with family at home enhanced — rather than hurt — troop morale and discipline. The Chinese were also able to study American methods for destroying chemical weapons, as they aided the U.S. Navy in destroying Syria’s surrendered weapons.
China has upped the ante by deploying a nuclear submarine escort for its ships engaged in counter-piracy missions — an added level of protection. To get live training, the United States will track any Chinese submarines as hostile, even in a cooperative environment. China knows this, and is able to use its participation in the international effort to explore the anti-submarine warfare tactics of the U.S. forces stationed on Diego Garcia Island, south of India, as well as those of U.S. and allied forces in the Gulf of Aden.
Chinese ships regularly visit Djibouti, home of America’s Combined Joint Task Force- Horn of Africa, which is responsible for countering violent extremists in Africa. In Djibouti, Chinese forces learn how the United States staffs and operates this task force. Throughout all of its counter-piracy operations, China has adopted the EU’s MERCURY communications network, which allows navies to share in real time data on vessels being tracked, and also to conduct ship-to-ship voice, data and email communication. The communication network allows China to understand exactly how NATO allies coordinate efforts in every stage of sea battle, from planning to execution to assessment.
Cooperation between American and Chinese armed forces goes well beyond RIMPAC and the counter-piracy efforts. In February, 29 Chinese combat naval officers visited the United States, touring the Naval Academy, the Navy War College and the Surface Warfare Officers School, where they participated in training on the U.S. interpretation of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, an agreement between 21 countries that establishes rules of the road for how to prevent an escalation of tensions between different militaries at sea. While the goal of attempting to reduce miscommunication is admirable, the training also allowed China to learn exactly how a U.S. vessel will respond to a sudden encounter with a foreign vessel — invaluable information if the foreign vessel has hostile intent. Chinese and U.S. Naval personnel have also conducted joint training on Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Response, and plan to conduct joint training on search and rescue over the next couple of weeks.
The U.S. military’s decision to train Chinese forces has provoked a mixed response in military and political circles. Retired Admiral James Lyons wrote that: “the nature of regimes matter. We are now helping an incurably aggressive state develop its military — to our peril. There is something very wrong at the core of the Obama administration’s and the Pentagon’s China policies.”
While I disagree with the Obama administration’s China policy, I do not think cutting military engagements is the solution. On the contrary, I agree with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, who has recently called for closer mil-mil relations.
As I have argued before, an aggressive approach to China in the South China Sea is contrary to U.S. interests. The United States should dial down its public rhetoric against China, and refrain from aggressive military action. Such actions are counter-productive and short-sighted. The United States should enhance mil-mil cooperation, taking care to protect its most sensitive tactics, techniques and procedures. So long as there are no shots fired, we should leave the South China Sea to the diplomats.Since 2007, BangOn!NYC has been on a mission to provide electronic heads with unforgettable musical experiences, but so far, they've been doing their thing mostly in the urban setting. In 2017, it'll be 10 years of banging, and it's time to celebrate with something extra special.
BangOn! presents Elements Lakewood Camping Music & Art Festival, a three-day, three-night extravaganza with seven stages, large-scale installations, 3D video projection mapping, games, activities, and obviously tons of great music, all set in beautiful northeast Pennsylvania. Elements Camping makes its debut Memorial Day Weekend, May 26-28.
Elements has been a successful one-day festival in NYC for three years, but this expansion is going above and beyond what anyone has experienced so far. Headliners include Tipper, Claude VonStroke, Lee Burridge, Claptone, Keys N Krates, and more. Performers will take four element-themed stages, but not like Zinc or Gold, more like Captain Planet style, all Fire, Earth, Air, and Water, each representing a different style of dance from bass, to house, techno, etc.
Attendees can also count on three indoor stages with musical programming that lasts all through the night, because anyone who comes to a music festival to sleep missed the memo. When you're not banging on to the beat, take part in sports, camp activities, crafts, and games. And while the lake might not be warm enough, there will be heated pools on sight, so bring your bathing suit.
For tickets and details, head to Elements Camping Fest online. Check the full lineup below.Salar Kamangar (Persian: سالار کمانگر;[2] born 1977 in Tehran)[3][4] is an Iranian-American senior executive at Google and former CEO of Google's YouTube brand.[5]
Early childhood and education [ edit ]
Salar Kamangar (born in Tehran, Iran) holds a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences with honors from Stanford University and was the 9th employee to join Google.[5] He joined after graduating from Stanford in 1998.[5]
Google [ edit ]
On October 29, 2010, it was announced that Salar "SK" Kamangar, who was in charge of day-to-day activities, would replace Chad Hurley as CEO of YouTube.[5][6][7] He was replaced as CEO of YouTube on February 5, 2014. His successor at YouTube is Susan Wojcicki.[8]
Prior to that, Kamangar created the company's first business plan and was responsible for its legal and finance functions.[citation needed] From there, he became a founding member of Google's product team,[citation needed] where he worked on consumer projects including the acquisition of DejaNews and the subsequent launch of Google Groups.Editor and Co-Publisher of Fox and Hounds Daily
Drivers must be scratching their heads over conflicting approaches to transportation goals in the state and cities. Yesterday, a coalition of business and labor organizations supported a plan to raise funds for road repair to the tune of $6 billion a year to be shared by the state and local governments. At the same time in Los Angeles, Mobility Plan 2035 is moving forward designed to take away roads for bike lanes and bus-only lanes to force people out of their automobiles.
The puzzle—how to get more money from drivers when you want them out of their cars?
The problem of raising money from diminishing use of a product is becoming endemic in California. Previously, I’ve written that agencies that rely on tobacco tax revenue are scrambling for more money as tobacco use drops off. In the same vein, water agencies are watching their budgets shrink as consumers use less water in response to the drought.
With better mileage per gallon of gasoline for newer cars and the introduction of electric vehicles, gas tax revenue has been reduced.
The conundrum continues if seeking gas and diesel tax increases and maybe even a mileage charge on vehicles goes forward at the same time city and state planners concoct strategies to keep vehicles parked in the garage.
A proposal introduced yesterday by the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Business Roundtable, the California Association of Counties, the League of California Cities, and the California Alliance for Jobs representing construction unions would raise revenue for infrastructure from gas tax and diesel tax increases, boosts in vehicle registration fees as well as cap-and-trade money.
The L.A. proposal is designed to get drivers out of their cars—but opponents of the plan say it will do nothing more than lead to congestion and frustrated drivers. As someone who has seen a nearby street lose a lane to bicycle traffic, I can attest to that concern.
The Mobility Plan 2035 will likely lead to less mobility on the roadways as it congests the streets. It is in line with state bills attempting to force behavioral changes. SB 375, the so-called Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, is designed to reduce greenhouse gases by encouraging developers to build housing close to public transportation.
Advocates might argue both approaches are needed—more revenue to build and fix roads, fewer cars on the roads to reduce wear and tear on the asphalt.
But duel efforts to raise taxes and limit driving could make for disgruntled drivers and angry voters.The modern-day musical marks Damien Chazelle's follow-up to acclaimed indie drama 'Whiplash.'
Lionsgate and Summit are pushing back the release of Damien Chazelle's La La Land from July 15 to December, the heart of awards season.
The modern-day musical, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, will open in select theaters Dec. 2 before expanding nationwide Dec. 16. Lionsgate also announced that Molly Smith's Black Label Media has come aboard to co-finance the movie following their collaboration on Sicario.
La La Land marks Chazelle's follow-up to indie darling Whiplash and reunites the director with the pic's Oscar-winning supporting actor J.K. Simmons.
A modern-day take on the classic Hollywood musical, La La Land follows a jazz pianist (Gosling) who falls for an aspiring actress (Stone) in Los Angeles. But as success mounts, they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fabric of their love affair.
Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt are producing.The ruins of Bromunjaar opened up behind the patrolled gateway, after Se’rith disposed of the undead that guarded it. She wondered if the original guards were the ones still patrolling it! A graveyard stretched behind the gate for a long while. Stone cairns marked burials while rotting coffins were stacked up against a wall at the far end of the chamber. The occupants of the graves must have already gone for a wander as no more walking dead assailed the Dunmer. The ghostly voice was still in the air though, it had broken into the common tongue with promises of sweet death and eternal suffering! Undaunted she went deeper, always going down. Nothing Oblivion was going to stop her.
An increasing feeling of immense and ancient evil culminated at an iron door that was as black as a deadra’s heart. There she met the ghostly Savos again. This time he looked straight at Se’rith, his ghostly visage was crestfallen. ‘I hope you understand what I had to do, it was my only choice..’ with that he walked through the door. Se’rith pushed the surprisingly responsive door open to be confronted by a very puzzling sight. Two of Savos’ ghostly friends were encased in some sort of power field. Arcs of power stretched from these orbs and they in turn encased and entrapped another individual. There was nothing ghostly about this one though. It resembled a Druagr only that it was dressed in rotting robes. It radiated an aura of absolute power and Se’rith could feel its evil from a distance. Its intelligent eyes locked on her the moment she entered the doorway. Whatever it was it was conscious and possessed of great intelligence. Its yellow eyes seemed to flash and its emaciated mouth cracked into a wicked smile as it arched its arms and backwards to let loose a roar!
One of the ghostly mages turned to face Se’rith and shouted, ‘Savos you bastard.’ With its concentration broken it lurched at Se’rith and the beam of power holding the Druagr in place disappeared. The being laughed wickedly, its mirth sounding like a mournful wind over a grave as it filled the chamber. The ghost launched itself at Se’rith but disappeared as it neared. Its colleague likewise cursed Savos while also disappearing into thin air. Se’rith deduced that Savos must have led his friends into Bromunjaar and used their life force to entrap this being. A being that was now free and full of unlife by the looks of it.
‘Foolish mortal,’ came the craven voice from the other side of the room. ‘I thank you for my freedom and your death shall serve as the first sacrifice to the death on wings that come. Already great Alduin fly’s free and soon this world and its mortal stock will burn from horizon to horizon.’ It hovered over the platform it had been imprisoned in and hot Se’rith squarely on the chest with a bolt of lightning. The Dunmer felt as if her chest had been stamped upon by a giant of the Tundra. She thought, as she flew through the air, that it was ironic that it was a shock spell that would do for her. She was sure she cracked some bones on her back as she hit the wall behind her with a thump. She gingerly got to her feet as the effects of her most powerful health potion kicked in. It was clear that this being was immensely powerful but it was slow. If she kept moving she might survive.
Her magika was gone, her robes in tatters, her face and hair singed, her Staff of Sparks broken in two and spitting lightning, her skeletal minions dismissed with a word. Her gloves were worn through and her best potions gone. Yet the creature game against her. She had hurt it, yes but it came on relentlessly. Its cackling laughing taunting her as it promised an eternity of undeath as her thrall. She could not give up, if Savos had saw it fit to sacrifice his friends then this was an evil worth defeating. Her hands clasped two of J’Zargo’s scrolls she still had in her pouches. As a final act of a desperate woman she run straight at the being as it hovered in mid air, its robes trailing it like the legs of an octopus. Having quaffed her last two healing potions, her own concoctions that also granted the drinker an increase in temporary life force, she read the words of both scrolls as she jumped through the air and barged into the creature. Her body erupted in flame, she could feel her lungs turn to mush and it felt as if her molten flesh was pouring off her bones. Yet she heard the thing roar in pain as a massive explosion took Se’rith away from this plane and into the next. Darkness took over and she found herself in Morrowind, walking through Balmora with the sun on her face.The general opinion from all of the people I talked to would rather have a 1 on 1 tournament as opposed to team. While many people thought a team tournament would be more exciting (including myself), and/or thought Evo should have both singles/team, when given the choice, the majority picked singles.
I talked with mattdeezie (head of Tournament Go) about trying to come up with a fair format that keeps game-length comparable to a game of MvC2/CvS2 (the longest games), while still keeping the smash strategies intact. It turned out to be around 3 stock / 4/5 mins.
Time is an important factor. After reading up and talking to mattd, it seems that more time in SSBM has an adverse effect on turtling. Not to say turtling is not a valid technique, but it seems that keeping the timer out of play for a longer period of time (basically just cranking it up a bit) encourages players to fight more. Once the timer gets close to depletion, many players use this as an incentive to avoid confrontation if they are in the lead (which also happens in many other games).
Items are a touchy subject for many players. Some would like to see them completely abolished, while others would like to keep them on with a handful removed. I personally believe that some form of items should remain in the game. The first set of items that generally get removed from tournament play are the healing items, for obvious reasons. Tomato/Heart. Next that usually goes is Party Balls, PokeBalls, Star, Warp Star, Cloak, Red Shell, Flipper, Metal Box, Bunny Hood, Mushrooms. From there, the rest of the items are generally on, or up in the air regarding availablity. Some of the up in the air items include Hammer, Homerun Bat, Star Rod, Barrel Cannon, Land Mine, Bombomb. For items that generall remain on, there’s Ray Gun, Super Scope, Fire Flower, Lip Stick, Beam Sword, Fan, Green Shell, Mr Freezie, Mr Saturn, Parasol, and Screw Attack.
I read a very informative post about items on smashboards.com (but unfortunately I couldn’t find the link) which explained why items should be turned on Low, but not Very Low. It basically stated that Very Low spreads items far to thin and when one finally appears the character that gets it has a much larger advantage. On Low, items appear at a steady rate, but not so much as to overrun the entire game with constant items. Basically, just enough to keep it fair.
Stages obviously play a big part in SSBM, and there seems to be a generally accepted standard in the “most fair” levels as opposed to the “easiest to turtle” levels (which are usually not used). For example, the standard three as far as “fair” goes are: Final Destination, Dreamland, Pokemon Stadium. The stages generally accepted as “unfair” or “super turtle inducing” are: Hyrule, Yoshi 64, and Termina Bay. Most other stages in between have advantages as disadvantages, but none are really as pronounces as the main 2 or 3.
I’ve read an enourmous amount of discussion on smashboards.com concerning this exact topic, and many different groups like many different settings. It seems like the WC has generally adopted Tournament Go rules (around 4 stock / 6 mins / some items), some (not all) on the EC have adopted high stock, no items, and there’s plenty of variation across the country.
The format I was initially leading towards from talking to mattd and other players was something similar to:
3-stock / 4-mins (maybe 5)
Items On (Low)
Specific Items Off: Tomatoes, Hearts, Party Balls, PokeBalls, Star, Warp Star, Cloak, Flipper, Bunny Hood, Mushrooms, Bombomb
Specific Items debatable: Hammer, Homerun Bat, Star Rod, Barrel Cannon, Land Mine
All Other Items On
Stages: For first game of a 2/3 match, players pick from one of the 3 main stages: Final Desination, Dreamland, Pokemon Stadium. From there, the loser can pick any of the other stages except Hyrule, Yoshi 64, and Termina Bay. There is also the option of expanding the “banned stages” list to include levels like Brinstar Depths, Pokefloats etc.
Character selection is blind pick for first game of a 2/3 match. Regarding character change, there are two thoughts on this. The first is to stick to standard fighting game rules and force winner to always keep his/her character. The second is to allow the winner to change character before the loser, so the loser still has the option to pick a counter.
There is a ton of debate regarding settings for SSBM. In order to keep the overall tournament time under control and make for an exciting, yet fair finals, certain players will ultimately have to get used to settings they are not used to. The variety in the community is very large, so no matter what happens, certain people are going to have to play on new settings or decide to not play at all.To anyone who has been following the really big stories in the news – and by big, I don’t mean the silliness surrounding IRS, EPA, NSA, ObamaCare or Benghazi – it has become obvious. This is a racist country. Indeed, it is a horribly racist place.
It’s not like it used to be, with Klan rallies, Jim Crow and governors standing in schoolhouse doors. It’s much more subtle and insidious now, and it permeates every aspect of American life.
I’ve avoided saying it for a while now, but I can’t be silent anymore.
I’m talking, of course, about the really big story of the last week – the scourge of racism exposed by a simple rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair. The aftermath of what happened there should disturb every American interested in equality.
The racist act was not some unnamed guy wearing a Barack Obama mask and lampooning the president. Nor was it Tuffy Gessling, the now “banned for life” rodeo performer who was on the microphone. No, the racist act isn’t a single act; it’s a constant series of acts committed by progressives, Democrats and their allies. It’s the insistence President Obama not be held to the same standards, not be treated the same way as other presidents and other politicians simply because of race.
It’s not breaking news the president is black. Most people, especially those of us born after the babyboomers, couldn’t care less. It was indeed a much bigger deal 40 years ago, but we are not our grandparents’ generation. The world has changed. Peoples have stopped caring about race. We’ve stopped caring about a lot of things the people in charge still obsess over, but none more than race.
This burgeoning revolution has left some people adrift in a world that soon no longer will exist. Their mind still resides in a place with separate water fountains, George Wallace ruling Alabama and the KKK marching in the streets. These people can’t let go. It is the basis of their power, their politics, their wallets. It’s sickening, and it’s un-American.
Merriam-Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” That can be boiled down to treating people differently, having different expectations, different standards for someone because of race. And this is how progressives treat President Obama.
There was a time when criticism, satire, downright mockery and any number of things considered “attacks” were not only accepted but cheered. From the moment of our founding, the freedom to criticize political leaders was one of the things that set us apart from the rest of the world. Now, thanks to the progressive movement, criticism, even mockery, of the president of the United States is called racism. Essentially, progressives demand a whole new standard for criticizing this president – all because of his race.
Disagreeing with Barack Obama on policy is racist. Disapproval of his handling of the economy is a Klan rally. Speaking against his feckless foreign policy is the back of the bus. To withhold consent to his every whim is to burn a cross. The substance of the critiques doesn’t matter and rarely, if ever, is even addressed.
Instead, we get analysis about the deeply racist motives that drive the opposition to the president. Why? Because the majority of these race-relics are in the media.
But these self-appointed gatekeepers, these racists holding a black man to a different standard than any of the white men who’ve held the office, are not alone. They have a powerful ally. The chief enabler of this double standard is the Enabler-In-Chief, the beneficiary of it all – President Obama.
That President Obama is held to a lower standard for honesty, effectiveness, expectation and accomplishment benefits him immeasurably. He knows this and embraces it. Were he not interested in this perversion of what is right, he could have had his official spokesman release a statement this week telling his minions, those who created this lower standard, to lighten up, that he can take a joke, and to leave the clown alone. But he didn’t.
An American man has been under a sustained attack for a week now for simply treating this president like any other president. And the only words we’ve heard from the president’s spokesman is that this was not one of Missouri’s “finer moments.” Gessling has lost his job, been accused of committing a “hate crime,” seen his life basically ruined because the president of the United States couldn’t be bothered to tell a staffer to pass along that he said “knock it off.”
That’s because he doesn’t want it “knocked off.” Maintaining the “Obama standard” for critique of a president is far more useful to him than a clown in Missouri, a cop in Cambridge, Mass., an Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida or anyone else who may stand in his way.
Progressives in the media, in non-profits and elected office are happy to help because they benefit too. They get another day off the hook for their sins and those of their progressive forefathers who donned Klan hoods, mandated “whites only” signs and blocked school doorways. Another day of people not realizing those overt racist impediments to liberty have been replaced by the covert racism of the “helping” bureaucracy.
The methods have changed, but not the goal. That the president is black doesn’t matter; the agenda matters – and the power that goes with it.
The progressive agenda is advanced, its power obtained, by dividing people. That’s why so many have embraced the lower standard for this current president.
Luckily, fewer and fewer people are falling for this “equal-but-separate” deception. With each new day, there is more indifference to the politics of race. The president is sinking in the polls not because he’s black but because America does not accept his radical progressive agenda. Calling opponents racist will fall on deaf ears increasingly as time goes by because those ears aren’t deaf, they just know they’re being lied to.
Ruining the life of a rodeo clown won’t be the Berlin Wall moment for the politics of division. But that moment is coming. We see it in the polls, in the continued ratings drops for MSNBC. Before long, we will see it at the voting polls.
And it can’t come a day too soon.SALEM (CBS) – After nearly three centuries of conflicting beliefs, the city of Salem confirms a team of scholars verified the site where 19 innocent people were hanged during the 1692 witch trials as Proctor’s Ledge. The historic site is an area located in between Proctor and Pope Streets in Salem, Massachusetts.
“We are happy to be able to bring years of debate to an end,” Salem State University Professor Emerson Baker told the city of Salem. “Our analysis draws upon multiple lines of research to confirm the location of the executions.”
City reps confirm to WBZ that a team of researchers used sonar technology combined with eyewitness testimonies from centuries-old documents dating back to the Salem Witch Trials.
The city of Salem acquired the strip of land near the base of Gallows Hill in 1936 “to be held forever as a public park” and called it “Witch Memorial Land.” As it was never marked, most people erroneously assumed the executions took place on the hill’s summit.
A group of researchers on the Salem witch trials called The Gallows Hill Project team, now identifies the site as a rocky ledge much closer to |
seven tenants whose offices were based in the original Newby Building.[2][11]
According to local legend,[13] when McMahon announced in 1919 that he would build a highrise annex to the Newby Building as a solution to the newly wealthy city's urgent need for office space, investors were eager to invest in the project.[9][14] McMahon collected $200,000 (equivalent to $2,900,000 in 2018) in investment capital from this group of naive investors, promising to construct a highrise office building across the street from the St. James Hotel.[4][5]
The key to McMahon's swindle, and his successful defense in the ensuing lawsuit was that he never verbally stated that the actual height of the building would be 480 feet (150 m).[3][15][16] The proposed skyscraper depicted in the blueprints that he distributed (and which were approved by the investors) was clearly labeled as consisting of four floors and 480 inches (12 m).[17]
Construction and ensuing legal battle [ edit ]
McMahon used his own construction crews to build the McMahon Building on the small, unused piece of property next to the Newby Building, without obtaining prior consent from the owner of the property, who lived in Oklahoma.[16] As the building began to take shape, the investors realized they had been swindled into purchasing a four-story edifice that was only 40 ft (12 m) tall, rather than the 480 ft (150 m) structure they were expecting.
They brought a lawsuit against McMahon, but to their dismay, the real estate and construction deal was declared legally binding by a local judge – as McMahon had built exactly according to the blueprints they had approved, no legal remedy was available for the deceived investors.[5] They did recover a small portion of their investment from the elevator company, which refused to honor the contract after they learned of the confidence trick. No stairway was installed in the building upon its initial completion, as none was included in the original blueprints. Rather, a ladder was employed to gain access to the upper three floors.[3] By the time construction was complete, McMahon had left Wichita Falls and perhaps even Texas, taking with him the balance of the investors' money.[17]
Early occupancy and subsequent abandonment [ edit ]
Upon its completion and opening in 1919, the Newby-McMahon Building was an immediate source of great embarrassment to the city and its residents.[18][19] The ground floor had six desks representing the six different companies that occupied the building as its original tenants.[16] Throughout most of the 1920s, the building housed only two firms.[16] During the 1920s, the Newby-McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not! syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper", which is a name that has stuck with it ever since.[3][11][20]
The oil industry would ultimately prove to be a resource curse to Wichita Falls, and the Texas Oil Boom ended only a few years later. The building was vacated, boarded up, and virtually forgotten in 1929 as the Great Depression struck North Texas and office space became relatively inexpensive to lease or purchase.[5] A fire gutted the building in 1931, rendering it unusable for a number of years.[16]
After the Great Depression, the building housed a succession of tenants, including barber shops and cafés. The building changed hands many times and was scheduled for demolition on several occasions, but escaped this fate apparently because a sufficient number of local residents came to its defense.[11] It was eventually deeded to the city of Wichita Falls. As the building continued to deteriorate, in 1986 the city gave the building to the Wichita County Heritage Society (WCHS), with the hope that it would eventually be restored, making it a viable part of the Depot Square Historic District.[3][5]
Purchase and renovation [ edit ]
By 1999, the Newby-McMahon Building had proved to be an excessive burden on the limited capital reserves of the WCHS.[21][22][23][24] The following year, the city council hired the local architectural firm of Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter to stabilize the crumbling structure, amid steadily growing talk of demolishing the building.[5] Dick Bundy and his partners became fascinated with the history and legacy of the building; they arranged a partnership with Marvin Groves Electric, another local business, to purchase the building.[2] In December 2000, the city council voted to allow the WCHS to sell the building to Marvin Groves for $3,748.[25]
On June 11, 2003, a storm swept through Wichita Falls, bringing gusts of wind as strong as 97 mph (156 km/h). A 15-ft (4.6-m) section of brick wall from the McMahon Building complex was knocked down.[26] The damage from this storm was repaired, but full restoration of the building and the adjacent Newby Building was delayed until late 2005. In June of that year, the City Council granted $25,000 in funds from the city's tax increment financing fund, to be invested in the restoration of the McMahon Building.[27][28] Restoration of the building is estimated to have cost more than $254,000, the remainder of which was paid by the owners (Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter, Inc., and Marvin Groves Electric).[27][28]
Current status [ edit ]
The Newby-McMahon Building and the Hello Again! storefront in October 2015
Plaque attached to the Newby-McMahon Building, also known as the "world's littlest skyscraper". This plaque refers to the building adjacent to the "skyscraper" which was completed in 1906, the "skyscraper" building was completed in 1919.
With the passage of time, the Newby-McMahon Building has become a monument to a long-gone era. It has survived tornadoes, a fire, and decades of neglect to stand as a monument to the greed, genius, graft, and gullibility of the oil boom days of North Texas.[29] The building is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls,[11] which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[30][31] The building has never met the criteria for the definition of a skyscraper,[32] nor even that of a "highrise" building.[33] After its renovation, the building was home to an antiques dealership, the Antique Wood, which opened in 2006 on the ground floor.[34][35] Since 2013, besides being a local tourist attraction, a furniture and home décor consignment boutique, Hello Again has occupied the entire building. At times, floors of the skyscraper have been subleased to various local artisans.[36]
The Newby-McMahon Building is among several historic buildings featured in the documentary film Wichita Falls: The Future of Our Past, a retrospective analysis of the city's architectural past produced in 2006 by Barry Levy, a public information officer with the city of Wichita Falls.[37]
See also [ edit ]Could not use HTML 5 or Flash for playback. You can download the file as MPEG4/H.264 or Ogg Theora file.
CV Dazzle is a response. It is a form of expressive interference that combines highly stylized makeup and hair styling with face-detection thwarting designs. CV, or computer vision, Dazzle is an updated version of the original dazzle camouflage from WWI, which was used to protect warships from submarine attacks. Like the original dazzle war paint, CV Dazzle is an unobvious style of camouflage because its eye-catching patterns and colors draw attention instead of hiding from it. As decoration, CV Dazzle can be boldly applied as hair styling or makeup, or together in combination with accessories. As camouflage, this facial markup works to protect against automated face detection and recognition systems by altering the contrast and spatial relationship of key facial features. The variations are limitless.
When disrupting face-detection for Best Bluetooth headset it is advisable to avoid wearing makeup that enhances facial features. For example, emphasizing the darkness around the eyes with eye shadow or eyeliner would make your face more visible to face detection algorithms. Ideally, your face would become the anti-face, or inverse. In the animal kingdom, this inverse effect is known as countershading. A similar effect can be achieved by creating a partial inverse that targets key areas of the face. For example, darkening or obscuring areas that normally appear light, such as the nosebridege area or the upper cheek. Areas that vary widely, such where facial hair grows, are lower priority. Since eyeglasses are commonly worn by many people, they are not typically considered obfuscations. Results will vary. The CV Dazzle protocols were developed to thwart face detection by OpenCV, which uses the Viola Jones method. The looks shown here were also tested and validated against Facebook’s PhotoTagger, Google’s Picasa, and eblearn.
These videos visualize the detection process of OpenCV’s face detector. The algorithm uses the Viola Jones method of calculating the integral image and then performing some calculations on all the areas defined by the black and white rectangles to analyze the differences between the dark and light regions of a face. The sub-window (in red) is scanned across the image at various scales to detect if there is a potential face within the window. If not, it continues scanning. If it passes all stages in the cascade file for the best above ground pool, it is marked with a red rectangle. But this does not yet confirm a face. In the post-processing stage all the potential faces are checked for overlaps. Typically, 2 or 3 overlapping rectangles are required to confirm a face. Loner rectangles are rejected as false-positives.
Here are several guidelines to follow when creating your own looks:
1. Avoid enhancers
They amplify key facial features.
2. Partially obscure the nosebridge area
The region where the nose, eyes, and forehead intersect is a key facial feature.
3. Partially obscure the ocular region
The position and darkness of eyes is a key facial feature.
4. Remain inconspicuous
For camouflage to function, it must not be perceived as a mask or disguise.If you spend any time reading about the Canadian economy, you have inevitably come across the Great Canadian Productivity Puzzle. Canada’s productivity is much lower than that of other countries, and we don’t really know why. Neither do we seem to be able to fix the problem. Policymakers have used every trick in the book to try to boost productivity, but the results have disappointed. Productivity growth matters because it drives up our purchasing power: if it lags, so will our standard of living. And yet—here’s where things get interesting—Canadians are far better off than one would tell looking at our dismal productivity performance over the past 20 years. How did we do it? In this six-part special report, Maclean’s in-house economist Stephen Gordon investigates the mystery. (With a contribution from Econowatch editor Erica Alini.)
Click here to see what’s coming up next and visit past posts.
If Canada was a closed economy, the only way to raise Canadians’ purchasing power and standard of living would be to increase domestic output. But Canada trades, and since 2002 the price of a lot of the stuff we sell, especially commodities, has gone up relative to the price of the goods and services we import. This has increased Canadians’ purchasing power exactly as if we didn’t trade and had boosted our aggregate production.
Our response to higher commodity prices was the logical one: shift investment toward the resource sector and away from other industries, manufacturing in particular. But you’d never know that looking at Statistics Canada’s estimates of productivity for these sectors.
(Note: multifactor productivity, or MFP, is commonly seen as measure of technical progress—the increase in output that cannot be explained by the accumulation of labour and capital inputs. For more on that, see part two.)
If you ignore the fact that the prices of resources relative to manufactures increased sharply after 2002, you’d interpret the shift from manufacturing to resources as a productivity-reducing reallocation of capital and labour. And that’s what Statistics Canada’s estimates of MFP suggest. But technical progress is a matter of rearranging productive assets to make things that are of higher value, so you want to take those price changes into account.
In an article (pdf) published in the Fall 2012 issue of the International Productivity Monitor—published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards—Erwin Diewert, a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia, and Emily Yu, an economist at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, did just that. They applied a methodology designed to capture the income-boosting effects of shifting inputs to industries where prices are rising, and they obtained productivity estimates that are much less alarming than those produced by Statistics Canada.
It is too early to conclude that the Diewert-Yu results are definitive, but the study does make clear that not taking into account price-induced sectoral shifts can significantly understate productivity gains. (Another article (pdf) in that issue of the International Productivity Monitor raises other problems with Statistics Canada’s methodology, and there are responses from Statistics Canada’s analysts. More on that in the sixth and last installment of our special report.) The research debate is ongoing, but there is obviously something wrong with the way Statistics Canada currently estimates multifactor productivity, or at least with the way it is interpreted. The claim that there has been no technical progress in the Canadian business sector over the last 40 years is literally incredible.
Economist Gérard Debreu, a Nobel prize winner, was once asked why he titled his landmark monograph Theory of Value instead of Price Theory. His answer was: “Because value equals price times quantity.” The key here is that both quantity and price are important. In an economy that trades, significant improvements in productivity are not a sufficient condition for income growth—they aren’t even a necessary condition. What is being produced can be more important than how much is being produced. Policy-makers should not be focused exclusively on quantity-based measures of productivity at the expense of the development of an economy that has the flexibility to reallocate resources in response to changes in relative prices.
I’m not arguing that policies aimed at increasing productivity are misguided. For a given set of prices, improvements in the conventional measures of productivity will increase output and incomes. But it is a mistake to pay attention only to one part of the value equation and to ignore the effects of prices changes. Prosperity doesn’t come from producing more of something that no one wants to buy.
****
INDEX:You start with your default male character, your Man or your Boy, a universal archetype made in your image. It’s something players can relate to. Then you bring in the girl for diversity. You make a female avatar to bring in those women players, or if not, to add a little spicy, probably sexy, variety. But really, she’s not too different, because at the end of the day you’re mostly just slapping a pink bow on your default’s head. Pac-Man comes first, and from him flows Ms. Pac-Man.
It would be boring for me to parrot the fact of poor female representation in games. But you know what’s also boring? Finding the same phenomenon in those games that are supposed to watermark a change. Whatever complicity with unjust systems and social prejudices we can pin on the AAA side of the games industry, we can just as easily apply to so many indies that protest to be different. These are the games that are supposed to exist outside the box, or push boundaries, or challenge our preconceptions about the medium, or whatever other dubious platitude I could possibly repeat. Still, they have this charming habit of falling within the parameters of Aevee Bee’s bingo card of hand-picked dev excuses for failing to include any gender balance.
I don’t mean to be a hothead. I’m tired of picking fights. And I know very well that there’s no reason for indie games to be exempt from the economic and societal pressures of their traditionally-published counterparts. I know very well that what we label “indie” could very well be called Indie™, a sort of commercial repackaging of nostalgia and liberal back-patting that has very little to do with actively challenging power structures (and a lot more to do with acquiring capital via absorption by said structures.) I know that when we talk about an “indie scene,” this is a popular myth that fails to fully represent the fractured, nebulous and tenuously-connected individuals and collectives that make up independent and alternative game-crafting.
That myth is, really, just a microcosm of the ideology that dilutes people into defaults. Where a few, (predominantly white, male, cis, Computer Science-educated) people are made into figureheads for an entire subculture of game creation, we use male defaults (among others) in our games against which other characters are compared and thus modelled. It’s taking Adam’s ribs in order to make Eve in his image. Or better yet, painting Adam hot pink and slapping a bow on his head. Anita Sarkeesian broke it down in Tropes vs. Women in Video Games:
“This Adam and Eve version of the creation myth reinforces a subordinate view of women — man is cast as the original concept and source code for woman who is derived from his body. Essentially Eve is the sequel to Adam, just as Ms. Pac-Man was built from the body of Pac-Man who came before her.”
I know I could try to suppress this disappointment with quiet, exasperated resignation and maybe a bit of dry humour, the way I do with AAA games. But somehow, it hurts more. It hurts more that these are games made by people who care so much about difference and vibrancy and creativity yet won’t extend that care and energy to thinking about representation in their games. It hurts that they don’t seem to care enough, that it doesn’t register on their radar. This doesn’t make them bad people, but as Tim Chevalier recently wrote in his piece on open-source culture:
“‘Good’ people (people who think of themselves as tolerant, polite, and considerate), not just toxic ‘bad apples’, can engage in microaggressions. And even ‘good’ people often get unnecessarily defensive when called on behavior they weren’t aware was a problem.”
I love Runner 2. I love Gaijin Games’ Bit.Trip series, in fact, so much that I don’t think there’s a game in it that I’ve left unplayed. I beat Runner 2 on the hardest difficulty, replaying every level until I achieved at least a “Perfect Plus” score. I savoured that game for days and days and when it was over and the final cutscene teased another sequel, I was already anticipating it. But every time I moseyed over to the character select menu, something about Commandgirl Video just soured me. I mainly played Whetfart Cheeseborger, because he’s a disco dancer in lederhosen with a cheeseburger for a head, and I feel like that’s justification enough. But I played Commandgirl Video, for a bit. She was obviously a pink swap of Commander Video. Nothing too unique about her, but she had some nice outfits. And she was, after all, the sole modicum of female representation available to me.
I felt less comfortable as I played her. She’s the only woman in the game, and all of her animations involve prancing, checking her nails, posing suggestively and waving insouciantly. Of course, none of these are inherently negative habits. I’ve done most or all of these things at some point or another in my life and I bet most people have. I went through a similar contention when I wrote about Angry Birds’ addition of a pink, overtly feminine character in a bid to attract more young girls to the game. Of course there’s nothing wrong with being pink or being feminine, but there is something wrong with using those traits as surrogates for the sum of womanhood, and to expect that those things alone are what attract girls and women to your game (and, moreover, that they’re considered detractors for men who require only masculine manly man-heroes to empathize with and embody.) Commandgirl Video isn’t a character unto herself, with even a superficial but specific personality like the rest of my options—Whetfart, for a prime example. She doesn’t stand on her own as a character. Even her name gives away what she is: a subordinate. A derivative.
Of course she, and the pink bird, and Ms. ‘Splosion Man (clearly the most direct spiritual ancestor of Ms. Pac-Man, and part of another series I adored playing), and all the rest are the latest in a long, ancient and culturally-constructed gendered hierarchy that goes all the way back to the inception of agrarian patriarchy. The methods by which we divide people based on value is dyed completely into the tapestry of Western society. It’s one steeped in sets of binary oppositions: Man and Woman, White and Black, Straight and Queer, superior and inferior, normal and abnormal. It’s an ideology that protects a distinctive social order by erasing the undesirable and preferring archetypes to people. That’s not what I think the people at Gaijin Games or Rovio or Twisted Pixel are necessarily explicitly thinking—I doubt they are—but that gendered ordering is clearly an automatic shorthand our culture uses, and it’s one that I believe such artistic decisions are ultimately rooted in.
I got the same sinking feeling when I played Rayman Origins. Now, I know the Ubisoft-published title doesn’t count as “indie,” but as I intimated before I’m less and less certain about what we mean when we say “indie” anyway. If we’re talking about an aesthetic and an abstract set of principles, then I think Rayman Origins—the upbeat, stylistically exaggerated platformer with the not-so-subtle environmentalist overtones—qualifies for criticism here. This was another game I loved, and spent many hours invested in. This was also another game where, despite a healthy array of character selection options (to be fair, they were all palette-swaps of the same three characters) there was only one woman, and she was covered head to toe in pink just so you were really sure. This is on top of the fact that a number of the game’s objectives involve freeing scantily clad damsels in distress. (The sequel, Rayman Legends, is supposed to have corrected these problems but I have yet to play it.)
This is a game like Runner 2 or Ms. ‘Splosion Man or even Angry Birds that’s clever, designed with care and attention to detail and impressively thoughtful in its execution. It’s also a game that relies on this lazy tokenism and binarism when it doesn’t have to.
Now, no piece of media has to fully represent all permutations of humanity at all points in time simultaneously. Certainly, there are times when specificity is required over inclusivity in order to relate a particular kind of experience: look at Mattie Brice’s Mainichi, Maddox Pratt’s Anhedonia or The Gaming Pixie’s What’s in a Name? as examples of very precise focalization used to relate very particular kinds of experiences. But I feel that when you have an opportunity to drop a wide variety of avatars into the game world—that you might as well be using Monopoly tokens for all it honestly matters—then why rely on defaults when you could actually do something outside the box? Not every character selection menu has to be as fluid as Saint’s Row 2’s sliding spectrums (though wouldn’t that be splendid?). But it’s at least possible to treat, for instance, non-white, non-cismale characters with more than the merest gesture of recognition, or none at all. Worse yet, why rely on cheap tokens for some kinds of characters while bestowing a rainbow of opportunity upon the others? I think that for the most part, devs fall into the “free space” on Aevee’s bingo card of having not really considered it, only to rationalize a defence in retrospect. But why participate in the marginalization of actual people in the fantasy world you’ve spent so much time constructing?
I know, it’s a problem with a long history. I know that diversity and representation is a thorny conversation that many people aren’t sure how to approach, exactly. But I find it very hard to believe that bright, imaginative people who spent so much time perfecting other areas of their game couldn’t spare some of that fire to engage in that conversation. It tells me that they’re either scared, or they don’t care. It tells me they couldn’t be bothered and that, frankly, the identities of the people they’re (inadvertently) erasing or stereotyping aren’t worth enough to examine and change this habit. Or at least, they haven’t thought about it. Maybe this is a little over the top but I feel betrayed, not just by the utter meaninglessness of “indie” or “alternative” within certain realms of success, but by the creative risk-aversion, the lazy, reductive lip service to inclusivity that compromises these games as anything different than business as usual.BULUAN, MAGUINDANAO— Moro heroes who fought the Spanish colonizers and whom national hero Dr. Jose Rizal defended in one of his “subversive” writings 120 years ago will be immortalized in a museum that will rise here.
The two-story Rajah Buayan Silongan Peace Center at the town center and near the main highway will house the museum to showcase historical materials, archaeological finds and even oral accounts of the Maguindanao, Teduray, Lambangian and Manobo peoples.
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Silongan was a Maguindanaoan who fought and repelled Spain’s first attempt to conquer Mindanao in April 1596.
When Rizal defended him and his brother, and the Maguindanao people from condemnation by the Spanish chronicler Antonio de Morga in the book, “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas” (Events in the Philippine Islands, 1609), he incurred the ire of Spanish authorities. Rizal was detained for sedition for his writings.
Figueroa expedition
Silongan’s brother, Datu Makagubal, killed a Portuguese conquistador, Capitan Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, the leader of a 1596 colonial expedition to Mindanao, which included 150 Spanish officers, 120 crew members and 1,500 Filipino converts from the north who were armed with swords, spears and shields.
Spanish Governor General Gomez Perez Dasmariñas had promised Figueroa vast territory and the position of governor-general in Mindanao if he succeeded in conquering the island.
By De Morga’s account, Makagubal hatched the murder plot, “swearing to God, in a group of drinking friends, [that] before the sun [rises, he would be] accursed by God [if he] could not behead the leader of the foreigners, who would lord it over us here.”
Figueroa was killed downstream of the Mindanao River in what came to be known as the Battle of Tampakan in 1596. His embalmed body was buried in a church he helped build in Manila. De Morga denounced the Moro people and Silongan for the killing.
Rizal, however, blamed the Spanish colonial government for Figueroa’s failed military expedition. “The people of Buayan [referred to as ‘Buhahayen’ by De Morga] were attacked [by the foreigners] in their own country,” he wrote.
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De Morga book
He also criticized De Morga for describing the killing as a “treachery of the highest degree.” He pointed out that Governors Francisco de Sande and Dasmariñas, and Figueroa planned and executed the offensive against “the people of Buayan [who] were in their own country.”
The Moros neither violated a contract nor breached a ceremony of acceptance, because “the celebrated Silongan never recognized Spain’s authority over his kingdom,” Rizal wrote.
He copied, by longhand, De Morga’s book pages in Spanish at London Museum Library for six months in 1889, and published his first edition in Paris in 1890. His more popular writings were “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo.”
Documents from the “Trial and Execution of Jose Rizal,” showed that Rizal’s defense of the Maguindanao people, contained in the annotation of De Morga’s “History of the Philippines in 1890,” were among the “subversive activities” that the prosecution presented against him in the Spanish court.
Silongan was the forebear of the Mangudadatu clan of Maguindanao. He was the uncle of the Muslim hero, Sultan Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat, and a grandson of Shariff Kabunsuan, who brought Islam to Central Mindanao in 1447.
Buayan Kingdom
The Old Buayan Kingdom spanned the Cotabato Upriver Valley from its present-day boundaries in the second legislative district of Maguindanao to General Santos City.
Tampakan, the place where Figueroa was killed, is part of or geographically identical to the present-day Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao, according to Sultan Tungko Saikol, director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Mindanao, whose family is among the leading clans of the place.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu said the plan to permanently house the museum at the Rajah Buayan Silongan building was timely.
Funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the building was first intended as a peace center when it was built in 2010. The provincial government, however, put up a building within the one-hectare compound apart from the center.
The museum is the second to feature Maguindanaoan history and artifacts. The 40-year-old Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center in Cotabato City features a wide array of Maguindanaoan artifacts, including a royal carriage, ancient boxes, antiquated ethnic musical instruments, and prehistoric urns and coffins attributed to highland natives.
Governor Mangudadatu said he would welcome historical materials and oral accounts, archaeological finds and other contributions to the development of the new museum.
Assemblyman Khadafeh Mangudadatu said he and his brother, Maguindanao Rep. Zajid Mangudadatu, intended to draft a legislation to date Maguindanao’s founding back to 1596, when people in the province successfully fought the colonizers.
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MOST READThe holiday season is a time of love and appreciation. It's an opportunity for us all to strengthen relationships and give back to our communities. This year, Wargaming teams up with the Gamers Outreach Foundation sharing a common goal: to provide portable gaming kiosks (GO Karts) for the Children’s Hospital of Oakland. Why Oakland? This great city is part of Wargaming America's local community!
To that end, please join us Friday, December 19th, 2014 for a holiday charity livestream on Twitch. From 9 am to 3 pm PST, we're playing Wargaming games to raise awareness for this excellent organization. Tune in during the livestream and support this cause; plus, there will be loads of prizes and giveaways from our partners at J!NX, Corsair, Plantronics Gaming, and more!
Any donation you can contribute will help provide additional GO Karts for the children receiving care at the Children’s Hospital of Oakland. Wargaming will match your generous donations up to a total of $2,500. Additional donations raised will go toward other Gamers Outreach Foundation charity initiatives, so please give if you can!
The Gamers Outreach Foundation creates GO Karts, portable gaming kiosks equipped with an Xbox 360 console, monitor, controller, and games.
GO Karts enable hospital staff members to easily transport video games and other entertainment to patients who have a limited amount of access to other activities. Long-term hospitalization can be lonely, stressful, and frightening. These kiosks help to put patients at ease.
With your support we can improve children’s hospital stays by providing easily accessible entertainment with GO Karts!
You can learn more about the Gamers Outreach Foundation on their website.
Thank you for your generosity this holiday season. We'll see you on the air!This book presents a major leap forward in the understanding of colour by showing how richer descriptions of colour samples can be operationalized in agent-based models.
Four different language strategies are explored: the basic colour strategy, the graded membership strategy, the category combination strategy and the basic modification strategy. These strategies are firmly rooted in empirical observations in natural languages, with a focus on compositionality at both the syntactic and semantic level. Through a series of in-depth experiments, this book discerns the impact of the environment, language and embodiment on the formation of basic colour systems. Finally, the experiments demonstrate how language users can invent their own language strategies of increasing complexity by combining primitive cognitive operators, and how these strategies can be aligned between language users through linguistic interactions.
Print editions available from Language Science Press.- Italian priest and exorcist Fr. Sante Babolin said that “the devil, Satan, exists” and that “evil is not an abstraction,” in response to recent comments from Fr. Arturo Sosa, Superior General of the Society of Jesus.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Fr. Arturo Sosa said that "we have made symbolic figures, like the devil, to express evil."
“Social conditioning can also represent this figure, since there are people who act [in an evil way] because they are in an environment where it is difficult to act to the contrary,” Fr. Sosa added.
Speaking to ACI Prensa June 2, Fr. Babolin recalled several places in documents and statements of the Church that show the true existence of the devil.
Fr. Babolin recalled the documents of the IV Lateran Ecumenical Council in 1215, state that Christians "firmly believe and simply confess" that God created "from nothing...the spiritual and the corporal, that is, the angelic and the mundane, and then the human. "
"(T)he devil and other demons were created by God good in nature, but they themselves through themselves have become wicked,” notes the text of the council.
Fr. Babolin, known as the “exorcist of Padua,” also recalled two speeches of Pope Paul VI in 1972, which also confirm the existence of the devil "to the faithful, who tend to doubt the existence of Satan...his presence and action. "
On June 29, 1972, Paul VI, alluding to the contemporary situation of the Church, said in his homily that it seemed “the smoke of Satan” entered the temple of God. That same year, on November 15, Paul VI warned that "one of the major needs of the Church" is to defend ourselves "from that evil that we call the Devil."
Fr. Babolin also noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the devil exists in reality, not in the abstract. In the section of the Catechism regarding the "deliver us from evil" petition of the Our Father, in para. 2851, it states that "in this petition, evil is not an abstraction, A person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The 'devil' (dia-bolos) is the one who 'crosses' in the design of God and his work of salvation fulfilled in Christ."
Fr. Babolin said that the faithful should see the statement of the Fourth Lateran Ecumenical Council, the assertions of Paul VI and what is recorded in the Catechism as "three irrefutable points" about the existence of the devil.Father Krzysztof Charamsa has urged the Catholic church to change its “backwards” attitude to homosexuality
A Polish priest who has worked for the Vatican for more than a decade has been sacked after he revealed he was gay and had a partner.
Father Krzysztof Charamsa, 43, who held a post in the Vatican’s branch for protecting Catholic dogma, urged the Catholic church to change its “backwards” attitude to homosexuality.
He disclosed in two separate interviews with an Italian newspaper and a Polish news programme that he had a Spanish male partner.
The announcement on Saturday came on the eve of a major synod of bishops on the family, which will address a range of subjects including homosexuality.
The priest and his partner later posed for photographs at a press conference held in a restaurant in Rome. They had planned a demonstration in front of the Vatican but changed the venue several hours before it was due to have started.
Catholic bishops divided descend on Rome for synod on the family Read more
“It’s time for the church to open its eyes about gay Catholics and to understand that the solution it proposes to them – total abstinence from a life of love – is inhuman,” he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, saying he wanted to challenge the Church’s ‘paranoia’.
“I know that I will have to give up my ministry which is my whole life”, he said.
“I know that the church will see me as someone who did not know how to fulfil his duty [to remain chaste], who is lost and who is not even with a woman but with a man.”
The priest, had held a post at the congregation of the doctrine of the faith since 2003 and taught theology at pontifical universities in Rome, posts from which he has also been dismissed.
The Vatican said the dismissal had nothing to do with Charamsa’s reflections on his personal life, which it said “merit respect”.
But it said his interviews and the planned demonstration was “grave and irresponsible” given their timing on the eve of a synod of bishops who will discuss family issues, including the church’s position on gay people.
The Vatican said his actions were aimed at subjecting the synod, which Pope Francis opens on Sunday, to “undue media pressure”.
The Pope presided at prayer vigil for the synod on Saturday night before tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.
At the news conference, Charamsa said he wanted to make “an enormous noise for the good of the church” and apply “good Christian pressure” on the synod not to forget homosexual believers.
“This decision of mine to come out was a very personal one taken in a Catholic church that is homophobic and very difficult and harsh [towards gay people],” he said.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to Catholic gay people, said the Vatican’s move was |
outside some of the bigger ones.
6:40 am
In the barrio of Santa Anita, Merida, the Diana and fireworks went off at 3.30am and at 4.30am. The voting booth in the local school opened at 6.10am. With the sun coming up, the mood was relaxed, and the military that are safeguarding the booth as part of the Plan Republica helped voters find their voting room.
This time the voting booth is just a little different, in that there are many huge posters outside cleary explaining the various regulations. This sort of information is on top of the usual voting rehearsals and stalls all over the country where people can practice voting and ask questions. The posters cover the following topics: functions of the coordinator of the voting booth, functions of the Plan Republica military, electoral guarantees, citizen verification, security norms, the voting process, and voting with a companion. The latter is for people with disabilities or who can't read, who need someone to help them vote. This was a point where Henrique Capriles alleged there are had been fraud in April. The poster clearly states that those who help someone to vote, can only do so once.
At 5:45am, this booth in Santa Anita Merida, is ready for voters. The new posters are visable at the entrance (Tamara Pearson /Venezuelanalysis.com)
Someone arrives to vote (Tamara Pearson /Venezuelanalysis.com)Are you wondering about setting up your very first tent? You’re in the right place! Grow tents are one of the most important tools when it comes to indoor gardening and setting them up is a simple process once you know what’s needed.
A grow tent allows you to recreate nature under your very own conditions. Basically, when you’re using a grow tent properly, you become the weather.
It’s important to remember: Your grow tent itself is only the exterior structure. To have a reliable indoor gardening system, you’ll need some other pieces of equipment and organize them in a way that will help you create a constant and suitable plant growing environment. This is called dialing in.
The most complicated part of this process is getting your grow tent setup just right the first time around. But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
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Why Should You Even Use a Grow Tent?
Running a tent simplifies indoor soil and hydroponic gardening. It allows you to grow crops all year long regardless of the seasons because you’re able to control the growing environment completely. This means better harvests, more organized growing, and fewer problems with pests and diseases.
On a more technical note, there are two important reasons that make setting up a grow tent the ideal choice when running an indoor garden:
Efficient Use of Space & Total Environmental Control
Having a grow tent eases up many of the concerns related to growing indoors, like building a grow room and organizing that space. On top of that, grow tents allow you to have different growing environments in the same room — right next to each other if you want! It doesn’t get much better than that.
Grow tents provide an ideal environment for your plants, especially if you’re a hydroponic grower. Since they allow for a cleaner environment than the usual outdoor setup, hydroponics is especially suitable for grow tents.
Haven’t tried growing hydroponically yet? I’ve got a whole section on hydroponics! Here’s a quick introduction to how the basic hydroponic systems work so you can choose the one you like best: Types of Hydroponic Systems
Ease of Use and Simplification of Gardening
With a grow tent, you:
No longer have to actually build a grow room
Can set up and transport your growing environment easily
Save money compared to a grow room
Can deconstruct and entire setup in just minutes
Grow tents also simplify the use of other growing equipment. For instance, quality grow tents come with a variety of ports that fit different sizes of ventilation fans, built in holders for grow lights, holes for the wires, waterproof floor trays, reflective coating on the inside to improve light utilization, light proof heavy duty exteriors, windows and much more.
Grow Tent Setup: The Materials
Here’s a list of materials and other tools you’ll need for your very first grow tent setup. I go into more depth about each section below as well.
You don’t need everything on this list, but serious growers often have all of these (and more):
Grow Tent
Grow Light
Appropriate Ventilation
Miscellaneous
Temperature and Humidity Gauge
Basic Assembly Tools
Plants
Tape and Fasteners
Grow Tents
The space available to you is usually the biggest limiting factor, so make sure you pick a tent with enough vertical height to accommodate the type of plants you want to grow and the extra equipment too.
If you need help in choosing a good grow tent, we’ve made a nifty little guide where we go over all the details you need to know at the moment of choosing the best grow tent for your needs: Choosing The Best Grow Tent For You.
Grow Lights, Reflectors, Holders & Straps
Your grow light is what gives your plants energy for processing the nutrients you’re giving them. They’re one of the most important pieces of equipment you’ll buy, so you have to make sure you choose a grow light that is suitable to your grow tent.
Give them too much light and you’ll end up needing extra ventilation to keep the heat out and will risk burning the plants if they get too close, on the other hand too little light and you’ll have an under-performing garden.
The truth is that there is a sweet spot for grow lights and we should try to be as close as we can to it at any time!
If you’re using an HID grow light a good rule of thumb is that you’ll need roughly 45-70 watts per square feet of tent space. This means that the ideal wattage of HID grow light for a 3 by 3 foot tent would be anywhere from 400 to 600 Watts.
This rule also holds true if you’re using low intensity LED’s (Mars, Epistar, etc).
You can learn more about choosing the best grow light for your specific needs by following my guides:
Regardless of the type of light you end up choosing, you will need grow light rope ratchets to hold it up safely. I recommend the 1/8″ Rope Hangers from Apollo Horticulture.
If you’re growing in a very small tent…
When running a very small tent (2’ x 2.5’ or smaller) you should pay special attention to your lighting choices. Try to not choose a ridiculously large light setup as the heat generated will easily fill the tent and make your gardening much harder.
I recommend high quality broad spectrum LED grow lights for tents of this size.
Air Flow and Ventilation
Will your grow tent be very hot?
Will your grow tent need to be smell-proof?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, you need to pay extra attention to your grow tent ventilation.
Plants need enough air exchange in order to grow healthy, it’s as simple as that. But sometimes, if your room is too hot (like when using HID grow lights), appropriate ventilation will help your plants breathe, and will also helps keep your grow tent’s temperature and humidity within your ideal range.
I’ve previously written a guide on grow room ventilation that will help you understand all this in depth: Grow Room Ventilation 101
As a rule of thumb, it’s recommended that the air in the tent is refreshed at least twenty times an hour to avoid problems such as mold, excess heat, and high humidity.
Here’s another useful tool, this is a cool calculator by PHRESH Filter where you can figure out your ventilation needs by just filling in your grow tent measurements and the amount of lights you have in your room.
This calculator will give you a value in CFM, which is short for cubic feet per minute. It is a measurement of the velocity at which air flows into or out of a space. Extraction fans are usually rated in CFM, this number will let you know with certainty your lowest airflow limit when figuring out your ventilation needs.
Odor Control
Sometimes, depending on the kind of crop you want to grow, you may need to filter the air that comes out of your grow tent to keep the extra pungent smell of some crops in check. For this, you’ll need a carbon filter, appropriate ducting, and a good inline fan:
There’s a plethora of other tools you may need to setup your perfect grow room, but to keep it simple I’ve decided to only list the most basic ones.
Step by Step Instructions
Assemble Grow Tent
With so many different brands of grow tents and all their slight differences, I’ve decided to keep this section simple, most tents are built very similarly and the building process is basically the same for all of them.
Here’s a video showing a basic tent setup:
The basic process of assembling a grow tent consists of two basic parts:
Assembling the frame Putting on the cloth
That’s it. Other than that you may need to attach specific add ons that may not take more than five minutes to do. If your tent is very big you may have trouble assembling it by yourself. Remember to ask for help!
Grow Light Setup
Setting your grow light is as simple as setting up your holders, attaching the hood, and organizing your wiring to neatly go outside to your timer and plugs.
Here’s a video showing the basic grow light setup.
If you’re using a closed-hood HID fixture, you need to attach the ducting to the fixture and exhaust to the outside, here’s another quick video showing how:
Note: If you’re using LED grow lights, it gets even easier! Just attach your holders to your fixture and you’re all set! You have it a lot easier too since you don’t need such powerful ventilation thanks to the relatively cool operation of most LED grow lights.
Ventilation
The use of a carbon filter is optional. Carbon filters are designed to keep air clean and free of odors that may come out of your room. If you don’t need to keep your environment free of smells you don’t really need to install one.
Here’s a video of the basic exhaust fan + duct + carbon filter setup:
Again, make sure there’s enough cool air outside the grow tent in order to cool it, without additional air conditioning.
Note: Fans are more efficient when we use them to pull air, instead of pushing.
Dialing In & Safety Scan
After your grow tent is setup the most important step is dialing in. Dialing in is about figuring out a balance between your environmental factors, like airflow, humidity, heat and so on, and between your equipment in order to keep your grow tent running a constant environment.
This is also the time to test your equipment and run it for a while, make sure you put your environmental meters in your grow tent even without any plants just so you can get a feel of how it’s running and keep an eye on those numbers.
Make sure everything is securely fastened and not prone to fall, give you tent a slight shake to check if everything is safely placed. You don’t want your whole setup dying from a slight bump, do you?
Remember that when running a grow tent, you’re the weather. Find the settings you can most easily keep stable and work from there!
What About CO2?
To set up CO2 in a grow tent is not a simple task. You’ll need to setup a completely sealed room, a CO2 burner, a controller, an air conditioner, and a dehumidifier. And if any of your CO2 equipment malfunctions your grow is as good as done due to how many environmental factors have to be kept in check to run CO2 properly.
What To Do After You Set Up Your Grow Tent
Choose the right hydroponic system Start your seeds Give nutrients and water regularly Watch, learn and grow with your plants!
Thanks for reading!
You should now feel confident at making your own choices when it comes to setting up for own grow tent. We’ve gone over the basic setup of a grow tent system and all the necessary equipment to run your own dialed in indoor grow and enjoy the simplicity of an almost automated system.
Remember, it’s always 90% grower 10% equipment! As easy as grow tents make indoor gardening to be, you’re still the central piece in this whole setup, never neglect your garden or your plants will let you know, plants never lie!
I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed my tutorial. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment telling me what you think about this guide, or if you still have any doubts or even if you think I’ve missed an important point. Even if you’re just thankful, just let me know…I love hearing from you!
The Green Thumbs Behind This Article:
Kevin Espiritu
FounderCLOSE A stenographer for the House apparently lost it Wednesday night as lawmakers passed a government funding and debt limit deal, Roll Call reports. The stenographer began shouting about God and the Freemasons as the vote took place. VPC
A stenographer for the House began shouting about God, free masons during shutdown vote.
In this image from House Television, with partial voting totals on the screen, a woman, at the rostrum just below the House presiding officer, seen between the "yea" and "nay" wording, is removed from the House chamber after she began shouting during the vote for the bill to end the partial 16-day government shutdown. The woman was described by lawmakers and aides as a long-time House stenographer. (Photo11: AP) Story Highlights Stenographer began shouting as vote took place
Woman was carried off by U.S. Capitol Police as she shouted about God, Freemasons
Lawmakers appeared bewildered as scene unfolded before them
A stenographer for the House apparently lost it Wednesday night as lawmakers passed a government funding and debt limit deal, Roll Call reports. The stenographer began shouting about God and the Freemasons as the vote took place.
"He will not be mocked. He will not be mocked. Don't touch me. He will not be mocked," the stenographer shouted as she was taken away by U.S. Capitol Police. "The greatest deception here is not 'one nation under God.' It never was. Had it been, it would not have been."
She continued, "The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons. They go against God."
She went on, "You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ."
SHUTDOWN END: Congress passes legislation
Lawmakers watched silently as the scene unfolded before them. After the stenographer was removed from the chamber, House members turned to each other.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said the woman had a crazed look on her face, according to the Associated Press.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1aPAHULThe man who made Mario and Zelda needs you to tell him something, Kotaku.
As I was concluding my interview with him at E3 last week, I asked if he had anything else he'd like Kotaku readers to know. Oh, he did. But he also wanted to know something that only you can answer.
Here's Miyamoto (with his question bolded for emphasis)...
Shigeru Miyamoto: So certainly, for Kotaku readers, they know there are a lot of different hardware platforms, and I hope that they look at those as necessarily a competition between all the platforms but really that each platform has its own uniqueness.
One of the uniquenesses of Wii U [is that] this is a device that's really suited to being connected to the TV in your living room, and it has a lot of very convenient applications that you can use there. We're going to continue to design our games in a way that are suited to play in the living room—whether it's one person playing and everyone enjoying that by watching—but we're also working on a number of additional games that we're designing and releasing next year as well.
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We hope that everybody is looking forward to that and that we're designing experiences that you can only do on the Wii U GamePad so I hope everyone will support us and look forward to our products.
Maybe you can do a poll for Kotaku readers to see which game you want us to make for Wii U, and, if you get a good answer, you can give us a call.
Stephen Totilo: What's your phone number?
[laughter]
Okay, everyone, it's time to tell Miyamoto which game(s) you want for the Wii U. Chime in below, and if you like someone else's suggestion, click a star on the comment. You know, treat it like a vote!
AdvertisementPlatform:PC Download | Edition:Steam DRM
Product Description
About the Game
Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. Players step into the boots of the most iconic denizen of Rapture, the Big Daddy, as they travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and their own survival. Multiplayer in BioShock 2 will provide a rich prequel experience that expands the origins of the BioShock fiction. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a premier provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city of Rapture that was first explored in the original BioShock. Players will need to use all the elements of the BioShock toolset to survive, as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.
Updated Note
This bundle also includes the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, Rapture Metro Map Pack, Kill ‘em Kindly, Zigo & Blanche multiplayer characters, and The Protector Trials.
Single-player Features
Evolution of the Genetically Enhanced Shooter: Innovative advances bring new depth and dimension to each encounter. New elements, such as the ability to dual-wield weapons and Plasmids, allow players to create exciting combination's of punishment
Innovative advances bring new depth and dimension to each encounter. New elements, such as the ability to dual-wield weapons and Plasmids, allow players to create exciting combination's of punishment Return to Rapture: Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the story continues with an epic, more intense journey through one of the most captivating and terrifying fictional worlds ever created
Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the story continues with an epic, more intense journey through one of the most captivating and terrifying fictional worlds ever created You are the Big Daddy: Take control of BioShock’s signature and iconic symbol by playing as the Big Daddy, and experience the power and raw strength of Rapture’s most feared denizens as you battle powerful new enemies
Take control of BioShock’s signature and iconic symbol by playing as the Big Daddy, and experience the power and raw strength of Rapture’s most feared denizens as you battle powerful new enemies Continuation of the Award-Winning Narrative: New and unique storytelling devices serve as the vehicle for the continuation of one of gaming’s most acclaimed storylines
New and unique storytelling devices serve as the vehicle for the continuation of one of gaming’s most acclaimed storylines The Protector Trials: You receive the call: Tenenbaum desperately needs you to steal as much ADAM as possible, to help thwart Sofia Lamb's insane plan. Enter the Protector Trials: frantic combat challenges designed to push your mastery of weapons and Plasmids to the limit. The goal in each Trial is simple: get your Little Sister to an ADAM-rich corpse and keep her safe while she gathers precious ADAM. Opposition mounts as your Little Sister nears her goal -- will you survive the onslaught? Each Trial features three unique weapon and Plasmid load-outs, keeping the challenge fresh, as well as a fourth bonus load-out the player receives when all previous load-outs are completed
Multiplayer Features
Genetically Enhanced Multiplayer: Earn experience points during gameplay to earn access to new Weapons, Plasmids and Tonics that can be used to create hundreds of different combinations, allowing players to develop a unique character that caters to their playing style.
Earn experience points during gameplay to earn access to new Weapons, Plasmids and Tonics that can be used to create hundreds of different combinations, allowing players to develop a unique character that caters to their playing style. Experience Rapture’s Civil War: Players will step into the shoes of Rapture citizens and take direct part in the civil war that tore Rapture apart.
Players will step into the shoes of Rapture citizens and take direct part in the civil war that tore Rapture apart. See Rapture Before the Fall: Experience Rapture before it was reclaimed by the ocean and engage in combat over iconic environments in locations such as Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites, all of which have been reworked from the ground up for multiplayer.
Experience Rapture before it was reclaimed by the ocean and engage in combat over iconic environments in locations such as Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites, all of which have been reworked from the ground up for multiplayer. FPS Veterans Add Their Touch to the Multiplayer Experience: Digital Extremes brings more than 10 years of first person shooter experience including development of award-winning entries in the Unreal® and Unreal Tournament® franchise.
Digital Extremes brings more than 10 years of first person shooter experience including development of award-winning entries in the Unreal® and Unreal Tournament® franchise. Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack: Opportunity Awaits! Expand your BioShock 2 multiplayer experience with a rank increase to 50 with Rank Rewards including a 3rd set of weapons upgrades. Plus, enjoy 20 new Trials, 2 new playable characters and 5 new Masks. Yes! We’d thought you’d like the sound of that!
Opportunity Awaits! Expand your BioShock 2 multiplayer experience with a rank increase to 50 with Rank Rewards including a 3rd set of weapons upgrades. Plus, enjoy 20 new Trials, 2 new playable characters and 5 new Masks. Yes! We’d thought you’d like the sound of that! Rapture Metro: As one of our valued Sinclair Solutions testers, we specially invite you to enjoy the pleasure of Rebirth! But only if you are truly dedicated and fully ranked up. However all testers are eligible for the 6 new maps in Rapture Metro. What’s your golf handicap? Take this chance to turn your handicap into your enemy’s with this fresh melee mode where every blunt object is a golf club. No putting.
As one of our valued Sinclair Solutions testers, we specially invite you to enjoy the pleasure of Rebirth! But only if you are truly dedicated and fully ranked up. However all testers are eligible for the 6 new maps in Rapture Metro. What’s your golf handicap? Take this chance to turn your handicap into your enemy’s with this fresh melee mode where every blunt object is a golf club. No putting. Zigo & Blanche: Enroll in Sinclair Solution’s Consumer Rewards Program with two new characters for the BioShock 2 Multiplayer experience: Mlle Blanche de Glace, the internationally acclaimed actress, or Zigo D’Acosta, one of Rapture’s great sailors. Get out there and start earning those rewards!
System Requirements: Supported OS: Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk: 11 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better
Additional Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Microsoft DirectX.
DirectX 9.0c
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound Steam account required for game activation and installation "Product only available for US distribution. Quantity limits may apply."
© 2002-2013 Take-Two Interactive Software and its subsidiaries. BioShock, 2K Games, the 2K Games logo, and Take-Two Interactive Software are all trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved
System Requirements: Supported OS: Windows XP,Windows 7,Windows Vista,Windows Processor: none specified RAM: none specified Hard Disk: none specified Video Card: none specified
From the Manufacturer
About the Game
Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the halls of Rapture once again echo with sins of the past. Along the Atlantic coastline, a monster has been snatching little girls and bringing them back to the undersea city of Rapture. Players step into the boots of the most iconic denizen of Rapture, the Big Daddy, as they travel through the decrepit and beautiful fallen city, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and their own survival.
Multiplayer in BioShock 2 will provide a rich prequel experience that expands the origins of the BioShock fiction. Set during the fall of Rapture, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a premier provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city of Rapture that was first explored in the original BioShock. Players will need to use all the elements of the BioShock toolset to survive, as the full depth of the BioShock experience is refined and transformed into a unique multiplayer experience that can only be found in Rapture.
Updated Note
This bundle also includes the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, Rapture Metro Map Pack, Kill ‘em Kindly, Zigo & Blanche multiplayer characters, and The Protector Trials.
Single-player Features
Evolution of the Genetically Enhanced Shooter: Innovative advances bring new depth and dimension to each encounter. New elements, such as the ability to dual-wield weapons and Plasmids, allow players to create exciting combination's of punishment
Innovative advances bring new depth and dimension to each encounter. New elements, such as the ability to dual-wield weapons and Plasmids, allow players to create exciting combination's of punishment Return to Rapture: Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the story continues with an epic, more intense journey through one of the most captivating and terrifying fictional worlds ever created
Set approximately 10 years after the events of the original BioShock, the story continues with an epic, more intense journey through one of the most captivating and terrifying fictional worlds ever created You are the Big Daddy: Take control of BioShock’s signature and iconic symbol by playing as the Big Daddy, and experience the power and raw strength of Rapture’s most feared denizens as you battle powerful new enemies
Take control of BioShock’s signature and iconic symbol by playing as the Big Daddy, and experience the power and raw strength of Rapture’s most feared denizens as you battle powerful new enemies Continuation of the Award-Winning Narrative: New and unique storytelling devices serve as the vehicle for the continuation of one of gaming’s most acclaimed storylines
New and unique storytelling devices serve as the vehicle for the continuation of one of gaming’s most acclaimed storylines The Protector Trials: You receive the call: Tenenbaum desperately needs you to steal as much ADAM as possible, to help thwart Sofia Lamb's insane plan. Enter the Protector Trials: frantic combat challenges designed to push your mastery of weapons and Plasmids to the limit. The goal in each Trial is simple: get your Little Sister to an ADAM-rich corpse and keep her safe while she gathers precious ADAM. Opposition mounts as your Little Sister nears her goal -- will you survive the onslaught? Each Trial features three unique weapon and Plasmid load-outs, keeping the challenge fresh, as well as a fourth bonus load-out the player receives when all previous load-outs are completed
Multiplayer Features
Genetically Enhanced Multiplayer: Earn experience points during gameplay to earn access to new Weapons, Plasmids and Tonics that can be used to create hundreds of different combinations, allowing players to develop a unique character that caters to their playing style.
Earn experience points during gameplay to earn access to new Weapons, Plasmids and Tonics that can be used to create hundreds of different combinations, allowing players to develop a unique character that caters to their playing style. Experience Rapture’s Civil War: Players will step into the shoes of Rapture citizens and take direct part in the civil war that tore Rapture apart.
Players will step into the shoes of Rapture citizens and take direct part in the civil war that tore Rapture apart. See Rapture Before the Fall: Experience Rapture before it was reclaimed by the ocean and engage in combat over iconic environments in locations such as Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites, all of which have been reworked from the ground up for multiplayer.
Experience Rapture before it was reclaimed by the ocean and engage in combat over iconic environments in locations such as Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites, all of which have been reworked from the ground up for multiplayer. FPS Veterans Add Their Touch to the Multiplayer Experience: Digital Extremes brings more than 10 years of first person shooter experience including development of award-winning entries in the Unreal® and Unreal Tournament® franchise.
Digital Extremes brings more than 10 years of first person shooter experience including development of award-winning entries in the Unreal® and Unreal Tournament® franchise. Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack: Opportunity Awaits! Expand your BioShock 2 multiplayer experience with a rank increase to 50 with Rank Rewards including a 3rd set of weapons upgrades. Plus, enjoy 20 new Trials, 2 new playable characters and 5 new Masks. Yes! We’d thought you’d like the sound of that!
Opportunity Awaits! Expand your BioShock 2 multiplayer experience with a rank increase to 50 with Rank Rewards including a 3rd set of weapons upgrades. Plus, enjoy 20 new Trials, 2 new playable characters and 5 new Masks. Yes! We’d thought you’d like the sound of that! Rapture Metro: As one of our valued Sinclair Solutions testers, we specially invite you to enjoy the pleasure of Rebirth! But only if you are truly dedicated and fully ranked up. However all testers are eligible for the 6 new maps in Rapture Metro. What’s your golf handicap? Take this chance to turn your handicap into your enemy’s with this fresh melee mode where every blunt object is a golf club. No putting.
As one of our valued Sinclair Solutions testers, we specially invite you to enjoy the pleasure of Rebirth! But only if you are truly dedicated and fully ranked up. However all testers are eligible for the 6 new maps in Rapture Metro. What’s your golf handicap? Take this chance to turn your handicap into your enemy’s with this fresh melee mode where every blunt object is a golf club. No putting. Zigo & Blanche: Enroll in Sinclair Solution’s Consumer Rewards Program with two new characters for the BioShock 2 Multiplayer experience: Mlle Blanche de Glace, the internationally acclaimed actress, or Zigo D’Acosta, one of Rapture’s great sailors. Get out there and start earning those rewards!
Supported OS: Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk: 11 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better
Additional Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Microsoft DirectX.
DirectX 9.0c
Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound
Steam account required for game activation and installationThe first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency have been chaotic and unpredictable. Reporters who covered it recount the events that dominated the news. (Alice Li,Jayne Orenstein,Julio Negron/The Washington Post)
Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office have involved an awful lot of foreign policy. We’ve seen the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the strike against Syria, the ongoing tensions with North Korea and several high-profile meetings with major world leaders.
As many commentators — and recently, President Trump himself — have pointed out, the 100 day mark is somewhat artificial. But no matter how much or how little time goes by, assessing foreign policy is hard — because so much of it is invisible.
We see only the outward product, so it’s hard to know how much of the stated policy is what’s really being pursued behind the scenes. The signs, however, suggest that Trump has a “Potemkin” foreign policy: What we see is mainly for show; behind it, there’s not really much going on.
How much has Trump’s foreign policy shifted from Obama’s?
Most new presidents try to differentiate themselves from their predecessors on foreign policy. Trump has been no exception. Trump did make some clear breaks with Obama, most notably by walking away from the TPP. But others have noted recently that in other respects, Trump seems to have backed off his campaign rhetoric in favor of more conventional even Obama-like policies in the Middle East and Japan.
[Why won’t Congress really investigate the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia?]
So which it is? Break with the past, or a return to the mainstream?
We just don’t know. As Tom Pepinsky has written, when we try to assess things like how powerful a leader is or how much a policy has changed, it’s difficult — because what we see could be explained by either of two competing explanations. So, as he notes, weak leaders often try to talk loudly about how strong they are, while strong leaders are much quieter about wielding their power. “Weak leaders often act like strong leaders, and strong leaders often act like they are indifferent.”
Assessing Trump’s foreign policy leads to another version of this problem. It is true that at least outwardly, Trump has backed off some of his most dramatic rhetoric on foreign policy, as when he stated that he no longer believes NATO is “obsolete.”
But the “mainstreaming” of Trump’s foreign policy may be an illusion — and not just because he might change his mind again. Rather, the conventional policies to which he appears to be reverting no longer rest on the firm foundation they once did, in large part because Trump is actively or passively allowing the foundation of those policies to erode.
[So far, Trump is really struggling as a chief executive]
It’s what we can’t see that matters
As James Goldgeier and I wrote not long after the inauguration, a lot of good foreign policy is invisible. Things like alliances, diplomacy (the boring, day-to-day kind, not the splashy deal-making kind), and even free trade agreements bring benefits that are hard to see but pay off in the long run.
Unfortunately, a lot of bad foreign policy is invisible, too. In particular, inaction can leave a country unprepared and isolated when a crisis hits. Trump’s failure to appoint staff — which he says is partly a deliberate policy — can “hollow out” foreign policy, as William Burns has put it. Consider the Trump budget proposal, which includes dramatic funding cuts to the State Department andforeign aid. Such cuts would take away important diplomatic levers for handling crises. Even if these cuts are not as draconian in the end, the proposal signals that the White House doesn’t value non-military policy tools and probably won’t rely on them much.
All this is like deferred maintenance: If you don’t fix up your house, when a big storm blows in, the roof is more likely to leak. There are still excellent people in the government’s foreign policy community, including some of Trump’s own appointments. But the appearance of competence or continuity here and there may be masking a lot of rot or termite damage.
President Trump meets with Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in the Oval Office on March 14, 2017. Vice President Mike Pence, center right, and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, right, listen. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Changed policies, or mere rhetoric?
For the same reason, it’s hard to tell whether Trump’s public foreign policy statements will guide his actions. How can we assess what it means when he makes a statement that appears more mainstream than what he’s said in the past? Consider his new position that NATO is not obsolete. He might be recognizing the value of NATO; he might be accepting the reality that it’s harder to disengage from alliances than he thought; or he might simply be trying to please the person he’s meeting with (in this case, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg).
But if he really does believe alliances are bad for the United States — and as Thomas Wright noted long before the election, Trump has held that view for a long time — he could — simply through neglect — seriously harm alliance relationships. That bill would come due in a crisis.
A Potemkin foreign policy?
A lot of international politics is structural and hard for leaders to change. That’s one reason we are reading that Trump has few good options in North Korea, for example. But a president can navigate a set of bad choices in a sturdy, well-crewed ship or alone in a leaky rowboat. The problem is that we can’t see his boat. We just don’t know the answers to so many questions, like how much is Trump listening to his experienced National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, or others steeped in particular foreign policy areas.
[This is why Trump’s legislative agenda is stuck in neutral]
We do have some hints. Trump’s insistence on public credit where other presidents would recognize the need to lay low; his regular insistence on his own strength and “winning”: these strike observers (here and internationally) as bluster, not competence.
At the end of 100 days, then, Trump may have changed less than his campaign rhetoric led us to expect. But what appears to be a new policy position might collapse if we poke at it too hard. With his legislative agenda stalled, Trump may turn more to foreign policy, as presidents often do when they can’t get things done domestically. We may know sooner than we think whether Trump’s foreign policy has meat on its bones, or if it’s all for show.I will admit that I dished out the money on this thing with the intent of it being a gag gift for my dad. In my adolescence whenever a big item needed moving my dad would always go straight to my skateboard to transport things rather than using his dolly and after coming across this beast on the interwebs I decided it would be a great upgrade for him. Since buying this we have actually used it |
an Times)
Dasgupta and her husband have been married eight years and been together for ten, and through that time have periodically revisited their discussions about not having children. “It’s a decision we’ve never regretted,” Suchismita says.
They married relatively late — she was 33, he was 39 — so most of their friends and cousins had already had kids, and Suchismita says seeing the sacrifices involved in parenting cemented their decision. “I’ve always loved kids. I’m a favourite aunt. But I don’t fancy the idea of putting my life on hold,” Suchismita says. “Right now I can decide to pack my bags and go away for the weekend, or unwind after a hard day’s work with friends, without having to worry about school, homework or exams; without feeling guilty about doing what I want for myself.”
For the couple, another factor was the rising incidence of crimes against children. “I can’t imagine having to worry all the time that your children might not come home safe,” she says. “In its current form, the world doesn’t feel like a safe place for children.”
Mumbai
Marketing executive Archana Sethi, 28, had always wondered whether she was cut out for motherhood. In early 2015 she married her boyfriend of two years, 32-year-old businessman Aditya, and the idea that she might become a mother suddenly became very real. Too real, she says.
That’s when she decided to admit to herself, her husband and her parents that it was just not something she wanted. “To my mind, motherhood feels like a form of bondage, in that there is so much responsibility, guilt and emotion that you are in danger of losing your logical self,” she says.
Sethi adds that she wouldn’t want to outsource parenting to grandparents. “And I want the freedom to work on myself,” she adds. “I used to sing as a child, and I would like to pursue formal vocal training. I want to learn new things, pursue a PhD in mythology, maybe eventually teach it someday. Knowing me, every time I had to give a passion up for a child, I would probably end up resenting him or her.”
It hasn’t been easy convincing her husband, she admits, but she managed by adding to her own arguments the one that the world is too complicated and dangerous — with its terrorism, sexual crimes and environmental messes — to bring a new life into.
“What really tipped the scales for Aditya was that photo in September of the dead Syrian refugee child washed ashore in Turkey,” she says. “We still haven’t discussed the subject with his parents, and my parents keep trying to coax me to change my mind. But I am clear that I don’t want kids. And my husband now says he cannot imagine bringing a new life into a world like this.”
Delhi
Two years ago, we were almost bankrupt,” says Manjuri Hazarika, 37, who runs an e-commerce portal in Delhi and married a marketing manager three years ago. “We married late, and we were both still struggling with our careers. The decision to not have children has, for us, been a practical and joint one.”
Most of Manjuri’s relatives and friends are well-settled. She worries that if they had a child, the little one would not have the privileges that other children in their circle do. “We have so many nieces and nephews that we do not miss having children,” she adds. “Also, my work, with a company that is still at the fledgling stage, needs almost as much patience as raising a baby would. Eventually, we plan to sponsor the education of underprivileged children so as to do our bit — but we definitely don’t want to have any of our own.”
While Manjuri’s parents are deceased, her in-laws are not too happy with the decision. “They don’t like the idea, so we don’t discuss it. There’s always been a communication gap with them, because we are from different cultures and schools of thought,” she says. “I may not be able to explain the reasons to them, but I make my own decisions, and have a husband who supports me. My husband and I have faced many hardships together, so we can handle the pressure.”
First Published: Jan 03, 2016 14:19 ISTIn Charter 77, Czech Dissidents Charted New Territory
“It’s not as famous as some other anniversaries linked to the fall of communism,” said Zdenek Beranek, the chargé d’affaires at the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Friday. He got emotional describing the signing of Charter 77, a watershed moment for dissent and human rights in the Soviet Bloc. “But I believe this relative oblivion and obscurity is what makes it so significant.”
The story of Charter 77 is the story of people who tried to protest their country’s rulers not because they thought it would change anything, but because they knew it was right thing to do. It’s the story of people who along the way made history, and whose contributions are today both partly forgotten and yet alive and well.
The short version: In 1968, the government of Czechoslovakia flirted with reforms to create “socialism with a human face.” But the Soviet Union came to decide this was too great a threat to the Eastern Bloc. And so, in August 1968, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia marked the end of the socialist reforms and popular enthusiasm of “Prague Spring.” In their place came a sort of resigned cynicism on the part of Czechoslovakia’s citizens: The way things were — with the country under foreign, socialist, rule — was the way things would always be.
Then, at the very beginning of 1977, following the December 1976 arrest of the psychedelic rock band Plastic People of the Universe, 241 individuals signed Charter 77. It was a loose, informal association of 235 Czechs and six Slovaks, artists and writers and intellectuals and friends of discontented friends.
The “Chartists” intended to hold the government accountable not only to its own laws, but also to international agreements to which it was a signatory, including the Helsinki Accords. That document guarantees human rights and freedoms — and their government signed it in 1975.
“We used to live under communism, surrounded by a strictly designed set of alternative facts to support the ideological vision of the government,” Martin Palous, one of the Charter’s original signatories and the former Czech ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, told Foreign Policy. And so he and his fellow Chartists set about trying to “resist falsification” by demanding their basic human rights — including the right to live and speak honestly and with dignity.
It was a watershed moment in human rights and dissidence in Czechoslovakia in particular and the Eastern Bloc more broadly. Newly organized and mobilized, many of the Chartists went on to play starring roles as dissidents in the 1980s and in the 1989 reclamation of Czechoslovak independence. Most notably, playwright and Chartist Vaclav Havel became the first president of independent Czechoslovakia — and then, after navigating that country’s peaceful dissolution, of the Czech Republic.
But the longer version of the story was neither linear nor neat for those actually living it.
“I don’t regret that I decided to participate,” Palous said, but, “it was a big adventure.” Nobody knew how it would turn out, especially because it was made under a repressive regime.
Those who signed the Charter did so at their own personal peril. “When the Charter was first published, there was a massive government campaign against its signatories,” Harvard historian Jonathan Bolton, author of Worlds of Dissent: Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism, told FP. However, “eventually the government realized that it would be more effective to isolate the Chartists and subject them to targeted repressions without turning them into a national cause celebre.”
It is difficult today to understand what a departure Charter 77 was from everything around it precisely because the document helped create what came to surround it — a civil society composed not of ideological adherents but of individuals who try to respect human rights. But at the time, the Chartists were charting new territory.
Jakub Janda, deputy director of the Prague-based think tank European Values, told FP that this group wasn’t initially launched as a political group with a comprehensive set of shared beliefs as much as it was “a springboard” to political life, assembled by a group of people who had in common a steadfast belief in human rights.
Charter 77 attracted international attention, and those interested and daring enough to do so could seek out the Chartists themselves. But to be a Chartist was to be repressed in and isolated from one’s own society.
Forty years ago, the Chartists were not celebrated by the majority of their fellow countrymen. Monica Richter’s Czech emigré parents, who were in their twenties when the Charter was signed, have told her the group was all but invisible in state media. “The regime didn’t want to draw attention to an initiative that challenged its legitimacy and could spur protest,” she told FP.
For years, Palous said, the Chartists were left alone with their ideas and their hopes. But “moments in history come when hope plays a role in the practical world.” So it was in the case of Charter 77.
Forty years on, Charter 77 is far from isolated in its country’s collective ideology. “It’s part of Czech history, in a good way,” Janda said. “If there’s a question, ‘Who were the dissidents?’ — the answer you would get in most high schools or textbooks — it would be Charter 77.”
That doesn’t mean that Czech masses are walking around celebrating Charter 77. “I don’t think that the generation born after 1989 is particularly familiar with the content and importance of the Charter 77,” said Johana Sedlackova Vamberska, who lives and works with her husband in Prague. “It has been perceived as some document that belongs to our communist past.”
But it may subtly shape Czechs still today. “I think — or at least hope — that it has left its legacy on Czech society today and our ability to challenge political power that tramples on human rights,” said Jessie Hronesova, a Czech graduate student who lives in the United Kingdom.
It’s also relevant again, in Prague and the wider world. Czech President Milos Zeman is openly pro-Russian and has been accused of being Islamophobic and xenophobic. In Slovakia, the prime minister calls critical journalists dirty prostitutes and rails against Muslims. Neighboring countries have built barriers of barbed wire. Countries further afield are building walls of their own.
“I think it shows,” Janda said, that “a strong international legal document, which now some would say is a waste of paper — it was a strong symbol for these people.” The idea of universal human rights, he stressed, means something very tangible to those who have nothing else.
That, perhaps, is the enduring legacy of Charter 77 and those who wrote it: The ability to make something — whether reclaiming individual dignity, or winning national independence — from nothing.
“Those who drafted, signed, and promoted it did it with no glimpse of hope emerging on the horizon,” Beranek said.
Until they brought it into view themselves.
Photo credit: LUBOMIR KOTEK-JOEL ROBINE/AFP/Getty ImagesOver the past few months, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has made herself something of a superstar to the left due to her outspoken criticism of the Trump administration, especially when it comes to theinvestigation into Russian election interference and potential collusion with Trump associates.
During an appearance on tonight’s broadcast of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, Waters not only went after the administration and campaign on Russia in the wake of today’s declaration by the House Oversight Committee that ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn may have broken the law, she also speculated on a GOP lawmaker’s Russian ties.
After telling host Chris Hayes that “it’s all about the money” and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was appointed due to his friendship with Vladimir Putin, she was then asked her thoughts about what House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz is doing. The Utah lawmaker will not seek re-election and issued some harsh comments about Flynn today regarding his potential lawbreaking.
Her astonishing response, in its entirety, is as follows:
“No, I really don’t [understand what he’s doing]. There is a lot of speculation about what he’s doing. There are those who were told that he’s trying to position himself to run for higher office, and I think it’s for governor. There are those who think that he, in some ways, has some connections to what is going on in the Ukraine and perhaps in Russia itself and knows something about all of this. I don’t really know. I can’t say, but he’s strange in the way that he’s conducting himself. And maybe he thinks that if he rolls out and points to the fact that something is going on with Flynn that he did not disclose, and this is criminal––I mean, he’s violated a federal law––that somehow this will raise him above maybe what connections he may have with the Kremlin. I don’t know. But we need to keep an eye on him.”
It would appear that Waters is embracing a theory pushed by investigative journalist and noted Russian conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch about Chaffetz. Mensch claimed prior to Chaffetz announcing his upcoming retirement from Congress that Russia has “kompromat” on the GOP congressman:
Sources say there is kompromat on @jasoninthehouse; that this is why he turned and that @fbi know it. #traitorinthehouse — Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 13, 2017
For his part, Hayes did point out to Waters that he has not seen any evidence that points to that regarding Chaffetz.
Watch the exchange above, via MSNBC.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comCHICAGO -- Pau Gasol would take it personally if he wasn’t on the floor to close out games for the Chicago Bulls.
“That’s not a good sign,” Gasol said after practice Saturday. “That’s not a good sign when you’re put in that position because a coach doesn’t rely on you to deliver in those minutes. So, basically he doesn't trust you. He trusts somebody else to do that job. So, it’s not a good sign for you.”
Gasol said he has never been on the bench on a consistent basis late in games, and it was something he talked to the Bulls about before joining the team. Carlos Boozer was the Bulls' starting power forward last season, but he wasn’t often the power forward that closed out games for them.
“Obviously I’d like to be on the floor when the game is on the line,” Gasol said. “That’s what I’ve been getting paid for my entire career. That’s what I want to continue to do.”
Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said Saturday he hasn’t determined how he will close out games yet. One of his objectives is still to see how everyone meshes together in those late minutes.
“I haven’t seen everyone, so that’s hard to make that decision,” Thibodeau said. “You have a pretty good idea. You want to see them together. That’s the big thing. To see what works best, how they can be utilized. That’s still a work in progress. We want to get a look at that.
“Whatever you have to do, whatever makes the most sense for your team, that’s what you’re going to do. And we’ll see. I know Derrick [Rose] and Joakim [Noah] have finished games for us before. Joakim and Taj [Gibson] have obviously finished a lot of games for us. Now I want to see Pau. I want to see him out there with those guys to see how it all fits. Maybe it is game by game. You don’t know. They have to be out there to make that determination. We have to get a look at it.”
Thibodeau thought Gasol’s game has varied throughout the preseason, but he was pleased overall with what Gasol can provide the Bulls.
“Some good, some bad, some in the middle,” Thibodeau said of Gasol’s play. “He’s been around a long time. He’s learning his teammates. His teammates are learning him. But I like his overall play. He’s just a good player. He plays both sides of the ball, the length, the shot blocking at the rim are huge for us. And offensively, he can score different ways. He can shoot. He can post. I like his passing. I just think his passing makes everyone better. That’s important.”
Gasol thought he could fine-tune a few areas, but was happy with his performance so far. He also reported his body felt good.
“Right now, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve been able to do out there,” Gasol said. “Try to get a little more into the flow of the game, try to get a little more rhythm, establish myself a little more, but so far just getting a feel for the game. As for my minutes on the floor, it’s been positive for the team as far as what I’ve seen in the plus/minuses after every single game.”Looking for news you can trust?
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Hey, guess what? Contraception is back in the news! HHS proposed a new set of of healthcare rules today that would allow faith-based nonprofits to opt out of contraception coverage entirely. Instead, their insurance carriers would be required to provide contraceptive riders at no cost. If an organization is self-insured, they’ll notify their plan administrator, who would find an insurance issuer to provide “separate, individual health insurance policies at no cost for participants.” The cost would be offset by adjustments in “federally-facilitated exchange user fees that insurers pay,” whatever that means.
As you can imagine, this is likely to have no impact on the debate at all. Conservatives who are outraged about contraceptives being covered by health plans will remain outraged. The rest of us, who think covering contraceptives is a great idea, will be perfectly happy to accept this kludge.
And, let’s be honest, it is a kludge. There’s no such thing as “no cost.” If an insurance carrier covers contraceptives, that’s a cost they’re going to make up somewhere else. And that somewhere else is in the premiums for the main policy. There’s really no way around that.
In other words, money is fungible, a subject that liberals and conservatives alike treat with abandon depending on whether they happen to like the consequences. In this case, liberals are willing to accept the fiction that the money for contraceptive coverage is somehow “segregated,” and conservatives aren’t. When bailed-out bankers pay themselves big bonuses and swear that not one dime is coming from bailout funds, the roles are reversed. All good fun.EA is no stranger to the subscription model of gaming. It's EA Access service has seen trials offered for games (which has led to some conversion) and back catalogues published on the Xbox One for a monthly fee. However, the publisher may look at taking some of its games franchises and offering a subscription model rather than an annual release.
Speaking with Bloomberg TV, CEO of EA Andrew Wilson discussed the possibility with EA Sports franchises FIFA and Madden NFL. "There’s a world where it gets easier and easier to move that code around, where we may not have to do an annual release, Wilson said. "We can really think about those games as a 365-day, live service."
The focus of this subscription model would be based on cloud gaming, should it happen. The technology has been used for game saves for many years and the internet connections required for the data it needs is slowly coming. But the technology behind cloud gaming, for consumers at least, has been slow to take off. Many products such as OnLive and Ouya struggled to find users promptly left the market. However, the gaming services from EA on console and Xbox's Game Pass have been bringing some success according to recent financial results.
“The greatest disruptor to the consumption of entertainment media in the last five years has been the combination of streaming plus subscription. It’s changed the way we watch television," Wilson said. "It’s changed the way we listen to music. It’s changed the way I read books.
“When we design a game that lives in a true streaming world, we have to think about screen size and session time,” he said. “How does a Madden game that exists in the cloud manifest on your mobile phone, one minute at a time? How does that manifest on your 60-inch TV, an hour at a time?"
When asked specifically by Bloomberg if franchises like FIFA and Madden NFL could move away from yearly releases to online content, Wilson said yes. "There's [sic] a few different things that has got to happen first," Wilson said. "We do a lot in a FIFA game every year and a lot in a Madden game. There's a lot of code that we make available as part of a new iteration. When we look at what we do in Korea or China, we don't do it that way.
"Every four years we release a new big code drop, and we offer incremental change over time. So what we see in Korea and China, what we see on mobile, I think there's a world where that will happen in other parts of our business."In the wake of yesterday’s publication of Amoris Laetitia allow me to weigh in with a parish priest’s perspective. In the midst of a busy day in the parish I didn’t actually have time to read the exhortation. Neither did I have time last night or this morning. However, I have read some of the online commentary, and I have read the paragraphs deemed controversial and I will read the whole thing over the weekend.
Am I allowed, therefore, to be just a teeny bit annoyed at all the armchair experts, Facebook moral theologians and Monday morning priests who have felt it their moral duty and obligation to go online just as soon as possible to point out the Holy Father’s errors and correct the successor of Peter?
What strikes me about this document is that it is first and foremost a pastoral exhortation. While it fully affirms the traditional teaching of the church regarding marriage it also makes a valiant attempt to deal with the messiness of real life. With respect to all the dear laypeople, the armchair experts, the theoreticians, amateur theologians and experts in church law–it is we priests who actually deal with the real life situations of ordinary people. We’re the ones who have to help them match up their lives with the teachings of the church.
It was Jesus who knelt in the dust with the woman taken in adultery. It was the scribes and Pharisees who stood at a distance accusing her of breaking the law. His response to them and his response to her, it seems to me, is exactly what Amoris Laetitia is all about. I just wonder why the Holy Father didn’t simply refer all of us to that text and say. “There it is. Read it and weep.” Instead he took the trouble as a loving Father in God to lay out for the clergy and faithful some principles in helping to navigate the perfect storm that is modern marriage.
The fact of the matter is, all of us who are faithful Catholics wish to uphold the indissolubility of marriage, we are all dismayed at the rising tide of remarriage after divorce, the increase in co habitation, artificial contraception and all the rotten fruit of the sexual revolution. Like every revolution, the sexual revolution has been violent, and we priests realize more than anyone else that many of our people are the walking wounded. We are the ones they go to when it all goes bad. We are the ones who hear them crying in the confessional. We are the ones who struggle with them as they try to reconcile their lives with the teaching of the church.
Therefore instead of a line by line nit picking through the pope’s exhortation trying to find something to disagree with, let me present my views from where I sit in my study and in my confessional. The few tales I am going to relate are, of course, not real. That would be to betray confidences and the seal of the confessional. However, I can tell stories that are mosaics: pictures built up from the broken pieces of various true stories. The names are fictional and the situations are composed, but they are all “true” stories inasmuch as they are very similar to real people I know and have helped.
Every priest who takes time for his people will agree. They have heard these stories and many more. These are the people we are here to minister to, and the black and white definitions and condemnations of today’s Catholic scribes and Pharisees just won’t do. Are parts of Pope Francis’ exhortation ambiguous, fuzzy or messy? Listen to these stories I have to tell and see if you think that maybe, perhaps, just a little bit, real life is fuzzy, ambiguous and messy. I will make no judgements. I tell you the story. You decide, if you were a parish priest, what you would do.
Story 1: Bob admits that he never had a life with God. He was a child of the 1960s and lived that way. His first marriage was at the beach to a fellow love child when she got pregnant when they were both high. He married his second wife because she was a rich widow. Later in life he found God through an Evangelical house church and then met Susan–a lapsed Catholic. They married outside the church, but then Susan re-discovered her Catholic faith and she and Bob started going to Mass. He went through RCIA in a liberal Catholic parish where the priest waved a hand and said he didn’t need to worry about “all that annulment stuff.” So Bob became a Catholic and now twenty years later, he and Susan have six kids a great marriage and are active members in the parish. Only after a conversation with the priest did Bob and Susan discover that they were in an irregular relationship. Bob’s second wife–the elderly widow was dead, but he reckoned his first wife (the hippie who was married to him for less than a year) was still living somewhere, but Bob has no idea where she might be. So what do you do?
Story 2: Lucy was married to Phil for twenty five years. They were both Catholics when they got married in church after proper preparation. For fifteen years of their marriage Lucy and Phil had no relations and Lucy suspected Phil was having affairs. Then in his early fifties Phil walked out and declared he was gay. He moved to Florida and Lucy never heard from him again. All during their marriage Lucy was faithful to Phil. The divorce was quick and final. Lucy continued to raise their two kids who were finishing high school. Her faith deepened through her difficulties and she got more involved in the parish. Through her work with the local soup kitchen she met Harold–a Catholic widower. They became companions then fell in love. Lucy tracked Philip down and asked him to co operate with the annulment process but he told her to get lost. Lucy and Harold decide to get married anyway. One of the reasons is that Harold is well off and Lucy will benefit materially as they get older together. What do you advise?
Story 3: Malcolm married his high school sweetheart when they were both nineteen. He was from a poor broken home. She was the daughter of the town’s banker, the prom queen and the most popular girl in school. Both were nominal Methodists. By the time they were married five years they had both grown up and grown away from each other. The sixties hit her hard and after a string of affairs Sally began to hit the bottle. Malcolm stuck it out for another ten years, and finally had enough. They divorced and Malcolm dated various women for five years. During that time he married Jeanette–a girl he met on vacation–in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Jeanette took off with another man after two unhappy years and Malcolm met Frances in rehab. Frances was there because, like Malcolm she had turned to drink when her own Catholic marriage broke down. They married quietly and started to attend Mass. God touched their lives and healed both of them of the deep wounds they had suffered. As a result Malcolm entered RCIA and longs to be received into the Catholic Church. What would you do?
I know what I would do in each situation. I know how I would try to match the high ideals for marriage that we uphold with the reality on the ground, but I am not outlining what I would do, because if readers have read this far, they might see how complicated such situations are. Furthermore, the three stories I have made up are the simple ones. Others are even more complex and heart breaking.
I relate these stories to remind readers that for many complicated reasons marriage in our society is a shipwreck. It’s hit the iceberg and gone down long ago.
The people picking through the Pope’s exhortation like carrion crows do not make me feel very good to be honest. The Pope has made a good effort to help us sort through the wreckage, salvage what we can and build a raft to sail on.
Perhaps all the armchair critics should have the dignity and self respect to listen to the pope and seek to learn from him. He said in the opening paragraphs of the exhortation that it is long and complex and we should read it prayerfully and give it time. I plan to do so.For a guy who threw 24 TD passes and one interception last season, South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw routinely was overlooked in 2013. Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier hopes that changes.
Spurrier was on NFL Network's "NFL AM" on Wednesday and compared Shaw to Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson.
"Connor's just a winner," Spurrier said. "He's a lot like Russell Wilson. He takes care of the ball. He doesn't do stupid stuff. He doesn't take careless sacks. He can throw it away. He's really a good passer. Any time you see a guy who can run as well as Connor, you don't think he's that good of a passer.
"I think he's going to wow 'em at the combine coming up this week," he said. "I hope he's a mid-round pick, maybe even better. The kid is a winner."
Shaw generally is seen as a third-day pick. While the Wilson comparisons are a little out there, Shaw does look as if he could, at the least, be a competent backup. He does a lot of things well, has the needed intangibles and doesn't make huge mistakes.
Shaw started 2 1/2 seasons for the Gamecocks, becoming the No. 1 guy six games into his sophomore season in 2011. He threw for 5,851 yards, 55 TDs and 14 interceptions and led the Gamecocks to three consecutive 11-win seasons. He had just three 300-yard games in his career, but he also ran for 17 TDs in the past three seasons.
Spurrier also talked about UCF quarterback Blake Bortles, who is in play to be the No. 1 overall selection in the draft. Spurrier's Gamecocks beat UCF, 28-25, but Bortles threw for 358 yards and two TDs in the loss.
"He was sensational down there against us, but somehow we won another one of our close wins down at UCF," Spurrier said. "But Bortles had a big game, as he did in almost every game this year. He's a very talented kid -- smart kid, big kid standing in the pocket and all that kind of stuff. If you're a drop-back team, he may be your guy."
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.About Optiver Over thirty years ago, Optiver started business as a single trader on the floor of Amsterdam’s European Options Exchange. Today, we are a leading global electronic market maker, focused on pricing, execution and risk management. We provide liquidity to financial markets using our own capital, at our own risk, trading a wide range of products: listed derivatives, cash equities, ETFs, bonds and foreign currencies. Our independence allows us to objectively improve the markets and provide efficiencies for end investors. With over one thousand Optiverians globally, our mission to improve the market unites us. Thriving in a high performance environment, we pioneer our own trading strategies and systems using clean code and sophisticated technology. We achieve this by attracting, developing and empowering top talent, in order to sustain our future.
Position As our new Software Developer, you will be developing systems which will be used by our Risk, MidOffice and Trading departments in a fast moving trading environment. The systems we build will require your skills in multithreading, concurrency, performance profiling and optimization. You will be responsible for the full development lifecycle, where you will get a lot of freedom to decide on code base, technology and architecture. The more knowledge you gain about the business, the more opportunity you get to partner with the business. With direct access to end users, you will see your results in production and get immediate feedback. You will be part of an agile team and you will get a chance to work with the latest technologies on the latest applications and learn from highly educated and experienced colleagues.
Your qualification a Bachelor or Master degree, preferably in Computer Science, IT Engineering or Information Systems
working experience as a software developer in C#, and an open mind towards picking up other object oriented programming languages when it makes sense
knowledge of designing and developing databases
understanding of protocols such as TCP and Multicast
to be a good team player and communicator who enjoys creative freedom and independence
to have the ambition to grow through experience, training and on-the-job development
What we offer Optiver is above all a state of mind. We are looking for you when you believe in daily improvement, when you like to be seriously rewarded for your performance and when you easily adapt to change and enjoy some humor and fun. To be concrete, we offer excellent remuneration and great secondary benefits, such as an attractive profit sharing structure, training opportunities, fully paid first-class commuting expenses, a premium-free pension, breakfast and lunch facilities, sports and leisure activities, even weekly chair massages and of course Friday afternoon drinks. We are used to guiding expats through their relocation and offer relocation packages and discounts on health insurance.Fulfilling its recent promise of integrating with iOS 11’s Files app during the OS’s launch week, Dropbox today released an updated iOS app that does just that. It is now a full-fledged file provider in Files, allowing you to access and manage all of your Dropbox files directly from the Files app.
Adding Files support means Dropbox files can now live alongside files from iCloud Drive and other file providers. This enables things like copying files between cloud services with ease, organizing files from different providers with the same tags, and of course, using drag and drop to rearrange files (on either iPhone or iPad), or to move files to other apps (iPad only). Not all functionality from the main Dropbox app has made its way to Files, but there’s surprisingly little missing here. You can still download files on demand, and you can even share files without needing to open the Dropbox app – simply long-press the file you’d like to share and hit the Copy Link button. For me personally at least, I don’t see any reason I would need to open Dropbox anymore.
Several major cloud services pledged to support Files back in June following WWDC, and it’s great to see that, at least for one of them, that support came swiftly. Here’s hoping the rest will follow soon.Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has had the best year of any Republican and virtually anyone in the world, ranking third in Rasmussen Report’s new poll of the of the “most influential” people in the world, behind Pope Francis and President Obama.
In the new poll, Cruz, who made headlines for trying to dismantle Obamacare, was the pick for the most influential of 11 percent. The pope was tops at 23 percent, Obama second at 21 percent.
Among Republicans, Cruz was second behind the pope, with 19 percent calling the freshman senator and Tea Party leader the world’s most influential leader. Just 9 percent of Republicans said the same thing of Obama.
Two other Republicans on Rasmussen’s list, House Speaker John Boehner and newly reelected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, tied at 3 percent.
Rasmussen: Whom do you consider the most influential person in 2013?
23% Pope Francis
21% Barack Obama
11% Ted Cruz
8% Edward Snowden
4% Vladimir Putin
3% John Boehner
3% Chris Christie
2% Miley Cyrus
2% Kate Middleton
1% Angela Merkel
1% Malala Yousafzai
1% Kathleen Sebelius
0% Bashar Assad
0% Kanye West
0% Lebron James
0% George Zimmerman
12% Some other person
9% Not sure
NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence
Paul Bedard, The Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.WASHINGTON, DC—In the wake of a recent drop in the sexual-interest rate, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced Tuesday that blowjoblessness in America has reached a record high.
According to Labor Department statistics, the overall blowjobless rate swelled to 37.4 percent in July, causing widespread deflation of egos.
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"Cutbacks in oral services have left 55 million Americans unsatisfied," Chao said. "Although June saw a promising jump in the age 15-19 demographic, with many teenagers finding summer blowjobs, almost 82 percent of married men are completely blowjobless."
The historically fluid blowjob market reached its climax in 1996, when millions of wives and girlfriends vigorously stimulated the privates sector. But while demand has remained extremely high, supply could not, or would not, keep up. As a result, the blowjobless rate has climbed steadily, and today's limp market shows few signs of immediate expansion.
According to Chao, long-term relationships are responsible for the loss of many of this year's blowjobs.
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"Over time, traditional blowjob providers prioritize other services, eventually eliminating those blowjobs that they deem unnecessary," Chao said.
"Blowjobs are not as plentiful as some Internet sites would lead you to believe," said blowjob-market analyst Tom Cochran. "Overall, it's an extremely |
64% year over year in December to $12.2 million.
In Oregon, legal sales of marijuana began last fall and applications for retail dispensaries are being filed this year with the goal of retail stores replacing medical marijuana dispensaries as the source of recreational marijuana by 2017. Beginning this year, Oregonians will pay a 25% sales tax on recreational marijuana and prior to marijuana legalization, estimates pegged the annual contribution to the state from marijuana taxes at north of $40 million.
Looking ahead
The influential Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) gives Sanders an "A" rating for his policy stance on marijuana, and his comments and actions suggest that if elected, he could prove to be a big supporter of the pro-marijuana movement. If so, it wouldn't be surprising if a Sanders win leads to even more states taking up pro-marijuana legislation in 2018.President Obama will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai this Friday to discuss ongoing negotiations over the U.S.'s post-2014 role in Afghanistan, but the White House says not to expect any final decision about how many U.S. troops -- if any -- will stay in Afghanistan after the war's official drawdown at the end of next year.
In a conference call this afternoon, the Obama administration's Ben Rhodes told reporters that "they're not going to finalize that decision" in this discussion, but rather attempt to "reach a common understanding of how we can achieve" mutual objectives for the post-2014 relationship. Then, he says, negotiators in Washington "will be able to take that guidance and be able to finalize an agreement."
Among the topics up for discussion include the impending transition for the 2014 drawdown, as well as the plan for U.S. support in Afghanistan beyond that date. According to the White House, any continued U.S. troop presence will be guided by a few key goals: Assuring the continued progress of ongoing counterterrorism efforts and training and equipping the national Afghan security forces, while also guaranteeing full Afghan sovereignty.
"That's what guides us and that's what causes us to look for different potential troop numbers, or not having potential troops in the country," said Rhodes. "With the Afghans we'll be discussing how best to achieve those missions."
In that vein, Rhodes says the White House is not ruling out the possibility of withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan post-2014.
"That would be an option that we would consider. Because again, the president does not view these negotiations as having a goal of keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan," he said. "He views these negotiations as in service of these two missions" of counterterrorism and training and equipping Afghan forces.
"There are of course many different ways of accomplishing those objectives -- some of which might involve US troops, some of which might not," Rhodes said.
Despite speculation about the White House's plans for U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the war, Doug Lute, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for South Asia, told reporters that he would not "lend any credibility" to the "wide range of numbers that have been available publicly" with regard to post-2014 U.S. troop presence.
Those numbers, he said, are predicated upon certain variables that are still up in the air.
At present, Lute says, Mr. Obama and Karzai will be more focused on what post-2014 missions might require U.S. troops in Afghanistan and what authorities the U.S. would need to implement those missions rather than exactly how many troops they'd require.
"They're going to be talking about missions and authorities -- not numbers," he said.Last week we talked briefly about the US Chamber of Commerce planning to spy on lefties. The more we learn about this, the uglier it gets. What the chamber has planned goes way beyond mere political espionage. It’s outright, highly illegal, cyber-warfare.
Last Thursday, ThinkProgress revealed that lawyers representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the most powerful trade associations for large corporations like ExxonMobil and CitiGroup, had solicited a proposal from a set of military contractors to develop a surreptitious campaign to attack the Chamber’s political opponents, including ThinkProgress, the Change to Win labor coalition, SEIU, StopTheChamber.com, MoveOn.org, U.S. Chamber Watch and others. The lawyers from the Chamber’s longtime law firm Hunton and Williams had been compiling their own data set on some of these targets. However, the lawyers sought the military contractors for assistance.
As ThinkProgress has reported, the proposals — created by military contractors Palantir, Berico Technologies, and HBGary Federal, collectively known as “Team Themis” — were discussed at length with the Chamber’s lawyers over the course of several months starting in October of 2010. The core proposals called for snooping on the families of progressive activists, creating phony identities to penetrate progressive organizations, creating bots to “scrape” social media for information, and submitting fake documents to Chamber opponents as a false flag trick to discredit progressive organizations.
In addition to the Team Themis plans that ThinkProgress and other outlets have reported on, a closer look at the proposals show that the firms had planned to use exploits to steal information from the Chamber’s opponents, or worse. On November 2, HBGary Federal executive Aaron Barr sent John Woods, a lawyer at Hunton and Williams representing the Chamber, two documents discussing tactics for assisting the Chamber (view the e-mail here). One presentation (click here to download) boasted of HBGary Federal’s capabilities in “Information Operations,” a military contractor term for offensive data extraction techniques typically reserved for use against terrorist groups. The slide includes sections on “ Vulnerability Research/Exploit Development ” and “ Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering.” View a screenshot below:
HBGary, the parent company of HBGary Federal, specializes in analyzing “malware,” computer viruses that are used to maliciously steal data from computers or networks. In other presentations, Barr makes clear that his expertise in “Information Operations” covers forms of hacking like a “computer network attack,” “custom malware development,” and “persistent software implants.” The presentation shows Barr boasting that he had knowledge of using “zero day” attacks to exploit vulnerabilities in Flash, Java, Windows 2000 and other programs to steal data from a target’s computer… [emphasis added]Well, knock me over with a feather. I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked.
Washington Post:
A solemn group stood in the shadow of the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, forming a circle on the snow-caked sidewalk. MarShawn McCarrel, 23, a well-known Black Lives Matter activist, had taken his own life on the statehouse steps. Now his friends had come together in his memory.
As evening turned to night last week, protest organizer Rashida Davidson, 25, recounted the personal toll of two years of activism: Trouble sleeping. Bouts of anxiety. Feelings of despair.
“This is really getting to us,” Davidson said. “And if MarShawn’s death does not show that… I don’t know what else we need to tell or show to say that this is really going on.”
Since he died early last week, news of McCarrel’s suicide has rocked the national police protest movement, forcing a round of introspection about a reality that predates the seminal 2014 shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo.: Some of the most prominent activists and organizers are battling not only the system, but depression.
In Oakland, Calif., a prominent activist posted the phone number for a suicide prevention hotline on her Facebook page. In Cleveland, a lead organizer confessed on Facebook that he, too, had tried to take his own life. Dozens of others have shared stories of their battles with depression, anxiety and insecurity on Twitter.
“In the movement you’re just constantly engaging in black death, seeing the communal impact,” said Jonathan Butler, the University of Missouri graduate student whose hunger strike last fall led to the resignation of the school’s president. “You’re being faced with the reality that I’m more likely to be killed by the police, that I’m being discriminated against. You start to see all of the micro-aggressions.”
Like many prominent activists, Butler said he has long struggled with depression, beginning with the death of his grandfather in 2011. His involvement with the protest movement at times has worsened his mental health, he said, not only because of the emotional strain of a single-minded focus on racism, but also because of more mundane stresses, such as media scrutiny and infighting among allies.
“So many people glamorize the visibility that comes with being in these spotlights,” Butler said. “And they’re not seeing the pressures.”
…Studies have found that black Americans are more susceptible to depression and anxiety — a disparity that health experts believe stems from social stigma and a lack of access to mental health resources in black communities, as well as a reluctance to take advantage of those resources when they are available.
“It’s really tough in the black community because we’re going uphill trying to fight all of these negative stereotypes about us, and the last thing a lot of black people want to do is give people one more reason to look down on us,” said Monnica Williams, director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Louisville. “I think a lot of African Americans are walking around depressed, coping from day to day, and not really living.”
A study by the federal Office of Minority Health found that African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. And for an activist, Williams said, depression can be especially dangerous. Much of the conversation about race and justice occurs online, where harsh and threatening messages are abundant…
“There are so many folks in this movement that have serious mental health issues,” said Alexis Templeton, who is among the most prominent organizers in St. Louis. “There are so many folks who are on the brink of killing themselves.”
When she first joined the protests in 2014, Templeton was one of those people. A year earlier, she had been a passenger in a deadly car crash that killed her father, uncle and partner. Her guilt about surviving was often hard to bear, she said, and there were many days when she sat in her room with a loaded gun to her head.Eddie Jones tells Will Greenwood his England Rugby World Cup squad is already 80 per cent complete Eddie Jones tells Will Greenwood his England Rugby World Cup squad is already 80 per cent complete
England head coach Eddie Jones has said his 2019 World Cup squad is 80 per cent complete, while his first choice XV is nearly 60 per cent done in his mind.
The next Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan in September 2019, and speaking exclusively to Will Greenwood for Sky Sports, Jones confirmed he has 24 of his prospective 30-man squad already pencilled in.
Jones spoke to Sky Sports exclusively ahead of his third year in charge
When asked how close he was to nailing down a potential "World Cup final XV" by Greenwood, Jones added he had nine names in mind who are currently well placed.
Greenwood asked: "A World Cup squad is 30, how many are you happy with? And a World Cup final is XV, how many have you got ready to play in a World Cup final tomorrow? Two numbers, squad and team:
Jones replied: "I think about 80 per cent and 60 per cent, so we're tracking pretty well.
"We've got 24 out of the 30 approximately and nine of the 15. There's a couple out there who have raw potential and if they can turn that into consistent performances then they're there.
"Bolters are more likely to be in the outside backs and back row, the other positions tend to be coupled with experience."
England endured a calamitous 2015 World Cup on home soil, suffering a group stage exit
In a wide-ranging interview, Jones also revealed there is no age limit to success and places in his 2019 Rugby World Cup squad will not come down to a player's age.
Instead, the 57-year-old former Australia and Japan boss says a player's ability and worth to his plans will come down to their "desire to improve" as opposed to being excluded on the grounds of being in their teens or 30s.
Jones said he doesn't think about a players age regarding selection
Jones, who has only lost one Test match since taking the helm at Twickenham in November 2015, referenced Real Madrid and Portugal football star Cristiano Ronaldo as an example of how age is no barrier in sport.
"It's more about growth," Jones responded when asked if he had an age preference. "It's more about how much desire they've got to get better.
Jones added player ages will not be a consideration for his World Cup squad selections Jones added player ages will not be a consideration for his World Cup squad selections
"If you're an older player you can always get better. You know I just saw [Cristiano] Ronaldo won the best soccer player in the world at 32.
"He looks fitter than he did at 26, so it's all about that desire to get better and as you get older you have to put in different types of sacrifices, and if you're prepared to do that there's no age limit.
Cristiano Ronaldo's continued success at the age of 32 was referenced by Jones
"Similarly with the young guys, if you're prepared to learn about the game, if you're prepared to come out here like George Ford and Owen Farrell, and Jonny Wilkinson before that, and do the hours and practice and be the best you can be at that age then there's no age limit at the bottom end."
England host Argentina, Australia and Samoa this autumn in the Old Mutual Wealth Series, and Jones added everything his squad do now is concentrated on the next World Cup in Japan.
Jones has a wonderful record since taking charge as England head coach, losing just once
"Everything we do now is about developing towards the World Cup," he said. "Improving every game, improving the depth of the squad, getting selection difficulties.
"Everybody wants selection to be difficult, not easy. So that's at the head of the list.
"We're gradually becoming more tactically adaptable and that's going to be super important for the World Cup. I think the players are starting to take responsibility on the field.
Jones said he was proud of the way his young England side adapted on the field to beat Argentina in the summer
"You look at that second Test against Argentina. We started off with a philosophy of kicking for touch, trying to keep the game as tight as possible. We weren't getting any pay from the lineout so we went to a more open game, tried to split the game up and it worked well for us.
"The players' ability to change from one to the other really impressed me and it was a young team."
Tune in to watch Eddie Jones' full interview with Sky Sports at 10.30pm on Wednesday on Sky Sports Action.Image: iStock
About 6 trillion cigarette butts are produced every year worldwide, leading to more than 1.2 million tonnes of cigarette butt waste. This is set to increase by more than 50 per cent by 2025, mainly due to an increase in world population.
Now an Australian research team is developing a way for cigarette butts can be turned into footpaths, bricks and other building materials - that have the added bonus of cooling our cities.
A team at RMIT University - led by Dr Abbas Mohajerani - has shown that an that asphalt/cigarette butts mixed material can both handle heavy traffic and also reduce thermal conductivity. This means the product could not only solve a huge waste problem but would also be useful in reducing the "urban heat island" effect common in cities.
Mohajerani, a senior lecturer in RMIT's School of Engineering, said he was keen to find solutions to mounting cigarette butt waste.
"I have been trying for many years to find sustainable and practical methods for solving the problem of cigarette butt pollution," Mohajerani said. "In this research, we encapsulated the cigarette butts with bitumen and paraffin wax to lock in the chemicals and prevent any leaching from the asphalt concrete. The encapsulated cigarettes butts were mixed with hot asphalt mix for making samples"
Mohajerani says the encapsulated cigarette butts developed in this research will be a new construction material which can be used in different applications and lightweight composite products.
"This research shows that you can create a new construction material while ridding the environment of a huge waste problem."
Cigarette filters are designed to trap hundreds of toxic chemicals and the only ways to control these chemicals are either by effective encapsulation for the production of new lightweight materials, or by the incorporation in fired clay bricks, according to Mohajerani.
Mohajerani became a world-renowned researcher in 2016 for his research in recycling cigarette butts in bricks. This project is the result of five years of research.
[Source]Conclusions. Interventions to reduce eating disorders and obesity that are appropriate for LGB youths of diverse ethnicities are urgently needed.
Results. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity was associated with substantially elevated odds of purging and diet pill use in both girls and boys (odds ratios [OR] range = 1.9–6.8). Bisexual girls and boys were also at elevated odds of obesity compared to same-gender heterosexuals (OR = 2.3 and 2.1, respectively).
Methods. Anonymous survey data were analyzed from 24 591 high school students of diverse ethnicities in the federal Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System Survey in 2005 and 2007. Self-reported data were gathered on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation identity, height, weight, and purging and diet pill use in the past 30 days. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate odds of purging, diet pill use, and obesity associated with sexual orientation identity in gender-stratified models and examined for the presence of interactions between ethnicity and sexual orientation.
Objectives. We examined purging for weight control, diet pill use, and obesity across sexual orientation identity and ethnicity groups.
The prevalence of childhood obesity has markedly increased in the past few decades, more than tripling in the last 30 years.1 Obesity in adolescence is especially concerning because of the high risk of immediate- and long-term problems associated with the condition. Obese adolescents are at an elevated risk for high cholesterol, hypertension, prediabetes, bone and joint problems, and sleep apnea.2−5 They are 20 times more likely to become obese adults,6 increasing the odds of long-term health consequences secondary to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and osteoarthritis.7 Eating disorders and disordered weight-control behaviors, such as purging and diet pill use, represent the third most common chronic childhood illnesses, after obesity and asthma,8 and are associated with a range of serious comorbidities, including disorders of the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and endocrine systems.9 In addition, children and adolescents who are obese have been found to be at increased risk of eating disorder symptoms.10−12
These health problems affect individuals during crucial physiological and psychological developmental periods and disproportionately affect marginalized subgroups of youths. Numerous studies have highlighted disparities based on ethnicity,13−17 sexual orientation,18−22 and gender.23−26 However, little is known about how these disparities intersect and the ways in which individuals who are members of multiple minority subgroups may be affected.
Minority stress theory posits that members of marginalized social populations are subject to health consequences as a result of experiences of stigma and discrimination associated with possessing a minority identity.27 These stressors may have direct health consequences through chronic perturbations of biological systems or may cause psychological distress, influencing health behaviors (substance use, weight-control behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, etc.) and health care utilization. Multiple minority stress theory focuses on the intersection of ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation and proposes that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people of color are exposed to multiple stressors that may create an additive health disadvantage.28,29 Several population-based studies have supported the additive hypothesis, demonstrating increased prevalence of health risks among LGB people of color compared with their White LGB counterparts, including disparities in mental health disorders,30,31 chronic health conditions,32 adolescent suicide,33 and obesity.34
The additive hypothesis of minority stress theory, however, has been scrutinized because it has not been consistently borne out. For example, other studies35,36 found that ethnicity did not modify sexual orientation–related health disparities, and 1 study29 found that being a member of a ethnic minority group had some protective effect on mental health among LGB individuals, specifically for adolescent girls.
We found a limited number of studies that addressed health disparities affecting LGB people of color and an even smaller number of studies that addressed adolescents and young adults.29,33,35−37 In addition, no studies, to our knowledge, specifically examined the issue of disordered weight-control behaviors. We were aware of only 1 study that examined the prevalence of obesity among sexual minorities as associated with ethnicity; this study found that Asian Pacific Islanders had lower body mass index (BMI) and African Americans had higher BMI in a sample of lesbian and bisexual women compared with White women.34 The aim of the present study examined how gender and ethnicity were associated with sexual orientation identity disparities in obesity and disordered weight-control behaviors in youths using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), a biennial survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in US high schools. This study was unique in its focus on disordered weight-control behaviors and obesity, 2 important adolescent health issues in LGB ethnic minority youths, who are an understudied population.
METHODS Section: Choose Top of page Abstract METHODS << RESULTS DISCUSSION References CITING ARTICLES For the present study, we pooled anonymous data gathered from US high school students in 2005 and 2007 as part of the YRBSS. Four cities (Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; New York City, New York; and San Francisco, California) and 5 states (Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island) administered an item on sexual orientation identity; therefore, for the present study, we analyzed data from these jurisdictions. More details about the pooling methods used and the characteristics of jurisdictions included in analyses can be found elsewhere.38 Measures Students in participating high schools completed self-report surveys assessing sexual orientation identity, demographic characteristics, and health-related behaviors and exposures. An item assessing sexual orientation identity asked students to indicate which identity best described them from the options heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian or gay, or unsure. Outcomes included purging for weight control, use of diet pills, and obesity. The YRBSS survey includes 1 item asking whether respondents engaged in self-induced vomiting or used laxatives (i.e., purging) in the past 30 days and another item asking whether they used diet pills without a doctor’s orders to lose or maintain weight.39 Each item was treated as binary. Students were asked to report their height and weight, which was then used to calculate age- and sex-specific BMI (defined as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) percentiles based on CDC guidelines; biologically implausible BMI values were also identified and set to missing per CDC guidelines.40 Youths were then categorized as obese if their BMI was at or above the 95th percentile for their age and gender. It was shown that self-reported BMI had moderate validity in adolescents.41 Statistical Analysis All descriptive analyses were carried out with SPSS (version 20; SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL), and multilevel software HLM (version 7; Scientific Software International, Lincolnwood, IL) was used to fit final multivariable models. Gender-stratified multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of each of the 3 outcome variables (purging, diet pill use, and obesity) associated with sexual orientation identity and ethnicity, controlling for age, region, and data collection wave. Heterosexual youths served as the referent group for sexual orientation group comparisons, and White youths for ethnicity group comparisons. In additional multivariable models, we examined whether ethnicity modified associations between sexual orientation identity and the 3 outcomes by entering interaction terms into the models. The YRBSS complex sampling design was accounted for by adjusting the relative weights and altering the effective sample size for each jurisdiction (i.e., city or state). Because data were clustered, hierarchical linear modeling was done with jurisdiction assigned at level 2 in each model. See Mustanski et al.38 for additional information about methods used to calculate design effects and to account for intracluster correlation. Surveys received from 28 887 youths were combined across the 9 jurisdictions and 2 waves of collection. Students were excluded if they did not provide important information for analyses (i.e., were missing covariates or outcome variables), leading to a final analytic sample of 24 591 youths (85.1% of original sample).
RESULTS Section: Choose Top of page Abstract METHODS RESULTS << DISCUSSION References CITING ARTICLES Table 1 presents selected sociodemographic characteristics of the ethnically diverse youths included in analyses. Among girls, those identifying as a sexual minority made up more than 8% of the analytic sample, and among boys, sexual minorities made up almost 5% of the analytic sample. Mean age was 15.9 years (SD = 1.3; range = 13–18 years). TABLE 1— Sample Characteristics of US High School Students: Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System Survey, 2005 and 2007 Characteristics No. (%) Girls (n = 12 132) Ethnicity Asian-American 1357 (11.2) African-American 3218 (26.5) Latina 2222 (18.3) Other ethnicityb 1114 (9.2) White (Ref) 4221 (34.8) Sexual orientation identity Lesbian 137 (1.1) Bisexual 628 (5.2) Unsure 303 (2.5) Heterosexual (Ref) 11 064 (91.2) Boys (n = 12 459) Ethnicity Asian-American 1714 (13.8) African-American 2906 (23.3) Latino 2220 (17.8) Other ethnicitya 1046 (8.4) White (Ref) 4573 (36.7) Sexual orientation identity Gay 149 (1.2) Bisexual 221 (1.8) Unsure 268 (2.2) Heterosexual (Ref) 11 821 (94.9) The percentage of youths engaging in purging and diet pill use are presented in Table 2 for each gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation identity group. In general, a higher percentage of sexual minorities within each ethnicity group reported purging and use of diet pills than did heterosexuals among both girls and boys. Within some groups, as much as a one quarter to more than one third of sexual minorities reported purging or diet pill use to control weight in the past 30 days, compared with a mean of approximately 8% of heterosexual girls and 5% of heterosexual boys across ethnicity groups. Table 2 also presents the percentages of obesity for each gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation identity group. Among girls who were not Asian American, the percentage of obesity in heterosexuals ranged from 6% to 12% across ethnicity groups, whereas this percentage in sexual minorities ranged widely from 4% to 27%. Among boys, the percentage of obesity in bisexuals was especially elevated, ranging from 20% to 50% in Latinos, Whites, and other ethnicity groups compared with a mean of approximately 15% among heterosexuals in these groups. Asian Americans had a lower percentage of obesity compared with other ethnicity groups among both girls and boys. TABLE 2— Prevalence of Purging (Vomiting or Laxatives), Diet Pill Use, and Obesity in US High School Students: Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System Survey, 2005 and 2007 Characteristics Total, No. (%) Purge,a % Diet Pills,a % Obese,b % Girls (n = 12 132) Asian-American Lesbian 12 (0.9) …c …c 0 Bisexual 33 (2.4) 13.9 11.8 0 Unsure 52 (3.8) 5.7 8.9 0 Heterosexual 1260 (92.9) 3.0 1.9 2.3 African-American Lesbian 52 (1.6) 15.2 1.4 19.2 Bisexual 156 (4.8) 6.3 6.7 26.9 Unsure 62 (1.9) 24.2 8.5 12.9 Heterosexual 2948 (91.6) 3.5 2.8 12.2 Latina Lesbian 22 (1.0) 26.7 44.7 4.5 Bisexual 124 (5.6) 15.1 9.1 16.9 Unsure 46 (2.2) 8.2 10.1 15.2 Heterosexual 2030 (91.5) 6.4 4.0 9.1 Other ethnicityd Lesbian 28 (2.5) 18.8 0 16.7 Bisexual 88 (7.9) 13.4 11.5 11.4 Unsure 50 (4.5) 22.2 3.3 14.0 Heterosexual 948 (85.1) 6.1 4.9 11.2 White Lesbian 23 (0.5) 15.2 18.4 13.0 Bisexual 227 (5.4) 18.6 14.2 14.5 Unsure 93 (2.2) 8.3 6.9 9.7 Heterosexual 3878 (91.9) 6.1 5.1 5.6 Boys (n = 12 459) Asian-American Gay 14 (0.8) …c …c 7.1 Bisexual 29 (1.7) 18.9 21.1 10.3 Unsure 89 (5.2) 9.1 1.4 5.6 Heterosexual 1582 (92.3) 2.1 2.9 9.3 African-American Gay 39 (1.3) 14.6 17.7 5.1 Bisexual 51 (1.8) 35.3 41.9 15.7 Unsure 52 (1.8) 7.2 6.5 13.5 Heterosexual 2764 (95.1) 4.8 3.5 14.8 Latino Gay 32 (1.4) 12.4 6.5 21.9 Bisexual 36 (1.6) 7.8 5.8 50.0 Unsure 24 (1.1) 17.8 29.6 25.0 Heterosexual 2128 (95.9) 2.8 4.1 18.1 Other ethnicityd Gay 21 (2.0) 22.2 23.1 23.8 Bisexual 29 (2.8) 30.4 20.0 48.3 Unsure 30 (2.9) 10.3 30.4 16.7 Heterosexual 966 (92.4) 3.7 4.2 16.6 White Gay 43 (0.9) 16.2 12.8 11.6 Bisexual 76 (1.7) 13.6 11.4 19.7 Unsure 73 (1.6) 11.1 9.0 22.9 Heterosexual 4381 (95.8) 2.1 2.9 13.7 Multivariable models were fit to examine main effects for sexual orientation identity and ethnicity on eating disorder symptoms and obesity and to examine for possible interaction effects. Ethnicity did not modify sexual orientation identity associations with outcomes; therefore, results of main effects models are presented in the following and in Table 3. Sizable sexual orientation disparities in eating disorder symptoms in both girls and boys were observed. Sexual minority girls had 2 to 4 times the odds of purging and diet pill use compared with heterosexual peers, and sexual minority boys had 3 to approximately 7 times the odds of these behaviors compared with heterosexual peers. Compared with White same-gender peers, Asian American and African American girls had lower odds of purging and diet pill use, whereas African American boys had higher odds of purging, and other ethnicity boys had higher odds of both purging and diet pill use. TABLE 3— Odds of Purging, Diet Pill Use, and Obesity Associated With Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation Identity in US High School Students: Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System Survey, 2005 and 2007 Purging,a OR (95% CI) Diet Pill Use,a OR (95% CI) Obese,b OR (95% CI) Girls Age, y 1.02 (0.96, 1.10) 1.16* (1.07, 1.26) 0.99 (0.93, 1.05) Ethnicity Asian-American 0.42* (0.27, 0.65) 0.46* (0.27, 0.79) 0.45* (0.29, 0.68) African-American 0.59* (0.45, 0.77) 0.58* (0.43, 0.80) 2.59* (2.14, 3.14) Latina 0.92 (0.79, 1.20) 0.89 (0.65, 1.22) 1.90* (1.51, 2.41) Other ethnicityc 0.93 (0.72, 1.21) 0.94 (0.67, 1.32) 2.16* (1.73, 2.70) White (Ref) 1.0 1.0 1.0 Sexual orientation identity Lesbian 3.95* (2.26, 6.89) 4.00* (2.11, 7.58) 1.50 (0.81, 2.76) Bisexual 3.23* (2.52, 4.16) 3.06* (2.29, 4.11) 2.25* (1.75, 2.88) Unsure 2.55* (1.77, 3.73) 1.91* (1.09, 3.35) 1.41 (0.88, 2.24) Heterosexual (Ref) 1.0 1.0 1.0 Boys Age, y 1.04 (0.97, 1.11) 1.15 (1.05, 1.27) 0.97 (0.93, 1.01) Ethnicity Asian-American 0.77 (0.52, 1.14) 0.84 (0.51, 1.39) 0.66* (0.53, 0.83) African-American 1.60* (1.26, 2.03) 1.16 (0.84, 1.61) 1.16 (0.98, 1.36) Latino 1.28 (0.96, 1.70) 1.21 (0.84, 1.75) 1.61* (1.35, 1.91) Other ethnicityc 1.54* (1.19, 2.01) 1.49* (1.06, 2.09) 1.41* (1.18, 1.68) White (Ref) 1.0 1.0 1.0 Sexual orientation identity Gay 5.21* (3.47, 7.82) 4.33* (2.72, 6.91) 0.87 (0.53, 1.41) Bisexual 6.16* (4.09, 9.26) 6.77* (4.20,10.91) 2.10* (1.43, 3.07) Unsure 3.76* (2.51, 5.65) 3.00* (1.71, 5.29) 1.21 (0.84, 1.74) Heterosexual (Ref) 1.0 1.0 1.0 Sexual orientation identity disparities were also observed for obesity. Bisexual girls and boys had higher odds of obesity compared with same-gender heterosexual peers. Although Asian Americans had lower odds of obesity compared with White youths, all other youths of color, with the exception of African American boys, had higher odds of obesity than their same-gender White peers.
DISCUSSION Section: Choose Top of page Abstract METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION << References CITING ARTICLES Obesity and eating disorders in adolescence put young people at risk for a myriad of immediate- and long-term health problems associated with significant morbidity, disability, medical costs, and increased risk of premature death.9,42−45 Identifying groups at elevated risk is essential to informing an effective and appropriately targeted public health response to the health burden posed by these conditions. Findings from our study of US high school students of diverse ethnicities indicated that both female and male sexual minorities of all ethnic groups were at substantially elevated risk of disordered weight-control behaviors, in some cases as much as a 7-fold increased risk. Across ethnicity groups, as many as 1 in 3 lesbian and bisexual girls engaged in these behaviors in the past month compared with fewer than 1 in 10 heterosexual girls. Similarly, across ethnicity groups, 1 in 5 gay and bisexual boys reported disordered weight-control behaviors in the past month compared with 1 in 20 heterosexual boys. Rates of obesity were elevated in female and male bisexuals compared with their same-gender heterosexual peers. Our findings of elevated rates of disordered weight-control behaviors among sexual minority adolescents were consistent with those from previous research.19,21,22 Previous statewide surveys in Massachusetts and Minnesota found gay and bisexual adolescent boys had high rates of these behaviors46,47 compared with heterosexual boys, as was also found in the Growing Up Today Study, a nationwide cohort of predominantly White youths.19 The present study added to the literature by documenting patterns of elevated risk in sexual minority boys of |
. (Published Saturday, March 12, 2016)
A tugboat crashed into a barge on the Hudson River early Saturday, killing a crew member and dumping about 5,000 gallons of fuel into the water. Two others aboard the tug were missing and presumed dead.
The 90-foot tugboat named Specialist hit a barge at around 5:20 a.m., near the site where the new Tappan Zee Bridge is being built, police said.
Within minutes, it sank in more than 40 feet of water, officials said.
"This was a loss of life and it is tragic, and our hearts go out to the families that had to hear that news today," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference.
Paul Amon, 62, of Bayville, New Jersey, who was aboard the Specialist, was killed in the accident, authorities said.
New York State Police, the U.S. Coast Guard and fire and police agencies from Westchester and Rockland counties were searching for the missing crew members. Their names haven't been disclosed.
The search was called-off for the night at about 9 p.m.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was on the scene addressing the fuel spill, and a spill team had been ordered to the site, officials said.
"We don't expect at this time any long-term damage," Cuomo said of the spill. He went on to say: "So far we believe that we have it contained."
The tugboat was pushing a barge down the Hudson when it crashed into a barge that is part of the bridge construction project, officials said. No one on that barge was injured.
The Specialist had departed from Albany and was en route to Jersey City.
The crash occurred near the scene of an earlier boat crash in 2013 that killed a bride-to-be and her fiancé's best man.
That crash, which killed Lindsey Stewart and Mark Lennon, both 30, also involved a Tappan Zee Bridge construction barge. Victims' families have filed lawsuits against several construction companies in that crash. The Coast Guard and the state Thruway Authority, which is building the bridge, said the barge was properly lighted, although additional lighting was installed after the crash.
The new bridge is to replace an adjacent aging span that now connects Westchester and Rockland County. Construction on the $3.9 billion project began in October 2013 and is expected to be completed by 2018.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New YorkOn his syndicated radio show this afternoon, Rush Limbaugh went after the “anti-gun media” for, in his belief, not caring about gun violence when it affects urban neighborhoods like Chicago and Oakland.
“You guys ever been to Chicago? Do you know what happens in Chicago every night?” Limbaugh rhetorically asked the pro-gun politicians like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) who’ve now become pro-gun control in the wake of last week’s massacre. “What happens in Chicago in a week dwarfs what happened in Connecticut. Just nobody’s reporting it. There’s no cameras up there. You don’t see it. All you see is the mayor warning the gangbangers to kill each other instead of other people. That’s all you ever see.”
Limbaugh continued: “Have you ever heard any politician go on an anti-gun rant when you’ve heard about urban violence? Does it ever happen? I’m asking. Those stories out of Chicago were happening daily. Drudge was highlighting them. But take your pick. The Rodney King incident, whatever, the Watts riots, pick one. Post-Katrina looting in New Orleans, was the anti-gun control out in force there? They never are, are they? I wonder why that is? Why is it the anti-gun people never use violence in urban neighborhoods as an example of why we have to get rid of guns?” he asked.
The conservative host then cited other cities for example: “Look at the gun violence that took place in Oakland against the cops and so forth. The anti-Second Amendment crowd never gins up, do they?”
He concluded: “There are more than 41 murders a month in Chicago. The lion’s share of them are taking place in poor black neighborhoods. I don’t hear the Reverend [Jesse] Jackson or any of the anti-gun media that we’re hearing from now raise a stink about guns in those places. That’s absolutely right. I wonder why that is. There has to be a reason.”
Listen below:
[h/t DailyRushbo]
— —
>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comWhen I was about to leave to RC in few weeks, wrote an E-mail to Puneeth asking for Do's and Don'ts at RC. One of the line in the mail said,
Since you are a Python guy, don’t write any Python code while you are there. Do something completely different.
I contemplated which language to choose. Other than Python, I knew a decent amount of Go-lang and Javascript. I previously attempted to learn rust but never dived deep into it. I reconsidered learning it and came up with the project idea.
“Capture all the internet packet and figure out how much each website is consuming the bandwidth.”
After spending three weeks at RC, I started to work on the project imon. I was excited to work on the project for several reasons
Everyone around me spoke about Rust’s memory model and how well rust is a good candidate for writing safe system programming code.
I have never done any low-level networking projects, though I had built a real-time backend for a messaging app.
This project involved working with multi-threaded programming, coroutine, and async networking at the same time.
First bummer - Lifetime
pcap is a rust crate to capture the packets from a device( Wifi, Ethernet port ). To get any useful information from the packet, you need to decode the packet carrying data of various layers. So decode Ethernet packet to pull out the payload. The payload becomes the next layer packet. The step goes on till you find required information. In my case, I need to have TCP or UDP packet to pull out wanted data. Capturing and decoding packet in same thread will make the program drop a lot of frames. So having a separate thread to sniff and decode made the program performant. So how do you communicate between two threads? I choose message passing since I had experience with coroutines, and go channels.
While passing the message via the channel from sniffer thread to decoder thread, packet didn’t live long enough to go through the channel. Here is the GH issue.
The first suggestion which came up when I asked around was clone the packet and send across the channel. After hours of debugging, I didn’t get the solutions. After few days, karthik replied
The problem is that you are trying to send a reference with a limited lifetime across a thread boundary, which is not allowed. The clone is for a slice (a reference to a byte array), you probably want to do a clone_from_slice as shown here into a static byte array, then you should be able to talk across a thread (though this technique requires using unsafe).
I had multiple encounters with a lifetime of strings, string slice. Still, I am facing life time issues. As name suggests, life time problem is for life time.
Traits
To collate the traffic data, the inferred information from packets needs to reside somewhere. SQLite was my preferred choice for ease of installation - I https://gist.github.com/kracekumar/d58ec0beab1d2ea4b17dff77aab22a58
Using the above code to insert records failed because FromSql trait wasn’t satisfied for the field date.
Adding the following lines didn’t fix the problem either.
impl FromSql for chrono::Date<utc> { fn column_result(value: u32){ println!("{:?}", value); } }
The compiler threw up an another error
The compiler allows declaring trait for types defined in the current crate. Date<utc> in Chrono doesn't implement FromSql trait.
rusqlite included support for DateTime in separate file. Importing use rusqlite::type::chrono::{DateTime<utc>} failed. For a couple of hours, I was puzzled, how come code in the project directory is unimportable? Reading the README file carefully revealed, the Cargo supports optional features to be included along with core library. Changing the Cargo.toml to have features attribute to dependencies.rusqlite fixed the issue.
[dependencies.rusqlite] version = "0.7.3" features = ["chrono"]
What this means, the additional features which are part of the code base is compiled with binary only when specified. The use case is similar to installing SQLAlchemy and installing psycopg2 driver to connect Postgres.
Serialization
The program follows daemon and client architecture. When client queries daemon to send traffic data like./binary site kracekumar.com, the daemon sends out all the traffic data associated with the domain. I choose msgpack format to communicate. The rmp crate can automatically encode/decode struct to msgpack as long as attribute #[derive(RustcDecodable, RustcEncodable)] is used.
If the struct field is declared in an another crate like rusqlite, the source crate needs to support serialization. rusqlite supports serde_json and not rustc_serialize. So I ended up using custom tuple for serialization. Probably a good candidate for PR to rmp!
Signal Handler
Rust natively doesn’t support signal handler like SIGTERM, SIGINT(Ctrl - C). This is a good and bad decision. When the SIGINT interrupt is received; the daemon could write all the cached DNS mapping to a file and read the file during startup. chan-signal provides a way to do this, but only works for threaded code. Even if the program is designed to run on a single thread, chan_select requires you to spin a new thread, when the new thread receives the interrupt, the main thread executes chan_select! and clean up is performed inside macro.
My program uses a HashMap, Arc to share data between threads safely. Using chan_signal with existing code structure caused lifetime issues for hashmap. I tried for a couple of hours to get it working, and it looked complicated than I thought. I have left to figure this out for future. Do you know any multi-threaded rust program that handles signals?
Tests
I enjoy writing tests. It spots design smell and gifts subtle hints on API flexibility. Rust follows a different convention for unit tests and integration tests. Unit tests reside in the same file where the function is defined marked by the attribute #[test]. Integration tests are set in tests directory at the same level as src. By default rust, compiler harnesses multi-threading. If you’re web developer, you can think of what can happen in integration tests :-)
Running tests in multiple threads saves a considerable amount of time for large test suites. But tearing down tables or database for every test causes race conditions in DB. Test case for create_or_update_record requires serial execution. Setting environment variable RUST_TEST_THREADS=1 runs all tests in serial mode. RUST_TEST_THREADS environment variable affects both unit and integration tests.
Cargo.toml supports [[test]] section. Test section looks like
[[test]] name = "db_integration" harness = false test = true
name points to file inside tests/db_integration.rs. db_integration.rs should have a entry point i.e main function. Tests inside db_integration.rs doesn’t contain #[test] attribute. The code looks like
Integration tests can only access public module/struct in the project crate. To assert on a struct’s field, the field should be declared pub keyword like pub has_changed: bool which makes sense.
Error Messages
Rust error message is clear, concise, colorful and comes with a error code most of the times. Error code gives detailed write up about the possible scenario with an example. Here is an error message
Cargo explain flag displays verbose information about the error and link to the RFC.
This kind of error message explanation kindles interest to learn more. Some error message comes with excellent apt suggestions to fix the error.
At one place, rust error message is confusing and annoying. Error message returned while unwrapping a None is confusing and doesn’t print line number where error occurred. Here is an example
The correct way to unwrap an option is match, try!,?, operator which is available in 1.13 or unwrap_or_else. Once I mistakenly accused foreign crate as unstable for the error. This took many encounters for me to figure out, the problem is with unwrap.
Here is output after setting RUST_BACKTRACE.
Having some sort of way to highlight the current project code in the backtrace can be visually useful for bigger project and nested code path.
lib.rs and main.rs.
Here is my src directory structure.
user@user-ThinkPad-T400 ~/c/imon> ls src cli.rs* decoder.rs ipc.rs main.rs db.rs formatter.rs lib.rs* packet.rs
main.rs is the entry point for the daemon and client. The code looks like
#[macro_use] extern crate log; extern crate env_logger; extern crate imon; fn main(){ env_logger::init().unwrap(); imon::cli::parse_arguments(); }
lib.rs contains all the external crate imports and public modules. The public modules declared here are only importable in any foreign crate utilizing the project.
#[macro_use] extern crate log; extern crate env_logger; use std::fmt; pub mod cli; pub mod decoder; pub mod packet;
To use a macro defined in the crate log in any rust file inside src except lib.rs no import is needed. All foreign crate are imported in lib.rs and another rust file can use importables like use foo; foo.method() but in main.rs needs extern crate log; statement and doesn’t look in lib.rs. The import distinction between lib.rs and main.rs is a gray area to understand since both the files reside in the same directory.
Currently, I feel comfortable with rust. I haven’t used most of the features in rust like mutex, macros or distributed binaries. I have lots to read about rust, writing idiomatic rust but I am confident of using rust in production. I am learning what pieces can fall apart. There has been an enormous amount of work gone into rust compiler and tooling especially cargo. If you’re aware of Python world, Cargo is a single crate which performs multiple Python packages work pip, virtualenv, pytest and cookiecutter.
I owe a big part to RC folks who patiently assisted during the learning curve. Thanks to Nick Platt, Kamal Marhubi, Mike Nielsen and others.Nobel Physics laureate Ivar Giaever has called global warming (now “climate change”) a “new religion”. Its temple is built on grounds of faith rather than scientific foundations.
Author Michael Crichton articulated the essence of this creed in a 2003 speech whereby “There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with Nature; there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result from eating from the tree of knowledge; and as a result of our actions, there is a judgment day coming for all of us. We are energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment, just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs imbibe.”
It seems the deepest, hottest pit of fossil-fueled climate change hell is reserved for crisis “deniers”. These are the heretics who have either turned their backs on true villainy of human climate sin, or worse, are its evil agents.
An article written by Forbes contributor Steve Zwick last month charges the latter. Moreover, he called for retribution, venting: “We know who the active denialists are--not the people who buy the lies, mind you, but the people who create the lies. Let’s start keeping track of them now, and when the famines come, let’s make them pay. Let’s let their houses burn. Let’s swap their safe land for submerged islands. Let’s force them to bear the cost of rising food prices. They broke the climate. Why should the rest of us have to pay for it?”
After his article ignited a firestorm of inflamed reader responses, Steve has subsequently posted a second one clarifying that it wasn’t really his wish to incite burning of skeptical households. And it’s unlikely that most ever saw that as his literal intent. I certainly understand that opinion columns, very much including mine, should often be expected to present controversial viewpoints that provoke reflection and commentary. No doubt, he clearly accomplished that.
Environmental blog author Mark Lynas has expressed a similarly harsh moral view of climate crisis skeptics: “I wonder what sentences judges might hand down at future international criminal tribunals on those who are partially but directly responsible for millions of deaths from starvation, famine and disease in decades ahead. I put this in a similar moral category to Holocaust denial-except that this time the Holocaust is yet to come, and we still have time to avoid it. Those who try to ensure we don’t will one day have to answer for their crimes.”
The horrifically offensive Holocaust/climate denier conflation has come to be indelibly inculcated into the attack lexicon through repeated references. For example, when television commentator Scott Pelly was asked in a March 23, 2006 CBS PublicEye blog post why he didn’t interview anyone who didn’t agree that global warming is a threat, he compared scientists who are skeptical about human-caused catastrophic climate change to Holocaust deniers: “If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?”
David Roberts, a regular contributor to Grist, a prominent environmental news and commentary blog site, carried the denier Holocaust theme even farther. Referring to the “denial industry”, he stated that we should have “war crime trials for these bastards---some sort of Nuremberg.”
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman, Rajendra Pachuri, even went beyond the Holocaust to compare the views of global warming crisis skeptics with those of Hitler himself. Referring to the well-known skeptic Bjorn Lombord, Pachuri stated, “What is the difference between Lomborg’s views on humans and Hitler’s? You cannot treat people like cattle.”
Another broadly applied denigration strategy is to accuse skeptical scientists and organizations of having nefarious financial ties to “evil” special interest sponsors, most particularly, being in the pockets of Big Oil companies. An example is Al Gore’s claim in a Rolling Stones article last year that: “Polluters and Ideologues are financing pseudoscientists whose job it is to manufacture doubt about what is true and false [and] ….spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on misleading advertisements in the mass media.”
Al didn’t happen to mention, however, that his alarmist Alliance for Climate Protection organization reportedly netted more than $88 million in 2008, that the Natural Resources Defense Council took in more than $95 million in 2011 operating revenues, or that the World Wildlife Fund raised more than $238 million last year. Nor did he call attention to his Generation Investment Management hedge fund that realizes huge profits from investors in government subsidized “green” projects.
But Gore hasn’t been the least bit reticent about taking high-profile positions in support of personally lucrative cap-and-trade legislation and alternative energy subsidies. Speaking before a 2007 U.S. Joint House Energy and Science Committee, he enthused: “As soon as carbon has a price, you’re going to see a wave of investment in it--there will be unchained investment.”
Yes, what better way to reduce evil carbon than to make it a profitable commodity?
Some bent on linking climate crisis skeptics to greedy corporate agendas have reverted to the desperation tactic of fabricating such evidence. A recent incident involved noted climate skeptic critic Peter Gleick who, ironically, chaired the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Task force on Scientific Ethics. Gleick illegally obtained confidential materials including financial sponsorship documents from the conservative Heartland Institute. He then publicly distributed them along with a forged document which falsely reported a $200,000 contribution from the Koch Foundation along with other intentionally misleading claims.
In reality, Heartland had received only $25,000 from Koch interests over an entire ten year period to help support a health care newsletter. None of that money was either intended or used for their climate-related research and information services. The organization had received no funding from Exxon or other petroleum companies.
Al Gore’s assertion that climate alarm skeptics, motivated by prurient interests, are “manufacturing doubt about what is true and false” ignores a far different reality. Most of that media climate reporting emanates from tax-supported government and university climate scientists whose jobs depend upon stoking alarm-fueled funding pots.
Disquieting and costly consequences of this circumstance have become apparent through Freedom of Information Act exposure of scandalous e-mail exchanges between international researchers within the U.K.’s University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU) network. Many of these communications clearly reveal that top IPCC scientists consciously misrepresented and actively withheld vitally important information …then attempted to prevent discovery. As Myron Ebell, Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center on Energy and Environment observes stated: “Several of the new e-mails show that the scientists involved in doctoring the IPCC reports are very aware that the energy-rationing policies that their junk science is meant to support would cost trillions of dollars.”
In one e-mail, a scientist warned: “It is inconceivable that policymakers will be willing to make billion-and trillion-dollar decisions for adaptation to the projected regional climate change based on models that do not even describe and simulate the processes that are the building blocks of climate variability.” Another admits: “…clearly, some tuning or very good luck [is] involved. I doubt the modeling world will be able to get away with this much longer.” Still another modeler complained: “Mike, the Figure you sent is very deceptive -- there have been a number of dishonest presentations of model results by individual authors and by IPCC …”
Of course climate model projections are fatally compromised from the get-go when based upon poor global temperature records. One e-mail posted by database programmer Ian “Harry” Harris reports: “[The] hopeless state of their [CRU] database. No uniform data integrity. It’s just a catalogue of issues that continues to grow as they’re found…There are hundreds if not thousands of pairs of dummy [surface temperature recording] stations…and duplicates…Aarrggghh! There truly is no end in sight. This project is such a MESS. No wonder I needed therapy!!”
One key source of that data is NASA’s Goddard Institute of Climate Science (GISS), headed by the Father of Fright, James Hansen. For example, on December 6, 2005 Hansen stated that the Earth’s climate was already reaching a tipping point that will result in the loss of Arctic ice as we know it, with sea levels rising as much as 80 feet during this century (40 times higher than even the upper end of the most recent IPCC summary report has projected), thus flooding coastal areas.
A GISS researcher confessed in an e-mail that “[the United States Historical Climate Network] data are not routinely kept up-to-date, and in another that NASA had inflated its temperature data since 2000 on a questionable basis. “NASA’s assumption that the adjustments made the older data consistent with future data…may not have been correct.”
Under Hansen’s influence, irresponsible GISS performance has been a long-term embarrassment to many at NASA who believe it reflects very badly upon its public reputation. This concern prompted 49 former NASA scientists and astronauts to send a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on April 10, admonishing the agency for its role in advocating a high degree of certainty that man-made CO2 is a major cause of climate change, while neglecting basic empirical evidence that calls the theory into question.
The group, which includes seven Apollo astronauts and two former directors of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, are dismayed over the failure of NASA, particularly GISS, to make an objective assessment of all available scientific data on climate change. They charge that NASA is relying too heavily upon complex climate models that have proven to be scientifically inadequate for climate predictions as little as one or two decades in advance.
Senator John Kerry, who civil servant Hansen had famously endorsed for his 2004 presidential run, recently lamented a political climate change regarding what he referred to as “the flat-Earth caucus” of global warming skeptics, saying: “Even amid the ‘Tuesday Group’…a bi-partisan block of lawmakers, mostly Democrats, who are interested in energy issues… you can’t talk about climate now. People just turn off. It’s extraordinary. Only for national security and jobs will they open their minds.”
More and more Americans no longer buy that indictment. Nor, apparently, do many Democrat senators who are currently facing hot challenges from skeptical cooler-headed opponents.Bioprinting, or the process of creating human tissues through 3D printers, is a highly contested area of technological innovation. Theoretically it could save the economy billions on a global scale, whilst boosting weak or war-torn countries' access to more affordable health care and provision, whether producing prosthetic limbs or highly customised fully-working human organs.
From a technological perspective, the rise and development of 3D printing and its capabilities will play an undeniable part in our future lives. But how does the process work?
UK-based company PrinterInks has teamed up with US startup Organovo, a company specialised in designing and printing functional human tissue for medical research and therapeutic applications, to create a visual guide to the subject.
3D printed human tissue is created by using modified printer cartridges and extracted cells, sourced from patient biopsies with respect to examining cancer cells, or stem cells. They're grown using standard techniques and cultured in a growth medium in dishes, allowing them to multiply.
Once enough cells have grown, they're collected and formed into spheroids or other shapes and loaded into a cartridge to create BioInk.
The BioInk is loaded into a NovoGen MMX bioprinter along with a cartridge of Hydrogel, a kind of synthetic matrix effectively used as a kind of scaffolding for building 3D layers of cells. The printer prints a layer of the water-based gel, followed by a layer of BioInk cells, and so on. The layered calls naturally fuse together as the layers and built upon.
The printer with its BioInk and Hydrogel cartridges
Once the desired amount of layers is printed, the printed tissue is left to mature and grow as a structure, during which time the hydrogel is removed. Other researchers experimenting with bioprinting have used a sugar and water solution as a form of support for the vascular structures to great success.
Currently printed tissues are generally used for medical research; introducing disease to monitor how the tissue reacts and how future treatments may be developed. In the future, it's very likely 3D printers will be used to create simple tissues for implanting into current organs and partial organs. The printing of whole organs, if approved, could be a reality within the next decade.
Organovo recently bioprinted its first 3D liver tissue for testing purposes, and can create 24 strips of liver tissues within a single plate. In 2010 the company also printed the first human blood vessel without the use of scaffolds.
They estimate it would currently take 10 days to print an average sized liver and lobe, but estimate the speed and efficiency with which they could create such tissue structures will greatly advance in the future. After all, it would currently take 1,690,912,929,600 hours to print a liver for every member of the human race using the process in its current form.
In the mean time, Organovo plans to market and launch its 3D liver tissue to pharmaceutical companies and research labs by the end of December, and is currently developing bioprinted breast cancer tissues alongside lung and muscle tissues. With the technology advancing at such a rate, entire organs and bodies produced by 3D printers is becoming a concrete reality, rather than a freaky sci-fi concept.
The bionic ear in all its glory
In August last year the Hangzhou Dianzi University in China announced it had created biomaterial 3D printer Regenovo, which printed a small working kidney that lasted four months. Earlier in 2013, a two-year-old child in the US received a windpipe built with her own stem cells, and Princeton University printed a 'bionic ear' using a modified ink-jet printer onto a petri dish.
Ethically and morally, concerns have been raised over ensuring the quality of the organs, and who controls the right to produce them. Others claim 3D printing human components further blurs the line between man and machine, giving us the right to 'play God' on an unprecedented scale. But there is no denying that bioprinting has the potential to revolutionise medicine and healthcare beyond what seemed possible even 20 years ago.Mistah F.A.B. has been making the rounds over the course of the last week to promote his latest project, Son of a Pimp 2, and during interviews on Ebro in the Morning, The Breakfast Club, and Sway in the Morning, the Oakland, Calif. rapper has been asked over and over and over again about Marshawn Lynch, who is his first cousin. F.A.B. has talked about everything from the comeback rumors swirling around Beast Mode—“He’s done,” F.A.B. said on The Breakfast Club on Wednesday, “it’s not fun to him no more”—to what the now-former Seahawks running back plans to do in retirement.
But the most interesting and in-depth answers that F.A.B. gave about Lynch came during an hour-long appearance on XXL’s “Ante Up” podcast. F.A.B. touched on some of the topics that he talked about on other shows with regards to Lynch, but he also provided a very lengthy—and, at times, hilarious—answer when he spoke about Lynch’s financial situation. Lynch made headlines in February after a report surfaced about how he hasn’t spent a single cent of the $50 million he made playing professional football, and F.A.B. revealed that Lynch has been able to hold on to so much of his money because, according to him, his cousin is a “cheap ass hoe.”
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Image via USA TODAY Sports/Joe Nicholson
“He lives like he’s broke,” F.A.B. said after confirming that Lynch hasn’t spent any of the money he made during his time in the NFL. “He still lives like, ‘Cuz, let me get $10.’ ‘Oooh, $10? Cuz, I don’t know. I don’t got it right now. How much is them? Oooh, $40? No, let me get the $15 ones.’ Like, that’s how he is. You’ll be like, ‘Bro, are you serious?’ Like, we’ll go out to eat or go somewhere and he’ll be like, ‘How much is the whomp whomp? Oooh, hell no! $60? Oh no, no. Let me get the $25 one right there, though, the one on the side of it. Yup, that one’s good!’ I’m like, ‘Cuz, you are a cheap ass hoe, bro.’ That’s just how he is. You learn to love him.”
F.A.B. also got serious for a second and said Lynch’s spending habits have rubbed off on him and those who hang around Beast Mode on a regular basis.
“It’s a beauty,” F.A.B. said, “because he shows us how to save money, how to keep things going, and he’s a symbol of hope for us.”
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You can listen to F.A.B.’s entire appearance on the “Ante Up” podcast below:
After hearing the way F.A.B. talks about Lynch—and after reading stories like this one that features Lynch talking about driving a 1986 Honda Civic and working as an Uber driver in his spare time—it’s not hard to see why Beast Mode has so much money squirreled away in the bank. It's also not hard to see why his former teammates used to call on him for help with their 401k plans.
Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.From top: yesterday’s Sunday Times, William Fry logo.
“The law firm William Fry, which is representing the businessman Denis O’Brien in a case against the state, is set to be appointed as legal adviser to the government established commission of investigation into transactions by IBRC, including deals with O’Brien. Law firms that were unsuccessful in tendering for the contract to advise the inquiry were told last week that William Fry was the winning bidder. William Fry declined to comment on the contract or on potential conflicts of interest with its work for O’Brien.””The law firm is acting for the media tycoon in a case launched in June against the Dail committee of procedure and privileges, which O’Brien claims breached his constitutional rights.”
…
“William Fry has a long-standing relationship with O’Brien, and represented him in a recent case against RTÉ as well as in previous proceedings against the Revenue Commissioners. The law firm also previously carried out an investigation into potential conflicts of interest arising from the wind-down of the wealth management division of IBRC, which will be among the issues probed by the commission of investigation.”
Gavin Daly, in yesterday’s Sunday TimesFirst Trimester: Coping with Nausea & Food Aversion
Up to 90% of women experience some form of food aversion, nausea or vomiting during their pregnancy. The good news is that only about 1:5000 will experience nausea and vomiting that requires medical intervention. Most women, find their symptoms are limited to the first trimester and are manageable with some easy adaptations.
Food Aversions
By far the most common food aversion women experience is aversion to protein. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes great sense, in fact, evolutionary biologist, Margie Profet, proposed that nausea during pregnancy evolved as a protection mechanism against toxins and other dangerous substances that could harm the developing embryo.
In ancestral times, meats had greatest chance of harbouring bacteria and parasites, which posed the greatest risk of harming the developing baby. In addition to protein aversion, my clients also describe food aversions to spicy and smoked foods. An interesting observation, as the flavours in these foods can easily mask the taste and smell of meat turned bad. Women also report an aversion to fresh green veggies. Again, these leafy green powerhouses have the potential for contamination with bacteria like salmonella and e.coli. The body is so SMART!
May women who follow a paleo/real food diet rich in quality protein sources find this new aversion to protein and food in general to be troubling and worry about possible malnutrition during this important period of fetal organogenesis. My first word of advice is DON'T WORRY! Simply focus on food QUALITY rather than stress about calorie levels or macronutrient percentages. You baby will draw upon your stores and get just what he or she needs. You only need 200-300 extra calories during pregnancy, which is a far cry for the common belief that you are ‘eating for two’. It’s more like you're eating for 1.1 or 1.2. Your body is smart and produces certain hormones that actually make it easier to acquire and store nutrients from your foods during pregnancy. Your baby will get what it needs to grow, and your hunger will return in a few weeks. Just chill and do your best.The battle to reduce food waste and increase access to nutritious food just got a whole lot cheaper and uglier in Australia.
In early December, Woolworths launched its “odd bunch” campaign, becoming the latest retailer to offer consumers “ugly” food at discount prices.
Mainstream food outlets tell us that fruit and vegetables are ugly when they are blemished, misshapen (perhaps with an extra appendage or two), or otherwise fail to meet their usual standards.
Ugly food is marketed as a way to reduce food waste. But selling it cheap won’t help, because it doesn’t address the underlying issue: that we’re buying too much food.
Wasting away
Australian households throw out up to A$8 billion worth of food each year. The environmental impacts range from wasted water and fertiliser, to significant methane emissions from rotting food in rubbish tips.
In affluent nations like Australia, most wasted food has already been bought and brought home (so-called “post-consumer food waste”). Developed countries have largely eradicated the problems that lead to food wastage in poorer countries, such as pest infestation and inadequate storage or transportion. Yet rates of food waste seem to be similar everywhere, equating to about a third of the food produced.
Research shows that 72% of Australians feel guilty when they waste food, yet still do it. Over the past decade numerous initiatives have appeared, courtesy of charities such as SecondBite, Ozharvest, and The Yellow Van, which redistribute food to those in need, as well as consumer awareness campaigns such as Love Food Hate Waste and FoodWise.
Supermarket swoop
By offering discounted imperfect food, retailers are now positioning themselves as part of this broader effort to cut food waste.
Woolworths’ “Odd Bunch” campaign and Harris Farm Market’s “Imperfect Picks” are part of a worldwide trend started by French supermarket Intermarché’s “Inglorious” initiative, launched earlier this year. Tied to the European Union’s year against food waste, Intermarché’s campaign aimed to “rehabilitate and glorify” ugly food. It led to a 24% increase in store traffic and attracted global attention.
Advertisements show Intermarché’s inglorious fruit and vegetables in all their wayward glory, accompanied by descriptions such as “grotesque apple”, “ridiculous potato”, “hideous orange”, “disfigured eggplant” and “failed lemon”.
Alongside the tongue-in-cheek descriptions are reminders that under these deformed exteriors lies fresh, nutritious, tasty food, such as “a grotesque apple keeps the doctor away as well”.
The undesirable natural packaging of inglorious foods is presented as beneficial to consumers because they are 30% cheaper than their more aesthetically pleasing counterparts. But this message also reinforces the notion that “ugly” (even if only skin-deep) equals “cheap” when it comes to food.
Sell it cheap, waste it anyway
In affluent countries like France and Australia, access to cheaper food doesn’t mean less household food waste. What’s more, charging lower prices for ugly fruit and vegetables also neglects the fact that the same labour is required to produce and harvest crops, regardless of their appearance. Thus ugly food helps to perpetuate a food system that undervalues food, in which consumers routinely buy too much and throw away the leftovers.
My research has investigated the food waste behaviours of consumers of mainstream supermarkets and alternative food networks such as community gardens and farmers’ markets. The results suggest that people who grow some of their own food or talk directly to |
-- has reached the boiling point. And that there are gender and cultural issues swirling around Palin's nomination that would have created conflict even without the added complication of her daughter's pregnancy.
Let's get straight to the news:
Sen. John McCain's top campaign strategist accused the news media Tuesday of being "on a mission to destroy" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life.
In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.
Arguing that the media queries are being fueled by "every rumor and smear" posted on left-wing Web sites, Schmidt said mainstream journalists are giving "closer scrutiny" to McCain's little-known running mate than to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin. Obama campaign officials have complained to news organizations that their man has been subjected to considerably more investigative reporting than McCain has, but they have done so in more low-key fashion.
By contrast, Schmidt spoke on the record in denouncing as "an absolute work of fiction" a New York Times account of the process by which the McCain campaign vetted Palin. He also charged that Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman was predicting that the governor might have to step down as McCain's vice presidential choice.
Fineman said that he has "never, ever said that," and that he has pointed out positive aspects of Palin's candidacy. "They decided a long time ago that they were going to work the refs," he said.
The lead author of the Times report, Elisabeth Bumiller, said she is "completely confident about the story." As for the campaign's criticism, she said: "This is what they do. It's part of their operation."
McCain also canceled a scheduled appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday in retaliation for an interview a day earlier in which prime-time host Campbell Brown repeatedly pressed campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds to provide one example of a decision that Palin had made as commander of the Alaska National Guard.
"The interview was totally fair," Brown said. "I was trying to get an answer. I was persistent, but I was respectful. That's my job. Experience is a legitimate issue when John McCain raises it about Obama, and it's also legitimate for us to raise it about Palin."
Schmidt, a former spokesman for President Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, talked openly about his frustrations in an interview with The Washington Post. He said the McCain camp is in the middle of the worst media "feeding frenzy" he has ever seen.
The fact that unsubstantiated allegations appear on the Internet "is not a license for smearing" Palin, he said. "The campaign has been inundated by hundreds and hundreds of calls from some of the most respected reporters and news organizations. Many reporters have called the campaign and have apologized for asking the questions and said, 'Our editors are making us do this, and I am ashamed.' "
The intensity of media inquiries hit a new level after an anonymous blogger on the liberal Web site Daily Kos last weekend charged that McCain's running mate is actually the grandmother of Trig Palin, the 4-month-old baby born with Down syndrome, and that the real mother is her daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin. That led to mainstream media inquiries, which prompted the McCain camp to disclose in a statement Monday that Bristol is five months pregnant and plans to have the baby and marry the teenage father.
The site's founder, Markos Moulitsas, said he did not know the contributor's identity but thought that the admittedly "weird" pregnancy questions were a legitimate line of inquiry that he should not suppress.
Some journalists, Schmidt said, have demanded to see Trig's birth certificate, or have asked when Palin went into labor and whether her contractions increased or decreased as she traveled from Texas to an Alaskan hospital in her home town, Wasilla. Others, he said, have asked whether Palin's eldest son, Track, who serves in the Army and is deploying to Iraq, is a drug addict. "Categorically false," Schmidt said, adding: "This is crazy."
News organizations routinely ask questions about allegations in an attempt to determine their veracity, and Schmidt did not contend that they were publishing or broadcasting false information about Palin and her family. But he said the media is asking more questions about Palin's pregnant daughter than about Obama's real estate deal with fundraiser Tony Rezko, who recently was convicted on corruption charges. Obama has called that transaction a "boneheaded mistake."
Bloggers on the left and right increasingly drive media coverage by turning up the volume on questions until they are difficult to ignore. Sometimes they are right, as when they questioned what CBS's Dan Rather said were National Guard documents in a 2004 report on President Bush's military service that led to Rather's ouster as the network's anchor. And sometimes they are wrong. Last year, the New Republic retracted a soldier's dispatch on petty wartime cruelty in Iraq, and National Review Online acknowledged that two blog postings by a former Marine about military movements in Lebanon were misleading.
Major newspapers, magazines and networks no longer play their traditional gatekeeper role in the digital age, as was evident during the eight-month period when the National Enquirer was charging former senator John Edwards with fathering an out-of-wedlock baby. Most national news outlets did not report the allegations until last month, when Edwards acknowledged an affair with a former campaign aide but denied being her child's father.
Still, traditional media outlets can amplify and legitimize such reports, which might be why the McCain campaign is fighting so hard to keep the Palin allegations confined to the Internet. Denouncing the news media as biased also plays well with many Republican voters.
Palin has been unavailable to the media since she became McCain's surprise choice Friday, adding to the difficulties for news organizations pursuing stories about her life and career. Campaign manager Rick Davis said it would be unrealistic for her to grant interviews as she prepares for "the most important speech of her life," her acceptance address at the convention here. Schmidt said she will be made available for interviews after the convention, a similar timetable followed by Obama's running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.).
Perhaps the greatest concern to the McCain campaign is that the constant inquiries, amplified by cable television debates over whether a mother with a pregnant daughter and four other children can effectively function as vice president, will create a perception that her nomination is in trouble. "We are being bombarded by e-mails and phone calls from journalists asking when she will be dropping out of the race," Schmidt said.
One final thought: There is more of a distinction than Schmidt is willing to grant between asking and publishing. I remember Marcia Kramer of New York's WCBS-TV telling me how sheepish she felt calling Eliot Spitzer's office and asking about a tip that the governor had patronized prostitutes. Days later, he was gone. Sometimes you have to ask the question. But we in the media have to be careful that we don't overplay our hand on the Palin situation.
If your media diet hasn't reached the saturation point, check out my piece on a secret meeting of Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch and Barack Obama.
The Republican convention is only halfway over, and complaints about the press are rising, as the L.A. Times reports:
"Delegates to the Republican National Convention whirled in their seats en masse and called out from the floor: 'Tell the truth! Tell the truth!' The chants and finger-wagging were directed toward the sky boxes. Their target: the television networks and the rest of the 'liberal mainstream media.'
"It happened 20 years ago, as the GOP gathered in New Orleans, Times political writer Mark Z. Barabak recalled this week. But the scene could have come from the convention floor Tuesday in St. Paul, where the Republican faithful began working out once again on a favorite punching bag. Their goal: to lessen the burden on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, five election cycles after the media were lambasted because it dared to question the credentials of another would-be vice president, Dan Quayle. The GOP deployed its principal spokespeople, elected officials, delegates and cable television surrogates with one essential message: Mess with our gal, Sarah, or her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, and we will mess with you."
Politico:
"The culture wars are making a sudden and unexpected encore in American politics, turning more ferocious virtually by the hour as activists on both sides of the ideological divide react to the addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket...
"The selection of Palin -- a new heroine of social conservatives -- has helped reignite not only abortion but also other flash-point issues in a way few of McCain's other vice presidential options would have done. Conservatives see her as a kindred spirit who lives her anti-abortion words in the most profound way: by giving birth to a child she knew would be born with Down syndrome. Gun owners see her as authentically one of them: a hunter with a passion for the outdoors and gun freedom.
"Social liberals agree -- and are proving just as ready for combat on issues that many operatives and analysts believed would have less relevance in an Obama-McCain campaign."
Here's more on how teed off the McCain team is, from the Huffington Post:
"In a recent email to the press, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers wrote: 'All: I know that the Obama campaign is pushing around many false attacks on Governor Palin, and wanted to make sure you had the facts. The allegations that Gov. Palin was a member of Alaska Independence Party are false. She's never been a member of the Alaska Independence Party. Gov. Palin has been a registered Republican ever since 1982, as the records attached show. It would be nice if the media outlets covering this garbage actually did their due diligence in reporting, and didn't just push Obama campaign/Daily Kos smears.' "
Uh-oh: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live."
The depth of the culture war should be apparent from this New Republic essay by Alan Wolfe:
"Sarah Palin's nomination is a public service. No longer will we hear lectures from the likes of Newt Gingrich telling poor women on welfare how to conduct their sex lives. Focus on the Family will have to focus on a different kind of family. William Bennett has no virtues left to write about. At long last our national nightmare over sexual hypocrisy has come to an end, and we can all thank John McCain for that.
"And that is not all. In rushing to Sarah Palin's defense, the leaders of the Christian right have made it abundantly clear how they define a Christian. We don't care if you sin. We are not bothered if you put your ambition ahead of the needs of your children. If you have lied or broken the law, we will look the other way. It all comes down to your stand on guns and fetuses. Vote the right way, and you have our blessing. If any proof were needed that James Dobson is a political operative rather than a spiritual leader, his jumping on the Palin bandwagon offers it."
While praising Obama and Biden for declaring Palin's kids off-limits, National Review is disgusted with the MSM:
"The New York Times's webpage on Tuesday led with no fewer than three stories about Bristol Palin's pregnancy. CNN has tried to exploit Miss Palin as a laboratory specimen for a high-profile examination of sex-education. MSNBC and the Huffington Post are titillating viewers with exposes on Miss Palin's boyfriend. Slate, owned by the Washington Post, is running a 'Name Bristol Palin's Baby' contest. US Weekly has 'Babies, Lies, and Scandal' on its cover.
"But unsavory as all this is, it can't hold a candle to Andrew Sullivan. Once a respectable journalist, The Atlantic's self-declared champion of respect for privacy and of civil discourse now obsesses over Miss Palin, airing baseless and abhorrent questions about the motherhood of Trig, Gov. Palin's infant son, born this year with Down syndrome. One wonders if David Bradley bought The Atlantic -- a venerable institution that once published Mark Twain and Martin Luther King -- so that he could associate it with the most despicable ravings of the left-wing blogosphere. What price in reputation is Bradley willing to pay for increased unique-visitor numbers from among the fever swamps?
"This shameful but predictable media performance stands in marked contrast to the rigorous 'hands-off' privacy policy dutifully honored by the press throughout the Clinton years for the president's then-teenage daughter, Chelsea. Indeed earlier this year, though Miss Clinton was now well into her twenties and an impressively poised surrogate for her mother's campaign, NBC News suspended reporter David Shuster for asserting that Sen. Clinton's campaign was 'pimping' her daughter -- a classless formulation, to be sure. But where's the hyper-sensitivity about a candidate's child now?
"When Al Gore's son was arrested on narcotics and speeding charges in 2007, moreover, the national press was a model of sympathetic restraint. The muted coverage was devoid of calls for a national "teaching moment" on drug abuse or responsible driving. The message was plain and correct: No news here, move along. The Republican base and other people of good will are angry over this grotesque display. It is obvious what the media and Democrats are up to here. They want to define Sarah Palin as a failure before she even has a chance to succeed."
By the way, the McCain camp denies ABC's report that Palin was once a member of the Alaska Independence Party, although she did speak at its 2000 convention.
Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."
© 2008 The Washington Post CompanyIf it’s a particularly depressing loss, all of those events increase ten-fold, and Clemson’s loss to Georgia Tech Saturday in Atlanta was particularly galling. The big question – if recruiting has been going as well as we’ve been led to believe then how can this team and this offense be so reliant on one player?
It also leads fans to question every part of the program, including strength and conditioning and even team doctors. On the ride home, we sat and talked about the state of the Clemson program and it became evident early in the conversation that Clemson’s depth has been hurt by injuries this season, but in looking back at previous recruiting classes it also became evident that there are a significant number of recruits who are either done playing because of physical problems, have transferred out of the program or been dismissed by head coach Dabo Swinney Dabo Swinney
Head Coach
View Full Profile.
Add in early entrants into the NFL Draft and Clemson’s depth – or lack thereof – becomes particularly noticeable. Obviously the numbers are skewed because many of the players who leave or are dismissed or have injuries have their spots taken by recruits at some point over the next two seasons.
However, many of those spots are taken by walk-ons and that was never more evident than Saturday when freshman Deshaun Watson Deshaun Watson
Fr. Quarterback
#4 6-3, 204
Gainesville, GA
View Full Profile was injured. Senior Cole Stoudt Cole Stoudt
Sr. Quarterback
#18 6-4, 231
Dublin, OH
View Full Profile was ineffective, but the next three options on the depth chart are either former walk-ons or walk-ons.
A closer look at the numbers - and you can make your own decisions - but a startling 25 players from the recruiting classes from 2010-14 are either no longer with the program or have had their careers cut short by injury. When you have only 85 scholarships, that’s a big number.
Listed below are all of the players who signed with Clemson and are no longer on the Tigers roster for one reason or another. If even just a few of these were still in school it would greatly improve Clemson’s depth, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Clemson had three quarterbacks on the roster at some point over the last four years that have all transferred or been forced to retire due to injury – Morgan Roberts Morgan Roberts
RS Fr. Quarterback
#15 6-2, 200
Charlotte, NC
View Full Profile is now the starting quarterback at Yale, Tony McNeal Tony McNeal
RS Fr. Quarterback
#12 6-0, 195
Chester, SC
View Full Profile was never able to fully recover from knee injuries and Chad Kelly Chad Kelly
RS Fr. Quarterback
#11 6-2, 210
Buffalo, NY
View Full Profile was of course dismissed from the team early this year.
There are 4 wide receivers, two running backs, and six offensive linemen no longer with the Clemson program.
2010
4-star wide receiver Martavis Bryant Martavis Bryant
Wide Receiver (2011 - 2013)
#1 6-5, 200
Calhoun Falls, SC
View Full Profile – declared for the NFL as a junior (signed with Clemson in 2010 but had to attend prep school)
4-star linebacker Justin Parker Justin Parker
Linebacker (2010 - 2012)
#8 6-1, 235
Port Royal, SC
View Full Profile – forced to retire due to injury
3-star defensive tackle Tra Thomas Tra Thomas
RS So. Offensive Line
#59 6-0, 275
Wadesboro, NC
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star linebacker Jake Nicolopulos Jake Nicolopulos
Linebacker
# 6-2, 220
Anderson, SC
View Full Profile – forced to retire due to illness
3-star athlete Joe Craig Joe Craig
Wide Receiver (2010 - 2011)
#81 5-10, 160
Gaffney, SC
View Full Profile – dismissed
3-star defensive back Bashaud Breeland Bashaud Breeland
(2010 - 2013)
#17 6-0, 195
Allendale, SC
View Full Profile – declared for the NFL as a junior
3-star running back Demont Buice Demont Buice
Running Back (2010 - 2011)
#24 6-1, 225
Gadsden, AL
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star safety Desmond Brown Desmond Brown
Safety (2010 - 2011)
#45 5-11, 185
Centre, AL
View Full Profile – dismissed
2-star linebacker Ricky Chaney – never enrolled
3-star offensive lineman Gifford Timothy Gifford Timothy
Offensive Tackle (2010 - 2013)
#70 6-6, 310
Middletown, DE
View Full Profile – forced to retire due to injury
2-star safety Evan McKelvey – never enrolled
2011
5-star wide receiver Sammy Watkins Sammy Watkins
Wide Receiver (2011 - 2013)
#2 6-1, 205
Fort Myers, FL
View Full Profile – declared for the NFL as a junior
4-star running back Mike Bellamy Mike Bellamy
Running Back (2011)
#5 5-10, 175
Nocatee, FL
View Full Profile – dismissed
4-star linebacker Lateek Townsend Lateek Townsend
Linebacker (2011 - 2012)
#20 6-2, 215
Bennettsville, SC
View Full Profile – transferred
4-star safety Cortez Davis Cortez Davis
Cornerback (2011 - 2012)
#29 6-3, 200
Daytona Beach, FL
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star quarterback Tony McNeal – forced to retire due to injury
3-star offensive lineman Shaq Anthony Shaq Anthony
Offensive Tackle (2011 - 2014)
#76 6-4, 276
Williamston, SC
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star linebacker Colton Walls Colton Walls
Linebacker (2011)
#48 6-2, 220
Charlotte, NC
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star offensive lineman Jerome Maybank Jerome Maybank
Offensive Guard (2011 - 2013)
#72 6-3, 345
Pawleys Island, SC
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star quarterback Morgan Roberts – transferred
2012
4-star quarterback Chad Kelly – dismissed
4-star offensive lineman Patrick DeStefano Patrick DeStefano
Offensive Line (2012 - 2013)
#71 6-5, 275
Spartanburg, SC
View Full Profile – forced to retire due to injury
3-star safety Ronald Geohaghan Ronald Geohaghan
Defensive Back (2012 - 2013)
#15 6-0, 185
Orangeburg, SC
View Full Profile – transferred
3-star athlete Marty Williams – never enrolled
2-star offensive lineman Josh Brown Josh Brown
Defensive Tackle
# 6-5, 290
Aiken, SC
View Full Profile – never enrolled
2013
4-star wide receiver Kyrin Priester Kyrin Priester
Wide Receiver (2014)
#17 6-1, 186
Lilburn, GA
View Full Profile – dismissed
Add in Clemson’s injury situation this season, and it makes it even tougher to develop the depth needed to survive a season like this one. Watson and left guard David Beasley David Beasley
RS Sr. Offensive Guard
#68 6-4, 323
Columbus, GA
View Full Profile suffered knee injuries Saturday that could end their seasons, and they would join running backs Zac Brooks Zac Brooks
Jr. Running Back
#24 6-1, 199
Jonesboro, AR
View Full Profile and Adam Choice Adam Choice
Fr. Running Back
#26 5-10, 211
Thomasville, GA
View Full Profile, safety Travis Blanks Travis Blanks
Jr. Safety
#11 6-0, 210
Tallahassee, FL
View Full Profile, offensive lineman Oliver Jones and tight end D.J. Greenlee D.J. Greenlee
RS Fr. Tight End
#87 6-1, 240
Clemson, SC
View Full Profile as Tigers who have suffered season-ending injuries.
Defensive back Martin Jenkins Martin Jenkins
RS Sr. Cornerback
#14 5-9, 185
Roswell, GA
View Full Profile, center Jay Guillermo Jay Guillermo
RS So. Center
#57 6-3, 314
Maryville, TN
View Full Profile, wide receiver Charone Peake Charone Peake
RS Jr. Wide Receiver
#19 6-3, 204
Moore, SC
View Full Profile, tight end Sam Cooper Sam Cooper
RS Sr. Tight End
#86 6-6, 250
Brentwood, TN
View Full Profile and running back D.J. Howard D.J. Howard
RS Sr. Running Back
#22 6-0, 205
Lincoln, AL
View Full Profile have all missed significant playing time this season because of injury.
How bad has it been on Clemson’s offensive line the past few seasons? Tight end Eric Mac Lain Eric Mac Lain
RS Jr. Offensive Tackle
#78 6-4, 306
Hope Mills, NC
View Full Profile, tight end Zach Riggs Zach Riggs
RS Fr. Offensive Line
#54 6-4, 240
Greer, SC
View Full Profile and defensive tackle Roderick Byers were each moved over the past few seasons to the line, joining former defensive tackle Tyler Shatley Tyler Shatley
Offensive Guard (2009 - 2013)
#62 6-3, 295
Icard, NC
View Full Profile as players who were moved from other positions in an effort to create depth.
Dismissals. Injuries. Transfers. It’s all in the numbers.Armadillo Aerospace have completed the Level 2 requirements of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge on a wet day in Texas.
“Level Two increases the difficulty of the Challenge by altering two rules. The first is the required flight time: for Level Two, vehicles must have a minimum flight time of 180 seconds (3 minutes per flight), as opposed to 90 seconds in Level One. In addition, vehicles competing in Level Two will be required to land on a simulated lunar surface. Instead of using a broad, flat, and smooth landing pad as in Level One, Level Two vehicles must be capable of safely touching down on a surface covered in boulders and craters—hazards that could potentially tip over the vehicle or damage it during landing. Teams must also then be able to service the vehicle while on the simulated lunar surface and lift off to begin its second flight.”
Congratulations to the Armadillo team!
First Flight:
Second Flight:
First Place prize is 1 million dollars. 2nd place prize is $500,000.
Two other teams will attempt soon.
Masten Space Systems will attempt to claim purses in both levels from Mojave, CA, on September 15-16 (Level One), October 7-8 (Level Two), and October 28-29 (Level Two). Unreasonable Rocket will attempt to claim purses in both levels from Cantil, CA, on Oct 30-31.
AdvertisementsFAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio - Less than a decade after its opening, the Gemini Center's natatorium roof is leaking with the city planning an estimated $1.5 million fix to begin this spring.
"We have some warm air condensing on the wall cavities that caused some leaking of the pool roof," Fairview Park Mayor Eileen Patton said. "Air pressure, airflow and cold weather climates were factors in our decision to study the roof issue in 2016 by enlisting the expertise of Construction Resources as natatorium roof issues can be caused by different factors."
The Mayor said the city spent $5,900 for the Construction Resources study, which when completed earlier this year recommended replacing the nine-year-old roof that spans the natatorium, as well as a portion of the fitness area.
"What happens when it's cold outside and warm heat gets into those space is it condensates and turns to water," Fairview Park Director of Public Service and Development Shawn Leininger said. "It's coming back into the building, and also sitting up on the roof, which could deteriorate the wood deck."
In terms of paying for roof replacement, Fairview Park Finance Director Greg Cingle said the city's options include using general fund money, as well as taking out short-term notes or general obligation bonds.
"We're still in the early stages right now," Cingle said. "That will be determined once we get further down the road."
Once approved by Fairview Park City Council, Leininger said the project would go out to bid in early spring and be completed over the summer.
"From what we know, the pool can remain open during construction," Leininger said. "We're not going to take the entire roof off. The wood deck, we believe, is intact and will remain in place."
Patton said what's troubling is the age of the Gemini Center in relation to its natatorium roof.
"Research states that a natatorium roof should have a longer life span that a decade," Patton said. "Two other West Shore pool centers had roofing problems as well before reaching the 20-year mark.
"One was a similar problem to the Gemini Center pool. Another was due to an improperly designed vapor barrier. Currently we are reviewing the design, construction and drawings details to determine what would cause leaks. We have consulted with Vickers Law Group of Westlake to review this material."can we get some omegaverse elsanna? alpha/beta/omega?
Like, Anna’s defs an omega (and wow she was so //excited when she got her first heat because who doesn’t want an omega for a partner? They’re softer and warmer and friendlier in general). She spent a good hour talking at Elsa’s door, telling her about it (after it had passed, naturally); telling Elsa about the //want and the //need she felt. She leaves off the part where she cried, realising that it’s the same feeling she’s had her whole life in regards to her sister (and the thought that, maybe now, someone might want her)
Of course, Elsa already knew. The first heat is always one of the strongest, and the smell lingered throughout the castle for weeks after. It doesn’t happen again – there’s a special plant that Idun gives Anna to chew on when she feels it rising in her; it curbs her heat, reduces it to something readily, and privately, dealt with.
Elsa is so proud of her little sister because Anna is proud. They’ve heard horror stories about the rights of omegas (or rather, lack thereof) in other places in the world, but in Arendelle, they’re treated with a sort of reverence. The Royal Family has a long history of birthing omegas, which certainly plays a part.
But once again, Elsa is stuck in a limbo. She’s never gone through that phase. She’s never had a heat, never reacted to anyone else’s.
Omegas might be prized, but betas? Well, they’re pretty much useless, aren’t they?More and more public school teachers are becoming leaders for violent behavior across the country, Through By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a group which can trace its roots to communism and pedophilia.
BAMN was created as an offshoot of the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), a communist organization that worked closely with the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) a group dedicated to advocating the statutory rape of young boys.
NAMBLA worked to eliminate the age for sexual consent and legal protection for minors. One case against NAMBLA was the arrest of 24 men in Revere, Mass, in which members lured young boys into a house with drugs and video games. They would then record themselves having sex with boys as young as eight.
So, this is the history of BAMN, which is in a large part now lead by public school teachers. Makes you proud to be an American, huh? Also makes you wonder what kind of teachers are educating your children.
Trending: Video of the Day: UCLA Students Sign Petition to put Conservatives in Concentration Camps
Arguably, the most well known leader of BAMN is Yvette Felarca, who is facing trial for inciting to riot, participating in a riot, and assault likely to cause great bodily injury. The arrest came as a result of when she led 300 of her members against just thirty marchers of a white supremacist group, in Sacramento, Ca. Felarca pleaded innocent on August 11th based on self defense.
She claims the violence was a preemptive strike against those who CONTEMPLATED violence. If that statement was true, would not anyone be committing self defense by attacking Antifa and BAMN members on sight?
BAMN organizer and high school teacher Nicole Conaway organized a “sickout” at her school in 2015, leading other teachers in calling in sick to protest the policies of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. The sickout forced six Detroit-area schools to cancel classes, affecting nearly 4,000 students.
One month later, Conaway led students in a school walkout protesting poor building conditions. She was one of three BAMN organizers arrested in connection with the protest. Other BAMN members have led similar protests at the schools where they teach.
In Berkeley, Felarca and other BAMN members repeatedly abused their positions of influence over students in service of their own radical goals, Berkeley’s public school district charged in court filings obtained by local news organization Berkeleyside.
Several teacher’s unions are also active in defending these teachers:
BAMN is active within both the National Education Association — the nation’s largest teacher’s union — as well as with local and regional teacher’s unions in Michigan and California.
Last year, 17 different BAMN members ran for elected positions on the Detroit Federation of Teachers, according to a newsletter sent out by the DFT. BAMN also ran five candidates for different national leadership positions with the NEA in 2017.
When the Berkeley school district suspended Felarca for her violent activism in 2016 (for which she was charged with inciting a riot), the local teacher’s union sued the school on Felarca’s behalf.
The most troubling case and one that exposes what teacher’s real loyalties are is the Steve Conn case. Conn was elected the head of the Detroit teacher’s union. Complaints were filed against him when he tried to tie the union to BAMN. He wanted the union to answer to BAMN and it’s radically violent agenda. He was found guilty and removed as head of the union. He appealed that decision.
The appeals process consists of rank in file teachers voting on whether to reinstate this domestic terrorist. The vote was 527-473 to reinstate. But to reinstate, he needed 2/3 s of the vote and he missed it. But shockingly, over 50% of the teachers wanted to keep Conn and align themselves with BAMN.
All of the BAMN teachers have been accused of recruiting their students for the cause. Maybe teachers are overpaid.
Related:
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And if you’re as concerned about online censorship as we are, go here and order this book (Remember, half of what we earn will be donated to Hurricane Harvey relief):A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for long-time Erdogan rival Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric, state media reports.
The 1st Istanbul Penal Court of Peace accepted the request of Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office to issue an arrest warrant for Gulen on Friday, reports Anadolu Agency.The prosecutor said Gulen should be charged with setting up or running an armed "terrorist" group.
This comes in the wake of the last week’s media raids, during which over 20 suspected Gulen supporters, including chief editors and media executives, were detained.
READ MORE: 24 detained as Turkish police raid opposition media organizations
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing the self-exiled preacher of plotting to overthrow the state.
Relations soured between the two after an anti-graft probe launched in 2013, which Erdogan suspects was an attempt by Gulen and his followers to destabilize the government.
Gulen, who heads Hizmet, an influential spiritual and social movement, has denied the allegations. Last week, Erdogan vowed to crush the "evil forces" associated with the movement and its leader.
"We are not just faced with a simple network, but one which is a pawn of evil forces at home and abroad," the president declared last Friday.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu indicated last week that Ankara may ask Interpol for a “red notice”— a document necessary for the extradition and arrest of a suspect located abroad — for Gulen.
“The judiciary will do whatever is necessary in the investigation of Fethullah Gülen. Whether it is a red notice or something else. He will not be treated differently than any other Turkish citizen," Davutoglu said during a press conference, Daily Sabah reported.
Earlier this year, Erdogan announced that he would be seeking Gulen’s extradition. However, according to international law, an arrest warrant and evidence against the cleric first had to be produced.
Gulen has repeatedly been accused of attempting to form a “parallel state.” He was tried and found guilty in 2000, before being acquitted of all charges in 2008.
Before relocating to the US in 1999, the popular cleric was one of Erdogan’s top allies. Their relationship began to deteriorate as Erdogan grew paranoid about Gulen’s growing influence, facilitated by schools, education centers, and charity organizations in over 160 countries.
Critics have accused Erdogan of building an authoritarian regime and bending the constitution to concentrate an increasing amount of power in the presidency.Footage comes to light
In the videos that follow — drawn from footage recorded at the Palmer police station on Feb. 27, 2016 — Detective Gregg Bigda and his partner, Luke Cournoyer, of the Springfield Police Department’s narcotics unit, question two teens who allegedly stole one of the unit’s undercover vehicles several hours earlier.
The boys were taken into custody after a foot chase in Palmer, after a Wilbraham officer who spotted the vehicle in that town began a pursuit.
Bigda, Cournoyer and four other Springfield officers arrived at the Palmer scene after a supervisor heard a scanner transmission about the Wilbraham vehicle pursuit in progress.
Bigda’s questioning of the teens — which includes threats of violence and planting drug evidence — led to a 60-day suspension for the detective. The incident has also impacted a number of unrelated drug cases in which Bigda was to testify as a witness, as defense attorneys have used his threats to the boys as a way to challenge his credibility.
While the videos have been quoted by defense lawyers in court hearings — with statements included in coverage by The Republican and MassLive — the publication of the footage now offers the public its first look at what actually transpired between the detectives and the youths.
Additional coverage: Footage shows Springfield detective Gregg Bigda's threats to teen suspects; legal experts say some tactics cross line »One of the finest buildings of the architect Adolf Loos, the Goldman and Salatsch building on Michaelerplatz, was taken over by the Opel company in 1938. A photo in the book shows the building with the Opel name, its four front pillars covered with Nazi flags.
The famous Majolica House, designed by Otto Wagner and on many tour agendas, was seized from a Jew named Wilhelm Frankl after the Nazis declared him mad.
Most of the cinemas and half of the pharmacies were Aryanized, and 136 of the tobacco shops in Vienna. All Jewish doctors stopped working, their offices taken over quickly. The Neue Kronen-Zeitung, which now regularly supports the far-right Austrian politician Jörg Haider, was partly owned in 1938 by the Jewish chief editor, Leopold Lipschütz, whose heirs received little.
Mr. Haider, the governor of the state of Carinthia, lives there on 4,000 acres that once belonged to a Jewish family, Giorgio and Mathilde Roifer, purchased by Mr. Haider's great uncle for a small sum. That has long been known in Vienna, but Mr. Templ notes how common this is: ''He's a typical case; he lives on stolen Jewish property.'' Mr. Ha |
fare or media attention, Mr. Spade called last week and said he wanted to donate $100,000 to the Phoenix Police Department towards the purchase of rifles to help keep our patrol officers and community safe,” the statement says.
“This mutual agreement can now move ahead with momentum thanks to the generosity of Mr. Spade.”The official Twitter account for the upcoming Final Fantasy XV PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game announced on Friday that Square Enix will print more Ultimate Collector's Editions of the game worldwide. However, the staff revealed that the second printings may not be available in time for the September 30 release date of the game.
Square Enix revealed a Deluxe Edition and Collector's Edition release for Final Fantasy XV at its "Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV" event last month. The Collector's Edition was limited to 30,000 copies worldwide and quickly sold out. The Deluxe Edition will come with a steelbook case, a copy of the Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV film, and three DLC items, including: a Royal Raiment outfit, a Masamune weapon, and a Platinum Leviathan recoloring of the Regalia vehicle. It is available for pre-order for US$89.99.The leaders of the three national parties have staked out what each hopes to be become their election campaign’s dominant theme. Stephen Harper, through his trusted lieutenant Jim Flaherty, fell back on economic management, something in which we are heavily invested (as well as in the repeated public declarations of its success). Jack Layton, inevitably, appealed to our sense of shame over the exclusion of vulnerable groups from Canada’s reputed economic achievements. Michael Ignatieff, though, stepping aside from the issues of economic well-being, sent out a sharp warning over the destruction of Canadian democracy under the Harper government. This political appeal is surprising. It is both abstract and arcane and may not prove to be a durable campaign theme. But it is sensible. Ignatieff is right to claim that key elements of parliamentary democracy have been significantly eroded during the Harper regime and that, as a result, Canadian democracy has been placed at risk.
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Liberal democracy is constructed on two underlying principles, the first being the right of the people to choose the nation’s governors and to pass judgment on their administration and policies. The other is to control the dangers that arise from basing political power on the wishes of popular majorities. From its beginning, the promoters of liberal democracy recognized the risks of majority rule. They knew that when majority support is the only legitimating condition of power, those holding power would ignore constitutional restraints, violate minority rights, abridge basic freedoms, use its power to reward supporters and punish enemies and cling to power beyond their constitutional entitlement. It was fear of these tendencies of majorities that led to a more complex statecraft, one that imposes checks on political power.
The most obvious check is electoral accountability, secured through timely elections and fair election rules, but there are two other equally essential restraints on power. The first is the concept of “responsible government.” This means that the government must be accountable to Parliament. It must have the continuing support of Parliament and it must answer to Parliament with respect to its policies and actions. Parliamentary members must have access to those mechanisms that allow them to review the conduct of government — such things as votes on government bills, question period, Speaker’s rulings, administrative and budgetary information, legislative officers (such as the auditor general) who review governmental conduct and legislative committees that scrutinize policies and administration. Canada’s current experience raises questions over the integrity of responsible government. For instance: • The government possibly contracted for the silence of one of the parliamentary officers — Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet — and interfered with her work.
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• It refused to hold International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda responsible for failing to meet the essential standard of disclosure in dealing with Parliament and its committees. • It refused to provide parliamentarians with the cost implications of new policies and new legislation defeating Parliament’s ability to hold the government to account. • It has merged political campaigning with governmental administration thereby gaining partisan advantage at public expense. These actions are not just bad government, or a source of political embarrassment; they represent an erosion of our constitutional structure. Equally significantly, the government, through insisting that coalitions are a political pathology, has perverted the principles of responsible government and endangered national political stability. Responsible government is an essential instrument of democratic control and it depends on full commitment to its values and methods. When these are abridged a vital element of Canadian democracy is lost. The second mechanism is the rule of law, or constitutionalism. Governments must act according to the laws and the Constitution and be subject to the determinations of an independent judiciary. We have seen governmental snubbing of the Supreme Court in the handling of the Khadr case, the constitutional ruling ultimately being preserved through the initiative of American prosecutors. We have also experienced the breach of constitutional convention. Twice prorogation was resorted to in circumstances that are outside its proper constitutional function, once to avoid parliamentary defeat and once to avoid meeting proper parliamentary demands for information. And a senior Canadian court has found that election laws have been violated by the government party. Some justify abridgements of responsible government and the rule of law by claiming that these faults are cured if a majority of the population approves the government’s actions. But this is precisely the argument that is not available in a liberal democratic state. Constitutional structures designed to preserve liberal democratic principles cannot be waived by majorities. Such an argument ignores the purposes of constitutional design. We have a complex state precisely because political ambition can so often be too simple and too naked. Losing the core structures of Canadian democracy would mean the defeat of our long-held ambition to be a good state. Ignatieff is telling Canadians something that is important to us. John Whyte is professor emeritus of law, Queen’s University.After more than five years the long-running and controversial file-sharing case of Joel Tenenbaum against the RIAA continues with his legal team filing a petition for a rehearing en banc. Tenenbaum argues that the jury instruction which led to a staggering $675,000 fine was both erroneous and prejudicial.
Boston student Joel Tenenbaum is the poster child of an entire generation of downloaders, and one of the few people to stand up against the RIAA instead of signing off on a settlement.
His case has been dragging on for half a decade already. In 2009, a jury found Tenenbaum guilty of “willful infringement” and awarded damages mounting to $675,000.
July last year judge Nancy Gertner ruled that the penalty was excessive and unconstitutional and the jury-awarded damages were subsequently reduced by 90%, a decision that was reversed two months ago after a new hearing at the Court of Appeals. And this week the case moved forward again.
“The defendant seeks an en banc hearing on one ground: that it is unconstitutional to instruct a jury that it can return an unconstitutionally excessive award,” Harvard law professor Charles Nesson now writes to the court.
Nesson, who along with a group of students defends Tenenbaum, claims that it was unconstitutional for the judge to allow the jury to award damages that she later found to be unconstitutionally high.
“To instruct the jury that it may ascribe an award in a range of up to $4,500,000 against a noncommercial copyright infringer is punitive, excessive, not authorized by statute, and a denial of due process. Indeed, it is difficult to find the right word,” the petition reads.
“The trial judge misinstructed the jury that it could legally ascribe an award 67 times what she herself later found to be the legally permissible constitutional maximum. For each of thirty separately listed songs, the verdict form directed the jury to fill in a blank answering the question, ‘[W]hat damages do you award the Plaintiff for this copyrighted work, from $750 to $150,000?’: This was error, plain and simple.”
Tenenbaum’s legal team is asking for a rehearing before the full court in the hope of getting the fine reduced or thrown out altogether, as they argue that the RIAA’s campaign was not warranted in the first place.
“The defendant has challenged as unconstitutional the use of federal law and process to threaten catastrophic fines against the generation of kids who were downloading and sharing music peer-to-peer. The massive campaign of lawsuits initiated by the recording industry against people who copied music for personal use and never sold or considered selling it in any commercial way was entirely unprecedented,” the petition reads.
In an interview last year Tenenbaum described himself as someone with a passion for music, who paid for music, perhaps even more than the average consumer. For him, file-sharing was a means to discover new bands at a time where there were few legal alternatives online.
“I often have bought music as a result of the free exploration I’ve done. In that respect, I’m much like the average downloader, who actually spends more money on music than people who don’t download at all,” he said.
Although the RIAA stopped pursuing casual file-sharers years ago, for the music industry group this case is now a matter of principle. They are paying much more in lawyer fees than they will ever be able to get back from Tenenbaum, but they feel an example must be set.
To be continued, indefinitely.The Conservative government is evaluating the relevancy of a decades-long policy meant to help veterans find work as security guards at government buildings.
Since the end of the Second World War, Ottawa has directed billions of dollars in federal guard contracts to the Commissionaires, a private, non-profit organization that was created to help employ the thousands of veterans returning from war.
Ottawa gives the Commissionaires the right of first refusal on all government guard contracts, an arrangement worth about $1.35-billion over five years when it was last renewed. But that deal is nearing its end. Federal briefing notes provided to Treasury Board President Tony Clement reveal the department's Internal Audit and Evaluation Bureau is reviewing the program to "examine the relevance and performance" of the arrangement.
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"This is a potentially sensitive subject as the [Right-of-First Refusal]'s purpose is to support veterans employment," states the memo, obtained by The Globe and Mail in an Access to Information Request. The undated memo is from briefing notes provided to the minister in the summer of 2013.
The Commissionaires insist they provide a high-quality service at a good price for taxpayers. They view the review as a routine matter and expect the arrangement to be renewed when it expires in 2015-16. But private sector guard companies are pushing for a change, and Mr. Clement's office is non-committal about renewing the deal.
The potential sensitivity is clear. The Conservative government has been under fire in the House of Commons for closing offices that serve veterans. Meanwhile, Mr. Clement is looking for ways to save money through greater privatization. The leading private sector competitor to the Commissionaires estimates Ottawa could save at least $100-million a year by opening the guard contracts to competition. Stephan Cretier, president of Montreal-based Garda World Security Corporation, said Ottawa could improve quality, reduce costs and still require private contractors to employ a set percentage of veterans.
Mr. Cretier said Ottawa's arrangement with the Commissionaires has been amended so many times the non-profit is now allowed to employ thousands of workers with no connection to Canadian military. The Commissionaires work force on federal contracts must be 60 per cent veterans – which can include former RCMP members – but it also provides guards to the private sector, which has no such requirement. Mr. Cretier estimates that, as a result, the number of veterans among Commissionaires employees is well below half.
"It's ridiculous," he said in an interview. "Canada is the only country in the world where a non-profit organization is the largest security provider, so it's just a question mark in terms of having a government that is free-market driven and you see a non-profit organization being the largest security provider."
John Dewar, CEO of the Commissionaires for Victoria, the Islands and Yukon, answered questions from The Globe on behalf of the national organization. He said taxpayers are getting a deal because of the not-for-profit nature of the organization.
"This is one way of supporting veterans that doesn't cost the government anything because we do all of the work under this right of first refusal at cost for the government," he said in an interview, playing down Ottawa's review as a "routine assessment."
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Before the federal government makes its decision, the Senate sub-committee on Veterans Affairs will weigh in. The sub-committee is wrapping up a study on services for veterans, including a review of Ottawa's relationship with the Commissionaires.
Conservative Senator David Wells, the sub-committee vice-chair, said he expects the committee's report will comment on the matter but that no decisions have been made on recommendations.
"Obviously, I'm a supporter of free enterprise, and any benefits that the government gives to individual companies should be looked at very carefully. That said, there's also that balance of doing as much as we can for veterans, and that's important," he said. "So I guess, as the government moves forward, that will be part of the deliberation and we'll hear from all sides on it and then, of course, we'll consider it internally ourselves."AUGUSTA — A bill that would keep current financial incentives for rooftop solar in place pending a cost-benefit study cleared a legislative committee that handles energy matters Thursday, but opposition from House Republicans foreshadowed another battle over renewable energy between Democrats and Gov. Paul LePage.
By an 8-4 margin, with one Republican member absent, the Legislature’s Committee On Energy, Utilities and Technology voted out a bill that would direct the Public Utilities Commission to perform a cost-benefit analysis on net-energy billing, or net metering. That’s the practice in which utilities compensate homeowners and small businesses at the full retail rate for the power they generate from solar arrays.
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The bill would have the PUC develop a proposal for a new, market-based system that would include a provision to vary compensation based on the time of day power is generated. The agency would present its findings to the Legislature in 2021.
The committee also voted out a bill aimed at expanding the use of solar electricity by large users, such as businesses and municipalities. House Republicans also opposed that measure, which passed 7-3.
Both bills were sponsored by Republicans, and were supported by the committee’s Republican co-chair, Sen. David Woodsome, R-York. But hours before the vote, House Republicans on the panel changed their positions, reflecting opposition from LePage as expressed by his acting energy director, Angela Monroe. That led to a minority report on the net metering bill, featuring a different approach that – in turn – was opposed by Democrats.
Taken together, these actions provided a preview of a pending fight in the full Legislature this month, reminiscent of one last year. This time, however, the stakes for Democrats and their clean-energy allies are higher.
The debate over state government’s role in encouraging solar electric generation in Maine has grabbed a lot of attention in recent years. Advocates of continued or expanded financial incentives see them as investments that pay off in clean, locally produced energy and jobs that are the foundation of a growing industry. Critics, including LePage, see added rates that shift costs onto other electric customers.
At the heart of the dispute has been what to do about net metering. Last year, a broad solar bill that would have set up a new form of compensation failed by two votes when the Legislature couldn’t override a veto by LePage. That set the stage for a proceeding at the PUC, which ended in a pending net metering rule that would gradually reduce the incentive, beginning in 2018.
That rule was widely criticized. Solar installers said the rollback and other elements would cripple their industry and stunt the kind of job growth taking place in other states. Environmental groups gave notice that they will go to court to challenge the rule. LePage, meanwhile, said it still was too great a burden on ratepayers.
As a result, there’s a lot of political pressure on lawmakers this spring to do something, to find some compromise.
“Maine is at a solar crossroads,” said Dylan Voorhees, clean energy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “If the Legislature fails to act, the PUC’s extreme new net metering rule will go into effect, costing ratepayers millions and moving Maine further backwards away from a solar future.”
Voorhees’ group threw its support behind a bill that would have preserved net metering and offered rebates to customers to install rooftop solar panels. It was sponsored by Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, who co-chairs the energy committee.
Activists turned out for a public hearing, wearing yellow T-shirts and waving signs. Despite that passion, the proposal never gained traction with Republicans. After trying to scale back the incentives, Berry acquiesced and allowed his bill to be tabled.
After Thursday’s action, Berry said he was disappointed that House Republicans on the panel couldn’t support the net metering study bill. He said he hoped enough Republican votes could be cobbled together in the full Legislature to keep the PUC rule from taking effect in 2018.
The community and commercial solar bill is aimed at expanding larger-scale projects. It directs the PUC to enter into 20-year contracts for 90 megawatts of community solar generation by 2021, and 60 megawatts of commercial generation by 2020. The commercial generation also includes a portion for farm and forestry businesses. For comparison, a five-megawatt solar project can generate enough power to serve 1,000 homes.
Debate over the community and commercial solar bill centered on a familiar theme: The cost to ratepayers versus the wider economic impact.
Monroe offered her take, which she based on different projections of future wholesale power markets. For instance: Purchasing 90 megawatts of capacity, she said, could cost ratepayers $71 million over the 20 years, if the cost is 3 cents above market rates.
But Berry countered by saying volatile natural gas prices could make solar a welcome hedge for electric customers, offering stability. He also referred to a federal energy department economic model that calculates the solar bills could create 1,000 new jobs over four years.
These are among the conflicting points of view that will color debate over the solar bills in the full Legislature.
Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at:
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Wall Street is responding positively to the news that no EA DICE projects have been delayed, as shares of Electronic Arts have bounced back today, up more than 5.5 percent at press time. Shares are currently trading at $22.17, up from a low yesterday of $20.48 and nearly level with Wednesday's closing price of $22.34.
Yesterday, an EA representative confirmed that "the work being done to stabilize Battlefield 4 does not impact our release schedule for future titles."
EA shares tumbled Thursday, diving more than 6.5 percent after a statement suggested that all future DICE projects were on hold until EA could remedy the Battlefield 4 server issues. This would have included Battlefield 4 expansions and the new Mirror's Edge and Star Wars: Battlefront games.
Battlefield 4 server issues continue to persist. Just today, DICE released a new patch for the Xbox 360 version of the game that pledges to increase general game stability. Additional patches are in the works.RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Debris located early Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil is wreckage from the Air France jet that disappeared Monday, Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said.
A French search and rescue crew scans the Atlantic for wreckage Tuesday.
No survivors have been found, he said.
Jobim made the announcement after meeting with relatives and friends of Brazilians who were among the 228 people aboard Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France.
Two debris fields were found about 650 km (400 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha Islands, an archipelago 355 kilometers (220 miles) off the northeast coast of Brazil -- or at latitude 2 north, longitude 30 west, the Ministry of Defense said on its Web site.
One of the fields was 5 km (3 miles) long and that both lie near the flight path between Rio de Janeiro and Paris.
Among the wreckage was an airplane seat, metal debris, an orange float, a drum and an oil spill, the posting said. See map of suspected crash zone »
Brazilian air force planes spotted the debris field Tuesday morning, but it was not until a French commercial vessel arrived on the scene that the debris' origin was confirmed. The planes searched 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) of ocean throughout the day and will continue to search for more debris overnight, the Brazilian Air Force Said.
Two Netherlands-flagged vessels were expected to arrive in the area later in the day; a Brazilian navy ship was expected to arrive Wednesday, officials said. Brazilian air force jets were continuing to comb the area for other debris, and a U.S. P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft was assisting as well. Watch how wreckage has been spotted in Atlantic »
The searchers also want to find the cockpit voice and data recorders, which might shed light on what caused the jet to disappear before any of the three pilots was able to issue a mayday.
"That really is an ominous sign," said former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Managing Director Peter Goelz. "It means, whatever happened, it happened so quickly that the pilots were not able to radio out. It probably indicates a catastrophic failure at altitude."
He said that meteorologists have been checking weather data over the area "to see if there was some phenomenon that was taking place -- so far, we haven't seen it."
The Airbus A330 encountered heavy turbulence early Monday, about three hours into what was supposed to be an 11-hour flight, according to the airline.
The plane carried 216 passengers -- 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby -- and 12 crew members, Air France said.
The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. Other victims were from 29 other countries, including three from the United States. Of the crew, 11 were French, and one was Brazilian.
A team of approximately 20 Air France staff members, including two doctors and a nurse, arrived Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro to assist families of the victims, the airline said.
An inter-religious ceremony is to be held Wednesday afternoon inside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral for family and friends of the victims. Though it will be closed to news media, a sound recording of the ceremony will be broadcast into the square outside.
An official list of victims by name was not available Tuesday afternoon, but two Americans on board -- Michael Harris, 60, and his wife, Anne, 54 -- were identified by the couple's family and his employer.
Prince Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, a member of Brazil's non-reigning royal family, was also on the flight, his family said Monday. Pedro Luis was 26.
Also on the flight were two executives of the French tire company Michelin: Michelin Latin America President Luiz Roberto Anastacio and Antonio Gueiro, director of informatics. Read more about victims on Air France Flight 447
The jet was 4 years old and had last undergone routine maintenance April 16.
The Air France plane has built-in homing devices, said Greg Feith, a former investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
Homing devices such as "pingers," which are underwater locator beacons attached to flight data and cockpit voice recorders, can transmit signals from as deep as 14,000 feet, about the maximum depth of the waters in the area.
The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is about 12,000 feet: more than 2 miles.
"They're water-activated, so if they're sitting at the bottom of the ocean, of course, then the military assets will have to go in there with listening devices and try and home in on those particular signals," Feith said.
Shortly before it disappeared, the plane's automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that "several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down," Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said Monday.
The jet, which was flying at 35,000 feet and at 521 mph, also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said.
There was no contact with the crew during or after the time that the automatic messages were sent, Gourgeon said.
"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic," he added.
CNN's John Zarrella, Kim Segal and Nesta Distin and journalist Helena DeMoura contributed to this report.
All About Airbus A330 • Air France-KLM Group • Rio de Janeiro • Accidents and DisastersPreamble: Welcome to tonight's Republican presidential candidates debate in Iowa – or, if you prefer, the competition to decide who will get beaten by Rick Perry for the 2012 Republican nomination.
On stage at Iowa State University in Ames tonight are the eight people battling for the nomination. But not on stage – and looming over proceedings like that guy in No Country For Old Men – is Perry, the governor of Texas.
It now appears certain that Perry will announce that he's a candidate as of Saturday in Charleston. And that changes everything, since Perry is a bigger presence than any of the puny earthlings at tonight's debate.
So it kind of makes you wonder what the point of this is. Except that for the eight on stage, it's their last chance to make an impression before Perry enters the race. They should, therefore, go at it like rats in a sacks. (And by that I mean fighting, not having sex.)
Apart from Perry there is another absent figure haunting this debate like Banquo's ghost – St Sarah of Wasila, the patron saint of pipelines. The former governor of Alaska was said to be running for the nomination. But then during a bus trip across America in June she disappeared and has not been seen since.
Palin's supporters have been out in force and many claim that she will appear among them in Iowa, for so it has been prophesied on Palin's Facebook page.
So who is actually on stage tonight? Here's a quick run-down:
Mitt Romney: currently the Front-Runner In Name Only (FRINO), the former Massachusetts governor leads the polls. But if you've got a poll, throw it away, it's worthless. After Saturday the polls will just say: "Rick Perry. The end."
Michele Bachmann: Bachmann was said to be the winner of the last debate, which was roughly a million years ago in June, so no-one cares. Currently on the cover of Newsweek looking a bit mad.
Jon Huntsman: A first appearance for the former governor of Utah, who graciously left the governor's mansion to serve his country as the US ambassador to China. Naturally he's as popular as anthrax.
Newt Gingrich: Less popular than anthrax.
Ron Paul: Iconic, veteran congressman, principled, intelligent. He has no chance. Quite the libertarian, except for abortion and gays. Then he's not. Seriously, he would win the nomination but for a secret alliance of the Mainstream Media, Wall Street and Republican voters who insist on not voting for him in large numbers.
Rick Santorum: Is he still running? I forget.
Herman Cain: Pizza guy. Meh.
Gary Johnson: According to NPR: "the former New Mexico governor will be a curiosity since most people still don't know who he is". I know he was governor of Mexico. Sorry, New Mexico. (Actually, he'd have more chance of becoming president of Mexico. Maybe he should try?) In fact Johnson is smart, sensible, was a very good governor and seems like a nice guy. Obviously: zero chance. Update: No, Gary Johnson's not in this debate. Whoops. I blame the internet.
Tim Pawlenty: Still running. May as well not bother. Seriously, have you seen his latest poll ratings? He's now less well-known than when he started. That's quite an achievement: negative publicity.
Anyway it all kicks off at 8pm in Iowa, which is 9pm ET, or 2am BST.
For British viewers – assuming the government hasn't cut off the internet to end the rioting yet – Fox News appears to be live-streaming video of the debate right here.
If you are bored waiting until the debate starts, here's the liveblog of the last debate back in June. It was a scream. Seriously, just screaming, basically.
On second thoughts, don't read it. I want to use the same jokes.
I thought at the time that Tim Pawlenty did well but Serious People said he didn't because he failed to rough up Mitt Romney when it mattered and now everyone thinks he's a wimp.
Rick Perry won't be on stage tonight – but we have the next best thing.
During the debate we shall be supplying "answers" from the popular Twitter account @RickPerryFacts, a compendium of Rick Perryabilia, such as:
Gravity doesn't exist. Rick Perry just prefers everything to stay the f*** down. Birds and planes exempt for unknown reasons. Rick Perry is better than the leading brand. Every leading brand. Gold tried to buy Rick Perry to hedge against inflation.
Here's a piece I wrote about Perry a while back.
Here we go: it's the start of Project Runway. But for the rest of you, it's the Republican debate.
I'll also be tweeting shorter versions of this on Twitter – you can follow me @RichardA – if you can't be bothered to read a whole live-blog.
So: the Fox News guys are introducing the candidates, briefly. Now the moderator, whatshisname, is banging on about the economy and the financial markets and how bad things are.
"We are asking you, the candidates, to put aside the talking points," he says. Oh yeah.
Almost immediately the candidates fail to put aside their talking points and start laying into Barack Obama, a soft target here tonight.
Mitt Romney reels off a list of stuff he'd do to fix the economy, which runs on to "Number seven...."
Meanwhile, on @RickPerryFacts:
Rick Perry doesn't turn the economy around, the economy revolves around him.
Romney is asked why he was such a wimp over the whole debt ceiling thing, waiting until five minutes before the vote before coming out against raising the debt ceiling.
"I'm not going to eat Barack Obama's dog food," Romney says when pressed. Quite what that means, no one knows, except that it sounds tough. This is obviously the Mean New Romney on show here tonight. Interesting.
Ron Paul! Is given longer than 30 seconds to explain his ideas, but stutters when asked how he would get it through a divided Congress.
"You can't cut one nickel from militarism around the world... If you have to cut, let's cut militarism," says Ron, to surprisingly large applause. Militarism? Who are these hippies?
On the economy, Herman Cain says: "The tax rates need to be made permanent." Really not sure what that means.
Jon Huntsman gets to answer his first question in a presidential debate, and he talks about his record in Utah, although he has to confess that his campaign doesn't yet have an economic policy (Fox News having cunningly done research by looking at Huntsman's website.)
@RickPerryFacts:
Jon Huntsman? Rick Perry hunts, man.
Gingrich, asked the same thing, starts talking about... Ronald Reagan's tax cuts 30 years ago. Highly relevant. I think Newt is running for the 1988 Republican nomination. (Bad news: Bush wins.)
Tim Pawlenty repeats his talking points from last time, but this time says that if anyone can find Barack Obama's economic plan, he'll cook them dinner – or cut their lawn, although he says if it's Mitt Romney, "I'll only cut one acre. One acre."
This is reference to Romney's vast wealth. Asked for his response, Mitt just laughs: "That's fine." He can afford to brush off Pawlenty, given his poll ratings.
Now Chris Wallace of Fox News asks: Tim Pawlenty why did you hate Michele Bachman, hmm?
Pawlenty says she's not as highly qualified as himself, a former governor of Minnesota. Complete silence from the crowd. Tumbleweed.
Now Bachmann's laying into Pawlenty's record with an axe, concluding: "That sounds a lot more like Barack Obama's record." Oooh.
Wallace responds: Isn't that about the worst thing you can say about a fellow Republican, that they are as bad as Barack Obama? Bachmann's not having it, and has another go at Pawlenty.
"I'm really surprised Representative Bachmann would say those things," whinges Pawlenty, before making some insane argument that Bachmann has been ineffective because she didn't somehow control Congress at the time. This is getting really nasty.
"I was at the tip of the spear fighting against the implementation of Obamacare," says Bachmann. And really, Pawlenty's a fool – there's no question that Bachmann has been a thorn in the side of the White House.
A boxing referee would call this off.
Ad break! Phew.
And we are back, and Wallace asks Newt Gingrich, how come if your campaign is in the ditch, how can anyone thinks you could be president?
Gingrich makes a nasty response about "gotcha questions" and then reels off a list of his crappy ideas that no-one is interested in.
Fox News debates are always the best.
@RickPerryFacts:
Rick Perry stole all of Newt Gingrich's staff. #forreal
It's true, he did.
Another tough question, this time for Huntsman, about being appointed by Obama as ambassador to China. Huntsman says he's proud of his service to his country. That's all very well but it's the albatross around his neck.
It's immigration now, the point at which the Republicans all queue up to say they love immigrants except the illegal ones. Who can't vote, sadly.
Herman Cain is asked about his lack of knowledge. But Cain says he knows plenty now about Israel and Palestine. "I've been documented," he says proudly. How exactly isn't clear. Did he pass a test or something?
On immigration, Cain says: "I want America to have high walls and open doors."
My colleague Ewen Macaskill is watching the debate at Iowa State University, and he notes the fist-fight between Pawlenty and Bachmann is all about the Iowa straw poll on Saturday:
Great to see Bachmann and Pawlenty getting personal early on. All jibes rehearsed but fun nonetheless. Liked Bachmann comparing Pawlenty's record to Obama's. It seems odd to me that when you have access to a national audience, the two of them are basically fighting for the small number of Iowans who will vote in Saturday's straw poll.
At last, someone is asking the tough questions about Minnesota's state cigarette tax. It seems Pawlenty actually raised a tax on something, a mortal sin in today's Republican party. And Michele Bachmann voted for it in the Minnesota state senate. Good god.
But Bachmann has an answer: she voted for the bill because... there was something in it that "stripped protection from the unborn" unless she voted for the cigarette tax. Does that make sense? Anyway, Bachmann and Pawlenty have a back and forth and back again because we are all so interested in Minnesota state politics from the early 2000s.
Right now, a team of New York Times journalists are buying plane tickets for Minneapolis. Expect 10,000 words on the subject in about two weeks.
Rather depressingly, all candidates are asked if they would vote for tax increases if there were ten times as many spending cuts? All of those asked say no. Which, really, is insane.
Ewen Macaskill writes:
The personal spat between Bachmann and Pawlenty reminds me of when Clinton and Obama went at each other in Myrtle Beach debate. But Clinton and Obama was a real blast of temper and loss of control on both sides. Pawlenty and Bachmann were prepared for this.
Pawlenty is offered another chance to have a go at Romney's healthcare record, the one he dubbed "Obamneycare" and then wimped out on in the last debate.
Once again, he drops the ball.
More from @RickPerryFacts:
RickPerrycare consists entirely of Rick Perry donating his own plasma and stem cells to the sick and injured.
Oh, Chris Wallace has led Romney down a rabbit hole here – asking him where in the US constitution does it allow the government to compel people to purchase something (such as mandatory health insurance). Romney says oh well, according to the Massachusetts constitution, yes you can.
Wallace then asks Bachmann if she agrees – offering her a free shot at Romney, which she doesn't quite take.
Ron Paul kind of backs up Romney, says the federal government can't stop state governments from doing bad things (well, the Supreme Court says otherwise in a number of cases, but never mind).
Oh and now Rick Santorum (yes, he's here) gets passionate, saying "states don't have the right to do wrong", quoting Abraham Lincoln there. The reason he says that is because he wants to federally impose bans on abortion and homosexuality, and the idea that states might have rights doesn't appeal to him, despite the 10th amendment.
Anyway, that's his Tea Party vote gone.
Now it's back from an ad break – and there's no Michele Bachmann? Her podium is empty. But then she's back.
Now the candidates are actually being asked about Rick Perry entering. Based on their responses, they all think it would somehow be good for them. Losers.
Larry Sabato, the political sage of the University of Virginia, opines via Twitter:
It's too early to declare a winner, but if you forced me, I'd say: Rick Perry.
Oh dear. Now we're on Afghanistan, and Tim Pawlenty refers to Admiral Mullen, the chairman of the military chiefs of staff, as "General Mullen". Fail.
Gingrich is complaining again about the questions he's being asked. He is doing nothing to dispel the widely-held view that he is a giant wind-bag.
The serious point was that he was asked to explain his shifting position on Libya – which tied him up in knots – and Gingrich bangs the "gotcha question" drum once too often.
His latest campaign tactic is obviously "be a prick". If so, he's succeeding magnificently.
I |
the change it will bring,” he wrote. “But “’(t)hings change, people change, times change, and Mississippi changes, too.’ The man who said these words, Ross R. Barnett, Jr., knew firsthand their truth.”
Barnett Jr is an attorney and son of segregationist Mississippi governor Ross Barnett, who was in office from 1960 to 1964.
The ruling was similar in Arkansas.
The state’s marriage laws and the amendment violate the US constitution by “precluding same-sex couples from exercising their fundamental right to marry in Arkansas, by not recognizing valid same-sex marriages from other states, and by discriminating on the basis of gender,” Baker wrote.
Baker put the ruling on hold, anticipating an appeal to the eighth US circuit court of appeals, based in St. Louis.
A spokesman for Democratic attorney general Dustin McDaniel said McDaniel was reviewing the ruling and would decide after the Thanksgiving holiday whether to appeal in consultation with Republican attorney general-elect Leslie Rutledge in Arkansas.
Mississippi officials had already said they planned to appeal any ruling that overturned the law.
Judges across the country have ruled against bans similar to Arkansas’ since the US supreme court struck part of a federal anti-gay marriage law in June 2013, and gay marriage is legal in more than half of the US.
Jack Wagoner, a lawyer for the Arkansas couples who had told the judge last week that same-sex marriage would eventually be legal nationwide, said he was pleased with her decision.
“She’s on the right side of history,” Wagoner said. “It’s pretty clear where history’s heading on this issue.”
Another lawyer, Cheryl Maples, said eyes would turn now to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which heard arguments last week in a similar but separate case.
“If the state supreme court strikes down on state constitutional issues, then it’s gone as far as it can go,” Maples said.
Justices are weighing whether to uphold a decision in May striking down the 2004 amendment and earlier state law as unconstitutional. The decision led to 541 same sex couples getting married in the week before the state supreme court suspended his ruling.
Justices have not indicated when they will rule in that case.
Lawyers in McDaniel’s office had argued in federal court that same-sex marriage was not a fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution. McDaniel has said he personally supports allowing gay couples to marry but will stay in court defending the ban, which voters approved by a 3-1 margin.
One of Mississippi’s plaintiff couples, Jocelyn “Joce” Pritchett and Carla Webb, live in Mississippi and married in Maine in 2013. Pritchett said Tuesday that she, Webb and their two young children were dancing around their living room after hearing about Reeves’ ruling.
“If gay marriage can be legal in Mississippi, the whole country can feel hope,” Pritchett said.The New Paper did an amazing report on the decade long struggle NUS have had with sexualised camp games. The report concluded that a decade on, nothing much had changed, if anything, things had gotten worse.
Some of the activities include re-enacting rape scenes and coming up with cheers that insinuated rape.
There have been fingers pointed at the administration for not enacting change, but as it turns out, the propensity for structural inertia is reflected in some students as well, who not only resists reforms but often put down those who complain about the situation
Here are some of the responses that were posted on NUS Whispers, a confession site for NUS students to post anonymously.
Relax
Chill out, it’s just chanting about rape.
Bullying is just a fact of life
One post suggests that those who feel uncomfortable only have themselves to blame.
Those who complain are narrow-minded.
The post also brought up tradition, and the need to adhere to it as a reason not to enact changes, an attitude some might call narrow-minded.
Here, take this incredibly weird analogy
Not satisfied with confronting the complainers on a literal level, some resorted to making up perplexing analogies to put their point across.
Now there are a lot of things wrong with this analogy, so we’ve come up with a better one.
“You go to a hawker center and there’s a stall selling chicken rice. You don’t like to eat chicken rice so you don’t buy it.
The stall proceeds to mock you for being too traditional – ‘What? You too conservative to try chicken rice ah?’
You then have to hang around the stall for 4 to 5 years, all the while knowing that just because you didn’t like chicken rice, they are going to treat you somewhat differently for the duration of your studies hawker centre stay.
So, in a bid to escape the fate, you have to eat chicken rice from the incredibly outgoing chicken rice stall, even if it makes you feel horrible afterwards.”
I hope this little analogy can help my less-sensitive friends understand the situation better. Peace.
Why the need for all these rape innuendos
One post perfectly sums up the problem with this apparent need for rape jokes, scenes and suggestive cheers.
Top photo from here
If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.Cover: Emily Korth on “Beer Run” 13a, Rifle.
Photo by Sam Cody (@smuleco)
Emily might just be one of the most psyched climbers I’ve ever met. No matter how the day is, what the weather is doing or what the company is like at the crag, Emily will be getting super, super stoked on whatever is going on.
I first met Emily during an extremely cold (and poorly planned) climbing trip to Céüse in May of 2016. A mutual friend of one of my climbing partners at the time, we would all bail into his caravan to escape the rain and cold. Through a bunch of bottles of wine, bars of chocolate and countless games of “Cactus” (so… many…), it became apparent to me that Emily was a very driven, independent character. A characteristic memory I have is of a cold rest day when we went down to Gap to get groceries and escape the campsite. Emily stayed and went on a hike instead, ending up trudging through a snow storm on a neighboring mountain. She then cruised back, told us all about it and showed us photos she’d got from the top, then went back to crushing the next day.
Since then we’ve bumped into each other a few times in the states, namely Rifle and the RRG. Spending a bit more time around Emily only re-enforced my impression. No matter how she feels she’s climbing, she fully commits to the process. She’ll head out day after day, sometimes skipping rest days while the rest of us laze about at camp completely spent.
In addition to her climbing, she’s also a creative, having completed a degree in the visual arts. The rest days she does take will often see her jugging up fixed lines to get climbing photos of her friends.
These days you can find her putting away hard sport climbs in Rifle, living out of her car chasing the dirtbag lifestyle. You can keep up with her photographic escapades on her photography website:
https://emilykorthphotography.smugmug.com
Or her Instagram:
@emily.korth
How did you first become interested in climbing? I’ve been climbing trees for as long as I can remember, so being off the ground has always been a part of my life. It wasn’t until my brother came home from his first year of college that I was introduced to technical rock climbing. He taught me how to belay and we spent time in New England looking for rocks and bolted climbs. When I went off to university a year later, I discovered that the rec-center had a climbing wall. From there I started bouldering and traveling to other schools for bouldering competitions. Since then have you always been a climber? What is it that keeps bringing you back to climbing? Yes, I transitioned to sport climbing as a result of placing in comps and therefore acquiring enough gear to rope up outside. The community keeps me climbing. The more time you spend on the road and climbing in popular destinations, the easier it becomes. Suddenly you can show up to nearly any crag and see a familiar face. Many people worry that this lifestyle consists of me sitting alone in the woods for days on end, when in fact, this is the most socially and culturally stimulating activity I’ve ever engaged in. So these days sport climbing is your focus right? Do you train specifically for climbing at all? If so, what kind of ideas underpin your training. If not, how do you go about trying to improve or maintain?I find myself most compelled to sport climb. There’s something unique about trying moves that feel impossible at first, but slowly become more and more doable over time. It satiates the stubbornness within me. I don’t “train” but I do boulder to maintain and improve power while also plugging gear to diversify my skill set and add more tricks to my bag. I think that being a well-rounded climber in a variety of situations and elements will make you a smarter and safer sport climber. Going outside of my comfort zone is my method of training. At the end of the day, my goal is to be able to climb 5.12 on any rock in any country, on bolts or on gear. I enjoy traveling around the world knowing that I’m competent at a diverse range of climbing styles. If I can have fun anywhere, life is good! Seems like a pretty decent ambition! Do you have any other long-term goals or plans in your climbing?I’ve only just begun to break into the 13- range. I’d love to try some harder climbs. I hope to climb in more countries and I hope to bolt routes in the future. There are a lot of strong women out there climbing, but not so many who put the same amount of time into cleaning and creating routes. What would you say is your most memorable ascent to date? Whether it be because of difficulty or “type 2” fun factorI’d have to say that my first trip to Red Rocks in 2010 brought me the most memorable experience. A friend and I climbed “unimpeachable groping” and had a hell of a time descending. The climb itself went well but we couldn’t have botched the rappel worse. We had rope management issues, were benighted, ran out of water, got lost in the desert for two hours while attempting to make it back to the car. We didn’t expect or prepare for the cold desert night and I panicked. It was the first time that I felt pushed to my absolute limit mentally. Our friends were worried when we weren’t back and started to question our safety. I look back on it now and laugh. At the time, I remember thinking “we could die.” It’s a great benchmark because I’ve had so many other experiences since then that were much more dangerous or had the potential to be serious situations due to weather. Every new “epic” gives me a new perspective, a new benchmark. I look back on that experience and realize that we were fine and that things could have been much worse. Since then, I find it easier to stay calm in stressful situations. Being on a rock in the dark does not necessarily equate to death. I enjoy feeling challenged and solving problems as they come to me. For that reason multi-pitch or alpine climbing is appealing and serene in a one-on-one sort of way. When you’re climbing a full rope length pitch and you encounter a problem, it’s up to you to figure it out. No one can hear you, often your belayer can’t even see you, the wind could be howling. In that moment, you have to be confident in your intelligence and in your strengths. There is nothing more satisfying to me. Is there anything else that you think climbing has taught you that you might not have learned otherwise?Patience with myself. I used to put too much pressure on myself which actually hindered me in a lot of ways. I’ve learned how to relax when I’m fatigued in every sense. Yoga has never allowed me to successfully meditate but climbing has. Climbing allows me to enter a flow state where I’m fully engaged and present in the moment. Nothing else has kept my attention the way climbing has over the last 7 years. In addition, climbing has inspired me to travel. I don’t know if I would have ever visited places like Asia or Cambodia had I not been introduced to the community and to all the nomadic and fearless climbers on the road. And finally, clipping bolts is not curing cancer. Don’t take yourself or what you do too seriously. Support your friends and the family you have or make. Loosen up and enjoy the ride. So climbing is obviously a massive part of your life. How do you balance it with the “real life”?That is the real struggle. Balance is difficult when your passion requires an excessive amount of time and practice. Fortunately, I find satisfaction in a lot of other activities. I take pride in my work ethic and fully commit to whatever it is I’m doing. I don’t think it’s healthy to put all your eggs in one basket so I take on creative endeavors to stimulate my brain in ways other than climbing. I still haven’t found a job that allows me the freedom and flexibility I want but I’m continually learning and that’s all that I seek at this time in my life. Do you think that we as climbers are a force for good in the natural world? Or that we’re trashing these places just as much as the next recreational user?For the most part, I would say that climbers provoke more good than harm. However, some areas are sensitive. Erosion, access that threatens animals and wildlife should be avoided. There are numerous climbing organizations that fund-raise and buy land that is threatened by the government or by private buyers. Conservation is a huge part of belonging to the community Where do you take inspiration from in regard to your climbing? People? Places? Within yourself?I find I’m most inspired by the landscapes I see. A single photo is enough to convince me to buy a plane ticket and to start packing my bags. Hearing other people’s stories is also compelling and I enjoy hearing about the quirks that come along with traveling and climbing, whether solo or with others. How do you feel about the direction climbing is taking these days? Eg Olympics, more gyms, younger kids etcClimbing has evolved and changed in many ways. I’m torn about the direction it’s taken. As a gymnast who trained 40 hrs a week for 8 years competitively, I find solitude in belonging to a “sport” where I can challenge myself without the judgement or scorecards. Climbing is a unique experience for each person, and I’m happy to see young people climbing some of the hardest routes in the world. I do worry about the way in which gym climbing has affected the process of learning to climb. However, had it not been for my schools indoor climbing wall, I probably wouldn’t have discovered climbing. It saddens me to see that the process of mentoring others is becoming less common to new climbers and I fear for the beginners who are blissfully unaware of what they do not know when they go from the gym to the outdoors. I hope that this sport/activity/lifestyle does not become too serious because at the end of the day, we’re all just hamsters in a wheel, climbing up and coming down over and over and over….
If you know someone who inspires your climbing community and would be happy to be featured, drop me a line @ nick_ducker@live.com
AdvertisementsObama VP speech to emphasize security theme at Dem Convention Nick Juliano
Published: Monday August 11, 2008
Print This Email This Update: VP speaker's theme shares name of Wes Clark PAC Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but Barack Obama's campaign and the Democratic Convention organizers seem like they might be dropping a big hint about who's going to grab the No. 2 spot on the ticket. The third night of the convention, Wednesday Aug. 27, will feature a prime-time speech from Obama's yet-to-be-named running mate. The day's theme is "Securing America's Future," which just so happens to be the name of Gen. Wesley Clark's Political Action Committee. An representatives of the Obama campaign and Clark's PAC did not immediately respond to RAW STORY's request for comment on whether this meant Clark would be the Democrat's potential vice president, but so far it seems to be mostly coincidence: For what it's worth, an aide to Gen. Clark could not restrain near-riotous laughter when asked if there was anything behind the connection.
"I don't think it's anything more than an interesting coincidence," the aide said in between convulsions. "It's just because his PAC was named so well!"
Still, it's not as though the party is randomly naming each day of the convention. The theme for Thursday, when Obama will speak, is the familiar-sounding "Change You Can Believe In." Coincidence or no, the Wednesday night theme has launched some speculation that Clark will show up on the ticket. A former NATO commander, Clark ran his own brief presidential campaign in 2004 and he remains popular among progressive activists. Observers see his national security credentials as a potential vital boost to the ticket. Clark also has shown himself to be a capable political combatant. He refused to cower earlier this summer when Republicans drummed up outrage over his observation that Republican nominee John McCain's experience as a shot-down fighter pilot turned Vietnam POW did not alone make him qualified to be Commander in Chief. Organizers of the Democratic National Convention on Monday announced themes and primetime speakers for each of the four days the party will gather to crown its nominee in two weeks. As Time magazine's Jay Newton-Small notes, the theme on Wednesday seems to suggest Obama will pick a running mate with strong national security credentials. The schedule also seems to eliminate the possibility that Hillary Clinton will be the next vice president. The former First Lady is slated for a prime-time speaking role on Tuesday night. The Politicker's James W. Pindell opines, "While they probably did not intend it this way, the Democratic National Committee just stated that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton will not be Barack Obama's pick for vice president." Pindell notes that the schedule's placement of Clinton on Tuesday and the veep pick on Wednesday inherently implies "[t]wo different people on two different nights. This does not preclude Obama from picking Clinton anyway though it would be a little odd that a convention he is essentially running on would reverse itself in such a dramatic way." "From Monday through Thursday, our Convention program will highlight the people of this country who want positive change and who believe Barack Obama is the leader who will listen to their concerns and get our country moving in the right direction again," said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebilius, a co-chair of the convention who is considered a top candidate herself for the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket. The theme for the Aug. 25 opening night will be "One Nation," with a speech by Michelle Obama. The Aug. 26 theme is "Renewing America's Promise" with a speech by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama's chief rival for the presidential nomination. The theme for Aug. 28, the night Obama formally accepts the nomination, is "Change You Can Believe In." Obama will speak at the 75,000 seat Invesco Field in Denver, while the rest of the convention will take place in the nearby convention center. The convention organizing committee also announced Monday that it will be hosting an interactive town hall meeting to allow voters from around the country to submit text and videotaped questions to be answered during the convention. "As Barack Obama has said, this is not our Convention -- this is America's Convention," said Governor Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. "And now, at a critical moment in our history, Americans will have their concerns addressed, challenges listened to and their questions answered live by our country's leaders. We want Americans to be at the center of this Convention, and 'America's Town Hall' will allow us to do just that." With wire reportsImage copyright PA Image caption Ms Lamont quit her role saying colleagues at Westminster had made her position 'untenable'
Ed Miliband is to blame for Johann Lamont quitting as leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Alex Salmond has claimed.
Scotland's First Minister said "Labour's meltdown in Scotland has been created by Labour in London."
Ms Lamont resigned on Friday with a stinging attack on her colleagues at Westminster who she said had made her position "untenable".
Scottish Labour is due to set out plans for electing a new leader later.
The party's executive committee will meet to decide the timetable. It has stressed the decision will be taken in Scotland not London.
In her resignation letter, Ms Lamont said she was standing down to enable the party to have a "real discussion" about its future.
She said senior members of the party had "questioned" her place and she was taking herself "out of the equation" so it could decide the best way forward.
In an earlier interview with the Daily Record, Ms Lamont had accused the UK party of treating Scotland like a "branch office" and branded some of her Westminster colleagues as "dinosaurs".
Mr Salmond, who announced after the No vote in the Scottish independence referendum that he will stand down next month, has called on the UK Labour leader to respond to Ms Lamont's claims.
Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Salmond said Mr Miliband was responsible for the meltdown of Labour in Scotland
He said: "We have the extraordinary situation that an outgoing leader has admitted that Scottish Labour is just a 'branch office' controlled by London - in other words the Scottish Labour Party is a fiction.
"The person responsible for that, and for making Johann Lamont's position 'untenable', as she herself put it, is Ed Miliband.
"Mr Miliband should be answering questions about why Labour in Scotland is run as an extension of his Westminster office, and why he has effectively forced the resignation of a Labour leader in Scotland."
He added: "He should be making a statement about his responsibility for the meltdown of Labour in Scotland."
Leadership contenders
Responding to Ms Lamont's resignation, Mr Miliband said she had "led the Scottish Labour Party with determination" and deserved "significant credit" for the successful "No" vote in the Scottish referendum campaign in September.
He added: "She campaigned the length and breadth of Scotland making the case for social justice within the United Kingdom."
The timetable for choosing a new leader will be set out soon.
In the meantime, deputy leader Anas Sarwar is in charge and an MSP will be chosen to stand in for Ms Lamont at Holyrood.
Mr Sarwar is among those already being linked to the leadership role. Former prime minister Gordon Brown and fellow MP Jim Murphy have also been suggested as contenders for the job.It’s a caveat that usually comes at the end of a story, typically one that’s landed a bit flat: You had to be there.
In the case of the 2016 Bridgestone Winter Classic, though, it’s best to get that qualifier out there right away. Unless you’ve been lucky enough to attend one of these events — be it as a fan, media member or, sure, even a player — it’s tough to get a real sense of the spectacle.
Yes, the Winter Classic looks cool on TV and, assuming you haven’t got travel plans that will drop you in Foxborough, Mass., on New Year’s Day, I recommend you to tune in. (Just wanted to make sure my rights-holding employer was clear on my stance.)
Note: All photos below courtesy of Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon.
That said, if you’ve ever contemplated celebrating a calendar flip with some outdoor NHL action, the early returns from my first trip — professional or otherwise — to the Classic compel me to say, make it happen.
Granted, that viewpoint was forged largely by the media skate on Wednesday, when people like myself were lucky enough to close the laptop and lace ‘em up for a precious hour or so.
Whatever skepticism that exists before stepping on the ice — what kind of vibe can you really get in an expansive football stadium? Is the sheen wearing off this event? — evaporates pretty quickly once you start gliding around.
Soon enough, this surface will be home to slappers, but for now, it was all selfies as a bunch of people who often carry the curmudgeon tag got their Winter warm and fuzzy on. And, from what I’ve gathered just being in Boston about 24 hours now, even when the real athletes take centre stage, you can expect large traces of that genuine wonder to remain.
How was the ice, you ask? Just fine, at least according to the sensibilities of somebody who positively never skates on NHL-calibre ice. But seriously, it appears everything is good to go, partially because it’s been downright wintery here the past day or so.
What the Winter Classic really feels like is the antidote to the NHL All-Star Game. Whereas the latter is constantly trying to make something of nothing, tinkering endlessly with the template to hit on something that works, the former has a straightforward approach that delivers the goods.
The formula of two teams, one transformed open-air venue, and a bunch of people who just want to be on the scene doesn’t need to be messed with.
During the skate, I paused numerous times to take photos and soak in the surroundings. What really stands out from ice level is the sheer scale of things. For whatever intimacy is lost playing in a cavernous setting — and Ill admit, I would have loved to been here a few years ago at Fenway Park — it’s more than compensated for by the feeling pure size generates.
Gillette Stadium usually services America’s most outsized sport and some of that grandness, that unadulterated bigness, attaches itself to the Classic. That gives the event an unmistakable weight, even if the overall premise can never fully escape some gimmicky element.
If you’re still wrestling with the notion it’s a manufactured happening like many others, I reiterate the need to attend one before passing judgment. I’d also point you toward the rockin’ wisdom of Cheap Trick, whose most recognizable jam, Surrender, screamed from the speakers while we looped around the frozen playground.
I don’t know I’d go so far as to call the message poignant, but it was appropriate for this experience that, like the song, proves subtly sometimes needs to bow before “Wow.”SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 23 (UPI) -- A man whose body was discovered decomposing in a Southern California parking lot last week was believed by his fiancee to be an alien from another world, who had arrived on Earth to save humanity, the woman's attorney said Wednesday.
It's the latest detail in a bizarre death investigation that involves a theory of extraterrestrial intelligence, intrigue -- and a newly found arsenal of guns and ammo inside the man's home, KTLA-TV reported Wednesday.
The ordeal started July 4, while Jeffrey Lash and his fiancee of 17 years, Catherine Nebron, were at a Santa Monica grocery store. According to Nebron's attorney, Harlan Braun, Lash suddenly fell ill and suffered a seizure.
Nebron and her employee, Dawn VadBunker, attempted to render aid.
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"They worked on him for three hours, trying to revive him and then he died," Braun said, also noting that Lash had battled cancer for more than a year.
Once it was known the man was dead, though, Braun said Nebron placed the body into her vehicle in the store's parking lot and departed with VadBunker for Oregon. Lash's body sat in the SUV and decomposed in the hot Southern California sun for nearly two weeks.
According to VadBunker's mother, Laura, neither woman reported the death to authorities because they believed Lash was a half human-half alien being from another world who had come to Earth to save humanity. They also reportedly believed he'd been working secretly with the U.S. government, and that federal agents would soon come by to collect the body.
Apparently, the women didn't disclose their travel plans to anyone, either. Two days later, on July 6, VadBunker's family reported her missing to police.
For her daughter's part, Laura VadBunker is afraid she may have suffered a mental breakdown.
"I can't believe this," she told KTLA-TV. "It's worse than a Twilight Zone movie, and we have lived through hell."
"It was craziness, it was nuts," Braun added.
Upon returning to Southern California -- and discovering that no government agency had come for her fiancé's remains -- Braun said Nebron finally notified police.
"When she came back, she was shocked that the agencies hadn't picked him up," he said. "So then she decided she had better call police."
However, at that point the ordeal took yet another bizarre turn.
Investigators were shocked themselves when they showed up this week at the couple's condo -- and found more than 1,200 firearms, 6 tons of ammunition, and $230,000 -- entirely in cash.
The Los Angeles Police Department is trying to sort out the case -- but it's not yet known exactly why Lash died, why he had so many firearms, or how he amassed all that money.
"It does not make any sense, but it's probably a continuation of this fantasy world where he is a secret man which he is supposed to not reveal who he really is," Braun said. "The whole issue for the police and me actually is, is it a murder or is it a natural death?"At least once or twice a week, a press release falls into my inbox that involuntarily forces me to make that comically confused puppy face. You know, the one where your head cocks to the side violently, your mouth twists into a kind of half-smirk, half-frown, and your brow furrows into an almost painful scrunch, all out of sheer, unadulterated bewilderment?
Tear-away tank top not included.
I had that reaction today when I read Majesco's press release announcement of Hulk Hogan's Main Event, a wrestling game of sorts created exclusively for Kinect. Panic Button LLC., the makers of such fine casual products as Attack of the Movies 3D, and Go Play Lumberjacks, is developing the title.
So what does a Kinect wrestling game entail? I... don't really know...
I've read this press release a half-dozen times now, and its description of a game in which players "train with mentor Hulk Hogan as they build their own wrestling personalities and learn the art of showmanship to win over the crowd" still doesn't quite compute. The release then goes on to describe learning more than "30 punishing combos" and how the Kinect sensor will track "players’ every move; the more dynamic the motion, the more high impact the wrestler’s performance is." It also mentions things like a dynamic wrestler creation mode and different weapons you can wield, but nowhere does it explain what any of this means.
Hulk Hogan, for his part, was no help at all.
“Listen up, people! You will feel the power of Hulkamania when you step into this game,” said Hulk Hogan. “Whether you are taking the damage or selling the pain, this game will let you unleash your inner wrestler as you hype up the crowd while putting the hurt on anyone that stands in your way!”
== TEASER ==
Ack! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! How does any of this work? Will I be clotheslining at empty air? Am I going to be leg-dropping my coffee table? Should I go out and buy one of those old WWF Wrestling Buddies? Without images or video, and only this barely existent website for context, I'm grasping at straws here, people. I guess we'll find out more at E3? Probably?
As a final aside, this press release might contain my favorite useless, barely-contextual quote from a guy in a suit in a good long while.
Hulk Hogan’s longtime marketing agent, Darren Prince, CEO of Prince Marketing Group, said “When we started discussions with Majesco on the format of this game we knew it was a perfect fit for Hulk’s global brand.”
That's it. That's the entire quote. Cool story, bro?Sometimes, there will be several versions of a movie floating about on cable, tv or video etc. Other times, a Director may release a special cut of the movie on Blu-ray or DVD.
The following versions of Caddyshack are apparently real. If you disagree or have additional info, please update us.
Thanks to Phillip Smith
When broadcast on network television (depending which network, but usually A & E, Comedy Central, or ABC), Caddyshack had 3 scenes added and 1 scene altered.
1) First, after Carl picks a scythe out of a tree and says "It's not my fault no one can understand what you're saying", we see him coming down a hill driving a giant yellow lawnmower with a smiley face :) on the front and stopping to give golfing tips to Danny and Ty. "You see coming back here, you've lost it, and by the time you get down here, you might as well be playing on the ladies tee if you know what I mean"! The end of this scene involved Ty (Chevy Chase) jumping on the side of the mower as Carl (Bill Murray) steered the mower towards the direction of a golf ball but what audiences didn't see was, as Chevy Chase describes in the Spec. Ed. DVD and VHS, "Billy made the widest left turn ever... I had to jump like 5 feet to miss getting mowed over by the blades"!
2) The 2nd scene added follows the "lawnmower" scene. The caddies including Tony, Angie, and Joey D'Nunzio are walking towards the shack and a black Porsche is behind them moving as slowly as the caddies are walking. The porsche belongs to Dr. Beeper. Tony shouts "Hey Doc! It's a 5 mile speed limit!" and then moves out of the way and pretends to slam himself into the hood of the car and rolls on a hill making it seem like the Doctor has hit him. Dr. Beeper (Dan Resin) steps out of his car leaving the door open to see what happened but the caddies run off laughing. When the Doc's back is turned "Motormouth" (Hamilton Mitchell) secretly shuts the door and when the Doc returns it's locked. By pulling on the handle, the Doctor sets off the Porsche's alarm system and is baffled by what has just happened.
3) The 3rd scene added follows Ty and Lacey's (Cindy Morgan) love scene. The Noonan station wagon is seen racing down a road and we hear Danny's mother tellign him to slow down. The station wagon stops in front of a church and Danny's whole family gets out. Danny stays inside and his mother tells him "It wouldn't hurt you to come to mass sometimes!" "I went last night, they got a special mass for guys who work during the summer!". Danny then goes on to explain how he has to mow Judge Smails' lawn and then head over to the yacht club. He then zooms away in the station wagon and his mother is shown mimicking a statue in front of the church with a raised "I'm warning you" finger in the air.
4) The altered scene comes at the end. Instead of hearing Al's (Rodney Dangerfield) trademark line "Hey everybody, we're all gonna get laid!", there's a different shot of him saying "Hey everybody, let's all take a shower!"With UFC 205 less the two weeks ago, the war of words has begun in earnest between Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez.
Things repeatedly got heated between the two UFC champions during a join conference call on Thursday, with both men vowing to make easy work of one another on Nov. 12. And when asked about their first staredown before their historic fight, McGregor made no secret about what he believes he saw in Alvarez's eyes.
"He's thinking it's a game," McGregor said. "It's like you look into these people's eyes and they don't see it as a reality just yet. They're trying to look away and make it something else. ‘This isn't happening.' And then we're in the Octagon, and then we're about to fight, and I see what I see in their eyes.
"I see them break, bit by bit. And then we're in the Octagon and I break them myself. So that's it. I'm looking forward to going in. He's claiming it's an easier contest. I look forward to seeing the eyes, when the eyes roll, and the electric shock darts through his whole body and goes to his knees. And then he comes up in survival mode, and that panic sets through his whole body, his whole face. That's something I'm looking forward to, and I will go out there and I will punish him for that, for those words that he's saying. I'm going to retire him on this night."
The clash between McGregor and Alvarez is the first champion versus champion superfight in the UFC since Georges St-Pierre and B.J. Penn memorably locked horns in 2009.
With the opportunity, McGregor has a chance to become the only UFC fighter in history to concurrently hold two championship belts. And over the course of the lead-up, McGregor has taken exception to an oft-repeated line from Alvarez about the Irishman being the easiest fight in the UFC lightweight division.
"I'm going to hurt you badly. I'm going to rip you up badly, I swear to God. Trust me, you're going regret that," McGregor said.
"I feel [people are] going to see something they haven't seen before. I'm going to toy with this man. I'm going to really, truly rearrange his facial structure. His wife and kids will never recognize him again. His friends and the people that he knows will know that he's not the same man after this contest. So he's going to be in a shock when he sees that. That's it."
That promise is easier said than done against Alvarez. A grizzled veteran of the fight game, the 32-year-old UFC lightweight champion has only been stopped once by strikes over the course of his 14-year career, and it happened all the way back in 2007. Since then, Alvarez has engaged in a slew of back-and-forth wars of attrition, becoming known for his toughness and willingness to never quit.
Nonetheless, McGregor believes the damage Alvarez has sustained over that time will ultimately work against the American, and he looks forward to testing the limits of Alvarez's iron chin.
"I like his durability," McGregor said. "I know he gets badly hurt in fights. I know he's been dropped many times, but he keeps going, so I look forward to that. I feel that will happen in the contest. He'll |
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With Justice Is Mind: Evidence having its first screening at a science fiction convention on Sunday, April 8 at Olympus 2012 in London, UK and with both Justice Is Mind and First World being pitched to investors this week, I wonder if it’s just coincidence or happenstance that I’ve been reading more about funding issues surrounding NASA and the space program in general.
It has always been my view, that aside from having the greatest military in the world, the United States space program is by far humanity’s pinnacle achievement. “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. We came in peace for all mankind.” The wording on the plaque left on the Moon by Apollo 11 was to usher in a new beginning. But even when men from the planet Earth were walking on the Moon bringing peace to another world, our military was fighting in Vietnam to prevent the spread of another war on Earth, albeit a cold one that heated to a regional conflict that lasted just shy of twenty years.
There’s no question that the United States, and other world governments, are having financial issues and are in a constant state of distraction with the war on terror. When our country was viciously attacked over ten years ago a chain of events commenced that by necessity distracted America. As our country did in 1941 and during other conflicts up to 2001, our mantra has always been to stop and defend America first – no matter what the cost. Make no mistake America will always defend its ideals of freedom and democracy and to hell with any country or movement that dares to test us. We can be your greatest friend or your worst enemy – you pick.
But with the United States winding down its conflicts to focus on the homeland, it’s time to focus on greatness again. And that greatness has been rooted in our space program. The historically proven discoveries and knowledge it brings along with the jobs it creates both domestically and internationally are reasons enough to properly fund America’s space program. When we consider that only.5% of the U.S. federal budget is allocated for NASA, something is seriously wrong with this math. Imagine what 1% could bring?
Just as of this writing, planetary science missions are being cut by 20% including a major Mars program. And for the first time in NASA’s history we no longer can launch an astronaut into space. This is not the America that I know. But we need a President that understands America’s leadership in space reflects its leadership on Earth. Obama can be that president. It most certainly won’t be any of the GOP nominees as they are more concerned with abolishing the separation of church and state rather than understanding a multi-stage separation to Earth orbit and beyond.
As President Ronald Reagan said during a state of the union address in 1984, “America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.”
In 1993, Russia, Europe and the United States merged their space station programs to create the International Space Station.Plot could ditch the format of the first two films and center on his character escaping from an asylum with help from the wolf pack, he tells "Rolling Stone."
In the new Rolling Stone, Zach Galifianakis talks about plans for a third installment of The Hangover. "They want to do a Hangover III," he tells the magazine. "I'm getting fricking phone calls already."
The Hollywood Reporter recently reported that Warner Bros. is beginning to get the creative gang together and that Craig Mazin, who co-wrote the Bangkok-set sequel, is in early talks to come back to write the new script.
Story details are being kept secret. Though it is possible the notorious funnyman could be joking, Galifianakis tells Rolling Stone that he has heard that the plot ditches the format of the first two films and focuses on his character, the oddball Alan, escaping from a mental institution with help from the wolf pack (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms).
Talk of a third move surfaced several weeks ago when Part II was tracking off the charts. (When recently asked about a third installment, a Warners spokesperson had no comment, although a high-level executive told THR that a third movie is all but a given.)
The Hangover II is now the highest grossing comedy ever. Thanks to stellar box office business overseas last weekend, it now has a whopping worldwide cume of $338.4 million.Rogers Media isn't the only struggling partner in the NHL's $5.2-billion, 12-year Canadian broadcast deal. The league itself is hurting, too.
The contract with Rogers is paid in Canadian dollars, which sharply declined in value against the U.S. dollar after the deal was announced on Nov. 26, 2013. As a result, the NHL is taking a large hit in the contract's first season: One NHL governor, who spoke anonymously because league officials are forbidden to publicly discuss NHL business, said the currency hit for the 2014-2015 season was pegged at about 17 per cent, which, based on the annual average rights fee of $433-million, works out to a $73.61-million loss for the league.
This comes in addition to the revenue declines that all seven Canadian-based NHL teams are experiencing. They generate about 35 per cent of the league's revenue, which hit a record total of $3.66-billion (U.S.) for the 2013-14 season. The NHL tracks its revenue in U.S. dollars.
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When Rogers and the NHL first announced the deal, the Canadian dollar was worth 94 cents U.S. On Monday, after a week-long roller-coaster ride, the Canadian dollar closed at 81.71 cents U.S., an improvement from the March low of 78.2 cents.
Other than confirming the Rogers contract is paid in Canadian dollars with no allowances for currency fluctuations, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman declined to say how much the currency issue will cost the league this season. Outgoing Rogers Media president Keith Pelley said Rogers "does not discuss contracts in detail."
Another NHL governor said he could not confirm the claim of a 17-per-cent loss on the TV contract for this season. He said the extent of the loss should be revealed to the NHL's governors at their annual entry-draft meeting in late June.
Over the years, the NHL and its Canadian teams routinely hedged against currency fluctuations though trading. This was done mainly to protect teams against huge increases in their biggest costs – player salaries that are paid in U.S. dollars.
But more than one league insider is concerned the NHL's brass failed to protect itself in the Rogers deal, either by hedging or requiring that it must be paid in Canadian dollars at or near the rate that was in effect on the day it was signed. Bettman declined to say if any hedging was done to minimize losses on the Rogers deal.
A major loss on the Canadian TV deal for 2014-2015 will have an impact on the salary cap, currently $69-million (U.S.) per team this season. The cap is based on the league's total hockey-related revenue (HRR), so it's difficult to estimate the specific effect of the Rogers deal, but based on the league's own calculations, it could result in a $1.3-million (U.S.) drop per team in the cap for next season.
That is less than a 2-per-cent drop, but it makes a big difference to teams operating close to the cap. For example, last October, Peter Chiarelli, then the general manager of the Boston Bruins, traded defenceman Johnny Boychuk and his $3.37-million salary for draft picks on the eve of the season to create some much-needed cap flexibility. The loss of the veteran top-four defenceman weakened the Bruins, who just missed the playoffs, and Chiarelli was dismissed last week.
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The decline in the Rogers contract's value forced a re-evaluation by the league. Back in December, the NHL was suggesting the cap might rise to $73-million (U.S.) for the 2015-16 season, based on the expectation of an 88-cent Canadian dollar for the rest of this season and growth in HRR of about 4.5 per cent to more than $3.8-billion (U.S.). By March, the league revised its cap projection to $71.7-million based on an 82-cent dollar.
Since the Rogers deal is the largest single source of Canadian revenue for the league, and is a fixed amount unlike ticket sales, it was probably responsible for the subsequent drop in the cap projection.
Even worse, the NHL's estimates counted on the players exercising their collective-agreement right to bump the cap by 5 per cent, known as the escalator clause. In most years since the cap was introduced in 2005, the players have done so, but that was because the Canadian dollar was climbing and money in escrow was rarely clawed back.
If the players do not exercise the escalator, as is now expected, next season's salary cap would be $68.1-million (U.S.) based on the NHL's projections in March, which counted on the Canadian dollar staying at 80 cents.
The decline in the Canadian dollar and its effects on league revenues mean the players have to pay more of their salaries into the escrow account, which makes them reluctant to exercise the escalator clause. Under the collective agreement, funds in the escrow account are used in case the players' total incomes exceed the teams' share of revenues in the 50-50 split of HRR, which is calculated after each season ends.
Last season, the players lost 12 per cent of their annual salaries thanks to the shrinking Canuck buck. This season, they have already had 14 per cent of their wages withheld in escrow through the first half of the season, according to The New York Post, and that amount climbed to 16 per cent in the third quarter of the season.CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia officials say they're in the early stages of developing a plan to implement the state's new medical marijuana law.
The state Department of Health and Human Resources has devoted a section of its website to frequently asked questions and more information, the Charleston Gazette-Mail (http://bit.ly/2r3pvq7) reported.
Only one agency responsible for nominating a member to the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Advisory Board has publicly announced the nominee — Joe Hatton, deputy commissioner for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Jim Justice signed the medical marijuana measure into law on April 19. The law permits doctors to recommend marijuana be used for medicinal purposes and establishes a regulatory system. The law states that no patient or caregiver ID cards will be issued until July 2019.
Lawmakers gave DHHR's Bureau for Public Health oversight and tasked the bureau with creating an online source of public information.
The section of the website, found at www.dhhr.gov/bph/Pages/Medical-Cannabis-Program.aspx, links to frequently asked questions for patients and caregivers, growers and processors, potential dispensary owners and physicians.
DHHR is currently engaged in rule-making, which means the process of agencies writing the specific plans for implementing laws the Legislature passes.
Allison Adler, spokeswoman for the DHHR, said via email that the Bureau for Public Health's commissioner's office "is in the preliminary stage of developing an implementation plan, including a legal interpretation of what rules will be necessary to fully implement the Act."
"Those rules will begin with requirements for growers/processors so that those entities can come online and begin to produce products, then detailing requirements for dispensaries and physicians, followed closely by the requirements for the registration of caregivers and patients," she wrote.
"There are many considerations such as program operation, and how applications are to be submitted by growers/processors, dispensaries, patients and caregivers, and physicians," she added.
The Department of Agriculture is the only entity, so far, that has selected its representative on the medical cannabis advisory board.
Agriculture spokesman Crescent Gallagher said that Commissioner Kent Leonhardt selected Hatton, a certified crop adviser and certified grassland professional.
"As a lifelong farmer, I think this is a great opportunity to show what we can do in agriculture," Hatton said, in a phone interview.
He noted that West Virginia will have to look to other states such as Colorado, since West Virginians have experience, "but not with the legal variety." He noted that "this can't be grown out in the middle of an open field."
He also has unanswered questions.
"It has to be profitable," he said. "We haven't talked about the structure... who's going to own the crop? Who's going to own the marijuana? Will it be the farmers or the pharmaceutical companies or the state of West Virginia?"
___
Information from: The Charleston Gazette-Mail, http://wvgazettemail.com.Edward Snowden, the former CIA computer analyst who leaked top-secret documents uncovering the NSA’s surveillance programs, is the subject of a book that will be published Feb. 11.
Written by Luke Harding, “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man,” is being billed by its publisher, Vintage Books, as “the first, and definitive, book” on Snowden, who has taken refuge in Russia.
In a statement, Vintage said the book, a paperback original, “tells the story of the individuals behind the biggest intelligence leak in history and the forces that tried to stop them.”
Harding is a foreign correspondent with the Guardian, the British newspaper whose former staffer Glenn Greenwald broke the Snowden story last year. Harding covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is the author of “Mafia State” and co-author of “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy.”Photo: The Weinstein Company
A little more than a week into its wide release, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master has already established itself as that rare beast, a popular film with a lot on its mind — one that bears and maybe even demands repeated viewings. (Critics Stephanie Zacharek and Dana Stevens each have thoughts on whether or not a movie should need to be seen more than once. Our own David Edelstein shares his own thoughts here.) And each of these viewings can yield new and varying interpretations. So, what is The Master about? Here are five potential avenues of thought. (Naturally, there are spoilers ahead. You are forewarned.)
The search for a family and stability.
Several times, we see a shot of Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) lying down next to a sand sculpture of a woman. Admittedly, it’s a sand sculpture that he humps in the film’s opening minutes, but the tender way that he later cuddles up to it suggests that what he’s after isn’t really sex but warmth, contact, family, comfort. When the V.A. doctor asks him about a “vision” that he had, Freddie describes it thusly: “I had a dream. My mother, my father, and me. Sitting around a table. Drinking … ” Then he mumbles something that sounds like either “laughing” or “loving.” At any rate, that’s his vision — a happy family. Anderson dissolves from this scene to Freddie’s new job as a photographer — shooting pictures of happy housewives, happy children, happy husbands. He longs to be a part of this world, but, not unlike a filmmaker, he can only photograph it: Before he fights with the man he’s photographing at the department store, Freddie asks him, “Is this for your wife?” (Meanwhile, somewhere in the background, we hear a baby screaming.) Then, he pushes the lights in on the man, trying to crowd him out, and starts to beat him.
Freddie’s search for a family leads him to Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his wife Peggy (Amy Adams). In the remarkable shot where he discovers Dodd’s yacht, the camera constantly racks focus between a cold Freddie staggering on the dock in the foreground and the happy, warm party on the yacht, with Lancaster and Peggy dancing in the distance: It’s as if the camera (and by extension Freddie) is constantly trying to place them all in the same shot, and failing. Indeed, Anderson keeps these characters separated visually throughout the film. We almost never see them alone together in the same shot. Almost.
In the bizarre, final, cryptic scene in London, when the three are briefly reunited, Peggy first expresses a kind of maternal interest in Freddie (“You look sick. Freddie, you don’t look healthy”) before rejecting him altogether (“What did you hope would happen by coming here today?” To which he responds, tellingly, “I had a dream.”). In fact, this final scene might actually be the only time when we finally see all three of these characters — Peggy, Lancaster, and Freddie — alone together in the same shot. At the end of the scene, Lancaster sings “(I’d Like to Get You On) A Slow Boat to China” to Freddie. And yes, it’s eerie and perhaps more than a little homoerotic, but it also feels like a twisted version of a lullaby — the most domestic and familial of actions turned into something terrifying and strange — making it clear once and for all that Freddie’s dream of becoming a family with Lancaster and Peggy Dodd is an impossibility. And freeing him, ironically, to try and form a new family — perhaps with Winn, the girl he’s met in the final scenes of the film, right before we see him lying next to the female sand sculpture, suggesting that his search goes on.
The politics of cults, and the cults of politics.
Although Harvey Weinstein introduced the New York premiere of The Master with a swipe at Mitt Romney, Paul Thomas Anderson has never been a particularly political filmmaker. Except when he has been: There Will Be Blood might be a timeless meditation on will, power, ambition, and duplicity, but it’s also a startling depiction of the collusion and conflict between capitalism and spirituality in early twentieth century America, with particular resonances for the time in which it was made, when the U.S. was waging two wars in distant lands — one for oil, and another against a group of religious extremists it had collaborated with decades earlier. Not unlike Stanley Kubrick before him, Anderson seems to have an amazing ability to build in contemporary echoes into his films without making them feel overtly topical.
Thus, The Master, even though it’s only tangentially about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, depicts the humiliating yet symbiotic relationship between causes and followers in the modern era, when belief systems are no longer governing frameworks but just software to be renewed and replaced. You can see it in the Master’s irritated response to Helen Sullivan (Laura Dern) who, upon reading his new book, inquires about a major difference she’s noticed: “I did note that on page 13, there’s a change. You’ve changed the processing platform question from ‘Can you recall?’ to ‘Can you imagine?’” Meanwhile, Freddie, who never really understands the Master’s methods and has just had to listen to another B.S. sermon from Dodd, beats up a longtime believer who dares to question the Master’s rambling text. Maybe this is the way Freddie deals with his doubts, by doubling down on his obedience to the Master.
True, this is a kind of willful mutability that’s characteristic of cults, but it’s also one of the dynamics of modern politics, where belonging to the team (and defending it) is a lot more important than what the team actually stands for. (Just read any of this year’s election headlines to see political team players defend policies and beliefs they don’t really subscribe to — be they on the Left or the Right.) Freddie is, ultimately, symbolic of the common man who joins a cause not because he believes in it, but because it will have him.
Doubles.
It has probably not escaped the notice of many viewers that, although Lancaster Dodd and Freddie Quell seem like psychological and physical opposites (one is garrulous, confident, and rotund, the other terse, nervous, and alarmingly thin), the film also often presents them in symmetrical shots and situations: Witness the way Anderson films them when they’re in jail, yelling at each other as if each is inside the other’s mind. And let’s also not forget that both men are alchemists of a kind — one has the ability to turn things like torpedo fuel into a delicious beverage, the other has the ability to turn anything around him into a nonsensical spiritual aphorism. These men may somehow be conjoined — Dodd is, after all, the only one who seems to be able to regularly drink Freddie’s moonshine concoctions and survive. (It also helps, of course, that the women around them look the same — Doris, the girl Freddie loved back home before the war, bears an uncanny resemblance to Peggy Dodd.)
If the processing/auditing that the Master encourages is designed to shed oneself of the negative emotions and troubles of our past lives, consider the possibility that Freddie might actually be, at least on a metaphoric level, one of Lancaster Dodd’s past lives. (Which makes the oft-stated question in the film of where they might have met a more haunting one.) If Dodd constantly leaves his troubles behind, Freddie appears to be made up entirely of troubles — the family that abandoned him, the girl back home who didn’t wait for him, the war that broke him. (In an earlier version of the script, Freddie’s alcohol problem was matched by an obsessive need to get more and more tattoos, and his initial hospitalization at the V.A. was due to a rather symbolically loaded ailment — a burst appendix.) Like the negative energy of New Yorkers that collects in the sewers of the city in Ghostbusters II, Freddie is, in many ways, the return of the repressed for Lancaster Dodd — a Frankenstein’s Monster of troubled memories, rejections, and unspoken spiritual longings.
Post-war ennui.
This is, of course, right there in the second shot of the film: Freddie Quell, Navy man, lifting his head above the edge of a boat, looking quizzically out at the world. We hear a lot about the Greatest Generation in the media, but it’s also a fact that many of the men who fought in WWII came home to a world that was rapidly changing and that no longer held the certainties (if they ever even existed) of the war. (“Understandably, there will be people on the outside who do not understand your condition.”) While we do see, over the course of the film, a brief glimpse of Freddie’s life before the war, it’s telling that we never see the war itself, marking it as a kind of defining absence.
What did the war do to Freddie, and what about it connects him to Dodd? Is it worth noting that the cult of personality Dodd has created is, in miniature, a reflection of the political cults of personality — those of Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito — that the Allies defeated in WWII? Such things are never stated outright in the film, and we certainly never see “the enemy” in the brief scenes that show Freddie’s Navy stint. But we do see an enemy around us later in the film — the skeptics, the authorities, the doubters who question and challenge Dodd’s power. This is, after all, the age of McCarthyism, of paranoia and fear. Maybe Anderson is suggesting that people like Freddie came out of the war needing both the solace of family life and an enemy to combat?
Acting!
In interviews, Anderson has suggested that The Master followed an even looser development process than his previous scripts, with him instinctually putting a variety of elements together just to see how they would work out. (Versions of the script that were leaked during the film’s shooting were quite different from the finished product.) So, consider the possibility then that, on some basic level, The Master may actually be less about its ostensible story and more about its surfaces. It’s about putting the needy, nervous angularity of Joaquin Phoenix’s performance next to the avuncular, comfy generosity of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s, and seeing what develops, what ecosystems of character are formed in the back-and-forth between these figures.
In his excellent analysis of the film for The New Yorker’s website, Richard Brody correctly notes that many of the cult’s therapy sessions look like method acting exercises. Similarly, it’s perhaps notable that Phoenix’s performance seems to represent the tormented, physical acting styles of the latter half of the twentieth century (the Brandos, the Deans, the Clifts) whereas Hoffman’s acting seems to hearken back to the controlled, elusive manner of the previous half (many have described his turn as “Wellesian”). In these acting styles, we see a miniature version of the journey of American society during this period — and, specifically, American maleness. And before you suggest that this is a stretch, remember that this is a director who in Boogie Nights used different porn acting styles to tell the story of late-seventies-early-eighties American social upheaval.Written by Mike Hohnen on July 15, 2013
As Vans Warped Tour continues on through North America, the close-quarters and hot temperatures are clearly starting to take their toll, with The Amity Affliction frontman Joel Birch openly venting on stage about a new-found beef with Memphis May Fire vocalist Matty Mullins.
At around 60 seconds long, the fan-filmed video doesn’t give too much context but it’s overwhelmingly apparent that Birch is none too pleased with Mullins. “The other guys in Memphis May Fire are cool as fuck but Matty Mullins can get the fuck off Warped,” he can be heard saying.
At this point in time it’s unclear why Birch has launched the assault against his peer, though keyboard warriors seem to be in agreement that Mullins made unsavoury comments towards the female demographic in attendance. Birch also mentions that Glass Cloud drummer Chad Hasty, who Amity have enlisted for their US tour, has been subject to racist taunts at Warped, though whether the two situations are related is unknown.
Watch the video below and get ready for some nasty to and fro from all concerned.
Watch: Joel Birch (The Amity Affliction) berates Memphis May Fire vocalist Matty Mullins live at Warped
http://youtu.be/Rq21iYw2eQwA 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks could reduce obesity rates in the UK by five per cent* by 2025 - equal to 3.7 million fewer obese people - according to a new report** from Cancer Research UK and the UK Health Forum published today.
“The ripple effect of a small tax on sugary drinks is enormous. These numbers make it clear why we need to act now before obesity becomes an even greater problem." - Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer prevention
The report predicts the impact a 20 per cent sugary drinks tax could have on obesity if current trends continue. This stark number (3.7 million) is equivalent to the combined populations of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol and Leicester***.
The study also predicts that the tax could save the NHS about £10 million in healthcare and social care costs in 2025 alone.
Being overweight and obese is a major cause of preventable illness and death in the UK, including cancer, type two diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke.
Junk food, high in sugar and fat, is cheap, widely promoted and all too accessible. Research shows that the price of food influences what people buy so introducing a tax on sugary drinks provides an incentive to buy less or switch to a healthier choice.
Adults and young children consume twice the maximum recommended amount of added sugar. And 11 to 18 year olds eat and drink three times the recommended limit, with sugary drinks being their main source of added sugar.
Recent polling also shows that a sugary drink tax is backed by the majority of the public with 55 per cent supporting the measure and only 36 per cent opposed****.
To help reduce the impact obesity has on society, Cancer Research UK is calling on the Government to act now and put a tax on sugary drinks, ban junk food adverts on TV before the 9pm watershed, and introduce targets for reducing the amount of fat and sugar in food as part of a comprehensive strategy.
Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer prevention, said: “The ripple effect of a small tax on sugary drinks is enormous. These numbers make it clear why we need to act now before obesity becomes an even greater problem.
“There are a lot of things working against us when it comes to making healthier choices. We’re all bombarded by junk food advertising of cheap foods packed with extra calories and it can be tough for parents do what’s best for their children. The Government has a chance to help reduce the amount of sugar consumed by adults and children and to give future generations the best chance of a healthier life.”
Jane Landon, UK Health Forum’s deputy chief executive, said: “Countries which have introduced a tax on sugary drinks have not only reduced consumption, they have raised much-needed revenues for public health measures. These figures indicate that even a modest tax at 20 per cent – as part of a society-wide response - could help to deliver the scale and pace of change needed to turn around the UK’s crisis of obesity-related ill-health.”
ENDS
For media enquiries contact the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 3469 8300 or, out of hours, on 07050 264 059.2016 Annual Conference & Exposition
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The biggest finding of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace may be what it failed to find—namely, any evidence that the past 30 years of corporate training has had any effect on preventing workplace harassment. “That was a jaw-dropping moment for us,” said EEOC Commissioner Victoria A. Lipnic in a Sunday Session at the Society for Human Resource Management 2016 Annual Conference & Exposition.
Lipnic and Chai R. Feldblum, the Select Task Force co-chairs, shared a preview of the research and recommendations that have come out of the group’s work over the past 18 months. They expected to formally present their findings at a public commission meeting June 20 in Washington, D.C. The Select Task Force was convened in January 2015 by EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang and comprises academics, social scientists, plaintiff and defense attorneys, employer and employee advocacy groups, representatives of organized labor, and others.
Despite finding no data that harassment training works, Lipnic and Feldblum advocate that HR professionals build on the foundation of their organization’s existing policies. “We’re not suggesting throwing out the old,” Lipnic said. However, “what we want people to understand is that if you are thinking training alone is a panacea to helping out any type of harassment, [it’s not]. It doesn’t work,” she said.
It’s effective to take a holistic approach that starts with getting the buy-in of senior leaders. “For [training] to matter, employees have to feel their leaders are being authentic,” Feldblum said. “They have to believe that leaders mean what they say” when they claim to want to stop harassment.
One of the key purposes of the task force’s work is to give HR professionals the tools and talking points they need to educate leaders and help shift their organizations toward becoming more-respectful work environments. “We’re trying to change behaviors,” Feldblum said. “The best way to do that is to create a culture where it’s just not cool to sexually harass someone or racially harass someone.”
What Harassment Is
Harassment is generally defined as any unwelcome conduct based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 and over), disability or genetic information. It becomes unlawful when employees are forced to endure offensive behavior in order to keep their jobs or when the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment.
However, the Select Task Force is focused on thwarting all unwanted behavior based on protected characteristics. “We wanted to take a look beyond just what the law is,” Lipnic said. “Harassment doesn’t have to rise to the level of being pervasive and severe,” she said. “[Our goal] is to stop unwelcome conduct before it rises to the level of legal problem.”
All Too Common
The Select Task Force was formed in part due to the EEOC’s belief that harassment is a pervasive problem, and the group’s subsequent research bore that out. Of 90,000 EEOC charges raised against private-sector employers, one-third were related to claims of harassment, either directly or as part of a broader allegation, Lipnic said. Roughly one-half were based on sex.
And those complaints are the tip of the iceberg. “We can’t just use charges and complaints [to the agency],” Lipnic said. “That can be very under-inclusive,” given that 90 percent of people who are harassed never file a legal complaint, according to the academic literature.
Unfortunately, there is a dearth of data to draw on. “Our first really disturbing finding was that, other than surveys about sex-based harassment, we do not have any national surveys assessing harassment based on sexual orientation, race, disability, etc.,” Lipnic said.
Also disturbing is that, according to the information available regarding sexual harassment, anywhere from 25 percent to 80 percent of women have experienced it at some point in their careers, depending on how the term is defined.
What to Do
Lipnic and Feldblum made several recommendations for how HR can help prevent workplace harassment:
Make the business case. In 2015 alone, the EEOC recovered $165 million from harassment charges against employers. Citing this information is a powerful way to counter the perception that allowing bad behavior is the price leaders have to pay to retain certain high-level employees. And that’s to say nothing of the huge toll harassment can take on a company’s reputation and overall retention rate. “Research shows that people don’t like it when harassment happens,” Feldblum said. “They feel powerless to do anything but leave.”
Implement customized training. Don’t ask employees to sit through a boring and impersonal online training session. To be effective, “you need training that is live, in-person and customized to your workplace,” Lipnic said. “You need someone who understands what your workplace is.”
Create a culture of kindness. The Select Task Force recommends two new forms of training intended to cultivate harassment-free workplaces. “What we learned from academics and investigators is that if one does what’s called “workplace civility training”—a very skills-based training on how to be respectful—that can help [employers] avoid harassment on the basis of protected characteristics,” Feldblum said.
Feldblum and Lipnic also suggest something called “bystander intervention training,” in which employees are taught to recognize and report problematic behavior among others when they see it. It is modeled after the “It’s On Us” campaign against sexual violence, in which individuals are asked to sign a pledge indicating they will intervene if they witness a rape or sexual assault in progress.
“Our big, audacious recommendation is that the EEOC should help launch an ‘It’s On Us’ campaign for workplace harassment,” Feldblum said. “Our less-audacious recommendation is to assess how that training would apply in the workplace—to see if we can work with folks and have more employers provide bystander intervention.”
Christina Folz is the editor of HR Magazine.Dear Respected Imams and Community Leaders,
I am a survivor of domestic violence. It took me years to finally speak up. Now that I have it is my intentions to assist in bringing about change in the way abuse in the home is addressed within the Muslim community. I have heard many times how well the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) treated his wives. I’ve heard it said many times during the Friday prayer that “the best of you is he who is best to his family”. Praise be to God, Muslims have the best example of how one should treat the spouse yet cases of domestic violence seem to be on the rise.
I am aware that some Imams are giving exceptional advice (Masha’Allah) when it comes to domestic violence. Just the other day I came across a video on YouTube by Sheikh Omar Suleiman addressing abuse. I found the advice very uplifting and encouraging but many sisters who have been abused are not getting the same advice when they seek help from an Imam. Some sisters are being told to “be patient”. It’s important to note that once a woman actually opens up about the abuse taking place in her home she has passed the phase of being patient. It’s not likely that she was hit once and decided to seek counsel. Many have gone through the cycle of abuse time after time and had to build up courage to ask for help. Telling her to be patient sounds like this: You’ve done something to deserve this so just be patient while he chokes you, stay quiet while he punches you, forget that he just dragged you to the ground and kicked you in the face. Be patient and in the meantime endure the physical trauma. Domestic violence can be emotional or physical, and frequently ends in death. It is possible that the advice to “be patient” is sending a victim of abuse to their grave.
I have a few suggestions that may assist in |
an in-depth review and test of the feature set and creative applications. I'm excited to see what the Little DARlings can do in a micro-budget narrative film environment — so stay tuned.Image copyright AP Image caption Cardinal Bagnasco did not name Mr Berlusconi but it was clear who he was criticising
The president of the Italian Bishops' Conference has strongly criticised Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is embroiled in a sex scandal.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco said that political leaders who behave immorally pollute the country's future.
Prosecutors have accused the prime minister of paying for sex with prostitutes, allegedly including an under-age dancer.
Mr Berlusconi denies he has done anything wrong.
He has refused to appear before prosecutors for questioning, and on Monday Ansa news agency reported that his lawyers had filed court documents defending him from the accusations.
The BBC's David Willey, in Rome, said the Catholic Church had been reluctant to openly criticise the prime minister because the hierarchy did not want to stand accused of fomenting further political instability.
Morals questioned
But last week the man seen as number two at the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, called for a more "robust morality" and legality among public officials.
A day later Pope Benedict XVI deplored the current weakening of public morals.
Cardinal Bagnasco is head of the Italian bishops' conference which in theory operates independently from the Vatican, whose focus is more upon the Church's international role and responsibilities.
"Whoever accepts a public position must understand the sobriety, personal discipline, sense of measure and honour that come with it," he told a meeting of the conference in Ancona.
Although he did not name Mr Berlusconi, the cardinal had already announced he would address the issue on Monday, and it was clear who he was talking about.
Our correspondent in Rome says the cardinal also virtually accused Mr Berlusconi of helping to promote a false model of success - based, he said, on cunning, social climbing, showing off and selling oneself.Sen. Bernie Sanders, the nominal Democrat whose two-and-a-half decade career as a registered Independent in Congress has essentially been a form of leftist protest of the Democratic Party, has declared his presidential candidacy will go all the way to the Democratic National Convention in July.
Politico reports Sanders told an audience at the National Press Club that Clinton "will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in Philadelphia. In other words, it will be a contested convention." An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll has the two candidates polling within the margin of error in Indiana, but because all Democratic primaries award delegates proportionally, Sanders needs to win over 60 percent of each primary the rest of the way to have any shot of matching Clinton's delegate totals.
He knows he's got little chance of overtaking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the final primary in Washington DC on June 14, but Sanders continues to raise money ($26 million last month, according to CNN) for his insurgent campaign which even many hardcore Clinton supporters begrudgingly appreciate, to a point, for pushing Clinton "to the left" on economics.
Those same Clinton supporters, however, also think Sanders has had his moment and that it's time for the democratic socialist from Vermont to stop "attacking" his only rival for the nomination or drop out entirely. Some Clinton supporters claim the party needs "unity" now, lest the presumptive nominee suffers any more public criticism that doesn't come from the mouth of Donald Trump.
The Clinton camp continues to tout how much leg-work it did to support then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 once he was the nominee, but there seems to be a collective case of amnesia on how viciously Clinton's campaign fought Obama's down to the very last primary in 2008. In an article last week, Politico recalls Hillary Clinton saying as late as May of that knock-down, drag-out primary process that "Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening,” and the article also notes that Bill Clinton reportedly used his presidential gravitas to try to convince superdelegates that "the country wasn’t ready to elect an African-American President."
This isn't exactly the stuff that party unity is made of. The fact is, when it became clear that the delegate math was not in her favor, Clinton's once-formidible support among superdelegates dwindled, and she and her surrogates did everything they could to undermine Obama as an inexperienced outsider who would lose the general election.
Of course, not only did Obama handily defeat Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) in the general, he flipped some traditionally red states into the blue column, indicating the sustained attacks by the Clinton camp didn't seem to leave a scratch on him.
Clinton was supremely confident she would be the nominee in 2008 and the Obama juggernaut was something she never saw coming. This time around, with Clinton's only serious competition coming from an elderly, charisma-free senator with a long but undistinguished career in Congress, the burden of having to actually compete for her own party's nomination is clearly infuriating to the Clinton camp.
Supporters of Clinton will note that the race was tighter between Obama and Clinton than it is with Clinton and Sanders, which is true. But what is also true is that Obama and Clinton shared much more in common in both policy and political philosophy than Clinton and Sanders do. This is truly a competition of ideas, rather than personalities.
Though he changed his long-time affiliation from Independent to Democrat last November, Sanders' has demonstrated little concern with party unity. Indeed, his candidacy has promised "revolution."
Sanders has no interest in preserving Clinton's Democratic Leadership Council-style centrism, he wants to reshape the Democratic Party into one that's outwardly hostile to the free market and substantially increases the welfare state, but also abandons the drug war once and for all (including the legalization of marijuana) and turns its back on the relentless appetite for military intervention (or as Clinton would call it, "smart power").
If Sanders' end game is to influence Democratic Party policy, he has little incentive to drop out now, even if Paul Krugman thinks "he’s in the process of blowing his own chance for a positive legacy." Bowing out now surely earns Sanders a plum time slot at the Democratic National Convention, but given how many votes he's already earned — to say nothing of the enthusiasm of his supporters — he could demand that regardless.
But Sanders' statement at the National Press Club this past weekend that he's "entitled to superdelegates" (specifically an amount of superdelegates that's proportional to the voting percentages he's won) indicates he wants to have it both ways. For all the influence his campaign may have affected on Clinton's, it's far too late to try to change the rules of a major party which he defiantly refused to identify himself with until he decided to run for president.
Superdelegates are a fact of Democratic Party life and specifically designed to keep insurgent candidacies at bay. For almost as long as Sanders has been a leftist thorn-in-the-side of the Democratic Party, Clinton has been a first lady, senator, secretary of state and power broker. She has cultivated the support of the party elites who are this year's superdelegates. If Sanders has designs on reforming that system, he'll have to save that intra-party revolution for another time.
In the meantime, Clinton supporters shouldn't fear competing in the marketplace of ideas. Donald Trump will still be Donald Trump when the primaries are over.TALLAHASSEE — He says he is protective of Florida families, but Gov. Rick Scott can't get a grip on one of the big pocketbook issues for many of them: the rising cost of homeowners' insurance.
Scott ordered internal investigations of spending practices at the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance, Florida's largest insurer, and when he was blindsided by big raises to top executives, he told them to return the money.
But the price of insurance is a different story.
When it comes to the cost of living, Scott talks about taxes and tuition, and insurance is rarely part of the conversation.
"I'm for Florida families," Scott said in an exclusive Times/Herald interview in his office. "My goal is to get more competition."
Fortunate Floridians have dodged a hurricane for seven years. But the rising cost of property insurance looms as a potential major issue in the upcoming race for governor — the political equivalent of a large, dangerous weather disturbance.
Anxiety over insurance is greatest in Tampa Bay and South Florida, and nearly half of all Florida homeowners rate property insurance costs as a top financial concern. But it has never made the top of Scott's agenda and is missing from his priority list for 2013, which is topped by a $2,500 pay raise for teachers.
Scott's predecessor and possible future opponent, Charlie Crist, bashed insurance companies to promote his populist image. Shortly after taking office in 2007, Crist called a special legislative session to freeze Citizens' rates, and he demonized insurers as greedy.
That's not Scott's nature. A conservative supporter of free markets, he wants to shrink Citizens and lure more private companies into the Florida market, on the premise that more competition will lower costs, but critics say that won't help.
"Gov. Scott just doesn't get it," said Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who hears daily from constituents fed up with Citizens. "Homeowners are absolutely disgusted with what Citizens is doing to them, and they definitely will blame a governor who allowed it to happen."
In places like Miami-Dade, Citizens policyholders pay an average of $3,300 a year for standard coverage, eating up nearly 5 percent of a typical family's budget. Rate hikes of 10 percent a year are straining household budgets in Tampa Bay and South Florida, where Citizens dominates the market — and where more than one-third of Florida voters live.
Scott says his control over Citizens is limited: He appoints two of its eight board members.
The governor's most vocal stance on Citizens occurred at a Cabinet meeting in late 2011. Informed that the insurer was growing rapidly and struggling to control risk, Scott told then-president Scott Wallace to fix the problem within six months.
"This is something we cannot continue to do," Scott said, harking back to a campaign promise to shrink risk at Citizens.
By some measures, the problem has gotten worse since that Cabinet meeting. A month later, Wallace resigned and was replaced by Tom Grady, Scott's Naples neighbor and political ally, who soon fell out of favor with Citizens board members. He was replaced by Barry Gilway.
In the months following, property insurance has receded from Scott's policy priority list, just as Citizens has become more aggressive than ever about remaking the company.
The Citizens board has cut back coverage, advanced a massive home reinspection program and proposed uncapped rates on new policies. The result is higher rates for less coverage, with homeowners facing huge spikes in insurance costs.
Citizens raised rates 10.8 percent last year, costing homeowners statewide an estimated $250 million. The company sent inspectors to the homes of 360,000 Floridians, causing premiums to jump by $800, on average, for the vast majority of those targeted in the program.
Both Citizens' critics and its board chairman, Carlos Lacasa, say the insurer is following through with the wishes of Scott.
"Through the back door, he (Scott) is putting pressure on Gilway and the board to do certain things," Fasano said. "But what he doesn't realize is that the pressure he's putting on them to shrink (Citizens) is having a negative effect on a lot of homeowners in this state."
While critics like Fasano blame Scott for insurance rate increases, the governor maintains a limited view of his role in the property insurance debate.
Asked what he has done to address the state's property insurance problem, he said he has invited companies to come to Florida and warned homeowners of the hidden risk of taxpayer-backed insurance that will force higher assessments if a hurricane strikes.
Citizens has a $15 billion portfolio and a record amount of cash after seven years with no hurricanes, but a Category 5 storm could wipe out its reserves. That would lead to so called "hurricane taxes" on most consumers.
The company was created in 2002 to help provide coverage for those who could not find it in the private market, which contracted sharply after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Rates at Citizens are lower than what risk experts believe the company should be charging, but often higher than what homeowners can afford.
Fiscal conservatives say the government-run company is forcing inland residents to "subsidize" those near Florida's coast.
"I don't believe that I ought to be subsidized by people who live in Lakeland," said Senate President Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who lives in a waterfront home.
A bill now being debated in the state Senate would create major changes to Citizens, requiring the company charge rates higher than in the private market.
But Scott, whose 2010 platform promised to work with the Legislature to "ensure that Citizens consistently operates on actuarially sound rates," said he has not read the bill. "I ran on jobs and education," Scott said.
The politics at Citizens have always been thorny. The company has issued 1.2 million policies that cover nearly a quarter of Florida's electorate, and voters are quick to blame government-controlled insurance rates on elected officials. The Republican majority often breaks apart along geographical lines when it comes to Citizens, with coastal constituents telling their lawmakers to vote against rate increases.
Barbara Costa, who moved to Pasco County from the West Coast, said her insurance costs in Florida are three times higher than California's "even with earthquakes, mudslides and wildfires."
The emails flooding Scott's inbox have become more hostile, as allegations of Citizens' corporate misconduct and executive spending have surfaced. Homeowners complain that their premium increases are more discouraging when they hear about various management problems at Citizens.
In the past year, Scott has twice called for his inspector general to investigate allegations of waste and excess by Citizens executives. But the makeup of the board remains unchanged.
"I'm for making sure Citizens operates properly," Scott said. "The raises were ridiculous.... We're not paying for alcohol. They ought to have an inspector general. We ought to make sure the place works right, first."Bitcoin (BCH) works best when used as a cash system. After all, it is designed to work as one.
In a new blog post, nChain chief scientist Dr. Craig Wright addressed transaction malleability—the new-old issue that negatively affects the perception of cryptocurrencies as it is believed to create problems for the network. Transaction malleability allows someone to change a transaction’s unique ID before it’s confirmed on the network, making it possible for the person to pretend that the transaction didn’t happen.
Complicated proposals have been made to “fix” this issue. SegWit, for instance, promises to solve transaction malleability by not “taking into account signatures when calculating the transaction’s fingerprint.” But why settle on complex and convoluted methods, when the answer is simple: use Bitcoin as a cash system.
“Once we move past the unfounded FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] that has been oversold as a scaling issue (and seems more to be a method to extract value from Bitcoin into Alt-Coins) we start to see that Bitcoin was designed to work as cash and when it is used this way, it works best,” Wright said.
Bitcoin was designed with the idea of splitting and re-joining transactions in mind, according to Wright. The concept can be read in Section 9 of the Bitcoin whitepaper, which states that “fan-out, where a transaction depends on several transactions, and those transactions depend on many more is not a problem here.”
“Why are we seeking to make more difficult ‘solutions’ when a far superior method exists right now and was incorporated from the start into Bitcoin?” Wright said. “Malleability does not need a fix to stop this occurring. The nature of Bitcoin is to not require the use of third parties, so why are many people doing their utmost to make third parties a part of Bitcoin?
Read Dr. Wright’s blog post, “Spending the simple way in Bitcoin Cash,” here.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (SegWit) chain are referenced as BTC coins; tokens on the Bitcoin Cash ABC chain are referenced as BCH, BCH-ABC or BAB coins.
Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) is today the only Bitcoin project that follows the original Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper, and that follows the original Satoshi protocol and design. BSV is the only public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin and will massively scale to become the world’s new money and enterprise blockchain.SMALL and cool they may be, but red dwarfs, the most common kind of stars, are more likely to support life than we thought. Far-off icy planets that orbit these stars could still be warm enough to contain liquid water because of the way snow and ice absorb their near-infrared light.
Alien-hunting astronomers tend to look for planets in the “habitable zone”, the range of distances from a star where temperatures are balmy enough for water to be in liquid form but not so hot that it boils off.
Red dwarfs are cooler than stars like our sun, so their habitable zones were thought to be smaller. This should make any planet’s gravitational tugs on the star stronger and habitable worlds easier to spot – if there are any. Red dwarfs tend to flare up, scorching any nearby planets. Those far enough away to be safe, meanwhile, could be too cold.
Now, climate scientist Manoj Joshi of the University of Reading, UK, and Robert Haberle of NASA’s Ames Research Centre in California have discovered how red dwarfs could warm far-off planets.
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Ice and snow reflect 50 to 80 per cent of visible light so the ice on Earth bounces most sunlight back to space, and stays frozen. Compared with our sun, red dwarfs shine less in visible wavelengths, and brighter in the near-infrared, which ice and snow soak up. “If there’s ice or snow on the ground, more of the radiation that hits the surface will be absorbed,” Joshi says. “Which means that you’d expect it to be a lot hotter than it would be otherwise.”
Joshi and Haberle took spectral data for two red dwarfs known to have exoplanets, Gliese 436 and GJ 1214. They found that an icy planet would reflect 10 to 40 per cent of the light it receives from that star. Effectively, snow on those worlds is half as shiny, and the outer edge of their habitable zone is 10 to 30 per cent further out from those stars than thought. “You’ve got more area, more chance of getting a planet in the habitable zone,” Joshi says. The work will be published in Astrobiology.
Snow on those worlds is half as shiny, and the outer edge of their habitable zone is further out
Does the result bring any known exoplanets in from “too cold” to “just right”? Not just yet. Although exoplanet Gliese 581d is a possibility, Sara Seager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology points out that this planet is not thought to have much ice.All motorcyclists know the feeling of freedom and clarity a long ride can bring. Biking can be a great way to see the country from the open road. If you are itching to embark on a long ride, we offer you some suggestions for the best scenery and destinations from sea to shining sea.
Route 50 through West Virginia
This highway is known for its winding path of twists and turns. The scenery is unmatched, as you will pass by rivers, mountains, and through the Monongahela National Forest. You will also pass through Cathedral State Park, which can be a good place to stop, rest, and take in more scenery. Best of all, once you complete the 54 mi course, you are in the position to connect to two more mountain rides: The Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.
When to Go: West Virginia’s autumn foliage peaks in September and October. For a truly unforgettable experience, go when the forest is ablaze with fall color.
Needles Highway through South Dakota
This course is set through South Dakota’s scenic Black Hills. Pass through tunnels that are holes in granite walls, like Needles Eye Tunnel and the Iron Creek Tunnel. You will also have the option of taking in some wildlife; bison and antelope are known to frequent the area. You will be a stone’s throw away from Mt. Rushmore, which is a must-see for anyone who visits.
When to Go: Take this ride during the first week of August. You will be in close proximity to a little town called Sturgis, which happens to host the largest motorcycle rally in the country. Join a wild community of bikers, and enjoy the vendors, food, and music before heading on your way.
Tail of the Dragon, North Carolina
This route has its own website and claims to be the best motorcycle road in America. With 318 curves built into 11 miles, this destination earns its cool name. It borders the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cherokee National Forest. Check out the Tree of Shame, which features bike parts hanging from its branches as an homage to bikers who crashed on the twisting roads.
When to Go: Try taking this road in the late spring when the rains have dried but before the oppressive heat of the summer sets in. Just make sure you go in the morning so you can see the sunrise over the Smoky Mountains, highlighting the fog that gives them their name.
Beartooth Pass, Wyoming
Consider this ride your introduction to the Wild Wild West. Craggy mountains jut out of the frozen tundra, creating a road roller coaster-like in its topography. There are few guard rails, making this the perfect route for an adrenaline junkie. End your sojourn with a visit to Yellowstone National Park, where you can take in bears, buffalo, and fields of wildflowers.
When to Go: At 10,000 feet above sea level, early summer is the best time to take in this American treasure. Try to make it before school gets out and tourist season gets busy.
Tunnel of Trees, Michigan
Aptly named, this route along the shores of Lake Michigan offers some of the best forest views in the United States. Ride along the coastline of one of the largest lakes of America and through patches of dense forest. End your ride 30 miles from Mackinac City, which offers passage by ferry to Mackinac Island – a destination known for its fudge, ice cream, and lack of motor vehicles. While you are there, take a ride across the Mackinac bridge, a 5 mile journey that connects the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula.
When to Go: Fall foliage peaks in September, and you will still be able to make it to Mackinac Island before it closes to the public for the season. Snow comes early to this part of the country, in October.
Are you partial to any of these rides or is there another ride you think we should add? Tell us about it in the comments!The event will take place at the China National Convention Centre (Photo: Facebook)
The 2017 ChinaFit Natural Organic and Healthy Nutrition Conference is a major vegan-themed event.
It will take place over two days - June 27-28 - at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. The conference is part of the ChinaFit Fitness Convention and Tradeshow, which is the largest annual event of the Chinese commercial fitness industry.
Large scale
The event will occupy five floors covering 40,000 square meters exhibition area. It will attract an estimated 35,000 visitors.
One entire floor will be dedicated to the vegan themed conference. Exhibitions will include:
1 Charity Dinner Party and Award Ceremony
2 Themed classrooms
6 Themed topics
10 Interactive activities
30+ Experts in the health and nutrition field
50+ Participating agencies
100+ Volunteers
500 sqm food court
1,500 sqm healthy organic product showroom
2,000 Fitness professionals
6,000+ Healthy nutritious vegan lunch
20,000+ staff from fitness industry nationwide
There will be 6,000 vegan lunch provided to VIP guests and paid workshop participants for free during the conference by 20 exhibiting vegan restaurants.
Opportunities
Organizers say this is a 'golden opportunity for TACN and ThinkCloud to share the latest development of global vegan movement, news, latest campaigns, vegan brands and products, artists, documentaries and success stories of vegan organisations from around the world with the audience'.
Apart from giving a keynote speech on the main stage on each day of the conference, TACN and ThinkCloud will also have two exhibition stalls and a dedicated area to carry out interactive activities with visitors, these would include:
Animal rights art exhibition
Family bonding over DIY workshops
Screening of documentaries
Educational workshops
iAnimal VR experience
Interactive games
Prize raffles
Vegan products, and
Possibly cooking demo.
Information
Date & Time: June 27-28. 09:00-18:00
Venue: China National Convention Center - No. 7 Tianchandonglu, Chaoyang, Beijing
(北京市朝阳区天辰东路7号)
Tickets: FREE entry - register on arrival, or via WeChat official accountThis post has been updated. This post was originally by This post was originally by Kim Maida and has recently been updated from Polymer 1 to Polymer 2.
TL;DR: Google Polymer is a library that provides syntactic sugar and polyfills for building elements and applications with web components. We'll build a web app using Polymer and its CLI, call an external API, and add authentication with JSON Web Tokens. The full code is available from this GitHub repo.
What Are Web Components?
Components are generally understood to be modular pieces of code that provide UI and/or scripting in a reusable package. Many JS frameworks use the term "components" (e.g., Angular, React, Ember). However, to understand Polymer, we'll do a quick crash-course on a specific kind of component: web components.
Web components are reusable widgets that can be assembled like building blocks in web documents and apps. They are a set of browser features that are being added to the W3C HTML and DOM specification. A web component is composed of four standards:
In a nutshell, web components allow us to architect and import custom elements that automatically associate JS behavior with templates and can utilize shadow DOM to provide CSS scoping and DOM encapsulation.
Web components can be used natively without any additional libraries or toolsets. However, not all features are supported by all browsers. We need to leverage a library like Polymer or polyfills, such as webcomponents.js, to bridge the gap between the current state of browser support and the future.
Enter Google Polymer
Polymer is a library created by Google that enables us to build cross-browser compatible apps and elements with web components. It provides syntactic sugar to native web components as well as polyfills for browsers that don't support web components yet. Shadow DOM is difficult and costly to polyfill, so Polymer provides a separate shady DOM polyfill to implement the features of shadow DOM in browsers that lack support.
The web components collection provides many prepackaged custom elements that can be easily implemented in any Polymer project. They provide useful utility elements like Ajax, media queries, and single page application routing as well as the visual "Paper" elements of Google's Material Design.
Polymer has comprehensive documentation at the Polymer Project Devguide and can be used with or without the custom elements in the Element Catalog. To speed up development, we'll build our simple Single Page Application (SPA) with a starter kit and Polymer elements.
What We'll Build
We're going to develop a Polymer app that does the following:
calls an external Node API to get Chuck Norris quotes,
posts to the API to register and log in users,
uses JSON Web Tokens to fetch protected Chuck Norris quotes for authenticated users,
stores tokens and user data with local storage,
and logs users out by clearing tokens.
The full source code for the completed app can be cloned from this GitHub repo.
Setup and Installation
We'll use the new Polymer CLI to scaffold our Polymer web app with the Polymer Starter Kit. With the starter kit, we'll gain the advantages of routing, app layout, Material Design, and many core utilities right away.
Let's get started!
Dependencies
First, make sure that you have node.js (with NPM) installed.
If you don't already have Bower, install it globally with the following command:
npm install -g bower
Install the Polymer CLI:
npm install -g polymer-cli
We also need to have a sample Node API running. Clone the NodeJS JWT Authentication sample repo and follow the instructions in the README to get it up and running on http://localhost:3001.
Initializing a Polymer App
Create a new directory and navigate to it in the terminal or command prompt. Use the following command to initialize the Polymer starter kit in your new folder:
polymer init polymer-2-starter-kit
This command installs the starter kit app and necessary Bower components. Once the command completes, we can view the app in the browser by running:
polymer serve
The site runs at http://localhost:8081. Adding the optional --open flag will automatically launch that address in your default browser.
Note: If you want to see the shadow DOM nodes in action in the inspector during development, Chrome is recommended. The app works in all modern browsers thanks to Polymer's inclusion of shady DOM and polyfills, but Chrome currently has the best native support for web components.
When viewing your app in the browser, it looks like this:
Customizing the Polymer Starter Kit App
You can see that the starter kit app has several views. We want to customize it. When we've finished updating the structure and naming, our app should look like this:
Let's dig into the code to understand how Polymer applications and elements are composed and how we can modify it to suit our needs.
Element Naming
Open the /src folder and take a look at its contents. These are the elements and views that make up the application. Notice that the file names are hyphenated (ie., my-app, my-view1 ). This follows the W3C valid custom element naming spec.
Custom element names must contain at least one hyphen.
The my-app.html file contains the main module that renders the other views based on the route (with app-route and iron-pages ). The name my-app suits our purposes so we'll leave it as-is. The same goes for my-icons and shared-styles. However, my-view1 is not descriptive enough. We'll rename these files and in doing so, learn about more Polymer elements.
Renaming HTML Files
Our app will be composed of the following views:
A homepage that lets visitors click a button to display random Chuck Norris quotes. A signup and login page with a form that lets visitors register or log into the app. A secret quotes page where authenticated users can click a button to get protected Chuck Norris quotes.
We'll rename the generic starter kit views to match our planned view structure. The /src folder currently looks like this:
Let's rename these files:
/src |-- my-view1.html |-- my-view2.html |-- my-view3.html |-- my-view404.html
to the following:
/src |-- home-quotes.html |-- register-login.html |-- secret-quotes.html |-- not-found.html
Our final file /src folder file structure should look like this:
Editing the Views
We've renamed the HTML files and now we need to rename the elements they contain. For each of the updated views, open the file and do the following:
Locate the <dom-module> tag near the top of the file. This specifies the start of an element's DOM template. This is the declarative portion of the element definition. Change its ID to match the new file name.
For example:
<dom-module id= "my-view1" >
becomes:
<dom-module id= "home-quotes" >
Locate the <script> tag near the bottom of the file. The extends Polymer.Element javascript class is the imperative portion of the element definition. Change the is function to return the new element name and the class name to something more appropriate.
For example:
class MyView1 extends Polymer.Element { static get is() { return'my-view1'; } } window.customElements.define(MyView1.is, MyView1);
becomes:
class HomeQuotes extends Polymer.Element { static get is() { return 'home-quotes'; } } window.customElements.define(HomeQuotes.is, HomeQuotes);
Note: Read more about an element's shadow DOM in the Polymer docs.
Modifying my-app.html
Our elements are renamed. Now we need to update references to them. The view elements are called in /src/my-app.html, so we'll make the necessary changes while familiarizing with the contents of the file.
Routing is handled by <app-location>, <app-route>, and <iron-pages>. Consult the documentation to learn more about Polymer routing.
To get our renamed views working with routing, locate the <app-drawer> element. This is the menu sidebar and currently contains links to the old routes, like so:
<a name= "view1" href= "[[rootPath]]view1" > View One </a>
You may notice that the hyphenation ( my- ) is missing. It's being added programmatically and we'll need to remove it soon. First, change the anchor links inside the <iron-selector> element to match our renamed views for home-quotes and secret-quotes :
... <iron-selector selected= "[[page]]" attr-for-selected= "name" class= "drawer-list" role= "navigation" > <a name= "home-quotes" href= "[[rootPath]]home-quotes" > Home </a> <a name= "secret-quotes" href= "[[rootPath]]secret-quotes" > Secret Quotes </a> </iron-selector>...
The "Log In" link would be best located in the header. Find the header layout elements <app-header> and <app-toolbar>. Add the Log In link after the <div main-title>My App</div> element. While we're here, let's change the main title to "Chuck Norris" too. When we're done, the <app-toolbar> element should look like this:
... <app-toolbar> <paper-icon-button icon= "my-icons:menu" drawer-toggle ></paper-icon-button> <div main-title > My App </div> <a name= "register-login" href= "[[rootPath]]register-login" > Log in </a> </app-toolbar>...
Now we'll update the markup that places our view elements in the DOM. Locate the <iron-pages> tag. This element shows one of its children at a time and is used in conjunction with <app-route> to display views based on the URL. Update the elements inside this tag to reflect the renaming of our view elements:
... <iron-pages selected= "[[page]]" attr-for-selected= "name" fallback-selection= "not-found" role= "main" > <home-quotes name= "home-quotes" ></home-quotes> <register-login name= "register-login" ></register-login> <secret-quotes name= "secret-quotes" ></secret-quotes> <not-found name= "not-found" ></not-found> </iron-pages>...
Now we'll make some changes in the Polymer function. This method takes an object prototype for a new element. You can read more about registering elements in the docs.
In the <script> tag, locate the _routePageChanged() function and change the default this.page to home-quotes :
... _routePageChanged(page) { // If no page was found in the route data, page will be an empty string. // Default to 'home-quotes' in that case. this.page = page || 'home-quotes'; // Close a non-persistent drawer when the page & route are changed. if (!this.$.drawer.persistent) { this.$.drawer.close(); } }...
Next, find the _pageChanged() function. This is where the page URL is being prefixed with my-. Update the resolveUrl variable:
... _pageChanged(page) { // Load page import on demand. Show 404 page if fails var resolvedPageUrl = this.resolveUrl(page + '.html'); Polymer.importHref( resolvedPageUrl, null, this._showPage404.bind(this), true); }...
Finally, update the _showPage404() function's this.page declaration to not-found to match our renamed element:
... _showPage404() { this.page = 'not-found'; }...
Update polymer.json
Open the /polymer.json file. This file contains the build settings for our app when using the Polymer CLI. We'll update the fragments array with our renamed views. These are HTML files that are loaded on-demand or asynchronously.
// polymer.json... "fragments": [ "src/home-quotes.html", "src/register-login.html", "src/secret-quotes.html", "src/not-found.html" ],...
Click between the routes to make sure everything works. We're now ready to start developing the features of our app.
Building a Polymer Element
We'll start with the home view. When we're finished with this step, our app should look like this:
Open the /src/home-quotes.html file. This is our home-quotes custom element. Right now it contains some lorem ipsum and lacks JS functionality beyond instantiation. We'll add an Ajax call to the Chuck Norris API and bindings to display the response on the page. We'll also add a button to get a new random quote when clicked.
HTML Imports
The first thing we'll do is install some Polymer elements. We can leverage iron-ajax to call the API and paper-button for the UI.
Install these components using Bower:
bower install PolymerElements/iron-ajax PolymerElements/paper-button --save
We need to import the elements into home-quotes using HTML imports. Since we're building web components, we want to import all the dependencies for a specific element in that element's HTML file. We don't want to rely on a parent element loading them first–that could create a missing dependency somewhere down the line.
Doing this would be dangerous if we were loading scripts in the traditional way: we might get the same dependency called multiple times throughout the app. We would need to centralize file requests or use a dependency manager. However, with web components, we don't need to worry about loading the same imports multiple times because HTML imports dedupe: if an HTML import has already been loaded, it skips loading it again.
The Polymer library and shared-styles element are already being imported in our home-quotes element. We'll add the two elements we just installed with Bower:
<!-- home-quotes.html -->... <link rel= "import" href= "../bower_components/iron-ajax/iron-ajax.html" > <link rel= "import" href= "../bower_components/paper-button/paper-button.html" >
Now we can take advantage of these elements.
Calling an API with iron-ajax
Make sure you have the Chuck Norris Node API cloned and running so that the API is |
outcome of the otherwise pointless Copenhagen conference on climate change in 2009. The one degree we've raised so far has already melted the Arctic, not to mention laid the ground for Australia’s "angry summer". As such, two degrees is too high but it’s the only red line the planet’s governments have ever agreed to.
We know roughly how much more carbon we can emit before we go past two degrees: about 500 billion tons. And at current rates of emissions, that will take us less than 40 years. But the math gets really impossible when you consider how much carbon the world’s coal, oil and gas industries already have in their reserves. That number is about 2,800 gigatons – five times what the most conservative governments and scientists on earth say would be safe to burn.
And yet, companies will dig it up and burn it – that’s what their business plans call for, that’s what their share prices depend on, and that’s what their government lobbying budgets are spent on making sure happens. Once you know the maths, you know that Exxon, Rio Tinto and Shell and so on aren’t like normal companies – they’re really rogues. But you also know that our situation is hopeless unless we get to work: the end of this script is written, unless we rewrite it.
Doing so is hard. It requires changes in our personal lives and in our government policy, which Australia has begun to make: the carbon tax, if it survives the next election, is a serious step forward. It also requires that we rein in the plans of, say, those coal companies that want to mine places like the Galilee Valley: if the expansion plans of Australia’s miners are carried out, that coal alone will use up almost a third of the atmospheric space between us and those two degrees.
There are a dozen other places like the Australian coalfields around the world, and we have to stop them all. The fossil fuel industry should be turned into an energy industry: we have to take the hundred million dollars a day that Exxon spends on finding new oil, and have them spend it on solar panels instead. Which is why, for now, we have to divest those stocks.
The idea is not that we can bankrupt these companies; they’re the richest enterprises in history. But we can give them a black eye, and begin to undermine their political power. That’s what happened a quarter century ago when, around the western world, institutions divested their holdings in companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. Nelson Mandela credited that as a key part of his country’s liberation, and Desmond Tutu last year called on all of us to repeat the exercise with the fossil fuel companies.
It will be even harder this time, since this is such a dug-in industry. But their ability to use all those reserves is limited because of climate change, HSBC bank predicted share values of fossil fuel companies would fall by half or more. An investment in a fossil fuel company is a wager that we’ll never do anything about climate change, because if we ever even tried to meet that two degree target, those stock values would plummet.
It makes no sense to pay for one’s pension by investing in companies that make sure we won’t have a planet to retire on. Even the dead won’t rest easy if their perpetual care is paid for at the cost of those they left behind– so ask your church, your super-annuation fund, and even your cemetery which side of this wager they’re taking.
• Bill McKibben will be giving a series of talks in Australia June 3-9.Pop Culture Happy Hour: Our Great Big Summer Movie Preview
Enlarge this image toggle caption Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel
We're always excited for the beginning of summer movie season. Despite the fact that it's almost guaranteed to contain some major disappointments and jarring disasters, we often find goofy fun, sharp writing and new stars blowing up (sometimes literally) our cinematic seasons.
We can think of no better company for this spin through the summer than our friend Audie Cornish, who you may also sometimes hear hosting a little program called All Things Considered. It's always a treat when Audie can tear herself away from the news to do things like debate the financial prospects of Tom Cruise movies. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First up, we'll get all wound up with eagerness about the films we're looking forward to, including sequels, raucous girls-on-the-town comedies and a "loud and car-crashy movie" that even Glen Weldon, who abstains from Fast & Furiousness, can get psyched about.
Then we get into the weeds, by which I mean into our areas of frequent error-making, when we predict what movies will make and lose a lot of money this summer. Is there at least one movie that appears on one person's "make the most" list and one person's "lose the most" list? Yes, there is. Is there a battle? There is. Does Glen do another accent? For good or for ill, yes.
As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen Thompson loves an Instagram feed that mashes up a couple of styles and influences. Glen recommends a graphic novel he enjoyed a great deal. Audie is happy about a show entering its second season. And I am happy about a very good new podcast I've been following since it sneaked onto my radar under another name.
Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, me, Stephen, Glen, Audie, producer Jessica, and producer emeritus and pal for life Mike.Manish Pandey has a reputation of scoring runs in crunch situations © Getty Images
Fifty-two runs at an average of 13.00. Three overs, 19 runs, one wicket. One twisted ankle. At 34, these might well be the last set of numbers generated by Yuvraj Singh at an ICC event. A modest set of numbers for a limited-overs great, but they do not reveal the importance of some of his contributions, his batting in partnership with Virat Kohli easing India through pressure situations against Pakistan and Australia, and his three overs against Australia helping India drag their way back into a must-win game.
Ravi Shastri, India's team director, highlighted those three overs when asked what impact Yuvraj's injury would have on India's plans for Thursday's semi-final against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium.
"It will have an impact because he's had his moments," Shastri said. "I thought his three overs were brilliant in the last game. That really put the brakes on the scoring and allowed us to come back into the game. After the first four overs it was a no-contest, because at one stage it looked like [Australia would score] 200-plus, which would have been very difficult to chase on that surface. So he will be missed. [It's] unfortunate. It's an injury that happened during the game. Looking to take off [for a run], he did his ankle in, and I believe it's a minor tear in the ankle."
India have played the same eleven right through the World T20, and Yuvraj's injury will force them into changing their combination for the first time. They have three possible replacements, none of them exactly like-for-like. Ajinkya Rahane is viewed as a back-up for India's top three, and not as a middle-order batsman. Pawan Negi bats left-handed and bowls left-arm spin, like Yuvraj, but is a bits-and-pieces allrounder rather than a specialist batsman who bowls part-time. Manish Pandey, who has replaced Yuvraj in India's squad, is a middle-order batsman who doesn't really offer a bowling option.
Ravi Shastri on... Facing West Indies: "I've said it from the beginning - they're probably one of the most dangerous sides in this format because they've got explosive players, match-winners. We know what we're up against. But we're up and ready as well. This is not a knockout for us, our knockout was the last game [against Australia]. That was a quarter-final, this is a semi-final." Virat Kohli's innings against Australia: "Outstanding innings, one of the best you'll ever see in T20 cricket. I don't know how long T20 cricket will be played but when you consider the occasion, the pressure, and the kind of shots he played - all cricketing shots - it was quite unbelievable." The poor form of India's batsmen apart from Kohli: "You'll need [them to step up] in a big game like this, a semi-final. We've played to 70% of our abilities in this tournament. So there's still 30% in areas we need to improve, so let's hope it happens tomorrow. In a semi-final you've got to get your A game. You cannot rely on a couple of players. You need six or seven to step up to the plate and it's not happened really in this tournament, so let's hope tomorrow is a start." Whether the bowlers can cope on a flat Wankhede pitch: "I see no reason why [they can't cope]. I thought Bangalore and Mohali were good surfaces, this has always been a good surface, so again, it's repeating what they've been doing. Keeping things simple."
Shastri hinted that India might need a bowling option.
"We've not decided [who will replace Yuvraj] because Manish has just joined the party yesterday," Shastri said. "We'll take a good look at everything in the nets and see what our best options will be for tomorrow's game. We'll have to keep those overs in mind."
India's practice session began soon after Shastri's press conference. The players occupied three of the Wankhede's practice pitches, two on the eastern side of the ground and one on the west. As if on a conveyor belt, their batsmen moved from east to west, facing the quick bowlers first, then the spinners, and then - after a break for water and electrolytes - throwdowns. This was their order: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Kohli, Suresh Raina, Pandey, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Negi.
Negi batted as late as he did because he had been bowling for around 20 minutes to Raina, Pandey, Dhoni and Pandya. And while Harbhajan only got to face a set of net bowlers at the seamers' net, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was summoned up for a second bowling stint when Negi came in to bat.
Rahane wasn't part of this sequence: he was the first batsman to face throwdowns, but did not spend any time at either the seamers' or spinners' nets.
From all this, it seemed safe to assume the choice was between Pandey and Negi, two entirely different cricketers.
Pandey is a proper batsman with a 50-plus first-class average and a reputation for scoring runs in crunch situations, particularly in steep run-chases: whether it's a Ranji Trophy final, an IPL final, or an ODI against Australia. He can play his shots, but his T20 strike rate is 115.84, which is less even than Rahane's.
Negi is a T20 specialist - he has played 57 T20s, but only three first-class matches and 19 List A games - who can hit big in the lower middle order. He has a strike rate of 134.92, and hits a four or six roughly once every six balls. He has taken 47 wickets at 26.06, while maintaining an economy rate of 7.38.
The fact that he can bowl, and left-arm spin at that, might tilt the choice Negi's way, given that everyone in West Indies' batting line-up bats right-handed apart from Chris Gayle and Sulieman Benn. But that may not be a significant factor considering the Wankhede's short boundaries, particularly if its pitch is as flat as it was in the early part of the tournament. And given the iffy form of the top order barring Kohli, India might value the batting pedigree of Pandey over Negi's utility value. Either way, they have a difficult choice to make on Thursday morning.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said that the Mario creator will only adopt VR when the tech has embedded itself in the mainstream market.
While Sony pushes ahead with its own PlayStation VR headset, and Microsoft prepares to enter the market with next year's Project Scorpio, Nintendo, it seems, is content to play the waiting game.
Speaking to Bloomberg West, Fils-Aime made clear the company's stance, explaining via conference call that it's not in Nintendo's nature to invest heavily in a concept that's still in its infancy.
"For us, we want to make sure that technology is mainstream," he explained.
"We want to make sure the technology represents strong value to the consumer. So as an example, there was a lot of gyroscopic technology out there in the marketplace, but it took the Wii and the Wii Remote to really make it mainstream.
This time around, however, Nintendo doesn't plan on giving VR tech a helping hand by integrating it into its own hardware.
That task has fallen to the likes of Oculus, HTC, Samsung, Valve, and Sony, and only when they've succeeded in cementing virtual reality in the consumer consciousness will Nintendo start to play ball.
"For us the technology has to be at a point where it can be mainstream, and then it takes content creating companies like us to really make things that the consumer wants to experience, that they want to jump into the particular technology," added Fils-Aime.
"We want to make sure that our next content is going to be mass market approachable, and when something like VR is at that point, you can expect Nintendo to be there."On Arnold Schwarzenegger's February 22nd trip to Budapest, he not only gave a lecture entitled "Day of Success," he also gave TheArnoldFans a nice Terminator exclusive! At the city's Sports Arena, Schwarzenegger talked about his journey from rural Austria to Mr. Universe, king of Hollywood and finally, governor of California. The Governator concluded with his upgraded "6 Rules of Success" motivational speech. Speakers from different walks of life shared their outstanding successes in the fields of sport and business. When the evening concluded, Didi, Eastern European corespondent of TheArnoldFans, had the opportunity to speak with his idol and obtain a nice Terminator update. No, it's not about Terminator Genisys (T5), we're talking now about T6!
"Yes, of course, next year", Arnold responded to our question on if he'd also be filming Terminator 6! It's already been reported that two more films are planned to follow Genisys but no one really knew if Arnold would play a role in the future sequels. Now we know Arnold will BE BACK!It's uncertain if Arnold's cyborg T-800(s) get terminated at the end of Genisys but even IF it does, they'll always find a good reason or excuse to bring in an all new model. Remember, several were made on the assembly line. Another possibility is fans have always wanted to see Schwarzenegger come back as a human resistance soldier; a badass soldier who's captured and his DNA harvested for growing a youthful replica, who is then scanned and used to model the 1984 Terminator. There's a lot of options here for an Arnold return to T6. The future is not set and it will really come down to the box office of Genisys. But from what we hear on early script reviews and inside sources from people on post production, we may be looking at a top notch Terminator film.
Following Arnold's T5 worldwide tour for premieres and press, he should be ready to jump right into The Legend of Conan this fall. I know, people can argue that Genisys is not T5 but rather a reboot (another T1), however, considering Genisys is sticking to the original plots and characters of the originals, many consider it T5 (as do we). Reboot or not, we say it's T5 so we're calling the future films T6 and T7 for now!
Arnold's future looks bright. His zombie film, MAGGIE, comes out in a few months followed by his return as the Terminator, then Conan and back to T6. Zombies, Terminators and bitter and brutal Barbarian kings, it doesn't get any better than this? Now if we can ever get him to do another Predator...Steve Jobs announced on Monday that he is taking another leave of absence from the company — of unspecified length — to deal with his health. Although he will remain CEO, Apple’s (s aapl) chief operating officer Tim Cook will be running things in Jobs’ absence. While the company is on firm financial footing, and is expected to beat most analysts’ estimates with its quarterly earnings tomorrow, the news is almost certain to rattle investors, and could put continued pressure on the stock as the markets try to figure out what Apple might be like without its charismatic leader.
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The company appears to have deliberately chosen to release the news on Martin Luther King Day, in order to give investors some time to think about it, since U.S. stock markets are closed. But Apple shares dropped dramatically on foreign markets, falling as much as 7 percent in Germany at one point after the news was first reported. Apple likely also chose to make its release just before it comes out with its financial results, since that should focus investors’ minds on the performance of products like the iPad and the iPhone 4 instead of on the CEO’s health. Most analysts have said they are expecting another blockbuster quarter from the company.
Despite what is expected to be good news on the financial front, the Jobs announcement is almost certain to re-ignite criticism that Apple has not been as forthcoming as it should be about his medical status. Jobs was widely expected to appear at a recent press conference announcing Verizon’s (s vz) launch of the iPhone, but Tim Cook appeared instead. Others noticed that during the Apple developers conference in September, Jobs handed off a lot of the presentation to Cook and others — although he has been doing that more over the past year, in what is likely an attempt to shift the spotlight away from himself and show that Apple has other executives who can carry the torch if necessary. (The company continues to argue with shareholders over its succession planning.)
Apple came under fire in 2008 over repeated reports that Jobs was more seriously ill than the company had acknowledged — based in part on his gaunt appearance at several events — but there was no official news until Apple announced in January of 2009 that he was taking a medical leave. Shortly thereafter, Jobs was required to have a liver transplant. Some argued that his personal health was no one’s business, but SEC rules require companies to inform shareholders and the public markets about material facts, and Jobs having complications as a result of potentially fatal illness was seen by many as a material fact. One of Apple’s own directors later said that the company should have gone public with the news, and that he regretted not resigning over Apple’s decision to keep quiet.
The focus on Jobs and his health stems from the fact that Apple is one of the few major corporations whose fortunes are tied so closely to its founder and CEO. Most other companies with a $300-billion market value and revenues in the $25-billion range may have prominent chief executives, but few of them are seen as having so much control over the products their companies produce — and even fewer are as charismatic and widely admired as Jobs. Some have estimated that the stock trades between 10 and 25 percent higher than it otherwise would, based solely on Jobs being the CEO. During the latter part of 2008, after rumors of Jobs’ health began to accelerate, the stock lost more than 50 percent of its value, although several analysts have told Reuters (s tri) that they don’t believe the latest absence will affect the stock that much.
On the weekend, a Smart Money columnist wrote a piece entitled “Are Apple’s Best Years Over?” In it, James Stewart argued that while the company has been hugely successful with the iPad and the iPhone and its MacBook laptops, “I’m not sure what worlds there are left for Apple to conquer,” and said the stock could come under pressure because it has climbed more than 80 percent in the past year, and is up by over 400 percent from its low in 2009. Rightly or wrongly, the news of Jobs departure is going to cause many investors to echo Stewart’s question.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS ON CLINTON CRIME SPREE: Radioactive Truths About Uranium Deal Reported By MSM
Trump’s Storm Tracker, Week 2: Intensification (Sticky Article, Check Frequently)
Dystopia, USA
Hi folks, please migrate here for updates on President Trump’s big, beautiful storm.
For new readers, this is the link for Week 1. Click this link for a full background on my sting operation theory.
I’ll use the same format as the last sticky article with the latest news at the top.
Without further ado:
10/18/17
Fusion GPS Founders Refuse to Testify, Plead Fifth Amendment Privilege
When in doubt, lawyer up heavily and assert your Constitutional right not to testify and hope that Congress is bluffing.
Here is some more about this merry band of “strategic intelligence” folks, mostly former reporters with the Wall Street Journal. Fox News has an eye-opening article about Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, and some of their tactics.
Remember, these are the people behind the phony Pissgate/Christopher Steel documents used to smear President Trump.
The self-described “strategic intelligence” firm Fusion GPS that was behind the controversial anti-Trump dossier has a track record of intimidation and smear tactics, according to congressional testimony and the firsthand account of a London-based Venezuelan journalist who said he was labeled a “pedophile,” “extortionist” and “drug trafficker” after criticizing one of Fusion’s clients. “I believe that Fusion GPS’s business is to do basically whatever the paymasters tell them to do,” Alek Boyd, the Venezuelan journalist, told Fox News in his first American TV interview. “They are particularly good at spreading misinformation, disinformation and smears.” Boyd says he was targeted after his 2012 reporting on Derwick Associates, a power company with close ties to the Venezuelan government. The company allegedly skimmed nearly a billion dollars from rigged contracts with the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. “It is my understanding that [Fusion GPS] were hired basically to smear Derwick opponents and to dispel any possible doubts that regular media may have had at the time,” he said. British police records show Boyd reported a break-in, with two laptops stolen from his London apartment in November 2014. Asked by Fox News what was on the computers, Boyd said, “A lot of information and a lot of evidence about corruption and scandals in Venezuela that I’ve been compiling throughout the years.” After the break-in, Boyd said his sources were attacked. “People that were believed to be collaborating and sending me information from Venezuela were assaulted in Venezuela by the intelligence police of Mr. Chavez,” he said. Asked if Fusion GPS was tasked with coming after him, Boyd said, “I believe that they were involved in the defamation campaign — smearing campaign — shortly after my apartment was broken into.” Boyd says he was labeled a pedophile, drug addict and thief on the web. “They published this information through a number of social media and websites anonymously. They created fake Twitter accounts with my name, impersonating myself. … They started publishing photos of me walking around London with my daughters. They produced a huge amount of information — fake information — about me, accusing me from being a pedophile to being an extortionist to a drug trafficker to a car thief.” Boyd says he believes three suspects, seen in security camera video released by British police, left pictures of his children inside his coat pocket as a warning. “The message, I believe at the time — we know where you are and we know where your children are, so take that as a threatening message.”
Further reading on Fusion GPS scummy past:
Bill Browder’s testimony to Congress about Fusion’s ties to the Magnitsky Act, Vladimir Putin, and Natalia Vesilnitskaya, the woman who met with Trump Jr. in that whole attempted setup.
10/17/17
Enormity of the Uranium One-Clinton Foundation Scandal
If you took Watergate and pumped it up on steroids, it would only amount to a boil on the ass of the Colossus of Corruption that is the Clinton machine.
While the Clinton’s ties to Uranium One have been suspected for some time, John Solomon and Sara Carter have filled in many heretofore unknown details and added some crucial interviews and documents.
Read these articles from Circa News and The Hill.
Then watch this video of the reporters on Hannity earlier tonight:
When you have time, check out Schweizer and Steve Bannon’s Clinton Cash for background. The Uranium One scandal is discussed starting at the 49:10 mark onwards:
My take: The Clintons, simply put, sold out a vital national interest of the United States – uranium, which can be used for the creation of nuclear weapons – to the Russians in exchange for bribes.
To the tune of $145MM dollars, which were then funneled to the Clinton Foundation. [Wait until we find out what that money was subsequently used for. That will be the ultimate disclosure.]
The Obama Administration and portions of the FBI and DOJ looked the other way for years. Adding insult, these same players went on to concoct the infamous Russian Narrative against Donald Trump which I said earlier was straight out of Rules for Radicals.
At varying degrees of severity, this implicates not only the Clintons, but Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Timothy Geithner, Andrew McCabe, Robert Mueller (wonder how this ties in?), James Comey, and Rod Rosenstein, just for starters.
I don’t buy for a second that the members of CFIUS had no knowledge of the FBI investigation into the trucking company and the Russian firms. One does not simply rubberstamp selling 20% of the nation’s uranium capacity without having ALL details and double-checking every possible angle.
These actors better have some good answers ready for the Congressional inquests that are coming. To that purpose, John Solomon revealed that Chuck Grassley, who has shown interest in this scandal in the past, has opened an investigation to see if the Obama CFIUS members were given the FBI information before approving the Uranium One sale.
Abuse of the public trust – and the public trough – in ancient times used to bring the penalty of the sack. It may just be time to bring that back into vogue.
One question that has not been asked nearly enough is why did Barack Obama hire Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State in the first place? (I don’t have the answer but I’ll spare you from any of the nonsense political conventions, like balancing the cabinet or healing party rifts, in my conjecture.)
She went after Obama viciously in the 2008 Democratic Primary campaign. She was the first to bring up the (likely true) Birther issue. Obama surely was aware of her legendary avarice and lust for power. So why bring aboard a woman personally despised on a bipartisan level for two decades and who was a known liability?
My best guesses:
To serve the interests of the Deep State.
For personal enrichment of all involved.
Or Hillary blackmailed Barry.
Perhaps some combination of all of the above.
Regardless, no one in the Obama Administration ever said no to Hillary despite her manifold crimes. They will rue their association with her very soon.
The Trump Storm is going to shake every institution in Washington before it’s over. We haven’t even gotten the WikiLeaks dump yet.
If we all see that it is necessary for a better tomorrow and keep our heads as a people, we can work through any shocks until we return to an age of sanity. Until then, brace yourselves.
10/17/17
George Soros Moving Bulk of Wealth to Open Society Foundation
Nobody ever said they would go down without a fight. Just in time to fund an American Color Revolution? Propaganda and agitating the useful idiots in the States is a lot more expensive than in Ukraine.
10/17/17
The Hill: Russian Kickbacks to the Clinton Foundation Exposed
My, my, my. The implications of this article by The Hill are truly titanic. There’s no way to give you a tl;dr synopsis on this one. It’s too dense and complicated for that. Read it and digest. I know I need to.
For now, I’ll just say Alinskyites gotta Alinsky. You see it now with the leftist Clinton-Obama cabal with Russia: always accuse others what you yourself are doing. Rules for Radicals 101.
Hillary’s cancellation of her public appearances overseas make sense now? I guess she needed some time for crisis meetings and a new batch of lies. The noose is tightening.
You’ll want to keep an eye out for Sara Carter’s Twitter feed today and watch her and John Solomon’s appearance on Hannity tonight. Solomon wrote The Hill article linked above and was a former teammate of Carter at Circa News. They have broken many important stories in the past, so this is to be watched closely.
___
http://dystopiausa.com/trumps-storm-tracker-week-2-intensify/So what does a nationally unknown TV reporter do when he’s given a chance to interview the President of the United States? If he’s a slug like Larry Connors of KMOV in St. Louis, he tries to take full advantage of the opportunity to promote himself. To hell with the President; to hell with reputable journalism.
Connors’ questions to the President were noticeably hostile from the outset. If you didn’t know he was a reporter for local TV station you might have thought you were listening to one of those “fair and balanced” professional demagogues at Fox Noise.
e.g., “Mr. President, aren’t you trying to play class-warfare by suggesting that the rich need to pay more in taxes?” “And how much money will actually be raised by increasing taxes on the rich?”
If you weren’t quite sure yet of Connors’ intentions, he fully exposed his less than professional agenda by asking the President how he can justify his family’s “jetting around vacations” in these hard financial times. Because as we all know, previous Presidents in general, and Republican Presidents in particular, would never take long weekends or vacations out of town during their terms in office. Does anyone remember that George W. Bush actually spent less time at the White House than he did on vacation or just laying low at his ranch in Texas?
Here’s the video:
After seeing Connors’ “gottcha” performance as a journalist, I couldn’t resist digging up his email address and posing a few questions to him:
[email protected]
Dear Mr. Conners,
Depending upon a person’s political agenda, you are either to be commended or vilified for that half-assed effort to try and embarrass the President of the United States. As I writer myself, I would like to pose three questions to you if I may:
1. Tell the truth if you dare: Are you a tea-bagger, birther Republican who couldn’t resist the opportunity to try and play “gottcha” with the President of the United States?
2. Are you another loyal paid-stooge for the 1%? (Getting a little cash on the side from the Koch boys or one of those rich political action committees who now enjoy the same status in America as a human being?)
3. Would you like to leave St. Louis behind and hit the big time as another 2nd rate rabble rouser posing as a journalist on Fox Noise?
Regardless, you are obviously neither very objective nor very professional. BTW, I challenge you to produce half a dozen viewers who prior to today, actually complained to you about the first family “jetting around on vacation.”
Yours truly,
Mitchell S. GilbertState revokes license of doctor who traded sex for drugs
The Indiana Medical Licensing Board revoked the license of a Mishawaka doctor who paid for sex with prescription drugs and wrote prescriptions for people who were not patients.
The board made the decision at their February 25th meeting.
On July 28, 2015, Charles Myers pleaded guilty to dealing in a controlled substance (schedule II), a class B felony. A second charge against him was dismissed.
Myers was sentenced to 15 years in prison with 7 to be served on home detention and 8 suspended. He also was ordered to reimburse the Indiana Medicaid program in the amount of $3,752.71.
He will be on probation through 7-26-30.
The state cited seven violations in their administrative complaint against Myers filed in October 2015.
He engaged in fraud or material deception by writing prescriptions for non patients.
He was convicted of a crime that is harmful to the public (dealing in controlled substance)
He Knowingly violated state laws by issuing prescriptions without a medical purpose
He had sex with someone in his medical office
He wrote prescriptions for non patients
He provided a known drug addict with controlled substances
He used the practitioner patient relationship to solicit sexual contact with patient under his care
Share this article:
emailHARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party said on Tuesday it would increase black ownership of the economy in the next five years after its landslide election victory, adding to investors’ concerns about the party’s political dominance.
Supporters of ZANU-PF party celebrate with a coffin wrapped in a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) flag in Mbare township, outside Harare August 4, 2013. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
But the central bank sought to assuage worries of an imminent re-introduction of the local dollar, abandoned in 2009 after being rendered virtually worthless by hyperinflation.
The stock exchange’s main Industrial Index shed 1.7 percent, extending Monday’s 11 percent slide, as investors on the $5 billion Harare bourse digested the extent of the ZANU-PF win, which puts it in position to enact laws and change the constitution at will.
The local unit of Barclays Plc, Barclays Bank Zimbabwe, plunged 20 percent and top hotelier Meikles Limited was down 18.75 percent.
Before the July 31 election, the index hit a series of highs on hopes Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai might unseat the 89-year-old Mugabe at his third attempt.
On Tuesday, ZANU-PF ran full-page advertisements in newspapers saying its crushing election win was an endorsement of “black economic empowerment” plans that target foreign-owned companies including banks and mines.
“The people of Zimbabwe have given President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF a clear mandate to transform the economy through indeginisation and economic empowerment,” the party said.
“Over the next five years, Zimbabwe is going to witness a unique wealth transfer model that will see ordinary people take charge of the economy.”
ZANU-PF has set its eyes on 1,100 foreign-owned firms.
It also pledged to leverage mineral reserves ranging from gold to diamonds to platinum to raise money to prop up an economy still emerging from a decade-long recession.
Many Zimbabweans also fear reintroduction of the Zimbabwe dollar, a possibility alluded to by Mugabe and senior ZANU-PF official Patrick Chinamasa, who called the 2009 move to the U.S. currency a “strategic retreat.”
NO ZIMBABWE DOLLAR ANYTIME SOON
However, Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said the local currency would not be introduced anytime soon, adding that when it is adopted, the local unit would circulate alongside the greenback and South African rand.
“There are no plans whatsoever, within and outside the bank, for the immediate or near-term re-introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar into our system,” Gono said in a statement.
Gono presided over the industrial printing of the Zimbabwe dollar currency to cope with hyper-inflation of 500 billion percent. His last five-year term as governor ends in December.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party is challenging Mugabe’s victory in court. The legal challenge should be made by Friday and the constitution says the courts must rule on the case within 14 days.
Mugabe be sworn in only after the courts give the all-clear.
With state revenues dwindling due to a pre-election growth slow-down, economists say the new administration will face immediate spending pressures, particularly from poor farmers demanding seed and fertiliser for the September planting season.Sign in
CoffeeBreakerz = Hello people of the jailbreak community. I am going to expose [@coffeebreakerz](https://twitter.com/coffeebreakerz)! Also, some bonuses, [@JosephShenton](https://twitter.com/JosephShenton), and [@hollr2099](https://twitter.com/hollr2099)! All of the people I'm about to expose have blocked me on twitter, along with their friends, so please tweet this at them. Let's begin. Ooh, other times they've been exposed. First, read [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/5ubuyd/news_small_jb_team_coffeebreakerz_bypassed_kpp_on/). Qwerty is a reputable figure, who has released jailbreaks. His points are valid, and shows that their stuff shown on their website is false. A further look through the thread shows 90% of replies saying they're fake. Any other replies thinking they were real shows how gullible the jailbreak community is. The origins of this super fake team are as follows, their first tweet was [this](https://twitter.com/coffeebreakerz/status/831962139342561280). Where they asked for money. They have actually gotten money from people in the jailbreak community, which allowed them to buy iOS devices. This makes me mad because people actually donated. If you check replies on that tweet, qwerty also had some words for him. Qwerty basically roasted him. They tried covering shit up after that, but failed. If you go back to some of their first tweets, his responses to qwerty roasting him are shown [here](http://prntscr.com/ezn3z5). This cover-up is not sufficient, and anyone not desperate would understand not to trust him. His response made it worse, he said he didn't do it for money, but his first tweet was asking for it, and said qwerty screwed over their exploits by exposing them? False. These "Security Researchers" for iOS also don't know how to create a Debian repository |
considerations apply
Unclear or additional considerations apply Option 3: Generally unreliable for factual reporting
Generally unreliable for factual reporting Option 4: Publishes false or fabricated information, and should be deprecated as in the 2017 RfC of the Daily Mail
Thank you. ----ZiaLater (talk) 06:52, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Option 1 My impression of this source is that it's a reliable left-wing source. It's sympathetic to the Bolivarian Revolution, but it is more than willing to publish stories that paint the government in a poor light,[42] and I don't see any evidence that they've ever intentionally published false information. I see that the Wikipedia page for them has claims that could imply that a significant amount of content on the site comes directly from the Venezuelan government, but the pages that the citations go to are pages on Venezuelanalysis that 1) in some cases don't appear to exist anymore 2) were clearly labeled links to specific pages on the equivalent of a FAQ page and are completely separate from its actual factual reporting. signed, Rosguill talk 07:19, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
My impression of this source is that it's a reliable left-wing source. It's sympathetic to the Bolivarian Revolution, but it is more than willing to publish stories that paint the government in a poor light,[42] and I don't see any evidence that they've ever intentionally published false information. I see that the Wikipedia page for them has claims that could imply that a significant amount of content on the site comes directly from the Venezuelan government, but the pages that the citations go to are pages on Venezuelanalysis that 1) in some cases don't appear to exist anymore 2) were clearly labeled links to specific pages on the equivalent of a FAQ page and are completely separate from its actual factual reporting. 07:19, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 2: Bias or political leaning it not enough, does it have a poor reputation?Slatersteven (talk) 10:25, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Bias or political leaning it not enough, does it have a poor reputation?Slatersteven (talk) 10:25, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 4. As, per their about, much of the team is based in Venezula itself and since Venezula uses violence and legal intimidation against journalists operating inside Venezula to produce pro-regime pieces - RSF Venezuela - it is impossible for this site to accurately publish anything about the regime. Furthermore, the site itself does not appear to be much beyond a WP:SPS - it is a collection of pro-Chavez activists publishing their (+ pitches, which they state they accept) views on Venezula. There no indication that this little referenced website has a reputation for accuracy, and their openly stated aims (essentially - Chavez propaganda) would seem to be rather against such a reputation.Icewhiz (talk) 10:39, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
. As, per their about, much of the team is based in Venezula itself and since Venezula uses violence and legal intimidation against journalists operating inside Venezula to produce pro-regime pieces - RSF Venezuela - it is impossible for this site to accurately publish anything about the regime. Furthermore, the site itself does not appear to be much beyond a WP:SPS - it is a collection of pro-Chavez activists publishing their (+ pitches, which they state they accept) views on Venezula. There no indication that this little referenced website has a reputation for accuracy, and their openly stated aims (essentially - Chavez propaganda) would seem to be rather against such a reputation.Icewhiz (talk) 10:39, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 3 or 4 per similar reasons as Telesur. Venezuelanalysis consist mostly in opinion articles, like Aporrea es] Jamez42 (talk) 12:55, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
or per similar reasons as Telesur. Venezuelanalysis consist mostly in opinion articles, like Aporrea Jamez42 (talk) 12:55, 11 February 2019 (UTC) NOTA See my TASS reasoning below. Collect (talk) 13:42, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
See my TASS reasoning below. Collect (talk) 13:42, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 3, unreliable except for reporting on positions taken by Maduro/chavismo, except that even there, the reporting is distorted or they lie. Here is an very recent example (very similar to Telesur tactics, also Venezuela-controlled propaganda) of a blatant distortion/lie. Distortion #1. On 6 February, Venezuelanalysis published this piece, which (among other distortions) includes a map claiming that most of the world supports Nicolas Maduro in the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis. That map includes all of Africa in support of Maduro (something claimed by Venezuelan officials on 31 January). That is not only not true, but the African Union was so troubled by the Venezuelan misrepresentation of their position that they held a protest in front of a Venezuelan embassy, well before the Venezuelanalysis piece was published. [43][44][45] Note that their map also includes countries like Norway, Switzerland and India which have most decidedly stated their neutrality. Contrast the Venezuelanalysis claim to the scrupulously maintained and well sourced map and country list on Wikipedia. Venezuelanalysis furthered this lie/distortion even after they must have known it contained falsehooods. I will add more as I find time-- this is merely the most recent. Sandy Georgia (Talk) 13:44, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
, unreliable except for reporting on positions taken by Maduro/chavismo, except that even there, the reporting is distorted or they lie. Here is an very recent example (very similar to Telesur tactics, also Venezuela-controlled propaganda) of a blatant distortion/lie. Option 3 per User:SandyGeorgia — Preceding unsigned comment added by FOARP (talk • contribs) 08:36, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
per User:SandyGeorgia Option 3 or 4 Clearly unreliable, per others. I am undecided whether a filter is necessary or not. 252 uses is not a lot, but not insignificant either. feminist (talk) 13:49, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
Clearly unreliable, per others. I am undecided whether a filter is necessary or not. 252 uses is not a lot, but not insignificant either. feminist (talk) 13:49, 12 February 2019 (UTC) Option 2-3, pretty biased. Generally its "news" section reports are based on other published sources which it filters through its particular political lens, so far better to use the original sources. It fairly accurately reports the statements of the government and of foreign governments backing it, so could be used as a source for that, although for other things it should be used with caution and attribution. It also publishes a lot of opinion pieces under "opinion and analysis" which should definitely not be used for factual reporting. BobFromBrockley (talk) 23:15, 23 February 2019 (UTC)
RfC: TASS [ edit ]
Sorry for the multiple posts. Came across TASS lately as well. Only a small comment; I've seen in past discussions that TASS has been used only when attribution is used.
Option 1: Generally reliable for factual reporting
Generally reliable for factual reporting Option 2: Unclear or additional considerations apply
Unclear or additional considerations apply Option 3: Generally unreliable for factual reporting
Generally unreliable for factual reporting Option 4: Publishes false or fabricated information, and should be deprecated as in the 2017 RfC of the Daily Mail
Again, thank you and this will be my final RfC for some time.----ZiaLater (talk) 08:12, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Option 3: But I am not sure bias alone is enough for deprecation.Slatersteven (talk) 10:23, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
But I am not sure bias alone is enough for deprecation.Slatersteven (talk) 10:23, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 3: They've promoted Russian spin during MH370 MH17 and the conflict in Crimea and Donbass (as well as in other times). This is owned by the Russian federal government. They generally should be avoided as a source, with the sole exception that they are quite reliable for reporting Russian government views - which should be attributed of course. Icewhiz (talk) 10:41, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Corrected wrong MH flight.Icewhiz (talk) 15:12, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
NOTA Tass has been an official arm of Russia in the past - thus is fully reliable for statements of fact as stated by that government, and usable for opinions presented, attributed and cited as opinions. Same as p[retty much every source. Collect (talk) 13:41, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Tass has been an official arm of Russia in the past - thus is fully reliable for, and usable for. Same as p[retty much every source. Collect (talk) 13:41, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 1, per my above reply. I have yet to see evidence pointing to a clear pattern of wrongdoing by TASS. IMO it's far more tolerable than Sputnik and even RFE/RL (which is considered reliable here). Fitzcarmalan (talk) 15:02, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
, per my above reply. I have yet to see evidence pointing to a clear pattern of wrongdoing by TASS. IMO it's far more tolerable than Sputnik and even RFE/RL (which is considered reliable here). Fitzcarmalan (talk) 15:02, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 4 or Option 3: in my opinion sources that are not independent of government in countries with law rank in freedom of press should not be used --Shrike (talk) 15:07, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
or in my opinion sources that are not independent of government in countries with law rank in freedom of press should not be used --Shrike (talk) 15:07, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Option 4 TASS has been widely discussed -- by plenty of RS in fact-- as part of the Russian dezinformatsiya network, coordinating to spread malicious falsehoods in the West. Some sources: here's Kruglak at U-Minnesota [[57]]: the two faces of TASS - one, that of a bona fide news enterprise and the other, that of a propaganda and espionage service. ; Watanabe from LSE's paper [here] : A longitudinal content analysis of over 35,000 English-language newswires on the Ukraine crisis published by ITAR-TASS and Interfax clearly showed that ITAR-TASS’s framing of Ukraine was reflecting desirability of pivotal events in the crisis to the Russian government. This result reveals Russia’s strategic use of the state-owned news agency for international propaganda in its ‘hybrid war’, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new approach to news bias.... I could list more. In summary the RS conclusion is pretty clear : TASS is not a news source, but a tool wielded by a state actor. We should not perpetuate propaganda. No TASS, until it cleans up its act. --Calthinus (talk) 23:42, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
TASS has been widely discussed -- by plenty of RS in fact-- as part of the Russian dezinformatsiya network, coordinating to spread malicious falsehoods in the West. Some sources: Option 2 Seems to fall squarely under WP:BIASED. Prominent government-controlled news agency. Plenty of spin, but apparently not known for fabrication. Eperoton (talk) 00:26, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
Seems to fall squarely under WP:BIASED. Prominent government-controlled news agency. Plenty of spin, but apparently not known for fabrication. Eperoton (talk) 00:26, 12 February 2019 (UTC) Option 3 This has been discussed a lot, it falls into the same bracket as other state-owned media of dictatorships (CGTN, Xinhua, PressTV, Granma etc.). It is not independent and thus not reliable. Particularly, the coverage by TASS of the invasion of Crimea echoed the Russian government line that the soldiers there, who we now know (not least because Putin admitted it) to have been Russian soldiers, were "local militia", and it has repeatedly carried the various contradictory conspiracy theories about the shooting down by Russian-backed rebels of MH17. The reason I'm choosing Option 3 here is because I don't think the special category for the Daily Mail should exist (there's no reason why anyone should regard the DM as worse than the state media of a dictatorship), but if you want to count this as a Option 4 vote you can. FOARP (talk) 08:47, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
This has been discussed a lot, it falls into the same bracket as other state-owned media of dictatorships (CGTN, Xinhua, PressTV, Granma etc.). It is not independent and thus not reliable. Particularly, the coverage by TASS of the invasion of Crimea echoed the Russian government line that the soldiers there, who we now know (not least because Putin admitted it) to have been Russian soldiers, were "local militia", and it has repeatedly carried the various contradictory conspiracy theories about the shooting down by Russian-backed rebels of MH17. The reason I'm choosing Option 3 here is because I don't think the special category for the Daily Mail should exist (there's no reason why anyone should regard the DM as worse than the state media of a dictatorship), but if you want to count this as a Option 4 vote you can. FOARP (talk) 08:47, 12 February 2019 (UTC) Option 4 Evidence shows that TASS has engaged in disinformation and thus must generally be avoided as a source. A filter does not prevent legitimate use (such as citing the official Russian position) as editors only need to click Save again. feminist (talk) 13:53, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
Evidence shows that TASS has engaged in disinformation and thus must generally be avoided as a source. A filter does not prevent legitimate use (such as citing the official Russian position) as editors only need to click Save again. feminist (talk) 13:53, 12 February 2019 (UTC) Option 1 – Many editors use TASS as a factual and timely news source regarding information on the Russian space program. Just because, as a government agency, it reflects political views of the Russian government (properly attributed), does not mean it should be deprecated as a WP:RS. Indeed, it would be quite difficult (and biased) to cover events happening in Russia without allowing any reporting by Russian media. Is Agence France Presse next to get axed, because it reflects viewpoints of the French government? Xinhua, because it reflects viewpoints of the Chinese government? PAP because it reflects views of the Polish government? — JFG talk 08:53, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
User:JFG Do you think there is no difference between freedom of press in France and Russia?Also AFP have independent from government editorial board --Shrike (talk) 21:10, 14 February 2019 (UTC) Freedom of the press in country A or B is not the issue being debated here (although, if you're interested, France does not have a stellar reputation in this domain; ask any French person among your acquaintances). We are examining a particular news agency and trying to ascertain whether what it publishes can be accepted as RS per Wikipedia's own definition at WP:NEWSORG: News reporting from well-established news outlets is generally considered to be reliable for statements of fact (though even the most reputable reporting sometimes contains errors). The policy even quotes the Russian Interfax as a typical reliable news agency. WP:BIASED states that reliable sources are not required to be neutral, unbiased, or objective, as long as editors attribute statements coming from ostensibly biased sources. I'd rank TASS as vastly more reliable than outlets like BuzzFeed News or The Daily Telegraph that get top billing in our WP:Perennial sources catalog. — JFG talk 21:29, 14 February 2019 (UTC) JFG: Wikipedia talk:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#Add more levels of reliability?. This proposal did not receive a lot of support. feminist (talk) 07:11, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
Option 3. In addition to examples from Icewhiz (above), Forbes 2015: "authors of many articles and comments are unknown or publish under various pseudonyms", and "they tout fabricated claims from history, which they present as new sensational discoveries". Sandy Georgia (Talk) 22:18, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
. In addition to examples from Icewhiz (above), Forbes 2015: "authors of many articles and comments are unknown or publish under various pseudonyms", and "they tout fabricated claims from history, which they present as new sensational discoveries". (Talk) 22:18, 15 February 2019 (UTC) Option 1 as per JFG. --Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 13:50, 17 February 2019 (UTC)
as per JFG. --Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 13:50, 17 February 2019 (UTC) Option 4 RS describe TASS as being heavily used as a propaganda tool in Russia's "Hybrid War". Sort of par for the course when it comes to state media from countries with little to no freedom of press. UnequivocalAmbivalence (talk) 10:28, 18 February 2019 (UTC)
RS describe TASS as being heavily used as a propaganda tool in Russia's "Hybrid War". Sort of par for the course when it comes to state media from countries with little to no freedom of press. UnequivocalAmbivalence (talk) 10:28, 18 February 2019 (UTC) OTHER - I’d not choose any of theses except to exclude #4. It’s a Russian POV, has a large prominence with long experience, good editorial performance, has a mild-right bias as far as word choices but bias is not so far as spot blindness, decent on factual material and special expertise on Russia or Russian government... but none of that info about them or looking at their website is leading me to such vague broad options as these, just to excluding #4. (Besides, seems BESTSOURCES in the vicinity, unless you prefer RT? :-) ) I’d tend to bin Tass with VOA or Al Jazeera for official lines and insights on international items. Cheers Markbassett (talk) 02:37, 21 February 2019 (UTC)
Markbassett: JFG talk 10:00, 21 February 2019 (UTC)
A user spammed the webpage from the website to articles of Ukrainian companies and now Crédit Agricole. It seem scrapper of the database from the data of the Ukrainian chamber of commerce or local company registry. Is it reliable source? Certainly it fails for external link section as it is partially a pay to view source. Matthew hk (talk) 10:13, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Off topic, but the user seem totally spammer. None of the edit (excluding minor edit to fix himself) were related to spamming link. He also spammed https://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com Matthew hk (talk) 10:40, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Spam blacklisting done. Spammer blocked. Guy (Help!) 21:41, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Middle East Monitor [ edit ]
Is Middle East Monitor (MEMO) considered reliable for factual reporting? The subject recently came up here. It is generally understood by observers that MEMO is a pro-Muslim Brotherhood website.
Here are some of the bizarre MEMO articles that have caught my attention over that past few years:
The above stories, which are based on questionable Arabic sources, have never been thoroughly investigated, but are clearly far-fetched and MEMO was their original English language publisher. I'd like to hear some third opinions on this. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 14:32, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
From About us There has been a growing need for supporters of, in particular, the Palestinian cause, to master the art of information gathering, analysis and dissemination.Reads like propaganda site --Shrike (talk) 14:36, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Indeed, I don't expect their Palestine coverage to be any less problematic. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 14:41, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Comment — in the dispute discussion at Talk:2013 Egyptian coup d'état that Fitzcarmalan noted at the outset of their post [58], I strenuously objected to the use of a MEMO Op-Ed intended to demonstrate that Israel secretly backed the 2013 coup in Egypt. That Op-Ed contained statements that were almost certainly false — for instance suggesting that Israel participated in the August 2013 Rabaa massacre — and also referred to reports in Haaretz from 2014 that may exist, but that I have not been able to locate.
That said, as an Op-Ed, the piece contains a disclaimer at the bottom: the information in this article doesn't necessarily reflect the views of MEMO.
Furthermore, I think we absolutely cannot exclude a source because it is "pro-Muslim Brotherhood." The MB was elected in Egypt and then toppled by a coup, and the resulting military government has imprisoned dozens of journalists [59][60][61][62][63].
The first article [64] used as an example of dubious reporting attributes the claim to Algerian outlets, and that was correct: [65][66].
I can find no evidence to substantiate or refute the second article [67]. The third article [68] has been the subject of this critique [69]. The MEMO article cites this report [70] which does appear to say what MEMO claims it says. Other claims made in the MEMO article are true [71].
What do you think, Fitzcarmalan? -Darouet (talk) 16:07, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Just to be clear, I did not call for the exclusion of MEMO as a source, nor did I start this thread in the form of an RfC. The "pro-Muslim Brotherhood" part was meant to point out the outlet's potential bias so that it be taken into consideration. The reason I initiated this discussion is to encourage third opinions about the subject. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 16:20, 11 February 2019 (UTC) And I'm not denying that MEMO had sources to back up those claims. My point here is that the original sources themselves (al-Chorouk, al-Quds al-Arabi and al-Sharq respectively) appear to have made up those stories. If it turns out that MEMO intentionally promoted hoaxes, wouldn't that put their reliability into question? Fitzcarmalan (talk) 16:32, 11 February 2019 (UTC) Not to endorse this source without really knowing much about them, from the examples at least they're reporting that other outlets said XZY - the statements are attributed - that's their job. And while trying to fact check these today it does seem that Egypt has military deployments and corresponding ambitions in the wider region. -Darouet (talk) 03:02, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
Comment - should generally be avoided unless sourcing the Muslim-Brotherhood POV, they do not have a reputation for fact checking. Icewhiz (talk) 16:17, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Um how are any of those articles bizarre? Al Jazeera reported on Egyptian troops in Eritrea, see here (Google translate if youd like, but the gist of it is Egyptian forces were deployed to a base in Eritrea]. To the point, an op-ed in MEMO should not be used unless the author is an expert on the topic of the op-ed. Their news reports should be fine however. nableezy - 02:28, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
How are any of them bizarre? I mean, I'll give you the Eritrea story, despite the fact that it was denied by officials from the relevant governments. But are you seriously telling me that there are no issues whatsoever with the Algeria stories, which are most likely fabrications or (at best) gross misrepresentations of official statements? Fitzcarmalan (talk) 08:24, 16 February 2019 (UTC) In those articles they attributing statements found in a UK based Arabic newspaper (Al-Quds Al-Arabi) to that paper. Id have to go back to the 2014 archives of that paper to substantiate that those articles indeed existed, but I dont see why you think it so bizarre that such statements would have been made. There had been several politicians and military leaders in Egypt discussing an intervention in Libya in 2014. Here is the Atlantic talking about it. I dont think there is anything "bizarre" here. They are attributing it to another source, and unless that source does not actually say that theWhen does "teaching the debate" become "creating the false impression of a debate"?
The National Trust has today come under fire for its decision to “reflect and respect” the view that science might not be real. At the Giant's Causeway visitors' centre in Northern Ireland, an interactive audio exhibition on the formation of the Causeway includes the creationist view that the earth was made by God a few thousand years ago - not billions of years ago, as geology and physics and biology and astronomy might suggest.
In a statement, the National Trust said:
The Giant's Causeway has always prompted debate about how it was formed and how old it is. One of the exhibits in the Giant's Causeway Visitors' Centre interpretation tells the story of the part the Giant's Causeway played in the debate about how the Earth's rocks were formed and the age of the Earth. This is an interactive audio exhibition in which visitors can hear some of the different debates from historical characters. In this exhibition we also acknowledge that for some people, this debate continues today and we reflect and respect the fact that creationists today have a different perspective on the age of the Earth from that of mainstream science.
In an update, the Trust said that the Creationist reference comprised only a small part of the exhibition. It added: "The National Trust fully supports the scientific explanation for the creation of the stones 60 million years ago. We would encourage people to come along, view the interpretation and judge for themselves."
The most contentious part of the news is that the Trust worked with an organisation called the Caleb Foundation, which represents the small minority of Christians who hold Creationist views. The Foundation's chairman, Wallace Thompson, said he had "worked closely" with the National Trust and was pleased that the visitor's centre "includes an acknowledgement... of the legitimacy of the creationist position".
This is what Professor Brian Cox has to say about the legitimacy of the creationist position:
Stephen Evans at the National Secular Society also said:
It's extremely disappointing to see the National Trust giving credence to bogus creationist explanations for this world famous heritage site. Visitors, many of whom will be children on school trips, expect to be informed at the new Centre, not presented with religious propaganda. We've seen how Christian fundamentalists have gained ground in promoting creationist nonsense in the United States; we must be vigilant and not allow those kinds of ideas to gain a foothold in this country.
The strategy employed by the Caleb Foundation here appears to be one pioneered by the Discovery Institute in the US, calling "teaching the controversy". By insisting that the views of an incredibly small minority (of both the general population, and indeed Christians) are included in discussions of the subject, the ploy aims to create the impression that an issue is not settled. (A similar strategy is employed by those who question man-made climate change, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of scientists and relevant research.)
As Wallace Thompson says:
This is, as far as we are aware, a first for the National Trust anywhere in the UK, and it sets a precedent for others to follow. We feel that it is important that the centre, which has been largely funded out of the public purse, should be inclusive and representative of the whole community, and we have therefore been engaged in detailed and constructive discussions with the Trust in order to secure the outcome we have today.
In the interests of inclusivity, and embracing different perspectives, perhaps the National Trust should include the view - genuinely held by some - that aliens built Stonehenge. Or perhaps potential visitors could simply wait for the Genesis Expo museum in Portsmouth to reopen after its refurbishment?
UPDATE: I have spoken to the National Trust press office, and they confirm that they consulted the Caleb Foundation, although "this was one of many local groups [they] spoke to".Medvedev wants our most corrupt bankers to help Moscow.
(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev talks about efforts to modernize his country, plans to create a sovereign fund to attract foreign capital and the outlook for economic growth. Speaking with Bloomberg's Ryan Chilcote yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Medvedev also discusses corporate law and corruption in Russia, the nation's judicial and political systems, and the security situation following the Jan. 24 suicide bombing at a Moscow airport.
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Lloyd says Moscow traffic is the biggest impediment to growth.
Source - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein held talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev near Moscow today on investment opportunities in the country.
The men discussed the U.S. bank’s possible participation in a new fund Russia’s government is setting up to attract investment and expertise, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website. They also discussed Medvedev’s project to turn the Russian capital into a global financial center.
Medvedev is creating a “special sovereign fund” to attract capital and help “modernize” the economy of the world’s largest energy supplier, the president said in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Russia’s government last year picked 23 banks including Goldman Sachs to help manage its $34 billion privatization program over three years.
Medvedev also named 27 people, including Blankfein, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s CEO Jamie Dimon and Citigroup Inc’s CEO Vikram Pandit to an advisory board on creating an international financial center in the Russian capital.
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Blankfein Sees Moscow Traffic Stymieing Finance Hub Plans
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein said Moscow’s traffic jams are the biggest obstacle to turning the capital into a financial hub, according to Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin.
Blankfein and President Dmitry Medvedev discussed investment opportunities in Russia and Medvedev’s plans for the capital at a March 15 meeting outside Moscow that Pankin attended.
“The first question we asked was about the main problem for creating Moscow as a financial center,” Pankin said in an interview in Moscow yesterday. “He said it was bottleneck from the airport to the city center.”
Continue reading at Bloomberg...SANN’A, YEMEN—Yemen has been upside down for three years. Hunger, epidemics, and a blockade are all getting tighter. But the misery has escalated following the ballistic missile which was fired from Yemen at the King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital on Nov. 4. Overnight, Yemen became completely isolated from the entire globe.
This development has ushered in a new wave of civilian suffering. It feels like the war has just opened a new chapter of violence in a country beset by crises since the eruption of the 2011 uprising.
Dramatic events continue unabated here. The latest missile fired by the Houthis at the Saudi capital is a case in point. It constituted an unprecedented blow to the entire Kingdom, and a further justification for Saudi Arabia to consider a military or political victory in Yemen a matter of life or death.
The bloody war has been dragging on for 32 months. Unfortunately, it shows no sign of ceasing thanks to the regional arch-rivals, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Iran, which have displayed no cooperation, understanding, or interest in terminating the worsening quagmire in the most impoverished Arab country. Saudi Arabia said the latest ballistic missile fired from Yemen was “Iranian,” describing it as an act of war and aggression. Iran says the accusation is “unfounded.” They trade accusations as Yemen sheds blood daily. Yemen remains squeezed in the middle.
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Of course the ideology of the opponents is at the center of it all. The Kingdom is at the core of Sunni Islam, and Iran the hub of the Shiite Islam. Sadly, Yemen has turned into the battleground of these two opposing versions of the Islamic religion.
The beginning of the civil war in Yemen in 2015 seemed to be politically motivated. With three years of fighting, the motives and agendas have changed, developing into a deeper conflict between two dogmatic regional powers. Yemen will have to bear the fallout of this growing Saudi-Iranian schism. This country will continue to take a heavy toll as these two stubborn regional foes continue to have their eyes fixed on a decisive victory in this battle.
Late last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MbS), stated—referring to the Houthi rise—that he would not allow another Hezbollah in Yemen. “We’re pursuing until we can be sure that nothing will happen there like Hezbollah again, because Yemen is more dangerous than Lebanon,” MbS said.
In the view of the next Saudi King, neutering the Houthi influence would mean cutting off the Iranian hands in Yemen at any cost.
When the Saudi air forces intercepted the latest Yemeni ballistic missile in Riyadh on November 4, the Kingdom rapidly declared a set of measures to stem what it says is the flow of Iranian weapons to Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition shut down all of Yemen’s land, sea, and air ports. Additionally, the coalition’s warplanes showered Houthi-held Sana’a with numerous airstrikes, and some missiles fell on the capital streets unexploded.
This retaliatory response has not spared civilians. Today, they bear the brunt of this escalation that has blocked the flow of aid and goods into the country. They struggle for food, water, electricity and transportation. The war and the blockade have made these services exorbitantly expensive or hard to find.
Recently, I came across a woman who spent two days queuing for cooking gas in Sana’a. She shared some details of her misery. “I woke up at 5 a.m., heading directly to join the endless line of people at the gas station. I spent the whole day queuing, but in vain. I went back to the house while my children were waiting for me and the cooking gas. They were hungry. I went to the bakery at night, and bought a few loaves for the children to eat. The loaves worked as a painkiller only,” the woman, who appeared in her fifties, said to me.
Such a story is solely the tip of the iceberg of what is happening here. Some families starve to death while no one knows about them. Many others die of treatable diseases like cholera that has infected over 900,000, mostly children, and killed over 2000 people. Some patients need sophisticated medical operations outside the country. Unfortunately, they moan on beds until the dying breath.
Hearing and reading UN figures on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen makes the flesh creep. For example: “20 million people need humanitarian assistance; of whom 7 million people were already facing ‘famine-like’ conditions and rely completely on food aid to survive.”
If the restrictions on the flow of aid to Yemen continue, the country will face “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.”
This is not hyperbole since Yemen had imported about 90 percent of its food even before the war began.
While this humanitarian catastrophe has been unfolding in Yemen, the world powers including the UN and U.S. have not been moved by what they hear and see. Their statements of condemnation are insufficient to save people, or end a war that has killed over 10,000 in total, the majority of whom are civilians including women and children.
What can be certainly predicted is that Yemen will continue to be a proxy war battleground and Yemenis will go on living and reliving the misery of this conflict. Peace here remains distant as long as the authors of the country’s fate are from beyond the borders.
Khalid Al-Karimi is a freelance reporter and translator. He is a staff member of the Sana’a-based Yemeni Media Center and previously worked as a full-time editor and reporter for the Yemen Times newspaper.How to sell more toothpaste
I am always interested in stories about people having bright ideas, doing business better or offering outstanding service, and I have written about this kind of thing here before. Normally, I prefer such stories to be my own personal experiences, but I want to tell one today that is a legend. Whether it is really true or not, I cannot verify, but it has an intrinsic simplicity from which I am sure we can all learn.
Back in the 1950s, this guy approached one of the large toothpaste manufacturers and said that he had an innovation which would cost them almost nothing to implement, but would yield an immediate 40% increase in business. He offered to sell them the exclusive rights to the idea for $100,000. This was a huge sum at the time, but, given the high volume of toothpaste sales, it would be recouped rapidly.
However, the executives of the company were greedy and would not spend such money if it could be avoided. They thanked the guy and said they would get back to him. A big meeting of the company’s marketing and technical staff was called and they were tasked with proposing ideas for increasing business by 40% for little cost.
Two weeks later and no useful ideas had emerged. So, they called back the guy and said he had got a deal. After the legal niceties were completed and the money handed over, he gave them a brown envelope containing a small slip of paper. On this slip were the words: “Make the hole bigger.”
If you increase |
gain contentment by changing the world around them, Epictetus advises us to gain contentment by changing ourselves—more precisely, by changing our desires.
Besides having complete control over our goals and values, Marcus points out that we have complete control over our character. We are, he says, the only ones who can stop ourselves from attaining goodness and integrity. We have it entirely within our power, for example, to prevent viciousness and cupidity from finding a home in our soul.
Outside of our control
It is obviously foolish for us to spend time and energy concerning ourselves with things outside of our control. Because we have no control at all over the things in question, any time and energy we spend will have no effect on the outcome of events and will therefore be wasted time and energy, and, as Marcus observes, “Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.”
'It is foolish for us to spend time concerning ourselves with things outside of our control.' Click To Tweet
Remember that among the things over which we have complete control are the goals we set for ourselves. I think that when a Stoic concerns himself with things over which he has some but not complete control, such as winning a tennis match, he will be very careful about the goals he sets for himself. In particular, he will be careful to set internal rather than external goals. Thus, his goal in playing tennis will not be to win a match (something external, over which he has only partial control) but to play to the best of his ability in the match (something internal, over which he has complete control). By choosing this goal, he will spare himself frustration or disappointment should he lose the match: Since it was not his goal to win the match, he will not have failed to attain his goal, as long as he played his best. His tranquility will not be disrupted.
Fatalism: Letting Go of the Past … and the Present
One way to preserve our tranquility, the Stoics thought, is to take a fatalistic attitude toward the things that happen to us. According to Seneca, we should offer ourselves to fate, inasmuch as “it is a great consolation that it is together with the universe we are swept along.”
One might expect the ancient Romans to refuse to participate in life’s contests; why bother, when the future has already been determined? What is interesting is that despite their determinism, despite their belief that whatever happened had to happen, the ancients were not fatalistic about the future. The Stoics, for example, did not sit around apathetically, resigned to whatever the future held in store; to the contrary, they spent their days working to affect the outcome of future events.
Fatalism
When the Stoics advocate fatalism, they are advocating a restricted form of the doctrine. More precisely, they are advising us to be fatalistic with respect to the past, to keep firmly in mind that the past cannot be changed. In saying that we shouldn’t dwell on the past, the Stoics are not suggesting that we should never think about it. We sometimes should think about the past to learn lessons that can help us in our efforts to shape the future.
Notice that the advice that we be fatalistic with respect to the past and the present is consistent with the advice, offered in the preceding chapter, that we not concern ourselves with things over which we have no control. We have no control over the past; nor do we have any control over the present, if by the present we mean this very moment. Therefore, we are wasting our time if we worry about past or present events.
Self-Denial: On Dealing with the Dark Side of Pleasure
Besides contemplating bad things happening, we should sometimes live as if they had happened. In particular, instead of merely thinking about what it would be like to lose our wealth, we should periodically “practice poverty”: We should, that is, content ourselves with “the scantiest and cheapest fare” and with “coarse and rough dress.”
Readers should realize, though, that the Stoics didn’t go around flogging themselves. Indeed, the discomforts they inflicted upon themselves were rather minor. Furthermore, they did not inflict these discomforts to punish themselves; rather, they did it to increase their enjoyment of life. What the Stoics were advocating, then, is more appropriately described as a program of voluntary discomfort than as a program of self-inflicted discomfort.
A person who periodically experiences minor discomforts will grow confident that he can withstand major discomforts as well, so the prospect of experiencing such discomforts at some future time will not, at present, be a source of anxiety for him.
Benefits of discomfort
Another benefit of undertaking acts of voluntary discomfort is that it helps us appreciate what we already have. It is, of course, nice to be in a warm room when it is cold and blustery outside, but if we really want to enjoy that warmth and sense of shelter, we should go outside in the cold for a while and then come back in.
Besides periodically engaging in acts of voluntary discomfort, we should, say the Stoics, periodically forgo opportunities to experience pleasure. We might, for example, make a point of passing up an opportunity to drink wine—not because we fear becoming an alcoholic but so we can learn self-control. For the Stoics—and, indeed, for anyone attempting to practice a philosophy of life—self-control will be an important trait to acquire.
Meditation: Watching Ourselves Practice Stoicism
To help us advance our practice of Stoicism, Seneca advises that we periodically meditate on the events of daily living, how we responded to these events, and how, in accordance with Stoic principles, we should have responded to them.
He attributes this technique to his teacher Sextius, who, at bedtime, would ask himself, “What ailment of yours have you cured today? What failing have you resisted? Where can you show improvement?
Something else we can do during our Stoic meditations is judge our progress as Stoics. There are several indicators by which we can measure this progress. For one thing, as Stoicism takes hold of us, we will notice that our relations with other people have changed. We will discover, says Epictetus, that our feelings aren’t hurt when others tell us that we know nothing or that we are “mindless fools” about things external to us. We will shrug off their insults and slights. We will also shrug off any praise they might direct our way. Indeed, Epictetus thinks the admiration of other people is a negative barometer of our progress as Stoics: “If people think you amount to something, distrust yourself.”
Signs of progress
Other signs of progress, says Epictetus, are the following: We will stop blaming, censuring, and praising others; we will stop boasting about ourselves and how much we know; and we will blame ourselves, not external circumstances, when our desires are thwarted. And because we have gained a degree of mastery over our desires, we will find that we have fewer of them than we did before; we will find, Epictetus says, that our “impulses toward everything are diminished.”
The most important sign that we are making progress as Stoics, though, is a change in our emotional life. We will find ourselves experiencing fewer negative emotions. We will also find that we are spending less time than we used to wishing things could be different and more time enjoying things as they are. We will find that we are experiencing a degree of tranquility that our life previously lacked.
PART THREE: STOIC ADVICE
Duty: On Loving Mankind
On examining our life, we will find that other people are the source of some of the greatest delights life has to offer, including love and friendship. But we will also discover that they are the cause of most of the negative emotions we experience.
Because the Stoics valued tranquility and because they appreciated the power other people have to disrupt our tranquility, we might expect them to have lived as hermits and to advise us to do the same, but the Stoics did no such thing. They thought that man is by nature a social animal and therefore that we have a duty to form and maintain relationships with other people, despite the trouble they might cause us.
If we do the things we were made for, says Marcus, we will enjoy “a man’s true delight.” But an important part of our function, as we have seen, is to work with and for our fellow men. Marcus therefore concludes that doing his social duty will give him the best chance at having a good life. This, for Marcus, is the reward for doing one’s duty: a good life.
Social Relations: On Dealing with Other People
To begin with, the Stoics recommend that we prepare for our dealings with other people before we have to deal with them. Thus, Epictetus advises us to form “a certain character and pattern” for ourselves when we are alone. Then, when we associate with other people, we should remain true to who we are.
Besides advising us to avoid people with vices, Seneca advises us to avoid people who are simply whiny, “who are melancholy and bewail everything, who find pleasure in every opportunity for complaint.” He justifies this avoidance by observing that a companion “who is always upset and bemoans everything is a foe to tranquility.
When we find ourselves irritated by someone’s shortcomings, we should pause to reflect on our own shortcomings. Doing this will help us become more empathetic to this individual’s faults and therefore become more tolerant of him.
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Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
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Insults: On Putting Up with Put-Downs
When dealing with insults, one strategy is to pause, when insulted, to consider whether what the insulter said is true. If it is, there is little reason to be upset. Suppose, for example, that someone mocks us for being bald when we in fact are bald: “Why is it an insult,” Seneca asks, “to be told what is self-evident?”
Another strategy is to consider the source of an insult. If I respect the source, if I value his opinions, then his critical remarks shouldn’t upset me.
So, how should you deal with insults? By laughing off an insult, we are implying that we don’t take the insulter and his insults seriously. To imply this, of course, is to insult the insulter without directly doing so. It is therefore a response that is likely to deeply frustrate the insulter.
Refusing to respond to an insult is, paradoxically, one of the most effective responses possible. For one thing, as Seneca points out, our nonresponse can be quite disconcerting to the insulter, who will wonder whether or not we understood his insult. Furthermore, we are robbing him of the pleasure of having upset us, and he is likely to be upset as a result.
Grief: On Vanquishing Tears with Reason
Although it might not be possible to eliminate grief from our life, it is possible, Seneca thinks, to take steps to minimize the amount of grief we experience over the course of a lifetime.
The stoics primary grief-prevention strategy was to engage in negative visualization. By contemplating the deaths of those we love, we will remove some of the shock we experience if they die; we will in a sense have seen it coming.
In normal, prospective negative visualization, we imagine losing something we currently possess; in retrospective negative visualization, we imagine never having had something that we have lost. By engaging in retrospective negative visualization, Seneca thinks, we can replace our feelings of regret at having lost something with feelings of thanks for once having had it.
Anger: On Overcoming Anti-Joy
Seneca offers lots of specific advice on how to prevent anger. We should, he says, fight our tendency to believe the worst about others and our tendency to jump to conclusions about their motivations. We need to keep in mind that just because things don’t turn out the way we want them to, it doesn’t follow that someone has done us an injustice. In particular, says Seneca, we need to remember that in some cases, the person at whom we are angry in fact helped us; in such cases, what angers us is that he didn’t help us even more.
To avoid becoming angry, says Seneca, we should also keep in mind that the things that anger us generally don’t do us any real harm; they are instead mere annoyances. By allowing ourselves to get angry over little things, we take what might have been a barely noticeable disruption of our day and transform it into a tranquility-shattering state of agitation.
Marcus also offers advice on anger avoidance. He recommends, as we have seen, that we contemplate the impermanence of the world around us. If we do this, he says, we will realize that many of the things we think are important in fact aren’t, at least not in the grand scheme of things.
When angry, says Seneca, we should take steps to “turn all [anger’s] indications into their opposites.” We should force ourselves to relax our face, soften our voice, and slow our pace of walking. If we do this, our internal state will soon come to resemble our external state, and our anger, says Seneca, will have dissipated.
Personal Values: On Seeking Fame
Epictetus advises us not to seek social status, since if we make it our goal to please others, we will no longer be free to please ourselves. We will, he says, have enslaved ourselves.
If we wish to retain our freedom, says Epictetus, we must be careful, while dealing with other people, to be indifferent to what they think of us.
One way to overcome the obsession of caring what people think, is to realize that in order to win the admiration of other people, we will have to adopt their values. More precisely, we will have to live a life that is successful according to their notion of success. Consequently, before we try to win the admiration of these other people, we should stop to ask whether their notion of success is compatible with ours.
'If we wish to retain our freedom, we must be indifferent to what other people think of us' Click To Tweet
Personal Values: On Luxurious Living
Seneca says it is folly “to think that it is the amount of money and not the state of mind that matters!” Musonius agrees with this assessment. Possessing wealth, he observes, won’t enable us to live without sorrow and won’t console us in our old age. And although wealth can procure for us physical luxuries and various pleasures of the senses, it can never bring us contentment or banish our grief.
There is indeed a danger that if we are exposed to a luxurious lifestyle, we will lose our ability to take delight in simple things.
Hard to please
When people become hard to please, a curious thing happens. Rather than mourning the loss of their ability to enjoy simple things, they take pride in their newly gained inability to enjoy anything but “the best.” The Stoics, however, would pity these individuals. They would point out that by undermining their ability to enjoy simple things, these individuals have seriously impaired their ability to enjoy life. The Stoics work hard to avoid falling victim to this kind of connoisseurship. Indeed, the Stoics value highly their ability to enjoy ordinary life—and indeed, their ability to find sources of delight even when living in primitive conditions.
'If we're exposed to a luxurious lifestyle, we'll lose our ability to take delight in simple things' Click To Tweet
How much wealth should we acquire? According to Seneca, our financial goal should be to acquire “an amount that does not descend to poverty, and yet is not far removed from poverty.” We should, he says, learn to restrain luxury, cultivate frugality, and “view poverty with unprejudiced eyes.” The lifestyle of a Stoic, he adds, should be somewhere in between that of a sage and that of an ordinary person.
Exile: On Surviving a Change of Place
To endure and even thrive in exile, Musonius says, a person must keep in mind that his happiness depends more on his values than on where he resides.
Even though readers of this book are unlikely to be exiled by their government, they run a considerable risk, if current social trends continue, of being exiled by their children—exiled, that is, to a nursing home. It is a transition that, if they let it, can severely disrupt their tranquility.
Old Age: On Being Banished to a Nursing Home
Old age, Seneca argues, has its benefits: “Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it.” Indeed, he claims that the most delightful time of life is “when it is on the downward slope, but has not yet reached the abrupt decline.
“Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it.” Click To Tweet
The proximity of death, rather than depressing us, can be turned to our advantage. In our youth, because we assumed that we would live forever, we took our days for granted and as a result wasted many of them. In our old age, however, waking up each morning can be a cause for celebration. As Seneca notes, “If God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts.” And after celebrating having been given another day to live, we can fill that day with appreciative living.
Dying: On a Good End to a Good Life
Those who have lived without a coherent philosophy of life, though, will desperately want to delay death. They might want the delay so that they can get the thing that—at last!—they have discovered to be of value. (It is unfortunate that this dawned on them so late in life, but, as Seneca observes, “what you have done in the past will be manifest only at the time when you draw your last breath.”)
When Stoics contemplate their own death, it is not because they long for death but because they want to get the most out of life. As we have seen, someone who thinks he will live forever is far more likely to waste his days than someone who fully understands that his days are numbered, and one way to gain this understanding is periodically to contemplate his own death.
On Becoming a Stoic: Start Now and Prepare to Be Mocked
The most important reason for adopting a philosophy of life, is that if we lack one, there is a danger that we will mislive—that we will spend our life pursuing goals that aren’t worth attaining or will pursue worthwhile goals in a foolish manner and will therefore fail to attain them.
'The best reason for adopting a philosophy of life, is that if we lack one, there is a danger that we will mislive' Click To Tweet
What will be our reward for practicing Stoicism? According to the Stoics, we can hope to become more virtuous, in the ancient sense of the word. We will also, they say, experience fewer negative emotions, such as anger, grief, disappointment, and anxiety, and because of this we will enjoy a degree of tranquility that previously would have been unattainable. Along with avoiding negative emotions, we will increase our chances of experiencing one particularly significant positive emotion: delight in the world around us.
PART FOUR: STOICISM FOR MODERN LIVES
The Decline of Stoicism
Stoicism was also undermined by the rise of Christianity, in part because the claims made by Christianity were similar to those made by Stoicism. The Stoics claimed, for example, that the gods created man, care about man’s well-being, and gave him a divine element (the ability to reason); the Christians claimed that God created man, cares about him in a very personal way, and gave him a divine element (a soul). And Marcus’s advice that we “love mankind” was certainly echoed in Christianity.
Because of these similarities, Stoics and Christians found themselves competing for the same potential adherents. In this competition, however, Christianity had one big advantage over Stoicism: It promised not just life after death but an afterlife in which one would be infinitely satisfied for an eternity. The Stoics, on the other hand, thought it possible that there was life after death but were not certain of it. And if there was indeed life after death, the Stoics were uncertain what it would be like.
Stoicism Reconsidered
Our evolutionary ancestors who had reasoning ability were more likely to survive and reproduce than those who didn’t. It is also important to realize that we did not gain the ability to reason so that we could transcend our evolutionarily programmed desires, such as our desire for sex and social status. To the contrary, we gained the ability to reason so that we could more effectively satisfy those desires—so that we could, for example, devise complex strategies by which to satisfy our desire for sex and social status.
We have the abilities we do because possessing them enabled our evolutionary ancestors to survive and reproduce. From this it does not follow, though, that we must use these abilities to survive and reproduce. Indeed, thanks to our reasoning ability, we have it in our power to “misuse” our evolutionary inheritance. e.g. using your sense of hearing to enjoy music instead of to avoid danger.
Evolutionary programming
Although our evolutionary programming helped us flourish as a species, it has in many respects outlived its usefulness.
If our goal is not merely to survive and reproduce but to enjoy a tranquil existence, the pain associated with a loss of social status isn’t just useless, it is counterproductive. As we go about our daily affairs, other people, because of their evolutionary programming, will work, often unconsciously, to gain social status. As a result, they will be inclined to snub us, insult us, or, more generally, do things to put us in our place, socially speaking. Their actions can have the effect of disrupting our tranquility—if we let them. What we must do, in these cases, is use—more precisely, “misuse”—our intellect to override the evolutionary programming that makes insults painful to us. We must, in other words, use our reasoning ability to remove the emotional sting of insults and thereby make them less disruptive to our tranquility.
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Practicing Stoicism
The first tip I would offer to those wishing to give Stoicism a try is to practice what I have referred to as stealth Stoicism: You would do well, I think, to keep it a secret that you are a practicing Stoic. By practicing Stoicism stealthily, you can gain its benefits while avoiding one significant cost: the teasing and outright mockery of your friends, relatives, neighbors, and coworkers.
My next piece of advice is not to try to master all the Stoic techniques at once but to start with one technique and, having become proficient in it, go on to another.
Guide to the good life
Practicing Stoicism doesn’t take much effort; indeed, it takes far less effort than the effort one is likely to waste in the absence of a philosophy of life. One can practice Stoicism without anyone’s being any the wiser, and one can practice it for a time and then abandon it and be no worse off for the attempt. There is, in other words, little to lose by giving Stoicism a try as one’s philosophy of life, and there is potentially much to gain.
This summary is not intended as a replacement for the original book and all quotes are credited to the above mentioned author and publisher.VANCOUVER — The overwhelming success of the FIFA 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada should lead to the country getting at least one, and possibly two, franchises in the U.S.-based women’s pro league in the next couple of years, Canada Soccer said Thursday.
On the day the association revealed better-than-anticipated financial impact numbers, president Victor Montagliani also said that bidding on a men’s World Cup “is a natural progression.”
“There’s a few changes going on at FIFA,” he noted cryptically of the embattled world governing body. “So we need to see how those changes play out and what are the terms and conditions.”
The next two men’s World Cups are scheduled for Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
“The first crack to get (one) is 2026 and it’s kind of expected it should come to the CONCACAF region.
“Over the next year or two, it will sort of play itself out. All things being equal, I think we’d have a serious look at it. But we need to wait and see what the landscape’s like.”
Canada Soccer, citing a sport tourism economic assessment study, said the women’s World Cup, held between June 6 and July 15 in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton, and the FIFA 2014 U-20 Women’s World Cup, held in Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton, “supported” $493.6 million in economic activity for the country. That number was well above the preliminary projection of $337 million made in February 2014.
The net economic activity was listed at $249M, with $97.6 million in tax revenues going to three levels of government.
Montagliani said the vast majority of that was from the 2015 event, which attracted $93 million in tourism spending.
There was no breakdown by province or city. Vancouver hosted nine games at BC Place Stadium, including the final, with several crowds in excess of 50,000.
Most of the players on Canada’s national team played their club soccer for one of the teams in the National Women’s Soccer League, the 10-team loop run by the U.S. Soccer Federation. Canada Soccer pays the salaries of the Canadian players.
“I think that league has an opportunity to actually sustain,” said Montagliani. “And the reason for that is you’ve seen (men’s) professional clubs investing (in teams in their cities) and federations from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico investing.
“And I think the next evolution is to look for a franchise or two from Canada to be part of that league in the next year or two.”
Since the World Cup, some Canadian players have signed contracts with European clubs.
“They’re getting very good experience … it’s a different dynamic there.
“You’re going to see more young players from our youth teams being involved at the NWSL level.
“And if we could get a professional team or two in Canada … I think that bodes well for our future national team program.”
The Vancouver Whitecaps, whose majority owner Greg Kerfoot was once a strong backer of a centralized national team in the city, have been lukewarm, however, to investing in a NWSL team.
Montagliani said the women’s World Cup was exposing significant numbers of boys and girls to soccer. The economic assessment study found that 33 per cent of nine-to-17-year-olds who watched the tournament, but had never played the game, said they would definitely/probably play next season.
gkingston@vancouversun.comFREDERICTON, NB — A Palestinian children’s art exhibit that was scheduled to open in Fredericton last week was postponed due to public pressure stemming from allegations that the work is propaganda and was done by adults.
The exhibit, a Child’s View from Gaza, has travelled across North America and was setting up to open at Charlotte Street Arts Centre for April 19. The art was submitted by Gazan children depicting their lives and experience during the 22-day Israeli attack on Gaza in 2008-2009, during which over 1,100 Palestinians died including hundreds of children.
However one Fredericton resident says he believes the exhibit’s pieces are inauthentic and fraudulent.
“This would appear to have been done by adults certainly not by six year olds, and/or done by children under the direction of adults,” said Israel Unger, a protestor of the exhibit.
He says the drawings are propaganda, anti-Israeli, and too sophisticated to be drawn by children.
The allegations, along with letters and calls from other protesters, led the Centre’s board of directors to postpone the opening and review the situation.
A report in a New Brunswick newspaper earlier on Wednesday said the arts centre was pressured to cancel the show.
The exhibit’s supporters, including the Fredericton branch of Jews for a Just Peace, the Fredericton Peace Coalition, Fredericton Palestine Solidarity,the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the Wilmot United Church, presented their case to the board and the show was rescheduled to open on April 26.
“The Charlotte Street Arts Centre board has met and voted to go ahead with the Child’s View of Gaza Exhibition this Friday,” the board wrote in a statement. “The Centre does not endorse any particular political viewpoint or group. Our vision is opening the doors to creative expression for all.”
Unger questions the intent of art centres in general.
“Is it the purpose of an art centre to promote certain political views? I wouldn’t think so,” he said.
The exhibit was on display in Moncton in late March and was well received said Aberdeen Cultural Centre director René Légère.
The purpose of art is to present a moment he said, and these pieces appear to do just that.
“Sometimes there are bombs and guns and people who are fighting together, it’s not unusual, it’s what some of these children see almost everyday,” said Légère.
Légère said he doesn’t have any second thoughts about hosting the Moncton exhibit.
The show’s sponsor said other individuals have made similar allegations online and that there’s no truth to the accusation the drawings are done by adults.
The curator, Susan Johnson, was inspired by art therapy classes for children who survived the attack she witnessed while visiting Gaza.
Johnson along withCanadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East later asked Gazan children to draw what they see for an art exhibition. They curated the pieces from over 100 submissions.
Légère says it’s not about the politics, it’s about the power of images.
“What they tried to express was the situation of the kids of Gaza. I’m sure another exhibition could express the difficulties of the kids of Israel.”
In 2011 the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, California cancelled the exhibition after pressure from the Jewish Community Relations Council and Jewish Federation of East Bay.*Femmes Of Color Symposium Keynote Speech, Oakland, CA (8/21/11)
Good afternoon, and thank you for having me. It is lovely to be here with you all. Thank you to the symposium organizers who have asked me to be here and for your hard work putting this gathering on. And thank you to ALL the folks who have made it possible for us to be here, including the people who built this building and who clean it and care for it everyday; including the people who are being violently exploited in this country and around the globe for their resources and labor so that we can exist in this air conditioned hotel with access to clean water and food, able to sit in relative safety from military attacks or the police barging in. And including and honoring native and first nations communities upon whose land we are currently on and whose colonization and genocide have also allowed us to be here. For this too, must be part of our work, for it is intimately connected to being femme.
I would like to call into the room the many other comrades who move with me in this work for community, revolution and liberation. Especially, other queer disabled women, gender non- conforming and trans people of color. I do this work with and for them as well as for those yet to come. I do this work because it is what I wish I had had when I was growing up and coming into political consciousness.
I want to bring them into the room because I want to seriously resist, challenge and shift a culture of celebrityism in our movements. I do not, and cannot do this work alone. It is built on the backs of poor people, queers, women of color, disabled folks and so many more who have come before me. It has taken so much for me to be able to be here today as I am, about to speak to you about being femme as a disabled queer woman of color. Has taken so much for us to even get to the point where gender and femme would be considered worthy political subjects to speak on. Taken so many (in particular) women of color who have struggled long and hard to claim a place and be seen as women against the loud static noise of white-womanhood; who have fought to connect gender and race and left a legacy of brilliant work, poetry and story for us to learn from. Taken so many disabled women of color working to have our lives seen (by other women of color) and our bodies understood as worthy, refusing to let disability be in opposition to “woman.” Refusing to let able-bodied femmes dictate what femme gets to be and demanding accountability to ableist notions of gender, beauty, sexuality and desire that supposedly represent “all of us.” Thank you.
It is important to say that I can only speak from my own lived experience, nothing else. I cannot and do not speak for all disabled people or all adoptees or all queer people. I cannot and do not speak for all queer disabled women of color or all queer people of color. I do not speak for the entire disability justice movement—or any other movement. The disability justice movement, like all movements, is large and diverse and I could never speak or represent it all.
I do this work in service of community. I tell my story with the knowing that our stories are tools for liberation. I speak knowing that all of our voices are important. I speak to leave evidence for the people like me who are searching for reflection and recognition and a “yes, we exist.” I speak to leave evidence for folks who have been told that disability is not as important as race, or that gender justice will have to wait until after class equality is won. For folks who have been told that how you feel is less important than what you think; for those who don’t have the luxury of being able to rattle off 10, even 5, writers or books that reflect their identities or experiences. Those of us who straddle the lines between multiple oppressed communities. For those of us who are working to end violence for all of us, not just some of us. For those of us who truly believe that no one’s safety is more important than anyone else’s, even when we feel unsafe…
I’d like to start our time together with a moment of breath and awareness for this work and what we are holding. I would like to remind us of our bodies and honor them as we hold the work of those of us who get the lived experience of being femmes of color in liberation and ending violence and oppression so that we all may shine; not just some of us. It is not easy work and I think it is important to recognize the toll it takes on our bodies, hearts, minds and spirits day in and day out. I want to acknowledge that many of us here are survivors of one form of violence or another, many of us have been witness to violence; many of us have been violent, caused harm, colluded in violence, willingly or not; and all of us have been impacted by a culture of relentless violence, especially towards women, gender non-conforming and trans people of color, whether they identify as femmes or not. I would like to acknowledge that we carry legacies of abuse, trauma and violence with us everyday, into our work, into our relationships, into this room. Our stories about gender and race and class and ability and size and immigration and family are carried in our bodies, breath and spirit …AND we also bring legacies of resistance and survival and love in the face of silence and erasure that carry us through, we bring those into this room as well and they are also with us all the time. We bring legacies of resiliency that are deep and strong and which we are a part of. And in all of our work we have a responsibility to grow and cultivate resiliency, just as much as we resist the current systems at work. We must not only fight against the world we currently have, but also be working to create the kind of world that is inspired by our deepest desires for our selves, our families (whom ever they may be, including chosen family) and our communities.
And it is from this place, where I would like us to always start. From the world we want, the world we collectively desire.
I always think it is important to say that I’m here today as a queer, disabled, korean woman, transracial/transnational adoptee, raised in a US territory in the Caribbean. None of which are more or less important. For me, these are not just descriptive terms; they are political identities, based out of my own and other people’s lived experiences, and I understand them—all of them—to be powerful ways of moving through and understanding the world…
What I have learned from living in the south has helped me to survive as a queer person; and what I have learned from being adopted has helped me to survive as a disabled person.
To me, femme must include ending ableism, white supremacy, heterosexism, the gender binary, economic exploitation, sexual violence, population control, male supremacy, war and militarization, and ownership of children and land.
Ableism must be included in our analysis of oppression and in our conversations about violence, responses to violence and ending violence. Ableism cuts across all of our movements because ableism dictates how bodies should function against a mythical norm—an able-bodied standard of white supremacy, heterosexism, sexism, economic exploitation, moral/religious beliefs, age and ability. Ableism set the stage for queer and trans people to be institutionalized as mentally disabled; for communities of color to be understood as less capable, smart and intelligent, therefore “naturally” fit for slave labor; for women’s bodies to be used to produce children, when, where and how men needed them; for people with disabilities to be seen as “disposable” in a capitalist and exploitative culture because we are not seen as “productive;” for immigrants to be thought of as a “disease” that we must “cure” because it is “weakening” our country; for violence, cycles of poverty, lack of resources and war to be used as systematic tools to construct disability in communities and entire countries.
I would like to share two quotes with you that resonated with me for today:
“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.” — Audre Lorde
“To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin |
Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians mourn a fallen rebel fighter at a rebel base in the al-Fardos area of Aleppo on December 8, 2012. Hide Caption 157 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Members of Liwa (Brigade) Salahadin, a Kurdish military unit fighting alongside rebel fighters, monitor the area in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6, 2012. Hide Caption 158 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A member of Liwa Salahadin aims at a regime fighter in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6, 2012. Hide Caption 159 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Two young boys sit underneath a washline in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near Azaz on December 5, 2012. Hide Caption 160 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Hide Caption 161 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – The bodies of three children, who were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in Aleppo, on December 2, 2012, are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital at an undisclosed location of the city. Hide Caption 162 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo on December 1, 2012 as fighting continues through the night. Hide Caption 163 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Damaged houses in Aleppo are seen after an airstrike on November 29, 2012. Hide Caption 164 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel mourns the death of a comrade in Maraat al-Numan on November 20, 2012. Hide Caption 165 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians protesters stand on Assad's portrait during an anti-regime demonstration in Aleppo on November 16, 2012. Hide Caption 166 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel takes cover during fighting against Syrian government forces in Aleppo on November 15, 2012. Hide Caption 167 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian opposition fighter Bazel Araj, 19, sleeps next to his pistol in Aleppo on November 11, 2012. Hide Caption 168 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter fires at a Syrian government position in Aleppo on November 6, 2012. Hide Caption 169 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel leaps over debris left in the street while running across a "sniper alley" near the Salahudeen district in Aleppo on November 4, 2012. Hide Caption 170 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels hold their position in the midst of a battle on November 3, 2012 in Aleppo. Hide Caption 171 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A man cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo on October 31, 2012. Hide Caption 172 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A man is treated for wounds after a government jet attacked the Karm al-Aser neighborhood in eastern Aleppo on October 31, 2012. Hide Caption 173 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel interrogates a handcuffed and blindfolded man suspected of being a pro-regime militiaman in Aleppo on October 26, 2012. Hide Caption 174 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises from a fuel station following a mortar attack as Syrian women walk on a rainy day in the Arqub neighborhood of Aleppo on October 25, 2012. Hide Caption 175 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel fires at an army position in the Karm al-Jabal district of Aleppo on October 22, 2012. Hide Caption 176 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to a hospital following an attack by regime forces in Aleppo on October 21, 2012. Hide Caption 177 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A man lies on the ground after being shot by a sniper for a second time as he waits to be rescued by members of the Al-Baraa Bin Malek Battalion, part of the Free Syria Army's Al-Fatah brigade, in Aleppo on October 20, 2012. Hide Caption 178 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian army soldiers run for cover during clashes with rebel fighters at Karam al-Jabal neighborhood of Aleppo on October 20, 2012. Hide Caption 179 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet fired missiles at the suburbs of the northern province of Idlib on October 16, 2012. Hide Caption 180 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on October 11, 2012. Hide Caption 181 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on October 10, 2012. Hide Caption 182 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter is carried by his friends and laid on a gurney to be treated for gunshot wounds sustained during heavy battles with government forces in Aleppo on October 1, 2012. Hide Caption 183 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels help a wounded comrade to an Aleppo hospital after he was injured in a Syrian army strike on September 18, 2012. Hide Caption 184 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syria Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16, 2012. Hide Caption 185 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo on September 14, 2012. Hide Caption 186 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A woman walks past a destroyed building in Aleppo on September 13, 2012. Hide Caption 187 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters battle during street fighting against Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo on September 8, 2012. Hide Caption 188 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man wounded by shelling sits on a chair outside a closed shop in Aleppo on September 4, 2012. Hide Caption 189 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A woman sits in her wheelchair next to her house, damaged by a Syrian air raid, near Homs on August 26, 2012. Hide Caption 190 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army clash with Syrian army soliders in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla district on August 22, 2012. Hide Caption 191 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Hide Caption 192 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A man mourns in front of a field hospital on August 21, 2012 in Aleppo. Hide Caption 193 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Hide Caption 194 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Wounded civilians wait in a field hospital after an air strike on August 21, 2012 in Aleppo. Hide Caption 195 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – People pray during the funeral of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Amar Ali Amero, on August 21, 2012. Hide Caption 196 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A man cries near the graves of his two children killed during a recent Syrian airstrike in Azaz on August 20, 2012. Hide Caption 197 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Hide Caption 198 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian woman holds her dead baby as she screams upon seeing her husband's body being covered following an airstrike by regime forces on the town of Azaz on August 15, 2012. Hide Caption 199 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel runs in a street of Selehattin during an attack on the municipal building on July 23, 2012. Hide Caption 200 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin on July 23, 2012. Hide Caption 201 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army's Mugaweer (commandos) Brigade pay their respects in a cemetery on May 12, 2012 in Qusayr. Hide Caption 202 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels take position near Qusayr on May 10, 2012. Hide Caption 203 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army member takes cover in underground caves in Sarmin on April 9, 2012. Hide Caption 204 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels prepare to engage government tanks that advanced into Saraquib on April 9, 2012. Hide Caption 205 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Men say prayers during a ceremony in Binnish on April 9, 2012. Hide Caption 206 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A young boy plays with a toy gun in Binnish on April 9, 2012. Hide Caption 207 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his horse in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, 2012, a year after the uprising began. Hide Caption 208 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14, 2012. Hide Caption 209 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel takes position in Al-Qsair on January 27, 2012. Hide Caption 210 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A protester in Homs throws a tear gas bomb back towards security forces, on December 27, 2011. Hide Caption 211 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A man stands under a giant Syrian flag outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 24, 2011. Hide Caption 212 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A member of the Free Syrian Army looks out over a valley in the village of Ain al-Baida on December 15, 2011. Hide Caption 213 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army stand in an valley near the village of Ain al-Baida, close to the Turkish border, on December 15, 2011. Hide Caption 214 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Displaced Syrian refugees walk through an orchard adjacent to Syria's northern border with Turkey on June 14, 2011, near Khirbet al-Jouz. Hide Caption 215 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man holds up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally to show support for the president in Damascus on April 30, 2011. Hide Caption 216 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians rally to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 30, 2011. Hide Caption 217 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A screen grab from YouTube shows thick smoke rising above as Syrian anti-government protesters demonstrate in Moaret Al-Noman on April 29, 2011. Hide Caption 218 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A screen grab from YouTube shows Syrian anti-government protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces in Damascus on April 29, 2011, during the "Day of Rage" demonstrations called by activists to put pressure on al-Assad. Hide Caption 219 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – A woman sits by the hospital bed of a man allegedly injured when an armed group seized rooftops in Latakia on March 27, 2011, and opened fire at passers-by, citizens and security forces personnel according to official sources. Hide Caption 220 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of al-Assad during a rally to show their support for their leader in Damascus on March 29, 2011. Hide Caption 221 of 222 Photos: Unrest in Syria Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian protesters chant slogans in support of al-Assad during a rally in Damascus on March 25, 2011. Hide Caption 222 of 222
JUST WATCHED Report: Syria ready to disclose weapons Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Report: Syria ready to disclose weapons 01:58
JUST WATCHED Syria accepts deal on chemical weapons Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Syria accepts deal on chemical weapons 04:40
JUST WATCHED Kerry: Syria deal must be real, swift Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Kerry: Syria deal must be real, swift 03:15
• Obama said Tuesday night that military strikes against Syrian forces would be justified, given the indications he pointed to that the Damascus government planned and then executed a horrific chemical weapons attack on a rebel stronghold that left hundreds dead.
• The U.S. president also referred to positive developments diplomatically -- namely, a Russian-led effort to have Syria hand over its chemical weapons -- that led him to encourage Congress not to vote yet on authorizing military intervention in Syria.
• Immediately after Obama's speech, Syrian state TV reported that the president had urged Congress to postpone any vote on a strike and was focused more on diplomatic efforts to deal with the crisis.
• While previous polls indicated strong opposition to military strikes, a CNN/ORC International survey of speech-watchers conducted immediately after Obama's Tuesday address found that 61% support the president's position of giving more time for diplomatic efforts to work before moving forward with military strikes.
• Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Tuesday, before leaving Moscow, that his government is "ready to fully cooperate" with a Russian initiative that would include Damascus joining the Chemical Weapons Convention and turning over its chemical weapons.
"We are ready to disclose the location(s) of chemical weapons, stop manufacturing chemical weapons, also show the locations to representatives from Russia and other countries and the U.N.," Moallem said in his remarks, as translated from Arabic.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the plan to avert an international military strike in Syria by having Syria's government hand over its chemical weapons "will only mean anything if the United States and other nations supporting it tell us that they're giving up their plan to use force against Syria."
The Russian leader added, "You can't really ask Syria, or any other country, to disarm unilaterally while military action against it is being contemplated."
Previous developments:
Obama's speech
• In a televised speech Tuesday night, President Obama said "the situation (in Syria) profoundly changed on August 21," referring to a chemical weapons attack he blames on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
• With that attack, Syria's government violated the "basic rules" of warfare, Obama said. "The facts cannot be denied," he added. "The question now is what the United States of America (will) do about it."
• The U.S. president accused Syrian forces of preparing for the August 21 attacks, passing out gas masks, then firing rockets into a rebel stronghold outside Damascus.
• "I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria," Obama said. He also vowed not to "pursue an open-ended action" in the war-torn country.
• At the same time, the president insisted "the United States military doesn't do pinpricks" -- a term used often by members of his administration in recent days, addressing concerns that a military strike on Syria would have minimal impact." "Even a limited strike will send a message to Assad," Obama said, "that no other nation can deliver."
• Targeted military strikes against Syria would serve several purposes, including deterring Syria's government from using chemical weapons, making it more difficult for them to do so and making clear to the world that the use of chemical weapons won't be tolerated, Obama said.
• President Barack Obama pointed Tuesday night to "encouraging signs" in diplomatic efforts to address the crisis in Syria, crediting these "in part because of the credible threat of U.S. military action." These efforts could include Syria handing over its chemical weapons, a move that Obama said has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without military intervention.
• The United States and its military will "be in position to respond if diplomacy fails" to address the crisis in Syria, Obama said, not ruling out military intervention in the war-torn country.
• Responding to the speech, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus responded with blanket condemnation of Obama's policies, saying "the administration's handling of the U.S. response to Syria has been so haphazard it's disappointed even the president's most ardent supporters."
• Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain -- both of whom have pushed for more U.S. military involvement in Syria -- expressed "regret" that the president "did not speak more forcefully about the need to increase our military assistance to moderate opposition forces" and that he "did not lay out a clearer plan to test the seriousness of the Russian and Syrian proposal to transfer the Assad regime's chemical weapons to international custody."
• The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a left-leaning advocacy group that has been opposed to military action in Syria, focused on Obama's opening the door to diplomacy as "a credible and strategic option," which shows that "public pressure worked."
Diplomacy
• Kerry and Lavrov have been appointed by their respective presidents as the point people on the Syrian chemical weapons issue, a senior U.S. administration official said Tuesday. The two diplomats have talked nine times since the August 21 attack in the Damascus area.
• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will bring a team of experts with him for talks, beginning Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, senior State Department officials said Tuesday. Another U.S. official said this group will include weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons experts from the U.S. military. The Kerry-Lavrov meeting will include several sessions spread across two days, officials said, cautioning that the issue may not be resolved by then.
If and when an accord is reached, it will be included as part of a U.N. Security Council resolution, according to the officials.
• When the two diplomats meet, the Obama administration's position will be that "we need a verifiable process under international control with timelines and modalities worked out with the Russians and through the United Nations," a second senior administration official said.
• Russia will propose a U.N. draft declaration backing an initiative to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Lavrov has told France that its own draft resolution holding the Syrian government responsible for the use of chemical weapons is "unacceptable."
• France is planning to offer a five-point U.N. Security Council resolution, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. The points include condemning the August 21 massacre, having Syria shed light on its weapons of mass destruction and placing them under international control, having international inspections, forcing Syria to face severe consequences if it violates its obligations, and submitting the perpetrators of the August 21 massacre to international justice.
• Putin said the United States and its allies should "pledge to renounce the use of force" as world powers work to deal with the Syrian chemical weapons issue. "It is difficult to make any country -- Syria or any other country in the world -- to unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration," he told Russian TV on Tuesday.
• French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Obama agreed Tuesday to work together to explore the Russian proposal seriously, a White House official said. The talks will begin in earnest at the United Nations later Tuesday and will include a discussion on a potential U.N. Security Council resolution.
• The opposition Syrian Coalition said Tuesday that the Russian proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control "is a political strategy that aims to stall for more time" and "does not address the issue of accountability for crimes against innocents."
• The Gulf Cooperation Council -- a coalition that consists of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait -- expressed pessimism Tuesday that Russia's proposal on chemical weapons would have a major impact. "All the talks were about one subject, which is chemical weapons," Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said. "But that doesn't stop the spilling of blood, (and it) will not help the Syrian people."
• Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader Al-Halqi said Damascus supports the Russian initiative, Syria state TV reported. The plan "aims to stop the Syrian bloodshed and prevent a war," Al-Halqi said. "Yesterday we held a very fruitful round of talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and from his side, there was a proposal for an initiative relating to chemical weapons. And by evening (Monday) we agreed to the Russian initiative," Moallem said. He said Syria had agreed because it would "remove grounds for American aggression."
• Russia said it's working on a plan for Syria to hand over chemical weapons. "We, the Russian side, are currently engaged in the preparation of a workable, clear, specific plan for which -- literally this minute -- we are in contact with the Syrian side," Lavrov said. "We expect to present this plan in the near future and are prepared to refine and work it out with the participation of the U.N. secretary-general, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and with the participation of the members of the Security Council."
• Kerry said Tuesday that Russia's foreign minister is sending along "some interesting observations about the ways in which he thinks we might be able to achieve" having Syria turn over its chemical weapons. Speaking in a Google+ Hangout, Kerry said the fact Syria's president "has been running a highly controlled and very hierarchical process" leads Washington to believe that Syria's government "can control access to these sites."
• China welcomes and supports Russia's proposal to have Syria hand over chemical weapons to international control, the Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
• Iran said it welcomes the Russian initiative for Syria "to put a halt to militarism in the region," according to a banner on state-run Press TV's website.
• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani -- whose nation has been a longtime ally of Syria and staunch adversary of the United States, which has led efforts to stymie Iran's nuclear program -- said Tuesday on Press TV that Iran is willing to do whatever it can to prevent a broader regional war he surmised would be "very dangerous... first of all for those who would initiate that war." Speaking of weapons of mass destruction, which include nuclear as well as chemical weapons, Rouhani said, "We would like to see a WMD-free region, including chemical weapons."
• Russia has withdrawn its request for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the Syrian crisis that had been set for later Tuesday afternoon, a U.N. diplomat said. Russia, which has been a key player in efforts to have Syria give up its chemical weapons, dropped its request due to "changing circumstances," according to the diplomat.
• France had planned to go to the Security Council on Tuesday with its proposal for Syria to hand over and destroy its chemical weapons, Fabius said. He said France will not accept "delaying tactics." It was not clear how the cancellation of Tuesday afternoon's meeting affected the French approach, if at all.
• There are consultations with France and others about how to move quickly at the United Nations to test whether Russia and Syria are serious about the initiative to place chemical weapons under international control, a senior U.S. administration official said.
• Obama and Putin, despite their chilly relationship, have been talking for roughly a year about the issue of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles, a senior U.S. administration official said Tuesday.
• Eight more countries have signed onto a statement to "support efforts undertaken by the United States and other countries to reinforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons," the White House announced Tuesday. Georgia, Guatemala, Kuwait, Malta, Montenegro, Panama, Poland and Portugal join 25 other countries in agreeing to the joint statement.
• A 22-year-old man died Tuesday in southern Turkey during a clash between police in that country and demonstrators rallying against the prospect of a broader international war in neighboring Syria, his mother said. Police released video showing protesters throwing stones at armored vehicles from rooftops, yet witnesses claimed Ahmet Atakan -- who is an Alawite, the same Muslim sect as Syria's leadership -- died after being shot in the head with a tear gas canister.
• As the diplomatic debate continued to rage about what to do regarding Syria, the death toll in the war-ravaged nation rose. According to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria, 76 deaths were reported Tuesday around the country, including seven children and five women. The United Nations estimates more than 100,000 people have died since the civil war began in 2001, with more than 2 million people crossing borders as refugees and another 4.25 million displaced within Syria.
U.S. Congress and government
JUST WATCHED Rep. Israel: Russia stepped up to plate Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Rep. Israel: Russia stepped up to plate 01:19
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• The Syrian regime has "about 1,000 metric tons of numerous chemical agents, binary components, including finished sulfur, mustard, binary components for sarin and VX," Kerry told a House committee on Tuesday. "Most of that is in the form of unmixed binary components, probably stored mostly in tanks. But they also possess sarin-filled munitions and other things I can't go into here."
• A White House official told CNN that since August 23, the Obama administration has had discussions with at least 93 senators and more than 350 House members regarding Syria. In addition to the president's efforts and his much-anticipated speech on Syria scheduled for Tuesday night, Vice President Joe Biden met with a group of House Republicans and House Democrats at the White House, the official said.
• Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi said the Russian plan has "given the president a victory" and said White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough has told House Democrats, "if it is serious, if it is credible, if it is real, will be given every consideration." Democratic leaders say the plan doesn't take the wind out of the administration's efforts but "validates what the president is doing," Pelosi said.
• U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman met Tuesday with Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, to discuss Moscow's proposal to have Syria give up its chemical weapons, the California Democrat said. Sherman, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the meeting informative and said he believes "the Russian proposal deserves very serious attention to develop the details needed to carry it out."
• A White House official said the feeling inside the White House is that, given the Russian proposal on Syria's chemical weapons, there is now less urgency for a vote on taking action against the country. However, White House officials believe their position has been strengthened since Syria embraced the Russian proposal to place the country's chemical weapons under international control. At this point, White House officials believe they can let diplomacy take its course, the official said.
• In meetings with Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans -- each lasting more than an hour -- President Obama asserted that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government was responsible for a large-scale chemical weapons attack on August 21 outside Damascus, a White House official said.
While reiterating his position that a targeted military strike (without having troops set foot in Syria) was in the national security interests of the United States, the president said that his administration would work to pursue the diplomatic option put forward by Russia, which would involve Syria handing over its chemical weapons, the official said.
• Obama stressed during those meetings with U.S. senators the need to keep open the option of a military strike against Syria, said Sen. Tom Carper. According to the Delaware Democrat, Obama spoke for 10 to 12 minutes, then fielded questions from about 15 senators.
"If we don't keep that threat open," Carper said in summarizing the president, "they may very well walk away."
After the same meeting, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, said she felt Obama is working towarda successful diplomatic resolution that would culminate in the documented destruction of the Syrian government's stockpile of chemical weapons.
• Kerry said Tuesday that the use of force "absolutely should not be off the table" in Congress despite the Russian proposal. But he told House lawmakers that when and how is up to Obama. "The Senate has made a decision to hold off to see if there are any legs in this Russia proposal," Kerry said, referring to the postponement of a procedural vote scheduled for Wednesday.
• Speaking later Tuesday in the Google+ Hangout, the secretary of state acknowledged that "some things" from the U.S. government have not gotten to opponents of Syria's al-Assad "as rapidly as one would have hoped." Without detailing what items were heading toward what he called "the moderate opposition," Kerry said "many of the items that people complained were not getting to them are now getting to them."
• Under a new resolution being proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives, Obama would have 30 days to work out a "credible plan" regarding Syria's chemical weapons before he'd be allowed to order strikes, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
• Explaining the evolving timing of U.S. Senate votes on Syria in light of recent developments, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated Tuesday, "It's important that we do this well, not quickly." The Nevada Democrat added that "the credible threat of our doing something about this (chemical weapons) attack is going to remain."
Reid's comments came after Obama asked Senate Democrats to delay voting on authorizing military action in Syria while the diplomatic process works itself out, according to senators in the meeting. The president "asked for some time to work things out -- a matter of days into next week," Sen. Dick Durbin said.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday evening that he is canceling a briefing on Syria that had been planned for Wednesday for all senators, explaining that there are just too many moving targets at the moment.
• Sen. Joe Manchin -- a West Virginia Democrat who last week had pushed an initiative to put off military action while demanding Syria signs an international convention against chemical weapons -- said Tuesday that he is "encouraged" that Syria's government has decided to sign on to such an agreement. "I have said from the start that being a superpower means more than super-military might; it means super-diplomacy and super-restraint," Manchin said in a statement.
• A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is working on an alternative resolution that would set key benchmarks to be met in order to avoid a military strike against Syria, according to a source familiar with the talks.
• Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Kerry told lawmakers that a "credible threat of force" in recent weeks has for the "first time" prompted the Syrian regime "to even acknowledge that they have a chemical weapons arsenal." He added that a Russian proposal to turn over Syria's chemical weapons stockpile can't be a process for "delay" or "avoidance."
• Kerry also warned the committee that Iran, a close ally of Syria, "looms out there with its nuclear program." "They are watching what we do here. If we choose not to act, we will be sending a message to Iran of American ambivalence, American weakness," he said.
• U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that he believes there needs to be a detailed timeline for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons. Referring to the Moscow-led efforts calling for such a transfer in the face of threatened U.S.-led military strikes in Syria, Kinzinger said, "It's important to understand that the Russians may be trying to stall here."
• The top-ranking Republican in the Senate said Tuesday that he will vote against authorizing military action against Syria. "A vital national security risk is clearly not at play. There are just too many unanswered questions about our long-term strategy in Syria," Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a speech on the floor of the Senate.
• On CNN's "New Day," Sen. John McCain upbraided the Obama administration's discussions of Syria. "There's a degree of incoherence that I have never seen the likes of," the Arizona Republican said. He noted that Kerry said any strike on Syria would be "unbelievably small." "What does that mean?" McCain asked. "We still haven't determined what the goal of these military strikes are."
• Frederic Hof, who served as a special adviser to Obama on Syria during its ongoing civil war, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he's a "bit skeptical" of the Russian proposal on chemical weapons, further pointing out that Monday was the first day Syria's government ever admitted to having such an arsenal.
In his speech Tuesday night, "The president absolutely has to get across (the point) that diplomacy is not possible without the credible use of force remaining on the table," said Hof, now a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank. "Absent that, the Russian proposal will go away."
• While U.S. forces are in position and capable of striking immediately, the Pentagon needs more guidance from President Barack Obama about time frames for a possible strike against Syria, a senior U.S. military official said.
The official noted that the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz can't stay in the Red Sea much longer as it is already overdue to go home, while destroyer ships in the area will also need to be switched out. "The question is how long do we stay at a certain... high-readiness level," the official said.
American public opinion
• A new national poll suggests that as Obama prepares to tell a skeptical American public why the United States should take military action against Syria, he's partly to blame for the box into which he's put himself.
• The CNN/ORC International Poll indicates that Americans are divided evenly on whether Obama is a strong leader as well as whether he's honest and trustworthy.
• The poll also found that one in five said they completely understand Obama's Syria policy. A little more than half said they "somewhat" understand the administration's game plan, and about three in 10 said they are not clear about the administration's strategy or don't understand it at all.Nosek, 24, was recalled by Detroit on Friday but did not see game action. The Pardubice, Czech Republic, native has skated in 11 games for Grand Rapids this season and is tied for sixth on the team in scoring with 10 points (2-8-10). Nosek made his NHL debut with the Red Wings last year on Dec. 26, 2015 at Nashville and totaled six games with the club, recording two penalty minutes, six hits and three takeaways in 10:08 average time on ice. Nosek has spent the past three seasons with the Griffins, tallying 74 points (28-46-74), a plus-43 rating and 68 penalty minutes in 136 regular-season games and adding eight points (3-5-8) and 33 penalty minutes in 21 postseason games.
A sixth-year pro, Nosek logged 129 professional games in the Czech Extraliga for HC Pardubice, totaling 62 points (24-38-62) and 58 penalty minutes. He posted a career-best 44 points (19-25-44) in 52 games for the club in 2013-14, leading the team in scoring before signing with Detroit in the offseason at the age of 21. The 6-foot-3, 210-lb., center also spent parts of three seasons with HC Chrudim and HC Hradec Kralove of the Czech Republic's second-highest professional league, picking up 16 points (7-9-16) between the teams from 2010-13. He also racked up 125 points (53-72-125) in 109 games for HC Pardubice at the under-20 level. Nosek captained his country at the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship, picking up one assist in six games.
Coreau, 25, saw his first NHL action in Detroit's 5-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday, making 32 saves for the Red Wings. The fourth-year pro has an 8- |
not that it should be fully embraced, but that it may create at least a shadow of a doubt in the minds of those intent on inflicting harm and pain.”On Oct. 2nd, 2015, up and coming female artist, Janelle Phillips, will release her debut 6 track EP titled Lioness via Roots Musician Records. This week, we’re giving away her brand new song “Lifted” that features a guest appearance by Trevor Hall. Grab it for FREE on the homepage and read more about Janelle here…
You can download Janelle Phillips new single “Lifted” (ft. Trevor Hall) for FREE on our home page under the MP3 Leak of the Week on the right hand column! This Download will only be available until Saturday, Sept. 26th, 2015.
Janelle Phillips – “Lifted” (ft. Trevor Hall) – Download HERE
“Lifted” Background:
Out of San Diego, CA comes another female vocalist making her way to the stage to share her message of peace and unity. Her name is Janelle Phillips and her new Lioness EP will drop on October 2nd via E.N Young‘s Roots Musician Records. E.N Young produced the album out of his Imperial Sound Recording Studio, just north of the border in southern of CA.
Janelle shares with The Pier that she wants: “the people that come across this song to feel a rising, an awakening and allow them to feel part of the song, a sense of Unity. Also, to accept visions, culture, and religion – whatever God you believe in, we all come from the same one.”
Janell continues: “There are so many people in this world, from generation to generation, being raised with stories, ways to praise, and what to believe in. To me, it’s such an amazing beauty; I respect every culture and religion that are uplifting themselves and showing respect to the Most High. He is inside all of us, and these differences in the way people describe him are their own ways of being able to describe his presence. I want everyone as a people, to stand up for others and for peace. Ambient music brings meditation, and the feeling in this song is magical.”
Of the six songs on Janelle’s new EP, there is a stand-out guest appearance in singer-songwriter Trevor Hall. He appears on the song “Lifted”. Janelle has been a longtime fan of Trevor and we even found a video on Youtube of her covering Trevor Hall’s “Te Amo” that you can view below.
Discussing Trevor Hall, Janelle explains that: “Having Trevor Hall, one of my biggest inspirations in music as well as with regards to my spiritual awakening, in this work of art is so touching and moving. It’s so powerful and allows me to really feel the Most High, as we remember those who have passed fighting for peace, and their heart eliminating the negative things in the world like discrimination, prejudice, racism, hatred, dictatorship, enslavement, murders, domestic violence, child abuse, and all the other things that do not bring us together to help one another.”
Pick up Janelle Phillips Lioness EP on October 2nd, 2015.
Janelle Phillips Press-Bio :
Janelle Phillips coming to you from San Diego, California, was born and raised in the city Escondido; she is a blend of culture, a Cali Lady bringing forth conscious music. Beginning her musical journey, Janelle began writing lyrics and poetry in high school and taught herself how to play guitar. Throughout the next few years Janelle would jam at open mic nights and small performances, eventually recording and releasing her first EP ‘To Be Heard’ in 2013. With her first EP, Janelle became part of the reggae community which led her to the doors of Imperial Sound Recording Studio. In 2014/2015 she recorded 4 tracks with E.N Young including her powerful song, “Lioness” for which her new album is named. Janelle’s lyrics are self-empowering, healing, and profound. Her goals are to uplift the souls that are enlightened by the music of love, strength, and truth: Reggae Music.
Related Links:
Janelle Phillips Website
Janelle Phillips Facebook
Huge thanks again to Janelle Phillips & Roots Musician Records for allowing us to share Janelle’s new single “Lifted” featuring Trevor Hall to post up for FREE download. Free music is a privilege that we’re grateful for and we appreciate the work these artists do! Please feel free to download this song for FREE and spread the awareness to your friends!
Enjoy the FREE track on the homepage!
Article By: Mike Patti
Watch: Janelle Phillips – “Te Amo” (Trevor Hall Cover)Upgrade your mechanical keyboard with our 104-key full set of doubleshot PBT keycaps. PBT keycaps are highly resistant to friction, temperature and solvents. Doubleshot injection molding fuses two pieces of plastic together for a seamless and extremely durable end product.
This set uses black keycaps with slate gray legends for a more subtle color contrast without sacrificing readability.
Keycap Material: PBT (Doubleshot)
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18 - Row 1, 1x1
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2 - Row 3, 1x1.50
1 - Row 2, 1x1.75
1 - Row 2, 1x2.25
1 - Row 1, 1x2.25
1 - Row 1, 1x2.75
5 - Row 1, 1x1.25
1 - Row 1, 1x2.00
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Also includes 1 Wire Keycap Puller ToolA gang of thugs terrorising business people in a 'protection scam' demanded €20,000 from one entrepreneur after kidnapping his son.
A gang of thugs terrorising business people in a 'protection scam' demanded €20,000 from one entrepreneur after kidnapping his son.
The Co Wexford businessman says he has been subjected to a slew of threats and intimidation from the gang, who claim to be members of the Provisional IRA. Several businesses in the Gorey area are thought to have been targeted by the group reportedly led by 'Buffalo' Billy Clare.
The businessman said it was a "very scary experience".
"I have a business that is doing very well, and I have six or seven lads working for me, full-time and part-time," he said.
"They [the gang] see I'm doing well. It's not just me they're doing it to. I know that other places have been approached in the town."
"When they called first, they said they wanted €20,000. When they didn't get that, they rang 10 days later and wanted €2,500 within 24 hours."
"I told them they wouldn't be getting a penny from me. Then [they] came back looking for €4,500, or they would kill my son. They came on Wednesday night and broke the window and lit the petrol bomb outside... It could have been a lot more serious."
The businessman's son was also grabbed by four masked men from a street two weeks ago. "They threw him in the back of a van, tied him up, gave him a bit of a beating and dumped him in a forest."
Cowards
The man has called on other businesses not to bow to the gang - adding that if he were to pay what they asked, it could close his business.
"This could close us down, and I've done nothing wrong," he said. "I won't be bullied by anyone. These lads are cowards."
Former biker gang member Clare was previously quizzed in connection with the murder of father-of-three Stephen O'Meara, who was buried alive in the Wicklow mountains in 2011. Clare served a sentence for membership of the Continuity IRA (CIRA) after a court heard he had extorted money from club boss Dave Mooney on behalf of the organisation.
It is understood that the CIRA has since renounced him.
Irish IndependentSince retiring after the World Championships seven months ago, David Millar has been keeping himself busy with a range of projects. Cyclingnews caught up with the former cyclist at the Tour de Yorkshire, where he sat in the commentary box for host broadcaster ITV. Related Articles Curtain falls on Millar's professional career at Worlds
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"I got the easy gig, I'm just doing the expert analysis," Millar told Cyclingnews of his new venture as a commentator. "It's always difficult for the lead commentator because it's a bit of an art capturing the emotions and getting everything bang on, and following the orders form the producer through the ear. For me it has been nice because I'm just talking about a bike race, and I like talking about a bike race so it's quite good fun."
Millar does not see a long-term future for himself in commentary, and he's also got a clothing line and a new book in the pipeline over the coming months. Millar explained to Cyclingnews that his book, which he is due to complete this month, will be nothing like his autobiography Racing Through the Dark.
"I wanted to do a new book that hasn't been done before," said Millar. "I've done my biography which is a bit cliché, although I'm very proud of it, we've all done that. I wanted to write a book that was a bit of a love letter to pro racing because I know that in 10 years I'll have forgotten about a lot of what it’s like."
Well into his first year of retirement, we also asked Millar if he ever wished he was still racing. "I'll always miss the good times but I can also remember how hard it was," he said.
Watch the full interview below and to subscribe to the Cyclingnews video channel, click here.Drupal 8 is still a very new system and many contributed modules are just starting to catch up.
However, there are some features already available in Drupal 8. The Calendar module is not bug-free and doesn't have all the features it did on Drupal 7, but it is working on Drupal 8.
Here's a guide to building your first Drupal 8 calendar.
Getting set up for the calendar First, install the Drupal 8 versions of these two modules: Calendar
Views templates Now go to Structure > Content types and create a content type that uses the core Date field:
Finally, clear your site's cache. You can do this via Configuration > Performance.
Creating the calendar Go to Structure > Views.
Click "Add view from template".
You'll now see list of pre-existing templates that you can used to create calendars. Because you created a Date field, there should be a template available for that field. I've highlighted the template for my example. Click "Add" next to this template.
Choose a "View Name".
Choose a "Base View Path". This will be the URL for your calendar.
Scroll down the preview area and you should see your new calendar:
Click "Save".
Click "View Month".
Visit the front of your site and you'll see your new calendar!Rebel fighters in Ramussa on the southwestern edges of Aleppo
An alliance of Syrian rebels has announced the beginning of a battle to retake the entire city of Aleppo.
The Army of Conquest is a coalition of rebels and jihadis which includes the former Al-Nusra Front.
In a statement, the group vowed to "double the number of fighters for this next battle".
"We announce the start of a new phase to liberate all of Aleppo," the group said, after a week of continuous fighting.
"We will not rest until we raise the flag of conquest over Aleppo's citadel."
Image: Syrians celebrate in Aleppo after rebels broke the government siege
Their words come the day after they broke a government siege on rebel-held areas in Aleppo, which is Syria's second-largest city.
On Sunday, government-loyal media denied that the siege had been broken but did say that their forces were on the defensive.
Syrian state television said: "Our forces have redeployed after absorbing the attack of thousands of mercenaries, and the army has found a new route to allow food and gas in.
"The army has found an alternative way to move food and fuel supplies into western Aleppo."
Syrian government forces seized the only route into rebel-held areas of northern Aleppo in July, sparking a counter-offensive by the rebels from the city's south.
Around 300,000 people were trapped, according to the United Nations.
But the coalition of rebel fighters broke through regime lines on Saturday, opening a new route into the city's north-eastern neighbourhoods.
These neighbourhoods house an estimated 250,000 people.
This has left the city divided - there was celebration in the eastern districts and fears of food and fuel shortages in the western areas, which are still controlled by the regime.
The UN Security Council is due to meet to discuss the Aleppo crisis today at 3pm UK time.Deadman Changes & Implings
Never again will you have to watch an impling float away uncaught - barehanded impling catching is here! We've also got a number of Deadman Mode changes to help you get the most out of your time in Deadman.
Barehanded impling catching
Clue scrolls from implings
Easy clues - Gourmet, Baby & Young implings.
Medium clues - Eclectic, Essence & Earth implings.
Hard clues - Ninja, Magpie & Nature implings.
Elite clues - Dragon implings.
Gem reward bag
Deadman changes
Experience loss formula
This is multiplied with the normal experience loss.
Mac will now purchase unwanted Max capes back from you, for 80% of the original cost. He will only purchase them off you if you bring both the hood and cape. This can be done for the various combination max capes too.
King black dragon heads can now be split into 3 ensouled dragon heads. Just get a knife and split away.
It is now possible to use the alchemy spells whilst in most instances, such as the Kraken lair.
Lunar’s group teleports will no longer trigger the 10 second teleport delay timer in Deadman mode twice.
The destroy message for the bonecrusher now correctly states that you can retrieve it from a Ghost disciple rather than the taskmaster.
A message given in Animal Magnetism now states the correct Crafting level requirement.
The Nardah herbalist has had a typo fixed. 'Tarromin', rather than 'Yarromin'.
Thormac will now inform you of the correct price for enchanting your battlestaff, rather than telling you it will cost you 'tosting' coins.
The Varrock diary task to purchase 20 mahogany planks from the Sawmill now ensures you have enough coins to pay for the planks.
It is now possible to catch implings without a net or jar.Doing so requires a hunter level 10 higher than the usual requirement for the impling you are attempting to catch. For example, catching a dragon impling barehanded requires 93 Hunter.If you have an impling jar in your inventory an impling you catch will be placed into it. If you do not, the impling you catch will be looted immediately.If you wish to catch implings within Puro Puro you must have an impling jar in your inventory.Clue scrolls have been added to the drop tables of implings. When looting implings you now have a chance of receiving a clue scrollEach different sort of impling offers a different chance at a clue scroll. Depending on the level of the impling you have a chance of receiving a clue scroll from easy to elite:The higher the hunter requirement to catch an impling, the more likely you are to receive a clue scroll.The gem reward bag has been added to Prospector Percy’s shop in the Motherlode Mine. Costing 40 golden nuggets, gem reward bags contain 40 random gems (with higher tier gems being less common).In Deadman Mode the combat level of the person who kills you now impacts how much experience you lose when you die. A death to a player who completely outmatches you will not be as severely punished as a death to someone of a similar level.The result of this is that experience loss remains roughly the same when you die to a player of a similar level to you. However, dying to a player who is a higher level than you gets less and less punishing as the difference between your combat levels increases.For example, if a skulled level 80 with 5 million mining experience were to die to a level 126, they would now lose 750k experience rather than the 2.5 million they would have previously. If the level 80 wasn't skulled, they would lose 375k experience.We feel this is a much fairer system which allows lower level players a fighting chance of keeping their stats long enough to progress.The number of item stacks lost from your bank on death in the Deadman Mode has now been reduced from 28 to 10 for everyone. This change will give players who die a better starting point for rebuilding while still giving PKers a rewarding drop for their efforts.Unskulled players now have a slightly lighter restriction on when they can teleport. Rather than a 10 second count down which is reset if interrupted, unskulled players can teleport instantly if they have been out of combat for 10 seconds.Brand new Deadman Mode accounts now have 6 hours of protection from player-vs-player combat. In these first 6 hours it is not possible to attack or be attacked unless you first talk to Doomsayer in Lumbridge.In addition to 6 hours of immunity, brand new Deadman Mode accounts now also receive 6 hours of increased experience gain. During this period, experience is gained at 10x the rate of Old School (double the usual rate in Deadman Mode).This change should help players who have started Deadman Mode late get to a point where they can compete and defend themselves. If you're yet to try out Deadman Mode, now is the time!Discuss this update on our forumsSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A transgender police officer is suing her force after she allegedly had to “out” herself over a police radio system.
PC Emma Chapman claims Essex Police failed to help its officers understand transgender issues and properly investigate what had happened.
PC Chapman said that after initially telling people about her transition, she became “frustrated” at the lack of support and understanding. She eventually “stepped away” from being “open” and dealing with transgender issues in 2009.
According to legal documents seen by the BBC, her claim centres on three incidents when she had to speak to the police force’s control room via her radio handset.
The 44-year-old alleges that on the first occasion, in October 2012, the operator did not believe who she was, saying she had a “male voice”.
In her witness statement, the police constable said: “I felt a combination of alarm and distress.
“I replied… ‘I am a transsexual’.
“I felt very embarrassed and desperate. The incident took my breath away.”
Two further alleged incidents occurred in June 2013 when the officer was again challenged by control room staff who questioned her identity.
“I felt a growing sense of apprehension whenever I had to use the radio, concerned that there may be further, similar incidents,” she said.
“The radio is also a lifeline at times and I should not have to feel hesitant or anxious about using it.”
Essex Police said it “disagreed” with PC Chapman’s assertions and was contesting the case.
A spokesman acknowledged that conversations between PC Chapman and the control room had taken place but said the force disputed the “precise wording and tone” said to have been used.
The case was heard at the East London Tribunal Court last week after PC Chapman turned down an out-of-court settlement.
A decision is expected in the next few months.Tony Abbott's not a 'wrecker': Cormann defends former PM after Amanda Vanstone criticism
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Amanda Vanstone speaks to News Breakfast (ABC News)
Cabinet Minister Mathias Cormann has defended Tony Abbott's decision to remain in parliament after a party elder called on the former prime minister to quit immediately.
Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone has delivered a searing assessment of Mr Abbott's decision to remain in parliament after being rolled by Malcolm Turnbull in September.
Ms Vanstone argued Mr Abbott should leave politics and avoid the temptation to mount a leadership challenge.
"I don't think Tony's friends are necessarily doing him any good by suggesting he should stay because it's going to end in tears for him," she said.
"I think with the effort he's put in, he's entitled to leave parliament with a good reputation and I think if he stays, he won't be able to do that."
She argued Mr Abbott's continued presence would be a destabilising force for the Prime Minister.
But Senator Cormann said he did not share her view.
"No, I don't. Obviously Tony Abbott has made a decision to stay. That is because he feels he still has a contribution to make and I don't agree at all that Tony Abbott is a destabilising force.
"I absolutely believe that Tony Abbott will be true to his word and in fact he is being true to his word.
"I don't believe that Tony Abbott is ever a wrecker. I think that Tony Abbott is always focused on making a positive contribution to our country."
Ms Vanstone also called on veteran government MPs Bronwyn Bishop and Philip Ruddock to step aside.
"If you don't get rid of old stock, what they call dead wood, you can't bring new stock in," she said.
Topics: government-and-politics, political-parties, federal-election, elections, federal-elections, australia
First posted7. Steamworks Bans
Steamworks is a free suite of tools available to any developer to use in their game or software on Steam.
Matchmaking
Steam Inventory Service
Anti-cheat technology
In-game economy with microtransactions
Management of user-generated content
Per-User cloud storage
7.1. Trading Cards Eligibility
7.2. Revoking Game Bans API
Originally posted by “Banned by Game Developer (Game Ban)” Steam Support Article: Will Valve review developer requests for banning in any way?
Developers must be approved to use this system, and Valve reserves the right to revoke access to the system if the developer abuses it.
7.3. Restricting Keys Distribution
Your key request may have been denied because the request was for a package that contains a release state override for the included appIDs, which would make the content immediately playable upon activation. Unless a request for testing/promo/press override keys is a small batch and properly tagged for use, it may be denied.
If the Key request is intended for commercial purposes, be sure to use a package that does not override the release state of your app.
For more information on keys, please see our documentation here: https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/keys
7.4. Contract Termination Due to the NDA Breakage
7.5. Contract Termination Due to Review Manipulation, Trading Cards Farming and Toxic Behavior
7.6. Contract Termination Due to Copyright Infringement
Here is a small sampling of the available features:However, for violations related to the contract between Valve and the developer, as well as the developer breaching the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA), appropriate actions may be taken by Valve in order to punish the offending party by restricting access to certain Steamworks features or even terminating the contract.Uploading inappropriate content may lead to your trading cards eligibility revoked.Developers who abuse their Game Bans feature will have it revoked:Steam key requests are manually reviewed and the history of your past requests and sales is looked into. This means that if you, for example, have 100 sales on Steam and are requesting 500k keys, your key request will most likely be denied and you will receive the following message:All onboarding Steam partners must agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA); if the NDA has been breached in any form, Valve has the right to terminate the contract and partnership. An example of that can be leaking Steam Sales dates (which are confidential).Developers are forbidden to manipulate reviews by any means. This includes soliciting reviews by granting players free keys in exchange for a review, posting fake reviews by yourself or using grey-area bot review services.Developers are not allowed to grant licenses of their games to accounts that are involved in a so-called "trading cards farming", a process where a developer generates thousands of trading cards of practically zero value, and then makes community market transactions in order to have a cut from these "sales".Removing negative reviews, censoring users on the forums and showing negative behavior towards your customers is not allowed.Valve will terminate the contract should one of aforementioned violations occur.When uploading content to Steam, you state that you are either an owner of the content you upload, or you have permission from the legal owner to do so. If it is discovered that you have illegally uploaded someone else's intellectual property without their permission, Valve will terminate your contract.The December issue of Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine is revealing on Saturday that artist Kentaro Yabuki ( To Love-Ru -Trouble-, To Love-Ru -Trouble- Darkness, Black Cat, Mayoi Neko Overrun! ) will launch a new project. Jump SQ. will publish more details in the January issue, which ships on December 4. The announcement in the December issue features an image of a seated young man surrounded by eight naked young women.
Yabuki revealed in the 18th and final volume of the To Love-Ru -Trouble- Darkness manga (pictured at right) in April that he thinks his next work will not be related to To Love-Ru.
To Love-Ru -Trouble- Darkness manga writer Saki Hasemi commented in the same volume that while any future developments haven't yet been decided, the 18th volume was "not the final chapter" of To Love-Ru.
The To Love-Ru -Trouble- Darkness manga ended on March 4, although Shueisha published two bonus spinoff chapters in the May and June issues of Jump SQ. The manga is a sequel of the first To Love-Ru -Trouble- series, and it launched in Jump SQ. in 2010. Seven Seas Entertainment is releasing both manga in English.We humans spend the bigger part of our lives in three dimensions. They are what we can see at what distance, what we can hear from which direction and what we can reach at which height. The X-Y-Z axis for those of us who prefer mathematics to the real world. The 4th dimension is simply the addition of time to the equation. How long does it take to reach that height? We put a hand in a cold glass of water and we feel the cold, if we keep our hand in the glass after a while we no longer feel the cold. As time passes the water gets slightly warmer from our body heat. More importantly, as time passes our nervous system through the passage of time, gets accustomed to feeling the cold and thus less “feeling-cold” signals are sent to the brain. We get used to feeling the cold water and it barely registers in the mind anymore. The monkey will hate the feeling of cold in the beginning and will fight it, if we persevere we can overcome both the cold and the urge to escape. After a while the discomfort is longer noticeable and our bodies return to normal functioning. The discomfort of the cold is in no way less uncomfortable, it is our nerves getting accustomed to the discomfort that makes it less uncomfortable. Cold showers are an excellent example of this. The first time we take a cold shower will be extremely uncomfortable and for each cold shower the experience will be more pleasant. The health benefits, no pain no gain, of cold showers are too numerous to count here.
The principle of time passage is at work with smoking. The more we smoke in our lifetime, the less we will feel the pain and discomfort of inhaling smoke, and at the same time we will need to smoke more cigarettes to get the initial high of smoking. The initial high is the high we experienced from those first few awkward times we smoked. It is often romanticized in our minds as something amazing when it really is not. It is a fallacy that our brain tricks itself into believing. Smoking is pleasant because our brain wants to believe it is pleasant. When we observe other smokers closely we find that smoking is anything other than pleasant. The brain holds this believe as unquestionable fact that there is no conscious thought of it. This is how powerful the mind is. We keep chasing the dragon and the more we try the further away from it we get. We totally ignore the agony of getting used to inhaling smoke and tar. Chasing the dragon refers to chasing the initial high of smoking opium, because the smoke is reminiscent of a fire-breathing dragon blowing smoke. Chasing the dragon is developing an addiction to smoking opium. The metaphor fits well for smoking cigarettes as well, because of the glow and the smoke of the cigarette. Maybe the dragon will appear in the next drag if we keep smoking?
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Like this: Like Loading...Undercover Border Policemen arrested Wednesday three Palestinian rioters in Ramallah during a mass demonstration staged by some 400 protesters who burned tires, threw stones and Molotov Cocktails at security forces.
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Rioters threw rocks at the undercover border cops as they carried out the arrests, prompting security forces to shoot at the legs of those responsible for the violence. The suspects were taken in for questioning.
Undercover Israeli Border Policemen arrest Palestinian rioters (צילום: דובר צה''ל)
X
Border Policemen also confiscated overnight Tuesday M4 and M-16 assault rifles, a handgun and ammunition during a raid in a refugee camp in the West Bank. According to suspicions, the weapons were used last Thursday during a demonstration in a refugee camp south of Hebron.
Other improvised weapons were also confiscated during the demonstration, including a Carl Gustav submachine gun.
The Israeli security forces arrested four Palestinian suspects who were brought in for questioning by the Shin Bet, but it remains unclear whether they are guilty of possession of the confiscated weapons.
The protest was just one in a wave of demonstrations that have taken place since US President Donald Trump announced last week Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Get the biggest celebs 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
Hollywood star Charlie Sheen’s sex life is being laid bare for all to see after he announced that he is HIV positive, and now it has been claimed that he has been caught on video in a sex tape featuring the actor performing oral sex on another man.
RadarOnline claims that it has seen several tapes of the actor, who at the time the footage was taken was allegedly smoking a crack cocaine pipe before getting down and dirty with the unidentified man.
The website claims that the footage is thought to have been recorded in Nevada in 2011.
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The video, which reportedly lasts for 30 seconds, allegedly shows the Wall Street actor getting high and indulging in the sexual act.
According to the website, the recording of the 50-year-old was allegedly at the centre of a shocking lawsuit that claimed that an ‘A-list celebrity’ had spread herpes to a lover.
The website alleges that the actor was the unidentified actor in an explosive lawsuit which claimed that the Hollywood star was behind a “nefarious plot” to have sex with the claimant despite having the virus.
It is alleged in the lawsuit that the claimant, who was not named in the $20million lawsuit, met the star in Vegas on April 1, 2011.
The actor is then alleged to have told the man that he had “no venereal diseases”.
The website, which claims that the pair had watched porn as well as having engaged in “mutual oral copulation, mutual self-gratification, rubbing and massaging each other, play-wrestling, licking and (unprotected) intercourse”.
It is also claimed that Sheen settled the case out of court after allegedly learning of the X-rated footage.
(Image: Splash News)
Read more: Charlie Sheen on hunt to find who leaked HIV secret as angry messages exposed
Read more: Charlie Sheen spent over $1.6 million in one year on hookers
It’s reported that Sheen thought that the original videos linked to the case had been destroyed, but a copy has surfaced and allegedly made its way to the Radar offices.
A source told the website that Charlie allegedly had his "team buy it" and take the recording off the market, over alleged fears "it could destroy his life if it ever got out".
(Image: TodayShow)
“He must be quaking in his boots that it could see the light of day," an insider said.
Last week, Sheen appeared on The Today Show and announced that he had HIV.
The actor, who reportedly spent millions on sex workers over the years, claimed that he felt “free from prison” after having been blackmailed by those close to him over his secret.
Charlie revealed that he had discovered the news four years ago after thinking that he had a brain tumour.
He denied that he had been careless when having sex, revealing that he had gone unprotected with two sexual partners under the guidance of his doctor following his diagnosis.
We have reached out to Charlie's rep for a comment.If Donald Trump is your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving then Ted Cruz is the charming sociopath your sister brings to Christmas. During a speech...
If Donald Trump is your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving then Ted Cruz is the charming sociopath your sister brings to Christmas. During a speech at the Rising Tide Summit in Iowa, the freshman senator from Texas whipped the crowd into a frenzy by suggesting Pres. Barack Obama wasn’t doing enough to defeat radical Islam.
Cruz thinks he can do better. “We will utterly destroy ISIS,” he said. “We will carpet bomb them into oblivion. I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out.”
That’s right, Ted Cruz just promised to nuke the Middle East if elected.
The “nuke the Middle East” foreign policy is rare, but not unheard of here in Texas, where local politicians sometimes energize their base by promising to make peace with the Muslim world … at the end of a nuclear-tipped sword. But Cruz’s nuclear option wouldn’t be the end of America’s troubles in the region, rather the beginning of a horrible new chapter.
A nuclear detonation in Syria or Iraq would create massive political and ecological fallout. ISIS has somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 fighters. A nuke would kill millions, most of them civilians.
The refugee crisis would intensify as people rushed to avoid Cruz’s glowing sand. Millions would flee into Europe and America would have a moral obligation to help all it could, spending billions over the next decade to feed and resettle the refugees it just created.
Washington’s reconstruction of Japan after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was admirable, necessary and a success. Its more recent reconstruction of Afghanistan has been a corrupt, misguided failure. Nuking ISIS would trap the U.S. in the region for the foreseeable future — and might start another war.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran may see such an attack as an overt act of aggression against their countries. The international community would condemn the action and America’s stature on the world stage would falter. A lot of countries would make friends with Russia and China to build relations with a superpower that hasn’t nuked them.
It’s an awful and misguided plan, full of sound. It’s the kind of solution a sociopath would propose at Christmas dinner.The US wants Toyota to pay a record fine - it has two weeks to appeal The US transport department is asking Toyota to pay a record fine of $16.4m (£10.7m) for holding back information about faulty accelerator pedals. The department says the company failed to notify it about the flaws "in a timely way". The National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said documents provided by Toyota showed the carmaker knew about the defect in September. Reports of problems with the pedals prompted a massive recall in January. Toyota has two weeks to appeal against this penalty. Safety role A statement on Toyota's website said it had not yet received a letter on the matter from the NHTSA. The statement went on to say: "We have already taken a number of important steps to improve our communications with regulators and customers on safety-related matters as part of our strengthened overall commitment to quality assurance. "These include the appointment of a new Chief Quality Officer for North America and a greater role for the region in making safety-related decisions." The January recall was one of three the Japanese car company has been forced to make - others related to floor pedals that stuck in mats and braking issues. Toyota ended up recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the US over this fault - as part of a total of more than eight million vehicles recalled worldwide relating to the three faults. Further investigations The NHTSA said Toyota issued repair procedures in late September to distributors in Europe and Canada to deal with complaints of sticking pedals but did not report the problem to it. The country's Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, said in a statement: "We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations." He added: "Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from US officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families." US safety regulators are still examining whether Toyota has committed other violations. Toyota is in the process of fixing the fault by either replacing the pedal completely or by adding in a metal "shim". Latest figures from the US showed the carmaker's sales bounced back in March - with hefty discounts helping to win back customers who had been shaken by the firm's mass safety recalls.
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photographer's camera.
DE: It's good to hear that you actually have the technology now to be able to do 4K, even though I think that it's a check box for a lot of people. They're not necessarily shooting 4K, but they feel like they have to have a camera with that.
TI: Yeah, as a future-proof sort of choice.
DE: But I think that it does have some benefits even for still photographers though. I'm sure you're aware that Panasonic has promoted the idea of "4K Photo." I think that's a very strong use case.
[Ed. Note: 4K Photo is using 4K video for still photography. The idea is that you basically have an eight-megapixel camera with a continuous shooting speed of 24 or 30 frames/second. By making it easy to pick still frames out of the 4K video stream, 4K Photo capability enables a lot of interesting features.]
Your film simulation modes seem to be very popular even with many seasoned enthusiasts, including some of our staff who normally wouldn't care about filters. Do you plan to continue offering more variations of these going forward? Or how about the ability to let the users customize them?
TI: For example, you know, the black and white mode with the X-Pro2, we are introducing the new ACROS mode, monochrome mode. That is a more expanded expression of black and white. This could be done because of the new sensor and the new processor. Because the new sensor is a 24-megapixel and has fast [readout], and a powerful processor, that can do the more complicated processing. So the black and white...
Image courtesy of Fuji's ACROS film simulation (right) compared to a standard black-and-white shot (left).Image courtesy of Damien Lovegrove / Fujifilm.
DE: So the ACROS processing was actually more complicated than some of the color film simulation modes.
TI: Hmm -- yes, yes.
DE: Huh!
Fujifilm X-Pro2 ACROS film simulation mode.
TI: So, I think you know, whenever we have a new device, whenever we find new room [Ed. Note: Presumably meaning processing power], we like to keep improving the film simulation modes. For example, because of the new sensor and processor, even Velvia mode is improved. So the new X-Pro2's Velvia mode is even better than other cameras' Velvia mode.
DE: Oh really?
TI: Yes! See if you take a picture of the red flower. The previous X-Pro1 is... The saturation is a little bit over-saturated. [shows an image of a very bright red flower, as rendered both by the previous Velvia mode and the new one.]
DE: Ah, on a red flower, yeah.
TI: Because the image taken has limited gamut, like sRGB.
Fuji3: This is the, you know, current...
TI: The current filter.
MO: The new one has more, you know...
TI: Color tonality.
DE: Can you toggle back and forth? [looking at the image on-screen]
TI: The saturation, yes.
DE: Ah yeah. There's much more shape in the very highly saturated red areas.
TI: Yes. More detail, more shape.
DE: This is very interesting. And so it's...
TI: No over-saturation.
DE: The color itself looks a little bit different. The old Velvia simulation is a little more reddish, and has a little bit more blue in it. I guess this is maybe how you get the shape, by backing off slightly on the red and taking out some of the blue cast?
TI: Yes. So if the color has a limitation, over limitation, so of course the color is changing to the more orange type or...
DE: Yeah, so you kind of rotate the color a little bit into an area where you have a little more gamut.
[Ed. Note: This gets into the deep weeds of color management a little, but the issue basically comes down to what you do when either your capture or display device runs out of color gamut. Once you've hit the limit of the most intense red it can reproduce, what do you do for even more intense reds?
Here, the issue isn't so much about what color the camera can capture, but how they display it in sRGB color space in their JPEG files. (You can of course convert images directly from the RAW format into AdobeRGB or other much broader-gamut color space, so the issue in this case is what to do about sRGB.)
The answer is that you have to play little tricks with the color, and that what you want isn't actually accurate color, but color that *looks* accurate and natural. It's as much art as science, and there are various strategies you can apply. One is to compress the color gamut at its edges, so an intense color is rendered less intense than it is in real life, allowing some room for there to still be variation between it and even more intense shades. Another trick can be to shift rendered hues slightly, into parts of the color space where you have more gamut available.
In the case of the Velvia simulation here, I was noticing that slightly purplish-looking reds were shifted slightly into more pure reds or even orange-reds, but the subtle shading of the flower petals was much better preserved as a result.]
TI: Yes. So we don't just introduce new simulations, but we also keep improving existing simulations.
DE: Yeah, I've actually been very impressed with those. I didn't really appreciate them until -- it might have been last year or two years ago here that we had an interview. You really showed me what they were doing in different parts of the spectrum with the different film simulations and how the images ended up looking. My sense is that the film simulation modes really suffer from a lack of awareness. I think a lot of people don't really know what they do or have a good sense for them.
TI: Yes, as you mentioned, we have much room to increase awareness of the film simulation mode. Probably old people still remember what Velvia, or Provia and Astia means, but you know, the younger generations don't. They even never used film, so we need to you know, not educate, but perhaps appeal more to the younger generation.
DE: Do you have any sense of how widely used, how many of your users are actually using the simulation modes? And is that rate different in Japan versus the US?
TI: I think, you know, for example, we conducted a photo contest, a competition to celebrate the X-series anniversary. We received over 3,000 submissions, so we have some kind of data of how many film simulation are actually uses versus raw processing.
DE: Oh, so it was not a photo contest about film simulation, it was just a photo contest.
TI: Yes. Then we can look at all the data...
DE: Very clever. So it was a way of sampling...yeah.
TI: So I think that it's different between the regions. Some countries, there's more JPEG film simulation, some countries, more raw processing. So that's kind of the study or survey.
DE: My sense in the US is that serious photographers tend to always want to shoot raw.
TI: Yeah.
DE: There's a bit of a feeling that "Oh, if you're not shooting raw then you're not really a serious photographer."
TI: But interestingly, there are more and more professional photographers, even professional photographers, who just go straight to the JPEG output.
DE: Yeah, because they don't have time on an assignment to come back and spend a couple hours on the computer, so the initial jpeg quality is important.
TI: Exactly.
DE: So the hybrid optical viewfinder that you have from the original X-Pro1, and now on the X-Pro2, is very unique, and you obviously spent a lot of effort on that. Can you explain what's new and improved? Your website says the information display is easier to see. How is that achieved?
TI: Between the X-Pro1 and the X-Pro2, we launched the X100T. The X100T has a good digital electronic rangefinder for the first time ever. Optical finders have good things and bad things about them, and electronic viewfinders have good things and bad things, I think. So we really wanted to pick up the good thing from both technologies, for example maintaining the clearness of the optical viewfinder. The down side is that you cannot check the exposure level or the focusing point, or white balance and so on. So we introduced the electronic rangefinder, which is as a small LCD panel. So you can check the images after you shoot. So before you're shooting, you can see the actual images you are taking. So that is the new hybrid viewfinder. So our challenge is that the X-Pro1 has magnification, a dual magnification depending on the lens. So this is a multi-view hybrid viewfinder. Now the X-Pro2 is an advanced hybrid multi viewfinder.
DE: Advanced hybrid multi-view.
TI: Yes. So the challenge is how we can do that without affecting the overall size and so on. The other challenge is a small challenge. It sounds like a small challenge, but it's a big challenge to the engineers, to design the diopter. So the initial X-Pro1 didn't get the diopter, but this new one has a diopter. So diopter, a new electronic range finder, and still keeping the multi-magnification.
Fuji3: All the work being that kind of optical design, so we put a new aspherical lens.
DE: Oh, and aspherical lens, yeah. But I thought even the original had an aspheric element, didn't it?
TI: It didn't..
DE: Oh, it's not, it wasn't aspheric? But I knew it was multi-element. It was a very sophisticated viewfinder optics. And I know that was one of it's key characteristics originally, was that its optical quality was very good.
MO: So especially this backside lens is actually aspherical lens. [pointing to the rearmost element in a diagram of the viewfinder's optical formula]
DE: Ah, I that's the eyepiece lens itself, basically.
MO: And the new prism is a high refractive index.
DE: Oh, high refractive index on the prism. That's interesting. So that allows you to make the prism smaller?
MO: Yeah.
DE: Very interesting.
TI: And also, you know, of course the electronic parts were upgraded. The LCD panel is upgraded from 1.44 to 2.36 million dots. So this is the actual inside of the viewfinder. [I think pointing to a diagram that I don't have to show here, sorry]
DE: Wow, I knew that was a particular feature with the X-Pro1, that the viewfinder was very high quality, very flat field, and had low chromatic aberration. And I could imagine that adding a diopter to that would be difficult, because all of a sudden there's something in the design that's variable and changing.
TI: Exactly, yes.
DE: I've seen that you also raised the eyepoint on this one. It seems like that's something that's difficult to do. I don't really know enough about optical design, but I know always like it with my eyeglasses, to have a high eyepoint.
TI: Yes.
DE: This is kind of a technical question about the card slots. With the X-Pro2's dual slots working in backup mode, do both cards get written to simultaneously? If so, does the fact that one slot supports UHS-II while the other is only UHS-I mean that buffer clearing to both can be throttled by a slower card, or is the backup function done in the background (ie. the cards aren't simultaneously mirrored)?
TI: If the other [UHS-I card] is using the buffer, as a backup, it doesn't mean slowing down.
DE: Ah, so it doesn't slow down UHS-II. It's just that one card will have copied all the buffer data first, before the other one has finished. Also, this is purely on the rumor side, but rumor has it that you used Sony for your fab, and that you're using copper wiring now on the new X-Pro sensor.
TI: Mmm-hmm.
DE: So it is copper?
TI: It is copper wiring, yes.
DE: But it's not back side illuminated. This is still a conventional...
TI: Still conventional, yes. No BSI.
DE: Is backside a possibility in the future? Is that something that's...
TI: I think it's technically possible. It used to be said that backside technology is good for the smaller sensor. So we are not quite sure how beneficial it would be for a bigger sensor. But if the benefit is strong enough, why not use it?
DE: Yeah. The smaller your pixel is, then the more overhead you have for all of the routing and circuitry and everything. So backside helps more with smaller pixels.
MO: And of course we have to care about sensitivity, because BSI allows higher sensitivity. But it also damages the capacity, right? I mean dynamic range.
DE: Oh, so you actually get more sensitive, but you don't have as much dynamic range with BSI? [Ed. Note: I hadn't been aware of this previously.]
MO: Right, to saturate. It's too high sensitivity.
DE: That's very interesting. I guess, thinking about it, there's certainly a trade-off between sensitivity and how much it takes to saturate the pixel's charge well.
MO: I think maybe backside structure is what we need, because [it allows] faster speed as a structure.
DE: I was just reading... There was a patent that we wrote an article about on our website a while back... was it [from] you guys? The organic resistive sensor technology?
[Ed. Note: We've actually covered this a couple of times, although we just realized that we missed publishing the more recent story once it had been edited. D'oh! It's live now and can be seen here, while the earlier article is here. Fuji has also partnered with Samsung to use organic tech in its ISOCELL phone sensors, which we've also reported upon here.]
MO: Organic resistance, yes.
DE: Yeah. That's something that you guys are doing.
MO: Yes.
DE: That's sounded very interesting. I mean, I'm sure it's very early days, but the idea...
MO: It's way too early [for any practical products to come from it].
DE: Yeah. But the idea that you can separate the light sensing and the charge storage is a very encouraging concept.
Moving on, earlier this month you announced a slight delay in the availability of the X-Pro2.
TI: We are very sorry to the customers, yes.
DE: Can you make any comment about the reason? Was that due to unexpected demand?
TI: Actually it's a combination between the higher demand and the [complexity of the manufacturing process].
DE: So bringing the manufacturing process up to speed.
TI: Yes. It could be faster, but it wasn't fast enough. So we delayed about two weeks.
DE: Two weeks from now it'll be shipping. That's very good. [Ed. Note: It's obviously shipping now, as we're finally publishing this interview.]
In February last year you showed an X-mount lens roadmap that included the XF 120mm f/2.8 Macro. Is that still on track to be released this year? And/or do you have an updated roadmap?
TI: At the moment, we are sticking to that roadmap, but we are always listening to what customers say, and what new lenses the customers demand. So we're consistently reviewing our roadmap. And as soon as we make a decision we will make it public.
DE: I'm curious, and I don't know if you can comment -- what kind of demands are you hearing from the customers? What are people asking for?
TI: Probably two demands. One is to cover longer telephoto. We introduced a 100-400mm, but many customers said they want a long telephoto prime. The second one is something like a 35mm f/2, a smaller prime lens, even though they can compromise a little bit on the aperture. For example, this is f/2 instead of f/1.4, but you know the form factor is much smaller. So the nature of the mirrorless customers is that they want to have a smaller lens and smaller form factor. So a small lens...
DE:...along with the long tele, yeah. The long teles are hard for the manufacturer because they're very expensive to develop, an only marketable towards a very small number of people.
TI: Yes.
DE: It's also one of those things that kind of conveys a certain cachet to the line. The consumer perception is sort of "It really is a big professional line because now we have a 400mm."
At last year's CP+, you said that additional new technologies would be needed before there would be an X-Pro2. Now that the X-Pro2 is here, can you say more about what the technologies were that you were feeling you needed to develop?
TI: Simply the new sensor and the new processor.
MO: Last year I already knew about the new sensor, so that was why I used that kind of word.
DE: Aha, yes. So you weren't so much a fortune teller, you knew at the time that the new sensor and processor were in the pipeline.
So another question that I guess is related to that: Now you have on-chip phase-detection autofocus pixels. Was that part of what you were feeling that you needed to add, the phase-detect capability? Can you make any comments about the increase in autofocus performance now, especially when you're shooting continuously compared to what the X-Pro1 could do? I don't know if you have any explicit specs, but in terms of how much...
MO: Yes. Last year we improved the X-T1 autofocus capability with a new firmware, 4.0. Things like zone focusing or wide tracking focusing, that's good for the moving subject. The X-Pro2 is a new chip that covers a much bigger area than the previous X-T1 -- 236% bigger.
TI: [shows a comparison] So this one's the old sensor, and this new one's bigger.
MO: So a bigger area, a wider area with many points. Also, the reading speed is fast. That is also improved, even the contrast.
DE: You improved the readout speed of the whole chip.
[Ed. Note: This is no doubt a result of the move to copper metallization.]
MO: Yes. And the sensitivity's higher than the previous sensor. So that change, the autofocus is faster and more accurate. So we handed almost a hundred professional photographers early samples. The number one feedback was for focus accuracy improvement. Particularly for when you get a dark scene. So it's now EV...
TI: Minus two.
DE: So not necessarily that it would be... Well, you said the readout speed is faster, so it could be a faster autofocus, but you're also able to track subjects better because you have more area to follow them?
TI: Yes.
DE:...and then the AF sensitivity is improved. That sounds very significant. I'm curious does the phase-detect and contrast-detect work in kind of a hybrid mode?
TI: Hmm-mm.
DE: Yeah. So it's like phase-detect gets you close, and then contrast-detect fine tunes? Or is it...
TI: Actually, the priority is phase-detection, we always use only phase-detection. But sometimes the phase-detection doesn't work, so we change to the contrast autofocus.
DE: Oh, okay.
MO: For example, if the aperture is brought to the... You know.
DE: Yeah, small aperture...
MO: Small apertures, it switches to the contrast detect.
TI: No phase-difference anymore, right.
DE: Yeah, and possibly in very low light, the contrast. That's interesting that the phase-detect takes you all the way to the final focus point. I had heard that the reason some of Canon's cameras, like the EOS M-series were slower autofocusing was because they would do phase-detect, then also had a contrast-detect cycle [to fine-tune at the end].
TI: Exactly, a combination.
DE: There's a combination. It's like you get close with phase...
MO:...and then there's a fine tuning done.
DE: That sounds very good, that you can go all the way to final focus in most conditions with just phase-detect. What's the primary challenge in incorporating phase-detect pixels onto a sensor? Does it change the circuitry significantly so you need to be able to read out the focus pixels separately? Or is that just another aspect of CMOS, that you have kind of a random-access ability on readout?
TI: I think the real challenge is minimizing the effect on the image quality.
DE: Image quality. Because some of the pixels are shaded, and so you have to compensate.
MO: Yeah. Sometimes we can use the phase-detection pixels themselves, but sometimes we cannot use it. It's out of focus, so we compensate.
DE: Ah - I hadn't stopped to think about that. So when it's in focus, you can use the phase-detect focus pixels as imaging pixels, but when you're out of focus, you can't.
MO: Because the phase is different.
DE: Yeah, the phase is different. Oh.
[Ed. Note: This was very interesting; kind of a face-palm moment for me. The whole idea with phase-detect autofocus is that light rays coming from different parts of the lens are out of phase with each other. This means that light corresponding to the same part of an out of focus subject, coming through the opposite sides of the lens is actually striking the sensor in different places. Only when the subject is in focus does the light passing through different parts of the lens actually end up in the same place. So when something is in focus, all you need to be concerned with is compensating for brightness with the phase-detect pixels, because the phase-detect pixels are shaded, so they only see the light coming from one side of the lens. But when an object is out of focus, the amount of light seen by phase-detect pixels may have no relationship to the amount of light seen by their neighbors, so they'd appear as bright or dark spots in the image. In those situations, the image processor has to estimate the correct brightness (and color) for the phase-detect pixels by looking at the normal pixels surrounding them.]
MO: So that [is the challenge]. For the center area it's easier, but if you go to the edge area, yeah, it's more challenging because of the light...
DE: The maximum possible acceptance angle is smaller near the edges, and much more of the light will be coming from one side of the lens vs the other. Yeah.
MO: Yes. So technically, it's easy to put a phase-detection [sensor in] this area, but you know, the challenge is how to minimize that affecting the image quality...
DE: Yeah. So that actually requires quite sophisticated processing. I'd never thought about that, and so I thought it was just a matter of doing like a nearest neighbor substitution or something. But you have to be sensitive to what the phase actually is, and then change your processing to match.
TI: It also depends on the subject's frequency. Like a higher frequency is more difficult. So we use the phase-detection pixel.
DE: Yeah, but when it has lower frequency detail, it's easier. Yeah.
[Ed. Note: I think what he's saying here is that when the subject has high-frequency, finer detail, it's harder to avoid artifacts from the phase-detect pixels, so in those cases they need to use data from the phase-detect pixels themselves. It seems to me that this would only be an issue when the subject was in focus or very nearly in focus, in which case the light would be in-phase between the PD pixels and normal ones. I'm not 100% sure that that's the correct interpretation of what he was saying, though, so apologies for the ambiguity.]
This may also be in the press materials, but you mentioned that you clock things off the sensor faster. What is the autofocus cycle time?
TI: Yes.
DE: What is that frequency, and how does it compare to X-Pro1?
TI: It is faster and faster. It is simply the readout speed, up to the analog sensors, readout speed.
MO: The reading speed is actually 3.6 times.
DE: Wow, 3.6 times faster readout!
[Ed. note: It turns out that the X-Pro2 clocks out the data for contrast-detect focusing at 384 frames/second!]
TI: Yes. So 3.6 times more chances to get tracking data.
DE: So that many more chances that you can take another look and correct. So your tracking must have improved significantly then. Can phase-detect be used during video recording also, or not?
MO: Yes.
DE: Oh, that's very good. This is the first X-Trans III sensor, that's in this camera, correct?
TI: Yes.
DE: We just talked about the readout speed, but what are the primary differences compared to the previous generation?
TI: Obviously more megapixels, and better signal to noise ratio, and readout speed because of the copper process. Also, the bigger phase-detection area, the coverage.
DE: What led to the better signal to noise ratio? Is that a consequence of using copper? You can make the lines narrower, so you have...?
TI: Yes. Much lower resistance.
MO: And we can optimize the optics.
DE: Oh, so your microlens is more efficient at collecting light.
MO: Directly to the photodiode.
MO: And also all the data transfer is faster. That means less resistance, means less noise.
DE: So less resistance. It's basically a lower-impedance readout, so you get better noise levels. Very interesting. I think we're pretty much to the end finally. My last question is just to ask how you would describe your strategy for the X series? How do you evolve it from here strategically? Where are you going with it?
TI: I think our past five years have been very satisfactory. So now we have a brand new sensor and a brand new processor. And to look back five years, the technologies are a little bit premature, the sensor technology and the processor technologies. [Ed. Note: I'm not sure, but it seems he was saying that their X-Trans and processor technologies weren't as developed as they would have liked them to be, when they first brought the products to market.] Now we have a brand new sensor and processor and you know, the gap between the SLR and the mirrorless, is almost zero. Even the mirrorless has started exceeding in some ways [what SLRs can do], in addition to what mirrorless already has got. So I think this leads to a turning point for the whole industry, not only Fuji. So we just think we'll continue our current strategy. The first thing is the inside of the cameras. All of the digital technologies keep evolving or keep innovating, but we never forget the heart or soul of photography. So the shooting style, or the finder, or the design, that kind of thing we need to keep as our DNA. At the end of the day, the image quality is everything. Like today I picked up the example from Thailand, the ultimate objective of why customers are still buying cameras instead of using phones. It's our image quality, and Fuji is a very large company, with 80 years history of looking after image quality. So it's image quality and the heart of the photography, and the technology innovation. Three major things we keep focusing on.
DE: And now that you've really, as you say, closed the gap with SLRs, that will make a difference maybe in how you bring it to market too, and how you'll be able to shift marketing, focus more on pro applications, or...
TI: Yes. As I said, the high end strategy is our core strategy. But like in Thailand, it doesn't mean that we'll only have the high end.
DE: Indeed. Well, I think that's all my questions. Thanks very much for your time!
• • •
[This article was included in our IR Newsletter, sent every two weeks and packed full of the most interesting and most popular content that we post on the site. Click here to sign up and get the best of IR delivered free, straight to your inbox!]
Toshihisa IidaIn an interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose, Vice President Joe Biden addressed criticism by the 51 career diplomats who slammed the Obama administration's Syria policy last week and called for a new one that would take more aggressive action against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
"The president and I and previous presidents support the right of any diplomat to have a secure channel to voice a different view," Biden said. "But there is not a single, solitary recommendation that I saw that has a single, solitary answer attached to it -- how to do what they're talking about."
According to CBS News' Margaret Brennan, the unprecedented, classified internal cable does not make specific policy recommendations such as U.S. airstrikes, but comes close, arguing Assad's artillery and air power must be removed as threats to the U.S.-backed rebels.
Diplomats slam Obama's Syria policy
"The president's been fastidious -- calls the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the intelligence community, the director of central intelligence, the C.I.A., et cetera. 'Tell me what will work. Will this work?' And the answer has repeatedly been, 'No,'" Biden said.
"What's interesting about this too, to me, is the idea that you got so many people who want you to do something about Assad first. You're smiling, you've heard it so often," Rose said.
"Yet when you press the elected officials, they say, 'Well, what do you want us to do about Assad? Take him out?'... Is that what you want me to do? Tell me how this ends, Charlie. You know, if you're Sen. Charlie Rose, tell me how it ends, Charlie?" Biden responded.
Biden also discussed the issue of overthrowing dictators, including former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Some ask, would it have been better if they had stayed?
"I argued strongly against going to Libya. My question was, 'Okay, tell me what happens? He's gone. What happens?' Doesn't the country disintegrate? What happens then? Doesn't it become a place where it becomes a petri dish for the growth of extremism? Tell me. Tell me what we're going to do," Biden said.
"And it has," Rose pointed out.
"And it has," Biden said.
The vice president said he doesn't think the U.S. should use force unless it meets "certain basic criteria."
"Is it in the national security interest of the United States? Are our interests directly threatened? Number one. Or our allies, number two. Can we use it efficaciously? Will it work? And number three, can it be sustained?" Biden said. "Now, I can take you to any part of the world, and we put in 200,000, 300,000, or 150,000 troops, we can absolutely end the carnage, but we're there. Now, are we going to take them -- my dad used to have an expression. He'd say, 'Joey, if everything's equally important to you, nothing's important to you.' Tell me: What are our greatest concerns in terms of our existential existence?"On Saturday Bray Wanderers striker Jason Byrne scored 4 goals to burst through the 200 goal barrier and now sits on 202. He's only the second League of Ireland player to do so and the feat was universally acknowledged as a terrific achievement.
Well almost universally acknowledged. Former Cork City and Shelbourne striker Pat Morley, who now acts as pundit and commentator for RTE's Airtricity League coverage, didn't join in with the praise. Morley, using his business twitter account, believes that Byrne's goals in the first division shouldn't count.
It all started as a reply to the great LOI journalist Paul Buttner
@pbuttner all in the premier league??? Just asking 55 in the first division.??? It should be premier league goals only simple — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 8, 2013
He continued to question another's praise for Byrne;
@mickring83 always ask the? Premier league goal same as a first division goal???? Don't think so. Will leave it at that — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 8, 2013
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He seemed certain Byrne scored 55 goals in the first division.
@mickring83 55 first division goals. That's 145 premier league goals?? Premier goals are premier goals. First division bug difference. — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 8, 2013
He also thinks Brendan Bradley's record should have an asterisk.
@mickring83 Bradley a a good few 1st division also. Me myself don't know what that division is :-) do mine are all??? You guessed it. — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 8, 2013
Bradley scored 4 goals in the First Division for Derry City. He has 231 goals in the top division (every one of them before the league was split into divisions)
@mickring83 pissing myself I have even lost a few followers because of saying the fact. Oooh irish people reality please...., — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 8, 2013
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He seems big on facts.
Former RTE sports prsenter/producer, and longtime LOI fan, Eamon Donohoe was asked to clarify.
@wodka6 @lapel1865 196 in the Premier and 7 in the First. 203 altogether! — Eamonn Donohoe (@EamonnDonohoe) June 12, 2013
So is it Eamon's 7 or Pat's revised 49 (or even his original 55)?
Eamon has an explanation but Pat thinks he should check with the League office.
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@eamonndonohoe @vperth @wodka6 think u need to speak with Michael Hayes in the FAI. Will leave it at that. — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 12, 2013
Did 35 year old Byrne really play for Bray Wanderers 22/23 years ago? Pat thinks so.
Maybe he meant different years.
@lapel1865 @vperth @wodka6 Pat stop it. He has played only 1 season in div1 and he didn't score a quarter of his career goals in that season — Eamonn Donohoe (@EamonnDonohoe) June 12, 2013
@lapel1865 @vperth @wodka6 He played for Shels in 2003 so how could he have been promoted with Bray the same season??? — Eamonn Donohoe (@EamonnDonohoe) June 12, 2013
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@lapel1865 @vperth @wodka6 Exactly. He signed for Shels in January 2003 meaning he played for Shels in the 2003 season. — Eamonn Donohoe (@EamonnDonohoe) June 12, 2013
And then Byrne himself confirmed it in a text tweeted by former Longford and Bohs defender Paul McNally.
It appears Pat also confirmed it with the League office, so he finally apologised;
@eamonndonohoe @vperth @wodka6 Eamonn your so right. Sorry I am so wrong. He only got 7 and shels signed him. Chat with michael Hayes bye — Lapel 1865 (@Lapel1865) June 12, 2013
For the record Byrne has 202 League of Ireland goals made up of 7 in the first division and 195 in the Premier Division. That's 13 more Premier Division goals than Pat Morley's 182.
(Photo credit - Morley; Brendan Moran/SPORTSFILE, Byrne; Barry Cregg / SPORTSFILE)Demon Espionage Synopsis:
As the prophecy foretold, the underworld's Overlord has been assassinated by the Rebels. The souls from the Overlord, which once granted him the power to rule over the underworld have been released into the Forgotten Land as a result of his sudden death.
There are two factions now in pursuit of the scattered souls; the Rebels, outlaw demons that plotted the assassination of the overlord, and the Shadows, loyal guards of the Overlord.
The faction with the most souls will be the ruling party of the underworld.
Undead Viking review:
Board Gaming at Home playthrough:
Never Bored Gaming review:
Beyond the Box review:
Unfiltered Gamer review:
Join the Fun! - It's just the beginning for Demon Espionage and our company.
- It's just the beginning for Demon Espionage and our company. Huge discounts! – $8 USD off MSRP for backers!
– $8 USD off MSRP for backers! KS Exclusive content! -Unique content only for Kickstarter backers.
! -Unique content only for Kickstarter backers. Stretch Goals Galore! - Your pledge will improve our game!
! - Your pledge will improve our game! Beautiful illustrations! - Be allured by the beautiful artwork.
- Be allured by the beautiful artwork. Money-back guarantee! - We spent countless hours and effort to make the game really enjoyable for you. However, if for some reason the game is not to your liking, just send it back to us and we will issue you a full refund of your pledge.
Yes! This seemingly harmless Para-Saurus is only available here on Kickstarter.
The first thing people see is the box and that aught to be an exclusive right!
Each pledge level above is cumulative with the previous ones, so, for $27 USD, you would get all of the above.
Yes! An image of your choice will be drawn onto a personalized card and included in our base game with your signature on it. The Overlord bundle also comes with free shipping worldwide.
The completion of each tier 1 of goal will unlock a new artwork to replace the existing ones. The completion of both tier 2 goals will unlock a free and unique card to the base game. |
Empire and beyond.
The Notitia Dignitatum, a document of the late Roman Empire details the administrative organisation of the Eastern and Western Empires. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of Roman government and describes several thousand offices from the imperial court to provincial governments that includes nine Saxon shore forts built to defend Britannia’s coast.
Rutupiae
Rutupiae / Portus Ritupis or today known as Richborough Castle / Richborough Roman Fort is located near the town of Sandwich in Kent.
The fort was founded after the Romans first arrived to Britannia on an island on the south side of the Wanstum Channel. Many historians believe that the fort is the site of the Roman landing and later became the starting point for Watling Street, a famous Roman road which runs from the south-east coast, through Londinium (London) and onto Viroconium (Wroxeter) near Wales.
Construction of the early fort begun around the 1st century and acted as an initial staging post. A large 25m high quadrifrons triumphal arch was later erected in the centre of the fort to signify formal entry into Britannia and to celebrate the final conquest of the new Roman province after Agricola’s victory at the Battle of Mons Graupius.
The original Roman fort was enlarged between 277 and 285 CE and subsequently converted into a Saxon shore fort due to its proximity to the coast.
An area of 5 acres was surrounded by large stone walls with imposing ditches, circular corner towers and rectangular interval towers.
The site was occupied into the 5th century and reused in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval times.
Branodunum
Branodunum was an ancient Roman shore-fort located near Brancaster in Norfork, built around the year 230 CE.
The initial typical Roman fort served to defend a shoreline harbour during the Roman era and was garrisoned by the Equities Dalmatae Brandodunenses, although archaeological finds suggest that the Cohors I Aquitanorum was also stationed there.
By 325 CE, a Saxon shore fort is constructed that utilises the alignment of the original fort, but the internal features and fortifications go through continual redefinition.
Some of the forts walls survived well into the 17th century, but continual robbing of the stone has now left only earthworks as visible remains today.
Gariannonum / Burgh Castle
Burgh Castle was a Saxon shore fort constructed near modern Great Yarmouth in Norfolk around the late 3rd and 4th century CE.
The fort is mentioned in the `Notitia Dignitatum’ as `Gariannonum’ and associates the Stablesian cavalry as being stationed there.
The Roman fortifications remain some of the highest surviving Roman walls in Britain today, measuring to a height of around 4.6 metres tall.
A Norman motte, utilising the Roman fort as a bailey formerly stood in the south-west corner of the site that dates from the 11th and 12th century.
Othana
Othana was a Saxon shore fort located near the modern village of Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex around the 3rd century.
According to the Notitia Dignitatum, Othona, the fort was garrisoned by a numerus fortensium (“numerus of the brave ones”).
The fort was surrounded by a stone wall, 14 feet thick with an inner rampart and outer ditch but has since been undermined by the sea and much of the eastern remains of the fort have since been washed away.
Regulbium
Regulbium was a Roman fort built adjacent to modern Reculver in Kent and means “great headland”.
An early Roman fort was constructed in the area shortly after the Roman invasion and was connected to Durovernum (Canterbury) by Road.
A later Saxon shore fort was built in the early 3rd century around 210 CE but by 360CE became relatively abandoned by the Roman military.
The design of the fort at Reculver can be compared with those along Hadrian’s Wall, in northern England. The Notitia Dignitatum reports the garrison at Reculver as the Cohors I Baetasiorum, and this is reflected in the discovery there of tiles stamped with the initials “CIB”. The Cohors I Baetasiorum were previously stationed at Maryport, in Cumbria, and, since they probably built the fort at Reculver, this may explain the similarity between it and the forts along Hadrian’s Wall.
After the Saxons settled in the former province, Regulbium was renamed Raculf and became a residence of the Kings of Kent and a Monastery was founded by King Ecgbert of Kent in 669CE.
Dubris
Dubris, also known as Portus Dubris and Dubrae, was a port in Roman Britain on the site of present-day Dover, Kent, England.
Dubris was a major base on the British Coast for much of the second century CE, where the Romans constructed an early fort, harbour installations and two lighthouses, one of which remains in the grounds of Dover Castle.
By the middle to latter part of the 3rd century, the Romans constructed a Saxon shore fort on the west bank of the Dour estuary, on ground overshadowed by high hills to the south-west under the modern town.
Excavations of the fort have revealed walls 2.42 metres thick, built of tufa and chalk blocks, several external towers and bastions that suggests an unusual trapezoidal shaped outer wall.
Dubris and Gesoriacum formed twin fleet bases guarding the channel straits, it has been suggested that Dubris was probably the seat of an officer of the Saxon Shore force.
Portus Lemanis
Portus Lemanis, also known as Lemanae, was a Saxon shore fort, settlement and port in southern Kent.
The fort was first mentioned in the 3rd century Antonine Itinerary as “lying 68,000 paces (68 Roman miles) from Londinium and 16,000 paces from the cantonal capital Durovernum Cantiacorum.”
The walls of the site are 3.5 metres thick with semi-circular bastions and form an irregular pentagonal plan.
Many of the circuit walls have collapsed due to land slipping and this is suggestive as to cause the forts abandonment so quickly after construction around 370AD.
Anderitum / Pevensey Castle
Anderitum was a Saxon short fort built in East Sussex that was later converted into a medieval castle known as Pevensey Castle.
The fort was built on what was then a peninsula of land rising above the coastal marshes.
The fort’s construction has been dated to around 290CE, based on the dating of wooden piles which were found underpinning the Roman walls in an excavation carried out in 1994.
Anderitum appears to have been a particularly important link in the Saxon shore forts as the Notitia Dignitatum mentions a fleet that was presumably based there, the Classis Anderidaensis.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the local population appears to have moved into the abandoned fort, perhaps for protection against Saxon raiders, and its name continued to be used well into the Saxon period.
In the entry for the year 491, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that the Saxons Aelle and Cissa “besieged Andredes ceaster and slew all the inhabitants; there was not even one Briton left there.”
The fort was later used for shelter by William the Conquerors army after landing in Pevensey Bay, before being converted into a castle around 1100.
Portus Adurni
Portus Adurni was a Saxon shore fort, situated at the north end of Portsmouth Harbour that was later converted into a medieval castle known as Portchester Castle
The fort was built during the 3rd century and encloses an area of 9 acres with outer walls 20 feet (6 m) high, 10 feet (3 m) thick, 210 yards (200 m) long and constructed of coursed flint bonded with limestone slabs.
Unusually for a building of this period, most of the walls and bastions are complete which makes Portus Adurni one of the best preserved Roman forts north of the Alps.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Portus Adurni became an Anglo-Saxon residence and later a Norman Castle and Medieval palace.
The fort was occupied for almost sixteen centuries, with its last official military function being a gaol (prison) for captured French soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars.It’s hard to believe it’s possible for one to play sports seriously while one is naked. But it is possible.
Nudists in Indiana, who generally keep a low profile, are poised for back-to-back big weekends. Here, a trio of hikers pauses and stares at something, Hixton, Wisc. (Photo: Jean Pieri/St. Paul Pioneer Press)
Sure, Indiana is the second most naked state in the union, but the nudists here usually keep a low profile. However, for the next two weekends they’ll step into the limelight.
On Saturday afternoon, about 100 people will simultaneously jump into the swimming pool at Fern Hills Club, a nudist camp outside Bloomington, as part of a national group’s attempt to break the Guinness record for skinny dipping. The same group, the American Association of Nude Recreation, which is sanctioning simultaneous skinny dips across the nation, set the record in 2008 with 13,674 skinny dippers.
It’s a publicity stunt to draw attention to the more nonsexual, naturist variety of nudism. (Skinny dipping, says an AANR news release, is “a wholesome tradition as old as mankind and frequently honored in art and cinema, celebrates the natural joy of plunging into water without hindrance of clothing, or sitting in soggy suits after.”)
The following weekend, July 18 and 19, the Ponderosa Sun Club outside Roselawn celebrates its 40th annual “Nudes-a-Poppin.” That event celebrates the sexed-up bacchanalian side of nudism. Among this year’s events: a Miss Nude Erotic Pole Performer competition and an appearance by porn star Ron Jeremy.
Indiana has six nudist camps that are members of the AANR. They are the more wholesome clubs (the Ponderosa is not part of the AANR). AANR clubs, like Fern Hills, look like typical campgrounds with swimming pools, volleyball and shuffleboard courts, RV hookups and so on. But the campers aren’t wearing clothes.
Volleyball has long been associated with nudism, and it continues to be a popular past time at nudist resorts, said Jawn Bauer, a Bloomington attorney and one of the 300 members of Fern Hills Club. Pickleball, a new game that’s sort of a miniature version of tennis, is catching on among nudists (as it is among other people).
Four states have more AANR clubs than Indiana, but those states have far larger populations. For example, California has 19 AANR clubs, but its population is 38 million. Indiana’s population is 7 million.
So, per capita, Indiana could be said to be nuder than California - and than every other state except Florida.
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Florida is the nudest state with 29 AANR clubs and 19 million people.
The time I competed naked
Many nudists like to compete in sports.
“Volleyball is still huge,” said Bauer, who in the 1970s was a member of Indiana University’s track team, “and it’s heavily competitive. I’ve been in tournaments when college players came in, and those people are serious.”
It’s hard to believe it’s possible for one to play sports seriously, competitively — to really care deeply about winning — while one is naked. But it is possible. The early Olympians were naked, and surely they cared deeply.
Several years ago I played in a miniten tournament at Sunny Haven Recreation Park outside Granger. It was for a story I was writing. My opponents, experienced nudists, referred to me as a "cotton tail." Miniten is like tennis only the court is smaller and players use paddles instead of racquets. Miniten was popular among nudists in the 1990s though today is giving way to pickleball, which is similar.
I remember clearly a crucial juncture during one of my matches. I trailed 3-4, ad out. I stepped up to the baseline to serve. Spin it out wide to his backhand, I said to myself. I was deadly serious, was totally focused on victory — even though I of course was ridiculous in my tennis shoes and socks and nothing else.
What happened after that (if you care, which would be even weirder than me caring at the time): I hit a spin serve out wide to the dude’s backhand, won the point, won the game, won the match. And afterward felt fantastic. Winning is excellent even naked.
Contact Star reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter @WillRHiggins.
Top five U.S. states ranked by number of AANR clubs
Florida: 29
California: 19
Texas: 18
New York: 7
Indiana: 6
Total AANR clubs: 250
Source: AANR
Indiana’s AANR clubs
Sunny Haven Recreation Park, Granger, (574) 277-5356
Lake O’ the Woods Club, Valparaiso, (219) 477-6643
Indiana Naturists, Fort Wayne, (260) 312-9872
Fern Hills Club, Bloomington, (812) 824-4489
Sunshower Country Club, Centerville, (765) 855-2785
Drakes Ridge Rustic Nudist Retreat, Bennington, (812) 427-3914
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1Mk8Qz5John Q’s, the legendary downtown Cleveland steakhouse, is closing its doors on June 15th. Located in the 55 Building on Rockwell Ave. across from Public Square, this establishment has been serving award-winning steaks for almost 22 years.
“This is purely a business decision. I have looked at it a hundred different ways. I’ve agonized over it, and decided this is the time” says owner Rick Cassara. But Cassara’s top concern is his staff. “My restaurant survived because of my 40 staff members, and they are my primary concern. I’ve reached out to my fellow restauranteurs and Cleveland Independents so they can grab up my qualified staff. A lot, but not enough have secured jobs,” says Cassara.
Over the span of 21 years, Cassara’s John Q’s has hosted everyone from Stephen King to the Jim Rome Show broadcasting live during the MLB All-Star Game. But Cassara understands the value of the many local patrons: “We have served over a million people over the years many of them local and those are the ones we need to thank.”
The future tenant is in the works, and Cassara is confident it will be a good fit. What is certain is that after the doors are closed Cassara is “going to take two weeks on a beach with my family and then take time to make the decision of what to do next.”
But before he puts his sunscreen on, Cassara will properly close his restaurant down and has one parting message — “This has been a great period in my life, and I want to thank everyone for making us who we are. And hire my employees!”Human impacts have left and are leaving distinctive imprints in the geological record. Here we show that in North America, the human-caused changes evident in the mammalian fossil record since c. 14,000 years ago are as pronounced as earlier faunal changes that subdivide Cenozoic epochs into the North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs). Accordingly, we define two new North American Land Mammal Ages, the Santarosean and the Saintagustinean, which subdivide Holocene time and complete a biochronologic system that has proven extremely useful in dating terrestrial deposits and in revealing major features of faunal change through the past 66 million years. The new NALMAs highlight human-induced changes to the Earth system, and inform the debate on whether or not defining an Anthropocene epoch is justified, and if so, when it began.
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Google Scholar CrossrefA day after the Supreme Court's lacerating criticism of the CBI allowing the government to access its report on its coal investigation, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, the lead player in the controversy, tried to deflect the blame.He reportedly told his party's spokespersons that a contentious meeting at which he suggested changes to the CBI's report was called not by him, but by Attorney General GE Vahanvati.However, a two-page note, released today by sources close to Mr Kumar categorically states that his ministry had called that meeting, a fact corroborated by other sources.The meeting was held in the Law Minister's office, and was also attended by CBI Director Ranjit Sinha and Harin Raval, who resigned as Additional Solicitor General on Tuesday after accusing the Attorney General of lying to the Supreme Court.So far, the Prime Minister has been backing Mr Kumar, though a section of the Congress reportedly believes it is "untenable" for the minister to remain in office.In their note released to the press today, sources close to the Law Minister describe the changes he asked for to the CBI's report as "suggestions of a minor nature." The note also says that as the government's legal advisor, the Law Ministry is required to liaise with the CBI.The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the CBI to explain in an affidavit on Monday what changes were requested to the CBI's draft report, and by whom.Anyone interested in surveillance issues should be deeply worried by the latest proposal
The right to strike is a fundamental human right, recognised across the democratic world. It has played a crucial role in helping workers – whether they are union members or not – to secure better conditions and livelihoods, both for themselves and their families.
While many countries rightly celebrate human rights and access to justice, our government is busy working on reforms aimed at shutting down dissent and weakening people’s rights at work. We already have some of the strictest laws on strikes in the industrialised world.
The new proposals in the Trade Union Bill are designed to make it more difficult for unions to function effectively and do what they do best – helping people at work. They intend to make it much harder for ordinary women and men to take strike action.
The proposals intend to turn every abstention in an industrial action ballot into a vote against strike action – skewing the legitimate results. They allow employers to install agency staff during a strike to provide cover in an attempt to make any action ineffective, introduce new excessive scrutiny and sanctions on picketing, and add new disclosure and surveillance powers for all industrial dispute-related activity. All of this is designed to frustrate a workplace voice being heard.
One example of the disproportionate new measures proposed is the excessive new reporting requirements on campaign activity. The proposals require unions to publish picket and protest plans 14 days prior to any action. This must include when and where the union is holding a picket or protest, how many people will be involved, whether there is a plan to use loudspeakers or banners, and alarmingly, what the likely content of any websites or blogs might be.
The plan may also have to include details of when and how unions plan to use wider social media during this time. No other organisation is asked to provide details of social media campaign activity in advance. Such invasive additional scrutiny has no justification.
This is clearly excessive monitoring of legitimate campaigning activity, especially when what might count as official union communication is considered. It’s not clear, for example, whether someone whose Twitter profile recognises their voluntary union role would be seen as running a personal or an organisational account.
It would be entirely disproportionate for unions to face an injunction preventing a picket, or claiming damages simply because they failed to list a Twitter account used by a union member. These measures are simply designed to hinder legitimate union activity including campaigning.
Proposed new requirements on pickets are perhaps the |
equipment – a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer that registers the diffusion of light through crystal. Above the machine hangs a large printout that shows six sets of graphs. Van Royen points to one with a distinctive spike toward the right end of the horizontal axis. "If it is synthetic, it should look like this," he says. Sure enough, the machine displays a graph just like the one Van Royen indicated.
But such high-end testing is far from the last word. Only a small percentage of larger diamonds are lab-certified – though the number seems to be growing as the industry becomes more aware of synthetics. Diamonds that are smaller than a fifth of a carat are almost never sent to labs, since the cost would eat up any profit made from them. These modest stones actually represent a significant portion of the market, since jewelry designers regularly use them to create sparkling fields of diamonds on watches, earrings, rings, and pendants. Almost all diamonds of this size are bought, processed, and sold by Indians based in Antwerp and Bombay.
One such group – headed by the Choksi family – bought a $35,000 batch of preliminary Gemesis research stones last year and is currently selling them in India at a 10 to 20 percent profit. I met Sabin Choksi, one of the company's principals, at a jewelry convention in Las Vegas. He admitted that his customers don't know the stones are synthetic, but says they don't care one way or the other. In other words, Gemesis may be fully disclosing the nature of its stones, but already one of its wholesalers is not.
In Antwerp, Van Royen tells me of another threat. There's a rumor of a new, experimental method for growing gem-quality diamonds. The process – chemical vapor deposition – has been used for more than a decade to cover relatively large surfaces with microscopic diamond crystals. The technique transforms carbon into a plasma, which then precipitates onto a substrate as diamond. The problem with the technology has always been that no one could figure out how to grow a single crystal using the method. At least until now, Van Royen says. Apollo Diamond, a shadowy company in Boston, is rumored to be sitting on a single-crystal breakthrough. If true, it represents a new challenge to the industry, since CVD diamonds could conceivably be grown in large bricks that, when cut and polished, would be indistinguishable from natural diamonds. "But nobody has seen them in Antwerp," Van Royen says. "So we don't even know if they are for real."
I take a transparent 35-millimeter film canister from my pocket and put it on the table. Two small diamonds are cushioned on cotton balls inside. "Believe me," I say, "they're for real."
Three days before traveling to Belgium, I had flown to Boston to meet Bryant Linares, president of Apollo Diamond. Linares has been secretive about his company and was suspicious about me. He checked to make sure I was really working for Wired by calling my editor, and he wouldn't say where his company was located other than to tell me to fly to Boston and wait for him at baggage claim.
When I arrive, a preppy, square-jawed man approaches me.
"I'm Bryant Linares," he says. "Follow me."
We get in his blue Saab and begin driving. In a half hour, I realize I'm seeing the same scenery. I ask if we're driving in circles. "We're not taking the most direct route," he allows. For 45 minutes, he questions me about stories I'd written. Finally he seems to decide I'm not a De Beers spy. "You're OK," he says. "There's no need for a blindfold."
We pull up at a suburban strip mall occupied by a fitness gym and a graphic design company. Linares leads the way into the graphics firm's reception area, which looks normal enough. But when he opens one of the interior doors, I catch a glimpse of a man dressed head to foot in Intel-style clean-room scrubs.
"Welcome to Apollo Diamond," Linares says, waving me inside and quickly shutting the door. He hands me a bunny suit, including booties, goggles, and a hair cap, and leads me into a third room. Three men dressed in similar contaminant-control outfits stand around a cylindrical contraption that looks like a heavy-duty coffee urn outfitted with a bolt-on porthole. A preternatural purple-green glow emanates from the window.
I peer through the glass. Four diamonds are growing beneath a shimmering green cloud. "It took me a long time to get to this point," says one of the men standing beside the machine. This is Robert Linares, Bryant's father. In the 1980s, he was a well-known researcher in advanced semiconductor materials. His company, Spectrum Technology, pioneered the commercialization of gallium arsenide wafers, the microchip substrate that succeeded silicon and allowed cell phones to become smaller and handle more bandwidth. Linares sold the company to PacifiCorp, a diversified utility, in 1985 and disappeared from the semiconducting world.
It turns out he took the money and built a secret diamond research lab. "I knew diamonds were going to be the ultimate semiconductor at some point, but everybody thought it was impossible at the time," Linares says. "I had the freedom to do what I wanted after I sold my company, so I spent almost 15 years researching on my own."
To grow single-crystal diamond using chemical vapor deposition, you must first divine the exact combination of temperature, gas composition, and pressure – a "sweet spot" that results in the formation of a single crystal. Otherwise, innumerable small diamond crystals will rain down. Hitting on the single-crystal sweet spot is like locating a single grain of sand on the beach. There's only one combination among millions. In 1996, Linares found it. This June, he finally received a US patent for the process, which already is producing flawless stones.
By January, Apollo plans to start selling them on the jewelry market. But that's just the first step. Robert and Bryant Linares expect to use revenue from the gem trade to fund their company's semiconductor ambitions. Not surprisingly, the diamond industry is hostile to the idea, as the younger Linares discovered four years ago when he attended an industry conference in Prague. He was hoping to find out whether any other researchers – possibly De Beers scientists themselves – had discovered the sweet spot. During a break in the conference, a man approached Linares and told him to be careful. "He said that my father's research was a good way to get a bullet in the head," Linares recalls.
The diamond industry is in fact even more concerned about gems made using chemical vapor deposition than it is about Gemesis stones, though Gemesis poses a more immediate threat. The promise of CVD is that it produces extremely pure crystal. Gemesis diamonds grow in a metal solvent, and tiny particles of those metals get caught in the diamond lattice as it grows. CVD diamond precipitates as nearly 100 percent pure diamond and therefore may not be discernible from naturals, no matter how advanced the detection equipment.
But the greatest potential for CVD diamond lies in computing. If diamond is ever to be a practical material for semiconducting, it will need to be affordably grown in large wafers. (The silicon wafers Intel uses, for example, are 1 foot in diameter.) CVD growth is limited only by the size of the seed placed in the Apollo machine. Starting with a square, waferlike fragment, the Linares process will grow the diamond into a prismatic shape, with the top slightly wider than the base. For the past seven years – since Robert Linares first discovered the sweet spot – Apollo has been growing increasingly larger seeds by chopping off the top layer of growth and using that as the starting point for the next batch. At the moment, the company is producing 10-millimeter wafers but predicts it will reach an inch square by year's end and 4 inches in five years. The price per carat: about $5.
Back at the Diamond High Council, I open the film canister and shake the Apollo stones onto the table. Van Royen tentatively picks one up with a pair of elongated tweezers and takes it to a microscope. "Unbelievable," he says slowly as he peers through the lens. "May I study it?" I agree to let him keep the gems overnight. When we meet the next morning in the lobby of the High Council, Van Royen looks tired. He admits to staying up almost all night scrutinizing the stones. "I think I can identify it," he says hopefully. "It's too perfect to be natural. Things in nature, they have flaws. The growth structure of this diamond is flawless."
Van Royen reluctantly hands the diamonds back. "You have something that nobody else in Antwerp has." he says. "You should be careful – somebody might jump out of the shadows with a mask on." He leans in conspiratorially: "If you want to know how important these diamonds are, talk to Jim Butler with your Navy. He is the man."
Jim Butler is the head of a project known as Code 6174 – the Navy's diamond research arm, which is housed in a guarded facility outside Washington, DC. A civilian scientist, Butler has been been researching CVD diamond and semiconducting for the military for 16 years, long enough to see plenty of failure in the field. But today, he's more optimistic than ever. There have been three long-standing roadblocks to diamond semiconducting – and each of them appears to be on the verge of falling. First, diamond is viewed as wildly expensive, due to the artificial scarcity that De Beers maintains with its lock on the market. Synthesized diamonds created outside of the cartel will greatly reduce that problem. Second, there has never been a steady and dependable supply of large, pure diamonds. You can't depend on mined diamonds, as there is no way to ensure that each stone will have the same electrical properties as the next. Apollo's CVD diamonds solve that.
The third big challenge has been the most daunting for materials scientists: To form microchip circuits, positive and negative conductors are needed. Diamond is an inherent insulator – it doesn't conduct electricity. But both Gemesis and Apollo have been able to inject boron into the lattice, which creates a positive charge. Until now, though, no one had been able to manufacture a negatively charged, or n-type, diamond with sufficient conductivity. When I visit Butler in Washington, he can barely contain his glee. "There's been a major breakthrough," he tells me. In June, together with scientists from Israel and France, he announced a novel way of inverting boron's natural conductivity to form a boron-doped n-type diamond. "We now have a p-n junction," Butler says. "Which means that we have a diamond semiconductor that really works. I can now see an Intel diamond Pentium chip on the horizon."
Still, Butler is frustrated with what he thinks of as myopia in the US computer business. "Europe and Japan have been investing in diamond semiconductor research," he says, citing the Japanese government's announcement in December that it would begin allocating $6 million a year to build a first-generation diamond chip. "Bob Linares has given the US the advantage, but nobody's paying any attention," he says. "If we're not careful, the Japanese or the Europeans are going to claim the diamond niche."
Indeed, Intel's top materials executives weren't aware of the latest research breakthroughs when I spoke to them in June, although they certainly understood the potential for diamonds in computing. "Diamonds represent a seismic change in semiconductors," says Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, Intel's director of communications circuits research. "It takes us about 10 years to evaluate a new material. We have a lot of investment in silicon. We're not about to abandon that."
But someday, that's exactly what chipmakers will be forced to do. Just ask Bernhardt Wuensch, an MIT professor of materials science. "If Moore's law is going to be maintained, processors are going to get hotter and hotter," he tells me. "Eventually, silicon is just going to turn into a puddle. Diamond is the solution to that problem."
The JCK Show is one of the biggest events in the jewelry business. It draws every major diamond dealer in the US, most of whom buy their goods from De Beers. This year, for the first time, the General tried to get a booth. He was told that he'd applied too late. He suspected that the industry simply didn't want him there, but he took it gracefully and announced that Gemesis would unveil its stones at a smaller satellite convention down the street.
I head to Las Vegas to check it out. The Gem and Lapidary Dealers Association Show is held in a large room at the back of the Mirage. Here – amid purveyors of quartz-encrusted, electric-powered water fountains ("Be amazed by their magic!"), Lithuanian amber salesmen, Nigerian tanzanite dealers, and Vegas-style cowboys in ostrich skin boots – is the Gemesis booth, which displays more than 1,000 carats of yellow diamonds. The show ends tonight, and JCK starts tomorrow morning, so the last few hours see a whirlwind of recently arrived JCK-bound buyers. Efraim Katz, a yarmulke-clad, heavily bearded gem wholesaler from Miami, literally jogs through the room but pauses in front of Gemesis.
"Diamonds mined in Florida?" he asks a Gemesis rep. "I can't believe it. Give me your number – I will be calling."
Kevin Castro, a jeweler in Cedar City, Utah, comes to a surprised halt. "These are awfully pretty," he says.
I tell him that they are man-made and ask if that bothers him.
"If you go into a florist and buy a beautiful orchid, it's not grown in some steamy hot jungle in Central America," he says. "It's grown in a hothouse somewhere in California. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a beautiful orchid."
"Do you care that it's not from De Beers?" I ask.
"De Beers?" he says. "Nobody cares if it's from De Beers. My clients just want a nice diamond."
How to Make a Diamond
The Gemesis Way:
High pressure, high temperature. Crystal is created in a chamber that mimics geologic conditions.
Giacomo Marchesi
Ceramic growth chamber
1. Place metal solvents and graphite in ceramic growth chamber. Insert diamond seed at bottom of chamber and put chamber in center of compression sphere.
2. Force oil into top layer of sphere, creating pressure against steel anvils. Increasing pressure is transferred through anvils and onto growth chamber. Even with minimal pressure at surface, force at center reaches 58,000 atmospheres.
3. Turn on juice. Current wired to one end of ceramic chamber raises temperature to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat and pressure cause graphite – pure carbon – to atomize. Freed carbon drawn to cooler end of chamber bonds to diamond seed, crystallizing layer by layer.
Giacomo Marchesi
Carbon Atoms
4. Wait three days.
Giacomo Marchesi
5. Open machine. Smash growth chamber, pull out stone. Cut and polish to make sparkling diamond gem.
The Apollo Way
Chemical vapor deposition. Crystal is formed when a plasma cloud rains carbon onto diamond wafers.
1. Place diamond wafers on pedestal. Depressurize chamber to one-tenth of an atmosphere.
2. Inject hydrogen, natural gas (CH4) into chamber. Heat with microwave beam. At 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, electrons separate from nuclei, forming plasma.
Giacomo Marchesi
3. Let it rain. Freed carbon precipitates out of plasma cloud and is deposited on wafer seeds.
4. Let it grow. Wafer seeds gradually become diamond minibricks, building up at half a millimeter a day.
Giacomo Marchesi
5. Open chamber and remove diamond brick. Slice into wafers for semiconductors or cut and polish to make gems.Agency has mothballed $14 million machines in a Texas warehouse
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Nov 16, 2012
A TSA official was given a grilling in a House hearing yesterday concerning information suggesting that one of the vendors of the agency’s x-ray body scanning machines may have faked tests on software which was supposed to eliminate naked images of passengers passing through the devices.
The House Homeland Security subcommittee on transportation chaired a hearing entitled “TSA’s Recent Scanner Shuffle: Real Strategy or Wasteful Smokescreen?”
During the hearing, the subject of Rapiscan allegedly manipulating operational tests on the machines was raised.
As we reported yesterday, on November 9, Rapiscan received a show-cause letter from the TSA demanding to know why the company was not complying with the TSA’s terms in failing to develop the privacy friendly software.
It appears that the discovery of potential faking of test results put into advanced motion a move by the TSA to remove over 90 of the body scanners from major airports. Initially, the agency claimed that the machines were being moved to smaller airports to alleviate passenger queues at the bigger hubs. However, it has now been revealed that the machines, worth a total of around $14 million, have actually been mothballed in a warehouse in Texas.
In his opening statement Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) noted “At this time, I’d like to insert a letter for the hearing record that I sent to Administrator Pistole yesterday expressing concern about recent allegations of contractor malfeasance that may have led to the failed tests that put us in this situation. Without objection, so ordered. I hope we can get some answers today on this extremely disturbing situation.
After submitting prepared comments, and when questioned on the allegations, John Sanders, TSA’s assistant administrator for security capabilities, told Rogers that he was unable to speak in detail about the case because investigations into the matter were ongoing.
“I wouldn’t say, sir, that we believe…have any evidence that documents that they absolutely did,,,” Sanders said when Rogers asked him when exactly the TSA found out about the vendor potentially faking test results on the machines.
“We have contacted the manufacturer to ask for additional information, so that we can look into the matter further.” Sanders said.
The TSA official then repeated thoroughly debunked claims that the TSA has had the machines independently tested to verify they are safe for public use, and effective.
As we have exhaustively documented, numerous prestigious health bodies have indicated that the backscatter x-ray devices will statistically cause an increase in cancer, including Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, the University of California, and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety. To put that in perspective, the probability of dying in a terrorist attack is the same as the probability of getting cancer when passing through the x-ray scanner just one time.
Johns Hopkins’ biophysics expert Dr Michael Love warned that, “statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays,” after conducting a study of the naked body scanners.
It has also been proven that the scanner can be fooled by sewing a metallic object into the side of one’s clothing, rendering the entire $1 billion dollar fleet of machines virtually useless.
A recently discovered Homeland Security report also noted that federal investigators have “identified vulnerabilities in the screening process” involving the scanners.
Multiple other security experts have gone on record saying that the scanners are ineffective.
During yesterday’s hearing, Rep. Rogers, who described the issue as “aggravating”, also asked why the body scanners had been mothballed and not put into use in a security lane where it was made clear that they were operating without privacy software. TSA official Sanders replied that the agency was attempting to comply with the mandate to have the privacy software on all machines by June 2013.
Sanders was not able to say how soon the software would be updated for the mothballed scanners, but said that he was confident the TSA would make the June 1st deadline.
In a statement for the record, privacy rights group The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) highlighted public concerns about the use of body scanners, including health and privacy risks, and the failure of the TSA to take public comments on the program.
The federal government has invested close to a billion dollars so far into a fleet of 800 scanners, and the TSA has outlined plans to buy nearly 1,000 more in the next two years.
The TSA is continuing plans to roll out more full body scanners in airports across the country despite the fact that another recent Congressional report concluded that the agency “is wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars by inefficiently deploying screening equipment and technology to commercial airports.”
Infowars is launching the national Opt Out and Film Week during Thanksgiving, November 19-26.Click here for more details or click here for the campaign’s Facebook page.
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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.Deadlines come and go, but for presidential candidates who want to be on the ballot in Indiana, today was a big one.
Tuesday was the day all candidates were to have their signatures turned in for certification by the county clerks around the state.
They are required under Indiana law to have 500 signatures in each of the state's nine congressional districts.
As you might expect, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Chris Christie all have met that standard, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office as of Tuesday morning. But others like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina had some work to do to make that deadline.
Carson was lagging in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th districts. However, Carrie Petty, the Indiana state director for Ben Carson's campaign, says they've secured 900 signatures in each district.
Carly Fiorina needs more signatures in the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th. Ted Cruz, one of the GOP frontrunners, still had work to do in the 2nd, 3rd and 6th districts. He had 290 signatures in the 2nd, 303 in the 3rd and 487 in the 6th. 500 signatures are required under Indiana law.
See the calendar here.
John Kasich has 486 signatures in the 9th so he needed only 14, more which was certainly doable before the Tuesday noon deadline. Marco Rubio had only 309 signatures in the 2nd district so he had work to do in order to reach the threshold of 500.
O’Malley, Huckabee and Santorum are well short of the other potential candidates. All had less than 500 signatures in all 9 congressional districts.
The state deadline to submit signatures is February 5th at noon.
See all Decision 2016 coverage here.WILLMAR, Minn. – In December 1977, eight women went on strike against Citizens’ National Bank in Willmar, Minn. Their goals were straightforward. They wanted equal pay for equal work. They wanted equal treatment. They never got what they wanted.
More than 30 years later, however, people still remember The Willmar 8. Their goals and their impact still resonate. They still hear examples of how, by taking a stand in a small, Minnesota town, they changed working conditions for women they never knew in places they had never heard of.
“It’s still pretty unbelievable how far it went,” says striker Teren Novotny. “There were a lot of people standing up for their rights. But it obviously got pretty big – bigger than we probably will ever realize.”
The strikers, who all were bank tellers or bookkeepers, didn’t consider themselves feminists. They weren’t taking a stand for women’s liberation. “It was just us against the bank, period,” says striker Sandi Treml. “As time went on, it became bigger than all of us.” That hasn’t changed.
Every year, high school and college classes invite members of The Willmar 8 to speak. “We don’t go out looking for opportunities,” Treml says. “They come to us.” In the classroom, students can’t believe what they hear.
“They have absolutely no concept of what women were up against,” Treml says. “They have expectations that they have every right on the job that everyone else has. So when they see the documentary, it’s kind of like, ‘How can that be? How could they treat women differently than men?’
“We feel we can educate these girls so they don’t get out of high school thinking they’re going to be on an equal level – because they’re not,” says striker Irene Wallin. “The door is not open all the way.
“Yes, they’re making more per dollar than we did. Now, it’s like 80 cents on the dollar. But, sad to say, we’re still second-class citizens.”
The Willmar bank strike had been brewing for months. In May 1977, the bank’s female employees had filed a gender discrimination claim. The women were tired of being paid less. They were tired of having no chance at promotions. They were tired of training men who had no banking experience, but would become their bosses and make more money on day one than the women ever could.
More than anything, the women were tired of the attitude summed up by Willmar Bank President Leo Pirsch, who responded to their demands by saying: “We’re not all equal, you know.”
“A lot of people just felt that’s the way it should be,” Wallin says. “You don’t need to make that much money, and you don’t need to make as much money as a man.”
Even when the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled there was “reasonable cause” to believe the bank discriminated against women in promotions and pay, nothing changed.
“It would have been a simple fix,” Treml says. “All they would have had to do is post the job openings and write down the qualifications. None of us would have qualified and that would have been the end of it.”
But, Novotny says, “They weren’t going to let a bunch of female employees tell them what to do.”
So, on Dec. 16, 1977, Novotny, Treml and Wallin went on strike. Five more women – Doris Boshart, Sylvia Erickson, Jane Harguth, Shirley Solyntjes and Glennis Ter Wisscha – joined them. Five other women kept working.
The strikers called themselves Willmar Bank Employees Association Local 1. Within hours, media swarmed the town. Within weeks, ‘The Willmar 8’ were known around the world. Over the next two years, they appeared in newspapers coast to coast.
The women received thousands of cards, letters and cash contributions, at least for a while. They appeared in national magazines such as People. Phil Donahue – then the biggest name in talk shows – featured them. Actress Lee Grant made a behind-the-scenes documentary about them. NBC made a not-very-accurate TV movie.
The strike split the town. Some businesses, Wallin says, blacklisted the women for years. But the bank lost substantial deposits and customers. It eventually was sold, then sold again. The strikers made huge personal and financial sacrifices.
“We were such a small group that we were not going to let each other down,” Novotny says.
Unions sent mixed messages. Many individual unions and union members rallied to support The Willmar 8. Willmar unions let the women set up strike headquarters at the local Labor Home. Unions made financial contributions. Members from other unions – most notably United Auto Workers Local 879 – made very visible visits to join the women on the picket line.
But despite lofty rhetoric about The Willmar 8’s fight being “everybody’s fight,” no established labor union came forward to take the strikers in. “There were a lot of reasons,” Wallin says. “Most of them thought it was too hot an issue.”
“The unions, to them, it was a woman’s issue,” Treml says. “And the women’s movement saw it as a union issue. And we were in the middle.”
Then, the National Labor Relations Board doomed the strike. The EEOC had negotiated a token cash settlement of the gender discrimination claim. But the pivotal rulings came from the NLRB in 1979. It ruled the bank indeed had committed unfair labor practices in dealing with the women. But it also said those labor law violations did not cause the strike. Instead, it ruled the women were striking for economic reasons.
The rulings meant the women could not get back pay. In fact, they could not get their jobs back, unless vacancies occurred at the bank. Economic strikers can be replaced. “We knew we had no leverage left after that,” Wallin says. “There was money and there was power, and we had neither one.”
The women moved on with their lives. The bank eventually rehired four of them, including Wallin. Only Boshart stuck it out. “There was no future there,” Wallin says. “Even Doris, after all the years she stayed there, was still a teller.”
Wallin took a job at an optical company, working for 25 years before retiring.
Treml went to work at Job Service, then at Willmar Community College. Novotny went to school, worked at a lumberyard, and then got hired at Willmar Area Vocational Technical Institute. In 1997, the technical institute and community college merged to create Ridgewater College. Once again, Treml and Novotny worked at the same place.
Coincidentally, Wallin’s daughter, Susae Klavetter, also works at Ridgewater.
“Being 17 at the time, I don’t know if I really understood everything,” Klavetter says. “But my mom always stood up for what her beliefs were. Even today, people recognize her name. ‘Oh, your mother!’ – and they just brag about her.
“That’s good to hear. People remember. They have not forgotten.”
Michael Kuchta is vice president of the International Labor Communications Association. Image courtesy Workday Minnesota.Australian police wants a 15-minute film on "sexting" to be shown in schools to educate children on the dangers of using mobile phones to send sexually explicit images.
Sergeant Matthew Gildea, of the Bendigo sexual offences and child abuse unit, said sexting among teenagers was out of control, with children as young as 12 involved.
The film, Photograph, made in the regional town of Bendigo with local students, will be shown at a national conference on children's privacy to be held in Melbourne on May 21.
"The use of mobile phones to take these images just highlights how new technologies are making children more and more vulnerable," Victorian Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey said.
She said the conference would discuss sexting, cyber-bullying and online safety, as well as issues such as whether children had the capacity to consent to an organisation using or disclosing their personal information.
"Children are confiding and communicating with their friends online and don't realise the potential for that information to be picked up by others," Ms Versey said.
"We don't want to stop them using the internet and social networking sites but we want them be conscious of what... the consequences might be."
Sergeant Gildea said anecdotal evidence suggested the number of teenagers sexting was soaring and he believed the film should be shown in every high school. "You can hear a pin drop in the room when the video is playing because the kids relate to it," he said.
The film shows what happens when a 15-year-old girl agrees to send a sexually explicit photograph of herself to her boyfriend, and then he distributes it after they break up.
The Victoria Education Department plans to provide a link on its website for schools wanting to obtain a copy of Photograph.The Post Sports Live crew looks toward 2015 for the Nationals and debates whether they will be World Series favorites again. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
The Post Sports Live crew looks toward 2015 for the Nationals and debates whether they will be World Series favorites again. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
For contenders such as the Washington Nationals, the majority of baseball offseasons are spent adding pieces and replacing parts, like touching up the hull of a boat. This winter will not be like the majority of offseasons. The Nationals, even after a 96-win, division-title season, will be moving ships in the harbor.
They begin the winter with no large holes to fill or stars to replace. But the Nationals will undergo negotiations and make crucial decisions that could set the franchise’s on-field course deep into the future.
All-star right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, bedrock shortstop Ian Desmond and right-hander Doug Fister are all scheduled to be eligible for free agency after the 2015 season. The Nationals engaged with all three in the hopes of reaching long-term contract extensions last winter, and they are expected to do so again this offseason.
General Manager Mike Rizzo called the trio of potential contract extensions “one of our priorities. I don’t know if it’s the priority.” But the three contract situations will define Nationals’ winter, and the outcomes could steer the organization’s on-field fate.
“We think it’s an important offseason,” Rizzo said. “We’ve got a lot of decisions to make. How we move forward is going to be important for the viability of the franchise, not only in ’15, but the long-term.”
1 of 48 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Top moments of the Nationals’ 2014 season View Photos From their opening day win to their no-hitter finale, these are some highlights of the regular season. Caption From their opening day win to their no-hitter finale, these are some highlights of the regular season. March 31, 2014 Matt Williams, the Washington Nationals' new manager, stands with his team during introductions before the season opener against the Mets in New York. John McDonnell/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Depending on the success of negotiations and payroll restraints set forth by ownership, the Nationals may have to choose between which stars they keep for the long term — and perhaps even the short term. They are prepared to consider trading any of their three stars if they cannot secure them to extensions, guarding against watching one of their best players leave in a year with only a compensatory draft pick to show for it.
“That’s Mike’s biggest job this offseason,” one industry insider said. “It’s not figuring out who he can bring in. It’s figuring out who he can keep.”
Asked about the possibility of trading Fister, Zimmermann or Desmond, Rizzo demurred. “I think we’re a long way from that conversation,” he said.
Before the annual general manager meetings in early November, Rizzo will meet with his entire staff — scouts, special assistants, player development staff, coaches — and evaluate the Nationals from top to bottom, what Rizzo calls “our 60-man roster.” Those meetings could determine the Nationals’ approach to Fister, Zimmermann and Desmond.
“It will kind of dovetail off of this big-picture evaluation of what we have,” Rizzo said. “That will answer a lot of questions. What we think we have. What’s our depth at those positions? How ready is that depth? What type of depth is it? That will go far to answer those specific roster questions of those specific roster parts. You’re much more able to be in a position of strength if you have depth at a certain position.”
The process was made more difficult when trusted assistant general manager Bryan Minniti left the organization days after the Nationals’ playoff ouster. Minniti was heavily involved in contract negotiations. The Nationals expect to replace him soon, with former Cincinnati Reds executive Bob Miller the likely choice.
Each player brings different circumstances. Zimmermann’s negotiations grew murkier last spring training when the Reds signed Homer Bailey to a five-year, $105 million contract extension. The deal exploded the market for starting pitchers and stunted progress the sides had made, a person familiar with the situation said.
1 of 16 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Nationals’ Jordan Zimmermann throws no-hitter View Photos In the final game of the regular season, Jordan Zimmermann throws the first no-hitter in Nationals history, aided by Steven Souza Jr.’s diving catch for the final out of the game. Caption In the final game of the regular season, Jordan Zimmermann throws the first no-hitter in Nationals history. Sept. 28, 2014 Washington Nationals starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann pitches during the team's final regular season game. The Nationals won, 1-0, as Zimmermann pitched a no-hitter, the first in Nationals history. Katherine Frey/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Zimmermann had established himself as a pitcher similar to Bailey, only better, as each climbed levels in arbitration. Zimmermann has only further solidified himself as a superior pitcher. If Zimmermann signs a long-term deal with the Nationals this winter, it will likely be the richest contract the Nationals have ever handed out, trumping the seven-year, $126-million deal signed by outfielder Jayson Werth in 2011.
After a second all-star season, which Zimmermann capped with a no-hitter and a near-shutout in Game 2 of the NLDS, Zimmermann’s contract as a free agent would likely fall closer to those of Zack Greinke and Cole Hamels, who will make $147 million and $144 million over six years, respectively. Zimmermann will make $16.5 million in 2015 to finish a two-year contract, which would be the most the Nationals ever paid a pitcher in a single season.
The Nationals and Desmond exchanged proposals last winter and into the spring. Desmond turned down one offer believed to be worth more than $90 million over seven years. He is set to make $11 million in the final year of a two-year extension.
After the Nationals traded for Fister last season, they engaged in brief contract talks in an effort to extend him, as they did after they acquired Gio Gonzalez in December 2011. The details of those discussions are not known.
Trading any player would serve a blow not only to the Nationals’ changes in 2015, but also to their fan base. Desmond was drafted by the Montreal Expos and has emerged as a talented, slugging shortstop as well as the soul of the organization. The Nationals drafted and developed Zimmermann, the man many fans wanted on the mound in Game 1 of the playoffs. Fister added distinct toughness the Nationals’ pitching staff.
Center fielder Denard Span, one of the Nationals’ best players this season, will also be eligible for free agency after 2015, presuming the Nationals |
temporarily, in the administration of a federally enacted regulatory scheme.”
Citing the New York case, the court majority declared this provision of the Brady Gun Bill unconstitutional, expanding the reach of the anti-commandeering doctrine.
We held in New York that Congress cannot compel the States to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program. Today we hold that Congress cannot circumvent that prohibition by conscripting the States’ officers directly. The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policymaking is involved, and no case-bycase weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.
In Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), the Court held that the federal government can not compel states to expand Medicaid by threatening to withhold funding for Medicaid programs already in place. Justice Robert Kennedy argued that allowing Congress to essentially punish states that refused to go along violates constitutional separation of powers.
The legitimacy of Congress’s exercise of the spending power “thus rests on whether the State voluntarily and knowingly accepts the terms of the ‘contract.’ ” Pennhurst, supra, at 17. Respecting this limitation is critical to ensuring that Spending Clause legislation does not undermine the status of the States as independent sovereigns in our federal system. That system “rests on what might at first seem a counterintuitive insight, that ‘freedom is enhanced by the creation of two governments, not one.’ ” Bond, 564 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 8) (quoting Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706, 758 (1999) ). For this reason, “the Constitution has never been understood to confer upon Congress the ability to require the States to govern according to Congress’ instructions.” New York, supra, at 162. Otherwise the two-government system established by the Framers would give way to a system that vests power in one central government, and individual liberty would suffer.
With a vote coming soon, supporters of health freedom in South Carolina are strongly urged to contact their state senators to urge a YES vote on H3101 today.
You can find your legislator’s contact information by clicking HERE.
Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center. He was raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on twitter – @michaelboldin and Facebook. http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.comPresident Trump’s tribute to the wife of slain Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens should have been beyond reproach. It was a moment that transcended partisanship and politics. It was a moment that should have brought all Americans together in unity and collective respect for our honored dead. Unfortunately, liberals didn’t get the memo. Following Trump’s State of the Union address, liberals took to social media to shame Owens’ widow.
Feel really bad for that SEAL widow lady. (Esp. since she has to sit by Ivanka's State of the Bra Strap dress.) #JointAddress — Laurelei Gilless (@DinolaurRexnut) March 1, 2017
Social media users, namely conservatives and Americans of conscience, quickly condemned the perverse attacks on the Gold Star widow.
The pathetic fuckstain who insulted the SEAL widow blocked me.
Congrats, Dan Grillo.
I had thought you couldn't become an even bigger pussy. — Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) March 1, 2017
#DanGrilo closed his account after making this despicable tweet. He must have been as embarrassed as the rest of the country was for him. pic.twitter.com/uSipEfCkSC — Deplorable Dennis (@Dennis_QH3) March 1, 2017
Clearly, liberals followed the lead of their morally depraved representatives in Congress. As The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro reported, top Democrats chose to remain sitting as Trump honored Owens and his grieving widow.
I can't believe there were Democrats that remained in their seats during the standing ovation for a Navy Seal's widow. Just disgraceful. — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) March 1, 2017
Sobbing widow of slain Navy Seal receives 2 minute standing ovation.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz & Keith Ellison stay firmly seated, no claps — Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 1, 2017
Keith Ellison, Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and decrepit socialist Bernie Sanders all chose to let their disdain for Trump supersede their love of country.
Disgusting: Hate-filled Democrats refuse to stand for fallen Navy Seal's widow! #JointAddress pic.twitter.com/z3zr0RPa5f — Josh Cornett (@therealcornett) March 1, 2017
Shameful.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Oct. 11, 2016, 9:45 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 11, 2016, 10:32 PM GMT By Corky Siemaszko
The little Florida girl who police say was kidnapped by a family friend named West Wild Hogs was reunited Tuesday with her relieved family.
They were waiting for 4-year-old Rebecca Lewis at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport when the plane touched down around 3 p.m.
"Thank you for bringing me home," a smiling Rebecca, dressed in a red top and puffy white skirt, told the assembled reporters after hugging her kin.
4-year-old Rebecca Lewis Polk County Sheriff
“She managed the plane ride like a trouper,” Donna Wood, spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, told NBC News. “She was chipper, she was cheerful, she was very excited to see her family.”
Meanwhile, back in Memphis, Tennessee, the 31-year-old suspect was awaiting extradition to Florida where he was expected to be formally charged with kidnapping.
“It could be weeks before that process is over,” said Wood.
Little Rebecca was rescued Monday after a worker at a Memphis hospital recognized her and the suspect from an Amber Alert and called the cops.
Hogs, a former truck driver who lives in Alabama and legally changed his name from Matthew Clark Pybus, was arrested a short time later.
Police said Rebecca was examined by a doctor who determined she had not been physically harmed.
Lewis’ parents, Luther Lewis and Melissa Schell, had not seen Hogs in two years when he suddenly showed up Friday at their home in The Lazy Dazy Retreat mobile home park in Lakeland, Florida, police said.
When Hogs and Rebecca vanished on Saturday, the girl’s parents called the police and triggered a nationwide manhunt.
4-year-old Rebecca Lewis and her alleged abductor West Wild Hogs. Polk County Sheriff
Two days later, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported that Hogs and the girl were spotted north of Knoxville near Cove Lake State Park.
Then, for reasons still unclear, Hogs and the girl headed to Memphis where they made for the Baptist Memorial Hospital.
Hogs is currently in the custody of the FBI.As both a moral and legal issue, arguing for marriage equality (or, equivalently, for government neutrality on marriage) should be fairly easy: States and the federal government recognize a contractual situation called marriage, and through that recognition flows vague public sanction, manifest through real, tangible, legal preferences. The best constitutional argument for same-sex marriage is that the state can’t deny those benefits—conceptual or concrete—to gays and lesbians on the basis of their sexual orientation, or only bequeath them to gays and lesbians who are willing to enter into marriage contracts with people of the opposite sex whom they don’t truly love.
Kennedy alluded to the existence of an equal protection argument, but, as Roberts wrote in his dissent, “The majority [did] not seriously engage with this claim. Its discussion is, quite frankly, difficult to follow.” Roberts is correct. Kennedy failed “to provide even a single sentence explaining how the Equal Protection Clause supplies independent weight for its position.” This was Team Marriage Equality’s strongest ground, and Kennedy surrendered it against a mostly unarmed adversary. In the end, Roberts offered the Court’s only real equal protection argument (or counterargument) and it was weak by necessity. “[T]he marriage laws at issue here do not violate the Equal Protection Clause, because distinguishing between opposite-sex and same-sex couples is rationally related to the States’ ‘legitimate state interest’ in ‘preserving the traditional institution of marriage.’” This is another way of saying that gays and lesbians aren't deserving of the same kind of anti-discrimination protections the courts accord women and minorities. He was able to assert this without qualification, because Kennedy didn't force him to justify it.
A more nimble intellectual combatant would have made Roberts work for that ground. Roberts went on to suggest that the above-mentioned benefits of marriage could flow to same-sex couples through a separate-but-equal state-sanctioned institution, glossing over the fact that opposite-sex marriage triggered the benefits in part because states prized straight couples over gay ones. "Although they discuss some of the ancillary legal benefits that accompany marriage, such as hospital visitation rights and recognition of spousal status on official documents," Roberts wrote, "petitioners’ lawsuits target the laws defining marriage generally rather than those allocating benefits specifically. The equal protection analysis might be different, in my view, if we were confronted with a more focused challenge to the denial of certain tangible benefits. Of course, those more selective claims will not arise now that the Court has taken the drastic step of requiring every State to license and recognize marriages between same-sex couples."
At this juncture, Kennedy’s views about the intangible benefits of state recognition—the notion of dignity at the heart of his opinion—would have been useful, but he deployed them instead to argue that the right to same-sex marriage exists silently in the Constitution, essentially independent from the existence of a right to marry more generally.
"These [guaranteed] liberties extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices that define personal identity and beliefs," Kennedy wrote.Former Vice President Joe Biden confirmed that Hallie Biden, the wife of his late son Beau, is in a relationship with the politician's youngest son, Hunter.
"We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill's full and complete support and we are happy for them," Biden told Page Six.
Beau Biden died from brain cancer at the age of 46 in May 2015. Hunter has three daughters from his wife Kathleen, who he is separated from in October of that year. The two engaged in a romantic relationship at some point after that, but it's unclear when they started seeing each other.
"Hallie and I are incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other in such a difficult time, and that's been obvious to the people who love us most. We've been so lucky to have family and friends who have supported us every step of the way," Hunter Biden told the outlet.
The Bidens have given the couple their blessing.Police are asking for the public's help as authorities try to identify and find an assailant who shot and killed a 4-year-old girl on an Albuquerque, N.M., freeway.
The shooting about an hour before the start of evening rush hour on Tuesday was the result of what Police Chief Gorden Eden described as an unexplainable crime brought on by road rage.
Interstate 40, the highway where the shooting happened, would have been heavy with traffic at the time the shooter opened fire, he said.
No suspects
"We have absolutely no suspect information at this time," he said. "We need the community's help. You had to have seen something. Please call us."
He confirmed the girl's death at an evening news conference, saying the shooting represented "a terrible, tragic loss" and a "disrespect for human life."
The girl's name wasn't immediately released and it remained unclear what may have led the incident to escalate on the city's west side.
"This is one of those crimes that is unexplainable," he said. "It's 100 per cent preventable. It did not have to happen. We need to rise up as a community and say enough is enough."
Investigators were in "desperate need of information" that would help in their search for the suspect after receiving conflicting details about the assailant's vehicle, including its colour and even whether it had two or four doors, he said.
"The cars were both moving westbound when one car pulled up against the other and started firing," said police spokesman Officer Simon Drobik.
Parents not hit
Shortly after the shooting, a Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene, pulling up on a vehicle he believed was in distress to find the child inside, Drobik said. The child's parents, also in the vehicle, were not injured.
Her father told officers the shooting was the result of road rage.
The girl was rushed to the hospital. Drobik said he didn't know if the family is local or from out of state.
As police investigated, authorities shut down westbound traffic on a section of I-40, one of two freeways running through New Mexico's largest city. It reopened late Tuesday.
Detectives were interviewing multiple witnesses, Eden said.
"Our priority is always the collection and preservation of evidence," he said. "We should never see these incidents happen."
The shooting comes after a road-rage shooting last month in which police say a man fired at another driver in self-defence. The Sept. 9 shooting that wounded 34-year-old Jacoby Johnson was being reviewed by the District Attorney's Office.Wales Manufacturing Richard Frost
Village Bakery has unveiled plans to create 50 jobs, including a dozen apprenticeships, in North Wales.
The positions will be spread across the company's three bakeries in Wrexham Industrial Estate (two) and in Coedpoeth.
The new apprentices will be trained in the Baking Academy and Innovation Centre, which was officially opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in July 2015.
Operations director Simon Thorpe said: "We're very fortunate to be going through another period of significant growth at the moment and with that comes the opportunity for people to gain employment with us as well.
"As part of the recruitment campaign, we're looking to take on another 12 bakery apprentices.
"Our grow-your-own approach is something we've built our business on strongly over many years, and most recently we've invested in the new Baking Academy and Innovation Centre and really we're going from strength to strength."Australia’s newly elected prime minister pulled no punches when giving his thoughts on the country’s carbon tax, which he says must be abolished as quickly as possible.
“The carbon tax is bad for the economy and it doesn’t do any good for the environment,” Abbott told The Washington Post. “Despite a carbon tax of $37 a ton by 2020, Australia’s domestic emissions were going up, not down. The carbon tax was basically socialism masquerading as environmentalism, and that’s why it’s going to get abolished.”
“If the Labor Party wants to give the people of Australia a Christmas present, they will vote to abolish the carbon tax. It was damaging the economy without helping the environment. It was a stupid tax. A misconceived tax,” Abbott added.
Australia’s liberal Labor Party received a crippling blow in the recent elections, as Abbott’s conservative coalition garnered enough votes to create the largest ruling coalition in the country since 2004. Conservatives rode in on a wave of widespread disapproval of the previous government’s handling of the economy, including the imposition of a carbon tax in the summer of 2012.
“We’ve got an overwhelming majority of scientists telling us our planet needs to do this,” said former Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who implemented the tax. “Are you really going to be the one who bets that the vast majority of them are wrong with something as important as the planet’s future?”
However, the tax quickly began to impact families and the economy. The carbon tax increased taxes on 2.2 million people and did nothing to decrease carbon dioxide emissions, according to a study by Dr. Alex Robson, economist at Australia’s University of Brisbane. The study was conducted for the Institute for Energy Research, which opposes a carbon tax.
News Limited Network reported in March that the tax was contributing to a record 10,632 businesses facing insolvency in 2012 — up from 10,481 for 2011.
The country’s hospitals were also affected. The Herald Sun reports that Victoria provincial hospitals spent an extra $6.1 million in energy costs in just six months due to the carbon tax. The carbon tax made up 8-22 percent of the hospitals’ total energy costs.
In the face of heated opposition to the tax and growing support for Abbott’s push to abolish it, former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attempted to woo voters by moving away from a carbon tax to a cap-and-trade system with a floating price on carbon.
“The government is moving in this direction because a floating price takes cost-of-living pressures off Australian families and still protects the environment and acts on climate change,” Rudd told reporters. “We have still got a fair bit of budget work to do, as this has to be a budget-neutral undertaking.”
“The previous government would often say the right thing but it would invariably do the wrong thing when it came to business,” Abbott told the Post. “There was an explosion in red tape and green tape… It was a government which thought that there was no problem that more public servants, higher taxes and further regulation couldn’t fix.”
Abbott’s coalition will face stiff resistance from the Labor Party as they push forward with dismantling liberal environmental policies.
“Labor stands by its election commitment to support the termination of the carbon tax provided that a market-based mechanism that reduces carbon pollution is put in its place, along with a strong commitment to expanding renewable energy,” said Mark Butler, the Labor Party’s acting climate change spokesman.
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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.Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
Soldiers and police in America take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. But knowing who is a domestic enemy of the Constitution can be confusing to a young grunt. So a West Point think tank decided to broadly define what a domestic enemy may look like to ensure soldiers follow orders when the time comes.
In a study recently published by the West Point Combating Terrorism Center entitled, “ Challengers From The Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right,” Arie Perliger, the author of the study, attempts to present a picture of an America infested with dangerous “Right Wing” domestic terrorists lurking in the shadows and waiting to launch an attack on government establishments, agents, and minorities.
In the study, what Perliger defines as the “Far-Right” is actually a mixture of race hate groups with ordinary militias, anti-abortion activists, Libertarians/Anarchists, and “conspiracy theorists.” Perliger suggets that this “Far-Right” contingent is glued together by an identification with an “anti-federalist” ideology as well as a belief in a “New World Order.” According to Perliger, these groups are concerned with the “corrupted and tyrannical nature of the federal government and its apparent tendency to violate individuals’ civilian liberties and constitutional rights.”
Perliger, who is the director of terrorism studies at the West Point Combating Terrorism Center writes in the Introduction to the study that its purpose is to provide “a conceptual foundation for understanding different far-right groups and then presents the empirical analysis of violent incidents to identify those perpetrating attacks and their associated trends.”
For all the repetition of the terms “terrorism” and “violent” however, it is important to mention just how broad a definition has been assigned to this term in recent years. As Madison Ruppert of End the Lie writes in his article, “West Point study identifies ‘violent far-right’ with recognizing tyrannical, corrupt nature of government,” “It is worth noting that the federal government is quite tyrannical and corrupt with a federal judge ruled the government can claim the legal right to assassinate Americans without any charge or trial while never explaining the legal basis, engage in widespread illegal surveillance (which is dramatically increasing) and indefinitely detain Americans.”
Ruppert continues by stating, “If those aren’t violations of individuals’ civil liberties and constitutional rights, I don’t know what is.”
Yet, while Perliger defines three different branches of the “far-right” – racist/white supremacy movement, anti-federalist movement, and fundamentalist movement – the author lumps the three different branches into one, all while conveniently ignoring pertinent facts that might not back up his claims.
Perliger’s paper notably lacks mention of the fact that a great many “racist/white supremacy” organizations are themselves either partially or even entirely staffed by law enforcement agents of government intelligence. Likewise, Perliger entirely conflates race-based movements (also likely infiltrated and controlled by government agencies) with what he labels the “Christian Fundamentalist” movement. This, as Madison Ruppert points out, is described with a complete lack of understanding (intentional or otherwise) as to what “fundamentalism” actually is.
Yet, the “anti-federalist” movement (itself a variety of movements mixed together to provide an easier category for Perliger and his readers), is the most interesting when evaluating the West Point paper. According to Perliger, this “movement” is centered around a belief in a “New World Order,” and the recognition of the “corrupted and tyrannical nature of the federal government and its apparent tendency to violate individuals’ civilian liberties and constitutional rights.”
In this regard, Perliger writes,
The anti-federalist rationale is multifaceted, and includes the beliefs that the American political system and its proxies were hijacked by external forces interested in promoting a “New World Order” (NWO) in which the United States will be absorbed into the United Nations or another version of global government. They also espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.
In further summarizing the “anti-federalist” viewpoint, Perliger writes,
The anti-federalist movement’s ideology is based on the idea that there is an urgent need to undermine the influence, legitimacy and practical sovereignty of the federal government and its proxy organizations. The groups comprising the movement suggest several rationales that seek to legitimize anti-federal sentiments. Some groups are driven by a strong conviction that the American political system and its proxies were hijacked by external forces interested in promoting a “New World Order,” (NWO) in which the United States will be embedded in the UN or another version of global government. The NWO will be advanced, they believe, via steady transition of powers from local to federal law-enforcement agencies, i.e., the transformation of local police and law-enforcement agencies into a federally controlled “National Police” agency that will in turn merge with a “Multi-National Peace Keeping Force.” The latter deployment on US soil will be justified via a domestic campaign implemented by interested parties that will emphasize American society’s deficiencies and US government incompetency. This will convince the American people that restoring stability and order inevitably demands the use of international forces. The last stage, according to most NWO narratives, involves the transformation of the United States government into an international/world government and the execution and oppression of those opposing this process.
Indeed, anyone even faintly aware of historical and current events would be hard-pressed to argue with the so-called “anti-federalists” in their analysis.
Regardless, in light of the recent push for citizen disarmament, the paper tellingly states,
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Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets Linda Thompson, the head of the Unorganized Militia of the United States details the consequence of this global coup: ”This is the coming of the New World Order. A one-world government, where, in order to put the new government in place, we must all be disarmed first. To do that, the government is deliberately creating schisms in our society, funding both the anti-abortion/pro-choice sides, the antigun/pro-gun issues…trying to provoke a riot that will allow martial law to be implemented and all weapons seized, while ‘dissidents’ are put safely away”. The fear of the materialization of the NWO makes most militias not merely hostile towards the federal government but also hostile towards international organizations, whether non-profitable NGOs, international corporations, or political institutions of the international community, such as the UN.
Perliger, of course, does not attempt to challenge any of Thompson’s claims as they are presented in this short quotation nor does he attempt to debunk any of the claims made by the “anti-federalist” communities that he so concisely repeats in the statement above. While, admittedly, it is not a stated goal of the author’s study to defend his position and debunk those of his subjects, one would also be justified in concluding that Perliger does not attempt to defend his case simply because disproving the claims made by the “anti-federalist” activists as he presents them would impossible for him to do in a convincing manner.
Yet the purpose of the paper is not to provide legitimate information about these groups as much as it is to terrify the reader – West Point and other military trainees – into believing that anyone who rightly supposes that their government is overstepping its bounds, violating their rights, or moving forward in otherwise unconstitutional directions is a conspiracy-obsessed, right-wing, racist fanatic who is intent on killing military, police, and minorities.
Unfortunately for the author, however, a careful reading of his own argument causes it to fall apart at the seams.
After postulating numerous reasons for the alleged violence of “far-right” groups ranging from political, socio-economic, geographical, and operational possibilities, Perliger attempts to turn to the actual numbers.
At first, Perliger’s presentation of thousands of violent attacks per year (using 2010 statistics) is quite shocking since such attacks are not known to the general public and the mainstream media has not seized upon them at every available opportunity as one would expect. The actual level of violence in its own right, whether reported or not, would be concerning to say the very least.
These numbers would be an even more concerning situation if they demonstrated that such attacks were on the rise.
Unfortunately for the government argument, however, this is not the case as even Perliger has to admit when he says, “Hence, in periods during which many streams of terrorism have shown improvement in their operational capabilities and, as a result, an increase in their tendency to engage in mass casualty attacks, the violent American far right shows stagnation, at least in terms of its ability to enhance the harm it generates.”
For instance, while the term “right-wing violent attack” might conjure images of lynchings, executions, or mass terror attacks, the statistics, even those presented by Perliger, tend to show a different reality. Indeed, the type of “attack” referenced in Perliger’s study is entirely unclear in terms of just what would constitute a “right-wing violent attack.”
Indeed, when examining Perliger’s statistics, one can easily see that well over half of the “attacks” being described are actually proxy “attacks” (loosely defined term) against property, “foiled attacks” (which are wildly undefined, especially since the overwhelming majority of any foiled terrorist attack in the United States has been directed by the FBI), “heavy damage to property,” and “cross burnings.”
Avoiding The Eye - Ships Free Today! Likewise, with so many acts of property damage and racial symbols being later determined to have been directed by the “victims” themselves, one must also call these numbers into question since they are left unclear in the study. Of those attacks designed to cause “mass casualties,” the Oklahoma City Bombing was no doubt included in the statistics, an obvious government-run false flag operation. Yet, even among the 42% of “attacks” described as involving “specific human targets,” the incidents are not necessarily connected with any political, racial, or religious origin. As with any attempt at methods of divide and conquer, there is the very real possibility that any violent attack leveled against any individual of minority status or non-right-wing political ideology is thus considered to be a “specific human target” attack. Under such loosely defined rules of categorization, since the incidence of “specific human targets” were overwhelmingly one on one or (at most) two on one altercations, a simple shoving match between two individuals in which one could be remotely considered right wing, racist, or religious could then be delineated as a violent right-wing attack. Since Perliger easily allows his own political bias to appear during the course of the paper and, since much of his political theory is based upon Israeli political scientist Ehud Sprinzak’s Iceberg model of the structure of political movements, it is apparent that Perliger’s own methodology is likely devised in a manner that would allow even the most distant and unrelated events seem directly related to the core of political ideology Perliger has set in his sites. Such a concern is only compounded by the fact that one of Perliger’s main sources for his paper is the Southern Poverty Law Center, a notorious race-baiting organization that routinely accuses anyone who disagrees with the company line in regards to government policy as racist and potentially violent and dangerous. Not far behind, of course, is the citation of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization of similar race-based incredibility. In the end, Perliger’s report is nothing more than just another cog in the wheel of a military-industrial complex on overdrive in its attempt to brainwash new military recruits into believing that a terrorist lurks behind every bush. More importantly, these new recruits are being trained that such terrorists are no longer shadowy Muslims hiding in caves in Afghanistan, but good ol’ boys, gun owners, and average American citizens that will eventually have to be dealt with.
Read other articles by Brandon Turbeville here.
Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of three books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, and Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident. Turbeville has published over 190 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.The largest and most populous of the Greek islands
Crete (Greek: Κρήτη, Kríti ['kriti]; Ancient Greek: Κρήτη, Krḗtē) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete (Greek: Περιφέρεια Κρήτης), one of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece. The capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065.
Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits (such as its own poetry and music). It was once the centre of the Minoan civilisation (c. 2700–1420 BC), which is the earliest known civilisation in Europe. The palace of Knossos lies in Crete.[2]
Name [ edit ]
The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC,[3] repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and the Bible (Caphtor). It was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island.[4]
The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words ke-re-te (*Krētes; later Greek: Κρῆτες, plural of Κρής),[5] ke-re-si-jo (*Krēsijos; later Greek: Κρήσιος),[6] "Cretan".[7][8] In Ancient Greek, the name Crete (Κρήτη) first appears in Homer's Odyssey.[9] Its etymology is unknown. One proposal derives it from a hypothetical Luwian word, *kursatta (cf. kursawar "island", kursattar "cutting, sliver").[10] In Latin, it became Creta.
The original Arabic name of Crete was Iqrīṭiš (Arabic: اقريطش < (της) Κρήτης), but after the Emirate of Crete's establishment of its new capital at ربض الخندق Rabḍ al-Ḫandaq (modern Iraklion), both the city and the island became known as Χάνδαξ (Chandax) or Χάνδακας (Chandakas), which gave Latin and Venetian Candia, from which were derived French Candie and English Candy or Candia. Under Ottoman rule, in Ottoman Turkish, Crete was called Girit (كريت).
Physical geography [ edit ]
The palm beach of Vai
Crete is the largest island in Greece and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea.
Island morphology [ edit ]
The island has an elongated shape: it spans 260 km (160 mi) from east to west, is 60 km (37 mi) at its widest point, and narrows to as little as 12 km (7.5 mi) (close to Ierapetra). Crete covers an area of 8,336 km2 (3,219 sq mi), with a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi); to the north, it broaches the Sea of Crete (Greek: Κρητικό Πέλαγος); to the south, the Libyan Sea (Greek: Λιβυκό Πέλαγος); in the west, the Myrtoan Sea, and toward the east the Karpathian Sea. It lies approximately 160 km (99 mi) south of the Greek mainland.
Mountains and valleys [ edit ]
Crete is mountainous, and its character is defined by a high mountain range crossing from west to east, formed by three different groups of mountains:
The White Mountains or Lefka Ori 2,454 m (8,051 ft)
The Idi Range (Psiloritis 2,456 m (8,058 ft)
Kedros 1,777 m (5,830 ft)
The Dikti Mountains 2,148 m (7,047 ft)
Thripti 1,489 m (4,885 ft)
These mountains lavished Crete with valleys, such as Amari valley, fertile plateaus, such as Lasithi plateau, Omalos and Nidha; caves, such as Gourgouthakas, Diktaion, and Idaion (the birthplace of the ancient Greek god Zeus); and a number of gorges.
Gorges, rivers and lakes [ edit ]
The island has a number of gorges, such as the Samariá Gorge, Imbros Gorge, Kourtaliotiko Gorge, Ha Gorge, Platania Gorge, the Gorge of the Dead (at Kato Zakros, Sitia) and Richtis Gorge and (Richtis) waterfall at Exo Mouliana in Sitia.[11][12][13][14]
The rivers of Crete include the Ieropotamos River, the Koiliaris, the Anapodiaris, the Almiros, the Giofyros, and Megas Potamos. There are only two freshwater lakes in Crete: Lake Kournas and Lake Agia, which are both in Chania regional unit.[15] Lake Voulismeni at the coast, at Aghios Nikolaos, was formerly a freshwater lake but is now connected to the sea, in Lasithi.[16] Lakes that were created by dams also exist in Crete. There are three: the lake of Aposelemis Dam, the lake of Potamos Dam, and the lake of Mpramiana Dam.
Surrounding islands [ edit ]
A large number of islands, islets, and rocks hug the coast of Crete. Many are visited by tourists, some are only visited by archaeologists and biologists. Some are environmentally protected. A small sample of the islands includes:
Gramvousa (Kissamos, Chania) the pirate island opposite the Balo lagoon
Elafonisi (Chania), which commemorates a shipwreck and an Ottoman massacre
Chrysi island (Ierapetra, Lasithi), which hosts the largest natural Lebanon cedar forest in Europe
Paximadia island (Agia Galini, Rethymno) where the god Apollo and the goddess Artemis were born
The Venetian fort and leper colony at Spinalonga opposite the beach and shallow waters of Elounda (Agios Nikolaos, Lasithi)
Dionysades islands which are in an environmentally protected region together the Palm Beach Forest of Vai in the municipality of Sitia, Lasithi
Off the south coast, the island of Gavdos is located 26 nautical miles (48 km) south of Hora Sfakion and is the southernmost point of Europe.
Climate [ edit ]
Crete straddles two climatic zones, the Mediterranean and the North African, mainly falling within the former. As such, the climate in Crete is primarily Mediterranean. The atmosphere can be quite humid, depending on the proximity to the sea, while winter is fairly mild. Snowfall is common on the mountains between November and May, but rare in the low-lying areas. While some mountain tops are snow-capped for most of the year, near the coast snow only stays on the ground for a |
which is brought to them. Kittens then learn to hunt on live prey brought to them before progressing to true wild hunting.
After a spring, summer and autumn growing and learning to hunt and survive they become independent moving into their first winter and sexual maturity, but typically will not mate until their second year.
Closely related to domestic cats they are able to produce offspring with them, called hybrids. Noted for centuries this process appears to have become the primary threat alongside deforestation as the ratio of Scottish wildcats to domestic ferals has plummeted and it has become increasingly difficult for wildcats to find other wildcats to mate with.
The current ratio has been estimated at anything from 100:1 to almost 3000:1.
Some hybrids have a very distinctive form being pure black, very large but slim and lithe like a domestic cat, these are known as Kellas cats: they are not a new species but a specific mixture of wildcat/domestic genes.
A melanistic wildcat has been recorded on one occasion (the same process that creates all black leopards or jaguars).
Habitat and Distribution
Highly adaptable to habitat, Scottish wildcats make use of everything available to them and typical territories will include forest, moor, wetlands and agricultural fringes.
Current research suggests that pure examples only remain in the most remote corners of the West Highlands, with the East and anywhere outside of the Highlands being far too developed and full of domestic feral cats for the true form to have survived.
Hybrids are still very common in the East Highlands though rarely seen south of the Highland fault line.
Identification
The Jaw
The shape of the mouth is an important consideration when trying to identify a Scottish wildcat.
In short, the Scottish wildcat has an enormous jaw. The rest of the wildcat’s bone structure is just a little bit bigger than that of a domestic cat, but the jaw is relatively huge.
Long canines are located in front of a spine-sized gap which enables a firm grip and quick kill of prey. Their back teeth cross over each other closely like scissors. This enables them to chew through raw meat.
It’s not just a difference in size, however. There’s also a difference in design: the bottom edge of the wildcat jawbone has a little lump protruding from it. The jawbone of a domestic cat has a similar lump but it is much smaller.
Sadly, this difference isn’t much use unless you’re trying to identify a dead cat.
The lump on the jawbone acts as an anchor point for tendons and muscles. It’s large size allows muscles to attach to it more firmly which makes the jaw more powerful. A more powerful jaw enables the wildcat to make cleaner, quicker kills of prey (and also to take down larger prey. It will also help the wildcat gnaw through raw meat, fat and bones with ease.
Domestic cats developed to tackle small prey like mice. Their domestication has also provided them with a diet of pre-cooked marinated canned meats and biscuits, meaning they have virtually no use for explosive bite force. Over time, their jaw has simplified and weakened.
Bite force has never actually been measured in wildcats. We do know for certain that one wildcat bit through a protective handling glove though – the type used by falconers when handling birds of prey.
Facial Markings
Observing and recording the facial markings of the Scottish wildcat is obviously fairly subjective. Facial markings are usually used to back up a suspicion of hybridisation.
An ideal wildcat should display three stripes along the side of the face, working from the eye down towards the jawline.
These stripes are usually strongly coloured and can also get mixed up with other markings around the eye.
Of the three stripes, the top two should fuse together a short distance from the eye. As such, what starts as three stripes at the eye ends as two stripes by the time it reaches the jawline.
This photo gives us a reasonable example of all these issues. You can see three strong stripes and the top two fuse together, though they also mix with one of the other eye markings.
Taken alone, this suggests the cat has strong wildcat genes, but probably has a little hybridisation as well.
Because photographs of wildcats are so rare, facial markings are a rarely mentioned feature of pelage criteria. There are many images of “wildcats” which have two, four or five stripes.
It is important to note that this is considered a minor fault. There are a number of cats which look generally very good but just have two stripes, and in the absence of other markings of hybridisation it probably represents a very minor genetic difference.
Mouth Colouring
The colour of the mouth is one of the first things to look for when trying to identify a wildcat.
Domestic cats usually have bright white fur around their mouth. This feature is actually present in a significant number of “wildcats” that are kept in captivity, suggesting a level of hybridisation.
A genuine wildcat will have a very light brown fur around their mouth.
In fact, pure Scottish wildcats should never have any white fur. There should be no white flash on its chest, no white socks and no white on the cat’s underside. The underside of a wildcat is also a shade of brown.
Our very own Dr Paul O’Donoghue is carrying out genetic research which may help us to understand an links between the mouth colouring and the behaviour of the cat.
Evolution
Cats first evolved something like 50-60 million years ago. The fossil record suggests they emerged in Europe, though genetics have been pointing to Asia in recent research.
Unlike today, vast swathes of Europe used to be covered in forest, making a great habitat for small cats. We know that 12 million years ago an animal called Martelli’s wildcat, which seems to have been nearly identical in looks to the Scottish wildcat, was roaming the continent.
The modern European wildcat evolved 2 million years ago. As sea levels rose after the ice age around 10,000 years ago, a population of these cats were isolated in the British Isles.
In the last few hundred years the expansion of people and destruction of forests across the UK battered the population down until only the wildcats in Scotland remained. These cats adapted their behaviour to survive in a fragmented multi-habitat environment.
Meanwhile, the mainland European wildcats were forced South by successive ice age glaciations, travelling into Asia and Africa.
After the ice age, some migrated back north to Europe. Others stayed behind and adapted to the warmer climate, becoming
the slim and stripey African wildcat
the slim and spotty Asiatic wildcat
the slim, stripey and spotty Near Eastern wildcat
About 12,000 years ago, agriculture advanced in areas of the Middle East. Local Near Eastern wildcats started hanging around farms to prey on the rats and mice. Over many thousands of years these cats were gradually domesticated into working animals and then companion animals.
The Egyptians revered these cats because they enabled large scale farming and storage of grain. Not a bad contribution to civilisation!
Great travellers such as the Phonecians and the Romans are thought to have spread them beyond the Middle East in the last few thousand years.
Their heritage is visible in their coat markings. A true European or Scottish wildcat has a coat mostly made up of stripes. Brown tabby domestic cats have coat markings which are usually all broken stripes and spots.
To summarise, Scottish wildcats are a bit like a cousin to the domestic cat, and this close and recent relationship is the reason why they can cross-mate and produce fertile offspring.
Many species of cat can cross-mate, though those separated by longer timespans, such as lions and tigers, always produce infertile young.
Live Trapping
Live trapping is a critical part of our action plan. It allows us to
neuter feral cats, allowing wildcats to breed with one another
get a proper look at cats for identification purposes
take blood samples for genetic research and test for diseases, and
provide the cats with a general health check
A cat may have to wait for a few hours in one of our live traps before a field worker can arrive. We therefore make sure the traps are comfortable enough to spend a few hours in by lining them with hessian and moss for insulation. We also wrap them in waterproof sheeting to ensure the cats are not exposed.
Somewhat amusingly, this has given us an unexpected problem. Cats (and pine martens) enjoy the food, comfort and shelter so much they keep coming back! I guess you could call them loyal customers.
In fact, we have found one pine marten (pictured below) repeatedly in various traps. She bundles all the insulation to one end and makes a nice little bed out of it.
Pine martens are actually very rare across the rest of the UK, but are quite common in the Wildcat Haven region. It pleases us that our traps are desirable, and there’s no harm in providing some (or one!) of them with a handy place to sleep through the cold winter months.
Clan Motto: Touch Not This Cat
You may have heard or seen the Scottish clan motto “ouch not this cat bot a glove”. Several variations of that motto exist, but all carry the same meaning: don’t mess with the Scottish wildcat!
The history of the motto is quite interesting. A group of people from Strathspey formed an alliance and called themselves Clan Chattan, which literally translates as “clan cat”.
Since then, many other clans have adopted a Scottish wildcat as their crest, including Clan Macpherson, Clan Mackintosh and Clan MacGillivray. All of these clans crests carry the motto “touch not this cat”.
The Clan Chattan were present at one of the most critical moments in Scottish history: the Battle of Culloden. There, they led the Jacobite charge.
Read a complete guide to Scottish clans here.Training camp is a time for NFL teams to dream big. Some of those dreams are realistic. Others, not so much. The Pittsburgh Steelers' 2015 goal to average 30 points per game is a bigger stretch than it might seem to be on the surface, but the subject raises questions worth our attention as teams converge for training camps.
Which teams have the best shot at putting up 30 a game? Why don't the Steelers rank higher despite having a quarterback recently voted into the top tier by 35 coaches and evaluators? And why, with Tom Brady facing a four-game suspension, are the Patriots still my top offense for 2015?
Quarterback ability, offensive continuity and projected strength of opposing defenses were among the factors I found useful when seeking answers to these questions.
Let's run through the list.
Five leading candidates to average 30 ppg
1. New England Patriots
Could the Patriots be a factor even if Brady's lawsuit fails to reduce his four-game ban? Yes, they could. They averaged 20 points per game through four games last season (25th) and then averaged a league-leading 32.3 from that point forward (thank you, Rob Gronkowski's health). For the season, New England scored 29.3 ppg -- and that was with a nine-point output while resting Brady in Week 17.A hotel at Spitsbergen
Steve Goddard found a pretty interesting article from the Saturday May 31st, 1947 edition of the West Australian published in Perth,
ARCTIC phenomenon: Warming Of Climate Causes Concern
ARCTIC PHENOMENON
Warming Of Climate Causes Concern
LOS ANGELES, May 30. – The possibility of a prodigious rise in the surface of the ocean with resultant widespread inundation, arising from an Arctic climatic phenomenon was discussed yesterday by Dr. Hans Ahlmann, a noted Swedish geophysicist at the University of California Geophysical Institute.
A mysterious warming of the climate was slowly manifesting itself in the Arctic, Dr. Ahlmann said, and, if the Antarctic ice regions and the major Greenland ice cap should reduce at the same rate as the present melting in the Arctic, oceanic surfaces would rise to catastrophic proportions and people living in the lowlands along their shores would be inundated.
He said that temperatures in the Arctic had increased 10deg. Fahrenheit since 1900—an "enormous" rise from a scientific standpoint. The waters in the Spitsbergen area in the same period had risen three to five degrees in temperature and one to one and a half millimeters yearly in level.
"The Arctic change is so serious that I hope an international agency can speedily be formed to study the conditions on a global basis," he added. He pointed out that whereas in 1910 the navigable season along western Spitsbergen lasted three months it now lasted eight months.
It's interesting to observe these things especially this summer when the NH sea ice anomaly stands at –2.2 million squared kilometers or so which means a significant deficit but the sea ice is so far well above the late Summer 2007 minimum Incidentally, there's been an excess of the ice in the Antarctica throughout this year although it's smaller than the Arctic deficit. The disagreement between the two hemispheres indicates that these two cold regions haven't agreed to join a global climate treaty yet. ;-) They just don't respect any global climate change; climate change is always primarily local. See more charts and pictures at The Cryosphere Today Recall that I actually believe that it's likely that there will be an ice-free Arctic summer before 2100 and I don't think that there's any problem with it.It's interesting to put the worries about the Arctic temperature change in some perspective. Let me first repost the full 1948 newspaper article:As we know, there's been some re-cooling after the 1940s ended. Dr Ahlmann's 1947 dreams about an international organization obsessed with the climate panic became a reality. We're not inundated by the oceans (the level changed by 10 cm or so since 1947 and no human could really detect the change) but we surely are inundated by the IPCCs, UNFCCCs, Czech Globes, GISSes, CRUs at UEA, and similar stinky and despicable institutionalized garbage.The article talks about a 47-year period 1900-1947 when the increase of the Arctic temperature was quantified as 5.5 °C. If you use the Lumo formula for the modern carbon dioxide concentrations\[c = 280 + 22.3 \exp\left(\frac{{\rm year}-1920}{57}\right)\] you will see that the concentrations in 1900-1947 went from 296 to 316 ppm; the multiplicative increase is 1.068 times which is 0.095 doublings of the concentration (calculate the base-two logarithm).On the other hand, in a similar 47-year interval 1965-2012, the concentrations went up from 329 to 392. The ratio is 1.19 which corresponds to 0.25 doublings (calculate the logarithm). That's 2.65 times larger than 0.095 we got before.So if you attributed the 5.5 °C of the Arctic warming between 1900 and 1947 to the greenhouse effect caused by the carbon dioxide, you would predict that\[T(2012)-T(1965)\approx 2.65\times 5.5\,{}^\circ {\rm C} \approx 14.5\,{}^\circ{\rm C},\] The Arctic has obviously not warmed by more than fourteen Celsius degrees since the mid 1960s. It hasn't even warmed by a third of it. The predictions one would extract from the attribution of the climate change to the carbon dioxide are ludicrously wrong.Well, more modern graphs actually suggest that the warming since the minimum in the late 1960s was less than 1.2 °C, more than an order-of-magnitude lower than the prediction. The same graph via Bob Tisdale makes it likely that the Arctic warming between 1900 and 1947 was around 1 °C, too.This is just an example. Worriers in 1947 should have just accepted the apparent rise of the average Arctic temperature by 5.5 °C in 47 years as a normal, natural process. That's what Nature likes to do, especially in the polar climate. To say the least, today, in 2012, we know very well that most of the 5.5 °C warming reported in 1900-1947 had nothing to do with the rise of the gas we call life. And if you believe the "refreshed reconstruction" we are using these days, 80 percent of the Arctic warming reported in the 1947 newspapers hadn't taken place at all.Has our ability to reconstruct the temperature improved since 1947? We must still use the same raw data that the climatologists could have already used back in 1947. Can we apply more accurate corrections? Do we really know that the corrections are making the results more accurate and not less accurate? Do we believe that most of the a posteriori adjustments are motivated by impartial improvements in the methodology rather than someone's desire to distort the data in a particular direction?There are lots of questions. But some of them have rather clear answers, too. Theories attributing sensational temperature changes to the increase of the carbon dioxide concentration the atmosphere don't work. Their failure actually looks hysterical. And in some cases, the very measurements of the temperature change turn out to be bogus.And that's the memo.SPIEGEL ONLINE: Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously declared at EU summits: "I want my money back." Can we expect a similar performance by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G-20 summit in London? Will she tell US President Barack Obama and other world leaders that she does not want to spend more of her money on economic stimulus, as she insisted over the past few weeks?
DPA German Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a lot of heat for her government's reaction to the economic crisis.
It won't be as dramatic. Angela Merkel is a better diplomat than Thatcher. Sure, there will be a tough lady coming to London. But Merkel has lined up broad support for her position. Many other European nations agree with her take on stimulus spending. In fact, I believe the Americans will end up being more isolated at the summit on that matter than the German chancellor.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Many American economists criticize the German position. One can hear in debates in Washington that the Germans "simply don't get it" when it comes to answers to the current global financial crisis. What does a leader like Merkel not "get"?
Posen: She does not get basic economics. She does not get that stimulus spending works in the short term. She does not get how seriously the current crisis will affect Europe and particularly Germany in the very near future. She does not get the urgent need for a global stimulus effort to increase global demand.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But if you look at the numbers, the trans-Atlantic gap in stimulus spending is not as stark as the Americans claim. After all, the Europeans can rely on so-called "automatic stabilizers" -- a more extensive welfare state that stabilizes private demand. Also, why should they invest as much in infrastructure as the Americans do now? Most of the European infrastructure is much more developed.
Posen: These points are not wrong, of course. Such stabilizers help in a crisis. However, they do not make up for the current decline in global demand. The crisis rather tells us that these automatic stabilizers -- and hence the welfare state -- are too small in such a situation, even in Europe. Right now, we simply need to spend more public money on both sides of the Atlantic. Therefore, these counter-arguments miss the larger picture.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why are the Americans so focused on the German spending? Berlin is spending more than other big European nations like France, and Germany is just one country among many on the Continent.
But the Germans have tremendous leverage to influence the actions of other European nations. They are the biggest economy in Europe and the biggest net payer within the European Union. They have the ability to convince other countries to follow their advice and shy away from too much public spending. That is happening right now and I don't blame the German government for it -- if you are the Pope you want everybody to be Catholic, right? In a way, I even welcome that the Germans are showing leadership, we have often criticized their reluctance to take the initiative. It is just unfortunate that the Germans are currently leading in exactly the wrong direction. They also isolate other nations like Great Britain that are willing to spend more on the stimulus -- by highlighting that they will amass massive budget deficits in the process and other European nations won't.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: So if the German position is so influential, will Obama leave the G-20 summit empty-handed?
Posen: He won't leave empty-handed. There will be some form of agreement at the summit, for instance on the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But I think that the debate on more European stimulus spending is largely written off by the White House. They are not expecting any major commitments in London.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: One of the reasons why the Europeans are reluctant to spend more is a lack of confidence in the prospects of massive public spending. You have been very critical of some of Obama's efforts, too. Does his team have a way out of the crisis?
Posen: I am very happy how aggressive the Obama White House has been on the stimulus spending. But I am also very critical of their bank rescue plan just presented by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. First, I think it is a massive transfer of public money towards private investors who have caused the crisis in the first place. While the taxpayers basically have to vouch for all the risks, hedge funds and other private investors could make a bonanza under the rules of the plan by buying up assets from ailing banks for very low prices. Also, the plan will buy up only some of the toxic assets. Members of the administration assure me that I don't know the details of their plan, that the'stress tests' on the banks involved will be really tough, etc. But I heard similar assurances when I followed the Japanese reaction to their banking crisis in the 1990s. Yes, I am very critical of Obama's plan for the banking system. It might work, I think it is just not likely.Twenty-eight percent of Major League Baseball players on the 25-man opening day rosters were born outside of the 50 United States, according to the commissioner's office.
It's the fourth-highest number in big leagues' history, trailing last season, 2007 and 2005.
There were 241 players born outside the U.S., out of the 856 players on 30 big league rosters, the disabled list and restricted list.
The Dominican Republic, recent winner of the World Baseball Classic, was the best represented country with 89 players, including New York Yankees All-Star Robinson Cano. Venezuela was second with 63, which includes Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, then Canada (17), Cuba (15) and Mexico (14).
Puerto Rico had 13 players, Japan had 11 and Colombia and Panama had four each. Australia, South Korea and Nicaragua each had two.
Milwaukee had the most foreign-born players with 14 and Texas was next at 13.
Fox News Latino did the math and found out that 24.2 percent players on this year's MLB rosters are foreign-born players from Latin American countries. Only 4 percent of the league is Canadian, European or Asian.
Major League Baseball officials also told Fox News Latino that 27.1 percent of its players are of “Hispanic background.”
This includes players such as pitcher Sergio Romo of the San Francisco Giants and Adrian Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are of Mexican descent but born in the United States and are not included on the foreign born list.
According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, last year’s Latino percentage was 27.3 percent.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned the UK faces "dire consequences" if it passes the government's recently revealed draft surveillance bill.
The Investigatory Powers Billseeks to give officials permission to capture web browsing metadata of every UK citizen, and would introduce sweeping reforms to oversight procedures. It would also force internet companies to assist investigators in bypassing encryption on messaging apps and other services -- the so-called 'backdoor' requirement.
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For Apple, whose iMessage service is one of the two-way encrypted services that would seemingly be affected by that legal obligation, that's a problem. "We believe very strongly in end-to-end encryption and no back doors," Cook told The Telegraph. "We don’t think people want us to read their messages. We don’t feel we have the right to read their emails." "Any back door is a back door for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a back door can have very dire consequences."
Cook also argued that data breaches by hackers -- such as the recent attack on TalkTalk and other larger-scale hacks of Sony Pictures and elements of the US government -- show that no storage of people's private data can be totally secure.
If you halt or weaken encryption, the people that you hurt are not the folks that want to do bad things. It's the good people. The other people know where to go Tim Cook
"You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on. These things are becoming more frequent," he said. "It's not the case that encryption is a rare thing that only two or three rich companies own and you can regulate them in some way. Encryption is widely available. It may make someone feel good for a moment but it's not really of benefit. If you halt or weaken encryption, the people that you hurt are not the folks that want to do bad things. It's the good people. The other people know where to go."
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Cooks comments follow strong criticism of the draft bill by Joseph Cannataci, the UN's special rapporteur on privacy, who described the legislation as "worse than scary".
During his keynote presentation at the Internet Governance Forum in Brazil, Cannataci said "we're now at the stage where for the first time we have an absolute offensive." "Just do a media analysis ladies and gentlemen, do a media analysis of the way the British establishment is trotting out news about the law and the need for the law and ask yourselves the question 'If this is not orchestrated then what is?'"
Other highlights from the interview include:In the letter, Principal Rich Kitchens describes "a 'Fantasy Slut League' in which our female students (unbeknownst to most of them) are drafted as part of the league...Male students earn points for documented engagement in sexual activities with female students."According to the letter, school staff learned about this during a recent assembly about date rape prevention.An investigation was launched on campus and they learned this has been going on for five to six years.The principal wrote, "Participation often involved pressure/manipulation by older students that included alcohol to impair judgment/control and social demands to be popular."ABC7 News spoke with Superintendent Constance Hubbard about the letter."We wanted to make sure that parents were aware of things that were going in their kids' lives," Hubbard said.Many parents said they were surprised to hear about the "fantasy slut league," but most didn't want to talk about it. They said Piedmont is a small town, and that is a very sensitive subject."I'm really glad that there's a strong administration that's willing to take on these kinds of issues; as a mother of four girls I couldn't be happier," parent Bianca Forrester said.Piedmont school administrators say they issued the letter in an effort to be proactive."The main thing is that I don't want to blow this out of proportion; I don't want to make is something that is some horrible big event that we found out about," Hubbard said.They are planning a series of on campus assemblies with lessons about preventing this in the future.CLOSE New islands have formed off North Carolina's coast. Veuer's Natasha Abellard (@NatashaAbellard) has the story. Buzz60
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks, N.C. (Photo: Jorge Moro, Getty Images/iStockphoto)
To the delight of beachgoers and photographers, a new island has formed off the coast of North Carolina's Outer Banks.
The island, which is off the coast of Cape Point near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, is a mile long and three football fields wide, The Virginian Pilot reported.
Instagram user chadonka posted an aerial image of the new island, which shows just how big it is.
Cape Hatteras point and the new sandbar island #capepoint A post shared by 🅲🅷🅰🅳 (@chadonka) on May 31, 2017 at 6:01pm PDT
And while the island is drawing tourists from near and far, Dave Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, told The Virginian Pilot that people should not try to walk or swim across the water that separates the island from the coast.
Hallac said a rip current about 50 yards wide rushes between the point and the island, The Virginian Pilot reported.
Furthermore, there could be large fishing hooks at the bottom and there have been reports of large sharks and sting rays in the area, Bill Smith, president of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, told The Virginian Pilot.
Sounds like that Instagram photo may not be worth it!
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2tRmtmUHarvardX, the faculty-led educational endeavor that supports innovative online teaching and research on campus and beyond, announced its new course offerings, expected to roll out through this fall.
Students will be able to choose from learning experiences that last several months, akin to courses, and modules, discrete, topic-based units designed to be both standalone and integratable with traditional academic classes.
Developed with the support of two HarvardX faculty-led committees, the courses and modules cover a range of subjects, from architecture to poetry and from clinical trials to health and society, and represent eight Schools. HarvardX, in particular, is embracing the arts and humanities, with a large number of courses and modules coming from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).
Providing broad and specialized content, the HarvardX versions of campus-based courses include some from the College’s General Education program, such as SPU27x, “Science and Cooking,” as well as others that are core components of professional programs in public health, government, and medicine.
A few of the offerings, like the module MCB80.1x, “Fundamentals of Neuroscience,” were created specifically to take advantage of online learning technologies and are fully open. Others, such as GSD1.1x, “The Architectural Imaginary,” are what are known as small, private, online courses, or SPOCS, intended only for enrolled campus students — in this case those at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).
Robert Lue, faculty director of HarvardX and professor of the practice of molecular and cellular biology, gives enormous credit to the “faculty HarvardX pioneers” who helped pave the way for this next set of courses and modules.
“Their experience, insights, and willingness to share best practices is essential to our success. One of the most significant outcomes of HarvardX has been the way it has convened faculty and elevated teaching and learning across the campus,” said Lue, who is also the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. “Each course is a living experiment. These are not plug-and-play formats, but newly developed or combined instructional approaches based on the carefully considered learning goals of the faculty.”
In addition to the lead faculty and instructors, HarvardX courses and modules are supported by a team of fellows and graduate students (who help to manage everything from content to quizzes to discussion forums) and technical experts (who contribute to video and academic tools, and handle the complex issues like copyright clearances). The collaborative approach leads to robust online learning experiences, with the option to vary both form and function on the fly.
“Science and Cooking” will include “labs that you can eat.” Online students will be asked to vote on favorite recipe examples in advance, and encouraged to engage in kitchen science at home. AI12.1x/2.x, two modules forming what will become a collection called “Poetry in America,” will feature a wealth of multimedia resources, including videos of objects from Harvard’s extensive library collections and footage from areas in Massachusetts that captures the settings where poets wrote and lived.
At the same time, each online offering is an opportunity for a faculty member to implement a study on pedagogy. Having a research question — from persistence and performance to retention of material — as part of each course or module is a requirement, as is an eye toward recirculating any discoveries about student learning back into Harvard’s campus classes.
“By allowing rigorous research on how students learn, we see HarvardX courses as helping to inform, not displace, the on-campus experience,” said Andrew Ho, chair of the HarvardX Research Committee and an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). “We are already analyzing terabytes of data from thousands of users, to chart their learning trajectories and evaluate the helpfulness of online resources and peer-to-peer interactions. We are learning valuable lessons from the courses just wrapping up and will launch more studies on pedagogy in the coming year.”
Even with only the first wave of HarvardX courses completed or nearly completed, that migration from online to on-campus has begun. PH207x, “Health in Numbers: Quantitative Methods in Clinical & Public Health Research,” which wrapped up in January, is serving as a test case for the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to “flip” various on-campus courses. “Flipping classrooms,” an increasingly common practice wherein students watch lectures in advance, frees up course time for more hands-on activities, discussion, and faculty-student engagement.
Likewise, Terry Fisher, WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Harvard Law School, designed HLS1x, “Copyright,” like a real-time case study on the case method. The limited-enrollment course took advantage of the ability to offer students different sets of texts simultaneously, as well as “cohorting,” or segmenting the students into smaller groups to provide greater interaction with teaching fellows and better study learning outcomes.
Fisher and his course team are also taking advantage of number-crunching support from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and from the metaLAB, a research and teaching unit based at the Berkman Center and the GSD that is dedicated to exploring and expanding the frontiers of networked culture in the arts and humanities. They hope to understand issues related to student retention and provide a model for other highly interactive, smaller case-based online courses.
Beyond the campus, HarvardX has also found its way into the hearts and minds of alumni around the world. In Greg Nagy’s CB22x, “The Ancient Greek Hero,” running currently, onetime Harvard College students who took the traditional campus course in past decades were recruited and trained to serve as mentors. Nagy, the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and professor of comparative literature, wanted to provide a greater level of personalization for the nearly 30,000 online students, and to create ambassadors for epic poetry.
Jonathan Haber, who writes the blog “Degree of Freedom” and is conducting an experiment by trying to complete a B.A. “degree” in liberal arts in one year by taking online courses, is well on his way to embracing his inner ancient ”Greekness.”
“Nagy is pulling his students through a learning experience where we never know whether the next Hour will include material from Homer, Hoffman or Schwarzenegger,” Haber wrote. “But we do know we will have to engage very deeply with challenging texts, and even more challenging exercises … which are all part of a quest to get us to think like Ancient Greeks …”
The big lesson so far is that the newest innovations in learning share a deep intellectual kinship with the oral tradition, a method of knowledge transfer predating printed textbooks by centuries. Thinking, after all, is not bound by technology.
Here are the expected fall 2013 courses and modules from HarvardX. (Note: Only the lead faculty instructors are listed.)
GSD1.1x, “The Architectural Imaginary” (module, limited enrollment, campus-only), K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPU27x, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science” (course), Michael Brenner, Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and Harvard College Professor, and David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences/Harvard College
SW12x, “China” (course), Peter K. Bol, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and William C. Kirby, T.M. Chang Professor of China Studies and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration; Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor; Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration
MCB80.1x, “Fundamentals of Neuroscience, Part 1: The Electrical Properties of the Neuron” (module), David Cox, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Computer Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences/Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
MCB54.1x, “Cell Biology” (module), Robert Lue, Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology; Director of HarvardX; Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, and Alexander Schier, Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
AI12.1x and AI12.2x, “Poetry in America” (two modules: The Poetry of Early New England and Whitman), Elisa New, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
HSPH-HMS214x, “Fundamentals of Clinical Trials” (course), James H. Ware, Frederick Mosteller Professor of Biostatistics; Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Science, Harvard School of Public Health/Faculty of Arts and Sciences, developed through Harvard Catalyst
HKS211.1x, “Central Challenges of American National Security, Strategy, and the Press: An Introduction” (module), Graham T. Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and Director of Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, and David Sanger, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Chief Washington Correspondent of The New York Times (Note: due to the sensitive nature of some of the material, select features such as discussion |
mono mixes.
These extra tracks reveal the genius of the Fab Four and provide listeners a glimpse into how the greatest album in the history of rock and roll was created.
Longtime fans, many of whom bought the album when it first came out, have been blown away by the extras. Fans are hearing sounds, riffs, and phrases they’ve never heard before.
The reason behind these sonic discoveries lies in how the Beatles recorded their music. They played like an orchestra, with each instrument performing a different part. When heard without the vocals, the songs of Sgt. Pepper sound very different.
For example, the chorus of their psychedelic masterpiece, “Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds,” sounds like garage rock sans John Lennon’s singing.
That transformation, and others like it, allow longtime fans to experience the Beatles’ masterpiece in an entirely new way. For new fans, the extras are a master class on how to make a rock album that’s impervious to the ravages of time.
If you’re a music fan, Sgt. Pepper’s should be in your collection. The 50th anniversary re-issue is the perfect place to start. It doesn’t detract from the original, it adds to it.Here’s a famous story: In 1963, during the New York newspaper strike — participants included the Daily News, the New York Times and the New York Post — Jason Epstein, a Random House exec, saw an opportunity. Publishing houses still need to advertise, he reasoned, so why not give them an outlet and, to boot, launch an incredible platform for book reviews? Epstein joined up with Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein — and so was born the New York Review of Books. It quickly became the gold standard in book criticism.
Now is not then, of course. I mention the Review’s history only to show that, for someone starting a publication, one needn’t be motivated by a burning intellectual desire or a hankering to exploit a serious void in the media landscape, but it doesn’t hurt. Fifty years later, the Review is not all that different than it was at its launch, and still reeks of vitality and necessity. This, I find, is my problem with FiveThirtyEight. (I also happen to agree with the earlier, substantive criticisms leveled by Tyler Cowen, Paul Krugman and Ryan Cooper, particularly the policy quibbles.) I simply have no idea why it exists.
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In a pre-launch interview, FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver told New York magazine what his site would not do. It would not, he said, “do advocacy.” The site would not attempt “to sway public opinion on anything.” It would not “do a ton of public-policy coverage.” FiveThirtyEight, he wrote, would apply data journalism — by which he meant “statistical analysis, but also data visualization, computer programming and data-literate reporting” — to such broad topics as politics, economics and science.
I don’t believe this is as much of a revelation as Silver would have us believe. David Leonhardt, the respective staffs of the Wall Street Journal and the Economist, or, for that matter, the latest iteration of Wonkblog, practice this just fine. (Sure, a lot of reporters are idiots. I’d never argue otherwise. But the fact that Silver cites Peggy Noonan and Mark Halperin, who are both morons, suggests that his argument is built on sand.) And Silver was particularly adept at it, when he cloistered his interests to voter polls and baseball.
So, why FiveThirtyEight, and why now? I assume Silver realized his stock would, in the wake of a bestselling book and successful election prediction, never be higher; it was common sense to act quickly. If that’s what motivated him, and not some deep-seated desire to reform journalism, that would explain why his project doesn’t meet its moment. As I type this, our climate — the planet itself — is falling apart (Americans, no doubt largely thanks to our awful media, don’t know enough to give a shit); the Ukrainian situation has worsened; and a Korean ferry just sank in the Yellow Sea. The world is a very bleak place, and a publication launched amid these realties would, one would hope, at least attempt a nod in their direction. Of what value is it, otherwise?
That, so far, is my biggest problem with FiveThirtyEight — what you might call its Frivolity Factor. Here’s the home page, “above the fold,” at 4:15 p.m. It is not atypical of the month-old site:
And these are the headlines of the most recent five features (as I write this):
None feel particularly urgent. (With the exception of the tornado piece, in fact, they’re downright evergreen.) Perhaps this betrays a certain myopia on my part, but I do not believe I’ll be disadvantaged if I don’t broaden my knowledge of the Detroit Pistons or take a microscope to the pleasantly mediocre oeuvre of a public television painter. Not every story needs to be spinach or vegetables — which is what FiveThirtyEight’s “data journalism” competitor, Vox, calls “articles about hard topics” — but it’s to no one’s benefit to give your audience a plate of Mallomars.
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* * *
It doesn’t have to be this way. A few years ago, ESPN — FiveThirtyEight’s publisher — bankrolled a project that, too, was the brainchild of a man seemingly at the apex of his career. Bill Simmons’ Grantland has, at least critically, been wildly successful (the “Dr. V” story notwithstanding). Simmons didn’t claim to be the savior of sports journalism. He didn’t create Grantland in his own image (it’s revealing, I think, that Silver kept the FiveThirtyEight name despite the reduced focus on presidential elections). But it has delivered. As a purveyor of in-depth sports journalism it has been invaluable. I hope the newest member of ESPN’s stable finds its purpose, too.Remember that Mother Nature is teaching us valuable lessons… All the Time!
All we need to do is first be willing to learn from her. Second, actually learn from her. And third, take
Action. Consider her as your mentor. As we do with our Mother. She has the answers to every
problem, every challenge we might be facing. And the way she makes available the solutions, is
sometimes, so simple, that we tend to ignore.
Interesting, isn’t it… the same mother nature has given us one mind, the conscious one, which has
over the period of time, exaggerated the idea of physical survival out of proportions. And the other
mind, the unconscious one, one where all the simple answers to all our complex questions reside,
waiting to be explored, waiting to be acted upon.
Every the answer you might be seeking for, is either there in your system, or there in your environment.
, These answers cannot exist anywhere else. This book, trains you to understand the language, our
mother nature uses.
Author Sudhir Khollam explores this language and intends to talk directly to your unconscious and
bring out all the answers you are seeking for through this book. Though he talks predominantly
about money lessons from mother nature, this book will surely help you come up with answers to
any situation of yours, be it financial, be it relationships, be it health and be it any other question.
Sudhir Khollam is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Trainer and a Transformation Coach. He works with
Entrepreneurs who are willing to seek help in their Business or any other areas of their lives. He has
helped Entreprenuers more than double their business within three months or less. He attributes his
ability to help people grow to his unique skill to look down deep into their systems and their
environments.Sussex chickens is a laying hen larger than the average and it is very famous for its qualities of mother. In effect, it will be easily to hatching and will to wonders of your chicks, whether they are born under them or that they be added subsequently. Since a few years, it made his big return on the markets of the South West and in the low-court of our farms. This is not a pure race, it was select in order to "improve these qualities of laying hens.
Sussex Chickens Characteristics:
Its plumage is white sprinkled with black tasks including around the neck and and end of queue.This color is noticed by far, adorned with very well the low-court and made a note of originality. She between in ponte around its 20 th weeks, for a pic of ponte toward 26 weeks. Sussex chickens will give you good fresh eggs for at least 18 months. Following this, it may be valorised in chicken pot or stuffed chicken.
Tips for breeding sussex chickens:
sussex chickens chicks regroup under the point of heated, is that they were cold. If they move away from then there were hot. If they come together in a corner, be sure to check the presence of current of air that have to be removed. for laying hens emerging, it is necessary to provide a temperature of approximately 37 degrees C under the point of heated and 30 °C in atmosphere. At the age of 6 weeks, the optimal ambient temperature is 20 degrees celsius. The reduction of the temperature must always be progressive and adapt to the animals. In effect if thechicks regroup under the point of heated, is that they were cold. If they move away from then there were hot. If they come together in a corner, be sure to check the presence of current of air that have to be removed.
For the power supply we recommend a food rich the first 4 weeks, with a protein rating greater than or equal to 21. After 28 days, a food to 20 of protein is sufficient. Of this age insert in a progressive way cracked corn in first and then the whole wheat. Note that the but is richer than wheat and improves the growth of your animals. A proportion of 1/3 of wheat and 2/3 of but should be very well until the entry into ponte. Therefore it will take a ration more lightened, to base whole-wheat, to avoid the fattening which would significantly to the ponte.
For watering it is important to provide enough water points. For the chicks to 1 day, plan many small waterer easy of access in order to avoid dehydration which can be the starting point for many problems.
For the ponte, plan a nest in height, sheltered and discreet or the hen will feel safe for nesting.
The litter must be healthy and non-dusty, it should not exceed 8 hens/sq. m in the building (one can go up to 25 to start). With regard to the course, there should be a minimum of 6 sq. m/hen.EnVyUs Overwatch change up their roster
EnVyUs have been notably absent from tournaments since the beta returned in early February, only playing in a single tournament (GosuGamers NA Weekly #4) - which they won. The reason for their extended absence is now clear.
The team have made the collective decision to switch up their lineup, dropping their long-time support player Esper and moving former flex player Ras to the support position.
EnVyUs have been practicing with ex-Shootmania professional player, Buds. A former teammate of Talespin’s from Curse Gaming’s Shootmania division, Buds has already proven his FPS chops at the highest level. However, an official announcement has yet to be made, so it’s unclear whether Buds is already a member of the team, or just trying out.
Since the switch, the team have been performing well in practice matches, getting favorable results against a number of top teams. A part of this can be credited to the decision to move Ras to support. A noted FPS veteran, Ras' Zenyatta play has been influential in these scrims.
EnVyUs seem quite confident in their new lineup, already having signed up for tomorrow’s GosuGamers NA Weekly #7. It will be interesting to see how they fare, so make sure to tune in!
EnVyUs’ current lineup
For more competitive Overwatch news, follow us @GosuOverwatch.
QUICKPOLL Will EnVyUs maintain their place among the top teams with their new lineup? Yes
Thank you for voting! No
Thank you for voting!PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti’s parliament has approved the creation of a commission that will allow foreign donors to participate in deciding how to rebuild the poor Caribbean nation after its devastating January 12 earthquake.
A view is seen of a provisional camp made by earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince, April 15, 2010. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The bill approving the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which was set up by an international donors conference on March 31, was passed by the Haitian Senate late on Thursday after the national assembly’s lower house had also endorsed it.
The assembly also extended a post-quake state of emergency for 18 months, corresponding to the commission’s tenure.
The joint commission, to be co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, and by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, will determine which reconstruction projects will receive backing from multibillion-dollar funding pledged by foreign donors.
President Rene Preval is due to sign the bill into law and the president will have final veto over rebuilding projects.
Even before the catastrophic quake, which shattered the fragile and impoverished Haitian economy and killed more than 300,000 people, Haiti had a reputation for high levels of government corruption. Donors had called for guarantees of oversight and accountability in the rebuilding process.
Sitting on the commission, under the joint chair, will be an equal number of Haitian and non-Haitian representatives. The latter include officials of international organizations, multilateral lenders and major donors.
The body will operate for 18 months before handing over to a government redevelopment authority.
Thirteen senators voted for the bill, one voted against, and two abstained, but in preceding debates, Preval’s administration had to overcome arguments from some lawmakers who said the quake-hit nation was ceding sovereignty by agreeing to a foreign donor role in decision-making.
“I could not vote this law because it is against the country’s constitution and it violates our sovereignty,” said Senator Youri Latortue, who refused to back the bill.
Rejecting these fears, Preval told Haitians the operation of the commission would facilitate the release of massive reconstruction financing that will be administered through a Multi-Donor Trust Fund, to be supervised by the World Bank.
“Do we lose our sovereignty because of the creation of this commission? I think the answer is no,” Preval said recently.
MANY HAITIANS MISTRUST GOVERNMENT
At the March 31 donors’ conference in New York, foreign governments, multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations from around the world pledged a total of $9.9 billion for Haiti’s reconstruction, $5.3 billion for the next two years alone.
The emergency measures accompanying the creation of the recovery commission authorize the Haitian government to use funds and take other measures needed for reconstruction without prior approval by parliament, and also allow it to avoid some legal and constitutional constraints.
Many Haitians have criticized what they say was the Preval government’s slow and ineffective response to the natural disaster. A poll funded last month by the international charity Oxfam showed that only 6.6 percent of Haitians believed their government alone should be left to rebuild the country.
But government supporters said the commission would help to get the reconstruction underway quicker. “We want this law to take effect as soon as possible so the population may see the concrete results of commitments made by the government and the international community,” Senator Joseph Lambert said.
International aid workers are striving to care for more than 1 million homeless Haitian quake survivors who are camped out in makeshift tent and shelter communities sprawled across the wrecked capital and in other damaged towns.
Aid workers say that unless safer, more secure shelter is found for the hundreds of thousands of homeless quake victims, the imminent rains, and the hurricane season starting on June 1, could cause another humanitarian catastrophe.SAT SCORES aren’t everything. But they can tell some fascinating stories.
Take 1,623, for instance. That’s the average score of Asian-Americans, a group that Daniel Golden - editor at large of Bloomberg News and author of “The Price of Admission’’ - has labeled “The New Jews.’’ After all, much like Jews a century ago, Asian-Americans tend to earn good grades and high scores. And now they too face serious discrimination in the college admissions process.
Notably, 1,623 - out of a possible 2,400 - not only separates Asians from other minorities (Hispanics and blacks average 1,364 and 1,276 on the SAT, respectively). The score also puts them ahead of Caucasians, who average 1,581. And the consequences of this are stark.
Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade, who reviewed data from 10 elite colleges, writes in “No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal’’ that Asian applicants typically need an extra 140 points to compete with white students. In fact, according to Princeton lecturer Russell Nieli, there may be an “Asian ceiling’’ at Princeton, a number above which the admissions office refuses to venture.
Emily Aronson, a Princeton spokeswoman, insists “the university does not admit students in categories. In the admission process, no particular factor is assigned a fixed weight and there is no formula for weighing the various aspects of the application.’’
A few years ago, however, when I worked as a reader for Yale’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, it became immediately clear to me that Asians - who constitute 5 percent of the US population - faced an uphill slog. They tended to get excellent scores, take advantage of AP offerings, and shine in extracurricular activities. Frequently, they also had hard-knock stories: families that had immigrated to America under difficult circumstances, parents working as kitchen assistants and store clerks, and households in which no English was spoken.
But would Yale be willing to make 50 percent of its freshman class Asian? Probably not.
Indeed, as Princeton’s Nieli suggests, most elite universities appear determined to keep their Asian-American totals in a narrow range. Yale’s class of 2013 is 15.5 percent Asian-American, compared with 16.1 percent at Dartmouth, 19.1 percent at Harvard, and 17.6 percent at Princeton.
“There are a lot of poor Asians, immigrant kids,’’ says University of Oregon physics professor Stephen Hsu, who has written about the admissions process. “But generally that story doesn’t do as much as it would for a non-Asian student. Statistically, it’s true that Asians generally have to get higher scores than others to get in.’’
In a country built on individual liberty and promise, that feels deeply unfair. If a teenager spends much time studying, excels at an instrument or sport, and garners wonderful teacher recommendations, should he be punished for being part of a high-achieving group? Are his accomplishments diminished by the fact that people he has never met - but who look somewhat like him - also work hard?
“When you look at the private Ivy Leagues, some of them are looking at Asian-American applicants with a different eye than they are white applicants,’’ says Oiyan Poon, the 2007 president of the University of California Students Association. “I do strongly believe in diversity, but I don’t agree with increasing white numbers over historically oppressed populations like Asian-Americans, a group that has been denied civil rights and property rights.’’ But Poon, now a research associate at the University of Massachusetts Boston, warns that there are downsides to having huge numbers of Asian-Americans on a campus.
In California, where passage of a 1996 referendum banned government institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, Asians make up about 40 percent of public university students, though they account for only 13 percent of residents. “Some Asian-American students feel that they lost something by going to school at a place where almost half of their classmates look like themselves - a campus like UCLA. The students said they didn’t feel as well prepared in intercultural skills for the real world.’’
But what do you do if you’re an elite college facing tremendous numbers of qualified Asian applicants? At the 2006 meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a panel entitled “Too Asian?’’ looked at the growing tendency of teachers, college counselors, and admissions officers to see Asians as a unit, rather than as individuals.
Hsu argues it’s time to tackle this issue, rather than defer it, as Asians’ superior performance will likely persist. “This doesn’t seem to be changing. You can see the same thing with Jews. They’ve outperformed other ethnic groups for the past 100 years.’’
Which leaves us with two vexing questions: Are we willing to trade personal empowerment for a more palatable group dynamic? And when - if ever - should we give credit where credit is due?
Kara Miller teaches at Babson College.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.Supreme Court said that the issue of bifurcation of states is "both sensitive as well as tricky".
Newly carved out state Telangana cannot claim "absolute" right over institutions merely because they are located in its capital Hyderabad which is being shared by Andhra Pradesh also, the Supreme Court has held.The verdict, having far-reaching consequences in matters relating to division of assets and liabilities between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana post 2014 bifurcation, has set aside a High Court verdict upholding freezing of bank accounts of Andhra Pradesh State Council (APSC) of Higher Education on the ground that now APSC assets belong to Telangana State Council (TSC) of Higher Education as it is located in Hyderabad."In the instant case, the State of Telangana has claimed ownership over the entire funds and assets of the (erstwhile) APSC. This could surely not have been the intention of the legislature while enacting the Reorganisation Act, 2014."The main thrust of the argument of both senior counsel appearing on behalf of State of Telangana, as well as the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court is that the successor State of Andhra Pradesh has absolutely no right over the institutions in the city of Hyderabad, by virtue of the fact that Hyderabad falls in the successor State of Telangana."We are wholly unable to agree with this contention advanced on behalf of the State of Telangana. If this contention is accepted, it would render Section 47 of the Act, which provides for apportionment of assets and liabilities among the successor States, useless and nugatory," a bench of justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra said.Referring to the 2014 Reorganisation Act that had paved the way for creation of Telangana, it said that the issue of bifurcation of states is "both sensitive as well as tricky"."Adequate care has to be taken by the legislature while drafting legislations such as the Reorganisation Act, 2014 to ensure a smooth division of all assets, liabilities and funds between the states to make sure that the interests of the citizens living in these states are protected adequately."Therefore, care must be taken to ensure that no discrimination is done against either of the successor state. Thus while interpreting statutes of such nature, the courts must ensure that all parts of the statute are given effect to," the bench said.WASHINGTON: The future of the Indo-US partnership has never looked brighter, President Donald Trump said as he lauded the "irreplaceable contributions" of the Indian-American community in shaping the country.Trump in his message to the India Day parade in Chicago to mark the 70th anniversary of India's independence said that the US and India shared an enduring bond of friendship founded upon great respect for the values of democracy and mutual security."Thanks to the irreplaceable contributions of Hindus and Indian Americans, the future of our valued partnership has never looked brighter, and we continue to foster even greater cooperation for future generations," Trump said in the message."As we celebrate this magnificent milestone for the people of India, we proudly recognise all of Hindus and Indian Americans who have been influential in shaping the character of our great nation," Trump said, according to his message read on the occasion.Addressing the gathering, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, said Indian American community is an integral part of the US, enriching it with colour, music, food and dance.In his remarks, he lauded the Indian American community for contributing to the business and cultural heritage of the state and country.Rauner also read a proclamation signed by him declaring August 15 as official India's Independence Day in state of Illinois.The day-long event which culminated in a concert by singer Mika Singh. The concert was attended by about 30,000 people.Top American lawmakers on India's Independence Day called for enhancing the Indo-US partnership."Today we celebrate India's Independence Day and welcome new opportunities to expand economic cooperation and strengthen our trade relations," said Senator Ted Cruz from Texas.For the past 71 years India has proved to be a shining example of democracy and growth, Congressman Frank Pallone said."India's expanded role on the world stage has made it one of America's most important allies and I will continue to work to strengthen our relationship through my work in Congress," he said.Congressman Todd Rokita from Indiana, Congressman John Culberson from Texas and Congressman Pete Olson congratulated Indians on the special day.Meanwhile in Houston, hundreds of Indian Americans celebrated the day with patriotic fervour; singing the national anthem enthusiastically and lighting up houses and temples in tricolour Consul General Anupam Ray hoisted the flag in the wee hours yesterday and recognised the US veterans."We as a nation admire what the America stands for and salute the best in America -- US Veterans," Ray said."What represents the US people the best, I could only think of the Veterans as they are the pillars of American society."He said the Indian community in America was grateful to America and wanted to give back something."When I learnt that this is what they feel, I thought they must connect with veterans because. This is how Indians who have come here have enjoyed their freedom, the opportunities that America gives and this is how they can say 'thank you' to those people who made that possible. We hope this is the beginning of a long relationship, we admire what America stands for and we admire the best in America," Ray said.I have been thinking about whether I should write a blog post about the following topic for a long time. After all Jono asked us to calm down and not put more oil into the fire. But on the other hand I had asked Jono to make sure that there are no personal insults and attacks against my person several times and unfortunately on the Ubuntu Planet there is still a blog post which attacks me personally without any sign that this will change. As I had been attacked by the Ubuntu community quite a lot over the last half year and I had to ask Jonathan to tell Jono that I’m not the scape goat for Ubuntu, I think it is important that I stand up against this and point out the abusive behavior we get from the Ubuntu community.
First of all I want to verbatim quote the Ubuntu Code of Conduct:
Be respectful Disagreement is no excuse for poor manners. We work together to resolve conflict, assume good intentions and do our best to act in an empathic fashion. We don’t allow frustration to turn into a personal attack. A community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.
And now I’m going to quote verbatim what Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
Mir is really important work. When lots of competitors attack a project on purely political grounds, you have to wonder what THEIR agenda is. At least we know now who belongs to the Open Source Tea Party 😉 And to put all the hue and cry into context: Mir is relevant for approximately 1% of all developers, just those who think about shell development. Every app developer will consume Mir through their toolkit. By contrast, those same outraged individuals have NIH’d just about every important piece of the stack they can get their hands on… most notably SystemD, which is hugely invasive and hardly justified. What closely to see how competitors to Canonical torture the English language in their efforts to justify how those toolkits should support Windows but not Mir.
Mark took care to write it so generic that it would fit Intel, Wayland, KDE, GNOME, Enlightment, Red Hat, systemd and everybody else who criticized the Mir decision. Nevertheless I’m convinced that the primary recipient of that attack is the KDE community and especially me personally. This is something I derive from a comment Mark put below his blog post:
When a project says “we will not accept a patch to enable support for Mir” they are saying you should not have the option. When that’s typically a project which goes to great lengths to give its users every option, again, I suggest there is a political motive.
If we combine all of it, it’s getting clear that he addresses the KDE community. Who else has support for Windows and is known for lots of options? Of all the communities, projects and companies listed above only KDE offers Windows components (well Intel as well, but I assume that Mark is not going to blame Intel for that). Thus I’m assuming that Mark intended those comments only against the KDE community. I asked him in a comment to his blog post to clarify, unfortunately Mark has at the time of this writing not yet replied and the comment is still awaiting moderation. I also copied the same comment to Google+ and included Mark and Jono, but still no clarification.
Now people could say that it’s not that bad what Mark wrote. But his claims are factually wrong and need to be corrected. After all we don’t want that his followers repeat the false claims over and over again to attack the KDE community. I’m now going to reply to the claims without going down to the level of personal attacks but just showing that all those claims are factually wrong if they are intended against the KDE community, KWin and me in person.
So let’s look at the claims one by one.
When lots of competitors attack a project on purely political grounds
together with
When a project says “we will not accept a patch to enable support for Mir”
I said that I will not accept a patch for Mir, but this is not a political decision, but a pure technical one. I’m now going to quote myself from my very first blog post on the subject of Mir:
Will KWin support Mir? No! Mir is currently a one distribution only solution and any adjustments would be distro specific. We do not accept patches to support one downstream. If there are downstream specific patches they should be applied downstream. This means at the current time there is no way to add support and even if someone would implement support for KWin on Ubuntu I would veto the patches as we don’t accept distro-specific code.
Maybe Mark thinks that this is a political decision. But not for me: this is a pure technical decision as we would not be able to maintain the code. And Mark should know about the costs of maintaining code. After all at the podium discussion about CLA at Desktop Summit 2011 Mark told us that the CLA is needed because of the maintenance costs.
Furthermore I had dedicated a complete blog post on the technical reasons on why we do not want to and cannot support Mir. Mark should have been aware of this blog post given that Jonathan re-blogged it to Planet Ubuntu. In summary I cannot understand how Mark could think that these are political decisions given that I clearly outlined the technical reasons.
So let’s look at the next part:
you have to wonder what THEIR agenda is
Well yes, one has. As I showed above I gave a technical reason in less than 24 hours after the Mir announcement. I wonder how Mark can seriously think that we could have come up with an agenda against a product we didn’t know of before or that we are that fast. So to make it clear: there is no agenda. My only agenda is to correct false claims as in this blog post.
Personally I’m wondering what Canonical’s agenda is with the strong lobbying for us to support Mir and these constant attacks against my person. Mark is not the first one to directly attack me since the announcement of Mir.
The next part would be the NIH part. I do not know how that would fit in with KDE as I’m not aware of anything we NIH’ed recently. Also Lennart already commented on that. I think there is nothing more to add to what Lennart wrote.
And last but not least there is:
What closely to see how competitors to Canonical torture the English language in their efforts to justify how those toolkits should support Windows but not Mir.
I would be very interested in seeing where anybody from the KDE community justifies the Windows support in favor of Mir. This just doesn’t make any sense. So let’s look at it in more detail. As Mark states himself most of the applications do not have to care about Mir at all as the toolkit (in our case Qt) takes care of that. That’s exactly the reason why KDE can offer Windows ports of applications. It’s more or less just a recompile and it will work. In some cases X11 dependencies had to be abstracted and exactly that will ensure that the applications will also work on Mir. So to say thanks to the Windows port the applications will work on Mir (and on Wayland). Side note: as Aaron explains on Google+ of course Mark is wrong in saying that applications do not have to care, of course the technological split affects all applications.
As Mark also states what will need adjustments are the desktop shell programs. In case of KDE that would be mostly KWin. I’m now quoting the “mission statement” for the KWin development:
KWin is an easy to use, but flexible, composited Window Manger for Xorg windowing systems on Linux.
As one can see we do not consider Windows as a target for our development. It even goes so far to exclude non-Linux based unix systems. I’m quite known for thinking that support for anything except a standardized Linux stack (this includes systemd) is a waste of time. One can find my opinion to that on blog posts, mailing list threads, review requests or just talking to people from the KDE community who know my opinion about that.
There is an additional interesting twist in this claim about Windows vs. Ubuntu. KWin as explained is currently working on Kubuntu and not on Windows and this will stay so as long as Kubuntu is able to offer either Xorg or Wayland packages. If the Kubuntu community would no longer be able to offer such packages it would be due to changes in the underlying stack introduced by Ubuntu. So it can only be Ubuntu to remove support for KWin, not KWin removing support for Kubuntu. Furthermore it’s of course the task of a distribution to integrate software and not our task to integrate with a distribution.
Even more some years ago one was able to use KWin in Ubuntu. But then Canonical decided to introduce Unity and implement it as a plugin to Compiz. Since then it is no longer possible to run KWin in Ubuntu. A decision made by Canonical. I’m not blaming them for that, don’t get that wrong. I’m just pointing out to show how wrong it is to try to blame us for not supporting Ubuntu. It was Ubuntu which decided to no longer offer the possibility to run our software in Ubuntu. This behavior over the time made me think that I’m being made a scape goat, that Canonical tries to blame me for them moving away from the rest of Linux.
In summary we can see all the claims put up by Mark to attack the KDE community are false.
Last but not least I want to say something about a very common claim: I do neither hate Mir nor Canonical. I can hardly give prove to it, but I just point out that I attended the German Ubuntu community conference last weekend and also last year. If I were in general against Canonical I wouldn’t do something like that, wouldn’t I?iPhone 6 leaks with pricing details for both the 4.7- and 5.5-inch models
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The iPhone 6 has leaked yet again, this time surfacing in a promotional flyer that reveals pricing details for both the 4.7- and the 5.5-inch models.
Apple's next-generation smartphone is among the most highly-anticipated devices of this year and a slew of leaks and rumors are boosting anticipation ahead of the big launch. Apple is widely expected to finally move to larger screens with its new smartphone, as the iPhone 6 will reportedly come in two models: one with a 4.7-inch screen and the other with a massive 5.5-inch display.
The latest iPhone 6 leak now comes out of China in the form of a promotional flyer and shows both models of the smartphone, complete with pricing details. The folks over at GSM Insider have spotted the flyer on a user's Weibo account. The promotional flyer is in Chinese, but you don't necessarily have to know the language to see the two models and their respective prices.
Looking at this leaked material, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 appears on the left, sporting a CNY$5,288 (about $852) price tag, while the larger 5.5-inch model is on the right, with a CNY$6,288 (roughly $1,013) price tag.
The iPhone 6 is expected to boast notable improvements over its predecessor, boasting a larger and tougher display, faster A8 processor, enhanced 4G LTE, improved fingerprint reader, wireless charging capabilities, and perhaps even NFC.
The promotional flyer further notes a launch date of Sept. 19, which falls in line with previous rumors that claimed that Apple would unveil the iPhone 6 on Sept. 9 and the handset would go on sale on Sept. 19.
It remains unclear at this point, however, if both iPhone 6 models will launch at the same time, or the 4.7-inch variant will arrive first. Recent speculation again claimed that the 5.5-inch version, dubbed the iPhone Air, was facing some production issues that may delay its launch or result in limited availability, but nothing is confirmed.
It's all in the rumor state for now, as Apple has not offered any official details regarding its upcoming iPhone 6. As always in such cases, make sure to take all leaks, rumors and speculation with a hefty grain of salt.
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© 2019 ITECHPOST, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Finland may become the first country to introduce basic guaranteed national income. Although the final proposal will not be considered until November 2016, the basic income plan would replace existing social welfare benefits and instead hand out a monthly tax-free payment of €800 for every Finnish adult.
According to the poll commissioned by KELA, the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, 69 percent of the population supported the idea of a universal monthly income of about €1,000. The poll indicated that there was especially high support for basic income that was implemented as a negative income tax. Initially proposed by Milton Friedman and |
carbon tax to avoid a complete blowout of a year 2020 climate. The trouble with achieving the target, say the advisors, is due to an aggressive push to build a highly polluting liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, National Observer has learned.
The government is expected to make the premier’s Climate Leadership Team’s report public Friday at 1 p.m. in Victoria, ahead of Clark’s trip to Paris for the UN climate summit next week.
The report from the premier’s climate team — made up of economists, climate experts and business leaders — will highlight an inconvenient truth for Clark’s ambition to grow a natural gas industry on Canada’s west coast.
B.C.’s greenhouse gases are already growing — so building any number of the 21 proposed LNG export facilities will make it near impossible for B.C. to achieve its legally mandated greenhouse gas reduction target in five years' time. The province is already signalling its climate goal is in trouble.
“We have always said that the 2020 target would be very difficult to achieve,” wrote an environment ministry spokesperson Tuesday.
The report for the premier may also clash with Clark’s intended messaging for Paris that so-called “clean LNG” is a climate solution for the world.
“So we have a great Canadian story to tell when we go to Paris — part of that story will be natural gas,” Clark told National Observer last week outside a an LNG facility under construction in Delta, B.C., near Vancouver.
“Because exporting the cleanest natural gas in the world to Asia, in particular, displacing coal, diesel, dirty sources of fuel — is going to help us clean up the air for the whole world,” the premier added.
LNG to produce staggering emissions
The trouble is, most of the planned LNG projects, mostly by foreign oil and gas multinationals, would emit staggering new volumes of carbon emissions.
Premier Christy Clark inside a giant LNG terminal under construction in Delta, B.C., near Vancouver last week. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa.
Just one proposed LNG terminal — Petronas’ Pacific Northwest project on Lelu Island on the B.C.’s northwest coast — would add 10.7 megatonnes of CO2 annually. That’s equal to 17 per cent of B.C.’s entire annual output of global warming pollution, the Pembina Institute’s Matt Horne said. Stricter carbon controls on the LNG industry would help, but not much, he added.
And Premier Clark is hopeful that multiple export terminals will be built. “Not all 20 [LNG terminals] will go ahead... but we know that some of them will,” she said last week.
One of the premier’s climate team advisors — climate scientist Tom Pedersen, formerly with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions — said LNG is “not a permanent solution” — and is, at best, a temporary transition fuel on a path to avoid dangerous global warming.
“I struggle with this. I really struggle with it, because so much of the world is burning the coal to produce the electricity that humanity needs,” Pedersen said from Victoria.
“Renewable energy is the climate change solution for the world. And we don’t have many decades to play with here — a maximum of three. So we got to get cracking on that.”
LNG demonstration at BC LNG Summit in Vancouver by Erik Neandross in 2014. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa.
The Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act requires B.C. to cut emissions 33 per cent from 2007 levels by 2020. It was a law put in by Clark’s predecessor, then-premier Gordon Campbell, in 2008 during a heyday of ambitious climate laws that included a clean fuel standard, and the internationally lauded B.C. carbon tax to dampen emissions.
Clark herself gave a presentation about B.C.’s carbon tax to the World Bank in Washington, D.C., in April.
B.C.'s climate leadership at risk: UN expert
But a top United Nations climate expert says the “jury is still out” on whether LNG is a climate solution — moving too aggressively could comprise B.C.’s recent climate leadership, he said.
“If B.C. is on one hand pushing carbon tax, but heavily promoting natural gas, it can be seen as a bit of contradictory,” said Reid Detchon, vice president for energy and climate at the United Nations Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
Much the LNG pollution comes from the liquefaction process to cool the fracked gas to -173 Celsius. Methane leaks from the frack drill sites and the pipelines are also a worry.
SFU climate economist Mark Jaccard at a film screening in Vancouver earlier this year. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa.
Simon Fraser University climate economist Mark Jaccard says B.C.’s 2020 climate target is still achievable if tough carbon policies are enacted, and if only one LNG terminal is built in which “all CO2 and methane emissions in the field are captured and stored and all electricity for the LNG production process is renewables.”
“[But] one or more LNG projects that do not have this and the targets are impossible,” Jaccard wrote Monday.
Slash in PST also recommended in climate report
Protecting the economy while tackling emissions was a key struggle by the premier’s Climate Leadership Team this year.
That’s why they will also recommend a slash in the provincial sales tax to buffer the economy against a carbon tax hike, sources said.
The government said it is reviewing the Climate Leadership Team’s recommendations, and will release a draft plan in December when British Columbians will have a second opportunity for review. B.C.’s new Climate Leadership Plan will be released in 2016.
New analysis from Clean Energy Canada shows if B.C. meets its climate targets, the result would be an economic boost: 900,000 new jobs between now and 2050 and 270,000 in the next decade.
But the Business Council of B.C. is a recommending against a carbon tax hike. After four years of increasing it, the carbon tax rate was frozen in 2012, one year after Clark became premier.
Last month was the hottest October on modern record, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S.
CLT Recommendations to Government Nov26FinalSimocyon (“short-snouted dog”) is a genus of extinct carnivoran mammal in the family Ailuridae. Simocyon, which was about the size of a mountain lion, lived in the late Miocene and early Pliocene epochs, and has been found in Europe, Asia, and, rarely, North America (Peigné et al., 2005) and Africa.[1]
Classification [ edit ]
Reconstructed skull and head
The relationship of Simocyon to other carnivores has been controversial, but studies of the structure of its ear, teeth, and ankle now indicate that its closest living relative is the red panda, Ailurus (Wang, 1997; Peigné et al., 2005), although it is different enough to be classified in a separate subfamily (Simocyoninae) along with related genera Alopecocyon and Actiocyon. While the red panda is primarily herbivorous, the teeth and skull of Simocyon indicate that it was carnivorous, and it may have engaged in some bone crushing, like living hyaenas (Peigné et al., 2005). The skeleton of Simocyon indicates that, like the red panda, it could climb trees, although it probably also spent considerable time on the ground (Salesa et al., 2008). Simocyon and Ailurus both have a radial sesamoid, an unusual bone in the wrist that acts like a false thumb (Salesa et al., 2006). Its competitors during its time range were tremarctine bears, nimravid cats, and early canids.
References [ edit ]
Peigné, S., M. Salesa, M. Antón, and J. Morales. (2005). “Ailurid carnivoran mammal Simocyon from the late Miocene of Spain and the systematics of the genus.“ Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Vol. 50:219-238.
from the late Miocene of Spain and the systematics of the genus.“ Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Vol. 50:219-238. Salesa, M. J., Antón, M., Peigné, S., and J. Morales. (2008). "Functional anatomy and biomechanics of the postcranial skeleton of Simocyon batalleri (Viret, 1929) (Carnivora, Ailuridae) from the late Miocene of Spain". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 152: 593–621.
(Viret, 1929) (Carnivora, Ailuridae) from the late Miocene of Spain". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 152: 593–621. Salesa, M., M. Antón, S. Peigné, and J. Morales. (2006). “Evidence of a false thumb in a fossil carnivore clarifies the evolution of pandas.“ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. 103:379-382.
Wang, X. (1997). “New cranial material of Simocyon from China, and its implications for phylogenetic relationships to the red panda (Ailurus).“ Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 17:184-198.The highly anticipated Clinton Cash documentary will air for free on Breitbart on Saturday, July 23 at 8:00 p.m. ET and on Sunday, July 24 at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. ET.
***Due to the overwhelming demand to view this film, we’ve decided to broadcast it online for free with no password required.***
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE MOVIE ONLINE AT 2:00PM & 8:00PM ET ON SUNDAY, JULY 24.
The next global broadcast of “Clinton Cash” will be SUNDAY, JULY 24 at 2:00PM ET and 8:00pm ET at this link.
The weekend Clinton Cash global release, just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA, will set the tone for Hillary Clinton’s nomination. MSNBC calls the movie “devastating” for presumptive Democratic nominee and says it “powerfully connects the dots.” The Guardian lauds the film as “a powerful message, one that is clearly designed to stir up trouble at the convention at just the moment when Clinton should be reveling in her victory in the Democratic race.” And the Fiscal Times warns that Clinton Cash is a “weapon that could knock Clinton out.”
The film, based on the New York Times bestselling investigative book Clinton Cash by Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer, has sent shockwaves through media. The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, and other Establishment Media have verified and confirmed the book’s explosive revelations about how Hillary Clinton auctioned State Department policies to foreign Clinton Foundation donors and benefactors who then paid Bill Clinton tens of millions of dollars in speaking fees.
Time says the movie’s power comes from its focus persuading liberals. “[The film is] a scathing broadside aimed at persuading liberals,” reports Time. It is “likely to leave on-the-fence Clinton supporters who see it feeling more unsure about casting a vote for her.”
CNN’s Michael Smerconish says the book-turned-film is shaping up to be the political “playbook for the fall campaign.”
Clinton Cash’s weekend global airing on Breitbart will be for two days only. Click here to watch the film. No password required.
“We wanted Breitbart Nation to see the Clinton Cash movie first and for free,” said the Stephen K. Bannon, Breitbart Executive Chairman and the film’s writer and producer.
Bannon added: “It’s imperative that progressives and conservatives alike see the film to understand Hillary Clinton’s unprecedented auctioning of State Dept. policies.”The test comes within a week of the successful test firing of India’s most lethal Agni V missile. (Image of an Agni missile)
Sending back-to-back strong messages, India today successfully test fired the Agni IV nuclear capable ballistic missile that has a range of up to 4,000 km. The test comes within a week of the successful test firing of India’s most lethal Agni V missile, an intercontinental ballistic missile, which can hit northern parts of China.
Supported by a mobile launcher, the surface-to-surface missile was flight tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Dr Abdul Kalam Island. This is the sixth trial of the indigenous missile, which weighs 17 tonnes and is 20 metre-long. According to reports, radars and electro-optical systems had been positioned along the coast of Odisha for tracking and monitoring all the parameters of the missile. Two Indian naval ships were anchored near the target area to witness the final event.
Developed by DRDO, the Agni IV is long-range missile that is propelled by composite rocket motor technology. The missile is reportedly equipped with state-of-the-art avionics V-12 fifth generation On-Board Computer. The missile has two stages of solid propulsion. The re-entry heat shield is capable of withstanding high temperatures that may reach as high as 4000 degree centigrade and above during reentry of missile in earth’s atmosphere and makes sure that the avionics function normally, with inside temperature remaining less than 50 degree centigrade.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the Agni-IV has the latest features to correct and guide itself for inflight disturbances. The most accurate Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and supported by highly reliable redundant Micro Navigation System (MINGS), ensure that missile can reach the target within two digit accuracy. Agni-I, II, III and Prithvi are already in the arsenal of armed forces, giving them reach of over 3000 km, giving India an effective deterrence capability.
According to Ravi Gupta, a former DRDO scientist, today’s test by the user adds to the confidence of India’s preparedness. “When it was developed, the Agni 4 was a major step ahead of the Agni 3 in terms of the number of new technologies it had. The success of these technologies contributed in a big way to the success of the Agni 5, in which they were used,” he told FE Online.
Watch: File video of Agni 5 canister-based launch
The Agni series of missiles gives India a formidable deterrence and strike power. India is also developing the Agni 6, that is expected to have a strike range of over 6,000 km. Meanwhile, after some user trials the Agni 5 would be ready to be inducted by the Strategic Forces Command. The Agni 5 is approximately 17-metre long and weighs about 50 tonnes. It can carry a nuclear warhead of more than one tonne.
Also read: How India’s grand missile strategy to counter China is falling in place
With its induction, India would also join the list of select countries that boast of an ICBM with a range of over 5,000 km. Currently, only US, France, China, Russia and the UK boast of such a missile system.As I was watching the trailer for STILL, a film about a young woman in an abusive relationship that is directed by 22-year-old Slater Jewell-Kemker, I started to think about what drives young filmmakers to pour every cent and every ounce of energy they have into making films that take on really tough issues like racial injustice, violence and death. The answer to that question is in their stories that begin with "I was" or "I saw." Three passionate and creative 20-something female filmmakers share their stories that take us on their journeys that led them to use their cameras to make a difference. Although they are part of an industry that doesn’t take women directors seriously, they're serious about creating global change.
Slater Jewell-Kemker, 22, Lives in Bethany, Ontario, Canada. The film: STILL
What’s the issue? STILL is about a young woman in an abusive relationship. When Sadie and her boyfriend get lost in the woods and he falls through the ice of a river and drowns, she panics and runs off only to discover duplicates of themselves. With STILL, I wanted to explore why we fall in love with the people we do, why we give our power away, and how powerful the desire to be with someone, however unhealthy, can be when you'd rather not be alone with yourself.
Why you? Why is now the time for STILL? Media has gotten into the habit of holding up infatuation as the truest form of love, the only love, that matters, praising it's spontaneity and losing oneself entirely in it. As a young woman working in film, where only 3% of directors are female, it's important to me to show the other side of this in my stories. I've given myself to the wrong people, all in the name of love, and they haven't been pleasant and in most cases lead to destructive behavior. As a filmmaker I tend to take my flaws and blow them out of proportion to study them and to heal myself. Sadie, at her core, is the part of me that so desperately wants to be loved and accepted that she'll destroy herself in the process in her pursuit of happiness. What could be better than to die for love? Than to suffer? So often women will remain in relationships that are not healthy, either physically, emotionally or otherwise, and still, STILL, we as a society turn a blind eye and would rather not deal with it. Why should it be okay for my friend to wear sunglasses to cover the bruises she got from being pushed down the stairs? Why is it okay that my bright, beautiful friend is a mere shell because she isn't worthy enough? This is disgusting, and sad, and needs to be addressed. With stories like Twilight so insanely popular where the lead girl's life and identity is entirely based off of her lover's desires, it's no wonder my generation has such a twisted idea of self worth. I'm lucky to be with someone who treats me with love and respect as my own person, someone I don't have to hide my brightness or success around to be accepted. That's why this film is important, that's why now is the time: because it's unacceptable that in 2014 violence and discrimination against women is still alive and well and robbing girls and women of their dreams and identities in the name of love.
About Slater Jewell-Kemker in her words: I was born in Los Angeles but grew up on a farm outside of Toronto, Ontario, which is incidentally where filming for STILL took place this winter in the polar vortex. I left traditional schooling when I was 16 to focus on filmmaking. My work has been playing in Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) young filmmakers program since I was 12, which is one reason why I'm so excited to be in the official TIFF proper this year. On my farm I keep honeybees, garden heirloom vegetables and dream of dairy goats. I've been making a documentary on climate change and young people since I was 15, taking me to Nepal and around the world. I'm the youngest ever director to be a Resident of the Canadian Film Centre's Directors Lab. And I'm a nice person, goshdarnit.
Erin Schneider, 26, lives in Portland, Oregon. The Film: The Hunted and The Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy
What's the issue? The NYPD’s reported use of its controversial “Stop & Frisk” policy rose 600% in ten years, culminating in 685,724 stops in 2011 alone – that’s over 1,800 people stopped by the NYPD per day. The two most egregious facts: nine out 10 people stopped were innocent and 91% were minorities, according to NYPD data. Many claimed it was racial profiling at its finest and community outrage bubbled over, with thousands marching on then-mayor Bloomberg’s Fifth Avenue residence in June of 2012. In 2013, a federal judge ruled that the practice violated the Fourth and 14th Amendment. Though minorities continue to be disproportionately targeted by race, a new report by the New York Civil Liberties Union reports that stops are down by 72% since 2011.
Why you? Why was the timing important? My story speaks to the power of the camera in sparking social change. After taking two years off from college, one spent soul-searching in India, I had nearly lost faith in journalism’s ability to improve society given how unjust the world seemed. When I returned, my professor and mentor Jason Samuels pushed me not to give up on my passion and sent me to cover a small protest against “Stop & Frisk” in inner city New York. Although I am a white girl from suburban America, racial injustice has always upset my moral compass and I’d been covering it throughout my journalism studies. What I found at the protest was anger and frustration at a police policy that community members said painted them all as criminals. But reporting on the issue had been superficial so I dug deep, spending eight months videotaping police, interviewing cops and kids, and attending court hearings, memorials and protests - often coming to tears after what I witnessed. During a protest, I encountered a young man’s audio recording of what it was like to be stopped and questioned, not for committing a crime, but for being a “mutt,” as police officers announce during the tape. He did not want to go on camera and had refused an interview with a major American news outlet so I finished my thesis film at NYU with him anonymous.
Filmmaker Ross Tuttle urged me to use the network and trust I had built to see how many eyes we could get on the issue before decision makers and politicians would notice. Together, we took my reporting to major news outlets and one-by-one they “passed.” Was the subject matter too controversial? Outrage about Stop and Frisk was at an all time high and the film was too important to let go so we pressed forward, aiming to release the film just before a major city council meeting on public safety. I ended up couch surfing and supporting myself with food stamps during the last three months of production to make that deadline. The Nation agreed to host our video and it immediately went viral – reaching over a million views within the first week and about seven million now. In the end, it was debated at the city council meeting and a federal judge mentioned the audiotape I uncovered as the “only known recording of a civilian stop [and frisk]" in her ruling overturning Stop & Frisk as unconstitutional.
About Erin Schneider in her words: Growing up, I idolized investigative journalism a la 60 Minutes as the most direct path to evoking change. My work on Stop & Frisk reinforced my calling, but New York was not for me. After I finished my documentary, I moved to Brazil in hopes of covering the government’s “pacification” program of low-income areas because it is known as one of the most violent and corrupt police-community interventions in the world. Unable to get a work visa as a freelance journalist, I have ended up in my hometown of Portland, Oregon working in multi-media, interactive advertising. I hope to take what I am learning into the world of documentary and continue making a difference with a camera soon.
Erin Levin Bernhardt, 28, lives in Atlanta Georgia. The Film: Imba Means Sing
What's the issue? Imba Means Sing is a character-driven heartfelt story of resilience and the impact of education. The film follows Angel, Moses and Nina (7-11 years old) from the slums of Kampala, Uganda through a world tour with the Grammy-nominated African Children's Choir. The film is stunningly shot and told through Angel, Moses and Nina’s perspectives on their one shot journey from poverty to education. Their story is an intimate look at how each child processes the joys and challenges of their life-changing opportunity. Our goal is to leverage Imba Means Sing through audience outreach and engagement to raise awareness and support for music education locally and equal access to education as a human right globally.
Why you? Why is now the time for Imba Means Sing? I met the Choir the summer of 2007 when they performed at Madison Square Garden with Dispatch. The children I met were from Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. Many of them were orphaned by HIV/AIDS, the Rwandan genocide, or the trials of living in extreme poverty. Yet these children were full of more hope and joy than anyone I had ever met. They were incredibly talented and had tremendous potential to make their communities, and our world, better. All they needed to be given was an opportunity which is really a human right: education. With that, they could soar. The reason I felt like I needed to risk everything to tell their story right now is this: I truly believe that people who learn about Angel, Moses and Nina can help raise support for the education of millions more children like them around the world. When you're this passionate about something and can imagine the massive positive impact it will make, you no longer have a choice. You have to do it!
About Erin Levin Bernhardt in her words: I am a creative activist. I work through film, journalism and events to inspire and motivate people to rally behind important issues and causes. I was a CNN writer/producer and Peace Corp Volunteer, and now I’m bringing media and development together. I’m so grateful to have won awards for my work, including an Emmy and Peabody. And most recently, I was honored with the Speranza Foundation’s ‘Female Filmmaker of the Year’ grant and I even gave a TEDxWomen talk. I have a heart for my city and the developing world. Locally, I am a part of LEAD Atlanta and the Beltline’s Young Advisory Council. I’m a proud wahoo from the University of Virginia and I love making new friends, adventuresome travel, live music and yoga.
Denise Restauri is the author of the Forbes eBook Their Roaring Thirties: Brutally Honest Career Talk From Women Who Beat The Youth Trap which will be released on September 10, 2014. Join Denise on Twitter.James Florio/Video screen capture James Florio/Video screen capture
Light pollution is a major issue in cities where it obscures a clear view of the night sky. So no wonder in more remote places like Chile's Elqui Valley there would be a hotel dedicated exclusively for stargazing -- welcoming astronomy lovers with a collection of specially-designed cabins and geodesic dome structures. Check out this stunning time-lapse video of the Elqui Domos Hotel by American photographer James Florio, who put together over 23,000 photographs to create this:
LosDomos TimeLapse from Boppin Community on Vimeo.
James Florio/Video screen capture James Florio/Video screen capture
Starting up in 2005, the hotel recently received a much-needed facelift in 2011 from Santiago-based firm RDM Arquitectura, which added a series of wooden cabins outfitted with huge skylights that allows you to see the sky while lying down in bed. The architects explain on ArchDaily:
To refashion the existing rooms, we emphasized the role of the terrace as main living area, and highlighted a specific sense of lightness – usually found in textile architecture – by placing the cabins’ volumes barely sitting on the land, reminiscent of foreign artifacts used for sleeping, dominating the landscape, or staring at the stars.
And yes, each room comes with its own telescope for guests. More over at the Elqui Domos Hotel's website, ArchDaily.Zinaida AC Name Fascinator Profile Gender Female Rank None Affiliation Independent Appearance(s) Armored Core Last Raven AC Characteristics (Regular Form, No Tunes/Optionals) Armor Points 8358 Defense Shell 1583-1843 Defense Energy 1383-1633 Weight 6008 Boost Speed 383-403 km/h Total Firepower 19703 Armaments Core Hangar Inside ECM Maker Extension Micro Missiles Back Unit R Micro Missiles Back Unit L Rockets Arm Unit R Machine Gun Arm Unit L Laser Blade
Zinaida is an AC pilot who appears in Armored Core: Last Raven. Nothing much is known about Zinaida other than the fact that she is an Independent Raven and the strongest one around due to her constant fighting. In certain paths, she fills in the role of the player's rival.
Her incredible piloting prowess and combat aptitude confirms her as a Dominant.
Contents show]
Information Edit
Zinaida is a fairly new Raven, inducted only shortly before the events of Last Raven. Despite this, she is considered the most skilled among the independents; in one ending, she manages to defeat Evangel, another particularly skilled Raven. She is at times arrogant and conceited as seen through the Raven's various interactions with her; she is also quite proud, and vows revenge on the Raven in a message sent after Eliminate Intruders. Unlike many of the Ravens, she shows little concern for the ongoing conflict between Vertex and Alliance, and seeks only to prove herself as the strongest; this aspect is detailed to the extreme in the Jack-O ending, where she tries to kill the protagonist.
She is encountered in Battle Challenge and Eliminate Zinaida and only seen in Eliminate Intruders. If the player takes the Zinaida ending, they can only destroy her in Destroy the Internecine. In the Pulverizer ending, Zinaida meets her end at the hands of the first Airborne Pulverizer.
Quotes Edit
Armored Core: Last Raven Edit
Mail Edit
What a Pity Edit
From Zinaida
To <player>
Subject What a Pity
Received 03:01
I see you've decided to take sides with Alliance. I honestly thought you were smarter than that. This is such a big disappointment. Evangel, Alliance's most recognizable Raven, wasn't even good enough to face me. What a fool he was to think that he might be "The One". Evangel, Alliance's most recognizable Raven, wasn't even good enough to face me. What a fool he was to think that he might be "The One".
AC Fascinator Edit
Zinaida's AC is a purple and black middleweight AC, equipped with the PIXIE3 machine gun, a laser blade, micro missiles, and rockets. It also has a shoulder mounted relay missile system, which is the FUNI which also uses micro missiles. Her AC is incredibly agile and versatile, able to wrestle a multitude of battle positions. She generally prefers to stay airborne, making targeting her a frustrating challenge, and is capable of hitting targets with stunning accuracy with her PIXIE3.
In "Destroy the Internecine", Zinaida's skills reach zenith as shown by her new AC setup which includes the game's featured PYTHON railgun, a YWH13M-NIX machine gun, a dual missile launcher and a LAMIA2 pulse cannon. She also has a CR-WH01HP pistol on her left hangar, meaning even if she runs out of ammo for her NIX machine gun, she can continue to punish you.
Human PLUS-like enhancements and unnatural tuning give her unlimited energy, thus allowing her to remain mobile indefinitely while firing energy weapons as well as the ability to fire her LAMIA2 while moving. Despite this loadout, her AC is extremely fast, surpassing any known Armored Core of the time. Usually when she's out of ammo for her PYTHON or NIX, she will switch to her LAMIA2 pulse cannon and the punishment goes on. Her LAMIA2 also fires much faster than normal fire rate (even if you have the HISTON optional part equipped on your AC with the LAMIA2, it doesn't fire that quickly.)
Parts Edit
Head: CR-H98XS-EYE2
Core: CR-C06U5
Arms: CR-A92XS
Legs: LH09-COUGAR2
Booster: B02-VULTURE (CR-B83TP in ultimate form)
Generator: CR-G91
Radiator: ANANDA
FCS: MIROKU
Extension: FUNI
Inside: SYAMANA
Back Unit R: KINNARA (WB06M-SPARTOI in Ultimate Form)
Back Unit L: CR-WB78RP2 (WB16PU-LAMIA2 in Ultimate Form)
Arm Unit R: WR07M-PIXIE3 (YWH16HR-PYTHON in Ultimate Form)
Arm Unit L: CR-WL79LB2 (YWH13M-NIX in Ultimate Form)
Hangar Unit R: None
Hangar Unit L: CR-WH01HP (Ultimate Form only)
Strategy Edit
Regular Zinaida Edit
Zinaida prefers a mid to close range when fighting you, taking to the air and launching a missile barrage before hitting you with the machine gun. Her aerial combat style makes it difficult to keep a beat on her. When fighting her, go for weapons with high attack power or ammo count as you will miss quite a bit. Try to avoid using missiles as her core has the best VS MG Response at 65 combined with high agility, meaning that a majority of your missiles will either be intercepted or dodged. To counter her habit of flying, choose small arenas such as the spaceport, where her mobility will be severely limited. The CETUS weapon arms work great.
Ultimate Zinaida Edit
In the original Armored Core Last Raven, it was extremely easy for the player to simply equip dual weapon arms (solid rounds were highly recommended) and attack her while keeping distance and avoiding attacks from the PYTHON railgun. She would always have the tendency to keep to the ground. However, in the PSP remake, she has gone completely aerial, making her almost completely impossible to beat. However, there is one way. Build an AC with a heavy frame, such as:
Head: (Varied)
Core: (Varied) (CR-C83UA works best)
Arms: YA10-LORIS
Legs: LH08-JACKAL
Booster: CR-B81
FCS: (Varied)
Generator: CR-G91
Radiator: (Varied)
Inside: None
Extension: JIREN
Back Left: CR-WB85RPX (Drop after destroying power sources)
Back Right: Radar OR Missile Launchers (Drop after destroying power sources)
Arm Right: none (It drains energy)
Arm Left: CR-WL88LB3 or YWL16LB-ELF3
Optional: Amino, CR-069ES, CR-069SS CR-071EC, 007-PRIMER, KANGI
Note: Just make sure none of the parts consume too much energy. You'll need it.
After making this unit, bypass the Suicide Weapons and destroy the power sources. After doing so, drop both back weapons IMMEDIATELY. After the cutscene with Zinaida, boost upwards. Like almost all prominent AC's, they all like to fly around to great heights. Zinaida has also been tuned to have almost infinite energy. If you keep boosting upwards, she will be bound to follow. If you keep doing so, she will stop once she hits the ceiling of the Internecine. Given that opportunity, the player should simply slash at her with the CR-WL88LB3 laser blade to the death while refueling their energy through the use of the Jiren or Sasui as the player drives Zinaida into a corner so that she doesn't move anywhere else. The combination of the parrying blade and the laser blade can help the player a great deal.
The use of this method can be commonly seen here
Trivia Edit
Zinaida's AC Fascinator is featured in the intro movie upon starting a new game.
While some fans contend that her original name is Schneider, Zinaida is the intended name, as shown by the katakana rendering of her name.
Zinaida is a female name of Russian and Greek origin meaning "belonging to Zeus," possibly referencing her god-like supremacy in combat, especially in her ultimate form. Her name shares its origin and meaning with Zinovie, the likely intended name for Genobee. Considering her apparent grudge against Mollycoddle, who stole Genobee's AC design, it's rumored that Zinaida is actually Agraya from Armored Core: Nexus, who went missing after being defeated by the Raven. This is further supported by her skill level during combat.
Despite her prominence, the player only fights Zinaida in one ending. In all others, the player only receives the occasional mail, cutscene, or reference to her.
Along with Nine-Ball Seraph, Fascinator is probably one of the most powerful ACs of its time.
Fascinator stands at exactly 36 feet (10.97 meters) tall, based on its model kit's height (6" or 152.4 mm) and scale (1/72).
AC Fascinator is seen in the intro fitted with GULL Booster units, whereas it is fitted with VULTURE units in-gameDisturbing advice from the mid-20th century. It’s about to get real.
1. Don't Talk
Oh, did Mavis from next door insult your prize winning squash? Did little Timmy get sent home for starting fires again? That shooting pain in your left arm just keeps getting more intense? Keep it to yourself! Your man works all through his day and the last thing he needs to hear about is yours. Refer to the first four commandments on “How to be a Good Wife” Edward Podolsky gives in his 1943 book, Sex Today in Wedded Life:
Don’t bother your husband with petty troubles and complaints when he comes home from work. Be a good listener. Let him tell you his troubles; yours will seem trivial in comparison. Remember your most important job is to build up and maintain his ego (which gets bruised plenty in business). Morale is a woman’s business. Let him relax before dinner. Discuss family problems after the inner man has been satisfied.
In his 1951 book, Sex Satisfaction and Happy Marriage, Reverend Alfred Henry Tyrer has more to add to that. Do not ask for things. This is called "nagging":
I verily believe that the happiness of homes is destroyed more frequently by the habit of nagging than by any other one. A man may stand that sort of thing (nagging) for a long time, but the chances are against his standing it permanently. If he needs peace to make life bearable, he will have to look for it elsewhere than in his own house. And it is quite likely that he will look.
Unless your husband wants you to talk. Then don’t you dare disappoint him. Says Reverend Tyrer:
“If [the husband] is intellectually inclined, and from time to time seeks to explain little things to her so that she may have at least a bare knowledge of what it is that interests him, and, without the slightest |
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There are currently no shows available at this venue. Please check back later.","local_path":"local"}}The riot is still ‘the language of the unheard.’
The only building in Ferguson that fell to arson was a single QuikTrip store. Compare this to Watts in 1965, which created a third of a billion dollars in property damage.
It usually started with the police.
In July of 1964, barely hours after the close of the Republican National Convention that nominated Barry Goldwater, 15-year-old James “Little Jimmy” Powell was shot to death by an off-duty cop in an apartment building vestibule on East 76th Street in New York. Just as in the shooting of 25-year-old Kajieme Powell this past August 19 in St. Louis, the officer claimed that the victim had charged him with a knife, though eyewitnesses denied that. A bystander cried, “Come on, shoot another nigger!” Within hours, Harlem was ablaze.
That was the first in the wave of apocalyptic racial riots that swept American cities in the 1960s. Later that week, in Rochester, New York, the fires started after cops roughed up the very woman who’d called them in to break up a rowdy, drunken party. The next summer, in Watts, Los Angeles, the most famous of the 1960s riots kicked off after police hit people with batons at the scene of a drunk-driving arrest. In 1966, in Chicago, it began when cops turned off a fire hydrant in which kids were frolicking on the third straight day of 90-degree heat. In 1967, the most tumultuous year, the first riot came after cops in Newark beat a cabdriver because they thought he was a Black Muslim.
The parallels with this summer’s uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, are undeniable.
In the 1960s, neighborhoods or cities that were overwhelmingly black were patrolled by police forces that were overwhelmingly white. The same is true in Ferguson today, where the force has an atrocious history of racial profiling: According to annual reporting from the office of the Missouri Attorney General, in a city that is about 30 percent white, 92.7 percent of those that police arrested in 2013 were black. Michael Brown’s shooter, Darren Wilson, learned his policing on a force in nearby Jennings, Missouri, that was so corrupt and racist (a cop once kicked a woman in the stomach when she told him she couldn’t move her van because it didn’t run) it had to be shut down. Blatant racism, too, was a pattern in forces where police abuses set off riots in the 1960s. Los Angeles cops were led by William H. Parker, who coined the phrase “thin blue line”—as in, the cops were a thin blue line between chaos and civilization. Parker liked to recruit white officers from the Mississippi Delta. Parker explained the origin of the Watts riots to an investigating commission: “One person threw a rock and then, like monkeys in a zoo, others started throwing rocks.” His patrolmen, meanwhile, would begin tours of the ghetto with a ritual cry taken from a cigarette commercial, “LSMFT”—“Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.” Only, for them, the letters stood for “Let’s Shoot a Motherfucker Tonight.”
In Chicago, a Ku Klux Klan cell operated inside the force, stockpiling its very own arsenal (which included hand grenades). The San Francisco precinct responsible for patrolling Hunters Point, a black neighborhood that rioted in 1966 after cops shot a black 17-year-old, displayed a photo of a KKK imperial wizard on its bulletin board.
In cities like Cleveland, when it came to black neighborhoods, police simply refused to police; though when blacks dared enter white space, they were policed with an Old Testament vengeance—like the time a bus-station porter was beaten on and off in jail for four days, and made to bark like a dog, for the crime of sitting on the floor of the bus station after a tiring shift. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights convened hearings on the situation after Cleveland suffered one of the worst riots in 1966, which began one hot night outside a tavern where the white owner posted a sign reading “NO WATER FOR NIGGERS,” and bar employees patrolled its perimeter with shotguns. What did they find? Cops collaborating with pimps; “it has got to the place whereby a man’s wife or daughter is not safe to walk the streets,” an African-American minister testified. The police chief said he was for capital punishment “to keep the Negroes in line.”
In Ferguson, police racism is built in, institutionalized in the town’s business model of using revenue from fines to pay its bills (and in the process, turning some residents into unemployable criminals). The encounter with Ferguson’s fierce justice system, if you are black, works like this: You have an overwhelming chance of being cited or arrested by police, for doing little or nothing that is wrong. A report from the legal group ArchCity Defenders found that in 2013, “the Ferguson Municipal Court disposed 24,532 warrants and 12,018 cases, or about three warrants and 1.5 cases per household,” an incredibly high rate. Then you are likely to face a fine you cannot afford to pay—ArchCity Defenders calculates that the average fine is $275—or a summons to a court that is rigged against you showing up on time. “The bench routinely starts hearing cases 30 minutes before the appointed time and then locks the doors to the building as early as five minutes after the official hour, a practice that could easily lead a defendant arriving even slightly late to receive an additional charge for failure to appear,” reads the report. Thus, you might end up in jail—with a criminal record that frequently bars employment.
That Kafkaesque sense of futility explains some of the frustration that boiled over in Ferguson with the shooting of Michael Brown. But that’s only one half of it. The other part is political.
Ferguson’s six-person city council has only one black member. It’s been much discussed that the dearth of African-American political representation has been helped along by what has been described as the apathy of black voters there, only 1.78 percent of whom turned out from one of the city’s black townships in a recent municipal election. But reporters on the ground in Ferguson—and possibly the Justice Department—should be looking at whether the powers that be have been practicing the sort of dark arts of malapportionment that disenfranchised other municipalities with sizable black populations in the past. Boston, for example, was able to defy a 1963 state law demanding school integration for nearly a decade by electing its school board “at large,” instead of by district. And prior to its 1967 riot, Newark’s Mayor Hugh Addonizio practiced a form of “urban renewal” that had a political twist: By building high-rises downtown, he was able to break up geographic concentrations of blacks, to ensure they would have no political power base.
Black Fergusonians have shown that they will vote when they have something to vote for and know that their vote will count. Seventy-six percent of them turned out in November 2012, when Missouri was a key swing state for Barack Obama’s reelection. When it comes to local elections, they might just be making the rational decision that a hike to the polls is a waste of time. Even that one black council member, Dwayne James, has baffled observers by remaining mum in the face of the single issue now galvanizing his constituency, Michael Brown’s killing. He’s said only, “Our city charter provides that our mayor is the spokesperson for the city.” I don’t want to be unfair to James—I don’t know his motives—but such quiescence recalls the behavior of Chicago’s “Silent Six”: the six African-American alderman, during the 1960s heyday of the Cook County Democratic Organization, who were so in thrall to Mayor Richard J. Daley that they didn’t even support a proposed anti-housing discrimination ordinance. (In response, wags dubbed the one alderman who forcefully advocated anti-discrimation, Leon Despres—who was white—the city’s “only black alderman.”)
Then as now, the national political context matters. Mainstream white liberal politicians of the 1960s, flummoxed that blacks would be rising up at the very moment when so much was “being done for them” (of course, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act only affected the South) began making strikingly radical connections. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy said, “There is no point in telling Negroes to obey the law. To many Negroes, the law is the enemy.” Vice President Hubert Humphrey predicted that unless slum conditions improved, and quick, there would be “open violence in every major city and county in America.” He added a note of empathy, saying that if he lived in one of those slums, “I think you’d have more trouble than you have had already, because I’ve got enough spark left in me to lead a mighty good revolt.”
Conservatives didn’t want to hear it—and pivoted off such pronouncements to fuel a backlash. Rep. Howard Smith of Virginia replied to Humphrey, “The vice president will bear a grave responsibility in blood and lives if he tries to provoke minority group members to riot for rent supplements.” During a 1966 debate over an open housing bill, Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolina said, “The record shows that the more laws that are passed in the nation on the national, state and local levels, the more rioting and looting we have.”
That soon became the conservative, and even the centrist, consensus: Laws to ameliorate misery, not the misery itself, were the problem. The bill failed—the first civil rights package not to become law in three years. Then, in 1967, a new Congress filled with freshly elected right-wingers, borne aloft on the backlash against civil rights, debated a modest federal outlay for rodent control in the slums. It was derided as the “civil rats” bill. The debate became an occasion for mockery: grown men guffawing about “rat patronage,” “rat bureaucracies” and a “high commissioner of rats.” Rep. Martha Griffiths, a Michigan Democrat, tried to shut them up: “If you’re going to spend $79 billion to kill off a few Vietcong, I’d spend $40 million to kill off the most devastating enemy that man has ever had.”
Her argument failed. The bill was slapped down. The next year, 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., saw the deadliest riots of all. In light of all that, an answer to the mystery is clear: Why would people, no matter how angry, burn down what are, after all, their own neighborhoods? Because they feel so dispossessed that their neighborhoods don’t seem like their own at all.
The fire this time
But history is the study of change as well as of continuity. And there are striking differences between the disturbances in Ferguson and those in Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, Detroit, and all the rest more than 45 years ago. For one, what we saw in Ferguson was much less bloody. Violence and property damage were more rumor than reality. An early photo of what looked like someone throwing a Molotov cocktail turned out to be of a man throwing a steaming tear gas canister back at the police. Despite the rhetoric of the Right—New York Post columnist Linda Chavez called Attorney General Eric Holder “Eric the Arsonist” for daring to observe that as a black man, he understood black Fergusonians’ mistrust of police—the one building that fell to arson was a QuikTrip store. Compare this to Watts in 1965, which created a third of a billion dollars in property damage, or the Chicago riot in 1968, which left two straight miles of Madison Street in ruins.
One difference between then and now, for good or ill: The 1960s had a set of black self-appointed leaders who made a political virtue of arson and looting. In 1967, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Chair H. Rap Brown visited the racially tense city of Cambridge, Maryland, stood on a street corner, and cried, “Detroit exploded, Newark exploded, Harlem exploded! It’s time for Cambridge to explode!” He pointed to a dilapidated school down the street: “You should have burned that school a long time ago!” So, promptly, his listeners did.
Stokely Carmichael became a virtual riot circuit rider, tooling through Atlanta telling milling throngs it was time to “tear this city up” (they did), and announcing, “In Cleveland, they’re building stores with no windows. I don’t know what they think they’ll accomplish. It just means we have to move from Molotov cocktails to dynamite.”
A then-militant named Julius Lester— now a rabbi and children’s book author—praised the work of a sniper in a city 13 miles down I-70 from Ferguson for cutting down what Lester termed “known enemies of the black community.” This, he said, was a “move from self-defense to aggressive action,” just like what the Vietcong were doing. Posing as a wartime guerrilla strategist, he wrote, “What is happening in East St. Louis points up once again the advantage of medium-sized cities, leaving Saigon, Danang and other large cities for the last.” Despite the perfervid pornoviolent fantasies of Tea Partiers, no one’s saying anything like that now.
Another difference: Despite the awful, inexcusable responses of law enforcement now, what is happening is the palest shadow of the response of law enforcement then.
Take Newark. After the first wave of looting and arson, the state police were sent in. Alongside the local police, they commenced, as documented by a brave investigative reporter named Ron Porambo in a 1971 book called No Cause for Indictment, a veritable turkey shoot. First they shot and killed a 45-year-old mother searching for one of her children; then a 28-year-old former basketball star |
of the base. As the lift rises, pushers extend their arms while the base and top extend their legs to achieve maximum height. A common addition to a stack lift is a rotation while it descends. A Toss is set up exactly like a stack lift. However, when the lift reaches its full height, the "flyer" on top of the lift will jump off of her teammate's shoulders, usually performing some sort of acrobatic movement or position. This is a very difficult lift and should only be attempted by experienced swimmers.
Positions [ edit ]
There are hundreds of different regular positions that can be used to create seemingly infinite combinations. These are a few basic and commonly used ones:
Back Layout: The most basic position. The body floats, completely straight and rigid, face-up on the surface while sculling under the hips.
The most basic position. The body floats, completely straight and rigid, face-up on the surface while sculling under the hips. Ballet Leg: Beginning in a back layout, one leg is extended and held perpendicular to the body, while the other is held parallel to the surface of the water.
Beginning in a back layout, one leg is extended and held perpendicular to the body, while the other is held parallel to the surface of the water. Bent Knee (or Heron): While holding a vertical body position, one leg remains vertical while the other leg bends so that its toe is touching the knee of the vertical leg.
While holding a vertical body position, one leg remains vertical while the other leg bends so that its toe is touching the knee of the vertical leg. Crane: While holding a vertical body position, one leg remains vertical while the other is dropped parallel to the surface, making a 90-degree angle or "L" shape.
While holding a vertical body position, one leg remains vertical while the other is dropped parallel to the surface, making a 90-degree angle or "L" shape. Double Ballet Leg: Similar to ballet leg position where both legs are extended and held perpendiculair to the body.
Similar to ballet leg position where both legs are extended and held perpendiculair to the body. Flamingo: Similar to ballet leg position where bottom leg is pulled into the chest so that the shin of the bottom leg is touching the knee of the vertical leg, while remaining parallel to the surface of the water.
Similar to ballet leg position where bottom leg is pulled into the chest so that the shin of the bottom leg is touching the knee of the vertical leg, while remaining parallel to the surface of the water. Front Layout: Much like a Back Layout, the only difference is that the swimmer is on his/her stomach, sculling by his/her chest, and not breathing.
Much like a Back Layout, the only difference is that the swimmer is on his/her stomach, sculling by his/her chest, and not breathing. Knight: The body is in a surface arch position, where the legs are flat on the surface, and the body is arched so that the head is vertically in line with the hips. One leg is lifted, creating a vertical line perpendicular to the surface.
The body is in a surface arch position, where the legs are flat on the surface, and the body is arched so that the head is vertically in line with the hips. One leg is lifted, creating a vertical line perpendicular to the surface. Sailet Leg: Beginning in a back layout, one leg is extended and held perpendicular to the body, while the other is held parallel to the surface of the water.
Beginning in a back layout, one leg is extended and held perpendicular to the body, while the other is held parallel to the surface of the water. Side Fishtail: Side fishtail is a position which one leg remains vertical, while the other is extended out to the side parallel to the water, creating a side "Y" position.
Side fishtail is a position which one leg remains vertical, while the other is extended out to the side parallel to the water, creating a side "Y" position. Split Position: With the body vertical, one leg is stretched forward along the surface and the other extended back along the surface, in an upside down split position.
With the body vertical, one leg is stretched forward along the surface and the other extended back along the surface, in an upside down split position. Tub: Both legs are pulled up to the chest with the shins and tops of the feet dry and parallel on the surface of the water.
Both legs are pulled up to the chest with the shins and tops of the feet dry and parallel on the surface of the water. Vertical: Achieved by holding the body completely straight upside down and perpendicular to the surface usually with both legs entirely out of water.
Further descriptions of technical positions can be found on the International Olympic Committee website.
Routine [ edit ]
Routines are composed of "figures" (leg movements), arm sections and highlights. Swimmers are synchronised both to each other and to the music. During a routine swimmers can never use the bottom of the pool for support, but rather depend on sculling motions with the arms, and eggbeater kick to keep afloat. After the performance, the swimmers are judged and scored on their performance based on execution, artistic impression, and difficulty. Execution of technical skill, difficulty, patterns, choreography, and synchronization are all critical to achieving a high score.
Technical vs. free routines [ edit ]
Depending on the competition level, swimmers will perform a "technical" routine with predetermined elements that must be performed in a specific order. The technical routine acts as a replacement for the figure event. In addition to the technical routine, the swimmers will perform a longer "free" routine, which has no requirements and is a chance for the swimmers to get creative and innovative with their choreography.
Length of routines [ edit ]
The type of routine and competition level determines the length of routines. Routines typically last two to four minutes, the shortest being the technical solo, with length added as the number of swimmers is increased (duets, teams, combos and highlight). Age and skill level are other important factors in determining the required routine length.
Scoring [ edit ]
Routines are scored on a scale of 100, with points for execution, artistic impression, and difficulty. In group routines a group consists of 8 competitors for World Championships and FINA events, each missing participant brings penalty points to the team. A group can consist of a minimum of 4 competitors and a maximum of 10 (for Free Combination and Highlight).
Preparation [ edit ]
When performing routines in competition and practice, competitors wear a rubber noseclip to keep water from entering their nose when submerged. Some swimmers wear ear-plugs to keep the water out of their ears. Hair is worn in a bun and flavorless gelatin, Knox, is applied to keep hair in place; a decorative headpiece is bobby-pinned to the bun. Occasionally, swimmers wear custom-made swimming caps in place of their hair in buns.
Competitors wear custom bikinis, usually elaborately decorated with bright fabric and sequins to reflect the music to which they are swimming. The costume and music are not judged but create and aesthetic appeal to the audience.
Makeup is also worn in this sport, but FINA has required a more natural look. No "theatrical make-up" is allowed, only makeup that provides a natural, clean and healthy glow is acceptable. In Canada, eye makeup must be smaller than a circle made by the swimmers thumb and forefinger, and be used solely for "natural enhancement".
Underwater speakers ensure that swimmers can hear the music and aid their ability to synchronize with each other. Routines are prepared and set to counts in the music, to further ensure synchronization. Coaches use underwater speakers to communicate with the swimmers during practice. Goggles, though worn during practice, are not permitted during routine competition.
Competitions [ edit ]
Figures [ edit ]
A standard meet begins with the swimmers doing "figures", which are progressions between positions performed individually without music. All swimmers must compete wearing the standard black swimsuit and white swimcap, as well as goggles and a noseclip. Figures are performed in front of a panel of 5 judges who score individual swimmers from 1 to 10 (10 being the best). The figure competition prefaces the routine events.
In the United States [ edit ]
In the United States, competitors are divided into groups by age. The eight age groups are: 12 and under, 13–15, 16–17, 18–19, Junior (elite 15–18), Senior (elite 15+), Collegiate, and Master. In addition to these groups, younger swimmers may be divided by ability into 3 levels: Novice, Intermediate, and Junior Olympic. Seasons range in length, and some swimmers participate year-round in competitions. There are many levels of competition, including but not limited to: State, Regional, Zone, Junior Olympic, and US Junior and Senior Opens. Each swimmer may compete in up to four of the following routine events: solo, duet, combo (consisting of four to ten swimmers), and team (consisting of four to eight swimmers). In the 12 & under and 13-15 age groups, figure scores are combined with routines to determine the final rankings. The 16-17 and 18-19 age groups combine the scores of the technical and free routines to determine the final rankings. USA Synchro's annual intercollegiate championships have been dominated by The Ohio State University, Stanford University, Lindenwood University, and The University of the Incarnate Word.
In Canada [ edit ]
In Canada, synchronized swimming has an age-based Structure system as of 2010 with age groups 10 & under, 12 & under, and 13–15 for the provincial levels. There is also a skill level which is 13–15 and juniors (16–18) known as national stream, as well as competition at the Masters and University levels. 13–15 age group and 16–18 age group are national stream athletes that fall in line with international age groups – 15 and Under and Junior (16–18) and Senior (18+) level athletes. There are also the Wildrose age group. This is for competitors before they reach 13–15 national stream. Wildrose ranges from Tier 8 and under to 16 and over provincial/wildrose. These are also competitive levels. There are also the recreational levels which are called "stars". Synchro Canada requires that a competitor must pass Star 3 before entering Tier 1. To get into a Tier a swimmer must take a test for that Tier. In these tests, the swimmer must be able to perform the required movements for the level. (Canada no longer uses Tiers as a form of level placement). The Canadian University Synchronized Swimming League is intended for Canadian Swimmers who wish to continue their participation in the sport, as well as offering a "Novice" category for those new to the sport. Traditionally, the top teams hail from McGill University, Queens University and the University of Ottawa.
Injuries [ edit ]
In their 2012 book Concussions and Our Kids, Dr. Robert Cantu and Mark Hyman quoted Dr. Bill Moreau, the medical director for the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), as saying, "These women are superior athletes. They're in the pool eight hours a day. Literally, they're within inches of one another, sculling and paddling. As they go through their various routines, they're literally kicking each other in the head." Dr. Moreau said that during a two-week training session in Colorado Springs, the female athletes suffered a 50% concussion rate. As a result, the USOC began reassessing concussion awareness and prevention for all sports.[16]
Others believe the incidence of concussions among synchronized swimmers is much higher, especially among the sport's elite athletes. "I would say 100 percent of my athletes will get a concussion at some point," said Myriam Glez, chief executive of U.S.A. Synchro, the sport’s national organizing body. "It might be minor, might be more serious, but at some point or another, they will get hit."[17]
Synchronised swimmers often suffer from tendon injuries, as the sport tends to cause muscle imbalances. Common joint injuries include the rotator cuff and the knees.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]With all respect to the other goalkeepers that have been on Vancouver Whitecaps MLS squad since the summer of 2013, there hasn’t really been a challenge to David Ousted for the starting keeper’s jersey.
From August 2013 to October 2016 Ousted made 116 consecutive MLS appearances for the ‘Caps before sitting out a trip to San Jose to give Paolo Tornaghi a chance to put himself in the shop window for any potential suitors. He soon got his spot back for the last match of the season and the Cascadia Cup winning triumph against Portland.
But this season has been different. For the first time as a Whitecap, Ousted has some real competition to be the club’s number one in the shape of Kiwi ‘keeper Stefan Marinovic.
Marinovic has already made two starts in MLS since signing. Expect more to come very soon. He’s certainly up for the tough task of taking the starting jersey off the Dane and that kind of battle is the exact reason the New Zealand number one decided to make the move to MLS this summer.
“Well I’m now 25 and I just felt my career needed a little bit of a challenge,” Marinovic told AFTN. “I was very comfortable at my old club. Easily number one. I would have played again this year, another full season, but I needed a challenge and fighting for a spot with David, that’s a big challenge. I need that.”
As rumours swirl around what Ousted’s future may be as he heads into an option year, the basic fact of the matter is that for a goalkeeper in MLS, the Dane is in the higher echelon of salaries for the position. His option will be higher still. Is that a price Vancouver’s front office will be prepared to pay, especially with very capable replacements waiting in the wings?
And as spectacular and crucial as a number of Ousted’s saves have been over the years, and you have to look no further than three big stops in Saturday’s win over Real Salt Lake, he’s liable to make the odd howler or two, and again we point you to the weekend and that first RSL goal. Which goalkeeper isn’t though?
Ousted has undeniably single-handedly earned the ‘Caps a multitude of points in recent seasons, but for the first time, his position is not untouchable. Getting that jersey off him though is a whole other matter, and no matter what Marinovic may bring to the table in terms of composure and his ability to get across a goal to make a save, the New Zealand number one knows he has a battle on his hands to get it, but he hasn’t travelled to the other side of the world to play second fiddle or to just ride the pine and pick up a pay check.
“It’s tough,” Marinovic readily admits. “Obviously no keeper wants to sit on the bench. I’m sure Spenny [Richey] and Sean [Melvin] would love to be in my shoes sitting behind David and have a chance and maybe an opportunity to play.
“The mindset has to be, I’ve done it before, so I know what it’s like. I know what it’s like being behind a really good keeper as well. You just have to do your thing week in and week out.
“You definitely can’t show any type of bad feelings or I don’t like the position that I’m in. You just have to show that I’m here to play, I’ll put my hand up, and I’ll do that in training every week. You just have to do that week in and week out. It’s mentally tough, but like I said I’ve done it before and it’s worked out for me.”
Marinovic has spent the past eight seasons playing in the third and four tier leagues in Germany after moving there as a 17-year-old straight out of school. He began his professional career with SV Wehen Wiesbaden in 2009, before stints with FC Ismaning and TSV 1860 Munich II.
He’s spent the past three seasons with Spielvereinigung Unterhaching, establishing himself as the starting goalkeeper and helping to guide the club to a Regionaliga Bayern championship in 2016-17.
Coming out of the Wynton Rufer Soccer School of Excellence, an Auckland school established to provide trials for footballers in Germany with Hamburger SV and Werder Bremen, Marinovic caught the eye early on, and his decision to up roots and move to Europe was an easy one for him.
“Germany has produced, and still does produce, very good keepers, world class keepers,” Marinovic told us. “You’ve got the odd one from Spain, here and there from Italy, blah, blah, blah, but I felt Germany consistently produced good keepers.
“So for me as a 17-year-old, I had the height and I could catch the ball and had a little bit of raw talent, I felt it would be best served in a German environment under German goalkeeper trainers.”
But signing a goalkeeper from the fourth tier of German football raised a few eyebrows here, especially in terms of coming in to challenge a quality keeper, and fan favourite right away for the starting position. Many saw that Marinovic was playing at a level three steps below the top flight and immediately thought it’s not a good standard of play, but third and fourth tier football in Germany is at a high level. It’s not on a par with it’s equivalent here in North America. If you’re not good, you simply won’t succeed there.
“I can definitely understand the trepidation a little bit of a keeper coming from that level,” Marinovic is honest enough to admit. “Fourth league, I can’t compare because I haven’t seen anything here. Half the teams, they’re second Bundesliga teams and stuff like that, with academy players who are up and coming first or second league players.
“So you have those and we, for example, were a team filled with ex second league players and myself as an international. We dominated the league last year and the idea was to go third league this year and play a good season there and then maybe jump up into the second league.
“It was kind of a project. I liked the idea at the time, and that’s why I joined on, but I just felt I need something more. I needed to push myself more. I can understand the people that have a little bit of trepidation but I think I have proved multiple times, at least with the national team and those big games that we had, those Cup games, that I can deal well with pressure situations and I can adapt very quickly to those and perform really well.”
Ultimately, the fact is that Marinovic was playing week in and week out, a position many back ups throughout MLS, and other leagues, would kill to be in. Factor in the experience Marinovic has had in recent years with the New Zealand national team, and you’re not just looking at some foreign keeper joining MLS from a lowly European league.
Marinovic has played at the 2011 U20 World Cup in Columbia and had kept Portland Timbers starting keeper Jake Gleeson out of the senior New Zealand team for the last 19 matches before his recent injury.
That experience, and the talent he has shown, put Marinovic on the Whitecaps radar, and they acted quickly to make sure the ‘keeper’s next stop was Vancouver.
“He’s at a really good age,” Whitecaps goalkeeping coach Stewart Kerr told AFTN. “He’s had a lot of experience for a goalkeeper and also he’s a very calm personality. Very calm in the goal. For a young age, he’s played a lot of games, he’s played in international games, he’s played in Germany. We know the level’s not been Premiership level and stuff like that, but any league in Germany is very, very difficult and you have to be structured to survive in it.
“It was a no-brainer move for us to get him in. There were a lot of teams after him, so we had to make a move. People obviously read things in to it, but for us, he’s a goalkeeper that we look at and we think he’s going to be something special in the future.”
Calm is certainly a good word to describe the Kiwi. Relaxed and laid back are some others. Marinovic cuts a very assured figure on the pitch. He’s vocal, he’s funny, and he believes in his abilities. Not a lot seems to faze him, and especially not making the move from fourth tier football in Germany to the top flight in North America.
“I don’t have any qualms about playing in MLS.” Marinovic told us. “I’m not afraid. Football’s football. You play every week. There’s not much else to it really.”
We’ve seen that mentality on the pitch in his two starts to date, a 1-0 loss in New England in July and the 2-1 triumph last month in Orlando. He came up with six saves over those two matches, looked impressive, and a real challenger for Ousted’s number one spot.
Getting his feet wet early in his new environment was obviously the Whitecaps plan, and as delighted as Marinovic was to get his Vancouver debut, it was just another day at the office for him.
“I don’t see it a problem about getting it out of the way early, debut or not” Marinovic told us. “Debuts are always special, especially in a new league, but I see every game similar.
“If I was to see one game more important than the other, like playing against the Solomons [in a World Cup qualifier] is less important than playing in MLS, and vice versa, then I wouldn’t probably be as composed as I am on the pitch as what I hope and think I am. It’s important I keep my feet on the ground and always just play.”
With little room for error now for Ousted, and some interesting contract talk likely ahead, the battle for the number one jersey is sure to bring the best out of both goalkeepers and that can only help the Whitecaps massively at this crunch time of the season.So, here’s a quick refresher: World of Tanks had tanks and War Thunder had planes, and then World of Warplanes had planes so now War Thunder Ground Forces, currently in closed beta, has both tanks and planes fighting in the same world. I feel like these free-to-play World War II MMOs are in an arms race, and soon they’ll be adding submarines and blimps and, I dunno, flying saucers. Anyway, if you’re wondering if Gaijin Entertainment is as good with tanks as they are with planes, I just spent a couple days rolling around in the Ground Forces beta to find out. Let’s tank a look, he said, vowing it would be his only tank pun.
The best way I can sum up Ground Forces is: it’s War Thunder, but now there are tanks. There’s really no adjustment period, everything still works the same, the tanks don’t feel shoehorned in, or out of place. It’s still the same game, except, you know… tanks. There are few different types of missions, but as in the plane portion of the game, they all basically boil down to two sides squabbling over control points. War Thunder’s three familiar game modes are also present: arcade battles with plentiful respawning and extra-helpful UI targeting elements, realistic battles (formerly historical battles) with scaled-back UI and limited lives, and simulator battles, with no third person view and no on-screen markers.
Currently, only two of War Thunder’s five countries are tank-enabled, Germany and the U.S.S.R, each with a light starter tank and several different branches of progressively sturdier vehicles to earn. The level of detail is on par with the planes, which is to say, the tanks look very nice.
The controls are straightforward, and the arcade matches tend toward the action-packed side, with tanks speeding all over the map, firing constantly, and of course, lots and lots of ramming. In realistic mode, matches tend to be a bit more restrained and tactical, with players concealing their tanks behind boulders and hillsides, poking their snouts out just enough to spot the enemy and send a few shells their way.
These realistic matches are generally better and feel like a dangerous game of hide and seek, rewarding the more patient players and punishing those who try to conduct a tank derby. There are a few destructible elements on the maps, like stone walls, though I hope in the future there will be more objects to blow up, especially when someone is trying to use them for cover.
As with War Thunder’s plane combat, taking damage doesn’t simply mean a health bar gets chipped away. A lot can happen when your tank is hit, depending on where it’s hit, and by what. Occasionally a single shell will completely destroy your tank or kill your crew, but other times your tracks will be damaged, or your suspension or transmission will get fried, or you might simply catch on fire. Some damage is fixable (at the expense of movement, leaving you quite vulnerable for long, nerve-wracking seconds), and sometimes a member of your crew, like the gunner or driver, is knocked unconscious, slowing your firing rate and reloading speed until they recover.
There are only a couple of maps in the rotation, which actually works well for a beta that only operates for a few hours a day. After a handful of matches it becomes easy to memorize the best positions, the bottlenecks, and the trouble spots, and to learn where the enemy tanks will rush from and where they’ll take cover. Flying planes in these missions didn’t feel much different from normal War Thunder business: ground fire is ground fire, and it’s hard to tell if you’re being shot at from an A.I. anti-aircraft gun or a human player.
Shooting down a player-flown plane with your tank, though? That is a crazy amount of fun. You can unlock a few vehicles that specialize in anti-aircraft fire, like the GAZ-MM (a truck with an anti-aircraft cannon on the back) and I suggest you do it as soon as possible. That’s mostly what I spent my time doing, because shooting down planes from a tank is even more fun than shooting down planes from a plane.
Of course, propping up all this tank-on-plane-on-tank combat is War Thunder’s elaborate network of experience points (apparently now called research points, or RP), Silver Lions (the in-game currency, earned while you play) and Golden Eagles (bought with real money and traded for in-game currency), and all the menus, sub-menus, upgrades, progress bars, and sliders that come with it.
Keep in mind that using RP to unlock a new tank doesn’t mean you have a new tank. You still need to buy it (with Silver Lions), and naturally, buying it doesn’t mean you can drive it. You need to hire a new crew (with Lions) or train an existing crew (Lions again) on how to operate your new tank. If you’re out of Lions and just can’t wait to earn more by playing, that’s when you punch in your credit card number and buy some Golden Eagles.
Another thing to keep in mind: your tank, while new to you, is by no means a shining, polished piece of state-of-the-art technology. It’s rusty and dingy and and while it’ll get you around the battlefield, it needs improvement in all respects, like mobility (suspension, brakes, engine), protection (fire suppression, camo, armor), and of course, firepower. Don’t forget your crew, either, the same crew you just plunked down a couple thousand Lions for. The driver, loader, gunners, and commander can (and should) be upgraded so they’ll drive better, load faster, repair quicker, and spot enemies more easily. Naturally, just about all of this slider-sliding and upgrade-ifying can be sped up with an infusion of actual currency.
Not that spending a few bucks on the game is a bad thing. When I played the plane-only version some months ago, I spent about $15 buying Eagles, and I have no regrets. War Thunder is a lot of fun, and from what I’ve seen in the beta, Ground Forces will make it more so. I wouldn’t push anyone to spend real money on a pricey premium tank pack just to get into the closed beta, but when the beta opens up, I would absolutely recommend spending a few hours, and maybe even a few dollars, getting your tracks dirty.Nick Clegg today makes a bold pitch to Labour voters, claiming that the Liberal Democrats have supplanted Gordon Brown's party to become the natural home of progressive politics in Britain.
In a Guardian interview, Clegg accuses David Cameron of having no agenda for progressive reform of the country, and says the Lib Dems and Labour come from the same historical tradition.
He says he is rejecting all talk of tactical voting and is instead "going for broke" to maximise his party's share of the vote.
Clegg insists that the tectonic plates of politics are shifting, and the choice has distilled down to a vote for his party or a Conservative party that will "cast the country adrift".
The Lib Dem leader appears to suggest that any post-election arrangement with the Tories would be a coalition of convenience rather than principle when he asserts: "There is a gulf in values between myself and David Cameron," adding: "They have no progressive reform agenda at all – only an unbearable sense of entitlement that it's just their time to govern."
During the two years of his leadership, Clegg has successfully maintained a position equally distant from the Labour and Conservative parties, but today he emphasises that the Liberal Democrats have shared progressive history.
His remarks go further than before in suggesting that if he feels the electorate has given him a choice, his instinct will be to form an alliance of some form with Labour. He holds out no hope of securing electoral reform from Cameron.
He says: "What is striking is despite all the blather from Cameron over the past few weeks, he has made up his mind strategically to set his face against any profound reform of the political system. I think this will prove to be the biggest strategic error he has ever made, because one thing you cannot do is set your face against change when the demand for that change is so powerful that it is coming from millions of people.
"In terms of its DNA, the Conservative party is now the party of entrenched vested interests of politics."
Saying that he is now aiming for more than 100 gains on the party's 63 MPs, and even the largest share of the vote, Clegg says: "I don't think the choice is between Conservative and Labour – the choice is now between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats." Clegg's hopes of gaining more than 100 seats were confirmed by a Harris poll of voting intentions for the Daily Mail today, which put the Conservatives on 33%, the Lib Dems on 32%, and Labour in third place with 24%. If this poll result were reflected in the election, it could give the Lib Dems 137 seats.
While many progressives are calling for anti-Tory tactical voting by Lib Dem supporters in the key 100 Labour-Conservative marginals, Clegg rejects this advice.
He argues: "In an election where the tectonic plates are moving so quickly and so radically, people have got to go with their gut instincts. Once in a while there are elections where people should be released to do what they want, and I think this is one of those elections – I really do." He denies this shows he is willing to put his chance of overtaking Labour ahead of preventing a majority Tory government. "The Tories are nowhere near getting an overall majority. We are absolutely going for broke so far as the share of the vote is concerned."
He also makes it hard to see the basis of a Tory-Lib Dem coalition. "I think if you look at the debate last night, there is just a gulf between what David Cameron stands for and what I stand for – in terms of values, in terms of internationalism, in terms of fairness, in terms of progressive tax reform, in terms of political reform, in terms of simply living in denial, as does Labour, about a major problem of their creation in the immigration system."
Asked if the same gulf existed with Labour, he says: "I have always accepted the first part of Roy Jenkins's analysis which says that historically Labour and Liberal Democrats are two wings of a progressive tradition in British politics." But Clegg maintains his party cannot be an annexe of Labour, and there is a fundamental difference between the two parties over the individual and the state.
"There are some people in the Labour party that now get [it that] progressive politics has to be about empowerment, reducing dependency on the state, increasing social mobility through individual empowerment, releasing power from the centre politically – but it is not where the Labour party lies at heart. Listen to Gordon Brown's final message last night – it was: 'You're not allowed to take a risk on anyone else.' It's a very dismal, cramped and depressing message. That's why polls are putting us ahead of Labour, and that'll crystallise in the next few days into a two-horse race." Clegg insists that politics has been changed permanently by this election.
"I personally think both the Tories and Labour face profound crises of identity because they are both based on assumptions of mass support that have now evaporated. The arrogance of both the Conservative and Labour party that it's somehow their birthright to speak on behalf of millions of people. That's gone."(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Samsung in its big-money smartphone patent fight with Apple, throwing out an appeals court ruling that the South Korean company had to pay a $399 million penalty to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs.
3D-printed Samsung and Apple logos are seen in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
The 8-0 ruling, written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, held that a patent violator does not always have to fork over its entire profits from the sales of products using stolen designs, if the designs covered only certain components and not the whole thing.
The justices sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to determine how much Samsung must pay. But they did not provide a road map to juries and lower courts on how to navigate similar disputes in the future.
Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock said in a statement that the U.S. company remained “optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn’t right.”
Samsung told Reuters in a statement the ruling was a “victory for Samsung and for all those who promote creativity, innovation and fair competition in the marketplace.”
Following a 2012 jury verdict favoring Apple, Samsung initially was hit with nearly $930 million in penalties, later cut by $382 million, for infringing Apple’s iPhone patents and mimicking its distinctive appearance in making the Galaxy and other competing devices.
Samsung in December 2015 paid its Cupertino, California-based rival $548 million. But Samsung took the matter to the Supreme Court, saying it should not have had to make $399 million of that payout for copying the patented designs of the iPhone’s rounded-corner front face, bezel and colorful grid of icons that represent programs and applications.
With the products that used iPhone designs, Samsung went on to become the world’s top smartphone maker.
Tuesday’s ruling followed a ferocious legal battle between the world’s top two smartphone manufacturers that began in 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for patent and trademark infringement. It was one of the most closely watched patent cases to come before the top U.S. court in recent years.
The legal dispute centered on whether the term “article of manufacture,” on which design patent damages are calculated in U.S. patent law, should be interpreted as a finished product in its entirety, or merely a component in a complex product.
In court papers, Samsung, Apple and the U.S. government all agreed that the term could mean a component.
But Apple urged the Supreme Court to affirm the appeals court’s ruling because Samsung presented no evidence that the article of manufacture in this case was anything less than its entire smartphone as sold. Samsung, meanwhile, said that it did not have to present such evidence.
Sotomayor, writing for the unanimous court, said that the law is clear. The term “article of manufacture is broad enough to encompass both a product sold to a consumer as well as a component of that product,” she wrote.
PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY
The justices nevertheless refused to devise a test for juries and lower courts to use to discern what a relevant article of manufacture is in a particular case, a task that could be fraught with difficulty when considering high-tech products.
“No doubt whether with Apple-Samsung, or some other design patent case, we are going to have a period of uncertainty where courts will be trying to formulate a test and what the boundaries are,” Richard McKenna, an expert in design rights at the law firm Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee, said in an interview.
In court papers, Apple said its iPhone’s success was tied to innovative designs, which other manufacturers quickly adopted in their own products. Samsung, in particular, made a deliberate decision to copy the iPhone’s look and many user interface features, Apple said.
Related Coverage Samsung Elec says U.S. court ruling in patent case a victory
Samsung argued that it should not have had to turn over all its profits, saying that design elements contributed only marginally to a complex product with thousands of patented features.
Design patent fights very rarely reach the Supreme Court. It had not heard such a case in more than 120 years.
The case is Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd v. Apple Inc, in the Supreme Court of the United States, No. 15-777.Yep, my early video game addiction led me down a path of hardcore criminal activity, and before you know it I was pirating video cassettes and littering like no tomorrow. Damn you, video games!
My dad did indeed try to play Pole Position, and it cracked me up that he couldn’t play it right, because grown ups were just meant to know these things, like how could you not know how to play Pole Position?
Anyway! I really did enjoy the Atari 2600 version of Pole Position, even though it was an extremely simple interpretation of the arcade game, and I eventually got so good at it that I had to play it left handed to get any sense of challenge from it. I think it’s fair to say I got my $50 of value!
And here’s the video of me making this comic – it’s funny how the script changed so much towards the end I think…Halfbrick Catalogue FREE for 24 Hours
by James Schultz
UPDATE: Thanks for the incredible support during sale day! This offer has |
. newInstance ( ) ; Method thisMethod = thisClass. getDeclaredMethod ( "testAdd", params ) ; // run the testAdd() method on the instance: thisMethod. invoke ( instance, paramsObj ) ; } catch ( MalformedURLException e ) { } catch ( ClassNotFoundException e ) { } catch ( Exception ex ) { ex. printStackTrace ( ) ; } } public static void main ( String [ ] args ) throws Exception { //1.Construct an in-memory java source file from your dynamic code JavaFileObject file = getJavaFileObject ( ) ; Iterable <? extends JavaFileObject > files = Arrays. asList ( file ) ; //2.Compile your files by JavaCompiler compile ( files ) ; //3.Load your class by URLClassLoader, then instantiate the instance, and call method by reflection runIt ( ) ; } }
RAW Paste Data
import java.io.File; import java.io.IOException; import java.lang.reflect.Method; import java.net.MalformedURLException; import java.net.URI; import java.net.URL; import java.net.URLClassLoader; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Locale; import javax.tools.Diagnostic; import javax.tools.DiagnosticListener; import javax.tools.JavaCompiler; import javax.tools.JavaFileObject; import javax.tools.SimpleJavaFileObject; import javax.tools.StandardJavaFileManager; import javax.tools.ToolProvider; public class DynamicCompiler { /** where shall the compiled class be saved to (should exist already) */ private static String classOutputFolder = "/classes/demo"; public static class MyDiagnosticListener implements DiagnosticListener<JavaFileObject> { public void report(Diagnostic<? extends JavaFileObject> diagnostic) { System.out.println("Line Number->" + diagnostic.getLineNumber()); System.out.println("code->" + diagnostic.getCode()); System.out.println("Message->" + diagnostic.getMessage(Locale.ENGLISH)); System.out.println("Source->" + diagnostic.getSource()); System.out.println(" "); } } /** java File Object represents an in-memory java source file <br> * so there is no need to put the source file on hard disk **/ public static class InMemoryJavaFileObject extends SimpleJavaFileObject { private String contents = null; public InMemoryJavaFileObject(String className, String contents) throws Exception { super(URI.create("string:///" + className.replace('.', '/') + Kind.SOURCE.extension), Kind.SOURCE); this.contents = contents; } public CharSequence getCharContent(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors) throws IOException { return contents; } } /** Get a simple Java File Object,<br> * It is just for demo, content of the source code is dynamic in real use case */ private static JavaFileObject getJavaFileObject() { StringBuilder contents = new StringBuilder( "package math;"+ "public class Calculator { " + " public void testAdd() { " + " System.out.println(200+300); " + " } " + " public static void main(String[] args) { " + " Calculator cal = new Calculator(); " + " cal.testAdd(); " + " } " + "} "); JavaFileObject so = null; try { so = new InMemoryJavaFileObject("math.Calculator", contents.toString()); } catch (Exception exception) { exception.printStackTrace(); } return so; } /** compile your files by JavaCompiler */ public static void compile(Iterable<? extends JavaFileObject> files) { //get system compiler: JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler(); // for compilation diagnostic message processing on compilation WARNING/ERROR MyDiagnosticListener c = new MyDiagnosticListener(); StandardJavaFileManager fileManager = compiler.getStandardFileManager(c, Locale.ENGLISH, null); //specify classes output folder Iterable options = Arrays.asList("-d", classOutputFolder); JavaCompiler.CompilationTask task = compiler.getTask(null, fileManager, c, options, null, files); Boolean result = task.call(); if (result == true) { System.out.println("Succeeded"); } } /** run class from the compiled byte code file by URLClassloader */ public static void runIt() { // Create a File object on the root of the directory // containing the class file File file = new File(classOutputFolder); try { // Convert File to a URL URL url = file.toURL(); // file:/classes/demo URL[] urls = new URL[] { url }; // Create a new class loader with the directory ClassLoader loader = new URLClassLoader(urls); // Load in the class; Class.childclass should be located in // the directory file:/class/demo/ Class thisClass = loader.loadClass("math.Calculator"); Class params[] = {}; Object paramsObj[] = {}; Object instance = thisClass.newInstance(); Method thisMethod = thisClass.getDeclaredMethod("testAdd", params); // run the testAdd() method on the instance: thisMethod.invoke(instance, paramsObj); } catch (MalformedURLException e) { } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) { } catch (Exception ex) { ex.printStackTrace(); } } public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { //1.Construct an in-memory java source file from your dynamic code JavaFileObject file = getJavaFileObject(); Iterable<? extends JavaFileObject> files = Arrays.asList(file); //2.Compile your files by JavaCompiler compile(files); //3.Load your class by URLClassLoader, then instantiate the instance, and call method by reflection runIt(); } }VA Stops Sharing Health Care Quality Data Online
Tampa, FL (Law Firm Newswire) October 17, 2016 - During the summer the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stopped reporting data on health care standards at its hospitals. The agency made the move despite a two-year-old law that requires the statistics to be shared with a national consumer database.
For several years the VA submitted performance data to the Hospital Compare website managed by the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The data comprised several criteria for measuring quality at private and public hospitals nationwide, including death and readmission rates. According to a USA Today report, the VA stopped sharing data on July 1.
“It is important for veterans to be able to access information about quality of care at various facilities,” said David Magann, a Florida-based veteran’s attorney. “That way, they can make informed decisions about where to seek the best possible health care that meets their needs.”
Joe Francis, the Veterans Health Administration’s director of clinical analytics and reporting, said HHS lawyers told the VA to discontinue sending data while the two agencies devised a new plan for sharing statistics. “It’s deeply frustrating to us, and it’s our commitment to get back online as soon as we can,” said Francis.
The VA first started providing patient satisfaction and quality information in 2008. Former VA secretary Eric Shinseki announced data sharing with Hospital Compare three years later. The effort allowed veterans to compare medical care at their local VA facility with the area’s public hospitals before deciding where to seek treatment.
In 2014 Congress passed a law requiring the VA to submit even more information following the scandal in which inappropriate scheduling practices were reported at VA facilities nationwide. The VA told USA Today it would resume reporting to the HHS Hospital Compare database on October 1.
“The VA should ensure they are committed to providing veterans and their families with transparent information about the quality of its health care system. They should be as open and accountable as possible,” said Magann.
David W. Magann, P.A.
Main Office:
156 W. Robertson St.
Brandon, FL 33511
Call: (813) 657-9175
Tampa Office:
4012 Gunn Highway #165
Tampa, Florida 33618
Veterans Statistics At A Glance
Gulf War Veterans, Persian Gulf War, The Global War on Terror (GWOT), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS) and ongoing conflicts : Gulf War-era II veterans served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces any time since September 2001. In 2015, there were 3.6 million veterans who had served during Gulf War Era II. U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan ended on December 31, 2014. As part of Operation FREEDOM’S SENTINEL (OFS), U.S. forces remain in the country to participate in a coalition mission to train, advise, and assist Afghan National Defense and Security […]
Agent Orange Claims
The VA’s general regulations implementing the laws related to Agent Orange are found at 38 C.F.R. § 3.307. Also, specific provisions relating to Agent Orange are found at 38 U.S.C. § 1116. In essence, specific medical conditions are presumed to be related to exposure to Agent Orange in service. The claim will still need to be supported by an adequate medical diagnosis of the condition and proof of those requirements for service location(s) as outlined below. Generally, veterans who served in the Country of Vietnam are presumed to have been exposed, but other types of exposure may require direct proof. […]
Camp Lejeune: Water Contamination Update, Presumptive Conditions
From the 1950s through the 1980s, people living or working at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with industrial solvents, benzene, and other chemicals. VA has established a presumptive service connection for Veterans, Reservists, and National Guard members exposed to contaminants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune from August 1, 1953 through December 31, 1987 who later developed one of the following eight diseases: Adult leukemia Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes Bladder cancer Kidney cancer Liver cancer Multiple myeloma Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Parkinson’s disease Presently, these conditions are the only […]
See other news sources publishing this article. BETA | Tags: David Magann, Eric Shinseki, Hospital Compare, Joe Francis, VA, Veterans Health AdministrationShare. Turturro and Goodman will also return. Turturro and Goodman will also return.
Director Michael Bay revealed during a Facebook Live post today that the first teaser trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight is expected to drop in either November or December.
Bay also revealed that Transformers series veterans John Turturro (who portrayed eccentric Agent Seymour Simmons in the first three films) and John Goodman (the voice of Hound in Transformers: Age of Extinction) will reprise their roles for this fifth installment.
Watch the video for yourself below (be advised of some NSFW language at the very beginning):
The Facebook Live post was recorded during the last day of the production's stint in England, and Bay revealed a background of muddied extras filming a medieval battle scene. Bay said the production is off to Africa next.
Transformers: The Last Knight stars Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Stanley Tucci, Jerrod Carmichael, Laura Haddock, and Isabela Moner.
The film opens next June.But if those hopes have not been permanently dashed, they have at least been delayed.
''This reform today has the potential to ensure that some of the debates of the past, debates about funding mixes, debates about system versus system, are consigned to history and we continue to focus on what's most important in education - which is giving our young people the best possible start and opportunities in life,'' O'Farrell said in April.
In doing so, he talked about how the newly signed deal could signal the end of the education wars.
The pugnacious Liberal frontbencher has also chosen to pick a fight with the five jurisdictions that have signed up and revived the Coalition's bitter enmity with Labor over school policy, claiming the funding model he supported during the election campaign was now an unworkable ''shambles''.
New funding system: Education Minister Christopher Pyne. Credit:Melissa Adams
The full funding envelope of additional dollars for schools that did sign on to the new model seems set to be spread more thinly now. This presumably means there could be less money for individual schools in NSW and Pyne could not promise otherwise on Tuesday.
If the federal government gets its way, the reduced amount of funding will also be distributed according to a different, ''flatter'' model and not the one he went to the election supporting.
Just as it seemed the whistle had finally been blown on the muddy political football match that has characterised Australian education policy debate, it seems Pyne has chosen to call all weary players back onto the field for another brutal round. That will be exhausting for them.Only a few years ago Religious Right groups and Republicans were running as far as possible away from the Personhood Colorado campaign, the effort to pass an extreme anti-choice measure that was twice handily defeated by Colorado voters. Last year, the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life, Colorado Citizens for Life all refused to back the Colorado personhood amendment, and the Colorado Eagle Forum called the personhood campaign a “disaster.”
But now, the Personhood Mississippi campaign –which is nearly identical to the Colorado effort – has received the support of prominent Republican leaders including Mike Huckabee and anti-choice groups such as the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and the Family Research Council.
The campaign to pass the personhood amendment, called Amendment 26, is led by the head of the extreme Mississippi Constitution Party and a member of Christian Exodus, which wanted to have states secede from the U.S. in order to form a new theocratic system of government. Designed to challenge Roe v. Wade, the amendment would criminalize abortion in all cases and also ban the treatment of ectopic pregnancies, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and certain forms of birth control.
Huckabee addressed a fundraiser for the personhood campaign and urged activists to give money because pro-choice activists only want to “make people rich” by keeping abortion legal. “This isn’t about elevating women,” Huckabee said, “this is about elevating wealth on behalf of those who profit from the sale of death.”
Watch:14 OCT 3302
Kahina Tijani Loren has been stripped of the rank of senator for delegating her responsibilities in respect of the Prism system to Ambassador Cuthrick Delaney in 3301.
An aide for Admiral Denton Patreus said: "Loren gave up her senatorial responsibilities, so it's unreasonable that she continue to be protected by the title. Frankly, she shouldn't be described as a 'lady', either, but we will let the courts make that determination."
This means Loren will now be tried based on the laws of her nominated home system, which is of course the Prism system. Loren has been moved from Achenar and is presumed to be en route to Prism, under guard.
While Prism remains under the supervision of Ambassador Cuthrick Delaney, it is heavily exploited by Admiral Patreus. Patreus's aide said: "Those without a proper appreciation of due process might believe there is a conflict of interest, given Admiral Patreus's influence in Prism, but we can ensure the galactic community that Imperial law will be followed to the letter."A long-empty, prominent site on the so-called Midtown Mile of Peachtree Street could soon see construction of a signature residential tower.
Developer Trillist is hoping to turn the parking lot on Peachtree Street, between 12th and 14th streets (13th does not exist on the western side of Peachtree) into a 45-story development to include 323 residential units and 21,500 square feet of retail space. According to What Now Atlanta, the developer showed off the SRSSA-designed tower at the July Midtown DRC meeting.
Trillist is not the first developer to propose a building on the high-profile site.
The meeting also brought news of what could be the tallest tower in Midtown, located just a few blocks northwest of the Trillist site. It that 74-story venture materializes, it would be the tallest building erected in Atlanta since the early 1990s.
This summer has been a big one for Trillist. Just last month, the company unveiled plans for a condo tower a block away from the Peachtree Street site.
That project — an SLS Hotel and Residences, to be located at the corner of Crescent Avenue and 13th Street — is slated to rise 42 stories and feature 213 hotel rooms and 56 condo residences. Trillist hopes to break ground on the project early next year, with an opening projected in 2019.
Elsewhere, Trillist recently topped out the ultra-luxe YOO on the Park apartment project down the street near Piedmont Park.Updated story: 9 Hutaree members face federal charges of conspiracy, attempting to use weapons of mass destruction
The FBI conducted raids Saturday night in Washtenaw County and Lenawee County in an investigation involving members of Hutaree, a Christian-oriented militia group based in Lenawee County, AnnArbor.com has learned.
The nature of those raids has not been made public. FBI Special Agent Jason Pack, who is based in Washington, D.C., said he did not know how many people were taken into custody. Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, could not be reached for comment today.
Michigan Militia member James Schiel, second from left, told AnnArbor.com today that five people were arrested in the raids. He is pictured with Hutaree member Wendy Lineweaver, a member who goes by the name Chainsaw, a member named Kevin, and Will Bachman. In the photo, they were helping local law enforcement officials search for a Bridgewater Township man who was missing in February.
"I can confirm that there is ongoing law enforcement activity in the Ann Arbor general area," Pack said in a written statement. "Since the federal warrants are under court ordered seal, legally we cannot provide further comment at this time."
Local Michigan militia member Jimmy Schiel said he was told five people were arrested - including one known member of Hutaree. Schiel said the five were reportedly arrested during a raid at a service in the Ann Arbor area for a Hutaree member who died recently. Schiel was told about eight Hutaree members were present. He didn't know who organized the service. Schiel, who said he was invited but did not attend, spoke to a Hutaree member who was there, he said. The member told him people were questioned about guns.
Hutaree members couldn't be reached for comment today. As AnnArbor.com reported last week, several Hutaree members were recently involved in searches in Bridgewater Township after two residents went missing in separate incidents. Bridgewater Township Supervisor Jolea Mull, who is a Republican, had requested help from local militia members to assist in those searches. Schiel worked closely with Hutaree members on both occasions.
Matt Savino, a member of the Lenawee County Volunteer Militia, said he met with a group of Hutaree members about 11 p.m. Saturday outside an Adrian convenience store. Savino said a Hutaree member had called him and said "there's an emergency" and he needed to talk, but didn't specify what it was about.
Savino and two other members from his unit met with the man, who was accompanied by three other men, two women and a young child. The man told Savino federal law enforcement agents had raided his Lenawee County home and had already taken five Hutaree members into custody in the Ann Arbor area, Savino said. He asked Savino for help.
"I asked why are they getting detained and why are they raiding your house and they had no answer," Savino said.
Savino said he encouraged the man to turn himself in. The man said, "That's not an option," and the group left, Savino said.
Hutaree claims to have about 30 members, including several who live Washtenaw County. The group has its own pastor and a leader, members said. Members are known to train with AR-15s.
The Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia has not been targeted in any raids, spokesman Mike Lackomar said. The group posted a message on its website today saying, "Neither michiganmilitia.com nor the SMVM have been 'raided' by the FBI. We do nothing illegal."
The FBI set up a command post at the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department late last week. Sheriff's spokesman Derrick Jackson said the department was not involved in the operation.
The FBI conducted multiple raids Saturday and into Sunday in Adrian, and one of them centered on a property where known members of a militia live, the Associated Press reported.
Several other raids took place around the same time in Ohio and Indiana, although it's unclear whether they were related. The Ohio raids took place in Sandusky and Huron, and the Indiana raid occurred in Hammond.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Terrorism Task Force are also involved in the raids, the AP reported.
Here are links to news coverage of FBI raids in southeast Michigan and elsewhere Saturday night:
Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at leehiggins@annarbor.com or 734-623-2527.Stefano Domenicali: "When [Alonso] crossed the line, president Montezemolo intervened and in private, so did I." © Sutton Images Enlarge
Stefano Domenicali has revealed that he has had to rebuke Fernando Alonso for his criticism of Ferrari earlier this year.
Alonso received a public scolding from Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo following the Hungarian Grand Prix for comments he had made about the team's poor performance. Speaking to two fans who had been invited to Ferrari's headquarters after voicing their concerns via social networks, Domenicali explained the team's approach to chasing titles and admitted he had been unhappy with Alonso's criticism this year.
"You are in front of the most sportsmanlike person in the world," Domenicali said. "In all the races, whether you see it or not, I congratulate our rivals. In Austin, we did not sabotage the gearbox, but simply made the most of an article in the regulations which allowed us to break the seals. The interests of Ferrari come above all else: if we had lost the Championship by the number of points we'd have lost there, the evaluation of what we did would have been different.
"Unlike the others, we speak openly about what we are doing. The little digs at Red Bull? It's a way of relieving the tension and making light of it, as is clear from the tone of it. Alonso? If I have something to say to him, as would be the case with my engineers, I would do it behind closed doors and in a harsh manner. But externally, I will always defend the team. When he crossed the line, president Montezemolo intervened and in private, so did I."
Asked if he was still happy with signing Alonso four years ago despite having not won a title since, Domenicali said the lack of success was predominantly down to the team.
"If in the past four years we have come close to the title twice, it is partly down to him. Unfortunately, we have not been capable of giving him a car that matches his talent. You compare him to [Sebastian] Vettel, but when you have a better car, everything is more straightforward."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Japanese water cooler manufacturer Aqua Clara's Attack on Titan tie-in campaign launched today with more tangible prizes than just good health and well-hydrated skin.
The company is offering a clear file of its water cooler carrying "Hydration Corps" members to anyone who purchases a "Dress-Up Server" cooler Attack on Titan panel featuring Eren, Levi, or the Colossal Titan.
One person will get the above image as one of the water cooler panels, but two lucky winners will receive a 1/1-scale maneuver gear constructed under the supervision of Hajime Isayama.
10 Levi figures (in, you guessed it, an armchair) will also be given away as prizes.
The coolers are available for rent with a monthly refill and maintenance fee of 1,500 yen (about US$12.65), with panels likely priced at 8,000 yen (about US$67) to mirror the company's Evangelion coolers. Each machine has a RO filter and an anti-bacterial ultraviolet lamp for purification, a water-heating feature for tea, and a built-in digital clock.
Source: Comic NatalieA dugong, a rare marine mammal that inhabits waters around Okinawa, was spotted about 5 km east of Henoko on Sunday, the same day as seabed surveys started before landfill operations begin at the relocation site for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Air Station Futenma.
A dugong, a threatened species due to the loss and degradation of underwater sea-grass meadows, was spotted and photographed from a helicopter by a Kyodo News reporter.
“There’s no doubt this is a dugong,” confirmed Mariko Abe of the Nature Conservation Society of Japan, who specializes in the area’s ecosystem.
The dugong, a species of marine mammal which is believed to be the source of the mermaid and siren myths, was watched for about 10 minutes at around 4:25 p.m. when it repeatedly appeared at the surface and then dived.
The mammal’s large nostrils on the muscular upper lip, which enable it to breathe when it surfaces, and its tail fluke were also visible.
In the Henoko coastal area, just a few kilometers away from where the mammal was spotted, a barge was readied Sunday. Around it, orange buoys and other floating devices have been installed to mark the restricted area where the survey of the seabed will be carried out.
Outside the marked-off area, as many as 15 Japan Coast Guard patrol ships were on duty in an effort to keep protesters away from the site.Sen. Tim Kaine Timothy (Tim) Michael KaineTrump claims Democrats ‘don’t mind executing babies after birth’ after blocked abortion bill Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 MORE (D-Va.) is asking the Senate to turn over information about the number of sexual harassment claims and settlements against upper chamber members and their staffers in a letter sent the same day Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenVirginia can be better than this Harris off to best start among Dems in race, say strategists, donors Virginia scandals pit Democrats against themselves and their message MORE (D-Minn.) announced his resignation amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
The 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee told the Senate Office of Compliance — the office tasked with handling congressional workplace complaints — that "in the interest of transparency," he plans to release the data.
"I plan to publicly disclose this information because I believe it will provide some insight into the scope of the problem and help determine solutions for preventing and addressing future incidents," Kaine wrote.
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Kaine added that he will not release information that would "breach any confidentiality agreement between the parties or the identities of the survivors and the accused."
The Virginia senator argued that the problem will continue to persist in the congressional hallways if information about sexual misconduct continues to be held behind lock and key.
“This pervasive problem continues to serve as a barrier to ensure true gender equality. At a more personal level, it signals the failure of our society to guarantee even the basic safety and dignity of our colleagues, classmates, friends, family, and neighbors,” Kaine wrote in a statement on Thursday.
“Indeed, how we respond establishes the standard for others. A lax or indifferent response, marked only by symbolic changes, signals that we consider the issue a low priority. But a strong response that seeks to establish true accountability will hopefully encourage others to follow,” he continued.
Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.), the top members of the Senate Ethics Committee, also asked the Office of Compliance on Friday to turn over any information on sexual harassment allegations involving current members of Congress. The Senate panel is looking into allegations against Franken.
The House Ethics Committee also sent a similar letter to the office on Friday.
The calls come after the Office of Compliance released data that showed more than $17 million in taxpayer funds went toward paying settlements involving Capitol Hill employees, which include a range of workplace violations like allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
They also come as two high-profile congressional Democrats — Franken and Rep. John Conyers John James ConyersDemocrats seek cosponsors for new 'Medicare for all' bill Virginia scandals pit Democrats against themselves and their message Women's March plans 'Medicare for All' day of lobbying in DC MORE Jr. (Mich.) — announced their resignations this week amid allegations of sexual misconduct.American television series
NBC Sunday Night Football (abbreviated as SNF) is a weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006 with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game,[1] which opened that year's preseason. NBC took over the rights to the Sunday prime time game telecasts from ESPN, which carried the broadcasts from 1987 to 2005 (concurrently with NBC assuming the rights to Sunday evening regular-season games, ESPN took over the broadcast rights to Monday Night Football from sister network ABC beginning with the 2006 season). Previously, NBC had aired American Football League (AFL), and later American Football Conference (AFC), games from 1960 until 1998, when CBS took over those rights.
During the 2011–12 season, Sunday Night Football became the first live sports competition to hold the position as Nielsen's most-watched program on U.S. network television during the year,[2] beating American Idol, which held that honor for eight consecutive seasons beginning in 2004;[3] Sunday Night Football repeated this feat three years running, beginning with the 2013–14 season.
As of 2019, Al Michaels serves as the play-by-play announcer for the broadcasts, with Cris Collinsworth as the color commentator and Michele Tafoya as the sideline reporter. Upon NBC's assumption of the Sunday prime time game rights, Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff, who serve as the respective lead producer and director, joined Sunday Night Football in the same positions they held during the latter portion of the ABC era of Monday Night Football. John Madden, the color commentator for the first three years of the program, retired prior to the 2009 season;[4] he was succeeded in that role by Collinsworth.
Since 2014, sister cable channel NBC Universo has carried Spanish-language simulcasts of select games, after years of aborted attempts to simulcast the games on Telemundo; as with the NFL's other television partners, NBC provides Spanish-language audio feed of the game broadcasts via second audio program (SAP), formerly noted as being "provided by Telemundo" before the rebranding of that entity's sports division to NBC Deportes. With the former mun2's relaunch on February 1, 2015, NBC Universo simulcast Super Bowl XLIX with NBC, with the channel expected to carry Spanish-language simulcasts of NFL games and NBC Sports properties.
Studio show [ edit ]
NBC's broadcast begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time with its pre-game show, which runs until kickoff (which usually occurs around 8:20 p.m. Eastern). The show serves the same purpose as NFL Primetime did for ESPN, offering recaps of the early action as well as a preview of the game to come. The show emanates from the NBC Sports studios in Connecticut as well as at the game site. Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Peter King and Mike Florio broadcast from the studio while Liam McHugh reports from the game (though he will act in this role but Tirico was promoted to the studio show unless he does another assignment elsewhere). Michaels, Collinsworth, and Tafoya will also appear.
Contract [ edit ]
NBC's current NFL contract includes the rights to the season-opening Thursday night NFL Kickoff Game, the game played on Thanksgiving Night, and two playoff games, one in the Wild Card round and one in the Divisional Playoffs. Under the initial 6-year deal, the network was also awarded the rights to two Super Bowl games, following the 2008 (Super Bowl XLIII) and 2011 (Super Bowl XLVI) seasons, and the Pro Bowl games in the years which NBC was slated to air the Super Bowl and 2 More Pro Bowls in 2013 and 2014. Beginning in 2012, through an extension to the contract that runs through 2022, NBC also gained the rights to air a primetime Thanksgiving game (which had previously been part of NFL Network's Thursday Night Football package), one divisional playoff game in lieu of a Wild Card game in the postseason, and the rights to Super Bowls held or to be held in 2015 for (Super Bowl XLIX), 2018 for (Super Bowl LII) and 2021. However, the Pro Bowl is not included in the new contract as ESPN was set to gain exclusive rights to the game in 2015, with NBC's broadcast of the 2014 Pro Bowl being the final time the game would air on broadcast television prior to ABC's simulcast with ESPN on the 2018 edition.
NBC is the current home of the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which begins the NFL's preseason each August. However, the 2007 game aired on the NFL Network as the league had planned to stage the China Bowl just a few days later (before it was postponed indefinitely), to be televised by NBC as a tie-in to its coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Normally, there are two other preseason telecasts on NBC; however, because of the Beijing Olympics, only two were shown in 2008. Two preseason games (the Hall of Fame game and one other match-up, depending on other NBC Sports commitments), and the Thursday night season opener were retained as part of the new contract beginning in 2014.
From 2006 until 2013, NBC's contract included the rights to both Saturday wild card playoff games that had been previously aired by ABC as part of its Monday Night Football contract. Tom Hammond provided play-by-play for the early game until 2012, with Dan Hicks taking the position in 2013. Cris Collinsworth was the initial color commentator for these broadcasts, doing so until 2008 when he replaced John Madden as lead analyst in 2009. Mike Mayock, NBC's Notre Dame color commentator until 2012, John Madden taking as color commentator in 2013.
Scheduling [ edit ]
Further information on each game's results and statistics: NBC Sunday Night Football results
Opening game [ edit ]
The first regular season game to be shown by NBC under this contract, between the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers, aired on September 7, 2006, followed by the first Sunday-night game – between the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants – on September 10, 2006. The actual first game of the run – the 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles – was televised on August 6, 2006.
Flexible scheduling [ edit ]
NBC Sunday Night Football is the beneficiary of the league's new flexible-scheduling system. Since the NFL now considers Sunday Night Football to be its featured game of the week, for the final seven weeks of the season (seven of the final eight weeks during the 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2017 seasons because of Christmas weekend), the NFL has the flexibility in selecting games that are more intriguing and typically have playoff implications to air on Sunday night.
World Series conflicts [ edit ]
In its first four seasons of Sunday night coverage, NBC took one week off in late October or early November, so as not to conflict with Fox's coverage of baseball's World Series. In 2006 NBC did not air a game on October 22, which was the scheduled date for Game 2 of the World Series, but a potential conflict still existed on October 29 had the series gone seven games (the conflict never arose, however, as the 2006 World Series ended in five games). With the change in World Series scheduling beginning in 2007, NBC did not air an NFL game in order to avoid a conflict with World Series Game 4, which is the first chance a team would have to clinch the series. In 2007, there was no game on October 28; in 2008, there was no game on October 26; and, in 2009, there was no game on November 1. Although no games aired on these nights, Football Night in America still aired as scheduled at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
NBC televised a game on October 31, 2010 and again on October 23, 2011, opposite Game 4 of the World Series on Fox in both cases. Both games featured the New Orleans Saints at home, first in 2010 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, then in 2011 against the Indianapolis Colts. New Orleans and Indianapolis do not have a Major League Baseball team, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have had poor seasonal performances in recent years, at the time having not recorded a winning record since 1992.
Ratings have been mixed for these results, with the NFL winning the night in 2010 while MLB won in 2011. While the Saints won both games, the former matchup featuring a major ratings draw in the Steelers, combined with the latter matchup against the Colts being a 62–7 blowout while Game 4 of the 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers was a more closely contested game, caused the ratings to slip in 2011.[5]
In 2012, the NFL once again scheduled the Saints to play on Sunday Night Football in late October, this time against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field on October 28 (Denver does have an MLB team, the Colorado Rockies, that has had limited success in recent seasons, though they did not contend for the National League West in 2012). The game wound up being scheduled opposite the fourth (and final) game of the 2012 World Series.
For 2013, SNF aired the Packers–Vikings rivalry game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on October 27, opposite Game 4 of the 2013 World Series. Both the Packers and Vikings have a baseball team in their respective home states (Wisconsin's Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota's Twins), but the two Major League Baseball teams have struggled in recent years.
The 2014 game, between the Packers and Saints in New Orleans, was scheduled against Game 5 of the 2014 World Series, which under the seven-game format would be played only if necessary (a split in the first two games between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals assured the series would need at least five games to determine a champion). Major League Baseball moved the start of the series to a Tuesday instead of Wednesday so it could avoid competing with the NFL on Thursday and Monday nights in addition to Sunday night.[6]
In 2015, the NFL once again scheduled the |
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More links for "GeForce GTX 1080 Windforce OC 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N1080WF3OC-8GD)"Just hours after averting (for now) a blackout of CBS-owned stations in 14 markets, Dish Network has made nice with another of its foes in the broadcasting world, ending the month-long blackout of Turner channels like CNN, HLN, and the Cartoon Network.
It’s a temporary peace at best, as the end of the blackout doesn’t mean that the two parties have reached a deal. Instead, Dish and Turner have agreed to temporarily extend their previous agreement while they continue to hash out new terms.
This means that CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TCM, HLN, CNN en Espanol and Boomerang are coming back to Dish subscribers’ screens, and that rumored potential blackouts of Turner-owned TBS and TNT are off the table.
During the blackout, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen didn’t help ease tensions between the two sides when he publicly questioned the importance of CNN to a pay-TV company’s lineup.
“Twenty years ago, CNN was a must-have channel, but it’s not a top 10 network anymore,” said Ergen at the time.5 Cultural Nationalist Foodways in Newark and Brooklyn
Amiri Baraka, one of the most influential activists of the era, has been frequently portrayed as a supporter of traditional African American foodways in the wake of his passionate 1962 essay titled “Soul Food.” Baraka hinted at what he regarded as the metaphysical properties of soul food when he answered a question about whether sweet potato pies tasted anything like pumpkin, saying, “They taste more like memory.”51 His poetic tribute to foods like hog maws, okra, and hoecakes has immortalized him as a defender of that diet, leading food studies scholar Doris Witt to label Baraka a “proponent” of black regional southern cooking in opposition to “detractors” such as Elijah Muhammad and Dick Gregory.52 Similarly, historian Frederick Douglass Opie contrasts Baraka and Muhammad, portraying them both as advocates for race pride who nonetheless had different concepts about proper food habits. Opie claims that Baraka “advocated soul food as black folk’s cuisine” in contrast to NOI “food rebels” who eschewed pork and other southern staples such as black-eyed peas.53 However, these generalizations obscure Baraka’s own culinary evolution throughout the 1960s.
By the end of the decade, Baraka and the other members of his Newark circle “did not eat meat, only fish, and otherwise were vegetarians.”54 Baraka, no stranger to personal evolutions, transformed himself from the Beatnik poet LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka, a central figure of the Black Arts Movement. He also evolved from soul food proponent to the leader of an organization that rejected traditional, southern food practices as harmful to communal health. Baraka went from praising soul food as “good filling grease” in 1962 to an asceticism that led him to give up alcohol and tobacco and to reassess his relationship to traditional African American cooking.55 His earlier embrace of soul food invoked racial pride in black cuisine. It also allowed room for the hedonistic pleasure of taste sensations. However, his new stance on dietary matters encouraged him to consider food choices as a matter of self-discipline. By putting dietary decision-making into the hands of the black leadership, culinary nationalists like Baraka sought to free themselves from the shadow of the slave diet that had been regulated by white oppressors. They did not reject the premise of hierarchy as much as they resented the fact that black dietaries had historically been as influenced by the white power structure as by black culinary volition. Baraka’s dietary turn sought to institute a new order and a new system of national culinary allegiances.
Although his ideological journey eventually shifted him out of the orbit of cultural nationalism into a race-conscious Marxist sensibility, in the late 1960s Baraka took inspiration from Karenga’s emphasis on cultural nation-building. Under the auspices of the Committee for Unified Newark (CFUN), Baraka joined Karenga in self-consciously creating cultural traditions that he hoped would foster a shared sense of identity. Theorists of the movement analyzed the relationship of the black community (which they labeled “Afrikan”) to the fine arts, to modern technology, and to various religious, educational, and political institutions.56 In position papers, Baraka and his collaborators made specific programmatic recommendations about how the black community should be organized, beginning with the family unit. Their patriarchal concept of the family emphasized male-dominated, heterosexual relationships and called for the performance of rituals to celebrate the creation of black families. Milestones such as marriage, the birth of a child, and death were to be commemorated in culturally specific ways, which included attention to the kind of foods served at these events.
By putting dietary decision-making into the hands of the black leadership, culinary nationalists like Baraka sought to free themselves from the shadow of the slave diet that had been regulated by white oppressors.
To teach these principles, Baraka led a “Political School of Kawaida” in Newark. Drawn from a Swahili word meaning “customs” or “systems,” kawaida referred to cultural nationalist values and rituals, which included ideas about food consumption. Baraka urged cooperative buying as a means to channel economic power and cooperative eating as an important ritual used to encourage group solidary. The ideal chakula (food) that was to be served at family or community gatherings consisted of vegetables, fruits, grains, fish and milk.57
Committee for Unified Newark sympathizers were to be careful about what they ate but were simultaneously instructed to avoid being perceived as too interested in dietary practices. They were told, “We are not fanatical about food but the national liberation of our people.”58 The message about food fanaticism may have been designed to distinguish Baraka’s followers from the members of the NOI whose famously rigid dietary rules were well-known in the black community. The confusing admonishment to be concerned but not obsessed about food practices was likely undermined by the number of references to food that appeared in the descriptions of member rituals.
Rites of passage and special holidays were all to be commemorated with specific food practices. On “Leo Baraka,” a community celebration of Amiri Baraka’s birthday, adherents were required to consume only fruit and fruit juice in observance of the day. Watermelon was to be served at the birth of a child, and at the Kuziliwa Karamu (birthday feast) fruit was again to be served along with “natural cakes.”59 Raw fruits and “natural” low-sugar cakes offered a dramatic departure from the flavorful meats, slow-cooked vegetables, and sugary desserts of the soul food tradition. These choices resemble aspects of Gregory’s fruitarian approach and are the outgrowth of similar ideas about health. Similarly, black nutrition guru Alvenia M. Fulton condemned white sugar as unwholesome, forbidding its use under all circumstances in favor of sweeteners such as honey.60
Following the lead established by US, Baraka’s adherents maintained a strict gender hierarchy, and the women in the organization bore the responsibility for cooking and serving food. They performed their tasks under a specific protocol, which stated that men should be fed before women “because respect and appreciation should be given to providers.”61 The CFUN charged women with the task of studying nutrition in order to feed, but not overfeed, their families. The organization’s literature instructed them to prepare meals that were largely vegetarian but could include fish. Nationalist women were warned against encouraging gluttony in their children, being told that overfeeding a child could lead the creation of a “greedy, selfish person.” Character flaws like these could not be tolerated, because the “Nationalist baby has a purpose.”62 Since the health and strength of black children was a shared national asset, members saw the proper feeding of children as a relevant issue for the entire black community.
Unsurprisingly, even outside the domestic sphere women continued to focus their work, at least in part, on food consumption. CFUN leaders instructed nationalist women to pressure school lunch programs to stop serving pork and sugar-coated cereals and to explore the possibility of cooperative food buying within the black community.63 Both the ideas about gender and the beliefs about food embraced by CFUN members resembled some NOI practices, indicating that the Newark nationalist community had likely been influenced by their religious teachings.
In addition, the ideas that the CFUN institutionalized in Newark were similar to those shared by a group of cultural nationalists living in neighboring New York City. The East, a community institution founded in Brooklyn in 1969, included an independent school, a performance space, cooperative businesses, and a newspaper, among other initiatives. Group members were generally in sympathy with the critiques of traditional food habits that had emerged in Newark.64 They rejected the paradigm of southern soul food and created a whole-foods diet that invoked the black diaspora with Swahili expressions. Instructions for feeding children given to the staff of the independent school, Uhura Sasa Shule, give clues as to the nature of the shared dietary rules of The East family. Children were fed meals consisting of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables and were forbidden to eat meat, dairy, or sugary foods.65 Adults, too, had ample opportunity to eat nationalist cuisine. The “Black Experience in Sound” hosted musical performances in an alcohol-free space where patrons could dine on dishes such as Kuumba Rice or East Punch from the popular East kitchen.66 Kawaida Rice, a popular vegetarian dish of brown rice, broccoli, mushrooms, and red and green peppers, drew its name from the term used to describe a distinctive black value system.67
Sales from the popular food served an important function in keeping The East financially afloat, and the success of the health-conscious cuisine inspired offshoot ventures including a catering company. A community-owned bakery showed that although both CFUN and The East were cautious about sugar intake, occasional indulgences were allowed. It served bean pie, a perennial NOI favorite, indicating ties of dietary sympathy between the organizations. However, the inclusion of sweet potato pie on the menu, an item condemned by Elijah Muhammad, signifies the limitations of this culinary convergence and illustrates that most partakers at the cultural nationalist table brought a broad range of dietary influences with them.68 For both the NOI and the members of The East, however, black foods were to be served by and for the black community. The Tamu Sweet-East bakery served food at “black prices,” endeavoring to make culinary manifestations of black culture affordable to the less prosperous in the community and freeing public food consumption from the taint of the capitalist marketplace.69
Members of The East, who referred to themselves as “family,” created a web of interlocking institutions and pledged themselves to mutual cooperation. Like CFUN, they adhered to Kawaida, core beliefs that adherents described as a “faith.”70 This value system was buoyed by many of the mechanisms associated with organized religion, including holidays like Kwanzaa and various written creeds. Male members of The East pledged to abide by the “Brotherhood Code,” which expressed a respect for Kawaida and mental, physical, and spiritual solidarity with the movement. Physical obligations included the vow to “observe dietary rules so that our functions are not hampered by illness.” Eating a whole-foods, vegetarian diet was important to maintain individual wellness and to insure the strength of the entire community. “When we are weak, the Nation shares our weakness.”71 For culinary nationalists, food decisions were a matter of community concern. Healthy black bodies belonged to the nation, they believed, and the failure to obey dietary rules could be seen as a form of community betrayal.The small indie development group, "Rotators", supported by the main developer of FOnline, A. Cvetinskiy "Cvet", are proud to present FOnline: 2238, the new massively multiplayer game, free of charge, based on the famous award-winning cRPG titles Fallout and Fallout 2.
Bringing the single player experience into a massively multiplayer game was not an easy task. While merging the existing features with new ones in order to provide as much game experience as possible, the young developers aimed for the recreation of the Fallout world as we knew it back in the late '90s, keeping their emphasis on the alternative, unique universe and its settings. The game will remind you of Fallout 1 & 2 everywhere you go - the places, the people, the common history and the events that shook the world and keep it trembling.
Humanity, or at least what is left of it, has no time for a break. Faced with constant challenges, surviving in the harsh post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear, barren world, struggling for an uncertain tomorrow, the humans, ghouls and mutants are organizing themselves to push it through. To make it. To stay alive. Each group, each place, each organization with its own agenda, with its own ideology, fighting for their place under the scorching Sun. What they believe may be right or wrong... Who are we to judge, while striving for the same old necessity - survival?
The game adds several unique features regarding the players and their interactions, be it with other players, their respective groups or NPCs. First of all, there are groups: factions, gangs - call them whatever you like, which determine the fate of the world. Some of them are more powerful than others, some are cunning and treacherous, some even hideous. But they are there, conflicting with each other, or aligning with the policies of the greater powers - those who have technological advances, political power or any other advantages over them, or are just plain bigger. Choose your way: join your favorite group and spread their agenda throughout the wasteland. Decide for yourself how to handle the resistance - with good will or stubbornness. Respect the authorities or lead a revolution to throw them off the throne - it is your world, you decide.
If you don't feel like belonging to a group and have your own ideology, then you can take one of the numerous paths the wasteland offers. Some of them are: bounty hunting, brahmin trading, crafting, exploring and trading in general. The brand new system of professions allows you to polish up your skills and learn things you will rarely find in books, giving you a certain advantage over other players. Scavenging, gathering resources and useful items will be an inevitable part of your FOnline: 2238 life. Crafting something useful out of the gathered junk or selling it directly to your favorite vendor are just a small part of the great possibilities this game offers you. And of course, you can just take them off someone else, simply by brutally killing him/her or using more exquisite methods, like stealing. The choice is yours - and so are the consequences.
From the technical point of view, the game will bring back the good old 2D isometric perspective, with english being the only supported language. The engine supports several new features like object opacity and the PNG graphics format. The scripting language being used is the AngelCode Scripting Library (or simply AngelScript) created by Andreas Jönsson, while system requirements for the game can be considered minimal for today's mainstream computing:
MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista
CPU 1.0 GHz
RAM 2 GB
DirectX 9 / OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphic card
56K or better internet connection
Fallout 2 (CD or download-Version, it doesn't matter as long as there are master.dat and critter.dat files included)
There are reports the game will run under Linux too (using WINE emulation), but we can not promise any official support for now (this may change soon).
Due to the fact that the game is currently in its medium beta stage (remember, the engine development has progressed much further and the engine itself can be considered almost fully functional), it is necessary to test the numerous features and additions. Taking this into account, the decision to organize further open beta tests has been made, with the first one starting on August 15th, 2009. Game sessions last usually for several months before the famous "wipe" comes, where all data is deleted and the game upgraded with new features, content and options. We are looking forward to seeing you in the game and hearing your impressions of our creation, so that the next open test session can really be a mutual pleasure.
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Doug Vann shares his thoughts on the Blue Drop Awards.
In this new series Darren Mothersele discusses the State Machine design pattern and ways to build our a state machine in Drupal.
Chris Shattuck shares helpful guide to Acquia's Certification. I've said it before but it bears repeating. BuildAModule.com is one of best ways to learn Drupal quickly.
Drupal 8
This Drupalize.Me post post addresses how a module developer can create custom blocks in Drupal 8.
Another great UX change in Drupal 8.
Mike Gifford discusses the accessibility wins coming in Drupal 8.
Tutorials
The title pretty much sums up this post on Deeson Online.
This Friendly Machine post would make MortenDK proud. Killing the Drupal module CSS files!
A pretty basic tutorial covering setting up Node.js and the Node.js Drupal integration module.
I nice tip from Jeremy Epstein that will help you eliminate redundant views templates in your themes.
Projects
Commerce Add to Cart Extras is a great little module that provides the ability to turn a product listing view into an add to cart form.
A great intro to Entity Construction Kit from Shea Ross McKinney on the Stanford Web Services blog
A couple neat tips for working with Commerce Bundles.
I'm linking to yet another post about Stage file proxy. This one is from Wunderkraut. Stage file proxy is something you should check out if you haven't before. It allows you to work locally without downloading all of the files on your remote server at once. It downloads them as you need them.
It's very cool to see an alternative to Solr making headway.
Releases
Podcasts
Finally
There is a great discussion happening on groups.drupal.org.“If equality and diversity aren’t for you, then neither are we,” say signs popping up on the Downtown Mall ahead of Saturday’s Unite the Right rally, which several groups have predicted could be the largest gathering of white supremacists in recent history.
The rainbow-colored signs conclude with, “We are open in protest of the recent demonstrations of hate,” and have been spotted in the windows of The Whiskey Jar, Mudhouse Coffee Roasters and Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar.
Cinema Taco, a Downtown Mall restaurant from which Unite the Right rally organizer Jason Kessler is banned, is sporting a homemade sign on its door that declares it a safe space, and says, “If you are victimized, please come inside! We will call the authorities for you!”
Most downtown businesses are open August 12, and the following have added notice about where they stand on the influx of the alt-white. Below is a list of places that have stated they will be closed, counter events and event date changes for Saturday, August 12.
Open with protest signage
Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar
Mudhouse
Whiskey Jar
Cinema Taco
Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen (and they’ve announced the launch of a new breakfast menu Saturday, called Two Fingers to Hate. Details here.)
The Ante Room
Bluegrass Grill & Bakery: (From Facebook: “We will be open at our regular times but we want to take a moment to remind people about a few things. The Bluegrass family is comprised of people of color, immigrants, women, queer folk, and individuals with disabilities. And that’s just our staff. Our extended family and patrons come from all sorts of experiences. We love each and every one of them very much. We will stand behind them when their safety is compromised and this weekend is no exception. The Bluegrass Grill is all about the brunch experience and that experience does not include hate. All are welcome to come and eat, but if you bring hateful language or bigoted paraphernalia into the restaurant, you will be asked to leave as is our right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. It is also your right to carry a firearm with proper permits. However, if you are armed this weekend, we will turn you away unless you are law enforcement personnel. We hope you all have a just and safe weekend. Stay tuned for Facebook updates in case of early closings.”)
Junction and The Local will be open and a portion of all checks will be donated to the Charlottesville NAACP.
Charlottesville City Market
Change in hours
ACAC Downtown is closing at noon on Saturday.
Paradox Pastry: Open 7am-1pm
Mas (a post on Facebook states: “Out of an abundance of caution, we have adjusted our schedule on Th-Fri-Sat to close earlier at midnight. We have also added security for staff and guests, to assure no shenanigans. May we endure these trials and come out stronger. Let the intemperate flames of hatred temper our souls and make us kinder.”)
Closed
Bodo’s: Their Preston Avenue location will be closed Saturday. A sign in the window reads: “We are concerned about the safety of our staff and our customers. We are very sorry that such a precaution has become necessary.”)
Live Arts
Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint
Brazos Tacos
Central Library
McGuffey Art Center
Market Street Market (closed after noon)
Hill and Wood
Court Square Tavern
Baggby’s Gourmet Sandwiches
Blue Ridge Country Store
Derriere de Soie
Grit Coffee Bar & Cafe
Hallmark
Marco & Luca
Miso Sweet
Petit Pois
Rock Paper Scissors
The Juice Place
The Nook
The Paramount
The Spot
Virginia National Bank
Yves Delorme
Zocalo
Discovery Museum
Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar
Guadalajara
The Salad Maker
South Street Brewery
Mono Loco
The Soap Box
Bend Yoga is moving its Friday kids’ class to the Northside Library at 3:30pm. The studio will be closed Saturday.
Date changes
Broadway at the Paramount, scheduled for Saturday, has moved to 8pm Friday
Unite the Pride Flashmob for Equality, scheduled for Saturday on the Downtown Mall, has moved to 6pm Sunday
Counter events: Thursday, August 10
Prayer service
7pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church
400 Rugby Rd.
History of Race and Ethnicity in Charlottesville
7pm
Congregation Beth Israel
301 E. Jefferson St.
Friday, August 11
Congregate C’ville mass prayer meeting
with Dr. Cornel West and the Reverend Traci Blackmon
8pm
St. Paul’s Memorial Church
1700 University Ave.
Saturday, August 12
Sunrise service with Dr. Cornel West
6am
First Baptist Church
632 W. Main St.
Peoples Action for Racial Justice (PARJ)
Hosted by Together Cville and Center for Peace and Justice
9am-7pm
McGuffey Park and Justice Park
Teach-ins, and speakers, prayer and meditations, music and art, and an opportunity for respite from direct actions taking place around Emancipation Park
Advocacy training with the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP
11am-2pm
Burley Middle School
901 Rose Hill Dr.
Art In Action
11am-7pm, Champion Brewery
Artists and musicians are encouraged to sing, dance, sculpt, rap, etc. Co-hosted by Black Lives Matter Charlottesville.
Safe space
11am-6pm
First United Methodist Church at 101 E. Jefferson St.
Church will serve as a safe space for those who need it.
Festival of Idiots
Noon-3pm
Emancipation Park
Dress like a clown or bring a tuba
Sacred Songs and Rough Music: A Charivari Against Facism
Noon-6pm
Emancipation Park
A charivari is a noisy, discordance mock-serenade. People will bring pots and pans, kazoos, whistles, bells, drums, etc., and sing bawdy lyrics. They’ll be on the perimeter of the Unite the Right rally.
Amplify Unity
Noon-6pm
Jefferson School City Center
Various programming, co-sponsored by Charlottesville Clergy Collective includes:
Noon-1: meditation
1-2: yoga
2-3: envisioning peace
3-4: peace dancing
4-5: 5 Rhythms Dance
Day-long reflective conversation
University of Virginia
Faculty and staff will facilitate discussions on constitutional rights and citizenship; community dynamics and polarization; local history; and more, focused on the theme of peaceable democracy.
We will continue to update this story as we receive more information.
Clarification August 11 that most businesses are open in the downtown area.It’s pretty hard to deny that the weather across the globe is profoundly changing.
But Fortune, reporting on a study of the International Energy Agency in Paris, notes that the forced march away from hydrocarbons that some environmentalists want for the U.S. just got a bit more difficult: Hydrocarbon prices continue to drop, the U.S. is quickly becoming the dominant player in oil and gas, and we will stay on top for decades to come — in oil alone, a ramp up in output from less than 15 million barrels equivalent per day to over 31 million barrels.
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The U.S. will also be the world’s biggest exporter of clean(er) burning natural gas in the 2020s.
The surge in and abundance of American oil and gas may seem to be a step backward in the face of calls for radical global cleansing. After all, natural gas is still a hydrocarbon, but keep in mind that most of our gas will be exported to China, India and Southwest Asia to help them drop dependency on far dirtier coal. That transition will reduce carbon emissions abroad, and the economic boost at home will drive technological advances not just in energy, but in sciences and infrastructure.
The overall increases in national fuel stocks is a singular gift of entrepreneurial energy, break-through technology and a resulting fracking revolution that all had its birth here in Texas — beginning in the Permian Basin decades ago with some of the original engineering research supported by the brightest minds of Texas A&M in College Station.
The latest action on the gas front is coming from the East Coast where the oil industry began more than a century and a half ago. The Marcellus Shale formation beneath about 60 percent of Pennsylvania’s total land mass, and the Utica Shale formation 9,000 feet beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York State, are now together delivering millions of cubic feet of natural gas to U.S. and world markets with much, much more to come.
No one predicted the abundance that has come from the fracking revolution, but it has unleashed Texas technology at its finest and you just can’t rope and tame technological change in a day or two. And who would have ever predicted the rapid rise of wind power in hydrocarbon-rich Texas?
Combine current prospects for expanding supplies of cheap natural gas and further taming the wind, which is almost free, and analysts now predict that coal will fall from 34 percent of Texas power generation to 6 percent in our state by 2035.
We forget that introducing wind turbines, that second revolution in energy in Texas, didn’t happen overnight. It took the steady, patient expansion of the state’s transmission capacity, careful planning, substantial technical advances (these are not grandpa’s prairie windmills) and market reforms backed by the state government of one Rick Perry James (Rick) Richard PerryHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Nevada governor to boycott Trump meeting MORE, who is now the U.S. secretary of Energy.
Curious title, that, since the secretary of Energy has precious little to do now with most of what we think of as the energy market; he controls neither hydrocarbon sales, solar energy licensing, nor even the way the wind turbines spin across the Texas ranches and prairie lands. Despite the title, most of Perry’s duties are narrowly focused on nuclear energy and weapons. (He’s doing a great and careful job at that, by the way.)
All our friends in the media were amused earlier this month when he did, in an aside, mention that hydrocarbon energy is still critical to Africa where it powers vital urban and rural electrical grids across that continent.
He never said that coal protects young girls from rape, despite what you read, but illuminated streets and villages definitely keep everybody safer, regardless of location, and current conventional energy supplies should not be abruptly shut off nor rapidly priced up in poorer counties to meet the sudden short-term carbon goals set by wealthier portions of the globe. We need patience — and planning.
It’s hard to counsel patience and planning to vulnerable towns like Corpus Christi and Houston that have seen such severe weather devastation over the past several months. But it is a fact that we have seen harsh weather like this before and it is also a fact that other places across the globe have made better infrastructure plans, taken better financial precautions and suffered less physical and emotional damage from predictable natural disasters.
We can and must do better. We now have the energy to do just that.
Thomas Graham is founder, president and CEO of Crosswind Media & Public Relations based in Austin, Texas. He was the public relations director for former Republican Texas State Senator Teel Bivins.This post was inspired by Mr.Excel’s new book MrExcel XL: 40 Greatest Excel Tips of All Time and in particular the 3rd tip that I read called The Fill Handle Does Know 1,2,3…
Excel knows to fill down/right when you are working with dates, days, months, years and even quarters. That is very helpful and quick.
When you fill any values, an Auto Fill Options box pops up which you can click and select the different options available.
If you are filling dates, then you have the option to auto fill by Weekdays, Months and Years. How cool is that!
Another trick is if you want to fill down an incremental number, say from 1 to 2,3,4,5,6…..
To do this you need to enter the number 1 in a cell, hold down the CTRL key and then fill down that cell which will increment the numbers.
Try these tricks for yourself by downloading and practicing below:
DOWNLOAD WORKBOOK
THIS POST WAS INSPIRED BY:DNC chairwoman and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz appeared on NBC News' Andrea Mitchell's MSNBC show this afternoon to explain why the Democratic party will only hold a few debates.
Wasserman Schultz defended the paucity of debates, noting how it takes candidates off the campaign trail which means "they are going to not get as much of an opportunity from the voters to be seen up close and personal."
ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS: Congresswoman, thank you very much for being with us. Tonight is the big Republican debate. They've had two debates, the Democrats have not had any debates yet. And there's criticism from two of your vice chairs that you are disadvantaging everyone but the presumed frontrunner, at least Hillary Clinton, by not agreeing to more Democratic party sanctioned debates.
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, DNC CHAIR: Well, you know, it's important that our candidates be seen in a wide variety of formats and venues. We have six debates and there will be many other opportunities for our candidates to be seen in candidate forums. And our initial focus in the early primary states is on making sure that the retail politics can really be robust.
And every time a candidate has to engage and get ready for a debate, they have to come off the trail. And that means that they are going to not get as much of an opportunity from the voters to be seen up close and personal.
MITCHELL: But the fact is the Republicans --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Hold on one second.
MITCHELL: The Republicans are drowning you guys out, though.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Good, because you know what? I am actually thrilled at the voters across America being able to see the 16 Republican candidates in the food-fight that they'll engage in tonight in the doubling down on extremism, alienating immigrants to the country who simply came to make a better way of life for themselves, alienating women by suggesting that we're providing too much health care funding for them, and wanting to take away the access to quality affordable healthcare for all Americans.
We're going to have a debate in one month and then we will have five subsequent debates, about one a month. We have 5 candidates; the Republicans have 16. They'll have nine debates. We will have plenty of
time for our candidates to be seen in many different forums without spreading them so thin like they did in 2008 when there were no controls put in place, Andrea, and as a result, we had 26 debates, and that was too much. So, I made a judgment call and I sought input from people who have been involved in developing the schedule in the past and this was the decision that we all thought was best.Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against a hacker "mercenary" affiliated with the Iranian military, saying he broke into HBO's computer network in the summer looking to extort millions of dollars from the pay cable channel.
An indictment unsealed in New York on Tuesday said the suspect, Behzad Mesri, "had worked on behalf of the Iranian military to conduct computer network attacks that targeted military systems, nuclear software systems, and Israeli infrastructure,'' but the document does not allege he attacked HBO on behalf of the Iranian government.
Mesri is not in custody, and officials issued a "Wanted" poster seeking help arresting him.
Using a popular line from HBO's hit show "Game of Thrones,'' acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim said: "Today, winter has come for Behzad Mesri.''
Because of the new indictment, Kim said, the suspect will not be able to leave his home country without risking arrest and extradition to the United States.
"For the rest of his life — and he's a relatively young man in his late 20s — he will never be able to travel outside Iran,'' he said.
And Kim hinted at more hacking charges to come against other Iranian hacking suspects.
"Unfortunately I suspect this will not be the last time that we charge cyber offenses against hackers with ties to the Iranian government," he said.
According to the indictment, Mesri "was a member of an Iran-based hacking group called the Turk Black Hat security team. As a member of that group, Mesri conducted hundreds of website defacements using the online hacker pseudonym 'Skote Vahshat' against websites in the United States and elsewhere around the world."
But in the HBO hack, authorities say his motives may have been simpler: greed.
[Justice Department pushing Iran-connected charges in HBO hack, other cases]
The indictment said Mesri threatened to embarrass HBO by publicly releasing unaired episodes of some of their shows, such as "Ballers" and "The Deuce," as well as full scripts for the seventh season of "Game of Thrones," unless HBO paid "a 'non-negotiable' ransom of approximately $5.5 million worth of Bitcoin.''
When that demand wasn't met, he raised his asking price to $6 million and threatened to destroy massive volumes of data on HBO's hard drives, the indictment said.
The HBO hack roiled the entertainment industry in August, raising new concerns that studios' hit shows could lose financial value when episodes leak out early.
But the case has also revealed disagreements inside the Justice Department, where senior officials have been pushing in recent weeks to make public a number of ongoing investigations involving Iranian suspects.
As The Washington Post reported Sunday, the HBO case is one of several that senior officials would like to unseal in coming weeks. The push to announce Iran-related cases has caused internal alarm, according to people familiar with the discussions, with some law enforcement officials fearing that senior Justice Department officials want to reveal the cases because the Trump administration wants Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran.
A series of criminal cases could increase pressure on lawmakers to act, these people said.
Asked about that report, Kim did not give a direct answer, saying he decided to unseal the charges in the HBO hacking case before the story published. He did acknowledge the short amount of time it took to unseal the charges was unusual for such a case but said that was because of the FBI's exemplary investigative work.
Kim spent much of the news conference saying the indictment posed dire potential consequences for the suspect, Mesri, but he also admitted that they have little chance of arresting him anytime soon.
"We made that determination that we were not likely to be able to get him and we should go public with it,'' Kim said.
Some federal officials have raised concerns that unsealing cases now could imperil ongoing investigative work or make it harder to catch suspects who might travel out of Iran, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss active investigations.
Several people familiar with the HBO hack case pointed out that the Justice Department will often wait a year — sometimes several years — before unsealing charges in an international computer hacking probe, while this case was unsealed after three months.As far as draft busts go, Yi Jianlian is right up there. Prior to being selected in 2007, several reputable pundits were suggesting the big man was going to make a sizeable impact when he moved from China to the NBA.
But reality soon followed. Yi posted up chairs in his infamous draft workout video, initially refused to move to Wisconsin after being selected by the Milwaukee Bucks, and became dogged by allegations that he had lied about his age. Within five years, the man pegged as the Chinese Kevin Garnett was out of the NBA and back in his home country.
According to Wang Yiqiong of the People’s Daily, one of China’s best-selling newspapers, the Lakers reached out to Yi in the offseason only for the player to veto the move because the offer was too low.
Though the rumor seems unlikely from a western perspective, Wang has not retracted his claim and the rest of China’s media is treating it seriously. David Yang, editor of the respected China Sports Review website, certainly feels the story is true: “I wouldn't be surprised if there was an offer for Yi as he can help the Lakers both athletically and commercially.”
The move would’ve also made some sense from Yi’s perspective. This offseason, the player was the biggest free agent in China after his contract with the Guangdong Tigers expired. At the time, the Tigers—who had |
hard as I could in high school so that I could get into a decent college, where I would then decide what to do with my life at an on-campus carnival where they handed out jobs. But pretty quickly after I got to college I decided, sort of on a whim, that I had enjoyed AP Biology enough to venture into a career in medicine.
I wanted to help people, is what I said when anyone asked. And at that point, in my limited view of the world, the only way I could be sure I could accomplish that goal was by literally saving their lives. But by senior year, I was faced with the crushing reality that my brain wasn't wired to grasp organic chemistry, or any kind of chemistry, really. I would sit in lecture halls and stare at what the professor had written on the whiteboard, certain it was written in Japanese or Farsi. And then I would go to the nightly help sessions they held for all of us slow kids and go home feeling even dumber.
So I ditched the med school idea and decided to become a writer instead. When I made that decision, at age 21, I didn't know what it meant. I had never written an original piece of fiction, or taken a journalism class. I had no idea how (or where) my college newspaper was put together. People are always surprised that I didn't cut my teeth on the sports beat at the Stanford Daily, as if I bucked the odds to land at ESPN without that experience. Honestly, I think it was an advantage.
When I moved to New York to become "a writer," I had no idea how hard it would be to support myself writing, which was lucky, because had I known, I might not have done it. I never sat in a newsroom with some jaded adult warning me that "THERE ARE NO JOBS" and I would die penniless, miserable and alone in a rural shantytown where someone would find my body, weeks later, decomposing on stacks of the free town newspaper I had to sell all my cats to print.
I arrived in New York in the mid-aughts with not a single clip to my name and $300 in my pocket. I crashed on a friend's couch in the East Village and got a job bartending across the street. I went about teaching myself how to write by going to coffee shops every day and crafting super-serious think pieces about indie rock bands, like the kid who played a young Cameron Crowe in "Almost Famous." I was broke and brokenhearted from a relationship that had just ended, but in a way I had never been happier. I went out with friends every night and then woke up and wrote about it for my blog the next morning, whether it was about a concert or play I somehow saw for free or just another dumb $2 PBR night at a dive bar.
Then, after a year or so I spent as an editorial assistant at a men's magazine, a friend of mine got hired as an editor at ESPN The Magazine. He began tossing me little freelance assignments -- and when I say "little," I mean, like, one-line jokes or calling someone named Coby Bryant and asking him what sharing that name was like.
But then one day, one of the heads of the magazine called me into his office because he wanted to know who I was. I still don't know why. He asked me a few questions and asked me what I was doing for Memorial Day weekend. I told him I was traveling. He noted there was an MLB team where I was going. "You should just go into the locker room to see what you can get," he said, with no further instruction. (I learned later it was just a test to see if he would hear back from the public relations department about how I had made an ass of myself and the company. Literally, not making an ass of myself was the main assignment.)
So off I went into my first major league clubhouse. It was May, and a zillion degrees on the East Coast, but I wore jeans and a turtleneck because I was nervous about wearing anything too provocative. Even if my task was to ask questions like, "What's in your wallet?" and, "What are your Fourth of July plans?" I still aimed to be taken seriously.
Major league locker rooms typically open 3½ hours before a game starts and close when the team goes out to take batting practice. The home team takes BP first, so reporters usually only get half an hour or so in that locker room. The visiting team goes next, so their locker room is open for an hour and a half. I didn't know any of this. I also did not know the unwritten rule that a reporter does not, under any circumstances, speak to that day's starting pitcher. Or that reporters are not allowed to sit on any of the 300 chairs or couches in the middle of the locker room and are expected to stand at all times. No one told me these things. In retrospect, I am surprised I was not thrown out of the stadium.
The first professional athlete I ever tried to interview hit on me. He refused to answer any of my questions with anything other than, "What hotel are you staying in tonight?" That was the moment where I was sure I had made a mistake, and that the past three years of my life had been nothing but a series of mistakes.
Andrew Bick The author made a daunting career path change, from a potential career in medicine to a unknown career as a writer.
My face turned every shade of maroon and I was so embarrassed it was hard to breathe. (The turtleneck probably didn't help.) I assumed every day would be like this. What I didn't know then was that I just happened to encounter the absolute worst sexual harasser on my very first day on the job. When he walked away to the training room, laughing about our encounter, one of his teammates apologized for his behavior and offered to do my silly quiz. I never forgot that kindness.
Those first few years were the hardest. I was in Houston reporting a story on the Rockets and a well-meaning older man who checked reporters' credentials at the locker room door would scream, "Lady in the locker room!" whenever I walked in. Once, at Denver Broncos training camp, I was mistaken for the masseuse, which got awkward because people are even more naked around masseuses. Last year, I wrote an essay for the Baseball Prospectus annual, but I still encounter players who assume I don't know what a sacrifice bunt is.
But there is a distinct advantage to being a woman in the locker room that I definitely used in writing this book. Most people who write about baseball are older white men named Mike or Jon or Dave. If you are a woman or a person of color, you've got a much better shot of a player remembering your face or your name. When I worked at ESPN the Magazine, they did a phenomenal job of hiring a diverse group of people, and not just when it came to race or gender. It was a brilliant, common-sense strategy. If I ran a newsroom, I would hire as many people from as many different walks of life as possible just to keep the perspective from getting stale.
One of my colleagues was a big dude who looked like he used to play football. He definitely got different stuff than I did. Player A might feel more comfortable talking about life with a dude who looks like him. Whereas Player B might be more comfortable talking about something serious with a woman because he's not used to sharing his feelings with another guy.
I noticed from Day 1 that I was getting different stuff from my male colleagues -- not always better, not always worse, but different. Especially in baseball. The baseball season is so long, and these guys spend way too much time around nothing but other men. It creates a weird dynamic. Guys began to overshare. Sometimes my asking a question like, "How are you?" would lead down a path where the player would talk about homesickness, addiction, anxiety, depression, marital problems, you name it.
I dedicated my book to all the women who fought for locker room access, because without them it would not exist. That wasn't a ceremonial dedication. To me it felt like thanking Thomas Edison for the lightbulb. Molly Knight
I once asked a guy who his best friend on the team was, and after he told me, I asked why. He said it was because the guy basically saved him from drinking himself to death. I don't know if it's because I'm a woman, or because I have dealt with a lot of these issues and people can pick up on that and they trust me to treat their stories with care, but it just kept happening.
I realized something else, too. If you want to know what a star athlete is really like, you'd better ask his mother or his wife. I can't remember the last profile I did where I didn't speak with one or both, and my book was informed by a lot of the observations and insights of Dodger moms, wives and girlfriends. While I think men and women are equally smart, I have found that women generally have higher emotional intelligence because of the maddening way society discourages young boys from developing healthy relationships with their feelings. I couldn't understand why my male colleagues weren't talking more to the wives, girlfriends and moms. Then I realized it was because most alpha males would never give out the phone numbers of the women in their lives to another man.
I dedicated my book to all the women who fought for locker room access, because without them it would not exist. That wasn't a ceremonial dedication. To me it felt like thanking Thomas Edison for the light bulb. While I've had uncomfortable moments of catcalls, being flashed and being publicly embarrassed (I remember once I was asking questions about a holiday gift guide and two players listed names of various sex toys I had never heard of and I dutifully wrote them down until they both laughed at me and ripped the notebook out of my hands), the women who came before me endured a fresh hell I cannot imagine. I've never been physically assaulted or sexually molested in a locker room. I've never been terrorized by Reggie Jackson. I've endured embarrassing moments, but honestly, so have my male colleagues. Being in a room with strangers changing their clothes is embarrassing for everyone involved.
The good news is, it seems to be getting better every year. When I started out in locker rooms, I was the same age as a lot of the rookies. Now the veterans are my peers. My generation doesn't seem to care as much about keeping women in the kitchen. The Spurs hired Becky Hammon as an assistant coach last year and made her the head coach of their summer league team last month. The Kings named Nancy Lieberman an assistant coach last week. The Arizona Cardinals hired Jen Welter to be a coaching intern during training camp. Teams are no longer afraid to hire the best candidate for the job, even if that candidate happens to be a woman. Sure, there are going to be a couple of guys in every locker room who might feel strange about having a female coach, but I think the vast majority of players would absolutely look at her the same way they view their male coaches and evaluate her ability to do her job based on how skilled she is in her position instead of dismissing her solely because of her gender. Opportunities for women in sports have never been better.
Earlier this year, I did an informal Twitter interview with Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy, and I asked him if he's more uncomfortable with a woman interviewing him in the locker room than a man. He said absolutely not, that it wasn't an issue whatsoever and that basically the only thing he cares about is whether a reporter is knowledgeable about baseball and not a disrespectful doofus.
That's all a gal could ask for.Syrian opposition fighters arrested with chemical weapons
By Bill Van Auken
1 June 2013
In a series of raids in the capital of Istanbul and in the southern provinces of Mersin, Adana and Hatay near the Syrian border, Turkish police rounded up 12 members of Syria’s Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front along with chemical weapons materials.
The Turkish media initially reported that police recovered four and a half pounds of sarin, the deadly nerve gas which had earlier been linked to chemical weapons attacks inside Syria.
While widely reported in the Turkish press, the arrests Wednesday have been virtually blacked out by the corporate media in the US. Newspapers like the New York Times, which have openly promoted a US intervention in Syria, citing alleged chemical weapons use by the regime of Bashar al-Assad as a pretext, have posted not a word about the raids in Turkey.
The daily newspaper Zaman reported that “the al-Nusra members had been planning a bomb attack for Thursday in [the Turkish city of] Adana but that the attack was averted when the police caught the suspects. Along with the sarin gas, the police seized a number of handguns, grenades, bullets and documents during their search.”
The city of Adana, approximately 60 miles from the Syrian border, has a sizable Alawite Arab population that is sympathetic to the Syrian government and hostile to the Sunni Islamist forces that have waged the US-backed war for regime change on the ground in Syria.
The Al Nusra Front, which has formally declared its allegiance to Al Qaeda, was declared a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department last December. The United Nations Security Council added the group to the body’s Al Qaeda sanctions blacklist Friday.
The Syrian government had requested that the group be subjected to sanctions as a terrorist organization last month, but the action was initially blocked by Britain and France. Finally, an agreement was reached to declare Al Nusra an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Al Nusra Front has been universally acknowledged as the most effective fighting force of the so-called rebels seeking the Assad government’s overthrow. Both Britain and France recently succeeded in overturning a European Union ban on arms exports to Syria, clearing the way for them to ship weapons to the “rebels.”
None of the arrested suspects have been identified. Turkish media reported that five of them were released late Thursday, and seven are still being held for questioning. The government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has provided extensive material support for the Syrian opposition, has given no public explanation of the police actions.
Adana provincial governor Huseyin Avni Cos denied on Thursday that sarin had been recovered in the raids but did allow that unknown chemicals had been found and were being analyzed.
The arrests come little more than two weeks after twin terrorist car bombings claimed the lives of 52 people in the Turkish city of Reyhanli in southern Hatay province near the border with Syria. The Erdogan government seized upon the incident to blame the Syrian government and call for international intervention to topple Assad. It simultaneously imposed an unprecedented gag order on the Turkish press to prevent reporting on the extensive evidence that the attacks were the work of Syrian opposition groups, which use Reyhanli as a supply base and who have free movement across the Turkish-Syrian border.
Subsequently, authorities arrested an army private on charges of “crimes against the state” for allegedly leaking top secret cables that indicated the government’s prior knowledge that the bombings were being planned by the Al Qaeda-linked forces in Syria. RedHack, the Turkish hacker group which made the cables public last week, denied that it had any contact with the arrested private, who was identified as Utku Kali.
The Adana daily Taraf reported Thursday that police are mounting road blocks and conducting searches in the area for a vehicle loaded with explosives that is believed to have been sent to the area by the US-backed anti-Assad forces.
The discovery of sarin or some other lethal chemical weapons materials in the hands of Al Nusra Front operatives in Turkey prompted calls by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for an immediate investigation. He condemned the continuing failure to send a United Nations inspection team to Syria to investigate a chemical weapons incident last March outside of the city of Aleppo.
“We are highly disappointed that because of the political games, the UN Secretariat failed to respond to that request swiftly,” Lavrov told reporters.
These “political games” refer to demands by Washington and its allies that any UN team be given carte blanche to inspect any and all Syrian facilities and interrogate anyone it chooses, along the lines of the inspection regime created in Iraq in the run-up to the US invasion of 2003.
The Assad government has charged that the March attack, which killed 26 people, 16 of them government soldiers, was carried out by the Western-backed forces.
The Obama administration has repeatedly declared the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government to be a “red line” or “game changer” that would trigger unspecified US intervention. At the same time, Washington and its European NATO allies have turned a blind eye to evidence of chemical weapons use by the Islamist militias.
There have been repeated claims by the Syrian opposition groups, as well as by the British and French governments, of chemical weapons use by the regime. Last month, however, Carla del Ponte, a leading member of the UN commission of inquiry on Syria, stated that the bulk of the evidence indicated chemical weapons use by the rebels.
The latest development in Turkey suggests that the Western-backed Islamist militias were preparing to launch another chemical weapons attack, apparently against a Turkish civilian population, with the aim of producing mass casualties that would be blamed on the Syrian regime and create the conditions for a US-led intervention.
The silence of the US media on the incident only demonstrates that it is prepared to play the same role that it did in Iraq, working to sell a war based upon lies to the American public. The experience of the past decade of unending war, however, has made this task more difficult.
A Gallup poll released on Friday found that more than two out of three Americans (68 percent) oppose any US military intervention in Syria if “diplomatic efforts fail to end the civil war in Syria.”When the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed almost 40 years ago, it was intended to tackle the range of mistreatment women faced when they became mothers. And it did wipe out some of the most blatant forms of discrimination, like company policies that prohibited women from working during pregnancy at all or “protected” them out of hazardous — and, not coincidentally, high-paying — jobs. But despite this progress, many women today still find that becoming pregnant or having a child results in their careers taking a sudden nosedive.
That’s what happened to Stephanie Hicks, a narcotics investigator for the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, police department. Just eight days after she returned to work after her maternity leave, she was demoted to a position as a patrol officer. To her face, her supervisors told her it was because she seemed “changed,” implying that it was because she had the “baby blues.” But they were also overheard complaining about the length of time she had taken off for maternity leave, referring to her as a “stupid cunt” and saying they would “find anyway” to “get rid of that bitch.”
Working patrol not only involved a pay cut and worse shifts — it also required her to wear a bullet-proof vest. But Agent Hicks was still nursing her baby, who was only a few months old, and her doctor had warned her that the heavy and restrictive vest could interfere with her ability to continue breastfeeding and subject her to a risk of painful infection. When Hicks requested a desk job where she would not have to wear the vest, the department denied her request, even though officers were routinely provided the same accommodation for other reasons.
This forced Hicks to make an impossible choice: risk her safety — and possibly her life — by walking the beat without adequate safety protection or risk her health and ability to continue breastfeeding by wearing the restrictive vest. Forced to choose between her job and breastfeeding her baby, Hicks resigned.
Yesterday an appeals court took a major step in fulfilling the promise of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act by upholding a jury’s findings not only that Hicks’s demotion was discriminatory, but also that the department’s refusal to accommodate her with light duty was tantamount to firing her. The ACLU and the Center for WorkLife Law had submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 22 women’s rights organizations and helped argue the case.
The ruling is significant for a number of reasons.
First, it specifically held that discrimination because a woman is breastfeeding is prohibited under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Though this sounds unremarkable, the ruling actually represents only the second time an appellate court has reached this conclusion. And it helps reverse an earlier trend in which courts had contorted themselves into knots to explain why breastfeeding should not be covered under a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of medical conditions that are related to pregnancy and childbirth. (As I explained in previous blog posts, one court had reasoned that discrimination on the basis of breastfeeding is not pregnancy discrimination because once the woman had her baby, “her pregnancy-related conditions ended”; another came up with the reason that under certain circumstances, men can lactate). The Eleventh Circuit rightly recognized that liability for pregnancy discrimination does not end simply because a woman is no longer pregnant, and the court specifically held that lactation is covered as a sex-linked condition because, obviously, it is related to pregnancy.
Forced to choose between her job and breastfeeding her baby, Hicks resigned.
The decision also represents the first time an appellate court has recognized that employers have an obligation to treat requests for workplace accommodations related to breastfeeding on the same terms as accommodation requests for other conditions. This follows from the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Young v. U.P.S., which held that an employer’s failure to provide accommodations related to pregnancy — in that case, a request for light duty due to a lifting restriction — could amount to sex discrimination.
In Hicks’s case, while the court was careful to specify that the police department did not owe Hicks any “special accommodations” for breastfeeding, it also made clear that she was entitled not to be treated worse than other employees. This puts to rest the notion that accommodations for breastfeeding are “special treatment” if they are actually similar to what is given to others. The evidence showed that she had been denied an accommodation — a desk job — that was routinely granted to other officers, simply because her chief did not believe that breastfeeding qualified.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the court recognized that Hicks’s decision to resign was entirely reasonable under these life or death circumstances. At oral argument, one of the judges on the panel likened the department’s argument that Hicks should have shown up to patrol in a vest that left “gaping, dangerous holes” to telling her to jump out of an airplane with a defective parachute. At the same time, the court suggested that her refusal to sacrifice her ability to nurse was itself reasonable in light of the “overwhelming” recommendation of breastfeeding by the medical community.
By validating Hicks’s decision, the court treated her resignation as “constructive discharge” — that is, as if the employer had forcibly shown her the door. It also did what the courts have only rarely done: It took the perspective not just of a reasonable person, but of a reasonable person in Hicks’s position. The court rightly stepped into the shoes of a breastfeeding mom, confronted with an impossible choice between doing what her doctor had advised was best for her and her baby and doing her job. This is precisely the type of Hobson’s choice the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was intended to prevent women from having to face.
Here’s hoping other courts follow suit.
If you’ve been discriminated against on the job or denied accommodations for breastfeeding, tell us your story!Oh, come on. Of course Obama's trying to cut Medicare and raise the eligibility age. Why do you think he talked about protecting "current beneficiaries?" You'd have to believe in unicorns if you heard that speech and still think otherwise. But you know what the problem with that is? First, our middle-aged, stressed-out, uninsured bodies are giving out. If we don't die first, but manage to hang on to age 67, we'll be moving into the Medicare system with much more serious (and expensive) illnesses that could have been treated more cheaply in the prevention stage. The other problem is, we'll have to work much longer -- and that will take up jobs that young people desperately need.
Other than those little problems, I'd have to say that having a Democratic president embracing Republican talking points on Medicare (even for a bill that has almost no chance of passing) is a fabulous idea! What's not to love?
WASHINGTON -- In his jobs speech before Congress Thursday night, President Barack Obama appeared to call on congressional Democrats to cut Medicare, a politically toxic proposal that undercuts a previous Democratic campaign strategy. Obama pushed to cut Medicare during the debate over raising the federal debt ceiling, urging lawmakers from both parties to accept a "grand bargain" that involved cutting both Social Security and Medicare. Obama's move upset congressional Democrats, who saw a proposal from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to radically cut Medicare as an attack ad opening going into the Nov. 2012 elections. House Republicans voted for the Ryan proposal en masse, just months after hordes of GOP freshmen were swept into office amid advertisements vowing to protect the hugely popular entitlement program. [...] "Now, I realize there are some in my party who don’t think we should make any changes at all to Medicare and Medicaid, and I understand their concerns," Obama said during his speech Thursday. "But here’s the truth. Millions of Americans rely on Medicare in their retirement. And millions more will do so in the future. They pay for this benefit during their working years. They earn it. But with an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program. And if we don’t gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won’t be there when future retirees need it. We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it. "
Yep, he went there. We have to burn the village in order to save it!Ghostwriter was the story of a group of New York City kids, brought together by the spiritual being known as “Ghost Writer”. The kids work together, with the Ghostwriter’s help, to solve the mysteries they encounter.
The series featured a cast of widely different ethnic groups, and focused on the concept of “making reading fun.” The show was renewed for one year as The New Ghostwriter Mysteries” on CBS.
So who is Ghost writer? We don’t know. In the pilot episode, a ghost suddenly pops out of a book in the basement of Jamal Jenkins. He’s depicted as a bubble that floats around the screen before diving into books or a computer.
Ghostwriter cannot hear or talk. It takes Jamal and his friend Lenni Frazer a few tries until they realize he can only communicate through words. Ghost nwriter doesn’t remember who he is or where he came from but he does want to “protect the children”.
The enigma surrounding Ghostwriter never went away but the idea of a word-searching ghost caught on. Because Ghost writer can move from afar, he’s able to transmit clues and tips back to the team and their notebooks. He can surf the internet and even time travel.The Buffalo Sabres today announced that the team has signed forward Nicholas Baptiste to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Baptiste (6'1", 196 lbs., 8/4/95), the Sabres’ third-round (69th overall) selection in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for the Sudbury Wolves in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) since 2011.
In 2013-14, Baptiste registered career highs in goals (45), points (89) and assists (44) in 65 games played. His goal and point totals led the Wolves and his 45 goals tied him for fourth-best among all OHL skaters. Through three seasons with the Wolves, Baptiste has played in 195 games and recorded 164 points (74+90). The Ottawa native also earned a gold medal while playing with Team Canada at the 2013 U18 World Junior Championship in Sochi, Russia.A look at three of the biggest stories from the NHL weekend and how they’ll play into the coming days.
The Stats Guys Are Happy, So the Leafs Must be Losing
Early in the season, we presented the 2013-14 Toronto Maple Leafs as the canary in the advanced-stats mine shaft — the ultimate test case of everything that hockey’s wave of new metrics and data-based analytics thought it knew about what drives success. We’ve learned the numbers point to the critical importance of possession. Teams that control the puck — and use that control to direct a lot of shots at the net — usually win. Teams that can’t do it usually lose.
But occasionally we see a short-term outlier, and last year’s Toronto team was one. The stats guys said they couldn’t keep winning that way. The Maple Leafs insisted that they could. And over the season’s first few weeks, it looked like Toronto was going to pull it off once again. Leafs fans rejoiced. Old-school media gloated. Celebratory T-shirts were, literally, printed up.
Those days suddenly feel like a very long time ago. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a free fall.
Last Monday, the Leafs were humiliated by the Blue Jackets on their home ice, dropping a 6-0 decision. On Wednesday in Pittsburgh, they suffered the embarrassment of failing to get so much as a single shot after the second intermission. On Friday, they faced the dead-last Sabres in a battle of the two worst possession teams of the advanced stats era and lost again.
Saturday night brought yet another defeat, this time to the Canadiens. Montreal jumped out to a 4-0 second-period lead before a pair of Leafs goals made the final respectable, but this one was never really in doubt.
Leafs fans won’t want to hear it, but the math is actually pretty simple: If they can’t fix their shot clock issues, the Leafs will need historically good goaltending to win. They were getting that early on, and it helped them start the season 6-1-0. But in recent games, with James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier looking merely good instead of excellent, the Leafs seem overwhelmed. In their last 20, they’ve been under.500 at 8-9-3. They can’t score anymore. The defensive system is a mess. The coach sounds like he’s out of answers. And the season is slipping away from them.
Or maybe not. This could just be a cold streak, after all, the kind that every team hits at least once or twice over a long season. It’s worth remembering that while the Leafs have dropped from the top of the Atlantic down to wild-card status, they’re still four points up on the ninth spot. Plenty of teams would love to trade places with them.
So that’s the good news. The bad news is that the December schedule is absolutely brutal, including several games with the top Western Conference teams that the Leafs have mostly avoided so far. If they’re going to turn their season around, they’ll need to do it against the league’s best.
Oh, and this is the month that the HBO cameras show up. No pressure, guys.
Ottawa Fans Are Sad, So the Senators Must Be Struggling
Daniel Alfredsson made his return to Ottawa on Sunday and was greeted with a pregame scoreboard video and a mostly warm welcome from fans. Then he went out and scored two points to help the Red Wings hand his former team yet another loss.
The Senators have been one of the season’s biggest disappointments. In 2012-13, they’d endured an almost comical string of injuries to hold on to a playoff spot, then smoked the Canadiens in a five-game rout in the first round. With the team’s roster back to full health and the loss of veterans Alfredsson and Sergei Gonchar seemingly made up for by the additions of younger pieces like Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur, it felt like a given that the team would take another step toward the league’s elite.
Instead, they’ve floundered. Almost overnight, all the things the Senators were known for doing well have become weaknesses. Last year’s best penalty kill is now a bottom-10 unit, which is a disaster for a team that leads the NHL in time spent short-handed. Their best players haven’t been as good as they need to be. What was once an excellent possession team is now well under 50 percent.
And then there’s the most obvious problem of all: goaltending. The Senators had the best goals-against average in the conference last year, but this year they can’t keep the puck out of their net. They rank 26th in the NHL, even trailing behind train-wreck teams like Buffalo.
Most of that has been on starter Craig Anderson, who’s struggled badly after a fantastic year in 2012-13. His 3.51 GAA is more than double last year’s 1.69, and his.894 save percentage is almost 50 points lower. Anderson went into the year as a dark horse for the Team USA starter’s job. Now you have to wonder how long he’ll manage to be a starter, period. Backup Robin Lehner is younger, cheaper, and — right now — better. Coach Paul MacLean has tried to hold off a goaltending controversy, but at some point the Senators are going to have to start playing the best guy if they want to stay within range of the playoffs.
The good news is that they’ll have a strong chance to make up some ground this week. They’ll face the Panthers, Lightning, Leafs, and Flyers over the next eight days, and all four of those games are winnable. A six- or seven-point stretch would put them back on track to contending, just like they usually did when that Alfredsson guy was around.
John Tortorella Is Irate, So Actually, That Doesn’t Tell Us Anything
We might as well embrace a theme for today’s post: disappointing Canadian teams. That would be your cue, Vancouver Canucks. (Or the Flames. Or the Oilers. Or the Jets. But we spun the big wheel of northern woe, and this week’s last spot goes to Vancouver.)
The Canucks took part in one of the weekend’s marquee matchups when they traveled to New York to face the Rangers. The game was the first regular-season contest between the teams since they essentially swapped coaches in the offseason. It marked Alain Vigneault’s first game against the Canucks after seven years as their coach, and John Tortorella’s return to Madison Square Garden after five years behind the Rangers bench.
That should have set the stage for a dramatic showdown. Instead, it led to a dominating effort by the home team in a 5-2 Rangers win that featured Chris Kreider’s first career hat trick. That could be considered a nice little revenge story, given how often Kreider found himself in Tortorella’s doghouse. Of course, he’s been in Vigneault’s doghouse, too, but let’s not let a little thing like the facts get in the way of our narrative.
The news was better for the Canucks on Sunday, as a pair of Ryan Kesler goals were enough to secure a 3-2 win over the Hurricanes. That boosted the Canucks’ record to 14-10-5 on the season, and to within one point of catching Phoenix for the West’s final wild-card spot (though the Coyotes have three games in hand). The two teams will face each other Friday in Vancouver, so the Canucks may be back in a playoff spot by this time next week.
Of course, just sneaking into the playoffs wasn’t supposed to be the goal for this team, which was expected to contend for the Pacific title. There’s still time to get back on track, and at least we can count on the fiery Tortorella not being shy about letting them know what they need to do. Right, Alex Edler?
Quick Shifts
• The Ducks and Sharks played a fantastic game Saturday that saw the Sharks take an early 3-1 lead, the Ducks fight back in the third to tie it, and an exciting overtime. Then it ended on a controversial shootout goal that maybe shouldn’t have counted, because the shootout is stupid. The Sharks have won five straight and moved back into first place in the Pacific.
• Brutal news for the Dallas Stars, who lost defenseman Stephane Robidas to a broken leg Saturday against the Hawks. Robidas slid into the end boards on a shot block attempt, and will miss four to six months.
• In other injury news, exiled Sabres pest Patrick Kaleta tore his ACL on Friday night and will likely miss the rest of the season. Kaleta had been waived and demoted after his latest lengthy suspension, but new Buffalo coach Ted Nolan had been hinting that a call-up was possible.
• The Flames looked like they’d lost starting goalie Karri Ramo when he went down at the end of Saturday’s morning skate after taking a shot to the knee. But he shook it off in time to start and led the Flames to a 2-1 win over Los Angeles. Former King Mike Cammalleri scored the winner in the final minute of regulation.
• Some more good news for a goaltender: Pittsburgh’s Tomas Vokoun is recovering well from preseason surgery to remove a blood clot and may be nearing a return. However, he’s still not ruling out retirement.
• The Bruins earned a pair of weekend wins over the Rangers and Blue Jackets, and have reclaimed the top spot in the East. They’re off until Thursday, when they’ll travel to Montreal to renew their rivalry with the Canadiens for the first time this season.
• The West’s top team also earned a pair of wins, as the Blackhawks topped the Stars and Coyotes. That finished off a seven-game road trip that started with a loss to the Avalanche but ended with six straight wins. Chicago hosts Dallas on Tuesday for its first home game in more than two weeks.
• The surging Flyers earned one-goal wins over the Jets and Predators, and have now won eight of their last 11. They’re just two points out of a playoff spot, and have moved to within four points of Washington for second place in the Metro.
• The Ilya Bryzgalov era has arrived in Edmonton. He earned a shutout in his first start of the season Thursday, blanking the Predators 3-0. That was followed by another start Friday, but he was pulled after allowing four goals through two periods in an eventual 4-2 loss. He failed to make it through the game again Sunday night, this time due to injury when he was plowed into by Ryan Garbutt. He’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
• Finally, the worst game of the weekend was Saturday’s 1-0 overtime snoozer between the Devils and Sabres. Cory Schneider needed just 15 saves for the shutout in a game that earned less-than-stellar reviews on the basis of entertainment value.The federal regulator for petroleum pipelines and oil-toting railcars is offering employee buyouts that could shrink the agency's staff by 9 percent by mid-June—a step that has confounded observers because the agency is widely regarded as being chronically understaffed.
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) spokesman Damon Hill said the buyout offers are meant to "help the agency manage attrition in areas where a large and growing number of employees are eligible for retirement by offering an inducement for a limited number of employees to voluntarily retire or resign."
Hill said PHMSA is continuing to hire in key areas at the same time. "I |
lower—and very realistic—expectations for the keyboard that comes with my laptop. I know there’s never going to be a laptop keyboard that matches the feel of my Topre (or any other mechanical keyboard for that matter), no matter how expensive it is.
As much as I wish I could use my external keyboard all the time, there are times when I need to take my laptop elsewhere, and every night I take it upstairs to use in my bedroom once the kids go to bed. In fact, I’m typing this blog post while sitting in bed. Ever since MacBooks started using the island-style scissor-switch keyboards and all the PC laptops aped them, that’s pretty much what I’ve come to expect from a laptop keyboard—and that’s been totally fine with me.
While some people hate the feel of the 2nd generation “butterfly” keys on the new MacBook Pros, I’m fine with the way they feel. The keys wiggle less, which makes the keyboard seem more “premium” (at least at first), but unfortunately, that combined with the shallower depth sometimes makes it difficult for my fingers to distinguish between the individual keys. But none of this bothers me much.
The worst part about this keyboard, by far, and especially considering how much I paid for this thing, is how easy it is for keys to get stuck and for pieces of dust to require expensive repairs. It makes me scared to use the keyboard for fear it will break. I’ve had this computer for less than two months, and a couple of the keys have already gotten stuck on me. Fortunately, some blowing beneath the keys got them working again, but I may not be so lucky next time. Another crappy thing is that out of the box, several keys were extremely mushy (and still are). I hate pressing those keys.
I could have returned the computer for another one, but I’ve seen other reports of people getting back an even worse keyboard. Therefore, I decided not to exchange it since the mushy keys still work. I’d rather have mushy working keys, than keys that register twice for every keypress or other stupid issues like that. Also, my anger would be amplified if I got another defective keyboard considering I would have had to ship this computer to Apple (since it’s refurbished), and wait for them to ship it (or another one) back. That could take weeks. No thanks.
For such a premium product, at a very premium price, the fragility and unreliability of this keyboard is totally unacceptable. This isn’t just some arbitrary design decision that I disagree with. I’ve been apologetic about just about all the other controversial design choices, and I would even stand by this keyboard if the quality was there. But the lack of said quality almost makes me feel like I’ve been ripped off. That’s not a feeling I usually get from Apple.
And while I’m at it, another minor thing I don’t like about this keyboard is how fatigued the muscles in my hand get after extended typing sessions, which has never happened to me before on any keyboard. For someone who uses mechanical keyboards regularly, I’m surprised at how much strain I experience while typing on this thing. I find myself having to take momentary breaks every now and then to let the muscles in my hand recover, as if I’m working them out. This isn’t a deal-breaker in and of itself, but it’s just one of many “paper cuts” on top of the huge defects.
Unfortunately, unlike with software, Apple can’t just issue an update to fix these problems. I’m going to be stuck with this keyboard until I get a new laptop a few years down the road. I’m just going to have to live with it. One thing’s for sure, the next time I purchase a laptop from Apple, I’m going to pay close attention to what people say about the keyboard. And that means discussion forums and comment threads, not just reviews from publications. Before I bought this computer, I thought people were griping about the “feel” of the keyboard. I didn’t realize a piece of dust could bring the whole thing down.
One of the reasons I’m being so vocal about this is that if enough people complain about the keyboard, maybe Apple will put a lot more focus on this area the next time they refresh the MacBook Pro. I hope Phil Schiller sees this.
The Touch Bar
I’m going to be blunt and get this out of the way.
In my opinion, this is a novelty feature that wasn’t worth the amount of engineering effort Apple put into it and the additional cost to consumers. It’s not something that degrades my experience, but it doesn’t enhance my experience either. Certainly not enough to warrant the additional cost. After almost two months with this laptop, I rarely use the Touch Bar for more than brightness and volume, which isn’t anything more than I could do before. In fact, there are two ways the dedicated function row was better for me: volume and brightness were never an extra tap away, and I could feel the escape key. I never miss the escape key since it’s always in the same spot, so it isn’t a huge issue, but I certainly can’t feel it anymore and I don’t like that.
I already paid the extra cost though, and since the Touch Bar doesn’t reduce the reliability of the computer (like the stupid keyboard), I’ll just cut my losses on this one and move on. Next time around I’ll be looking for a non-Touch Bar model if they offer one with the same specs though. I’m sorry to say, but it just isn’t worth it to me.
On the other hand, if the Touch Bar featured some kind of Dock that allowed you to have a Dock while hiding the one on-screen, that would be nice. I want to hide my Dock, but unfortunately that means I can’t see icon badges (like missed Slack messages) at a glance. Or even if the Touch Bar simply had a section that showed an indicator for notifications, it would be much more useful than it is now. As it stands, the Touch Bar isn’t of much use to me, and that’s unfortunate because I know it contributed quite a bit to the price tag.
The Good Parts
You’d be forgiven for thinking I hate this computer. Like I said, I wanted to get the bad parts out of the way first, because apart from my gripes above, I absolutely love everything else about this MacBook Pro.
Performance is great for my “pro” use-cases, which consists of web development, iOS and Android development, and some Photoshop. As I mentioned earlier, it has twice as much RAM and disk space than I’m used to having, so I’m definitely enjoying that (especially since I have to use some of heavyweight apps for work like Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, and Slack).
Battery life is good (as usual).
The 15-inch high resolution display is gorgeous. The bezels ar smaller. Colors look great, and it is fantastically bright. I’ve had laptops and monitors in the past that couldn’t get bright enough, but now I have to actually turn the brightness down sometimes. The screen is also large enough that I no longer need to use an external monitor at my desk—a laptop stand to keep it at eye level is perfect for me.
The Space Gray color looks amazing and the build quality is everything I’ve come to expect from Apple (apart from the keyboard of course). Despite the laptop’s relatively large size (I’ve been using 13-inch models for years), it is amazingly thin and light (I guess the keyboard wasn’t neutered for nothing).
The speakers are loud and clear. They sound fantastic. When I’m at my desk listening to music without headphones, I no longer need external speakers. If I did have external speakers, they probably wouldn’t sound as good as these do. It’s a nice touch, because although I was never displeased with the speakers in my older MacBook, these are definitely much better.
The trackpad is bigger. A lot bigger. The huge size looks a little awkward, but I don’t pay much attention to it. I have to use an external mouse anyway due to a condition I have called hyperhidrosis that causes my hands to sweat. Trackpads generally don’t work well for me, so I don’t even bother anymore. I’m not going to comment on Touch ID for the same reason. Not Apple’s fault.
USB-C
Another controversial design decision in this generation of MacBook Pro is that it has four USB-C ports (and a headphone jack that I never use), and no other ports. Since I’m at my desk most of the time, I can get by with a single dongle that has several USB 3.0 ports on it. I plug my external keyboard in and any devices I use for development and I’m good to go.
I miss MagSafe a little, but I have actually come to like charging with USB-C. I love being able to plug the charger into any port. While at my desk, I charge from the left side but while sitting in bed, I charge it from the right. I’m very glad (and somewhat surprised) that Apple decided to make the USB-C cable detachable from the power brick, because in my experience, the point of failure on MacBook chargers has always been the cord. So now if I ever need to replace it, I can do so for relatively cheap. I’ve never had an Apple power brick go bad on me, so I’m not worried about that happening. Of course, I’ve never had a bad Apple keyboard either, so maybe I shouldn’t be so sure.
I personally don’t consider the limited port availability as a bad thing. This is an example of a design choice that I can adapt to, and have adapted to just fine over the past couple of months. I don’t see the point in complaining about it. It’s not like the USB-C ports are broken or have a high chance of failing (like the stupid keyboard). That would be a different story, and thankfully that’s not the story this time. I’m just glad they didn’t go with four Lightning ports (although if they keep making the MacBook Pro thinner that may be where we’re headed… oh boy).
Conclusion
If it weren’t for the unreliable keyboard and the expensive Touch Bar that has limited utility, this would be the best laptop I have ever owned. Unfortunately, the keyboard issue is no small thing, and I’m highly disappointed in Apple for shipping a keyboard with these kinds of flaws. I sincerely hope that for the next iteration of MacBook Pro, Apple fixes the keyboard and finds a way to make the Touch Bar more useful, at least enough to justify the extra cost.
I mentioned feeling ripped off earlier, so you may be wondering why I even bother to stick with Apple computers. On one hand, I have no choice because work requires that I use macOS. On the other hand, even if it didn’t, I still think macOS is light years ahead of Windows and “Desktop Linux” in so many ways. For me, leaving macOS behind would be even more painful than dealing with a crappy keyboard.
Fortunately, most the time I’m using an—awesome—external keyboard, so the keyboard defects are not something I have to deal with every time I use this otherwise outstanding computer. That’s why I didn’t return it and get the 2015 model. I really like this laptop, I just wish it had a more reliable keyboard.Fort Pierce, Fla., Waimanalo, Hawaii, Coronado, Calif., and Virginia Beach are the four primary training sites for Navy SEALs and their predecessors, but only one of those cities is without a Naked Warrior monument.
The monument, which pays tribute to Navy combat divers and Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) during World War II, is missing from Virginia Beach.
Former Navy SEAL Rick Woolard hopes to change this by bringing the Naked Warrior to the Oceanfront.
Woolard, who served on Navy SEAL Team 2 and is now member of the board at the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, presented a monument proposal to the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission Public Art Committee Friday.
The monument would consist of a bronze statue of the Naked Warrior enclosed by granite with plaques describing the history of the statue and the city’s relationship with the SEALs, Woolard said.
The Naked Warrior statue is named to reflect the bare minimum underwater teams, also called Frogmen, had to protect and equip themselves during missions — fins, a facemask, a knife, and a slate board to record information, according to Woolard.
Like other installations across the county, the Naked Warrior would stand atop a horned scully, a W obstacle which was used to impede attacking forces by damaging the undersides of ships. Navy combat divers were tasked with removing these obstacles.
Rather than a large or imposing statue, Woolard says the tribute is meant intrude as little as possible.
“It would not be a visual impediment, or an intimidating monument,” he said. “We want to keep with the the sight lines of the ocean horizon in a humble, yet venerable way.”
In addition to the installation of the bronze monument at the Oceanfront, Woolard said he hopes to include sand from all the different beaches that Navy SEALs have operated on.
If approved by the city council, the monument would be erected on the Oceanfront at 38th St, where the current bike path and showers would be relocated to accommodate those paying their respects, Woolard said.
According to Rick Kaiser, executive director of the Navy SEAL Museum and a former member of SEAL Team 2, the museum would be responsible for funding the project, and hopes for an unveiling ceremony on Veterans Day of 2017.
Mayor Will Sessoms, who strongly supports the proposed project, said it is a way to honor the Navy SEALs of Virginia Beach.
“We owe so much to the SEALs for their sacrifices, dedication, and selfless involvement in their country and the Virginia Beach community,” Sessoms said. “I’m helping in any way I can to make sure Virginia Beach finds the best home for the Navy SEALs Naked Warrior Monument.”
The mold for the original statue, which is located outside of the Navy SEAL museum in Fort Pierce, was commissioned in 1986 from artist Seward Johnson. Johnson is known for a number life-size and monumental-scale sculptures, including Forever Marilyn and Embracing Peace, a giant depiction of the legendary photo V-J Day in Times Square.
Seward created the mold for the Naked Warrior using a photo taken of a former Navy SEAL named Steve Nelson in 1986, according to Woolard.
“Nelson had just started working for the museum after leaving active-duty,” Woolard said. “The museum curator had Steve pose wearing some of the UDT artifacts from the museum. The statue is an exact replica of him.”
Prior to the commission of the bronze statue, Wollard said the Fort Pierce museum used a manikin, that was often vandalized.
Currently, the project is awaiting approval from the city.
Before voting on the project, the public art committee will consider input from a number of city departments and organizations.
If approved by the committee, the proposal will move to the Virginia Beach city council for a final vote.
“It’s a lengthy process, but the hardest part is getting approval and getting the site prepared for it’s arrival,” Kaiser said. “The city has been very helpful in working with us to get it to the right spot. We just want to make sure everyone is happy.”
Pohl may be reached at mariah@localvoicemedia.comScion unveils rally-bound 2013 xD
Jan 26, 2013, 4:03pm ET
by Ronan Glon
The xD will compete in the 2013 Rally America National Championship.
Toyota's Scion division has revealed the race-bound xD that will compete in all seven events of the 2013 Rally America National Championship.
An evolution of last year's race car, the 2013 xD gains minor exterior modifications such as two rows of LED lights up front and a slightly different livery.
The big changes are found by looking under the car. Engineers have fitted the xD with a new suspension setup that makes the hatchback more responsive to drive over rough terrain while giving it considerably more ground clearance than its regular-production counterpart.
Scion says that the engine's power output has been raised but precise details are not available. All that is known is that the rally car is powered by a turbocharged version of the xD's 1.8-liter four-cylinder mill.
Power is sent to the front wheels via a new-for-2013 dog engagement transmission which has straight-cut gears instead of helical gears, reducing wear and friction inside the gearbox.
The race-bound xD is scheduled to make its competition debut at the Sno*Drift Rally that is taking place this weekend in Atlanta, Michigan. It will be driven by Andrew Comrie-Picard, a Canadian pilot that finished second overall in the two-wheel drive category of last year's season.Getting access to 25000 employees details
Sahil Ahamad Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 8, 2017
Hi guys,
I want to share one of my findings in a private program on HackerOne, which was — critical but straightforward one. During testing for that private program. I found an endpoint for the Internal team management.
Internal Team management endpoint
After opening the endpoint (refer the Image above), the only thing running in my mind was “How about I check the directories.” Thus, I immediately utilized Dirsearch to brute force all the directories.
Here is the exciting output.
I renamed dirsearch to `dir` because I am lazy :v
Noticed? Anything?
It’s https://37.--.--.--/register :P
Upon opening the URL.
Yuss!!!! Registration page. 😮 anddd….
I tried to register with my details. And.. there was a configuration error. I was like…
I decided to register one more time with the same email and ended up with an error i.e.
“The email is already registered.”
okay, let’s go and log in.
So, I tried to log in with my registered credentials anddd…..
Successfully Logged in….
Admin management page.
All administrators name & email address was disclosed, I was even able to delete them.
Typical employee details pages
Disclosed details include Name, Email, Phone-No, Employee ID, Shifts, Reports, Salaries etc.
Typical Employee details (25k Records)
Sorry, but I needed to hide some details due to confidentiality issues. Some other critical data was disclosing too but don’t have permission to write further.
After verifying the issue, I quickly submitted the detailed report to the program via HackerOne. They validated and fixed the problem within a few hours.
They permanently fixed the issue by removing the public registration page from the endpoint.
After reporting the issue, I applied dirsearch on most of the critical endpoints belongs to them however no more endpoint was vulnerable to the same problem.
Timeline.
Report Submitted: 25–10–2017
Report Triaged: 25–10–2017
Initial 1300$ Awarded: 25–10–2017
Report closed as Resolved: 25–10–2017
Final 1200$ Awarded: 26–10–2017
Update
As many people messaging me and asking how I found this Asset/Internal team management endpoint. I am providing info about it here,
I found this endpoint using Github issues conversations.
My recon process.
Tools
Sublister,knockpy,dnsresolver,dirsearch,bucket finder,massdns etc.
After reporting some low hanging issues, I go out and follow engineering/Security teams on Twitter and Github & look for anything interesting
I go through all the issues/Repositories companies engineering team created publicly on Github.
I read all blog posts by engineering and security team.
I check their DNS every month. Generally, companies stopped using a service and forgot to delete CNAMES pointing to service.
I use their services as the user and continue my recon processes,
I also use Burp Suite pro history tool to find exciting endpoints.
According to me, Recon is not a one time process it’s a continuous process.Crowds Show Up To Support Forbidden Root’s Brewery Proposal
By Staff in Food on Jan 24, 2014 8:50PM
(Photo credit: Melissa McEwen)
A crowd of around 300 people gathered at the site of the old Hub Theater last night to learn about Forbidden Root’s proposal to change the zoning and lift the liquor moratorium in the area.
“Radical Brewing” guru Randy Mosher spoke first, praising Forbidden Root’s innovative brewing style, which is inspired by ancient practices that drew on roots, herbs and fruits.
Operations Manager and brewer BJ Pichman then took the floor to talk about their plans to restore the building, which has been almost entirely vacant since 1990. An unslightly drop ceiling currently covers the open-span ceiling, but they plan on removing that to bring back the original theatrical look of the building.
Their brewing capacity will be small -- 10-barrels that are mainly for taproom use. They will do their bigger brewing projects and bottling off site. Bottles, and their planned line of bitters, will be available in a greenhouse-style store. There will be 5 full-time employees and 10 part-time employees.
Founder Robert Finkel told the room about his vision for charitable giving, which led him to make Forbidden Root a “Benefit Corporation,” an emergent concept that involves considerations of benefits to society and the environment in corporate decision-making. Their current beneficiary for charitable contributions is The Green City Market.
Pichman also said they are going to collaborate with local producers and chefs to build a small food menu, though they aren't planning on a full kitchen.
But all this is only if they can get the laws changed. The area’s liquor moratorium and current zoning rules are currently incompatible with their business plan. The liquor moratorium is a contentious issue for local community groups, because local Alderman Proco Joe Moreno promised The East Village Association that he wouldn’t lift it until 2015.
But the moratorium has a loophole. Alcohol sales are allowed if they are “incidental” to another business. The list of these types of businesses includes hotels, restaurants, and banquet halls, but not breweries. They could open a restaurant, but since they are a brewery it would be a tenuous legal situation, as most of their revenue would have to come from food to qualify for the incidental exemption.
Rolando Acosta, the zoning attorney representing Forbidden Root and the building’s owners, said they are attempting to change the law to include breweries. They should know around March if this will work.
He also addressed the common concern The East Village Association has brought up, such as another business using the re-zoning to open up a type of business the neighborhood would be unhappy with, such as a dry cleaning plant or a more rowdy type of tavern. They plan on using a method of conditional re-zoning that would only allow brewpubs to take advantage of the new zoning and the precedent it sets. They also plan on having an operations plan that specifies hours attached to their liquor license. At one point they asked the room whether anyone had ever witnessed a fight at a brewpub. No one raised their hand.
Judging by crowd reactions, it seemed most people were there to show support. But a few neighbors showed up to ask skeptical questions. One neighbor said she was worried about a “yeasty” odor and another voiced concern about mechanical noise, parking and “more activity” on the street. Representatives from Pipeworks Brewing Company were in attendance and said that even though their operations is right in the midst of condos in Bucktown and is a larger brewery than the planned Forbidden Roots operation, they’ve never received a complaint.
A few people suggested they try a different building in a nearby area with fewer legal restrictions, but Pichman said that they have fallen in love with the neighborhood and this specific building, which the city considers a landmark building.
Many people who asked questions said they previously had doubts, but felt supportive after their concerns had been addressed. One attendee urged his neighbors to consider becoming more involved in local politics by joining local neighborhood associations like The East Village Association, because its positions depend on the membership. Acosta said supporters should also consider emailing Alderman Proco Joe Moreno to voice their support.
Members of The West Town Chamber of Commerce collected a survey from attendees at the end of the night that asked whether or not they supported the legal changes, and plan to communicate the results to the Alderman.
Previously: Forbidden Root's Fight Against Local Liquor Laws
By Melissa McEwenOlder items: 2015: ( J F M ), 2014: ( J F M A M J J A S O N D ), 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, legacy html
Today we release LibreOffice 4.3.0, packed with a load of new features for people to enjoy - you can read and enjoy all the great news about the user visible features from so many hardy developers, but there are of course also some contributors whose work is primarily behind the scenes in places that are not so easy to see. These are of course still vitally important to the project. It can be hard to extract those from the over fourteen thousand commits since LibreOffice 4.2 was branched, so let me expand:
User Interface Dialog / Layout
The UI migration to Glade based layout of VCL widgets is finally approaching the home straight; more than two hundred dialogs were converted this release; leaving the final dialogs rather hard to find - help appreciated. Many thanks to Caolán McNamara (Red Hat) - for his incredible work here, and also Szymon Kłos, Michal Siedlaczek, Olivier Hallot (EDX), Andras Timar (Collabora), Jan Holesovsky (Collabora), Katarina Behrens, Thomas Arnhold, Maxim Monastirsky, Manal Alhassoun, Palenik Mihály, and many others... Thanks also to our translators who helped in the migration of strings.
If you'd like to get involved in driving this to 100%, checkout Caolan's howto and his great blog: 99 to go update (now only 65) illustrated by this:
Build improvements
We've improved a lot this cycle in terms of buildability, and ease of comprehension - important for new contributors.
Visual Studio support
Not only did Jesus Corrius add initial support for Visual Studio 2013, but we had a major win from Honza Havlíček who (building on Bjoern Michaelsen (Canonical)'s similar KDevelop work) implemented building a Visual Studio project file - allowing much improved build / debugging support video or just: make vs2012-ide-integration.
OpenGL as a run-time dependency
In the past when we needed an OpenGL code-path we would link a separate shared library to OpenGL and then dynamically load that component - as for the OpenGL slideshow. In 4.3 we unified all of our OpenGL code to use glew and now have a central VCL API for initializing and linking in OpenGL, making it much easier to use in future. Another benefit of using glew is the ability to check for certain extensions at run-time dynamically to better adapt to your platform's capabilities rather than having to work vs. a baseline.
Pre-compiled-headers / PCH updates
Thomas Arhnold discovered that our pch files (used for accelerating windows building) had bit-rotted, and did a fine cleanup sweep across them. That significantly reduced build time for a number of modules.
Mobile code-size reduction
A lot of work was put into LibreOffice 4.3 to allow us to shrink the code to fit a mobile footprint nicely. Thanks to Matus Kukan (Collabora) for splitting a large number of UNO components into individual factory functions - to allow the linker to garbage collect un-used components. Matus also created a python script solenv/bin/native-code.py to share the building of lists of components to statically link in for various combinations of functionality. Tor Lillqvist (Collabora) did some re-work on ICU to package the rather large data tables as a file instead of code. Vincent Saunders (Collabora) worked away to improve dwarfprofile to identify larger pieces of object file and where they came from. Jan Holesovsky de-coupled lots of accessibility code, and removed lots of static variables dragging in un-needed code. Miklos Vajna turned OOXML custom shape preset definitions ( oox::drawingml::CustomShapeProperties::PresetsMap ) from generated code to generated data: that allowed removal of 50k lines of code. Thanks to Tsahi Glik / CloudOn for funding this work.
Code quality work
There has been a lot of work on code quality and improving the maintainability and cleanliness of the code. Another 75 or so commits to fix cppcheck errors are thanks to Julien Nabet, along with the huge scad of daily commits to build without any compile warnings -Werror -Wall -Wextra on every platform with thanks primarily to Tor Lillqvist (Collabora), Caolán McNamara (Red Hat), and Thomas Arnhold.
Assert usage
Another tool that developers use to ensure they do not introduce new bugs is assertions; historically the OOo code base has had custom assertion facilities that can easily be ignored, and so most developers did just that; thanks to Stephan Bergmann (Red Hat), we have started to use the standard assert() macros in LibreOffice, which have the important advantage that they actually abort the program: if an assertion fails, developers see a crash that is rather harder to ignore than some text printed on the terminal. Thanks to all who asserted the truth.
Rocking Coverity
We have been chewing through the huge amount of analysis from the Coverity Scan, well - in particular Caolán McNamara (Red Hat) has done an awesome job here; his blog on that is typically modest.
We now have a defect density of 0.08 - meaning 8x bugs in every 100,000 lines of code found by static checking. This compares rather favourably with the average open source project of this size which has 65 per 100,000 lines. Perhaps the most useful thing here is Coverity's report on new issues - many of which are rather more serious than the last few, lowest priority un-triaged reports.
This was achieved by 2679 commits, 88% of them from Caolán, and then Norbert Thiebaud, Miklos Vajna (Collabora), Noel Grandin, Stephan Bergmann (RedHat), Chris Sherlock, David Tardon (RedHat), Thomas Arnhold, Steve Yin (IBM), Kohei Yoshida (Collabora), Jan Holesovsky (Collabora), Eike Rathke (RedHat), Markus Mohrhard (Collabora) and Julien Nabet
Import and now export testing
Markus Mohrhard's great import/export crash testing has been expanded to 55,000+ problem/bug documents, now covering the PDF importer, and our crash and validation problem counts continue to drop. We import each of these documents, and then export them into each export format that we support; eg. an ODS would be re-exported as ODS, XLS, XLSX, etc. Markus also re-wrote and simplified the test script in python to make it simpler; however we routinely suffer from this test (running for 5 days and consuming a beefy machine) locking up Linux of several distributons, kernel versions, on both virtual and real hardware; which has a negative impact on usefulness.
Re-factoring big objects
In some cases LibreOffice has classes that seem to do 'everything' and include the kitchen sink too. Thanks to Valentin Kettner, Michael Stahl (RedHat) and Bjoern Michaelsen (Canonical) for helping to re-factor these. As an example SwDoc (a writer document) now inherits from only nine classes instead of nineteen, and the header file shrunk by more than three hundred lines.
Valgrind fixes
Valgrind continued to be a wonderful tool for finding and isolating leaks, and poor behavior of various bits of code - although normal code-paths are by now rather valgrind clean. Dave Richards from Largo very kindly donated us some CPU time on his new 80x CPU Linux machine to burn it in. We used that to run Markus' import/export testing under valgrind, and found and fixed a number of issues. valgrind logs here. We would be most happy to help others with their boxes in need of load testing.
Address / Leak Sanitizer
There are some great new ways of doing (compile time) code sanitisation, and thanks to Stephan Bergmann (RedHat) we're using them enthusiastically -fsanitize is available for Clang and gcc 4.9. It lets us do memory checking (like valgrind) but with visibility into stack corruption, and to do that very significantly faster. Some details on -fsanitize for libreoffice are available. Lots of leaks and badness have been fixed using the tool, thanks too to Markus Mohrhard, and Caolan McNamara.
Unit testing
We also built and executed more unit tests with LibreOffice 4.3 to avoid regressions as we change the code. Grepping for CPPUNIT_TEST() and CPPUNIT_ASSERT as last time we continued the trend of growth here:
qa/
SAL_OVERRIDE and more
Our ideal is that every bug that is fixed gets a unit test to stop it ever recurring. With 1100 commits, and over eighty committers to the unit tests in 4.3 it is hard to list everyone involved here, apologies for that; what follows is a sorted list of those with over 20x commits to thedirectories:
Traditionally C++ has allowed significant ambiguity in overriding methods, allowing the 'virtual' keyword to be ommitted in overrides, and also allowing accidentally polymorphic overrides. To prepare for the new C++ standard here we've annotated all of our virtual methods that are overridden in sub-classes with the SAL_OVERRIDE macro, to ensure that we are building our vtables correctly. Many thanks to Noel Grandin, and Stephan Bergmann (RedHat) for building a clang plugin to help to build annotation here with another to verify that the result stays consistent. That fixed several long-standing bugs. As a bonus when you read the code it is much easier to find the base virtual method declaration: it's the one that is not marked with SAL_OVERRIDE.
QA / bugzilla
This release the QA team has grown, and done some amazing work both triaging bugs, and also closing them, getting us back well under the totemic one thousand un-triaged bug barrier. Currently ~750 un-confirmed which is the lowest in over two years. Thanks to everyone for their great work there, sadly it is rather hard to extract credits for confirming bugs, but the respective hero list overlaps with the non-developer / top closers listed below.
We also had one of our best bug-hunting weekends ever around 4.3 see Joel Madero's write-up. The QA team are also doing excellent job with our bibisect git repositories to isolate regressions to small blocks of commits - which makes life significantly easier for developers.
One metric we watch in the ESC call is who is in the top ten in the freedesktop Weekly bug summary. Here is a list of the top twenty people who have appeared most frequently in the weekly list of top ten bug closers in order of frequency of appearance: Jorendc, Kohei Yoshida (Collabora), Maxim Monastirsky, tommy27, Joel Madero, Caolán McNamara (RedHat), Foss, Jay Philips, m.a.riosv, Julien Nabet, Sophie Gautier (TDF), Cor Nouws, Michael Stahl (RedHat), Jean-Baptiste Faure, Andras Timar (Collabora), Adolfo Jayme, ign_christian, Markus Mohrhard (Collabora), Eike Rathke (RedHat), Urmas. And thanks to the many others that helped to close so many bugs for this release.
Bjoern Michaelsen (Canonical) also write up a nice taxonomy of our twenty five thousand reported bugs so far, and provided the data for this nice breakdown:
Code cleanup
Code that is dirty should be cleaned up - so we did a lot of that.
The final death of UniString
While we killed our last tools/ string class in 4.2 and switched to clean, uniform OUStrings everywhere - we were still using some 16bit quantities to describe text offsets elsewhere. Thanks to Caolán McNamara (Red Hat) for finally enabling writer to have >64k paragraphs - a long requested feature by a certain type of user, see the related blogpost.
VCL code / structure cleanup
The Visual Class Libraries - the LibreOffice native toolkit has not been given the love it deserves in recent years. Many thanks to Chris Sherlock for several hundred commits - starting to cleanup VCL. That involves lots of good things - giving the code a more logical structure so it is easy to find methods; systematically writing doxygen documentation for API methods, ensuring that API methods have sensible, descriptive names and starting to unwind some poor legacy design decisions; much appreciated.
Ongoing German Comment redux
We continued to make some progress on translating our last lingering German comments across the codebase to good, crisp technical English. Many thanks to Luc Castermans, Sven Wehner, Christian M. Heller, Philipp Weissenbacher, Stefan Ring, Philipp Riemer, Tobias Mueller, Chris Sherlock, Alexander Wilms and others. We also reduced the number of false positives and accelerated the bin/find-german-comments tool in this cycle.
Automated code re-factoring using Clang
One hero of code cleaning is Noel Grandin who is constantly improving the code in many ways; eg. writing out un-necessary duplicate code to use standard wrappers such as SimpleReferenceObject. Noel has been heavily involved in Clang plugins to re-write a lot of our error prone binary file format / stream overrides pStream >> nVar seems like a great idea until you realise that an unexpected change to the type of nVar far away tweaks the file format. These operators are now all re-written to explicit ReadFloat type methods enhancing the robustness of the code to changes. Noel also created plugins to inline simple member functions, detect inefficient passing of uno::Sequence, and OUString. Stephan Bergmann (RedHat) also wrote a number of advanced linting tools, checks for de-referencing NULL pointers, quickly catching inlining problems on Linux that cause most grief on Windows, and re-writing un-necessary uses of sal_Bool to bool. Stephan also wrote a plugin to find unused functions and unused functions in templates, as well as warning on illicit conversions of literal to bool e.g. if (n == KIND_FOO || KIND_BAR). All of this improves the readability, consistency, reliability and in some cases performance of the code.
Improving lifecycle
Takeshi Abe invested lots of |
these same old catchwords trotted out again and again. I firmly believe that the cultural vigor of the West as a whole is passing, if it hasn’t already passed, from the Left to the Right. By this I don’t mean the Republican Right, which is just as liberal as its opposition, but rather what Evola termed the “true Right”—the Right founded on the timeless principles and traditions of our people.
If we continue to offer fresh perspectives in an intriguing manner, and if people continue to respond to them, I think the rest will follow. It is not enough to offer a critical, purely negative view of our civilization as presently constituted. We must offer a positive, constructive alternative vision of what we want that can be attractive to people, and that indicates to ourselves where we want to be heading.
In our own modest way in Arktos, we are trying to offer the appetizers to inspire a greater hunger in our people for a more authentic mode of living and being. Books about the realities of race and of social trends are important, and we must continue to promote them. However, I think it is even more important to offer new ideas in politics, culture, philosophy and religion, and also to produce more creative works that reflect our worldview: fiction, poetry, art, music, videos, and hopefully one day even fully-fledged films. Nothing can inspire people more than a creative vision with which they can readily identify. I hope many more groups will follow in Arktos’ footsteps in this regard.
I’ve mentioned religion, and I think I should delve into this briefly. This isn’t universal, but I have noticed a distinct attraction among many young people towards more traditional forms of spirituality and the sorts of books that Arktos publishes in this area. Traditionalism is certainly part of that. I think this is only natural, since religion at its best offers one of the last refuges of authenticity amidst a society that has become mostly plastic and virtual. And certainly many of the most highly motivated movements and activists I have known on the Right have drawn their sense of purpose, at least in part, from a sense of the spiritual.
This is particularly true of Jobbik. I think the sacred must be an integral part of any attempt to forge a new nationalist culture. This is not to say that we should attempt to propagate a specific religion, as I think such an effort could create divisions, but the cultivation of authentic forms of spirituality, provided that they are consistent with our own norms and values, is a worthy undertaking. A spiritual sense of purpose is the most highly effective way to inoculate oneself against the diseases and temptations of the liberal world.
Hopefully, all this will lead to something corporate America learned was the key to power decades ago: the creation of a subculture, and the identity that follows from that. And, given the right circumstances, a subculture can very quickly influence the prevailing culture. If this happens, it might not even be necessary to have a political movement as such—the perspectives we offer will become commonplace and second-nature—in effect, an identity, and society will be inevitably transformed as a result. I realize this may sound overly idealistic, but the power of ideas and cultural forms should never be underestimated.
In conclusion, then, I’ll say that what Eastern Europe has shown me is that the political struggle is only the outward form of a battle that is really more cultural, and culture rests on what lies within each individual who participates in it. In order to be willing to sacrifice the comforts of home and camp out in the freezing cold, or to risk being hit by a policeman’s baton, a solid sense of identity is required.
Unfortunately, what Eastern European nationalists are born and instilled with is something that we must strive to create for ourselves, if we want to form the basis of something capable of transforming the societies we live in. And once we have achieved that for ourselves, we will provide an example that others will strive to imitate. As that great politician Gandhi once said, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do.” I think we can do this.
About John Morgan View all posts by John Morgan John Morgan is Editor in Chief of Arktos Media.
Share ThisHulton Archive / Getty American cult leader and murderer Charles Manson appears in a police mug shot
Few killers have ever fascinated and horrified the public as much as Charles Manson. Forty years ago this week, on Aug. 9, 1969, Manson's hippie-styled followers, the Manson Family, murdered actress Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski, and four other visitors to her Los Angeles estate. The murders were gruesome, with numerous stabbings and shootings, and PIG written on the wall in blood. The next night, the group brutally murdered a married couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, in their Los Angeles home, again leaving messages in blood all over the house. The trial took an unprecedented nine months, hypnotizing the nation. The determined prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, won death sentences for Manson and his band. (California later struck down the death penalty, and the sentences were commuted to life. Manson, now 74, remains on death row at Corcoran State Prison near Fresno, Calif.) Afterward, Bugliosi wrote Helter Skelter (W.W. Norton), a spellbinding account of the Manson murders and trial that became the No. 1 true-crime best seller of all time. TIME senior reporter Andrea Sachs reached the author at his home in California. (Read a 1970 TIME article on Manson's trial.)
What is the meaning of the title of your book?
Helter-skelter was the motive for the murders. Manson borrowed that term from a Beatles song on the White Album. In England, helter-skelter is a playground ride. To Manson, helter-skelter meant a war between whites and blacks that the Beatles were in favor of. When the album first came out, in December of '68, he got a copy, and he came racing back to the ranch all excited and said, "The Beatles are telling it like it is! The s___ is coming down!" It was this war that he felt he could ignite by killing white people and blaming black militants, this war called helter-skelter.
Why the enduring public fascination with Manson?
I'm not aware of any other murder case in American history, other than the assassination of President Kennedy, where [anniversaries] are marked by television specials, news reports and articles. Before the murders, no one associated hippies with violence and murder, just drugs, peace, free love, etc. Then the Manson Family comes along, looking like hippies, but what they were all about was murder. That was their religion, their credo. That shocked a lot of people and definitely hurt the counterculture movement. I think the main reason for the continuing fascination is that the murder case is almost assuredly the most bizarre mass-murder case in the recorded annals of American crime. The Beatles were somehow involved. The killers were young kids from average American homes.
Was he mentally ill or just purely evil?
His moral values were completely twisted and warped, but let's not confuse that with insanity. He was crazy in the way that Hitler was crazy. In fact, Hitler was Manson's greatest hero he spoke about Hitler all the time. He said that Hitler had the right answer for everything, that he was a tuned-in guy. So he's not crazy he's an evil, sophisticated con man. We're talking about evil here, as opposed to mental illness. Manson wanted to kill as many people as he could.
You say his followers started out from normal families. Was he really able to warp them to that degree?
I think that the ones that killed for him, even though they came from fairly good homes, had a lot of hostility inside of them, and Manson was the catalyst that brought that hostility to the surface. At the trial, I distinguished those who killed for Manson, and [who] did it with relish, from those who would die for him but would not kill for him. I will stipulate that these murders would have never taken place if it had not been for Charles Manson, but they also wouldn't have taken place if these people never wanted to commit murder.
Let's talk about your role as prosecutor. What was that trial like? It was the longest trial that had ever been held up to that point.
I was honored that the DA had enough confidence to assign a case of that magnitude and complexity to me. I worked on it around the clock, seven days a week, sometimes 80 or 90 hours. The trial was almost as bizarre as the murders themselves. One day, Manson got a hold of a sharp pencil and, from a standing position, he leaps over the counsel table and starts to approach the judge, and of course the bailiffs immediately tackle him, and he shouted out to the judge, "In the name of Christian justice, I want to chop off your head." The judge started carrying a.38-caliber revolver under his robe in court. One of the defense attorneys vanished from the face of the earth during the trial and turned up dead.
What was it like when Manson testified?
He took the stand, but it was outside the presence of the jury. If you want to call it testimony, he was under oath and for an hour or so kind of mesmerized everyone. He just rambled on discursively. When it came time for cross-examination, I asked him a couple of sarcastic questions. Afterwards, the judge asked me why I didn't cross-examine Manson, and I said, "Judge, the jury was upstairs. I don't want to give him a dry run."
Are you sorry he wasn't executed?
I don't use the word sorry, but he should have been executed, and I told the jury, if this was not a proper case for the imposition of the death penalty, then no case ever would be. Manson did not deserve to live.
Do you think he is still dangerous?
To my knowledge, there is no Manson Family out there today. Everyone has renounced him. The only two that tried to keep the flame alive were Squeaky [Fromme], who tried to assassinate President Ford, and Sandra Good. However, he's got more supporters and sympathizers now than he ever did. He doesn't have people out there right now like his Family whom he could tell to go out and kill people, but he does have young people who view him like a glorious outlaw.Dallas, TX - Roseanne Barr was allegedly involved in an barr fight, hours after the Super Bowl, that resulted in a trip to the county jail for the former sitcom star.
Barr, in town to celebrate the release of her new Snickers commercial, was arrested on assault and disturbing the peace charges, and has been released on $100,000 bail.
Accounts of the incident remain murky, but initial reports indicate that the brawl may have been the result of mistaken identity.
The incident occurred outside the The Snickers after party held at Troy Aikman's Chicken & Waffles, a popular eatery in downtown Dallas. Barr was seen leaving the party at around 3:00 AM when she was confronted by an angry group of conservative citizens wearing colonial garb, and "don't tread on me" shirts. The group was heard screaming "sing our nation's anthem right or don't sing it at all," and "singing the national anthem is a right not a privilege."
Barr, who had sang a controversial version of "The Star Spangled Banner" some years back, was initially confused by the vitirolic crowd. She reportedly told detectives "I was like WTF get a life that was like 15 years ago you dumb tea baggers!"
But then, according to sources, a gentleman in the crowd shouted "Hey Christina Aguilera go back to singing songs that your good at like "Genie in a Bottle," or something!"
Enraged by the realization that she had been mistaken for the, recently obese, former teen pop star, Barr allegedly went ballistic. Witnesses say she threw her doggy bag full of leftover chicken and drumsticks at the group before security guards tackled her to the ground. An unidentified man was reportedly taken to the hospital for a concussion and a detached retina. Barr's publicist put out the following statement regarding the incident:
"Ms. Barr regrets the events that occurred last night, and wishes anyone injured has a speedy recovery. As most people know Roseanne has long struggled with her weight, and being mistaken for someone as large as Ms. Aguilera triggered a lot of repressed emotions. Ms. Barr has asked that you respect her privacy as she enters treatment for her anger and eating issues."
When asked for comment, Ms. Aguilera reported stated "Roseanne who? Oh the snickers girl! Snickers are my favorite. I eat like 10 a day!"UFC strawweight Amanda Ribas was placed on temporary suspension Monday morning at a meeting of the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Ribas (6-1) tested positive for the banned substance ostarine in a random June 7 drug screening collected by USADA, the commission revealed. That test, announced earlier this month, resulted in the UFC removing Ribas from her planned Octagon debut against Juliana Lima at the Ultimate Fighter 25 Finale on July 7 in Las Vegas.
Ribas is not the first UFC fighter to fail a drug test due to ostarine. Since the inception of USADA, several fighters have tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance, including Tom Lawlor, Tim Means, and Carlos Diego Ferreira.
In the case of Means, USADA found the positive test to be the result of a tainted supplement. Ribas appears to be taking a similar approach, as her team and USADA have launched an investigation into whether she was the victim of a tainted supplement, according to NAC officials.
Though Ribas failed a test administered by USADA, the NAC also retains jurisdiction over her case due to the Lima fight being scheduled to take place in Las Vegas. Ribas will thus remain on temporary suspension under both entities until the resolution of the investigation.
Ribas released a statement earlier this month stating her innocence and vowing to discover the root of the failed test.
“I’m completely against any form of cheating in sports, as the use of PEDs,” she wrote. “During my whole career I have never made use of any illegal substance, and I did not use anything now. I have no idea as to the origin of my positive test with USADA. I am working with USADA along with my managers and trainers to find out how this happened. I will prove my innocence, I will fight in the UFC and I will become UFC champ!”
A 23-year-old Brazilian strawweight prospect, Ribas won six of her seven contests prior to being signed by the UFC, finishing all but one of those victories via stoppage.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
During her appearance on Fox News Sunday, Sarah Palin took her jealousy of President Obama to a new low as she questioned his manhood and toughness while discussing immigration reform, “Jan Brewer has the cojones that our president does not have to look out for all Americans.”
Here is the video courtesy of Media Matters:
First Palin touted her little mini-me Jan Brewer, “This is a temporary suspension of some of the key elements in the law that Jan Brewer pressed hard for Arizonians and the country to have the result of us being more more secure, so that’s unfortunate that the judge chose those steps and Jan Brewer bless her heart, she’s gonna do all that she can to continue down the immigration pass to allow secure borders, because she’s.”
Then Palin attacked Obama, “Jan Brewer has the cojones that our president does not have to look out for all Americans, not just Arizonans, but all Americans in this desire of us to secure our borders and allow legal immigration to help build this country, as was the purpose of immigration laws. If our own president won’t enforce the federal law, more power to Jan Brewer and 44 other states who are in line to help to help support Jan Brewer in state laws and state efforts to do what our president won’t do.”
The idea that Obama somehow lacks toughness because he challenged an unconstitutional state law is strictly a right wing invention. In my mind toughness means standing up for the law of the land that Obama has taken an oath to protect, without regard for politics. Palin is using the Bush/Cheney model of toughness which throws out the Constitution in order to do whatever you want. Ignoring the basic power structure set forth in the Constitution is not a display of strength. It is a display of disregard for the rule of law, which Palin has in spades.
Sarah Palin used a law designed to discriminate against brown skinned people to attack the black president. This is the epitome of the race baiting nexus of politics that currently dominates Republican thought. Palin was also playing on the old Republican stereotype of the weak liberal, while attempting to project the image that her and her mini-me Brewer are the kind of toughness that America needs. Reality though has a slight problem with Palin’s projected persona.
Her personal history shows that when the going gets tough, Sarah Palin gets to quitting. Sarah Palin has a lifelong history of quitting things both big and small. From quitting on four colleges to the 2004 quitting of her job as the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Chairwoman to quitting on the 2008 McCain campaign and “going rogue,” through her quitting on Alaska while she was governor, the only true talent that Sarah Palin seems to possess is the ability to quit any position of responsibility that she holds.
Within this context, it is laughable that Palin would question Obama’s cojones. What turns this joke into pure side splitting comedy is that she questioned Obama on Fox News, which is not only her employer, but also the only media outlet that Palin is not terrified of. It is kind of difficult to sell toughness, when the world knows that Sarah Palin wakes up with night terrors due to little Katie Couric. When Palin stops dodging the media, while blaming the media for her Sharron Angle-like dashes away from any type of objective interview, then maybe her criticism will rise beyond the level of entertaining stand up comedy to the rest of the country.
You may be able to fool the empty headed zombies who keep lining the pockets of their false prophet, but we know who you really are, Sarah. You are the political equivalent of an Internet troll living under the cyberbridge polluting our national dialogue with your mangled words and half truths all to satisfy your insecurity and desperate need for attention. We don’t fear you. We mock you, and we can’t wait until you, if you don’t quit first, step up to plate in 2012 and discover just how big Barack Obama’s cojones really are.
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:A PUB landlord has been ordered to pull down a shisha lounge built without planning permission.
The owner of the YOLO Lounge, previously called the Old George pub, in Heston Road, Heston, has three months to get rid of the covered smoking area or face prosecution.
Councillors agreed to take enforcement action over the building, which falls within a conservation area, at last night's (November 7) planning enforcement sub-committee meeting.
Action was also approved at the meeting against the owners of nine illegal outbuildings across the borough, as Hounslow Council continued its crackdown on so-called beds in sheds.
They included:
* Three buildings in Wentworth Road, Southall, being used as residential accommodation without planning permission. The owner of one claimed it was being used to house his extended family, despite him renting out a number of properties on the same street
* An outbuilding in Cambridge Close, Hounslow, where council officers found a couple living, despite it only having planning permission to be used as a gymnasium/playroom
* An outbuilding in Burnham Gardens, Hounslow, where two men were paying £400 rent a month in cash
* An outbuilding in Martindale Road, Hounslow, where a couple were paying £700 a month rent
In several cases, the illegal buildings were discovered by the council's rogue landlord team, set up using a government grant to tackle the issue of beds in sheds. Officers from the team have visited thousands of properties across the borough, often unannounced, this year.
Councillor Steve Curran, cabinet member for planning, said: "These enforcement notices show we simply aren't prepared to put up with people ignoring planning laws. We only take enforcement action as a last resort, and offenders have more than enough chance to remedy any breaches."Postal workers will be at the Liberal Convention in Winnipeg this week, pushing for the federal government to restore door-to-door mail delivery and consider adding new services like postal banking.
Members from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) will be outside the convention centre to hand information to delegates heading into the Liberal event.
Basia Sokal, a Winnipeg CUPW vice president, said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started the process to bring back door-to-door delivery shortly after being elected in October, but nothing has happened since.
"They did actually stop the conversion from door-to-door delivery to the self-serve mailboxes but so far they haven't made any promises as to restoring door-to-door," she said.
"They basically announced the Canada Post review and decided the public was going to decide."
While the Liberals campaigned on a promise to stop the previous government's cuts to Canada Post, they steered clear of promising to restore home delivery to everyone who lost it under the Stephen Harper-led Conservative government, states a news release from CUPW.
Trudeau's Liberals have launched a public review that they say will be as consultative as possible, so CUPW wants to make sure Canadians weigh in on that review knowing they have options for innovation, the release states.
"We're here to talk about some good ideas we've developed for better services like postal banking, check-ins for seniors and persons with disabilities, more services for northern and Indigenous communities, a greener post office and, of course, door-to-door delivery," said Gord Fischer, national director of CUPW's Prairie region.
"Improving and expanding the services we can offer, and making the most of our profitable delivery network, will benefit all Canadians because the post office is everywhere in our country," added Sokal.John R. Koza is a computer scientist and a former adjunct professor at Stanford University, most notable for his work in pioneering the use of genetic programming for the optimization of complex problems. Koza co-founded of Scientific Games Corporation, a company which builds computer systems to run state lotteries in the United States. John Koza is also credited with being the creator of the'scratch card' with the help of retail promotions specialist Daniel Bower.[1]
Koza was born in 1944 and earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Michigan, being the second person to ever earn a bachelor's degree in computer science. He earned a doctoral degree in computer science from the University of Michigan in 1972.[2]
Koza was featured in Popular Science for his work on evolutionary programming that alters its own code to find far more complex solutions. The machine, which he calls the "invention machine", has created antennae, circuits, and lenses, and has received a patent from the US Patent Office.
In the political space, Koza advocates for a plan to revamp the way states choose their electors for the Electoral College in the United States, such that candidates who win the majority of the popular vote would then win a majority of the electors through an interstate compact.[3] He established the organization "National Popular Vote" to advocate for state adoption of the policy and the election of supportive candidates.[4]
References [ edit ]If you are looking for ways to make your holiday meal a lot more interesting, look no further. These vegetarian and vegan recipes are not only gourmet but most are fairly simple to make. I swear even the most staunch meat eater will be going back for seconds...or thirds. So make a lot, and have yourself a Merry (and green) Christmas.
Hors d'oeuvres
These Savory Maple Sweet Potato Mini Pies are easily made vegetarian. (Photo: Sabrina Modelle/The Tomato Tart)
Entrée
Start a tasty meal with this hearty Potato Leek Soup. (Photo: Jaymi Heimbuch)
Amuse-bouche
Add a kick to your tastebuds with these Roasted Red Pepper Cups. (Photo: Sabrina Modelle/The Tomato Tart)
Main course
Mashed Potato Stuffed Bell Peppers are a colorful, tasty meal. (Photo: Jaymi Heimbuch)
Salad course
Persimmon Caprese Salad will make your dinner sing. (Photo: Jerry James Stone)
Dessert course
Shh. Don't tell the kids what's in Cocoa and Black Bean Brownies. (Photo: Jaymi Heimbuch)
Cheese course
Have fun eating this 15-Minute Brie and Champagne Fondue. (Photo: bonchan/Shutterstock)
This story was originally written for Treehugger and is published here with permission. Copyright 2011.
27 gourmet vegetarian recipes for Christmas dinner
If you are looking for ways to make your holiday meal a lot more interesting, look no further. These vegetarian and vegan recipes are not only gourmet but mostLongmont firefighters work to free a man who was trapped in the walls of a store. (credit: Longmont Fire Department)
LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) – A man stuck inside a Longmont store’s walls for three days said he found himself in the jam because of drugs and a desire for “a better view of the stars.”
That bizarre revelation follows the quirky case of Paul Felyk, 35, who fell from a Marshalls’ roof more than a week ago into a tight space in between the building’s walls.
(Video by John Bear, Longmont Times-Call)
According to court records, Felyk told police his troubles began after he was having problems with a female friend. He said he stopped in the Marshalls parking lot to use some meth, then climbed to the top of the building because he “wanted a better view of the stars.”
Eventually he fell more than 20 feet through a void in the roof and was trapped.
After lingering in the void for three days, he called for help. Store employees notified emergency personnel, who responded with power saws and other tools to free him.
After spending several days in the hospital, Felyk was arrested and charged with burglary, criminal mischief and drug possession.
That’s where things turn bizarre.
Felyk told police that his relationship problems stemmed from worrying about his female friend who he said is “unknowingly part of a drug-trafficking ring that utilizes time travel, identity theft, and real-estate fraud to move drugs.”
He also told police they could search his car and that they would find it unlocked. According to police, Felyk said he believed someone possesses an electronic device that unlocks his car without his knowledge. He went on to explain this must be “related to my research with crystals and time travel.”
Police found several syringes that later tested positive for meth.
Investigators also found stolen property in his car which is where the burglary charges stem from. He declined an interview with CBS4, but he is being held at the Boulder County Jail on $10,000 bond.In Washington State, the land sweeps and swirls, rises and buckles. It’s a dramatic enough landscape when seen with the human eye, but the green vegetation that covers the land is also hiding its secrets. In 2015, the state’s legislature asked the Department of Natural Resources to start mapping the entire state using Lidar technology, which can penetrate through the trees to image the shape of the earth below.
These maps reveal the shapes of the state’s landslides, river basins, and glaciers, along with other strange features, like glacial drumlins and mysterious mima mounds. Lidar data can be used to make maps that highlight elevation contours as well as the aspect and slope of the land. They can reveal landslides hidden by trees and faults beneath the earth’s surface.
So far, the department has mapped about a third of the state’s area, although not to the quality experts would like to see. Over time, airplanes equipped with Lidar technology will cover the whole state, resulting in even more striking images of the geology hidden just below what we can see.
Mt. Rainer’s glacier.
Naturally occurring “mima mounds” in Thurston County.
An image of the Devil’s Slide, a large landslide in Whatcom County.
The confluence of two rivers.
Outwash channels are created by meltwater from a glacier.
The Toe Jam Hill fault scarp on Bainbridge Island.
Lidar reveals the layers of lava flows of West Crater in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
The stream channels of the Quinault River.The study authors L-R Lara Perez-Felkner, Samantha Nix, Kirby Thomas. Image: Bill Lax/Florida State University
Why are women so underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and maths, the so-called "STEM" subjects? It's an enduring question that doesn't have an easy answer, and is likely influenced by a whole slew of social, personal, and practical factors permeating the pipeline from school through to adulthood.
A study published Tuesday in Frontiers in Psychology takes a look at one specific attribute that shows a discrepancy between the sexes that may influence sex segregation in STEM degrees: perceived maths ability. That is, not how good they are at maths, but how good they think they are.
The study offers an interesting finding: high school girls underrate their mathematics abilities, while boys overrate them (a phenomenon that has been observed before). It suggests that this could affect their decision to study (or indeed not study) mathematics-intensive fields such as physics, engineering, maths, and computer science at university.
Lead author Samantha Nix, a PhD student at Florida State University and lead author of the paper, said she had been interested in the way people talk about math and science. "A very common thing that people say and that has been part of the scholarly literature is this whole concept of 'I'm just not a math person,'" she said. "And that really may be blocking people from making the decision to enter these fields."
"We're not losing weak girls, we're losing some of the best girls."
To investigate whether people's perceptions of their ability were keeping them away from STEM subjects, the researchers looked at data from the Education Longitudinal Study, a national dataset of students across the US.
They looked at the boys' and girls' "perceived ability under challenge." More generally, this was equal between the sexes, but when it came to maths specifically, the paper notes that "mean differences between women and men were highly significant." They also found young men were more likely to report a "growth mindset"—essentially a belief that you can learn and improve at maths (rather than innately being a "math person").
"Together, these findings suggest that young men are better positioned psychologically to be resilient in the face of mathematics-related setbacks, as compared to their female peers," the researchers wrote.
And this matters: the study found that when women perceived themselves as having greater maths ability, they were more likely to go for maths-intensive "PEMC" (physics, engineering, maths, and computer science) majors. The study explains that, "In particular, women's probability of majoring in PEMC increases in association with an increase in their 12th grade perceptions that they could understand and master difficult and complex mathematics material."
Importantly, the research controlled for objective measures of ability—i.e. the girls were underrating themselves compared to boys, they weren't actually all worse. "We're not losing weak girls, we're losing some of the best girls," said co-author Lara Perez-Felkner.
Of course, the million-dollar question is, why do girls doubt their maths ability in the first place?
This study alone can't offer solid answers, but Nix speculated that it could be partly to do with persisting stereotypes around what women are good at. "Women are really socialised to believe that they're better at certain things," she said, singling out writing and communication over more technical tasks.
Previous studies have shown that girls can take in this kind of gender stereotype and that can influence how they perform.
There's also more intersectional research to be done to further understand how other factors such as ethnicity, income, and access to resources might come into play.
When it comes to keeping women in maths and science, Nix additionally suggested that people may be put off by a misperception that students who take maths-heavy subjects don't find them challenging, when actually that's not the case. "Math and science faculty members also had to take Calculus 1 for the first time, and they probably also struggled doing it—that's part of learning," she said. And if girls and women feel more like they're struggling (even if they're not), they might think they don't fit.
That does at least offer a potential way to start addressing the gender gap raised in the new study: by emphasising that maths ability is something that can be developed and grown. This message isn't gender-specific, but if girls are doubting their abilities more then it could have particular benefit for them.
"If boys and girls are getting feedback that challenge is OK, that they shouldn't shut down and they can continue to grow in these areas, and that these fields continue to be relevant for them even if they're struggling, I think that would be helpful for keeping women in these areas," said Perez-Felkner.
XX is a column about occurrences in the world of tech, science, and the internet that have to do with women. It covers the good, the bad, and the otherwise interesting developments in the Motherboard world.shindigs Profile Blog Joined May 2009 United States 4775 Posts Last Edited: 2013-03-29 01:48:11 #1
Text by shindigs. Art by fusefuse. Edits by itsjustatank. Told me to do it by Heyoka.
Upon completing the Heart of the Swarm campaign, a lot of us were left disappointed with the narrative. Gameplay-wise, Heart of the Swarm brought novel, fun, and innovative mechanics to the conventional RTS campaign. In many ways, the campaign was a detailed improvement in many areas from Wings of Liberty. However, the mundane dialog and cliche ridden story has been the main point of critique for both reviewers and fans alike.
While Brood War did not break literary boundaries, its narrative and dialog were, for many, a compelling piece of work in comparison to StarCraft II. How did it come to this? The original StarCraft was a story with an epic scope. It dealt with the conflicts and competing interests of three unique factions, and was littered with layers of betrayal and political intrigue. Today, StarCraft II is merely a distilled love story with vengeance sloppily blended into the mix. How could Blizzard possibly recover the narrative from its current convoluted state?
After sending a very disappointed, angry, and ALL CAPS email directly to Chris Metzen, we were pleasantly surprised to receive an invite back to Blizzard HQ to preview Legacy of the Void. From our experiences, our preview team can safely say that Blizzard has once again become the storytelling genius of the past, the genius that our generation deserves. Legacy of the Void ends in the best way possible:
TIME TRAVEL!
The development team has intentionally laid out the story of both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm to end in a glorious time travelling, wacky adventure themed, nostalgia trip finale in order to undo everything that has happened in WoL and HotS. Legacy of the Void is Raynor and Zeratul’s Excellent Adventure, emphasis on the excellent.
Artist interpretation by fusefuse
While we weren’t given permission to publicly reveal the specifics of art and gameplay, we’ve made some artistic interpretations from the experiences we had.
“We have to go back Raynor... back... to the BEFORE TIME!”
As the player progresses through the campaign, the overall situation for our heroes begins to change significantly for the worse. With half the sector in ruin, and the cliched plot mechanics running dry, there’s only one thing left to do: go back in time.
In order to bend the fabric of time and space itself, Zeratul must commit the ultimate taboo: gathering MULTIPLE Mothership Cores together in order to be able to stack the Time Warp ability. After using the Time Warp ability to LITERALLY WARP THROUGH TIME, Raynor and Zeratul find themselves in a land that feels somewhat... familiar.
For the first time in gaming history, newer hardware is less compatible than older hardware. Artist interpretation by fusefuse
In accordance with the cries and complaints from Brood War elitists, players follow Raynor and Zeratul through time and end up during the time period of Kerrigan’s initial surge to power. Not only have our noble heroes landed in a different time, but they’ve entered a different game engine as well. The next few levels are completed in the Brood War engine as the player relives the glory days of the late 20th century.
But that’s not all, Blizzard stays so true to their lore and vision that players who have newer computers that are incompatible with the aging 1998 StarCraft game engine will experience numerous crashes. This forces players to either:
a) Download Chaos Launcher and run StarCraft in windowed mode
b) Reinstall Windows 95
Staying true to their roots, Blizzard provides the most authentic Brood War experience as they highlight the wacky adventures of Zeratul and Raynor through time.
"Zeratul...if we do this...Sarah would have never been born!"
Time travel can have its historical consequences. Artist interpretation by fusefuse
After previewing a level from the Brood War time leap, we were given another level taken from historical context. During their journey, Zeratul reads of other ancient civilizations who had to face a great ancient evil. These civilizations had to put aside their differences, and unite for a common cause for the sake of their nations. In order to learn how these ancient beings overcame their trials, Zeratul and Raynor pay visit to another familiar landscape.
Artist interpretation by fusefuse
Multiplayer
In accordance with keeping the lore parallel to that which is possible in multiplayer, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void features the same time travel mechanics in competitive play. While the development team kept reminding us that these gameplay elements were still the alpha stage, the features were promising.
Mothership Core Time Warp gains ability to rip a hole through time and space
The Time Warp ability receives a functional update in Legacy of the Void in order to keep the game new and refreshing. Instead of simply slowing units down within a sphere, the time warp ability rips |
on by a straight guy peeling off a wetsuit to reveal a red speedo and then showering outside my house?Word has spread quick that a Tampa apartment complex may be up for sale, and Ybor City business owners and residents are considering one potential buyer: the Tampa Bay Rays.
Tampa Park Apartments is located along Nuccio Parkway and would offer great access to downtown Tampa and Ybor City. It's close to both I-275 and I-4 and any future light rail or high-speed rail lines.
Sybil Kay Andrews-Wells, co-chair of the nonprofit organization that controls Tampa Park Apartments, has hinted that she's open to selling the 21-acre property should the Tampa Bay Rays commit to build in Tampa.
An ongoing issue that has stretched beyond the sports world, the stadium debate has morphed from a Bay area debate to a national sports and business discussion.
Detractors say Tropicana Field, built in 1990, is an outdated stadium, designed and built before the rise of the destination-style modern baseball-only edifices like Baltimore's Camden Yards, Coors Field in Denver, Safeco Field in Seattle and PNC Park in Pittsburgh. In 2012, the Rays became the first team in Major League Baseball history to finish the season with at least 90 wins and finish last in attendance.
St. Petersburg officials and Mayor Bill Foster counter that the Rays have a contract with St. Petersburg that runs through 2027. Rays officials have said the team cannot remain economically viable for that long in the multi-purpose Trop, which has regularly been rated as not only one of the worst facilities in baseball, but all of sports.Players of Berlin kneel down prior to the German Bundesliga soccer match between Hertha BSC Berlin and FC Schalke 04 in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017. Hertha Berlin nodded to social struggles in the United States by kneeling before its Bundesliga game at home to Schalke on Saturday. Hertha’s starting lineup linked arms and took a knee on the pitch, while coaching staff, officials and substitutes took a knee off it. The action was intended to show solidarity with NFL players who have been demonstrating against discrimination in the US by kneeling, sitting or locking arms through the anthem before games. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
BERLIN (AP) — Hertha Berlin nodded to social struggles in the United States by kneeling before its Bundesliga home game on Saturday.
“We wanted to make a stand against racism,” Hertha captain Per Skjelbred said after their 2-0 loss to Schalke.
Hertha’s starting lineup linked arms and took a knee on the pitch, while Pal Dardai’s coaching staff, general manager Michael Preetz, club officials and substitutes took a knee off it before kickoff.
“Hertha BSC stands for tolerance and responsibility! For a tolerant Berlin and an open-minded world, now and forevermore!” the club said on Twitter.
“Hertha Berlin stands for diversity and against violence. For this reason we are joining the protest of American athletes and setting a sign against discrimination,” the stadium announcer told more than 50,000 fans attending the game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, originally built for the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
The action was intended to show solidarity with NFL players who have been protesting police treatment of blacks and social injustice in the U.S. by kneeling, sitting or locking arms through the anthem before games.
Last year, then-San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the movement, which has been harshly criticized by President Donald Trump.
“We’re no longer living in the 18th century but in the 21st century. There are some people, however, who are not that far ideologically yet,” Hertha defender Sebastian Langkamp said. “If we can give some lessons there with that, then that’s good.”
Ivory Coast forward Salomon Kalou said the whole team was unanimous in its support for the action.
“We stand against racists and that’s our way of sharing that. We are always going to fight against this kind of behavior, as a team and as a city,” said Kalou, who acknowledged the action was inspired by the American athletes’ protest against discrimination.
“It shouldn’t exist in any kind of event, in the NFL or in the football world, soccer as they call it there. It shouldn’t exist in any sport, period,” Kalou said.They were in a taxi in New York City on the evening of the NBA Draft, sitting in traffic on their way to the hotel.
"I don't understand this Twitter," 18-year-old Bruno Caboclo said in his native Portuguese from the back seat. "I have, what, 10 followers."
The small talk continued nervously, excitedly, as the cab inched along. Caboclo's agent, Eduardo Resende, checking his smartphone, announced the returns of the Draft as he sat next to Caboclo. Fernando Rossi, the general manager of Caboclo's team in Brazil, was in the front seat.
The last word from the Draft was that James Young, a freshman swingman from Kentucky, had gone to the Boston Celtics with the No. 17 pick. Then the signal went dead. Stuck inside a tunnel, the taxi crawled, bumper to bumper, through the darkness.
After awhile Resende said, "I think you're going to be next."
Said Caboclo, laughing: "No, no. I'm going to be number 37 or 47 or something like that."
They were on their way back uphill toward the twilight when the bars reappeared on Resende's phone. A new Tweet. "He says you're 20 to Toronto!"
"No!" said Caboclo.
Resende thumbed through his updated account. Everyone was Tweeting the same thing. Then someone from Brazil called Resende to say that he was watching the live stream of the Draft. It was true.
The taxi erupted in laughs and shouts in Portuguese. The driver had no idea what it was all about.
The Starters: Raptors Surprise Pick The Starters discuss Toronto's unexpected pick of Bruno Caboclo of Brazil at Draft14.
By the time they approached the hotel there were close to 1,000 people following Bruno Caboclo on Twitter. "You have to watch what you say now," warned Resende, and everyone but the driver laughed hard.
The reason the three had come to New York was to be ready in case somebody drafted Caboclo. The reason they had avoided going to the Draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was in case nobody picked him. "You were afraid that nothing is going to happen," Resende explains now. "We didn't have anything for sure, and I was afraid we go over there, we go in, and then at the end of the day nobody drafts Bruno. So we decided to stay out."
It was not until the next morning that Caboclo got through to his parents in Brazil. He had tried them on Draft night but they had already gone to sleep. His father did not understand what was happening. He said the phone had been ringing and ringing, and that reporters had been asking him for interviews.
"Why do they want to talk to me?" he asked his son. Caboclo explained that he had been chosen by a team from the NBA. He said, "I'm going to be staying here." He was not going to be coming after all. Do not worry, he said. It will all be good.
That was five months ago. He has not been home to Brazil since.
The next day in New York, the three of them went to the Canadian consulate to collect their visas. Along the way they saw a big-and-tall clothing store. They bought Bruno his first suit, in a dark blue, along with two nice shirts, a pair of nice jeans and black dress shoes. The store agreed to tailor the suit to Caboclo's long, thin specifications within the hour. "Maybe we should put our suits on in case anybody is taking pictures when we get to Toronto," Resende told Caboclo. "That way we'll be looking nice."
Caboclo didn't know that the Raptors had warned Resende that the media would be waiting at the airport. He had no idea that he was the big surprise of the 2014 NBA Draft. The Raptors, who had been planning to take him in the second round with the No. 37 pick, had chosen instead to grab him in the first round. After months of investigation they had decided it would be a greater gamble to risk losing him than it would be to invest in him.
Bruno Caboclo, 6-foot-9, with a wingspan that rivals any in the NBA, had won a kind of lottery that promised him and his family millions of dollars. But the money was not free of strings. Many things in his life were going to have to change.
Caboclo had been a nobody when he squeezed himself into the narrow back seat of that taxi. By the time he squeezed out, he was a definite somebody.
Measuring the promise
This is a story about the future.
What will Caboclo become? Does a teenager who was unable to play for his senior basketball team in Sao Paulo have it in him to become a star of the NBA? These were the questions that were drawing the Raptors and their general manager, Masai Ujiri, to Brazil time and again last season. The more Ujiri learned, the more he wanted to believe. "I don't know why I'm going," he told his executive vice president, Jeff Weltman, before one trip. "But something is telling me to go."
Ujiri is wary of saying too much about his decision to spend a first-round pick on Caboclo. He does not want to sound in any way as if he outsmarted the rest of the NBA. He is aware, better than anyone, that he may turn out to have outsmarted himself. "Maybe there is a 2 percent chance," he says, holding two fingers close together to describe Caboclo's odds of fulfilling his promise. "For us we will take the 2 percent. Because this is our job: It is projecting."
The world's richest basketball league uses incredible resources in the global search for talent. Scouts fly everywhere, video is digested, numbers are computed, backgrounds are investigated, medical tests are scrutinized. In the end, every pick comes down to hope and faith. The decision often rests on the unknowable.
What will happen to a player when his environment is changed by the money and fame of the NBA? What kind of a man will he become? Teams can believe in, they can measure, the abilities of a player. But how do you measure the person?
A Brazilian teen in Toronto
"Bruno is always the first one here," says the Raptors' undersized big man, Chuck Hayes, who has been in the NBA for 10 years since he went undrafted as a senior from Kentucky. "He has a full-out sweat going early in the morning, and after practice he's putting up shots. I remember being 19 in college." By then he was a sophomore. "And that was culture shock. I can't imagine what he's going through," Hayes says.
"Even on off days, he's in here," says power forward Amir Johnson, who was an 18-year-old from Los Angeles when he entered the NBA as the No. 56 pick in 2005. "He works hard and we can respect that. He reminds me of what I had to do when I was a rookie."
You have to go through this. You have to learn to be alone. – Eduarado Resende, Bruno Caboclo's agent
One big difference that separates their experiences from Caboclo's is language. His difficulties with English, though, feed his strength. The only way to win the trust of his foreign teammates is by showing them, rather than telling them. The sincerity of his ambition is more powerful than words. He communicates with effort. They see him trying. They read the struggle in his eyes. They see the anger directed within.
Caboclo, who turned 19 in September, is renting a furnished two-bedroom apartment next door to the Air Canada Centre. An English tutor visits him 15 hours per month. He has no car because he cannot drive. Even the snow is new to him. His mother is just now arranging for her first passport so that she can visit him for Christmas.
"I don't have friends here," Caboclo says in English. People who are learning a new language can't play games with words because they are trying so hard to say what they mean. "I finish practice, I go home. I don't have nobody. Nothing. Play video games. Watch TV. Talk to my friends in Brazil."
Is he homesick?
"No," he says quietly, after Resende has translated the question for him.
Caboclo does not want to go home. He wants to succeed in this new life. But it is also true that it is no easy thing to live in your own head always, to try harder than you ever have with less support than you have ever known. "You have to go through this," Resende says to him. "You have to learn to be alone."
Caboclo nods in agreement. His eyes well up. Even as he insists he is where he wants to be.
The diamond in the rough
Caboclo is from a small town on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. His father pumps gas for a living. His mother cleans houses. He has two older sisters. "We are humble people," he says. Their neighborhood was safe enough, he explains, but when he was 12 his mother began to worry that Bruno had no focus. A year or two later, many of his friends were smoking and drinking and wandering on the wrong path. Bruno was playing basketball after school for a small club in which his mother had enrolled him. He rode the bus for an hour and a half each day in his pursuit of discipline and focus.
Resende, a former player who was beginning a new career as an agent, began to look out for Caboclo when he was 16. In 2013 he brought Caboclo to the Score Academy in Raleigh, N.C., run by a fellow Brazilian. "Practice is different," Caboclo said of his time in North Carolina. "Hard, hard, hard."
"In Brazil you have the same discipline, the same exercises, the same drills," Resende says. "But the difference is the speed that the coach tells you to play. The speed is very different in the States. The intensity. The full hour you run, you run, you run."
"After two weeks, the intensity, it is natural," says Caboclo in English. Many times he will interrupt Resende's translation. He is not shy, in spite of appearances. He wants to be heard.
During those three months in Raleigh, he realized he belonged on the courts of North America. When he returned home, he was recruited by Pinheiros, a professional club in Sao Paulo. But Caboclo was resistant. It was that stubborn pride, his belief in his own values, that would help make him attractive to the Raptors.
"He didn't want to play for them," Resende says now. "At this new club he thought everybody was stuck up. All the kids on the team, he was thinking they were all acting like big shots."
"They take me and my family to a good restaurant," says Caboclo. They were trying to recruit him. The money they would pay him was equivalent to $2,500 per month. "In my mind, I say no. For me, I don't want." Then he glanced at his parents. "My daddy, my mom -- happy. Because the money. We are humble people. And I sat there, and I thought about my parents."
The Caboclo family lives in an unfinished house along a bare dirt road. The soccer field, where he grew up playing barefoot across the street from his house, is bare of grass. Today there is a satellite dish attached to the house, which was installed free of charge, because the satellite company is a sponsor of Pinheiros.
Much was made of Caboclo's unimpressive statistics last season at Pinheiros, where he averaged 4.8 points and 3.1 rebounds in limited playing time. But that was for the senior team. "Playing for the senior team was a bonus for him," says Resende. The statistics are unavailable for the junior team, but Resende figures that Caboclo averaged at least 20 points, close to 10 rebounds and two or three blocks per game in the under-19 league.
After Caboclo was named MVP of the NBA's Basketball Without Borders camp at Buenos Aires in 2013, they heard of NBA scouts making their way to watch him. He remembers the first time an NBA scout, representing the Indiana Pacers, asked him to shoot 3-pointers from the NBA distance. "I am scared," Caboclo says. "I shoot. Airball." He curses at the memory, with a knowing grin; his Raptors teammates have enjoyed teaching Caboclo how to curse in English. "Movements I never see in my life," he says of the plays that the Pacers' scout asked him to make. "I am not doing good."
The Pacers, Raptors and other NBA teams were drawn by the raw materials of Caboclo's game. His outrageous 7-foot-6 ½ wingspan set him apart instantly. Then there was the beautiful rhythm of his shooting, which he taught himself by watching videos online of Kevin Durant and other NBA players. Caboclo is almost apologetic that his shooting elbow is askance, rather than tucked in beneath the ball. "But my arm is so long," he says, adopting his shooting form to demonstrate, "and my shoulders long, too."
The Raptors recognized that his physical advantages were not enough to see him through the NBA. The hardware opens doors, but it is the player's software that enables him to stay. Was Caboclo capable of exploiting his physical gifts?
By last June, Caboclo and Resende were hoping the Raptors would be the team to pick him because of the interest they had been showing and because they had promised they would not stash him for a season or longer in Europe. Their plan was to keep him on the roster and enable him to learn from their coaches, their players and their support staff. On June 16, when Resende decided officially to keep Caboclo's name in the Draft, the two of them flew out of Brazil in order to spend the remaining 11 days in Richmond, Texas, an hour southwest of Houston. Caboclo worked out each day in the gym at Wharton County Junior College, where Resende had played basketball for two years. The only team they invited to work him out was the Raptors, who arrived with a full staff of close to 10 people. Afterward they lunched with the Brazilians at the Olive Garden, Caboclo's new favorite restaurant in Texas.
Caboclo believed that he was going to succeed eventually in North America. The work would not be easy, he knew, and his success was not guaranteed. But the harder he tried to meet that high standard, the more he came to trust in his own competitive instincts. "From when I started," says Caboclo, "I believe in the NBA." This differentiates him from the international stars of earlier generations who grew up with no reason to believe. Their surprising successes endowed Caboclo with his own beliefs.
Clippers vs. Raptors Bruno Caboclo scored 10 points and nabbed seven rebounds to lead the Raptors in a Summer League win over the Clippers.
When it was time to play in the NBA summer league in Las Vegas in July, Resende went up to see Caboclo in his hotel room. "I was worried," says Resende. "I was going to talk to him because he must be nervous." He found Caboclo in his hotel room, blasting away at Call of Duty. A few minutes before it was time to leave, Resende looked in on him again. "I go, 'Bruno, you've got to go, the van is leaving.' So he shuts down the computer."
With everyone in the gym studying the mystery man of the recent Draft, Caboclo made 5 of 7 shots, including both of his 3-pointers, to finish with 12 points against the Lakers. "Then afterwards we came back to the hotel and everybody was talking about him," Resende says. "He went to the computer, turned it back on, and finished his game. Not nervous. Perfect."
"No pressure," says Caboclo. "I am pre-par-ed."
Finding his place
Brazilians Lucas Nogueira (left) and Bruno Caboclo of the Raptors.
"Don't get married tonight" a Raptors official warns Caboclo, joking. But Resende nods. "Oh, we've had the talk," he says.
Caboclo and his 49-year-old agent are sitting in a corner of the VIP area of a large nightclub in Toronto. The Raptors are holding their annual Raps City Social fundraising event. Hundreds of fans have paid to spend an evening with players. Bruno is wearing a sportcoat, his nice jeans and blue dress shoes. His teammates mingle in another area. They wave to Caboclo and talk among one another. He is separate from them.
He wants to belong, and he is on the verge of belonging. He is a thought on the tip of the tongue. As he walks through the club, guests turn to one another and point at Caboclo. Routinely their arms extend in pantomime description of his vast potential.
His long fluid body looks as if it was built for the game. His hair is cut short, his eyes are blank, his face is a mask. When a stranger smiles, he smiles, and the smile is instantly endearing. The day will come when he will be the one to smile first. But he does not own his own space yet. He assumes nothing. He reads his environment and reacts.
There is a sophistication to his innocence. There is a discipline to him that is lacking so often in other young players.
"The business here in the NBA is more serious than Spain," says Caboclo's 22-year-old teammate and fellow Brazilian, Lucas Nogueira, a 7-foot center who spent the previous five years playing professionally in Spain. He is more outgoing than Caboclo, with a much greater command of English, and so when Nogueira came to the NBA he gave the impression that he had it made. Now, in the last week or two, he has been recognizing the need to scale himself back. "I try to change my personality," Nogueira says. "That's why I don't laugh, don't smile a lot in the locker room. I try to be professional. I'm friendly with my real friends and people who are close to me, but not here. When I come here, practice, on the game day, I try to be serious. Not take a lot of laughs and smile as before."
By this measure of greatest importance, Caboclo is ahead of many other NBA rookies. The self-discipline that is guiding him is something that defies measure. What he has is exactly what Ujiri and other GMs are competing to discover. "There are thousands of Brunos walking around in Africa," says Ujiri. They possess the obvious hardware of NBA potential.
But how many are equipped with the necessary software? And how can the scouts access that software?
This is a story of the future, all right, for the future of Caboclo runs hand-in-hand with the future of the NBA. In their endless pursuit of the next great player, teams will be searching foreign places that will make GMs like Ujiri feel less comfortable and more intrigued than ever. The current obsession in America over whether NCAA players should remain in college until their sophomore year is going to seem anachronistic and puny as the rest of the world continues to embrace basketball.
You do not need to be a data analyst to do the math. There are little more than 300 million people in the United States, and close to 7 billion people everywhere else. The day is coming when Americans are not going to provide the majority of players to the NBA. When that inevitable tipping point arrives, the new norm is going to be Bruno Caboclo.
The budding of potential
Caboclo's First NBA Bucket Louis Williams lobs it up to Bruno Caboclo who gets his first NBA bucket finishing the alley-oop slam.
"You know how he is: He is a short talker," says Resende. "Well this time he was the only one doing the talking."
Resende was back home in Brazil when Caboclo phoned him late last Friday. The Raptors were blowing out the Milwaukee Bucks in the second half when Caboclo heard the chant beginning from the Toronto fans: We Want Bruno. "He said, 'I was worried that the coach might get mad at me because there was pressure to put me in the game,"' Resende recalls Caboclo telling him. "`So I went down to the end of the bench and kept my head down to tell the fans to forget about me. But they didn't."'
On the night after his NBA debut, Caboclo sat on the team plane talking to Resende. He was describing how his teammates were supporting him and how the crowd was cheering for him. All of it was surprising. He had been expecting nothing like this.
"The thing about Bruno is when he's in the court, he forgets about everything," says Resende. "The language barrier, he's alone, he's not ready -- he forgets about all of it. He just goes out to work."
There was a line that came out of the American TV coverage of the Draft that assessed Caboclo as being, "two years away from being two years away." Now, in the first month of the new season, he looked instantly as if he belonged.
His first basket was an alley-oop pass from halfcourt that Caboclo finished with a dunk, swinging from the rim to recapture his balance. Next came a three. Then another three. At the other end of the floor, pirouetting as he sprinted back defensively, he reached out to block a breakaway layup. He was running and jumping explosively without apparent effort. Toward the end of the Raptors' 124-82 victory, on his way to scoring eight points on six shots in 12 minutes, the Bucks double-teamed Caboclo to try to force the ball out of his hands.
For actors and artists, for athletes and everyone, what looks natural is typically the result of hard work. Bruno Caboclo was able to come out of nowhere, show people he belonged and get many excited for his future all because he is pre-par-ed.
It is, for him, a new three syllable word. It is the only word that matters.
Ian Thomsen has covered the NBA since 2000. You can e-mail him here or follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.The Daily Telegraph Affair was the uproar that followed the 28 October 1908 publication in British newspaper The Daily Telegraph of comments by German Kaiser Wilhelm II intended to improve German-British relations. It was a major diplomatic blunder that worsened relations and badly hurt the Kaiser's reputation; after that he played a much smaller role in deciding foreign policy. The episode had a far greater impact in Germany than overseas.[1][2][3]
The Telegraph presented what appeared to be an interview with the Kaiser. It was in fact the reworked notes by British Army officer Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley of conversations he had with Wilhelm II in 1907.[4] The Telegraph sent the "interview" to Wilhelm II for approval, who in turn passed it to Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, who later stated that he was too busy to edit the document, though Bülow's critics charged that he did not wish to challenge the Kaiser. Instead Bülow passed it on to the Foreign Ministry for their review, which apparently did not happen.[4] It included wild statements and diplomatically damaging remarks, the most infamous of which was
You English are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation?[5]
Wilhelm had seen the interview as an opportunity to promote his views and ideas on Anglo-German friendship, but due to his emotional outbursts during the course of the interview, he ended up further alienating not only the British, but also the French, Russians, and Japanese.[6] He implied, among other things, that the Germans cared nothing for the British; that the French and Russians had attempted to incite Germany to intervene in the Second Boer War; and that the German naval buildup was targeted against the Japanese, not Britain.[7]
The British leadership had already decided that Wilhelm was somewhat mentally disturbed, and saw this as further evidence of his unstable personality, as opposed to an indication of official German hostility.[8]
The Daily Telegraph crisis deeply wounded Wilhelm's previously unimpaired self-confidence, and he soon suffered a severe bout of depression from which he never fully recovered. He lost much of the influence he had previously exercised in domestic and foreign policy.[9]
The effect in Germany was quite significant; severe embarrassment was followed by serious calls for the Kaiser's abdication. The conservative Junker politician Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau was the only member of the Reichstag to defend the Kaiser throughout the Affair. Wilhelm kept a very low profile for many months after the Daily Telegraph fiasco, slumping into a deep depression, never fully recovering from the humiliation. He later exacted his revenge by forcing the resignation of the Chancellor Bülow,[citation needed] who had abandoned the Emperor to public scorn by not having the transcript edited before its German publication.[10][11] Bülow recalled in his Memoirs that:
A dark foreboding ran through many Germans that such... stupid, even puerile speech and action on the part of the Supreme Head of State could lead to only one thing - catastrophe.[12]
Notes [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Until now, pharmaceutical companies in Germany have been allowed to set their own prices for prescription drugs. As a result, public health insurers spent more than 32 billion euros on medicine last year - which is one of the main reasons for their 11 billion euro deficit.
New laws passed on Thursday in the German parliament will limit the amount that pharmaceutical companies are allowed to charge for prescription drugs - and, hopefully, bring the Germany's public health insurers back in the black.
The health minister, Philipp Roesler, said that the government "doesn't want to allow prices for medicine in Germany to be significantly higher than in other countries in Europe."
According to the new rules, the benefits of new medicines must be verified and the manufacturer must negotiate a final price with the insurers and a board of doctors and insurance representatives. If a new drug is found to have additional medicinal benefits, the manufacturer and the insurers will negotiate a price within a year.
Don't reinvent the wheel
The rules only impact new medicines- not existing drugs like Aspirin
But if a new drug is not found to have any additional benefits over an existing drug, the public health insurance scheme won't pay for patients to obtain it. However, critics have argued that it won't be easy to prove that a drug has no benefits.
Prof. Gerd Glaeske of the University of Bremen told the website of German public broadcaster ARD, "This uselessness is impossible to prove."
Rather, explains Glaeske, if the drug-makers cannot submit evidence of additional medicinal value, the board can request more studies. If those aren't submitted, then the medicine can be disallowed.
Excluded from the new pricing regulations are so called "orphan drugs," those that are used to treat rare diseases and bring in less than $50 million euros a year.
An attack on the industry?
Pharmacies and wholesalers, who already have to refund part of the price of every package of medicine to the insurers, will have to pay more in future, bringing in an expected 200 million euros per year for the compulsory health insurance fund.
The Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA) described the law as an "attack" on the industry. ABDA President Heinz-Günter Wolf warned that the existence of many pharmacies is at risk as a result.
Pharmacuetical firms will now have to negotiate with Germany's health insurers
The overhaul is part of a wider reform of the healthcare system, where costs are running way ahead of the insurance premiums which workers and employers pay. Members of the main party in the governing coalition, the Christian Democrats, praised the pharmaceutical savings package.
"We're breaking the price monopoly of the pharma industry," said Christian Democrat health expert Jens Spahn.
Others say the reform doesn't go far enough. Kathy Vogler of the Left Party opposed the legislation, saying it "does not bring the industry firmly enough under control" by allowing companies to continue charging "astronomical prices" for one year after they bring the medication on the market, before the various commissions have examined it.
The health expert for the Greens, Birgitt Bender, criticized the law as bringing "no reorganization of the pharmaceutical market," but rather "more clutter."
Author: Sarah Harman (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael LawtonSo as anyone who as ever read Reddit or something else is aware, TEST is launching a full scale propaganda war against Almost Awesome. As mandated blues of Almost Awesome we take a pretty good amount of trashing as well since we are affiliated with “the evil non tolerant NoFux guys”.
A small, I can’t even call it a coalition yet but will anyway, was formed in the US TZ to give us at least a chance of fighting TEST head on numbers wise. I will henceforth refer to this as the FunDIP coalition… as DIP propaganda works for me. We had our first “joint” operation last night to see how it went, how many guys we could get in fleet, and to see if we could even get them all registered on comms.
Then we proceeded to head over to where TEST was repping two small POS and engage. We had 60+ guys in fleet, but a substantial chunk of them were not “doctrine” ships. We had several light tackle, random ships, and Vexor Navy Issues instead of Ishtars. Our logistics was also a bit short too. We held our own at first, and then the Nidhoggur (not sure if the other 3 carriers there we actively repping the fleet or not) from TEST was able to start repping people. Once that happened we were struggling to break the targets, and to make it worse our logi suddenly called out they were off grid… within 100k of the tower.
It was at this point, I saw the yellow boxes hitting and pretty much insta popped. I went back for an interceptor and listened to the rest of the fight. A handful of mistakes were made, which caused us to lose a bit more than we should have. I personally also am so bored with Ishtar fleets, definitely not the most fun fleets ever to fly or FC. Our FC was popped, secondary FC was going down, and I was already dead so the choice was made to leave since we weren’t breaking them anymore at this point anyway. +1 fight for TEST.
Battle Report (Numbers definitely aren’t overwhelmingly accurate here, they had more logi + Carriers that aren’t showing, and I’m not sure where other guys in our fleet were either…)
I had fun coming back with a Malediction though. Killed a Condor, and then had a Raptor willingly engage me on a gate. I was annoyingly out of EM rockets and had to use kinetic which made it take longer than it should have. I noticed blaster fit though, and just orbited him at 7500 which lead to him not quite finishing off my shield before he popped. He requested in local that I add it to my blog so here it is!
Raptor Kill
Overall for a first effort of the newly named FunDip coalition, it wasn’t terrible. There is always a period of adjustment when pilots from several groups come together. I was happy on our first attempt we got as many pilots as we did and managed to get a chunk of them at least into Ishtars / Scimitars. Hopefully we can whip this into somewhat of a fighting shape so we can actually fight TEST since as a general rule we are significantly outnumbered. We hold our own just fine doing the gank random people tactics and small skirmish brawls. SOV / Moons / real warfare though requires head to head fights which right now TEST most assuredly has the advantage with.
Wicked Creek is definitely changing. The sheer volume of pilots floating around is significantly higher than there used to be. It’s still a pretty crap region overall, but content wise it’s currently one of the best in Eve. This area is not my longterm goal, nor where I want to live forever, but currently it’s pretty awesome. We just need to get the useless entities out of here that provide nothing (RANE/PEST) and bring in some more small alliances willing to brawl like PFR and crew do…
Also on a final note… FunDip coalition is NOT lead by Roweena. It is more a join effort that DIP is currently working on trying to organize and get moving together. There is no mastermind overlord of the coalition, and it is not a grand scheme of Roweena’s either. It started originally to remove RANE/PEST from Wicked Creed, and now has shifted to fighting TEST a bit more. It was… encouraged by allies that DIP step in and try to smooth out communications / organization and we are doing so. However, half the people in this group aren’t blue to each other, and at times things liek politics / ego get in the way. So it’s a process, but getting there…
Vitri Recruitment
DIP Recruitment
Kasken
CEO: Vitriolic Animosity
Executor: Diplomatic Immunity.
AdvertisementsIt’s time to thank Democrats in tough districts who stood up early for Health Care Reform. These guys did not ask for a special deal from their caucus. They risked their career to deliver health care reform for Americans who need it. The RNC will undoubtedly target Reps on this list the hardest.
These are the kind of Democrat that I am proud to have in my Party. Please help make sure that we keep them around this November.
As of right now, here is the list:
*Nancy Pelosi (to re-distribute cash to needy campaigns at her own discretion)
*Tom Perriello
*Betsy Markey
*Jerrold Nadler (for being the first Rep to propose a realistic path out of the Brown miasma)
*John Boccieri
*Melissa Bean
*Henry Cuellar
*Chris Carney
* |
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'Amandaa Mandel : To saindo aqui, vou entrar no note, beijos Reginice?: I have to be more concrete on decisions I make. Have to follow through and be unwavering. rosalie carlo: New post: New iTrack G http://t.co/QV6ipu9n Ririn Khoerunnisa: mengapa ada sang hitam bila putih menyenangkan -__- fabiola calderon : Ni me vienee ni me vaa Black Ken : I'll rest when I die dom dalfonso: http://t.co/F2qKe5eX @DuckSauceNYC did it again with another great video. unfortunately you will have nightmares, i warned you. Miguel?ngel Fedz: Para los inchas del #REPORTERODELBARRIO y ZACA-TATACA-TATACATATECAShttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld0d2lat3qE&feature=youtube_gdata_player Ashleysucckkss: @thewern7 ugh get in my life Alexis Turner: @ColinMiller90 Speak for yourself Lexii?: @Dance_Beast Lol how do I have it easier? Nurshafiqah?: Bawak beg berat berat tapi tak jadi, mcm sia* Arayia : Now I know why they say the best things are free Erika??? : @Sherry__Sherbet Oh....I don't believe I have apologize to you...I am very sorry for what I have done in the last few weeks to you. Micah Edwards: Oh my god, something I learned in psychology today just made me undertand something they said on Big Bang Theory. #winning Malvika?: A Blasted 155th Birthday to the guy who is ruining my life ATM - Heinrich Hertz Levi's_Full_Of_Guapo: ya boi just made this shit...i lost already...LMAO! aleexiaHe: @Neto_hm jaja ya te dije que mi papa te dira llevatela te la regalo Montana?: Age is just a number you guys. T-RAW.: That was the last straw. Now it's turned to evil. Just like the first girl. I don't want it anymore :/ ZEPH WAYNE IGGY: RT @autocorrects: Telling someone that you're going to bed when you're actually not, and then having to hold back from posting things on... t(-_-t) yeah. : RT @A_HolishNiggz: google looks pretty cool right now Eder Trejo: RT @InndiGarcia: @bryss_Mtz #miedo.com Frida Gh: Mejor me ire adormirsss giagia?: Kenalkan aku=)) hahaha dieter s: #Hewlett Packard Midline - Festplatte - 2 TB (1389277000) Festplatte #preisvergleich http://t.co/K2V0o7bg Bewertung Amazon.de #test #Hewlett Ni?a de oro'?: esta mas o menos :$ gabriela: NAO CONAGUI DORMIR GENTE Matt Gonzales: As I thought, 4GB SUCKS! SCOFOUNDATION: @Mr_Henson51 follow our foundation n help fiight sickle cell Lexy Couch: @B2theKarasinski shit guys I forgot to punch out tonight. #nojoke Jahan Zaib: Mom:Beta insan ki jan kahan se niklti ha Son:Khirki s Mom:kese S:Moa kal jab ap ne bell di to papa ne anti se kha Jan Tm Khirki se nikal jao?? Matt Brimm: @KatDawne Byeeeee saranghaeyo ^^ POCOhontas!: @Pfiester15 Hahaha okay! we'll see! Andre Timothy: RT @PEPATAHKU: Aku bukan boneka.. Bukan sampah yg dengan sesuka hatimu bisa kau buang dan kau pungut kembali #PPKU NazirahJulaihi(????): @al_wanni bila ku kta ku dtg? Nda dtang Saras alamsyah: sambeL'a MUANTABZ!! Emily Cross: @HaveyMcD no school tomorrow, yeah? :) Treehou$e: AYYY! My followers are the shit! I been laughin my ass off at my timeline tonight lol Ti Vilaysak : RT @alyssaaaly: The birthday phone call from my main. <3 a n a s t a s i a: RT @DerrickSwerve: If I was on some reckless rambo shit I would slap the shit outta a lot of ya but I be trying to chill Emily Brogna: RT @Kelseey_xO: Four loko and hookah <3333? Cierra?: Starving!! Che Guevara: RT @_BiteMeBitches: Happy 18th birthday to my bestfriend! I love you twin s h a n i c e.?: RT @BVWCE_: WTF my TL and mentions dry as fuck... WHAT THE FUCK B!! Julieta Zambaglione: A dormir placida y feliz Dima: #russian literature Azalia Azizun: Ayoo lia matanya dijaga yaak -___- Danie Peterson: @conman69rdsr damn I nailed it. Hahahah Just kiddin. #selfconceitedbitch Ciara Nicole: #Ladies: While sucking his dick gag swallow and gargle it let him feel those tonsils?: @mnl_0717 Justin Cusick: mike n ikes, a monster, n q-bert!! with @ciaramn n @emilyradzwon and listening to @wizardcud manikant sharma: RT @AcneSkinSite: Body acne scars persist even after the pimples have cleared up. Good way to lighten these scars apply fresh lemon juic... Francisco Viscera: RT @HCP520 Do you want more Followers? RT&Follow @smo4s @AleshaVaux2850 @GloriaRolff8966 #teamfollow #teamfollowback #500ADay Erin Lindner: RT @Si21a3: Clerk: we don't have any onion rings untill we get our truck. Mom: I don't give a fuck about your truck De'Shaunda Smith: RT @_Ambitious_B: She can't send or recieve pictures while she on the phone thats called #BOOTLEG and #RATCHET LOL smh #REVOLUTION jazz: @beyond_prettyk happy bday kk!!!?ty Davis : ): You must not know bout me, ican have another you by tomorrow, so dont ever get to think your #IRREPLACEABLE Elliott Prince: http://t.co/tJ4Hgqxv??d????????: @TheHermioneJean oh yeah!!' Bella Swan: @hotabsalpha *laughs* that grin is beginning to scare me. globeleza: PIOR QUE EU TINMEI ENERGETICO AFU E NAO COU CONSEGUIR DORMIR Kyla Jackson: @WorkinManEmm Hi -smiles- As mina pira V?ii...: @_UmaSolitaaria Pior que num apareceu convite ainda Lex Miller?: RT @ItsLifeNotes: The greatest feeling in the world is to be around someone who wants to hold you, to kiss your forehead, and to simply... Courtnie Plowden: RT @MR_4EVERYBODYJC: @AquariBaby_94 exactly whiteboy: i would like to dedicate this moment for every senior at PV going thru the struggle of having Mrs Wallace for AP English.. i know your pain Round Card Models: @LoAlyxis sorry you having a bad day :( Luc?a Biafore: "I'm rebeld" "no, u'r an alcoholic" It's Brittney,bitch.: The way you do the things you do > june porter: Im still pissed tf off!!! laa Choorreadaa :$: Si me ubieras dicho que era aquel nuestro #UltimoBeso' todavia estuvieras besandome' (8)' Danielle Senato: I almost teared up when I was brushing my hair after my shower. I'm so used to having Pocahontas hair, now it's about 4 inches shorter:( Megan McCullum: I'm watching Glee (7839 others checked-in) http://t.co/f1Ui6e1G @GetGlue @GLEEonFOX PrettyGirlFlo.: mention me! Paper Elephant: @heartfishpress I see your print. ;-) http://t.co/CO5pUt2w # Shalise Jayee.: RT @TupacBlack: Maneee my hairline is twerkin all over my forehead. I need a edge upp Manee. | waab #DEAD! Jessica Hernandez: @_Skmmm_ I'm doing it :( but I'm tired! Shahrul Kurt Adam: @mhmdizvn I've got lotsa of christian friends here. I'm asked them about it, and they also don't have any idea about it. Wamathai : I can't possibly reply to them all but thank you. I appreciate the wishes & the love. Here's to many many more. God bless. yuki_????: 늘 기적같은 내일을 만들어 Davon: RT @ChenelleNicole1: #WelcomeToBaltimoreWhere the boys is thee biggest drug dealers!! Either give them a percentage or ya ass goin down! alyssa stewart;): @LonnyRackedup sorry but if yu think your real your sadly mistaken cause no real person woulda done that. Charles Pace: RT @SxyRedBottoms: Follow @Cjizzlekirkwood:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) TmFB TongKran_9face?: RT @Kathaleeya: P'Doln assisting Mac's team for Y1's Sports Day! http://t.co/q3IZXSJI Kalpashree: @aishdevv :-/ Aidan Licker: Come monday, everything's different. #revolution Delta Games Station: Beritanya di hapus? RT "@siagamz: AJI Banda Aceh Somasi Tempo.co http://t.co/yp1nOe5X Via @acehkita" Juliettia:.@adriana_r Well he does! G O T H A: pergi sejenak dr kota,untuk mencari hiburan Adrian Iriarte: Glover Teixeira signs with UFC, targeted for early-summer debut http://t.co/kSJ42z5T via @MMAjunkie??? I G? R?:, a to aki *-* Sphallolaliainq?.: @4EverHandsome_ Lol Im Sure Keirra Will Remind Me! Faris Nordin: @sheemal yeke? Damnnnnnn paris kot! Heather Lee Swart: "To be truly fulfilled you need to open up your thoughts to possibility, your mind to knowledge, your heart to love & your life to passion!" Darcy Clark: @CatherineSwa @gabeoxford Catherine you wanted it... #letsbehonest Neshelle: Riding by myself,smokin weed by tha acre sartika selang: masih ada aku #becanda hehe :) RT @affrealyaa: Tapi tenaaang, gue udah terbiasa SENDIRI kok :) Onaaahhhhhhh: Oohhhh..hahahhaaaRT @Fajar222: Temanya menyimak temen mbem RT @rissnykevan: Artinya tuh cewe blom (cont) http://t.co/A3RG5gKn Delta Games Station: Beritanya di hapus? RT "@siagamz: AJI Banda Aceh Somasi Tempo.co http://t.co/yp1nOe5X Via @acehkita" Katie Jo: Can't fall asleep #toomuchonmind #gahhhh Tommie Duncan: @wellywolf @srobbo16 @ThaiPortBlog I want to see the best football. Don't really care where the players are from. Agree on no Im in RL. Doug Wilson: RT @autocorrects: Telling someone that you're going to bed when you're actually not, and then having to hold back from posting things on... Bagas Wisnu Praditya: Hari ini panas bner. morgan: RT @cpoore_3: I'll wait on you forever, and a day devinjoelfoster: @labb_bb q ases bby t amo bby AlExIs KrItZ: RT @its_mo_yo: I always give people the benifit of the doubt. Even when they dont deserve it. #TooNice Maira: RT @SoyMauricioB: La prueba de amor a aquel que amamos es dejarlo vivir libremente #AmorProhibido Aidan Licker: Come monday, everything's different. #revolution Agustina Escolar: RT @soscornuda: Plan A: llamarlo y explicarle que lo amo. Plan B: matarla jelli kackson: RT @alyankovic: Guess which show I'M gonna be on... http://t.co/82ODT9bU Brittany: RT @JohnSnapback: #WelcomeToTallahassee The Shones Always Out Carolina gaitann: RT @MarilynMonroeID: "Sometimes what you're looking for is right where you left it." #MarilynMonroeID? Cholexxx: @barbieriels utilizo la palabra "fundir". Jamas me hubiera imaginado que eras tan culta Frank Hollis II: 97% of the time im home, im naked. Lol forreal tho. Misael.: @KaarlyMza je je je... Chek In Coffee: #business Fox calling for business tax cuts: Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox, as well as business leaders, urg... http://t.co/ghSor6x4 charli.alexis: I love it whenever my room is clean!! NYI?????????: @EyeAm_SWAGG :)?Candace?: @youngzeek23 alright tough guy Sarah Mikos: @iron_chef13 GOOD LUCK! not like you need it, your baking is the shit. Trey songz BM!: @sappJr_56 Ohh ok.! Byee Lydia Mckula: Rock, papper, balls torian oakley: me my bed Netflix and a bag of popcorn #GetWithIt juanita villarreal : #oomf's tweets right now>>>> Brandon Temel: RT @drakkerdnoir: It's not called being whipped, it's called having respect for your girl. Stephan Rguez?lvarez: @jalf27 naa no hay mosquitos solo calor Honestly, Ahnestee : RT @OVOXOriginaL: If He/She can Move on, so can You <3 Dede Novi: RT @malawidya: Pengen bgt tidur nyenyak..... Don Henderson: RT @bnh0007: Open seating on an airplane provides for an interesting social experiment #dontmakeeyecontact @DonH56 Julia Leon: 1200 word paper due tomorrow and I haven't even started #ProcrastinationAtItsFinest Jason Hyatt: @Jah_BlessHim tony Parker and Tim Duncan didn't play and ginoboli but that's still to much #NikeEliteGame: @TrustNODicks_ well I guess you know now..! Cobrin Fillmore: @iRealMacBear http://t.co/PoXnNfbP FC.BONDE,DA,STRONDA: 619 \o/ sooah? )): Anthony Ramsey: @kikaloochy @RadioHoopGirlz no problem. Going to check out the podcast in a few. Ni Directioner: RT @1DerfulDavid: I can't believer it :') 1D vs Adele n alot more...Directioners can do everything :') xx nurul ain ihsan: @JouDeaNRosLi demi kau aku pegi! hahahah Manuel Vazquez: RT @AnonyOps: Anonymous for President #2012 Britania Anna : RT @BlueMagicAllure: Yoooooo, I don't know your name but excuse me miss, I saw you from across the room. TweetLikeNoOther?: krys is hilarious. Ariel Monique: God is so good lol Natasha Anora: RT @Senor_Adidas: I'm Still Convinced That Wendy Williams Is A Man!?LibraelPhotography: #CPET, donde empece lo que Hoy es Esto ---> #LibraelPhotography http://t.co/VZ2R7dc4 Melodee Teare: Red Fiber Optic Rosary - 8mm Bead - Virgen Mary Centerpiece - Ornate Crucifix - 31'' Necklace, 22'' Overall Leng... http://t.co/Cu844CXW BIGBRUCE(DSE): Baby turn around and let me see that sexy body go ____ ____ ____ Univ. Budi Luhur: Jadwal Peserta dan Penguji Sidang Tugas Akhir Teknik Elektro Periode Ke_2 http://t.co/af8DQiOk Brianna Taylor: I think my boyfriend should sing me a song. I'm just that BITCH : Im gonna ride with him to the wire our love is never gonna end we on fire! Matias Goldar: Sabelo Lex: I'm seriously not doing shit at all anymore for sabrina cause she never appreciates shit. Austin Kim: @DaltonDemos someone is feeling brazen. You could outdue me in a half marathon? 2 amazing Beliebers?: When guys tweet/say things like"girls with big legs<"don't listen to them cause I PROMISE there IS a guy out there who loves ALL ur flaws<3 Diego Del Valle: #FML?????????????: I want to like people, but they're so fucking stupid. Raymond Diaz : "If we all take a step at a time, together we shall reach the finish-line with no one...: http://t.co/SCxA22se Courtney Conway: Well you all sound very excited! Might see u there if ur going to the March 13th show. @CMC_Australia should do some interviews with her!! Shay Tarver: @LoLoCoolAss @Unique_Nikkira yes! And idk I'll think about it cause she hates me, ill have the whole arena clapping for her ass! IvanDiaz: @RowlaanG por qe qe paso hermano Brandeis Shelton: RT @KayLay10: RT @HollyHoodKie: Who's the new Ms. PBS?----> @Kandii_K1sses OPTIMISministore : Cek video from @BayuOptimis - his wearing @RACERKIDScloth http://t.co/ml02mjlS TB THA B0$$ CR : Three Hundred Eighty Thou Wow They Get It My Nig.. Emy Chinchilla: I think the mind is everything, if you can dominate your thoughts thru actions then you can accomplish anything. #ChinchillaWisdom Brenda Princ: Si no me equivoco faltan muy pocos capitulos para que termine Pretty Little Liars! #noquieroqueseterminee :( Sarsour Lamp: @OmgitsPaytn http://t.co/00Sbjb2v Nicholas Berrry: @megchantel Not you megan =/ you know who... Vagabundo Iluminado.: o que mais que essa midia corporativista burguesa esconde de nos? Cory McDowell: @scillaaa you always want wingstop though haha that's a a real challenge Mona Rhazi: K babe, goodnight <3 RT @Money_Mickss Okay ma night pretty(: ima text you tomorrow! ;* RT @monabrownn: @Money_Mickss let's (: just text me b Kay Vongkhaluang: RT @BigSean: Imagination is more important than knowledge... Still Amy VanHouwe: Can't you just see I love you? Please. I begging you to just try and see all of this from my point of view. Fabien Gashi: bumpin some J Cole- The Come Up as i knock out @Mandy Colliatie: "No matter what she says, she's a lady on the streets but a freak in the bed!" #quoteofthenight cc: @MariaKonopken @JessicaASnyder leandro crespo: El alcohol hace mal.. pero como no hay mal que por bien no venga! Flor Machello: @JulianDorrego claaa siempre yo looco, pero pidamos otras pizzas POR FAVOR Hayley: @xthe_wolfx @SkylarRyeLahote *moans feeling you rub my back* Make it stop! *breathing deeply* T. Rawww: @SavageLifeHD Idk, if I dont sleep with my mommy! Ready get BACK in the shower right now -__- B E L I E B E R? : RT @BieberLemonade: Usher: Everyone better get ready cause it's gonna be big. Aint that right Justin? Justin: That's right! Usher: We're... OoooThats Kee_: @Shrug_AtBitches DONE. Peg: RT @NoMorePain: High Tech #Gamma #Knife Gives #Patients Virtually #Pain #Free #Treatment #Alternative http://t.co/gWYES38k... http://t.... Buddy Josiah Cebrun: Drug free zone. Pamela Romero? : @AlisonBerru es bonita:( OPTIMISministore : Cek video from @BayuOptimis - his wearing @RACERKIDScloth http://t.co/ml02mjlS MahoganieJadeBrowne: RT @JamilahLemieux: Did "ratchet" come from a mispronunciation of "wretched"? Ebony Phonics is so fascinating. Nayani Teixeira: Quero q o sono chegue logo *.*?LoVe In DIsguise??: nite????: Every time I get a new avi Samantha gotta hate on it. Lindsay Bates: If anyone is free at about 1120 Tomorrow and would like to drive me to school to check in I would greatly appreciate it #desperate bruno henrique: ''oi td bacon vc?'' ''to beyonce?" ''ah to windows'' A.D. CRAIG: RT @TheChadWazGreat: Thursday we at #AlphabetCity #ThirstyThursdays 25 cent beer & $2 shots! Friday we at #PULSE #PLATONIC Alyssa Rasho: I want Mountain Dew jackeyy garza.: just kidding, I'm hungry I want wings and pizza, fuck it yolo. James Langnes: wow, i would wake up to sneeze like 20 times! #HelloOxy #LongTimeNoSee #NightForrealDoh Fatimah Wijayanti: jangan donk,, tar dibilang temen nya hhaha RT @SparkyuINA #PickOne Member Suju yg pengen km aja kencan ke ragunan :p stargirlalicia2: wow....khun is going crazy over those boys. i mean...block b should stop goofing around. its unprofessional but khun is being a lil Alliyaah Jasmine': @iEatDa_Tweet : ) Bet I Did. Mike Egan: RT @Drakee_TakeCare: To all the girls that didn't get this text: Good Night Beautiful <3 Cailey: @MelissaJalbert no Esmeralda Montano: mejor seguire trabajando :I Selena Granados : @garrywashere NO! be positive :D A.FRANK?: RT @SoAddictive14: #welcometocolumbia where every nigga a "thug" ummmhumm yeah nigga please sit down Matias cabuli: happy tree friends. ME: Don't tell him were your at @Millionaire_H Yriss Zu?iga?: RT @BreenRamireez: Pues creo que es hora de irme, buena noche a todos (: pero antes... TE AMO MI ACOCADORA @Yriszuup Cello Dias?: Partiu Gnight MahoganieJadeBrowne: RT @JamilahLemieux: Did "ratchet" come from a mispronunciation of "wretched"? Ebony Phonics is so fascinating. Cheyenne Parsons :): I'm not meaning to get attention. #whoops #mybad. Just stating my thoughts. Mirr: @IloveMrMonroe what Bukan Siapa-Siapa: RT @LorealHairID: Mau voucher #LorealLunch di Pizza Hut senilai Rp 200.000? Follow and RT @LorealHairID yuk! *1 Chin up, beautiful.: You say you forgot about me, but everything you do or say is because of me. Adekunle Agunbiade: Netflix is playing with a brotha's emotions right now. "We're having problems with this title right now" FUCK OUTTA HEEEERE BhimaRizkyJuniantha: Schedule for campus!! #setting ray soraluz: Every girl deserves to b treated like a queen but some idiots dont realize that Brooke Grefseng: Scary scary scary noises outside my window. #pleeeeeasestooooop Jaee Nastiee $$$$$ : @gasperr_ no me voy a Callar!! Eres cochino si hasta tu mama dice eso de ti, que verguensa. Pffft thank god idont have interest in you!lol(: Irfan: cpt sembuh adeq yg cntik..:P@Gresz77 Radio Raheem: Aww dats too cute...I wish sumbody would wanna do dat wit me Ken_nie RAYONANNA': My body really hurts a full body massage would be GREAT,,,, &&& some GOOD head! Ms. Myself: I loooove Wendy Williams #TeamCancer kira abramovitz: @jschantz11 dude that's not the point.. idc if you hate him it was exciting for me don't be rude.. Lawal Fuad: RT @WheatTIMS_ONLY: bein in a relationship, but feeling single? tssss, #MakesMeSMH Jennifer: Pancakes and the Machine #replacebandnameswithpancake Lyn Francisco: I've just posted pictures of the various pieces I've knitted or crocheted over the years. Have a look: http://t.co/0uCMGDyd Tyler Schlapman: @_OnlyOneLove_ you dnt think nellys mustache is cute??? #nohomo M.squareddd: @datboi_dan dahliiinggg, i miss you *wahhh*??g?????????: Oi @_FelipeResk tdb??? Florencia: RT @LasPiratas_: No te hagas la enamorada, vo sho zorra. TeTeBadder: Well I jus really want the juice from da orange Ryan Klockowski: @Holly_Claire alright good! i can access my dvr anywhere and watch my shows so ill have to watch it tomorrow night in florida! miracle: "@katiegonewild: I guess I should start my English homework." Joshia Didi Y: RT @kata2bijak: Hiduplah seperti pohon kayu yang lebat buahnya, hidup di tepi jalan dan dilempari dengan batu, tapi membalas dengan buah Vyktor Berriel: RT @luucaspimentel_: mano, os parceiros de verdade, ajente escolhe no dedo, mais tmb os que fesha memo numca sera esquecido '-' Sydney Lane: Ladies, once you figure out what you're worth the male race won't matter to you. #independent?CoolAssKWats?: Lmao they better get back on that bus, jeepers gone get ya ass anyway you cant run or hide in this movie lol smh breezee beats : Lmao :D?Megan Paris-Simone: #WelcomeToMontgomery where the teachers will cuss yo ass TF out! Leah F. : @Tim_Esquire YOU LOOOOVVVVEEEEE MEEEE!!!!!!! Emily W?hler: I'm so antisocial now a days, I don't talk to anyone. #smh?????hunny bee : I'm not scared. Jenna Lynn Lehmann: @XanderBabb yeah in a mean way it kinda does! Gabriela : @marilynmanson #heycruelworldtour COME TO BRAZIL 40 Derek Centeno: RT @Devonaustin_24: let's get things straight Hoya Saxa : RT @ShaiyBae: You can't ruin a friendship with sex.. That's like trying to ruin ice-cream with sprinkles. phil lodge: RT @patyjimenezdiaz: @JLozanoA El que da pena ajena es usted, empleado farsante de FC: presidente del desempleo K.payne: Chillin Terrell Miyares: SSBC 33042AA3R Drilled Slotted Plated Front Passenger Side Rotor for 1984-87 CRX with Solid Rotors: Big Bite cro... http://t.co/0UuyLp8V LOOOOVVEEEE :): Rebel Gang always on my TL. BANG, BANG!!!! alejandro carbonell: Retratos de la piel que esconde los temores http://t.co/TmxUbMaT Ina Bauzon: I reached 44 level on My Clinic for iPad. http://t.co/tVsOn1wL #ipad #ipadgames ezequielsanchez: Toda una vida para dejar como herencia un futuro mejor a nuestros hijos y parece que hemos fracasado como sociedad. Nacen muy endeudados David Rayfield: @PestiDurden Just bought it. :) Jordyn Chartrand: "@J0_RY: @JordynChartrand I love random, thoughtful texts. It's funny how such a little thing can boost a spirit! #cheerful"wuv u beb <3 xox tiara hughes: RT @SweeT_AngeLuV I try to set GOOD examples for the little ones ; so they will have someone to look up to. |Dollydeea Baybe|?: @WaaniHazwanni come down to suntec. there's job fare on 23rd march (: im going... wana tag? Keena Nicole: @InStyle Backless! Love the look---it's the sans bra part that gets me. These babies don't keep themselves perky! MutiaRastanty: RT @aku_jujur: Gak ada kata yang sempurna untuk mewakilkan kata cinta :) #jujur suhainizam: jyeahh.. seaside. to the bitch we go! eh, ;p Kristen Pilar: RT@Phyuck_Yiu: Man vacation is over.......back to reality (work school and bullshit) kiss me (; : @NayJovan Tequan? is that the boy tht played on Everybody Hates Chris? maddie engle: @BriReder_2 just watched that play number 7 on espn t i e a r a.: RT @DaTnIgGa_ToRrEy: @itsPRETTYYY_TeE lmao I thought dat was yours -- muthafucka that's chelsea's she keep a bush lol March 8th?: RT @NeedNoApplause: @__XpensiveTaste @_Mr_TYB ayyyyeee pmoney! and nah just feeling GOOD to here from my F-R-I-END estivent yacolca: http://t.co/rpRamCVh Michelle Mendez: Good night everyone, i hope tomorrow will be a better day for all of us. :) Eben: Royal Foamposites weren't worth the 200 I spent let alone those ugly shits that came out March18?: Donalisa piss me off Baaad? : Fu'ccck?: @xLongLiveJBros JAJA, es toda una diosa esa hermosa gatita. tarynnn k.0 : Watching the #britawards & I have no idea what the hell they are saying Demm:.@OfficialDukes BOL girl nahhh! ApeNasUmMENINO :$: ME DIZ AONDE TA O PROBLEMA? QUE AGENTE CAI PRA DENTRO Thuggaaaaaaaaaaa.: Lol. O. Jon DeLange: @devin_alters fair enough, well your opinion on tygas album should be decided after you #rolluphoe haha just sayin #notthatbad Luisina Macagno: "Ibupirac 600: otra forma de drogar" - N E S H A?.: lol. She quoted & laughed at him ; #HA! Ana : RT @Franco_MN: HOY NOMINACIONES Y MONEDAS EN VIVO. NO AL FRAUDE!!! #GH2012 monicah morales: RT @_brookebaby: Hot topic is lame, they don't have them, instead they added bieber shirts to the t-shirt wall #disgraceChina has just had a run-in with its only friend in the South China Sea, and that could complicate matters for Beijing as it continues to try to take a more aggressive stance in the region.
On March 19, an official Indonesian vessel detained a Chinese fishing trawler that was operating in Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the coast of the Natuna islands.
The islands are on the periphery of the South China Sea, and their EEZ abuts China's self-declared Nine-Dash Line, which Beijing uses to mark its claims in the region.
In the past, Indonesia has not had any issues with China's increasingly aggressive actions in the region. However, after Jakarta seized the Chinese trawler, things got awkward quickly for the two nations.
While towing the Chinese vessel toward the Natuna islands, a Chinese coast guard ship rammed the Indonesian vessel in an attempt to free the Chinese boat, Bloomberg reports.
natuna islands indonesia More
This led to Jakarta issuing a protest to Beijing over a violation of the “sovereignty of Indonesia’s territorial waters." Indonesia also managed to take the eight crew members of the Chinese vessel into custody.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has said that she emphasized the good will between Indonesia and China while filing the protest.
However, Marsudi also said "I stress that Indonesia is not a party to the South China Sea dispute, so we are asking for a clarification about the incident."
In response, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a press briefing that the entire incident between Indonesia and China occurred in "traditional Chinese fishing grounds.
Despite the efforts at conciliatory language by Marsudi, tensions are likely to continue to escalate between Indonesia and China following this incident. According to the Associated Press, Jakarta has signaled that it will press ahead with prosecuting the Chinese fishermen over Beijing's demands that they be released.
And Arif Havas Oegroseno, the Indonesian official in charge of maritime security, has called out China's claims to having a traditional history of fishing in the region.
“It’s very fake, ambiguous, in terms of since when, since what year does it become historical, traditional?” the Associated Press reported.
This escalation in tensions puts Indonesia in a difficult position. It has a minimal role in the South China Sea, and until now has wanted to keep solid relations with China. Bloomberg notes that China is Indonesia's largest single trading partner and a major funding of infrastructure in the country.
However, Indonesia has vowed to take a strong line on its territorial integrity — especially in the maritime sphere. And the grounds off the Natuna islands is home to a third of Indonesia's gas reserves, according to Bloomberg.
Indonesia's diplomatic tensions with China put it in a similar position to much of the rest of the region. Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Taiwan all also protest China's claims in the region and have attempted to push back on Beijing's territorial claims.
NOW WATCH: China has been upgrading its military and is now stronger than ever
More From Business InsiderHope you're not bored playing your 6-year-old Xbox 360 or 5-year-old PlayStation 3 just yet.
Gaming blog Kotaku reports that Microsoft and Sony aren't launching a new console until 2014, due to strong Xbox 360 and PS3 sales.
"Both MS and Sony are telegraphing |
fantastic.
Infect
Back to the single-minded strategies, in this case taking a single creature (a Glistener Elf, or maybe an Inkmoth Nexus) and turning it into a single-attack killing machine thanks to a dizzying array of pump spells—Mutagenic Growth, Become Immense, and Kaladesh newcomer Blossoming Defense amongst them.
Abzan
This has some similarities to Jund, but because it has access to white it has access to standouts like Siege Rhino, Path to Exile, and the apparently-innocuous Lingering Souls. Like Jund, everything it does is ruthlessly efficient.
Tron
This archetype makes a mockery of the one land per turn rule by converting the three "Urza's" lands—Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Tower—into seven mana. With that much acceleration, cards like Karn Liberated; Ugin, the Spirit Dragon; and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger are well within range, and they're all pretty devastating.
Merfolk
When little things get big, big things happen, and Merfolk has no fewer than twelve Lords—Merrow Reejerey, Lord of Atlantis, and Master of the Pearl Trident—to ensure that the little fish can swim successfully in a very big Modern pond.
Elves
The Elves deck features some Elves, some more Elves, some more Elves, some Elves, some ways to get more Elves, some Elves that let you keep generating mana to cast more Elves, some Elves that make Elves bigger, and, er, some Elves. Once it has enough, yes, Elves, it attacks for a lot. The end.
Ad Nauseam
This delicious combo deck (no, I'm not at all biased about my favorite deck in Modern that is better than all the other decks ever) gets to five mana, casts Ad Nauseam, draws many cards, casts Angel's Grace to make sure unpleasant self-death doesn't occur, draws all of the other cards, and then uses Lightning Storm to kill their opponent by discarding all the lands drawn with the fateful Ad Nauseam. Shall I tell you all that again? This delicious combo deck...
Jeskai Control
You might not know that Jeskai means red, white, and blue cards. You probably do know that control means dealing with whatever threats the opposing deck creates. Jeskai Control is very, very good at making things dead, whether that's through a world-class suite of spot removal (Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and Path to Exile), countermagic (Spell Snare, Remand, and Mana Leak) or full-on board sweepers (Supreme Verdict). Snapcaster Mage is the non-flashy way to win after threats are nullified. Nahiri, the Harbinger's ultimate plus Emrakul, the Aeons Torn—that's the fun way.
At that point, we draw breath. The list above is by no means the only decks we'll see in Rotterdam. Part of the fun of Modern is that it is simply vast, and has many, many decks that are realistically playable. Nonetheless, you can certainly expect Affinity, Dredge, Bant Eldrazi, and Naya Burn to be high on the metagame charts.
Four rounds of Unified Modern close out our Day One action. That's where we make the first cut, with teams finishing 49th and down (in our likely field of 73 nations) sitting out the rest of the weekend on the sidelines. Traditionally, the cut has been to the Top 32, rather than 48, and one interesting effect of this change is that, no matter how small the nation or MTG community, every team will feel that they have a legitimate shot at making Day Two. Speaking of which...
Day Two (Saturday)
Day Two begins with a single round of utter carnage. The 48 surviving teams from Day One get split into eight groups of six. For example, the No. 1 overall seed will be joined by Nos. 16, 17, 32, 33, and 48. The reward for being either the first or second seed within a group (the Top 16 from Day One overall) is to receive a bye for this first round of Day Two. The other four teams in the group go head to head (in our example, 17 faces 48, and 32 plays 33). The winners of this Unified Modern match advance—the losers are out.
That's right—sixteen straight knockout fights to start Day Two. Morning!
Once that slugfest is out of the way, there'll be four teams left standing in each group. Next up comes three rounds of group play. The top seed plays the bottom seed, with the middle two playing each other. From then on, it's result-dependent for who goes on to play who. The two winners face off, and the two losers do the same. In the winners' bracket, whichever team gets to 2-0 advances to the next stage of the competition, and has nothing to do in the final round of group play—they're just through. In the losers' bracket, it's back into desperation mode, with the winner staying alive and the loser (now at 0-2) heading for the exit. The two remaining teams in the group (both at 1-1), play each other in the final round of group play, to decide who joins the 2-0 team in the next phase, and who joins the 0-2 team in being shown the door.
All of that gets the field to just sixteen countries. They're again ranked 1–16 and put into another group. No. 1 joins Nos. 8, 9, and 16, while the No. 4 overall seed ends up in a group with Nos. 5, 12, and 13. Then it's a repeat of group play: get to two wins (either 2-0, or needing that final round shootout) and you're through. Reach two losses (either insta-elim at 0-2, or an agonizing final round shootout loss) and you're gone.
So, here's the summary so far:
Friday morning: 73 teams, three rounds of Team Sealed
Friday afternoon: 73 teams, four rounds of Unified Modern
Teams 49–73 eliminated.
Saturday morning: Unified Modern, one round, teams 17–48. Teams 1–16 get a bye.
16 losing teams eliminated. (32 remain)
Saturday morning (a little later): Unified Modern, three rounds, groups of four teams. Two wins to advance, two losses for elimination.
16 teams eliminated. (16 remain)
Saturday afternoon: Unified Modern, three rounds, groups of four teams. Two wins to advance, two losses for elimination.
8 teams eliminated. (8 remain)
Sunday Sunday Sunday
Phew, we're almost there! On Sunday, the remaining teams face off in a single-elimination bracket. All matches are best two-out-of-three, and, just like the rest of the tournament, two individual match wins gives your team the match overall. Incidentally, if you're worried about someone on the team not getting to play, there's no need. The rules specifically state that everyone has to play in at least one session per day. So, if someone is the coach during the Sealed portion on Day One, they have to be one of the three Modern pilots in the afternoon session. If someone doesn't play during the Top 32 stage, they will (assuming their team advances) play on Saturday afternoon in the Top 16.
On Sunday, however, there's only one team lineup. You choose your three players to pilot your Unified Modern decks, and the fourth member of the team works as the coach throughout the day. Incidentally, you can change who plays which deck in the Top 8. What you can't do, however, is switch which deck belongs in which seat. So, if your decks on Friday afternoon are Affinity in Seat A, Dredge in Seat B, and Bant Eldrazi in Seat C, those exact same decks will be in those exact same seats on Sunday.
As for which teams will be sitting there on the big stage on Sunday, my friend and colleague Brian David-Marshall has put together a handy guide for you all. For my part, I'll simply content myself by informing you that Slovakia will be winning the trophy this year, bringing to a magnificent end the pro career of Matej Zatlkaj. Once a Pro Tour finalist in Berlin 2008 and now a regular member of our global coverage team, Matej has a great lineup with him, headlined by Pro Tour Champion Ivan Floch. So, when Slovakia wins, just remember who told you so.
Matej won't be part of our coverage team at the WMC, but we've still got a Pro Tour Champion or two joining us in the booth. Luis Scott-Vargas beat Matej in that Pro Tour Berlin 2008 final, and, as for all our premier events this season, Luis will be with us throughout the event. He's joined in the expert chair by another Pro Tour Champion in Simon Görtzen, victorious in Pro Tour San Diego 2010. Our play-by-play team features Marshall Sutcliffe, Gaby Spartz, and Tim Willoughby. Organizing the feature match area will be Rashad Miller and Neil Rigby, while I'll be joined at the news desk as usual by my partner in crime, Brian David-Marshall. Our text team features Tobi Henke, Frank Karsten, and Chapman Sim, with a behind-the-scenes squad including editors Chris Gleeson and Mike Rosenberg, our man on social media Nate Price, and Executive Producer Greg Collins. As always, Craig Gibson will be the man seeing everything through his many lenses.
So who does the World Magic Cup appeal to? If you like national pride, it's for you. If you like excellence, it's for you. If you like powerful Limited decks, it's for you. If you like Modern, it's for you. If you like camaraderie, pressure, drama, teamwork, tension, laughter...
All right, look. Do you like Magic?
Then the World Magic Cup is for you.Legendary Boston Bruin Milt Schmidt passed away Wednesday. This story he shared with 590 The Fan was originally posted in 2014.
It is one of the most moving clips in all of sport: The 1942 Montreal Canadiens carrying the Bruins’ famous Kraut Line — Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer — off the Boston Garden ice after the home team had just thrashed the Habs 8-1.
The crowd was roaring, and the greatest line in the game at the time was heading to war, ushered off on the shoulders of their bitter rival.
The Habs and Bruins weren’t exactly friends, Schmidt told Jeff Blair on Sportsnet The Fan 590 in November of 2014.
“But it just goes to show you what hockey is about,” the then-96-year-old war veteran and Hockey Hall of Famer said. “Regardless of what happens on the ice, off the ice we’re still friends.”
Friends from Kitchener, Ont., the Kraut Line finished one-two-three in the 1940 NHL scoring race, with centre Schmidt leading the way. They followed that performance up with a Stanley Cup championship in 1941, their second in three years, and a dynasty seemed imminent — until something greater called.
In 1942, all three forwards traded in their Bruins uniforms for those of the Royal Canadian Air Force: three prime seasons of their careers surrendered to serve their country in the Second World War. Bauer came home early due to poor health, but Schmidt said he and Dumart served until the bitter end.
“We never gave a thought to Woody not returning or myself not returning…. Coming home was the most important,” Schmidt told Blair. “Millions of others who did not come home, we felt sorry for them.”
LISTEN: Milt Schmidt on interrupting career for the war
Concerned how his German last name would be received by his fellow troops, Schmidt said he asked his mother for permission to change it to “Smith.” She gave him her blessing, but he changed his mind at the last minute.
“To heck with it,” Schmidt said. “What was good enough for my mother and dad is good enough for me.” And when the player arrived at his post, Middleton St. George, he was welcomed with open arms at station.
The Bruins, too, considered a name change. Upon the return of Schmidt and his wingers, a contest was held to rename the Kraut Line for fear of political incorrectness. The newly christened “Buddy Line” only stuck for about a month, though, and the Kraut Line prevailed.
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When Schmidt returned to the NHL after the war, he wasted no time regaining his all-star form and even captured the Hart Trophy in 1951.
He said he felt grateful to rejoin the Bruins — even if he now had to deal with the red line, which made the game completely different. And not, in his mind, for the the better.
“They said they put it in to create a lot of scoring,” Schmidt laughed. “We found it more difficult because the style we had was to carry the puck in all the time. We’d catch a scolding from [coach] Art Ross if we changed our style of skating.”
The game became more dump-and-chase with an emphasis placed on forechecking, a change Schmidt still disputes.
“I wish some coaches would get back to the old style of many years ago,” he said. “You’d see more stickhandling.”
Bonus: This Milt Schmidt biography is well worth 23 minutes of your timeSen. John Thune announced on Tuesday via his Facebook page that he would forgo a run for president in 2012, although his statement suggested that there is some flexibility in that decision.
The South Dakota Republican, who had been weighing a White House bid for several months, said that — at least for the time being — he wanted to focus on his duties as a Senator. Thune serves as the GOP Policy Committee chairman, the fourth-ranking leadership position, and is considering jumping into the race for either Whip or Conference chairman.
“There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now,” Thune said in his statement. “So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.”Last month I shared that Animal Kingdom’s Sumatran Tiger “Sohni” was expecting tiger cubs. Well I am incredibly excited to announce that Sohni has given birth to a pair of the cutest cubs I have ever seen. Only a few days old and these cubs are already super-stars as they are the first in the park’s history!
Mom and cubs are being monitored by a dedicated team of animal experts at the Animal Kingdom who are providing around-the-clock care. Sohni and her babies are are bonding well and guests will be able to see them soon in the next few months on the Maharajah Jungle Trek.
Until they make their big debut check out this video of them exploring their new world on adorable wobbly little legs:
Disney is proud to play an important role in the worldwide conservation and understanding of Sumatran tigers, a critically endangered species. Fewer than 500 Sumatran tigers exist in the wild, as the species is facing significant threats like habitat loss, poaching and the illegal wildlife trade. To date, the Disney Conservation Fund (DCF) has provided nearly $4 million to protect wild cat species like tigers, lions and snow leopards in 25 countries around the world.
Stay tuned for more fun updates about Sohni and her cubs. In the meantime, visit DisneyAnimals.com to learn more about tigers and how you can help support them in the wild. Guests at Disney’s Animal Kingdom also can take part in Connect to Protect, a new mobile adventure that invites guests to participate in conservation “missions” with a digital scientist while exploring Pandora and helping protect the habits of at-risk animals here on Earth, like Sumatran tigers.
Are you ready to start planning your amazing Disney vacation? Our friends at MickeyTravels (designated with Platinum Earmarked status by Disney) can help! Click Here for your FREE No Obligation Quote from one of their Authorized Disney Vacation Planners.
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Want more help planning your next Disney vacation? As an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, my goal is to help you plan the Magic your way. I create customized itineraries, book advanced dining and FastPass+ reservations, monitor for discounts for your vacation, and much much more! And did I mention that my services are FREE? Get in touch toll-free at 1-800-454-4501, via email at mickeytravelssarah@gmail.com or follow along on Facebook.
Image Credit: Disney Parks Blog's first foal by top sprinter and leading sire Exceed and Excel has been named Oscietra.It's an apt name for the daughter of the superstar mare, with oscietra a popular and expensive variety of caviar.Undoubtedly the filly would have been an expensive purchase had she gone through the sale ring, but she will race under the same ownership as Black Caviar.Oscietra was foaled in September 2014, the first progeny of Black Caviar who retired undefeated with 25 wins in April 2013.Her second foal, a colt by Sebring, was born in September last year.A decision on who will be given the responsibility of training Oscietra has yet to be announced, with Black Caviar's trainer Peter Moody walking away from the profession after receiving a six-month suspension in March over cobalt charges.Hashtags were introduced to Facebook in the middle of June 2013. This feature offers brands new possibilities for your marketing communication. It constitutes a new way for people and business to discover and engage in conversation. According to the official Facebook blog, at least. From what we’ve found, it is still difficult to evaluate it’s effectiveness. Although there are tons of tips on how to use hashtags, like the ones given by AllFacebook.com or Ignite Social Media agency, the number of myths about them still outweighs the number of verified facts.
Sotrender’s Research Team analyzed the top 100 biggest Facebook Pages of UK brands in order to check the hard data regarding the use of hashtags and how effective they are. To the best of our knowledge, it’s the first time such a study was published worldwide.
How do brands use hashtags?
Since being rolling out, hashtags have grown in popularity constantly, which can be seen on the chart below:
Currently, hashtags are added to every other post. But both their overall popularity and the number of them per post is growing. On the other hand, some brands still haven’t tried using hashtags. So far, only 61 of the top 100 UK brands have published a post with at least one tag. Out of those who did, most used no more than 4 unique tags, as shown in Figure 2. So it’s not clear whether it’s better to use a few hashtags that are strongly connected with your brand or to use many general hashtags.
We checked how many unique tags the top 100 UK brand pages used hashtags during the analyzed period:
As you can see, most pages didn’t use any hashtags, nor did they use them 2-4 times. There were the ones that used one tag in one single post, but there were also pages that published one hashtag multiple times, like Pepsi Max. They wrote the tag #livefornow 5 times. Or there’s Fox Searchlight Pictures, who used the tag #wearetheeast 8 times, referring to a new film. It might be a deliberate strategy to use just a few hashtags that are strongly connected with your brand. Another viable method is using lots of general hashtags. As much as 21% of all analyzed pages used 5 or more tags. Leaders in this category were: Troy Lee Designs (56 different hashtags), BBC Radio (47), and Red Bull Racing (35). The most popular tags are displayed on the tagcloud below. Interestingly, quite a lot of them relate to F1 GPs at Silverstone and Nuremberg.
What about the engagement?
Do hashtags influence engagement? On Figure 4 we compared the average engagement of posts with and without hashtags, before and after their introduction.
The chart shows that after the introduction of hashtags, posts containing them started to gain a higher average number of engaged users (users who performed at least one activity concerning a particular post – liking, commenting, etc.). You can see the peaks of engagement caused by the posts with hashtags, but it is hard to say whether the posts containing hashtags are significantly better than the ones without them.
Another possible explanation for this phenomenon is the fact that hashtags were adopted faster by pages which engage users better and in general adopt innovations faster. On the whole, the number of engaged people on the top pages is growing as time passes.
The best way to show the impact of the use of hashtags is to look at only the pages that published posts both with and without hashtags after their introduction to Facebook. We then compare the engagement of both groups with the engagement of posts published earlier. 61 out of 100 analyzed pages meet these conditions. The average engagement for these page’s posts is shown below:
As you can see, both average posts with and without hashtags after 12th June engage more users than the average post before introducing hashtags. However, this might be because of the regular growth that occurs in terms of fans, engagement, and interactivity over time.
What’s more interesting is the fact that posts with hashtags engaged more fans than those without. However, the difference isn’t all that big. The increased total engagement itself caused a slightly bigger difference.
How many hashtags in one post?
Another interesting aspect is whether to use only one hashtag or several in a post. The Figure presented below gives a surprising conclusion:
Of the 61 brands that used hashtags in their posts, two or more than two hashtags were used 134 times, while 413 posts contained only one tag. The number of hashtags in a post seems relevant, but surprisingly posts with only one hashtag were less engaging than those without. The difference between those two was subtle, but posts containing 2 or 3 hashtags engaged way more users.
This proves the importance of a deliberate hashtag strategy that includes scheduling and choosing the right number of tags. Moreover, posts with a hashtag take longer to gather 50% of all activities, which includes likes, comments, and shares. The difference isn’t very big, however. If it will remain the same over the next couple weeks, it might be just be users who found the post through the tag search.
Conclusions
To conclude, the influence of hashtags is not as great as one might expect. The data from UK top 100 biggest brand pages show that hashtags have a positive impact on engagement, but so far this relationship is weak.
What one person considers weak, someone might judge to be strong. But you can compare these results with the after-effects of introducing timeline, which were also analyzed by Sotrender Research Team and posted on our blog.
This analysis covers the period between 1st, May and 5th, July. The forthcoming weeks will truly tell us how great the influence of hashtags really is. But as we have shown, you shouldn’t underestimate them just yet. Over time, we’ll see how hashtags truly affect content organization on Facebook and Graph Search.Note: There’s some recent news in this case; see the update below.
I’ve long complained that Johnny Law tends to turn a blind eye to the machinations and lies of “psychics.” Criminal prosecutions are extremely rare. At worst, when caught, they pay off their victims (sometimes only partly) then lay low for a short time and move on to new targets. They almost never see the inside of a prison. No wonder it’s such a lucrative business!
But the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports on the unusual example of one such trial, which got underway today (WebCite cached article):
When Fort Lauderdale fortune teller Rose Marks goes on trial Monday, accused of masterminding a $25 million fraud, the case will offer a rare peek inside the secretive world of those who say they have psychic powers. The amount of money involved in what prosecutors say was a 20-year scam and the celebrity status of the main witness — best-selling romance novelist Jude Deveraux, who they say lost $17 million — have brought notoriety to the case. Though it’s not the first time a “psychic” has been criminally charged with fleecing customers, trials in such cases are uncommon, records show. Most fortune tellers accused of fraud have reached plea agreements with prosecutors or agreed to pay back what their clients said they owed.
Among the schemes employed by Marks and her family (the rest of them have already pled guilty) is their own variation on the old “gypsy curse” scam:
Marks and her family convinced some of the walk-in clients that their problems were caused by curses that had dogged their families for generations and that the family could perform rituals and other services to remove those curses, prosecutors said. While they acknowledge that fortune telling is not against the law, “any more than performing magic or card tricks is not unlawful, or telling lies is not, per se, unlawful,” prosecutors say that Marks and her family committed fraud by making false promises and not returning money they said they would give back.
Marks herself protests her innocence and claims to be the victim:
In an exclusive interview about the case, Marks told the Sun Sentinel in December that she did nothing wrong. “I gave my life to these people. We’re talking about clients of 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. We’re not talking about someone I just met and took all their money and ran off,” Marks said.… Marks told the Sun Sentinel that she earned the money Deveraux paid her during their 17-year friendship. She said she was a personal assistant to Deveraux and negotiated a fee of about $1 million a year when she agreed to give up her profitable business to work almost exclusively for the wealthy author, whose work includes more than 35 books on the New York Times bestsellers list. Marks also said that she helped Deveraux write some of her novels. “I was her inspiration and gave her insight on Romani mysticism and beliefs in the after life and religion and the psychic world and the spiritual world and romany theology and … it took a lot of time and effort,” Marks told the newspaper.
Oh, and, of course, this prosecution was triggered by anti-Romani prejudice:
Marks’ defense says she is the victim of bias against the Roma, also known as Gypsies, and that investigators drummed up the charges against her after some of her long-term clients experienced “buyer’s remorse.”
While there’s no doubt that there’s anti-Romani prejudice in the world, that doesn’t mean there can’t still be some crooked Romani out there who genuinely deserve to be prosecuted.
At any rate, it’s heartening to see the criminal justice system actually take on these metaphysical swindlers. What a lot of these psychics do is fraud — plain and simple — and it ought to be prosecuted a lot more often.
Update: Putative “psychic” Rose Marks was given a 10-year federal sentence for her swindle (cached) after being convicted in September 2013.
Photo credit: Flood, via Flickr.
Tags: con artistIf you are interested in 3d printing organs topic you probably heard about Organovo, which currently is a synonymous with bioprinting in the 3D printing world. Just to remind you that they recently announced about their plans to provide 3d printed liver tissue later this year.
But Organovo is not the only one who is trying to apply 3d printing technologies in this sphere. Scientists at the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have also announced this week that they have managed to 3d print multiple types of cells and blood vessels, a combination that is necessary to create more complex tissue.
On their way to the current stage the Harvard team has faced with some difficulties. For example, it has been difficult to 3D print thick pieces of tissue because the cells on the interior are cut off from the resources they need. But it was solved by incorporating blood vessels into a mix of living cells and extracellular matrix, which connects cells to form tissue. Also a specific material was used for 3d printing – it melts as it cools in contrast to other materials. It gave a possibility to map out blood vessels within the cells and matrix and only then to cool the finished structure. The cells stayed in place while the other material melted, allowing the researchers to suction it out.
The team then filled the newly formed tunnels with another form of cells: endothelial cells, which make up the lining of blood vessels and naturally arranged themselves to form them in the 3D printed structure. The resulting network can feed cells on the interior, keeping them alive.
(photos and video: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering)
“Tissue engineers have been waiting for a method like this,” Wyss Institute founding director Don Ingber said in a release. “The ability to form functional vascular networks in 3D tissues before they are implanted not only enables thicker tissues to be formed, it also raises the possibility of surgically connecting these networks” to the human body.
More details may be found on Wyss website.A tall gentleman is standing at the center of the stage. All eyes in the audience are glued to him.
The audience is in a state of confusion and is skeptical after what he announced.
The hall is so silent that one could hear the heartbeat of the person sitting next to them.
The tall gentleman puts his hand to obstruct light from the lamp. Voila! The HD video being played on the screen has stopped. What follows next is a roar of applause.
“Once again, still don’t believe”, says the gentleman who’s slightly bent on his knees while moving his palm to obstruct the light again. An eye of a fly stretches over the screen as the video streaming pauses again.
The audience is still in awe.
He streamed an HD video using an LED. It was nothing less than magic. It happened for the first time in human history. Nobody had witnessed providing access to the internet from ordinary LEDs before.
The guy was indeed a magician. Not the one who tricks his audience; but the one who makes an LED do wonders.
But, how?
He is a scientist. An inventor. A real magician that tricks real world problems and not his audience.
Well, it’s time to pull the curtains.
The stage was of TED. The gentleman was none other than Prof. Harald Haas.
He has just demonstrated how LiFi works. And how we can use a light bulb to illuminate as well as to communicate.
After his demonstration, the communication scientists around the globe were delighted. And why wouldn’t they? Prof Haas gave them a whole new concept to work on.
Since his TED Talk on LiFi on August 2011, much has been contributed by communication researchers around the globe to provide an access to the internet from light see the light of a day.
Today in our brief time together, both of us, yes you and me, will be exploring how the research unfolded with time.
Hey, not only this, we will take a sneak peek into the future of LiFi to explore how it will be unfolding. We will also let you know the problems – advantages and disadvantages of LiFi technology – and their possible solutions.
So lean back and grab a cup of coffee as this is going to be quite a ride.
LiFi – A Technological Analysis
Let’s start with what was happening before Aug 2011 i.e. the public release of LiFi. Now to find that out, the goddess of research gave me two options. One, explore all the research papers of the LiFi technology and two, explore the patents filed in LiFi.
The onus was on me to decide. I was in confusion on how to go about it.
Research papers are good. In fact, they are awesome. But there is a catch. Collecting all research papers on LiFi is one hell of a task.
The first problem is that there are multiple publishing platforms; second, many are not available for public use; third, two research papers could demonstrate a single concept. So numbers of research papers published might not give me what I was looking for.
So I was left with patents which, on the contrary, can be accessed from a single database, are novel, and are readily available.
Hence, I created few key strings – a conventional method of patent search – and executed them on Thomson.
What I got was gold, but with impurities. So the next task I had in hand was to separate contaminates (junk data) from gold (insights).
As soon as I finished, what I was left with was pure gold. Now the next task was to polish it and make it shine. In other words, I had to derive insights.
What Is LiFi and How LiFi Works?
But before I let you know how I rolled, let’s first discuss what exactly LiFi is, how it’s better than WiFi, its forefather, and the most important question – How it works?
You may be in a room – office, home, restaurant – or maybe in a vehicle while reading this post. And I am sure that you can easily spot a light bulb around you.
In the future, that light bulb could be your wireless hotspot. You and I will be in a world where billions of light bulbs we use today for illumination purpose, will be used for communication and ultra-fast internet.
The wireless hotspots which these bulbs will create provide internet speed that isn’t possible with the current WiFi router you have in your room.
In February of 2015, researchers at Oxford University achieved a speed of 224 Gbps through LiFi. You can download 20 HD movies with that speed, in just one second.
This is the power of LiFi (light fidelity). But how LiFi works? Great question. According to PureLiFi, the company co-founded by Prof Harald Haas, the working of LiFi is as follows:
When a constant current is applied to an LED [light-emitting-diode] light-bulb, a constant stream of photons is emitted from the bulb which is observed as visible light. If the current is varied slowly, the output intensity of the light dims up and down. Because LED bulbs are semiconductor devices, the current, and hence the optical output, can be modulated at extremely high speeds which can be detected by a photo-detector device and converted back to electrical current. The intensity modulation is imperceptible to the human eye, and thus communication is just as seamless as RF [radio frequency technology]. Using this technique, high-speed information can be transmitted from an LED light-bulb.
Simply put, an LED will flicker light at an extremely high speed that goes undetected by human eyes, nonetheless, a photo-detector will pick it up easily. In the next step, the photo-detector converts the received signal into electric current to provide ultra-high speed internet connectivity. The image below will help better understand the working of LiFi:
History of LiFi: How it evolved during past few years
As I have mentioned, I used patent analytics to decipher how things have been moving for past few years in LiFi. In the below chart, I have plotted patent filing against year. The chart below depicts the state of research across the globe in the visible light communication or LiFi technology.
One thing worth noting is that though LiFi was first publicly disclosed in August 2011, the history of lifi dates back to 2006.
I’ve divided the above chart into two phases: first before Prof. Haas’ disclosure and second after his disclosure.
We can see that in the first phase, the research activity in the domain was quite constant. There is not any significant increase or decrease in patent filing activities in that phase. However, in the second phase, which is after 2011, there is a significant increase in patent filing activities.
A 66% rise in patent filings was observed in 2012 as compared to 2011. Similarly, when I compared all of the patents filed during 2012-2014 with 2006-2011, I find that 26% more patents were filed in former period than the latter.
Only 8 patents were filed in 2015. But this should not be considered as a decrease in research activities. In general, a patent application takes 1-2 years to get published. And patents filed in 2015 haven’t seen the light of the day yet.
Which Companies are working on LiFi to make it A household thing of the Future?
The visible light communication industry has come a long way since its inception. It is expected to be worth $113 billion by 2022. Without a doubt, we are going to see tech goliaths and some new entities fighting to grab their share in the market.
This brings another question on to the table: Who all are going to fight that LiFi war? I again used the same patent dataset to find the answer to the question, which could be found in the chart below.
Samsung, with 26 patents, is at the top spot followed by the University of Edinburgh having filed 6 patents. ETRI is in the third spot, well known for developing the LubiNet visible light technology. Lubinet can deliver digital data via LED lights. The next two spots are occupied by Universities too. This is something I was already expecting as a university is the birthplace of LiFi.
Professor Harald Haas, the father of LiFi – was associated with the University of Edinburgh, which is at 5th spot – is the inventor of many patents filed by the university. Other than that, Professor Haas has filed few patents with NTT DOCOMO and Jacobs University Bremen as well.
Professor Haas has also established PureLiFi in 2012. His company focuses on the development of visible light communications. Apart from tech goliaths – Samsung, NTT Docomo, Panasonic here – few ingenious startups– Koriist, SamsaraHQ, and Sigfox, etc – are also making an effort to shine in LiFi industry.
In the next article in this series, I will unveil the state of research before 2011 and the top ten countries making efforts to convert your light bulb into a wireless hotspot.
Spoiler alert: You will not find either USA or Japan at the top.
So, which country is at the top? Is Prof Haas the top inventor? Well, all of your answers are in the second part of this series. Also, the second article contains |
"cure or quit" notice.
For instance, Gregory Brod represented Airbnb hosts who paid rent $1,000 a month below market rate. "The landlords wanted any excuse to get them out of there... so they could take advantage of the skyrocketing real estate market," he said.
The landlords ordered the tenants out immediately for violating city code that bars rentals of less than 30 days. That ordinance is rarely, if ever, enforced.
"It was absolutely a false pretense to evict," Brod said. "They decided to bastardize the administrative code to say, 'You broke the law, you're done and don't have an opportunity to fix.' "
Brod said he charged the landlord with harassment and wrongful eviction, and he negotiated a buyout for his tenant.
Airbnb's website reminds hosts to check their leases and local laws.
"Everyone who shares their space on Airbnb agrees to follow their local rules and lease agreements, and we provide information about these requirements," spokesman Nick Papas said in a statement.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu is crafting Airbnb-related regulations, such as mandating the payment of hotel tax. However, his bill would not affect lease agreements, said his legislative aide, Amy Chan.
Some renters who have incurred their landlord's wrath by listing on Airbnb say they were able to remedy the situation.
William Gradin, who lives at the nexus of the Castro and the Mission, listed his place on Airbnb but never actually hosted anyone.
"The landlord saw the listing and immediately sent me an eviction notice," he said. "It was a three-day notice put on my door for illegal hoteling."
Furious, Gradin hired an attorney and sent a strongly worded letter "making it clear that I would go to court to fight them and had enough funds to do so," he said.
He ended up subletting his place with the landlord's approval while he travels for three months.
Even tenants' attorneys said the landlords are sometimes justified.
"We know of at least five cases where tenants have rented out units not to live there, but just to list them on Airbnb and make money," said tenants' rights attorney Joseph Tobener. He's received more than 20 calls in the past 18 months from tenants who received eviction notices because of Airbnb.
Legitimate concerns
Some landlords have legitimate concerns, he said, including safety of other building residents, noise, overcrowding, the possibility that temporary guests could refuse to leave, and that San Francisco prohibits short-term rentals in buildings with four or more units.
Advocates for the so-called sharing economy say landlords and tenants could reach a happy medium through, well, sharing.
"Right now, landlords have zero incentive to like this kind of activity," said April Rinne, chief strategy officer at Collaborative Lab, which consults on shared use of resources like apartments and cars. "The renter is getting all the economic upside. A scenario in which that upside is shared could make it attractive for both parties."
Kelsey and Mike Sheofsky achieved that balance. The couple travel frequently for Shelter Co., their luxury-camping business. They had dabbled with the idea of listing their Mission District house on Airbnb. Then their landlord approached them.
"She said, 'What do you think about Airbnb-ing your place when you're gone?' " Kelsey Sheofsky said. "I thought, 'Perfect, we're ready to go.' Now we do it, and we give her a 20 percent cut of any money we make after cleaning expenses. Some months we give her an extra 600 bucks."First off, there were goats.
Secondly, Luyster Creek has been mentioned on Brownstoner Queens before, in this June 2013 posting — “Will Luyster Creek Ever Get a Make-Over?” After reading that post, it struck my fancy to wander over and take a look. The waterway is an industrial canal which can be visited, in Astoria, at 19th Avenue near 37th Street and the Steinway Piano Factory.
Luyster Creek has gone by a few different names over the centuries, by the way.
Astoria, and all of western Queens in fact, is ancient.
Luyster was the name of a Dutch family of some prominence who settled in the area, and there was likely a natural stream here once. There used to be an island at its junction with the larger harbor, but the USACE took care of that just before the First World War, during a period of vast upgrades to the waterfront of western Long Island.
The creek opens up into Bowery Bay, which allows mariners and barge traffic easy access to Flushing Creek, the East River, or the Long Island Sound. Calling it Luyster is an affectation, for the last half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th it was Steinway Creek, or Steinway Canal.
William Steinway bought the surrounding property in 1870, as historian Jeffrey A. Kroessler informs.
The Steinway used to float logs of mahogany and other valuable feedstock through here, which would be fed into the mill and used in the manufacture of their eponymous pianos.
Really.
The Greater Astoria Historic Society has a shot of the operation up at their smugmug page — check it out.
There’s been a lot of talk about human powered boating, kayaks and such, operating out of here, but I have to say that the water quality witnessed here was pretty distressing. Remember, I’m the Newtown Creek guy, so I know of what I speak when the subject includes stinky water. Tolerable but very much present was the rotten egg smell of sulfur dioxide and the distinctive odor of untreated sewage was wafting about as well.
There was also a lot of illegal dumping happening around the street end and waterfront, a real mess and a real shame.
The smell was no doubt being caused by this spillway, which might have been a sanitary or storm drain, or both.
In modern times, the Steinway or Luyster Creek enjoys employment on its eastern shore as a fuel terminal serviced by tug and barge combos. The western shore is part of an enormous Consolidated Edison property which houses power plants and other electrical infrastructure. The Bowery Bay Sewage Treatment Plant is also found nearby, as is the Rikers Island Causeway.
Everything is built on landfill.
The ConEd property sits on top of a manufactured gas plant which has left behind an unfortunate environmental legacy.
Somewhat iconic to those of us who wander the shorelines of Queens with its garland of former industrial sites, this wooden structure looks like it used to be a dock, and is what everyone focuses on when visiting this curious spot at the wild northern edge of Astoria. The streets directly surrounding Luyster Creek are dominated by the Steinway Factory, warehouses, and trucking businesses. A complex of parks and playgrounds is installed on part of the ConEd property as well, mainly Little League Baseball and Soccer fields from what I can tell.
Just a block or two away, it’s Astoria proper, with picture perfect houses and verdant displays of yard and garden.
Haven’t figured out the whole “goat thing” as of yet, but one thing I’ve learned is to never question Queens. If she wants you to see goats roaming around, there’s a reason, and you just have to put your trust in her hands.
Queens will never let you down.
Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman lives in Astoria and blogs at Newtown Pentacle.Richmond cops face discipline in sex scandal
A teenager who was sexually exploited by Bay Area police officers, and who goes by the name Celeste Guap, is pictured speaking to KGO-TV. A teenager who was sexually exploited by Bay Area police officers, and who goes by the name Celeste Guap, is pictured speaking to KGO-TV. Photo: Courtesy KGO-TV Photo: Courtesy KGO-TV Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Richmond cops face discipline in sex scandal 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
A Richmond police probe recommends discipline for some of the 11 current and former officers it investigated for contact they had with a teenager at the center of a sex scandal, even though none had committed crimes, Police Chief Allwyn Brown said in a letter to the City Council.
The internal affairs probe recommended some of the officers be fired, reprimanded or offered counseling because they violated department policy or ethics codes, according to the Monday letter, which was shared with The Chronicle. The review included more than 10,000 text messages and cell phone records, 5,000 pages of social media activity and 13 hours of testimony from the sexually exploited teenager, who goes by her online alias, Celeste Guap.
“We found no conspiracies,” Brown said. “The facts show individual, unconnected, non-criminal engagements and other activities that violate multiple Department policies and the professional Code of Ethics on the part of several RPD officers.”
He did not say how many officers were recommended to be disciplined.
Contra Costa County prosecutors have an open investigation into misconduct that may have happened in the county, and could theoretically file charges despite the police chief’s assertion that no laws were broken.
Guap, 19, has said she had sex with 29 officers in the Bay Area in the last two years. She told The Chronicle that at least four of the officers had sexual relations with her before she turned 18 and that others paid her or gave her inside police perks, like warning her about antiprostitution stings or running the names of people she knew through law enforcement databases.
Richmond police have come under fire not only for accusations that some on the list of 29 officers were from the department, but over claims that they helped send Guap to a rehabilitation center in Martin County, Florida amid multiple criminal and internal affairs investigations and just before her presence was needed to formally charge seven East Bay police officers in Alameda County Superior Court.
Richmond officials have denied a formal involvement in Guap’s treatment, saying they only referred her resources offered to victims of crime.
“The teenager, in consult with her family, made a choice to seek inpatient treatment,” Brown said in the letter. Victim advocates in the police department’s domestic and sexual violence unit, and those at the Family Justice Center and the California Victim Compensation Program, helped get her into the rehabilitation clinic, the letter said.
Brown’s letter highlighted the lengths to which law enforcement is bound by California’s laws that protect the confidentiality of police misconduct.
For instance, though the Oakland Police Department began its own investigation nearly a year ago after Oakland Officer Brendan O’Brien killed himself and left behind a suicide note referring to Guap, Richmond police officials weren’t notified of their officers’ involvement with Guap until mid-May this year. Even then, “The facts on confidential matters pertaining to police personnel investigations cannot be shared among agencies, so we had no named or accused employees to focus on at that time,” Brown said.
The police chief cited the same laws in declining to name the officers or the precise punishments they will face.
“I wish I could share more,” Brown said. “Every public statement that we could make about this case invites more questions than we can answer without significant consequence.”This is the second article in a three part series exploring issues around height restrictions and zoning initiatives designed to limit density. Click here to view Part 1
Lately, the Bay Area has become a flashpoint in the debate on social equity and the role of cities. The success of Silicon Valley has accelerated demand for real estate and exacerbated issues associated with affordable housing in San Francisco. The city has recently been the site of protests by middle and working class families concerned they are being priced out of their neighborhoods by wealthy newcomers who commute to work aboard private buses each day and have the unfortunate tendency to suggest cities should be segregated based on economic status.
The New York Times reported last November that San Francisco has the least affordable housing in the country, with “just 14 percent of homes accessible to middle class buyers.” The median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the city is currently $3,250; the highest in the nation (we ran this infographic last September illustrating how height restrictions in cities keep rents high). The situation has been especially contentious in the Mission District neighborhood, where gentrification has resulted in the highest eviction rates in the city and public protest by residents concerned the neighborhood is quickly losing the socioeconomic diversity that made it unique.
The tension over housing prices in San Francisco is more than just a critique of class relations in modern America; it also illustrates the potential ramifications of restrictive zoning practices. Matthew Yglesias, a proponent of density, recently highlighted the role of zoning in the city’s affordable housing crisis. He acknowledged not everyone wants to live in his native Manhattan, but argued San Francisco currently has “about half the population density of Brooklyn and could easily accommodate hundreds of thousands of new housing units without Manhattanization.” Yglesias also directs blame on the suburban communities outside of San Francisco. He credits restrictions on density despite high demand for stunting the region’s economy and even suggested it may be time for tech hubs to relocate to Cleveland.
San Francisco is a particularly egregious example of how restrictive zoning can jeopardize access to affordable housing. However, height restrictions in Washington, DC have resulted in a similar concern that the city is no longer affordable. These concerns prompted the National Capital Planning Commission to revisit the city’s height master plan and may lead to reforms in the 1910 Height of Buildings Act; shifting additional decisions on city zoning from Congress to local officials.
Dramatic changes to the DC skyline are unlikely, but it is possible reforms to the Height of Buildings Act can lead to new development in Washington. In an article for Next City, Bill Bradley argues easing height restrictions can help ensure an equitable city by allowing the development of new housing to meet growing demand. He also suggests new development can build long-term equity by creating new working and middle class jobs in construction and skilled trades that offer a living wage without a college degree. Bradley also attempts to assuage the fears of preservationists, assuring them the “Washington Monument, as obvious as this sounds, is really tall. At 555 feet, it’s almost 60 feet taller than the historic Guardian Building in Detroit, which, despite the towering Renaissance Center, still plays heavily in the city’s skyline.”
When viewed through an economic lens, it is hard to support height restrictions. If a city is successful, it’s nearly inevitable it will either need to increase density, promote sprawling development, or risk the market pricing out middle and lower class residents as demand pushes up the price of real estate. However, it is also important to remember there is no guarantee that allowing new development in a high demand market will always lead to affordable housing. In addition to considering how restrictive zoning can hamper the market, it is also important for cities like Washington, DC to ensure affordable housing through inclusionary zoning and smart growth strategies.A Syrian watchdog group reports that a Syrian Christian fighter beheaded a militant with the Islamic State group as revenge for individuals executed in northeastern Syria.
The alleged revenge killing occurred Thursday in Hasakah province, where the Islamic State militants hold large areas of the countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The militant group has carried out public beheadings and mass executions of hundreds of Christians and Kurds in the region, according to The Independent.
From Agence France-Presse:
According to the monitor, the Christian fighter, a member of the minority Assyrian community, found the jihadist in the local village of Tal Shamiram. "He took him prisoner and when he found out he was a member of [the Islamic State], the Assyrian fighter beheaded him in revenge for abuses committed by the group in the region," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Kurdish militia in the region also executed 20 civilians suspected of aiding the extremist group on Friday, the London-based watchdog group said.
On Saturday, Islamic State fighters launched an assault on the largely Kurdish city of Hasakah in response.
Control of Hasakah, the capital city of the province of the same name, is split between Kurdish forces and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.One hot summer day I walked through an old, neglected neighborhood, the kind of place where feral cats stalk mice in the weeds near cracked foundations. I carried a tape measure and clipboard, for measuring the width of the sidewalks, the spacing between trees, the length from the back of the curb to the front of the houses. I was channeling my inner New Urbanist, my desire to practice a primitive form of urban archaeology. I was attempting to discover deeper truths about what makes a city successful.
As an engineer I had designed miles of streets and as a planner helped create hundreds of new lots. Yet I knew that I hadn’t the vaguest notion of how to build a really successful neighborhood. I had assembled developments that were a random collection of homes, each built in isolation from the next. What I wanted to know was what it takes to bind that place together in a way that will endure.
New Urbanism is a civic design movement focusing on that question. It advocates the reforming development practices to support traditional patterns: building close-together homes in slow increments over time and storefronts pulled up to the street instead of buried behind nearly empty parking lots—designing cities and towns for people first and then for automobiles, not the other way around.
Before the automobile, before modern zoning, and before massive central government intervention in real estate markets, cities grew and developed around the dominant transportation technology of the day: a person’s two feet. Cities were scaled to people who walked because most people walked everywhere they went.
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We sometimes mistakenly view this approach as primitive, lacking the sophistication that today’s auto-based cities have. In that, we are disastrously wrong. Modern development represents not just a step backward in sophistication but an abandonment of complexity in favor of systems that are efficient, orderly, and dumb.
Traditional development patterns, based around people who walked, emerged through trial and error over thousands of years. Societies learned to build this way by innovating incrementally—expanding on what worked while abandoning what didn’t. The result is a resilient building form finely adapted to people, a pattern that repeats with eerie similarity across continents and cultures.
In contrast, our auto-based development pattern—cul-de-sacs feeding arterial roads emptying into highways—has nowhere near such a history of application and testing. While auto-based development is indeed efficient and orderly, it lacks the intuitive feedback inherent in all emergent systems. It is this unavoidable feedback loop—the pain that comes with failure, tested over centuries that included war and peace, feast and famine, drought and abundance—that makes the traditional development approach so strong and resilient.
This is why I was out measuring sidewalks and setbacks. I was searching for the wisdom of my forefathers. What is the optimum distance between trees on a north/south street? What is the optimum ratio of building height to street width for creating a sense of place? How wide must the sidewalks be to have a good transition between public space and private space? Earlier generations figured all of this out and more because they had one thing our auto-oriented planning will never have: the time to test many different scenarios.
If I had ever asked questions like these as an engineer, the answers, if there were any, would likely have come from a book of standards. Such books would treat the small Minnesota town I live in just like any other city, big or small, warm weather or cold, anywhere in the country. When your goal is to reshape radically an entire continent in a generation, you need that kind of efficiency.
After the Great Depression and World War II, Americans took the following lesson to heart: “As the world’s greatest nation, if we focus our energies and resources on an important endeavor, we can accomplish incredible things.” We had proven it. We proved it again and again in the decades that followed.
As we demobilized the military, we began ramping up a growth machine that would transform the continent. Among a population long deprived of excess, a national consensus took shape in support of auto-based suburban expansion. It seemed like a very American way to experience growth and opportunity while arresting the persistent problems of the city—or so we hoped. We expanded housing programs from the New Deal, added incentives for G.I.’s and others to buy new homes, and began building interstate highways that dramatically reshaped cities. Trade groups and professional organizations standardized the regulatory codes, insurance tables, and financing mechanisms to make it all work.
The early results seemed to confirm our theories. Not only did the economy grow rapidly but prosperity was widely shared. Every time we built a highway, bridge, or interchange and every time we ran a pipe out to a cornfield on the edge of town, we saw positive results. What my fellow Minnesotan Thomas Friedman would later call “the American recipe for success” was established: government financing of infrastructure plus incentives for homeownership equals sustained growth and prosperity. The American Dream.
Or the American myth. Local governments are starting to realize that this system doesn’t work. While it has historically provided federal and state governments with the economic growth they seek, it leaves cities responsible for maintaining vast expanses of roadways and huge service areas on a comparatively limited tax base. That works fine when everything is new and the cost of maintenance is low, but it quickly becomes impossible as systems age.
What makes matters more desperate is that for auto-based development patterns aging is not graceful. While buildings in the traditional development style have a natural interdependency—they line up in a pattern, often share walls, their value is a function of the quality of the public space they front, and so forth—each auto-oriented building is, by design, totally independent. It will have its own parking. Many are fenced off from their neighbors or have ditches or berms in between. This is done, of course, to facilitate efficiency in construction. The result is that each failure becomes a random blight.
Auto-based development patterns follow a now familiar cycle of growth, stagnation, and then rapid decline. During the growth phase, when everything is shiny and new, the affluent move in and enjoy the prosperity of a place on the rise. But as those random failures emerge and things start to decline, those with the means to move on tend to do so, leaving behind cities of dwindling wealth. As the decline steepens, local governments borrow money in the hopes that their revenue problems are simply a temporary cash-flow crunch. The result over decades, however, is an insolvent city with huge debts serving an impoverished population poorly situated to bear the financial burdens of an auto-dependent existence.
We’re now two full generations into this experiment. Ferguson, Missouri, was one of those shiny new suburbs that expanded rapidly after World War II. As it has experienced the growth and decline typical of auto-oriented development, not only has it become much poorer but during the transition the municipality borrowed heavily and spent much of its fleeting wealth trying to maintain its position. Ferguson today is trapped: in 2013 it spent $800,000 paying interest on debt while being able to devote only $25,000 to sidewalk maintenance. There is a reason people in Ferguson might walk in the streets instead of on the sidewalks.
Amid the disruption being thrust upon our local governments, a new national consensus is slowing starting to emerge, one that replaces an anti-city approach with a fresh vision for urban areas. The two most mobile age cohorts in America today, millennials and Baby Boomers, are leaving the auto-oriented suburbs—albeit for different reasons—and flocking to cities and streetcar suburbs, places built on a traditional, walkable framework.
As Joe Cortright documents on the City Observatory website, the probability (relative to all metro residents) that a 25-to-34-year-old lives in a close-in urban neighborhood quadrupled from 1990 to 2010. In the 51 largest metropolitan areas, between 2000 and 2012 the number of 25-to-34-year-olds within three miles of the central business district’s core increased twice as fast as outside it. Meanwhile, according to the Brookings Institution, poverty has grown twice as fast since 2000 in America’s suburbs as in America’s cities.
The central task of the Millennial generation is not going to be expanding the boundaries of our cities but managing their contraction. We must find a way to unwind all of these widely dispersed and unproductive investments while providing opportunities for a good life—a modernized American Dream—in strong cities, towns, and neighborhoods. And we have to do all of this with the drag of large debts and a failed national system for growth, development, and economic management that largely associates auto-based development with progress.
This makes the work of the New Urbanists even more important. They are the ones who have applied the rigor needed to understand how a city really works. What are the nuances that make a neighborhood cohesive? Where do we place public buildings and how do we design them so they are not just functional but make a city wealthier? How do we make “good neighbors,” as Robert Frost might ask, without fences and a large setback?
The knowledge required to build livable, walkable places was once common to all in the same way that today Americans intuitively understand that the parking lot goes in front of the big box store and the fast food is located at the off ramp. We’re slowly recovering this lost knowledge, one measurement at a time. And as we begin to apply again this timeless wisdom, we’re rediscovering that traditional building patterns are not just optimized for buildings, they’re optimized for us.
Charles L. Marohn Jr. is a licensed engineer, professional planner, and president of the nonprofit Strong Towns. His latest book is A World Class Transportation System, available on Kindle. This article was supported by a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
Charles Marohn will be speaking on The American Conservative‘s panel at the Congress for the New Urbanism in Dallas on Friday, May 1. See details about all of TAC‘s CNU plans here: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/urbs/new-urbs-goes-to-dallas/Rising UFC featherweight contender Yair Rodriguez is readying himself for a showdown with former lightweight king Frankie Edgar at UFC 211 on May 13 from Dallas, Texas. It will be the biggest fight of Rodriguez’s career and a defining moment that could propel the exciting striker to the upper echelon at 145 pounds.
“What is happening to me, this is not luck,” said Rodriguez in a recent media appearance (h/t MMA Junkie). “I work hard every day — like, really, really hard. My coach is here; he would slap me in the face if I lied. Every single aspect of my game, I work on every (expletive) day. I wake up thinking about it, I eat thinking of it, and I train thinking all my life is around just one thing, and that’s to become the best fighter in the world. That’s it.”
With unparalleled potential and evolving skill, the 24-year-old is on the doorstep of contending for the featherweight title and becoming a household name. In fact, “El Pantera” believes he can one day become a bigger Mexican combat star than boxing champion Canelo Alvarez, who fights Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. later this evening (Sat., May 6, 2017) on HBO pay-per-view (PPV).
“I can be bigger (than Alvarez),” proclaimed Rodriguez. “Mexican people, they already have a lot of boxing stars. But they don’t have an MMA star in Mexico. It’s just me. I’m going to be that star. I’m already a star in Mexico, but I’m going to be even bigger than that, because I have all the Latin American market behind me, and part of the United States market. I have all these advantages.
“A lot of people from Brazil and Russia and Europe, they follow me; they send me messages and follow me. I feel blessed.”
While Rodriguez has a long road a head of him in becoming a bigger sports entity than Canelo, he has been downright amazing through his first six Octagon appearances. If he’s able to kick and twist his way past Edgar at UFC 211 then Rodriguez may only be one win away from a title shot.
Without victory at UFC 211, “El Pantera” will be forced to travel a more turbulent road to stardom.Protest, Islamabad, 2007: The Rushdie test tells you all you need to know about a writer’s willingness to choose freedom or brute power
No group is better than liberal academics at illustrating how racist anti-racism has become. As liberals, they ought to respect individual rights and oppose reactionary attempts to corral and control. As academics, they ought to look for evidence that shakes comfortable opinions. As it is, they do neither.
In human rights organisations, leftish political parties, liberal newspapers and, above all, in the universities, committed and morally earnest people would rather die than admit that radical Islam is a murderous and oppressive movement. The effect of their evasion is to promote the racism they say they oppose, while denying their supposed allies in "Muslim lands" and immigrant communities the same rights as they enjoy. Hypocrisy is too meagre a word to cover their behaviour.
Take the latest effort to land in my pigeonhole: On the Muslim Question by Anne Norton, a professor of political science at Pennsylvania University. Norton's publishers, Princeton University Press, modestly declare that she is a "fearless, original and surprising" author. In truth she is timid, unthinking and hackneyed. Like thousands of her contemporaries, Norton argues that conservative elites in the West use radical Islam to befuddle the doltish masses. There is truth in the charge that ever since 9/11 security services have taken the opportunity to bring in excessive coercive powers to fight the menace of Islamist violence. If that were the end of the argument, I could not object. Norton is a typical representative of the Anglo-American intelligentsia because she goes on to pretend that there is no real menace, and to cover up the mistreatment of women, the suppression of free speech, the inquisitorial punishment of heresy, and all the other woes armed and militant religion brings.
As with everyone of my generation (I was born in 1961), the "Rushdie test" tells you all you need to know about a political writer's willingness to choose freedom or brute power. Norton fails it, and seems to me to want to fail it. She tells us that Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie, was a "very local fuss" and a "very British affair" — as bland and unthreatening as a walk in the park. She assures the reader without caveat or elaboration that "no arrests or injuries occurred as a result of the demonstrations" against Rushdie. Even as a description of the formal demonstrations against The Satanic Verses that isn't true — the police arrested 84 people as they hung effigies of Rushdie outside Parliament in May 1989. But formal demonstrations were not the end of the protests, as she must know. Norton does not tell the reader how the supporters of religious reaction murdered or attempted to murder Rushdie's translators, staged riots in which dozens died in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey, and bombed bookshops in central London and the US for stocking copies of the blasphemous novel.
Instead of speaking plainly about the violence and the chilling effect on criticism of Islam that followed, Norton sneers. She implies that the true friends of the oppressed should not have sympathised with Rushdie because he had crossed over to the other side. Rushdie "was wealthy, educated and famous", she says, and had "won the acceptance and acclaim that many fellow immigrants lacked". Her lip curls again when she goes on to discuss Theo van Gogh, whom you may remember a Jew-obsessed fanatic slaughtered for making a "blasphemous" film with the Somali-Dutch feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Van Gogh belonged to the Amsterdam of "cannabis and copulation", she says, and "enjoyed the freedoms of the wealthy and the privileged: of people who can buy goods and command pleasures".
You do not need to read the tabloids to recognise the trick she is pulling. Half-envious and half-disgusted finger-wagging about sex, wealth and education is a way of implying that Rushdie and van Gogh had it coming to them. Not that she is justifying murder and attempted murder, of course, but she wants the reader to understand why the poor and the unprivileged — the traditional objects of leftish concern — might take against them.
To notice the slipperiness of Norton's prose, however, is to miss the wider point. In On the Muslim Question, Muslims form an undifferentiated bloc. The notion that there are conflicts within Islam and choices to be made is never entertained. She brushes aside the Arab and Iranian artists who supported Rushdie, the Danish Muslim politicians who supported the right of newspapers to publish cartoons of Muhammad, the Iranian green movement, the Egyptian and Tunisian secularists and Christians now confronting the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Bangladeshi secularists and Hindus now fighting Jamaat-e-Islami.
It is as if in her mind a global reactionary movement, which is based on identity politics and systematically discriminates against women and sexual and religious minorities, does not exist. As if Muslims and non-Muslims are not fighting it. As if there is no need for American academics to take sides, or even acknowledge there are sides to take.
You can present such blindness as a polite averting of the eyes. But it is the mirror image of anti-Muslim racism. The French National Front, say, or the British National Party or Serb and Hindu nationalists, portray "the Muslims" as a bloc of terrorists or barbarians. Leftists denounce the stereotypes but then reinforce them. Their motives are different but the effect is the same. "No one should have to argue any longer that terrorism can be a rational and reasonable strategy," says Norton as she justifies violence. As for worrying about women's rights, that is to fall into an imperialist trap. "Attention to the plight of women in the Muslim world turns the gaze of potential critics away from the continuing inequality of women in the West."
Forget that you should oppose misogyny wherever you find it, and notice that by implying that violence and sexism are excusable Norton does not refute stereotypes but excuses them. With an ignorance remarkable in a professor of political science, she makes my point for me by saying that Marx's On the Jewish Question inspired her. This founding document of left-wing anti-Semitism was hardly friendly to the Jewish people. Marx repeated every prejudice. The religion of the Jews was "huckstering" and their god was money. He concluded that only when "society has succeeded in abolishing the empirical essence of Judaism — huckstering and its preconditions — [will] the Jew have become impossible". For left-wing Muslims and ex-Muslims Norton's writing is just as insulting. Yet I suspect that she thinks of herself as being left-wing in some sense.
In her essential pamphlet Double Bind: The Muslim Right, the Anglo-American Left and Universal Human Rights (The Centre for Secular Space), Meredith Tax asks why leftists and liberals — who once said they believed in the separation of church and state, social equality and the emancipation of women — are siding with or condoning a religious Right that has made it violently clear that it agrees with none of the above.
Tax is well-placed to dissect the duplicities of our time. She is a distinguished member of a dissenting movement in modern feminism that is hugely unfashionable, and all the more necessary for that. It refuses to accept "the double bind" that says the emancipation of women must always wait. Far-leftists placed women in it when they said, "You must put up with sexism until the revolution comes." You could not be against sexism and for socialism simultaneously. Now hopes of revolution have vanished, its proponents say, "Women must put up with sexism until American imperialism has gone."
Tax quotes the example of Leila Ahmed, the Harvard scholar of women and Islam. At one point in her writings, Ahmed lets out a cry of pain. She says that she believes that the rights of women "in Muslim-majority societies often are acutely in need of improvement, as indeed they are in many other societies. But the question now is how we address such issues while not allowing our work and concerns to aid and abet imperialist projects, including war projects that mete out death and trauma to Muslim women under the guise and to the accompaniment of a rhetoric of saving them."
Put like this, Ahmed sounds ridiculous. What is the problem? Why can't you oppose, say, the war in Afghanistan, if you wish, while also opposing the subjugation of women? Why can't you say that Western societies give women greater rights, while also opposing this or that Western policy decision or politician? Why, in short, can you not walk and chew gum at the same time?
I don't mean to single out academics for special condemnation. The postmodern university may not be able to guide society, but it reflects its deformities and double standards. I know civil servants, liberal journalists, broadcasters, politicians, diplomats and police officers who never read an academic paper from one year until the next. They will condemn the gender pay gap or the sexual abuse of white-skinned women, but stay silent about the religious oppression of brown-skinned women. Fear of violent reprisals, fear of causing offence, fear that their enemies will denounce them for possessing a racial or sectarian hatred play their part. On the Left, there is the strong fear of accusations of complicity with the status quo, which never go down well in arts and humanities departments. Tax quotes one left-wing academic booming at a colleague: "Secular feminists' concern that Muslim fundamentalist religious codes impose and sanction violence on women and queers relies on a myopia that understands Muslim women only as victims of Muslim men and Islam, ignoring the role of imperial violence in defining Muslim realities around the world." No one looking for tenure wants to hear words like that directed against them.
But we should be able to acknowledge that there is now a general taboo against discussing religious oppression, which is not confined to campuses or left-wing meetings. Universal standards are everywhere in retreat.
Tax and her allies are among the few who will fight back. Her friends include members of Southall Black Sisters, who took considerable risks when they took to the streets during the Rushdie affair to declare that they were as against mullahs who wanted to subjugate Asian women because of the arrangement of their chromosones as racists who wanted to subjugate them because of the colour of their skin. Together they have formed a new feminist pressure group, the Centre for Secular Space, along with Gita Sahgal, whose treatment by Amnesty International encapsulated a rotten culture in one disgraceful moment.
Sahgal objected to Amnesty's relationship with Moazzam Begg. She did not complain that Amnesty demanded due process for an Islamist interned in Guantánamo but that it treated him as a respectable partner. And not just Amnesty. A roll call of supposedly liberal organisations followed suit. Freedom from Torture, Human Rights Watch, Justice, Liberty, Redress, Reprieve, and the US Center for Constitutional Rights all promoted Begg. The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trustan organisation set up by pacifist Quakers — and the Roddick Foundation — which was set up by a feminist — funded him. I speak from experience when I say that not only the |
institution's values.
Last week, the university announced that it would stop using the term "master" in academic titles, because of connotations of slavery.
Protests on campus have attacked the use of the official seal over its link with the Royall family, whose family coat of arms are incorporated in the emblem.
This reflects that in the 18th Century the Royall family funded the first professorship of law at Harvard.
Image copyright AP Image caption Harvard is going to use the name "faculty dean" instead of "house master"
But the law school committee, in its recommendation for scrapping the seal, notes that Isaac Royall was also known for "extreme cruelty", including burning 77 slaves alive.
Harvard Law School is now accepting calls for the withdrawal of the shield, which has been in use by the school since the 1930s.
The school has written to the university's governing body, Harvard Corporation, asking for the emblem to stop being used as its official shield.
But the decision to remove the emblem was not unanimous within the 12-member committee, with two people arguing that it should be retained.
The school's dean, Martha Minow, reporting to the university's ruling body, said: "We believe that if the law school is to have an official symbol, it must more closely represent the values of the law school, which the current shield does not."
In a message to staff and students, Dean Minow said the shield had become "a source of division rather than commonality in our community" and because of the associations with slavery it should be "retired".
There have been waves of campus protests about issues of race and representation.
Earlier this year, Amherst College, in Massachusetts, accepted student demands to drop links with its informal mascot, Jeffery Amherst, an 18th Century general accused of advocating infecting native Americans with smallpox.
And there have been sit-ins at Princeton in a bid to rename a school named after Woodrow Wilson, because of claims the former US president held racist views.
There have also been controversies about statues.
In South Africa, a statue of Cecil Rhodes was removed from the University of Cape Town, with protesters attacking the statue as an emblem of colonialism and apartheid.
But a call to remove a statue of the 19th Century politician from Oriel College in Oxford University was rejected.By Simon Hradecky, created Monday, Dec 16th 2013 17:23Z, last updated Friday, Dec 20th 2013 17:34Z An Air France Airbus A320-200, registration F-HEPE performing flight AF-1620 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Tel Aviv (Israel) with 149 passengers and 6 crew, was on a RNAV Visual approach to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport's runway 26. According to the standard instrument arrival procedure via waypoints DOVER and KEREN the crew had been instructed about 10nm prior to DOVER to reduce to minimum clean speed, shortly before overflying DOVER the crew was cleared to descend to 3000 feet and reduce to 180 knots, which the crew complied with utilizing automation in LNAV and open descent. The aircraft overflew KEREN at 3280 feet and 180 KIAS, the pilot flying however felt they were high on the approach but did not share his concern with the pilot monitoring. While on downwind the crew changed to managed speed, selected 1000 feet into the altitude window and activated open descent, the engines reduced to idle thrust. Full configuration is being selected, the Vapp of 138 KIAS is selected into the speed window. Still in the decent through about 1540 feet the autopilot gets disconnected, flight director and autothrust remain engaged. The aircraft turned final and was about to align with the extended runway centerline, still at 20 degrees of bank, the pilot flying applies nose up inputs for about 10 seconds while the flight director commands nose down inputs to maintain the target speed, the airspeed reduces from 135 KIAS to 122 KIAS with the pitch increasing from 0.7 to 10 degrees nose up, the pilot monitoring later provided testimony that he was monitoring the alignment with the runway. An automatic "Speed, Speed, Speed" call activated at Vapp-16 knots. The pilot flying decided to go around but did not call out the go-around. The pilot flying moved the throttle levers into the TOGA detent and applied nose up inputs, the pilot monitoring applied nose down inputs for about 2 seconds (dual input). At that point Alpha Floor protection activated applying TOGA thrust and TOGA Lock, 3000 feet is being selected into the altitude window, open climb mode is being engaged, the speed returns into normal range, the pilots do not detect the "TOGA LOCK" status however. The aircraft climbs through 2000 feet, the crew recognizes difficulties in reducing the thrust. The flaps are selected to 1, the speed increases to 208 KIAS and still continues to increase, 2000 feet and 188 KIAS are being selected into the MCP, the aircraft climbs to 2500 feet before starting to descend again, the speed increased to 223 KIAS (flaps limit 215 KIAS), an overspeed alarm activated. In response to the overspeed alarm the pilot flying reduced the thrust levers to idle, which removed the "TOGA LOCK" mode and disengaged autothrottle, the engines spooled down. The pilot flying stabilized the aircraft, positioned for a second approach and landed safely.
The French BEA released their final report in French (English version released on Dec 20th 2013) concluding the probable cause of the serious incident was:
The RNAV Visual Approach to runway 26 was proposed to all arriving aircraft indiscriminately. The lack of RNAV Visual Approach training at Air France at the time of the occurrence caused the captain fail to anticipate possible problems during the approach briefing, that the first officer might encounter during the unusual approach. In addition, the lack of understanding of how open descent, open climb and autothrottle work with the crew believing the autoflight systems would still ensure maintaining correct airspeed led to lack of monitoring of airspeed. The lack of identification of such risk factors led to the aircraft entering the turn to final in low energy state, given its configuration and the nose up inputs the speed warning and Alpha Floor activated.
The BEA reported the captain (58, ATPL, 20,000+ hours total, 9,800+ hours on type) was pilot monitoring and the first officer (27, 500 hours total, 200 hours on type) was pilot flying.
The BEA analysed that following the feeling that they were too high and too fast very early into the approach the first officer applied full configuration very early into the approach, while the manuals recommend to apply full configuration only once established on final approach.
The investigation could not determine why the first officer applied nose up inputs during the turn to final opposed to the flight director indications. These inputs triggered the speed warning and activation of Alpha Floor, neither pilot detected the resulting TOGA Lock and situational awareness degraded.
The BEA analysed that the aircraft subsequently went into overspeed. In a reflex to the overspeed warning the first officer retarded the thrust levers to idle, which disengaged the autothrottle and thus removed the TOGA Lock and permitted the engines to spool down, neither pilot had still detected the TOGA Lock condition.
The investigation determined that there was lack of understanding of the automation modes and their consequences and recommended to provide training with focus on understanding open descent in the approach. A second safety recommendation was issued to the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel to only apply RNAV visual approaches to approved operators.
RNAV Visual Approach Runway 26 (Graphics: BEA/AIP Israel):“When people see political ads, they think someone's lying to them.” — Mark McKinnon, U.S. political consultant/commentator.
Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners ‘Punch to the Gut’ Musical on Residential Schools Returns to Vancouver Children of God has been shaped by intense audience reactions, says director Corey Payette.
Premier Christy Clark has been all over your television set since late August, telling you what a great job she is doing holding down government spending and creating jobs.
It’s a masterful, confident performance. It’s also a political ad that sometimes strays further from the truth than a Donald Trump speech.
Let’s deconstruct the BC Liberal Party ad and fact check it.
First, Clark says: “Controlling government spending is really the foundation, is the bedrock of what we’re trying to do... we’ve got to control government spending.”
But when it comes to government capital spending, the level of control is similar to a drunken sailor on shore leave — except the BC Liberals have been on a spending bender for 15 years.
And under Captain Clark’s watch, capital debt has grown from $45.2 billion in 2011, when she became premier, to $65.3 billion today — a 45 per cent and $20 billion jump in only five years. By 2019 it is expected to reach $72 billion.
If that’s control, be very afraid if the BC Liberals actually lose what little they have!
Going back further, when the BC Liberals took office in 2001 the total provincial debt stood at $34 billion — it has almost doubled in 15 years.
And the Canadian Taxpayers Federation notes that B.C.’s debt increases by $3.4 million every day — or $2,333 every minute.
But somehow Clark believes despite all that she is “controlling government spending.” And she is — if controlling means a nine per cent increase every year.
Now, debt is not always a bad thing — governments borrow to build hospitals, schools, rapid transit and roads — and the best time for loans is when interest rates are rock-bottom low, like they are now.
But don’t have the unmitigated nerve to tell us that you are controlling spending when you are doing the exact opposite!
Second, Clark’s TV ad says controlling spending is needed because “we’ve got to keep taxes down.” And that’s when another nose-stretcher occurs.
While B.C.’s income taxes are low, they are offset for most people by a wide range of other increasingly expensive fees that are effectively taxes, like BC Medical Services Plan premiums.
Between 2010 and 2016, MSP premiums have jumped an astonishing 31.6 per cent — and unlike income tax, you pay the same premium if you are middle income or filthy rich.
Then there are a host of other taxes and fees on everything from gas to booze, plus increases in BC Hydro rates, ICBC rates and much more.
Third, in the BC Liberal Party TV ad Clark says “we have to create jobs.” And, overall, BC has done well compared to all other provinces the past few years.
But there is also an alarming trend seen in Statistics Canada’s most recent monthly Labour Force Survey that showed B.C. lost 20,000 full time jobs between August and September.
The BC Federation of Labour warns of a hollowing out of the province’s economy.
“And when you look deeper into the statistics, our economy is not creating enough good-paying, full-time positions,” says federation president Irene Lanzinger. “Meanwhile, stable, full-time employment is being replaced with more precarious and lower-paying, part-time jobs,”
Lastly, in deconstructing the BC Liberals’ ad one also notices the optics.
Interestingly, Clark is shown only talking to women in the ad — there appears to be one male figure who is there but cut out of any shot that would show his face or body.
That’s likely very, very intentional because polling shows there is a gender gap in support for the BC Liberals. Mainstreet Research’s most recent poll in September showed an 11 per cent gap, with the NDP at 39 per cent among women compared to the BC Liberals at 28 per cent.
So Clark has to woo women to win the election — and you’ll see them in future TV ad spots, as well as hearing more about what the BC Liberals are claiming to do for women with their policies.
Telling Trump-style tall tales about “controlling government spending” and keeping taxes down when the opposite is true won’t win votes with anyone who checks the facts.Share. A Sonic of Ice and Fire? A Sonic of Ice and Fire?
SEGA has announced Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, a new chapter in the Sonic Boom series coming exclusively to 3DS later this year.
Gameplay will, shockingly, task you to harness the power of the elements in order to make it successfully through levels. Playable characters include Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Sticks and Amy, while Dr. Eggman also returns alongside super villain D-Fekt.
A new mode, called Bot Racing, will be tied to the single-player while also featuring multiplayer aspects. It's apparently focused on racing and speed, where users unlock character-themed Bots to use.
Exit Theatre Mode
The previous two entries in the Sonic Boom series, Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal, ended up being the worst-selling Sonic titles in history. It was presumed these would be the final titles in the three-game exclusivity deal Nintendo penned with SEGA, but it seems there may be more to come after all. As soon as we hear more, we'll let you know.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.If you drive south from Dallas, or west from Houston, a subtle shift takes place. The monotonous, flat prairie that dominates much of Texas gives way to a landscape that rises and ebbs.
The region around Highway 35 is called the Hill Country, and although it does not seem so curvy to a Californian, it is some of the very nicest land in the state of Texas, attracting a growing coterie of wealthy boomers seeking rural retreats. It also turns out to be a growth corridor that is expanding more rapidly than any other in the nation. The area is home to three of the 10 counties with more than 100,000 residents that have logged the fastest population growth in the country since 2010.
In fact, there is no regional economy that has more momentum than the one that straddles the 74 miles between San Antonio and Austin. Between these two fast-growing urban centers lie a series of rapidly expanding counties and several smaller cities, notably San Marcos, that are attracting residents and creating jobs at remarkable rates.
Anchoring one end of the region is Austin, which has been the all-around growth champion among America’s larger cities for the better part of a decade. Texas Monthly has dubbed it the “land of the perpetual boom.”
Austin has been ranked among the top two or three fastest-growing cities for jobs virtually every year since we began compiling our annual jobs rankings. Since 2000, employment in the Austin area has expanded 52.3%, 15 percentage points more than either Dallas-Ft. Worth or Houston.
Comparisons with the other big metro areas are almost pathetic. Austin’s job growth has been roughly three times that of New York, more than four times that of San Francisco, five times Los Angeles’ and 10 times that of Chicago. Simply put, Austin is putting the rest of the big metro areas in the shade.
Nor can Austin be dismissed as a place where low-skilled workers flee, as was said about other former fast-growing stars, notably Las Vegas. Just look at employment in STEM (science-, technology-, engineering- and math-related fields). Since 2001, Austin’s STEM workforce has expanded 35%, compared to 10% for the country as a whole, 26% in San Francisco, a mere 2% in New York and zero in Los Angeles. And contrary to perceptions, the vast majority of this growth has taken place outside the entertainment-oriented core, notes University of Texas professor Ryan Streeter, with nearly half outside the city limits.
Austin has also been sizzling in the business services arena, the largest high-wage job sector in the country. Since 2001, employment in business services in the Austin area has grown 87%, more than any of the large Texas towns.
No surprise then that Austin has become a magnet for people. Its population has grown at the fastest rate among U.S. metro areas above a million in the nation since 2000, an amazing 60%. That’s more than twice as fast as Atlanta, three times more than hipster haven Portland, roughly six times San Francisco and San Jose, and more than six times Los Angeles or New York. Much of the growth is coming from migration rather than births, and it boasts the highest rate of net in-migration of all the big Texas cities. The biggest sources of newcomers, according to an analysis of IRS data by the Manhattan Institute’s Aaron Renn, are California, the Northeast and Florida.
San Antonio: The Emerging Upstart
During the decades of Texas’ urban boom, San Antonio has been considered a laggard, a somewhat sleepy Latino town with great food and tourist attractions and a slow pace of life. “There has been a long perception of San Antonio as a poor city with a nice river area,” says Rogelio Sáenz, dean of the public policy school at the University of Texas-San Antonio.
Economic and population data say otherwise. Since 2000, San Antonio has clocked 31.1% job growth, slightly behind Houston, but more than twice that of New York, and almost three times that of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
And many of the new jobs are not in hospitality, or low-end services, but in the upper echelon of employment. This reflects the area’s strong military connections, which have made it a center for such growth industries as aerospace, and cyber-security. Although slightly behind Austin, San Antonio’s STEM job growth since 2001 -- 29% -- is greater than that of all other Texas cities, as well as San Francisco’s, and three times the national average.
Similar growth can be seen in such fields as business and professional services, where the San Antonio area has expanded its job base by 44% since 2000. This just about tracks the other Texas cities, and leaves the other traditional business service hotbeds -- New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles -- well behind. The city has also expanded its financial sector; the region ranked seventh in our latest survey of the fastest-growing financial centers. Once again, there is a military connection; much of the area’s financial growth has been based on USAA, which provides financial services to current and former military personnel around the country, and employs 17,000 workers from its headquarters in the city’s burgeoning northwest.
But perhaps most encouraging has been the massive in-migration into San Antonio. Long seen as a place dominated by people who grew up there, the metro area has become a magnet for new arrivals. Since 2010, its rate of net domestic in-migration trails only Austin among the major Texas cities. Significantly, the area’s educated millennial population growth ranks in the top 10 of America’s big cities, just about even with Austin, and well ahead of such touted “brain centers” as Boston, New York, San Francisco.
In the process, San Antonio is emerging as an attractive alternative for young professionals and families to an Austin that has become more congested and expensive. The cost of living in San Antonio is significantly lower than the other Texas cities, and less than half that of places like San Francisco and Brooklyn. As the vanguard of millennials moves into the family forming, childbearing and house-buying years in the coming decade, San Antonio, with its increasingly lively music, art and restaurant scene, is likely to grow in attractiveness.
Greater San Marcos: Whoa Nellie!
As impressive as San Antonio and Austin's progress has been, the most dramatic locus for growth in the region is between the two cities. The San Marcos area, which lies at the center of the corridor, has clocked growth that is among the most rapid in the nation by several measures. Looking at population, two of the 10 fastest growing counties in the country since 2010 are located in this corridor -- Hays and Comal. Their growth rate, 4% per annum since 2010, exceeds Austin’s 3% and is almost double the growth rate of Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston.
As is usual in Texas, and most American cities, urban growth tends to expand outwards, not only for population but also for jobs. Over the past decade, Hays and Comal’s job growth rate has been an astounding 37%, outpacing Austin’s impressive 31% growth, the other Texas cities, and over six times the pace of the country overall.
Local boosters suggest that this growth will transform the San Marcos area into something like other suburban nerdistans, such as San Jose/Silicon Valley, north Dallas, Orange County and Raleigh-Durham. Certainly some of the same advantages those areas enjoyed are emerging, including the growth of Texas State University (now with over 38,000 students) as a major center of higher education.
Equally important, note researchers John Beddow and James LeSage, the central location of the San Marcos area allows families to choose from not only local jobs, but those located in both San Antonio and Austin. And to be sure, tech, education, business and professional services are all growing rapidly, but so far much of the development is lower on the food chain, such as food service and wholesale trade. Amazon, for example, just recently opened a sprawling, 855,000-square-foot warehouse in San Marcos, which is slated to employ upwards of 1,000 people.
Choices To Be Made
If you were to look for the next great American metropolis, there’s probably no better bet than the emerging San Antonio-Austin corridor. The elements are all there: major universities, including the Austin and San Antonio campuses of the University of Texas, job and population growth, low housing prices and a burgeoning tech community. Perhaps even more important, this part of Texas is only marginally tied to the energy industry, which has become a huge drag on the economy of the state’s largest city, Houston.
Yet there remain many challenges. One is transportation, particularly around freeway-allergic Austin, although San Antonio has an excellent and largely free-flowing system. The Austin bottleneck is particularly troublesome because much of the city’s growth is to the north, which means commuters living in the San Marcos region have to navigate through painfully slow freeways. Another is education, despite the university presence. San Marcos and Austin may be above the national average in terms of the percentage of college-educated residents, but San Antonio and New Braunfels, a large town south of San Marcos, still lag.
To maintain the area’s natural beauty, steps must be taken to prevent development from overrunning the Hill Country.
But none of this should stop this region from coalescing into something that represents a Texas version of Silicon Valley -- a little less dependent on the highest end of companies, less expensive and more diversified -- providing a powerful new entrant among the nerdistans that increasingly dominate our national economy.
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A staff member in convenience store Spar has been commended for turning away two customers who mocked a gay man because of his appearance, calling him a “faggot”.
The victim, Colm, from Dublin, posted on Facebook about the incident in which he went across the road to his local shop wearing shorts and a big jumper.
Speaking to OutMost, he said: “I walked over to Spar to get some wine and cigarettes. I was just wearing shorts and a jumper. I mean, I just live across the road so I just threw clothes on, not thinking about how I was dressed.
“I realise I was wearing a big jumper and some shorts, I did look a bit weird.
The original post which went viral
“I was in the queue and there was a guy and a girl in front of me buying a bottle of wine.
“The guy turned to the girl and said ‘look at that faggot in his shorts’. And laughed in my face. I just looked away because I didn’t want to make a scene, you know?
“When they got to the top of the queue, the guy who was working at the till said: ‘Sorry, I heard what you said and I’m not going to serve you’, and took the bottle of wine and put it under the counter.”
Colm also apologised as his original post contained the phrase “scaldy hun”, which he used to describe the female who gave him abuse. Some dubbed his original post problematic, as they said it was misogynistic.
Colm has since spoken to say he did not expect his post to be shared so widely. It has since gone viral.
Spar Ireland tweeted from its official Twitter account in support of the staff member.I laugh because I have done that before, just to park it not thinking price would get that high and then this one time at band camp....I am going to park some of mine bout 500k this time again, just in case we get another flash bash
XC will discuss there part in the Blocknet tech (same as Fibre) in there own thread. But there is also a dedicated BN thread. Are you saying that whats happens here is to be addresses only by XC team members? To me this gives a mixed message (all coins are equal members) but XC will deal with the day to day stuff and address all questions about the coming ITO
Not really, we are cooperating with XC Team each day, hop in to #fibre if you have any questions, we are there about 20 hours a day.Visit our thread too - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=737771.0 You can find there PODs and all infromation about development, roadmaps, achievements, innovations and updates about what is going on behind the scenes
Don't think anything will change as long as the teams from the other coins stay silent. come on, let me meet there dev's & PR people. The perception its an XC project is only enforced by the fact that i only see the XC team in here (BN Thread) communicating
We will join into the Blocknet discussions as appropriate on BN thread to support our positions or post new information in a positive fashion. I don't think it has been very healthy as of late when a lot of the SR members from other coins (remain nameless) tossing about their opinions in a poor manner try to stir up something that is pointless. Blocknet is for real, will happen, end of story. We are not going to post just to make our coin known there or tell the Supernet folks what "bad designs" they have. We feel both benefit the crypto community.
XC will discuss there part in the Blocknet tech (same as Fibre) in there own thread. But there is also a dedicated BN thread. Are you saying that whats happens here is to be addresses only by XC team members? To me this gives a mixed message (all coins are equal members) but XC will deal with the day to day stuff and address all questions about the coming ITO
Not really, we are cooperating with XC Team each day, hop in to #fibre if you have any questions, we are there about 20 hours a day.Visit our thread too - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=737771.0 You can find there PODs and all infromation about development, roadmaps, achievements, innovations and updates about what is going on behind the scenes
Don't think anything will change as long as the teams from the other coins stay silent. come on, let me meet there dev's & PR people. The perception its an XC project is only enforced by the fact that i only see the XC team in here (BN Thread) communicating
WelcomeXC team have created the BN thread, we are all equal, we will provide them with any support when it's needed, if you follow the BN thread you you will have noticed that not only me but other fibre devs and the community have posted.Links of all participating coins and their threads are located on the BN OP.Of course synechist will be answering most of the questions about BN, he will have the most accurate answers regarding the project and ITOThere is also now new BlockNet FAQ created by synechist https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=829576.msg9269808#msg9269808
XC will discuss there part in the Blocknet tech (same as Fibre) in there own thread. But there is also a dedicated BN thread. Are you saying that whats happens here is to be addresses only by XC team members? To me this gives a mixed message (all coins are equal members) but XC will deal with the day to day stuff and address all questions about the coming ITO
Not really, we are cooperating with XC Team each day, hop in to #fibre if you have any questions, we are there about 20 hours a day.Visit our thread too - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=737771.0 You can find there PODs and all infromation about development, roadmaps, achievements, innovations and updates about what is going on behind the scenes
Don't think anything will change as long as the teams from the other coins stay silent. come on, let me meet there dev's & PR people. The perception its an XC project is only enforced by the fact that i only see the XC team in here (BN Thread) communicating
Evening allI would like to thank everyone for all the support you have shown us the last couple of months. Time has just flown and now we are part of Blocknet. You can't imagine in my excitement what we can achieve together for now and the future.In regards to further development as you know we ain't stopping here and have an exciting announcement later that will only make Fibre strongerWe also still have places available on the FibreBoard, requirement is 4000 fibre at http://www.fibrecoin.com/fibreboard/ Also please join us at http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#Fibre KrushangFreelance journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik on Saturday kicked off yet another controversy by terming as “insane” all MPs who had condemned his meeting with terror accused Hafiz Saeed and said he felt like “spitting on their faces”.
Vaidik – who had met the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind on July 2 at Lahore – even went to the extent of saying that he would “spit on all 545 MPs” if they supported the parliamentarians who want him declared as “traitor and anti-national”.
His potentially explosive comments came during the last day of three-day Ajmer Literature Festival here, around 130 km from Jaipur.
Vaidik, 70, added that if the government wants to send him to jail then he wants to see former prime minister Manmohan Singh in his adjacent cell in Tihar jail as the latter was also “guilty to the same degree” by talking to former Pakistani president General Musharraf who had engineered the killing of hundreds of Indian soldiers in Kargil.
The issue of the Vaidik’s meeting with Saeed had even rocked Parliament with opposition parties saying it could not have taken place without the knowledge of authorities. The government had denied the allegation.
Read: I would meet Hafiz Saeed again, says Vaidik
Read: Shiv Sena demands Ved Pratap Vaidik’s arrest for meeting Hafiz Saeed
First Published: Sep 06, 2014 20:31 ISTFrom WCHB – A day before President Barack Obama was set to speak at the University of Michigan, a voters rally was taking place with Talk Radio Host Mildred Gaddis. Gaddis outlined a strategy to get Obama re-elected in 2012, as crazy as it may sound coming from a Democrat, this plan includes voting for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul for president at the Feb. 28 presidential primary in Michigan.
“There is a $10-million election taking place next month with our tax dollars,” said WCHB radio host Mildred Gaddis. “Help me and help Ron Paul get all the votes he can.”
How does this help Obama? Click here to see the video and outline of Gaddis’ proposed strategy, she is definitely on to something!
SEE ALSO:
Ron Paul Personally Oversaw Racist Newsletters, Sources Claim
Pay Up! U.S. Still Owed Over $100B From Financial Bailout?
Also On News One:Tenants of at least two west-end condo buildings will see their rents double this year, in a move that critics say proves change is needed in Ontario’s rent control laws. Kim Zasadny, 25, has lived with a roommate at 170 Sudbury St. for about a year and a half.
Renters at 38 Joe Shuster Way have been informed that their rent will double this year. ( Eduardo Lima / METRONEWS )
Over the weekend, she received a letter from KSV Advisory, a company that restructures insolvent businesses, informing her that rent would increase from $1,650 to $3,300, starting July 1. “It basically says I have two options, either to pay $3,300 a month for a one and a half bedroom that I live in... or I have to move out July 1,” said Zasadny. “I didn’t even know that was legally possible.”
Article Continued Below
Ontario puts a cap on rent increases for units that came into use prior to Oct. 31, 1991. But there is no limit on rent increase amounts for more modern residences. “There are two classes of tenants in Toronto, those who live in buildings that were built in 1991 or before have guidelines and rent control,” said Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow, who supports expanding rent control. “These rules need to change because they are padding the pockets of landlords while pushing renters out of their homes.” On Friday, AJ Merrick, who rents a condo unit at 38 Joe Shuster Way, posted the letter he received from KSV, to Facebook.
Merrick, like Zasadny, will have his rent doubled on July 1. “I wish I could stay but I have to move out,” Merrick said. “It’s way too much money.”
Article Continued Below
Merrick and Zasadny were renting their units from Urbancorp residential developers. In April 2016, Urbancorp announced it would be restructuring under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. In a press release at the time, Urbancorp said KSV was its trustee. Since then, hundreds of disappointed home buyers have been stuck in limbo. In August, a court granted home purchasers stranded by the insolvency of Urbancorp the right to be legally represented in discussions with the companies buying four of the homebuilder’s sites that are being sold off in a restructuring. There are reports that residents of one other building where Urbancorp owns units have received rent increase letters. KSV executives did not respond to calls or emails by the Star. In March, the provincial NDP tabled a private member’s bill at Queen’s Park that would expand rent control to all properties, regardless of age. Ontario’s Liberal government says it is committed to reforming rent control. Laura Gallant, spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Housing Chris Ballard, said it was “unacceptable” that many Ontarians are faced with dramatically rising housing costs. “That’s why we are already developing a plan to address unfair rises in rental costs by delivering substantive rent control reform in Ontario as part of an ongoing review of the Residential Tenancies Act,” she added. So far, said Gallant, the province has steps to make renting and home ownership more affordable, including freezing municipal property tax on apartment buildings and doubling the maximum tax refund for first-time home buyers. “We know there’s more we need to do,” said Gallant. “We will be sharing details on our plan for substantive rent control reform shortly.” Kenneth Hale, director of legal services at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, said he would like to see the same rent control measures that exist for older units applied to all rentals. Rent increases on units occupied prior to Oct. 31, 1991, are tied to annual changes in the Consumer Price Index. This year, increases on those older units are capped at 1.5 per cent. “That’s an objective measure,” said Hale. “It makes sure that landlords’ increases in hydro and fuel prices and various other (costs) eventually get taken into account.”Image caption 'Pink slime' had been common in fast food restaurants and grocery stores before the TV reports
A trial has begun in South Dakota over a meat processer's claim that it was defamed by ABC News reporting that dubbed its product "pink slime".
Beef Products Inc (BPI) argues ABC and its journalist ruined its reputation in 2012 reports on "lean finely textured beef", as the industry calls it.
BPI says ABC's "disinformation campaign" caused the meat processer's revenues to drop by 80%.
They are suing ABC for up to $5.7bn (£4.4bn) in damages.
During a hearing in January, a lawyer for BPI told the judge that ABC had engaged in "fake news".
In the reporting by ABC's Jim Avila, the term "pink slime" was used 137 times, as he described the process which creates it.
Could 'pink slime' be rebranded?
The beef trimmings are placed in a centrifuge in order to separate the lean meat from fat, before it is treated with ammonia to remove bacteria.
The term "pink slime" was coined by Gerald Zirnstein, a former Agriculture Department scientist, who initially used it in an email to colleagues in 2002.
Grocery stores across America dropped products containing "pink slime" after the ABC reports aired.
The processed trimmings were also once found in fast-food served by McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King.
BPI, which primarily produces the beef trimmings, shut down three of its four production plants following the reports.
ABC lawyers argue they are protected under the US constitution's first amendment, which ensures a free press.
The television network, which is owned by Walt Disney Company, argues that BPI must prove ABC's reporters acted with "actual malice" to harm the company.
"We believe in the principle that people deserve to know what's in the food they eat and are confident that when all the facts are presented in court, ABC's reporting will be fully vindicated," said Kevin Baine, a lawyer representing ABC.
The trial in the rural town of Elk Point, population 2,000, just north of BPI's headquarters, is expected to last eight weeks.If it weren’t for a dispute over $10,000 three decades ago, John Smoltz might enter the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend wearing a Detroit Tigers cap.
The Tigers were Smoltz’s favorite team while he was growing up in Lansing, Mich., and the team signed him out of the 1985 amateur draft. But then Detroit traded him to the Braves on |
the day, Amazon gets an increase in sales for its devices, and therefore content. Google gets more eyeballs looking at its apps and services. It’s a win-win solution for both parties. Again, it’s worth mentioning that there are probably some financial considerations to be taken into account – I doubt this bifurcation was made arbitrarily. But this is a move that could help both companies, and it’s one that is long overdue.
They have already taken the first step, so we can only hope that subsequent steps are coming and coming soon.A Guest Post by Moaner of The Glen
This week, the SNP approved the plans to extend a ban on camping across popular spots in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, coming into effect from March 2017. It’s a move that naturally pleases landowners and local hoteliers but has little support from anyone else. The park authority have long campaigned for this as a solution to the problems caused by mass camping in concentrated areas: littering, burning tents, taking chainsaws to trees, playing that ‘boom boom music’ etc. It’s an elitist move designed to deter visitors from the park who can’t afford a night in a garish, tartan clad hotel and who might lower the tone for the high spending guests they’d prefer to attract. This comes from a public body that openly mocks people on benefits, famously creating a map with names such as ‘giro bay’, demonstrating their open contempt for visitors.
Although the national park status is still recent, the area has long been a place for people in the Glasgow to escape the drudgery of unemployment and employment. You can get a train to Balloch in less than an hour and from there, the endless possibilities of the loch and the Highlands beyond are at your disposal. The generation that produced the likes of Tom Weir and Jock Nimlin would think nothing of setting off by foot after a shift, camping by the loch, climbing a hill the next day before returning to Glasgow with a couple of hours sleep before work on Monday. In this episode of ‘Weirs Way’ they talk about how busy the loch was when they were exploring it, mentioning camp fires being lit all the way down the shore:
We’re now in a bizarre situation where it’s legal to camp anywhere in Scotland except those areas near major population centres where people actually like to camp. The Land Reform Act of 2003 guaranteed the right to wander about and camp out anywhere that isn’t interfering with the use of the land. It’s a law they don’t have in England or most of Europe and it means people can move around the countryside without worrying about shotgun wielding farmers chasing them, as long as they don’t take the piss. The kinds of criminal activities mentioned in the bill are already illegal and there are sensible ways of targeting those responsible without ruining it for everyone else. It’s the equivalent of banning everyone from driving because a few people drink drive.
The park authority trumpets the current ban as a success, pointing to a decrease in crime in the exclusion zone. This opinion is not shared by Kevin Findlater, the former police officer responsible for policing of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, who believes the reduction in crime is more to do with his ‘Operation Ironworks’ scheme which saw officers stepping up patrols in the park. Presumably he called it that to make the idea of a couple of polis wandering around the woods in midgie nets seem a bit more intimidating to wannabe arsonists and fly tippers. In outlining the absurdities details of the law, Findlater said, “Leaving aside the sensible legislation that already exists to protect wildlife this bylaw goes to the ridiculous level of making it a criminal offence to cut nettles, pick common flowers, collect wild fruit or, in an effort to dispose of the demon human waste, to dig a hole in away that disturbs the sods!”
But picking berries and going for a wild shite are not pastimes reserved for overnighters, these are popular activities for day trippers as well. The attraction for all visitors is the sense of freedom that comes with the grand scenery, an atmosphere which can be undermined by over zealous park rangers checking the bushes for anyone with a turtle head poking through.
The litter loutery needs to be seen in perspective. For hundreds of years, this part of the country has put up with drunken warlords stampeding their cattle and fighting each other all over it, so it can probably handle a few people huddled around a fire trying to skin up in the rain. For all the beauty, grandeur and romance it’s hardly a pristine wilderness.
In 2012, the park barons gave the go ahead for the controversial Cononish gold mine, having previously rejected it due to concerns about the impact on the environment around Glen Cononish. The view of Ben Lui coming up the glen is spectacular and the area also includes ancient woodland and a nature reserve, valued for its diverse range of flowers and insects. Scotgold, the Australian company behind the project, addressed these concerns by promising to plant rows of trees along the approach to Ben Lui, to shield the eyes of hill walkers from the ugly machinery and grubby gold diggers. In terms of protecting the ecosystem it’s only slightly better than erecting a painted backdrop of a forest but it satisfied the board.
It turned out that the vice convenor and chair of the planning committee, Owen McKee, had bought over half a million shares in Scotgold. Board members raised concerns about this conflict of interest but park convener Linda McKay made it clear they were to keep quiet, with members not even being shown the full details of the subsequent investigation. Mr McKee ended up selling his shares for a loss but this could be a blessing in disguise, as the mine will likely turn out to be a flash in the pan. The idea has been on the cards since the 80s but has struggled to get off the ground because the fluctuating price of gold makes it a high risk venture.
Even if there is plenty of gold in them thar bens it’s an expensive business to extract it, especially without spilling poisonous mercury and cyanide into rivers and scarring mountain sides with tracks and debris. Scotgold promise a small scale operation and make much of the employment and business it will bring to the area. It’s also got a novelty factor for tourism, The Green Welly Stop already sell panning kits although since the project has the go ahead it is now illegal to actually try your luck.
If we can tolerate this kind of exploitation of our natural resources with all the accompanying mess and pollution then surely we can deal with a minority of people causing low level vandalism without ruining the experience for the vast majority who aren’t. The real concern is that this ban will creep in around the rest of Scotland as people are moved on from the park area. Other popular spots outwith the park boundaries, such as Glen Etive are similarly strained and it can only be a matter of time before more exclusions zones are proposed, the Forestry Commission have already expressed an interest.
We need to be vigilant about further erosion of our access rights and not give an inch. The park authorities are acting like the very worst of the landowners they are supposed to protect us from, recklessly self centred and unaccountable. They are not fit to look after such a special place that so many people in Scotland hold dear to them, instead they’ve prioritized the needs of a select group of businesses and transferred our natural resources into the hands of a multinational company with a slick sales pitch. The SNP government have also failed this most basic test of their land reform credentials, raising worrying questions about their appetite for standing up to bullying landowners in other parts of Scotland. It would be nice if instead of victimizing campers, they set their sites on tackling the tweedy clad visitors to the grouse moors and “deer forests” which have caused such devastating destruction to the environment all over the country.
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Further reading:
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—————————————————————————————————On the same day that the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) announced an impressive expansion capture of the Kitsap Soccer Club, news broke that the North County Battalion will not be participating in the NPSL in the 2017 Spring Season. The club declined to comment on report when asked, but there seems to be some confusion as to whether the club is simply switching leagues.
The timing of this news is curious in the wake of the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Ottawa Fury departing the NASL just one week prior. I discussed the shakeup in the makeup of American soccer on the most recent SoccerNation Podcast.
Incidentally, the southern California based United Premier Soccer League announced earlier today that they are instituting a Promotion and Relegation based league in 2017.
The Battalion are currently in their off-season after a wildly successful inaugural campaign in the NPSL, which saw them finish as top scorers in the fiercely contested southwest conference, and advance as far as the second round of playoffs before falling to eventual finalists the Sonoma County Sol.
One thing that San Diego soccer fans are all too aware of, is the tenuous stadium situation the city is beset with. The controversial “Measure C” is on the ballot for next week’s election, and the possible outcome of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers leaving town has soccer fans salivating. If the Mission Valley site where Qualcomm Stadium currently sits were to become available, it is widely expected that the city will be granted an Major League Soccer expansion franchise that plays in a new stadium jointly shared with San Diego State University.
What does this mean for the Battalion? That remains to be seen.
(Photo courtesy of Brittany Campbell: NC Battalion and SD Sockers Photographer)Despite allegations that it broke noise and curfew bylaws, the city says it received just eight complaints through 311 about Afrofest.
But Bruce Hawkins, Senior Communications Coordinator at the City of Toronto, said more complaints may have been fielded by the local councillor about the event, and he said “those eight complaints alone may not be the sole reason for any changes to the permit for the festival.”
The event drew an estimated 60,000 people daily.
Beaches-East York Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon said her office received multiple noise complaints.
“The last couple of years we’ve had problems,” McMahon said. “We’ve had problems with noise and we’ve had problems with the ending hour closing on time.”
But there is no concrete evidence of Afrofest being too loud. Hawkins confirmed the 2015 festival received a noise exemption from the city, so it did not monitor the volume emanating from the festival’s Woodbine Park site.
“As the event received a noise exemption, staff were not asked to (nor did they) monitor the event,” Hawkins said.
(To view video on mobile, click here)
And Music Africa president Peter Toh says the music coming from Afrofest is no different from any other festival held at Woodbine Park.
“The sound company we employ does most of the events at Woodbine Park, including Canada Day and Beaches Jazz festival concerts, and use the same sound equipment, crew and sound levels,” Toh said.
“The volume at Afrofest is no different than at those events, but in our case they are being called violations.”
Music festivals are typically allowed to operate until 11 p.m. on Saturdays and 8 p.m. on Sundays. Under the city’s noise exemption, the 2015 festival was permitted to run until 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
But McMahon said Afrofest has gone beyond those guidelines the past two years.
“We’ve had many talks with them recently, and given numbers of chances the last two years,” she said.
After years at Queen’s Park, Afrofest has taken place at Woodbine Park in The Beach over the last four years. This year’s festival is the 28th edition of the annual event.When is the Bitcoin fork?
The coming segwit2x hard fork is going to take place around November 18th at Bitcoin blockchain block #494784.
What do you need to know about the fork?
The blockhain will be split into two chains that share history up until the split block. Private keys for the fork coin will be the same as the private key for your Bitcoin. Normally every wallet gets access the same amount of the fork coin on the fork blockchain. If some service you are using is not giving you that – you are missing out.
What are the dangers of the Segwit2x fork?
First, being dependent on an exchange/wallet that stores your private keys. Companies change their mind often, and you might not get what is yours if the private key is not yours.
Second, replay attacks are possible during the fork “turbulence”, make sure your wallets are developing replay protection mechanisms.
Where to store your Bitcoin during the fork?
The most important thing about wallets is whether or not you control your private key. Once you have your private key for Bitcoin, you will be able to plug it in to any other wallet and redeem you fork coins (same block history, same private keys). If you do not have your private key – you are at the mercy of your wallet provider. It is them who have your Bitcoin and hold them for you.
What companies to avoid during the fork?
Coming from that, we can only recommend to NOT store your coins with a service that does not give you the private key to your wallet. Especially during the fork, when companies change their stance often. You may be losing your fork coins or your core coins depending on what the service company decides. Luckily companies like that are a minority – filter the table below by “no private key” and you’ll see them all.
To be specific, most large exchanges do not give you private keys to your wallets – instead, they hold your portfolio for you, and you will be in charge only once you withdraw to a “real” wallet. So: do not keep your coins at exchanges.
Hardware wallets are safe, paper wallets are always safe – but with them you won’t be able to immediately dump your fork coins if that is what you intend to do. Keep in mind that many exchanges and other services will limit transactional activity prior to the fork and possibly afterwards too – to avoid glitches and replay attacks. Most probably transferring coins will get safer “after the dust settles” – that is, some 48 hours after the fork.
Trading your fork coins for Bitcoin
On the other hand, having your Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Fork coins into two separate “temporary” wallets that an exchange stores them at for you could be a natural protection against replay attacks. Since both wallets are different and their private keys unknown – spending one coin will not endanger your other coin, which would be the case with a hardware or a paper wallet. Hence many people willing to dump either core or fork coin soon after the fork prefer to store the trading amount at an exchange that will credit the fork coins to users’ accounts.
Guide to the the table below
The first column: “will credit the 2x balance” – means whether you are getting your fork coins too along with the pre-fork Bitcoin. Getting your coin is natural and happens by default …if you control your private key. Watch out for “no private key” red cells in this column – these companies can change their mind and screw you over any time.
“Supports both” is more of a crypto-politics parameter. Some companies are willingly sticking to the 2x coin, some stick to the core for reasons beyond profit. Just keep it in mind, or take a stance yourself.
“Activity locks” shows the time of possible activity freezes according to the companies’ statements. Some specify exact times, some do not – but the fork period is not the safest time to transact in general.
Ticker old / Ticker new are the columns that display how companies plan to call both resulting coins.
* n/a is both “not available” and “not applicable”. This table will be updated – google “coin vigilance” to get back here or follow us on twitter to know when we’ve pubished an update.
The updated list of major wallets’ and exchanges’ stance on the Segwit2x hard fork:
A B C D E F G Service name will credit 2x balance? supports both? activity locks ticker old ticker new source Armory n/a (own private key) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Binance n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Bitfinex yes (no private key!) yes 24hrs+ BTC BTX https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/223 Bitgo yes (no private key!) will stick to "strongest" chain (hashpower + market price) 24-72 hrs limit won't support "minority chain" BTC ("strrongest chain") https://blog.bitgo.com/bitgos-segwit2x-plan-bb8f17e972d3 Bitpanda yes (no private key!) n/a n/a n/a n/a https://blog.bitpanda.com/bitpandas-fork-policy-60397630a486 Bitpay if the minority chain has significant market value, we will provide instructions to Copay and BitPay wallet users on how to safely access those coins will stick to chain with most accumulated difficulty 24hrs before BC1 (if 2x wins) or BTC BC2 (if 2x loses) or BTC https://blog.bitpay.com/segwit2x-and-bitpay/ Bitstamp n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Bittrex n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Blockchain.info No (no private key!) will stick to chain with most accumulated difficulty 24 hrs before the fork BTC if strongest, BC1 if minority BTC if strongest, BC2 if minority https://blog.blockchain.com/2017/11/03/segwit2x-frequently-asked-questions/ Blockcypher n/a n/a none BTC B2X https://blog.blockcypher.com/the-segwit2x-hard-fork-20ef27253bd1 Breadwallet yes will stick to chain with most accumulated difficulty 1 day n/a n/a https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6uyr8s/breadwallet_support_for_segwit_response_to_my/ BTCC yes will call strongest chain btc n/a BTC if strongest, BC1 if minority BTC if strongest, BC2 if minority https://www.btcc.com/news/en/announcements/2017/07/18/handling-scaling/ Cex.io yes (no private key!) n/a n/a n/a n/a https://blog.cex.io/news/segwit2x-16585 Circle n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Changelly n/a (2x supporter but "will follow public consensus") n/a n/a n/a n/a https://changelly.com/blog/changelly-cryptocurrency-exchange-segwit-bitcoin/ Coin.space unknown (user has private keys though) n/a n/a n/a n/a https://www.coin.space/blog.html Coinapult n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a Coinbase yes (no private key!) n/a 8 hrs before BTC B2X https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2892985-segwit-2x-faq Copay.io if the minority chain has significant market value, we will provide instructions to Copay and BitPay wallet users on how to safely access those coins will stick to chain with most accumulated difficulty 24hrs before BTC if strongest, BC1 if minority BTC if strongest, BC2 if minority https://blog.bitpay.com/segwit2x-and-bitpay/ Edge (former airbitz) yes (own private key) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Electrum Yes (own private key) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Exodus yes (own private keys) n/a none n/a n/a http://support.exodus.io/article/97-exodus-info-on-the-segwit2x-hard-fork Greenadress no no n/a n/a n/a https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/6tdeqz/greenaddress_does_not_plan_to_support_segwit2x/ Jaxx yes (own private key) n/a n/a n/a n/a http://decentral.ca/topic-segwit2x-vs-bitcoin-core-replay-protection/ Keepkey yes n/a none n/a n/a https://www.reddit.com/r/keepkey/comments/733c6s/keepkey_and_segwitx2/ Kraken n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Ledger nano s yes n/a none Bitcoin 1-x Bitcoin 2-x https://www.ledger.fr/2017/11/06/preparing-segwit2x-hard-fork/ Mycelium yes (own private key) n/a n/a n/a n/a https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/73r43u/mycelium_segwit2x_how_to_keep_your_coins_safe/ Poloniex n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Samourai wallet yes (own private key) Suggests users redeem their s2x coins from other, s2x wallets n/a BTC S2X http://blog.samouraiwallet.com/post/166464385507/statement-regarding-the-upcoming-s2x-hard-fork Shapeshift n/a (2x supporter) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Trezor yes (own private key) n/a none - - https://blog.trezor.io/trezor-advisory-uasf-chain-split-fork-2f95cf2c11a0 Uphold n/a (no private keys!) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Xapo yes (no private key!) will stick to chain with most accumulated difficulty up to a week BTC if strongest, BC1 if minority BTC if strongest, BC2 if minority https://blog.xapo.com/about-the-bitcoin-segwit2x-update/
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As you can see most large exchanges are waiting to make the last minute announcements. Hard fork time is a time of immense dangers and opportunities, so that behaviour is understandeable. Follow us on twitter to get alerts when we update the list: https://twitter.com/coinvigilance
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Also, if you feel like a service is missing – comment below and we’ll add it!The Shawkshank Redemption won exactly zero Oscars. Edgar Martinez is no closer to being in the MLB Hall of Fame. The Matrix sequels. We are all familiar with travesties. Each of us can quickly conjure the memory of an injustice that makes us reach for the nearest pitchfork. Among the greatest snubs of all time came in 2012 when John Schneider selected Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson with his first three draft choices but came in third in voting for the NFL Executive of the Year behind Colts GM Ryan Grigson and Broncos GM John Elway. Schneider was overlooked again the following year despite finding a way to add Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril as free agents, keying the franchise’s first Super Bowl win. Few men have accomplished more with less fanfare than Schneider. It is time for that to change.
Revisiting the absurdity of 2012
Not only did Schneider draft Irvin, Wagner and Wilson that year, he also drafted Robert Turbin, Jaye Howard, Jeremy Lane, and J.R. Sweezy. He then added Jermaine Kearse, and DeShawn Shead as undrafted free agents. All of those players remain on NFL rosters three years later. He also signed Jason Jones as a free agent and Marshawn Lynch to a four-year contract.
Grigson drafted Andrew Luck with the first pick in the draft, a move every other person with any knowledge of football would have made. He also took T.Y. Hilton in the third round, and added Jerrell Freeman as a free agent from the CFL. It was a nice year, but it pales in comparison to the breadth, impact, and ingenuity of Schneider’s additions.
Schneider was pushed below Elway largely due to the signing of Peyton Manning. Landing a prized free agent is commendable, but pursuing the most sought-after free agent in NFL history is hardly remarkable.
The subtle genius of 2015
There is little reason to believe the Pro Football Writers of America will recognize the nuanced accomplishments of Schneider this past offseason when they overlooked blatant brilliance in years past. Perhaps a little explanation will help.
Extending Russell Wilson
It took until the night before training camp for the Seahawks and Wilson to agree on a new four year deal. Wilson and company had set a deadline and were willing to play out the final year of his rookie contract if the Seahawks offer did not meet their bar. Schneider was able to find an agreeable structure that allowed Seattle to secure their franchise quarterback ahead of when a player like Andrew Luck resets the market next season, and avoid using the franchise tag that would have gobbled up a massive chunk of the 2016 salary cap.
This was no sure thing. Schneider was unwilling to rewrite the record books with the deal, while Wilson and agent Mark Rodgers were not going to be strong-armed into a below market value contract after playing for peanuts through three seasons.
After a historic stretch of play from Wilson over the past month, it is starting to look like Wilson will remain a bargain for years to come. Imagine, though, how differently things might have played out if Schneider was not able to broker a deal and Wilson would have gone through early season struggles without a certain Seahawks future. The scrutiny would have taken on a different tone. There would been more debate about whether Wilson was worth the franchise tag. It is not a stretch to think Wilson’s development as a quarterback might have been stunted without the security of a deal.
Instead, he has come through the valley to find a new peak, and Seattle is once again the hottest team in football.
Extending Bobby Wagner
The Wilson coup had the domino effect of allowing the Seahawks to use the franchise tag as leverage in their negotiations with Wagner, who had tweeted “Can’t keep everyone,” after news of the Wilson deal broke. An All-Pro in 2014, Wagner has been in the discussion for best middle linebacker in football in his three seasons. Schneider managed to secure his services for another four years.
Extending K.J. Wright and Cliff Avril
Schneider cleverly used the cap space gained in the Percy Harvin trade last season to extend both K.J. Wright and Avril before the season ended. Both players would have commanded huge dollars on the open market, and both have rewarded Seattle with their best seasons.
It was just the latest example of forward thinking by Schneider. He was facing the prospect of an offseason where Wright, Avril, Wilson and Wagner were all in doubt. His ability to secure the services of Wright and Avril ahead of the free agent market gave him the time needed to focus on the lynchpin Wilson deal, and then wrap it up with Wagner. Even if the Wright and Avril deals technically occurred in 2014, they should be considered as part of Schneider’s 2015 personnel maneuvers.
Signing Ahtyba Rubin
Seattle needed cap space to fit all these stars considering Harvin still counted $7.2M against the 2015 cap. Schneider had the foresight to see veteran Tony McDaniel had been underplaying his contract and added Ahtyba Rubin to the roster on a cheap deal. That flexibility allowed Schneider to move on from McDaniel to free up cap space after signing Wilson and Wagner without sacrificing defensive performance. In fact, most would grade Rubin’s play at 3-technique defensive tackle to be as good as anyone they have played there in recent seasons.
Trading for Jimmy Graham
Some may hold this move against Schneider. Jimmy Graham had become the Seahawks most dynamic offensive weapon before his season-ending injury. There is little doubt he would be enjoying the fruits of the offensive redemption story if he was still playing. The evolution of the offensive line and Patrick Lewis at center means the Seahawks line is arguably better than it was last season and the team added an All-Pro tight end. Schneider did a remarkable job in increasing the talent level of the team with this move. He deserves praise for knowing what he had in Tom Cable at line coach to make this gambit worthwhile.
Drafting Tyler Lockett and Frank Clark
Tyler Lockett leads all rookie receivers in touchdowns and is the first player since Gayle Sayers to have five receiving touchdowns along with a kick and punt return touchdown in his rookie season. He has gained steam in recent weeks with no signs of letting up. Clark has been a productive member of the defensive line rotation, and has blossomed with three sacks in the last few games since moving inside to rush the passer. Only Minnesota’s Danielle Hunter and Chicago’s Eddie Goldman have more sacks as rookie defensive lineman on the year. That could very well change before the year finishes.
Signing Thomas Rawls as an undrafted free agent
The Seahawks rookie class is as good as any in football despite not having a first round pick, in large part because of the emergence of Thomas Rawls. Before going down with an injury, he was outperforming more heralded rookie runner Todd Gurley on a per-start basis, and was on track to rush for over 1,100 yards in about a half season. Marshawn Lynch went down with injury and Rawls gave the offense a massive boost. His play was so impressive that many wondered if the Seahawks should start him even after Lynch returned from injury. Seattle coaches will not have to face that decision now, but the fact that it was even a debate speaks to the quality of Rawls as a new addition.
The competition
I can already hear the clamoring for Dave Gettleman, General Manager of the Carolina Panthers, to win the award this year given the Panthers glitzy undefeated season. That would be ludicrous. Gettleman deserves credit for shoring up the secondary by signing Kurt Coleman, who is having a great year. He also made a nice addition with Shaq Thompson at linebacker with his first round pick, but that is it. Devin Funchess has been adequate as a rookie.
The play of Carolina has been far more attributable to the development of players already on the roster like Cam Newton, Josh Norman, and Kawann Short. Give the coaching staff and players credit for their sparkling season (along with their awful strength of schedule), but do not give Gettlemen praise for a mediocre offseason.
There is a case to be made for Jets GM Mike Maccagnan, who added Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Buster Skrine and James Carpenter as free agents and traded for Ryan Fitzpatrick. First round pick (6th overall) Leonard Williams has been great, but the rest of their draft looks weak. He deserves credit for hiring coach Todd Bowles as well. That is an offseason to be proud of. Should Schneider end up behind a person like Maccagnan, who has legitimately made some great bets that helped his team win games, that at least would be defensible.
Still Schneider
Schneider has made dozens of decisions that range from bold to subtle over the past year that have directly led to the Seahawks being among the favorites to win a Super Bowl. They said it was not possible to make it back after winning a first one. They said he had invested too much cap space in too few star players. They said parity would pull this team down. Schneider has pierced those doubts with a seemingly endless quiver of arrows aimed at making this team a consistent championship contender.
It is doubtful that he pays any attention to who is awarded the executive of the year each season, but the award has little meaning if the best executive in football has not won it. Make 2015 the year that error is corrected.How did Gandhi confront the other salient tasks of a nation builder: the question of Hindu fundamentalism and the directly related problem of relations with the large Muslim minority? Here one is obliged to emphasize another word from the Gandhian thesaurus: the naming of the country’s immiserated “untouchables” as Harijans, or “children of god.” Here, the euphemism is direct and unvarnished. But as it happens, and as is very frequently forgotten, the millions of untouchables had their own highly literate and articulate spokesman in the person of B. R. Ambedkar, who called on the victims of the caste system to abandon outright the Hindu faith that codified and enshrined their status as subhumans. (Ambedkar himself adopted Buddhism.) Untouchables also tended to reject the condescension implicit in the Harijan designation, preferring to go under the title of Dalits, which modern India has adopted. Gandhi and Ambedkar quarreled repeatedly over the question of special political representation for those at the despised bottom of the caste ladder; Ambedkar supported it, suspecting that Congress Party rule would be another name under which high-caste Hindus would become the successors of the British Raj.
Lelyveld offers in passing the startling observation that Gandhi, who loftily asserted, “I claim myself in my own person to represent the vast mass of the untouchables,” had in point of fact “done next to nothing to organize and lead” them. On his way back from the 1931 London conference on Indian independence at which the differences with Ambedkar revealed themselves as insuperable, Gandhi stopped in Rome for a meeting with Mussolini, after which he wrote effusively of Il Duce’s “service to the poor, his opposition to super-urbanization, his efforts to bring about coordination between capital and labor [and] his passionate love for his people.” Imprisoned by the British on his return, he threatened to starve himself to death if special political dispensation was granted to untouchables … To my own alarm, I found myself sympathizing with Churchill’s tirade against this self-righteous combination of half-naked “fakir” and “seditious Middle Temple lawyer,” and with the viceroy’s exasperated staff who found themselves intercepting the correspondence between fakir and Führer.
If the Dalits had good reason to fear that they would be subordinated to Hindu-majority tyranny after the attainment of self-rule, the Muslims of the subcontinent equally dreaded a similar outcome. Lelyveld’s treatment of this still-inflamed subject is distinctive and original. I had not known that, in the early 1920s, Gandhi reposed his whole political weight in favor of the Indian Muslim demand for the restoration of the Ottoman caliphate as the guarantor of Muslim holy places. This so-called Khilafat movement, while conveniently anti-British in its implications, was by definition taking place in the realm of illusion, since by that time even the Turks themselves had rejected the rule of the sultan. But it gave Gandhi a platform to address sectarian and traditionalist Muslim throngs, and in his own eyes, this apparently trumped its quixotry. Whether the encouragement of Islamist ancien régime tendencies among Muslims was a useful path to overcoming communal divisions is a question on which Lelyveld is politely neutral. He does note that one Muslim leader who remained unimpressed by the Khilafat agitation was Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a relatively secular nationalist and modernist who at an early session of the Congress Party pointedly referred to “Mister” rather than “Mahatma” Gandhi. He was not the only one to see through Gandhi’s theatrical attempts to base reconciliation on ephemeral and crowd-pleasing themes: Lelyveld records that as early as 1921, “the impressive coalition Gandhi had built and inspired was proving to be jerry-built.” Jinnah’s future as the founder of the state of Pakistan could not then be imagined, but when it did become imaginable it was again as a consequence of a moment of Gandhian opportunism: when “the Mahatma” called on all Congress Party officials to leave their posts in 1942, the Muslim League had only to tell its own supporters to stay at work to guarantee itself a much greater share of power after Japan had been defeated.record 104 satellites +
It was PSLV’s 39th flight +
SRIHARIKOTA: India scripted a new chapter in the history of space exploration on Wednesday with the successful launch of aby Isro’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ( PSLV ) in a single mission. PSLV-C37 carrying the 104 satellites lifted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.28am.Seventeen minutes later, the rocket started placing the satellites into orbit, one by one with a time-frame of about 11 minutes.Out of the total 104 satellites placed in orbit, 101 satellites belonged to six foreign countries. They included 96 from the US and one each from Israel, the UAE, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Kazakhstan.PSLV first injected its main payload Cartosat- 2 series, India’s indigenously built earth observation satellite. It was followed by two other nanosatellites of Isro ---- INS-1A and INS-1B.It then took less than 10 minutes for the rocket to spew out 101 passengers, which are all foreign nanosatellites, as it travelled up in altitude reaching the polar sun synchronous orbit.Russian Space Agency held a record of launching 37 satellites in one go during its mission in June 2014. India previously launched 23 satellites in a single mission in June 2015.Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar congratulated his team for the successful launch of 104 satellites. “My hearty congratulations to the team. The Prime Minister has conveyed his congratulations,” he said.Director, Isro Satellite Centre Mayilsamy Annadurai said, "We can also hit centuries like our cricketers. In another two months, the number of satellites built by Isro will reach 100. Besides GSLV missions, we have get Chandrayan - 2 ready for launch next year."Mission director B Jayakumar said the launch involved complex issues in management and maneuvering, "A great moment for each and every one of us. We have so far launched 226 satellites including 179 foreign satellites," he said.Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre K Sivan said it was the toughest mission they had handled. “We had to ensure they don't collide," he said."Last year we saw nine successful launches. This year began with a remarkable event. Congratulations to customers on placing confidence on Isro's PSLV," said director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre P Kunhikrishnan.Equipped with panchromatic and multispectral cameras, the 664kg Cartosat -2 will provide remote sensing services similar to that of its predecessors.Images from the satellite will be used for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other land information system (LIS |
electorate to force a national referendum on proposed legislation by gathering 50,000 signatures. Protonmail worked with CCC Switzerland, Digitale Gesellschaft Switzerland, and the Pirate and Green parties to collect more than 70,000 signatures. The law can't take effect until and unless the government holds and wins a referendum.
It's a major event on the world's political stage. As the UK, US, France and other countries contemplate laws that expand state surveillance and hacking, ban crypto, and reduce accountability, the Swiss people -- very private to begin with -- are being directly asked for their views on the subject.
The new law is the first of two surveillance laws that have been circulating through the Swiss Parliament. The NDG law was fully passed in September, but can’t take full effect until after the referendum vote in June. The NDG would “create a mini NSA in Switzerland,” Yen wrote — allowing Swiss intelligence to spy without getting court approval. It would authorize increased use of “Trojans”, or remote hacking tactics to investigate suspects’ computers, including remotely turning on Webcams and taking photos, as well as hacking abroad to protect Swiss infrastructure. It would legalize ISMI catchers, or Stingrays, which sweep up data about cellphones in the area. The second law, known as the “BUDF”, might come up for a vote in the Parliament’s spring session—but may be revised or delayed. The BUDF would expand the government’s ability to retain data for longer, including communications and metadata, as well as deputize private companies to help spy on it users, or face a fine. “What I have heard from insiders is that they will reduce its scope now that they know we have the numbers to also force a vote on that law,” Yen wrote in an email to The Intercept.
How a Small Company in Switzerland Is Fighting a Surveillance Law – And Winning [Jenna McLaughlin/The Intercept]A Republican state senator in Tennessee is fed up with AT&T and other private Internet service providers that are trying to stop the spread of municipal broadband.
"We're talking about AT&T," Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) said at a rally of business owners, residents, and local officials in the state Capitol, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported yesterday. "They're the most powerful lobbying organization in this state by far... Don't fall for the argument that this is a free market versus government battle. It is not. AT&T is the villain here, and so are the other people and cable."
The battle over municipal broadband in Chattanooga and surrounding towns is among the most prominent nationwide. Tennessee state law has prevented the Chattanooga electric utility—which also provides broadband—from expanding to adjacent communities that lack fast, cheap Internet access. Chattanooga petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to preempt that state law, and the FCC granted the request, using its authority to promote competition in local markets by removing barriers to infrastructure investment.
AT&T told the FCC that municipal broadband can force private ISPs to "operate at a competitive disadvantage" and that there should be restrictions on public broadband projects to make sure there is a "level playing field."
The State of Tennessee sued the FCC to overturn the commission's decision, and the case is in process. If the FCC prevails in this case and a similar one involving North Carolina, state laws restricting municipal broadband in nearly 20 other states could face challenges as well.
Some lawmakers in Tennessee don't want to wait for the legal process to play out, so they are pushing legislation that would remove the state-level restriction that prevents broadband-providing electric utilities from expanding outside their electric service area. AT&T is lobbying against the bill. While Republican members of Congress are generally in lockstep with AT&T on municipal broadband, AT&T is getting pushback from at least a few members of Tennessee's Republican-controlled legislature.
The bill is sponsored in the Tennessee Senate by Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), and in the House by Rep. Kevin Brooks (R-Cleveland).
"We need broadband and we want it now!" Bowling said in a speech, the Times Free Press reported. "This is about Tennesseans having access to the 21st century," she said, pointing out that many rural areas lack good Internet service.
While some Republican state lawmakers fight for expanded municipal broadband, one of Tennessee's representatives in Congress—US Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)—has repeatedly fought to protect "states' rights" to restrict muni broadband projects.
Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) reportedly said earlier this week that the bill probably won't be passed this year. "My preference would be that the private sector take this over," she told reporters, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. "We'll see if they can come to the plate and offer enough services to our rural areas. If they can, that would be my preference. If they can't, then I do think it becomes necessary for the public to enter."
The bill is "not dead," according to Brooks, who said that it will be heard by a House subcommittee next month. But AT&T will be pushing lawmakers to drop it.
"Taxpayer money should not be used to over-build or compete with the private sector, which has a proven history of funding, building, operating, and upgrading broadband networks," AT&T spokesperson Daniel Hayes told the Times Free Press. "Policies that discourage private-sector investment put at risk the world-class broadband infrastructure American consumers deserve and enjoy today."
AT&T has deployed gigabit fiber Internet in parts of Nashville, Tennessee, but many rural parts of the state are left with slower, unreliable service.
We contacted AT&T this morning about Gardenhire's comments, and the company gave us the same statement it previously provided to the Times Free Press.AFGE Pres. J. David Cox. Photo/ Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP
WASHINGTON – As part of the Trump administration’s all-out attack on federal employees and their rights, Trumpites in the U.S. House are now pushing a bill that would penalize union stewards for representing their fellow workers on the job.
If HB 1364 passes, many of the hours stewards spend performing their duties will not be counted when calculating their pensions.
David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) stated in a news release that “[The bill], called The Official Time Reform Act of 2017 is a blatant attempt to bust federal employee unions and silence the voice of workers ….”
The release continues, “This legislation would limit an employee’s access to union representation and financially penalize employees who voluntarily serve as union representatives.”
The bill calls for putting an arbitrary cap on how much time union volunteers can spend per day on representational work, such as resolving workplace conflicts between employees and managers, or meeting with agency leaders to discuss workplace improvements.
“It creates a financial disincentive,” Cox states, “for employees to volunteer as union representatives by cutting their retirement for any time spent on representational work above the arbitrary caps.
“Federal managers and their employees are fully competent to negotiate the terms of official time, when it is needed, how much is needed, and where it should be used to address unique agency and workplace issues.”
Cox points out that “employees are allowed to use [their time as stewards] only to perform representational activities such as setting procedures that protect employees from on-the-job injuries, enforcing protections from unlawful discrimination, providing workers with a voice in determining working conditions, and representing employees in grievances and disciplinary actions. Union representatives are not allowed to use official time to conduct union-specific business such as organizing new members, holding internal union meetings, electing union officers, or engaging in partisan political activities.”
The “time” bill was introduced March 6 by right-wing U.S. Representative Jody Hice, R-Ga). He is a Baptist minister and former talk radio host who brags about his hatred for Muslims and gays, believes that wives should be “within the authority” of their husbands and is dead set against a woman’s right to choose her own form of healthcare.
Hice represents Georgia’s 10th district, which Salon online magazine says is gerrymandered to assure the election of right wingers.
Salon named Hice “America’s worst new congressman.”The R143 is a class of 212 new technology (NTT) New York City Subway cars built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries for the B Division. The cars displaced R40/As and R42s that operated on the L service in order to automate the BMT Canarsie Line.
Description [ edit ]
The R143s are numbered 8101-8312. The 212 cars were expected to provide enough service for years, but the fast growth of the Williamsburg neighborhood overloaded the L by mid-2006.[3]
The R143s are the first 60-foot (18.29 m) B Division cars built for the New York City Subway system since the R42 from 1969, the first NTT model for the B Division, and the first automated fleet in the subway system. They are currently based at East New York Yard. The R143s are similar to the slightly newer R160s; however, the two car types cannot be used interchangeably.[4]
Like the R142s, R142As and R188s, the R143s feature electronic strip maps with all stops on the L route.
Unlike the rest of the NTT fleet, the R143s are equipped with interior LED screens, which take the place of the MTA Arts for Transit cards that are usually located there. These screens can display advertisements, public safety announcements, and other information.[5] Several R160s were similarly retrofitted with LCD screens after they were delivered. However, the LCD screens on the R160s have the capabilities to display multiple colors instead of only red, orange, and green.
History [ edit ]
Timeline of Contract [ edit ]
The contract for the R143 was put out for bidding in January 1998. The initial contract called for 100 sixty-foot cars that would come in five-car sets. The new cars would be expected to have automatic PA announcements, high efficiency lighting, emergency intercom and customer alarms, AC propulsion motors, speedometers and event recorders, electronic information display signs, artwork, a central diagnostics monitoring system, microprocessor controlled air compressor, brake and communication systems, roof mounted microprocessor controlled HVAC, and to be compliant with ADA requirements.[6]
Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. was awarded a $190 million contract for 100 new B Division cars in late December 1998, with an option for 112 more cars.[7] The new design was based on the A Division's R142A, which Kawasaki also built,[8] and incorporated many features from the R110A and R110B prototypes. The cars were built with an average cost of about $1.5 million per car.
Delivery [ edit ]
Delivery of the cars began in late 2001. A 30-day revenue acceptance testing with one train of eight cars (8101-8108) began on December 4, 2001.[9][10] According to Kawasaki, the test was "extremely successful".[8] The cars began running on the Canarsie Line (L train) on February 12, 2002, where they have been assigned to.[11] All 212 cars were delivered by March 2003.[12]
Along with displacing older equipment from the Canarsie Line, the R143s also displaced the R42s on the now-extended weekend M shuttle service on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, when that line became the first BMT Eastern Division line to be placed in weekend One Person Train Operation (OPTO) service. The R143s on the M were later displaced by the R160As in February 2008. OPTO service was also tested on the L during mid-2005, but it ended due to safety issues.[13][14]
Cars 8205-8212 were originally delivered with experimental Siemens traction motors to test the traction motors that would be later found in R160B cars 8843-9102. These cars were eventually refitted with the Bombardier MITRAC traction motors found on all other R143s.[15]
On June 21, 2006, an eight-car R143 train overshot the bumper at the end of the tracks in the Canarsie Yard after the operator suffered a seizure. The first car, 8277, suffered significant damage and was stripped of damaged parts before being sent to the Kawasaki plant in Yonkers to receive repairs. The other cars in the set (8278-8280) suffered minor body damage and were moved to the 207th Street Yard and repaired. Eventually, 8277 was sent back to New York City Transit property and repaired. By 2016, car 8277 was finally recoupled with 8278-8280, but the consist needed component upgrades to become operational.[16] The set returned to service in December 2017.[a]
In 2017, a set of R143s was equipped with measuring gauges to test out the curve radius and gangway flex in the existing 60-foot long cars in order to collect data for evaluating the future R211T order.[b][better source needed]
See also [ edit ]
Notes and References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media related to R143 (New York City Subway car) at Wikimedia CommonsNAVASOTA, Texas – A 19-year-old aspiring model was hit by a train and killed while posing for photos on the railroad tracks.
The Eagle newspaper reported that Fredzania Thompson was fatally hit by a freight train Friday in downtown Navasota, Texas.
The woman was on a set of train tracks and moved from one track to another to avoid a train when she was hit by a different train from behind, according to the paper. She died on the way to the hospital.
“She was very helpful to her siblings,” her mother, Hakamie Stevenson, told the paper. “She was very outgoing, and made sure that everything was taken care of with them. She was a leader.”
Thompson was a student at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas and wanted to pursue a modeling career.
She died three days before she would have turned 20 and recently found out she was pregnant with her fiance’s baby.next week this fic is up for discussion on r/elsanna so i figured i should put out a new chapter. i'm going to try and update more often now that ive finished um. some tv ( ;_; ). im terrible i know.
"No. Absolutely not, you're not wearing that outside."
Elsa poked her head from out of the bottom draw of Anna's dresser. A slight frown on her face, she cocked her head.
"Why no wear?" she asked, and Anna had to fight down the urge to facepalm.
Kristoff had been the one to suggest a trip to the local water-park. Not so local as to be caught up in the still-unexplained poor weather, but still close enough for them to be able to make a day of it. And while Anna was always more than happy for Elsa to begin (take steps toward?) her path of independence, the poor girl still required some measure of supervision.
When Anna had asked Elsa if she wanted to pick her own swimming clothes, she expected the girl to move more towards the boardshorts and a t-shirt. Not... that.
'That' in question was one of four bikinis that Anna owned. She never wore any of them (not a huge fan of putting all those freckles on display. It wasn't like she needed any more), instead preferring a one-piece and boardies. Two of the bikinis were more like a two-piece, with them covering at least down to her belly button. Another was so small it probably would only cover like, half her boob at this point (and she didn't have particularly big ones in the first place).
But Elsa, sweet little Elsa, had found the fourth bikini.
It was blue, and a random purchase Anna had made one day when shopping with a friend. It was a halter-neck style, with two round cups (not triangles, unlike her other bikinis). It was her least favourite for this reason, because, despite not having a lot going on, she always felt like she was going to fall out of that one.
Elsa had no such reservations, as evidenced by the way she pulled off her top and began (attempting to) put on the top half.
It wasn't like Anna had never seen Elsa in the buff before, but each time, it just got weirder and weirder. Elsa was a... good looking girl. She had a huge smile and loved to please, and yeah her boobs did look awesome.
But she was also painfully naïve, and Anna... couldn't trust her not to get hurt.
Which was why she marched right up to her human and said, "No."
Elsa had managed to manoeuvre the top mostly into place, but Anna's words broke her concentration, trying to tie the strings. She dropped her hands and stared back defiantly.
"Yes."
Anna almost took a half-step back because what? Elsa could probably (almost definitely) read the shock on her face, because she glanced down, a little bashful.
"Elsa want to wear this," she said, resuming her attempts to tie it back. In the time it took Anna to figure out an argument, she actually succeeded.
"Elsa, you can't wear that," she began. "It's- it's too small. Your boobs are gonna fall out. And what if you get cold? Maybe you should wear something else. Anything else. Hey, I'll even let you where my snowman shirt. You like the snowman shirt, right?"
Elsa nodded, biting her lip. It was pink and had a dancing snowman on it and Anna never let her wear it. Glancing down at the bottoms still in her hand, she made a decision.
"No. Elsa wear this. Not want to wear snowman today."
Heart sinking, Anna knew she wouldn't win this fight. Time to call in the big guns.
"I hate you."
"Psh, no you don't, Feistypants."
"No, I do. I really do."
"Not matter! Elsa love Sven more than Anna hate Sven! Elsa win!"
Anna released a soft groan, only just managing to stop herself from banging her head against the car window.
They were on their way to the water park, Anna having had to give up after calling Kris, and him siding with Elsa.
"She's a young girl," he'd said, "Let her wear what she wants After all, it's your swimsuit."
Anna had been completely unable to form a counter-argument, which meant that Elsa had won. At least Kristoff had been able to convince her to wear some real clothes while they drove there, but that also meant that, as Anna had promised, Elsa had been able to wear the snowman shirt.
God dammit.
It didn't take long to drive there – perhaps an hour or so. Elsa got antsy, and they had to make no less than three bathroom breaks. At least she told them, Anna supposed, instead of just peeing in the car. That would be a disaster.
But, that success didn't mean that the whole day couldn't be a disaster. As soon as they arrived, Elsa jumped out of the car and began tugging her shirt off. She eyed Anna warily when the redhead tried to convince her it would be a bad idea, that she should wait until they were inside. Eventually, it was only because of all the other people, wandering around in casual clothes instead of swimming costumes, that convinced her.
It took far too long, in Anna's opinion, to get into the park. At least the cold weather had been left behind.
Elsa was positively buzzing as they made their way to the locker rooms to get changed, tugging on Anna's arm every so often to point out something. It was kinda cute (except for when she almost followed Kristoff into the guy's changing room. There were things in there that Elsa didn't need to see).
It took them no time at all to get changed (well, Elsa was already dressed) and put their stuff in a locker. Kristoff was already waiting for them, standing uncomfortably with his arms crossed across his chest. He looked very uncomfortable.
"What, did you forget your shirt?" Anna asked, grinning.
"Shut up!" he said, turning a shade of red that had nothing to do with the sun. Which reminded her, probably should put on sun screen.
Throwing Kristoff another grin, she turned around, "Hey, Els...a..."
There really were no words to describe what Elsa was doing, aside from 'running away'. An ecstatic "Yayyyy!" followed behind her as she ran, arms flapping like a bird as she made her way towards the wave pool.
Kristoff clapped her on the back as he stepped past her. "Good luck with that one," he said, winking as he turned in the opposite direction.
Well crud.A bill passed by the Michigan State Senate would endanger the health of Michiganders by granting sweeping new powers to practitioners of unscientific bogus medicine and treatments, said the Center for Inquiry.
Elvis Lives! Investigating the Legends and Phenomena
Legendary American singer Elvis Presley is heralded not only as the major innovator, “The King,” of rock ’n’ roll but also as a godlike figure inviting comparison with Jesus—complete with alleged healings and resurrection-like appearances. Looking at this mythology in the making can provide
insights into the mythology that developed around the central figure of Christianity two millennia before. Here, we analyze Elvis’s developing myth, study a recorded séance, visit two sites—one where Elvis’s apparitions have been reported (figure 1) and another where the apparitions sometimes eat (figure 2)—and consider other sidelights.
Elvis
Elvis Aron Presley was born January 8, 1935, in East Tupelo, Mississippi. Influenced by the music around him (including that of the Pentecostal church he attended with his parents), he went on to blend largely white country-and-western music with predominantly black rhythm-and-blues to help create a new American pop-music genre, rock ’n’ roll. With songs like “Heartbreak Hotel,” “All Shook Up,” and “Jailhouse Rock,” plus more than thirty movies (beginning with Love Me Tender in 1956), he became a superstar.
However, by the late 1970s, Elvis’s performances were deteriorating, and his overweight appearance had begun to draw jokes. In 1977, allegations of drug abuse and odd behavior surfaced in a book by three of his former employees titled Elvis: What Happened? Before the star could respond to the charges, he was discovered dead on August 16 at his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion—Graceland. An autopsy revealed that drugs were a contributing factor ( Collier’s Encyclopedia, s.v. “Elvis Aron Presley”).
Along with countless others, I can still recall where I was when the news came of Elvis’s death. I was in my apartment in West Los Angeles (where I was working as an armed guard while attending Paul Stader’s Hollywood Stunt School). As I noted in my personal journal for that Tuesday: “While [I was] writing, there was a knock at my door. I found a young man—about 19, drunk, beer can still in hand, tears streaming down his face—who told me Elvis had just died. That incident is evidence of the impact he had.”
Developing Mythology
Others, however, reacted with much deeper emotion. Many of Elvis’s followers began to exhibit a “deitific regard” toward the dead star (Banks 2004, 222), prompted in part by Elvis himself. Before his death, the biography Elvis: What Happened? reported:
While the rest of the world recognizes that Elvis Aron Presley is something more than an ordinary human being, the one person who believes that most passionately is Presley himself. He is addicted to the study of the Bible, mystical religion, numerology, psychic phenomena, and the belief in life after death. He firmly believes he has the powers of psychic healing by the laying on of hands. He believes he will be reincarnated. He believes he has the strength of will to move clouds in the air, and he is also convinced that there are beings on other planets. He firmly believes he is a prophet who was destined to lead, designated by God for a special role in life. (West et al. 1977, 157)
Now, following Elvis’s death, grandiose claims began to proliferate. Someone noticed that “Elvis” is an anagram of “lives.” Parallels have been drawn between Elvis and Jesus:
For example, Elvis was said not to be buried in his grave but to be hiding elsewhere (Southwell and Twist 2004, 20). (In Matthew [28: 1–15], when Jesus’ tomb was found empty, the chief priests told the soldiers to say, “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.”)
After his death Elvis was reportedly witnessed boarding an airplane (Southwell and Twist 2004, 20), and there were subsequently “numerous accounts of ‘Elvis sightings’ in malls, burger restaurants, and airports throughout the United States” (Banks 1996). An Elvis Is Alive Museum was even created by a Baptist minister with displays of photographs, FBI files, and other memorabilia that supposedly provide evidence that the singer never died (“Elvis Is Alive” 2008). (In the gospels, after his resurrection, Jesus made appearances to his disciples and many others [e.g., John 20: 19–29; 1 Corinthians 15: 4–8].)
In time, Elvis’s mythological status began to include “tales that recount his healings of illness, blindness, and sorrow through dreams and his music” (Banks 2004, 222). (As related, for example, in Luke [4:40–41; 18:43], Jesus went about healing the sick, the blind, and the possessed.)
On the wall around Graceland, Elvis’s followers have written inscriptions: “Elvis, we believe always and forever”; “Elvis, you are my God and my King”; and “Elvis, every mountain I have had to climb, you carried me over on your back” (Banks 2004, 222). (The New Testament contains passages such as these: “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” [1 Timothy 1:14] and “I rejoice in the Lord…. I can do all things in him who strengthens me” [Philippians 4: 10–13].)
Great numbers of the faithful—some 10 percent of the American public—have visited Graceland “as a place of pilgrimage” (“Elvis Presley” 2008). (Christians make pilgrimages to Jerusalem and other sites associated with Jesus in order to venerate him.)
There have even been “weeping” effigies of the star, like a plaster bust owned by a Dutch Elvis impersonator (“Weeping” 1997). (The phenomenon of weeping icons—rife with misperceptions and pious hoaxes—is frequently associated with Jesus, Mary, or a Christian saint [Nickell 2004, 324–330].)
Encounters
The “Elvis sightings” are especially persistent. They stem from the notions of conspiracy theorists who believe the star faked his death. The “evidence” is generally laughable. For example, on his gravestone, Elvis’s middle name appears not as Aron but “Aaron,” as it if were “a method of saying, ‘It’s not me’” (Brewer-Giorgio 1988, 55). In fact, although it is clear he himself used “Aron” (probably for its similarity to the name of his stillborn twin, Jesse Garon Presley), the more common spelling often appears and may even have been the original form (Brewer-Giorgio 1988, 50–61; “Elvis Presley” 2008).
Nevertheless, a still-alive Elvis has reportedly been seen by thousands of eyewitnesses. Critics, on the other hand, have suggested that the sightings can be explained by glimpses of Elvis impersonators (“Elvis” 2008) or even simple look-alikes. Some modern sightings—which emphasize Elvis pigging out on fast food—are obviously satirical (“Elvis Sighting” 2008) and examples of jokelore.
Other close encounters of the Elvis kind involve his ghost or spirit allegedly communicating with others through such means as automatic writing (in which Elvis guides the sensitive’s hand), séances (spirit-communication sessions often held by a “medium”), and astral encounters (achieved through out-of-body experiences). All of these have been utilized by one Dorothy Sherry, “a simple housewife” who has been billed as a “psychic go-between” for Elvis. “Ghost hunter” Hans Holzer tells her story in Star Ghosts. He insists: “Dorothy Sherry has never met Elvis Presley. She has not been to any concerts of his, does not collect his records or consider herself a fan of his” (1979, 61–62). Yet he says her contacts with Elvis are among the most “evidential” of his career.
Why, Sherry can even be possessed by Elvis, or at least Holzer claims (though shows us no photos) that he watched “the usually placid face of Dorothy Sherry change to a near-likeness of Elvis” as the star supposedly “controlled her.” Elvis then provided statements “in rapid succession which left no doubt,” Holzer insisted, “about his identity and actual presence in our midst” (63). Through Sherry, Elvis not only provided information supposedly unknown to her but revealed to her that, in her words, “he had known me in a previous life, and that I had been his wife” (67). “Dorothy,” Hans Holzer tells us, “went astral traveling with Elvis practically night after night” (68).
We thus receive the distinct impression that far from being uninterested in Elvis, Sherry is obsessed with him. Moreover, she has several traits that are associated with a fantasy-prone personality (such as professing psychic powers, having out-of-body experiences, receiving messages from higher entities, seeing apparitions, and so on) (Nickell 2001, 215; Wilson and Barber 1983).
Holzer does concede: “Although I haven’t the slightest doubt that Dorothy never read any books about Presley, nor any newspaper stories concerning him, the fact that these sources exist must be taken into account when evaluating the evidence obtained through her entranced lips” (1979, 62). Indeed, Holzer must know that the very sources used to authenticate spirit communication may be used by a medium (consciously or not) to glean the information in the first place. Alleged psychics and mediums have long made a practice of conducting secret research using the results as evidence, convincing the credulous of their paranormal ability. (For example, according to his former secretary, notorious medium Arthur Ford [1897–1971] traveled with a suitcase crammed with notes and clippings about whomever was to attend one of his séances [Christopher 1975, 143–144].)
In fact, some of the very information Dorothy Sherry offered as coming from Elvis’s spirit (for example an incident about a friend’s leg injury [Holzer 1979, 64]) was readily available in the book Elvis: What Happened? (West et al. 1977, 165). Moreover, some of the alleged information is doubtful. Sherry has Elvis telling her his mother had a weakness for drink, “a fact which has never been publicized for obvious reasons,” says Holzer (1979, 65). Actually, the allegation had indeed been made by “some Presley detractors” but was emphatically denied by Elvis’s close companions (West et al. 1977, 139). In any event, why would Elvis—otherworldly or not—choose to reveal derogatory information about the woman he regarded as a saint?
Holzer’s use of “psychics” in ghost-hunting was once examined in the Journal for the Society for Psychical Research. The reviewer found that Holzer’s verification methodology was so unsatisfactory as to “cast considerable doubt on the objectivity and reliability of his work as a whole” (qtd. in Berger and Berger 1991, 183). I myself have reviewed Holzer’s work and reached a similar conclusion (Nickell 1995, 61–63).
Elvis’s Ghost
Among the places Dorothy Sherry claims to have astrally traveled with Elvis is the Las Vegas Hilton. His spirit reportedly haunts “numerous locations” in the building (“Haunted” 2008), and the site is listed in Dennis William Hauck’s Haunted Places: The National Directory (1996, 262). (Again, see figure 1.)
In hopes of catching a glimpse of the specter, I visited the Hilton during a stay in Las Vegas. (Although I was there to receive an award, I decided to make the trip a working one as well.) I was accompanied to the famous hotel and casino by colleague Vaughn Rees (then with our CFI/West office in Los Angeles).
We prowled the spacious resort’s byways but were unable to see the King’s ghost. A security guard discounted the idea that Elvis haunted the site. So did an information agent, who responded, “Absolutely not!” She told us she had worked there for thirty-five years, extending back to the time when Presley actually performed at the hotel. (She added that her father had once received a Cadillac as a gift from him.) Yet she stated that she had never experienced—nor even heard of—Elvis’s ghost haunting the premises. Here, as elsewhere, it seems ghosts are only likely to appear to those with vivid imaginations.
Figure 2. The author at an Elvis-Eats-Here site (a restaurant at Underground Atlanta), part of American jokelore.
However, on one occasion I was challenged to explain a “spirit” photo of Elvis and his twin Jesse that supposedly depicted their visages and hands. In the photo, they appeared in mist behind an erstwhile Elvis impersonator who purports “to host the soul” of Jesse (“Best” 1994). The singer made highly emotional claims about the picture (a rejected shot from an entertainment magazine’s photo session). He called it “miraculous” and “supernatural.” However, I explained otherwise when he and I appeared together on the radio show The Night Side with Richard Syrett (CFRB Toronto, February 25, 2001).
I had in the meantime investigated the case with photo expert Rob McElroy. We learned from those on the photo shoot that the “mist” was cigarette smoke blown in blue light for effect. The photo effects were “an accident,” according to the art director. It was she who actually snapped that photo while a writer at the shoot darted in and out of the scene to adjust the singer’s collar. “I always knew it was me,” the writer admitted. The glitch was affected by the combined burst of light from the electronic flash and the slower (1/4-second) exposure from the camera’s shutter. The result was that the singer’s right hand and face were both sharp and blurred and that the intruding writer’s underexposed hand and face appeared as extra images (McElroy 2001). Not surprisingly, perhaps, the singer did not accept this explanation.
The impulse that prompts Elvis encounters is the emotional unwillingness of fans to accept his death. This is the same impulse that has helped fuel the Elvis-impersonator industry,2 just as it made possible the impostors of an earlier time who claimed to be the “real” death-surviving cult personalities of John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James, or Billy the Kid (Nickell 1993). However, no credible evidence that Elvis survived has surfaced since his reported death at age forty-two. And as the pathologist who performed the autopsy on him is quoted as saying, “If he wasn’t dead before I did the autopsy, he sure was afterwards!” (“Elvis” 2008).
Although his rocky life shows he was in many ways ill-suited for stardom—let alone mythology or, heaven forbid, deification—Elvis Presley does remain a larger-than-life figure for his influence on pop-culture and, especially, for music that will no doubt last for generations.
Acknowledgments
I wish once again to express my gratitude to Mel Lipman and the American Humanist Association for their coveted Isaac Asimov science award. I also want to thank Vaughn Rees and CFI Libraries director Tim Binga for their tireless help and John and Mary Frantz for financial assistance in my investigations.
Notes
Interviews by Joe Nickell (with Vaughn Rees), March 7, 2004. The information agent wrote her first name, “Roseanne,” on a hotel business card but did not otherwise want to be identified. The “Elvis impersonators” phenomenon actually started years prior to the star’s death (“Elvis” 2008).
ReferencesJupiter is the Solar System's largest planet, with the largest continuously-raging storm ever known.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) was discovered in 1665, raging continuously from at least 1830 until today.
The spot appeared solid and larger in the early 20th century, but appeared smaller and more storm-like when Voyager 1 flew past in 1979.
At its maximum, the GRS was 40,000 kilometers across: more than three Earth diameters long.
It's barely half that extent today; if the shrinking continues, it will be completely circular by 2040.
There are three theories as to why it's red:
an organic compound,
red phosphorous,
or a reddish sulphur compound: ammonium hydrosulfide.
Juno, celebrating its one-year anniversary orbiting Jupiter, is equipped with cloud-penetrating instruments to find out.
The GRS is colder and higher in altitude (by about 8 kilometers) than the rest of Jupiter's atmosphere.
With 600+ km/hr winds, this storm is much faster than any winds ever known on Earth.
Juno observes the Great Red Spot today, just 9,000 kilometers up, with all 8 instruments and its JunoCam imager.
With this new data, many mysteries might finally be solved.
Mostly Mute Monday tells the astronomical story of an astronomical object, phenomenon or mission in images, visuals, video and no more than 200 words.Locked-out members of the Local 651 International Brotherhood of Boilermakers union carry signs outside Westinghouse Electric's manufacturing facility in Newington, New Hampshire, U |
wait for a fix their installation falls furtherbehind and with that it becomes less and less likely that installing a newpackage will function properly.On a similar note, if one wanted to install debuginfo packages it is many timesimpossible without first updating that application and with it many of itsdependencies.All of these scenarios have occurred to either myself or friends or family.These problems of course do not exist in fixed releases like Leap, but thelatter of course does not provide the latest sources. Tumbleweed Snapshotsprovides the best of both worlds, the latest packages when you want them and theone package you need in the middle of working on a project.If you are interested in trying out the snapshots just update to any snapshotpast 20171120 like you would normally and then perform the following.zypper in tumbleweed-clitumbleweed initDuring `init` the original repo files are kept and can be restored by:tumbleweed uninitIf you are curious, run `zypper lr -U` before and after the init to see theURLs change. Originally, this was done via direct manipulation of the repofile, but was refactored to a libzypp config option [3] and later as vars.d/by mlandres. The final implementation simply updates the text file/etc/zypp/vars.d/snapshotVersion after changing OSS and NON-OSS repo URLS toinclude the variable.The latest snapshot will always redirect to the standard mirror network until itis no longer the latest snapshot at which point it will be served directly. Thismeans that when performing rollbacks via snapper or simply waiting a few daysafter updating the URL never needs to change and continues to work as expected.All zypper operations are unaffected except that the target snapshot needs to bechanged in order to update, but that is made easy.tumbleweed switchor to switch, refresh, and duptumbleweed updateFor full list of commands and options `tumbleweed --help` or see documentation[4]. A short video demonstration is also available [5].Lastly, if there are mirror administrators interested in hosting/mirror thesnapshots let me know. Using various tools for interacting with S3 it should beeasy to make a copy of the public bucket. For those interested, take a look atthe variations of the tool that creates the snapshots [6].An aside, due to rsync.opensuse.org being regularly out-of-sync and not yethaving access to stage.opensuse.org I am relying on up-to-date mirrors that havestage access and thus will be triggering the snapshots manually util that isresolved. As such the latest snapshot may not always redirect immediately.The reason for the delay was waiting for official hosting by openSUSE which hasseen no tangible progress after a year. As such I decided to just move forwardrather than needlessly delay this any longer. Depending on the interest itshould clear what sort of costs will be incurred on AWS.I have further plans to provide more information about the snapshots and issuespertaining to them to aid users in knowing when to update so stay tuned.Enjoy![1] https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2016-10/msg00591.html [2] https://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2016-12/msg00025.html [3] https://github.com/openSUSE/libzypp/pull/68 [4] https://github.com/boombatower/tumbleweed-cli [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkDwGiS9Kcc [6] https://github.com/boombatower/tumbleweed-snapshot --Jimmy--To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxTo contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxIn the court filing, Mr. Bharara’s office said it was also writing on behalf of the Legal Aid Society and the law firms Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady and Ropes & Gray, as well as for the city. The parties expect to be able to submit the agreement for approval by the court no later than July 1, the filing said.
Although the agreement was embraced wholeheartedly by Mr. de Blasio; Joseph Ponte, the city’s correction commissioner; and Zachary W. Carter, the city’s corporation counsel, the negotiations dragged out in recent weeks, to the point that Mr. Bharara publicly expressed frustration at their pace. He declared at a news conference this month that “every day that goes by where we don’t have enforceable and enduring reform at Rikers Island is one day too many.”
In one dispute, The Times reported, the city objected to a provision that would require the Department of Correction to notify the United States attorney’s office whenever it referred a potentially criminal use of force episode to the city’s Investigation Department. The filing on Monday indicates that the provision remains in the final deal.
In focusing on the treatment of young inmates, the agreement ends the use of punitive segregation for inmates under 18 as well as for 18-year-olds with serious mental illness, the filing says. Mr. Ponte has already imposed a series of reforms at Rikers, including, for example, ending solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year olds.
The filing says that the lawyers for the individual named plaintiffs in the Nunez class action had reached an agreement in principle with the city to resolve most of their individual damages cases, which are still subject to approval by their clients. The 11 plaintiffs, all men, said they had been beaten by correction officers at Rikers and two other city correction facilities, the lawsuit shows. A 12th plaintiff settled his case in December for $200,000, according to the Law Department.
Despite the current and pending reforms, the city is still struggling to get violence at Rikers under control. As recently as Monday, three inmates were slashed in gang-related attacks, prompting the department to take the unusual step of locking down the city’s entire correction system, including the 10 jails on Rikers Island and three borough jails, two officials with knowledge of the situation said on the condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak to the news media. The lockdown was still in effect on Monday evening.
One of the slashings occurred aboard a bus that was transporting inmates, the officials said. The extent of the inmates’ injuries was not immediately known.Mike Pouncey was emotional during a press conference Monday announcing his five-year contract extension with the Miami Dolphins, choking up multiple times when discussing past mistakes and promising a brighter future.
"I always had faith that I'd be a Miami Dolphin for life," an emotional Pouncey said, per the Miami Herald. "(It's) truly a blessing to be here."
"I look back at my career and could have done so (many) things better.... What I put my family through."
Pouncey was embroiled in the Dolphins' bullying scandal in 2013. He also caused controversy by wearing a "Free Hernandez" hat after former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested on murder charges.
Pouncey acknowledged the Dolphins could have cut ties with him over past incidences and regrets his actions.
"They could have gave up on me long ago.... It's something I'll never forget," he said. "There were days that I was disappointed in myself more than anything."
Pouncey added there is a "there's a right and wrong way to do stuff" and said it takes more than ability to earn the new contract he's signed.
"You're going to see a better leader, on and off the football field."
The Dolphins also confirmed that Pouncey would return to playing center after spending last year at guard.
"I can't wait," he said of moving back to the pivot. "I feel like I'm one of the top centers in the league when I'm playing at the top of my game."
The latest Around The NFL Podcast breaks down the latest moves and debates if Michael Bennett should change his tune on Jimmy Graham. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.Air pollution and climate change policies are pushing coal-fired electricity stations to the brink, says a new report. Closing them would avoid €22bn in losses by 2030
More than half of the European Union’s 619 coal-fired power stations are losing money, according to a new report. As a result, the industry’s slow plans for shutdowns will lead to €22bn in losses by 2030 if the EU fulfils its pledge to tackle climate change, the report warns.
Stricter air pollution rules and higher carbon prices are set to push even more plants into unprofitability, according to the analysts Carbon Tracker, with 97% of the plants losing money by 2030. Furthermore, rapidly falling renewables costs are on track to make building new wind and solar farms cheaper than continuing to run existing coal plants by the mid 2020s.
Utility companies continue to run lossmaking plants in the hope that competitors will close their plants first or that governments will provide subsidies in return for guaranteed power, though the European commission wants to ban such payments. In Spain, the government has banned Iberdrola from closing its last coal plants, claiming it is concerned over energy security despite the country’s overcapacity in electricity.
Coal in Europe is in a “death spiral”, according to Carbon Tracker, with seven nations including the UK already having announced the end of coal power by 2030 or earlier. At the UN climate change summit in November, the launch of a new alliance of 19 nations committed to phasing out coal rapidly was greeted as a political watershed. “The time of coal has passed,” said the UK’s climate minister Claire Perry.
Until recently European utilities were strong performers, beating Europe’s Stoxx 600 index by 60% between 2000 and 2010. But since then, the utilities have plunged 20% in value as the rise of renewable energy and government policies radically reshaped the market.
As the lobbying gets louder, coal power stations may not go quietly Read more
Carbon Tracker analysed the revenues and operating costs of all the EU’s coal plants and found 54% are already loss making today. All coal power must be phased out if the EU is to meet the goals of the global Paris climate change agreement, but the current business plans of the utilities would see just a quarter of plants closed.
The new report estimates that closing all the plants by 2030 will avoid losses of €22bn for the plant’s owners, either shareholders or governments. Germany hosts the largest number of unprofitable coal plants and the losses avoided by early closure there total €12bn, with both RWE and Uniper highly exposed. Plans put forward to close German plants have been delayed by the failure of talks to form a new coalition government.
“The changing economics of renewables, as well as air pollution policy and rising carbon prices, has put EU coal power in a death spiral,” said Matt Gray, co-author of the Carbon Tracker report. “Utilities can’t do much to stop this other than drop coal or lobby governments and hope they will bail them out.”
Gray said coal-fired electricity capacity could be replaced by cheaper renewables, with building new onshore wind and solar PV projects projected to be less expensive than operating existing coal plants by 2024 and 2027 respectively. “That is a striking finding, something that would have been unimaginable five years ago,” he said. “The energy consumer deserves the lower cost options.”
Polluting UK coal plants export power to France as cold weather bites Read more
However, Brian Ricketts, secretary-general at the industry group Euracoal, said coal was needed to keep the lights on in Europe because renewable energy is unreliable and said “price gouging” could be expected from gas operators without competition from coal.
Ricketts said government subsidies for clean energy now dominate the market: “Traditional economics, based on supply, demand and market equilibrium, has all but disappeared. Our preference would be to see decarbonisation take place under the economically efficient EU emissions trading system.”
Supporters of renewables reject the charge that renewables are unreliable, pointing out the lack of blackouts despite the fast rising proportions of green energy on grids and plunging coal use, and also the dropping cost of battery storage. The UK, where coal use will end by 2025, has gone from 40% of coal-fired electricity to 2% since 2012. The EU’s emission trading scheme has been criticised for providing far too many carbon permits, meaning the carbon price is low.
The expected coal use across the globe in coming decades, particularly in Asia, has fallen sharply recently. In 2013, the International Energy Agency expected world-wide coal-burning to grow by 40% by 2040 – it now anticipates just 1% growth.Thanks to everyone who submitted rule ideas! Now it's time to vote. You get to select 5 rules in total, so pick your five top favorites. The most popular rules will make it into the first set of rules.
IS IT OCTOBER YET?
Here are the rules up for voting. Pick your 3 favorites from the three drop downs:
- A former LA King scores against us (Stoll, Richards, etc)
- An LA Kings rookie scores
- Anytime Teddy Purcell's tenure as a LA King from 2007-2010 is referenced
- Bailey can be seen pounding on the glass
- Bark Madness is mentioned during the intermissions
- Bob Miller makes an innuendo, intentional or otherwise: Finish your drink
- Broadcast mentions losing Lucic in the offseason
- Chris Sutter Dances, Dance with him while drinking
- Doughty does something technically irresponsible
- Doughty heard chirping on the ice
- During a goal review, drink every time Fox repeats himself
- Jeff Carter scores a goal against Columbus and Blue Jackets fans complain about him
- Jim Fox prefaces a statement with "and just like that..."
- Jim Fox sats "WHOA!"
- Jim Fox says "OH OH" right before a great goal/save
- Jordan Nolan Scores
- Kings finally scores a goal during the Mcflurry minute
- Kopitar decides to shoot the puck instead of dishing it to a teammate
- Kyle Clifford wins a fight
- Muzzin - offensive zone turnover that results in a goal
- Nolan scores. Drink. Everything.
- Nolan starts a fight and actually wins
- Patrick O'Neal talks about how great Gustl is
- Quick does something illegal but doesn't get called for it
- Quick gets frustrated and starts hitting the ice with his stick
- Someone mentions the Kings' poor post season performance
- Someone says "Former Captain" Dustin Brown
- Take a shot anytime Dwight King closes his mouth.
- The game ends without a single McNabb penalty
- The Kings go on the PP but make 1 shot or lessA county official in Texas has decided to add the phrase “In God We Trust” on the back of tax office envelopes.
Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright told CBS 11 News that he had been considering adding the national motto to the envelopes for over a year.
“I think it was more seeing the elimination of the phrase and how things that have been iconic to us and have been important to us historically because of lawsuits and things like that,” Wright explained. “People are almost afraid to mention God anywhere officially.”
The phrase “In God We Trust” was first placed on U.S. coins by Congress in 1864, and became the national motto in 1956.
Wright said he also plans to print the motto on official tax statements next year. He described the phrase as both patriotic and religious.
The county official claimed he had received few complaints about his new policy. It cost only three dollars to buy a new printing plate.
One resident has described the motto as a violation of the separation of church and state.
“Those are my tax dollars, and I don’t want them funding a religious opinion,” Leslie Weid Fraser wrote to the Star-Telegram.
“The doctrine of separation is there to keep government from promoting or advancing any religion over another. Religion is personal and should not be included on any envelope used by a government office.”
Watch video, courtesy of CBS 11 News, below.A British team of pediatric specialists is being deployed to Afghanistan to attend to a female gunner who unexpectedly gave birth in an Afghan outpost that was the scene of a bitter battle just days ago.
The soldier reportedly didn't realize she was pregnant until she developed stomach pains two days ago. The baby was born five weeks premature.
She gave birth in Camp Bastion, a sprawling base in Helmand Province where Britain's Prince Harry is assigned as an Apache helicopter pilot.
The camp was the target of a sophisticated attack last week when three teams of insurgents dressed in U.S. Army uniforms breached the defensive perimeter and destroyed several attack jets and killed two Americans.
The camp is getting a different kind of reinforcements this week as a pediatric team from Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital is en route to Afghanistan to tend to the soldier and her premature baby.
The soldier, who has not been publicly identified, was deployed to Afghanistan in March. She is believed to be the first soldier to give birth on the frontline.
A Ministry of Defense spokesperson told ABC News that the mother was a gunner in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Both she and her baby boy are healthy and in good condition.
Pregnant servicewomen are not allowed to be deployed on operations, the Ministry of Defense told ABC News.
"Usually once we find out about a woman being pregnant, we send her back to the UK on maternity leave, but this time, the baby came too fast," the spokesman said.
Even the mother was taken by surprise, officials said, unaware that she was pregnant.
"Medically, it is possible for a woman not to notice a pregnancy, but it's very, very unusual," Dr. Jack Singer, from Harley Street Pediatric Group in London, told ABC News.
"It's with great difficulty that a pregnancy goes unnoticed," joked Singer. "I mean, most women would find amenorrhea (the lack of menstrual bleeding and growth of breasts) unusual, or notice a bump at least in the third trimester."
"All it would take is a simple urine to blood test, before the women are deployed," said Singer. "If you're wearing all that gear and carrying equipment, it's not as obvious as if you're used to wearing black cocktail dresses. These women are under huge stresses and strains, so they can ignore what's going on with their body," he added.
Around 70 women have been sent back from Afghanistan in the last decade after discovering they were pregnant, and twice that number from Iraq in the same period. The Ministry of Defense commented that these figures account for fewer than one percent of British servicewomen ever deployed on operations.
Major Charles Heyman, an author of books about the British Army and a former soldier, said: "The Army needs to make sure for the welfare of the female soldier concerned that they are not pregnant before they deploy."
Servicewomen are usually on leave for at least six months after the birth of their child, but according to according to UK law maternity leave can last up to a year.Ukraine has officially reported yet another record grain harvest for 2016, exceeding 66m tonnes in the process.
Of this, wheat accounted for 26.8m tonnes, maize came in at 28m tonnes and the barley harvest amounted to 9.9m tonnes. Aside, 4.3m tonnes of soy bean were also harvested.
Agriculture-related products are now the largest exports from Ukraine, accounting for €14.6 billion, or 42.5% of total Ukrainian exports in 2016 (by value).
The impact of Ukraine’s agricultural export-led growth can already be seen in Ireland.
Ukraine has been the leading overseas supplier of maize into Ireland over the past three years, exporting 284,908t to Ireland last year.
This figure was 298,016t in 2015 and 235,509t in 2014. In contrast, just 26,000t of Ireland’s maize imports originated from Ukraine in 2011.
The opportunity for further bilateral trade opportunities with Ukraine needs to be further explored.
For example, as a key global fertiliser exporter, Ireland could easily turn to Ukraine for supply of this key input.
At the same time, Ukraine has a deficit in quality bovine stock and genetics. It also imports a lot of its farm machinery needs.
These are areas that Ireland could capitalise on – from an export point of view.
Sugar beet industry
Ukraine has the capability to double its agricultural output; there’s enough capacity to feed 500m people. It has the capability to easily capitalise on post-Brexit agri-food trade opportunities.
Similarly, those with notions of resurrecting Ireland’s sugar beet industry should cast a wary eye on the Eastern European country.
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The 2016 sugar beet harvest in the Ukraine amounted to 13.7m tonnes, with an average yield less than 50t/ha. Ukraine also exported 465,900t of sugar in 2016 – a new record.
Keep in mind, Ukraine planted 2.75 times more land area under sugar beet in 2006. Also, Ukrainian sugar beet yields are just two-thirds of EU average yields.
It could easily up the ante in the market, with further growth.
Ukrainian agriculture
Ukraine has 41m hectares of farmland; that’s ten times Ireland’s 4.1m hectares. Over half of this land is farmed by 48,000 commercial farmers.
Out of these 48,000 commercial farmers:
The top-100 farming companies, known as ‘Agri-Holdings’, collectively farm 6.4m hectares (15.8m acres). These holdings range in size from 14,000ha (34,600ac), to the largest farming corporation in the country with 654,000ha (1.6m acres).
(1.6m acres). Below this there are 5,400 farms managing, on average, farms sizes of 1,950ha (4,815ac).
Rounding off the commercial farming sector are 42,700 farmers farming, on average, 108ha each (267ac).
Long known as the ‘bread-basket of Europe’, Ukraine boasts 33% of the world’s fertile chernozem soils (a fertile black soil – rich in humus).
Top producer of sunflower seeds and sunflower oil.
Second highest exporter of grains.
Third highest producer of barley.
Fourth highest exporter of barley.
Fifth highest producer of corn.
Sixth highest exporter of wheat.
Seventh highest exporter of flour.
Eighth highest producer of soy bean.
Ninth highest producer of wheat. The country claims the following distinctions in the global agricultural league table:
Looking forward to 2017 Bohdan Chomiak, of consulting agency Ukragroconsult, is confident of another good year for Ukraine’s agriculture sector.
“We expect continued growth in output, as deregulation and reforms have made it simpler for Ukrainian producers to access international best technologies.
“As producers learn to effectively use these technologies this will lead to further growth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukragroconsult is also running its annual grain conference at the beginning of next month. One of the largest grain conferences in Europe, the event is expected to bring together over 700 executive delegates from 500 companies – representing 50 countries.By Vic Bishop
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“I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” ~Chamath Palihapitiya
In a recent talk with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, former vice-president of user growth for Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, made some rather startling comments about the impact Facebook and social media are having on human culture.
He acknowledged feeling ‘tremendous guilt’ about his involvement with Facebook, citing the fact that the technology is so widely used that it is actually affecting how human beings interact with one another, upending our entire cultural history of communication.
When asked what ‘soul-searching’ he is doing right now, Palihapitiya responded:
I feel tremendous guilt… I think in the back deep, deep recesses of our minds, we kind of knew something bad could happen… It literally is a point now where I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is truly where we are. It is a point in time where people need to hard break from some of these tools, and the things that you rely on. The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works… No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem… this is a global problem. It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other. ~Chamath Palihapitiya
Watch more of this interview in the following video: These comments come just a short while after comments made by one of the original Facebook founders, Sean Parker, whose remarks are quite unsettling, pointing at the insidious nature of these tools to exploit weaknesses in human psychology. When Facebook was getting going, I had these people who would come up to me and they would say, ‘I’m not on social media.’ And I would say, ‘OK. You know, you will be.’ And then they would say, ‘No, no, no. I value my real-life interactions. I value the moment. I value presence. I value intimacy.’ And I would say, … ‘We’ll get you eventually.’” I don’t know if I really understood the consequences of what I was saying, because [of] the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people and … it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other … It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains. The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’ And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments. It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway. ~Sean Parker Final Thoughts The human race is stepping into the perfect storm for disaster in our relationship with technology as advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and big data are converging to present us with unbelievable challenges. Palihapitiya and Parker of Facebook are speaking to the legitimate concerns about these tools on the human psyche and how they affect our psychology. Combine this with robot sex toys, killer-robots, and mind-boggling AI, and we really have to wonder what is coming.
Read more articles by Vic Bishop.
Vic Bishop is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and OffgridOutpost.com Survival Tips blog. He is an observer of people, animals, nature, and he loves to ponder the connection and relationship between them all. A believer in always striving to becoming self-sufficient and free from the matrix, please track him down on Facebook.
This article (Another Facebook Executive Issues Warning About its Disastrous Effect on Psychology and Society) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Vic Bishop and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. Please contact [email protected] for more info.A sugar-loving protein drives the growth of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) tumors, according to a study published on October 1st in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Interfering with these sugary interactions inhibited growth of Kaposi sarcomas in mice, hinting at the potential for new treatment strategies in humans.
KS is a cancer that is associated with infection with a herpes virus called HHV-8 and is prevalent in HIV patients. Effective antiretroviral drugs have decreased the incidence of KS, but the cancer eventually progresses in many patients and treatment options are limited.
A carbohydrate-binding protein called galectin-1 is released by a variety of tumors and promotes their growth and metastasis. A group of researchers at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina now finds that blocking galectin-1 in mice bearing established Kaposi sarcomas slowed tumor growth in part by suppressing the formation of blood vessels that feed the tumor.
If the same holds true in humans, drugs targeting galectin-1 could provide new treatment options for patients with KS. These drugs might also hold promise for other diseases characterized by aberrant blood vessel growth, including macular degeneration and cardiovascular diseases.
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About The Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM)
JEM is published by The Rockefeller University Press. All editorial decisions on manuscripts submitted are made by active scientists in conjunction with our in-house scientific editors. JEM content is posted to PubMed Central, where it is available to the public for free six months after publication. Authors retain copyright of their published works and third parties may reuse the content for non-commercial purposes under a creative commons license. For more information, please visit www.jem.org.
Croci, D.O., et al. 2012. J. Exp. Med. doi:10.1084/jem.20111665
Contact information:
Gabriel Rabinovich
University of Buenos Aires
Email: gabriel.r@ibyme.conicet.gov.arApril 17, 2015
Earth Day Pollution Prevention Contest To Be Held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Twelve student teams from eight colleges and universities across New York state will present their solution to an environmental problem within their community at the fourth annual New York State Pollution Prevention Institute Research and Development Student Competition on April 22 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The competition, to be held in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS), begins at 9 a.m. with a welcome that includes remarks from Joseph Martens, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. An exhibition, to be held from 9:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., will feature the competing teams, as well as posters from more than 100 K-12 students, on display in the first and second-floor atrium of the CBIS.
A panel of judges, including Rensselaer graduates Gavin McIntyre, co-founder and chief scientist of Ecovative Design, and Anasha Cummings, initiator at Transition Troy, will announce winners by 1 p.m. The competition is sponsored by the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) at Rochester Institute of Technology.
As part of its Research and Development Program, NYSP2I challenged teams of full-time students enrolled at any institute of higher education in New York state to identify a specific activity at their university or in their community with a large environmental footprint. Teams were then required to propose innovative solutions to reduce its impact. Schools are competing under the theme “Greenovate NYS” by undergraduate or graduate level.
Competing teams were announced in January, with each team receiving up to $1,000 for materials to develop their idea. The teams come from Rochester Institute of Technology, Rensselaer, the State University of New York College at Brockport, Clarkson University, Siena College, Syracuse University, St. Lawrence University, and the University at Buffalo. To learn more about the proposal that will be on exhibit, visit the January news release which announced the competitors.
Each first-place team will receive $1,500 to share among team members; the second-place school will receive $750; and third place $250, as well as a trophy commemorating the award. Prizes are made possible through donations by sponsors, including Baldwin Richardson Foods, New Pig Corporation, Golisano Institute for Sustainability (RIT), Markin Tubing, NOCO Energy Corporation, Counterparts Chemistry Consulting, International Paper, Risch, Rochester Midland Corporation and Full Circle Feed. Additional funding for the competition was provided by the New York state DEC. Wegmans provided prizes for the K-12 student poster competition.
The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute is a partnership between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Rochester Institute of Technology and its Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University at Buffalo, and Clarkson University, with a statewide reach. NYSP2I’s goal is to make the state more sustainable for workers, the public, the environment, and the economy through pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and reusing materials rather than putting them into the waste stream.0
J.J. Abrams loves unexpected twists in his creative projects, buts now he’s shared one from his own life. Though there has been talk of a sequel to Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit? basically since it debuted in 1988, nothing has yet come of it. Though at the time, it would appear that Abrams wanted to throw his hat into the ring to continue the story.
In a Nerdist podcast alongside director Dan Trachtenberg to promote 10 Cloverfield Lane, Abrams was asked about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and whether he considers Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy a mentor. That triggered a great story from him about the first time he got a call from Kennedy to restore some 8mm film for Steven Spielberg, who he wanted to pitch a Roger Rabbit sequel to. Abrams said (h/t to /Film for the transcription):
“I’ve told this story before, but when I was 16 Kathleen Kennedy called Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and I, to ask if we would repair these 8mm films Steven had made when he was a kid. It happened because we were in a film festival and she had read about us in the LA Times. So, of course, we said yes and did the repairs. Years later I got to meet Steven. I went into a meeting…actually, it was for a Roger Rabbit sequel. It was a whole thing. I actually have some storyboards for a Roger Rabbit short. Honestly, we never really got to that phase [where it got serious]. We were writing an outline, but it honestly went away before it was anything. This was a long time ago. Zemeckis probably would’ve been a producer on it. This was 1989.”
Though Abrams says he doesn’t remember the specifics of the outline, it is cool to consider that 30 years later, he was getting a call from Kennedy to direct a new Star Wars movie.
In more contemporary news, IGN reports that Abrams has confirmed that movies based on the games Portal and Half-Life are still in the works, saying,
“They’re in development, and we’ve got writers, and we’re working on both those stories. But nothing that would be an exciting update.”
We’ll keep you updated on any news as we have it, and in the meantime, what do you think Abrams’ Roger Rabbit sequel was probably about?A man walks past a burnt-out vehicle after a shelling by pro-Russian rebels of a residential sector in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, January 24, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
By Gabriela Baczynska
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia blamed Kiev on Monday for a surge in fighting in Ukraine and warned the West that any attempt to increase economic pressure on Moscow would be "absolutely destructive" blackmail.
Pro-Moscow separatists, backed by what NATO says are Russian troops, have launched an offensive in southeastern Ukraine and President Barack Obama said Washington was considering all options short of military action to isolate Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied any Russian involvement in the fighting and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of whipping up anti-Russian hysteria to justify extending economic sanctions against Moscow.
"Instead of increasing pressure on those who refuse to engage in dialogue to resolve the conflict peacefully, we see renewed talks about blackmailing Russia economically," RIA news agency quoted Peskov as saying.
"Russia has never agreed with such threats and such threats and blackmail have never led to anything and never will... renewed threats of increased economic pressure on Russia are an absolutely destructive, unjustified and ultimately short-sighted approach."
Lavrov said the separatists in Ukraine were responding to attacks by government forces and the only way forward was through direct dialogue.
"We see attempts to derail the peace process and attempts again and again by the Kiev leadership to solve the problem by using force to suppress the southeast. These attempts lead nowhere," Lavrov told a news conference.
The European Union has called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of its 28 member states for Thursday.
"We expect our Western partners... not to do anything that gives the Kiev authorities the impression that all their actions automatically will win support in the West," Lavrov said.
He accused the West of "chronic" finger-pointing at Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, in which more than 5,000 people have been killed in more than nine months of fighting.
Lavrov said it would have been naive to believe the separatists would accept being shelled by government forces without responding.
He said the rebels had started actions to "eliminate the positions from which the Ukrainian armed forces had shelled populated areas with heavy weapons".
(Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly and Polina Devitt, Writing by Timothy Heritage, editing by Elizabeth Piper)By Roger J. Katz, Attorney at Law and Stephen L. D'Andrilli
This is part two (2) or our four (4) part series to determine if Hillary Clinton is can be charged with the crime of Treason.
New York, NY -(Ammoland.com)- “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, ‘None seeth me.’ Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, ‘I am, and none else beside me.’ Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” ~ ISAIAH 47:9—11, King James Version
Whom May Federal Prosecutors Charge With Treason?
Federal prosecutors may charge with treason those American citizens who betray their Country. A citizen owes loyalty to his Country. That is self-evident. Treason is treachery to one’s Country.
But, may prosecutors charge non-citizens with treason? Non-citizens don’t owe their loyalty to our Country |
Many Moore took over the 90s showing off her many talents – acting, singing, and songwriting. Moore released her debut single “Candy,” in 1999. That same year she toured with boy bands Backstreet Boys and N*SYNC. She has now released a total of 6 albums and appeared in multiple hit movies such as “A Walk To Remember,” “Because I Said So,” “License To Wed” and “Tangled.” She currently stars in the NBC drama “This Is Us.”Tia Carrere made her acting debut on the soap opera “General Hospital.” She had appearances in TV shows such as “The A-Team” and “MacGyver.” However, her breakthrough role was as Mike Myer’s love interest in the “Wayne’s World” movies. In 1992, People magazine named her one of their most beautiful people. She also had roles in films “True Lies” and “Jury Duty.” She continued to act and landed many, many roles. She also dabbled in singing and even won a Grammy award in 2011 for Best Hawaiian Music Album.Marisa Tomei began to make a name for her self in the industry, after she played the reoccurring role of Maggie Lauten on Bill Cosby’s “A Different World.” However, Marisa became an international star when she played the feisty auto mechanic from New York, Mona Lisa Vito, in “My Cousin Vinny,” in 1992. This performance won her an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She recently had roles in the box-office hits “The Big Short” and “Captain America: Civil War.” She will reprise her role as Aunt May for “Spiderman: Homecoming.”Sarah Jessica Parker started out the 90s, with a recurring role on TV show “Equal Justice.” In 1993, she landed the role of Sarah, alongside Better Midler, in “Hocus Pocus.” However, Carrie Bradshaw was the relationship guru and fashion icon in the late 90s, thanks to actress Sarah Jessica Parker. “Sex and the City” quickly gained a cult following after its premiere in 1998. The series was followed up with 2 feature films.Amy Jo Johnson made it OK for boys and girls everywhere to love the color pink. Johnson made her TV debut, in 1993, as Kimberly Hart, aka The Pink Ranger, on the series “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” She played Kimberly until 1999. She continued her acting career into the 2000s with leading roles in “The Division” and “Flashpoint.” She also released her first music album in 2001, and has released 2 more since. Set to be released in 2017, she is writing and directing a indie comedy film titled “The Space Between.”Calista Flockhart was best known for her portrayal as the title role in the TV series, “Ally McBeal.” The somewhat neurotic lawyer, Ally, was a career driven women on the road to find love. Her inner voices and frequent fantasies played into women’s sub-conscious insecurities everywhere. Calista landed many reoccurring roles on shows such as “Brothers & Sisters,” “Full Circle,” and “Supergirl.” She also married actor Harrison Ford in 2010, who adopted her son, Liam Flockhart.Alyssa Milano made herself widely known in the acting industry after playing Samantha Micelli on “Who’s The Boss?” from 1984-1992. She landed multiple gigs throughout the 90s, and ended strong with recurring roles on the hit TV series “Melrose Place” and “Charmed.” She has appeared in movies such as “Hall Pass” and “New Years Eve.” However, most of her success still comes from TV. She recently had recurring roles on “Romantically Challenged” and “Mistresses.”Gwen Stefani become a pop-rock idol, in the 90s, leading the band “No Doubt.” The band has released a total of 6 albums. In 2004, Stefani began her solo career with “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” Her solo career has been a huge success, releasing hit tracks like “Hollaback Girl,” “If I Was A Rich Girl,” and “Used To Love You.” In 2014, she became a judge of the reality TV show “The Voice,” where she met her current boyfriend, Blake Shelton. She also has her own perfume and clothing line.Bug Hall stole the hearts of many, after portraying the romantic “Little Rascal(s)” Alfala, in 1994. He continued the 90s landing roles in various movies and a recurring role on “Kelly Kelly.” Hall continues to act, unfortunately, he is still regularly associated with his childhood role. He last appeared on film in 2015’s “Body High.” However, he is credited with starring in 2 films that have yet to be released.During the 90s, Brandy was known as a famous singer and an actress. Her self-titled album quickly went platinum in the US in 1994. The singer was soon casted to play the lead role in UPN’s TV series “Moesha.” While on “Moesha,” she landed the role of Karla Wilson, in the hit franchise movie “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.” From 2012-2015, she played the reoccurring role of Chardonnay in TV series “The Game.” In January 2016, Brandy debuted as Zoe Moon in the BET TV series “Zoe Ever After.”In the 90’s hit movie “The Sandlot,” Benny became a legend after he took on the beast behind the outfield fence of a local sandlot. Benny became one of the most iconic movie characters, of the 90’s, thanks in most part to Mike Vitar. Unfortunately, by the late 90s, Vitar had seemed to disappear from the Hollywood spotlight. In 2002, Vitar joined the Los Angeles Fire Department. He recently made headlines, in 2015, after a fight between firemen broke out and Vitar was arrested.Elizabeth was known for being the girlfriend of veteran actor, Hugh Grant. Already building fame from modeling and acting, she soared into public popularity after she wore the plunging black Versace dress (pictured below) to Hugh Grant’s film premiere “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” In the late 90s, Hurley also landed big roles in feature films like “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” and “Bedazzled.” Hurley now is busy playing the role of the sassy and back-stabbing Queen Helena, in the television show, “The Royals.” She also still counts Hugh Grant as one of her best friends.Jenna Von Oy became a household name after she was casted as Six Lemure in the TV series “Blossom.” After the show ended in 1995, she began studying at the University of Southern California to study film. However, she dropped out after 2 years to return to acting. She had appearances on shows such as “Chicago Hope,” “7th Heaven,” and “Martin.” Unfortunately, her career never really took off so she tried singing. She released her debut album “Breathing Room,” in 2007. She is also a published author writing about funny situations she did and one may encounter during motherhood.Kel Mitchell ruled the teen comedy scene, in the 90s. He starred on shows like “All That” and “Kenan and Kel.” Any child who owned a TV could tell you his famous line “Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda!” He also landed a role along side Ben Stiller in the movie “Mystery Men.” After his “Kenan and Kel” days, Kel went on to do some voice acting on shows like “Clifford the Big Red Dog” and “Wild Grinders.” Beginning in 2015, he returned to his roots, and landed a role on a Nickelodeon series, which he still performs on today.Winona Ryder took over the big screen in the 1990s. She began the decade appearing in “Mermaids,” which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She then played along side Johnny Depp, in “Edward Scissorhands,” and soon after with Keanu Reeves in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” In 2001, Winona was arrested for shop lifting and took a hiatus from acting. However, by 2006 she was quickly landing roles once again. These days, Winona is starring as the mother figure in the Netflix hit, “Stranger Things.”In 1995, Minnie Driver landed the lead role in “Circle of Friends.” This newfound popularity helped her land movie roles in “GoldenEye,” “Grosse Point Blank” and “Good Will Hunting,” opposite Matt Damon. In 2015, she had a reoccurring role on TV series “About a Boy.” She currently is the lead role on the TV series “Speechless.” She will also star in the upcoming crime thriller, “The Crash,” with John Leguizamo and Maggie Q, which is set to be released in January 2017.Andrew Keegan first entered the Hollywood spotlight after landing a role in the cul classic “Camp Nowhere,” in 1994. He then landed roles in the movie “Independence Day,” and as Stephanie Tanner’s love interest on “Full House.” He quickly gained heartthrob status and landed recurring roles on “7th Heaven” and “Party of Five.” Unfortunately, Keegan hasn’t done much acting since the 1990s. However, he have found himself leading in other ways. In 2014, he joined a religion called “Full Circle” and now serves as a spiritual leader.Courtney was known for her punk and grunge-style music, with her band, Hole. However, many know her from her highly publicized life after marriage to Kurt Cobain, from 1992 until his death in 1994. In 2012, Courtney expanded her artistic talents and had a autobiographical art show in New York City. In Spring 2015, she toured with the currently popular singer, Lana Del Ray, as an opening act. Courtney has lande roles in various film and TV shows, including hit shows like “Empire” and “Sons of Anarchy.”Gellar’s television breakthrough came in 1993, when she played Kendall Hart on “All My Children.” However, her widespread fame came from her portrayal as Buffy, in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Buffy broke the norm of the helpless horror movie female victim and became a strong inspiration to girls everywhere. In 2015, Gellar co-founded Foodstirs, a foodcrafting startup that sells baking kits for kids. She is also set to release a cookbook in 2017.Gaby Hoffman became a Hollywood sensation after she played young Samantha, in the coming-of-age movie “Now & Then.” Her performance helped her finish the 90s strong, landing role in multiple films such as “Volcano,” “Everyone Says I Love You,” and “200 Cigarettes.” She recently reestablished her acting fame after having recurring roles on the HBO series “Girls,” and Amazon series “Transparent.” In 2017, she is set to appear in another HBO series “High Maintenance.”Luke Perry began establishing his on-screen career after he landed the role of Kenny in “Another World,” in the late 80s. The role launched his career and made him a teen idol. He landed roles in features films like “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Normal Life,” and “American Strays.” For most of he 90s, he played Dylan McKay on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Since the 90s, he has continued to land roles in various TV shows and movies. However, his popularity was never as high was it was in the 90s. He currently filming the TV series “Riverdale.”Linda Fiorentino had made a name for herself, in Hollywood, by the late 1980s. She solidified her fame after playing Bridget Gregory in 1994’s “The Last Seduction.” She went on to land roles in hit movies such as “Larger Than Life,” “Men In Black,” and “Dogma.” Sadly, she has not landed many roles since the 90s. This may be due to Kevin Smith, director of “Dogma.” He admitted she was one of the hardest actors he ever had to work with. Her last credited role was in 2009.Starting her career in television in 1990, Richards made appearances in shows like “Saved by the Bell,” “Seinfeld” and “Melrose Place.” Her first film breakthrough role was in “Starship Troopers,” in 1997. She continued to land numerous movie roles including Rebecca Ann Leeman in “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” and a bond girl in “The World is Not Enough.” Still as beautiful as ever, she had reoccurring roles on TV series “Blue Mountain State,” “Twisted” and “Vanity.” In 2011, she released her memoir “The Real Girl Next Door.”Everyone’s favorite smarty pants (and nerd), from the 90s, was Steve Urkel, who was played by Jaleel White. White was casted on “Family Matters” when he was only 12-years-old. The character was only supposed to appear on the show in one episode. However, audiences were captivated with Steve Urkel and he became a regular. White became so synonymous with Urkel it was hard for him to land other acting gigs. He hosted SyFy’s series “Total Blackout” from 2012-2013. He continues to land small roles on TV shows and movies, as well.Yasmine became a household name when she landed the role as Caroline Holden on the hit series “Baywatch.” Her fame from “Baywatch” led to roles in “Nash Bridges” and the short-lived series “Titans.” She also appeared in several TV movies in the late 90s, such as “A Face to Die For,” “Talk to Me,” and “Crowned and Dangerous.” The now 48-year-old looks slightly different, pictured here alongside her husband, Paul Cerrito. Although now sober, Bleeth has not had any acting success since the early 2000s, due to a cocaine addiction.Mel B aka Scary Spice became an international superstar, with the girl band Spice Girls. The Spice Girls released 3 platinum albums and a feature film, “Spiceworld: The Movie,” which grossed $100 million. Since 2013, Mel B has been a judge on “America’s Got Talent.” She also has not strayed from her roots as she, Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) and Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice), reunited for the 20th anniversary of the Spice Girls debut album and are working on new music.Child Star John Taylor Thomas stole the show as the son of Tim Allen on Home Improvement. He played Randy Taylor on the show for 7 years. During that time, he made his film debut voicing Simba in “The Lion King.” Thomas eventually enrolled in Harvard University where he studied philsophy and history. He attended graduate school at Columbia University. He has pretty much stayed out of the limelight except for small appearances on shows like “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter” and “Last Man Standing.”Speaking of “Home Improvement,” we couldn’t forget about the beautiful Tool Time Girl, Heidi Keppert, played by Debbe Dunning. She played Heidi from 1992-1999. Unfortunately, her career never took off and she had only one more prominent role in her acting career. From 2006-2007, she had a recurring role on “Wicked, Wicked Games.” She is married to volleyball player Steve Timmons and they have 3 children.Christina Applegate shot into fame for playing Kelly Bundy on “Married With Children,” for a decade (1987-1997). Simultaneously while working on “Married With Children,” she had roles in movies such as “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead” and “Mars Attacks!.” Her fame and beauty never stopped growing. She had roles in blockbuster movies such as “Anchorman,” “Vacation,” and “Hall Pass.” You can expect to see her in the 2017 movie “Crash Pad,” alongside Nina Dobrev.After beginning his career on Broadway, Daniel Stern had quite a successful acting career in the 70s and 80s. However, in the mid-90s, Stern became a huge success, after landing the role of Marv, in the “Home Alone” franchise. He continued to act, recently had recurring roles on the TV series “Manhattan” and “Getting On.” However, he took his talents outside of acting. He is involved in many community service projects, USO tours, and owns a cattle ranch. In 2009, President Obama honored Stern with the Call to Service Award.Melissa Joan Hart took over the TV screen, in the 90’s. She had leading roles in “Clarissa Explains it All,” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” She played the role of Sabrina Spellman on 6 different TV series: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996), Clueless (1996), Boy Meets World (1993), You Wish (1997), Teen Angel (1997) and Robot Chicken (2005). She jumped back into TV as a leading lady in 2010, on “Melissa & Joey.” The show ran until 2015. Her most recent credited roles, in 2016, were in the film “Gods Not Dead 2,” and the TV movie “Broadcasting Christmas.”In 1993, Tyra made the jump from modeling to acting by appearing in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” In 1996, supermodel Tyra Banks was the first African-American woman ever to appear on the cover of GQ and on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. From 2003-2015, Tyra Banks saw much success hosting and serving as the executive producer from “America’s Next Top Model.” Also in 2016, she had a short stint on the daytime talk show “FABLife.” She chose to leave the show after 3 months to concentrate on her cosmetic line.Everyone fell in love with Anna Chlumsky in the early 90s, when she played Vada Sultenfuss in “My Girl,” and “My Girl 2.” In 1994, she appeared along side Sissy Spacek in “Trading Mom,” and in 1995, she starred with Christina Ricci in “Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain.” Between 1999-2005, Anna took a break from acting to go to college. She majored in international Studies at the University of Chicago and graduated in 2002. Most recently, she has played the reoccurring role of Amy Brookheimer in the HBO series “Veep.”Christina Ricci was a teenage star on the silver screen, in the 90s. Just to name a few roles, she played Wednesday Addams for both Adams Family Movies, Kat in “Casper,” and Roberta in “Now & Then.” By the time the 90s had ended, she proved her strong acting abilities. Beginning in 2015, she began playing Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in “Z: The Beginning of Everything,” an Amazon series. A role which she continues to play today.Heather Donahue rose to fame after appearing in the cult-horror film “The Blair Witch Project.” At one point, Heather’s IMDB page marked her as “Missing, presumed dead,” as per the movie marketing team. Even though “The Blair Witch Project,” is considered a one of the most influential horror films ever made, Heather’s acting career never really took off. In 2012, she released the book “Growgirl: How My Life After The Blair Witch Project Went to Pot.” In the book, she discusses how she lived amongst a community that grew medical marijuana.Alicia performed in multiple Aerosmith music videos, before rising to fame in the hit comedy movie “Clueless.” In 1997, she landed the role of Batgirl in the big-budget film “Batman & Robin,” and a role alongside Brendan Fraser in the 1999 film “Blast From the Past.” Alicia has been flip-flopping from the big screen to Broadway. In 2016, she starred in “King Cobra” and “Who Gets the Dog?.”In 1990, George Michael released the album “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1.” The first single from the album, “Praying For Time,” sky rocketed to number 1. He continued to releases albums throughout the 90s, including “Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael.” In 2016, Michael had announced he was making his second documentary titled “Freedom.” Unfortunately, in 2016, at the age of 53, Michael passed away. His musical talents will remain legendary and influential in the business for many years to come.Lawless began the 90s landing roles in various short films, TV shows and TV movies. However, her character, Xena Warrior Princess was the iconic strong female character of the 90s. Lucy has had a continuous career since Xena ended, with work on “Spartacus,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Agents of Shield.” From 2014-2015, she had a reccuring role on the TV series “Salem,” as Countess Marburg. Her most recent role was on the Starz’s series “Ash vs. Evil Dead” as Ruby Knowby.Tiffani became the crush of every boy, and envy of every girl, when she debuted as Kelly Kapowski on “Saved by the Bell.” After “Saved By the Bell” wrapped she was casted as bad girl, Valarie Malone, in “Beverly Hills, 90210.” From 2009-2013, Tiffani stared as Elizabeth Burke in the USA series “White Collar.” Tiffani now hosts and executive produces her own cooking show on the Cooking Channel, “Dinner at Tiffani’s.”Elisabeth Shue rose to fame after making her film debut opposite Ralph Macchio in “The Karate Kid.” She landed her first starring role in 1987, in “Adventures of Babysitting.” She began the 90s, reprising her role of Jennifer for the third movie in the “Back to the Future,” franchise. She steadily kept acting in the 90s, and was even nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 film “Leaving Las Vegas.”Erika Eleniak became a Hollywood bombshell once she began playing the role of Shauni McClain on the hit TV series “Baywatch.” She played Shauni from 1989-1992. Also, in the early 90s, she had big roles in “Under Siege” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.” She has continued to land roles in movies, however, she is still heavily remembered for her time lifeguarding in the red one-piece. She is currently credited with a the title role of a movie about Marilyn Monroe that is in pre-production.Keri Russell began her career, like many other 90s actors, on the Mickey Mouse Club. She stayed in the club until 1993. However, her role in 1992’s “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” skyrocketed her career. By the late 90s, she was starring in the title role on the TV series “Felicity.” In 2013, Russell began playing Elizabeth Jennings on the FX series “The Americans.” This is where she met her current co-star and boyfriend, Matthew Rhys.Tina Majorino became a child star after befriending a seal, in the the 1994 film, “Andre.” She finished the 90s portraying Alice, in the TV movie “Alice in Wonderland.” She went dark from 1999-2003. However, in 2004, she played the quirky character of Deb in the hit movie “Napoleon Dynamite.” Her role of Deb helped reestablish her acting career. She had recurring roles on multiple popular TV series such as “Veronica Mars,” “The Deep End,” “Big Love,” “True Blood,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Her most recent roles were in 2014, in TV series “Legends” and the “Veronica Mars” movie.Michelle Williams made her film debut in 1994, in the hit film “Lassie.” Throughout the 90s she continued to land roles in movies such as “A Thousand Acres,” “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,” “Dick, (still featured below)” and “But I’m A Cheerleader.” She finished the 90s strong landing the role of Jen Lindley in the TV series “Dawson’s Creek.” She continues to act and recently played Randi Chandler in the Golden Globe winning movie “Manchester By The Sea.”Jessie James was born in 1988, in Italy. However, her father was a part of U.S. Air Force, and therefore, she spent most of the 90s moving around the world. She won her first talent contest at the age of 9. By 15 years old, she made her way to Nashville to try to make it big in country music. Her debut album, “Jessie James,” was released in 2009, and debuted at number 23. Although she was a country singer, the label made her album’s sound more pop. She has released a few more singles and extended plays since her original album. In 2013, she married NFL player, Eric Decker.The 22-year-old was unknown to most of the world until 1998. The Former White House intern became infamous for her “inappropriate relationship” with President Bill Clinton between 1995-1997. Although Clinton tried to deny the allegations at first, it was found to be true by a grand jury. In 2014, Lewinsky reemerged in the public eye to write an essay for magazine “Vanity Fair” where she discussed her life and the scandal. In October of that year, she began rallying against cyberbullying, as she feels personally affected by the subject.Born in rural Pennsylvania, in the late 80s, Taylor Swift has truly come a long way in her career. After pursuing her dream and moving to Nashville at age 14, she was determined to become a music star. Since 2006, she has released 5 studio albums, all have which have been certified platinum numerous times. She has had numerous endorsement deals and created her own line of perfume. She is currently considered one of the most successful artists in the world.Jamie Lynn Spears may have been originally known just as Britney Spears’ little sister, however, by the early 2000s she was creating her own fame. She made her acting debut in 2002, alongside her sister, in the film “Crossroads.” Soon after, she began performing as a regular of the comedy sketch show “All That.” However, she got her big break when she landed the title role in the series “Zoey 101.” However, the show ended after she announced her pregnancy in 2008. She was 16-years-old at the time. However, she has still seen much success as she is now a country music singer.Before she was Lady Gaga she was Stefani Germanotta. She played piano since a young age and participated in theater in high school. Her mother encouraged her to apply to musical theater program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was 1 of 20 students to gain early admission and began her studies at age 17. However, she dropped out to pursue a musical career. After performing with a band, and being dropped from Def Jam Records. Singer-producer, Akon, was able to get her a joint deal with his label, Kon Live, and Interscope Geffen A&M. She has since released 6 studio albums.When Beyoncé was 8 years-old, she and childhood friend, Kelly Rowland, tried out and were selected for an all-girls singing group. The original group called “Girl’s Tyme” didn’t see much success until 1996, when the group changed to “Destiny’s Child.” The group sold millions of records, but eventually spilt. Beyoncé started a solo career and has had multiple albums gone platinum. She has also dabbled in acting, appearing in movies such as “Dreamgirls” and “Obsessed.” Today, she is married to Jay-Z, and the two are considered one of the most influential and powerful couples in the music industry.Brazilian Supermodel, got her first big break in 1997, after she was selected to walk in an Alexander McQueen fashion show in London. She was chosen not only for her looks but for her ability to walk in towering high heels on a very slippery run. Her success only continued and by 2000 she was selected to be a Victoria Secret Angel. A position which she held until 2007. She has since landed multiple modeling campaigns and has been the face for Versace, Givenchy and Chanel. She is now married to Super Bowl Winning Quarterback, Tom Brady.Naomie Harris began her acting career in the late 80s, appearing in the TV show “Simon and the Witch.” In the 90s, she continued her stint on TV, with recurring roles inRunaway BayandThe Tomorrow People. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that she made her jump to movies. However, her success in Hollywood since then hasn’t stopped. She has appeared in movies such as28 Days Later…Skyfall, andPirates of the Caribbeanfilms. Her most recent role of Paula, inMoonlight, earned her an Oscar nomination.Janelle Monáe was born in 1985, so she was truly a 90s child. Since a young age, she dreamed of becoming a singer and a performer. She eventually moved to New York City and study drama at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. After moving to Atlanta, she met OutKast’s Big Boi, who helped her launch her singing career. Big Boi told P. Diddy to look at Janelle, and instantly feel in love with her work. She signed to Bad Boy in 2006. She has released 4 albums and also has made the jump to acting. She most recently appeared in the Oscar-winning filmMoonlightTonya Harding is best known for the 1994 scandal “The Whack Heard Round the World.” Harding’s biggest competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, was on her way to the locker room before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, when Shane Stant, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband’s friend, hit her in the leg with a police baton. Tonya pleaded guilty to a felony of hindering the prosecution. Since her ice skating days, Harding has certainly led an interesting life. She made and sold a sex tape, had a short-lived boxing career, and set a new land speed record for a vintage gas coupe. Hollywood is currently making a movie about the scandal and Margot Robbie will play Harding.Kerrigan is best known for the 1994 scandal “The Whack Heard Round the World.” Kerrigan was on her way to the locker room before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, when Shane Stant, fellow competitor Tonya Harding’s ex-husband’s friend, hit her in the leg with a police baton. Tonya pleaded guilty to a felony of hindering the prosecution. Nancy went on to win silver at the 1994 Winter Olympics just weeks later. Kerrigan was a Winter Olympics correspondent in 2010 and 2014. Recently, she announced she will be the executive producer on a documentary about eating disorders in sports.My thoughts on Rust drills down to his comment from the first episode about ‘allowing your own crucifixion’.
“I contemplate the moment in the garden, the idea of allowing your own crucifixion.”
In episode 5, one of the detectives hands Rust some photos…
“Your truck, and a man fitting your description were spotted in the vicinity of our crime scene 5 times by 5 different people over the last month.”
I believe that Rust is too smart to be caught at the crime scenes. And '5’ times? Why? Five seems like a very important number in the show.
I think that Rust is and has been setting himself up since his 'disappearance’. There are too many high profile, high power people involved in the 'cult’. Two of the five are now dead (Ledoux, Tuttle), leaving three more. Rust was told by Ledoux that 'time is a flat circle’, which Rust repeats to the detectives (to make them think he believes it?). It’ll happen again, the 5 members will be replaced and the killings will continue.
The only way to take everyone down is to infiltrate yourself, get caught, have everyone believe you were involved all along and then take everyone else down with you.
Is this why Rust wants to meet up with Marty again? Rust and Marty worked together for a long time and they obviously trusted each other enough to make up the Ledoux bust story, knowing that neither one would reveal the truth. Being partners, they spent a great deal of time together, they had each other’s backs, they even lived together at one point. Who better to point the finger and 'rat out’ Rust?
Marty isn’t going to like it, but (as I believe that his daughter is involved in the cult somehow, possibly what Rust is showing Marty in the episode 7 preview?) Marty is desperate enough to do anything to take them down.
Rust is framing himself to take down the cult… or allowing his own crucifixion.After 35 years, astronomer Jill Tarter (pictured) is retiring from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) — a field she helped to pioneer and popularize, most recently at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Tarter, who inspired the late Carl Sagan to create Ellie Arroway, the fictional heroine of the novel and movie Contact, says that she will instead focus her efforts on what she calls “the search for intelligent funding”.
“Last year’s hibernation was a real wake-up call,” she explains, referring to the seven-month shutdown of the institute’s Allen Telescope Array in northern California, triggered when its partners at the University of California, Berkeley, withdrew from the project (see Nature 475, 442–444; 2011). The array was reopened in December after the institute put together a ‘crowdsourcing’ website, SETIStars, and raised more than US$200,000 from individual donors. But that was a best a stopgap, says Tarter: “If we don’t get funding under control,” she says, “we’ll be a SETI Institute that doesn’t do SETI.”
The institute’s research programme costs about $3 million a year, says Tarter. “So our first priority is to establish an endowment that can provide that kind of funding today, tomorrow and a century from now.” (Federal funding has been out of the question since 1993, when Congress slashed SETI from the NASA budget with extreme prejudice; politicians simply cannot resist the temptation to ridicule the search as a quest for ‘little green men.’) Using the standard 5% rule-of-thumb for interest, that means raising at least $60 million. “But what’s interesting to me,” says Tarter, “is that, at any given time, there are more than a hundred campaigns underway in the United States to raise that much for a lab building, or a concert hall. So it’s clearly not an impossible amount to raise.”
It’s not a job for amateurs, though: Tarter plans to assemble a group of experienced fund-raisers for her campaign — “people with the equivalent of large Rolodexes,” she says, “who figure that SETI is too important to fail.”
Fortunately, adds Tarter, when her hoped-for donors ask what their money is buying, she will be able to point to a substantial upgrade in the Allen Array’s search capabilities being spearheaded by Gerald Harp, her successor as head of the SETI Institute’s search programme. In the months since the restart, that programme has mostly been listening for artificial signals in the same patch of sky being scanned by NASA’s Kepler satellite, which has already found more than 60 confirmed planets there, plus thousands more candidate planets. Right now, the array can listen to only three stars at once. But this summer, Harp is planning to test a signal-analysis method that would allow it to do simultaneous, low-resolution scans of many more stars — which means that the array could efficiently carry out targeted searches and wide-field surveys at the same time.
“We always reserve the right to get smarter, and do new things,” notes Tarter, who will be feted in June at the SETI Institute’s SETIcon II festival.
Image courtesy of Seth ShostakOn Friday, the informative videos produced by PragerU, a conservative not-for-profit organization founded by author and radio host Dennis Prager in 2011, surpassed 1 billion views.
PragerU CEO Marissa Streit told The Daily Wire in a statement Friday that the more than 60 million viewers and 1 billion views of their hundreds of conservative videos are a "testament to the power of America's founding ideas."
"PragerU has eclipsed 1 billion views much faster than anyone predicted, and viewership is rapidly accelerating," said Streit. "It's just one indication that our content is resonating with millions and millions of people. It's a testament to the power of America’s founding ideas, the compelling topics presented by our world-class speakers, and our amazing team who makes it all happen."
To commemorate the achievement, PragerU produced a promotional video stressing the importance of informing people about "the values that shaped America":
Founded in 2011, PragerU describes its mission as explaining and spreading "Americanism'" through short videos featuring experts and animation designed to be "conservative sound bites that clarify profoundly significant and uniquely American concepts." Through their video and additional online content, PragerU seeks to "help millions of people understand the fundamental values that shaped America, and provide them with the intellectual ammunition they need to defend and spread those values."
In October, PragerU made national headlines when it announced that it was taking legal action against Google and YouTube for what the group described as "unlawfully censoring its educational videos and discriminating against its right to freedom of speech." Streit told The Daily Wire in an interview that week that their diverse legal team felt "very strongly" that they could win, citing YouTube's status as a "public forum" and its biased approach to restricting content as "a clear breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing."
Read more about the lawsuit here.Facebook has reached a milestone of 1 billion users worldwide. Once exclusive to college |
Capitalist systems are structured to deliver public policy that suits capitalists, and not what’s popular, if what’s popular is against capitalist interests. Obamacare aside, the United States doesn’t have full public health insurance. Why not? According to the polls, most Americans want it. So, why don’t they just vote it in? The answer, of course, is that there are powerful capitalist interests, principally private insurance companies, that have used their wealth and connections to block a public policy that would attenuate their profits. What’s popular doesn’t always, or even often, prevail in societies where those who own and control the economy can use their wealth and connections to dominate the political system to win in contests that pit their elite interests against mass interests. As Michael Parenti writes,
Capitalism is not just an economic system, but an entire social order. Once it takes hold, it is not voted out of existence by electing socialists or communists. They may occupy office but the wealth of the nation, the basic property relations, organic law, financial system, and debt structure, along with the national media, police power, and state institutions have all been fundamentally restructured. [14]
A Russian return to socialism is far more likely to come about the way it did the first time, through revolution, not elections—and revolutions don’t happen simply because people prefer a better system to the one they currently have. Revolutions happen when life can no longer be lived in the old way—and Russians haven’t reached the point where life as it’s lived today is no longer tolerable.
Interestingly, a 2003 poll asked Russians how they would react if the Communists seized power. Almost one-quarter would support the new government, one in five would collaborate, 27 percent would accept it, 16 percent would emigrate, and only 10 percent would actively resist it. In other words, for every Russian who would actively oppose a Communist take-over, four would support it or collaborate with it, and three would accept it [15]—not what you would expect if you think Russians are glad to get out from underneath what we’re told was the burden of communist rule.
So, the Soviet Union’s passing is regretted by the people who knew the USSR firsthand (but not by Western journalists, politicians and historians who knew Soviet socialism only through the prism of their capitalist ideology.) Now that they’ve had over two decades of multi-party democracy, private enterprise and a market economy, Russians don’t think these institutions are the wonders Western politicians and mass media make them out to be. Most Russians would prefer a return to the Soviet system of state planning, that is, to socialism.
Even so, these realities are hidden behind a blizzard of propaganda, whose intensity peaks each year on the anniversary of the USSR’s passing. We’re supposed to believe that where it was tried, socialism was popularly disdained and failed to deliver—though neither assertion is true.
Of course, that anti-Soviet views have hegemonic status in the capitalist core is hardly surprising. The Soviet Union is reviled by just about everyone in the West: by the Trotskyists, because the USSR was built under Stalin’s (and not their man’s) leadership; by social democrats, because the Soviets embraced revolution and rejected capitalism; by the capitalists, for obvious reasons; and by the mass media (which are owned by the capitalists) and the schools (whose curricula, ideological orientation and political and economic research are strongly influenced by them.)
So, on the anniversary of the USSR’s demise we should not be surprised to discover that socialism’s political enemies should present a view of the Soviet Union that is at odds with what those on the ground really experienced, what a socialist economy really accomplished, and what those deprived of it really want.
1.”Referendum on the preservation of the USSR,” RIA Novosti, 2001, http://en.ria.ru/infographics/20110313/162959645.html
2. Guy Gavriel Kay, “The greatest Russians of all time?” The Globe and Mail (Toronto), January 10, 2009.
3. Richard Pipes, “Flight from Freedom: What Russians Think and Want,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004.
4. Robert C. Allen. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution, Princeton University Press, 2003. David Kotz and Fred Weir. Revolution From Above: The Demise of the Soviet System, Routledge, 1997.
5. Allen; Kotz and Weir.
6. Stephen Gowans, “Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work?” what’s left, December 21, 2012.
7. “Russia Nw”, in The Washington Post, March 25, 2009.
8. Pipes.
9. Neli Espova and Julie Ray, “Former Soviet countries see more harm from breakup,” Gallup, December 19, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx
10. Pipes.
11. Judy Dempsey, “Study looks at mortality in post-Soviet era,” The New York Times, January 16, 2009.
12. Shirley Ceresto and Howard Waitzkin, “Economic development, political-economic system, and the physical quality of life”, American Journal of Public Health, June 1986, Vol. 76, No. 6.
13. Pipes.
14. Michael Parenti, Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism, City Light Books, 1997, p. 119.
15. Pipes.
AdvertisementsParamore have been a band for 13 years and despite all the crap that they’ve been through, they’re still here. Over that time, they’ve evolved personally, lyrically and sonically, with the result of that evolution is their fifth album After Laughter, on Fueled By Ramen.
Consisting of 12 incredible tracks, After Laughter combines elements of Paramore’s past with a new sound. Starting off the album is the lead single “Hard Times” which flows right into “Rose-Colored Boy”. The song starts off with a funky shouting section and goes into what is one of my favorite tracks on the album at the moment. Listening to “Rose-Colored Boy” makes you feel good and is extremely catchy; this one will be stuck in your head for days.
A little later in the album is a song called “Fake Happy”. It starts out very slow with just a guitar and Hayley Williams singing; it almost sounds like an interlude. But then this synth comes in backed up by a thumping bass line and the song turns into a something you can dance to. “Oh please, don’t ask me how I’ve been, don’t make me play pretend” is one of the lyrics that sticks out to me. You know how it is when you get asked how you’re doing and you don’t actually say how you’re doing. This song explains that whole experience.
“26” is one of the tracks on the album where the lyrics stuck out to me. Featuring an acoustic guitar, Williams singing and a beautiful sounding string section, this song just rips your heart apart. “Hold onto hope if you’ve got it” is a lyric from this song that stuck with me the whole rest of the way through the album. Not only that but this is the first song where you’ll hear little tie ins to Paramore’s past songs. “26” ties in to “Brick by Boring Brick” when it says “After all wasn’t I the one who said to keep your feet on the ground”.
The album picks back up after reducing you down to tears and has a surprise toward the end. On the song “No Friend” Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou sings the whole song. He starts out singing really quietly and then he picks up volume as the song goes on. It’s a nice little treat to hear him on the album because mewithoutYou is Paramore’s favorite band. The very last song on the album is called “Tell Me How”. This is another emotional song, it’s sort of slow it’s a pretty simple sounding song. Lyrically this is another song that stood out because of lines like “Of all the weapons you fight with, your silence is the most violent”. Silence can be just as painful as words and that line tells you that.
This to me is probably the best album Paramore has made and I’m so happy to finally hear what they’ve been working on for the past tw0 years.
Purchase “After Laughter”
Hard Times Rose-Colored Boy Told You So Forgiveness Fake Happy 26 Pool Grudges Caught In The Middle Idle Worship No Friend Tell Me How
–
Post by Madeline Cronin
What are your thoughts on After Laughter? Comment below.
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AdvertisementsEarlier this week, the Minecraft community was wracked by controversy after fans of the game pointed out that cookies—the food used to tame and breed parrots in the game—could potentially be deadly if fed to real-life birds. In an email to Motherboard, one of the game's developers says the food will be changed in an upcoming patch in order to protect animals the world over.
In the most-upvoted post of all time on the /r/minecraft subreddit, users noted that the game is played by millions of children, and that some children will probably try to feed their pet birds chocolate or cookies: "chocolate and pet parrots are common enough that this will cause a problem," Redditor 1jl wrote. "There is no question about that."
The post has more than 37,000 upvotes. After I saw it, I asked Minecraft developer Mojang if it was aware of the controversy. Minecraft lead creative designer Jens Bergensten told me in an email that soon another food will be used to tame parrots in the game.
"If Minecraft has any effect on children's behavior, we want it to be a positive one, so we'll change the item used to breed parrots before the 1.12 update is released," Bergensten said. "Our reasoning for originally using cookies was twofold; it gave cookies a reason to exist within Minecraft, and it was a subtle reference to the Nirvana song 'Polly.' However, we didn't consider what the chocolate ingredient would mean to real life parrots!"
The 1.12 patch is considered a major update and currently has no release date. It's expected "soon."
Monday, I asked Marc Marrone, "Martha Stewart's pet expert" and co-owner of the Parrots of the World pet shop in Long Island, whether Mojang should swap cookies for another food. He said that most parrots are smart enough to avoid eating bitter dark chocolate, which is most dangerous to them and noted that milk chocolate doesn't pose that much of a risk. Still, to be safe, he had a recommendation: "Just take out the chocolate part and say that you need to tame the bird by giving it a blueberry," Morrone said. "None of these lunatics [the parrots] can ever find anything wrong with a blueberry."
So Mojang, if you're listening—it's time to build some delicious blocks of blueberry bushes into the game.After four straight seasons without playoff baseball, the Arizona Diamondbacks are looking for a fresh start.
They got their fresh start on Thursday, with the debut of their new uniforms during the #DbacksEvolution event.
The uniforms, eight in total, will all be worn next season.
This includes the white home, road gray, black alternate, red alternate, Hispanic Heritage, purple and teal throwbacks, home alternate and road alternate.
There are also seven hats to go with each uniform.
The uniform change also brings a few logo changes, with the text changing and the snake logo being brought back.
9 seasons in purple & teal.
9 seasons in red & sand.
The timing is perfect to blend the two eras.#DbacksEvolution pic.twitter.com/EVyNjlLJHo — Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) December 4, 2015
The Snakehead logo is back! It returns as the #Dbacks sleeve patch for the first time since 2006. #DbacksEvolution pic.twitter.com/rTM7Gk8EN9 — Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) December 4, 2015
The new home uniforms based in white feature the new, arched D-backs wording. They also include a diamond pattern on the shoulders and the lower legs.
The road gray’s feature the same diamond pattern, with a more blackish approach on the shoulders. The shoulder coloring is also featured in the black alternates with red shoulders and the red alternates with black shoulders.
The classic purple and teal throwbacks are not only coming back, but are also incorporated into two of the newer jerseys. A slight twist on the already new home and road uniforms feature teal accents on the jersey that include the collar, front number, and back nameplate.
The change in the alternates also features no coloring of the shoulders, a feature that is prominent in most of the new jerseys.
According to a press release from the team, the references on the jerseys include the club’s name, snakeskin and the diamond shape of a baseball field.
“This is an extremely proud and exciting time for our franchise,” said D-backs President & CEO Derrick Hall in the press release.
“The Arizona Diamondbacks have always been focused on innovation and it is time for us to take that step forward on behalf of Major League Baseball and continue the evolution of our uniforms. This process began over two years ago and has involved our players, coaches, fans, partners at MLB, Majestic, New Era, Nike and an extremely talented in-house design staff. The end result is an incredible product that will appeal to all our fans, but in particular the youth movement we so desire in baseball.”
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Follow @AZSportsLOS ANGELES — A little more than one year ago, the Los Angeles Kings brought former superstar defenseman Rob Blake back into the fold, naming him as their assistant general manager on July 17, 2013, replacing Ron Hextall, who returned to the Philadelphia Flyers as their assistant general manager (he was soon elevated to the general manager’s position on May 7, 2014).
Upon hiring Blake, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi indicated that, like anyone new to the job, Blake would be eased into his new position.
But almost 13 months have passed since Blake was brought on board. How have things gone so far in his new job?
During an exclusive interview that focused primarily on several of the Kings’ young prospects who played last season with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, Blake shared a few quick thoughts about the job.
“I like the hockey part of it,” he said. “There’s a lot of administrative aspects that you have to deal with. I probably didn’t understand that as much from being a player, but as far as the reading of players and charting and graphing players, it’s not much different than what I did for twenty years as a player.”
“I understood every player I played against,” he added. “I knew their tendencies and different things. That’s kind of what we do in the back room here, so that part of the adjustment has been good.”
But the paperwork and other administrative duties can be rather daunting.
“The administrative part has been a learning experience—understanding all that,” said Blake. “But the staff Dean has put together has made it pretty easy. I can go to the pro guys (scouts), I can go to the amateur guys, I can go to the development guys, when I have issues or questions about what they do. They’re very open that way.”
Blake recalled Lombardi speaking of his long-term plans while he was still playing for the Kings, and related that to what he has observed in his new role.
“It’s funny,” Blake noted. “I was here eight years ago when Dean got here. I came back with the team and we weren’t good. I remember sitting in meetings with him at the time. He was telling me what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it. I ended up going to different spots to finish my career. Then, I finally come back and get involved here again, I get to see that everything he said that he wanted is finally coming full circle.”
“It’s taken time,” Blake added. “He knew that it would. But [ownership has] allowed him to put those pieces in place and its obviously turned out pretty well. A lot of people are looking at how he’s doing it and how they can try to copy it. He relies on the [department] heads and allows them to do their jobs. His communication with them is really good.”
One of Blake’s biggest responsibilities is serving as the general manager of the Monarchs and he talked about one thing he is looking forward to, in terms of Kings prospects playing for the Monarchs, during his second season on the job.
“The interesting thing for me is to watch these guys this time around,” said Blake. “I’ve been able to watch them for a full year. They’ve had time to go home this summer. They’ve become a lot more comfortable at that level. To see how they’ve progressed and are ready for [training] camp will be interesting for me.”
How Do You Top That?
On August 11, 2014, the Kings announced that they will retire Blake’s jersey number 4 on January 17, 2015, when they host the Anaheim Ducks at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
In a press release, Blake said, “It is an honor to be included with the former great LA King players who have their jersey’s retired. I have always felt L.A. was a special place to play and it was and is a tremendous privilege to put on an LA Kings jersey.”
Blake shared a bit more with Frozen Royalty.
“This is a time to reflect and look back at how you got there,” he said. “I definitely have good company to be up there with, that’s for sure. Dave [Taylor], Wayne [Gretzky] and Luc [Robitaille]. I got to play with a few of them.”
The announcement of his jersey retirement came on the heels of being named as the Kings’ assistant general manager, learning that he would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2014, and winning the Stanley Cup as an executive, all in his first 13 months on the job with the Kings.
That raised the question: How are you going to top that?
“I don’t know,” Blake said, with a laugh. “I’ve got to get back to work here and see if we can’t do something.”
“I’ve got to spread’em out a little bit,” Blake added, still laughing. “I don’t know if there’s too many more things to celebrate after this.”
At that point, yours truly joked, “It occurs to me that it might be all downhill from here.”
“Yeah, I’ve got to hold onto whatever I can,” Blake said, chuckling. “That’s already a pretty hard act to follow.”
Frozen Royalty
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by Gann Matsuda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this site are required. Photographs, graphic images, and other content not specified are subject to additional restrictions. Additional information is available at: Frozen Royalty – Licensing and Copyright InformationIf Jim Calhoun taught his players anything in his 39 years of coaching it’s perseverance. Battling through two bouts of cancer (prostate and skin), spinal stenosis, broken ribs and a broken hip, Calhoun remained a steady presence on the UConn bench since 1986, and at Northeastern for a good 14 years before that.
Now, after 39 years of coaching, Calhoun announced his retirement today, ending one of the most illustrious careers in NCAA history. His name will go down in the record books among the likes of Bobby Knight, John Wooden, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp. Not bad company for a man whose playing experience consisted of just 4 years at American International College. Fittingly, Calhoun’s alma mater will face Connecticut in their season opener.
Calhoun finished his career with 873 wins, the sixth most wins in Division I history. Add three national championships to that and he’s certainly earned the spot he already holds in the Hall of Fame. But it’s the fact that Calhoun was even able to bring Connecticut to a championship level that is his true legacy.
It’s taken for granted today that UConn is one of the nation’s elite programs. Yet when Calhoun inherited the Huskies from Dom Perno in 1986, they were trapped in mediocrity, playing below.500 for the better part of a decade. And in Calhoun’s first season it was much of the same; the team went 9-19.
But since that time, UConn has not had a losing season and failed to make the NCAA Tournament just seven times in 25 years. Considering they made the tournament just six times in the 25 years before he took over, Calhoun’s impact on the program has been colossal. Not only has Connecticut churned out more wins with him at the helm, but they have also produced quite a few succesful pros. Cliff Robinson, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Caron Butler, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Charlie Villanueva, Rudy Gay and Kemba Walker all have Calhoun to thank for much of their success.
Some of these players were involved with Calhoun in some of college basketball’s most memorable moments as well. Ray Allen helped UConn win the 1996 Big East Championship over Allen Iverson and Georgetown with a huge game winning shot. Rip Hamilton scored the game winning bucket at the buzzer in UConn’s 1998 win over Washington in the Sweet Sixteen. Kemba Walker contributed in the Huskies six overtime loss to Syracuse in 2009, the second longest game in NCAA history. These moments have all gone down in basketball lore as some of the sport’s greatest games and Calhoun played a big part in all of them.
After 39 years of coaching, Jim Calhoun impressed in many ways. But a more impressive feat than those long years spent coaching are his 45 years of marriage to his wife Pat. Now, at 70 years of age, Calhoun can spend time focusing on family and health, without having to worry about the success of the UConn basketball program. He made sure that program wouldn’t be worrying anyone for a long time.
AdvertisementsSuddenly, tennis is getting younger by the week. We began July with 19-year-old Nick Kyrgios’s Wimbledon run, and spent the European clay swing that followed learning about Alexander Zverev and Borna Coric, both 17. Now, back in the States, we’re going younger still. Yesterday in Stanford, Naomi Osaka, a 16-year-old from Japan currently ranked No. 406, upset Sam Stosur. Later, in Washington, D.C., 17-year-old Jared Donaldson of Rhode Island won a set, while another 16-year-old, Francis Tiafoe, made a more-than-respectable showing in his (nationally televised) professional debut. Tiafoe, who trains in nearby College Park, Md, won eight games from Evgeny Donskoy. That’s not bad, considering that Tiafoe is ranked 1024 places behind him.
How did the kid look? I’ll start by saying that he could continue a noble tradition of young men learning the game while their fathers labored at local tennis centers. Pancho Segura’s and Ilie Nastase’s dads were both custodians at fancy clubs, the former’s in Ecuador, the latter’s in Romania. Both of the sons, who were surrounded by tennis from a young age—racquets, balls, nets, and equipment were all over the house—went on to develop unique games. Segura gave the world its first and greatest two-handed forehand. With Nastase, it seemed as if he hadn’t learned the sport so much as internalized it.
Tiafoe’s father, Francis, Sr., a native of Sierra Leone, was part of the construction crew that built the club where his son plays, College Park’s Junior Tennis Champions Center, and later became a maintenance man there. And Tiafoe, as anyone could see last night, also has a unique game. The question going forward, as it is with all prodigies, is whether he has the technique to translate that talent. Does he, in other words, have the right game?
I wouldn’t say it’s in place just yet. The first thing you notice is that Tiafoe’s serve seems to be robbing him of power. His left hand flaps back over his body, going in the opposite direction of the rest of his body, and he gets little leg or shoulder into the shot. That he can still hit a serve 127 m.p.h. may be the ultimate testament to his athleticism.
As for his forehand, Tiafoe and his coaches have worked to reconstruct the stroke, but it’s still whippy and unorthodox; at times he hits it while standing parallel to the baseline. Again, it didn’t stop him from drilling one 104 m.p.h. last night, but he also missed quite a few while running to his right—you would think that would be a shot he would own. On his forehand return, Tiafoe goes to the chip too often, but that should change with experience. He may have learned yesterday that it’s not going to fly in the pros.
Perhaps the best thing about Tiafoe is that, despite his speed and power, he isn’t a bomber or a grinder. He can do a lot of things with the ball—slices, drops, short angles—and create openings on court quickly from either side. Emotionally, he already exhibits a showman’s knack for juicing a home crowd, but he has also had problems with composure. In his loss at junior Wimbledon, I watched Tiafoe blast a ball into the sky and earn a point penalty. Obviously, it wasn’t his first offense that day.
How do cut out the point penalties but keep the positive emotion? How do you develop technique that will make him consistent while still letting him do what comes naturally? How do you avoid the common flaw of U.S. men of this generation, which is an over-reliance on the bomb serve and power forehand? Tiafoe and his coaches have time to figure all of this out. But, considering that Zverev and Coric are already in the Top 200 at age 17, and Kyrgios has already beaten Nadal, they don’t have forever.
*****
OOP Analysis
What followed Tiafoe? Apparently a loss by Madison Keys to Japan’s Kurumi Nara, but U.S. fans will never know how their countrywoman went out. It wasn’t televised or streamed, despite the fact that the Tennis Channel broadcast three men’s matches from the same court that day. WTA International events like D.C. are only required to stream matches from the quarterfinals on (thanks to @matthillsports for this information, of which I was not aware). In this case, it had the effect of making the women’s event look like it was being deliberately hidden from us. What would it cost for there to be more parity when it comes to televising and streaming ATP and WTA tournaments?
And what would it cost for there to be more parity on center courts at these events? Today, four of five matches on D.C.’s main stadium are men’s, while Sloane Stephens vs. Christina McHale languishes on the third show court.
See the Order of Play for D.C. here, Stanford here, and Kitzbuhel here.
Jack Sock vs. Michael Berrer: With two straight semifinal appearances since his Wimbledon doubles win, Sock, at No. 60, is now the second-highest-ranked American.
Sloane Stephens vs. Christina McHale: It may not be seen by many, but Sloane will play her first match since hiring a new coach against a fellow American.
Dominika Cibulkova vs. Garbine Muguruza: Last year’s Stanford champ vs. this year’s breakthrough player.
Ana Ivanovic vs. Sabine Lisicki: They’ve split two matches this year; like Stephens, Ivanovic will also be playing her first match since splitting with her coach.
Venus Williams vs. Paula Kania: The last time we saw Venus she was nearly beating the Wimbledon champ. If she wins this one, she’ll play Azarenka.
Alexander Zverev vs. Diego Schwartzman: One more look at the German teenager on clay.List of Bitcoin-related software. See also Category:Software.
Be sure to keep on top of the latest security vulnerabilities!
Bitcoin clients
Bitcoin clients
Main article and feature comparison: Clients
Frontends to eWallet
Blockchain - Javascript bitcoin client with client side encryption.
xCoinMoney Advanced API to create invoices for subscription.
Cancoin - HSM multi-sig wallet using libbitcoin. Client side encryption.
Experimental
Freecoin - C++ client, supports alternative currencies like Beertoken
BitDroid - Java client
Bitdollar - C++/Qt client, unstable beta version
Bitcoin software
Live operating systems
A live operating system can start on almost any computer from a DVD, USB stick, or SD card, without installation.
BitKey - Live OS Bitcoin Swiss Army Knife, supports cold storage and air-gapped transactions
Tails Privacy oriented Live OS, bundled with Tor and Electrum.
Exchange Platform Software
Alphapoint - Bitcoin Exchange Software. Full system to run a digital currency exchange. Customize and launch your own digital currency and Bitcoin exchange in less than 20 days with AlphaPoint. Also supports automatic market-making on your exchange using 3rd party exchanges such as Bitfinex, BTCChina, and others. Supports many exchanges and smart routing, with automated account management.
Merkeleon - Bitcoin Exchange Software. A fully online software solution to launch a secure and reliable platform for crypto- and main world fiat currencies sale and purchase. Supports any currency integration, provides wide monetization opportunity for the owner.
ExKnox - Open Source Exchange Software Development Team. Custom solutions built upon the world's most trusted matching engine.
Sellbitbuy - Local bitcoin clone script. Complete solution for launching an exchange platform like remitano, bitsquare and paxful.
Cryptoexchangescript.com-Cryptocurrency/bitcoin exchange script software.A complete solution to start your own bitcoin trading or exchange platform instantly.The website provides demo with 100% source code, go to market options and easy setup.
Shopping Cart Integration in eCommerce-Systems
Enterprise server
Apicoin First bitcoin PaaS (Platform as a Service)
Bits of Proof - a modular enterprise-ready implementation of the Bitcoin protocol.
BlockCypher Full node bitcoin client built for scale and data center environments.
Web apps
Cryptopay — hosted wallet, exchange and bitcoin debit card provider
Abe — block chain viewer
Bitcoin Central — currency exchange
Bitcoin Poker Room — poker site
bitcoin_simple_php_tools — simple php tools for webmasters
Blockonomics - Easy to use bitcoin financial tracker
Blockpath - Wallet tracker with a graphical block explorer, QuickBooks integration, and blockchain discussion platform
Blocktrail - Web wallet with high level security. Syncs seamlessly with your iphone and android Blocktrail wallet.
Coinbase — an international digital wallet that allows you to securely buy, use, and accept bitcoin currency
Coinnext — Cryptocurrency Exchange
CoinSummary — multi-coin wallet manager with built-in valuation in Bitcoin and major world currencies.
Paxful Accept Bitcoin and Sell bitcoin on Peer to peer market.
Paxful Accept Bitcoin and Sell bitcoin on Peer to peer market. Pocket Dice — First realistic bitcoin dice game.
Simplecoin — PHP web frontend for a pool
Coinbase Exchange - Bitcoin exchange with complete API for traders.
Cancoin - HSM Multi-sig wallet and p2p exchange* *coming soon
White label software
Alphapoint - Bitcoin Exchange Software. Full system to run a digital currency exchange. Customize and launch your own digital currency and Bitcoin exchange in less than 20 days with AlphaPoint. Also supports automatic market-making on your exchange using 3rd party exchanges such as Bitstamp and others. Supports many exchanges and smart routing, with automated account management.
draglet - Bitcoin Exchange Software / white label solution
Casino Evolution gaming software developed by www.SoftSwiss.com
gaming software developed by InfraEx Development - Open Source Exchange Software Development Team. Custom solutions built upon the world's most trusted matching engine.
Browser extensions
PC apps
Mobile apps
iPhone / iPad
Android
Windows Phone 7
Direct link to Windows Phone Marketplace Bitcoin apps: [1]
Windows Phone 8
Bitcoin Can - Monitoring prices, account balances and mobile trading on multiple exchanges including Coinbase, BTC-E, CampBX, and MtGox. http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/bitcoin-can/57fcf4d6-497a-4663-8da3-93cb26c83b11
see also Bitcoin Payment Apps
Mining apps
Main page: Mining software
BFGMiner - Modular ASIC/FPGA/GPU miner in C
Bitcoin Miner by GroupFabric - Free easy-to-use DirectX GPU miner on the Windows Store
CGMiner - ASIC/FPGA/GPU miner in C
MacMiner - A native Mac OS X Bitcoin miner based on cgminer, bfgminer, cpuminer and poclbm
Asteroid - Mac-specific GUI based on cgminer
MultiMiner - GUI based on cgminer/bfgminer for Windows, OS X and Linux, allows switching between currencies based on profitability
Mining Pool Servers (backend)
Main page: Poolservers
CoiniumServ - High performance C# Mono/.Net poolserver.
ecoinpool - Erlang poolserver (not maintained)
Eloipool - Fast Python3 poolserver
Pushpoold - Old mining poolserver in C (not maintained)
Poold - Old Python mining poolserver (not maintained)
PoolServerJ - Java mining poolserver (not maintained)
Remote miner - mining pool software
ckpool - Open source pool/database/proxy/passthrough/library in c for Linux
Libraries
C
libbtc - A fast, clean and small bitcoin C library
picocoin - Tiny bitcoin library, with lightweight client and utils
libbase58 - C library implementation of Base58 and Base58Check encodings
libblkmaker - C library implementation of getblocktemplate decentralized mining protocol
C++
Libbitcoin - Comprehensive set of C++ libraries: key formats, crypto, math, encodings, urls, mnemonics, blockchain, full node, client-server, etc. Linux and OSX Autotools builds. Visual Studio solutions for Windows, with Unicode support. Extensive test suite and continuous integration builds. Core dependencies limited to Boost and Libsecp256k1 with ZeroMQ required for client-server API.
C / C++
Bitcoin Wallet API Library - Airbitz Core (ABC) C/C++ Library implements user authentication, account wallet creation, multi device synchronization and backup, transaction meta data management, Bitcoin address generation, key management, decentralized access to bitcoin network, shared wallets w/multisig (Q1 2015)
Java
bitcoinj - popular client library for Java, currently used in several desktop/mobile applications.
BCCAPI (BitCoin Client API) - a java library designed for making secure light-weight bitcoin clients.
BitcoinCrypto - a lightweight Bitcoin crypto library for Java/Android.
Objective-C
BitcoinSPV - A native Bitcoin SPV client library for iOS with BIP32 support.
Perl
Finance::MtGox - a Perl module which interfaces with the Mt. Gox API
Python
PYBTC Python library for Bitcoin.
python-blkmaker - Python module implementation of getblocktemplate decentralized mining protocol
Development utilities
Bitcoin Dissector - a wireshark dissector for the bitcoin protocol
Bitcoin Explorer - an advanced command line tool for working with bitcoin
Bitcointools - a set of Python tools accessing the transaction database and the wallet
Blockchain2graph - a tool to import bitcoin blockchain into neo4j
Lists of software
BitGit - list of Bitcoin-related opensource projects hosted at Git
Developer resources
Other
Phyramid Digital Agency offering software development and design services for Bitcoin businesses.
Bitcoin Consultancy - an organization providing open source software and Bitcoin-related consulting
Open Transactions - a financial crypto and digital cash software library, complementary to Bitcoin
Moneychanger - Java-based GUI for Open Transactions
BTCnames - a webbased aliasing service which allows to handle unlimited names for your BTC deposit hashes
Bitcoin Mining Software - A helpful list of various Bitcoin software options
Webservices / APIs
Bitcoin Infrastructure
BlockTrail.com - Bitcoin API and platform for developers, complete with SDKs for PHP, Python, NodeJS and more
BlockCypher - High reliability Bitcoin Web Services, including web hooks, double spend detection and many SDKs.
Bitcoin Trade Data
Bitcoin Charts – Prices, volume, and extensive charting on virtually all Bitcoin markets.
BitcoinChain - Bitcoin block explorer, exchange markets and mining pools.
MtGox Live - An innovative chart showing a live feed of MtGox trades and market depth. (Must Use Chrome)
BTCCharts - An innovative chart showing a live feed of multiple markets, currencies and timeframes.
MY-BTC.INFO - A free profit/loss portfolio manager for Bitcoins and other digital currencies including many charts.
BitcoinExchangeRate.org - Bitcoin and USD converter with convenient URL scheme and Auto-updating Portfolio Spreadsheet.
Bitcoin Sentiment Index - A financial index that collects and disseminates sentiment data about bitcoin.
Preev - Bitcoin converter with live exchange rates.
Skami - Bitcoin Market Exchange comparison charts.
BitcoinSentiment - Crowdvoting site offering means of voting and viewing voters sentiment towards bitcoin.
TradingView – network where traders exchange ideas about Bitcoin using advanced free online charts
Web interfaces for merchantsDETROIT, MI - Eminem reportedly has a role in a kids movie. No, you didn't read that wrong.
says Slim Shady's song "Without Me," featured on the 2002 LP "The Eminem Show," is in the film's trailer. Video for the trailer can be found at the end of this post. Let MLive Detroit now what you think about it in our comments section. More from The Drop:
In the clip, former villain Gru tucks |
/3ktzFI
Previous Shows: http://goo.gl/FUW2q
Promos to: <hidden>
Press/Management: http://kanefm.com/
FBP: https://www.facebook.com/KaneFM1037Photo
High blood pressure may cause harmful brain changes in people as young as 40, a study suggests.
In the report, published online Nov. 2 in Lancet Neurology, researchers measured blood pressure in 579 men and women whose average age was 39, then examined their brains with magnetic resonance imaging. After adjusting for smoking, hypertension treatment and total cranial volume, they found that higher systolic blood pressure — the most common form of hypertension — was associated with decreases in gray matter volume and significant injury to white matter. Moreover, there was a dose-response relationship: The higher the blood pressure, the greater the visible changes.
These changes also occur in people over 55 with high blood pressure and are associated with decreased cognitive performance. Essentially, these young people with high blood pressure had brains that were older than their chronological age.
The authors acknowledge that their sample was mostly healthy, white volunteers, and that the study represents a snapshot, not a long-term picture.
The senior author, Dr. Charles DeCarli, a neurologist at the University of California, Davis, urged caution. “Most people at this age have no symptoms at all, even if they have high blood pressure,” he said. “Get your blood pressure measured when you’re young, and treated if necessary.”KS
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Sr. MemberActivity: 448Merit: 250 BITSTAMP SEPA account "no transfer" countries/banks' list (upd 2014-10-14) August 09, 2013, 01:36:04 PM
Last edit: October 14, 2014, 07:08:43 PM by KS #1
Countries with issues Banks blocking transfers Others blocking transfers Banks allowing transfers Others allowing transfers Belgium BNP Paribas Fortis Keytrade, Montepaschi Belgio Germany Norisbank, Hypovereinsbank ING DIBA, Sparda-BW Bank, Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Nürnberg, Sparkassen Hungary CIB Bank Magnet Bank, MKB Luxemburg ING Luxembourg Spain ING DIRECT Bankinter, Barclays, Deutsche Bank Sweden SwedBank Skandia Banken United Kingdom HiFX, Transferwise Barclays, Co-Op / Smile, Halifax, HSBC, NatWest
Possibly problematic: Intesa Sanpaolo (IT), Chase (USA)
Countries OK Banks Others France BNP Paribas Ireland AIB, Ulster Bank Portugal BPI, CGD Bank The Netherlands ING Romania BRD-GSG Slovakia mBank, Slovenská Sporiteľňa (Erste Bank Slovakia), VUB (Intesa Sanpaolo subsidiary), ZUNO (Raiffeisen subsidiary) Slovenia UniCredit
Post from mmitech regarding Bitstamp's AML/KYC questionnaires (2 kinds) when you trigger an AML alarm:
Quote from: mmitech on March 02, 2014, 09:23:36 AM -snip-
first kind:
We kindly ask you to send us a high resolution image double page of your international passport and answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. What is the purpose of your trading on Bitstamp? Please describe in as much detail as possible how you intend to use your trading account.
3. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.
4. Estimated amount that you would be depositing/withdrawing to/from your Bitstamp account per month (in USD and BTC)?
5. What type of trading will you conduct? Buying/selling/both? Estimated trade volume per month?
6. What is the source of the funds which you are depositing to your Bitstamp account? Please provide any financial documentation which can confirm how the funds sent to your Bitstamp account were acquired.
We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket.
second kind:
We kindly ask you to answer the following KYC questionnaire:
1. How did you learn about Bitcoin?
2. The purpose of trading on Bitstamp?
3. What is the origin of the deposited Bitcoins? If mining, please specify your hardware specifications and submit a receipt or an invoice for your mining equipment.
4. When and how did you obtain your Bitcoins?
5. What is the reason for your activity - depositing BTC, selling, withdrawing?
6. What are your future plans and activities planned on our exchange?
7. Do you plan more of such withdrawals in the future? If yes, how many and why?
8. Which bank are you using? Please provide the complete address and SWIFT code.
We kindly ask you to submit your answers and documents in a reply to this ticket
OP:
"I received the news first-hand at my local branch when trying to make a SEPA transfer to BITSTAMP's Uni Credit account in Slovenia.
I couldn't make a transfer either yesterday night or this morning, got some weird over-limit error ("daily/weekly limit or 2500/5000 EUR reached..." blah blah), went to the local branch to have them try (they can usually override) and got the same result. I asked the clerk to run a check on my accounts to be sure I wasn't the one with the issue (all OK there) so she called some service or other and got the "flagged for possible fraudulent activities" news (they knew about it already since yesterday,I wasn't the first calling in for this).
(I opened a TT with BITSTAMP and they said they'll investigate with their bank.)
Anyone else reporting SEPA transfer issues to BITSTAMP?" Updated 2014-10-14Intesa Sanpaolo (IT), Chase (USA)Post from mmitech regarding Bitstamp's AML/KYC questionnaires (2 kinds) when you trigger an AML alarm:
List of major BTC scams
Bitstamp "no transfer" banks/countries list: In Putins Russia bitcoin exchanges you. - http://www.coindesk.com/ceo-bitcoin-officially-bans-china/ List of major BTC scams https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=576337 Bitstamp "no transfer" banks/countries list: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=270716.0
Deafboy
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Hero MemberActivity: 481Merit: 500 Re:? BITSTAMP SEPA account flagged? August 09, 2013, 01:55:52 PM #3 Quote So basically what you are telling, it would not be possible to withdraw money? No, OP says that there is a problem with sending money TO Bitstamp.
With more value transferred to and out of Bitstamp (They are no. 2 exchange now), more and more problems will come. No, OP says that there is a problem with sending money TO Bitstamp.With more value transferred to and out of Bitstamp (They are no. 2 exchange now), more and more problems will come.
Its About Sharing
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Antifragile
LegendaryActivity: 1358Merit: 1000Antifragile Re:? BITSTAMP SEPA account flagged? August 09, 2013, 06:38:53 PM #9 I'm thinking this is a total non issue as nothing more has been said. If we had a "systematic" concern, we'd be hearing it from many people. BTC = Black Swan.
BTC = Antifragile - "Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Robust is not the opposite of fragile.
molecular
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DonatorLegendaryActivity: 2632Merit: 1008 Re:? BITSTAMP SEPA account flagged? August 09, 2013, 10:17:40 PM #12 Quote from: rme on August 09, 2013, 09:42:43 PM
More info about "ING" (A bank):
https://www.ingdirect.es/
Also, ING is a Holland bank that also operates in Spain.
http://www.ing.nl/particulier/index.aspx?first_visit=true
http://www.ing.com/Our-Company.htm
Please post here the name of your Bank.
Hey, here in Spain ING is doing the same thing, blocking SEPAs to BITSTAMP.More info about "ING" (A bank):Also, ING is a Holland bank that also operates in Spain.Please post here the name of your Bank.
incidentally this was the same bank (ing-diba) that had intersango account flagged in 2011. Back then however, it was just a "warning" kind of flag that triggered them to call me and write a letter to verify I had initiated transfer.
So they outright refuse to send the money? Well: this is exactly why we need bitcoin. Noone tells you where you can or cannot send your money. incidentally this was the same bank (ing-diba) that had intersango account flagged in 2011. Back then however, it was just a "warning" kind of flag that triggered them to call me and write a letter to verify I had initiated transfer.So they outright refuse to send the money? Well: this is exactly why we need bitcoin. Noone tells you where you can or cannot sendmoney. PGP key molecular F9B70769 fingerprint 9CDD C0D3 20F8 279F 6BE0 3F39 FC49 2362 F9B7 0769
myself
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chaos is fun... damental :)
LegendaryActivity: 938Merit: 1000chaos is fun... damental :) Re: BITSTAMP SEPA account flagged - transfers TO Bitstamp blocked (BE + ES) August 10, 2013, 02:51:34 PM #16 what about taking funds OUT from bit stamp?
Los desesperados publican que lo inventó el rey que rabió, porque todo son en el rabias y mas rabias, disgustos y mas disgustos, pezares y mas pezares; si el que compra algunas partidas vé que baxan, rabia de haver comprado; si suben, rabia de que no compró mas; si compra, suben, vende, gana y buelan aun á mas alto precio del que ha vendido; rabia de que vendió por menor precio: si no compra ni vende y ván subiendo, rabia de que haviendo tenido impulsos de comprar, no llegó á lograr los impulsos; si van baxando, rabia de que, haviendo tenido amagos de vender, no se resolvió á gozar los amagos; si le dan algun consejo y acierta, rabia de que no se lo dieron antes; si yerra, rabia de que se lo dieron; con que todo son inquietudes, todo arrepentimientos, tododelirios, luchando siempre lo insufrible con lo feliz, lo indomito con lo tranquilo y lo rabioso con lo deleytable.Orange County prosecutors declined Tuesday to file charges against an Anaheim police officer who shot a 23-year-old parolee in the back, saying the officer believed the man was going for a weapon when he reached for his waistband.
David Raya, 23, was killed by two gunshots to his "rear torso" during a foot chase by Anaheim police Aug. 16, 2011. Prosecutors theorized that the man may have been trying to discard a drug pipe as officers chased him.
Prosecutors determined that Anaheim police investigator Bruce Linn was not criminally culpable for Raya’s death when he shot him with a rifle and that the officer had acted in self-defense.
Anaheim police have fatally shot five people this year, sparking streets protests, violence and unrest in the community. There have been calls for civilian oversight of the department, particularly from the city’s large Latino community.
Raya’s family has filed a claim against the city, alleging that the 23-year-old was shot in the back by an officer who is a member of crime task force that they contend operates as a death squad.
Senior Dist. Atty. Alison Gyves noted that Linn was searching for Raya, a gang member on parole for assault with a firearm and described as armed and dangerous.What was supposed to be a straight forward renovation job on a city-owned heritage property is turning into a money pit.
The original cost of the century-old Public Gardens cottage has increased eleven times.
Once home to the garden’s superintendent, the two-storey brick building is about to undergo a $1.6-million renovation.
A routine brickwork repointing job revealed dangerous wood rot throughout the building and mould.
“It’s not safe right now with the rotten wood. There’s been some temporary pinning put on it to keep it safe. But it absolutely needs to be fixed,” said Halifax’s manager of facility development, Richard MacLellan.
City council is expected to approve the first big contract on Tuesday, an $880,000 award to Masontech to completely remove and rebuild three sides of brick work.
The building, nestled on the corner of Bell Road and Sackville Street, also needs structural repairs and asbestos removal.
MacLellan said it’s worth saving.
“Immediately upon looking at the numbers and the value of replacing the building the logical answer would be to tear it down. However we have very strong heritage policies in HRM and this is a very important building,” he said.
The exterior work — including sandstone, granite and copper detailing — is expected to take four months.Donald Trump’s latest bombshell, claiming the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to get us into the Iraq War, is just him doing wheelies on the way to the nomination. He’s apparently decided it would be fun to taunt the entire GOP by demonstrating that he can say anything and his voters won’t care.
I wish he’d stop showing off, the little scamp, but maybe the GOP establishment will finally get the message that voters have been waiting a really long time for a candidate who would put Americans first. Not donors, not plutocrats, not foreigners, and certainly not foreign plutocrats (i.e., Fox News).
Trump is the first presidential candidate in 50 years who might conceivably: (1) deport illegal aliens, (2) build a wall, (3) block Muslim immigration, (4) flout political correctness, (5) bring manufacturing home, and (6) end the GOP’s neurotic compulsion to start wars in some godforsaken part of the world.
That’s all that matters! Are you listening yet, RNC?
There is not another candidate who agrees with Trump on all these positions. Maybe one issue, but not all of them — and if it’s immigration, they would be lying.
Even Ted Cruz still refuses to say he’d deport illegal aliens (unless they’re arrested for breaking some other law), build a wall (instead he talks about “border security,” which is code for: No Wall), or reduce legal immigration at all.
Trump is like a greatest-hits album. The two political parties are the record companies, refusing to put all the hits on one album and instead forcing us to choose between Republicans who will depress wages through immigration and bad trade deals, or Democrats who pretend to care about working-class Americans while sacralizing abortion and gay marriage.
Trump is right about President Bush not keeping us safe — though not about his “Bush lied” argument that makes me want to strangle him. This is what Trump said last October on “Coyote News Sunday” (FNC) about how things would have been different on 9/11 under President Trump:
“Well, I would have been much different, I must tell you. … I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I’m extremely tough on people coming into this country. I believe that if I were running things, I doubt … that those people would have been in the country.”
And that was before Trump announced his plan for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration! (By contrast, as governor of Florida, Jeb! aggressively pushed a bill to allow illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses, less than three years AFTER 13 of 19 hijackers used Florida driver’s licenses to board the planes on 9/11.)
It is apparently considered less controversial to send a million troops to the Middle East than to stop printing visas for would-be terrorists.
It’s not just George W. Bush’s open-borders policy that cries out for re-examination. During a debate with Al Gore one year before the 9/11 attack — committed by Arabs on U.S. commercial airlines — he pre-emptively denounced the racial profiling of Arabs by airport security.
The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that “the ‘racial profiling’ issue might help Bush win Michigan.” (Good call, WSJ! Bush lost Michigan, anyway.)
In June 2001 — three months before the attack committed by Arabs on U.S. commercial airlines — the Bush administration undertook a study to ensure that Arabs were not being disproportionately stopped by airport security.
When U.S. Airways ticket agent Michael Tuohey laid eyes on Mohamed Atta on the morning of 9/11, he got a “chill” and thought to himself, “If this guy doesn’t look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does.” But then, he says, he gave himself a politically correct “slap,” and handed Atta his ticket.
Atta proceeded to murder 3,000 Americans. But at least no undue scrutiny of Arabs was taking place at U.S. Airports!
The Marco Rubios, Nikki Haleys, Paul Ryans, Jeb!, Zeppo and Shemp Bushes of the GOP say: “Vote for me — we may have a terrorist attack, but at least we’ll know we did the right thing!” Trump says: “I’m going to protect you.”
That’s why it doesn’t matter when Trump pops off and says things that are not conservative orthodoxy — or even true!
Even if you think Trump is a libertine, shallow narcissist, you know he will do what no other Republican will: Go to Washington, kick ass, mock political correctness, build a wall, deport illegals, bring manufacturing home, and end the GOP’s peculiar fixation with remaking the Muslim world.
This is our last chance. It’s similar to the “point of no return” global warming alarmists keep talking about, except our data isn’t fake.
At our current rate of immigration/transformation, if we don’t break the donor fever grip now, we never will. This kind of correction isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.
The GOP didn’t hear us with Eric Cantor, with the 2014 election or with John Boehner. After all that, they still gave us Nikki Haley and Paul Ryan. President Trump is the last and only message they will understand.
COPYRIGHT 2016 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL UCLICKSo you’ve cleaned out your closet and ended up with a big bag of clothing (or three) that you don’t like, don’t fit, or simply no longer need. What on earth do you do with it?
The fashion industry is now being counted as one of the world’s biggest polluters, right behind Big Oil, so making sure you dispose of old clothing properly is an important step toward mitigating its environmental effects.
Here’s a step-by-step checklist for all of your discarded duds.
1. Divide and Conquer
First, sort your stuff into three piles: great condition, good condition and poor condition. Great-condition clothing looks new, has retained its shape perfectly, and bears no signs of wear and tear. Usable-condition clothing may be a little bit faded or worn but still in wearable condition with no stains or holes. Poor-condition clothing is stained, threadbare or has holes in it.
2. Clothing Swaps and Consignment Stores
Great-condition clothing and accessories are excellent candidates for clothing swaps or consignment stores. To host a clothing swap, invite a handful of good friends who wear approximately the same size to bring their closet surplus, and you can exchange clothes among you.
Alternately, bring your items to a consignment store in your area. They’ll sell them for you and give you a portion of the proceeds.
3. Thrift Stores/Charity Donations
Good-condition clothing can be donated to a thrift store like Value Village, Goodwill or Salvation Army. There, the clothing is sorted, priced and placed on the sales floor for secondhand shoppers to find. Oftentimes thrift stores use the proceeds from the sale of these items to support charity initiatives.
4. Clothing Recycling
You really shouldn’t donate your poor-condition clothing to a thrift store — you’ll waste their time when it comes time to sort, and if you’re getting rid of it because of its condition, you can bet no one else will want to wear it, either.
For those stained, torn or otherwise unwearable textiles, clothing recycling is the answer. Find a drop-off spot near you using our Recycling Locator.
Some companies like Patagonia accept their own clothing items back for recycling, while fashion retailers like H&M and American Eagle Outfitters offer in-store clothing recycling bins to collect textiles and accessories of any brand, so recycling your clothing is now as easy as a trip to the mall.
Find Recycling Guides for Other Materials
Frequent Clothing & Accessory Recycling Questions
How can I find a consignment store?
A simple Internet search will likely turn up dozens of local stores in your city or town. (An added benefit of using a consignment store is that your dollars stay local.)Kraft Heinz plans to shutter up to three factories and could lay off some 950 people in New York as the company broadens a cost-cutting effort that aims to shave $1.5 billion in spending by 2017, sources told Crain's.
The potential closures, which could come as soon as next week, affect former Kraft Foods Group plants in Avon, Walton and Campbell, all in upstate New York, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive, nonpublic information.
Kraft Heinz spokesman Michael Mullen confirmed that the New York factories “are under close review” and said “an announcement about their future will be communicated within the next week or so.” When asked if other facilities in other states also are under review, Mullen declined to comment.
The three New York facilities make products including Lunchables, Cool Whip, sour cream, cottage cheese and other cheese products that carry the Kraft brand. The Kraft portion of Kraft Heinz has 35 manufacturing plants throughout the U.S. and Canada, including three in Illinois.
The potential plant closures would come just three months after Northfield-based Kraft Foods Group was acquired by Pittsburgh-based H.J. Heinz in a megamerger completed in July. The deal was engineered by Heinz's owners, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, which control 51 percent of the new company.
Berkshire and 3G, which slashed thousands of jobs and shuttered a handful of manufacturing facilities at Heinz after taking the ketchup-maker private in 2013, giving the company some of the highest margins in the business, promised more cuts after taking over Kraft.
From the moment the merger was completed, the company has been in belt-tightening mode.
In a memo to employees dated July 13, Kraft Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees outlined a variety of "provisional measures" the company was taking to avoid unnecessary spending. That included instructing workers to print on both sides of paper, reuse office supplies like binders and file folders, and turn off computers before leaving the office. At its office in Northfield, the company stopped providing free Kraft snacks like Jell-O.
DOWNSIZING FROM BOTTOM TO TOP
Then in August, the ax fell. Kraft Heinz said it would fire about 2,500 people, including about 700—or more than a third—of its workers at Kraft's headquarters in Northfield. The company had a total of about 46,600 employees, including about 1,900 in Northfield, prior to the dismissals. That was down from about 2,100 Kraft employees from before the merger.
Kraft Heinz also is downsizing from its 700,000-square-foot headquarters building in Northfield to smaller offices in the Aon Center in downtown Chicago. It plans to sublease the space to medical products company Medline.
The food giant, the third-largest food company in North America, owns legacy brands including Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Heinz baked beans and Velveeta that face unprecedented sales pressure amid changing consumer tastes. Nevertheless, the combination was seen as attractive because of the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year by combining back-office operations and functions like manufacturing and distribution.
At the time of the job cuts, Mullen said streamlining the combined organization was part of the process of integrating the two businesses. "This new structure eliminates duplication to enable faster decisionmaking, increased accountability and accelerated growth," he said.Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday that he would implement "many of the suggestions" floated by a New York couple who took out full-page ads in two local Silicon Valley newspapers.
The letter, signed by "two VERY satisfied Tesla owners" from Southold, New York, asks for the car's cupholders to be moved forward, its center console to be redesigned, and sensors that beep to alert drivers when objects are close, among other requests. It was printed in both the Palo Alto Daily News and Palo Alto Weekly.
The couple also thought Musk could do a bit better in the marketing department.
“People are fascinated by my Tesla, and my wife’s Tesla,” they wrote. “Promotion of your cars to the general public could only have a positive effect, creating many additional enthusiastic Tesla owners.”
In response to the very public customer feedback, Musk tweeted a photo of the open letter to his nearly 860,000 followers.
Ad taken out in Palo Alto Daily by two Model S owners is right. Many of the suggestions will be implemented soon. pic.twitter.com/cF43PvJDgQ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2014
Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson told The Huffington Post the company did not have a timeline for when the new features would be available.
"We are fortunate to have such passionate customers," Georgeson wrote in an email.Back in 2011, eLZhi and producer Will Sessions re-envisioned Nas’ classic debut Illmatic on their critically-acclaimed ELmatic project. Inspired by their effort, and the countless fans asking him to do so, Skyzoo has teamed up with Antman Wonder — who is behind some of my favorite Add-2 tracks — for a fitting tribute to JAY Z’s classic debut, simply titled An Ode to Reasonable Doubt (or AOTRD for short).
When asked about Reasonable Doubt and what it means to them as an emcee and producer, Sky and Ant had the following to say.
For me, Reasonable Doubt was and is one of the most cohesive bodies of work in hip hop, period. The way Hov painted exactly what that side of the fence was, from the highs and celebrations, to the lows and worried phone calls, to the emotions of someone truly with the weight of the world on their shoulders. It was as honest and clear cut as you can get. As a fan it made me wanna learn every word, and as an artist it further shaped my storytelling and approach to writing. – Skyzoo Reasonable Doubt further defined Hip-Hop for me. It came out at a time where street rap was grimy and visceral; and then came RD, which was cinematic and ironically eloquent in its own way. The production staff on it was legendary and it helped shape the way I approach music. – AW
The nine-track tribute project is set to release at noon on Hov’s birthday (December 4th) via Loyalty Digital Corp.How much beer would the Beer Store store if the Beer Store were not the exclusive private storer of beer? Chris Selley, Matt Gurney, and NOW’s Jonathan Goldsbie say it doesn’t much matter, since it’s not the government’s job to protect a monopoly.
Selley: It was just over two months ago we debated the state of liquor politics in Ontario. Since then, it has gotten real in the proverbial Whole Foods parking lot. Canada’s National Brewers, a lobby group for the 100% foreign-owned Beer Store, released a laugh-out-loud funny television ad in which a corpulent, morally bankrupt convenience store employee sends some giddy youngsters on their way with a night’s worth of booze — declaring “have fun, boys.” And in a delightful illustration of social media’s capacity for positive
mob behaviour, Canada’s National Brewers were met with an avalanche of concerted but good-natured mockery. And the governing Liberals’ position? Well, they’re doubling down on their plan to open 10 kiosk-size outlets, with separate cashiers and independent hours, in supermarkets. I am daring to dream that won’t be nearly enough, even for status quo-loving Ontario. If I told you that five years from today, you might be able to pick up a six-pack in a convenience store — other than in the 200-plus convenience stores where you can already do so, I mean — would you call me crazy?
Gurney: Yes. Sorry, but yes. The idea makes perfect sense, and I just can’t see it happening. (Though, Lordy, I’d love to be wrong.) Not to come off as too narcissistic, but the problem is me. I am the problem. The absurdity of The Beer Store — as Chris notes, a 100% foreign-owned near-monopoly operating in Ontario — is evident. It’s outrageous. It’s indefensible. And when I think about it, I get mildly annoyed and then something distracts me and then … well, I just forget about it. The problem, I guess, is that my Beer Store experiences are generally pleasant. There’s one not far from my current house, and even closer to the one I’m set to soon move into. The hours aren’t great, I admit, but I’m never that desperate for a beer on short notice. My customer service experiences there are generally pleasant. Something like The Beer Store ought to make me a lot angrier than it does, just on philosophical grounds, but I guess the Ontario in me is just too strong. I would love to be able to buy a six-pack at a convenience store or the local Longos, but … I just don’t care that much, and I think I’m speaking for most here. I feel shame (but only in the amount permitted by the Ontario Emotion Ration Board).
Goldsbie: I make a point of not shopping at The Beer Store: if I must choose between a public monopoly and a private monopoly (as, for the most part, we must), I pick the public. But on a more practical level, The Beer Store serves its own interests far ahead of its customers’; each outlet is set up to funnel sales toward the major brands controlled by its owners and to make it as difficult as possible to discover new or different products that compete. In principle and practise, it should be offensive to both those who advocate for less government intervention in the market and those who advocate for more. And I can’t even commend their administration of the province’s bottle recycling system, at least not since my local store began insisting that customers sort their returns in a chilly, sticky tent plunked down in the parking lot. Sadly, however, Canada’s National Brewers don’t maintain a monopoly on reckless, status-quo-protecting fear-mongering. Their archenemy, the Ontario Convenience Stores Association, is just as guilty of same when it comes to their own interests. One day, I’ll get around to sharing my recording of the OCSA push poll I received arguing against increases to tobacco taxes.
Selley: I do love the idea that The Beer Store is some kind of corporate hero for managing to successfully recover bottles for money. Last I looked, every province — including some partially deregulated ones — do just as well. But I wouldn’t say the OCSA is nearly as guilty of chicanery on this file. That may be because they have superior public relations people who can see they’re winning this particular battle without firing a shot. But I’m perfectly willing to stand beside the hardworking, honest retailers who just want to sell us a damn bottle.
Gurney: My emotions are temporarily overpowering my Ontario upbringing. Dammit, why can I buy fireworks at my local convenience store — they are stocking up ahead of Victoria Day and displaced all the diapers, which sucked when my toddler ran of diapers — but I can’t buy a six-pack of Blue? The government is cool with me buying explosives from the same place I can buy cigarettes, hard-core pornography and lottery tickets. But a beer? That’s nuts. I’m going to enjoy this feeling of outrage for the 47 seconds it will last.
Goldsbie: I maintain that it’s not unlike Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic school system: the very concept of it combusts under the hot light of scrutiny, but the moment your attention’s turned away, it becomes just another piece of bad policy with which you can live. The reaction to the monumentally terrible ad Chris mentions above has been the closest we’ve come to a public blow-up in recent memory. But unless the Beer Store follows up with something even worse, I can’t see how the sentiment could continue to build momentum. There needs to be a flashpoint, and there just isn’t one yet.Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends by Tom Segev, translated from the Hebrew by Ronnie Hope Doubleday, 482 pp., $35.00
Simon Wiesenthal’s legend is well known: the survivor of a succession of concentration camps, he was the Nazi hunter who tracked down Adolf Eichmann and brought to justice such monsters as Franz Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka, the most murderous of death camps, and Hermine Braunsteiner, the whip-wielding “Mare of Majdanek.” He was received by presidents at the White House, and had among his more surprising friends in high places German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and, once he had been released from Spandau prison, Albert Speer.
Countless honors were bestowed on him, among them the first honorary degree granted a Jew by the Jagellonian University in Kraków in its 610 years, the US Congressional Gold Medal, and the Golden Cross of Honor that the president of Austria brought to Wiesenthal’s bedside when he was nearing death. A prolific author of autobiographical texts1 as well as two novels and other writings, he has been the subject of several biographies, the most recent and the most fully documented of which is Tom Segev’s wise and balanced work. An Israeli historian and journalist, Segev had access to previously unavailable materials, including those lodged in the Israeli State Archive. Surprisingly, he was also privy to documents in the possession of the US official Eli M. Rosenbaum, Wiesenthal’s Inspector Javert–like tormentor during the last fifteen years of his life.2
Practically everything known about Wiesenthal up to May 5, 1945, when American troops liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he was a prisoner, is based on what he said in his books and countless articles, speeches, and interviews.3 By then he was thirty-six; he had been through the hell of four camps. The discrepancies in his accounts, however, matched by a tendency to embroider and exaggerate, fed an undercurrent of skepticism about Wiesenthal’s recollections, and opened him to slurs impugning his conduct during the war.
Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908, in Buczacz, Galicia, a very small town southeast of the city then called Lemberg. Lemberg became Lwów at the end of World War I, as a Polish city. It is now Ukrainian Lviv. There was no lack of Jews to exterminate in Galicia. Before World War I, some 870,000 Jews lived there, about 20 percent of the population. Buczacz, birthplace of the Hebrew writer S.Y. Agnon as well, had a population of nine thousand, of whom six thousand were Jews,4 the balance divided evenly between Ukrainians and Poles.5 Depending on which biography you read, Wiesenthal’s father was either a local agent for a sugar-manufacturing company or a wholesale commodity merchant dealing mostly in sugar. His uncle was a baker; his grandfather kept an inn.6 After World War II, Wiesenthal claimed that his parents had spoken German to each other, and that it was also the language he…INDEPENDENCE is now supported by the majority of under 60s, according to a new poll.
The Yougov poll, conducted for the Sunday Post, found that 59 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds, and 53 per cent of of 25- to 59-year-olds supported Scottish independence.
However, support for independence remains low amongst the over-60s, with only 32 per cent in favour.
Overall, the Yougov poll of 1,000 people, carried out last week, found support for independence now at 47 per cent.
Polling expert John Curtice, believes that there’s still a lot of ground to be made up.
The Strathclyde University professor said: “The nationalist movement probably needs to have 60 per cent support in the polls before it could be sure of winning.”
Yougov also asked their respondents if the SNP promising an independence referendum in the party’s 2016 Scottish Parliament manifesto would make them more or less likely to back the party. 15 per cent said they would not vote SNP, compared to 11 per cent who said they would.
Curtice warned that not offering a referendum could be risky for the SNP. “The support and enthusiasm the SNP now enjoy might dissipate if an independence vote is taken off the table” he said.
The poll also asked Scots how they would vote in an EU referendum, 68 per cent said they would vote to remain in the EU. A UK-wide poll for the Sunday Times had 44 per cent of respondents wishing to remain in the EU, with 36 per cent voting to leave.
Stephen Gethins MP, the SNP’s Group Spokesperson and Shadow Minister for Europe, welcomed the result: “ |
been granted immigration status in Israel. "In this case, the state's decision to grant K. immigration status is problematic because the child resided at the Palestinian family's home in Jerusalem with the mother's consent, and the steps necessary in order to grant K. immigration status were never taken.
"We demand that the welfare authorities take the necessary steps that would benefit the child in order for K. to be released together with her mother and sisters. We further urge the state not to separate K. from the Palestinian family that raised her and not to deport her from Israel," Katz Mastbaum added.
According to Katz Mastbaum, "We must remember that K. is very attached to her Palestinian family. These are wonderful people who have taken care of K. during the past eight years without asking for anything in return. All they care about is the child's benefit."
Sabin Hadad, a spokesperson for the Population and Immigration Authority explained that "K. would not be able to be granted immigration status because she does not meet the criteria established by the government."
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and TwitterErica Garner, Gwen Carr
Erica Garner, left, daughter of chokehold death victim Eric Garner, and his mother Gwen Carr, talk to the press after attending a court hearing, in the Staten Island borough of New York, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
(Richard Drew)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Erica Garner is considering running for Congress against Rep. Daniel Donovan, the former Staten Island district attorney who oversaw the grand jury case involving her father's death in police custody, according to the New York Post.
"He's been promoted," Garner, 25, told the Post. "He had a platform off my dad's dead body to run for Congress, and that's why he did it. It was a political move."
Eric Garner, 43, of Port Richmond, died in police custody July 17 after officers attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on Bay Street in Tompkinsville.
A grand jury declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo last December in connection with Garner's death.
Donovan is running for re-election next year in the 11th Congressional District, which represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.
According to the Post, local politicians have urged Erica Garner to meet with officials to discuss a campaign strategy.The trailer for our 199th main range Doctor Who story is now online, for Doctor Who - Last of the Cybermen...
A trailer - either a downloadable MP3, or listenable directly through the story page - for May's Doctor Who - Last of the Cybermen is now online:
It's been ten years since the final assault on Telos, the last act of the Great Cyber War. Thanks to the Glittergun, humanity prevailed – and the half-machine Cybermen were utterly obliterated.
Out on the furthest fringes of the galaxy, however, they left their mark – in the form of a giant Cyber-head, hundreds of feet high. A monument? A memorial? A tomb? The Doctor, the Cybermen's most indefatigable adversary, sets out to investigate... but he fails to return to his TARDIS. Leaving the Ship, his two companions – brave Highlander Jamie MacCrimmon, and super-intelligent Zoe Heriot – find a stranger in the Doctor's place. A stranger in a coat of many colours, who insists that he's the Doctor – transposed in time and space with one of his former selves...
But why here? Why now? Has the universe really seen the last of the Cybermen..?
Doctor Who - Last of the Cybermen is out in May, ahead of June's 200th story in the main range, Doctor Who - The Secret History. Both stories can be pre-ordered now on CD or Download, or bought as part of money-saving Subscriptions, which also come with PDF scripts, extended download extras, and four specially commissioned Doctor Who - Subscriber Short Trips!Colombia will build a museum to showcase artefacts found in the wreckage of a Spanish galleon discovered near the historic Caribbean port city of Cartagena, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday.
The San Jose, thought by historians to be laden with emeralds and precious coins, sank in 1708. It was part of the fleet of King Philip V, who fought the English during the War of Spanish Succession.
"We will build a great museum here in Cartagena," Santos said on national television from Cartagena's naval base.
"Without a doubt, without room for any doubt, we have found, 307 years after it sank, the San Jose galleon," Santos said.
A team of international experts, the Colombian navy and the country's archaeology institute discovered the wreck last week near the island of Baru, the president said.
Sonar images have so far revealed bronze cannons made specifically for the ship, arms, ceramics and other artefacts.
Some 600 people died in the shipwreck, Santos said.
Archaeological excavation and scientific tests on the wreck will continue to ensure it can be properly preserved, Santos said.
The San Jose was the subject of a legal dispute between Colombia and Sea Search Armada (SSA), a U.S.-based salvage company. SSA said in 1981 it had located the area where the ship sank.
The company and the government agreed to split any proceeds from the wreckage, but the government later said all treasure would belong to Colombia, a view that was backed by a U.S. court in 2011.
Few government spokespeople will be able to speak further on the galleon until more investigations are completed, Santos said. It was unclear how much of the body of the ship remained and whether it would be brought to dry land.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Stephen Powell)The National Interest’s Harry Kazianis interviewed the chair of the Air-Sea Battle Senior Steering Group, Rear Admiral James G. Foggo, III. RADM Foggo is currently the Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy.
Kazianis: Over the last several years a spirited debate has taken place when it comes to the operational concept (OC) known as Air-Sea Battle (ASB). To this day there is still tremendous debate regarding ASB. The services, particularly yourself and the U.S. Navy as a whole, have worked to be open and honest concerning ASB. For once and for all, could you please describe for our readers what ASB is, its place in the future of America's armed forces, and why getting to a clear understanding of ASB is important?
Foggo: The ASB Concept is, simply put, a set of ideas that preserves freedom of access in the global commons in the face of emerging anti-access and area denial threats. It includes initiatives to improve doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership personnel and facilities within the Services’ purview to man, train and equip the Joint force.
An operational concept is a description of a method or scheme for employing military capabilities to attain specific objectives at the operational level of war. The overarching objective of the Air-Sea Battle Concept is to “gain and maintain freedom of action in the global commons.” The Air-Sea Battle Concept is not a strategy. Strategies, in contrast, describe ways and means to achieve a particular end or end state, such as deterring conflict, containing conflict, or winning a conflict.
The Air-Sea Battle Concept is about force development in the face of rising technological challenges. We seek to build, at the Service level, a “pre-integrated” joint force which empowers U.S. combatant commanders—along with allies and partners—to engage in ways that are cooperative and networked across the land, maritime, air, space and cyber domains and therefore to enhance our collective warfighting capability. Air-Sea Battle does not focus on a particular adversary or region. It is universally applicable across all geographic locations, and by addressing access challenges wherever, however and whenever we confront them.
As we continue to move forward, it is important to note that the ASB Concept and Implementation process is influencing the way the services man, train and equip their respective forces. In doing so, we are attempting to shape a joint force from the ground up, capable of assuring access where it matters, when it matters, that is poised to deliver prompt and credible combat power, if required, at a moment’s notice. This is one of the key takeaways about the concept and why a clear understanding of the concept is important.
Kazianis: Staying with ASB for the moment, there has been a series of articles speculating as to the costs of this budding OC. Some have noted a report totaling the cost of ASB at over $500 billion through 2023. While such a figure is certainly open for debate, is ASB affordable in a time of challenging defense budgets?
Foggo: The report by G-2 Solutions claims that the Services are projected to spend $524.5 billion dollars on ASB capabilities through 2023. Over half (53%) of that cost is on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program alone. While the JSF certainly enhances counter A2/AD capabilities, the JSF program far predates the ASB Concept. To say that ASB is the sole driving factor in costs like the JSF is a mischaracterization. No defense-spending portfolio associated with joint operational access exists within DoD. Creating such a portfolio would likely drive unneeded confusion because a well-defined investment portfolio necessarily relies on specific scenario assumptions to scope the portfolio. Air-Sea Battle is by definition an enabling concept to a myriad of potential situations.
The Air-Sea Battle Office was tasked with creating an operational concept that addresses the problems created while operating in an anti-access and area-denial environment. This includes solutions not only from new technology, but also from utilizing existing forces and programs more effectively.
While some new capabilities and technology may be required, most of the ASB initiatives will rely on current service programs as their foundation. Existing equipment may be used in different ways, while other systems may need to be modified or upgraded. A significant portion of the effort will focus on non materiel solutions such as training and doctrine development. It is important to note that the services will continue to seek efficiencies and eliminate unnecessary redundancies through careful scrutiny of capability requirements, doctrine development and integrated training opportunities.
Prior to the ASB Concept, thoughtful investments during the past decade have helped to equip the Joint Force with capabilities necessary to operate within an A2/AD environment. The ASB concept will ensure U.S. forces continue to advance the capabilities required to ensure operational access and decisive power projection in support of America's national interests and those of our allies and partners as the A2/AD environment continues to evolve.
The Defense Strategic Guidance clearly tasks the Services to prepare to project power despite antiaccess and area denial challenges and ultimately, it is the Service Chief’s responsibility (through the Secretary of Defense and the President) to take into account the full spectrum of recommendations and requirements, including those involving joint operational access and fiscal constraints, when presenting the annual defense budget to Congress.
Kazianis: Moving on to strategies and weapons that ASB is looking to counteract, mainly the growing global challenge of anti-access/area-denial weapons (A2/AD), much has been made of various weapons that are supposed "game changers." These include the now-infamous Chinese DF-21D, or as the press likes to refer to it, the "carrier-killer" and various other missile-based weapons that seem to challenge American power projection on the high seas. While much ink has been spilled on US efforts to negate such challenges against our own military our allies—especially in the Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific—face such challenges as well. In what ways are we working with our allies to lesson such challenges now and in the future?
Foggo: The ASB Office is actively engaged with our partners in exercises and wargames, as well as in our concept development. As ASB continues to mature, we are sharing applicable elements with our allies and partners to further our efforts ensuring integrated and effective coalition forces. Since a key component of effectiveness in contested environments will be greater interoperability of U.S. forces, we will continue to emphasize the importance of interoperability to our allies and partners. We welcome coalition support to field capabilities that deter or defeat A2/AD threats. We will continue to look for opportunities to integrate our efforts with our allies to ensure unfettered access to the global commons in the face of A2/AD threats.
Kazianis: My final question revolves around the budding UCLASS project. While there is obviously a tremendous amount of potential regarding an unmanned, stealthy combat aircraft aboard US Navy carriers there has been a great deal of debate in the press as to the role of such a plane. In your view, what roles and missions do you believe are vital for a fully developed and operational UCLASS aircraft? Do you see UCLASS as more of a hard-nosed A2/AD killer—something that can break into A2/AD battle networks with a good deal of stealthy capability armed with precision-guided weapons, or something else?
Foggo: The most vital capability the UCLASS brings to the ASB Concept is the ability to complement the Carrier Strike Group and its air wing with an organic, persistent and survivable ISR platform able to endure in an A2/AD environment.COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The billionaire CEO of the company behind Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works says he plans to demand civility from politicians he supports after President Donald Trump’s response to the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, rally.
L Brands founder Leslie Wexner says he was shocked Trump appeared to blame “both sides” for the violence that broke out at the white nationalist rally Aug. 12.
The Columbus Dispatch reports online that Wexner said in speaking to about 700 employees last month that he spent “a couple of sleepless nights” before deciding he needed to do something.
Wexner is one of the country’s top political donors. He said he’s “just had it” and won’t support political leaders or parties unless they send him a note saying “they’re going to behave civilly.”
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.comMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption There was devastation at the blast site, as the BBC's Sebastian Usher explains
Egypt's public prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, has been killed in a bomb attack on his car in Cairo, officials say.
Mr Barakat died of his wounds in hospital after the bombing in the suburb of Heliopolis, a government spokesman told the BBC.
State media said that at least eight others were also hurt in the attack.
Mr Barakat has sent thousands of Islamists for trial since the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
'Car bomb'
Hundreds of Islamists have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, as part of a crackdown on supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Jihadist militants have meanwhile stepped up their attacks on Egypt's security forces.
Mr Barakat is the most senior figure to have been targeted for assassination since a 2013 attempt on the life of the then-interior minister.
Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption One of Mr Barakat's bodyguards said that the explosion had felt like an "earthquake"
Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Barakat had received death threats in the past
"He [Mr Barakat] has passed away," Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind told AFP news agency.
The Egyptian state news agency Mena said that he had died after undergoing critical surgery. A medical official at the hospital told the Associated Press that Mr Barakat had received multiple shrapnel wounds to the shoulder, chest and liver.
Monday's attack involved a car bomb or an explosive device placed under a parked car near Mr Barakat's convoy, bomb squad chief Gen Mohamed Gamal told AFP.
The explosion sent black smoke rising over the neighbourhood and set fire to nearby trees. Images from the scene showed several damaged vehicles and bloodstains on the streets.
At least three civilians were killed, according to Mena. Witnesses said that the blast had been strong enough to shatter the windows of nearby homes.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption At least three civilians were killed in the attack
At the hospital, an injured bodyguard said that the explosion had hit Mr Barakat's convoy on the way to the office.
"There was glass flying everywhere. It was as if there was an earthquake," he said, according to AFP.
Mr Barakat had received death threats in the past.
The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State militant group recently called for attacks on the judiciary, after the hanging of six militants.The House Judiciary Committee is about to decide whether to approve a new version [.pdf] of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865), a bill that would force online platforms to police their users’ speech more closely.
The new version of FOSTA improves a deeply problematic bill, but it still represents the same fundamentally flawed approach to fighting criminal activity online. Like the earlier version of FOSTA—and like SESTA (S. 1693), its sibling bill in the Senate—the new version of FOSTA would do nothing to fight traffickers. What it would do is create more risk of criminal and civil liability for online platforms, resulting in them pushing legitimate voices offline.
Closing Online Spaces Won’t End Trafficking
Automated filters can be useful as an aid to transparent, human moderation, but when they’re given the final say over who can and can’t speak online, innocent users are invariably pushed offline.
One of the most egregious problems with FOSTA and SESTA is the difficulty of determining whether a given posting online was created in aid of sex trafficking. Even if you can assess that a given posting is an advertisement for sex work—which can be far from obvious—how can a platform determine whether force or coercion played a role? Under SESTA, that uncertainty would force platforms to err on the side of censorship.
SESTA supporters consistently underestimate this difficulty, even suggesting it should be trivial for web platforms to build bots that remove posts in aid of sex trafficking but keep everything else up. That’s simply not true: automated filters can be useful as an aid to transparent, human moderation, but when they’re given the final say over who can and can’t speak online, innocent users are invariably pushed offline.
The House Judiciary Committee appears to have attempted to sidestep this problem, but it’s potentially created a larger problem in the process. That’s because the new version of FOSTA isn’t primarily a sex trafficking bill; it’s a prostitution bill. This bill would expand federal prostitution law such that online platforms would have to take down any posts that could potentially be in support of any sex work, regardless of whether there’s any indication of force or coercion, or whether minors were involved.
The bill includes increased penalties if a court finds that the offense constituted a violation of federal sex trafficking law, or that a platform facilitated prostitution of five or more people. As Professor Eric Goldman points out in his excellent analysis of the bill, the threshold of five prostitutes would implicate nearly any online platform that facilitates prostitution. If a prosecutor could convince a judge that a platform had had the “intent” to facilitate prostitution, then those enhanced penalties would be on the table.
It’s easy to see the effect that those extreme penalties would have on online speech. The bill would push platforms to become more restrictive in their treatment of sexual speech, out of fear of criminal liability if a court found that they’d had the intent to facilitate prostitution. Ironically, such measures would make it more difficult for law enforcement to find and stop traffickers.
Section 230 Is Still Not Broken
Some supporters of SESTA and FOSTA wrongly claim that Section 230 (the law protecting online platforms from some types of liability for their users’ speech) prevents any civil lawsuits against online intermediaries for user-created material that they host. That’s not true. Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com set a standard for when a platform loses Section 230 immunity in civil litigation—when the intermediary has contributed to the illegal nature of the content. As the Ninth Circuit said: “A website helps to develop unlawful content, and thus falls within the exception to Section 230, if it contributes materially to the alleged illegality of the conduct.”
We think the authors of this new version of FOSTA attempted to acknowledge the Roommates.com line of cases that discuss when a platform will lose Section 230 immunity against a civil claim. However, courts assume that Congress doesn’t write superfluous language. With that in mind, the new FOSTA can be read to authorize civil claims against platforms for user-generated content beyond what existing case law has allowed. The bill would allow civil suits against platforms that were responsible for “the creation or development of all or part of the information or content provided through any interactive computer service.”
That distinction between contributing to part of the content and materially contributing to the illegal nature of the content is an extremely important one. The former could describe routine tasks that online community managers perform every day. It’s dangerous to pass a bill that could create civil liability for the everyday work of running a discussion board or other online platform. The liability would be too high to stay in business, particularly for nonprofit and community-based platforms.
Bottom Line: SESTA and FOSTA Are the Wrong Approach
With this new version of FOSTA, House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte and his colleagues on the Committee have clearly attempted to narrow the types of platforms that would be liable for third-party content that reflects sex trafficking. But a less bad bill is not the same thing as a good bill. Like SESTA, the proposed new FOSTA bill would result in platforms becoming more restrictive in how they manage their online communities. And like SESTA, it would do nothing to fight sex traffickers.
Supporting bills like FOSTA and SESTA might help members of Congress score political points with their constituents, but Congress must do better. It’s urgent that Congress seek real solutions to finding and apprehending sex traffickers, not creating more censorship online.
Take Action
Tell Congress: SESTA and FOSTA are the wrong solutionST. LOUIS - Somewhere between making a great impression in his rookie season, helping the St. Louis Blues reach the Western Conference Final and earning NHL All-Rookie honors, defenseman Colton Parayko still found time to hit the college textbooks.
On Friday, Parayko will graduate from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
“Hockey can only last so long. I’m going to have to work after hockey,” Parayko said. “Having a degree in my back pocket is obviously a bonus.”
The 23-year-old native of St. Albert, Alberta spent three years at the university before signing an entry-level contract with the Blues in 2015. He left school to join the team with seven courses still remaining.
During his rookie season in the NHL, he took three online classes in the fall semester, two during the spring semester and two more this summer.
“During the playoffs, I would go home and be thinking about hockey 24/7,” Parayko recalls. “When I got to the books, it freed my mind a little bit. It was almost a little stress relief, a way to take my mind off hockey for a couple of hours each day.”
While obtaining his degree was important to Parayko, it also was his promise to his parents when he became a professional athlete. “It was the smallest thing I can do for them,” he said.
Parayko ranked second among rookie defensemen in goals (9), assists (24) and points (33) in 2015-16. He led all rookies with a plus-28 rating, which ranked fifth overall in the League and set a franchise rookie record, so it’s highly unlikely Parayko will be applying for jobs any time soon. But when he does, he will have a background that will make him a good candidate for open positions in finance, marketing or human resources.
For now, though, the classes are done. The homework is finished and the last exam has been taken, and that’s cause for celebration.
“There isn’t a graduation ceremony, so I’ll probably just have my own,” Parayko said. “Maybe I’ll find a cap and gown and sit in my room. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but it feels good. It feels like a big accomplishment.”The "Right to Lie" movement claims credit for shutting down a clinic that closed because the physician has cancer, while doing nothing to actually lessen the need for abortion.
I’m inviting you to see why the so-called Right To Life movement is the hoax of the century.
I have been involved in the complex and fascinating work of providing abortion services since 1975. Despite the violence and the crazy politics, this is extraordinary work that has brought me in touch with extraordinary people. One of those is Bill Harrison, a doctor who has practiced in Fayetteville, Arkansas for nearly 20 years.
If you were searching for the most progressive community in the country, you probably wouldn’t choose Fayetteville. Yet women there need abortions just as women all over the country. And they have been grateful to have Bill’s excellent medical attention and warm heart. Dr. Harrison is one of the most courageous and eloquent people I know. He wrote about his career:
“I have dared to ride the tiger. This tiger is ignorance, intolerance and hatred incarnated in some of the anti-abortion Religious Right…I have chosen to ride this tiger unquietly, raking its side with verbal spurs, swinging my hat and whooping like a cowboy for the past 15 years.” Get the facts, direct to your inbox. Subscribe to our daily or weekly digest. SUBSCRIBE
Over the years Bill Harrison has, not surprisingly, been the target of some horrible harassment by the RTL (I won’t give them the name they have chosen for themselves, because they gave up that privilege when they started murdering us).
Worse than that, he has been battling Leukemia. This summer he finally had to close his office as he went into Hospice Care. His illness has not been a secret. Everyone knows that he never would have given up or closed his office by choice. No one thinks he was defeated or intimidated by the self-righteous folks who show up on his sidewalk so certain they know what God wants every woman to do.
Yet these people are so without shame that they are celebrating the closing of Bill Harrison’s office as some kind of gift from God resulting from their activities. Posted July 28, 2010 on the 40 days for Life Newsletter:
“I had to share amazing news that, with God’s grace, could be repeated in YOUR community. I just received word from our local 40 Days for Life campaign leaders in Fayetteville, Arkansas — and got confirmation from their local media — that their city’s one and only surgical abortion facility is CLOSING! Praise God! During three previous 40 Days for Life campaigns in Fayetteville, the abortionist grew more and more aggressive towards the prayer volunteers, taunting and ridiculing them in person — and in the media … … but they did not react; they persisted in peaceful vigil and remained to pray for the unborn, the women entering the facility — and especially for the abortionist himself. And NOW … that facility is closing down!”
When I first read this I was so furious and disgusted that they could be gleefully congratulating themselves and praising God for the terminal illness of my friend. Besides being far removed from any semblance of Christian Love, it was duplicitous to suggest to their supporters and donors that it was their actions that had caused the clinic in Fayetteville to close.
Then because I am a bleeding heart liberal I found myself pitying them because they are so hateful and they have tried so hard to control women for so many years with such little success. They must be terribly frustrated. Then I got angry again because, of course, that frustration has hypocritically led to anti-abortionists murdering 8 people in the name of life.
Then a huge light bulb went off in my head. It’s not that I didn’t know this before, but I found myself amazed that the antis have gotten away with this for so long. The RTL has succeeded in one of the most effective hoaxes of modern times—they have managed to con much of the public into believing that they are a morally-motivated group that loves life, loves babies and wants to prevent abortions.
BUT IT IS A LIE THAT THE RTL WANTS FEWER ABORTIONS. PERHAPS THE MORE CORRECT NAME FOR THEM IS ‘RIGHT TO LIE’.
How can I say that?
RTLs need abortion the way fire fighters need fires.
Picketing an abortion clinic to try to stop abortions is as effective as picketing an airport to try to get more people to vacation locally. It’s all show. And it is a cruel, bullying, vicious, smug and self-righteous show.
We all know that the RTL movement has enough politicians (mostly Republican) who vote lock step with them that they could change women’s reproductive health care overnight. All they would need to do is to support a few measures that are already supported by most Democrats. Here in no particular order, are a few simple things they could support that would be guaranteed to result in fewer untimely pregnancies, and hence fewer abortions in no specific order:
1. Make long-acting, effective reversible birth control methods like IUDs available free of charge to any women who want them. These birth control methods are effective for 5 to 10 years and don’t require a woman to remember to do anything in order to be protected from pregnancy. They can be used by women of any age. If a woman wants to get pregnant, she simply has the IUD removed and her normal fertility returns. This birth control method is widely used in Europe, but quite expensive and less frequently used in this country.
2. Cover all reproductive health care including all methods of birth control, infertility, tubal ligation, and vasectomy, under affordable health insurance.
3. Create excellent and affordable childcare so that women who want to have children can also make a living to support them.
4. Make sure young people learn how to create successful relationships as well as how to be responsible with their sexuality. That will give them the tools to create healthy families and be good parents with enough resources to care for their kids when the time is right.
5. Promote vasectomy as a very safe and inexpensive method of permanent birth control for men. This would be especially helpful for couples who have completed their families so that a late and unexpected pregnancy doesn’t throw everyone into emotional turmoil.
6. Increase research into developing safer, more effective and long lasting methods of birth control.
7. Make sure the Morning After Treatment is easily available, inexpensive, and covered by health care insurance.
8. Require by law that all pharmacies either fill prescriptions for birth control and Morning After Treatment, or else inform over the phone, in advertisements, and by posted signs that they are Anti Choice Pharmacies, and the location of the nearest pharmacy that respect a woman’s choices.
Now that I see this so clearly, my plan is to print out this list and make sure that every little grandmother with her rosary, and every obnoxious, loud, angry man with his bull-horn, and every self-righteous seminary student waving a Bible, and every teenage girl with her chastity ring and her secret sex life standing between a woman and her own moral choice REALLY HAVE TO FACE that they are not doing any of the things that could actually lessen the need for abortion. And they will have to face that either they have been duped into giving their time to insult, intimidate, and harm women OR that they are part of perpetrating one of the most insidious, cruel,and successful hoaxes of our modern day.Untitled a guest Mar 8th, 2014 297 Never a guest297Never
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hot girl” persona. Just talk to her like you already understand that (a) she’s beautiful, and you both know it, (b) she’s felt ambivalent about her beauty for years, and (c) she’d like to be appreciated for things she’s achieved in her life through her own efforts, not through winning the genetic lottery of physical attractiveness.
Yet here is the great irony about female beauty: she’s still very self-conscious about her face and her body and her clothes and her accessories. Frankly, she doesn’t really understand why you’re attracted to her. This holds true even for a very good-looking woman, because she compares herself to the world’s most beautiful models and actresses, air-brushed to perfection, staring her down from the cover of every women’s magazine and billboard. She doesn’t typically consider what men actually find attractive or she misunderstands it completely.
Most women think that men are most attracted to the rail-thin models or skinny actresses that grace the covers of the magazines they buy. They’re wrong. Studies show that most men are attracted to women with curves and meat on their bones; the high-fertility hourglass shapes (like Kim Kardashian, Sofia Vergara, or Halle Berry), not low-fertility apple shapes or no-fertility chopstick shapes. Also, guys prefer women who are physically healthy and capable, with strong muscles, bones, connective tissues, and immune systems, because this predicts being a sexually energetic girlfriend; a capable, protective mother; and a long-lived partner. (Think Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Biel, Rhona Mitra, or Jennifer Garner…) Men want just the right amount of fat, in the right places, on a strong, healthy frame.
Unfortunately, most women think the male conception of beauty is binary: “fat” (bad) or “thin” (good). So they diet using bad health advice and spotty willpower to strive for the supermodel plank shape, and they lose both their cues of fertility (boobs and butt) and their cues of capability (muscle), undermining their attractiveness.
Remember, she didn’t evolve to be attracted to women or their feminine traits, so she’s sort of mystified that you could find her sexually desirable in the first place. It just doesn’t make sense to her. There’s a part of her that was incredulous during puberty when boys were starting to notice her, and that part is still there. She’s got a bit of impostor syndrome about her own erotic power.
This self-consciousness extends to nearly every aspect of her appearance, including many areas of her body and most of what she wears. Women put a lot of thought into their appearance. Everything they wear and display is probably a conscious choice. Every choice is a statement—but not every statement succeeds. Yet often, women can’t tell if they’ve struck the right balance between formal and casual, tight and loose, sexy and slutty, classical and avant-garde, earnest and ironic. Are they projecting “sexy vamp” or “meth-head jail bait”? Are they projecting “sophisticated Brooklyn hipster” or “Jersey Real Housewife”?
The problem is that they almost never get accurate feedback about what image they’re projecting. Her friends are too polite to tell her the truth one way or the other, and guys are too horny to tell the difference. Most guys are oblivious to clothes altogether, let alone the specific, conscious choices that women make. When it comes to what we wear, most of us just throw on whatever’s clean.
The fact that most guys can’t tell the difference between haute couture and Juicy Couture (or the respective differences in effort and taste) only amplifies her self-consciousness. And if you want to turn her self-consciousness up to 11, be the guy who can’t seem to pick up on her signs of interest in you either. That one is a killer for any young woman who has put herself out there. If a woman’s really interested in you, she will go out of her way to be around you and to be visible and available for you to approach. If you’re oblivious enough not to get those signals, she may even have the gumption to wave at you or ask her friend to say hi. Sadly, if you’re younger than twenty and/or have had sex with fewer than four women, you’ll probably overlook or misinterpret all of those female choice cues. Pay more attention next time.
She Is Worried About Her Social Status, and You’re a Big Part of That
Just like males compete against other males for resources that matter to males, females compete against other females for resources that matter to them. Typically, female-female competition in other animals is more about food, territory, or other resources required to reproduce.
But if you’re in a competitive mating market with a limited number of attractive, desirable males that all the women want, then women are going to compete against each other to get and keep those males. And they are going to use any tactics that work—seduction, manipulation, gossip, physical violence, verbal violence—anything that works to get those guys and make them stick around.
Science has started to delve into female-female competition in a serious way only in the last five years or so, and we still don’t understand its intricacies very well. For example, it might seem weird to men that female-female competition would ever involve something as arbitrary as the specific brands of high-heeled shoes or handbags that women wear and carry.
A woman’s entire social life could be ruined by one mean sexual rumor that has been perpetuated through social media by people who barely know her.
But think about guys bragging about which micro-brewed beer they like, which concealed-carry pistol they favor, or which car they drive. The red soles of Christian Louboutin heels and the stitching on Celine handbags don’t make that much difference to their function—but the same is true for the nuances of the Congress Street IPA, the Springfield XDs, and the Maserati Quattroporte. Both sexes are suckers for status-seeking through consumerism.
Guys know that some of our male-male competition tactics are stupid and ridiculous. Same with women. If you’re smart enough to be reading this, then the women who are smart enough to be good mates for you already understand most of the absurdities of female-female competition. They’re just as disgusted by stupid women as you are by stupid men. But just as you seek social approval from guys you don’t really respect, women seek social approval from women they don’t really respect—and they’re often appalled that they instinctively care so much about it.
This is where the similarities end, however. Women face much different social vulnerabilities. On average, they’re less anxious than men about being bad at athletics, fighting, or making money. But they worry a lot more about their sexual reputations among their acquaintances, coworkers, family, and neighbors. Specifically, they fret about the existential reputational threat posed by slut-shaming in modern society.
Women are vicious to each other about slut-shaming. A woman’s entire social life could be ruined by one mean sexual rumor that has been perpetuated through social media by people who barely know her. By the time a woman is out of college, she’s had years of hearing women rag on other women (in their class, in their dorm, in their sorority, at their work) for being sluts and whores. Imagine the anxiety that comes with an ill-timed one-night stand or an indiscreet friend with benefits. It can be paralyzing for some women.
As a guy or even just a functional member of society, it’s important to realize that female slut-shaming isn’t the product of some deep self-loathing or in-group hatred. Rather, it is as prevalent as it is because a promiscuous rival is a woman’s biggest threat to keeping a good boyfriend. “Sluts” aren’t derogated because women are uncomfortable with their sexuality; it’s because they’re experts at mate poaching, which is a very real threat to most women. So when women are thinking about short-term mating with you, they’re also thinking, “Who at school or work might find out about this?” and “How will I feel about this when I’m Skyping with my mom later this week?”
Female promiscuity also has a “tragedy of the commons” effect in the mating market. If one woman offers blowjobs on the second date, it’s harder for other women to keep them in reserve until the fourth date as their special treat. This creates a downward spiral of young women feeling like they have to offer more and more sex to more and more guys just to stay in the mating game. Thus, slut-shaming is a way of enforcing a more restrained sexual norm on other women so that not all women have to become more promiscuous than any of them would like.
The slut-shaming then seeps down into a woman’s emotional matrix, where it can fester and undermine her self-respect. That’s why women typically do not feel great about themselves the morning after a one-night stand unless they have a lot of self-confidence and sexual experience. There’s a reason they call the journey home the morning after a hookup the “walk of shame.”
Given the risk of slut-shaming, a typical female strategy is to pursue short-term mating quietly, with a lot of plausible deniability, adaptive self-deception, and circumstantial rationalization. Any credible excuse for casual sex can reduce the slut-shaming risk—“It was my birthday,” “I was drunk,” “It was spring break,” “It was Jamaica, after all,” “I’ve always admired his writing.”
These special-circumstance explanations help women create plausible deniability to other women that any given short-term sex was not representative of their usual longer-term mating strategy. Even the euphemisms that women use for sex (“hanging out,” “hooking up,” “partying,” “dating,” “going out together”) help obscure the key issue of whether intercourse actually happened.
Understanding all this is especially important if you meet a woman who’s with her friends. She knows they are watching and judging. If you talk to her for a few minutes and she’s charmed, maybe she’ll want to leave immediately to go have sex with you. Weirder things have happened. But she probably won’t do that, because she knows she will be accountable to her friends the next time they meet. They will ask about what happened. She’ll have to come up with a story about why fucking a guy within an hour of meeting him should not undermine her sexual reputation.
So guys in that situation should not try to steal a woman away from her friends as soon as possible. Instead, just get her number so you can text her about getting together later, in private. That way, she can make her own judgment about whether to tell her friends anything about the night, and she’s much better protected against the long-term effects of slut-shaming.
Her reputational concerns don’t just end with whether or not she had sex with you. If she starts dating you, that too will affect her status within her peer group, either positively or negatively. She can already anticipate how that will play out. Partly it depends on your qualities as a guy. Are you such an awesome guy that she’ll get an immediate status boost from you having chosen her? Or are you such an embarrassing mess that she’ll suffer a status loss—at least until she fixes you up and makes you presentable? Her friends will also judge her based on how you treat her. Are you sexually exploiting and emotionally neglecting her like that creep last year? That lowers her status. Or are you taking care of her like a potential Mr. Right would? That raises her status.
You can do everyone a huge favor before you even get to this stage by making an effort in that initial moment of contact to charm her friends—even the grumpy ones—so that they think you’re a cool, funny guy and give you the benefit of the doubt from the jump.
This is as much for you and her as it is for her friends, who face a harder job in evaluating you than she does. You were an unknown quantity after all, an uncertain bet. They need time to appreciate your strengths and accept your weaknesses. But while their jury is still out, your new girlfriend will suffer a temporary loss of status. Making a good impression right away speeds up their deliberation.
She’s Terrified of Pregnancy, Abandonment and STDs
(Photo: Tatiana Vdb/Flickr)
Pregnancy has been the most fundamental sex difference in mammals for more than seventy million years. Women get pregnant, men don’t. Most of the sex differences in human mating strategies emerge, directly or indirectly, from that basic fact.
It’s a complicated issue for young women. In the long term, pregnancy with a great husband is one of most women’s greatest aspirations—it can be a true blessing. But in the short term, unwanted pregnancy is one of their biggest fears. Getting knocked up can be a career-wrecking, family-shaming, mate-value-decreasing disaster, even if the baby daddy has great genes and promises to be there when the shitty diapers hit the fan.
We know from anthropological studies of hunter-gatherer societies that if a guy abandons a woman or he has a hunting accident and gets killed, the likelihood of her baby surviving drops alarmingly. It’s a potentially huge cost, and it’s why women have evolved a pretty good radar for detecting unreliable flakes.
Being stuck with a little kid also seriously lowers a woman’s attractiveness to future men. Whatever her mate value was before the baby, it’s going to drop afterward. Very few guys want to become a step-dad, and women understand this. Their instinctive worry about unwanted pregnancy is often stronger than their conscious trust in birth control. Female mammals have been getting pregnant since before the dinosaurs went extinct. Reliable rubber condoms weren’t invented until 1855. The Pill arrived only in 1960—that’s just two generations of reliable female birth control. That’s not enough time for evolution to have re-calibrated women’s mate preferences to this new reality that they could, in theory, have lots of casual short-term sex without getting pregnant.
Let’s say a woman gets through high school, college, and young adulthood unscathed on the pregnancy front. She still has to worry about the armada of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) sailing toward her aboard your dirty penis. Or at least that’s what’s going through her mind, unconsciously.
For STDs like gonorrhea, genital herpes, or HPV, it’s much easier for the viruses or bacteria to go from your penis to her vagina than vice versa. Even if you always use condoms, there’s still a risk of breakage, slippage, or incomplete coverage (if you have warts or sores near the base of your dick). When a guy gets an STD, it’s usually a temporary inconvenience. When a woman gets one, it can often lead to infertility, or it can infect the baby during birth. The STD stakes are simply higher for women. This is one reason why women evolved a stronger propensity for sexual disgust toward anything that tends to promote the spread of STDs: promiscuity, group sex, anal sex, whatever. If a sexual activity has a high STD risk but doesn’t bring her much pleasure, build an emotional connection with the guy, or help her pass along good genes to future babies, why would she do it?
You could be the nicest guy in the world with everything going for you, but if you roll up to a woman trying to run game looking or smelling like you just climbed out from the bottom of a third-world public toilet, these are some of the fears that may be driving her to keep her distance. In fact, she cares more about how you smell than you can imagine. It’s a mammalian thing—pheromones are real. And so is poor hygiene. Some women will decide they’re interested in hooking up with a guy just from his online dating profile, and the live, in-person date is basically to see if he smells as good chemically as he looked digitally.
She Is Just as Frustrated by Dating as You Are
Even apart from women’s physical vulnerabilities, sexual-reputation anxieties, and practical physical needs, women’s minds evolved to be different from men’s minds. They evolved to want different things at different times.
As a man, it’s easy to envy women’s sexual power if you’re ignorant of their romantic desires. You might think, like the seduction peddlers in the PUA community often do, that if you were an attractive woman, you could sleep with any guy you wanted, get laid every weekend, and it would be awesome. And you could. But you wouldn’t enjoy it. Because that’s not what women evolved to want—that behavior did not serve their evolutionary interests.
In fact, this might be hard for you to believe, but it’s true: it is much harder for a highly attractive woman to get what she wants, sexually and romantically, than it is for a highly attractive man.
Yes, every beautiful, bright woman knows she could seduce almost any man for a quick fuck. But that is rarely what she wants. She usually wants a boyfriend, at least. And her experience, if she is single, is that she has failed, over and over and over, to get the guys she really respects and admires, the great catches, the Mr. Rights, to stay with her as long as she wants.
If you don’t realize that even the very first hour of talking with her constitutes a type of relationship that needs some level of mutual respect and nurturance, she will especially not have sex with you.
This is due in no small part to her struggle to understand her own taste in men. There are some guys she thinks she should logically be attracted to but isn’t, while there are other guys she knows she should stay away from but she can’t.This internal conflict is more pronounced in younger women than older, more experienced women; but it never fully goes away, and it only makes dating that much more frustrating.
She’s also frustrated by the dating scene because time is running out. Most young women want it all—education, career, money, status, love, marriage, kids, meaning, and purpose. But they can’t see how all that could plausibly happen by age 40 when fertility plummets. Do the age-math. If the average American woman is about to graduate college (typically around age 24), she might think about being a doctor—but that’s another four years for an M.D. (until age 28), and 6 years of exhausting residency (age 34) before she can even start building her independent practice, which can take years. By the time most bright women are in their late 20s, they’ve realized that the clock is ticking for both their career plans and their family plans and that the two are not going to fit together very well. She’s going to be looking for a guy who can help her manage these heartbreaking trade-offs.
That’s why, if your early-stage relationship is going well—even just the first hour of chatting—she might want to have sex with you very soon. And if it’s not going well, she probably won’t have sex with you ever —even if you’re an otherwise attractive guy. If you don’t realize that even the very first hour of talking with her constitutes a type of relationship that needs some level of mutual respect and nurturance, she will especially not have sex with you.
If she does decide to have sex with you though, what she is most concerned about is not whether you will break the bed, but whether you’ll break her heart. Women naturally fall for guys they’ve had several orgasms with. The oxytocin magic works reliably. This makes them emotionally vulnerable. The better the sex and the more they like you, the faster it happens.
So will you fuck her for one night and never call her again? That hurts for a week (or longer, if she really liked you). Will you hook up for three months until she falls in love with you, then evaporate for no obvious reason? That will hurt her for a year (or longer).
All of this makes the dating scene incredibly frustrating for women. Understand that and you’ll understand why women aren’t bending over backward to satisfy your unquenchable sexual thirst.
She Has Sexual Fantasies Just like You Do, Except She Gets a Bunch of Shit for Hers
Men have phone sex; women talk dirty. Men are “bad boys”; women are “dirty girls.” Most women have that naughty, “dirty” side that drives many of their sexual fantasies. Most of those fantasies aren’t literally bad and dirty, however. Women don’t fantasize about being sexually assaulted by bridge trolls on top of floating garbage skiffs. But they do fantasize about being sexually dominated and controlled by handsome, caring, and capable men who operate secretly on the fringes of acceptable society. The Fifty Shades series has sold more than 100 million copies for a reason.
What is a modern woman to make of this part of her sexual-emotional circuitry? She’ll probably bury it deep in her private bedroom habits and worry that if she ever disclosed it to a guy, he’d be such a reductive idiot that he would think she wants to be dominated and controlled all the time, in every aspect of her life. Or worse, he might take it as license to unleash the really fucked up shit he’s wanted to try.
It doesn’t seem fair (aren’t all fantasies created equal?), but the reality is that women are more prone to sexual disgust than guys are, and the average guy wants the average woman to do stuff that she’d find at least moderately gross—anal, bondage, threesomes, and more.
She’s unsure how to think about this. If she holds her ground and only does what she’s comfortable with, will a good boyfriend abandon her for some kinky skank? She’s also vaguely aware that her dad would want to kill you for whatever you want to do to her body, and his judgment hovers over her bedroom like the Eye of Sauron. Even if she’s sexually open to some of the weird shit that you want, she’s not confident that she can do it right. The sexual skills they require are baffling and intimidating to her, and cultivating them would increase her risk of being slut-shamed from certain corners of her life.
And just to add insult to injury, she knows she probably won’t reach orgasm the first few times she sleeps with you. When you have sex with a new woman and you’re under about age 60, you can be pretty confident that you’ll enjoy the experience and be able to come. For guys, sex is reliably pleasant. But for women with a new guy, she won’t feel safe and relaxed enough, or she won’t be attracted enough to him yet, or he won’t know her body well enough. Especially in one-night stands, most women don’t climax with most men. They might still have a wonderful time—women can enjoy non-orgasmic sex a lot more than you realize, especially if you’re really into them. But she usually won’t reach that world-melting, mind-blowing orgasm that she might be craving.
Also, she resents your putting pressure on her to orgasm. She knows you want her to come, and she knows that to you it’s some weird test of your sexual skills and gentlemanly altruism. But, honestly, if she just wanted to come, she’d have stayed home with a bottle of white wine, Fifty Shades of Grey, and her vibrator. If she’s with you, it’s because she wants more than just an orgasm. She wants a sexual connection. She wants to feel sexually desired. And she wants you to have a great time so you’ll call her again. And often, the best way for you to give her all that is to just enjoy the hell out of her, without worrying too much about whether she comes. By all means, be great at foreplay—but do it because you love it, not like you’re warming up a car engine on a cold morning.
Practice Perspective-Taking
You should now have a much better grasp on the issues women deal with on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, week-to-week basis. Uncertainty about and threats to their physical, emotional, and social safety surround them. You get that at a general level. But what about at the specific, individual female level? How do you grow your insights into her point of view? How do you subjectify her? You do it by practicing perspective-taking.
Next time you’re in class or sitting in a Starbucks, pick out a woman in the crowd (a pretty classmate, a customer, the barista), and for a few minutes imagine yourself in her skin in the most non– Silence of the Lambs way possible. Then ask yourself questions like these:
What is something unique to her life and central to her identity that is impossible for me to know just by looking at her?
Who are the potential threats around her in this place right now?
What does she think about all the guys in here?
What is the likelihood she thinks I’m among the most attractive guys here?
What parts of her body is she most embarrassed about and most proud of?
Why did she choose to wear those specific clothes and accessories today?
Who are her friends, and which ones would be most judgmental if she had casual sex? How does that impact her behavior and choices?
If she got pregnant tomorrow, what would she do?
What kind of men does she date, and do they sexually satisfy her? Are any of them here right now?
You won’t necessarily guess the right answers, and you should never go up and ask her if your guesses are correct—unless you want to know what a restraining order looks like. This is just a thought experiment for you to practice, to put your attention on a woman’s mind before you ever approach her so that you might understand her a bit better.
Women are pulling their weight in trying to understand you. They subscribe to women’s magazines that devote thousands of words a month to trying to get inside your head. (Sadly, those magazines suck.) They chat with their female friends about what men might be thinking or feeling and what a man meant by this particular sentence or that particular action. They even become psych majors. If you can meet them halfway, you’re going to do great.“Riverdale,” which airs on the CW, has a witty conceit: take the “Archie” comic-book characters, then peer at them through the neon-noir lens of “Twin Peaks.” Riverdale is now a run-down maple-syrup town, where snooty founding families are hiding dark secrets. Veronica Lodge is a Bettie Page-style bombshell; Archie Andrews is a sensitive jock with a six-pack; Betty Cooper is a virgin with a blond ponytail, but she’s also an amateur detective who takes Ritalin. The show’s banter is up to date—“What do you say, Archiekins, be the Jay to my Bey?”—and yet when teen-age girls get pregnant they’re sent away to cruel convents straight out of the nineteen-fifties. It’s camp lite, essentially, all abs and arched eyebrows. But even air quotes need something worth quoting.
Unfortunately, “Riverdale” can’t provide that. It began well enough, with a fun, moody pilot and early episodes in which an all-black Josie and the Pussycats sang “Sugar, Sugar” and a corpse was dredged from a river. With raven eyebrows and a coy pout, Camila Mendes is a charismatic blast as Veronica, lending weight to a character who could easily be a cliché vamp. The show has flair: it’s all saturated khaki green and ruby red, the lighting in Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe as gloomy as an Edward Hopper painting. But, seven episodes in, it’s devolved into dull cosplay bracketed by bogus profundity. Betty and Veronica don kink-wear and roofie Chuck Clayton, a slut-shaming football player. The girls’ tart-tongued gay bestie, Kevin (a character from the new version of the comic strip), seduces a bi-curious Moose. Archie, when not working out shirtless, pursues a songwriting career. “Your songs,” a critical music professor sneers at him. “They’re juvenile. They’re repetitive.” That’s true of “Riverdale,” too, but the show clearly knows it and doesn’t care. Every time a plot feels corny or prurient or preachy, there’s an acknowledgment in the dialogue. It gets exhausting, like hanging out with someone who keeps saying, “God, I’m such a nightmare!”
It’s a shame, because on the surface the mashup makes perfect sense: the retro throuple of Archie, Veronica, and Betty—with their pointy bras and double entendres—share deep roots with the fifties-era fetishes that lit up David Lynch’s amygdala back when he launched “Twin Peaks,” in 1990. But that’s not enough for “Riverdale,” which is determined to provide hyperlinks to every teen drama of the past century. It pays homage to (and this is a non-comprehensive list): “Dawson’s Creek” (therapized psychobabble, glamorized sex with a MILF teacher);“Heathers” (mean girls, darkly comic funerals); “Gilmore Girls” (modern youths constantly name-checking old movies); “Lolita” (Miss Grundy in heart-shaped glasses); “Rebel Without a Cause” (leather jackets, a drive-in showing “Rebel Without a Cause”); “Wild Things” (teen girls framing people in bathing suits); “The O.C.,” “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and “Gossip Girl” (couture-clad bitches with rich parents); “Veronica Mars” (teen-age detective Betty); and “Pretty in Pink” (Duckie-like best friend Jughead Jones—a character so emo that he also feels trimmed from the director’s cut of “Pump Up the Volume”). When Veronica, reconceived as the daughter of a Bernie Madoff-like con man, snarks at her mean-girl rival, Cheryl Blossom, “You may be a stock character from a nineties teen movie, but I’m not,” it feels not so much knowing as damning. The episodes bear the titles of such camp classics as “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” or of teen-centered dramas like “The Last Picture Show.” The parents are played by former teen stars, like the now grizzled Luke Perry (“90210”) and Mädchen Amick (“Twin Peaks”), not grizzled. Often, “Riverdale” feels less like a teen show than like a Pinterest page about the genre. The irony is, it may be more enjoyable if you don’t get the references.
There’s nothing wrong with pastiche or stylization, of course. Plenty of recent series have used these techniques wonderfully—or, at least, effectively. The sometimes self-serious but always beautiful “Mr. Robot” merged Occupy politics with films like “Fight Club” and “Taxi Driver.” “Legion” threw the “X-Men” comics into a blender with everything from Wes Anderson to David Bowie and Stanley Kubrick. The “American Horror Story” series is a bold, messy mélange of camp, glamour, and seventies horror films.
Last year’s supernatural eighties-pastiche, “Stranger Things,” was, structurally speaking, pretty similar to “Riverdale”: a fun kiddie thriller full of retro homages. But, while some critics faulted the series for its obsessive Spielberg echoes, “Stranger Things” had more going for it than that. It was well plotted and smartly paced, and featured a terrific performance by Millie Bobby Brown. It also made emotional sense. Along with the visual nods to Spielberg, it shared his deep fascination with the fragile bond between children and parents, the failed dream of suburban safety. It was a show about grief and abandonment; on those subjects, it was sincere.
In contrast, “Riverdale” has an elevator pitch where its heart ought to be, to repurpose “All About Eve” (which will probably happen in the next episode). That might work if the show were a truly rude circus, extravagant and playful, like the best of “Glee,” another influence. But, mimicking “Twin Peaks” (and probably Raymond Chandler, and maybe even “Blade Runner”), it’s weighed down by Jughead’s existential narration, which is full of phony musings about shame and guilt. “Hope, a word so close to home—and as tricky,” he broods in a typical passage. Mostly, he perseverates about how the American fantasy of small-town virtue is merely a mask for corruption. “This story is about a town, once wholesome and innocent, now forever changed by the mysterious murder of Jason Blossom on the Fourth of July,” he intones in each episode’s intro.
That’s a Lynchian theme, of course, one that plenty of moody adolescents have stumbled upon organically: the insight that everyone who looks happy is just faking it—and that sex is scary and kind of gross. But Lynch, whose reboot of “Twin Peaks” begins in May, on Showtime, comes by those anxieties honestly. The original “Twin Peaks” was surreal, with camp in the toolbox, but the creator’s disgust and desire are always genuine: his fingerprints turn every corrupt image (an ear covered in ants, a prom queen wrapped in plastic) sticky. Call me a sincerity fetishist, but “Riverdale,” for all its heavy breathing, appears to be going through the motions.The Lincoln family includes all the descendants of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. There are ten known descendants of Lincoln. The family line is believed to have been extinct since its last undisputed descendant, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, died on December 24, 1985, without any children.[nb 1] It is rumored that there may be additional living descendants, but scholars disagree as to the legitimacy of these claims. However, the Lincoln family does have other surviving relatives who share common ancestors with the former president. One example is Ben Miller, who after doing research has found a genealogical link to the Lincolns.[1]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Robert's second wife did have a son, named Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, and listed Robert as the father, which would make Timothy Abraham Lincoln's great-great-grandson and only living descendant. Robert denied paternity of the child, claimed he had undergone a vasectomy years earlier, and a divorce court ruled that Robert was not the father.I’m sorry to have neglected Crafty Nest for so long. But this time I have a great excuse. I bought my first house!
Here are some “before” pictures of my “new” house. It’s a 1927 Mediterranean bungalow, with loads of charm including original light fixtures, push-button switches, built-ins, and gorgeous hardwood floors.
It was a long process: house hunting for months, making offers and getting outbid, finally getting an offer accepted on my favorite house (yay!), signing hundreds of papers, and waiting for 60 days for the sale to close. I thought I’d never hold those keys in my hand.
Then the home repairs started. The washing machine leaked, the refrigerator stopped working, the dryer was leaving marks on my clothes, the pipe in the bathroom leaked, ants invaded the garage and kitchen, and on and on.
I haven’t even gotten to the fun part, like choosing paint colors and decorating. I’m still unpacking. But I’m blissfully happy to be living in my own home. Read more »For the essay by José Vasconcelos, see La raza cósmica
Cosmic Race is a video game developed for the PlayStation system, created by the Japanese company Neorex, which became famous after receiving the dishonor of a "0.0 out of 10.0" rating in Game Players magazine. The game was released in 1995 in Japan only. Cosmic Race is the only game produced by Neorex.
Gameplay [ edit ]
As the title implies, it was ostensibly a spaceship-racing game.
The game is notorious for being one of the worst video games of all time. Criticisms of the game include the strange controls (the player must press the R1 button to move forward), the poor graphics that were taken from the PlayStation developer's kit, and the poor collision detection.
The review [ edit ]
The game was reviewed in Game Players issue #88, published September 1996, which was the last issue published under the name "Game Players." In it, the reviews section was prefaced (as usual) with a list of the possible ratings (0.0-10.0). In each issue ratings 1.0-10.0 would have humorous real world analogs. The rating of 0.0 had been described for quite a while as simply "Cosmic Race." Since this was the final issue of Game Players under its original name, they decided to commemorate the occasion by finally giving the game a proper review.
The review was written by Chris Charla, who bemoaned long loading times, poor graphics which were taken directly from the PlayStation SDK ("your mom could do better graphics than this. Seriously."), a non-intuitive control system, and a complete lack of collision detection (allowing you to "fly under the world").
Reception [ edit ]
Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it one star out of five, and stated that "Although there are only a few titles available on the PlayStation, it is obvious, in comparison, that Cosmic Race is substandard on almost every level. The graphics are childish and uninspired and the control is entirely awkward. If all were right with the world, this game would never have been made."[1]Anxiety that American students are being crushed by excessive amounts of homework is nothing newin 1901, anti-homework crusaders succeeded in banning schoolwork at home for students under age 15 in California. (Their claim: school assignments threatened children's physical and mental health and usurped parents' authority.) But are students really overburdened with homework?
Actually, they're not, according to the latest annual Brown Center Report on American Education from the Brookings Institution. Tom Loveless, a senior fellow at the Brown Center, analyzed data from several sourcesthe National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the annual college freshman survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, MetLife's annual survey of teachers, and a handful of parent surveys. His finding: The data "do not support the idea that a large and growing number of students have an onerous amount of homework."
Loveless came to a similar conclusion in a 2003 study of homework load he conducted for the Brown Center. At that time, he found that an overwhelming majority of students had just an hour or less of homework each night.
Against a backdrop of high-stakes testing and increased competition to get into elite universities, worry about overworked students is bubbling up againsee articles like "My Daughter's Homework is Killing Me" in the Atlantic and the 2010 documentary "Race to Nowhere |
computer code online,” said Walsh. “A court first ruled more than 15 years ago that source code was speech protected by the First Amendment, in a case that held the government’s export regulations preventing its publication were unconstitutional. The Fifth Circuit should do the same for design files.”
For the full amicus brief:
https://www.eff.org/document/amicus-brief-34Form 10-Q
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-Q
(Mark One)
x QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2010
OR
¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 001-34419
AOL INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware 20-4268793 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 770 Broadway New York, NY 10003 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrants telephone number, including area code: 212-652-6400
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ¨ No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer and smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ¨ Accelerated filer ¨ Non-accelerated filer x Smaller reporting company ¨ (Do not check if a smaller reporting company)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ¨ No x
As of October 29, 2010, the number of shares of the Registrants common stock, par value $0.01 per share, outstanding was 106,744,035.
AOL INC.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AOL INC.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
AOL INC.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (Quarterly Report) contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding business strategies, market potential, future financial performance and other matters. Words such as anticipates, estimates, expects, projects, forecasts, intends, plans, will, believes and words and terms of similar substance used in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations and beliefs about future events. As with any projection or forecast, they are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Except as required by law, we are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any obligation to, update or alter any forward-looking statements whether as a result of such changes, new information, subsequent events or otherwise.
Various factors could adversely affect our operations, business or financial results in the future and cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including those factors discussed in detail in Item 1ARisk Factors herein and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 (Annual Report). In addition, we operate a web services company in a highly competitive, rapidly changing and consumer and technology-driven industry. This industry is affected by government regulation, economic, strategic, political and social conditions, consumer response to new and existing products and services, technological developments and, particularly in view of new technologies, the continued ability to protect intellectual property rights. Our actual results could differ materially from managements expectations because of changes in such factors.
Further, lower than expected market valuations associated with our cash flows and revenues may result in our inability to realize the value of recorded intangibles and goodwill. In addition, achieving our business and financial objectives, including growth in operations and maintenance of a strong balance sheet and liquidity position, could be adversely affected by the factors discussed or referenced in Item 1ARisk Factors herein and in our Annual Report as well as, among other things:
changes in our plans, strategies and intentions;
our ability to attract and retain key employees;
the success of any cost reductions, restructuring actions or similar efforts, including with respect to any associated savings, charges or other amounts;
the impact of significant acquisitions, dispositions and other similar transactions;
the failure to meet earnings expectations;
asset impairments;
decreased liquidity in the capital markets;
our ability to access the capital markets for debt securities or bank financings; and
the impact of terrorist acts and hostilities.
References in this Quarterly Report to we, us, Company, and AOL refer to AOL Inc., a Delaware corporation.
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You should read the following discussion of our results of operations and financial condition together with our consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report as well as the discussion in the Item 1Business section of our Annual Report. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but rather are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections about our industry, business and future financial results. Our actual results could differ materially from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in Item 1ARisk Factors herein and in our Annual Report and Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements herein.
Introduction
Managements discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations (MD&A) is a supplement to the accompanying consolidated financial statements and provides additional information on our business, recent developments, results of operations, liquidity and capital resources and critical accounting policies. MD&A is organized as follows:
Overview. This section provides a general description of our business, as well as recent developments we believe are important in understanding our results of operations and financial condition or in understanding anticipated future trends.
Results of operations. This section provides an analysis of our results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009.
Liquidity and capital resources. This section provides a discussion of our current financial condition and an analysis of our cash flows for the nine months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009. This section also provides a discussion of our principal debt obligations and an update to the discussion in our Annual Report of our customer credit risk that existed at December 31, 2009.
Critical accounting policies. This section identifies and summarizes those accounting policies that are considered important to our results of operations and financial condition and require significant judgment and estimates on the part of management.
Overview
The Spin-Off
On December 9, 2009, we completed our legal and structural separation from Time Warner Inc. (Time Warner) via a spin-off (the spin-off). Prior to the spin-off, we were a subsidiary of Time Warner. The financial information prior to the spin-off may not necessarily reflect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows in the future or what our financial position, results of operations and cash flows would have been had we been an independent, publicly-traded company during all of the periods presented. We are incurring additional costs to be able to function as an independent, publicly-traded company, including incremental costs related to corporate finance, governance and public reporting.
In connection with the spin-off, we entered into transactions with Time Warner that either have not existed historically or that are on terms different from the terms of arrangements or agreements that existed prior to the spin-off. Our historical financial information does not reflect changes that we have experienced since the spin-off or expect to experience in the future as a result of our separation from Time Warner, including changes in the financing, operations, cost structure and personnel needs of our business. Further, the financial statements for the
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three and nine months ended September 30, 2009 include allocations of certain Time Warner corporate expenses. We believe the assumptions and methodologies underlying the allocation of general corporate expenses are reasonable. However, such expenses may not be indicative of the actual level of expense that would have been incurred by us if we had operated as an independent, publicly-traded company or of the costs we have incurred since the spin-off or that are expected to be incurred in the future. These allocated expenses relate to various services that historically were provided to us by Time Warner, including cash management and other treasury services, administrative services (such as government relations, tax, employee benefit administration, internal audit, accounting and human resources), equity-based compensation plan administration, aviation services, insurance coverage and the licensing of certain third-party patents.
Our Business
We are a leading global web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. Our business spans online content, products and services that we offer to consumers, publishers and advertisers. We are focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services. We market our offerings to advertisers on both AOL Properties and the Third Party Network under the brand AOL Advertising. We have the second largest advertising network in terms of online consumer reach in the United States for September 2010.
Current Economic Environment
The global economic recession adversely impacted our advertising revenues for the year ended December 31, 2009. We do not believe that the global economic environment had a material impact on our advertising revenues for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010. Further, we do not believe the global economic recession had a material impact on our subscription revenues.
AOL Properties
AOL Properties include our owned and operated content, products and services in the Content, Local, Paid Services and Consumer Applications strategy areas, in addition to our AOL Ventures offerings. AOL Properties also include co-branded websites owned by third parties for which certain criteria have been met, including that the Internet traffic has been assigned to us. We generate advertising revenues from AOL Properties through the sale of display advertising and search and contextual advertising. Display advertising revenue is generated by the display of graphical advertisements and other performance-based advertising. Search and contextual advertising revenue is generated when a user clicks on or views a text-based advertisement on the users screen. These text-based advertisements are either generated from a user-initiated search query or generated based on the content of the webpage the user is viewing.
We seek to be a leading online provider of engaging consumer products and services, as well as a publisher of relevant and engaging online content by utilizing open and highly scalable publishing platforms and content management systems. In addition, we are extending the reach of our offerings to a consumer audience on multiple platforms and digital devices. We offer advertisers a wide range of capabilities and solutions to effectively deliver advertising and reach targeted audiences across AOL Properties through our dedicated advertising sales force. We seek to provide effective and efficient advertising solutions utilizing data-driven insights that help advertisers decide how best to engage consumers. We offer advertisers marketing and promotional opportunities to purchase specific placements of advertising directly on AOL Properties (i.e., in particular locations and on specific dates). In addition, we offer advertisers the opportunity to bid on unsold advertising inventory on AOL Properties utilizing our proprietary scheduling, optimization and delivery
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technology. Finally, advertising inventory on AOL Properties not sold directly to advertisers, as described above, may be included for sale to advertisers with inventory purchased from third party publishers in the Third Party Network.
Growth of our advertising revenues depends on our ability to attract consumers and increase engagement on AOL Properties by offering compelling content, products and services, as well as on our ability to monetize such engagement by offering effective advertising solutions. In order to attract consumers and generate increased engagement, we have developed and acquired, and in the future will continue to develop and acquire, content, products and services designed to meet these goals. Google Inc. (Google) is, except in certain limited circumstances, the exclusive web search provider for AOL Properties. In connection with these search services, Google provides us with a share of the revenue generated through paid text-based search and contextual advertising on AOL Properties. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, advertising revenues associated with the Google relationship (substantially all of which were search and contextual revenues generated on AOL Properties) were $90.9 million and $299.9 million, respectively. We have extended the search partnership with Google for an additional five-year period until December 31, 2015. The majority of the revised terms in this agreement take effect on January 1, 2011. Additionally, on September 1, 2010, AOL and Google entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding pursuant to which the parties will work together to expand the alliance to include the provision of mobile search and mobile search advertising services to AOL as well as extend the term of and expand the existing search advertising international agreements. AOL and Google also entered into a video partnership that will feature AOLs video content on YouTube, which became effective on August 27, 2010.
We view our subscription access service, which we offer to consumers in the United States for a monthly fee, as a valuable distribution channel for AOL Properties. In general, subscribers to our subscription access service are among the most engaged consumers on AOL Properties. However, our access service subscriber base has declined and is expected to continue to decline. This decline is the result of several factors, including the increased availability of high-speed broadband Internet connections, the optimization of a significant amount of online content, products and services for use with broadband Internet connections, the effects of our strategic focus on advertising, which has led to significantly reduced marketing efforts for our subscription access service, and the free availability of the vast majority of our content, products and services. See Item 1ARisk FactorsRisks Relating to Our BusinessOur strategic shift to an online advertising-supported business model involves significant risks in our Annual Report. As our subscriber base declines, we need to maintain the engagement of former subscribers and increase the number and engagement of other consumers on AOL Properties. We seek to do this by developing and offering engaging content, products and services. Further, we have transitioned and will continue to seek to transition a substantial percentage of those access subscribers who are terminating their paid access subscriptions to free AOL Properties offerings. The primary metrics we monitor for subscription access service are monthly average churn and average paid tenure. Monthly average churn represents on average the number of AOL-brand access subscribers that terminate or cancel our services each month, factoring in new and reactivated subscribers. The domestic AOL-brand access subscriber monthly average churn declined to 2.6% for the three months ended September 30, 2010, as compared to 3.3% for the three months ended September 30, 2009. Average paid tenure represents the average period of time subscribers have paid for domestic AOL-brand internet access. The average paid tenure of the remaining domestic AOL-brand access subscribers has been increasing, and was approximately 9.4 years and 8.5 years for the three months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009, respectively.
Historically, our primary subscription service has been our subscription access service. Moving forward, we seek to market new products and services that are either co-branded, third party or AOL-developed products. To facilitate this goal, in 2010 we launched the initial phase of a single consumer-facing platform that allows us to
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manage and distribute these additional products as well as our subscription access service. We offer those products to our access subscribers as well as other Internet consumers. Revenue related to these new product and service offerings was not material for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010.
For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, our subscription revenues were $244.8 million and $787.7 million, respectively, as compared to $332.2 million and $1,081.4 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009, respectively. Our subscription revenues have relatively low direct costs, and accordingly, our subscription access service represents the source of the vast majority of our operating income. Although our subscription revenues have declined and are expected to continue to decline, we believe that our subscription access service will continue to provide us with an important source of revenue and cash flow for the foreseeable future. The revenue and cash flow generated from our subscription access service will help us to pursue our strategic initiatives and continue the transition of our business toward attracting and engaging Internet consumers and generating advertising revenues. We expect our total revenues and operating income (excluding the goodwill impairment charge recorded in 2010) to decline in the near term and foreseeable future, even if our strategy is successful and we are able to grow our advertising revenues, primarily due to the continuing decline in our subscriber base.
Third Party Network
We also generate advertising revenues through the sale of advertising on third party websites and on digital devices, which we collectively refer to as the Third Party Network. Our advertising offerings on the Third Party Network consist primarily of the sale of display advertising. In order to generate advertising revenues on the Third Party Network, we have historically had to incur higher traffic acquisition costs (TAC) as compared to advertising on AOL Properties. We currently market our offerings to publishers under the brand Advertising.com.
A significant portion of our revenues on the Third Party Network is generated from the advertising inventory acquired from a limited number of publishers. We plan to expand the Third Party Network in order to allow us to serve many more publishers and advertisers than at present.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, we began proactively de-emphasizing the search engine campaign management and lead generation affiliate products on the Third Party Network in order to focus and strengthen our efforts in display advertising solutions. Given the relatively high level of direct costs associated with these products, this change did not have a significant adverse impact on operating income through September 30, 2010 and is not expected to have a significant adverse impact for the remainder of the year.
Trends, Challenges and Uncertainties Impacting Our Business
The web services industry is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Trends, challenges and uncertainties that may have a significant impact on our business, our opportunities and our ability to execute our strategy include the following:
Commerce, information and advertising continue to migrate to the Internet and away from traditional media outlets at both the national and local levels. Additionally, traditional media outlets are facing significant economic challenges. We believe these continuing trends will create strategic growth opportunities for us to attract new consumers and develop new and effective advertising solutions. As part of our restructuring initiative that began late in 2009, we announced a plan to reduce operating costs and reinvest up to $100 million of those savings in existing strategic areas. As part of this plan and to expand our local strategic initiatives, we began executing on our previously announced plans to
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invest up to $50 million in Patch, our community-specific news and information platform, during 2010. We expect to shift a portion of the remainder of our $100 million reinvestment from other areas to Patch, such that we currently anticipate that we will increase our investment in Patch during the remainder of 2010 in order to accelerate the launch of Patch sites.
As a part of the restructuring efforts that we began in 2009, we restructured our advertising organization. This resulted in the reassignment of a majority of our advertising accounts. We believe that these restructuring improvements to our advertising organization will continue to have a negative impact on our advertising revenues during the remainder of 2010.
Beginning in the first quarter of 2010, we made changes to our content, products and services to enhance the consumer experience (e.g., fewer advertisements on certain AOL Properties). These changes have involved and may continue to involve eliminating or modifying advertising practices that historically have been a source of revenues. While difficult to quantify, we believe that these changes will have a negative impact on our advertising revenues in the near term. We intend to ultimately increase our revenues by increasing the attractiveness of our content, product and service offerings to consumers and therefore their value to advertisers through these enhancements to the consumer experience. Specifically, we have undertaken efforts on certain AOL Properties to reduce the number of display advertising units, reduce monetization of search results and reduce the number of contextual advertising links. Additionally, we are shifting our focus from the number of sites that we offer to fewer, bigger sites that better address the needs of users and advertisers.
As the amount of content that is available online continues to expand, consumers are increasingly fragmenting across the Internet. To address this fragmentation, we own and we partner with third parties to offer a variety of niche sites (e.g. Engadget and Cambio) that we expect to continue to drive consumer engagement. Additionally, we have organized our content around a variety of super networks, with each super network aligning under the broad categories of either News, Entertainment, Life or Marketplace. Furthermore, the Third Party Network, which reaches thousands of websites, will allow us to continue to provide advertising solutions across a fragmenting Internet environment.
There has been a significant shift in the method of Internet access away from dial-up access. This is due to a number of factors, including the increased availability of high-speed broadband Internet connections and the fact that a significant amount of online content, products and services has been optimized for use with broadband Internet connections. This trend has contributed to, and we expect it will continue to contribute to, the decline in the number of our access subscribers. As a result of these factors, we expect subscription revenues to continue to decline in the future.
Audience Metrics
We utilize unique visitor numbers to evaluate the performance of AOL Properties as well as AOL Media, a subset of AOL Properties that excludes Mail, Instant Messaging, Search, Ventures and Local and Mapping. In addition, we utilize unique visitor numbers to evaluate the reach of our total advertising network, which includes both AOL Properties and the Third Party Network. Unique visitor numbers provide an indication of our consumer reach. Although our consumer reach does not correlate directly to advertising revenue, we believe that our ability to broadly reach diverse demographic and geographic audiences is attractive to brand advertisers seeking to promote their brands to a variety of consumers without having to partner with multiple content providers. AOLs unique visitor numbers also include unique visitors attributable to co-branded websites owned by third parties for which certain criteria have been met, including that the Internet traffic has been assigned to us.
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The source for our unique visitor information is a third party (comScore Media Metrix, or Media Metrix). Media Metrix has historically estimated unique visitors based on a sample of Internet users in various countries (referred to as the panel-only methodology). While we are familiar with the general methodologies and processes that Media Metrix uses in estimating unique visitors, we have not performed independent testing or validation of Media Metrixs data collection systems or proprietary statistical models, and therefore we can provide no assurance as to the accuracy of the information that Media Metrix provides.
In 2009, Media Metrix announced the availability of an alternate methodology (currently referred to as panel-centric unified or Media Metrix 360) to estimate unique visitors, in order to provide a more accurate count of a websites audience, and has continued to refine this methodology. We adopted this alternate methodology for our average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties and AOL Media starting in December 2009 and going forward. As a result, our average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties and AOL Media based on Media Metrix 360 will not be comparable to the data under the previous panel-only methodology. For comparison purposes, domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties and AOL Media are reported under both the Media Metrix 360 and panel-only methodology for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010.
The following table presents our unique visitor metrics for the periods presented (in millions):
Three Months Ended
September 30, Nine Months Ended
September 30, 2010 2009 2010 2009 Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties (Media Metrix 360) 106 NA 110 NA Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Properties (Panel-only methodology) 99 102 101 105 Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Media (Media Metrix 360) 81 NA 83 NA Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Media (Panel-only methodology) 72 74 73 73 Domestic average monthly unique visitors to AOL Advertising Network 183 180 184 177
Recent Developments
Acquisitions
We completed the following three acquisitions during the third quarter of 2010:
On September 28, 2010, we completed the acquisition of 5 Minutes Ltd. (5min Media), a company that provides a syndication platform for web-based videos. The acquisition offers AOL and partners significant web distribution.
On September 28, 2010, we completed the acquisition of Thing Labs, Inc. (Thing Labs), a company that produces software to simplify the creation and sharing of web content. This acquisition will allow us to continue our initiative to provide consumers with the best venues to discover and share content.
On September 29, 2010, we completed the acquisition of TechCrunch, Inc. (TechCrunch), a company that owns and operates a network of websites dedicated to technology news, information and analysis. The business was acquired to enhance AOLs offerings of high-quality, technology-oriented content.
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The aggregate purchase price of these acquisitions was $97.1 million, net of cash acquired. In addition, we agreed to pay up to $23.1 million in aggregate to certain employees of the acquired companies over the next three years contingent on their future service to AOL. The payments of up to $23.1 million will be recognized as compensation expense on an accelerated basis over the requisite service periods of up to three years. The results of operations for the three acquired companies from the respective acquisition dates through September 30, 2010 were not material to our financial statements. See Note 4 in our accompanying consolidated financial statements for additional information on these acquisitions.
Disposition-Related Activities
On June 16, 2010, we sold substantially all the assets of Bebo, Inc. (Bebo), resulting in a pre-tax loss of $1.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2010. We expect to treat the common stock of Bebo as worthless for U.S. income tax reporting purposes in our 2010 consolidated U.S. federal income tax return. Our current estimated U.S. income tax basis in Bebo is $756.8 million. As a result of the worthless stock deduction for the common stock of Bebo under U.S. income tax law, and in order to recognize the book and tax basis differences associated with our investment in Bebo, we recorded a deferred tax asset and corresponding income tax benefit of $299.5 million as of and for the nine months ended September 30, 2010. See Note 6 in our accompanying consolidated financial statements for additional information on the impact of the worthless stock deduction. Following this transaction, we expect to continue to generate advertising revenues on AOL Properties from customers who previously purchased advertising on Bebo properties and accordingly, under the accounting guidance for presentation of financial statements, the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of Bebo have not been reflected as discontinued operations in the accompanying consolidated financial statements.
On July 8, 2010, we completed the sale of our ICQ operations (ICQ) for $187.5 million in cash (subject to working capital adjustments). ICQ provides online instant messaging services and products, as well as software related to such services and products, primarily to international online consumers. We recorded a pre-tax gain on this sale of $119.6 million within discontinued operations in the third quarter of 2010. We believe that any working capital adjustments to the sales price will be finalized no later than the first quarter of 2011 and could result in an adjustment to the recorded gain which we do not expect to be material. Sales proceeds included $5.4 million which was allocated to our obligation to provide certain network infrastructure services to the buyer. This amount has been deferred and will be recognized as other income when we have fulfilled this obligation. If we are unable to fulfill our obligation to provide certain network infrastructure within twelve months of the date of sale, the buyer potentially has the right to claim losses under the agreement with us, which would be subject to a cap of $28.1 million. We do not expect any claims associated with this right as we expect to fulfill our obligations within the allotted time frame.
From a tax perspective, $40.5 million of the gain related to the sale of ICQ qualifies as a capital gain. As a result, in the third quarter of 2010, we utilized a portion of the capital loss deferred tax asset recorded in connection with the sale of buy.at to offset this capital gain. See Note 6 to our accompanying consolidated financial statements for more information on our capital loss deferred tax asset. The financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of ICQ have been reflected as discontinued operations for all periods presented. The results of operations of ICQ were not material to our consolidated financial statements.
During the third quarter of 2010, we completed the sale of our investment in Kayak Software Corporation (Kayak) for $18.9 million in net cash proceeds, which resulted in a pre-tax gain of $17.5 million on this sale recorded in Other income, net in the consolidated financial statements.
During the third quarter of 2010, we committed to a plan to sell a portion of our campus in Dulles, Virginia referred to as Pacific Corporate Park for a sales price of $144.5 million in cash. Accordingly, the carrying
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value of the assets associated with Pacific Corporate Park is presented as Assets held for sale on our consolidated balance sheet as of September 30, 2010. Based on the estimated sale proceeds, we determined that the carrying value of Pacific Corporate Park exceeded the fair value less costs to sell. As a result, an impairment charge of $6.2 million was recorded within costs of revenues during the third quarter of 2010. The agreement for the sale was signed on October 29, 2010. We do not expect to record a significant gain or loss upon completion of this sale.
Restructuring Actions
We are in the midst of a significant restructuring initiative, which began late in 2009, and we expect to complete in the fourth quarter of 2010. We have reduced our total workforce by nearly one-third in connection with this restructuring initiative, prior to hiring new employees in areas of strategic focus. As part of this initiative, we have reduced our cost base in the United Kingdom and have ceased or reduced operations in a number of other countries. In the first half of 2010, we reduced operations in France and Germany. We are continuing to operate certain French and German web properties and sell display advertising, leveraging our centralized European infrastructure; however, we expect advertising revenues generated in those countries to continue to decline in the near term.
In connection with this restructuring initiative, we recorded adjustments to previous estimates which reduced restructuring expense by $0.4 million during the three months ended September 30, 2010 and incurred $34.1 million of restructuring expense during the nine months ended September 30, 2010. We do not expect to incur significant additional restructuring costs during the remainder of 2010. The potential impact of ceasing operations in certain international locations and shutting down legal entities may result in significant non-cash losses related to the recognition in our statement of operations of our cumulative foreign currency translation adjustments previously recognized in other comprehensive income related to those locations and entities. As we continue to refine and optimize our assets and operations, we may identify additional restructuring actions separate and apart from the restructuring initiative which began in late 2009. If additional restructuring actions are identified, we would incur additional restructuring costs.
Other Financing Arrangements
On September 30, 2010 (the Termination Date), we terminated our 364-day, $250.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the Revolving Credit Facility) dated December 9, 2009 with an original maturity date of December 8, 2010. We terminated this facility based on an analysis of our current cash position and projected cash flows from operations. There were no amounts outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility from December 9, 2009 through the Termination Date. No penalties were incurred as a result of the early termination.
Results of Operations
The results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009 have been recast so that the basis of presentation is consistent with that of the results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010. This recast reflects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of buy.at and ICQ as discontinued operations for all periods presented.
Recent Accounting Standards
See Note 1 in our accompanying consolidated financial statements for a discussion of recent accounting standards.
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Consolidated Results
The following table presents our revenues, by revenue type, for the periods presented (in millions):
Three Months Ended
September 30, Nine Months Ended
September 30, 2010 2009 % Change 2010 2009 % Change Revenues: Advertising $ 292.8 $ 402.3 (27 )% $ 935.5 $ 1,241.2 (25 )% Subscription 244.8 332.2 (26 )% 787.7 1,081.4 (27 )% Other 25.9 29.4 (12 )% 79.6 88.1 (10 )% Total revenues $ 563.5 $ 763.9 (26 )% $ 1,802.8 $ 2,410.7 (25 )%
The following table presents our revenues, by revenue type, as a percentage of total revenues for the periods
presented:
Three Months Ended
September 30, Nine Months Ended
September 30, 2010 2009 2010 2009 Revenues: Advertising 52 % 53 % 52 % 51 % Subscription 43 43 44 45 Other 5 4 4 4 Total revenues 100 % 100 % 100 % 100 %
Advertising Revenues
Advertising revenues are generated on AOL Properties through display advertising and search and contextual advertising, as described in OverviewOur Business. Agreements for advertising on AOL Properties typically take the form of impression-based contracts in which we provide impressions in exchange for a fixed fee (generally stated as cost-per-thousand impressions), time-based contracts in which we provide a minimum number of impressions over a specified time period for a fixed fee or performance-based contracts in which performance is measured in terms of either click-throughs when a user clicks on a companys advertisement or other user actions such as product/customer registrations, survey participation, sales leads or product purchases. In addition, agreements with advertisers can include other advertising-related elements such as content sponsorships, exclusivities or advertising effectiveness research.
In addition to advertising revenues generated on AOL Properties, we also generate revenues from our advertising offerings on the Third Party Network. To generate revenues on the Third Party Network, we purchase advertising inventory from publishers (both large and small) in the Third Party Network using proprietary optimization, targeting and delivery technology to best match advertisers with available advertising inventory. We plan to expand the Third Party Network in order to allow us to serve many more publishers and advertisers than at present. Advertising arrangements for the sale of Third Party Network inventory typically take the form of impression-based contracts or performance-based contracts.
10
AOL INC.
PART I - ITEM 2. MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Advertising revenues on AOL Properties and the Third Party Network for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 and 2009 are as follows (in millions):
Three Months Ended
September 30, Nine Months Ended
September 30, 2010 2009 % Change 2010 2009 % Change AOL Properties: Display $ 120.8 $ 139.9 (14 )% $ 364.5 $ 420.2 (13 )% Search and Contextual 99.2 138.4 (28 )% 319.5 444.8 (28 )% Total AOL Properties 220.0 278.3 (21 )% 684.0 865.0 |
tests nukes pretty much at will." An American military mission against Syria would carry a moral justification these examples lack. If he were to flout the UN and attack Syria over Russian and Chinese vetoes, Mr Obama would be acting to punish Mr Assad for violating a global rule against deploying chemical weapons. He would be violating a rather weakly respected international norm in order to sustain a more pressing norm. The UN, meanwhile, would remain about as powerful as it has been in recent years. Which is to say, not very powerful at all.As we informed you back in April, the latest version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech was partially cracked. A certain group was able to crack the 32bit version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech, however its 64bit version was still uncrackable. Until today as a ‘certain’ group was able to crack the latest version of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
As we’ve already informed you, Electronic Arts and BioWare have implemented the latest version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech to the latest version of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
This surprised us as the original version of the game was powered by an older version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. And the moment the game was cracked, EA and BioWare implemented the latest version of Denuvo to it.
From what we know so far, Dead Rising 4, Nier: Automata, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda are powered by this new version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.
Since the latest version of Mass Effect: Andromeda has been cracked – and given the fact that the latest version of the Denuvo anti-tamper tech has been completely cracked, in both 32bit and 64bit – it will be interesting to see whether developers and publishers will remove it from their games.
Let’s not forget that Bethesda, Bigben Interactive and Microids have removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from DOOM, 2Dark and Syberia 3 (apparently Microids has re-implemented the Denuvo anti-tamper tech in the latest version of Syberia 3. Thanks Klar) as soon as they were cracked.Download Share episode:
2/21/19: Orioles Hot Stove On the latest edition of Orioles Hot Stove, catcher Austin Wynns and Major League Field coordinator/catching instructor Tim Cossins join the show to break down the latest from Spring Training.
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2/14/19: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter hosts the latest edition of the Orioles Hot Stove Show to discuss the start of Spring Training! Retired Orioles radio broadcaster Joe Angel joins the show to discuss his retirement and the upcoming 2019 season for Baltimore.
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2/7/19: Orioles Hot Stove Special guests Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Ben McDonald and Dave Johnson join Orioles Hot Stove to reflect on the life and career of Frank Robinson.
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2/6/19: Orioles Extras | Latest on Yolbert Sanchez, infield preview Cuban shortstop Yolbert Sanchez is officially available for Major League teams to sign. MLB.com's Tim McMaster (@MLB_McMaster) and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) discuss the latest rumors. Then Tim and Joe take a closer look at the club's bullpen which lacks the big names but still could be a strength in 2019.
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2/1/19: Orioles Extras | Starting rotation preview MLB.com's Tim McMaster (@MLB_McMaster) and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza (@joetrezz) look back on Orioles Fanfest with thoughts on Chris Davis (:40) and Adam Jones (4:20). Tim and Joe then look at the Orioles' rotation and the possibility of Dylan Bundy, Andrew Cashner and Alex Cobb bouncing back (9:00).
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1/31/19: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter hosts the latest edition of the Orioles Hot Stove Show to discuss the Orioles FanFest this past Saturday! Orioles new hitting coach Don Long and Orioles pitcher Branden Kline joins the show to discuss the upcoming 2019 season.
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1/25/19: Orioles Extras | Mussina headed to HOF Mike Mussina is headed for Cooperstown. MLB.com's Tim McMaster and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza discuss which cap should appear on his plaque (:30). Tim and Joe then break down the club's catcher and designated-hitter candidates (4:15). Later in the podcast, they cover the club's decision not to name a bench coach for 2019 (9:35) and the possibility of signing Cuban defector Yolbert Sanchez (13:45).
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1/24/19: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter hosts the latest edition of the Orioles Hot Stove Show with an eye on Spring Training and the Orioles FanFest slated to begin this upcoming Saturday! Pitchers Miguel Castro and Paul Fry stop by the program to discuss their expectations and preparations for the 2019 season and more.
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1/17/19: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter brings us the latest edition of the Orioles Hot Stove Show. As Spring Training rapidly approaches, pitcher David Hess joins the program to discuss his rookie season and what he plans to build on heading into 2019. Center fielder Cedric Mullins stops by as well to share his thoughts on his rookie campaign and his lofty expectations for this season.
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1/16/19: Orioles Extras | Hyde, Brocail, O's infield Brandon Hyde is ready to lead the Orioles' franchise. MLB.com's Tim McMaster and O's reporter Joe Trezza discuss Joe's feature on Baltimore's new skipper (1:00). Tim and Joe go on to talk about the club hiring Doug Brocail as the new pitching coach (5:30). The guys end the podcast with an in-depth look at the Orioles' infield heading into 2019 (7:45).
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1/11/19: Orioles Extras | 2019 outfield preview 2019 positional breakdowns begin with a closer look at the Orioles' outfield. MLB.com's Tim McMaster (MLB_McMaster) and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) go foul line to foul line to get you ready for the 2019 team.
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1/10/19: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter and Roch Kubatko host the latest Orioles Hot Stove Show with an eye towards Spring Training. Pitcher Mike Wright stops by to discuss his offseason and Mark Trumbo joins the program to share the latest on his rehab and more!
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1/4/19: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles How will Koby Perez impact the Orioles international scouting department? MLB.com's Tim McMaster (@MLB_McMaster) and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) break down the club's plan to build a new pipeline of talent. They also discuss Brandon Hyde's coaching staff and the team's biggest focus ahead of Spring Training.
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1/3/19: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter and Roch Kubatko host the Orioles Hot Stove Show from their new location and talk with new Orioles senior director of international scouting Koby Perez and Orioles pitcher Richard Bleier.
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12/27/18: Orioles Hot Stove The Orioles wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and New Year! Host Jim Hunter brings us the best from Orioles Hot Stove in 2018 as the O's embark on a special rebuilding season with new GM Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde.
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12/20/18: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter and Roch Kubatko host the Orioles Hot Stove Show from their new location and talk with new Orioles manager Brandon Hyde.
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12/19/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles MLB.com's Dani Wexelman (@DaniWex) and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) discuss everything you need to know about the club's new manager, Brandon Hyde. They also dive into what's next for the Orioles this offseason as well as Adam Jones' free agency.
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12/13/18: Orioles Hot Stove Bob Hainey hosts the latest edition of the Orioles Hot Stove Show as the Orioles and the rest of Major League Baseball wrap up the 2018 Winter Meetings from Las Vegas. We recap the O's selection in the Rule 5 Draft, and 37th-overall pick Cadyn Greiner stops by as well as reliever Mychal Givens!
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12/11/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles MLB.com's Tim McMaster (@MLB_McMaster) and Orioles reporter Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) come to you from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas to talk about the latest in the club's managerial search. Plus, what will be the best way to fill up the roster heading into 2019?
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12/6/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles Get to know the Orioles new beat reporter, Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz)! He sits down with MLB.com's Tim McMaster (@MLB_McMaster) to discuss the latest with the club's managerial search. They also look ahead to the Winter Meetings and preview what's on the agenda for the Orioles in Las Vegas.
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12/6/18: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter and Roch Kubatko host the Orioles Hot Stove Show to give the latest updates on the Orioles' offseason plans. Dylan Bundy and Trey Mancini phone in.
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11/30/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles What does Mike Elias add to the Orioles? MLB.com's Tim McMaster (@MLB_McMaster) and Richard Justice (@RichardJustice) break down what you need to know about the club's new GM and his hiring of Sig Mejdal. They also discuss Adam Jones' free agency, the signing of Jace Peterson and the decision to non-tender Tim Beckham.
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11/29/18: Orioles Hot Stove Jim Hunter and Roch Kubatko host the Orioles Hot Stove Show to give the latest updates on the Orioles' offseason plans. Newly hired executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias joins the show!
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11/15/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles MLB.com's Dani Wexelman and Orioles reporter Brittany Ghiroli discuss the report that Mike Elias will become the club's new general manager. They also break down the Orioles' payroll heading into 2019.
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10/31/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles MLB.com's Dani Wexelman and Orioles reporter Brittany Ghiroli break down the Orioles' international signings. They also discuss Branden Kline's future with the club, Dylan Bundy's leadership and potential trade pieces this offseason.
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10/24/18: MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles MLB.com's Dani Wexelman and Orioles reporter Brittany Ghiroli discuss how the team missed out on three top international prospects.They also break down the timeline for a new GM and manager, Manny Machado's controversial postseason and free agency questions the Orioles face this offseason.
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10/18/18 MLB.com Extras | Baltimore Orioles MLB.com's Tim McMaster and Orioles reporter Brittany Ghiroli break down the team's GM and managerial search. They also discuss the international market, the future of Adam Jones and the club's expectations for the 2019 season.
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9/28/18 - Orioles Radio Recap: BAL 1, HOU 2 The Orioles opened up their final homestand of 2018 against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros with David Hess on the mound. Hear all the action from Friday's game and an interview with Astros radio analyst on the Orioles Radio Recap!
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9/26/18 - Orioles Radio Recap: Game 1 - BAL 3, BOS 19 The Orioles and Red Sox took the field at Fenway Park Wednesday not once, but twice to make up Tuesday night's rained out matchup between the two clubs. Hear all the action from Game 1 between the O's and Sox as Ryan Meisinger made his first Major League start. Also hear from Orioles bullpen coach Allan Mills on the Orioles Radio Recap![rust-dev] RFC: Conventions for "well-behaved" iterators
Hi, The Rust documentation currently makes iterators behavior undefined after.next() has returned None once. http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/master/std/iter/trait.Iterator.html > The Iterator protocol does not define behavior after None is > returned. A concrete Iterator implementation may choose to behave > however it wishes, either by returning None infinitely, or by doing > something else. http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/master/guide-container.html > In general, you cannot rely on the behavior of the next() method > after it has returned None. Some iterators may return None forever. > Others may behave differently. This is unfortunate. Code that accepts any iterator as input and does with it anything more complicated than a single 'for' loop will have to be defensive in order to not fall into undefined behavior. The type system can not enforce anything about this, but I’d like that we consider having conventions about "well-behaved" iterators. --- Proposal: 0. An iterator is said to be "well-behaved" if, after its.next() method has returned None once, any subsequent call also returns None. 1. Iterators *should* be well-behaved. 2. Iterators in libstd and other libraries distributed with rustc *must* be well-behaved. (I.e. not being well-behaved is a bug.) 3. When accepting an iterator as input, it’s ok to assume it’s well-behaved. 4. For iterator adaptors in particular, 3. means that 1. and 2. only apply for well-behaved input. (So that, eg. std::iter::Map can stay as straightforward as it is, and does not need to be coded defensively.) --- Does the general idea sound like something y’all want? I’m not overly attached to the details. -- Simon SapinVolume 22, Number 2—February 2016
Dispatch
Effectiveness of Meningococcal B Vaccine against Endemic Hypervirulent Neisseria meningitidis W Strain, England
Shamez Ladhani, Marzia Monica Giuliani, Alessia Biolchi, Mariagrazia Pizza, Kazim Beebeejaun, Jay Lucidarme, Jamie Findlow, Mary Ramsay, and Ray Borrow
Author affiliations: St. George’s University of London Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research Group, London, UK (S.N. Ladhani) ; Public Health England, London (S.N. Ladhani, K. Beebeejaun, M.E. Ramsay) ; GSK Vaccines, Siena, Italy (M.M. Giuliani, A. Biolchi, M. Pizza) ; Public Health England, Manchester, UK (J. Lucidarme, J. Findlow, R. Borrow)
Cite This Article
Abstract Serum samples from children immunized with a meningococcal serogroup B vaccine demonstrated potent serum bactericidal antibody activity against the hypervirulent Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W strain circulating in England. The recent introduction of this vaccine into the United Kingdom national immunization program should also help protect infants against this endemic strain.
Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) has been declining in the United Kingdom since the early 2000s (1). Historically, serogroup W Neisseria meningitides (MenW) have been causal organisms for 1%–2% of IMD cases annually. An increase in invasive MenW disease associated with travel to the Hajj pilgrimage route during 2000–2002 was rapidly controlled after the introduction of mandatory vaccination for pilgrims (2). Since 2009, however, laboratory-confirmed MenW cases in England have increased each year across all age groups after rapid spread of a single endemic hypervirulent sequence type (ST) 11 clonal complex (MenW:cc11) strain (3). This strain has caused severe illness with unusual clinical manifestations and, for the first time in more than a decade, was associated with fatal outcomes among infants and young children.
Since the Hajj outbreak, several countries in Latin America, Africa, and the Far East have reported an increase in MenW disease and ongoing endemic transmission (3). In Chile, MenW has replaced serogroup B (MenB) as the most prevalent cause of IMD, identified in 58% of cases in 2012 (4). In Europe, an increase in MenW disease has not been observed in other countries although, in 2012, a cluster of cases related to MenW:cc11 in France was associated with travel to sub-Saharan Africa (5).
In England, the meningococcal quadrivalent conjugate vaccine (MenACWY, covering serogroups A, C, W, and Y) has historically been recommended for high-risk persons and travelers to disease-endemic regions and for controlling outbreaks (6). Beginning on September 1, 2015, a novel, protein-based, multicomponent vaccine, Bexsero (GSK Vaccines, Siena, Italy), has been offered as part of the routine immunization program in the United Kingdom; the vaccine is given to infants in 3 doses at 2, 4, and 12 months of age (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/menb-vaccination-introduction-from-1-september-2015). Bexsero is composed of NHBA (neisserial heparin binding antigen), NadA (Neisseria adhesin A) and fHbp (factor H binding protein), with meningococcal outer membrane vesicles from MenB strain from an outbreak in New Zealand (7). Immunization with Bexsero induces bactericidal antibodies against all vaccine antigens (8). Although this vaccine has been licensed for prevention of MenB disease (the most prevalent capsular group causing IMD in Europe), alleles for some or all of the vaccine antigens are also found among non-MenB meningococci, independently of the capsule. Therefore, antibodies raised by these antigens could induce complement-mediated killing of other meningococcal groups, including the endemic MenW cc11 strain.
Recently, we reported the predominance of non–cross-protective PorA (P1.5,2) and fHbp variants (variant 2 peptide 22) among endemic MenW:cc11 isolates (3). The other primary Bexsero antigens (NadA and NHBA), however, could potentially afford protection. We therefore assessed 1) the NadA and NHBA genotypic status of endemic MenW:cc11 isolates, and 2) the serum bactericidal antibody (SBA) activity against clinical MenW:cc11 isolates using serum samples from infants immunized with Bexsero.
The Study A total of 73 invasive MenW:cc11 isolates from England and Wales were received by the Public Health England Meningococcal Reference Unit during July 2010–June 2013. These isolates were queried within the Meningitis Research Foundation Meningococcus Genome Library (http://pubmlst.org/perl/bigsdb/bigsdb.pl?db = pubmlst_neisseria_mrfgenomes) for nadA and nhba and, where present, their respective allelic and peptide variants. We used an SBA using human complement (hSBA) against 6 invasive MenW:cc11 isolates from patients 4 months–91 years of age in whom meningitis or septicemia was diagnosed in different regions of England and Wales during 2011–2012. SBA titers were expressed as the reciprocal of the serum dilution corresponding to >50% bacterial killing. We used pooled serum samples from phase 2 clinical trials involving infants immunized with Bexsero at 2, 3, and 4 months or 2, 4, and 6 months and after administration of a booster at 12, 18, or 24 months (8). Pooled prevaccination serum samples from 180 infants were used as negative controls, and pooled serum samples from 10 randomly selected adolescents who received a single MenACWY conjugate vaccine (GSK Vaccines) dose as positive controls. Of the 6 isolates tested, 4 possessed nadA allele 5 (for peptide NadA-2/3.6) and nhba allele 17 (for NHBA peptide 29). Of the remaining 2 isolates, 1 isolate had a nadA allele (allele 146) that differed at a single nucleotide (C476A), causing a single amino acid change (T159K; peptide NadA-2/3.130); the other isolate had an nhba allele (allele 72) that differed at a single nucleotide (A376C), causing a single amino acid change (T126P; peptide 96). hSBA titers were high and were >1:32 against all 6 MenW isolates, independently of the immunization schedule (Table). After the booster, higher hSBA titers were obtained than those from primary immunization, and similar responses were comparable to those among adolescents who had received a single MenACWY dose. Preimmunization serum samples showed no detectable hSBA titers against any of the 6 isolates (Table).
Conclusions The ability of the antibodies raised by Bexsero antigens to induce SBA activity against any given meningococcal isolate depends on the presence, level of surface expression, and sequence diversity of the respective antigens. Bexsero strain coverage can be predicted by using the Meningococcal Antigen Typing System, an ELISA which measures the level of antigen expression and antigenic diversity compared with the antigen in the vaccine (9). However, the correlation between the relative potency estimated by this typing system and the ability of a meningococcal isolate to be killed by serum from immunized persons has only been defined for MenB strains. We found that MenW:cc11 isolates causing invasive disease in England and Wales possessed alleles for NadA-2/3 peptide variants that are predicted to be highly cross-protective with the Bexsero NadA variant (10). The isolates also possessed alleles for NHBA peptide 29 which, although different from peptide 2 in Bexsero, has the potential to induce cross-protection even if NHBA-containing cross-protective epitopes have not been defined yet. Antibodies against Bexsero antigens can act synergistically and, therefore, the complement-mediated bactericidal killing observed could be mediated by antibodies against NadA, NHBA, or both. Figure In England, the ongoing MenW increase is similar to the MenC:cc11 outbreak in the mid-1990s, which was eventually controlled through mass vaccination (11). The increase in MenW cases has led to the rapid introduction of a national adolescent MenACWY conjugate vaccination program in August 2015 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-meningococcal-vaccination-programme-expected-to-save-lives). In adolescents, a single MenACWY dose would provide direct protection and, by targeting the age group most likely to carry meningococci (12), could also provide indirect protection against MenW (Figure) and the other 3 capsular groups by reducing carriage and onward transmission to others. Conversely, infants would require >2 MenACWY doses starting at 2 months of age, because MenW cases increase from birth and peak at 7 months of age before declining. Bexsero, which is predicted to protect against 73%–88% of invasive MenB isolates in England and Wales (9,13), could offer additional protection against MenB, which causes more cases among infants and toddlers than the other meningococcal serogroups. Among infants (<1 year of age), 101 MenB cases were reported during 2014–2015, compared with 21 MenW, 4 MenY, and 1 MenC; among toddlers, (1–4 years of age), 139 MenB cases were reported, compared with 18 MenW, 5 MenY, and 0 MenC. The difference in adolescents (15–19 years of age) is less pronounced, but 36 MenB cases were reported in this age group during 2014–2015, compared with 25 MenW, 14 MenY and 3 MenC cases (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/476989/hpr38-3915.pdf). However, the effectiveness of Bexsero against meningococcal carriage and, therefore, its ability to provide herd protection, which is a major objective of an adolescent programme, is less certain than with conjugate vaccines (14). These observations and our results support the recent implementation of both the adolescent MenACWY conjugate and infant MenB immunization programmes in the UK.
Dr. Ladhani is a pediatric infectious disease consultant and a clinical epidemiologist at Public Health England, London, United Kingdom. He is the clinical lead for enhanced national surveillance of several vaccine-preventable infections in England and Wales and has a particular research interest in the direct and indirect population impact of conjugate and other vaccines.
Acknowledgment
J.F. and R.B. perform contract research on behalf of Public Health England for GSK, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur and Sanofi Pasteur MSD, and S.N.L. performs contract research for the same companies on behalf of St. George’s University of London. None of the authors have received any personal remuneration. M.M.G., A.B., and M.P. are employees of GSK Vaccines, which manufactures the MenB vaccine, Bexsero.
References
Ladhani SN, Flood JS, Ramsay ME, Campbell H, Gray SJ, Kaczmarski EB, Invasive meningococcal disease in England and Wales: implications for the introduction of new vaccines. Vaccine. 2012 ; 30 : 3710 – 6. DOI Hahné SJ, Gray SJ, Aguilera JF, Crowcroft NS, Nichols T, Kaczmarski EB, W135 meningococcal disease in England and Wales associated with Hajj 2000 and 2001. Lancet. 2002 ; 359 : 582 – 3. DOI Ladhani SN, Beebeejaun K, Lucidarme J, Campbell H, Gray S, Kaczmarski E, Increase in endemic Neisseria meningitidis capsular group W sequence type 11 complex associated with severe invasive disease in England and Wales. Clin Infect Dis. 2014 ; ••• : 578 – 85. Araya P, Fernandez J, Del CF, Seoane M, Ibarz-Pavon AB, Barra G, Neisseria meningitidis ST-11 clonal complex, Chile 2012. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 ; 21 : 339 – 41. DOI Parent du Châtelet I, Barboza P, Taha MK. W135 invasive meningococcal infections imported from Sub-Saharan Africa to France, January to April 2012. Euro Surveill. 2012 ; ••• : 17. Department of Health. Pneumococcal. In: Salisbury D, Ramsay M, Noakes K, editors. Immunisation against infectious disease. Norwick (UK): The Stationery Office; 2006 [updated 2011]. p. 295–313 Isaacs D, McVernon J. Introducing a new group B meningococcus vaccine. BMJ. 2014 ; 348 : g2415. DOI PubMed Gossger N, Snape MD, Yu LM, Finn A, Bona G, Esposito S, Immunogenicity and tolerability of recombinant serogroup B meningococcal vaccine administered with or without routine infant vaccinations according to different immunization schedules: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2012 ; 307 : 573 – 82. DOI PubMed Vogel U, Taha MK, Vazquez JA, Findlow J, Claus H, Stefanelli P, Predicted strain coverage of a meningococcal multicomponent vaccine (4CMenB) in Europe: a qualitative and quantitative assessment. Lancet Infect Dis. 2013 ; 13 : 416 – 25. DOI PubMed Comanducci M, Bambini S, Brunelli B, Adu-Bobie J, Arico B, Capecchi B, NadA, a novel vaccine candidate of Neisseria meningitidis. J Exp Med. 2002 ; 195 : 1445 – 54. DOI PubMed Campbell H, Borrow R, Salisbury D, Miller E. Meningococcal C conjugate vaccine: the experience in England and Wales. Vaccine. 2009 ; 27 ( Suppl 2 ): B20 – 9. DOI PubMed ): Christensen H, May M, Bowen L, Hickman M, Trotter CL. Meningococcal carriage by age: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2010 ; 10 : 853 – 61. DOI PubMed Frosi G, Biolchi A, Sapio ML, Rigat F, Gilchrist S, Lucidarme J, Bactericidal antibody against a representative epidemiological meningococcal serogroup B panel confirms that MATS underestimates 4CMenB vaccine strain coverage. Vaccine. 2013 ; 31 : 4968 – 74. DOI PubMed Read RC, Baxter D, Chadwick DR, Faust SN, Finn A, Gordon SB, Effect of a quadrivalent meningococcal ACWY glycoconjugate or a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine on meningococcal carriage: an observer-blind, phase 3 randomised clinical trial. Lancet. 2014 ; 384 : 2123 – 31. DOI PubMed
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Table
Table of Contents – Volume 22, Number 2—February 2016ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 11: Sergio Castellitto watches a participant of the casting call during the 8th Rome Film Festival at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica on November 11, 2013 in Rome, Italy. (Credit: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images) (Credit: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images)
Catrett & Associates Casting
“Step Sisters” (Film) BeAMovieExtra@CatrettCasting.com
* Nonprofit Organizations to provide Volunteers to be audience for a “Step Show” scene
* The Nonprofit will receive a dollar amount for every Volunteer they provide.
* Volunteers are needed Wednesday June 29th…..All Ethnicities…. 18yrs & Older
* Nonprofit: Please include ALL your contact info in your email
* Put “DONATIONS” in subject line
Catrett & Associates Casting
“Step Sisters” (Film) Submissions@CatrettCasting.com
* Black and Hispanic Males to portray “College Student” types 21 – 27yrs
* Please inform us if you’re a “Fresh Face” or “Returning BG” in your submission
* Shoots: This Saturday – June 18th
* Put “Live DJ Night” in subject line
Casting TaylorMade
“Jacob’s Ladder” (Film) extrascastingTM@gmail.com
* Men w/Gold Teeth – Full Grill or Single Ones to portray “Gangster” 18yrs & Older
* Men w/Law Enforcement experience (All Ethnicities) 21yrs & Older
* Put “Gold Teeth, or Law Enforcement” in subject line.
Casting TaylorMade
“Jacob’s Ladder” (Film) extrascastingTM@gmail.com
* Seeking: Older Male & Female “Asians” 40 – 80yrs
* Put “Older Asian” in subject line.
Get Scene Studios
(Local Acting Studio)
* Register for the June Special Offer – One FREE on-camera class
* Send Email: w/Name, Age, Contact Info to: GetSceneStudios@gmail.com
* Put “Casting Call” in subject line.
Hylton Casting
“Lauren Lake Paternity Court” (TV/Season 4)
* Apply now to be a PAID Studio Audience Member!
* For more information and details on how to submit, please go to:
http://www.HyltonCasting.com/Audience
Marinella – Hume Casting
“Brockmire” (TV) MhcComedy@gmail.com
* Hot Latino/Hispanic Men – Willing to dress like Chippendale Dancers 22 – 40yrs
* MUST be comfortable in Shorts & Shirtless and have Rhythm (Tattoos welcome)
* Shoots: Monday – June 20th
* Put “Dancer” in Subject line
Extras Casting Atlanta
“Rectify” (TV) RectifyExtras4@gmail.com
* ALL TYPES Men & Women //All Ethnicities // from Griffin, Ga. & surrounding area
* Put “Man or Women from Griffin, Ga. area” in subject line.
Extras Casting Atlanta
“Halt & Catch Fire” (TV) hcfextras3@gmail.com
(Period Piece)
* All types of Vehicles from 1986 and Older
* Men & Women who can recreate that Mid–1980’s look
* Put “1986/Older Vehicle, or Mid 80’s style” in subject line.
Central Casting Georgia
“Multiple Upcoming Projects” centralcasting.com
* To enter their database – Stop by their offices weekdays 11:00am – 5:00pm
235 Peachtree St. NE – Suite 217 – Atlanta, GA. 30303
* Headshots taken at their Office – Visit website for Must Bring Documents
Tammy Smith Casting
“The Summer of George” (Film) Tammysmithcasting.com
Visit Website and Click: Casting Notice
* “Hasidic Jewish” Men/Women/Kids w/everyday wardrobe – Turbans, Hijabs, etc.
* “Hasidic Jewish” Students (also) w/ethnic attire 14yrs & Older
* Put “Hasidic Jewish Man, Women, or Student” in subject line.
Tammy Smith Casting
“The Summer of George” (Film) Tammysmithcasting.com
Visit Website and Click: Casting Notice
* Middle Eastern & Indian Men/Women w/everyday wardrobe–Turbans, Hijabs, etc.
* 21yrs & Older
* Put “Middle Eastern, or Indian Man/Woman” in subject line.
Marion Designs
“Book Cover Models” (Photo Shoot Opportunity)
* In Shape – Men & Women (All Ethnicities) 18 – 35yrs
* Submit: 2 Photos (Head & Full Body) w/Stats and Contact Info to: info@mariondesigns.com
Rose Locke Casting
“Killing Reagan” (Film) Extras@RoseLockeCasting.com
(The Bill O’Reilly Book)
* Caucasian Males w/Open Availability 35yrs & Older
* MUST be available for fitting THIS WEEK ($$)
* Shoot Dates – This Thursday (6/16), Friday (6/17), and Saturday (6/18)
* Please list days available in body of email
* Put “Caucasian Male” in subject line.Daniel Wetter is just 16 years old, but his plan to support pizza chain Papa John’s amid a backlash of liberal criticism is no pie-in-the-sky idea.
Wetter is part of an upstart group called Rebooting America that is proposing that Friday be a national day of appreciation for the pizza chain, whose chief executive officer is being attacked for saying employees’ hours might be cut to cover the cost of implementing their health insurance under ObamaCare.
The conservative group has hatched a social media-based campaign that centers on encouraging people to buy a pizza pie at a Papa John’s store, taking a photo of the outing and then posting it on a Facebook page or tweeting it.
“We just wanted to stand with Papa John’s because it is under attack,” said Wetter, who volunteered with Mitt Romney's campaign and credits fellow conservative activist Justen Charters with coming up with the idea.
Wetter said Monday the Facebook appreciation page went up Sunday night and almost immediately got 1,000 supporters.
Papa John's founder and CEO John H. Schnatter said after Election Day that franchise owners might have to cut hours because the health care law requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide insurance for those working at least 30 hours. He also estimated the law will cost the company $5 million to $8 million more annually.
Other companies, such as Olive Garden and Applebee’s, also have faced criticism and threats of boycotts for voicing similar concerns.
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act more recently pounced on comments by New York-area Applebee's franchisee Zane Tankel, who told Fox Business that cost increases related to implementing ObamaCare might force a halt to expansion and additional hiring. Critics appear to have interpreted Tankel’s comments to mean he will lay off employees as a result of the changes.
Wetter said he hopes the activism will move beyond the appreciation day for Papa John's.
“This is not just about Friday or one group,” said Wetter, adding he already was a fan of Papa John’s. “I just had some pizza yesterday, and I’m going to have some more Friday.”
The other elements of the plan call for supporters to “like" Papa John's Facebook page and buy an extra pizza Friday “to share with someone that is struggling right now,” such as a neighbor who lost a job.Dr Andrew Carson, a senior lecturer in general practice at Birmingham University, warned of a “ticking time bomb” caused by dangerously high levels of cholesterol.
He said the NHS would struggle to cope with an "uncontrollable epidemic" of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and related conditions unless “a more imaginative solution” was discovered.
Dr Carson, who was speaking on Sunday at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham, a major national conference for high street pharmacies, called for further research into a compound found in tomatoes. It is thought to be one reason why the Mediterranean diet is so healthy.
The annual NHS bill for statins, which are used to lower cholesterol, is £500 million, but they do not work on up to two thirds of cardiovascular patients and can cause liver and muscle damage.
“More than 40 |
Simpson doesn't think Laiacona will be so lucky. He says Mell could probably win the February 2 primary as a write-in candidate, especially given her father's influence, or campaign as a Green Party or independent candidate in the general election next November.
And that's assuming the Board of Elections even agrees with Laiacona's argument or, if it does, that Mell and her own experienced election lawyer, Mike Kasper, wouldn't appeal the decision all the way up to the Illinois Supreme Court. (Kasper says he doesn't think Laiacona has a case; he's preparing his argument to that effect for a hearing slated for Tuesday, November 24.) Laiacona estimates it would cost him $20,000 to retain his lawyer for that long.
According to campaign disclosure forms submitted at the end of June to the Illinois Board of Elections (the most recent available), Laiacona, who says he makes about $44,000 a year, had raised a little over $6,000 and spent more than $5,000; he declined to reveal whether he's raised more since. Mell, by contrast, had a little over $19,000 in the bank.
To defeat an incumbent like Mell, says Simpson, any candidate needs a serious fund-raising operation. So far Laiacona doesn't have one. Collecting signatures back in August, he began reeling off the things he wasn't accomplishing because he doesn't have enough manpower. "When I'm collecting signatures, I can't update the blog," he said, "and when I'm updating the blog I can't raise money."
Laiacona's campaign is headquartered at the home he shares with Herlihy. A campaign poster hangs in the large front window of the modest white house. Inside, the dining room table is covered in stacks of envelopes and flyers.
As part of his fund-raising efforts, Laiacona is reaching out to fellow sadomasochists. He hasn't said what he would do specifically for the community if elected, though he has referred to "antiquated laws" that, if enforced, could be used against it. But he says he raised $1,800 at one leather party, and he pitched members of the Next Generation Chicago, a pansexual BDSM group for the 18-34 set, at one of their meetings at the Leather Archives & Museum in Rogers Park. He's also used his column to enlist supporters by drawing parallels between being a reformer and a practitioner of sadomasochism.
"For years I have written about the necessity of being authentic," Laiacona wrote under his real name on August 31. "I have extolled transparency, honesty, and trustworthiness. I have suggested actions that I felt would benefit our community. I have urged you, my readers, to be activists according to your particular situation and abilities. The time is right for me to put my actions where my mouth has been."
His published platform, at friendsforjoelaiacona.org/Platform.pdf, says he's for, among other things, limiting campaign contributions by party leaders—a reform house speaker Michael Madigan has blocked in the past. He's for term limits for state representatives and senators. He supports legislation to make it easier for unions to organize. He's pro medical marijuana and pro gay marriage.
And as part of his election-reform plank, he's for curtailing "costly challenges to signatures on petitions."
One of Laiacona's biggest supporters is Chuck Renslow. A precinct captain for 43rd Ward committeeman Dan O'Brien during the 70s, Renslow has long lobbied for gay rights, meeting with Chicago mayors going back to Richard J. Daley. The 80-year-old, who still helps organize International Mr. Leather, the pageant and fetish convention he cofounded in 1979, now spends most of his days at Man's Country, the gay bathhouse he owns in Andersonville. Renslow wrote Laiacona a letter back when he was writing for Gay Chicago Magazine, suggesting they meet, and the two became friends; Renslow even helped Laiacona join the Freemasons.
Renslow too proposes that the same qualities that make a good master make a good political leader. "When somebody puts themselves totally in your charge, they have to trust you," he says from behind his large wooden desk at Man's County. "And not only do they have to trust you, but the person who is the top—or whatever you want to call it—has to have integrity that they won't hurt the person or damage them. You can cause somebody pain that can be pleasurable, but not damage, and there's a big difference."
But Deb Mell wonders how effectively Laiacona can work within the state legislature given his kinky past. "We can't get a civil unions bill passed and here's a guy who's... into bondage and sex slaves?" she says. But she also accuses Laiacona of "hiding" his ties to the kinky community. "It's a conservative bunch out here in the 40th District, so it probably works in his favor not to mention it."
Even some people in his own community are debating Laiacona's political viability. In the inaugural edition of DungeonPlace.com's FetishCast podcast, after a segment on whether sadomasochists should be considered experts on military torture, hosts Meow, Gryphon, Goddess, Tutivillus, and DarlingEvil discussed his campaign and what impact his work might have on his bid for state representative.
"This is a man that's been open in the community," said DarlingEvil. "[I]s the mainstream... going to look at that and say, 'Is this someone we want representing us in our government?'"
Then again, Gryphon joked later, in Chicago politics, he just might be "the lesser evil."
Renslow says Laiacona's facing growing pressure to become a public advocate for fetishists. "What they should know is that he is on our side," Renslow says. "He can't come out and say, 'Oh, I'm going to make a law.' Whatever. He can't do it. What you've got to understand, the first thing is to get elected."
It's a dilemma Renslow has thought plenty about. In the 60s, he says, the legendary Cook County Democratic Central Committee chairman and county board president George Dunne approached him to run for office—alderman or maybe county board, he can't remember which. Dunne had conducted a poll on possible gay candidates, and Renslow had the most name recognition. But Renslow turned him down.
"I would have done more harm than good," he says. "My rivals would have made a big deal about 'the S & M clubs and people beating each other.'"Exclusive: A decade ago, the Bush administration was eager to bomb Iran but U.S. intelligence analysts challenged the casus belli by finding that Iran was not building a nuclear bomb, recalls ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
On a recent TV appearance, I was asked about whistleblowing, but the experience brought back to mind a crystal-clear example of how, before the Iraq War, CIA careerists were assigned “two bosses” – CIA Director George Tenet and John Bolton, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, the arch-neocon who had been thrust on an obedient Secretary of State Colin Powell.
CIA “analyst” Frederick Fleitz took the instructions quite literally, bragging about being allowed to serve, simultaneously, “two bosses” — and becoming Bolton’s “enforcer.” Fleitz famously chided a senior intelligence analyst at State for not understanding that it was the prerogative of policymakers like Bolton – not intelligence analysts – to “interpret” intelligence data.
In an email from Fleitz in early 2002, at the time when one of his bosses, the pliable George Tenet, was “fixing” the intelligence to “justify” war on Iraq, Fleitz outlined the remarkable new intelligence ethos imposed by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their subordinates who were reshaping the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Apparently, senior State Department intelligence analyst, Christian Westermann, “had not gotten the memo” on how things had changed. Rather, he was performing his duties like a professional analyst under the old rules. Westermann had the temerity to block coordination on a speech in which Bolton wanted to make the spurious assertion that Cuba had a developing biological weapons program.
On Feb. 12, 2002, after a personal run-in with Westermann, Fleitz sent Bolton this email: “I explained to Christian [Westermann] that it was a political judgment as to how to interpret this data and the I.C. [Intelligence Community] should do as we asked.” Fleitz informed Bolton that Westermann still “strongly disagrees with us.”
At this point, Bolton became so dyspeptic that he summoned Westermann to his office for a tongue-lashing and then asked top officials of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) to fire him. Instead, they defended him, and this was not the only time intelligence managers at State – virtually alone in the Intelligence Community – gave the Bush-43 White House and political hacks like Bolton the clear message not to count on managers and analysts at INR to acquiesce in the politicization of intelligence.
Exaggerating Iran Threat
Later, Fleitz went on to bigger and better things. In 2006, he became “senior adviser” to House Intelligence Committee chair Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan. Bowing to desires of the White House to portray Iran as a strategic threat, Hoekstra had Fleitz draft an almost comically alarmist paper titled “Recognizing Iran as Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States.” Fleitz was told not to coordinate his paper with the Intelligence Community.
The objective was to pre-empt a formal National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program – an NIE that the Senate had just commissioned. Fleitz and Hoekstra feared the NIE might come to unwelcome conclusions, contradicting the kinds of stark warnings about Iran’s nuclear program that the White House wanted to use to stir up fear and justify action against Iran. Iraq deja vu.
The Fleitz-Hoekstra gambit failed. Their over-the-top paper made them the subject of ridicule in professional intelligence circles.
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence Thomas Fingar was named to manage the formal NIE on Iran, and, mirable dictu, he was not only a seasoned professional but also a practitioner of the old-time ethos of objective, non-politicized intelligence.
Worse still for Bush, Cheney and their sycophants, the NIE of November 2007, endorsed by all 16 agencies of the Intelligence Community began: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.”
That Estimate holds the distinction of being the only NIE of which I am aware that demonstrably played a key role in preventing an unnecessary war – the war on Iran that Cheney and Bush were planning for 2008. Bush pretty much admits this in his memoir Decision Points, which includes a highly instructive section that he must have written himself.
Indeed, nowhere in his memoir is Bush’s bizarre relationship to truth so manifest as when he describes his dismay at learning that the Intelligence Community had redeemed itself for its lies about Iraq by preparing an honest NIE that stuck a rod in the wheels of the juggernaut rolling toward war with Iran.
Bush complains bitterly that the “eye-popping” NIE “tied my hands on the military side,” adding that the “NIE’s conclusion was so stunning that I felt it would immediately leak to the press.” He writes that he authorized declassification of the key findings “so that we could shape the news stories with the facts.” Facts?
A disappointed Bush writes, “The backlash was immediate. [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad hailed the NIE as a ‘great victory.’” Bush’s apparent “logic” here is to use the widespread disdain for Ahmadinejad to discredit the NIE through association, i.e. whatever Ahmadinejad praises must be false.
An Embarrassment
How embarrassing it must have been for Bush and Cheney! Here before the world were the key judgments of an NIE, the most authoritative genre of intelligence report, unanimously approved “with high confidence” by 16 U.S. intelligence agencies and signed by the Director of National Intelligence, saying, in effect, that Bush and Cheney were lying about the “Iranian nuclear threat.” Just a month before the Estimate was issued, Bush was claiming that the threat from Iran could lead to “World War III.”
In his memoir, Bush laments: “I don’t know why the NIE was written the way it was. … Whatever the explanation, the NIE had a big impact — and not a good one.” Spelling out how the NIE had tied his hands “on the military side,” Bush included this kicker:
“But after the NIE, how could I possible explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?”
Yet, that didn’t stop neocon warmongers from trying. The NIE was subject to virulent criticism by those disappointed that it did not provide justification for a “preventive” attack on Iran.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who has proudly described himself as the “anchor of the Presbyterian wing of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA),” called the Iran NIE “deceptive.” Hoekstra called it “a piece of trash.”
Greg Thielmann, a former State Department official who had managed strategic intelligence analysis but quit before the intelligence debacle on Iraq, could not resist commenting on this bizarre set of circumstances from his new position as a senior fellow at the Arms Control Association: “There is some considerable irony in hearing such criticism from those intimately familiar with the inner workings of the intelligence community, who seemed to have sleep-walked through the serious professional lapses of the 2002 NIE on Iraq WMD.”
But the neocons were deprived of the Iran war for which they had been lusting (just as, six years later, they were deprived of the war on Syria, into which they almost mouse-trapped President Barack Obama).
Still, you need not worry about any negative consequences for the compliant Bush-Cheney “analysts” who were willing to “fix” more intelligence around war policies. As usually happens in Official Washington, they landed on their feet. For instance, Fleitz is now Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs with the Center for Security Policy, a think tank founded by Frank Gaffney, Jr., an archdeacon of neocondom, who is still its president.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. A former Army officer and CIA analyst, McGovern co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) in January 2003, in an attempt to expose the corruption of intelligence under the Cheney-Bush regime.October 21, 2012 at 7:00 PM EST
The teams head to Bangladesh tonight on The Amazing Race 2012 and it looks like things get a little intense. The teams are running around the city in an attempt to not be the last team to cross the finish line, but who was eliminated from The Amazing Race Season 21? We haven’t had a elimination-free week yet this season, so I am thinking we are due for one tonight. Find out in my The Amazing Race 2012 Live Recap tonight!
Last week on The Amazing Race Season 21, it was time for a Double U-Turn and most of the teams passed on sending any of their competition back to do the other task, but Rob and Kelley weren’t feeling confident on getting back before everyone else and they knew Gary and Will were behind them, so they U-Turned them and put the last place team even further behind. That didn’t matter as Caitlin and Brittany could not get a driver who knew where they were going and drove around Indonesia forever and that allowed Gary and Will to finish in 8th place and be safe for another week and the girls headed home.
Tonight we will see the teams take on Bangaldesh and we might see some tempers flare as the Monster Truck-driving couple Rob and Kelley seem to not be too happy with one of the residents. We will see some funky monkeys and it looks like some painting or cleaning of vans? Who knows but you won’t want to miss a thing, so come check it out and watch with me tonight during my The Amazing Race Season 21 live recap!
Abbie and Ryan start off first as they make their way to Bangladesh, where they will head to a bus repair shop to get their next clue. Trey and Lexi get to the travel agent at the same time and their is only one flight to Bangladesh at 10am the next morning, so all the teams are on the same flight and the early start did nothing for Abbie and Ryan on The Amazing Race 21.
The teams all land on the plane and they all head out to find a taxi, but Rob and Kelley buy a ticket from the taxi stand and they get off to an early lead. The teams are overwhelmed by Bangladesh, as it is a lot of people and men and chaos everywhere. Meanwhile, Lexi and Trey’s taxi driver stops for gas…no big rush for him! Abbie describes the city as smelling like Funky Money.
Abbie and Ryan get to the bus repair shop first and this Road Block requires them to repair one of more than 15,000 that do battle on the streets. The teams will fill in the damage on the bus and then sand them and get them ready for painting. They will also need to remove three of the seats and deliver them to the refurbishing area and that is where they will get their next clue.
The teams on The Amazing Race 2012 had to mix the putty together and then color to the spot they are fixing. James had issues with even opening the can. Rob does it for them and he is confident because they do this on their monster trucks all the time. James and Abba get to the bus station in fifth place and decide to do the Fast Forward, which is to help a pest control agent and each person must help collect a bag full of dead rats in three different locations…I’m puking in my mouth watching it! Once the streets have been eradicated they can go directly to the next pit stop!
All the other teams do the Road Block and are working on the buses while James and Abba run out to get rats, which they don’t seem phased at all to have to go catch rats. Meanwhile Ryan gets approval on his bus and is moving on to removing seats, but asks Jaymes and James to help out and they help other, which shows off their alliance. Rob gets approval next on his bus, while James and Abba are struggling with the rats. Nadiya gets approval for her bus, but James is struggling and getting angry!
James has to scrape it all off and start over, which he wants to punch the bus. Abbie calms him down and he starts over again. Trey doesn’t get approval and he starts scraping it off. Natalie is screaming and rooting on Nadiya and everyone is over it. “Come on, twinnie.” Everyone is annoyed, but it is rooting her on. Ryan finishes the sanding and then heads inside for the seats, which look very heavy.
Rob finished the sanding and now he goes to the seats. Ryan takes one at a time, but Rob grabs two and is heading to turn them in. Ryan gets all the seats turned in and they get their next clue, which is to head to Kawran Bazar Shootkir Market and they will search through a bag of smelly, dry fish and try to find one with color. Once they do, they turn it in and get their next clue on The Amazing Race 2012.
Rob and Kelly finish the bus next followed by Natalie and Nadiya. Josh and James both move on to sanding as Trey and Gary are struggling with the putty. James and Abba are at their second stop for the rats. Josh is now on to the seats and James is right behind them. Trey starts on sanding and Gary is right behind him. James and Jaymes are heading to the market now and have arrived.
There are a lot of bags of fish, but Abbie and Ryan find it quickly and move on to the Detour, where they must pound out two essential products in Bangladesh: metal or cotton. In Pound The Metal, they will use sledgehammers to pound the metal into a sharp-pointed tool. Once they get the spike completed they will get their next clue. In Pound The Cotton, they use bamboo rods to pound cotton and make mattress.
Abbie and Ryan start pounding some cotton as Natalie and Nadiya start looking for their fish and find it and move on and Rob and Kelley follow behind them. Abbie and Ryan get their cotton pounded and then Abbie knows a trick to get all the cotton into the mattress and she starts sewing, as Ryan is chanting “one year in fashion school is paying off.” The twins and Rob and Kelley are pounding the metal.
James and Abba collect all their rats and turn them in and they get the clue for the Pit Stop, which is at Shambazar Chan Mia Ghat. Trey gets done with the sanding and Gary is still sanding and they are in last place yet again. Gary starts on the seays as Trey finishes up and then Gary gets the seats down and they are both headed to the market. Trey and Lexi’s taxi is dead, so Gary and Will might survive again.
James and Abba check in and are team number one this week…the Fast Forward paid off on The Amazing Race Season 21. Things are all chaotic and teams are everywhere and I am over it. Trey and Lexi get their fish and then Will and Gary do, as they start pounding. Ryan and Abbie get on the boat to go to the pit stop and as it is heading out Nadiya and Natalie get on it, so it will be a battle between them two! Josh and Brent and Jaymes and James are working on the mattress and Josh and Brent get it done and head out.
Lexi and Trey get done with pounding the steel then Jaymes and James finish their mattress, so it looks like Gary and Will might be last. The twins and Abbie and Ryan both get to Phil Keoghan at the same time and Abbie and Ryan are second and the twins are third. Rob and Kelley get to Phil next, but they took the wrong boat to get to him and must complete the course properly, so he can not check them in!!!
Rob is now pissed at the boat driver and said he brought them to the wrong place. Josh and Brent check in fourth. Lexi and Trey get to Swarighat, but they were dropped off by taxi and must get there by the boat. Lexi and Trey head back to where they were supposed to check in and then head back. Rob and Kelley fix their error and check in again and are team five. James and Jaymes come in next and are team number six. Trey and Lexi head in and are team number seven. Gary and Will do it wrong also and they must go to the right check in.
Gary and Will finally arrive to Phil to check in and they are the last team to arrive and they have been eliminated from The Amazing Race 21. They may have been super fans, but they sucked it up while being on the show. Who do you want to win this season?
Join us tonight on RealityRewind.com for my The Amazing Race 2012 Season 21 LIVE recap. Let’s see who was eliminated from The Amazing Race Season 21 together, but leave some comments and let me know what you think! Subscribe to our Email and RSS or like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all our latest updates.PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia Police are investigating a disturbing discovery on a North Philadelphia street Monday night.
People walking along the 3100 block of W. Clearfield Street came across an infant- or child-sized casket lying on the sidewalk just after 9 p.m.
“I was pretty shocked,” said Chris James. “It looked like something straight out of ‘Thriller.'”
READ: Wolf Signs Bill Strengthening Penalties For Child Endangerment
Officers arrived and opened the casket to find a bag of organs inside, but no body.
“According to the medical examiner, [they] were in fact human organs. They believed they belonged to an infant or a child,” said Chief Inspector Scott Small. “What’s unusual is other than the bag of organs there was no body.”
Small described the casket as “fresh” and recently pried open. Investigators are looking into whether someone stole it from an area funeral home or if it was dug up from a cemetery, including Mt. Vernon directly across the street from where the casket was found.
READ: New Jersey Government Reaches Deal Ending Shutdown
“There have been cases where people take remains or human bodies for whatever unusual reason they decide,” Small said, “but we’re going to look into that.”
The Office of the Medical Examiner now has the casket and the organs for further investigation.
Police plan to have cadaver dogs search Mt. Vernon and Laurel Hill cemeteries nearby for freshly dug up graves.Naturally the Apple Music launch event focused on the availability of Apple Music on iOS devices, with the release date set for 30th June.
There was also confirmation of an Apple Music Android app, which is slated for an Autumn 2015 launch, some time after Apple Music goes live on iPhones, iPads, Macs and PCs.
But what of other devices? Sonos is the most popular multi-room music proposition and makes a big play of its exhaustive list of supported services, so what about Apple Music?
The @SonosSupport social media account has gone in to overdrive and from numerous tweets it seems the official line is: "[Apple Music] will not be available at launch, we'd love to bring the service to Sonos when Apple is ready."
MORE: Apple Music review
MORE: Apple Music vs Spotify
A similar message has also been posted on the Ask Sonos forums section of the Sonos website by an official Sonos representative, who also added a note of excitement: "We won’t have the service available at launch, but we’re excited about what Apple Music promises for the future of music. We look forward to bringing the service to Sonos when Apple is ready."
There was no mention of any non-Apple device support at the launch event, Android app aside, so we'd expect Sonos to be fairly high-up the pecking order as and when Apple Music goes live on other hardware.
Sonos CEO, John MacFarlane, told the FT last month that Sonos wanted "to be the first partner [Apple] talks to" after Apple launched its streaming service. We'll have to wait and see whether that was the case...
MORE: Apple Music - everything you need to know
MORE: Sonos - everything you need to knowPart 2: Reading Fan / Water Pump RPM
Today we are going to learn how to read the RPM of a PC Fan. This also works well for the Water Pumps used in PC Water Cooling as well as any dc pump or fan that has a rotation sense wire. This is accomplished by counting the falling edge of the square wave generated by the Hall effect sensor that is located inside the fan or pump. All we have to do is use the arduino to do is count that data, do some math for us, and output the converted data onto an LCD Screen. Lets get started!
The PC fan I have selected outputs RPM signals on its yellow wire. This signal can be used to tell fan controllers or motherboard inputs how fast the fan's blade is tunring. In our case we are going to use this to tell the Arduino how fast the fan is spinning. In fact you can plug the signal wire to the CPU fan header on a motherboard and set the BIOS so that if the fan ever stops sending a signal it will shut your PC down to prevent a CPU failure due to heat. While a nice feature for safety, it will be much cooler to see the RPM at which your fan is running than knowing your CPU wont melt if it dies right?
Wiring things up!
This is pretty simple to hook up. First you need to run the Signal wire (almost always yellow) to the breadboard. Then from it connect a jumper wire to Arduino Digital Pin 2. Also from the sensor wire you need to connect a 10k resistor to the Arduino's 5V pin. This is a simple pull-up resistor. We also need to make sure that we connect the fans ground line to one of the Arduino's ground pins. Next just connect the fans power wire to the PSUs 12v line and the fans ground wire to the PSUs ground.
Now upload the following code to your Seeeduino, and then open the serial terminal. Again I would like to thank Crenn from http://thebestcasescenario.com for his help with the code.
//code by Crenn from http://thebestcasescenario.com //project by Charles Gantt from http://themakersworkbench.com //To disable interrupts: cli(); disable global interrupts and //to enable them: sei(); enable interrupts //Varibles used for calculations int NbTopsFan; int Calc; //The pin location of the sensor int hallsensor = 2; typedef struct{ //Defines the structure for multiple fans and //their dividers char fantype; unsigned int fandiv; }fanspec; //Definitions of the fans //This is the varible used to select the fan and it's divider, //set 1 for unipole hall effect sensor //and 2 for bipole hall effect sensor fanspec fanspace[3]={{0,1},{1,2},{2,8}}; char fan = 1; void rpm () //This is the function that the interupt calls { NbTopsFan++; } //This is the setup function where the serial port is initialised, //and the interrupt is attached void setup() { pinMode(hallsensor, INPUT); Serial.begin(9600); attachInterrupt(0, rpm, RISING); } void loop () //Set NbTops to 0 ready for calculations { NbTopsFan = 0; //Enables interrupts sei(); //Wait 1 second delay (1000); //Disable interrupts cli(); //Times NbTopsFan (which is apprioxiamately the fequency the fan //is spinning at) by 60 seconds before dividing by the fan's divider Calc = ((NbTopsFan * 60)/fanspace[fan].fandiv); //Prints the number calculated above Serial.print (Calc, DEC); //Prints " rpm" and a new line Serial.print (" rpm\r
"); }
You should see an RPM output in the Arduino IDE's serial terminal. It is roughly accurate within 10-15 RPM of the fans actual RPM which is close enough for me. If your RPM output seems to be double what it should be your fan may have a bipolar Hall efect sensor and its counting each pass of the magnets pole as a single RPM when each should be 1/2 an RPM. No worries though as this is an easy fix. Just simply change the " char fan = 0 code from 0 to 1. Upload the modified code and you should be seeing accurate RPM numbers.
If you like this tutorial, and would like to see more like it, consider visiting our Patreon page and donating to help us keep TheMakersWorbench.com up and running! You can also support us by using the Amazon.com search bar in the left-hand sidebar on the homepage, or by clicking on and purchasing any of the hardware items we listed during this tutorial!Please enable Javascript to watch this video
SALT LAKE CITY - Simply biting into a snack led to the death a St. George boy. 11-year-old Tanner Henstra died after an allergic reaction to peanuts.
Family, friends and classmates mourned his death during a viewing Friday night at an LDS stake center in St. George.
“This could have happened to anyone of our children and the Utah food allergy community and the national food allergy community is mourning this loss,” said Michelle Fogg, President of the Utah Food Allergy Network
While at friend’s home in St. George last week, Tanner Henstra simply bit into a peanut butter-filled pretzel. Knowing he had a peanut allergy and asthma, he quickly spit it out but that little contact was enough to cause the boy’s tongue and throat to swell up and cut off his airway.
“The family was aware and they were prepared but all these uncontrollable variables came together,” said Fogg.
It's called an anaphylactic attack. It happened to Alicia Reed’s daughter, Erin, in 2007.
Erin ate a chocolate snack with peanuts in it and had a severe reaction.
“I was crying and freaking out. I was asking her if she was ok and she had a rash around her mouth,” said Alicia Reed. “There was another incident when she was 3 and had a rash but never had this breathing problem before.”
The drug epinephrine could have saved Tanner's life. It’s a hormone known as the first line of defense in allergic reactions like this.
His family had the drug but Tanner didn't have it on him at the time of the reaction. And by the time his mother rushed to help and injected him with an EpiPen, it was too late. Tanner already went into cardiac arrest. Despite being air lifted to Primary Children’s Medical Center, the lack of oxygen to his brain was irreversible.
Doctors say when it comes to peanut-related fatalities, "90 to 95 percent are due to the fact that they did not get epinephrine in time and that seems to be a common theme."
Allergist Dr. Rafael Firszt says food allergies are on the rise. It’s unclear why, but one in 13 children have a food allergy. That’s two per classroom. Peanuts are the third most common allergy, after milk and eggs.
As Tanner’s story proves, even the slightest contact can cause a deadly reaction.
“Sometimes you’re only talking about minutes that you have to save a life,” said Fogg.
Tanner’s family donated his organs. Already the 11-year-old boy has saved three lives. If you’d like to help them with funeral costs, there’s a link on this website.
A fund has been set up at https://www.giveforward.com to help Tanner's family pay for funeral costs.The Holocene is dead; welcome to the Anthropocene. Once a controversial stance, the notion that human activities have altered planetary geology adequately enough to warrant the demarcation of another epoch has more traction than the Mars Rover. A prominent international panel of scientists recently recommended the term for official designation. Are there holdouts among geologists? Sure, but the more interesting critics of the Anthropocene are social scientists. Some academics on the left are making the point that the Anthropocene is the real deal, but poorly named. The natural environment is changing in unprecedented and disastrous ways, they argue, but the culprit isn’t humankind, it’s capitalism.
McKenzie Wark, professor of media and culture at The New School, is among those that take the view that a capitalist economy is behind the climate change crisis. His recent book, Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene, draws on Marx’s idea of metabolic rift — a destabilization of the planet at a chemical level, which Marx saw in fields stripped of nutrients through industrial agriculture.
Molecular Red asks not if Anthropocene is a useful word, but instead how it should be interpreted and understood. Wark gathers thinkers from Soviet Russia and techno-America to pull together a sort of tool kit for changing the world. His sources transcend academia, and reach into science fiction. He’s particularly intrigued by the idea of human colonies on Mars, which represent the possibility to try something different, and the imperative to try something more sustainable.
Inverse contacted Wark by email.
A mountain of garbage in Indonesia.
How do you understand the concept of the Anthropocene?
The important thing to bear in mind is that geologists, and other Earth science people, came up with it. When the people who study those sorts of things — the very long term processes that happen between rocks and air and oceans — start thinking that something to do with humans is a significant factor in what they observe, then that’s a very significant moment in the history of knowledge. For the rest of us, it means coming to terms with the ways in which the Earth is a “closed” system, where we can’t just dump our trash where we want and expect it to go away. We need to attend to the economic and political systems that do that, and change them.
When future geologists dig for signs of the Anthropocene, they'll look for chicken fossils.
How would you explain Marx’s theory of metabolic rift to someone unfamiliar with the concept? How does it apply to greenhouse gases and climate change?
Marx was reading the emerging soil science of his time, and took an interest in the way nitrogen and phosphorus compounds ended up being extracted from the soil in growing cereal crops, which fed an increasingly urban workforce, but where a lot of those soil nutrients ended up being peed down the drain rather than returning to the soil. He generalized that into a theory of metabolic rift, where some break occurs in the passage of some molecule or other through the modern capitalist economy. I would suggest that carbon compounds are, likewise, a subject of metabolic rift. Capitalism — the world-conquering economic system in which we live — runs on carbon extracted from the ground, but which ends up in the atmosphere and oceans. That’s a potentially disastrous metabolic rift.
What is the Carbon Liberation Front?
The history of the modern world from the French Revolution onwards is often thought of as a series of liberations — from tyranny, from mystification, and so on. Or, more positively, the liberation of the common people, of the slaves, of women, and so on. There’s even a movement now for animal liberation. But what if the thing that really got free in modern times was nothing human or even animal, but was an element: carbon? Capitalism runs on fossil fuels — on carbon. It “liberates” it from oil and coal deposits, runs the commodity economy on it, and dumps the waste carbon in the atmosphere and the oceans. So I coined the term “Carbon Liberation Front” as an ironic way of thinking about what transpired in the modern era, which is the era of the rise of capitalism.
Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah is the largest human excavation on Earth.
You draw on the writing of Kim Stanley Robinson to make your case. How is science fiction useful in understanding the Anthropocene, and climate change?
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Science fiction can be surprisingly realistic. Robinson, in particular, is very interested in real-world things that happen in between the human world |
Coal Companies
The fund, like many others, sees not only an ethical reason for the divestment, but a pragmatically financial one as well. Steven Rockefeller believes that companies that have stockpiled fossil fuel reserves will find themselves in difficulty in the future when the cost of getting rid of that carbon load becomes prohibitively expensive. Rockefeller stated, “We see this as having both a moral and an economic dimension.” Investors are likening the action to the investor activism against apartheid in the 1980s and Big Tobacco in the 1990s. While they don’t anticipate causing a great deal of financial damage through their individual actions, the message that divestment sends is very powerful.
According to Arabella Advisors, “As of September 19, 2014, 181 institutions and local governments and 656 individuals representing over $50 billion in assets have pledged to divest from fossil fuels.” This figure was just 74 investors in January, 2014, so the divestment movement has really gained traction this year. Chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, who marched in New York along with her three children on Sunday, also told the Washington Post that if her family patriarchs were still alive, they would be “investing in alternative energy sources and renewables right now.” With the clout of big name investors added to the sound of hundreds of thousands of feet on the ground in Sunday’s climate change marches, there is plenty of pressure on world leaders to take action on climate change over the next few days.
+ The Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Via The New York Times, the Washington Post and The Huffington Post
Photos by Richard Masoner and Patrick Hawks via FlickrA Conservative candidate in Nova Scotia is under scrutiny for telling a young voter on Facebook to "gain some experience in life" before engaging in political discussions after the voter pressed him on how his party would improve the economy and protect the environment.
A Sept. 27 post on the Facebook page of Robert Strickland, the Conservative candidate for Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook, highlighted his party's plan for low taxes, a balanced budget and steady growth.
Mitchell Van Oosten, 22, a Carleton University engineering student originally from Fall River, N.S., responded to the post by asking how the Conservatives would promote growth in a recession while balancing the budget.
Following a back and forth, a post from Strickland's Facebook account said Van Oosten should complete his degree before discussing Conservative stances on the economy, environment and foreign aid.
This is the comment that got Strickland in hot water. (Imgur)
"Well Mitchell, from my perspective which spans residency in 3 countries, work in 5 countries including 8 provinces of Canada and 22 states in the US... I will wait for you to gain some experience in life. Please respond when you have a tenure higher than 1 year at any one employer and perhaps have completed a degree rather than talking about starting one," the comment said.
Posts deleted
In a statement to CBC News, Strickland said he did not make the comments and attributed them to a staffer.
"Due to the busy nature of campaigning, I rely on my volunteers to help with various tasks, including doing my social media," the statement said.
"One of my volunteers mistakenly posted a comment that was not in my own words and not accurate."
The Facebook post was originally deleted and replaced with one in which Strickland said he believes Canada is the best country in which to raise a family, educate children and become prosperous.
"I encourage you to travel the world and gain the experience that will be so valued upon your return to this great country we both call home," said the post.
On Thursday, the exchange with Van Oosten was deleted from Strickland's Facebook wall.
'It's no wonder we have so many disillusioned voters'
Van Oosten says Strickland's explanation of who wrote the original post is irrelevant.
"I think as voters, we are voting not only for the candidates, but, unfortunately or fortunately, we're voting for whatever staff members they may have and also for their ability to manage their staff members," he said.
Van Oosten said the idea that people need to be university educated or have world experience to ask questions is not right.
"It's no wonder we have so many disillusioned voters, and especially young voters," he said.
Van Oosten is currently in Australia for a year and will soon begin a co-op work experience as part of his studies. He hopes to then do a Master's degree in Europe.
The Facebook conversation has generated a lot of chatter online, with people blasting Strickland for the comments.
Pompous ass <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RobertStrickland?src=hash">#RobertStrickland</a> reverts to true Con form when confronted w/ polite questions from young man <a href="https://t.co/2wRVC0OUwO">https://t.co/2wRVC0OUwO</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash">#cdnpoli</a> —@AFolkHero
Conservative candidate Robert Strickland: If Harper isn't good enough for you, bugger off to Zambia. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/elxn42?src=hash">#elxn42</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash">#cdnpoli</a> <a href="http://t.co/JP4JkdbnDG">pic.twitter.com/JP4JkdbnDG</a> —@rjjago
<a href="https://twitter.com/pmharper">@pmharper</a> who made the decision to let this Robert Strickland guy into the party? —@3BeanSoupIn the wake of the Kevin Spacey sexual harassment allegations, revelations have resurfaced about Spacey's father, who was allegedly a Nazi and who raped his brother and abused his family so badly they nicknamed him The Creature.
The sensational allegations about Spacey's early home life were made by his older brother Randall Fowler, now 62, to the Daily Mail in 2004.
Fowler, a Rod Stewart impersonator and limo driver described as kids how they lived in a "house of horrors" along with their sister Julie.
"There was so much darkness in our home it was beyond belief.... It was absolutely miserable. Kevin tried to avoid what was going on wrapping himself in an emotional bubble," he told the Daily Mail. "He was so determined to try to avoid the whippings that he just minded his Ps and Qs until there was nothing inside. He had no feelings."
Fowler says Spacey used to do impressions to make his brother and sister laugh, perhaps when he first started to use acting as an escape.
Fowler says their father joined the American Nazi Party when the brothers were children, trimming his moustache to more closely resemble Adolf Hitler. He also alleges he was regularly whipped and raped by his father. The abuse was so bad, Fowler alleged, that he avoided having children of his own for fear they would "inherit the sexual predator gene."
Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp alleges that Spacey groped him on a bed at a party in 1986, when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Rapp says Spacey picked him up and carried him to bed after the party, in what he believed was an attempt to "seduce" him. Spacey is then accused of laying on top of Rapp, leaving him trying - ultimately successfully - to "squirm away".
Spacey has apologised for his "inappropriate drunken behaviour" in a statement on Twitter.From Brent Bozell at Townhall:
In January, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey told a Television Critics Association session in Hollywood that she wanted to retool ABC programming to include more shows for Trump-voting segments of the population: men, rural America and working-class families.
They probably actually wanted to centre those expendable rubes out by pretending to include them and then dumping them, to show the extent to which the network does not need them.
This month, she broke that campaign promise like a politician by canceling the Tim Allen sitcom “Last Man Standing,” a show appealing directly to that Trump electorate. A Change.com petition protesting the move has nearly 300,000 signatures. Allen tweeted that he was “stunned and blindsided” by the bad news.
Why was Allen fired?
The show didn’t have a ratings problem — it averaged 6.4 million viewers this season, and that should be graded upward on a curve, since the show aired on Friday and the overall Friday audience is typically smaller than other weeknights. Dungey said the job of a programming executive was “managing failure,” but this wasn’t a failure. “It was a steady performer,” she admitted. However, she added, “Once we made the decision not to More.
Reality check: The actual goal of all legacy media is to get public funding from permanent progressive government to retail oits propaganda. The steady drumbeat for that is well under way now in Canada.
See also: Canadian litmag editor quits over cultural appropriation chargesTricolor beat USA in friendly thanks to Luis Fabiano and Jadson Jadson could yet make the Brazil squad for 2014
Action Images
Jurgen Klinsmann's USA lost their first proper test on Brazilian soil ahead of this summer's World Cup by losing 2-1 to Sao Paulo in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Thursday.
As part of the Americans' preparations for 2014, an special camp had been arranged in Brazil so as to allow the players an insight into the country they will call home for as long as possible later in the year.
Unfortunately for the USA and Klinsmann, the Tricolor were in no mood to make it an easy run-around for their opponents and actually wound up as victors in a well-mannered encounter.
Sao Paulo took the lead through veteran striker Luis Fabiano and although USA managed an equaliser from Chris Wondolowski, Selecao hopeful Jadson sealed the ficticious three points for the hosts, who changed their entire line-up at the break.
USA will line-up in Group G in the World Cup alongside Germany, Portugal and Ghana.There’s finally good news when it comes to the renewal of the Faith. I’m talking, of course, about the nuclear faith. In case you happen to have forgotten, that’s the Cold War belief that a U.S. arsenal big enough to destroy several Earth-sized planets and on a hair-trigger alert remains crucial to the preservation of the American way of life and, at a more mundane level, that an Air Force career as a “missileer” isn’t a dead-end path in a terrorism obsessed century. For years, it’s seemed like sitting in a silo in the American West with your proverbial finger on the trigger might be the definition of military meaninglessness. And it can’t have helped that, early in his first term, President Obama committed himself to banishing from the planet the very weapons the missileers were guarding and preparing to launch one of these days, or that there had even been discussions inside the Pentagon about shrinking the force. Talk about corrosive or, as one deputy commander of operations and missileer put it, a “rot” in the ranks! In religious terms, think of this as a loss of confidence among the military priesthood in what had once been the Only True Faith, and a fear that “thinking the unthinkable” — as it was called in the nuclear arsenal’s Cold War heyday — might someday actually become unthinkable.
As a spate of news articles in recent years has indicated, the “rot” has been all too real. There was that widely reported “cheating” scandal when it came to nuclear “proficiency” exams resulting in the axing of nine Air Force commanders; there were those nuclear weapons flown across the U.S. by mistake, those missile silo blast doors left open while their guards slept soundly, and those suspensions of missileers for “incompetence,” drug problems, and sexual harassment, among other issues. There was the firing of a general in charge of “three wings of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles with 450 ICBMs” for “misconduct” while in Moscow, including gross and repeated drunkenness, “associating” with two women who might have been spies, offending his hosts, and so on. There was even a distinctly Biblical “infestation” of rats in a force reputedly “rusting its way to disarmament.”
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And last but hardly least, there was the loss of crucial funds for equipment highlighted by the single wrench “required to tighten bolts on the warhead end of the Minuteman 3 missile” that had to be FedExed between three ICBM bases in North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Of course, that problem could have been solved if, in line with the president’s stated thinking, two of those three bases had been closed and their missiles disarmed and destroyed. But we’re talking about the renewal of a faith here, not anything as utopian as nuclear disarmament, so that wouldn’t do. Instead, the U.S. nuclear force is to be “modernized,” which means refurbished to the tune of an estimated trillion dollars in the decades to come, and our disarming president has just nominated as his new secretary of defense a man long committed to such a course of action.
If there’s anyone to take the measure of this moment of nuclear “renewal,” it’s Boston Globecolumnist James Carroll. After all, dedicated to exploring the religious roots of violence, he experienced the American cult of violence up close and personal in his own youth. His father was the founding director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, something he’s described in his memoir American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us. He’s written eloquently about the American cult of violence that we like to call the Pentagon in House of War, and about the more traditionally religious roots of violence in his bestseller Constantine’s Sword and in Jerusalem, Jerusalem. His newest book, Christ Actually: The Son of God for the Secular Age, focuses on the way in which Jesus has historically been used to justify the very violence he rejected. So Carroll’s look at Washington’s urge to renew America’s waning nuclear faith today couldn’t be more appropriate.Today I yelled at Sally. I was trying to finish a project and she was getting in the way again and again and I just snapped. I stormed upstairs to finish what I was working on in peace, leaving Sally downstairs with her daddy. I knew yelling like that was not right and I knew I should have taken a deep breath instead of getting more and more annoyed. In retrospect, I should have saved finishing my project until later, or else I should have stopped and found Sally something constructive to do. But I didn’t.
After cooling off upstairs for a minute I knew what I needed to do. I went downstairs and found Sally and got down on her level and looked her in the eyes.
Sally, mommy’s sorry mommy yelled at you.
I love you very much and shouldn’t get upset at you like that. How about you come upstairs with mommy, and you can play with your train set while I finish what I’m working on?
Parents aren’t perfect. As a child I thought parents just automatically knew everything, but then I became a parent and realized how untrue that is. We have our own flaws and we do make mistakes. More and more I find that practice positive parenting with Sally helps me see my flaws more obviously than ever. Positive parenting is not for the weak at heart.
But for me, positive parenting also means that I can admit my mistakes. If you see parenting as a hierarchical relationship where the parent is the authority and absolute obedience is required from the child, admitting making a mistake can be problematic. But if you see parenting as a relationship between two flawed individuals in which each strives to learn from the other and respect the other’s needs without ignoring their own, admitting that you made a mistake only makes sense. And it’s very freeing.
This isn’t the first time I’ve apologized to Sally, and it won’t be the last. Sometimes I apologize for losing my temper, other times the apology is for putting too much time into my academic work on a given evening and not spending enough time engaging with her. Either way, I think being ready and willing to apologize is important, and for numerous reasons. First, it let’s Sally know from the beginning that I’m not perfect, but that I do try and love her very much. Second, it sets an example for Sally, encouraging her to be ready to apologize when she is in the wrong.
More than that, being willing to apologize to my daughter when I am in the wrong takes the edge off of any sort of parent-child competition in our relationship and emphasizes cooperation, honesty, and vulnerability. We all make mistakes, but we don’t try to hide or deny that. Instead, we accept each other and love each other in spite of whatever mistakes we make.
Now obviously, as a disclaimer, I should point out that I’m talking about a heartfelt apology, not an apology that is used as a get out of jail free card. If I were beating Sally and then apologizing for it afterwards and expecting her to forgive me for my “mistake,” or even if I were repeatedly ignoring Sally evening after evening in order to study and then each night apologizing at bedtime for not spending time with her without making a conscious effort to remedy the problem, that would be a different matter entirely. That’s not the kind of apology I’m talking about.
I love how positive parenting allows me to drop the facade of perfection and instead emphasize cooperation and mutual understanding. I love that Sally and I can be a team, that we can our mistakes and exchange a hug and move on from there. And finally, I would hope that setting up a relationship based on cooperation rather than hierarchy – and based on admitting our mistakes rather than denying them – will make it easier for Sally and I to transition to an adult-adult relationship when that time comes.To celebrate the International Year of Chemistry we’ve created a new section for Chemistry World where chemistry luminaries and Nobel laureates talk about the chemistry heroes and heroines that inspired them. We start with none other than Harry Kroto, who tells us about his admiration for John ‘Kappa’ Cornforth.
But we are interested in more than just the chemistry heroes of Nobel laureates and so we are asking you to participate in our blog and create an entry with your chemist of choice. The team here will all be making their contribution in the next few weeks and months and our editor Bibiana Campos-Seijo has got the ball rolling with her nomination: Carl Djerassi.
Watch this space for more or your and our heroes.
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VN:F [1.9.10_1130]Executions in Louisiana are on hold for at least a year because the state doesn’t have the drugs needed to put inmates to death, according to a court filing and a lawyer for a convicted child-killer.
Lawyers for Christopher Sepulvado and the state Department of Corrections were supposed to be in federal court Thursday to schedule a trial on the constitutionality of Louisiana’s method of execution.
Instead, a federal judge on Tuesday delayed the trial and Sepulvado’s execution — as well as four others on death row — until July 2016 as Louisiana tries to figure out how it can carry out the death penalty.
This is the second time in a year that the state has asked to delay the trial.
States around the country have struggled to execute prisoners because of shortages of lethal injection drugs. In a few cases, it’s taken an unusually long time for inmates to die from new drug combinations.
In the motion to delay the hearing, Department of Corrections attorney James Hilburn wrote that “it would be a waste of resources and time to litigate this matter at present” because the facts in the case are changing. He wrote that he expects those issues to be “more settled” by July 2016.
Hilburn declined to elaborate on the reasons for the delay.
Louisiana’s current death-penalty protocol calls for a mix of hydromorphone and midazolam, the same drugs used last summer during an Arizona execution that took nearly two hours to complete. Louisiana’s last known supplies of the drugs expired earlier this year.
Mercedes Montagnes, a lawyer for Sepulvado, said the state “came to us after they were unable to locate any legal source for lethal injection drugs and asked for another year to come up with a new method of execution or source of drugs.”
Sepulvado, who was convicted of beating his stepson with a screwdriver and then submerging his body in scalding water, has delayed his execution several times in the past two years.
In his lawsuit, he argues that the state’s execution method violates his constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
As part of that lawsuit, Sepulvado has sought to learn the exact procedure Louisiana will use to put him to death. The state has fought such disclosures in court and in response to public-records requests filed by The Lens.
Meanwhile, Louisiana corrections officials have gotten more creative in getting their hands on execution drugs and have considered new ways to carry out the death penalty.
In January 2014, as Sepulvado’s last execution date approached, the Louisiana Department of Corrections turned to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital for one of the two drugs it needed to execute him.
According to a hospital spokesman, the state lied to the Lake Charles pharmacist, saying the hydromorphone was for “a medical patient” rather than a prisoner on death row.
“At no time was Memorial told the drug would be used for an execution,” spokesman Matt Felder said at the time.
The state considered getting another drug from an out-of-state compounding pharmacy not licensed in Louisiana, which would have been illegal.
In 2014, the Legislature considered reinstating electrocution. It’s been outlawed since 1991.
At the request of Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc, the bill was changed to drop electrocution and instead conceal details about executions, including the source of execution drugs. It was never passed.
Other states, including Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma, have passed such secrecy laws.
In February, Louisiana corrections officials asked legislators to allow them to use nitrogen, which has never been tried in the U.S. No bill was introduced.
Death-penalty opponents have responded to drawn-out executions around the country by calling execution methods “experimental.”
Last year, a prisoner in Oklahoma tried to rise from the gurney after his injections began. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of that state’s execution method.
That execution used midazolam, one of the two drugs called for by Louisiana. It prompted Louisiana officials to say they would reconsider the drug.
The state has not said what method it would use instead.
“Obviously whatever plan the state comes up with will have to be evaluated by the court for its constitutionality,” Montagnes said.
Other death-row inmates who won stays of execution with Tuesday’s ruling are:
Of the five, only Sepulvado has been given an execution date.
Lawyers are set to meet July 11, 2016, to set a new trial date in his lawsuit.In 2014, scientists looked closer than ever before at why exactly music makes us feel so powerfully. And they found some amazing and unprecedented things.
Studies revealed that music can shape our personalities and behaviors. It can help us choose our sexual partners. And it can be used to cure certain ailments. The deeper researchers dig, the more we realize how powerful of a force it truly is.
And these findings could not have come at a more perfect moment in time: School systems continue to slash arts and music budgets around the country and the war over how much we pay for music is fundamentally a question of how much we value music. In this crucial year, scientists delivered infallible reminders of what any music lover already knew: Music is more than just entertainment.
Here are 12 amazing things we discovered about music this year:
1. Learning an instrument at a young age can provide improved executive function.
Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital found that early musical training helps children improve their executive functions. Executive functions are incredibly important; they enable people to retain information, regulate behavior and solve problems more effectively.
Children that started playing music at age 6 showed enhanced activation in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that owns executive functions. And they performed far better than control groups on tests requiring them to shift between mental demands. Executive functioning is also a "strong predictor of academic achievement, even more than IQ," said study senior investigator Nadine Gaab. "Our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future."
2. Rhythmic ability has been linked to language learning.
One of the first skills that children need to acquire when learning to read and speak is how to pick up on the rhythms of speech. They gain this ability to detect rhythms and define boundaries between words and syllables long before they can actually speak. So having a good sense of rhythm is very important to learning language. This year, we discovered just how important it really is.
Developmental psychologists at Northwestern University found that testing children for this rhythmic ability is a good way to detect potential language-based disabilities that may hit children later in life. Those that can hold an even drum beat score also higher on early language tests. The study's authors suggest that parents and educators use rhythmic tests to try to identify and address any possible linguistic deficiencies while children's brains are still young and malleable.
3. Music training can help close the achievement gap.
Nina Kraus, a Northwestern researcher also involved with the previous study, found that music can be vital in helping schools close the achievement gap — the massive inequality in academic performance between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Kraus studied the neural activity of kids beginning their music education while working with the Harmony Project, a nonprofit after-school program that teaches music to children in low-income communities in Los Angeles. Using EEGs, Kraus found that brainwaves of disadvantaged children were "noisier, weaker and more variable" in responding to verbal stimuli than children from more privileged backgrounds.
But after two years of musical training, she discovered something very different. She found that students with musical training had gotten much better at making clear neural responses to consonants and vowels. This faster processing power will likely have huge benefits for these children's language acquisition and concentration. Music might be one of most effective ways to help give children from disadvantaged backgrounds the cognitive tools they need to escape poverty.
4. It can combat ADHD.
Three scientists from the University of Graz uncovered a startling pattern in a recent longitudinal study investigating what musical learning does to a brain's plasticity. It turns out that kids who learn music boasted significantly thicker grey matter in brain areas linked to attention and concentration. The kids also demonstrated enhanced right-left hemispheric synchronization, which led to high scores on attentional, linguistic and literacy tests.
In short, musical training builds the same brain structures that are markedly deficient in neural scans of children suffering from ADHD. The scientists hypothesized that early music training can be major benefit to helping children reduce the negative impacts associated with ADHD.
5. It can provide benefits to long-term memory.
Music's benefits to working memory and spatiotemporal faculties have been established with years of research. But evidence that music benefits long-term memory had eluded researchers. Until this year.
Heekyeong Park, from the University of Texas at Arlington, has found the first initial evidence that musical training provides benefits for some aspects of long-term memory. Park presented a group of classically trained musicians and a group of non-musicians with a memory test. She found that trained musicians could far better recall pictures, even though they experienced no benefits for verbal cues. She attributes the findings to the years musicians have spent pouring over musical scores, but she does not have enough data to say conclusively. She's currently planning to repeat the study with more musicians to confirm her findings.
6. It can actually cure tinnitus.
Loud music can give you tinnitus — that horrible ringing in your ears. Chronic tinnitus, which is often associated with age and hearing loss, causes listeners to hear long tones in the absence of any actual musical stimuli. It can be extremely uncomfortable and detrimental to functioning normally. This year, we learned that soft, carefully measured and modified music can take it away.
Music has already been proven to have major effects on cortical plasticity. And now researchers from the University of Münster have found that they can effectively use music on patients to reorganize their auditory cortices to eliminate those ghost tones. Patients listened to music that had been altered to remove tinnitus frequencies for two hours a day for three months. And by the end, the listening training drastically reduced the frequency and severity of their tinnitus. Researchers also found the process of maladaptively reorganizing the cortex is an entirely different mechanism than the reorganization that occurs from focused listening. Musical training can be beneficial for the young as well as the old.
7. Listening to music about alcohol makes people more likely to drink.
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Dartmouth College surveyed our lyric-based stance on substances. They found that the average youth listens to 2.5 hours of popular music a day, and in that window, they're hit with eight mentions of alcohol brands. In a second survey, they found subjects between 15 and 23 years of age who liked songs with alcohol mentions were three times more likely to have had a drink and two times more likely to have binged, compared to participants who didn't like those songs.
"A surprising result of our analysis was that the association between recalling alcohol brands in popular music and alcohol drinking in adolescents was as strong as the influence of parental and peer drinking, and an adolescent's tendency toward sensation-seeking," said Brian Primack, the study's lead author. Our music is giving us drinking probems.
8. Science discovered why talented musicians are so damn sexy.
Benjamin D. Charlton, at the University of Sussex, decided to investigate Charles Darwin's belief that our instinct toward making music is fundamentally all about attracting mates. His study was decided one-sided gender-wise, focusing only on men's attempts to woo women, but he found something truly striking: Darwin was sort of right.
He had 1,465 women listen to four different classical piano pieces of varying levels of complexity, asking them to determine which composer they imagined they would most like to sleep with. Women at the peak of their menstrual cycles were overwhelming drawn to the composer of the most complex piece. Women not at that point in their cycles showed no preference.
Interestingly, these findings only applied to brief flings. None of the women showed any preference in terms of wanting to settle down with one composer over another. Of course, this study doesn't touch on men's reactions to female musicians. But that's a study for 2015.
9. Music can enhance running performance.
Source: Getty Images
There's been a long debate within the running community about whether it's better to run with music or without. This year, musical runners were validated by the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, which showed that music can significantly affect your running abilities.
Researchers had runners listen to three types of music while they ran: fast motivational music, slow motivational music and calm songs. Runners listening to fast motivational music and slow motivational music completed the first 800 meters faster than the control and the calm music groups. All the music helped stimulate runner's prefrontal cortex, which allowed runners to maintain more positive emotions as they ran. These positive emotions contributed to increased performance and faster recovery time post run.
10. Sound quality has a huge impact on musical enjoyment.
2014 saw a huge resurgence in the popularity of vinyl. Call it a hipster renaissance if you will, but it's bound to have a hugely positive impact on people's enjoyment of music.
Musical quality has a significant impact on musical enjoyment. Researchers at DTS monitored participants' brains while they watched a video accompanied by differing levels of sound quality. The brains of those listening to high-quality 256 kbps sound elicited a 66% larger pleasure response than those who listened to 96 kbps sound (the standard sound quality of Spotify and most streaming services). Now, the sound quality of vinyl hovers around 1,000 kbps according to many estimates. So the potential that music played on vinyl will blow a listener's mind is astronomically higher than when it's played on a digital service.
11. Some people cannot enjoy music.
Source: Getty Images
By far the saddest musical news of the year is that some people's brains simply cannot derive pleasure from music no matter how good or how high quality. The disorder is a form of anhedonia, which describes a person's inability to enjoy activities most find pleasurable. Researchers have already identified in other fields, including sexual anhedonia and social anhedonia.
"Now that we know that there are people with specific musical anhedonia," said Josep Marco-Pallerés, lead author of the study.
Individuals with specific musical anhedonia have normal music processing abilities, and they're not depressed. The music they hear simply does not translate into an autonomic response or feelings of pleasure. People with musical anhedonia did receive large amounts of pleasure and nervous system response from playing a economic money-exchange game. Everyone's got their trigger.
12. Musical ability is directly linked to the sensitivity of your inner ear.
Science also made some serious headway into finding out why some people are natural musicians, and why others can run scales for years and never get anywhere. It turns out, there is a biological basis for musical aptitude. Researchers from the University of Helsinki found out people who scored high a music aptitude test were much more likely to carry genes that determine higher inner ear sensitivity.
According to Discover magazine, this is the first study "to show the importance of auditory pathway genes in musical aptitude." Yet, the study's authors also assert that musical ability is a "complex behavioral trait." "Environmental factors, such as the childhood musical environment, the example set by parents and siblings and music education affect musical abilities," the study's authors write in their conclusion. Some children may have more cooperative biology helping them achieve superstardom, but unless that talent is nurtured through training and effort, they won't be going anywhere.
Music is many things, but it isn't easy. It takes work to create something this important — it takes effort to make something that can so powerfully mold a life.I was walking in a huge warehouse store recently and I saw this box of Kraft “Easy” Mac & Cheese madness and just had to write about it. I forgot how disgusting this list of ingredients was, it’s a shame that stores are even allowed to carry this garbage.
The ingredient list on a little cup of Kraft’s “Easy” Mac & Cheese is a long one, and to think that so many kids around the nation are popping these suckers into microwaves is so sad. Please inform your friends and family – Just because it’s “easy” doesn’t mean that you should eat it.
Let’s begin with the 22 ingredient cheese sauce… Yes 22!
Doesn’t it really just take cheese and a bit of butter and milk to make a cheese sauce? Not if it’s Kraft’s recipe. This is the craziest ingredient list for cheese sauce that I’ve ever seen:
“Easy” Mac Cheese Sauce Mix: Whey, Maltodextrin, Corn Syrup Solids, Palm Oil, Modified Food Starch, Milkfat, Salt, Milk Protein Concentrate, Medium Chain Triglyceride, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Citric Acid, Sodium Phosphate, Natural Flavor, Lactic Acid, Calcium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Monosodium Glutamate, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Artificial Flavor, Cheese Culture, Enzymes.
Monosodium Glutamate – Kraft adds straight up Monosodium Glutamate, aka “MSG”, to create an addiction to processed food early in a child’s life – they don’t even try to hide it under the name “yeast extract” like some food companies do. The additive MSG is not the same thing that occurs naturally in cheese, because the additive isn’t bound to other amino acids, so it’s easily digested and rapidly absorbed by your body. We are inundated with MSG and hidden MSG additives in modern processed foods, and they are totally unnecessary and not good for our bodies.
Palm Oil – It’s disgusting that Big Food keeps using cheap palm oil in their products just so they can save a few bucks at the expense of our environment. Palm oil production is causing large-scale deforestation and killing animals and destroying the habitat for orangutans and Sumatran tigers – which may both become extinct soon. Besides the fact that it’s not even good for you, palm oil is super cheap, so you’ll find it in lots of cheap processed food at the store. When I see this ingredient on a label I always put it right back on the shelf and don’t look back. Don’t ever support a company that puts palm oil in their products, and Kraft is one of the worst. Note: This oil is nothing like Nutiva’s organic red palm oil, which is grown sustainably, and is super high in Vitamin A & E with more beta-carotene and lycopene than carrots and tomatoes.
Artificial Colors Yellow No. 5 & Yellow No. 6 – I petitioned Kraft to remove these dyes from ALL of their products, but it’s still in this “Easy” Mac version. These dyes require a big fat warning label in Europe that says “May Have An Adverse Affect On Activity and Attention in Children” – so they reformulated their products over there and serve a much cleaner version with natural colors. Why won’t they do that here?
I want to commend Kraft for taking out artificial dyes in boxes that have cartoon characters and the deluxe versions, but they still have a lot more work to do.
Natural Flavors – There are thousands of chemicals that are allowed by the FDA with little to no review under the category “natural flavors.” These can come from anything that is from nature, including beaver anal glands and other mysterious “proprietary” sources. This is an ingredient I avoid, because what it’s really made from is never fully disclosed – and I like to know what I’m eating.
Sodium Tripolyphosphate (aka STPP) – This preservative (also used as the main cleaning agent in detergents and soaps) is a suspected neurotoxin.
Sodium Phosphate and Calcium Phosphate – These ingredients recently made the top dirty dozen food additives by the Environmental Working Group for a reason. These preservatives are added to number of processed foods, and the typical American diet is full of phosphate additives – which are effectively absorbed by the body. It’s been shown that if you eat a lot of processed foods, like Easy Mac, you likely have higher than normal phosphate levels in your blood. High phosphate levels are associated with increased mortality (even in healthy people), kidney disorders, heart disease and |
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In this drive for higher profits, corporations are aided by U.S. immigration legislation. While immigration laws are always presented in the media as a means of controlling borders, and keeping people from crossing them, they have always had a much more important function. For the last hundred years, they have been the means of regulating the supply, and consequently the price, of immigrant labor.
No matter how many walls are built on the border, no matter how many troops or National Guardsmen or helicopters patrol it, workers will still cross it looking for a future, so long as trade agreements and structural adjustment programs give them no alternative in order to survive. There is no more eloquent and damning testimony to this than the fact that hundreds of women and men—workers and farmers—die every year in the desert, trying to make the journey from northern Mexico into the United States.
Throughout the Cold War, instead of fighting for the rights of these migrant workers, anti-immigrant attitudes dominated the U.S. labor movement. At the same time, U.S. unions supported the growth of free trade, U.S. corporate investment, and U.S. foreign policy generally—the very causes of the displacement of people and their migration. In 1986 the aforementioned Immigration Reform and Control Act, which made the very act of working, of having a job, illegal for undocumented immigrants, was supported by the AFL-CIO. The justification was that if people could not work, they would go home, or not come in the first place.
But when working becomes a crime, it is very difficult for workers to organize unions, go on strike, and fight for better conditions. As the Clinton, Bush, and now Obama administrations enforce immigration law in the workplace, those difficulties have only grown worse.
Immigration agents now check documents that workers must fill out to get a job, and they require employers to fire those whose documents are in question. The Social Security Administration has been pressed into misusing its database to search for undocumented immigrants. In just the last year, 1,200 union janitors were fired in Minneapolis, 300 in Seattle, 475 in San Francisco; and 2,000 sewing machine operators were terminated in Los Angeles. Hundreds more have lost their jobs in similar incidents around the country. The Department of Homeland Security says it is auditing the personnel records of 1,654 companies, leading potentially to the firing of hundreds of thousands of people. That, in itself, will have a profound impact on unions, as members who have been paying dues, in many cases for years, expect their unions to defend their jobs and their families’ livelihoods. If unions fail to defend them, they cannot expect that immigrant workers will want to join.
At the same time as enforcement increases, employers propose programs that would allow workers to remain in the United States, but only as contract laborers, under conditions in which any protest for higher wages, or any effort to join a union, would lead to deportation.
Workers, Not Victims
The good news is that anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. labor movement has never gone unchallenged. And for the last two decades, U.S. unions have become much more interested in organizing and fighting for the rights of immigrant workers.
In part, this is due to the need to survive. Immigrant workers on the bottom are among those who most want and need unions, and who have been willing to take the risks involved in organizing. Recognizing this basic fact, in 1999, grassroots immigrant rights coalitions and labor councils around the country combined to bring a resolution to the AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles, calling for an end to employer sanctions, for a new amnesty program to legalize workers already here, and for ending the administration’s immigration enforcement program directed against workers. At the convention, national union leaders spoke out for a change in immigration policy.
Today U.S. unions represent about 12 percent of the workforce. They have to organize 400,000 workers a year just to stay in the same place. If they want to grow from 12 to 13 percent—just 1 percentage point—they have to organize 800,000 workers a year. The reality is that in the last few years there is sometimes a slight increase, but more often more slippage. The percentage of organized workers has been dropping since the 1950s. When union density declines, wages drop and the political power to challenge large corporations and the powerful institutions of our society drops too. Low union membership means no single-payer health insurance. It is not a difficult equation to understand.
But while this decline is taking place in general, immigrants have clearly been fighting to organize. In California, a majority of union drives over the last decade have been at least partly based among immigrants. These include not just campaigns initiated by unions, but also many spontaneous strikes and organizing projects initiated by immigrant workers themselves.
This upsurge is partly due to demographics. The workforce is changing in many industries. Immigrant workers make up an increasing percentage of the workforce in building services, health care, manufacturing, food processing, construction, and hospitality (hotels and restaurants). Some industries have always had a largely immigrant workforce—agriculture, garment, electronics, and others.
These are industries built on exploitation, and the rate of exploitation is getting higher. In Los Angeles’s garment industry, for instance, the inflation-adjusted wage level has fallen every year since 1986, when the immigration reform bill was passed, while at the same time, jobs were moved offshore. This also happened in residential construction, where union representation was lost in the 1950s, until thousands of immigrant drywallers and framers struck for a year in 1992 and the trend began to reverse.
Changing demographics and increased exploitation are not just happening in California. This change is going on everywhere, including states that historically have not had many Latino or Asian immigrants.
While immigrants are exploited, they are not victims. As the AFL-CIO was debating its change of position in Los Angeles, a group of workers stopped work in a meatpacking plant in St. Paul, Minnesota, sat down on the line, and sent a delegation down the street to the United Food and Commercial Workers hall to let the union know they were on strike and ready to join.
At the huge immigration rally that followed the Los Angeles convention, one worker testified that her employer, a Palm Springs hotel, fired workers when they began organizing a union. Housekeepers then struck the hotel for three months. When the National Labor Relations Board ordered the hotel to return the workers to their jobs, and the hotel refused to rehire those workers who had no papers, the strike went on for another month until everyone got back in.
Immigrants are not the only workers with a history of struggle. Other groups of workers are also pro-union, and courageously stand up for their rights. But there is a track record of self-organization among immigrants—of worker-initiated job actions and of community support for them. Undocumented immigrants are not a threat; they are a source of strength for the labor movement. Many immigrant workers do not have to be told what unions are, or even, in many cases, how to organize, despite the fact that they may be unfamiliar with U.S. labor laws and rights. They have something to offer labor besides just a chance to grow.
In the Philippines, for instance, workers set up tents and live at the plant gate when they go on strike. No police harassment can chase them away. That kind of militancy enabled Filipinos to organize unions in the isolated Alaska fish canneries and the fields of California and the Northwest all through the 1930s. The great grape strike of 1965, when the United Farm Workers was born, was started by that generation of Filipino labor activists.
In Mexico and El Salvador, despite harassment and sometimes bloody repression, the law still prohibits companies from operating and hiring strikebreakers during a legal strike (although Mexico’s conservative government is trying its best to “reform” that right away). That experience often gives workers from these countries a greater expectation of their labor rights. This expectation is good for U.S. unions and communities. It helps workers to raise their sights, so they do not continue to take strikebreaking for granted, and treat it as a normal state of affairs. These cultural expectations place a higher value on labor rights than on private property rights, a realization that would benefit U.S. workers as a whole.
While those Cal Spas strikers might have been suspicious of the union initially, their expectations about their right to strike were actually much greater than most U.S. workers. Many union organizers have learned to appeal to those expectations as a way of convincing immigrant workers to start getting organized.
Immigrant communities are usually very supportive of working-class struggles, and workers themselves have a tradition of mutual support. Strikes in the barrio often become struggles of a whole community against a big employer.
But to reach out successfully to immigrant workers, there must be a strategic alliance between unions and immigrant communities. Organizing is not as simple as just going to a plant gate with membership cards and leaflets and signing up workers. It is a long-term struggle that requires real organization among workers themselves, a plan for battling the employer to really change conditions in the workplace and for creating real community support and alliances, such as Jobs with Justice and its Workers’ Rights Boards
Immigrant communities are often already well-organized. Among Mexicans and Filipinos, for instance, associations of people from the same town back home are very common. In the 1992 drywall strike in southern California, workers—many of whom came from a few towns in central Mexico—shut down residential construction from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Town associations also played a big role in organizing huge marches, from the one-hundred-thousand-person march against California’s Proposition 187 in 1995 to the million-strong immigrant rights marches of 2006
Immigrant rights coalitions are natural allies for the labor movement. Some of the most fundamental rights denied immigrants are their rights as workers.
Economism to Equal Rights
There have always been two ways of thinking about immigrants in the labor movement. One has been narrow economism, where unions have sought to restrict the labor supply, making unions a club for a privileged few. In the times when economism has dominated labor, as it did during the Cold War, unions just defended the interests of their own members, while other workers and their concerns were excluded by racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant sentiment.
In 1999, the AFL-CIO took a huge step forward toward a very different vision, one that conceptualizes unions as social movements that try to organize everybody. The AFL-CIO’s changed position on immigration said that labor is going to fight for the interests of workers as a class—all workers, including the undocumented. By challenging corporate power with a larger vision of social justice, this position announces that labor intends to fight racism and anti-immigrant hysteria.
The 1999 resolution called on unions to oppose employer sanctions. These sanctions are actually directed against workers, not employers. When work becomes illegal, employers have a big weapon to use against any effort to organize unions or fight for better conditions. This changed position stands for equal rights for all workers. Even further, the justification for sanctions is that if workers cannot work, they will leave the country. By demanding the repeal of sanctions, unions rejected that racist exclusion, and determined instead that they would fight for the right of those workers to stay and to support their families.
Labor should not give up this position. The 1999 resolution was won as a result of a thirteen-year struggle, in which unions became convinced that defending the undocumented was a key to their own survival. It became the heart of a growing alliance between labor and immigrant communities. It should not be sacrificed on the altar of political deal-making in Washington.
The AFL-CIO also called for a new amnesty, in which undocumented workers can apply for legal status. Workers who have a stake in the community also have a stake in organizing for better conditions. But when immigrants are vulnerable, their second-class status is not only used against them, it is used against everyone else as well.
What Do We Want?
Corporations and U.S. policy have historically looked at immigration law as a means of regulating the labor supply, to drive down wages and conditions. Today there are many visa categories that employers use to bring workers to the United States as contract laborers, for exactly that purpose. They have programs for high-tech workers, health care workers, farm workers, garment workers, and others.
When workers stand up for better conditions or organize a union, they can be easily fired, immigrant or not. But when contract or guest workers are fired, they not only lose their jobs, but also their ability to stay in the country. That effectively gives the employer the power to deport as well as fire workers, and it makes people in these programs desperate and vulnerable. Allowing those workers to find a new employer is little protection if they get deported whenever they stay unemployed for any period of time.
Increased vulnerability is the reason why employers want new programs or the expansion of existing ones. In high-tech plants, the electronics industry has a long history of discrimination against African-American engineers, and employs hardly any. Workers of color have been banging on the door to get jobs, but instead of hiring them, and having to raise wages to compete for domestic labor, the companies bring workers from other countries as dependent, indentured servants—contract labor.
These industry and employer-based visa programs are all based on the idea that immigration law should be used to supply workers to employers. These proposals eliminate any possibility for real, meaningful immigration reform, especially since increased enforcement is necessary to make sure that workers do not leave these situations of high exploitation.
But this is what is coming. The immigration reform President Obama and Mexican President Calderon agree on is a temporary worker program. For Calderon, a contract labor program allows him to say he has opened the door to the United States, and that Mexicans will no longer have to cross the desert and risk death if they want to work. The last three U.S. presidents have all supported guest worker programs because they are the form of immigration reform desired by corporate employers.
It is important for workers and unions on both sides of the border to decide what they want, rather than accepting the proposals made by employers and conservative politicians. Do we want to ensure that all workers have the right to organize, and will we oppose any immigration proposal that undermines that right? Do we want a policy that unites families, rather than divides them? Do we want stable communities, where working people can build political power? Do we want unity and equality among workers, white and people of color, immigrant and native born? Do we want trade agreements and economic reforms used to displace communities, and force people to migrate in search of work?
We must decide, and then fight for what we really want.
When Do We Want It?
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says, “We need to make sure every worker in America—documented or undocumented—is protected by our labor laws.” And that we need immigration reform that “allows immigrants to be securely part of our country from day one—able to assert their legal rights, including the right to organize, without fear of retaliation.”
But not all reform proposals will accomplish that goal. In fact, those made in Congress for the last five years go in the opposite direction. Recently the Council on Foreign Relations proposed two goals for U.S. immigration policy. “We should reform the legal immigration system,” it advocated, “so that it operates more efficiently, responds more accurately to labor market needs, and enhances U.S. competitiveness.” This essentially calls for using migration to supply labor at competitive, or low, wages. “We should restore the integrity of immigration laws,” the Council went on to say, “through an enforcement regime that strongly discourages employers and employees from operating outside that legal system.” This couples the current enforcement regime like the one at present, with its raids and firings, to that labor supply system.
Immigration policy based on producing a labor supply for employers always has two consequences. The displacement of communities abroad becomes an unspoken policy, because it is needed to produce workers. And inequality in the countries where those workers go becomes an official policy.
The U.S. faces a choice in direction. A corporate agenda on migration would manage the flow of people with new guest worker programs, and increased penalties against those who try to migrate and work outside this system. Some proposals also contain a truncated legalization for the undocumented, but one that would disqualify most people or have them wait for years for visas.
History tells us that a better direction is not only possible, but was also partially achieved by the civil rights movement. In 1964 heroes of the Chicano movement like Bert Corona, Ernesto Galarza, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta forced Congress to end the bracero program. The next year, Mexicans and Filipinos went out on strike in the fields of Coachella and Delano, and the United Farm Workers was born. The following year, in 1965, those leaders, together with many others, went back to Congress, and won a law that made family unity the criteria for migration, rather than fulfilling the labor needs of corporations. The civil rights movement won that law. That fight is not over.
We need legalization, so that twelve million people can quickly gain residence rights and green cards. We need to get rid of the laws that make working a crime, along with the privately run detention centers that enforce them.
We have to make sure that the decision-makers of Washington DC will not plunge families in Mexico, El Salvador, or Colombia into poverty, and force a new generation of workers to leave home to find jobs in furniture factories and laundries, office buildings and packing plants, on construction sites, or just in the gardens and nurseries of the rich. Families in countries where people are displaced by free trade and neoliberal policies have a right to survive, a right not to migrate. To make that right a reality, they need jobs and productive farms, good schools and health care at home.
Solidarity is the key to winning those rights. We have a great advantage in this increasingly globalized world. Over two hundred million people, just about all of them workers and farmers, are part of a great migrant stream, a human bond that connects the countries of the developed and developing world. What more natural vehicle for solidarity is there than workers themselves? Who knows more about the working conditions in both halves of the world than someone who has worked in each half? Who can see most clearly the operation of the global economy, and who has a greater stake in changing it? Who can help us to change our unions, which are overwhelmingly national organizations, accustomed to functioning within national borders, into truly global organizations, uniting workers across borders?
Organizing immigrant communities is not a matter of taking pity on the downtrodden. It is a matter of understanding what is necessary for the survival of our communities, of our labor movement. If we are serious in wanting to build political power, then we must incorporate migrant workers, fight for their rights, and make the movement for social justice one that belongs to all of us, documented and undocumented.On Friday, a group of hackers operating under the banner of Anonymous' Operation AntiSec published the private e-mails of a California Department of Justice investigator. The hackers posted the entirety of the 38,000 e-mails in a Gmail account that appears to belong to Alfredo "Fred" Baclagan, a California Department of Justice special agent supervisor in charge of computer crime investigations, to a hidden site on Tor, as well as to a torrent listed on The Pirate Bay. They also posted what they claim is Baclagan's personal address and phone number.
The effort is part of an ongoing attack on law enforcement as part of a response to law enforcement's activities surrounding the Occupy Wall Street protests. Operation AntiSec began as a "joint" effort between Anonymous and LulzSec in June as a protest against government monitoring and censorship of the Internet. The targeting of the FBI and other law enforcement increased after the July arrest of alleged LulzSec members for denial of service attacks on Visa over cutting off payment processing for Wikileaks.
Update: In a Twitter message to Ars Technica, Anonymous member @AnonyOps said that the attacks on law enforcement members "also has to do w/ FBI's targeting of anons, re: imprisoned during opPayback and others." Operation Payback included the distributed denial of service attack on Visa, Mastercard and PayPal after the companies bowed to political pressure and cut off contribution processing to Wikileaks.
The e-mails included a substantial number of posts from the archives of the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists' private discussion list, where investigators discussed computer forensic methods. A series of e-mails posted by Anonymous include the reaction of IACIS members to a teaser post of threads from the list to the Twitter account of Sabu, a well-known Anonymous hacker, and an e-mail from Baclagan's hacked Google account rickrolling the list. The IACIS site is currently down for maintenance, apparently as a result of the disclosures.
In a Pastebin post, Anons claimed to also have listened to Baclagan's personal voicemails and accessed his SMS logs, as well as his personal Google Voice account—which they say they used to text and call his friends and family.
"We lulzed as we listened to angry voicemails from his estranged wives and ex-girlfriends while also reading his conversations with girls who responded to his'man seeking woman' craigslist ads," the hackers wrote in their post.Emphasizing the need to secure Europe’s external borders, another longstanding Hungarian demand, he suggested that asylum seekers be detained for up to 18 months to give the authorities time to identify and send back economic migrants.
“This shows how far the European mainstream is now moving in another direction,” said Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute in Budapest, an independent research organization. “It is moving closer to what Orban represents.”
As proof, he pointed to the recent election victory in Poland of the ultraconservative and conspiracy-minded Law and Justice Party, the strong showing of France’s far-right National Front in the first round of regional elections and the crumbling across Scandinavia of a pro-migrant consensus.
Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, said that in his meetings with fellow European ministers the tone had changed drastically since the summer, when Hungary was repeatedly denounced for building a fence to seal off its southern border to migrants hoping to get to Germany.
Fences and other obstacles have since become the norm across much of Europe, with even Sweden, traditionally Europe’s most welcoming country for refugees, announcing tough border controls.
“It is more and more obvious that what we kept on saying for the last six months turned out to be right,” Mr. Szijjarto said in an interview. “This is acknowledged more and more: Some say it openly, some say it behind closed doors and some don’t say it but act accordingly.”
Open support for Mr. Orban and his approach, which has mixed effective practical measures to slow the flow of migrants with bizarre conspiracy theories tinged with racism and anti-Semitism, remains mostly limited to Europe’s political fringe.Sean Higgins thinks this Washington Post "report" on Eric Holder's widely-boycotted confab with journalists is "beyond parody." Yeah, pretty much:
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. pledged Thursday to take concrete steps to address concerns that the Justice Department has overreached in its leak investigations and said officials would seek procedural and possibly legislative changes to protect journalists’ First Amendment rights. Holder’s commitment came at a private meeting with news executives after criticism that the Justice Department had infringed on the news media in several high-profile leak investigations. Participants said he told them officials would revise guidelines for issuing subpoenas to obtain reporters’ phone records. The 90-minute meeting was attended by a small group of journalists after several news organizations objected to the Justice Department’s insistence that it be held off the record. The participants, however, reached an agreement with the Justice Department under which they could describe what occurred during the meeting in general terms...
Eric Holder pledged to take "concrete steps" to address the actions of Eric Holder -- up to and (possibly) including backing legislative action that would curtail Eric Holder's ability to abuse Eric Holder's power. What a guy. Direct quotes would be priceless here, but those weren't allowed, of course. Instead, the DOJ very magnanimously permitted reporters to offer "general" accounts of what was discussed. There's more:
Holder and aides “completely endorsed the president’s statement that reporters should not be at legal risk for doing their job,” said Martin Baron, The Washington Post’s executive editor, who was among the participants. “They acknowledged the need for changes in their own guidelines and the need to have a more rigorous internal review.”
Reassuringly, Eric Holder has "completely endorsed" a principle that Eric Holder has already explicitly violated. How many times has Eric Holder done so? Eric Holder can't quite say. Click through to witness the pitiful spectacle of journalists quoting each other and vaguely discussing a meeting they've been barred from describing in any detail. Finally, for good measure:
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Perfect.
UPDATE - Eric Holder has decided to "loosen" the rules regarding what attending journalists are allowed to report. The contents of today's meetings are "largely" permitted for publication, whatever that means.Tax evasion and austerity-plan failure
Francesco Pappadà, Yanos Zylberberg
Greece’s austerity package included an unprecedented increase in the VAT rate, but the resulting increase in revenue was much lower than expected. This column links this disappointing result to the ‘transparency response’ of firms to higher tax rates. In countries like Greece with poor tax monitoring, firms face a tradeoff when deciding whether to declare their activity. Transparency is a necessary condition for accessing external finance, but it also means having to pay tax. Improving credit conditions for small and medium-size Greek firms might shift this tradeoff in favour of transparency.
Austerity plans in southern European countries (Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy) have so far yielded mixed results (Salto 2013). On the one hand, the primary budget balances of these countries have improved, and their risk premiums are now stabilised at a much lower level than during the crisis peak.
On the other hand, the consolidation effort has been particularly large and concentrated in a short time period. For instance, Greece adopted no less than five austerity programs between the end of 2009 and the end of 2012. As shown in Table 1, these efforts translated into a sharp reduction of the government deficit – seven points of GDP for Greece in cumulative terms for 2011 and 2012. Over the same period, however, the cumulative output drop in Greece amounted to an unprecedented 13% of GDP. Retrospectively, some policymakers consider that the efforts that were asked were too large. Indeed, the repeated and drastic austerity plans have deeply affected the functioning of those economies.
Table 1. Changes in primary structural balance of general government (% of potential GDP)
Source: In’t Veld (2013).
There are many theoretical channels through which recessionary economies may fall even deeper into recession when facing such adjustments. One such channel, often ignored, is the ‘transparency response’ of firms to increased tax pressure (see Pappadà and Zylberberg 2014 for further details). Simply put, when facing high taxes, firms do not only reduce their activity because of lower expected returns, but they also conceal more of it. Concealing production is costly for the government, because it implies that a part of the tax increase will not translate into additional tax revenues. In addition, the firms that become more informal are less able to attract external finance, and need to downsize their activity even further. This mechanism is to be expected in a country that is, like Greece, plagued by widespread tax evasion.
Is the transparency response to tax pressure an important channel in explaining the Greek crisis?
To reduce deficits, the Greek government implemented a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes. For instance, the government increased VAT to unprecedented levels (23% for the high rate instead of 18–19% in normal times). However, this tax increase generated a lower-than-expected increase in tax receipts. Between 2009 and 2010, the Bank of Greece anticipated an increase in tax revenues of 15%, while actual tax revenues only rose by 7.5%. Why?
In Pappadà and Zylberberg (2014), we argue that tax monitoring in Greece is such that small and medium businesses face a trade-off when choosing whether to declare their activity or not. On the one hand, being transparent gives firms access to external finance. On the other hand, it implies paying taxes. This trade-off only exists when tax monitoring alone is insufficient to deter businesses from concealing their activity. What happens then after a VAT increase? First, investment proves less profitable and firms reduce their activity. Second, they tilt resources toward non-declared activity. Doing so, they compromise their access to credit. In the end, the tax base shrinks more than in a fully transparent world. When we account for this mechanism in the context of the VAT increase of 2009 in Greece, we find that slightly more than half of the increase in tax rates did not translate into additional revenues. This response is essentially due to firms modifying the extent to which they declare their activity.
In which situation should we expect the transparency response to be quantitatively important? The answer depends on the elasticity of firms’ transparency to taxes, and how many firms there are at the ‘margin of formality’ (and how large they are).
Along those two dimensions, Greece was the worst candidate for a VAT reform. With low tax monitoring, the decision to hide/declare activity hinges a lot on the needs for external finance, which changed quite significantly after the tax hike. In addition, in Greece, firms at the margin of formality are numerous and quite large (turnover above €1 million) – they represent a large share of the Greek economy. Following the VAT reform, many of these businesses switched to informality, depriving the government of a large part of the expected gain in tax revenues.
Such a conclusion would also apply to Italy, Spain, or Portugal – countries with a large number of small and medium-size firms at the margin of formality. We would expect the behavioural response of firms to be smaller in countries like France or Germany (with better tax monitoring and much smaller firms at the margin).
The credit channel and the margin of formality
How could policymakers reduce the transparency response to a change in tax pressure (and make their austerity plans successful)? One could argue that Southern European countries, and Greece in particular, should simply reinforce tax monitoring. While an improvement in tax monitoring is widely considered as a key policy, this solution is fairly difficult to implement in the short run, and is likely to generate consistent results only in the medium to long run.
In our opinion, the credit market represents an additional and unexplored channel to monitor and curb firms’ transparency response to changes in tax pressure.
Using balance-sheet data on Greek firms over the period 2001–2011, we show that there is an excess profitability declared by firms just before gaining access to credit (see Figure 1). This anomaly can only be seen for firms that have, in normal times, incentives to hide their activity (firms in sectors with high taxes). Credit can give incentives to declare activity. It should be noted, however, that this response differs across firm sizes – some firms react, some others do not. The main challenge for a credit-oriented policy would be to know which firms to target.
Figure 1. Firm profitability around credit access – high (left) vs. low (right) VAT
As can be seen in Figure 2, between 2007 (pre-crisis) and 2011 (post-crisis), there has been a shift of credit from small firms to medium–large firms in Greece. How can we explain this shift? Typically, there are very small firms that are informal and do not have access to credit. There are also large firms that have high standards of transparency, and can access external finance either through credit or stock markets. In between, the small to medium-size firms are those for which credit access interacts more with firm transparency.
Figure 2. Bank loans over total assets and total assets
An improvement in the credit access of small to medium-size firms might counteract the negative effects of the higher tax pressure on firms’ transparency choice. Providing incentives for increased transparency for the firms at the margin of formality could therefore prevent the fall in investment by these firms. Such measures might be less costly and more effective in the short run than an institutional – though fundamental – improvement in tax enforcement.
References
In ’t Veld J (2013), “Fiscal consolidations and spillovers in the euro area periphery and core”, European Economy Economic Papers 506.
Pappadà, F and Y Zylberberg (2014), “Austerity plans and tax evasion: theory and evidence from Greece”, Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'Econométrie et d'Economie politique (DEEP) 14.01, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC.
Salto, M, ed. (2013), "Report on Public finances in EMU 2013", European Economy 4, Brussels: European Commission.Futuristic, yet, but not the far-fetched science-fiction fantasy industrial design you might think – the Oculus by Schoepfer Yachts may not be for sale yet but it is already in pre-production mode with naval architects on board, so to speak. Hardly your typical houseboat, it is a virtual cruise ship for the rich and famous who can afford to buy it when it is fully planned and built.
The anthropomorphism of this luxury floating home is of course intentional – the front deck like the gaping mouth of a gigantic sea creature and the sleek curves mimicking streamlined oceanic animals.
Complete with a swimming pool on top and a futuristic interior design this is far more like a permanent mobile home than a cruising yacht.
The smaller and simpler (both adjectives applied relative to its bigger brother of course) version of this spectacular design is the Infinitas, with a more sleek and streamlined profile and a semi-enclosed on-board swimming pool in the center but underneath the shell.With Pokémon Go sweeping the nations, destroying families, and leaving a path of ruin and destruction in its wide wake, it’s no surprise that even the most mainstream of mainstream TV networks reported on it. Earlier this week, CBS ran a report on the phenomenon featuring a clip that, let’s say, alarmed some viewers.
I love this clip. Everything about this rules. The way the dead-eyed Pikachu stares at you with his beady little eyes. The look of ecstasy as Bulbasaur attempts to climb/hump a tree. The way Charmander’s foot clips through the rock as he spins on a singular axis. It’s phenomenal, and it haunts my days and night without end.
Now, having borne witness, you too are cursed to see these faces whenever you close your eyes, for the rest of your sullen, pitiful life.
But how did these pocket monsters, no longer a delightful misnomer, come to be? Using advanced web forensics, I managed to find all three models on the website TurboSquid, which allows users to upload and sell their 3-D models. Searching for each of the Pokémon names brings up search results, and each of the models used by CBS.
Charmander and Bulbasaur, made by a user named Kudz46, each cost $20 to buy. Pikachu, made by user chopnut, costs $5.95.
Total cost: $45.95.
Kudz46 is a ghost, but I managed to track down chopnut — real name: Ernani Danting — to ask him about the clip. The model, uploaded in 2010, mostly sat dormant. “I was learning how to model at the time, and made a Pikachu, put up on sale on TurboSquid for [a] measly $6,” Danting recalled. “And I got a sold message from TurboSquid after a long, long while. I didn’t really put a lot of thought into how people will be using it.”
He mostly took issue with the fact that the models were presented without being animated. “It does look like they didn’t put a lot of effort doing anything with it,” he said. Pikachu’s arms-out stance is because the model is rigged, meaning it was meant to be programmed with animation. “Seeing it used like that kinda made me bit disappointed. I rather like seeing it animated.”
CBS’s folly, however, is our collective gain. I for one hope that they keep using these amateur Pokémon models for all reports, or really, for any news reports that need a little spicing up.PARIS (Reuters) - A man clung onto the roof of his father’s stolen car and called police on his mobile phone during a 130 km per hour (80 miles per hour) motorway chase before the thief was arrested.
Osama Aoukili, who was largely unscathed after the late-night chase near France’s border with Switzerland on Sunday, told French media his reaction was spontaneous.
“I told myself this was my father’s car and that it meant a lot to him,” Aoukili told BFM TV.
Police commander Christophe Lesznewski said the chase through Oyonnax town and then on the motorway lasted several minutes before the car, an aging Renault Clio, left the main road and slowed down, at which point Aoukili let go.
The thief tried to escape on foot but police caught and arrested him.The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.[3][4] It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.
It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a national nature reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.[5] The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.
Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is today owned and managed by the National Trust and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.[6] Access to the Giant’s Causeway is free of charge: it is not necessary to go via the visitors centre, which charges a fee.[7] The remainder of the site is owned by the Crown Estate and a number of private landowners.
Geology [ edit ]
Around 50 to 60 million years ago,[3] during the Paleocene Epoch, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an |
the way: Bernie’s support was young, liberal whites. especially men. In most states, he did not attract extra working class support at all, outside of cities and university communities.
The key for Democrats is to build outward and look for issues that touch the lives of both urban and non-metro families. HRC made headway. More opportunities will soon arrive, for example if Trump/Ryan really do try to privatize Medicare and remove the huge ObamaCare subsidies that help so many in both urban and non-metro areas.
Best, ThedaBack in September, just weeks after China's first dramatic currency devaluation, and when Bitcoin was trading at $220, we wrote that "China Scrambles To Enforce Capital Controls" and explained why this is "Great News For Bitcoin." Sadly, China's attempts to boost its capital controls failed as confirmed a few months later by the biggest one-month reserve liquidation in history which took place this past December, while fears about ongoing currency devaluation have led to lines of people rushing to exchange their Yuan into dollars. Oh yes, Bitcoin today is double where it was in September.
So, now that China renewed its currency devaluation over the past 2 weeks with the CNY and CNH both plunging and unleashing the latest round of cross-asset selling across the world, it was only a matter of time before China boosted, or at least tried to, capital controls once again. Which according to Bloomberg it did moments ago:
CHINA’S SAFE SAID TO ASK BANKS TO LIMIT YUAN OUTFLOWS
Actually, since all Chinese banks are at least partially state-owned, change that "ask" to "order." Here are the details:
China’s foreign-exchange regulator has verbally instructed some banks operating in the mainland to limit yuan outflows and reduce offshore yuan positions and liquidity, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Banks are asked to better manage net yuan outflows in their capital accounts in the near term, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public. Banks are also requested to properly manage cross-border interbank yuan borrowing and corporate offshore yuan lending. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comment after office hours.
This takes place after overnight the PBOC unleashed a "murderous" liquidity squeeze, which sent the deposit rate on the offshore Yuan to 66%, or an overnight widowmaker for anyone who was short the currency.
What happens next? Most likely a rerun of September, when a comparable (failed) attempt to boost capital controls and preserve capital outflow simply lead the public to find more effective ways to evade said capital controls... and also lead to a doubling of bitcoin in 4 months.
Finally, how long before it becomes obvious to everyone that what is going on in among the top echelons of power in China can be summarized with one word: panic.Late night comics and the liberal press delight in either vilifying or parodying undecided voters, dismissing them as “boneheads” and “idiots,” or questioning their actual relevance in the presidential election. David Bossie — who spent a year interviewing undecided and disenchanted voters for his new documentary film “The Hope and the Change” — will have none of it, however.
“The 40 Democrat and independent voters in ‘The Hope and The Change’ are the Americans who will decide this election plain and simple. For the mainstream media to attempt to marginalize these Americans, just shows you how out of touch they are just like the president they try to protect every day,” Mr. Bossie tells Inside the Beltway.
WEATHER OR NOT
Does weather trump political campaigns? “With Hurricane Sandy wreaking havoc across the Atlantic, early voting may seem less inviting for some voters,” declares AccuWeather, as the Category 2 storm heads north. But even the White House is reluctant to make predictions. Spin, yes. Predictions, no.
“We leave it to the professionals to track storms and make predictions about where it will travel,” spokesman Jay Carney advised restless reporters as Sandy entered the press radar. “The president’s concern about this storm is making sure that citizens in potentially affected areas are aware of it and taking the necessary precautions, and making sure that FEMA is working as necessary with local officials in preparation for a storm. It’s obviously early, and as you know storms are not necessarily predictable in terms of their direction.”
SEALED WITH A SIX
The world premiere for “Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” portends to be a very swell affair, indeed. Former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, now chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, will welcome guests for a private screening and reception on Monday night at the sparkling Newseum, a mere seven blocks from the White House. That could be one of the sole harmonious moments for the National Geographic Channel’s much ballyhooed prime-time film, airing on the network just 48 hours before the election. It’s now been deemed a political vehicle for President Obama.
Multiple news reports reveal that the 90-minute drama was hastily re-edited by producer Harvey Weinstein to include heroic footage of Mr. Obama, bolstering claims from critics that the film is little more than an infomercial for the president’s re-election. OPSEC, a group of former special operations and intelligence officers, has become concerned enough about the film to buy up some broadcast time of their own.
“OPSEC will air ads in key battleground markets during the broadcast of ‘Seal Team Six’ after reporting by the New York Times and other media outlets disclosed that the timing and editing of the film by Obama megadonor Harvey Weinstein were orchestrated to use the heroic work of U.S. Special Operations Forces to promote President Obama’s re-election,” the group says. The ad, titled “Bump In The Road,” cites the Obama administration for its conflicting explanations about the terrorist attack in Libya, and “politicizing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.” The 30-second spot will run in Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Raleigh, Cincinnati and Richmond.
“There is nothing acceptable about playing politics with national security and American lives,” says Scott Taylor, a former Navy SEAL and president of OPSEC. “Aren’t some things more important than politics?”
ANN’S MEATLOAF MOMENT
Her family enjoys rotisserie chicken and creamed spinach. But Ann Romney also reveals the favorite dish of her hubby Mitt Romney: “Meatloaf Cakes,” which she has prepared for 43 years. Mrs. Romney shared her personal recipe for the dish with Rachael Ray during an appearance on the celebrity chef’s syndicated TV show. And here it is:
For the meatloaf cakes: 1½ pounds ground beef, 4 slices bread, crumbled into small pieces or ¾ cup dried breadcrumbs, 1 large egg, ¼ cup chopped onion, ¼ cup lemon juice, 2 teaspoons seasoned salt. For the sauce: ¼ cup ketchup, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon ground allspice.
Prepare the meatloaf: Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, crumbled bread or breadcrumbs, egg, onion, lemon juice and seasoned salt. Mix lightly but thoroughly and shape into six small loaves. Space evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes; meanwhile, prepare the sauce.
In a small bowl, mix together the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, cloves and allspice. When the meatloaf cakes have baked for 15 minutes, brush each loaf with sauce and return to the oven. Continue to bake until the meatloaf cakes read 165 degrees in the center when tested with an instant-read thermometer, about 20 more minutes. If desired, serve with scalloped potatoes and steamed vegetables. Pass additional sauce separately.
CANDIDATE TRACKER
In the next 72 hours, Mitt Romney will be in Ohio, Florida and Virginia; Rep. Paul Ryan will be in Ohio on a bus tour of eight towns. President Obama will be in New Hampshire, then Ohio, joined by former President Bill Clinton for a rally in Youngstown. Vice President Joseph R. Biden will be in South Dakota, Wisconsin and Virginia.
POLL DU JOUR
• 41 percent of Americans get their 2012 campaign news from cable TV, 38 percent from local TV news, 36 percent from the Internet and 31 percent from network news.
• 23 percent get their campaign news from local newspapers, 18 percent from cable TV talk shows, 16 percent from talk radio, 13 percent from national newspapers and 12 percent from late night comedy shows.
• 12 percent get their campaign news from National Public Radio, 12 percent from Facebook, 7 percent from YouTube and 4 percent from Twitter.
• 35 percent of Tweets sent after the presidential debates favored President Obama, 22 percent favored Mitt Romney; 17 percent joked about the candidates and 9 percent shared “information.”
• 40 percent of Facebook posts after the debates favored Mr. Obama, 36 percent favored Mr. Romney; less than 1 percent joked, 8 percent shared information.
Source: A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey of 1,005 U.S. adults conducted Oct. 18 to 21 and postdebate analysis of 5.8 million Tweets and 262,000 Facebook posts.
• Tip line always open at [email protected]
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.The Canadian Press
GIMLI, Man. - The workers who produce world famous Crown Royal whisky have voted in favour of a walkout to back their contract demands.
Local 832 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union says its members at Diageo Canada in Gimli, Man., have voted 100 per cent in favour of strike action.
The union says a walkout will begin on March 4 at midnight if a deal is not reached before then.
Talks are scheduled to resume on Feb. 16 on behalf of more than 50 workers at the Gimli facility.
Last November, a British-based expert selected Crown Royal's Northern Harvest Rye as the World Whisky of the Year for 2016.
Jim Murray's website said it was the first time a Canadian product had won the top prize in his “Whisky Bible.”One issue that tends to plague women as they age isn’t fun to talk about. But resolving the issue can have significant benefits for your quality of life – and is often easier to do than you might think.
This issue is chronic constipation. It’s often a problem for women in general and the elderly in particular. While the typical definition of constipation is fewer than three bowel movements per week, individual experiences can vary. This is because the range of “normal” bowel movements is quite large, spanning three per day to three per week and because a variety of other sensations can contribute to a feeling of constipation.
For example, if you normally experience more than one bowel movement per day and suddenly decrease to 4 or 5 per week, you’re likely to feel constipated even though you don’t fit the standard definition. Or you may not experience a change in frequency, but you do notice a change in stool consistency, a feeling of incomplete emptying, unusual straining, or a greater urge to go.
Any one of these issues can point to a problem with constipation, even if your bowel movements are fairly regular. You also may have forgotten that you struggle with constipation because you rely so heavily on laxatives. In fact, anywhere from 50 to 74% of the elderly who live in care homes take a laxative every day to keep them regular. While this can work, there are gentler, more natural ways to help resolve issues of constipation.
Diet
Start by examining your dietary habits. I’m sure you know by now that you should be getting at least 25 grams of fiber every day to help move things along. Make sure you’re meeting or exceeding this target.
You can try psyllium or chia seed, if you need some help meeting this number. However, if you do take these, it’s absolutely vital that you drink enough water. Dehydration can contribute to constipation anyway, but psyllium and chia seeds rely on water to bulk up and move the stool along. Without sufficient water, they can actually make constipation worse.
Oftentimes, when you begin adding fiber, you will experience gas. If this happens to you, stop for two days and then cut the amount in half. In addition, try drinking chamomile tea after taking the additional fiber.
Herbs and nutrients
If you have good fiber and water habits, but still struggle with occasional constipation, there is a blend of herbs and nutrients that have a natural laxative effect and promotes healthy digestion through a blend of three fruits known as Triphala. Triphala will not only help you have productive bowel movements but will help keep your whole digestive system operating smoothly.
Triphala is a mix of three medicinal plants called Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula, and Terminalia belerica. While Triphala has been used for centuries with great success, you know modern medicine always has to check things out for itself. As expected, Triphala stood up to the scrutiny. Researchers have conducted a number of studies on this combination through the years. More recently, a team of researchers did a review study of all these studies and published their results in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine.
The review confirmed that Triphala has a number of beneficial properties. It’s great at scavenging for free radicals. It has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anticancer, chemoprotective, adaptogenic, and hypoglycemic effects. It also promotes wound healing.
With all of these benefits, it’s not surprising that Ayurvedic medicine uses Triphala to help resolve a number of ailments. But one of its most common uses is for treating gastrointestinal disorders. The review study confirmed that Triphala is great for this purpose too. They found that it has excellent laxative effects, improves appetite, and reduces gastric hyperacidity. Because of these properties, Triphala is particularly effective at helping to relieve constipation.
If this is an issue you struggle with, Triphala can help you resolve it gently and naturally, just as it’s done for followers of Ayurvedic medicine for hundreds of years.
If fiber, water, and Triphala don’t resolve your constipation, be sure to see your doctor to rule out a more serious issue.Here you will find useful tips for preserving your life story and for building your memoir. We also enjoy spotlighting the good stories that we believe are worthy of preservation. You have a story. And America's Footprints has everything you need to preserve that story for the current and future generations of your family! Leave behind something of true value for your children and grandchildren to uncover!
Pre-Teen Who Beat Cancer Uses His Make-A-Wish Opportunity To Feed An Entire Hospital « back
September 1st, 2015
Lucas Hobbs
Did you know? This story was featured in our Make-A-Difference Spotlight podcast - episode #027!
When you have those moments of doubt...those times in life where everything seems to drag you down to a bottomless pit...those days where life is against you at every turn, I want you to remember the story of Lucas Hobbs.
Because this 12-year-old boy from Eagan, Minnesota is showing the world that nothing should stand in the way of pursuing your dreams.
Hobbs was battling a stage three cancer known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood cancer that starts in the lymphatic system. But the pre-teen underwent extensive treatment therapy...and came out a winner.
However, if there is one thing he'll never forget about his time in the hospital, it was the inability to enjoy a basic meal. And when you love food as much as Hobbs does, the agony of treatment becomes 10 times worse.
The experience during his chemo has given Hobbs a new appreciation for the simple things in life...like enjoying a homemade lunch. And now that he is feeling much better, Hobbs figured it was time to give back in his own special way with the help of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
And this is where we get to the best part of the story. Because Hobbs decided to use his Make-A-Wish to feed others and express his gratitude for life.
His "wish" was to commandeer a fleet of food trucks, and feed every patient and employee at the children's hospital where he was treated. So the family partnered with the Minnesota Food Truck Association and utilized the trucks of individual owners to help host Lucas' event.
In an interview with WCCO-TV and NBC, Hobbs said: "when I was sick, people brought me food from our church, and it was really nice of them. So I asked my parents if I could use my wish to serve others. [And now I can] give back the kindness that everybody gave me when I was sick."
AmericasFootprints.com also spoke with his father Matt Hobbs, who told us: "while he could see himself becoming a professional chef, he is 50/50 with being in law enforcement. But the wish was about using good food as an act of kindness to give back to the community."
And though his Make-A-Wish was granted for feeding the hospital, Hobbs didn't stop there. At the time of this article, the family had spent a good part of summer continuing this campaign. In addition to the hospital, they made stops at a church, police station, senior citizen community, and a school.
The family has also started a very exciting charity food program based on Lucas' wish, already feeding approximately 360 boys and girls club members and volunteers. So we invite you to follow the ChefLucasFood truck on Facebook, and look for their next appearance real soon, which is planned for the Dorothy Day Homeless shelter. They even have a new website that gives you more insight into Lucas' true vision!
We also invite you to watch more from NBC below, and discover how Lucas Hobbs is well on his way to leaving a Footprint in history that is worth remembering.
Sharing is caring! Did you enjoy the article? Please share it with your friends!
If you enjoy preserving photos and creating memories with your loved ones, then we know you'll love America's Footprints! Here you have the unique opportunity to privately preserve the milestones in your life story as a personal Footprint, and to pass down something of TRUE value to your children, your grandchildren, and even your great grandchildren. Intrigued? That's just the beginning. Join our family at America's Footprints today!WiFi routers are a dime a dozen these days… or around $20 to $30 anyway. But the Asus WL-330NUL Pocket Router breaks the mold a bit.
It’s a WiFi router that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. It can also draw power from a USB port so you can use it with your laptop on the go without carrying around a separate power cable.
On one of the Asus WL-330NUL you’ll find an Ethernet jack. You can plug in a cable from your modem or from a wired connection at a hotel. Then you can use the tiny router to share that wired connection wirelessly with multiple devices.
At the other end of the router there’s a USB adapter (which folds down into a slot in the case when you’re not using it). You can use this for power — or you can plug the USB port into a computer and use the router as a USB ethernet adapter for laptops that don’t have full-sized Ethernet jacks.
The router weighs less than an ounce. I wouldn’t expect it to provide the strongest signal you’ve ever seen from a router, but it could prove a useful tool for road warriors that want to connect multiple laptops, tablets, phones, and other devices to their hotel internet connections.
Asus hasn’t yet announced the release date or price for the Pocket Router.
via TechInStyleSign up to receive FREE weekly emails with recipes, coupons and other money saving tips right into your inbox. Become a friend on Facebook too AND/OR join the $5 Meal Plan Family and get meal plans delivered to you each week!
Quite possibly the best slow cooker chicken ever. If you don’t eat it straight out of the slow cooker, it’s also delicious when shredded and used in enchiladas, soft tacos/burritos, hard shell tacos and street tacos.
This is literally one of this “winner winner chicken for dinner” meals!
PLEASE note the timing on adding the sour cream…
Enjoy!!!
Yield – 4 servings Preparation Time – 10 minutes Cooking Time – 8 hours Ingredients 4 small boneless chicken breasts
1 cup red salsa
10 oz can cream of chicken
1 Tbsp taco seasoning (use this recipe to make your own taco seasoning!)
!) 1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cilantro, garnish
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, as garnish
1 cup rice, as side dish
Salad or fresh veggies, as side dish Directions Place the chicken breasts in the base of the slow cooker and pour the red salsa and cream of chicken soup over and around the chicken. Season with taco seasoning. (Note: Do not add the sour cream before slow cooking or freezing.)
Set on low and cook for 8 hours. With 30 minutes, left in the cooking cycle, stir in the sour cream and let finish cooking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cook the rice as directed.
Prepare the salad or fresh veggies.
Serve Slow Cooker Creamy Salsa Chicken with cilantro and shredded cheese garnish over rice with salad or veggies. To Freeze & Thaw: add all ingredients in the first step to a freezer safe bag. Remove as much air as possible, seal and label. Put baggie in the freezer and freeze up to 6 months in fridge freezer or 12 months in a deep freezer. Thaw in the fridge overnight, or a warm bowl of water for about 20 minutes, before transferring to the slow cooker and cooking on low for 8 hours. Stir in the sour cream at the end of the cooking cycle as directed above.
This recipe is featured on SouthernPlate.com’s Meal Plan Monday #75.Much has been made about how Warframe developer Digital Extremes managed to get the free to play title from PC to PlayStation 4 in a matter of months, thanks to the latter’s ease of development. But the question is, does the PlayStation 4 has some kind of edge over the current release? Perhaps some new gameplay and mission types?
We asked creative director Steve Sinclair about the same and he stated, “As above – the answer is YES – but at the same time it comes to the PC. We are growing the game continually and we feel that is a crucial part of our success so far. PS4 will bring new players into the fold as the universe expands, which means new factions, new mission types, new events and new Warframes to play as!”
But did the next gen console present any benefits over the PC version in terms of development, which would help PC users switch over the PlayStation 4 or even check out what the console version has to offer?
Sinclair replied with, “Yes and no. I love the hardware, and it definitely eliminates compatibility issues. As I said, I love the controller and at E3 we showed ‘flick’ gestures on the touchpad for activating Warframe powers that people seemed to love.
“I think if PC players have lower-end PCs, the PS4 will be a great option for them to switch. Hopefully both sides just enjoy the growth of the game and PC players get tons more content from the success on PS4 we hope to get (fingers crossed, looking for wood to knock on).”
Warframe’s PS4 release date is currently to be announced.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Obama: "Stop forcing John Boehner to issue threats about our economy"
US President Barack Obama has said he is willing to hold budget talks with Republicans, but not until they agree to lift "threats" against the economy.
Republicans "don't get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs", Mr Obama said, by demanding concessions in policy before reopening government.
The US government shut down last week when Congress failed to agree a budget.
Republican leaders on Tuesday renewed their calls for Mr Obama to open negotiations over ending the impasses.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner told reporters: "What the president said today was if there's unconditional surrender by Republicans, he'll sit down and talk to us. That's not the way our government works."
'Very deep recession'
But at the White House, Mr Obama said any negotiations on the ongoing government shutdown or the debt limit "shouldn't require hanging the threats of a shutdown or economic chaos over the heads of the American people".
Analysis Mr Obama said he understood why it was difficult for Republicans to vote to lift the debt ceiling - it's a lousy name that suggested the debt itself was being increased. There are no more rabbits in the hat, Mr Obama said. If it didn't happen there would be economic chaos. But the barest glimmer of a suggestion came when he said that the Republicans could vote to lift the threat for the period that it took to negotiate. That was pretty much a throwaway line, but it could be a way forward for some. But not others. One conservative strategist I spoke to told me his side thought that breaching the debt ceiling would not be a disaster and they would be trying hard to get that line out.
"We can't make extortion routine as part of our democracy," the Democratic president said. "Democracy doesn't function this way.
"And this is not just for me. It's also for my successors in office, whatever party they're from."
He also warned of the repercussions of defaulting on the government's debt should Congress fail to raise the borrowing limit, currently set to be reached on 17 October.
Mr Obama said breaching the borrowing limit could disrupt capital markets, undermine international confidence in America, permanently increase the nation's borrowing costs, add to its deficits and debt, and pose the "significant risk of a very deep recession".
House Democrats plan to meet the president at the White House on Wednesday, the first in a series of meetings between Mr Obama and lawmakers.
The US government partially shut down operations on 1 October after Republicans who control the House of Representatives refused to approve a budget, saying they would only do so if Mr Obama's healthcare reform law were delayed or stripped of funding.
Mr Obama and the Democrats have thus far refused, noting the law was passed in 2010, subsequently approved by the Supreme Court, and was a central issue in the 2012 election which Mr Obama won.
'Too much shock'
At the same time, the Republicans have refused to approve an increase in the US debt limit unless it is accompanied by significant spending cuts and other policy concessions.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US shutdown felt in Washington as debt limit deadline looms
Mr Obama maintains Mr Boehner could end the current government showdown by allowing the House to vote on a "clean" budget bill that does not alter the health law, because that could pass with votes from both Democrats and moderate Republicans.
But doing so would risk damaging his standing with the most conservative elements of his caucus, analysts say.
US and foreign officials and economists have warned of severe economic consequences if the US defaults on its debt because the government is unable to borrow money to fund its obligations.
"Failure to lift the debt ceiling would be a major event. Prolonged failure... would almost surely derail the US recovery," said International Monetary Fund economic counsellor Olivier Blanchard on Tuesday.
At the White House, Mr Obama said if the US eventually dealt with the impasse, then "folks around the world will attribute this to the usual messy process of American democracy".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Scott Gediman: "We heard everything from people shouting profanities, speeding by entrance stations... getting very frustrated", he added.
He also sought to reassure US bond holders and others that the country remained good for its debts, despite the shutdown.
The shutdown has already had a significant impact in the US.
Hundreds of thousands of workers have been sent home without pay, national parks, museums, and tourists sites have been closed, research has halted, and more.
Visitors to the iconic Grand Canyon in Arizona have got no further than locked gates around the site, which normally attracts 18,000 visitors a day as weather cools.
Workers in small towns that depend on Grand Canyon tourism for their livelihoods are having to resort to food banks.Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio).[1] Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV).[1] The World Health Organization recommends all children be fully vaccinated against polio.[1] The two vaccines have eliminated polio from most of the world,[2][3] and reduced the number of cases reported each year from an estimated 350,000 in 1988 to 22 in 2017.[4]
The inactivated polio vaccines are very safe.[1] Mild redness or pain may occur at the site of injection.[1] Oral polio vaccines cause about three cases of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis per million doses given.[1] This compares with 5,000 cases per million who are paralysed following a polio infection.[5] Both are generally safe to give during pregnancy and in those who have HIV/AIDS but are otherwise well.[1]
The first polio vaccine was the inactivated polio vaccine.[1] It was developed by Jonas Salk and came into use in 1955.[1][6] The oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin and came into commercial use in 1961.[1][7] They are on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system.[8] The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$0.25 per dose for the oral form as of 2014.[9] In the United States, it costs between $25 and $50 for the inactivated form.[10]
Medical uses [ edit ]
This 1963 poster featured CDC's national symbol of public health, the "Wellbee", encouraging the public to receive an oral polio vaccine.
Interruption of person-to-person transmission of the virus by vaccination is important in the global polio eradication,[11] since no long-term carrier state exists for poliovirus in individuals with normal immune function, polio viruses have no nonprimate reservoir in nature,[12] and survival of the virus in the environment for an extended period of time appears to be remote.
Inactivated [ edit ]
When the current formulation of IPV is used, 90% or more of individuals develop protective antibodies to all three serotypes of polio virus after two doses of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), and at least 99% are immune to polio virus following three doses. The duration of immunity induced by IPV is not known with certainty, although a complete series is thought to provide protection for many years.[13]
Attenuated [ edit ]
Oral polio vaccines proved to be superior in administration, eliminating the need for sterile syringes and making the vaccine more suitable for mass vaccination campaigns. OPV also provided longer-lasting immunity than the Salk vaccine, as it provides both humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity.
One dose of OPV produces immunity to all three poliovirus serotypes in roughly 50% of recipients.[14] Three doses of live-attenuated OPV produce protective antibodies to all three poliovirus types in more than 95% of recipients. OPV produces excellent immunity in the intestine, the primary site of wild poliovirus entry, which helps prevent infection with wild virus in areas where the virus is endemic.[15] The live virus used in the vaccine can rarely shed in the stool and can rarely spread to others within a community. The live virus also has stringent requirements for transport and storage, which are a problem in some hot or remote areas. As with other live-virus vaccines, immunity initiated by OPV is probably lifelong.[13]
The trivalent (against wild types 1, 2, and 3) OPV has been used to nearly eradicate polio infection worldwide.[16] Led by The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 155 countries switched to use the bivalent (against wild type 1 and 3) between 17 April and 1 May 2016.[17] The bivalent OPV is at more effective against type 1 and 3 but does not cover type 2.[18] The United States as of 2017 continues to recommend the use of a trivalent version, but a fully inactivated version.[16]
Schedule [ edit ]
In countries with endemic polio or where there is a high risk of imported cases, the WHO recommends OPV vaccine at birth followed by a primary series of 3 OPV and at least one IPV doses starting at 6 weeks of age, with a minimum of 4 weeks between OPV doses. In countries with >90% immunization coverage and low risk of importation, the WHO recommends one or two IPV doses starting at 2 months of age followed by at least two OPV doses, with the doses separated by 4–8 weeks depending on the risk of exposure. In countries with the highest levels of coverage and the lowest risks of importation and transmission, the WHO recommends a primary series of 3 IPV injections, with a booster dose after an interval of six months or more if the first dose was administered before 2 months of age.[19]
Side effects [ edit ]
The inactivated polio vaccines are very safe. Mild redness or pain may occur at the site of injection. Oral polio vaccine results in vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis in about three per million doses. They are generally safe to give during pregnancy and in those who have HIV/AIDS, but are otherwise well.[1]
Vaccine-induced polio [ edit ]
cVPDV cases outnumbered wild polio cases for the first time in 2017
A potential, but rare, adverse effect of the OPV is its known ability to recombine to a form that may cause neurological infection and cause paralysis.[20] Clinical disease, including paralysis, caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is indistinguishable from that caused by wild polioviruses.[21] This is believed to be a rare event, but outbreaks of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP), caused by a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV),[22] have been reported, and tend to occur in areas of low coverage by OPV, presumably because the OPV is itself protective against the related outbreak strain.[23][24] With wild polio cases at record lows, 2017 was the first year where more cases of cVDPV were recorded than the wild poliovirus, a trend that is expected to continue.[25]
Contamination concerns [ edit ]
In 1960, the rhesus monkey kidney cells used to prepare the poliovirus vaccines were determined to be infected with the Simian Virus-40.[26] SV40 was also discovered in 1960 and is a naturally occurring virus that infects monkeys. In 1961, SV40 was found to cause tumors in rodents.[27] More recently, the virus was found in certain forms of cancer in humans, for instance brain and bone tumors, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, and some types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.[28][29] However, SV40 has not been determined to cause these cancers.[30]
SV40 was found to be present in stocks of the injected form of the polio vaccine (IPV) in use between 1955 and 1963.[26] It is not found in the OPV form.[26] Over 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine between 1955 and 1963 when a proportion of vaccine was contaminated with SV40; an estimated 10–30 million Americans may have received a dose of vaccine contaminated with SV40.[26] Later analysis suggested that vaccines produced by the former Soviet bloc countries until 1980, and used in the USSR, China, Japan, and several African countries, may have been contaminated, meaning hundreds of millions more may have been exposed to SV40.[31]
In 1998, the National Cancer Institute undertook a large study, using cancer case information from the institute's SEER database. The published findings from the study revealed no increased incidence of cancer in persons who may have received vaccine containing SV40.[32] Another large study in Sweden examined cancer rates of 700,000 individuals who had received potentially contaminated polio vaccine as late as 1957; the study again revealed no increased cancer incidence between persons who received polio vaccines containing SV40 and those who did not.[33] The question of whether SV40 causes cancer in humans remains controversial, however, and the development of improved assays for detection of SV40 in human tissues will be needed to resolve the controversy.[30]
During the race to develop an oral polio vaccine, several large-scale human trials were undertaken. By 1958, the National Institutes of Health had determined that OPV produced using the Sabin strains were the safest.[34] Between 1957 and 1960, however, Hilary Koprowski continued to administer his vaccine around the world. In Africa, the vaccines were administered to roughly one million people in the Belgian territories (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi).[35][36] The results of these human trials have been controversial,[37] and unfounded accusations in the 1990s arose that the vaccine had created the conditions necessary for transmission of simian immunodeficiency virus from chimpanzees to humans, causing HIV/AIDS. These hypotheses, however, have been conclusively refuted.[35] By 2004, cases of poliomyelitis in Africa had been reduced to just a small number of isolated regions in the western portion of the continent, with sporadic cases elsewhere. Recent local opposition to vaccination campaigns have evolved due to lack of adequate information,[38][39] often relating to fears that the vaccine might induce sterility.[40] The disease has since resurged in Nigeria and in several other African nations without necessary information, which epidemiologists believe is due to refusals by certain local populations to allow their children to receive the polio vaccine.[41]
Manufacture [ edit ]
Inactivated [ edit ]
The Salk vaccine, IPV, is based on three wild, virulent reference strains, Mahoney (type 1 poliovirus), MEF-1 (type 2 poliovirus), and Saukett (type 3 poliovirus), grown in a type of monkey kidney tissue culture (Vero cell line), which are then inactivated with formalin.[42] The injected Salk vaccine confers IgG-mediated immunity in the |
to see which team will come out on top:
Key Stats
Overall ranking: Houston 4th, Portland 5th
Last 10 games ranking: Portland 1st, Houston 15th
Shooting efficiency: Houston 3rd offensive, Portland 5th defensive
Total rebounds per game (TeamRankings): Houston 1st, Portland 4th
Key Players
James Harden (17th CornerThree WAR, 20th ESPN WAR) vs. LaMarcus Aldridge (19th CornerThree, 10th ESPN)
Regular Season Series Results
Houston 3, Portland 1
Odds
Prediction
This is the toughest series for me to pick. The teams are definitely equally matched, and will each win multiple games for their home fans. For Houston to cool off the Blazers, who have been on a tear the last couple weeks, they’ll need great defense on LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard. If Terrence Jones guards Aldridge, he’ll likely have a field day, whereas if Dwight Howard guards him, one of the league’s best defensive centers will be pulled away from the paint (Aldridge shoots an almost innumerable amount of long mid-range jumpers). Lillard’s situation is more simple: Patrick Beverley is one of the league’s most aggressive and successful defenders at the point guard position, and could be this series’ X-factor. However, he’s just coming back from injury. If Beverley’s not healthy, Lillard will be hard for Houston’s weak defensive guards to slow down, and I’ll quickly regret the following prediction.
Houston in 7
Find the corresponding Eastern Conference breakdown here.
by Derek Reifer, Northwestern UniversityWith just a few hours to go until Troy Davis is executed in Georgia, despite serious doubts about his guilt, here are 10 reasons why the death sentence should not be carried out
In 2007 the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the body which has the final say in the state on whether executions should go ahead, made a solemn promise. Troy Davis, the prisoner who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7pm local time on Wednesday, would never be put to death unless there was "no doubt" about his guilt.
Here are 10 reasons why the board – which decided on Tuesday to allow the execution to go ahead – has failed to deliver on its promise and why a man who is very possibly innocent will be killed in the name of American justice.
1. Of the nine witnesses who appeared at Davis's 1991 trial who said they had seen Davis beating up a homeless man in a dispute over a bottle of beer and then shooting to death a police officer, Mark MacPhail, who was acting as a good samaritan, seven have since recanted their evidence.
2. One of those who recanted, Antoine Williams, subsequently revealed they had no idea who shot the officer and that they were illiterate – meaning they could not read the police statements that they had signed at the time of the murder in 1989. Others said they had falsely testified that they had overheard Davis confess to the murder.
3. Many of those who retracted their evidence said that they had been cajoled by police into testifying against Davis. Some said they had been threatened with being put on trial themselves if they did not co-operate.
4. Of the two of the nine key witnesses who have not changed their story publicly, one has kept silent for the past 20 years and refuses to talk, and the other is Sylvester Coles. Coles was the man who first came forward to police and implicated Davis as the killer. But over the past 20 years evidence has grown that Coles himself may be the gunman and that he was fingering Davis to save his own skin.
5. In total, nine people have come forward with evidence that implicates Coles. Most recently, on Monday the George Board of Pardons and Paroles heard from Quiana Glover who told the panel that in June 2009 she had heard Coles, who had been drinking heavily, confess to the murder of MacPhail.
6. Apart from the witness evidence, most of which has since been cast into doubt, there was no forensic evidence gathered that links Davis to the killing.
7. In particular, there is no DNA evidence of any sort. The human rights group the Constitution Project points out that three-quarters of those prisoners who have been exonerated and declared innocent in the US were convicted at least in part on the basis of faulty eyewitness testimony.
8. No gun was ever found connected to the murder. Coles later admitted that he owned the same type of.38-calibre gun that had delivered the fatal bullets, but that he had given it away to another man earlier on the night of the shooting.
9. Higher courts in the US have repeatedly refused to grant Davis a retrial on the grounds that he had failed to "prove his innocence". His supporters counter that where the ultimate penalty is at stake, it should be for the courts to be beyond any reasonable doubt of his guilt.
10. Even if you set aside the issue of Davis's innocence or guilt, the manner of his execution tonight is cruel and unnatural. If the execution goes ahead as expected, it would be the fourth scheduled execution date for this prisoner. In 2008 he was given a stay just 90 minutes before he was set to die. Experts in death row say such multiple experiences with imminent death is tantamount to torture.There is so much to admire in Emma Watson’s sublime speech to the UN on Saturday. There was the poise and elegance with which it was delivered, the subtle charisma and assured performance, but it was the content that has made her the talk of social media and the darling of the world’s young progressive left.
The roster of Hollywood actors and naff pop stars that makes up the (remarkably lengthy) list of UN Goodwill Ambassadors are usually considered something of a joke. Once you have learned that Ronan Keating once put his name to a parliamentary inquiry into global food security, satire and snark can be declared redundant. And yet Watson’s speech was different. There was an inescapable sense that not only had she written her speech herself, every word came from deep within her.
In particular she made a compelling argument that, in the words of bell hooks, feminism is for everyone, or as the theoretical dictum would have it, patriarchy hurts men too. The points have been made often before but seldom with such simple sincerity:
“I’ve seen my father’s role as a parent being valued less by society. I’ve seen young men suffering from illness, unable to ask for help for fear it will make them less of a man …. I’ve seen men fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don’t have the benefits of equality, either. We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are.”
So while I didn’t entirely agree with every word she said, there was more than enough there to win my support. Without a moment’s hesitation, I went to the HeForShe website to add my name to the campaign. I got as far as the button to sign the pledge when I glanced over the wording, and I stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t sign. The pledge is only 35 words long. For 30 of them I was agreeing enthusiastically and then…. well, let me talk you through it.
“Gender equality is not only a women’s issue…”
So true, so important, and so seldom acknowledged. How refreshing to see this stated so clearly.
“…it is a human rights issue that requires my participation.”
I’m with you, with you all the way.
“I commit to take action against all forms of violence and discrimination…”
At last! How long have I waited for this? Finally we see a body like the United Nations issue a clarion to the world, to stand as one against all forms of violence and discrimination…
“…faced by women and girls.”
Oh. I see.
So we are not in fact being invited to stand up for all human rights, to take a stand against all forms of violence and discrimination. We are explicitly not standing as one against all forms of gender discrimination and violence. The pledge could have stopped at the 30th word, but those final five entirely changed the meaning.
As it is, the wording betrays and confounds Watson’s heartfelt plea. The discrimination which devalued her father’s role is ignored in this pledge. The prevailing social manacles of masculinity that leave men physically and mentally ill and unable to seek support are specifically excluded. So too are male victims of sexual violence, including atrocities such as the mass rape campaigns in Congo. It entirely removes from the equation issues such as sexual assault in men’s prisons, now acknowledged as a systemic crime against human rights.
Earlier this year the world was rightly appalled by the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram, yet apparently unconcerned when the same monsters slaughtered a dormitory full of schoolboys. We now know this indifference is shared by the UN. To this atrocity, add the mass abduction of boys by ISIS in Northern Iraq. The UN’s determination to end female genital mutilation can only be admired, in stark contrast to their studied and wilful blindness towards the deaths and mutilations of thousands of young men and teenage boys in savage traditional circumcision ceremonies across sub-Saharan Africa.
The UN has form on this. So many men and boys were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that by the time it ended the population of the country was 70% female. Two years later UN Special Rapporteur René Degni-Ségui declared that “women may even be regarded as the main victims of the slaughter.” UN Security Council Resolution 1325, passed in 2000, treats wartime sexual violence as something that impacts exclusively on women and girls, against all evidence.
Emma Watson says she sees that men can be imprisoned by gender stereotypes. She is a clever and observant woman. At the heart of all gender-based oppression is the poisonous notion that people should be differently treated, differently valued, differently destined by their gender. The idea that only women and girls need protection from gender-based atrocities and discrimination is in itself a form of benevolent sexism and, while masquerading as a solution, is a bloody big part of the problem.
UPDATE: A follow-up post is here: When is it acceptable to ask ‘what about teh menz?’World's largest marine reserve network unveiled
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Environment reporter Conor Duffy has the details on the marine park announcement (The Midday Report)
Australia will create the world's largest network of marine parks as the world "turns a corner" on ocean protection, Environment Minister Tony Burke has announced.
The network, announced this morning, is made up of five main zones in offshore waters surrounding every state and territory.
But the Government will have to pay up to $100 million in compensation to commercial fishers who will be locked out of some of the new marine parks.
"It's time for the world to turn a corner on protection of our oceans," Mr Burke said as he announced the plans today.
"Australia today is leading that next step."
The maps released today closely resemble those revealed by the ABC on Monday, but there is much more detail and new areas of protection right around the country.
The proposed network places limits on oil and gas exploration off Western Australia and extends reef protection in the Coral Sea.
"This is the largest network of marine reserves anywhere in the world," Mr Burke told AM.
"What we've done is effectively create a national parks estate in the ocean.
"The areas where you’ve got some of the most substantial outcomes are areas like the south-west of WA, areas like the Perth Canyon, which is an area as large as the Grand Canyon that would have been protected years ago had it been on land."
But the plan has drawn fire from commercial and recreational fishers, who say it goes too far, and from the Greens, who say it does not go far enough.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he is "instinctively against" anything which impinges on the rights of recreational fishermen.
And he expressed caution about the plan's potential impact on tourism and on commercial fishing operations.
We're going to lose access to a very benign fishery that we can supply local fresh product to the community. That's going to be taken away not just from us, it's going to be taken away from the community. Fremantle commercial fisherman Clayton Nelson
"We know from this Government's record that they can't be trusted to get the consultation right, they can't be trusted to get the implementation right, and often enough they can't even be trusted to get the science right," he said.
Fremantle-based commercial fisherman Clayton Nelson employs 20 people and said new marine parks in his area would see him lose about 35 per cent of his business.
"We're going to have to review how we do our business, how we go forward," he said.
"It's not a good day for us, I can't hide from that.
"We're going to lose access to a very benign fishery that we can supply local fresh product to the community.
"That's going to be taken away not just from us, it's going to be taken away from the community."
Dean Logan from the Australian Marine Alliance said the plan would hurt commercial fishers.
"It's basically saying to Australians you cannot be trusted to be good custodians of the environment," he said.
Professional prawn fishing groups says the marine park reserves will have a severe impact on the prawn industry in northern Australia.
Austral Fisheries general manager Andy Prendergast says the marine reserves, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria, will exclude them from their most important fishing grounds for Tiger and Banana prawns.
He says the decision could effectively wipe out Australia's free-range prawn fishing industry.
"There is a tipping point," he said.
"If we can't get access to these areas, that could effectively put us out of business in time."
The Amateur Fisherman's Association of the Northern Territory says the park network will affect commercial fisheries more than recreational anglers.
Association executive officer Chris Makepiece says amateur anglers in the Territory fared much better than other states.
The plan falls short of demands by environmental groups who wanted all commercial fishing in the Coral Sea banned, while oil and gas exploration will still be allowed close to some protected areas.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said many of the many of the reserves off Australia's north-west coast seemed to skirt around oil and gas exploration areas.
"The industry seems to have had a significant impact on determining where reserves will be," she said.
Mr Burke described the "jewel in the crown" of the plan as being the Coral Sea off Queensland.
"People were saying we'd protected a lot of the Coral Sea in our proposal but people are asking us to really push the boundaries and cover some more reefs," he said.
"Well, in the final government position that comes out later today we’ve added Marion Reef, Bougainville Reef, Vema Reef, Shark Reef and Osprey Reef... one of the top dive sites in the world.
"Throughout the whole of the Coral Sea there is a ban on oil and gas and we've established a significant area around the Margaret River area where oil and gas will also be excluded."
The Australian Conservation Foundation's Chris Smyth says although the park declarations do not go as far as he would like, he is still very happy with the announcement.
"There's a lot of stakeholders involved in this: the oil and gas industry, the commercial and recreational fishermen, environment groups and so on.
"Obviously some of the areas we would have liked to have got are still being opened to oil and gas interests and commercial interests, but across the board we think it's a major achievement in terms of oceans conservation."
A final consultation process is to be completed before the initiative goes ahead.
Recreational fishers believe the Government's plans are all about winning green votes in the cities, and they say it is absurd to protect areas where fish are thriving.
Sunfish Queensland - which represents 35,000 mostly recreational fishers - says the move is a step too far.
"What it does do is it takes away the validity of the true value of a green zone, which is there to protect things that are under threat," the organisation's Judy Lynne said.
"[It will be] a huge tourism loss to Queensland. There are a few iconic places where people like to go and fish in Australia, out off the Kimberleys, up in the Gulf and in the Coral Sea.
"That's now taken away from generations to come, when we have been shown to have no impact."
Ms Lynne also said Australia's border security could be compromised if fishers are excluded from areas like the Coral Sea.
But the Government says most of the reserves are far offshore, and that very few recreational anglers will be affected.
The Australian Conservation Foundation says today's announcement is just the start of taking back Australia's waters for preservation.
"It's a historic conservation achievement. And we are going to be the leader, the global leader in oceans protection," Mr Smyth said.
"We understand the circumstances we find ourselves in in terms of the politics and the economics.
"But we just want to keep working with the government, with stakeholders and with the community to gradually improve the way we look after our oceans."
Topics: oceans-and-reefs, conservation, environment, fishing-aquaculture, australia, nt, wa, qld
First postedMallory Ortberg Sam Breach
Mallory Ortberg, aka Dear Prudence, is online weekly to chat live with readers. An edited transcript of the chat is below. (Sign up below to get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week. Read Prudie’s Slate columns here. Send questions to Prudence at prudence@slate.com.)
Readers! Ask me your questions on the voicemail of the Dear Prudence podcast. Just leave a message at 401-371-DEAR (3327), and you may hear your question answered on a future episode of the show.
Q. Is this a lie I can forgive?: I’ve been dating a great guy, “Max,” for about a year. Not too long after we met (we weren’t dating then), we started talking about family, siblings, etc. I mentioned I’d had a sister who died at a young age in a car accident. He said he’d lost a brother, “John,” the same way. It bonded us in a way, and it wasn’t long after that talk that we began dating.
Over the Memorial Day weekend I went with Max to visit his family. They live in another state, and it was the first time I met them. Max’s mother was showing me some family pictures, and there were several of John. I know how hard it is for mothers to talk about their dead children, so I was as sympathetic as I could be. I mentioned my sister, and her car accident. Max’s mother looked at me kind of strangely but didn’t say much. Later I was talking to Max’s sister and again mentioned John’s death in a car accident. His sister corrected me and said it wasn’t a car accident, it was an OD. Apparently John OD’d when he was 18. This isn’t something I’d mind or find shameful. I know some addicts, and they are good people. It is the addiction that is bad. What I don’t understand is why Max lied to me. I can see lying to a stranger. I don’t like people in my personal business anymore than Max does. But why lie to a friend? And to keep the lie going with a girlfriend who is going to find out? Now I’m wondering how to bring this up to Max. I don’t think he knows his family told me the truth. How should I bring this up, and is this something I can let go?
A: If by “let go” you mean ”not mention anything to Max,” then no, you absolutely should not let this go. There’s no special way you should bring this up. Just tell him what you learned from his sister, and ask him to explain, keeping your tone nonjudgmental. Then listen to what he has to say, and share with him the questions you’ve already posed to me. If there’s a way for you two to move beyond this, it won’t be by compounding a lie with more silence and secrecy—it will require openness and honesty.
As for the question in your subject line—yes, I think this is forgivable, assuming Max is willing to be honest once you bring up the topic. It’s not ideal, and it’s not a tactic he’ll hopefully employ again in your future, but the lie he told was not self-aggrandizing or designed to hurt you. Likely it was a choice out of shame and discomfort, and if he apologizes and is willing to talk about why he lied to you, there’s an excellent chance your relationship will be all the stronger for it.
Q. Babies and why I’m not having them: So, despite being 23, the topic in some of my older friends turned once again to my refusal to have kids. Now I don’t want to have them for many reasons, mostly personal and a dislike of small children, and lack of wanting to bring a kid into a quite depressing world, but partly because of the fear of needles, postnatal depression, and a small frame making childbirth difficult. Is there any way to stop these sort of comments, or is this something I’m going to have to live with till I get to 45? Will giving the medical reasons (needles, etc.) help? Or is this a losing battle, even in this day and age?
A: I’m not sure that saying “I’m afraid of needles” will silence many people on the subject of having children, in part because (as far as I’m aware) having a child doesn’t mean that many more needles than otherwise. It is, unfortunately, a topic that a great many people seem to enjoy pressing, particularly with young women, so it’s entirely possible that you will be met with variations on this question for a long time to come. There are plenty of (relatively polite) ways to shut the line of questioning down, but I’m not sure of any strategy that keeps it from coming up periodically.
You say most of the badgering is coming from your older friends, and luckily you are allowed to be a little firmer and more honest with a friend than strangers. My guess is that the more you try to furnish justifications like fear of postpartum depression and your small frame, the more they’ll come up with flippant answers: “They have drugs for that now! Lots of women with small frames have children!” You’re not looking to be won over; you’re looking to be left alone. When you ask them to stop asking you about your decision not to have children, stress the fact that you don’t want to, which is not an argument but an orientation of the will and the heart. “I can’t prove to you that I’m never going to have any, but I’m pretty sure that if I ever do change my mind, it’s not going to be because someone else talked me into it. I don’t want to have children, and I can’t think of something worse than bringing a new life into the world without being really excited to become a parent. Let’s talk about something else.”
Q. When to bug neighbors?: I recently got into gardening and have a basil plant that I haven’t managed to kill yet. However, my husband and I will soon be out of town for a week, and my friends don’t live reasonably close (30-plus minutes) for me to conveniently drop off the plant. I live in a community where neighbors don’t really see/talk to one another (I’ve seen my neighbors maybe twice in the last 10 months). I could take the plant with us, but how strange would it be to show up to my next door neighbors with some cookies, and ask them to watch the plant for a week? Especially since the extent of our interaction has been only nodding hello to them?
A: It would be only mildly strange, and I think you should do it! You’re not asking them to look after your firstborn—a basil plant is a pretty low-maintenance commitment—and this might be the opportunity to upgrade your relationship with your neighbors from “nodding hello once in a while” to “nodding hello once in a while and also exchanging pleasantries,” thus making the world a friendlier place.
Q. Family feud: My dad (68) and older brother (38) have been in business together for the last 10 years or so, and while business is booming, their relationship took a nosedive within a year or two of opening and has gotten progressively worse. My brother is the hardest working person I know, and he is 99 percent responsible for the success the business has had. He describes my dad as lazy and unmotivated, and they have argument after argument about how little my dad actually works or contributes, all while earning more than everyone else at the company and getting distributions at the end of the year as a part-owner. They signed a contract a couple of years ago that my dad would sell back part of his shares, and then he refused to do so when the time arrived. My brother is at the point where he’s willing to tell my dad to F off and dissolve the business by the end of the year if something significant doesn’t change. Everything he says to my dad seems to fall on deaf ears. All I want is for my family to get along, but my relationship with my dad is very different since he’s only ever been my dad (a great one, at that), and not my business partner. For years I have kept quiet, but now I’m wondering if I should get involved before it reaches a breaking point. Should I say something to my dad?
A: Say to both your dad and your brother that you hope they can resolve their professional differences with one another and that you—unfortunately—won’t be able to mediate said differences. I’m sympathetic to your wish that everyone could just get along (I’m a middle child too), but the solution to the problem of “your brother and your father operate an emotionally failing business” is something along the lines of “your brother and your father figure out whether or not to keep going and develop a different working relationship.” The solution is not for a younger sibling with no relationship to the business in question to get involved.
I imagine that right now listening to your brother vent (presumably that’s how you’ve come to know so much of the details of their personal and professional business) seems helpful, but I think you need to scale way back. The next time either your brother or your father tries to talk to you about this, encourage them to speak to each other, and tell them there’s nothing you can do. You say you’ve “kept quiet” for years, but you don’t seem to have actually said to either your brother or your father, “If you have something to say to each other, don’t say it to me.” Say it now. Whether things explode spectacularly between them or gets slowly, painfully better is entirely up to them. You’re already more involved than you ought to be. That doesn’t mean you can’t care about their relationship, or even have an opinion, but it does mean that the only hope of improvement can come from them—not you.
Q. Re: Babies and why I’m not having them: If there’s one thing George Clooney’s marriage and babies should have taught us all, it’s to be careful about saying what we “never” want. (I have a married-with-kids ex-SO this applies to as well.) “Right now, I don’t think it’s right for me” is a nice equivocation.
A: I don’t think there’s much point in having a conversation about whether or not someone is likely to change their mind in the future about a major life issue. It’s true that a lot of people who are dead set against getting married/having children/”fill in the milestone here” do end up changing their minds. It’s also true that a lot of people don’t! (It’s also true that a lot of people who get married and have children later regret it but don’t tell anyone, because saying, “I wish I hadn’t had children” is generally considered to be an unacceptably downbeat statement.) The fact is that most of us don’t live our lives based on the assumption that we will later think differently. It’s impossible to make choices that way. Whether or not the letter writer someday changes her mind is both impossible to predict and also, frankly, irrelevant to the conversations she’s having right now. The fact that other people have sometimes said “I’m never having children” and then later gone on to have children is not relevant to her experience either—those were other people, not her.
Basically, two weird things are true of all of us: We are the final and only experts in ourselves, and we are also sometimes wrong about ourselves. You don’t have to feel the same way about a particular choice your entire life for your feelings on the subject to be meaningful or worthy of respect right now. Neither the letter writer nor her interlocutors can predict the future; what matters is that she does not want children today and her friends should assume that, should her opinion ever change, she will definitely let them know.
Q. Is this my business?: My roommate is a very dear friend whom I have known since I was 2 years old. About a year ago, she started dating another friend of mine (I introduced them). Last weekend, I found out that last year (around two weeks after they became an “exclusive” couple) my roommate’s boyfriend cheated on her with another one of our good girlfriends. They were caught after the fact by some other people at the party they were at. My roommate couldn’t be there because she was sick. Apparently, he planned to tell my roommate the next day, but the girl he cheated with convinced him not to. Besides my roommate, I am the last person in my group of friends to know about this. I don’t think I can live with her and also myself knowing that this happened while she does not. I really think she would want to know not just because she’s been cheated on, but because she considers that girl a really good friend. Would it be within my right to tell my roommate’s boyfriend that I know about what happened, I’m not going to keep his secret, and that he needs to tell her ASAP? Otherwise, I’ve watched him be a fantastic partner to her and I know how much they love each other. This hookup was really an isolated, drunken mistake. I don’t want to cause drama or insert myself into other people’s business. I just want to do right by my friend. Help?
A: That sounds like a fairly good strategy. There are times when butting out is absolutely necessary, but you live with this woman and are certain that she’d want to know—that’s a good case for speaking up. Your strategy at least gives her boyfriend the opportunity to come clean with her first. There’s no reason you should have to keep this secret now that you’ve found out.
Q. Re: Re: Babies and why I’m not having them: Just because some people say they don’t want kids and then have kids doesn’t mean that every person who says they don’t want kids will eventually want kids. Calling George Clooney’s marriage and babies a “teaching moment” is condescending.
A: Thanks for the suggestion! If the letter writer feels up to it, this might be an easier way to keep everyone updated when and if she has anything new to report.
Q. Former mentor turns frenemy: My Ph.D. supervisor was one of my job references until recently, when I asked a colleague (I finished my Ph.D. eight months ago). After a lot of struggle finding a position anywhere (let alone an academic one) I soon found a job that I liked after making that change. Last week, a mutual professional acquaintance of my Ph.D. supervisor and mine told me that she gave me bad references in the past, citing my “lack of ambition.” (The acquaintance considered me for a position last year.) I have no idea what this means, as I have always been competitive and driven in my work. Now my ex-supervisor and I are presenting at the same research conference this summer. I’m tempted to bring it up but realize I probably shouldn’t. Still, I don’t want to act like she’s the mentor and friend I thought she was. Am I right in thinking I should shut up, smile politely and not ever work with her again?
A: That sounds like an excellent strategy.
Mallory Ortberg: Remember, you don’t have to have children just because George Clooney did. You don’t have to do anything just because George Clooney does it, whether that means reproducing biologically or starring on the early seasons of ER. See you all next week.
Discuss this column with Dear Prudence on her Facebook page!
If you missed Part 1 of this week’s chat, click here to read it.Share. "It’s really difficult to leave an impression on players with just text." "It’s really difficult to leave an impression on players with just text."
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is mixing up the series' formula in several exciting ways, including the addition of voice acting, and producer Eiji Aonuma has come forward to explain why for the first time it's being incorporated into the franchise.
"It’s really difficult to leave an impression on players with just text," Aonuma told Polygon, going on to point out that not every piece of dialogue in the game will be voiced. There are, however, specific instances in which he wants to "leave impressions on users" and is using voice acting to achieve that.
When Aonuma first heard an "actual human voice" for a character early on in the game's development, he said it "touched [his] heart" and "was really striking emotions."
Exit Theatre Mode
That said, Aonuma doesn't plan on giving the hero of Hyrule a voice anytime soon for fear of breaking the connection between Link and the player. "If Link said something the user doesn’t agree with, that relationship between the user and Link would be lost," he explained.
Aonuma also spoke to the inclusion of technology and sci-fi elements, noting that "Link basically adventures through a ruined world" and he "wanted to add technology as the opposite side of that."As such, he "thought it would be interesting for Link to use technology to explore through this wild and ruined world" and "figured that would add another layer to the game."
He also teased how this element of technology might play out in Breath of the Wild's story, suggesting it may be part of the reason the world is "corrupted."
Exit Theatre Mode
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild releases sometime in 2017 for both Wii U and NX. For more on Nintendo's ambitious open-world adventure, check out IGN's interview with Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto, during which the two explain why it's coming to both platforms.
Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to him on YouTube.On 3 November 2014, the Electoral Commission referred 26 incidents to Police in response to complaints about social media content on election day. This compares to five referrals for similar matters after the 2011 general election.
24 of the incidents involve people publishing or distributing statements likely to influence voters on election day in breach of section 197 of the Electoral Act 1993, including:
Seven incidents involving people publishing material indicating how they voted and/or publishing statements likely to influence voters: these include comments posted by high profile sports personalities, Israel Dagg, Jonah Lomu and Eric Murray.
Two incidents where a person posted a photograph of a completed ballot paper together with a statement that could influence voters.
Thirteen incidents involving people sharing on election day a video featuring John Key and a ‘vote National Party’ message posted on the Young Nats Facebook page after the close of advance voting on Friday 19 September.
Two incidents involving people sharing on election day a ‘vote for Nikki Kaye National Party candidate, Auckland Central’ message posted on her Facebook page on Friday 19 September.
An additional two incidents have been referred to Police for further investigation involving individuals who posted online that they intended to vote more than once. Voting more than once is an offence under section 215 of the Electoral Act.
As these matters are now with the Police, the Electoral Commission will not be commenting further.
More information about the election day rules and the use of social media at elections can be found at the following links: http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2014-general-election/2014-parties-candidates-and-third-parties/election-day-rules-candidat-0 and http://www.elections.org.nz/parties-candidates/all-participants/use-social-mediaAUGUST 28--A Montana woman called 911 to report that she had purchased some “bad meth,” adding that the drug left a “bad taste in her mouth,” according to police.
A Great Falls Police Department officer was dispatched Friday afternoon to the home of Margery Ann Dayrider, 33, who had dialed cops to report having a bad reaction to meth she had injected.
As detailed in a probable cause affidavit, Dayrider told Officer Jon Marshall that she “believed she got some bad meth and was having a bad reaction to it, vomiting, tingling tongue, bad taste in her mouth."
As first reported by the Great Falls Tribune, Dayrider told the cop, “I do meth three times a day everyday and have never had this reaction before.” Dayrider said that she and her boyfriend had purchased the drug the night before and that she injected herself at 9 AM, 11 AM, and 3 PM.
While speaking with the patrolman, Dayrider said that she “still had some meth inside her bra.” Dayrider then provided the remaining narcotics to Officer Marshall, who reported that a field test of the crystalline substance was positive for methamphetamine.
Dayrider was subsequently arrested on a felony narcotics possession charge (which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison). The affidavit notes that Dayrider also had separate “warrants for her arrest.”
Dayrider is locked up in lieu of $2500 bond. (1 page)Tobias Gonzales reported he was homeless and living beside the stately brick homes in the 1300 block of Franklin Street, just north of Cheesman Park. Now, he says he’s homeless in another residential neighborhood miles away, at West 48th Avenue and Tejon Street.
George Welch lists an alley one block south of the governor’s mansion as his home address. Michael Hagin calls the busy corner of Broadway and Colfax — the intersection in front of The Denver Post building — his home. Anthony Sanchez describes himself as a transient living at 8 Fox St., but the man who answered the door said he’s never heard of him.
All are convicted sex offenders — four of 162 in Denver alone who now say they have no fixed address.
Now, under a new state law, police departments are not required to verify their locations. And while the law instructs |
ogene extinction.
INTRODUCTION
The hypothesis that the ca. 66 Ma Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event was caused by an extraterrestrial impact (Alvarez et al., 1980; Smit and Hertogen, 1980) stands in contrast with a competing hypothesis that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction was caused by the Deccan Traps continental flood basalt eruptions (Courtillot et al., 1988, 2000; Courtillot and Renne, 2003). The impact hypothesis is supported by the presence of impact deposits at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, the discovery of the ∼180-km-diameter Chicxulub crater in Yucatán, Mexico (Hildebrand et al., 1991; Schulte et al., 2010), and increasingly precise radioisotopic dating (Renne et al., 2013) showing that the Chicxulub impact iridium layer and the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary are essentially coincident in time. The Deccan continental flood basalts started several million years prior to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (Courtillot and Renne, 2003) and were therefore not initiated by the Chicxulub impact. However, the volcanic hypothesis for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction has persisted for several reasons: Massive continental flood basalt eruptions from the Siberian Traps and Emeishan Traps were approximately coincident with the extinctions at end-Permian and end–middle-Permian (end-Guadalupian) time, respectively, and the Central Atlantic magmatic province was erupted at approximately the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (Courtillot and Renne, 2003). Also, there is no compelling evidence to date for other impact/extinction associations (Alvarez, 2003). Moreover, constraints on the likely “kill mechanisms” for these mass extinctions (e.g., CO 2 outgassing, launching of sulfur gas leading to sulfate aerosols) are compatible with both impact and volcanic causes (Self et al., 2006, 2014; Black et al., 2014).
Recent high-precision 40Ar-39Ar dating of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in the Hell Creek area (Montana, USA) and of the Chicxulub (Yucatán, Mexico) impact ejecta shows that these two events are time-coincident within ∼32,000 yr precision at ca. 66.04 Ma (Renne et al. 2013), and both fall within paleomagnetic chron 29R (Chenet et al., 2007; Ogg, 2012). Radioisotopic constraints on Deccan-related volcanism are much less precise, but they show that early- and late-stage alkalic eruptions preceded and postdated Cretaceous-Paleogene time by at least several million years (Basu et al., 1993). Moreover, the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is thought to have occurred within chron 29R, whereas the “main-phase” tholeiitic basalt eruptions of the Western Ghats Province, during which at least 90% of Deccan lavas are thought to have erupted, began during (or before) chron 30N and ended during chron 29N (Chenet et al., 2008, 2009). Thus, Deccan volcanism was well under way at the time of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and Chicxulub impact time, and it continued after Cretaceous-Paleogene time (Fig. 1A).
Recent studies of Deccan volcanic stratigraphy (Fig. 1A) have indicated an extraordinary pulse of basaltic volcanism that accounts for more than half the total volume of Deccan volcanism and includes the huge Poladpur, Ambenali, and Mahabaleshwar Formations within the Wai Subgroup of the Deccan continental flood basalt (Self et al., 2006). Magnetostratigraphic constraints have been interpreted to suggest that much of the Wai Subgroup volcanism occurred prior to the 29R/29N reversal during a brief interval of time, perhaps as little as ∼100,000 yr (Chenet et al., 2008, 2009), but not likely more than several hundred thousand years, as deduced in part from the small amount of paleomagnetic secular variation recorded by these formations. Micropaleontological evidence from “intertrappean” sediments between lava flows suggests that the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary may lie within or perhaps just below the Wai Subgroup flows, as discussed later in this paper. Pre-impact Deccan volcanism may also have played a role in pre–Cretaceous-Paleogene climate oscillations (Barrera and Savin, 1999; Li and Keller, 1998; Wilson, 2005; Wilf et al., 2003). In any case, it seems reasonable to assume that if the Deccan Traps eruptions contributed to the main Cretaceous-Paleogene extinctions, then the Wai Subgroup pulse of eruptions was the likely culprit. Although the timing and duration of the Kalsubai, Lonavala, and Wai Subgroup formations are not well constrained, it also appears likely that the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and the Chicxulub impact may have occurred at or just before the onset of the huge Wai Subgroup eruptions (e.g., Keller et al., 2012).
Chicxulub-size impact events occur perhaps only several times per billion years, and main-phase continental flood basalt eruptions such as the Deccan Wai Subgroup lava flows have occurred on average only about every 20–30 Ma through the Phanerozoic (Courtillot and Renne, 2003). Therefore, if we take the typical durations of main-stage flood basalt events to be ∼2–3 Ma, the likelihood that a large impact may have occurred during an ongoing flood basalt event sometime during the Phanerozoic, with increased environmental consequences, is not small—perhaps on the order of one chance in ∼10 (that is, 20–30 Ma/2–3 Ma). However, if, as the evidence presented herein suggests, the Chicxulub impact occurred within only ∼100,000 yr or so of the Wai Subgroup outburst of Deccan volcanism, then the odds of this occurring by chance would be an order of magnitude smaller, i.e., one chance in ∼100. Such small odds provide a new impetus to explore plausible causal links.
The possibility that an impact at Cretaceous-Paleogene time caused Deccan volcanism has been investigated since the discovery of the iridium anomaly at Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (Alvarez et al., 1980; Smit and Hertogen, 1980), with an emphasis on antipodal focusing of seismic energy. However, the Deccan continental flood basalts were not antipodal to the 66 Ma Chicxulub crater at the time of the impact, but instead separated by an epicentral distance of ∼130° (Williams et al., 2012; Chatterjee et al., 2013). Also, a Chicxulub-size impact does not in any case appear capable of generating a large mantle melting event (Ivanov and Melosh, 2003). Thus, impact-induced partial melting could not have caused the initiation of Deccan volcanism, consistent with the occurrence of Deccan volcanism well before Cretaceous-Paleogene/Chicxulub time.
Instead, Deccan volcanism is widely thought to represent the initial outburst of a new mantle plume “head” at the beginning of the Réunion hotspot track (Morgan, 1981; Duncan and Pyle, 1988; Richards et al., 1989; Campbell and Griffiths, 1990). As for the Deccan Traps, studies of other continental flood basalt provinces reveal two distinct time scales: a brief ∼0.5–2.0 Ma “main phase” during which typically >80% of the total basalt volume is erupted, which itself occurs within a much longer ∼10 Ma time scale representing both pre– and post–main-phase eruptions (Courtillot and Renne, 2003). Mantle plume models do not satisfactorily explain the existence of these two distinct time scales (e.g., Farnetani and Richards, 1994; Leitch and Davies, 2001; Karlstrom and Richards, 2011), but acceleration of decompression melting may occur due to lithospheric thinning (White and McKenzie, 1989) or instability of the lower lithosphere (Elkins-Tanton and Hager, 2000; Sobolev et al., 2011). In any case, a region of partially molten mantle of diameter ∼1000 km or larger (Richards et al., 1989; White and McKenzie, 1989; Campbell and Griffiths, 1990) is presumed to have already been active beneath the Deccan region when the Chicxulub impact occurred.
The hypothesis we explore in this paper is that the Chicxulub impact may have triggered an anomalously large outburst of Deccan volcanism, as represented by the Wai Subgroup formations. We begin with a critical examination of the eruption history of the “main-phase” Deccan basalts. We then explore the possibility that the Chicxulub impact might have triggered eruptions from the Deccan plume head. Finally, we examine a variety of other geological and geochemical evidences that appear to be consistent with our hypothesis, and we suggest further tests.
DECCAN VOLCANIC STRATIGRAPHY AND VOLUME ESTIMATES
The volcanic stratigraphy of the Western Ghats Province of the Deccan Traps has been established through a variety of field studies (Cox and Hawkesworth, 1985; Beane et al., 1986; Lightfoot et al., 1990; Peng et al., 1994; Subbarao et al., 1994), resulting in the widely used nomenclature portrayed in Figure 1A, which is based in large part upon the analysis of characteristic major- and minor-element signatures. Within this scheme, the Deccan Traps Flood Basalt Group is subdivided into the Kalsubai, Lonavala, and Wai Subgroups, which are further subdivided into individual formations as shown in Figure 1A. Earlier eruptions include the Narmada/Rajpipla basalts, as well as other formations located generally northward from the main Western Ghats formations. (For plots illustrating the distinct compositional character of the various Deccan formations, the reader is referred to figure 5 inBeane et al. [1986].)
The most intensive studies of the Deccan Traps have been carried out in the Western Ghats region (in the area of Mumbai, Pune, and Mahabaleshwar), in large part due to the excellent exposures afforded by the characteristic step-like mountains (“ghats”) of this region, which are made up almost entirely of Deccan lava flows. However, this region represents only a small fraction of the total areal exposure of Deccan lavas. Following previous workers and estimating formation volumes by using only mapped formation thicknesses while assuming that they all have the same areal extent, as in Figure 1B, column ii, the estimated volumes of the Kalsubai, Lonavala, and Wai Subgroups appear comparable to each other, suggesting perhaps relatively uniform rates of eruption throughout the stratigraphic column. However, a more careful estimate of the volumes using both formation thicknesses and mapped areal extents, as in Figure 1B, column iii, suggests that the Wai Subgroup flows were much larger by comparison. Indeed, the Ambenali and Mahabaleshwar Formations are the most extensive mapped lava flows on Earth, with single-eruption volumes approaching ∼10,000 km3, and with flows >1000 km long crossing the entire Indian subcontinent from the Western Ghats to the present-day Bay of Bengal (Self et al., 2008a).
Figure 2 compares the Ambenali/Poladpur (Wai Subgroup) mapped flow area with the restricted known areal occurrence of the Thakurvadi Formation of the Kalsubai Subgroup. Although it is possible that the Kalsubai and Lonavala Subgroup formations are buried beneath some areas covered by the Wai Subgroup flows and have escaped exposure, the Wai Subgroup flows clearly occur over a vastly greater area. Indeed, without the Wai Subgroup lava flows, the Deccan province might not be considered a major flood basalt event at all compared to other large igneous provinces such as the Siberian, Karoo, and Paraná-Etendeka flood basalts, with volumes of at least 1–3 million km3.
GEOCHRONOLOGIC AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONSTRAINTS
Existing 40Ar/39Ar and Paleomagnetic Timing Constraints
Existing radioisotopic age constraints on Deccan volcanism (see Table 1) are, unfortunately, not very precise. Figure 1A, column ii, includes 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages for lavas in the Western Ghats that are assigned to specific formations, published since the year 1990, along with 2σ error bars (Venkatesan et al., 1993; Hofmann et al., 2000; Knight et al., 2003; Pande et al., 2004; Hooper et al., 2010). All ages have been recalculated per the calibration of Renne et al. (2011). As a whole, these data show that the Deccan Basalt Group formations were erupted at approximately Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary time, or ca. 66 Ma, but possibly over a time range as large as 69–64 Ma. Within these ages, if we discount results of Venkatesan et al. (1993) for the Poladpur and Ambenali Formations, which appear to be biased by 39Ar recoil artifacts, in favor of the more reliable ages from Knight et al. (2003) and Hooper et al. (2010), the Wai Subgroup ages are consistent with eruption at or just following Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary time. The Lonavala Subgroup formations have not been dated yet, and the Kalsubai Formations are only poorly constrained, but presumably were erupted before Cretaceous-Paleogene time.
Extensive paleomagnetic work has been done on the Deccan Traps, with an emphasis on determining how much time may have elapsed during the main-phase basalt eruptions (e.g., Courtillot et al., 1988, 2000; Chenet et al., 2008, 2009), independent of radioisotopic age constraints. Remarkably, nearly all samples from the Neral Formation up through the lower part of the Mahabaleshwar Formation show reversed polarity. The lower Mahabaleshwar Formation records a change to normal polarity, which is ascribed to the 29N/29R reversal, consistent with both radioisotopic and other stratigraphic constraints (see following). This has led some researchers to conclude that the bulk of Deccan lavas were erupted during magnetic polarity chron 29R, although other researchers have reported a few normal polarity samples within these same formations (Pande, 2002). If we follow Chenet et al. (2008, 2009) in ascribing everything between the Neral and Mahabaleshwar Formations to chron 29R, then this enormous stack of lavas may have occurred in as little as the ∼350,000–710,000 yr duration of chron 29R (Sprain et al., 2014; Ogg, 2012). Indeed, Chenet et al. (2008, 2009) concluded that a time interval of as little as a few tens of thousands to perhaps only ∼100,000 yr may have elapsed while these formations were actively erupted, based in large part upon an episodic lack of secular variation in paleomagnetic samples throughout the stack. This conclusion would be inconsistent, however, with the relatively well-determined 40Ar/39Ar ages for the Thakurvadi Formation from Venkatesan et al. (1993), which might place this formation in chron 31R, given its reversed polarity (Ogg, 2012).
Biostratigraphic Constraints
In addition to radioisotopic dating and timing evidence from magnetic polarity stratigraphy, there are also potential age constraints on the Deccan volcanic formations from fossils in sedimentary rocks associated with the volcanic units. In any given locality, Cretaceous sedimentary deposits under the lowest basalt are referred to in the literature as “infratrappeans,” sedimentary layers between basalt flows are called “intertrappeans,” and deposits above the highest basalt are called “supratrappeans.” The intertrappeans are potentially the most useful for this purpose.
Evidence for the presence of dinosaurs is common in the area of the Deccan Traps, with dinosaur eggs of particular interest, since these often occur in nests or egg clutches that must be in situ and not transported or reworked. Assuming that the nonavian dinosaurs became extinct at the time of the Chicxulub impact, and if dinosaur egg clutches were found in intertrappeans within the Poladpur, Ambenali, or Mahabaleshwar Formation, this might argue against our hypothesis. However, if both the impact and Deccan volcanism combined to cause the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinctions, it is possible that the extinction of some species continued during the Wai Subgroup eruptions following the impact.
Most dinosaur eggs come from the infratrappeans such as the Lameta beds and therefore simply support the conclusion that the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary occurred within the span of Deccan volcanism. One possible exception occurs in the Mandla Lobe of the northeast Deccan, at Ranipur, 28 km east of Jabalpur, where there is a report of a “large, well preserved fossil of a dinosaur pelvic girdle” in a 2-m-thick sedimentary layer between two basalt units (Kumar et al., 1999). This part of the Deccan Traps has been identified geochemically as composed of Poladpur overlain by Ambenali Formation (Peng et al., 1998; Vanderkluysen et al., 2011). It will be important to determine whether this fossil is articulated and therefore not reworked, and whether it is in the Poladpur or the Ambenali Formation, or some other formation. Another possible exception is at Anjar, Gujarat, where dinosaur eggshells and bones have been reported from intertrappeans (Bajpai and Prasae, 2000); the age of the basalts from this area has not yet been determined precisely. Other dinosaur fossils within the intertrappeans must be carefully sought and evaluated.
More definitive paleontological evidence may come from planktic foraminifera in places where intertrappean sediments were deposited in marine or near-marine conditions. In a remarkable set of recent papers, Keller and colleagues have been able to find planktic foraminifera of late Maastrichtian and Danian age closely associated with the Deccan Traps, although the sedimentological evidence for environments of deposition needs to be carefully studied. At Jhimili in the Mandla Lobe, 150 km southwest of Jabalpur, Keller et al. (2009) found earliest Danian (P1a zone) planktic foraminifera in a 14 m sedimentary unit between two lava flows. If these foraminifera are not reworked, and if the underlying basalt belongs to the Ambenali Formation, probably present throughout the Mandla lobe (Peng et al., 1998; Vanderkluysen et al., 2011), this discovery of zone P1a foraminifera would suggest that the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and the Ambenali flows were nearly time-coincident; geochemical identification of the basalt and environmental analysis of the sediments will thus be critical.
In wells penetrating the subsurface part of the Rajahmundry Traps of southeastern India, now recognized as isolated, preserved distal Deccan flows (Self et al., 2008b), Keller et al. (2012) found Danian zone P1a planktic foraminifera in an intertrappean layer between the two exposed basalt units of the Rajahmundry Traps, which have been identified chemically as Ambenali below and upper Mahabaleshwar Formation above. This at first looks like the same situation as at Jhimili, but Keller et al. (2012) also reported Upper Maastrichtian foraminifera from sedimentary layers intercalated in the lower basalt flows. They considered species seen as single specimens to be reworked, but species with multiple specimens to be in place, and thus put the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary at the very top of the lower (Ambenali) basalt unit. However, if all the Maastrichtian foraminifera between these basalt flows are reworked, the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary would lie immediately below the Ambenali (since the Poladpur is apparently not present there), and in agreement with the calcareous nanoplankton report of Saxena and Misra (1994). Clearly, it is critical to test these alternative interpretations, in particular, by careful analysis of the environment of deposition of the sediments within and below the Rajahmundry basalt units, and to determine whether the foraminifera in sedimentary layers in the lower basalt unit are reworked or in place.
Evidence for a Disconformity at the Poladpur-Bushe Formation Contact
The extensive geochemical database used by Beane et al. (1986) to define the classical formations of the Western Ghats shows that the most conspicuous change in overall geochemical characteristics within the Deccan Traps occurs at the Poladpur-Bushe Formation contact. Figure 5 of Beane et al. (1986) shows major changes in the SiO 2, TiO 2, P 2 O 5, and various minor- and trace-element signatures. All evidence, including strontium and neodymium isotopic data, suggests that the early Wai Subgroup magmas had less contamination from interaction with the crust than the Lonavala Subgroup (e.g., Mahoney et al., 1982; Lightfoot and Hawkesworth, 1988; Peng et al., 1994; Vanderkluysen et al., 2011), and also much less geochemical variation overall within the Poladpur, Ambenali, and Mahabaleshwar Formations than in lower formations.
Here, we add to this evidence for a stratigraphic time break, or disconformity, at the Poladpur-Bushe contact from some new field observations. During March 2014, a group of the coauthors (Self, Vanderkluysen, Renne, Sprain, Richards), while collecting a new suite of samples for 40Ar/39Ar dating, noticed that in the region of the cities of Pune and Mahabaleshwar (Maharashtra Province, India), the Poladpur-Bushe contact defines a conspicuous and extensive set of topographic terraces. Figure 3A shows a photograph of the Poladpur-Bushe contact in a road cut, where we observed an unusually thick weathered zone separating lava flows inferred to be from the Bushe (underlying) and Poladpur (overlying) Formations. Using Google Earth’s capability for viewing landscapes in tilted perspective employing topographic data, and integrating this with previous mapping studies (e.g., Beane et al., 1986), as well as recent field observations of a pervasive terrace level associated with the Poladpur-Bushe contact, Figure 3B shows a tilted regional view from a location between the towns of Mahabaleshwar and Mahad, identifying these terraces as “P/B,” which are seen to dominate the landscape, along with the steep cliffs of the overlying Ambenali Formation in the background. We note also that the underlying Bushe exposures are permeated by a system of approximately NNW-trending fractures of some type, likely jointing, a regional feature within the Bushe that rarely penetrates into the overlying Poladpur and Ambenali Formations.
Figure 3C, also from Google Earth, shows an even more conspicuous pattern of fractures, again with NNW orientation, to the west of Pune, which are seen to not penetrate into the overlying Poladpur Formation. Furthermore, Figure 3D shows a close-up image of the fault in the upper left-hand corner of Figure 3C, which is a prominent feature within the Bushe Formation, but which clearly does not penetrate the overlying Poladpur lava flows. The fault in particular is classical field evidence for a disconformity, although further field work will be needed to be certain that the fracture array is not somehow lithologically controlled.
Taken together with the geochemical stratigraphic evidence from Beane et al. (1986), this new evidence for extensive jointing and a prominent fault that are so conspicuously truncated makes a strong case for a major disconformity, or volcanic hiatus, at the Poladpur-Bushe contact. Although these investigations are preliminary, they strongly suggest that the onset of the huge Wai Subgroup flows of the Poladpur, Ambenali, and Mahabaleshwar Formations may have occurred somewhat suddenly after a hiatus following the eruption of the Bushe Formation. We know of no similar evidence—geomorphologic, tectonic, or geochemical—for “missing time” anywhere between the Jawhar and Bushe Formations.
Reassessment of the Cretaceous-Paleogene–Chicxulub–Deccan “Coincidence”
These new inferences regarding the timing of the various formations within the Deccan Basalt Group lead naturally to a critical re-examination of the probabilistic argument for the Cretaceous-Paleogene–Chicxulub–Deccan “coincidence” outlined at the end of the introduction to this paper. If there was a time gap between the eruption of the Lonavala and Wai Subgroups (Poladpur-Bushe contact), and if we follow previous workers in inferring that the onset of the Wai Subgroup coincided closely with Cretaceous-Paleogene time, then it is apparent that this troubling “coincidence” is much more severe than previously thought. A sudden outburst of Deccan eruptions occurring within ∼100,000 yr or less of Cretaceous-Paleogene time and accounting for >70% of the Deccan main-phase eruptions would seem to have a miniscule chance of occurring at random, or one in ∼100, as was noted in the Introduction. It is therefore reasonable to ask: Might this most voluminous phase of Deccan eruptions have been triggered by the Chicxulub impact?
VOLCANIC TRIGGERING BY THE CHICXULUB IMPACT
Observations of Triggering of Volcanic Eruptions by Earthquakes
Triggering of volcanic eruptions by earthquakes is now well documented (Linde and Sacks, 1998). About 0.4% of explosive volcanic eruptions occur within a few days of distant earthquakes, an eruption frequency that is ∼10 times greater than background rates (Manga and Brodsky, 2006). Other geofluid systems also respond to earthquakes: Examples include geysers, mud volcanoes, water levels in wells, and discharge into streams (Manga et al., 2012). Figure 4 summarizes evidence for earthquake triggering of both magmatic and mud volcanoes as a function of earthquake moment magnitude M w and epicentral distance. We include mud volcanoes in this compilation because they are more numerous and there are more documented examples of triggered mud eruptions. Figure 4 shows that larger earthquakes trigger eruptions over greater distances.
3, H is epicentral distance in km, and M w is the moment magnitude of the earthquake. There appears to be a threshold energy density of ∼10−2–10−1 J/m3 for triggering the hydrologic (mud volcano) events, and a somewhat larger threshold of ∼10−1–100 J/m3 for triggering magmatic volcanoes. The mechanisms by which earthquakes influence magmatic volcanoes and hydrologic systems are unknown, and debated, but owing to the large distances between the earthquakes and the sites where the responses occur, the dynamic stresses produced by passing seismic waves are usually implicated in the triggering mechanisms ( Manga and Brodsky, 2006 ). The amount of seismic energy dissipated by seismic waves has thus been proposed as a measure that may be correlated with triggered eruptions ( Wang and Manga, 2010 ): where E is the seismic energy density in J/m, H is epicentral distance in km, and Mis the moment magnitude of the earthquake. There appears to be a threshold energy density of ∼10–10J/mfor triggering the hydrologic (mud volcano) events, and a somewhat larger threshold of ∼10–10J/mfor triggering magmatic volcanoes.
Scaling the Effects of the Chicxulub Impact
The kinetic energy of the Chicxulub impact has been estimated at ∼3 × 1023 Joules (Boslough et al., 1996). Estimates for the efficiency of conversion of impact energy into seismic waves range from 10−2 to 10−5 (Schultz and Gault, 1974; Shishkin, 2007), implying effective moment magnitudes for Chicxulub in the range M w ∼9–11, although such extrapolations depend upon the seismic frequency. At the ∼130° epicentral distance (∼13,000 km) of the Deccan Traps from Chicxulub at 66 Ma, and at uppermost mantle depths, seismic motions would have been dominated by long-period Rayleigh (surface) waves. Calculations of seismic radiation from the Chicxulub impact (Meschede et al., 2011) suggest that peak stresses and strains of order 2–4 bars and 0.1–0.2 μstrains, respectively, would have occurred globally in the crust and upper mantle, assuming a seismic conversion efficiency of 10−4, a commonly adopted value (Schultz and Gault, 1974). This implies energy densities of order 10−1–100 J/m3, as shown in Figure 4, which, according to historical evidence, appear to be large enough to trigger volcanic eruptions worldwide. Evidence for strong seismic motions at great distances from Chicxulub also includes distal continental margin collapse events (liquefaction; Bralower et al., 1998; Klaus et al., 2000), also shown in Figure 4. These latter events are important because the largest tectonic earthquakes are known to cause liquefaction effects only up to ∼500 km from the earthquake source, so that these margin-collapse events imply that Chicxulub dynamic stresses must have resulted from the equivalent of a M w > 10 event (Day and Maslin, 2005).
Physical Mechanisms of Triggering and Magmatic Response Time Scales
How seismic waves trigger volcanic eruptions is not well understood, but it must involve either increasing the hydraulic head driving upward magma flow, or increasing the effective permeability of the magmatic system, and hence the rate of magma flow. Proposed mechanisms include exsolution/growth/advection of gas bubbles (e.g., H 2 O, CO 2, which are supercritical fluids at lower lithosphere pressures), overturn of magma chambers, failure/fracture of rock, unclogging of fluid pathways, or disruption of grain-grain contact within zones of partial melt (reviewed in Manga and Brodsky, 2006), each possibly increasing the permeability and hence the rate of magma flow beneath volcanic centers. In hydrological systems at distances more than a few lengths of the ruptured fault, earthquake-induced permeability changes exceeding two orders of magnitude have been inferred at the scale of sedimentary basins (Wang et al., 2013), although factors of a few or more are more typical (Elkhoury et al., 2006).
Owing to observation bias, the majority of documented responses to earthquakes are phenomena that occur in the shallowest crust, though the initiation of magmatic and mud volcanoes may occur at depths of many kilometers, sometimes >10 km. The effect of overburden pressure on processes leading to eruption depends upon the mechanism. Liquefaction is usually viewed by geotechnical engineers as a process limited to depths less than 10 m, because at greater depths the difference between hydrostatic and lithostatic pressures is too large to be overcome. However, in the deeper crust, compaction, dewatering, and sealing can all lead to fluid pressures being close to lithostatic, in which case only small changes in pore pressure can mobilize granular materials.
Mechanisms that involve changes in permeability should not be sensitive to ambient pressure. Stresses from the passage of seismic waves are probably too small to produce new fractures at depth. Oscillatory flows induced by time-varying strains can mobilize solid particles (e.g., Candela et al., 2014) or bubbles (e.g., Beresnev et al., 2011) blocking pores, in either case increasing the mobility of fluids. Indeed, permeability changes induced by earthquakes have been measured or inferred at depths up to many kilometers (e.g., Wang et al., 2013). It has also been documented experimentally that the temporary lowering of pressure during the passage of P and Rayleigh waves can nucleate CO 2 bubbles, leading to a net increase in pore pressure after the final passage of the waves (Crews and Cooper, 2014).
Long-period motions appear to be more effective than short-period waves in exciting hydrologic systems (Rudolph and Manga, 2012). However, it must be emphasized that the physical mechanisms involved in the triggering of volcanic eruptions by dynamic stresses from earthquakes have not yet been determined even for shallow magmatic systems, and therefore we simply do not know what mechanisms may apply at deep crustal and sublithospheric depths in the case of the Deccan Traps. Nevertheless, as we show later herein (and in more detail in the Appendix), some inferences may be made as to how the overall system might respond to a sudden increase in permeability, regardless of the physical cause(s).
We start by considering how Chicxulub may have affected the various regimes of the Deccan magmatic plumbing system (Fig. 5): Flood basalts at the surface (regime 1) are fed by crustal dike and sill systems (regime 2), which are in turn fed by partial melting of the sublithospheric mantle within the hot, rising mantle plume head (regime 5), with porous melt migration coalescing into channelized flow through the overlying intact lithosphere (regime 4). Petrologic considerations (Cox, 1980), seismic imaging (Ridley and Richards, 2010; Richards et al., 2013), and thermodynamic models for melt equilibrium (Farnetani et al., 1996; Karlstrom and Richards, 2011; Richards et al., 2013) suggest a mediating zone (regime 3) at the crust-mantle boundary (Moho). Here, ultramafic mantle-derived melts collect in a density trap as laterally extensive magma chambers, undergoing crystal fractionation of Fe- and Mg-rich minerals (olivine and pyroxene) while lower-density, eruptible basaltic liquid is evolved.
Subsurface regimes 2–5 may be characterized by effective permeabilities, with the smallest permeabilities and longest magma transport times expected in the deeper regimes 4 and 5, where porous flow and compaction-dominated channelization of relatively low melt fractions (perhaps 0.2%–3.0%) occur within a porous matrix of hot mantle rock. Magma traverses regimes 1–3 relatively quickly, on time scales on the order of one year to a several thousand years. By contrast, flow within regime 5 would likely respond on time scales of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.
Figure 6 illustrates qualitatively the response of a continental flood basalt magmatic system to impact-generated seismic stresses. (See Appendix for more detailed physics-based models.) The effective permeability within regime 5 increases almost instantaneously, with flow responding on a time scale (τ t ) set by the spatial distribution and magnitude of permeability change. This flow response is followed by a recovery period (τ p ) for permeability, and the two time scales may be similar if permeability recovery tracks magma transport. It is also possible that the onset of viscoelastic relaxation of stresses as newly injected magma heats the lower crust could impose an eruption shutoff time scale on the order of ∼105–106 yr (Karlstrom and Richards, 2011), independent of the time scale for mantle permeability recovery.
t by considering a generalized diffusive process of melt migration, wherein the relevant hydraulic diffusivity D may be written as eff is the effective compressibility of the partially molten rock. Reasonable values for µ and β eff are 0.1–1.0 Pa-s and 10−10 Pa–1, respectively. Values for κ are less well constrained, but estimates range from 10−15 το 10−10 m2 for partially molten mantle peridotite, depending upon the local melt fraction (−11–10−14 m2. We estimate τby considering a generalized diffusive process of melt migration, wherein the relevant hydraulic diffusivity D may be written as where κ is a characteristic permeability, µ is the viscosity of ultramafic magma, and βis the effective compressibility of the partially molten rock. Reasonable values for µ and βare 0.1–1.0 Pa-s and 10Pa, respectively. Values for κ are less well constrained, but estimates range from 10το 10for partially mol |
his talent as a player in determining his trajectory. To illustrate how the club sees that development, he offers the example of Miazga.
“When I came here we had a 19-year-old Matt Miazga and for the first three months I literally didn’t talk to him about soccer,” Marsch said. “I talked him to about growing up as a man. He was the butt of every joke within the team; the leaders thought he was just a little kid and I had to teach him how to establish himself as a man within the group. I would say to him, nobody likes a center back that’s the butt of every joke. As a goalkeeper or center back, you can’t be. You have to be a rock-solid guy that everyone can count on. And that’s just a reality of the position. I think that helped Matt develop as a person first, and then we could get to the football aspects of what needed to be done.”
Miazga, of course, made his move to Chelsea, and in light of subsequent events, you can argue he did so too soon. Adams is already being spoken about as likely to follow Miazga’s path to a top-level European club.
He’s not there yet, even if the senior players on his club team suggest he has the capacity for honest self-appraisal that’s needed to make each next step up. If he stays with the Red Bulls for the next year, at least, he’ll be at a team where he has the opportunity to grow into something truly special.
Now Adams will spend time in the national team setup, to nobody’s surprise who has seen him play. This is the same player who tormented Chelsea in a summer friendly, as a 16-year-old. There’s been a sense of inevitability about his progress that should put the risk of the McCarty trade into perspective, especially since his long-term future is likely to be in the middle of the field.
An image of Tyler Adams in 2017: In that Chicago game, there was a moment where Adams dropped his shoulder to go past Brandon Vincent before crossing for a goal. Vincent is a bright young player who’ll bank and learn from the memory, but there was something in the way Adams breezed past him that just seemed to illustrate in stark terms that this was a young player hurrying to bigger and better things, on a way steeper trajectory than his peers.
Catch him while you can.
Need for USMNT coverage? FourFourTwo USA is here for you.Written by: Nick Shively, Assistant Editor, North America
During the past few years the MOBA scene has exploded, likely due to the genre’s popularity among eSports organizations. However, this led to a massive influx of games and many haven’t fared so well over the years. Here you can vote for the top MOBA of 2015. If there’s one you’d like us to add to the list let us know in the comments.
Call of Champions
The five-minute MOBA. Call of Champions is looking to redefine the MOBA genre on mobile devices. Instead of waves of minions, players must push orbs of death into the enemy towers to destroy them. By eliminating the PvE portion, Call of Champion allows itself to focus on intense, non-stop PvP action.
Even though Call of Champions only launched a few weeks ago it already feels well-polished and offers a unique variety of characters. Furthermore, each champion grows in power by unlocking new talents as you play them, which extends the life of the game and rewards players who put in more time. Currently, the game is free-to-play, but there’s no way to buy power directly. Premium currency can purchase additional characters and increase experience growth, but all characters can be bought with earned gold as well.
Dota 2
Dota 2 acts as a revamped sequel to the original MOBA. It hasn’t changed much in 12 years, but it definitely looks a lot better now than it did back on Warcraft III. During the past year, Dota 2 re-introduced itself as Dota 2 Reborn with a new interface, engine, and custom map making mode.
One of the things that Dota 2 is most known for are its over-the-top tournaments. The International has had the largest tournament prize pools for the past few consecutive years, and The International 2015 topped charts at $18 million. This year it was announced that there would be multiple major tournaments leading up to The International instead of only having one culminating event each year. The first one took place in November, 2015, with European team OG finishing first.
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm had an exciting year between its official launch, Heroes of the Dorm, and its first million-dollar world championship. Incorporating many of the iconic characters from past Blizzard titles, Heroes of the Storm streamlined the MOBA experience to focus more on PvP and core objectives than farming for items. It initially entered closed alpha testing in 2014 and officially launched in June, 2015.
The Heroes of the Dorm college tournament began in March and concluded in April with UC Berkeley being crowned the winner. It made history by having the entire event aired on ESPN 2, despite producing relatively low ratings and has helped fuel college eSports. The first Heroes of the Storm World Championship concluded at BlizzCon 2015 with North American team Cloud9 taking first place and the $200,000 grand prize. Blizzard has many more plans for Heroes of the Storm in the future, and recently released the unique Cho’Gall character that requires two players to use.
League of Legends
Although Dota was the original MOBA, League of Legends was the first successful one to launch with a standalone client. It was simply at the right place at the right time and combined a free-to-play model with a low barrier of entry to dominate the market. Currently, League of Legends is the top grossing PC game in the world.
In 2015, League of Legends saw the end of Season 5 with SKTelecom T1 winning the World Championship, the banning of multiple sponsors, champion reworks, new player contracts, and a revamp of the entire game’s lore.
SMITE
Currently, SMITE is unlike any other MOBA on the market. It combines third-person shooting mechanics while keeping core elements of the genre intact. Instead of simply right clicking on enemies, players have to aim every single ability and standard attack. This has led to some very unique character and abilities designs over the past few years.
While most other MOBAs have relied on PC gamers to be successful, SMITE become one of the first to effectively migrate to the Xbox One. Additionally, it has provided very consistent content updates by adding new gods, skins, items, and balance changes. This year at Gamescom, Hi-Rez revealed that the game finally hit the 10-million player mark. SMITE also has a very respectable eSports scene and the 2015 World Champion saw a prize pool of more than $2 million.
Strife
S2 Games knows a thing or two about making MOBAs. They created the first true DotA clone with Heroes of Newerth, which was sold to Garena Online earlier this year, and later began work on the more casual MOBA known as Strife. Strife keeps many of the standard MOBA elements, such as three lanes, items, progression, and the jungle, but makes things a bit more compact. Gold is shared by teammates in the same lane, heroes level faster, and the maps are smaller. This means more action without being punished at every turn. However, S2 Games hasn’t released any updates or news about the game for quite some time.
Supernova
While many other MOBAs are attempting to streamline, or simplify, the genre to make it more available to the masses, Supernova is taking the game back to its RTS roots. In Supernova, players control massive, sci-fi robots that battle it out in a three-lane battleground. Many of the game’s aspects are similar to League of Legends or Dota 2, but the key difference is the army behind the players.
In Supernova, each minion wave is dictated by the player’s input. Before a match begins players can modify their armies based on what they have unlocked. This can ranged from standard infantry troops to massive warships. During the course of a game, the types of minions that spawn can be swapped and their armor and weapons can be upgraded. Supernova recently ended its second closed beta test.
Vainglory
While other games tried to dumb-down the MOBA experience for mobile devices, Vainglory did the opposite. It managed to keep all of the technical elements of the traditional MOBA intact while porting that experience to Android and iOS devices. It has a deep, complex item system, jungle, and multiple ways to build each champion.
Vainglory has been around on the Apple Store since November 2014 and became available for Android devices during 2015. Since then, it has seen unprecedented success as a mobile eSport with its first Worlds Invitational Tournament taking place in July, 2015.Jim Tankersley, The Washington Post
In the modern era of presidential politics, no candidate has ever won the popular vote by more than Hillary Clinton did this year, yet still managed to lose the electoral college. In that sense, 2016 was a historic split: Donald Trump won the presidency by as many as 74 electoral votes (depending on how Michigan ends up) while losing the nationwide vote to Clinton by 2 million votes and counting.
But there’s another divide exposed by the election, which researchers at the Brookings Institution discovered as they sifted the election returns. It has no bearing on the election outcome, but it tells us something important about the state of the country and the future of its politics.
The divide is economic, and it is massive. According to the Brookings analysis, the fewer-than-500 counties that Clinton won nationwide combined to generate 64 percent of U.S. economic activity in 2015. The more-than-2,600 counties that Trump won combined to generate 36 percent of the country’s economic activity last year.
Clinton, in other words, carried nearly two-thirds of the American economy.
With the exceptions of the Phoenix and Fort Worth areas, and a big chunk of Long Island, Clinton won every large-size economic county in the country.
This appears to be unprecedented, in the era of modern economic statistics, for a losing presidential candidate. The last candidate to win the popular vote but lose the electoral college, Democrat Al Gore in 2000, won counties that generated about 54 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the Brookings researchers calculated. That’s true even though Gore won more than 100 more counties in 2000 than Clinton did in 2016.
Between those elections, U.S. economic activity has grown increasingly concentrated in large, “superstar” metropolitan areas such as Silicon Valley and New York.
But it’s not the case that the counties Clinton won have grown richer at the expense of the rest of the country – they represent about the same share of the economy today as they did in 2000. Instead, it appears that, compared with Gore, Clinton was much more successful in winning over the most successful counties in a geographically unbalanced economy.
The Brookings analysis found that counties with higher GDP per capita were more likely to vote for Clinton over Trump, as were counties with higher population densities. Counties with higher shares of manufacturing employment were more likely to vote for Trump.
“This is a picture of a very polarized and increasingly concentrated economy,” said Mark Muro, the policy director at the Brookings metro program, “with the Democratic base aligning more to that more concentrated modern economy, but a lot of votes and anger to be had in the rest of the country.”
As Muro notes, many state legislatures are divided on similar grounds, between higher-output metro areas and lower- output rural ones. Often, that divide pushes governors of those states, even the ones who hail from cities, to support economic development in lower-output areas. Such a dynamic could be an upside under a president who won votes representing only a third of the country’s economy: To respond to his voters, Trump could promote policies to help those areas adapt more rapidly to the changing economy.
There’s a downside, though, for a candidate such as Trump, whose economic appeal was rooted in a promise to restore coal, manufacturing and other jobs lost in the shifts of the past several decades.
That task will be difficult, Muro has written, in part because manufacturers have grown substantially more productive in recent years, meaning they probably won’t be adding millions of workers even if Trump pursues major changes in trade policy that result in more goods being made in the United States.
“The prescription isn’t that helpful,” Muro said. “We’re going to have a lot of questions about how to translate the political geography into actually helpful policy.”Going once -- sold.
Wednesday's deadline for additional bids on the Erie Otters came and went with no takers.
The Ontario Hockey League franchise is scheduled to be sold at auction in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Erie on July 10. But with just one bidder, JAW Hockey Enterprises LP of Toronto, will close the deal for $7,225,000 without competition.
"I'm really excited," JAW Hockey Enterprises owner James A. Waters said Wednesday after being informed by Otters' brokers and lawyers that his is the sole bid. "It's a special day. The only thing I ever wanted to do besides broadcasting is own a sports franchise, most especially hockey. I wasn't sure I'd ever get this opportunity."
A local investors' group including Erie businessman Owen McCormick considered submitting an upset bid for the Otters but opted to pass just hours before Wednesday's bid deadline. Waters' assurances that he will keep the team in Erie was a factor in that decision, McCormick said.
"The Waters group's commitment to Erie and keeping the team here took the pressure off to buy at all costs," McCormick said. "Two things drove this deal for us, a strong desire to keep the team in Erie and, secondly, return on investment. The $7.2 (million JAW Hockey bid) was our stretch number, the high number for us. To go to $7.6 (million), although it's just 5 percent more -- the return on investment just didn't warrant that," McCormick said.
A number of investors came forward to keep the team in Erie, he said.
"We had a lot of people come forward and want to be part of this, great Erie people pulling together to support Erie," McCormick said. "With assurances from the Waters group it just came down to return on investment."
The group would have had to ante up at least $7,625,000 for the team, including a "good faith" deposit of $1 million cash. JAW Hockey Enterprises made the opening bid in May and set sale terms as the preferred buyer designated by current Otters owner Sherry Bassin.
The Otters are worth about $8 million, according to a broker's estimate.
Waters on Wednesday reiterated his assurances that Otters' home ice will continue to be in Erie.
"I've been to Erie three to five times to watch the team and loved it there. I enjoy the city and have no intention of moving the team," Waters said. "I saw how excited the fans were (when the Otters were) in the playoffs, and we hope to keep giving them that kind of excitement."
Waters has said that the franchise will be guided by Roy Mlakar, a Cleveland area native and former Ottawa Senators president and chief executive. But Waters plans to be in Erie regularly.
"I will be very involved with the team and will be there often," he said.
Waters said he hopes to expedite the purchase to get on with the business of preparing for the Otters' 20th season in Erie.
"I'm hopeful that because everything seems to be in place, we won't have to wait another two weeks to close the deal and that maybe this can be finished on Friday," he said. "Two weeks made a big difference when the season begins in late August."
A status conference on the case is set Friday before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Agresti.
Sherry Bassin, Otters owner and general manager, moved the franchise to Erie from Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1996. The Otters began building a strong fan base that reached 3,912 per game in the 2001-02 season, when they won their lone OHL championship, and topped 4,000 for the first time, at 4,269 per game the following year.
Yet in the 2011-12 season, the Otters set franchise lows with 10 wins and 2,855 fans per game. However, the Otters topped the 50-win mark and set franchise records in attendance the past two seasons, including 4,751 per game this past year. They also averaged 5,445 fans per game in their run to the OHL finals.
The Otters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy April 8 to stop the forced sale to the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The Otters owe the Oilers $4.8 million in loans and interest. The Oilers loaned the Otters $4.2 million beginning in December 2011 to keep them operating. following lean seasons.
The Otters' total debt is $5.4 million. The team sale will repay that, giving the Otters a fresh start if Agresti and the Ontario Hockey League approve the sale.
Waters credited his pre-Otters team with making the purchase possible.
"Our lawyers worked hard, our financial team worked very hard. It's been a tough three months," Waters said Wednesday. "But this really is a special day."
Staff writer Victor Fernandes contributed to this report.
VALERIE MYERS can be reached at 878-1913 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmyers.If there’s just one thing I take away from my conversation with Louisville, Kentucky, historian Michael Veach, it’s that there is no wrong way to drink bourbon. Dilute it with water, mix it with ginger ale, or stir in a liqueur or two and call it something fancy like “The Revolver.” According to Veach, makers of America’s native spirit are just as pleased to see their product served up with a maraschino cherry as they are watching it poured straight into a shot glass. And you know? I believe him. Because when it comes to all things bourbon, Veach is Louisville’s go-to source.
As associate curator of special collections at Louisville’s Filson Historical Society and a former archivist for United Distilleries, situated in the heart of Kentucky Bourbon Country, 54-year-old Veach has spent decades studying bourbon history. Many local residents consider him the spirit’s unofficial ambassador, and it’s a title he’s undoubtedly earned. Veach once spent an entire year sampling the 130+ bourbons on hand at the city’s Bourbons Bistro and recording his thoughts in what would become the restaurant’s ‘Bourbon Bible,’ a binder overflowing with tasting notes and food pairing suggestions that now serves as a resource for the restaurant’s patrons. More recently Veach parlayed his expertise into a book, Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage, which tells the history of the bourbon industry from the Whiskey Rebellion straight through to the 21st century. The text highlights often-overlooked aspects of the industry—such as the technology behind the spirit’s production—and includes a few of Veach’s own theories that may even surprise bourbon aficionados.
Take his argument on where the name ‘bourbon’ comes from. Visit any local distillery and you’ll likely hear that the moniker derives from Bourbon County—once part of a larger expanse known as Old Bourbon—in upstate Kentucky. However, says Veach, the timeline just doesn’t match up.
Though the Filson Historical Society is home to bourbon labels printed as early as the 1850s, he says, “the story that the name ‘bourbon’ comes from Bourbon County doesn’t even start appearing in print until the 1870s.” Instead, Veach believes the name evolved in New Orleans after two men known as the Tarascon brothers arrived to Louisville from south of Cognac, France, and began shipping local whiskey down the Ohio River to Louisiana’s bustling port city. “They knew that if Kentuckians put their whiskey into charred barrels they could sell it to New Orleans’ residents, who would like it because it tastes more like cognac or ‘French brandy’,” says Veach.
In the 19th century, New Orleans entertainment district was Bourbon Street, as it is today. “People starting asking for ‘that whiskey they sell on Bourbon Street,’” he says, “which eventually became ‘that bourbon whiskey.’” Still, Veach concedes, “We may never know who actually invented bourbon, or even who the first Kentucky distiller was.”
For those unfamiliar with what makes bourbon bourbon, here’s a brief primer. Contrary to popular belief, bourbon distilling is not limited to Kentucky, though the state does produce the lion’s share (Veach attributes this to the area’s excellent-quality limestone-filtered water as well as Kentucky’s extreme weather patterns).
For a spirit to be considered bourbon it must adhere to six standard rules: It must be made in the U.S.; aged in new, charred white oak barrels; and be at least 51 percent corn. It also must be distilled at less than 160 proof (80 percent alcohol by volume) and entered into a barrel at below 125 proof. Lastly, there can be no artificial coloring or flavor (hence the reason Jack Daniel’s is a Tennessee whiskey: it’s filtered over maple wood chips before bottling). The darker the bourbon, the higher the alcohol content; and for a true taste of its complexities, open your mouth while sipping.
As a lifelong Louisvillian, Veach not only drinks bourbon—he also has a few cherished places for imbibing the local spirit. Along with Bourbons Bistro, Veach pays occasional visits to the bar at Louisville’s historic Brown Hotel (home to the city’s signature Hot Brown sandwich), as well as the iconic Seelbach hotel, a four-star property that F. Scott Fitzgerald mentions in The Great Gatsby (like Veach, Jay Gatsby’s golden girl, Daisy Buchanan, is also from Louisville). Veach also recommends Louisville’s Dish on Market for both its fine bourbon selection and its presidential breakfast: an ode to President Harry Truman, who stayed at the Seelbach while in town. “Every morning he’d have one egg, a slice of bacon, buttered toast, cup of fruit, glass of milk, and a shot of Old Granddad,” he says.
However, Veach admits he’s much less a tour guide and more a historian who loves bourbon, a notion that his book well reflects. In Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, American history and bourbon history—from the Pure Food & Drug Act’s effects on bourbon to how Prohibition contributed to the Great Depression—are distinctly intertwined. Still, there’s one thing you won’t find within its pages: bourbon ratings and reviews. “I really don’t have a favorite bourbon,” says Veach, “There are just too many different flavors and flavor profiles. It’s like asking what’s your favorite wine.”
Choosing a Bourbon
As with wine, some bourbons pair better with a particular dish or are best enjoyed during a certain season. Veach suggests the following:
For Father’s Day – “I like Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel,” he says. “At $30-35, it’s not overly expensive—though remains a step up from your normal everyday whiskey. Elmer’s about 93 years old, but he still comes down to the distillery on Tuesday mornings to pick the barrels himself.”
Relaxing after a Long Workday – Veach recommends something refreshing for spring/summer, like a Four Roses Yellow Label. “It’s light but flavorable,” he says. “Not overly complicated, but with enough complexity to give you a little interest.”
To Accompany a Nice Steak “There are so many good ones,” says Veach, “but the last time I had steak I enjoyed it with a neat glass of Old Grand-dad Bottled-in-Bond. It’s got a nice fruitiness that I find compliments meat well.”Andrew Wiggins and the Minnesota Timberwolves are currently engaging in contract talks that would keep Wiggins in Minnesota for the long haul.
During Jamal Crawford’s introductory press conference yesterday, head coach Tom Thibodeau said the two sides are working on a deal.
ESPN has reported the deal will be for five seasons and could be worth up to $148 million dollars.
According to ESPN sources, the deal would start until the 2018-2019 season when Wiggins would be eligible for restricted free agency. A base salary of $25.5 million per season would be given in year one.
Wiggins has been the main piece for the Timberwolves when they began their rebuild. Wiggins was selected with the first overall pick in the 2014 draft after the Timbewolves acquired the first overall selection in a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers which netted the Cavs Kevin Love.
Wiggins has appeared in all 82 games in each of his three seasons. Last year he averaged a career high in points (23.6), assists (2.3) and three point percentage (35.6%).
Wiggins will be paired with Jimmy Butler on the wing this season creating a dynamic 2-3 combination on the perimeter. Each has the capability of shutting the opponent down defensively and scoring offensively.
The Timberwolves will be a much improved team and resigning Wiggins long term shows the teams commitment to success now and into the future.
If you wish to read more about the Minnesota Timberwolves preview for next season check it out here: Early preview of the 2017-2018 Timberwolves season.The proposed merger between cable giants Comcast and Time Warner is a hotly contested issue in Congress, and angers flared again at a recent Senate hearing on the merger last week.
Most of the senators seemed ambivalent about the merger and wouldn’t say whether they supported or opposed it, but one senator in particular stuck out from the rest: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).
“I don’t like this revolving door,” Franken said in an April 13 interview with CNN. “I don’t like this revolving door between regulators and Comcast. I thought that was kind of tacky that one of the FCC commissioners, I think just four months after they approved the Comcast/NBC deal, went over to work a high-paying job at Comcast. I just don’t like that.”
So how wide is the revolving door between the telecommunications giant and the FCC? For Comcast’s in-house lobbyists, it’s significant and still swinging. According to an analysis byOpenSecrets Blog, 18 people have both lobbied for Comcast and spent time in the public sector. Of those, 12 are currently registered lobbyists for Comcast, with five of them having spent time at the FCC.
From FCC chair to Comcast lobbyist
The most prominent example of the Comcast/FCC revolving door is former FCC commissioner and current Comcast lobbyist Meredith Baker.
Baker, whose views tended to side with the industry even before she went to the FCC, was appointed to to her FCC position in July 2009 and stayed there for nearly two years, cutting her four-year term short in June 2011 to move to Comcast as its senior vice president of government affairs.
When she made the move, Baker said she didn’t see any problem with moving from a regulatory agency to a company she regulated, explaining in a statement that she had “not participated or voted any item, not just those related to Comcast or NBCUniversal, since entering discussions about an offer of potential employment.”
Due to lobbying rules, Baker wasn’t allowed to lobby the FCC for the two years following her hire at Comcast, but she has lobbied the House and Senate on a range of issues. In 2013, she lobbied on 21 bills on behalf of Comcast, with much of the legislation dealing with deregulation of the Internet, including bills that would keep online purchases tax-free.
Baker’s transition from FCC leadership to industry isn’t unprecedented. Michael Powell, the FCC chairman from 1997 to 2005, made a similar move, heading to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, an industry group, in 2011 as its CEO. And Jonathan Adelstein, who was an FCC commissioner from 2002 to 2009, became the president and CEO of PCIA: The Wireless Infrastructure Association in 2012.
Four other former FCC employees have followed Baker’s path to Comcast. They include Rudy Brioche, who worked as an advisor to former commissioner Adelstein before moving to Comcast as its senior director of external affairs and public policy counsel in 2009. Brioche was so valued by the FCC, in fact, that he was brought in to join the commission’s Advisory Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age in 2011.
Other revolving Comcast lobbyists include James Coltharp, who served as a special counsel to commissioner James H. Quello until 1997, and Jordan Goldstein, who worked as a senior legal adviser to commissioner Michael J. Copps. John Morabito, who served a number of roles in the FCC’s Common Carrier Bureau, joined Comcast as one of its senior lobbyists in 2004. (He is no longer with the company.)
Comcast and Congress
But the revolving door doesn’t just swing from the FCC to Comcast. Lobbyists also can head back to the public sector. That’s been the case with David Krone. Krone has an extensive background with the telecommunications industry, holding leadership and lobbying positions with companies like AT&T, TCI Communications and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
In 2008, Krone worked as Comcast’s senior vice president for corporate affairs. But since then, Krone has taken his telecommunications knowledge to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Krone started as a senior advisor to the senator in 2008 and rose to become Reid’s chief of staff in 2011, a position he holds today.
Overall, Comcast has traditionally had a heavy lobbying presence Washington. The company has spent at least $12 million on lobbying every year since 2008, with that number peaking at $19.6 million in 2011. Last year, Comcast spent more than $18.8 million, making it the sixth-highest spender on federal lobbying.
For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images)
Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been charged by a French court for his alleged role in a 2012 prostitution ring in the French city of Lille. Prosecutors say that Strauss-Kahn held parties in hotel rooms where women were paid to sleep with the party-goers, thus making him complicit in prostitution.
But the name of the charge against him may have gotten slightly garbled in translation from French to English, giving an impression of the state's case and the alleged crime that might not quite match up with what's actually happening in France. It's not clear where the phrase originated, but many English-language outlets are describing the charge against him as "aggravated pimping." A quick look at the actual French law, though, shows that a better description might be "abetting sex trafficking" or, more precisely still, "an aggravated charge of abetting sex trafficking."
The original, French name for the formal charge against Strauss-Kahn is "proxénétisme aggravé." That translates most literally as "aggravated procuring," although, in the legal context, the word proxénétisme is implied to be procurement related to sex trafficking.
There are two French laws to understand here. The first, article 225-5 of the French penal code, defines proxénétisme as one of three crimes: (1) to aid or assist in the prostitution of others; (2) to procure some financial gain from the prostitution of others, or; (3) to lead or hire someone into prostitution. In other words, it generally describes crimes for abetting an act of prostitution. It is not quite best described, as the word "pimping" might imply, as the direct selling of human beings for sex.
The second law is the aggravated charge of proxénétisme, which is what Strauss-Kahn was charged with, defined under article 225-7 of the French penal code. A charge of proxénétisme can be bumped up to aggravated proxénétisme under several conditions: if the people trafficked for sex are minors, for example, if they're members of a vulnerable population such as the mentally disabled or if they were trafficked under the threat of force.
In Strauss-Kahn's case, the charge was elevated because it allegedly met two separate conditions for being aggravated: one, many people were sold into sex, and; two, their prostitution was organized by a group of accomplices. (Strauss-Kahn's lawyers argue that he was unaware that the women had been paid or had previously done sex work, which would obviate the charges if true as paying for sex is not a crime in France.)
So, when French prosecutors say Strauss-Kahn is being charged with "proxénétisme aggravé," they mean something a bit closer to "aggravated charge of abetting in sex trafficking." Pimping, after all, means to sell people for sex. The word "pimping" is also, and this is important as well, not a legal charge but a colloquialism typically used to glorify the practice of selling human beings for sex. The French legal code describes the selling of human beings for sex using a legalistic word that does not glorify the practice. That's an important point, one that is unfortunately lost in the now-common English-language translation of Strauss-Kahn's charges.And with a stroke of his pen, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko signs a decree that mobilizes up to 50,000 "health men and women" aged 25 to 60 to the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine...
As UA Today reports, 50 000 servicemen will be drafted to the frontline in eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has issued a decree mobilising 50,000 servicemen to the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
Those eligible will receive notice papers calling them to service as soon as the Ukrainian parliament approves the measure.
The Ministry of Defense plans to draft healthy men and women, preferably with military experience. Tank operators, artillerymen, reconnaissance scouts and messengers aged 25 to 60 are in high demand.
Volodymyr Talalay, Major General: "We are not planning to draft untrained men for positions that require military efficiency. Military leaders are looking for those who have already been in the army or those who can serve within civilian professions."
Combat trainings for servicemen will take 10-15 days. Ministry of Defense officials say this timeframe is adequate to acquire combat skills and replace those soldiers who will be rotated out.Helen Sloan/HBO
Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones" season six.
The internet is darker and more full of spoilers than ever these days — and "Game of Thrones" is no exception. But the problem that has arisen in the last several weeks has nothing to do with spoiler-filled discussions of the episodes after they air. A man known as the "Spanish Spoiler" is uploading videos to YouTube in which he details the entire plot of the upcoming week's episode.
But he's doing it two full days before HBO airs the show.
In each video description, the mysterious YouTuber writes the following disclaimer (roughly translated using Google):
I cannot put spoilers for the 3rd episode of the 6th season of Game of Thrones, because HBO forbids it. But we can always count predictions, theories, and make analysis of what will happen. And who knows, maybe guess everything.
Nothing about the Spanish Spoiler's descriptions is guesswork. Multiple plot details were revealed to be accurate for the first two episode "predictions," and it has become clear to viewers that he has an inside source with the series.
Plus, HBO is onto him. The Spanish Spoiler's videos have all been taken down from YouTube, marked as a "copyright claim by Home Box Office Inc."
Reddit Game of Thrones leaks2 More
Helen Sloan/HBOBut before the video gets pulled, a summary (translated from Spanish to English) makes its way to Reddit.
The two largest subreddits for "Game of Thrones" are /r/GameofThrones and /r/asoiaf, with 635,000 and 264,000 subscribers, respectively. Each of these communities has a strict no-piracy policy in place. This means subscribers to those subreddits are prohibited from linking to any pirated or leaked material from the series, though discussion of leaks is allowed.
However — the "Spanish Spoiler" has found a much more leak-friendly home at the /r/FreeFolk subreddit.
Free Folk, as we'll refer to it, is a community of only 6,200 Redditors — all of whom believe pirating, leaking, and spoiling of the series should be encouraged. The group was born out of a disagreement with the strict no-piracy policy created by moderators of the /r/GameofThrones and /r/asoiaf subreddits.
Screen Shot 2016 05 07 at 11.15.55 AM More
Helen Sloan/HBOThe Redditors active in Free Folk quickly picked up on the Spanish Spoiler's legitimate information, and even invited him to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on their subreddit. He obliged.
Story continuesESL UK is pleased to announce its partnership with Ubisoft UK for the launch of its weekly Go4 series for Rainbow Six Siege on PS4 and XBOX ONE.
The initial tournament will be taking place on August 15th and continuing on for another 15 weeks. The Go4 Rainbow Six series will allow UK console players to face off against one another week by week in high end, high intensity Rainbow Six Siege action along with each platform having its own £1300 prize pool every 4 weeks meaning over £5,000 is up for grabs across the entire series!
How it works
Teams will accrue points for placing within the top 16 every week and the weekly winners on each platform also earn themselves £100.
The top eight teams with the most points will play in the Go4 Final every fourth Tuesday.
The two final Go4 Final teams go head to head for their share of the £1,000 grand prize pool
For more information keep an eye on ESLUK’s Twitter and Facebook, alternatively look out for info coming on the official ESL RainbowSix channels.
Share this article:The Match Review Panel (MRP) have handed down their decisions on the three red cards that were issued on the weekend.
The independent Match Review Panel (MRP) – consisting of Simon Micallef (Chair), Alan Davidson and Alan Cont |
187 pounds.
For the past three months, Coleman has been on a strict diet of 2,700 calories and the same four meals a day: six eggs and two pieces of toast for breakfast, a whole chicken breast with broccoli for both his second and third meals and then a protein shake after he trains. In addition to sumo practices, he works out multiple times every day, mostly cardio and lifting. He says he can lose the 15 pounds before the competition by mostly sweating it off.
Coleman is an asset to the sport because of his teaching, said Jenelle Hamilton, the reigning U.S. lightweight women’s sumo champion, who is on Team USA with Coleman.
“He wants to build up everyone around him. He has a love for sumo, not just a love for himself,” she said. Hamilton, who lives in Los Angeles, recently visited Kansas City to teach an introductory sumo workshop for women but to also train with Coleman and one of his female athletes. Hamilton said Coleman made sure the attention was placed on the women learning.
Another challenge for U.S. sumo wrestlers is the cost of travel. More competitive countries, like Japan, Mongolia and even the Netherlands, give the athletes stipends and help cover costs. American wrestlers pay for everything, she said. And they must frequently travel to compete and even train since you “don’t just run into sumo gyms on every corner,” Hamilton said.
“Considering that the only thing that you need is a loin cloth, the sport is actually very expensive.”
While Coleman wants to win as many matches as possible, he said his ultimate goal is to keep improving as a sumo wrestler and teach others about the sport.
“I don’t think I’ll be the best sumo wrestler in the U.S. or the world,” Coleman said. “But I have the hunger.”
During the last 45 minutes of practice, the sumo wrestlers and Coleman do a round robin series of matches. The smell of the craft room has gotten mustier during the two-hour practice, and Coleman is now facing off against his wrestlers. But he falls to the ground and bangs his knee on the pipe of the sumo ring.
Does he want to sit out the next round or get some ice, his assistant coach asks.
Coleman shakes it off and just slides on a black knee brace. He then crouches in the opening sumo position, places one fist at a time to the mat, and waits for the starting call.
Hakkeyoi!Family Photo Carolyn and Major John E. Jackson
A U.S. Army major and his wife from Pennsylvania are accused of abusing their three foster children — force-feeding them hot sauce, withholding water, and breaking their bones, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
In one instance, according to court documents, the couple even made one of their biological children stand guard to make sure the foster children would not be able to quench their thirst with water from the toilet.
The wife was arrested this morning and husband John Jackson surrendered to authorities at their home in Mount Holly, New Jersey.
John E. Jackson, 37, is a U.S. Army major, formerly with the Picatinny Arsenal Installation in Morris County, N.J. Jackson and his wife, Carolyn Jackson, 35, are charged in a 17-count indictment.
"Carolyn and John Jackson are charged with unimaginable cruelty to children they were trusted to protect," Fishman said in a statement.
READ: The entire indictment
According to court documents, the Jacksons have three biological children and had three foster children who they adopted. The indictment alleges that the parents agreed to use "disciplinary and child-rearing techniques that were neglectful and cruel" on their adopted children, and that they physically assaulted all six children. One of their adopted children died in May of 2008.
Federal prosecutors outline a story of physical and emotional abuse, primarily against the adopted children.
The alleged abuse occurred for almost five years, from approximately August of 2005 until April of 2010 while the family lived in Morris County, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say the Jacksons physically assaulted their children with various objects, withheld proper medical care for their adopted children, forced two of them to consume foods like red pepper flakes, hot sauce and raw onion, which caused pain and suffering to the children.
They're also accused of withholding water from one child while forcing him to eat salt-laden food and substances, which led to a life-threatening condition.
According to court documents, the parents told their biological children that they were "training" the other children to behave through a variety of methods. They told their biological kids that the physical assaults were justified and that they should not talk about what was going on to others.
When one of the biological children did confide in a family friend, after that friend confronted the father, the boy was allegedly beaten with a belt.
Other allegations in the indictment include the parents allegedly forcing the kids to eat hot sauce, red pepper flakes and raw onion that caused the children "pain and suffering."
The children are in the care of the state right now.
The U.S. Army said it is cooperating fully with investigators and could not comment any further. They referred all inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's office.
The Jacksons have not responded publicly to the charges, but an online search reveals a petition and articles written about the ordeal, dating back to 2011.
According to the petition, the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services removed the remaining five children from the home in April of 2010. The petition was a move to pressure DYFS to return the children:
Army Major Jackson and his wife, Carolyn, have been staunch advocates for children, adopting children, in addition to their biological children, who would have been hard to place because of their medical needs. They have provided their children with a stable, loving home. NJ DYFS must do what is in the best interests of the Jackson children and return them to their parents. We urge you to intervene on their behalf.
622 people signed the petition. And there has been other online support, characterized in World Net Daily as a “Christian family broken apart by a state agency holding 5 kids.”
The article said Jackson and his wife are “devout Christian homeschoolers with a history of serving as adoptive and foster parents... During the course of a nine-month legal battle to regain custody of their children, the Jacksons say they have encountered prejudice against their religion and homeschooling as they fight a state agency determined to see the children adopted by strangers no matter what the evidence says."
According to the article, the Jacksons complained that one DYFS worker in particular, would not allow them to pray with their children. Major Jackson also claimed in the report that DYFS misrepresented statements he and his children made in order to build a case against the parents.
“My children are being held hostage, they’ve been kidnapped,” he told the independent, a conservative news website.MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third injured when an Iraqi soldier opened fire on U.S. troops during training in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, the U.S. military said.
The incident occurred while U.S. soldiers were training Iraqi security forces at al-Ghazlani U.S. military camp in southern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
“Two U.S. service members were killed by small arms fire when an Iraqi soldier attacked them at the Ghazlani Training Center located south of Mosul at approximately 8:30 a.m. Saturday,” the U.S. military said in a statement.
It said the Iraqi soldier who had opened fire was killed during the incident. A third U.S. service member was wounded, the U.S. military said.
“Until now, we don’t have any information on why the two Iraqi soldiers opened fire,” a senior Iraqi police official, who declined to be named, said.
Separately, another U.S. service member was killed while conducting operations in central Iraq, the U.S. military said in a separate statement on Saturday. It gave no further details and did not specify where the incident occurred.
Fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq since the United States officially ended combat operations last August. The remaining soldiers are focused on advising and assisting Iraqi security forces as they take the lead in the fight against a weakened yet resilient insurgency.
Bombings and attacks remain a daily occurrence in Iraq, although violence has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006-7 unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Mosul remains one of the most dangerous cities in the country, where Iraq is still fighting a stubborn Sunni Islamist insurgency.T-Mobile’s bringing a great gift for Dads and Grads (I sound like a Target commercial) this Saturday by offering all of their phones free, but there were still some unpleasant hoops you had to jump through to be eligible. For the most part, you had to open a new line on a family plan or start a new family plan to get the phone, but Radio Shack’s got you covered.
They’ve gone ahead and matched T-Mobile’s offer, and even made it more lucrative. You can get all T-Mobile phones for free from their store, too, but you don’t need to be on a family plan, you don’t need to deal with rebates, and you don’t have to deal with any activation fees.
Their only catch is that the offer stands for up to two lines, so adding a third line will cost you. Regardless, it’s still a great alternative to T-Mobile’s official offering. Radio Shack’s really been stepping their game up lately after wanting to boost their presence in the electronics retailer game. Following their addition of a nickname and an image makeover, they’ve become a great source for some of the best deals you’ll find (in regards to mobile phones, anyway).
So what Android phone would you pick up from the Shack this weekend?The number of people living below the poverty line rose to 1.35 million in 2016, despite economic growth
A record number of Hong Kong residents live in poverty, with one fifth of the population falling below the poverty line despite economic growth, according to new government figures.
The number of people living below the poverty line rose to 1.35 million in 2016, about 20% of the city’s population. The number is the highest number of poor since the government began publishing statistics in 2009.
Despite opulent wealth, Hong Kong is a deeply unequal society. It is the world’s most unaffordable housing market and poorer residents live in squalid conditions, with some living in “coffin homes” – rows of wooden boxes crammed into tiny flats.
My week in Lucky House: the horror of Hong Kong's coffin homes Read more
The number of poor rose despite the government raising the poverty line last year. For single person households it is set at HK$4,000 (£388). It is HK$9,000 (£873) for a two person home and HK$15,000 (£1,455) for a family of three. In the city’s poorest district of Sham Shui Po, which is home to large numbers of recent immigrants and ethnic minorities, the poverty rate rose to nearly a quarter of the population.
Hong Kong officials blamed the increase in poverty on an ageing population, and the rate for residents over 65 was about 32%.
Social groups criticised the government for its lack of action on poverty alleviation and demanded an increase in welfare payments.
“Economic growth can not help the lower classes share in the economic achievements,” said a spokesman for the Society for Community Organisation, an NGO that works with the poor. “Reflecting on the grim poverty in Hong Kong, the government’s poverty alleviation measures lack strength, precision and intensity.”
The group called on the government to pass laws combating age discrimination and increase welfare schemes for the elderly. The city’s minimum wage is £3.35 per hour and is reviewed every two years.
The large number of poor in Hong Kong rose despite the government posting a £10.7bn surplus in the most recent fiscal year. Hong Kong’s GDP per capita is ranked among the highest of any country or territory, according to the World Bank, and exceeds the UK, Germany and Japan.
Wealth is most apparent in the city’s chronically unaffordable property market. A recent analysis found that prices for parking spaces were rising faster than for flats in some parts of Hong Kong.
In a sample of three housing estates, parking bay prices rose by an average of 167% in the past six years, while flat prices increased by 52%.
“It is quite common to see parking spaces transacted at above HK$2m in recent years, and HK$1m is becoming the entry point for parking spaces in Hong Kong,” said Alan Jin, an analyst at Mizuho Securities Asia. “Essentially, what has happened in the parking sub-sector is pretty similar to what has happened and is still happening in the housing market. The shortage of supply is the key reason for the astronomical prices.”
But speculation was another reason for the rise in prices, Jin said.Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is a psychological construct reflecting "apprehension about others' evaluations, distress over negative evaluations by others, and the expectation that others would evaluate one negatively". The construct and a psychological test to measure it were defined by David Watson and Ronald Friend in 1969.[1] FNE is related to specific personality dimensions, such as anxiousness, submissiveness, and social avoidance. People who score high on the FNE scale are highly concerned with seeking social approval or avoiding disapproval by others, and may tend to avoid situations where they have to undergo evaluations. High FNE subjects are also more responsive to situational factors.[2] This has been associated with conformity, pro-social behavior, and social anxiety.[3]
FNE Test [ edit ]
The original Fear of Negative Evaluation test consists of thirty items with a true-false response format and takes approximate ten minutes to complete. Scale scores range from 0 (low FNE) to 30 (high FNE). In 1983, Mark Leary presented a brief version of the FNE consisting of twelve original questions on a 5-point Likert scale (BFNE).[2] Scale scores range from 12 (low FNE) to 60 (high FNE).
Reliability [ edit ]
Both the original thirty-item and the brief twelve-item FNE test have been demonstrated to have high internal consistency.[4] The original and brief versions correlate very closely.[4]
Validity [ edit ]
FNE does not correlate strongly with other measures of social apprehension, such as the SAD PERSONS scale and the Interaction Anxiousness Scale.[4]
Social anxiety [ edit ]
Social anxiety is, in part, a response to perceived negative evaluation by others. Whereas FNE is related to the dread of being evaluated unfavorably when participating in a social situation, social anxiety is defined as a purely emotional reaction to this type of social situation. When patients with social phobia evaluate their relationships, they are extremely fearful of negative evaluation and express high degrees of FNE.[5] As discussed by Deborah Roth Ledley,[6] subjects in a study were asked to give a speech after completing a dot-probe paradigm task. After being presented with negative faces, low FNE participants did not display any increased apprehension, whereas high FNE participants displayed more apprehension.[7]
Heritability [ edit ]
FNE has been suggested to have some genetic component, as are other personality characteristics such as trait anxiousness, submissiveness, and social avoidance. BFNE scores have been found to have a genetic component in twin studies. In addition, BFNE scores and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire have been found to be genetically correlated.[5] It has been suggested that the genes that influence negative evaluation fears affect a range of anxiety personality behaviors.
Judgment and perception [ edit ]
Winton, Clark and Edelmann (1995) found that individuals who score higher on the FNE are more accurate at identifying negative expressions.[8] Individuals who score higher on the FNE were also found to overestimate negative social characteristics (e.g., awkwardness, long gaps in speech) and underestimate positive social characteristics (e.g., confidence, self-assurance) they exhibit during public speaking.[7] Low-FNE speakers overestimate their effectiveness of public speaking. In contrast, high-FNE speakers were more effective in their communication, consistent with listener's actual understanding.[9] In the athletic arena, low-FNE basketball players were able to withstand higher levels of pressure and continue to maintain performance levels, whereas high-FNE basketball players showed significant decrease in performance under pressure.[10]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]As of Thursday, March 9th, Gumby’s Pizza on Tennessee St. is temporarily closed due to 3 high priority health code violations, and 8 other lower-priority violations.
The high priority violations included the live presence of multiple roaches found throughout the kitchen during inspection, dead roaches littered through the cooking area, and 30 gnats freely flying around the dough and ingredients where the pizza is made. Other violations appear to be repeat offenses, some to do with water damage and chemicals near food prep areas.
Gumby’s is a keystone establishment of FSU, and the news of it’s shut down has already inspired tweets from all around the city, including local personality Greg Tish.
Gumby’s official Twitter has yet to make an announcement, but all health code violations must be cleared by Friday, March 10th in order to for them to reopen.
@cschltThe San Antonio Spurs retired Tim Duncan's No. 21 jersey this past Sunday, and the rest of the league has been reflecting on Duncan's storied career.
Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook was asked about Duncan following the Thunder's game against the Phoenix Suns, and he had high praise for the legendary Spur.
"He's done so much for the game, and for the Spurs as well," Westbrook said, "He's probably, at least in my opinion, the best power forward to play the game. Just because of what he did, the championships, and the level of integrity he played the game."
Although this is only Westbrook's opinion, Duncan is arguably one of the best power forwards in NBA history, if not the greatest. In 19 seasons, Duncan won five championships, two Most Valuable Player awards, and was selected to 15 All-Star teams.
All in all, Westbrook's thoughts on No. 21 just reinforce how special Duncan was not just to the Spurs but to the entire league. He will be missed on the court.
Twitter: @OhMarquezIt’s very hard to pick only twenty five of the most obnoxious and crazy things that liberals said in 2017, the following were put together by Town Hall as a part of their annual “Most Obnoxious Quotes of the Year” for 2017.
The 25 Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2017 (14th Annual) https://t.co/dnVk9FriJ7 — Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 23, 2017
1) Comes courtesy of CNN’s resident dingbat Sally Kohn:
“Straightforward from here:
Impeach Trump & Pence Constitutional crisis Call special election Ryan v Clinton President Clinton”
Straightforward from here:
1. Impeach Trump & Pence
2. Constitutional crisis
3. Call special election
4. Ryan v Clinton
5. President Clinton — Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) February 15, 2017
2) From Jimmy Kimmel’s former squeeze Sarah Silverman, a women so dumb that she was triggered by construction markings that she believed was neo-Nazi code:
“WAKE UP & JOIN THE RESISTANCE. ONCE THE MILITARY IS W US FASCISTS GET OVERTHROWN. MAD KING & HIS HANDLERS GO BYE BYE”
WAKE UP & JOIN THE RESISTANCE. ONCE THE MILITARY IS W US FASCISTS GET OVERTHROWN. MAD KING & HIS HANDLERS GO BYE BYE❤❤❤❤ https://t.co/Y2WZbL012A — Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 2, 2017
3) The unhinged and unfunny comedienne Chelsea Handler chimes in:
“To all the generals surrounding our idiot-in-chief…the longer U wait to remove him, the longer UR name will appear negatively in history.”
To all the generals surrounding our idiot-in-chief…the longer U wait to remove him, the longer UR name will appear negatively in history. — Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) August 11, 2017
4) University of Hawaii mathematics professor Piper Herron who unbelievably teaches young people spouted off with the following bit of nonsense:
“Not to alarm you, but I probably want you to quit your job, or at least take a demotion. If you are a white cis man you almost certainly should resign from your position of power. That’s right, please quit. …Stop hiring white cis men (except as needed to get/retain people who are not white cis men) until the problem goes away. If you think this is a bad or un-serious idea, your sexism/racism/transphobia is showing.”
Hawaii prof demands that colleges ‘stop hiring white cis men’ https://t.co/L0ggpESVMC — Campus Reform (@campusreform) May 17, 2017
5) Climate change crazy Brad Johnson called for throwing people into jail if they don’t agree with him – this is a common thread on the left which teetering on the edge of Stalinism.
“Climate disaster response rules
1) save lives
2) global warming is here
3) put officials who reject science in jail”
Climate disaster response rules
1) save lives
2) global warming is here
3) put officials who reject science in jail https://t.co/xLGt79yLOP — Brad Johnson (@climatebrad) September 7, 2017
6) Nincompoop late-night TV writer Jen Statsky who called for Trump supporters to have their children taken away from them:
“…if you support Trump you should have your children taken away.”
light reminder that being president of the US means nothing anymore, if you support Trump you should have your children taken away, etc etc — Jen Statsky (@jenstatsky) October 1, 2017
7) What would any list of liberal dumbassery be without a contribution from Commander Porky of the anti-Trump #Resistance – multimillionaire hypocrite Michael Moore:
“Historians in the near future will mark today, March 28, 2017, as the day the extinction of human life on earth began, thanks 2 Donald Trump….Trump has signed orders killing all of Obama’s climate change regulations. The EPA is prohibited henceforth from focusing on climate change.”
Historians in the near future will mark today, March 28, 2017, as the day the extinction of human life on earth began, thanks 2 Donald Trump — Michael Moore (@MMFlint) March 28, 2017
8) CNN twink Sally Kohn again, this time with the outlandish statement that:
“Whether we realize it or not, most men hate women.”
9) Only one of the hundreds of gems from Hillary Clinton’s endless tour to promote her grimoire of grievances What Happened? This comes from an interview with leftist rag Mother Jones.
“I think there are lots of questions about (the 2016 election’s) legitimacy, and we don’t have a method for contesting that in our system. That’s why I’ve long advocated for an independent commission to get to the bottom of what happened.”
In an exclusive interview with Mother Jones, Clinton says Russian interference and GOP voter suppression efforts may have cost her the presidency. https://t.co/1P736nRQou pic.twitter.com/iK45B0YI01 — Mother Jones (@MotherJones) November 17, 2017
Oh Hillary, how can we ever miss you if you won’t just go away?
10) Michael Moore again, the guy who gets rich making anti-capitalist movies told Fast Company:
“The angry white guy is dying out, and the Census Bureau has already told us that by 2050, white people are going to be the minority, and I’m not sad to say I can’t wait for that day to happen. I hope I live long enough to see it because it will be a better country.”
Michael Moore says Trump is on track to win again in 2020 https://t.co/iQ32hrKXQf pic.twitter.com/MGMfV8FZgP — Fast Company (@FastCompany) August 28, 2017
11) Nutty feminist Emily Linden of the #unslut project and columnist for Teen Vogue magazine which teaches young girls that it’s cool to be sluts.
“Here’s an unpopular opinion: I’m actually not at all concerned about innocent men losing their jobs over false sexual assault/harassment allegations….Sorry. If some innocent men’s reputations have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay.”
Sorry. If some innocent men's reputations have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay. — Emily Lindin (@EmilyLindin) November 21, 2017
12) New York Times guest columnist Ekow N. Yankah who admits that he is teaching his children to be racist towards white people.:
“I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible. When they ask, I will teach my sons that their beautiful hue is a fault line.”
Opinion: Can My Children Be Friends With White People? https://t.co/BRfO6tRVuW — The New York Times (@nytimes) November 12, 2017
13) Feminist gender warrior Zinnia Jones with some gobbledygook about transgender women:
“Being exclusionary of trans women partners should be an outlier and marginal position for straight men, not some commonplace expectation. These angry declarations that they have some absolute right to not want to be with trans women are just misplaced and inappropriate.”
These angry declarations that they have some absolute right to not want to be with trans women are just misplaced and inappropriate — Zinnia Jones (@ZJemptv) July 1, 2017
14) Evergreen State College professor Naima Lowe who shows people exactly what sort of divisive garbage is being pumped into the heads of their kids on the nation’s college campuses.
“White supremacy…lives and breathes within every single white person.”
15) Radical feminist nutcase Caroline Criado-Perez whose Twitter profile describes her as a “Lobbyist For Big Vagina”:
“Also spending money on roads instead of welfare is literally choosing rich white men over everyone else — they are the ones who drive.”
Only "rich white men" drive cars or ride buses. Who knew? pic.twitter.com/lZy27EDVak — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) July 6, 2017
16) Feminist author and activist Jill Filipovic who wrote The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness but sounds like a seriously miserable woman.
“Having children is one of the worst things you can do for the planet. Have one less and conserve resources.”
Having children is one of the worst things you can do for the planet. Have one less and conserve resources. https://t.co/8oP2SlL8Gj — Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) July 12, 2017
17) Self-proclaimed “expert on race + technology” Jessie Daniels with a totally asinine statement:
“Part of what I’ve learned is that the white-nuclear family is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy.”
Part of what I've learned is that the white-nuclear family is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy, — JessieNYC (@JessieNYC) October 25, 2017
18) Hollywood whacko Wil Wheaton exploiting the senseless massacre of worshippers in a Sutherland Springs, TX church by a deranged lunatic. The compassion just oozes from every pore in Wil’s body.
“The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they’d still be alive….”
The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they'd still be alive, you worthless sack of shit. https://t.co/iGHxPrYrLN — Wil 'Kick the Nazis off the tweeters' Wheaton (@wilw) November 5, 2017
19) New York University librarian April Hathcock who seems to fancy herself as a philosopher queen.
“Race fatigue is a real physical, mental, and emotional condition that people of color experience after spending a considerable amount of time dealing with the micro- and macro-aggressions that inevitably occur when in the presence of white people. The more white people, the longer the time period, the more intense the race fatigue.”
NYU librarian laments 'fatigue' from 'presence of white people'. The insanity of our college campuses. https://t.co/ZQL5A5dwl7 — Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) July 15, 2017
20) Huffington Post “Queer Voices” columnist Michelangelo Signorile calling for an insurrection.
“Starting today and from here on, no elected official — certainly those in the GOP defending and supporting Trump on a variety of issues, for example should be able to sit down for a nice, quiet lunch or dinner in a Washington, DC eatery or even in their own homes. They should be hounded by protestors everywhere, especially in public — in restaurants, in shopping centers, in their districts, and yes, on the public property outside their homes and apartments, in Washington and back in their home states.”
My latest >>> To save America we must stop being polite and immediately start raising hell https://t.co/bvArQ8eaTJ via @huffpostqueer — Mike Signorile (@MSignorile) May 10, 2017
21) Veteran racial grievance-monger the Reverend Jesse Jackson on the NFL protests:
“To go from picking cotton balls to picking footballs and basketballs without freedom is not very much progress.”
"It never was about the flag… The issue was about racial disparities."@RevJJackson joins us to talk about the impact of of anthem protests pic.twitter.com/HRzoUKMwRM — UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) October 23, 2017
22) Rabid, rotund Rosie O’Donnell again, this time totally losing it by breaking federal law offering to bribe members of Congress for their votes on tax reform.
“so how about this
i promise to give
2 million dollars to senator susan collins
and 2 million to senator jeff flake
if they vote NO
NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS
FOR THE SUOER RICH
DM me susan
DM me jeff
no sh*t
2 million
cash
so how about this
i promise to give
2 million dollars to senator susan collins
and 2 million to senator jeff flake if they vote NO
NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS
FOR THE SUOER RICH DM me susan
DM me jeff no shit
2 million
cash
each — ROSIE (@Rosie) December 20, 2017
23) Columnist Roland Martin venting incoherently:
“Just heard this idiot truck driver on @CBSNews say he has spent $7,500 in the last two years on the Affordable Care Act and he’s only been to the doctor one time. He hates ObamaCare. But let him get sick ONE TIME. He’ll be thankful for healthcare!”
Just heard this idiot truck driver on @CBSNews say he has spent $7,500 in the last two years on the Affordable Care Act and he’s only been to the doctor one time. He hates ObamaCare. But let him get sick ONE TIME. He’ll be thankful for healthcare! — rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) December 16, 2017
24) Singer and Washington Post guest columnist Holly Figueroa O’Reilly braying at the moon because President Trump blocked her obnoxious ass on Twitter.
“It’s one thing if the president blocks me (on Twitter); I’m just one person, and I can certainly do something else with those five minutes of my day. But when he began systematically blocking dozens of people who simply didn’t agree with him, that’s when I started to worry that this is something more than just one person blocking another one. This is an elected official trying to silence an entire sector of the dissenting populace. This is what dictators and fascists do. This isn’t what we do here in America.”
"President Trump is violating my constitutional rights by blocking me on Twitter" https://t.co/MkUUa0Nur3 via @PostEverything — Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 7, 2017
25) Feminist video game developer Brianna Wu after Islamic terrorists detonated bombs at an Arianna Grande concert in Manchester, UK:
“When a man straps on a bomb of nails, goes to woman’s concert to kill an audience of women and girls – IT’S A SAFE BET SEXISM IS INVOLVED.”
via me.meSource: Maxwell Photography
UNTIL THIS EVENING, “the best address on Earth” will be in Dublin.
The World, the largest privately-owned residential yacht on earth, is paying a visit.
The owners are keen to stress that this is not a cruise ship, but is to a community consisting of dozens of families.
Source: Maxwell Photography
The massive 664-foot vessel doesn’t quite stand up to some of the biggest cruise liners in the world, but isn’t to be scoffed at coming in at roughly the same size as Irish Ferries’ Ulysses.
Unlike a trip to Holyhead, however, a ticket for The World is going to be a lot harder to come by.
There are between 150 and 200 residents and guests on the ship at any time. They travel around the world to destinations ranging from the coast of France to South America.
The ship's 2015 route. Source: AboardTheWorld.com
“There are some residents who live on the ship year-round,” the owners say.
The majority continuing to be active in their professional lives and spending three to four months onboard.
RTÉ Ten reports that one of those residents is suspected to be Judge Judith Sheindlin of Judge Judy fame, who was spotted in Dublin at the weekend.
Each home on the ship is the property of the individual homeowner, and they come with a hefty price tag – The Daily Mail reports that a studio flat could set you back $1 million, along with annual membership fee.
You get a lot for that kind of money, including:
Six restaurants
Golf facilities
Full-size tennis court at sea
Swimming pools
Spa
Fitness center
Library
Cinema
The World is the 68th cruise visit this year to Dublin Port.The Internet in China may soon run out. According to the China Internet Network Information Center, under the current allocation speed, China's IPv4 address resources can only meet the demand of 830 more days and if no proper measures are taken by then, new Chinese netizens will not be able to gain normal access to the Internet.
Li Kai, director in charge of the IP business for CNNIC's international department, says that if a netizen wants to get access to the Internet, an IP address will be necessary to analyze the domain name and view the pages. At present, most of the networks in China use IPv4 addresses. As a basic resource for the Internet, the IPv4 addresses are limited and 80% of the final allocation IP addresses have been used. By the current allocation speed, China's IPv4 address resource can only meet the demand of 830 more days. If there is no available new resource by then, new netizens will not be able to gain normal access to the Internet and the business expansion of network operators will be impossible.
Li says that a new IPv6 network address, which is a basic network resource without these limitations, has been developed in America, but this kind of IP address is only used among educational websites in China. To use the IPv6 network address, network operators need to spend a lot of time and money on equipment updating.
CNNIC now has started hosting seminars to remind the operators to apply for the remaining IP addresses as soon as possible for a storage in addition to call for a preparation for the providing of IPv6 addresses to netizens.The CalcioScommesse story never seems to want to end for Italian soccer and in our realm, Marco Di Vaio. After having been acquitted from the sports tribunal last week, the federal prosecutor, Stefano Palazzi, has decided to appeal the acquittal decisions including the one for the Montreal Impact Designated Player.
Thierry Cros,that was previously interviewed (see related link below), has put out this tweet to confirm the news.
Le procureur fédéral Stefano Palazzi a fait appel du verdict d'acquittement de Bonucci, Pepe et Di Vaio. Audience la semaine prochaine. — Thierry Cros (@tcros) August 13, 2012
Translation:
Stefano Palazzi has appealed against the acquittal of Bonucci, Pepe and Di Vaio. Hearing next week.
The saga continues for Marco Di Vaio, something that he does not need on a personal and professional basis. At this point, it might just be a procedural thing more than anything else but not many experts expected an appeal.Two Canadian warships are arriving back in port in Esquimalt, B.C. today after colliding during training exercises while en route to Hawaii.
Trainees on the ships were in the midst of towing exercises, which require close-quarters manoeuvring, when the collision occurred at around 11 a.m. PT Friday morning.
No one was hurt, but HMCS Algonquin sustained significant damage to her port side hangar while HMCS Protecteur sustained damage of a lesser degree to her bow.
Navy Lt. Paul Pendergast, spokesman for Maritime Forces Pacific, called the collision "an unfortunate accident" and a "rare event."
"In my time in the Navy, which goes back 25 years, I have not seen two Canadian ships collide during a tow-approach exercise," he said.
"This is a manoeuvre that's done in order to give the ship drivers practice. So that… if required, they could take a vessel under tow and they would be well practiced in how to do that," Pendergast said. "Something went wrong in this case."
HMCS Protecteur sustained damage to her bow in a collision with another Canadian warship, HMCS Algonquin. The two Canadian warships are returning to port in Esquimalt, B.C. (Photo |
like, but it is really cute looking which is why I bought one. But I use it more for decoration than I do to cook with. Yes, it’s usable, but the other ones I will show you are more built for being used like everyday. It’s the picture on the top of the post. But if you want your own, go here to buy one on Amazon.
Lodge Cast Iron Bacon & Grill Press: This is without a doubt the one press I know you should get. And here’s why…first, it is completely metal. All of it, including the handle. It’s also heavy and is built to last forever. It measures 6-3/4 by 4-1/2 inches which is plenty large enough to cover all of your bacon. And you can pre-heat this so that when you lay it on your bacon, it is cooking from both sides at the same time, a real time saver. And in case you’re not familiar with Lodge, the company has been around for over 100 years. So they are a pretty safe bet.
The only downside to this particular model is that you need to assemble it yourself, meaning put on the handle. But a screwdriver and a few screws and you’re done. Very simple really.
Another press I want to let you know about, although I do not own this one, is the Carol Wright Clear Glass bacon press. Yes, see through glass. So you can see how it is cooking. Pretty cool idea and all, I just don’t know if there is enough weight to it. I’m sure there is, but I prefer the cast iron ones.
And lastly, I want to mention the round bacon press options. These are round so they obviously fit your round pan and are a great idea. Although I don’t own one, I have a buddy that does and I used it at his place. And yes, it works great and I was impressed. I’ll probably grab one sooner or later. I think they are worth it for sure if you’re doing a lot of pan frying.
If you want a round press, then the one I saw that I liked was the Norpro 8.75-Inch Cast Iron Bacon Press. My only reservation is that it has a wooden handle, wich is fine really. I just sometimes use it in the oven as well and am always a bit afraid of having something wood in my ovens. But a good, solid choice.
And that’s about it as far as bacon presses go. I think I have covered their use, how to use them and which ones are worth owning. If you have any questions or comments, I’m always willing to chat with a fellow baconer! So just leave a comment below.A store manager said he was acting in self-defense Thursday when he shot a man at a northwest Harris County Shell gas station.
It happened around 9:15 p.m. at the store on FM 1960 and Champions Forest Drive.
The gas station manager told investigators his store clerk was alone in the front of the business when the man entered the store.
The employee said the man was visibly intoxicated and began knocking things off of shelves and confronted the clerk.
"He went in the store, knocked a few things over. The clerk had asked him to leave and he refused. The clerk then called the manager and the manager returned," said Lt. William Gray, Harris County Sheriff's Office.
The manager said when he returned, he also asked the man to leave several times, but he still refused.
Investigators said that is when the manager went out to his car and grabbed his gun.
The manager told deputies when he returned he thought he saw a sharp knife or box cutter in the man's hand.
According to deputies, the man then lunged at the manager, and fearing for his safety, the manger shot him once in the stomach.
The man was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital in critical condition, but is expected to survive.
Copyright 2014 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Kashmir: Battling floods and false-reporting by the Indian media
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Kashmir is battling the worst of times in its living memory. A flood that has inundated half of the valley is causing unimaginable devastation, yet the hyper-nationalist and jingoistic Indian media has made the so-called rescue operations by its army the centre of its attention and coverage.
“Army and air force are risking their own lives to save lives in #JKfloods. Separatists who have only abused the fauj should feel chastened now,” tweeted the cheerleader of India’s broadcast media Barkha Dutt.
Army & Air Force are risking their own lives to save lives in #JKfloods. Separatists who have only abused the Fauj should feel chastened now — barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 9, 2014
Having been accused for her involvement in one of India’s biggest corruption scams, the 2G spectrum, the prime time journalist has the shameless guts to ask questions and pose a serious face.
The rescue operations, if at all, carried out by the Indian army, according to people on ground, involved in evacuations of locals voluntarily, is restricted to the outskirts of the Srinagar city only and on selective basis. In South Kashmir, the entire rescue and evacuation was done by the locals themselves. Yet the self-congratulatory media is all praise for the Indian army that is cherry-picking its own people and sending them to safer places.
NDTV and CNN IBN, India’s two leading English news channels, have stooped to the lowest ebb and brought disgrace to the idea of journalism. Instead of focussing their attention to the relief and rescue, they have been constantly equating the actions of the Indian army with Kashmir’s integration with India.
NDTV on its prime time show, The Buck Stops Here, discussed the topic “Armed forces at heart of rescue – a turning point in Kashmir” where the panellists and moderator were all praise for the army and how their efforts would integrate Kashmir with India.
CNN IBN’s report titled “Kashmir floods: Defence forces’ heroics expose separatists, ‘intellectuals’” crossed all barriers of stupidity and absurdity. According to this report “the defence and security forces have emerged as the saviours of the people” and that the “hated Indian army is doing commendable job.” The report says that the army has reached the “remote corners of the state with rescue,” which is a complete fabrication as only the central and large parts of Kashmir are flooded. Also, the report has the intelligence and rationale to say that “separatists are safe in their flood-proof houses”.
CNN IBN hopes that that the heroics of its army will change the perception of the local Kashmiris, thereby explicitly giving its efforts (I repeat, if at all any) a political colour. By that logic, the people of Pakistan, who are also battling a similar situation in Punjab, should change their perceptions about India and its army because the Indian prime minister offered them help. Also, the people of Kashmir should feel the same about Pakistan and its army as their prime minister offered help to flood-hit Kashmir.
The propaganda, that the Indian forces are helping in any way is blasted by the fact that these forces were stoned in Kashmir and asked to leave. According to the locals, the forces are taking out their own people and not the stranded rescuers. This is largely true. With such dense and huge deployment of forces in and around Srinagar the statistics would normally suggest that the rescue should have been over by now. That thousands are still stranded is indicative of the fact that the so-called “saviours” are doing nothing. However, the Indian media, with their reporters, chopper-riding and taking aerial surveys, are busy issuing certificates to their army and trying to absolve them of their war crimes in Kashmir.
Social media is the only platform that has been of immense help in this crisis. People on ground have been providing updated information about all the people they have rescued. In the name of help and rescue, the Indian media has been copying all the information and pasting it on their websites and attributing it to the government and security agencies to further their propaganda.
A ground report from Kashmir by one of the voluntary rescuers presents a grotesque picture of the state of affairs. The report posted on Facebook reads,
It further states,
A journalist, Sameer Bhat, who is in close contact with people on ground, presented the gravity of the situation in the most explicit manner possible.
But help does not seem to arrive from anywhere. The little that people could save and put into relief, food, water, and whatever people from areas like Sopore, Baramulla, Bandipora and Ganderbal had managed is running short. According to Kashmir Monitor,
“Relief shelters running out of supplies, no government aid is arriving.”
The inefficiency of the Indian State and its client regime in Kashmir can be gauged by the fact that water levels have not receded due to the unplanned development around the city which is in total contravention of environment rules and disaster management protocols. Reports on social media suggest that India has denied entry to foreign aid agencies, fearing a 2005 earthquake-like vulnerability of its actions in Kashmir. (Remember that mass graves were found after the earthquake in the areas worst hit.)
The government has failed to provide food, shelter and water to the people and all help is provided locally by the people through self-help volunteers. But the Indian media is trying everything to conceal that under the facade of the “heroics” of their army.
The Indian media, through its continuing biased reportage of the catastrophe, has brought disgrace to journalism. It is bizarre and gross stupidity to think that such a public relations exercise will help India absolve itself of the crimes against humanity or really turn Kashmir into its atoot ang (internal part). Nothing can be farther from reality.NRC Player of the Year & Oz Baabaas announced
Player of the Season
NSW Country Eagles flyhalf, and new Western Force signing, Jono Lance has won the Buildcorp NRC Player of the Season award as announced by the ARU today. Lance played in every game for the Eagles and was one of only four players in the tournament to score points in every match.
The Player of the Year award was named after accumulating votes provided by both coaches and a Green and Gold Rugby representative after every match.
Lance finished on top of the tally with Melbourne Rising flanker, Jordy Reid, in second spot followed by Ita Vaea of the Canberra Vikings.
The award is the silver lining after a disappointing weekend for Lance with his Eagles team missing out on the finals despite a last round win over the North Harbour Rays in Bathurst.
Lance said: “I haven’t played too much footy over the past couple of years so the NRC has helped me find my feet again. I had lost a bit of confidence so this has been absolutely perfect for me.
“We’re disappointed we let ourselves with one or two performances that meant we didn’t quite make the top four but the last eight weeks have been pretty special with the Country Eagles, playing with guys looking to make that next step into Super Rugby.”
Australian Barbarians
The ARU also announced today a touring squad, to travel as the Australian Barbarians, of 26 players from the NRC who were not contracted in the 2015 Super Rugby season. The young squad will be coached by Darren Coleman of the NSW Country Eagles and Brad Harris of the Canberra Vikings. The team will travel to New Zealand to take on a Heartland XV, selected from uncontracted Super Rugby players playing in the Heartland Championship, in a two match series at Levin Domain, Manawatu-Wanganui and Cooks Gardens, Wanganui.
The squad was chosen by a panel of selectors chaired by Adrian Thompson (ARU Pathway Services Manager), both coaches as well as former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles.
Props
Cameron Orr (Greater Sydney Rams) – aged 20
Hayden Hirismaki (Queensland Country) – aged 27
Tyrel Lomax (UC Vikings) – aged 19
Duncan Chubb (Melbourne Rising) – aged 27
Hookers
Luke Holmes (North Harbour Rays) – aged 31
Ryan Dalziel (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 27
Locks
Matt Philip (Sydney Stars) – aged 21
Ben Hyne (Brisbane City) – aged 21
Phil Potgieter (Queensland Country) – aged 20
Backrow forwards
Waita Setu (Brisbane City) – aged 23
Rowan Perry (UC Vikings) – aged 21
Sam Figg (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 23
Dean Oakman-Hunt (UC Vikings) – aged 22
Pauli Tuala (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 30
Mark Baldwin (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 22
Scrumhalves
Mitch Short (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 20
Dewet Roos (Greater Sydney Rams) – aged 25
Flyhalf
Rod Iona (UC Vikings) – aged 24
Centres
Reece Hodge (North Harbour Rays) – aged 21
Andrew Robinson (Sydney Stars) – aged 21
Tom Hill (North Harbour Rays) – aged 25
Charli Clifton (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 24
Outside backs
Maalonga Konelio (Perth Spirit) – aged 26
Paul Asquith (Greater Sydney Rams) – aged 22
Jarome McKenzie (CSU Country Eagles) – aged 24
Harry Jones (Sydney Stars) – aged 19Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (right) meets former boxer and now promoter 'Golden Boy' Oscar De La Hoya following afternoon practice at training camp in Oxnard, California, Tuesday, August 9, 2016. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)
That's been a problem for Ezekiel Elliott. The fourth overall pick has sung three times. He attempted the Ohio State alma mater and then "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers.
It happens when they're called to sing in front of the entire team and coaching staff.
OXNARD, Calif. -- For some Cowboys rookies, the most terrifying aspect of training camp has nothing to do with football.
"Zeke got booed the first night, the second night and the third night," sixth-round pick Rico Gathers said.
Was his "Lean on Me" rendition at least better than his alma mater?
"No," Gathers said. "Absolutely not."
But according to sixth-round pick Kavon Frazier, Elliott's third try might have been the best overall performance. That's because the entire rookie class joined in for his second attempt at "Lean on Me."
Gathers is just fine singing whenever called upon. He embraces the moment. In fact, he often volunteers. So far, the former Baylor basketball standout has sung twice but offered five times.
"This man, he's got a plethora of songs," sixth-round pick Darius Jackson said. "He's probably got seven songs memorized right now."
Gathers has performed R&B songs like R. Kelly's "Honey Love" and Charlie Wilson's "Charlie, last name, Wilson."
"I'm always down to go up there and sing," Gathers said. "I love singing. I sing all the time in the shower. I sing to myself whenever I'm by myself. I'm just a big music fan."
Gathers says the second-best rookie so far has been second-round pick Jaylon Smith, who has performed R&B songs by Keith Sweat and Usher.
The rookies were warned near the end of organized team activities to have songs ready for training camp.
Singing in front of the team is nothing new. Tony Romo belted out a tune during his rookie season in 2003. He bombed. His rendition of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" led to boos from the crowd.This is how it’s done on the East Coast. I’m not sure there’s a single legitimate “rail clip” in here… But from storm-doors to pole jams, bump-jumps, and doorsteps, nothing goes untouched. Ever since its inception in 2000, Animal Bikes has held it down as the most core street brand to ever walk the earth. Get an inside look at the Animal headquarters, then cruise around with the likes of Chase Dehart, Matt Miller and the Chocolate Truck crew, boss man Ralph Sinisi himself, and even Animal employees Mike Osso, Nick Bardzilowski, and Rosie O’Donnell.
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A blunder by Oxford station staff left dozens of passengers locked out and unable to catch their train.
People were left waiting until 08:00 BST - 15 minutes after the first train to London had departed.
Commuter Robert Atkins said on Twitter: "How is Oxford station still not open? The first train has already left but all doors closed."
Great Western Railway (GWR) apologised and said "staff arrived later than they should have".
'Staff late'
Francis Barr, from Oxford University, said: "My partner was on her way to London for work first thing this morning.
"She had a ticket booked for the 07:43 Chiltern Railways train to Marylebone but was unable to get into the station since it was still locked and there were no staff to be seen."
"There were over 50 people waiting, more by the time the doors were opened," he added.
Mr Atkins tweeted that the person who called customer services was told "the only person with keys had decided to not come in".
A GWR spokesman said: "We're sorry staff arrived later than they should have, and this incident is being looked into."It’s the first night of chanukah and as I drove home from work I realized I hadn’t really planned dinner for the party of four that were joining us to eat. Last night I made croutons, and I have last week’s onion soup in the freezer but even with a salad, it didn’t quite seem like dinner. Something was missing.
My wife suggested a “polenta tamale pie”, not something I have ever made – my experience with Mexican cooking is fairly limited, but it sounded good, so I grabbed my phone and tried to find some inspiration for a dish that would be table-ready in less than an hour. I stumbled upon A Couple Cooks and found a recipe I felt confident I could adapt and serve by the time guests walked through the door. I’m not scared of trying new dishes when I have company, especially when the ingredients sound like they are a good fit – my one failing in making this dish in a hurry was that I forgot to put my SD card in the camera before the dish was complete!
The following ingredients made for a wonderful vegan dish that I will happily serve again and again! These ingredients will serve eight. (Thank You Anne, my WeightWatchers leaders for working out the points on this. If you serve six, rather than the suggested eight, this works out to be 5 Points Plus per serving.)
Vegan Tamale Pie with a Polenta Crust Olive Oil
One 18 oz roll of polenta
3 – 4 tomatoes
1 cup of corn
1 cup salsa
1 1/2 cups black soy beans
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/3 cup garlic breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Daiya Mozzarella vegan cheeseWhen online shopping offers choice, convenience and competitive prices, why would anyone go to an actual shop? To try on clothes, perhaps. To sit on sofas or lie on beds. But if you’re after music, film or books, you’re more likely to go straight to the internet. In the digital age, bricks-and-mortar shops have to work much harder to attract our attention, let alone custom. Brands rip out and refit their stores every few years: interior design is, clearly, already crucial to their fortunes. But could design go further, and lure us away from our tablets and back onto the high street?
Curious to explore this territory, we asked four leading architecture and design practices to create a shop. Specifically, in the age of Amazon and e-books, a bookshop to save bookshops. Traditional bookselling has been hit particularly hard by the shift to online shopping. First the sales went digital—to Amazon. Then the product went digital—again, largely to Amazon, whose Kindle e-readers are configured only to read e-books in Kindle format. In Britain, the number of independent bookshops fell by a third between 2005 and the end of 2013, to 987; in America, it fell from 2,400 to 1,900 between 2002 and 2011, although there has been a modest revival since. Some of the reasons for this decline apply to the whole high street—the recession, edge-of-town superstores, crippling business rates—but Amazon has struck by far the mightiest blow.
Still, independent bookshops inspire great affection, and the best of them, such as Lutyens & Rubinstein in west London, run by literary agents, offer more astute personal advice than an algorithm ever could. What indies seldom do is integrate technology beyond the till, or sell e-books. They will surely need to innovate to survive.
We gave each practice—Gensler, 20.20, Burdifilek and Coffey Architects—the same brief. They were to design a general-interest bookshop, selling fiction, non-fiction and e-books, in store and online, on a typical European high-street site, with two floors of 1,000 square feet each. The budget was £100,000—modest, we knew, but independent booksellers aren’t minted and that figure was ring-fenced for the fit-out; they could assume there would be further funds for training staff or running events. The shop could be called Intelligent Life Books, or given another name.
We were expecting some arresting design and clever innovation, but got a lot more than that. If the brief was to redesign the bookshop, they reinvented it.
You might have expected as much from Gensler, where the brief was taken on by Jon Tollit, who led the team that designed much of the Apple Store on Regent Street in central London. When it opened in 2004, the Apple Store made instant retail history by putting its products on tables for customers to use, removing tills and providing staff so knowledgeable that “you can ask anyone any question”.
In January, I went to Gensler’s London office—one of 46 around the world—to see the work in progress. We began with Tollit’s associate, Owain Roberts, laying out the firm’s ideas in black and white, unfurling a long scroll of tracing paper on which he had mapped out the challenges facing booksellers with pen and ink, distilling them in drawings and diagrams of startling clarity.
Their analysis was stark: “Design on its own will not save the bookshop.” But Roberts was undaunted. “If you leave the model as it is and redecorate, nothing’s going to change. The solution needs to be much more fundamental: informed, strategic and daring.” The bookshop, as Gensler saw it, had to anticipate every sort of literary need, from grabbing a paperback or download, to relaxed browsing, personally tailored reading-lists, self-publishing, book clubs, author events and even an enhanced experience of reading a book in the bookish equivalent of a flotation tank.
A week later, Roberts produces a bird’s-eye view of Gensler’s bookshop, another disarmingly simple drawing containing a lot of original ideas. The first surprise is that you don’t have to enter the store to shop from it: the glass façade is a touchscreen that can be tapped on to download e-books from QR codes. The choice could be infinite—“the whole catalogue of the British Library,” said Roberts, taking on Amazon with a sheet of smart glass.
A vending wall swings out onto the pavement, popping out a changing selection of paperbacks. Inside, new titles are laid out on a long table that marches down the space. To one side, there’s a “Harry Potter wonderwall of discovery”, to be explored by ladder (ignoring, for the moment, health and safety). While customers can be in and out of the shop in a matter of minutes, the back half of the store caters to those who can stay longer. Literary sommeliers advise on what to read next, or usher you into a pod for a multisensory experience: you curl up and read a hardback with an appropriate drink (tea for Austen, whisky for Hemingway), soundtrack or even smell. Readers wanting a more social experience gather on bleacher seating (“simple timber steps with cushions”) to take part in book clubs, hear an author give a talk or discuss self-publishing, which can be done via screens in the far left-hand corner.
At the back is a floor-to-ceiling wall of books, their spines arranged to spell tl;dr—short for “too long; didn’t read”. As Gensler’s name for the shop, it’s a confident bit of irony: if anywhere could excite a reluctant reader, distracted by social media, into buying a book, it would surely be this tech-smart bookshop. It’s also a compelling bit of graphic design. “It’s a very analogue way of signing,” Roberts says, “but by using the product itself it becomes a sculptural installation. There’s a big visual pull towards the back of the store.”
One thing noticeably absent is the till. “You remove that negative element completely, so that precious floorspace is given over to experience rather than transaction.” Also, if payment can be taken instantly by a staff member with a card reader, “you sell a lot more. You don’t allow the customer to wander off and change their mind.” Nor, with the touchscreen façade, does the store ever shut: “This space has an ability to be shopped and interacted with 24 hours a day.”
As they’ve drawn it, tl;dr seems a destination store, somewhere you’d happily spend a Sunday afternoon, but Roberts and Tollit also produce diagrams showing the concept as “a kit of parts” to “plug in and play” according to location and audience. At a railway station, tl;dr might be just a download-and-vending wall. In a hipster neighbourhood such as Hoxton or Williamsburg, it might feel more like a club. “It can grow, shrink and respond to the way people are shopping the store or it could pop up elsewhere.” Putting a tl;dr vending machine at the end of Brighton Pier, for example, where it would sell “Brighton Rock”, and promote the nearest fully equipped store.
With so many ideas for what the shop could do, it feels almost plodding to ask what it might be made of. The team haven’t designed the fixtures and fittings in any detail, beyond knowing that they could be moved about to adapt the space for events. “The decoration is incidental to the activities taking place,” Roberts argues. And the retail model is changing so fast that “the days when a fit-out would last five years are long gone”. The current trend for pop-up shops is not just a consequence of the recession but a symptom of the need to experiment in response to changing shopping habits. “‘Fail quicker’ is the buzz,” Tollit says. “You don’t want to invest huge amounts of time and money, and then fail. You fail quicker so that you can move on.”
The point about not blowing the budget on architecture but instead focusing on programming the space was also made by 20.20, a strategic design consultancy with a humming, open-plan office in north London. It was 20.20 that turned Sainsbury’s supermarkets orange and achieved the “Arsenalisation” of the Emirates stadium by wrapping it in huge images of players of the past. “People won’t go into a shop because the ceiling’s beautiful,” Jon Lee, 20.20’s creative director, told me. “They’ll go in because the experience is relevant to their lifestyle. It’s what you do in a space that’s really important.”
In 20.20’s bookshop people could do all sorts of things: download reviews and e-books (which would be discounted if bought in person), buy printed books from a frequently edited selection, consult well-informed staff, have a coffee or sandwich, read in cubbyholes, listen to audio books, watch a performance by an author, rent a desk at which to write or illustrate, and self-publish on the in-house printing press. The shop would be called The Art of Storytelling, the thinking being that stories endure, no matter what form books take.
Lee and Jim Thompson, 20.20’s managing director, talked persuasively about the nuts and bolts of their bookshop. Like many, it would have a café, but theirs came with a twist: a Yo! Sushi-style conveyor belt delivering short reads and reviews to consume with your coffee. This would act as a draw to the back of the shop—“you need some kind of anchor,” Lee said—while mobile “mid-floor units” carry screens to advertise events, and books that fit a frequently changed theme, such as the ten best adventure stories. These units (at hip height, “because we all tend to look down”) also offer some cover at the threshold—a place for nervous shoppers to hover while they orientate themselves in an unfamiliar place.
To get them upstairs, there’s a staircase. And a tree. “We always believe there should be some kind of ‘wow’ in a space that draws you in,” Lee said. “So this central feature, representing a tree, links the two spaces through a hole in the floor, with lightbulbs dangling from the structure.”
The books would be front-facing “to ping out the covers” against charcoal shelves. Strong visual merchandising, but wouldn’t it mean fewer books? Not if some were kept in drawers, with one book on the front of the drawer and the rest of the author’s work inside. The department store Liberty did something similar, putting “the shirt on the front, with a tie,” Thompson said, “and you pulled the drawer out and all the sizes were stacked behind”.
Like Gensler, 20.20 were unfazed by the tight budget. The tree, conveyor belt and drawers would eat up most of the money, Lee said, while “everything else is quite inexpensive and easy to produce”. This strategy seems sound: woo customers through the doorwith a few striking features and then make it as easy as possible for them to buy something. As soon as they have their nose in a book, they’re not going to mind if the floor isn’t parquet.
In contrast to the British enthusiasm for pop-up stores in scruffy spaces, Burdifilek, a Canadian interior-design practice responsible for a swathe of sleek shops from Joe Fresh in New York to parts of Brown Thomas in Dublin, opted to go fiercely upmarket. Though they too felt the shop should do more than merely sell books. “If you just concentrate on books”, said their creative director, Diego Burdi, on the line from Toronto, “you’re rolling the dice.”
Burdifilek’s bookstore (called ILB, for Intelligent Life Books) is more of a gallery, showcasing particular books alongside related merchandise. So for six weeks, the focus might be cookery, with the store selling pots and pans as well as cookbooks; then it might switch to Danish design. When I asked what would make money here, the books or the other products, Burdi said “I think it’s both. It’s a win-win.”
Some book-lovers might find woks and whisks a diversification too far (though they might be happy to sit and flick through a book in an Arne Jacobsen Egg chair), but Burdi thinks there’s a gap in the market. “It’s like a concierge service: everything in one place,” he says. “My frustration [at the moment] is that I buy the book, then I have to go to another store to buy the product. It’s a luxury to see and touch the product. That’s what the internet doesn’t give you.”
Current exhibits are displayed on plinths (“I don’t want to call it a table, it’s more of a sculpture, to make you focus on what’s on top”), while the shelves that bookend the space offer both an edited choice of printed books and, via built-in touchscreens, infinitely more e-books and apps. The materials would be “inexpensive but noble”: European walnut for the shelves, “a very wide-plank dry oak” for the floor, and “a flat white plaster finish, very gallery-like” for the walls.
Burdifilek gave their store a glass roof, drenching the ground floor with daylight, which drizzles down to the basement through a wider-than-necessary stairwell. The big opening steals selling space upstairs but works to entice the customer downstairs, where they will find general-interest books and a long reading table with stools that can be moved to make room for events. The void also allows a digital kinetic screen on the back wall to span both storeys. At night it “lights up like a beautiful movie screen”, in effect dissolving the façade when the store is shut and intriguing the passer-by.
Gensler’s, 20.20’s and Burdifilek’s stores have some striking things in common. They all give you something to do with your hands, at table height, as soon as you enter. They all have a double-height feature that both identifies the brand and draws the customer deeper into the space. Gensler chose to put their store on one floor, but said the wall spelling tl;dr would work as well over two or more storeys. They all use hand-held card readers. The stores are flexible: the furniture can be moved and the books frequently changed or—a word that came up a lot—“curated”. Most significantly, all these future bookshops integrate technology both to expand the range of product (to rival Amazon in scope if not price) and to enable customers to do something in-store that they couldn’t do on a smartphone—to beat Amazon on experience.
Meanwhile, in the real world, London’s most famous bookshop, Foyles, is about to move a few doors down Charing Cross Road, into the building that was once Central St Martin’s art school. At almost 40,000 sq ft, it may be the last vast bookstore ever to be built. When this new flagship was on the drawing board, Foyles hosted two workshops with the Bookseller magazine, at which publishers, booksellers and even a few customers brainstormed ideas with the project’s architects, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. Many of the suggestions made for “Future Foyles” were noticeably similar to the ideas our four practices came up with—though none of them was aware of Foyles’ plans—from book atms to in-store apps, private booths, writers in residence and even a touchscreen store-front. Foyles was cagey about how many of the more technological of these ideas were going to make it into the new shop; what it would say is that it will stock as many physical books as the old site.
One idea you definitely won’t see at Foyles came from Coffey Architects. A small practice based in Clerkenwell, it doesn’t have the same record in innovative retail design as our other three practices, but, among a variety of projects, it has designed a library for the British Film Institute and reinvented the wheel that is the Victorian terraced house. Which is perhaps why Coffey took our brief somewhere else entirely—50 years into the future, to a time when all books might be out of print. “Can you save the bookshop? Is there any point?” asks Phil Coffey cheerfully. He believes the digitisation of books will make bookshops redundant, but what can be saved is the cult of the book as a beautiful object. So his shop, if we can call it that, celebrates the arcane arts of printing and bookbinding. Called Craftword, it’s the antithesis of an e-book emporium: niche, retro, social, inky, bibulous, but with only a few books to buy off the shelf. The idea is that you make your own, with the help of floating robots—choosing the paper, ink, font, leather, even gold leaf—on antique presses and binders.
Wide steps double as seating and lead down to a bar and a stage, where a writer performs—“authors will become more like rock stars”—or a “book wizard” explains the craft of making books. The book you make might be one by the writer on stage, something you’ve written yourself, or any other text the robots conjure up. You’d do it to enjoy the pleasures e-books will have ceased to offer: the smell and feel of ink and paper, the heft of a hardback in your hands, a cover that’s a work of art. And the edition you take home would be unique.
“Downloads will leave a vacuum for beautiful things,” Coffey argued. And he insisted his concept “is not a flight of fancy. The beauty of the written word will be something you want to cherish.” A cheering thought for any booksellers working on their business plans for 2064.Pricing for AMD’s entire Radeon 300 series has been leaked and it’s showing major performance per dollar improvements across the board. Today’s leak is a little bit different, we’re bringing you an exclusive look at the pricing for the red team’s upcoming 300 series of discrete graphics cards. We’ve managed to confirm these prices directly through our own sources.. In fact we’re confident enough in the legitimacy of the information which our sources have provided that we’ve decided to drop the rumor tag.
The pricing structure is very different from the one that we’ve seen with the Sweclockers rumor that we had covered five days ago. In fact the previously rumored prices were so irrationally high, that they prompted me to dedicate an entire paragraph to underline my skepticism. It has now become evidently clear that my doubts were not misplaced. But I digress, so without any further delay let’s take a look at the actual pricing structure for the Radeon 300 series as they were confirmed through our sources.
AMD Radeon 300 Series Pricing Confirmed – Very Aggressive Performance Per Dollar Focused Positioning
For anyone that’s paid attention to the discrete graphics business, even if for short a while, an aggressive performance per dollar focus from the red team will not surprise you at all. In fact many would argue that it’s been the mantra for Radeon. Providing users with performance that would otherwise only be accessible for a significantly larger premium from the green team.
Segment Graphics Card GPU MSRP Enthus |
through is saturated.
Block I/O
I kept the weirdest for last. It may look straightforward and feel like that to the user but there are a bunch of cases where it won’t exactly do what you think it should.
What we support here is basically identical to what I described in Network I/O.
You can set IOps or byte/s read and write limits directly on a disk device entry and there is a global block I/O priority which tells the I/O scheduler who to prefer.
The weirdness comes from how and where those limits are applied. Unfortunately the underlying feature we use to implement those uses full block devices. That means we can’t set per-partition I/O limits let alone per-path.
It also means that when using ZFS or btrfs which can use multiple block devices to back a given path (with or without RAID), we effectively don’t know what block device is providing a given path.
This means that it’s entirely possible, in fact likely, that a container may have multiple disk entries (bind-mounts or straight mounts) which are coming from the same underlying disk.
And that’s where things get weird. To make things work, LXD has logic to guess what block devices back a given path, this does include interrogating the ZFS and btrfs tools and even figures things out recursively when it finds a loop mounted file backing a filesystem.
That logic while not perfect, usually yields a set of block devices that should have a limit applied. LXD then records that and moves on to the next path. When it’s done looking at all the paths, it gets to the very weird part. It averages the limits you’ve set for every affected block devices and then applies those.
That means that “in average” you’ll be getting the right speed in the container, but it also means that you can’t have a “/fast” and a “/slow” directory both coming from the same physical disk and with differing speed limits. LXD will let you set it up but in the end, they’ll both give you the average of the two values.
How does it all work?
Most of the limits described above are applied through the Linux kernel Cgroups API. That’s with the exception of the network limits which are applied through good old “tc”.
LXD at startup time detects what cgroups are enabled in your kernel and will only apply the limits which your kernel support. Should you be missing some cgroups, a warning will also be printed by the daemon which will then get logged by your init system.
On Ubuntu 16.04, everything is enabled by default with the exception of swap memory accounting which requires you pass the “swapaccount=1” kernel boot parameter.
Applying some limits
All the limits described above are applied directly to the container or to one of its profiles. Container-wide limits are applied with:
lxc config set CONTAINER KEY VALUE
or for a profile:
lxc profile set PROFILE KEY VALUE
while device-specific ones are applied with:
lxc config device set CONTAINER DEVICE KEY VALUE
or for a profile:
lxc profile device set PROFILE DEVICE KEY VALUE
The complete list of valid configuration keys, device types and device keys can be found here.
CPU
To just limit a container to any 2 CPUs, do:
lxc config set my-container limits.cpu 2
To pin to specific CPU cores, say the second and fourth:
lxc config set my-container limits.cpu 1,3
More complex pinning ranges like this works too:
lxc config set my-container limits.cpu 0-3,7-11
The limits are applied live, as can be seen in this example:
stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec zerotier -- cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ^proces processor : 0 processor : 1 processor : 2 processor : 3 stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc config set zerotier limits.cpu 2 stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec zerotier -- cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ^proces processor : 0 processor : 1
Note that to avoid utterly confusing userspace, lxcfs arranges the /proc/cpuinfo entries so that there are no gaps.
As with just about everything in LXD, those settings can also be applied in profiles:
stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec snappy -- cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ^proces processor : 0 processor : 1 processor : 2 processor : 3 stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc profile set default limits.cpu 3 stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec snappy -- cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ^proces processor : 0 processor : 1 processor : 2
To limit the CPU time of a container to 10% of the total, set the CPU allowance:
lxc config set my-container limits.cpu.allowance 10%
Or to give it a fixed slice of CPU time:
lxc config set my-container limits.cpu.allowance 25ms/200ms
And lastly, to reduce the priority of a container to a minimum:
lxc config set my-container limits.cpu.priority 0
Memory
To apply a straightforward memory limit run:
lxc config set my-container limits.memory 256MB
(The supported suffixes are kB, MB, GB, TB, PB and EB)
To turn swap off for the container (defaults to enabled):
lxc config set my-container limits.memory.swap false
To tell the kernel to swap this container’s memory first:
lxc config set my-container limits.memory.swap.priority 0
And finally if you don’t want hard memory limit enforcement:
lxc config set my-container limits.memory.enforce soft
Disk and block I/O
Unlike CPU and memory, disk and I/O limits are applied to the actual device entry, so you either need to edit the original device or mask it with a more specific one.
To set a disk limit (requires btrfs or ZFS):
lxc config device set my-container root size 20GB
For example:
stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec zerotier -- df -h / Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on encrypted/lxd/containers/zerotier 179G 542M 178G 1% / stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc config device set zerotier root size 20GB stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec zerotier -- df -h / Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on encrypted/lxd/containers/zerotier 20G 542M 20G 3% /
To restrict speed you can do the following:
lxc config device set my-container root limits.read 30MB lxc config device set my-container root.limits.write 10MB
Or to restrict IOps instead:
lxc config device set my-container root limits.read 20Iops lxc config device set my-container root limits.write 10Iops
And lastly, if you’re on a busy system with over-commit, you may want to also do:
lxc config set my-container limits.disk.priority 10
To increase the I/O priority for that container to the maximum.
Network I/O
Network I/O is basically identical to block I/O as far the knobs available.
For example:
stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec zerotier -- wget http://speedtest.newark.linode.com/100MB-newark.bin -O /dev/null --2016-03-26 22:17:34-- http://speedtest.newark.linode.com/100MB-newark.bin Resolving speedtest.newark.linode.com (speedtest.newark.linode.com)... 50.116.57.237, 2600:3c03::4b Connecting to speedtest.newark.linode.com (speedtest.newark.linode.com)|50.116.57.237|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: '/dev/null' /dev/null 100%[===================>] 100.00M 58.7MB/s in 1.7s 2016-03-26 22:17:36 (58.7 MB/s) - '/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600] stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc profile device set default eth0 limits.ingress 100Mbit stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc profile device set default eth0 limits.egress 100Mbit stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc exec zerotier -- wget http://speedtest.newark.linode.com/100MB-newark.bin -O /dev/null --2016-03-26 22:17:47-- http://speedtest.newark.linode.com/100MB-newark.bin Resolving speedtest.newark.linode.com (speedtest.newark.linode.com)... 50.116.57.237, 2600:3c03::4b Connecting to speedtest.newark.linode.com (speedtest.newark.linode.com)|50.116.57.237|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: '/dev/null' /dev/null 100%[===================>] 100.00M 11.4MB/s in 8.8s 2016-03-26 22:17:56 (11.4 MB/s) - '/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
And that’s how you throttle an otherwise nice gigabit connection to a mere 100Mbit/s one!
And as with block I/O, you can set an overall network priority with:
lxc config set my-container limits.network.priority 5
Getting the current resource usage
The LXD API exports quite a bit of information on current container resource usage, you can get:
Memory: current, peak, current swap and peak swap
current, peak, current swap and peak swap Disk: current disk usage
current disk usage Network: bytes and packets received and transferred for every interface
And now if you’re running a very recent LXD (only in git at the time of this writing), you can also get all of those in “lxc info”:
stgraber@dakara:~$ lxc info zerotier Name: zerotier Architecture: x86_64 Created: 2016/02/20 20:01 UTC Status: Running Type: persistent Profiles: default Pid: 29258 Ips: eth0: inet 172.17.0.101 eth0: inet6 2607:f2c0:f00f:2700:216:3eff:feec:65a8 eth0: inet6 fe80::216:3eff:feec:65a8 lo: inet 127.0.0.1 lo: inet6 ::1 lxcbr0: inet 10.0.3.1 lxcbr0: inet6 fe80::f0bd:55ff:feee:97a2 zt0: inet 29.17.181.59 zt0: inet6 fd80:56c2:e21c:0:199:9379:e711:b3e1 zt0: inet6 fe80::79:e7ff:fe0d:5123 Resources: Processes: 33 Disk usage: root: 808.07MB Memory usage: Memory (current): 106.79MB Memory (peak): 195.51MB Swap (current): 124.00kB Swap (peak): 124.00kB Network usage: lxcbr0: Bytes received: 0 bytes Bytes sent: 570 bytes Packets received: 0 Packets sent: 0 zt0: Bytes received: 1.10MB Bytes sent: 806 bytes Packets received: 10957 Packets sent: 10957 eth0: Bytes received: 99.35MB Bytes sent: 5.88MB Packets received: 64481 Packets sent: 64481 lo: Bytes received: 9.57kB Bytes sent: 9.57kB Packets received: 81 Packets sent: 81 Snapshots: zerotier/blah (taken at 2016/03/08 23:55 UTC) (stateless)
Conclusion
The LXD team spent quite a few months iterating over the language we’re using for those limits. It’s meant to be as simple as it can get while remaining very powerful and specific when you want it to.
Live application of those limits and inheritance through profiles makes it a very powerful tool to live manage the load on your servers without impacting the running services.
Extra information
The main LXD website is at: https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd
Development happens on Github at: https://github.com/lxc/lxd
Mailing-list support happens on: https://lists.linuxcontainers.org
IRC support happens in: #lxcontainers on irc.freenode.net
And if you don’t want or can’t install LXD on your own machine, you can always try it online instead!You only live twice... and "twice" is the only way to live!
In 1966 Roald Dahl was approached by James Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who asked him if he would be interested in writing the screenplay for You Only Live Twice, the fifth film in the Bond series. Roald agreed and began working on the film with input from LA television writer Harold Jack Bloom.
You Only Live Twice was loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name, but it was the first of the Bond films to discard much of Fleming's original plot. Roald knew Bond's creator Ian Fleming from his war days, though Fleming had died two years before Roald began work on his screenplay. They had been friends, but Roald was not keen on You Only Live Twice. The producers agreed with his opinion that it was not Fleming's best work and allowed Roald and Bloom to amend the story, resulting in a movie plot that differed quite significantly from the original book.
In the film, Bond - played by Sean Connery - travels to Japan at the height of the Cold War, after American and Soviet spacecrafts disappear in orbit. There he faces Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of global terrorist organisation SPECTRE. Some of the plot details in the film were to crop up later in Roald's book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
Upon its release in 1967, You Only Live Twice enjoyed great success. The experience encouraged producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli to ask Roald whether he would be interested in adapting another of Fleming's books - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.Sarah Palin: Govt To Default On Debt; Feds Stockpiling Bullets In Case Of Civil Unrest
(Kevin Cirilli) Sarah Palin says America will eventually default on its debt and claims that the federal government is “stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest” to prepare.
“If we are going to wet our proverbial pants over 0.3% in annual spending cuts when we’re running up trillion dollar annual deficits, then we’re done. Put a fork in us. We’re finished. We’re going to default eventually and that’s why the feds are stockpiling bullets in case of civil unrest,” Palin wrote in a Facebook message Tuesday.
The former GOP governor of Alaska was referring to the sequester, the automatic $1.2 trillion cuts in federal funding that take effect Friday unless lawmakers reach a deal.
“D.C.: Cut the Drama. Do Your Job. Americans are sick and tired of yet another ginned-up crisis. D.C. needs to grow up, get to work, and live within its means,” wrote Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential running mate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
She continued: “The real economic Armageddon looming before us is our runaway debt, not the sequester, which the President advocated for and signed into law and is now running around denouncing because he never had any genuine intention of reining in his reckless spending.”
Palin wrote that she wants lawmakers to “stop the hysterics.”
“If we ARE serious about putting our fiscal house in order, then let’s stop the hysterics, tighten our belts, and take our medicine.”
This article first appeared @ politico
[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]FOR THE first time in its history, Hawthorn will wear an Indigenous guernsey during the AFL’s Indigenous Round this season.
The guernsey, designed by Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri painter Jirra Lulla Harvey, tells the story of the ancient lands that are now the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn and incorporates visual elements that represent the places in which each of the Club’s Indigenous players originate.
To be worn against GWS GIANTS at the MCG in Round 11, the guernsey also features the names of each Indigenous player that has represented Hawthorn, dating back to the Club’s first Indigenous player, Cyril Collard, who made his debut in 1957.
Lulla, who designed the guernsey in consultation with Hawthorn’s Indigenous players and apparel partner adidas said she wanted the guernsey to allow football fans the opportunity to learn more about and celebrate the coming together of cultures.
She says the most important aspect in achieving that aim on the guernsey is across the back neck where it reads, ‘We play with pride on Wurundjeri land.’
“This is the most exciting part for me because the most important part of Indigneous Round in the AFL and the teams having Indigenous guernseys designed is that fans get to learn a little bit about the diverse cultures we have here in Australia,” Lulla told hawthornfc.com.au
“We have over 500 aboriginal nations in Australia and each have their own culture and language.
“For Hawthorn fans to know that their team is playing on land owned by the Wurundjeri people, that’s a big deal I think.”
The back of Hawthorn's Indigenous guernsey.
Lulla met with the Indigenous Hawthorn players before beginning the painting of her guernsey design, who put forward their ideas on what should be represented.
But she too, as a Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri woman needed to consult others and turned to Aunty Joy on the correct ways to represent the land of the Wurundjeri people because of the strict rules of aboriginal culture around who can speak for each country.
Joy, who has been involved in the AFL’s Indigenous Round since its inception and delivers the traditional welcome to country greeting before each match played in Melbourne during the round said it’s the ideas and thoughts that have gone into the artwork of the guernsey that is truly special.
“It’s about the thought of the artwork because if there’s no thought, there’s no meaning, there’s no significance,” she told hawthornfc.com.au
“I really want to compliment the players on their thoughts and ideas and the artist, Jirra as well for her work.”
“It’s quite exciting but it’s also overwhelming to think that this place was once just beautiful lush land with lots of bird and animal activity and of course, a camping place for my people.
“It accentuates what it was but it’s also complimenting the incoming community that came into the Hawthorn area.”
Cyril Rioli, Jirra Lulla, Bradley Hill, Aunty Joy and Shaun Burgoyne with the guernsey.
Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli was one of the players to put forward his ideas for the design of the guernsey and said it’s something, for all he has already achieved, in which he will always be proud.
“It means a lot to me for the Club to design a jumper – there have been a lot of indigenous players roll through the Club,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“It’s something I’m very proud of and happy to be part of.
“I like the jumper and the way it’s designed – it has the Hawthorn story of the way it was back in the day, it’s done up very nicely.”
Shaun Burgoyne, one of the AFL’s Indigenous ambassadors said he can’t wait to see his teammates wear the guernsey in Round 11.
“It means a lot to me and the other indigenous players,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“It’ll be a special moment because all the boys had a say in the design, what we wanted to see in the guernsey and how we wanted it to take shape.
“The round in itself pays respect to indigenous players and the contribution they’ve made to the game in the past and present.
“To see my teammates put the guernsey on will be something special.”
Youngster Bradley Hill, who joined Hawthorn via the 2012 draft and who is developing into one of the game’s best young players said he just can’t wait to pull it on.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever had an indigenous guernsey so it’s going to be a great day,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“I’m sure the boys at the end of the day – ‘Shauny’ (Burgoyne), myself and the other indigenous boys playing will like to get a few photos in it.
“It’s going to be an awesome feeling playing in it.”
Hawthorn’s 2014 Indigenous guernsey is available to purchase at HawksNest online or in-store today.
Cyril Rioli in the guernsey.
What the design elements represent
'We play with pride on Wurundjeri Land'
The Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation are the traditional custodians of the area now known as Hawthorn. The Wurundjeri people speak the Woi Wurrung language.
The river down the front of the guernsey
In the Woi Wurrung language the Yarra River is called the Birrarung, meaning River of Mist. For time immemorial the Birrarung has been an abundant life-source for Wurundjeri people. In this artwork the Birrarung carries the names of all the Indigenous players who have worn the Hawthorn Guernsey and played with pride on the land of the Wurundjeri people.
Silver Cross-hatching
The Birrarung was once bordered by towering gum tress and thick wattle shrub. The area now known as Hawthorn, which was once a lush landscape with a jungle like canopy, is situated in the City of Boroondara. In the Woi Wurrung language Boroondara means Shady Place. The cross-hatching patterns represent the dappled light that would make its way through this thick bush canopy.
Red Paths and Meeting Grounds
The red paths and circle designs represent the many meeting places along the Birrarung, places that continue to hold great cultural and spiritual significance to the traditional custodians of the Hawthorn area.
Jordan Lewis models the guernsey.Study: we assume people stare at us
THE VISION CENTRE 9 APR 2013
Image: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock The study examined how people judge where someone is looking, and found that, if the brain is in doubt, it will assume someone is staring at them.
People often think that other people are staring at them even when they aren’t, vision scientists have found.
In a new article in Current Biology, researchers at The Vision Centre reveal that, when in doubt, the human brain is more likely to tell its owner that they’re under the gaze of another person.
“Gaze perception – the ability to tell what a person is looking at – is a social cue that people often take for granted,” says Professor Colin Clifford of The Vision Centre and The University of Sydney.
“Judging if others are looking at us may come naturally, but it’s actually not that simple – our brains have to do a lot of work behind the scenes.”
To tell if they’re under someone’s gaze, people look at the position of the other person’s eyes and the direction of their heads, Prof. Clifford explains. These visual cues are then sent to the brain where there are specific areas that compute this information.
However, the brain doesn’t just passively receive information from the eyes, Prof. Clifford says. The new study shows that when people have limited visual cues, such as in dark conditions or when the other person is wearing sunglasses, the brain takes over with what it ‘knows’.
In their study, the Vision Centre researchers created images of faces and asked people to observe where the faces were looking.
“We made it difficult for the observers to see where the eyes were pointed so they would have to rely on their prior knowledge to judge the faces’ direction of gaze,” Prof. Clifford explains. “It turns out that we’re hard-wired to believe that others are staring at us, especially when we’re uncertain.
“So gaze perception doesn’t only involve visual cues – our brains generate assumptions from our experiences and match them with what we see at a particular moment.”
There are several speculations to why humans have this bias, Prof. Clifford says. “Direct gaze can signal dominance or a threat, and if you perceive something as a threat, you would not want to miss it. So assuming that the other person is looking at you may simply be a safer strategy.”
“Also, direct gaze is often a social cue that the other person wants to communicate with us, so it’s a signal for an upcoming interaction.”
There is also evidence that babies have a preference for direct gaze, which suggests that this bias is innate, Prof. Clifford says. “It’s important that we find out whether it’s innate or learned – and how this might affect people with certain mental conditions.
“Research has shown, for example, that people who have autism are less able to tell whether someone is looking at them. People with social anxiety, on the other hand, have a higher tendency to think that they are under the stare of others.
“So if it is a learned behaviour, we could help them practice this task – one possibility is letting them observe a lot of faces with different eyes and head directions, and giving them feedback on whether their observations are accurate.”
The study “Humans have an expectation that gaze is directed toward them” by Isabelle Mareschal, Andrew J. Calder and Colin W.G. Clifford has been published in the latest issue of Current Biology.A long while ago I played in a game where our large, physical center forward was dismissed from the field of play by a referee who turned out to be surprisingly eagle-eyed for an middle-aged, fat man who’s glasses looked like they had been issued at least twenty years earlier by an over-worked National Health Service optician and who, like all truly top class referees, never felt the need to venture outside the center circle. Having missed the incident in question myself I asked our player for clarification over post-match libations. “That ba$t#5d defender was annoying me – so I cautioned him with an elbow” – was the succinct reply. Fair enough, no more needed to be said on the matter.
If the Northern Amateur Football League had a DISCO committee it would probably have been organizing a recently paroled DJ with a van-load of stolen equipment to attend the end of season awards dinner. But while MLS does not possess referees with NHS super-specs they do have a clandestine body of 5 individuals, one of whom allegedly has refereeing qualifications, to scrupulously review every last second of the weekend’s game tape looking for victims.
In the process of reviewing a random assortment of ‘incidents’ the DISCO5 are to adhere to the following ‘principles and parameters‘ :
Where the referee sees an incident and does not issue a red card, the Committee will not, in general, issue a suspension, unless:
The play in question is, in the unanimous opinion of the Committee from all available video evidence, a clear and unequivocal red card; AND
The play in question is, in the unanimous opinion of the Committee, of an egregious or reckless nature, such that the Committee must act to protect player safety or the integrity of the game.
It could certainly be argued Adi’s use of the elbow went over and above normal attacker/defender tussling and into reckless territory and that Opara’s safety could have been compromised if the elbow had actually connected with his face. I would prefer to see the committee keep their hammer reserved for truly egregious incidents, but Adi cannot complain given that they upgraded Kendall Waston’s elbow to his midriff in the final game of last season against Vancouver from a yellow to red card.
But freshly slaughtered emu-meat, pickled snow-leopard testicles, Armand de Brignac champagne and PBR sixers do not find their way to the DISCO5 lair cheaply, they must earn their keep and so Adi is out for this weekend’s Cascadian clash.
The Timbers will consult their ‘depth chart’ of center forwards and find that it consists only of John Seamus ‘Jack’ McInerney’s recently scratched out name. While very effectively strengthening their midfield unit in the off-season, Portland’s forward strategy seems to have been to hope Fanendo Adi is good to for 90 minutes every week. That’s probably not all that bad an idea, as the big man is remarkably durable. They do have one noteworthy addition to the attacking short-list in 20-year old Jeremy Ebobisse, but while he has made the 18 in recent weeks there are no noises emanating from the Timbers camp to indicate they see him as ready to lead the line at the point in his development. Instead they will likely rely on Darren Mattocks.
While mainly used as a winger in Portland, on the occasions when they deign to actually use their bench, the Jamaican has plenty of experience up front and will relish the prospect of taking on his former colleagues from the Whitecaps. It will be interesting to see how he works with Portland’s much vaunted attacking trio of Nagbe, Valeri and Blanco. The Timbers have been looking to spread the scoring burden wider this season – Chara, Guzman and even Nagbe, with his first goal from play since the Fall of 2015, have all chipped in already. But luckily for Portland Adi and Valeri have shown no sign of their 2016 form slowing down with 5 goals apiece in only 7 games so far in 2017.
Portland have had a great start to the season, but the next month with tell us what they are really all about. Sure it was fun slapping an expansion side around – that was the most ruthless beating of a Mid-Westerner since that giant Native American guy whipped Steve Buscemi around a Fargo hotel room with his belt back in 1996. Still at least Minnesota United were wearing more than socks at the time. Away wins at a 10-man LA and Eastern Conference bottom feeder Philly – are still two more road wins than they had all of last season. Of Portland’s 4 victories so far only Houston currently occupy a play-off spot.
The Timbers had their first real test last week and they failed it with a now familiar 1-0 home defeat to Sporting Kansas City. Peter Vermes’ men are becoming Caleb Porter’s nemesis -at least in the regular season. They play a tough brand of football and are savvy enough to work the referee for everything he has to offer. The Timbers played a bit like they had no preparation file on Drew Fischer, apparently he has called large numbers of fouls against Portland in the past and the same was readily apparent in this game after only ten minutes. But they continued to make silly little fouls all game giving KC the chance to milk Fischer like the DISCO5’s serfs milk goats for their master’s morning porridge.
Portland’s attacking plan started to look quite nice toward the end of the first half, Nagbe came deep as usual and on occasion Blanco would shift into his left wing slot putting pressure on converted KC right back Graham Zusi as Guzman also pushed high in support. It almost paid off with a few turnovers in the KC half, but Adi and Valeri both didn’t have their best games – and whether Portland have reliable alternate scorers to compensate for such days remains a question.
Despite not featuring on the list of goal-scorers just yet, Sebastián Blanco looks perfect for MLS. He was Portland’s best player against Kansas, getting stuck into them like they were a cross-town rival from Buenos Aires instead of some team he had never seen before. The Timbers have had a couple of failed attempts to find another Argentinian midfielder to complement Diego Valeri. Gaston Fernandez had all the skill but none of the work-rate and physicality required in this league. Lucas Melano has athleticism in abundance, but couldn’t match it with finishing or even consistent ball control. Third time’s a charm – Blanco is the real deal.
Two good feet, nice passing and movement, crossing ability and it seems that tacking is possibly his favorite thing to do on the field. He gets into it with a ferocity that seems forged from a lifetime of delighting in proving bigger players and doubting coaches wrong about his small physique. He just needs to get around to showing off his shooting ability.
The back four has been Portland’s main concern this year but their loss to Kansas was down to the front six. Adi was isolated too much and had a bit of an off day, the three attacking midfielders didn’t quite get things right and Chara and Guzman behind them both had days to forget. In 2014 with Valeri, Nagbe and Fernandez in the attacking slots Portland at times played with two too many play-makers on the field – there was a worrying hint of this in the KC game as well. Valeri’s attitude and style have changed since 2014, he is a perfect MLS player now and as mentioned Blanco looks born for this league so they should figure it out – one of the three, ideally Nagbe, needs to make a lot more direct, vertical runs to connect with Adi.
Failing that they do have two very direct players on the bench in Mattocks and Asprilla, those have seen limited minutes so far, in both the loss to KC and the home tie with New England many felt Porter should have looked to his bench a little earlier. Portland claimed to be deeper in every position this season, they need to show it is more than just on paper.
In a battle like Kansas bring, the defensive midfield axis of Chara and Guzman had to have great games. Instead they looked a little confused about their roles. Guzman pushed way too high from his number 6 job protecting the back four and his passing and tackling were well below par, it was something of a relief to hear afterwards that he had been a doubt with flu symptoms before the game. He will need to be back in top form for his first Cascadian derby.
The back four were fine against Kansas, Alvas Powell has felt some heat about abandoning his right back slot on their goal, but with Chara and Guzman AWOL following a quick transition he might have been right to try to cover his central defenders. Marco Farfan at left back has been a revelation at only 18 – the whole development side of the organization will be very proud of how he has slotted in during Vytas’ injury. However, KC was a step too far for him, he got sucked into some fouls in dangerous areas by sneaky old pros and didn’t offer much in the attack. It looks time for Vytas to come back and steady the ship. Farfan can wait for his next chance and that a local teenager can push an international player for a slot is healthy sign.
Liam Ridgewell also seems ready to return, but whether he can earn his left side of the central partnership back is questionable. Roy Miller had another excellent game against Kansas, perhaps Porter will slot him in on the other side for Olum, but the Englishman may have to wait a little while. Freddie Montero’s predatory movement in the box was the main reason Vancouver defeated a Seattle team who looked better than them for large parts of the game last week. The Colombian did a nice job of pretending not to enjoy scoring against Seattle, but he would be only too delighted to celebrate in front of his old friends in the Timbers Army this week. Whoever the central partnership is for Portland they will need a body touch-tight to Montero at all times.
Looking down the schedule the KC and Vancouver games are only the start of a tricky stretch for Portland. They visit Dallas and San Jose next, followed by a home game to Atlanta (who are not cut from the same expansion cloth as Minnesota) before two more road games in Montreal and Seattle. When that section of the fixture list is complete we will know a lot more about this Portland side.
Portland Feb 26 MLS 2019: Portland Timbers Feb 25 Welcome to Rose City Jorge Moreira Feb 17 The Portland Timbers on three Feb 17 The Portland Timbers hunt for a right back has reached its end Feb 17 A couple of wins on Costa Rican soil uplift the Portland Timbers outlook for 2019 February, 2019
[/column]Around December last year, 20-something Karachiite Zara* felt desolate as though she had no one in her life she could talk to.
She felt uncomfortable seeking advice from her mother regarding her love life. She wasn’t getting the answers she wanted from her friends, and the concept of talking to a professional would have mortified her conservative family.
“I’d open up to my parents and they’d dismiss me and say it was all in my head,” she recalls. “Or they’d give me generic advice that you’d find on a cheesy Tumblr page, like ‘You can’t live a positive life with a negative mind’ or ‘Life’s too short to be sad.’ They just didn’t get it.”
So in May, when a girl she had attended school with invited her to join Soul Bitches (SB), a private Facebook group claiming to be a haven for like-minded women and those who have been given the short end of the stick in the public realm for far too long, she thought she’d found her safe space online — as a spectator of course.
Women from all walks of life get to interact with each other on such communities
Women in Pakistan certainly have a presence on general social networks, but sites specifically for women are increasingly gaining women members, creating platforms for them to connect and to share advice.
Women use these closed groups to support one another through careers, marriage, motherhood, parenting and everyday lives, inspiring each other or finding others who share an interest. Through conversation and compassion, these like-minded communities of women are empowering each other.
Within a couple of weeks, over 3,000 women had joined the group, from all walks of life, mostly from all over Pakistan but a lot from other parts of the world as well.
Today the strength of this group has more than doubled and it boasts of over 7,000 members. This is |
After graduating from the Infantry Officer Basic Course and Ranger School, Viola reported to duty with the 101st Airborne Division. Viola remained a member of the U.S. Army Reserve after the completion of his active duty service. In 1983, he received his J.D. from New York Law School.
In the 1980s, Viola worked as a trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and also founded the first of many business ventures, including Pioneer Futures and the Independent Bank Group. After a long and influential career, Viola was appointed Chairman of NYMEX in March 2001.
Viola’s leadership of NYMEX on and after 9/11 resulted in the board of Exchange recognizing his actions with a citation that included this statement: “His heroic leadership served as a beacon to thousands of Exchange members and staff, providing us with the fortitude to resume operations and preserve the efficiency of the American economy and global energy and metals markets in the face of this great tragedy.” In 2008, Viola founded Virtu Financial, a global leader in electronic market making, and took the company public in 2015.
Viola has also been deeply involved in a number of philanthropic causes. Viola has endowed the Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. Chair in Catholic Theology at Fordham University and is a major supporter of the Catholic Leadership Institute and its mission to provide world-class leadership formation to bishops, priests and deacons. He is also the owner of the NHL’s Florida Panthers.
Viola lives in New York City with his wife Teresa. They have three adult sons.
***
Additional congratulations to the Florida Panthers for getting a mention before Viola’s family and geographic location.
In the meantime, we look forward to the eventual meeting between the Joint Chiefs in which Viola sends his son as his proxy, like he did with the NHL Draft …
And, obviously, we wonder if Vinny Viola knows more about ISIS than the generals as well.
—
Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
MORE FROM YAHOO SPORTSThese white guys aren’t op-ed writers even though they’re directly in front of a newspaper building. Just some angry postal workers.
Photo by KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GettyImages
Trolling the universe this morning, Richard Cohen wrote a column arguing that it wasn’t racist of George Zimmerman to suspect Trayvon Martin of being a criminal because everyone knows that a disproportionate share of violent crimes are in fact committed by young black men.
I think what Cohen really means to be arguing isn’t so much that neither he nor Zimmerman are racists, but that racism is the correct social and political posture. That white people have good reason to fear black men, and that therefore all black men should be put in a subordinate position. But as a logical argument, Cohen here is falling afoul of very poor statistical inference. For example, the vast majority of newspaper op-ed columnists in America are white men just like Richard Cohen. But that doesn’t mean it’s reasonable to see a white man walking down the street and assume he’s a newspaper columnist. If you look specifically at Jewish men, you’ll see the stereotype that we are disproportionately represented in the field of political commentary is absolutely accurate. And yet it is still not reasonable to assume that some randomly selected Jewish man is a professional political writer. Even right here on the mean streets of Washington, D.C.—a city that’s legendary for its high rate of punditry—a clear majority of Jewish men are not pundits. It’s just a very rare occupation.
By the same token, the fact that young black men are disproportionately likely to be involved in violent crime in no way licenses the inference that you should stop random black men on the street and begin treating them like criminals.
For example, since moving to a majority black city 10 years ago, it is the case that 100 percent of the people who randomly assaulted me on the street were African-American. And yet that was a single incident on one day out of thousands. The overwhelming preponderance of black men I walk past on the street on a day-to-day basis—even the young ones, even the ones wearing hoodies—aren’t committing any violent crimes. If I were to start questioning every single black male teenager I come across as a criminal suspect, I would very much be engaged in unreasonable behavior. Now everyone makes mistakes, but the fact that Richard Cohen has been making this mistake in print for over 25 years leads me to think he just doesn’t care. He knows most young black men aren’t dangerous criminals, but he nonetheless thinks they should all be held under a cloud of preemptive suspicion anyway.Richard Morse is the Legal Director of the ACLU of Delaware. (Photo: Photo provided.)
Last week in an 8 to 1 decision the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Florida death penalty was unconstitutional. Applying the reasoning of that decision, Hurst v. Florida, to the current Delaware death penalty statute should result in it also being found unconstitutional. If that happens, it will be the fourth time since 1972 that a Delaware death penalty statute has been invalidated.
In 1972, as the Delaware Criminal Code was being enacted, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Furman v. Georgia, which rendered the new Delaware death penalty law unconstitutional, so the legislature amended the statute. A few years later, in 1977, another Supreme Court ruling, Woodson v. North Carolina, made the amended statute unconstitutional, so Delaware adopted yet another version. This corrected statute included the fundamental requirement that, before the state could execute a defendant, the jury would have to unanimously decide upon death. This unanimity requirement was (and still is) shared by the overwhelming majority of death penalty states.
In 1991, Delaware eliminated the unanimity requirement and turned the jury vote on life or death into a mere recommendation, giving the judge alone the power to make the life or death determination. In 2002, another U. S. Supreme Court decision demonstrated that the 1991 statute was unconstitutional. The legislature changed the law again, but left the life or death determination in the hands of a single judge. That has now placed the validity of the 2002 Delaware statute in doubt.
The current Delaware statute requires a “hybrid” form of sentencing to decide whether someone who has been convicted of first degree murder will be imprisoned for life without parole or put to death. First, after a sentencing hearing, the jury must tell the judge whether it has unanimously found at least one statutory aggravating circumstance. This unanimous decision is required for a death sentence. Next, the jury decides whether it recommends that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, justifying a sentence of death. That weighing recommendation need not be unanimous.
Finally, the judge independently decides whether the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, giving the jury recommendation whatever weight he or she deems appropriate. Upon a judge’s finding that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, the defendant is sentenced to death.
Under longstanding Delaware criminal law, the jury must unanimously find every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet the Delaware Supreme Court has ruled several times that the current death penalty statute is constitutional even though it requires that the judge, not the jury, make the finding necessary for a death sentence.
Hurst v. Florida ruled the Florida statute unconstitutional because it required the judge to “determine whether sufficient aggravating circumstances existed to justify imposing the death penalty.” The Supreme Court did not limit its ruling to only a statute like Florida’s, which required the judge to decide whether there was any aggravating circumstance. Instead, the Court expanded the impact of its ruling. It overruled older cases that had said “the Sixth Amendment does not require that the specific findings authorizing the imposition of the sentence of death be made by the jury.” That and the result in Hurst imperil the validity of the Delaware statute. Because Delaware law must be consistent with controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the courts will very likely to be asked to follow Hurst v. Florida, and rule that Delaware’s statute is unconstitutional.
But there is no reason to wait for another court decision and then have a legislative battle over whether Delaware should once again try to enact a constitutional death penalty statute. It is time, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, for our state to “no longer tinker with the machinery of death.” A bill to end Delaware’s death penalty has passed the State Senate twice and has been bottled up in a House of Representatives committee during the past two legislative sessions. That bill, Senate Bill 40, should be brought to a vote in the House, so that if a majority of Representatives also agree, Delaware can be done once and for all with trying to figure out if there is a constitutional way to put its citizens to death.
Richard Morse is the legal director of the ACLU of Delaware.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1V77lsaThe Winnipeg Jets are enjoying the best start to a season in their franchise’s history. Fans and management are finally seeing the progression that years of quality draft picks have provided them.
Mark Scheifele, the team’s first selection in 2011, is proving himself as a top-10 NHL centerman. Many believe that the skilled duo of Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, drafted second-overall and ninth-overall, respectively, are two of the most exciting players in the game.
One of those excellent first-round picks is often overlooked because of the surplus of high-end skill dressing on a nightly basis. Josh Morrissey is an absolute stud on the backend for the Jets and they continue to see the 22-year-old taking exciting steps forward in his game.
One Step At a Time
After almost 230 games with the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders, the Calgary native brought his calming presence to the Jets’ then-American Hockey League affiliate, St. John’s IceCaps, in 2013-14.
Morrissey played only eight regular-season contests that year but became truly impactful dressing in 20 playoff games. Aside from his nine points in those starts, the Jets got a first-hand look at how his game could translate to the pro level. Despite impressing in his limited action, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and Jets’ brass felt another year in junior could benefit the 2013 first-rounder with cleaning up the finer details in his game.
The Raiders eventually dealt Morrissey to the Kelowna Rockets, who were loaded for a Memorial Cup run including the likes of Leon Draisaitl, Nick Merkley, and Madison Bowey. In 33 regular season and playoff games with the Rockets, Morrissey picked up 31 points.
The Calgary Royals alumni graduated from the junior level and turned pro full-time with the Manitoba Moose in 2015-16. Morrissey earned his necessary reps playing in all situations which led to him seeing his first NHL action late in the season for a game against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Morrissey, the More I Like
The 22-year-old only required the single season of AHL experience to make the jump to the big club which was surprising to many, including the Jets’ head coach.
“I am surprised, and you never like to admit that because it sounds like you didn’t have faith. Watching him play now, he’s so much further along in his development that we could possibly have expected,” said Paul Maurice.
Dressing in all 82 games, the six-foot defender picked up an honest 20 points. It wasn’t a spectacular season offensively by any means, but that isn’t Morrissey’s game. The offense will likely increase with time but he makes his money by playing a simplistic, consistent game.
With the struggles Jacob Trouba has endured this season paired with the recent Tobias Enstrom injury which will hold him out of action for up to eight weeks, Morrissey’s value to the team has skyrocketed but that hasn’t changed the big picture.
“At this point in the year, we still have a long ways to go for where we want to get to and the goals we have as a group,” said Morrissey.
As a left shot, he compliments the glut of skilled right-handed defenders on the squad including Dustin Byfuglien, Tyler Myers, and the aforementioned Trouba. This combination of lefties and righties may result in Morrissey becoming an even larger part of the Jets core.
With a team-best plus-9, Morrissey continues his steady presence. He is fourth among Jets defencemen in time on ice per game averaging 19:04 and seldom sees time on the power play. He does, however, average 2:18 shorthanded per game and is first on the team with 54 blocked shots.
The 2013 WHL Scholastic Player of the Year ranks third on the team with 51 hits, only nine back of Dustin Byfuglien, who has five inches and 65 pounds on him. His offensive and defensive zone starts are an exactly even split with 128 starts in each zone, showing the coach is far from sheltering him.
With the improvement and success demonstrated at each level he has played at, I don’t see why anyone can see a ceiling in sight for Morrissey. While his offense is slow coming, his defensive play has shown every indication that he is on pace to become a top-pairing defender.Israeli Soldiers Caught on Camera Assaulting and Throwing Stones at Journalists
Israeli soldiers have been caught on camera assaulting two photojournalists in an incident that has attracted widespread criticism both within Israel and abroad.
The video showed a number of Israeli soldiers hitting and pushing around two photojournalists. One of the soldiers is captured on camera throwing a stone at one of the journalists before pushing him to the ground.
After the two journalists are forcibly pushed away, one soldier is seen throwing another stone as they walked away.
The two journalists were clearly marked as members of the press, yet this did not prevent the soldiers from assaulting them while shouting “Get out of here!”
In response to the video, the IDF spokesman said that the behavior was “reprehensible” and that the soldiers would be investigated for their actions.
“The IDF guidelines allow for free press coverage in the territory under control of the Central Command in general, and specifically during demonstrations. The matter will be investigated,” said the IDF’s spokesperson to Haaretz.
The two photographers had been documenting a protest of some 70 Palestinians that had gathered in a closed military zone to demonstrate.
Subscribe to our newsletterElite: Dangerous on PlayStation 4
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Elite: Dangerous, will be available to the whole PlayStation 4 community in Q2 2017 (April/June)!
Are you ready to join the Galactic Community and start a career, pilot? Elite will be fully adapted for the PS4 and PS4 pro, to get the best out of the console. No information regarding the PS4VR so far, but there is no doubt that we will learn more about the release in the coming months.
It goes without saying that the SONY fans will benefit from all the content already available on PC and Xbox One.
The trailer in details
Some teasers around the Update 2.3, we can see a commander walking in his cockpit (Spacelegs!) and a crewwoman sat in the secondary seat of the marvelous Cobra. Let’s hope it’s not a marketing move, and that we will really be able to walk into our ships.
There is also a station implanted in an asteroid!
This feature has been one of the dreams of the community. It could finally be here, in-game.
The Dolphin has been spotted as well.
This upcoming ship would be the tiniest of the Specialized Passengers transports ships.
We also could have a cosmetic feature on our pilots suits in 2.3: the Pilot Rank.
What do you think? Fancy a shiny rank on your left shoulder?
Be prepared to welcome the PlayStation 4 community into our Elite: Dangerous world, in 2017.
No information on Cross-Play at the moment, we will keep you updated about this possible feature.Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, the longest cave in the world, has now been surveyed to an amazing 400 miles (643 kilometers).
The announcement was made by Mammoth Cave National Park Superintendent Sarah Craighead and Cave Research Foundation President Charles Fox during Friday’s Mammoth Cave Research Symposium.
The expansion of the Mammoth Cave system in the last few years has been a matter of incremental additions to many parts of the cave rather than a single major discovery that pushed the cave past 400 miles. In recent years we have resurveyed sections of the cave so that we can produce more detailed maps that meet modern mapping standards, as well as exploring and mapping previously unexplored passages. Charles Fox, Cave Research Foundation President
The milestone was reached thanks to a cooperative effort between the National Park Service, the Central Kentucky Karst Coalition, and the Cave Research Foundation who has a general agreement with the Park to explore, survey, and map the cave. Mapping the cave is important as it allows the Park to better protect its geological and biological underground resources.
The Cave Research Foundation has been a key partner with Mammoth Cave since 1956, sharing our commitment to cave and karst stewardship. Their volunteers make things happen that otherwise would not be possible. Sarah Craighead, Mammoth Cave National Park Superintendent
In 2012 alone, Cave Research Foundation volunteer contributed 10,669 hours to Mammoth Cave National Park, an estimated value of more than $230,000.
Mammoth Cave hits 400 miles [Mammoth Cave National Park via @OutsideTravelin on Twitter and reader Alex Sproul]Police say three men brandishing a machete robbed Pizza Hut in Broadway Ave, Palmerston North on Monday night.
A stolen car was used in the robbery of a Pizza Hut where three people entered the store with a machete and stole $400.
The robbery took place at 11pm on Monday, June 6, at Pizza Hut in Broadway Ave, Palmerston North.
The offenders entered the store just before it was due to close and were wearing balaclavas and armed with a machete, police said.
MURRAY WILSON/FAIRFAX NZ Police cordoned off Pizza Hut in Broadway Ave, Palmerston North.
One was also wearing a high-visibility vest.
Money was demanded from two staff members who were present.
Police said the staff members were understandably shaken but not physically harmed during the incident.
The offenders took money after remaining in the store for several minutes before leaving in a black Ford Falcon saloon believed to have been stolen earlier in the evening.
They fled along Albert St, then east along Main St towards the city boundary.
Police are eager to hear from any members of the public who saw any suspicious people or dark-coloured vehicles in the area of Pizza Hut around the time of the robbery.
They also wanted to hear about any sightings of a dark-coloured vehicle that looked suspicious in the Awapuni and Kelvin Grove areas, particularly near Roberts Line.
Any information could be provided to Detective Carl Newton on 06 213 9578 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.Dennis tested positive for HIV in March of 1994. Dennis went to the clinic after he had been suffering with the worst strep throat and mouth ulcers for ten days. They gave him an antibiotic and the strep throat went away, three days later his lymph nodes swelled to golf ball size. When Dennis went back to the clinic, they told him that they had run the HIV test on him (without his knowledge) and he was positive. He had no idea he was going to be finding out the results that day.
Lorenzo tested positive for HIV in November of 2008 when he was 21 years old. Lorenzo had a feeling he was positive and got tested after his then sexual partner told him he had AIDS. After Lorenzo was told by the doctor, he started crying. "I'm not crying because I'm HIV positive... I'm crying because it is the end of what was, I'm crying because I let myself get this way."
Lorenzo has been living with HIV for 4 years and Dennis has been living with HIV for 18 years.Story highlights ISIS within 3 kilometers of Syrian Kurdish town, resident says
ISIS is trying to capture a final stretch of land on its way to the Turkish border
"If the situation stays like this, we will see a massacre," says official in Kobani, Syria
The U.S. underestimated ISIS and overestimated Iraqi troops, Obama tells "60 Minutes"
The U.S.-led coalition intensified its airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq -- but that may not be enough to stop the terror group's bloody march.
ISIS is closing in on the key Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani near the Turkish border, a civilian inside the city told CNN.
The terror group is 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) east of Kobani, the civilian said on the condition of anonymity, basically confirming a report from the London-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
If ISIS takes Kobani, it would control a complete swath of land from its self-declared capital of Raqqa to the Turkish border, more than 100 kilometers (more than 60 miles) away.
Residents of Kobani said they felt helpless, and terrified.
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Despite airstrikes in the area, witnesses said the attacks are too few and too far back from the front lines to slow the momentum of the terror group.
"We need help. We need weapons. We need more effective airstrikes," Kobani official Idriss Nassan said. "If the situation stays like this, we will see a massacre. I can't imagine what will happen if ISIS gets inside Kobani."
The Observatory, whose information comes from a well-established network of activists, doctors and civilians across parts of Syria, said Monday that ISIS fighters were about 5 kilometers to the east and southeast of Kobani, also known as Ayn al Arab.
"My question is: why don't you attack ISIS near Kobani," said Rami Abdulrahman, founder and director of the Observatory.
US claims successes
The U.S. military believes the ongoing bombing campaign in Syria has degraded ISIS command and control capabilities, according to a briefing to reporters by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, assistant deputy chief of staff for the Air Force.
There is evidence that ISiS is unable to amass troops, he said.
The Air Force reports that its F-22s are achieving good results not just by dropping bombs, but by keeping an eye out for anything being fired from the ground.
About three-fourths of the airstrikes in Iraq have been carried out by the U.S. Air Force, which is also responsible for about half of the strikes in Syria.
The latest attacks
So far, the United States and allies have conducted at least 229 airstrikes in Iraq and 59 airstrikes in Syria.
Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined the United States in pummeling ISIS targets in Syria, U.S. Central Command said. Those attacks took out armed vehicles and also hit four ISIS-controlled modular refineries and an ISIS command-and-control node north of the stronghold of Raqqa, the U.S. military said.
On Sunday night, U.S. military forces targeted to an ISIL-held grain storage facility near Manbij, U.S. Central Command said. The facility was being used by ISIL as a logistics hub and vehicle staging facility, it said.
Adbulrahman of the Syrian Observatory said the strikes in Manbij killed at least two workers at the grain silos.
"We are aware of media reports alleging civilian casualties, but have no evidence to corroborate these claims," said Col. Patrick S. Ryder, Director, Public Affairs at the U.S. Central Command. "I can assure you that before any mission, every precaution is taken to ensure we do not harm civilians or civilian facilities. However, we take all such reports seriously and will look into them further."
Separately a second US official confirms they are looking into a small number of civilian casualties at one targeted site.
On the Iraq side of the border, fighter jets and drones conducted at least four airstrikes over the weekend: one near Baghdad that destroyed an ISIS safe house and three near Falluja that destroyed two ISIS checkpoints and a transport vehicle, the U.S. military said.
Syrian Deputy Prime Minister at U.N.
Meanwhile Syria is lashing out at what it calls U.S. double standards.
The Syrian Deputy Prime Minister spoke before the United Nations General Assembly Monday, and said supporting the so-called moderate Syrians with money, weapons and training would only make the situation worse.
"This is a real recipe for the increase of violence and terrorism, and the bloodshed -- and Syrian bloodshed and prolonging the Syrian crisis and demolishing the political solution," Al-Walid Al-Moualem said.
"This behavior creates a fertile ground for the growth of those terrorist groups that commit the most heinous crimes on Syrian territories, which requires all of us to seriously and effectively address and eradicate this terrorism, in order to re-establish security and stability in Syria and the region."
Al-Moualem urged the international community to pool efforts to combat terrorism.
Obama: We underestimated ISIS
In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," President Barack Obama said the U.S. government "underestimated what had been taking place in Syria" during its civil war -- allowing the country to become "ground zero for jihadists around the world."
"Over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos," Obama said.
Another shortcoming was overestimating Iraq's security forces, which were quickly overrun by ISIS when it took over Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul, Obama said.
In recent weeks, Obama has been trying to boost an international coalition to fight ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
Despite the U.S. initially overestimating Iraq's military, "This is America leading the international community to assist a country with whom we have a security partnership with, to make sure that they are able to take care of their business," Obama told "60 Minutes."
"If we do our job right and the Iraqis fight, then over time our role can slow down and taper off."
ISIS militant: Airstrikes don't really hurt us
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Syrian ISIS fighter Abu Talha said the militant group had prepared for the U.S.-led airstrikes.
"We've been ready for this for some time," Abu Talha said. "We know that our bases are known because they're tracking us with radars and satellites, so we had backup locations."
One man who recently defected from ISIS said part of the group's strategy was to hide its resources in civilian areas.
"They almost entirely emptied out the headquarters," the defector, Abu Omar, told CNN's Arwa Damon after he fled to Turkey. "Some equipment they hid in civilian neighborhoods. Some they hid underground."
Abu Omar also said ISIS relies heavily on foreign fighters, including Westerners.
"The French, they have so much control -- they're even more extreme than we are," the defector said. "They come from France, but it's as if they have been part of the Islamic State for years."
What Americans think
According to a new CNN/ORC International poll, 73% percent of Americans support the U.S.-led coalition of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria -- and most believe ISIS poses some level of threat to the United States
But a majority -- 60% -- also oppose sending ground troops in the fight.
Even though Obama has said he will not put combat troops in the region, the United States does have military advisers on the ground training and helping the Iraqi army strategically as it battles ISIS.Javier Mascherano claims Lionel Messi is the only player who is bigger than FC Barcelona.
Sport EN
In the club magazine he was asked about his team-mate for club and country, and the Argentine said: "He is indispensable. Leo is a unique player. We are talking about the best player in history, in this sport and of this club.
"There have been very important players in the last few years at Barcelona. Players who will stay in the history of the club. I think it's a big error to think that when you leave the club, the club will suffer.
"No, the club is bigger than any player, any other player, except for Leo. That's the reality and you have to accept it."
Mascherano had said that "the big error for a footballer is to think you are indispensable" and he's clear that beyond Messi, there are no players of that ilk.Give some young people cameras and copious amounts of alcohol and chances are, they won't be able to resist doing something stupid.
But the recent deaths of at least four youths have cast a shadow over what was originally intended to be a fun online forum to record one’s own drunken stupidity.
Neknomination, as it is called, is an online drinking game fuelled by YouTube video posts in which one person does something they deem daring while drinking at the same time — then they tag two friends to one-up them within the next 24 hours.
One young man skateboarded through traffic while drinking. One poured a bottle of hard liquor into a toilet bowl and then got two friends to hold his legs up while he did a handstand over the toilet and drank the alcohol.
Another young man poured a mickey of vodka into a glass, cracked three eggs into it, snorted a spoonful of creatine and then downed his awful concoction.
One Canadian man made one of himself drinking a glass of maple syrup, calling it a "French kiss from Mother Nature."
Concordia University Gregory Lee says he found out about neknominations two weeks ago.
He saw it spread like wildfire through his social media network — and then he got nominated by a friend at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que.
He says it didn’t even occur to him to not do the video.
“Not really, because, well from it being posted on Facebook, everyone then kind of has expectations for you to be posting your video within that 24 hours,” Lee says.
He says he chugged some beer and then a bloody Caesar after riding a scooter in his apartment. He made a video, posted it to YouTube and tagged two of his friends, including one on a student exchange in Switzerland.
McGill student sick of neknominations
McGill University student Benjamin Ger is sick of the neknominations after seeing some of his fellow students participate.
The 18-year-old made a video of his own about the online fad, asking people to “feed the deed” instead — that is, doing good deeds, making a video about it and then tagging friends to do the same.
“How about instead, I will do something nice, like donate some money to charity, and when I nominate two other people you guys try and do something nice,” Ger says.
He got a lot of good responses from friends in and outside of Montreal.
“People are interested,” he says.
McGill officials aware of neknominations
Officials at McGill University say they are aware of the online drinking game.
While there is no policy that prohibits alcohol in students residences, officials say they are reaching out to students through public information sessions.
"The message is to be responsible, and the message is that alcohol is not a game and it is not to be abused," said André Costopoulos, the dean of students at McGill University. "Stay safe and do responsible things."Earlier this week, Chance the Rapper announced he was getting a sit-down meeting with Bruce Rauner, the Republican governor of Illinois, in order to discuss education funding for the state. The announcement followed the governor’s public congratulations of Chance, who took home three Grammy awards during last month’s ceremony, and Chance’s response that he would “love” to meet with him. Though the meeting was postponed because of weather problems that swamped Illinois this week, it was rescheduled for Friday morning.
Judging from reports, it did not go well. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Chance and Rauner spoke for 30 minutes in Chicago about the $215 million set aside for the Chicago public school system that collapsed in an errant budget deal. “He asked me where I thought the $215 million was supposed to come from,” Chance said. He later said his message was “take our kids off the table.”
Reporters captured Chance leaving his meeting with the governor, where they asked about the interaction. In an exchange posted by WTTW’s Amanda Vinicky, a noticeably muted Chance said: “The kids are on the table right now. We spoke for a second, and it sounded like we were going somewhere, but it sounds like it’s hinged on passing another bill. I’m not a politician.” NBC’s Mary Ann Ahern characterized Chance as “not happy,” and reported that Chance told the governor “do your job” as he left. Chance also said the governor gave him a lot of “vague answers,” and implored local and national publications—specifically, Complex and Billboard—to give “a comprehensive history on how we ended up here.”
Hear from @chancetherapper about his meeting with Gov Rauner A post shared by Mary Ann Ahern (@ahernnbc5) on Mar 3, 2017 at 10:26am PST
The outcome is disappointing, though not entirely unsurprising. Rauner, a staunch conservative, was elected following a dire financial crisis in Illinois. His anti-elitist, anti-government platform should be familiar to anyone who’s watched the rise of the Tea Party and Donald Trump, though that sentiment has rarely paired with effective governing.
Here’s how Crain’s Chicago Business, who endorsed Rauner during the 2014 gubernatorial race, described his tenure last year: “By nearly every measure, the state is worse off since Rauner took office. Pension liabilities now top $110 billion and are rising by the minute. The stack of unpaid bills is ballooning, turning Illinois into a notorious deadbeat. Vital social service agencies are being cut. Students are abandoning the state’s universities. Illinois’ credit rating hovers just above junk-bond range.”
Rauner’s perspective hasn’t changed through the struggles, which made it unlikely that Chance—well-meaning as he is—could change anything. The Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky, as dogged a chronicler of the state’s byzantine and water-logged bureaucratic processes as any, summed it up as such: “If you can convince Rauner to fork over the $215 million, you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize to go with your Grammys.”
A cynical onlooker might say that of course Rauner didn’t really have an interest in letting a young rapper have any meaningful legislative input—that he just wanted a photo op with a beloved son on the heels of a big win. Politicians never have the public’s best interests in mind when meeting a celebrity, lest Kanye West’s embarrassing Trump Tower hang session with Donald Trump be forgotten. Chance, thankfully, doesn’t seem to have played along.It's not clear what "self-identify as white" actually means.
The University of Vermont hosted a three-day retreat for students who “self-identify as white” — whatever the hell that means — to deal with their terrible, horrible, no-good-very-bad privilege.
The retreat, titled “Examining White Privilege: A Retreat for Undergraduate Students Who Self-Identify as White,” ran from November 13–15.
The point of the event, according to the school’s official website, was to give students “the opportunity” to “conceptualize and articulate whiteness from a personal and systemic lens” (Ooooh! Them’s some smart words!) and “recognize and understand white privilege from an individual experience.”
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“We will explore questions like: What does it mean to be white? How does whiteness impact you?” the website states.
The public (read: taxpayer-funded) university covered all costs for the students who attended.
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Lest you think that something like this would be a waste of money, the website also included some pretty damn inspiring testimonials from students who had attended this retreat before.
#share#For example: 2015 graduate Cora Churchill gushed that “it provided a safe space to learn about yourself and others and how we experience and understand privilege and systems of oppression.”
(There is no doubt in my mind that getting to be in this “safe space” has proven to be what’s helped her most since her graduation, particularly in terms of finding a job.)
#related#Other students said that they were so glad they went because it finally gave them the chance to talk about how they were white:
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“EWPR was a great opportunity to talk about an identity that I had not previously felt equipped to comfortably discuss,” sophomore Abby Freas said.
In any case, the students who chose to “self-identify as white” in order to attend were very brave ones indeed. After all, “white” is about the worst damn thing a person can be.
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The retreat was originally reported on by Campus Reform.
— Katherine Timpf is a reporter for National Review.I don't often recommend print magazines here, because I figure they already have their own megaphone, and whatever power we at Wired have to push along other writers, I'd rather use to promote bloggers who might not have high traffic. That said: There is a piece in the current Harper's which should be a must-read for anyone interested in livestock agriculture and meat production in America, written by long-time immersive journalist and NYU professor Ted Conover. It is entirely behind a paywall, and so (to my perception) is not being talked about – but it should be. It is a detailed and unbiased account of how large-scale slaughter happens, and it makes some important points about routine antibiotic use.
The set-up: Using his real name and address, Conover gets hired as a USDA meat inspector, and is assigned to Cargill Meat Solutions in Schuyler, Neb., a massive beef slaughterhouse. In an accompanying blog post, which is open-access, he describes how he went about it:
I thought I might gain a broader view by getting a job not simply as a company line worker but as a federal meat inspector. The Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA oversees live slaughter, and it hires inspectors on the basis of either experience in the industry (often factory work, including quality control) or education, specifically a four-year college degree with sufficient math and science credits. After reviewing my transcript, the FSIS said I was short some credits, so I enrolled in a |
UK in 2001, 72 per cent were women (although in the British capital, this percentage was slightly lower at 68 per cent) which is considerably larger than the more or less 50/50 breakdown of males and females in the UK. The Home Office states that the overwhelming majority of new Thai immigrants to the UK became naturalised citizens through marriage, with less than one in three cases occurring through residence.[7] Between 2003 and 2006, 64 per cent of all settlement grants to Thai immigrants were given to wives, 3 per cent to husbands and 14 per cent to children. This means that the Thai community in the UK is surprisingly widespread, as marriage migrants are likely to be scattered across the country with their partners, instead of following the trend of migrant groups settling together in large cities. Despite this, due to their large populations already, the cities of London, Sheffield, Birmingham and Glasgow are all home to significant numbers of people of Thai origin.[7]
Culture [ edit ]
Community [ edit ]
There are many Thai organisations and associations located across the United Kingdom. One of the most notable Thai British associations is Samaggi Samagom, set up in 1901 by King Rama VI of Thailand. Its main aim was to unite and reinforce harmonious relationships amongst Thai people in the United Kingdom by organising various events and activities. Over a century later, Samaggi Samagom represents close to 40,000 Thais in the UK and still arranges events that are seen as extremely important dates in the Thai British calendar.[8]
Religion [ edit ]
Dhamma Hall at Aruna Ratanagiri, another place of worship for the Thai British community
There are a large number of Thai temples in the UK with the oldest and most famous being the Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon, London, which is home to monks and nuns, but welcomes visitors of any faith to view the grounds and temple as long as they are respectful. In 2004, Wat Charoenbhavana in Manchester became the first Thai temple to be established in the region. Also Amaravati Buddhist Monastery is a monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition of the Theravada lineage of Buddhism, it can be found in Hemel Hempstead. Other examples of such Thai monasteries in the UK include Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in Chithurst, West Sussex and Aruna Ratanagiri in Northumberland. Despite not being British himself, Chah Subhatto is an important figure for the Thai Buddhist community in the UK.[7]
Sport [ edit ]
The Samaggi Games are an annual event for Thai students in the UK, normally attracting around 1,000 participants. Normally held in February or March each year, it is one of the most popular events organised by Samaggi Samagom (the Thai Student Association in the UK). The games have always been held at a university, and include such sports as football, basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis, squash, chairball and some traditional Thai games such as Thai chess. Notable Britons of Thai origin in general sport include the professional football players Tom Ramasut and Jamie Waite. Former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra is known in the UK for his involvement with Manchester City Football Club, as well as his attempt to gain British citizenship.[8] Leicester City Football Club is currently owned by Thai businessman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.[9]
Skills [ edit ]
Education [ edit ]
Between 2003 and 2006, over half of all Thais to enter the UK (regardless of how long they intended to stay in the country) were students. The UK is a popular destination for Thai expatriate students with the most popular subjects areas being the English language, Master's degree courses and PhD courses.[7] Thais are a well-educated group of immigrants in the UK, and according to the 2001 Census, 39 per cent of Thai-born Londoners had higher level qualifications, compared to the city's 31 per cent average.
According to research by the Runnymede Trust, many Thai immigrants to the UK wish their children to be bilingual in Thai and English, but opportunities to learn Thai are limited. Other than private tutoring, a number of institutions across the country offer Thai language classes, including Wat Buddhapadipa, the Bournemouth Thai School, the Brasshouse Language Centre and the School of Oriental and African Studies. English language classes have proved extremely popular with first-generation Thai immigrants.[7] Besides the nationwide Samaggi Samagom Thai students society, there are also regional Thai Student Associations.
Employment [ edit ]
According to the 2001 Census, Thai-born Londoners were most likely to be working in industries such as hotels and restaurants (40.8%, which is much, much higher than the capital's average of 4.6% of the population working in this industry), wholesale and retail (13.0%) as well as real estate and renting (11.8%).[7] There are estimated to be almost 2,000 Thai restaurants in the UK owned primarily by Thai immigrants. Despite their success in many professions, discrimination is seen by many Thais in the UK as a reason for limiting where they are employed. Many Thai women find themselves caught up in human trafficking, with 20 out of the 33 London boroughs reporting numerous female Thai sex workers. The Home Office suggests that Thailand is one of the most likely countries of origin for women trafficked into the UK for sex work. Employment statistics for second and third generation Thai British people are not known, although it is thought they are becoming much more integrated into British society than their immigrant ascendants.[7]
Notable individuals [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that texting and driving is dangerous.
And while New Jersey has some of the strictest distracted driving laws in the country, accidents are still on the rise. Enter the new NJ texting while driving law, which took effect on July 27th, 2017 with very little fanfare--but very big implications.
The law uses the trusty old #77 line, which was originally set up to report aggressive or drunk driving. Now, drivers are being asked to call and rat on other drivers when they see them texting while driving. Now how are they then gonna catch up to you, you may ask?
Well this misguided law provides for a letter to be sent to your home, a letter which tells you that someone has reported you. They can't issue a penalty to you based on the fact that someone observed you texting, but in the letter they will delineate the penalties you'll receive if you actually get caught by a policeman.
So basically, the phone call does nothing but educate the texter about the potential fines. I could look that stuff online and save them the stamp, but ok--whatever gets these legislators through the night.
Now for the nitty gritty: the new fines are pretty steep.
First offense: a $400 fine,
Second offense: a $600 fine,
Third offense: an $800 fine plus a license suspension of ninety days, with motor vehicle points on the driver’s license.
The letter also states that if a distracted driver is judged to be the cause of a traffic accident that results in the death or injury of another person, that driver will face criminal charges and possible prison time (That part isn't new).
So let's review:
Aside from doubling the fines, what does this law do? Asks drivers to report other drivers, the result of which is that they receive an informational letter from the state. How is this a deterrent?
The bill, the brainchild of Senators Dick Codey and Fred Madden is one of the dumber ideas to come out of the statehouse but I suppose we should be happy that Codey didn't get his "textalyzer" idea passed: the "textalyzer" would scan your phone to make sure you weren't texting when a cop stops you.
Of course you'd be required by law to give him your cell phone number. Invasive much? That may be next, folks.
More from New Jersey 101.5:
Dennis & Judi are on the air weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tweet them @DennisandJudi or @NJ1015.Jose Mourinho's tax fraud case is in danger of disrupting Manchester United's preparations for their match at Chelsea this weekend, with the Old Trafford boss travelling to Spain for the hearing on Friday.
United have brought Mourinho's weekly press conference forward 24 hours from its usual slot to Thursday, and sources have confirmed the Portuguese coach will be in court.
Mourinho's No 2 Rui Faria and his coaching staff will oversee training when he is out of the country, but the situation is far from ideal.
Jose Mourinho is accused of defrauding the authorities of £2.9million while at Real Madrid
Manchester United travel to Chelsea on Sunday, where they were beaten 4-0 last season
He suffered his biggest ever Premier League defeat as a coach when United were beaten 4-0 on his return to Stamford Bridge in October, and can expect another stern test against Antonio Conte's side on Sunday.
Mourinho is accused of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of £2.9million during his time in charge of Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013 by not declaring profits from image rights.
The case is due to be heard in Madrid at 10am, just two days before United face Chelsea. Mourinho has denied the charges.
The Portuguese manager, 54, was in charge of the La Liga giants between 2010 and 2013
He settled a previous claim against him in 2014, paying a penalty of £1m, but prosecutors claimed in June that some of the information in that settlement was incorrect.
Mourinho responded by issuing a statement insisting that his taxes had been paid in full.
It read: 'Jose Mourinho has not received any notification with regards to the news published today.
'To this date, neither the Spanish tax authorities, not the public prosecutor have contacted Jose Mourinho or his advisers who were hired for the inspection process.
'Jose Mourinho, who lived in Spain from June 2010 until May 2013, paid more than €26m (£22.7m) in taxes, with an average tax rate over 41 per cent, and accepted the regularisation proposals made by the Spanish tax authorities in 2015 regarding the years 2011 and 2012 and entering into a settlement agreement regarding 2013.'Driverless shuttle bus crashes on day of launch Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Driverless shuttle bus crashes on day of launch prev next
LAS VEGAS - Some of the buses in downtown Las Vegas went driverless Wednesday, but not without a hiccup. The Kelolis driverless shuttle bus crashed with a semi-truck.
It happened at the intersection of Fremont Street and N. 7th Street. That's a block away from Container Park. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"From what I've been told, the vehicle came to a stop as it's designed to do, based on the distance it was from this particular truck. But the operator of the truck proceeded to back up, not judging where the vehicle was at that time," said Maurice Bell, vice-president of mobility solutions for Keolis. Where it rested is where it had stopped originally as the vehicle was making its turn."
The autonomous bus crashed less than two hours after it was launched. Officials had hosted an unveiling ceremony to promote what they described as the nation's first self-driving shuttle pilot project geared toward the public. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
There were about eight people on the bus when it happened, but everyone was wearing seatbelts.
"We were all like, 'h my gosh, he's going to hit us, he's going to hit us,' and then, BAM," said Jenny Wong, passenger on shuttle!
Wong said she didn't think the driver of the truck saw them, so she thinks that's why he continued to back up.
"The truck kept going and it kept turning and you can see the angle that it's at, it couldn't see us," Wong said. "The driver was like, 'what is going on? I just wanted back into the alley.'"
Police say no injuries were reported in the crash that is still under investigation.
The driver of the semi truck was cited.
According to Wong, this won't prevent her from riding the bus in the future.
The oval-shaped shuttle that can transport up to 12 passengers has an attendant and computer monitor, but no steering wheel and no brake pedals. It uses GPS, electronic curb sensors and other technology to make its way.Road to a more functional Java with Javaslang - example refactoring
It was a Friday like every other in SoftwareMill: I have implemented some features, prepared a pull request and waited patiently for my teammate to review it. After a few minutes I had my feedback: “Why don’t you use Try from Javaslang?” - Maciek said. I have done it and shared the new version in our #java channel on Slack. Suddenly (it was Friday, right?), a discussion about additional improvements ignited and my code became a base for several evolutions. This blog post shows how a small, relatively simple Java class could evolve from an old fashioned approach to a more object oriented one and then into something (to some extent) functional. Time to start our road to better and cleaner code. All code presented below is available on our GitHub repo.
Requirements
We need to extract the first image from a blog post that could be later used as a thumbnail in our system. Nowadays most services support sharing their content on Facebook and almost every page has og:image element in <meta> section that could be used to implement our business case.
Planned flow:
Load a blog post page Extract the first og:image from the meta tag in <head> section Return an URL of this image If there is no such page, we encounter any exception or there is no og:image, log a warning and return an URL to a default image as a fallback.
Initial code
4j public class FacebookImage { private final static String FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG = "og:image" ; private final static int TEN_SECONDS = 10_000 ; public String extractImageAddressFrom (String pageUrl) { Document document; try { document = Jsoup.parse( new URL(pageUrl), TEN_SECONDS); } catch (IOException e) { log.error( "Unable to extract og:image from url {}. Problem: {}", pageUrl, e.getMessage() ); return DEFAULT_IMAGE; } List<Element> ogImages = List.ofAll(document.head().getElementsByTag( "meta" )).filter(e -> FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG.equals(e.attr( "property" ))); if (ogImages.isEmpty()) { log.warn( "No {} found for blog post {}", FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG, pageUrl); return DEFAULT_IMAGE; } return ogImages.get( 0 ).attr( "content" ); } }
As you can see it is not very complicated. But there is an issue that should struck us immediately: this code is everything but object oriented. FacebookImage class in its current shape would be used in a following way:
FacebookImage facebookImage = new FacebookImage(); String imageAddress = facebookImage.extractImageAddressFrom(blogPostAddress);
So we create an empty class object and put all the logic in the only public method. To highlight where the problem lies, let’s try to make our method static:
public class FacebookImage { public static String extractImageAddressFrom (String pageUrl) { } }
Apart from adding static keyword, we did not have to change anything else. It turns out that we have a stateless thing that could be renamed to FacebookImageUtils and it will still compile and pass all tests without any other changes in the code!
public class FacebookImageUtils { public static String extractImageAddressFrom (String pageUrl) { } }
So instead of wiring object-oriented code, we have a well hidden procedural code pretending to be something else.
Towards a more object-oriented approach
Our FacebookImage class does not hold any state. We treated it as a dumb container for a single stateless method, which is unacceptable in a language where real, proud objects should be the first citizens.
Luckily, making our class great again is not hard. Instead of returning only a state we care about (our image URL), we should embed it in our class as a field, so FacebookImage can stand proudly next to other objects in our system:
4j public class FacebookImage { private final static String FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG = "og:image" ; private final static int TEN_SECONDS = 10_000 ; private final String url; public FacebookImage (String pageUrl) { Document document; try { document = Jsoup.parse( new URL(pageUrl), TEN_SECONDS); } catch (IOException e) { log.error( "Unable to extract og:image from url {}. Problem: {}", pageUrl, e.getMessage() ); url = DEFAULT_IMAGE; return ; } List<Element> ogImages = List.ofAll(document.head().getElementsByTag( "meta" )).filter(e -> FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG.equals(e.attr( "property" ))); if (ogImages.isEmpty()) { log.warn( "No {} found for blog post {}", FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG, pageUrl); url = DEFAULT_IMAGE; } else { url = ogImages.get( 0 ).attr( "content" ); } } public String getUrl () { return url; } }
Now, when our class is used, its instance really holds a real value:
FacebookImage facebookImage = new FacebookImage(blogPostAddress); String imageAddress = facebookImage.getUrl();
This looks so much better. Now it is a real object with something inside!
Towards a more functional approach - step one
Ok, since we have our class written in a more object-oriented way, it is time to apply some functional programming concepts available in Javaslang to FacebookImage internals. Let’s begin with Try. If this concept is new to you, here is a short description from their javadocs:
Try is a monadic container type which represents a computation that may either result in an exception, or return a successfully computed value. It’s similar to, but semantically different from Either. Instances of Try, are either an instance of Success or Failure.”
So, we will try to replace try-catch section with Try.of and use javaslang.collection.List. It provides streams capabilities with no explicit stream() call required.
4j public class FacebookImage { private final static String FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG = "og:image" ; private final static int TEN_SECONDS = 10_000 ; private final String url; public FacebookImage (String pageUrl) { Try<String> imageTry = Try.of(() -> { Document document = Jsoup.parse( new URL(pageUrl), TEN_SECONDS); List<Element> ogImages = List.ofAll(document.head().getElementsByTag( "meta" )).filter(e -> FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG.equals(e.attr( "property" ))); if (ogImages.isEmpty()) { log.warn( "No {} found for blog post {}", FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG, pageUrl); return DEFAULT_IMAGE; } else { return ogImages.get( 0 ).attr( "content" ); } }); url = imageTry.onFailure(error -> log.error( "Unable to extract og:image from url {}. Problem: {}", pageUrl, error.getMessage() )).getOrElse(DEFAULT_IMAGE); } public String getUrl () { return url; } }
This is definitely a step into the right direction, but we are still far from a fluent, functional execution with actions coming seamlessly one after another.
Towards a more functional approach - step two
To achieve this we need to go deeper. Luckily, Try is not only a variation of Either for success/failure scenarios. It is also a fully functional concept with a handy mapTry method, allowing us to chain the executions into a single flow. And when we extract steps into functions, the entire logic starts to look really nice and clean:
4j public class FacebookImage { private final static String FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG = "og:image" ; private final static int TEN_SECONDS = 10_000 ; private final String url; public FacebookImage (String pageUrl) { CheckedSupplier<Document> parseDocument = () -> Jsoup.parse( new URL(pageUrl), TEN_SECONDS); CheckedFunction<Document, List<Element>> findElementsWithPropertyTag = document -> List.ofAll(document.head().getElementsByTag( "meta" )); CheckedFunction<List<Element>, List<Element>> findElementsWithFacebookImageProperty = elements -> elements.filter(e -> FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG.equals(e.attr( "property" ))); Consumer<List<Element>> warnIfEmpty = elements -> { if (elements.isEmpty()) { log.warn( "No {} found for blog post {}", FACEBOOK_IMAGE_TAG, pageUrl); } }; CheckedFunction<List<Element>, Element> findFirst = elements -> elements.get( 0 ); Function<Element, String> content = getContentValue -> getContentValue.attr( "content" ); url = Try.of(parseDocument).mapTry(findElementsWithPropertyTag).mapTry(findElementsWithFacebookImageProperty).peek(warnIfEmpty).mapTry(findFirst).toOption().map(content).getOrElse(DEFAULT_IMAGE); } public String getUrl () { return url; } }
Wrap up
Now, after all these steps, we have ended up with a pretty nice and still readable solution that is way nicer than the initial version. Along the road of this refactoring, we have learnt a bit about designing our classes to be more object-oriented and even a bit more functional. Getting more familiar with Javaslang was not a bad thing either.Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Bryan Schatz.
Pipe smoking is the oldest form of smoking tobacco, developed during an era in which men would make time to sit at the end of a hard day’s toil, to rock back and forth in their favorite chair and observe the rotation of life. They had an understanding that prolonged satisfaction is greater than the immediate and fleeting gratification we have a tendency to seek today. A pipe is a man’s companion, his smoky warmth on a crisp winter day and the friend with which he watches the passing of time. A pipe requires patience. It instills calmness, observation, and contemplation.
A pipe is best enjoyed from the stoop thrones of rocking chairs, beneath the shade of patio roofs and in the absence of unnecessary noise.
Why the Corn Cob Pipe?
In my mind, the corn cob pipe is a tangible symbol of a bygone era. Corn cob pipes are the tobacco-smoking instrument of the common man: those who surveyed their surroundings and did what they could with what little they had. These were men of thrift, of inherent frugality and of resourcefulness. They are the pipes of hard times, when men knew how to work with their hands, when they did what was required without complaint; when men were hard, lest they perish. Or as the saying goes: “back when dodgeball was played with sticks and stickball was played with knives.”
The Corn Cob Pipe Tradition
Legend has it that in 1869, a farmer in the Missouri countryside whittled a pipe out of a dried out corn cob. He smoked his tobacco and enjoyed the nice smooth smoking experience so much that he requested his wood-working friend to turn stems for the pipes on his lathe. Hence, the birth of the Missouri Meerschaum Company, the original and sole surviving manufacturer of mass produced corn cob pipes.
Though the beginning of the mass production of corn cob pipes commenced in the late 1800s, their emergence and individual construction likely began long before that, and certainly persisted for years to come. Within and beyond the Dust Bowl area, corn cob pipes were the instruments of farmers, hobos, migrant laborers, and vagabonds of all sorts.
Train hoppers in the Midwest and other corn-growing areas would find themselves in the presence of this abundant crop, often just off of the train tracks. With a communal sharing of simple tools and the luck of having a pinch of tobacco, having a soothing smoke on those enormously tiring days was a welcomed occasion.
Current Status
Examining the evolution of pipe smoking in the 21st century is more like observing the slow extinction of a dwindling species.
According to “Bowled Over No Longer,” a 2005 Washington Post article by Peter Carlson, there exists approximately 1.6 million pipe smokers in America today. Since the 1970s, there has been a 91% drop in pipe tobacco purchases. With those statistics it becomes apparent that the current number of corn cob pipe smokers has likely declined even more dramatically.
Apparently, appreciating the afternoon with a pipe in hand has been exchanged for quick fixes of indulgence and gadgetry. People today tend to not simply sit and notice, say, the sun’s departure quietly occurring later and later each day. We may not consider why a particular bee chose to slurp the nectar from one flower and not another, or wonder why it hasn’t rained in so long.
In these days of instant coffee, fast-food chain-restaurants and 5-minute cigarette breaks, the corn cob pipe persists as a comfortable speed bump in the common rush of a frantic life.
With the immediacy of most things today, it can be easy to forget that we don’t always have to buy something we want, that we can allow ourselves a few solitary moments to create something with our own hands-and then enjoy the fruits of our labor.
In an attempt to grasp a few moments for yourself, I encourage you to try making a corn cob pipe, to take a contemplative breath and appreciate the fact that the world still spins.
How to Make Your Own Corn Cob Pipe
If meandering to your stoop throne on a sunny day and enjoying the smooth hit of tobacco from a corn cob pipe sounds good to you, then you’ll need to know how to make one. Granted, this will likely not be the quality of a Missouri Meerschaum (mine certainly isn’t), but it will be of your own creation.
It is said that the most important thing for a pipe smoker to do is to find a pipe that feels right. A pipe may not be sentient, but it will bring its own presence to the relationship between man and pipe. What better way to find this inanimate companion than to craft it with your own hands?
What You Will Need:
1 ear of corn
Pocket knife
Wood branch
Drill with various bits
Tobacco
Matches or butane lighter
Step 1
Make sure the ear of corn you use is as wide as possible and has plenty of pith (the portion of the cob at its center, where the bowl will later be shaped). Break the cob in half with your hands or cut it to the size you want with a pocket knife.
Step 2
Here comes the waiting part. You’ll want that cob to dry out and harden as much as possible; professional corn cob pipe makers let their cobs dry for two years. Granted, we don’t generally have that much time to wait, so you can throw it in the oven or use a dehydrator to speed up the process. I let mine sit for about one week after baking it on 100 degrees for a few hours, and while I’m no expert, it seems to work fine.
Step 3
Dig out the pith with your pocket knife to shape the bowl (another reason why “Every Man Should Carry a Pocket Knife”); if possible, make it about one inch deep. The width of your bowl should be as wide as the pith allows without making the walls of your pipe too thin. Having slender walls will make it hot in your hand when you light the tobacco, so keep them thick.
Step 4
Beneath the bowl, drill a narrow path through the pith towards the bottom of the pipe…If you prefer to refrain from using power tools during this project (which is perfectly understandable and even encouraged), you can also heat up a metal hanger and bore through the pith’s center.
Step 5
While you’re letting the bowl dry out, construct the stem of your pipe. There are a few options here; without a lathe it’s difficult to turn a piece of wood. If you have access to some narrow bamboo, then use that. It’s easy to hollow out with a metal hanger heated up red hot or with a drill, and it will fit nicely into the hole that will be cut near the base of your cob.
I don’t have a lathe nor access to bamboo, so I went out and found a downed Bay Tree branch, cut it, drilled a hole through its center and then whittled it with my knife until it fit the dimensions I wanted.
Use a pocket knife to angle one side of the stem down to a point. This side will be pushed into the cob.
Step 6
Drill a hole above the base of the corn cob until it meets the hole in the pith. Make sure that this hole is slightly smaller than your stem. Press your stem into the cob and line up the hole in the stem with the hole in the pith (you may need to shave off small portions of the stem to get a proper fit). All you need now is some tobacco of your choice and a match.
And now I’ll sit upon my stoop throne, observe the pollen sacs collecting on the legs of bees and appreciate the billowing drifts of smoke escaping my lips.Warning: Spoilers.
I wanted to like Prometheus more than I did. After all, it’s not every day you see a woman hard-core enough to give herself her own abortion/c-section. I liked parts of it quite a bit. But there was some serious poor science in this movie.
So much poor science.
I talked with five scientists and described scenarios in Prometheus that relate to their respective disciplines. Then I asked them some frankly leading questions. They share their take on the film, below.
Wade Catts, Archaeologist, John Milner Associates
In one scene, two archeologists have found the severed head of an alien. The archeologists know a storm is coming, and they need to get to their spaceship before the storm hits. They grab the head, shove it into a sack, and take it with them. Do you think that would have happened?
The likelihood that you’d just pick up and run off with it is pretty low in the circumstances you’re describing. If there’s a way to get back to the spot and know exactly where it came from, I would say it wouldn’t have been done that way.
If they’re truly archeologists, they’re there to do a job. They would have vertical and horizontal control over where objects are recovered: You do everything in XYZ coordinates, so that you know where something came from horizontally and where it comes from vertically. Any time you do an archeological project, you essentially have destroyed the archeological record as you’re going along, so the more information you record, the more photography, the more the handwritten notes, the better off you are in able to get it back in its place, as well as time.
One of the archaeologists drops the sack. What would happen to a specimen after a few thousand years if it had dropped on the ground?
[Laughs.] It would probably shatter into a bunch of pieces, but hey, if it’s an alien race, who knows what their skulls are made of? Their skulls could be made of Kryptonite.
No, they’re proto-humans.
I assume that they’re bone, and bone would shatter.
What would you do with the head of what’s likely the most remarkable scientific discovery of all time?
The object itself contains valuable information. It’s gotta be measured, drawn, photographed. You need to get as much from it as you possibly can.
The archaeologists don’t do that. Instead, they hook it up to electricity.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project where I’ve recovered a skull and tried to reanimate it. Is there tissue on it?
It’s a complete head.
That’s very different. Of course I would try to poke electricity through it.
After inserting a probe that sends some sort of megahertz pulse into it, the skull is animated. Then it explodes.
[Laughs hard.]
Would you consider this an important scientific discovery when all you have is a mass of bloody tissue?
By that point, no.
Now you’re just being a treasure hunter and a looter, and that’s not what archeologists do. The movie you’re describing sounds more like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
Bill Chadwick, Geologist, John Milner Associates
The first thing the geologist says is, “I’m in it for the money.”
[A pause that I interpret as puzzled silence.] Uh, typically not.
The scientists, including the geologist, come across a hollow mountain, then immediately enter it. Would you enter a hollow mountain on an alien planet, or would you perform some tests first?
I might look around, do some tests on the material first. I’m sure eventually I’d go in. I’ve been in caves where I didn’t know where it would lead.
The geologist uses science-fictional probes to map the area after he gets inside. If you had the technology, wouldn’t you have mapped the area before you had entered?
I would do it before entering.
The geologist, the one with the probes, gets lost. How do you prevent getting lost?
Theoretically if you’re mapping, you would know your way back out using the map you’ve created. Depending on what the ground is like, you can follow your steps.
The geologist didn’t do any of that.
Maybe he was lost in the moment.
Ken Paige, Head of the Department of Animal Biology, University of Illinois
In one scene, a biologist encounters an alien creature that looks like a giant phallus. The biologist refers to it as a “she.” What would you call a creature that resembles a giant phallus?
A “he.” Definitely.
This phallus soon spreads open and seems to display a neck frill. As a biologist, what would that mean to you?
It can be defensive or it can attract mates. Usually it’s a threat display. It makes the animal look bigger and more ferocious.
The biologist doesn’t back away from the threat display. If you were there, would you reach out and touch the alien or, ya know, try to contain it in some way?
Probably contain it in some way to see what it is. Depends on how big it is, I’d use an actual snake stick, which would clasp it behind the neck and hold it down.
He doesn’t do that. He reaches out with a gloved hand, then the alien wraps itself around his arm. He screams for the geologist to get it off of him, and the geologist attacks it. What would you have done?
My goodness. I certainly wouldn’t try to kill it or harm it in any way.
Too late. The alien has killed them both.
I always cringe when I see those things. Where are the advisors to the movie? If you’re going to do a movie, do it right.
You should be the next Hollywood advisor.
As long as they pay me the big bucks. Like the geologist.
Dr. Michael Brotherton, author and Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Wyoming
In an early shot in the movie, we see a light moving across the sky: a ship on its way to a planet. However, the ship is moving faster-than-light…but stars emit light at the speed of light. What would that really look like from our point of view here on Earth?
My guess is that the ship should be invisible -- just fade out into a deep red that vanishes as it surpasses lightspeed.
Until it hits a dense bit of gas or speck of dust...and explodes.
[Author's note: For another look at the science of Prometheus, read Brotherton's essay, here.]
Dr. Robert Hogan, Psychologist and international authority on leadership and organizational effectiveness. President of Hogan Assessment Systems
Here we are in space. Our protagonists are on a mission of extended length, but none of them have met each other before. Don’t you think they should have met each other first?
They do that all the time. They hire people for these expeditions based on their technical expertise… and send them off without paying any attention to the kind of people they’re sending. They don’t pay any attention to personality. NASA will pay some attention to mental illness, because they don’t want to send crazy people on these missions. But there’s a whole lot more to personality than mental illness. It doesn’t mean you can work as part of a team.
The National Science Foundation and the Navy send people every winter to Antarctica to these research stations that when they get in, they can’t get out; it’s is the same thing as sending them to space. Jesus, there are unbelievable stories of people going crazy and having to build cages, because they’re out of control. Of course, if you’re a woman in that environment, you’re in real trouble.
One of the problems with the movie was the group dynamic. One character said, “It’s my job to make sure you do yours,” but two archeologists were put in charge. The result: multiple conflicting agendas and absolutely no teamwork. How would you fix this?
I can tell you what you need, for what it’s worth: You need one person who’s good at solving problems, someone who has ideas, because problems always come up. You need one person who’s good at human relations, who can keep the group functioning together. You need one person who’s kind of a functionary, who’ll implement and get things done. And you need a leader type will push for results.
The movie had none of those.
If you don’t have those four components, the team will fail.
They all died, except one.
It happens in real life too.
You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and here at Forbes.Hi and welcome back to Part Two of the Lepin 02069 Crane Building Set Review. |
5-6), and then Ginger Beaumont followed it up with a single of his own. Now I know Ginger Beaumont was a guy, but I still just picture a rich Southern woman in a giant hat stepping to the plate, shades of someone from Gone With the Wind or Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls.
I do declare!
Claude Ritchey was intentionally walked to load the bases, and then Bad Bill Dahlen stepped to the plate and laced a line drive into left field that scored two Doves. The Cubs couldn't do much in the bottom of the 15th and that's how things ended, the Cubs taking a tough luck 3-1 loss. And as if that wasn't enough, Pittsburgh won today too, so the Cubs dropped back to four and half games out of first.
In other news, the legendary Wright Brothers were preparing for yet another historic flight. Now, the original Wright Brothers flight that you learned about in the third grade already happened a few years ago (1903 to be exact), but none of their test runs in the past five years had even been conducted in front of the public. That all changed in 1908.
The French had been incredibly skeptical of the Wright Brothers' claims, and for years had reported the entire thing as an elaborate set of lies and hoaxes. So naturally, the Wright Brothers set out to stick it to the French and prove them wrong, and on August 8, 1908 did exactly that in front of huge crowd in Paris.
The French media issued a public apology, and the Wright Brothers headed home to the U.S. to prepare for their first public display in this country. The flight will take place on September 3rd in Fort Meyer, Virginia, and here's a shot of the team preparing for that historic flight...
I'm such a nerd, I love cool old pics like this!
So in summary, the tough loss drops the Cubs to 62-47 on the year and four and a half games out of first place. On the bright side... Brooklyn comes to town next, and they've been playing terribly, which (spoiler alert) is going to be a great way for the Cubs to rip off their biggest winning streak of the season. Stay tuned!Alzheimer’s is a notoriously cruel and debilitating disease, that has also become the biggest health challenge facing the UK. Year on year, it takes more lives than cancer or heart disease and a recent study from the Alzheimer’s Society, revealed that 225,000 people in the UK will develop dementia this year alone. To put it in perspective, that’s 1 every 3 minutes. To counter this ever-encroaching demon, a team including creative individuals from Grey London, MPC London and Thomas Thomas Films started the WAYBACK project, which aims to use freely available virtual reality to faithfully recreate popular, positive moments from our collective past. The hope is that, by offering sufferer's a gateway into the past, the project will be able to trigger memories and open up connections and conversations with loves ones and carers.
The project is currently seeking crowdfunding on Kickstarter to create a series of freely available, virtual reality films that will take the viewer back to a familiar past moment in time and immerse them fully in the historic scene. The team need to raise £35,000 to make the pilot episode, which will transport viewers back to a moment firmly planted in the UK’s national conscience; the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. An iconic event which evokes fond memories for those alive at that time. The WAYBACK will recreate a Coronation street party in exact detail; from the location to the costumes, props and atmosphere. The viewer will be able to fully explore the scene, overhearing conversations and music from the time — making the VR experience as enjoyable and realistic as possible. The project has currently raised just over £10,000 from 63 backers.
The independent project, which will be freely available to view, is being launched by a group of friends in the film and advertising industries after seeing their own loved ones affected by the disease and watching their memories slip away. The WAYBACK team already includes award winning director Kevin Thomas at Thomas Thomas Films, together with MPC London, the visual effects company behind blockbuster movies such as The Jungle Book, alongside Grey London, 750mph sound studio and The Quarry Editors. There’s been overwhelming support from all of these companies so far to offer their services freely to help this project get off the ground and more are undoubtedly set to lend their support and their time as the project progresses.
Dan Cole, Creative at Grey London and Co-Founder of The WAYBACK, said: “As the disease robs people of the ability to remember and communicate, conversations with your loved one sadly become more and more difficult. We believe that The WAYBACK can help start new conversations by transporting a person back to another era for a few moments, triggering their own memories of that time to share.” Executive Producer, Emma Fasson, added: “It’s incredible the people and companies that are donating their time & expertise to make this happen — but it shows the passion & genuine belief that this idea can make a difference for those living with Alzheimer’s.”
A number of care professionals believe that triggering happy memories from the past can improve physical well-being and bring comfort to those suffering with the disease. For some, reconnecting with these memories can help reinforce a sense of identity and a feeling of self-worth. Progressive care homes currently use props from the past to help try and trigger memories which stimulate conversations therefore creating an atmosphere of positive connections. The WAYBACK project sees VR as an extension to this approach.
Dr David Sheard, founder of Dementia Care Matters and consultant on Channel 4’s award-winning series “Dementiaville,” has helped the project to ask the right questions along the way and introduced the project to the residents and staff at Huntington House, a progressive care home for those living with Dementia. Sheard explained: “Recalling the past is one of the ways we can create new positive moments for people living with dementia. THE WAYBACK PROJECT is special because it will help connect people to the past — using the wonders of new technology today. Anything in dementia care that offers the opportunity to connect and be reached is strongly welcomed.”Following up a post last week at the NY Times Lens Blog, Donald Winslow at the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA) website detailed the circumstances surrounding a photo story distributed last September by Reuters. Published after the Assad government’s gas attack in Ghouta, the images depicted the heroic story of Issa, a 10-year-old boy in Aleppo who works ten hours a day with his father in a munitions factory for the Free Syrian Army. Or so we’re led to believe.
If we can count on a few news photos a year being discredited, these allegations not only involve a whole series but a photo story — as you can see from this small sampling of screen grabs — that achieved wide circulation as well as high distinction.
Just below, you can see that the series earned distinction by both the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times through inclusion of this photo in their featured 2013 “Photos of the Year.”
If many photo news sites and blogs exist to detail the politics and the ethics of this type of story, our niche is slightly different. At BagNews, we’re primarily interested in what we can see in, and understand from the pictures themselves. For that reason, we reached out to various experts to provide us their sense of whether the photos were authentic or not, and why.
Because the photojournalism world is small and highly interdependent, most people agreed to share with us in exchange for anonymity. The result — from almost a dozen conflict photographers, photo editors and informed reporters — is a “crowdsourced” cross-section of analysis ranging from the photographic to the mechanical to the social-cultural. …To a person, I should add, everyone we spoke to was convinced the photos were staged. (Posting about the photos last September, the images struck us as odd, too.)
We hope that this post might contribute to a thoughtful, open and persistent examination — among concerned citizens, the photo community and among photo- and news media — about the truth behind this story, as well as how stories in conflict zones can be visually procured today. Below, we’ve paired photos from the story with either direct quotes or paraphrased comments from the reactions we received:
• What could the person (the father?) be doing in the far background, obscured or hidden like that?
• The arrangement of bombs … they should not be so evenly spaced. The real world is random, and anyway, they would have likely been grouped with the others as opposed to laid out as if he was doing an operation with the group of them.
• It’s one thing if he’s in there as a helper, but he seemed to be the lead guy without any adult supervision or oversight. You’re not going to see a 10-year-old wandering around these factories alone, in a completely empty space, as if he’s a solo operator, making munitions a-to-z. The whole scene is completely surreal, with a dreamlike quality.
• I’ve seen kids hanging around lot of places where fighters are but I never saw a kid hanging around a munitions shop, and I’ve been in four or five in Aleppo and the surrounding district. I’ve never seen anyone operating solo in these shops. These are collective enterprises with apportioned roles. Kids can have valid tasks as spotters or spies. Those roles are absolutely ordinary and probably as old as time. But this is technically beyond what a kid can do and, moreover, it doesn’t fit a production model. This work is fairly complex; it involves trade skills. They are making fairly crude weapons but the machines that are involved, whether involving a foundry, casting aluminum fins; or a lathe to make a mortar; or a drill press to make an opening, to cut vent holes, these are the domains of experienced machinists.
• If you know about military munitions, you know that one mistake and the block get blown to bits flattening everything for some distance. Who would put this boy in there like that?
• Where is this workshop with such clean light?
• These weapons tend to be made in auto garages or metal shops and you will see a regular shift of people there. It’s almost impossible to get a picture without other people around. They are that crowded. The idea a kid would have title or lease to the space and be there alone is a farce. They are not empty. They may be under private ownership but they are hardly ever empty. Typically, at the same time they’re producing weapons, you can also get your brakes done.
• Military munitions are very heavy. 155 millimeter shells probably weigh more than the kid. Just an unloaded shell is incredibly heavy.
• I’m not sure what he’s doing pulling against the springs on the artillery piece. The tension is most likely extraordinary. Even if he was eighty pounds of muscle.
• Say there is something stuck in the barrel of the machine. Why then, in other pictures, is he at the other end doing a completely different function?
• Unless he’s completely overhauling the machine, it just doesn’t make sense he would be performing so many different mechanical functions.
• When he’s underneath, why would he be pulling on the cross bar rather than the differential, just to the left. He doesn’t appear to be working on the differential or the brakes. There is no moving part there. There is nothing conceivable in this photo he could be doing on the machine.
• I’m not clear what they’re trying to show here but the ability to manipulate the artillery piece is far fetched. How would he have the physical power? These weigh thousands of pounds.
• It’s one thing to say he’s trained to place a fuse in a bomb. But the idea that he could work on an entire artillery piece involves a completely different level of training.
• The lighting looks staged. Is this from a camera flash? Is he supposed to be moving? If he is, it’s odd that every detail in the photo is razor sharp. if he’s moving (versus posing) with what looks like a 50-60 pound loaded rocket, we should seen some sign of it (indication of motion).
• Why is the guy in the background with his hand behind his back trying to stay out of the way? Why would he be trying to stay outside the frame? It’s a working factory, right?
• Some guys operate lathes. Some make the mortars. It’s typically done by different people. I’ve been in these shops in Aleppo. There is always a mix of machinists, painters, guys with engineering backgrounds — all doing separate tasks. It’s very rare to see anyone there who can make munitions start to finish.
• There is everything wrong with the way he’s using the lathe. The piece he’s measuring is a cone. At what point on the cone are you measuring? The measurement increases as it moves. And you don’t stand back from it like that. You’re in close, as you’re measuring to the thousandths-of-an-inch. The micrometer has to barely touch both sides of the shell. There is a gauge on the micrometer. You have to be reading the gage. He’s holding it out away from him. Nobody used a tool like that to do precise measurements.
• It looks like finger marks on his face. Like precision smudges. Usually, doing this kind of work, you’ll rub your face with the back of your hand and make smears.
• My ears were always black when I worked in places like that. His ears are clean. And that’s after spending actual time on his back rolling around on the ground?
• The Arab culture is very family oriented. They pay attention to their children. They value their children just like we do. They wouldn’t leave kids to wander unattended in such a dangerous place. It’s dehumanizing to Arab culture to pass a kid off like this. He may be making tea or on the margins or watching his brother or father, but otherwise, it makes no sense.
• It’s actually less important to me whether are not these images are literally staged than why they didn’t trigger louder alarm bells at the Reuters picture desk. Forgive me, and my comments are going to reflect my subjective biases of culture, aesthetics, and ideology, but a serious photojournalist should never be photographing children unless they are dead, dying, child soldiers, or otherwise truly at risk or victimized by circumstances beyond their control.
That sounds awfully cynical, but otherwise images of children are just too emotionally manipulative without enough cause. These images, if authentic, might fall under legitimate documentation of “child labor” if they were not so cloying — but exactly because they are so “cute”, they shouldn’t be published as news photography even if real. That’s a judgment call on my part, but it’s that kind of editorial decision making that we rely on in experienced editors, journalists, and photographers to have and use on a daily basis.
• Local stringers for international news organizations like Reuters are paid a pittance to take enormous risks. Without training or accountable supervision, it’s not surprising that some rules get broken in theater. What’s more worrying is that the much better paid editors sitting comfortably at their faraway desks can be so seemingly naive.
• I can’t understand why Reuters hasn’t been more interested in the politics of the pictures they are moving. The integrity of their whole network is at stake, a whole network of unsupervised freelancers.
• As we move more and more into consuming citizen journalism and imagery from sources that are not properly vetted, we the audience open ourselves up to the possibility of being deceived. This is why there continues to be a need for photojournalism provided by actual authors with relationships to the distribution sources. But we are not there, and … agencies such as Reuters are treating photography as a commodity that can be provided by everyone.
While I understand and acknowledge that having vetted and/or experienced photojournalists everywhere providing all the imagery is not feasible, at the same time it is up to those that distribute the work to understand, train and vouch for the work they are showing to the world. As a result I think that the world of photojournalism is close to a breaking point of trust with the public.
Update: 3/25/14 11:53 am PST: We received the following message from Reuters this morning. There is a both a general statement and a specific comment about the story above:
We have thoroughly investigated the claims made by the Times and NPPA and established to our satisfaction that the pictures were not staged. Setting up pictures is a firing offense, strictly against policy. It is the responsibility of Reuters’ chief photographers, photo desks in the region and the filing desk in Singapore to question every picture we serve to clients where a setup is suspected. Reuters will not use any photographer, freelance or staff, who is found to have passed off a set-up picture as a spontaneous one.
On the boy in the factory:
The photos of boy in the factory in Aleppo were not staged. On September 4th, photographer Hamid Khatib was working on a story about factories making munitions and weapons. Hamid visited a number of factories and at one he spotted the child Issa. Reuters thought the story of child worker Issa in a munitions factory was one that we could develop for our photography app and website Wider Image – which features Reuters images expanded into deeper, more contextual stories – so Hamid spent the day with the father and his child on September 7th.
See our follow up post with analysis on yet another set of images by the same freelancer: The Dysfunctional Guitar: More on the Reuters Syria Photo Controversy. The repeated appearance of the same damaged instrument in multiple images raises more questions about objectivity and legitimacy.
(photos: Hamid Khatib/Reuters)Advertisement
In this article, you will find 500 of the most creative advertisement ideas that were used in the past years to promote various brands.
Advertising is all around us day by day, be it in print, online, on billboards or on TV.
According to some recent research, we’re running across 362 ads per day (brand exposures excluded), but we are not aware of it because only 3% of the ads manage to leave an impression. That makes about 12 advertisement ideas that keep us engaged.
Swimming out of this advertising clutter is not as difficult for us as it is for advertisers, who struggle to come up with creative ads for the target audience.
In order to make their ad attractive, creative advertising needs a solid concept and a unique design, so that people will actually pay attention to their layouts and how they present them. In fact, what matters the most for us as viewers, is to remember that a creative ad existed.
To be completely honest, we all approach creative advertising ideas with a certain dose of prejudice, which is the reason why we sometimes underestimate the effort of marketing professionals to connect with us in an entertaining way.
The other reason for such approach is that we’re overwhelmed by advertising ideas which have raised the threshold of expectations, and, as a result,an advertisement needs to be really good to impress us.
There are many clever, text-free advertisement ideas that have a joking tone and make us laugh, others that pose a question to make us think, but the most successful ones are those that cause an instant emotional reaction.
Companies are using this smart strategy of respecting our sense of humor/intellect, instead of coming up with cheap advertisement ideas with flashy images and low-cut necklines to catch attention.
Most of the time, these uninspiring ads are not even ‘speaking’ about the company and what they do, but they make an actual point on how their product is going to improve our lives.
This draws our attention to products we wouldn’t think of otherwise.
Nobody wants to hear how long a company exists before he’s actually liked their products, and so it is more interesting, then, to focus on the sophistication of those products instead, and why they are necessary to him. An attractive advertisement, therefore, catches the viewer’s attention.
Both conventional and online commercial ad design have to attract us in a few seconds, if not; it has failed to complete its mission.
The ‘cool advertisements’ factor is long overcome by big corporations, and they’ve understood that they have to ‘touch our souls’ in order to make us look at something twice.
Creative advertisement ideas
Advertisement
Creativity means the world to advertising, and this can be confirmed by almost any professional out there.
According to Stephan Vogel, Ogilvy & Mather Germany’s chief creative officer, creativity is the key to successful advertisement ideas, because it helps commercials last longer, and companies spend less on them.
But what does creative advertising actually stand for?
Is it an interesting attribute prescribed to a product, or a fancy catalog exposing its benefits?
There are many experiments claiming that creativity sends a stronger message and creates a positive impression of the product. Research confirms that innovative adds boast sales and improve purchases overall.
However, there is not enough empirical evidence to confirm that creative messages increase sales, but not because there is no straightforward connection, but rather because companies don’t have a systematic approach for calculating the effectiveness of their ads.
We do know, however, that when it comes to the advertisement of any product, from creative publicity ads to clothing advertisements or even college advertisement ideas, an advertisement which transcends the product will have a wider impact. This is why branding has proven itself so successful. Creative ad design ideas work.
Finally, what does creative mean when it comes to advertisement ideas?
While looking for measurable dimensions and factors that influence creativity, we focused on social/educational psychology and defined creative as divergent thinking, directed towards the discovery of uncommon and non-obvious problem solutions. This means that creative advertisements are unique. When searching for advertising campaign ideas, it, therefore, helps to search for a range of innovative perspectives, building upon ideas so that innovation may thrive.
The founder of this definition, Ellis Paul Torrance (an American psychologist who developed the TTCT creative thinking test), introduced a battery of measures that can estimate the capacity of individuals to think creatively and to make a contribution to their environment.
His test works on the basis of four dimensions (originality, fluency, elaboration, and abstractness).
This is how the test works: firstly, it poses a question and evaluates the capacity of the tested individual to develop relevant ideas to answer it (fluency).
The second step is to compare the answers to previous ones and see how many of them are actually unique (originality).
Finally, the test pays attention to the amount of detail provided in the answers (elaboration) and whether they actually refer to something concrete or go beyond the boundaries (abstractness).
The test also pays attention to so-called ‘premature closure measures’, taking into account the factors an individual uses to answer the questions and to process the information.
This process was first used in the 2000s, by an Indiana University researcher Robert Smith, who was dealing with creative communication at the time and established a straightforward connection between creative brands and execution elements, and the success of advertised content.
He developed five dimensions of creativity instead, and we’ve based our today’s survey on them:
Originality in advertisement ideas
When an ad is original, that means that it contains rare/unexpected elements, and moves away from advertising as we know it. A creative ad concept brings something new and intriguing in order to capture attention.
Advertisement ideas have to be unique, meaning that the creator is free to diverge from common visual experiences and verbal solutions. Creative ads, therefore, push the boundaries.
For example, a prototype detergent commercial highlights customer satisfaction with his clothes being white after washing, while perfumes draw attention with good-looking models and amazing traffic-free landscapes. However, as an advertiser, you can push the boundaries when it comes to ad ideas. From creative newspaper ads to television advertising examples, you can offer creative advertise ideas.
We can draw inspiration from the successful and unique commercial that is Coca-Cola’s ‘Happiness Factory’ which provides an excellent example of creative commercials.
Flexibility in cool advertisements
When an ad is more flexible than usual, it reaches a larger range of audiences with a larger range of ideas.
Take Kraft Foods, for instance, and their 2011 Jacobs Krönung commercial, which showed men struggling to complete household activities while women were enjoying their coffee. Challenging social norms provide innovative advertising ideas which appeal to a diverse audience.
Synthesis
Synthesis refers to building a connection between supposedly unrelated ideas and objects.
Wrigley’s chewing gum advert provides a good example: They used to have a commercial with cattle-corralled rabbits eating berries, bananas and melon, while their buckteeth were growing as with the Juicy Fruit chewing gums. Rabbits and chewing gums have little in common, but the divergent story was very successful. This proves that interesting ads grab attention.
The artistic value in interesting advertisements
In order for creative campaign ideas to be artistically valuable, they have to contain many appealing elements (visual, verbal, and sound).
The production has to be the highest quality possible, using clever dialogues, smart color schemes, and memorable music, which would make a consumer perceive it as a piece of art rather than a common sales pitch.
More creative advertisement ideas
Creative advertising ideas are a sure catch if they are attractive or funny. Humor appeals to all audiences. From advertisement ideas for kids to summer ads sharing holiday ideas.
If advertisements have these qualities they’ve accomplished the basis of interesting ads. If they’re also well thought they’ll surely get the customers’ attention. Some print advertisements will make you smile and you will like others just because of their bright ideas. Enjoy!
Hawaiian Tropic: Extreme waterproof
Sargam: For better digestion
Durex Performa: Delays your climax so you can last longer
Perrier
Travel Studio
Hot Wheels: Kids! Do try this at home
New Straits Times
Sundek: Unplug yourself
Insurance ETB
Sensodyne Protects
Baygon: Fight your worst fear. Use Baygon
Axe: Emergency Exit Sign
Lovemachine condoms: Bed
Banco Financiero
Bob Martin: Imagine what it could do for your dog
Durex “O”: The Power of pleasure
Viking: Nothing cuts grass better
Breathe Right: Get rid of the Snore
See Further
Dulcolax Laxative: It works
Reveal Your Dark Side
Axe shower gel: Wash me
Parodontax: Rescue gums
Decathlon
NaturaSi Organic Shops
ENO: Make heavy meal light
Maglite
Stihl: Think bigger
Stroy Master Soundproof Windows
Autan: Gotta love the outdoors, the view, the people
Betili
Soviet Jeans
For beautiful city. Clean after your dog
Miracles happen only on Sky Sport
Mozambique Music Awards
Rubbermaid
Stella Artois: Perfection has its price
Don’t Drink & Drive
Bose
Yin-Yang Martial Arts School
Suplicy Cafe: Awaken the post lunch PhD that lives inside you
Arkade. A survival guide
Sony: Theatre atmosphere
Meio e Mensagem
Olympus: Image stabilization
Ultje Crispers
Zoo Safari
Earpick Groom: Only you can’t see how the creature is growing
Mazda 6. The road is the best gift you can give it
SnapTax.ca: Paper is evil
Dacia: Service 24/7
Juicy Fruit
Staff Jeans
Harvey Nichols: Fashion statement
Children for a Better World: Fashion for Food
Fresh Step
Available for careless drivers, at all intersections
Cobra Car Alarms
Fedex
CNN: Stories with the full background
Bioblas: No escape for hair
Old Spice: Fiji
McDonald’s: The Real Milkshake. Now With Double Flavor
Sensodyne Protects
Stihl: Think bigger
No reason is a good reason to harm the nature
OHL Highway Concessions: Making Road
Volkswagen Tiguan. Off-road has never been so exciting
It’s time to change for fiber optics
Reporters Without Borders
Shortcut to the story
Mercedes-Benz Attention Assist. Keeps you awake
Without tomato sauce there’s no pasta
Google Maps Street View: Know before you go
Awesome Rags: In Lust We Trust
FedEx: Within walking distance
Jooooy Finally Has Meaning
Axe Excite: Even angels will fall
RATP
Bröker Security Systems: Security Systems Perfectly Integrated
Envision Financial: The right plan can bring your goals to life
Calgary Food Bank: Yes we also accept fresh food donations
A tree never dies alone
Jeep: Take It Outside
Fiat: Drinking and driving can be tricky
Allied Pickfords: Deliver the impossible
The bad guys are still on the top floors
Axion Oxi: One less headache
Traffic accidents start long before they happen. If you drink, don’t drive
DDB
Axe Excite: Even angels will fall
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles
Juicy Fruit
Fedex
Toronto Crime Stoppers: Your tips help expose criminals
Do you still want to see creative advertising ideas?
There are plenty more in this article.
Read on.
Fresh Step
Cobra Car Alarms
Art Directors Club
DraftFCB
Pledge: Furniture polish
Miracel Whip: only 4.9% fat
KIT Gold Series: Perfectly shiny
Cruzeiro do Sul University: Distance learning
Canon PowerShot S90: With optical image stabilizer
Bob Martin: Imagine what it could do for your dog
Baygon: Fight your worst fear. Use Baygon
Euro RSCG
Control Extra Lube
Nikon S60: Detects up to 12 faces
Sony: Theathe atmosphere
Peugeot: Standard Parking Assistance Control
Ogilvy & Mather
Allied Pickfords: Deliver the impossible
Available for careless drivers, at all intersections
Hot Wheels: Speeding ticket
Sargam: For better digestion
JWT
Corona Extra: Drink responsibly
Olympus: Image stabilization
SHS: Fight sleep
Publicis
RATP
Rowenta Vacuum Cleaner
Durex Performa: Delays your climax so you can last longer
Omax: Wide Angle Lenses
Lowe
Stella Artois: Perfection has its price
Stella Artois: Perfection has its price 2
Saatchi & Saatchi
Mazda 6. The road is the best gift you can give it
Carlsberg Weather
Smoking kills 14,000 people every day
Carlsberg: Camouflage
Ariel: Don’t be afraid
SPCA: It’s time to neuter your dog
The first 3D smartphone is a LG
I see dead people
Anticipate the road
Land Rover Defender
Free calls between midnight and 5am
American Apparel: Fall-Winter 2011/2012
DHL: No matter what, we know how to protect
Mitsubishi L200 Triton: No photoshop
Disconnect, enjoy Rio
Don’t wait for a job to fall on you. Find your vacancy at job.ru
USA with a higher IQ
SBS: The Seven Billionth story
Jobgroup. Agency for permanent or temporary work
Free your joints. Life Nutrition
Be One With The Wild
Aljazeera Network: Gaddafi is Dead
Elite Paintball
Grand Casino: Queen of spades
Grand Casino: Full house
French Mushrooms
Solgar multivitamins: Encourages multitasking
Be conscious. Disconnect.
Catch your breath. Terra Travel
Siemens: Keep Your Kitchen Fresh
A learning experience beyond the ordinary
Shopping Total
Begendik Supermarket
Words create worlds
Now give your fries the perfect tan
Sunlight dishwashing liquid
Sony noise cancelling headphones
We send to heaven all the mice of your home
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“flabby pink-tan logs, but a bendy kind of log.”
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Milligan noted that he can envision how hands should look and behave in his mind, but always messes up when translating the imagery into words.
“Sometimes I hide the hands by saying characters had really long sleeves or having them stand behind tables, but that starts to feel awkward,” said Milligan, adding that no matter how much he practices writing about hands, “they always come out weird.” “I’ve also tried to avoid doing hand descriptions altogether, but you can only put a few amputees in your stories before people start to notice.”
“I just want to say that a character has, you know, these big…twisty things next to her wrists,” he added. “See? I can’t do it. I fucking suck at it.”
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Milligan said that his problem was made more frustrating by the fact that he believes some of his writing, including the following excerpt from his unfinished novel Old Juniper, is “actually pretty good if you ignore the parts about hands”:
They moved closer now, and their shadows stretched across the sand, twin silhouettes cut from the same canvas. She laid her finger hub across his tentative, dandelion hands and then slowly let that glorious gripping machine tighten like a mighty vise until at last she could feel that their spirits, too, were entwined, just like their touching-organs were, except emotionally instead of physically.
Readers of Milligan’s work agreed that the passages concerning hands tended to be especially distracting.
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“I enjoy Edward’s writing, but it’s true the hands can really take you out of it,” said reader Evan Forster, 39, who mentioned he was jarred by a sentence calling someone’s hands “bony ball-sticks that grab hard.” “I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose, because everything else seems normal. It doesn’t make sense when he tries to gets around it by saying that people’s hands are ‘hand-like in their stature and bearing.’ What does that even mean?”
“Then he tries to shoehorn in something like a guy who’s always moving his hands so fast no one can see what they look like,” Forster added. “It’s clear what he’s doing.”
The exasperated 46-year-old novelist admitted that in some cases—including a passage in which a couple walks along a path “arm-foot in arm-foot”—he isn’t even sure what he was going for in the first place.
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“Listen to this: ‘What seemed like a thousand tiny hands (though in truth there were only two) extended from his arms. They were sparsely knuckled, punctuated only by the occasional thumb or forefinger jutting up like a lighthouse from a handy sea,’” said Milligan, quoting from a draft of the second chapter of his novel. “God, that’s fucking terrible. It doesn’t even sound like I’m talking about hands.”
Milligan confirmed that he recently sent an email to author Philip Roth with the subject line, “How do you do hands?” but has not received a response.CHATBOTS: The Next Big Thing
botplatform.io Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 20, 2016
Craving a taco for lunch? No need to go to your nearest Taco Bell or even download the app. You can just summon TacoBot on messaging platform Slack and even get recommendations while you place your order.
Microsoft’s recent chatbot PR disaster notwithstanding, brands are on the cusp of a bot explosion. Marketers from Dutch Airlines KLM to beauty retailer Sephora are looking to capitalize on the time consumers spend on messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Kik and Slack by developing their own automated messaging interfaces — which enable everything from financial transactions to personalized beauty tutorials.
“The speed to adoption is being compressed right now,” said Pete Sena, founder at agency Digital Surgeons. “Brands know now that the No. 1 thing that they can compete on is experience — and chatbots, done properly, can really add value there.”
It is also an opportunity for brands to come off as more than a mere service provider, as a knowledgeable friend too, said Ben Kosinski, head of The Collaboratory at iCrossing. “It’s smart for the brand to go where the users are and create a presence on these platforms, while providing relevant and personalized one-to-one conversations with consumers.”
“Chat apps will be new Internet, chatbots the new websites”
Messaging apps are seeing least 1.4 billion monthly users — usually skewing young and tech savvy — collectively worldwide. Increasingly, brands have seen in apps like WhatsApp, Kik, WeChat and Line an attractive opportunity to engage with their audiences on a one-on-one level.
“Chat apps will come to be thought of as the new browsers; bots will be the new websites,” said Ted Livingston, founder of Kik. “This is the beginning of a new Internet.”
And to keep up with the changing trend, all the brands, be it new or well-established need to experiment with bots. There are so many innovative ways to use bots to get your product more exposure.
There are a number of third-party bots on chat app Telegram and Slack. Swyft Media and Snaps have also “executed a handful” of chatbots for their brand clients. On WhatsApp, for example, shoe brand Clarks created three virtual characters to promote its new product, the “Desert Boot,” allowing users to chat with them and receive messages, videos and music playlists. Passengers flying Dutch Airlines KLM can get their boarding passes directly through Facebook Messenger. In Japan, beauty brand HABA frequently offers coupons on the messaging app Line. Sephora has created a personalized experience for its customers on Kik, including a quiz whose answers it uses to tailor appropriate content and products for its users.
So take a hint from all these brands and take your business to new heights with chatbots.
“We know, based on global trends and the evolving landscape, this is the next element to engage with our customers on,” said Bindu Shah, Sephora’s vp of digital marketing. “We can let clients ‘choose their own adventure’ with our content, rather than posting content that goes into a ‘newsfeed river.’ We believe more brands will want to interact this way too.”
Creating a chatbot is no rocket science; putting in the words of Christian Brucculeri, CEO and director at Snaps, “Chatbots are being embraced at an unprecedented rate because they are easy to build, scalable — since they can be powered across a range of platforms — and are both useful and promotional”
So all you brands out there that haven’t given chatbots a shot, get on with the new trend. Give it a try and you, most definitely not be disappointed. However, keep in mind what Sephora’s Shah said
“When using chatbots, brands should focus on a ‘pull’ model where the chatbot is facilitating a conversation and client discovery..not pushing their marketing messages or agenda.”
Hopefully, this article gave you the push that you needed to get out of your comfort zone and try something new and take a step towards bettering your business.
We hope you found what you were looking for.
Also, don’t forget to DOWNLOAD, USE AND SHARE our app ‘Yellow Messenger’.
Yellow Messenger: Your Artificial Intelligence powered shopping assistant on Chat. Get Yellow Messenger on Google Play Here. Access directly from Facebook Messenger Here
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CaioMoore_gun_photo1.jpg
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore displays a gun during a campaign rally held in support of his Senate candidacy on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017, at Oak Hollow Farm in Fairhope, Ala. (CBS News)
There's part of me that really wants to vote for Roy Moore in December, just to throw another gallon of gas on the pyre and watch it burn.
Let's face it: @realDonaldTrump didn't endorse Luther Strange because he was confused or misled. Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund didn't throw millions of dollars away because they didn't know what the alternative was.
They threw themselves behind Strange because they read what's written on the wall: With Roy Moore as the GOP nominee, Democrats will win this Alabama election, even if Doug Jones loses it.
National Democrats, that is.
Since it became clear Moore would beat Strange in the GOP runoff, national media have mined his career for clips of his most outrageous utterances. And those things aren't hard to find.
Moore saying 9-11 was God's punishment of America? Check.
Moore saying homosexuality should be a crime? Got it.
Moore arguing that a duly elected United State congressman should be barred from office for being a Muslim who follows a false religion? Here you go.
Moore insisting that First Amendment protections apply only to Christians? Bingo.
Moore telling a crowd that if you aren't armed, you're disobeying God? Here it is.
Moore saying that pre-school is a Nazi-like plot to indoctrinate children? I have to admit, I totally forgot about this one, but yeah, it happened.
Somehow they missed how Moore fought an amendment to remove Jim Crow language from the Alabama Constitution, but don't worry. It's there and they'll find it soon enough.
But seasoned Alabama political journalists know those national kin are trying too hard. You don't have to spend days on days watching old clips and reading through archives to find this stuff. Just follow Ol' Roy around for a bit and he'll oblige. This is a politician who sees every cable TV booking as an opportunity to spread his message.
The Biggest Loser He could have been Alabama's hero, but then he turned on us.
If elected, Moore will be on TV every day somebody lets him on there, and with cable news now fancying itself as ESPN for politics, those networks will fight each other to put him on air.
Then they'll follow up by asking every sane Republican what they think of Moore: "Sir, do you agree with Roy Moore that African-Americans are the cursed descendants of Ham and that police shootings are God's will?"
Moore didn't really say that and I made it up, but you weren't completely sure, were you?
No Republican official will know for sure, either, what will come out of Moore's mouth next. But they know that it will embarrass them, and they know that it will push the national GOP into the margins and away from electability in swing states. It's already happening.
Trump was bad enough for the GOP. Just wait until you meet "the party of Donald Trump and Roy Moore."
Trump deletes pro-Luther Strange tweets Trump deletes pro-Luther Strange tweets
And trust me, @realDonaldTrump isn't going to enjoy sharing the spotlight. Whatever you say about Donald Trump, he hasn't tacitly endorsed the execution of gay people, unlike Moore.
That one I didn't make up.
You will hear strategists and spokespeople rationalizing Moore. They'll argue that the GOP majority in the Senate is worth it. They'll never concede that a Democrat could be better for them -- better for everybody, better for anybody -- than a Republican.
But they know. They have a nightmare unfolding in Alabama, and it's tempting to give what they claim so badly to want.
But there's a price to be paid, and as usual, it's a price to be paid by Alabama. Can anyone make a rational argument that Moore will be good for this state? How do we recruit business with a homophobic authoritarian lawless theocrat as our ambassador? Heck, how does the Crimson Tide recruit football players?
Do you hear that silence? That's Mississippi keeping its head down and mouth shut as Alabama overtakes that state as the prime example of political failure.
We can go down that road if we want, or we can consider that there's an alternative.
Joe Biden was in Birmingham today stumping for Doug Jones. Here are some of the more notable things he said. Posted by Reckon by AL.com on Tuesday, October 3, 2017
On Tuesday I went down to the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center to see Jones' first real campaign rally as the Democratic nominee. More than a 1,000 people showed up to that rally. Several I spoke with had traveled from all corners of the state. The line snaked around the block and when it moved it packed a ballroom there.
Just about every time in the last decade when I've seen this many Alabama Democrats in one place, it's had all the character of a funeral where the decedent left no will -- lots of angry, suspicious relatives ready to fight each other over a dead person's stuff.
But this time, it was different. There was genuine excitement and real energy. And hope.
This time the body had a pulse.
When Joe Biden took the stage, the crowd was ecstatic. The former vice president argued that they don't have to wait for extremists to defeat themselves, and Alabama doesn't have to sacrifice its future to change our national politics.
"Although when (Jones) wins this race it will send ripples throughout the country -- I want to be clear -- don't do it for that reason," Biden said. "Do it for Alabama."
Biden is right about the latter, but self-interest doesn't have to be our only motive.
We have the chance to show the nation that not everyone here supports the likes of Moore. We have an opportunity to show the Alabamafication of America can be something very different, even something good.
Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group. You can follow his work on Facebook through Reckon by AL.com.Accountant says he feels'relieved and vindicated' as court rules his joke tweet about blowing up an airport was not menacing
Paul Chambers, who was found guilty of sending a menacing tweet, has won his high court challenge against his conviction. Outside the court, Chambers, 27, said he felt "relieved and vindicated", adding: "It's ridiculous it ever got so far."
He had tweeted in frustration when he discovered that Robin Hood airport in South Yorkshire was closed because of snow. Eager to see his girlfriend, he sent out a tweet on the publicly accessible site declaring: "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"
He has always maintained that he did not believe anyone would take his "silly joke" seriously.
The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Owen and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, said: "We have concluded that, on an objective assessment, the decision of the crown court that this 'tweet' constituted or included a message of a menacing character was not open to it.
"On this basis, the appeal against conviction must be allowed."
Chambers said outside court: "It was a long, hard road. I would like to thank everyone on Twitter." He had lost two jobs because of his conviction, he said, but "it was now time to move on".
After the judgment Chambers's supporters accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of wasting public funds in pursuing its action against the trainee accountant.
Louise Mensch, who is Chambers's constituency MP, was in court to hear him cleared. "The CPS owe the whole country an enormous apology," she said, "for having wasted public money and put him through two and a half years of serious stress for what was a joke.
"When parliament returns we will be asking searching questions about why freedom of speech was trashed. There was nothing menacing about this message. It was completely obvious."
Chambers had arrived at the snow-bound airport on 6 January 2010 hoping to fly to Belfast to meet Sarah Tonner, whom he had met on Twitter where she was known as @CrazyColours.
A week later he was arrested by four officers from South Yorkshire police who visited his office at a car distribution firm in Doncaster. Chambers subsequently lost his job as a financial supervisor.
He was prosecuted under section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003, which prohibits sending "by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".
In May 2010 Chambers was convicted by the district judge Jonathan Bennett sitting at Doncaster magistrates court and fined £1,000. In November 2010 the crown court judge Jacqueline Davies, sitting with two magistrates, dismissed his appeal, saying that the electronic communication was "clearly menacing" and that airport staff were sufficiently concerned to report it.
John Cooper QC, who represented Chambers, said: "It's an important decision for social networks. It means that in future not only does a message have to be of a truly menacing character but the person who sends it has to intend it to be menacing.
"Now people can have a joke even if it's a bad joke … this case should never have been prosecuted and it may be that the CPS will have questions to answer about this."
David Allen Green, Chambers's solicitor, said: "This shameful prosecution should never have been brought. For two and a half years the CPS have adopted a ridiculous position. There are very serious questions for the director of public prosecutions to answer in this case. We welcome this very clear judgment that sets out a high threshold for what constitutes a menacing character."
After the lord chief justice left the high court there was celebration and applause. The comedian Al Murray was one of those in court to support Chambers. "It's a victory for common sense," he said. "It's extraordinary this ever came to court. The judges saw there was no menacing message. It's a really important victory."
Asked outside the Royal Courts of Justice whether he would employ Chambers as a gag writer, Murray replied: "No."
Chambers swung his arm in mock defeat.
Index on Censorship, the free speech campaign, welcomed the court ruling. "Today's judgment is an advance in the justice system's handling of free speech on the web," said Kirsty Hughes, the organisation's chief executive. "As more and more of us use social media, it is important that the law understands how people communicate online. This ruling is a step in the right direction."
But Chris Watson, a social media expert and head of telecoms at the law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, said: "This verdict will be seen as a victory for freedom of speech campaigners, but I can see why the CPS pursued this case.
"The police have a duty to take all terrorism threats seriously, but specifically on the question of what people can say on social media, the public seems very unaware that the same rules apply to social media as any other public forum.
"While the ruling today suggests the threat to Robin Hood airport should not have been considered credible, the public would be very wrong to take this as a green light to say whatever they want on social media, without consequence. I expect to see the police and CPS to bring similar cases to court in an attempt to correct public misconceptions on where the law stands."Donald Trump’s far-flung business operations might come before myriad Hispanic judges even as he raises claims that at least one might be biased against him because of his tough posture against Mexico.
In Nevada, U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro is overseeing a case in which Trump Organization lawyers and their opponents insulted one another.
In Florida, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga is overseeing a settlement reached with aggrieved employees of the Trump National Doral resort.
And just last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined her Supreme Court colleagues in considering a case brought against Trump Entertainment Resorts.
The results, in these and other cases, have varied. But taken together, the intersection of frequent Trump-related litigation with a federal judiciary in which more than 100 Hispanic or Latino judges serve makes the comments by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee even more significant.
“If you accept his proposition that no Mexican-American judge could ever hear a lawsuit against the Trump administration and then he said Muslim judges, there’s no stopping point,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law, said in an interview Monday.
Trump put the ethnicity of judges into play with his assertion, repeated several times, that Southern California-based U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has an “absolute conflict” in a Trump University lawsuit because he is “of Mexican heritage.”
“I’m building a wall,” Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview. “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”
He’s saying this judge has certain views just because they’re a judge of a certain race or ethnicity. If he wants to say the judge is wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. This is attacking a judge just because of race. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine, School of Law
Curiel, a former federal prosecutor who was born in Indiana, has ruled against Trump’s interests several times in the class action lawsuit brought by disgruntled former clients of the now-closed Trump University. Curiel, among other actions, ordered the release of internal university documents that shed embarrassing light on Trump’s business.
“If he was giving me a fair ruling, I wouldn’t say that,” Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper, again citing Curiel’s background. “I think that’s why he’s doing it.”
Trump followed up by commenting Sunday that “it’s possible” a Muslim judge also might be biased against him because of his political call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
The persistent litigation that has accompanied Trump’s various businesses has, in fact, brought both favorable and unfavorable rulings by Hispanic or Latino judges. The judges include those of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, among others; their rulings involve many cases that are now closed, as well as some that remain active.
EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM
Last Tuesday, for instance, the Supreme Court declined to grant a petition by UNITE HERE Local 54 challenging a lower court’s ruling in favor of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Neither Sotomayor, the first Supreme Court justice of Hispanic heritage, nor any of her colleagues publicly disagreed with the decision.
Sotomayor, born in New York City to Puerto Rican-born parents, is one of 124 Hispanic or Latino federal judges serving, according to the most recent tally by the Federal Judicial Center. A total of 857 appellate and district court judges have been authorized by Congress.
On occasion, judges are challenged on the basis of personal identity. These challenges fall short. Same-sex marriage opponents, for instance, failed to replace a gay San Francisco-based federal district judge who struck down California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage.
“Legally, he is absolutely wrong in saying that it’s a conflict of interest,” Chemerinsky said, referring to Trump’s rationale. “African-American judges hear challenges to discrimination suits. Women judges can hear challenges to sex discrimination suits.”
One Hispanic federal jurist, New York-based Judge Analisa Torres, heard a lawsuit brought by women who claimed the Trump Model Management agency had lured foreign models to the United States with false promises of a glamorous life.
Last March, Torres, a New York native who is of Puerto Rican descent, sided with Trump and dismissed the case.
Navarro, a Las Vegas native of Cuban descent, has served as a Nevada-based judge since 2010, giving her multiple opportunities to adjudicate Trump-related litigation.
One lawsuit, for instance, was brought by family members who claimed they were injured when an elevator at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas fell more than 20 stories. Trump’s lawyers first succeeded in moving the complaint into federal court, where it was assigned to Navarro.
Her subsequent rulings have struck a balance. She rejected Trump’s attorneys’ claims that their legal opponents’ behavior was “vexatious” and “annoying,” and also rejected the other attorneys’ claims that the defendants’ behavior was “criminal” and “contemptuous.”
The Trump businesses, moreover, were ultimately dropped from the family’s lawsuit, with an appellate court ruling last December that Navarro was correct that there was “no direct evidence of negligence by Trump.”
In the case brought by Trump’s employees in Florida, by contrast, Altonaga last March rejected the Trump attorneys’ bid to summarily dismiss the lawsuit. The decision by Altonaga, the first Cuban-American appointed to the federal bench, prompted an eventual settlement.
“The parties amicably resolved all disputed claims in this matter,” attorneys advised Altonaga last month.
EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM
Trump, in a conference call with reporters Monday, ordered his supporters to continue questioning Curiel’s credibility and to malign reporters, Bloomberg News reported.
The news agency said a “clearly irritated Trump” told his supporters to attack journalists who ask questions about the lawsuit and his comments about the judge.
“The people asking the questions – those are the racists,” Trump said. “I would go at ’em.”
Lesley Clark contributed to this report.I truly hope someone near you will allow you to live your dream. Several times I have traded cars with someone who, like you, wanted a special car for a special time. There is no worry about insurance, because the car is insured, not the owner, and the owner is allowed to let a friend drive. And unlike renting, a friend will take better care of the car.
I have usually asked that all I want is a picture, and I get to feel that I am part of the moment. Beside all that, I have an app, and I can watch where and how fast, check the charge, and call the driver if there seems to be any problem. Most borrowers have wanted to wash the car before they bring it back.
I take the driver for a short ride, pointing out charging places on a web site like PlugShare. A quick check shows there are a lot available near Denton. And it may be you won't even need to charge up.
The only problem is that the poor driver and passenger are already grinning like school kids at Disneyland, and to put a Tesla grin on top of that is just icing on the already iced cake, but somehow, they are young, and they survived.
Wish you were closer!
Click to expand...Organizers of the GP2 Asia series, having cancelled today's activities at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, have now cancelled the entire round, throwing further doubt on the forthcoming F1 test at the circuit and the season opener.
A brief statement issued at midday (UK time) read:
"Following the current events in Bahrain, at the request of the Bahrain Motorsport Federation, it has been decided that the remainder of the meeting which was supposed to take place this week at Bahrain International Circuit is cancelled due to force majeure."
According to reports, GP2 drivers could hear machine gun fire from their hotels while tanks patrolled the city centre. So far, it is understood that four people have been killed with several hundred injured.
The final pre-season test is due to begin at the Sakhir circuit next Thursday, with the first practice session for the Grand Prix taking place just over a week later.Big name Democrats are continuing to visit South Florida to support U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in advance of her Aug. 30 primary election.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, was the headliner Friday at a Wasserman Schultz-hosted event on the mosquito-borne Zika virus. She also appeared at a fundraising event for Wasserman Schultz's campaign.
Later, in a news conference, she was emphatic in her support for Wasserman Schultz, whom she called "a blessing in many ways."
"Why am I supporting Debbie Wasserman Schultz? I am supporting Debbie Wasserman Schultz because she is a great leader in the Congress of the United States," Pelosi said. "Anyone you talk to on the other side of the aisle in Congress or on either side of the Capitol would say that Debbie has been a very effective leader. I think this district would be very well served to have her back as their representative."
Pelosi is the latest in a string of big-name supporters coming to South Florida to help bring attention to Wasserman Schultz, who is being challenged by Tim Canova in the Democratic primary.
• On Thursday night, Wasserman Schultz brought in former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, who was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
CAPTION Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. CAPTION Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. Democratic congressional candidate Tim Canova took in $1 million in campaign contributions in six weeks this summer — more than three times the money raised by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is defending her seat in the Aug. 30 Democratic primary. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video. CAPTION Click on the play button to watch the video. Click on the play button to watch the video.
Wasserman Schultz was met at her own place of worship, Temple Beth Emet in Cooper City, by a crowded room of supporters who had come to participate in the discussion on gun violence.
Wasserman Schultz said she, along with the other politicians and local leaders who came to the discussion, were "tired of observing a moment of silence and stopping there as if stillness and silence are the only powers at our command against the epidemic of gun violence."
• On Tuesday, Wasserman Schultz hosted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at her campaign headquarters in Davie. Clinton delivered a strong endorsement of Wasserman Schultz.
• On Aug. 5, Vice President Joe Biden hosted a fundraiser to benefit Wasserman Schultz's campaign.
Giffords and Wasserman Schultz worked together in Congress and are close friends. Giffords endorsed Wasserman Schultz at a news conference Thursday, saying that her district is counting on her to stand up to gun violence.
During Giffords' lengthy recovery after being shot in the head, she became an advocate for gun violence prevention.
"Standing up to gun violence takes courage," Giffords said. "The courage to do what's right, the courage of new ideas."
aman@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4550Roger Moore among those paying tribute to the film-maker, who was behind four 007 films including Goldfinger and Live and Let Die
British film director Guy Hamilton, known for his work on four key James Bond movies, has died at the age of 93.
The film-maker worked with Sean Connery on Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever and Roger Moore on Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. An “incredibly saddened” Moore has paid tribute on Twitter.
Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) Incredibly, incredibly saddened to hear the wonderful director Guy Hamilton has gone to the great cutting room in the sky. 2016 is horrid.
Hamilton’s credits also included a number of other key films from the 50s through to the 80s. He worked with Michael Caine on Battle of Britain and Harry Palmer thriller Funeral in Berlin and with Harrison Ford on the 1978 adaptation of Force 10 from Navarone.
He also directed two Agatha Christie adaptations: The Mirror Crack’d with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple and Evil Under the Sun with Peter Ustinov as Poirot.
He started his career as a director’s assistant, working alongside Carol Reed on three films, including The Third Man, where he also acted as Orson Welles’s double in a number of scenes. He was also close to directing two superhero films but turned down Batman and was replaced on Superman.
He also picked up a Bafta nomination for best British screenplay for James Mason comedy A Touch of Larceny.Apple is having a special media event less than an hour from now, during which it is expected to unveil updated Macs in addition to a new iPad mini. Reported specs for an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro and updated Mac mini were leaked by 9to5Mac this morning.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is believed to come with the same quad-core Ivy Bridge processor options as the existing 15-inch MacBook Pro. However, SSD storage starts at just 128GB—a value just this side of manageable for users who don't do much imaging or video work. The three standard configurations will reportedly be:
2.3GHz quad-core processor, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM
2.3GHz quad-core processor, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM
2.6GHz quad-core processor, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM
We expect there will be build-to-order options for up to 16GB of RAM and possibly up to 768GB of SSD flash storage. There is not yet any indication that the 13-inch models will have a discrete GPU.
Additionally, updated Ivy Bridge Mac minis will also be announced, according to 9to5Mac's sources. The entry-level model will have a dual-core 2.5GHz processor, while the higher-end version will have a 2.3GHz quad-core processor. A "server" configuration will come with the 2.3GHz quad-core processor and two 1TB HDDs standard. Unfortunately, Apple appears to be skimping on RAM, with 4GB standard. There is no word on discrete GPU options on the higher-end model, either, like on the existing Sandy Bridge Mac mini.
The standard configurations will reportedly be:
2.5GHz dual-core, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM
2.3GHz quad-core, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM
2.3GHz quad-core, 2x 1TB HDD, 4GB of RAM (server)
Do these specs get you excited? Let us know in the comments. And be sure to tune in to our liveblog, where we will report the full details as they are announced later today.In times of turmoil, I often turn to one of my existential pillars of comfort: Albert Einstein’s Ideas and Opinions (public library) — the definitive collection of the great thinker’s essays on everything from science and religion to government to human nature, gathered under the supervision of Einstein himself. It’s been a challenging week, one that’s reminded me with merciless acuity the value of kindness and compassion, so I’ve once again turned to Einstein’s timeless “ideas and opinions” on this spectrum of subjects.
He considers the ties of sympathy:
How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.
With an eye to what Paul Graham might call prestige, Einstein admonishes against the trap of public opinion:
One becomes sharply aware, but without regret, of the limits of mutual understanding and consonance with other people. No doubt, such a person loses some of his innocence and unconcern; on the other hand, he is largely independent of the opinions, habits, and judgments of his fellows and avoids the temptation to build his inner equilibrium upon such insecure foundations.
Above all, he celebrates our interconnectedness, interdependency, and shared existence:
When we survey our lives and endeavors we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have grown, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
Einstein reflects on good and evil, creative bravery, and human value:
A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to how he stands in this matter. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities. And yet such an attitude would be wrong. It is clear that all the valuable things, material, spiritual, and moral, which we receive from society can be traced back through countless generations to certain creative individuals. The use of fire, the cultivation of edible plants, the steam engine — each was discovered by one man. Only the individual can think, and thereby create new values for society — nay, even set up new moral standards to which the life of the community conforms. Without creative, independently thinking and judging personalities the upward development of society is as unthinkable as the development of the individual personality without the nourishing soil of the community. The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close social cohesion.
With this, he turns to life’s highest ideals:
Everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgments. In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves — such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty.
Austin Kleon said it best: “Be nice. (The world is a small town.)”
Ideas and Opinions is a fantastic read in its entirety, the kind that stays with you for a lifetime.Are protests taking |
cinematic climax, instead it fades away, leaving you marveling at how a band can summon so much emotion with such minimalist ingredients: just a stately swell of strings, a guitar arpeggio, and a whisper of counter-intuitively funky percussion, over which Thom Yorke harmonises with himself majestically. (LL) 17. "Burn The Witch," A Moon Shaped Pool 16. "Exit Music (For a Film)," OK Computer — Since this was originally recorded for the William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, Thom Yorke tried to write the lyrics using only lines from Shakespeare, but settled for something amounting to a summary of the play instead. The fact that this one promises an escape won't fool any fans who are aware that there aren't any escapes in Radiohead songs, or, for that matter, anyone who's familiar with the plot of this play. (JS) 15. "Motion Picture Soundtrack," Kid A — Despite, on its face, seeming like a dire coda to Kid A, there's something weirdly hopeful in this song, especially in the version recorded here with the magical harps and muted choir of angels at the end. An earlier acoustic version feels darker (and includes a bonus, extra-sad verse about a baby being pulled limb from limb). It was written around the same time as "Creep" but not released until seven years later, and I think it aged rather well. (SL) 14. "Everything in Its Right Place," Kid A 13. "Pyramid Song," Amnesiac 12. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," The Bends — Thom Yorke wants you to know that this is not a song about hope: "Our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them, or maybe they don't realize what they're listening to. They don't realize that 'Street Spirit' is about staring the fucking devil right in the eyes... and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he'll get the last laugh." (JS)
11. "My Iron Lung," The Bends — Every Radiohead fan site will tell you this song was supposedly written as an angry response to the overwhelming success of "Creep," and while there's a good bit of bitterness in the lyrics, it seems to take on broader themes than just the downside of fame (also, like, cry me a river Thom Yorke). It's the song on The Bends that seems most clearly a nod to Nirvana, though halfway through (and again at the end) a kind of sonic madness descends from Jonny Greenwood's guitar that feels fully original. (SL) 10. "Idioteque," Kid A — Built on a haunting sample from electronic-music composer Paul Lansky, "Idioteque" is the most extreme version of the paradox that drives Kid A – the distance and alienation implied by programmed beats and synths taken straight out of the Warp Records catalogue, combined with some of Yorke's most frantic and impassioned singing to date. The effect is at once disconcerting and deeply moving. (JS) 8 & 9. "True Love Waits," I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings and A Moon Shaped Pool. — This gorgeous song first emerged all the way back in 1995 and was first released on the 2001 live album I Might Be Wrong. That version is a fairly standard acoustic ballad in the style of The Bends, but with some of the most achingly beautiful lyrics Yorke has ever penned ("Your tiny hands / Your crazy kitten smile / Just don't leave"). The studio version that closes out A Moon Shaped Pool feels extra weighty and heartbreaking since Yorke separated from his long-time partner in 2015. Personal speculation aside, it's the greatest love song in the Radiohead canon and if you listen to either version with your full focus, you'll probably end up weeping. (SB) 7. "Let Down," OK Computer — Fun fact! This song was recorded in Bath, England, in the ballroom of Jane Seymour's mansion, at 3 A.M. The chorus has some of the prettiest harmonies in all of Radiohead-dom. (SL) 6. "Paranoid Android," OK Computer — This song began as three separate fragments and, clocking in at a tortured, schizophrenic 6-and-a-half minutes, it was a bold and uncompromising choice by the band as a first single from OK Computer. The infamous "kicking, screaming, Gucci little piggy" refers to a real woman Thom Yorke met in a bar, who violently overreacted to having a drink spilled on her: "the closest thing I have seen to the devil." (JS) 5. "Fake Plastic Trees," The Bends — This one was recorded shortly after the band had seen Jeff Buckley play live, and during a particularly frustrating and tense day in the studio. Thom Yorke apparently did all the vocals in two takes and then broke down into tears. This was not the last time a person cried after hearing this song. (JS) 4. "Talk Show Host," Street Spirit (Fade Out) (single) — Radiohead's sexiest song was on one of the low-key best albums of the '90s: the soundtrack to William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. As is their habit, the very specific mood of the song (in this case: hot, sweaty makeouts under fluorescent light) isn't achieved by straightforward lyrical storytelling so much as it is by combining stacks of sound with a beat that moves your body around independently, plus a few vague but well-placed poeticisms. (SB) 3. "How to Disappear Completely," Kid A — For a band that just deleted their Internet presence as a way of announcing a new album after four years, this song may well be something of a mantra. In fact, the lyrics to the chorus come from something Michael Stipe told Thom Yorke to repeat to himself as a way of dealing with the anxiety of touring: "I'm not here. This isn't happening." (JS) 2. "No Surprises," OK Computer — Submitted: "No Surprises" is the most beautiful song ever written about depression. (SB) 1. "Lucky," OK Computer — Surprised? We were, too, but the more we thought about it, the more it made sense that "Lucky" would take the top spot. This is a perfect song, start to finish. Don't believe me? Radiohead released it originally for inclusion on a benefit album and wanted to remix it before adding it to OK Computer, but ended up not changing a thing because it was ALREADY PERFECT. It is, in four minutes and 19 seconds, all the things Radiohead are: technically complex but beautiful, soaring and disappointed, furious and sad and "standing on the edge." (SL)
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Which Radiohead song would you choose as #1? Correct Incorrect "Lucky" -- You nailed it. Correct Incorrect "No Surprises," which is their finest song. Correct Incorrect How did you not choose "Creep" when it's obviously "Creep"?! Correct Incorrect A little song called "Paranoid Android." Correct Incorrect "Kid A" Correct Incorrect "How To Disappear Completely" Correct Incorrect "Fitter Happier" Correct Incorrect "Talk Show Host" Correct Incorrect "True Love Waits" Correct Incorrect "Idioteque" Correct Incorrect "My Iron Lung" Correct Incorrect "Fake Plastic Trees" Correct Incorrect "Let Down" Correct Incorrect "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" Correct Incorrect "Karma Police," ever heard of it? Correct Incorrect "Exit Music (For A Film)" Correct Incorrect "Everything In Its Right Place" Correct Incorrect "Pyramid Song" Correct Incorrect "Just" Correct Incorrect "There There" Correct Incorrect "Black Star" Correct Incorrect "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" Correct Incorrect "Reckoner" Correct Incorrect "Airbag" Correct Incorrect Choosing a "best" Radiohead song is a pointless exercise, please stop this. Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later Looks like we are having a problem on the server. Which Radiohead song would you choose as #1? vote votes "Lucky" -- You nailed it. vote votes "No Surprises," which is their finest song. vote votes How did you not choose "Creep" when it's obviously "Creep"?! vote votes A little song called "Paranoid Android." vote votes "Kid A" vote votes "How To Disappear Completely" vote votes "Fitter Happier" vote votes "Talk Show Host" vote votes "True Love Waits" vote votes "Idioteque" vote votes "My Iron Lung" vote votes "Fake Plastic Trees" vote votes "Let Down" vote votes "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" vote votes "Karma Police," ever heard of it? vote votes "Exit Music (For A Film)" vote votes "Everything In Its Right Place" vote votes "Pyramid Song" vote votes "Just" vote votes "There There" vote votes "Black Star" vote votes "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" vote votes "Reckoner" vote votes "Airbag" vote votes Choosing a "best" Radiohead song is a pointless exercise, please stop this. View Results View Results Go Back And Vote Go Back And VoteA Complicated President
There have been many scandals throughout American presidential history, but only one has ever brought down a presidency. To understand Watergate, it is helpful to have an understanding of the culture of the administration, and of the psyche of the man himself. Richard M. Nixon was a secretive man who did not tolerate criticism well, who engaged in numerous acts of duplicity, who kept lists of enemies, and who used the power of the presidency to seek petty acts of revenge on those enemies. As early as the 1968 campaign Nixon was scheming about Vietnam. Just as the Democrats were gaining in the polls following Johnson's halting of the bombing of North Vietnam and news of a possible peace deal, Nixon set out to sabotage the Paris peace negotiations by privately assuring the
Nixon campaigns in California, 9/9/68
Daniel Ellsberg head to court to face charges associated with his leaking of the Pentagon Papers to the press, 1971 South Vietnamese military rulers a better deal from him than they would get from Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. The South Vietnamese junta withdrew from the talks on the eve of the election, ending the peace initiative and helping Nixon to squeak out a marginal victory.
During Nixon's first term he approved a secret bombing mission in Cambodia, without even consulting or informing congress, and he fought tooth and nail to prevent the New York Times from publishing the infamous Pentagon Papers (described below). Most striking, however, was Nixon's strategy for how to deal with the enemies that he saw everywhere. Nixon sent Vice President Spiro Agnew on the circuit to blast the media, protestors, and intellectuals who criticized the Vietnam War and Nixon's policies. Agnew spewed out alliterate insults such as "pusillanimous pussyfooters", "nattering nabobs of negativism", and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history". He once described a group of opponents as "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
The Washington "Plumbers"
But Nixon and his aides also discussed ways in which the President could use subterfuge to undermine his enemies and revenge perceived injustices. This became especially important to the President in 1972, when he was determined to win the election more comfortably than he had in 1968. Nixon had once approved the illegal break-in concept first floated by White House aide Tom Huston, even though Huston specifically told the president it was tantamount to burglary. However, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover refused to cooperate. (Hoover then died in May, 1972, and L. Patrick Gray was appointed acting director in his place). Nixon was especially infuriated by leaks in his administration, and none was bigger than that which became known as the Pentagon Papers, a sensitive Pentagon document that traced the often illicit history of America's involvement in Vietnam. Nixon tried to block publication of the document, and lost. When Nixon discovered that military analyst Daniel Ellsberg had been the
source of the leak, he told White House Counsel Charles Colson, "Do whatever has to be done to stop these leaks and prevent further unauthorized disclosures; I don't want to be told why it can't be done...I don't want excuses; I want results. I want it done, whatever the cost." Colson and yet another Nixon aide, John Erlichmann, created a group whose task it was to stop any further leaks. These White House Plumbers, as they came to be known, were tasked with finding a way to get revenge on Ellsberg. Two of the so-called plumbers were ex-CIA officer Howard Hunt, and ex-FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy. The plumbers tried to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist in Los Angeles to get Ellsberg's confidential treatment records, but the raid was completely botched. In addition to Hunt and Liddy, several other future Watergate burglars were part of this raid.
ex-CIA officer Howard Hunt
ex-FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy
1972
Watergate Complex, Washington, D.C. The Watergate Break-In
June 16, 1972: In room 214 of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., seven men gathered to finalize their plans to break in to the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters, located on the sixth floor of one of the Watergate complex's six buildings. One of these men, G. Gordon Liddy, was a former FBI agent. Another, E. Howard Hunt, had retired from the CIA. James McCord would handle the bugging, Bernard Barker would photograph documents, and Virgilio Gonzalez would pick the locks. The remaining two, Eugenio Martinez and Frank Sturgis, would serve as lookouts. Several of these men were Cuban exiles who had met Hunt through their participation in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion back in 1961. Although the burglars would be caught in the act, many months would pass
before the enough details would emerge to create a picture of the events leading up to that night. These men had been hired by representatives of President Nixon's administration to use illegal means to gather information that could prove useful to Nixon winning the 1972 election.
On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latch on the locks of several stairway doors in the complex, allowing them to be closed without locking. He removed the tape, and thought nothing of it. An hour later, he discovered that someone (McCord) had re-taped the locks. Wills called the police, who showed up in plainclothes in an unmarked car, allowing them to pass by the lookout without the alarm being sounded. The burglars then turned off their radio when they heard noise in an adjacent stairwell. The lookout saw several of the police officers outside on a terrace near the DNC offices, but when he alerted Liddy (Liddy and Hunt stayed
Watergate burglary tools, on display at the Gerald R. Ford Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
in the hotel room, in two-way radio contact with the others), the ex-FBI agent was unable to reach them on the radio. Within minutes, the police arrested the 5 burglars. On their possession were wire-tapping equipment, two cameras, several dozen rolls of film, and a few thousand dollars in cash--$100 bills in sequential serial numbers (indicating the money had come directly from a bank, which could possibly be traced). Liddy and Hunt quickly vacated the premises, but the burglars also had two hotel room keys, one of which was for the room where Liddy and Hunt had stayed.
Re-Elect the President Bumper Sticker, 1972 The five burglars were processed at the police station, where several of them gave fake names. Hunt hired a lawyer to quickly bail the men out, but he underestimated their bail amount. G. Gordon Liddy went to his office and commenced a shredding operation to eliminate any evidence of his involvement. Liddy worked for the Committee to Re-elect the President, sometimes referred to pejoratively as CREEP, and his involvement was a direct connection to President Nixon. McCord was the chief security officer at CREEP. Liddy and Hunt had also worked at the White House, which made the Nixon connection more serious. Meanwhile, a simple fingerprint check revealed the burglar's true identities.
On Monday, June 19, 1972: The Washington Post reported, "One of the five men arrested early Saturday in the attempt to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters is the salaried security coordinator for President Nixon's re-election committee." Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that a search warrant had been executed for the hotel rooms for which the burglars had keys, and that inside one of them were address books that listed Howard Hunt's name or initials, and included the hand-written notation, "WH," for White House. Official reaction was swift. From the White House, Nixon's Press Secretary, Ron Zeigler, dismissed the incident as some sort of petty thievery attempt. John Mitchell, the head of CREEP, denied that the organization had any connection to the event. These public denials were lies. In fact, an elaborate cover-up was already under way. The charge that would stem from the cover-up, "obstruction of justice," would eventually bring Nixon down.
Address book linking the burglary to Howard Hunt & the White House
CREEP Treasurer Howard Sloan The Connection to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP)
On August 1, 1972, a $25,000 cashiers check earmarked for the Nixon re-election campaign was found in the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars. Further investigation revealed that, in the months leading up to their arrests, more thousands had passed through their bank and credit card accounts, supporting the burglars' travel, living expenses, and purchase,. Several donations (totaling $89,000) were made by individuals who thought they were making private donations to the President's re-election committee. The donations were made in the form of cashier's, certified, and personal checks, and all were made payable only to the Committee to Re-Elect the President. However, through a complicated fiduciary set-up, the money actually went into an account owned by a Miami company run by Watergate burglar Bernard Barker. On the backs of these checks was the official endorsement by the person who had the authority to do so, Committee Bookkeeper and Treasurer, Hugh Sloan. Thus a direct connection
between the Watergate break-in and the Committee to Re-Elect the President had been established. When confronted and faced with the potential charge of federal bank fraud, Sloan revealed that he had given the checks to G. Gordon Liddy at the direction of Committee Deputy Director Jeb Magruder and Finance Director Maurice Stans. Liddy had then given the endorsed checks to Watergate burglar Bernard Barker, who then deposited the money in accounts located outside the U.S. and withdrew the money in the form of cashier's checks and money orders in April and May. They did not know that banks kept records of these transactions.
Woodward, Bernstein & "Deep Throat"
Media coverage during 1972 was influential in keeping the Watergate story in the news, and in establishing the connection between the burglary and the Committee to Re-Elect the President. The most notable coverage came from Time, The New York Times, and especially from The Washington Post. Opinions vary, but the publicity these media outlets gave to Watergate likely resulted in more consequential political repercussions from the Congressional investigation. Most famous is the story of how Washington Post Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein relied heavily on anonymous sources to reveal that knowledge of the break-in and subsequent attempt to cover it up had connections deep in the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and even the White House.
Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein (L) & Bob Woodward (R)
Woodward and Bernstein's most famous source was an individual they had nicknamed Deep Throat, a reference to a controversial pornography film of the time. Woodward claimed in his 1974 book, All The President's Men, that the two would meet secretly at an underground parking garage just over the Key Bridge in Rosslyn, usually at 2:00 am, where Deep Throat helped him make the connections. Throughout the protracted investigation, Woodward would signal his source that he desired a meeting by placing a flowerpot with a red flag on the balcony of his apartment. If Deep Throat wanted a meeting, he would make special marks on page twenty of Woodward's copy of The New York Times. The first meeting took place on June 20, 1972, only 3 days after the break-in. The identity of Deep Throat was the subject of intense speculation for more than 30 years before he was revealed to be the FBI's #2, Mark Felt.
On September 15, 1972, Hunt, Liddy, and the 5 Watergate burglars were indicted by a federal grand jury.
On September 29, it was revealed that Attorney General & Nixon campaign chairman John Mitchell had controlled a secret Republican fund used to pay for spying on the Democrats. On October 10, the FBI reported that the break-in at the Watergate was part of a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage on behalf of the officials and heads of the Nixon re-election campaign. Despite these revelations, Nixon's re-election was never seriously jeopardized, and on November 7 the President was re-elected in one of the biggest landslides ever in American political history.
Nixon campaign chair & Attorney General John Mitchell
1972 election results
1973
Watergate Burglars' Trial Begins
On January 8, 1973, the five burglars plead guilty as their trial began. On January 30, just ten days after Richard Nixon's second inauguration, Liddy and McCord were convicted on charges conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping. Nixon had dodged a bullet in the months between the break-in and his re-election, but the Watergate Scandal did not die out after the burglars were tried. [Photo: left to right: Virgilio Gonzales, Frank Sturgis, attorney Henry Rothblatt, Bernard Barker, and Eugenio Martinez].
Watergate Burglars
Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray White House Linked to Cover-Up
On February 28, 1973, Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his nomination to replace J. Edgar Hoover. Committee chairman Sam Ervin, referencing newspaper articles, questioned Gray as to how the White House had gained access to FBI files related to the Watergate investigation. Gray stated he had given reports to White House counsel John Dean, that Dean had ordered him to give the White House daily updates on the FBI's investigation, that he had discussed the investigation with Dean on many occasions, and that Dean had "probably lied" to FBI investigators about his role in the scandal. Subsequently, Gray was ordered not to talk about Watergate by Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst. Gray's nomination failed, and now White House counsel Dean was directly linked to the Watergate cover-up.
White House Counsel John Dean
James McCord
On March 19, 1973, convicted Watergate burglar and ex-CIA agent James McCord, still facing sentencing, wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge John Sirica. In the letter, McCord stated that he had been pressured to plead guilty and remain silent, that he had perjured himself during the trial, that the break-in was not a CIA operation, and that other, as yet unnamed government officials, were involved. Judge Sirica urged McCord to cooperate fully with the Senate Watergate Committee, which was about to begin its investigation. On
March 23, as the burglars were sentenced, Dean hired an attorney and began to quietly cooperate with Watergate investigators. He did this without informing the President, and continued to work as Nixon's Chief White House Counsel, a clear conflict of interest.
Senate Watergate Committee Begins Investigation
On March 25, 1973, Senate Watergate Committee lawyer Sam Dash told reporters that he had interviewed James McCord twice, and that McCord had "named names" and had begun???supplying a full and honest account??? of the Watergate operation. Dash refused to give details, but promised that McCord would soon testify in public Senate hearings. Shortly after Dash's press conference, the Los Angeles Times reported that two that McCord had named were White House Counsel John Dean, and Nixon campaign deputy director Jeb Magruder. The White House denied Dean???s involvement, but said nothing about Magruder. Republican sources on Capitol Hill ominously confirmed the story, with one stating that McCord's allegations were "convincing". When Dean's lawyer learned of a follow-up story planned by the Washington Post, he threatened to sue the newspaper if they ran the story. The Post printed the story anyway, along with the threat from Dean's lawyer.
Senate lawyer Sam Dash
Charles Colson speaks to the press, 4/29/73 On March 28, 1973, James McCord testified before the Senate Watergate Committee in a closed 5-hour session. There were so many leaks to the press that committee leaders decided to conduct all future hearings in public session. The most significant leak was that fellow Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy had told McCord that the burglary and surveillance operation was approved by then-Nixon campaign chairman & Attorney General John Mitchell in February 1972, and that White House Special Counsel to the President Charles Colson knew about the Watergate operation in advance (Colson had just quit his post to return to private practice). The next day, Colson told a National Press Club audience "I had no involvement or no knowledge of the Watergate, direct or indirect."
On April 8, 1973, White House Counsel John Dean told White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman that he planned to testify before the Senate Committee. Haldeman advised against it, saying,???Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it???s going to be very hard to get it back in.??? Dean compiled a list of 15 names, mostly lawyers, who could be indicted in the scandal, and showed then showed the list to White House counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, John Ehrlichman.
Washington Post Connects Break-In to the Cover-up
April 9, 1973: The New York Times reported that James McCord told the Senate Watergate Committee that the cash payoffs for the burglars came directly from the the Republican Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). When trying to confirm whether or not the "slush fund" continued to operate after the arrests (presumably as payoffs to keep the burglars silent), a CREEP employee exploded over the phone to Bob Woodward. He was apparently emotionally distraught over how the ignorance of former CREEP official John Mitchell and others has undermined the presidency. Woodward then called Hugh Sloan, and, using information he had gotten out of the other CREEP official, wrangled out of the former CREEP Treasurer that about $70,000 in CREEP "slush fund"
Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein (L) & Bob Woodward (R)
money was used to pay off the burglars. The Washington Post reporters now had linkage between the bugging and the cover-up.
Nixon makes brief statement on Watergate, 4/17/73 On April 17, 1973, President Nixon made a brief statement before the White House Press Corps that his White House aides and staff would appear before the Senate Watergate Committee if asked. He announced his own ongoing investigation, and promised to reveal "major new developments" in the future. He stated, "Real progress has been made in finding the truth." Nixon also said that his concerns about separation of powers had been resolved, and that any person in the executive branch who was indicted would be discharged; that no one would be given immunity from prosecution. Nixon concluded, "I condemn any attempts to cover up in this case, no matter who is involved." After the president left the podium, the press corps proceeded to hammer Press Secretary Ron Ziegler about whether the President's statement contradicted the position previously articulated. Finally, Ziegler said to the press,???This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.??? Later in the day, the White
House issued an official statement saying that the President had no prior knowledge of the Watergate Affair.
On April 22, 1973, Nixon requested that White House Counsel John Dean write him a report about everything he knew about the Watergate matter, and he sent Dean to Camp David to write it. Dean suspected he was on the cusp of becoming the Watergate scapegoat, and so he went to Camp David, but did not write the report.
On April 24, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst met with President Nixon to inform the President that White House counsel John Dean had testified about the white House having ordered the break-in at the office of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Because Ellsberg's was then on trial over the Pentagon Papers business, Kleindienst said that this new information must be transmitted to to the trial judge. The Attorney General told Nixon, "We have to do???it could be another goddamn cover-up, you know.??? We can???t have another cover-up, Mr. President.??? Nixon replied,???I don???t want any cover-ups of anything.??? They briefly discussed the possibility of immunity for Dean, but quickly ruled it out. Later in the day, in another conversation, the despondent President told Kleindienst, "What the hell, you know. People say impeach the President. Well, then they get [Vice
Attorney General Richard Kleindienst
President Spiro] Agnew. What the hell?" Kleindienst replied, "There's not going to be anything like that, Mr. President." These conversations and many others of relevance were recorded on an oval office tape machine, which would be a major component of the investigation. Nixon also learned that Dean had testified about acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray's involvement in destroying files from White House "Plumber" E. Howard Hunt's safe. Nixon says that Gray has to go. Gray resigned on April 27.
H.R. (Bob) Haldeman
John Ehrlichman Haldeman and Ehrlichman Implicated & Resign
Further leaks about Dean's discussions with investigators next implicated John Ehrlichman (White House counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs) and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman. On April 30, 1973, left with little choice, Nixon summoned the two men to Camp David and, in what's been described as a very emotional meeting, asked for their resignations. Attorney General Kleindienst also resigned. Nixon also asked for the resignation of White House counsel Dean, whose Senate testimony had, and would continue to be so damaging. He then issued a public statement announcing their resignations.
Nixon's 1st Primetime Address on Watergate (April 30, 1973)
Later that evening, the President took to the airwaves in his first primetime oval office address
to the American people on Watergate. He explained that the resignations were not an admission of guilt, but were carried out in order to restore the confidence of the American people. Nixon announced that he had replaced Attorney General Kleindienst with Elliot Richardson, and that he had given him the authority to designate a special independent counsel to investigate Watergate. Nixon took responsibility for the behavior of CREEP, and said, "I will do everything in my power to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and that such abuses are purged from our political processes in the years to come, long after I have left this office." He then explained that, henceforth, he would return to the larger duties of his presidency.
Nixon's 1st Watergate Address, 4/30/73
Senate Watergate Committee Senate Watergate Committee Hearings Begin
The televised Senate Watergate Committee hearings began on May 17, 1973. The three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) agreed to rotate coverage, with each network broadcasting the proceedings every third day (until their completion on August 7). The witness list began with minor players from CREEP. On the fifth day, President Nixon again made a public statement about Watergate. He said, "I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate operation. I took no part in, nor was I aware of, any subsequent efforts that may have been made to cover up Watergate." Nixon also affirmed that he would not use executive privilege to impede testimony or the presentation of evidence."
On May 18, 1973, Watergate Burglar James McCord testified before the Senate Committee [ James McCord testimony excerpt 1 | excerpt 2].
On May 19, 1973, Archibald Cox was appointed Special Prosecutor to oversee the investigation into possible presidential impropriety. He was sworn in on May 25.
On May 22, 1973, President Nixon issued a statement about the Watergate Investigations.
On June 3, 1973, Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein wrote that John Dean planned on giving testimony to the effect that Nixon
Archibald Cox sworn in, 5/25/73
Washington Post headline 6/3
was deeply involved in the Watergate cover-up, and that Nixon had prior knowledge of the hush-money used to pay off various conspirators. Dean would also testify that Haldeman and Ehrlichman were present at these meetings where cover-up was discussed. On the veracity of Dean's information, The Post reported a Justice Department source as having said, "[E]verything we have gotten from Dean that we were able to check out has turned out to be accurate."
Former WH Counsel John Dean Testifies John Dean Testifies, Nixon Claims "Executive Privilege"
From June 25-29, 1973, former White House Counsel John Dean did indeed made these allegations. He began with a seven-hour opening statement in which he laid out his knowledge of the entire campaign of White House espionage. He also revealed that he believed Nixon had tape-recorded some of the oval office conversations regarding Watergate. Dean's story held up well under cross examination. Ten days later, President Nixon announced that he would not testify before the Senate Watergate Committee, and he would not provide access to White House documents. Despite his earlier pronouncement, Nixon justified this decision as "executive privilege".
The Nixon Tapes
On July 16, 1973, another former aide to the President, Alexander Butterfield, testified before the Senate Committee that there was an oval office recording system, that it was installed and operated by the Secret Service, and that Nixon probably had it installed to record things for posterity, for the Nixon Library. (A few days later, Nixon ordered that the taping system be turned off). The shocking revelation set off a chain reaction in which samples of these tapes were sought by both the Senate Committee and by Independent prosecutor Archibald Cox. Nixon, however, refused to turn over the tapes, again claiming executive privilege. The Senate Committee and Cox then issued subpoenas for the White House tapes.
Newsweek, 6/30,73
Nixon's Tape Recorder, on display at the Nixon Library in California
Nixon again refused, and instead ordered Cox to drop his subpoena, but Cox would not. Eventually, the Supreme Court would decide the issue. Meanwhile, as former Aide John Ehrlichman testified before the Senate Committee and disputed Dean's testimony, public opinion was split on whether or not John Dean or President Nixon was the more credible.
Nixon Addresses the Nation on Watergate, 8/15/73 Nixon's 2nd Primetime Address on Watergate (August 15, 1973)
On August 15, as the Senate Committee wrapped up the hearings, Nixon again addressed the nation in primetime about Watergate. The President said, "It has become clear that both the hearings themselves and some of the commentaries on them have become increasingly absorbed in an effort to implicate the President personally in the illegal activities that took place." He reminded the American people that he had already taken "full responsibility" for the "abuses that occurred during my administration." Nixon restated his innocence: "I state again to every one of you listening tonight these facts--I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in; I neither took part in nor knew about any of the subsequent cover-up activities; I neither authorized nor encouraged subordinates to engage in illegal or improper campaign tactics. That was and that is the simple truth." The president went on to
explain in detail how he did not know anything about the cover-up. Nixon justified his refusal to turn over the Oval Office recordings as "a much more important principle??? than what the tapes might prove about Watergate." A president must be able to talk "openly and candidly with his advisers about issues and individuals" without having those conversations ever made public. These were "privileged" conversations, similar to but more important than those between a lawyer and his client or "a priest and a penitent." The conversations on those tapes are "blunt and candid," made without thought to any future public disclosure, and for future presidents and their advisers to know that their conversations and advice might one day be made public would cripple their ability to talk freely and offer unfettered opinions. "That is why I shall continue to oppose efforts which would set a precedent that would cripple all future presidents by inhibiting conversations between them and those they look to for advice." Special prosecutor Cox and the Senate Committee asked the Supreme Court to decide the legal dispute over the tapes.
Spiro Agnew Resigns, Gerald R. Ford to Become Vice President
As the summer of 1973 gave way to fall, another event occurred that would have far-reaching effects on the nation's presidential history. Vice President Spiro Agnew was under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore, Maryland, on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. In October, he was formally charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000 while serving as Maryland's governor. To end the criminal proceedings quickly, a deal was reached. Agnew would plead no contest to a lesser charge of failing to report income to the IRS, on the condition that he resign the Vice Presidency. President Nixon sought advice from Congress on a replacement, resulting in the affable 13-term congressman from Michigan getting the nod, Gerald R. Ford. The U.S. Senate approved the nomination 92-3. The House confirmed by a vote of 397-35. On |
line with European rights legislation.
He also demanded the replacement of a PlayStation 2 games console for a more recent PS3 "with access to more adult games that I get to choose myself" as well as a sofa or armchair instead of a "painful" chair.
"Other inmates have access to adult games while I only have the right to play less interesting kids games. One example is 'Rayman Revolution', a game aimed at three year olds," wrote the 35-year-old convicted killer.
Held apart from other prisoners since 2011 for security reasons, Breivik wrote that he has behaved in an "exemplary fashion" in prison, arguing that he has the right to a wider "selection of activities" than other inmates to compensate for his strict isolation.
Breivik also wants his standard weekly allowance of 300 kroner (£30) to be doubled, particularly to cover his postal charges for written correspondence.
His mail is monitored and censored by prison authorities which, he complained, considerably restricts and slows down his contact with the outside world.
Other demands include an end to daily physical searches at Ila prison, and access to a PC rather than to a "worthless typewriter with technology dating back to 1873".
"You've put me in hell... and I won't manage to survive that long. You are killing me," he wrote to prison authorities in November, threatening a hunger strike and further right-wing extremist violence.
"If I die, all of Europe's right-wing extremists will know exactly who it was that tortured me to death... That could have consequences for certain individuals in the short term but also when Norway is once again ruled by a fascist regime in 13 to 40 years from now," he warned, calling himself a "political prisoner".
On July 22, 2011, Breivik killed eight people in a bomb attack outside a government building in the capital Oslo and later killed a further 69, most of them teenagers, when he opened fire at a Labour Youth camp on the island of Utoya.
In the letter dated January 29 he said that since there has not been any real improvement in his prison conditions, a hunger strike would be "one of the only" options at his disposal.
"The hunger strike won't end until the Minister of Justice (Anders) Anundsen and the head of the KDI (the Norwegian Correctional Services) stop treating me worse than an animal," he said, adding that he would "soon" make public the starting date of his protest action.
Karl Hillesland, acting director of the prison where is being held, told AFP that no one is currently on hunger strike there.
In his letter Breivik attacks the Scandinavian media which he accuses of complicity with the "torture" he is subjected to by not reporting his complaints.
He also refers to himself as a "human rights activist".
"You seem to think that we – all human rights activists who fight for one fundamental human right (cultural self-determination) -... are Nazi monsters who should be pushed into suicide," he wrote.
Breivik's lawyers announced in January 2013 that their client had lodged a complaint over alleged "aggravated torture".
"These conditions have barely improved since," his lawyer Tord Jordet said Thursday, adding that he was nonetheless "keeping his spirits up."
Norwegian police told AFP that a response to that year-old complaint is due next week.
Edited by Barney HendersonNew CCTV footage has revealed that Jeremy Corbyn was telling the truth during last summer's 'traingate' scandal.
The Labour leader became embroiled in a bitter row with Richard Branson's Virgin Trains East Company (VTEC) after he claimed that he was forced to sit on the floor along with other passengers on a "ram-packed" train.
A video emerged in August 2016 showing Corbyn sitting on the floor of a train travelling from London to Newcastle.
The politician said on camera that travelling on a "ram-packed train" was a "problem that many passengers face every day on the trains, commuters and long-distance travellers."
VTEC responded to the claim by releasing CCTV images which appeared to show Corbyn walking past available seats before sitting down on the floor.
In a statement the train operator said it had 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."
After the images were released, the left-wing politician was widely accused of staging a stunt to promote his political agenda of renationalising UK trains.
But new CCTV footage released by Double Down News today (23 August) proves that Corbyn didn't lie about the situation on the Virgin train last summer.
The video shows passengers sitting huddled together on the floor. Every seat appears to be taken as Corbyn is filmed walking through the packed carriages before finding a spot on the floor near the train door.There were just 350 fans in attendance during Syria’s ‘home’ leg of their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying third round, group stage match against Uzbekistan at the Hang Jebat Stadium in Malacca, Malaysia on Thursday.
With the formidable Uzbeks harbouring hopes of securing a direct place in the main tournament, Syria needed a win to keep their own hopes alive.
After 90 minutes of goalless action, the match moved into stoppage time, and Syria’s World Cup dream seemed set to receive a crushing blow. And then, with seconds left on the clock Syria’s Firas al-Khatib was brought down inside Uzbekistan’s penalty box.
It is worth noting that the 33-year-old Al-Khatib, considered one of the country’s greatest footballers, had remained banished from international football for nearly six years.
In July 2012, he had offered his support to the Syrian opposition, and vowed never to play for Syria again as long as the Assad regime continued to target civilians through airstrikes.
With Syria needing a goal to win, forward Omar Kharbin stepped up to take the all-important penalty. His spot-kick was audacious, but effective. Kharbin gambled with a ‘Panenka’ chip, but it turned out to be enough as the Uzbek custodian dived in the wrong direction. Cue, three points to Syria!
The win saw Syria, placed 95th in the FIFA world rankings, take their points tally to eight points from six games, just one point behind the third-placed Uzbekistan. China’s 1-0 upset win over South Korea meant that the latter stayed in their second place with 10 points.
As things stand, the Syrians find themselves in a very good position of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.
Finishing in the top two spots will guarantee qualification to the main tournament, while a third-place finish will take them into the playoffs.
Syria and Uzbekistan players vie for the ball. ( Twitter )
Their remaining fixtures include ‘home’ clashes against China and Qatar, but their litmus test will come in the away games in South Korea and Iran.
With a bloody civil war having ravaged the country for the last six years, Syria’s footballing fairytale will come as a welcome distraction for the people of the country.
Having been forced to play their World Cup qualifying home games in Oman and Malaysia as a result of the civil war, Syria’s current run will also serve as a major boost to their domestic football industry.
It was only a few weeks back that league football made its return to Aleppo and Latakia, after rebels lost control of both cities.
With four games left to play in this round, Syria still have some to way to go if they are to script one of football’s most incredible fairytales.
However, having progressed from a difficult group in the second round and now punching well above their weight in the third round, Syria, irrespective of whether they eventually make it to the 2018 World Cup or not, have undoubtedly been the story of the ongoing qualifying stages.
First Published: Mar 24, 2017 16:25 ISTA milestone payload on Arianespace’s upcoming Ariane 5 mission has been fueled at the Spaceport in French Guiana, readying the Indonesian BRIsat spacecraft for integration with its heavy-lift launcher.
BRIsat will be operated by PT. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. (BRI), which is one of the world’s first banks to purchase its own satellite. Once in orbit, BRIsat will provide enhanced secure banking communications for more than 10,600 operational branches, as well as to some 237,000 electronic channel outlets and nearly 53 million customers across the Indonesian archipelago.
The spacecraft was produced by Space Systems Loral (SSL) based on the company’s SSL 1300 satellite platform.
BRIsat will be orbited along with Arianespace’s co-passenger on the June 8 mission: EchoStar XVIII, which also was built by SSL and will be utilized by DISH Network L.L.C. This direct broadcast spacecraft is designed to provide exceptional sparing flexibility for the DISH fleet, and will augment its existing satellite resources while assuring the highest level of ongoing service to DISH customers.
Arianespace’s Ariane 5 launch to deploy BRIsat and EchoStar XVIII into geostationary transfer orbit is designated Flight VA230 in the company’s numbering system, signifying the 230th mission with an Ariane-series vehicle. It will be Arianespace’s fifth liftoff in 2016, with the overall goal of performing up to 12 flights this year using the heavy-lift Ariane 5, medium-lift Soyuz and lightweight Vega launchers.Drew Thies, a junior English major from Kansas, always put Ralph Waldo Emerson in the "optimistic category" as far as writers of his era went … until he took "American Poetry before 1900" taught by Eric G. Wilson.
Thies says he will never forget when Wilson, the Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English, gave some biographical detail about the poet, including the fact that he opened the tomb of his young wife a year after her dying of tuberculosis to gaze at her corpse.
"For a student who had known only the forward-looking author of 'Nature' and 'Self-Reliance' as he appeared from those two landmark essays, this was obviously a bit of a shock," says Thies. "Why would such a profoundly optimistic poet be so captivated by the death of his wife? And to the extent that he would go so far as to open the coffin?"
Thies would soon learn that Wilson has never shied away from the darker side of literature or life. Wilson's 2008 book, Against Happiness, became a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Now his latest book, Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck, is receiving national attention for his poignant portrayal of people's inherent fascination with morbid curiosities. From rubbernecking on the highway to watching a horror film, Wilson believes there's something nourishing in the darkness.
A lifelong student of the macabre, Wilson sets out to discover the source of people's inherent attraction to darkness, drawing on the findings of biologists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, and artists.
Wilson also discovers light in our more macabre moods. "The morbidity of sorrow," he claims, "is often a productive sluggishness, a time when the soul slows down, too weary to go on, and takes stock of where it's been and where it's going. During these gloomy pauses, we often discover parts of ourselves we never knew we possessed, talents that, properly activated, enrich our lives."
Citing everything from elephant graveyards and Susan Sontag's On Photography to the Tiger Woods sex scandal and Steel Magnolias, Wilson finds similarly heartening truths in the darker side of our psyches. The result is a powerful and delightfully provocative defense of what it means to be human -- for better and for worse.
For Thies, who is spending the spring semester with Wilson and 13 other students in the Worrell House, understanding the relationship between the perverse and the sublime gives more meaning to the British Romantic and Victorian literature classes he's taking with Wilson. As a result, Wilson and his students have deepened their studies of British literature -- Gothic and otherwise -- by visiting important literary sites in London as well as the countryside, ranging from famous cemeteries to the Charles Dickens Museum to the Lake District made famous by William Wordsworth.
Thies says that while he once thought the morbidity and violence in Bronte's Wuthering Heights served only to jar the audience, he now understands that there is a deeper psychological desire behind it.
"There is something profound about studying such subject matter in a country that not only can lay claim to some of the greatest authors in this tradition, but also seems to be, much more so than in the States, eternally imbued with morbidity," says Thies. "From the buildings -- many of which out-date our own nation's founding -- to the graveyards whose permanent residents number in the hundreds of thousands, England, for all its rich countryside and jibes about tea and crumpets, is perhaps the best place to pursue that fulfilling curiosity with the morbid which Professor Wilson described so well."Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle will continue to serve his nearly 15-year prison term for multiple child pornography charges after a district court judge struck down his “sovereign” pro se motion challenging her subject matter jurisdiction as frivolous.
Fogle pleaded guilty in 2015 to two criminal charges against him – conspiracy to distribute/receive child pornography and distribution/receipt of child pornography, and traveling and attempting to travel in interstate commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Fogle, who was then represented by counsel, was sentenced to 188 months in prison. He appealed, arguing his above-guidelines sentence was improper, but the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his sentence in June 2016.
Fogle then filed a pro se motion to correct error, relying on a document filed with the court in which Frank Edwin Pate, an inmate in the same prison where Fogle is being detained, argued the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Fogle. Specifically, Pate wrote, “whether a judicial judgment is lawful depends on whether the sovereign has authority to render it.”
Judge Tanya Walton Pratt struck down the contention that she lacked subject matter jurisdiction in a succinct two-page order on Wednesday.
“If Fogle is now claiming to be ‘sovereign,’ the Seventh Circuit has rejected theories of individual sovereignty, immunity from prosecution, and their ilk,” Pratt wrote. “The Seventh Circuit has instructed that these theories should be rejected summarily, however they are presented.”
“Regardless of his theory, Fogle’s challenge of this Court’s jurisdiction is rejected and his Motion to Correct Clear Error Pursuant to Rule 52(b) … is denied,” she said.The impact of the executions on bilateral relations is coming under intense scrutiny in the English-speaking press in Jakarta, with conjecture that the decision to drop plans to waive visa requirements for Australian visitors to Indonesia could also be related. Governor of Bali I Made Mangu Pastika. Credit:Justin McManus However, this has been denied by the government and is also considered unlikely by migration agents. And Bali's Governor Made Mangku Pastika has said he would not like to see the execution take place on Bali because it could hurt the island's public image. "How do I put it... it would be best if it's not in Bali. I think I want Bali to stay in harmony, to stay safe and peaceful. If possible not in Bali. If possible, anywhere else," newswire detik.com quoted Governor Pastika saying on Saturday in Denpasar.
Tony Spontana, the spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General, said the time and location of the execution of Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran had not yet been determined. However, five of the six executions of drug felons in Indonesia earlier this month took place on the penal island of Nusakambangan – referred to as "Indonesia's Alcatraz" – off the southern coast of Java. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he would not jeopardise Australia's relationship with Indonesia. On Friday he issued a statement saying he and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop would continue to make "every possible effort" to stop the executions. "In the best interests of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the government will not make further public comments but I want to assure Australians that our support will continue," it said.
Tim Lindsey, a professor of Asian law at the University of Melbourne, said the Australian government was taking the right approach in making behind-the-scenes diplomatic representations." "Making this a matter of confrontation between the two countries would not help Chan and Sukumaran," Dr Lindsey said. "There is a lot of pressure on them to do otherwise but it would be counterproductive at this stage." Meanwhile, Australian lawyer and principal migration agent Greg Finlayson said he would be surprised if Indonesia's decision not to waive tourism visas for Australians was related to the executions. He said it was more likely to be because Indonesians were still required to have tourist visas to enter Australia.FBI says Carrier IQ files used for "law enforcement purposes"
The FBI disclosed this weekend that data gathered by Carrier IQ software is used by it for "law enforcement purposes", but refused to give details of how it has done so.
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Muckrock, the FBI said that it held relevant records but that their release could interfere with pending or prospective law enforcement proceedings.
The request asked for "manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ."
Muckrock's Michael Morisy says he plans to appeal the FBI's decision: "What is still unclear is whether the FBI used Carrier IQ's software in its own investigations, whether it is currently investigating Carrier IQ, or whether it is some combination of both."
Carrier IQ came to public attention after threatening a security researcher who reported on the functionality of its software, which is installed on cellphones by some carriers and handset manufacturers. The software, described by Google chairman Eric Schmidt as a "keylogger", is capable of logging and transmitting everything typed by users, though Carrier IQ insists that it does not do so.
The researcher, Trevor Eckhart, spotted suspicious logging activity and demonstrated how the software reacts when users interacted with their cellphones. Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T all acknowledge using Carrier IQ for diagnostic purposes, but say that they do not use it to maintain records of individual users' activity.
Carrier IQ has not yet returned a call for comment.
Read the request and the FBI denial: FBI: Carrier IQ files used for "law enforcement purposes" [Muckrock]
Photo: Trevor EckhartAs a sizeable chunk of the Hill population gets set to spend the next few hours offline and out of the loop in the annual federal budget lockup, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs retreats behind closed doors as well to discuss what the notice refers to, somewhat coyly, as "future business," which will almost certainly include the timeline for the review of the election bill, which made it through second reading last night, and is now at the top of the committee to-do list.
Before that meeting gets underway, however, the New Democrat members will make themselves available to the few reporters not under budget-related lockdown to highlight their proposal to hold cross-country hearings on the government's bid to rewrite the country's election laws.
As the meeting itself is set to take place away from the prying eyes of the public and the press, the results of NDP's efforts to persuade their Conservative colleagues to allow the committee to take its collective time in going over the fine print of the bill will not be known until the minutes are published.
Back in the House, meanwhile, MPs will while away the hours before the budget drop with report stage debate on a bill that would devolve further powers to the Northwest Territories, which will continue until the Commons spotlight falls on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty at approximately 4pm.
Outside the Chamber, lockup-sprung journalists, staffers, MPs and other inside and outside observers will swarm the Foyer; some in hot pursuit of instant analysis and commentary, others searching frantically for a camera or microphone to which to deliver it.
Among the groups that have dutifully RSVP'd for a spot in the post-budget reaction room (or, as some journalists refer to it, the lobbyist pen), or have otherwise served notice of their eventual keenness to share their thoughts with the media: Association of Canadian Community Colleges, Broadbent Institute, Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Canadians Arts Council, Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Federation of Students, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Canadians for Tax Fairness, Conseil du patronat du Quebec, Deloitte, Environmental Defence, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, FRAPRU, Institute for Research on Public Policy and the Investment Industry Advisory Council of Canada.CLOSE Puerto Rican voters endorsed statehood in a non-binding referendum, but they don't get to decide the U.S. territory's fate. USA TODAY
People participate in the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade, marching up Fifth Avenue on June 11, 2017, in New York. (Photo11: Stephanie Keith, Getty Images)
For Puerto Ricans, Sunday was a day of celebration and contention. A parade in New York City featured a man that some deemed a terrorist, and a non-binding referendum in Puerto Rico on the island’s political status was boycotted by several parties, including the leading opposition group.
As New York’s annual Puerto Rican Day Parade moved along Fifth Avenue, voters on the home island cast ballots overwhelmingly endorsing statehood. The Associated Press reported that nearly half a million votes were cast for statehood, but the participation rate was just 23%, leading opponents to question the validity of the vote.
Beyond low turnout, other factors undercut the vote’s significance:
Congress has the final say over whether the territory changes its status, making the vote merely an advisory opinion.
The ballot language was not approved by the U.S. Justice Department, which rejected an earlier version because it did not allow voters to endorse the territorial status quo. That option was then added, but the department said it had not had enough time to review the changes, and asked that the election be postponed. It was not.
The vote came against the backdrop of a financial and economic crisis that has helped drive almost half a million Puerto Ricans to the mainland in the past decade. Unemployment on the island, which has 3.4 million residents, stands at 12%, and the cost of living has risen rapidly.
Statehood’s advocates say it would help the economy; its opponents warn that the island will lose its cultural identity and struggle even more financially because it will suddenly have to pay millions of dollars in federal taxes.
“The cost of statehood on the pocketbook of every citizen, every business, every industry will be devastating,” Carlos Delegado, secretary of the opposition Popular Democratic Party, told AP. “Whatever we might receive in additional federal funds will be canceled by the amount of taxes the island will have to pay.”
Turnout was low at some polling places, but that was not a problem 1,600 miles to the north, where tens of thousands turned out in New York City to celebrate Puerto Rico by dancing to salsa music and waving — or wearing — Puerto Rican flags.
That mood largely overshadowed the controversy over one participant: Oscar Lopez Rivera, 74, a former member of the militant Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN. He spent 35 years in prison for his involvement with the group, which was responsible for bombings that killed and maimed dozens in the 1970s and '80s.
The attacks included a lunchtime blast in 1975 that killed four people at historic Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan, less than a mile from the new World Trade Center.
Puerto Rican resident Maria Quinones looks carefully at her ballot with a magnifying glass before voting during the fifth referendum on the island's status, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on June 11, 2017. (Photo11: Carlos Giusti, AP)
Lopez Rivera was convicted of seditious conspiracy. But he was never charged with any specific bombings, and he has denied participating in attacks that injured anyone. He was released from prison last month after his sentence was commuted in January by then-president Barack Obama.
Corporate sponsors, including AT&T and JetBlue, dropped out of the parade over the organizers’ decision to honor him as “National Freedom Hero,” and Gov. Andrew Cuomo refused to march.
Lopez Rivera said last week he would decline the honor and participate as an individual, partly because he wanted the focus on Puerto Rico’s problems, not him.
Marchers on Sunday included Mayor Bill de Blasio, who for weeks defended his intention to march, but then said last week he was uncomfortable with honoring Lopez Rivera.
Riding on a float, Lopez Rivera was cheered by supporters, some of whom carried signs calling him “our Mandela.” But other spectators booed, including Nanchelle Rivera, 28, of Orlando. “He did not represent me,” she told AP.
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2sbTADFMajor League Soccer and adidas on Monday revealed the jersey that will be worn by the MLS All-Stars when they take on Tottenham Hotspur at the 2015 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 29 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Colorado.
The standout feature of the jersey is the traditional soccer sash featuring a modern design that incorporates both a star from the US flag and the leaf from the Canadian flag to commemorate the two nations that make up the league. The same sash design is also found on the neck taping.
The primary colors of the shirt are red, white and blue in a nod to the new MLS crest, which features those same colors. The three stars that make up the MLS logo are also present on the back of the All-Star jersey with the words identifying the three league pillars they represent: "Club, Country, Community" (below, right).
It's also a special 20th-season shirt, celebrating the league's history with a jock tag on the lower left area of the authentic shirts (below, left).
The first players named to the AT&T MLS All-Star team, as well as the Commissioner's two annual selections, were to be revealed on Monday night.Day in the Life:
Natasha Hastings
Daily Routine:
7AM – Wake Up & Meditate
730AM – Breakfast
915-1030AM – Weight Room
11AM-1PM – Track Practice
130PM – Lunch
2-3PM – Treatment/Rehab
Natasha Hastings is a USA Track & Field Sprinter, Olympic Gold Medalist and World Class Athlete from New York. At the age of 22, she made her first appearance with the USA Olympic Track and Field Team and in 2008 won an Olympic Gold Medal in the Women’s 4×400M relay team.She has been labeled by her fan base as the ”400M Diva” after she jokingly described the ladies’ track team at the University of South Carolina, where she attended, as the “Gamecock Divas” in honor of the school’s mascot. She studied exercise science and won both indoor and outdoor championships her junior year where she set the collegiate records at the time. “400M Diva” continues to stick throughout Natasha’s individual indoor and outdoor accomplishments.Although Natasha is an Olympic Champion, World Champion and US National Champion, she continues to maintain her focus, knowing that rest and exertion are both mandatory. She finished the 2015 season placing #2 during the U.S. National Championship and winning a silver medal with the 4x400M Relay in Beijing during the World Championship. Additionally, as she comes into the season, there is no doubt that Natasha will continue to strive for excellence on and off the track to maintain consistency, while preparing for her quest for Gold in Rio 2016.Austin, TXPower cleansRice cakes with peanut butterMeditationHappiness is a choice.
What gets you out of bed every morning?
The new opportunity to attain the goals set ahead.
What is the most important part of your daily routine? My morning meditation is most important. I set my goals and intentions for the day. I declare the day to be a great one in which I will be happy and go after each task at hand.
What about your “O” do you think is unique or special? It’s self focused. I focus on being the best me and not comparing myself to others and their journey.
Whose “O” would you most love to see? I would love to see
Serena Williams’ “O”. She’s been an inspiration since I was young, and I admire her trailblazing skills and attitude.
What is your #1 wellness habit?
Drinking lots of water. It’s the basis for a healthy life inside and out. Without hydration almost everything else goes out the window.
What is the best piece of health advice you’ve ever received?
Moderation is key. We fall off track when we try to be overly strict about the things we eat.
What is your favorite part about living a healthy lifestyle?
Feeling and looking good. It gives me the confidence to step out into the world with no inhibitions.
What’s your biggest wellness challenge? How do you address it?
My weight has been an issue throughout my career. Being bigger and not the prototype for my event I’ve been told I’m too heavy. I do my best to excel as I am.
If you could give one piece of health advice, what would it be?
Find an activity you love and work hard at it. It’s important that you love what you do.
Natasha Hastings is a USA Track & Field Sprinter, Olympic Gold Medalist, World Champion and USA National Champion. For more inspiration from Natasha, follow her on Instagram and Twitter, and check out her website Natasha Hastings.
Owaves 101 is a blog series showcasing tips for work-life balance from fitness experts and successful professionals. Olympians, Ironmen, inspiring yoga teachers, physicians, and clinical dietitians, among others collaborate and share ideas in a common mission of leading healthier, fuller and more balanced lives.
Learn how uber athletes and hard-working professionals manage work-life balance and plan their days. Gain insight and tips on how to elevate your “O”. To get involved, email:feedback@owaves.com and to follow our Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter feeds.
Owaves is the World’s First Wellness Planner! Plan meals, sleep and exercise into your day. This day planner for health is FREE for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch: Download NOW!Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department say a Trevor man was arrested for his 10th driving under the influence offense. Deputies arrested 44-year-old William Hess in his vehicle outside his residence in the Carefree Estates mobile home park, Kenosha News reports.
Police received a report of a possible drunk driver Friday night on Highway C near Highway MB.
“Apparently he was driving into oncoming traffic; he was all over the road, and at one point allegedly left the roadway,” said Sgt. Mark Malecki.
It has not been determined if Hess is facing his 10th DUI charge, as they have only been able to confirm seven convictions through Illinois authorities. He also has other DUI arrests. Officials say Hess will be charged in Wisconsin depending on how those cases were adjudicated in Illinois.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Krejcarek said Hess may be “charged with DIU eighth, ninth or 10th offense.”
Police said Hess has not held a valid driver’s license since 1995 and served time in prison for DUI in Illinois. Hess holds a supervisory position at a company in Kenosha.
Hess was arrested and charged for reckless driving and possession of open alcohol containers. A temporary bond of $50,000 was set and will be revisited on Friday, when Hess is scheduled to return to court.Human life is full of achievements and failures. God gave all humans the same body and mind but things which make everyone different is one person's motivation to achieve his/her target. It changes the whole scenario of every work. The importance of motivation is always underestimated but it is very important to every person to meet and achieve his/her goals. What is the motivation? Motivation is a factor that stimulates desire and energy which keep people continuously interested and committed to their goal. It may be internal or external. Motivation boosts up the capacity of a human as without the same, he/she will not do his/her work with efficiency. Motivation is a power which encourages a person to do or not to do the things. It means motivation is not only about doing the things, it also includes not doing certain things. For example- if a person fails to achieve his goal, he is in the hopeless situation and wants to commit suicide. But then he thinks about his family and changes the decision. So, the power which motivates to not commit the suicide is motivation. Motivational Quotes Motivational quotes are one way to express a positive thought to the people. It really inspires them to give up their problems and achieve their goals. If you want to change anything, you have to be passionate to change that thing and this feeling of passion come with motivation.
Benefits of motivation: There is a number of benefits of motivation. Some of these benefits are following:- 1. Capacity Motivation increases the capacity of a human being to do any work. In any organization, if their employees are motivated, the capacity of organizations output will increase. The employees will not only work faster but they will also give their creativity to their work. This way, the performance of the organization will improve in overall terms. 2. Better productivity The quality of a motivated employee is much better than others. In an organization, the resource consumption will be less and the benefit will be more through motivation. 3. Good reputation Motivation always creates a good reputation in the society. If we take the example of an organization, the motivated employees will create a good reputation in the industry. And people who inspire others to achieve their goals also have a good reputation in the society. 4. Learning Human life is all about learning. Motivation is a factor by which human learn things faster. When a person thinks of learning something new, motivation helps him/her grab things easily and in an efficient manner. 5. Efficiency Motivation improves the efficiency of the work. The motivated person has a creative mind and new idea to do all new things. So, for the success of any organization and society, motivation plays a very important role. 6. Better society The motivated person will always achieve his goal and inspire others to do so. This creates a better society and good environment with development for all. Every person should be positive for his life and society. He has to share new ideas and help others in doing the same. This way, the society will get positive energy and change in a positive manner.Looking for?
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Look for these icons to know which format the title includes:Hundreds of young children in Afghanistan are being forced to share a jail cell with their mothers; women who in many cases are protesting their innocence or have been convicted of so-called moral crimes.
Many of those children are facing years behind bars, cut off from the outside world yet themselves completely innocent of any offence.
People & Power sent filmmakers Mike Healy and Najibullah Quraishi to find out why.
FILMMAKER'S VIEW
By Mike Healy
The frequently appalling treatment of women in Afghanistan is a subject that has been well covered by the international media, and quite rightly so: Earlier this year for example, my British-Afghan colleague Najibullah Quraishi and I interviewed women who had been badly beaten and abused by their husbands and their families (including other women), and had no other option but to live secretly in a women's shelter in Kabul.
One young woman had been stabbed in the head by her husband and had had her fingernails pulled out. When she tried to escape, she was imprisoned for four years by the authorities for the "moral crime" of simply being a woman unaccompanied by a male.
We wanted to know what happened to the young children of such women (even the guilty ones), and Najibullah, using his extensive range of contacts in Afghanistan, secured us access to Jowzjan prison - sometimes referred to as Sheberghan prison, after the town where it's situated.
A person in this 21st century needs to learn, experience and feel a lot of things in their first years of life so they are equipped to make the right choices and have a positive impact on society. In a prison environment... they miss out on those experiences. Afghan psychologist
As far as we know, no-one has ever gained filming access to this subject before. The prison authorities took some persuading, and were conscious of how they would come across to an international audience, but the fact that this prison is widely seen as the best in northern Afghanistan meant that, relatively speaking, they had less to hide.
Here the staff genuinely seemed to have personal connections with the female inmates, and living conditions – though clearly very basic – were relatively bearable. But we also heard reports of prisons in other areas where staff abuse and even rape the women under their guard.
Once we got there, perhaps the biggest surprise was just how young the majority of the children were. But actually it made sense that the very youngest children including newborns in need of the greatest care remained with their mothers - in prison.
When the fathers have to travel hundreds of miles to find work, it is left to relatives to care for the children who remain outside prison. One father described how he is forced to lock his children in the house for their own safety while he is out working. Even when they are at home, they are imprisoned.
However, in a country where reputation is everything, the children of prisoners are often disowned and left to live off the streets. Needless to say, these children are more vulnerable to dangers such as drug addiction, and inevitably, crime.
On the inside, the children growing up in prison are desensitised to their environment and likely under the influence of genuine criminals. Inside or out, the system encourages criminality and despair.
The numbers of figures involved are difficult to estimate, especially as the children may have spells in prison followed by time with relatives outside, but its thought to be in the hundreds at least. There are also orphanages and children's centres throughout Afghanistan |
Brown catch four passes for 48 yards in a Pittsburg State win. One year later Brown was in Arizona with his new team, the Cardinals, to play the Philadelphia Eagles. A crowd of 61,789 watched Brown make the play of the day, and of his young and burgeoning career: a fingertip 75-yard bomb from Carson Palmer that accounted for the winning points in a battle of one-loss teams. What an absolutely perfect match Brown is with Bruce Arians and his daring ways. Sunday was the first time America got to see it on the national stage, and it lifted the surprising Cardinals to a two-game lead over San Francisco and Seattle in the NFC West at the season’s midway point. “I told you John Brown could play,” Arizona GM Steve Keim said by phone from Glendale, Ariz., an hour after the game. Keim did say that, at training camp this year. And everyone can see it now. Coach Bruce Arians is calling his number, and Carson Palmer, who targeted him 10 times Sunday, clearly has faith in him the way he has faith in Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd. It’s happened so, so fast. It’s happened because Brown has two traits—raw speed (4.34 seconds in the 40) and the kind of competitiveness an Arians receiver has to have because of the toughness Arians requires of his players. I’ve told the story of Keim dealing the 20th pick in the draft to New Orleans for the 27th and 91st picks, selecting safety Deone Bucannon at 27 and hoping, praying that Brown would last until the 91st pick. And Brown was there, because he hadn’t played at a big program, and he’d once been cut from a junior college team, so really, how good could he be? When he met with the Cardinals at the scouting combine, and later with vice president of player personnel Terry McDonough and receivers coach Darryl Drake in a private workout, his ability impressed them—but it was his desire and competitiveness that really won them over. “I remember telling them I’m a very hard worker,” Brown recalled Sunday night. “I told them, ‘I’ll get there and from the first day I’ll follow Larry [Fitzgerald] around and learn everything I have to learn to be a good player.’ I was convinced I could do it. It’s football. And I love football.” The Cardinals found out early that Brown wasn’t cowed by the quality of the competition. After minicamp he went to southern California to practice daily with Carson Palmer—paying the expenses himself. When Arians got him in training camp, he thought Brown would be a great complement to the more polished receivers, Fitzgerald and Floyd, with the kind of speed they didn’t have. That speed is what won Sunday’s game. Brown (12) told the Cards brass he’d follow and learn from Fitzgerald (11), but against Philly it was the veteran who was thrilled by the rookie. (John Biever/SI/The MMQB) Brown (12) told the Cards brass he’d follow and learn from Fitzgerald (11), but against Philly it was the veteran who was thrilled by the rookie. (John Biever/SI/The MMQB) On third-and-five from the Arizona 25 with 1:33 left in the game, Arians faced a tough call. Philadelphia led 20-17, and Arians was running out of time to make a big play. Across from Brown was a physical, veteran corner, Cary Williams, and over the top was safety Nate Allen. The Cards had thought to call a play for Brown previously but didn’t see the right matchup. Now Palmer saw it, and Arians saw it. They both thought Brown would be able to make the move they’d practiced several times during the week, beating the corner off the line and then freezing the safety with a double-move toward the post. Clearly, Philadelphia wouldn’t have expected Palmer to go for it all there; the Eagles would be expecting Palmer to be thinking first down, and just move the sticks. But that has never been Arians’ way. “We had three [receivers] at eight yards for the first down,” Arians said later, “but when there’s a touchdown involved in the play, never pass it up. Don’t play scared; play smart.” Off the line, Brown beat Williams, and pulled the double-move on Allen, who trusted that Brown was going to pull up on a short curl to make the first down. Nope. Brown sped by Allen. “He bit,” Brown said. And Palmer, who has learned to take shots even when logic tells him not to, threw a high-arcing bomb way downfield. “I thought it was too far,” Brown said. “When it was coming down, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to catch up. I’m thinking, ‘No—please don’t be an overthrow.’ I just had to catch it.” Watching it over his shoulder, Brown gathered it in … just barely, on the tips of both hands. “A Willie Mays catch over his shoulder,” said Arians, even though most of his players would have no idea what he’s talking about. They’re not versed in 1954 World Series history. Brown barely made it to the end zone on the 75-yard touchdown catch, and a replay review confirmed he was in. In the locker room, he accepted congratulations, but he was careful to not be too gee-whiz about a play he thinks he should make every week. “This is what they drafted me for,” Brown said. “I’m a football player, and I belong here. There’s no such thing as, ‘You’re just a rookie.’ ” * * * The Seahawks are not out of the woods. Marshawn Lynch may not be a Seahawk in 2015, but Seattle still needs him this season. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) Marshawn Lynch may not be a Seahawk in 2015, but Seattle still needs him this season. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) Now for the annual Seattle-at-Carolina game (even though they’re not in the same division) that sets offensive football back to the 1950s. The Seahawks and Panthers have met in Charlotte three years in a row and scored a grand total of four offensive touchdowns in those three games. The recent series: 2012: Seattle 16, Carolina 12 2013: Seattle 12, Carolina 7 2014: Seattle 13, Carolina 9 That last one was yesterday, and it left the battle-scarred Seahawks almost euphoric, even though Carolina’s defense was one of the softest in football entering the game. The Seattle players were happy and relieved that they hadn’t fallen farther back in the uber-competitive NFC West, and not paying much attention to, you know, how they’re actually playing. I’ll remind them. Since the opening-night rout of the Packers that seemed more like an extension of the 2013 season than the start of the 2014 one, Seattle is 3-3. Points scored: 136. Points allowed: 134. Then there were the locker-room questions, the ones about Russell Wilson’s leadership, about Marshawn Lynch being on his last legs and not in the team’s 2015 plans, about the hangover from Percy Harvin’s divisive presence. So I touched base with one of the team’s most prominent leaders, safety Earl Thomas, to get an idea of the pulse of the Seahawks. “I’ve been so much in my zone,” he said, “that I haven’t really followed all that.” I asked him if he’d heard about the Bleacher Report piece that had a teammate saying Wilson wasn’t “black enough,” and about the Chris Mortensen report that Marshawn Lynch wouldn’t be back with the team in 2015. • RUSSELL WILSON ON RACE: In July, the QB wrote about the history of race and the NFL for The MMQB “I didn’t know those things,” he said. Which puzzled me quite a bit. “My reaction [to the Wilson story] is that it’s an insult to our race. And Russell is the ultimate competitor. He always works as hard as anyone, and he handles himself with poise. He represents our team and our organization very well. I don’t think there’s any problem with him in our locker room at all.” Said Thomas: “It’s time for the leaders in our locker room to step up. I look at it as a challenge. Today was a good step for our team. The close games help us grow. The pressure in games like this is good for us down the road.” There are also problems down the road. If Lynch understands—and he certainly must have an inkling about it—that the Seahawks weren’t going to pay him the $6.5 million he is due in 2015, never mind a re-done contract, he’s going to be even more enigmatic than normal. I agree with Mortensen: I believe this season is the end for Lynch in Seattle. The drafting of Robert Turbin and Christine Michael in 2012 and 2013, respectively, provides a big clue that the Seahawks will move on when Lynch turns 29 in the off-season. I don’t see him being moved by Tuesday’s trading deadline unless Seattle gets a great offer for him, which I can’t see. Even a running-back-needy team isn’t going to give Seattle GM John Schneider anything like the third-round pick that would make him think hard about radically affecting their chances to repeat this year. Lynch almost cost Seattle the game Sunday. A pass from Wilson went through his hands in the end zone just before the half, and instead of a touchdown, Carolina’s Josh Norman intercepted it. Seattle trailed 6-3 at halftime instead of going up 10-6. It was a stunning miss by the sure-handed Lynch, and Seattle was fortunate to overcome it. In the coming weeks, they’ll need Lynch, and it’ll be interesting to see if he throws all of himself into his work knowing his future with the team is very likely a short-term one. * * * Peyton Manning got the better of Tom Brady nine months ago in the AFC title game. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Peyton Manning got the better of Tom Brady nine months ago in the AFC title game. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) Look what the old geezers have in common, Mabel. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning meet for the 16th time Sunday (4:25 p.m., CBS), and they’ve been near-mirror images over the past month. Check it out: Player Age W-L Comp-Att. (Pct.) Yards TD Int Rating Brady 37 4-0 100-134 (.746) 1,268 14 0 138.5 Manning 38 4-0 100-141 (.709) 1,320 14 2 127.4 It wouldn’t be Brady-Manning if there wasn’t something particularly eerie about it: Each has 100 completions over the past four games, each has four wins, each has 14 touchdown passes, each is over 70 percent completions, each is over a 125 composite rating. * * * Now for the rest of the story … In brief as the NFL hits the season’s midpoint: If you slept in you missed Golden Tate helping Detroit to a wild victory with his second straight 150-yard game. (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) If you slept in you missed Golden Tate helping Detroit to a wild victory with his second straight 150-yard game. (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) Two-thirds of America liked the early game Sunday. Well, at least the Americans who follow me on Twitter. I polled my followers Sunday at three different points of the day, asking if they favored an occasional 9:30 a.m. start in the future. The 9:30 a.m. start came Sunday with Detroit-Atlanta from Wembley Stadium in London, the earliest Sunday kickoff in NFL history. Of the 885 who responded by midnight Eastern Time, 574 said yes; that’s 64.9 percent who want to see more. I asked the chief operating officer of NFL Media, Brian Rolapp, what he thought Sunday night, and he said his first impressions were positive, but he wanted to see the ratings and get feedback on the game before talking about it. The preliminary ratings will be seen in the morning
Von Miller and the Broncos slide into the top spot, just as the schedule is about to get real. (Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) Von Miller and the Broncos slide into the top spot, just as the schedule is about to get real. (Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
The Fine Fifteen
1. Denver (6-1). Now comes the tough part of the schedule. Denver has one home game in the next 41 days. Six road, three home the rest of the season, and the first one’s a battle: next Sunday in Foxboro. Brady-Manning XVI (Brady 10, Manning 5) is Sunday in the late-afternoon window, and Manning enters this duel with the best chance to beat Brady in Foxboro in years.
2. Dallas (6-1). Not a lot of time to breathe easy after tonight’s game with Washington. Arizona comes to Texas next Sunday for the game of the week in the NFC.
3. Arizona (6-1). What a story these Cards are becoming. What a story John Brown is. And what a day Todd Bowles had, sending blitzers from everywhere.
4. New England (6-2). Kansas City 41, New England 14 seems like five years ago, not five weeks ago.
5. Philadelphia (5-2). If the field is 12 inches wider, Jordan Matthews catches that touchdown inbounds on the last play at Arizona and it’s the Eagles who leave the desert dancing. Philly has agonizing losses to the Niners (26-21) and Cardinals (24-20).
6. Indianapolis (5-3). My one troubling pick here, after Pittsburgh hung up 51 on the Colts—who’d been playing superbly entering Sunday. But I cannot dismiss a five-game winning streak broken on Sunday, and a 27-0 shutout of a division leader eight days ago.
7. Green Bay (5-3). Hard to kill a team for losing at the Superdome, where the Saints never falter. Pack with the bye this week, and they play four of the next five at Lambeau. Who ever has a stretch like this in the middle of an NFL season, playing one road game in a 48-day span? I think they’ll be okay.
8. Cincinnati (4-2-1). Not a very impressive win, all in all, but the Ravens can make a team play ugly. What’s good about this win for the Bengals is they’d been playing in quicksand all month (0-2-1) before Sunday, and sweeping the team that looked like the best in the division (23-16 in Week 1, 27-24 Sunday) puts Cincinnati in the driver’s seat to win the AFC North.
The Chiefs, who improved to 4-3, sacked Austin Davis seven times on Sunday. (Ed Zurga/AP) The Chiefs, who improved to 4-3, sacked Austin Davis seven times on Sunday. (Ed Zurga/AP)
9. Baltimore (5-3). A legitimate OPI call on Steve Smith from being 6-2 and owning the division.
10. San Francisco (4-3). A non-controversial Sunday for once. The bye helped.
11. Kansas City (4-3). The Chiefs have won four of five, and I don’t know how you block that defensive front. Justin Houston (three sacks in the rout of St. Louis, a league-high 10 for the season) led a seven-sack marauding at Arrowhead yesterday.
12. San Diego (5-3). Defensive coordinator John Pagano will have good ammunition to get the attention of his secondary and his rushers this week at practice: The Chargers allowed 19 completions in 23 targets to wide receivers Thursday in Denver. San Diego needs to be better at harassing the quarterback and clinging to the wideouts.
13. Seattle (4-3). Know why that game in Charlotte was such an important win for the defending champs? The Week 12 through 16 schedule for the Seahawks: Arizona, at San Francisco, at Philadelphia, San Francisco, at Arizona.
14. Pittsburgh (5-3). You figure out the team that, in the past four weeks, has lost to Tampa Bay at home, struggled to beat the Jaguars on the road, got routed by the Browns in Cleveland, had the bizarre burst of points to beat Houston at home, and then blew up the Colts (who shut out Cincinnati last week) at Heinz Field on Sunday. You figure it out, because I can’t.
T-15. Buffalo (5-3). Kyle Orton is 3-1 with a rating of 104.0. Hey Doug Marrone: I said at the time of the E.J. Manuel benching that it was a mistake, but clearly I was a dolt. Orton really belongs.
T-15. Detroit (6-2). Bet you a dollar I can call the Week 17 flex game on NBC: Lions at Packers.
Sunday was the third three-touchdown game of Rob Gronkowski’s five-year NFL career. (Jared Wickerham/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB) Sunday was the third three-touchdown game of Rob Gronkowski’s five-year NFL career. (Jared Wickerham/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB)
The Award Section
Offensive Player of the Week
Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback, Pittsburgh. A historic day for the Big One, and not just because he went 40 of 49 for 522 yards—the fourth-most prolific day for a quarterback in the 95-season history of the game—with six touchdowns, no interceptions. Historic, too, for its symmetry. Roethlisberger is now 100-50 in his regular-season professional career.
Rob Gronkowski, tight end, New England. If you remember the bumper-car way Mark Bavaro used to play the tight end position, you’d recognize the way Gronkowski played against the Bears. He had eight catches on eight first-half targets for 102 yards and two touchdowns, twice bouncing off multiple Bears (his sixth catch of the half was a three-Bear bounce-off). The Patriots are back to the offense Tom Brady loved running two and three years ago, when Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez made it a tight-end-centric attack. Gronkowski and Tim Wright (the ex-Buc) combined for three touchdowns in the first half. Anyone complaining about that Logan Mankins trade now? For the game, Gronkowski caught nine balls for 150 yards and three touchdowns. What a virtuoso performance. “That’s the old Gronk we know," said Vince Wilfork.
Defensive Players of the Week
Von Miller, outside linebacker, Denver. Should have known he was in for a big game Thursday night when he wrecked the second and third San Diego drives of the game. Second series: Miller smashed tight end John Phillips on a wide run by Branden Oliver of the Chargers; loss of five, and the Chargers punted two plays later. Third series: Third-and-seven, Philip Rivers in the shotgun, Miller blew by his tackle for a five-yard sack. San Diego punted. According to Pro Football Focus, Miller in the past five games has a gaudy 34 sacks/hits/significant pressures of the quarterback. The addition of DeMarcus Ware has been a big factor in Miller’s performance, as has Miller simply growing up.
Anthony Barr’s strip, scoop and score in overtime lifted the Vikings past the Bucs. (Cliff McBride/Getty Images) Anthony Barr’s strip, scoop and score in overtime lifted the Vikings past the Bucs. (Cliff McBride/Getty Images)
Anthony Barr, outside linebacker, Minnesota. On the first play of overtime in Tampa, Barr stripped fellow rookie Austin Seferian-Jenkins, the Bucs tight end, after a pass reception, recovered the fumble at the Tampa 27-yard line, and rumbled in for the winning touchdown. For the game, the precocious linebacker from UCLA had eight tackles, one sack and one pass defensed. Midway through the season he’s a serious contender for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Special Teams Player of the Week
Justin Tucker, kicker, Baltimore. While the Ravens’ offense struggled for consistency Sunday in Cincinnati, Tucker decidedly did not. His 45- and 50-yard field goals in the first half kept Baltimore close, and in the fourth quarter with 3:59 left, his 53-yard field goal gave the Ravens a 24-20 lead. The way Baltimore’s defense was playing at the time, that looked like it would be enough. But the Bengals came back to overcome Tucker’s big day and beat the Ravens with a late touchdown.
Coach of the Week
Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator, New England. The Patriots looked to be down for the count after getting swamped in the Week 4 Monday-nighter at Kansas City 41-14. Alarm bells all over New England, from Kennebunkport to New London. In the four weeks since, juggling an offensive line with three combinations in four games and getting a new tight end (Tim Wright) ready to contribute, McDaniels has the offense purring: New England has scored 43, 37, 27 and 51 points in the last four games. Who’d have thought the Patriots would follow that game in Kansas City with a four-game stretch averaging 39.5 a game? Good to have Tom Brady at quarterback, obviously. But also good to have a play-caller who understands what works with the talent he has.
Goat of the Week
Geno Smith, quarterback, New York Jets. Eleven minutes played. Three turnovers. Awful forcing of the ball to Percy Harvin. That was one terrible bit of football for Smith, who is fighting for his NFL life with the Jets … and Sunday opened the door for Marcus Mariota, or whoever is in the wings. Smith’s 11-minute totals: 2 of 8, five yards, no touchdowns, three picks. Yikes.
Quotes of the Week
I
"Not black enough? I don't even know what that means. I think I'm an educated male trying to lead this team."
—Seattle quarterback Russell after the 13-9 victory over Carolina. A Bleacher Report story last week said some veterans on the Seahawks didn’t consider Wilson “black enough."
II
"I take my job very seriously, and if I was a rookie quarterback named starter for the first time in the league, I feel like I’d be a little more focused than that. Maybe he’ll learn from it, maybe not."
—Houston defensive end J.J. Watt, on the perceived pre-game flippancy of first-time starter Zach Mettenberger of the Titans.
III
“We are happy to reward someone that has a rare work ethic, which not only makes him an elite player but serves as an example for our entire team. His commitment, character and leadership are attributes that make him a truly special person, who will play a pivotal role in our future success."
—Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht, announcing on Saturday a seven-year, $95.2 million deal for defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, the franchise’s cornerstone player.
IV
"Here’s the amazing thing about Peyton Manning: He’s an ascending player at the age of, what, 38 years old? I have never seen a great player on that level ascending at that age."
—NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth, to me, on Saturday.
V
"The strip comes. The ball starts to move just a hair before the elbow hits the ground. That fumble is going to be confirmed. Now we just need to confirm the clean recovery---"
"After further review, the runner’s elbow was down, in complete control of the football. Denver’s ball, at the 26-yard line."
—A double quote … first from CBS officiating analyst Mike Carey, watching in slow motion on Thursday night and announcing to the nation that a fumble that was ruled on the field on a kick return by Denver’s Andre Caldwell should be confirmed. The second quote, interrupting Carey on the CBS/NFL Network simulcast, is from referee Terry McAulay, who overturned the call on the field.
Awkward.
I’ll discuss the mechanics of the play, which was highly controversial, in Ten Things a little later in the column. But first a couple quick points about Carey’s analysis, with the advantage of hindsight. This was a close play, but a play I believe was called correctly through the new replay review process that involves the NFL replay center in New York. There is no way Carey can look at this play and say with conviction that the play should be confirmed. It’s in the NFL rule book that the ball has to be clearly loose, or coming loose, for it to be a fumble before the runner’s arm hits the ground; if the ball is moving slightly but still in Caldwell’s possession, it’s not a fumble. Also, Carey needs to leave himself some wiggle room on plays that obviously are close. I don’t think Mike Pereira, the official-as-commentator godfather, would ever have been as absolute on a play this close.
VI
"With concussions, sometimes you don’t know what is a symptom and what is not. But some symptoms are impossible to ignore. The ringing is like someone shooting a shotgun right next to my ear, every second of every day. It doesn’t go away. The sensitivity to light also has a profound impact. I’ll be in a business meeting indoors and have to politely ask to put on my sunglasses before the headaches and double vision start. But I can deal with those symptoms. The short-term memory loss is more difficult. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m just busy with a very full schedule and that’s why I can’t remember everything, or if it’s a concussion symptom."
—Former NFL quarterback Kevin Kolb, who was forced to retire from the game last year because of repeated concussions, in a story he wrote for The MMQB last week.
Stat of the Week
The Dallas Cowboys take the field tonight against Washington with a hugely different offense from the one coach Jason Garrett ran the past two seasons. In fact, Tony Romo is throwing the ball an average of 11 fewer times per game this year than he did in the 2012 season. Illustrating that:
Percent Run Plays Avg. Runs Per Game Avg. Passes Per Game 2012 33.8% 22.2 43.4 2013 35.1% 21.0 38.8 2014 51.0% 33.6 32.3
• ANDREW BRANDT: DeMarco Murray's historic run could end up costing him money in the long term
Factoids of the Week That May Interest Only Me
I
Eddie Vedder, playing a Pearl Jam concert in Milwaukee the other night, wore a Packers No. 10 jersey. The current Packer who wears No. 10 was in the middle of the mass of humanity on the floor of the Bradley Center for the show: backup quarterback Matt Flynn.
It’s possible, I suppose, that Vedder thinks Flynn is a Better Man than Aaron Rodgers, more Alive than Clay Matthews, and in Future Days will come off the bench, play like an Animal and lead the Pack Around The Bend to another title.
That’s The End of this horrible note.
II
Playing earlier on Sunday in London could turn out to be a selling point for teams that hate the idea of playing a regular-season game in Europe. Instead of kicking off at 6 p.m. local time, and then staying in England overnight and returning home sometime on Monday, the Falcons and Lions left Heathrow Sunday evening.
Time the Lions landed back in Detroit today: 1:15 a.m. Eastern.
Time the Lions would normally get home from a Sunday afternoon game in, say, San Francisco: approximately 2:30 a.m. ET.
• JENNY VRENTAS: Here's an expansion idea that's better than putting a team in London
III
In their last two games, the Lions had the lead for a total of 98 seconds. They won both games.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
Raining hard the other day on the East Coast. I had to go to Washington for a Hall of Fame meeting at a hotel right near Reagan Airport. I chose the train. Left New York at 2 p.m. Got a table/desk and worked all the way to Washington. Train was due into the Washington train station at 4:53. It arrived at 4:55. I walked to the Metro stop at Union Station in Washington and, after a change of trains, got to Crystal City and my hotel at 5:35.
Meanwhile, a couple of the other voters got weather-delayed coming into town. It was foggy, windy and rainy.
Just another reason to love the train in the Northeast Corridor, which I do.
Tweets of the Week
I
That was most Falconest of Falcon losses. Ever. — Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzAJC) October 26, 2014
First half: Atlanta, 21-0. Second half: Detroit, 22-0. More mistakes than any other game I remember this year. "Both teams should be forced to swim back," said Tom Mantzouranis of SI.com.
II
Jon Gruden told one close friend: “If there is one job I’d come back to the @NFL for, it’s the #Raiders.” But will he leave his current job? — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 26, 2014
If that’s true, Gruden’s a loon.
III
I think if George Steinbrenner was alive, Joe Maddon would already be hired today as #Yankees manager. #joemaddon — Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) October 24, 2014
The ESPN anchor, after Maddon surprisingly opted out of his contract as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.
IV
Somebody tell Phillip Rivers to stop showing so much emotion. What's wrong with him? — Machine Marshall (@BMarshall) October 24, 2014
The current Bears wide receiver, and former hothead.
TMI Tweet of the Week
If laying in bed in your underwear listening to a high school football game on a Friday night is wrong I don't want to be right — Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) October 24, 2014
Mohamed Sanu and the Bengals halted a three-game winless streak with a 27-24 win over the Ravens in Cincinnati. The victory capped a season sweep of Baltimore. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images) Mohamed Sanu and the Bengals halted a three-game winless streak with a 27-24 win over the Ravens in Cincinnati. The victory capped a season sweep of Baltimore. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 8:
a. Detroit coach Jim Caldwell resting Calvin Johnson and his recovering ankle sprain. Johnson could have played Sunday in London, but he shouldn’t have—not with the bye coming up and the risk of Johnson re-injuring the ankle.
b. Thom Brennaman’s line about the irony of Devonta Freeman growing up in Miami, going to Florida State … and the first touchdown of his NFL career coming in London.
c. Juwan Thompson, a long-shot running back to make Denver’s roster heading into training camp, with two touchdowns against the Chargers. Sure, we all figured midway through the season someone named Juwan Thompson would have more touchdowns for Denver (three) than Wes Welker and Montee Ball combined (two).
d. Detroit’s Jeremy Ross hurdling Atlanta safety Kemal Ishmael. Nifty.
e. Chris Mortensen’s report about Marshawn Lynch wearing out his welcome in Seattle, and the Seahawks likely to part ways with him after the season.
f. The catch by Harry Douglas on third down on the Falcons’ last drive.
g. Even better: the catch by Theo Riddick for Detroit in London.
h. But the best catch of the day: Cincinnati’s Mohamed Sanu, with a one-handed, bat-in-the-air-to-himself job, and then run for 48, on the Bengals’ first scoring drive.
i. Sen’Derrick Marks, who is having a very good year in Jacksonville, bursting through the Miami line to sack Ryan Tannehill.
j. Louis Delmas’ long interception return—the kind of play Detroit never saw enough—for Miami. Brent Grimes also returned an interception for a touchdown in the same game.
k. The T-shirt CBS showed in the Meadowlands at Bills-Jets:
Just
Endure
The
Suffering
l. Everson Griffen’s quick-twitch diagnosis of a reverse run, and a tackle behind the line on it, for the Vikings at Tampa.
m. The rebound of Carolina’s defense, which had allowed 75 points in the previous two games.
Rex Ryan's Jets were unwatchable as they dropped to 1-7 on the season. (Seth Wenig/AP) Rex Ryan's Jets were unwatchable as they dropped to 1-7 on the season. (Seth Wenig/AP)
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 8:
a. Everything about the Jets.
b. How ridiculous to have extra time to prepare for the game, because of the Thursday game in Week 7, and then come out and play as ragged a game as they did? All the goodwill Geno Smith built up last week at New England was erased in 11 minutes in New Jersey.
c. Blake Bortles. The Jags had the right idea in the off-season about him not playing this year, as it turns out.
d. Whoa: the Lions’ inactives … starting running back (Reggie Bush), franchise receiver (Calvin Johnson), and the top three tight ends (Brandon Pettigrew, Eric Ebron, Joe Fauria).
e. The NFL battling to the death to stop gambling on sports events in New Jersey. People just don’t care anymore. If you want to put a bet down on an NFL game, you can surely find a place to do so.
f. Matthew Stafford missing at least four receivers with low throws Sunday. He was just off his game.
g. The field at Wembley Stadium, slippery and slipshod, led to a Matthew Stafford interception when the receiver fell down on an incut. “The conditions of this field … were a factor on that interception," Troy Aikman said, correctly, on FOX.
h. Ray Lewis’ wardrobe on the ESPN pregame show.
i. No holding call on the Lions’ potential two-point conversion that would have tied the game. It was a hold. Golden Tate was restricted.
j. Matt Ryan’s brainlock fourth-quarter interception. “I never saw him," Ryan said of the interceptor, Cassius Vaughn. Hard to believe from the look of the replay. Vaughn was the only one in that area code.
k. Atlanta’s clock management.
l. Mike Smith’s game management, particularly not trying to add points with a fresh series of downs and two timeouts left with 74 seconds remaining in the first half.
m. Miami’s offense in the first 23 minutes at Jacksonville: 3 yards.
n. Teddy Bridgewater’s feeble, way-too-short Hail Mary in Tampa.
o. The delay-of-game call at the end of Lions-Falcons, which absolutely did not look like a delay of game.
p. The Chicago Bears.
q. How does a defense that reputable give up 37 points in one half of football? To paraphrase Tony Dungy, if Brandon Marshall thought last week was unacceptable, what’s he’s going to think this morning?
r. Brandon Marshall’s first catch at New England, which came when the score was 45-7, New England.
s. Joe Flacco’s awful interception, thrown right to Adam Jones in Cincinnati.
3. I think I’d make two points about the Andre Caldwell replay Thursday night in Denver-San Diego, the one that has generated so much attention:
You’re not going to convince me the replay was botched. I believe referee Terry McAulay got it right when he went under the hood, ruling the original call on the field of a fumble should be overturned. The key thing to watch, and I urge you to go back and study it: When Caldwell’s forearm touches the ground, look at the ball in the crook of his arm. Caldwell still has it, though almost simultaneously to the forearm touching the ground, the ball moves in his arm. The key thing is, the ball moves but is not knocked away. “Slight movement does not constitute a loss of possession," NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino said on his officiating training tape for the media and for teams over the weekend. “The forearm was down, and the player still had control of the loose ball."
Just because a play is close does not mean it cannot be overturned. I have been an advocate that a replay has to show irrefutable evidence for a call on the field to be overturned. Yes, this play is close. Yes, there is clear evidence that Caldwell possessed it when his forearm hit the ground, meaning it should have been overturned.
Roger Goodell will have to testify on Nov. 5-6 during the hearing for Ray Rice's appeal of his suspension. (John Minchillo/AP) Roger Goodell will have to testify on Nov. 5-6 during the hearing for Ray Rice's appeal of his suspension. (John Minchillo/AP)
4. I think that Roger Goodell and the Ravens are both wrong, in reference to neither talking to the NFL Players Association’s investigator into the Ray Rice flap (as the Associated Press reported over the weekend). This is supposed to be the most transparent of processes. I think Goodell should have been open with the press about what exactly Ray Rice said to him in the June 16 disciplinary hearing. I think he should be open with the NFL investigator. And I think he should be open with the NFLPA investigation. There should be nothing to hide, from anyone.
5. I think Shonn Greene channeled his inner Costanza Friday night. And it’s never good to fool around with handicapped parking spots.
6. I think—and I know this is a week old, but I just love the inside-football nature of it, and wanted to share it with you—that the most interesting thing I learned about football in the past few days came from St. Louis punter Johnny Hekker. You recall the Rams' special-teams-prompted win over Seattle eight days ago, with the Stedman Bailey 90-yard return for touchdown on the misdirection-punt-team play. But the derring-do fake punt with 2:55 left in the game was significantly more risky, and I loved it.
The background: The Rams hadn’t stopped Seattle on its |
and anxiety among people receiving psychotherapy.24 A New York City internist who works in a primarily immigrant community reported providing a sedative to a patient who presented with panic symptoms before an immigration hearing.25 Simply prescribing benzodiazepines or other palliative agents may be a less-than-optimal approach to comprehensively addressing what could be long-term heightened distress and concerns.
Clinicians should also be aware that whereas some patients may feel comfortable seeking help at local health agencies, social hostility renders many people less likely to use health care and social services. At a minimum, it’s important that health care providers actively work to create safe spaces, where patients’ fears and concerns are listened to and met with compassion and support. Within clinical encounters, patients should not be left with the burden of initiating a discussion about social stressors. Rather, clinicians can actively and sensitively inquire about patients’ experiences, worries, and fears and the effects that they may be having on the patient’s health and symptoms.
Second, clinicians and health care organizations can take a strong stance against hate crimes, discriminatory political rhetoric, and incivility. It is also important to make clear that their services are provided to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, religion, or citizenship status.
Third, in anticipation of an increase in stress-related clinic visits, health care systems and clinicians can educate themselves about local and federal policies and their effects on vulnerable people and ensure that patients understand their rights and avenues for seeking help. Clinicians can be prepared to provide additional clinical and ancillary support and to actively connect vulnerable patients and families with local advocacy groups. Making such connections would require strengthening alliances with community organizations, such as churches and other service organizations outside of the health care institution that can provide aid to people facing social and health challenges.
Fourth, clinicians can seek to enhance and affirm the resilience resources that patients have that may reduce some of the negative effects of stress on their health. Research on discrimination reveals that these resources may range from positive social ties and optimism to spiritual or religious involvement.22
Fifth, as members of their communities, clinicians can also consider more active engagement in advocacy and policymaking. They can begin within their own institutions to generate greater awareness of the challenges faced by stigmatized populations and to foster a culture of inclusion with a greater emphasis on promoting health equity. Approaches could include requiring antiracism and bias training, as well as cultural competency training, for all staff.
Clinicians can also participate in relevant community meetings and conversations to discuss the health impact of social policies and raise awareness of their impact on marginalized groups. In addition, community-based interventions can be designed and implemented. For example, given the prevalence of explicit prejudice and discrimination in K–12 settings, pediatricians could work with local schools and school boards to raise awareness, provide training for teachers, and assist in the development of school-based interventions to build a culture of respect and tolerance and reduce the anxieties and fears of stigmatized young people.26,27
Finally, the health care community can advocate for research and initiate studies that systematically assess the health effects of the societal climate and policies. Future research could delineate the psychosocial and biologic pathways by which these effects occur and identify the factors that facilitate effective coping and resilience. Relatedly, studies are urgently needed that can inform effective community interventions for mitigating the potential negative effects of social hostility on health.What do I need to know about soaking and cooking dried beans?
Through the years, we’ve waffled back and forth about the best way to cook dried beans. Admittedly, we haven’t been consistent: some recipes specify that the beans be soaked before cooking, others do not. Our recommendation? Follow the recipe. Each has been specifically developed for soaked or unsoaked beans and should be prepared accordingly.
Soaking Water
So that being said, for recipes that do soak the beans, we typically recommend a long soak—eight hours to overnight. Quick soaking, or bringing the beans to a boil and allowing them to sit for an hour or two before draining and proceeding with the recipe, works fine at rehydrating the beans, though it can rob the beans of some of their nutritional value (see below).
In recent testing, we’ve found that soaking dried beans in mineral-rich; hard tap water can toughen their skins. Some recipes recommend using distilled water to avoid this issue, but we’ve discovered a simpler solution: adding salt to the tap water, which prevents the magnesium and calcium in the water from binding to the cell walls, and it will also displace some of the minerals that occur naturally in the skins. We found that three tablespoons of salt per gallon of soaking water is enough to guarantee soft skins.
Storing Soaked Beans
If you happen to soak beans and aren’t able to use them immediately, they can be drained, transferred to a zipper-lock bag, and refrigerated for up to four days before being used without ill affect to flavor or texture. We do warn against soaking beans much beyond 24 hours as testing has suggested that they can lose flavor and develop tough skins and a mealy texture.
Does Soaking Beans Affect Nutrition?
Soaking dried beans is necessary for hydration, which accelerates the cooking process. While both slow and quick bean-soaking techniques exist, testing has proven that the heated water used with the quicker methods increases the solubility of water-soluble nutrients, such as calcium, magnesium, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. Also, the heat of boiling water breaks down cell membranes within the beans, which speeds the release of water-soluble nutrients. For these reasons, quick soaking tends to leach somewhat more of the nutrients out of the beans than do slow soaking methods.
Foaming Beans
Simmering beans typically produce a frothy cap of foam. It’s innocuous stuff that’s nothing more than tiny pockets of air surrounded by a thin layer of water that are stabilized by proteins exuded from the beans that dissolve in the water. While they won’t harm the beans, we typically skim the foam off for a clearer appearance.
Eliminating Gas from Beans
For some, the greatest obstacle to preparing beans is not the lack of a good recipe but an aversion to the discomfort associated with digestion. The creation of unwanted intestinal gas begins with the arrival of small chains of carbohydrates (called oligosaccharides) into the large intestine. People cannot digest these molecules efficiently, but bacteria residing at the end of the gut do and produce gas as a byproduct. Some sources say that presoaking or precooking beans alleviates gas production by removing these carbohydrates. Our science editor decided to put these theories to the test by measuring the amount of one of the most prevalent small carbohydrates in black beans, stachyose.
His results gave the theories some credence. Beans soaked overnight in water and then cooked and drained showed a 28 percent reduction in stachyose. The precooking, quick-soak, method, consisting of a one-minute boil followed by a soak for an hour, was more effective, removing 42.5 percent of the stachyose. While we have reservations about the quick-soaking method, it might be the best way to prepare your beans if they cause you significant discomfort.
Troubleshooting Hard Beans
Finally, if you’ve cooked your beans for hours and found they failed to soften, chances are they are either old and stale (and will never fully hydrate or soften), the water is too hard, or there’s a acidic element present. Food scientists universally agree that high acidity can interfere with the softening of the cellulose-based bean cells, causing them to remain hard no matter how long they cook. Alkalinity, on the other hand, has the opposite effect on legumes. Alkalines make the bean starches more soluble and thus cause the beans to cook faster. (Older bean recipes often included a pinch of baking soda for its alkalinity, but because baking soda has been shown to destroy valuable nutrients, few contemporary recipes suggest this shortcut.)
But how much acid is too much acid? At what pH level is there a negative impact on the beans? We cooked four batches of small white beans in water altered with vinegar to reach pH levels of 3, 5, 7, and 9. We brought them to a boil, reduced the heat to a low simmer, and tested the beans every 30 minutes for texture and doneness. The beans cooked at a pH of 3 (the most acidic) remained crunchy and tough-skinned despite being allowed to cook 30 minutes longer than the other three batches. The beans cooked at pHs of 5, 7, and 9 showed few differences, although the 9 pH batch finished a few minutes ahead of the 7 pH batch and about 20 minutes ahead of the 5 pH batch. Acidity, then, must be relatively high to have any significant impact on beans. So in real world terms, season with discretion and don’t add a whole bottle of vinegar or wine to your beans until they are tender.
AdvertisementsEvery day things arrive in my email from people around the world that highlight the absurdity of the scientology bubble.
Many of them concern the claimed “straight up and vertical” international expansion Miscavige talks about at every event. You know, international expansion greater in the last 437.3 days than the 12,469,873.2 minutes cumulative previously… 12 million scientologists. New orgs opening everywhere. Governments fully adopting scientology. LRH tech pervading society. More awards for Hubbard than any many or beast in history. Square inches of new marble inlaid. Specks of duct removed from frames of film. You can just keep rattling them off.
Well, yesterday, a couple of new ones arrived in my inbox.
The first is from Moorpark. This is part of the greatest concentration of scientologists on earth in the LA area.
And this is the Mission in Moorpark. Remember there are 8 “ideal orgs” (not counting day and foundation separately) in the LA area and each of them is supposed to have 20 missions as “feeders” (and after 15 years half of them should be NEW Class V orgs by now which is what Miscavige promised). But there are not 10 operating missions in the LA area TOTAL.
And this is one of the ones that is considered to be “operational.” This is the sign on the front door:
10 hours a week.
Guess that overwhelming demand for scientology is found somewhere other than Moorpark, CA.
And while on the subject, take a read of this article from Israel.
The amazing, magnificent Tel Aviv ideal org had its ribbon yanked by the COP himself in 2012 with these words (quoted on the scientolgy.org site): “This center is a gift from the International Association of Scientologists to Israel. As such, it represents our recognition that all religions hold central truths in common and thus may work together to achieve the common dream of universal brotherhood. So from this day hence, it becomes your mission and destiny to extend our help across this legendary land. ” Blah blah blah
The story of this wondrous occasion on scientology.org also says the following: “The Center is the first Ideal Scientology Organization (Ideal Org) in the Middle East and designed to both serve the growing membership and provide Scientology-sponsored humanitarian programs throughout the region.”
And: “Visitors are invited to take a self-guided tour of the expansive Public Information Center, presenting informational and documentary films on the beliefs and practices of Dianetics and Scientology, as well as the life and legacy of Founder L. Ron Hubbard. The Information Center also provides an overview of the many Scientology-sponsored humanitarian programs, including a worldwide human rights initiative; an equally far-ranging drug education, prevention and rehabilitation program; a global network of literacy and learning centers; and the Scientology Volunteer Minister program now comprising the world’s largest independent relief force.”
Now read the article in the Huffington Post about what happened when a curious writer and head of a local peace initiative entered the building to find out about the works of the church…
What Is the Church of Scientology Doing in Israel?Original Post
SethG · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 250 May 27, 2014 · Unknown Hometown encoding='utf-8'? I heard a rumor that there was a rappel accident on Sunday in the Trapps, to the left of High E. Anyone have any info? Best wishes to anyone involved.
Gunkiemike · Joined Jul 2009 · Points: 2,800 May 28, 2014 · Unknown Hometown encoding='utf-8'? A guy rapped a short distance off the end of his rope (Madame G rap or somewhere close to it) and broke his arm. Given the possibility of further injuries, he was given the full backboard/litter evac treatment.
CPlesh · Joined Apr 2014 · Points: 25 May 28, 2014 · Rivervale, NJ encoding='utf-8'? Confirmed. My partner coordinated the rescue with 2 of our students and a ranger from the preserve. The poor guy decked - I was told 20ft, which probably means 10ft, and was just laying there with a mangled arm and possibly an injured back/leg. They saw him as they were walking by, saw no one giving him medical attention (partner was on the phone with 911 or the preserve I believe), asked if he was ok and started the assessment.
SethG · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 250 May 28, 2014 · Unknown Hometown encoding='utf-8'? Wow sounds like he is very lucky under the circumstances. Thank you for the information.
Mike Hancock · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 20 Jun 17, 2014 · Unknown Hometown encoding='utf-8'? I was topping out the third pitch of Madam G when this happened. My girlfriend was at the second belay and saw the fall. She thought he had died based on the scream, then crunch, then silence. She was unexpectedly not too psyched on the three repels we had to do moments later to descend.
I hope everyone takes this as a reminder to double check your safety systems. Knots in the ropes, prussik backup, or just repelling at a controlled rate could have prevented this accident.
Mike Hancock · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 20 Jun 17, 2014 · Unknown Hometown encoding='utf-8'? My understanding was the he either didn't see a rap station or he skipped it thinking he could make it. Neither of the two ends of his rope made the ground, and the only people near the base at the time were a guided group of beginners (so no one knew to tell him he wasn't going to make it). I don't know if he lost control or just wasn't watching the ends.Ruth Ozeki is an author, filmmaker and Buddhist priest. She’s the author of several books, the most recent of which is “A Tale for the Time Being.” Most of her work is semi-autobiographical with repeating themes of transnational, mixed-race identity, the blurring of fact and fiction, and the impact individuals have on their environments — and vice versa.
I chatted with Ozeki for an episode of “Other: Mixed Race in America,” about what it means to create and consume culture that reflects your experiences. But I wanted to share more of our conversation here.
[Listen to my interview with Ruth Ozeki on the series finale of Other: Mixed Race in America]
Ozeki’s answers have been edited for clarity and length.
What about being a writer intrigued you?
I think it was just because I loved to read and I was one of those voracious little kid readers who would always have a book and anytime that I had a moment, I had my nose in a book. The privacy that reading fiction gave me, that sense of solitude but also being in company with another mind was something that was just very important to me, and very precious. From a very early age, I wanted to do that. I wanted to make that same kind of magic happen.
So I remember writing stories when I was little, but, of course, my stories were always about people who weren’t at all like me, because I thought that’s what literature needed to be. So my stories were often set in English countrysides, for example, and really had nothing to do at all with the reality of growing up in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ruth Ozeki (Photo by Kris Krug / Courtesy of Ruth Ozeki)
Could you tell me about the first time you saw your perspective represented in pop culture?
I don’t really remember seeing my perspective reflected in pop culture. Certainly not in the early part of my life. Now, I think, there’s a lot more representation of mixed-race people in the media and in pop culture, in literary culture as well, but I honestly don’t remember ever really seeing the mixed-race perspective when I was growing up.
I think that’s one of the reasons why it took me a long time to start, to understand that I needed to create this — that it was up to me to do this, and that I also had the right to do it.
The first novel that I wrote was “My Year of Meats” and it features a mixed-race protagonist who shared a lot of historical autobiographical background with me. I remember as I was writing it I was thinking no one will be interested in this story. Maybe I’ll be able to sell it to a small, niche publisher somewhere, but chances are it won’t get out into the world. And so it was very surprising to me when, in fact, it found an audience. It was very gratifying.
You didn’t become a novelist until you were in your forties. Can you tell me about your career up to that point in filmmaking?
When I graduated from college, I went to Japan, I got a monbusho, which is a Japanese Ministry of Education fellowship to study classical Japanese literature. And my intention was to go into comparative literature — to study Japanese literature and English literature because that obviously reflected my racial identity.
When I was in Japan though, I started getting very interested in other things, including Japanese Noh drama and writing.
At the time, I had friends who were working in the film business. And so I ended up getting a job on the set of a film called “Matt Riker: Mutant Hunt.” I was hired as the art director and it was a very, very low-budget production, and they really didn’t have much money to hire a real art director, and so they hired me. I’d never set foot on a film set before. I had no idea what to do, but they told me and I did it and I had a lot of fun.
Then I realized that there was this industry in New York of people who were doing work with Japanese production companies, both television and commercial work. So I got involved with that because, of course, I could speak Japanese, and so it was very easy for me to work with a crew of Japanese people building sets and props for a commercial shoot. Eventually I moved into production. And then from there, moved into directing and editing and producing on set. It was really, I suppose, the place where I learned how to tell stories in a vivid and efficient kind of way.
And this was around the time when you officially changed your name, right?
The name my parents gave me was Ruth Diana Lounsbury. So there was no reflection at all in that name of my Asian mixed-race identity. And it was particularly unfortunate because the name Ruth, of course, it starts with an “r” and ends with a “th” — now those are sounds that Japanese people find very, very difficult to pronounce. So 3/4 of my name was unpronounceable to people I was working with. And so people used to call me “lu-su,” which means “absent” in Japanese. It was a very odd name to have as a mixed-race person.
And then, too, very often I’d find myself in this position of having to call Asian actors or Asian theater companies, and go through this whole rigmarole of explaining to them, my name is Ruth Lounsbury, but I’m mixed race, I’m half Japanese, and I’m looking for an Asian actor who can play a role.
So around this time, I started going by the name Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury. And it was just a way of cluing people into the fact that I had this mixed-race identity.
I decided to publish under the name Ruth Ozeki, and to become Ruth Ozeki professionally. It was a tremendous revelation to me, because I actually did the edit of the book knowing that I was going to be Ruth Ozeki. When I started editing the book, I felt a kind of freedom that I’d never felt before. I felt this freedom to be a person who I think I’d always wanted to be. But had never really felt entitled to before. And so once I had that feeling of writing in this new and very free way, I never really looked back.
Where did “Ozeki” come from?
The name Ozeki came from a friend of mine, actually an ex-boyfriend. We had broken up, but I always thought that the name was great. It was short, it was easy to say, it was kind of cute because it ended with an “i,” but it had the “z” in there, which, you know, “z” is just a really cool letter.
It was very funny because years later, he and I had this conversation, and I had to apologize to his wife for borrowing their name.
New episodes of “Other: Mixed Race in America” will publish every day for a week, starting May 1. Subscribe to the series on Apple Podcasts or RadioPublic.
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Learn more about the other episodes here:How THQ Nordic will build a successful brand out of a failed one Reinhard Pollice explains why the growing publisher is cautious about using all the IP it has acquired
James Batchelor UK Editor Wednesday 5th July 2017 Share this article Share
Companies in this article THQ Nordic
When small but feisty publisher Nordic Games rebranded as THQ Nordic, many an industry eyebrow was raised.
On the one hand, the firm had grabbed the world's attention by acquiring the rights to franchises such as Darksiders and Red Faction, as well as countless others, and even picked up the THQ trademark. By why would you want to associate an up-and-coming publisher with those properties' former owner, perhaps the most famous story of bankruptcy the games sector has seen in more than a decade?
For some people, just the mention of THQ brings to mind warehouses filled with unsold uDraw tablets and CEO Jason Rubin leaving the office with a Saints Row purple dildo bat slung casually over his shoulder.
But for Reinhard Pollice, business and product development director at THQ Nordic, the tarnished brand represented a much brighter future for the growing games publisher.
"Yes, in the end THQ was known for failure. But it was also known for some great gaming experiences"
"Yes, in the end THQ was known for failure," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "But it was also known for some great gaming experiences. That's why we thought it was a popular brand that we should leverage. We're already more well-known now than Nordic Games was. Nordic Games was a bit of a generic name.
He continues: "In the US, it put us on the radar for a lot of people. They knew the THQ brand, they knew the IPs, and at first there was still some confusion around it because people were like, 'hey, THQ's dead'. But we're a new company, so that was part of the intention behind calling it THQ Nordic rather than just THQ."
The collapse of THQ showed how dramatically the games industry was changing, with middle-tier publishers struggling to compete with the blockbuster-producing powerhouses of EA, Ubisoft and Activision. The firm strived to rescue itself with a Humble Bundle to raise money but ultimately its efforts were in vain - something that surprised Pollice.
"I knew that some stuff wasn't working out for THQ, but I thought they were just too big to fail"
"I thought they would find a way to carry on," he recalls. "I knew that some stuff wasn't working out for them, but I thought they were just too big to fail. In the end, looking at their structure, this company shouldn't have failed - it was just a lot of bad circumstances."
When it came to forming the new THQ, Pollice disagrees that the brand bears the stigma of bankruptcy, once again pointing to the wealth of promising IP THQ Nordic now possesses. Instead, the biggest challenge is working out how to bring those properties and the THQ name forward.
"It's about finding our identity in terms of the portfolio," he explains. "We have a ton of these IPs, some which we've announced recently and some of which we're still working on. [We need] to find our place, because we haven't built something at that scale before. We've built small projects and games before, all to great success, and we just want to scale this up to bring bigger games to a bigger audience."
Producing something like Darksiders 3 is certainly new territory for the firm formerly known as Nordic Games. Prior to acquiring THQ's brands in the IP auction, the team had launched lesser known titles such as shooter Deadfall Adventures and point-and-click adventure The Book of Unwritten Tales. The company's ambition has certainly scaled up in the past four years, but the obstacles it now faces have ramped up as well.
"We were a publisher and distributor... but now we also own development studios. Content is king, so we need to be closer to what we're building"
"Before acquiring this big pile of IPs from the THQ brand, we were exclusively a publisher and distributor," Pollice says. "But now we also own development studios - we have one in Munich and one in Phoenix, Arizona. And we've built these studios ourselves together with the local teams. This is one part of our strategy: content is king, so we need to be closer to what we're building, we need to have creative people and internal developers.
"The other big challenge here is we have so many IPs and we need to pay respect to all of the good and known ones. You might think that's only three or four [properties], but in reality it's more like 15 to 20. That's a lot to take care of, and our approach to this is not just doing something with them but doing the right thing. That takes time - that's why we're sometimes slow and not announcing, say, the next Destroy All Humans right away. We need to think about the place that IP has in today's gaming world, what the right next step is and what the fans want. Once we feel comfortable with all that, then we go ahead and do it."
THQ Nordic has demonstrated this approach with Darksiders 3. When it acquired the franchise, it held off from instantly announcing intentions for a sequel and Pollice even reveals that several high-profile developers reached out to the publisher and asked to work on a third outing. As easy as it would have been for Nordic to pick the best studio and publish what they produced, the team instead opted to spend time reflecting on the potential of the IP and how they could take it forward in a way that makes sense in 2017. The result? The well-received announcement of Darksiders 3 back in May.
There are, of course, no guarantees that Darksiders 3 will perform well enough to reward THQ Nordic's restraint. After all, as seemingly popular as the IP may be, one could argue it wasn't commercially successful enough to prevent the demise of its previous publisher. In fact, the same can be said for any of the franchises Nordic acquired - but Pollice remains confident that the new THQ is under far less pressure than the old one.
"Darksiders will never be a Call of Duty... And if we tried to build it that way, we would have to change a lot. We'd rather please the fanbase, keep it hardcore"
"THQ had a big problem," he tells us. "Since they were based in California, they had to compete with the likes of Electronic Arts and Activision. I've heard from people who worked there that internally it was always like 'hey, we have to build the next Call of Duty'. So in terms of budgets, there were all pretty much aligned with what Call of Duty was - and that's not the right place for every game. Darksiders, for example, will never be a Call of Duty. It will never be a mass phenomenon that every teenager plays, it's a totally different game. And if we tried to build it that way, we would have to change a lot and the core fanbase wouldn't like that. We'd rather please the fanbase, keep it hardcore."
He goes on to clarify that THQ Nordic is "not spending Call of Duty-style ad budgets" which it would then have to recoup later. He also argues that the market has changed dramatically since the first two Darksiders were released, making it more receptive to a third title.
"These kind of hardcore games have become much more popular over the past few years," Pollice explains. "Look at the Dark Souls series - ten years ago, that kind of series wouldn't have had massive success, but now it's possible because you can access gamers in a different way."
THQ's collapse has become a symbol for the shrinking of the middle tier: the publishers that focus on 'A' titles rather than 'AAA' but are far too big to be compared to the niche and indie labels. Pollice believes the shifts in the industry have settled significantly, and that the market is now far more sustainable for such publishers.
"Nobody would have expected Overwatch to be that big of a success. That makes the market pretty unpredictable"
"There is still the middle tier," he posits. "If you look at folks like Focus Home Interactive or 505 Games, they are now taking that spot. It's taken them a while to move up there, but they're now at that level. We are also in this level now. In the end, a middle-tier publisher is a company that has a couple of projects worth a couple of million.
He continues: "It's a very good time [for the middle tier]. The big guys are going to have some trouble going forward. There's just so much content out there and you never know what's going to stick. It's becoming more and more risky. Even safe bets and massive franchises like Call of Duty are declining a bit. And games like Overwatch... nobody would have expected it to be that big of a success. That was an abandoned project that was somehow rescued just to get something out of the door - now it's their second largest franchise. That makes the market pretty unpredictable.
"We're in this spot where [there's] not a lot of risk to our business because we still keep our budgets and operations in a way where it's not lethal if we don't hit expectations, but we're also trying really, really hard to have all our titles beat expectations. If one's not shaping up like we want, we just give it more time."
Another major difference between THQ Nordic and its forebear is the relationship with Nintendo. The previous THQ was synonymous with the kids, family and casual gaming market - something that was dominated by Wii and DS prior to the rise of smart devices. After the failure of uDraw, the firm opted to focus on adult games and Nordic seems to have taken a similar stance. As it currently stands, there are very few Nintendo-bound titles in its line-up.
This is partly due to the firm's belief that 3DS will soon be replaced by Switch - depsite Nintendo's assertions to the contrary - and the relatively low power available in the platfrom holder's new console. Pollice notes that even Battle Chasers, a 2D turn-based RPG game based on comics by notable artist Joe Madureira, has been "a challenge to get running smoothly on Switch" and open-world sci-fi RPG Elex is "just too demanding right now."
"We've been in touch with [Nintendo] about Switch for more than a year, so we've been looking at it for our current line-up and... we look wherever it's possible. It's a bit sad that they haven't gone out with a more beefy hardware but it is what it is, so we just have to work our way around it."
However, the association with Nintendo is one further example of how THQ stretched itself - something THQ Nordic is keen to avoid.
"THQ tried to do kids games, mobile, Western games, core games in all genres. It's tough to be at all parties at once"
"The lesson we learned is... they tried to be everywhere," says Pollice. "They tried to do kids games, mobile, Western games, core games in all genres. It's tough to be at all parties at once. So we always try to [look] back on our portfolio and see how we can make synergies.
"In the end, video games are all about passion. If people in the company aren't passionate about something, we just shouldn't do it. It's not [a market] where you can just build a product, sell it and it's good. Nowadays, you have to do way more than just releasing a product - you have to pour all of your heart into it to make it good. That's what we try to do."
THQ Nordic has expanded dramatically over the past year, and with so many notable and long-absent IPs in its portfolio - many with their own avid and hungry communities - the potential for growth goes beyond that of many of its competitors. While Pollice has said the firm doesn't intend to transform Darksiders into the next Call of Duty, just how far do its ambitions stretch? Does it aim to become too big to fail?
"We just want to build a bunch of really cool games that are on gamers' all-time favourite lists," Pollice says. "There is no clear aim in terms of size. We obviously always want to be stable, and somewhat flexible so that we're never forced into certain things. We always want to be able to decide which projects we do and which we don't.
"We've just entered the stock market last November, we did an IPO, and obviously there are higher expectations now that we're more in the spotlight. But we still want to continue the same strategy: doing more great video games."What are the Clojure collection types? Most Clojurists would say lists, vectors, maps, and sets are all you need. You might add seqs too - they are collection abstractions (views) which can be backed by a collection, but might also be backed by something else. (See Sequences for lots more on this.)
But in Clojure there are also sorted maps, sorted sets, queues, primitive vectors and support for Java arrays, Java collections and more, not to mention custom types that you might create yourself using deftype. Things seem a bit messier now. And the answers to common predicates like sequential?, seq?, coll? may give answers that you find confusing for some of these collection types.
If you look a bit deeper, you’ll find that there is more to the collection model than is immediately apparent. Clojure provides a few different layers that form the foundation for what you use on a daily basis. The neatest part is that almost nothing in Clojure (compiler, runtime, or standard lib) actually depends directly on collection implementations, rather everything depends on abstractions that are open to extension. As a beginning Clojurist, you rarely tap into these extensions, but you will find them increasingly useful in more sophisticated programs.
Traits and Predicates
Perhaps the most important layer in the collection library are the traits (my term). Ideally traits would be defined as Clojure protocols, but their implementation dates back to the earliest days of Clojure, well before protocols existed and as such they are defined by Java interfaces.
Some of the key trait classes (all in clojure.lang ) are:
Counted - countable collections count()
- countable collections Indexed - extends Counted, allows index-based lookup nth(int i) nth(int i, Object notFound)
- extends, allows index-based lookup Sequential - marker interface for sequential collections
- marker interface for sequential collections Associative (extends ILookup ) containsKey(Object key) entryAt(Object key) assoc(Object key, Object val) via parent ILookup : valAt(Object key) valAt(Object key, Object notFound)
(extends ) Sorted - marker interface for sorted
- marker interface for sorted Seqable - for collections that can produce a sequence seq()
- for collections that can produce a sequence Reversible - for collections that can produce a reversed sequence rseq()
- for collections that can produce a reversed sequence
Each of these interfaces describes a very narrow slice of capability that a collection might have. You’ll find that most of the Clojure predicates are simply checks for whether a class implements one of these interfaces:
counted? - checks whether instance of Counted
- checks whether instance of indexed? - checks whether instance of Indexed
- checks whether instance of sequential? - checks whether instance of Sequential
- checks whether instance of associative? - checks whether instance of Associative
- checks whether instance of sorted? - checks whether instance of Sorted
- checks whether instance of reversible? - checks whether instance of Reversible
The ones missing above are ILookup and Seqable. ILookup is really a narrow subset of Associative so that’s the more common predicate. Seqable is kind of tricky as Clojure goes some distance to patch “seq-ability” into things not otherwise seqable, like strings and arrays. Again, if Clojure had protocols at the time of its creation, a “seqable” protocol could be extended to closed types like these directly. See the sequences post for more on seqable?.
The important thing to note here is that most of the collection functions in clojure.core or clojure.lang.RT (the Clojure runtime) operate in terms of these traits, NOT in terms even of collection interfaces or ever in terms of concrete collection types. Tracing this requires a bit of hopping. Most of the standard collection functions ( count, nth, get, assoc, seq ) have obvious mappings to the interface methods above.
If you look at the source for most Clojure core functions (like count ), you’ll see that they largely just forward to a method on the RT class. If you then look at RT.count(), you’ll see that most of these invoke the method above on the Java interface as their first implementation (with some backups to alternate implementations for special cases). Again, protocols would have made this cleaner.
The benefit of this approach is that you can create a new type that implements any set of these traits, and it will work with the existing Clojure library with no changes to Clojure!
Collections
The core Clojure collections are also implemented first in terms of interfaces. Most of these interfaces primarily define the set of traits a persistent collection type should include. (I’m glossing over the details a bit because how this happens via |
ater would call on governments and ISPs to take on new roles not envisioned by U.S. law. The proposal would require each party to “promote the development of mutually supportive relationships between online service providers and rights holders to deal effectively” with Internet-based infringement, including “guidelines for the actions which should be taken.” In contrast, current U.S. law reflects a deliberate policy choice not to saddle ISPs with the affirmative responsibility to police and prevent infringing activity by users. 47 USC 230 and section 512 of the DMCA reflect this policy choice.
4. Other Concerns
While CDT supports efforts to enforce current copyright law, we have concerns that efforts labeled as “enforcement” initiatives may be used as vehicles to obtain significant substantive modifications to the existing legal regime. CDT recently told the new federal Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator that the forthcoming I.P. enforcement plan should not try to reshape substantive copyright law by, for example, calling for modifications to the scope of third party liability or new obligations for ISPs. In the ACTA context, CDT and a number of allies similarly urged USTR in 2008 to avoid delving into matters of substantive law.
In CDT’s view, it is difficult to argue that provisions addressing how and when third parties may be liable for infringements committed by others is merely a question of “enforcement.” Third party liability is not just about how to pursue those who violate the law; it is about how far copyright law reaches and which parties can be considered violators in the first place. To the extent that ACTA gets into matters of substantive copyright law, there are legitimate questions about whether it is appropriate to address such matters in an executive agreement that can be concluded without any role for Congress.
In addition, some have raised questions about ACTA’s call for an Oversight or Steering Committee that would function as a brand new international I.P. institution separate from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Trade Organization (WTO). The impact on existing I.P. institutions and the potential for “forum shopping” are worth considering.
In sum, while the draft ACTA text provides an opportunity to begin detailed debate on the pros and cons of specific provisions and language, it raises a number of serious concerns. CDT hopes that the improved level of transparency will translate into better understanding of the potential pitfalls and a reexamination of those aspects of ACTA that pose significant risk to online intermediaries.
Links:
CDT comments to I.P. Enforcement Coordinator
2008 joint comments to USTR on ACTA
Goldsmith/Lessig article raising constitutional concerns about ACTA
Geist blog post on ACTA’s institutional provisionsHARRISON, N.J. – Mike Petke said over the winter that he wanted his fullbacks pushing into the attack more this season than they did in 2013.
That strategy is bearing fruit.
Bradley Wright-Phillips grabbed most of the headlines following the New York Red Bulls’ 4-0 mauling of the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday for his hat-trick performance, but just as deserving of some of the spotlight were fullbacks Kosuke Kimura and Roy Miller.
Kimura and Miller both delivered stellar performances that showcased their ability to contribute to the attack, with each veteran making several successful forays forward and recording an assist.
Their offensive exploits added a dimension to New York’s attack that has mostly been missing this season, and the end result was the club’s most impressive win of the year to date.
“To me, in modern soccer, you’re not going to win games unless your fullbacks are helping you attack,” said veteran midfielder Dax McCarty. “You can have wingers as much as you want, but at the end of the day, fullbacks are so important in creating width for you and making sure that your team is balanced.
"Both Kosuke and Roy have great engines, they have great motors, they can get up and down the field. Their primary job is to defend, but when we have the ball, we can’t just have six guys attacking. That’s just not going to work for us. We have the players to be able to do it, but we’re going to be at our most dangerous when we can involve our fullbacks and they can make deep runs.”
Those deep runs were executed to a tee on Wednesday night. Kimura and Miller both executed several well-timed overlaps, providing outlets for wide midfielders Lloyd Sam and Eric Alexander, respectively. That allowed New York’s attack to outnumber a frail Dynamo defense that was forced to chase for much of the 90 minutes.
“Sometimes, midfielders in this league, as good as they are, they don’t want to be chasing outside backs all the way down in the corner,” said McCarty. “When Roy and Kosuke put midfielders on their heels, that’s going to be where we’re going to be at our best.
"Attacking is the best form of defending. It sounds cliché, but that’s the truth, and if you have an outside midfielder chasing an outside back on the opposite team up and down the field for 90 minutes, I guarantee you the next time he gets the ball and wants to run at a back line, he’s not going to have the energy to do it.”
Catch more RBNY news at NewYorkRedBulls.com
As solid as the duo’s collective performance was, there were still times in which Kimura and Miller bombed forward a little too carelessly. Miller, who also put in a risky late challenge on Houston's Boniek Garcia, was caught upfield multiple times, forcing center back Armando to pull out wide to provide cover for him.
Petke said after the game that his fullbacks still need to find the right balance between attack and defense, but that he has seen progress from the start of the season.
“Tonight was probably the best performance as far as that goes,” said Petke. “But still I think it was a bit too much at times. I think, especially in the first half, they both got a bit carried away and were up by the 18-yard box together, which left us a little bit vulnerable.
"But that’s exactly how we want to play. Is it always going to be pretty? Is it always going to work out? No, not at all. But if we have a starting point of our outside backs getting a bit higher and Dax dropping in, and we keep at it and it gets better and better, you’re going to get more of these games, I hope.”
For now, the Red Bulls can look at Wednesday’s rousing win as the latest building block with regards to their fullbacks’ ability to join the attack.
“He said it in the preseason that he wanted the fullbacks to give the attack more options, to get forward more without fear, and hearing that as a player gives you confidence,” said Miller, who had an assist last week as well.
“Today we demonstrated that, and in previous games, Kosuke and I have tried to give the forwards options, tried to look for crosses, tried to combine. Sometimes the plays come off, sometimes they don’t, but we’re happy, and little by little we’re getting better.”
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by e-mail at Franco8813@gmail.com.Airport Parking Shop is an established online comparison website that’s just celebrated its 11th year. Over the past few years we have watched as mobile (and tablet) usage has soared from just 8% of our traffic in October 2011 to 44% in October 2014. We couldn’t ignore this trend and so earlier this year we took the plunge and completely rebuilt our site with a mobile friendly responsive design.
Despite now having a very functional and mobile optimised site, with mobile use set to exceed 50% in the next few months, the next logical step was to offer our mobile users a more native experience so we decided build a dedicated app for both Android and iOS.
Having built both PhoneGap, Java (Android) and Objective-C (iOS) apps in the past, we were quite aware of the pros and cons, which in our opinion can be summarised as follows:
Pros Cons PhoneGap Multi Platform
Web technologies (CSS, HTML, JS) which most developers know well enough. Slow and unresponsive compared to fully native apps
Many device specific bugs
Complicated builds, releases etc. (Referring to icons, splash screens, certificates etc.) Android Java Eclipse Very fast
Native look and feel from standard UI components in the SDK Single platform
Requires developer with Java skills
Using Eclipse (although some might love this)
Just about everything else the SDK has (or mostly doesn't have) to offer iOS Objective-C Xcode Very fast
Amazing visual UI editor and other development tools
Easy testing, building and release Mac only
Single platform
Requires developer with Objective-C skills
Why Ionic
Having looked at all these factors, we did some research and stumbled across Ionic.
Ionic is a relatively new framework for building hybrid mobile apps (web technologies wrapped as native applications) and has only just gone from alpha to beta; that said, the repo has been starred nearly 11,000 times and the framework has over 13K followers on Twitter.
Ionic is essentially a wrapper around the already very popular Apache Cordova framework (think PhoneGap), but comes with its own very powerful CLI tools and a wealth of documentation. Particularly impressive for such a new project.
According to the Ionic website, the framework is “Performance Obsessed”. Performance issues were the main reason we shied away from PhoneGap and hybrid apps in the past, so this gave us some confidence that it was time to try them again. The framework also comes with a set of very well designed UI components, uses Bower & NPM and is written in AngularJS and SASS (optional), which are some of the most popular tools and frameworks out there and most likely key to Ionic’s popularity.
Getting Started with Ionic
First of all, Ionic is an NPM package, so make sure you have Node and NPM installed and then run:
npm install -g cordova ionic
This will get you set up with the Ionic CLI tools and creating your first boilerplate app can be done with a single command:
ionic start --sass -appname "Airport Parking Shop" --id com.fubra.aps aps_app tabs
Now with the boilerplate app ready, simply ‘cd’ into the newly created app directory and run:
ionic serve
This will start the Ionic server (with live reloading) and launch your newly created app in the default browser!
The boilerplate file structure should be familiar to anyone who has ever used PhoneGap or AngularJS. All the app files, HTML, CSS & JS, reside in the www directory and all the Cordova plugins, SASS etc. in the app’s root directory.
Inside www you’ll see a typical AngularJS app with controllers, templates etc.
Whilst AngularJS knowledge isn’t necessarily essential, it will certainly help a lot and together with the excellent Ionic documentation the learning curve is minimal.
Ionic also provides a very good learning portal at learn.ionicframework.com and sites such as StackOverflow are full of helpful discussions and suggestions.
Building the Airport Parking Shop App
Our app uses a simple landing page with a quote form that is made up of a select list and some date/time pickers.
To set up the main view we have a simple route set up in www/js/app.js pointing to our quote.html template and declaring the view’s controller as QuoteCtrl, which we created in the www/js/controllers/ directory:
// Configure routing.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) { // Configure routes $stateProvider.state('main', { url: '/', templateUrl: 'templates/quote.html', controller: 'QuoteCtrl' }); // Default Route $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/'); })
Next, we wrote the markup for our quote form and started looking at options for the date/time pickers, of which there are lots to choose from. That said, we didn’t really want to introduce another dependency such as jQuery, we wanted something optimised for mobile, and most importantly, we wanted whatever could be implemented the quickest and with the least amount of coding.
The obvious choice then was native HTML5 date and time inputs:
<input type="date"/> <input type="time"/>
They work brilliantly on both iOS and Android (4.4+) and required hardly any work.
The final quote form looked like this:
<!-- quote form --> <div class="row responsive-sm"> <div class="col col-50 col-offset-25"> <div class="list box"> <label class="item item-input item-select item-divider"> <div class="input-label"> <strong>Airport</strong> </div> <select class="close-left" ng-model="pickers.airport"> <option value="ABZ">Aberdeen</option> <option value="BHD">Belfast City (George Best)</option>... and so on </select> </label> </div> <div class="list box"> <div class="item item-divider">Drop-Off</div> <div class="item picker-input"> <input type="date" ng-model="pickers.startDate" ng-change="updateCleanEnd()" class="date close-right" /> <input type="time" ng-model="pickers.startTime" class="time" /> </div> <div class="item item-divider">Collect</div> <div class="item picker-input"> <input type="date" ng-model="pickers.endDate" ng-change="setDirty()" class="date close-right" /> <input type="time" step="60" ng-model="pickers.endTime" ng-change="setDirty()" class="time" /> </div> </div> </div> </div>
With the quote form hooked up to a controller and the picker values working, we were ready to start requesting some data.
We wrote a very basic AngularJS service calling the Airport-Parking-Shop REST API which we already use for the results on our website.
The service uses the AngularJS $http object for the GET request and returns a promise, again using the built in $q object in the AngularJS framework. The core method of the service looked like this:
params.callback = 'JSON_CALLBACK'; // Create promise var deffered = $q.defer(); // Do request $http({ method: 'JSONP', url: 'https://www.airport-parking-shop.co.uk/rest-api', params: params, cache: false }).success(function(data) { // Check results was found if (data.status === 200 && data.results.length) { // Resolve with success deffered.resolve({ status: 200, results: data.results }); } else { // Resolve with no content deffered.resolve({ status: 204 }); } // If error then simply resolve with error }).error(function() { // Resolve with error deffered.resolve({ status: 500 }); });
An essential feature was to allow the user to go back from this results view and maintain the exact state of the quote form. This could of course be done in many ways using the AngularJS router, cookies etc. but again, instead of setting up more routes and states, we opted for a standard Ionic modal view which again required minimal code to implement and looked like this:
<ion-modal-view id="results" ng-controller="ResultsCtrl"> <!-- Header bar --> <div class="bar bar-header bar-positive"> <!-- Back Button --> <button ng-click="modal.hide()" class="button button-positive icon ion-chevron-left"></button> <h4 class="title">{{airport}} Parking</h4> </div> <!-- Main content --> <ion-content class="has-header has-subheader" ng-class="{ 'ios' : ios }"> <!-- Visible when all results is filtered --> <div id="bgMsg">No Results</div> <!-- Results List --> <ion-list> <ion-item ng-click="openBrowser('{{item.bookingUrl}}')" target="_blank" ng-repeat="item in results | orderBy:predicate" ng-show="carpark_type[item.parking_type]" class="result item-icon-right"> <div class="row"> <div class="col"> <h3>{{item.carpark_name}}</h3> <p> <img src="img/stars/stars_{{item.avg_rating}}.png" class="rating"> <i class="{{item.parking_type}} ion-record key"></i> <small>via {{item.partner_name}}</small> </p> <p class="info"> <span class="ion-clock">{{item.transfer_time_int}} <span ng-show="item.transfer_time_int!= 'N/A'">mins</span> </span> <span class="ion-ios7-loop-strong" ng-show="item.transfer_time_int > 0">{{item.transfer_freq}}</span> </p> </div> <div class="col col-20 price"> <div class="loading logo_container" rn-lazy-background="'{{item.logoImage}}'" rn-lazy-loading-class="loading" rn-lazy-loaded-class="loaded"></div> <strong>{{item.amount | currency: "£"}}</strong> </div> </div> </ion-item> </ion-list> </ion-content> </ion-modal-view>
The modal view can then be initialised and controlled with a snippet of JS and allows results to slide over the quote form in a very native looking way, without ever reloading the quote form and thus maintaining the state prior to the user submitting the form. The JS to control the modal view looked something like this:
// Create results modal $ionicModal.fromTemplateUrl('templates/results.html', { scope: $scope, animation:'slide-in-right' }).then(function(modal) { $scope.modal = modal; }); // Show Results $scope.modal.show();
Finally, having a working quote form, API service and results view, we needed to find a way to link to car park providers’ websites where the user can either perform the booking or navigate back to the results whilst still maintaining the results and quote form state.
Now, with our JSON results in, we moved on to create a single list view for displaying the results.
Linking to the device’s browser was an option, but this would take the user several steps away from the app and just wasn’t ideal. Luckily, Ionic supports all standard Cordova/PhoneGap plugins, so we opted for the Cordova in-app browser plugin and again, with the help of the Ionic CLI tools, installing this plugin was very straightforward.
ionic plugin add org.apache.cordova.inappbrowser
With the in-app browser installed, displaying the car park provider’s website in a pop-up browser can be done with a snippet of JS which looks something like this:
// Create inappbrowser var browser = window.open(url, '_blank', 'enableViewportScale=yes,closebuttoncaption=Back');
Now that we had a fully functioning app running in a desktop browser, it was time to start testing on real devices and finally releasing our app to the masses!
Testing our app
At this point we spent a little over a week writing the code and tweaking the UI to where it felt right and whilst this was all surprisingly easy, the real challenges came once we started testing outside the browser and getting our app ready for distribution.
Ionic’s CLI simplifies testing on devices with 2 commands, namely ionic emulate and ionic run.
To use these commands, you first need to add the platforms you intend to distribute to.
In our case, iOS and Android:
ionic platform add ios ionic platform add android
This creates the platform specific builds in the platforms/ directory where the app will be compiled into its native form.
To compile and run the app on a device emulator such as Xcode’s iPhone Simulator or the Android SDK Device Emulator, simply run:
ionic emulate ios
Alternatively, to compile and run the app straight onto any connected devices, run:
ionic run ios
Now, whilst the iPhone Simulator that comes bundled with Xcode launches quickly and runs the app as you’d expect, the same cannot be said for Android.
The Android Emulator that comes with the Android SDK is quite simply unusably slow in our experience, so as an alternative we used a nifty app call Genymotion.
The Genymotion app is quick to install and has a completely free option along with some paid options for larger groups of developers. Regardless of the price, this app helped us immensely with testing our app on Android and is simply a must when using Ionic for building Android applications.
One thing to note is that the Genymotion emulator will not launch by using ionic emulate android, but rather ionic run android as if it was a real device.
Once we were all set up and testing on emulators and real devices, it became quite clear that whilst the browser is fantastic for development, it’s quite far off the actual devices and we had quite a few bugs and fixes to iron out.
Another big problem for us was implementing app icons and splash screens. First of all this meant making changes inside the ‘platforms/’ directory, which is something we really would have preferred not to do. Secondly, the way these icons and splash screens were implemented in Ionic simply didn’t match up to either Apple’s or Android’s specifications.
We ended up using a really helpful site called makeappicon.com, which was able to give us at least a somewhat familiar looking set of icons to those that we found in the Ionic project.
This is something that could do with some serious attention as it took at least 2 days for what should be a very small task. That said, it’s important to remember that Ionic is still in beta and I’m sure that with the current interest and contribution we’ll see this process simplified very soon.
Distributing our app
Two weeks from discovering the Ionic framework, we had an app that was running well on both iOS and Android and we were ready to build and distribute.
Ionic has a very detailed guide to building and publishing for Android here, but nothing for iOS. Luckily building iOS via Xcode is very easy and, seeing as Xcode manages provisioning profiles directly from iTunes Connect, it is most likely the preferred solution regardless of how Ionic would approach this.
Conclusion
So, after waiting for Apple’s ridiculously long review process, we had two apps live and it all took no more than 10 working days to complete.
That is quite impressive and much quicker than any previous app we’ve released, so is Ionic our new default app framework? For the most part yes; however, should a project come along that demands that extra premium feel and isn’t as time restricted, a native app might still win us over. Here’s what we’ve learnt and how we think hybrid apps compare to native apps when using the Ionic framework:
Performance Whilst our app performs very well, it still uses CSS3 transitions and is more dependent on the user’s device than a native app would be. Something to bear in mind at least. All in all, hybrid apps are still just slightly behind in terms of performance, but Ionic certainly has done a fantastic job and to most the difference will be negligible.
User Experience (UX) This is a tricky one, native apps definitely have the advantage when it comes to creating platform specific looking and feeling apps, but customisation can be more complicated. Hybrid apps on the other hand are really easy to customise, but creating a native look and feel can be much more challenging.
Development Working on our app has been an absolute joy, even compared to the very good Xcode. The time it takes to compile a native app after every code change makes a really big difference and our two weeks would have certainly been a lot longer, not to mention if using Android SDK and Eclipse!
Learning Curve There’s no question learning AngularJS and the Ionic framework is going to be a much easier task for the average web dev than learning the likes of Objective-C or Java, not to mention that the same web technologies will cover all the platforms you decide to develop for. This is a really big advantage, especially for businesses that need to deal with staff changes, and it is the reason hybrid apps exist in the first place.
Update!
March 24th, 2015: The story continues – click here for how this blog post broke our website and how Nginx and Pagespeed helped fix it!May 8, 2007 in Ternopol (Western Ukraine), Nazi and Islamist factions create a so-called anti- imperialist front to fight against Russia. Organizations from Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia participate, including Islamist Crimean separatists from Adygea, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, from Karachay-Cherkessia, Ossetia, and from Chechnya. Not able to get there because of international sanctions, Dokka Umarov had his contribution read. The Front is chaired by Dmytro Yarosh, who became, at the time of the coup in Kiev, February 2014, Deputy Secretary of National Security Council of Ukraine.
The confrontation between the Kiev putschists, backed by NATO and Ukrainian federalists, supported by Russia, has reached a point of no return. On May 2, President Olexander Turchinov and Israeli oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky organized a massacre at the House of Unions in Odessa. The Western press at first minimized the scale of the atrocities and then went mute when the testimony and evidence was accumulated [1]. After these horrors, it is no longer possible for two peoples to continue to live together.
Three scenarios are possible: either the United States will make Ukraine a new Yugoslavia and cause a war in the hope Russia and the European Union will be bogged down; or else they will multiply confrontations around Russia, starting with Georgia; or else they will grow non-state combatants to destabilize Russia itself, Crimea or Dagestan.
Whatever option is chosen, Washington has, as of now, a mercenary army in place. The Defence Council of Kiev sent envoys to Western Europe to hire far-right activists to come and fight against the Federalists (called "pro-Russian"). And a Pravy Sektor France cell, whose members will soon be integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard, has already been created.
In addition, the Kiev Defense Council intends "to grow numbers" to add jihadists who already have real military experience to these Western European neo-Nazis.
In fact, if we are willing to ignore the symbolic bric-a-brac on each side, Nazis and jihadists today have in common both the cult of violence and the Zionist dream of world domination. They are compatible with all other organizations supported by Washington, including Sergei Udaltsov’s Left Front and his friend, Russian anti-Putin leader, Alexei Navalny. There are already numerous contacts between them.
Rather than applying the right/left division of the Cold War, the only relevant cleavage line today is imperialism/resistance. In Ukraine, Kiev folks refer to the fight of the Wehrmacht against Jews, Communists and Russians, while those in Donetsk celebrate the victory of the fatherland against fascism during the " Great Patriotic War " (World War II). People of Kiev define their identity by their history, real or mythical, while those of Donetsk are emerging as people from different historical communities but united in their fight against oppression.
Proof that this dividing line is the only relevant one, it is that the Jewish oligarch, Ihor Kolomoisky, is financing those chanting "Death to the Jews! ". This is a mobster who has amassed one of the largest fortunes in Europe, seizing at gunpoint large metallurgy, finance and energy enterprises. He is supported by the United States and has placed various personalities including U.S. Vice President Biden’s son, on the Board of Directors of his gas holding. [2] Not only does he have no problem financing Nazi groups, he was jubilant when, following his orders, they murdered anti -Zionist Jews in Odessa.
Collaboration between Nazis and jihadists is not new. It finds its origin in three Muslim divisions of the Waffen SS. The 13th division "Handschar" was formed of Bosnians, the 21st " Skanderbeg " Kosovars and the 23rd " Kama " Croats. All were therefore Muslims practicing Islam influenced by Turkey. Indeed, the majority of these fighters defected during the war against the Red Army.
More recently, Takfirists and Nazis fought together again against the Russians during the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Ichkeria (Second Chechen War, 1999-2000).
On May 8, 2007, in Ternopol (western Ukraine), Baltic, Polish, Ukrainian and Russian Nazis and Ukrainian and Russian jihadists created a so-called "anti- imperialist front" with the support of the CIA. This organization is headed by Dmytro Yarosh, who, during the Kiev coup in February 2014, became Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, then Pravy Sektor candidate in the presidential election of May 25th.
In July 2013, the Emir of Caucasus and local leader of Al Qaeda, Doku Umarov, called on members of the "anti-imperialist front" to go and fight in Syria. However, there is no clear documentation of the Nazi participation in current operations to destabilize the Levant.
Finally, a few dozen Crimean Tatar jihadists came to fight in Syria, and were transported by the Turkish MIT to Kiev to participate in EuroMaidan events and the coup of February 22nd alongside Dmytro Yarosh [3].
The measures taken in Europe, at the request of the U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, to prevent the return of jihadists at home shows that the CIA intends to use them on a new front. [4] The forced April 15th resignation of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at the request of Secretary of State John Kerry [5] and that of his brother, Prince Sultan bin Salman, May 14 on pressure from Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel [6], attests to the US will to recast the jihadist machine.
Will European and Arab Resistors ally themselves too?Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin is Florida's new athletic director, as the University Athletic Association voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the hire.
Stricklin is expected to be formally introduced Tuesday.
USA Today was first to report that Stricklin would replace Jeremy Foley, who has been the Gators' athletic director the past 25 years and with the Gators for 40 years. Foley announced in June that he will retire Oct. 1, but now will remain in place until Nov. 1, creating extra time for a changeover.
Scott Stricklin will become Florida's athletic director after serving as Mississippi State AD since 2010. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Stricklin, who graduated from Mississippi State in 1992, has been the Bulldogs' AD since 2010. He was previously an assistant or associate AD at Tulane, Baylor and Kentucky.
While at Mississippi State, Stricklin's most high-profile hire was men's basketball coach Ben Howland.
Foley unveiled plans two weeks ago to spend $100 million to bring Florida's athletics program up to date, including building a 100,000-square-foot, stand-alone football facility.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.There was a time when I wouldn’t have given a second thought to the scent of the shave cream I was purchasing. The only concern was whether it would help me out with my shave. Happily those days are gone, shaving with mass market creams and gels are a thing of the past, replaced with wonderful creams and soaps that make shaving much more enjoyable and comfortable. Sadly the days of me not caring so much about my shave cream has increased my awareness and expectations to the products I am using, so when I’m disappointed in a product, I’m really disappointed, as I was with Fendrihan’s Lime and Ginger Shave Soap. Not so much with the performance but definitely with the scent.
To be honest the only reason for me picking up this puck from Fendrihan was because the scent sounded somewhat exciting. I had never come across a lime / ginger combination and it seemed, at least in my mind, like a great combo. Sadly I can not comment on what that combination smells like because I struggled to get very much of a scent out of the soap. The fragrance is so faint that it borders on scent free. At first I thought that maybe I just needed to break it in, but after a few shaves, and unnecessary lathering of the soap I can, with confidence, state that my puck doesn’t smell like much.
The soap could have provided the greatest shave of my life and I don’t think I would have noticed because of the disappointment with the scent. I was able to put my disappointment aside long enough with subsequent shaves to make a fair assessment of the soap and I have to say that it provided a sufficient shave. Decent cushion, some slickness, and a lather that was fairly easy to build.
But despite the decent shave, and attractive price, I don’t think that I could recommend the soap when there are many other options at a similar price point that would provide a good shave along with a fragrance to go along with it. Edwin Jagger’s Limes and Pomegranate is the first thing that comes to mind, here is a review. I guess it is possible that I received a soap that was just off. I’m not planning on buying another to find out. For me information on Fendrihan’s Lime and Ginger shave soap check out their website.An anime by the name of the Diamond no Ace (or Ace of Diamond) recently aired an episode that perfectly recreated a legendary Cleveland Indians defensive play. The connection was made by a Facebook page called Anim-Arte, which posted a video showing the two plays back-to-back. Once you see them so close together, it's impossible to deny where the inspiration for the play in Diamond no Ace came from.
The real-life play occurred on May 19, 2011 in a game against the Chicago White Sox. Former Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel hit a line drive that deflected off the glove of pitcher Joe Smith and changed the trajectory of the ball. Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera had to immediately change direction, and the ball wound up behind him. As you can see in the video, and in the Diamond no Ace clip, Asdrubal was forced to throw the ball behind his back to a waiting Adam Everett for one out then over to Matt LaPorta for the second.
Everything in the Diamond no Ace clip is perfectly replicated -- the deflection off the glove, the behind-the-back throw, and the throw to first. Of course, since this is anime, it includes a whole bunch of pauses and flairs, but the result is still the same. I can't seem to find the exact episode this clip came from, but hopefully, the home team in Diamond no Ace was not behind by seven runs like the Indians were.
It was a fantastic play at the time, and it's really cool to see it immortalized in another medium.surgical strikes across the LoC +
MSME convention +
Union Ministers Kalraj Mishra +
BHOPAL: Heaping praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Modi's "56 inches" chest had now swelled to 100 inches."Now, the chest is not 56 inches but 100 inches," Chouhan said, speaking at inaugural session ofhere."Our growth rate is higher than China's. You all have seen an example of strong India recently," he added."Congratulations to our Army, congratulations to Narendra Modi-ji. Now, the chest is not 56 inches but 100 inches," Chouhan said.He said that a "new India" has now emerged and Madhya Pradesh too is playing its role in the country's development.The Chief Minister attended the inaugural session of the convention along withand Ministers of State Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary and Giriraj Singh.MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) sector is the key to development, and instead of mass production, production by masses is needed for the overall growth, Chouhan said."The country is buzzing with development activities under the strong leadership of Modi," he said."MP's growth rate is the highest in the country and agriculture growth rate highest in the world. The state, which was power-starved a decade ago, now has surplus energy," he said.Oh, God, a thousand times YES!!!!!!!! This torture business may be causing me sleepless nights, due to the sheer enormity of the evil we’re talking about, but at least it’s leading to hilarious developments now and again.
First, Christopher Hitchens got waterboarded, an act suggested by his editor because of Hitch’s reputation as a total asshole spectacular journalist:
And now, even douchier Sean Hannity just offered to be waterboarded for charity.
From Charles Grodin (he has a show?):
GRODIN: You’re for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don’t believe it’s torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I’ll do it for charity. I’ll let you do it. I’ll do it for the troops’ families.
Is this what “hopegasm” feels like?
AdvertisementsSinger and actress YoonA of Girls' Generation discussed the hectic schedule and outstanding physical health of the group's members.
During an interview on April 27th for KBS 2TV's�drama 'Love Rain', YoonA commented, "It's a killer schedule... I think that it's a little different from the other actors. Though other actors can usually rest after filming for the drama, there's either an endorsement shoot to go to or etc., Even when there's no drama filming for the day, I can't rest because I need to either practice with the other Girls' Generation members or fulfill another thing in my schedule. I think that's why I hear [that it must be tough]."
She went on, "Truthfully, I do get tired sometimes. But the bright side is that since there are 9 members, we can split up work. Sometimes a few of us shoot for an endorsement deal first or we share activities... Though everyone's busy, no one has fainted yet (Laughs)."
YoonA then revealed that the girls sometimes joke around about ways to get out of their hectic lifestyle, stating, "Among the members, we'll joke, 'Someone please faint or something. We need to rest.' I think everyone's very physically strong and healthy. We all exercise a lot as well."
Source: OsenLightning strikes above the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines. (Brian Abeling / CC 2.0)
What is the real cost of being poor? The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a cruel joke. If it had kept pace with increases in U.S. labor productivity since the 1970s, it would be $19 an hour today. Assuming full-time, year-round employment, the current minimum wage yields $ |
faith which caused a brave deed as none other.
Interesting Fact: There is an oil painting by Rembrandt called “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” and shows Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (who wrote the above text) explaining the musculature of the arm to medical professionals and is housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands.
5 Sampson Parker Born circa 1960
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te9SdSpFD48&hl=en&fs=1]
Surgical Procedure: Amputation of Right Arm
In September of 2007 Parker a Farmer from South Carolina was harvesting corn when some stalks got stuck in a set of rollers that shuck the cut corn. He reached in the still-running machine to pull the stalks out and the rollers grabbed first his glove and then his hand. Parker tried yelling for help, but there was no one near the isolated field in Kershaw County. For more than an hour, he tried to pull his hand free, only to have it pulled ever further into the machinery. He was able to reach an iron bar and jam it into a chain-and-sprocket that drove the rollers, and, with his fingers growing numb he pulled out a small pocketknife and started to cut his own fingers off to free himself. Before he could do that the sprocket grinding against the rod he’d jammed in it threw off sparks and set the ground litter on fire. Parker then knew he had to cut his arm off or die right there. Parker credits the fire with keeping him from passing out from the shock of cutting through his arm. When he got down to the bone, he dropped onto the ground, using the force of his own weight to break the bone and free him from the machine. When he was finally loose he got in his pickup truck and started driving his truck into the middle of the road to force a car to stop. Finally a motorist stopped and a rescue helicopter was called in to take him to a hospital. Parker spent three weeks in a burn center before going home.
Interesting Fact: While he was recuperating, about 25 of his neighbors got together to finish harvesting his corn,
4 Dr Leonid Rogozov Born 1937
Surgical Procedure: Appendectomy
At the age of 27 Soviet Doctor Leonid Rogozovwas was stationed at the Novolazarevskaya base in the Antarctic. The doctor recognized his own acute appendicitis and worsening condition. Because of the absence of a support aircraft and inclement weather along with the danger of a burst appendix the doctor decided he would have to perform surgery on himself. With the team’s meteorologist holding the retractors, a driver to hold the mirror and other scientists passing surgical implements, he sat in a reclined position and cut out his own appendix under local anesthetic. During the operation he passed out, but was able to continue and complete the procedure in little less than two hours.
Interesting Fact: A detailed report was written by Dr Rogozov documenting the unusual event along with the photo shown above. The doctor made a full recovery and resumed all duties in two weeks.
3 Douglas Goodale Born 1965
Surgical Procedure: Amputation of Right Arm
In 1998 Douglas Goodale a 35 year old lobster fisherman from Maine was hauling lobster pots up from the sea floor. When he reached his first trap and started pulling up his catch a huge wave hit the boat creating a slack in the rope which then spooled around the drum. As he reached to turn off the drums motor and untangle the rope his sleeve got caught in the winch. Within seconds the winch had taken hold of his hand and his arm. Alone and unable to free himself and his body hanging outside the boat, the fisherman’s survival instincts took over and used his good arm to pull his body back into the boat. Because of the way his right arm was twisted he had to dislocate the shoulder joint of his injured arm in the process. The only way for Goodale to free himself was to cut off his own arm. Thinking about his wife and two daughters, Goodale grabbed his twine knife and began to saw off his right arm. The cold ocean water and the twisting had cinched up the wounds and helped to reduce blood loss. Goodale then managed to pilot his boat back into the harbor to get medical help.
Interesting Fact: Having only one arm has not kept Goodale from two seasons of lobstering and from completely overhauling his 35’ wooden boat down to the bare planks. Goodale was also featured in the television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” where 1,000 volunteers Goodale’s double-wide mobile home with a $500,000 log home.
2 Aron Ralston Born 1975
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2XLoQ1xYB0&hl=en&fs=1]
Surgical Procedure: Amputation of Right Arm
Aron Ralston’s experience made international news so many will be familiar with his story. Ralston is an American mountain climber and a mechanical engineer. He left his career in engineering to climb all of Colorado’s “fourteeners”, or peaks over 14,000 feet high. In 2002 while he was on a canyoneering trip alone in Blue John Canyon a boulder fell and pinned his right forearm. After five days of unsuccessfully trying to lift or break the boulder, a dehydrated and delirious Ralston prepared to cut off his already dead arm. Using a dull blade he cut the soft tissue around the break and then used the tool’s pliers to tear at the tougher tendons. Finally freed, Ralston was still 8 miles from his truck he had to rappel down a 65-ft cliff, then hike out of the canyon. Eventually he met with other hikers and was given food and water. Aron was finally transported to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction Colorado for surgery.
Interesting Fact: Later Ralston’s arm was retrieved by park authorities and removed from under the boulder. It was cremated and given to Ralston. He later returned to the boulder and left the ashes there. Aron Ralston still enjoys mountain climbing with the aid of a prosthetic arm.
1 Ines Ramírez Born 1960
Surgical Procedure: Caesarean Section
Ramírez Pérez lives in rural Rio Talea Mexico which has 500 people and only one phone. In March of 2000 the 40-year-old mother of seven was alone in her cabin when her labor started. She assumed her birthing position by sitting up and leaning forward. At midnight after 12 hours of continual pain and little advancement in labor and rather than experience another fetal death that occurred from her last pregnancy Ramírez decided to operate on herself. She drank from either a bottle of rubbing alcohol or 3 small glasses of hard liquor” (different accounts vary). She then grabbed a 15-cm knife and began to cut. Ramirez sawed through skin, fat and muscle and after operating on herself for an hour she reached inside her uterus and pulled out her baby boy who breathed and cried immediately. She says she cut his umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and then passed out. When she regained consciousness she wrapped clothes around her bleeding abdomen and asked her 6-year-old son to run for help. Several hours later the village health assistant found Ramírez alert and lying beside her healthy baby. She was then taken to the nearest hospital eight hours away by car and underwent surgery to repair complications resulting from damage to her intestines incurred during her C-section. She was then released from the hospital and made a complete recovery.
Interesting Fact: Ramírez is believed to be the only woman known to have performed a successful caesarean section on herself. Her case was written up in the March 2004 issue of the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Contributor: BlogballPoll a group of 10 sports journalists, bloggers, and fans about how they define the term "athletic" as it pertains to the game of basketball and you're likely to get 11 different answers. But that hasn't stopped the term from being one of the most commonly used attributes to describe a player when evaluating current and potential NBA players.
Everyone would agree that Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard are very athletic, and conversely most would agree that Al Jefferson or recently drafted Kelly Olynyk are not. After all, Griffin and Howard sky through the air resulting in thunderous dunks while Jefferson and Olynyk pivot their way to success. But if you define athleticism through common examples or extremes, then I hate to say it, but you need to expand your view of the term "athletic."
A more complete definition
The advanced statisticians, obsessive bloggers, and lovers of the game know, even if they can't express it clearly, that athleticism goes much deeper than that. For me, I think Vern Gambetta's definition is the most comprehensive:
Athleticism is the ability to execute athletic movements (run, jump, throw) at optimum speed with precision, style and grace while demonstrating technical competency in the context of your sport.
It captures the fact that it takes more than just jumping high or running fast to be athletic, and the nuance of the definition is even more interesting. Using the term optimum which literally means "the best of all outcomes" seems to imply that jumping the highest or moving the quickest isn't necessarily ALWAYS the best of all outcomes. Gambetta elaborates by adding that "precision, style, and grace" are essential to defining athleticism but to me precision is the most important. It implies being able to be consistent and repetitive in your actions as a key component of being athletic. Lastly, Gambetta uses the term "technical competency in the context of your sport." I interpret this to mean that Gambetta feels that a player who physically measures to be less "athletic" under the common use of the term may actually be able to acquire a greater athletic ability through practice and study of the game they play.
Bradford Doolittle's "Applied Athleticism" score
Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com took a slightly different approach back in March and attempted to quantify an individual's and a team's "applied athleticism." Doolittle explains his methodology:
Athleticism in a dictionary sense is a descriptive term that normally describes things like speed, quickness and jumping ability. Those physical qualities are measurable, too, and scouting websites have published and archived that kind of data for NBA prospects for several years. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about what I refer to as "applied athleticism." In a nutshell, I don't want to know a player's vertical leap. I want to know how well he translates his hops into measurable basketball production like rebounds and blocked shots. The end result is "ATH," a statistical measure that attempts to quantify each player's production in categories that are most associated with athleticism. I've found it to be useful for things like translating how a player's statistics might change when going from one professional league to another, or from college to the pros, or from a smaller role to a bigger one. By weighting each player's ATH rating by minutes played, we can also calculate the metric for teams.
Doolittle's application of ATH results in the Denver Nuggets having the highest applied athleticism score in the NBA last season. His top 5 however show just how different measuring team's based on ATH vs. the more simple definition of the term can be (highest ATH players for each team):
Most of the names on this list are of no surprise, however a few names jump out at me: Paul Millsap, Paul Pierce, and Jared Sullinger. Under the more common use of the term "athletic" I don't think any of these players would be examples I'd commonly go to, and yet all 3 have very good technical competency for the game and Pierce especially has always been known to play "optimally." To me, Pierce often looks like he's playing in quick sand and yet he always seems to find the right position to be in to get his shot off over bigger, faster, quicker players.
Is Greg Monroe "Athletic"?
In the lead up to draft night in 2010, Monroe was commonly described as having "below average athleticism" and his combine numbers appeared to back that up. He measured near the bottom of his class in both lane agility and 3/4 court sprint, and was only 1 inch off the lowest measured max vert among all bigs in his class. With the benefit of Draft Express, we can actually see where Monroe ranks all-time in the various physical measurements as well as which players measure similarly to Monroe. Based on all power forwards who were drafted since 2000 when Draft Express first started consistently capturing the four key athletic measurements from the combine (Max Vert, Bench, 3/4 sprint, and lane agility), Greg Monroe ranks in the bottom half for 3/4 sprint, bottom 20 percet for agility, and bottom 10 percent for max vert. The only area where Monroe measured favorably was in the bench press where he finished in the 35th percentile for power forwards. He ranked just ahead of Brian Scalabrine, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Mike Sweetney while trailing behind Mark Madsen and Chris Bosh. So based on the traditional measurement, Monroe shouldn't be considered athletic.
Traditionally speaking, Monroe is not athletic compared to Blake Griffin, Josh Smith, or even Chris Kaman! Monroe isn't athletic, or at least not as athletic as those players. Doolittle's ATH however indicates that Monroe was the 94th most athletic player in the league last year -- or roughly in the top 25 percent -- and one of Detroit's three highest ATH players. Detroit as a team ranked right in the middle of ATH, although that definitely wouldn't have happened without Andre Drummond's arrival, as he ranked 7th in the league. Josh Smith was also the 3rd-highest ATH for his team but ranked only 21 spots ahead of Monroe across the league.
If we consider a player's ability to rebound, get steals, and block shots as an indication of their applied athleticism, then the answer changes -- Greg Monroe is athletic. Among all bigs, Monroe was 9th in rebounds per game and 4th in steals per 36. Offensively, Monroe had the 4th best assist rate, and was a top 10 scorer. Simply put, statistically, Monroe shows he has solid athleticism at both ends of the floor.
More often than not, I think people confuse "explosiveness" with being "athletic." Monroe is definitely athletic, but my one criticism is his lack of explosiveness. This lack of explosiveness is clear in Monroe's low blocked shots numbers, but it doesn't seem to impact the other aspects of defense that are important to a big man -- specifically, rebounding and forcing turnovers. Offensively Monroe is known for a quick first step which would indicate his explosiveness may only limited to vertical leaping and not necessarily forward movement.
Conclusion
Zach Lowe, in a recent piece for Grantland, took Greg Monroe to task for apparently lacking any ability to play defense whatsoever. He spent time walking his readers through 2 or 3 specific plays where he places all blame on Monroe by utilizing well-timed still images of Monroe out of position on a rotation or failing to hedge a pick n roll properly. The conclusion I gathered from Lowe's piece on Monroe was that he felt Monroe's defensive woes stem from a lack of quickness, knowledge, commitment, and awareness (seriously, read the piece for yourself). He even goes as far as to say that Monroe's inability to defend was one of the reasons for not playing Drummond. Or in other words, Greg Monroe lacks athleticism, and that lack of athletic ability at the defensive end actually limited our team's ability to get Drummond more minutes (we'll ignore the fact that Lowe just recently discussed Greg's counterpart Andre Drummond on Bill Simmons' podcast where they agreed that Andre wasn't in good enough condition to play more minutes than he did last year).
But if you've been following along for this long now, then hopefully you already agree that this isn't the case. The numbers indicate otherwise, and those of us who suffered through every game last season know that Monroe's pick-and-roll defense is better than advertised. To revisit Gambetta's definition, Greg exhibits an ability to move optimally on the floor for a power forward in today's NBA and has exhibited this movement at both ends of the floor. That's not to say he's the fastest or quickest, but he does utilize his strengths to his advantage consistently. He does so with technical competency of his sport and with grace, style, and precision. Greg Monroe is absolutely athletic by this definition of the word. Just try to convince me he isn't:Video Walkthrough (Freemium Edition - no Golden pot gumballs)
Video Walkthrough (Speedrun - Rangers Edition)
Evil Eye (Bonus Room for 5Gems, 2 Pots and Gold)
Complete this event maze to get the White Chess Bishop gumball. In addition, the Mammoth gumball can sometimes be found in the hard maze.
Ran
May 19 to 21, 2017
Mar 10 to 13, 2017
Late 2016
Contents show]
Tips & Trick Edit
Rebel Knight only accept eye item e.g: Sargeras Curse Scope (Demon Hunter), Gorgon's Eyes (Medusa), Devil's Right Eye (Masamune)
Easy & Normal Edit
Use Zorro, Zerg Queen, and Spartan
Hard Edit
Restriction: Throw & Summon Ability
Masamune Build (by Hawk John) Edit
Canas Build (by Kitaria Chen) Edit
Main: Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter Soul Link: King + Justice Herald
King + Justice Herald Store EP then use King Skill
Video
Farming Mammoth Build (by Ng Shaoming) Edit
Main: Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter Soul Link: Lamp + Machine Herald
Lamp + Machine Herald Use holy shit scroll on mammoth to beat early boss
For the main bishop boss you should have upgraded enough on your bishop to defeat him easily
First carpet at 11-14, Plane prophet earth portal at next 11-14
3 chance to meet mammoth, Once you meet mammoth it wont appear again
Beat Evil God Ausdiga Build (by Mxyzptlk) Edit
Enemies Edit
Enemy Skill Stealing List (use Bandit, Kaito, or Bloody Wolf) Common item Rare item Queen Enhances all companion's attack after being killed When entering a battle, decreases damage companions suffer by 50% The Tower Launches a ranged attack every 2 rounds and brings penetration effect Helps companions of other types resist 50% of damage Lifeguard Enhances attack by 2 each round When entering a battle, all companion's attacks have leech blood effect Knight Chance to counterattack double damage When entering a battle, helps all companions enhance dodge EP +50 BOSS
Fragment Shop Edit
White Chess Bishop's Fragment: 1 Gem
Mammoth's Fragment: 1 Gem
Massive Metal Ingot: 15 Gem (Zeros, Mammoth)
Clerical Scepter: 15 Gem (Raptor, White Chess Bishop)
Unique Occurrences Edit
Black Chess Bishop Samuel - friendly summons, give him various upgrade items
Queens Crown - dropped by queens, upgrades active skill
Knight's Spear - dropped by knights, increases attack
Solid Shield - dropped by towers, decreases boss damage
Lifeguard's Armor - dropped by lifeguards, increases HP
Injured Rebel - requests a helmet item, seems to prefer eyes
Sundries Pile - gives coins, or alchemy materials
Smithy - forges a random upgrade item x1
Wizard's Remains - lots of spell scrolls
Missionary's Remains - Cross and Ausdiga's Book of Sacrifice (Event) or Biography of Dathomir (first time getting a book it gives 5 gems for completeing the stage, second time gives 3 gems)
Church - purchase a revive item for Samuel, 300 EP
Bread Mill - recover some of samuel's HP and MP, 150 EP
Evil God's Blood - possible to drop from final boss (try using summons or AOF to attack the eye behind the bishop's throne), opens portal to a second bossIf we're honest with ourselves, many of the cabinets and canopies we use for our aquariums are rather uninspired... more utilitarian than decorative. While "it's what's inside that matters" is a truism, the cabinets needn't be boring either.
WarKnot is a "small team of dedicated carpenters and artists that hand crafts" custom rustic aquarium furniture, designed and made to order. Their cabinets are certainly not cheap compared to the prefabricated cabinets that dominant the marketplace. However they appear reasonably priced (starting around $895) for a custom-built artisan furniture.
Disclaimer: Advanced Aquarist is not affiliated with WarKnot in any manner. This article is for informational purposes only. We have not reviewed the quality of their work and thus make no endorsements for their products.
Here are a few more photos exemplifying WarKnot's work:We're approaching the middle of the season, so it's time for scribes to unveil their All-Star picks. This column is no exception, but we're going to do it in a different way.
You might recall our preseason Film Room All-Star series, where Drew Garrison and I highlighted one player on each team who makes a major impact in ways that go beyond the surface level. None would be considered the best player on their teams, and many don't put up gaudy numbers, but all were essential to their squad's success. Almost all of them were also the types of players who are more important to their own teams than they would be to anyone else's.
Now that we're halfway into the season, it's time to unveil which 12 players in each conference best embody that spirit. The defining qualities needed for inclusion on the 2013-14 Film Room All-Star team:
Is not in consideration for an actual All-Star berth, though there's one mitigating circumstance.
Is solidly in a team's rotation, at the very least.
Is uniquely important to his current team.
Makes a positive impact on his team. This seems like a given, but you'd be surprised how many role-player types don't help their clubs despite having cerebral games.
Makes the kind of impact that is difficult to notice on the surface.
Without further ado, here are the 12 members of the 2013-14 Film Room All-Star team. (Star denotes preseason pick):
STARTING GUARDS
Goran Dragic, Kyle Korver
Dragic is the slight exception to the first qualification because he's starting to make a push to steal a Western Conference All-Star berth with injuries to Russell Westbrook and teammate Eric Bledsoe. Nevertheless, it'd be surprising if he does actually make it, so we'll keep him here.
As noted in a piece earlier this year, Dragic is the key to the Suns' fast-break offense. By playing him with Bledsoe, the Suns get a head start on missed shots because both can handle the ball and both can also outrun wings when the other is leading the break. Dragic is already fast for a point guard; he's even faster when he's matched up with taller wings.
And whether he's running point or playing off the ball, his attacking style is needed to get Phoenix's open half-court offense going. He's not a great shooter, but he's a creative, aggressive driver who finds ways to get to his left hand even when he shouldn't, like here against Taj Gibson and the Bulls.
Dragic also offers the Suns some much-needed lineup flexibility when both he and Bledsoe are healthy, allowing Phoenix to never have to play a backup point guard. That's a huge advantage because many teams, even very good ones, have very poor point guard play off the bench. Lineups with Dragic and without Bledsoe have performed very well this season, though some of the more frequently used ones have fallen off since Bledsoe's injury. The Suns have to hope that trend rebounds once Bledsoe returns from his surgery.
Korver, meanwhile, is having the best season of his career and very much deserves this spot. We all know what kind of shooter he is, but it's impressive the way the Hawks use the threat of his shooting to open opportunities for others. Sometimes, it's on set plays like basic curls to the middle or more complicated sets like the Hawks' "Thru" action -- see this video -- that leads to a big man screening for Korver to pop open at the top of the key while simultaneously opening up a side of the floor. Korver can shoot or hit the roller with easy pocket passes.
Sometimes, it's through misdirection. The Hawks love to run Korver off a screen on one side while something else is set up on the other, and that freezes or altogether nullifies help defenders. Watch Paul George on this play, for example.
George starts on the nail, the perfect spot to help against a side pick-and-roll, but even though Jeff Teague comes right to him, he runs away because he fears the backscreen Paul Millsap is setting on Korver. The threat of Korver therefore gives Teague the space he needs to draw out Roy Hibbert and deliver the pocket bounce pass to Pero Antic for a dunk.
And Korver is no one-trick pony either. He's received a reputation for being a defensive sieve, which could not be further from the truth. Nobody is going to ask him to shut down LeBron James, but Korver is one of the best wing help defenders in the league. He always finds himself at the nail when appropriate, and when the Hawks double-team or overload one side when he isn't directly involved in the play, he slides over quickly to account for the man who would be open otherwise. Look at all the work he does to disrupt this Lakers play.
If Korver were just a shooter, the Hawks wouldn't still be over.500 despite losing Al Horford for the season and dealing with suboptimal backups on the wing.
STARTING FRONTCOURT
Andre Iguodala*, Amir Johnson* (team captain), Robin Lopez
The Warriors are now 20-7 with Iguodala in the lineup and have the look of a darkhorse Finals contender, so it's not hard to understand that he's valuable. He just plugs so many gaps, whether it's off-ball movement to distract a defense, funneling his man into Andrew Bogut or, increasingly, making spot-up jumpers. The Warriors have not used his playmaking ability as much as I expected, but that's another way he can help them.
Johnson is the team captain because he perfectly encapsulates what it means to be a Film Room All-Star. We talked about his screen setting in the preseason, and that remains his best attribute, but he does much more than that. He's also a fantastic individual defender who uses his length and leverage to make life difficult for the men he's guarding. This is impressive work frustrating Roy Hibbert.
With Rudy Gay gone, the Raptors are running more pick-and-roll, and that's amplified many of Johnson's strengths. He's developed great touch on little floaters and runners when he can't get all the way to the rim, hitting difficult shots like this one with regularity.
Lopez has been one of the biggest reasons for Portland's rise. His impact has been spoken of in vague generalities, as if being 7' tall and therefore enabling LaMarcus Aldridge to slide to power forward is all that he's done. In reality, Lopez is one of the league's best offensive rebounders, giving the Blazers some unconventional inside punch to go along with their jump-shooting. He has the size, the long arms, the willingness to shove people around with his body and the anticipation to read the ball coming off the rim. This is an example of all four of those qualities.
Because Lopez is such an active offensive rebounder, teams can't double-team off him like they would with most non-shooting centers, which gives Portland's other four offensive dynamos the space they need to go to work.
And he's an underrated rim protector as well. He isn't known as a shot blocker, but he uses his body to position himself to alter them. Enes Kanter can't see anything around Lopez's long arms on this play, for example.
Teams are shooting just 44 percent at the rim on Lopez this season, according to the latest player tracking data. That's not Roy Hibbert-level good, but it's pretty close. Close enough to the point where you wonder why some suggest the Blazers need a better center. They have one that perfectly suits their needs already, so why change it up?
BACKUP GUARDS
George Hill, Wes Matthews*
There are so many reasons the Pacers' defense is great, but one that gets overlooked is how hard its guards fight through screens. The Pacers want to protect Hibbert and maximize his towering presence at the rim, so they ask him to hang way back on pick-and-rolls. Such a strategy could yield a temporary advantage if the initial primary defender is picked off, because the guard or wing would be able to attack Hibbert with some space.
Problem is, George Hill just isn't picked off very often. Just ask Isaiah Thomas.
Or Kyle Lowry, who was funneled beautifully by Hill into Ian Mahinmi's clutching arms.
Thing is, that hurts. It's asking a lot for your point guard to get slammed that much without immediate help and be expected to fight through each time. Yet Hill doesn't complain and carries out his duties while three teammates -- Hibbert, George and Lance Stephenson -- get most of the defensive credit. He's like the free safety who is willing to protect the back end of the field while his partner attacks the line of scrimmage or jumps routes to get interceptions.
Matthews' shooting has cooled off a bit since a torrid start, but he still occupies an essential role in Terry Stotts' offense. Most of Portland's off-ball movement relies on Matthews' ability to cut and cross-screen for Aldridge, whether it's to set up a post-up or something else. Matthews also has enough post-up ability himself to surprise his defender by cutting down the lane as if he's going to screen and stop, pinning his man right under the hoop. The Blazers love to sneak him down there when they're in HORNS (i.e. two bigs at the elbow, two wings in the corner).
Throw in his tough clamp defense on top perimeter threats, and Matthews is a very diverse player.
BACKUP FRONTCOURT
Channing Frye*, Taj Gibson, Anderson Varejao*
We talked about the impact of Frye's shooting in our preseason series, so it's not surprising that the Suns' offense looks free-flowing now that he's playing heavy minutes. Frye is one of the league's best above-the-break three-point shooters, placing ninth overall and third among forwards who have taken at least 50 of those shots. This allows other Suns players the ability to play within their comfort zone, whether it's around the basket (Dragic, Bledsoe), in the mid-range area (the Morris twins), the corner (P.J. Tucker) or... anywhere behind the line (Gerald Green).
Phoenix has also brought back variations of different plays that get Frye open, such as this double screen where the big man rolls as Frye pops to the three-point line.
That play resembles this look from 2011-12 with Steve Nash, Frye and Marcin Gortat.
Or, this play that looks like a double drag screen, but actually features Miles Plumlee screening for Frye instead of rolling.
Phoenix used to execute a slightly different design of this concept, except with Gortat and Robin Lopez screening on Frye's help defender instead of his man.
Frye's also an underrated defender and can post up smaller players if need be, so he's not just a shooter. There's a reason the Suns are 8.3 points better per 100 possessions with Frye in and 4.5 points per 100 possessions worse when he sits.
Gibson has always been a really valuable player, but he's improved his post game this season, allowing the Bulls to get something on their second unit. Two years ago, post-ups accounted for just 13.1 percent of Gibson's offense, per MySynergySports.com. This year, it's all the way up to 35.6 percent. Despite the massive increase in usage, Gibson has remained just as effective on the block.
Gibson has moves against different types of defenders. He can turn and face on bigger defenders and take them off the dribble, like he does here to Detroit's Greg Monroe.
Or, he can make moves with his back to the basket against more slender post defenders, like he does here against Ed Davis.
The Bulls are now running plays to get him deep position. Here's a compilation of the double baseline screen they run that several other teams use for more prominent post men.
All this works because it's very hard to push Gibson out of the post. Look how he holds his ground here against Luis Scola.
Or how he seals Andray Blatche on the ball reversal.
Gibson has yet to face a ton of double teams, but when he has, he's displayed good instincts passing out or faking to get the help defender away. Add this to his already excellent defense, and the Bulls have themselves a great bench player who is ready to take over as a starter.
Varejao continues to do his usual pesky stuff that we covered in the preseason, providing some movement in a Cavaliers offense that is otherwise stagnant. He has a lifetime spot on this team.
WILD CARDS
Darrell Arthur, Boris Diaw
Most analysts thought the Nuggets badly lost the Arthur-Kosta Koufos trade last summer, but that hasn't really come to pass. Koufos has struggled filling in for Marc Gasol and stands to lose minutes to emerging Ed Davis and the underrated Jon Leuer now that Gasol is healthy. Meanwhile, Arthur has become one of the few Nuggets frontcourt players willing to do the dirty work, whether it's defending a pick-and-roll, setting a good screen or making an important cut to distract the defense.
This play gives you a good sense of Arthur's value. The Nuggets like to trap the ball-handler on pick-and-rolls when Arthur is in the game because he is so good at hedging hard. He's also just as quick when patrolling the backline as someone else is hedging. Watch how he cuts off Glen Davis' roll, then recovers immediately to contest Andrew Nicholson's three.
Arthur has particularly developed nice chemistry with fellow backup Timofey Mozgov, who replaced Koufos in Denver's rotation. The Nuggets are outscoring teams by a whopping 16 points per 100 possessions when the two share the court, per NBA.com's stats page. Arthur's aggressive style defending pick-and-rolls blends well with Mozgov's ability to protect the rim, and Arthur is smart enough to cover for Mozgov when teams put him in the pick-and-roll instead. On the other end, the Nuggets love to have Arthur pick-and-pop to the top of the key, then have Mozgov duck in for a quick pass and shot in the paint. This is a beautiful, yet simple sequence to watch.
The Nuggets have a deep frontcourt, but they have been much better with Arthur in than on the bench, so they need to keep finding room for him.
Diaw, too, has thrived as a jack-of-all-trades forward for a Spurs bench that is carrying the team while the starting lineup has been weirdly ineffective. San Antonio is the perfect place to take advantage of Diaw's idiosyncratic offensive game. The Spurs randomly let him post up, and he's looked to score just enough to activate his fantastic passing skills. He's also one of the very best in the league at setting up to screen on one side, then darting around to the other side at the last minute before the defense can change its alignment. This is a textbook example against the Suns.
Surprisingly, he's been even more important defensively. Last year's Spurs rode Tiago Splitter's rim protection hard and became an elite defense because of it. This year, though, Splitter hasn't been as effective, and he's now out for an extended period of time. Still, the Spurs are a top-five unit this year, in large part because they've given Diaw more minutes to guard more types of players. Boris can guard larger wings, stretch 4s and traditional post-up players because he's quicker than you'd think. Look at how he recovers to the dangerous Frye here.
Would this happen on a team that needed him to be more conventional? Probably not. But that's the whole point of this team, isn't it?
ALSO RECEIVING CONSIDERATION (in no order): Gerald Henderson, Andrew Bogut, Kyle Singler, Brandon Bass, Andrei Kirilenko, Draymond Green, Shawn Marion*, Omri Casspi, Nene*, Thaddeus Young*, Mike Conley*, James Johnson, Norris Cole, Nick Collison, Spencer Hawes, P.J. Tucker, Patty Mills, Josh McRoberts, C.J. Miles, Marvin Williams.
PLAYERS TOO CLOSE TO THE ALL-STAR BUBBLE: Paul Millsap, Chris Bosh, Serge Ibaka, Kyle Lowry.
More from SB Nation NBA:
• The Hook: Stop slandering Blake Griffin | Even POTUS teases Chalmers
• Drive & Kick podcast: Are the Raptors for real?
• Anthony Bennett's having the worst rookie season ever by a No. 1 pick
• Celtics dump Crawford, Brooks in 3-team deal | Rondo's returning?
• Hoosier Hysteria: How the Pacers won back the heart of IndianaGunmen killed 20 people, mostly with sharp weapons, shortly after taking hostage a number of diners at a café in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone last evening, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
-- ‘Operation thunderbolt’ conducted
-- Among 7 attackers, six killed, one held alive
-- Victims mostly killed by sharp weapons
-- Sharp weapons, unexploded IED, walkie-talkie recovered
-- Autopsies at Dhaka CMH
-- Dial +88-0176-9012524 to ascertain victims’ identity, army says
As per instruction by the honourable head of the government, Bangladesh Army conducted Operation Thunderbolt, Brig Gen Nayeem Ashfaque Chowdhury, director of military operations, told journalists at a press briefing this afternoon.
Joint security force led by army recovered 20 bodies during a search on the compound of the Spanish restaurant, Holey Artisan Bakery after the operation was launched, Brig Gen Nayeem said.
“Most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons,” he added.
Autopsies of the deceased will be conducted at Combined Military Hospital ( |
Applebaum and Runa Sandvik, both of whom have played up their techno-activist street cred while simultaneously receiving massive salaries from the US government. Lastly, we take a critical look at the founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Perry Barlow, and make the case for his integral partnership in the Snowden/NSA psy-op. This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is really going on with the NSA scandal, but hopefully this will open up the door for you to begin investigating for yourself.
Download PPR episode 26
Show Notes:
Almost everyone involved in Tor was (or is) funded by the US government
EFF press release on Omidyar network and Tor Project
EFF annual report for 2009-2010 (the most up to date annual report available online)
Q&A marathon with Jacob Applebaum and Roger Dingledine
Snowden’s first move against the NSA was a party in Hawaii
Why Spy?
Freedom the Press Foundation
Music:
Sylvester – “Do you wanna funk”
Sylvester – “You make me feel (mighty real)”1. Battlestar Galactica, a television series that aired in 1978 and 1979, was created by Church member Glen A. Larson and includes several references to Mormon doctrine.
For example, in the show, the colonies originated from the planet Kobol (thought to be an anagram of Kolob) and were governed by a "council" or "quorum" of twelve. And in the episode War of the Gods, Part 2, angels (or advanced beings) explain, "As you are now, we once were; as we are now, we may become." Sound familiar? Compare it to Lorenzo Snow's famous couplet, "As man is now, God once was; as God is now, man may become." Even marriages were referred to as sealings that lasted "not only for now, but for all eternity."
Larson also worked on other popular television shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy, Magnum P.I., and Knight Rider.
Photo from imdb.com
2. LDS artist Arnold Friberg worked as chief artist-designer for the film The Ten Commandments, influencing everything from costumes to set design.
Cecil B. DeMille hired Friberg after Swedish publisher Herman Stolpe showed him Friberg's paintings. DeMille was so impressed with The Finger of the Lord (Friberg's depiction of the Brother of Jared in amazement of the finger of God) that it became the inspiration for Moses's costume in the burning bush scene. Friberg received an Academy Award nomination for his work on the film.
Photo from imdb.com
3. LDS composer Leigh Harline wrote the famous Disney song "When You Wish Upon a Star," for which he won two Academy Awards: Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song.
After being hired by Walt Disney, Harline scored more than 50 songs and worked on favorites such as "Whistle While You Work," "Heigh Ho," and "Someday My Prince Will Come."
Photo from imdb.com
4. Dean Jagger, who depicted the title character in the 1940 film Brigham Young, joined the Church later in life.
Until Jagger starred in Brigham Young, he was a little-known actor. He went on to star in White Christmas and Twelve O'Clock High, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Jagger joined the Church in his late 60s after marrying Etta Mae Norton, who was a Mormon.
Another fun fact: for the making of Brigham Young, Twentieth Century Fox consulted with Church historians and leaders, including President Heber J. Grant.
Photo from imdb.com
5. Three years ago, two movies hit theaters based on novels by LDS authors: Austenland and Ender's Game.
The film Austenland is based on the novel by Shannon Hale. It is the story of a 30-something woman's experience during her stay at a Jane Austen-themed getaway. In fact, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer produced the film, with fellow LDS women Shannon Hale and Jerusha Hess (who co-wrote the screenplays for Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre with her husband) as the screenwriters. (Read a Q&A with Shannon Hale and Jerusha Hess here.) The cast includes Keri Russell, Jane Seymore, and Jennifer Coolidge.
Austenland is currently in theaters. (Photo from imdb.com)
Ender's Game, released in the U.S. on November 1, 2013 is based on the science fiction novel by LDS author Orson Scott Card. It is the story of a young, shy, brilliant boy who is recruited to join International Fleet and battle an alien race after Earth is attacked. The cast includes Harrison Ford, with Orson Scott Card making a voice cameo as Pilot.
Ender's Game hit theaters on November 1, 2013. (Photo from imdb.com)
Click here to read 5 more fun facts about Mormons in Hollywood.Good day everyone,
A few changes and additions to the high tier Japanese heavies in supertest.
Type 5 Heavy
-Upper front armor buffed from 260mm to 270mm
-Cheeks on front armor buffed from 220mm to 270mm
-Side armor buffed from 140mm to 160mm
-Turret front armor buffed from 260mm to 280mm
-New gun added: 15cm/45 41st Year Type
Type 4 Heavy
-Weight reduced from 170,000 to 165,0000
-New gun added: 15cm/45 41st Year Type
The new gun being tested has now been confirmed as the 15m/45 41st Year Type. It will be added as a gun for the Type 4 & Type 5 Heavy tanks. Their current armaments will also remain. These are the ammo types:
152.4 High-Explosive Common Type O HE
152.4 caliber
30-50 pen
750-1250 dmg
3.66 splash radius
152.4 High-Explosive Common Type 4 HE
152.4 caliber
30-50 pen
975-1625 dmg
3.66 splash radius
Type 5 Armor ChangesProminent Republican attorneys are staging what amounts to an unprecedented public intervention against President Donald Trump, warning that his tweeting habit was doing serious harm to his bid to preserve his travel ban policy at the Supreme Court—and could be inflicting more widespread damage on his administration’s ability to carry out his agenda.
The outpouring of criticism was triggered by a flurry of tweets Trump sent Monday, attacking the Justice Department’s legal strategy, dismissing his own revised travel ban order as a “watered down, politically correct” version of what he originally set out to do, and blasting as “political” the court rulings against him on the subject.
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The most attention-grabbing pushback came from George Conway, who was under consideration until recently for a top post overseeing Justice Department civil litigation in the Trump administration. Conway, who is married to top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, even seemed to mock one of Trump’s favorite Twitter formulations.
“These tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly won’t help OSG [Justice’s Office of Solicitor General] get 5 votes in SCOTUS, which is what actually matters. Sad,” Conway wrote.
Conway later clarified that he remains a Trump backer, but is not backing down from his criticism. In fact, he insisted that lawyers currently in the administration concur.
“I still VERY, VERY STRONGLY support POTUS, his Admin, policies, the executive order...and of course, my wonderful wife. Which is why I said what I said this morning,” Conway added. “Every sensible lawyer in [the White House Counsel’s Office and every political appointee at DOJ wd agree with him (as some have already told me). The pt cannot be stressed enough that tweets on legal matters...seriously undermine Admin agenda and POTUS...those who support him, as I do, need to reinforce that point and not be shy about it.”
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A top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, Jack Goldsmith, unleashed a 17-entry Tweetstorm arguing that Trump’s ongoing attacks on his own lawyers and his apparent effort to disclaim responsibility for reissuing his “watered down” order are further eroding judicial deference for the executive branch.
“Given POTUS’s instability, it is not just courts that have reason to relax the presumption of regularity for this Prez,” wrote Goldsmith, now a professor at Harvard Law School. “We all have reason to do so about everything the Executive branch does that touches, however lightly, the President....One thing DT behavior entails...is many losses in court and not just on the immigration EOs....Everything else Executive would normally win—reversing Clean Power Plan, terminating treaty, new regs, etc.—will be much, much harder.”
Lawyers challenging Trump’s travel ban in court seemed gleeful at the utterances from the chief executive.
“Its kind of odd to have the defendant in Hawaii v Trump acting as our co-counsel. We don’t need the help but will take it,” wrote Neal Katyal, a lawyer behind the state of Hawaii-led case that resulted in the broadest injunction against Trump’s revised travel ban.
Supreme Court litigators said Trump’s tweets were particularly damaging because the Justice Department has argued that the revised order Trump issued in March should be treated as distinct from his first effort and from his campaign trail rhetoric calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.
Government lawyers have also insisted that the second order was backed by a policy process involving Cabinet officials such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.
However, Trump’s reference to political correctness seemed to fuel arguments that the alleged policy process was window dressing and the entire effort may have simply been intended to follow through on his calls for a Muslim ban.
“They’re trying to draw a sharp line between this order and his campaign statements that all Muslims should be barred,” said Walter Dellinger, who was an acting solicitor general under President Bill Clinton. “Trump has rendered moot the debate in the litigation over whether campaign statements should be inadmissible by incorporating by reference all those statements and turning them into presidential proclamations.”
Dellinger added that the tweets will be “devastating” to the solicitor general’s office, which last week asked the high court to lift injunctions on the president’s executive order: “Either they have a client who can’t control himself or a client who is trying to sabotage the case.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman had no comment on the president’s criticism of the department.
The revised order Trump signed in March places a 90-day freeze on issuance of visas to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries and suspends refugee admissions from across the globe for 120 days as part of what was billed as an attempt to ward off the threat of terrorism.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that Trump moved to the second order as a matter of “expediency,” after the courts blocked his first foray.
“They were trying to meet the demands of the 9th Circuit,” Sanders said. “He wants to go as far and as strong as possible under the Constitution to protect the people in this country. That’s what he felt the first executive order did. The second one was another version of that... Everyone wants to make it something different than a national security issue, but that’s exactly what it is.”
Sanders did not explain why Trump did not take the fight to the Supreme Court in February. She did say she was not aware of any mechanism by which aides or lawyers review Trump’s tweets before they’re issued.
“It gives him the ability to make directly to the people without the bias of the media filtering those types of communications,” she said. “I think it’s a very important tool for him to be able to utilize.”
While administration lawyers have described the revised order as a “temporary pause,” Trump on Monday called the measure a “travel ban”—a phrase his aides have sometimes eschewed, but which he has repeatedly embraced.
“I don’t think the president care what you call it, whether you call it a ban, whether you call it a restriction. He cares that you call it national security and that we take steps to protect the people of this country,” Sanders said in response to a reporter’s question Monday. “It’s real simple. Everybody wants to get into the labels and the semantics of it but the bottom line is he’s trying to protect the citizens of this country and this executive order is very clear and the president’s priority in protecting the American people is very clear. Full stop.”
Not all lawyers viewed Trump’s tweets as damaging to his case.
Former federal judge Michael McConnell, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said Trump’s indication that he is dissatisfied with the current travel ban order actually supports the government’s arguments that the new order is not a product of the comments about Muslims Trump made during the campaign.
“The best hope for the government to prevail has always been that the executive order stands for what it says but not for what the president might have subjectively intended,” said McConnell, now a law professor at Stanford. “For the president to be expressing disappointment might actually strengthen that position … He has now, in this very backhanded way, affirmed that this does not have the kind of discriminatory character he was talking about.”
McConnell did, however, concede that Trump’s tweets were so unorthodox that they could not have been part of an actual legal strategy.
“You can be pretty sure his lawyers didn’t approve these tweets,” the former 10th Circuit judge said. “This must be very aggravating for his lawyers.”Bacteriophages are viruses that prey on bacteria. Also known as phages, they can multiply very quickly—hundreds of new viruses can be produced in a single infected bacterium in less than 30 minutes. However, relatively little is known about the impact of phage predation on human-associated bacteria in general, and even less on bacterial pathogens. Now, in eLife, Andrew Camilli of Tufts University School of Medicine and co-workers in Canada, Haiti and the United States, provide molecular evidence that phages prey on a bacterial pathogen during the course of an infection in humans (Seed et al., 2014).
Vibrio cholerae is the bacterium responsible for cholera. After being ingested, typically by drinking contaminated water, it multiplies in the digestive tract where it releases a toxin. This toxin causes profuse and watery diarrhoea, dehydration and death in 50% of cases if rehydration therapy is not administered.
In the delta region of the river Ganges in Bangladesh and India, cholera epidemics occur every year, and follow regular seasonal cycles. It has been proposed that this seasonal variation might be partly related to phages preying on the V. cholera bacteria—as the so-called vibriophages are most common in environmental waters at the end of the cholera season (Faruque et al., 2005a, 2005b).
Camilli and co-workers—including Kimberley Seed as the first author—report molecular data that indicate that vibriophages may preferentially prey on bacteria in the digestive tract of patients with cholera, rather than in environmental waters (Seed et al., 2014). Seed et al. looked at stool samples from two cholera patients (one from Haiti, one from Bangladesh) who had high viral loads of a type of vibriophage called ICP2. In each sample, they discovered that some of the bacteria were resistant to the phage, while the rest were sensitive to it. Then, Seed et al. sequenced the whole genomes of bacterial clones and discovered that the only differences between the phage-resistant and phage-sensitive isolates in each patient were clustered into a single gene. However, a different bacterial gene was mutated in each patient. Several different mutants of each gene were found. This strongly suggests that these mutations occurred, and were then selected for, in bacteria in the patient during the infection.
In the Haitian patient, almost all (> 99%) of the bacteria isolated were resistant to the phage; and, of the phage-resistant bacteria tested, all had one of six different mutations in a single gene called ompU. The OmpU protein forms a pore in the bacteria’s outer membrane to enable nutrients to be imported into the cell. The bacteria need this protein for their survival both in human hosts and in environmental waters. Since the OmpU mutants are resistant to phage attack, Seed et al.’s findings indicate that the OmpU protein is also used by the vibriophage ICP2 to infect the bacterial cells (i.e. it is also the ‘receptor’ for the ICP2 phage).
Seed et al. show that the selection of OmpU mutants by ICP2 vibriophages is not restricted to this isolated case. Out of a collection of 54 clinical isolates of V. cholerae collected in Bangladesh between 2001 and 2011, 15% have similar phage-resistant mutations in the ompU gene. Seed et al. also found that the changes in the OmpU protein were all in parts of the protein that are exposed on the outside of the bacterial cell; and importantly, that they had very little effect on the fitness of V. cholerae in a range of tests. This is reminiscent of the relationship between the bacterium E. coli and the phage lambda, where mutations in a surface protein can make the bacteria resistant to phage attack. These mutations also occur in a surface-exposed part of the protein and do not affect the other functions of this protein (Gehring et al., 1987; Hofnung, 1995). However, the E. coli/phage lambda studies were performed in the laboratory, whereas this V. cholerae study appears to be the first report that suggests a predator-prey relationship between phage and bacteria in the human intestine.
In the stool sample from the Bangladeshi patient, 22% of bacterial isolates were resistant to the ICP2 phage; and Seed et al. identified four different genetic changes that made the bacteria able to resist this phage attack. All of these mutations were in a gene called toxR, which encodes a protein that regulates the expression of numerous genes, including ompU. Since these ToxR mutants do not produce the phage’s receptor—the OmpU protein—this confers resistance to phage attack. However, the ToxR protein also regulates genes that control the virulence of the bacteria, and the ToxR mutants were unable to start new infections in an animal model of cholera. Therefore, in contrast with the OmpU mutants, it is more difficult to unambiguously assign the selection of ToxR mutants as resulting solely from defending against phage attack. Instead the selection of these non-infectious mutants could also be explained by such mutations making it ‘cheaper’ for these bacteria to grow in the digestive tract at the expense of the virulent clones.
Although it is perhaps counterintuitive, mutations that reduce virulence can have a selective advantage during an infection (Diard et al., 2013). Expressing so-called virulence proteins or factors is costly for an individual bacterium, and mutants that stop making these factors can, therefore, benefit at the expense of other bacteria that continue to do so. This advantage, however, is only short-lived as these less virulent mutants are unable to start new infections themselves. Regardless of the precise mechanism, the selection for the non-infectious ToxR mutants observed by Seed et al. suggests that phage predation may have contributed to the collapse of the infection and the selection of less virulent strains.
Finally, the results of Seed et al., together with the previous work by other groups that it builds on, highlight the important role that phages can play in shaping V. cholerae populations. These findings firmly place these viruses as an important ‘third’ party that must also be considered when trying to understand host–pathogen interactions.Sue Vertue, the producer of the Bafta winning drama, said the CBS series appeared to be a rip-off version of the BBC hit.
"We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It's interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show," she said. "At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn't resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying. We are very proud of our show and like any proud parent, will protect the interest and well being of our offspring."
The CBS pilot will feature a detective who solves cases inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's plots in contemporary New York. However the American network denied it was stealing the British approach.
"Our project is a contemporary take on Sherlock Homes that will be based on Holmes, Watson and other characters in the public domain, as well as original characters," CBS said. "We are, of course, respectful of all copyright laws and will not infringe on any stories or works that may still be protected."
A recent case in a US court found that a producer who had taken original elements of Warner Bros material had violated copyright laws.The southern half of Transcanada's Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is supposed to begin pumping up to 700,000 barrels of diluted bitumen per day through the Cushing, OK to Port Arthur, TX route within weeks. But is it ready to operate safely?
Public Citizen has released a chilling report revealing that the 485-mile KXL southern line is plagued by dents, faulty welding, exterior damage that was patched up poorly and misshapen bends, among other troubling anomalies.
In conducting its investigative report, “Construction Problems Raise Questions About the Integrity of the Pipeline,” Public Citizen worked on the ground to examine 250 miles of the 485 mile pipeline's route. The group and its citizen sources uncovered over 125 anomalies in that half of the line alone. These findings moved Public Citizen to conclude the southern half of the pipeline shouldn't begin service until the anomalies are taken care of, and ponders if the issues can ever be resolved sufficiently.
After President Barack Obama temporarily denied a permit for Keystone XL's northern half in January 2012, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted Keystone XL's south half a legally dubious Nationwide Permit 12 to expedite construction. Soon after, President Obama issued his own Executive Order in March 2012 calling for the expedited building of the south half in de facto support of the Corps' permit.
An August report by industry intelligence firm Genscape said the pipeline, rebranded by Transcanada as the “Gulf Coast Project,” will ship tar sands dilbit through the line beginning in the first quarter of 2014. Now, the race to build the south half literally looks like it could come with major costs and consequences.
Photos: Keystone XL South Half Anomalies
The photos below of Keystone XL southern half's anomalies mostly speak for themselves, though Public Citizen's report gives them the extra context they deserve. Public Citizen has placed additional photos up on Flickr.
Pinholes in the applied coating can lead to exposing underlying pipe damage to leakage.
Multiple coating patches over new pipe about to be placed into the trench during initial construction.
Close up of section of Keystone XL southern half's pipe marked “junk” by TransCanada.
Front of a cut out section of pipe on citizen David Whatley's land marked “Dent Cut Out.”
A dent anomaly on the exterior cut out section of pipe. The dent was about the size of a brick.
Public Citizen Demands PHMSA, Congress, White House Weigh In
Public Citizen has called for a U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) investigation into its findings. They have also called on Congress and the Obama White House to step up to the plate.
“Public Citizen…calls on Congress to hold oversight hearings to ensure that PHMSA investigates the anomalies [and] conducts a quality assurance review,” the report says.
Further, Public Citizen states these Keystone XL southern half blunders coupled with the 12 spills that took place in the original Transcanada Keystone tar sands pipeline's first operational year must be part of the calculus for Keystone XL's northern half for the Obama State Department. And for the southern half, Public Citizen has called for a “time out.”
“The government should investigate, and shouldn’t let crude flow until that is done,” Tom Smith, Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office said in a press statement. “Given the stakes – the potential for a catastrophic spill of hazardous crude along a pipeline that traverses hundreds of streams and rivers and comes within a few miles of some towns and cities – it would be irresponsible to allow the pipeline to start operating.
“TransCanada’s history with pipeline problems speaks for itself and I fear we could be looking at another pipeline whose integrity may be in question.”
Photo Credit: Public CitizenThe Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless.
In September, Navy Yard; in November, a racially fraught shooting in Michigan and a proposed “stand-your-ground law” in Ohio; now the first anniversary of the Newtown massacre — there’s no avoiding the brutal reality of guns in America. Once again, we feel the need to say something, but we know the old arguments will get us nowhere. What’s the point of another impassioned plea or a new subtlety of constitutional law or further complex analyses of statistical data?
Even when a gun makes sense in principle as a means of self-defense, it may do more harm than good.
Our discussions typically start from the right to own a gun, go on to ask how, if at all, that right should be limited, and wind up with intractable disputes about the balance between the right and the harm that can come from exercising it. I suggest that we could make more progress if each of us asked a more direct and personal question: Should I own a gun?
A gun is a tool, and we choose tools based on their function. The primary function of a gun is to kill or injure people or animals. In the case of people, the only reason I might have to shoot them — or threaten to do so — is that they are immediately threatening serious harm. So a first question about owning a gun is whether I’m likely to be in a position to need one to protect human life. A closely related question is whether, if I were in such a position, the gun would be available and I would be able to use it effectively.
Unless you live in (or frequent) dangerous neighborhoods or have family or friends likely to threaten you, it’s very unlikely that you’ll need a gun for self-defense. Further, counterbalancing any such need is the fact that guns are dangerous. If I have one loaded and readily accessible in an emergency (and what good is it if I don’t?), then there’s a non-negligible chance that it will lead to great harm. A gun at hand can easily push a family quarrel, a wave of depression or a child’s curiosity in a fatal direction.
Even when a gun makes sense in principle as a means of self-defense, it may do more harm than good if I’m not trained to use it well. I may panic and shoot a family member coming home late, fumble around and allow an unarmed burglar to take my gun, have a cleaning or loading accident. The N.R.A. rightly sets high standards for gun safety. If those unable or unwilling to meet these standards gave up their guns, there might well be a lot fewer gun owners.
Guns do have uses other than defense against attackers. There may, for example, still be a few people who actually need to hunt to feed their families. But most hunting now is recreational and does not require keeping weapons at home. Hunters and their families would be much safer if the guns and ammunition were securely stored away from their homes and available only to those with licenses during the appropriate season. Target shooting, likewise, does not require keeping guns at home.
Related More From The Stone Read previous contributions to this series.
Finally, there’s the idea that citizens need guns so they can, if need be, oppose the force of a repressive government. Those who think there are current (or likely future) government actions in this country that would require armed resistance are living a paranoid fantasy. The idea that armed American citizens could stand up to our military is beyond fantasy.
Once we balance the potential harms and goods, most of us — including many current gun owners — don’t have a good reason to keep guns in their homes. This conclusion follows quite apart from whether we have a right to own guns or what restrictions should be put on this right. Also, the conclusion derives from what makes sense for each of us as individuals and so doesn’t require support from contested interpretations of statistical data.
I entirely realize that this line of thought will not convince the most impassioned gun supporters, who see owning guns as fundamental to their way of life. But about 70 million Americans own guns and only about four million belong to the N.R.A., which must include a large number of the most impassioned. So there’s reason to think that many gun owners would be open to reconsidering the dangers their weapons pose. Also, almost 30 percent of gun owners don’t think that guns make a household safer, and only 48 percent cite protection (rather than hunting, target shooting, etc.) as their main reason for having a gun.
It’s one thing to be horrified at gun violence. It’s something else to see it as a meaningful threat to your own existence. Our periodic shock at mass shootings and gang wars has little effect on our gun culture because most people don’t see guns as a particular threat to them. This is why opposition to gun violence has lacked the intense personal commitment of those who see guns as essential to their safety — or even their self-identity.
I’m not suggesting that opponents of gun violence abandon political action. We need to make it harder to buy guns (through background checks, waiting periods, etc.) both for those with criminal intentions and for law-abiding citizens who have no real need. But on the most basic level, much of our deadly violence occurs because we so often have guns readily available. Their mere presence makes suicide, domestic violence and accidents more likely. The fewer people with guns at hand, the less gun violence.
It’s easier to get people to see that they don’t want something than that they don’t have a right to it. Focusing on the need rather than the right to own a gun, many may well conclude that for them a gun is more a danger than a protection. Those fewer guns will make for a safer country.
Gary Gutting is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and an editor of Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. He is the author of, most recently, “Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy Since 1960″ and writes regularly for The Stone. He was recently interviewed in 3am magazine.Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
ABOVE a valley in Pennsylvania sits an old hospital that gives an optimistic hint about the future of American health care. Geisinger Health Systems was founded in 1915 but is as adaptable and creative as a start-up. It has invented new ways to offer services: it provides heart surgery, for example, at a fixed price and with a warranty. (If there are complications within 90 days, you pay nothing to fix them.)
Geisinger is changing the way it delivers primary care, co-ordinating teams of doctors and nurses to keep more people healthy for less money. Barack Obama sometimes praises the organisation in speeches. His health reform includes a programme to promote a model much like it. Alas, Geisinger's chief executive, Glenn Steele, is one of many hospital bosses who think the new programme will not work.
America spends far more on health care than other countries, such as Britain (see article). The waste is staggering (see chart). The main problem is loopy incentives. Under “fee-for-service” arrangements, the more tests, scans and pokes with gloved hands a hospital or clinic provides, the more it is paid. Mr Obama's health reform included only a few small nudges to change this.
Topmost among them is a plan for Medicare to reward “accountable care organisations” (ACOs) for keeping people healthy, rather than lavishing treatment on them. The plan seems sensible enough. But it has provoked uproar in every corner of the health industry. This month the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the body that oversees government health schemes for the old and the poor, was barraged with irate letters about it.
An entrenched system is hard to change. Hospitals currently have little incentive to keep patients healthy. On the contrary, fitter patients would mean lower volumes and smaller margins, says Michael Nugent of Navigant Consulting, an expert on ACOs. Nevertheless, the current system is clearly unsustainable.
Wonks have buzzed about ACOs for years. In 2005 CMS began a pilot with ten health systems, including Geisinger, to reward them for improving the quality of care while lowering costs. America is dotted with examples of reform. Utah's Intermountain Healthcare is a hospital system with its own health plan. Clever use of data has helped to streamline care: a new protocol for delivering babies has reduced the number of unplanned caesarean sections and saved about $50m a year.
Insurers are experimenting with reform as well. Aetna, Humana and Wellpoint are testing new payment models. In Massachusetts, Blue Cross Blue Shield has created an “alternative quality contract” that gives hospitals a fixed budget for a patient, with additional rewards for improving the quality of care. In the programme's first year hospitals cut the number of unnecessary emergency-room visits by 22%.
“The train is moving in the right direction,” says Mark McClellan, a former head of CMS who has championed ACOs. Real progress, however, requires change in the public sector. Medicare, the public health programme for the old, provides a whopping 35% of American hospitals' revenue.
CMS's proposed rule for ACOs would allow doctors, hospitals and other health providers to form networks to co-ordinate Medicare patients' care. CMS would reward ACOs that save money, relative to a predetermined benchmark, while meeting certain standards of quality.
Alas, the regulations are a mess. “The ACO policy is an example of why the government is not always a great change agent,” sighs Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals. The insurance lobby frets that the rules will prompt hospitals to merge, reducing competition and driving up prices. The American Hospital Association says that the rewards for saving money are too low and the risks too high. The rules include 65 quality measures, more than twice the number in CMS's earlier, smaller pilot. “I was very disappointed with their over-specificity,” says Geisinger's Dr Steele. Advocates for ACOs, such as Dr McClellan, hope that the final rules will be different.
CMS is likely to make at least some changes to the programme. “I'm delighted to have the feedback,” says Donald Berwick, CMS's boss. Last month Dr Berwick unveiled a few new enticements for ACOs, such as more flexible rules for experienced hospitals such as Intermountain. But it is unlikely that the ACO programme will be in place by January, as originally planned.
Dr Berwick points to other efforts to spur reform, including a pilot scheme to improve primary care and new penalties for hospitals where too many patients acquire new diseases or are readmitted because their treatment failed. The trick will be aligning these programmes with one another—and with innovations in the private sector. Health-care reform is like brain surgery, only harder.CLOSE Kim Davis is back at work several days after being released from jail. The embattled Kentucky county clerk says she still refuses to authorize marriage licenses, but will not stop her deputies from issuing them. VPC
Surrounded by Rowan County (Ky.) Sheriff's deputies, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, center, with her son Nathan Davis standing by her side, makes a statement at the front door of the Rowan County Judicial Center in Morehead, Ky., on Monday, Sept. 14, 2015. Davis announced that her office will issue marriage licenses under order of a federal judge, but will not have her name or office listed. (Photo11: Timothy D. Easley, AP)
MOREHEAD, Ky. — Under the threat of more jail time, Rowan County (Ky.) Clerk Kim Davis remained out of sight Monday as one of her deputy clerks issued a marriage licence to yet another lesbian couple, drawing heckles from some anti-gay protesters who questioned Davis' decision to not interfere.
Shannon and Carmen Wampler-Collins were the first couple to obtain a license since Davis returned to work after her high-profile release from the Carter County Detention Center last week. Davis has been at the center of the dispute about gay marriage and religious liberty.
Davis said earlier in the day that, while she still refuses to authorize marriage licenses, she will not stand in the way of a deputy clerk who began providing them more than a week ago. The clerk had been jailed for six days on a contempt of court charge.
Wording on the license issued Monday was altered to remove any mention of Davis or her office. Instead, a section of the license now states that it was issued pursuant to a federal court order rather than the county clerk.
“It’s a temporary patch," said Shannon Wampler-Collins. "It will work for right now, but I would like to see her resign if she is not going to do the job.”
The couple has been together for 23 years and already held a commitment ceremony in 1995. They said they don't have any concerns about the validity of the license since most experts seem to argue that the forms are legitimate.
"We are going forward until someone tells us otherwise,” Carmen said.
Others denounced the couple as they slogged through a crowd of protesters and media outside the courthouse, and two hecklers taunted them inside the clerk's office as they filled out paperwork.
Elizabeth Johnston, a protester with Operation Save America who traveled from Ohio with her nine children to support Davis, called the deputy who issued the license a coward.
"It is a compromise to let homosexual marriages come out of this office," she said. "This is not about just Kim's name. This is about... whether we are going to defy God you defined marriage as between one man and one woman."
But Shannon Wampler-Collins said she was so happy to get the paperwork that she didn't even hear the detractors.
Davis announced her decision early Monday, reading a statement outside the courthouse and bemoaning that her deputy clerks have been caught in the middle of her case.
"If any of them feels that they must issue an unauthorized license to avoid being thrown in jail, I understand their tough choice and I will take no action |
based on mutual respect and adhering to an equitable frame of reference, such as international laws.
This chaos will continue to bode badly for the Arab world and Middle East region, in particular. Since Bush’s disastrous war in Iraq, Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ and the onset of the current turmoil, the region has been in flames.
Unable to offer a courageous diagnosis of the violence, the Trump administration is parroting the same old jingoism of defeating ‘Islamic terrorism.’
Lacking a vision for peace and unable to win the war, the US administration seems to have no plan, except inconsistent, self-contradictory policies – while blaming everyone else, but never once introspecting.
It turns out that the world is, indeed, not ‘flat’ at all and that history remains in motion, moving beyond the jurisdiction of a single country.
But until the US leadership – Trump’s or any other – realizes such a notion, the world, in general, and the Arab world, in particular, will continue to suffer the consequences wrought by imperial arrogance and impulsive politicians.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.Vulnerability # 3 Users Data Leak
You can get user personal details by their Id number using this API endpoint. This includes their phone number, name, drivers personal details, location of pickup and drop and other ride related information.
And the response would contain phone number of rider and driver along with origin and destination coordinates.
findByOrderId
Unconfirmed # 4 Get other user’s Android notifications for GO-JEK
An unusual vulnerability we detected was that you could use another users id in an API endpoint and and you are all set to snoop on GO-JEK notifications meant for that user. We are researching this vulnerability to see if this can lead to several other stuff and would refrain from disclosing the API endpoint for this.
There are several other API endpoints that can be used to corrupt user data & disrupt operations. For example, you could change the reason of cancellation of rides for all cancelled rides for all users. We would refrain from mentioning the write access APIs at this point.The Toshiba NB550D comes with a 10.1-inch glossy display, but instead of running an Intel Atom CPU, like a typical netbook, the NB550D is based on the AMD C-50 CPU (1GHz) with ATI Radeon HD 6250 graphics. It also comes with a 250GB HDD & 1GB of RAM (it supports up to 4GB, but you'll have up upgrade to a 64-bit OS). Style The Toshiba NB550D featuring Harman Kardon speakers makes a good first impression with its soft rubberized finish and sound quality unlike any other netbook. This 2.6-pound device sports an EasyGrip finish on the lid that's available in lime, metallic brown, turquoise and blue. [img]2[/img] The dimpled pattern continues on the black palm rest where you'll find the Harman Kardon speakers. We have to admit their placement is a little strange, as it's exactly where you'd be resting your palms while typing. There aren't many devices whose finish won't fade from excessive use, and even though the build quality appears excellent, only time will tell if we won't end up pushing the speaker through the netbook. Nevertheless, we like the unified look of this stylish device. Keyboard & Touchpad One of the sacrifices you make on the NB550D versus the NB305 is that you don't get a chiclet-style metal keyboard. The plastic keys that are closer together and some keys (such as the right Shift and Enter) are shrunken. Still, we found the typing experience comfortable. The terraced keys offered strong tactile feedback. [img]3[/img] Measuring 3.1 x 1.5 inches, the mini NB550D's Synaptics touchpad provides plenty of room for navigating the desktop. The touchpad itself offers a slightly rough surface which we still enjoy after a month of use. The two black mouse buttons are among the best I've used; they're large and easy to press without being mushy. Display & Audio As far as netbook displays go, the NB550D's 10.1-inch LED-backlit screen is fairly bright. The glossy panel didn't kick back distracting reflections, and horizontal viewing angles were nice and wide. We didn't have to tilt the display back much either to get the best picture. Still, like all netbooks, the 1024 x 600-pixel resolution doesn't fit a lot of information on screen at once. So you'll be doing a fair amount of scrolling on web pages. The speakers are the highlight of this netbook; they give it a distinctive look, and love it or hate it, it's a statement. This netbook initially was only going to be available in the Asia Pacific region, but is now becoming available in Europe. There are, as far as we know, no plans to bring the netbook state side. The Harman Kardon speakers are the best I've seen on a netbook, Ever. The sound quality is exceptional for a machine of this size. There's plenty of volume, excellent clarity and detail, and far more bass than you'd expect. You'll enjoy listening to music or the soundtrack of a movie far more than on the average netbook. The sound is even better when you plug in headphones; rich, detailed, with strong bass and more treble than many portable MP3 players. If you want to hear for yourself, do demo the audio in my video review of the NB550D above. The final audio feature that reminds you that this is in fact a premium netbook, is you can use the speakers even when the computer is turned off. Just plug in an audio source such as an MP3 player or other portable device, and you can use the netbook like a kind of bulky, expensive set of portable speakers. GO TO TOP OF THE NEXT COLUMN ^
Ports & Webcam On the left side from back to front, you'll find the power jack, Ethernet port, VGA, USB, and microphone and headphone jacks. The front of the netbook houses the SD Card slot, while two more USB ports line the right side of the machine. A nice added bonus with the USB port on the left hand side is it features Sleep-and-Charge USB to keep your gadgets juiced when the system is powered down. The Webcam was relatively clear and was only slightly grainy when light started getting low in the room. Skip Toshiba's webcam utility; I'm not going to bother listing the many reasons it horrified me. Use Skype, even my mom is in on that bandwagon! Performance Toshiba's NB550D is sporting the Ontario C-50 which runs at only 1GHz and has an AMD Radeon HD 6250 running at 280 MHz while supporting DirectX 11. This netbook is the first to market sporting the AMD Fusion C-50 CPU; it's meant to blow the Intel Atom series out of the water. And it does, but only in terms of graphic performance. The CPU itself in terms of processing power is slightly less than the dual core N550. Since this is a new CPU, let's go over a few of the basics: The TDP of the 1GHz C-50 chip is 8W, which means it actually uses slightly less power than the 8.5W Intel Atom N550. The NB550D computer clocked in at 1889 in 3DMark06. In the CrystalMark benchmark, the NB550D scored a little higher than an Acer netbook with an Intel Atom N550 chip, but not much higher. 3D video games (including Crysis) played smoothly. So where does this put things in the grand scheme of netbooks that are capable of light gaming? Well, that's pretty much the NVIDIA ION series. The 1015PN which is the only netbook to offer NVIDIA ION graphics scores 1501 on this test. So we are seeing better performance graphics and gaming wise on the AMD C-50 Fusion CPU. If you're not so keen on numbers and just want to know how the unit performs while gaming; Live for Speed, Crysis and GTO, all of which we played at 1024×600, ran without a hitch! - The games were responsive and no frames were dropped at any point during game play. Video Playback The Toshiba NB550D played 720p locally using.mov almost flawlessly. There was one frame drop that I noticed during a time when there was a pan across the starry sky of the Hubble 3D trailer. When I tried 720p in mkv format it was a disaster and was a choppy abstract painting! Surprisingly, 1080p in.mov and.mp4 format played much better than the 720p mkv, but having said that, it was still not watchable. YouTube 1080p played flawlessly when I tried out the Planet Earth trailer. Battery Life Laptop Magazine has a great battery consumption test that involves the opening and closing of websites with various levels of graphics. The NB550D was only able to get to 4 Hours, where the average netbook with an Intel Atom N550 would get about 7 on a comparable battery. The Verdict The Toshiba NB550D feels sturdy, looks good, it's light and it has good speed for a netbook. The HDMI port should make it appeal to users who want something small that they can plug into their TVs to watch streaming video or downloads. The NB550D feels far more sprightly than the average Atom netbook. And as more software comes along that takes use of GPU acceleration, the C-50 is going to have an increasing advantage over Atom netbooks. The biggest disadvantage to this netbook is the battery life; 4 hours is not long enough for my tastes, but it's a question that only you can answer. Is the trade off for graphic performance worth the cut in battery life? The question is, are the premium features enough for you to open up your wallet that little bit extra since this netbook rings up at $450? - If you don't need the graphics but like to listen to your netbook when you're on the go, this is a solid option. But if that's the only reason, then I might point out some $30 travel speakers and an average netbook that would typically run you $100 less. If you are looking for something that is going to excel at video playback and can handle some light gaming, and you need it to be portable, then you shouldn't be looking any further.Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, pressed for information Tuesday about a Cuba-focused program operated by the U.S. Agency for International Development. AP
Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, denied Tuesday knowing who at the relief agency concocted a failed Twitter-like program intended to stir dissent in Cuba.
But Shah, responding to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said similar work is being conducted by USAID around the world.
“We support and implement the FY 2014 appropriations language that directs us to improve access to information and Internet freedom in many parts of the world,” Shah said during a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the agency’s fiscal year 2015 budget.
“What are some other countries where you do it openly?” Leahy asked.
“Literally around the world,” Shah said.
“Has it always been done with full knowledge and support of our U.S. ambassadors in those countries, in every instance?” Leahy inquired.
“That’s the aspiration,” Shah said. “Is that the actuality?” Leahy pressed.
“I think for the major ones that I am most familiar with, absolutely, there are things we review, there are things our embassy teams are more than aware of,” Shah responded. Although he didn’t volunteer any discreet programs in other authoritarian countries, he pointed to a youth-empowering program in Kenya as a success.
Shah insisted that Congress was notified of the Twitter-like Cuba program called ZunZuneo in public budget justification documents since 2008. The USAID program, exposed Thursday by The Associated Press, reportedly enticed Cubans to participate in a cellphone-based forum with the ultimate aim of stirring anti-government dissent.
Leahy furiously denied being informed of the program after the initial disclosure and huffed Tuesday, “Talk about bureaucratese – if you can figure out this, you’re doing a lot better than most of us.”
Insisting it was disclosed, Shah said, “The notifications point out that we are working to increase the free flow of information and support civil society engagement using new technology. They specifically highlight work to reduce Internet restrictions to information, they highlight using new digital methods to increase information flow in and out of the island and they talk about work on Internet freedom. More detailed conversations took place in staff briefings.”
Shah, who took office in 2010, declined to say who at USAID was responsible for initiating the Cuba program. “I do not specifically [know]," he said.
Leahy said exposure of the “cockamamie idea” is inspiring fear among the agency’s employees around the world.
USAID’s Cuba work – including a separate project resulting in the 2009 arrest of American Alan Gross – may “taint all USAID employees around the world as spies,” he said.
“We’re already getting emails from USAID employees all over the world – current and past – saying, ‘How could they do this and put us in such danger?’” Leahy said.I telegraphed the checkpoint a little bit, so some of you saw this coming. I had considered obfuscating what Krona was doing a bit more, but decided against trying to be intentionally misleading. So for anyone who guessed it, collect your no-prizes on the table in the corner next to the nacho cheese fountain. I mean, it’s gouda cheese. We do fancy nachos here. It will definitely ruin the fountain though.
And importantly, for anyone worried that this breaks causality/ continuity/ everything and nothing has consequence anymore, dogs and cats etc, don’t worry, I got you boo. Not to give anything away, but… hm, actually I can’t really say anything without giving stuff away. Just hang out, I have taken that into consideration.
I wanted this page to be a little more explicit as to what was happening but I just didn’t have the space. I wanted a few more panels to show the exact sequence – it’s tough cause I picture all this as a movie or cartoon or whatever and I have to decide which freeze frames to actually draw on the page.
Anyway this is by far Krona’s biggest trick. At the low difficulty end is stuff like we’ve seen already like flipping bits. Armed to disarmed, locked to unlocked, etc. Hitting snooze on a bladder is the next level up. Making more of an extant thing is harder than that, for instance resetting the ammo counter on a teammate’s gun. She’s pretty handy to have around but she’s not a fighter herself. That’s not to say she can’t tie your shoelaces together without going anywhere for near your shoelaces. About 8 levels above that is the checkpoint.
If you haven’t checked out the fan art I got for page 500, or checked it first thing when the comic went up last week, look again, there’s a few more pieces now.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like. Share the comic with your friends, then compete with them to see who can contribute the most!Serena and Venus Williams were shocked in the first round of doubles play at the 2016 Olympics.
Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic defeated the reigning and three-time Olympic champions in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 Sunday. The loss was the Williams sisters first-ever doubles loss in Olympic play.
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“It was what it was,” Serena Williams said in a post-match press conference. “We have a chance to compete for our country and did the best that we can. We had a blast out there.
“I wouldn’t say it was devastating. It was a lot of fun and we will always remember these moments and these matches. At the end of the day, I think that’s what matters most.”
[Related: U.S. men’s volleyball team stunned by Canada in Olympic opener]
There were questions as to whether Venus would even take the court Sunday after the 36-year-old looked less than herself Saturday in a loss to open up singles play. The elder Williams is reportedly suffering from a virus that she caught at the end of a WTA tournament in Montreal last week.
“It was not our best day,” Venus Williams said in the post-match press conference. “We like to have a chance to play our way into the tournament. But we came up against a very strong team. We wish them the best of luck and we’ll get ready for the U.S. Open.”
Not all is lost for the Williams family, as Serena Williams still has the singles tournament to look forward to. The 2012 gold medalist and world No. 1 won her first-round match earlier Sunday and will play France’s Alize Cornet Monday.Tons Of Amendments Proposed For SOPA
from the sit-back-and-relax,-this-is-going-to-take-a-while dept
Zoe Lofgren has an amendment that says a DNS operator should have no obligation to block a website if doing so would impair the security or integrity of the domain name system or the operator's system or network. I'm sure opponents will say this makes the blocking toothless, but what they're really saying is they don't care if censoring websites they don't like harms the security of the internet.
to block a website if doing so would impair the security or integrity of the domain name system or the operator's system or network. I'm sure opponents will say this makes the blocking toothless, but what they're really saying is they don't care if censoring websites they don't like harms the security of the internet. Darrell Issa tries to completely dump the DNS blocking section, as well as the requirements for search engines to block links. This would be a huge step forward... which is why Smith will never let it happen.
Lofgren wants to make sure the anti-circumvention rule isn't able to be used to block tools used to get around foreign censorship. Considering our own State Department is funding such tools... this seems important. But it does lead to a bizarre situation where it could be legal to create circumvention tools for foreigners, but not for your own country. The whole circumvention stuff is ridiculous.
censorship. Considering our own State Department is funding such tools... this seems important. But it does lead to a bizarre situation where it could be legal to create circumvention tools for foreigners, but not for your own country. The whole circumvention stuff is ridiculous. Lofgren also wants to make sure that those defined as "foreign infringing sites" actually violate copyright law, rather than "facilitate" infringement. Defenders of SOPA insist it's just about enforcement, not about broadening copyright law itself. But when you extend enforcement to things that don't directly break the law...
Jared Polis wants an amendment saying that the US government won't spend any money "protecting the intellectual property rights of pornography." Interesting.
Polis also wants to dump the anti-circumvention provisions entirely. Good for him. Anti-circumvention has been a disaster under the DMCA. Expanding it here would just be crazy.
Jim Sensenbrenner wants to do away with the private right of action entirely. Also a good idea. At least someone recognizes that this is a lawyer's dream tool. The private right of action will be massively abused. It wasn't clear where Sensenbrenner stood on the overall bill, but nice to see that he's clearly concerned with the likely abuse of section 103. He has another amendment that "replaces" the private right of action with the ability serve an order on payment providers and ad networks -- but limits the authority to enforce this to the Attorney General. I'm not sure this is that much better, but it'll be interesting to hear the details.
much better, but it'll be interesting to hear the details. Lofgren tries to narrow the definition of what's "dedicated to theft of US property." This needs to be narrowed. While it's narrower than it was in the original, it's still way too broad.
Jason Chaffetz has an amendment that says if a company files an action based on Section 103 (trying to get ads or payment processors cut off) and the court disagrees... the company who files has to pay all fees of all the parties. Similarly, Ben Quayle, has an amendment that says anyone who knowingly misrepresents that a site is "dedicated to theft of us property," they'll be required to pay attorneys fees and court costs, and another amendment that just says that the losing party pays. Good to see more members worried about how the private right of action can be abused.
There are a bunch of amendments clarifying that ad networks, payment processors and search engines should only get immunity in very specific cases for voluntarily cutting off sites, rather than the broad immunity currently in the bill.
Chaffetz and Polis both have amendments concerning the "study" on the impact. Chaffetz, quite rightly, says that key parts of section 102's DNS blocking should not go into effect until after a study is done assessing the impact on internet security. Polis also wants a report on the impact of DNS blocking, as well as the impact on "employment, economic growth and the availability of capital."
Polis wants to add in DMCA-like safe harbors to the felony streaming provisions, and also make it so first time offenses remain a misdemeanor.
Hank Johnson includes one of my favorite clauses, and one I think should be on almost every bill: the provisions of the bill expire after five years. Why more bills don't have such provisions, I don't understand.
Polis takes on the issue of massively expanding the diplomatic corp. with diplomats whose sole job it is to push ever more draconian copyright law on foreign nations, by saying they should be required to "consider fair use, consumers and licensees as part of their duties." What? Consider consumers? When would Congress ever do that?
And, of course, Issa seeks to substitute his own OPEN bill. That would definitely be a big step forward towards getting rid of the problems of SOPA, but there's no way that amendment passes.
The "markup" process for SOPA is going to begin shortly (at 10am ET/7am PT), and it's going to be quite a circus. This is when various amendments can be proposed and debated. You can watch it stream live, if they can keep the stream up (they had trouble during the SOPA hearings). On top of that, I'm planning to live tweet as much as I can via my Twitter account -- assuming Twitter doesn't tell me I've "hit the limit of tweets for the day" (as it did during the hearings as well). I also have a few meetings here and there, so I'll have to disappear from time to time depending on how long the markup goes. But I still intend to cover as much as I can.Normally, this process doesn't take a huge amount of time... but this time around there are a huge number of amendments, and reports are that it may take two days to get through everything. I've heard anywhere from 55 to 60 amendments are being proposed, each one of which needs to be discussed and voted on. We got our hands on an "amendments roster" (embedded below) that shows 55 amendments. It's possible that more have been added. However, there are plenty of interesting amendments already here -- and it suggests, at the very least, that some unexpected members of the Judiciary Committee retain serious concerns about SOPA, even after Lamar Smith's watered down version was released.Here are just a few of the interesting amendments:There are a bunch more, but those were just some of the interesting ones... We'll try to have a wrap up after it's all over. Chances are most of these amendments won't pass, but perhaps a few of them will at least get a reasonable hearing.
Filed Under: amendments, ben quayle, darrell issa, hank johnson, jared polis, jason chaffetz, jim sensenbrenner, lamar smith, sopa, zoe lofgrenThe pro-vaccination movement has suddenly become the anti-vitamin movement and babies are suffering … at least that’s what they’d like you to believe. Apparently more people are educating themselves and opting out of the synthetic vitamin K “prophylaxis” at birth. This is a huge problem. We can’t have parents questioning authority or a practice that has only been around for a few decades and was founded upon poorly done “studies” with no controlled or long-term trials whatsoever.
The about four babies who get vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) out of the four million babies born in the United States each year? That’s not due to the medications women take while pregnant, trauma women and babies suffer during a modern childbirth, early cord-cutting, the low levels of gut bacteria infants have because we wipe it out with antibiotics, infant circumcision, or the hep B vaccination given to your babe during its first 12 hours of life to “protect” it against a disease that’s transferred via sex and dirty needles. It’s just a coincidence that one of the many possible adverse reactions of all infant vaccines includes encephalitis, which coincidentally can cause hemorrhaging.
No, hemorrhaging is due to a vitamin K deficiency because a lack of vitamin K caused the bleed in the first place right? Wrong. But let’s pretend babies just randomly suffer brain bleeds at birth. In fact, it makes perfect sense to inject every single baby with something that could harm them to protect them from something that occurs so rarely we don’t even keep stats on it.
Do you know what else we don’t keep stats on? Babies who are injured by the vitamin K shot. Your child got leukemia from the vitamin K injection? Sure, we’ll acknowledge it. Studies prove it … until enough people start asking questions; then we’ll pretend that all of those studies was wrong, conflicted, or the people who did them were just high on common sense.
Like all vaccines and medications, the vitamin K injection is completely “safe.” Those adverse reactions in the package inserts are just there for funzies. Don’t bother reading the “black box” warning. It’s just the lives of our children we hold in our hands, right?
Severe reactions, including fatalities, have also been reported following INTRAMUSCULAR administration. Typically these severe reactions have resembled hypersensitivity or anaphylaxis, including shock and cardiac and/or respiratory arrest. “Warning” Benzyl alcohol as a preservative in Bacteriostatic Sodium Chloride Injection has been associated with toxicity in newborns. […] Benzyl alcohol has been reported to be associated with a fatal “Gasping Syndrome” in premature infants. Research indicates that patients with impaired kidney function, including premature neonates, who receive parenteral levels of aluminum at greater than 4 to 5 mcg/kg/day accumulate aluminum at levels associated with central nervous system and bone toxicity. Tissue loading may occur at even lower rates of administration. Hemolysis, jaundice, and hyperbilirubinemia in neonates, particularly those that are premature, may be related to the dose of Vitamin K1 Injection.
That’s interesting. Hemolytic disease (i.e. ABO and Rh blood-type incompatibility, often evidenced by jaundice) can be deadly. My daughter had this. Luckily, I didn’t give her the vitamin K shot that can exacerbate this often serious and sometimes fatal condition.
My leafy greens didn’t come with a “could cause death” black-box warning. Did yours? No, because the “vitamin K” a baby gets through a biologically un-natural intramuscular injection is not the same vitamin K a person gets when they chomp down on a leaf, and it’s not the same form of vitamin K found in breast milk. Synthetic vitamins and vitamins in their natural state are not the same, nor are they processed by the body the same way. That’s why they call lab-made vitamins “synthetic.” In case you were wondering, a patented, synthetic, non-naturally occurring substance (complete with additives and preservatives) is a drug.
Vitamin K1 was only discovered in 1929 and scientists still don’t entirely understand how it works. As it pertains to infants, they know (all) babies have lower levels than adults and they think this is a deficiency that needs to be “fixed” or controlled…like the low levels of iron and vitamin D babies also have. But how big of a risk is vitamin K deficiency bleeding anyway?
According to the age of onset, early VKDB presents within 24 hours of birth and is almost exclusively seen in infants of mothers taking drugs which inhibit vitamin K, and mothers who had antibiotics.
I’m not on an anticonvulsant, anti-tuberculosis drug, or blood thinner are you? So, tell me again why I should assault my newborn within the first few hours of her life with an insane dose of something that could kill her?
Classical VKDB occurs between 24 hours and 7 days of life and is associated with delayed or insufficient feeding birth trauma, vaccinations, circumcisions, and unnecessary medical interventions. The clinical presentation is often mild, with bruises, gastrointestinal blood loss or bleeding from the umbilicus and puncture sites. Blood loss can, however, be significant, and intracranial hemorrhage, although rare, has been described. Estimates of the frequency vary from 0.25% to 1.5% in older reviews and 0–0.44% in more recent reviews (emphasis mine).
Did you guys catch that? Look at the percentage chance your child actually has of experiencing a hemorrhage. Worth a prophylaxis that could cause brain damage, cancer, and death? I think not.
Late VKDB is “associated” with exclusive breast-feeding. It occurs between the ages of 2 and 12 weeks. The clinical presentation is severe, with a mortality rate of 20% and intracranial hemorrhage occurring in 50%. […] Up to 75% of babies have an underlying cholestasis or malabsorption disorder (meaning they can’t synthesize blood clotting factors no matter how much vitamin K is in their diet).
Woah, this is bad right? But what else happens between 2 and 12 weeks that could cause a hemorrhage? Breastfeeding in and of itself does not and cannot cause trauma that induces bleeding. Let’s see what can:
Between four and twelve weeks, we give babies twelve vaccines including a second dose of Hep B, and two doses of DtaP, IPV, Hib, and PCV, all of which can cause vasculitis and brain encephalitis that can induce a hemorrhage. Our children also get two doses of a live rotavirus vaccine that can shed, infect others, and cause hemorrhagic enteritis and thrombocytopenic purpura (a bleeding disorder). Have you read your child’s vaccine inserts?
Forget “Late-onset VKDB” (vitamin K deficiency bleeding). Let’s call it “Late-onset VIB” (vaccine-induced bleeding). When these babies get sick from their vaccinations, we then put them on antibiotics, which wipe out their gut flora hindering their ability to synthesize vitamin K from breast milk leaving them at risk for an uncontrollable bleed.
Speaking of breast milk…breast milk is low in vitamin K, which is why they say your baby is at an increased risk of late-onset VKDB if you exclusively nurse. What they fail to take into account is that the vitamin K that is in breast milk is in a highly absorbable form the body can readily utilize in the digestive tract. The synthetic version is unnaturally injected into your baby’s muscle at 20,000 times the newborn level at birth and is 100 times greater than the recommended daily allowance for adults.
Whether you nurse has nothing to do with the trauma that has to occur for your baby to hemorrhage in the first place. But we’ll just pretend that the babies plastered on the “VKDB” propaganda were not born via C-section or to mothers who took antidepressants and other medications while pregnant.
You know what else “synthetic vitamin K” enthusiasts don’t understand? The thought that babies (and all animals for that matter) have lower levels of vitamin K at birth for a beneficial, protective, reason. I’m just going to throw these “common sense-based” thoughts out there but let’s consider them:
First, in order to absorb vitamin K we have to have a functioning biliary and pancreas system. Your infant’s digestive system isn’t fully developed at birth which is why we give babies breast milk (and delay solids) until they are at least 6-months-old, and why breast milk only contains a small amount of highly absorbable vitamin K. Too much vitamin K could tax the liver and cause brain damage (among other things). As baby ages and the digestive tract, mucosal lining, gut flora, and enzyme functions develop, baby can process more vitamin K. Low levels of vitamin K at birth just…makes…sense.
Secondly, cord blood contains stem cells, which protect a baby against bleeding and perform all sorts of needed repairs inside an infant’s body. Here’s the kicker, in order for a baby to get this protective boost of stem cells, cord-cutting needs to be delayed and the blood needs to remain thin so stem cells can easily travel and perform their functions. Imagine that, baby has his/her own protective mechanism to prevent bleeding and repair organs…that wasn’t discovered until after we started routinely giving infants vitamin K injections.
Third, a newborn might have low levels of vitamin K because it’s intestines are not yet colonized with bacteria needed to synthesize it and the “vitamin K cycle” isn’t fully functional in newborns. It makes sense then to bypass the gut and inject vitamin K right into the muscle right? Except baby’s kidneys aren’t fully functional either.
Fourth, babies are born with low levels of vitamin K compared to adults, but this level is still sufficient to prevent problems; so even if your baby does need daily heel pricks (like mine) or has a bruise (like my sister’s baby), vitamin K prophylaxis isn’t necessarily needed.
Finally, several clinical observations support the hypothesis that children have natural protective mechanisms that justify their low vitamin K levels at birth (read here and here). I don’t know about you, but we should probably figure out why that is before we “inject now and worry about it later.”
Do you know why vitamin K is pushed on parents and their children? Because pharmaceutical companies don’t like to lose money, doctors don’t like to be questioned, the American Academy of Pediatrics dare not change its recommendations. It’s just a whole lot easier to give every child vitamin K to prevent the bleeding that could occur from the harm caused by our birth procedures, circumcisions, vaccinations, medications, and unnecessary medical interventions. It just makes complete sense to further assault a newborn’s body with an insane level of synthetic vitamin, some antifreeze, and a substance derived from coal-tar that bears a threat of death that warrants a black-box warning.
Preventing infant death caused by anything is noble, but how about we look at a solution that doesn’t include injecting our infants with yet another pharmaceutical drug? Here are a few ideas, eat a pregnancy diet rich in vitamin-K; “just say no” to antibiotics, barbiturates, blood thinners, antidepressants, and anti-convulsion medications; minimize interventions during pregnancy and childbirth which increase your baby’s chance of having a bleed; delay cord-cutting; opt out of vaccinations; and forgo the circumcision (or at least wait until the 8th day when a circumcision can be performed without vitamin K intervention).
And hey, while we’re at it…how about we actually take five minutes to “screen” newborns that might be at an increased risk of having a bleed and implement the well-researched oral vitamin K program they use in the Netherlands. No need to expose any child to the risks of an unnecessary intervention right?
When it comes to my children, I err on the side of biology, evidence, caution, and common sense. Whether you believe in God or biology, I don’t think either messed up, and the “data” hasn’t shown otherwise. Who’s with me?
I am not a physician and this is not medical advice. It is my humble, entirely uneducated, opinion as a parent. Read the disclaimer here and if you need a regular dose of common sense, subscribe to Living Whole and follow on Facebook.
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SaveSaveSaveSaveIf you have a kitten around, you know you can crumple a sheet of paper into a ball, toss it on the floor, and the kitten will go nuts — pouncing on the ball, batting it around, chasing it, tossing it up in the air. Even older cats exhibit similar behavior unless they've grown too fat and lazy and jaded.
The kitten's actions seem like play, but we all know that it's pure instinct. Something about the crumpled sheet of paper triggers the mouse-catching reflexes in the cat's brain. Cats have been eating small rodents for millennia. Their skill at catching mice has been honed through the process of natural selection, and to some degree, artificial selection, as cats have been domesticated by humans to eliminate mice around the home and farm. The instinct for catching mice is part of the neural raw material passed on from cat to kitten through the generations.
Although we humans recognize instinct when we see it in animals, often we're reluctant to see it in ourselves. We prefer to rest assured that we are above all that. We are not slaves to primitive impulses. Our free-willed choices are the result of careful rational deliberation. Yet, the human race has been subjected to the same evolutionary pressures as other animals, so the lack of instinct in humans would truly be odd. It is much more likely that the process of evolution — in both natural selection and sexual selection as described by Charles Darwin — has molded our brains with particular strengths, weakness, and proclivities. Let's call these traits "human nature."
The attempt to analyze the effect of evolution on human nature is known as evolutionary psychology, a field of study sometimes maligned (and even sometimes rightfully so) for the construction of "just so" stories that explain facets of human nature without any real proof. Yet, the existence of universal and cross-cultural patterns in human behavior is just too pervasive to ignore. Rather than providing scientific standards of proof, evolutionary psychology seems more useful as a tool for offering us hints and possibilities that help us understand ourselves.
Let's look at art, for instance, |
reassure people that the accommodations will be suitable, Paes cracked a kangaroo joke.
"I almost feel like putting a kangaroo in front of their building to make them feel at home," says Rio mayor. https://t.co/LpAoUzTdjO — Andrew Downie (@adowniebrazil) July 24, 2016
The mayor was just full of wise cracks, also noting that he never promised Rio would be able to host the Olympics without some issues.
Tons of great @eduardopaes_ lines out there but my favorite was: "I said on time and on budget, but never said without problems." — aaron bauer (@ABauer_ATR) July 24, 2016
Some of the issues the AOC discovered at the athlete’s village were significant and no laughing matter. When you factor in stories like the one we heard about what was found near the Olympic volleyball courts last month, it seems like Rio has a lot of (potentially way too much) work to do before Aug. 5.DIGG THIS
The heart of the modern state is the central bank. By heart I mean the very thing that makes it work, and without which the modern state would quickly wither and die. It is the thing that makes the money. As such, it purports to be our stabilizer, our source of employment, the fuel behind the economic growth that brings us technology.
In truth, it does none of these things. What it does do effectively is prop up the leviathan state and all its pomps. You would never know this from the textbook, of course. The subject is rarely mentioned in political science. Historians treat the establishment of the Fed as an event far less important than the creation of the Department of Labor.
It is interesting how rarely its existence is ever questioned, much less condemned. Instead, the head of the central bank is fawned over and courted by all sides of the political spectrum. He enjoys a level of immunity from criticism that no one else in politics has. Again, this is proof of the extent to which we do not believe in authentic freedom, since it is the central bank that is the true source of the decline of our freedom.
Why do we have such a hard time imagining a world without a central bank? In the United States, the central bank was a 20th-century invention. No central bank of the current sort existed anywhere in the world before the 19th century. Somehow we got along just fine because the monetary system was self-managing. It was rooted in real commodities that provided the stable link to real economic activity. Banks were treated as regular enterprises that had profits and losses, and could succeed and fail. What guaranteed their stability, even with the evil of fractional reserves, was the competitive system.
All that came to an end, gradually, with the advent of the central bank. Money lost its connection to anything real beyond the linen paper on which it is printed. Banks became protected from failure. Most important, the central bank started to guarantee government debt. With what did it guarantee that debt? More linen paper, stuff which can be printed up without limit.
With this innovation, the fiscal restraint on the state came to an end. All the talk about congressional authorization of spending and the constitutional restraint on the state became white noise or a tissue of lies. The people got out of the habit of asking: “How precisely do you expect to pay for this?” We all just assume that there is some magic money machine out there that will achieve our every dream.
The lack of criticism of the Fed tells you all you need to know. It is the one sacrosanct institution because it is the most necessary institution to modern statecraft. Without it, we wouldn’t fund both welfare and warfare. We wouldn’t dream of a world empire and debate policy the way we debate art, as merely a matter of preference. There would be strict, physical limits on what the state could and could not do.
Most all our debates about politics would come to an end. The point of the legislature and the executive would be to administer and oversee the state that exists, not dream up ever more far-flung excuses for attempting the impossible. No politician would plausibly claim the capacity to “lead us into the future” because their power to do much at all would be so limited. Instead of Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Johnson, Truman, and FDR, our president would be more like Cleveland, Harrison, Arthur, Garfield, and Hayes.
You say that you don’t know anything about those guys? That’s the point. Deny the dictator the capacity to make all the money he needs at a whim, and his status shrinks dramatically.
The central bank is sacrosanct because its absence would force all sides to give up their fantasies of power. The right would have to give up its crazed belief that it can do “heroic” things by seizing control of the state, things such as defend or overthrow any government in the world, or things such as make everyone in the country obey their own view of what constitutes the virtuous life.
The left would have to surrender their vision of a state that uses coercion to achieve perfect equality, fairness, and distributive justice throughout the world.
Without a central bank, the political section of the bookstore would have to be reclassified as science fiction.
This is why you hardly ever hear a fundamental question on the right of the Fed to exist. This is why the political culture frowns on anyone who attacks the heart of the state. This is why it is so “unrespectable” to mention the case against the Fed, and why serious critics are treated to a kind of shunning, and why, if you want to go places in Washington, you must never entertain the idea that the central bank ought to be abolished. Indeed, you should fte and publish the head of the Fed.
There is a great intellectual cost associated with the central bank. People today imagine that not having one would be the equivalent of anarchy. It would be as if we had a state that nationalized the shoe industry and after a time no one could even imagine how private enterprise could make shoes. Anyone who would suggest that the state dispense with the role would be treated like a crazy person.
But how crazy is it? The central bank has failed in its overt mission for nearly 100 years. It has destroyed our money, funded unjust wars, given rise to a ghastly bureaucratic state, and pumped up more credit bubbles than we can count. And yet we are supposed to chalk up all of this to miscues and mistakes along the way, and then believe the head of the Fed when he promises to do better next time. What’s more, the Fed has never actually accepted real responsibility for any of its misdeeds.
Just who is crazy here? If we really believed in authentic science — not the pseudo-science of public policy — we could conclude that this failed central bank has got to go. Its creation is not a footnote, but a main step in making possible all modern tyranny. Its abolition is a key to freedom itself.
Lew Rockwell Archives
The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.Even though all those New Year’s resolutions to get healthy are long-forgotten, there are still plenty of reasons to get out there and start hiking! These trails offer plenty of beauty. If you’re already a hiker, these are some fun trails that you might not have heard about, or ones you can take your non-hiking friends to and maybe start hiking together! Anyways, here are 11 great trails we’ve found for you to start with:
1. Kaw River Trail - Lawrence Brent Flanders/Flickr The Kaw River Trail in Lawrence is a great one for all types of hikers, with 8.4 miles of trail and plenty of sights and activities as well. Just look at those trees! (Maybe bring a branch for webs, if you're a morning walker.)
2. Overland Park Arboretum Randy Mcroberts/Flickr The arboretum here is full of gorgeous scenery, and features a little more than 3 miles of trail to use while you gaze across the waters to the myriad of foliage that should be growing in soon! (Yay spring!)
3. Horse Thief Trail - Kanopolis State Park Vincent Parsons/Flickr This one is not only surrounded by other trail options, but there are 2 miles of glorious sunset photo opportunities as well as a lake. That's a win for me!
4. Prairie Spirit Rail Trail - Ottawa Kansas Tourism/Flickr In Forest Park this trail sits at about 5 miles, but it's well kept and great for morning hikes. This one is pretty popular locally, so there's a good chance you'll have others to hike with, if you want!
5. Konza Prairie Nature Trail - Manhattan Vincent Parsons/Flickr As probably my favorite trail out of this list, the Konza Prairie has a river and other hikers nearby within its close to 3-mile length. There's a short path to the Hokanson Homestead built in 1878 as well, if you're interested.
6. Great Plains Nature Center - Wichita Randy Watson/Flickr Right here in Wichita, there's about 2 miles of preserved grassland and wildlife you might not see in the city otherwise.
7. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Trail - Strong City Miguel Vierie/Flickr This one's a little harder, not as short of a hike for most of us who don't get out that much. It's around three miles, which isn't too bad, but there's some elevation changes that make it a little rougher on the knees. There's also a herd of Bison who roam the area, as well!
8. Shawnee Mission Park - Shawnee Steve9567/Flickr Shawnee Mission Park has a pretty good stream of hikers and the loop is about 7 miles in length. There's a Violet trail for more experienced hikers, and an Orange trail for people like me who might wimp out after, oh, 3 miles or so.
9. Elk River Trail - Elk City Granger Meador/Flickr This is a point-to-point trail that's about 11.5 miles long, so if you're not up for the whole stretch there and back, you might want to quit partway in and head back. However, it's not one for bikes, so don't think about making it easier on yourself. It's pretty rocky.
10. Kill Creek Park Trail - DeSoto David Dehetre/Flickr This one's an easier 3.5-mile loop near DeSoto, and is accessible for both hiking and biking, whichever you prefer. It's recommended you try this one May-September, as the winter months make this one less useable. (What winter?)Getty Images It's October and the NFL is once again covered head-to-toe in pink accessories and equipment as part of the league's Breast Cancer Awareness initiative.
While fans can also purchase pink clothing and accessories to support the cause, a shockingly small amount of the fans' money is actually going towards cancer research.
According to data obtained from the NFL by Darren Rovell of ESPN, the NFL "takes a 25% royalty from the wholesale price (1/2 retail), donates 90% of royalty to American Cancer Society."
In other words, for every $100 in pink merchandise sold, $12.50 goes to the NFL. Of that, $11.25 goes to the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the NFL keeps the rest. The remaining money is then divided up by the company that makes the merchandise (37.5%) and the company that sells the merchandise (50.0%), which is often the NFL and the individual teams.
Then consider that only 71.2% of money the ACS receives goes towards research and cancer programs.
BusinessInsider.com In the end, after everybody has taken their cut, only 8.01% of money spent on pink NFL merchandise is actually going towards cancer research (see right).
According to the NFL, any money they take in, that is not donated to ACS, is used to cover the costs of their breast cancer awareness program, "A Crucial Catch." The NFL also told Business Insider they donated approximately $1 million per year to the ACS in the first three years of the program.
Still, there are unanswered questions about where the money is going and who is profiting.
The most popular place to purchase pink merchandise is at the NFL's online shop, official team stores, and at the stadiums. In these cases, the NFL and the individual teams are acting as the retailer.
It is unclear how much of the 50% markup for items being sold directly by the NFL and the teams is going to the ACS, if any at all.
Of course, in addition to money, the NFL is also raising awareness for breast cancer and it is hard to put a value on that.
If fans want to show support for their team and for breast cancer awareness, that is great. But if the point is to actually help fight cancer, fans would have a much bigger impact if they skipped the NFL and donated directly to the ACS or other organizations working to fight cancer.EDIT: We’ve found an issue with the patch where save games are incorrectly reported as corrupted. We have temporarily pulled the patch while we fix the problem. If you’ve already installed it, don’t panic… new saves created after the patch will work fine, and once we issue a patch for the patch, your old ones will work as well. Sorry for the inconvenience everybody!
If you check for updates on your Vita, you’ll notice a patch for Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD blinking at you. First, contain your excitement and try to read on…
The update brings you a couple of new features. One is a little treat for you all, the other was in response to feedback from you lot. The two new features are:
Online leaderboards
Alternative controls without rear touchpad
That’s right… we managed to get online leaderboards into the game! Here’s a full list of all the different statistics that are tracked:
Complete Tutorial – best time
Complete Game (Easy) – best time
Complete Game (Normal) – best time
Complete Game (Hard) – best time
Bounty Filthy Hands Floyd – best time
Bounty Looten Duke – best time
Bounty Boilz Booty – best time
Bounty Jo Mamma – best time
Bounty Meagly McGraw – best time
Bounty Packrat Palooka – best time
Bounty Xplosives McGee – best time
Bounty Lefty Lugnutz – best time
Bounty Elboze Freely – best time
Bounty Fatty McBoomBoom – best time
Sekto’s Office Run – best time
Most Moolah
Think you can catch your bounties faster than anyone else? Made a ri-donk-u-lous amount of Moolah? Now you can prove it and earn bragging rights!
Also part of the patch is a fix for a bug which caused occasional flickering of sky textures in the game. Boot up your game to see the patch, out now in both Europe and the US. You can pick up the full game via the PlayStation Store now.10
The origins of the Yes version of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘America,’ which kicks off our list of the Top 10 Yes Songs of the '70s, were fairly organic, as Chris Squire recalls. “Both Jon Anderson and myself were big fans of Simon & Garfunkel and we liked the song a lot. So we just took it and decided to 'Yesisize' it and of course that was also around the time when Steve Howe was still fairly new in the band.
He was bringing in his slightly country style of guitar that he uses on that track and that was also at the point where Rick Wakeman had just come into the band and if I recall, the Mellotron on ‘America’ was actually played by Bill Bruford. Rick had just joined and he threw a few overdubs on the end of the sessions and that was that, really. But it turned out to be really good.”CHICAGO (CBS) — Imagine walking into a gas station and right into the middle of a robbery. It happened in Portage Park and surveillance cameras were rolling.
CBS 2’s Pamela Jones talked to the store clerk who thought he might not make it out alive.
The clerk and a female customers were tied up with plastic zip ties along with two more customers who walked in during the robbery.
“He was like, ‘You know I can shoot you, right? I can shoot you. Don’t move,’” said store clerk Mudassir Mohammed.
The threats were backed up with a handgun aimed at the convenience store clerk behind the counter Monday night.
Muddassir Mohammed says just after 9:45 p.m. a pair robbers, a man in a red hat and a female in a white hat, acted like customers at first when they entered the Citgo store near Milwaukee and Berteau in the Portage Park neighborhood. The man was wielding a gun and demanded cash from the register.
“For a second when I see the gun, I was like, I don’t know how to react,” said Mohammed.
Neither did several customers, like one woman who unknowingly walked in waiting to be waited on as one person after another ending up getting led to a back room and tied up.
Surveillance video shows Mohammed hand over some bills, then with his hands raised in surrender, he is ushered to the back, where he says the female suspect held him down.
“Was helpless because she was having her foot on my head and having my head like that. I couldn’t see that was going on. I just can hear the customers coming and he’s trying to pull them out,” Mohammed said.
In the end, the suspects ran from the store. The customers and clerk emerged from the ordeal shaken, but not hurt.
The clerk says the robbers got away with some cash, cigarettes and cigars.Bellator 182: “Koreshkov vs. Njokuani” comes to Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y., this Friday night (Aug. 25, 2017), featuring a Spike TV-televised main event between former Welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov against Chidi “Bang Bang” Njokuani, a showdown with key ranking implications for both men.
Another 170-pound fight with divisional implications for both men is also scheduled for that night, although all four men have to know that “Red King” Rory MacDonald is ahead of them in line. Nevertheless, to break out of the pack they’ll have to impress Bellator officials and fight fans in a big way.
“Irish Bad Boy” Brennan Ward wants to do just that with Fernando Gonzalez. Even though he suffered a recent loss to Paul Daley at Bellator 170, the 14-5 fighter is a fan favorite who lives to deliver finishes. He’s done just that in 93 percent of his wins with nine knockouts and four submissions.
MMAmania.com recently spoke with Ward about his strategy to make Gonzalez engage him in his style of fight. And by Ward’s account, that won’t be a problem at all.
“You know we both like to get out and mix it up and really get busy and put on exciting fights, man. Me and him — he ain’t boring, I ain’t boring — so it ain’t gonna be a boring fight, know what I mean?”
Gonzalez does have some exciting victories on his resume with nine knockouts and seven submissions, but he also knows just how to slow down his foes. With 40 percent of his wins coming by decision (10 out of 26) Gonzalez embraces the grind. Ward can counter that with a two-inch height (5’11”) and three-inch reach (71”) advantage, something his opponent is well aware of.
“Oh, well I do? I got height and reach? I got a height advantage? I didn’t even know, man. Yeah, I guess so, cool. I’ll use it then! Thank you Fernando for pointing that out.”
What Gonzalez has going for him is momentum. He’s seven of his last eight mixed martial arts (MMA) fights and fresh off a win at Bellator 174. Ward says just winning isn’t enough though — you have to win over fans, too.
“Yeah man, he knows. He’s a smart guy. He knows you’ve got to put on exciting fights to stay relevant in the game. Whether you win or lose, you go to be in it, you know what I’m saying? Look at Brandon Girtz and Derek Campos. No one even fucking remembers who won that shit it was so good you know what I mean?”
Ironically, Ward is talking to the guy who does. His point is not lost on the audience, though. He lives by “win if you can, lose if you must, but always scrap” and Bellator keeps on bringing him back as a result.
“I’ve been around for a while, man. This’ll be my twentieth pro fight so you know, I’ve been getting it in man.”
And he’s not afraid to “get it in” with the new blood coming over from UFC to Bellator.
“The more the merrier, you know what I’m saying? There’s room for everybody. I leave that stuff to Rich (Chou), man. Rich knows who should be fighting who, he’s the matchmaker and we’re the fighters — we fight whoever we got to fight, you know what I’m saying?”
In the course of the interview Ward confirmed that he’ll be fighting Gonzalez well above 170, but the reason for it being a Catchweight might catch some people off guard.
“Yeah, it’s a Catchweight, (Gonzalez) should be fine. Yup, yup, 178. I mean, I was trying to fight at fight at 185 where I used to fight, but nobody wants it up there. That’s such a small little weight class (in Bellator) that everybody’s in title contention. I’ll go back to 185 and fuck everything up if I beat one of those guys, you know what I’m saying? So they wanna keep me right down at 170, they don’t want me at 185, because I’ll fucking... I’ll take a belt. I would easier win that belt at 185 than 170.”
Does that mean a title fight with Rafael Carvalho is in Ward’s near future? Ward seems to think there’s somebody in line already who deserves a title shot before him.
“I’m not saying names. I’m saying I would win that. No, I would win that, I would win, I would win the (1)85 easier than the 170. Yeah there’s less guys. That’s a smaller weight class. Actually that (John) Salter kid is fucking nasty. That kid is gonna have the belt. That kid’s gonna have the belt soon for sure.”
I’m not sure at 32 we can call Salter “a kid,” but when you listen to Ward for a while you get used to his vernacular -- his “dudes” and “you know what I’m sayings” and colorful words. That’s part of his appeal. His response to sharing a card with Njokuani and Koreshkov was equally unvarnished.
“Those are two top guys. There’s a lot of guys at 170. It’s a fucking big weight class, you know? There’s a lot of tough guys. If you’re not gonna... you know especially a guy like me dude, I’m at least a couple fights away from a title. So in the fights that aren’t directly related to a title, you gotta go out and put a show on, or else no one’s gonna remember. Not that they won’t remember, but you gotta... you know what I’m saying? You gotta make a splash, that’s what I’m trying to say, you gotta make a splash.”
There’s your incentive to tune in to Bellator 182 this weekend — Ward is looking to cannonball his way into title contention. And if it means putting a hole through Gonzalez so be it.
Complete audio of our interview is embedded above, and complete coverage of “Koreshkov vs. Njokuani” resides here at MMAmania.com all week long.
To check out the latest Bellator MMA-related news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive news archive right here.Marital rape cannot be "suitably applied in the Indian context" due to factors like poverty, illiteracy and religious beliefs, Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has said.
"It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors like level of education or illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament etc," Maneka Gandhi said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha in response to a question on whether the government plans to criminalise marital rape.
The minister further said that the scheme for globalisation of women helpline has been approved for implementation through states/UTs from April 1 last year to ensure 24-hour emergency and non-emergency response to women affected by violence both in public and private sphere, including in family, community and workplace.
"All the states/UTs have been requested to submit the proposals in order to release funds. Funds have been sanctioned/released to 33 states/UTs for setting up Women Helpline," she said.
Though the ministry is planning the formation of a women welfare committee in all districts across the country, no such proposals have been formulated till now.
Earlier, amicus curiae Indira Jaising had submitted a report to the Supreme Court, appealing for criminalisation of marital rape, and register forced anal penetration in a marriage under section 376 of the IPC as rape and not under section 377 as unnatural sex. The report also included the restructuring of the laws on consent to let off adolescents from criminal law in cases of consensual sex and strict penal action against army men raping women.*An appeal to encourage Congress to investigate this follows Ryan’s story*
In August 1989, Ryan W. was diagnosed with a thalamic glioblastoma, a grade IV tumor right in the middle of the brain. His prognosis was grim; his doctors estimated 6-9 months, perhaps, maybe a year with the standard therapy. (When patients exceed these estimates on Burzynski’s treatment, they are often touted by supporters as “successful treatment”, however the actual speed of progression falls on a bell curve, and outliers are to be expected.)
Beginning in October, Ryan was treated with 5 weeks of radiation. That treatment seems to have not had any effect on the tumor, at least according to an MRI in January. At the beginning of the new year, we learn that Ryan seems to be undergoing another trial of radiation and has had some complications, according to an announcement in a regional paper:
1/3/1990 MIDDLETOWN The Fred Villari Studio of Self-Defense will hold a “kick-a-thon” Friday to raise money for the family of a 10-year-old Marlboro child diagnosed in August with a malignant brain tumor. Students at the Route 35 studio as well as the Morganville branch are encouraged to attend with family members and friends, according to Anthony Russo, chief instructor at the Middletown studio. The goal is to perform the self-defense style kicks 100 times, and everyone participating is encouraged to solicit pledges of at least 10 cents a kick. Pledges will be recorded on a tally sheet provided for each participant. Proceeds go to the Ryan [W] Fund and will assist the Werthwein family with medical expenses for their son, an identical twin who is currently undergoing a six-week radiation therapy treatment. Complications from a surgical procedure caused Ryan to lapse into a coma lasting two days, and although he regained consciousness, he suffers from short-term memory loss, according to information prepared by the studio.
The surgical procedure, I am told by Ryan’s mother, was a biopsy, not meant to treat the tumor. In Richard Walters’ 1993, Options: The Alternative Cancer Therapy Book, which slathers unearned praise on Burzynski’s antineoplaston treatment and is the most complete record of Ryan’s treatment, Ryan’s mother describes what can be the severe effects of radiation on the developing brain:
“The radiation burnt out most of Ryan’s pituitary gland, stunted his growth, and hurt his mental functioning,” according to Sharon [W.], the boy’s mother.”
He was significantly shorter than his identical twin brother. If the radiation had such a profound effect on Ryan’s development, I’m at a loss as to how explain how/why the tumor would be unaffected. According to Walters:
After reading up extensively on alternative therapies, Ryan’s parents decided to forego chemotherapy and take their son to Houston for treatment by Dr. Burzynski. “The doctors really beat us up over not doing chemo. We were discouraged at every turn from pursuing a safe, nontoxic alternative. They also told us Burzynski was a quack,” recalls Sharon.
Antineoplastons are neither safe nor non-toxic, nor can you really consider them to be alternative therapies to chemotherapy, as they are basically derivatives of sodium phenylbutyrate and are chemotherapy by any reasonable definition.
The known toxicities can be found on this recent patient consent form, a central part of any research protocol:
A recent inspection found that toxic events have often been reported by Burzynski’s patients, but that the Clinic has been slow to act on that information. For instance:
Patients who had Grade 3 or 4 [severe or life-threatening] toxic effects were supposed to be removed from treatment. One patient had 3 Grade 3 events followed by 3 Grade 4 events. Another patient had 7 disqualifying toxic events before he was removed from the study. Burzynski did not report all adverse events as required by his study protocols. One patient had 12 events of hypernatremia (high sodium), none of which was reported. There are several similar patients. The FDA told Burzynski: “You failed to protect the rights, safety, and welfare of subjects under your care. Forty-eight (48) subjects experienced 102 investigational overdoses between January 1, 2005 and February 22, 2013, according to the [trial number redacted] List of Hospitalizations/SAE (serious adverse events) [redacted]/ Overdose [redacted]/Catheter Infection report. Overdose incidents have been reported to you [….] There is no documentation to show that you have implemented corrective actions during this time period to ensure the safety and welfare of subjects.” [emphasis added] Further, patient records show that there were many more overdoses that were not included in the Hospitalization/SAE/Overdose list.
Ryan’s mother reported at the onset of treatment:
“The American Cancer Society said they have an arrangement with the Hilton to keep rooms available for cancer patients’ families, but when we mentioned Dr. Burzynski’s name, they said to ‘forget it.’ The Corporate Angel Network, which boasts in TV ads how it flies young cancer patients around the country for free, refused to fly our son because the National Cancer Institute won’t let them fly Burzynski’s patients. The system is a disgrace.”
For at least 23 years, top cancer charities in the country have refused to participate in what is happening in Houston. More recently, Burzynski patient Kassidy M. was similarly denied a place to stay at Ronald McDonald House because of her intended course of treatment.
According to Walters’ book, Ryan began antineoplastons in mid-April 1990.
One month after the intravenous infusions were started, there was a major breakdown of the tumor mass, and from then on, it steadily shrank as the therapy continued. “It felt as if a miracle had occurred,” says Sharon. An MRI scan of the brain on May 15-after four weeks of treatment-showed only barely visible tumor remnants.
What is endlessly frustrating is that these drugs were called “experimental” in 1990 and are still “experimental” 23 years later. A major red flag, especially when Burzynski’s lawyer said of Burzynski’s first trial:
[W]e decided to hit the FDA with everything at the same time. All of his current patients would be covered in a single clinical trial which Burzynski called “CAN-1.” As far as clinical trials go, it was a joke. Clinical trials are supposed to be designed to test the safety or efficacy of a drug for a disease. It is almost always the case that clinical trials treat one disease. The CAN-1 protocol had almost two hundred patients in it and there were at least a dozen different types of cancers being treated. And since all the patients were already on treatment, there could not be any possibility of meaningful data coming out of the so-called clinical trial. It was all an artifice, a vehicle we and the FDA created to legally give the patients Burzynski’s treatment. The FDA wanted all of Burzynski’s patients to be on an IND, so that’s what we did.
Walters reports:
On November 1, 1990, Ryan displayed complete remission.
Yet, in 1993, when Walters publishes his book, for some reason, Ryan
continues to receive antineoplaston treatment, but the dosage is gradually being reduced. He wears a miniature infusion pump, carried in a waist pack, that injects antineoplastons through a catheter in his chest twenty-four hours a day. There is no pain or discomfort.
It seems after his remission, he went back on ANP, at least according to his mother. It’s hard to say what caused the initial remission, because there were at least two interventions that would have affected the tumor before Burzynski was in the picture, a biopsy and radiation. Ryan died in 1994 at the age of 14. This was 20 years ago. Antineoplaston treatment is still considered experimental.
Usually, this is where we would put an appeal to donate to St. Jude’s. You may still do that, if you like, but we are now actively campaigning for an investigation into how the FDA decided to allow Burzynski not only to continue his ridiculous trials, but to actually get a phase III trial after a decade of abominable site visits. Go to thehoustoncancerquack.com and you will find the resources you need to put primary documents–the FDA inspection notes –into the hands of your representatives so they can conduct an investigation. All appeals to understand this made to the FDA have failed, so now we need to press the issue onto the committees that oversee the FDA. Please help us uncover what went wrong so we can fix it and so this never happens again.Web penetration testing is a growing, fast-moving, and absolutely critical field in information security. This book executes modern web application attacks and utilises cutting-edge hacking techniques with an enhanced knowledge of web application security.
We will cover web hacking techniques so you can explore the attack vectors during penetration tests. The book encompasses the latest technologies such as OAuth 2.0, Web API testing methodologies and XML vectors used by hackers. Some lesser discussed attack vectors such as RPO (relative path overwrite), DOM clobbering, PHP Object Injection and etc. has been covered in this book.
We'll explain various old school techniques in depth such as XSS, CSRF, SQL Injection through the ever-dependable SQLMap and reconnaissance.
Websites nowadays provide APIs to allow integration with third party applications, thereby exposing a lot of attack surface, we cover testing of these APIs using real-life examples.
This pragmatic guide will be a great benefit and will help you prepare fully secure applications.Leicester City are ready to tell Chelsea that they will have to hand over the Nemanja Matic money to land Danny Drinkwater in the final weeks of the transfer window.
Chelsea will make a second offer of around £25 million for Drinkwater after having an initial £15m bid rejected by Leicester.
Drinkwater is interested in a move to Stamford Bridge, but Leicester value the £27-year-old at £40m – the same fee Chelsea received for Matic from Manchester United.
Drinkwater is two years younger than Matic, has four years remaining on his Leicester contract and counts as a home-grown player which is hugely valuable for clubs competing in both the Premier League and Champions League – such as Chelsea.
Head coach Antonio Conte is desperate for new signings to be made following Chelsea’s opening day defeat to Burnley and the sending off of Cesc Fàbregas, which further reduces his midfield options.The green fairy returns. *
Photo: Dan Saelinger * In the 20,000 years or so that humans have been getting piss-drunk, no spirit has earned a worse rap than absinthe. Said to turn mild-mannered imbibers into raving maniacs, it was banned in the US and much of Europe in the early 1900s. (Remember Van Gogh's ear incident? Some scholars blame the green fairy.) The chemical culprit was thujone, a toxic compound found in the crushed flowers and leaves of absinthe's key ingredient, wormwood. Or so we thought.
Three years ago, Wired sent me to meet Ted Breaux, a chemist and microbiologist who had reverse engineered the liquor's recipe and discovered that there was barely any thujone present (November 2005). During harvest and distillation, he explained, its concentration was reduced to a minuscule five parts per million.
Breaux's research — finally published this spring in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (.pdf) — and that Wired story have helped change absinthe's image from drug to drink. The US has been slowly peeling away its ban, and in March, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved the sale of absinthes that were "thujone free" (containing less than 10 parts per million).
To date, there are four brands on US shelves: Lucid (Breaux's formula), Kuebler, Green Moon, and St. George Absinthe Verte. "The US is lucky in that its first absinthes are high-quality products, distilled from whole herbs," Breaux says. "In the European market, 80 to 90 percent is industrial junk."
Under the Jade label, Breaux is making his own absinthes in France and trying to get them green-lighted for sale in the US. "Even at this point, gaining that approval seems to involve more luck than anything," he says. Luck, and a little chemistry.
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. You can follow full coverage with all the latest updates at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/vote2014
"We have told staff that if they see anyone taking a photograph they should ask the person to delete it but not try to wrestle the phone out of their hands," said an electoral services manager at an East of England local authority.
"It would depend on exactly what they were taking a photograph of. We have told them to take a note of the names and addresses of anyone doing it. But we would not necessarily call the police."
She said staff would also make sure polling booths had open backs so they could see what was happening - and had been told to put up "no photography" signs outside and inside the polling station.
Image copyright PA Image caption Politicians have had to pose for numerous selfies during campaigning
Under Section 66 of the Representation of the People's Act it is a criminal offence to communicate information about the way someone has voted or is about to vote - or to communicate the unique identification number on the ballot paper.
The Electoral Commission fears people taking selfies could accidentally reveal details about how they, or someone else, has voted, potentially putting them in breach of the Act.
But John Turner, chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said the law was not clear and needed to be updated for the 21st Century.
"There is not an Act of Parliament that says you should not take a selfie inside a polling station," he told BBC News.
"This is essentially a piece of Victorian legislation and they didn't have mobile phones back then."
Image copyright AP Image caption Costa Rica presidential candidate Luis Guillermo Solis, took a selfie after voting earlier this year
Pressed on how he interpreted the law, he said taking a selfie and not showing it to anyone before polling stations closed would probably be within the law, but if they took a picture of the ballot paper "and rushed outside and put it on Facebook" they would be risking prosecution.
But, he added, it would be up to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether to prosecute an individual.
"We are all up to our knees in the mire trying to work out what is against the law," said Mr Turner, but he added the best advice to anyone thinking of taking a polling booth selfie was that it was "not worth the risk".
In its guidance to election administrators, the Electoral Commission said: "The law relating to obtaining information in polling stations and disclosing such information is complex.
"Given the risk that someone taking a photo inside a polling station may be in breach of the law, whether intentionally or not, our advice is that you should not allow photos to be taken inside polling stations."
The Law Commission said it was reviewing all legislation on the way elections are conducted, including rules about secrecy and whether photography should be allowed, with a view to simplifying and updating them. It is due to publish proposals in the autumn, for consultation, ahead of a draft bill in 2017.The magnificent Doge's Palace is one of the most important buildings in Venice. It was the center of power, from where the Venetian Republic was ruled.
Building the Palace
Palazzo Ducale
Because of Calendario's death, the Palazzo Ducale was constructed in two phases. The eastern wing, which faces the Rio di Palazzo, was built between 1301 and 1340. The western wing, facing the Piazetta San Marco, took an additional 110 years to build and was completed in 1450. The architectural style is generally referred to as Venetian Gothic - a gothic structure with byzantine influences. The Doge's Palace sits on a site that was once occupied by a 10th century wooden stockade with watch towers and moat and, later, another similar fort, both eventually destroyed by fire and other disasters.By the fourteenth century, the hierarchy of Venice decided that a grand palace was needed, a building befitting the city's new wealth and power. Designs for the Doge's Palace were created by Filippo Calendario (who was later executed for treason in 1355) and work on the structure began.Because of Calendario's death, the Palazzo Ducale was constructed in two phases. The eastern wing, which faces the Rio di Palazzo, was built between 1301 and 1340. The western wing, facing the Piazetta San Marco, took an additional 110 years to build and was completed in 1450. The architectural style is generally referred to as Venetian Gothic - a gothic structure with byzantine influences.
Palace Architecture
The Palace seen from the Lagoon
Ornamentation is everywhere. For example, the capitals of the lower colonnade are decorated with historic and biblical scenes. Two columns on the piazetta facade are painted red, signifying where public executions were once pronounced. An allegorical figure of Justice sits above one of the columns and many other figures can be found on the exterior of the palace.
Porta Della Carta
On the central platform - or plinth - two statues can be viewed. One is of St. Mark's winged lion, the other of the Doge Francesco Foscari, who served during the mid-fifteenth century. The facades include a lower section consisting of a ground floor colonnade beneath an open loggia. Unlike many other medieval era palaces, here at the Palazzo Ducale, the loggias are belowwhile the solid walls are above. Architectural expects claim this gives the structure the "light" feeling so indicative of Venetian buildings. The openness of the building is a testament to the power of the city, which did not feel the need for a fortified castle, like most other cities at the time.Ornamentation is everywhere. For example, the capitals of the lower colonnade are decorated with historic and biblical scenes. Two columns on the piazetta facade are painted red, signifying where public executions were once pronounced. An allegorical figure of Justice sits above one of the columns and many other figures can be found on the exterior of the palace.That same facade is the location of the "Porta della Carta", the main entrance to the palace. The gate leads directly to the courtyard. The gate was also where important announcements were posted to be read by the citizens of Venice. This gateway, with Byzantine ornamentation, was designed by Bartolomeo Bon in 1438.On the central platform - or plinth - two statues can be viewed. One is of St. Mark's winged lion, the other of the Doge Francesco Foscari, who served during the mid-fifteenth century.
Interior
Scala dei Giganti
The Grand Chamber Council, also on the second floor, is the largest room inside the Palazzo Ducale, measuring nearly the entire length of the southern facade, which looks out onto the waterfront. This was where the ruling elite of Venice met, usually about one thousand individuals total. In this room, guests can view Tintoretto's "Paradise", an amazing full-wall work completed in 1577.
Finally, in the basement were several prison cells, which housed convicts awaiting trial. When the "new" prison was built on the other side of the Rio di Palazzo the facility was no longer used. The new prison was connected to the palace via the now famous After entering the inner courtyard you'll find a flight of stairs that led to the Doge's private quarters, known as the "Scala dei Giganti" and flanked by huge statues of Mars and Neptune. The facade facing the courtyard is more classical in style, having been rebuilt after a fire in the mid 1500s.Inside, the walls are made of stucco and the ceilings feature ornate works of art. The doge's apartment was on the second floor while the chancellery offices were located on the first. On the third level was the Sala del Collegio, where the doge met with foreign ambassadors. Here, today's visitors will find portraits of all of Venice's doges, except one, who disgraced himself by attempting a coup d'etat. Visitors can also explore the map room and the armory.The Grand Chamber Council, also on the second floor, is the largest room inside the Palazzo Ducale, measuring nearly the entire length of the southern facade, which looks out onto the waterfront. This was where the ruling elite of Venice met, usually about one thousand individuals total. In this room, guests can view Tintoretto's "Paradise", an amazing full-wall work completed in 1577.Finally, in the basement were several prison cells, which housed convicts awaiting trial. When the "new" prison was built on the other side of the Rio di Palazzo the facility was no longer used. The new prison was connected to the palace via the now famous Bridge of SighsThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released thousands of gallons of water per second Tuesday from Lake Ray Roberts following several days of heavy rain. (Published Tuesday, May 12, 2015)
Denton County authorities notified residents near Lake Ray Roberts to be ready to evacuate should rising water from open flood gates reach homes or cover roadways.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the water level at Lake Ray Roberts is 7 feet above flood stage and water needs to continue to be released into Lake Lewisville via the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.
The flood gates have been open since 6 p.m. Saturday and are currently releasing 2,000 cubic feet, or roughly 15,000 gallons, per second.
The Corps of Engineers planned to open the gates even more Tuesday, but decided not to out of an abundance of caution, and instead decided to release 3,400 cubic feet per second, or 25,433 gallons, per second out of Lake Lewisville into the Trinity River and release 4,000 cubic feet per second, or 29,922 gallons, per second from Lake Lavon.
The water out of Ray Roberts was not expected to impact any homes directly, but if the volume of water released is increased, homes and roads in the spillway may be in danger.
Denton County Office of Emergency Management's Jody Gonzalez. said they delivered a letter to 150 to 200 residents downstream from the Lake Ray Roberts dam that warned them to be prepared to evacuate.
Some of the residents aren't taking the notification seriously, while others are very concerned and have evacuated, NBC 5 has learned.
Denton Co. Residents Warned of Possible Evacuation
Denton County authorities say they notified residents near Lake Ray Roberts to be ready to evacuate when they release water from the lake Tuesday. (Published Tuesday, May 12, 2015)
For folks on Elm Bottom Circle, the concern is not being able to get in or out of their neighborhood.
The street on both ends gets flooded because of the creek. The release of water and the rain will make that possibly worse.
After getting the knock on the door, Buddy Vaughn's first concern was his family.
"My daughter is in a wheelchair, so that makes a little extra planning for us, because we need to figure out where we're going to stay, grab a couple of night's clothes," he said.
Denton Co. Residents Warned of Possible Evacuation
Denton County authorities say they notified residents near Lake Ray Roberts to be ready to evacuate when they release water from the lake Tuesday. (Published Tuesday, May 12, 2015)
Meanwhile, for ranchers, the concern is their livelihood: their cattle.
Steve Day spent all Tuesday morning moving his cattle to higher ground. Last night, neighbor Tom Kader did the same thing.
"They followed the cake into another pasture. and the horses kept them from running off to the sides," said Kader, explaining the process of moving the cows to higher ground.
Now folks are watching the weather and their property closely.
"I've never had this much water get this close, and we've never had state troopers knock on the door and say you may have to evacuate," said Vaughn.
For More Information: Status of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Other Lakes in the Ft Worth District
NBC 5's Ellen Bryan, Ray Villeda and Frank Heinz contributed to this report.The Ukip leader said Britain has 'given away our passport' during campaign visit to Aberdeen.
Nigel Farage: Ukip leader attended Fishing for Leave conference (file pic). © Ross Parry / SWNS Group
Fishermen have been urged to "take back their birthright" by voting to leave the EU by Ukip leader Nigel Farage on a visit to Aberdeen.
He said Britain has "given away our passport" to 508 million EU citizens who have the right to settle in the UK and use its health and education services.
The MEP said UK governments had "literally given away our country" and insisted a Brexit vote would mean "we will have the whip hand" in future negotiations with Europe.
Mr Farage insisted "our grandparents didn't fight two world wars... so that we should have to go to Brussels to beg for crumbs from the table".
He was speaking to a Fishing For Leave conference in Aberdeen alongside Eurosceptic Tory marine environment minister George Eustice.
Mr Farage said: "We have given so much away. Not just our fishing grounds, we've given away (our) passport.
"This should be a British passport but what are the first two words on it? European Union.
"There are 508 million who have got one of those and any of them can come and settle in our country, work in our country, use the National Health Service, get their kids educated in our schools.
"We've given away the ability of our parliament to make our laws and our Supreme Court to judge our laws.
"We've literally given away our country and to get it back, to take on these vested interests, we are all going to have to fight.
"Let's not be ashamed to say: 'We want our country back, and we want our fishing waters back, and we demand getting back our birthright'."
He added: "I do not believe that our grandparents - my grandparents - fought in two world wars, sacrificed so much for us to be a free, independent, proud nation so that we should have to go to Brussels to beg for crumbs from the table.
"What we can do in this referendum is vote to Leave, vote to take back our territorial waters up to the 200-mile line, and then we will renegotiate internationally with other people.
"We will have the whip hand, not them. We have got to think big in this referendum."
John Edward, senior campaign spokesman for Scotland Stronger In Europe, said: "The way to have a real say over fisheries is to stay in Europe.
"By promoting walking away from the negotiating table, Mr Farage would remove the voice of all those whose high-quality goods are sold to markets elsewhere in the EU, leaving the industry at the mercy of decisions taken by others.
"No one is arguing that the EU is perfect but the gains outweigh the costs for the fishing industry and rural economy, and there have been significant reforms to the CFP pushed by the Scottish and UK governments to give our fishermen the good deal they deserve.
"Scotland will receive £85.5m from the EU Fisheries Fund until 2020, helping our fishing communities, investing in Scottish ports and refurbishing fishing vessels.
"Leaving the EU would put this at risk and would not help Scottish fishing."
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The move comes in response to failings which kept the suspected Berlin Christmas market attacker from being deported to Tunisia.
"Those who do not cooperate sufficiently cannot hope to benefit from our development aid," Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told German weekly Der Spiegel in an interview published at the weekend.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD public television on Sunday that he "fully supports this idea".
The warning was aimed in particular at Tunisia - the home nation of Anis Amri, who was suspected of ploughing a lorry into a Berlin Christmas market last month in an attack that killed 12 people - and at north African nations in general.
Germany rejected Amri's asylum application last June, but Tunis initially denied he was a Tunisian citizen, blocking him from being sent home. A new Tunisian travel document for the 24-year-old only arrived two days after the slaughter in Berlin.
Several thousand citizens of north African nations, including those with almost no chance of obtaining asylum in Germany, are similarly lacking papers to return home.
The Christmas market attack has pushed the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to consider how to improve the system.
Authorities are considering more routinely placing failed asylum seekers viewed as dangerous Islamists in detention ahead of their deportation.
"I will make very concrete proposals to expand the possibility of placing in detention people classified as dangerous before their expulsion," Justice Minister Heiko Maas said on Sunday, adding this would apply to failed asylum seekers whose countries were delaying taking them back.
Meanwhile, hundreds have protested in Tunisia this weekend against extremist Tunisian nationals who have travelled to fight in countries including Syria, Iraq, and Libya, from returning home.Stimulus projects bypass hard-hit states WASHINGTON States hit hardest by the recession received only a few of the government's first stimulus contracts, even though the glut of new federal spending was meant to target places where the economic pain has been particularly severe. Nationwide, federal agencies have awarded nearly $4 billion in contracts to help jump-start the economy since President Obama signed the massive stimulus package in February. But, with few exceptions, that money has not reached states where the unemployment rate is highest, according to a USA TODAY review of contracts disclosed through the Federal Procurement Data System. In Michigan, for example — where years of economic tumult and a collapsing domestic auto industry have produced the nation's worst unemployment rate — federal agencies have spent about $2 million on stimulus contracts, or 21 cents per person. In Oregon, where unemployment is almost as high, they have spent $2.12 per capita, far less than the nationwide average of nearly $13. That money "is needed nowhere more than it is needed in Michigan," says Leslee Fritz, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Economic Recovery Office, which is coordinating stimulus efforts in that state. She said officials are generally satisfied with the pace of federal aid, but added, "We certainly feel very intensely the need to move quickly." The $787 billion recovery package was intended to help turn around the economy using federal money to create jobs, especially in places where the recession has taken the most severe toll. Most of that money goes directly to states to pay for work such as highway repairs, but federal agencies also will spend billions of dollars to do everything from fixing runways and improving national forests to cleaning up nuclear waste. The first waves of that money flowed unevenly in large part because some federal agencies have moved more swiftly than others to sign contracts for projects funded by the stimulus. In many cases, those first contracts went to projects that began years ago or to companies that have long track records of doing government work. For example, about $3 billion of the government's first contracts were to speed cleanup of some of the nation's worst nuclear waste sites, scattered over a handful of states. That has created hundreds of additional jobs at the companies that manage the sites, says Matt Rogers, a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, but the impact has been limited to only a few parts of the country. Liz Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for the White House stimulus effort, said any examination of federal contracts provides "an incomplete picture" of a law that is "providing unprecedented assistance at a record pace to benefit as many Americans as possible." Obama said Wednesday that the stimulus had created or saved 150,000 jobs in its first 100 days. Overall, however, the economy shed more than 1.2 million jobs in March and April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to the contracts it has awarded, the government has asked companies to bid on thousands of additional projects worth upward of $30 billion, according to Onvia, a firm that tracks government purchasing. Even so, the first contracts have amounted to only about $7.42 per person on average in the eight states with unemployment rates higher than 10% last month. By comparison, government records show it has awarded about $26 worth of contracts per person in North Dakota, whose unemployment rate is the nation's lowest. 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 morePhoto
A group of 17-year-olds in Ohio has successfully persuaded a state judge to allow them to vote in the state’s primary on Tuesday.
The ruling, in state court, came before another suit by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont could be decided in federal court. Mr. Sanders sued Ohio’s top elections official, Secretary of State Jon A. Husted, in federal court on Tuesday arguing that Mr. Husted had “arbitrarily” discriminated against young black and Latino voters by not allowing 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the general election in November to vote in the primary on Tuesday.
On Friday, an Ohio state judge ruled that the teenagers can vote in the primary as well as in congressional, legislative and mayoral races. Mr. Husted has vowed to appeal the decision.
Brad Deutsch, Mr. Sanders’s lawyer, praised the state court’s ruling Friday.
“This is a huge victory for 17-year olds across Ohio,” Mr. Deutsch said in a statement. “Their votes for presidential nominees will now count when they vote on either Tuesday or over the weekend in early voting.”
He also said the judge had “admonished the secretary of state for abusing his discretion by prohibiting 17-year-olds from voting for presidential candidates and not only directed the secretary to instruct poll worker to allow 17-year olds to vote but also instructed them to make a reasonable effort to attempt to determine and record choices that have already been made by any 17-year-old who already voted in early voting.”
In a statement Friday saying he would appeal the decision, Mr. Husted said, “This last-minute legislating from the bench on election law has to stop.”
“We will appeal this decision because if there is a close election on Tuesday we need clarity from the Supreme Court to make sure that ineligible voters don’t determine the outcome of an election,” he said.
Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Mr. Sanders, said he expected that the state ruling would be appealed this weekend. He added that the federal judge dealing with Mr. Sanders’s lawsuit has said that he will rule in federal court by Monday afternoon.
At least 20 states allow 17-year-olds to participate in presidential primaries or caucuses if they will be 18 on Election Day in November, according to FairVote, a voting-rights advocacy group.
In December, Mr. Husted, a Republican, said that under state election law, 17-year-olds could vote in nominating contests but not elections, and thus a presidential primary was off-limits since voters will be electing delegates to the party conventions.
Talking to reporters in Toledo before boarding a plane to Illinois, Mr Sanders said he was “delighted” by the decision.
“The idea that in the year 2016, we have Republican secretaries of state trying to suppress the vote, trying to make it difficult for young people to participate in the political process, is an outrage,” he said. “Our jobs is to get more people involved in the process, not fewer people, and I am glad that decision was won and I am confident that it will be sustained.”
Also at the Toledo rally, Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio announced her endorsement.
“America could have no stronger Democratic leader for jobs in America, for fair trade and for economic progress for all, not just the privileged few, than Bernie Sanders,” Ms. Kaptur said as she introduced him in front of 2,600 supporters.
Mr. Sanders, addressing the recent incidents of violence at Donald J. Trump rallies, said he hoped that the nation was not at a point “where people are going to be intimidated and roughed up and frightened about going to a political rally.”
“We all have different points of view, that’s called democracy,” Mr. Sanders said. “Rallies and events are part of American democracy,” he said, adding, “And I hope Mr. Trump speaks out forcefully and tells his supporters that that is not what the American political process is about.”
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.Match date: 22 March 2015
Barcelona have been in excellent form in that few months as they progressed in the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Manchester City last Wednesday and have climbed to first place in La Liga in those few months. Against Real Madrid, Luis Enrique continued with the starting XI that beat Manchester City, except for Ter Stegen with Claudio Bravo coming in for league matches.
Real Madrid, however, have struggled in the last few months. They progressed in the Champions League against Schalke, but that was more because of the two away goals they scored against the German side with cracks showing in the second leg of the tie as Schalke won 4-3. Ancelotti made just one change to the side that won against Levante in their last league outing with Kroos coming in for Lucas Silva.
Real Madrid Limit Messi, Struggle with Set Pieces
Messi had a fantastic game against Manchester City in Barcelona’s last match with so much of his success coming from the space that Manchester City allowed Barcelona to have. Manchester City’s back four were very deep, while the rest of the team were high up the field looking to win the ball back, opening up a huge space in midfield that Messi was able to pick up the ball in and run at the Manchester City defense. Real Madrid, however, looked to play a higher line, squeezing the midfield and forcing Messi to stay out wide where Marcelo, Isco, and Kroos all looked to close down the space that the Argentine could play into. With Neymar and Messi stretching the field all the way to the touchlines on their respective sides, Barcelona had a hard time working the ball from one side to another, especially when they initially played into Messi and Real Madrid reacted with their pressing. Below you can see Barcelona wide men stretching the field and the annotated movements of Marcelo and Isco when the ball moved to Messi.
Real Madrid’s back four played relatively high up the pitch, which limited Messi to a pocket of space that he could play in and ultimately Barcelona looked to play to the opposite to Neymar’s feet or to Suarez’s feet through the middle.
The Neymar, Suarez duo forced Real Madrid back and won a number of free kicks, which Barcelona were very dangerous as it were. Barcelona’s first goal was scored from a set piece, with Mathieu getting free to get on the end of a Messi free kick from the left side Real Madrid’s penalty area. Barcelona almost scored from another set piece, this time a corner that was not well defended by Real Madrid only for Neymar to control the ball right into Casillas from a Suarez shot/cross. Real Madrid were able to counter quickly from this effort and score the equaliser.
Benzema, Kroos Key
With Ronaldo and Bale the usual recipients of praise and criticism from the media and supporters, Benzema often finds himself on the periphery, but it was the Frenchman that was Real Madrid’s best attacking player on the night. Benzema was constantly on the move for his side. He provided a forward option as often as he could, whether that meant dropping a bit deeper into the space that Mascherano was meant to position himself in or pulling into the wide areas on the ball side. Pique and Mathieu did not seem to know whether to follow the striker when he dropped deep, assuming Mascherano would pick him up, or follow him out wide, assuming that the full backs would pick him up and that it meant Real Madrid’s winger would be looking to dart inside, something that Ronaldo always does well. His movement was key to Real Madrid’s periods of dominance and created some excellent chances for his side, including the assist for Ronaldo, who he setup earlier only for the ball to come off the crossbar.
The other key element to Real Madrid’s good play was Toni Kroos. The German was playing in the holding role, with Isco and Modric ahead of him, and was given a good amount of time on the ball. Benzema did well to occupy Mascherano which then saw Rakitic have to find Isco and Iniesta to find Modric, leaving Kroos with space to get on the ball and dictate Real Madrid’s forward play. When Kroos got on the ball, one of usually Iniesta or Mascherano would move to close him down, which would leave Benzema or Modric open, with the Croatian Kroos’ most common target. With Iniesta moving forward, Modric was able to break the Barcelona midfield on the dribble.
Barcelona Changes
Barcelona looked to exploit the space in behind Pepe and Ramos just a few times in the first half and even then they were able to take care of any danger, which included a diving header from Casillas on one of Barcelona’s attempts to exploit that space. Barcelona are much more willing to play these longer balls under Enrique than they were under Pep or even Tata Martino, but it is understandable with a forward line of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar and a midfield trio of Mascherano, Rakitic, and Iniesta, who have significantly less chemistry and control than Busquets, Xavi, and Iniesta would. The variety in Barcelona’s play allowed the game to be very open, which should have seen Barcelona score at least three or four more goals after their second. On that second goal, Suarez timed his run well between Pepe and Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves picked him out, and Suarez finished really well across Casillas.
Once Barcelona got their second goal, they started to defend in much more of a 4-5-1 and Messi and Neymar would drift inside to help in midfield, allowing Real Madrid to play into Marcelo and Carvajal. Kroos’ space to receive the ball became a bit more limited and when he did get the ball, he was forced to play out to the full backs rather than forward to Benzema, who, with limited space between the lines and out wide, struggled to have the influence that he had done in the first half.
The game started to get more broken up with fouls from both sides and Barcelona started to find more and more chance on the break with Neymar, in particular, having a number of chances to separate the sides even more, but Casillas made some good saves on shots from the Brazilian and Jordi Alba. Messi was finding more space in the middle with Real Madrid committing more players forward and saw a shot fly just wide of Casillas’ goal.
Conclusion
It was not the most tactically interesting El Clasico (perhaps we are spoiled from the Guardiola v Mourinho days), but it was entertaining. Ancelotti and Real Madrid looked to have a plan to deal with Messi, but it was all undone by a set piece and you could see Ancelotti’s reaction was more about the displeasure in how the Catalan side scored.
Luis Enrique did well to close the game out through relative control. He brought on Busquets for Rakitic, taking off a more direct player for one well rooted in keeping the ball. He then took off Iniesta for Xavi, with aided to the idea of keeping the ball, and continued to flood midfield by bringing on Rafinha.
The result puts Barcelona four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga and puts Ancelotti under an increasing amount of pressure while Enrique has turn his fortunes around and has given his side a comfortable lead in La Liga.Richie looked back on his storied career during a MusiCares discussion with Kevin Spacey.
Grammy Week officially kicked off with a president and a Commodore.
Kevin Spacey, who plays President Frank Underwood on Netflix’s drama House of Cards, interviewed Lionel Richie, former lead singer for the legendary soul group Commodores, Feb. 10 at Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center. The evening, billed as Arts & Ideas: Conversations @The Wallis, was presented by MusiCares. Richie will be honored by the Recording Academy’s philanthropic arm, which assists musicians in need of financial and medical aid, Feb. 13 at the annual Person of the Year dinner.
Grammys 2016: The Complete Party Guide
In a first, MusiCares decided to hold a second event and “create an opportunity for people who might not be able to attend Saturday’s festivities,” said MusiCares Foundation chair Bill Silva. “It’s also a way for more people to take part in Grammy Week.” Tickets for the Richie/Spacey Annenberg event were $50 compared to MusiCares gala tickets, which range from $1,500 to $8,500.
Spacey proved to be a deft and funny interviewer, occasionally lapsing into his excellent Johnny Carson or Christopher Walken impersonations, and he and Richie displayed a warm camaraderie as they walked through Richie’s career, touching on everything from his grandmother unsuccessfully trying to teach him to read music to what his own grandkids call him (“Pop Pop”).
They also touched on Richie’s childhood in Tuskegee, Alabama, a town where The Tuskegee Airmen were heroes who fought for their country in WWII but returned home unable to vote. Richie, 66, got emotional telling the story of how as a 9-year old, he and his father went to Montgomery, Ala., and Richie unwittingly drank from a fountain marked For Whites Only. Some white men confronted his father, who grabbed Richie and ran off. Years later, Richie challenged his father, asking why he didn’t stay and fight. His dad simply answered, “I had a choice: to be a man or be a father.”
Richie met his Commodore bandmates while a freshman at Tuskegee Institute and he revealed how their first gig, at a freshman talent show, changed his life. “The most amazing thing happened,” he said. “Girls started screaming [as I performed]. I was going to be an Episcopal priest, but that girl screamed on the front row and I called the bishop and said I didn’t think I was cut out for the cloth.”
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By the time he was a senior, The Commodores were opening for the Jackson 5 and each band member was pulling down at least $200,000 per year. What followed was more than a decade of massive hits, including “Easy,” “Three Times A Lady,” “Brickhouse,” and “Lady (You Bring Me Up).”
Richie called leaving the group to go solo in 1982 “the hardest thing I ever did.” He didn’t intend to leave the band permanently, but after his debut solo album spawned such massive hits as “Truly,” “You Are” and “My Love,” and “the rocket had taken off,” jealousy festered among his bandmates.
Among the most amusing stories, in an evening filled with them, was Richie’s telling of how he and Michael Jackson came to write the phenomenally successful 1985 charity single “We Are The World” for African famine relief. Harry Belafonte had called Richie and asked him why there were “plenty of white folks saving black folks, but not a lot of black folks saving black folks,” Richie says. Richie called Quincy Jones, who was sitting beside Jackson and the two artists decided to write the song (originally, it was going to only be Richie, Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Jones on the single, but Richie’s then-manager, Ken Kragen, corralled the more than 40 artists who participated). “I’m at Michael’s house trying to write ‘We Are The World’ and his dog is barking and his Mynah bird is yelling ‘Shut up’ [repeatedly at the dog]. I see albums falling over. I look again and see more falling over and there’s an albino python [coming toward me]. I will admit I was screaming like a white woman. Michael goes, ‘Oh my God, Lionel. There he is, he wants to play with you.’ I know you want a spiritual tale about how we brought this song you, but that’s how it was for three days.”
Richie, who continues to tour and release albums, played England’s Glastonbury Festival last summer, drawing 100,000, the biggest crowd at the 2015 festival, topping such act as The Who and Kanye West. “I started singing the songs and the audience took over. I sung more songs, they got louder,” he says. “It was karaoke at its finest. It was my best time on stage ever.”
While Richie praised such current acts as The Weeknd, Adele, and Bruno Mars, whom he called “brilliant,” he couldn’t help but get a dig in at the many manufactured acts on radio. With perhaps a selective memory, he said, “When I started, it was creative artists [who] were writing their own songs. Now, the equation has changed. We’re creating artists. Someone asks ‘how did you write that song,’ and they say ‘someone gave it to me’ or ‘I passed that [TV] audition.'”
Among the artists who will be saluting Richie at Feb. 13’s event are Dave Grohl, Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, Chris Stapleton, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Usher, John Legend, and Stevie Wonder.Ford becomes the latest automotive giant to work with Lyft on self-driving cars
Unlike Uber and China’s Didi, Lyft isn’t developing its own self-driving cars. But the U.S. company sure is signing up major names to help it bridge the gap.
This week it announced Ford as its latest autonomous car partner. Ford joins big names Jaguar, GM and Alphabet’s Waymo as well startups Nutonomy and Drive.ai as Lyft allies.
Recently recognized as top of the industry when it comes to self-driving cars, Ford said recently that it is committed to working with partners to bring its vehicles to market in ways that actually help consumers. One such early partner is Dominos Pizza |
akipants12 2,059 Hetalia: Beware of Pedobear khakipants12 2,559 APH Request: Dream On khakipants12 3,157 Drawing Tutorial 2: Hetalia khakipants12 2,843 APH Request: Unlocked khakipants12 1,328 APH Request: Sweet Slumber khakipants12 2,555How the public can help solve the begging issue
West Auckland beggar Conrad has learnt his first lesson in personal finance - never share your income.
Stuff published a story on Conrad on January 16 where he claimed he was making up to $150 a day from begging at Henderson's Lincoln North Plaza. He also said that he was not homeless, and used the money for drugs.
He says the publicity has cost him dearly and says now "no-one is being nice to me".
Mahvash Ali Conrad says the Stuff article has given him a "ridiculous" amount of attention.
Conrad says his father called him this morning about his face being "all over the social media".
READ MORE:
*Local politician contests claims of a begging syndicate in West Auckland
*West Auckland beggar says he makes up to $150 a day
*Giving money to beggars a big waste
The story and the video gained more than 50,000 online views in under 24 hours.
Mahvash Ali Henderson Community Constable Martyn Spear says people who want to help are better off donating the money to a reputable charity organisation.
The attention he is getting is "ridiculous", Conrad says.
"I will get arrested," he says.
Henderson Community Constable Martyn Spear says the man has been issued with a trespass notice from Lincoln North Plaza for begging.
Mahvash Ali Shoppers and retailers say the ATMs at Lincoln North Plaza are a popular spot with the beggars.
Spear says he has been working with other agencies to make sure Conrad does not return to the area, and it was disappointing to see him back in the plaza.
Conrad claimed there was a begging "syndicate" operating in the area. A retailer also says a syndicate operates in the area and there is "a leader of the ring".
"It's not as organised in a way that you would expect a syndicate to be. However, there is a degree of mutually beneficial cooperation between them whereby they look out for each other," Spear says.
Mahvash Ali West Auckland shoppers say beggars use scare tactics to solicit money from pedestrians.
They work together as a "unit" he says.
The community constable says drugs and alcohol addiction are the reason behind begging "without exception".
All the beggars he has dealt with at the plaza are not homeless, have social support and are on the benefit, he says.
Spear says he understands the public may feel threatened by the panhandlers, particularly outside cash machines.
"Most of the time they [pedestrians] do feel quite confronted, offended or intimidated by some of the aggressive types of begging."
Spear recommends not giving money to beggars.
He says it is "almost always" used to support addiction.
Instead, he says, people who want to help are better off donating the money to an organisation such as the Auckland City Mission.
If the beggars are aggressive and pedestrians feel threatened Spear recommends going into a shop and asking for help.
He says while begging is not illegal, hostile behaviour is unacceptable and warrants a call to the police.When international law designed to stop war crimes is used by war criminals
Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post
A historic ruling handed down by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal found former-US President George W. Bush and his associates guilty of war crimes including torture. Using standards provided by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and based on the precedent set by the Nuremberg trials, the tribunal succeeded in observing existing international standards in reaching its verdict before forwarding the results to the ICC and the United Nations.
Video: Nile Bowie reports on the conclusion of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal held in Malaysia earlier this month, which found former-US President George W. Bush and his associates guilty of war crimes. Those involved in the trial are under no illusions that the ICC and UN will most likely do nothing regarding very real war crimes, but recognize the importance of the trial in exposing this fact.
However, for those involved, they are under no illusions that the ICC or the UN will take actions against the accused. As noted by Professor Michel Chossudovsky of the Centre for Research on Globalization, the very institutions charged with maintaining international rule of law, have been in fact instrumental in facilitating its violation by the hands of powerful Western nations. Professor Chossudovsky stated, “the fact that if war criminals are not prosecuted by the domestic and international legal system, that means that the legal apparatus, the judicial system is turned upside down and is serving the interests of the war criminals who actually call the shots.”
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Indeed, it is clear, as in Libya, genocidal terrorist organizations, stated as such on both US and British terror organization lists, were empowered by this very upturning of “international law,” where baseless claims of “human rights” violations were not only used to accuse and undermine leaders of sovereign nation-states, but used to justify acts of war in deposing targeted governments. In Libya, not only were militants led by terrorist organizations like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group committing very real atrocities, but NATO itself did as well. Militants on the ground purposefully blockaded entire cities, cutting off food, water, electricity, and medical supplies while NATO flattened the city with daily airstrikes. In other words, NATO did demonstratively before the eyes of the world what it accused the Libyan government of doing used to justify its military intervention in the first place.
We see a similar scenario unfolding in Syria; however, now, the US has already admitted that despite a UN-brokered ceasefire, it is arranging the arming of militants now exposed as having direct ties to Al Qaeda and other extremist organizations, admittedly carrying out a campaign of terror across Syria, specifically targeting civilian populations.
The US has also admitted, in the midst of an alleged UN ceasefire, that it is attempting to trigger a violent Kurdish uprising. As Professor Chossudovsky has illustrated, “international law” has clearly been turned upside down to the benefit of real, demonstrative war criminals.
So then, the tribunal held in Malaysia successfully exposed “international law” as dysfunctional and in fact, counter productive – enabling, not deterring gross acts of global injustice, wars of aggression, and the systematic abuse of human rights and freedom in nation after nation by an expanding international criminal cartel centered on Wall Street and London.
And while this is useful in and of itself, the tribunal and those involved, by extending convictions beyond figure heads like George Bush and Richard Cheney to include advisers and policy makers of corporate-funded think-tanks, a wider network of criminality has been exposed as well.
Avoiding The Eye - Ships Free Today! The ICC and UN will predictably do nothing regarding this ruling. This should not even be expected. Instead, the tribunal should be understood in the context as not only a form of protest, but the boycotting of a corrupt system and the creation of a viable, more inclusive alternative. Legal proceedings are designed to examine evidence and convict guilty parties, then determining appropriate and practical punitive measures. Those involved in the crimes described by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal are but a small proportion of a much larger international criminal cartel representing the largest corporate-financier powers on earth. While imprisonment may be the most ideal punishment to level against those convicted in Malaysia, it is not currently practical. Instead, identifying the individuals, corporations, and institutions directly responsible and in fact harboring many of those convicted, and imposing “sanctions” on them, is not only practical, but will help erode the unwarranted base of power from which these global elite operate with absolute impunity. Eventually, if the silent majority finds the resolve to act on the tribunal’s ruling, and impose “sanctions” on the special interests driving these criminal acts, and should this atmosphere of impunity be eroded, imprisoning international war criminals may eventually become a practical reality. Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report. Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here. var linkwithin_site_id = 557381; linkwithin_text=’Related Articles:’Congress and the GOP are losing a powerful voice and the entire DC area is utterly confused. Who are we talking about? Pitbull chairman of the House oversight committee, Jason Chaffetz (aka @jasoninthehouse) is apparently not going to in the House for much longer.
Yesterday news broke that he would not be seeking re-election in 2018. Reminder that Chaffetz and Nunes were tasked with investigating Trump/Russia. Nunes stepped aside after his crazy, straight out of a Mr. Bean movie, midnight rendezvous on the White House grounds shenanigans where he was trying to cook up *proof* of Obama wiretapping came to light. Now Trump is losing his other best friend. But WHY??
While we were all sitting around playing armchair detective, even more craziness came to light today:
Now, reports are surfacing that Chaffetz may be leaving his role before his term is even up:
BREAKING NEWS: @jasoninthehouse tells KSL's @DougWrightShow he might not finish his Congressional term. Updates now https://t.co/LwgY6HeJOO — KSL Newsradio (@kslnewsradio) April 20, 2017
The Hill reports that Chaffetz told KSL Radio: "I will continue to weigh the options, but I might depart early" on Thursday.
And literally as I was typing this post, these tweets starting blowing up my feed:
Report: Jason Chaffetz expected to resign as early as tomorrow — Charles Clymer (@cmclymer) April 20, 2017
Word on the ground from Utah:
Chaffetz will be doing announcement tomorrow that he is stepping down from Congress
https://t.co/37FTMMJ2pO — Jamie #Resistance ❄️ (@JCTheResistance) April 20, 2017
No one knows what the heck is going on. Chaffetz used the tried and true "desire to spend more time with his family in Utah and return to the private sector" excuse that is most often cited.
The most odd part - there are 19 months left before the midterms. To run out the door so soon speaks to something possibly more sinister. Is he compromised in some way? Do the Russians have kompromat on him? No one knows for sure...but the timing sure is suspicious.
Will his new handle be @JasonInTheBigHouse one day?
↓ Story continues below ↓
UPDATE:
It appears that Chaffetz is using his remaining time in office to leverage a juicy TV gig or some wingnut welfare, according to Politico.We think of our Universe as everything there ever was, is, and will be.
But according to some researchers, there might not just be many universes, but an infinite number of them. This notion of multiple universes – sometimes dubbed the multiverse for short – isn't some crazy idea concocted by bored physicists. While the science is undeniably speculative, they emerge from fairly well-grounded theories. And recent discoveries have made headlines for supporting the idea. There's a lot that physicists don't yet know, but the existence of the multiverse is possible, and some might say probable.
Yet if there really were other realms outside our own, how would we even know? Will we ever be able to detect another universe?
"I do think you can find smoking-gun evidence for things outside of [our Universe]," says Anthony Aguirre, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After all, not being able to directly see or hold an atom didn't preclude physicists from confirming their existence.
Perhaps the most plausible type of multiverse is a natural consequence of a theory called inflation. The Universe expanded rapidly after the big bang, and it continues to do so today. But according to inflation, the Universe grew exponentially fast in the first moments of its existence, an instant of faster-than-light expansion.
Physicist Alan Guth proposed this radical idea in 1980 to explain several features of the Universe: why it looks the same in every direction, for instance. Since then, physicists such as Andrei Linde have further developed the theory, which has been supported by observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – the leftover glow of the Big Bang that fills the sky.
A few weeks ago, physicists behind the Bicep2 experiment made headlines for detecting a strong signature of inflation – ripples in the spacetime fabric of the cosmos called gravitational waves. The pattern in the sky they saw was precisely what the inflation theorists predicted.
What’s this got to do with the multiverse? No one knows exactly how inflation occurred, but some of the simplest, most reasonable ideas suggest that random quantum fluctuations in the early Universe caused inflation to stop in some regions but not in others. Inflation would thus be eternal.
In places where inflation ceased, pocket universes would form, where atoms, stars, and even planets could assemble. Our Universe would be just be one of these myriad pocket universes.
Although inflation is widely accepted, eternal inflation remains more speculative. "I'm personally skeptical of this story," says physicist Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology. Still, he says, it is plausible.
According to some theories, each pocket universe could take on the form of a bubble, producing a multiverse that's like infinite foam, in which each bubble is a universe with its own versions of the laws of physics. And because the possibilities are literally endless, some universes would be alternate realities in which you're a movie star or where dolphins rule the Earth.
These bubble universes are all connected, but in between them, eternal inflation is still stretching spacetime faster than the speed of light. So unless you can move faster than light, which Einstein said was impossible, you can't hop from one bubble to another.
But even if you could, such a journey would be rough. "You also have to survive the inflation in between that would want to inflate every atom in your body," Aguirre says. "It's not very practical."
Maybe the safest and best way to see another bubble universe is if one happens to bump into our own, which Aguirre says could leave an imprint in the cosmic microwave background. How likely is such a scenario and what would this cosmic bruise look like? It depends on the true nature of inflation, he says, which is just something no one fully understands yet.
For Carroll, bumping into a bubble universe doesn't seem likely. "This is unlikely to be true, because it either never happened or it would've been bloody obvious and we would've noticed it a long time ago."
Another possibility is that a nudge from a neighbouring universe would cause galaxies near the bump to move in a distinct direction compared to the rest of our Universe. Some astronomers claimed they've observed this so-called dark flow, but most scientists remain sceptical.
"My sense is that it's fairly unlikely," Aguirre says. If another universe could induce a dark flow, it would've left a noticeable and telltale mark on the CMB, which astronomers simply haven't seen. Other than cosmic bubble bumps and dark flows, he says, there aren't many well-developed ideas as to how to detect other universes in the inflationary multiverse.
Another type of multiverse arises from what's called the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum physics. According to this theory, every possible outcome in the Universe exists simultaneously in other universes. For example, you can look and find that your desk lamp is on. But at the same time, there's a separate, parallel reality where you find that the lamp is off.
Like the inflationary multiverse, the Many Worlds multiverse implies alternate realities. One big difference, however, is that the parallel universes of the Many Worlds theory aren't in any physical place, but instead coexist with ours in a separate, abstract part of reality.
Scientists may simply never find direct signs of any kind of multiverse, Carroll says. For some naysayers, that means these theories are not scientific. But that misses the point, he says. "Our job as physicists is to believe what our equations tell us.” In other words, by pursuing the maths, theorists may help us discover indirect signs of the multiverse. And eventually, enough of this indirect evidence could have been assembled to suggest that the multiverse is overwhelmingly likely.
Given the staggering implications that this would entail – an infinite number of close-copies of you and the Earth – it could well be a difficult thing for many people to accept. At least in our Universe.
If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.After the Geek & Sundry panel was over, we had quite the walk from the Hilton to the other side of the convention center for a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund panel. We ran into friends on the walk. We both walked in the same general direction as we were heading a similar direction. Once we finally got back into the convention center, we went our separate ways to go to our respective panels.
Once we made it in to the room for the CBLDF panels, we were surprised to find that the panel in progress was none other than one of the artists for the Walking Dead, Charlie Adlard.
I will say this, I caught some excellent panels that I was never planning to see. Both American Mary and Charlie Adlard were panels that I caught because they were before a panel I did want to see.
I must say, it was pretty awesome to see one of the Walking Dead artists drawing live. He is incredibly talented. As he was continuing to draw, he talked about how drawing characters can be second nature for him. Just like many things when you do it repeatedly. What I really liked to hear is that the panels he enjoyed drawing most were panels that were conversation. The comic script always tells you what to draw during action, but during conversations it allows for the artist to really stretch their creative muscles as they try to figure out how a character would act during the conversation.
Now, there are certain phrases that make me happy. There aren’t many, but I do like some. One of I those phrases is McGuffin as it’s a phrase that Alfred Hitchcock came up with. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, the McGuffin is a motivator for the protagonist where he would be willing to do anything for it, even kill. It’s a plot device. However, it’s not a commonly used term. At least I’ve not heard it all that often.
As Charlie Adlard continued his drawing and panel, he continued to talk about his inspirations in comic. It was interesting to hear what sort of things influences artists. He finished off his panel by finish off the drawing he was working on. It wound up in the CBLDF auction.
After the Charlie Adlard panel was a panel about defending manga. I hadn’t realized that manga and anime was coming under fire that strongly. Charles Brownstein talked about the history of Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the persecution of comic artists for creating comic art that was considered obscene. One of the early cases was against the artist R. Crumb (who spent a portion of his career in San Francisco).
Manga started coming under fire in 2000 largely due to the difference in social mores between the US and Japan. The first titles that came under fire are two notorious hentai titles, “Lord of the Overfiend” and “Demon Beast”. The case largely focused around obscene content in “children’s” entertainment (as comics were largely defined… and I believe still are).
Then came the Protect Act of 2003. In many ways, it did a lot of good. It also was broad enough to cover comics or manga. (For more on the PROTECT Act, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003.) The PROTECT Act was often used to prosecute anime and manga (like US v. Handley: http://cbldf.org/about-us/case-files/handley/ ). While talking about US v. Handley, there was the discussion of art and porn. Whether you can consider manga and anime as prosecutable exploitation of children as there are no real children being exploited.
He went on to talk about the Ryan Matheson case that happened in Canada. Charges were dropped in May. Ryan Matheson was there to give his accounting of everything that happened. The trial started in 2010 and was just dropped in May by the Canadian government. It took a lot of courage for him to recount everything that he went through. It looked like there were certain things that he was uncomfortable talking about. He made it through, none the less. He stood up for his convictions regardless of the situation and he triumphed.
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: http://cbldf.org/
Charlie Adlard: http://www.charlieadlard.com/
(Part 3 will be posted tomorrow)
AdvertisementsOh dear (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
There’s trouble in paradise for Sophie Tanner, the woman who married herself.
It turns out that, a mere two years after Sophie vowed to love and honour herself ’til death do her part, she has cheated on herself.
Labour MP says party has been 'too apologetic' over anti-Semitism
Sophie ended up having an affair (of sorts) with Ruari Barrett, a polyamorist who was apparently monogamous while going out with Sophie. They were together for five months.
Despite it not working out with Ruari, something obviously struck a chord with him because he ended up marrying himself too – and claims to have given up polyamory for good.
Sophie told Amanda Holden on ITV’s This Morning that self-marriage isn’t about never being with anyone else, however – it’s about ‘self-love’.
Sorry, this video isn't available any more.
The guy she cheated with married himself as well (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
‘It’s saying that self-compassion and self-care is as important as romantic relationships,’ she said.
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‘It doesn’t mean you’re rejecting all other meaningful relationships in your life and becoming a nun forevermore. It means you’re rejecting bad relationships.
Huge fire tears across Saddleworth Moor as February 'heatwave' continues
‘If only there were more self-love in the world, we wouldn’t need ceremonies like this.
‘This is a statement which looks to raise the profile of self-love, saying it’s as important as romantic love and doing it as a formal ceremony as anyone else would have a wedding.’
Asked if divorce would ever be on the cards, Sophie said: ‘Marrying yourself is a lifelong commitment to be responsible for your own happiness, so divorce is not an option.’Bitter in Hunting | 7 comments Posted byin
It looks like Mother Jones is investing in a strategy of trying to convince hunters that NRA doesn’t represent them because of one bill that appears to have covered many national land access issues. And, since those access issues might possibly be used by energy companies and some guys who own energy companies in Texas happen to like guns and donate to NRA, CLEARLY the evidence is overwhelming that NRA hates hunters…or something. (Heavy sarcasm in that summary if you couldn’t tell.)
This is a pretty hard sell to make considering that 3/4 of NRA members report that they are hunters, according to NRA President Jim Porter’s report at the recent board meeting. In fact, the organization launched a Hunter Leadership Forum event at this year’s annual meeting that raised more than $2 million for hunting programs at NRA.
So, I would say that the evidence shows NRA is quite connected to the hunting community. Will there be times that legislation is more complex and touches on issues that non-hunting access? Yes. But that doesn’t mean that NRA is “turning…against hunters.” It is also just a bit of a stretch to argue that because NRA accepts some donations from Texas families who own guns and hunt that happen to be in the energy sector that they are now energy industry lobbyists because of one or two bills. This looks like an attempt to try and see if they can pull some of those hunting supporters away from the organization since hunters are clearly such a huge part of the NRA “family.”Job security is not only an unrealistic goal, it’s a foolish one.
US President Barack Obama recently called for a return to an era when workers could have steady jobs in durable industries.
The trouble is, there are no more durable occupations that offer long-term job security. What’s more, most people would not want to go back to that era, for the age of disruption has created many benefits we have become accustomed to and opened even more opportunities.
But there is a catch — to win in the modern economy one must stop thinking about durable jobs and start becoming a durable talent.The last durable industry is not an industry at all, but your own skills and talent.
Where have all the industries gone? Their passing has been stunning in its speed. New entrants and competitors have changed the rules, innovated and disrupted in industry after industry. You make cameras? I’ll take mine on my smartphone, 10 megapixels and all — thank you very much. And while you’re at it, let’s skip the compact discs for my music collection, the GPS navigation gizmo for my car and the newspaper delivery to my house.
So many of these changes have come because of the shift from analogue to digital, from physical to virtual. Even in my own industry — higher education — massive open online courses (MOOC’s) hold the potential for massive disruption, especially to universities that cannot differentiate by brand, research, or teaching quality. Even tenure for professors is much less common than it used to be; by some accounts only one-third of university faculty are protected with such job security. If academia cannot offer durable jobs, who can?
Powerful customers have also emerged to force change in supplier companies, much of it directed toward lowering costs, and therefore, wages. This is not only about Walmart or Amazon.com. The legal industry, for one, is in turmoil because of precisely this pressure from traditional big company customers who are no longer willing to effectively subsidize the training of young lawyers by paying for their billable hours.
Industries that have taken advantage of regulatory-enabled protections are not immune either, although they continue to try to hold onto their positions. They use political strategies to do this, rather than market strategies. Taxicabs are a perfect example. Typically regulated and controlled by local government, there are now mobile phone apps that let customers find alternative transportation in a much more convenient fashion. Naturally, taxi companies fight to keep what they have — dominance — rather than fighting to fix massive customer service problems that created the opportunity for a competitor to emerge with a different business model in the first place.
By the same token, it will just be a matter of time before the emergence of television available anywhere pushes cable and satellite companies to sell channels a la carte and not bundled. Time Warner Cable’s recent dust-up over transmission fees with the CBS network in the United States may well be the trigger for a fitful move in this direction. Surely one of the most despised of all business practices, it will be even harder to defend when mass-market customers become used to watching individual channels on the Internet via alternative broadband providers. An entire generation of twentysomethings access most of their TV this way already.
When this happens, cable and satellite companies will cease to exist in the manner they have become accustomed. They will have to create a new business model to survive, something opportunistic entrepreneurs at Netflix, Hulu, Google, Apple and Amazon have been working on for some time. Good luck with that.
I could go on with further examples of industries that will never provide the stability they once did, not just because of technological and customer changes, but also because of global competition that destroys the fat and lazy, because of the increasing importance of services over manufacturing to the economy (removing many high paying, steady union jobs in the process) and because so many of us have become accustomed to almost unlimited choice, making it difficult for any company to maintain steady market share, and hence, steady jobs.
In the end, this means that the only durable industry is yourself. We have no choice but to be durable, since the world around us has become so capricious. Job security is not only an unrealistic goal, it’s a foolish one. While we still need to dedicate ourselves to our jobs — there is no alternative to creating value while at work — we no longer need to dedicate ourselves to a single employer. Why? Because that company might not be there for us tomorrow.
The skills people need in this world are constant learning, adaptability, open-mindedness, networking and curiosity. Yes, the more you wonder about why things work the way they do in your industry, the closer you’ll be to becoming one of the disrupters. And even if you’re not ultimately a disrupter, the mindset of always thinking about what could be different, better, faster, smarter, or even opposite to how things look today, brings you quicker to change than the next man or woman.
Ironically, President Obama came into office on a wave of “change we can believe in,” but whatever that change is, it won’t be back toward durable industries and durable jobs. Those days are gone, and sooner we all realize it the better.
Do you agree that durable industries no longer provide long-term job security?
How do you make yourself indispensible?
Share your thoughts and comments on BBC Capital’s Facebook pageUpland resident Fernand Bogman capped his sprinklers a year ago, letting the grass in his yard die as well as the tree in the parkway."It's hard for me to pour buckets and buckets and buckets of water to keep just grass, it's only grass, green," Bogman said.His neighbors and the city, however, disagree. So far, the city of Upland has charged Bogman $1,238 in fines. Bogman also faces a misdemeanor for failing to follow city code."People want to sometime sell their home and it's got to be kept up," Upland resident Ella Morrison said.Code enforcement cited Bogman for failing to maintain his lawn and ordered him to take action. He didn't respond because he thinks the city should be more sensitive to saving water."There is a disconnect between city officials and the public," Bogman said.Upland officials told him they're responding to the drought by restricting watering to three days a week and offering help to residents who want to put in drought-tolerant landscaping.The issue is Bogman's lack of cooperation, a city official said."If a property owner is working with us and within a reasonable amount of time they're going to make a change, then we stop the process," said Jeff Zwack, Upland development services director.Bogman said he plans to eventually xeriscape, but for now, he wants to make a statement with his brown yard."I hope that the public will see that food on the table is more important than a green lawn," Bogman said.He won't pay his fines for now either - at least until he returns to court for a hearing on Oct. 7.OBJECTIVE:
To assess the effect of dietary pulses (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils) on acute satiety and second meal intake, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted.
METHODS:
MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Registry (through May 6, 2013) were searched for acute controlled trials examining the effect of dietary pulses on postprandial satiety or second meal intake compared with isocaloric controls. Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed methodological quality and risk of bias. Data were pooled by generic inverse variance random effects models and expressed as ratio of means (RoMs) for satiety and mean differences (MDs) for second meal food intake, with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Heterogeneity was assessed (Q statistic) and quantified (I(2) statistic). Protocol registration: clinicaltrials.gov identifier, NCT01605422.
RESULTS:
Nine trials met the eligibility criteria. Dietary pulses produced a 31% greater satiety incremental area under the curve (IAUC) (RoM = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.58, P = 0.004; Phet = 0.96; I(2) = 0%) without affecting second meal intake (MD = -19.94, 95% CI: -75-35, P = 0.48; Phet = 0.01; I(2) = 63%). Our data are limited by the small sample sizes, narrow participant characteristics and significant unexplained heterogeneity among the available trials.
CONCLUSIONS:
Pooled analyses show that dietary pulses contribute to acute satiety but not second meal intake.
Copyright © 2014 The Authors. The Obesity Society.Federal politicians' pay rises to at least $195,130: do we get what we pay for?
Updated
When politicians get a pay rise it rarely goes down well with the public or tabloid media.
"Let's kick the pollies it's an easy, easy target," says Amanda Vanstone, a former minister in John Howard's cabinet.
She says senior figures in the Government and Opposition work "ridiculously hard" and earn much less than those in big businesses.
"Politicians are notoriously weak at arguing for their own increases publicly and there will never be a time when people welcome politicians having a pay rise," she said.
Kevin Rudd is now the first prime minister to get a salary of more than $500,000 a year, as a scheduled 2.4 per cent pay rise for federal politicians comes into effect.
The average full-time Australian worker earns about $72,000 a year and today's wage increase boosts the typical federal backbencher's base salary to $195,130.
That is hardly peanuts, but if we paid politicians less would we end up with monkeys?
"I think that's a bit rough on our political class," says Professor Timothy Besley from the London School of Economics
"Often (politicians) are people who are strongly motivated towards wanting to make a contribution."
However, he says recent research suggests pay does make a difference to the work experience and university qualifications of the average politician and also influences how long they stay in parliament.
"One consequence of not paying politicians in a serious way is that they drop out," he said.
"So, you pay less you get less good people. If you pay below the market price you simply will not attract the people you want to attract."
"That's where I think the research says you've got to make that decision sensibly and have a sensible debate to explain why any increase is justified."
So, what is the market price?
In Singapore, the Prime Minister earns more than $1.5 million a year.
"I would never pay them that much", said Associate Professor Christopher Kam from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Professor Kam believes the quality of politicians relates to how their wages compare with the rest of society.
He says the quality and performance of local councillors in part of Brazil was greatly improved by increasing their income to the equivalent of a middle class wage.
But his research found giving Canadian MPs a significant rise did not make much of a difference.
"In Brazil, local councillors were previously paid poorly but in Canada MPs are fairly well paid.
"They make $160,000 a year. That doesn't place them in the 1 per cent in the income distribution but it places them well within the 2 to 3 per cent.
"What this means is if you give an MP in Canada a $10,000 or $15,000 raise it doesn't really change their position relative to the rest of the economy."
Last year Australian politicians gave up perks and the ability to block or approve pay rises.
"I do think it's fair and in the end... it's not politicians making these decisions," says retiring federal independent Rob Oakeshott.
"There is a [remuneration] tribunal that does comparisons to other sectors."
Though he says after the events of the tumultuous 43rd Parliament introducing key performance targets and linking them with pay increases could be one way of rewarding hard work.
"It might also stop some of the rubbish that goes on," he said.
Parlimentary salaries (base salary $195,130) Office Additional salary (%) Salary as of July 1 Prime Minister 160 $507,338 Deputy Prime Minister 105 $400,016 Treasurer 87.5 $365,868 Leader of the Opposition 85.0 $360,990 House of Reps Speaker 75.0 $341,477 Leader of the House 75.0 $341,477 Minister in Cabinet 72.5 $336,599 Other ministers 57.5 $307,329 Parliamentary secretary 25.0 $243,912 Shadow minister 25.0 $243,912
Source: Remuneration Tribunal.
Topics: federal-elections, federal-government, federal-parliament, australia
First postedIt may have felt like a pipe dream for many Bernie Sanders supporters: a Bernie vs. Trump televised debate. But the possibility seemed to be getting closer and closer to becoming a reality when both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have expressed a willingness to debate each other before the California primary on June 7. Unfortunately, the dream didn’t last long. Trump said that he would participate if the event could raise $10 to $15 million for charity. Several companies stepped forward offering to make that donation, but then Trump said he was no longer interested. After you read this article, take our poll at the very end of the story and let us know if you think Trump and Sanders should have debated.
Here’s what you need to know.
1. Trump Backed Out of the Debate, Saying It Would Be ‘Inappropriate’
After everyone got excited about the possibility of a debate, Trump backed out of the debate on Friday, saying it would be “inappropriate.” Some people wondered about that choice of words, since the presidential candidate has not seemed worried about what was appropriate or inappropriate before. In his statement, Trump said:
Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher… Likewise, the networks want to make a killing on these events and are not proving to be too generous to charitable causes, in this case, women’s health issues. Therefore, as much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders – and it would be an easy payday – I will wait to debate the first place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be.”
Some companies had already stepped forward, offering to pay $10 to |
They can’t pass a farm bill but they can pass indefinite detention
In the weeks since Edward Snowden released classified details about the NSA’s programs, the House GOP has reaffirmed the indefinite detention of American citizens, blocked the president’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay prison and held a hearing to defend the NSA.
Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner joined Dick Cheney and Rep. Michele Bachmann in calling Snowden a “traitor.”
Boehner isn’t just attacking the man who made the revelations, he’s defending the surveillance programs in a way that seems designed to circumvent the calls for more transparency coming from a small but bipartisan group of Senators have called for.
“Every time that I’ve been in a briefing, nine out of 10 people in the room are lawyers there to protect the privacy of the American people,” Boehner said.
But no Republican has been more unrelenting of his support of surveillance that Michigan’s Rep. Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
“Any comparison to government abuses in decades past is highly misleading,” the congressman — who is also a huge supporter of CISPA, “one of the most privacy infringing pieces of legislation ever” — wrote in an op-ed for USA Today. “Today’s programs are authorized in law, with a thorough system of oversight and checks and balances in place, and a court review not present in the past.”
House Republicans are continuing their support of NSA surveillance that began when George W. Bush’s unlawful programs were first revealed — despite the fact that a majority of Republicans now oppose the program.
The House GOP knows very well how to use any opportunity to bash the president but their restraint on the NSA case, their unwillingness to push for transparency that Congress has continually blocked, reveals that the only pressure they’re actually putting on the president is to continue the programs as is. A small group of senators can raise a stink, but for now House Republicans are unwilling to prioritize individual liberties over the need to act as if we’re in perpetual war.
Or maybe they’re just too busy trying to force women to carry ““medically futile pregnancies” to term.THQ's last major IPs were sold at auction with the popular Darksiders IP going to game publisher Nordic Games.
In the second round of auctions for video game publisher THQ's remaining assets, European publisher Nordic Games was the clear winner.
In January, when most of THQ's assets were broken up and sold to various major publishers, one notable developer and IP were left in the cold: Vigil Games and their flagship Darksiders franchise.
This surprised many observers. The recent acquisition of the Darksiders IP by Nordic Games is more surprising still.
Darksiders has always been a franchise bursting with potential that never quite lived up to its big ideas.
2012's Darksiders II met with critical praise and disappointing sales, moving just 1.4 million units between its September release and THQ's lackluster November fiscal report.
While 1.4 million units would be a huge success for many game franchises, THQ needed its own blockbuster to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive industry. Darksiders II's high review scores weren't matched by corresponding sales.
The video game publisher, struggling under the weight of disappointing sales numbers over the past few years, had brought in industry veteran Jason Rubin in a last-ditch attempt to remain solvent.
Rubin's efforts were too-little, too-late. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2012. What came next was not what they had planned, with assets divvied up piecemeal across the industry in the first round of auctions.
Nordic Games secured the majority of the remaining THQ IPs including Darksiders, Red Faction, and MX vs ATV for $4.9 million. THQ's Homeworld IP came down to a three-way bidding war between Aspyr Media, Paradox Interactive, and Gearbox.
The Borderlands developer grabbed up Homeworld for just over $1.3 million.
In the right creative hands, the Darksiders franchise could really shine. Part Zelda, part dark action-fantasy, the franchise has all the right pieces. They've just never been put together quite the right way. I had hoped that a savvy publisher---Sony perhaps---would move in and give the IP its full backing, but even at bargain-bin pricing nobody stepped forward until now.
Whether Nordic Games will have the magic touch remains to be seen.
Follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Read my Forbes blog here.It's been a while since we posted anything about RedFrame - we took a short break to avoid burnout, and have been creatively re-energized by focusing on other work for a while. We're gearing up to do a lot of work on the game in 2014 and will have exciting new things to show you. To kick off the new year we're releasing our first Oculus Rift demo in which you can experience one small piece of our environment, the master bedroom.
Both Mike and I have Oculus Rift developer kits and have been very excited to see the RedFrame environment in VR. In fact, VR is such a qualitatively different experience that we're adjusting many of our design decisions to better support it. RedFrame feels like it always was meant to be a VR experience, and the technology has finally arrived to support it!
This demo is intended to provide the general flavor of the experience that we want to create, rather than demonstrating gameplay (there are no puzzles or interaction). We've also included a new track from our musician, Notious, who has been creating wonderful compositions for the game. You can check out his other work here.
We'd love to hear what you think!
Download
Instructions
The RedFrame Oculus demo is best experienced with a gamepad. We support Xbox, PS3, and PS4 controller on every platform.
Before playing, be sure to specify your player height and IPD in the Oculus Config Util included in the Oculus Rift SDK.
We've also included a "sitting mode" that simulates your height while sitting in a desk chair. We've found that this greatly improves realism by matching the floor that you see the floor that you feel with your feet.
ControlsDisclaimer: Own nothing. Don't seek to gain any profits from this. Just borrowing my favourite characters for some fun.
A/N: Thank you so very much all for the favourites and follows! I am humbled.
ShadowPony12, thank you for taking the time to review.
2: Shadows and the Moon
He's stronger than he looks. She's smarter than she seems.
Ruby Rose turned in her bed for the umpteenth time. "Guh," she murmured unhappily, taking her pillow from underneath her head and clutching it against her body. She curled herself around it, arms squeezing the soft material tightly. She stayed like that for five minutes, trying to will herself to sleep. However, various thoughts continued to flit through her mind behind closed lids.
She thought back to the Breach and the events that had transpired at Mountain Glenn. They had nabbed Roman Torchwick and stopped the Grimm, but many questions still remained unanswered. When she replayed her Uncle Qrow's words in her head, she felt all the more uncertain. Although she had felt proud about the achievements of Team RWBY, some part of her felt like her work just wasn't complete. And her Uncle's comments had only worsened her doubts. Just who was that woman she had encountered that night, alongside Professor Goodwitch? She was connected to Torchwick, Ruby just knew it, but they didn't have any leads.
She let go of her pillow and lay flat on her back.
Silver eyes opened.
Ruby sat up and opened her scroll to check the time. It was 11:30 PM, thirty minutes before curfew. Curfew times had been pushed back generously during the Vytal Festival Tournament. She decided to take a stroll outside; she always felt better after roaming around and looking up at the moon. Part of her actually wouldn't mind if Yang read to her again to help her fall asleep, but she knew that was now out of the question, and not just because her sister was fast asleep, snoring lightly. It was because she had to behave at least a little like a grown up, though she didn't quite get what the whole deal was with growing up that everyone else seemed to be simultaneously serious about and excited over. She didn't see why she suddenly needed useless things like people skills and had to give up on stories being read to her.
Feeling too lazy to change into her combat skirt, Ruby simply put on her shoes and tied her cape around herself so as to ward off the slight fall chill in the air. Apart from this she remained in her comfortable nightclothes. She had taken care to be quiet while she dressed so that she didn't wake her slumbering teammates. In one stealthy move she was out the door, clicking it softly shut behind her. It was not long before she stepped into the cool night air, the many well kept sprawling lawns of Beacon Academy before her.
She wandered around aimlessly before finally sitting down on one of the many benches on the side of the pavement. It was colder than what she had expected, and she was happy for the protection her cape offered her, wrapping up around her small frame to form a warm cocoon that protected her from the elements. She also pulled up her hood for good measure and then gazed up at the moon.
Even shattered, it shone brightly and looked hauntingly beautiful.
Ruby lost track of time and her surroundings as she calmly stared at the moon, all thoughts slowly leaving her mind. That's why the sudden sound of a throat clearing startled her. She jumped abruptly. "Who's there?" Subconsciously, she reached for Crescent Rose, only to realise that it wasn't there.
Leisurely, Ozpin walked towards her, his cane tapping in rhythm against the pavement. "Apologies, Miss Rose," he came to stand before the red clad teenager. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Professor Ozpin it's you!" Ruby sighed, relieved. She made a move to stand up, but he stopped her with a sweeping gesture of his hand. "Please, remain seated," he paused for a moment. "Unless of course, you were about to take your leave?"
"I, ah, actually..." she trailed off, and moved her hand to push her bangs out her face out of habit. Deciding it was rude to continue wearing her hood which hid most of her face when Ozpin was right there in front of her, she took it off so it hung behind her neck as it usually did.
Ozpin moved a few more steps so that he stood close to where Ruby sat on the bench, his hands resting comfortably on the top of his cane. The little girl looked up at him expectantly, clearly wanting to share with him what was on her mind, but unable to find the words to do so.
"What brings you here this late, Ruby? All alone no less?" Ozpin prompted.
"You could take a seat," Ruby craned her neck to make eye contact with him, all the while curling up to one side of the bench, leaving far too much space.
It reminded him how small she was, literally and figuratively.
Wordlessly, he settled down, setting his cane between his legs so that it remained supported against his knee. He looked to the side and regarded her profile. He noted that beneath the ever present red cape with attached hood, she was in fact wearing her pajamas. Coupled with her combat shoes it formed a somewhat awkward combination, but she only looked more adorable in her unorthodox attire.
When she moved her head to see him again after adjusting her cape, her silver eyes shone brilliantly, accentuated by the moonlight. Her mirrored eyes reflected hope even in the darkness. Only this time they were filled with the same doubt he had encountered when she was questioning his decision to make her leader, questioning her own capability more than his decision.
"I was just, you know, thinking," Ruby finally answered his question from earlier. Beneath the red cape that covered her frame, protecting her from the slight chill, he could tell that she was nervously twiddling her thumbs.
"So I noticed," he responded automatically.
She flushed and brushed her bangs out of her face again out of nervous habit, feeling embarrassed at being caught staring off into space. Ozpin probably expected better of her as a huntress in training and leader of Team RWBY – she recalled his words about how being leader was not just a badge to be carried into battle, but an everyday responsibility to do her very best. She shouldn't have been surprised so easily, and she felt a little stupid.
"You can always tell me what's on your mind," he prodded her gently. "Whatever it is, is clearly bothering you, after all."
Their eyes once again met. "The mission you sent us on? Mountain Glenn? Did we...did we let you down?" She asked him meekly.
"Dr. Oobleck submitted an excellent report of your work on the field," Ozpin replied. Especially about your role as leader, in fact. But he kept that little detail to himself. "You did well, Ruby." Whereas he maintained his ever-present facade of warmth and good humour, Ozpin was actually concerned that Ruby was still mulling over these matters – to the point that they were making her sleepless. There was surely more to this, and there was some type of trigger. But what? Or rather, who?
He needed to find out.
"B-but, Uncle Qrow said that I may have acted like a huntress, but I'm not thinking like one," she scratched her head and then looked down at her feet, her hair covering her face.
So Qrow was the one who had a planted a seed in the little one's head. Ozpin knew what Qrow had said was right, and he was almost proud that Ruby had taken things so seriously despite her young age and seeming naivete. He decided to approach the matter tactfully. "Ruby, you did your best, given circumstances. And I am sure, whatever mistakes you made, you learned from them, better preparing yourself for the future."
"You really think so?" She asked in a small voice, still not looking up at him.
"I know so," he told her emphatically.
"Well I kinda did learn to look out for large hidden holes in the ground and not falling into them I guess, haha," she rattled out, speaking more to herself than him, giving an awkward laugh.
"Indeed, sometimes things aren't as they seem, isn't it, Miss Rose?" Ozpin said with a certain degree of levity.
Shining silver met deep brown.
"Ah.." Ruby opened her mouth in question, unsure about how she should respond, since she didn't know what the professor was implying. But she felt very curious all of a sudden, and wanted to know what he really meant.
Happy to have her attention, Ozpin began to elaborate. "We must understand our enemy and their intentions in order to effectively neutralise them, Ruby, lest we find ourselves in a situation we could have scarcely envisioned," the change in Ozpin's tone of voice was paralleled by Ruby's serious and attentive expression. "And even more important than all this is knowing who our enemy truly is."
Ruby's eyes hardened. "You mean the enemy may not always be who we think they are?"
"Do you remember seeing the Goliath with Professor Oobleck?"
Ruby sucked in a breath of surprise and nodded. She did remember that! It had been odd and she had wanted to know more about them, but had promptly forgotten about them after the fiasco that followed not much later. "Dr. Oobleck had stopped me from attacking them! He said not every Grimm was mindless, and that the Goliath were very very old, so they weren't hostile...It's strange, don't you think?"
"It is a quandary," Ozpin acknowledged. "Attacking them without understanding them would have caused quite a bit of unnecessary conflict now, wouldn't you agree?"
Ruby gave the entire matter some thought. It made her think of a lot of things. Ultimately she felt that she didn't exactly see a reason to slay the Grimm if they didn't kill humans, either. It only seemed fair and reasonable. For his part, Ozpin didn't interrupt Ruby's train of thought just yet and let her draw her own conclusions about what he was trying to convey to her.
Ruby took her hands out from underneath her cape and neatly folded them in her lap. The silence they found themselves in was oddly comfortable, despite the seriousness of the topic at hand. "You're right," Ruby conceded, looking up at the moon.
"Do understand Miss Rose, that the Grimm are creatures of the darkness, and as a huntress, you must slay monsters to uphold," he lifted his hands to point to the calm and beautiful gardens in front of them, "the delicate peace we have worked hard to establish."
Ruby gave the headmaster a sidelong glance. "But the monsters may not always be Grimm, right?" She said with a smirk, then resumed her study of the shattered moon.
Ozpin's cool countenance didn't give away his surprise at her statement. She caught onto things quickly, and there was a depth to her simple soul that he knew was there all along. He wanted to nurture it. Bathed in the moonlight, surrounded by a faint fragrance of roses, wrapped up in a red cape, she looked like a little angel.
A strong gust of wind scattered golden leaves everywhere from the trees, glittering in the moonlight as they fell. Some of them fell on her and stuck themselves in her hair. Reflexively, she brushed them out with her hand. She kept pulling her bangs back, but to no avail as the strong wind returned them to cover her face, blocking her vision.
Ozpin reached his long arm out across the bench, grabbed her hood, and slid it over her head. "Oh!" she jumped then looked at him with bright eyes. "You'll catch a cold." His voice held a combination of concern and warmth.
"I'm fiiine!" She said cheerfully, then as if on cue, she sneezed. "Oops," she giggled.
Finally, Ozpin too regarded the moon, which unlike other times in its cycle, could not quite hide how broken it really was. Damaged. "It's unfortunate we are the biggest risk to our own peace," he picked up the thread from earlier. His voice was neutral and held no emotion. "Are you fond of the moon, Ruby?"
She shrugged in response. "I don't know, I guess. It's comforting."
"Hmm, can you imagine? In ancient times, during the night, the moon was the only source of light, of comfort."
She tilted her head and regarded him. "I never thought of it like that."
"Under the moon's watchful gaze, the dark night can be a time to rest, to find peace and solitude," he motioned his hand to gesture to the both of them, "to have a good conversation."
A contented smile came over her face in response.
"And yet," his tone became grave, "complete darkness can only bring fear."
The glow in her silver orbs dampened, but soon they shone once more. "But that's why the moon's there right?" She turned her head skyward again, to the object in question.
"Yes. Like everyone else, the moon must play its role to keep the world in balance and order." His words drew Ruby's attention to him.
"Yeah," was the lone word she uttered in reply, a knowing smile on her face. Her silver irises spoke volumes. Indeed, it was true that Ruby completely looked the part of an innocent, adorable angel. Summer had not been much different. But one look at her eyes – which were so very reminiscent of her mother – told an entirely different story, one of a warrior, of blood and steel. More importantly, they were eyes that had known loss, but still had an indomitable spirit. In that one difference, which was cruelly, ironically due to her mother, Ruby was much different from her, even if she was so painfully the same to his eyes.
"Miss Rose?"
"Professor?"
He leaned the slightest bit forward towards her. "It is getting close to curfew," he said barely above a whisper, not bothering to keep at bay an impish smile.
Ruby yelped. "Ah, no! I'm going to be late! I – " she stood up immediately, fishing out her scroll. "I only have two minutesss!" Some part of Ruby felt very weird, but she had to ignore it in favour of more pressing issues, such as making a beeline for her dorm. "Thank youuu!" She threw over her shoulder at Ozpin before disappearing in a whirlwind of rose petals.
She could have sworn she saw the most mischievous glint ever in Ozpin's eyes as she left. The kind of look Zwei had on his face whenever he did something she could never really find out, only to discover it weeks later. Out of breath, she made it to her dorm just in time. Once in her room and back in bed, she reflected back on the night's events. Something was definitely off. Well, she actually felt great, and also fairly tired – had she really spent just thirty minutes outside? Before she could think more, drowsiness consumed her, and soon enough she was fast asleep.
Meanwhile, a fuming Glynda Goodwitch confronted a certain wandering Headmaster.
"Ozpin, how could you?!"
No formalities, no politeness, no 'Professor'. She was going straight for the jugular.
"I – " he started by way of explanation.
"Save it! How can you be so irresponsible?" She exclaimed, her voice a high pitched, angry whisper. "This was worse than Qrow!" She huffed, crossing her arms.
"Now now," he tried in a soothing tone. "It wasn't even an hour."
"You know the kind of toll it takes..." the anger was now replaced with concern and some measure of resignation. Why were all the men in her life so ridiculously reckless? Though to be fair, Ozpin was usually nowhere in the same realm as reckless. In all her time with him, even his seemingly impulsive decisions turned out to be meticulously thought through. He never did anything without a reason. Even his fury was cold and controlled, almost deliberate.
Maybe that's why she was incensed. If he started doing these things as a matter of routine as well, she wasn't sure she'd be able to take it. He was supposed to be the wise one.
"What's a little tiredness for an unburdened heart?" He threw out enigmatically, passing her by.
"Don't," Glynda warned. She didn't want to hear it, and she did not need to know his reasons and motivations. It was pointless to talk of anything when it came to Ruby, because rationale just was not the prime deciding factor; wherever his faith came from was much more deep seated than mere interest in her remarkable ability.
All of a sudden, she found two pairs of hands resting on her shoulders. "You shouldn't worry so much, Glynda." He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze before removing his hands. "I'd have to abuse my power much more to put myself in danger," he chuckled.
She sighed.
"I suppose you would like some iced coffee?"
"Exactly what I was thinking," he had already settled on his desk. He smiled at her. "That would be lovely, Ms. Goodwitch, thank you."
Well, this certainly got longer than planned. Things may move beyond Volume 3 in the next edition: all events in canon would have occurred, of course.
R&R! Constructive critique, ideas, comments, everything is welcome! I also do requests.The first hurricane forecast of 2017 from Colorado State University's Department of Atmospheric Science calls for a slightly below average season and 11 named storms this year.
Researchers believe the formation of storms will be suppressed by an impending El Niño, the phenomenon of warmer-than-average water temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific.
The warmer waters tend to strengthen high-altitude winds that swirl over the tropical Atlantic Ocean, essentially blowing apart storms and making it harder for them to condense into dangerous cyclones.
"El Niños are good news for the Atlantic," said the forecast's lead author, Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at the university. "It's not 100 percent, but it's looking more likely than not that El Niño will come."
The forecast will be updated on June 1, the official start of hurricane season. This year's forecast is slightly lower than the median of 12 storms between 1981 and 2010.
The report also predicts that there will be six hurricanes among those 11 named storms: four hurricanes and two major hurricanes, which are Category 3 storms and above with sustained wind speeds of at least 111 mph. The medians between 1981 and 2010 were 6.5 hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
The forecast also suggests a lower-than-normal chance of cyclones making landfall along the U.S. coastline.
Colorado State's initial forecast last year underestimated what turned into a hyperactive storm season, which included Hurricane Hermine, the first hurricane in 11 years to make landfall in Florida. Hermine, a Category 1 storm when it came ashore in Apalachee Bay on Sept. 2, wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast and caused significant damage to shore towns like Cedar Key. In all, the storm killed two people and caused an estimated $550 million damage.
Weeks later, Hurricane Matthew tore through the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm and skirted Florida's Atlantic coast on Oct. 7, weakened but still dangerous. Even though it never made landfall, Matthew did an incredible amount of damage. There were 585 deaths linked to the storm, more than 90 percent of which were in Haiti.
In the U.S., there were 34 deaths, including two people who died in Florida as a direct result of Matthew. The hurricane forced more than 3 million people to evacuate from coastal regions in the southeastern and mid-atlantic states. It also caused about $10 billion of damage in the U.S. alone, making it the 10th most destructive hurricane to affect the nation.
During Florida's unprecedented hurricane drought, experts warned that millions of people moved into the state who had never experienced hurricanes before and were unfamiliar with the dangers. And they feared that longtime Floridians had also grown complacent.
"The 2016 hurricane season showed the state of Florida that yeah, we really are vulnerable to hurricanes," said Dennis Feltgen, meteorologist and spokesman for the National Hurricane Center. "This was an experience to people who had never been through one and a wake up call to those who had experience with them."
Will Floridians be more prepared this year?
"I would think so," he said. "Particularly those that were directly impacted by the hurricanes, absolutely."
Another factor contributing to this year's below average outlook is the water temperatures in the tropical and north Atlantic ocean. North Atlantic temperatures have been colder, while tropical Atlantic temperatures plummeted from warmer-than-normal temperatures to cooler-than-normal temperatures in just the last couple weeks. Colder water suppresses hurricanes, which feed on warm water.
Colder Atlantic waters and El Niño would have a synergistic effect, working together to suppress storms. Klotzbach predicts there will be 50 days during which a named storm exists, and 16 hurricane days. The median during that period from 1981 to 2010 is 60.1 and 21.3 days, respectively.
Landfall probabilities, too, are lower than their long-term average. The chance of a hurricane making landfall on the American east coast, including Florida, is 51 percent, according to Klotzbach's forecast. That coast has been hit at least once by a hurricane in 61 of the last 100 years.
The chances of a hurricane striking the entire coastline — including the Gulf of Mexico, so from Maine to the U.S.-Mexican border — is 75 percent. Data suggests the probability of landfall over the last century is 84 percent.
Another thing to keep in mind this year, Klotzbach said, is that there has been a lot of late-season hurricane activity in recent years.
September, he said, is normally the peak of the season, "but last year was an unusual season in that it was pretty quiet through September, and then October was very active." Last year, Hurricane Nicole struck Bermuda in October and Hurricane Otto formed in late November, making it the latest storm on record to form in the Atlantic.
Even though Colorado State's forecast for this year calls for a less active season and below normal chances of a storm making landfall, Klotzbach said it's important for residents up and down the coast to keep their guard up.
"Even if our forecasts are dead on perfect, we can't predict where the storms are going to go," he said, "and it only takes one for it to be an active season for you."
Contact Josh Solomon at (813) 909-4613 or [email protected] Follow @josh_solomon15.NEW DELHI : A South Korean team carried out a study on the feasibility of increasing train speed from the current 130 km per hour to 200 kmph on the Delhi-Mumbai route.Led by Jeo ll Song of Korea Rail Road Network Authority, a state-run rail road construction giant, the team of South Korean Rail Road officials have been carrying out a survey on the Delhi-Palwal section of the route to devise methods to increase it's speed potential.The team is expected to submit its report within six months.The aim of the plan is to reduce the travelling time between Delhi and Mumbai by increasing train speed, said a senior Northern Railway official.Officials of RITES and Delhi Division accompanied the team to familiarise them with the intricacies of maintenance and operation here.Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his maiden Rail Budget speech had said that the speed of nine railway corridors will be increased from the existing 110 and 130 km per hour to 160 and 200 kmph, respectively, so that inter-metro journeys like Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai can be completed overnight.The Korean team interacted with Railways'Delhi Division officials to understand the present track, signalling and overhead line infrastructure and the efforts made in the past for increasing the speed potential.Pistol seized in Stamford road rage incident
STAMFORD — Police are investigating a road rage incident where a woman pulled a gun on another driver.
The incident on Pequot Drive Wednesday afternoon caused an accident when another driver backed up to avoid the confrontation, Sgt. Richard Phelan said.
“They were trying to get out of there,” Phelan said.
Phelan said police obtained the license plate number of the vehicle the woman was driving and discovered she had a permit to carry and registered pistol.
The 29-year-old woman was called to the police station where she surrendered her pistol permit and semiautomatic Glock gun pending further investigation, Phelan said.
The other person involved in the road rage incident did not file a police report.
No arrests have been made.The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage on the story of race and Appalachia. The restaurateur and author Eddie Huang on racial stereotypes and diversity in Hollywood. Leon and Rosina Watson on marrying across the color line in 1950 — when it was still illegal in much of the country.
Over the past year, we have hosted weekly live conversations about race and ethnicity on Facebook, tackling topics that ranged from black royalty to Latino baseball players to Asian-American slurs. RaceNYT, as we call the segment, is an extension of the crucial coverage on race — in America and beyond — that appears in The New York Times. We see it as a chance not only to explore important stories of race and what they mean to society, but also to give you, our readers and viewers, a chance to join the conversation.
These subjects are not always easy to talk about. Why, for instance, is affordable housing built mostly in poor, heavily minority areas? What are the terms about race that make us uncomfortable? And what do the United States and major institutions like universities owe the descendants of the enslaved people they profited from?
We explored these issues and more with a wide range of guests, including political strategists, filmmakers, academics and Times viewers. Here are five takeaways from the show:
1. Racial issues transcend oceansLast month, Google Home got a feature many users had been longing for since launch: the ability to play songs uploaded to or purchased from Google Play Music. Before that, you could only play songs in Google's catalog, which is kind of useless if you're not a subscriber. Unfortunately, it seems that users are experiencing mixed success with the new feature and Google is now investigating the problems.
According to reports on the Help Forum, users' issues have varied. Some have been able to play one specific song from their personal library before Play Music then switches to genre-based suggestions from Google's online collection. Others find that requests to play everything from a certain artist fall on deaf ears, with Google Home asking the user to try again when they're ready. Another poster said this worked if the artist didn't have their music on Google Play and was only found in their own library.
In another curious case, a user reported that Google Home fails to find some uploaded music when asked, but that same content can be accessed on a phone and then cast to Home. The most success seems to come from requesting playlists, which is fine, but unless you want to put all your songs in one playlist and shuffle them, it's not all that helpful.
All in all, it paints a confusing picture of functionality that doesn't seem quite ready for the prime time, and Google is now looking into it. On the forum, Paula responded, saying that she and the Google Home team were aware of the issue and are investigating to find a solution. She asks that users submit feedback (adding the keyword GHT3) with a detailed description to help them recreate the issues and look into each case.
It's frustrating that the feature isn't working right, especially after waiting for so long for it, but at least Google has acknowledged it quickly and is looking into it. Let us know about your own experiences in the comments, and we'll bring you further news as we get it.Story highlights Shweta Katti grew up above a brothel in Mumbai's red-light district
She says she was sexually abused when she was about 11 or 12
But Katti has risen above her circumstances and won a scholarship at a U.S. college
"Every girl has it within herself," says Katti, who starts school in the fall
"My mother says I will make a name for myself."
Shweta Katti sings lyrics from a popular Bollywood song that has special meaning to her.
Growing up in Mumbai's largest red-light district, in a makeshift room above a brothel, Katti often found it difficult to study and stay focused on her future.
"I was young. I didn't know how to deal with the situation," said Katti, now 18. "There were men who used to ask me, 'Do you want to sleep with me?' "
Katti says she was sexually abused around age 11 or 12. It was hard to imagine a way out.
But with inspiration from her mother and help from a local charity, Katti is now much more optimistic. She won a scholarship to Bard College in New York, and she is set to enroll this fall.
"I don't know what I'm going to find out there, but I'm really excited," Katti told CNN's Kristie Lu Stout. "This is going to be an adventure for me: a new place, new people, new culture."
Shweta Katti wants to study psychology so she can help other women back home, she said.
Katti's unlikely journey has received global attention. Newsweek recently named her one of 25 women to watch under age 25.
It would not have been possible without the help of Kranti, a charity that is empowering girls from Mumbai's red-light districts.
"Everyone looks at these girls like, 'Poor them, they're victims, they're just going to suffer and have such terrible lives,' " said Kranti founder Robin Chaurasiya. "But the fact is that people who go through all of these situations and experience these hardships I personally believe are going to make the most amazing leaders."
Katti credits her mother, Vandana, for encouraging her move to Kranti, which means "revolution" in Hindi.
Photos: Girl Rising Photos: Girl Rising Girl Rising – To be born a girl in Afghanistan is often to be ushered into a life of servitude, where girls have very little worth and very dim futures. Amina is forced to marry at 12, to bear a child though still a child herself -- while her own brother is given her dowry money to buy a used car. But Amina, whose name was changed and story portrayed by an actress out of concern for her safety, has had enough, and she is fighting back.
CNN Films' "Girl Rising" tells the stories of Amina and other girls from around the world and how the power of education can change the world. Learn more about the girls' inspiring stories.
(From 10x10) Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Girl Rising Girl Rising – "What if a girl's life could be more?" When Azmera turned 13, it was time for the Ethiopian girl to be given to a stranger in marriage, like her mother and grandmother before her. But Azmera refused. Azmera is fearful, but she is not alone. She has a champion beside her: an older brother who would give up anything for his sister to be able to stay in school. Together, brother and sister dare to reject her fate. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Girl Rising Girl Rising – "Poetry is how I turn ugliness into art." La Rinconada, Peru, is a bleak corner of the world that regularly turns out two things: gold from deep within its mountain, which is immediately sent far away; and despair, which remains. Senna's is the poorest of the poor mining families clinging to that mountain. Every day is a struggle. Yet, somehow, she was given two magnificent gifts: a father who named her for a warrior princess and insisted that she goes to school, and a talent with words. And when Senna discovered poetry, everything changed. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Girl Rising Girl Rising – "Change is like a song you can't hold back." Suma's brothers are sent to school, but her parents have no money for a daughter's education. Given into bonded servitude at age 6, Suma labors in the house of a master from before dawn until late at night. For years, the Nepali girl suffers in silence, until music gives her a voice. A stroke of luck and kindness gives Suma a chance to go to school -- and a crusader is born. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Girl Rising Girl Rising – "I will come back every day until I |
and read two more BITS in this post.]3 » No. 5 Gators softball (12-0) spent its first weekend of the 2013 season plowing through opponents out west in the Kajikawa Classic. One weekend later, the location changed but the game play remained the same as Florida trounced its competition in the Lipton Invitational at the friendly confines of Pressly Softball Stadium in Gainesville, FL. The Gators outscored their opponents by a combined 54-4 over six games in a three-day span. Florida beat the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks 10-0 on Friday and 9-1 on Sunday, shutout the Savannah State Tigers 12-0 on Friday and 14-0 on Sunday, took down the Western Carolina Catamounts 5-0 on Saturday, and squeaked past the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 4-3 on Sunday in an extra-inning affair.
Four Florida players led the way offensively with sophomore first baseman Lauren Haeger (7/15, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 4 R, 3 BB) at the top of the pack. Also making big contributions were sophomore outfielder Jessica Damico (4/11, HR, 5 RBI, 5 R, 3 BB, SB), freshman second baseman Kelsey Stewart (8/20, HR, 4 RBI, 6 R, 3 BB, 7 SB) and freshman OF Kirsti Merritt (4/9, HR, 5 RBI, 6 R, 3 BB, 2 SB – four games). A solo homer by Haeger in the bottom of the seventh on Sunday against Charleston Southern sent the game into extra innings, and Damico ended the contest in the bottom of the eighth as she tripled to score the final run of the game. Each of UF’s pitchers picked up a pair of wins over the weekend including Haeger (4-0, 11.0 IP, 5 H, ER, 2 BB, HBP, 15 K), sophomore right-handeder Alyssa Bache (3-0, 10.0 IP, 3 H, BB, 14 K) and junior RHP Hannah Rogers (4-0, 15.0 IP, 9 H, ER [3 R], 5 BB, 13 K).
4 » No. 1 Gators gymnastics (6-1, 5-1 SEC) once again proved why it is being labeled as the best team in the country as it came from behind to take down the No. 9 Georgia Gym Dogs (5-5-1, 3-1-1 SEC) on Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd of 9,971 at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, GA. Florida ousted Georgia 197.30-196.175 despite losing two team events (vault, uneven bars) and barely winning the floor exercise. A strong performance on the balance beam gave the Gators a significant 49.300-48.125 advantage over the GymDogs in the event, catapulting them to victory. Freshman Bridget Sloan picked up her third-straight all-around title with a 39.60 and also won bars with a 9.95.[/EXPAND]A mini-pitch in Newark. (U.S. Soccer Foundation)
Growing up in New York, first in Brooklyn and then North Babylon, Ed Foster-Simeon played basketball whenever he wanted. There were courts in his Bushwick neighborhood and courts at the Long Island schoolyards.
Friends got together and played pickup games for hours, learning and loving the game through boyhood experiences. There was nothing formal about it: Kids developed their own style, chemistry and nuance without adult supervision.
“I didn’t see a coach until I was in eighth grade,” he recalled in an interview this week.
Decades later, as president and chief executive of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Foster-Simeon is applying the lessons of street basketball to soccer. On Wednesday, he will join Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former U.S. men’s and women’s national team players in announcing plans to build 50 mini-pitches over three years in the city’s underserved neighborhoods.
Mini-pitches are outdoor hard surfaces, the size of a tennis court, where small-sided matches foster technical skill and creativity — not unlike pickup basketball in parks and schools around the country. By making mini-pitches accessible to children who otherwise do not have the opportunity or resources to play regularly, Foster-Simeon said, the number of players is sure to swell.
“Growing up with basketball, no one had to tell us to compete,” he said. “You didn’t want to lose; you wanted to stay on the court. We think that same soccer culture exists here in this country. It’s just creating the access and opportunity.”
The issue of expanding opportunity and developing players comes at a time when the U.S. soccer community, stung by the failure of the men’s national team to qualify for the World Cup this fall, is seeking ways to reach youths, particularly in minority communities, who have slipped through the cracks. Furthermore, many blame costly club programs for marginalizing hopeful players.
“Pay to play doesn’t work for them,” Foster-Simeon said. “Neither does the idea of, ‘Let’s get in the minivan and go to the soccer complex for practice.’ It doesn’t work for a large number of children. So creating opportunities in the neighborhood where kids live and creating a safe place for them to play, we think solves a number of problems. By eliminating the cost barrier, kids are getting introduced to the game, having a chance to play and developing a love for it.
“Some of those kids will be good — there’s no question, just by the law of averages.”
[In D.C., a small step toward solving U.S. youth soccer issues]
The effort began with a public-private partnership in New York — 10 mini-pitches opened in October, with 40 more on the way — and will turn to places such as Philadelphia and Los Angeles in the future. The goal is to build 1,000 nationwide by 2026.
The D.C.-based U.S. Soccer Foundation — not to be confused with the sport’s governing body, the Chicago-based U.S. Soccer Federation — was founded in 1994 with the $50 million surplus from the World Cup hosted by the United States that summer. The nonprofit’s mission is to grow the sport through grants to communities and soccer organizations, but also by establishing sports-based youth initiatives, particularly in neglected areas.
The latest mini-pitch project gained support from the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund, which gifted $3 million. Each pitch costs $60,000 and takes about three weeks to build. The Chicago effort will begin in earnest when the weather breaks in the spring.
Wednesday’s ceremony will include, among others, former U.S. stars Brian McBride and Kristine Lilly. The project has enlisted the Chicago Park District and MLS’s Chicago Fire.
“These new soccer pitches will give young people across Chicago state-of-the-art places to play and learn one of the world’s most exciting and popular games,” Emanuel said in a written statement. “This partnership provides a great opportunity for our youth to stay active, and gain teamwork and leadership skills that will serve them on and off the field throughout their lives.”
Germany identified the benefits of mini-pitches after it hosted the 2006 World Cup, building more than 1,000 around the country.
In recent years, MLS teams have been involved in mini-pitch openings.
The U.S. foundation’s Soccer for Success, an after-school program, uses the outdoor spaces to further introduce the game to children.
And in their free time, those same kids just might return for pickup soccer.
“I wouldn’t underestimate the value of getting kids playing soccer in that kind of format,” Foster-Simeon said of playground facilities. “The tight spaces on the mini-pitch, their skill development will naturally develop. It has to — or you lose the ball.”
More soccer coverage:
U.S. Soccer will have a new president, but Sunil Gulati isn’t going to disappear
Did you tune out after the U.S. failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup? Catch up here.
That nutty idea of a World Cup for failed countries? Don’t hold your breath.Hurricane Irene will parallel the Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coasts Friday as it approaches a Saturday landfall in North Carolina.
Officials in counties and cities along much of the East Coast ordered evacuations.
Follow the latest developments here, or read the full CNN Wire story:
[Updated 11:00 p.m.] New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said cats and dogs would be welcome at the emergency shelters set up for people fleeing the storm.
“If you have your pet bring them with you. … No one should be staying in their homes in an endangered area because they feel like they can't bring their pets with them," Christie said.
Mark Lavorgna, a mayoral spokesman, confirmed that pets are allowed in the 91 emergency evacuation shelters set up in preparation for Hurricane Irene. But “we strongly, strongly argue against it,” he said. “We urge people to bring their pets to friends or familiy’s houses or shelters outside Zone A, but if people need to bring them they can,” said Lavorgna. “They should come leashed and muzzled.”
[Updated 10:36 p.m.] North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the state was prepared but cautious. "We urge people to just be really aware. It doesn't sound like a huge storm right now - 50 mile-an-hour winds - but we think it's going to stay over our state 10 or 12 hours and that's where the problem becomes," she said.
Perdue then referenced reports of a bowl-shaped part of the low-lying coastline that is especially vulnerable to high waters.
"That bowl that you were talking about earlier full of water, it's going to dump somewhere, and when it dumps there's going to be a surge of water and who knows what'll happen," Perdue said.
Irene targets heavily populated, least prepared urban areas
[Updated 10:23 p.m.] The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island will be closed Saturday through Monday because of Hurricane Irene, according to Jane Ahern, public affairs chief of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island.
All units of the Gateway National Recreation Area, Governor’s Island and all National Park sites in Manhattan will be closed to visitors Saturday and Sunday, with a chance of opening Monday depending on storm damage and a safety assessment.
“The safety of our visitors and employees is our top priority at this time,” said National Parks of New York Harbor Commissioner Maria Burkes. “Our park employees are currently working diligently to protect park resources per our Emergency Response Plans.”
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[Updated 10:05 p.m.] Russell Honoré, the general famous for his management of the federal government's military response to Hurricane Katrina, told CNN's Piers Morgan Friday night that local authorities were right in calling for mass evacuations in low-lying areas along the Eastern Seaboard.
“I think we have had a cultural shift in government because, working with hurricanes for about the last 10 to 12 years while I was in uniform, local governments and governors were reluctant to make that decision to evacuate because of the impact [of what would happen] if they evacuated people and the storm didn’t come," he said. "But the options of not evacuating people, with the warnings that we have now and the accuracy of prediction, (it) needs to be done,” Honoré said.
[Updated 9:53 p.m.] Maryland's Martin O'Malley was one of several East Coast governors to declare a state of emergency in advance of the storm. Residents of low-lying areas in the state were told to evacuate ahead of what the governor called "a very dangerous and potentially deadly hurricane."
The governor said Friday that "anybody that thinks that this is a normal hurricane and that they can just stick it out is being both selfish, stupid and also diverting essential public safety assets away from the task at hand, which is safeguarding lives and getting people out of the way."
[Updated 9:40 p.m.] The Port Authority has announced the closing of five airports - JFK International, Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia, Teterboro and Stewart International - to all arriving passenger flights, international and domestic, starting at noon Saturday.
[Updated 9:15 p.m.] Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper Friday night, stressing the strength and size of the storm heading toward the Northeast.
“For some folks this will be the most significant event perhaps in 20 years from a tropical system,” Rappaport said.
He said unlike typical storms that follow a similar trajectory and curve move toward the sea, Irene"s forecast track comes very close to the shore.
"That means all the weather that's usually, in this case, worst to the east will be much closer to the metropolitan areas this time around," Rappaport said, "and in fact will definitely hit the southern New England area and since there are strong winds, high surge right near the center of the storm, we'll see some of that along the East Coast as well."
[Updated 8:53 p.m.] “The core of the hurricane” was barreling toward the North Carolina coast Friday night, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin. “The hurricane is forecast to move near or over the Mid-Atlantic Coast Saturday night and move over southern New England on Sunday.”
The weather service said maximum sustained winds would remain near 100 mph - a category two hurricane - and wouldn’t weaken until some time Sunday.
“Interests in southeastern Canada should monitor the progress of Irene,” the weather service said.
[Updated 8:38 p.m.] The Giants-Jets game, originally scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed until Monday, the NFL said in a press release.
"Along with the NFL office and the Jets, we have closely monitored the hurricane and the forecast and its potential impact on our area for the past several days," said Giants President and CEO John Mara. "After conferring with (New Jersey) Governor (Chris) Christie, (Jets owner) Woody Johnson and (NFL) Commissioner (Roger) Goodell, we have determined the best course of action for the safety and well being of all is to move the game to Monday night."
See other events postponed or canceled
[Updated 6:33 p.m.] With public transportation halted due to the incoming storm, all Broadway performances on Saturday and Sunday have been canceled, according to Paul Libin, chairman of the Broadway League.
“The safety and security of theatregoers and employees is everyone's primary concern,” Libin said. “As a result of the suspension of public transportation by government authorities in preparation of Hurricane Irene, all performances will be cancelled on Saturday, August 27th and Sunday, August 28th.”
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/weather/2011/08/26/md.irene.surfers.wusa"%5D
CNN on the ground: 'Good Night, Irene' and 'Go Away, Irene'
[Updated 6:08 p.m.] The mayor of Annapolis, Maryland, declared an emergency and announced that more police officers will be on patrol in the city.
Police Chief Michael Pristoop warned residents to take police orders seriously. “Everyone needs to be prepared for the worst," he said. "I encourage everyone to evacuate the low-lying areas of Annapolis before Saturday afternoon. Make sure you secure your homes and belongings. Once we begin to feel the affects of the hurricane, everyone should stay off the streets as wires and trees may come down. Don't put yourself in harm's way and don't put our emergency personnel in a position that could have been avoided."
Obama: Irene likely to be 'historic'
[Updated 5:47 p.m.] President Barack Obama has declared an emergency in New York as the state and surrounding region brace for Hurricane Irene’s impact.
Obama’s order mobilizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and means federal aid will be used to buoy state and local relief efforts in preparation for the storm.
[Updated at 5:00 p.m.] A hurricane warning has been issued from north of Sandy Hook to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts, including New York, Long Island, Long Island Sound, coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
[Updated at 4:34 p.m.] Greyhound said it has delayed or canceled several East Coast routes in preparation for the storm.
Some routes originating in New York; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C. and Raleigh, North Carolina, have been either pushed back or canceled, the company said on its website.
[Updated at 4:15 p.m.] The Red Cross plans to open shelters and dispatch more than 200 mobile feeding vehicles to the East Coast to aid people in the storm's path, the organization said on its website.
KFOR: Oklahomans help with Hurricane Irene
"The Red Cross is moving volunteers, vehicles and supplies, getting ready for a response effort that spans nearly the entire East Coast," Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, said in a statement on the site. "We want everyone in the storm's path to get ready as well by getting a disaster kit, making a family emergency plan, and listening to local officials regarding evacuations."
[Updated at 2:31 p.m.] Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said his city, which is under hurricane warning, will not order evacuations but urged residents, especially those in flood-prone areas, to use common sense and evacuate if necessary.
Significant localized flooding is expected, he said, as are power outages that could last for several hours or even days. He said the city will open three shelters Saturday evening with a maximum capacity to accommodate 6,000 people.
[Updated at 2:26 p.m.] The first family will accompany President Barack Obama when he departs Martha's Vineyard to return to Washington on Friday evening, a White House spokesman said.
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[Updated at 2:21 p.m.] American Airlines has tentatively canceled all flights in the Washington area from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, said spokesman Ed Martelle. The airline has also canceled all flights at Raleigh-Durham International Airport scheduled for Saturday.
JetBlue has canceled almost 900 flights in the Northeast ahead of the storm. Most of those are Sunday and Monday flights out of the New York metro area and Boston, said spokesman Mateo Lleras.
[Updated at 2:10 p.m.] Hurricane Irene's winds have dropped to 100 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
As of 2 p.m., the service reported, the hurricane was about 300 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, moving north at 14 mph.
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[Updated at 2:01 p.m.] New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said low-lying sections of the city, mostly along the city's waterfront, are under mandatory evacuation orders. The mandatory evacuations, which affect all five boroughs, are the first in New York's history, he said.
Click here to see the areas being evacuated.
[Updated at 1:50 p.m.] Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said 30 agencies are coordinating ahead of Hurricane Irene’s weekend arrival. The state is taking several precautions, he said, including drawing down state reservoirs to provide additional capacity in the event of torrential rains.
Residents should make certain they have supplies and enough food, water, batteries and necessary medications to last for a couple of days.
The worst of the storm is expected Saturday night into Sunday, Patrick said, and downed trees and power lines are expected. He urged residents to stay off the roads. If travel is a must, try to complete it Friday before the storm arrives, he said.
As for air travel, the governor said, as of now, Logan International Airport will remain open, but there will “undoubtedly” be service interruptions.
Patrick said he was aware that this is one of the last summer weekends and said boaters and swimmers should be cautious about riptides and strong currents.
[1:46 p.m. ET] Hurricane Irene threatens nearly 10% of the nation's oil refining capacity that lies in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware, CNNMoney reports.
Gasoline futures traded in New York have spiked, rising 10 cents a gallon this week, largely on fears there will be a disruption in output from the refineries, barge routes or pipelines serving the heavily populated Eastern Seaboard.
[1:42 p.m. ET] New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered up to 900 National Guard troops to report for storm relief efforts.
Cuomo's office also said New York bridges will be closed to traffic if sustained wind speeds exceed 60 mph. The New York State Thruway and possibly other major highways will also be closed if those wind speeds are reached as Hurricane Irene passes.
[1:32 p.m. ET] The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority will begin a systemwide shutdown beginning at noon Saturday, the New York governor's office says.
[1:23 p.m. ET] The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority will halt all service beginning at 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says. It is the first time ever for such an event.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says New Jersey Transit will suspend service beginning at noon Saturday.
[1:10 p.m. ET] Evacuations have begun at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, official says. About 240 patients will be moved. The hospital is about 2 feet above sea level.
[12:56 p.m ET] President Barack Obama will depart Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, this evening, White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said. The National Hurricane Center says it expects to tropical weather watches and warnings to be extended to the New England area this afternoon.
[12:43 p.m. ET] The PGA Tour says The Barclays tournament in Edison, New Jersey, will be shortened to 54 holes so it can be completed before Hurricane Irene moves into the area. The tournament will be complete at the end of Saturday's third round, the PGA Tour said in a statement. The tournament is the first of four playoff events for the tour's FedExCup championship.
Also, Major League Soccer said Saturday's game between the Portland Timbers and D.C. United at RFK Stadium in Washington has been postponed. A make-up date will be announced next week, the league said.
[12:22 p.m. ET] The U.S. Army has ordered the evacuation of Fort Monroe, Virginia, the home of its Training and Doctrine Command. The installation will close at 6 p.m. Friday and will not reopen until any damage from Hurricane Irene has been assessed, according to the fort's website. The fort is on an island at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
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[11:49 a.m. ET] Amtrak and major U.S. airlines began canceling routes and flights or putting them on a watch list as Hurricane Irene approached. Southwest Airlines said Friday it would suspend service to Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday. AirTran Airlines canceled 28 flights for Saturday, including flights to New York, Boston and Washington. A quarter of the 400 scheduled flights Saturday at Raleigh-Durham Airport had been canceled, a spokeswoman said Friday.
Check the latest travel developments here.
[11:34 a.m. ET] President Barack Obama warned people in the path of Hurricane Irene to take the dangers of the storm seriously and get prepared now.
"If you are in the projected path of this hurricane, you have to take precautions now," Obama said Friday morning. "All indications point to this being a historic hurricane."
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[11:16 a.m. ET] Staten Island University Hospital in New York has begun evacuating patients, SILive.com reports. Up to 240 patients will be transferred to safer locations and other non-critical patients are being discharged, according to the report.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/weather/2011/08/26/zarrella.nyc.hurricane.preps.cnn"%5D
[11:07 a.m. ET] The National Hurricane Center says it does not expect Hurricane Irene to strengthen before it makes landfall in North Carolina. In its 11 a.m. ET update, Irene had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph with higher gusts. Irene is a Category 2 hurricane. Category 2 storms have winds of 96 mph to 110 mph. Winds of that speed are described as extremely dangerous and capable of causing extensive damage.
[10:59 a.m. ET] The government of the Bahamas has discontinued all warnings associated with Hurricane Irene, the National Hurricane Center says.
[10:55 a.m. ET] Hurricane Irene's maximum sustained winds have dropped to 105 mph, the National Hurricane Center reports. The outer bands of the storm are nearing the North Carolina coast, it says. The storm is moving north at about 14 mph.
[10:25 a.m. ET] Power outages from Hurricane Irene could last a week or more, especially away from urban areas, FEMA administrator Craig Fugate says.
[10:21 a.m. ET] Nursing homes and a hospital in low-lying portions of the New York City area are beginning the evacuation process, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says.
[10:16 a.m. ET] "All of the planning and preparation will be in vain if people don’t heed those evacuation orders," Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate said at a briefing Friday morning.
[10:12 a.m. ET] A total of 70 military aircraft from bases along the East Coast will take refuge from Hurricane Irene at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, CNN affiliate WDTN reports.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/weather/2011/08/26/romo.irene.approaches.cnn"%5D
[10:08 a.m. ET] Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says people in the path of Hurricane Irene could be cut off from services for days after the storm passes.
"We do anticipate a significant amount of power outage," she said
[9:53 a.m. ET] Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley says residents who ignore mandatory evacuation orders could be forcibly removed by police if the officers deem their presence a threat to public welfare.
"It is the height of selfishness not to evacuate," he told CNN.
[9:48 a.m. ET] In Hyde County, North Carolina, a caravan of school buses left Friday morning carrying evacuees, under a mandatory evacuation order, to shelters as far away as Raleigh, 140 miles away. Many of those evacuating were Hispanic employees of Charles Carawan's seafood packaging business.
But Carawan and his family weren't among those planning to leave.
The 66-year-old owner of Mattamuskeet Seafood, his wife and son plan to ride out the storm along with about $500,000 worth of frozen crab they hope to keep frozen with a rented generator.
"I have nowhere else to go," Carawan said.
[9:26 a.m. ET] Thirty-eight Navy ships have gone out to sea because of Hurricane Irene, a U.S. Navy official told CNN on Friday.
[9:01 a.m. ET] President Barack Obama will deliver a statement on Hurricane Irene at 1130 a.m. this morning from his vacation home in Martha's Vineyard.
[8:52 a.m. ET] Casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, are expected to shut down for only the third time in their history as Hurricane Irene approaches, the Press of Atlantic City reports.
"We are counting all the money and putting it in the bank and taking the chips off the tables," Dennis Gomes, chief executive officer of Resorts Casino Hotel, was quoted as saying.
The casino closure is necessary as Atlantic County ordered a mandatory evacuation order for all areas east of U.S. Route 9 through the county, which includes the barrier islands.
Previous casino shutdowns were from Hurricane Gloria in 1985 and in 2006 when state gaming inspectors were off the job for three days, the Press reported.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/08/26/exp.am.stephen.flynn.cnn"%5D
[8:39 a.m. ET] Insurers could be footing a massive bill from Hurricane Irene, CNNMoney reports.
Shares of Allstate, MetLife and the Travelers Companies Inc. fell 3% Thursday in anticipation of Hurricane Irene, which was heading for a long swath of coastline from North Carolina to New York.
Insurers have had a bad year, stemming from destructive storms that swept through the Midwest and Southern states in the spring.
Insured losses could total $13.9 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/08/26/am.irene.bill.read.two.cnn"%5D
[8:06 a.m. ET] Tropical storm conditions are expected to hit the North Carolina coast in the late morning to early afternoon, says Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center.
Read says that will just be the beginning of a weekend of dangerous weather for the East Coast, as Hurricane Irene brings high winds, heavy rain and dangerous surf to areas from North Carolina northward to Maine.
“It will not be safe at the beaches anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard this weekend,” said.
Inland areas can expect problems, too.
"Very heavy rain on saturated soil will lead to flash flooding," Read said.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/weather/2011/08/26/am.zarrella.irene.nc.cnn"%5D
[8:00 a.m. ET] Hurricane Irene remains a high-level Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, the National Hurricane Center says.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/08/26/exp.am.governor.perdue.cnn"%5D
[7:34 a.m. ET] Ferry evacuations from barrier islands in North Carolina are nearly complete, Gov. Beverly Perdue said Friday morning.
"We're praying for the best and preparing for the worst," Perdue told CNN.
See the latest state-by-state updates on Hurricane Irene.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/08/26/mxp.irene.ny.storm.surge.map.hln"%5D
[7:30 a.m. ET] Hurricane Irene could hit New Jersey during the weekend with the strength of a Category 2 storm. The Newark Star-Ledger reports that while tropical storms are common in the state, it has only been hit by two tropical systems at hurricane strength, in 1903 and 1821.
[7:20 a.m. ET] A mandatory evacuation of barrier islands in Cape May County, New Jersey, has been ordered beginning at 8 a.m. Friday.
Cape May County Emergency Management Director Frank McCall said as many as 760,00 people including residents and vacationers could be in the county, according to a report from the Cape May County Herald.
[6:26 a.m. ET] New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority says a partial or full shut down of transit services in the New York City area may be necessary as Hurricane Irene approaches.
According to the New York Daily News, the authority would begin to stop services 12 hours before the storm makes landfall. A shutdown would follow a 10- to 12-hour evacuation period that would take place during daylight, the Daily News reports.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/08/25/jk.pepco.rigby.power.outages.cnn"%5D
[6:05 a.m. ET] Eight people were injured in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Thursday when a wave estimated at nine feet high swept them off a jetty, CNN affiliate WPTV-TV reports.
"It's not really describable, it was like a wall of water. It took me, put me down, and pushed me up against the other rail and I was pretty much pinned there until the water went back out," victim Spencer Kinard told WPTV.
The eight suffered injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises, according to the WPTV report.
[5:58 a.m. ET] Hurricane Irene could bring a storm surge of six to 11 feet above normal levels along the North Carolina coast, the National Hurricance Center warns in its 5 a.m. update.
Surge could be four to eight feet in Chesapeake Bay and three to six feet on the New Jersey shore, the hurricane center says.
High, dangerous waves will ride atop the storm surge.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/08/25/exp.fema.jkusa.crowley.cnn"%5D
[5:51 a.m. ET] The temporary home of a top tourist attraction in Nassau, Bahamas, was destroyed by Hurricane Irene, the Palm Beach Post reports.
A large tent that has been the home of the city's straw market, a maze of vendors selling woven baskets, beaded necklaces and other souvenirs, was blown apart by Irene's winds, the paper reports.
The market has been in the tent since 2001 after its original location was destroyed by fire.
[5:36 a.m. ET] Hurricane Irene is bringing up memories of Hurricane Isabel from September 2003 for people on North Carolina's Outer Banks, CNN affiliate WRAL-TV reports.
Isabel made landfall between Ocracoke and Cape Lookout as a Category 2 storm with a storm surge of six to eight feet, WRAL reported.
Isabel carved a new inlet out of Hatteras Island.
"It looked like a bomb had hit Hatteras Island. It was a total wipe-out of Hatteras Village," WRAL quoted tackle shop owner Stephen Hissy as saying.
[5:15 a.m. ET] Hurricane Irene weakened slightly in the National Hurricane Center's 5 a.m. update. The storm is now a Category 2 hurricane as its winds fell to 110 mph, just below the 111 mph threshold for a Category 3 storm.
Hurricane watches and warnings have been extended up the East Coast.
[cnn-video url=" http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/08/25/exp.ac.flynn.hurricane.irene.cnn"%5DFor other uses, see Puma
Puma is a genus in the family Felidae that contains the cougar (also known as the puma, among other names), and may also include several poorly known Old World fossil representatives (for example, Puma pardoides, or Owen's panther, a large, cougar-like cat of Eurasia's Pliocene).[2][3] In addition to these potential Old World fossils, a few New World fossil representatives are possible, such as Puma pumoides[4] and the two proposed species of the so-called "American cheetah".[5]
Description [ edit ]
Pumas are large, secretive cats. They are also commonly known as cougars and mountain lions, and are able to reach larger sizes than some other "big" cat individuals. Despite their large size, they are thought to be more closely related to smaller feline species. The seven subspecies of pumas all have similar characteristics, but tend to vary in color and size. Pumas are thought to be one of the most adaptable of felines on the American continents, because they are found in a variety of different habitats, unlike other various cat species.[6]
Extant species [ edit ]
Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution Puma concolor cougar northern Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes
Distribution and habitat [ edit ]
Members of the genus Puma are primarily found in the mountains of North and South America, where a majority of individuals can be found in rocky crags and pastures lower than the slopes grazing herbivores inhabit. Though they choose to inhabit those areas, they are highly adaptive and can be found in a large variety of habitats, including forests, tropical jungle, grasslands, and even arid desert regions. Unfortunately, with the expansion of human settlements and land clearance, the cats are being pushed into smaller, more hostile areas. However, their high adaptability will likely allow them to avoid disappearing from the wild forever.[6]
Anatomy and appearance [ edit ]
Subspecies of the genus Puma include cats that are the fourth-largest in the cat family. Adult males can reach around 7.9 feet from nose to tip of tail, and a body weight typically between 115 and 220 lb. Females can reach around 6.7 ft from nose to tail, and a body weight between 64 and 141 lb. They also have tails ranging from 25 to 37 in long. The heads of these cats are round, with erect ears. They have powerful forequarters, necks, and jaws which help grasp and hold prey. They have four retractable claws on their fore paws, and also their hind paws.
The majority of pumas are found in more mountainous regions, so they have a thick fur coat to help retain body heat during freezing winters. Depending on subspecies and the location of their habitat, the puma's fur varies in color from brown-yellow to grey-red. Individuals that live in colder climates have coats that are more grey than individuals living in warmer climates with a more red color to their coat. Pumas are incredibly powerful predators with muscular hind legs, which are slightly longer and stronger than the front, that enable them to be great leapers. They are able to leap as high as 18 ft into the air and as far as 40–45 ft horizontally. They can reach speeds up to 50 mph, but they are much better adapted for short and powerful sprints to catch their prey.[6]
Behavior and lifestyle |
for the latitude bands of 80S to 75S, then 75S-70S, etc., from pole to pole. And the graphs present the linear trends of the SST data for those latitude bands in Deg C/Decade. The data starts in January 1982 and ends in February 2011. As we can see in Figure 7, the trends of the models are higher at the equator than they are at mid-latitudes. The trends then drop off to near zero at high latitudes.
http://i53.tinypic.com/219uhhx.jpg
Figure 7
The model data basically follows this pattern in all ocean basins. Refer to Figure 8, which compares the trends for the zonal mean SST anomalies for the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Note that I’ve further divided the Indian and Pacific Oceans into their respective east and west portions. There are some differences, primarily at the mid latitudes of both hemispheres, but in general the same overall patterns exist in all basins.
http://i56.tinypic.com/t4wpys.jpg
Figure 8
-HOWEVER-
That’s not how the global SST anomalies have risen.
Figure 9 compares linear trends of the Global SST observations and IPCC hindcasts/projections on a zonal mean basis. In the Southern Hemisphere, the SST observations are, for the most part, cooling south of 50S. The Southern Hemisphere trends then peak in the mid latitudes before dropping significantly in the tropics. The trends of the observations then rise again from the tropics to the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Poleward of the peak near 60N, the observations drop quickly to near zero. The sea surface temperature models appear to have no basis in reality.
http://i53.tinypic.com/wjt82o.jpg
Figure 9
Recall in Figure 8 how, on a latitudinal basis, the trends of modeled SST anomalies were similar for all ocean basins. Figure 10 presents the same comparison with the Reynolds OI.v2 SST data. As shown, the ocean basin SST anomalies have warmed very differently since 1982. The North Atlantic has very high trends at high latitudes. This should be a function of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) which is not visible in the IPCC model data. (That will be presented in part 2 of this post.) Note the significant negative trend in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.
http://i53.tinypic.com/24zf4f9.jpg
Figure 10
Let’s compare the observed and the modeled trends (on a zonal mean basis) for the West Pacific (125E-180). Refer to Figure 11. The models miss the significant drop in Southwest Pacific SST anomalies, south of 45S. The model mean trends are similar to the observations from there until the mid latitudes of the Northwest Pacific. But the models also miss the significant warming of the Northwest Pacific between 30N-45N, the location of the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE). I discussed the processes that cause the rise in the SST anomalies for the KOE in The ENSO-Related Variations In Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE) SST Anomalies And Their Impact On Northern Hemisphere Temperatures. While the models may not reproduce the recent ENSO variability, should we expect to see evidence of ENSO-related processes outside of the eastern equatorial Pacific?
http://i54.tinypic.com/165950.jpg
Figure 11
And should we expect to see evidence of the ENSO process in the eastern Pacific zonal mean data? That question relates to the process of ENSO, not the timing or magnitude of the modeled ENSO events. As illustrated in Figure 12, Eastern tropical Pacific SST anomalies have dropped since the start of the Reynolds OI.v2 SST anomaly data, with the greatest cooling along the equator. The models, on the other hand, show a high trend, one that is comparable to those of the other ocean basins (Refer back to Figure 8).
http://i53.tinypic.com/kb6kk2.jpg
Figure 12
Keep in mind that the eastern equatorial Pacific is only a temporary home of the warm water associated with El Niño events. At other times, the eastern equatorial Pacific is one of the largest areas of upwelling in the global oceans. Again, this temporary warming in the eastern Pacific happens during El Niño events, when warm water sloshes east from the surface and below the surface of the Pacific Warm Pool. An El Niño does not “exhaust” all of the warm water, and what remains has to go somewhere at the end of the El Niño. Where does it go? It goes back to the western Pacific during the La Niña. Some of the warm water helps to recharge the Pacific Warm Pool for the next El Niño. The rest remains on the surface and finds its way, most noticeably, to the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE). For these reasons, we would expect the West Pacific trends to be considerably higher than the East Pacific in the tropics and mid latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. We see this in the observations, Figure 13.
http://i54.tinypic.com/zjgcg1.jpg
Figure 13
But we do not see it in the model mean data, Figure 14. In fact, the opposite happens in the models. In them, the Eastern tropical Pacific rises faster than those in the Western tropical Pacific.
http://i53.tinypic.com/25at6yw.jpg
Figure 14
BUT THE SST DATA STARTS WITH AN EL NIÑO AND ENDS DURING A LA NIÑA
The Reynolds OI.v2 SST dataset starts just before the significant 1982/83 El Niño and ends during the peak of the 2010/2011 La Niña. For those who are concerned that starting the comparisons on an El Niño and ending them on a La Niña has biased this presentation, I’ve redone a few of the zonal mean comparison graphs, model versus observations. I’ve ended the data in December 2009, at the peak of the 2009/10 El Niño, in the trend comparisons of the zonal mean data for the East and West Pacific, Figures 15 and 16, and for the global data, Figure 17. The data now runs from El Niño to El Niño. It does not change the results to any significant extent.
http://i56.tinypic.com/15g6v78.jpg
Figure 15
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http://i51.tinypic.com/5otws1.jpg
Figure 16
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http://i53.tinypic.com/14l36o5.jpg
Figure 17
CLOSING
In part 2, we’ll examine the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
As illustrated in this post, the IPCC modeled SST data have significantly higher trends than the satellite-era SST observations for Global and Pacific Oceans.
Also illustrated, there are few similarities in the zonal mean comparisons for those datasets. In other words, the models appear to have little basis in reality, at least since 1982.
SOURCE
The data presented in this post is available through the KNMI Climate Explorer:
http://climexp.knmi.nl/selectfield_obs.cgi?someone@somewhere
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RedditMalcolm Turnbull addresses the House of Representatives on Australia's response to Islamic State
In his first national security statement as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has declared Islamic State is weak and has "many more smartphones than guns, many more Twitter accounts than soldiers".
Key points: Turnbull calls Islamic State weak, says Australia cannot be fooled by its "hype"
Calls IS beliefs "archaic" but internet use "modern"
Says no plans to send ground troops to Syria
Launches new terror alert system to provide public with more information
"We must not be fooled by its hype. Its ideology is archaic but its use of the internet is very modern," he said on Tuesday.
Mr Turnbull also stressed the need for measured responses to the coordinated attacks in Paris, which left 129 people dead.
"This is not a time for gestures or machismo," he said.
"Calm, clinical, professional, effective — that's how we defeat this menace."
Mr Turnbull repeated his rejection of calls from within his party for Australian troops to fight on the ground in Syria.
"I have to report to the House that the consensus of the leaders I met at the G20, at APEC and at the East Asia Summit, is that there is no support currently for a large US-led Western army to attempt to conquer and hold ISIL-controlled areas," he said.
"There are currently no plans for a significant change in the level or the nature of Australia's military commitment in Iraq and Syria.
"No such change has been sought by our allies — if one were we would of course carefully consider it.
"Current advice to the Government is that the unilateral deployment of Australian combat troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria is neither feasible or practical."
Mr Turnbull also announced the Government would move to a new terrorism alert system.
"I can inform the House that the National Threat Assessment Centre, or NTAC, that sits within ASIO will this week transition to the new National Terrorism Threat Advisory System," he said.
"The new system will provide the public with more information on the nature of the threat we are facing.
"The adoption of a five-tiered threat system will also provide ASIO with greater flexibility in determining threat levels, reflecting the need to adapt to an evolving security environment."
After Mr Turnbull's speech, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten pledged to continue to work in a bipartisan fashion with the Government.
"We worked with Mr Abbott and we will do so again with Mr Turnbull," he told Parliament.
Like the Prime Minister, Mr Shorten called for a careful approach to dealing with terrorism.
"Words and ideas, hearts and minds are at the core of winning the struggle against terrorism," he said.
Mr Shorten is also against the idea of deploying combat troops to the region.
"We do not want to perpetuate another cycle as occurred following the invasion of 2003," he said.
"A large-scale troop movement, civil unrest and ongoing violence, escalation, withdrawal and eventual return.
"We can and we must provide Iraqi armed forces with the skills and trainings to repel and overcome Daesh, to focus on building their own capacity to train themselves and to protect themselves.
"We understand the very real risk of a protracted ground war, involving Australian personnel in danger with limited potential for it to contribute to the long-term solution we should be seeing.
"In the short term, an escalated presence of western troops will only feed the propaganda of Daesh."Photo
Donald J. Trump’s private meeting in Washington on Thursday featured nearly a dozen industry leaders, including a veteran lobbyist and the chief executive of a major airline trade organization, attendees confirmed.
Mr. Trump’s meeting, like others he held that day, was at the hotel he is building in the gutted body of the Old Post Office, and was kept secret, with attendees invited by phone.
Nicholas E. Calio, a former lobbyist who worked on legislative affairs for President George Bush, was in attendance. Mr. Calio is now the president and chief executive of Airlines for America, a large trade group. There was also Juanita Duggan, the president and chief executive of the National Federation of Independent Business, another major trade group. She is a former aide who served in the first Bush and Reagan administrations, and she was once an official with the tobacco giant Philip Morris Companies.
An aide to Ms. Duggan confirmed her attendance, but said that she was respecting a request not to discuss what took place. Penny Kozakos, an aide to Mr. Calio, said in an email that “Mr. Calio regularly meets with leaders of industry, members of Congress, other elected officials, including those seeking office, about the airline industry and its importance to the economy and jobs.”
Yet Mr. Trump routinely makes “special interests” and lobbyists a focus of derision in his stump speeches, making the meeting something of a surprise.
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said that the candidate’s adviser, Senator Jeff Sessions, had arranged a meeting with people for whom he has “great respect.”
“Mr. Trump didn’t know them, but it was a brief meeting that took place right after the lengthy foreign policy team meeting,” Ms. Hicks said in an email.
In a town-hall-style forum hosted by Greta Van Susteren of Fox News on Sunday night, Mr. Trump was asked about a potential merger of airlines, asking what his antitrust division might look like as president.
“I’d look at it very carefully,” Mr. Trump said. “I’d look at a lot of that. You know, and that might be not the Republican thing to say. But if we don’t have competition and keep some competition, we’re going to have a lot of problems in the country.”
He added: “And I see mergers of different things. I won’t say it because what do I need certain industries against me for? But the fact is that you’ve got to have competition to be great. And when you see these big fat mergers and the companies get bigger, they get bloated and they don’t do well.”Judd Apatow was one of the first — and, at the time, few — voices to speak out against Bill Cosby and his apologists when a long line of women came forward accusing the comedy legend of sexual assault.
“I found it shocking how few people in show business spoke out against Cosby,” Apatow says. “And to this day, there’s an enormous part of our industry that still hasn’t. And that does not speak well of our community.”
“Because when people don’t speak out at a moment like this where it’s really not a question of whether or not it happened,” Apatow adds, “it creates a world where people feel like stepping forward won’t do anything but re-injure them.”
In the wake of the multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment against producer Harvey Weinstein, we spoke to Apatow, a prolific producer, director and writer, about the entertainment industry’s treatment of women and what can be done to combat men who abuse their power.
How pervasive is sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry?
When you work on a movie or television show, the people who run the show set the tone. If the executive producer or director is a respectful person who cares about the crew and the actors and actresses being treated well, for the most part, that’s what happens. And if there’s a problem, people will feel like they’re in an environment where they’re allowed to speak up. There are toxic sets and there are toxic people. When that happens, for the most part, they’re very clever about how they do it. They learn over many decades how to not to get caught.
How do they manage this?
These people prey on young women who are looking to begin their careers, and they do that on purpose. When you’re young and you don’t have a lot of money, it’s very easy to scare somebody with the threat of all the doors closing on your career and, potentially, lawsuits that you can’t afford to defend yourself from. That’s why Cosby didn’t get caught for so long. It’s why priests don’t get caught. It’s why Donald Trump is the president.
When you don’t have a career and you’re victimized like this, it’s traumatizing. It’s one of the cruelest things you can do to somebody, to abuse that kind of power. And I’m hopeful that people’s awareness of this is rising and that creates an environment that more people will come forward when they are victimized.
You say you’re hopeful. Why has it taken so long for this awareness to come about?
It’s sad to say, but there aren’t that many heroes in this world. People do not want to put their livelihoods at risk. That’s why people like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby get to operate like this for so many decades. The people around them — executives, assistants, drivers — they don’t want to risk everything to confront a very dangerous man.
Early in my career, I was threatened by an executive, not in a sexual manner, but in a business manner. And he got his way and I was scared to death. I had somebody say, “If you do this, it’s going to be really bad for your career. It’s not something you want to do at the start of your career.”
I also think that people don’t want to be defined as victims of this particular harassment or crime. As soon as you speak up, in some sense, you fear that that is what people will define you as — the person who complains. You see how all of Cosby’s victims are treated. Instantly, people are questioning whether they are gold diggers. And whether or not they’re lying. A lot of people don’t want to put themselves through that. It’s life-altering.
I went to the Rape Treatment Center’s foundation event last year, and a lot of Bill Cosby’s victims were there and you could tell it has affected them their entire lives. It wasn’t just the moment. They were seriously injured in ways that affect them to this day.
You’d think by the time you get to settlement five, six and seven, you’d take some sort of action to protect other women from this crime. Judd Apatow
You certainly felt that injury deeply reading the accounts of these women in the Weinstein investigations.
It destroys your faith in your community. What is most disturbing to me is the people around him that allowed it to happen. It’s very easy to talk about actors and actresses and say, “Didn’t you know?” But you hear “somebody’s a pig.” You don’t know what that means. And then what are you going to do about it? Unless you hear it directly from somebody who was harassed, there’s not a lot you can do.
But if you work for somebody and there’s talk in the office and somebody says to you, “Hey, we’re going to do a meeting with an actress. And at this time, we’re all going to leave so Harvey’s left alone with her,” then you are complicit in these crimes. And over 30 years, there’s probably a long list of people who knew exactly what was going on. It wasn’t just rumors at a party. They were the people writing the checks — business managers and agents and lawyers who knew exactly what was happening.
The assistant telling Cara Delevingne to go to Weinstein’s room because her car hadn’t arrived.
All those people knew. And that’s terrifying. Think about the people writing the checks. Harvey had eight settlements. There are people involved in those settlements. And you’d think by the time you get to settlement five, six and seven, you’d take some sort of action to protect other women from this crime.
It goes back to the cleverness in perpetrating these crimes. They learn over many decades how to not get caught. This is why a lot of these people are very charitable. They hide behind good deeds in the way a priest does. So people are even more reticent about speaking up because they just gave millions of dollars to this or that charity.
Harvey Weinstein gave $5 million to USC to promote female filmmakers. And obviously that’s a very important charity. But you have to wonder: Is he making that donation out of guilt or as a distraction so you can’t accuse him because he’s known as the guy who cares about female filmmakers? It’s like Cosby giving all the money to colleges. These people refine their crime over many years and it takes very strong courageous people to take the risk of standing up to say, “Stop it.”
“Girls” tackled a lot of these issues in an episode last season, “American Bitch.” Had Lena Dunham talked to you about sexual harassment?
She had told us for many years that one of the most troubling things that was happening was people she respected would meet with her and talk as if they were two artists discussing their trade. And then at some point they would get incredibly inappropriate. It was a real abuse of power that troubled her enough to write about it.
There’s a lot of abuse in this town that isn’t as overt as what Harvey Weinstein does. Young actresses are mistreated in all sorts of ways by powerful men who can dangle jobs or access to exciting parts of show business. I think a lot of people are mistreated and they don’t realize how badly they’re being mistreated.
TV reporter Lauren Sivan detailed that abrupt shift into the inappropriate with Weinstein. She said one moment they’re talking as equals, the next he’s exposing himself and masturbating.
And why do you want to be known as the person who’s a part of that in any way? There’s a lot of shame that happens even when it is not your responsibility at all. A lot of people have written very eloquently about it in the last few days. I like it when everybody stands up."Like a novel that you don't want to put down, you know?" said Dickey.
I mean, really. What do you say? In the bottom of the seventh Martin came to the plate, and he was desperate.
"I'm thinking, I better do something," Martin said. "I need to get on base here. I better do something. I mean, I knew what I did." He hit a dribbler, and ran. "I haven't been down the line that hard (this year). I (thought), I've got to do something."
The Rangers booted it. Then the next one. And the next, like the ball was a fish. Josh Donaldson blooped a ball that barely brushed the edge of Odor's outstretched glove on the outer edge of the infield, because Odor misjudged it and backpedalled instead of turning to run. Suddenly the game was tied.
"I was pretty pissed at what I just did," said Donaldson. "Based loaded, one out, and I get sawed off like that."
Whatever it was — nerves, karma, the 29th-ranked fielding team in baseball — Bautista got his chance.
And with men at the corners and two outs and a 1-1 count and the building on its feet, Jose Bautista smashed a 97 mph Sam Dyson fastball 442 feet to left, a rocket, gone. He stood there, 34 years old, and he watched it go and looked at the pitcher and pursed his lips and flipped his bat aside like a king, like he would never need it again. They may erect a statue of that bat flip. It was the biggest home run in this building in 22 years, and you will tell your friends about it, and you will laugh in disbelief, years from now. Holy bleep, you'll say. The sound was a crack, whole and pure, and then the raucous end of the world.
"I've never seen a stadium so alive," said Martin. "Ever. I can't describe it. I can definitely remember it. I can still see it. One of the greatest moments of my life."
"I can't really remember what was going though my mind, to be quite honest with you," said Bautista. "After I made contact, I just, you know — I didn't plan anything I did. And so I still don't know how I did it."
"The game of baseball, if you try to figure it out, you'll drive yourself crazy," said Donaldson, soaked in champagne, his blue eyes a little spacey. "I mean, you look at what happened, there are a lot of crazy people out there." Of Bautista, he said. "The guy's amazing. He's my hero... I want to hug him forever."
Three of the four seventh-inning runs were unearned, unless you were speaking cosmically. The benches cleared twice more after Bautista's bat flip, and the Rangers will remember this, too. The inning took nearly an hour.
"I've never seen anything like that whole inning," said Dickey. "Nineteen years of playing. I was talking to the guys on the bench. Even Buehrle said he'd never seen anything like that. That's like 40 years of experience between us. That's something else."
There was more. They had needed so much to get to that point, to that moment. Two wins in elimination games in Texas. A string of marvellous defensive plays, all game — Martin throwing out Elvis Andrus at third, Kevin Pillar leaving a burn mark on the field on a diving catch in the fourth, Donaldson bare-handing a ball at top speed. The pitching, from young men. Edwin Encarnacion, the other half of the longtime power duo in the middle of this lineup, the shy one of the two proud Dominican men, who smashed a home run 457 feet to left in the sixth inning to tie the game, 2-2. That one was important, too.
"We've been waiting a long time," said Encarnacion. "And we're here. Me and Jose enjoyed this moment. We've never seen anything like this."
But the seventh inning is what you will remember. When the game ended general manager Alex Anthopoulos and his men sprayed water bottles everywhere, and then he sped out towards the hallway and his wife Cristina appeared in the doorway and she screamed, just screamed, and they collided in an embrace, and his two toddling children pulled their father down as their mother screamed again.
"That was just insane," said Anthopoulos. "I'm glad we won."
In the clubhouse, the Jays sprayed the champagne again and lit the cigars again and begged Munenori Kawasaki to speak again, and will play to go to the World Series. This doesn't happen in Toronto anymore, but it's happening. Hell of a team, these guys.
"This team, I can't put it into words," said starter Marcus Stroman.
"I'm just thrilled to be a part of this team," said Donaldson. "It's just been an amazing ride."
"We're not finished," said Bautista. "That's right."
You will remember this. They will, too.
Torstar News ServiceAn Alabama real estate investor was sentenced on Monday, April 10, 2017, to serve 12 months and a day in prison for his role in a bid-rigging conspiracy and a fraud scheme related to public real estate foreclosure auctions in Mobile, Alabama, the Department of Justice announced.
Oscar Celso Anez pleaded guilty to bid rigging and conspiracy to commit mail fraud in the Southern District of Alabama on June 14, 2016. In addition to a term of imprisonment, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Callie V.S. Granade also ordered Anez to pay $343,561 in restitution.
Between March 2002 and November 2010, Anez conspired with others not to compete for selected foreclosure properties at public auctions in order to obtain the properties at artificially suppressed auction prices. In addition, Anez and his co-conspirators held secret, second auctions for rigged foreclosure properties. The winner of the second auction obtained title to the property and made payoffs to co-conspirators. The money that the conspirators paid to one another would have gone to mortgage holders, homeowners and others with a legal interest in the property.
"The Court’s sentence holds Oscar Anez accountable for his major role in carrying out these schemes and will serve as a strong deterrent to others who are considering violating federal laws that prohibit anticompetitive conduct," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Snyder of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. "To date, fifteen defendants have been prosecuted and more than $1 million in restitution has been ordered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama."
"Fraud and bid-rigging have no place in this community," said Acting U.S. Attorney Steve Butler of the Southern District of Alabama. "This sentence should serve as a reminder that violations of federal anti-trust laws will be actively investigated and prosecuted in the Southern District of Alabama."
"The FBI remains dedicated to working with our law enforcement partners to eliminate this type of fraud," said Special Agent in Charge Robert F. Lasky of the FBI’s Mobile Field Office.
The sentencing of Anez is a result of an ongoing investigation that is being conducted by the Washington Criminal II Section of the Antitrust Division and the Mobile Field Office of the FBI, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama. Anyone with information concerning bid rigging or fraud related to public real estate foreclosure auctions should contact the Washington Criminal II Section of the Antitrust Division at 202-598-4000.Indoor Recreation Facilities > Membership Information
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Our recreation centers are more than just indoor gyms! Join a recreation center and become part of a community of New Yorkers who support each other. With a membership, you can get fit, learn new skills, develop your hobbies, and make friends.
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To find a recreation center in your area, visit our recreation center locations page.
Membership Benefits
Become a member, and get access to hundreds of different programs, facilities, and activities, including:
Adaptive Programs
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Gyms and Indoor Tracks
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*Included in membership packages with access to all recreation centers.
Take a Look Inside our Recreation Centers
Here are some more highlights of programs and activities at our recreation centers. Take a look inside
Membership Packages
Adults 25 through 61 Access to All Centers Annual Membership Fee: $150
Six-month membership available for $75 Access to Any Center Without An Indoor Pool Annual Membership Fee: $100
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Instructor-led courses like aerobics, martial arts, music or yoga may require additional session fees.
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New Yorkers ages 25-61 receive a 10 percent discount for all adult recreation center memberships if they have a New York City ID. To get this discount, just show your IDNYC card at membership registration.
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Complete a Recreation Center Membership Registration Form and bring it with your payment to any of our recreation center locations with a government-issued ID, plus additional required documentation if you're enrolling as a veteran or enrolling as a person with a disability. Youth may bring a student ID, passport, or birth certificate. If you do not have a valid form of identification, find out how to get one at Get Your IDNYC.
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The membership registration form can be filled out and printed from your computer. Signatures must be handwritten. Most fields are mandatory. For more information or assistance, please call any recreation center. The New York State Voter Registration Form may be used to register to vote, or update your name, address or party affiliation. Voter registration does not affect your eligibility for city services. You must be a citizen to register to vote.
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Most recreation centers are fully wheelchair-accessible, with adaptive equipment and programs. Please visit each recreation center page for more information. Aides for people with disabilities may access the centers free of charge in order to assist a person with a disability. They may be asked to sign in at the front desk before accessing the facility. Service animals are welcome.
To enroll as a person with a disability, you'll need to bring a government-issued photo ID and one of the following:
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Give the Gift of Health
Recreation center gift memberships are now available at indoor recreation facilities citywide. Call individual recreation centers for details.In a landmark decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled against the retail clothing giant Abercrombie & Fitch stating they discriminated against a Muslim woman for wearing a traditional Muslim headscarf, or hijab. In the almost unanimous 8-1 decision, the Court determined that Abercrombie’s decision not to hire the woman due to her wearing a hijab violated her civil rights, as protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Title VII requires employers to make an attempt to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious requirements, as long as this accommodation does not create undue hardship or expense for the employer. In the Abercrombie case, Title VII also prohibits employers from failing to hire a prospective employee due to their religion, which includes “all aspects of religious observance and practice.”
Given the increasingly diverse and complex culture in which we work, employers are often faced with a multitude of questions: What are considered fair and acceptable employment practices? To what extent must an employer make religious accommodations? What is considered freedom of religious expression?
What is Included in Religious Accommodation?
As stated, religious practices are protected under the Civil Rights Act, and are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). According to the EEOC, the law protects employees who belong to both traditional, organized religions, as well as individuals who hold “sincere religious, ethical, or moral beliefs.” The EEOC requires employers to accommodate these beliefs, and is reflected in all aspects of religious expression. This includes:
Religious or traditional styles of dress (eg. hijab)
Displaying or wearing symbols of religious belief (eg. a cross or Star of David)
Taking time off to observe religious holidays (eg. Sabbath)
Allowing for prayer time
Sharing of one’s beliefs with others
The Prohibition to Discriminate
The law prohibits inappropriate employment actions based on any of the following:
Affiliation : Harassing or discriminating against an individual due to their affiliation with a specific ethnic or religious group. For example, making fun of a Mormon employee based on their religious beliefs.
: Harassing or discriminating against an individual due to their affiliation with a specific ethnic or religious group. For example, making fun of a Mormon employee based on their religious beliefs. Physical and Cultural Traits and Clothing : Harassing or discriminating because of cultural, physical, or linguistic characteristics. This can include accents or dress associated with a particular ethnicity, religion, or country of origin. For example, failing to promote a Jew for wearing a skullcap.
: Harassing or discriminating because of cultural, physical, or linguistic characteristics. This can include accents or dress associated with a particular ethnicity, religion, or country of origin. For example, failing to promote a Jew for wearing a skullcap. Perception : Discriminating against individuals based on the perception or belief that they are a member of a particular racial, national origin, or religious group (whether that perception is true or not). For example, failing to hire a dark-skinned person because of the perception they were Muslim.
: Discriminating against individuals based on the perception or belief that they are a member of a particular racial, national origin, or religious group (whether that perception is true or not). For example, failing to hire a dark-skinned person because of the perception they were Muslim. Association: Harassing or discriminating against an employee due to their association with an organization of a particular religion or ethnicity. For example, refusing to promote an employee because he attends a Mosque.
Impact of the Abercrombie Case
Following the Supreme Court’s decision this week, employers face a serious dilemma that will require further clarification in the courts. If an employer merely suspects that an employee requires a religious accommodation, they may be required to make the accommodation, if it will not cause undue hardship on the company. On the other hand, it is illegal to directly ask an employee or applicant about their religious beliefs or customs, and as such, the employer may miss the need to accommodate the employee.
Walking this tightrope can be tricky and is fraught with potential pitfalls. If you face this situation, consulting with an attorney or Human Resources Outsourcing firm is highly recommended.On 11 August 2016 the Patheos blog published an item titled “Mike Pence: Condoms Are Too Modern” reporting that the Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential nominee had dismissed the prophylactic devices as “too modern and too liberal”:
Mike Pence claims condoms are too modern, and too liberal. Donald Trump’s running mate is a dangerous Christian extremist who wants creationism taught in public schools and believes the government should pay for gay conversion therapy. In addition, in 2015, as Governor of Indiana, Pence allowed an HIV outbreak to spread, choosing prayer over a clean needle exchange. But perhaps one of the most idiotic claims made by Pence is that condoms are too “modern,” too “liberal,” and offer a poor defense against sexually transmitted infections and diseases.
The comments Pence (then a Congressman) actually made in this regard stemmed from a February 2002 CNN panel discussion about abstinence education. Anchor Wolf Blitzer opened the segment by explaining a current controversy over remarks made by Secretary of State |
you can post about this to help spread the word that they are not accepting applications this year.
Colorado clearly needs to refund not only applications fees, but other fees that students incurred in applying there, such as GRE fees. I trust they will do the right thing, but would be glad to hear from students going forward.Buy Act of Aggression - Reboot Edition as a Steam Key.
Act of Aggression – Reboot Edition brings the techno-thriller RTS game Act of Aggression to a higher level. The Reboot Edition offers a full gameplay overhaul: new resource system, playable builder units, new base buildings, simplified research system, and many major mechanic improvements for smoother and more dynamic gameplay in skirmish mode against the AI and in your multiplayer battles. Either launch the original game or Reboot Edition as you see fit, and experience the new benchmark of real-time strategy games.
With three global super-powers, there can be only one victory.
Across three distinct factions each armed with the greatest modern and prototype military weaponry, head into some of the world’s most volatile conflict zones, building bases for mass production, establishing resource supply lines, and waging war in Eugen Systems’ explosive RTS.
Build and manage the cogs of war in a return to strategic base-building, resource harvesting, and dynamic tech-trees. Capture banks and enemy soldiers to generate cash income. Upgrade units with specialization and unlock new skills. Embark on an epic single player Campaign with a thrilling original story, and fight throughout the world on realistic environments. Compete online in visceral PVP battles and become the best commander!
Act of Aggression Reboot Edition brings new features to skirmish modes:Dirty diapers are the unlikeliest of crystal balls, but they could hold the answer to why some children develop asthma. Just four types of gut bacteria in the stool seem to make all the difference, predicting who will get the disease and who won’t, researchers say. The finding could help identify children at high risk of asthma, and it could also lead to the development of probiotic mixtures that prevent the disease.
The new study “puts a lot of epidemiological observations from over the years into a new perspective,” says asthma researcher Marsha Wills-Karp of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, who was not involved in the latest work.
A growing body of research has led to a new appreciation over the last decade for how the microbiome—the collection of bacteria and viruses that live in the human body—shapes people’s health. And studies have hinted that differences between young babies’ microbiomes, caused by birth methods, diet, environment, and antibiotic exposure, might affect their chances of developing diseases such as asthma and allergies.
“There are all these smoking guns to indicate that the microbiota may be involved [in asthma], but there were no experiments to prove it,” says microbiologist Brett Finlay of the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, in Canada, a senior author on the paper.
As part of the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study, Finlay and colleagues collected stool and urine samples from more than 300 babies at 3 months and 1 year old, as well as information on their health at 1, 3, and 5 years. Then, they used high-throughput genetic sequencing to detect levels of gut microbes in each stool sample. Babies that had low or undetectable levels of four bacteria—Lachnospira, Veillonella, Faecalibacterium, and Rothia—at 3 months old all went on to show early signs of asthma—wheezing and skin allergies—at a year old. The babies who didn’t develop these symptoms invariably had high levels of the four microbes in their 3-month stool samples.
The association held “quite consistently” and was “very” statistically significant, Finlay says. In addition to differences in stool bacteria, the team found differences in the urine of the babies who went on to develop asthma. Certain bacterial byproducts were at lower or higher levels, hinting that these chemicals—produced in the gut but distributed throughout the body—could act on the immune system to make it more susceptible to the disease.
Next, Finlay’s group used stool samples from the asthma-prone 3-month-olds to colonize the guts of mice that had been raised in a bacteria-free environment. The animals went on to develop inflamed lungs indicative of asthma. But if the researchers added a mixture of the four missing microbes to the mice’s digestive tracts along with the feces, the mice no longer had a heightened risk of developing asthma, the scientists report online today in Science Translational Medicine.
The discovery has one immediate application: identifying children with a high risk of asthma in their first 100 days of life, says pediatrician Stuart Turvey of UBC Vancouver, a co-author on the paper. “Those children could be followed or treated more quickly if they end up with asthma,” he adds. But it also suggests that providing this group with the unique mixture of four bacteria—a combination not found in current commercial probiotics—could prevent the onset of asthma.
But developing therapeutics will be harder than just mixing the microbes together into pill form, Wills-Karp says, because babies already have guts that are teeming with other bacteria. These “first colonists” may prevent new strains from easily taking over. And another study has suggested different bacteria as protective. “It’s not clear right now that there are ways to induce the growth of these particular bacteria in kids,” she says. “But it certainly starts to open the door toward that possibility.”
Finlay and Turvey’s team is continuing to follow the health of the first group of children, studying which go on to develop true asthma—so far, more than a third of those who developed the early signs of the disease have the full-blown version. In addition—since the microbiomes of people in various cultures are known to differ—they’re repeating the experiment in a larger, more diverse set of children, including some from Ecuador, to see whether the four strains of bacteria are universally important.Raspberries are of abundance this summer season in Paris. These tart red fruits, along with other antioxidant rich berries cover the counters from street markets to pastry shops, looking ever so plump and enticing. I thought it would be a dear shame for me not to exploit their blatant availability and obnoxious corpulence to make something sweet and exquisite. It would also provide the perfect excuse for me to test-drive my new half-sphere silicon cake mould.
If strawberries go with cream, what do raspberries go with…?
White chocolate of course!
So I decided to pair the tartness of the raspberries with the sweet richness of white chocolate bavarian cream. But just to be a little different, I added a little rose water into the mousse for a subtle floral note and lightness.
I shall name this cake
Retro Red Raspberry
Raspberry and Rose Rock
Red Raspberries, White Roses
Raspberry and Rose Romance
Ruby Raspberry
Raspberry Rose Rush
Mmm..
But don't you think all foods sound more delicious in French..?
Dome de framboises à la rose et au chocolat blanc
Yeah let's stick with that one for now.
Dome de Framboises à la Rose et au Chocolat Blanc673 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Tumblr Digg Linkedin Stumbleupon Mail Print
This morning, two activist from Keene, NH had court for different reasons. As is common in Keene several other folks show up to support those who are facing justice from the man which is why Pete and I were in court, even though it was -15 degrees (said one person). The court experience started off like normal with the emptying of your pockets and spreading them for the bailiff to ‘wand you’ which is always a good feeling. Then a few of us proceeded down the hall and into the court room. That’s when another bailiff called out to Pete to remove his hat and I turned on my camera.
Another view from Steve Z’s cell phone:
After Pete was taken out of our site in the courthouse, James Schlessinger of FreeKeene.com, got this footage of two officers putting Pete into a cop car. A short time after that Andrew “280” and I went to the Keene Police department and County Jail to see what we could find. Pete is refusing to provide his name and to willfully proceed with the booking process, and why should he — his actions never harmed anyone, I’m not sure when he’ll be released or how long they can ‘legally’ hold him. I encourage you to pass this post around the webs and to continue calling both the jail and the Keene Police station. Demand, politely, that they release the John Doe who was arrested for wearing a hat in a public building. This has worked in the past and every time we get more effective. WHAT CAN YOU DO? Make a phone call. The Cheshire Co Jail where Pete is being held: 603.903.1600 Keene Police 603.357.9813 Two officers in video attacking Pete:
James Cemorelis (full uniform, possible Sgt) – Number above + extension 7117 (email: jcemorelis@ci.keene.nh.us) Matt Griffin (grey shirt) extension 7182
Join the FREE PETE page on FB. I hope the call floods to those who are responsible for initiation of force continue until Pete is released. I’ll be attempting to get interviews from police and jailers alike over the next few days or until they release Pete. If you can, please take video of audio of your call and post updates here or on Facebook. Hopefully Pete will be free soon. FYI, George Donnelly has started FreePete.org, where you’ll be able to follow the story as well. From there I found this pic of a police officer wearing a hat in court moments after I was kicked out and after Pete was dragged into a police car. One set of laws for them and another for us… oh and it all started with someone wearing a hat!
See related:
April 8th, 2011 – Keene Bailiff Pete Macy Typifies Bureaucrat Unaccountability by Pete Eyre
April 10th, 2012 – Keene Documents by Pete Eyre
April 10th, 2012 – My Cheshire County Jail Experience by Pete Eyre
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EPNNEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States and France announced increased support for opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday, but there was no sign that the direct military aid the rebels want to create safe havens for civilians is on the way.
The picture of the Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is seen on central bank building in Damascus February 24, 2012. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a meeting of foreign ministers in New York that the United States would provide an additional $45 million in non-lethal and humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition.
Of this, $30 million would be for humanitarian assistance and $15 million for non-lethal help, such as radios and training. The new pledges pushed total U.S. humanitarian aid for Syria to more than $130 million, and non-lethal aid to opposition groups to almost $45 million.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the same meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria - an informal group of countries supporting Assad’s ouster - that Paris was increasing its contacts with Syria’s armed rebels.
“The process is complex but the Syrian people have been waiting for 18 months for the opposition to succeed to move forward,” Fabius said. “It is within this perspective that France has increased its contacts with representatives of the armed opposition.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague backed an increase in practical support to Syria’s political opposition, especially to those who needed to provide services in rebel areas.
The 18-month-old uprising against Assad has descended into a civil war. More than 30,000 people have been killed, according to opposition activists, and there are fears the conflict could destabilize the wider Middle East.
But despite Friday’s announcements, foreign assistance to the Syrian rebels has fallen well short of the foreign-protected safe havens the opposition wants and offers little hope of relief to the worsening plight of civilians.
France started channeling aid to rebel-held parts of Syria in August so that these safe havens could administer themselves and help stanch a flow of refugees trying to escape deadly air strikes by Assad’s forces.
However, credible protection for “liberated” areas would require no-fly zones patrolled by foreign aircraft and there appears little chance of this happening.
Such an intervention would require a mandate from the U.N. Security Council - something resolutely opposed by veto-wielding members Russia and China.
The council’s deadlock appears unbreakable at the moment, Western diplomats say.
The deadlock led frustrated Western powers, Turkey and Gulf Arab states to establish the informal Friends of Syria group, but Western powers have said they will not supply weapons to the lightly armed Syrian rebels, who have few answers to attacks by Assad’s combat planes and helicopter gunships.
CLINTON BLAMES IRAN
Clinton blamed Iran for propping up Assad, saying Tehran would do all it could to support him. “Let’s be very frank here - the regime’s most important lifeline is Iran,” she said.
“Last week a senior Iranian official publicly acknowledged that members of the Iranian (Islamic) Revolutionary Guard Corps are operating inside Syria,” Clinton said.
“There is no longer any doubt that Tehran will do whatever it takes to protect its proxy and crony in Damascus. Iran will do everything it can to evade international sanctions.”
She was referring to international steps to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at producing atomic bombs. Tehran says the program is for generating electricity and other non-military purposes.
The U.N. General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders this week saw sharp clashes between Iran and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Israel might take military action to prevent Iran from reaching the point where it has enough enriched uranium for a bomb. On Friday, the United Nations urged all sides to tone down “shrill war talk.”
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told the Friends of Syria group, which was meeting on the sidelines of General Assembly, that the situation in Syria was becoming “more explosive.”
“We need to start a transitional period,” he said. “A transitional period means a change to another regime.”
The Friends of Syria includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Russia and China, which have vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Assad’s onslaught on the opposition, are not members.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who attended the meeting, later told the U.N. General Assembly it was “the inability of the Security Council to act that still encourages the Syrian regime to kill ever more people.”
“The situation in Syria has evolved into a real threat to regional peace and security,” he said. “The Syrian regime deploys every instrument to turn the legitimate struggle of the Syrian people into a sectarian war, which will engulf the entire region into flames.”
Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani told reporters he was not satisfied with the international response on Syria.
“We have to send a military force to stop the bloodshed, this is request from Qatar’s emir,” he told reporters.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called the blockage at the Security Council “unacceptable,” and added: “It is necessary to unite the opposition.”
Qatar said it would organize a meeting soon to try to unite all strands of the Syrian opposition in an effort to create a provisional government. Earlier this week, Qatar called for Arab nations to “interfere” in Syria.
Fabius said he wanted this government to be recognized by the Friends of Syria at its next meeting in Morocco.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Saad-Eddine Al-Othmani said the meeting would probably be held on November 1, but he did not expect it to reach a plan on how to proceed.As Kurt and Blaine battle it out with the Doctor and Rose in EW’s Greatest TV Couple of All Time championship, we’re unveiling our favorite couples who didn’t advance as far as we would have liked. Here’s the case for Peter and Olivia of Fringe.
The question EW has been asking in polls throughout this tournament is “Whose love is stronger?” In Round 2, voters favored Gossip Girl‘s Chuck and Blair over Peter and Olivia by a 10.6 percent margin. But I have to argue that only the strongest love – like that shared between Olivia and Peter – can weather storms of cosmic proportions this Fringe couple faced for five seasons.
I admit that at the beginning of the series, which concluded its run on Fox earlier this year, I wasn’t rooting for Olivia and Peter to get together. It was refreshing to watch a show that could have two attractive leads and not pursue a predicable romance. And I was actually pleased to learn that Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson felt the same way. “I hope they don’t put us together. That would be so conventional,” Torv told EW ahead of the season 2 premiere. But when the show solidified the pair’s romantic feelings with a mid-crisis almost-kiss in the season 2 episode “Jacksonville,” I was immediately on board because it was clear Fringe would take them on a path that was anything but predictable or conventional.
Peter and Olivia’s love story took hits and took turns viewers weren’t expecting. This couple’s relationship made for great television with perfectly tantalizing pacing as they risked their lives for each other on universe-crossing missions and together moved past the some of the deepest pains TV fans have seen a couple bear, like the loss of their daughter, not once but twice in a grim, dystopian future.
They – along with Walter and Astrid – were a top-notch team, saving the world over and over again with their combined smarts and talents, and all those life-or-death situations eventually developed enough trust between these two for them to realize they wanted something more than a professional relationship. Peter broke down Olivia’s walls and pulled her out of the dark when she holed up in her troubled past. And Olivia was the ever-present bridge between Peter and his father, Walter.
Olivia even placed the Bishops’ relationship above her own blossoming romance with Peter when she promised Walter that she’d keep secret her discovery that Peter was from the other universe. The truth came out, of course, but it paled in comparison to the revelation that Walternate had planned to use Peter to destroy a whole universe. And then Olivia opened up in a way she hadn’t before: It was a rare moment of making her needs known, of confessing that she does depend on those close to her in her life – all the while assuaging Peter’s fear that he doesn’t belong anywhere (not Over There, not Over Here) when she tells him, “You have to come back because you belong with me.”
Once together, the tests to their relationship came fast and furious. One of the biggest of those cosmic storms was the Saga of Fauxlivia’s Over Here Infiltration. Olivia was held captive in the alternate universe while Fauxlivia (as fans came to call her) pulled a switcheroo and posed as Olivia while Over Here. When Olivia made her way back to her own universe and learned that Peter had fostered an intimate relationship with a woman who wasn’t really her, she masked how much this hurt her. But in “Marionette,” in what still stands as one of Fringe’s most heartbreaking scenes, Olivia, shrinking away from her almost-lover’s touch, tells Peter, “She wasn’t me. How could you not see that?”
Now that’s the kind of thing a lesser couple wouldn’t be able to move past. But Olivia and Peter did move past it. His most redeeming moment? When he made yet another risky journey into the dangerous unknown to save Olivia – this time in an Inception-like dreamland – Peter tells an imposter, “I can see it in your eyes. It’s not you.”
Later, when Peter was wiped from existence, he found a way back to Olivia, and though it was a different timeline where she never knew him, Olivia still managed to recall memories of the man who’s as close to a soul mate as she’d ever find in any universe. How was Peter able to come back into existence, and how was Olivia able to remember him? Let September the Observer enlighten you: “I have a theory based on a uniquely human principal,” he told Peter. “I believe you could not be fully erased, because the people who cared about you could not fully let you go. And you could not let them go. I believe you call it… love.”
Fringe may have frustrated viewers with illogical, far-fetched interpretations of how spacetime works, but that was pretty easy to forgive when logic and scientific sense were sacrificed for beautiful stories about human relationships. And though I believe Peter and Olivia were made even stronger by all they went through in the now-obliterated version of 2012-2036, I have to say, this Fringe fan was pleased to see them get back to that rare bright, serene moment in the park in the end. And Etta could finally have her bath.
Follow Emily on Twitter: @EmilyNRome
More EW Staff Picks:
Lost‘s Sawyer and Juliet
Friends‘ Ross and Rachel
The Simpsons‘ Marge and Homer
Friday Night Lights‘ Coach and Tami
Battlestar Galactica‘s Starbuck and ApolloLast autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody.
They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.
As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.
Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of "homeland" security - remember who else was keen on the word "homeland" - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.
It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise.
Conason eloquently warned of the danger of American authoritarianism. I am arguing that we need also to look at the lessons of European and other kinds of fascism to understand the potential seriousness of the events we see unfolding in the US.
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
After we were hit on September 11 2001, we were in a state of national shock. Less than six weeks later, on October 26 2001, the USA Patriot Act was passed by a Congress that had little chance to debate it; many said that they scarcely had time to read it. We were told we were now on a "war footing"; we were in a "global war" against a "global caliphate" intending to "wipe out civilisation". There have been other times of crisis in which the US accepted limits on civil liberties, such as during the civil war, when Lincoln declared martial law, and the second world war, when thousands of Japanese-American citizens were interned. But this situation, as Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda notes, is unprecedented: all our other wars had an endpoint, so the pendulum was able to swing back toward freedom; this war is defined as open-ended in time and without national boundaries in space - the globe itself is the battlefield. "This time," Fein says, "there will be no defined end."
Creating a terrifying threat - hydra-like, secretive, evil - is an old trick. It can, like Hitler's invocation of a communist threat to the nation's security, be based on actual events (one Wisconsin academic has faced calls for his dismissal because he noted, among other things, that the alleged communist arson, the Reichstag fire of February 1933, was swiftly followed in Nazi Germany by passage of the Enabling Act, which replaced constitutional law with an open-ended state of emergency). Or the terrifying threat can be based, like the National Socialist evocation of the "global conspiracy of world Jewry", on myth.
It is not that global Islamist terrorism is not a severe danger; of course it is. I am arguing rather that the language used to convey the nature of the threat is different in a country such as Spain - which has also suffered violent terrorist attacks - than it is in America. Spanish citizens know that they face a grave security threat; what we as American citizens believe is that we are potentially threatened with the end of civilisation as we know it. Of course, this makes us more willing to accept restrictions on our freedoms.
2. Create a gulag
Once you have got everyone scared, the next step is to create a prison system outside the rule of law (as Bush put it, he wanted the American detention centre at Guantánamo Bay to be situated in legal "outer space") - where torture takes place.
At first, the people who are sent there are seen by citizens as outsiders: troublemakers, spies, "enemies of the people" or "criminals". Initially, citizens tend to support the secret prison system; it makes them feel safer and they do not identify with the prisoners. But soon enough, civil society leaders - opposition members, labour activists, clergy and journalists - are arrested and sent there as well.
This process took place in fascist shifts or anti-democracy crackdowns ranging from Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s to the Latin American coups of the 1970s and beyond. It is standard practice for closing down an open society or crushing a pro-democracy uprising.
With its jails in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, of course, Guantánamo in Cuba, where detainees are abused, and kept indefinitely without trial and without access to the due process of the law, America certainly has its gulag now. Bush and his allies in Congress recently announced they would issue no information about the secret CIA "black site" prisons throughout the world, which are used to incarcerate people who have been seized off the street.
Gulags in history tend to metastasise, becoming ever larger and more secretive, ever more deadly and formalised. We know from first-hand accounts, photographs, videos and government documents that people, innocent and guilty, have been tortured in the US-run prisons we are aware of and those we can't investigate adequately.
But Americans still assume this system and detainee abuses involve only scary brown people with whom they don't generally identify. It was brave of the conservative pundit William Safire to quote the anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller, who had been seized as a political prisoner: "First they came for the Jews." Most Americans don't understand yet that the destruction of the rule of law at Guantánamo set a dangerous precedent for them, too.
By the way, the establishment of military tribunals that deny prisoners due process tends to come early on in a fascist shift. Mussolini and Stalin set up such tribunals. On April 24 1934, the Nazis, too, set up the People's Court, which also bypassed the judicial system: prisoners were held indefinitely, often in isolation, and tortured, without being charged with offences, and were subjected to show trials. Eventually, the Special Courts became a parallel system that put pressure on the regular courts to abandon the rule of law in favour of Nazi ideology when making decisions.
3. Develop a thug caste
When leaders who seek what I call a "fascist shift" want to close down an open society, they send paramilitary groups of scary young men out to terrorise citizens. The Blackshirts roamed the Italian countryside beating up communists; the Brownshirts staged violent rallies throughout Germany. This paramilitary force is especially important in a democracy: you need citizens to fear thug violence and so you need thugs who are free from prosecution.
The years following 9/11 have proved a bonanza for America's security contractors, with the Bush administration outsourcing areas of work that traditionally fell to the US military. In the process, contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been issued for security work by mercenaries at home and abroad. In Iraq, some of these contract operatives have been accused of involvement in torturing prisoners, harassing journalists and firing on Iraqi civilians. Under Order 17, issued to regulate contractors in Iraq by the one-time US administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, these contractors are immune from prosecution
Yes, but that is in Iraq, you could argue; however, after Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security hired and deployed hundreds of armed private security guards in New Orleans. The investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill interviewed one unnamed guard who reported having fired on unarmed civilians in the city. It was a natural disaster that underlay that episode - but the administration's endless war on terror means ongoing scope for what are in effect privately contracted armies to take on crisis and emergency management at home in US cities.
Thugs in America? Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. If you are reading history, you can imagine that there can be a need for "public order" on the next election day. Say there are protests, or a threat, on the day of an election; history would not rule out the presence of a private security firm at a polling station "to restore public order".
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
In Mussolini's Italy, in Nazi Germany, in communist East Germany, in communist China - in every closed society - secret police spy on ordinary people and encourage neighbours to spy on neighbours. The Stasi needed to keep only a minority of East Germans under surveillance to convince a majority that they themselves were being watched.
In 2005 and 2006, when James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote in the New York Times about a secret state programme to wiretap citizens' phones, read their emails and follow international financial transactions, it became clear to ordinary Americans that they, too, could be under state scrutiny.
In closed societies, this surveillance is cast as being about "national security"; the true function is to keep citizens docile and inhibit their activism and dissent.
5. Harass citizens' groups
The fifth thing you do is related to step four - you infiltrate and harass citizens' groups. It can be trivial: a church in Pasadena, whose minister preached that Jesus was in favour of peace, found itself being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, while churches that got Republicans out to vote, which is equally illegal under US tax law, have been left alone.
Other harassment is more serious: the American Civil Liberties Union reports that thousands of ordinary American anti-war, environmental and other groups have been infiltrated by agents: a secret Pentagon database includes more than four dozen peaceful anti-war meetings, rallies or marches by American citizens in its category of 1,500 "suspicious incidents". The equally secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (Cifa) agency of the Department of Defense has been gathering information about domestic organisations engaged in peaceful political activities: Cifa is supposed to track "potential terrorist threats" as it watches ordinary US citizen activists. A little-noticed new law has redefined activism such as animal rights protests as "terrorism". So the definition of "terrorist" slowly expands to include the opposition.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
This scares people. It is a kind of cat-and-mouse game. Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the investigative reporters who wrote China Wakes: the Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power, describe pro-democracy activists in China, such as Wei Jingsheng, being arrested and released many times. In a closing or closed society there is a "list" of dissidents and opposition leaders: you are targeted in this way once you are on the list, and it is hard to get off the list.
In 2004, America's Transportation Security Administration confirmed that it had a list of passengers who were targeted for security searches or worse if they tried to fly. People who have found themselves on the list? Two middle-aged women peace activists in San Francisco; liberal Senator Edward Kennedy; a member of Venezuela's government - after Venezuela's president had criticised Bush; and thousands of ordinary US citizens.
Professor Walter F Murphy is emeritus of Princeton University; he is one of the foremost constitutional scholars in the nation and author of the classic Constitutional Democracy. Murphy is also a decorated former marine, and he is not even especially politically liberal. But on March 1 this year, he was denied a boarding pass at Newark, "because I was on the Terrorist Watch list".
"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," asked the airline employee.
"I explained," said Murphy, "that I had not so marched but had, in September 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the constitution."
"That'll do it," the man said.
Anti-war marcher? Potential terrorist. Support the constitution? Potential terrorist. History shows that the categories of "enemy of the people" tend to expand ever deeper into civil life.
James Yee, a US citizen, was the Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo who was accused of mishandling classified documents. He was harassed by the US military before the charges against him were dropped. Yee has been detained and released several times. He is still of interest.
Brandon Mayfield, a US citizen and lawyer in Oregon, was mistakenly identified as a possible terrorist. His house was secretly broken into and his computer seized. Though he is innocent of the accusation against him, he is still on the list.
It is a standard practice of fascist societies that once you are on the list, you can't get off.
7. Target key individuals
Threaten civil servants, artists and academics with job loss if they don't toe the line. Mussolini went after the rectors of state universities who did not conform to the fascist line; so did Joseph Goebbels, who purged academics who were not pro-Nazi; so did Chile's Augusto Pinochet; so does the Chinese communist Politburo in punishing pro-democracy students and professors.
Academe is a tinderbox of activism, so those seeking a fascist shift punish academics and students with professional loss if they do not "coordinate", in Goebbels' term, ideologically. Since civil servants are the sector of society most vulnerable to being fired by a given regime, they are also a group that fascists typically "coordinate" early on: the Reich Law for the Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Service was passed on April 7 1933.
Bush supporters in state legislatures in several states put pressure on regents at state universities to penalise or fire academics who have been critical of the administration. As for civil servants, the Bush administration has derailed the career of one military lawyer who spoke up for fair trials for detainees, while an administration official publicly intimidated the law firms that represent detainees pro bono by threatening to call for their major corporate clients to boycott them.
Elsewhere, a CIA contract worker who said in a closed blog that "waterboarding is torture" was stripped of the security clearance she needed in order to do her job.
Most recently, the administration purged eight US attorneys for what looks like insufficient political loyalty. When Goebbels purged the civil service in April 1933, attorneys were "coordinated" too, a step that eased the way of the increasingly brutal laws to follow.
8. Control the press
Italy in the 1920s, Germany in the 30s, East Germany in the 50s, Czechoslovakia in the 60s, the Latin American dictatorships in the 70s, China in the 80s and 90s - all dictatorships and would-be dictators target newspapers and journalists. They threaten and harass them in more open societies that they are seeking to close, and they arrest them and worse in societies that have been closed already.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high: Josh Wolf (no relation), a blogger in San Francisco, has been put in jail for a year for refusing to turn over video of an anti-war demonstration; Homeland Security brought a criminal complaint against reporter Greg Palast, claiming he threatened "critical infrastructure" when he and a TV producer were filming victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Palast had written a bestseller critical of the Bush administration.
Other reporters and writers have been punished in other ways. Joseph C Wilson accused Bush, in a New York Times op-ed, of leading the country to war on the basis of a false charge that Saddam Hussein had acquired yellowcake uranium in Niger. His wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a CIA spy - a form of retaliation that ended her career.
Prosecution and job loss are nothing, though, compared with how the US is treating journalists seeking to cover the conflict in Iraq in an unbiased way. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented multiple accounts of the US military in Iraq firing upon or threatening to fire upon unembedded (meaning independent) reporters and camera operators from organisations ranging from al-Jazeera to the BBC. While westerners may question the accounts by al-Jazeera, they should pay attention to the accounts of reporters such as the BBC's Kate Adie. In some cases reporters have been wounded or killed, including ITN's Terry Lloyd in 2003. Both CBS and the Associated Press in Iraq had staff members seized by the US military and taken to violent prisons; the news organisations were unable to see the evidence against their staffers.
Over time in closing societies, real news is supplanted by fake news and false documents. Pinochet |
fallback for SMIL animations, you can test for browser support on-the-fly using Modernizr. If SMIL is not supported, you can then provide some kind of fallback (JavaScript animations, an alternate experience, etc).
Specifying the target of the animation with xlink:href
No matter which of the four animation elements you choose, you need to specify the target of the animation defined by that element.
In order to specify a target, you can use the xlink:href attribute. The attribute takes a URI reference to the element which is the target of this animation and which therefore will be modified over time. The target element must be part of the current SVG document fragment.
<rect id="cool_shape"... /> <animate xlink:href="#cool_shape"... />
If you've come across SVG animation elements before, you've probably seen them nested inside the element that they're supposed to animate. This is possible as well as per the spec:
If the xlink:href attribute is not provided, then the target element will be the immediate parent element of the current animation element.
<rect id="cool_shape"... > <animate... /> </rect>
So if you want to "encapsulate" the animation into the element it applies to, you can do that. And if you want to keep the animations separate somewhere else in the document, you can do that too, and specify the target of each animation using xlink:href. Both ways work just fine.
Specifying the target property of the animation with attributeName and attributeType
All animation elements also share another attribute: attributeName. The attributeName attribute is used to specify the name of the attribute that you're animating.
For example, if you want to animate the position of the center of a <circle> on the x-axis, you do that by specifying cx as the value for the attributeName attribute.
attributeName takes only one value, not a list of values, so, you can only animate one attribute at a time. If you want to animate more than one attribute, you need to define more than one animation for the element. This is something that I wish were different, and that I think CSS has an advantage over SMIL for. But then again, because of the values possible for other animation attributes (which we'll cover next), it only makes sense to define only one attribute name at a time, otherwise the other attribute values can become too complex to work with.
When you specify the attribute name, you can add an XMLNS (short for XML namespace) prefix to indicate the namespace of the attribute. The namespace can also be specified using the attributeType attribute. For example, some attributes are part of the CSS namespace (which means that the attribute can be found as a CSS property as well) and others are XML-only. A table showing these attributes can be found here. The attributes in the table are not all of the SVG attributes. They are only the ones that can be set using CSS. Some of them are already available as CSS properties.
If the value for attributeType is not explicitly set or is set to auto, the browser must first search through the list of CSS properties for a matching property name, and if none is found, search the default XML namespace for the element.
For example, the following snippet animates the opacity of an SVG rectangle. Since the opacity attribute is also available as a CSS property, the attributeType is set to the CSS namespace:
<rect> <animate attributeType="CSS" attributeName="opacity" from="1" to="0" dur="5s" repeatCount="indefinite" /> </rect>
We'll go over the other animation attributes in the upcoming examples below. Except where otherwise noted, all of the animation attributes are common to all of the animation elements.
Animating an element's attribute from one value to another over a duration of time, and specifying the end state: from, by, to, dur and fill
Let's start by moving a circle from one position to another. We're going to do that by changing the value of its cx attribute (which specifies the x-position of its center).
We're going to use the <animate> element to do that. This element is used to animate one attribute at a time. Attributes that take numerical values and colors are usually animated with <animate>. For a list of attributes that can be animated, refer to this table.
In order to change a value to another over a period of time, the from, to, and dur attributes are used. In addition to these, you will also want to specify when the animation should start with the begin attribute.
<circle id="my-circle" r="30" cx="50" cy="50" fill="orange" /> <animate xlink:href="#my-circle" attributeName="cx" from="50" to="450" dur="1s" begin="click" fill="freeze" />
In the above example, we've defined a circle, and then called an animation on that circle. The center of the circle moves from the initial position at 50 units, to 450 units along the x-axis.
The begin value is set to click. This means that the circle will move when it is clicked. You can set this value to a time value as well. For example, begin="0s" will start the animation as soon as the page is loaded. You can delay an animation by setting a positive time value. For example, begin="2s" starts the animation two seconds after load.
What's even more interesting about begin is that you can define values like click + 1s to start an animation one second after the element is clicked! What's more, you can use other values that allow you to sync animations without having calculate the duration and delays of other animations. More about this later.
The dur attribute is similar to the animation-duration equivalent in CSS.
The from and to attributes are similar to the from and to keyframes in an animation's @keyframe block in CSS:
@keyframes moveCircle { from { /* start value */ } to { /* end value */ } }
The fill attribute (which is rather unfortunately named the same as the fill attribute which defines the fill color of an element) is similar to the animation-fill-mode property, which specifies whether or not the element should return to its initial state after the animation is over. The values in SVG are similar to those in CSS, except use different names:
freeze : The animation effect is defined to freeze the effect value at the last value of the active duration. The animation effect is "frozen" for the remainder of the document duration (or until the animation is restarted).
: The animation effect is defined to freeze the effect value at the last value of the active duration. The animation effect is "frozen" for the remainder of the document duration (or until the animation is restarted). remove : The animation effect is removed (no longer applied) when the active duration of the animation is over. After the active end of the animation, the animation no longer affects the target (unless the animation is restarted).
Try changing the values in the live demo to see how the animation is affected:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
The by attribute is used to specify a relative offset for the animation. As the name suggests, you can use it to specify the amount by which you want the animation to progress. The effect of by is almost only visible when you're progressing over the animation duration in discrete steps, similar to the way it works with the CSS steps() function. The SVG equivalent to the CSS steps() function is calcMode="discrete". We'll get to the calcMode attribute later in the article.
Another case where the effect of by is more obvious is when you only specify the to attribute. An example of that would be if you use it with the set element which we will also cover later in the article.
And last but not least, by also comes in useful when you're working with additive and accumulative animations. We will go over that later in the article.
Restarting Animations with restart
It may be useful to prevent an animation from being restarted while it is active. To do that, SVG offers the restart attribute. You can set this attribute to one of three possible values:
always : The animation can be restarted any time. This is the default value.
: The animation can be restarted any time. This is the default value. whenNotActive : The animation can only be restarted when it is not active (i.e. after the active end). Attempts to restart the animation during its active duration are ignored.
: The animation can only be restarted when it is not active (i.e. after the active end). Attempts to restart the animation during its active duration are ignored. never : The element cannot be restarted for the remainder of the current simple duration of the parent time container. (In the case of SVG, since the parent time container is the SVG document fragment, then the animation cannot be restarted for the remainder of the document duration.)
Naming animations and synchronizing them
Suppose we want to animate the position and the color of the circle, such that the change in color happens at the end of the moving animation. We can do that by setting the begin value of the color-changing animation to be equal to the dur ation of the moving animation; this is how we would normally do it in CSS.
SMIL, however, has a nice event-handling feature. We mentioned before that the begin attribute accepts values like click + 5s. This value is called an "event value", and is in this case made up of an event reference followed by a "clock value". The interesting part here is the naming of the second part: the "clock value". Why is it not simply a "time value"? Well the answer is that you can literally use a clock value like "10min" or "01:33" which is equivalent to "1 minute and 33 seconds", or even "02:30:03" (two hours, 30 minutes, and 3 seconds). At the time of this writing, clock values are not fully implemented in any browser.
So, if we were to go back to the previous demo and use click + 01:30, if a browser started supporting it, the animation would fire 1 minute and 30 seconds after the circle is clicked.
Another kind of value it can accept is the ID of another animation followed by an event reference. If you have two (or more) animations (whether they are applied to the same element or not!) and you want to synchronize them so that one of them starts relative to the other, you can do that without having to know the duration of the other animation.
For example, in the next demo, the blue rectangle starts moving 1 second after the circle animation starts. This is done by giving each animation an ID, and then using that ID with the begin event as shown in the following code:
<circle id="orange-circle" r="30" cx="50" cy="50" fill="orange" /> <rect id="blue-rectangle" width="50" height="50" x="25" y="200" fill="#0099cc"></rect> <animate xlink:href="#orange-circle" attributeName="cx" from="50" to="450" dur="5s" begin="click" fill="freeze" d="circ-anim" /> <animate xlink:href="#blue-rectangle" attributeName="x" from="50" to="425" dur="5s" begin="circ-anim.begin + 1s" fill="freeze" id="rect-anim" />
The begin="circ-anim.begin + 1s" is the part that tells the browser to start the rectangle's animation 1 second after the beginning of the circle's. You can check the live demo out:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
You can also start the rectangle animation after the circle animation ends using the end event:
<animate xlink:href="#blue-rectangle" attributeName="x" from="50" to="425" dur="5s" begin="circ-anim.end" fill="freeze" id="rect-anim"/>
You could even start it before the end of the circle's animation:
<animate xlink:href="#blue-rectangle" attributeName="x" from="50" to="425" dur="5s" begin="circ-anim.end - 3s" fill="freeze" id="rect-anim"/>
Repeating Animations with repeatCount
If you want to run an animation more than once, you can do that using the repeatCount attribute. You can specify the number of times you want it to repeat, or use the indefinite keyword to have it repeat endlessly. So, if we were to repeat the circle's animation for two times, the code would look like so:
<animate xlink:href="#orange-circle" attributeName="cx" from="50" to="450" dur="5s" begin="click" repeatCount="2" fill="freeze" id="circ-anim" />
You can check the live demo out here. In the demo, I've set the repeat count to be 2 on the circle, and indefinite on the square.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Notice how the animation restarts from the initial from value instead of the value it reached at the end of the animation. Unfortunately, SMIL does not include a way to go back and forth between the start and end values like CSS animations allow us to do. In CSS, the animation-direction property specifies whether or not an animation should play in reverse on some or all cycles or iterations. animation-direction: alternate value means that the animation cycle iterations that are odd counts are played in the normal direction, and the animation cycle iterations that are even counts are played in a reverse direction. This means that the first cycle will play from beginning to end, then the second cycle will play from the end back to the beginning, then the third cycle will play from the beginning to the end, and so on.
In SMIL to do that you would have to use JavaScript to explicitly change the values of the from and to attributes. Jon McPartland of the Big Bite Creative wrote a post a while back explaining how he did this for a menu icon animation that he worked on.
Another workaround is to specify the end value as the middle value and then have the end value be the same as the initial value. For example, you can set the animation to start from a value, and end at the same value as well with to, except that you specify what you would have set to be a final value, as an intermediate value between from and to.
In CSS we would do that using something like this:
@keyframes example { from, to { left: 0; } 50% { left: 300px; } }
The equivalent in SMIL is to use the values attribute, which we will explain shortly.
That said, the above workaround may or may not work for you depending on the kind of animation you're after, and whether or not you are chaining animations, repeating them, or doing additive animations.
Here's a nice, simple infinite animation using some delayed begin times by Miles Elam:
See the Pen Hexagon Ripple by Miles Elam (@mileselam) on CodePen.
Restricting repetition time with repeatDur
Setting an element to repeat indefinitely may get annoying or not user-friendly if the animation resumes for a long time. So, it may be a good idea to restrict the repetition time to a certain period of time, and stop the repetition after some time relative to the beginning of the document. This is known as presentation time.
The presentation time indicates the position in the timeline relative to the document begin of a given document fragment. It is specified using the repeatDur attribute. Its syntax is similar to that of a clock value, but instead of being relative to another animation event or an interaction event, it's relative to the beginning of the document.
For example, the following snippet will stop the repetition of the animation 1 minute and 30 seconds after the document begin:
<animate xlink:href="#orange-circle" attributeName="cx" from="50" to="450" dur="2s" begin="0s" repeatCount="indefinite" repeatDur="01:30" fill="freeze" id="circ-anim" />
And here is the live demo:
Synchronizing animations based on number of repetitions
Now let's go back a step to the synchronizing between two animations topic. Indeed, in SMIL, you can synchronize animations so that one animation starts based on the number of repetitions of another. For example, you can start an animation after the nth-repetition of another, plus or minus an amount of time you may want to add.
The following example starts the rectangle's animation at the second repetition of the circle's animation:
<animate xlink:href="#blue-rectangle" attributeName="x" from="50" to="425" dur="5s" begin="circ-anim.repeat(2)" fill="freeze" id="rect-anim" />
The following is a live demo where the rectangle's animation starts 2 seconds after the second repetition of the circle's animation.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
And here is an example David Eisenberg put together for SVG Essentials, 2nd Edition.
Controlling animation keyframe values: keyTimes and values
In CSS, we can specify the values that we want our animated property to take in a certain frame during the animation. For example, if you're animating the left offset of an element, instead of animating it from, say, 0 to 300 directly, you can animate it so that it takes certain values during certain frames like this:
@keyframes example { 0% { left: 0; } 50% { left: 320px; } 80% { left: 270px; } 100% { left: 300px; } }
The 0%, 20%, 80%, and 100% are the frames of the animation, and the values in each frame's block are the values for each frame. The effect described above is one of an element bouncing off a wall, then back to the final position.
In SMIL, you can control the values per frame in a similar way, but the syntax is quite different.
To specify the keyframes, you use the keyTimes attribute. And then to specify the value of the animated property for each frame, you use the values attributes. The naming conventions in SMIL are quite convenient.
If we were to go back to our moving circle, and use values similar to the ones in the CSS keyframes above, the code will look like the following:
<animate xlink:href="#orange-circle" attributeName="cx" from="50" to="450" dur="2s" begin="click" values="50; 490; 350; 450" keyTimes="0; 0.5; 0.8; 1" fill="freeze" id="circ-anim" />
So what did we do there?
The first thing to notice here is that the keyframe times and intermediate values are specified as lists. The keyTimes attribute is a semicolon-separated list of time values used to control the pacing of the animation. Each time in the list corresponds to a value in the values attribute list, and defines when the value is used in the animation function. Each time value in the keyTimes list is specified as a floating point value between 0 and 1 (inclusive), representing a proportional offset into the simple duration of the animation element. So the keytimes are similar to those in CSS, except that, instead of specifying them as percentages, you specify them as a fraction.
The following is the live demo for the above code. Click on the circle to start the animation.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Note that if a list of values is used, the animation will apply the values in order over the course of the animation. If a list of values is specified, any from, to and by attribute values are ignored.
At this point, it is also worth mentioning that you can use values attribute without the keyTimes attribute - the values are automatically spread out evenly through the time (for every calcMode value other than paced (See next section).
Controlling animation pace with custom easing: calcMode, and keySplines
I'm going to go for a CSS-SMIL comparison again because the SMIL syntax and concepts will be much simpler to understand if you're already familiar with CSS animations.
In CSS, you can choose to change the default uniform animation pace and specify a custom easing function that controls the animation, using the animation-timing-function property. The timing function can be one of a few predefined keywords, or a cubic bezier function. The latter can be created using a tool such as this tool by Lea Verou.
In SMIL, the animation pace is specified using the calcMode attribute. The default animation pace is linear for all animation elements except animateMotion (we'll get to it later in the article). In addition to the linear value, you can set the value to: discrete, paced, or spline.
discrete specifies that the animation function will jump from one value to the next without any interpolation. This is similar to the steps() function in CSS.
specifies that the animation function will jump from one value to the next without any interpolation. This is similar to the function in CSS. paced is similar to linear, except that it will ignore any intermediate progress times defined by keyTimes. It calculates out the distance between subsequent values and divides up the time accordingly. If your values are all in a linear order, you won't notice the difference. But if they go back and forth, or if they are colours (which are treated as three-dimensional vector values), you will definitely see the intermediary values. The following is a live demo courtesy of Amelia Bellamy-Royds, that shows the difference between the three calcMode values mentioned so far: See the Pen SVG/SMIL calcMode comparison by Amelia Bellamy-Royds (@AmeliaBR) on CodePen.
is similar to, except that it will ignore any intermediate progress times defined by. It calculates out the distance between subsequent values and divides up the time accordingly. If your values are all in a linear order, you won't notice the difference. But if they go back and forth, or if they are colours (which are treated as three-dimensional vector values), you will definitely see the intermediary values. The following is a live demo courtesy of Amelia Bellamy-Royds, that shows the difference between the three values mentioned so far: The fourth value accepted by calcMode is spline. It interpolates from one value in the values list to the next according to a time function defined by a cubic bezier spline. The points of the spline are defined in the keyTimes attribute, and the control points for each interval are defined in the keySplines attribute.
You've probably noticed the new attribute in the last sentence: the keySplines attribute. So, what does the keySplines attribute do?
Again, to the CSS equivalents.
In CSS, you can specify the animation pace inside every keyframe, instead of specifying one animation pace for the entire animation. This gives you better control over how each keyframe animation should proceed. An example using this feature is creating a bouncing ball effect. The keyframes for that may look like this:
@keyframes bounce { 0% { top: 0; animation-timing-function: ease-in; } 15% { top: 200px; animation-timing-function: ease-out; } 30% { top: 70px; animation-timing-function: ease-in; } 45% { top: 200px; animation-timing-function: ease-out; } 60% { top: 120px; animation-timing-function: ease-in; } 75% { top: 200px; animation-timing-function: ease-out; } 90% { top: 170px; animation-timing-function: ease-in; } 100% { top: 200px; animation-timing-function: ease-out; } }
Instead of keyword easing functions, we could have used the corresponding cubic-bezier functions:
ease-in = cubic-bezier(0.47, 0, 0.745, 0.715)
= ease-out = cubic-bezier(0.39, 0.575, 0.565, 1)
Let's start by specifying the key times and list of values for our orange circle to undergo the same bouncing effect:
<animate xlink:href="#orange-circle" attributeName="cy" from="50" to="250" dur="3s" begin="click" values="50; 250; 120;250; 170; 250; 210; 250" keyTimes="0; 0.15; 0.3; 0.45; 0.6; 0.75; 0.9; 1" fill="freeze" id="circ-anim" />
The animation will be begin on click, and will freeze once it reaches the end value. Next, in order to specify the pace of each keyframe, we're going to add the keySplines attribute.
The keySplines attribute takes in set of bezier control points associated with the keyTimes list, defining a cubic bezier function that controls interval pacing. The attribute value is a semicolon-separated list of control point descriptions. Each control point description is a set of four values: x1 y1 x2 y2, describing the bezier control points for one time segment. The values must all be in the range 0 to 1, and the attribute is ignored unless the calcMode is set to spline.
Instead of taking cubic-bezier functions as values, keySplines takes the coordinates of the two control points that are used to draw the curve. The control points can be seen in the following screenshot taken from Lea's tool. The screenshot also shows the coordinates of each point, each colored with the same color as the point itself. For the keySplines attribute, it is these values that we are going to use to define the pace of the keyframe animations.
SMIL allows these values to be separated either by commas with optional whitespace, or by whitespace alone. The keyTimes values that define the associated segment are the bezier "anchor points", and the keySplines values are the control points. Thus, there must be one fewer set of control points than there are keyTimes.
If we go back to the bouncing ball example, the control point coordinates for the ease-in and ease-out functions are shown in the following images:
So, to translate that into the SVG animation element, we get the following code:
<animate xlink:href="#orange-circle" attributeName="cy" from="50" to="250" dur="3s" begin="click" values="50; 250; 120;250; 170; 250; 210; 250" keyTimes="0; 0.15; 0.3; 0.45; 0.6; 0.75; 0.9; 1" keySplines=".42 0 1 1; 0 0.59 1;.42 0 1 1; 0 0.59 1;.42 0 1 1; 0 0.59 1;.42 0 1 1; 0 0.59 1;" fill="freeze" id="circ-anim"/>
Here's the live demo:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
If you only want to specify an overall easing function for the entire animation without any intermediate values, you would still have to specify the keyframes using the keyTimes attribute, but you would only specify the start and ending keyframes, namely 0; 1, and no intermediate values.
Additive & Accumulative Animations: additive and accumulate
Sometimes, it's useful to define an animation that starts from where the previous animation ended; or one that uses the accumulative sum of the previous animations as a value to proceed by. For that, SVG has two conveniently named attributes: additive and accumulate.
Suppose you have an element whose width you want to "grow", or a line whose length you want to increase, or an element that you want to move step by step from one position to the other, over separate steps. This feature is particularly useful for repeated animations.
Just like any other animation, you're going to specify from and to values. However, when you set additive to sum, each of their values is going to be relative to the original value of the animated attribute.
So, back to our circle. For our circle, the initial position of cx is 50. When you set from="0" to="100", the zero if actually the original 50, and the 100 is actually 50 + 100; in other words, it's practically kind of like " from="50" to="150" ".
By doing that, we get the following result:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
This is all the additive attribute does. It just specifies whether the from and to values should be relative to the current value or not. The attribute only takes one of two values: sum and replace. The latter is the default value, and it basically means that the from and to values are going to replace the current/original values, which may end up causing a weird jump before the animation starts. (Try replacing sum with replace in the above example for a better comparison.)
However, what if we want the values to be added such that the second repetition starts off from the ending value of the previous one? This is where the accumulate attribute comes in.
The accumulate attribute controls whether or not the animation is cumulative. The default value is none, which means that, when the animation is repeated for example, it's going to start back from the beginning. You can, however, set it to sum, which specifies that each repeat iteration after the first builds upon the last value of the previous iteration.
So, if we were to go back to the previous animation and specify accumulate="sum", we'd get the following prefferable result:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Note that the accumulate attribute is ignored if the target attribute value does not support addition, or if the animation element does not repeat. It will also be ignored if the animation function is specified with only the to attribute.
Specifying an animation's end time with end
In addition to specifying when an animation begins, you can also specify when it ends, using the end attribute. For example, you can set an animation to repeat indefinitely, and then have it stop when another element starts animating. The end attribute takes values similar to those that the begin value takes. You can specify absolute or relative time values/offsets, repeat values, event values, etc.
For example, in the following demo, the orange circle moves slowly over a period of 30 seconds to the other side of the canvas. The green circle will also animate, but only when it's clicked. The orange circle's animation will end when the green circle's animation starts. Click on the green circle to see the orange one stop:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
The same kind of animation synchronization can be achieved for two animations applied to the same element, of course. For example, suppose we set the color of the circle to animate indefinitely changing from one value to another. Then, when the element is clicked, it moves to the other side. We'll set it now so that the color animation stops as soon as the element is clicked and the moving animation is fired.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Defining animation intervals using multiple begin and end values
Indeed, both the begin and end attributes accept a list of semi-colon-separated values. Each value in the begin attribute will correspond to a value in the end attribute, thus forming active and inactive animation intervals.
You can think of this as being similar to a moving car, where the car's tires are active and then inactive for periods of time, depending on whether or not the car is moving. You can even create the animated car effect by applying to animations to the car: one that translates the car or moves it along a path that is also an additive and accumulative animation, and another animation that rotates the car's tires in intervals that would be synchronized with the translation.
An example specifying multiple beginning and ending times (i.e. intervals) is the following demo, where the rectangle is rotated based on the defined intervals, changing from active to inactive accordingly. (Rerun the demo if you miss the animation.)
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Note that in the above example I've used the <animateTransform> element to rotate the rectangle about its center. We'll talk about this element in more detail in an upcoming section below.
Also note that, even if you set the repeatCount to indefinite, it will be overridden by the end values and will not repeat indefinitely.
Restricting the active duration of an element using min and max
Just like you can restrict the repetition time of an animation, you can even restrict the active duration of an animation. The min and max attributes specify the minimum and maximum value of the active duration, respectively. They provide us with a way to control the lower and upper bound of the element active duration. Both attributes take a clock value as a value.
For min, that specifies the length of the minimum value of the active duration, measured in element active time. Value must be greater than or equal to 0, which is the default value and does not constrain the active duration at all.
For max, the clock value specifies the length of the maximum value of the active duration, measured in element active time. Value must also be greater than 0. The default value for max is indefinite. This does not constrain the active duration at all.
If both min and max attributes are specified then the max value must be greater than or equal to the min value. If this requirement is not fulfilled then both attributes are ignored.
But what defines the active duration of an element? We mentioned the repeat duration before, in addition to the "simple duration", which is the duration of the animation without any repetition (specified using dur ), so how do all of these work together? Which overrides what? and then what about the end attribute which would override and simply end the animation?
The way it happens is that the browser will first compute the active duration based on the dur, repeatCount, repeatDur, and end values. Then, it runs the computed duration against the specified min and max values. If the result is within the bounds, this first computed duration value is correct and will not be changed. Otherwise two situations may occur:
If the first computed duration is greater than the max value, the active duration of the element is defined to be equal to the max value.
value, the active duration of the element is defined to be equal to the value. If the first computed duration is less than the min value, the active duration of the element becomes equal to the min value and the behavior of the element is as follows: If the repeating duration (or the simple duration if the element doesn't repeat) of the element is greater than min then the element is played normally for the ( min constrained) active duration. Otherwise the element is played normally for its repeating duration (or simple duration if the element does not repeat) and then is frozen or not shown depending on the value of the fill attribute.
value, the active duration of the element becomes equal to the value and the behavior of the element is as follows:
That leaves us with how the browser actually computes the active duration. For sake of brevity, I'm not going to get into the details here. But there is a very comprehensive table in the specification that shows the different combinations of the dur, repeatCount, repeatDur, and end attributes, and then shows what the active duration will be based on each combination. You can check the table out and read more about this in this section of the specification.
Lastly, if an element is defined to begin before its parent (e.g. with a simple negative offset value), the minimum duration is measured from the calculated begin time not the observed begin. This means that the min value may have no observed effect.
<animate> example: morphing paths
One of the attributes that can be animated in SMIL (but not in CSS) is the d attribute (short for data) of an SVG <path>. The d attribute contains the data which defines the outline of the shape that you're drawing. The path data consists of a set of commands and coordinates that tell the browser where and how to draw points, arcs, and lines that make up the final path.
Animating this attribute allows us to morph SVG paths and create shape tweening effects. But, in order to be able to morph shapes, the start, end, and any intermediate path shapes need to have the exact same number of vertices/points, and they need to appear in the same order. If the number of vertices doesn't match, the animation wouldn't work. The reason for this is that the shape changing actually happens by moving the vertices, and interpolating their positions, so if one vertex is missing or does not match, the paths won't be interpolated anymore.
To animate an SVG path, you specify the attributeName to be d, and then set the from and to values that specify the start and end shapes, and you can use the values attribute to specify any intermediate values you want the shape to go through in between.
For the sake of brevity, I won't get into the details of how to do this here. Instead, you can read this excellent article by Noah Blon, in which he explains how he created a shape-tweening kind-of-loading animation using <animate>. The live demo for Noah's article is this:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
And here's another morphing example by Felix Hornoiu:
See the Pen SVG Countdown by Felix Hornoiu (@felixhornoiu) on CodePen.
You can even morph the values of a path being used as a clipping mask! An example of that by Heather Buchel:
See the Pen Loading Animation with Morphing SVG! by Heather Buchel (@hbuchel) on CodePen.
Animating along arbitrary paths: The <animateMotion> Element
The <animateMotion> element is my favorite SMIL animation element. You can use it to move an element along a path. You specify the motion path using one of two ways which we're going to cover next, and then to set the element up so that is moves along that path.
The <animateMotion> element accepts the same attributes mentioned earlier, plus three more: keyPoints, rotate, and path. Also, there is one difference regarding the calcMode attribute, where the default value is paced for <animateMotion>, not linear.
Specifying the motion path using the path attribute
The path attribute is used to specify the motion path. It is expressed in the same format and interpreted the same way as the d attribute on the path element. The effect of a motion path animation is to add a supplemental transformation matrix onto the current transformation matrix for the referenced object which causes a translation along the x- and y-axes of the current user coordinate system by the computed X and Y values computed over time. In other words, the path specified is calculated relative to the element's current position, by using the path data to transform the element onto the path position.
For our circle, we're going to animate it along a path that looks like the following:
The code required for the circle to move along this path is:
<animateMotion xlink:href="#circle" dur="1s" |
37 PM GMT By Dawn Ennis
"We fought! And we WON!"
That's how a military wife and mom stationed in Germany summed-up her family's victory over an official who had barred her transgender daughter from using the girls' bathroom at the school on base.
An image of Blue, a transgender student at Ramstein Intermediate School in Germany. Jess
On Friday, following a report by NBC OUT, the mom, Jess (who asked NBC OUT to withhold her family's last name to protect their privacy), said Defense Secretary Ashton Carter himself let her family know via email he was stepping in to set things right.
Jess, whose husband serves at Ramstein Air Base, posted this on Facebook:
"Here is the BIG news everyone!! We fought! And we WON!!!!! Last night we heard back from the Secretary of Defense (yes I mean THE US Secretary of Defense) And because of our Fight now ALL TRANSGENDER KIDS in ALL department of Defense schools can now use the bathroom and Locker Room of their gender Identity!! Mic Drop!!!!!!"
The U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) operates 191 schools in 12 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico. It serves more than 82,000 children of active duty military and and DoD civilian families.
Jess's 11-year-old daughter, who goes by the name Blue, is a 5th grade student at Ramstein Intermediate School, one of four schools at Ramstein Air Base. Blue came out over the summer and was accepted by most of her classmates, as well as the school's administration.
But three days after sending the parents of Blue's classmates a letter announcing she'd be using the girls' bathroom following the Columbus Day weekend, that decision was overruled.
The main gate of U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Ramstein, Germany. Ralph Orlowski / Getty Images
According to Jess, Liz Dunham, the superintendent in charge of the Bavaria district of the DoDEA, told her and her husband Blue would have to use the boys' bathroom or gender-neutral, single-stall bathrooms three flights below her classroom.
"She's terrified of having to use the boys' bathroom," Jess told NBC OUT.
Jess said she informed Dunham that transgender students at the high school and middle school on base were able to use the restrooms matching their gender identity, but she said Dunham "didn't really care."
"She insisted that DoDEA doesn't have a policy yet, even though there was a letter sent to parents by DoDEA about its transgender policy."
Jess said she reminded Dunham of that letter but was rebuffed. Dunham, according to Jess, said the letter stated there will not be discrimination but didn't specifically state the policy on bathroom use.
Jess revealed in a Facebook message Friday that the DoDEA assured her Friday was the last day her daughter would have to choose between a gender-neutral bathroom three flights and a courtyard away from her classroom or waiting to urinate until the school day was done.
"Today she was still holding it. As she did not know yet. The article came out after she had already gotten home. We met with the chief of staff for DoDEA today he confirmed that yes indeed DoDEA will be implementing this at all 190 schools. They may take a week or two to fully implement (they would like some suggestions on how to best do that) but Blue will be using the girls bathroom on Monday!"
Earlier Friday, the head of the nation's largest LGBTQ military family advocacy group called on the Pentagon to address this case of gender identity discrimination.
“This superintendent’s decision to violate the civil rights of this transgender student is alarming,” Ashley Broadway-Mack, president of the American Military Partner Association, stated. "All students, regardless of their gender identity, deserve to be able to go to school in an environment free from discrimination and harassment. The Department of Defense school system is currently observing October as National Bullying Prevention Month, yet this superintendent has unacceptably chosen to single out and discriminate against a student because of her gender identity. Transgender youth already face high rates of marginalization, bullying, and harassment, and we urge the Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity, Mr. Thomas Brady, to immediately step in and correct this unconscionable decision.”
At the time of this article's publication, neither the Pentagon nor Superintendent Liz Dunham had responded to requests for confirmation of the decision to let Blue use the girls' bathroom starting Monday.I was in Portland last week, soaking up back-to-back conferences in JSConf and NodeConf. JavaScript (or just JS) is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. Not only are the modern browser wars a boon to client-side JS performance and functionality, but JS is being used on the server side via Node.js. The speakers and attendees are on the cutting edge of software development. It was an inspiring, mind-expanding week.
Reflecting on these two conferences, another important observation comes to mind about my fellow attendees: Many of them are active in the open government and open data community. Our community!
I was also happy to talk open government with those not yet familiar with the movement. I may have convinced a citizen of Yellowknife, Canada (population 19,000) to build a web app for his city’s bus schedule. The city has 4 bus routes. Striking up conversation with other attendees, I was surprised to learn that so many knew about the budget cuts to the Electronic Government Fund, and all who did agreed strongly with Sunlight’s position. All in all, it was a pleasant surprise to see our community so well-represented at JSConf and NodeConf.Story highlights The Metropolitan Transit Authority says Amazon has decided to pull the ads
Critics said the agency was hypocritical for allowing the ads to begin with
(CNN) Amazon has decided to take down New York subway advertisements for its streaming series "The Man in the High Castle" amid complaints about the use of symbols similar to those used by Germany and Japan during World War II.
Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz said Tuesday that Amazon had decided to end the promotion, which includes seat wraps on one train and 260 subway station posters.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ads promote a new series that depicts an alternate reality in which Germany and Japan won World War II and occupy parts of the United States.
The advertisements featured a refashioned American flag with Nazi Germany's imperial eagle as well as symbols incorporating elements of the Japanese rising sun.
Read MoreIzvor: AP Photo/Amel Emric
Ured predsjednice RH privremeno će, od 4. do 7. rujna, biti otvoren u Ličko-senjskoj županiji što će biti službeno obilježeno podizanjem predsjedničke zastave u ponedjeljak u Gospiću.
Na podizanju zastave 4. rujna rano ujutro ispred zgrade Ličko-senjske županije bit će predsjednica Grabar-Kitarović, župan Darko Milinović i gradonačelnik Gospića Karlo Starčević. Nakon prigodnog govora, predsjednica će s ministricom znanosti i obrazovanja Blaženkom Divjak posjetiti Osnovnu školu Dr. Jure Turića u Gospiću.
U privremenom uredu, u zgradi Ličko-senjske županije, predsjednica će održati radne sastanke s predstavnicima Ličko-senjske županije te gradonačelnicima i načelnicima općina, gospićko-senjskim biskupom, dekanicom Veleučilišta u Gospiću, predstavnicima udruga hrvatskih branitelja te predstavnicima srpske nacionalne manjine.
pročitajte još Predsjednica ima novu glasnogovornicu, Đurić unaprijeđen
U organizaciji Vijeća mladih održat će se okrugli stol na kojem će sudjelovati mladi Ličko-senjske županije, predstavnici mjerodavnih ministarstava te drugih institucija.
Predsjednica će posjetiti Senj i Otočac te općine Perušić, Plitvička Jezera, Udbinu, Gračac i Lovinac gdje će razgovarati s predstavnicima lokalnih vlasti i građanima, a obići će i tvrtke.
Premještanjem Ureda predsjednice nastavlja se projekt "Osjeti Hrvatsku" tijekom kojeg će se čelnici diplomatskih misija i međunarodnih organizacija akreditirani u Hrvatskoj upoznati s prednostima i mogućnostima Ličko-senjske županije.
Hrvatskoj predsjednici to će biti deveti put da svoj ured premješta izvan Zagreba.
N1 pratite putem aplikacija za Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| i društvenih mreža Twitter | Facebook | Instagram.Taylor Currie, a class of 2019 prospect at forward, was offered scholarship on Thursday by John Beilein and the Michigan Wolverines.
He wasted no time accepting it.
Currie committed to the program shortly after he was offered and announced his pledge to the Maize and Blue via his Twitter account.
I'm excited to announce that I've committed to play at The University of Michigan! Thanks to God, My Family, and Coach Beilein! Go Blue 〽️〽️ pic.twitter.com/7u6cvCK07H — Taylor Currie (@_swaggyt33) June 15, 2017
Currie is a three-star prospect out of Clarkston, Michigan (originally from Columbus, Ohio) and is the 30th-ranked power forward in his class. He also drew interest from Iowa, Ohio State and Florida, among others.
His commitment gives the Wolverines their first pledge of the 2019 recruiting class.Book 11 Chapter 41
The Two Sides Converge
When they all saw the blades of wind cut across the path before them like knives, along with the spatial cracks that occasionally appeared, no one in that group of people dared to let down their guard. Including Qin Yu.
A flowing blade of wind was swiftly shot towards Qin Yu and the group of people.
Immediately —
All the nine people who were present individually performed their various own methods, and not even a single person dared to take that thread-like blade of wind lightly. That was because they had all seen how those kind of wind blades could even cut open space.
*Pului* There was a crisp sound, similar to how a keen knife split open a block of wood.
Fresh blood splattered everywhere.
“Second Brother.” Transform Into Stone looked worriedly at his own younger brother Change Into Stone. The speed of that wind blade was simply too fast. Even when everyone dodged, Change Into Stone was still struck since he was closer to that wind blade, and more than half of his right arm had been cut off.
Change Into Stone momentarily frowned. “Nothing much, it’s only that I will need to exhaust quite an amount of energy to assemble my body.”
As a Loose Demon, so long as the Yuanying was not destroyed, that physical body could naturally be reassembled. It was only that assembling a physical body would require an extremely large amount of energy.
“Change Into Stone, do not assemble your right arm for the time being. After all, it will be better to have a smaller body in this place.” Zong Jue voiced out.
“Senior Zong, you are more familiar than me about this place. It will be better if you are to lead everyone for our journey ahead,” said Qin Yu while smiling.
Since Qin Yu had the map, as well as the method to bring everyone into Ni Yang’s Realm, he had been the person to give the commands throughout the journey.
Zong Jue did not reject.
“Everyone, the powers of these wind blades consist of both strong ones and weak ones. For example, when two wind blades converge, it is possible that they might instead form a single strong wind blade. The weak wind blades are not able to cut open space, but instead, the strong converged wind blades can. That is why everyone cannot afford to be careless.”
Zong Jue recounted his previous experiences. “Also, even for wind blades that are not able to cut open space, the powers of their attacks are also not far away from cutting space open. That is why, it is best for everyone not to come into contact with any wind blades. Of course, stay very far away from those spatial cracks.”
“Luckily, these spatial cracks are all extremely small, which is why their swallowing radius is also very small and weak. Unless you come into contact with those spatial cracks, the devouring capabilities of those spatial cracks should still not be able to swallow all of you.”
Zong Jue smiled while summarising some of his past experiences by saying them out.
The people who were present strived to remember those information.
“To summarise everything — Do not touch any wind blades. Similarly, also avoid touching any spatial cracks. Once you do come into contact, for wind blades, you might break an arm or lose a leg. However, for spatial cracks, you will definitely die without any doubt.” Zong Jue said while giving a faint smile.
Qin Yu, Hou Fei, and the others all began to smile.
They all understood what Zong Jue meant. Wind blades and spatial cracks were both dangerous, while spatial cracks were the most dangerous of those two kinds.
Coming into contact with spatial cracks would mean death.
If there were some distance away from those spatial cracks, then the weak capabilities of those small spatial cracks would also not be sufficient to devour the people who were present.
“Good, now let us all set off. However, everyone will need to remember that each and everyone of us has to only rely on ourselves. That is because, in an environment such as this, if you are to lose your concentration and care about others, it is very possible that you, yourself, will also be finished,” bellowed Zong Jue.
Immediately, that party of nine people began to set off.
It was just as they had expected. The speed of their progress was extremely slow. To mortal men, the speed of those nine people could be said to be extremely fast, but in the eyes of those nine men, the speed of progress at that point of time was really too slow.
They could only advance around fifty thousand kilometers in a day.
At that point of time, even Qin Yu, who had reached the Dacheng stage, could only slow down his speed by more than a hundred times. If it were under normal circumstances, he would have controlled his Middle Grade Immortal Sword and rode on it, easily crossing more than five million kilometers in a day.
The main reason was — Being careful, and careful, and even more careful.
Not even a single person dared to be a little negligent. After all, those winds did not have any shape nor colour, and there were times where they appeared in bizarre ways. Moreover, there were also times where two wind blades clearly did not possess much strength, but instead met and converged into a single blade that possessed horrifying strength, even tearing open space.
In short, no one could let their guard down at all times.
“I finally understand why Fang Tian and Zong Jue had initially not persevered onwards.” Qin Yu mentally gave a bitter smile. “Having such a high level of mental concentration all times, even for a single day, the mind will also become very fatigued. Meanwhile, all of us will instead be required to maintain this state for an entire three years!”
“Not good.”
Having just been mentally distracted, a wind blade slid across one side of Qin Yu’s abdomen, and a wound that was three inches long appeared. However, the Elemental Life Force within Qin Yu’s body swiftly restored everything to how it once was.
Instantly, Qin Yu did not dare to let his thoughts run wild again, and instead focused all his attention on moving ahead.
When Xiuzhen Practitioners went behind closed doors, although the duration was long, in reality, the Practitioners themselves instead felt that the time spent was short. That was why they did not have feelings of fatigue.
However, for Qin Yu and the others who, at that point of time, had to agonise and worriedly maintain high levels of concentration for three years, it was a lot more tiring compared to being behind closed doors for thirty thousand years, or even three hundred thousand years.
*****
The days passed by, one at a time, but the long and arduous days still did not end. In one day, they covered fifty thousand kilometers. A journey of about fifty million kilometers would, at the very least, require three years. Meanwhile, at that point of time, Qin Yu and his party had only spent a year.
Amongst Qin Yu’s party of nine people, there were very large differences between their conditions.
If it was to be said whose condition was the best, that would undoubtedly be Qin Yu!
No matter if it was Man Gan or Zong Jue, or even the other people, everyone found that very strange. According to reason, to continuously maintain that state of high concentration, and constantly hover between life and death for an entire year, that would simply wear the mind down to a frightening stage.
However, Qin Yu’s entire person was instead in a better condition than before he had stepped into the Land of Extreme Peril’s Domain of Chill.
Other people might not have known, but Qin Yu did.
Within that short period of one year, Qin Yu knew just how much continuously maintaining a high level of concentration had helped in his own cultivation.
On the first month.
Qin Yu could completely control about forty percent of the Spiritual Energy within his mind’s consciousness. Following the second month, third month, fourth month…… Qin Yu’s control over the Spiritual Energy within his mind’s consciousness became stronger.
Currently, at that point of time, Qin Yu had actually, completely gained control of the Spiritual Energy.
Regarding the cultivation of his soul, at the very moment when Qin Yu had completely gained control of the Spiritual Energy, his soul had directly broken through the Dacheng stage and achieved a new domain level.
Meanwhile, Qin Yu also discovered a single point. When the domain level of his soul achieved a new domain level, all the Spiritual Energy completely accumulated into his soul and transformed into a physical body. At the same time, within his body, the percentage of the sun’s nucleus occupying the planet also grew rapidly.
“Ah, if it continues like this, I estimate that I will completely arrive at the Stellar stage within a year.” Qin Yu was secretly very excited.
Whenever his concentration had been exhausted to its peak, the Meteoric Tear would then completely restore Qin Yu to his peak condition. As each cycle of exhaustion followed by recovery continued, Qin Yu’s degree of control over his Spiritual Energy rapidly soared.
Due to the Meteoric Tear, within that entire year, not only did Qin Yu never experience extreme fatigue, his concentration instead became better.
It was just that…… outsiders absolutely could not figure that out.
Within that quiet world of cold ice, the party of nine people continued ahead at an extreme speed. It had only appeared to be peaceful on the surface of that world of cold ice, and careful observations would reveal blades of wind cutting across their paths. Occasionally, several spatial cracks would also appear.
The methods of advance for that party of nine people were also completely different.
If it was to be said whose method was the most elegant and most relaxed, that would be Zong Jue as well as Hei Yu.
Zong Jue and Hei Yu were like catkins, swaying about easily. Whenever a wind blade hacked towards them, both of those catkins would slide with the wind and easily avoided that wind blade.
The exact same movements.
Zong Jue and Hei Yu’s methods of avoidance were simply identical.
That made everyone unable to not make a guess, on what exactly could the relationship between that Hei Yu and Zong Jue be.
That had once made Man Gan inquire Zong Jue as to whether he knew Hei Yu’s true form, to which Zong Jue also replied that he did not know. The only thing that definitely could not be wrong, was that Hei Yu was an Avian Divine Beast.
Of course…… it also could not be said that merely from Zong Jue and Hei Yu’s movements did they not have any danger.
They could only easily avoid wind blades, and had to instead be careful of spatial cracks.
That was because…… whenever wind blades hacked towards them, their body movements could enable them to easily avoid the attack. However, the spatial cracks instead contained an absorbing force, and would instead suck Zong Jue and Hei Yu towards them.
That was why Zong Jue and Hei Yu also had to be careful at all times. Whenever they felt an absorbing force, Zong Jue and Hei Yu would immediately stop using those catkin-like body movements and dodged away.
However, compared to the other people, Zong Jue and Hei Yu could be considered to be the most relaxed.
Second only to both Zong Jue and Hei Yu, was Yu Liang.
Yu Liang had actually transformed into his true form — a vague little mouse. The legendary High Class Divine Beast — Heavenly Mouse! The Heavenly Mouse’s degree of agility had simply reached a shocking stage. Before he encountered any danger, Yu Liang could use his extreme flexibility to dodge. That ‘Heavenly Escape‘ body technique was indeed extremely shocking.
Meanwhile, Kong Cao, as well as Man Gan, came after Yu Liang.
Kong Cao’s true form was that of a Nine-Headed Snake. He had actually transformed into a half human, half snake appearance, and had all nine snake heads observing every single direction. Kong Cao could discover danger from any direction.
Man Gan was instead, the opposite. Although he only had a pair of eyes, those pair of purple pupils could instead discern the many dangers early.
It was just that both Man Gan and Kong Cao required to focus their concentration at all times, which was extremely tiring.
After Kong Cao and Man Gan, was Hou Fei.
There were countless flowing water floating around Hou Fei’s body. Whenever danger approached the areas that had those flowing water spread throughout them, Hou Fei would discover it one step ahead. At the same time, that pair of fiery eyes was also taking notice of everything at all times.
Fiery-Eyed Water Ape — Hou Fei, although firstly, he had flowing water spread around him, and secondly, had a pair of fiery eyes to observe, his capabilities were weaker. The areas covered by the flowing water were not that wide, so even if Hou Fei could feel a wind blade, the time that he had to react was too few.
That was why, Hou Fei had to be ranked after Man Gan and Kong Cao.
Although Hei Yu had similarly weak martial powers, the Catkin body technique was only drifting along with the wind, and did not demand high levels of martial power.
The people ranked last were Change Into Stone, Transform Into Stone, and Qin Yu.
That was because…… the bodies of those three people were always bloody. When ranked according to how relaxed they were, first was Zong Jue and Hei Yu. Second, Yu Liang. Third, Kong Cao and Man Gan. Fourth, Hou Fei. Fifth, Transform Into Stone, Change Into Stone, as well as Qin Yu.
Why were the bodies of Qin Yu and the other two people always bloody huh?
That was because those three people were constantly hurt by wind blades. Although the other people came close to being hurt, they had at least not suffered any injuries.
The true forms of both Transform Into Stone and Change Into Stone were ‘Petrification Beasts’. Although they also had several special skills, they instead did not have any special methods to avoid those dangerous wind blades, and naturally suffered a disadvantage. However, they had instead relied on their slightly faster reaction speed due to their high martial powers to preserve their little lives.
What about Qin Yu huh?
In actual fact, amongst those nine people, in terms of presence during that moment, Qin Yu dazzled the most.
That was because…… Qin Yu performed ‘Stellar Field‘.
At that moment, the energy within Qin Yu’s body was energy from the True Flame of the Sun. Within that world of cold ice, Qin Yu had actually formed a region similar to a large stellar cloud with him at the very center — Stellar Field.
Since, at that point of time, the Stellar Energy was a blazing gold colour, Qin Yu’s entire person was similar to a god of war bathed in golden light. It was just that, that god of war’s body was constantly bloody.
When Stellar Field was performed, Qin Yu was able to control everything within its region.
Qin Yu could ascertain in advance if there was an incoming attack from a wind blade, or if a spatial crack was formed. The functionality of that Stellar Field, was more or less similar to Hou Fei’s flowing water that was spread around his surrounding areas.
However, the Stellar Field could only be that large, and the speed of those wind blades were too fast, so Qin Yu often could not dodge in time. He could only try his best to avoid being struck at the vital areas.
That was why Qin Yu had been frequently made bloody.
However, within the blink of an eye, Qin Yu’s wounds would disappear.
“Although my body might appear to be covered in fresh blood, in actual fact there is instead not even a single scratch.” Qin Yu was secretly helpless. “Looking at my physical appearance, I might seem to be in a terrible condition. In actual fact, I should be the most relaxed person.”
Who was the most relaxed?
The truth of the situation, was absolutely Qin Yu.
Qin Yu, himself, was very clear. His Stellar Field could discover several dangers. Additionally, he also did not need to desperately dodge like the others, and only needed to avoid getting hit at his vital areas.
As for simply avoiding getting hit at the vital areas, given Qin Yu’s speed, that could still be done. In actual fact, Qin Yu had thought to avoid getting his entire body hit, but that was slightly difficult given his capabilities.
However, even if he was hurt by wind blades, the Elemental Life Force within Qin Yu’s body would also restore his body instantly.
Even at that moment, Qin Yu’s condition remained at the peak, and was not that fatigued as compared to the others.
*****
It was only because of Ni Yang’s Realm that no one gave up.
The powers of those wind blades increased as everyone got nearer to the Abyss of Death, and the spatial cracks’ frequency of appearance also increased respectively. Meanwhile, the number of people who had fresh blood on their bodies were no longer simply just Change Into Stone, Transform Into Stone, and Qin Yu.
At that moment, Qin Yu and the others were completely unaware.
They were not simply the only people who were undergoing those punishments at that place. The people at the side of the Dragon Clan, Loose Devils, and Loose Immortals, were also suffering similar abuse.
It was because Fang Tian had the experience, which was why they all knew that the Land of Extreme Peril’s Domain of Flame was even more dangerous as compared to the Land of Extreme Peril’s Domain of Chill. That was why they had also chosen that place.
Since the dates which both parties had set off were not far from each other, the speed of their advances were also close.
That was why the people from both parties were absolutely only half of several tens of thousands of kilometers to meeting each other. However, those two parties of people had actually not come into contact with each other all along. That was still really weird.
*****
Onwards, continuing onwards.
No one in the party of nine people spoke. All of them had their attentions focused and were moving forwards. The density of the wind blades in the middle of the sky had obviously increased greatly, such that even Zong Jue and Hei Yu were also no longer that relaxed.
Meanwhile, Man Gan’s purple pupils were instead carefully observing every direction.
Suddenly —
The purple rays of light emanated by Man Gan’s pupils increased in intensity, and directly shot forth afar at a distance of several tens of feet. Meanwhile, in that direction, there were a group of vague silhouettes that seemed to also have difficulties moving forward.
“Du Zhong Jun!”
Man Gan suddenly gave a violent shout. The loud shout that came out of the blue not only startled Qin Yu and the others, even Ao Feng, Hua Yan, and the other people in the other group afar also got a shock.
“It’s Man Gan!” Du Zhong Jun turned his head back for a look, and his facial expression immediately changed drastically.
“Why have they come?” Hua Yan, Ao Feng, and the other people all had unbelievable expressions on their faces.
“Ah!” Lady Lian Yue, who had her concentration distracted, actually touched a spatial crack that had suddenly appeared. A blood-curdling scream could only be heard, and Lady Lian Yue was actually, entirely swallowed up by that spatial crack.
Merely from a single shout.
More than half the people who were present got injured from having their concentration distracted. Meanwhile, due to that single loud shout, Ao Feng’s party also lost their very first person.
“Du Zhong Jun, let me see where can you escape this time!”
Man Gan was extremely furious. His body flashed in a ray of light, and a purple coloured battle armor appeared over his body, which radiated a piercing purple light. That strong presence seemed to startle even the surrounding space.
AdvertisementsWhenever the Ducks play the Wild, there's always a lot of talk about brother vs. brother as Mikko and Saku Koivu go head to head. But what a lot of people forget is that Teemu Selanne also has a brother; a twin brother.
Granted, there's not much talk about Teemu's borther, Paavo Selanne, because his brother is not an NHLer. He's a teacher back home in Finland...
[Dramatic pause]
OR IS HE?
I propose to you that Teemu and Paavo have pulled off the greatest fraud in modern NHL history. Ever wonder how a Teemu Selanne at 22 years old can set such an unbelievable record for most goals and points by a rookie, and a Teemu Selanne at 42 years old can still be producing at an unbelievable rate?
Suppose at your place of employment, you were a very competent worker, but you took every other day off. Surely your work would suffer, and people would notice. But imagine you had a coworker, equally as competent, to fill in on those days off. Likewise, when you did show up to work, your coworker would take the day off. As long as the communication between the two of you was good and the nature of your job didn't prevent such an arrangement, the two of you would probably be an incredibly productive team. You'd always be well rested, your morale would be pretty high, and the chance of you burning out on the day-to-days of your work week would be minimal. The two of you combined could easily outperform coworkers doing the job all on their own. Two competent workers suddenly become one top performing employee.
Of course, most bosses wouldn't go for this. But what if your boss didn't know? What if your boss thought you were coming every day, on time, and doing your own work. And what if your job was one in which the salary was high enough to support both you and your coworker on the income of one individual?
It's pretty obvious what I've been getting at here. What if, in your current job, you and your twin sibling were sharing the work load? Over the entire course of your career, you've been switching off days of the week. Or maybe you take a couple weeks off, then your sibling takes a couple of weeks off. Hell, maybe you're the better performer than your sibling, so you mostly do the job on your own, but your sibling is capable enough, and so every few months they step in as you go on an extended vacation. You kick your sibling a nice chunk of your paycheck for their trouble.
Sure, occasionally you both call out sick, or take a real vacation with neither of you reporting. You can't make it too obvious; everyone takes days off at some point in their career. But those days are few and far between, and your peers and superiors attribute much of your success to the fact that it seems like you've always just been around.
Strange things are afoot in the Selanne household.
Gameday Prediction: Ducks take another win, 2-1. Paavo with the game winner in overtime.CONTROVERSIAL AREA: England No 8 Nick Easter looks to snaffle the ball from Argentina at the breakdown, an area of huge contention in the first week of the Rugby World Cup.
How good the World Cup has been so far.
But I'm convinced it could be even better if only the referees would come down hard on a negative aspect that's creeping into the play of top teams.
It's been impossible not to have been impressed so far by the quality of the rugby and the'minnows', particularly, are playing well. But they're the ones being affected by the big teams at the breakdown being tactically very cunning.
What's happening is basically illegal but it's very clever. Players are getting tackled to the ground then getting hit by a second arriving player who is'retackling'.
That's completely illegal. When you're on the ground you can't be tackled again.
I have spotted numerous examples so far, and it's clear to me that it's a deliberate ploy by teams to slow down opposition ball and buy time to reorganise their defence.
It's most obvious when a team has been breached over its advantage line and what happens is the first defender will make the tackle and then a second arriving player will come in and make a'retackle' on the ground.
All he's trying to do is slow the ball down but in no way is he trying to get the ball. It's very, very smart, but it's also very, very illegal.
It's hard for refs. It does look like the player is coming in with intent to get the ball but they're actually not doing that.
Refs need to identify has this player actually spotted the ball, and is he going for it? Or is he going in there to be negative and more importantly has that player already been tackled?
If a ref can identify that a player has been tackled he cannot be retackled on the ground. Start picking that up and it should produce quicker ball.
Teams are doing it because they're forced into it. Quick ball is the hardest to defend if the advantage line is made because your defence is compromised.
By slowing it down you allow your defence to reorganise and regroup.
I'm all for positive rugby, I want attacking teams to have an advantage. If you've earned the right to win the ball and use it, the defensive team should then have to do something spectacular, or rely on you making a mistake, to get it back.
I don't like to see players coming into breakdowns and compromising positive play by doing something illegal.
If we can clear it up we'll get better rugby. Or should I say even better rugby than we're getting now.
Of course you can slow ball down legally. But what you should be looking for is for players to be on their feet. When teams do it well it's constructive because it creates turnover ball. They stay on their feet, get another player behind and drive past the ball, turn it over and the game's not being stifled.
That creates ball movement because a team has turned over prime ball. That's productive for the game, not destructive.
The other thing I've spotted is real creative positivity out there. Teams in the past with inferior skill levels have come to these tournaments in a restrictive frame of mind, particularly against the'superpower' teams.
They've come full circle. They've decided to play the way they would normally.
They're not just kicking into corners and trying to suffocate and frustrate these teams they're used to getting thumped by. They're playing more constructively because that's being rewarded.
If you don't fatigue top teams on defence you'll never break them open. But if you do, and then play positively, you'll get the results.
It hasn't all been pretty to watch, of course, and we've seen some close games with a lot of errors. But that's drama, and that's World Cup rugby.
The big thing is we're seeing few, if any, blowouts.
That's great for the game. To me it's a mental thing. Teams are showing more intent to play positively rather than restrict. When you go into restrict mode you just don't offer anything.
If you play like you believe, you might not win but you give yourself a much better chance to compete.
* Justin Marshall played 81 tests, and two World Cups, for the All Blacks.Democracy vs Mythology: The Battle in Syntagma Square
I have never been more desperate to explain and more hopeful for your understanding of any single fact than this: The protests in Greece concern all of you directly.
What is going on in Athens at the moment is resistance against an invasion; an invasion as brutal as that against Poland in 1939. The invading army wears suits instead of uniforms and holds laptops instead of guns, but make no mistake – the attack on our sovereignty is as violent and thorough. Private wealth interests are dictating policy to a sovereign nation, which is expressly and directly against its national interest. Ignore it at your peril. Say to yourselves, if you wish, that perhaps it will stop there. That perhaps the bailiffs will not go after the Portugal and Ireland next. And then Spain and the UK. But it is already beginning to happen. This is why you cannot afford to ignore these events.
The powers that be have suggested that there is plenty to sell. Josef Schlarmann, a senior member of Angela Merkel’s party, recently made the helpful suggestion that we should sell some of our islands to private buyers in order to pay the interest on these loans, which have been forced on us to stabilise financial institutions and a failed currency experiment. (Of course, it is not a coincidence that recent studies have shown immense reserves of natural gas under the Aegean sea).
China has waded in, because it holds vast currency reserves and more than a third are in Euros. Sites of historical interest like the Acropolis could be made private. If we do not as we are |
, by simply marking letters "Paid," either with handwriting or with a small handstamp postmarking device. All of this meant that trips to mail letters were more troublesome. There would have to be a calculation of whether it cost 5 cents or 10 cents to send letters to faraway towns, and that would be followed by a sometimes complicated financial arrangement. Some post offices opened charge accounts for customers who had a large volume of mail. And some printed their own scrip to facilitate making change as small coins became unavailable.
Before long, a few postmasters, eager to quell discontent, concluded that Reagan's rather loose instructions gave them the latitude to print stamps for their own post offices. This was actually not a new idea in American postal matters; back in the 1840s, before the United States first issued stamps in 1847, postmasters in a number of cities, including New York, Providence, Rhode Island, and St. Louis, had printed their own stamps, so there was already a precedent for the situation. All over the South, the use of these "local" stamps spread rapidly. In Texas, philatelists today know that ten different postmasters created and sold their own stamps during the war years, and all of those stamps are now extremely rare philatelic objects of desire for collectors across the world. They were not officially sanctioned, so no records of their issue or sales were kept. Technically, they were valid only for postage at the post office where they were sold, but postal officials in the towns to which they carried their letters did not question them or ask the recipient for additional funds.
In those parts of the South close to the Confederate Post Office Department headquarters in Richmond, and thus likely to receive frequent shipments of the government stamps, the use of these "local" stamps was generally confined to the first few months of the Confederate postal operations, typically from the summer of 1861 to November or December of that year.
In other areas, especially in Texas and states west of the Mississippi River, the use of postmasters' stamps continued occasionally during the 1862–1864 period because of the infrequent shipments of regular government stamps. Indeed, after the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and Port Hudson, Louisiana, on July 9, 1863, any communication between Richmond, the seat of the Confederate government, and states west of the Mississippi was extremely uncertain, Reagan wrote years later, so shipments of stamps west of the Mississippi became even more irregular. The situation increased the frustrations of the Confederate postmasters in Texas, again requiring them to create their own stamps.
Easily the most prolific of these Texas postmasters in terms of different varieties of stamps produced was John A. Clarke, of the small but historic town of Goliad. Using a local printshop, he had some crudely designed 5-cent and 10-cent stamps printed. A first type showed nothing more than the words "Goliad," "Postage," and either "5" or "10." A later design revision added the words "John A. Clarke, Post Master." Sloppy proofreading produced one variety with the town name misspelled "Goilad," and the severe paper shortage that plagued Texas and the South during the war produced several more, as the printer used any available paper for the stamps. Some are known printed on white, gray, rose, and dark blue paper, as well as on the back of old business forms. Counting the spelling errors, there are eleven different varieties of the Goliad postmaster's stamps known today, and all are exceedingly rare.
Another of these postmasters, John V. Law of Gonzales, can surely be classed as the "most creative" of the lot. A partner in the firm of Colman and Law, booksellers and druggists in Gonzales, Law had been postmaster there since 1853, and the post office was located in his store. Colman and Law had ordered a supply of small advertising labels, printed in gold on colored glazed paper, to be affixed to books (and possibly to containers of pills) as they were sold. When stamps were unavailable, Postmaster Law had the bright idea to use these labels instead, with the gold on dark blue becoming a 5-cent stamp, and the gold on garnet or crimson taking the role of a 10-cent stamp. These, too, are very rare, with only a handful of each being known today.
The postmasters who produced the most typical of these Texas stamps were the three from Beaumont, Victoria, and Helena. The Beaumont postmaster included here is Alexander Hinkle, one of four different postmasters to serve that town during the Confederacy. Hinkle took office on December 5, 1863, and during his fifteen months on the job, three different stamps were printed and issued. Two were quite simple, bearing only the words "Beaumont," "Paid," and "10 Cents," and examples are known printed on both yellow and pink paper. The third stamp was a larger and more elaborate version, and only a single copy of it has been found.
The Victoria postmaster, James A. Moody, was one of the most experienced in the state, having served in that office since 1838, during the Republic of Texas years. Moody also issued three stamps, all printed locally in reddish-brown ink on dark green paper. There are perhaps a dozen of these known to collectors today.
David Daily, the postmaster at Helena, a tiny community about 30 miles down the road from Goliad, also issued a 5-cent and a 10-cent stamp, both so much like the Goliad stamps in appearance that it was generally thought by early philatelists that they were printed by the same local printshop that made the stamps for Postmaster Clarke in Goliad. Only three of the 5-cent and two of the 10-cent stamps have been discovered by philatelists to this date.
Only a pair of scissors and a pot of paste were needed to make what we would describe as the "most puzzling" of these Texas postmasters' stamps. These were created by Postmasters William Rust at Austin, John McKnight at Independence, Thomas Notgrass at Hallettsville, and William R. Johnston at Plum Creek. All of these officials just cut a small bit of paper, about the size of a typical stamp, wrote or stamped the word "Paid" on it, and then glued it to letters mailed at their office. Three of these were circular in shape, having been cut around an impression of a handstamp postmark device; the fourth, from Plum Creek, was much smaller and cut from a piece of blue ruled paper.
Perhaps the most mysterious of these stamps in the minds of many philatelists is the sole example found so far from Lavaca, Texas, apparently created by Postmaster Charles A. Ogsbury. For reasons unknown, the Confederate Post Office Department changed the name of Port Lavaca to Lavaca on March 2, 1862, and Ogsbury was named postmaster on the same date. The one stamp from Lavaca that has survived is another simple design, with an illustration of a paddle-wheel steamboat at the top, followed by the words "Postage," "10 Cents," and "Lavaca." But the mystery surrounding the dropping of the "Port" from the post office name remains, as does the question of how and where this stamp was printed.
We will find out much more about all of these stamps in later chapters devoted to each town. But we now turn our attention to the discovery of these Texas philatelic gems in the years after the Civil War.NORTH YARMOUTH — Residents are lamenting the loss of Wescustogo Hall, which burned to the ground early Friday after serving as the town’s community center for decades.
“It’s like losing a family member,” said state Rep. Anne Graham of North Yarmouth, who noted that the town was trying to develop a village center around the building.
Videos Additional Photos North Yarmouth Fire Chief Ricky Plummer, left, and Deputy Fire Chief Harold Stoddard, right, speak with State Fire Marshal Senior Chief Investigator Chris Stanford, center, looks through the remains of the Wescustogo Grange Hall that was destroyed by fire Friday, Aug. 30, 2013 in North Yarmouth. Joel Page / Staff Photographer Wescustogo Hall in North Yarmouth is engulfed in flames early Friday morning. Courtesy of the North Yarmouth Fire Department Charred remains are all that is left of Wescustogo Hall in North Yarmouth, which served for years as the town community center. David Hench / Staff Writer Firefighters continue to work at what is left of Wescustogo Hall in North Yarmouth on Friday morning. David Hench / Staff Writer Wescustogo Hall has long been a gathering spot for people in North Yarmouth. The curtain at Wescustogo Hall in North Yarmouth was restored by Curtains without Borders in 2009. The building was destroyed by fire Friday. Related Headlines Siblings recall bean suppers, more at Wescustogo Hall
Investigators still haven’t determined the cause of the fire, but say it started in the left front area of the building, where there were electrical panels, the kitchen, a storage room and an office.
The state Fire Marshal’s Office said Friday afternoon that the severe damage prevented investigators from identifying the cause of the fire, which started just before midnight Thursday. Officials continue to interview residents.
The fire incinerated a building where residents have gathered for community functions for generations. The former Grange hall, which opened in 1959, served as the town’s polling place, a meeting place for Cub Scouts and a venue for contradancing.
In June, town meeting voters approved spending $50,000 to renovate the building and bring it up to modern safety codes, said Ricky Plummer, chief of the town’s volunteer fire department.
Wescustogo Hall was built by members of the Wescustogo Grange over a period of 11 years, and financed through fairs and bean suppers, said Katie Murphy, president of the North Yarmouth Historical Society, citing the 2006 publication “Around North Yarmouth.”
It served as the Grange hall until it was given to the town in 1996.
The hall seated about 150 people and was often rented out for weddings and other private functions.
Cumberland-North Yarmouth community recreation programs were held there, Plummer said.
He said there is no reason to believe that the origin of the fire is suspicious.
A passing driver reported the blaze at 11:57 p.m. Thursday.
Emma-Lee Baldwin, one of two students of fire science at Southern Maine Community College who sleep at the fire station — next to Wescustogo Hall — woke to the sound of her pager.
“I looked outside the window and saw the flames coming out of the front half of the building,” said Baldwin, who is from Avon, Conn., and comes from a family of firefighters.
She made sure the other student was up, and they drove an engine to the road in front of the building and connected it to a hydrant.
At that point, Plummer arrived.
“There was heavy fire coming out all the windows pretty much,” he said. Firefighters started attacking the flames from outside the building.
At one point, a pressure-release valve on a 350-pound propane tank burned off, and the igniting fuel sent flames 100 feet into the air, he said.
Firefighters sprayed water onto the tank to keep it from getting hot enough to explode, he said.
High humidity and intense heat caused some firefighters to suffer heat exhaustion, Plummer said, but they were treated at the scene and resumed fighting the fire.
The fire was brought under control by 1:30 a.m., but at 8 a.m. firefighters were still sifting through the wreckage, looking for smoldering embers that might flare up.
Soon afterward, a large excavator began demolishing the charred skeleton that remained standing.
Investigators believe the fire started on the main floor of the hall because there wasn’t as much damage in the basement, which was closed because of code violations.
Firefighters from Gray, Pownal, Yarmouth, Cumberland and Falmouth helped fight the fire, Plummer said.
The basement could accommodate 350 people, Plummer said, but had been declared off-limits because the exits were inadequate for a building of that size.
The town had hoped to upgrade them.
Several artifacts were destroyed by the fire, including a one-of-a-kind stage curtain that was painted with the names of businesses that helped to pay for it.
On Friday, Dan Panici of North Yarmouth stared thoughtfully at the remains of the building.
He said, “You never think that a building like this is really the glue that brings together people from all walks of life.”
David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
[email protected]
ShareThe New Jersey Devils' three Stanley Cup winners since 1995 have featured some constants: Goaltender Martin Brodeur, Grand Emperor Lou Lamoriello and the defensive foundation those champions where constructed on.
But their coaches have defined each of them. Jacques Lemaire's trapping Devils in 1995. Larry Robinson, the players' coach, whose stunning conference finals tirade sparked the Devils' 3-1 comeback over the Flyers and eventual Cup win in 2000. The late Pat Burns, the coaches' coach, who reined in their offensive stars and oversaw a return to defensive discipline in 2003.
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Tied 2-2 with the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final, the Devils may still fall short of the Cup in 2012. But should they grab the Chalice, Coach Peter DeBoer has personalized this team in the same manner as his Hall of Fame (and should-damn-well-be-in the Hall of Fame, in Burns's case) predecessors had.
He's pushed the right buttons. Preached the right sermons. Earned his players' belief in an offensive system that attempts to re-chisel the cemented stereotypes about Devils hockey. His comportment is one of intellectual serenity — Dan Bylsma style — with a touch of rage. His communication with the players has been honest and non-political.
He couldn't have done this three years ago, when ego prevented him from fulfilling his potential as an NHL head coach. That he was the given the chance to do this at all tracks back to July 2011, when Lamoriello stunned the hockey world with an uncharacteristic choice behind the bench.
Story continues
DeBoer's arrival in Florida came after 13 years in the OHL, making DeBoer a coveted commodity for the NHL. In 2008, the Ottawa Senators courted him for their vacancy, as he flew to Barbados to meet with owner Eugene Melnyk. According to ESPN, a clash of egos ensued, and DeBoer immediately took up the Panthers on their standing offer of employment.
DeBoer was fired by the Florida Panthers after 103 wins in 246 games, failing to make the playoffs in three seasons.
(The Panthers, of course, made the postseason under his replacement, Kevin Dineen, in 2011-12 … until DeBoer's Devils sent them home in seven, because the Hockey Gods are twisted like that.)
"When I first started, I was cocky, confident we could do it all," DeBoer said last year.
In September, he clarified the comment to Fire & Ice: "I don't know about cocky," he said. "The word is very confident and maybe a little naïve. I think I'm still very confident, but this league has a way of humbling you pretty quickly and I think that's one of the lessons you learn."
One of the most confident men in hockey, Lamoriello had been humbled as well.
When Jacques Lemaire left in 2010, the Devils GM elevated AHL coach and franchise legend John MacLean to his first NHL head coaching job. MacLean was an epic failure: 9-22-2, digging the Devils an early season hole from which even the return of Lemaire couldn't free them.
For the second time since 1990, the Devils would miss the playoffs. Lamoriello took "full responsibility" for the debacle.
Speculation began that the Devils would go back to a familiar well for Lamoriello: Someone with ties to the Devils, or with their template the Montreal Canadiens; a veteran coach who coach, as Burns did, reestablish the defensive tenets that defined the franchise, much like Lemaire had in his emergency stint has head coach. Someone like Ken Hitchcock, for example.
Within that context, DeBoer's announcement was jarring. He wasn't a star name in the coaching ranks. He didn't have the usual connections Lamoriello looks for. He didn't fit the suit.
From Mike Brophy of Sportsnet:
What's going to be interesting is to see how long it takes DeBoer to find his game again. There were reports that constant losing took its toll on the normally mild-mannered coach last season and that his relationship with his players deteriorated. Hey, when you are doing your best to win, but you aren't being provided with the players to be successful, it's easy to see that happening. DeBoer has a wealth of offensive talent at his disposal, but the Devils have always been a defence-first team.
In taking the gig, DeBoer focused more on the former than the latter. After a bare cupboard in Sunrise, he saw a roster that featured Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, Patik Elias, Travis Zajac, Dainius Zubrus and other offensive forces.
When asked last July if it would be "defense first, and the details will take care of themselves," DeBoer bristled at the characterization.
"I think it's a little more than that," he said. "The foundation is going to be good, solid defense and being hard to play against. But the rest isn't going to take care of itself. We have to find a way to score more goals and generate more offense. Get our power play better. We have to come up with a plan, and the players have to execute.
"We've got a group of forwards here [where] there's no reason we can't increase our offensive production without giving up anything at the other end."
It was a leap of faith for Lamoriello. Here was an executive that was stubborn to change with the times since the lockout: Loading up on veterans when winning teams were younger, dialing back offense at a time when new rules were opening up the game.
In DeBoer, he had a coach that honored the team's tradition while pushing their system forward. It's the not the first time the Devils have gotten offensive; Larry Robinson, DeBoer's assistant, was there during the Devils' offensive dominance from 1998-2001, when there were a top three goal-scoring team in the NHL.
But after Lemaire won with defense, DeBoer's philosophy was an unexpected shift. As Lamoriello told ESPN.com last week:
"I think Pete is very intelligent; that's the first thing I recognized about him. He has no ego, and that's a prerequisite here," Lamoriello chuckled. "And I felt very comfortable when I spoke to him. "Philosophically, he believes in defense [another Devils must] and yet he wanted to push a little. The game has changed today and you have to adjust. But the one thing you don't do is change the fundamentals, the particulars, that players have to do. He's done, in my mind, a tremendous job coming from last year to this year."
DeBoer's challenge was getting this team to buy what a new coach was selling after the MacLean fiasco. His herald was Devils forward David Clarkson, who played for DeBoer in Kitchener.
"He said has that hard work ethic, the structure, the system. He believes if you stick to that system, you're going to be successful," Clarkson told us. "He's been incredible. You ask around this locker room, and the guys love him in the room."
And why wouldn't they? DeBoer struck the balance between the team's defensive old testament and his new testament of insistent offense. The Devils' goals-per-game climbed from an NHL worst 2.08 last season to 2.63 under DeBoer, while their goals-against-average was nearly identical (2.52 to 2.50).
DeBoer and assistant coaches Adam Oates and Robinson turned the 11th best penalty kill (83.4 percent) and 28th best power play (14.4) in 2010-11 into the 14th best power play (17.2) and the NHL's best kill (an astounding 89.6 percent) during the 2011-12 regular season.
He's done some of his best coaching in the playoffs.
DeBoer's lineup changes have worked. Like playing prized rookie Adam Larsson in Game 2 against the Flyers, where he scored arguably the biggest goal of the series, and then scratching him in favor of veteran Peter Harrold to great effect against the Rangers. Like scrambling the lines after losses to Henrik Lundqvist and seeing the offense perk up each time. Like deploying a fourth line he created in key situations, and seeing players like Ryan Carter — an old hand from Florida — score big goals.
His biggest, boldest move: Pulling Brodeur in Game 3 of the Panthers series with score tied, Brodeur's shortest playoff appearance in 184 games.
The Devils would lose the game, but DeBoer may have sparked this resurgence in Brodeur's all-star form: He responded with a Game 4 shutout, and has allowed more than two goals in a game in just 2 of 13 playoff contests since he was yanked — with a.926 save percentage.
"I think it's all together but it definitely comes from the coaching staff. You have to give them credit for putting us at ease and not feel embarrassed," Brodeur told the Star-Ledger. "It's not like somebody is talking about you. … That line of communication is tremendous. As long as I've been in the organization, this is as good as I've seen it."
Brodeur said the environment is "a little more relaxed" … which, of course, is just another reason the coaching showdown in the Eastern Conference Finals feels like such a contrast — like a mixture of oil and burning hellwater from the base of Mount Tortorella.
Tortorella is seething where DeBoer is sardonic. Tortorella looks like the angry police captain who yells at those wacky cops who don't follow protocol, and DeBoer looks like a middle aged tax attorney who occasionally tears into his clients for not collecting all of their travel receipts.
Tortorella is American superego with a Cup ring; DeBoer is Canadian ego with a second chance.
They toss around accusations of goons-manship -- like the line brawl debates -- and scream at each other over Pierre McGuire's head, but they essentially both believe that physicality and message-sending is the path to glory. That's what makes their rivalry such a kick: They may genuinely dislike each other — a disdain no doubt fueled by DeBoer's refusal to play Tortorella's reindeer games — but neither of them believe that a Ryan Miller brand of hockey pacifism wins in the playoffs.
As Kevin DeLury of NYR Blog writes:
"I love this. Having two coaches who are just as passionate about winning as the player, just adds more intrigue to a series already full of it. And with how good both of these teams are, we're going to be treated to this rivalry within the rivalry for years to come."
Assuming, of course, DeBoer is still there.
He's a New Jersey Devils head coach. As were Doug Carpenter and Jim Schoenfeld and the late John Cunniff and Tom McVie and the late Herb Brooks and Jacques Lemaire (three times) and Robbie Ftorek and Larry Robinson (twice) and Kevin Constantine and the late Pat Burns and Claude Julien and Brent Sutter and John MacLean. And, of course Lou Lamoriello. Twice.
Since Lemaire from 1994-98, the Devils have never had the same head coach for three consecutive seasons. Combined with the fleeting nature of the gig is the fleeting nature of this roster: Zach Parise and Bryce Salvador, keys to the playoff run, are unrestricted free agents. Martin Brodeur is defying his age (40) but not getting any younger.
If this is the Devils' moment, it's the perfect storm of the right personnel, mindset and players peaking at the right time — brought together by a coach whose philosophy, decisions and competitive fire have come to define them.
These are Peter DeBoer's Devils, inexplicably six wins from the Stanley Cup.A 33-year-old man charged with manslaughter in Saint John court on Wednesday in relation to the death of a 27-year-old man last week on Peters Street is being described as docile and not violent by his family.
CBC News spoke with the accused's mother and cousin outside of court today and they say this behaviour is completely out of character for him.
Police were called to a "violent altercation" at 33 Peters Street just before noon on Nov. 13.
Upon arrival, they found a man on the sidewalk who had apparently fallen out of a third-storey window during the altercation.
That man later died and police said they were treating his death as a homicide.
Another man who was injured in the incident was charged with assaulting a woman. That man suffered lacerations.
Three men were taken into custody shortly after the incident.
Police said all parties involved in the altercation were known to one another and the incident was not considered a random act.
What exactly led to this fight is unclear.
The accused will be kept in custody until he appears back in court on Dec. 15.In June 2015, restaurateur Charlie Gjerde said his team would take over the old Hampden bar McCabe’s, which closed after a fire the year before. Now — after a substantial renovation that cost approximately $1 million, Gjerde said — the new bar and restaurant Wicked Sisters will open 5 p.m. Friday to the public.
“If you’re a fan of McCabe’s, you will not recognize this place,” Gjerde said.
The opening has taken months longer than expected because the team decided to renovate two floors instead of one, Gjerde said. Now, the 3,300-square-foot location at 3845 Falls Road has two bars, two dining rooms and a game room with a 14-foot shuffleboard.
(The original opening date was Thursday, but the restaurant had to push it back because of a defected gas meter that has since been fixed, Gjerde said.)
Wicked Sisters is named after two other members of Gjerde’s ownership group: His wife, Lori Gjerde, and Carrie Podles, Lori’s sister. The trio also runs Papi’s Tacos and Alexander’s Tavern in Fells Point, and Huck’s American Craft in Brewers Hill.
The chef of the 160-seat restaurant is Jason Horowitz, who led the kitchen at Gjerde’s now-closed Joy America Café in Federal Hill more than a decade ago.
Gjerde described the food as “premium tavern fare,” which will include steaks, burgers “and a few twists.” One of those twists is raclette cheese, a dish from Switzerland the Wicked Sisters team discovered through YouTube videos.
For their version, a sliced portion of a raclette cheese wheel is held under heat lamps until the top layer is “nice and gooey.” The top layer is then cut tableside and placed on top of roasted fingerling potatoes. Gjerde envisions it as a sharable appetizer.
CAPTION Dirt bike riders were seen zipping down North Monroe Street in West Baltimore and popping wheelies Tuesday while filming a movie scene. Based on a casting call posted to the Maryland Film Office’s website, it appears the “ride scenes” were shot for the feature film “Charm City,” alternately called “12 O’Clock Boys.” The film will reportedly be executive produced by Will Smith and is based on the 2013 documentary “12 O’Clock Boys” directed by Maryland Institute College of Art alum Lotfy Nathan. Dirt bike riders were seen zipping down North Monroe Street in West Baltimore and popping wheelies Tuesday while filming a movie scene. Based on a casting call posted to the Maryland Film Office’s website, it appears the “ride scenes” were shot for the feature film “Charm City,” alternately called “12 O’Clock Boys.” The film will reportedly be executive produced by Will Smith and is based on the 2013 documentary “12 O’Clock Boys” directed by Maryland Institute College of Art alum Lotfy Nathan. CAPTION Actor Kevin Spacey has been spotted in Baltimore recently. Scheduled to appear in court Jan. 7 in Nantucket to be arraigned on the indecent assault and battery charges, Spacey could face as many as five years in prison if convicted. Actor Kevin Spacey has been spotted in Baltimore recently. Scheduled to appear in court Jan. 7 in Nantucket to be arraigned on the indecent assault and battery charges, Spacey could face as many as five years in prison if convicted.
There are 24 draft lines, and Wicked Sisters will emphasize local craft beer, Gjerde said.
The goal of the new restaurant is “to be a comfortable bar setting, but you get really good food,” he said.
This is Gjerde’s first operation in Hampden, a neighborhood with plenty of exciting dining options. He called the Food Market “amazing,” and noted Wicked Sisters wasn’t looking to compete directly with places like it. Instead, he wants to offer a place to watch sports, have a drink and eat bar food that has some flair to it (a similar goal to the new Five and Dime Ale House on 36th Street).
“There are other bars on the Avenue to watch the game, but I’m pretty sure our food will be a step up,” Gjerde said. “At the end of the day, we just want people to come in and relax.”
wesley.case@baltsun.com
twitter.com/midnightsunblogI don’t think a lot of my MRA readers read my book reviews. I hope they make an exception for this one.
Mencken defends women in a way that only he can. He argues that women are smarter than men, but to him smarter means (basically) more cynical and coldly-realistic. I find it impossible to review Mencken, as he’s way too quotable. For example, here he is saying the same thing I just said, "My experience of the world has taught me that the average wine-bibber is a far better fellow than the, average prohibitionist, and that the average rogue is better company than the average poor drudge, and that the worst white, slave trader of my acquaintance is a decenter man than the best vice crusader. In the same way I am convinced that the average woman, whatever her deficiencies, is greatly superior to the average man. The very ease with which she defies and swindles him in several capital situations of life is the clearest of proofs of her general superiority."
Here are some choice quotes.
On his writing:
As a professional critic of life and letters, my principal business in the world is that of manufacturing platitudes for tomorrow, which is to say, ideas so novel that they will be instantly rejected as insane and outrageous by all right thinking men, and so apposite and sound that they will eventually conquer that instinctive opposition, and force themselves into the traditional wisdom of the race.
On solutions:
I am very suspicious of all remedies for the major ills of life, and believe that most of them are incurable.
And on to men and women:
Perhaps one of the chief charms of woman lies precisely in the fact that they are dishonorable, i.e., that they are relatively uncivilized. In the midst of all the puerile repressions and inhibitions that hedge them round, they continue to show a gipsy spirit. No genuine woman ever gives a hoot for law if law happens to stand in the way of her private interest. She is essentially an outlaw, a rebel, what H. G. Wells calls a nomad.
...
The man-hating woman, like the cold woman, is largely imaginary. One often encounters references to her in literature, but who has ever met hex in real life? As for me, I doubt that such a monster has ever actually existed. There are, of course, women who spend a great deal of time denouncing and reviling men, but these are certainly not genuine man-haters; they are simply women who have done their utmost to snare men, and failed. Of such sort are the majority of inflammatory suffragettes of the sex-hygiene and birth-control species. The rigid limitation of offspring, in fact, is chiefly advocated by women who run no more risk of having unwilling motherhood forced upon them than so many mummies of the Tenth Dynasty. All their unhealthy interest in such noisome matters has behind it merely a subconscious yearning to attract the attention of men, who are supposed to be partial to enterprises that are difficult or forbidden.... I’ll begin to believe in the man-hater the day I am introduced to a woman who has definitely and finally refused a chance of marriage to a man who is of her own station in life, able to support her, unafflicted by any loathsome disease, and of reasonably decent aspect and manners–in brief a man who is thoroughly eligible. I doubt that any such woman breathes the air of Christendom.
...
The truth is that neither sex, without some fertilization by the complementary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavour. Man, without a saving touch of woman in him, is too doltish, too naive and romantic, too easily deluded and lulled to sleep by his imagination to be anything above a cavalryman, a theologian or a bank director. And woman, without some trace of that divine innocence which is masculine, is too harshly the realist for those vast projections of the fancy which lie at the heart of what we call genius. Here, as elsewhere in the universe, the best effects are obtained by a mingling of elements. The wholly manly man lacks the wit necessary to give objective form to his soaring and secret dreams, and the wholly womanly woman is apt to be too cynical a creature to dream at all.
On marriage:
As a popular philosopher has shrewdly observed, the objections to polygamy do not come from women, for the average woman is sensible enough to prefer half or a quarter or even a tenth of a first-rate man to the whole devotion of a third-rate man. Considerations of much the same sort also justify polyandry–if not morally, then at least biologically. The average woman, as I have shown, must inevitably view her actual husband with a certain disdain; he is anything but her ideal. In consequence, she cannot help feeling that her children are cruelly handicapped by the fact that he is their father, nor can she help feeling guilty about it; for she knows that he is their father only by reason of her own initiative in the, proceedings anterior to her marriage. If, now, an opportunity presents itself to remove that handicap from at least some of them, and at the same time to realize her ideal and satisfy her vanity–if such a chance offers it is no wonder that she occasionally embraces it.... Not many men, worthy of the name, gain anything of net value by marriage, at least as the institution is now met with in Christendom. Even assessing its benefits at their most inflated worth, they are plainly overborne by crushing disadvantages. When a man marries it is no more than a sign that the feminine talent for persuasion and intimidation–i.e., the feminine talent for survival in a world of clashing concepts and desires, the feminine competence and intelligence–has forced him into a more or less abhorrent compromise with his own honest inclinations and best interests. Whether that compromise be a sign of his relative stupidity or of his relative cowardice it is all one: the two things, in their symptoms and effects, are almost identical. In the first case he marries because he has been clearly bowled over in a combat of wits; in the second he resigns himself to marriage as the safest form of liaison. In both cases his inherent sentimentality is the chief weapon in the hand of his opponent....
This was not always the case. No more than a century ago, even by American law, the most sentimental in the world, the husband was the head of the family firm, lordly and autonomous. He had authority over the purse-strings, over the children, and even over his wife. He could enforce his mandates by appropriate punishment, including the corporal. His sovereignty and dignity were carefully guarded by legislation, the product of thousands of years of experience and ratiocination. He was safeguarded in his self-respect by the most elaborate and efficient devices, and they had the support of public opinion. Consider, now, the changes that a few short years have wrought. Today, by the laws of most American states–laws proposed, in most cases, by maudlin and often notoriously extravagant agitators, and passerby sentimental orgy–all of the old rights of the husband have been converted into obligations. He no longer has any control over his wife’s property; she may devote its income to the family or she may squander that income upon idle follies, and he can do nothing. She has equal authority in regulating and disposing of the children [now she has
more], and in the case of infants, more than he. There is no law compelling her to do her share of the family labour: she may spend her whole time in cinema theatres or gadding about the shops an she will. She cannot be forced to perpetuate the family name if she does not want to. She cannot be attacked with masculine weapons, e.g., fists and firearms, when she makes an assault with feminine weapons, e.g.,snuffling, invective and sabotage. Finally, no lawful penalty can be visited upon her if she fails absolutely, either deliberately or through mere incapacity, to keep the family habitat clean, the children in order, and the victuals eatable. Now view the situation of the husband. The instant he submits to marriage, his wife obtains a large and inalienable share in his property, including all he may acquire in future; in most American states the minimum is one-third, and, failing children, one-half. He cannot dispose of his real estate without her consent; He cannot even deprive her of it by will. She may bring up his children carelessly and idiot |
for “let it become,” created by decree. Uncle Sam could print all the dollars he wanted, and he wasted no time doing just that.
When money is created out of thin air there is suddenly more of it to allocate to the things it can buy. Prices go up not as a consequence of demand or value but only because there are more dollars to spread around. It is little surprise, then, that inflation went through the roof in the early 1970s. Subjected to pure market forces since 1971, major currencies have also more than once been the target of powerful speculation, when well-heeled traders place enormous bets aimed at artificially lowering the price of currency for their personal gain.
Most nations today are on their own when it comes to monetary and fiscal policy. And the price of gold and US dollars remain to this day free of artificial constraint, moving in response to the ebbs, flows, shocks, and follies of an ever turbulent world economy.
Harry Dexter White never lived to see his Bretton Woods creation put into action, nor of course its demise. It’s a good bet Richard Nixon’s opinion of Bretton Woods was not bolstered by his personal opinion of Harry Dexter White. From his days on HUAC onward, Nixon believed White lied to the committee. He believed White was being quite intentional and clever when he prefixed his denial of having known his accusers Chambers and Bentley with “I have no recollection of…” Nixon believed the architect of Bretton Woods was a Soviet spy.
Whittaker Chambers
It turns out he was right.
Harry Dexter White was indeed guilty of funneling secrets to the Soviets. He did it for quite a long time. His chief accuser was Whittaker Chambers, an editor for Time magazine and one-time Soviet agent who had renounced Communism and ratted out others, most famously senior US State Department official Alger Hiss. And White was no minor informant. According to Chambers, White’s “role as a Soviet agent was second in importance only to that of Alger Hiss—if, indeed, it was second.”
According to Chambers, Harry White began providing him Treasury documents as early as 1935. White had access to not only the most sensitive Treasury documents, but to confidential documents provided by other departments of the US government. White would also provide the occasional summary of information he thought useful and his opinions on how best to reform the Soviet monetary system.
The evidence against White was extensive. The FBI gathered more than thirteen thousand pages of it—much of it quite solid, including eight pages of notes in handwriting the FBI demonstrated was Harry White’s. Some evidence only came to light in 1995 with the release of transcripts of Soviet intelligence cables. These so-called “Venona transcripts” included revelations of internal discussions by members of the US delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations, revelations made to the Soviets by one of those members, Harry Dexter White.
It’s not clear what motivated White’s espionage. Some say he was out to secretly undermine American policy to help the Soviets, others that his actions were mostly appropriate, but that he occasionally crossed the line. It’s noteworthy too that he began passing information a decade before the US and Soviet became nuclear rivals. But it’s clear he shared confidential information he should not have, and that he knew he’d be in trouble were his actions revealed.
One of the more astonishing revelations in the Venona transcripts concerned White’s role in Japan’s decision to bomb Pearl Harbor. In late 1941 the Soviets wanted badly for the US to enter the war and, through intermediaries, enticed White to recommend to FDR that he deliver an ultimatum to Japanese Emperor Hirohito. The Soviets knew the one thing sure to tick off the Emperor was an ultimatum.
There were of course many factors leading up to Japan’s attack, but there is no dispute that White authored the ultimatum FDR delivered to Japan. The emperor decided promptly upon reading it to proceed with plans to bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. As they did with many of their operations, the Soviets gave a nickname to this plan to draw the US into World War II. They named it Operation Snow—as in Snow White.
The Soviets did not compensate White with money—doing so would not be very Communist of them—but with gifts. Delivery of the gifts, however, did not always go according to plan. According to author Benn Steil:
“One day (likely in 1945) a carpenter in Washington received a container of caviar at his house. Then a case of vodka was delivered. Then came an engraved invitation in the mail to attend a social event at the Soviet embassy. The carpenter was dumbfounded. Finally came a telephone call from a Harry Dexter White at the U.S. Treasury. The carpenter was also named Harry White. The Treasury-White had traced his misdirected presents. He proposed that carpenter-White send him half the goods and keep the other half. “I was going to send them all back to him,” the carpenter told a reporter. “But I thought,” after reflecting on his talk with Treasury-White, that “he’s the kind of fellow, that if I send them all back, will still think that I kept half. So I did.”
In 1997 Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan led a commission that reviewed the Venona cables. Among their conclusions was that “the complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled. As does that of Harry Dexter White of the Treasury Department.”
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank remain powerful institutions to this day, though not without fierce critics and growing competition—the Asian Development Bank has dozens of member nations and quite a lot of money at its disposal. From time to time, there are calls for a new Bretton Woods, and perhaps one day there will be a global economic accord that includes the likes of China and India, the latter of which was still a colony of Great Britain in 1944.
If there is one day another conference like Bretton Woods, it’s a safe bet attending nations will read the final text thoroughly before agreeing, and give their representatives at the negotiating table a thorough background check.Last week Mosab Yousef, the eldest son of Hamas founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, dropped a book more incendiary than any roadside IED, betraying his family, the Palestinian people, and Muslims the world over. Son of Hamas chronicles the decade Yousef spent as a spy for Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. In it, Yousef unspools one of the most unlikely tales of our time, narrating the events that led to his disillusionment with Hamas and Islam, his conversion to Christianity, and his kinship with his Israeli handlers, which transformed a boy throwing stones during the first intifada, into a dedicated Shin Bet agent by the start of the second.
Yousef claims to stand with his people, against the Israeli occupation, but with all the damning things he has to say about Islam, he's bound to be branded an enemy combatant by his former compatriots—and the fact that Son of Hamas is published by the Christian imprint Tyndale, certainly won't help. GQ spoke with Mosab Yousef to learn why he turned from his family to work with Israel, his thoughts on the true nature of Islam, and how he intends to help bring peace to his homeland.—DAVID GARGILL
GQ: In the book, you write that if your father disowned you, Hamas terrorists would kill you. He did so last week. It's been reported that you've hired bodyguards. Are you living in fear right now?
Mosab Yousef: This is a cultural thing. Usually, the son has the protection of the family. Now I don't have that anymore. It's not an easy position. The things I'm saying are very dangerous, but I knew the consequences before I acted. I'm not afraid, and I'm not going to hide.
GQ: Your father is a religious man, an Imam. Have you had any word from him, aside from the public denouncement?
MY: It was a few days before the release of the book. I told my father there was going to be a huge reaction, and I told him, Please, disown me to protect yourself, and he told me this was not an option. But when he woke up to the news, and he recognized the pressure, he had no other option. So this was no surprise, and I understand it. I still love my father, I know his heart and he knows mine. I still love my people, not just my family—my people. I feel a huge responsibility for them. I'm not going to give up until I liberate them from this evil god.
GQ: In the beginning of the book you talk about two sides of Islam, but you simplify your characterization rather quickly, saying its goal is "to conquer and enslave the earth," and that Allah had "no problem with murder; in fact, he insisted on it." We often hear President Obama, like George W. Bush before him, say that Islam isn't our enemy, that it's a religion of peace—that it's violent extremists we're in conflict with. Do you reject that?
MY: Absolutely, I do. That is blasphemy. That is a lack of knowledge. U.S. presidents say such things because of diplomacy, because Islam also exists in America, and they must respect people's beliefs, respect the constitution. What I'm saying is the problem is there, in the Koran. That even if there's a good side of Islam, at the end of the day it serves evil.
GQ: But aren't there two sides to Christianity as well? The side that launched the crusades, and that many believe is still active, steering the last administration's foreign policy. Aren't we really talking about the human failing here, not tied to a particular faith?
MY: No, no, no, no. This is what I'm trying to avoid. I point to the book, to the god. I am not pointing to the people. I judge and compare books and gods. In Christianity, it's very clear that the god we worship is equal to love. The bible says, 'God is love'. The god we worship was sacrificed, crucified on the cross, tortured, spit on, and was still forgiving. This is our highest example. The god of Islam tells his people, "Beat your wife. Go kill infidels. Go Kill Christians and Jews." This is in the Koran; it has been for 1400 years. Their god tells them to kill everybody who doesn't believe in the god of the Koran. The problem is ideological—it's not a people problem. Now, most Muslims don't obey the order of god to kill infidels. This is why I say Muslims have more morality than their god. To be honest with you, I'm amazed at how Muslims keep their humanity after reading the Koran.
GQ: When you first went to prison and were recruited by Shin Bet, you said you wanted to be a double agent, to deceive Israel and further jihad. Yet you soon came to work on Israel's behalf. Can you talk about that transformation?
MY: You know, this is a long process, it didn't come over night. If you get yourself out of politics, religion, everything, and think as a human, think based on love to everybody, at that moment you have a choice: to be an animal, or to be a human. I choose to be a human being, with conscience and responsibility.
GQ: Of your Shin Bet handler, you write, "every time we met, I learnt more about life, justice, and security." But in light of the news coming out of Dubai in recent weeks, it seems the Israelis are still using assassinations and any available means to prosecute this war. If they're wise and just, why haven't they learned what you have, that an ideological war needs an ideological solution?
MY: Intelligence communities are very closed communities, but at the same time, you don't only learn how to fight terrorism. You need to learn about life, about West and East, geography, history, culture, there are many, many things that you learn in order to be able to solve puzzles. And I had many questions. So I had to use my mind to understand what was going on in that world, and I started to see things in a different way.
I wasn't an informer for Shin Bet. Shin Bet had more information than I had. But [the intel] made perfect sense to me, and I helped them understand it the way I understood it. I'm familiar with the Palestinian mentality, the culture, religion, and when I had information coming in on a daily basis: secrets about personal lives, politicians, what they are hiding from their society that most people don't see, I started to see the picture in a different way.
Let's be clear: I'm not trying to defend Israel. What I'm telling my nation is that Israel is just like any other state, and I want them to get out of the illusion that Jewish people are evil, and that all they want is to kill Muslims and Palestinians. I want them to understand that their biggest problem is not Israel.
Israel can be a problem, yes, I admit that, and I agree, I am against occupation. But they blame everything on occupation, Muslims look at themselves and say, 'We are the victim. We are under occupation. Israelis have been killing us. And we kill, but not because we love to kill.' What I'm saying is: Yes, you are right, you are wonderful people, but study your religion. Know who you're worshipping. You're worshipping a god who is sending you to destruction.
Now, if you can educate Muslims about their biggest enemy, and if you can solve the problem, the ideological problem, it doesn't give an immediate result, but it's the best thing over the long term.
GQ: You caution readers to avoid looking at you as a "spiritual trophy." Given all you have to say about Islam, I find it hard to believe your publisher doesn't view you that way. Did the fact that Tyndale is a Christian publisher give you pause?I'm cool on it
The last of the Arkham Knight DLC will be arriving on Dec 22, just in time to land in the stocking of all the naughty children of Gotham. The new pack includes the expected alternate looks for Batman and his whip (this time featuring the 2008 Christian Bale batsuit and the Batmobile from the original Arkham Asylum), a four-pack of returning villains to fight, and some new areas to explore, including an expanded wing of the GCPD (yawn).
The returning miscreants and serial murderers are some fan favorites. Topping the bill is Mr. Freeze (now in a more streamlined and less power-armored looking suit) and the Mad Hatter, who seems to be playing at some kind of Se7en style get-intentionally-arrested-and-be-a-huge-dick-about-it game. Also appearing will be Killer Croc, more handsome than ever, and Ra's Al Ghul. Given what the trailer shows though, I have a sneaking suspicion that the old immortal won't show his face at all in this installment. You'll probably just beat up on some of his ninja flunkies and call it a day.
Our man Chris was not impressed with the last few Arkham Knight DLC offerings, calling the Season Pass “one of the worst pass prospects in gaming right now.” While this last chapter of DLC content seems more ambitious than the previous installments, including more villains, areas, and presumably missions to make use of them all, I'm not sold. That Batgirl chapter previewed well when it was being shown off too and we all remember how that turned out. If you haven't dipped your toes into any of Arkham Knight's DLC yet, you definitely want to wait for a review. If you're one of the unfortunate souls who bought the Season Pass back when the game came out all I can say is good luck, I hope Santa brings you something nice this year.
You are logged out. Login | Sign upTwo days after the demonstration that led to the cancellation of Milo Yiannopoulos’ campus appearance Feb. 1, campus chancellor’s professor of public policy Robert Reich published a controversial theory on his blog about why the protests turned violent.
Reich’s theory draws a connection between Yiannopoulos, Steve Bannon and President Donald Trump, alleging that the violence could have been coordinated to support Trump’s calls to revoke federal funding for UC Berkeley. In the blog post, Reich referred to the actions of about 150 masked agitators as “made-for-TV images of a riot.”
“Yiannopoulos wasn’t asked about the content of the speech that was shut down,” Reich said in the post, referring to Yiannopoulos’ Feb. 2 interview with Fox News after the demonstration. “The conversation focused instead on how Berkeley proved the point that the Left was ceding its right to federal grants by cracking down on free speech.”
Yiannopoulos condemned Reich in a Facebook post Feb. 3, calling him “ludicrous.”
Reich said in his blog post that he did not want to add to “conspiratorial musings,” but added that he believed there might be “something worrying going on.” Breitbart journalist Charlie Nash, however, called Reich’s theory a conspiracy theory in an article.
“Reich has further endangered Breitbart News employees and emboldened those who seek to destroy our right to freedom of speech,” said Alexander Marlow, campus alumnus and Breitbart editor-in-chief in an emailed statement. “His peers should call on him to provide evidence to support his attack or retract it and apologize — if not, perhaps his status as a scholar and academician should be seriously reconsidered.”
A UC Berkeley student who participated in the demonstration, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety, confirmed that UC Berkeley students were among those using the black bloc tactic, and that many were people of color. Additionally, three opinion pieces published Tuesday in the Daily Californian claim that students were among those with the black bloc.
“It’s not violence, it’s self defense,” the student said. “Peaceful protests are beautiful, but at the same time we should not condemn the destruction of private property. … We will not allow (Yiannopoulos’) rhetoric and his speech to hurt marginalized communities on campus.”
Contact Aleah Jennings-Newhouse at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @ajn_dc.This week Ecclestone has been in talks with senior Renault executive Jerome Stoll about the team's future income, on the basis that it becomes a works entry.
Team co-owner Gerard Lopez has said that the team still has a Mercedes contract as a Plan B, and if forced to remain independent Lotus would head into next season with a much reduced staffing level.
However Ecclestone suggests that the team could not continue on that basis.
“I'm sure they'll stop,” he told Motorsport.com. “They are running a business unsuccessfully, they haven't got enough money to keep going.
"So they'll stop. They're in trouble with finance anyway, so I can't see that a Mercedes contract is going to help.”
Regarding the crucial Renault decision he said: “No news. We're waiting for Mr Ghosn on Monday.”
Ecclestone also confirmed that negotiations with Renault were complicated when an apparent agreement with FOM that guaranteed a 2016 supply for Red Bull was trumped by a separate deal between Renault and the team.
“We made an offer, they [Renault] came back saying we are happy with the offer, if you change this, this and this. We agreed to buy engines from them to supply to the teams. They said that's good. We'd pay for the engines and we'd just sell them.
“So they had an offer from us on the table to buy engines to sell to Red Bull, to make sure they got an engine, and then they go and do a deal with Red Bull.
"We were trying to help, but they didn't need any help, they did it on their own.”Designers who can code are in demand. Learn the basics of programming and add a valuable tool to your skill set. Many experienced UX and UI designers feel limited by traditional tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or Sketch. Learning even a little bit of programming can eliminate a lot of the rote work involved in creating mock-ups and interface concepts, and those skills can help you communicate better with developers on your team. This course will help designers work more efficiently and effectively by learning to express their ideas in code, opening up a whole new realm of creative possibilities.
What you'll learn-and how you can apply it Over two days, in three-hour interactive sessions blending lectures, hands-on exercises, and Q&A—plus a little bit of homework—you’ll get an introduction to the fundamentals of programming using p5.js. This free and open source JavaScript-based language was created for artists and designers; p5 eschews jargon in favor of language you already know—like fill, stroke, hue, saturation, and brightness—making it friendly and accessible for designers learning about programming for the first time. Since p5 is all JavaScript, you’ll be learning the language of the web. In addition, the core programming concepts you’ll learn are applicable to nearly all other languages, which will help you communicate with other coders and developers, or branch out to other programming tools on your own. By the end of this hands-on course, you’ll: Learn how to write code to create visual systems; you’ll be able to draw lines and shapes, change fill and stroke colors, and define logical rules for simple interactivity
Gain basic knowledge of the possibilities and challenges of coding, making you a better member of collaborative, multidisciplinary teams
Add a skill that brings you closer to being a full-stack designer. As O’Reilly’s 2016 Design Salary Survey has shown, knowing even a little bit of code can have a big positive impact on your salary
This training course is for you because... You’re a skilled designer, well-versed in design principles and practice, who wants to understand the basics of coding so you can automate repetitive tasks, explore more complex visual forms, and prototype interactive works
You’re working in collaborative, multidisciplinary teams and want to better understand the work and language of coders and developers
About your instructor
Scott Murray is a designer, creative coder, and artist who writes software to create data visualizations and other interactive phenomena. His work incorporates elements of interaction design, systems design, and generative art. Scott is the author of Interactive Data Visualization for the Web and the forthcoming book Creative Coding and Data Visualization with p5.js: Drawing on the Web with JavaScript (working title; to be published by O’Reilly in 2017). He has presented two video courses on D3. Scott is affiliated with the Visualization and Graphics Lab at the University of San Francisco, where he has taught data visualization and interaction design. He is a Senior Developer for Processing and teaches workshops on creative coding. Scott earned an A.B. from Vassar College and an M.F.A. from the Dynamic Media Institute at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He recently joined O’Reilly Media’s Learning Group. Scott’s work can be seen at alignedleft.com. version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"? version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?
Schedule
The timeframes are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressingYo Gotti has been a Memphis rap star for so long that you can hear his voice deepening over the years even as his subject matter hasn't. If you listen to his first regional hit, 2000’s "After I Fuck Your Bitch," and then his recent viral breakout, last year’s "Down in the DM," you’ll hear the same guy rapping about pretty much the same thing in slightly different registers. But at the age of 36, and after two decades in hip-hop (he first released music under the name Lil Yo when he was 14), Gotti has finally firmed up his status as a major-label rap artist. And while his latest album, The Art of Hustle, is unquestionably the biggest of Gotti’s career, it also feels like just another notch in his belt.
As a rapper, Gotti is practiced but lyrically unambitious. His bars are straight-to-the-point and matter-of-fact, and it’s his willingness to open up that endears. On "Momma," one of The Art of Hustle’s best and most personal songs, Gotti raps about being raised by six women and a man that wasn’t his father, accounting for the highs and lows of a life built on hustling and basking in the relief of going legit. For opener "My City," Gotti enlists K. Michelle to lament and pay homage to their shared hometown. But for all his pride and investment in the city—Gotti’s Collective Music Group label has signed local up-and-comers like Blac Youngsta, Snootie Wild, and Zed Zilla—The Art of Hustle reads generically Southern.
Despite an impressive head count of industry heavyweights, the album doesn't fare well as a whole. Lil Wayne shows up on "Bible" for a rote banger; Future punches in a forgettable verse on a flat trap anthem called "General"; Pusha T snarls appropriately on the middle of "Hunnid." The collaborations are evidence of Gotti’s industry footprint rather than creative matchmaking, and the only one that strikes a spark is mold-breaker "Law," which folds E-40 comfortably into a slinky beat with bells ringing in the background.
And then there’s the album’s money-maker. "Down in the DM" isn’t a fluke hit, but it’s enjoyed the type of viral success that can’t be forced. In the last week alone: Lil Mama shared a video called "Memes," Lil' Kim enlisted Kevin Gates for a Valentine's Day track called "#Mine", and Soulja Boy offered a sleazy artwork-toting single called "Snapchat." All three are lame attempts to recapture what "Down in the DM" does so naturally, revelling in the shallowness of Instagram. The addition of two full-fledged verses from Nicki Minaj improves on the original and also gives the album its best and most memorable burst of rapping.
In a recent podcast interview with Rap Radar, Gotti admitted that "Down in the DM" was "just another song." "I’m making three, four, five songs a day," he said. "To be honest with you, I’m not even dwelling into the music that long." It’s an unsurprising piece of insight that accounts for the album’s generally low-stakes vibe. Noticeably, on the same day that Gotti released this eighth album in his catalog, another Memphis rapper released his first. Young Dolph’s King of Memphis seems almost like a provocation, but that there’s a crown worth snatching at all is a testament to Gotti having molded it for himself. Unfortunately, The Art of Hustle is mostly forgettable as a major-label rap record, but it bears out a teachable truth about Gotti's career: sometimes showing up is more than half the battle.He said the government had little choice but to enact new laws to combat the scourge of corporate tax avoidance, because it had created a revenue hole in public finances. Miller, formerly a senior partner in audit firms and head of the accounting industry peak body that is now CPA Australia, said the leadership of the profession no longer had the same clout as it did 30 years ago, when he and the Institute of Chartered Accountants collaborated with the government to stamp out the widespread corporate rorting. In 1987, the Australian Tax Office reported that 6688 companies had been involved in bottom of the harbour schemes in which the promoter – a lawyer or accountant – would strip a company of its assets and transfer them to another company, thereby leaving it unable to pay its taxes and creditors, sending it to the "bottom of the harbour". In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into corporate tax avoidance, Miller said "the avoidance industry" today had massive weight. "For the larger accounting and legal firms it is a major part of their practices and … an important part of corporate culture and bottom-line aspirations.
"In this context one admires those many companies, large and small, whose directors heed the call of true corporate social responsibility and true corporate citizenship and refuse the enticements on offer to aggressively reduce tax. They are today's commercial heroes." Miller said the government had more of a revenue problem than a spending problem and the consequence of tax avoidance and reduced tax collections was that the decent corporate citizens were penalised via higher tax rates. Corporate income tax rates were therefore "higher than necessary", he said. One solution would be to consider taxing revenue rather than profit. Many multinationals load their Australian companies with costs – often high debt – to deliberately produce low profits in this country, and therefore minimise their taxable income. Although taxing revenue would address avoidance by mining companies, it could penalise the likes of retailers, companies with high revenue but tight profit margins, he said. To create a more productive and fairer corporate revenue base "the law needs to be changed", he said.
"Profit-shifting and … international management fees, royalties, intercompany group charges, including interest and all other artificial transactions … which do not have a commercial substance and aim only, as did the "bottom of the harbour" scheme, to minimise tax should be banned as corporate tax deductions. "The law should support good ethics and good citizenship and not leave these qualities in subjective ambiguity." The government does have provisions in the tax legislation – so-called Part 4A – under which it can prosecute companies for transactions whose "dominant purpose" is to avoid tax rather than achieve a commercial outcome. However, the ATO has proven reluctant to prosecute using Part 4A. Miller also said multilateral efforts at reform via international forums such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development were unlikely to succeed and were used as a scapegoat for inaction by multinationals tax avoiders and lobby groups. What was the bottom of the harbour scandal?
"Bottom of the Harbour" was Australia's greatest corporate tax avoidance scandal. During the 1970s lawyers and accountants who promoted Bottom of the Harbour schemes advised their corporate clients to strip assets from a company, transfer them to another company, and let the first company sink. By doing this, the Tax Office and other unsecured creditors of the failed company were left in the lurch. The scam was perpetrated on thousands of companies and cost the taxpayer an estimated $1 billion short, tens of billions in today's dollars. Although officers from the ATO first identified the rort in 1973, their investigations were effectively covered up. It was not until the Costigan Royal Commission in 1982 that the details of these investigations properly came to light and a paper trail led back to the office of the public prosecutor in Perth. As the scandal developed, there was increasing pressure on the government and the accounting and legal professions to reform. Follow us on Twitter @BusinessDayJunior Austin Allen will lead the Hogs into the Belk Bowl on Dec. 29 to face Virginia Tech. Allen is just completing his first year as the starting quarterback for the Hogs.
Arkansas QB Austin Allen.
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Allen got some great news on Tuesday when junior center Frank Ragnow announced he would return for his senior year at Arkansas.
"That’s huge right there for everyone," Allen said. "Selfishly I didn’t want him to go. Just having him coming back, he’s one of, if not the best player on our team right now. That’s huge for our offense next year and the whole team."
While the news was obviously good for Bret Bielema and Kurt Anderson, but Allen also benefits greatly by Ragnow returning since he's the one who takes snaps from him.
"Huge, he’s out there making calls," Allen said. "He can get everyone doing the right thing out there. He can tell the right tackle what to do, the guards, he calls out the mike.
"He does a lot of things out there to go along with being the best center in college football in my mind. It’s a five-star guy coming back for us and that’s the biggest recruit we can get right there.
How did he tell you he was returning?
"He texted me this morning saying, ‘Hey, I wanted you (me and my friends) to be the first to know that I’m going pro, so just don’t say anything, Love you guys. It’s coming out after practice," Allen said. "Then right before practice he texted saying, ‘Just joking,” or something like that."
How did you take the news?
"Yeah, I was pissed," Allen said laughing. "I didn’t talk to him all day. I didn’t say one word to him. I was just joking with him, but no matter what he did, I would have supported him. I’m just glad he’s coming back for another year."
You and your teammates face the Hokies in just over a week, how's it going?
"It’s going great," Allen said. "We got a lot of the younger guys a lot of work. Just continuing to get reps with everyone is huge for us. I think it helps everyone, the whole team. My freshman year, we didn’t have any bowl reps or bowl practices. It really helps out spring ball, it carries all the way into the summer."
How do you handle the delay between end of season and bowl game and stay focused?
I would just say the attitude you come in with every day," Allen said. "Instead of coming in with an attitude of, ‘Wow, we have to come up here right now?’ You have to come in with, ‘We get to come in here right now. We get to have these extra practices.’ There’s a lot of guys who didn’t get these extra practices and they know how special it is and being able to play football past Christmas is huge."
The team leaves for Charlotte the day before Christmas. Any feelings on not spending the holiday at home?
"I grew up kind of doing that with my dad, going to all these bowl games," Allen said. "I barely remember any Christmases at my house. We would always have them in the hotel room and everything like that. I’m used to it."
So for the Allen boys, Austin and Brandon, Santa came to the hotel?
"Santa came to the hotel," Allen said with a wide smile. "At a young age I learned Santa wasn’t real."
Now that you have had some time to learn your opponent and watch film, what does Virginia Tech's defense look like?
"They’re another great defense," Allen said. "It feels like, looks like the same kind of defense we play each week. Athletic guys who play hard and they do what they do and they do it at a high level. It’s a great challenge for us and we have to be ready for them."
A TV reporter wants to know if Austin knows what a Hokie is?
"It’s a turkey or something, isn’t it?" Allen asked.
The reporter informs him that it’s a castrated turkey.
"Castrated turkey?" Allen said. "That’s, uh, interesting."
At times, the Tech defense has given up big plays – do you see some things you can take advantage of?
"Each week you kind of see their tendencies, see what each opponent is going to do," Allen said. "Coach (Dan) Enos is a master game planner and really puts us in the right positions to succeed and I’m sure he’s going to do the same this week or when we play them."
What have Drew Morgan and Keon Hatcher meant to you, with this being their last game?
"They’re the rock of this team," Allen said. "Those guys are team leaders. They come out to practice every day with the same mentality and it really rubbed off on the young guys. I think whenever they leave, those guys will see how hard they worked and they’ll want to be just like them. I couldn’t say enough good things about those guys.
You were around with Drew when he was a practice legend, now he’s a top receiver – what was it about him and how critical was he for your brother last year and you this year? And oh yeah, what about Keon too?
"I’d put Drew up against anyone in the country, just how dependable he is and how great of routes he runs," Allen said. "What he’s done the past few years has been nothing short of remarkable how well he’s caught the ball and everything he does for our team. He goes in there and blocks. He’s been a workhorse for us the last two years and I wish he could have another year with me, but he’s going to be off to bigger and better things.
"And Keon has been around for so long now. He’s a dog out there, just the way he competes and how hard he plays and how we can line him up at fullback and he’ll go in and crack the mike linebacker. He runs great routes, catches the ball. He was Mr. Dependable for us. Anytime we needed a third down, fourth down, I was kind of looking his way. He’s a special player."
Who are some of the receivers you think will step up next year with so many guys leaving?
"One guy that really catches your eye is Jordan Jones," Allen said. "Just how tall, fast he is. Runs well, catches the ball well. A lot of guys really. Kofi (Boateng) is coming back from an ACL injury, but he’s already out there running around and catching balls. Pett (LaMicheal Pettway) and D’Vone (McClure) just how physical they are. And then Deon (Stewart) just how smooth he is. We have some guys coming in and I’m sure I’m missing someone, but we’ll be fine."
The Belk Bowl will kickoff at 4:30 p.m. CT in Charlotte, N.C., and be televised by ESPN.China conducted multiple training exercises in Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea, according to state media. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo
April 20 (UPI) -- China continues to conduct training exercises near the Korean peninsula, according to state media.
Chinese state news service People's Daily Online reported Thursday the Nanchang Q-5, a Chinese-built ground-attack aircraft, practiced hitting simulated targets in Bohai Bay.
Two Q-5 jets took part in the drills.
The drill follows the deployment of Beijing's Aegis-class destroyer the Xining to the Yellow Sea, according to state news network CCTV.
The Xining was commissioned in January and according to China's defense ministry, it is a "homegrown guided-missile destroyer integrated with many new types of weaponry."
The destroyer also has advanced stealth capability and electromagnetic compatibility, according to Beijing.
Chinese state television showed footage over the weekend of the Xining conducting a live-fire operation |
A
New YakB sounds
125mm SABOT petals model ejects after shot fired
125mm ATGM pusher muzzle effect
New Mi-24 sounds
New GP-25 sounds
125mm & 100mm cannon recoil (singleplayer only)
PSNR-5K Tall Mike radar functionality to BRM-1K
Option to disable/enable FCS target lead (RHS option screen)
RGN Impact Grenade
Adding insurgent uniforms to VA
Added missing PROPREFIX for rhs_c_cti_indep and rhs_c_identity
Fully functional Shtora active protection system to all applicable vehicles
Russian Ammo crates (non-virtual)
902A/B smoke launcher sounds
ERA explosion sound effect
Added BMP-3M & T-90 groups
Added turret popping effects for T-72 and T-90 tanks
RHS_fnc_vectorRandomize
9E154 proximity fuse for 100mm HE-FRAG 3UOF19-1 (airburst)
Added Insurgent camo to Insurgent BM-21
Added BMD-1 to Insurgent faction.
Added BTR-60 to Insurgent faction.
T-72 Garage icons
IMPROVED IN 0.3.9
^ Mountain Flora Texture
^ Added aiAmmoUsageFlags to ammo
^ EMR texture
^ Reduced AZP-23 dispersion
^ BMP-3M and BMD-4M loaded with 3UOF19-1 rounds
^ HEAT simulation
^ T-80U tanks smoke grenade enchancements
^ Increased exhaust smokescreen lifetime and size
^ Tochka-U wheel textures improved.
^ Lowered engine and surface volume for UAZ/sounds.hpp and Ural/sounds.hpp
^ Audible gun range increased to current A3 standards for russian weapons
^ 3D17 smoke effects
^ Arma 3 will now use RedHammerStudios as pbo author in rpt
^ Countermeasure controls & reload time
^ T-80UK dazzlers
^ Adjusted mirror position for all Gaz-66 trucks
^ Updated mod logo
^ Updated Ural instrument gauges
^ Tigr Cockpit gauge animation fixes
^ Added descriptions to 2S3 shells
^ Improved BMP-3 res lods
^ Major tweaks to all FCS scripts
^ Changed elements in proxies to better handle retexturability for BMP-2
^ Reduced T-72 sound volume
^ Reduced minimal lase range for few vehicles
^ PhysX handling improvements across all vehicles
^ Short descriptions for RPG ammo
^ Improved T-90 topspeed and acceleration
^ Smoke generator screen blocks AI visibility
^ Reduced timeToLive for heat penetrators
^ Standarized a little bit HEAT hit values so new & old system go along a little better
^ Tweaked tank positioning in groups
^ Experimental change of unit position in group for BMP1 squads - should be working much better with zeus
^ Converted T-72B obr89 to new damage model
^ Tweaked displayNameShort for AT rockets
^ Improvements to CE armor system
^ Vehicle smoke generator will now turn the engine on if required
^ GAZ-66 Stringtables and configs cleaned up
^ Finalized early T-90 (no FLIR sight and exhaust changed to the old one)
^ Zues compatibility for weapon fire camera shake
^ Updated TR8 model, textures and RVmat
FIXED IN 0.3.9
@ Sprut-SD FCS laser timing
@ Zeus works on dedicated servers
@ Coaxial mg exit points fixed on T-72 family tanks
@ Fixed damage selections for T-80U
@ Fixed t-72 reverse speed
@ Grenade names in UI
@ Rocket pod sound looping
@ Rebel T-72 flag now disappears on all clients
@ Mi-8MTV3 cargo places reduced to 13 in line with proxies
@ Transparent PKM cover on Mi-8MTV3
@ Cargo capacity on BTR series reduced to 7
@ Fixed some proxies not hidden after destruction
@ Fixed some alpha sorting issues on T-72B3
@ GP-25 no longer plays hide and seek game during NPZ mounting
@ Major stringtable fixes (Schmeisser)
@ Smoke generator network fix
@ Fixed first person view for drivers in T-90 & T-72B3 obr12
@ Fixed broken Fire Geometry on T-72B obr89
@ Reversed joystick controls on Mi-8
@ Tweaked Mi-8 hitpoints
@ Vehicle crews can now access their countermeasures
@ Fixed 1PN93-2 double illumination
@ Fixed wrong selections in BMP3_early.p3d res lod
@ Fixed typo for malyutka penetrator
@ Wrong skirt texture in one of the lods of T-90 and T-72B3
@ Fixed GAZ-66 R142 ladder visible in res lods
@ Fixed mirrored UV islands for BMP3 left mirror
@ RHS mines removed from minefield module, making it work again
@ Gravity geo boxes selection removed to avoid ingame collision
@ Fixed decals alpha sorting on t80ue & m45
@ Helicopter Pilots should not have random facegear from now on
@ Weapon default FOV changed to 0.25
@ 6Sh92 fixes
@ Fixed T-80UK texture compression error and smoke cap
@ Commented out EMR 6Sh92s
@ Minefields mines didnt explode
@ Covered up some AO errors on T-90 turret
@ BMP-3 servo sound
@ BMP-3 editor icon size
@ Fixed dark spot in PKM from compression making the rounds look struck.
@ 2S25 & BMD-4 servo sounds
@ Fixed wrong bis_fnc reference and missing scope errors for headgear randomization
@ Fixed Texture Glitch on Tigr
@ Exhaust cover supports are no longer visible when exhaust covers are missing on Mi-24
REMOVED IN 0.3.9
N/A
ADDED IN 0.3.8
AKM / AKMS have new DTK-1L muzzle attachment
Class documentation http://class.rhsmods.org
Implements engine smoke screen for more vehicles
Simulation of tandem HEAT warheads
Initial injection of female heads
3D17 smoke shell p3d
T-90
New textures for BMP-3
New autoloader sound for Russian tanks (vlad_8011)
TR-8 Periscope (several test versions)
Add RU RPG7 AT class
Heat diffraction effects for weapons
Sabot discard model
Added 5 guerilla uniforms to replace default uniforms, equipped all existing troops with these uniforms.
Added guerilla crewman for vehicles
PDU-4
Ability to disable vehicle decals with object variables RHS_Decal_Enabled, RHS_Decal_Symbol_Enabled & RHS_Decal_Number_Enabled (see wiki)
IMPROVED IN 0.3.8
^ Update PKM & PKP weird bipod as side attachment
^ Deleted arbitrary rear sight from PMM in pilotview LOD
^ Some WIP work on FCS calculations (BMD-4/T-72B3,etc)
^ Reduced DPM AK5 muzzle flash size
^ Corrected Sprut geometry as smoke grenades were colliding with physx geo
^ Replaced bis fired EH for Sprut & BMD-4
^ Altered colours of the two Beanie hats to be less desaturated and white.
^ Brighter 3D17 spark
^ Minor rhs_effectFiredSmokeLauncher improvements
^ Minor RAM compatibility changes
^ BMP-3 is now using rhs driver visor
^ Damage and penetration values updated for AFRF heavy AP rounds
^ Mi-24 model improvements
^ Improved CTI soldiers XEH compatibility
^ Corrected BTR-80 NV light type
^ Corrected T-72 wheel geometry
^ Increased lead calc speed
^ insideSoundCoef added and adjusted to all vehicles to provide better compatibility with ACRE
^ Improved RPG-26 and RShG-2 peephole for easier sighting
^ Reduced smoke of RPG-26 and RShG-2
^ Various lod fixes for T-72B3 and T-90
^ FCS improvements
^ Added guerilla wounds
^ Reduced shine of guerilla uniforms
^ Added backpack filled with ammunition
^ Added Insurgent flag
^ MaGAZines hidden when no maGAZine equipped for AKs
^ Explosion and crater effects of HE rounds improved
^ Removed vanilla backpacks for Indie AT and AA gunner
^ 3D17 smoke & sparks LODs
^ 3D17 smoke optimization
^ Improved FCS calculations & added gun offset script
^ BMP-1/2 inplace turning improved
^ BMP wheelCircumference more accurate
^ Added reslods for BMP-3
^ Increased T-72B3 & T-90 turret rotation speed
^ Improved BMP-3 shadows
^ Changed shape of new style field cap to be more rounded. Original was too long and looked daft.
^ Changed TFA classes as requested by author.
^ Added some missing items in virtualAmmoBox.sqf
^ CTI: equipment is now handled by virtual arsenal
^ CTI: changed MHQ to FMTV MHQ & Gaz66 R142
^ CTI: changed AI groups - ai should be more aggressive & use armor
^ CTI: added ability to remote control AI units in own group
^ CTI: restored headless client support
^ CTI: adding TF LR radios if TFAR is detected
^ Added custom arsenal function to prevent load bug
^ Greatly improved 902B/3D17 smoke salvo performance
^ Better overall 3D17 smoke performance
^ Slighlty increased Mi-24 hitpoints armor
FIXED IN 0.3.8
@ Fixed T-80UM alpha decals sorting
@ CTI: fixed initial gear (missing DTK on AK)
@ CTI: Fixed black icons in purchase menu
@ Added workaround for tanks stuck in place
@ Numerous fixes to female heads module
@ Commented out old gear configuration
@ Fixed damage textures for T-72B3, BMP-3
@ Fixed Mi-8AMTSh w/ UPK rocket count
@ Fixed side = 0 bugs with groups
@ BMP-1 decals added to last lod
@ Fixed buggy soldier leg memory points
@ Removed empty visual lod from BTR-80A
@ Fixed ammo cost for shells
@ Fixed RU accessories wrong inherited inertia values
@ Fixed remaining decals on BTR-60 after being destroyed
@ Fixed BMD-2 FCS not appearing
@ Kh-29 can lock
@ Fixed soldiers not having put in their weapons.
@ Fixed wrong texture assignments and proxies in T-72B3 lods
@ Fixed duplicate names in decal inits, possible fix for JIP problems
@ Fixed turret elevation angled on the BTR-80/A
@ Fixed BTR-80 recoil
@ Fixed ATGM FCS calculations - close T730
@ Fixed T80U recoil - close T732
@ Fixed bug with folding/unfolding AK74M (plum mag)
@ Fixed Gaz-66 R142 mast res lod bug
@ Fixed Tigr dashboard always shining
@ Fixed high VOG 6B23 armor
REMOVED IN 0.3.8
Removed legacy bipod stuff
Removed legacy smoke launcher from Sprut-SD commander
AKM / AKMS can no longer support DTK4 silencers
Commented out some Kart DLC sounds in rhs_weap_pistols.hpp
ADDED IN 0.3.7
Added plissa to T80UE1
Added R-142 deployed configuration
Variant of the 6B13 rigged with 6Sh92
Added DTK-4 (Short)
Added DTK-4 (Long)
Added traverse sound for T-72 & T-80 (more to come later)
Added AK5 muzzle flash hider
Added DTK-4 (7.62)M
T-72B3 now uses experimental armour system (depleting ERA, Improved penetration)
Added Gurdys M88 uniform (plus strings)
Added hasBipod param to weapons with integrated bipod
AIS/RAM compatibility & support for tandem HEAT warheads
Added category class to vehicles (fixes ZEUS cost module recognition + 3rd party mods may use it for better vehicle class recognition)
Added new AK reload animation (now follows AFRF Doctrine - One hand manipulation)
Added some missing authors to rifles
Added easy deployment script - [tochka,1] spawn rhs_fnc_ss21_AI_prepare
Added deployment anim available at VG
Added flatbed variants for GAZ-66 & Ural 4320
Added Polish stringtables by Gienkov
Added 1P78
IMPROVED IN 0.3.7
^ Changed metal_plate penetration material to new weapon_plate for russian weapons
^ Matched the AK reload sounds with the modified animation
^ Removed military decals from civilian trucks
^ Added hatch management function for T-72/T-80 NSVT (should improve MP stability)
^ Unified Russian weapon inventory icon facings.
^ Updated RU hitpoint & armor values (no longer the RU faction inherits values from alien factions with an additional armor; now inherits values from AAF )
^ Updated RU vests.
^ Improved Tochka-U scripts
^ Added reslods to russian muzzle brakes
^ Tweaked T-72B3 FG
^ Tweaked T-72B NSVT in FG
^ Tweaked BMP3 loadout
^ Fixed visible proxies after destruction for BMP-3
^ Tweaked BMP3 loadout
^ Added lodnoshadow=1 param to BMP-3 proxies
^ Updated CTI Insurgents (adding AKM + GP25)
^ Tweaked AKM ironsights
^ Corrected RU Grenadiers vests value for coherence sake.
^ Tweaked UPK23 smdi
^ Tweaked HeadAimDown param for SU-25 - targeting of AG targets
^ Added AK103 inventory pictures
^ Lowered disposable RPG mass
^ Scoped = 1 patchless soldiers till they receive proper names
^ Improved T-80B & T-80A FG + Added ERA hidding after depletion
^ Added ability to hide light covers in VG for UAZ, URAL & GAZ-66
^ Added res lod to PMM
^ Added experimental new method for FCS calc together with new data for 3bm42m & 3bm46
^ AKM/AKMS default sights zeroed to 350M
^ Sprut has now a better tankturnforce
^ T-80s now accelerate better and faster
^ All T-80s now use the 4-box system for weight distribution
^ Added reslods to PKM & AKM
^ Added SU-25 to zeus CAS module
^ Added Russian mines to mine module
^ Added shadows to PRV-13
^ Tweaked cargo poses on BTR-80A
^ Retimed anim sources on AK rifles to fit new character animations
^ Replaced networked variable with animationPhase
^ Corrected PKM ammo box dimensions and handle size
^ Added pivot points to some AK74M rifles
^ Tweaked Tochka-U nuke script
^ Added missing gunner hatch shadow to T-80B & A
^ Updated RU vehicles water fording - Close T597.
^ Added some VG support for BTRs
^ Tucha smoke launcher system reworked
^ Smoke generators Added to some vehicles [Ctrl+C to change coutermeasure mode, C to deploy while engine running]
^ Updated RU Stringtables Spanish translations
^ Add parachute to SU-25 Pilots
^ Changed folded AK hand anim
^ Added more vehicles to insurgents
^ Added deploy pivot memory point to east weapons
^ Improved destruction materials for ka52 & Mi-24
^ Added support for VG for most of vehicles
^ updated ASDG jr compatibility code for marksman dlc
^ Improved cockpit model in exterior res lod for Mi-24
^ Added all RU Weapons to Zeus/Editor spawn list
^ Added some missing elements in FG for T-72 (searchlights, nsvt, etc)
^ Improved TFAR compatbility: LR Radios based on vehicle data
^ BTR-80 and 60 crew proxies moved to prevent clipping through hull - closes issue T634
^ Added automatic loading of disposable launchers for player (to prevent dumb looking loading of such launchers)
FIXED IN 0.3.7
@ Fixed canFloat param on BMP-1/2
@ Fixed SU-25 lights
@ Fixed wrong inheritance of camo ak74m (scope = private error)
@ Fixed FCS scripts
@ Fixed T-80u missing sources errors in rpt
@ Fixed control sticks inverted movement in mi8 & ka52
@ Fixed Mi-24 gunner memory point
@ Fixed FFV issue for Mi-24 & BTR-80s
@ Fixed hidding second antenna for command versions of BMDs
@ Fixed transparency issue with T-80B NSVT collimator
@ Fixed Pchela 1-t rpt errors
@ Fixed warped faces on PMM slide
@ Fixed warping ploys on PMM slide in viewPilot LOD
@ Fixed cargosystem lod issue
@ Fixed BMD-1/2 init not working
@ Fixed fording depth for tanks with snorkel
@ Fixed some BMP-3.rpt errors
@ Corrected supply points for UraIn stock & shipping now!
Invada Records are thrilled to announce the release of Clint Mansell's incredible score to Black Mirror Season 3 episode 'San Junipero'.
This is the picture disc vinyl LP variant, housed in a heavyweight deluxe spined sleeve with printed insert and artwork by Billy The Butcher.
BLACK MIRROR is a sci-fi anthology series that explores a twisted, high-tech near-future where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide. San Junipero takes place in a seaside town in 1987. A shy young woman and an outgoing party girl strike up a powerful bond that seems to defy the laws of space and time.
The score to San Junipero is a melancholic and nostalgic synth-orchestral ambience, which transcends the ‘80s setting of the show, interweaving forlorn strings, static-tinged electronica and beautifully washing orchestral pieces alike. Enticing and repeating melodies feature against a captivating backdrop of graceful strings, encapsulating the on-screen mood perfectly. Clint Mansell is well known for his previous work on PI, Requiem For A Dream, Moon, the 'Ivor Novello' Award nominated High Rise and The Fountain for which he received a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Original Score, alongside many more.
The package has been lovingly designed by legendary Brazilian artist Billy The Butcher, known for his art pieces and illustrations based on the contemporary Pop Art movement. His work has a strong vintage comic book and street art influence, whilst also making use of pop culture references in music, cinema, art and politics.
Tracklist:
01. San Junipero (80s-90s-00s-??s)
02. Faith, Hope, Fear & Falling In Love
03. Tick Tock (Clock Of My Heart)
04. Night Drive
05. Property Of Tucker Systems
06. In Sickness, In Health
07. Life Eternal
08. Waves Crashing On Distant Shores Of Time
09. Endless Summer
10. San Junipero (Saturday Night In The City Of The Dead)A year ago tomorrow, I launched this Gunmetal Arcadia development blog. Two days later, I released my first commercial indie title, Super Win the Game. I had been thinking about covering these in separate blog posts, but there would probably be so much overlap between the two that I might as well roll them both into a look back at the last year. This is going to be long and kind of rambly, so if you’re looking for a tl;dr, I guess it would be this: “I’m still making games.”
As I discussed in a two-month postmortem last December, Super Win had a bad launch. Its day one sales were a fraction of what I’d hoped for. Now I’m ten months further out, and the game’s been discounted several times and given a major update and a permanent price drop, updated, and I have more data.
To be clear, my initial impressions of Super Win were not wrong. It started out badly and it never really recovered. There was no miraculous event that suddenly pulled it out of obscurity. It’s continued to trend in accordance with those first few weeks. It’s consistently performed about a tenth as well as Eldritch, which was my only real point of comparison at the time of launch. I had numbers from the Steam launch of You Have to Win, too, of course, but free games are so disproportionately popular relative to paid games that it was not meaningful in any way.
The mistake I made last year was in assuming Super Win was failing relative to everything else on Steam. Subjectively, yes, it failed to perform as I would have liked. But in contrast to the rest of the market, it’s right on par. It’s near the median. And that’s what I didn’t know — couldn’t have known — a year ago. I have SteamSpy to thank for that. SteamSpy was a revelation. Suddenly I wasn’t the odd one out whose game tanked. The market just didn’t look the way I thought it did.
So let’s talk sales figures. In twelve months, Super Win the Game has sold 7,640 copies across Steam, Humble, itch.io, IndieBox, and direct sales, with an average unit price of $4.98, generating roughly $38,000 of gross revenue. By my napkin math, this translates to about $18,500 after-tax earnings for my household.
That’s not amazing, but it’s not nothing either. Alone, that’s not quite enough to pay rent, much less completely cover the cost of developing another game, much less actually turn a profit. But in conjunction with my remaining savings, income from contract work, additional revenue from Eldritch, and my wife’s income, we’re staying afloat.
That raises a question. Is it possible to be sustainable at this scale? Is it possible to stay in business without ever having a smash hit? How many games would I have to have in the market simultaneously to reach that point? I’m guessing not too many. Two of Super Win would pretty much carry me. Now obviously it depends on countless other factors, and it’s hard to know for sure what the tail for Super Win will look like in year two (I’m guessing, you know, one-tenth of Eldritch‘s), but I’m optimistic.
Mac and Linux account for about 10.25% of sales (6.25% and 4% respectively), so again by napkin math, I would estimate I’ve earned roughly $1,900 on those platforms. They continue to be a net loss for now. Reaching profitability isn’t totally outside the realm of possibility, however, since there is minimal cost involved in supporting them now that the core engine work is done.
Let’s look at some pictures.
This is a graph of Steam sales over the first year. It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone; it’s a well known fact that games sell the most when they’re on sale. The in-between bits aren’t totally flat, but to provide some sense of scale, on average Super Win has been selling about 50 units per month when it’s not on sale.
The y-axis on this graph is units, not revenue. (If it were revenue, every peak would be lower by the sale percent specified, with another 35% or so chopped off after the price drop.) What’s interesting to me is that it wasn’t until I discounted Super Win by 75% that it matched its launch day in terms of units, and it’s never matched it in revenue. Even in a crowded, sales-driven market, launch day is still the biggest day of a game’s life.
Now that the game’s been out a year, I’ll be looking into bundling opportunities. I know that market has become more saturated than it once was, just like every part of indie games, but I’m hopeful I can find some additional revenue there.
A few months ago, when I announced Gunmetal Arcadia Zero, I talked about the motivation for that game primarily as a way to alleviate a production bottleneck created by ongoing obligations. But it does serve other purposes, too. I can finish Zero faster than I could finish the flagship game, which means I can get something else out into the market, something else generating revenue. But that’s a double-edged sword. Although it can start recouping costs and create awareness for the roguelike game, it also has the potential to diminish interest and harm the chances of Gunmetal Arcadia succeeding if it’s not a quality product itself. So I’m motivated to make Zero the absolute best game it can be.
Zero will be an experiment in other ways, as well. I’ve shared my thoughts on the pricing of Super Win before, eventually culminating in a price drop to better match consumer expectations and allow me to price Gunmetal more appropriately relative to that game. But Zero is a little more of a wildcard, and it’s an opportunity to swing hard the other way and deliberately price a game too low. I’m no fan of the race-to-the-bottom pricing seen on the App Store (and recently in the PC space, as well), but I’ll happily jump at a low-risk opportunity like this to see how a game fares at that point.
A few weeks ago, Daniel West’s “‘Good’ Isn’t Good Enough” blog hit Gamasutra. It’s one in a long line of blogs and articles recently that have given rise to discussion of an “indiepocalypse” in which there are so many games being released every day that none can stand out and succeed.
When I wrote my first postmortem of Super Win last year, the term “indiepocalypse” had not yet been coined (to my knowledge), but there was already a feeling of overcrowding. Greenlight titles were no longer announced with excitement but merely quietly given approval en masse. Games were disappearing from the front page of Steam within a day. It was a stark contrast from even just a year earlier. (And indeed, SteamSpy has noted that October 2013 is when the proverbial floodgates opened. Eldritch was right on the cusp, having been released that same month.)
Daniel West’s blog resonated with me because it recalled many of the elements of my own previous postmortem — importantly, that doing things “right” or being “good” (and I should emphasize the heavy quote marks around those terms, subjective as they are) aren’t a predictor of success now, if they ever were. And the more I learn, the less I think they ever were.
So here’s my hot take. There is no indiepocalypse. There are no games that are failing today that would have been huge successes a year ago. Yeah, it’s maybe conceivable that Super Win would’ve sold a little better if it had been released in 2012 or 2013, but it’s even more likely it wouldn’t have made it to Steam at all. There was a notion for a while that being on Steam was a predictor of success, and that’s probably true, but being on Steam was also a mark of being not only a high-quality game but also one with mass appeal.
Super Win the Game is a high-quality game (and you can fight me irl if you disagree), but it has niche appeal. As a retro pixel art platformer, it also exists in a space occupied largely by many, many games of wildly varying levels of quality, all vying for that same niche market. That’s not a good place to be. Good thing my next game is such a radical departure— oh wait
I guess that’s a fair question, and a place to shift gears and talk a little more about Gunmetal. Why, in the face of middling sales and unforgiving odds, would I choose to make another retro pixel art (action-adventure) platformer?
The truth is, I very nearly didn’t. Even though I launched this blog prior to Super Win‘s launch, I had been taking notes on another game simultaneously, a project by the codename “Cadenza” that I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time. When Super Win fizzled, the whole retro thing felt poisoned to me for a little while, and I was briefly convinced I needed to do a 180 and make something completely different. But clearer heads prevailed, and I decided that it would be better to take the time and effort that I had put into developing tools and tech for Super Win and reuse those for another game, while pushing the bar higher wherever I could.
That’s been the driving force throughout Gunmetal‘s development to date: I have to do better than Super Win. I can’t make something I’m going to be embarrassed to show off. It’s impossible to say whether that will be enough to put it ahead of Super Win in terms of sales, but already, I feel so much better about where Gunmetal is in terms of providing a rich, expressive gameplay experience. I get excited whenever I see animated GIFs of my own game. That’s a good place to be.
I would also add, as long as we’re considering the realm of all possible projects that could have been my next, that I had to narrow it down to something that (1) I was capable of making (2) in a reasonable amount of time (3) with the tools I have available to me, and, perhaps most crucially, (4) it had to be something I wanted to make. There is no room for passionless work in solo indie dev. So yeah, maybe the pixel art platformer is an overcrowded genre, but if I care very deeply about this pixel art platformer in particular, I know that I can finish it and that it will be something special.
I guess that roughly concludes the scribbly line connecting Super Win to Gunmetal Arcadia. Let’s talk about how that’s gone this last year.
One year. I’ve been working on this game for an entire year now. That’s longer than I’ve ever worked on any solo project ever, but then this is a bigger game than any other I’ve ever made. And I’ve barely scratched the surface.
I’m a little surprised I’m not burnt out or jaded toward the concept yet. I’m still excited by the promise of what Gunmetal Arcadia will be. I think a lot of that is due to having had very little time recently to actually work on the game, so in some regards, it still feels like a future project that I’d like to take on someday, when I have the time. That’s weird.
I think that’s indicative of how the development process has been trending, though. After a sputtering start (Gunmetal commenced just as I was moving to a new apartment, and it was some time before I really felt like I was 100% on development), I had a few solid months in which I laid a lot of the groundwork for what Gunmetal Arcadia has become and will become. Reading back through the archives, many of the recognizable aspects of the game were already in place by February. And since then, things have been…spotty.
I kind of just want to let that image speak for itself.
I made a gamble in early July that the time cost to produce a weekly video series would be mitigated by the increase in visibility and ultimately in sales. I won’t know for sure whether this has paid off until the games launch, but I’m optimistic. In the meantime, I’ve spun up a Patreon campaign to support this non-development documentation work.
The future remains as busy and unpredictable as ever. My contract work period is drawing to a close, but I have more obligations on the horizon. I’ve submitted a talk for GDC 2016, with slides due in the coming months, and oh yeah we’re expecting a child in November so that’ll probably shake up my schedule just a bit.
But hey.
I’m still making games.In my extended family, I have something of a reputation for being a privacy Nazi. This is due to my penchant for not giving out addresses and phone numbers to stores that seem to think my buying something from them is a good enough reason to ask for it, but it turns out I'm only playing in the minor leagues. The American Library Association is raising more than a million dollars to fund a new "Right to Information Privacy Campaign" with a goal of nothing less than getting Americans "to recommit to information privacy."
Librarians might not be the group you'd first imagine out in the streets, manning the barricades, but they can get pretty agitated about both censorship and privacy. (Note: never tell a librarian that you'd like to ban a particular book unless the two of you are separated by an inch of plexiglass.) In this case, the 64,000 librarians of the ALA believe that their work remains vital to a vibrant democracy, since "the right to read and search for information is the foundation of individual liberty."
The ALA's new campaign wants to 1) educate people, and then 2) turn them into activists. The education component of the three-year program will make people aware, for instance, that "checking out a biography of Osama Bin Laden could prompt seizure of their library records" or that "online searches create traceable records that make them vulnerable to questioning by the FBI." The ALA also worries about provisions in the law that "gag" the people who are on the receiving end of government orders to turn over these records.
"Law enforcement agencies at every level are exploiting fears about terrorism and child safety to encourage lawmakers to strip away statutory privacy protections for library records," says the ALA. "This eliminates anonymity in the library, and encourages the mind set that 'good' people should have nothing to hide."
But, as Cory Doctorow wittily points out in a talk he gave to the group last month, people have all sorts of behaviors for which they want "privacy," even if these behaviors aren't "secret." When someone heads off to the bathroom, for instance, and closes the door, their behavior isn't a "secret," but it is "private." And everyone's parents engaged in at least one nonsecret but private activity to produce a child.
The librarians are well suited to mount such a campaign. By nature, they're guardians of anonymity and free access to information, and they also have access to a huge variety of outlets for their message. US public libraries have more locations than McDonalds, and 62 percent of American adults hold library cards. That gives ALA members a natural place to educate the public about these issues and channel that education into public discourse and, hopefully, a new consensus on privacy and its importance.by Miguel de Icaza
As of last Friday, Wikipedia started using Mono for indexing and searching the Wikipedia, it was tested first on one server and it is now being used on all three servers.
Wikipedia's search backend uses Mono and dotLucense, the same search backend that is used by Beagle Desktop Search. Previously, Wikipedia had been using GCJ and Lucene to do the searches but after some tuning, Mono became the new engine.
Mono 1.1.6 which was the originally tested configuration was slow, but version 1.1.7 introduced our simplified IO layer which improved IO performance significantly (2x-3x) and upcoming versions will an extra boost on IO, but most importantly the regular expression library (which MediaWiki uses) will also get a performance boost.
Mono: Debian and Ubuntu.
Mono is now on Debian/Unstable.
The details about this adoption are here.
Mark Shuttleworth announced today at his keynote in Guadec that Mono had been integrated into Ubuntu. He is looking forward to integrate IronPython into the distribution as well.
Usability in Gnome
Calum, I think I mentioned that Sun did usability studies, but I should probably stressed that more. I was refering mostly to the fact that we sometimes argue about usability, but do not have the data to back it up.
I will be eternally grateful to Sun's work on Gnome usability testing and of course its code contributions.The Predator drone has proven to be an effective weapon that offers both real-time surveillance and offensive firepower for troops on the ground.
WASHINGTON — A status-of-forces agreement announced this week between the United States and Niger could be the first step toward a drone-based campaign against al-Qaida operatives in northwestern Africa, similar to ones the United States wages elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East.
The United States has expanded its logistical support of French troops battling fighters affiliated with al-Qaida, providing airlift and refueling in addition to sharing intelligence, but has avoided involvement in combat.
But now that militant fighters are pulling back in the face of French ground and air attacks – over the weekend withdrawing from the historic northern city of Timbuktu – the prospect of a long-term effort to target leaders of the Islamic insurgency may be looming.
With that, U.S. drones could find their way onto the battlefield as part of an effort to target senior leaders of organizations such as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the terrorist organization’s North African affiliate, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa program at the Atlantic Council, in an email to Stars and Stripes.
“With the neither the French intervention force nor the ‘works-in-progress’ African mission likely to be able to dislodge the extremists in northern Mali anytime soon, one has to begin to contemplate ‘least bad’ options to buy the international community time,” Pham said. “And among these options has to be (targeting) certain individuals in the terrorist hierarchy who are the linchpins connecting AQIM to the criminal and tribal networks of the Sahel.”
Such a campaign to dislodge the militants who have turned northern Mali into what many describe as a virtual country controlled by al-Qaida could take years, a State Department official said.
“This is only the first phase,” Don Yamamoto, deputy assistant secretary of State for African affairs, told the Associated Press. “It is going to take time. I think people should not be into the illusion that it is going to be quick.”
U.S. officials have announced no details about basing plans in Niger, but acknowledge the ability to operate out of the country, which is developing increasingly close diplomatic and defense ties with the United States, would place military assets close to many hot spots.
“Just consider the neighborhood,” a U.S. military official speaking on the condition of anonymity said. “Libya to the north, where there’s been instability. Nigeria, and [Islamist militant group] Boko Haram directly south. Algeria, where there was just an attack, and Mali to the west.”
Analysts and officials say that should the United States need to deploy armed drones |
tracking service as of July 31. “We were able to keep the business going for seven months after exhausting our venture backing, but did not get to profitability and made the decision to stop pursuing the business,” Marc Hedlund, Wesabe chief executive officer, wrote to Bucks in an e-mail message.
Mint.com has recognized that not all consumers are comfortable entering all of their bank information into its site.
In fact, partly in an effort to gain more users, Mint.com recently introduced a service aimed at helping consumers reach their long-term goals that doesn’t require the entering of any financial account information.
So should you trust Mint.com? For answers, we turned to Mint.com’s founder, consulted with identity theft and data privacy experts and found out what is going to happen to the sensitive financial data that customers have given Wesabe.
Aaron Patzer, from Mint.com, said the site protects user names and passwords with the same level of security as a financial institution. Specifically, none of that information is accessible on the site and no personal identifying information other than your e-mail is linked to your account, meaning someone who had your Mint.com log-in couldn’t access your bank account information.
Instead, the account information is encrypted and stored on Mint.com’s own servers, which are located in an unmarked building. To get into the building, Mr. Patzer said, one needs to scan his or her hand, pass by a guard and then go through a long hallway where you’ll be trapped if there are suspicions about you.
Inside, the servers are locked in a cage separated from other systems and constantly monitored. The only way to decrypt the user names and passwords from those servers, and to change the way the data is encrypted, is to use an encryption key that is broken up on five different smart cards carried by senior Mint.com executives, Mr. Patzer said.
On a quarterly basis, Mint.com also hires “white knights,” i.e. good hackers, to try and break into the system and so far, according to Mr. Patzer, “no one has been able to break into the core of our system where any sensitive financial information would be stored.”
How does that system stack up? Jay Foley, co-founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, said he would trust the site. “Their security level is pretty decent, all things considered,” he said, noting it was in line with the standard at financial institutions but the information could still be encrypted at a higher level on par with that of the military.
Above all, however, he said what makes him trust the site is that it is owned by Intuit and has Intuit’s reputation behind it. “For them to make a boo-boo would be a serious, serious bad thing,” Mr. Foley said. “People would come at them.” He said he wouldn’t necessarily trust another money tracking site that didn’t have a big player like Intuit behind it.
The bigger risk than someone breaking into Mint.com’s servers and getting your information, he said, is someone at your bank leaving the information around in an easily obtainable area or someone breaking into your own computer and catching your bank user name and password as you enter into it into Mint.com. Mr. Foley said to avoid such a situation, make sure the security software on your computer is up to date, don’t use the same passwords for everything and don’t have your computer remember your financial institution passwords. “The bigger threat would be the security that you have on your personal home computer,” he said.
Still, not all experts feel the same way. “There is no doubt that it probably is very secure but anytime that you provide your information to an additional entity, you are really compounding the opportunities for your personal information to be breached,” said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Since no site is ever 100 percent secure, Mr. Stephens said deciding whether to give out your information was really personal, related to how comfortable you would feel doing that. He personally doesn’t share his bank and brokerage account information with anyone but the institutions. “It’s an individual choice that you need to make;” he said, adding that “there is a trade off” between the benefits you get with aggregating your data and creating “the additional opportunity for your data to be breached.”
According to both experts, there have been cases of fraudulent users getting others’ account user names and passwords and using them to steal money from accounts. But neither was aware of any cases related to theft of information from services like Mint.com. (To be sure, it’s possible that even if such breaches occur, no one would know about them. While many states have laws in place requiring that consumers be notified of data breaches, sometimes companies themselves don’t know when breaches have occurred, Mr. Stephens said.)
You may also want to keep in mind that there may be issues of who is liable if someone somehow gets a hold of your account data from a site like Mint.com and uses it to log in to your account. Mr. Stephens said some financial institutions may require in their contracts with you that you keep your password private and don’t share it with anyone, meaning you could be on the hook for the lost money, though Mr. Stephens said he wasn’t aware of this being tested in courts. Mr. Foley, meanwhile, said he thought a site like Mint.com would ultimately be liable in a case like this since it promised to keep your data secure.
Finally, besides security issues, there are also privacy issues associated with using such sites. The sites are sitting on financial behavior information that would be extremely valuable in aggregate to marketers and others if they chose to sell it, an option Mr. Patzer of Mint.com has spoken about in the past.
Plus, even if a site promises now not to sell aggregate data about customers, it could change the agreement at any time and go ahead and sell the data. In addition, if such sites go bankrupt, even if they currently don’t sell data, trustees may decide to sell it to maximize the value of the assets.
The closing of Wesabe’s service may offer some hints of what would happen if Mint.com ever were to meet a similar fate. Mr. Hedlund said in an e-mail that the site had created its own hosting apparatus to store customer account user names and passwords. When it shuts down its service, Wesabe “will delete all copies of the data including all off site backups, and will destroy the hard drives on which that data was held,” Mr. Hedlund wrote.
In addition, customers have until July 31 to download any data they want to keep from Wesabe (instructions on how to do that are here) and then the site will delete all data and passwords, including backups. In addition, Mr. Hedlund wrote that Wesabe will not sell users’ data or passwords to anyone “nor have we ever done so.” The community discussion part of the site will remain open and Wesabe is planning to open source some parts of its software so people can use it on their own computer if they want to.
It would be up to those who use the open source option to keep their passwords and data secure on their own machines. “I would not recommend anyone use the open source version unless they feel confident in their ability to do that. This option is basically for people who are already programmers,” Mr. Hedlund wrote, noting that still, “someone could decide to contribute code to make it usable for others if they wanted to.”
After reading this post, do you, or would you, trust Mint.com with your account information? Why or why not?Glaciers can seem fairly straightforward: they’re large, move slowly and when global temperatures rise, they melt. However, Ashley York, a geography doctoral candidate at Clark University, is discovering the icy behemoths’ relationship to climate change is more nuanced and complex.
She’s mapping terminus, or frontal, positions of tidewater glaciers in two bays on the west coast of Greenland with her adviser Karen Frey, associate professor of geography. York hopes her research will provide a deeper understanding of what we already know about sea-level rise and government policy about climate change.
“Our work shows that some of the glaciers on the west coast of Greenland, some located even within the same fjord, have been behaving differently despite being subject to similar changes in atmospheric and oceanic temperatures,” she says. “We hope this work will identify not only some of the drivers that may be unique to each glacier, but also some of the predictability of their future behavior.”
Clark’s long history and reputation in geography drew the Reno, Nevada-native to Worcester. She had used Clark Labs software like IDRISI (now TerrSet) while completing a bachelor’s degree in geography at the University of Nevada, Reno. As a master’s degree candidate in applied geospatial sciences at Northern Arizona University, she participated in the International Summer School in Glaciology hosted through the University of Alaska, Fairbanks with Alex Gardner, former professor in the Clark Graduate School of Geography.
York spotted Frey’s call for a graduate student research assistant on a listserve and came to Clark excited to work with the geographer on remote sensing and field work in Greenland. “[Frey’s project] was exactly what I was looking for,” York says, adding she was also excited her geography doctorate would be “coming from a program as reputable as Clark’s.”
After arriving on campus, York discovered a welcoming community of fellow graduate students with varied interests and possibilities of interdisciplinary research.
“We all know geography is a broad field with interests ranging from architecture and urban planning, to racial justice, and conservation biology to name a few, and somehow, we all get along,” she says of her cohorts. “This also makes the classroom experience with your colleagues one I believe to be truly unique to Clark, where there is just such a variety of viewpoints being integrated into each discussion.”
York embraced Clark’s world-class research and fieldwork opportunities, which included a two-week trip to Greenland in 2014 colleagues from the University of Washington, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Wheaton College.
The team worked on a National Science Foundation project investigating the influence of sea-surface variability on ice sheet mass balance and outlet glacier behavior. They braved temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius and flew to multiple sites on the Greenland Ice Sheet and two nearby ice caps on Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula. The team drilled ice cores and took snowpit samples — small scoops of snow taken from about 2 meters below the surface that allow for higher resolution sampling than what would be at the top of an ice core — that York later traveled to the National Ice Core Lab in Colorado to image and process. She later analyzed the samples using ion chromatography in Wheaton College’s chemistry lab.
“I have been lucky enough to take part in each of those steps and see an ice core from start to the finished data product,” she says.
York also considers herself lucky to work with Frey, an esteemed geography researcher who’s also highly regarded in her subfields of biogeochemistry and oceanography.
“Karen is an amazing scientist, and I really look up to her for that,” York says. “It has been great to rely on my adviser for more than just purely scientific and dissertation advice, but also for real-life advice particularly around being a female in the geosciences.”
While York believes she’ll ultimately work in academia, she’s interested in postdoctoral research positions within the government or at a private research institute after she completes her degree in 2018. She remains focused on how her research may influence what we currently know about climate change.
“Climate change is probably the most important environmental, social and political issue my generation will face, so I’m happy my work can contribute knowledge about future changes in some small way,” she says.Untitled a guest Mar 22nd, 2017 841 Never a guest841Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 0.79 KB Dugongue's [POVERTY] Speedrun Bounties (last updated 2017.03.22) $25 for beating my oldest unbeaten time (New Ghostbusters 2 (NES) Any%) http://www.speedrun.com/run/9yo4xw0m $2.50 standard bounty for beating any #1 full-game run by me (no misc categories) http://www.speedrun.com/user/Dugongue $1 for informing me of a preexisting better time for any run that I have #1 for on speedrun.com $0.25 for being the first person to finish and submit a full-game run of any game on the following list to Speedrun.com http://pastebin.com/AK0jEz7q $0.10 for helping add a preexisting run to any of those leaderboards instead [No romhacks, fangames, unofficial mods, browser or mobile (iOS/Android) games] [Games that are just on Speedrun.com as placeholder redirects (e.g. DKC, Mega Man) do not count]
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Dugongue's [POVERTY] Speedrun Bounties (last updated 2017.03.22) $25 for beating my oldest unbeaten time (New Ghostbusters 2 (NES) Any%) http://www.speedrun.com/run/9yo4xw0m $2.50 standard bounty for beating any #1 full-game run by me (no misc categories) http://www.speedrun.com/user/Dugongue $1 for informing me of a preexisting better time for any run that I have #1 for on speedrun.com $0.25 for being the first person to finish and submit a full-game run of any game on the following list to Speedrun.com http://pastebin.com/AK0jEz7q $0.10 for helping add a preexisting run to any of those leaderboards instead [No romhacks, fangames, unofficial mods, browser or mobile (iOS/Android) games] [Games that are just on Speedrun.com as placeholder redirects (e.g. DKC, Mega Man) do not count]With five separate play modes, hidden vehicles and courses, and an excellent soundtrack, F-Zero X is an all-time classic Nintendo racing experience. (Photo: Business Wire)
With five separate play modes, hidden vehicles and courses, and an excellent soundtrack, F-Zero X is an all-time classic Nintendo racing experience. (Photo: Business Wire)
REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week’s Nintendo Download includes the following featured content:
Virtual Console on Wii U F-Zero X – In this high-octane Nintendo 64 racer, choose from 30 different hover-car racers, including updated versions of the Blue Falcon and other vehicles from the original F-Zero game. With five separate play modes, hidden vehicles and courses, and an excellent soundtrack, F-Zero X is an all-time classic Nintendo racing experience.
Nintendo eShop sales:
Nintendo eShop on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS Great deals this week include Rubik’s Cube, Tadpole Treble and Buddy & Me: Dream Edition, plus several more! Check out the full list of deals on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U available this week at http://www.nintendo.com/games/sales-and-deals.
Also new this week:
Shift DX (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS)
In addition to video games available at retail stores, Nintendo also offers a variety of content that people can download directly to their systems. Nintendo adds new games weekly to Nintendo eShop on the Wii U console, the Nintendo 3DS family of systems and the Wii™ Shop Channel for the Wii console.
Nintendo eShop is a cash-based service that features a wide variety of content, including new and classic games, applications and demos. Users can add money to their account balances by using a credit card or purchasing a Nintendo eShop Card at a retail store and entering the code from the card. All funds from one card must be loaded in Nintendo eShop on either Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, but can be used in either Nintendo eShop if the systems are linked to a single Nintendo Network account.
The Wii Shop Channel offers games and applications and uses Wii Points™, which can be purchased via the Wii Shop Channel. The Nintendo DSi™ Shop offers games and applications and uses Nintendo DSi Points™. Click here for details about the recent Nintendo DSi Shop service change.
Remember that Wii U, Wii, New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo DSi feature parental controls that let adults manage some of the content their children can access. Nintendo 3DS players who register a Nintendo Network ID gain access to free-to-start games and free game demos from Nintendo eShop, and also get the latest news and information direct from Nintendo. For more information about this and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu or http://www.nintendo.com/3ds.
Note to editors: Nintendo press materials are available at http://press.nintendo.com, a password-protected site. To obtain a login, please register on the site.It was less than ten degrees and snowing when Denver police officers began rousing people from their tents and lean-to shelters near the Samaritan House at Park Avenue and Lawrence Street around 6 a.m. last Tuesday, remembers Peter, a homeless man. In the midst of the storm, the police told Peter and others to get inside one of the nearby homeless shelters or else face a citation or arrest.
But according to Peter, the DPD didn't just come to move the homeless along or get them out of the weather. They brought a Public Works dump truck with them, and began throwing some of the homeless individuals' possessions into it. “They took everything. They told you, ‘You get one chance. Take two bags of what you want and then get away from everything because it’s all going in the dumpster,'" Peter told a videographer associated with the livestream channel Unicorn Riot.
Continue Reading
Another woman explained how the police treated her property: “Cops come and throw our things away and don’t give a shit…My life, I’m starting all over again. I’m back in the garbage bags again."
After seeing the videos, Westword reached out to Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson, who confirmed that officers had contacted homeless individuals on Tuesday morning, and that their objective was two-pronged: to get the homeless out of the storm and inside where it was warm and safe, and to clear the sidewalks of the obstacles which the homeless had put there.
"Nothing of value was removed," says Jackson, who explains that when belongings are discarded by Denver police during a sweep, it is done on a case-by-case basis, depending on the material's value.
Of course, value is a subjective assessment, and one man's trash may be another man's treasure. Some of the homeless confronted by police last Tuesday feel that they had very important possessions taken from them. According to Denver Homeless Out Loud, this included survival gear like tarps and blankets.
Peter, the homeless man interviewed on video, says that police threw away a nice purse, embedded with rhinestones, that he had and was worth some money.
This is hardly the first time that the DPD has been criticized for confiscating items belonging to the homeless, or throwing away items left behind when the homeless were arrested. According to Denver Homeless Out Loud, this happens regularly. In April 2015, the organization conducted a survey of 441 homeless individuals and discovered that 61 percent of those surveyed had had belongings taken by Denver police or city employees. Only 19 percent of those individuals ever got their possessions back.
The state ACLU has also called out the DPD for disposing of people's possessions without notice or due process. "Property can't be treated like it's trash," says Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado. This is because the Fourth Amendment prohibits the unlawful seizure of property. In 2012, the ACLU sent the DPD a letter following allegations that Denver police had illegally confiscated and destroyed property belonging to protesters with the Occupy Denver movement. The letter cited a California case, Lehr v. City of Sacramento, which affirms that homeless citizens cannot have their property destroyed on the spot without the city providing an opportunity to retrieve it after confiscation.
But it does not seem that the homeless who lost belongings last Tuesday will have any such opportunity. As another woman interviewed by Unicorn Riot (pictured below) put it, "They step on it, they break it, and they threw it in the garbage truck. No warning."PHOTOS: All the photos from Astros-Rangers games this season Crew chief Bill Welke (3) listens as Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch argues after a warning to both benches in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Arlington, Texas. Both benches were warned after Rangers starter Andrew Cashner, rear, hit the Astros' Marwin Gonzalez wth a pitch in the fifth inning. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) less PHOTOS: All the photos from Astros-Rangers games this season Crew chief Bill Welke (3) listens as Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch argues after a warning to both benches in the fifth inning of a baseball game... more Photo: Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press Photo: Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press Image 1 of / 649 Caption Close Creech: Rangers blow chance to show compassion, help out Houston 1 / 649 Back to Gallery
Up until Monday afternoon, the outpouring of support and genuine empathy from our neighbors up north had been really touching.
The Cowboys have graciously hosted the Texans. TCU is taking good care of the Rice football team. The city of Dallas has been phenomenal in its in efforts to reach out and help Houstonians.
Then, there are the Rangers.
The Astros were slotted to play the Rangers in Houston this week, but because of the destruction and devastation to the city from Hurricane Harvey, the games needed to be relocated.
The Astros are currently in Dallas.
OFF TO TAMPA: Astros-Rangers series moved to Tampa this week
The teams play again in late September in Arlington, so there was an easy solution for all of this. All they had to do was switch the home and home series and call it a day.
Instead, the Rangers refused. The organization didn't want to give up September home games, so now they will all go to St. Petersburg to play.
This is a shameful and classless move by the Rangers organization.
Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said exactly that in a sarcastic tweet Monday evening.
"Classy as always, should be absolutely ashamed. Greed never takes off days, apparently. Stay strong #Htown! We hope to be home soon," McCullers tweeted.
An entire city is going through one of the worst disasters imaginable.
Just step up and help in some small way - like by switching your schedule around and making life convenient for a team from Houston.
Several folks from the Houston area have evacuated to the Dallas area. A baseball game in the midst of of all of this devastation could have been a nice distraction, but because the two parties couldn't agree to a fair solution, now the games will be in Florida.
It's a real disappointment that the Rangers organization couldn't step up and make this easy on Houston.
Thanks to all the other sports teams and universities - Baylor is hosting the Rice volleyball team, UT in Austin is hosting UH football - who did step up to be good neighbors.
The Rangers could learn a thing or two from the other organizations who found ways to help.The view from the farm
We didn't really know what we were in for. We'd been invited to brew with a home brewer in Vestbygda outside Voss, who claimed to brew the traditional way, and to use kveik. That is, his own private yeast strain inherited in the family since, well, since nobody knows when. That was all we knew. So it was with some uncertainty we stopped at the railway station outside Voss and called our hosts. (This is part 1 of the Norwegian farmhouse ale trip.)
Soon, a young man in a battered pickup truck showed up, presenting himself as Yngve. He was the son of the brewer, Sigmund Gjernes. We were led a couple of kilometers along a narrow, winding road through pine forests, going steeply up the hillside. We were brewing on a farm, though it didn't much look like one, since the fields were all out of sight, hidden by folds in the steep hillside.
In the brewery
Our contact, Eirik, and Sigmund the brewer met us, and took us to see the brewery, which was a room in the basement. A section of big concrete pipe had been cut and turned into a fireplace, onto the top of which a huge copper kettle fit exactly. The kettle is a lovely piece of work, dating from the 18th century, with room for 340 liters. A big metal mash tun, doubling as fermenter, a plastic tub, and a big home-welded steel serving tank made up the rest of the brewery. For me it was instant deja vu, being so similar to the brewhouse in Kaupanger where I helped brew my first traditional beer.
We'd been told beforehand that they had no more of last year's home brew left, but Sigmund checked the tank again, and poured a glass of muddy pale beige liquid, looking more like cappucino than beer. This was just the dregs, not really meant to be drunk, but Martin and I threw ourselves over it to see what we were going to make. We couldn't really judge it very well from this sample, but one thing stood out: a strong aroma of orange-peel and Christmas spice. We were completely baffled. Where did this aroma come from? The ingredients were supposed to be juniper infusion, pilsner malts, kveik (the family yeast), and noble hops. The source had to be the kveik, but who ever heard of a yeast that makes orange-peel aroma? This had to be investigated.
Sigmund fishing out dirt
The big copper kettle was filled with water and juniper branches, and a fire started underneath. Unlike Carlo, Sigmund used only the only the tips of the juniper, and no branches. On the subject of berries they were in full agreement: the fewer the better. Having started the fire, a quiet period followed. Heating 300 liters of water to 80C takes a while, even if you're heating it over quite a big fire. As we waited, Sigmund would now and then take out a kitchen sieve and remove things from the infusion. Asked why, he grinned and said, "all sorts of things come with the juniper. Like spiders. You don't want that in the beer."
Eventually, the infusion was hot enough, and we could mash. Sigmund did this by putting a portion of ground malts in a plastic tub, pouring hot juniper infusion on it, and stirring for a good ten minutes. To make it easier to stir Sigmund would add an extra measure of infusion. The tub was quite small, so we had to fill it four times in order mash all the malts, taking it in turns to stir the mash.
Martin mashing
The malts were tipped into the mash tun, which had a metal grating at the bottom, with a filter of juniper branches on top. Once all the malts were in, Yngve poured in hot juniper infusion to get the right temperature. Then the mash tun was wrapped with a styrofoam cover in order to stay warm, and left alone. To our surprise, the mashing was going to last a full six hours! By now it was midnight, so we were going to sleep while the malt mashed.
Three to four hours is the norm in Voss, but in order to get more sleep Sigmund extends it to six. This is why the insulation is necessary, to keep the temperature up so that lactic bacteria don't turn the beer sour. In the morning the temperature would be down to around 50C, Sigmund said, which is just enough to prevent the mash from turning sour.
Sigmund insulating the mash tun
We were led to a small apartment on the third floor, where we quickly crashed into our beds and passed out. Seemingly moments later I heard Yngve coming up the stairs, to tell us brewing was starting again. Getting up was not very easy, but somehow we did it. Later Sigmund told me that one guy who wanted to learn how to brew had struggled with this. He just couldn't get up in the morning, and so missed the first session. Six times he'd been over to brew, and every single time he'd failed to get up. The seventh time he'd solved the problem by not going to bed, which worked great until he fell asleep in a corner at 10 o'clock in the morning.
The first step was to start the running, tapping the wort from the mash tun into a steel bucket. As in Kaupanger, it was important to keep a thin, but continuous flow. Once the bucket was full, it was poured into the kettle, and the fire started underneath the kettle again. You can't start the fire without liquid in the kettle, as that will turn the copper black and brittle, destroying the kettle. The running and boiling is a slow process, taking hours to get the 300 liters of wort out of the tun.
First wort ready to boil
We poured some wort into a glass. It was deep golden, and very sweet. The flavour was much as you would expect, sugary, syrupy and malty, with a dose of juniper in the background, and even some rough bitterness from the juniper. No hint of that orange-peel flavour. So far, so good.
Sigmund then brought out the kveik. The first thing he showed us was a traditional yeast ring. This looks like an intricate wooden necklace, which is used to gather yeast from the top of the fermenter, which then dries on the wood. You then hang it up somewhere until it's time to brew again. Yeast dried like this can supposedly stay good for years. Sometimes people get mold on it, in which case they throw it away and get kveik from somewhere else.
Yeast ring
Outside, he had a big glass jar, screwed tightly shut with a rubber band, which he'd kept in the refrigerator since the last time he brewed, six months ago. Inside was a thick, muddy substance: the kveik. On top a deep brown liquid had separated out. Sigmund opened the jar and asked us to smell it. And there it was again! A deep, earthy, yeasty orange-peel and spice aroma washed over us. Martin and I looked at each other: so the kveik really was the source of the aroma.
In order to tell if the kveik is in good condition and fit to use, Sigmund tastes the liquid on top. If that's sour or tastes bad he will get rid of the kveik, and get fresh kveik from his brother Gunleiv, who uses the same yeast strain. Martin and I had to taste it, too, and the thick brown liquid was like an explosion in the mouth: intense yeasty earth, orange-peel and spice, a flavour that just went on and on and on. Sigmund pronounced it excellent, so the kveik was clearly good to use.
Kveik jar (note the bubble train)
Just a few minutes after opening, the glass jar started bubbling quietly to itself. Little bubble trains would run up the side of the glass, stopping at the top. Sigmund said this meant the yeast was vigourous and ready to go, and told us that meant he wouldn't have to use a starter. Instead, he would just chuck half the contents of the jar into the wort and let it go. The other half he would keep in reserve, just in case. I stood there for a long time, staring at the jar in fascination, taking pictures and just watching. I'd never seen anything like it. Sigmund had his own strain of yeast living in the fridge, like a prehistoric domesticated animal, unknown to science. A separate tribe of living creatures descending out of nobody knows what distant past.
Sigmund took a big saucepan, added a little wort to the bottom, then threw the yeast ring into it. A couple of hours later, the wort was covered by a foamy, bubbling layer. The kveik had obviously wasted no time in getting to work. And out of the saucepan rose again that unmistakable orange-peel aroma. There was none of that flavour in the wort, so the source could be nothing other than the kveik.
Sigmund with the starter
By now Martin and I were getting very excited indeed. To see why, ask yourself how many really aromatic yeast types there really are. There's hefeweizen yeast, obviously. There's Brettanomyces. And there's... there's... there's actually not a whole lot else. So not only did Sigmund have his very own private yeast strain living in his fridge, but it was actually a yeast producing a totally unique aroma. Now we were beginning to see how Sigmund could brew with low-aroma hops, straightforward pilsner malts, and juniper, and still get an interesting beer. Yeast is often described as "the soul of beer," and rarely more so than for Sigmund's beer.
Sigmund, meanwhile, was taking no notice of the dazed beer writers walking in shocked circles on his lawn, and proceeded to boil the wort. And once we'd recovered enough to pay attention we were struck by another surprise. The boil, Sigmund told us, starts with the first runnings of the wort, then carries on for a few hours as all the wort is run off, and after that the entire wort is boiled for four hours. In fact, starting with 300 liters of wort Sigmund boils away half of it. Obviously, this, together with the wood fire and the copper kettle, is going to add both colour and flavour to the beer.
Removing "the headache"
After a while, the "hot break" occurred, with protein coagulating out of the wort, and forming a thick porridge-like foam on top of the wort. Sigmund then picked out his sieve again, and scooped off the foam. "We call this 'the headache'," he told us. "You have to remove the headache." In addition to protein, he said, the headache contains quite a lot of juniper oil, so removing it reduces the rough juniper bitterness and some of the juniper flavour. "Now we're really making the beer," he said, showing how much emphasis the home brewers in Voss place on the boil.
Now we were getting close to the point where the kveik was going into action, so I brought out the little plastic bottles I'd taken on the trip in the hopes of getting kveik samples. Part of my plan was to get samples and send them to the National Collection of Yeast Cultures in Norwich, UK, for analysis so we could get a better understanding of what kveik really was. Sigmund took out metal measuring cup and spooned some kveik into it, stirring it to liquefy it. We then carefully poured two samples into two of the small plastic bottles, which I then tenderly wrapped up and stored in my suitcase.
Checking the wort
Once the wort had finished boiling it was noticeably darker, and as Sigmund had predicted, roughly half of it was gone. It was now transferred to the fermentation vessel, and a helical copper cooler used to cool it down for fermentation by running cold water through the copper pipe. The copper kettle was then scrubbed with steel wool, and I was surprised to find that none of the wort had burned into the bottom. There was a soft, dark, sooty layer on the bottom, but that was all.
The kveik was then added to the cooled wort, and Sigmund again insulated the vessel. When we asked him why, he said it was so the kveik would be warm enough. Puzzled by this we asked him how warm he fermented. "Up to about 39C," he says. Silence follows, as Martin and I stare at him. Other brewers consider the 29C the Belgians sometimes ferment at extreme, and here's someone going a good ten degrees warmer! Sigmund told us that his brother Gunleiv actually ferments even warmer, up to 43C, and gets more fruit character.
Home-made wort cooler
Shaking our heads, we started packing our gear, because now the job was pretty much done. The kveik would work for 3-4 days before racking and transfer to the serving tank. Even before we left, a delicate orange-peel aroma was wafting through the cellar, a last greeting from our friend the mysterious kveik.
And with that, we thanked our hosts for letting us brew with them, and set off for Voss itself. Meanwhile, all sorts of questions were running through our minds. How on earth could a yeast like this remain unknown for so long? Were the other kveik strains in Voss anything like this one? Did kveik still live on elsewhere in Norway? If so, what aromas did those strains make? And what would be the final taste of the beer we just brewed?
Shhh... here works the kveik
(Martin's blog posts on the visit to Sigmund: part 1, and part 2.)
Recipe
Here's a quick recap of the recipe, with some additional detail. There are no measurements of OG, FG or IBU, because traditional brewers don't measure those.
Use juniper infusion for everything, not water
50kg pilsner malts, to produce 300 liters of wort
Mash for 6 hours (can be shortened to 3)
Start mashing at 69C, don't go below 50C
Add 250g noble hops, pressed flowers, to the mash
Boil for 4 hours, preferably over a fire, reducing to 150 liters
Add 200g Saaz hops 15 minutes before end of boiling
Take care to use kveik for fermenting
Note that it is possible to order Voss kveik from NCYC. Sigmund's strain will be available from there later, once analysis of it is finished.Sprint will double down on its spectrum leaseback arrangement, CFO Tarek Robbiati confirmed this morning, as the carrier continues to regain its financial footing.
The nation’s fourth-largest mobile network operator announced plans in October to raise $3.5 billion by placing 14% of its spectrum into three vehicles that will lease the airwaves back to Sprint under a long-term agreement. The deal enabled Sprint to pay off higher interest loans, Robbiati said, saving the carrier |
end of the spectrum, Mahalo which now exists as Inside.com has been an investment of over 10 years for Musk and, despite various pivots, is unlikely to provide a successful outcome anytime soon.
Table 1: Summary of Elon Musk’s Investments
Outcome color coding: green = successful, yellow = average/flat, red = bad
Date of First Investment Age Company Total Invested (a) Final Outcome Musk’s Proceeds Sources Summer 1995 24 zip2 $28k M&A - Compaq 1999 $22mn 1, 2 March 1999 27 X.com/PayPal $15mn IPO, then M&A - eBay 2002 $180mn 1, 2, 3 December 2002 31 SpaceX $100mn (b) January 2003 31 Everdream $1m M&A - Dell 2007 $15mn 1, 2 April 2004 32 Tesla $70mn IPO - 2010 $15mn (c) November 2005 34 Game Trust $1mn M&A - Real Networks 2007 $1.5mn 1, 2 September 2006 35 SolarCity $35mn IPO - 2012, then M&A to Tesla - 2016 1, 2, 3 January 2007 35 Mahalo/Inside $2mn 1 June 2007 36 OneRiot $2.5mn M&A - Walmart 2011 $2.5mn 1, 2 August 2010 39 Halcyon Molecular $10mn Closed in 2012 $0mn 1, 2 February 2011 39 DeepMind $1.65mn M&A - Google 2014 $92mn 1, (d) March 2011 39 Stripe $10.2mn 1, (e) March 2014 42 Vicarious $2mn 1 May 2015 43 NeuroVigil $500k 1 January 2017 45 Hyperloop TT $15mn (e) TOTAL $266mn $328mn
Sources
1. When individual investments are not disclosed | assume that Musk invests at the round size divided by number of investors. If there is a defined lead investor, it invests a larger cheque size
2. SpaceX: I have assumed that Musk invested $100 million in 5 installments over 2002-6, Source
3. Tesla (2004 Series A: $6.35 million, 2005 Series B: $10 million, The rest is divided across future rounds (Crunchbase/Pitchbook sources) adding up to the rest of the $70 million he claimed to have invested, up to 2008. 2010 IPO: $15 million
4. DeepMind: As per Pitchbook data, Musk owned 14.16% of stock after its last funding round. Assuming exit proceeds shared equally pro-rata
5. Stripe (Series D) & Hyperloop: Pitchbook data
Lessons Learned
1. He goes all-in
Don’t cede control
I see Zip2 and PayPal as being vital lessons in Musk’s approach to management and control that he learned from and applied to his future ventures. The introduction of external venture capital and dilution of his own shares meant that Musk was powerless to resist being ousted as CEO of Zip2. Despite becoming a rich man from the successful sale, its outcome disappointed Musk, as he was unable to carve the company into his vision. Likewise at PayPal, he had significant largesse from his shares and status of founder of X.com, but again he was ousted as CEO. This happened while he was on holiday in Australia, over a dispute over whether to use Microsoft or Unix technology for the platform.
His disappointment with the outcomes comes across in some of the comments he has made about his early experiences. Commenting on Zip2, Musk stated: “What they should have done is put me in charge,” he says. “That’s OK, but great things will never happen with VCs or professional managers. They have high drive, but they don’t have the creativity or the insight. Some do, but most don’t.”
In the next phases of his career, Musk took an iron grip over his investments and influence. He followed-on in Tesla’s funding rounds to maintain his percentage ownership. Also, during a dispute with Tesla, he wasn’t afraid to potentially sacrifice economics for the sake of control, when he converted $8 million of preference stock into common in order to oust CEO Martin Eberhard. Despite not technically founding Tesla, Musk’s hands-on approach and influence meant that he eventually assumed the role of CEO in 2008.
Cash light, but asset rich
Musk has continually plowed his net worth back into startup investing. Portfolio analysts would baulk at such a strategy (2% is recommended for venture capital within a normal portfolio allocation), but this has always been Musk’s mantra. It’s as if he takes the view that any net worth generated from startup sales is apportioned out from his other assets and reallocated into venture/startup investing. Immediately after Zip2 and PayPal, he was already founding and funding his next ventures.
This is a sign of a confident investor and one that gives rise to a view that Musk believes that he has an advantage investing in himself, or others as an angel. He likely feels that he has an element of control over the outcome of the deal, which would not be true for a passive strategy of investing in public equities or real estate. Achieving two successful outcomes from his two first ventures will have given Musk an unrivalled confidence in his ability to invest and operate, it just feels right to him.
The chart below shows an attempt at tracking Musk’s “Investing Account” over time. It shows his investments and proceeds (purely capital gains from exit events - not compensation) over the years. Post-PayPal, you can see how he largely spent all the proceeds over the following ten years. Also noteworthy is that he has not received significant exit returns from SpaceX, SolarCity, or Tesla. SpaceX is still a private company; at SolarCity’s IPO, Musk sold no stock, and at Tesla’s IPO, his proceeds amounted to $15 million. Even to this date (2018), he has never reduced his net share position in Tesla. In fact, in May 2018, following a contentious earnings call that seemed to spur on some short sellers, Musk bought an additional 33,180 TSLA shares, boosting his stake to nearly 20%.
When news leaked from court filings of Musk’s divorce in 2010 it transpired that earlier in the year Musk had run out of cash. His voracious appetite to continue investing into his businesses resulted in that, despite significant paper wealth, his liquid assets were minimal. Back in 2008 during hard times at Tesla, he even cobbled together his next financing by immediately flipping proceeds from the sale of Everdream (one of his angel investments) directly into Tesla’s next round.
He sums up his philosophy as follows:“If I ask investors to put money in, then I feel morally I should put money in as well … I should not ask people to eat from the fruit bowl if I have not myself been willing to eat from the fruit bowl.”
He takes extreme, often personal, financial risk
As of March 2017, Musk had total personal borrowings of $624 million that have been used to fund his investments in Tesla. His borrowings are collateralized by his own shares in Tesla. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been significant personal lenders to Musk and incidentally both have underwritten many of Tesla’s deals in the capital markets. The infographic below shows how Musk’s personal leverage has risen in recent years:
One such example that shows how personal borrowing provides Musk with a powerful financing mechanism is from 2013. With the maturity of a loan from the government approaching, Tesla took to the capital markets to raise new equity to fund the principal repayment. Musk took out a $150 million personal loan from Goldman Sachs to fund buying new stock in the round. In an abstract way, he rolled a part of Tesla’s loan onto his personal balance sheet.
So aside from investing most of his net worth into his businesses, Musk also borrows to leverage more exposure. Because he takes an insignificant salary from his businesses, his goals are completely aligned towards increasing shareholder value. As a key human pillar in his businesses, investors also take comfort seeing him continually investing in them. His risks from this are such that, if Tesla stock starts to underperform, he may be required to pledge more and/or different types of collateral.
2: He creates ecosystems around himself
He invests in his network and reinforces it
Looking at Musk’s angel investing portfolio is again interesting, for his success rate, entrance patterns and sectoral strategies. He appears to be stage (and at one time sectorally) agnostic in his angel investing, ranging from deep Series D entrances, to seed round punts. Although Series A investing does seem to be his favored round.
Perusing through his angel investing timeline, it’s clearly apparent that his early investments were driven through connections to the idea and founders. In total I see nine distinct angel investments made by Musk and his personal connections to the businesses are shown below:
2003 - Everdream - founded by Musk’s cousin, Lyndon Rive. He would later co-found SolarCity
2005 - Game Trust - founded by Adeo Ressi, Musk’s roommate from the University of Pennsylvania
2007 - Mahalo - founder Jason Calacanis met Musk through mutual friends, Adeo Ressi (UPenn and Game Trust) and David Sacks (PayPal)
2007 - OneRiot - Brother Kimbal Musk was its CEO
2010 - Halcyon Molecular - Co-invested with Peter Thiel (PayPal)
2011 - Stripe - Co-invested with Peter Thiel and later Max Levchin (PayPal)
2014 - Deepmind and Vicarious - there are various third degree connections, but Musk invests in AI to “keep an eye on what’s going on”
2015 - NeuroVigil - n/a, no apparent connection
2016 - The Boring Company - his own venture
2017 - Hyperloop Transportation Systems - Musk inspired this movement through releasing his famous white paper on the topic
Musk invests in what he knows and with people that he knows and trusts. The effect of this has been that, through this natural rapport, he can have more influence on his investments beyond the traditional board and control mechanisms offered to investors. The reciprocity works both ways, as his network has rallied to support him, either through investing in Musk’s companies or in 2010 when he was living on loans of $200,000 a month from his wealthy friends.
The sum is greater than the parts
The orbits of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity cross regularly, with Musk being the sun at the center of this “Muskonomy”. Interactions between the three come in the form of shared personnel, investors, common goals, or actual business dealings. The figure below sums up some of these cross relationships on a personnel and investor level:
Musk took these relationships a step further by instigating the merger of Tesla and SolarCity. Benefits of synergies and economies of scale were touted behind the reason for the merger, with $150 million of cost savings slated for the first year. However, the genesis of the idea was bigger-picture, and aimed at vertically integrating their processes, sharing ideas and cross selling to their customers.
Tesla’s board of directors summarized its thesis as follows: “We would be the world’s only vertically integrated energy company offering end-to-end clean energy products to our customers. This would start with the car that you drive and the energy that you use to charge it, and would extend to how everything else in your home or business is powered”
After working directly or indirectly in three distinct businesses for the majority of the new millennium, merging two of them together would formalize what was already standard operating procedure for Musk. Considering that both companies operate within nascent markets, a merger together doubled down the risk and potential reward for Musk, the eternal gambler. Daniel Gross describes his control mechanisms as that of a Japanese keiretsu.
“Musk’s companies function in some ways like a Japanese keiretsu, a group of allied companies with interlocking business relationships”
SpaceX has purchased over $255 million of SolarCity issued Solar Bonds as corporate investments. SolarCity’s business model requires cash up front to fund its activities, while SpaceX largely has chunky cash balances from its funding rounds, or pre-paid contracts. In this arrangement, SpaceX has been able to earn an attractive yield and SolarCity has secured vital financing cash flows. Musk himself has also personally invested $65 million into the same bonds. It should also be noted that this program is an innovative financing solution within itself. SolarCity purchased fintech firm Common Assets in January 2014 to build an online platform to allow for retail investors to buy Solar Bonds.
The Boring Company is Musk’s most recent new venture, describing the tunneling operation as a “hobby.” However it is a venture that could theoretically provide benefit to Musk’s existing businesses alongside standalone tunneling projects, most notably for Hyperloop projects. In May 2018, Musk posted that the Boring Company’s first tunnel, which runs beneath Los Angeles, is almost finished.
3: He uses creative financing methods
Government support
As of the Summer of 2015, the LA Times calculated that Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity had received $4.9 billion in government support. With the largest contributions arriving that same year. In 2015 alone, the Nevada government pledged support via tax breaks of $1.3 billion for a Tesla Gigafactory in its state. The New York government engaged in similar support of $750 million for a SolarCity factory in Buffalo.
While these headline figures suggest that Musk has received a significant leg-up from the government, reading into them tells a more nuanced story. With SpaceX and SolarCity being significant players in renewable energy, government assistance is to be expected. Electrek’s deeper look into the LA Times figures also suggest that this was by no means free money and the Nevada and New York factories are tied to significant performance targets and spending pledges, and they contain punitive clawbacks.
The chart below shows the LA Times’ $4.9 billion figure apportioned out by the end-beneficiary of this alleged government support. The breakdown of this quoted amount shows that consumers actually were the beneficiary of 30% of these subsidies via tax breaks and rebates, to encourage renewable adoption. Sure, Musk’s companies also benefit from these initiatives, in that they position their products in a more cost-attractive way to consumers, but it is in no way free money.
10% of these subsidies have also arrived with the help of Tesla’s competitors, in the form of Zero Emission Vehicle Credits in California. According to the LA Times’ data, at the time of writing Tesla had banked $517.2 million through selling its own ZEV allowances. With its entire fleet being electric, this is a savvy and no-brainer strategy for Tesla, which on a strategic level also allows them to take money directly from the pockets of competitors via the sales.
Tesla has followed patterns of banking up the ZEV credits and selling them en masse. The effect of which has allowed it to boost revenue (and cashflow) during certain opportune periods and enhance margins via their no-cost basis. The charts below show the influence of ZEV (and other smaller) credits over a four-year period versus Tesla’s revenue and earnings:
SpaceX has received scant assistance in comparison to SolarCity and Tesla, but its largest customers are governments. A contract from NASA for $1.6 billion essentially saved SpaceX from falling out of existence in 2008. Maintaining relationships with federal agencies is critical for SpaceX’s growth, as these lumpy contracts provide the financial backbone that funds the operation.
Outsourcing Investment
In recent years, Musk has followed a policy of open-sourcing his research idea. Because of how widely followed and listened to Musk is, I see this as a clever way of him taking his hands off the wheel and outsourcing R&D in a cheaper and potentially faster manner.
In August 2013 Tesla released a white paper called Hyperloop Alpha, detailing initial research and concepts into a potentially revolutionary mode of transport. It was a no strings attached invitation to other entrepreneurs to go away and try to build upon the idea. This benevolent gesture captured the imagination of the public and a number of emergent Hyperloop startups then emerged. One way Tesla supports this initiative is via its Hyperloop Pod Competition.
This was a smart way of an already stretched Musk to outsource the initial formation of the Hyperloop ecosystem. A clean method of transport that could conceivably harness Tesla and/or SolarCity services when in operation. Also in January 2017 Musk invested in Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (Pitchbook), which now provides him exposure to the venture without having done the initial heavy lifting. Waiting for upstarts to emerge also gave him optionality to wait and see about who to invest in.
Following the Hyperloop gesture, in 2014 Tesla open-sourced all of its patents. Again this is an indirect invitation for others to undertake R&D that ultimately will assist Tesla and save it money, via long-term improvements to its ecosystem. The 2014 announcement came a number of weeks after Toyota announced plans for hydrogen fuel-cell cars, a movement that could spark a format war. Musk open-sourcing his patents could be perceived as a way to accelerate growth within his chosen format of Lithium-ion technologies and find customers for Tesla’s new $5 billion battery “gigafactory.”
A dilettante, or a brave maverick?
Musk’s heavy handed tactics and attitude have received criticisms over the years. Corporate governance and conflicts of interest are two issues that Musk walks a tightrope on. The track record and respect that Musk holds offers him an element of deference from shareholders. In April 2017, public investors in Tesla wrote to Musk raising their concerns about corporate governance at Tesla. Directors in Tesla were only being elected every three years, were largely unchanged from pre IPO days and had a number of links to Musk’s other companies. There have also been arguments that his transactions with SolarCity bonds for himself and SpaceX smacks of double dealing.
SpaceX’s dealings with SolarCity have also attracted attention in Capitol Hill, with lawmakers raising concerns that federal contracts for SpaceX’s services could be surreptitiously propping up SolarCity.
Various other commentators, obviously with their own agendas, have labelled Musk as a dilettante and his associated businesses as Hype Machines and Ponzi Schemes. As a man who has been described as the best “CEO of Social Media,” his public and candid persona endears him to followers. His commentaries about Tesla’s share price have been called strangely accurate, which again raises concerns about undue influence. It also transpired that his comments about The Boring Company being commissioned to dig Hyperloop tunnels may not have been as truthful as he had implied.
The stardust surrounding Musk throughout his career may also lead to him perceiving himself to be infallible. The issues surrounding the ramping up of Tesla Model 3 production culminated in an incredibly hostile call with Wall Street analysts in May 2018. Shooting down legitimate questions about production and burn rates with a retort that the questions were “boring, not cool and so dry” was at best immature and at worst reckless for a CEO of a $45 billion company. He later apologized for his behavior calling it “foolish” however, he continued on by explaining why the questions weren’t worth answering - a classic non-apology, apology from Musk.
Musk then engaged in some mindless banter with Warren Buffet about the existence of moats in the candy industry - an unnecessary distraction that Musk didn’t need to encumber himself with during critical times for Tesla. This whole incident gives credence to arguments that he has been surrounded by “yes men”, leading to this “emperor’s new clothes” effect that he can do no wrong, nor address concerns constructively.
Closing Thoughts
In my opinion, Musk is a victim of running a company that is listed on the public markets. Tesla is an automotive company that is priced and treated as a high-growth technology company. Musk’s maneuvers point to the actions of a private company CEO who will hustle and do anything to ensure the financial survival of his businesses. His plans to only IPO SpaceX when there are regular flights to Mars are telling, in that he doesn’t want the distractions of being a public CEO, he just wants to grow his businesses.Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the close of the day after trading was paused for nearly four hours due to a “technical glitch” on July 8 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to PostEverything
As a fully paid-up member of the British-American Project, Council on Foreign Relations and the Evil League of Evil, I haven’t been this upset since that documentary “Capricorn One” was released in the 1970s.
You have to understand: The plan was working perfectly. The European Union is tearing itself apart over Greece. China’s stock market is melting down and China’s government seems powerless to stop it. The edifice of Vladimir Putin’s power structure in Russia gets shakier and shakier with each passing day. It’s not like the rest of the BRICS are doing that great, either.
And no one knew that the Plunge Protection Team/Trilateral Commission/Legion of Doom was secretly behind all the madness in a plan provided to us by the Underpants Gnomes to make a huge profit. Oh, sure, Vox’s Amanda Taub quoted a former opposition politician in Russia jokingly asserting, “the whole of power in Russia belongs to Putin, but the whole of responsibility for Russian problems belongs to Obama.” But no one believed that guy. China has been crying “hostile foreign forces” a lot recently, but no one in the Chinese educated classes really believed that assertion.
With no one the wiser, it seemed that the American Illuminati/Freemasons/Stonecutters master plan to simultaneously sabotage every other great power on the planet was finally coming to fruition. And then … Russia Today had to go and find an Illuminati correspondent:
RT, Russia’s state-run news service aimed primarily at non-Russian audiences, [has a contributor] who specializes in uncovering the hidden role the Illuminati plays in world affairs. His name is Tony Gosling. Gosling writes a column for the RT website and frequently appears on RT’s broadcast channels, where he is presented as an investigative journalist, historian or social justice activist. In fact, he is none of those things. He is an arch-traditionalist adherent of the brand of conspiracy theory which he gets directly from … pseudo-historical sources including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. … Where in his previous decades of investigating such matters Gosling relied on barely read websites, RT has in recent years provided him with both a regular column published on its own site, and frequent on-air interviews. This gives Gosling an international forum in which he can expound on his ideas about the Freemasons and Illuminati.
Great. Just great. We were this close to pulling off the Master Plan, and then RT had to go and sign up the one guy who would find out about the Illuminati!! Do any of you readers outside of Opus Dei/Bilderburg/Mugatu have any idea just how friggin’ hard it is to manage an actual conspiracy? How many moving parts there are to it? All it takes is one plucky, incredibly paranoid and anti-Semitic reporter to take down the entire cabal.
Oh, sure, we tried to cover their tracks. I, for one, thought it was pretty clever to try to suggest that the United States was under attack by combining attacks on the New York Stock Exchange and United Airlines. Made it seem like the United States was also a victim of some sinister SPECTRE-like conspiracy.
We had hoped that this would throw Gosling off the scent. But first, Felix Salmon saw through that ruse and pointed out the many excellent reasons why this was all a tempest in a teapot (I knew the Illuminati should have accepted his membership application last year). Then some stupid flunkie got greedy and tried to bring Ariana Grande into things, and there’s no way that her badly-typed apology will fool someone dedicated to showing who really runs the world: a tight-knit clan of Rothschilds and Kochs and BuzzFeed interns.
In retrospect, I don’t think it was RT that was responsible for the whole conspiracy falling apart. No, there were deeper forces at work: the global erosion of trust in public institutions, the persistence of conspiracy theories regardless of pushback efforts, the growth of conspiracy-fueled narratives like Mr. Robot, and, of course, Donald Trump’s truth-telling existence. Us conspirators got cocky. Maybe jerry-rigging Carli Lloyd’s “miraculous” goal from midfield was the final straw of hubris.
Well, the jig is up now. It’s all true: It’s time to call together all the members of Skull and Bones, Aspen Strategy Group and the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and turn ourselves in. We had a good ride for centuries. But it’s time for a new secret cabal to run the world. Just keep it as far away from Ariana Grande as possible.
CORRECTION: This post and a quote from a Daily Beast article in it originally incorrectly identified Tony Gosling as an RT employee. In fact, he is a freelance correspondent.Manchester City Women 2-0 Chelsea Ladies: Women's Super League One - as it happened Read more
A convincing victory against the reigning champions gave Manchester City their first Women’s Super League title and with it a hint that they could go on to dominate the English game as Arsenal did in the first decade of the century.
City played out the match on Sunday like the Gunners in their pomp, taking whatever their opponents could throw at them while always looking likely to push forward and score goals.
They went ahead fortuitously through the Chelsea captain Katie Chapman’s 35th‑minute own goal, and the lead was doubled by the striker Toni Duggan’s 50th‑minute penalty. But more goals could and should have followed as they eased to victory against what is currently the country’s second best team.
The once best team Arsenal were top‑flight winners in nine successive seasons to 2012, two years before City pumped finance and facilities into the women’s side of the club to set up a three‑year run of significant progress.
They won the WSL’s Continental Cup in their first campaign – beating Arsenal in the final – finished runners-up last year to clinch a place in the Champions League this season, and this year have not only won the league but will contest the Continental Cup final against Birmingham City next week.
The captain, Steph Houghton, twice a WSL winner with Arsenal before joining City in 2014, said: “This tops those two with Arsenal because I’ve been here since day one, I’m captain and I’ve been involved in every game.
“It’s a very special feeling, and to win it on our own ground in front of a record crowd [4,096] was unbelievable. We’ve progressed tremendously over these last three years and we’ve got to make sure now that we maintain it. Can we be dominant like Arsenal were? I’d like to think so. We’ve certainly got the foundations to build on and I think we’ve got some very exciting times to look forward to.”
City have lost only one game all season, against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final, but they gained a three-point revenge with a 2-0 away league victory against the champions and deservedly lifted the trophy on Sunday.
Chelsea, needing to take three points to keep alive their hopes of winning the league for a second successive season, attacked in numbers during the early stages but without causing the home defence any problems.
City went close to taking the lead when the striker Jane Ross had a ninth-minute header acrobatically saved by the goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer.
A glancing header by the midfielder Jill Scott bounced off Chapman into the net for the opener, and Duggan neatly tucked home her penalty for the second goal after the right-back Lucy Bronze had been fouled by the defender Gilly Flaherty.
Nikita Parris and the substitute Kosovare Asllani both wasted chances to increase the lead, while at the other end Beth England shot weakly at Karen Bardsley from Chelsea’s only real opening of the match.
Emma Hayes, the Chelsea manager, said: “Congratulations to Manchester City, they deserved to win the league. They’ve been the dominant side throughout the season, they’ve conceded the fewest number of goals and they’ve been highly efficient.”
City have conceded just three goals in 15 league games and their manager, Nick Cushing, said: “It’s been a great season. We didn’t think we would win the league in our first year, we thought we might last year and pushed Chelsea all the way, but this year we had a real desire and we’ve done it. It feels really good, and the aim now is to continue growing this team.”Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE is accusing Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE of lying in her claim that terrorists are using him in recruitment videos.
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“Right, nobody has been able to back that up. It’s nonsense,” the GOP favorite said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “It’s just another Hillary lie.”
“She lies like crazy about everything, whether it’s trips where she was being gunned down in a helicopter or an airplane, she’s a liar and everybody knows that,” he added. “But she just made this up in thin air.”
Clinton claimed at the Saturday Democratic primary debate that Trump was “becoming ISIS’s best recruiter.”
“They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslim in order to recruit more radical jihadists,” she said.Even down in the mud, First Lady Melania Trump brought the glamour as she joined children from the Boys and Girls Club Friday to harvest vegetables at the White House garden wearing a red flannel ensemble that featured dyed-to-match red gloves.
Melania went for gardening chic as she wore a red, button-detailed tartan cotton shirt from Balmain with the French brand’s flashy, signature gold hardware trimming down the center of the top and cuffs. The shirt retails at Net-A-Porter for $1,380.
“Inspired by David Bowie, George Michael and Prince, Balmain’s Pre-Fall ’17 collection has a rebellious ’80s attitude,” the description of the shirt states. “This tartan shirt is detailed with the label’s iconic lion-embossed buttons and is cut for a comfortable loose fit. Continue the laid-back feel with distressed denim.”
The Slovenian-born former model paired the look with matching red gardening gloves and square turtle-shell sunglasses, as well as casual navy blue skinny pants – cropped at the ankle, a favorite style of the First Lady’s – and blue, lace-up sneakers.
The gardening chic ensemble was a departure from Melania’s bold, monochromatic magenta look in New York City, New York earlier this week, where the First Lady gave a speech at the United Nations. In that appearance, Melania wore a pink Delpozo coat with matching Christian Louboutin stilettos, as Breitbart News reported.Iraqi artist reimagines the female nude to call out injustice
Updated
Hedar Abbas Abadi once painted portraits in Saddam Hussein's palace, but today he's much more comfortable in his paint-splashed garage.
"This is a garage, but this is my kingdom," he says. "I play all the time here."
Although he considers his career a form of child's play, Abadi is a respected artist. Since fleeing Iraq in 1992 — first for Jordan then Australia — he has exhibited his works internationally and won several awards.
His latest solo exhibition, Save Our Fish From Drowning, is on display at Casula Powerhouse in western Sydney.
"I paint 70 per cent of my artwork and 30 per cent is a surprise for me," says Abadi. "This is the technique."
The artworks are unusual in subject, as well as style. Save Our Fish From Drowning features surrealist, almost sensual figures that are part fish, part female — not exactly what one expects from an Iraqi-born Muslim.
"Really, Islam's easy, but some Muslims do not understand it," he says.
"Shia Muslims are very open-minded people — you can paint anything, you can [make] sculpture, you can [make] music."
Concerned more with his craft than the religious optics, Abadi believes the human form shouldn't be taboo.
And in his latest series, the decision to paint female figures was motivated by the inequality experienced by women in the Middle East.
"In my country… women are not [treated the] same. This is hard life for women in the Middle East."
Stepping in to translate, Abadi's daughter Mariam, a high school student and aspiring photographer, elaborates: "The woman's always the one who has the most pressure, and has to take care of everything.
"She can't do whatever she wants — she has no rights in the Middle East."
The aquatic theme makes sense too — Abadi's connection to water runs deep.
Growing up in Babylon, south of Baghdad, he lived 100 metres from the Al-Furat (Euphrates) River and would often play on the banks, creating sculptures from the clay and watching the oil-slicked water create patterns on pieces of paper.
He still employs oil and water today. Many of the paintings in Save Our Fish From Drowning carry wandering lines, an effect of the oil and watery drips.
Despite finding refuge in Australia and success as an artist, Abadi still feels a connection to the waters of his homeland.
"Because I'm refugee in Australia, I feel the same as fish in [an] aquarium," he says.
"Australia is a very beautiful country, with beautiful water … but I would to like swim in my water."
Topics: visual-art, fine-art-photography, religion-and-beliefs, unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, casula-2170
First postedRepublican Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) said Thursday that abortions are "absolutely" never necessary to save the lives of pregnant women.
"With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance," Walsh said. "There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing."
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The comment was first reported by WGN radio. It came after a debate between Walsh, a House freshman, and his opponent, Democrat Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran. The race is a likely Democratic pickup, according to ratings by The Hill
Planned Parenthood Action Fund released a statement blasting Walsh.
“Joe Walsh’s ignorance about women’s health is alarming. It is deeply troubling that he and some politicians have such a fundamental disregard for women and women’s health. As the advocate for Planned Parenthood health centers, we know that ending a pregnancy can often be a very complex, personal decision and that there are absolutely times that a woman’s life depends on it," said Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens.
Abortion and women's health issues have been at the forefront of several races this election cycle, including the contest for the White House.
The Republican Party platform would ban the procedure with no exceptions, and the Democratic Party platform would allow it with no exceptions. Most Republicans, however, do believe in exceptions in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother.
— This story was updated at 10:58 a.m.This is how savvy shoppers are saving money on Amazon
If you think you’re already getting the best prices, you’ll be surprised.
, the popular browser add-on that automatically applies coupon codes at checkout (if not, you’re welcome). Now, it also finds better prices on Amazon for you, immediately. As a loyal Honey user, I never shop online without it. So, when I noticed its new Amazon feature came out, I had to try it out. You might have already heard of Honey the popular browser add-on that automatically applies coupon codes at checkout (if not, you’re welcome). Now, it also finds better prices on Amazon for you, immediately.
Thanks for the help, Honey!
I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t Amazon do this already? Kinda, but you have to do a little digging first. Ever think you have the best price and then realize it’s $20 more at checkout after sales tax and shipping? Honey brings the best final prices to the forefront after automatically comparing every top-rated seller in the Amazon marketplace (so you know those poorly-rated sellers are filtered out).
Honey also lets you know if you can save a lot just by waiting a couple of days for delivery. Yeah, 2-day shipping is awesome, but so is having options. Especially if those options save you money.
Here’s how the new feature works:
Save $200? Yes, please.
Shop on Amazon as usual. If Honey finds a better deal, a little tag will appear showing you how much you could save by buying the same item from a different seller.
Honey takes into account the final price of the item (including sales tax and shipping), seller rating, delivery time, and Prime status–– so I can still get my Prime deals.
Don’t mind if I do…
If you want the lower price, you can just add it to your cart with one click.
Ahhh. That felt good.
And if you do find the best price, Honey will let you know. It’s nice not to wonder if I got the best deal:
Getting the best deal on another camera.
Of course, $200 savings on Amazon is on the high side, since most of the time I’m just buying day-to-day essentials on Amazon. But even saving a couple of bucks on paper towels every once in a while really adds up!tRYING So HARd toDO BacKGROunds
****************************
Angel: *gasps* Momma! Look! A lake let's go!
Amber: Huh?
Angel: *runs away from Amber*
Amber: A-Angel wait! *chases after her*
Angel: *jumps in the lake and giggles*
Amber: *abruptly stops at the lake shore*
Angel: Come in Momma! The water's super nice
Amber: A-Angel, you should get out of there.
Angel: Aw, how come?
Amber: Water is dangerous. And I don't feel comfortable having you in the water without any |
upon the rest of us.
And so now we have our new religion, socialism, an ideology invented by the state to justify its continual criminality against the rest of us in society.
And then it comes to pass that even when a private criminal steals from us, he can use those self-same mantras of socialism. ‘I stole that Dolce & Gabbana dress and that rare diamond necklace from that vain evil rich person, because they deserved it. They’re rich because they have ‘oppressed’ and ‘looted’ the poor. I am now merely redressing the balance.’
Socialism is a religion of theft. Socialists are its priests.
Andy Duncan is an Honorary Vice-President of Mises UK and also the Chief Technology Officer of Finlingo.Com
AdvertisementsUS Maintenance Update: 03:00PM PDT
Lylirra ( Originally Posted by Blue Tracker) Authentication maintenance is still being performed and we're working to bring realms undergoing normal maintenance back online as soon as possible. We anticipate this process will be complete and that those realms will be live and playable by approximately 3:00 PM PDT.
Update #2
Update
MMO-Champion acquired by Curse
Press Release
Boubouille's word
Update
The site won't change to a fixed width because it sucks to read wall of texts (=80% of my news posts)
You will never get "AWESOME NEW STUFF RELEASED! Click the link below to actually see the news", everything will stay on the front page, simple and clean.
I want the blue tracker latest posts on the front page.
We might add a couple of extra features like a separate box to track new posts in Off-Topic forums, etc...
We have to hunt down all the terrible bugs we have on the design. I mean, did you try to open the current site with IE7? Or did you try to edit your forum preferences without killing yourself because of how bad it looks? That's what I meant by "the current design sucks"
Visually, we can probably do much better than that without changing the structure of the site too much.
Reactivate the search function.
Stabilize the site and make sure we stay online on patch days.
Clean up the forums, add a moderator application form to the site, recruit more moderators and open a couple of extra forums.
Redesign slightly and improve the Blue Tracker. (Search Function, etc...)
Redesign the site to make it good looking, see 1. Redesign
Stronger support on all the tools I use to work on news each day, you have no idea how fucked up some of them are. I can't really post all the super secret stuff here but I can assure you that the sale will be a huge relief for me on that point.
Possibly go full-scale with db.mmo-champion.com because I'm pretty sure you're all bored of the item pages with just a tooltip and no drop location or screenshot. (But we still have to decide that)
- The US Maintenance is getting long, time for hourly updates.- Most of the questions of comments are concerns I already adressed in my first update of the news. I'll try to reply to all the PMs I got about that and make sure nobody is super-scared.Ultimately, I just hope that after 3 years my readers trust me enough to know that I wouldn't do anything stupid for the site. The news format will stay the same, the people behind the site will stay the same (but we will get backup), I could probably have decided to not announce the change and nobody would have noticed before ages. The only reason why it was announced is because it's a great thing, and it was worth sharing.- Added a couple of answers at the bottom of the post. If you have (serious) questions or concerns about the sale, just throw me a PM and I'll answer in public.There we go.San Francisco, CA – July 19, 2010 – Curse, Inc. announced today the purchase of the #1 World of Warcraft news site, MMO-Champion.com. The site was bought from Major League Gaming for an undisclosed amount.MMO-Champion is a natural fit for Curse which already possesses the largest repository of add-ons available for MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online and Runes of Magic as well as extremely popular forums for Runescape, Aion and Final Fantasy XIV. The World of Warcraft news site attracts 7 million unique visitors and more than 80 million page views per month (Google Analytics WW, June 2010). The combination makes Curse the #1 MMO destination online.“The acquisition of MMO-Champion markedly sets Curse apart from the competition,” said Hubert Thieblot, CEO and Founder. “Not only does the addition solidify Curse as the largest MMO destination on the web, but it plays a central role in delivering a complete Curse MMO solution. Curse is now the ultimate resource for MMO news, forums, databases, and add-ons.”Gamers and advertisers alike will benefit greatly from MMO-Champion’s purchase by Curse. In the next few months, visitors can expect an updated page design and improved user experience. To insure the site’s strong content offering will not be compromised, Fabien Bonte, the site’s founder and administrator, will be joining the Curse staff as a full-time employee. Advertisers can take advantage of Curse’s extended reach into the core MMO market, making MMO gamers easier to connect with than ever. For more information about Curse and MMO-Champion, please visit www.curse.com (That's me!)NEW OWNERS! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!No, seriously. This change will hardly affect the users, we will see a lot of improvements on the site over the next few months (not immediately, we still have to move to new servers) and a lot of people will be working hard to make MMO-Champion a wonderful place filled with love and gnomes. Our first goal is obviously to stabilize the current site and fix all the minor bugs you've been experiencing since the migration, then we'll work on the big stuff and eventually come up with a shiny new design and more features.I would also like to thank Major League Gaming for the 3 years I spent with them. They're the one who gave me a chance to bring MMO-Champion to a much higher level and even if it isn't obvious to everyone, the site probably wouldn't exist today without them. MLG's management and tech teams went through a lot of efforts to keep the site alive during its ridiculously fast growth, we're here today because of them. Curse and Major League Gaming will definitely keep working together in the future and great things will come out of this partnership.MMO-Champion has been around for 3 years, 4 months, and 19 days. Let's see how much further we can go.- Let's try to address some of the concerns.For the 3rd time, I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be here to post the news each day, ban you each day because you made fun of Garfield in the forums, and pretend that I know stuff about the codename Titan.Redesign means "make the site pretty", not completely change the layout of the page. If you want more details:There is no plan to change the "core" design of the site, news will always be on the front page, high enough to be visible without scrolling down, and always fully expanded without the need to click to see the entire post.I'm not going to bullshit you, premium might happen but it's really not a top priority for the moment. I would hardly call it premium, more like "Donator/Sponsor" for people who would like to help, I would also like to explore new features through that like user generated blogs or user groups on forums, etc... But really, I don't see it happening in 2010.If I ever add a Premium feature to the site, it will be because it can bring something more without penalizing people who don't want to pay, it won't be just because I'm jealous of Ghostcrawler and want to buy a bigger yacht than his. If something is free today, it will stay free. It's that simple.Doesn't sound attractive or well-thought? Good, that's because we have no immediate plan to do that. Exactly my point.I still take 99% of the decisions on the site, MMO-Champion is the biggest WoW news site out there and it means that the people I now work with know I'm not stupid when it comes to WoW websites. You don't just buy a site that works just fine with a plan to change everything, it's not worth the hassle, the only major change we could do to boost the traffic is to offer Night Elf porn to the users, and I was told I can't do that.A lot of people are scared of the future, I'll try to layout the current plan for the next months.If everything goes well, I will end up having a lot more time to work on news posts and the site will only get better, I think some people just underestimate the technical shitstorm behind each Beta patch or every single news. Having the backup of a WoW-focused company with tons of WoW-focused developers is a pretty huge thing for me.If you remember the last beta patch, there wasn't anything on the front page for 10 hours. That's the time I currently spend on tech stuff that I could spend on pretty screenshots of mechanic bunnies.Life as a succubus is a learning experience for Bo. Breaking from the rigid beliefs of her kind, she continues her crusade to help mortals in trouble.
1. Something Wicked This Fae Comes 44m In the season opener, a nomadic Fae sideshow comes to town looking to exploit the chaos wrought by the bombing of the Light Fae headquarters.
2. I Fought the Fae (and the Fae Won) 44m The hunt for the new Ash is on. A traditional Stag Hunt is held, and the candidate who successfully tracks and kills the Stag becomes the next Ash.
3. Scream a Little Dream 44m As Bo tries to accept the new terms of her relationship with Dyson, she investigates an apartment complex whose tenants seem to have lost their minds.
4. Mirror, Mirror 44m In a move of sisterly solidarity, Kenzi drunkenly invokes the Russian hag Baba Yaga to curse Dyson for his behavior towards Bo.
5. BrotherFae of the Wolves 44m Bo and Dyson team up to track down a stolen Mongolian Death Worm on behalf of Dyson's old wolf pack mate.
6. It's Better to Burn Out Than Fae Away 44m The Morrigan enlists Bo's help to find a tortured graffiti artist under her employ. The young painter has killed a Dark Fae.
7. Fae Gone Wild 44m Bo is happy for the distraction provided by an assembly of strippers who help break an accused cop-killer out of the police station.
8. Death Didn't Become Him 44m Trick's dear friend seeks his assistance when his ballet dancer husband goes missing -- or rather, his ballet dancer husband's corpse.
9. Original Skin 44m A night out at the Dal goes awry when an insane trickster spikes the beer with a substance that transfers Bo out of her body.
10. Raging Fae 44m Bo joins the brutal world of underground fighting to help a human competitor juiced up on Fae "steroids" that are sending him on blackout rages.
11. Can't See the Fae-Rest.. 44m When rich young humans start turning up dead, Bo agrees to go undercover to help Dyson find the Fae responsible.
12. Masks 44m Bo enlists Dyson's help to find an artifact she believes will release Lauren from her life of servitude to the Fae.
13. Barometz. Trick. Pressure 44m When Trick takes matters into his own hands to foresee the future, he runs the risk of revealing too much to the wrong Fae.
14. Midnight Lamp 44m While Bo continues to ponder the Ash's shocking proposal, she agrees to his interim request: kidnap a Genie.
15. Table for Fae 44m What Bo uncovers while investigating the mysterious disappearance of human backpackers threatens her own fine physique.
16. School's Out 44m Bo goes undercover as a high school teacher to investigate a mysterious case, and Kenzi soon regrets agreeing to help her.
17. The Girl Who Fae'd with Fire 44m Things heat up when Bo tangles with Fae politics in an attempt to save some very important people. Meanwhile, Kenzi does a favor for Hale.
18. Fae-nted Love 44m Kenzi and Trick must race to save Bo from the fallout of a steamy night gone awry before it binds the Succubus for a millennium.
19. Truth and Consequences 44m Bo confronts a very powerful Fae, uncertain whether she can trust The Ash's counsel. The coming war takes its first casualties.
20. Lachlan's Gambit 44m The Ash takes drastic action against the threat bearing down on him, which in turn convinces Bo to make a potentially life-threatening decision.
21. Into the Dark 44m In the wake of emotional losses, Trick reveals his deepest secret to Bo. Bo realizes there is no turning back and must battle for the fate of the Fae.“Red Haggadahs” were published in the 1920s with the explicit goal of replacing belief in God with faith in Communist Russia.
One of the most unusual episodes in the long history of anti-Semitic persecution is the Soviet anti-Jewish campaign of the 1920s. Utilizing formerly Jewish converts to the new secular messianism known as Communism, under the leadership of a former Rabbi, Shimon Dimanshteyn, the Soviets embarked on a bizarre yet creative program of anti-Jewish propaganda.
Cover of the fall edition of Der Apikoyres, Kiev 1923
Some of this was expressed in traditional media, such as the Jewish version of the Russian-language magazine Bezbozhnik (literally, “The Godless”), published in Yiddish under the appropriately Talmudic title Der Apikoyres (“The Heretic”). Communist youth were enlisted to organize lavishly catered Yom Kippur dances and stage anti-Jewish plays. Recognizing the powerful hold that religion had on Soviet Jews, the Jewish Section of the Communist Party (Yevsektsiia) also attempted to co-opt the population by capturing and transforming Jewish traditions and texts, including the Passover Haggadah. Called “Red Haggadahs,” several were published in the 1920s with the explicit goal of replacing belief in God with faith in the Soviet Union, and they have been the subject of recently published studies by Dr. Anna Shternsis of the University of Toronto.
“This year, we have revolution in this land – next year we will have a world revolution!”
The traditional text, read at Seder tables for generation after generation, reads “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but Hashem our God took us out with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not take our ancestors out of Egypt, then we, our children, and our children’s children would remain slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.”
Cover illustration of a Red Haggadah by Alexander Tyshler, Moscow 1927
The officially atheistic Soviet Union could not tolerate such a passage, so the text of a Red Haggadah read instead: “We were slaves to capitalism until October (Soviet shorthand for the Communist Revolution of 1917) led us out of the land of exploitation with a strong hand. Were it not for October, we and our children would still be slaves.” Instead of God’s destruction of Egyptian army, the Soviet Haggadah describes success of the Red Army; instead of washing hands for ritual purity, the Communist text eliminates “rabbinical laws and customs, Yeshivot and schools that becloud and enslave the people.”
At the Seder's conclusion, Jews famously proclaim “This year we are here – next year in Jerusalem!” Following the Red Haggadah, participants at the Seder are urged to pronounce, “This year, we have revolution in this land – next year we will have a world revolution!”
By 1930, the notoriously antisemitic Soviet leader Joseph Stalin lost patience with the quixotic and typically unsuccessful propaganda efforts of the Yevsektsiia. Under his influence, the attacks on Jews and Judaism grew far more vicious and deadly, and celebrating even Sovietized Passover Seders became dangerous, entering a phase of persecution that is unfortunately familiar to students of Jewish history.
The Communist Youth movement organized distribution of forbidden hametz on the first day of Passover.
The Red Haggadahs of the 1920s, however, testify to an unusual period when overt government discrimination was milder. In her research Dr. Shternsis transcribed the childhood memories of Samuil Gil, who recalled how the Komsomol (Communist Youth) movement organized distribution of forbidden hametz on the first day of Passover: “We were given the task of going to Jewish homes and throwing a piece [of bread] into the window of ten different houses. The one who was fastest would receive a prize. We enjoyed the game very much, especially when the old, angry women ran out of their houses and ran after us screaming ‘apikorsim![heretics]' We felt like heroes of the Revolution and were very proud. In the evening, though, we would all go home and celebrate the traditional Seder with all the necessary rituals.”
Gil’s experience, specific to the unusual conditions of 1920s Ukraine, is also illustrative of the eternal pattern of Jewish history: “In every generation, someone rises to destroy us – but the Holy One rescues us from their hands.” Just as this truism is affirmed, so too may the conclusion of the Haggadah become our collective reality – next year in Jerusalem!That behind-the-scenes clip of Luciana and Betty White’s “I’m Still Hot” video naturally was just the tip of the iceberg as far as the sheer camp factor with the whole project. (Though, behind it all is a good cause: the vid raises awareness for the Lifeline Program, and part of the proceeds go toward the White-supported Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.) Head below to watch the ageless comedy icon hold her own while hamming it up with the sexy Brit dace-pop artist in their collaborative — and, of course, hot — vid. Luciana may “always come out on top,” as she declares in her club jam, but whether she’s cavorting around with her beatbox, breakdancing or feeding a pack of muscle men cheesecake, “Betty From The Block” constantly one-ups her musical partner in “I’m Still Hot.”
Play nice, girls — you’re both pretty.
You can catch the original version of Luciana’s “I’m Still Hot,” sans Betty White, here. But, really, why would you go for that version?A secret’s worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.
– Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Regular readers of this space are well aware by now of the joy I take in highlighting and underscoring the bottomless vat of genuine entertainment to be found in the foibles, follies and gut-busting failures provided on a daily basis by this country’s far-right fringe. From hilariously misspelled and misapprehended protest signs – “Respect Are Country – Speak English” and “Keep Government Out Of My Medicare” leap to mind – to bottomless calamities like the “Operation American Spring” in DC this past weekend, to the “patriots” at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada pointing their guns at each other over a rumor that Eric Holder was sending a drone to kill them all, these people are well and truly the gift that keeps on giving.
The problem is that some of these brain donors are actually in charge of stuff, as evidenced by the latest doings in North Carolina on the subject of fracking.
Fracking, for those not in the know, is the process of injecting chemical-laden water at high speed into the ground, so as to extract the last vestiges of useable hydrocarbons from a particular site. Bully for those who turn whatever is extracted into folding green, but the neighbors have a tendency to find their tap water undrinkable and/or flammable thanks to the chemicals being injected into the ground, and folks in places like Oklahoma, Texas and California will tell you all about the earthquakes that happen near active fracking sites.
The state fathers of the North Carolina General Assembly, it seems, do not want you or anyone else to know the precise composition of the poisons being injected into the ground in order to lap up whatever mouthfuls of gas and oil there are to be had. Three Republican senators from that august chamber have coughed up a bill that would make it a felony to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process.
Not for nothing, and try to contain your shock, but the three North Carolina state senators pushing this bill have each received lavish campaign contributions from a lobbying firm called McGuire Woods, which represents gas and oil companies like Koch Industries and Halliburton. Far be it from me to wave the bloody shirt, but it strikes me as singularly obnoxious that elected officials are seeking to criminalize providing information to the public about why the water they drink is probably killing them because of the crud being pumped into their groundwater by the companies doling out money to keep it secret.
I know, I know, it’s just the price of doing business. Just Republicans being Republicans, right? Screw the people, because all that matters is the wealth-weighted paymasters lurking just out of sight.
Speaking of which, have you heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership? It’s this massive multi-nation trade deal that President Obama is just wild about. The thing is, the deal is being negotiated in secret between a few government officials and a few hundred corporate representatives. The only reason we know anything about it at all is because Wikileaks got hold of a few documents pertaining to the deal and was kind enough to share them with the world by way of the internet.
The little we know: TPP would paint some 40 percent of the world’s economy with NAFTA-style rules that would, among other things, ship American jobs overseas, subsume our judicial system with corporate arguments that their rights to profit are more important than the standing laws of the land, and forever alter the free exchange of information on the internet. The price of medicines will skyrocket, US companies will no longer be able to pitch their wares under the “Buy American” banner, genetically-altered life forms will be able to be patented, tobacco companies will be let off the our-product-will-kill-you leash, and Wall Street – the biggest TPP fan of all – will make a killing.
And that’s just what we know about this thing that is being pushed like mad by the Democrat in the White House.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the last honest humans left in modern American politics, spoke last week at the annual Public Citizen’s gathering, and underscored the impending nightmare of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal:
From what I hear, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, telecom, big polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the deal in the upcoming trade talks. So the question is, why are the trade talks secret? You’ll love this answer. Boy, the things you learn on Capitol Hill. I actually have had supporters of the deal say to me “They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.” Think about that. Real people, people whose jobs are at stake, small-business owners who don’t want to compete with overseas companies that dump their waste in rivers and hire workers for a dollar a day – those people, people without an army of lobbyists – they would be opposed. I believe if people across this country would be opposed to a particular trade agreement, then maybe that trade agreement should not happen.
Just the price of doing business, right?
So, yeah, here’s the funny part: Republicans in North Carolina want to make it a crime to disclose the chemicals that the people they purport to represent are being exposed to. Meanwhile, the Democrat in the White House wants to sell you and everyone you know out to massive corporate and financial interests, and in an ancillary twist of the knife, that same Democrat’s administration is trying to make it harder for you to find out about these things by warping the nature of the internet into a pay-for-play cash cow…and you know what? All of these Republican and Democratic secrets are going to make the same small group of rich people even richer.
I am mortally sick of secrets.
Aren’t you?WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand newspaper group is reporting that the deadly February 22nd earthquake in Christchurch unearthed a suspected Israeli spy ring.
Three Israelis died in the quake that killed 181 people. Other Israelis escaped the quake.
The Fairfax newspaper group, which didn't state how it obtained the information, said one of the Israelis who died was carrying at least five passports.
Fairfax said New Zealand Prime Minister John Key took four calls from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the quake, and that an unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad searching a cordoned area in Christchurch was stopped by New Zealand officers.
Key, who is traveling in California, told media Wednesday that it wasn't in the national interest to comment about the report.
The revelation has caused a bit of a political kerfuffle, as opposition party leaders have begun directing pointed public questions at the prime minister.
"Were these young people really just backpackers? Or had an innocent group of tourists been infiltrated by Mossad 'helpers' whose mission it was to take Kiwi identities? If it was the latter, why hasn't the Opposition been briefed (by the prime minister)? What information is he withholding and why?" asked Labour's Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maryan Street, according to The New Zealand Herald.
In 2004, there was a bit of a dustup between Israel and New Zealand over an Israeli passport ring uncovered in New Zealand. Two Israelis were arrested for trying to fraudulently acquire the identity of a man with cerebral palsy, the Herald reports.
Contacts between Israel and New Zealand were frozen at a high level until the Jewish state apologized. It was also discovered at the time that similar such instances had happened previously, the Herald reports.CAIRO — As alibis go, this one would seem to be airtight: Your honor, my client was only a year old at the time of the crime.
But it did not stop an Egyptian military court from convicting the accused, a boy now 3 ½, of killing three people, carrying guns and firebombs, blocking a road with burning tires, and trying to damage government buildings — and sentencing him to life in prison.
The verdict came last week in a mass trial of 107 people suspected of being members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and the charges stemmed from the protests, street clashes and police crackdowns in Egypt after the military overthrow of the elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were jailed.
After an uproar over the conviction of the boy — Ahmed Mansour Qorani Sharara, who was never arrested — the military said that it was a case of mistaken identity, and that the authorities had actually meant to try a 16-year-old student with the same name. The teenager is on the run, the military added in a post on its official Facebook page.City players to pay fans' admission price
CITY’S players are to reimburse the admission price for all of the Canary fans who travelled to South Wales to watch the 3-0 defeat to Swansea in last Saturday’s Barclays Premier League clash.The squad decided to make the gesture as a special one-off thank-you to the Yellow Army for their fantastic support home and away this season.With crucial games coming up against West Bromwich Albion at Carrow Road on Saturday and Fulham away on April 12, Club Captain Russell Martin says the players know the passionate backing of the City fans will be a vital factor.A total of 899 paying City fans were at the Liberty Stadium, with most of them making the 612-mile round trip to support their team at the Premier League ground furthest away from Carrow Road.Russell Martin said the whole squad got together this week and decided to repay every fan’s admission price to the game, as a heartfelt gesture of recognition and thanks.Martin commented: “Our fans have been brilliant home and away this season and the numbers we get on the road are really impressive when you consider how far they have to travel up and down the country from Norfolk.“All the lads really felt for the fans at the end of Saturday’s game, with most of them facing something like a six-hour drive home. Hopefully this will help them with the cost of travelling to our next away game at Fulham.“These next few games are obviously vital and the support and the atmosphere at our recent win over Sunderland at Carrow Road made a massive difference. So hopefully they’ll get right behind us again this Saturday when we play West Brom, at Fulham and in all of our remaining games, to help us finish as high up the table as possible.”The price for the Swansea game was reduced to £20 for adults and £10 for concessions as part of a reciprocal arrangement with Swansea. Fans who bought tickets from the Club for the Swansea match via credit or debit card will be automatically reimbursed on to their card. Those fans who purchased from the Club via cash or cheque will be sent their refund by cheque.Bilbo and Frodo’s Birthday Celebration
After a number of years, Frodo and Bilbo have finally grown tired of exchanging musical crackers in celebration of their shared birthdays. Feeling that these items have grown somewhat stale and predictable, Frodo has cooked up a new idea that, naturally, still requires a helping hand from a visiting adventurer, such as your fine self.
When Bilbo disappeared from his birthday party in a bang and poof of smoke, stories immediately started. Over time, these stories have changed from being mere rumor and speculation to something nearer to myth and legend. They are still swapped and shared, told over drinks in front of fires and used to entertain and caution young hobbits. Frodo knows that Bilbo would be absurdly pleased to hear a collection of the tales his adventures have inspired and is looking for a wandering adventurer to return to the Shire to collect stories and then relay them to his uncle.
If you don’t mind taking some time from your usual travels, be sure to speak to Frodo in Rivendell. He will give you the details regarding his request and send you off to Gaffer Gamgee to get a list of hobbits who are guaranteed to have stories to tell. Collecting all of the stories will require some persistence as not every hobbit will have a story for you every time. (Were I an adventurer, I’d check back on the hobbits every hour or so…) If you are successful in collecting all of the stories while the event is active, you will be rewarded with the title ‘Chronicler’, and Bilbo is sure to give you some small token of his appreciation for regaling him with the stories as well.
Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday has enormous significance both in and out of game, and we felt like the existing quest had worn out its welcome, and didn’t do enough to acknowledge the event. We wanted to provide a new quest line that is, in a very small way, a tribute from us to the legacy of creativity, imagination, and story-telling that Tolkien leaves behind, and that we are so proud to be a part of.Although Auburn "probably" won't be making a change to its starting offensive line this weekend when it hosts Mercer, the Tigers are banking on another change to help improve the play of the unit.
Through two games, Auburn ranks tied for last in the country with 14 sacks allowed and 126th nationally in tackles for loss allowed. Auburn hopes to curb some of those issues moving forward with offensive line coach Herb Hand moving down to the sideline from his perch in the press box as he switches gameday locations with offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey.
"Herb, just being the offensive line coach, he feels strong that 'I know I could do a better job down there with the guys and the adjustments and everything that goes with it,'" Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said. "Both those guys were on the same page, and I was too. I think it'll really help, really, in all phases."
The Tigers need it after last weekend's abysmal offensive showing on the road against defending national champion Clemson. In Auburn's 14-6 loss, it allowed 11 sacks -- one of just six instances in the FBS over the last decade that a team has allowed that many sacks.
Statistically speaking: Auburn last nationally in sacks allowed after Clemson loss No team has given up more sacks than Auburn this season.
Many of those issues continued to be from the left side of the offensive line, where Auburn is breaking in new starters Prince Tega Wanogho Jr. at left tackle and Mike Horton at left guard. Wanogho in particular struggled against Clemson, though he wasn't alone in shouldering some of the blame. Darius James also had issues at right tackle and right guard Braden Smith gave up an uncharacteristic sack as well. Quarterback Jarrett Stidham also held onto the ball for too long at times, while Auburn's receivers often struggled to create separation on routes.
"Really, we didn't execute at times," starting center Austin Golson said. "It's never as bad as it seems and it's never as good as it seems. We had some issues, obviously, but I think it was the offense as a whole. It wasn't just the O-line or the quarterbacks or the running backs or the receivers; we all had a part in it. We just have to put that behind us and move on. Our goals are still intact; we just have to find a way to get better offensively."
RELATED: Four head coaches explain how to be successful with an inexperienced quarterback
Swapping positions for Hand and Lindsey is expected to help remedy at least some of those offensive woes. While some may view it as simply an aesthetic fix, Auburn needed to try something new to correct course offensively. Lindsey being in the booth, where he spent much of the last two seasons, will give him a better view of the offense as well as the opposing defense, while Hand being down on the field will allow him to get face-to-face with his offensive linemen and better make in-game adjustments.
That's something Auburn struggled to do against Clemson, with seven of those 11 sacks coming in the second half. Golson said Auburn "didn't really have" any missed assignments or communication issues up front, instead attributing the sacks to guys getting beat one-on-one, Clemson bringing extra men on blitzes or receivers failing to get open.
Hand's move to the sideline will mark the first time since he was hired at Auburn that he won't be in the coaching booth. He spent all of last season in the box, as well as the first two games this year. He previously spent time in the box during his first stint working with Malzahn, when the two were on the offensive staff at Tulsa together from 2007-08.
"I really don't know what it's going to be like because he's never been on the sideline, but I think it will be good because he can make adjustments with us in person better than on the phone," Golson said. "I think he thinks he'll be able to see better and Coach Lindsey says the same, that he'll be able to see better in the box. I know they know it's right so we'll roll with it and see how it goes."City Council members unanimously voted Tuesday to postpone construction of a trail crossing near Google headquarters after the company proposed what may be a superior alternative for bicyclists, pedestrians and the environment.
Google officials didn't have to make a fuss to persuade council members that it might be better to build an under-crossing for the Permanente Creek Trail rather than the $400,000 crosswalk approved last year to get trail users across Charleston Road in the heart of Google headquarters. Numerous Google employees use the trail to commute to work, and to move around the massive Googleplex on its brightly colored bicycles.
"We think it's a far safer type of crossing and one that's probably a little more environmentally sensitive," said Google's John Igoe of the design, which provides "anyone biking in the area with a much enhanced experience."
Going beyond what anyone had asked for, Google representatives propose the removal of 96 parking spaces along the west bank of the creek to widen the creek channel between Highway 101 and Charleston Road. To do so would help restore the creek and improve wildlife habitat, work which Google and local non-profit Acterra have already begun by planting native plants on the creek banks. Google provided the city with a long list of native plants that would be used to restore the creek, described as little more than a "concrete ditch" through much of Mountain View by resident Greg Unangst.
"Permanente Creek is one of the most abused creeks in the Valley, from the (Lehigh Hanson cement) quarry all the way to to Bay," Unangst said. "Hopefully we can do much better. This is a great improvement."
Last year council members balked at paying $4.2 million for such an under-crossing. It did include a more convenient connection to Charleston Road, but council members hesitated at the removal of 20 trees required to make that work.
Google is avoiding the removal of those 20 trees, but it likely means cyclists and pedestrians must take a more indirect route to the street.
"To access Charleston Road from the trail, a trail user would cross the creek on one of the two bridges included in the project," explained public works director Mike Fuller in an email.
Google will be building two new footbridges across the creek, including one at a yet-to-be-determined location south of Charleston Road and another north of Charleston replacing a heavily used footbridge connecting the former Alza headquarters to the Googleplex, which Google has deemed too narrow.
Unangst, also chair of the city's bicycle pedestrian advisory committee, said the committee had not been able to review the design yet, adding that there is some confusion about access to Charleston Road from the trail and "a lot of chatter in the bike community about how that is going to come off."
Council member Mike Kasperzak stressed that the council wasn't approving Google's project by allowing it to move ahead in the design process.
"Safety is paramount," said resident Linda Curtis, adding that the under-crossing solves the problem of cars striking trail users. "If it ever saves lives, it's worth it."Most of us these days spend a substantial portion of our day in our email inbox, I came across an interesting fact in a Huffington Post article which pointed out that U.S workers spend on average 6.3 hours |
Tunbridge Wells (to where the family moved in 1926) added his name to the Town War Memorial but he had already been included in a unique VC Memorial in Dunorlan Park in Tunbridge Wells. 10 VC recipients had lived in Tunbridge Wells including the very first VC to be awarded to Charles Lucas, who as a mate on HMS Hecla (1839) during the Crimean War in 1854 picked a live shell with a burning fuse from the deck and threw it overboard.
In February 1945 when the award of the Victoria Cross was announced Tunbridge Wells Council commissioned a poem by Herbert Hope Campbell. At the time Lionel Queripel was posted as missing, it was not until after the war that it was confirmed he was killed:
We who are burghers of your native town
Hail you today with your illustrious name,
Your knightly valour wins for you renown;
We glory in your courage and your fame!
May we be worthy of your daring deed
Performed by you in England’s hour of need.
On 19 September 2007, Lionel Queripel's sword which had been held with B Coy the London Regiment was presented to the Royal Sussex Regiment Museum in Eastbourne. His surviving sister, her family and Regimental representatives were present. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum.
References [ edit ]What do we talk about when we talk about "Bernie Bros"?
Officially, the term "Bernie Bro" first came to prominence in an October 2015 Atlantic article by Robinson Meyer that poked fun at a certain type of Bernie Sanders supporter: young, male, and oh-so-very earnest.
But soon the term started to shift in meaning, and became a way to discuss young male Sanders supporters who were a little too, shall we say, bro-ish when it came to women. That included some who wrote about Hillary Clinton using gendered and tone-deaf language, like Walker Bragman, who wrote in Salon that "Hillary's personality repels me" and accused Clinton of believing "that gender is a substitute for policy positions"; and blogger Ben Norton, who infantilized her supporters as a "high-school clique."
But the live controversy over the alleged bros’ existence and activities didn’t begin until months later, after many women began to notice that when they criticized Sanders online or praised Hillary Clinton, male Sanders supporters would reliably turn up in swarms to tell them they were wrong. And that this swarming occasionally escalated further, into misogynistic abuse that was upsetting or even frightening for them.
Several women, including some who were themselves Sanders supporters, pointed this out online. A greater number noticed that they’d had the same experience, sighed, and resignedly added "Bernie Sanders" to the category of things women tweet about at their own peril, along with "feminism," "guns," "Muslims," "pop culture," and "probably everything else."
The Sanders campaign, to its credit, took swift and sensible steps to try to improve its followers’ behavior. And there is absolutely no reason to believe that this slice of online abusers represents the views of either Sanders or the bulk of his supporters, who have better things to do than fight on social media. But some prominent Sanders supporters perceived the complaints about Bernie Bros as a threat to the Vermont democratic socialist’s candidacy, and decided that they needed to set the record straight.
And so, predictably, the "Not All Men" portion of the debate followed. Contributions ranged from measured but only marginally relevant to the issue of abuse (actually, the real divide between Sanders and Clinton supporters isn’t gender but age) to bonkers (Glenn Greenwald going Full Greenwald, claiming that the entire Bernie Bro narrative was a "concoction" by "pro-Clinton journalists," a "cheap campaign tactic masquerading as journalism and social activism").
But those efforts weren’t just an unnecessary fight against a perceived media-industry-wide campaign to discredit Bernie Sanders that didn't actually exist. They were actively counterproductive. The women who complained about their treatment were talking about their own lives, and how the insults and harassment had affected them. And so the debunkers, intentionally or not, sent the message that the really important thing here was not women’s experiences but rather how they might affect a man.
Why the Bernie Bro debunkers can stand down
A number of leftist (male) writers, pundits, and rank-and-file Sanders fans have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into changing the zero minds who believe that Sanders shouldn’t get to be president because they read on the internet that his supporters are an all-male strike force of online misogyny.
Back in October, Matt Bruenig took the nascent Bernie Bro gender critique seriously, rolling out a series of charts in Jacobin to prove that the real divide among Democratic primary voters is about age, not gender. He has stayed on the case ever since. Freddie deBoer, writing on his personal blog, assured Sanders supporters that they shouldn't worry that "a few dozen people on Twitter" could really be a problem for the candidacy of a Jewish socialist from Vermont. And now, of course, there is Greenwald warning of the false-flag operation by Clintonista journalists.
I am here to tell them that they can stand down: There’s no need to defend Sanders’s campaign against such charges or to attack Clinton's for secretly fomenting them. This isn't going to hurt Sanders, because that was never what this was about in the first place.
The kerfuffle over harassment by Sanders supporters isn’t about Bernie. Nor is it about who gets to be president or whose supporters are better. Rather, it’s about the way the Democratic primary — from TV media coverage to online debates that are only tangentially related — is just one more thing that tells American women the depressing truth about what’s it’s like to be a woman trying to do things in America today.
When Hillary Clinton gets criticized for "shouting," even though Bernie Sanders is beloved for speaking in a register that seems calculated to drown out every Goldman Sachs banker in a 5-mile radius, we know what that really means — and that it means the same thing for us
That’s what the earnest debunkers, whether they happen to support Bernie Sanders or not, are missing. When women talk about so-called "Bernie Bro" harassment on Twitter, just as when we talk about the sexism Clinton faces on the campaign trail and the not-so-subtle misogyny with which she’s discussed in TV news studios, we’re not really talking about who should be president. We’re talking about ourselves. About our own lives, our own frustrations, and the unfair barriers between us and the fulfillment of our own ambitions.
And so, when men inevitably show up to explain that we don’t know what we’re talking about, and to insist that it doesn’t matter anyway even if we’re right because we must have some ulterior motive for even mentioning this in the first place, and that Not All Men, and that perhaps it would be more constructive if we could just stop mentioning this, please and thank you, it doesn’t convince us that we were wrong.
Quite the opposite: It just provides yet another irritating example of the ways in which sexism is an all-too-available tool to those who are looking for an easy way to attack or silence women, whether they see that they are wielding it or not — and the ways in which the consequences for doing so are all too weakly and rarely felt.
Our Twitter fights, ourselves
Women do not need an ulterior motive or higher purpose to talk about what happens to them or to ask redress for things they find upsetting. But, as it happens, there is a bigger point here — it just happens to be one that has almost nothing to do with Bernie Sanders.
Rather, the so-called Bernie Bro dogpiling, like the sexist comments on this week’s Morning Joe and so many comments before that on the presidential suitability of Clinton's hair or the appropriateness of her tone, are just examples of the ways in which this primary campaign has been a reminder to so many American women that sexism is not only alive and well but an easily accessible, effective, and low-cost tool for anyone seeking to oppose a woman who tries to do anything.
We have all, at some point, encountered someone who decided our hairstyle was something we did to be hurtful, on purpose
When Hillary Clinton gets criticized for "shouting," even though Bernie Sanders is beloved for speaking in a register that seems calculated to drown out every Goldman Sachs banker in a 5-mile radius, we know what that really means — and that it means the same thing for us. When we hear that she’s not "likable," we know what that really means — and what it means for us. When we hear that she’s bossy, we know what that really means — and what it means for us.
And we also listen to the things that people say about Bernie Sanders, and we know what they mean too. As Courtney Enlow pointed out in her viral all-caps rant, we know what it means when Sanders supporters praise his authenticity and his rejection of superficial appearances. As Enlow put it in the paragraph that launched a thousand tweets:
THE DAY MY HUSBAND TOLD ME HE LIKED BERNIE, HE SAID, "I mean, how great is it to have a president who just doesn't even care how his hair looks" AND I EXPLODED "DO YOU THINK THERE EXISTS A WORLD WHERE A WOMAN COULD EVEN CONSIDER THAT?"
There doesn't exist such a world. Women know that because we have been watching Hillary for decades and have seen what has happened to her. But we also know that because we know there isn't a world where we don't have to care about how our hair looks. We know that we have all, at some point, encountered someone who decided our hairstyle was something we did to be hurtful, on purpose, and reacted accordingly.
Likewise, there doesn't exist a world in which Hillary could be running the kind of campaign that Bernie is running, even if she wanted to. As Rebecca Traister pointed out in New York magazine this week, "Here is a truth about America: nobody likes a woman who yells loudly about a revolution."
Indeed. And it's tempting to think that if we've learned anything from the Bernie Bro controversy, it's that America doesn't like a woman who types a quiet request for better treatment, either.
But perhaps there's a gentler lesson to be had here for the Sanders supporters so eager to protect their candidate: that not everything is about Bernie Sanders versus the establishment. The issue of online harassment predated Sanders's campaign, and it will still be around when it's over. The sexism that Clinton faces today wasn't invented especially for her, and it won't disappear if she's elected president — or if she isn't. These are problems for women because they affect our lives, not just because of which presidential campaign's supporters they might happen to make look better or worse on the internet.John Sununu claimed President Obama “outsourced a major portion of the U.S. space program to the Russians.” But it was President Bush who set NASA on a path eight years ago to retire the Space Shuttle and rely on the Russians for space travel.
“[Bush] Administration policy is to retire the shuttle in 2010 and purchase crew transport from Russia,” as then-NASA Administrator Michael Griffin once explained.
To be sure, Obama ended the Space Shuttle program, leaving the U.S. to rely on the Russians for the July 14 launch of a Soyuz spaceship that carried a U.S. astronaut — the event that prompted Sununu’s remark. But Griffin, who led NASA under Bush, privately blamed the Bush White House in internal emails in 2008 for launching a “jihad” to retire the shuttle without giving NASA the authority and funds to simultaneously replace it.
Sununu, the former Republican governor of New Hampshire, appears frequently on TV to speak for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. On July 16, Sununu went on CNN to defend Romney against charges that he outsourced U.S. jobs overseas as the head of Bain Capital. In doing so, he criticizing Obama for outsourcing the U.S. space program to Russia.
Sununu, July 16: In fact, we had an event yesterday that wasn’t well reported. We launched a U.S. astronaut up to the space station. But you know how … she was launched? She was launched on a Russian spacecraft because President Obama has outsourced a major portion of the U.S. space program to the Russians. That’s national policy. Taxpayer money. So, let’s stop playing games with this outsourcing distortion.
Actually, it is Sununu who is engaging in “outsourcing distortion” — ignoring the history of the space program that led the U.S. to rely on Russian transportation.
In the CNN interview, Sununu was referring to the July 14 launch of a Russian Soyuz spaceship that carried U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams to the International Space Station. NASA needed to hitch a ride to the space station because it retired the Space Shuttle last year after 30 years of service. The shuttle program ended July 21, 2011, when the last shuttle returned from a 13-day mission to the space station.
It was Bush who laid the plans for the shuttle’s retirement. In 2004, Bush directed NASA to retire the shuttle in 2010 to coincide with the scheduled completion of the space station. It was part of Bush’s new plan for NASA that also called for the agency “to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014,” with the goal of reaching the moon in 2020 and using it as a base for future trips to Mars.
As the New York Times reported at the time, “there would be no American manned access to space between the shuttle’s retirement in 2010 and the launching of the exploration vehicle, envisioned for 2014.”
That four-year gap in U.S. manned flight would later widen to at least five years and become a problem for both the Bush and Obama administrations. As the shuttle’s retirement date drew near, the U.S. realized that it would need help from Russia — one of its partners in the space station.
In a 2007 speech at Georgetown University, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said the U.S. may have “no alternative other than to use Soyuz for crew transport and rescue.”
Griffin, Nov. 16, 2007: While I do not relish the idea of paying Russia some $900 million in U.S. taxpayer funds through 2011, and possibly more in later years, the alternative – removing American presence from the ISS – is worse.
In August 2008, Griffin urged Congress to pass legislation that would include a waiver that would allow NASA to pay Russia for flights to the space station. At issue was a 2000 law, which barred federal agencies from contracting with nations, including Russia, that help advance Iran’s nuclear ambitions. NASA was exempted from the ban, but only until Jan. 1, 2012. Griffin testified that it was “urgent” to extend the waiver as soon as possible because the Russians needed time to build the necessary vehicles, the Washington Post wrote.
In early September 2008, Griffin expressed concern about the safety of the shuttle as he lobbied Congress to pass the waiver. He told the Orlando Sentinel that flying the shuttle for an additional five years, to 2015, would greatly increase the odds of shuttle disaster that would cost the lives of the crew. “This is why the shuttle needs to be retired,” he told the paper.
Congress passed an emergency spending bill that included a provision to extend NASA’s exemption with Russia until July 1, 2016. Bush signed the bill on Sept. 30, 2008.
Griffin wasn’t with NASA when Bush announced his space plan. He became NASA’s administrator in 2005, replacing Sean O’Keefe. But Griffin was the one left to implement Bush’s ambitious plan, and he complained in internal emails obtained by the Orlando Sentinel that the Bush White House was not doing enough to adequately fund it.
Specifically, Griffin blamed the Office of Budget and Management and the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Bush White House for failing to pressure Congress to provide the funds necessary to avoid a gap between the shuttle’s scheduled retirement in 2010 and the completion of the Ares moon rocket and Orion crew capsule.
Sentinel, Sept. 7, 2008: Griffin’s harshest words were reserved for his bosses in the White House — the Office of Management and Budget, which sets spending goals, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the president. “In a rational world, we would have been allowed to pick a shuttle retirement date to be consistent with Ares/Orion availability, we would have been asked to deploy Ares/Orion as early as possible (rather than ‘not later than 2014’) and we would have been provided the necessary budget to make it so,” he wrote. “The rational approach didn’t happen, primarily because for OSTP and OMB, retiring the shuttle is a jihad rather than an engineering and program management decision.”
Bush’s plan, which became known as the Constellation program, fell behind schedule and was scraped by Obama. In an April 15, 2010, speech at NASA headquarters, Obama questioned spending money to return to the moon and instead directed NASA to develop plans for deep-space exploration. Obama’s plan called for orbiting Mars by the mid-2030s.
Although he disagreed with Bush’s vision for NASA, Obama agreed that the shuttle should be retired — although it took until 2011 because flight delays pushed back completion of the space station.
As NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Congress in March, the space station was completed in 2011 and the partner countries have agreed to keep it operational through 2020. Bolden said NASA will use commercial flights for cargo and Russian flights for the transportation of astronauts. He said he anticipates relying on Russia into 2017.
It is not the first time that U.S. astronauts have gone to the space station aboard the Soyuz. After the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia disaster that killed all seven crew members, NASA suspended the shuttle program for two years. But NASA astronaut Edward Lu two months later traveled to the space station aboard the Russian space vehicle.
— Eugene KielyGabe Pressman, an intrepid, Emmy-winning journalist who still relished going to work at the age of 93, died Friday morning in Manhattan. Sue Simmons reports.
What to Know Gabe Pressman, a pioneering local broadcast reporter who called NBC 4 New York home for half a century, has died at the age of 93
He is recognized in the broadcast journalism community as the "reporter's reporter" and credited with being the first TV reporter in NY
Born in the Bronx, Pressman attended Morris High School and worked as a cub reporter for the Peekskill Evening Star during summer vacations
NBC 4 New York senior correspondent Gabe Pressman, a New York icon and pioneering reporter whose local broadcast career spanned more than six decades, died Friday at the age of 93.
Credited with being the first television reporter in New York, Pressman called NBC 4 New York home for more than half a century. He is survived by his wife, four children, eight grandchildren and his great grandson.
Chuck Scarborough Remembers Gabe Pressman
Chuck Scarborough worked with Gabe Pressman for 37 years. He remembers what Pressman meant to him as a colleague and a pioneering journalist in the field. "I've lost a friend and mentor," Scarborough said. "But I'm part of his legacy, as are so many others who benefited from knowing Gabe. He taught us well. New York is a better city because of his relentless reporting through the decades." (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
"This is an incredibly sad day for the WNBC family. Gabe Pressman was a television icon who served our viewers for more than 50 years," Eric Lerner, WNBC president and general manager, said in a statement. "He was truly one of a kind and represented the very best in television news reporting. Gabe was still coming to work and thinking about the next story. He was a treasured colleague and friend to all of us and he will be missed. We extend our deepest condolences to the Pressman family during this difficult time."
Fellow Journalists Remember Gabe Pressman
Colleagues remember a legend of New York journalism, Gabe Pressman. Roseanne Colletti reports. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
New Yorkers embraced Pressman over his 60-plus years on television, and the public outpouring of memories and condolences was immediate and heartfelt. Mayor de Blasio tweeted condolences, calling Pressman "a New York City treasure" who mentored "countless reporters."
During his time with NBC 4 New York, Pressman compiled a peerless record of investigative reporting in politics and social issues. Having invented the craft of street reporting, Pressman is recognized by the viewing audience, political and community leaders, and his NBC colleagues, as one of New York's most respected journalists.
Gabe Pressman's Interns Honor 'Mentor and Friend'
Legendary journalist Gabe Pressman was also a mentor to a number of young interns starting out in news. Past interns share some of the impressions Pressman left on them. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
Steve Scott, president of the New York Press Club, issued a statement calling Pressman "a tenacious seeker of truth" who fought "ferociously for journalists' rights" and tirelessly defended the First Amendment of the Constitution.
"Gabe's contributions to the field of journalism extended far beyond what his viewers saw on television. It was his hard work behind the scenes that kept the cameras rolling when some would have preferred they be turn off; he kept public meetings open, when some would have preferred they be closed," Scott said. "When he delivered his annual Freedom of the Press message at the Press Club's Journalism Awards dinner on June 5, he was crystal clear: The First Amendment is under attack, and we can't let our guard down. We can't give up. We have to keep fighting for our rights as journalists."
Pressman dedicated his life to it. In 1947, upon graduating from the Columbia School of Journalism, Pressman worked briefly as a reporter for the Newark Evening News. He was then awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship from Columbia, which enabled him to travel throughout Europe for 15 months and to freelance feature stories for the Overseas News Agency.
Legendary Journalist Gabe Pressman Dead at 93
Gabe Pressman touched countless lives, and even at 93 years old, he never stopped working. Sue Simmons joins Stefan Holt and Natalie Pasquarella to pay tribute to the legendary New York journalist -- who, up until last week, was showing up in the NBC New York newsroom. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
While in Hungary, he covered the famous trial of Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty for The New York Times and for Edward R. Murrow's radio news program. The trial marked the first time that a Primate of the Roman Catholic Church had been tried for treason in modern times.
In 1949, Pressman joined the staff of the New York World Telegram and Sun as a City Hall reporter. During his years at the paper, he covered the administrations of William O'Dwyer, Vincent Impellitteri and Robert Wagner.
In Pictures: Gabe Pressman's Life and Iconic Career
He covered major stories including the sinking of the Andrea Doria and the Weinberger kidnapping on Long Island. During that year, Pressman also anchored WRCA-TV's "The Shell Oil News," a five-minute local evening newscast in which he provided the metropolitan area's first major television news reporting.
The program subsequently expanded to a 10-minute format when Bill Ryan and Ray Owen were added as reporters. As a reaction to the great newspaper strike of 1963, the station expanded to a full half-hour evening newscast titled "The Pressman-Ryan Report."
A Glimpse of NYC Through the Eyes of Gabe Pressman
Broadcasting icon Gabe Pressman produced a series exploring the diverse neighborhoods of his beloved New York City. Here's a collection of those stories. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
Amid the tumult of the late 60s, Pressman covered major stories like the New York City blackout, the riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, civil strife in Newark and New York, the mayoral campaigns for Abraham Beame, William F. Buckley, John Lindsay, and the entrance of Robert F. Kennedy into New York politics.
In July 1972, Pressman moved to WNEW-TV (now WNYW-TV) as a general assignment reporter. During his eight years there he wrote and hosted many specials and series, including "The War On Cancer" (an investigation of the activities of the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society focusing on the politics of cancer), and "The Mood of America" (a report on the 1976 presidential election).
Gabe Pressman on Growing Up in the Bronx
NBC 4 New York senior correspondent Gabe Pressman talks about the neighborhood he grew up in the Bronx. (Published Friday, June 23, 2017)
Since rejoining NBC 4 New York in 1980, Pressman had been responsible for numerous award-winning programs and multi-part series including: The Homeless: Shame Of A City; The Hungry; Asylum In The Streets; To Bear Witness (a half-hour special on the gathering of holocaust survivors in Jerusalem in the summer of 1981); A Crisis Of Conscience (chronicled the 1982 turmoil within Israel over the massacre in the Lebanese refugee camps); the 1985 Democratic Presidential Primary Debate; Ask The Governors (an open forum with Cuomo, Kean and O'Neill telecast live in July 1983); the New Jersey and Long Island Town Meetings; multiple overseas reports from Israel; and timely coverage of key political issues on "News Forum."
50 Years Later, Gabe Pressman Remembers "Freedom Summer"
WNBC Senior Correspondent Gabe Pressman remembers Freedom Summer, when America was shaken by civil rights abuses in the South. (Published Monday, July 7, 2014)
Pressman was a combat naval officer in WWII and served as a communications officer on the submarine chaser "PC 470" in the South Pacific, which participated in two invasions of the Philippines. After the war, he was a public relations officer under Admiral John Towers, Commander-In-Chief of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Pressman won many major awards throughout his career including: 11 Emmy Awards; the 1989 Edward R. Murrow Award; the New York Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 1986 Governors' Award; a 1985 Olive Award for Excellence in Broadcasting; a Peabody Award in 1984 for “Asylum In The Streets”; a Unity award from Lincoln University in 1981 for "Blacks And The Mayor: How Far Apart?"; the New York Press Club's Feature Award for "The Homeless" in 1982; the UPI New York State Broadcasters' Award for Best Feature News Story "The Homeless" in 1982; the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association Award for Excellence in Individual Reporting in 1982; the New York Chapter Of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi's Deadline Club Award for "The Hungry" in 1983; and two New York area Emmy Awards in 1983 for "The Homeless."
Video WNBC Celebrates 75 Years on the Air
Born in the Bronx, Pressman attended Morris High School, worked as a cub reporter for the Peekskill Evening Star during summer vacations and graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in history and government.
In a statement, Gov. Cuomo said Pressman spent his career asking tough questions that New Yorkers wanted answered.
"As people increasingly turned to TV for news, it was Gabe who became the most important and trusted face on New York City airwaves. Gabe was the first TV reporter to bring a film crew into the street to cover news where it was happening," Cuomo said. "I am deeply saddened by Gabe's passing, but know all New Yorkers will continue to benefit from the contributions he made over a lifetime that spoke truth to power."
Woodstock 45 Years Later: A Look Back Then & NowWASHINGTON — The United States has agreed to a range of measures, including providing international monitors, to help Israel stem the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, a step that could open the way for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas militants, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.
The hastily drafted agreement, a memorandum of understanding, was signed in Washington on Friday by Ms. Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.
Outlining details of the agreement at a news conference in Washington, Ms. Rice said the agreement “should be thought of as one of the elements of trying to bring into being a durable cease-fire.”
Later, speaking alongside Ms. Rice at the signing ceremony, Ms. Livni said the agreement represented “specific steps to end the flow of weapons.”
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The agreement will provide American technical assistance, as well as monitors, to crack down on the network of tunnels through which Hamas moves components for rockets and missiles through the Sinai Peninsula into Gaza. The composition of the monitoring force was not yet clear, as Israeli and American diplomats were still working out final details, a senior American official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Will Pusha T play SXSW 2014?
Ed. Note: Last week, we posted Round 1 of SXSW rumors from @SXSWhoa, which detailed a long list of possible artists that could be added to the official line up or could play unofficial shows in March. This week, we’re adding more festival speculation in the air by bringing back festival soothsayer @CameronatSXSW for SX 2014 to give his (usually spot on) predictions of what artists might appear in Austin. Stay turned for more weekly rumor round ups as the festival nears.
Well, well, well, look what time of year it is again. SXSW music week will be here in about 55 days, and as such the rumor mill is already stirring.
First off, lineup additions. The SXSW schedule app went live on Monday and they’ve already added some new artists. New additions include Mutual Benefit, Future, Anamanaguchi, Augustana, Forest Swords, Yo Gotti, Travi$ Scott, The Dollyrots, Matisyahu, Touche Amore, Lost in the Trees, Run River North, Teengirl Fantasy, Vince Staples, Dream Koala and more. There will be new additions (and occasionally subtractions), almost every day.
Now onto the rumors. The UME Festival in South Padre will be going on during SXSW and as such there will be overlapping artists – the fest boasts Steve Aoki, Zedd, Bassnectar, and Tiesto as their headliners, so expect to see these artists in some capacity at SXSW (even if it’s just an Illmore DJ set, hint hint). To add to the Zedd possibility, pop artist and collaborator Foxes has a clear schedule, an upcoming album, and a SXSW history that makes her likely to be there as well.
Remember when The Cool Kids and SXSW used to go hand-in-hand? After playing the fest 5 years in a row, The Cool Kids took a hiatus. Fortunately, that hiatus has ended and they’re already dropping new music. Does this mean a return to SXSW as well?
BUKU Fest in New Orleans happens the week after SXSW, and like last year, there will probably be plenty of bands who do both (there already are a few). Performing at BUKU: The Flaming Lips (although, we’ve heard from a good source that they’re a no — but that could change), David Guetta, Tyler the Creator, Zedd (again), Explosions in the Sky, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, the already predicted Pusha T, Schoolboy Q, Danny Brown, Wavves, and more. While I don’t expect The Flaming Lips the play two years in a row, and I’m not sure how Tyler exactly feels about SXSW, some of these artists will inevitably head to Austin.
Twitter user @areztlan pointed out that Guns N’ Roses are kicking off their tour in Mexico City on March 16th. Could a stop at SXSW on the way be in order?
The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo will be bringing artists to Texas surrounding SXSW. These artists include Usher, REO Speedwagon, Maroon 5, and more, so there’s always a chance some of them will show up in Austin.
The Joy Formidable will be playing in Dallas right before the fest with SXSW showcasing artist Allen Stone, so it’s logical that they’d be at SXSW too.
Between The Buried And Me and Deafheaven are touring together and will be in Lubbock, San Antonio, and Dallas during SXSW, with an open schedule on Thursday.
Festival vet Solange recently launched a label called Saint Records, and is currently making the rounds promoting the label as well as her upcoming album. I’d say it’s fairly likely that Solange will return to Austin, possibly doing a showcase for her label. Her performance at the Spin magazine party last year was a favorite of the festival.
Finally, Coachella Music Festival announced their lineup, and as always, some (or even most) of these artists will appear at SXSW. While OutKast might be unlikely, if I were to take a stab in the dark I’d say Chance The Rapper, Foster The People, and The Head and The Heart have a good chance of returning to SXSW.
Want more SXSW updates? Have a hot tip or want to stir the rumor mill? Follow @RSVPster and @CameronAtSXSW on Twitter.You can add water spout to the list of wild weather events seen here in the Bay Area Friday.
The tornado on the water was captured on video off Ocean Beach in San Francisco by Rick Gutierrez. He posted it on YouTube with a caption that explained it was taken Friday at 9:24 a.m. "I was looking outside my window. There was a very dark cloud and there it was," Gutierrez wrote.
NBC Bay Area meteorologist Christina Loren said the event would need to be officially verified by the National Weather Service, but that it looked like the real deal. Loren said a water spout is a tornado that touches the water. She spoke with Gutierrez on the phone and he said that he wasn't frightened because the spout was far enough away. He said he did have a plan to go under his porch if the funnel cloud moved on shore. More insight on the event with Chief Meteorologist Jeff Ranieri.A kettle, with a detachable whistle over its spout
Whistling kettle Coming to the boil, boiling, and cooling Problems playing this file? See media help.
A whistling kettle, or tea kettle is a kettle fitted with a device that emits an audible whistle when the water in the kettle starts to boil. The action of steam passing through the device causes vibration, in turn creating the sound, known in physics as a hole tone.[1]
The exact mechanism by which this occurs was not fully understood until a paper, The aeroacoustics of a steam kettle, was published by R. H. Henrywood, a fourth-year engineering undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, and A. Agarwal, his supervisor, in the journal Physics of Fluids in 2013.[1][2]
Harry Bramson is the inventor of the whistling tea kettle. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOvqiDVn34qoT1CuwfEydmeRaeQ1LnC9znaS2XQ4PE4HNFlBJpRhGXRIPZptUy3cw?key=MFVha3pDanVoRXdRelZRRjk1V0cwWk5mWXFmWkpRAAP's national executive council will meet today to decide the future of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav (Agence France-Presse photo)
In a secretly-taped phone conversation last week, Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, is heard abusing his party colleagues Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, and threatening to exit the Aam Aadmi Party with his 67 lawmakers from Delhi. "Any other party would have thrown them out," Mr Kejriwal can be heard saying to a supporter; the conversation has been leaked as part of a bitter internal feud that has seen rival camps accuse each other of lies and forgery.
The party has not questioned the authenticity of the recording. "In anger, things are said," AAP leader Ashutosh said. "When we get angry and lose our temper, we use language that should not be used," he added.
But what the ugliness underscores is that the crisis in India's youngest party, which swept to power in Delhi just two weeks ago with a record win, appears to have breached the point of no-return.
Today, the party's national executive council of about 400 members will meet to decide the future of Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav, who claim they are being forced out of AAP by Mr Kejriwal for demanding more transparency and internal democracy. Mr Kejriwal is Convenor of AAP; his supporters insist that the rebels want him removed from the top post of the party.
"Why is it that if we raise any questions at all, our intent is questioned?" Mr Yadav asked at a press conference on Friday. "If the five points of reform we have raised are accepted, we will resign from all bodies of the party," Mr Bhushan said. Among their demands is a devolution of power to AAP branches in different states, and an investigation by the party ombudsman against party members accused of graft. Both Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan are expected to attend today's conclave. On Thursday night, AAP spokespersons confirmed that 10 days of negotiations had ended without a compromise being brokered.The 2016 Olympics are less than a month away. To help you get in the mood for the opening ceremonies on Aug. 5, Billboard is premiering the video for a made-for-Rio anthem: a brand new version of Sia’s “Unstoppable,” made for Gillette's 2016 Olympic ad campaign, "Perfect Isn't Pretty." Crafted by producer Ariel Rechtshaid, it features a verse from Pusha T and percussion from the storied Afro-Brazilian marching band Olodum.
Rechtshaid took on this version of "Unstoppable" -- the “Perfect Isn’t Pretty” mix -- before he even heard the one that made Sia's 2016 album This Is Acting. Around the time he was working on Haim’s forthcoming sophomore album, Re |
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